#it had points taken off because i panicked and had to do it late but even if it didnt

[evilminji]

O.O!!! :Dc wait a second.... Aquaman >.>

Good JOB Brain! That IS a good idea!

Don't know if YOU GUYS all know this? But Arthur? Son of a Lighthouse keeper and the Queen of Atlantis? THAT Arthur Curry aka. Orin? Has CONSIDERABLY enhanced durability. Like... *hit by a car* "ha. Cute." Enhanced.

It's because of the DEEP Sea water pressure he's built for.

I bring this up? Because the man is a legit BAMF. Absolutely TERRIFYING near any body of water. Dude has SUPER STRENGTH AND HYDROKINESIS. Not ONLY are YOU filled with water, but every street corner in the world has pipes! He is NEVER not armed.

That's not including the "yes I can ask a lobster to take your dick off" thing.

But most of all? He has the RAGE. The lifetime of injustice after injustice. His home under attack, his people suffering and regarded as LESS. The poison dumped into their air. Their lands taken, PRESUMED the property of land dwellers.

Treated as criminals and monsters should they DARE defend themselves.

Yet? He is a leader. A husband, father, mentor. The death of his child can not take from him that title. Nor years numb that pain. He strives to be good. Be wise. Live well.

Yet? There is once AGAIN fuckery in his ocean. Some "secret" lab. Poking at a swirling green portal. At the BOTTOM OF THE SEA. For God's sake, they DO REALIZE, you can't HIDE things from him down here, RIGHT?

It looks radioactive.

He refuses to have that so close to Atlantis.

Sends a notice up to the Watchtower, a call back to his Wife, and leads the gaurd team in. Painfully easy, really. Bog standard humans, caught off gaurd. Right until one of them does something... stupid.

He tries to blow the place. Destroy evidence. It would kill all of them. Which is not Arthur's main concern. No, what IS? Is that it would dump radioactive SOMETHING into the waters near Atlantis.

He dives forward. They struggle. A button is smashed and...

Their containment field drops.

They had been keeping it in a perfect vacuum.

Arthur is sucked in.

Watches, in free fall, as his men's faces turn to horror. As they desperately dive to follow him. Loyal. True. But ultimately too late. He curses himself as he loses sit of them. But forces himself to focus, twist, get his feet under him. His is in air, above LAND.

He hits HARD.

But not the ground like he had planned.

He's slamed, at an awkward, frantic, angle and knocked off course. His weight crashing down onto a scrawny slip of a boy, who weezes and struggles to get a proper grip. His arms not quite long enough to go all the way around his barrel of a chest.

He helps, by slinging an arm over his young savior.

Only then, does he notice, the tiny crown of ice and nebula, poking at a jaunty angle from the child's head.

Their landing would be rough, had Arthur not caught them, once he gets close enough to the ground. The young royal gasping for air, having clearly pushed his limits to get to Arthur in time. He hauls himself up. Not yet a man, but not as young as Arthur feared. His eyes glow.

"Hoooly SHIT. Are you okay?! I hit you really hard! I'm so, SO sorry! I panicked! And-"

Honestly? A little bruised. But nothings he's going to ADMIT too.

More concerning? The injuries.

There's a screech of tires turning sharp corners. Sirens getting closer. The young king whips around. Terror seeping onto his face. It gives Arthur an unobstructed view of pointed ears, softly glowing skin with star like freckles, and scars that creep up the child's neck. He does not like the picture being painted.

"We have to GO. Now. Please, I'll explain in a moment! But we have to go NOW!"

Really, REALLY does not like the picture. And he has WAYS of dealing with such things as this. But safety first. Prioritize the children. They go. He vows to get answers. And all around Amity? Certain individuals days are NUMBERED.

@babbling-babull @hdgnj @the-witchhunter @hypewinter @mutable-manifestation @lolottes @nerdpoe

[haeryna]

in my dreams you love me back (i still love you) ↪ gojo satoru x reader x geto suguru ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

← previous | ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗ | next →

summary: soft moments with shoko keep your heart soft as well, but suguru finds something that he wasn't supposed to.

tw: sfw but vague mentions of losing your virginity. your mother MEDDLES but let's be real, we'd do the same. allusions to the bible for the aesthetic but also because i like the imagery of the themes. not proofread.

notes: title taken from red velvet's "in my dreams." the second half of "i would give up heaven if i had to." another short chapter because i split it in two originally! banner from @/cafekitsune

"You look like shit."

You can't stop the huff that escapes your mouth as Shoko peers at you from your phone, propped up against your rice cooker. She's somewhere in the United States right now, attending a medical conference. She isn't wrong; your ten minute break in the bathroom had turned into a full-blown half hour breakdown. Thankfully, none of your coworkers pointed out the redness of your eyes and the sallow tint to your skin. Your manager had practically forced you to go home early. They all assumed that you had broken down about how the Gojo Satoru had demanded you be the one to make his drink. At this point, you were too tired to correct them.

"I just got back from the cafe, leave me alone." Yawning, you reach for a bowl. "I'm starving and exhausted, and now you're going to yell at me, Sho?"

You can hear the heavy exhale, and the camera blurs as she lets out a cloud of cigarette smoke. "I never said that. Did you see them today?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Nobody else can make you cry that hard, and I know it wasn't me."

You hesitate for a moment. "Mom thinks I should hear them out."

"Personally, I would tell them I'll speak to them after a down payment of 5k."

"Shoko!"

But your laughter fills the air, and you can catch Shoko's self-satisfied smirk from the other end. "There she is." A soft haze fills your screen as her voice softens. "Do I need to fly back and tell the two of them to fuck off?"

"I can tell them to leave myself," you protest, but Shoko gives you a deadpan stare. "Okay, well, maybe it'll be hard."

As the silence falls, warm and comfortable, you bustle around the kitchen, spooning rice into your bowl of leftovers. The air is warm, and despite your exhaustion, you can't help but appreciate the dreaminess of the evening. Shoko watches you, dark eyes unreadable. "What?" you finally ask, curiosity lacing your voice.

"Just be careful," she sighs. "Satoru and Suguru will probably do some crazy shit to get you to notice them. I just don't want those idiots to scare you."

"They don't care enough to do that," is your sardonic reply, and this time, it's her turn to laugh.

"If you really think that, then you're blinder than I thought."

He is breaking me down on every side, and now it's too late for me; he has uprooted my hopes like a tree.

When the number of your old landline rings on Suguru's cellphone, he almost blocks it out of habit before he registers the last four digits. Panicking, he immediately accepts the call.

"Hey, is everything okay? I-"

Your mother's voice chirps back at him, a bit staticky from the old phone that he knows she'd insisted on keeping installed in the kitchen. "Suguru, dear, could you do me a favor?"

Ingrained instinct forces a "yes ma'am," from his mouth before he can even process the request. He can practically hear the smile in your mother's voice. "It won't take too long, don't worry. My back has been aching an awful amount after my last surgery, but I've been meaning to wear some of my old church clothes to Bingo Night. Would you mind grabbing it for me?"

The attic is cluttered and old, and the dust stings his eyes, but Suguru can't bring himself to complain as he begins to rummage through boxes. It feels like seeing you again, like being your Suguru again, as he unearths old photo albums, and stuffed toys. There was the rabbit you used to carry around all the time. A picture frame, of you, Shoko, Satoru, and Suguru one summer afternoon. Carefully, he wipes away the dust, smiling at the memory. You'd lost your front tooth that summer; now, it was forever memorialized.

Finally, he reaches a small collection of boxes in the back. The dress lays draped over a small stack of boxes, but as he grabs it, one topples over, spilling its contents all over the floor.

Suddenly, selfishly, Suguru is grateful that Satoru stayed behind back in their hotel room, because inside the cardboard box is envelopes. At least thousands of them, crammed into each possible corner, dates written on the front in the same handwriting you've had since high school. He tears open another box, only to find the same. Three whole boxes of letters. Selfish hope and heavier dread sinks into his skin like the dust that is slowly falling to the floor; Suguru has unearthed something that he knows he's not supposed to see.

Was this how Adam felt, holding the forbidden fruit in his hand? Which was stronger; the will of God, or the love of man?

"You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

He's almost frantic as he searches for the first letter, scattering them around himself until he finds it; labelled a week after Suguru had taken Satoru with him to pursue what they had believed to be an impossible dream. Suguru hesitates only for a moment, until with one decisive swipe, he rips the flap from the waxy paper beneath. This one is addressed to him.

Suguru,

My parents put me in therapy. Remember how we always used to joke that if anyone needed it, it would be you? Why did you leave me? What did I do wrong? It hurts, Sugu, why, why, why My therapist thinks that keeping letters will help, and my parents want me to at least give it a try. Mom won't say anything, but I know she's concerned. Dad's already torn into Toru's parents, so the whole town is fully aware of what they've done. Shoko says that they're practically livid with shame, skulking around the town as that'll fix their reputation. You missed it; there was one night when the fireflies came back, and I swear they filled the entire sky. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the first time we met, do you remember that?

I wish you'd been here to see it. I'm sorry, Suguru. I'm sorry that I wasn't good enough to take along. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you I love you. I hope you're safe. I hope you're taking care of Toru for me.

I love you so much that it's hard to be mad.

Water drips down onto the ink of where you'd signed your name, and with a start, Suguru realizes he's crying. Gently folding the letter, he sets it aside, and reaches for the next one.

Mom and Dad have what Grandma had. I'm scared, Toru. I wish you were here. You'd always say something silly that would make me forget for even a moment.

Another.

I saw you on the television today, Toru. You're so beautiful it hurts.

Another.

I've given up on properly going to college. They're so sick that I'm terrified to leave them alone.

More. More. More.

I try my best not to listen, but the radio in the coffee shop plays the songs you make, Sugu. I hate it, but it's selfish of me. The girl you sing about, does Toru get along with her? Does she make you happy?

He can't stop himself from reading any more than he can stop the tears pouring down his face. They'd missed so much of your life, and yet you'd dutifully written letter after letter, as if you'd planned on them seeing it. Like you hoped they would come back some day. The next letter was only written two years ago, but it turns Suguru's blood to ice.

I saw the scandal on one of the gossip magazines while I was out shopping for groceries, Toru. The Chanel model? Really? I was kind of hoping for the Gucci one, she seems so nice to her assistant.

I say this like you're a celebrity. A celebrity that I can just laugh at, and say "must be nice, having supermodels fall into your lap!" You were mine, once, long before you were hers. I love loved you.

I did something stupid, last night. Remember Kenji, from high school? The one you always hated? I can't even explain it, how furious I was, when I saw you with that model. You looked so happy, like it didn't matter that all your joy and abundance didn't come at my expense.

I ended up sleeping with him for the first time, with anyone for the first time really. I'm not going to write more; it's embarrassing, and it wasn't even good, but I think I'm more upset with myself. It doesn't matter.

It's not like you'll ever find out. Even if you do, it's not like you'll care.

It's not like my love mattered to you to begin with.

Suguru's chest feels as though someone has washed his heart in acid. On paper, the person you were after they left was more jaded. Less optimistic. You no longer spoke of things you wished they were able to experience with you, but rather all the things they'd left behind. You thought they didn't care, and as he forces his useless lungs to take another breath, he knows that he can't leave this town until he convinces you to come with him. As he stumbles down from the attic, dress in hand, your mother gives him a knowing stare.

"Did you find the dress I asked you to grab?"

"Yes ma'am," Suguru says numbly. It's all he says. It's all he can say. Your mother sighs, patting the chair next to her. "Why don't you call Satoru over, hm? Try some of the tea I bought. I remember your mother saying you only drink black. You really should call her more."

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

"I'm home!" you call out, slipping your shoes off with one hand as you balance the full bag of groceries in the other. "Did you take your medi-"

The carrots drop to the floor as you take in the sight of Gojo and Geto sitting at your kitchen table with your mother of all people. "What the fuck?"

Geto's eyes are rimmed red, like he'd been crying, while Satoru stares at you with a hint of anguish. "What the fuck," you repeat again, dumbfounded. "Why are you in my house right now?"

Geto opens his mouth to speak, but your mother waves it away. "You know how bad my back's been lately, I really wanted to wear that old emerald dress your father got me, do you remember?"

Stunned, you can only nod.

"And, I didn't want to have you come all the way back from the city just to grab a dress for me, so I called over Suguru and Satoru to help me out," your mother finishes. You can't stop the panic from leaking into your voice.

"Where was the dress?"

From the look on their faces, you know that Geto and Gojo have found it. All the letters you were too weak to send, too weak to throw away. How much did they read?

"The attic, dear," is your mother's quiet response, and when you turn her attention to her, you can see the quiet love and encouragement in her eyes.

What's more important? The love for all the things they did do, or all the things they didn't?

White noises rushes into your head, and you can barely process your mother's departure. Something about Bingo Night? The door clicks shut and you're left with silence so profound that your body almost instinctively crumples in on itself. Suguru can't look you in the eyes, absentmindedly tracing the rim of the delicate porcelain teacup that looks comically small next to his calloused hands. Satoru merely watches, but you can see the tension in his neck, in the way his fingers flex around empty air.

So, you do the only thing you can do. You run.

Turning, you all but sprint up the stairs. You lied. You couldn't do this, couldn't face them, see them, hear them-

Toned arms reach around from behind, pulling you decisively to a well-defined chest. The air is forced out of your lungs as you yelp, squirming out of the hold, only to freeze as Satoru places his cheek on your head, nuzzling into your hair.

"I missed you."

Tears spring to your eyes but Satoru keeps going. "You were the only thing that kept us going. Our apartment was so shitty, we had to put cardboard on the floor just to keep warm. I thought of you all the time. I thought of which stage outfit you'd like better, how you would get along so well with the other members of the group. We didn't forget you. We love you too much for that."

"Stop," you choke out, as your legs crumple under you. Satoru catches you, tugging you further into him, as tears trickle down your face. A blurred shape; Suguru, kneeling in front of you, gently taking your hands in his.

"One chance, princess," he breathes. "Give us one chance to explain ourselves. After that, we'll do whatever you want, give you whatever you want. We've only ever been yours."

[cottonlemonade]

hii! may i please order a medium pineapple lemonade with extra ice for suna? your work is always so wonderful 🥹🌸

Accidental Confession

word count: 1317 || avg. reading time: 6 mins.

pairing: rival!Suna x chubby!Reader

genre: fluff with some suggestiveness, enemies to lovers

warnings: mdni

request: fluffy-spicy accidental confession with rival Suna

It all started with a meme. If Suna hadn’t taken that picture of you stretching during class and added a little Simba into your hands, you wouldn’t have photoshopped his face onto a mop.

To be fair, his was harmless. Yours was downright rude and so he fell in love immediately.

He followed you around - not as inconspicuously as he might have hoped - to sneak a photo in the most meme worthy moments, flooding his camera roll with dozens and eventually hundreds of snapshots of you. The whole front of a silly little meme war was a great excuse to mask his steadily growing crush and his friends didn’t think anything of it when Suna set a picture of you mid-sneeze as his lock screen. Granted, he himself was still very much in denial about his feelings as well, so it wasn’t that difficult to pretend that he wasn’t bothered when you talked to an upperclassman and laughed loudly at his, undoubtedly, mediocre joke - although Suna did sweep his pencil case off his desk in an attempt to wave Osamu off when he asked if he was okay.

The class groaned when the teacher announced that for the impending field trip they’d be split into teams of two via random lottery. Half the students got assigned a number while the other half drew a little piece of paper from a box held out to them to match with said number. Quiet cheers and not so quiet disappointment could be heard and the teacher called for silence.

Annoyed that he didn’t even get the minuscule chance to work with him, Suna leaned over to Osamu, “Who do you have?” His friend unfolded his paper and turned it over to read.

“5. That’s…”, he craned his neck to check and count, “Y/n, ya?”

“Switch with me.”, Suna said.

“Why? Who do ya have?”

“Don’t care. Come on.”

Osamu frowned and raised an almost disappointed brow.

“What happened to ya, dude? Ya know, yer bein’ real obvious at this point, right?”

Suna rejected the allegations, waited a moment, then simply exchanged his slip of paper with Osamu’s.

“Ya owe me.”, Osamu noted.

“Yeah yeah.”

Meanwhile, you seemed less thrilled about the match and when the bell rang you threw an annoyed look at Suna who gave you a blank stared wave and went to lunch with your friends. He was a very unfortunate long-term crush you had nursed since the beginning of the year and was as handsome as he was annoying. In spite of this, you had a great time complaining about your matched partners over your bentos while enjoying the mellowing summer sun under the shade of a tree.

When the next morning arrived, Suna made sure to be only two minutes late instead of his usual 15, so he could secure the spot next to you on the long drive to Kobe. The class would be headed to the big art museum in the city and as an assignment got a list of 15 art pieces they had to find, like a scavenger hunt. The first team to get a picture from each of their art works would get to choose where to go for lunch.

With a sigh you dropped in the seat next to him, frowning at his sleepy grin. When you only scoffed and looked away, his heart started pounding and he had no idea why. And this wasn‘t a “oh Suna, you‘re just in love, silly“ kinda pounding. No! This was more similar to that one time when he went out for coffee with his friends and instead of admitting that he wanted his favorite - a sickeningly sweet vanilla latte with extra syrup pumps - he ordered an iced Americano with a triple shot because he thought it sounded cool and for hours it had felt as if a tiny panicked bird was trapped in his chest. In short, he concluded, you were not good for his health.

“Alright.”, you said once you turned to him. You stood in the entrance together with the rest of the class, holding the reference paper in hand listing the artwork, “I’ll take the top 8, you take the bottom 7.”

He bit back a comment about how there was nothing “bottom” about him, but one look from you and he was quiet. That icy stare of disdain made him want to do the cooking and the cleaning and ask how your day had been while he finished up the ironing. “Let’s do this.”, he replied and nearly whimpered when you rolled your eyes at him.

With some quick online searching, the artwork was quickly found and the pictures taken. To keep up appearances he snapped a few pics in between of the NPCs in baroque paintings with increasingly weird facial expressions, fully intending to ask, “This you?” the next time he saw you. He could also airdrop them during class and looked forward to receiving a less than flattering emoji or thumbs down.

But now he had a different objective. Excited at the prospect of finally having an excuse to get your number, he jogged through the museum to your previously agreed upon meeting spot, finding you seated and waiting for him on a bench. You were scribbling on a notepad precariously balanced on your knees. He snuck up behind you, leaned in close to your ear and in a low calm voice went, “Boo.”

The yelp you let out had museum goers turn to you and a man with a lanyard, who was guiding a tour, threw an exasperated sigh in your direction.

“You better sleep with one eye open.”, you pressed out through gritted teeth, a deep red tint on your cheeks.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”, he said simply and in one smooth movement sat down next to you.

“So, how do you wanna do this?”, he then asked casually, waiting for you to say the words.

“Just airdrop them to me.”, you frowned.

“Oh.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Luckily his deflated shoulders were masked by his chronically bad posture and he quickly selected the necessary pictures.

Your phone gave a little buzz and you accepted the stack. “That’s all. You’re excused. Go off and do… whatever it is you’re doing.”

“I can stay and help, you know? I skimmed some of the plackets.”

“What great work ethic.”, you deadpanned but moved your notepad closer to him so he could see.

With your other hand you swiped through the photos, double checking if you had everything.

He was too busy catching a whiff of your shampoo to notice you furrowing your brow.

“Uhm, Suna.”

You turned your phone screen to him and the blood drained from his face.

It was a picture of you - of course, what else could it have been. You were absently staring out the window in the classroom, your hair a little messy from a regular day of fending for your life in high school. Your chin rested on your palm and the sun shone beautifully against your face. He knew the picture well, because just last night when he couldn’t sleep, he edited it. Black and white hearts bordered the snapshot, a slightly blurry filter gave it a dreamlike feel. He gagged when he saw just how mushy he must have felt to add words around your head. Pookie. Baddie. Loml. My Bbg.

“What kind of prank is this?”, you asked, suspicion clinging to every syllable.

Suna thought.

Telling you that this picture was born out of post-nut hormones would only lead to a somewhat compromising confession that he fondled and humped his body pillow thinking of you, having no problem at all imagining your so very tempting love handles spilling between his fingers.

“Would you believe me if I told you my dog took my phone?“

You stared at him for a moment, then broke into giggles.

a/n: thank you so much for continuing to participate in my events! I’m so happy when someone comes back for more 🥺 I hope you enjoyed this one! 🌟

And once again thank you to @haikyu-mp4 for letting me surf her brain through the storm ✨

[itstheghostofmypast]

15.07

Choi San x (f)Reader

Summary: At this point, he didn't know who she loved more, him or Byeol, either way, he was happy. What else could Choi San ask for other than his two favourite girls in the world getting along?

Genre: PURE FLUFF

Warnings: NONE

Word Count: 2.1K

Est. Read Time: 10 min

Networks: @cromernet @k-labels

A/N: No- see @edenesth 💗 did this to me. This timestamp is for my saviour, the one and only @edenesth 💗 , like we should totally blame San for posting such domestic core pics- no wonder we get all delulu- PS THIS COLLAB HAS ME DYING

@edenesth version: [12.58]PM

"San?" she called out, walking down the hallway as she paused in front of the wall-length mirror, fixing her hair once more and checking out her outfit, simple, crisp and a dash of purple. Very different from her usual office attire, very colourful too- after all the first time he had seen her she was in a plain suit, a white dress shirt and slacks, running around collecting printouts for the upcoming spring magazine. That also being the first time he had realised how much he loved the word 'simple'. Okay, fine, perhaps she was dressed on the softer side, but was it so bad to play cute for once? Especially, if she was doing so to please her man. Call it her way of simping.

Truth be told, she wasn't even sure if he was going to show up, after their extensive tour, when he had mentioned the upcoming off days he was to get, she had suggested going to his home town to relax, leaving the city life for a while and although it pained her to know that she would be too busy with her own work at the office, also known as the company he too worked in, she wanted him to rest and relax away from the hustle bustle of his idol life, what she did not expect that after a week of his departure to Namhae, the very next weekend her fluff of a man would be ringing her doorbell in the late hours of the weekend.

"Byeol wanted to see you and so did I, I spent a week there and I'll spend a week here."

Was all he the dimpled man had made his way inside to the living room, opening the carrier to let Byeol out, the living room already a place of her liking. She had been here with San a couple of times; she had also been a very important part of their relationship. Especially on their third date where he had delicately brought up the topic, "Are you allergic to cats?"

"No, why?"

"Do you like cats?"

"Yeah, why?"

He never really answered her question that night, only smiled at her, leaning over the table to add more meat to her plate considering the late hours of the night, her hunger had distracted her from asking more questions, already too emotional at the thought of this angel of a man sacrificing his portion of protein for her - especially after grilling it so well. The only thing that did change was that the next morning she received around 400+ pictures of San's first love, Byeol.

The first time he had brought Byeol over, he was cautious and attentive, making sure both his girls were happy. He asked her cute questions all day- maybe she just found them cute because it was him, or perhaps it was because he was letting her in, into his domain, which is the little kitty roaming around the house.

"Can I put the litter here?"

"All your windows are locked right?"

"Do you mind if I keep the food bowl next to where we eat? She feels lonely otherwise."

"Can she sleep on your bed? I brought her cat mat just in case."

"Can we leave the bedroom door open a bit, so she can come and go without waking us up?"

He stopped when he realised, she wasn't even responding, panicking he looked up from the cat supplies. Maybe she felt like he was intruding or invading her privacy but was too afraid to tell him. Maybe bringing in Byeol was a big step he shouldn't have taken so quickly. What if she meant like she liked cats, at a normal level, like 'oh a cat.'  Not like cuddling them or baby-talking to them. Turning around his eyes scanned the room to spot her holding onto Byeol, carrying her like a baby and cooing at her. It was only then he realised how loud his cat was purring loud enough for it to echo in the silent room.

"Hmmm? You say something, Sannie?" she looked up from Byeol to him, eyes as curious as a cat's, hand resting on the cat's tummy, letting Byeol grab her hand with her soft paws. His heart felt as if it were about to burst out of his ribcage, running to her and landing on her palm, beating in it with an intensity that would borderline scare her. Licking his chapped lips the feline-eyed man shook his head, a genuine dimpled smile forming, one that would send thousands flipping with joy- or in her case have her gushing over it in solitude.

Thus, giving birth to a ritual, often he would spend his free days at his own home, sometimes calling her over, and gratefully his family welcomed her with open arms. On other occasions, he’d drop by to her apartment, bringing their 'daughter' with him.

She remembers the time Byeol had gotten sick. Unfortunately, San was busy that evening, and his parents were out of town so Byeol was to stay with her. Not an issue, at least it wasn't until the third night when San checked his phone after hours of practice late at night. He had decided to stay at the dorm, travelling would be more tiring she understood, but as the man checked his phone his heart almost stopped.

"Byeol is sick, she's vomiting. "

"I'm taking her to the vet."

"She's shivering."

"Okay, my car isn't working!"

'"I ran here, dw, made it in time, they're checking her."

"They say she has a fever, some bug?"

"They want to keep her overnight, idk I mean I can't just leave her here. She looked scared."

"I'm not leaving, but she's sedated. They say she'll be fine."

"San plz reply soon."

"San I'm scared."

Choi San had never run faster in his life he was sure of it, because the moment he burst into the 24/7 pet clinic his lungs were burning worse than a forest fire, his eyes red and blurry, the world around him extremely out of focus as he stumbled to the reception, about to take the patient's name but someone called him instead.

"San!"

His head snapped in her direction, running to her, enveloping her in a tight embrace, trying to calm her down as she began to shiver in his embrace, her words coming out with choked sobs. Hand pressed against her head, he rubbed her back up and down with the other one, looking through the glass window at his cat, sprawled on the table with an IV tube attached.

"It's gonna be okay, it'll be okay."

It took almost an hour to calm her down, he had tried to convince her to go home, she had work the next day but she refused, instead blaming herself for Byeol's health. Though the doctor had assured him it was not because of her incompetency, but the cat food, the cat food Sanhad insisted on changing. Once she found that out, Choi San had to get an earful the remainder of the night, “How can you- I told you not to do that!”

“Babe I- “Don’t babe me! She doesn’t even like salmon! She prefers tuna.”

After the wonderful argument, that through the eyes of an elderly couple waiting for their dog looked like a cute domestic quarrel, came to an end. San remembered sitting next to her sulking as she gave him the silent treatment, though a few moments later her head had landed against his shoulder with a thump, followed by her snores. That night Choi San had realised two things, firstly that he was in love with her and secondly, she probably loved Byeol more than she loved him.

Hence, today they were supposed to go to a cute cafe she had been eying for a month. They had planned on taking Byeol out but since the cat had decided to stay up all night, running around the apartment she was tired today. San had just mocked her, claiming that Byeol knew it was Valentine's Day so she wanted her parents to spend the day together. However, he later countered himself with a, "Though each day is like Valentine's Day with you, love."

Clearing her throat, she dusted off the invisible dust, adjusting her cardigan before making her way to the living room once more, calling out to her significant other, "San! I'm ready to let's go." though his lack of response was confusing her, so she called out again, "Sannie where are you-" her word stopped as soon as she turned the corner, into her living room, spotting a giant starfish sprawled out on the wooden floor. Next to him was Byeol, staring down at him, San's hand pressed against his cat's back in a soothing manner, but she knew what he was doing, making sure his cat didn't move because Byeol was not only pretty but smart too, she knew what her dad was doing.

Sighing she walked closer to him, standing next to Byeol who looked up at her, blinking slowly, before turning back to stare at San. She stared down at him, arms crossed before slowly poking his side with her foot, watching him pretend and stretch, groaning as he cracked an eye open, "Oh~ you're finally done?"  

"Mhmmm." Raising a questioning brow she nodded, "And?"

"Oh, I mean" Sitting up he stretched his legs, much similar to how Byeol would do so, "Byeol said her mommy was taking so long in the shower that we fell asleep, waiting for you…" his words trailed off when he turned to look at her, his breath hitching at the sight of the soft pastels, the pretty purple, purple really was her colour. Clearing his throat he quickly got up, standing to talk in front of her, merely a few inches away from her as he stretched his arms over his head before casually bringing them down, not so discreetly wrapping them around her and slamming her into him, smirking when she whined.

"The dress will wrinkle Sannie." she tried to push him away but he pulled her closer, leaning down to peck the tip of her nose, "You can't look like a pretty pixie and not expect me to hold onto you like Captain Hook kidnapped Tinkerbell."

"What an analogy."  she mumbled, letting him squeeze her into his warm chest, feeling the vibrations as he chuckled, "You look very pretty…I like your cardigan."

"Thanks, your mom gave it to me last birthday. " Her arms wrapped around his waist, letting him gently sway them from side to side.

“Who do you think chose it?” he smiled down at her, finally meeting her with a gentle kiss, one she savoured greatly, hands fisting his shirt as his palm pressed against her back before slowly trailing down, though their little moment came to halt sudden when a high-pitched squeak caught their ears. Pulling back, she looked down at Byeol, frowning before turning to look at San, “Why isn’t she wearing her leash?” “What do you mean?”

Tutting at her gorgeous idiot of a man, she pulled away completely before crouching to grab the cat and walking towards the door where they hung coats and her leash. “I said we’re going to the café.”

“I know,” he mumbled scratching his head, a bit confused as to what she meant, “I got a booking for it, no? Why are you – we can’t take her there and it's almost time for our reservation.”

“Aww~ don’t listen to daddy, Byeol” San watched her talk to his cat instead of him, watching her put on Byeol’s harness and leash, somewhat impressed because Byeol never let him do that this easily, though the next statement had him blushing mad. “He’s a bit slow, handsome, but slow, he forgot we’re going to a cat café, you’ll have fun there~ Won’t you baby~”

Letting out a hearty chuckle he closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief, of course she’d come up with this idea on her own. She had mentioned earlier how leaving Byeol home wasn’t fun especially when the cat was their ‘child’ and leaving their child unattended was cruel. He watched the cat jump off the table and onto the floor, meowing up at his lover who sent Byeol a flying kiss, San didn’t know what heaven was, but if anyone were to ask him to describe what it looked like, the view was right in front of him.

“Any kisses for me?” He asked walking up to his two girls, who were almost out the door, pausing when she winked at him, “depends big boy. Might need to send our baby back home for a while if that’s what you want.” And that had the man shivering with excitement running after her as the two made it to the elevator, already planning on asking someone or one of the guys to watch his little baby for the night, so he could have a night with his kitten.

“Don’t worry, I think that can be arranged, kitten.”

Taglist: @edenesth @mlysalt @spooo00oky @cereal-simp @yessa-vie

[ythankucaptainmccoy]

The Cowgirl and The Aviator Ch12

WARNING: Character harm, blood, hospitals, ranch hands being protective, hurt, comfort, trust building and fluff.

Jake didn’t even pack a bag as he booked a flight to Austin and a rental car for when he landed. Bradley even volunteered to take him to the airport. “When you get there tell her we miss her here, and you better apologize on your knees because she won’t accept anything less”, Bradley said. “I will do anything and everything to get her back”, Jake replied. Bradley watched as Jake fidgeted in the passenger seat and he decided to speed a little to get him to the airport.

Once Jake made it into the airport he went through security and ran to the gate only to realize he had to wait thirty more minutes before he could board the plane. He tried your cell phone several times but it would ring before rolling to voicemail. He begged and pleaded for you to give him another chance that he would do anything for you. Even admitting he would go AWOL from the Navy if he had to.

They announced boarding and to Jake it felt like the longest boarding he had ever sat through. You on the other hand were helping Bull and the other ranch hands brand and castrate the young calves. “Nothing like being outdoors and working like this huh”, he said. “I wouldn’t mind having a ranch like this one day”, you replied. Bull noticed how happy you were and he knew that even though you loved Jake you would be okay. 

It was late afternoon by the time you got done and the guys were setting up to cook some dinner. “I’m gonna walk Rebel down to the creek”, you told Bull. “Don’t be gone too long once these guys get the food done they don’t hesitate to eat it all”, Bull jokes. You nodded and walked the mile to let Rebel cool off and get a drink. While there you noticed someone walking down the creek. You figured it was one of the guys coming back from getting cleaned up in the creek as you relaxed.

Jake had just made it to his sisters front door where he knocked incessantly. Evelynn opened the door with a frown on her face and a glare in her eye. “What do you want?”, she asked. “I need to talk to (Y/N)”, Jake explained. “And you think she came here? Even if she was here, why would I tell my jackass of a brother where she was?”, she scolded. “I know she’s here and I have to get her back, Ev. Ever since breaking up with her all I see when I close my eyes is her. I hear her in my dreams and I messed up. I’ll get down on my knees for her. I know now that the photo was all a trick and I should have let her explain”, Jake rushed.

Evelynn had never seen her brother so distraught, not even when he found the girl he was planning on marrying was cheating on him. “She isn’t here right now, but she’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. Until then you better think about what you’re going to say to her”, Evelynn said. Jake was at a loss so he walked out to the barn where he found your cot with your duffle bag. He noticed a picture poking out of the bag and when he pulled it out he noticed it was a picture of him. 

It was an old photo of when he had just joined the Navy, and he knew that Evelynn had given it to you. It was nice to know you still somewhat cared about him. You were taken by surprise when the person that had been walking stopped beside you. “Hey (Y/N) long time, but I told you that I was going to take you back home”, the person said. You knew that voice right away and when you looked up there stood Jackson pointing a gun at you. “Look I don’t want any trouble”, you said. “Well I just wanted you to come home and now I have to resort to making you come home”, he says grabbing your arm. 

You automatically let Rebel go and slapped him to get him to run. To your relief he started heading back to the camp. Bull was helping put more wood on the fire when Rebel came running into the camp. When Bull grabbed a hold of him his eyes were wide and seemed panicked. He knew something was wrong, Rebel wouldn’t have left you otherwise. He told the boys to mount up as he was the first to saddle up and ride off. 

Jackson was dragging you along the creek when you could hear a horse approaching. Before you could distinguish whose horse or who was coming you heard a cry and before you understood you hit the ground hard. When you were able to find your feet Bull had leapt from his horse and tackled Jackson to the ground. They were scrapping and Bull was winning until Jackson pistol whipped him. Jackson got up pointing the gun at him when you leapt into action. 

You had just hit Jackson when the gun went off the first time. You fell on top of him as you both scrapped knowing now that this was life or death. You could hear the rest of the ranch hands on their horses approaching as you continued. You reached for the gun in Jackson’s hand when it went off and you felt the burning in your abdomen. Jackson pushed you off of him and ran, but one of the ranch hands lassoed his foot bringing him down hard as the gun went flying out of his hands.

Bull was by your side in a second as you could hear Jackson yelling for the guys to unhand him. “You're hurt”, you told Bull. He had some blood coming down from his gray hair. “Hun you’re worse than I am. Someone give me their shirt and ride hard and as fast as you can for the house to get help. They might have to call in the airlift!”, Bull bellowed. A shirt was handed to him when you looked down to see the blood soaking your shirt. “This is gonna hurt hun, but I got ya’. Hold on”, Bull soothed. He used the shirt to put pressure on the wound as you cried out and grabbed his arm. 

“Boss, what do you want us to do with him?”, one of the ranch hands asked. “Rough ‘im up”, Bull growled. That’s all they needed to hear as Jackson started screaming for you to help him. Jake was talking with Colton when one of the youngest ranch hands came riding in like his ass was on fire. “There’s been an accident (Y/N)’s been shot and Bull said she might need an airlift to the hospital”, the young man rushed. Jake felt his blood go ice cold as the ranch hand told them what field they were in.

Colton called for emergency services and explained as he handed Jake his truck keys. “They are sending emergency services”, Colton relayed. He told Jake where to go and when the ranch hands came into view he saw you laying on the ground. He barely put the truck in park as he ran to you. “(Y/N) darlin’ I’m so sorry”, Jake said as he kneeled beside you. Somebody had put their saddle under your head to keep you somewhat comfortable. 

“Jake what are you doin’ here?”, you asked. “I’m here because I messed up. I was coming to beg you to take me back. I know now that I should have listened to you when you tried to explain about the photo. I’m a jackass and I love you”, he tells you. The whole time he is stroking your hair and crying. He worries as you start looking tired and too pale. “I love you too. I never stopped loving you even after everything that happened”, you sigh. He sits with you as you start to feel weaker and weaker.

“Jake”, you whisper. “Yeah darlin’ “, he replies. “I feel cold and tired”, you admit. “You gotta hold on darlin’ the ambulance is on its way. You have to hold on for me. I can’t live without you please hold on”, he panics. Bull is on your other side as you glance at him and notice even he is crying. The ambulance finally arrives as they get out to assess you. Jake insists on riding with you in the ambulance as they load you up. 

“Jake”, you whimper. “I’m right here darlin’ I’m not goin’ anywhere”, he tells you. “Jake I’m scared”, you say right before you slip into unconsciousness. Jake loses it at that moment as sobs take hold of him. The EMT tries to assure him that your pulse is strong as he checks the blood bag he had hung up. Jake is overwhelmed at this point and everything is a blur as he walks into the ER and nurses have to hold him back as you're rushed to surgery.

Bull and the others wait for the police to show up and when they do Jackson is in need of a hospital as well, but once the officers hear what happened they insist on taking everyones statement on what happened. When they find that he has a restraining order they automatically read him his rights and take him into custody. Colton, Evelynn and Bull show up at the hospital where Jake is sitting in the waiting room pacing.

“Jake I’m sure she is gonna be fine son”, Bull tells him. Evelynn tries to get him to sit down as Colton tries to get him to talk. Hours go by when a doctor comes to the waiting room to find them. “How is she please tell me she is going to be okay I can’t lose her”, Jake pleads. “She is going to be just fine. The bullet was removed and internal bleeding dealt with. She is still asleep but I can allow at least one family member back to see her”, the doctor announces. “I’m her husband”, Jake blurts. 

The doctor raises a brow, but walks him back to the room you’re in. He pulls a chair up to your bedside and pulls your hand into his. He doesn’t know how long he sits there just watching to make sure you’re still breathing, but eventually he falls asleep. When you open your eyes you notice that you're in a hospital room and that your abdomen is painful remembering being shot. Then you look to your right to see Jake sitting in a chair slumped on your bed fast asleep. You also notice that your hand is in his and you can’t help but smile. 

A nurse comes in to check on you and make sure that the morphine drip is doing okay. “Your husband was so worried about you. Paced in the waiting room the whole time you were in surgery and hasn’t left your side since he came in here”, she says. “That sounds like him”, you croak. “Here honey, let's get you some water. Ya’ sound parched”, she tells you. The nurse pours you some water and hands it to you making sure you have it before letting go. You drink enough to wet your dry throat as she sets it back on the small rolling tray. “I’m going to come back in a little while to check on you”, she tells you.

After she leaves you squeeze Jake’s hand and call to him softly. He stirs and wakes immediately looking up to lock eyes with you. Tears fill his eyes as he lets out a relieved sigh, “I thought I was gonna’ lose you”. “Oh, well I couldn’t leave my husband”, you tease. He smiled and got up to kiss you. You reached up to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Here I am crying while you're comforting me when it should be the other way around”, he says. “I’m fine you look like a wreck. How did you know where I was?”, you ask.

“Well Penny after hearing me confess that I would beg on my knees to get you back told me where you were”, he says. “Well I’m glad she told you and for the record I will wait for you to beg on your knees”, you say. “I get it if you want some space”, he says. “I think we have spent enough time apart”, you reply. “I hope you can forgive me”, he says. “It might take a while, but I’m sure I can in time”, you tell him.

“I can live with that. Oh Rooster wanted me to tell you that they all miss you”, Jake says. “I should probably call them and let them know what happened”, you yawn. “Don’t worry about that now darlin’. Right now you need to rest up”, he tells you. You both sit and talk as Jake tells you how he found out that the picture was set up, and you tell him about working on the ranch. He listens intently as you talk until you start yawning. 

“Get some rest, I'll be here when you wake up”, he tells you. You fall asleep quickly as he watches you for a while before catching some more sleep himself. The next day Evelynn came up to visit and bring Jake some clothes since he came without any. The room you were staying in had a shower, but Jake would only get in long enough to wash his body and hair. Your stay in the hospital was a week to make sure you were healing properly. 

When it came to leaving the hospital you swore Jake was worse than a mother hen with new chicks. He helped you into the truck that Evelynn and Colton had lent to him. Then he drove ten miles per hour under the speed limit. “Jake honey you can drive the speed limit. The doctor discharged me and said as long as I don’t lift anything until the sutures come out I’ll be alright”, you protest. “Absolutely not, these roads are bumpy and I will not risk hurting you”, he replied. You roll your eyes as he continues to be passed by angry drivers. 

When you finally make it to the ranch you tear up when you see that Colton, Evelynn, Annabelle, Georgia, Bull and the rest of the ranch hands are there to welcome you back. Bull gives you a hug much to Jake’s worry as he rants about being careful. “He’s worse than my wife God rest ‘er soul. She used to fuss over the smallest things”, Bull laughed. You laughed along until pain caused you to stop and slightly double over. “See this is why you should rest”, Jake said. 

“I’ll be fine”, you tell him. He continues to watch you to make sure you aren’t over exerting yourself. After everyone welcomes you back Evelynn goes to cook dinner as you offered to help. “Now I hate to be like my brother, but I feel you should sit down and relax. I do have a job that requires sitting down”, Evelynn says. You follow her to the kitchen where she has potatoes that need peeling. Jake had followed you both in as you felt like you were suffocating. “Honey I think I can sit and peel potatoes without a problem”, you told Jake. 

Annabelle came into the kitchen being careful not to hurt you as she hugged you. “I’m happy that you’re okay”, she says. Georgia comes toddling in and climbs right into your lap as Jake tenses. “Wuv you aunt (Y/N)” Georgia said. That brought tears to your eyes as you hugged her then asked her if she wanted to help peel the potatoes. She excitedly clapped her hands as Evelynn handed you the potato peeler. 

Jake finally relented and walked out with Annabelle to find something to do as she pulled at his hand. “I swear he has done nothing but hover since I got shot”, you say. “Pray you don’t get pregnant anytime soon”, Evelynn laughs. “Oh I could only imagine how that would go”, you snort. “I know my brother is a jackass, but he does have a heart of gold”, she replies. “I still love him, but I can’t forgive him just yet”, you whispered. “I understand me and Colton had a moment like that. It took some time, but we overcame it eventually. Now we can laugh about it”, Evelynn confides.

You smiled at that then giggled a little when Georgia got impatient waiting for you to help her with the next potato. Once dinner was done Jake made your plate bringing it to the table for you. You leaned over and kissed his cheek thanking him for being there for you. He seemed to be more relaxed now than he had been all week. “We need to head back to San Diego, but I don’t know if you can handle the drive”, Jake announced. 

“I’m fit for travel besides you can drive my truck this time. Now I’ll admit it isn’t as fancy as yours”, you reply. The next couple of days Bull helps you pack up your gear, and you start to cry. “What’s wrong hun?”, Bull questions. “You’re the closest thing I have had to a father since I lost mine and I hate goodbyes”, you cry. “Oh hun you’re gonna’ be just fine and if ya’ ever need anything I’m gonna’ be right here on this ranch”, he sniffles. “I thought old cowboys don’t cry”, you laugh through your tears. 

He laughs along with you as Jake comes to make sure you’re ready to head back to San Diego. You had already gotten a doctor appointment set up for a check up back in San Diego so you were ready. After hugging everybody and saying goodbye you and Jake hit the road. You received a phone call from the police asking when you could give a statement. You explained that you were going to be staying in San Diego and the officer took down your information so they could come to you.

“I’m probably going to have to testify at the trial”, you say. “I’ll come with you as long as I’m not on deployment and I guarantee that Bull will go with you if I can’t”, Jake replies. The rest of the ride is calm other than the frequent stops that Jake was taking. He told you it was to get snacks or bathroom breaks, but you know that he is trying to make sure you are okay. Jake eventually books a hotel since he wanted to make sure you got the rest you needed.

When you arrive at the hotel you call Bradley to let him know what has been happening while Jake goes out to get food. When you tell him about what had happened he loses his mind. He continues to ask if you’re okay and starts to sound like Jake. The only way you get off the phone with him is telling him you need rest as directed by your doctor. When Jake comes back with food you let him know about telling Bradley.

“Great I bet he is going to hate me even more now”, Jake says. “Honestly I told him that you're a helicopter boyfriend and he agreed that you should be right now”, you laugh. Jake just stares at you as you open your bag of food until you notice him staring. “What?”, you ask. “You called me your boyfriend”, he says. “Well the way I see it I never broke up with you”, you smile. In one swift moment Jake is sitting beside you pulling you in to kiss you. 

“I love you so much. I made the dumbest mistake of my life when I did what I did”, Jake rambles. “I love you too, but you're taking the couch tonight”, you tell him. You hadn’t let him sleep in bed with you as a sort of punishment and he had obliged without protest. You have had some time to heal, but you want to see if he is serious about you. After staying in the hospital and how he has been by you since then it wasn’t going to take long to convince you he was all in. 

That night he slept on the couch as you took time to think about the last couple of months. Even with him being on a couch, but in the same room brings you comfort. The next morning when you wake up Jake is sitting at the small table with breakfast. “Why didn’t you wake me?”, you ask. “You need rest and you looked peaceful”, he tells you. You smile as you get up and sit beside him to eat. Jake waited for you to finish up then went to the front to check out once he got you to the truck. 

While sitting in the truck you could see Jake peeking through the doors checking on you. You smile when he comes out looking absolutely gorgeous in his jeans and t-shirt. When he gets in and starts driving you scoot to the middle and buckle up. It feels like forever, but eventually you both make it to the apartments. You are both tired and before you know it arms wrapped around you and you could smell Bradley’s cologne. 

“Bradley”, you laugh. He pulls away and asks how you feel, to which you respond. Jake waits patiently as you both catch up. When there is a lull in conversation Jake makes his move. “I know you probably haven’t thought about it, but where are you wanting to stay?”, Jake asks. Bradley looks to you waiting for your answer before Bradley takes you aside. “(Y/N), I know that what he did was wrong, but he has been a mess around here without you”, Bradley confides. You look back to Jake as he watches the ocean while you talk with Bradley. 

“You wouldn’t be upset if I go back to staying with him?”, you ask. “It’s your decision”, he tells you. You ponder it for a moment then smile as you realize that even though he had hurt you, you had missed everything about Jake. “Even though he hurt me I still love him. He has some trust building to do, but he is making up for it. I mean he never left my side at the hospital”, you say. Bradley respects your decision as you hug him and head back over to Jake. “Bring me home cowboy”, you grin. Jake smiles and it feels as though the last couple days fade away.

Once inside Jake helps you get ready for bed like he has for the last couple of days. Everything smells like him and your tension just melts away. He goes to walk back towards the living room when you call out to him, “Where are you goin?”. “The couch I figured you would want your space”, he replies. “Not tonight Jake I want you here with me tonight”, you reply. He hesitates at first until you pat the other side of the bed. The apartment is quiet as you both settle in to sleep.

[theinheriteddutchess]

Pulling Against The Stream

Summary: you've always been drawn to the sea, even if you feared it. When a handsome stranger shows up he completely turns your life and awakens a side of you you didn't even know existed.

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x female reader

Word count: about 11.475

Warnings: 18+, I'm not sure if there really are warnings, nothing gets too explicit. There's talk about nearly drowning, merfolk will eat people (but not in this part). Is Bucky a warning? I think he's a warning🤷‍♀️

(Notes: this was fun to work on, I fell in love with these two, I'm sad it's finished. Also, sorry Owen, you never did get that apology.)

Part 2

🧜🏻‍♂️

The wind was a welcome coolness as it rushed through your hair. You looked out to sea, watching the calm waves rush to shore, wetting the sand before retreating again. It was one of your favourite things to do. Whenever you were on the beach you felt calmer. Like all your problems seemed to disappear. Even if for a little while.

You never went in the water, however. 

You hadn’t since you were a little girl and you had nearly drowned. You loved water. You just couldn’t sink into it. Every time you thought about it, you saw your mother's face as she panicked and yelled at you. As a young girl you had realized something had been very wrong, and now many years later, you had avoided breaking through that fear, and simply given up.

You ached sometimes however, seeing families walking into the ocean and swimming, playing together, their laughter traveling through the air. If only that could be you. It was you, at some point, but the accident changed so much. 

You sighed. You took one look at the water, saying goodbye in your mind, before turning and grabbing your shoes. You walked to the parking lot, trying to brush as much sand off your feet as you could, before slipping on your ankle socks and your shoes. You didn't want to be late. Your friends would  give you a hard time about it. You had agreed to go to this party and they weren't going to let you forget it. They had taken you shopping last week for this event, even. A cute summer dress meant to flatter your body, without looking like you were trying too hard. 

You knew they'd been trying to set you up with someone, a friend of Genevieve’s boyfriend, some guy named Owen or Odin.. You didn't really know, because you were protesting before they both convinced you to give him a try. 

They meant well, but you were fine on your own. 

You had a tiny apartment nearby the sea and you had a simple job that provided enough for you to be comfortable. You loved being able to be near the ocean and simply opening your windows and hearing the crashing of the waves, the smell of salt in the air. It didn’t matter that no one understood. You were happy here.

But today was different. Today your friends wanted you to have fun. And you had promised to. And you were going to. One night going out with friends and a hot man. It couldn’t be that bad, right? Sam was a nice guy, his friend was sure to be nice as well. You hoped. And if not, you had no problem bailing.

You showered once you got home, taking extra time to let the pleasant scent of your shower gel soak into your skin, and made yourself ready. You thought you looked nice, when you saw yourself in the mirror. Owen or Olaf should appreciate the effort.

Your friend Beth picked you up, her recently wedded husband in the back swiping away on his tablet. 

“Hon’, put it away, it’s after working hours, okay?” she softly told him and he groaned but listened. 

“Hi.”

“Hey,” you greeted them, smiling. They had been together since highschool and had just simply never parted. A rare thing in your opinion, but it gave you higher hopes for the future.

“Okay, so Gen told me they were already at the bar, you know the place, right? Shade?”

You did know. It was near the beach, a restaurant, bar and club all at once. It really gave beach resort vibes, but it was a little less rowdy than an actual dance club, and the food was rumored to be excellent.

You had a strong suspicion it was picked out deliberately to make you more comfortable since it was beach themed. You chuckled a little at the idea.

“It has excellent seafood, I heard.”

“We know how much you love that!” Beth told you, smiling.

It was true, ever since you were little you loved anything fishy. Your mother would go mental getting you to eat anything, unless fish was on the menu. You didn’t know why but other meat felt heavier, and you enjoyed the taste better.

It was a nice place. You arrived and it seemed all tables were full, but it didn’t feel too crowded inside. The restaurant had a perfect look out to sea, and the dance floor was separated in a way that the noise didn’t bother the dinner guest. It had a nice atmosphere. Seeing it now you were sure you wanted to visit again. That is, if the food was as good as promised.

You saw your other friend waving from a table in a corner of the room. You saw the friend that was supposed to be your date. Nerves were beginning to show, but you faked being confident as you walked over.

“Hello, making yourselves comfortable I see?” you greeted, watching the guy, Oscar or Otis, getting up and holding out his hand. You shook it. Firm but not too hard. A good handshake.

He was holding your chair for you and okay, gentleman. But that didn’t mean anything. Mannerisms might be nice, but you never knew what lurked underneath.

You mostly listened for the first few minutes to your friends joking and sharing some details about their day.

The waiter showed up soon to take your drink order, and handed you the menu for dinner.

“I heard you liked seafood?” Your date leaned closer.

You nodded. “Yes. A lot. I’ve been told it’s a little unnatural, but I can't help it, I prefer a nice Plaice over a steak.”

“Nothing wrong with knowing what you want.” He smiled kindly.

“Exactly. How about you? Do you have any preferences?”

“Only about my car, and that’s pretty much about bringing me where I want. I know, not very manly of me, but I don’t see the point in getting excited over a piece of metal. It needs to function and if it does I'm good.”

“So what do you get excited about?”

“Honestly?” he leaned over like he was about to tell you a great secret. “I collect old movie posters.”

“Okay, so you love old movies?”

“A lot. My nan used to set me down at the tv to watch with her, I guess it’s where I got my love for black and white movies from. It’s probably to keep the thought of her alive, but that makes me sound mushy.”

“Not at all, it’s sweet actually.”

And it was. He was. He was sweet. You might even like to see him again if this was over. You were becoming more comfortable as the minutes ticked by.

The food was as excellent as expected. The conversation was flowing. And it was great being around your friends again, all together. 

Ollie was a good looking man, with kind brown eyes and an equally kind smile. You weren’t sure if there was chemistry between you, or what he even thought about you, but you were sure that if you ran into him tomorrow things wouldn’t be awkward. 

The evening progressed smoothly. Eventually your group migrated to the other part of the building, where catchy music and dimmed lights created a bit of a different atmosphere.You got another drink and kind of swayed your hips to the beat of the bass. Your friends were already dragging their partners to the dance area, and you stood next to Otto and kind of felt a little unsure. You wanted to dance, but he didn’t show any signs of asking you. And leaving to go dance alone seemed rude.

“I’m sorry, I am really bad at dancing.” He seemed to notice.

“It’s okay.” You raised your voice to be heard over the music. You were a little disappointed. “Not that I mind bad dancing.”

“No, I know it’s really awful, and I've stopped exposing myself to ridicule as a teenager,” He tried to smile, but maybe he saw in your eyes you were let down.

“I love dancing,” You admitted. “I don't get to do it often.”

“Well, then go. We can talk later.”

You hesitated. “I don’t feel comfortable just ditching you.”

“It’s not ditching when I say you should. Go and enjoy yourself.”

You thought about it for less than a second. “Okay, thanks.” You left your half finished drink and turned to a somewhat empty spot and let the music take over.

It had been a while. You normally didn’t have much time for these sorts of things. And, honestly, you often didn't make the time. You didn’t really like clubs, where it was so warm and sweaty and everyone pressed up against you. But you did like dancing. Moving your body, letting yourself feel like the most powerful sexy being on this earth once you moved to the beat.

You lost time. You twirled and swayed and closed your eyes. You forgot about anything else. But you were thirsty eventually, and glancing around saw your group of friends together talking somewhere ahead. So you walked to the bar to order a drink. While waiting, a body appeared next to you. you glanced up and were temporarily knocked aside by the beauty of him.

Long soft looking brown hair. Blue eyes seemingly glowing down at you as he stared back at you smiling. Oh his smile. Beautiful white pearls. His mouth was full and pleasant.

He was taller than you and seemingly muscular..

He was stunning.

He kept smiling and you were frozen. Looking at him like you had never seen a man. His arm reached out and grabbed the drink the bartender made you and handed it to you, because you were not aware of anything but him. You took it and sipped from it. Thanking him softly , even if you paid for it yourself.

He didn’t seem to move. Seemed comfortable being right at your side. You glanced at your friends once, still animated by themselves and turned to the stranger.

“What's your name?” You asked.

He moved his hands in such a way that made it clear he couldn’t hear you.

You told him yours. And though his eyes twinkled he didn’t say anything. He pointed at himself and made a weird noise. You didn’t get it, until he looked saddened at you.

Was he deaf? Well, no, because he could clearly hear you. What was the word? Mute? You weren’t sure, but you were sure he was telling you he couldn’t speak. “Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but you can’t speak?”

He shook his head. He didn’t seem to have anything with him to communicate either.

He lifted a finger underneath the glass and pushed it upwards. You had to drink or it would spill.

You giggled, “Alright, alright, I’ll drink, stop.”

It should be eerie how much he didn’t take his eyes off of you, but for some reason it didn't feel that way. He curled a finger around a bowl of peanuts and pushed it towards you.

“Oh no, I don't eat those, and you shouldn’t either, who knows how filthy the hands were that touched them.”

He pushed them back again, immediately, looking at them like they failed him. You knew you should go back to your friends. You should. Yet your feet didn’t move. Your eyes were captivated by him. You couldn’t stop looking. And neither did he. It felt like everything around you went quiet, and people ceased to exist. All you saw was him. His shiny hair, his beautiful smile, his eyes who were bluer than the ocean. You noticed you two were standing awfully close once you thought how clean he smelled. He didn’t seem to wear a scent, he just smelled fresh.

You felt a weird pressure in your chest. Close wasn’t close enough. The two of you just stood there, nearly pressed against each other. Wordless. Staring.

You felt him taking your hand.

And you let him. He guided you away. You did not know where, you did not see anyone or anything. Just him. As he led you outside. It was dark, and you felt sand sneaking through your shoes, the silty air of the sea in your lungs.

You were at the beach, the moon shining down on the two of you, illuminating his features.

His hand reached out to stroke your face softly, his eyes following his fingers over your skin, like he  wanted to absorb everything he saw and felt about you.

You stood still and let him, it felt like a dream. Everything was blurry but his features were clear. His fingers were so soft as they explored you, his hand traveling over your neck, shoulders, down your arms, you shivered and then he pulled you near. 

You hadn’t expected the kiss. His lips were so soft as they stroked yours. You closed your eyes and let him take the lead.

He laid you down. his body covering yours quickly. He was a little cold but you didn't mind as your body was heating up. It felt like a relief to feel his skin against yours.

His lips gliding down your skin, it felt so lovely. Your hands started exploring him the same way.

His strong muscles - and where had his clothes gone suddenly?- but the question left as you explored his form. He was damn near perfect in your opinion, you hadn’t found one flaw so far.

You would have worried about your own flaws if the look in his eyes didn’t stop any negative thought from coming up. You had never seen anyone looking at you the way he did. Like nothing mattered. Like you were the most beautiful woman on this earth. It was neary too much, that look. But you soaked in it, you had never felt more powerful.

Your dress seemed to disappear just as fast as his clothes had gone, you wondered if you were losing track of reality, but it didn’t matter. As soon as you nude bodies connected it had never felt more right. You were both so quiet, like even the sounds you made were private, just for the two of you, no one else was part of it.

You couldn't get enough of stroking his stomach, feeling how he quivered everytime you did. He made a noise sometimes like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t.You looked down, and even his manhood was gorgeous. And you never found it particularly exciting before. He was grinning, like he knew what you were thinking. Maybe your expression spoke a thousand words.

“You’re perfect,” You told him. it was completely truthful. You couldn't feel the shame you were supposed to feel.

His hand was laid against the side of your face, as he looked into your eyes again, like he wanted to say the same to you.

You felt your cheeks warm, weird that this felt so much more intimate than your actual naked bodies currently pressed against each other.

He moved a little closer still, his hand reaching down, and next moment he entered you. You hadn’t expected that. It should’ve been too soon, but he slid right in. Oh. He felt… he felt really good. 

He moved, gentle long strokes. Not too rough, but precise. 

You moaned now. It felt like your body wasn’t your own anymore. As he played it fluently and all the while your eyes not leaving the other. 

You barely remembered when you finished, or him. All you knew was how he felt. And how he kept going, and again. Like he couldn't get enough. He managed to take a break at some point, to gather you up and carry you to your house, naked as the day you were born. It was a fortune you two weren't caught. 

At your apartment, he set you down, you didn’t even remember unlocking the door, but as soon as you stood inside he was on you again.

His mouth was pure aphrodisiac to you. You couldn’t get enough. And neither could he, as his mouth and tongue explored all of you. You felt high with how he made you feel. You didn’t think you ever experienced such pleasure, and so much of it.

And all you seemed to notice was his blue eyes that were a beacon calling out to you and keeping you home.

🐚

The next morning you woke to a naked body next to you. Long brown hair spread out over the sheet as he was still asleep.

You took a moment to appreciate the sight.

Then you remembered you had ditched your friends. and your date.

You groaned and fell down on the pillow. you better had a good excuse ready when you faced them. And you didn’t have one. Well besides, “met a hottie and I couldn’t resist, apparently.” God, what had gotten into you? Besides him…

You glanced at him. Well, if you could take a picture Beth would at least understand. She was crazy about those romantic movies with chance meetings. But Genevieve…Well it was her boyfriend’s friend after all, and that made it more awkward.

Your lover woke up. Rolling over, exposing himself without shame. He reached out for you and you held your hand up. “No, I can't.” He actually looked disappointed. What had he expected, you had lost count how many times he was inside you last night. “And I'm afraid I have to face my friend’s wrath for leaving them behind. I can’t believe I did that, without even saying goodbye.”

His hand stroked your hair, while he hummed. Was he comforting you? You peaked through your hair at him. He looked so content though. Well, he hadn’t deserted his friends after all. He had seemed to have shown up alone.

You searched for your phone. It was on the dresser where you left it yesterday. And with about 84 messages staring back at you menacingly.

You decided to check Beth. She was worried. Genevieve’s wasn’t different, but apparently Beth had seen you leave, and they were confused. It wasn’t like you, and especially not without at least telling them something.

You decided a group call was best. Dive into the deep and face your actions.

“I know I fucked up,” is how you started the conversation, “I don’t know what came over me. He just showed up and it was like I stopped thinking, and I'm sorry I worried you. And I'm sorry for Ovid, he seemed nice. I just…. I have no idea.”

“He was very good looking,” Beth agreed.

“Owen is good looking!” Genevieve defended immediately. Owen! You wheeped inside, finally knowing his name…and relieved Gen didn't call you or on it.

“Yes, but this guy was like a model, come on Gen. “

Silence. She didn't want to admit it out loud.

“He’s still here,” you whispered.

“What!” Genevieve yelled. “Oh my god you skank, you let him stay the night?”

“I think we were too busy the whole night to even notice it was morning,” your cheeks reddened while admitting it. “You have no idea, it’s like he couldn’t get enough of me, and I…well I have never experienced this.”

“That good huh?”

“Oh my god you have no idea. He was…he was a lot, but not enough you know? I felt like I was high or something, he is so gorgeous, guys, and his body…if only you could see.”

“I can pretend to drop something off right now,” Genevieve said, deadly serious.

“What, no. No, we want privacy. I think. I’m not sure, he doesn’t seem to mind if anyone sees him naked, and I think…we left our clothes at the beach.”

Shrieking was heard from both sides. You continued to take their teasing for a while. You got it, it was probably hilarious to hear.

“You’re not mad at me?” you asked quietly once they calmed down.

“Maybe, but also, kind of impressed. Sam is probably more angry, because it’s his friend, but Owen took it in stride.”

“Oh god, I don't even know what to say to them.” you sighed. You were feeling shame, you did, but you also really didn’t regret it. Which was weird because you were never this irresponsible.

“Don’t worry, I'll smooth things over.”

“In the bedroom you mean?” Beth chuckled.

“Well it has worked so far. Besides, once I tell him this was the first time you ever got carried away and you're normally not like this at all, it must be a really special person to make you act this way, he'll understand.”

“I don’t even know his name.”

“Oh god this is priceless. You’re finally getting in touch with your inner whore.”

“Am not, but he’s just so..”

“Yeah yeah dreamy, we get it.”

An arm wrapped around you from behind and soft lips explored your neck. A familiar firmness pressing against your back.

“Hey, I’m talking to my friends,” you protested half heartedly, because you were already enjoying the ministrations.

He ignored your words, even though you were sure he understood you just fine. His tongue licked you softly, and your knees buckled.

“Okay, okay, I'm going to hang up, I will talk to you later.”

“Oh my god girl, what's gotten into you, is he-”

You hung up and dropped the phone. He turned you around and picked you up . Fuck, the way he made it seem effortless really did things to you. Forget about being sore, it was worth it.

✨

You were exhausted. Even after taking another nap. Your body pleasantly buzzing with all the attention it received. You had to get up eventually to get food. 

Making some eggs and grilled cheese, you offered your lover something to drink. He sniffed everything carefully and then turned his nose up. 

“Water then? Can’t go wrong with water.”  You offered him a glass. 

He did accept it, finishing it in one gulp and handing it out to you.

“Another?” you asked after seeing him drink like this, and he nodded.

He drank about 3 glasses before he seemed to be satisfied.

But he didn’t eat anything,

“Surely you must be hungry?”

He nodded.

“You don’t like eggs? Or cheese?”

He grabbed an egg and broke it to slurp the gooey stuff before you could stop him. A raw egg, you shuddered. But some people did that, right? Like those bodybuilders, for the protein. And he did seem to work out. Your eyes got temporarily lost glancing over all his muscles, before snapping out of it, when you met his eyes and they seemed to darken again. You quickly turned. As much as it was the best night of your life, you were really really tired. Not used to this kind of exercise at all. Your body started tingling however, so it was hard to not think of all the details he had given you to fantasize about for the rest of your life.

“So, I was thinking, we should find something for you to wear. We left our clothes at the beach, and I doubt I have much that fits you.”

He shrugged. It didn’t seem to matter to him at all.

“You can’t walk around naked, you’ll get arrested!”

His eyes glanced at yours, noticing the shock and then he pointed outside. “We should collect it?” You guessed and he nodded. “Well, I’ll go, you can’t go out this way.” So you showered and got dressed, but before you left he kept preventing it by kissing you, and again…And once more at the door. Before you pushed him back inside. 

“Someone might see you,” you hissed , looking around if none of your neighbors were in the hall. “I’ll be back soon. Find something you can eat, yeah? I don’t need you fainting from starvation.”

He leaned into you again to kiss you, and you evaded him. “Later!” you giggled, watching the pleased smirk on his face. You fixed your hair, and your shirt, the cheeky bastard had sneaked in a handful, and went on your way.

You couldn’t believe you slept with someone on the beach, in full sight of potential witnesses. Finding your clothes didn’t take long, but your dress was covered in sand and seaweed, and his clothes were wet and needed a good wash. You didn't find his shoes, and then wondered if he had even worn any. You couldn’t remember, you didn’t exactly pay attention to his feet.

You took your hoard home and after a long make out session, where your lover acted like he hadn’t seen you for years, you made your way to the washer. 

“Once they’re dry you are free to go.” Then realized that it sounded like you were kicking him out, and hurried to add. “If you want to, I mean, whatever you want.”

Whatever he wanted seemed to be you. His hands wouldn’t leave you alone. And you didn’t know where to go from here. Did one night stands normally stay until the afternoon the next day? Or seemed to keep wanting to have sex? You didn't even know his name.

“I don’t know what to call you,”  you told him sadly. “Maybe you can write it down?”

You searched for pen and paper but he just stared at it curiously.

You wrote down your name.”You know, my name…now yours?”

He grabbed the pen and it broke, he must have held it too tight. “Oh shit, okay, no problem. Do you have anywhere to go? Like a job or home?”

At the word home he lit up. He nodded enthusiastically and wanted to go outside

“Wait, your clothes!” You held his hand, “We have to wait until they're dry. Maybe  we should watch some tv until they are.” You led him to the couch and turned on the tv. He flinched but soon relaxed and watched the screen fascinated. He grabbed the remote and started zapping quickly, often looking at you with a bright smile like he had found some new toy to admire. You giggled.

“You act like you've never seen a tv before.”

He cocked his head and just stared at you. 

“Okay, pick anything you want, I don’t mind.”

He did eventually settle on something. A documentary about ocean life and his bright eyes didn’t leave the screen for a while. Occasionally he seemed to scoff at something the narrator said but he stayed quiet. You wondered what it was like, not being able to talk verbally. It must be frustrating. Maybe even lonely.

He didn’t seem to have anything on him either. No phone or any information to figure out who he was. But he was a grown man and you couldn’t just pry. Besides, it's hard to pry when communication was off.

Once the laundry was done you handed him his clean clothes, and he looked kind of repulsed wearing them again. 

“You really like being naked huh?��

He shrugged, then reached out to you with a teasing smile as he lifted your shirt a bit. “Oh no, I quite like being covered, thank you very much.” You giggled as he threw you a pout. “Come on, let's go, you wanted to show me home?”

He lit up again, and quickly grabbed your hand to drag you outside.

“Is it very far? Do we need the car?”

He shook his head and pointed again.

“Okay, lead the way, I'll follow.”

He walked fast, like he couldn’t wait, he made some weird noises in the back of his throat that you interpreted as excitement, and his enthusiasm felt addictive.

He dragged you towards the beach again, then to the water. He seemed to want to keep walking, but you froze.

“No! No I don’t go in-”

He turned to look at you, questioningly. Pointing to the water.

“No, I- I had an accident, many years ago. I don’t swim. I can’t.”  You took a few steps back, your heart beating fast. Your mom’s voice and face clearly visible still after all this time, as she found you and yelled, crying, and in complete panic. You had nearly died that day your parents told you. And ever since, you never went in the water again.

He held his hands out for you to take but you shook your head, feeling faint and stepping back to sit down. “No. please, don’t”

He sat down next to you, wrapping his arms around you and just holding you. Sheltering you from the fear that raised inside of you as you remembered.

🌊

It had been a beautiful day. The sun shined brightly and the water seemed calm underneath the boat you were on. You loved the water, and your parents enjoyed being away from work for a while. 

As a single child you were used to entertaining yourself and that's what you did most of the day. Walking back and forth on the boat, making up games in your head, watching the sea as the boat cut through the water smoothly. 

Your parents were laying on deck somewhere, but you were much too busy to pay attention to them. You had just spotted something that kept your eyes firmly on the water. It never appeared at the same spot though, constantly moving. You didn’t know what it was. At that age your knowledge of any sea creatures was minimal, but it didn’t matter, anything was fascinating at that time. 

Your sandwich dropped out of your hands and floated in the water for a second, before it disappeared. A fish? You walked back to your parents, pretending to be hungry still and getting another sandwich. Happily you walked back to the railing again, ripping a piece off and threw it. And it happened again. You were used to feeding ducks, but you never fed anything else, so this was fun!

Another piece and another until it was gone.

In your enthusiasm, and to continue the game, you hand reached out to your doll and you threw that as well.Then watched it float in the water. 

Then you realized that your doll was lost in the ocean forever. Would it be eaten as well? Or sink down, like toys often did when you took a bath. You started crying, and wanted to run back to your parents, or the nice man that moved the boat, to make them stop it, to make them return it, but then you saw a hand grab it and throw it towards you. The doll landed with a wet squish on deck. Happily you ran towards it and hugged it, soaking your own clothes, but you didn’t mind. You had little Boop back. The world was perfect once again. You looked up and thought you saw a blur of color coming up and going down again fast. A friend. You were sure of it. Friends did things like this. Sharing lunch and sharing toys.

You ran inside to find stuff you could play with, but not mind missing. Like a plate, and your mom’s purse and one of your dad’s shoes…you grabbed it into your tiny arms and walked back outside. One by one you threw it in the water. And watch it sink, until suddenly it was thrown back up again. You clapped your hands, and threw it back in again.

This little game continued for quite a while, and sometimes you saw more of your friend. Dark hair,  eyes looking at you from the water. Why was this boy in the water for so long? Mother had told you to be careful because the water was dangerous here and you couldn’t swim yet.

Why did he stay in the water, he seemed to enjoy it there. You wanted to climb over the railing and go to him, but your mother’s warning sounded in your ears, and you didn't want to get punished. You waved the next time he came up again and he waved back.

You didn’t remember very well what happened in between this fun time, and what happened next, but the sky changed and the boy seemed to fall behind the boat more and more, as the water seemed to be less smooth now than it was before.

There was some yelling from the men on the boat and your mother’s worried voice calling out to you. Eager to listen, you let go of the railing and turned to go towards her, maybe even tell her there was a boy in  the water, when a big wave suddenly made you lose your balance.

You slipped easily and went down into the water. The coldness being the most you remembered of that scary moment.

The water seemed to suck you in and closed all around you as it became dark instantly. Your tiny body thrashing against the current and lack of air. You didn’t know what to do, this was something that your mind had not prepared you for.

Cold arms grabbed you, however and dragged you down, or up. It was hard to tell. But you did feel water sliding past your body and he pushed you up , and then air.

The sea kept pushing against your body and kept taking you down, but you were held up and you could breath, you coughed and held onto the arms for dear life.

When he started swimming away, the boat was not even visible anymore, you realized it was the boy. The dark hair and eyes were the only recognizable thing you had seen.

He swam against the current, somehow strong enough to do so, and it took a really long time before anything changed but the vast ocean in front of you.

It was scary but it was also the most exciting thing you had experienced. Because he was a friend! He had helped you! You saw a glimmer under the water, or felt something smooth and slippery against your legs, but it did not occur to you what it was until later. As land came in sight and he pushed you forward until you could stand. But you didn’t stand, your legs were too shaky to. You sat in the middle of the shore as water leapt against you, but you couldn’t be dragged away anymore. He floated in front of you, making sure you stayed where you were.

“Where am I?'' You sobbed a little, the adrenaline coursing through you and feeling scared without your parents.

His face dipped in and out of the water. “Land” he told you.

“I wanna go home,” You whined.

“They'll find you here…I think. It’s land.” He looked around. “They know you fell, they will look.”

You hoped so, this was worse than that time your dad was late picking you up from school, and you had to wait with the teacher as she sighed at the inconvenience. You never felt like she liked you after that. And mother would be angry because you fell in the water, like she told you.

You cried some more, but felt a cold hand around your ankle.

“They’ll come.” the boy said firmly. You didn’t know why you heard him so clearly, while you couldn't talk under water at all.

Then you saw his body. Your eyes glanced from his torse to his legs. But there were none.

You gasped. “Fish?”

He frowned until he saw where your eyes were focusing on, and then he laughed. “No, it’s a tail. So I can swim.”

“Can I get one?” If you had a tail your mother wouldn’t be angry anymore because you could swim just as well as the boy.

“I’m not sure. You’re not like us.”

‘Oh,” you said, disappointed.

“I know some of you can, I saw it myself!” He then said proudly. “And it would make sense. I did save you.” He glanced at you fiercely suddenly. “That means you're mine.”

“Like a friend?” you said excitedly.

He frowned. “What’s that?”

“Someone you play with. Someone you like.” you explained, glad to know something he didn’t.

“Oh. Yes, like that. I like you,” he cocked his head. “I can keep you.”

“Okay,” you smiled. You weren’t scared anymore. The weather, as suddenly as it had changed, had turned calmer again, and you weren't alone. You had your friend.

“I’m going to have to bite you though. If I'm going to keep you.”

Bite you? That didn’t seem fun. You weren’t sure, but you didn’t want to be called a scaredy cat again, like Lisa sometimes told you when you jumped out of the way if she threw a ball at you, and he had saved you, so it might only be fair.

You shrugged, pretended to not be worried and said. “Okay.”

He came up and grinned. It suddenly seemed less friendly like this, but you already said you’d do it, and a promise is a promise, wasn’t it? He slithered up closer, and you were mesmerized by his tail. It was really beautiful colors, blue and white and shiny…you wanted to touch it, but your mother raised you right, you didn’t just touch people. Unless they said it was okay, like you did, to this boy.

 He moved really close and you noticed how cold his skin was. You felt his face moving closer to you and wondered where this bite was going to be. He made a weird noise, but he seemed to not say anything if his face was out of the water. Maybe he was shy up close?

You felt his mouth on your neck, and then, quickly, he bit down sharply. You screamed because it did hurt, and moved back, but he moved with you until he let go. Blood was covering his mouth and your hand flew up to your neck to feel. 

"That hurts!"

“Of course it does, how else are we supposed to feed?”

You frowned. “You're not supposed to eat me.”

“No, not you,” he seemed to agree, “I Wouldn't bite you there if I was going to eat you.”

Where was he going to bite if he was? you wondered but in your young mind it seemed like an explanation enough.

“Now I can find you. And you'll come look for me , right?

You nodded. Maybe you could go on another boat trip, or sometimes your parents took you out to the beach. You loved the beach! It would be even better with a friend to play with.

You continued talking, and playing. He loved splashing you with his tail, until you shrieked in protest but couldn’t stop laughing. Until you became so exhausted that you started yawning and your eyes were drooping.

“They’ll be here soon,” he frowned, like the thought bothered him. “You should go on land, and I need to…leave.”

“Can’t you stay?” You pouted.

“They can’t see me, they’re not friends.”

You nodded. “Okay, I’ll see you later.”

He hummed and seemed to drift back.

You hoped he would still be nearby so you could wave at him once your parents were here. But you crawled further onto the sand and laid down there, and sleep took over you. It was the worried yells that woke you again.

Your parents rushing over to you and grabbing you and shaking you and so much yelling. Your mother's panicked voice as she said she thought you were dead. That you had drowned. Your father tried to calm your mother down. The two of them taking turns holding you, too rough, too long. You, cryinging and panicking again, remembering the cold dark water. How it kept dragging you back. How there had been no air and your body felt like it was going to explode from pressure.

How afterwards there had been no boat trips or beach days. And how when the time came to learn how to swim your mother's face triggered your fears so much that you hadn't dared to go into the water, and had full out panic attacks until they gave up.

How many trips to the therapists hadn’t been enough to keep from telling that a boy saved you, that not only fishes had tails, until you learned to keep your mouth shut and realized it was a dream. Maybe something your mind conjured up to feel safe again. A savior. A protector.

You still sometimes told someone, like your friends, but no one believed it and you were forever stuck in believing that they believed it wasn’t real, and therefore so should you, and still feeling it had been so real to you.

But what about the bite? Well, there had been one, and your parents took you to the doctors, afraid a shark or something had nibbled on you, but there had been no infection. In fact it had stopped bleeding very quickly, and healed very well. It was a faint shimmer on your skin now. You knew where it was and knew the slight ridges you had to look out for, but it was barely noticeable. Still whenever you rubbed it, it gave you a sense of safety. Something that seemed to look over you.

💭

You sat on the sand, looking out to sea. Next to you sat your lover, maybe you should give him a nickname because it sounded scandalous calling him that. Like a Victorian lady wrapped up in a torrid affair, waiting to be exposed so your older husband could challenge him to a duel to the death. Although, looking at him , you were sure he would win any fight. His body really was something. Healthy, with muscles in all the right places, no tan lines anywhere. Well, he did seem to have a fondness for nudity after all. 

You lowered your eyes, you had no idea what had gotten into you. One look at him and you were a goner. Your mind simply stopped thinking for itself and only seemed to focus on his beauty. You never expected to be this shallow. But it wasn’t just looks, he was kind. Even without words he made you feel understood and safe. He had comforted you and listened to your ramblings as you shook under the fear that raced through you. Making noises that let you know he was there. His strong arms keeping you safe from the horrors in this world.

You had told him what happened. Told him about falling overboard and nearly drowning, how your parents found you later, and were surprised to see you unharmed, but were upset nevertheless. How everything resulted in your fear of being in the water. But that you loved the sea, and kept coming back almost everyday, no matter how short. You just never stepped inside it.

How you couldn't swim because of it. 

He listened, eyes full of understanding and interest. Not once did you seem to bore him. But you didn’t tell him about the boy, you didn’t want him to think you were crazy, or childish. No, you told him what your parents told you. How you must've swum upwards and the water pushed you to shore again. How you were lucky.

How you had to be more careful. And you could have died. It was something your therapist had said shouldn’t have been said to a young child, but it was said in worry, and your mother’s reaction made your fear worse. You knew all that. And yet, you never dared to dip even a leg in. You tried your feet a few times but it all seemed to overwhelm you shortly after and it felt easier to avoid.

can’t

You looked at Blue, deciding on that name because of his eyes and told him. “I find it weird that the sea can both terrify and soothe me. I stay away, I yearn to be here and yet, I can never let go and embrace it. There is a feeling something will happen, and I don’t know what.”

He wrapped his arm around you, letting you lean against him.

“I wish I could know your name,” you sighed. “I know nothing about you.”

And yet he knew your deepest fear. 

He took your hand and laid it on his heart and smiled. It felt like a love confession and you smiled. “You’re the romantic type, huh? All handsome stranger coming to save the innocent lady and sweeping her off of her feet and courting her.”

He grinned widely and nodded, then got up and held his hand out for you. You took it. Then he grabbed and lifted you up as he was holding you in his arms again. You honestly did not think you would ever tire of it. It was such a cliché, but it really made your heart beat faster.

“You’re good at courting too?” you teased, and watched him nod ever quicker.

“You seem perfect. Are you sure I'm not dreaming?”

He kissed you. Well, it wasn’t the worst dream if you were.

🏖️

Your one night stand turned into two, you and Blue spend the whole day together, walking down the beach, collecting seashells, he offered you the prettiest ones and you accepted gladly. You had enough shells, but it was sweet to be gifted them.

You arrived back home, rosy and a little sweaty, and very hungry. Pulling open your freezer and fridge to see what you could make, you noticed open packages and a lot more room than you had the day before.

“Blue?” you asked over your shoulder, knowing he by now knew it meant  him, and he appeared a second later in the kitchen.

“Did you…eat the fish?” You asked a little nervously, the question seemingly ridiculous, but there really wasn’t any other explanation.

He nodded happily. and you looked at all the packaging he finished. That was a lot of fish…you also didn’t see any used pans or smelled anything coming back. Now he could have cleaned up… But it had all been frozen, it would’ve taken a while to defrost before it could be prepared. There had not been enough time before you had returned looking for your clothes.

“Did you eat it raw? Because that’s very bad for you.”

He shrugged.

“You could get sick.’ You worried, you didn’t really know what could happen, but getting sick was one thing you heard.

He shook his head.

He hadn’t seemed off, maybe raw fish was okay when it had been frozen, and was still frozen at the time of consumption? You had no idea. 

“Are you one of those uncooked food eaters?” you tried.

He nodded. 

“Oh okay, well, I don't really know what I have at home for you to eat.”

He pointed at you, grinning.

You laughed. “Well I doubt I would be tasty.”

He grinned even wider, a little more menacingly and stepped forwards, shoulders bracing like he was going to jump you.

“Oh no. I’m chewy, really unpleasant to get stuck between the teeth,” you giggled as you stepped away. “Will give you horrible stomach pains afterwards, you won’t like it at all.”

Then you shrieked as he moved forward and tried to sprint away. Tried, because he had you the next moment. He kept amazing you with how fast he was.

He held you against the fridge and stared into your eyes and hummed.

He made you weak when he looked at you that way. His eyes told you there was nothing he would rather look at than you, and it made you gooey inside. You had never had a man making you feel this way.

“You are so beautiful,” you whispered. So kind, so strong, so gentle. He really did seem perfect.

He kissed you slowly, his full lips just loving yours, taking his time. By the time he lowered them to your neck you had already widened your legs and he lifted you up.

While being carried to the bedroom, you really did wonder if this was real.

💙

The next day you went shopping, there was no food and Blue didn’t seem to like anything you had in the apartment. He wanted to come with you, and you easily agreed, having become used to his presence. you closed his seatbelt for him because he didn’t seem to remember to, warning him ‘safety first’ before starting the car. The way he looked being in your car was strange, but you didn’t comment. You knew he was a little different, and maybe he lived somewhere very remote, or maybe he didn’t come from here. It wasn’t a good explanation, but you had no reason to complain when he was the best man you had met so far in your life. So he didn’t know how technology worked? He knew how to work your body and that was much more important. The thought made you blush. You had never seen yourself as a very sexual creature, but he sure brought it out in you.

Shopping was, interesting, so to say. Blue looked around in wonder, but also passed by most foods you would pick out, and visibly preferred the fish section. You decided to go with what you both would like, but made a note to make sure to cook it for him before he died of salmonella. It would’ve been a tragic ending to your love story. 

Packed with way too much fish you would ever finish on your own, you went back. Cooking was a little complicated, because Blue was intrigued by the process, but was more intrigued with touching your body during, and you were so distracted you nearly burnt the meal. And forgot to cook the vegetables properly.

Blue looked suspicious once a plate was put in front of him.

You laughed. “Okay sorry, but I don’t know how to eat fish other than cooked, and I don't want us to get sick. It’s good though, I promise. And I kept your veggies uncooked, like you wanted, right?”

You didn’t know how a raw diet worked, but fish was something you did not want to serve raw. You just hoped he wasn’t insulted by it.

He took a bite carefully, pulled a face, seemed to hesitate, then took another bite pondering. It was fascinating to see all the expressions so clear on his face. He showed everything he was thinking, and it felt like a better communication system than all the people that said one thing, schooling their face, but meant another. Blue had clearly never learned any tact, but at least he seemed honest.

Afterway carefully chewing, he seemed to decide that it was acceptable. You dug in yourself, it was very nice, your favorite dish. You were happy he hadn't found it disgusting. For some reason, the thought made you realize you would've been a little hurt if he had. Like he would have rejected a part of you, which was a ridiculous thought and you tried to shrug it off.

Desert was much more simple.

He had decided it was you. Again. You really enjoyed chocolate mousse, but the way he put his tongue on you had you decide that chocolate mousse was overrated. This was truly the best way to finish dinner.

🐟

You woke up. Warm, comfortable, an arm slung around your waist. Blue was still sleeping. Maybe you tired him out for once. The thought made you smile to yourself.

You carefully moved away from him to stretch, and made your way to the bathroom. Relieving your bladder and washing yourself, you wonder if this was going to be your life now. He seemed to have no intention to go, and you had no intention to make him leave.

It was strange, because you had just met. You knew nothing about him. But you still felt so comfortable around him.

You made sure to check in with your friends who were stunned with the fact your one night stand turned into some prolonged romance, but were happy. You didn’t really believe in love at first sight, but how else could you explain the jittery feelings that coursed through you as you thought of him? You didn’t want him to leave!

Things had to be settled today, you decided. One way or another you had to get some information out of him, or see what he wanted to do with the situation. What did he want? Would he like to keep seeing you? Go on an actual date? Was this already considered dating? You were a little worried he would suddenly disappear. And it frightened you how much you knew you would care about that.

“Alright , we need to talk.” You told him at breakfast, as he sucked on his raw eggs, something that still seemed disgusting to you, but you wisely didn’t comment. 

“Well, I'll talk and you'll listen,” you realized. “This has been a lot of fun. Great, really, but I should know more about you, right? Who you are, or where you come from?”

You scratched your neck. it had been itching a little since yesterday, and while it was noticeable at first it started to get worse today. Maybe you had a little sunburn from yesterday, you did spend a long time on the beach.

Blue’s eyes zeroed in on your neck, it was like he could see what was there. But no one really did unless they were very close. He seemed to get a little dazed before your voice broke him out of it.

“Unless this is coming to an end.” You hated how your voice became a whisper. You didn’t sound confident at all, and maybe a little pathetic. Damn those stupid feelings.

He looked up at you confused. Like he didn’t know what you meant.

“I would like to keep seeing you, but I don’t know if that is what you want?” You told him, gathered up the strength to get some surety. It was either finding him missing at some point, or asking clarity for your own piece of mind. Maybe he had been waiting to see what you wanted anyway.

He got up, and long streaks of his legs marched him over to you, he grabbed your face with one hand. Gently holding it, he grabbed your hand with his other and put it on his heart.

“I think that’s a 'yes', I want to keep seeing you’?” you whispered, feeling yourself melt. Knowing he knew because he had to hold you up.

He frowned and nodded. Then he put his hand on your heart. Or maybe your boob, you weren’t sure. But it felt terribly romantic.

“Okay, that’s a step. Maybe we can go to your place, you must be tired of wearing the same thing.” You glanced down at his body “Well, when you do wear clothes.”

He pointed outside. 

“You want to go now?”

He nodded but bit his mouth, like he was pensive about something. 

“I don't have to go in, if that’s not what you want.”

He pointed at you. 

“Me? You’re afraid I don't want to go inside?” As you saw him nod, you wondered how bad the neighborhood he lived in was. “I don’t care, If it’s that terrible you wouldn’t bring me there right?”

He nodded seriously.

To lighten the mood you joked. “And I'm sure you can protect me against any danger.”

He seemed to make himself bigger somehow, without making himself seem ridiculous. God, he was perfect. You wondered if one last time before you went would be a good idea. The sheets were beginning to be in need of a good wash, but once more wouldn’t matter by now, would it? And - 

Your thoughts were cut off with a kiss and a devilish grin, like he had known where your mind had gone.

“Sorry, am I really obvious?” You said through heated cheeks.

He nodded, shrugged, and seemed to spread his arms out like he said ‘Who could blame you’. 

You put your hands over your face. “You’re awful, no shame at all.”

There was a noise that, when you glanced back at him, might've been a laugh. so it made you laugh and then you were kissing again. 

But he broke it off before it got too heated. Pity. He pointed outside again.

“Alright, let me make myself ready okay, And wear clothes! Not everyone will appreciate seeing your tooshie exposed.”

You did though. You enjoyed it very much, it was round and not too big or small. You stared at it as many times as you dared, and he didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact his own eyes never left your body either. He was just enraptured with you as you were with him.

Realizing you had been staring at the carpet for several minutes now without making progress at getting ready, you hurried. He waited at the door for you with the same cut off shorts and shirt he had been wearing all this time, no shoes. Oh god you had taken him shopping and no one had even mentioned he wasn’t wearing shoes. You had broken the one rule that stores would give. 

You figured maybe no one noticed, because they were too busy staring at his handsome face. The only explanation you could think of. 

You offered the car, but he pointed in another direction, and so you figured he must’ve lived nearby.

But as you neared the beach again, you became confused. Maybe he was a tourist? They sometimes booked one of those beach houses. But he led you on the beach itself, towards the water.

“What? Blue…you were supposed to take me to your home.”

He pointed to the water.

“What do you mean? You live overseas?”

He pointed at the water again, frowning. He made a movement with his hands and you didn’t get it, so he did it a few times, looking frustrated.

“Swimming?”

He stopped in relief, pointed at the water, to himself, to the water, ‘swimming’.

“You swam?” you said, stunned.

He nodded. Pointed towards you, and then him.

You didn't get it, again. “I don’t understand, sorry.”

He grabbed your hands, held them, and stared into your eyes lovingly.

“I get it, it’s hard to explain this way, really hard with no way of communicating.” you said sadly.

He looked at the water again, then pulled you.

And you froze and dug your heels in, staring at him in shock.

He looked at the water again, towards you, your entwined hands, and again towards the water, he made a noise. He sounded… urgent.Your neck began to itch worse again.

“Are you staying at one of the houses?” you said, a little desperately, even if you began to understand that probably wasn't the case.

He shook his head. He now looked at you a little sadly. Humming, his thumbs stroked your wrists where he was holding you. Like he was comforting you. The way he was staring at you, it was like he was expecting something. Waiting for something.

Your neck started to burn awfully. You tried to loosen your hands to rub the spot, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Blue, what - let go, my neck it’s -”

He let go of one of your hands, but was quick to lay it on your neck, right on the spot, it felt, it felt strange, it was burning up, but somehow his touch felt better.

Your body felt weird. And you noticed he was trying to pull you near the water.

“No, I can't,” you told him, feeling no control over your body as he dragged you further in. Your eyes drawn to the water, fear rushing through you, your mom’s face, the cold dark water surrounding you, your heart beating, no air, there was no air.

And then he appeared in your vision, his blue eyes, so like the boy in your memories, catching yours, calm, his hands holding you, a soft embrace. You felt your feet walking with him towards the water, wanting to protest, but your mouth was silent, and your eyes couldn’t look away from him.

Dark hair, blue eyes.

His body holding yours as he dragged you through the water, cold skin, slippery tail, A wide grin, so playful, words and promises made.

Blue eyes looking back at you tenderly, lovingly, holding you against him. You could see only him. Even as the water soaked through your sandals. Even as water splashed at your calves.

’You're not like us’...’I can keep you’... ‘find you’

Your body followed him in, he was smiling brightly, his eyes sparkling, but he didn’t let you go. He was guiding you, so gently. It was like your fear was there but numbed, in the background. Like the most important thing was to be close and not let go. You didn’t.

Water was around your waist, the waves moving your body back and forth, swaying in the current of the water, but he did not let you go, he did not pull away. He kissed you.

His soft lips felt like an explosion on yours. It felt like you were fading until all that was left was him. The way he felt. And the way he made you feel.

You made a noise. You felt weird.

Water splashing on you as he whipped his tail at you, laughter sounding through the air as you splashed back. His face disappearing underwater to speak to you.

Water reached his chest and you were already not feeling the bottom under your feet anymore. You let him pull you. He seemed happy. He kissed you and his tail sweeped against your legs and - …Tail? you looked down and saw the colorful glimmer of his tail, not legs, underwater. Before it would settle in, you felt a burst inside, a sharp painful burst, and you fell down. The power of it made him let go and you went under. 

But his arms were around you immediately. You worried you would see darkness, but you could still see the light above you, the sun shining through the water. You could see him very clearly, his face so close to you as he helped you get steady against the movement of water. You expected to choke, but it felt like your lungs were just fine.

“What-” you said, and realized sound came out of your throat, water came in your mouth but disappeared and yet it did not feel like you ran out of air.

He smiled so happily, his eyes shining to you in delight.

“It’s okay. I got you.”

You looked around, water was surrounding you everywhere, there was seaweed twirling around you, the occasional crab you could see floating around. It looked like you could see a lot further than you expected down underwater.

You glanced down his body, noticing the tail, and momentarily were distracted by the beauty of it, before another movement distracted you. As you saw your own tail.

A shock went through you and you wanted to flinch away, but he wouldn’t let you. Your hands touched yourself. Slimy softness greeted you where your legs were supposed to be.

This wasn't real, was it?

"Bucky."

You looked up, confused.

“Bucky. My name. I couldn’t give it to you until now.” he grinned. 

“Bucky?” you tested it out.

He seemed pleased with hearing it, and nodded. “Yes, I can't speak up there. I couldn’t tell you anything, only if you were in the water.”

You felt like you should panic, and there was confusion, and there was fear, but it all felt so….farther away. “What happened? I don't get it.”

“You had to turn.” He shrugged. “You didn’t want to go into the water the other day, but I knew you couldn’t stay here long. After we mated, I knew it would only take a few days before you turned. And I couldn't let you turn on land.”

That’s why he dragged you while you were so afraid, why he didn’t listen.

“But how can that happen, I'm not..this!”

“I marked you,”  he explained in a tone like you should’ve known. ” When I saved you. You let me, remember?”

Blue eyes, dark hair….Bucky.

“You didn’t really think it was a dream, did you? Why else do you think we were drawn to each other? You’re mine.”  For a moment his expression darkened. “Why didn’t you come to me? You said you would? I waited every day, and you didn’t come until a few years ago,and you never went into the water.”

Like you had disappointed him, failed him. Broke your promise. Which you did. It was a promise that shouldn’t have to be kept, you were children after all, but it became clear he had kept it. He had expected you to keep it. And it occured to you that rules, human rules, might not apply here.

“My parents were very afraid after what happened. They didn’t go anywhere near the sea for ages. Only after…when I moved out, I started coming here. Like I couldn't stay away.”

He seemed a little more pleased. “You were looking for me.”

“I-” ‘no’ you wanted to say. But weren't you always looking. Looking for something. Someone. Didn’t you feel you were missing something. “I couldn't get into the water.”

You tried to explain. You didn’t know why you felt the need to make him not angry or hurt by you. It hadn’t been your fault, but the way he acted was like you hurt him a great deal.

“So I came to you.” He moved closer and held your hand. 

“Can I go back?”

“No.” He seemed happy with the idea. “ We don't go on land unless we have to. To kill, or to mate. And it takes years of practice. You have to be strong enough, and learn how. It took me all this time. But I knew I had to. I knew you were here.”

“You should have asked.” you said. Thinking of your friends, your family. If you couldn't go back, how worried they would be. How they would suffer.

“Why? You promised yourself to me. I saved you, I didn’t need to ask, I could have let you drown, or killed you. I didn’t. I own your life. And you said we were friends.” he shrugged.

Warmth pinched your eyes, but as soon as the tear appeared it had vanished in the cold silty water. 

“Friends don’t hurt each other.”

“But I didn't." He sounded confused. “I would never hurt you. You belong with me. And now we don’t ever have to part. We live very long. You don’t have to worry about dying. And you don’t have to worry about the water anymore either. You are strong enough to go where you please. I could show you so many things. You don't need to deny yourself any longer. Let go, embrace me.”

He echoed the words you said to him, when you told him about your shared history. How you yearned to embrace your longing. How you wanted to be near the water. Had it simply been the sea that called out to you?

A fish curiously swam nearby, and you suddenly were reminded with the empty freezer, the frozen seafood he devoured…how you only seemed to like fish the most growing up. The bite he had given you. Your urge for the sea, even if you never dared to near it or touch it.

How Bucky had waited for you to show up and play with him, and how you had, unwillingly, broken that promise.

How he talked about owning your life because he had saved it, and how you could have a tail if only you did what he said.

Your tail was pretty, even if you thought his was better, but it wasn’t your legs and it felt strange seeing it swing back and forth, feeling like you could push upwards if you tried, wondering if you could keep up with him if you swam. Wondered how cold and dark the sea would get the further you would drift.

You looked backwards where you thought the beach would be, but, being underwater, all there was was water.

His finger turned your face towards him again. “I love you.”

You blinked, he put your hand on his heart, and the familiarity hit you like a warm glow, he had been telling you all along.

And he laid his hand on your heart, staring into your eyes intensely.

You felt the words leave your mouth without thinking about it.  “And I love you.” 

And you knew you did. Despite everything. You had been looking for him. You had been looking for love.

[billdenbrough]

@naturecalls111 prompted me kevaaron + procrastination and was like ‘post grad’, meaning they’re not undergrads if it’s canonverse, & something abt the phrasing latched into my brain so we ended up with this vaguely professor au w/ the flimsiest excuse for a TA-adjacent situation ever instead. idk. as ever this was just for her texts & i’m coming off a 30hr migraine so pls forgive me LMAO <3

“I can see right through you,” Kevin murmurs.

“Oh, yeah?” Aaron challenges. God, he’s close.

“Mm,” Kevin says. “You just don’t want to mark the test.”

It's an accusation, but there’s no censure in his voice. He's amused, mostly; fond too, despite himself. It’s not exactly behaviour he should be encouraging, but—

Aaron huffs. “I never want to mark a test,” he points out. “Undergrads are fucking stupid. Or these ones are, anyway.”

“You were an undergrad once,” Kevin says. He very determinedly keeps his hands steady on the bench. Maybe he’s gripping the edge so he stays in place; so what? That's between him and whatever God Renee believes in enough for the both of them.

“These ones,” Aaron repeats, scoffing. “Anyway, I'd never have taken a history paper. Get real.”

Kevin can’t help the frown there. “History is fascinating,” he argues. Aaron scoffs at him again, but the way he watches Kevin runs counter to that. Like he’s listening to whatever Kevin says, regardless. “It is,” Kevin insists again, clearing his throat.

Aaron's gaze tracks the movement, eyes following the motion of his throat, and Kevin kind of wants to clench the counter edge hard enough to crack the formica. Jesus Christ.

“You like research,” Kevin says. He keeps his eyes on Aaron, watches as he steps in closer again. “History is an endless study of every mistake we’ve ever made—”

“—So we don’t repeat our forefathers’ mistakes?” Aaron asks wryly. “Hate to break it to you, but that’s a non-starter.”

“No,” Kevin says, shaking his head. “We’re bad at learning. Mostly, we don’t even see the patterns for decades, if not centuries.”

Aaron cocks his head. “Doesn’t that frustrate you?” he asks. “I've seen you watch sports. You get mad if people make the same fuck-up within, like, three minutes.”

An image floats in Kevin’s head, unbidden: the two of them at the sports bar, late one night after they finally convinced Jeremy to go the fuck home because the college wasn’t paying him enough to sleep at his desk to reply to nineteen year olds’ panicked emails at 11:17pm before a midnight deadline. Kevin had been unbelievably put-out by the Astros’ scoreline; Aaron hadn’t cared so much, but had seemed to find great entertainment in prodding at Kevin to express his opinion to a bar full of patrons who strongly disagreed with him.

Do you even care about baseball? Kevin had asked in the end, exasperated. He’d unknotted his tie and slipped off his jacket, heated by his opinions and the game and the alcohol and the way Aaron had sat there, head tilted, that clever mouth of his quirked up to the side like a smirk, like a secret.

Not really, Aaron had said, shrugging. He swished his beer a little. I played hockey at school myself. Before Kevin could get too excited about that—a sport! An actual goddamn sport! that wasn’t only worth watching European leagues for, cough cough Jeremy and Jean and fucking football—Aaron added, I like seeing how much you care about it, though, and knocked Kevin right on his ass, metaphorically-speaking.

That night had ended in a blur: Kevin’s flushed cheeks as he lectured the bar at large about heliocentrism after finishing his grumbling about the baseball, Aaron’s quiet snort and eyes that laughed more than his mouth did, alcohol-sticky wood beneath his feet as he made his way to the bathroom, the taste of Aaron’s beer on his lips, Aaron’s cool fingers a balm against his cheek, his mouth a searing heat burning all the way through Kevin.

Then when Kevin’s TA dropped out because of ‘unmanageable stress’ (which was not Kevin’s fault, no matter what Dan says, she and Matt can fuck off) and he had to scramble to figure out what to do, Abby had offered one of her tutors—but only for marking, Kevin, he has no base in history. He’s just smart enough to use a rubric and willing to help. Between this and Jean’s long-suffering offer to lead the tutorial that didn’t clash with his meetings with his advisor, and even Neil’s unlikely assistance in the form of helping restructure the syllabus, it all seemed pretty manageable. (The history department had quietly come to the conclusion that this was not, strictly speaking, acceptable by university standards, but elected to ignore this information until the conclusion of the semester. As far as Kevin’s been able to tell in his years in academia, this is how things tend to work.)

When Abby showed up at his office with Aaron, though, Kevin's cheeks had gone hot enough that she’d asked him if he was sure he wasn’t coming down with a stress fever. Aaron's face had stayed blank, but his eyes were – amused.

It was one thing when Aaron had been the regular third person in the staff room late at night alongside Jeremy and Kevin, rubbing his eyes as he scowled at whatever it was he was looking at. (Anatomy exams, Kevin found out later.) He’d been mostly quiet, but sharply funny when he’d ended up interacting with them, mostly starting with indelicate snorts at whatever madcap thing Jeremy was saying, then incredulous stares at Kevin’s rebuttal, and finally muttered jabs as he worked the coffee machine and Jeremy laughed delightedly and Kevin stared at him with disbelief and a slow-building warmth in the base of his stomach.

It was yet another thing when Aaron had been the guy he bundled up Jeremy with, the guy he got drunk with for hours in a sports bar, the guy who laughed at him and offered him buffalo wings so spicy that they made Aaron’s cheeks red and Kevin’s lips feel like they were on fire, until Aaron kissed him, tipsy outside the bar, the warmth spreading through Kevin overtaking both the chilly night air and the spice-stained echoes on Kevin’s mouth.

But it was another thing entirely for Aaron to be Aaron, meaning Abby's favourite postgrad and the guy who diligently read Kevin’s syllabus on top of his own work just to better understand the marking rubric and hater of psych majors everywhere. Aaron, with his tired eyes and quiet laugh and complete inability to answer a phone call from his brother in a normal way. (At one point, Kevin had been half-concerned he was ordering a hit—less about the morality or legality of the situation, more in a if you get arrested, I’m screwed again type way—until Neil had shown up half an hour later with lunch for Aaron and Aaron had gone, ugh and Neil had rolled his eyes, spotted Kevin, and turned to Aaron to say, you’re one to talk. Aaron had flushed a little, then scowled and flipped Neil off, and said fuck off, to which Neil said, gladly, then see you at dinner? And Aaron had waved his hand. If you eat your fucking vegetables, to which Neil had laughed, and flipped him off, and walked out. Kevin had stared at Aaron, nonplussed, but Aaron had ignored him, focusing instead on the test he was marking while he ate the sandwich Neil had brought.) Aaron, with his unbelievably rude opinions about Kevin’s lack of video game knowledge, and the genuinely unreasonable amount of sour gummies he can put away in an hour, and the unbearably soft look he gets on his face when he’s sleepy and huffy and Kevin has gently dragged away whichever test he’s marking or article he’s reading that’s made him so grumpy late at night.

Aaron, who Kevin actually knows now. And likes even more for it, which is inconvenient and inopportune and probably inevitable.

Kevin clears his throat. “People are meant to try and win in sports,” he says. “History is about things that have already happened. It’s a different ballpark.” There’s a moment, and then, “They’ve already lost the battle. I'm not rooting for anything else there.”

Something flares up in Aaron's eyes at that, and he snakes his hand forward, tugging on Kevin's tie. Kevin, hands still holding onto the bench, allows it.

“But sports are about victory?” Aaron asks. 

He’s not even subtle about procrastinating, Kevin thinks. He wants to laugh. He swallows a sigh instead, and says, a little warningly, “Aaron…”

But he doesn’t move. Doesn’t stop Aaron, doesn’t do anything to stop him. Maybe leans in a little, even.

“Yeah,” Kevin says after a long moment. “History, you live or you die. Sports, you’re the best or you’re not.”

“That's a reductive way of looking at the world,” Aaron says, but it’s that tone he gets sometimes, the one where Kevin doesn’t know if he believes it or if he just wants to poke at Kevin a little. Kevin hates that he likes it as much as he does; that he lets it stoke him up, bites at the bit every time.

“You are not subtle,” Kevin murmurs. The tests are sitting on the table behind Aaron, staring up at the ceiling. Aaron's coffee is abandoned, probably cold.

You are not subtle, Kevin says, and means it, but Aaron’s cocked his eyebrow at him, and there’s something a little taunting in his eyes, and he’s still holding onto Kevin’s tie, and something in Kevin loosens. He sighs, and lets go of the bench, tucking his fingers into Aaron's belt loops instead and pulling him forward.

“Is this a sport?” Aaron asks, because he’s a dick and facetious and he knows just how to make Kevin want to shut him up.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are,” Kevin scolds, and then leans forward to kiss the rebuttal out of Aaron's mouth.

[pappydaddy]

i'm yours (j.m.)

tv show/movie: outer banks | pairing: jj maybank x fem!reader *cis!female anatomical parts mentioned

requested by another lovely anon as part of my 800 follower celebration

synopsis: not having labels muddles things up. luckily, they don't need labels to know they are mad about each other. though, labels might not hurt - might even save some noses.

taglist: @luvhann | @thelakespoets  | @lonely-simp | @smarie7543| @tenaciousperfectionunknown | @k-k0129 | @maybankslover*line through you user means i could not tag you lovelies!

warnings: spicy, spicy, spicy. dry humping. dirty. reader is horny. blood. broken nose. punching. fluff (if you squint) 18+ please and thank you. characters are aged up as per usual!

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- not my gif -

 It was as if the stars aligned just the right way, because there she stood, the girl that had been consuming JJ’s mind twenty-four-seven lately. The moonlight rained down on her like a glowing spotlight, pointing her out to him as if he needed any help finding her in a crowd. And then, the stars must have shifted because as the dancing crowd moved just right, it revealed someone unpleasant standing beside her - talking her ear off, Topper. With his stupid shorts and polo top matched with his stupid boat shoes. 

  Bitterness swirled in JJ’s stomach as his face twisted into a scowl, his heart lurched, almost as if it wanted to jump out of his chest and strangle Topper. He knew what her opinion on Topper and other Kooks were - she hated him, but she doesn’t like making scenes so she suffers through conversations. She was too nice (or shy, he wasn’t too sure which yet) to tell him to piss off, but JJ wasn’t. However, something did hold him back. They weren’t official yet. And that was completely on him. He was the one dragging his feet on this one, but now he realized his mistake. 

  He’s taken it slow with her. She was too perfect and too innocent for him, so he was scared of either ruining her and her life or scaring her off with all of his baggage. Her friend’s opinions of him didn’t help his self-doubt. He knew they hated him. He knew they were telling her to move on, to forget him. But she didn’t listen. Even if there wasn’t a label, it was clear to both of them that this thing was more than just fooling around. They had feelings for each other. It was obvious when he kissed her and her first reaction is always to blush or do that cute little panicked hand flap as if she was surprised he would kiss her before her body melted into him.

  “Screw it.” JJ’s eyes zeroed in on Topper as he inched closer to Y/N, obviously flirting despite Y/N clearly wanting out of the situation. He was a large guy, standing at six feet and having a decent amount of muscle, so it didn’t surprise him when he reached the pair quickly, but it did surprise him that he reached them in what felt like five seconds - he stumbled a bit, feeling like he was transported there instead of walking. 

  Y/N spotted him first, those beautiful eyes JJ loved looking into so much, catching his and widening as if asking him for help, which was exactly what he planned to do. “What do you want, Pogue?” Topper’s snarl made JJ look over at him, blue eyes cold and hard, as if he was aiming to kill him. 

  “I was coming over here to ask what the hell you’re doing flirting with someone who is clearly not yours to flirt with.” JJ squared his shoulders, stepping up to Topper, showing the slight but noticeable height difference between them when JJ pulls to his full height. Y/N’s mouth fell open, eyes watching JJ as he puffed his chest out slightly. ‘Hot damn!’ She thought, eyes flicking all over his body before looking back at the tense stare off. 

  “Last I checked, she was single.” Topper gestured toward Y/N, shooting her a wink, but JJ shifted to hide her from him, scoffing at this. 

  “Oh, news to me, because I don’t think what we’ve been doing screams ‘just friends’,” JJ put air quotes around the phrase, looking back at her with his jaw set in a way that made her want to drop to her knees right there. “What do you think, Sweets?” He asked her, his voice deep and dark, almost as if it was strained. The nickname. The voice. The look. The protectiveness. It all went right between her legs. 

  “Definitely not.” She confirmed, bottom lip being sucked between her teeth as she crossed her legs as discreetly as she could while standing, squeezing. She had to admit, she was already hot and bothered from watching from across the party all night, and now it was like someone opened the floodgates. She could jump him right then and there, but Topper just won’t let go. 

  “Still single, man,” Topper shook his head with his stupid smirk, making JJ whirl his head back around at such a rate it startled both Y/N and Topper. For a moment, Y/N was concerned that he had hurt his neck, but didn’t realize since he was hyped up on a mix of one beer, testosterone, and adrenaline. “She’s fair game for the rest of us-” 

  Topper didn’t get to finish his sentence before JJ’s fist met his nose, a sickening crack sounding as a loudly hissed ‘Fuck!’ left Topper’s mouth, his hands flying up to his nose which must have been broken from the amount of pain, blood, and the sound. “Hey, you saw he was disrespecting her, right?” JJ looked over to the group of people who were standing around, trying not to look like they were listening from the jump. 

  They all nodded furiously. “One of you put your information in my phone.” Y/N pulled her phone out, unlocking it and opening contacts, handing it to the group. After graduating, JJ learned his lesson - always have a witness or two to confirm his story (true or not). Y/N usually was the one who got a witness' contact information to keep in case they needed it. With Topper, they would definitely need it, he’s pressed charges before. 

  Glancing over at Topper, she saw a mass of people around him, someone holding their discarded shirt to his nose to stem the bleeding. Over the balled up fabric, he was glaring at the two of them, saying something but they couldn’t hear through the shirt and over the loud nose. Eyes flicking over to JJ, she looked up at him, his back still turned towards her, heaving. His fists were still clenched, almost as if he was ready for someone to come try to avenge Topper or Topper to come flying at them. 

  “Here you go, we put her number in.” A shaky voice pulled her eyes away from JJ. A boy held her phone out to her, his hand and whole body shaking slightly, eyes pleading with her to take the phone before JJ turned around. He was scared of JJ. He was intimidating, probably, she assumed since all she saw was a guy with such a large heart and an urge to protect anything he cares about with all his might. 

  “Thank you,” She took the phone, locking and pocketing it. “JJ, we should leave.” She shuffled the rest of the way over to JJ, her toes getting buried in the sand despite her sandals. For the first time since the punch, JJ looked over at her as she gripped his arm. As soon as his eyes met hers, they softened, but seemed to get darker. His chest rested, no longer heaving, and his fists relaxed, one arm snaking around her waist to pull her against him. 

____

  When she suggested they leave, she was more concerned about the possibility of cops showing up to bust the party since there was a strong possibility of someone snitching after that punch was thrown. She didn’t even think this could happen. She didn’t think he would want to. Part of her even thought he would be mad that she let Topper flirt with her, but as he muttered into her neck not long ago, he knew she didn’t want him. Didn’t want him the way she wanted JJ. Didn’t want him talking to her. Didn’t want him anywhere near her. He knew that.  

  Really, they barely even left the party since they managed to make it to the Twinkie and that was as far as they went. In all fairness, JJ was the one who brought it since everyone else had drives already. So the van was all theirs according to him. Imagine her shock when JJ’s lips landed on hers, lips moving against hers with such passion she kind of thought it was a dream. She had expected a fight. Maybe that was her own messed up trauma coming forth, but she least expected to have his tongue in her mouth and his hands roaming around her body. 

   She hummed into his mouth as he gently started to guide her down on her back. ‘God bless the Twinkie’s lack of seats.’ She thought once her back met the floor of the van, JJ’s weight shifting as he settled between her legs, his body pressing against her in just the right way. She could feel everything. From the heat radiating off of him to every single dip and ridge of his muscled abdomen. 

  Her eyes opened when JJ pulled his mouth away, catching a glimpse of the dark interior. JJ had parked in a rather secluded spot. With trees hanging over the van, all planted in a row behind the van, they were perfectly hidden. A bit of moonlight slipped through the leaves, illuminated the inside so softly. Her eyes shifted, looking at JJ’s body pressed against her. The way the soft lighting surrounded him, it made him look pure and soft - just like she always pictured him. “You got quiet,” JJ muttered against her skin as he kissed along her neck and shoulders. “What’s going on in there?” He asked, pulling away to look at her for a moment. 

  A ray of moonlight hit his eyes, making them sparkle like two ocean blue gems. “Just thinking about how beautiful you are.” She uttered, her hands sliding up from where they rested on his sides to cup his face. Pulling his lips back to hers, he let her lead the kiss. Soft. Loving. Tender. JJ felt like they were in one of those romance movies she loves to watch. She took a deep breath in, lips pulling back only enough to do so as if she was trying to breath him in. 

   Eyes fluttering open again, her eyes stared up at him - big and darkened with want and need. Looking into those eyes was all it took for JJ to snap. Instantly, his lips were on hers again, but only for a moment until they trailed down to the spot he knew so well - sucking. Harshly. 

  Y/N’s eyes nearly rolled back into her head, mouth opening and head falling back as she moaned. She always responded like that and JJ knew it. She also knew he knew by the feeling of his smirk against her now widely exposed neck. “JJ, careful-“ She panted, back arching off the floor as he slid his hands under her, dragging against the smooth skin of her back. “What if-“ As his hands hit the thin strap resting on her back that was holding her bikini closed, it was like she couldn’t speak in full sentences. “Someone sees the mark.” 

  She warned, but she knew it was futile since his attack seemed to have shifted from that spot and was now inching down to her collarbones as he pulled on the string of her bathing suit. “So what,” He muttered against her skin, the vibrations tickling her slightly but she was too turned on to pay anything but the need for friction any mind. “That way everyone will know you’re mine and I’m yours.” 

  His words went right to two places. Her heart, but mostly her vagina. Maybe like one percent to the heart. More will go later, after he rails her in the back of his best friend's van. “I’m yours, JJ. In every way.” 

  Too overcome with the need for some sort of relief, her hips rolled against JJ’s. A synchronous moan filled the air. She didn’t stop the movement, making JJ still his merciless teasing. She wanted to open her eyes to look at him, to see why he was frozen as she continued to rub herself against his still body. Thankfully, he was a strong guy with good endurance so even with her trapped under him, she could rub against him and get herself off. She was well on her merry way to doing just that. 

  Moans spilling out from both of them, her movements quickened and became sloppier. She was squirming now, face screwed up. Before she met JJ, she was sure this was an orgasm. She couldn’t understand how it could get any better than this, but then JJ showed her just what she was missing and she was proven wrong. 

  That’s why she sobbed when one of JJ’s hands freed themselves from where they had a death grip on her bathing suit and gripped her hip, stopping her movements. “JJ!” She cried desperately, panting as she tried to roll her hips again. 

  “Gorgeous, if you keep doing that, this is gonna be over way too quick, and neither of us want that.” He practically growled and she gasped. Partially from the shock that ran through her, feeding her beating heart and also feeding her pooling wetness. Also from the fact that with a yank of his hand her top was untied and with another, her top was off and thrown elsewhere. “Now, let me savor everything my girlfriend has to offer.” His voice was deep, in a dark and an arousing way. 

  But what really got her was how his blue eyes remained locked with hers as he dragged his lips down her body. A trail of goosebumps and tingles were left, marking the path he took. From the base of her throat, down the valley of her breasts (where there was a brief pit stop to nip and suck - knowing she loved it), down her stomach, and stopping at the top of her jean shorts.    Their eye contact was unbreakable and somehow he managed to make it a form of sexual teasing. He didn’t even look as he unbuttoned her shorts, pulling them and her bathing suit bottoms down together. Those too were thrown carelessly. He only broke their eye contact for a second, if you could even count it as a full second, to look down at her bare core. “My girlfriend is all sprawled out here looking like a whole-ass buffet. All you can eat, I hope.” He winked before dipping down, hands pushing her legs apart. The last thing she saw was that damn smirk before his lips disappeared and she gasped out a sudden moan. Eyes closing, legs widening before trying to snap shut around his head (his hands already placed to stop her), and her back arching off the floor with her head flying back.

[kit-walk3r]

Hi! I love your work! Can I make a Colin request? Maybe one where he’s super shy around reader and everyone in the office has a crush on her. He gets discouraged to ask her out because he’s super nervous around her

Aw thank you 💗 This is such a cute request, I hope I’ve done it justice for you! And also I’m sorry this is so late.

No Use Crying Over Spilt Coffee (Colin Zabel x fem!reader)

Colin has a crush on you. Unfortunately, he’s not so good at making a move.

Warnings: None

Oh, the effect you had on Colin Zabel.

Being one of the younger females at the station, you’d noticed a few looks in your direction. You weren’t stupid, you knew the guys were looking at you and you heard a couple of the comments they’d make. And you’d caught Colin’s gaze in your direction a couple of times, too. However, there was something a little more… innocent about the way Colin looked at you. He was never looking at your chest or at your ass. He just always felt more respectful in the way he looked at you, like he was looking at you as a person as not as a body.

One morning you were walking with your head turned, talking to one of your colleagues at their desk when you bumped into a tall figure. You let out an instinctive gasp at the contact and feeling of a warm liquid on your hands. You looked down to see what looked like coffee spilt over them. Then you looked up to see Colin stood wide eyed who had clearly taken the brunt of the coffee spillage. 

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” You panicked, looking at the growing brown stain on Colin’s shirt. You instantly grabbed some tissues off the desk next to you and quickly started dabbing it to try and clean it up.

Colin just stood frozen, the feeling of your hands rubbing his chest sending his brain into haywire. 

You noticed how your wiping and dabbing was having no effect on cleaning Colin’s shirt and that you were just rubbing the stain in. “I’m just making it worse, aren’t I?” You cringed.

Colin finally came round when he heard you speak. “No, no. It’s fine,” he tried to reassure you with a slight stutter, hoping he wasn’t giving away his nerves too much. He noticed a couple of tiny coffee stains on the bottom of your shirt and his eyes widened in panic. “Shit, it’s on you too,” Colin pointed out.

You looked down at the tiny splatters, barely noticeable. “Colin, they’re fine. You can hardly notice them,” you looked back at him and the stain on his shirt. “I’m more worried about you. Do you have another shirt?”

Colin shook his head, now feeling like an idiot. He looked at the stain himself. Well shit, that was a big one. “I guess I’m just going to be smelling of coffee today,” he winced.

“I’m really sorry,” you apologised again. 

“It’s fine,” Colin tried to reassure you.

“Can I at least give you money for another coffee?” You offered.

“It’s fine,” Colin repeated. “It’s just the morning coffee my mom made.”

Colin internally groaned as soon as he spoke. Why did he just basically tell you he lived with his mom? That’s not cool. Way to make a fool of yourself even more, he thought. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?” You insisted. You felt bad and really wanted to do something to make up for this situation.

Colin felt like he needed to get out of this situation before he properly embarrassed himself. However, standing covered in coffee telling you he lived with his mom had already seemed to do its job. 

“Seriously, it’s fine,” Colin said yet again. “But I’ve got to go. Bye.” 

He quickly took off, leaving you standing in the middle of the station confused whilst your colleague you had previously been talking to laughed from the sidelines.

- - -

“What happened to you?” Mare eyed the large coffee stain on Colin’s shirt as he got into the passenger seat of her car.

Colin cringed. “I bumped into Y/N and managed to spill coffee all over myself.”

Mare couldn’t help but laugh at Colin’s misfortune. “Not the greatest flirting technique.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Colin asked, confused.

“Do you really think I’m an idiot?” Mare arched an eyebrow. “This is the most obvious crush I have ever seen.”

“I don’t have a crush on anyone,” Colin tried to object but Mare quickly cut him off.

“Oh, please. There’s no use trying to deny it. It’s painful to watch,” she said. 

Colin groaned. “Is it really that bad?”

“Yes,” Mare said matter of factly. “So, are you gonna ask her out?”

Colin shook his head. “Nope.”

Mare looked at him blankly. “Why not?”

“Well, I don’t exactly have a great track record. My last relationship didn’t exactly end too well,” Colin tried to argue.

Mare let out a groan and rolled her eyes. “Zabel, are you really going to let some bitch who ditched you two weeks before your wedding and probably left you in a shit ton of debt dictate your dating life forever?”

“It just feels a little too soon,” Colin shrugged.

“It’s been two years,” Mare deadpanned.

Colin had no rebuttal for that. Mare was right, he needed to let his failed engagement go. He’d been holding on to those heartbroken feelings for too long. His ex-fiance wasn’t coming back. She’d moved on. Why shouldn’t he?

“Tell me,” Mare turned towards him. “What is it that you’re actually afraid of?” 

Colin thought. Honestly, there was a long list. Rejection, embarrassment, awkwardness, eventual heartbreak. The list went on.

“I guess,” Colin said slowly. “I’m scared that I’ll get my heart broken again.”

Mare gave Colin a sympathetic look. “Your ex messed you up pretty good, didn’t she?”

Colin sighed. “I just don’t want things to go that wrong again.”

Mare thought for a moment. “Look, this is probably the most sentimental I’m ever gonna be, but here it goes. You can’t let this stop you from going out there and giving life a go. You might get hurt again, so what? That’s just a part of life and you’ve got to accept it. Yes, things could go real bad with Y/N, but they could also go real good. Are you really going to neglect the opportunity to potentially have something great over a little fear that things won’t go the way you want?”

Colin considered Mare’s advice. Perhaps she was right and it was time for him to make the leap and take risks in his personal life.

“You know, that was pretty good advice,” Colin noted.

Mare nodded. “I know, and I don’t give it often so you should feel lucky.”

- - -

Colin decided that the next day was the day he would finally ask you out.

“Hey, Y/N,” Colin called for you from the doorway to his office.

You turned around with a soft smile. “Colin, hi,” You nodded towards his shirt. “No more coffee stain.” You joked. 

Colin’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he looked down at his clean shirt to try and determine what you were on about. Then it dawned on him. You were joking about yesterday’s unfortunate coffee incident. “Oh. Yeah. All clean today,” he cringed internally as soon as he said those words. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh, sure,” you nodded. “There was actually something I wanted to talk about with you, too. Shall we talk in your office?”

Colin nodded and stepped aside so that you could enter. His heart was starting to pound with nerves and he prayed that his cheeks weren’t blushing red. 

You took a seat at the edge of Colin’s desk and watched him. From Colin’s nervous exterior, he’s flushed cheeks and slight stutter you had a slight feeling of what he might have been trying to ask you. He wasn’t exactly subtle, you’d seen the way he looked at you when he thought you weren’t looking and noticed how shy he would get when you spoke to him. You decided to put the poor guy out of his misery.

“Do you fancy going for coffee some time?” You asked innocently. 

Colin’s eyes widened at your invitation. “Wait, what?” 

“You were trying to ask me out, right?” Colin nodded slowly and you smiled. “Well, there. I’ve done it for you.”

Colin was silent for a moment, attempting to digest the situation. All of the nerves, the panic, the pep talks it had taken for him to ask you out and in the end you turned around and asked him on a date? What a twisted turn of events. Colin was grateful, though. He still didn’t know if he would have been able to get the words out. “Yeah,” he finally said, nodding with a growing smile. “Although coffee might not be such a great idea,” he chuckled, referencing yesterday’s mishap.

You laughed along too.

“Maybe I could take you to dinner?” Colin offered. “A friend of mine owns a restaurant. I’ve not been able to check it out yet but it’s supposed to be great.”

“Dinner sounds good,” you nodded with a smile mirroring Colin’s. “I’m free Saturday.”

“Saturday works,” Colin agreed. All his nerves had washed away and he was instead left with a giddy sense of excitement. “If you give me your address I can pick you up around seven thirty?”

You nodded and grabbed a notepad off Colin’s desk. You wrote down your address in neat handwriting (adding a little heart at the end) before ripping the piece of paper off and handing it over to Colin. “Seven thirty on Saturday.” You confirmed.

You headed out of his office to go back to work but paused in the doorway. You turned back and sent Colin a flirtatious smile that you knew would have an effect on him. “Bye, Colin.” And with that you were gone.

Colin’s cheeks returned to the usual deep red they were whenever he spoke to you at the flirty tone of your voice. He still couldn’t believe it. He was finally going on a date with you.

Once he was sure you were gone he quickly pulled out his phone and found Mare’s contact before sending her an excited message.

MARE YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT

•—————————————————————————•

Hope you liked this! Colin's a fun one to write and it's nice to write something happy for once. Thanks for the request!

Taglist: @jellyluvr @howtobesasha @dewberryobssesed @rwottvn @kaismanwich @violetharmonstwin @ifeeltoofuckingmuch @mariefics @spill-the-t @hyperharlz

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[joekeeryswife]

u should defo do a fic where r breaks something at steve’s house and she’s apologising and crying and starts panicking & steve just comforts her bc he knows the feeling all too well bc of his dad

ur writing is literally terrific love 💕💕

Picture frame - s.h

hello love, thank you for your request! i hope this is okay, i am not really liking my writing atm. this is really short and i hope that’s okay. feedback is always appreciated and my requests are open- enjoy x (also did i have a mental break down about Steve possibly dying in season 5? yes. a lot of crying has been done)

taglist (feel free to add yourself 🤍):if there is a line through your @ i can’t tag you x @eddieamoremio @johnricharddeacy @theshireisonfire @ssababe @snackycake1975.

it was late and you were tired, so tired that Steve had to put his arm around your waist to keep you up right so you could walk to the door. Steve had taken you on a date which was rare. you were both so busy all the time with working, you both had different schedules and it was hard to figure out a day where you were both free.

luckily this weekend you were both off so a date night was 100% needed. he’d taken you to a restaurant and then to the movies, it was just the cutest date and it suited both of you. you were in Steve’s house more then you were in your own and it was all because of your dad, like Steve, you and your dad didn’t get along.

he was just one of those dads who hated their daughters and loved their sons. you had two older brothers and one younger one and it was like you were the outcast. you got along with your mum though, she was always on your side and stuck up for you when your dad shouted but there wasn’t a lot she could do.

to your dad, anything you did was wrong. he’d shout at you to the point where the neighbours would call the police with a noise complaint because of how loud he was. this is why you loved staying at Steve’s, it was quiet and comforting and you never felt scared being with him.

Steve’s house was dark and you being tired and disorientated you had no idea where Steve was leading you to. Steve knew you were tired. he could tell as soon as you got out of the cinema that the moment your head would hit his pillow you’d be out like a light.

Steve had to go into the kitchen to finish the dishes before his parents came back (which he had absolutely no clue when they would) because the last time they came back unannounced, per usual, he hadn’t cleaned up the house to the ‘family standard’ and was shouted at by both his parents for being too lazy when they went off for different business trips.

he carefully laid you down on the couch and kissed your forehead before he made his way to the kitchen. you didn’t wanna be on the couch, all you wanted to do was be in Steve’s bed with his hoodie and joggers on so you did the only logical thing, got up off of the sofa and started making your way to Steve’s bedroom still half asleep.

the next thing you heard was glass smashing which woke you up out of your sleepy state. you immediately went down to the floor and saw it was a picture of Steve and his parents. the glass on the picture frame had smashed all over the floor and the wooden part had also broken. you instantly felt tears welling up in your eyes.

the last time you had broken something was in your house and you had gotten screamed at for it by your dad. you had absolutely no idea how Steve would react, would he be mad? would he shout at you? so many negative thoughts ran through your mind as you picked up all the big bits of glass and put them in your hand.

Steve heard the smashing and quickly left the dishes to find you on your hands and knees picking up shards of glass with thick tears rolling down your face. Steve could see a little bit of blood on your hand, you’d definitely cut it on the glass. you heard Steve’s footsteps approaching you as you kept picking up the glass but it was difficult with how teary eyed you were.

you looked up and saw Steve towering over you with a confused look on his face. the only thing you knew what to do was apologise and beg for forgiveness. you didn’t want Steve to shout at you but you had broken something of his and surely he was going to be mad. “i’m so sorry Steve. i didn’t even see the picture and i should of been looking and i’ll-”

Steve bent down to your level and lifted his hand to wipe away the tears which were falling down your cheeks quickly. “baby, it’s okay. it’s only a picture frame” he gave you a genuine smile to try and calm you down but it was no use.

your tears were still falling, if Steve wasn’t mad then his parents most definitely would be “but i broke it” Steve had never heard your voice like this. so soft yet so weak. it honestly broke his heart. “by accident. it’s only a picture frame sweetheart. it can be replaced. now, let me see your hands”

he watched as you opened your hands up for him to see and saw some bits of glass in your left hand were covered in blood. he started to pick the glass out of your hands and put them on top of the picture and once all of the glass was out of both of your hands he took your hands into his. “come on, we need to clean you up baby”

you and Steve stood up from the floor and he guided you to the kitchen. Steve started cleaning up your hand and you watched intently as he did so. he was gentle and made sure he didn’t hurt you. “i’m really sorry Steve” he shook his head and lent down to place a quick kiss on your cheek. “stop apologising. it’s honestly fine honey” Steve knew how your dad was and he also knew what it was like for a parent to dislike their kid, he’d lived through it himself.

when he saw you sobbing on the floor like that he knew his only approach should be a soft one. you hadn’t done anything wrong and it didn’t matter. it was a picture frame. Steve always wanted you to feel loved and that’s why he was always so gentle with you when you were upset, he loved you so much and nothing would ever change that, even if you did break another picture frame his feelings would never change.

[hoe4sports]

Leave it all on the field

Ruesha Littlejohn x reader

A/n: No trigger warnings detected.

Ruesha had camped in you apartment for the rest of camp, and you didn’t usually mind but it was getting very depressing. Since she saw the picture of Katie and Caitlin a few days ago, she had turned into a shadow of her old self. She was not her usually bubbly self, and you were trying everything in you power to brighten her mood. You had told jokes, danced or jugged, sang and made food. When you woke up the last morning of camp before you headed to Australia, The land of Caitlin Foord, you decided that you needed to do something to try and bring the old Ruesha back. “Okay pretty girl” you said as you opened the blinds while she was still sleeping. “Today is the day” you said and she huffed from under the cover. It was not your dream scenario to live with her, sleep next to her and spend ever awake moment of your life next to her as her bestfriend, but life has a funny way of making things play out just as it wasn’t supposed too.

Ruesha threw her pillow at you, and you decided to change my tactics. If there was one thing she loved, then it was a good breakfast. You made sure to leave her alone in her, or rather your, depression room as you whipped up easy breakfast. Toast, eggs, paprika and watermelon. You made sure to make her favourite kind of blueberry tea, and then you went back into the bedroom. This time, you felt more determined . She was going to get up. You grabbed her covers by the corner, and yanked it off of her. “Shite, Y/N, won’t you leave a mournin to woman rest now will ya” she hissed. “Yes, I would. But you are not a mourning woman nor do you need to rest anymore. If you rest anymore then I’m worried that you will become one with mi bed.” she sighted loudly and tossed around. You walked around the bed and hunched down on her level. “Ruesh, I’ve made breakfast. Your favourite kind, I’ve even made tea. You would never let a good tea go to waste now would yah?” You said as you stroke her matted blonde hair, she sniffled as she sat up. “Okay, but only because I don’t like to let a pretty woman down.” she said as she marched to the kitchen. In your house, from your bed, in your clothes. Yet somehow, all she could talk about was Katie McAss.

You sat down next to her as a you bottomed a sugar free red bull while eating a protein yogurt. “Are yah ever gonna learn to eat real foods?” Ruesha teased, and you shrugged. “Why would I? Nobody is seeing what am shoving down my throat when I’m alone.” You said and winked. She just shook her head as she devoured the breakfast. You examined your garmin watch for a hot second only to realise that you were running late. You threw on your jersey, and Ruesha threw on hers as we panicked our way to the arena. “Jesus, if yah would’ve gotten that pretty butt up from bed the first 23 times I asked, then Maybe we wouldnt have this issue.” You said as you tied your cleats next to her. She laughed, but was quickly taken back by the view of Katie. Her now ex girlfriend.

“Ruesha, stop droolin’ would you, it’s not a good look” You teased as we walked out on the field. The coach shot you a weird look, which had you confused. “Is there a reason for your shenanigans now?” she asked as she raised her brow. You and ruesha would often do dumb stuff to lift the spirits of the group, but this time you were confused. You shot her an even more confused look, as she pointed to the number on my jersey. “Is this yet another joke about mi number?” You asked as the girls earlier had teased you for your high number, asking if it was your number or the amounts of yellow cards you had attained . You looked at Ruesha confused, and realised that she was wearing your number 30. You looked down to see that you were wearing her number 8. “Well, I suppose yah there is only one thing left to do.” You stated as you got into a weird stance with my phone in my pocket. It was already connected to the team speaker as i was the designated DJ. You then slapped on some “Tell me ma” and did a classic Ruesha jig across the circle the team was standing in. Everyone knew Ruesha was famous for her jig, so naturally that was the easiest way to resemble her.

Everyone including Ruesha was laughing hysterically, almost practically crying. Well, everyone excluding McCabe. She looked furious, but you gave no flying fuck as you went towards her and jigged around her in a circle as she tried to stumble you. “ yah have to work harder then that” you sang as you skipped over her legs. You then giggled your way over to Ruesha as you pulled her jersey of yourself mid jig, showcasing your visibly toned arms and six pack. You did a last high kick and spun around going out in an extravagant pose as you held the jersey out to Ruesha. She was now hysterically laughing and her eyes were watering, some of the girls were even laying on the ground laughing. “Alright alright, miss comedian over there, let’s practice now shall we.” The coach said as she too dried off her eyes after your little show.

“Yah mad woman” Ruesha stated as she was still trying to compose herself. You waited for your jersey but it became clear as day that you weren’t going to get it anytime soon. “I know you love a good view, Ruesh.” You smirked. Instead you warmed up without the jersey as we ran across the field and did our static stretching. Eventually, you put her shirt back on as it was boiling and you didn’t feel too excited to be burned by the sun. You caught Ruesha looking on more than one occasion, and honestly you didn’t mind.

As warm up was getting close to being over you could see Ruesha visibly struggling with her focus as she kept losing the ball. You went over to her as she whacked the ball in the ground. “Aye, ruesh, what did that poor ball do to you?” You exclaimed as you catched the ball before it bounced away to never land. “I can’t focus, I keep thinking about things I shouldnt think about, and then I drop it.” She complained as you listened carefully. “Alright” you said, “let’s try to use this to your advantage. Use all that negative energy to work your hardest. Use it to proving why you are going to be the one on the starting roster.” You said as you dropped the ball down and kicked it up high to her. “Leave it all on the field, love”. She nodded and catched the ball as she started tricking it.

“Yeees, Ruesh!!!” You cheered as she kept tapping the ball showing her incredible ability to control the ball like no other. As she dropped the ball, you nudged her. “You are totally gonna get your spot in the roster. Believe me babe.” You winked as you continued practicing.

[enderwoah]

jimmy solidarity is so intrinsically mind-meltingly confusing i love him dearly and i want to squish him with a passion and i want him to win (or lose) the next life series installment and here is why

(this is a very long insanity fuelled rant sorry but if you too are obsessed with jimmy solidarity and the concept of him actually not being pathetic and possibly winning heres the post for you)

jimmy solidarity is the kind of guy that literally has one gimmick and its being the most pathetic person on every server he has the pleasure of being on. he is the wet cat of a man that gets bullied and taken advantage of and nobody listens to him when he complains or objects to anything and yet not once has he truly gotten angry about it because hes just that nice of a guy. sort of.

cause i dont know about yall, but jimmy solidarity is kind of a bastard to me?? i will never forget him swindling joey out of 50% of his gunpowder profits (u think that wasnt swindling?? consider the following: he was earning NOTHING before joey started doing gunpowder on his own. NOTHING. and yet all he had to do was go over and put on his little sad pitiful pathetic song and dance and beg for a cut of joey's profits and suddenly: whats that? a net profit?) i will never forget the sheer amount of times this guy has had to hold himself back from straight up killing or aattacking someone; not because of morals or kindness or goodwill, but out of spite. but out of "i need to be better than this person it hurts them more if i dont kill them in cold blood (in my head)." i will never forget the amount of times he has just straight up punched someone in the nose (/rp) because they were being mildly annoying in the middle of a conversation.

im not saying hes a mastermind thats manipulating everyone by acting lame but also just a little bit?? minus the manipulation part?? hes proven on multiple occassions that he isnt like stupid idiot baby man. like yeah he can be a little incompetent sometimes but so can scar and by now we have ALL recognised that scar is terrifying and could raze the server by himself if he so pleased. i think if jimmy solidarity's main bit wasnt 'its funny when my friends bully me' he could genuinely cause some serious damage. i think the one time hes like ever made a trap on his own in the life series (the one in his doorway in last life) it worked flawlessly which. like. a trap. in the life series. working flawlessly. hello. sure it was basic but the fact that it worked without a hitch should alone be a testament to his ability

and if thats too obscure for u i mean we can step out of the life series for a little bit and just direct you to the fact that he isnt bad at minecraft like at all?? if u havent had the pleasure of watching his dodgebolt 1v3 i really reccomend it because youd THINK that someone bad at minecraft would be trembling in his boots and being in a total panic in that situation. hell even someone AMAZING at minecraft in that position (grian) literally sounded on the verge of throwing up for his entire time and thats FAIR. thats NORMAL.

all i am saying is that jimmy solidarity rolled up to this 1v3, said 'ive got this,' and took out two people in literally a second and a half. and then just chill-ly said 'ive got this' again. the only time he sounded mildly panicked was when tommy was making him dodge for a ridiculously long amount of time. as soon as tommy missed twice- or, rather, as soon as he dodged tommy's bolts twice, mine brother in craft took one shot after like five seconds and it was over. every SINGLE time i decide to watch a jimmy mcc pov im sitting there like. 'damn. DAMN?? JIMMY SOLIDARITY???? POPPING OFF???????" at like more than one point every single time. there are so many other places that hes demonstrated that he isnt bad at minecraft but its late/early and my memory doesnt work like it used to

which brings me back to the life series. since we all know that his 'being bullied hahaheeheehoohoo' bit is a bit (and hey. its a good bit. im not saying its a bad bit. i think its funny and i think it gets even funnier when jim starts fighting back. if youre gonna have a long-lasting gimmick thats a good one and jimmy does a swell job at making it entertaining and also making it clear that it isnt serious) this means that he can un-bit it for a bit. or at least peel away the bit a little.

im just saying jimmy solidarity has huge bastard energy and hes allowed to let it free in the life series!! he will burn things down he will cheer at traps he will fight for his friends he wil fight tooth and nail and claw for his life (he started last life with two lives. he never got any more. he only died due to a trap and due to murder like COME ON). if he wanted to burn down a base he could if he wanted to set up a huge trap PERSONALLY i think he could hell i think if he went up to someone in 1v1 combat he would at least have a chance (depending on the person of course). i mean look at his dodgebolt performance all the man needs is a bow and some distance and hes APPARENTLY set for life!!

ill say it

if jimmy solidarity played it smart, he could win the life series. easily.

jimmy is good at making alliances with people (coughs and kicks the southlands betrayal underneath the rug Ignore That One he was Desperate he started off with two lives remember honestly it was a justified move) hes a litlte bit silly stupid and oft acts impulsively but he can direct that impulsivity against one person and for another. if he got himself in a squad like he did in 3rd and last life and stopped playing up the pathetic bit and set a trap for once in his life (/endeared) he could actually get himself some kills. some Real kills, not accidentally blowing up ren and skizz with tnt.

i dont even care how he does it. i just want him to win. and if he doesnt win, i want him to come top five at LEAST before getting horrifically stabbed in the back by someone he had been running with for the whole series that is the ONLY loss i will accept and still be happy about. the man deserves a girlboss moment please we're approaching two years let the man LIVE

[rumbelleshowdown]

-

Author: LikeASparkInTheDark

Group: C

Prompts: Sunset. She doesn't "like" you! Size matters.

-

Second Hand Assumptions

“Father, where’s Tilly?” 

Moe French turned, looking at his daughter blankly, “She was just here, I almost tripped over her loading the truck.”

Belle bit her lower lip continuing to look through the store. She had left briefly to pick up the keys to the library from the mayor.

She didn’t bring Tilly along because she wasn’t sure how dog friendly her new town was, she left her with her father hoping Tilly’s separation anxiety wouldn’t spike.

“I can’t find her anywhere, where is she?” Belle’s voice was panicked. She was in a new town, and no one knew her or Tilly except her father. 

Moe’s mouth was in a grim line, “I don’t know Belle, she might have just snuck out.”

“Were there any customers while I was gone?” She asked, trying to think of an explanation for her missing Australian Terrier.

“No customers, but that bloody Mr. Gold was here to remind me I was late on rent,” Moe paused thoughtfully, “maybe he saw her as an opportunity for collateral.”

Belle’s eyes widened, “He wouldn’t hurt her would he?”

“That man is capable of anything.” Her father’s voice was ominous.

“I need to find her,” Belle grabbed Tilly’s leash before running out of the shop, her heels clicking on the tile.

He felt slightly guilty but that dog held Belle back from so many things, she’d refuse to go out because “Tilly needs me”, it couldn’t be left alone for more than an hour. Belle would be better off without it, at least that’s what he told himself when he’d taken its collar and nudged it out the door.

“Higher dad!” Henry shouted.

“Be careful!” Arran shouted at his son and grandson, from the park bench he sat at. They had been playing at the park, but his bad leg started to throb and he needed to sit down. 

“Wait!” Henry shouted.

Henry squinted looking with each upward swing before he started dragging his feet in the dirt.

Arran followed his eyeline, for a moment he thought it was a fat squirrel running through the grass. 

“I’ll catch it!” Henry jumped from the swing and ran towards the animal.

“No Henry, it could have rabies!” Neal shouted, chasing after him.

Arran quickly rose from the bench limping to where Henry was crouching down. 

Arran wrinkled his nose, “What kind of rat is this?” He asked as he looked at the tiny creature, it wasn’t his idea of a dog.

“It’s not a rat grandpa, it’s a dog, I wonder why it's alone.” Henry looked around the park to see if there was anyone around.

“A dog? That's not a proper dog, size matters with dogs, this is a rodent of some kind. Now a sheep dog that's a real dog.” 

He turned to his son, raising a finger, “Do you remember Colonel?”

Neal grinned at the memory, “Yeah, I used to ride on his back like a horse.”

“It’s not wearing a collar.” Henry announced.

“Well what should we do? It’s too late for the vet to be open to scan for a chip.” Arran frowned.

It had pointed ears and long tan and black fur with a scruffy face. It’s tongue was hanging out and it was panting in his grandson’s arms.

“We’ll look around the park to see if anyone is looking for a dog.” Neal suggested.

“Here Grandpa.” 

Arran balked in protest, but Henry was already shoving the dog into his hands.

“What am I supposed to do with it?” 

“Hold her close grandpa she’s scared!” Henry advised before they ran off.

He leaned onto his good leg and raised the dog to eye level.

“Listen here you little rat, There will be no urinating on my suit, no leaving nasty little bugs on me, and no-”

“Let go of that dog!”

Arran's head snapped from the dog's face to the face of a beautiful stranger.

“I said unhand that dog this instant!” 

“Excuse me?” He held the dog closer to make sure the stranger wasn’t some dog napper, though she wasn’t wearing a spotted fur coat.

He was struck at her beauty, the sunset setting off the auburn in her hair that fluttered in the wind, big blue eyes glaring at him, her lips a lovely shade of red, pursed in annoyance. Before  he realized that she had said something else in her memorable accent.

“I’m sorry wha-, your dog?” 

“Yes MY dog, or did you not know that when you stole her from my father’s shop?”

Arran’s head tilted slightly to the side, “What?” He scoffed, amused at her accusation.

“My father told me all about you Mr. Gold, how you walk around this town like you own it. I didn’t think you’d use a dog for collateral.” 

She crossed her arms over her chest, relieved at finding Tilly, but angry at finding her with Mr. Gold. She wanted to snatch her from his grasp but she didn’t want the man to retaliate and toss her into the pond.

Mr. Gold seemed amused at her words.

“I didn’t steal your dog, do you think she’d like me this much if I had?” He jerked his head to gesture to Tilly, who was unfortunately cuddling into the crook of his arm.

It was Belle’s turn to scoff, “She doesn’t “like” you!” 

Arran’s amusement grew as the woman stomped her foot with that argument, making her skirt flutter. 

Fortunately Neal and Henry returned from their sweep of the park.

“Hi Belle!” Henry greeted the woman with a wave.

The woman, Belle, smiled warmly, and Arran felt his heart stutter in his chest. He was glad that smile was not aimed at him, or else he might act in foolishly.

“Um, hi, who are you?” Neal asked, raising an eyebrow.

“This is Belle, she’s the new librarian. I saw her on our field trip to city hall today with grandma.” Henry answered.

“This woman is accusing me of stealing her dog.” Arran said at the same time.

“Steal your dog? My grandpa would never steal someone’s dog.” Henry's brow furrowed at the thought.

“Your grandpa?” 

“Yeah, my dad. He may be many things, but he isn’t a dog thief.” The other man, Henry’s father grinned at her.

Belle was trying to catch the trail of thought that had gone through her mind, flustered she turned her gaze back to Mr. Gold, “May I have Rumplestiltskin back please?”

At its name the dog began wiggling in Arran’s grasp until he held her out to Belle.

“Rumplestiltskin?” He couldn’t bite back that smirk that he knew was dancing on his lips.

“That’s a weird name for a girl.” Henry piped up.

Belle took Tilly in her arms, holding her tightly against her sweater, giving her a squeeze, “That’s what the shelter named her, I call her Tilly for short.”

Mr. Gold seemed amused as he watched her slip Tilly’s leash on.

 “Henry I better get you home to your mom” Neal nodded a farewell to Belle and gave his father a parting hug.

Belle held Tilly close to her as Mr. Gold hugged his son tightly, and then gave Henry a large hug too. Surely a dognapper wouldn't be such a family man.

“Love you grandpa!” Henry shouted over his shoulder as he and Neal walked away.

Mr. Gold’s smile was rather lovely, Belle mused to herself, before she realized his attention was now solely on her.

“I’m sorry for accusing you of stealing Tilly.” She murmured softly, feeling ashamed that she had judged Mr. Gold just on rumors from her father alone.

“I’m sorry your father felt the need to bestow that assumption onto you.” He shrugged.

After fidgeting with Tilly’s leash Belle broke the silence between them, “Your wife must be ready for you to come home, I understand if you’ve got to leave.”

“My wife?” he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips.

“Yeah, isn’t Mary Margaret your wife? Henry said it was his grandma that he was with earlier.”

Mr. Gold was trying very hard not to laugh outright in Belle’s face, “Miss French, I assure you, Mary Margaret is his grandma on his maternal side.”

Belle felt the blood drain from her face as he laughed.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go find a bridge to jump from.” Belle muttered.

“How about, instead,” Arran started, taking a tentative step towards her, petting the top of Tilly’s head.

“There's a restaurant just out of town called Marco's,  how about we take Tilly for dinner on the patio? That’ll give you a chance to form your own opinion about me instead of having a secondhand one.”

Belle tried to repress the smile that was bursting to break across her face, “I’d like that.” 

Arran Gold smiled and he held out the crook of his arm to Belle. She let the smile take over her face and she slipped her arm through his, with Tilly cradled in her other arm, they left the park together.

-

[tfyoulookingatgiuxs]

Nowhere to run

Ghostface!Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: Nowhere to run. but you kept doing it. Eddie was there with you though. But running away from the problem you created seems too easy, don't you think?

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: Yandere!Ghostface!Eddie, Lovesick!Eddie, fem!reader, family issue, toxic relationship, knife, murder, jealousy, manipolation, chasing, angst, bad ending.

𝐀/𝐍: So. Bringing a smut with Eddie Ghostface seemed too corny. I tried something that works better for me. Hope you like it. Sorry about my English, this is not my native language. Support and reblog! (DIVIDER NOT MINE)

You ran through an isolated parking lot and, recognizing the place, you realized that you were close to your home. You looked over your shoulder to see if he was still behind you.

You were in total panic, you were crying and you wished this was just a simple nightmare.

You heard the heavy footsteps of his boots and you sped up your run until you arrived in front of your door. You opened it and locked it, locking the locks attached to the door as well. You wasted no time, you went upstairs and hide inside your large closet, hoping he wouldn't find you.

You were chased. But not from just any person you might find on the street, but from Eddie Munson. He was a boy in his late twenties who still attended the same school as you due to his failing grades. He had a low reputation and was called a freak along with his friends. Even though he had a scary appearance, he was actually a boy with a heart of gold. You knew it very well. You knew him. And what's more, you were dating. You were engaged. So why?

You wished you knew.

But you thought this was triggered because of you. You were his girlfriend, his first girlfriend to be precise, and as such, he was afraid of doing something wrong with you. In short, the little complexes you have when you start a relationship, but he had overcome this complex, and you knew it very well, you had helped him. You had always been so available to him and Eddie did the same thing to you. But your boyfriend, beyond this, was in love with you, he was really in love with you, to the point of madness. He was overprotective and jealous to say the least of other guys who got close to you.

You never said anything, but apparently you should have. Eddie started acting strange and you always felt a bad feeling. But you trusted him, so you let it go again. One night, though, you caught him coming home in his Halloween outfit, Ghostface. A ruthless serial killer with a white mask that is nothing short of frightening. He had taken off his mask while carrying someone's body.

Jason Carver.

Jason Carver lately, he wanted to give trouble to the metalhead, playing tasteless games on you or he approached you and made fun of you by flirting with you. All to make Eddie jealous, and therefore annoy him. He had always done it with him. Jason and Eddie hated each other because they were opposites. But both never raised their hands. Eddie didn't like this kind of thing unless he had to, but he always thought that if he got into a fight with anyone he would lose from the start. He wasn't incredibly strong like Jason, but that didn't matter to you. But that night you changed your mind.

He had killed him.

And you were paralyzed as soon as he saw you.

You remained in that corner without saying anything while he, with his costume full of blood, tried to justify himself and explain the situation.

You remained silent. Nodding.

But then you ran away. It was as if you realized what had happened that very evening. After two days you decided to go home but he chased you and you panicked.

He had entered. Now there's no turning back.

His boots could be heard on the wooden floor.

"Sweetheart..." He said teasingly. He was in your room, you caught a glimpse of his Ghostface costume as he held a sharp blade.

Your tears continued to fall.

It was your fault. You had transformed him.

"Please come out, I don't want to hurt you. I would never hurt you."

Was it true?

Eddie always said and stated that he would never lay a finger on you, because he loved you. But you were afraid...

Was it the right thing to do? Did you have to stay hidden? Or come out and pray Eddie figures out why you're running away?

You didn't know.

But your instincts suggested staying in the closet.

Eddie, after checking under the bed and the rest of the room, left. From the various sounds you could guess that he was going to your parents' room. Your parents weren't there that evening and neither were your brothers and sisters, you were a large family, but no one was present in the house this evening. Such misfortune was truly unheard of. You came out of your hiding place and ran towards the front door. As dangerous as the situation was, you didn't want to report Eddie. You loved him after all. You wanted to go out and think clearly and think about what to do to make your now crazy boyfriend see reason.

You were in front of the door but you clumsily tripped and fell down the stairs and a searing pain shot into your leg making you scream. It wasn't broken, but you took a chance, it was definitely fractured or something, but the worst thing was that every single movement of your leg hurt. You were done for.

You cried again and again and Eddie walked down the stairs at a slow pace.

He bowed, looking at your tear-filled face as you trembled.

“Shhh…” He hissed as he brushed against your injured leg making you gasp. The metalhead wrapped his arms around you hugging you "That's why you don't have to run away sweetie, otherwise you'll hurt yourself. And you know how sad it makes me to see you in this state" he said as he put the blade down on you and picked you up.

You continued to cry and sniff as you felt Eddie's latex gloves caressing your hair.

"Why don't we go home? So we can treat this leg and explain to me why you ran away?" He proposed as your head was pressed into his chest, you couldn't do anything else. You gasped and sobbed in response.

"Come on pretty girl, don't cry, everything will be fine..." he said taking you upstairs, more precisely to your room. He made you lay down and he sat next to you staring at you for a while.

He took off his mask revealing his brown curls "Now let's do this. If you tell me now why you ran away, I will heal your leg" he proposed. Was he a threat by any chance? Not very likely. Eddie would have treated you anyway, this is because he doesn't want to make you suffer, but certainly when he wants to know something he will always try to make you spit it out.

Unfortunately you couldn't even form a sentence due to the pain and crying. So Eddie sat on the bed next to your face caressing it "Baby, stop crying, nothing happened, you just hurt yourself. If you want it to go away you have to calm down, okay?" His tone was soft, which made Eddie even crazier than he already was. Was he manipulating you by any chance? Or was he sincere? Too many questions and zero answers. Your head was a total mess and you just wanted to regain control. You listened to him. You took deep breaths and he smiled at you "That's right. Good girl" He praised you then placed a light kiss on your forehead.

“I-I’m sorry…” you apologized.

"It's okay baby. Don't worry. If you ran away, was it because I accidentally scared you?" He asked and you nodded "Aw, I'm so sorry sweetheart, I didn't mean to. I'll try not to scare you anymore, okay?" You nodded again as more tears rolled down your face.

You missed him. You missed old Eddie. That bastard rabbit heart that was scared of even his own shadow, even if he didn't show it. You missed that boy who pestered you with Lord of the Rings and Dangeon & Dragons all day. You missed Eddie. Edward Munson. The boy you were so in love with. But now he had become an Eddie with a boundless love for you and a murderous madness if anyone dared to touch you.

It was your fault.

Eddie bandaged your leg trying to ease your pain. Your leg hurt but not like before so you felt slightly better "I love you so much sweetheart" he said picking you up again and planting a kiss on your forehead "Me too..." You answered sincerely. Your life had now changed and now the only thing you could do was hope that you could change Eddie. And if you didn't succeed, well then you deserved it. After all, your parents were right.

"You only bring trouble and turn even the best souls into monsters just like you"

Insignificant words. But real today. They were right to think of you this way, they were right to not love you, they were right to belittle you because ultimately this is who you were. A monster who transformed others. This was your destiny, nowhere to run.

[heelwriting]

Advent Calendar

Day/Prompt: Day 2 - “Please open the door before I freeze to death.”

Fandom/Character(s): AEW All Elite Wrestling / Wheeler Yuta x F!Reader

Warnings: none

Wordcount: 821

Summary: Yuta and his girlfriend fight over the last chocolate of her advent calendar

@debbiechanclub @12daysofchristmas (sorry again for the late hours, i think every day will be like this, i'll stop apologizing now)

Yuta had taken her to a Christmas party at one of his co-workers house, it was after 11pm and outside there was a fairly thick layer of snow, they both were covered in various layers of clothing but it was still very cold and they couldn’t wait to get home or at least reach their car and turn on the heating.

They were walking to their car with their hands laced through their gloves.

“I can’t wait to go home, get in bed and sleep for the next 24 hours, I’m exhausted from wrestling and eating and taking I just want to take this days to relax with you”

Yuta said.

“Can’t wait to go home either, I want to go to bed too but before that I want to eat my last advent calendar chocolate”

After she talks, Yuta freezes on his spot.

“What happened?”

She asks looking at him with concern.

“Babe, I have something to confess but you have to promise not to get mad at me”

She crosses her arms and Yuta starts getting nervous rubbing the back of his head while he avoided her eyes at all cost.

“I can’t promise that”

He knew she was starting to get mad.

“I ate it”

“What do you mean you ate it? You knew I wanted to eat the last one tonight why would you eat it”

“I was hungry last night”

Her eyes widened, she couldn’t believe her boyfriend would do that with something that mattered so much to her.

She ran away and go inside of the car before Yuta could get near and she locked the doors, he started banging on the window and talking loud so she would hear him.

“Babe, please open the door before I freeze to death”

She started the car, Yuta started panicking.

“You should have thought about that before eating my last chocolate!”

She shouted at him.

“What can I do for you to let me in?”

“Go back to last night and don’t eat it”

“Babe, please stop being childish”

“Childish? You’re not a kid you could have controled you’re hunger with something else, don’t bother coming home tonight”

She started maneuvering to get off the parking lot, when she realized he was in front of her car, she immediately stopped moving.

“Run me over then, I’m not letting you leave”

Yuta put his hands on the hood of the car maybe expecting to get his hands to heat up a bit at least.

“MOVE”

“No!”

“I’m not letting you in”

“I’ll buy you more chocolates, please just let me in”

He was begging at this point, he was desperate and he could feel the temperature dropping outside while she was inside getting warmer by the second.

“Claudio bought them for me when he went to Switzerland! What are you going to do? Fly there?”

“I don’t know just let me in, my hands are cramping”

“No! Get out of my way”

“Wait, I’ll call him! Claudio? Is there any chance you bought more swiss chocolates that you casually might have at home? My girlfriend is trying to run me over because I ate the last one”

“You jumped in front of the car while I was leaving you, you liar!”

Yuta put the phone on speaker and showed you the screen while he walked towers your door, you rolled down the window.

“What’s up Claudio?”

She asked.

“Hey, I apologize in Yuta’s name, we clearly didn’t raise him to be this way…”

“HEY!”

“The point is, I have more chocolates at home so just drive here with the kid and I’ll give you a new box”

“Aww that you, you are truly the best! Yuta doesn’t deserve this kind of friend”

She said finally getting in a better mood.

“Maybe he doesn’t but unfortunately we love him so let him enter the car and come get your new box”

She unlocked the doors and Yuta ran to the other side of the car to get inside.

“I’m in, man thank you so much”

“No problem but don’t eat your girlfriends things you little bastard”

“I promise won’t”

After that he hanged up the phone, and there was silence for the next few minutes.

“I’m sorry baby, I really didn’t think it through, would you forgive me?”

“Thank you for apologizing, I forgive you, but you owe a lot to Claudio”

Yuta gently reached to take her hand and she accepted it, squeezing his hand lightly while she drove to Claudio’s house, he looked at her through his glasses and smiled sweetly at her, even if they fought he was really in love with her, he adored her and would do anything to keep her happy and by his side.

“I love you”

He said out of the blue, they had said it before but it took her by surprise, she felt warm inside.

“I love you too”

[heqvenlymoons]

Marinette's Joke: The Showdown of Damian's Pets Fighting Over Homework

For Maribat March Day 7 & 30: Joke & Showdown

@maribatserver

Marinette stumbled into her mathematics class five minutes after the bell rang.

The teacher, Mrs. Steeles, had her back to the class, scribbling down what Marinette assumed to be the math homework questions from last night on the whiteboard. 

Marinette tried to sneak past Mrs. Steeles, heading towards her seat in the back, where Damian was already sitting and watching her with exasperation. 

She kept her footsteps light, barely making any sound, but somehow, the mathematics teacher seemed to have eyes on the back of her head. 

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, I wonder why you are late this time.” Mrs. Steeles said dryly, capping her marker before facing the late student. 

Marinette looked like a deer caught in headlights as she whirled to face the front, the stares she was getting from her classmates making her skin prickle. “Uh, I—”

Mrs. Steeles pinned her with a look of disapproval, waving her off. “Just head to your seat.”

Marinette wasted no time rushing to her seat, setting her bag beside her desk. 

Damian leaned over and spoke in a hushed tone. “Tt. Why were you late?”

She didn’t respond until Mrs. Steeles turned her focus back to the whiteboard, the blue dry-erase marker in her hand uncapped once more. 

“Akuma in Paris. I had to voyage,” Marinette whispered just low enough for him to hear. 

He nodded in understanding. “Did you do the math homework from yesterday?”

Her eyes widened, a look of horror taking over her face. “Oh no—”

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, do you have the homework from yesterday?” Mrs. Steeles asked, shattering Marinette’s hope that the mathematics teacher would forget. 

What was the point of being the embodiment of luck when the luck didn’t manifest when she needed it? 

Marinette swallowed, glancing to Damian for help, who heartlessly shrugged as if saying, ‘You’re on your own.’

“Well?” Mrs. Steeles prompted with a raised brow, giving her foot impatient taps. 

Marinette panicked and blurted out the first excuse that came to mind. “My homework got torn up in a game of tug of war.”

Her classmates burst out laughing, and she played with the hem of the black skirt of her uniform. 

“Really, Dupain-Cheng? Tug of war? You could not have come up with something better using that scattered brain of yours?” Damian hissed out, speaking over the loud peals of laughter from their classmates, looking unimpressed. 

“I was under pressure, and I panicked!” she whispered back, a sheepish expression on her face. 

“And just, who were you playing tug of war with?” Mrs. Steeles asked, looking just as unimpressed as Damian. 

The gears in Marinette’s head turned as she struggled to think of a somewhat half-dignified response. “Damian’s pets! I was, um— we were doing homework together at his house, and I left my homework on the floor by accident. Titus— uh, Damian’s dog and Alfred— um, cat got ahold of it…”

She could feel Damian staring daggers at her, but he hadn’t exposed her to the lie, so she took it as a win. 

“Who won? The dog or the cat?” someone called out, sounding invested in the non-existent war that had taken place between Damian’s hoard of animals. 

Of course, Marinette, the queen of inventing excuses when it calls for protecting her secret identity, found it within reason to respond with something even more absurd.

“Well, uh—  technically neither? Mojo- um, the ape! The ape hijacked my homework from Ti— the dog, which tore it in half. Then Goliath— the dragon bat breathed fire, and because my homework was caught in the crossfire, it disintegrated into ashes.”

The students were fascinated by the narrative and amused with her ability to spin such a tale on the spot. They spoke over one another, voicing their thoughts. 

“Dragon bat? What new species is that?”

“I didn’t know Damian Wayne had an ape as a pet!”

“What happens next? Who ate the ashes?”

Meanwhile, Damian glared at her for exposing his supernatural pet. “You do realize Goliath is supposed to be kept a secret? How am I supposed to explain a dragon bat somehow ending up in my possession?”

Marinette winced, looking apologetic. “Sorry, Dami. In my defense, this wouldn’t have happened had you helped me think of a plausible excuse! Whatever happened to cover for one another?”

“I can’t believe you are blaming this on me,” he said in disbelief, crossing his arms and turning away from her with a hmph. 

“Class, settle down, please.” Mrs. Steeles said, looking tired. She shot Marinette the stink eye, looking unmoved by her dramatic tale of a showdown between Damian’s pets fighting over her homework. 

“Do keep disputes between pets away from your homework in the future, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I think this joke of yours, rather unique as it may be, has entertained the class enough, and it is time to return to the lesson.” 

Mrs. Steeles directed one last stern look at Marinette, then turned to write more questions on the whiteboard. 

Marinette at least had the decency to mutter a “Sorry” to Damian. 

His lips twitched like he might smile, but he kept the act of staying mad with her. His arms still crossed, and his body angled a little away from her. 

To Marinette, it seemed like he was pouting, and that caused her to giggle. Because Damian would deny and insist he doesn’t pout. 

The sound softened his demeanour at once, prompting her to smile in victory. 

“Whatever. You better not expose even more of my pets— supernatural species or not— to these imbeciles next time,” he grumbled, trying and failing to glare at her. 

“Of course~ we wouldn’t want people to think the Ice Prince of Gotham is secretly a softie, would we now?” she teased, smiling the bright smile she knew he melted for. 

She could see the tips of his ears flush pink even as he turned from her to face the front. 

“Tt,” was his only response, seeming unaware she could see him sneaking glances at her through her peripheral vision. 

She found his behaviour adorable.