#it really does just happen without our intention

[zcinderone]

An ironically conspicuous yet never exploited(except by me as far as I can see) dot that connects everything which could be the ultimate layer of secret to unravel the true identity of Arei's murderer...

It's Levi and this is where the final piece of puzzle come to make sense of itself: the Monotv recruiting Teruko do CAULKING scene!!!

This is such a detailed and prominant plot that so far made 0 sense as to its connection to the case. Monotv must have enlisted a helper to clean up the mess left in the gym. Since he can't even do caulking, it is 100% valid for the narrative that there are something in this mess he can't handle. This helper would have abundance of time to figure out the mechanism and took the tape.

(Monotv specifically mentioning he needs help to do certain chores)

Apart from the 4 involved in Ace's case, the only one awake/available late at night was Levi(and we never know for what purpose the story writer specifically left only him awake and readily came out to check the commotion either). This connects everything.

Think about it rationally. It makes absolutely no sense for those involved in the previous case to make an imitation of their own. On paper, only 4 people knew what happened, and Nico ran off leaving the only necessary tool(tape) to replicate this. Should any of the 3 try to imitate a crime only they knew and able to replicate, they are basically yelling they're the only targets from the get-go (and isn't this what's happening right now?)which is beyond absurd. However, if a third party does exist, it changes everything, they would have everything to gain from pulling an imitation since the premise would exclude their possibility permanently.

Based on the aforementioned points, I will make a tentative prediction about one event we are likely gonna see in ep 15: A scrum debate will happen soon, concerning whether or not Ace&Eden really is the only option scope for imitation crime, for they will most certainly discuss the very reason why they imitate and promptly realized the absurdity thereof. The narrative would seem really off if they don't dabble on why, accepting imitation for the sake of imitation. Some will take the stance that such attempt would be illogical for a rational conspirator in the first place, others will insist on the lack of direct evidence of a third party.

I am basing this theory on the assumption that the tape went missing under the dialogue box cg is dev's mistake, because the tape on the ground scene always includes Ace on the ground and the moment he stood it changed which feels too abrupt and dev might just forgot to add that, and there is not a single scene that showed the tape missing without such blockade.

More importantly, there were some clues to back my assumption in the "i'm not fxxing dead!" scene. The tape is placed rather near in front of Ace, a little to our right. Yet, when he stood up he knocked Eden out to our left. It would seem shaky if we take this alone by face value as it could just be a dramatic effect, but what happened afterward is the camera itself clearly turned left to film Eden gradually standing, and turned right to focus on Ace and then turned further right to focus on Teruko, which clearly suggested the actual positioning is: Eden Ace (tape?) Teruko (tape ?) . Problem is, the tape still exitsted right before, and went missing right after Ace stood up under the Teruko "yeah i figured" dialogue box, few secs before Eden stood up, therefore her positioning would exclude her possibility of getting it. And Ace couldn't get it either since four eyes were and the camera was mostly on him, even depicting him reaching his wound with two hands.

I think If the dev did had such meticulous intent for this hidden scene to be the key to locking the culprit, they would most likely be equally meticulous about either the tape's positioning or Ace's act to make unequivocal sense that one of them would have a clear window to obtain it, which in turn suggests they probably never had such intention to begin with.

Also, we got to consider factoring in complementary details like the starched clothes ball(Levi was the only one who mentioned being in the laundry room some time at night in ep10), Arei's missing glove(both Eden and Ace wears glove, Levi doesn't), enough strength to throw the rope near the ceiling(they emphasized early in one scene how high the ceiling is and eden is the smallest girl) Whit trying to make an argument about another motive Levi could have for killing Arei yet got cut off, and trying to redirect the crew's attention back to Levi's secret itself for some reason and got cut off again in ep13 11:22 12:44 (this i think is super super important and it seems only I was mentioning this). These solid details are all adding to the likelihood of Levi, and I really can't find as many other details to back Eden or Ace.

[bunnihearted]

🍓

[syrupgirl]

Request:

Could u write a fic ab Sully family x y /n reader? Where she lives with the sully family after her parents died, she gets taken by the colonel in the forest and is set up for bate because he knows she important to the Sully family.

a/n: the way I interpreted this, reader is taken by herself rather than what happens in the film where all of the kids get taken. I did use the rough layout of the scene for inspo but it does diverge from cannon ie Neteyam is with the kids when they get discovered. I hope that’s similar enough to what you mean. also reader is na’vi and around Neteyam’s age :p

Sullys stick together -The Sully family

“Catch me if you can!” Tuk yelled. Her little feet pattering along the branch of an enormous tree, while you and the rest of the Sully children chased her for sport.

She giggled delightedly, dodging out of the way of Lo’ak’s hand.

You really weren’t supposed to be out this far. Too close to the battlefield Jake had said. To close to where the sky people had already begun laying their claim on Pandora. Not if the Na’vi had anything to say about it.

But oh, it was such a beautiful day, almost no clouds in the sky, Kenten floated around you with the unfurled fan necks slowing their descent. Who wouldn’t want to get carried away with the day?

Suddenly, little Tuk ran into the trunk of a tree and startled back, falling on her butt. Kiri rushed forward and kneeled beside her, rubbing her back.

“Oh Tuk, are you ok? Are you hurt?” Kiri asked, ever the nurturer.

Tuk rubbed her nose and sniffed, tiny little tears blooming in her eyes. “Yeah, just got a fright, that’s all.”

Kiri helped the youngest sully stand up and continued to comfort her. Tuk reassured her sister that she was ok and Kiri relented. Tuk then wandered off to continue her little adventure.

“Wait, guys! Look!” Lo’ak whisper shouted.

Everyone looked to the direction he was pointing. Spider’s eyes widened and he even gasped a little.

“Wow, bro. That’s where my dad and your dad fought, right?” He asked Neteyam.

Neteyam didn’t answer right away, looking almost sheepish. “Yeah, bro.”

Lo’ak looked like he could barely keep still, a giddy grin upon his face.

“Well c’mon! Let’s have a look inside!” He was about to spring up when you put a firm hand on his shoulder.

“No way! We have no idea what’s in there, there could be some old tech still active, or…I don’t know, some angry beast!”

Despite not being a blood member of the Sulky family, after Jake and Neytiri took you under their wing and growing up with them for so long cemented your place among them as family. You were as much Neteyam’s sister as Tuktirey was.

Despite not being a blood member of the Sully family, they listened to you and cared about what you had to say, or that’s what you thought.

“That’s why we have our knives, skxawng.” And with that Lo’ak got you to sprint to the abandoned lab. Well, he would’ve had it not been for the tussling of the bushes opposite where you were all crouching.

“Sit down!” Neteyam gritted out, he grabbed his younger brother by the back of his neck and yanked him back down beside him. Lo’ak started to protest, talking about how it was probably some harmless animal. The sound of voices shut him down. Voices speaking in, english.

You were confused. Sky people should not have gotten this far out without drawing attention of the clan. Neteyam motioned for everyone to be still and you all watched on as the voices got closer.

Neteyam turned on his comms and started speaking to Jake. You could guess what he was saying; do not engage, retreat, stay low and out of sight. All very good suggestions in your opinion.

You kept your gaze intently to the direction of the voices, just waiting for them to pop out so you could get a good look at them and hopefully get some answers to your burning questions.

For better or for worse your questions were answered sooner than you thought.

Aside from the speaking english, the only thing that gave them away for being avatar and not Na’vi was the tactical gear. They were fully decked out. A few of them had arms decorated with tattoos and…sunglasses, Jake had called them.

They slowly approached the abandoned lab with guns raised and eyes everywhere. You all ducked down further once you realised you were way out of your league. Unarmed humans you might be able to handle. Armed humans, definitely more difficult but you had done it before, but avatar who were armed to the teeth along with the strength and speed of the na’vi made for a dangerous mix. You all watched as they searched through the building, overturning the insides of it.

“Come on, dad is on his way, he told us to fall back.” Neteyam’s urged all of you, gesturing into the forest behind him.

“What? No! This is our- my chance to prove to dad that I can help! I can be an asset to the people!”

Neteyam and Lo’ak continued to bicker when you noticed Kiri looking around, looking around desperately.

“Kiri?” you asked, “what’s wrong?”

The girl looked almost brought to tears when she looked up to you.

Her voice trembled, “Where is Tuk?”

Oh god.

She had disappeared before Lo’ak had picked up on the lab.

No one had seen her since.

Kiri clasped her hands around her mouth, she looked about as scared as you felt. God, little Tuktirey.

Abruptly, the group of avatars in front of you trained their guns on clump of trees of to your right. You had heard the sound too, a snap of a small branch or twig. Whatever had stepped on it was light.

Light enough to be Tuk.

The hostiles started to walk toward the noise. It’s like you were watching them in slow motion. Off to the side you could see Kiri’s eyes widen, horror flashed across her face. Spider had a similar expression, his eyebrows upturned in the centre. Lo’ak and Neteyam had stopped their fighting and just looked scared out of their own minds. Neteyam for once didn’t have a solution for everything.

So you did the only thing you could think of. A stupid, stupid thing looking back on it, a stupid thing parading itself as bravery. You scrunched your face, said a silent prayer to Eywa to deliver Tuk to safety and to give you strength for whatever was to happen.

You lept out from behind the log and dashed out of cover.

The avatars snapped their attention to you and raised their guns, but you kept charging towards them. Unsheathing the small knife you kept on you at all times, you cried out.

An avatar with short cropped hair on the top of his hair held out his hand and caught you around the neck. He didn’t hold you tight enough to strangle you, but tight enough that you couldn’t escape. He lifted you up into the air like you were fresh prey.

You struggled and snarled, trying to get your knife in any part of him that you could reach.

“Well, well, well, lookie here…” Quaritch chuckled darkly. He motioned for his squad to lowers their guns and the obeyed, observing their colonel with obvious amusement. It made you sick, you probably outwardly grimaced.

“I’ve seen you somewhere before.” He muttered. Quaritch made a show of ‘hmmm’ing and scratching his chin in fake thought. “Ah yes, i’ve seen your runnin’ around with the Sully spawn. You’ve been causin’ a lot of trouble, you and those other brats.”

You pretended not to understand him, opting to keep snapping and thrashing at him. It was not a complete lie; while Jake had taught you some basic english, you could probably only form the sentences of a small human child.

“The thing looks feral…” A teammate muttered from behind the colonel and the squad laughed.

“Don’t be fooled, soldier. These Na’vi can be quite clever when they put their heads together.” The colonel responded.

Thinking of your family behind you, you hoped and prayed that they had retreated back with Tuktirey.

Quaritch lowered you to the ground but before you tried to make a break for it, he wove his fingers through your hair and pulled hard.

You bit your teeth to stifle a scream and reached up to attempt to pry his hand off of your head.

“I know that there’s more of you back there, in the tree line, so you behave and my team will leave them be.” Fear flooded you at that, hearing that this man knew you weren’t alone. With a snap of his fingers he could have you all held hostages. So you stilled. You rested your hands back at your sides and begrudgingly set your gaze on him.

The avatar holding you smiled.

“Children o’ Sully! You listen here,” he spoke in english before switching into what seemed to be pretty broken na’vi, “you tell your father to come here, and this girl will be returned unharmed in exchange for his compliance.”

At least he didn’t know Neteyam had already been in contact with both Jake and Neytiri. If they just pretended to leave, Jake and Neytiri would think of a plan. Like they always do.

The bushes where everyone was hiding rustled. Quaritch tensed and the avatars behind you raised their guns once more, but the bushes stilled, no other came from it.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. You hoped that they had gone back home or at least taken Tuk back.

“Alright everyone, I’m guessing we can expect Jake Sully and his mate getting here pretty soon.” He drawled, turning to face his team. “Get ready for an attack. Be on your guard and keep your new eyes and ears sharp.”

-

Jake and Neytiri quietly dismounted their Ikran and armed themselves. Neytiri looked as if she was shaking with rage, her mouth downturned and her eyes looking for a threat.

“Hey, I’m sure they’re all fine. They’re tough kids, they’re our kids which make them tougher.” Jake attempted a joke but it died out in the silence when Neytiri did not respond.

They hadn’t landed far from where Neteyam told them they were and they were almost silent as they crept forward into the thicket.

A flutter of motion from they’re left has Neytiri’s bow drawn and aimed at the spot.

“Mom! It’s just us! It’s me, Lo’ak!” Lo’ak revealed himself from his hiding spot, arms raised and Neytiri breathed a watery sigh.

She rushed forward, took her baby in her arms, and held him tightly. Lo’ak wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed. From behind him, Neteyam and spider emerged too, looking a little more embarrassed. Jake looked at his eldest and frowned.

“Where are your sisters?” He asked. Neytiri finally set Lo’ak down and gasped a little, noticing the absence of three of the Sully children.

“Kiri took Tuktirey back home and..” Neteyam looked ashamed, “yn was taken.”

His mother squeezed her eyes closed. Even if you weren’t born of her, you were her daughter. The idea of you being taken, as bait no less, had her heart in her stomach and her chest alight with anger.

Jake sighed and his face turned stony. “You all stay here, stay hidden, while we clean up your mess.” He whispered. The boys wilted and sunk back.

-

Your legs were starting to ache with how long you had been standing and your scalp with how hard the grip he had on your hair.

The man who had been holding you earlier passed you off to another one of his teammates, who seemed to take liberties in yanking your hair every once and a while.

The once clear sky had filled with clouds and rain trickled down through the canopy above you. No one had spoken in a long time, like everyone was holding their breath.

Suddenly, your ear twitched and you flicked your eyes to where you had heard…something. It could just be the sounds of the forest, an animal eating a plant or a ripe piece of fruit hitting the earth, but this sound sounded out of place, made my something not of the forest.

You caught a glimpse of something blue ducking behind the trunk of a wide tree. They had been holding what looked like a bow. Neytiri!

You shut your eyes and thanked Eywa for delivering you a mother as magnificent and brave as her.

Everything was still for a while and you wondered why Neytiri hadn’t taken a shot. Had she left? In an attempt to look like you were getting drowsy, you slumped a back into the avatar holding you. Your head hit his chin as you did so. He shoved you forward again, tugging your hair as he did so.

That’s why she hadn’t taken a shot, there was too much of a risk of hitting you. You looked up to where you had seen her before and caught her eyes. She had been staring at you intently the whole time, waiting for an opening.

So you gave her one.

You hoped she understood what you tried to say in a single look.

Saying another silent prayer to Eywa, you grabbed the arm that wasn’t gripping your hair, brought it up to your mouth, and bit down as hard as you could.

The man screamed, “You little bitch!”

Thankfully, on instinct he let go of your head and you had just enough time to duck out of the way before an arrow hit him straight between the eyes.

-

Twigs and leaves crunched beneath your feet and you made a break into the forest. You didn’t dare look back behind you. Gunshots rang through the air, some even whizzed past you.

Just as you jumped over the fallen trunk of a tree, an arm caught you from the side. You fought against it, landing a blow against whoever’s face had snatched you.

They groaned and let you go.

“Be calm! It’s just me!” Spider said as he held his now bloody nose.

You gasped and reached out to touch his face. “Oh Spider, I’m so sorry. You scared me!”

He shook his head a little before standing up, offering you a hand. “It’s fine, let’s go. Lo’ak and Neteyam already left.”

You took his hand and the two of you ran through the forest together. Never daring to look back.

-

When Jake and Neytiri returned, you knew you were all in for it.

You and your siblings listened outside of their tent, listening to them argue. You held Tuk to you, you didn’t want her to hear what they were saying but she insisted, so all you could do was let her know she wasn’t alone.

Jake stormed out of the tent and you all pretended to be looking at anything else. Smooth.

“yn, get over here.” He ordered. Lo’ak patted you on the back and walked away with the others.

“That stunt you pulled!? That’s not on, okay? It was stupi-!”

You interrupted him, “What I did was stupid, but I don’t regret it. If I hadn’t, Tuk would have been in my position and I couldn’t stand by and watch that happen, sir.” Jake was silent at that. The same stern look painted across his face and his eye twitched.

You stood your ground.

He stood his. For a while.

Until he broke.

The hard look he had softened and he just looked like a tired dad. You realised how stressed he must be, knowing that an old enemy was back and would go through his family to get him. He though he had lost Neteyam earlier this week, and now his daughter? You could have sympathy for him.

You approached him and wrapped your arms around his broad chest. “I’m sorry, dad. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

It felt as if his chest buckled at that and he returned your hug.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again. Alright, soldier?”

You smiled up at him and gave him a. mock salute.

“Yes, sir.”

[winterrrnight]

rafe loves to hear you talk and talk about things you are so passionate about… <3 a rafe x reader blurb <3 cw: reader is chatty and rambl-y and is insecure about it, in this scenario reader is extremely passionate about japanese legends, lovesick rafe + casually dominant rafe, intentional lower case <3 just something for me to post after a small break as I work on other projects <3 for @zyafics who is one of the biggest reasons I am feeling motivated to write again <3

“oh here’s another one I read about yesterday!” you say excitedly as rafe squeezes your intertwined hands, smiling at you.

“mhm go on,” he smiles as you both continue to walk on the sidewalk, the full moon shining bright down at the two of you.

“this one is about the red thread of fate, this thread connects two soulmates,” you smile at him. he looks at you with his eyebrows slightly raised.

“connects two soulmates?” he echoes, and you nod.

“yeah,” you say. “it’s said there is a man who lives on the moon who comes to earth to show people their futures and who they’ll end up with. he does that with the help of the red thread of fate. he ties this invisible red thread between the two people who are meant to be together. this thread can tangle over the huge distance between the two people, it can stretch, but it will never ever break, and it will always tighten to bring those two people together.

“it also talks about the existence of a red pencil which can trace this invisible red thread, and this pencil gets shorter with its usage.

“oh and, this thread is always tied between the pinkies of the two people. that is because it was discovered a long time ago that our heart is connected to our pinky finger by an artery, which is now called the ‘ulnar artery’. this artery carries oxygenated blood from our heart to our pinky. so, in a way, our heart is directly linked to our pinkies via this artery, so when we make a pinky promise, we are basically connecting our hearts while making the promise. and that is why the invisible red thread of fate is also connecting our pinkies, because it is basically connecting the hearts of the soulmates, and–”

you take a look to your left at rafe, who’s looking down at the sidewalk as you both walk. you got so absorbed in talking you don’t even know if he is still listening or if he has tuned you out. honestly, who can blame him? since you keep on talking too much, anyone would quickly tune you out.

“oh god i’m doing it again aren’t i?” you say nervously as you stop in your tracks on the sidewalk, causing rafe to stop too. he eyes you with furrowed brows and creases on his forehead.

the actual truth is, rafe was thinking about tying a red thread to your pinkies when you both get home, his mind racing on where he can actually find some red thread in his house.

“doing what?” rafe asks softly.

“the, the ramble thing, where i just talk and talk till my mouth falls off,” you sigh, looking down. “I do that way too much, i don’t even know if you want to hear it or not but I just start speaking with no seeming end to my talk whatsoever, and you have to force yourself to listen to it because you got stuck being my boyfriend. and then i just keep on talking without thinking, it’s like my mouth has a mind of its own, I really should start to think–”

you are immediately cut off with rafe’s lips on yours, your eyes widening as you try to adjust to what is happening. rafe’s free hand comes to rest on your cheek to pull you even closer into the kiss, and your eyes flutter shut, letting you get lost in the feeling of him.

rafe gently pulls apart from the kiss, his eyes barely open as he gazes down at you.

“listen to me…” he says softly. “you don’t talk too much. I love hearing you talk. I love the cute expressions you make when you talk about things you are passionate about. I love how much knowledge you have about them and how you want to share it with me. I love the shine in your eyes when you start to talk, and the shine is even brighter under the moonlight. never ever apologize for talking too much because I won’t hear it, and you’ll only end up getting kissed by me each time. you get it?”

you look up in rafe’s eyes with a stunned expression. for the first ever time, you are at a loss of words, and all you can do is nod.

he smiles softly at you, as his thumb caresses your cheek. “words, baby, you hear me?” he says softly.

“yeah…” you let out. “I hear you,”

“good,” he mumbles. “never apologize again, okay?”

“okay,” you whisper.

he presses a soft kiss to your forehead and tugs on your hand gently, both of you now walking again. “come on, continue what you were saying,” he says, urging you to continue about the legend you were talking about.

you nod as you clear your throat before resuming to tell him more, this time not allowing even a single thought to let you stop as the stream of words spills from your lips, and rafe only listens in awe, loving hearing what it is you have to tell him.

[mixingpumpkins]

Man, we really lost when we decided that the best way to feel safe or to try to prevent bad things from happening is to assume malicious intent from everyone and police every little fucking thing about existing.

Want to go shopping? You'll be treated like a thief. Security cameras, anti-theft sensors by the door, and a staff that may or may not follow you around isn't enough; we're also putting security tags on every single piece of $4 underwear in the bargain bin and keeping everything on the shelves under lock and key, so you can't even look at it without staff assistance/supervision. No, cameras and staff monitoring checkouts isn't enough. We also need someone else searching your bags and verifying your receipts at the door. (And god help you if a security sensor somewhere didn't get deactivated properly and the door alarm goes off.)

Are you a student taking an exam? We've already decided you're a cheater. Of course you are — all students cheat. So you get assigned, spaced out seats in the testing room, surrounded by cameras. Show us your photo ID at the door. Nothing goes in the room with you but your pencil. Leave your phone, wallet, water, and anything else in a locker outside. All your jewelry, too. No long sleeves. Let us check your hair/headbands/pockets/ears/religious garb in case you're smuggling something in. Need to leave for the restroom? No, you don't, or your exam is done. Emergency? You can choose between literally shitting yourself or failing your course and risking expulsion for cheating.

Online exam? Prepare to be subject to literal spyware. Your eyes better not waver a fraction out of the "acceptable" gaze window. Don't press any button you're not supposed to or mis-click anything; that's proof you're trying to cheat. Don't even think about shifting in your seat, even if your test is two hours long.

Do you work? It'd better be at top speed and no errors at all times. We have security cameras trained on you every moment, sensitive enough to read the text of any paper you handle. We're tracking exactly what you do and how fast. Did your metrics slip for even a second? Unacceptable, even if your rate is otherwise within our "acceptable" range, because we know you can work faster. Yawn? How dare you — we don't pay you to be tired. You're not working hard enough. You must not have enough to do — your requirements have now tripled and we've cut your pay as an incentive not to waste time again. Make a mistake? You must have done it on purpose. You must be trying to steal or sabotage. We'll be evaluating to see how quickly we can fire you and if we can press charges or sue you for damages.

Need to travel via plane? It doesn't matter if you're paying through the nose to do so; you're clearly a criminal who's only not committing a crime at this very moment because you're outnumbered by security officers. We need to question you excessively if you don't look exactly like your ID picture taken three years ago. Take off half your clothes and walk through our scanners that will basically show you without them. (Then prepare to be wanded, and possibly groped — maybe even by more than one person — and if we really feel like it, taken to another room to be stripped and questioned further.) You can't take some necessities with you. Your belongings will be x-rayed and pawed through and commented upon, and they're maybe even a reason to detain and question you further. Why does your purse have suspicious organic matter in it? No, that can't possibly be a bag of fruit snacks you bought from the kiosk 20 feet away; you're trying to hide explosives.

Need medication? You're lying. You're faking. You're just trying to get drugs. You're an addict. You're a dealer. No, you don't have a condition that really requires medication; if you just slept more/lost weight/did yoga/were a better person, you wouldn't have to feel like you need to use drugs. We don't care if your doctor says you need this medication — your insurance company says you don't. Oh, you can afford it anyway? At that price? You must be reselling. We need to investigate and put notes on your file.

Communicating via message? God forbid you take even a fraction of a second too long to respond. You must be trying to hide something. You're slacking off your work. You must be cheating on your partner. You must have a problem with the sender and are leaving them out of something. You left them on read; you're being a bitch. You edited a response or took too long to type something — you're actually being mean and manipulative by not just saying what was on your mind first. Company policy is we get to see everything on your devices. You shouldn't have a problem sharing your personal location/passwords/etc. with your partner if you're not up to no good.

Want to simply exist where a stranger might see you? That's suspicious. What are you doing out here? We don't recognize you. You must be stealing. You must be casing the houses or stores in this neighborhood. You must be looking for someone to rob/assault/harass/etc. You must be part of that rabble claiming they're protesting to cover up the nuisances and criminals they are. Why did you hold a door for me — are you trying to get behind me? Why have I seen you more than once while I'm shopping here — are you following me? Why did you smile at me — do you have a problem? Why are you walking down the street? Why are you sitting on a bench? Why are you visiting the library? Why are you eating alone at the cafe? You don't look like you belong here. You look like a creep. You need the police to come handle you. (If they use force, that just shows you were up to something and totally deserve it.)

Want to exist online? We need to know everything about you — your real name, address, email, age — to ensure you're not a criminal. But you're probably also lying. We need to spy on everything you do, too: every site you visit (and how long you spend there), every purchase you make, every message you send, every search you do. We will take everything you say in bad faith, so be careful about what you post. But it's also extremely suspicious if you don't post — who doesn't have an extensive social media presence these days? What are you trying to hide? You need to indicate that you think the right way. You aren't posting about this — you must not care; you must be a bad person. You deleted an old post — you must be trying to hide your awful views. You can't possibly just be removing things from your profile that no longer reflect who you are. You posted something that I don't like — I knew there was something off about you. It's not a leap to think you're also into worse things. You're probably a pervert. You're actually a criminal of the worst sort and this is an early warning sign for those of us who are smart enough to see it. We're only accusing you of these things NOW so you don't have an opportunity to do them.

Didn't you know? You need to be constantly watched and humiliated and inconvenienced and sometimes even attacked because that's the only thing standing in the way of bad things happening. If you find all this demeaning, there's something wrong with you. Only criminals would rather trade this for being less safe. You don't want us to go from thinking you're a criminal to knowing you're a criminal, do you?

...

Like, fuck. Aren't you tired of living like this???

Some of this stuff has been around for a long time, and it obviously isn't applied evenly across all demographics. But a lot of it has also gotten exponentially worse within the past few decades. Please don't ever accept any of this as normal or necessary or good, because it's not. I'm going insane watching people shrugging off the increasing infantilization and dehumanization of everyone just because this is all they can remember.

It doesn't have to be this way. Don't ever take this shit as a given — it wasn't that long ago that some of this would have been unthinkable. And the instant someone starts talking about doing things a certain way/supporting certain things because of "safety" or "security," be very careful about blindly agreeing with them. We lose very real, important things in pursuit of the nebulous concept of "safety."

[heizours]

BREAK UP

summary. asking the genshin men “what would you do if we break up?”

tags. gn! reader, grammatical mistakes may occur

cw. just a mild curse (childe’s part), call signs, and none ig, pls let me know if i forgot something

feat. diluc, venti, childe, scaramouche, ayato

INTRO.

Really, it was just a hypothetical question, and you had no intention of seriously initiating it in the first place.

But, this question has been itching in your mind for the past few days, and you were genuinely curious what would be the reaction or response you will get from him.

Without further ado, you made your way towards him as you tap his shoulder. He didn’t even get the chance yet to turn around and face you, but you’re already here opening your mouth to speak.

“What would you do if we break up?”

DILUC.

He immediately stops whatever he was doing at that moment, before slowly turning around to look at you.

No, he is definitely not searching for a hidden answer that you’re using this question as a gateway to leave him. No, he is definitely not a millisecond away from bringing you to a private corner to ask you if he did something very wrong and come talk about it.

But, seeing the curious look you’re putting up in front of him made his suspicions decrease for a mere moment. Besides, how could he not respond to that question when you’re already probably thinking of leaving him right now? With that, he gave his answer in the most persuading way he could come up with.

“As much as I hope for that moment to never come, I’ll try to listen and understand whatever your heart wishes. Though [Name], if there comes a time that it does happen, I want you to know that I and my heart will always remember someone like you. You loved me and understood me when I felt that no one did.”

His answer didn’t fail to give you the amount of butterflies you’re receiving right now, and the possible events where there is a chance you can leave him are now at the very back on your mind. Because, who in their right mind would even leave the Diluc Ragnvindr? Only a fool would do that. Suddenly, you were snapped out of your thoughts when Diluc gently grabbed the both of your hands and brought it closer to him.

“..Now, it’s my turn. Any idea why would you suddenly ask me that, love?”

VENTI.

Oh dear, he would act that the it doesn’t faze him in the tiniest bit, but he’s actually getting nervous on why are you suddenly pinning him this query out of the blue.

He turns around to face you, while continuing to be cheery as he always do but, if you look and scoot a little closer there is a glint of worry and concern washing over him. 

“Oh windblume, who said that I am leaving you? Kidding! But, before I give my answer, may I ask the reason for it?”

Really it’s just his way of confirming if you have plans of leaving him after this event, or you’re question stands as nothing but a harmless one. As you responded that it’s something he doesn’t need to worry about because you’re just as interested as he is, he felt the wind of relief washing over him. 

In any situation, Venti could stay calm as he can but if it would be anything associated with you, he couldn’t help but feel this gut twist in fear. The bard laid his head on your shoulder to give you the answer you’re looking from him.

“Well, we can never guarantee how much time could a person stay in our lives, but if there comes a time it happens between us, I’ll continue to protect, reach and guide you along the wind. You were the first in all my firsts, and I’m willing to make you as the last of my lasts.

CHILDE.

‘Oh shit’ is the first thing that comes into his mind, ‘Don’t tell me they’re planning to..’ is the second thing that comes into his mind, and ‘But what if it’s a joke?’ is the last thing that comes into his mind before warily facing you.

Tries to take the situation lightly and calmly, and he almost succeeded if it wasn’t for his body language. His confidence and outgoing personality he always shows you slowly vanishes, as nervousness was written all over him.

He kind of acts like a boyfriend who’s overthinking and reflecting on his past actions and words, because why would you suddenly ask him something like this, if you aren’t affected right? Yes, he definitely suspects something is wrong. Regardless the amount of suspicion you are giving him, he obliged to your query.

“It’s quite expected that I’ll have a hard time if that happens, because if I could compare you to something significant to me, you’re like my life source, my home, my rest and my peace. Even if we will remain apart for the mean time, I’ll come back to court you again and again just so you can be with me one more time.”

After hearing your statement related to the suppositional question that it’s completely harmless and you had no intention of commencing it, Childe’s uneasiness morphed into relief as he engulf you in a tight hug but not crushable to crush you.

“I’m thinking that someone had bribe you into this...”

SCARAMOUCHE

He scoffs, not before giving you the most nastiest side eye you’ve ever seen. Though, do not be fooled by his demeanour because there is more to that than what meets the naked eye.

At the back of his mind, something tells him that 50% of that is true that you’re planning to leave him after this and another 50% tells him that it is partially false as you’re just being inquisitive.

Questions his what ifs and it just continues to pile up countlessly, until it comes to the point where he has to vigorously shake his head to snap him out of it. He takes a quick look at you, before fully facing you while his arms are crossed.

“Who put that silly little question in your head? I’ll make sure they would be the ones to leave.”

As he saw you frantically waving in the air that it’s no one else but you who put that question in your head and that he doesn’t have to answer it, he couldn’t help but lightly smile. Sure, most of your antics can annoy him but you’re the only person who can deem him tolerable, and it can be said as the same for you. He let out a sigh, before mumbling something that is only for your ears only, as the heat rises up to his cheeks.

“We won’t break up, and I’ll make sure of that. Even if we do, I’ll just come tailing back to you. You’re such an idiot for thinking that I would do that...Stop it with that smile will you?! Ugh, just come here.”

AYATO.

Raises an eyebrow at you in confusion, then that confusion switches to concern as the scrolls he was busy putting on work was now long gone. He looks up at you who’s simply standing there as if the question isn’t affecting you one bit.

Is someone bad mouthing you? Is someone pressuring you? Did they do something? Who forced you into this? Whatever it is, Ayato is determined to find out what’s the root of this question.

Dating Kamisato Ayato is not a joke, for goodness sake he is a leader of one of the most influential clans in Inazuma, so when the public found out about his relationship with you, of course there will be a pressure and a certain inconvenience given to you.

“Why so sudden with this darling? Is there a problem? Would you like to talk about it? I do not know where is this coming from, but I can assure you that we will find a way to fix it.”

Seeing the surprise look on your face, and the way you sheepishly told him that you were just being nosy about it was enough for him to connect the dots. Good, nothing bad happened and you’re perfectly fine, that’s all that matters to him. But, going back to your question, he smiled at you with a glint of refusal in his eyes before answering.

“I am confident that me or you won’t leave this relationship, even though my work serves as a distraction, that reason alone will not stop us from loving each other. If it does happen in the future and you gave me a valid reason for it, I shall perhaps let you go but that doesn’t mean I will also stop loving you.”

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

I heard that the japanese fans saying that bkdk was implied is it really true? Can you please explain?!! (I was pretty happy with the ending already, but if it's true I would be ecstatic 🧡💚💖)

I'm not really sure how to answer this. First, I'll direct you to this ask I answered previously about bkdk in the Japanese fandom.

And if you're talking about the same tweets from jpn fans I saw getting shared around, the majority of the comments clearly used emojis, euphemisms, and algorithm-disrupting nicknames for Katsuki and Izuku, which kind of immediately suggests the user is already a bkdk fan. So, I mean... do you go into shipping fan spaces, see people shipping, and decide that means everybody thinks those characters are dating? Probably not, right?

But now that we've got an ending, lemme say outright that bkdk is implied by the base structure of the story. By the characters' thematic arcs. By their words, values, goals, and actions. Regardless of what language they speak, no reader can walk away from MHA without understanding that Izuku and Katsuki are profoundly important to each other.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Izuku loves Katsuki. And by the end of his character arc, there is no way to read Katsuki's actions towards Izuku and not see love, either. The exact nature of that love is up to individual interpretation; this is common for stories outside the romance genre that have complex character relationships, and I encourage you to feel secure in your own reading without external validation.

But if you want to talk about validity, the fact that we don't see either of them say the words "I love you" out loud does not diminish a romantic interpretation.

Just for fun, let's talk a bit about some important history of "implied" romance in shonen manga.

(Spoilers for Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2.)

Takahashi Rumiko, one of the most successful and influential manga creators of all time, famously ended two of her heterosexual romantic comedy plotlines while denying readers a spoken, reciprocated "I love you."

In Urusei Yatsura, Lum spends the entire series actively pursuing Ataru and in the finale, she threatens to erase everyone's memories of her and her fellow aliens if he does not tell her he loves her. The situation makes it impossible for him to win and stop the memory erasing without saying it.

And he still refuses to say it.

He keeps trying to win and avoid losing his memory without saying it; she recognizes his devotion to her when she sees that all this time, he has been carrying something that reminds him of her.

Oh, look at that. I wonder who else spent a long time holding fast to something that represents the time they spent with their loved one?

Lum finally relents and allows Ataru to win, so everyone keeps their memories.

Each of them affirms the intention to be together forever, without using the words "I love you."

WOW I WONDER WHO ELSE WANTED TO BE LOCKED IN A COMBATIVE ENTANGLEMENT OF PURSUIT WITH THE PERSON THEY LOVE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

In Ranma 1/2, Ranma and Akane have been engaged to be married for the whole series, and at a pivotal moment, Ranma thinks the words "I love you," though he does not say them aloud.

Afterwards, Akane finally agrees to let the wedding take place with this as her reasoning:

And Ranma completely objects to having admitted this.

Akane is fucking right, fyi--ignoring everything else that happens in the series, Ranma rescuing her and crying over her injured body while yelling her name might as well be a confession.

Due to ensemble cast chaos, the wedding is postponed again at the end of the manga.

It is worth noting that these series are both in the romantic comedy genre, so their plot devices surrounding love are much more explicit, even if the final execution toys with our expectations. It makes the characters' real feelings obvious while keeping them true to their nature, because that's the core appeal of the relationship to begin with.

As I said, in manga that are not romances, these bonds are often more subtle.

When I said 424 was as good as a confession to me, this is part of why.

Katsuki says he thought they would be together for the rest of their lives. Izuku promises what he can, which is the time he still has the embers of OFA. He may think Katsuki is simply mourning a future where Izuku has OFA, which he can't get back.

In direct response to that exchange, for our finale, we find out Katsuki spent eight years arranging for Izuku to be a pro hero without OFA.

Katsuki beckons Izuku to his side, using the name that used to be an insult, but has since become Izuku's hero name. He reaches out his hand to Izuku, which the reader knows he has wanted to do for so long.

The last image we see might as well be them skipping off into the sunset together, side by side.

Am I supposed to see that as something other than love, just because all their friends are there, too? That seems kinda silly to me.

MHA emphasizes the collective, but that doesn't diminish the individual bonds within it. It goes out of its way to tell us this moment is possible because of Katsuki, because he wants Izuku beside him. We may not get our handhold here, but it is plain to see that Izuku accepts his invitation.

I'm not saying Horikoshi was directly inspired by Takahashi, but her works are an important piece of the narrative language of love within the shonen genre.

Art always reflexively harkens back to what came before it. Whether the creator intends it or not, the audience is reminded of what they've seen before in the cultural landscape of media. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for us to see bkdk as romantic is simply irrelevant to how any given reader is going to see it.

So, if you want permission to think Katsuki and Izuku are in love, you've got mine. tumblr user bakuhatsufallinlove sanctions this epic gay love story. Plus Ultra. You're welcome. <3

[luveline]

hi jade i’m going through a breakup right now and my ex was really toxic so i was wondering if you could write something with Steve, where reader is dating him after and thinks that everytime he does something nice for her she has to repay him with sex. like even after a date or when he buys her something. that’s literally how my ex made me feel

if not it’s totally cool and thank you💕

hi my love, I'm really sorry that that was happening to you, it isn't okay! you're much more than your intimacy with someone and you deserve to be given good things without expectations. I hope this is what you wanted to read <3

tw past implied coerced sex /sexual assault

“Up you go.” 

You shriek, clawing at the hands on your hips as Steve lifts you up a step. “Don't!” you laugh, failing to get out of his grips. 

“M'just helping you, babe, alright? Don't be so ungrateful.” 

He's joking, but the air feels like it's been knocked our of you. Steve continues to heave you up the steps to the house, sandwiching you between his front and the door as he unlocks it. 

“Come on, beautiful,” he says, practically dragging you inside, “what happened? Your legs stopped working.” 

It goes without saying that Steve is really nice. Eddie told you he's always like this when he's in love, but you're reluctant to call it love just yet. Dating is difficult for you sometimes —you overthink when you should be kissing, and flinch sometimes when he's kind. But you're having a really, really nice time with Steve and you want to keep trying to be with him. 

He knows you've gone somewhere else, his hand coming up around your chest to rest on yout sternum. “Hey, you okay?” 

“I'm fine.” 

“Yeah?” He walks you to the living room. “It was a good day, right?” he asks into your cheek, propping a soft kiss there. “God, you make me so happy.” 

Your face and neck flush with heat. Steve gives you a squeeze of a hug and encourages you to sit on the couch, where he immediately kneels at your feet. What he's saying is lovely, but when he starts to untie your shoe laces, you realise it had been a prompt. To be grateful, to show him it was a good day. He slides your shoes off with a grin, and your hands go to your button. You unzip your jeans, and Steve's smile stutters. 

“Do you want to?” you ask, paused. 

“Want to what?” 

“Take them off for me?” 

“Are they hurting you?” 

You realise different things at the same time. Steve your intentions, and you his lack thereof. “Shit, I'm sorry,” you say, as he says, “Oh, oh, um?” 

“I thought you wanted–” 

“You're perfect, and I want to if you want to, but I wasn't trying to come on to you,” he says, holding your ankle. “I'm sorry, I'm embarrassing you. Don't be embarrassed, please, I'm such an idiot–” He puts his face against your knees.

You pull your shirt down over pants to hide their open state. “You… we had such a nice day. Don't you want…” You cross your arms over your stomach. “I wanted to. I mean, you should get something back.” 

“I should get what back? Why would you think that?” he asks. Steve gets quiet when things are serious. He has a mixture of shock and hurt in his eyes looking up at you, but his hands stay gentle as they climb your legs.

You can't admit it. The weight of it stays on your tongue. 

Steve thinks about it, and maybe he sees it in your face, but eventually he says, “With him?” 

You look away. 

Steve climbs onto the couch beside you with a quiet huff. “When I said we had a good day, that's all I meant. That's…” He takes one of your hands, pulling it toward him, his gaze insistent on your face until you meet his eyes. “I really, really like you. Like–” He puts your hand on his chest and holds it there. “You don't have to do anything for it.” His lips pout gently. “Am I saying the wrong thing?” 

“No.” 

He leans in to kiss your cheek. “Good,” he says, and kisses it again. 

You smile, tilting your head to your shoulder, tickled at his breath as it fans out by your ear. 

“Baby,” he murmurs, “are you okay?” 

You nod, worried about how you might sound if you speak. 

“You never have to do that.” 

“I didn't mean to make it seem like you thought that I did,” you mumble. 

“I know. It's confusing, right? Being with someone new after a long time with someone else. But I want to be with you, and I'm sorry that you– that he made you feel that way, that he could treat you like that. I'm sorry.” 

“It's okay, Steve. I'm sorry too.” 

“Well don't be.” He works his arms around you in a hug, a careful hand behind your neck. “I don't want you to be sorry. You didn't do a thing wrong.” 

He sounds angry for a split second, and you know undeniably that he isn't angry with you. You hug him back with much more gusto, so tight he actually groans. He doesn't make you stop, though. Just hugs you closer in response.  

“You want me to get you some sweatpants or something?” he asks. 

You nod into his neck, slinking down further into his embrace. Neither of you make any efforts to actually pull away. 

[werywrenniethoughts]

Help Wanted 2: Lets Talk About Sun (Spoilers for Help Wanted 2!)

Okay,

I've had some time to digest Help Wanted 2. What a freaking roller coaster. I'm assuming you all have played/watched/seen Help Wanted 2, so be advised if you haven't seen everything we have access to so far, I'll be bringing it up.

One thing I'll say upfront is its nice to know Sun and Moon ARE older like I theorized. They're tied to the Fall Festival which took place in 1970 per one of the prize collector posters and the fact they deal with the carousel. I think Steel Wool also tried to point out and confirm Moon is patient zero for....I guess I should say Vanny's influence in the PizzaPlex. He's definitely the favorite to be pitted against us. I'm STILL losing my mind over the Princess Quest Ending.

So, the DCA fandom has been all across the board, ranging from "I love sassy Sun" to "Sun is SO mean. This ruins my headcannon." I don't think it really does. At least, it doesn't have to.

Our first encounter with Sun in front of us is Arts and Crafts. This minigame is located in the world we eventually learn is AR. We also are clearly a new FazBear hire. Sun is definitely sassy, and let's face it, VERY critical of what he defines as a mistake. BUT the flip side of that coin is he is still nice when you do the art correctly. He calls you friend, he wants to help you. If the player eats the crafts, he loses his mind. It's because he's worrying for the player due to the effects eating the crafts will have on them, ie: "That is how you get ulcers!". (By far, MY FAVORITE line of Sun's btw. Kellen stated that line and the indigestion line were both improved btw- genius.) He still doesn't want Moon to get you, he doesn't want to get in trouble. The one threat is after you've been hitting him several times and you've outright pissed him off. (I personally, think the "I should turn off the lights myself" was a drama king being a drama king.) Then we take the mask off. We see everything destroyed and Sun acts like the Sun we've always known. "I'm perfectly fine where I am. It's better this way. It's safer this way." "Keep the generator on. Without it I won't be able to help you." He's the same as he's always been. We've just seen a new layer.

What we ultimately have to come to terms with, is that Sun is a control freak and a perfectionist. He thinks he "has" to be. He doesn't want you to move from your craft table so he can watch you like a hawk. Do the job you are assigned. Get in, get out. Do the art HIS way, and follow HIS rules. If you don't, bad things can happen. Bad things HAVE happened. Another explanation could also be that maybe he isn't as free of the glitch trap virus as we thought? He can be sassy, he can be brutally honest, he can be concerned for us, for children, and his own darkness can rear its head, all at the same time.

Steel Wool could also be trying to slam into our faces that Sun is incomplete. He is one-half of a whole. He has good intentions, he means well at his core, but he cannot stop, regroup, and act rather than react. He gets stressed, and can't cope and adjust. Instead, he demands control back when he feels like he's about to lose it. Moon is calm, calculating, and logical. It's why they need to be whole and why Sun is so grateful to Cassie when she fixes them to become Eclipse. As Eclipse, they both find the parts of themselves they've so desperately needed.

[lucysarah-c]

~ Holy Ground ch. 1 ~

Summary:

"Alright, get comfortable because this is going to be a long, crappy tale. Join me as we travel down memory lane, back when Erwin wasn't yet a commander, when Mike and Nanaba couldn't keep their hands off each other, when Hange was… well, Hange. And Levi? Well, Levi was a twenty-four-year-old man who didn't give a damn about the rules. Are you ready?"

Warnings: This story contains age gaps, time period misogyny and mentions of homophobia, strong and offensive language, underage sex, alcohol, smoking, implied/referenced of drug use. This is a very slow burn so everyhthing takes a while to happen. Explicit sex content. Virginity, loss of virginity, cheating, mentions of cheating, pregnancy but no by the main character, consensual sex, consensual underage sex, underage kissing.

Pairing: Levi x Reader x Erwin. Levi x Reader are end game. (this is not eruri). This story takes place after ACWNR but BEFORE season 1.

-> Masterlist to all the chapters! <-

Just after Historia's coronation but before the expedition to Wall Maria, this story took place. Everything was coming to an end after a long and exhausting day of duty in the legion. The night had already fallen, and dinner at the mess hall was over. Our lively group of cadets had planned to sneak out after curfew to enjoy their youth. Well, that was the plan IF a certain short black-haired captain didn’t catch wind of it.

The plan was simple: they would all wait in their respective shared rooms and beds until the last superior left the public areas. It wouldn't be too difficult if Sasha and Connie could refrain from cracking jokes, or if Eren and Jean could postpone their petty arguments. They were just a few meters away from the front door, with the gates right in front of them. They were so close that they could already feel the cold autumn air brushing against their faces. However, their intentions and dreams crumbled like water slipping through their fingers when a throat was cleared loudly in the room. Some of them bit their bottom lips and closed their eyes, while others, like Eren and Jean, clenched their teeth, as if bracing for impact. On the other hand, Mikasa, with her usual calm demeanor, turned to confirm her suspicions. Sure enough, Y/N was leaning against the doorframe, holding a cup of tea in her hands. Her arched eyebrow silently questioned the cadets, who knew they better answer soon.

"It's not what it looks like!" Jean was the first to attempt a convincing response but faltered flatly.

"Really? Then what does it look like?" the superior took a sip of her freshly brewed tea and followed up with a verbal question this time.

Armin was next in line to offer an acceptable excuse, but before he could even finish, the woman shook her head with closed eyes.

"Oh, sweet summer child, you can't hold a candle to me," she said with a tired voice, followed by a loud sigh.

The group of teenagers looked at each other, trying to gauge how many hours of punishment awaited them. It wasn't too much to ask, after all! The fair was in town, and wanting to have some fun during one of the few nights when the town came alive in the late hours shouldn't be a crime. Truth be told, they didn't know what their superior could actually do to them. They were accustomed to the captain's cold treatment, but Y/N's? Not really, since she had recently returned to work.

"Well? Are you planning to stand here all night or what? Come on, follow me," the young woman ordered, making her way in the opposite direction of the main door.

Without a doubt, the famous group followed closely behind her. They didn't dare make a sound as they walked in an unknown direction. The clock in the common area struck midnight as the group navigated the halls of the Scouting Legion's building. During their expedition (not precisely outside the walls), the young men in the group couldn't help but notice their superior's revealing outfit. She wore an oversized grey shirt that clearly didn't belong to her, along with a pair of shorts that left little to the imagination. She wasn't even wearing shoes, walking through the halls barefoot and without any source of light. It was as if she knew the corridors like the back of her hand. Armin, the clever one of the team, was the first to notice that he had seen that shirt before, and his blue eyes shone with his brand-new discovery. It was (Y/N) who broke the silence.

"Allow me to give you a few tips for next time," she said, walking and turning around to face the team.

"Never try to sneak out through the main door. Why? All the superiors' offices are on the upper floors, and none of them go to sleep so early. Conclusion: you're going to be heard. Second, never wait until everyone is supposed to be asleep. You may think that the darkness of the night will protect you, but it only makes things worse. Next time, try to do it right after dinner. Everybody is still walking around, so it won't be strange if you're out and about. But don't all go together; that's suspicious. Plus, the superiors usually stay a bit longer, chatting about life or whatever."

The 104th promotion was in shock. Since when do the superiors give advice on how to break the rules? However, they were all taking mental notes of this valuable information. Every wise word that came from the woman's lips was pure and solid gold.

"Last but certainly not least," she said as they turned the corner and entered an old storage room for forgotten equipment. "Use a hidden door."

She walked straight toward the stone wall at the end of the room. She moved the old boxes, covered in dust, and muttered to herself, loud enough for the rest to hear, "the fifth brick from the left," then pushed with all her strength. Suddenly, a secret door opened, revealing the cold night sky.

The teenagers were completely overwhelmed to see such an awesome secret hidden behind that old, mossy wall.

"When you want to come back, there's a small leather handle on the other side. Just give it a gentle pull, and you're in. It's as heavy as it looks," she clarified, so the team could return without being seen. "If I were you, I wouldn't do it tonight. Tomorrow, you have an intense practice session with Levi, and you'll regret this. But nothing like the present, right? Come on, let's go! I have better things to do than freeze to death here."

After the last sentence, all of them rushed out in a hurry, except for Armin, who looked at his superior with curiosity. She could easily tell that the blond short kid was her favorite; his wisdom and curiosity reminded her of herself when she was still a little girl.

"Why?" he simply asked.

"Because I was once young too," she replied, crossing her arms on her chest. "And just because I'm having an awful and boring night doesn't mean you have to as well. Go on! Have fun, get drunk, enjoy it while you can."

The group was expecting various resolutions to this outburst of rebellion, but this was certainly not one of them. Of course, they didn't waste any time and went out. While the young ones were having the time of their lives, (Y/N) made her way back to her room with her now cold tea. If someone could have seen her face, they would have noticed that she wasn't the happiest woman wandering around that night.

Lost in her memories, she tried to recall the last time she used that secret door. As she pondered, another memory burst into her mind like a firework: the very first time they had discovered that secret door. A nostalgic smile appeared on her face, resembling that of a mother watching her child play in the backyard.

The voice of experience never seems to fail when it comes to predicting the future, better than any oracle ever created.

"For fuck's sake! What the hell is wrong with all of you today?!" The unmistakable voice of Captain Levi echoed in the training area as his team seemed to be devastated that morning. "What a shitty performance you're all giving today!"

The woman, who was supervising the training, hid her laughing face behind the notebook where she took her notes. The short man turned around to see what was so funny, and she tried to regain her composure in front of him, but failed miserably. The only sounds coming from the cadets were yawns and tired attempts to reply "yes, sir" with enthusiasm.

"Let them go, Levi. They can't even keep their eyes open," she tried to convince the black-haired man.

Not at all pleased, Levi chickled his tongue and rolled his eyes. He knew she was right; training in this state was pointless. However, he wanted nothing more than to kick all those brats' asses for making him waste his time.

"Alright, you shitty brats, get the hell out of the area before I kick each and every one of you so hard that you'll stay awake for an entire week," he pronounced with an irritated tone.

He couldn't even finish his sentence before his team was already making their way back to their rooms. But they weren't the only ones trying to escape from humanity's strongest soldier. The woman gathered her things and attempted to sneak away before he could notice.

"This better be the last damn time you let them sneak out during training days. Am I making myself clear?" Levi turned around and said to the young woman who had been sitting next to him just a few minutes ago.

"Oh, come on, Levi! Let it go this time," she replied, chuckling. "We were young once too."

She tried to ease the tension with a sweet smile, glad that they were talking like usual. However, the look he gave her caused her to lower her gaze with sadness in her eyes. She wondered when everything would go back to normal. She missed him and the warm, small smile that he only had for her.

"It won't happen again, sir," she said, not even attempting to conceal her sorrow as she walked away.

Reader’s pov

The day went without any problems and was relatively peaceful, as peaceful as a day at the scouts can be. We had a little meeting with the remaining superiors. Levi seems to insist on giving me the cold, silent treatment. Last night, I tried to change things a bit, hoping that after nearly six months of chilly nights, he would warm up to me. I even went ahead and offered him a massage, wearing nothing but his shirt. I know how much he likes it. But even the freezing marble floor beneath my bare feet felt warmer than him.

I wonder if this is as difficult for him as it is for me. After enduring his cold treatment, the words slipped out of my lips. I couldn't hold back, I needed to ask him.

"Are we breaking up? Just tell me so I can stop making a fool of myself in front of you. Come on, muster the courage to say it," I said, feeling tears welling up in the corners of my eyes.

"Don't shout. You'll wake up the entire legion," he replied without even looking up from his paperwork. "Whether we break up or not, it's not my decision. I'm not the one hiding information here."

As he finished his cold-hearted sentence, I quickly put on the first pair of shorts I could find and ran out of the room. I needed some tea to calm my mind. This was all too much for my weary body. While I was in the kitchen, I overheard Levi's squad attempting to sneak out. Initially, I considered walking away, but I knew Levi would catch them. However, he wouldn't dare intervene if I were with them, not after our little argument in our shared room. So, I made a decision. I helped them out.

And now, here I am. I just took a shower in the common area because Hange's bathroom is dirtier than any titan's mouth. I walk down the corridors, wondering if I'll have to sleep on Hange's sofa once again. My lower abdomen is throbbing with pain. A comforting cup of black tea made by my wonderful boyfriend would be a dream, but dreaming of freedom for humanity seems more realistic than that. On my way, I notice a group of cadets stationed at the watch post outside the building. Among all the scouts, I recognize those faces—it's Levi's team. I bet they're being forced to pull an all-nighter for night watch duty as punishment. Typical.

"Well, well, look at that. Not only do I grant you a free pass, a free morning, but also a night of bonding with friends at the watch post," I say, making my presence known among the group. This causes Jean to spit out the liquid he was drinking, and all of them turn around with pale faces.

"Calm down, guys. I'm not here to punish any of you."

They all let out a collective sigh of relief upon seeing me.

"For a moment, we thought you were a real hard-ass superior," Connie says, chuckling, which surprises me and widens my eyes.

"Excuse me, brat?! What do you mean by 'real superior'?" I ask, irritated by the tone in my voice.

"We didn't mean to offend you! It's just, it's just…" Armin tries his best to salvage the situation after his comrade messes up.

I can't help but burst into laughter as I struggle to sit between Eren and Jean. I clutch my lower abdomen, right where my bandages are. I wonder when the pain will finally subside.

"It's alright, I was just teasing all of you," I say, observing their puzzled expressions as they exchange glances, trying to decipher why I'm here. I wish I knew myself what the hell I'm doing here. But honestly, anything is better than going back to my room and pretending that everything is okay when it's not. "Do you mind if I spend the night with you? As a token of appreciation, you can ask me anything you want."

I enjoy the way their faces change upon hearing the last part, especially Armin. That little blondie's blue eyes gleam with curiosity. But Jean isn't far behind; his expression screams, "I'm going to confirm all the juicy rumors." However, to my surprise, it's neither of them who asks the first question.

"Do you know how to do Captain Levi's spin?! Can you teach me?" Eren enthusiastically shouts the first question.

"I'm afraid I don't, sorry sugar cube," I reply, oblivious to the numerous protocols I've just violated with a single response.

I'm not accustomed to dealing with cadets; my work has never involved interacting with them. I can tell they're taken aback by my pleasant demeanor, especially Eren, whose face turns crimson at my nickname.

"Are you Captain Levi's girlfriend?" Armin's question feels like a stab to my injured heart. Everyone gasps at the question; I suppose they all had their own speculations.

'Right where it hurts, Armin, right where it hurts,' I think, while I try to come up with a realistic reply. Technically, I'm still Levi's girlfriend. ' His freaking five-year-old girlfriend.'

"I am, but I'm guessing you already knew that, didn't you?" I respond with elegance, attempting to sound confident.

Immediately after my reply, the entire group starts bombarding me with question after question. It's as if “Levi's girlfriend” title has opened a door they've all been yearning to enter. I can't help but let out a small laugh at the situation I've gotten myself into. I'm like that bold friend who's been intimate before the rest of the girl group, and now everyone wants to know every detail about the brand-new topic.

"Whoa, calm down, guys! One question at a time," I say, gesturing with my hands for a momentary break.

"Is it true that he was from the Underground and he was a rebel?" Eren once again fires off a question, a quick kid armed with surprisingly accurate information.

"Where did you hear all that?" I inquire before answering, unable to contain my laughter. "It's true, he was quite the rebel when he arrived from the Underground. He even used to wear a black leather jacket during his free days. I must admit, it suited him."

They take a brief moment to process the new information, mouths agape, before the barrage of questions resumes. I do my best to respond to each of them to the best of my ability before Jean asks the one million dollar question you should never ask someone whose personal relationship is falling apart.

"How did you two start dating? He doesn't strike me as the dating type," Jean wants to know the most challenging information that has ever existed.

"Well, it's a long story that goes way back, even before Wall Maria fell," I reply as casually as possible. "And trust me, none of you wants to hear it."

"I do!" is the only thing I hear amidst that chilly autumn night. I know I shouldn't because it's not just my story; it's Levi's too, and I know how reserved he is about his private life. But I'm heartbroken and nostalgic, surrounded by a group of teenagers. Nothing good could happen tonight, so…

"Alright, get comfortable because this is going to be a long, crappy tale. Join me as we travel down memory lane, back when Erwin wasn't yet a commander, when Mike and Nanaba couldn't keep their hands off each other, when Hange was… well, Hange. And Levi? Well, Levi was a twenty-four-year-old man who didn't give a damn about the rules. Are you ready?"

Author's Note: This was the very first long fic I ever decided to write, and it's the reason I opened a Tumblr account back in the day. I deleted the chapters here because it felt like nobody was reading it, and I decided to focus my account on other things. Now that I'm rewriting the old chapters to finally finish the last five of a story spanning over 40 chapters, I've decided to give it a second chance and post it again!

I'll be posting all the new chapters every Friday! The banner was made by me, and the little "dividers" I add have a purpose—haha! The story advances through Levi's entire first year as a scout, so we'll go through all the seasons, starting in autumn. I don't usually ask for much, but Holy Ground has always been my baby, and if you guys decide to give it a try, I'll be forever grateful. <3

Link to my masterlist and my other works if you feel like checking them out. Tags!: @nube55 @justkon @notgoodforlife @nmlkys @humanitys-strongest-bamf @quillinhand @thoreeo @darkstarlight82 @aomi04 @levisbrat25 @fxnnyackerman @secretmoneybearvoid @trashblackrainbow @l3visthighs @hannieslovebot @flxrartsstuff @feelingsandemotionsnotexplored @starrylevi @rithty @mariaace @ackrmntea @emilyyyy-08 @levisfavoriteteashop @katestrophes @katharinasdiaryy @ackermanswifee @levistealeaf @an-ever-angry-bi @youre-ackermine @searriously @blackdxggr @storiesofsung @abiatackerman @braunsbabe @moonchild-angel @galactict3a @lemonsupernova @hyuckwon-my-husbands @heyitsd1yaa @sydneyyuu @love-for-faeries-go-burrrr @mandaax @sugacor3 @r0ckst4rjk @vegetasgirl2799 @catiwinky @pinksaiyans @sparklykeylime Wanna join my tag list? Here!

[dixons-sunshine]

Shopping Spree, Hangout Dreams—Alternate Scenarios.

Word count: 439.

A/n: @ddamm requested to see what I would've written if I decided the apocalypse didn't happen for this au, so here's a few things I would've written had I decided to do that. I have more of these, so let me know if y'all wanna see!

★ If the apocalypse didn't happen, a lot of things would be different for you and Daryl.

★ One main thing that would be different is that you and Daryl would be actively planning and preparing for the birth of your baby.

★ You and Daryl would also have looked into buying a house before the baby's arrival.

★ Also, you would've known the baby's gender long before the birth. You'd have planned a small gender reveal and did it with Daryl in your new home.

★ Daryl would be renovating the nursery in your new home every chance he got.

★ He'd also be so dead set on baby proofing the entire house. However, he wouldn't let you help because he was also dead set on having you take it easy.

★ There'd be cute moments with the kids in the kindergarten you teach at. As your belly grew, and the kiddos picked up on it, it made for some sweet moments.

★ “Mrs Dixon, why's your belly getting so big?”

“Because I'm growing a baby inside. Me and my husband are gonna have our own kid soon, sweetheart.”

“Really? When can we see the baby?”

“Not for a while yet. But soon, I promise. Now, let's get back to your drawing, huh?”

★ You didn't know what the parents were teaching their kids regarding babies and pregnancy, so you always tried your best to divert away from those questions.

★ Daryl would also be promoted in his job, meaning a better, more stable income, plus he gets to do something he loves—repairing motorcycles and cars.

★ He wouldn't hunt as much as he does in the apocalypse. He'd go during a weekend once a month, and he'd take you along if you wanted to.

★ However, once the baby was born, his hunting trips were practically nonexistent for a long while.

★ After birth, it's extremely common to feel bad about how you look. So Daryl made sure to remind you every chance he got how beautiful you were to him.

★ Late at night after your baby was put down to sleep, Daryl would place soft kisses over any stretch marks you had. No sexual intention behind it, just a reminder that he loved you and you were beautiful to him.

★ You'd get a couple of furry companions to really complete the family. A cat and two dogs.

★ Daryl swore he hated cats, but you had caught him cuddling with the cat once or twice.

©dixons-sunshine 2024. I do not give permission for my works to be copied, modified, adapted or translated to any other site or platform without evidence of my given consent.

[the-ineffable-dance]

In this post, I took a look at the beginning of the Final Fifteen and how Aziraphale's walk back to the bookshop is not the look of an excited or happy angel... instead, it looks like he's upset and desperately making a plan. Whelp, it's time for the next step of the heartbreak that is the Final Fifteen... Aziraphale's dance.

The first thing that happens when Aziraphale enters the bookshop is Nina and Maggie head out from their chat with Crowley. We follow them out, and the camera leaves them and joins the Metatron as he approaches Muriel on the patio reading a book. He checks in on her, and then straightens up, turning around. This gives him the perfect vantage point to stare straight into the bookshop window right at where our angel and demon are talking.

As you can see in the gif above, Aziraphale can see him from where he's standing. Before he even looks at Crowley, he sees the Metatron through the window.

Crowely starts his confession. He doesn't get very far... but really, he doesn't need to. These are two beings who know each other so well they can tell by tone of voice how the other is feeling. And Aziraphale knows just from the tone what Crowley is trying to say. There's a reason that it's taken them 6000 years to say how they feel... it's dangerous. It was never an unnecessary fear on their part, it was a very real and very present danger. And now, Crowley is about to say all the things that Aziraphale wants to hear, and the danger IS STARING AT THEM THROUGH THE WINDOW.

He hasn't even really looked at Crowley yet... heard the tone that Crowley was using, and looking out the window... Yep! Metatron, right there. Note his hands. Up and down. I didn't watch all of Extraordinary Attorney Woo for nothing! Those are "woah woah" hands. Like, stop talking, stop talking, STOP TALKING.

When he finally does look at Crowley, that's not a happy face. Not the face of someone that's finally hearing the confession they've been longing for for millennia. Michael Sheen has given Aziraphale the most endearing heart eyes throughout season 2...

But no heart eyes here? If everything went great with the Metatron and Aziraphale is completely on board with returning to Heaven with Crowley by his side, why in the world would he interrupt this moment? Letting Crowley profess his love would only strengthen Aziraphale's push to stay together. It is "Incredibly good news" after all. No, things did NOT go well with the Metatron, and they are in trouble. And so, Aziraphale is starting to panic. Crowley isn't paying attention to the "shush" hands, or his repeated looks out the window, so the only thing left is to interrupt. Aziraphale's bumbling rush to cut Crowley off feels a lot like "I can't let you continue so you don't incriminate yourself."

SO!! Azi jumps in with his version of his conversation with the Metatron. The "Good News" - "I... (mouth working furiously without sound)... the Metatron..." I don't think it's 'normal Aziraphale stutter' in the moment between those two words. There are plenty of times when Azi gets a little tongue tied when he's too excited (either due to lying OR trying to impress Crowley). But usually when he does that, he looks up and to the left. Instead, this time he makes eye contact with Crowley and does not look away. If you look closely, I'm nearly certain that he mouths the words "We Need Help."

What convinces me of this even more is that Crowley begins to watch him very intently. He's frustrated... certainly! But he doesn't fall into their normal banter. No quips, no growling at being cut off, no gentle arguing. He can absolutely tell from Aziraphale's tone that this is his "Something's Wrong Voice" and instantly listens.

Then the full dance begins. Aziraphale does begin his normal stutter with the wandering hands... he's trying to not say the wrong thing here and make their situation worse while still being convincing that he's going along with what the Metatron wanted.

Crowley tries to play along... until the offer to become an angel again comes up. I don't think that Aziraphale knows just how painful that concept is for Crowley. And with good reason, because I highly doubt that Crowley has been honest with him about it. Aziraphale loves Crowley for ALL that he is, but since he doesn't know how hurtful this will be, he just blunders right into the offer.

Crowley is so hurt? (Offended? Enraged?) by the concept of becoming an angel again, that he can't keep up the dance they've been putting on for the Metatron. In fact, he immediately fires off "And you told him just where he could stick it then." It's not actually a question for Aziraphale... He knows they're being listened to. He's directly telling the Metatron where he can stick it. "We're better than that" = "We're better than YOU (Metatron)"

And we watch the smile fall from Aziraphale's face. IMO, there is no question that Aziraphale suffers from CPTSD. People (and people shaped beings) with CPTSD can have a very hard time when there is a sudden, unexpected emotional response to something they've done or said. He thought they were on the same page, and suddenly Crowley isn't playing along, and he's angry. Furious. And Aziraphale falls back on old habits as he tries to regain his footing... thus, the unfortunate comment of "You're the bad guys." It's a terrible thing to say. And I'm not trying to excuse Azi for saying it... but it was a trauma response to an unexpected situation.

"Tell me you said no!" "If I'm in charge, I can make a difference."

The dance is over... these lines are not for the Metatron's benefit, or anyone else's. This is real. Crowley wants Aziraphale to say no to the Metatron, regardless of the situation. Aziraphale thinks he can only thwart the Metatron/ protect Crowley and the world by going to Heaven.

Ouch my heart! Onward to Crowley's confession (and possibly a post about the prologue to this heartache and the conversation between Azi and Metatrash)

[devildomwriter]

Obey Me as Disenchantment Quotes #1

Lucifer & Satan: *Laughing maniacally*

Simeon: “While I question their evil motives, it is nice to see them happy.”

Barbatos: “Now announcing the triumphant return of our heroes from their quest that we all privately thought would fail.”

Mammon & Leviathan: “…”

Lucifer: “How do we even know it worked.”

Solomon: “Oh but it must have worked. Now to test it, we need a volunteer to kill you.”

Belphegor: “Dibs.”

Barbatos: “How can you keep messing up a recipe with two ingredients?”

Solomon: “If you ever run into trouble give them this note.”

MC: “Kill me?”

Solomon: “Thirteen gave it to me, now I give it to you.”

Leviathan: “I’ve been meaning to…but the thing is, I…so you see…well, I’m glad we had this talk. How bout you talk now?”

MC: “But you haven’t said anything yet.”

Belphegor: “Well I was waiting to tell you until after I was dead so I wouldn’t have to tell you.”

Mammon: “Now just keep holding on, okay. Just keep holding on.”

MC: “It’s okay, it’s okay Mammon, I always wanted to go out while I’m still young and hot.”

Leviathan: “I didn’t want to tell you because I’m terrified of female emotions.”

Satan: “No, no, no, I was mostly raised by Lucifer. And a bunch of friendly drunks down at the pub. They taught me the fine art of stabbing.”

Barbatos: “It’s just too painful seeing the truth all the time.”

Solomon: “Ah, that’s why humans tend to avoid it.”

Belphegor: “The profession left without me.”

Diavolo: “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Belphegor: “I blame myself, cause I didn’t even notice.”

Solomon & Barbatos: *fighting*

Asmodeus: “Guys, guys come on. I’m much more embarrassed than I am aroused.”

Asmodeus: “MC, you poor baby. What a horrific day you’ve had. Let’s have too much wine and forget about it all.”

Beelzebub: “How’d you become a weird talking cat.”

Satan: “You keep shoving waffles in your mouth while I think of an answer.”

Thirteen: “I’ll use my skills as a hunter and Raphael will use his diplomacy to stab them with a broom handle.”

Solomon: “I used to spend many nights up here. Watching the sky, the moon, the neighbors.”

Lucifer: “This is your home. You’re free to explore.”

MC: “Wow, what’s behind that door?”

Lucifer: “None of your business nosy.”

Mammon: “Maybe you were overcome by chimney fumes. It happens quite frequently in a place like this with no chimnies.”

Satan: “What family curse? You mean insanity?”

Leviathan: “No, don’t be crazy. But yes I mean insanity.”

Asmodeus: “You guys are heavy. Do I really need both of you?”

Solomon & Satan: “Yes!”

Asmodeus: “Damn, I hate democracy.”

Mammon: “I knew you could count on me!”

Simeon: “What’s this called again?”

Mammon: “A a massage. It’s like a light well intentioned beating.”

Diavolo: “You’re clearly upset.”

Lucifer: “I’m not upset!”

Diavolo: “You said that like you were upset!”

MC: “Come on Belphegor be reasonable!”

Belphegor: “Never!”

Satan: “We’re gonna have to wing this in a dangerously half assed manner.”

Mammon: “That’s the Morningstar way.”

Asmodeus: “There’s plenty of fish in the sea, Sol.”

Solomon: “Like hell am I marrying another fish woman.”

Lucifer: “Disappointment’s a form of caring.”

Diavolo: “Tell me, where are you from.”

Solomon: “A country setting, it’s kind of like a farm but more stabbing.”

Simeon: “This whole thing feels like a weird dream.”

Mammon: “Or scurvy. When does scurvy kick in?”

Lucifer: “Believe it or not I know what it feels like to be burned alive by a mob of idiots.”

Beelzebub: “Oh, sweet butter, you’re the only thing right with the world.”

Solomon: “Morning, Belphegor! Care to try my new cure all? It wards off the deadly plague.”

Belphegor: “I’m actually hoping for death. Thanks though.”

Mammon: “For the first time in my life I feel completely calm and—“

Mammon: *Gets attacked by hawk*

Satan: “I’ve loved you since the moment you killed my brother.”

Mammon: “You don’t scare me! I was born scared.”

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

Desired Intentions (M)

Part four of the Pathetic series

Title: Desired Intentions

Summary:

Ironically enough after Jeonghan tells you that you can’t come over the next day you can’t stop thinking about him and it leads you to do to things that you wouldn’t normally do. But then again Jeonghan always ends up getting you to do things that you wouldn’t normally do without a second thought.

Tags: 13k words, dub con for safety reasons, Porn with Plot, frat boy!Jeonghan, college student!y/n, best friend!Jeongyeon, soft!dom to hard!dom Jeonghan, mean!Jeonghan (and y/n loves it), submissive!y/n, female!y/n (sorry gender-neutral friends), heavy degradation, a lot of impact play in this one, masochist!y/n, sadist!Jeonghan, pain kink, vaginal fingering, creampie, Public play for sure, little bit of cumplay, Jeonghan kinda loses his aftercare crown in this one but still tries

-

The next day you were itching to see Jeonghan, because of course that was the day that your body would be absolutely desperate for his touch. You looked over at Jeongyeon who was staring at her phone, a troubled expression on her face.

“I know you’re stressed out about meeting with Jimin-”

“If you’re about to offer any conversation topic other than him I welcome it with open ears,” she said looking up from her phone. She hadn’t messaged Jimin yet to ask him to meet up but… She was planning on doing it soon.

“It’s about Jeonghan,” you responded with a sigh. “I…” You cleared your throat. “Really want to see him today but he told me he’s going to see Chaedom today.”

“Chaedom?” Jeongyeon asked, her eyebrows furrowing. You rested your cheek on your hand, staring blankly at the table.

“Some girl who is trying to sleep with him, but I don’t think they’ve done anything yet,” you explained. “He specifically told me not to come over but that just made me want to see him more.”

Jeongyeon snickered.

“Of course, it did,” she replied.

“It’s not like I thought that I would get to see Jeonghan everyday or anything,” you replied. You groaned and shuffled your feet. “Why do I want to see him today so badly?”

“Because it’s Jeonghan,” Jeongyeon replied. “Of course, you want to see him.”

You grumbled at her words, which made her laugh.

“Look, if you want to see him so badly just tell him that.”

“Clearly you don’t understand our dynamic,” you said. “I’m his…” Your voice lowered. “Fuck toy. I don’t make the call on when I see him.”

Jeongyeon shrugged.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she agreed. “I don’t get your dynamic. If he likes fucking you so much more than other people then why would he sleep with Chaedom today?”

You shrugged.

“I don’t know. Aren’t guys just like that? Always thinking with their dicks. Maybe today Chaedom was just more convenient.”

You glanced back up at Jeongyeon who was now looking at her phone.

“Yeah, you’ve got a point.” She sighed. “Guys will be guys.”

“Guys will be guys,” you echoed. “I wouldn’t even care if it wasn’t stupid Chaedom. Why does he have to be fucking the one girl who I don’t want him fucking?”

“Isn’t that how guys always are?” Jeongyeon commented. You hummed, deciding that you didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. You and Jeongyeon were silent for a few seconds before she sighed. “Still, I don’t see why you shouldn’t at least try to get Jeonghan to see you today. What’s the worst that could happen?”

What was the worst that could happen?

Thanks to Jeongyeon’s little comment that was all you could think for the next hour. What was the worst that could happen if you just sent Jeonghan a text message? Asked him if you could come over instead of Chaedom…

Was that jealous behavior?

You weren’t jealous, you didn’t want him to think you were jealous.

Your mind raced. What would you even say to him if you did reach out? A simple text wouldn’t be enough to convince him to let you come over.

What if…

You awkwardly set up your phone camera in front of you. You hit the red circle to start recording and looked at yourself in the phone screen, somewhat nervously.

“I don’t film videos of myself like this,” you mumbled, settling back so that your body was fully in the frame. “But I just want you to remember what you’re not using, while you are using Chaedom.”

As you spoke you slowly lifted your shirt over your head, revealing the lacy bra that you had decided to wear that day. You spread your legs a little, brushing up the skirt you were wearing so that he could see your panties. You ran your fingers over your pussy lightly, feeling the dampness through the cloth.

“Can you see through this how wet I am?” You asked softly, your face burning hotter every second that got added to the time on the video. Your fingers hooked around the hem of your panties and you slid them down, a string of wetness connecting your soaked pussy to your panties. You let a pathetic sound leave your lips.

“I haven’t even touched myself today Jeonghan, I’ve just been thinking about you. All day, I’ve been so wet and ready to be used…”

You set aside your wet panties and ran your fingers through your folds.

“Oh fuck, what do I do?” You whined. “I can’t play with myself without your permission, now, can I?”

You pushed two fingers into your body and then after only a second pulled your fingers out. They were dripping from arousal, and you spread your fingers just so the camera could see just how wet you were. You raised your fingers to your mouth, taking your time licking and sucking your fingers clean.

You felt embarrassed.

You felt stupid.

You let stupid moans and whines leave your lips that you were sure sounded like they belonged in a porn video… You sighed, letting your hand fall to your side.

“Jeonghan, play with your toy,” you whined. Your saliva damp hand fell to your side, and your other hand covered your burning face. You groaned loudly. “This is so stupid.”

You crawled over to your phone and stopped the recording, picking your phone up and looking at the frozen image of you staring at the camera. The image from before you had really started. You were stupid to think that filming this video was even a good idea.

It reeked of desperation. You didn’t want him to think you were no better than Chaedom.

You weren’t going to send the video.

Just as you went to click the yellow done button at the top of the screen, Jeongyeon knocked on your door. Your finger slid down your phone and you turned to look at it.

“I’m busy right now,” you called over to her.

“Just wanted to know if you wanted dinner.”

“Maybe…” You mumbled. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” Jeongyeon called back. You hummed, and looked back down at your phone, ready now to turn it off of your text conversation with Jeonghan before you did something stupid, and your breath left your lungs.

“Shit,” you hissed.

You weren’t sure how, but suddenly you were not looking at a video that needed to be deleted, but a video that had already been sent.

You squealed tossing your phone away from you, covering your hands with your face.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” you mumbled to yourself, staring at it like it was going to jump out and attack you at any moment.

Your mind raced trying to find a solution.

Delete it.

Yes! That was right, with the new phone update you could probably delete it!

You crawled over to your phone and grabbed it. You lifted your phone to undo the send but what you found just under the video in small text was now much more terrifying.

Read.

You screamed again, tossing your phone away like it had stung you.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jeongyeon’s voice came.

“Fine, I’m fine!” You called out. You waited a few seconds for Jeongyeon to say something, and when she didn’t you just turned your attention back to your phone. You stared at it, terrified of what it might do.

Maybe Jeonghan wouldn’t-

The phone vibrated and you screamed again.

You covered your mouth with your hand, took a deep breath: “Sorry Jeongyeon I promise I’m fine.” And then, with shaking hands crawled over to your phone, picking it up once again.

Now there was a text from Jeonghan: Come over.

As you stared at the screen another text came through.

Now.

-

You didn’t knock this time. You just pushed into the frat house and rushed through the hallway and up to Jeonghan’s room. You pressed your lips together when you skidded to a stop in front of his closed room door. Your mind raced. It was pretty late, surely Chaedom had been here already.

Would she still be here? He never kicked you out after sex, so surely, he wouldn’t to her either. But still, if she was still here, what would-

Jeonghan’s door cracked open, and you felt a hand grab your wrist as you were dragged into Jeonghan’s room, the door slammed shut behind you. You were roughly pushed against the wall of Jeonghan’s bedroom.

“Hold your hands in front of you.”

Jeonghan’s voice was deep, it didn’t necessarily sound like he had just had sex with someone else. He looked clean. He didn’t look like he had just had sex with someone else either.

Jeonghan slapped you. You gasped in surprise, but immediately realized what had earned you the hit. You raised your hands in front of you.

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

Jeonghan ignored your apology.

“Clasp your fingers together.”

You did.

“And raise your fingers on your left hand.”

Again, you did, and Jeonghan intertwined his fingers with yours and forced your hands up over your head. You gasped again, Jeonghan’s nose literally brushing against yours.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Jeonghan asked. “What the hell possessed you to send me that fucking video?”

“I-I,” you struggled to find your words. “I just… I was so n-needy.”

“Damn right you were fucking needy,” Jeonghan snapped. He used his free hand to roughly push beneath the band of your skirt, his fingers making their way immediately into your underwear. He cursed when his fingers met what he had already known was there.

“You’re shameless, aren’t you?” He asked. “I told you not to come over today.”

“But then you told me to come!” You protested.

“Because you couldn’t help but be a little slut and send me that video. You knew I wouldn’t be able to watch that video and then not fuck you.”

As Jeonghan spoke you couldn’t help the way that you stared at him. His lips weren’t red or puffy as if he had been kissing other people. He didn’t look like he had freshly showered, or like he had any hickey’s or anything on his neck-

“Do you even care?” Jeonghan snapped. Your eyes forced themselves back to him. “You’re so busy staring at me, it’s like you don’t even understand just how bad you’ve been.”

Your face blazed.

“I-”

“I said that I was seeing Chaedom tonight. You’re lucky that she had just left-”

“Did you two-” You stopped yourself before you could finish what you were going to ask, but the beginning of the sentence was much too telling. Jeonghan’s eyes narrowed at you.

“I thought you weren’t jealous, hm?” Jeonghan stated, his voice deep and quiet. His head dipped down to your neck, pressing a soft kiss there. “You don’t care that I sleep with other people…”

His teeth bit down on your neck and a mix of a whine, and a moan left your lips.

“It just had to be fucking Chaedom,” you grumbled.

Jeonghan’s eyes shot back up to you and he grabbed your face with his free hand. His grip was tight on you, and he forced you to look him dead in the eyes.

“You don’t get to choose who I sleep with,” Jeonghan said, his voice stern. “Do you understand that?”

God, this shouldn’t turn you on so badly. You should be upset that Jeonghan was sleeping with other people and not just you, but you couldn’t shake the thrill.

Even though he had been with Chaedom earlier. He was with you now.

You nodded.

“I understand.”

Jeonghan’s eyes narrowed as he looked at you, his grip still tight on your face.

“No, you don’t.” His eyes searched yours. “I shouldn’t have humored you should I have? You’re going to think you’re something special.”

Your eyes flickered away from his. Fuck, it was like he had seen right through you.

“I don’t think I’m special, I-”

Jeonghan’s head dipped to your neck. He was silent, but his silence is what had shocked you the most. His hand was still holding your arms above your head. You couldn’t move if you wanted to. You were unsure if you should speak, so you just settled on keeping the silence between the two of you.

You could almost swear that you could feel Jeonghan smile against your neck.

His hand that was pressing you up against the wall let go of you entirely, and he stepped away from you. He didn’t have to tell you to keep your hands in the air. You just watched him, chest heaving, heart racing as he began to slowly take his clothes off. First, his shirt- tossed to the side, then his pants, his boxers-

Your eyes flickered to his cock, your mouth watering a bit. You heard Jeonghan scoff.

“You fucking-”

Jeonghan walked back up to you, his fingers dipping into your pussy immediately.

“You think you can handle my cock?”

You nodded.

“Y-Yes,” you replied. Jeonghan barely hesitated for a second. He pulled your underwear down your legs, allowing you only seconds to toe them off before he was hiking your legs up by your thighs and sliding his cock into you.

He groaned once he was inside of you, making you throw your head back against the wall. There was a slight burn as he pushed inside of you, but the burn only made pleasure run through you all over again. Your fingers squeezed together as Jeonghan buried his face into your neck, heavy moans and grunts leaving his mouth in the form of hot breath on your neck.

You squirmed under his touch, your neck suddenly feeling more and more sensitive. You wanted to move your hands from above your head. You wanted his lips on yours.

But you knew that you had to be satisfied with his fingers digging into your thighs as his cock pressed impossibly deep inside of you.

“You feel so fucking good,” Jeonghan managed to say after what seemed like ages of him just fucking into you like he was sex starved. “And finally, you’re acting like what you really are. My little fuck toy.”

A breathy moan left your lips, making Jeonghan laugh.

“You like this huh? You like being my own little toy. You don’t even care about your own pleasure,” Jeonghan grunted. “I’m going to use you however I like and you’re just going to let me, aren’t you?”

You whined at his words, feeling your mind start to go blank at each and every thrust. How was he able to even hold you up like this? He was acting like you were feather light.

“I didn’t even have to tell you to keep your hands up… That’s what I like so much about you. You always know exactly what I want you to do.”

Jeonghan’s thrusts grew faster and faster, until you felt his cock begin to empty itself into you. He fucked his cum deep into your pussy, gasping as he filled you with his cum. You mewled against him, your head banging back against the wall as the feeling made your mind dizzy with pleasure.

“How does that feel, huh? Make you want to come?” He asked you. As he spoke his thrusts became even faster, his cock already hardening inside of you again. “Oh, I know you want to. Tell me how badly you want to.”

“Jeonghan,” you whined. “I j-just want your pleasure, that’s a-all.”

Jeonghan laughed, raising his face from your neck finally to look at you.

“Trying so hard to be good now?” He asked. “After sending me that teasing video of you. I don’t know why I invited you over. I know that pussy gets wet over just about anything.”

You didn’t respond to him, you couldn’t really manage to find the words to. Instead moans tumbled out of your mouth, your eyes fluttering shut as you focused on not doing the one thing that Jeonghan wanted you to do right now- Be bad.

“You’re so pathetic y/n,” Jeonghan mumbled. “You’re such a pathetic little whore. Always need a cock inside of you. Do you even deserve to be used the way I use you?”

You whined.

“Jeonghan-”

“Why don’t you beg me to be allowed to come huh? You think that pretending you don’t want to will make up for the fact that you’re a little cock tease?” Jeonghan asked. “No, your little strip show is the reason you might not get to come. I still want you to beg for it. Admit that no matter how desperate you are to be good you’re also desperate to be allowed to come on my cock.”

You were quiet for too long, so lost in pleasure that it was taking you a while to even comprehend his words. He spit on your face.

“Pay attention.”

Your eyes fluttered open, and your gaze met Jeonghan’s.

“I do, you’re right,” you blurted. “I need to come on your cock. Please. I couldn’t stop thinking about you today. Your hands on me, your cock in me. It’s taking everything in me not to come as I feel you pump me full of your cum-”

Jeonghan’s hips stuttered.

“J-Jeonghan, I’m begging you. I want to come, I need to and I need more of your cum in me. Please use me more.”

Your back arched.

“I’m always good for you, please. I’m-”

Jeonghan interrupted you with a small shift in weight, one of his hands smacking your ass before getting a grip again.

“Shut up, I’m tired of hearing you beg.”

A strangled moan escaped your mouth and Jeonghan’s head buried itself back in your neck.

“I’m going to come again, and this time I’m feeling generous. You’re going to be allowed to come today. Do you want to know why?”

You whimpered as his lips brushed a part of your neck that was apparently very sensitive.

“Wh-Why?” You mumbled.

“Because I like it when you are so pathetic you act out,” he whispered.

You felt your mind go blank as your orgasm ripped through you and almost as soon as you started coming you felt yourself being filled with more of Jeonghan’s cum. You felt Jeonghan’s thrusts come slowly to a stop, and for a while he stood there, holding you, both of your chest rising and falling with heavy pants.

After a few minutes had passed Jeonghan slowly pulled himself out of you, lowering your legs to the ground. You were so shaky that you almost felt your knees buckle, but you kept your balance by pressing your hands into the wall behind you.

Jeonghan’s hands raised up to your face, and he cupped your cheeks with them, pulling you into a deep kiss. You whined into Jeonghan’s mouth, which made him pull away from you, his thumbs brushing your cheek bones.

“You’re addicting,” he mumbled. “You know that?”

You wanted to echo it, but you couldn’t really get the words out. His words after all were only boosting your ego, reminding you of why you didn’t really care if he slept with other people.

He didn’t sleep with anyone twice, but to him, you were addicting.

Jeonghan’s hands left your cheeks.

“I’m going to get your shower ready.”

You groaned, which made Jeonghan chide you a little bit.

“What are you complaining about?” He asked you. You let yourself sink to the floor, your legs still pretty shaky, and your resolve to keep yourself standing gone now that Jeonghan wasn’t standing right in front of you.

He looked over at you, his lips pressing together.

You could feel Jeonghan’s cum leaking out of you and soaking your thighs. You knew he was right that you needed to take a shower, but still. He didn’t have to be so prompt about it all the time.

“You okay?” He asked softly. He walked over to you, crouching down in front of you. You nodded at him, letting one of your hands bury your face.

“’Course I am,” you responded. Jeonghan’s hand closed around your wrist and he pulled your hand from your face. He slid his hand into yours, intertwining his fingers with yours. He let your hands fall to the side.

“Too much?” He asked you. You shook your head.

“No,” you insisted. “That was honestly pretty mild.”

There was something that was weighing you down a little. You weren’t sure what, and you could tell that Jeonghan could see it as well.

“You did good, you know that?” He mumbled. “You always do good for me.”

“I don’t need reassurance,” you insisted.

“Maybe not,” Jeonghan agreed. “But I still want to give it to you.”

He reached forward with his other hand, fingers brushing against the sore spots on your neck. The touch sent a chill through your body.

“I’ve never really asked if the hickies were okay.”

“Hickies?” Your eyes widened slightly as you realized that he was touching the marks he had left on you. “Oh, that’s fine. Of course, that’s fine.”

Jeonghan snickered at your words, his hand resting on your shoulder.

“You know it’s okay to not be comfortable with something I’m doing, right?” He asked.

“I know,” you insisted. “Trust me, if you saw my internet history you wouldn’t be so unsure.”

Another laugh out of Jeonghan and he shook his head in slight disbelief of your words.

“Do you want me to help you in the shower?” He asked. You shook your head.

“I’m good. Really.”

Jeonghan gave you a small smile.

“Alright. Go take your shower then.”

-

“Are you tired?” Jeonghan asked you as you walked back into Jeonghan’s bedroom, a towel drying your hair.

“Actually,” you mumbled. “Not really. I had a lot of coffee today.”

You furrowed your eyebrows slightly.

“Are you kicking me out like you did Chaedom?” You asked. Jeonghan frowned at you, completely silent for a few moments. You two stood and stared at each other, not saying a word before finally you sighed and sat back down on the side of Jeonghan’s bed you usually slept on.

Jeonghan was the one who broke the silence.

“For someone who doesn’t care who I sleep with-”

“It’s just Chaedom!” You interrupted him. Despite the topic being somewhat serious, there was a pout on your face. “Why did it have to be her out of everyone at this school?”

“What do you have against Chaedom?” Jeonghan asked, a small smile on his lips. You rolled your eyes and looked away from him.

“She made it a competition. I wasn’t fighting her for your attention, but she was fighting me and she was being so obnoxious about it…” You felt your chest tightening as you talked about it. “She made us enemies, and I don’t like to lose.”

Jeonghan hummed, his eyes still on yours.

“So, if it was anyone else...?”

“Literally anyone else,” you replied. “We’re just… I’m just your fuck toy, right?”

You pulled your legs crossed legged under yourself and leaned towards Jeonghan a bit.

“Everyone would think I’m crazy for not minding being unable to sleep with others while you can do whatever you want, but look at it this way-” You squared your shoulders. “You’re Yoon Jeonghan. The campus playboy. The one everyone wants to fuck. The one who doesn’t settle.”

You let your head fall to the side while a small laugh left your lips.

“I would be crazy to expect you to settle for me. Not the other way around.”

Sometimes you felt like you understood Jeonghan fairly well. You knew what he expected of you when it came to sex… For the most part. His interests aligned yours after all.

But times like these, you remembered that you didn’t really know Jeonghan at all.

The expression on his face was… Weird. Sort of spaced out, like he wasn’t really looking at you. You waited, patiently for him to react, expecting for him to either completely agree with you, or to maybe explain what this was from his point of view.

“Help me build this lego set.”

Your eyes fluttered wider and you watched as Jeonghan got up from the bed and walked over to his closet, pulling out an unopened box of legos. It was in a smaller box than the last one had been in.

Jeonghan didn’t really wait for you to follow him. He just sat down on the floor, dumping the packets of legos on the floor. He started to unravel the instruction packet. You thought he would call you over again but it was like he was suddenly in his own world.

You watched him for a few minutes, and then you climbed out of bed and sat next to him. You looked at the instructions for the lego set. It was a house. You looked at what Jeonghan had already in his hands. Just the start of the base of the house was all that was there.

You looked at the instructions to figure out what was next, and then searched the pieces on the floor for what Jeonghan needed next. Jeonghan pointed at a lego piece.

“Is it…?”

You frowned at the piece, squinting back at the lego on the instruction sheet.

“No… It’s…” Your eyes scanned the floor before finally finding the piece that he needed. “This!”

It took you and Jeonghan two hours to build the lego house together, and after the house was put together and set on his dresser, you and Jeonghan went to sleep.

You woke up before him this time. You groaned and rolled over in his bed, reaching for your phone blindly in the sheets. Jeonghan’s bed was huge. It was impossible not to lose things in it. You finally felt your fingers brush smooth glass and you pushed yourself up on your elbows.

Your phone was right next to Jeonghan’s. You tapped your screen. It was only eight in the morning.

You sucked in a breath, and rolled over, sitting up groggily in his bed. Jeonghan usually left his window curtains open. That was probably why he wasn’t up. The room was still pretty dark. Just two small dashes of light streaked across the bedroom floor.

You glanced back over at Jeonghan. He looked angelic laying there.

You looked away from him and slowly got up from his bed. You were trying to stay as quiet as you could. You put the nights clothes back on and once you had your shirt fully back on-

“You should start bringing clothes over.”

You jumped, placing your heart over your chest when you realized that it was just Jeonghan talking to you.

“Save yourself a walk of shame or two.”

“Fuck,” you mumbled. “Scared me, Han.”

“Han?” Jeonghan asked, looking over at you in amusement. You gave him an annoyed look, but it probably faded within seconds. You  couldn’t help the way that your eyes flickered down to the way that Jeonghan’s shirt was falling off of his shoulder.

The collar of his shirt was stretched out and his collarbone was just visible. You swallowed hard. Even right after sleeping he looked beautiful… No wonder everyone was obsessed with him. You had honestly thought he had gotten up before you and washed his face before you woke up. It was criminal for someone to look so attractive after sleeping for eight hours.

“What are you doing?” Jeonghan asked. “Sneaking out again?”

“I have class Jeonghan,” you replied. “I’m not sneaking out. I just have to go.”

Jeonghan held up your phone, flashing you the time.

“At eight in the morning?” He asked. “You’re either late or early.”

He raised his eyebrow slightly.

“Why are you always trying to leave so early?”

You shrugged.

“It’s just weird that you want me to stay,” you replied. “Where’s Chaedom?”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes.

“Fine, leave if you want to. You’re the one missing out.”

You walked over to the bed, holding out your hand for your phone. Jeonghan put it in your hand, but as he did, he also grabbed your wrist with his other hand. He pulled you, making you stumble forward a little bit.

You felt yourself suck in a deep breath. It made Jeonghan’s lips flicker into a smile.

“No more Chaedom,” he said. He tilted his head up, his lips brushing yours. “Will that make my little fuck toy happy?”

Your face blazed red.

“Jeong-”

Jeonghan let go of your wrist and fell back in the bed.

“I’ll see you later,” Jeonghan said, his eyes on the ceiling.

You pressed your lips together, trying to prevent yourself from doing more than you should. You and Jeonghan were just fuck buddies. He was just extending to you the same courtesies that you were sure he would for others. You sucked in a deep breath and walked out the door.

“Hey, y/n!”

You froze at the entrance to the dining room, your eyes widening slightly when you realized that almost Jeonghan’s entire fraternity was already down in the kitchen, you turned and smiled at Mingyu- the one who had called your name.

“Uh, hi.”

You bowed a little to all the boys, noting, with some relief that none of them looked to be tired of seeing you.

“When I heard you come over last night, I decided to make something new for breakfast! Blueberry pancakes.”

Mingyu picked the pan up from the stove, showing you a mostly cooked pancake. Your eyes flickered to the food.

“Oh, I was-”

“Why’d Jeonghan make you walk all the way down here alone?” Jun interrupted; his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“He’s still in bed.”

“Oh,” Jun said with a nod. “Okay, well, come sit down.”

He gestured to the seat beside him. You pressed your lips together.

“No really I ought to-” You went to gesture towards the door, but before you could a plate was being shoved into your hands. You looked down at the food, and then, in surprise up at Mingyu. He had the largest smile on his face.

“Everyone else really likes them, but I’m withholding my judgement for your reaction,” he said. You forced a smile on your lips.

How could you say no to that?

The pancakes were delicious. Some of the best you had ever had. You worried that if you kept eating breakfast at this house it would ruin breakfast entirely for you. You got seconds not only because the pancakes were so good but because you and Jeonghan hadn’t eaten after anything last night. You were starving.

You had been there for thirty minutes- Thirty minutes longer than you should have been there, but now you were stuck in a conversation you knew there was no way out of.

“People like Hansol and Joshua are actually really interesting, because acquisition of language at a young age is so overlooked by people learning languages when they are older,” you said. “Sure, Seungkwan struggles with learning English now, but if he were put in the same environment as Joshua and Hansol when they were younger things definitely would have been different.”

“That just doesn’t make sense to me,” Seungcheol said with a small shake of his head. “How is it that at a younger age it’s easier to learn a language?”

“Is just the way the brain works when you’re younger. Because children’s brains are still developing when they’re younger it’s easier for them.” You pointed your fork at Seungcheol. “But what’s more interesting is not child second language acquisition but child first language acquisition. Did you know that according to Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition, children are born with the innate ability for language acquisition?”

“What?” Seungcheol asked.

“Yes! He believes that the human species has evolved a brain whose neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth.”

Despite your excitement you waved away the thought.

“This topic borders the line of linguistics and psychology,” you said. “But people often point to the creation of sign language as evidence towards Chomsky’s theory.”

You opened your mouth to explain more, but just as you did a hand found it’s way to your back. You looked back in shock to find Jeonghan standing there. He shot you a look of brief annoyance.

“Y/n, aren’t you late for something?” He asked softly. “Why are you still here?”

His hand raised a bit to your neck, his fingertips brushing the roots of your hair. You knew his annoyance stemmed not from your presence in the house, but your eagerness to get out earlier. You gave him an apologetic look.

“You were right, I wasn’t going to make it to class on time.” You gestured to the plate of blueberry pancakes untouched beside you. “And Mingyu made pancakes. I saved some for you.”

Jeonghan’s hand squeezed the back of your neck lightly, and he took a seat beside you. He rested his arm onto the table.

“You were talking… Language acquisition,” he said. You nodded.

“Right, so, have you ever heard of Nicaraguan sign language?” You asked Seungcheol. He shook his head and none of the other boys in the room who were listening spoke up. “So basically, in Nicaragua…”

The boys in the Alpha Mu fraternity let you talk about the psychology behind language acquisition for much longer than anyone outside of your field ever had. Your passion about it did stem from the fact you had just written a paper about it for class but regardless the boys stayed interested in the topic.

The conversation finally died down when Seungcheol broke it off because he had to go to class: “But you’ll have to tell me more about this in the future. Psychology is really interesting.”

You thought it was dumb that he was so interested in something that had nothing to do with his degree but regardless of that you had smiled and agreed. You were honestly looking forward to the future conversation.

“So you missed your first class of the day,” Jeonghan said as you got up from the table. “What else do you have to do for the day?”

You looked at him but he wasn’t looking at you, his eyes were on his cell phone.

“Nothing I guess,” you replied. “Why? What do you propose?”

“Well, I don’t want to build them today but I want to get more lego sets we can build together,” Jeonghan explained. “We could go to Target?”

“Yeah. That sounds fun.”

-

Jeonghan was an odd guy. You thought going to Target for legos just meant going to Target for legos. But when the first thing he did was drag you over to Starbucks and insist on buying you a drink you knew it wasn’t going to be like that.

“Jeonghan, I don’t think you really understand how being fuck buddies works,” you mumbled. Jeonghan rolled his eyes slightly.

“Playing with legos after is basically after care,” Jeonghan replied. “I’m just preparing for it ahead of time. Don’t you want a say in the sets we build?”

This time you rolled your eyes.

“I think the legos are more for you than me, but I’ll bite,” you said. As you spoke the barista called out Jeonghan’s name, freeing him from commenting on your indifference. He handed you the drink he had ordered you- A venti despite your opposal. You smiled.

“Thanks,” you said. He gave you a devious smile.

“Anything for my good girl,” he teased. “Even if you’re being a brat.”

Your mouth fell open, intent on arguing with Jeonghan against the brat allegations, but before you could he was walking away from you. You pressed your lips together, huffing sharply out of your nose. Then you followed him. You expected him to go straight towards the lego section but instead he went right to the women’s clothing section.

You stood outside in the aisle for a second, expecting Jeonghan to realize he had gone the wrong way and turn around but instead he picked up a shirt, holding it out to you.

“You need more clothes.”

“What?”

“Clothes you can keep at the frat house,” Jeonghan explained. “That way you don’t have to leave in the same clothes you came in.”

“I’ll just get some clothes from my place,” you insisted. Jeonghan completely disregarded you by pushing the shirt he had picked up into your arms.

“Are you really going to argue with me about free clothes?” He asked you. You opened your mouth to say: yes because of course you were but before you could Jeonghan just sighed. “You’re such a brat outside of the bedroom. What does it take for you to be good, hm? Just need something in that cunt?”

Your eyes widened at Jeonghan’s words, and you looked around quickly to make sure no one was listening. Luckily, no one seemed to have overheard him.

“I don’t-”

“Just let me buy you some clothes,” Jeonghan said, picking up another shirt. “It’s the least that I can do. Don’t you know well enough that sex like ours is bad for your psyche if the aftercare isn’t good enough?”

“Jeonghan, I’m a psychology major and when I say I’m fine-”

Jeonghan pushed another shirt into your arms, his hand coming to the back of your neck. He gave you a small smile.

“Just let me take care of you,” he said. “You say you’re fine but you were kind of out of it last night. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

You didn’t know why Jeonghan cared so much about you being okay. No one you had slept with before had cared so much.

Then again hadn’t that been why you had broken up with them in the first place? You started to feel like they meant everything that said and did to you during sex while Jeonghan had put a clear separation between the two.

You were probably just over thinking all of this because your last partners hadn’t been this way. Maybe Jeonghan being so caring all the time was a normal way for someone in the type of relationship you two had.

Still, you didn’t want him to buy you clothes.

But when Jeonghan was looking at you the way he currently was? It was impossible to say no.

“Fine,” you said. “But I want to buy the legos.”

“Fine,” Jeonghan agreed with a nod. “That’s a far trade off.”

His hand left your neck and he turned his attention back to the clothes around him. Without much more than murmurs every now and then of “you’d look good in this” he didn’t say much. Instead of fretting with him you just watched and drank your coffee, holding what he gave you.

Somehow, he knew your style really well.

When you two had finally found your way to the lego aisle you were almost done with your coffee, and you had more clothes in your hands than you had any real excuse to have. Still, now that Jeonghan was focused on legos at least he wasn’t intent on spoiling you with clothes.

“Do you see any sets you don’t already have?” You asked. Jeonghan hummed, his fingers trailing across the shelves as he looked at the sets. He lowered to a crouch and picked up a set.

“A few.”

He was quiet for a little bit, and then picked up a second set. As you watched him you felt your phone start to vibrate in your pocket. You hummed in frustration and shifted the things in your hands so that you could pull out your phone.

“One second, Yeongtae is calling,” you mumbled. Jeonghan looked over at you from where he was crouched on the floor holding two lego sets. You turned your back to him.

“Hey, what’s up?” You said as you put your phone to your ear.

“I have an assignment I had no clue I needed to do,” Yeongtae replied. “I need company. And coffee.”

“Bossy,” you mumbled.

“You like bossy,” Yeongtae snorted. As if he could hear your conversation, you felt a hand snake around your waist, and Jeonghan pulled you against his body. He took your phone out of your hand and placed it to his face, turning away from you.

“Yeongtae?” He asked.

“Jeonghan-” you exclaimed, reaching for your phone. Jeonghan pulled further away from you, placing his hand to your forehead so that you were an arms width away from him. Jeonghan was lucky that you two were in public, because if you weren’t you would not be keeping your voice at such a hushed level.

“She’s with me right now,” Jeonghan said into the phone. Your eyebrows furrowed and tried to get your phone from another angle. Jeonghan just stepped aside, as if he had known exactly how you were going to come at him. “I think you’ll have to work on that assignment alone.”

“Jeonghan,” you hissed at him. “Give me my phone back!”

“Maybe I can figure out a different time for you two,” Jeonghan commented. He walked down the aisle, and you followed close behind. Finding every attempt to get your phone completely fruitless. “What about never?”

“Jeonghan!” This time you did let your voice rise. Loud enough that Jeonghan stopped this game of avoiding you and turned his eyes to you. You fixed him under a glare. “Give me my phone back.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes, and for a second you thought he was just going to keep doing the same thing he was before, but instead of turning away he handed you your phone. You snatched it from his hand.

“Hey. Sorry,” you mumbled. “I’d be happy to study with you tonight.”

A little laugh came from Yeongtae’s end of the phone.

“A little lovers quarrel?” Yeongtae asked, his voice light and airy.

“Shut up,” you replied. “You know Jeonghan and I aren’t dating.”

You looked back at Jeonghan, annoyed.

“Thank god.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes away from you, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’ll see you in what? An hour?’

“Sounds good,” Yeongtae replied. “See you.”

You hung up the phone, slipping it into your pocket. You turned and looked at Jeonghan who was still standing across the aisle from you.

Again, you were faced with a different Jeonghan then you had seen before. His bottom lip was jutted out ever-so-slightly, and his entire demeanour was stiff.

Why was he upset? He had taken your phone.

“It wasn’t like I was going to sleep over again,” you said. “And Yeongtae is a good study partner.”

“Hm.”

Jeonghan turned his attention back to the legos, picking up the two sets that he had been looking at before.

“We should probably hurry so that you can get to Yeongtae then,” he said. Had his voice dropped an octave? “There’s just one more thing I want to do with you before I take you to your study partner.”

As soon as Jeonghan had set aside your bags he was closing a bathroom stall door shut, pushing you against the door. You gasped, as Jeonghan immediately dragged off your underwear, but before you could say anything he was pressing the salty cloth into your mouth.

“You want to hang out with Yeongtae?” He mumbled. “Fine.”

He tapped his neck.

“Put your hand on my neck.”

You immediately did as you were told.

“Pinch me,” he instructed. You did as you were told, and Jeonghan’s hand raised to push your panties more firmly into your mouth. “That’s what you do if you need me to stop- Got it?”

You nodded and that was all that Jeonghan needed.

He was quick to push his fingers into your body, first one, and then a second, and then a third. He gave it a moment between each addition, scissoring his fingers in and out of you. You tried to whine but your voice was too muffled by the gag in your mouth, you didn’t think that Jeonghan could hear a thing that you were saying.

Despite Jeonghan trying to make sure you were actually ready for his cock he was moving fast. He lifted you up by your thighs again, keeping you leveraged on the door so that he could push himself into you. He was practically fucking you the same this time as he had the night before.

“You feel that? You feel my cock?” Jeonghan asked you, his voice low and rough. You nodded feverently and tried to say yes, but again you found that were completely and totally muffled. Still, Jeonghan smiled into your neck. “No one can make you feel like this can they?”

He hoisted you up more, shaking the bathroom stall doors and somehow forcing his cock even further into you. You cried out, throwing your head back against the stall door.

“No one is ever going to fuck you better than me. I want you to remember that while you’ve got your nose in a book chatting with fucking Yeongtae.”

He raised his head to look at you.

“You’re mine.”

He kissed your cheek.

“This is mine.”

His mouth trailed to your neck and he bite down on it.

“This is mine.”

He squeezed your thighs with his fingers.

“This is mine.”

And then he gave you a particularly sharp thrust.

“And this is mine,” he asserted. “You’re all mine, aren’t you?”

You couldn’t reply but Jeonghan didn’t seem to care.

“My little toy for fucking. You just remember that the next time you’re with Yeongtae, do you understand?”

You nodded, tears of pure pleasure beginning to streak down your cheeks. You wanted to feel insecure about how messy you probably looked, but even if Jeonghan had been looking it didn’t matter. You reminded yourself he liked it when you were messy.

Jeonghan dropped you down to your feet and smacked your ass.

“Hands on the door.”

You were quick to oblige. Jeonghan pushed back into you fast, putting both of his arms on either side of you.

“Put your left hand on my arm, so you can still pinch me.”

You again obliged and as soon as your hand was there he was fucking you hard again. He buried his face in your neck, muffling his moans. You could tell he was close, and you were close to. Your whole body felt like it was on fire, you were obsessed with the feeling of Jeonghan inside of you.

Suddenly, you heard the door of the bathroom open. Your eyes widened slightly in shock, but Jeonghan was quick. He wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you up. You kept a hand on his arm as he started to fuck you even harder, that smile still on his face, pressed into your neck.

“How quiet can you stay when come?”

Before you could figure out what he meant in your head he was pulling your underwear out of your mouth. You took a gasp of air, immediately slapping your hand over your mouth.

“Did you hear something…?” A voice came from outside of the stalls.

“I think it was the ac kicking on,” another voice said. Your heart beat heavily in your chest, so loud that you thought if they couldn’t hear your stifled moans surely they could hear your pounding heart.

You had never thought you would be able to handle public sex very much but then Jeonghan said: “Go ahead and make a mess. I want them to hear you.”

And you were coming.

You felt your head fall forward on the bathroom stall as you quite literally pushed your fingers into your mouth in an attempt to muffle yourself. Strangled noises were able to escape from around your fingers as your brain became muddy with pleasure.

Jeonghan didn’t stop his thrusts, but he did pull you back up against his body so that you two weren’t actively rattling the stall doors.

“Is there someone- Hey are you okay?”

Fuck.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” you blurted out. “I just… Ate something bad.”

“Oh… Okay…”

The two girls outside of the stall snickered and you heard one of them say: “… Disgusting.”

Before you heard the tale tell sound of them leaving the bathroom.

“Y/n, you are so fucking good for me.”

Jeonghan’s voice cracked at the end of his sentence, his hips stuttering as he began to cum inside of you. You raised your hand to your face, biting down on it as a way to keep yourself quiet even though you didn’t need to anymore.

When Jeonghan’s thrusts finally came to a stop you allowed your hand to fall from your mouth, taking large, deep breaths of air as you caught your breath.

Jeonghan’s lips attached to your neck again.

“I want to mark your whole neck up,” he mumbled. “I can’t have Yeongtae thinking he has a chance with you.”

“He doesn’t think he has a chance with me. He knows…” You trailed off, your face burning with residual embarrassment. “I know that I’m yours.”

Jeonghan hummed against your body.

“You know that your mine, huh?”

Jeonghan pulled his cock out of you and then took you by your hips and pressed you back into the door, sliding down your body. Once he got down to your pussy, he looked up at you, smiling.

“I’ve been going easy on you,” Jeonghan mumbled. His fingers brushed your thighs. “You have no bruises. I’ve just been fucking your perfect little pussy and treating you so softly.”

Jeonghan dipped his head. His lips attached to your pussy and his tongue dipped into you as he slowly lapped his cum out of you. After he was satisfied he made his way back up your body, his lips pressing to yours. You could taste the hint of both your and his cum on his tongue. He pulled back from you.

“The next time I see you, y/n… I’ll remind you exactly how depraved you really can be.”

Jeonghan smiled at you, and if your brain hadn’t been so sure that his words were in fact threatening his face would have fooled you into thinking that he was nothing short of an innocent angel.

-

Luckily… (Unluckily…?) The next time that you saw Jeonghan was a few days later in the school cafeteria.

You almost never went to the cafeteria during a school day, but every once in a while you would stop by to get some make-your-own-pasta and sub-tier cake. You didn’t ever see anyone when you were there so when you spotted Jeonghan from across the cafeteria, reading a book, you were beyond surprised.

You thought very seriously about not saying anything to him, but the plan died as soon as he raised his eyes and met your gaze. You forced a smile on your lips and made your way over to him. He was sitting in a booth… Maybe he was waiting for someone else.

You smiled awkwardly at Jeonghan in greeting.

“Anyone sitting here?” You asked. Jeonghan gestured to it.

“Please, be my guest,” he replied.

You had sort of been hoping that he would tell you that he was about to leave or something, but it was clear that not matter what, now that you were here he was planning on sticking around for a while.

You looked at the plate of food Jeonghan had- Some pizza- and gestured towards it.

“Is the pizza any good?”

“It’s caf food,” Jeonghan replied with a shrug. “Do you eat in the cafeteria a lot? I never see you here.”

“Only every once in a while,” you replied. “You?”

“I’m usually here,” he replied with a shrug. “It’s close to my classes.”

“Does Mingyu not cook every night?” You prodded. Jeonghan smiled.

“We take turns,” he replied. “Most of us take turns at least. Hansol is awful at cooking.”

You laughed, a little surprised by the news.

“And how are you at cooking?”

Jeonghan gave you an amused expression.

“You’ll just have to see.”

Spending time with Jeonghan when it was to do something other than sex was always awkward. Not because you didn’t like Jeonghan or because you two didn’t get along but because you just couldn’t understand why Jeonghan seemed to enjoy your company as much as he did.

Despite the fact his eyes were on his book while you two spoke he was clearly hearing everything that you had to say. It was weird because he wasn’t making sexual innuendos or anything. Could fuck buddies be friends outside of fucking?

You weren’t really sure.

A loud noise erupted from you and Jeonghan’s table, and you looked down, noticing quickly that it was your phone vibrating. You picked it up, glancing at the screen.

Yeongtae.

Remembering Jeonghan’s reaction last time Yeongtae called while you two were together you silenced the call, sending Yeongtae a quick message: Can’t talk right now.

“Who is that?” Jeonghan asked. You glanced back up at him.

“Jeongyeon,” you lied, but you could tell that Jeonghan knew instantly it was a lie. You pressed your lips together as you felt your phone vibrate again in your hands. You glanced in the screen.

I know you aren’t busy, pick up the phone >:-(

You sent Yeongtae a quick text back: I am busy. Shut up.

“You’re busy, I get it,” Jeonghan mumbled. “Is it Yeongtae?”

Your lips pressed into a thin line and you nodded once. Jeonghan hummed.

“You two get along really well,” Jeonghan observed with a shrug. “You don’t have to hide that you’ve been spending time with Yeongtae.”

Even though he said that you couldn’t help but notice that Jeonghan’s fingers were curled in a tight fist.

“Besides, I’ve been seeing people these last few days,” Jeonghan continued. You blinked.

“Oh?”

“It wasn’t Chaedom,” Jeonghan replied with a roll of his eyes. “So that means you’re not jealous right?”

You nodded, with a small hum.

“Yeah,” you agreed pointedly. An irritated look flashed through Jeonghan’s eyes, but it was so brief that you wondered if the look really had even existed. He flashed you another smile.

“Well? Aren’t you going to call Yeontae back?” He asked. “Your grades depend on it.”

You pressed your lips together and nodded. You pulled out your phone and called Yeongtae back. He answered fast.

“Oh, right. I see now. Very busy.”

“I’m eating,” you replied. You glanced at Jeonghan. “With Jeonghan.”

“Oh god, please don’t tell me what you’re eating.”

“We’re in the caf,” you replied with a roll of your eyes.

“Even worse. You’re in public?”

You looked at Jeonghan, completely unamused.

“I hate him,” you said pointedly. Yeongtae’s laugh came from the other end of the phone.

“On a serious note- Dinner with Jeonghan? Are you two finally dating?”

Your eyes widened and you searched Jeonghan’s eyes quickly to see if he could hear anything. Jeonghan didn’t show any real sign of having heard anything though. His eyes had turned down to the left over scraps of food on his plate.

“Shut up,” you mumbled. “What’s up?”

“Want to meet at the library in ten minutes?” Yeongtae asked.

“Ten minutes?” You replied in surprise. “I uh-”

Jeonghan glanced up and waved his hands.

“I’ve got to get going anyways,” he said. “Meeting with someone tonight.”

You sighed your relief, glad that you weren���t going to have to choose between the two boys.

“Okay, library in ten minutes. I’ll see you when I get there.”

“See you.”

As you looked up Jeonghan was already gathering his things and picking up your dirty plates. He smiled at you.

“You know, I’m getting tired of fucking other people,” he said, his eyebrows raising towards you slightly. “When do I get to use my pretty little toy next?”

Your face flushed.

“Soon,” you mumbled. “Whenever you want.”

Jeonghan nodded, clicking his tongue at your words.

“Alright. Soon.”

He didn’t say more. Instead, he shot you a smile in farewell and disappeared into the crowd.

Despite both of you clearly wanting to see each other again soon, neither you nor Jeonghan reached out for the next few days. You thought a couple of times about just showing up but always ended up deciding not to.

You had midterms coming up anyways, so reaching out to him didn’t make the most sense. You decided to just stick with studying with Yeongtae at the library for the time being.

Well… Mostly studying.

“Okay favorite movies,” Yeongtae said. You leaned back in your chair, thinking carefully over your choices.

“God, I don’t know. I’m into so many movies.”

“Marvel movies?” Yeongtae asked. You rolled your eyes at him.

“Very original,” you mumbled. He laughed at your indifference.

“Okay, regardless, we should go see a movie together.”

“Okay,” you relented. “What movie do you want to see.”

“What movies are even…?” As Yeongtae trailed off he started typing quickly on his computer. “Uh, Cocaine Bear, John Wick: Chapter 4, the new Shazam movie, Scream?”

“Oh, let’s see the new Scream movie,” you replied, your eyes lighting up a little. “Maybe it’ll make midterms seem like less of a nightmare.”

Yeongtae laughed.

“Awesome! So, we’ll catch the 9:10 this weekend and- Oh. Hi Jeonghan.”

You frowned slightly and looked over to where Yeongtae was looking. You dipped your head slightly when you made eye contact with Jeonghan.

“Hi Jeonghan. What are you doing here?” You asked. Jeonghan sighed and gestured to the backpack over his shoulder.

“I came to study away from the boys,” he said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.... With Yeongtae.”

You smiled and nodded.

“Yeongtae and I always study together on Tuesdays at the library.”

It briefly flickered in your mind that you thought Jeonghan had known that. But obviously he wouldn’t be surprised to see you there if he did.

“You should join us Jeonghan,” Yeongtae suggested.

“That’s okay,” Jeonghan denied. “I’ll let you have your time together.”

Jeonghan walked over to you, placing a hand on your shoulder. His grip wasn’t tight in anyway, but he put enough pressure on you to turn your body towards him more. His hand slid up to the back of your neck and he pulled you into a deep kiss.

Your face blazed at the display of affection so publicly, but you were nothing but putty when it came to being under Jeonghan’s touched. He pulled away suddenly, your chest rising and falling rapidly as you frantically tried to catch your breath.

“Ten minutes. Fourth floor bathroom,” Jeonghan said. Your eyes widened slightly.

“Ten minutes?” You hissed back. You looked around to make sure no one had heard. It seemed like only Yeongtae was able to hear. “Here?”

“Safe word?” Jeonghan murmured, his eyebrow raising and his stature becoming much less... Dominating. You cleared your throat, looking at the table.

“N-No, I won’t be doing that,” you admitted softly. “Ten minutes. Fourth floor.”

Jeonghan hummed and he raised his hand to your face, tapping it lightly so that you would look at him again.

To be honest, you were disappointed he wasn’t being a little rougher.

“Good girl.”

-

When you pressed into the bathroom your first thought was utter relief. It was completely empty, and on a floor of the library that you knew people never came to. Even better the bathroom was set far away from the mostly empty offices on the floor.

You set your phone on the small seats in the entrance of the bathroom and peeked around the corner, trying to find Jeonghan.

The door to the bathroom opened up just as you came to the conclusion that Jeonghan wasn’t already there. A smile flickered across his face when he spotted you and he closed the door behind him.

“Get undressed… Now.”

Despite this being a bathroom with stalls, it was so old that Jeonghan was able to lock the door behind him. Of course, that was only something you noticed in passing as you began to get your jeans and shirt off as quickly as you could. Jeonghan didn’t match your speed, but you could tell from the way that he was looking at you that he was desperate to be inside of you again.

“Do you know how long it’s been since I fucked you last?” Jeonghan asked. You opened your mouth to respond, but Jeonghan stopped you with a single look in his eyes. He finally got his last article of clothing off and came up to you, pushing your back against the window on the far side of the bathroom wall.

The fingers of his left hand dug into your shoulder, while his right lowered down to your pussy. He laughed when he found that you were wet. “You really will just get wet over anything.”

He pushed a finger inside of you, finally deciding to continue the conversation he had tried to start before.

“It’s been over a week,” Jeonghan replied. “Longer than the other times that we went when you were only coming to parties.”

“I didn’t-”

“Didn’t what? Want to be punished for being needy again? Didn’t know if you should come over?” His voice was deep as he spoke and once again his head dipped down into your neck. The hickey’s he had left there from last time were now mostly faded.

You felt the inside of your stomach coil with pleasure when you realized he was intent on marking you up all over again.

“I had to go so long without fucking you,” Jeonghan mumbled. “Had to fuck other girls, even fucked someone last night and wasn’t left satisfied with a single one of them while you played the good student with Yeongtae.”

As Jeonghan brought up Yeongtae he bit down on your neck, sucking at the skin there. You let out a surprised gasp and you felt yourself grab at the windowsill, in an attempt to keep yourself from moving too much under Jeonghan’s grip.

“I feel like a fucking broken record,” Jeonghan mumbled. “I promised to treat you truly depraved last time and here I am, again, fucking you in a bathroom.”

Jeonghan’s hand left your shoulder and his mouth left your neck so that he could slap you across your face. A whine ripped through your body as your head fell to the side, but Jeonghan didn’t let you stay like that. He pushed a second finger into your pussy and then forced your face back to his with his free hand.

“If you weren’t so bad I wouldn’t have to hit you, you know?” Jeonghan mumbled, a look of fake pity falling over his face. He clicked his tongue as he forced your head to the side again so that he could look at your face. “Then again, it doesn’t even seem like those little hits really affect you.”

The thought of being hit again when your cheek was still stinging sent a rush of excitement through your body and Jeonghan must have felt it in the fingers he was using to slowly scissor your pussy as he turned your face towards him again, amusement spreading over his lips.

“Oh, you like that don’t you?” He asked. “You want me to hit you again? Tell you that you’re forcing me to do it?”

He laughed and pushed a third finger into your pussy, shaking his head.

“God, you feel how tight your stupid little cunt is? Little sluts aren’t meant to have cunts so tight. Good toys should be well used,” he mumbled, his attention flickering down your body. “And your perfect breasts…”

His hand lowered to your boobs so that he could squeeze them and begin to tease one of your nipples with his thumb.

“These poor things have gone completely untouched and unplayed with for so long. All because you’ve been so bad.”

Jeonghan grunted and suddenly struck a hit across your boobs. The hit surprised you and your head flew backwards, hitting the window with a small thud just as Jeonghan’s fingers began to pinch your tits again.

“I wonder if I should turn your whole body red…” Jeonghan mumbled. His head dipped down so that he could tease your tit with his tongue and teeth, only making you squirm under him.

You couldn’t help but roll your hips down into Jeonghan’s hand, making your clit bump into his thumb. You whined, not even really realizing how much you had missed his touch until just then.

“Fuck, Jeonghan your fingers aren’t enough,” you whined.

“But, baby, your little pussy is so tight I don’t think that it could handle anything bigger,” Jeonghan cooed against you. As if to prove his point he spread out his fingers inside of you, forcing a whine out of you. “You feel that pretty little burn? That’s the consequence of being bad. I have to spend so much time just getting you ready for my cock.”

He chided you softly.

“Aren’t you ashamed?” He asked. “Ashamed that I can’t just immediately push my cock into you and fuck you the way I want to? I have to worry about breaking your pretty little cunt with my cock.”

You couldn’t help the way you whined again, rolling your hips harder against Jeonghan’s hands.

“I can take it,” you insisted, your face burning at the implication that you should be ashamed for being so tight. Jeonghan chuckled.

“Yeah? You think so?” He asked, his voice still teasing. You nodded, forcing your eyes to his.

“Please Jeonghan, I’m still a good toy,” you insisted. “I need your cock inside of me.”

Jeonghan laughed.

“Yeah...?”

He pulled his fingers out of you and pushed you around by your shoulder so that your back was to him. You immediately spread your legs for him as his fingers entangled in your hair and he pushed your face against the window.

Jeonghan slowly pushed himself into you, but the pace was agonizing compared to other times. He groaned, burying his face against your neck.

“Fucking hell. At least I know you really are a good little slut. I can feel that I’m the only one who plays with you,” he mumbled. You couldn’t bare to even open your eyes, they just stayed shut as Jeonghan’s hand held your cheek flush against the cold glass. You felt your ass shake a little as you tried to get Jeonghan to push in faster but it earned you a spank hard enough to jolt your whole body.

“You really do want me to make your whole body red don’t you?” Jeonghan asked, but you could tell by the sound of his voice that he was beginning to lose his patience.

“J-Jeonghan,” you whined. “Please- Faster- I want to feel you fucking destroy my pussy. N-Need it.”

Jeonghan just hummed at your words, finally coming fully seated inside of you. Your fingers curled against the window in anticipation but Jeonghan just stayed fully seated inside of you as if he was relishing the feeling.

“Jeonghan,” you murmured, frustration peeking into your tone. “Come on, please. Fuck me. I need to be fucked. If not by you by someone. Please.”

You knew your mistake as soon as it left your mouth, but there was no taking it back once it met Jeonghan’s ears. You felt his grip tighten in your hair and finally he began to move inside of you. A slow pull out before a sharp, deep fast thrust back into you making your whole body shake. You yelped at the thrust, and barely had time to recover before he was doing it all over again.

“Someone, hm?” Jeonghan reiterated. As he spoke, he pushed your body against the window harder so that now your tits were also pressed against the cold glass. “Why don’t you look down there huh? Tell me: Who is that someone you are going to let fuck you?”

You didn’t respond and Jeonghan’s hand came back down on your ass.

“I said who. Look out this fucking window and tell me who is going to want to fuck you?”

Your eyes shot open and you looked down realizing that despite being on the fourth floor you had a pretty good view of the school campus below you. Of course, no one seemed to notice you as they walked to and from class, but you thought if anyone did decide to look up and really look at you for a little bit, they might be able to figure out what you were doing.

“N-No one,” you managed out. “I didn’t mean-”

“No, you did mean what you said,” Jeonghan replied. He started to quicken his pace, but his thrusts were still just as hard. So hard that your whole body was bouncing against his. “You were threatening me so that I would fuck you faster. You thought I would just let that slide?”

Jeonghan laughed.

“Now, who is it going to be?” The palm of his hand pushed your cheek further into the window. “That guy with the green backpack? No. Maybe the one with the black shirt on… Not him either?”

Jeonghan slapped your ass again even though you hadn’t technically done anything wrong, and his hand came around your body so that his fingers could find your clit. You cried out at the friction.

“Wait- Jeong-”

“I think you forgot who was in control here,” Jeonghan hissed. “I think you forgot that you do what I say you can. And I use you the way that I want to.”

His fingers quickened their pace on your clit, and you watched helplessly as your heavy pants fogged up your view on the window.

“Let’s see, if I tell you not to come but force an orgasm out of you… What are you going to do, hm?”

You felt your heart skip a beat when you realized that was what he was doing. You squirmed underneath him.

“Wait- Jeonghan I-” You interrupted yourself with a half shriek when Jeonghan’s hand left your clit so that he could hit it. You felt a shock go through your entire body at the hit, and your pussy walls clamped around Jeonghan’s dick.

“If you come I’m going to have to punish you,” Jeonghan warned, but his fingers went right back to your clit. “You don’t want to be punished, do you? Not while all of your potential suitors are walking down there. People who are going to make you come faster than me?”

You couldn’t help it, you felt your orgasm coming faster and faster as Jeonghan fucked you even harder. You could tell that your words had had a strong effect on him.

“Hm, look, I think Mr. Baseball cap likes what he sees.”

You cried out as an orgasm ripped through your body, and Jeonghan fucked you through it as if it wasn’t happening at all. His fingers stayed stubbornly on your clit as he fucked you, your pussy becoming even wetter as you came around his cock.

“Oh, did you just come without permission?” Jeonghan asked. “Such a bad toy… What am I going to do with a little toy that can’t even follow simple orders?”

You went to protest against Jeonghan but the unpleasant overstimulated feeling that came just after your orgasm was already disappearing making way for a second orgasm.

You whined, your fists banging lightly against the window.

“Fuck, Jeonghan I’m sorry- Please-” Before you could even finish begging him to take pity on you a second orgasm was ripping through your body and Jeonghan was chiding you once again, pulling you by the strands of your hair off the window.

“God, you really are such a slut. You think other people want to fuck you when you’re being so bad?”

Tears dripped down your face as Jeonghan continued to fuck you through your second orgasm and this time you placed your hands on the window, trying to hold yourself up.

“Jeonghan.”

Your words were just a slur that made you sound completely drunk on sex. Drunk on Jeonghan really, and you could tell by the twitch of his cock that he was taking pride in it.

“God, you little pathetic whore. You can’t help but come when I’m fucking you can you? And up against a window for all to see? I should’ve just expected you to be bad. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get punished.”

Jeonghan’s fingers pressed even harder against your swollen clit.

“And you’re letting me do all of this too, because you like it. This whole time you could have safe worded but you didn’t want to did you? You like being treated like this. You like that you’re going to get punished.”

As Jeonghan spoke your mind raced to try and figure out how you could convince him out of a punishment but it was too late. You felt his cock pulse inside you and a rope of cum shot out inside of you. You cried out in relief, a third orgasm starting to rock through your body but before you could get out another word Jeonghan was pulling himself out of you, his hand pushing you to the ground.

You felt a rope of warm semen paint your face, and- Your whole body shaking as your body kept coming around absolutely nothing- you let your tongue fall out, realizing that Jeonghan was coming on your face.

You pushed your head up against Jeonghan’s hand but he held you in place, not caring that your pussy was leaking all over the bathroom floor, and his hand didn’t loosen in your hair until his cum had finally stopped painting your face.

You slumped a little on the ground when Jeonghan left go of you, closing your mouth to swallow the little bit of cum that had landed on your tongue, but Jeonghan knelt down in front of you before much more could be said.

He slapped you, hard, his hand rubbing the semen across your face.

“You look pathetic,” Jeonghan mumbled. “Covered in tears and semen…”

Jeonghan shook his head.

“Such a bad, bad toy.”

You whined, but Jeonghan’s free hand went back to your hair. He pulled your head sharply so that his lips could press to yours. You moaned against his mouth, but the kiss was short.

“Are you sorry?” Jeonghan asked. You looked at him, sniffling a little, still trying to come down from having had three orgasms.

“I’m sorry,” you agreed softly. Jeonghan hummed.

“Yeah? Well, there’s one more bit of your punishment left.”

You nodded, excitement coiling in your stomach.

“O-Okay,” you agreed. Jeonghan rolled his eyes at your excitement, his hand falling from your head.

“I don’t like fucking you in bathrooms,” he mumbled. “I can’t give you good aftercare in a bathroom.”

Your face flushed red. He was thinking about aftercare even after asserting that you had been bad. It made your whole body feel even hotter than it did before.

“That’s okay,” you said softly. “I’ll give myself good aftercare when I get home tonight.”

Jeonghan hummed, giving you an annoyed look.

“Yeah?” He asked. “You promise to shower?”

“I promise,” you agreed quickly.

Jeonghan made a sound that didn’t sound like he was completely convince, but you could tell he wasn’t interested in arguing with you over it.

“You need a minute?”

You nodded.

“Okay. Let’s sit for a minute.”

-

“Is that a hickey?” Yeongtae asked as you took a seat back down in front of him. He squinted at you and his nose wrinkled. “Is there still cum on your face?”

Your face blazed and you pulled a wet wipe out of your backpack.

“He said to leave it until I got back to you.” You took the wet wipe and began to wipe your face clean.

“Ew.”

You stuck your tongue out at him, so Yeongtae sighed.

“It’s funny how possessive of you Jeonghan is,” he commented with a shake of his head. Your eyebrows narrowed at him.

“Possessive?” You questioned. “I would hardly call a man like Jeonghan possessive of me. Not really.”

Yeongtae laughed and you stared at him. A few beats passed.

“Oh my god you’re serious,” Yeongtae stated. “You don’t see it?”

“See what?” You asked. Yeongtae gestured in the general direction of where you had come from, where he assumed Jeonghan was.

“He’s obsessed with you,” Yeongtae stated pointedly. “Every time he sees that you're with me he gets so jealous.”

“He doesn’t get jealous; he just doesn’t like you.”

Yeongtae gave you a brief offended expression.

“I’m serious. Hasn’t he ever asked about me? Or rather, asked about other guys you’ve been with?”

“Well, yeah but that’s just because he’s worried, I’m sleeping with other people.”

“But you’re not exclusive,” Yeongtae replied bluntly.

“Right, but we agreed that I wouldn’t sleep with other people.”

“But he’s also not sleeping with other people.”

“No, he’s allowed to sleep with other people.”

Yeongtae sighed, shaking his head.

“Okay, regardless of how fucked up and stupid that is.” He leaned forward. “He’s not sleeping with other people.”

You squinted at Yeongtae.

“Yes he is. He told me.”

Yeongtae’s eyebrow raised.

“He lied to you?” He asked, genuinely looking confused. “What- Why would he lie to you about that?”

You were stunned, completely unsure of how to respond. You opened your mouth, and closed it, and opened it again.

“He...” You trailed off, now starting to feel a little angry. “He isn’t lying to me!”

“When did he do it last?” Yeongtae argued back. “When was the last time that he slept with someone else?”

You didn’t want to humor Yeongtae but you also wanted him to shut up about this whole thing.

“Just last night I think,” you replied pointedly. “Why-”

“Call your friend Jun. He lives with him, right?”

Your eyes narrowed at Yeongtae, not normally one to just listen to people when they practically ordered you around but...

You picked up your phone.

“If it will make you shut up.”

Your phone rang only twice before Jun picked up. You heard some shuffling on his end.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”

Yeongtae pointed at your phone, mouthing at you to turn it on speaker phone. You rolled your eyes and did so.

“Hey, I have a really stupid question and you have to promise not to lie to me about it okay?”

“No, Jeongyeon still hasn’t met with Jimin, but she assures me that she is going to see him tonight?”

“What?” You asked. “No, I know that. This is something else.”

“Oh.” Jun was silent for a second. “Okay, what is it?”

“What was Jeonghan doing last night?” You asked.

“Jeonghan?” Some more silence from Jun. “Uh, legos. With Soonyoung and Jihoon.”

You felt your heart skip a beat, and you stared at your phone with wide eyes.

“What? No, I mean after that,” you replied. “What did he do after legos?”

“He went to bed,” Jun replied as if it was obvious. “Do you know how late they stayed up with those legos?”

“So... Jeonghan wasn’t having sex with someone?”

Jun still seemed confused.

“What? Of course not.”

You could see Yeongtae’s smug look from out of the corner of your eye but that was not really your main concern. You turned off speaker phone, pressing your phone to your ear and lowering your voice.

“What about the day before? And uh... Last week?” You asked.

“What are you asking this about? Jeonghan has been doing nothing but play with legos, go to school, and obnoxiously loudly fuck you.”

You were quiet this time.

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie to you about that?” Jun demanded. “Do you think that Jeonghan is cheating on you?”

“Cheating?!” Now that was loud. “We aren’t even dating!”

Before Jun could reply you breathed out briskly.

“Look, I’ve gotta go. Thanks Jun.”

You hung up the phone and immediately began packing your bags. Yeongtae still looked smug.

“I told- Wait. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find the other boys of Alpha Mu. This is ridiculous. Thirteen boys can’t all lie to me.”

-

Part Five: Love the Way You Lie

[itsabouttimex2]

Sooooo... How do you feel about the season 5?

In short? Mid. 6-6.5/10.

In long…?

A severely rushed season that bit off way more than it could chew. A season that had the characters pull powers from their asses more frequently than ever before. A season that had shitty “dramatic” moments for the sake of having dramatic moments. A season that lampshades issues instead of fixing them. A season with so, so much wasted potential.

It basically boils down: everything they wanted to do COULD have been good, but they just didn’t have the time.

I’ll go into some varied details below. I’d also like to make clear- I’ll be tagging all of my Season Five Posts with “Lego Monkie Kid Season 5” and “LMK Spoilers” until August 1st. Then the gloves are coming off and I’ll stop tagging them.

(I still liked the season, for what it’s worth- and you can watch it in full here! I’ve got some drafts and bots cooking as we speak!)

This was a cute send-off to Flying Bark! It was nice of them to acknowledge, in some way, everything that those dears did for the show- because Lego Monkie Kid would NOT be where it is without them.

Significantly less cute-

The absolute kick in the fucking face that constantly superimposing old footage over newer, worse footage is.

You don’t want us to be constantly reminded of the animation downgrade- that’s the literal last thing that anyone wants. Why would you constantly remind us that it used to be better?

What the fuck does this accomplish? Okay, let’s make comparisons, cause that’s the only thing that can result from pulling this shit-

This is what happens when you constantly reference the older, superior content.

PEOPLE CONSTANTLY NOTICE THAT YOUR CONTENT IS WORSE.

Also, why is it so saturated? How do you make a Lego Minifigure look like he has jaundice?

It’s just a bad look to constantly reference content you can’t live up to. I’m hoping they’ll just recreate old content instead of sloppily pasting it into the background of the show- it’ll be less jarring.

Alright, what else…

———

Uh, I fucking called it! Nuwa is not MK’s “loving though bereft mommy”! Which I had been guessing ever since the Celestial Pagoda leaked, actually-

I mean, come on. He’s literally stealing the stones away from her as she reaches to take them back.

And the Season confirmed it! Nuwa might’ve be been MK’s creator, but she certainly wasn’t his momma.

And you know how the series subtlety clues you in to how little she cares about her “son”?

Nuwa didn’t give him a name. She had hundreds, maybe thousands of years to think on it- but no. No name.

We mortals name our pets, our vehicles, our art. We love them enough to bestow monikers.

Nuwa didn’t even bother to name her own sapient mortal creation.

But when he makes a move against her, does something she doesn’t want, takes destiny into his own hands?

She calls out to him with one word- not “son”. Not “MK”.

Nuwa angrily calls him “mortal”.

Becuase that’s all he ever was to her, really. A mortal pawn. A handmade puppet.

Someone designed to fulfill a sacrifice. Even though her intentions were good, MK’s sole purpose by her hand was to shoulder the weight of the world like a good little hero.

So… a potential villain in the making?

———

Lampshading the fact that you’re doing the “macguffin hunt” again does not excuse doing the “macguffin hunt” again.

Lampshading the “apocalypse after apocalypse” plots doesn’t make them any less exhausting.

Lampshading Macaque’s lack of punishment does not undo the awkward and weak redemption arc.

———

They changed Mei “no longer wielding” the Samadhi fire, I guess.

Ignore that she never displayed a hint of concern or sorrow over “losing it” because now she’s sad and worried (after backlash from the fans over her losing it) about losing it.

Like, Subodhi knows so much about the world and the universe that he’s aware of his existence in the ink scroll- but he gets Mei not having an interplanetary level threat inside her wrong?

I smell a retcon.

———

Macaque’s redemption arc is still shit. I’ve got a whole rant queued to release soon, actually- I imagine it might be the final time I comment on his arc until Season Six.

To put it short- Macaque still falls upwards into redemption. No pushback or difficulty or introspection. He’s just a magically better person without any onscreen development to make the change believable.

But they reference this at one point?

Sun Wukong points out that Macaque escapes the trial without any punishment, and is just allowed to mope in place of an actual consequence.

So maaaaaayybeeeee they’ll do something in Season Six? I’ve lost all faith that he’ll ever be an interesting character again, though.

He’s essentially just “brooding rival #80058”. Instead of being a character that calls back to Seasons 1-3, from 4 onwards he’s just a brand new dude who totally didn’t commit any atrocities with a smile on his face- and he’s a worse and more boring character for it.

———

If I haven’t misjudged the intent, I think Monkie Kid will be going back to being an episodic series for the extent of Season Six. Again, they lampshade the “apocalypse after apocalypse” thing, yeah?

And now they have a perfect formula- find someone who’s having trouble with their new power, and help them.

And we might see Bai He again???

Let’s hope for a good breather season!

———

Rest in piss Li Jing their asses did NOT cook with you sorry papa

You could’ve been interesting in the writers didn’t try to pull a “loving father” bait and switch after you got like four scenes of being a raw jackass

If they were going to deviate from the source material and make you a good dad couldn’t it have just been:

“Li Jing, you were not invited to the trial!”

“STF that monkey son of a bitch hurt my baby boy-“

“Father I’m 300-“

“Hush son, let daddy take care of this- that monkey son of a bitch hurt my baby boy when he stole the Samadhi fire map!”

Maybe next season you’ll get to be interesting, hun.

(I’m still writing for Lotusfam though)

———

Drama for the sake of drama. 0/10 scene. Could’ve just had the interruption come AFTER they held hands, but no. Gotta drag shit out for the shippers or whatever. There was no reason to prolong this reunion.

I’m really not a fan of the “just wait another season for it”, mentality. Stop stretching shit out. You had a chance to do something sweet and heartwarming, and chose not to for the sake of trying to drag a conclusion out.

Ugh.

———

Characters just pull powers out of their ass for the sake of forcing dramatic scenes.

THESE ARE DOGSHIT SCENES

THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE. THIS IS DONE SOLELY FOR THE SALE OF “MUH DRAMATIC FINALE” AND IS BAD

ITS BAD WRITING TO HAVE CHARACTERS PULL NEW MAGICAL POWERS OUT OF THEIR ASSES FOR THE SAKE OF DRAMA

IF WUKONG HAD THIS POWER FROM THE START HE SHOULD’VE USED IT AGAINST HIS FUCKING LETHAL ENEMIES AND NOT SAVED IT FOR HIS PRECIOUS STUDENT

MK NEVER LEARNED TO USE THE FILLET SPELL. THE WRITERS PULLED IT OUT OF THEIR ASS TO FORCE DRAMA BY HAVING MK TORTURE HIS MENTOR LONGER THAN EVEN THEIR ACTING ENEMY LI JING DID WITH A CIRCLET THAT IS CANONICALLY TIGHTER THAN HIS FIRST

WE SEE HOW FAST HE IS WHEN HE FIGHTS THE AZURE LION

MK CAN MOVE FASTER THAN WUKONG

HE COULD’VE BEATEN HIM THERE IN AN EQUALLY CLIMATIC RACE

I FEEL NOTHING WHEN I WATCH THIS BECAUSE IT IS FORCED DRAMA FOR THE SAKE OF DRAMA

—————————————————

💚💚💚

[aislinrayne]

[𝔐𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔱]

𝔖𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶: After a particularly rough case, Reader starts acting distant. Lockwood thinks giving her space will help. When he's woken by the phone ringing, George doesn't need to know what happened to know it's probably Lockwood's fault.

ℜ𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤: Mature/Explicit.

𝔚𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰: Alcohol consumption, strong language, sexual content (second base with intent to go further), anxious avoidant Reader, Reader is shorter than Lockwood, drunk Reader, Reader is harassed at the bar, brief touch without consent, no use of y/n.

𝔄𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯'𝔰 𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢: Fuck I love playing with different kinds of dynamics. I've had this sitting partially drafted in my writing folder for a year now, and the brain-goblins wouldn't let me keep working on SM until this was done lmao Please let this be the year I finally get a handle on my creative flow fml

𝔚𝔬𝔯𝔡 ℭ𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔱: 6.1k

    The first time the phone rings, both inhabitants of 35 Portland Row manage to remain deep in a well earned slumber.

  The second time the phone rings, it successfully rouses one George Karim.  Muttering a string of colourful insults under his breath that - had he been in his family home - would have earned him a smack over the head with his mother’s slipper, he reluctantly drags himself from the warmth and comfort of his duvet.  Letting out a long suffering sigh that lasts through the entire shuffle from his room to the phone on the floor below, he lifts it from the receiver and greets the caller with a noise somewhere between ‘hello’ and ‘fuck off’.

  “Evening, sorry to wake you.  This is James, calling from The Royal Oak.  Is there a, uh-”  Even over the numerous voices and the clinking of glass in the background, George can hear the gruff sounding man being interrupted by a woman’s voice mumbling incoherently before all sound is muffled by a palm being pressed over the mic on the other end, “-sorry, did you say…?  Really, sweetheart?  Alright, but don’t try to blame this on me tomorrow when you sober up.”  

  Then the phone is back to full volume. “Sorry about that, I’ve got a young lady here who says she lives at this address?  She’s too drunk to get herself home and this is the number she gave for someone she trusts to come get her.  But, uh, she-”  James seems like he’d rather not say the next bit, “well, she just keeps asking for ‘that selfish wanker’?  Won’t give me a name otherwise.”

  There’s not a lot in this world capable of rendering George completely speechless, but that…  That does it.  He allows the phone to drop from his ear for a moment, resting it on his shoulder as he attempts to compose himself and reply to the nice man on the other end of the line.

  “Uh…  Yeah, she- she’s ours.  Probably talking about our boss, then.  I’ll, uh…  I’ll go wake him.  I’m sure he’ll be there very soon.”  He has to speak up over the sound of James choking and sputtering in surprise to say a polite ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’, before slamming the phone down and jogging up the stairs to wake his friend.  

  He pauses for a moment halfway up, considering heading back downstairs to grab a boot to throw at the door.  Unfortunately his need for immediate answers outweighs his urge to be petty, so he settles for pounding loudly on the door instead.   There’s quiet rustling and not so quiet cursing on the other side before it’s ripped open.

  “What?!”  A dishevelled Anthony Lockwood snaps, blinking sleep from glaring eyes and leaning on the doorframe in an endeavour to keep himself upright.

  “Just got a call from The Royal Oak, down on York Street?  Turns out they have a resident of this address drunkenly calling for a ‘selfish wanker’ to come pick her up.”  George crosses his arms, raising a challenging eyebrow at the taller man.  

  Lockwood’s expression shifts from its existing irritated frown into confusion, then straight to alarm.  He wastes no time flipping the light switch beside the doorway, bathing the room in light as he crosses it to tug one of his dresser drawers open.

  “Can you call me a Night Cab, please?  Offer them double fare to prioritise.”  He calls over his bare shoulder, searching for a t-shirt and hoodie to toss on.  His researcher says nothing as he complies, deciding to save the interrogation for later.

  Anthony is properly worried.     Their third roommate had come back from their last job acting distant.  They’d been separated by a pair of particularly nasty Spectre’s for close to an hour, but she’d succeeded in securing the Source’s and they’d all made it out in one piece.  He’d been so caught up in pride for his team he hadn’t noticed the effect it had on her until days later.  When he tried to approach her with his concerns, she clammed up and looked as though she was about to cry before excusing herself to her room.  None of the members of his agency, himself included, had seen her exit her room for two days after that.   He hadn’t asked about it since, and while giving her space seemed to be working by way of not making her cry, he was starting to wonder if it had been upsetting her in a different way.     Even taking all of that into consideration, there’s still no way he could have seen a phone call like this coming at 2:56 AM on a Tuesday.

  All he can find is a sleeveless black undershirt.  With a huff of frustration he pulls it over his head, kicking the drawer closed simultaneously, then pulling open the one above it.  The joggers he fell asleep in are fine enough, so after a fit of undignified hopping across the room to cover his feet with pink socks he grabs a random hoodie off of the armchair by the window, shrugs into it, and zips it on his way down the stairs.

  George is waiting for him at the bottom, staring at his watch.

  “Your cab should be here in three minutes, mine should be here in thirteen.”  He looks up from his wrist, meeting his boss’s confused look with an exasperated one.  “I’m heading to Flo’s for the night, so whatever you fucked up, mate?  Fix it.”  Karim claps him on the shoulder, walking past him to pack an overnight bag.  It might not be conventional, but Anthony knows it’s the closest thing to encouragement he’s going to get.

  The next several minutes pass in a blur of waiting and worrying, until finally it’s 3:14 AM and he’s slipping the cab driver an extra twenty quid to wait for them, swearing to be no longer than fifteen minutes.  The ungodly-early morning air is sharp and cold, cutting to the bone as soon as he steps out of the comforting warmth of the vehicle.  It’s plenty enough encouragement to hurry his way to the building, pulling the door open to slip into the soft golden warmth and loud ambiance of the pub.  

  He hesitates on the doormat, catching sight of the other patrons.  Thankfully it isn’t a particularly highbrow establishment, but it's nice enough for him to feel noticeably underdressed in black joggers and a grey zip-up.  And then he lays eyes on her, and all insecurities are immediately banished by the sharp knife of shock burying itself in his gut.  

  She’s balanced on a table, wearing a little black dress he’d never seen before.  Her arms are raised above her head, fingers combing through her hair as her hips sway to the bass of the music in a way that probably would have had his mouth watering if it wasn’t for present circumstances.   He isn’t the only one noticing her.  There’s a group of men standing around the table, watching her with hungry eyes that make his skin crawl with disgust.   A tall blonde man pushes his way past the rest of the crowd, deep set ice blue eyes chasing up her legs.  She seems to either be unaware of his presence, or too lost in the music to care.  Even from his position across the room he can see her eyes are out of focus, drifting away for split seconds every few beats from the speakers on the wall.     The man raises a hand and grabs her thigh, using enough pressure to leave visible fingermarks.

  Lockwood finds himself frozen in place, blood boiling as he mentally considers how challenging talking his way out of a murder charge could really be.  Surely not that much harder than talking his way out of an arson charge, and he’d done that often enough to be confident in his abilities.

  Before his sleep deprived mind can break free of its indecision, the girl spins around abruptly and slaps the lecherous limb away from her.  The slime of a man attached to it is none too happy about that, making a move to grab for her arm.  Her normally impeccable reflexes are slowed by the alcohol, she can’t move fast enough to avoid the attack.  When his fingers close around her wrist, he pulls.  Hard.     She teeters on the edge of the table, her short cry of pain audible even over the music.

  Huh.  He’d always thought the whole ‘seeing red’ thing was entirely turn of phrase, but as it turns out, there’s actually a modicum of truth to it.

  He’s halfway across the bar by the time he realises he’s in motion, but he’s not about to stop.  Closing the remaining distance in a few purposeful strides, he grabs the creep’s arm in a vice grip.  The blonde releases his hold on her immediately, instinctively trying to pull away from the pain.  Lockwood lets him stumble away in surprise, wasting no time placing himself in between his friend and the threat to her safety.  At first he’s optimistic he might have a chance to vent some anger when the wanker locks eyes with him, but whatever he’d seen in Anthony’s was enough to make him back down and stumble off with an insincere apology.  

  Reminding himself to focus his attention where it belongs, he turns to look up at the girl on the table.  Her face lights up with delight when she recognizes him, then swiftly sours the longer she looks at him.   He feels like an absolute prick for not noticing the dark circles around her eyes sooner.  Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he reaches up to offer her both of his hands, palms up.  She sways in place for a moment, scowling pensively at the proffered appendages.  He studies her face while he waits patiently, trying to find any hint of what could be bothering her enough to take this approach to forgetting.

  With a tiny hiccup she finally caves, placing her hands in his and allowing him to help her to solid ground.  Once both of her feet are securely on the sticky floor, he offers her his arm for support.  She gives him another little glare, but just like before, she eventually accepts his help.   Scanning the other tables and chairs around her makeshift stage, he sees no sign of a purse or jacket that he recognises in the slightest.

  “Did you bring anything with you, sweetheart?”  He asks her directly, leaning closer to her ear to be heard over the noise.  If he didn’t know any better he’d say she looks almost flustered; eyes glazed, cheeks flushed a beautiful shade of pink, looking through him rather than at him as she tries to filter his words through the haze of liquor clouding her mind.     Although he’s prepared to wait as long as it takes for her to answer, he can’t help but feel a touch relieved when the bartender waves him over holding a familiar leather clutch.  Gently taking her by the arm, he guides her to a nearby chair to sit and wait for him to collect her belongings.  Giving a final warning look to the remaining crowd for good measure, he leaves her side to approach the bar.

  The man behind it is average height, with mid length dark hair as well kept as his perfectly trimmed goatee.  He abandons the glass he’s polishing, tossing the white cloth he’d been using over his shoulder and offering Anthony a calloused hand.  “I take it you must be-”

  “‘That selfish wanker’?  Present and accounted for, though I also answer to ‘Anthony’.”  He replies, accepting the handshake.  

  The other man’s grip is firm but friendly, and he throws his head back in merriment at Lockwood’s unexpected introduction.  “James, pleasure to finally meet you.  I’ve heard a lot about you from your little Songbird over there.”

  Lockwood winces.  “Not all bad, hopefully.”

  “No, not all bad.”  James soothes before leaning in conspiratorially, “Just don’t tell her I said that.”

  He shoots him a wink as he settles back, and now it’s Anthony’s turn to laugh.  It’s decided then and there; they like each other.

  He reaches behind the lip of the bar, grabbing the clutch he’d tucked out of sight until he could determine Lockwood’s identity.  “This is all she brought with her.  You’ve got a safe way home?”

  Anthony takes it from him with a grateful smile.  “Yeah, paid the driver to stick around.  I consider myself pretty good at multitasking, just not ‘keeping her upright and not getting ghost-touched’ good.”  James lets loose a hearty laugh in response.

  The screech of wood against the floor draws their attention back to the woman formerly in the chair, now standing unsteadily a few feet away.

  “And that’s my cue.  Pleasure to meet you, James.  And, uh-”  He glances back at her involuntarily.  “Thank you.  For keeping an eye on her, calling us, the lot of it.”

  The bartender smirks, quirking an eyebrow and giving him a knowing look.  “It's what any decent person would do.  Don’t be a stranger now, either of you.”

  Lockwood departs the bar, clutch in hand, with a salute and a promise to be back another time.   She seems confused at first when he tries to get her attention, switching to stare at him reproachfully when she recognises him again.  He sighs, trying to tuck away his own feelings of exhaustion and defeat.  

  “Let's get you home, love.”  He murmurs, offering his arm again.  She takes it without hesitation this time, leaning heavily against him as they make their way to the exit.  Pausing on the doormat, he carefully extracts his limb from her grip, soothing her little noise of protest by assuring she’d be using him as a crutch again momentarily.  The metal of the zipper is cold against his bare arms as he shrugs his hoodie off, blatantly ignoring her attempts to argue with him and draping the grey fabric over her shoulders.

  The cold breeze cuts into him once they’re outside, but he carefully schools his expression to avoid showing her it's affecting him at all.  Despite having paid the man extra, he’s still pleasantly surprised to see the black cab still waiting at the curb.   It’s easier than he’d expected to load her into the comfortable back seat.  She doesn’t even try to swat his hand away when he places it on top of her head to prevent her bouncing it off the roof in her attempt to get in.   Once she’s scooted to the far side, he climbs in after her.  She seems lost in thought, staring absently at the headrest in front of her.  He leans closer slowly, giving her ample time to move away if she doesn’t want him in her space.  When she remains stationary, he reaches across her body to grab her seatbelt, gently buckling her in and tightening the belt over her hips.  

  She finally looks at him, expression blank as she studies his features.  It’s clear her mind is elsewhere, and she returns to staring at the black leather so quickly he wonders if he’d imagined the whole thing.   He gives their driver the all clear, directing him to drop them off where he’d first picked him up before slumping back into his seat for the uncomfortably quiet ride home.

  They’re half-way there when he can stand to ignore the elephant in the room no longer.  The words slip out before he can think of a more tactful way to ask;  “What’s going on with you?”

  She turns to look at him so slowly it’s almost unnerving. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  She answers bitterly, her voice laced with the same steel as her eyes.

  “That’s bloody horseshit!”  He scoffs, far too tired to hold back.  “If there was nothing wrong, I wouldn’t have gotten a call tonight.”

  Her mouth opens and closes soundlessly for several seconds, seemingly overwhelmed by the number colourful insults she’d like to hurl at him.  

  “Like you care.”  She finally mutters, shaking her head and turning away from him to stare pointedly out her window.

  “...What?”  He manages to put his frustration on hold for a moment, making room for his growing concern.  “Of course I care, what makes you think I wouldn’t?”

  She laughs darkly, shaking her head.  “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”  He cries in exasperation.

  She whips around to face him.  “You knew I was struggling!  You knew, and you ignored it because it was easier than dealing with me!”  Her eyes are wild, chest heaving as she draws in air like she has to fight for every breath.

  All hostility drains out of him in an instant, leaving him uncomfortably hollow in its absence.  He’s intimately aware of her eyes searching his face, trying to gain some kind of insight into his mind.     He feels like he’s just stumbled into a minefield, and in a way he has.  If his next words aren’t carefully chosen, he could detonate one and destroy his friendship with someone he can’t live without.

  Organising his thoughts and taking a deep breath, he plunges ahead.

  “I’m sorry.  I thought by giving you space I was giving you what you needed, but I should have just talked to you.  And you’re right, I was being selfish, just… not in the way you’re thinking.”  She looks like she’s about to interrupt, but he ploughs on.  “I was afraid if I pushed too hard you’d shut me out.  I thought it would be safer to stay silent and let you come to me when you were ready, but it was my responsibility to communicate that to you, and I failed.”

  They sit in stillness for far longer than he’s comfortable with, his words hanging in the air between them.

  When she finally puts him out of his misery, he has to strain to hear her over the rumble of the car.  “It wasn’t two Spectres.”

  It feels like someone’s poured ice down his back.  “...What?”

  “The last job?  We thought it was just two Spectres, but it wasn’t.  It-”  Her voice shakes, then dies.  She has to stop and breathe, looking like she’s about to be crushed by the weight of the words on her tongue.  “One of them was a Fetch.”

  Staring down at his hands, he searches for the right words to say.  Is he supposed to say anything at all?  If he interrupts now, will she shut him out?  If he doesn’t, will she think he doesn’t care?     A point of personal pride for him is being able to read people, to shape himself into whatever role they need him to fill, but… he has no idea who she needs him to be right now.  

  She hesitantly continues.  “It was you.”  

  He looks up at her only to find her eyes already on him.  “It wasn’t.”

  She laughs sadly, but doesn’t look away.  When she tips her head to concede the point, the light catches at the corner of her eye.  “Right.  It did use your face, though.”

  “Whatever it said, it isn’t true.”  He can’t resist the urge to reach across the seat between them, wiping the tear from her cheek and hoping she can feel the truth in his words when he says;  “A Fetch will find your worst fear and exploit it.  And I swear to you, I will never allow anything to make you feel afraid like this again.”

  Silence stretches on between them, becoming heavier with every second passing them by.  His thumb continues stroking her face slowly, absentmindedly.  If he didn’t know any better, he’d think her eyes had drifted to his lips. 

  “Kiss me.”

  His hand falls from her face.   For a second, he thinks it’s him that’s said it.  When he realises it wasn’t, the potential implications of her words make his heart stutter.  There’s a chance this is just a drunken impulse, a need for comfort in a moment of vulnerability.   If it is, what the hell is he supposed to do about it?  If he gives in to her, will he be able to carry on working beside her once he’s had a taste of the life with her he doesn’t even allow himself to dream about?   On the flip side, there’s a chance that this is an actual confession.  The Fetch had chosen his face to torment her, and as horrifying as that had been to hear, it only would have done so if she felt something for him.  Maybe she feels the same as he does.  Maybe the reason he can never figure out what mask to put on for her, is that she’s only ever needed him to be himself.     Hope fills every inch of him as he stares at her, enraptured.

  Then, he realises he’s been quiet for long enough for panic to fill her eyes.

  “Ask me in the morning.”  He breathes, feeling as perplexed as she looks when the words come out of his mouth.  She’s confused that he hasn’t directly shot her down.  He’s confused that he’s capable of this kind of restraint while sleep deprived.

  “What?”  She frowns, blinking as her eyes lose focus for a split second in her bewilderment. 

  Feeling more confident in his decision, he smiles softly at her. “Ask me when you’re sober, and when we’re not in this nice man’s cab.” 

  The driver laughs, trying and failing to cover it with a guilty cough.

  Once they reach 35 Portland Row,  Anthony covers the fare and slips the man a generous tip for enduring their antics before exiting the cab.  The emotional intensity of the ride home had been enough to partially sober up his companion, but he still isn’t sold on her ability to climb stairs without assistance.     He keeps his arm wrapped tightly around her waist until they reach the door of her room - formerly Lucy’s - on the top level of the house before reluctantly removing it.  She wobbles for a moment, but it seems to be more from her leaning to chase his touch than any serious instability.  They stand there for a while, neither willing to walk away from the other, until a large yawn overtakes her.

  He chuckles, suddenly remembering James’ nickname for her.  “Goodnight, Songbird.”

  “That’s a stupid nickname.”  She complains, scrunching up her face in distaste.  When all he does is laugh some more, she sighs and carries on.  “Goodnight, Anthony.  Sweet dreams.”

  He disagrees completely, of course.  From her lips, his name is the sweetest song he’s ever heard.   Turning away from him, she places her hand on the doorknob but doesn’t make any move to twist it.  He’s about to ask her if something is wrong when she turns back to him swiftly, closing the distance between them and standing on her toes to brace her hands on his shoulders as she presses the ghost of a kiss against his cheek.  By the time he’s raised trembling fingers to the tingling skin, she’s already in her room with the door closed behind her.

  He spends his early morning dreaming of the flutter of wings, and birds gently pecking him on the cheek.

  When he’s woken by persistent knocking on his door once more, Anthony Lockwood finds himself wondering what precisely he had done to piss off Hypnos in a past life.

  Still on high alert from his unusual evening, he’s out of bed and across the room without a second thought.  When he pulls the door open he’s entirely expecting another emergency, not to find the girl of his dreams standing there staring steadfast at her feet.

  “I am so sorry about last night, I should have told you what was going on instead of going on a bloody bender.  That was incredibly immature and irresponsible of me and I completely understand if you want to fire me.”  She starts slow, but by the end of her apology the words are flying out of her mouth.  Despite her best efforts, the misery in her voice as she says the last bit is tangible.

  Why would he want that?  Still not entirely awake, the first thing out of his mouth is the first thought in his mind.  “Please don’t leave.”

  “...What?”  Not even remotely prepared for that response, she finally looks up at him.  As their eyes meet, reality sets in and time seems to slow.

  When he takes a proper look at her, he completely forgets the entirety of the English language.  Her hair is mussed from sleep, remnants of last night's makeup smudged under her eyes.  She’d apparently had the mental faculties to change into her pyjamas the night previous, and while he’d seen her in those shorts often enough to control the urge to stare, something about her wearing his hoodie zipped over them was making him feel like a moron.  He’d never seen anyone more beautiful in his life.   On the other side of the doorway, she’s having a very similar crisis.  His sleep tousled hair only doubled her ever present urge to rake her fingers through it.  And not only had he been in such a hurry to answer the door he hadn’t bothered to slip on a shirt, his joggers were also sitting dangerously low on his hips.     Their eyes snap back to each other's faces in tandem, both flushing almost comical shades of red.

  “Did you mean what you said last night?”  He asks hurriedly, heart pounding in his throat.

  “I said a lot of things.”  She wraps her arms around herself, laughing nervously.  “Which part?”  

  He keeps his eyes fixed on hers, searching them for some clue to tell him what comes next.

  Mustering more courage than she thought she was capable of, she answers honestly.  “Yeah, I did.  Every word.”

  Mimicking his actions from the night before he extends both of his hands towards her, palms up.   She tilts her head quizzically, but places her hands in his.  He uses them to pull her close enough their bodies are almost touching, guiding her arms to rest on his shoulders, releasing them to place one hand on her waist and the other on the side of her neck.  She inhales sharply when he leans in, his thumb lightly stroking her jaw while her gaze flickers between his eyes and lips.   He’s studying her face like he never wants to forget a single detail, but he doesn’t get any closer.  She’s lightheaded and pretty sure she’s going to die if he doesn’t kiss her soon, which is probably why it’s not until she sees the corners of his mouth twitch into a smile that she realises what he’s waiting for.  

  “Kiss me.”  She breathes.

  He doesn’t need to be told a third time.   He leans down and kisses her like he’ll never get the chance to do so again, like the world is falling to pieces around them and the only thing that can save them is the feeling of her lips against his.     The hand on the side of her throat slides back to bury itself in her hair, cradling the back of her head to take the strain off her neck from their notable difference in height.  Her hands wander the expanse of bare skin across his back, mapping every muscle and scar like it’s the braille translation of his life story.  He shivers under her touch, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her body tight to his in a desperate attempt to fill the yawning pit within him that had grown larger with every day he believed he’d never get to hold her like this.  

  As she runs her hands down his sides to his hips he gasps involuntarily, deepening their kiss with enthusiasm.  Driven by curiosity, she lets her nails graze his skin as she retraces her previous path.  The noise he makes in response is downright sinful, but so is the feeling of his rapier-calloused skin against her back as he slips his hand under the hem of his hoodie.  Her breath catches as his fingers trace featherlight patterns up and down her spine, feeling him grinning between kisses when he notices she’s not wearing anything beneath the grey material.  When he nips at her lower lip, she drags her nails down his back, and the last of his restraint abandons him.  

  Both of his hands drop, fingers dimpling the flesh of her upper thighs.  As in sync as they are in the field he’d never dared to imagine the same would apply to the bedroom, so he’s a little blown away when she understands his intentions immediately, jumping as he lifts her up to wrap her legs around his hips without breaking from each other.  Now he’s the one craning his neck to capture her lips, the floor creaking beneath his feet as he crosses the short distance to the wall, pressing her back against it and groaning at the restrained whimper that slips free from her.

  “Please don’t hold back.  I want to hear you sing for me, my little Songbird.”  He urges, adjusting his grip to slide his hands up her sides under his hoodie, palming one of her breasts and swiping a thumb experimentally across her skin to carefully catch one of her nipples between his thumb and the side of his forefinger.  She finally breaks, back arching away from the wall, head falling back against it as she moans unabashedly.  All of his strength threatens to leave him when she rolls her hips against his, dropping his free hand to grab at the plush of her ass and pull her impossibly closer as he whispers praise between frenzied kisses pressed to her throat.  She buries her hands in his hair, gasping for air as his ministrations travel to her collarbones then slowly down the centre of her chest, placing an open-mouthed kiss to swell of her breast-

  The front door slams open, startling them apart.  There’s the sound of shuffling beneath them as someone kicks off their shoes.

  “OI, MATE!”  George’s voice calls from the base of the stairs, “Did you fix it?”

  They look at each other, dazed and drunk off each other.  A confused frown decorates her features, mouth falling open to ask him what the hell their other roommate is talking about.  He shakes his head in exasperation, shooting her a look that reads ‘I’ll fill you in later’ and dropping his head to rest on her chest.  They take as many seconds as they dare like that, her fingers combing through his hair soothingly as he wraps his arms around her back, basking in the warmth of her body against his.  Reluctantly, he lifts his head and steps away from the wall, gently setting her back on her feet and pressing a kiss to her temple.  She seems hesitant to move away from him at all, back to staring at her feet instead of looking at him.  He’s known her for long enough to know she’s overthinking.

  “Hey, look at me.”  He slips his fingers beneath her chin, gently lifting her face to meet his concerned gaze.  “What’s on your mind, darling?”  

  “I don’t-”  She starts strong but stops suddenly, shifting anxiously.  “I really don’t want this to be a one time thing, or - or just a way to blow off steam-”

  He lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, cradling her face and pressing a brief but searing kiss against her lips.  She softens, melting into his touch.

  “Good,” He murmurs as he pulls away, tucking her hair behind her ear and giving her a peck on the cheek like the one she’d given him the night before, “because I don’t think I can survive another day of not being able to kiss you.”

  George chooses that moment to begin his ascent of the stairs.  They break away from each other, struggling to make themselves presentable before he makes it to the landing.  Anthony rushes to grab a shirt from the foot of the bed, throwing it over his head haphazardly  She squeaks when she finds the zipper of his hoodie down to her navel, shooting him a teasingly chastising look when he snickers and crosses past her to greet their researcher in the hall, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tame it.  She yanks the zip as high as it will go, trying to smooth her own hair as she approaches the bookshelf and grabs something at random.  She throws herself into the armchair in the corner of his room just in time, flipping the book open to roughly the halfway point and staring intently at the page as George reaches the top step.

  “Good morning!”  Anthony greets him far too cheerfully, leaning against the doorframe in an attempt to obscure the other man’s view of his room.  

  “...Morning.”  George replies, not even trying to disguise his attempts to peer around his boss.  “How’d it go last night?”  

  “Um - fine!  Yeah, just fine.  Perfectly fine.  Everything is… fine.”  She closes her eyes, letting out a slow quiet sigh at his obvious nerves.  

  Adjusting the book to make sure it’s in his line of sight, she grits her teeth and bites the bullet.  “Morning, Georgie!”  

  Lockwood looks over his shoulder at her in alarm, but at her reassuring nod he steps hesitantly out of the way so she’s in clear view.

  George inspects her with narrowed eyes.  “You are significantly less hungover than I’d expected.”

  She winces, not able to fault him in the slightest for the disappointment in his voice.  “Yeah, pretty sure it just hasn’t hit me yet.  Sorry about that.  It won’t happen again, Scouts Honour.”

  “Why are you in Lockwood’s room?”  His brow furrows almost imperceptibly.

  She doesn’t miss a beat.  “I was so drunk last night he was worried I was going to fall asleep on my back and choke on my own vomit, so he made me sleep in this ridiculously uncomfortable chair.”

  Both men fix their eyes on her.  Anthony looks horrified, while George looks strangely impressed.  The bespectacled man studies her for another moment and she holds her breath, hoping he’d bought it.  Shrugging a ‘fair enough’, he bids them a temporary farewell and walks into his own room, closing the door behind him.  

  She huffs a sigh of relief, closing her eyes and slumping back in the chair as the tension drains from her body.  When she cracks an eye a few long moments later, Anthony is still standing in the doorway with the same look of horror plastered across his face.

  “What’s wrong?”  She asks, worry laced in every syllable.  

  “I didn’t even think of that!  I could have let you die!”  He seethes, throwing his hands up in annoyance at himself.  

  She has to fight the urge to laugh at him, focusing instead on gathering her strength to stand and walk over to take his hands in her own.  

  “I appreciate the concern, my love, but I wasn’t that drunk by the time you got me home.”  She smiles fondly at him, lifting his hands to press soft kisses to each knuckle.  When she glances up at him even his ears are flushed pink, looking at her with a lovesick smile.  

  “Call me that again?”  He implores, pulling her against him.

  With a quiet laugh, she drapes her arms over his shoulders before replying.  “My love.”

  They lose themselves in each other for another several minutes, only parting grudgingly at the rumble of his stomach and the threat of another interruption.

  George waits until later that morning when Lucy, Kipps, and Holly have joined them and they’re all in the kitchen eating breakfast to comment on Anthony’s inside out shirt, and how impressed he is that the sixth member of their agency has learned to read upside down.   As Lucy slowly turns to look at them, eyes wide and jaw seemingly aiming to touch the floor, Anthony lets the red-faced young woman beside him hide her blush in his shoulder.  For some reason, he can’t even bring himself to be annoyed.  Grinning proudly, he winks at the Listener, causing her to shriek loudly and demand to know the full story.

  When his girlfriend looks up to shoot him a warning look, he mimics zipping his lips.  “Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell, Luce.”

  Lucy’s demands are finally met five years later when James taps the side of his champagne flute with his knife, drawing the attention of the room full of guests to tell his favourite story about the bride and groom.

⤛⊹ 𝔣𝔦𝔫 ⊹⤜

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