#just an odd coincidence that today and yesterday i managed to do both | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mintchocolateleaves · 4 years

Text

Cost of Freedom (43/52)

Summary: In which a mistake is made.

A/N: For the forseeable future the fic will be updating monthly! Hope you enjoy the update! xx

[CoF chapter list]

Leaving the station with her heart beating heavily against her ribcage, Ran finally lets herself breathe. She glances up at the sky, cloudy but with a faint sheen of gold where the sun manages to peek through small gaps of cloud and forces her shoulders to relax.

It hurts to have her shoulders so bunched like this, agitates the cuts from the glass.

“Ran-san?” Saguru says, glancing towards her as they walk down the steps. He’s moving more slowly now, a clear indicator that she’s going to have to force him to sit down for a while and take some more painkillers.

Knowing him though, Ran wouldn’t be surprised if Saguru insisted they return to Sonoko’s like they’d planned, before taking anything else.

“Are you alright?” She asks, rather than answer his unspoken question of whether she’s okay.

“I’m fine,” Saguru says, even as he pales, failing to hide another wince as he stumbles slightly on a step. “Nothing that I can’t handle.”

“It’s hurting again, isn’t it?” It’s phrased like a question, but they both know it’s nothing less than a statement. “We can just go to a store and grab some drinks, you can take them now…”

Saguru shakes his head, frowning. “Not yet…”

“Saguru-kun…”

“Let’s get back to the station,” Saguru says, “I’ll take them there. But not so close to…”

To the station. Where people might be watching, where people know that this would be out of the norm for Hakuba Saguru.

“Alright,” Ran says. Leaving behind the police station, they make their way down the street towards the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications building. Glancing to her left down the road, Ran takes in the lush green of Hibiya park nearby. “…Was it just me, or did the station feel different today?”

Saguru falls quiet, considering. When she glances at him, he’s frowning, deep in thought. “It did,” he agrees, “it felt more oppressive. Less… safe.”

“How odd,” Ran notes, her tone falling quiet, “that a police station no longer feels like a place of safety.”

“Quite odd,” Saguru agrees. He shakes his head, the thought away. “Knowing what we do though… it does make sense. After the murders and especially after yesterday.”

“I can’t help but wonder how deep it goes,” Ran says. “It’s difficult to know who we can trust.”

Saguru’s frown deepens.

Ran supposes it’s natural for them to worry. Knowing now that there’s corruption within the police force, there’s more difficulty in getting their case listened to. To know who to go to about the trouble they’ve found themselves trapped within.

She’s not used to mistrusting others. There’s a limit to her distrust in others that Ran finds is slowly becoming larger and larger.

If only Shinichi were here by her side, maybe then with Saguru the three of them would be able to figure out who’s worth trusting, which members of the force they could turn to. Until then though… Ran supposes that she and Saguru are stuck on their own–

“Ran-san,” Saguru says, voice dropping to a whisper as they continue walking down the street. He practically pulls her from her thoughts, from how she’s been staring at the cracks in the pavement as they walk.

It’s not a tone that suggests things are alright. It’s the kind of tone that implies something is wrong, a tone that floods her system with instant adrenaline. She’d look around to look for whatever must have happened to illicit such a tone, but that’d give them away.

“What is it?” She asks, keeping her gaze straight ahead instead and trying her best to keep any rising worry from showing on her face. It filters into her tone though, leaving the ends of her voice shaking.

“There’s a car parked nearby us,” Saguru continues, and if it weren’t for the whisper, his voice would seem entirely conversational. It contains a calm that she can’t replicate. “If my memory serves us correctly, it was parked outside the apartment yesterday.”

Ran has to force her body not to freeze over, to keep moving despite the slosh of slush that her blood becomes. To act like she’s never felt cold in her life.

“I.. I don’t remember taking note of any…” Ran stumbles over the words. Walking past another building, she moves her gaze towards the window, scanning cars in the reflection that meets her.

There’s a car nearby that could look similar, but most of them look like cars she’s seen before. She recites the plate number, unable to keep from shivering as Saguru nods.

“That’s the one,” he says. “Now, it could just belong to the waitress that we saw earlier, but…”

But the car isn’t empty.

Ran’s relieved she thought to look at the reflection in the window and hadn’t turned. Details may be hard to make out of who is inside the car, but at least neither of them had blatantly given away the fact that they knew.

“You think we’re being watched?” Ran asks. “Followed?”

“I think,” Saguru says, “that I don’t want to weigh anything up as a coincidence on the off chance that we’re wrong. And… that anyone smart enough to frame Kudo-kun for his crimes, would also be thorough enough to know the identity of his girlfriend and close friends.”

Ran breathes in deeply. At her sides, she balls her hands into fists, nails digging into her skin before loosening them again. She repeats the movement, the sharpness of her nails against her palms reminding her of the glass Sonoko had removed from her back.

“So,” Ran breathes, “we should probably try to lose them when we reach the station.”

“No,” Saguru says, voice low. “We should lose them now.”

Ran turns to him – the paleness of Saguru’s face doesn’t look like it’s caused by pain, but rather, by rising anxiety and a sense of impending doom. Like something’s about to go entirely wrong.

“They’ll know we have something to hide then.”

He shakes his head, walk picking up in speed. Ran, naturally, speeds her footsteps to mimic his. “I don’t know if it’s simply paranoia, but I think I saw a glint of something from the car.”

It could easily be just the sun’s reflection on the metal bonnet of the car, or the rearview mirrors of the vehicle. But… it could just as easily be something more sinister.

“They wouldn’t do anything in broad daylight,” Ran reasons. “Would they?”

“I don’t know,” Saguru admits. “But I find that I’d rather not risk it again. All it takes is a few seconds and we’re not in a dark room beneath windows now, Ran-san. We wouldn’t see any targets on our backs.”

Again, Ran shivers.

“Alright,” she breathes. “The park. We can cut through Hibiya park and head to a different station. We should be able to lose them there.”

“How exactly are we going to find a motorbike?” Aoko asks as they begin to head closer to the outskirts of Osaka. She doesn’t doubt that Kaito has a plan, and that there’s a high likelihood that they’ll be able to find access to a motorbike in no time at all, but she is curious.

“Magic,” Kaito says, letting out a low laugh when she punches him on the shoulder. “Hey! I’m injured you know.”

“I don’t care,” Aoko says, “you deserved it.”

And it’s not like she’d punched him anywhere close to his injury, she’s not a sociopath or anything.

“You monster,” Kaito complains, and Aoko offers a faux innocent smile in response, letting out a sharp laugh as he offers a pout. Always so charming, isn’t he? “Now I refuse to tell you.”

“Come on,” Aoko whines. “I just want to know.”

“I know a guy,” Kaito says. “Or well… Jii knows a guy, and I helped him out in the past. If I phone Jii, he’ll be able to smooth things over.”

“No questions asked?” Aoko asks.

Kaito’s grin is sharp, cunning in a way that makes Aoko think of heists and being able to lead people around in circles with hardly a thought. She feels her lips tugging up in response as she waits for his response.

“No questions asked.”

They make it into Hibiya part with little issue. Obscured by the sight of trees and shrubs, Ran feels her heartrate begin to settle slightly.

“If they’re following us, they’ll either be watching the exits,” Saguru breathes, “or they’ll come after us on foot.”

Ran feels uncertainty slither into her bones. “Or both.”

“Or both,” Saguru agrees.

Maybe they’re overreacting, but Ran doesn’t want to run the risk of what could happen if they’re not. There’s a certain appeal to being wrong, of being able to laugh about how paranoid they’d been later, but right now it’s too dangerous to pretend otherwise.

They should’ve been more careful. At the apartment, with Shinichi’s case in general.

“So, what now?” Ran asks. “We could double back before they surround us, head to Kasumigaseki station like we were originally planning…?”

Saguru considers it, before shaking his head. “If we double back, we’re nearer to the station, and even if we could trust them, we have just stolen a lot of case files.”

Ran sighs.

This is true, she knows it is – but still there’s trepidation at the thought of everything building more and more.

“For now, lets head to Shinji pond,” Saguru says. The pond sat past the park’s fountain, opposite to a flower garden. While the idea of being in a more open space only adds more nervousness, Ran knows that the typical crowd would help them lose any potential tails that might follow them in.

“And then?” Ran asks. “Hibiya station is right there, we could get on a train there… Or… Yurakucho station is only a minute or two away from Hibiya station.”

Saguru nods. “Yurakucho station has a direct connection to Tokyo station. We should head for there and catch whatever train out of here that we can.”

Ran falls quiet, only offering a nod as Saguru notes that they should move faster. The first train out of here, meaning… Tokyo?

It makes sense – they’re well known in Tokyo; police know their faces and now they’ve been faced with the likelihood that the people who framed Shinichi know who they are as well. Staying in Tokyo makes no sense, not for them.

But still, Ran feels guilt well in her at the idea. Her dad would worry, would lead himself into panic and can she… can she really do this to him, without so much as an explanation?

It seems almost like they might not have a choice – she’ll phone him when they’re somewhere safe, somewhere hidden, but for now, Ran will just have to live with the fact. Of all the things to be worried over… how silly for her to be worrying about this.

“Come on,” Saguru says, leaning back to grab her hand and pull her forwards as he breaks into a run. His breathing sharpens, small gasps as he moves that leaves Ran frowning – there’s no doubt that he’ll have reopened his stitches once this is over, but… she supposes that’s something they’ll have to deal with when they have a moment of calm.

Running leads the pair to receive many strange looks – Ran is carrying a backpack, neither of them are in sportswear – but there’s little point in taking notice of these things. Instead, Ran looks for any signs of red, anyone looking suspicious, or focusing too heavily on them.

It’s hard to take that sort of information in when running so quickly. Ran isn’t used to processing so many people, registering them as potential threats and trying to see whether they’re to be immediately worried over or not.

It doesn’t take them long to reach the fountain plaza. They weave their way through the crowd, heading closer to the fountain, slowing in their movements as they take a moment to catch their breath.

“Notice anyone?” Saguru asks, voice strangled as he curls in on his side, arms protectively going over the wound he’d received the day previously. “Anyone worth remembering?”

She wishes that he would take the prescribed painkillers – he looks like he had when they’d made their way to Sonoko’s, ghost-like with an almost feverish sheen to his face, looking like he’d pass out from the pain but was holding on purely for her sake. Ran wouldn’t be surprised if he is.

Despite her wishes, she also knows he’ll refuse again if she mentions it. That he would claim the situation ‘too urgent’ to take even a few seconds for himself. She sighs.

“I don’t know,” Ran admits. “There’s… there’s so many people, it’s hard to take note of all of them. To know who we’re looking for.”

There’s some benefit for them in a crowd too, but they don’t have the luxury of not being known the way that their captors do.

“I know,” Saguru breathes, “we’ll… we’ll figure this out, Ran-chan.” He straightens back up, trying to keep the hurt from blending into the rest of his features. “Let’s keep going.”

Ran nods. They continue towards Shinji pond.

The sun sets with a kaleidoscope of pink and purple hues, the night sky illuminated by stars twinkling in and out of existence. Sitting on the bank and watching the road for any signs of Kuroba and Nakamori, Heiji’s fingers tap against his motorcycle helmet in an unsteady rhythm.

After the paranoia had ridden itself from his system, purged by logic and rationality, he’d returned home long enough to drop his school bag off before heading out.

Driving had helped settle his nerves. He’s always enjoyed having the freedom to go wherever he wants when on his bike, being able to survey the area around him, feeling the force of the wind against him as he drives.

And it’s not like it hadn’t been useful, either. It’d given him the opportunity to scout out the roadblocks that have been set up around Osaka to catch Kudo. Knowing which routes were cut off where, and which back streets were blocked off.

Heiji would’ve marked off the blocks on a map if the act of being caught with something so suspicious didn’t leave him nervous of being caught. He glances at his watch – they’re not exactly late, considering their leeway of thirty minutes, but Kuroba and Nakamori haven’t showed yet.

“If they’ve run into some sorta trouble…” Heiji mumbles, shaking his head. They’ve still got twenty minutes.

He’s lucky that it’s not too cold – the path is obscured by trees that keep the wind from assaulting him, and his bikers jacket keeps any remaining cold from creeping in.

Another five minutes pass, and then there’s the outline of two figures coming into view. Heiji pushes himself up, reaching for his helmet as he watches the motorcycle come to a stop.

It looks second hand – nothing particularly flashy about it. The body isn’t heavy, capable of reaching higher speeds, something that can easily help them get away quickly if the need arises.

“Hattori-kun,” Nakamori says as the motorcycle comes to a stop. She lifts her visor, and beneath it, is a face more recognisable, previous mask removed. Her eyes crinkle with faint amusement. “Sorry we’re late.”

“It’s time to go meet Shinichi,” Kuroba says.

Shinji pond isn’t too far, but as they keep moving, Saguru’s movements become more unsteady and pained. Ran bites the side of her lip, considering whether he’d be offended by any offer to help.

“Saguru-kun,” Ran says, as she tries to catch her breath.

“I can keep going,” he hisses in response. “We have to keep moving, just in case.”

Ran isn’t happy about it, but she agrees. She pauses, before making her way to his side, and lifting his arm to rest over her shoulder. “This should help.”

Saguru lets out a small sigh but otherwise makes no effort to protest. It’s easier to move together like this, they can move quickly while Ran is aiding him like this, keeping him balanced whenever a footstep sends a small spasm of pain rushing through his body.

“I told you,” Ran breathes, “that you should’ve taken those pain killers.”

“Wouldn’t have kicked in yet anyway,” Saguru protests, just as breathlessly. He shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter now anyway.”

They don’t quite continue sprinting, but they do manage to fall into a faster jog. Again, Ran ignores any looks they might gain, keeping her focus on Saguru and their immediate surroundings.

Saguru stumbles again, letting out another gasp as the pain wracks through his entire core.

“Shinji pond isn’t too far now,” Ran says, an attempt at reassuring him. Seeing him in so much pain, unable to help, makes it hard to focus on anything else.

“I know…”

Another step forwards and Ran’s back feels like it’s burning. Not a physical sensation, but as if there’s a weight of someone watching her, following them. Her speed slows slightly as she turns, glancing around the path they’re heading down.

Nothing.

“Ran-san?” Saguru asks.

There’s no one in this area – it’s entirely quiet compared to the other areas of the park they’ve passed. No tourists, no one sitting at the benches that they pass.

The route seems altogether wrong. Unnaturally quiet.

“Doesn’t this… feel too empty for how the park usually is?” Ran asks, scanning for any signs of movement in her peripheral vision. Saguru pauses, going still as he glances around too.

“…It does.” He agrees, after a brief pause. “Let’s keep going before anything–”

It takes less than a second for Saguru to yank her to the side. Despite her initial response, Ran falls into the movement, moving out of reach as dirt explodes in a plume around them accompanied by a sound that ricochets inside her ears.

Ran catches herself as they fall to the side, rolling into the movement to return easily to her feet. Saguru, less graceful, doesn’t find his feet as easily. He collapses in the dirt with a pained yelp and Ran barely manages to pull him up to his feet before the next shot fires towards them.

“Shit,” Saguru hisses. “Ran-san, he’s on your left. Eight o’clock.”

Ran turns, moving from reach of a third shot, to look towards their attacker. She supposes she should be less surprised by how unrecognisable they are to her – a man with shaggy brown hair hid beneath a black cap, eyes covered by shades.

She doesn’t know why she’d been expecting them to be known to her.

His expression is blank as he swings the gun to follow after their movements.

“Saguru-kun,” Ran whispers, “promise me you won’t get hit.”

Not again.

“I’ll try my best,” Saguru whispers back. Ran releases the fabric of his clothing, side stepping away from him as she glances towards their attacker. She doesn’t know much about guns – but there’s some things that Ran has picked up after years of surrounding herself with detectives.

Most traditional handguns hold five to six bullets – So far, they’ve used three.

That means they just need to dodge three more.

Ran rushes forward. The fourth shot seems to go wide, missing her completely as she begins to move in a zig-zag formation, trying to keep it hard for any aim to hit her. It’ll be harder, she knows, the closer she gets towards him.

Saguru moves behind her, but Ran doesn’t pay him notice – trust that he’ll keep himself safe.

The fifth bullet takes a second longer to fire. The gun moves in her direction and Ran lunges to the side, hoping to avoid the bullet. A sharp searing burn forms in her thigh, but adrenaline seems to be a temporary balm soothing it from setting her leg alight.

“Ran-san!” Saguru shouts, and he’s closer than she’d been expecting.

The sixth shot is aimed higher – aimed towards her chest.

Ran dodges, throws her body to the left, twisting in an attempt to keep her body from being a larger target. She can practically feel the bullet brushing past, just millimetres from her body. Their attacker takes a step back, lips pressing into a tight line, brows furrowing down beneath the curve of his lenses.

He doesn’t say a word.

They both know he’s out of bullets.

“Wait–”

Ran takes a millisecond to ground herself as she gets even closer. She begins to lift her leg, tensing her muscles for a kick–

“That gun has eight rounds,” Saguru cries as he pushes her to the side.

A seventh gunshot bursts through the clearing.

Ran turns just in time to watch Saguru stagger backwards, falling to the ground. His hands lift up to his head, quiet, silent.

“Saguru-kun!” She cries, voice choked and raw.

It feels like she’s living in slow motion as she rebalances herself. The gun raises, aimed solely on Saguru, and Ran feels a guttural scream building in her throat.

“No!”

She brings her leg up – quickly, harshly – to the man’ s side. Caught off guard, he doesn’t move with the momentum, taking a second to reorientate himself.

Ran realises that a lot can happen within a single second.

Her leg returns to the ground. With the momentum, Ran propels forward, hands going up around the man’s wrist, tightly as she begins to bend the joint back. There’s a faint grunt of pain from her attacker, but Ran’s ears are still vibrating from each gunshot to make any notice.

The gun clatters to the ground before he can take another shot.

Ran kicks it away, before bringing her foot back and using it to swipe the man’s feet out from beneath him.

It’s not enough to get him to fall – not until Ran throws herself forwards, pulling on the back of his shirt to skew his balance. He falls back, and Ran falls down with him, moving to pin his wrists against the floor.

The hold doesn’t stick. The man bucks beneath Ran, knee moving up into her side as he proceeds to throw her to the side. Ran rolls at the impact, wheezing slightly as she pushes back up.

“Fucking kids,” the man hisses, as he pushes up to his feet. Ran rises to a crouch, before advancing again, each hand balled into a fist that strikes out. He just barely manages to dart back from each one.

When it comes to speed, it seems they’re evenly matched.

“Never understood Gin before,” the man mutters as he darts back, eyes narrowing. His hand disappears behind his back, towards his waist – reaching for something. Ran narrows her eyes. “Why he always said to bring a second.”

Ran freezes, waiting. She knows not to take any sudden movements when there’s an unknown variable. If something shows up now…

Well. Ran doesn’t want to make any other mistakes.

“Didn’t need to understand to follow orders though,” he continues, pulling out an identical handgun to the other. Sunlight catches the end of the barrel in such a way that Ran winces at the brightness, at the sight of it.

She’s beginning to feel the blood trickling down her thigh.

Ran grits her teeth, lifting her chin up as she considers. The gun moves quickly in her attacker’s hands, arms straightening preparing for the recoil of the weapon. Finger hovering over the trigger as Ran prepares to jump away from the aim of the barrel.

Another gunshot.

Blood spurts onto Ran’s shirt, her eyes widening as she stares. Her attacker staggers backwards, neck blooming with red as he crumples down to the ground. Ran stumbles back, horrified, turning towards the origin of the sound.

Staring at the body, eyes blown with dread, Saguru lowers the handgun, letting it drop into the dirt. Ran doesn’t know where she should be focusing – the body twitching on the ground, not dead but dying, as blood spurts from the neck. Or at Saguru, as he slowly pushes himself up.

“He… was going to kill us both,” Saguru says, quietly. He’s entirely too ashen, the colour only further highlighted by the red of his blood dripping down his chin from just above his ear. “It… I didn’t know how else…”

Ran’s voice is caught in her throat. It’s like each bullet, each deafening gunshot has left her unable to create sound in the vacuum left behind. She turns back to the body. Takes a step closer.

“I didn’t…” Saguru continues, barely breathing. The panic hasn’t just entered his voice, it’s consumed it, leaving him shaky. “I’m – I’m sorry. I… he was going to murder you.”

Ran blinks tears from her eyes, turning to Saguru. Away from the body – she can’t keep looking at it, doesn’t want to burn the image even further into her mind. She’s going to have nightmares of this moment. Ran just knows she will.

One step closer to Saguru. Then another, until she’s basically stumbling with the way she’s running towards him. Her arms wrap around him, and if the faint stutter of his breath is any indication, she’s squeezing as she hugs him close to her.

I thought you were dead, she doesn’t say.

“I know,” she whispers, instead. Ran closes her eyes, leaning into him, trying to catch her breath as the adrenaline and shock begins to subside. “I know.”

Saguru falls quiet, leaning into her. She can feel his exhaustion – despite her own pain, from both new and older injuries, she’s exhausted too. She wants to lie down and sleep for a lifetime, but she can’t. They can’t, not yet.

They shouldn’t be here.

Ran pulls back, glancing back to the body. “Saguru-kun… we need to go.”

Saguru glances at the corpse, flinches, and focuses back onto Ran. “Yeah… Here… wear this – it’ll… it’ll cover the blood you have on you.”

He unzips his jacket, shrugging it off awkwardly as he tries to keep from twisting too much. Ran takes the offering, shrugging it on over her shirt with a faint sigh.

“Thanks…” Ran turns, looking to the handgun that Saguru had dropped. His fingerprints will be on it – they… they shouldn’t leave it behind. Collecting the gun, she pushes the safety on, before stashing it at the very bottom of her bag.

“Ran-san?” Saguru asks, quietly.

“Everything they did to Shinichi,” Ran says, “they did with no evidence. Imagine what they could do with this.”

The only possible way Saguru could grow paler than he is now, Ran thinks, is through exsanguination. He nods, slowly.

“We’ll… have to find a way to get rid of it,” Saguru mumbles.

“Later,” Ran says. “Come on, we… we need to get out of here.”

#>:3c #Fic: Cost of Freedom #DCMK #Detective Conan #Magic Kaito #Kuroba Kaito #Kudo Shinichi #Nakamori Aoko #Hattori Heiji #Hakuba Saguru #Mouri Ran #Toyama Kazuha #KaiAo #mywriting #literally if you wanna scream at me that would be much appreciated

20 notes · View notes

danideservedbetter · 3 years

Text

Day 7, 8, 9, and 10 / Elaboration

Hey y’all! I said yesterday I would elaborate a little more on what my doctor’s visit yesterday told me, and here I am to do just that! I meant to yesterday, honestly, but by the time I got home my medicine had worn off and that wasn’t looking very likely 😅😅 But regardless!!! Here is what my results look like and honestly? These things probably have been affecting my sleeping disorder to a degree I’d previously disregarded without detailed info I’ve gotten from these tests.

Full write up under the cut!

—I got two major tests done, blood work and a genetics test. Back in my hometown the nurses couldn’t even figure out how to open the damn swab, but technology here managed to map out my entire DNA sequence which is utterly NUTS to me.

—My body is deficient in almost every important vitamin known to mankind, which makes sense because my diet is not… the best 😅 So, I started on several (SEVERAL) supplements to start out.

—I say start out because it’s very likely that I’ll be taking vitamin C and some liver enzyme through an IV once a month. A younger me might’ve thought something like this was scary, but at this point I’m so desperate to be healthy that getting nutrients drip fed into my system for them to work quicker sounds just fine to me.

—Other than that it’s normal lifestyle stuff. Eat more fruits and vegetables (I’ve been eating olives by the can for like days and I intend to buy fresh fruit packets for breakfast whenever I can afford them) as well as staying more active— which I DEFINITELY have been since I moved closer to New Orleans, in Louisiana proper where my dad lives.

But enough of the boring medicinal stuff. I’m sure you guys are much more interested in the whys— is there a reason my hypersomnia is so bad? Is there a deeper explanation than “lack of vitamins bad and you should feel bad”?

Well, yeah. YES. The genetics test revealed a metric fuckton to say the least 😂😂😂 but the most important was what kinds of diseases I’m predisposed to or how my body can process certain types of hormones/enzymes/proteins. Things like why caffeine won’t work for me (my body processes it very fast but not very thoroughly) or my metabolism being the strongest recorded genotype (which is why it’s been so hard to gain weight). Below, I’ll go into detail about stuff my new general doctor’s in-office geneticist (I still can’t believe that’s a thing I’m typing) has revealed about my disorder.

Naturally, this is specific to me because of my parents and our family lines. Maybe if you see info pertinent to yourself, looking into genetic mapping may be a good idea for you?

We are pretty confident that I have Idiopathic Hypersomnia. The reason for this is that a tiny link has been found between individuals who contracted mononucleosis in their childhood and adolescence and individuals who fell within the sleep cycles indicating IH. Now, IH will be genetic sometimes, but considering I’ve tracked my disorder to starting around 14, the same year I contracted Mono, the coincidence definitely doesn’t seem like… well, a coincidence. My blood test shows that I do in fact have the antibodies in my system, and they’re doing something… odd.

The geneticist found some “active” antibodies. Well, not some, really 😅 Basically, she’s surmised that these antibodies have a hair-trigger response and can react to any given environmental factor (stress, hunger, etc.) to the point where they activate as if they think they’re **fighting off a virus that’s been out of my system for ten years.** Of course this takes up an inordinate amount of energy, which is her hypothesis as to why my hypersomnia is so random and varies in intensity. The goal for this summer is flushing these antibodies out of my system.

My previous neurologist tried out a couple stimulants and then shit insurance prevented me from trying any others. So I’m stuck on something traditionally prescribed for adhd. A narcotic. *However* since my body is severely dysfunctional in general, the way I describe it is I basically have to induce a high to stay awake and function normally. We want to eventually get me off of these kinds of drugs, of course, since prolonged exposure weakens their effects and they’re highly addictive.

Another in credibly interesting thing we found is that I'm lacking in three major hormones. However, it's not because I don't produce them. I've never identified with symptoms of depression (anxiety, certainly, but not depression) yet for most of my life my childhood general practitioner insisted I had it. Well, the geneticist found that while I'm lacking in serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin, which yes are the two major mood enhancers and then the hormone that induces sleep, it's not because I can't produce them. It's because my neural transmitters are so damaged from a less-than-good diet and years of exhaustion that they simply can't process them. Just as the antibodies can have a hair-trigger response to environmental factors, so too can these processors. Simple things like a good meal, my high from my stimulants, or even micro dopamine shots from getting things done can activate the transmitters. Another thing on the docket for the summer is fixing these permanently with treatments of vitamins and supplements.

My stimulants have caused appetite issues, unfortunately, and that plus Covid at the beginning of this year caused me to get down to my lowest recorded weight ever, 94 pounds, which I haven't weighed since before I hit my final growth spurt way back in middle school. My dad does physical labor (he's a contractor who frames houses in the humid heat of the Deep South lol) so he's used to feeling tired. When he caught Covid, he said that he'd never felt as tired, drained, or out of it in his entire life. He never gets sick and hardly goes to the doctor and NEVER takes off work because of health, but in his last few weeks before full recovery he had to take off early multiple times. He was floored when he described the brain fog and exhaustion and I told him that I had no idea I even had Covid, because I just thought it was my disorder acting up. It was only when my grandmother started feeling tired that we got tested and we tested positive.

All that said, we think that there's hope for a future for me. She said that while there's no cure for IH, the cause that I have may can be mitigated by changes in exercise, diet, routine, and medication,to the point where I may mitigate symptoms of my disorder entirely. I'm still setting up appointments with a new neurologist here in the city, though, because technology is of course more advanced here.

And again, taking all of this into consideration, while it was looking likelier by the day, we've both agreed that I'll be here in the city 'til New Years. Which means no school this semester, but if I can go back in spring at more than 20% functionality and maybe succeed, I'm perfectly fine having to remain on break.

However, another good update: I weigh 103 pounds! I'm steadily gaining weight-- which means the other medication, the one for my appetite, is working as it should and as long as I stay on-track I should reach my goal of 120 by the end of the year as well.

So, yeah! That's what it's looking like. I have another appointment to go more in depth with the results tomorrow, but for now I'm planning out my week since I decided to let myself rest all last week. I'd love to finish helping out for our current podfic, ACTUALLY start the damn 100 Theme Challenge (LOL), finish betaing something that's been on hold for months, properly reconnect with our discord, catch up on all the media I fell behind on, clean my damn room, and establish a budget for this week on what I can buy. A more specific plan for today will follow, but til then, I hope this gives everyone some insight on what I'm looking at and how I'm gonna try to fix it.

Xoxo

Dani

#idiopathic hypersomnia #TW: weight #TW: anxiety/depression mention #health post #genetics

7 notes · View notes

thecandywrites · 4 years

Text

Jewel Of The North Part 11

Woo, this was so much fun. Karma begins to sink her teeth into Alorna and Doug. Meanwhile Noah and our dear reader Zara draw closer and closer. Que- Lady in Red.

Many thanks to @monstersandmaw for sharing ice orcs with me. I am having a blast. Enjoy.

Jewel Of The North

Part 11

The next morning, you accidentally slept in because you were up half the night getting some of the best sex of your life and reconciling with Noah and having the best heart to heart while you were fucking the other’s brains out and this morning you felt like you were running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get ready on time and Noah walked you to the spa himself and you weren’t five steps from it before you saw Alorna and Doug at the counter, getting last minute upgrades on their services and about to go into it and both you and Noah stopped dead in your tracks and gasped and squeezed the other’s hand tightly and you doing that made Alorna and Doug turn around to look and one look made them freeze and breathe in tightly and the looks on their faces were priceless as they looked like they both had been caught with their pants down as both you and Noah quickly got your phones out and got pictures of them, together for proof of where they were and why the couldn’t be found back on the mainland.

And seeing them, you and Noah looked at each other before looking back at them and started busting out laughing and pointing because the odds of the four of you meeting back up, let alone like this- was astronomical. So it was either by fate that you met or by the craziest coincidence. Yesterday you would have wanted to beat them both to a pulp. Today- though, you didn’t care. You had your family and a clean conscience and you knew they couldn’t boast of that last one and you knew Karma was about to bite them in the ass and you knew that justice was coming for them and for you.

“Oh my gods, you left John for Doug?” Noah asked his sister.

“What if I did?” Alorna shirked with a shrug.

“I mean you’re a stupid, faithless bitch either way and incase you missed it, I officially disown you. By the way, since you seem to have been ignoring your phone, I think you should know I got a text from your soon to be ex husband, telling me that you had skipped out of town on a cruise and he officially called all his credit cards that you have- in as stolen and cancelled your check card and kicked you off the checking account at the bank. And his lawyer is expediting your divorce and all your stuff is at the community center and that he changed the locks on the doors. But at least he left you your car.” Noah informed her as he pulled up his text from John on his phone and read it off to her.

“What?” Alorna blanched as she came over to look at his phone to read it herself.

“Even if that’s true, Sweetheart, you can move all your things in with me.” Doug offered Alorna which made her beam smugly at her brother.

“Thank you Baby, I knew I could depend on you.” Alorna practically sang as she sauntered back to him and kissed him sweetly as you just stood there and shook your head as you texted your picture to Summer and gave her the update as even more updates came pouring into your own phone.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment I need to keep.” You excused yourself and went up to the desk to check in for your own appointment.

“What are you getting done?” Doug asked you curiously from down the counter.

“Nothing. It’s an interview and sales pitch to be an onboard LMT, I get the ultimate cruise experience and elite package in a King’s Suite for free just for about an hour or so of my time and any money I spend on this cruise, I write off as a business expense, both personally and from a business expense for all of my businesses. So while this cruise is free, I get to enjoy a twenty thousand dollar tax break for myself and for each of my businesses, which considering all four of them and counting myself, is a whole hundred thousand dollars. Not bad for an hour or two of my time eh?” You returned with a smugness of your own as Doug and Alorna’s jaw dropped in jealous disbelief.

“Enjoy your time at the spa.” You offered sweetly before you paused and turned to address them head on.

“Oh by the way, before you go, I should remind you- just in case you didn’t know, there is always legal backlash for defaming and maligning a priestess of Aura. Because my lawyers have already been in contact with every single elder in every clan up here and especially with every single elder on the councils and got so many statements of what you two said about me to them and already have more than enough evidence to sue you both and it doesn’t matter if and when which of you turns on the other or not, both of you will answer for what you’ve done. You should know that the last person to defame a priestess of Aura, was sued for a 150 million dollars in damages, and the out of court settlement ended up being 15 million. So you’ll be hearing from my lawyers when you do get home and currently you’re both in the process of getting warrants out for your arrest because defaming and threatening a public figure which all priestesses of Aura are, is an arrest-able offense in every country in the world and an expedite-able offense too. So enjoy jail. I doubt anyone but me will have pockets deep enough to bail you out and there’s no way in hell I would ever do that either. But I hope this little affair was worth it for you.” You offered, your tone sweet as honey but the gravitas of what you were saying hit them both like a ton of bricks Noah beamed the happiest, proudest smile.

“Yes! In your faces motherfuckers!” Noah cheered as he gave them both the bird.

“Baby, I’m gonna be sitting right over here until you get out.” Noah informed you happily as he pointed to a chair before he strutted over and settled into it.

“You’re lying. That’s the worst bluff I’ve ever heard.” Alorna scoffed at you.

“I guess we’ll see when you get off the ship, in any port you do get off at. You’ve fucked around, now you get to find out.” You smiled smugly back with a shrug.

“Ms. Kingsley?” Sharon- the spa’s manager called when she came out.

“That’s me.” You confirmed as you went over to her and shook her hand and went back with her into the spa for your interview.

“What if she wasn’t bluffing.” Doug murmured to Alorna before their own therapists came out to get them.

“She has to be, she’s just trying to get the last word and the last laugh and steal our fun. It’s not gonna work.” Alorna insisted but Doug wasn’t sure before they went back into the spa.

Noah happily texted his mom that you and him had fully reconciled and that he had told Alorna the ‘news’ of John’s divorce as his mother confirmed everything you had just told Doug and Alorna and that yesterday, shortly after you left, that she had gotten a call from a lawyer asking about the incident and that not only did she and Ukluk confirm the case, but so had Isla, Tonrar and everyone else involved and that the clan law was in the process of getting modified by each clan and that each clan was offering Zara a share of the tribal lands as recompense for believing the lies about her and were working on a formal apology and would be officially stripping Alorna and Doug of their clan standing and ties and that the police were involved and that there were indeed warrants out for their arrests and that cops were already contacting the cruise ship to let them know they were harboring wanted individuals.

Noah simply giggled gleefully as he got up and went to the closest bar and got a celebratory drink before settling back into his spot.

Finally, after all this time, and pain and heartache and damage, his sister and Doug had caused, they were getting what was coming to them. Karma was real and was gonna bite them in the ass soon enough. And the best part about it, is he didn’t have to lift a finger and neither did you. All he had to do was stand by you and do right by you from now on, which he was more than prepared to do. Never again would he waiver from you. Because while you had lost the battle the other night, you sure as hell were going to win the war and just because you weren’t physically fighting or combative, didn’t mean that you weren’t fighting back, you were just fighting back in the best way possible. You were going to hit where it would hurt them the most. And Noah for one would rather get the shit kicked out of him rather than be abandoned by his clan. So he was supremely grateful.

He pulled out your check that had been in his pocket, and turned it over to read the back one more time.

‘Dear Noah, please don’t think that I’m giving up. I’m not. I will never give up, not on you or on Sakura. And I will fight till my last breath for you both. I don’t want you to have to choose between your heritage, your culture and your birthright- and me. You deserve both. You both deserve everything you want. Love, happiness, honor, pride, heritage, roots and family. When you read this. I hope you’ll understand that as a priestess, there are rules I have to follow while in regalia. And I hope we find each other again soon. No matter what happens, I will always love you both- Sincerely, Zara.’

Even now, Noah wiped a stray happy tear from his eyes as he pressed the check to his heart. He had been a fool yesterday. A thankless bastard, a reprehensible asshole. But you redeemed him. Even when you shouldn’t have. And for that, he would always be grateful. And love you unconditionally and always treat you with the utmost care and respect. And treat your children as his own. Even if they both hated him at first. He would win them over by staying true to you and them. And he was always going to have your back and theirs and be the trustworthy rock you and they needed. He silently prayed to every god you both believed in and vowed this to them and when he had finished. A renewed sense of peace and happiness came and settled in him and renewed his spirit.

The interview process did take about an hour and a half. But you came out of the spa, happy and smiling and laughing with the spa’s day manager before you practically strut over to him.

“So? How’d it go?” He asked before you slid into his lap and drank the rest of his drink.

“It went great, they offered me a job but sadly I had to turn it down because I actually want to be around for my kids and possible new husband and can’t do that living on a ship full time.” You hinted.

“They have a jewelry store on this cruise ship right?” Noah asked. “I can get you a wedding ring right now.” He offered.

“Don’t you dare, the jewelry on this ship is cheap in quality and sky high in price. I would much rather have a traditional ring from the clans or bead in my hair or whatever. Besides, if you do get me a ring, it’ll live on this necklace or any other necklace you get for me because I can’t wear jewelry on my hands for work. But I would wear it on my off days and special occasions.” You answered.

“Besides. Call me old fashioned, but I want a traditional wedding with all the friends and family and all that and not some last minute thing on a cruise ship.” You urged him.

“Me too.” Noah simply grinned as he happily wrapped his arms around you and held you comfortably.

“So, let’s go get some brunch.” You urged him before you got off of him and offered him your hand to help him up which he gratefully took and once he was up to his full height he returned the glass to the bar and walked down to one of the restaurants on the ship with you comfortably under his arm.

“I will say this though, could we get you some nice dress clothes for dinner?” You asked as you walked down the hallway with your own arm around his waist.

“Sure.” Noah answered before you both gorged yourselves on a brunch then went shopping to get Noah a few things for the remaining nights of the cruise, including a black suit with a black dress shirt and black dress shoes with black socks with a few different ties and handkerchiefs that would match the dresses you brought so that you would match and so that Noah’s suit would be versatile.

“Aww, I see you found her.” Maggie said as you guys walked past the customer service desk together, both of you carrying several bags each.

“I did.” Noah grinned proudly.

“So- what did you forget?” She asked you curiously.

“His heart.” You answered truthfully.

“Awww!” She gushed. “Really?” She asked as she looked from the two of you.

“Yeah, we’ve been falling for each other since we first met each other, and it just took one good kick in the pants for me to come to my senses and come after her.” Noah revealed.

“What was your kick in the pants?” She pressed giddily.

“This.” Noah said as he showed her the back of the check before she and everyone else at customer service read it and started crying once you explained the whole story after putting your things on the counter so you wouldn’t have to keep holding them and it freed your hands up for your gestures.

“So, I actually won’t be needing my cabin. I’m rooming with her.” He nodded over to you.

“Well then I guess you need a refund for your suite don’t you? I mean you didn’t even really use the room at all, barely stepped your foot in it. So it doesn’t count, besides, we need the room for other guests anyway.” Maggie insisted before she got his room card and re-programed it so it would work for your room instead.

“And I got you some ship credit for whatever else your hearts desire while sailing with us for any “inconvenience”. Oh this is straight out of a movie I swear!” Maggie swooned happily as she typed on her computer before she printed out receipts and stuff for you both.

“Thank you so much for sharing. I ship you guys so hard. Here’s my email address, email me what happens, I want to know.” She insisted as she wrote down her personal email address to you.

“Definitely.” You grinned before you got your stuff and went back to your suite together and got ready for dinner at the cruise’s most fancy restaurant.

“Wow.” Noah breathed in awe before he wolf whistled at you from the comfort of the couch in the suite when he saw you walk out of the bathroom in a red dress that hugged your curves gorgeously and was sexy as sin. Your hair was done up, your makeup flawless, the red of your lipstick matching the shade and tone of the dress perfectly and your jewelry he could tell was older and most likely inherited from your late adopted grandparents.

“Thank you.” You thanked him bashfully as you struck a few seductive poses for him.

“That’s going to be real fun to take off.” Noah grinned as you could already see the beginnings of a hard on tent his pants.

“Yes it will. Later of course, not right now, we have a reservation to keep.” You urged him as you got on two different pairs of shoes.

“The red or the black?” You posed as you stood before him, switching from one foot to the other.

“They both look amazing, pick whichever one is more comfortable.” He urged you.

“They’re about the same. I’m going with red. Save the black for the little black dress.” You decided before you walked over to a chair and put the other red shoe on the other foot so now they matched before you found your shawl and put your things in a little clutch. “You ready?” You asked once you were all put together as you draped the shawl around your shoulders.

“Ready.” Noah said as he turned the TV off and got up from the couch and straightened himself up before he was by your side in just a few strides and happily escorted you to dinner and smiled so proudly when everyone you walked past seemed to stop and stare at you strutting past them. You could tell most of them wanted to say something, a few of the brave ones whistling lowly after you passed them but one look from Noah had them biting their tongue and looking away guiltily. While Noah looked perfectly dashing- he was an ice orc after all and therefore- not someone to mess with and Noah happily escorted you to the restaurant where you got seated at a table in the center of the restaurant where you happily shrugged your shawl off and laid your clutch next to you in the comfortable armchairs.

Noah wanted to pinch himself. Two weeks ago, he was bartering flights and airplane fuel and googling what he could make for dinner with only two or three ingredients and a handful of spices and he felt like he was treading water, barely keeping his head above water and begging his garden to ripen his produce faster so he could eat it and use it and he had been so grateful that Taylor had recommended him to you. You were one of the first clients to not haggle. He had given you a high price to start with, expecting to be haggled down. But you had accepted it and even sent him a deposit and that had set him straight and it was enough to ease the sinking feeling and gave him breathing room. And then the moment you walked into his life. Suddenly money was the last thing to matter to him. For the first time since childhood, money was not a major factor in anything. All that mattered was Sakura and you. Your safety, your wellbeing, your comfort, your happiness. And when you took to Sakura as easily and readily as you did, all he could do was thank the gods for answering his prayers for allowing the right woman into his life and Sakura’s life and for giving him the patience to wait for her. You were like a soothing balm to all the wounds losing Neena he and Sakura had sustained.

Neena, while she was traditional in most senses and was an excellent mother and careful with money and expenses and incredibly thrifty and resourceful because she had to be, she was easily contented and not demanding at all, however she wasn’t the greatest lover, or cook. She was very reserved. And not expressively passionate.

But you? Passion and heart, feeling and intuition was in everything you did. You were mild, gracious and generous when you wanted and needed to be but you didn’t let anyone walk all over you or take advantage of you and very protective. You were balanced between open yet discrete and an excellent judge of character. And you created such a safe, wonderful, nurturing, welcoming and relaxed environment wherever you were. And you were always, always- professional. You garnered respect wherever you went and whatever you did. And you were a goddess in both the bedroom and the kitchen and the perfect fit.

He felt guilty comparing you with Neena. It wasn’t fair to either of you. He had married Neena out of obligation, because Isla had arranged it since his youth and being married to her was a lesson in patience and persistence and learning to adjust to the other and learning to be a team. But to feel his heart and his soul and his mind light up brighter than the moon and the stars in the dark of night- when he met you, was something else entirely, it was an instant attraction rather than a growing to like, then love and working in tandem with you was second nature to him. You were an addiction for his soul. And he couldn’t believe he was lucky enough to have you in his life. And he was adamant, that he was never, ever going to be foolish enough to try let go- ever again.

Soon enough, he noticed that your table didn’t have the usual two waiters, your table- had four. And all of them were practically drooling over you. Noah was used to only having great service at home. They were treating both you and him like royalty and he sincerely doubted he would get this kind of service if he wasn’t with you. But he was going to enjoy it and suddenly the table was full of all kinds of complementary offerings. And with you flashing that smile and remembering each waiter by name and being sweeter than sugar and honey, they were all eating out of your hands. Even the chefs and sous chefs came out to see how you liked their offerings and happily sent you away with a handsome spread of other desserts to enjoy in the room since you were quite full just from all the appetizers and tapas and entrees whether they were on the menu or not.

On the way back to the room as both of you were carrying a few bags each, you passed Alorna and Doug who were leaving the casino and arguing bitterly with each other. Apparently they both had had some really bad luck in there and you and Noah simply snickered a laugh and shook your heads at their theatrics and drama.

Once you were in the room Noah was all too happy to peel your red dress off of you so you could take your corset off and groaned in relief once your body wasn’t being restricted anymore which got Noah to chuckle as he got his own suit off.

“Feel better?” Noah asked.

“Much.” You answered before you went to the bathroom to wash all your makeup off and once you reappeared you found Noah in a simple t-shirt and a pair of night shorts as you had donned your own pajamas.

“Dessert on the balcony?” You suggested.

“Sure.” Noah nodded as he grabbed the bags as you two went out the porch as you grabbed a blanket and snuggled into the double sunchair together as you two got to digging into dessert.

“So what are your hobbies?” You asked him curiously.

“Like what?” He asked you.

“Well, bedsides the flying, when it’s the off season, what do you like to do?” You asked as Noah took a big bite of cheesecake and thought it over as he chewed. “Besides the things you have to do to live up here, what are the things you look forward to doing in your off time?” You clarified before you took a bite yourself.

“Well I guess, just...making things and improving things. Two weeks ago, my winter plans were to rewire the parts of my plane I didn’t rewire last year. And the usual home improvements. Last winter I made Sakura a new dresser, so I’m kind of a jack of all trades.” Noah answered.

“Well then I think I have something that will interest you, it’s a workshop and it’s a decent sized outbuilding. When Andy and I were designing the house, he wanted to have a space to do his tinkering, to work on the vehicles, to do some maintenance and whatever else he needed or wanted to do. So even after he died, I went ahead and built the workshop that’s bigger than a shed but not quite a pole barn. It’s big enough to do small to medium sized projects in, comfortably. Thanks to my brothers and brothers in law and my dad I was able to score a lot of various equipment for super cheap from a lot of the old estate sales and barn sales and such. Like I have a lot of woodshop equipment, mechanic stuff, forge stuff, blade-smithing stuff, blacksmithing stuff and the like. And my dad and all the men in my family, whenever they come over, I can always find them out there, fiddling with stuff. Like it could be a proper man cave. All it would need is like a couch and a tv. Because it already has a mini fridge for soda and beer along with a bathroom and washing facilities. It is a separate space from the stables, and the hay barn.” You informed him as you pulled out your phone and showed him pictures of it before he took the phone and zoomed in on some of the equipment was shown as Noah’s lips were pursed into a silent ‘ooh’.

“Why do you have a hard on?” You teased as you noticed his half hard cock make an appearance in his shorts as you stroked your leg against it from half sitting in his lap.

“Cause I’m looking at one of my biggest fantasies brought to life, in my wildest dreams I never would have imagined anything like that and my head is almost spinning with all kinds of ideas of everything I could do with all of this. It’s almost too good to be true. I mean that’s a….” Noah chuckled as he looked at it all before he started listing off what he saw and what he knew about all of it as you just smiled brighter and prouder as relief and validation and vindication flooded your mind.

“Good.” You beamed.

“Why did you build it if Andy wasn’t alive to enjoy it and use it?” Noah asked you thoughtfully.

“Can you promise me not to freak out?” You posed.

“Yeah.” Noah answered as he gave you a curious look.

“Ok, so it was one of those- ‘build it and they will come’ kind of things. I had always planned in my head that if and when Andy would die, I would just up and move to the northern Great Lakes to be with the rest of my family. And then when Andy did die and we had already bought the property and were in the process of bulldozing the existing farm house and clearing brush and trees to make room for the house. I flirted with the idea of still cutting ties and just up and moving. But Olga surprised me by coming down to see me and she advised not making any rash decision with a broken heart and not to let my past ideas limit my current potential. And she had me bring her out there. And she ended up doing a peering right then and there, among the dirt and gravel. She told me to not change my plans of moving there, that my roots where I was- were already deep enough to sustain me and my family and if I uprooted myself and my family that I would damage them and me more than help them and myself. That I had the will, the means and the ability to build my dreams right there, from start to finish and that if I built it, they would come true. I just had to lay the foundations. To grow a garden, you ready the soil and then plant. I had already started to ready the soil. What I grew from there depended on how much soil I readied and what I planted. Both literally and figuratively. And that by the time my heart was ready, everything else would be ready too. And when she shared that with my family, they were all too happy to help in any way they could. When I had full control of all the funds from all of my inheritance from my adopted grandparents- I went back to the design firm and did a complete redesign and because I now had, literal millions to play with, I was able to design my dream house with all the flourishes and thoughtful touches and dreams and fantasies I had initially wanted but gave up because they didn’t fit the utilitarian point of view Andy had and I got to plan and execute it exactly how I wanted it. And even when there were little hiccups with the construction. I was ok with it. Because I wanted it to be perfect and it was. And then after it was built, and I was furnishing it and suddenly my dad, my father in law and my brother and brothers in law drug me to all these estate sales and barn sales and I got a ton of equipment for super cheap. And Olga told me that the right man would recognize what I have and know exactly how to use it best, not just in my self but with what I had. Which you just demonstrated for me, cause you knew what all of that was and I am willing to bet that you have at least a dozen ideas of what to do and how to use it all in your head.” You grinned proudly as you tapped the side of his head affectionately.

“Oh at least a hundred.” Noah admitted happily before he turned to kiss your fingers and your palm with equal affection.

“I look forward to seeing them.” You insisted as you snuggled further together.

#Jewel Of The North #Jewel Of The North Part 11 #ice orcs #jewel orcs #ahhh #all better #but it's going to get even better

17 notes · View notes

underoossss · 4 years

Text

Dancing Under the Rain - H.O.

CHAPTER 2 [previous chapter]

pairing: detective!Haz x reader

warnings: nothing really in this one, its mostly fluff but you’ll hate me soon

AN: Hello everyone! I’m back with a new chapter and I hope you like it! This is the chapter that prompted me to keep writing the story and post it again. Let me know your thoughts!

----

--- August 15th ----

When Harrison wakes up, there’s sunshine peeking through the window blinds and the air smells like coffee. He yawns and scoots closer to the left side of the bed, already knowing that you aren’t lying there anymore. Right, online lecture for the summer Intro to Psychology class. A smile takes over Harrison’s face –depending on the time he is either going to find you teaching at your home office or sitting on the kitchen counter looking at the sea with a cup of coffee in your hand. Both sights warm his body from his chest all the way down to his toes, giving him a sense of calm and happiness, he had long forgotten how to feel. He had been so used to being alone, that loneliness had made him numb to all other feelings. Until the first moment the two of you met and flipped the feelings switch to full force and given your late-night conversations in bed, the same happened to you.

A bright 9:15 greets him when he glances towards the digital clock on the nightstand, he’s not used to sleeping past 8 am but it was his day off. You’ll be done teaching your intro to psychology lecture soon, so Harrison decides to get up. He sits on the edge of the bed and stretches his arms upwards before standing and starting to make the bed. Fixing the pillows and sheet goes first, then the comforter on top and finally the many navy-blue decorative pillows you move to the armchair sitting in the corner of the bedroom every night. It’s become a routine of sorts for Harrison –at least on the days he gets to sleep in and doesn’t have to rush to the office before you’re completely awake. Harrison smiles as his mind pictures your half-asleep pouts as you pull him back to bed, trying to argue a case for five more minutes. There’s a 40-60 chance he’ll be convinced and hold you for a little bit longer. He really had it bad.

Shaking his head, Harrison goes to the bathroom where he pees, washes his hands and face and brushes his teeth before making his way to the kitchen. There’s a tray of croissants on the countertop with a post-it note next to it: 12 minutes @ 350F, its signed with a heart to which Harrison smiles. He starts preheating the oven and putting water to boil, and while he waits for that, he puts ground coffee in the French press. A couple of minutes later the water is ready so he pours it into the press and gets the croissants inside the oven, setting a timer so they don’t burn. Harrison decides to play some music, not too loud as you were still teaching, while he got the rest of breakfast ready. Strawberries, blueberries and watermelon are placed on the counter as well as 4 eggs, apricot jam and cheese for the croissants. He hums to himself as he gets a mixing bowl and a pan ready for the scrambled eggs and plates for the rest of the food. Even though you’ve lived together for only two months, he’s never felt more at home anywhere else –not even in his own house– and your first kiss, which happened 5 months ago, feels like it was just yesterday.

---- 5 months before -----

The sun has already set by the time you two leave Mrs. Pacelli’s restaurant after what was probably one of the best days in Harrison’s life. The two of you had talked all through supper, shifting from ridiculous conversations to more serious and personal ones with ease in between mouthfuls of pasta for him and lasagna for you. He’d enjoyed the way you had held hands on top of the table, his thumb absently caressing your knuckles as your eyes lighted up when you talked about the classes you taught in the winter semester. You were so passionate about helping and teaching your students and it was beautiful to see – if Harrison’s professors while in university had a third of your passion, he’s sure he would have enjoyed his classes more. He had listened to you talk about your family – and noticed the way you were a bit more relaxed when talking about your past now that he knew about your brother, Bryan.

That had really thrown him off at the beach, the coincidence of what had happed to your family and the family his department hadn’t been able to help. It was like his mind shut down right then and his guilt, the one that he carries with him like a heavy backpack, had doubled. That case was one of his biggest regrets, he should have pushed harder and tried to help more but he wasn’t in the same position he was at the moment. The shitty detective was born then, the self-deprecating way of referring to himself as a reminder of his failure to avoid doing the same once again. Knowing that you also had no answers about your brother’s death and that his killer was never caught had crushed his heart, he couldn’t imagine the pain you still have with you but he’s sure it’s no less than the one the family he let down showed the day he gave them the news. All his hopes had been crushed, but you had built them back up once you literally shook some sense into him. “I think we’re both done facing them alone,” you had said, and his demeanor had crumbled. There you were, the kindest soul he had met, pressing your forehead against his, crying with him as you offered your broken heart and waiting for him to give you his own broken one. It was you, how could he not? He was sure you’re who he’s been looking for all his life.

The air is chilly but not enough to make you shiver as April is just a week away, Harrison holds you close to his side anyways. “I didn’t know you had such a sweet tooth.” You chuckled, leaning your head against his shoulder. Harrison had ordered the tiramisu with chocolate ice cream on the side for dessert, claiming it was the best combo, which was the case. “Actually, I did know. You’re always getting double chocolate cookies when you visit the café.”

“I do have a sweet tooth, but only with my favorite desserts.” Harrison smiles.

“Hmm… well I’m honored.” You look up at him with a teasing smile and bright eyes, and he really wants to kiss you. “Thank you, Harrison.”

Harrison, he’s just Harrison now, not the detective but something else, something better.

His heart melts at the look in your eyes and he can’t keep the fondness he’s feeling from showing in his. “No need to thank me, love.”

The two of you walk by your café in silence as well as the next block over and up the hill towards your house. Harrison takes in the happy look on your face, your relaxed shoulders and how you’re not fidgeting around him. You’re both past nerves –baring your most painful secrets by the beach can do that sometimes. He catches two women walking their babies on the other side of the street give both of you odd looks, and it reminds him of the many eyes that were on you during dinner. Small town, big gossip. His back muscles tense.

“I’m sorry about all the staring during dinner.” Harrison says quietly into the night and you laugh softly.

“You’re apologizing for staring at me during our date?” You shake your head. “Harrison, you can stare at me, it’s actually nice to know you like what you see.”

Harrison presses a kiss on your temple and shakes his head. “No, not my staring, the other people at the restaurant and their whispering. They’re probably wondering how I managed to date you on their group chats.”

“I love this town, but they do little else than talk about whatever or whomever they see.” You shake you head as you both reach your front yard and make your way to your front door. “I told you Harrison, I want this, you. Over at the beach you said that’s what you wanted too, unless that changed over dinner?” You smile at Harrison and his heart skips a beat, it’s a teasing smile but he can see some worry in your eyes, so he is quick to answer.

“No, it hasn’t, at all. I just worry that it will make you uncomfortable.” He lets go of your left hand, which he was holding, to bring you closer to him by the waist.

“Then screw what people think.” You shake your head again and smile when Harrison’s eyebrows move up in surprise before leaning up and kissing him.

Your arms go around his neck at the same time Harrison holds you closer with his other arm and leans down. Your lips move against his in a soft caress. Considering hold long you’ve both admittedly wanted to do this, the kiss is gentle and steady, and Harrison wants to draw out every possible second of this first of many kisses. Your fingers wander from his neck to the short curls on the back of his head, and he’d be lying if he said that didn’t make him weak in the knees for a second. Both your chests are pressed together, so he can hear that his heart isn’t the only one beating like crazy and the sigh that leaves your lips when he holds you tighter to his chest makes him smile, causing both of you to break apart. Your lips have been reddened by the kiss and frame a small smile on your face so Harrison, not helping himself, leans in again and presses three soft kisses on them before looking into your eyes.

He smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners and heart so full it could burst at any moment. “Wow.” Is all he can say. “That was…”

“So worth the wait.” You shake your head and bite your lip. “I think I speak for both of us when I say that, I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

“Definitely.” Harrison chuckles, his right hand coming up to cup your cheek. “Thank you, for today.” He whispers and you lean into his touch.

You shrug your shoulders, always shying away from compliments. “Well thank you, I haven’t had such a good time in a while.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Harrison says, letting you go and taking a step back, his hand lingers on your cheek just a little bit longer before falling back to his side. “Good night, Y/N.”

You nod your head, “Good night, Harrison. You know where I’ll be.”

Harrison chuckles and nods his head as well, waiting for you to walk to your front door before starting to walk away. He can’t contain the smile that’s on his face, it’s definitely making his cheeks hurt, as he’s not used to smiling so often. Not since a while ago. It’s only become a recurring thing since he met you. His ray of sunshine in a previously grey life, with the warmest smile that always reminds him of the first sip of good coffee in the morning. He’s gone, one hundred percent gone on you and he can’t even begin to believe his luck. Not 10 seconds pass after he starts walking when he turns around and runs back to you. He’s surprised to also see you walking back to him before you share another kiss.

This one is different than the one before, not drawing out the moment anymore but enjoying that this can happen now. I can kiss you, it seemed to say, I can kiss you any time I want, I like you so much. Harrison feels like his floating but his hands on your cheeks keep him grounded and so does your tongue grazing his bottom lip, letting him know it’s all amazingly real.

“I can’t believe I almost left without a goodnight kiss.” You whisper. “I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”

Harrison laughs and nods, “Neither could I.” When you laugh at his reply and kiss him again, he knows this is one of the best decisions he’s made in his life.

----Present Day-----

The croissants are cooling on the counter when Harrison feels you wrap your arms around his waist while he finishes up the scrambled eggs. They’re firm and cooked through – the two of you hated runny and soft eggs, something about the texture was just not appetizing at all.

“Good morning.” You mumble against the soft cotton of his t-shirt and rest your cheek against his back. Harrison feels you lean into him, and he smiles.

“Good morning, love. How was your lecture?” Harrison turns off the stove and sets the pan on the counter so he can turn around to face you. His arms wrap themselves around your waist and he leans down to kiss your lips. You walk backwards until you’re leaning against the kitchen island and let yourself melt in Harrison’s arms as his lips caress yours, humming when they move to kiss your jaw and stop with one on your cheek.

Your eyes are glazed over and your smile is relaxed as you look up at him and it’s Harrison that tries not to melt. “The lecture was as good, well… as good as it can be when it starts at 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday. The summer schedule is brutal.”

“Yeah, whoever planned that is messed up.” Harrison scrunches up his nose. “I’m sure you make up for the ungodly hour of the lecture with your teaching though, I wouldn’t mind them if you were my professor.”

“I think you’re biased.” You wink at him before running a hand through his hair, Harrison can’t help closing his eyes. “Thank you for making breakfast, love. Is there something I can help with?”

Your question makes him open his eyes, you’re looking at the plates on the kitchen island and the food ready to be plated. “You can get the coffee to the balcony, it’s nice out so I thought we could have an outdoor breakfast.”

“You got it, handsome.” You stand on the tip of your toes to peck his lips and get two mugs before walking towards the French press. Harrison finally has a chance to really look at you that morning. White t-shirt tucked into a long sky-blue skirt with tiny white flowers printed on it and simple black sandals. You were stunning and he was damn lucky.

Smiling, Harrison puts a croissant on each plate next to the fruit he washed and sliced and finishes it off with the scrambled eggs on the side. The jam and butter, as well as the cutlery are already out on the balcony, so he gets both plates and joins you outside. “You look gorgeous.” Harrison says before he places a kiss on your cheek when he sets your plate in front of you.

“Thank you honey. This looks delicious, specially the croissants.” You duck your face and smile. “And so do you by the way, your morning hair is sexy.”

Harrison laughs and shrugs before taking the seat opposite yours. “I think watching Bake Off helped me avoid burning them.”

You nod your head in agreement. “Bake Off is basically what prompted me to bake so I have no doubt they helped you.” With that the two of you dig in, spreading apricot jam on the croissant and eating the fruit on the plate while you talked.

“I have 3 scheduled meetings with my students this weekend, everyone is panicking about the midterm on Tuesday.” You bring a piece of strawberry to your mouth and chew on it, “I’ve told them a million times I’m not a monster.”

Harrison takes a sip of his coffee and shakes his head. “Every test is scary though, I used to hate them.” He bites onto his almost finished croissant again, the flaky pastry falling onto the plate underneath. “Do you want me to drive with you to Cambridge on Tuesday? I don’t mind.”

He knows how hard it is for you to drive back to a place where so many good and bad memories come from, not to mention all the stares and the whispers. He’d been there with you a couple months back for your brother’s death anniversary and he’d felt so protective when he saw just how bad all the stares were. Look away, don’t you have anything else to do? Harrison had wanted to yell, but he settled for holding your hand and letting you take your time when you visited the graveyard. There have been good days and bad days when it comes to your mood, and he’s always made sure to give you all the space that you need during the bad ones. You stay in bed during those ones, or out in the balcony, and Harrison is always there waiting when you come up to him and say I think I’m ready for a hug now.

You shake your head no and sip your coffee, breakfast finished in front of you. “No, it’s alright. I’m just going to the campus and back, I don’t want to keep you from work just for that, someone might need help.”

Harrison smiles at you and the adorable way you squint your eyes at the sun, always so caring and so brave. His heart swells with love for you. It’s unlikely that anyone would need help, considering how uneventful the last 4 months have been –which was great, specially taking into account what the town went through during the last case. There’s only been minor cases here and there, land disputes between some families and cattle theft but no murders, no mysteries. Harrison has been helping the neighbor town, Diep, after they heard about him solving the Mensen murder. Sometimes they need an extra pair of eyes for a case and since nothing was going on in Dewitt, he left his assistant DI in charge before lending a hand.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” He nods his head, “Are things crazy with the semester being halfway done?”

You nod and take another sip of coffee, leaning back on your chair. “I have so many papers to mark, that’s why I prefer smaller groups.” Running a hand through your hair you chuckle to yourself, “And yes, I also have been procrastinating.”

Harrison laughs and holds his hands up, “I didn’t say anything!”

“I know you were going to.” You wink at him and glance at your watch. “I’m going to procrastinate a little more though and do the dishes while you change, then we can head down to the café.”

“Sounds good, beautiful.” Harrison nods, getting up and placing a kiss on your lips. He ignores your protests when he starts to pick up some plates and helps you carry everything back to the kitchen before heading to the en-suite in your bedroom.

After a shower and shaving, he moves to the closet where he picks a white shirt and brown pants which he promptly puts on before grabbing ankle socks and his white sneakers. Harrison feels his chest swell as he sits down on the bed and looks at your clothes next to his, it seems surreal that you live together now. It sure had prompted many looks and gossip in Dewitt but with happiness like the both of you were experiencing, it didn’t bother him. Shaking his head but keeping the smile on his face, Harrison puts on his socks and shoes before heading back to the bathroom where he fixes his hair and puts on deodorant and cologne. Once he is all ready to go, he makes sure to grab his phone, car keys, home keys and wallet before joining you out on the balcony again.

He leans on the doorframe for a second before actually going outside though, taking in how lovely you look lounging in the sun. You’ve got your laptop in front of you, where you’re probably scanning something lecture related, your skirt is moving with the wind and so is your hair. You’re absolutely breathtaking, and Harrison realizes that it’s become a thing for him to stand in the doorway completely in awe of you before you catch him staring. It’s happened at the café before you started dating and it just happened again when you look up from your laptop screen and smile. Harrison can feel his ears burn as he smiles back and walks towards you.

“Ready to go?”

You nod your head, “Give me a second, honey.” You shut your laptop closed and place it inside your tote bag, then grab a binder and try to stuff it in there too. Try being the key word here, as it is too big for the purse and you end up carrying it on your arms. “All ready!”

Harrison takes your outstretched hand in his, places a quick kiss on your knuckles before the two of you walk back to the house and out to Harrison’s car. He opens the door for you before going to the driver’s seat and starting the car once you’re both settled. It’s not a long drive but Harrison wants to enjoy his day off, he might offer you to go for a drive when you’re on your break. It’d be nice to get away for a bit, maybe park the car somewhere overlooking the water to relax to the sound of the waves.

You open the door and flip the Closed sign to the Open side at 10:25 and set your purse on your usual table once you step inside. The two of you greet the two summer employees —both students who love to bake and were looking for a summer job— before you go to the back of the front counter to start grinding some coffee beans and Harrison sits down on an empty chair at your table. He takes a deep breath, welcoming the beautiful smell of fresh coffee you’re making and fresh pastries coming from the kitchen. He smiles to himself as he sees you move around the espresso machine and the bookshop on the right side of the café, getting everything ready for your customers. He remembers coming here every day while he worked the Mensen murder, your smile when you greeted him was the highlight of his day, as was your kindness and easy conversation. You look at peace, focused but relaxed as you do what you love —besides teaching of course. He hopes your trip to Cambridge on Tuesday goes well; he’s always admired how strong you are for going back to a place that gives you so many painful memories. Harrison can’t blame you for your gloomy mood whenever you come back from those trips, he just wishes there was something he could do to make it better.

After a couple minutes you approach the table, set an earl grey tea in front him, give him a short kiss and sit on the chair in front of him with a cup of coffee on your hands. Harrison thanks you as you take your computer out of your bag, power it up and open the binder holding all the class’ assignments. He’s about to ask you about the drive during lunch time when his phone rings.

Harrison glances down at the caller and sees it’s DI Mullins, from Diep. “DI Osterfield speaking.”

“Detective, sorry to call you today. The station informed me it was your day off but there has been an incident over here in Diep and some information has resurfaced. We might have a lead that will open a Pandora box of a case, but we need another set of eyes to look at it before we can confirm this lead.” Mullins sounds exhausted but there is urgency and anxiousness in his voice.

Harrison frowns, whatever happened has shaken him up pretty badly. “What happened?”

“I think it’s better if I tell you in person. Can you and your team come over as soon as you can?” The nervous undertone places a feeling of dread in Harrison’s stomach.

“I’ll be right over.” He nods, even though Mullins can’t see him. “Let me gather my team and we’ll head there.”

You look up and Harrison knows you can see the concern on his face; you reach out a hand across the table. “Harrison, is everything alright?”

He takes your hand and sets his phone down. “I’m not sure, only that DI Mullins needs help with a case it Diep. It sounds serious.” Harrison frowns again, remembering his plans for lunch. “I’m sorry love, I know it was my day off and we-”

“Honey, it’s fine, go help them.” You squeeze his hand and give him a reassuring smile and a nod.

Harrison takes a deep breath and lets it out before standing up. He moves towards you and gently cups your cheeks on his hands, he leans down and places a lingering kiss on your lips. He keeps your foreheads touching for a brief moment before whispering, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Your breath mingles with his. “Be careful okay?”

Harrison nods. “I promise.”

Then, with a kiss to your forehead he steps back, takes his phone from the table and heads out of the café. Dread is bubbling in the pit of his stomach for some reason, something about Mullins tone and his reluctance to say anything else on the phone has left him uneasy. As he gets in the car and speed dials his office, he can’t help feeling like something was about to begin after 4 months of quiet.

---

tagging some beautiful beans who I think would like this: @once-upon-a-storyy @peeterparkr @angelhaz11 @hollandharrison

#Harrison osterfield x reader #harrison osterfield #harrison osterfield imagine #harrison osterfield fic #haz osterfield x reader #haz osterfield #haz osterfield fic #pauwrites #dancing under the rain fic

33 notes · View notes

desperationandgin · 5 years

Text

Deep as the Road is Long (Part III, Chapter 24)

Rating: General Audiences

Also Read On: AO3

Previous Chapter

A/N: FOUR CHAPTERS LEFT!! And the final mood board made by @smashing-teacups :D I wanted to mention up here that this entire plot was done and written ago weeks and weeks before I even started posting this story. Where the story is going and how it wraps up was always the plan, and it’s funny to see all of the comments asking for exactly what happens, lol. I hope that doesn’t mean anyone will stop reading with such a short journey left! As always, I appreciate every single comment ❤ Yes, there is a time jump of a couple of months!

October 2017

Wedding planning, Claire had assumed, was exhausting work. There was figuring out what documents were needed, getting together notice forms and statutory fees, wedding dress shopping with Jenny, finding a caterer, selecting guests and color themes. At least the venue, (the grounds of Lallybroch) was easy and free. Having a beautiful old home as a backdrop on sprawling acreage couldn’t have been better, and she has a feeling they’d saved thousands with one easy decision. Still, all the planning for a November wedding was why, she thought, she was exhausted and stressed from the very end of August all through September.

Two days ago she’d woken up, gone about her daily routine, then vomited in the sink; everything happening too quickly for her to make it to the bathroom. When she was queasy again in the early afternoon, then ravenous all evening, she thought maybe it’d been a light stomach bug.

Then, she repeated it the next day.

That, coupled with intense fatigue and the slow realization she’d skipped her period in September (and was already three days late in October) has her sitting in the bathroom now, holding a digital pregnancy test, reading and re-reading one single word: Pregnant.

How it’s possible, she doesn’t know. She’d taken the test just to quiet a voice in the back of her mind as a doctor unwilling to let coincidences slip by. She remembers the day she’d been told she couldn’t have children, the damage from the accident she’d been in with her parents, being crushed --pinned at her abdomen-- left behind too much that couldn’t be fixed--or so she’d been told. Because she doesn’t know for sure if this is viable, she decides to wait to tell Jamie; it’s too early, and if he has anything to fear or worry about she can’t do that to him right now without any concrete answers for him. Dinner is quiet, her mind elsewhere, and she’s thankful his response to it is not asking questions, just holding her close that night and murmuring a soft, Gaelic prayer across her forehead.

After pleading with a local office’s staff, she manages to see a doctor two mornings later. Clad in nothing but a flimsy pink paper gown, she’s quiet as the sound of her own heartbeat fills the room, steady and strong. With only a slight adjustment, the rapid pulse of her child (no bigger than the size of a single sweet pea) fills the room, a muffled garble of thumping.

Eight weeks pregnant. She’s approximately two months, and when she does the math in her head it’s so obvious that she’s shaken. The baby’s in the right place, not growing along a fallopian tube or anything equally dangerous. Everything is normal and she has the prescription for prenatal vitamins to prove it.

She calls in the rest of the day at work and nearly goes to the bookstore but decides to simply head home, sending Jamie a quick text that she isn’t feeling well and he doesn’t need to worry about walking her home. Laying down in their bed, she rests her hands atop her still flat stomach and closes her eyes, trying to imagine that belly swelling, having a soft roundness to it and giving life when she never thought she would. She knows with Jamie, if they’d ever decided to have a child they would have, but she never thought it would be a situation outside of adoption or surrogacy. It makes her cry, tears of joy (and some fear) that she gets out of her system by the time Jamie’s home. Meeting him at the door with a soft kiss, she takes a brown paper bag from him and peeks in.

“Chicken and dumplin’s. From the place ye like that ye say has perfect comfort foods. Something easy on yer stomach,” he explains, watching as she moves to the kitchen to put their dinner down. “How do ye feel?”

Claire pretends to be busy for a moment getting bowls and spoons and napkins, but finally, she answers him. “I’m all right. Ready to eat,” she manages to say with a soft smile. “I’m not sick. I went to the doctor today.”

“Aye?” he asks with a small frown, though there’s relief in his eyes as well. “A person does no’ throw their guts up multiple times a day for no reason.”

“They do if they’re pregnant.”

She hadn’t meant for it to come out quite like that, and she looks up, locking eyes with him. Her on one side of their kitchen, him on the other, a countertop between them.

“...What, Sassenach?”

It feels so quiet a pin could drop and sound like an explosion. “Jamie, I’m pregnant,” she says softly, moving around to him and reaching for his hands. “About eight weeks, the doctor said. I wanted to be sure I really was and that everything was alright before I said anything.”

“Pregnant.” With one hand in hers, the other runs over his face before sitting in a chair. “I thought ye couldna--”

“So did I. But I was so young when the accident happened, my body’s had a long time to repair itself in ways I don’t think anyone expected possible. At least back then, when it happened.” Sitting across from him, Claire squeezes his hand between both of hers. “I’m having a baby, Jamie.”

There are a lot of reactions she expects; fear and anxiety are at the top of her list. He lost his wife in childbirth, after all, after being reassured that she was fine. What she doesn’t expect is the way he pulls her close and clings to her, one hand tangled in her hair and the other pressing to her back.

“I canna lose ye.”

“I know, Jamie,” she whispers. “I know. I wish I could promise, but I won’t. It isn’t fair to you. But I will tell you I’ll do everything I can to make sure I’m healthy, that our baby is healthy.” Her lips press to his temple as she feels his hand snake around to rest against her belly. “I listened to a heartbeat today. It sounds like a washing machine,” she says with a soft smile.

“So, the bairn is strong? And you’re healthy?”

“Everything right now is very normal, Jamie. The fatigue and morning sickness, and I’m sure any pending tenderness. All normal,” she tries to assure him.

Jamie stares at her stomach for a good long while before speaking again. “How long have ye kent it?”

She shakes her head to make sure he knows it hasn’t been long before the words even leave her mouth. “Only since the day before yesterday. I took a test but I didn’t think it could possibly be correct. I waited to tell you in case it wasn’t, or in case it was something else.” Something else causing a false positive. “Tell me what you’re thinking, Jamie,” she urges, mentally noting that she might suggest he bump his therapy back up from once a week to twice. At least for a little while.

Wetting his lips, he clears his throat and inhales deeply before letting it out slowly. “I canna lose anyone else,” he finally tells her. “To go through it again, I’m no’ strong enough. If I Iost ye at any point, or the bairn, I…”

This is is what she knew would be the biggest mental roadblock keeping him from being happy. She doesn’t blame him; to know how horrifically and quickly Annalise died scares her a bit, too. But still, she knows odds and her lips press to his forehead firmly for a moment before pulling back. “If there is ever, ever any sign of distress for me or the baby, we’ll go straight to the hospital, I promise. I might have one advantage Jamie, and it’s that I’m a doctor. I’ll know right away if something isn’t right.” At least she hopes she will. Whether or not that’s true doesn’t matter to her so much as soothing him right now.

Nodding, Jamie pulls back so that he can see her face fully. “I want to be excited, I do.”

Shaking her head, Claire relocates herself from her own chair to his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I know you’re afraid. I understand why, I promise. You don’t need to be any sort of way, I just need you here with me. Supporting me.”

“I’m no’ going anywhere,” he says vehemently, wrapping her up and pressing his lips to her shoulder. “The next appointment, I can go wi’ ye?”

“Of course. Every visit from now on. I know it was a risk, keeping the appointment from you today, and I would have told you if something was wrong, I just--you’ve been through so much Jamie, we both have. I wanted to have as much information as I could before saying anything.”

His lips press to her forehead this time. “No, no, it’s alright, Sassenach,” he assures her, resting his head against hers now. “I understand.” She was trying to protect his heart the best she could, and for that alone, he’s grateful for the different ways she loves him. “When’s the next visit, then?”

“Next month. Just after the wedding,” she murmurs. “Wait, hold on,” she remembers, getting up and going to the counter, picking up an envelope before settling herself on his lap again. Pulling out the ultrasound photos, she points out their baby. “Usually they don’t even do ultrasounds for this stage, but I insisted.”

Jamie squints a little as he tries to make out the photo but he sees the small little dot that is apparently life in Claire’s belly. “Ye ken what this is?” he breathes out, trying to focus on what he knows to be true, not what he’s afraid could happen.

“Hmm?” Her fingers lazily move through his hair, gliding easily through the curls.

“Proof, Sassenach. Living proof that through all of the pain and hurt, we made our way back to one another. We’ve loved one another.”

Blinking quickly, trying to push back tears (could she blame her sudden emotions on hormones yet?) Claire presses her lips to his temple. “We can still make something good, and put that into the world,” she murmurs, covering his hand which has found its new home against her stomach.

“Aye, we can,” Jamie agrees, letting out a soft breath that makes her hair bounce lightly against her cheek.

“We can, and we will.”

Next Chapter

#outlander fic #outlander #jamie x claire #jamie fraser #claire fraser #datril #deep as the road is long #my fic

318 notes · View notes

carrietrekkie · 5 years

Text

The Enterprise Ball.

Hey together!

So today it gets a bit cheesy and romantic and it leads to something that Cathrin needs to do before she could start her new life. I hope you enjoy it and leave me a little FB, if you don´t mind.

@bold-brave-courageous @allthetrek @reeselivesforeverinmyheart

The lobby of the Starfleet headquarters was polished to a high gloss, countless round tables lined up around the dance floor, set in white and dark blue. It was the perfect blue. It didn´t hurry up, didn´t bite with the black of the gala uniforms and still looked happy. Chris smiled, for that Number One had a sense, that he had to let her. Above all, he was grateful to her for relieving him of these tasks so readily. He stood at the bar, a glass in his hand, his eyes wandering around the room, hanging on to one of the dancing couples.

Cathrin was laughing at something that Spock must have said, or she laughed about him, both could be possible, then she looked down, shoved her shoe up to Spock's, and pushed it a little aside. He followed her gaze, then nodded and he turned her a bit. The Vulcan seemed to try his best to follow her instructions. He had to keep this picture in mind. There was something Spock couldn´t do. Smiling, he took a sip.

"Captain Pike." He looked up and faced one of his new crewmembers. Lieutenant Parmena, if he remembered correctly, one of Louvier's new engineers. "May I introduce you to my parents?" "Of course." As he was expected, he shook hands with the older, proudly-groping couple, exchanged a few words with them before disappearing with their daughter, and Parmena continued to introduce more crewmembers.

"All right." Chris looked to the side. Boyd leaned against the bar and waved to the bartender. "A martini, please." He grinned at him. "I think you danced with every female officer who asked you for a dance today, just as the protocol demands." He accepted the martini glass. "By the way, I noticed that some of my nurses and paramedics put a very fast soles on the floor." "I noticed that too." Chris also ordered another drink.

"Why didn´t you ask Cathrin if she's dancing with you?" Boyd pointed to the front. "She is a wonderful dancer. Seriously! I wonder how she got Spock to do it. "He stole a glance at his captain. "It would be just a dance Chris, why you are so nervous?" "It would be the last dance." "Mmmh." The doctor shrugged with one shoulder. "And it doesn´t make me nervous." "Oh no." He looked at the captain's hands. "Looks different."

He squinted at Boyd. Yes, he was right, he was nervous, damned nervous, the last time he had had such a fooling around was before his promotion to captain. His eyes moved back in her direction. She had her hair pinned up, a flower stuck behind her right ear and the dress she was wearing made her eyes shine even more. It was violet, getting darker at the hem, glittering slightly. It was strapless, nestled perfectly around her curves before the skirt became puffy and seemed to float her. She looked stunning, just like last night, but for him, she always did.

A throat clearing forced him to get away from the sight. "A few seconds longer and it's noticeable." "You two never told me, what I have done to deserve you both?" On his other side was now his first officer, and she wore a ball gown that had already attracted a lot of attention. "Destiny." Boyd toasted her. "Karma." Una replied.

"I'm inclined to believe you both." Chris shook his head, laughing. He was lucky he had them. That he had just made a fatal mistake, he noticed a few seconds too late.

"Good to hear." Una turned to him. "Come on, if you stand around here longer and do nothing, I'll grab you by your collar and drag you over there personally. I've been looking at this for about two weeks now, and as lovely, charming, and sweet as it has been, it's starting to annoy me." He stared at her stunned, Boyd on the other side made no effort to hide his amusement. "There's a wonderful, funny, gorgeous." "I wonder when you running out of adjectives?" Boyd now get a look of evil and decided to shut up for now. "Lovely woman, who seems to have no problem with all your quirks and neuroses." "I have no quirks and neuroses!" Pike grimaced. "Of course not." "No, not at all?" She grinned briefly, then put her finger on his chest and began to poke at him with each word. "You'll go over there now, ask here to dance and you'll damn well turn your head off and listen to your heart!"

Chris and Phil stared at the usually so level-headed Una. She took a deep breath, gave a smile and took a sip of her champagne. "Commander." Boyd put down his martini glass. "I would be thrilled and delighted if you would do me the honor of dancing with me." "Doctor, it would be an extraordinary pleasure."

Boyd grabbed her hand and they sauntered away. Chris looked behind them and again his eyes were fixed on Cathrin. Ambassador Sarek was talking to her. He realized that she was a little intimidated, but barely noticeable, he could only tell because she had started playing with her bracelet. Then Sarek left and she started to look around. A smile played around her lips as she spotted Phil and Una, then she turned and left the ballroom way outside. Unfortunately, he had not been paying attention and again Una had caught him, she pointed behind Cathrin, before she turned back to Boyd continuing their chat.

Chris turned around and could barely see Cathrin disappearing through the glass door and heading for the harbor wall. Was he really so stupid that he was still standing around here? If he couldn´t be sure of her, of whom then? She knew what was going to happen to him, he reminded it as if it had been yesterday when she lay beside him in his bed, looking at him before he finally fell asleep.

That's how he had found her when he woke up. She had curled up next to him, covered herself with his jacket, and eventually lost the fight with fatigue. She had held his hand, keeping in silent because he couldn´t say anything, holding him tight when he felt that what he had seen would instantly drive him insane, but somehow she had managed to keep him upright, he was here now, as he had always been, but at the same time something was missing.

This morning came back to his mind and he could not help but smile. It had felt so damn good. His hands on her skin, her soft lips wandering over his body as she whispered his name. He started walking, also left the hall and followed her outside. She leaned against the harbor wall, her gaze going out into the bay, then up into the sky. He wished for a camera at that moment, but he was sure he would never forget that image anyway. He took a deep breath, now or never.

****

I heard the music behind me, the clinking of the glasses, mixed with the conversations and laughter of the company of the ball. I leaned a little against the harbor wall and looked out to the sea. The light breeze blew over my skin and although it was not really cold, it let me shiver briefly. The stars were twinkling with the lights of the city, there should be more fireworks, the weather couldn´t be better, but probably no coincidence. "Did you found something that you like?" I glanced over my shoulder and saw Chris standing diagonally behind me. That he catched my eye very well today I didn´t say, instead I smiled at him and looked back to the sky.

"I cannot remember that the sky was so clear in my time." "That was probably not so." Now he stood next to me and looked at me. "What are you doing out here? You miss the whole party. "He pointed back to the hall. "Looks nice from out here too." I turned around, leaned against the wall, then smiled at him, he back. "Are you telling me something?" "It depends on what." Pike winced. "Where does the pronounced vein of the Federation for Kitsch come from?" "Some call it romantic." He finished his glass and set it next to him. "Try to see it that way." "Mmmh."

I did him the favor and looked into the hall. Couples danced with each other, a happy smile on their faces, others also walked around, they laughed. "I think I know what you mean." "When space travel was still in its infancy, this was often the crew's last opportunity to see their loved ones." I turned my attention to him as he continued. "Then they had to leave each other, often for many years, many had recently married, seen their children for the first time or were confronted with the loss of family members. This was supposed to be something they could think back to when the odds were bad, that if one left hope or everything seemed futile, one would survive the next mission. " He looked at me. "It became a tradition for the ships that went to deep space exploration." "Yeah okay." I leaned against him for a while. "If you say it like this, it's romantic." "You see. All a matter of perspective." I felt him put an arm around my waist and pull me close, and I put my hand on his chest. "But it will be a bit cheesy now." "I thought we were agreed for romantic?" He let go of me, got in front of me and then handed me his hand. I looked at his hand first, then up at his eyes. "The last dance belongs to the captain." My eyes wandered towards the hall and I realized what he just said. In the background, I heard a song start that I knew too well. "I can even choose the music for that." I smirked and had to close my eyes for a moment.

"Cathrin, would you do me the honor of dancing with me?" He smiled slightly as I looked back at him. I only hesitated for a second, then raised my hand and put it in his. He looked relieved in an incredibly sweet way, then pulled me to him, turned and guided me slightly with him. My heart started beating hard and the craziest thing about it was that I didn´t even know exactly why. I let him lead me into the hall, through the people who looked at us, but I didn´t care.

Chris stopped, turned to me and as he pulled me to him, he put his hand behind my back. I placed mine on his shoulder and was guided by him when he started to move me to the beat of the music.

"How many times have you done this?" As he turned me back a little, I pressed closer to him, feeling like I couldn´t be close enough to him at that moment. "A few times." He smiled a little, then looked down a bit and directly into my eyes. "But I've never been as nervous as I am today."

He gently moved his thumb over the free skin on my back, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment. I felt it tingle all over my body and I was sure he could feel under his fingers how goose bumps spread on me. When I looked back at him, somehow he had come closer to me and it was still too far away anyway. Again I had this desire to kiss him, to hold him and never let go, just now it was almost overwhelming, but somewhere in me, there was still a little thought that maybe that was just attributable to the moment.

But in his eyes I found something that silenced this little voice and wiped it aside once and for all. And I realized that he was probably just scratching the courage that I lacked. I saw his mouth twitch briefly, then he leaned toward me. He didn´t get any further, because the song ended and the whole hall started to clap. The couples who joined us broke away from each other and turned around so they could watch fireworks outside. "I don´t want to let you go." I leaned against him, too. "Not now." I felt his forehead against mine. It was already cracking outside and I knew that the protocol actually required Chris to join his crew. "You don´t have to." He smiled at me, then released his grip from my back and pulled me out of the square by the hand he was holding. The sky was already shining in the most incredible colors, all eyes were turned upwards, only Number One looked at us briefly, as we stepped outside.

I cursed the little kid in me who couldn´t help but look up with wide eyes. Chris was behind me. Just when I wanted to protest that he let go of my hand, he put his arm around me and pulled me tight. Grateful for the warmth, I snuggled up to him and put my hands on his. His head was leaning against the back of mine and I could feel his breath brushing my neck. "So you're into fireworks?" I smiled as I heard his voice right at my ear. "You not?"

******

The transporter beam disappeared and we were back on the Enterprise. I took a few steps, then sat down and took off my shoes. Chris gave me a grinning look, then he reached out a hand and helped me get up. "Oh yes, that's better." I raised my shoes. "Two hundred years, but you didn´t manage that?" "Not my department." He winked at me, then offered his arm like he did before, and again it tingled all over my body as I put my hand around his arm and he led me out of the transporter room.

"That was a really nice evening." I smiled at him. "Same with me." Chris closed his fingers around my hand. "Why did you just disappear today?" "For my defense, I didn´t want to wake you." I laughed a little. "You looked so satisfied, so peaceful." "Maybe because I thought you were lying next to me." I had to smile. "Or I remember what we did before we fell asleep." "You fell asleep." "I'm pretty sure I saw you close your eyes." He pulled me closer. "You are avoiding me." With a sigh, I rolled my eyes. "I had a few things left to do.” "Are you telling me which ones?" I smiled slightly and stopped when we reached our destination. "Maybe later."

He let go of me and I turned so that I could look at him. "Thanks for the dance." "I couldn´t let you down." I opened the door to my quarters. "What would have happened if I had said no?" Behind my back, I crossed my hands. Somehow I had to stop myself from embracing him, pulling him with me. "You wouldn´t have." Chris stepped closer and stopped right in front of me. I didn´t force myself to look him in the eye, however hard it was for me. "What makes you so sure?"

He raised his hand, put a finger under my chin and lifted it gently. Now, I couldn´t help but look him in the eye, and that almost threw my intentions overboard. "I just know." He smiled that stunning smile and I hoped I did as well. "Cathrin." I stopped him from tapping his lips with my fingertips, then put my hand to his cheek and stood on tiptoe, kissing his lips softly. I could see him closing his eyes, but I didn´t give him a chance to return the kiss. "Good night." With a heavy heart I let go of him, turned around and disappeared into my quarters. As soon as the door closed behind me, I leaned against it and lowered my head. "Oh damn."

Had I still had doubts that I had fallen in love with him over both ears, this moment would have just wiped them aside. My heart was beating so hard that I felt it was going to jump out of my chest and everything about me, wanted to turn around, jump into his arms and hope he would never let me go, but I was up for today I would have to do something else and I would have to do that otherwise I wouldn´t be able to continue. So I broke away from the door and went to change my clothes.

*****

Chris closed his eyes and felt her lips on his only seconds later, but before he could react, she had wished him a good night and was gone. He stared at the spot where she had just stood, her scent still in the air and he could see her right in front of him, with her stunning smile and sparkling eyes. Had he been so wrong?

He would have betrayed that she felt the same as he did, damned he was so sure that he had wanted to kiss her in front of everyone and only his decency had prevented him from doing so. He tilted his head slightly before shaking it. What didn´t fit into the picture here? Frustrated and a little angry, he didn´t know exactly if he turned around and headed for his quarters.

Every one of her looks, every little touch of her, had made a tingling sensation through his body and made him feel what he had not had for a long time, he was almost certain that it had never caught him so badly. He missed her when she was not with him, he felt good when she was near him, and he didn´t want to think about what would happen if she left the Enterprise. He hadn´t wanted to admit it when Number One nuzzled him for asking her to come with him to the Enterprise for falling in love with her. No more than he had believed Boyd when he had also hit the same mark.

The look she'd thrown at him as they danced, he'd gone through him, had hit him right in his heart, and every bit of doubt he had, had dissolved in the air. "You never not be my girl." "I'm never not be your girl."

They'd both probably just been singing along because they'd been so nervous, but yes, she was, to put it so modestly, his girl. So what exactly had just happened that he was standing here now, instead of holding her in his arms and continuing where they left off a few hours ago? He was about to raise his hand to open his quarters when the thought came to him that made him smile. He turned on his heel and walked back to her quarters. Pike listened briefly, she walked quickly back and forth behind the door.. He would not bother her, he would wait until she came out and she would, as sure as he was with his feelings for her.

Chris unzipped his jacket and opened the zipper, then unbuttoned his shirt at the collar. If he was right, he would have to change anyway. He didn´t even have to wait five minutes when the door opened again and she stepped out. "Cathrin." She started a little when he spoke to her, but smiled as she turned to face him.

"Hey." She stroked a strand of hair behind her ear. She wore it now open and instead of the fantastic evening dress, a dark jeans, a bright top and over it a colorful coat. "What are you doing here?" "Until just now I was wondering what I did, that you just let me stand like that." He smiled broadly at her. "I think I have my answer." He raised his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry." She smiled at him. "I was determined to do this for today." She pinched her lips, seemingly wrestling with her as much as he did. "That was before, though."

"You shouldn´t do it alone." He pushed away from the wall he was leaning against. "Will you give me five minutes, then I'll accompany you." "Chris, you really don´t have to do that." She glanced at the ceiling, then at him again. "But I want it." Then he handed her his hand and without hesitation, she grabbed it and let him pull her along.

Masterlist

#star trek discovery #star trek discovery fan fiction #star trek discovery oc #chris pike #chris pike x reader #christopher pike x reader #captain pike x reader #captain pike x oc #pike x oc #chris pike x oc #captain christopher pike #captain chris pike #writblr #cathrin zimmer #christopher pike fan fiction

29 notes · View notes

iraacundus · 6 years

Text

REALISTIC

donghyuck x reader au genre: angst/fluff loosely based off of Romeo and Juliet

words: 4.3k+ warnings: bad language, slight violence

sometimes enemies fall in love, sometimes it works, but there is always a reason they were enemies in the first place so sometimes you just have to be more realistic

- i worked kinda hard on this, it is the longest thing I have written so I hope you guys like it even though my ending was badly written I feel - emily x

You felt his eyes burning into the back of your head, and in fairness you probably deserved it. You weren't usually bold but Donghyuck, he was next level irritating. Never in your life had you ever met someone with such an ego.

You turned around briefly, just long enough to see his face, his glare could have won in a competition for angsty facial expressions. The reason for his anger? You had thrown the entire contents of his locker out of the third-floor window.

You could sense his expression worsening as you started to smirk in satisfaction. Nothing made you happier than making him feel the way you felt most days of your life due to his own actions - beyond annoyed.

You carried on halfheartedly writing down notes in your book. You were quite sure by now that you were never going to be a biologist so you weren’t overly interested in the lesson as such, you were just pretending to be, in the hope that it would annoy Donghyuck further.

The bell was usually something you looked forward to but knowing what was going to happen imminently, changed that feeling. As the bell began to ring, you released a breath that you hadn't realised you had been holding. Gathered your books together and picking up your bag.

Your plan A was to speed walk out of the room and down the hall before he could follow you but alas you were stopped by the devil himself before you could even make it five meters. Unfortunately, due to your smirking break, you had yet to configure a plan B.

"So you think you're so funny?" Donghyuck asked, his outrage at the prank evident on his tanned features. You tried to side-step around him but he just stood in front of you each time, preventing your escape. After about four tries at this, you accepted your fate and began thinking of ways to talk yourself out of the situation.

"Don't you think it was just a little bit funny?" You asked in return, "and also a quick run to the basketball courts to retrieve your books is good for your health, so in the long term I actually helped you." This explanation of your actions had been intended to placate him but it turned out to have quite the opposite effect, which in hindsight wasn’t that surprising.

"I'm meant to prank you y/n, not the other way round!" He whined in protest. You raised one eyebrow in response.

"And how exactly is that fair Lee? You've been the cause of so many inconveniences to my life with your pranks, so surely I need to make up for it with a few of my own," You had decided to cut all of your losses at this point and so you patted him on the cheek lightly. This was meant for effect but also to give you sufficient time to escape from Donghyuck, aka public enemy number one.

As you began to leave he reached around and placed a hand on your shoulder stopping you. Unsurprising, as something you had learnt as your life progressed was that Donghyuck was a persistent person.

"Ah how about I take you to dinner instead and then we call it quits?" he proposed. You shook your head with a grin.

"As much as I admire that you played elaborate jokes on me for ten months just so you could ask me out, it's going to have to be a hard pass on that one," You replied. His face changed from a cheeky grin to slight confusion at this answer. Taking this opportunity to make your escape, you jogged speedily down the corridor.

"I played the jokes to annoy you not to ask you out!" He shouted at you down the corridor before finishing off with a quick shout of “idiot!” just for good measure. His cheeks had begun to blush a slight shade of red. You took this as a win as it signified that you had gotten into his head.

It was a ridiculous situation anyway, you couldn’t have gone out on a date with him even if you had wanted to, which for the record you didn’t, and he knew this as well as you. So you were very aware that his offer was no more than a joke.

But as he walked away a thought lingered in your brain, you disliked Donghyuck immensely, not just because he went out of his way to piss you off but also because that's just the way it was. It was neither of your faults that your families couldn’t agree on anything; that your fathers refused to even speak to each other and that even being seen with Donghyuck outside of school would cause your family to punish you.

And so the lingering thought about a date with Donghyuck almost made you hate him more - because this was never something that could happen. You reasoned that you only had this thought because you could never date him, but you weren't so sure this was true.

You had enjoyed an unusually peaceful few days, coincidently Donghyuck had been missing from school on these days. But as the rain began to beat against the classroom windows, pathetic fallacy came to fruition as the one and only Donghyuck stood, grimacing slightly at the classroom door.

He was about thirty seconds away from a detention so he proceeded to his seat, without stopping to tease, taunt or physically provoke you in any way and at that moment you were thankful for the rigid school system.

He sat across from you just underneath the clock, so when the lesson you were in dragged on and you glanced to check the time, your eyes fell on Donghyuck also. You noticed that his eye was bruised and that he had a small cut on his right cheek, all of which had been covered by the hoodie he wore earlier.

Normally you would think nothing of this, boys at your school fought all the time, there was even a school fight club which everyone certainly talked about. However today, you had seen your brother come down to breakfast with similar injuries, just slightly worse.

Given the ... predicament between your two families you felt it was safe to assume that both of their injuries had been inflicted by the other, and so you had no regrets about your decision to scowl at Donghyuck for the remainder of the lesson.

When it ended you expected Donghyuck to come over and make a joke at you, to complain about your glowering, 'don't look at me so much, your eyes can't afford this beauty,' or something along those lines. What you expected was not what you got.

He completely ignored you. Donghyuck had never ignored you before. He took every single opportunity to annoy you.

You hurried after him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to you and looked as if he was going to walk away before deciding against it. He raised an eyebrow, you suddenly realised you had no idea what you were going to say. As you coincidently realised that, 'why aren't you annoying be' is a rather odd thing to say to someone.

"Are you okay?" you asked him, biting your lip slightly. Donghyuck half chuckled in a way that seemed almost as if he was being sarcastic.

"What do you care? I just watched you glare at me for forty-five minutes, and the vibe I received from that isn't that of someone who would ever be concerned about me. So my next question would be, what do you actually want?"

Your eyes flickered to the ground.

"Did you fight my brother yesterday?" you asked, Donghyuck sighed slightly in reply.

"So what if I did? He had it coming, your brother can be a real asshole you know."

This admission did not surprise you. Your families fought all the time and whilst you disliked Donghyuck, you agreed your brother wasn't always the greatest.

"If it makes you feel better, he looked much worse than you," you offered in consolation. Donhyuck's face suddenly contorted with pain, he grabbed your arm and began to drag you down the hall. His other hand was clutched to his side.

He pulled you into an empty bathroom in one of the hallways.

"If you think I won that fight because my face looks better, you would be very wrong. As you see I did not manage to stab anyone in that fight, unlike your darling of a brother," he said, lifting up his jumper. He removed a badly applied bandage, underneath was a small stab wound in his chest, the knife hadn't been that big but the wound looked extremely painful.

Your hand moved to cover your mouth that had opened wide.

"Does your family not have a doctor you could have seen?" you asked with a certain alarm. Donghyuck nodded his head.

"Well yeah of course but I didn't tell my family, I can't tell my dad I lost to your fucking brother, he would never let me do anything ever again," he explained.

"You need to have that looked at, in the nicest way possible your first aid is shocking and you need stitches." Donghuck shook his head.

"I can't tell him y/n, I don't even know why the hell I'm telling you this." You stared at the wound a little longer, it wouldn't heal on its own without infection and excessive blood loss. You knew what you had to do, you were more concerned about his health than you were with family loyalties at that moment.

"I can help," you told him, "I know enough from helping my sister to fix that wound enough so it would heal." Donghyuck seemed genuinely shocked at your offer.

"Why would you help me? Is this some ploy to imprison me and hold me for ransom?"

"I just offered to help you so please refrain from accusing me of things. It's not my fault I'm more concerned by the sanctity of human life than our father's bloody feud."

You figured you would have to take him to your sister's apartment, she wouldn't be there and you certainly couldn't take him to your house. Your sister would also have all the medical supplies you needed.

"Hold that bandage back over it and come with me," you said. You took him out to the parking lot where your black range rover was parked out front.

"Get behind those tinted windows before someone sees you," you instructed him, shoving him into your car before running to the other side and climbing into the car yourself.

You placed a blindfold over his eyes so he could not ascertain where your sister lived, though it took much fighting on your part to get him to agree. Donghyuck was still immensely suspicious this was a kidnapping plot.

Once you got to the apartment the bandage Donghyuck was holding had become almost entirely saturated with blood. You had him put sunglasses on and you walked him as quickly as was medically safe into the apartment. Your sister lived here to hide from your father so you were fairly certain he wouldn't find you but you had to be careful, you were trying to save Donghyuck's life, not have him murdered.

You sat him down on the closed lid of the toilet in the bathroom as you pulled out a large variety of medical supplies from the store cupboard. Placing them on the floor, you knelt down to asses the wound further. You lifted Donghyuck's short up before standing back.

"Hey um.. could you please take your jumper and shirt off so that I can clean your wound?" you asked him. Donghyuck laughed slightly, which only caused him to wince more."At least take me out on a date first," he replied.

"I know you're in pain Donghyuck, but please come up with more original jokes."

"Ouch, that one hurt more than the stab wound babes," You just smiled at him as you knelt back down and lifted the compression off his wound. You grabbed the antiseptic from the ground beside you and placed it onto a cotton pad.

"This is definitely gonna hurt, I'm sorry," you explained. He just shrugged. You started to clean the wound. If Donghyuck was in any more pain, as a result, he didn't show it. Once you had cleaned the cut, you grabbed a needle and some thread to start the hard part.

You began to sew up the wound causing Donghyuck to tense up slightly.

"That hurts," he whined in complaint.

"No shit, I'm literally putting a needle through your skin,” you said as you finished his last few stitches.

It hadn't taken that long luckily, as stitches without anaesthetic were proving extremely painful to Donghyuck.

You wiped away the excess blood from the area before carefully dressing and bandaging him up. Once you had finished he let out an immense sigh of relief.

"So I won't die now?" he asked you as he pulled his jumper back on. You shook your head,

"Hopefully not, or I just risked my relationship with my family for nothing."

You could see that Donghyuck still wasn't really able to go anywhere, it must have hurt really badly to have it untreated for so long, you couldn't just let him leave. The chances of him reopening the wound were too high.

“Are you hungry?” you asked him. You were not really sure what to do, you had never hung out with Donghyuck before, but food was a safe option with everyone. “My sister has some pizza we can heat up?”

Donhyuck nodded his head, “sure, that would be great ... thanks,” You smiled back and went to get the pizza and put it in the oven. Once you had done that, you went and sat down next to Donghyuck on the sofa. He had turned the TV on and was flicking through the movie channels.

“It will be like five minutes to heat up,” you notified him. He smiled back at you and nodded, continuing to in his attempt to find something to watch. Eventually, he seemed to settle on the evening news. You raised one eyebrow, you didn’t have any issue with the news but it wasn’t the show you had expected a teenager to immediately go for.

“I like being up to date with current affairs, also it reminds me that people in life have it worse than me so I should always be thankful... even if I don’t feel as though I should be,” he said, answering your question before you could even ask it. He had glanced down at where he had been stabbed on the last bit.

“Ah well you should already know you have a good life, you have me as a friend,” you joked.

“We aren't friends y/n, I don’t even like you,” Donghyuck replied. This simple phrase caused a sting to run through your chest. You really thought that today it was different. That because of today you could perhaps be friends. Neither of you had that many friends because of who your families were, so you had really hoped you would have been able to find a friend in Donghyuck.

“Well even if you don’t like me, seeing as if I made one phone call you could be taken as a hostage, I would hope for your sake that we are indeed friends.” Donghyuck’s eyes lowered to the ground at your words. Luckily the cooker beeped, giving you an excuse to avoid the palpable tension in the air.

You lifted the pizza out of the oven and put in on a tray before grabbing two plates. You set it down on the coffee table by the tv, where you were both sitting. You picked up the tv remote from next to him, changing the channel to cartoons.

“Sometimes Donghyuck, you don’t want to be reminded of the bad things, sometimes you need to try and focus on the happy things.” You told him, settling down with your pizza to watch adventure time. Donghyuck didn’t reply.

You sat in silence through over an hour of cartoons before you watched Donghyuck stand up.

“Where are you going?” you asked him as he made his way towards the door, you knew full well he was leaving, your real question was ‘why?’. But you hadn’t asked that question.

“Away from here,” he said, before slamming the door shut. You didn’t go after him, you had tried your best to be nice, to help him. If Donghyuck didn’t want to help himself, that was his issue.

You hadn’t seen Donghyuck in a while - close to two months. You assumed he had either gone into hiding or had died somehow. You would have liked to have said you didn’t think about him. However much you tried, his face just kept appearing in your mind, but he was never really in front of you. It was driving you insane.

The weather had got worse, you reckoned it was pathetic fallacy, not only had Donghyuck disappeared but your father had got stricter, the gang fighting had increased and so you weren't even allowed to go to school anymore, you had a private tutor who doubled as one of your two bodyguards.

It wasn't that you couldn't fight, your father was just extremely concerned. Your tutor was called Taeyong and your other bodyguard was Jaehyun. They were both nice enough, you just missed being alone sometimes.

It was on one of those especially bad weather days that you sat, with Tae and Jae outside an ice cream parlour, there was a covering over your heads, so you weren’t getting wet but still, surprising most people had opted for inside, you were the only ones outside.

The street was also empty, but it was surprising as few people walked around at near midnight in the pouring rain. This meant that when your two lovely bodyguards noticed a person walking towards you they immediately were suspicious. Their heads snapped round to look at the man, trying to ascertain if he was a threat.

It was dark so you couldn’t make out his face under the hoodie he was wearing. He kept walking towards you until he was about three feet away from your table. He reached into his back pocket to grab something. Tae and Jae, thinking he was reaching for a gun, quickly pulled out theirs and aimed it at him.

“Who are you!” Jaehyun called out, causing the man in front to almost fall as he pulled his hood down and placed his arms in the air. You had never seen this boy before, all you noticed about him apart from this was that he held an envelope in his hands.

“Way to cause a scene, guys. My name is Jaemin by the way, I’m a friend of y/n’s friend,” he explained, "this letter is from him,” he said looking at you.

Taeyong laughed slightly, “not a very good cover you got there Jaemin, y/n literally has no friends, let alone friends who go by ‘him’.” You reached over and hit Taeyong.

“I do have friends,” you insisted, as you took the letter from Jaemin’s hands. “In fact, I even know who this letter is from.” Well, you didn't know per say, but you certainly hoped. you hoped it was from Donghyuck. As soon as you took the note the boy made a speedy exit, Jaehyun prepared to run after him but you held him back.

“If the letter is from who I think, then that boy is someone I can trust,” you explained. Jaehyun raised an eyebrow,

“And what if he’s not y/n?” he began, “what if that letter contains anthrax?” You shook your head in disbelief of Jaehyun.

“No one has sent me a fucking anthrax letter you idiot!” You sat back down and opened the letter, the front of it had simply said - my friend.

Dear y/n,

I’m sorry. That had to be the first thing I said, it’s the most important. I’m sorry I annoyed you at school, I’m sorry I fought your brother, I’m sorry I walked off that night. Most importantly, I’m sorry my last name is Lee and that yours is y/l/n. I could give every explanation as to why I left that night, none of them would matter, none of these facts, change what is true. I said we were not friends because I was trying to be realistic. I didn't want to hope that we could ever be friends because I knew it would end badly. I left to try and actualise that realisation and I’m sorry. I know we were never friends, I don’t think you would still want to be friends with me. But I am back now and I won’t leave again unless you tell me too. I need you to tell me to leave. I will be by your house at soon after you read this letter. I know you would hit me and tell me it was dangerous, that I am stupid. But if you wouldn't risk your life for your friend who would you risk it for?

Even when I made fun of you I liked you,

Donghyuck

You read the letter about four times. You didn’t believe it was real. You also didn’t care, even the chance to see Donghyuck was enough. Though you weren't sure if you wanted to be friends.

You stood up and shoved the letter into the pocket of your jeans.

“Please don’t follow me, trust me when I say I am going home, and technically I am. I have never asked you guys for anything... and I will tell my dad that you guys are the best bodyguards in the family,” you added to sweeten the deal more. Jae and Tae gave each other a look. They weren't sure.

“We are going into the ice cream shop to help an old man who fell over, please stay inside whilst we go,” Taeyong said, after a minute. You looked through the glass window. There was no old man. You were confused for a moment before Jaehyun coughed. You realised they were giving you the chance to go.

“Thank you,” you called out to them as they headed inside and then you started to run. Your legs carried you faster than you had run before. You weren't far from your house so you arrived pretty quick, your eyes searching for Donghyuck, praying he hadn't been caught.

You saw him, he looked totally different and exactly the same. he had died his hair bright red and was wearing a black coat so he didn’t stand out in the night. But his face was as handsome as it had ever been. You walked over to him, trying not to draw attention before grabbing his arm and pulling him into the hedge.

“Why would you meet me here? Are you totally insane?” you chastised him, “what kind of crazy person does that?” Donghyuck only grinned when he saw you.

“Me,” he replied, “I knew it would annoy you, and I did always like doing that,”

“Annoy me? more like terrify me, what if they had caught you Hyuck?” He seemed surprised at this answer.

“You care about me?” He asked, “But I left? And before I left I just made your life hell,”

“yes you left... you left and what you said hurt because we are friends. I thought about you every day you were gone... every day!”

“What if I don’t want to be your friend?” he asked. You had to refrain from hitting him in the face.

“Then why in the name of God are you here?” you almost screamed. You could feel tears welling in your eyes. “Did you come to taunt me, because throwing pencils at me is one thing, wrecking my emotions is another.”

Donghyuck shook his head, still smiling slightly but worried. You were beginning to think he was sadistic but before you could say as much he carefully wiped the tears that were about to spill from your eyes.

“Let me rephrase, what if what I feel for you is more than friendship? I know we haven't hung out much but you, you are the kindest person I have ever met, I always thought you were funny at school and you are beautiful. I don’t care about being realistic anymore. The real world hurts, I did what you said, I tried looking for the happy things, but I couldn’t see them, because I was away from you, and you were always the happiest part of my day.”

You began to cry again, this time because you were happy.

“Well in that case fuck being realistic Hyuck, we will run away together, I don't care how ridiculous or cliche that sounds.”

“It sounds very cliche and ridiculous, but the amount I like you y/n, that is also cliche and ridiculous,” he said. His hands had rested on your shoulders as he had given his speech, and now he placed them on your cheeks softly. He was looking straight at you, but his eyes were flickering from yours to your lips.

“Can I kiss you?” he said. You nodded slightly, he leaned down and pressed his lips to yours tentatively. Only for a few seconds before he pulled away. Bright lights began to signal from outside your house, you could hear people coming. He grabbed your hand tight as you both started to run. As you sprinted away from the fights and the family codes, Donghyuck shouted something as you went.

“You were always meant to be my girlfriends, not my friend anyway.. and also adventure time definitely beats the news.”

#i love him sm #nctwriters #haechan scenarios #haechan #nct #nct 127 #nct dream #nct haechan #haechan fluff #donghyuck #lee donghyuck #nct donghyuck #haechan scenario #nct scenarios #donghyuck scenarios

191 notes · View notes

letterfromtrenwith · 6 years

Text

Prescription Passion - Ch.1

My cheesily titled but I hope not cheesily written Carolight hospital AU :D

Dr Dwight Enys, coming home from several years abroad, takes a job in the A&£ dept of St Neot's hospital in Truro, not intending to be completely knocked for six by meeting a certain lovely dermatologist - Dr Caroline Penvenen.

Posting the first ch. for Carolight Week.

Maternity Ward

“How in the Hell – “ Dwight glared at the blue plastic sign above the double swing doors, as if staring at it hard enough might change it into something that made sense. While he’d admittedly only been working here a week, he couldn’t fathom how anybody found their way around this hospital. It was like a bloody labyrinth. Although that was all relative considering that the last hospital he’d worked in had essentially been three wooden huts stuck together. The St. Neot’s Infirmary was something else altogether.

Technically, his shift was over for today, but since the A&E dept. was currently running a little understaffed he was still on call until late that evening, before having 48 hours off. He had been planning on going home, since his flat wasn’t too far way to make getting back in an emergency unworkable, and he still had some serious unpacking to do. However, what he’d intended to be a quick trip to the HR department to swap his temporary staff card for a permanent one – hideous passport photo and all – had turned into a trip down the rabbit hole.

Blessedly, he knew someone in the maternity unit who would be able to give him directions. Verity Poldark was a senior midwife at St Neot’s, and had been the one to suggest Dwight apply for a job there. He’d met her when he was at medical school with her cousin, Ross, and she’d been a trainee at the university’s teaching hospital.

Verity was standing at the nurse’s station when he went in, looking harassed, her hair coming loose from its pins. It didn’t really look like the time to bother her – maybe he could ask someone else – but she managed a smile when she saw him.

“Hi, Dwight. What brings you here?”

“Being horribly lost, I’m afraid. I was going to ask if you could show me the way but I’ve obviously caught you at a busy time.” The whiteboard behind the desk showed that four o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday was apparently a popular time to be in labour.

“No, it’s – “ Before Verity could finish her sentence, the doors swung open again behind Dwight, and Verity looked behind him, breaking into a much wider smile of what seemed like relief.

“George! Thank God!” Dwight turned to find that George was a fair-haired man of about the same age as him.

“Somebody call for an anaesthetist?”

“GET ME THE FUCKING DRUGS!”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” George passed by Dwight without a second glance, heading into the room where the shout had emanated from. Verity made to follow him, but stopped.

“Are you doing anything at the minute, Dwight?”

“Er, no, not really.”

“Want to come and help deliver a very angry lady’s twins?” Dwight thought for a minute; about the pile of boxes he had to unpack and the papers from his aunt’s solicitor he still had to read.

“You know, I would.”

Dwight suppressed a yawn as he signed off on yet another patient form – a 14 year old boy who’d suffered an asthma attack during a PE lesson; he would fine, but Dwight had strongly advised him that it probably wasn’t the best idea to leave his inhaler on his bedside table when he was going to be playing rugby.

This morning had been a complete whirlwind. Five minutes after he’d clocked on, four victims of a car accident had been rushed in, all of whom needed stabilising before surgery; and then an 89-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s who was incredibly distressed after a fall at her care home; two workmen who’d sustained mild burns after a piece of equipment had caught fire. On and on and on they’d come. Friday was often a busy day in A & E – no Saturday night, but it could get chaotic. Just before the 14 year old boy, Dwight had seen a time of death pronounced on an overdose case, so he wasn’t feeling his best.

His 48 hours off hadn’t given him much rest, in the end, although he had collapsed face down on his bed first thing on Wednesday morning after Mrs Teague’s 12 hour-labour, which had ended in the arrival of boy and girl twins, seemingly hale and hearty.

Unlike most of the British hospitals Dwight had worked in, St Neot’s actually had a pretty decent canteen, and he thought a ham salad baguette and packet of posh crisps would hit the spot.

“Dwight! Over here!” Verity waved at him from the corner, and he weaved his way between tables occupied by a mix of uniform clad nurses, doctors in scrubs and patients with dressing gowns over their hospital nighties – the odd one with a drip. He hoped none of them were skipping out on ‘nil by mouth’ orders.

“Hi, Verity. Hello.” Verity was sitting with George, the anaesthetist from Tuesday night, and another woman who’d also been at the delivery. In the chaos, Dwight had never got her name, but he’d gathered she was the on-call obstetrician. She was very pretty, with short, dark brown hair and soft features; her smile was wide and friendly, her eyes warm. Dwight could imagine her being a soothing presence for nervous mothers-to-be. Today, she’d swapped her scrubs for a smart sleeveless blouse, her glasses tucked into the neck.

“Didn’t get a chance to introduce you all properly the other night.” Verity smiled. “Dr Dwight Enys, this is Dr George Warleggan and Dr Elizabeth Warleggan.”

“I assume that’s not a coincidence?” Dwight sat, putting down his tray to exchange handshakes with the other two, who smiled at each other in a way which made their connection rather obvious.

“No. They’re our resident lovebirds.” Verity grinned and Elizabeth shook her head.

“Thank you for your help the other night, by the way.”

“How is Mrs Teague? And the babies?”

“Mmm,” Elizabeth took a pull on the straw of her drink. “All well. They were discharged yesterday – we kept the twins for observation since they both had low blood pressure, but they were right as rain after 24 hours or so.”

“Mrs Teague seemed very…overwhelmed by the experience.”

“Ha! I’ll say.” Verity shook her head. “It takes women lots of ways but, Ruth…”

“All that screaming…” Elizabeth sighed. “And for such a straightforward delivery, especially for twins. I blame TV, you know. People see all those histrionics and they think that’s how it should be.”

“Says the woman who gave me a black eye when she was giving birth!” George cried and Elizabeth gave a dramatic sigh, looking up in an exaggerated appeal to the heavens.

“That was an accident!” She looked at Dwight. “I reached out for his hand during a particularly hard contraction and he happened to be bending forward at the same time…”

“That’s her story!” Dwight laughed. This was obviously a well-worn argument, and he couldn’t help but smile at the obvious affection between the two of them. He hadn’t got a proper look at George the other night – after administering the epidural he’d only needed to monitor Mrs Teague for a short while before the delivery team could take over, and then he’d been called away for a surgical procedure. Blue-eyed and fine-featured, he certainly made a handsome match with Elizabeth.

“So, how many children do you have?” Dwight asked.

“Two.” Elizabeth picked up her phone, scrolling through before handing it to him. The picture showed an adorable little boy of about three, with dark springy curls, peering curiously at a tiny light-haired baby. “Valentine, he’s nearly four now, and Ursula, she’s just turned one.”

“ – “ They obviously sensed his surprise at the unusual names, and Dwight was briefly afraid he’d offended them, but George smiled.

“Valentine was born on Valentine’s day, and Ursula was Elizabeth’s great-aunt, she died just before the baby was born. Also, there’s surprisingly little that goes with ‘Warleggan’.”

They chatted more as they ate, Dwight telling them a little about his time with Medicines sans Frontieres – although nothing about why he’d joined the organisation in the first place; even Verity didn’t know the full details there, and he certainly wasn’t ready to talk about it with strangers, even ones as nice as these. He did explain that he’d come home to Cornwall to take care of his Aunt’s estate, and that Verity had persuaded him to join the staff at St Neot’s.

“She’s the best recruiter this place has got!” Elizabeth laughed. “She got her brother here, too. And Demelza!”

Dwight had known Francis for a while, too, although not as well as the other Poldarks – he’d gone to a different uni, and practiced in Scotland for a few years. He was now a consultant ophthalmologist at St.Neot’s – the only one, actually.

“Demelza?” He’d met an awful lot of people since arriving at the hospital a couple of weeks ago, but he couldn’t remember her. He was sure he’d remember someone with such an unusual name.

“One of the hospital pharmacists.” Verity explained. “I met her at a yoga class, and she told me she wanted a change from her old job…”

“I think Dr. Martin said we were short a few A & E nurses if you fancy taking that on?” Verity elbowed him and he laughed. Suddenly, there was a beeping noise, and all four of them rummaged in their pockets.

“It’s me. Emergency surgery. Nice to meet you, Dwight.” With a quick kiss for Elizabeth, George was gone, his wife smiling after him.

“Aww…” Verity cooed.

“Shut up.” Elizabeth said primly, fighting a grin.

“No, I love it. You give this sad singleton hope for true love.” Verity sighed with exaggerated dreaminess, and Elizabeth snorted. After a moment, Dwight became aware of someone standing behind him, just as Elizabeth smiled widely.

“Caroline! Here, meet the new A & E registrar I told you about. Dwight, this is Dr Caroline Penvenen.” Dwight turned to greet the new arrival, and found himself completely lost for words.

#poldark #dwight enys #caroline penvenen #verity poldark #george warleggan #elizabeth warleggan #dwight x caroline #carolight #george x elizabeth #au #prescription passion #f: au #m: fic

34 notes · View notes

sophisticated-angel · 6 years

Text

The Night We Met

Character: Dean Winchester

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Warning: mention of Alzheimer’s and parent death

Word Count: 4,915

Story

The first time they meet, Dean is pretending to be her father’s work associate. A series of suspiciously similar deaths – her father’s included – warrants an investigation. He won the bet that let him be the one to canvas the wake while Sam spends the night looking at bodies in the morgue. It’s a cool evening, summer; the wake goes into the night, and he feels out of place the whole time. Everyone has money and they act like it. One can tell by the way they talk that they’ve never seen a number with fewer than five digits in it. Dean suspects they were all weaned on some fancy food with an unpronounceable name.

She has no answers to his usual questions. There haven’t been any cold spots or strange smells in the house, and nobody was acting odd around the time of her father’s death. “Everyone was a little off, if that’s what you mean,” she tells him. “Nobody wanted to talk about Dad but still felt like they had to. It was uncomfortable.”

“Alzheimer’s, right?”

She sighs. “That’s the thing . . . don’t tell anybody, but the doctor couldn’t conclusively figure out what it was.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said the symptoms were similar, but they came on too fast and too strong. Instead of forgetting the little things, he started forgetting whole days right off the bat. Whole events. It started with the recent ones, but then he forgot the time he took me to Paris when I was eight, going to my high school graduation, the time in college when I brought home that boyfriend he hated . . .” She goes a little misty-eyed at the thought of it all, and Dean feels bad for committing this necessary evil. “Anyway, the doctor said the severity progressed too quickly to be Alzheimer’s. That disease takes years, but Dad was gone in three months. We needed something to put in the obituary, though.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. So, um, how did you know my father again?”

“We worked together. I’m in . . . advertising.”

“You must be a new hire. I never saw you around the office.”

“Yeah, I’ve been working some from home. Dealing with some . . . family stuff.”

“Well, that means you haven’t had a chance to network. Come on. I’ll introduce you to some people of note.”

* * * * *

The second time they meet, she’s in her father’s private office. In the week following their CEO’s death, the family has banded together to keep their company afloat until the replacement gets here – some distant cousin who’s been honeymooning in Italy. She’s changed out of her black dress and into a blue skirt suit and a pair of heels that, especially with her hair pulled back in a neat bun, make her look incredibly professional. When Dean enters, she greets him with a polite smile and invites him to sit down.

“What brings you back?” she asks.

“I have another question for you. I heard there was a nurse who took care of your dad, but I don’t know his name.”

“Jedediah Coombs. He was a godsend, showed up when Dad was homebound and made the whole thing easier on all of us. You looking for somebody?”

“Yes,” Dean lies. “I’ve got an elderly uncle who could use some looking after.”

“Jed’s the best there is. Expensive, but worth it. I should have his card still.” After digging in her purse, she finds a tattered business card and hands it to him. It bears a name, a number, and a short list of some of the services provided.

Later, he talks his way past the daytime maid service and has a look around the house. Due to its sheer size, it takes him a while to do much searching, but he focuses on the father’s room and the bedroom where he assumes the nurse was staying. There’s nothing out of the ordinary that he can find – no hex bags, no EMF, no sulfur, or the like. It’s starting to look like these identical deaths are nothing more than a freaky coincidence, and he says as much to Sam when he gets back to the motel.

“Actually, I think you’re wrong,” Sam argues. “That nurse you had me look into? I think he’s been with every one of these victims. The obituaries mention a caretaker, and when I talked to the wife of the last family – the Hathaways – she said hiring the guy was the best thing they ever did.”

“So he’s our guy. How’s he doing it?”

“No clue. If there’s nothing on the house or the bodies, maybe it’s psychological. Some kind of djinn?”

“Djinn put people to sleep, not suck out their ability for higher functioning.”

“Something new?”

“Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“And get this. I can’t track Jed, but Mr. Hathaway was seeing a therapist, and I’m pretty sure all the other victims were, too. Problem is, nobody can remember anything about anybody, so I’ve got nothing else.”

“Jed’s got an accomplice. Great.” Dean’s cell phone rings. The number is (y/n)’s which worries him at first, but all she wants is to meet him for lunch tomorrow. She explains that if he’s still interested in hiring Jedediah, she could give him a firsthand account to see if it’s what he’s looking for. He’s aware it’s a personal offer. A letter of recommendation would do the trick, but instead she wants to meet with him for lunch. He knows what she wants and because he rather wants it too, he takes her up on the offer.

* * * * *

The third time they meet is the next day for that lunch. There’s a private restaurant at the top floor of her father’s company building reserved for higher ranking employees and their guests. As with the wake, Dean feels drastically out of place among all the fancy business people despite the fact that he’s wearing his ‘Fed threads’. By the time he arrives at the restaurant, (y/n) is already at a table and offers him a menu when he sits.

“Not late, am I?”

“No, I’m early. Dad always insisted on punctuality.”

Dean notices now that she’s wearing the same outfit as yesterday. All that’s changed is that her hair is a little bit messier. “Weren’t you wearing that yesterday? Don’t get me wrong, it looks good on you, but you strike me as the sort of woman who has a different outfit for every day.”

“I am when I think about it, but with all that’s been going on, Dad, the business . . .” she makes a gagging motion.

“You don’t like working here?”

“It’s not my thing. Everything thinks I’m the best one to take over the company because I’m the boss’s daughter, but Chris is the better choice. I’m just filling a role until he gets here.”

“Chris?”

“The cousin. Second cousin, technically.”

“Ah.” Dean clears his throat. “You said you wanted to tell me about Jed?”

She gives him a confused look. “Did I? I don’t remember that. Then again, I would have forgotten about lunch if the secretary hadn’t reminded me. Stress, I suppose. What can I tell you?”

“What’s he like?”

“Kind, understanding, patient even on the worst days. Dad started sleeping well after we hired him. Mom always said Jed had a magic touch.”

“Where’d you hear about him?”

“Well, running a company is stressful, so Dad was seeing a therapist. When he got sick, his therapist told us about this guy who did hospice care.” She laughs and toys with the corner of her menu. “Do you really want to talk about this?”

“That’s why we’re having lunch, isn’t it?”

“If I’m being honest, I have . . . other goals.”

“I’m a ‘goal’ now?”

(y/n) blushes. “I just meant – I’m sorry, this is . . . this is very suddenly a mess.”

“Would you feel better if I said I have ‘goals’ too?” This bring a smile to her face. Dean likes it, and he moves away from the subject of Jedediah. “So, what’s good at this place?”

* * * * *

The fourth time they meet, it’s for dinner at her house only two days after their lunch date. Without saying anything, they agree to keep their meeting up a secret. They’re not sure how her mother would react to her daughter exploring a relationship so soon after their loss, but family friends have been stopping by every day since the funeral. He brings Sam along as well. They wait on the doorstep after ringing the doorbell.

“There’s something else I noticed about these deaths,” Sam tells him in a low voice. “There are more that follow. First, it’s the CEO, then a couple months later the spouse dies. Cops rule it a suicide every time, and then the heir disappears. Trail always runs cold, and then the company capsizes. I didn’t notice it before because the second obituary comes so long after the first, but then the Hathaways . . .”

“What about them?”

Sam sighs. “I went back there today. Mrs. Hathaway was found dead two days ago, and their son disappeared this morning.”

“So these monsters . . . they’re going after families? Why?”

“I have no idea.”

Before they can discuss it further, (y/n) opens the door, smiling at them both. She introduces them to her mother, and then she turns to a well-dressed man with a long but well kept beard and hair to match. He looks like a hippie. “Dean, this is Mr. Coombs,” she explains.

Dean forces himself to be polite through the introduction and the appetizer course. He fakes it well, but all the time he’s wondering what exactly the hell Jedediah is and where his friend is. And also how to kill them both before they get to (y/n) and her mother. Sam actually attempts to make conversation with him.

“So, Mr. Coombs-”

“Please,” Jed says in his Southern drawl, “call me Jed.”

“Jed, I don’t mean to pry, but why are you still here? You don’t have a job here anymore.”

“Well, these kind folks have been through quite a lot lately, and I want to do what I can to help them in their time of grief.”

“Oh, he’s being humble,” says (y/n)’s mother. “He’s been such a help to us, connecting us with that therapist.”

“Therapist?”

(y/n) cuts in, “It’s nothing.”

“Honey, it’s not nothing. You know it could be serious if we don’t get a handle on it.”

Dean asks (y/n), “What’s going on?”

Rolling her eyes, (y/n) explains. “Mom and I, we’ve been forgetting little things more often than usual. Jed thinks it’s stress related, and he’s asked a friend of his to come in and teach us a few stress management and relaxation techniques. That’s all.”

“Why not see your dad’s therapist?”

The two women look at each other. “Dad never had a therapist.”

Dean glances at Sam. “I guess I’m mixed up. Who’s the therapist?”

“Paul Walker. Jed can give you his information, I’m sure.”

“I’m good, thanks. We actually have to be going. There’s a . . . thing, I forgot about.”

“The business world waits for no one. I’ll walk you to the door.” She does exactly that. Before Dean can leave, though, and when no one is looking, she sneaks him a kiss on the cheek. He would float on this, but there’s a more serious matter to think about.

Dean stops halfway to his car and looks back at the door. “We’re too late. I don’t want to leave her in there with him. God damn it.”

* * * * *

The fifth time they meet, it’s the same night. He’s in his motel room looking for anything to help him take down Jed and his accomplice, but whatever they are, they’re either novel or obscure. It’s a break when his phone rings and uplifting to recognize the number.

“My mom went to bed early,” (y/n) says, “so I’m all alone in this big empty house.”

“Are you asking me to come over?”

“Hell no. I need to get out of here and have a little fun.”

“It’s almost midnight.”

“Bar’s open ‘til two. You game?”

“Yeah, that sounds like fun. I’ll swing by your place in a few minutes.” Hanging up, he grabs his jacket and his keys, assuring Sam that it won’t be all fun and games tonight.

That was sort of a lie. It’s a lot of fun and games even though he keeps an eye out for questionable characters. First, this pretty Daddy’s girl gets into his car wearing jeans and a simple blouse, and her hair is down and loose. The simple change affects her in such a way that he has to make a comment about picking up the wrong girl. Second, she shows him the side of her that isn’t all about business or wrapped up in grief over losing her father. He meets the pool-playing, beer-drinking girl she was in college. They talk as friends rather than grieving daughter and pretend businessman. All too soon, the bar is closing, and he has to drive her home. In the stillness after parking the car in her driveway, it goes from no words to her leaning in for a kiss with a hand on his cheek. When their lips part, he smiles, smelling the lingering scent of beer on her breath.

“I knew there was more where that came from,” he murmurs.

She furrows her brow. “What are you talking about?”

“The kiss you gave me earlier after dinner. I suspected you were saying something with that.”

“You didn’t come to dinner. Mom and I ate alone, Jed stopped by a little later, but that’s it.”

“(y/n), I was there, we – what did Jed want?”

She scoffs and pulls away from him. “What is it with you and Jed? It’s all you ever talk about. He wanted to set up a good time for Paul to come over, okay?”

“I don’t think you should meet Paul, and I don’t think you should hang around Jed either.”

“What are you talking about? Don’t do this. Don’t ruin the entire evening we just had.”

“I’m sorry, but this is really important. I don’t trust him.”

“You wanna talk about important? My dad couldn’t sleep, couldn’t take care of himself, and he was angry and scared all the time. But then Jed comes along and makes his suffering easier. Jed knew what to do when the rest of us didn’t, and now he’s helping my mom and I get through the worst thing we’ve ever experienced. If you don’t think that’s important, then . . .” She trails off, fuming.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Go to hell.” She climbs out of the car and stalks into the house.

Dean drives back to the motel in silence.

* * * * *

The sixth time they meet, he’s broken into her office searching for anything on Jedediah Coombs and Paul Walker. It’s after the work day is over, after dark – even the janitor has gone home. He sent Sam to watch the house for signs of Jed, so he’s all alone here. Over the years he’s found this to be a peaceful moment in any hunt even if his search is fruitless. Whether the monsters have wiped evidence of themselves or if it got screwed with in the mess of the last week, there’s nothing about a nurse or a therapist. Frustrated, he shuts down the computer and leaves the office and runs blindly into another human being.

“Dean!” (y/n) exclaims. “I didn’t see you. What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, forgot my keys.”

“Oh. I left my phone here.” An awkward pause fills the space between them.

“I . . . should go . . .”

“Wait, Dean. About last night . . . the whole thing was stupid.”

“No, don’t-”

“It was. I mean, I can’t even remember what we were arguing about, so it had to be stupid. I overreacted.”

“I was annoying. I should’ve let the Jed thing alone, I was just-”

“Who’s Jed?”

Dean’s stomach drops. “Your dad’s hospice nurse.”

“I know Dad had a nurse, but . . .” She shakes her head. “I don’t really remember him. I suppose that’s another thing Paul can help me with.”

“Have you met him yet?”

“No. He’s coming over tomorrow. Listen, I’d like to see you again sometime. Maybe we could try ending on a more positive note.”

“Yeah, sure. You know, we could go now, we could have a couple drinks, maybe we’ll end up at my place this time.”

“That’s sweet, but I should get home. Maybe Friday?”

“I don’t want you to be alone. We could just drive for a while, if you want.”

She looks down at her feet. “I guess just one drink won’t hurt.”

He isn’t watching the clock, but it doesn’t feel like more than an hour before they’re making out behind the wheel of the Impala. They didn’t make it inside the bar. Distracted by conversation, they let time pass, and they kept moving closer and closer together until their hands touched. From there it only took one little sloppy kiss to push them both over the edge. She took a breath to comment on how deftly he was able to pull her shirt off but promptly started working on the buttons on his. He thought they would at least make it back to his motel, somewhere safer than his car, but obviously they wanted each other too much to wait. After it’s over, he reclines across the seat with his head against the window and hers on his chest. He feels the warmth of her skin on his and the press of her ribs when she takes a breath. One of her hands rests on his collarbone, and one of his is stroking her bare shoulders.

“I like you, Dean,” she confesses. “I haven’t felt like this since college, and I’ve only known you for a week. There’s something about you.”

“I’m pretty attractive, I know.”

“And so humble.” She lifts her head to meet his eyes.

He smiles back at her. “I like you too.”

“So . . . when can I see you again?”

“Whenever you want, sweetheart. You’ve got my number.”

Dean doesn’t do dates. He does bar pick-ups and one-night stands that maybe last while he’s in town, but he doesn’t date. That’s for people who are looking for a relationship. These last couple of times he’s been with her, he’s told himself it’s for her own protection. She knows nothing about Jedediah and what he’s done and will do to her family, but he does. If he’s being honest with himself, he really has enjoyed their time together. Two dates and one dinner don’t exactly say she’s soulmate material, but for the first time in a while, he wants to stay with her. But first he has to kill a couple of monsters.

“(y/n), I have to tell you something, and it’s gonna sound insane.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“There’s . . . things you don’t know about me. I’m not who you think I am.”

“I’ve known you for a week, so that not surprising.”

“That’s not what I mean.” He takes a deep breath. “There are things out there, bad things, and they go after people.”

“Like a serial killer?”

“Worse. And I’m not in advertising. I . . . I hunt these things. I’m kind of like a bounty hunter without the bounty part.”

She’s silent and stares at him. There’s no way she could understand this, but he’s said too much to cut it off now. Either he stops talking, or he pushes forward.

“There’s a couple of them after you. They’ve killed other people, ruined their lives, their companies-”

“And now they’re after me? Do you know how insane you sound right now?”

“Yes, I do, actually.”

“So, what, I’m being stalked by a killer and you’re here to save me?”

“I’m here to stop them from hurting anyone else. That includes you. I like you, (y/n), and I don’t want you to get hurt. The nurse is one of them, and the therapist you’re planning on seeing is the other.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Your dad didn’t die from Alzheimer’s. The nurse did something to him and passed it off as a disease. Now they’re coming after you and your mom.”

“Shut up.” She sits up and heaves a breath. “Is this what you’re like? You pick on people who mean something in my life and then tell me lies to make me believe you? To make me stay?”

“I’m not lying to you. I promise.”

“Don’t promise me anything.” Angrily, she pulls her clothes back on. “Just drive me home.”

“I can’t. You’re not safe there.”

“Take me home, Dean. Now.”

* * * * *

The seventh time he sees her is at her house again. He’s going to get her away from Jed and Paul if he has to carry her away from here himself. It’s still early when he gets to her place, and he pounds on the door relentlessly until it opens. Rather than (y/n) or her mother, a maid opens the door and chides him for his rudeness. Seconds into his argument with her, (y/n) rounds the corner into the foyer and stops cold when she sees him standing there.

“I’m a little busy, Dean,” she says coldly. “Why don’t you come back later, and you can tell me more lies in my free time?”

“I need you to listen to me! You are not safe here.”

“Miss (y/n)?” A familiar southern drawl echoes from another room, and a moment later a horrifyingly familiar face pairs itself with it. “Is everything alright?”

“I’m alright, Paul.”

But it isn’t Paul. It’s the face of Jedediah Coombs, and he’s wearing the same suit he wore to dinner. The minute their eyes meet, Dean knows he’s been remembered. Jed – or Paul – doesn’t act as if he knows Dean, but rather he takes his hand and shakes it warmly.

“I’m Paul Walker.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Dean says through gritted teeth.

“Likewise. Now, you seem like a man who could use a few tips on anger management. I am happy to help you, but I’m afraid I’m with Miss (y/n) at the moment. I’ll have to ask you to leave so we can get back to our session.”

“(y/n), please, you-”

Jed/Paul closes the door in his face, and he’s left standing on the porch like an idiot. The first thing he does is call Sam. His message is clear: he’s been recognized, and they’re out of time. As he hangs up the phone, a scream echoes from inside the house followed by a sob. It’s all cut off by silence. Dean doesn’t even bother calling her name, he just slams into the door shoulder first, twice until it bursts open. He races inside and doesn’t have to go ten feet before he almost steps on the body of the maid who opened the door. She’s sprawled facedown across the bottom of the stairs with blood pooling beneath her from a hidden wound. He steps over her and heads up the stairs. At the top is (y/n)’s mother in the same shape as the maid.

“(y/n)?!”

There’s no answer. Fortunately, he finds her in the first bedroom Unconscious, but she’s got a pulse. As he presses his fingers to her neck, her eyes flutter open, and she starts to scream at him to get out. Something strikes the back of his head, and the world goes black.

* * * * *

The eighth time they see each other, (y/n) is in Dean’s line of sight when he comes to with a throbbing in his skull. She’s crying silently and trembling, and her hands have been tied to the bannister behind her. They’re on the staircase, rope binding them both and two dead bodies at the top and bottom. The knots are good and tight, too.

“Dean,” (y/n) whimpers. “What’s happening?”

“Just stay calm, okay? I’ll get us out of this.”

“And how do you think you’ll do that?” Dean looks up, and there’s the monster watching them from the top step. “You aren’t exactly free at the moment.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out.”

“Tell me when you do.” Jed/Paul leans against the wall and folds his arms. “You don’t even know what I am, do you?”

“I can think of a few fitting names.”

“Oh, good. Because I don’t exactly have one. I like to think of myself as an energy vampire. You know what happens to my victims. The deterioration, forgetting themselves, losing themselves – I sucked their essences out. Now, here’s the clever part. Forgetting yourself is a stressful experience, but all I have to do is make them forget about being stressed out. All of a sudden they’re sleeping better, more at peace then ever before. And it’s all because of Jedediah Coombs.”

“And when the family is grieving their death, you turn on them.”

“Turn on them?” Jed/Paul chuckles. “No, Dean. I help them. See, losing a loved one is hard. They get so stressed out and lost in grief that they start losing their minds a little bit. They need help, and then Paul Walk is there.”

“Is that what you did to my dad?” (y/n)’s voice shakes. “You sucked out his soul?”

“Not his soul, my dear. His thoughts, his feelings, those things that make us who we are. I’ve been doing it to you, too.” He descends the stairs until he’s in front of (y/n) and crouches in front of her. “Normally, I like to do this slowly, over months. I get more out of you that way. But unfortunately, I have to leave today, so I’m a little short on time. Just hold still, my dear. This won’t hurt . . . much.”

He covers her face with his hand, and his eyes roll back in his head as a white glow lifts off (y/n)’s face. It soaks into his palm like water to a sponge.

“No!” Dean strains at the ropes with all his might. He’ll be next if he doesn’t get free, but worse, (y/n) will die. With a yell, Dean breaks free, and the bannister splinters with it. Now he’s loose and he’s got a jagged weapon in his hand. Without thinking, he jumps on the vampire and knocks him over. He plunges the sharpened wood into the monster’s chest, and it lets out a shriek of agony. Still, it’s able to rise up and shove Dean down the stairs.

Dean feels every step on his way down. Now he’s got a concussion and a pissed off energy vampire after him. The next attack is quick, but he sees it coming and rolls out of the way. He scrambles for his weapon that has become dislodged and swings it in front of him. Only the whites of the monsters eyes show, and it hisses at him.

“You want me?!” he taunts. “Then come get me!”

The monster rushes him, and this time it gets the upper hand and pushes Dean down to the floor. It moves its hand to his face, and Dean fights to hold it back. Suddenly, the door bursts open and the monster is startled enough for Dean to get out from under it. He sees Sam in the doorway wielding a shotgun in one hand and a blade in the other. Bullets do nothing but stagger the white-eyed vampire except stagger it a bit.

Dizzy, Dean shouts, “Head! Cut off it’s head!” He jumps the creature from behind, knocking it to the ground and giving Sam the opportunity to sever head from neck with a single machete swipe. Finally, the creature stops moving, and both brothers exhale. Then Dean staggers back up the stairs and pulls the ropes off (y/n)’s hands. Her head lolls, but she’s breathing.

“Hey, wake up. Come on, (y/n).”

“Mmm,” she murmurs. Slowly, her eyes open, and she picks her head up. “Who – where am I? What’s going on?”

“It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

“Who are you?” The look on her face is honest, truthful. He didn’t get to her in time. She doesn’t recognize him anymore. Then she looks at the bottom of the steps, sees the bodies, and screams.

“Hey!” Dean grabs her by the shoulders and steadies her. “It’s okay! He was a monster!”

Her screams subside into terrified sobs. Her body tenses up and is wrought by tremors, and she becomes catatonic. No matter what he says, she can’t be brought out of it. All she sees is the blood, the bodies, the bloody spike that used to be a bannister.

“Dean, we should go. Before she sees her mom.”

“I can’t leave her. I can’t leave her like this.”

“I know.”

“This isn’t fair.” With a lump in his throat, Dean pulls the shaking woman close and kisses the top of her head. She doesn’t respond, but he whispers, “I like you, (y/n).”

Slowly, he lets her go. He stands, and he steps over the bodies at the bottom of the steps, and he follows Sam out the door.

@pureawesomeness001 @super-not-naturall @gabriel-themightysugaraddict @mogaruke @mrswhozeewhatsis @hexparker @kdfrqqg @little-castiel13 @18crazybutcutealsopsycho @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester

#supernatural #dean winchester #one shot #x reader #reader x dean #sophisticated-angel

31 notes · View notes

drizzitwrites · 6 years

Text

Football RPF Challenge - Day 12: Texting

Today's prompt is something I write into pretty much every fic sort of out of necessity because of the nature of the relationship I'm writing about. Thus, once again I was faced with an abundance of choices, and initially I had thought to work on something around the AU either in the scene preceding the one I wrote yesterday or immediately following the one I wrote yesterday, because both of them feature Vincent sending Christian a BARRAGE of increasingly less coherent text messages. But! It occurs to me that the scene I need to write in my current WIP immediately after the scene that has me VERY STUCK will also feature texting (I mean, it's all WhatsApp, really, but we'll call it texting), so I should work on that one.

Also, today I had the problem of having a day off. One would think this would mean that I'd have more time to write, but! It also happened to coincide with me having a headache that severely limited my ability to concentrate on things. It's passed now, but it meant that my morning was mostly spent with me telling myself to sit down and do things and then not doing them. I also needed to record almost 12k of fic for ITPE and I thought I'd use today to actually get that done. So I didn't give myself as much time to write as I should have, so this once again may only be half a scene or less, but it's something, right? Honestly, I'm happy I'm getting to it at all since I have a lot of other pressing things on the ambitious to do list for today which are probably NOT getting done, but I needed to prioritise. Plus, tbh, I was watching New Girl while cleaning the living room and it was the episode where Schmidt convinces Nick to write the next chapter of his book by basically telling him that he's a writer so stop second guessing himself and write, and I was like...yeah. Okay. Yeah. After this episode is over just sit down and write even if literally the only cleaning you've managed today was putting away the five items that were on the coffee table. Because you can do that later, but right now you have space and energy so just write the scene and then go about your life.

Thus...today's scene. The good news is that I feel like I’ve made good, meaningful progress on this fic, despite the scene a few before this still being stuck as stuck can be. I’ll go back to attempting to fix it eventually, but for now I’ve moved on and over the course of this challenge so far I’ve written the ending to this fic and now part of what comes immediately after what I need to do now, so at least I’m saving my future self some time and effort after she does all the untangling of the messy knot the middle part of this fic had worked itself into

As always, SPOILERS FOR MY CURRENT ACTIVE WIP. Don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled for the fic I hope to post before the end of the year.

Saturday, 7 July 2018

Vincent once again woke early the next morning, although this time not out of some nervous apprehension for Christian's arrival so much as a need to slip downstairs so he could have coffee and breakfast waiting for Christian whenever he woke up.

He'd set an alarm on his phone the night before--making sure it was set to vibrate and not ring so it wouldn't wake Christian from his much needed sleep--but he still found himself laying on his back staring at the ceiling long before the insistent buzz sounded next to his head.

Sunlight crept in through his drawn shades and bathed the room in diffuse light, and Vincent thought about lying there a bit longer; tucking his face into the back of his sofa and hiding away in here until--what, exactly? What was he hoping for? Some kind of peace offering, perhaps. A do-over on yesterday, only this time Christian would smile and embrace him and kiss him and thank him so much for the thoughtful welcome home.

Or maybe, Christian really didn't want any of it. Maybe he didn't know Christian as well as he thought he did. The way Christian's eyes had scanned the decorations lining his entryway, his face flickering into some kind of shock and horror before carefully fixing into the too polite mask Christian always managed to put on when he didn't want to say anything negative or controversial.

Christian keeping a wary distance between them from the moment he'd stepped through the door. Vincent had written it off as Christian being tired and the shock of three people in his home when he might not even have expected one--Christian himself going so far as to offer exhaustion, mental and physical, as the rationale behind his odd behaviour--but they both knew there was more to the distance than this. Christian had been distant for days before he'd even arrived in London, and Vincent didn't know why or what he'd done to make Christian pull away, nor did he know what he might do to fix it, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

He rolled over and dropped his feet to the floor, wooden boards cool beneath his feet. Even in the oppressive heat of English summer, Christian's house had a cool, crispness about it, all smooth wood and sleek angles, everything light and bright and open. Even here, in the postage-stamp sized room that Vincent called his own, at least for now, the house felt airy and refreshing and welcoming.

Smooth blonde wood floors, crisp white walls, glass-topped modular workspace against the far wall, everything meticulously organised into drawers and bins. Bits of Christian's life all slotted neatly into place.

In contrast, the far side of the room where Vincent now stood staring down at all his earthly possessions spilling out from suitcases and cardboard boxes around his plush, low sofa--slightly worn grey upholstery, straight back, chosen more for comfort than for style, although Vincent liked to think it formed a good balance of both. It had a place here, in this room, juxtaposed amidst the forgotten remnants of Christian's life, but it still didn't exactly fit in.

A metaphor for Vincent, himself, really. And hadn't that always been the way of things, really?

Vincent dressed quietly, wincing at the creak of floorboards beneath his feet as he dug through the spilled contents of his suitcase for his second best v-neck and the same shorts he'd worn the day before. He should unpack, perhaps; find some place for all his things in this carefully arranged space, but he had no idea how long he'd be staying, and he didn't see the sense in putting everything away only to have to pack it all back in boxes and bins again in a few days time.

He crept down the hallway, treading carefully along the perimeter in an attempt to make as little noise as possible. Christian was a sound sleeper, especially on the occasions he'd dragged himself into his bed looking as run-down as he had when he'd excused himself from Vincent's company the night before, but Vincent did his best to avoid making any unnecessary noise, even as he slid into the bathroom and ran through his morning toilet, taking particular care to arrange his hair into place. Perhaps, if given as much sound, uninterrupted sleep as possible, Christian would shake off whatever funk he'd arrived home in yesterday and the two of them could go about resuming whatever passed for normality in their lives these days.

Vincent here, in London, in Christian's house. The two of them having to remember how their lives fitted in around one another.

Then again, Vincent thought, he wasn't sure they'd ever managed to figure that out in the first place.

Before he'd left, they'd at least had the illusion of maintaining their own, separate spaces; Christian never storing so much as his own toothbrush at Vincent's flat, and Vincent somehow knowing well enough to maintain the same distance here. Christian's life was his own, and Vincent happy enough to fit in to whatever territory Christian was willing to cede.

Now, the two of them living together, Vincent with his own room and a place for his toothbrush and shampoo and hair products in the cupboards beside Christian's. Sharing space, at last, but somehow farther apart than they'd been when Vincent was on another continent. They'd work things out, of course. They'd find a way to adapt their needs and their routines around each other--side-by-side at the vanity stealing lazy kisses as they readied themselves for the day; leaning together against the counter in the kitchen, steam rising off their mugs of coffee as they laughed over something trivial. They'd done it all before, back when Vincent had still lived in London and then again in the perfect week between Christmas and the New Year when Christian had given him the best gift possible--a physical, tangible space in his life.

Finished, Vincent continued his creeping around the house, making his way back down the corner and then easing himself onto the stairs. He took the steps in slow, controlled movements, pausing briefly on each before sliding down to the next.

Smooth wood of the bannister cool beneath his hands, and Vincent stopped short. The garland of paper Danish flags that he and Coco had meticulously wound around the railing and between the slats had vanished without any trace of its existence a few hours before. Vincent backtracked to the landing and looked over his shoulder towards Christian's bedroom. Door closed. Hallway silent.

He resumed his trek back down the stairs, moving with less hesitance now, although still proceeding with caution. When he reached the landing, he wasn't surprised to find the banner and glinting metallic balloons gone as well and not a single trace of Coco's bucketful of confetti in sight.

"Christiaan?" he called out, making his way through the front entryway into the kitchen.

Nothing. The kitchen empty and no response from Christian.

Vincent passed through the kitchen and the dining room and stuck his head around the corner into Christian's living room, half expecting to find him dozing on the sofa, but once again, nothing. No sign of Christian anywhere.

"Christiaan?" Vincent called again, louder this time. Once again, no response.

He checked the remainder of the house--sunroom, patio, back garden--but Christian was nowhere to be found. As a last resort, Vincent pushed open the door leading to the garage to find Christian's parking stall empty.

Where had Christian gone before 8:00am on a Saturday morning? And why had he not bothered to let Vincent know he was leaving?

It was possible, Vincent supposed, that Christian had intended to slip out early and be back before Vincent woke up. Vincent was never one to turn down an opportunity for a good lie-in on a weekend morning, although if he was being honest, the habit mostly only applied to those mornings he woke up to find Christian curled up against his chest and Vincent could ease them both into their morning with lazy, gentle kisses and slow strokes of his fingers across Christian's skin. Lying about in bed all alone and staring up at the ceiling just didn't have that same enticing pull as a few more minutes spent basking in Christian's warmth.

Vincent reached into his pocket for his phone, and found it empty. He'd left it still plugged into the charging port in his room.

Not worrying anymore about keeping quiet lest he wake Christian, Vincent pounded up the stairs in a rush, but paused when he reached the top landing.

Door to Christian's bedroom firmly shut, the only sign of life the sunlight now seeping out through the space between the door and the floorboards. Vincent knocked on the door, knowing the room was empty and he'd get no reply, but hesitating to intrude on the space nonetheless. He'd spent more nights in this room than any other, but he still couldn't think of it as his own to barge into as though he had some kind of eminent domain.

A pause, and Vincent listened closely for any sign of life--shifting and rustling of the bedclothes or the sound of bare feet slapping against the floorboards, but everything was silent. He eased the door open, just wide enough for him to peer inside and once again call Christian's name.

No response. The room empty. Bedclothes neatly arranged.. Everything tucked neatly away into its place as though Vincent had only imagined Christian's return the day before.

He backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him, and turned once more into the spare room that had been designated as his. He retrieved his phone from where it had fallen from the arm of the sofa and buried itself under his pillow and flicked the screen on.

The WhatsApp icon was illuminated in the top left corner, and Vincent swiped down to open the app.

Messages not from Christian, but from Roman and Martin. Messages about how they were anxiously awaiting the start of training with Fenerbace on Monday and telling him to 'hurry up and get things sorted with Spurs' as though Vincent had any control over his situation. These were followed by a string of photos of them in their new Istanbul flat, ending in one of them standing in an empty room with the caption of 'All that's missing is you!' and a string of blue and yellow hearts.

Vincent shook his head at his friends' overwhelming cheesiness at all times, but he couldn't help a grin as he snapped a return photo of his disheveled mess of belongings strewn around his sofa and sent it to them both with the words 'Still working on getting packed'

He had just closed out of the conversation and was about to tap Christian's name when another message came in from Roman. He dropped to the sofa and settled back against the cushions, then flicked open the new message instead. He wouldn't mind catching up with his friends for a while, and maybe it would give Christian a chance to return from his mysterious errands. Vincent could easily pretend he'd only just gotten dressed and hadn't even been downstairs yet, so he had no idea Christian had been away.

'Take plenty of quality time, eh Vincenzo. Come back to us all loved up and ready to make magic.'

'I'm not sure...' Vincent started to type back, but erased the words. Whatever was going on with Christian, they'd get through it. Any minute now Vincent would hear the sound of the garage sliding open and Christian calling up the stairs to tease him about still being in bed. He'd appear in Vincent's doorway and Vincent would slide over so Christian could slot in beside him on the sofa and they'd touch and kiss and fuck and talk and kiss some more until it was nearly noon and both of their stomachs were audibly groaning with hunger.

Instead, Vincent simply messaged his friends back a sequence of kiss emojis and backed out of the conversation once more.

Still nothing from Christian, and no sign of life downstairs, so Vincent tapped on Christian's name. The last messages from a few days ago, all Vincent's, each displaying the green check marks indicating they'd been read.

'Back in London’ ‘ I will see you when you get home’ ‘I'm proud of you and I love you.'

'Do you know when you will arrive at home’ ‘I can meet you at the airport if you'd like'

'Let me know when you will return’ ‘I miss you and I cannot wait to see you'

No response to any of them from Christian.

Once more, he typed a message into the box: 'Good morning lieveke' 'Will you be home for breakfast'

Vincent stared down at the screen, waiting for some acknowledgement that Christian had received and read his messages, but after turning his screen back on three times, the check marks were still grey.

Maybe he's driving. Maybe he's on his way home and any second now he'll turn into the driveway.

Vincent waited a few seconds more, then stood up, shoved his phone in his pocket and made his way back downstairs. He needed some coffee while he waited.

#football rpf #30-day football rpf challenge #30-day writing challenge #30-day challenge #christian eriksen x vincent janssen #writing #november writing #drizzit writes

1 note · View note

felicityqueene · 7 years

Text

today our story starts anew

title from ‘a happy beginning’ from the ouat musical episode. all credit goes to the cw and the dc comics inc and all inspiration goes to emily bett rickards and jack moore for their scene in the base in 6x11 because that gave me new life and dedication to the show.

and also @love-with-you-i-have-everything, to whom this is gifted on the occasion of her (belated) birthday. much love, dear!

on ao3 here.

It was a bit of an unusual day in the life of the Queen-Smoak-Clayton family.

Firstly, William had been late to school, something completely weird since William actually liked school and had only been successfully late to school once before. He had overslept since Felicity’s sensibility had overridden Oliver’s sense and she had declared last night a video game extravaganza.

Secondly, Oliver had burned one of the pancakes, which was odd since Oliver never burned the food unless he was completely distracted. This time it could be attributed to William scorching the eggs and setting off the fire alarm, which was almost normal but rarely coincided with the pancakes.

Thirdly, Felicity Smoak was at home alone. That was unusual enough; she was normally at work at 2 PM. Most working people were, including her husband. William was still at school, since he had after-care until 4. Felicity, however, had thrown up in the base’s bathroom not too long after arriving and chosen to send herself to the closest Walgreens. Once she had arrived at home, she resigned herself to staying on the floor of her bathroom until Oliver got home.

Felicity considered standing up for a moment and trying to pull her life back together, but her stomach revolted again. She hadn’t even eaten anything since one of the not-burned pancakes, she mused as she wiped her mouth. She leaned back against the bathtub.

So… what to tell Oliver? Or William? Oh god, William, he was going to freak out. They’d have to use that full cliché speech about how he wasn’t being replaced and what if he didn’t believe it—Oliver. Oliver was going to freak out for sure. They hadn’t even talked about this. Somehow, in their two separate relationships and discovery of William and now marriage, they hadn’t discussed the problem that was currently displayed on a plastic stick on the sink.

She didn’t even know how she felt about the whole thing yet. She was… sprawled across the bathroom floor with Walgreens bag next to her. That was a pretty good indication of her current peace of mind or lack thereof. Her brain was kind of spinning.

Felicity tried to sit up when she heard Oliver’s footsteps coming through the apartment. “Felicity?” he called. It wasn’t too panicked, so she’d probably be okay for a bit.

“In here,” she called, her voice slightly raspy from not having actually spoken out loud in something like two hours.

She wasn’t quite sitting up when Oliver stepped inside the bathroom. To his credit, he didn’t start yelling or anything. “Are you okay?” he asked with a bit of panic as he helped her sit up. “I got your text in the middle of a meeting and couldn’t reply. And before you ask, yes, I did worry.”

Felicity sighed. “I’m fine, I told you. The text was quite clear, I thought.” Then Oliver was reaching for a washcloth, and then he stood up to wet it in the sink. Felicity reached out toward the countertop, trying to somehow stop it, stop the inevitable, but there was nothing to be done. It was like those slow-motion scenes action movies were so fond of, and just like in the movies, it didn’t work.

Oliver’s eyes widened comically and he glanced down at her before slowly reaching for the little plastic stick. Felicity watched his eyes go back and forth across the lines—the extra pink line, in particular—as she stood up and felt the world spin around her for a moment. Before the world cleared, Oliver had his arm around her, steadying her.

“You’re pregnant?” he whispered, finally.

Felicity didn’t really know what to say, which was really a first in the life of Felicity Smoak-Queen. “Yes.” She felt that required a little more explanation. “I haven’t felt normal for a few weeks and I finally noticed that I was late this morning and then I threw up in the base and so I figured it out and went to get that and I’ve been sitting here since because I didn’t know what—”

And then she was pulled into a hug. Oliver buried his face in her neck and she could feel his grin against her skin. He pulled away almost as abruptly. “You’re really pregnant?” His eyes were shining, both with the force of his smile and the tears that were puddling in his eyes. And that was all she needed for that flash of joy she’d been waiting for.

She grinned up at him, wrapped her arms around his back. “Yeah, Oliver. Afraid so.” And before she could stop him, he kissed her. Then she forgot about all the problems she was considering and pulled him even closer.

He walked them over to their bed, not breaking the kiss, and she found herself down on her back with Oliver bracing himself above her. For once she was wearing a shirt and pants combo, so it wasn’t hard for him to push her shirt up and he leaned down and kissed her stomach gently.

Oliver smiled and crawled up the bed to lie down next to her. “How do you feel about it?” he asked, tucking an arm under his head and stroking her fingers with his other hand.

“Somehow, we’ve managed to not talk about all of this,” Felicity began, turning to face him. “I mean, we have William, but we didn’t talk about it before or since he appeared. And I haven’t really considered the whole kid thing in a while, like not since I was in college, and we’ve got the Green Arrow stuff and the team and everything with—” Then she recited her whole freak-out from before Oliver got home.

By the time she was done, Oliver was kissing her fingers. He looked up at her, blue eyes all serious and loving. “In a few days, I’m going to think about all of that and I will freak out. I’ll probably get ridiculously protective and I might wall up for a bit.”

“Obviously,” Felicity said. He wouldn’t be Oliver Queen if all of that didn’t happen. “There is a ‘but’, though, right? That would be useful. Seeing as if you keep on like that for another, what, eight months, I’ll be forced to arrow you.”

“But…” His voice went quiet and, dare she think, awed. “…we’re having a baby. That’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.” He grinned again, and she couldn’t help but smile back. It was so contagious, his joy and his smile. “You make me the happiest man on earth, Felicity Smoak.”

And that was too sweet; she didn’t stop herself from kissing him. He was beautiful when he was happy.

Two weeks later, Oliver’s prediction—and her complete belief in the matter—had come true. They were still happy, of course; nothing was going to stop that. And the fact that Oliver’s eyes had managed to become shining hearts whenever he looked at her or William, and he kissed her stomach every morning and night.

Then they’d gone to the doctor. The sound of the heartbeat filled the room, and Oliver’s eyes shone. They stared at the infuriatingly blurry picture of their kid. “It looks like a peanut,” Felicity said, trying not to go all gooey at the fact that there was a peanut growing in her stomach.

“It looks like you’re about seven weeks along,” the nurse gushed. “Everything looks good!” Then she said a lot more technical stuff that neither of them listened to because they were staring at the peanut and Felicity’s best friend was the internet.

They got home. They were ridiculously, completely, deliriously happy. That lasted two and a half days. Then the overprotectiveness began.

Oliver first tried to prevent her from going down to the base. She acquiesced at first, since the panic in Oliver’s eyes was a little bit contagious and she was still working on nausea treatment. Then she got restless and, when the Villain of the Week eluded Oliver and John for the fourth day in a row since they couldn’t figure out her technology, she earned her re-admittance to the Arrow cave.

John stared at her for a few minutes down in the lair as she settled back into her wonderful chair. Oliver was standing pretty close by, within reach but not so close that they were running into each other, a la two days ago. Felicity was watching the screens, going back and forth between the searches and John Diggle’s face.

Finally, John understood, a grin slowly forming on his face. “You’re pregnant!” he had almost shouted. After the obligatory “how did you find out?” and “why didn’t you tell me?” and threatening from Oliver and hugs and handshakes all around, they sat down to have a proper chat while waiting for the search to finish. “How long?” Digg asked.

“About two months,” Felicity answered. “The nurse was scary enough that I didn’t want to tell anyone for a while.”

“They’ll do that,” John grinned, remembering the same stage with JJ. Although, with JJ, John had taken even longer to tell them, Felicity reflected. One point for Olicity, then. He then clapped Oliver on the back. “How are you holding up?”

Oliver flinched and made a noncommittal noise, showing both best friend and wife exactly how well he wasn’t handling the whole thing at the moment. “He was fine at first, more than fine, great, actually, but over the past four days he’s become a protective monster of a baby daddy,” Felicity explained fondly.

John looked at Oliver almost as fondly. “He would do that, wouldn’t he.”

“He couldn’t help it,” Felicity cooed, forgetting yesterday when she’d yelled at him for not letting her handle the toaster. It was a toaster. It would not attack anyone. The fact that she regularly burned herself with it was entirely besides the point.

Oliver then stalked away, ripping his shirt off along the way, heading for the salmon ladder. After the initial and very brief surprise of his abrupt stripping, Felicity and Diggle had returned to the computers, talking about the plans for Baby Queen around the clangs of Oliver’s stress.

It was expected, at least, Felicity mused as she found Bad Guy of the Week and sent her boys out to capture him. And—she remembered the way his back muscles had rippled earlier as he ascended and descended the salmon ladder over and over—the stripping was welcome, anyway. “Honestly, everyone’s taking the idea of your existence really well,” she whispered to her stomach.

She wondered if it was a boy or girl, all of a sudden. And if it would be better at computers or salmon ladders. Then she realized she was talking to her stomach. Which would have been okay if the baby could hear her, but since it was the size of a grape, it wasn’t even close to auditory skills. Not much point yet. She shook her head and directed John down the next road, letting the chase regain her attention.

“We have to tell William,” Felicity murmured a week later as they were taking a rare ten minutes to watch an adventure story that wasn’t actually their life. “He’s going to find out eventually, he’s so smart, and I just don’t think it’ll be good for him to figure it out on his own.”

“True,” Oliver murmured back. He’d taken to lying across her lap and cuddling as closely as possible whenever they sat down for more than five minutes, and he was almost asleep as a result. “I wouldn’t have figured out at his age, though…” He zoned out as Hawkeye shot another alien and Felicity tried to think of a way to say “You’re my husband and I love you but your son is way smarter than you” without offending him. “But he is way smarter than me, so he probably will,” Oliver finished the sentence, much to her relief.

Felicity ran her fingers through his hair and added haircuts all around to her checklist. William’s was almost in his eyes, and Oliver’s was going to be really close to attack-paparazzi Oliver in a week or two. That wasn’t a look any of them were actually interested in.

“Are you pregnant?” William’s voice came from behind. Oliver jumped, returning to a sitting position without Felicity seeing him move. She turned around to face the boy, her heart trying to keep up with the adrenaline and racing brain. “Sorry to interrupt. I just thought I heard…” He took one step backwards, trying to escape to his room.

Oliver glanced down at her and called his son back. “We should explain—”

“Yes, I’m pregnant,” Felicity blurted out. Thankfully, William stepped over to the couch so she didn’t have to crane her neck too awkwardly.

Then all three of them stared. Despite the progress made over the months of Three Queens, they hadn’t gotten really good at the family talks yet. Although—did anyone really get good at those? They were hard and awkward and annoying. “How long?” William asked.

“Two months and a week and a half, about. We’ve known for about two weeks,” Felicity quickly said. The kid probably wanted information quickly to make up for what he didn’t know, right? She could basically see the thoughts racing through William’s head.

Then just as quickly as the surprise had formed on William’s face, a smile broke across it. “That’s really cool,” he said. “Is it a boy or girl?”

“It’s like two or three months until that appointment,” Felicity said, watching as William’s face finally walled over. Her heart sank at the rapid (and basically expected) progression of William’s emotions. “But you’ll be the first to know!” At least now she would be able to say she tried to save the situation.

“That’ll probably be the ultrasound technician, really,” William said, that hint of whimsy she so loved in his voice. Maybe this wouldn’t be completely awful. Then she watched all her hopes dash away on some kind of magic flying creature as William gave another celebratory grin, stepped back into the door frame, and just about ran away.

“William?” Oliver called. He tried to get up but Felicity pressed lightly down on his chest and shook her head. Oliver searched her eyes for a moment and read the let him go she was projecting. “What do we do?” he whispered.

“I don’t know, but for now he needs to be alone. He just found out he’s getting a baby sibling and he’s almost a teenager and he’s William Clayton Queen and there’s only so much more attention he can stand because you know how almost everyone at school treats him anyway and now look at this, he'll be close to the center of attention again, and—” Felicity felt her brain switch back onto the crazy track but it was quickly derailed by Oliver gently grabbing her chin and pulling her head up to look at him.

“He’ll be okay, Felicity. Like you said. It’ll be okay.”

“William?” Felicity heard Oliver calling just as she started smelling the pancakes. She took a moment to consider getting out of bed, and thankfully, Queen Child No. 2 liked the pancakes and didn’t immediately cause nausea. So she got out of bed and wandered toward the pancakes and husband and son.

Oliver’s hair was wild when she found him in the kitchen. “He’s not in his room, Felicity. I don’t know where he is. There’s a pile of blankets in his bed and—”

William was missing. Felicity felt the room basically flip upside down and found herself in Oliver’s arms a moment later. “I’m good, I’m good, I'm fine." She batted the wild-eyed Oliver away and stepped toward her tablet. “I’ll check the—”

Oliver was yanking on a hoodie and tennis shoes before she could finish her sentence. “I’m going now, I texted Digg and he’s going to the base to check the traffic cameras. I’m going to go—somewhere.” And Oliver kissed her on the forehead and exited the apartment.

“He couldn’t even wait for me to check the security footage,” Felicity grumbled, fingers flying on the screen. Her heart was about to beat itself out of her chest—the memories of Adrian Chase were never pleasant and they were returning in full-force—but the cameras in the apartment and building finally cooperated. “Your dad’s great, kid, but he’s an idiot sometimes when it comes to the people he loves,” she muttered. “So dramatic.”

As she yanked her own shoes and robe on, she watched William step out of the apartment and wander out of the building at 5:14 AM. It was a miracle Oliver hadn’t heard the door, honestly. He then meandered down the street, clutching his blue blanket around himself like a cloak. She locked the apartment door as she kept watching the footage, switching from camera to camera along the streets. She followed William’s path as quickly as she could, her heart rate slowing down when she figured out his destination.

“Hey, kid,” Felicity said as she sat down on the swing next to William.

William kept staring at the rest of the playground equipment. “Hi Felicity,” he replied quietly. “How did you find me before Dad?”

“You did a good job being unpredictable, where you walked and where you were going. And your dad didn’t wait for me to bring the cameras up before he and John ran out looking.”

William chuckled soundlessly. “Just like him,” he murmured.

They sat in silence for a minute, Felicity dragging her shoes on the pine chips. Her mind was racing and trying to figure out anything to say that wouldn’t sound completely cliché. It was going to sound cliché whatever happened, honestly.

Thankfully, William started first. “I’m not upset about the baby,” he said, looking up at her with those eyes so like Oliver’s. “I just… I don’t know.”

Felicity tried for humor to fill the silence. “That’s something, at least, that you don’t hate your sibling.”

“I know you’re not replacing me or anything.” William ignored the humor, as well he should. “I wasn’t expecting it at all, though. Should have expected it, you and Dad are married and love each other and you’ve got everything except—”

“If you say that we’ve got everything except a kid…” William glanced back up at her, his eyes looking wounded. Oh, frick. That was what he was thinking. Felicity jumped off of the swing and knelt down in front of William as well as she could without him absolutely towering over her. “We have a kid, William. You.”

“Yeah, but I’m not yours. Not like the baby will be.”

Felicity’s heart pretty much broke. Completely in half. “I know I’m not your biological mother, Will. I’m not trying to be, I’ll never try to replace your mother, I could never do that. I know too much about losing a parent to ever try that. But I’ve never thought of you as anything less than my son.”

William’s eyes were now shining. She reached up and grabbed his hand, partially for the physical contact and partially for stability. Thankfully, he held on as tightly as she was. “Even when your dad and I were just talking about getting back together, or when we were dating for those weeks before we got married, I’ve sort of thought of you as my kid too. You’ve always been enough for me and your dad. Remember when you found out your dad was still running around in green?”

“I said I wasn’t as worried about losing him, since I had you. After you let me watch him arrow people.”

Felicity managed a smile. That was not one of her better moments. Then she returned to the important topic. “You’ve always had me, William. Whether it was for math tutoring or taking care of you if your dad doesn’t make it home one night.” William just stared for a moment. Felicity scanned his face and decided it was time for the best truth of the morning. “Your dad and I, we love you more than anything. You’re the best kid I’ve ever met, and, if you’re willing, you’re going to be the best big brother in the world. Which is how we should have told you, incidentally, instead of you being too smart for your own good.”

They stared at each other for another minute, Felicity watching everything process in William’s eyes. Finally, William nodded. Felicity stood up, her quads blessing the movement, and William jumped out of the swing into her arms. They stood there in the playground, just the two of them, and Felicity hugged her son.

“Thanks, Felicity,” William whispered. “Love you.”

Felicity felt her eyes fill up. “I love you too, William.”

And that was how Oliver found them, a few minutes later. Felicity heard his footsteps coming closer, but she couldn’t do anything more than turn her head to face him. As he got closer, Felicity could see the alarm in his eyes slowly fade away and, by the time he wrapped his arms around them and rested his forehead on William’s head, Oliver was smiling.

“Love you, Dad,” William murmured.

“Love you too, William,” Oliver answered.

They would be okay, Felicity thought as they turned back toward the apartment and breakfast. William would be okay, even if he was late for school again.

“What’s his name?” William asked, cradling his baby brother. Felicity had been taking pictures of them for half an hour. It was just too precious.

The baby had been born three hours ago. Oliver and Felicity had kept one hour of it to themselves, just staring at their kid and figuring out the name. After that blessed hour, William and Digg and Lyla had swarmed them, all three wanting to hold the littlest Queen. Naturally and without much argument from the adults, William had won the hold-the-baby battle. Oliver had shifted his littler son into his firstborn’s arms and gotten into the bed with Felicity.

Oliver glanced at Felicity, giving her the reins. Felicity smiled as Oliver pulled her a little closer and kissed the side of her head. “Jonathan Thomas Queen,” she told him. “Thomas for Tommy, of course. Jonathan…”

“Oliver Jonas Queen,” John said thoughtfully. “Kinda similar.”

Felicity nodded toward Digg and immediately regretted movement. The very nice drugs were officially wearing off. “That was my thought, yeah. Kind of clever, right? But also… Jonathan and David, in the Bible.”

“Brothers,” Oliver summed it up, looking at William with the softest gaze Felicity had ever seen in his blue eyes. She loved him all the more for that look. “Even with all of their problems, they still had each other. So we named him Jonathan for you, William. You and him.”

William smiled and looked back down at the baby. “Jonathan, huh,” he murmured. “He’s pretty great.”

Felicity looked around at the room. Oliver, sitting next to her with all of the love in the world in his eyes. John and Lyla, arms around each other and persevering despite the odds. William, their first child, looking down at his little brother with awe. Jonathan, blue eyes staring up at his big brother sleepily but his little hands wriggling with contentment. All of the happiness surrounding her was completely unexpected, but it was beautiful.

“Yeah, he is,” she agreed. “And he has the best family in the world.”

#arrow ff #olicity ff #my ff #william clayton #olicity #arrow

18 notes · View notes

jiminwreckedme · 7 years

Text

Chaos: The Beginning of the End

Member - Jeon Jungkook

Genre - Thriller? Mystery? 23K of bullshit-that-makes-no-sense-right-now-but-will-make-sense-after-part-2? I don’t really know tbh. You read and tell me :)

Word count - 23K

Warnings - mentions of death, murder, implied smut.

Summary - One has brains but no heart. One has a heart but no brains. And what happens when both their worlds collide?

It’s chaos.

[A/N] - So this 23K beast was sitting in my google docs for a really really long time now. Since its a 2 part fan fic (Next and last part is Chaos: The End of the Beginning) I initially planned on writing both parts before posting it. But I also realised that its been reaaallly long since I’ve managed to post any content at all so here’s this for now. Let me know your theories and ideas while I sit and work on trying to update all my series :)

It’s a closed space. A closet maybe? You can’t tell.

There’s something visible through the tiny gaps of the slanted wooden slabs. And it’s moving. Fast, tensed and hurried. That means it’s not something.

It’s someone.

There are people in the house. And they aren’t people you know for sure because you are scared. You can feel the sweat running down your neck as your hair plasters to your skin with the ickiness. It’s chilly even though you can tell it’s late in the morning and you are shivering in both cold and fear.

And then suddenly there is the sound of a gunshot and everything goes black.

You sit up startled by the strange dream even though it’s not something you haven’t seen before. Taking a good look at your surroundings you breath normally again, undaunted. It’s just something that occasionally, pointlessly visits your dreams. It doesn’t scare or worry you anymore because you have now learned to shake it off. Perhaps it’s a movie or a drama scene that imprinted in your head as a child. Nothing to worry about.

What you had to worry about was the dull throbbing pain in your head and the scream of your every cell which is asking for just one thing.

“Coffee!” You call out to your maid falling back into the soft comforters, rolling around on the bed lazily. A short lady still in her apron comes rushing in looking apologetic.

“The kitchen hasn’t sent it out yet Y/n dear. I….I don’t know what’s wrong.” She’s scared because she knows how moody you get without it.

“Urgh” You drag yourself out of bed, ruffling your bed hair. “Alrighttttt send it when it’s ready. I’m going to shower.”

Taking heavy steps to the bathroom you strip out of your night clothes and stand under the shower hoping at least the cold waters will wake you up. The ice cold liquid hits your face and trickles down your body but it’s causing no effect. You need a strong coffee before you step into the office no matter what. A CEO cannot possibly go to office looking like she’s hungover when really all she had been doing was crying her eyes out all night watching Me before You with her best friend Cho.

Throwing on a Armani jumpsuit, you pull your hair into a high ponytail and put on some minimal makeup without paying much attention. Grabbing your bag and glasses you make your way down to the living room where Cho is storming around talking on the phone annoyed.

“Well see to it that it’s fixed quickly…..Yeah I have some important work….Please hurry up.”

“Morning.” You grab a triangular piece of sandwich from the nearby dining table and greet her as you stuff it into your mouth. She smiles at you and then turns serious again.

“Yes. And make it quick please….yeah thank you.” She cuts the call and throws the phone on the couch.

“Morning. Had a good night’s sleep?”

“Yup. Slept like a log.” You munch on the sandwich. “What was that call all about?”

“I was watching the news and then exactly when they were giving some crucial information” She stops and looks at you dramatically. “The screen blanked out! Apparently the power’s gone.”

“ Ah” You gulp down a glass of juice hurriedly. “No wonder there’s no coffee.”

“Yes and no news.” Cho sits on the couch angrily. You can only laugh at her childishness.

“Oh god What was so important?”

“Apparently there was a murder at downtown yesterday. The victim was killed not with a knife or gun….but with electricity. The killer murdered him by giving shocks with high voltage electricity. I mean seriously? Now people aren’t even wasting money on buying weapons anymore. The act of murder has become so inexpensive.” She huffs as you roll your eyes. “The police don’t know who it is apparently. No clues, no fingerprint, no sign of struggle. Just a man tied to a chair with wires around him. Its so brutal but so smart -”

“Alright alright.” You cut through her words not wanting to listen anymore. “You know I don’t like this kind of violent news. While you use your Sherlock brain and figure this out, I’m gonna rush to work yeah? When it’s time for you to leave, ask the driver to drop you okay. Don’t go alone!” You blow her a kiss as you hurriedly walk towards your garage where your BMW is waiting for you.

“Only if you agree to have the next movie night in my house!” She screams after you, making you laugh. You know like always the sleepover will eventually end up in your house.

Getting into your car you turn on the engine and blast some loud music with the windows down to feel some air on your face. Monday mornings were already on the top of your hate list and today moreover, you didn’t even shake off your sleep completely. And above everything you were late. The day already had such a bad start.

Cutting through the traffic you drive into a nearby street spotting a coffee shop right around the corner much to your relief. Parking your car at the side of the street you cross it, pushing open the doors and sigh realizing it’s completely packed. Seeing the dozens of people occupy all the seats you turn around defeated to search for another location when the waitress comes to you and points out an empty seat all the way in the corner opposite a young man. You hurriedly thank her and rush to sit down across him, relieved.

But just as you are about to order for a much required cup he looks up from the newspaper he’s reading and meets your eye momentarily.

“I suggest you ask for water as well ”

“What?” You look at him surprised. He’s dressed smartly in a grey tuxedo as he stirs his iced coffee with the straw, eyes still fixed on whatever he’s so intently reading. He has glasses on and his hair is part neatly, he reminds you so much of your father.

“You’ll need it.” He shrugs. You raise your eyebrows at him confused and subtly ignore the stranger’s words as you look around for a waiter to place your order. One of them walks up to you and places a hot cup of coffee.

“A double shot cappuccino for you Ma'am”

“But..” You look at her confused. “I didn’t order yet.”

“I did.” The man speaks again as he sends her away with the gestures of his hand, resuming his reading.

“You?” He has finally gotten your attention. “And how do you know I’d want a double shot cappuccino?”

“Any girl who misses her first cup of coffee would want her second cup strong.”

“And how do you know I missed my first cup of coffee?”

“Anyone who misses their bed coffee would be tapping the table that impatiently.”

It’s only then you notice your finger moving out of habit on the wooden surface of the table rhythmically. The man across you is smiling at his paper all knowingly without even so much as a look at you and its annoying you. He’s trying to make a conversation, it’s so obvious. People like him weren’t new to you, a young, rich, beautiful heiress. Everyone wants to be associated with you in some way.

“Are you trying to make conversation with a girl you happen to meet by chance?”

“Who said we are meeting by chance? You happen to be sitting here and having coffee with me because I wanted you to. Because I’ve planned it.”

“Excuse me?” You frown at him not understanding as you take a sip, relishing the hot liquid flowing down your throat. “What does that mean?”

He finally looks up from his paper, rolls it and plays with it, hitting his other palm rhythmically. Odd. Your father has the same habit.

“Tell me, Where are you supposed to be right now?”

“At work.”

“But you are here having a coffee, why?”

“Because I missed my bed coffee.”

“And why did you miss it?”

“Because the coffee machine wasn’t working.”

“And why was it not working?”

“Because there was no power in the house.”

“Exactly.” he draws a sip from his drink smiling. “I cut it.”

You choke on your coffee at his words, coughing into your hand as he draws a bottle of water from his bag and hands it to you. “I told you to ask for water.”

“You cut the electricity connection to my house?”

“Yes and because there was no power in the house and you didn’t get coffee, you would have taken a longer shower and started 15 minutes late. That means when you reached the junction near your house it was perhaps exactly time for school and all cars would have been halted to allow the students to cross the road. Because you needed a coffee badly and didn’t have the patience to wait, so you must have turned right into the Bakers street, the alternative route to your office. Unfortunately, you would have reached a dead end because the road is getting repaired. So then you turned right again into commonwealth avenue, which is this street. And you stopped your car right at this coffee shop because it’s obviously the first one you have seen the whole way here and you need coffee cause you missed it in the morning and you missed it because of….” he points at himself casually.

“Because it’s just a coincidence.” You narrow your eyes at him. He couldn’t be this smart. How did he mange to think of all of this? “You seem to be taking credit for a coincidence.”

“A coincidence huh?” He raises an eyebrow amused. “Okay tell me. When there are so many tables in the coffee shop why did you come and sit here, right across me?”

“Because it was the only one empty?”

“Oh really?” He taps the table with his rolled newspaper twice and suddenly everyone around you gets up and abandons their seat leaving every space empty and just the two of you sitting across each other with 2 cups of coffee.

You laugh for some reason. It’s incredibly smart. He obviously hired people to occupy every seat so you would have no choice but to sit next to him. It’s too smart. Too well planned. But why?

“And why are you doing this?”

“To meet you of course and because I don’t have a time to wait for nature, science, fate, whatever you call it, to make us meet.”

You blink multiple times, head full of questions.

“Okay, let me explain.” He looks around searching for something and suddenly points at a butterfly that’s sitting on a plant a little further from you. “You see that butterfly? Do you know the moment it gets up from there it can cause a cyclone somewhere in America?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s true. You see when a butterfly moves its wings, a low pressure is created in the air around it. And when this low pressure is created, an air movement is initiated. With the addition of many such low pressures and air movements, the effect grows and grows and grows and suddenly there’s a cyclone somewhere far away.”

“and your point is what exactly?”

“Everything around us is a strange science. One unrelated moment can influence another unrelated moment somewhere far away in the most strange way possible.”

“Like the fact that there was no electricity in my house led to me having coffee here with you.” You slowly realize what he’s trying to say.

“Exactly, you’re getting there. Everything that’s happening around us is a result of some moment usually initiated by our natural surroundings. People meeting, people parting, people dying. Everything. Most people call it fate but really, it’s all determined by some unknown, unplanned, weird moment in nature.”

“Then why is our meeting not planned by nature or whatever? I mean you purposely cut the current in my house. That’s not exactly unknown or unplanned. It’s weird though, I’ll give you that.”

He smiles. “I’m coming to that. It’s because unfortunately, I don’t have much time. I can’t wait for events to unfold themselves in a particular way for us to meet. So instead, I induce things to happen the way I want them to and hence you will be meeting me whenever I want, where ever I want, as per what I plan.”

You lean back and look at him keenly. You’re actually impressed. Very impressed. His intelligence, his wit, the way he thinks, everything impresses you. But you want to see more.

“I’m still not convinced. Let’s do this.” You lean in with you hands crossed on the table and lick your lips determined. “You try to meet me tomorrow. And I’ll try not to. Let’s see how you manage to have a coffee with me Mr…?.”

“Jungkook.” He smiles as he adjusts his glasses. “Jeon Jungkook.”

“Alright then. I hope we don’t meet tomorrow, Mr. Jeon Jungkook.”

“And I hope we do, Ms.Y/n L/n” is all he says smugly as you grab your bag and walk out of the shop smiling to yourself.

The next morning you are up surprisingly well before your alarm rings. Maybe because you didn’t sleep properly in the first place thinking of ways to avoid Jungkook the following morning. After a quick shower and quicker getting dressed session, you make your way down to the living room to see a fresh cup of coffee waiting for you. Hmm coffee is ready? You switch on the television and see the same news of that murder flashing and quickly switch it off. The television is also working? That means the power didn’t get cut today. How was he planning to meet you then?

“Y/n, Cho is on the line.” Your short, sweet maid hands you the phone.

“Yes what’s up?” You secure the phone between your ear and shoulder as you sip your coffee.

“Y/nnn I’m so dead! I have a meeting with the company president first thing in the morning and my stupid car isn’t starting. Please drop me will you? Please~”

“But I need to leave for-”

“Your office starts at 9, mine is at 8! Please~.” She drags annoying your eardrums. “Come on Y/n. I’m begging you! I know you can’t see me but I’m literally on my knees.”

“Urgh fine. 10 minutes, I’m coming.” You roll your eyes leaving your coffee on the table and grab your keys instead to go pick up your miserable friend.

15 minutes after driving at the highest speed possible, you pull up at the driveway in front of her house and she quickly gets in, crushing you into a brief hug.

“Thank you, you are a life savior! I owe you one for this later..”

As Cho flips through her files, reviewing her presentation seriously, you open your sunroof and drive down the calm and quiet roads. Strange. There are no signs of him. Did he give up already? He did seem intent on meeting you though. Not to mention extremely confident as well. Something isn’t quite right.

“Y/n! You need to turn right here.” You slam the brakes, nearly missing the turning as your best friend shuts her files and crosses her arms. “Okay young woman, spill. Where is your mind?”

“Jeon Jungkook.” You mutter as you rotate the steering wheel.

“Who, that creep you told me about? The one in the cafe yesterday?”

“He’s not a creep Cho.” You roll your eyes.

“Of course he is! What kind of a person arranges for a meeting with a stranger that way? It’s obvious that there are things he knows about you and not to mention, things he definitely wants. Why else and how else can he plan all this?”

“I’m not an idiot. I know there is something he is after. Something big, that’s for sure. He might need money or a favor in business or…I don’t know. What could he be after?”

“I suggest you stay away from him Y/n. He seems shady.”

“But that’s the thing! He isn’t coming after me. He’s somehow dragging me to him with his so called ‘plans’. He’s too intelligent. If he wants to meet me, I know he will do it somehow. I’m sure he has something planned for today as we-.”

“Oh no Y/n look!” Cho points at a cute, perhaps stranded dog with a leash on the road, just as you turn into the driveway of her office. She hurriedly gets down the moment you stop the car and takes the pup into her arms lovingly.

“I think it’s lost….Oh there’s a name tag! It has some address written…” She squints at the metal chain and quickly places the pup in the seat next to you.

“What the-”

“Please take it to its owner Y/n, the poor thing is definitely lost.”

“Cho! I have to get to work. I’m getting late.”

“The boss is never late you idiot. Please please! Next movie night at your house if you take him.”

“Cho-”

“Please~.”

You huff gripping the steering wheel. “Urgh the things I have to do for a best friend.”

“Thanks babes, bye!” She waves as she runs towards the building balancing the files in her hands and you sit staring at the brown dog next to you which is obediently looking around at its new environment. You memorize the address on his tag and pat his head resignedly. “Alright…. Bruno? Let’s get you home.”

Finding the way after a few wrong turns and with the help of your GPS, you enter a small alley lined with homes and stop your car at the edge of the one way street. You mentally thank the heavens that the address is near your office so you might manage to be not too late. Taking the pup in your arms you walk down the road looking for its house number when suddenly it wriggles free from your grip and begins running.

“Hey!” You begin miserably going after it in your 5 inch heels and stop when you see it runs towards a familiar looking seated man at an outdoor coffee shop. You sigh as the pup begins to lick Jungkook fondly and the man clad in a suit today as well, greets you smirking.

“You look like you missed your coffee today as well Ms. Y/n. Care to join me for one?”

You purse your lips disapprovingly but sit down opposite him regardless.

“Is the dog yours?”

“Taehyung. It’s my friend Taehyung’s. But he’s quite familiar with me too.” Bruno wags his tail from in between Jungkook’s feet. “Something strong for you again?”

“An espresso please.”

“I must be playing with your head a lot if you need something that strong.” he chuckles but orders nevertheless. He’s in a suit again. Blue this time. The same glasses, the same parting of the hair, today’s newspaper lying on the table.

“How did you do it this time?” You blow the steam of your coffee as the waiter serves you, then him. “There was no power cut in the house.”

“This time it wasn’t cut in your house.” he draws a sip. “It was in your friends.”

You know better than to drink when he’s answering and this time almost choke on nothing. “What?”

“Why did you not have coffee today?”

“Because my friend called me to pick her up”

“And why did she call you to pick her up?”

“Because her car wasn’t starting.”

“And why wasn’t her car starting?” he smirks expecting you to know the answer already.

You narrow your eyes at him suspiciously. “Because you messed with it.”

“Mhmm. And so she called you, who was definitely up and ready early today to avoid me as per yesterday’s deal, and so you agreed to drop her. Then you both saw a stranded dog right as she entered her office. Your friend was getting late but she also loves dogs. So you had to take the dog back to its owner on her insistence. And that’s how you are sitting here and having a coffee with me again.”

You let out a short laugh. “To think I was actually beginning to get impressed, that’s pathetic Jeon Jungkook. Do you know how many things could have gone wrong? What if my friend didn’t call me and called for a cab? What if in her hurry she didn’t spot the dog?”

“That was possible. One can plan things to happen in a certain way but cannot control another’s brain. Another thoughts, emotions. But the fact that your friend didn’t call a cab and did spot the dog shows that maybe you are right. Maybe somewhere there is a little coincidence or fate in us meeting. But ultimately it was her decision and her choice that led to you and I having a coffee here. One unrelated moment causes another unrelated moment right?”

His words as usual confound you. Jungkook leans back and receives the bill as you observe him. He seems to have a purpose and no purpose at all behind doing this. There was no saying what his next move is, what his next thought is. He is absolutely unpredictable. And he is different, unlike most men you had seen. His intentions are still not clear but it’s not something small he wants from you. The fact that he had gone far enough to find out not just about you but even about your best friend meant he had some really serious purpose behind all this.

You speak as your waitress leaves you alone. “You don’t need glasses.”

“Sorry?”

The thing about being around sharp people is that it makes you think like them. His eyes when he reads are wider than usual. The glasses are not a necessity for him.

“You don’t require glasses to read.”

“Ah yes. I don’t require it to read. I require it to look intelligent.”

“Look intelligent?”

“Surveys show that generally people with glasses are considered smarter. And gone are the days when women are impressed by sense of humor, good looks, money blah blah blah. Now a days women want a witty person. So I figured this would be the best way to impress you.”

“You want to impress me?” You let out a sharp incredulous laugh. He nods and gestures at his outfit.

“Can you give any other reason for why a man as young and modern as me would roam around in such a terribly old-fashioned, extremely suffocating set of clothes?”

“I don’t know? Don’t you wear it to go to work?”

“Electra complex.” he drains the last few drops of his drink. “Most girls subconsciously look for qualities their father possesses in men around them. It’s a psychological fact. I’m sure in our meetings at some point you would thought ah he reminds me of my father.”

And you did. He even knows about your father. What he wears, his small habits, he knows them. You can even see him displaying the same sort of intelligence. He’s done his research well. It isn’t too hard to find out about your father though, that’s there. After all he’s a multimillionaire and very famous in the society. But Jungkook has gone to such lengths just to impress you?

“Let’s talk seriously Jungkook. You are intelligent. Extremely intelligent. I don’t know if you have a job or not and how you are managing to spend so much time on this. But the fact that you have invested so much time, brain and planning on me, shows that impressing me is not your only goal. You could have simply come to one of the clubs I regularly visit if that was your intention. Of course I would have forgotten all about you as soon as I get hungover. But you meet me over coffee. A time when my senses are the sharpest. That means you want me to clearly remember you, maybe even think about you later. So tell me, why are you after me?”

“Simple.” he smiles. “Because you have money.”

You sigh at him irritably. Yes of course. Most people approach you when they need favors or if they are working on some sort of product or software and they need your help to launch by selling it to your company. It’s only now that you realize how little you had been approached to be actually been hit on in the outside world because most people who talked you, only did so for business purposes.

“So you are one of those.”

Jungkook laughs. “Y/n, look at you. You are a billionaires daughter. You are the CEO of a company. Even the watch you wear costs in 4 digits. The money behind you has already made you suspicious of the fact that I’m here for something big and serious and you don’t believe I’m genuinely trying to impress you. When you anyway won’t believe the reason I will tell you then it’s better I tell you a reason you will believe right?”

You lean back getting confused as usual with him again.

“You are beautiful Y/n. And so capable. It’s admirable how you run the company so well and the heights your father’s business has reached with you as CEO. You are talented and you are smart. But as long as you have the money factor behind you it’s going to be hard to make you believe that I genuinely am trying to know more about you because I am impressed with you. There is only so much I can know about somebody with my intelligence. And I’m sincerely trying to figure out who you really are by meeting you like this. Nothing more and nothing less.”

You don’t know why but for some reason you feel like he’s telling the truth. Maybe because you are so interested in him or maybe because there is hope that there might finally be someone out there who is interested in you? But whatever it is, you do choose to believe him.

“Make me meet you over another coffee and then I’ll believe you.”

“If I do meet you over another coffee, then hang out with me for a bit tomorrow evening. Maybe watch a play? There’s a new drama troop in town.”

“That is if you meet me.”

Jungkook smirks “If you are still testing me, that means you are already impressed by me.”

“What? No~” You deny, not meeting his eye.

“Yeah, why else will you look for another opportunity to meet me?”

“I could be looking for some entertainment?”

“No that’s not it.” he shakes his head definitely “I think we should get your estrogen levels checked. When girls generally think emotionally the estrogen levels in their body increase. Then we will know how you are actually feeling.”

You laugh. “Honestly is everything science for you? Have you never heard Jungkook, there are things science can’t explain.”

Jungkook lets out a short sarcastic laugh before looking far away at something you couldn’t see. “I don’t want to know such things. I think they are irrelevant.”

You sigh at his childlike defiance and stand up, fishing your car keys out of your pocket. “Try falling in love. Then it will be relevant.”

And with that you turn around and walk away, leaving him all by himself once more without hearing one last thing he had to whisper looking wistful.

“I already have.”

When you enter the office everything is tense. There are people scurrying around, men in black suits stationed at places, phones are ringing continually.

“What’s going on?” You inquire with an employee who bows quickly before answering. “Ms. L/n. your…..your father is here.”

You smack your head looking at the watch, panicking that you are late. Jeon Jungkook. It was all because of that asshole. You rush to your cabin to see your father sitting on the couches talking to your assistant.

“Hey dad.” You say meekly, making an embarrassed face as you slowly step into your room.

“Y/n.” He smiles sweetly, but with a hint of sternness. “You seem to be late.”

“I’m so sorry…uh….Cho had something she needed help with….”

“That’s alright. Come sit.” He pats to the empty space next to him and you happily sit next to him. “All good with you?”

“Yeah all’s fine. But is something wrong? You are here? in my branch?”

“Why? Can’t a father miss his daughter?” Your father’s brother speaks from behind you, looking up from his phone. Your father pouts adorably.

“Aw.” You pull his cheeks. “Of course he can! And I really love it when he does. But the security and the hustle outside? I’m sure you don’t need all that to simply see me. What’s wrong?”

“Did you not hear what happened yesterday?”

You shake your head slowly panicking at your uncle’s words. You weren’t someone like that. If something happened in your office there was no way you didn’t know it. But yesterday you were distracted, you have to admit. If something went wrong because of that, you swore to kill Jeon Jungkook.

“Do you know Mr. Wook?”

“Our office east branch in charge?” You had met him quite a few times. You were west branch in charge and were in good terms with him for business sake even though there were countless number of times you felt he was a bit shady. Your father’s trust in him was the only reason you kept quiet. “Yeah what about him?”

“He was murdered yesterday morning.”

“What?” You stand up shocked. “How? Wh-”

“Did you hear the news about a man who was killed using electricity?” You nod remembering Cho talk about it and mentally make a note to thank her for making you at least a little aware of the things around you. “He was the victim.”

You blink a couple of times not knowing what else to do. Your father takes out his glasses and wipes them tiredly. You place your hand on his arm softly. “That’s so horrible. But why? Do you know who is behind it?”

“I suspect it’s my enemies.” Your father sighs putting his glasses back on. “Our company has gotten really big Y/n and so it’s natural we make new rivals with growing step. That’s why I’m here. I’m worried about you.” He pats your head softly. “Your uncle says we should increase the security around you for precaution but I seem to think differently. What about you?.”

You look around at the black suited bodyguards. “Dad, are you positive that it is business rivals?”

“That’s what my sources say, but they could be wrong.”

“I don’t think you should increase security for me. Or even yourself. If we do, then we are alerting our enemies that we are anticipating them and so they will become more cautious about their attacks now. If we show that we don’t suspect them, then they will have their guard down a little and it might be a bit easy for us to trace who it is.”

Your father chuckles looking at your uncle. “Well well that’s exactly what I was thinking. Like father like daughter huh?” You smile as he gives you a five. “But still, be careful alright? I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“I’ll be fine Dad, chill.” You give him a quick hug and stand up crossing your arms. “And now if you don’t mind, CEO Y/n has to report to work.”

“Yes absolutely. I shall take the boss’s leave then?” Your father stands up as the bodyguards speak through their earpieces, getting ready for his departure.

“Permission granted.” You smile and wave as your father collects his belongings and leaves with his team. Your uncle quickly rushes to you and pulls you into a brief hug, throwing an arm around your shoulder and leaves along with the older man. “Take care kiddo.”

Feeling fuzzy after meeting your family after so long you sit behind your desk and think for a while about what your father said.

Enemies.

You quickly dial a number on the phone on your desk and give out orders. “Send Hoseok to my room. Tell him it’s urgent”

As you sit cracking your knuckles lost in thought, Hoseok enters and unlike most days he isn’t giving out vibes of sunshine. You realize how serious this death has been for everyone.

“Hoseok I need a favor.”

“Sure, whats up?”

“I’m going to trust you with this alright? Don’t tell this to anyone.”

“What is it?” He looks at you suspiciously.

“I don’t think this murder is a rivals job.” You remember Cho’s words. It’s so brutal.

“It’s too painful a death. Like this wasn’t done by someone with a business purpose. If it was then they could have shot him, or hit him with a car. But they’ve killed him in a very painful way. An agonizing way. Like someone wanted to hurt him first, then kill him. That means its done by someone with…..” You search for the right word. “Someone with vengeance perhaps.”

Hoseok nods. “I get what why you are saying that. But it’s possible they did so to not leave any clues that could trace back to them.”

“That’s possible yes. I just told you my gut feeling since I was speculating over it. I always didn’t like that man. There is just something off about him. Just for my sake, use your sources and find out if Mr. Wook had any personal issues with anyone. Do a background check on him and let me know what you find out.”

Hoseok nods seriously and begins to leave when you stop him again, thinking of taking advantage of the situation. “And also do a background check on Jeon Jungkook.”

“Jeon Jungkook?”

“Find out about his family, where he’s from, what he studied, where he studied, everything. From A to Z.”

“And who is he?” Hoseok narrows his eyes at you.

“Just someone who I need to know fully about to engage in a battle of wits.” You smile at the thought of beating Jungkook in his own game. “ Keep both of these tasks confidential alright? Don’t tell a soul”

“Shall do.” Hoseok shoots you a thumbs up and leaves as you turn to your computer to resume your office duties putting everything aside.

The next morning, as usual, you wake up late again.

But after the general daily routine, when you come down, there is no coffee on the table.

“Coffee?” You call out to the maid who hurries to inform you. “Ms. Y/n the machine is getting upgraded.”

“Upgraded? Why all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know. Yesterday evening some service boys came to talk about upgrading the machine and installing new features. It’s been apparently installing all night.”

“What kind of features can one possibly install in a coffee machine?” You scrunch your nose in thought but the confusion goes as soon as it comes. “Ah he thinks he can play the same game twice.” You mummer before making up your mind. “That’s alright. I’ll have it outside.”

You throw your car keys on the couch and walk out of the house, straight past the garage, towards the nearest bus stop. Taking the bus to the metro station and then a train to the station nearest to your office, you hail a cab and ask the driver to take you to a nice coffee shop nearby. “Not the first one. Take me to the second shop you spot please.”

Getting down from the cab at a shop you pay him and walk in to find an empty coffee table, smiling victoriously. Hah, maybe Jeon Jungkook wasn’t so intelligent after all.

But just as you sit down, a hand extends from over your shoulder placing a cup of coffee on the table and you sigh.

Jungkook draws a sip from his own drink and smiles cockily as he sits down across you.

“How did you do it this time?” It’s too much. Even after every precaution you took? You run your eyes over him. He’s wearing a white suit today and perhaps the best word to describe him would be sinful. It seems to suit him better than everything you’ve seen him in so far and its making it a little hard for you to think about anything.

“Simple.” He places his drink on the table and crosses his arms on it. “I followed you.”

You blink for a bit and then feel your shoulders shake as you laugh at the unexpected answer. “You followed me?”

“I do really want to see that play with you today no matter what.” He shrugs

Your phone rings as you are about to reply and looking apologetic you pick it up when he gestures you to go ahead.

“Yes Hoseok.”

“I’ve done my homework. Want to listen?”

“Briefly.”

“Jeon Jungkook - born in Busan, brought up in Busan, went to quite an ordinary government school, failed math but did average in the other subjects, didn’t attend any university, has a small, one bedroom flat at the edge of the city, literally, hardly anyone lives there, he did odd jobs around like a working as a mechanic, behind the counters of restaurants, minor roles in a couple of dramas, things like that for a living”

“Family?”

“No record of any family. Brought up in an orphanage.”

“Anything else I need to know?”

“I’m not sure this is important but listen. The few people in his neighborhood said he just simply disappeared over a year ago with no clue as to where he left. According to the travel office there are records of him arriving to Seoul only a month back. I’m unable to trace where he was during the time in between.”

“In your opinion is that something to worry about?” You look at Jungkook who is looking up something on his phone.

“I don’t know. He’s basically harmless. Has no contacts. Didn’t have much relations, friends or enemies back at Busan. Damn quiet kid. He must have left his town in search of a job at the most, in my opinion.”

“Alright, anything else?”

“As far as Mr. Wook is concerned, something is fishy, you’re right. But I think it’s better you come to office and see for yourself.”

“Shall do.” You cut the call revising everything Hoseok said. No university despite so much intelligence? But then again he was an orphan. He probably was financially weak. And he disappeared just like that for a year? Strange.

“I have to get to work. Don’t you have to too?” You subtly try to get to know more about him.

“Nope. I don’t have a job yet. But I shall, hopefully soon.”

“You don’t have a job? Then how in the world did you manage to afford all these suits? It must’ve cost a fortune.”

Jungkook sighs, blinking too much. “Okay I guess it’s finally time to be embarrassed. I borrowed them from my friend Taehyung. I crashed in at his place when I came here about…a month ago? He’s been tolerating me for quite some time, the poor guy.” He laughs fondly.

“Where were you before that? Before you came to Seoul I mean.”

“Traveling. I practically went all over Korea looking for a place to settle down and get a decent job. I tried that for a few months but it never really worked out. Then I got really hungry and really desperate and was ultimately jailed for six months for robbery. After I was released I wandered around a couple of cities for a bit like the usual nomad I was, doing odd jobs for gathering money for traveling expenses and I finally landed up in Seoul.”

He was jailed? And he’s being honest about it?

It’s not everyday you see someone openly admitting their crimes, that too to a woman the were attempting to impress. But he did. He told you everything seriously and everything he says seems to fit what Hoseok informed you. It all does make sense.

Your phone rings again, flashing Hoseok’s name and Jungkook looks at the screen and then you.

“I guess you really need to be at work now. I know you didn’t come by car. Would you like me to drop you?” He points at his motorcycle outside and you shudder, not very enthusiastic about the idea.

“No that’s alright.” You scribble your number on a notepaper and push it towards him. “Text me the time I have to be ready. I’ll see you in the evening. I do owe you some of my time” and the two of you smile at each other as you leave him to himself for what you thought was one last time.

It is early afternoon when Jungkook is standing in the line of the grocery store with a half full cart as he goes through the shopping list Taehyung scribbled for him.

“Eggs….Bread…..Ham…” He mumbles checking them off the list one by one when his watch gives a soft beep indicating the beginning of the next hour. He’s getting late. He had messaged you to be ready by 5 for the play but he himself was still here in a pair of sweatpants and a lame shirt hidden by a jacket, yet to take a bath and hence smelling like dairy. You like the smell of dairy.

He smiles to himself as the thought of you crosses his mind. Y/n….

He’s doing it. He is finally getting closer to you. All the hard work is showing its fruit with every passing moment but day by day, minute by minute, the more he sees you, the more his heart hurts.

“Afternoon.” The lady at the counter smiles warmly when he walks forward with his purchase. As she makes the bill scanning each item one by one, Jungkook reaches out for his wallet but his phone rings at the same time, flashing your name. Frowning at the odd time of the call he picks it up.

“Hello?”

“Jungkook!” There’s relief in your voice.

That meant before this, there was fear.

“Y/n, what’s wrong?”

“Look I cannot speak for long.” You are whispering. But why? “I need help. I’m at the french restaurant behind my office. Meet me as soon as you-”

And it cuts.

Jungkook can feel his heart stop as he lowers the phone. What had happened? Why did you have to be so scared? The thought of you alone and afraid terrifies him.

There is only one thing he can do after imaging you like that. Without a single thought or a second glance, dropping everything in his hands, he simply turns and runs through the crowd, ignoring the incredulous cashier and the mad customers behind him as he pushes though.

Nothing was more important that you.

3 hours.

That’s how long it’s been since your last call. 3 hours and there is no sight of you. You are not at the restaurant, neither are you in your office, nor are you at home. Your phone isn’t reachable and somehow can’t be located by any tracking apps either. Jungkook had spent the last 3 hours running around the city like a mad man looking for you. He had checked everywhere. Every coffee shop you went to together, the theater where you are supposed to go with him tonight . But you aren’t anywhere. And no one knows about your whereabouts either. Not your colleagues, not your maid, neither does your best friend Cho.

“Where are you Y/n?” Jungkook desperately walks down the now darkening streets near the city’s main junction looking around. “Just give me one clue and I’ll find you.”

As all the cars halt and the red man turns green, Jungkook begins to walk down the road feeling his phone vibrate in his hand. He quickly fumbles with it with mixed feelings of relief and curiosity and takes a look at the screen but it’s not your name. Its unknown. Resignedly Jungkook picks it up looking around, not paying much attention to the call.

“Hello.”

“Jungkook?”

He freezes at the middle of the road. It’s your voice.

Are you okay? Where are you? Whose phone is this? What’s wrong with your phone? Why were you not at the restaurant? He wants to ask you so many questions but only one thing leaves him like a barely audible whisper. “Y/n…”

“Jungkook, I’m outside your house. My phone is out of battery so I borrowed your neighbor’s phone. I’m so sorry I wasn’t at the restaurant. Please just come home I’ll tell you everything…… Jungkook are you there?”

Yes I am. I always am.

The only thing his body allows him to do is cut the call as he sinks to his knees, ignoring the honking cars and screaming drivers waiting to cross the road. You’re fine. You’re alright. And you’re home.

Picking himself up he runs once more down the street to finally find the one woman who matters to him more than anything.

You sit at the porch of Jungkook’s house, praying that you are at the right place. If you remembered well, this is the address that was written on Bruno’s name tag when you came to drop him yesterday. The door is locked and no one seems to be at home so make yourself comfortable on the steps as you sit with your arms circling your knees rocking back and forth slowly, waiting for Jungkook.

It’s starting to get cold now. Even though you are wearing a semi formal blazer over your halter top it’s doing little to protect you from the low temperature because your pencil skirt cannot hide the skin below your knees. The sandwich the neighbor was kind enough to provide you with along with her phone is the one thing keeping you sane after running around and hiding the whole day.

You munch on the bread slowly, preserving it, as the sky grows darker and darker around you. The only sounds that fill the evening are the ones of the birds returning home, calling it a day, and of moving water. There seems to be a pool at the back of the house. You turn and look at the place you are at, over your shoulder. It’s a decent one. A one story house with a small lawn in the front and a little shed enough for a bike or two. Even the locality is a pleasant one, perhaps because it’s a little far from the city. You wonder if it can be a place for you to hide the next few days. Would Jungkook understand your situation and let you stay? You were still practically strangers and letting you seek shelter here would mean going out of the way especially because the house didn’t even belong to him. You just hoped things could fall into place somehow. But for that, he needs to be here first.

Its like the heavens have heard your plea because just then a figure merging in the shadows enters through the gate, slamming it open, running and panting. You get up the moment you see him as he stops and stands with his hands on his knees, chest heaving, shirt sticking to him with all the sweat. Both your bodies mimic the same signs of relief at the sight of each other. Jungkook walks up to you quickly and grabs you by the wrist literally pulling you in a hug as his arms hold you tight. You wrap your arms around him and melt against him as your tired body finds comfort in his embrace.

“Are you alright?” His head is still buried in the crook of your neck and you nod holding him tighter. “Now I am.”

When Jungkook lets you go and holds you by the shoulders at an arm’s distance away from him, the sun has already disappeared under the horizon. “I was so worried! You weren’t at the restaurant and there were police everywhere-”

“Wait what? Police?” You panic at the mention.

“Yeah police. Your office is a ruckus, your house looks like someone broke in. There were police interviewing people and I thought you were kidnapped or something I-” He quickly hugs you again and you feel his lips press gently against your temple.“Thank god you are fine.”

You giggle not really meaning to because it’s a little funny. Given the kind of situation you had been in since the morning, he was the one who was supposed to give you a sense of comfort but here you were rubbing his back gently, calming him. “I’m fine Jungkook it’s okay. Just a little hungry and in need of a bath because I’m a little too sweaty running in the sun the whole day. How are you possibly this close to me?”

“Trust me, I’ve seen worse.” Jungkook pulls back relieved, now smiling a little. “Come in. I’m sure there’s something around for the both us. I starving as well.”

He reaches for his pockets as you wave the half eaten sandwich his neighbor had given you. “The lady next door pitied me and gave me this before she left. I feel bad now cause I think this was her dinner. She seemed to be going for work, maybe the night shift.”

“So has Taehyung.” Jungkook hangs his mouth open and looks at you with a face that indicates sudden realization. “And I went to the grocery store and didn’t come back.”

“What?” You frown. “What are you saying?”

“So I didn’t take it from him. Oh shit!”

“Take what Jungkook?”

“The house keys…” He says slowly as you smack your forehead.

“You don’t have your house keys Jungkook! What kind of person doesn’t have their house keys?”

“Technically it’s not my house-”

“You live in it, goddammit.”

Jungkook looks embarrassed.

“Okay fine, Never mind. But don’t you do things like hide the keys under the doormat or a plant or something?”

The change in Jungkook’s expression confuses you. He looks startled. “Why would you think I’d do something like that?”

You blink twice. “Because I watch movies? What’s there to be so so shocked about?”

“Because I thought…. “ He shakes his head. “It’s nothing. Never mind.”

“Right. You are shocked because I would think someone as intelligent as you would hide their keys somewhere like that but apparently you’re not smart enough to carry them.” You cross your arms, glaring at him.

“Y/n I get that you are disappointed but-”

“Oh no I’m not just disappointed. I’m cold and I’m dirty and I’m hungry and I’ve been running around the whole day thinking you were one person I can trust myself to be okay with, but clearly I was wrong.”

“You’re throwing tantrums like a typical, rich, spoilt kid Y/n. Stop it.”

“Maybe because I am one, genius.” You sneer.

Jungkook lets out a short sarcastic laugh before walking straight past you and disappearing behind the walls of the house. You look at him with pure surprise for walking out on you in the middle of a conversation and follow him to give him an earful but stop at the sight before you.

It’s a small backyard illuminated by dull luminescence of a pool barely the big enough to be called one but also not too small to be enjoyable. The blue waters are gently moving because of the wind, hitting the walls making the lapping sound that you heard earlier. It’s a very pleasant sight, instantly calming your nerves, making you smile. It would be nice to dangle your legs in the water on such a peaceful evening to push away all that has been bothering you.

“Taehyung leaves the backdoor open accidentally a lot of times. I’m sure he did today as well” Jungkook stands by the wooden door and reaches out for the handle, pushing it down. It doesn’t open. He looks at you before pushing it again and again just to be sure, but the stubborn thing doesn’t budge.

“Quit it Jungkook. It’s not going to open.”

“I guess it’s our luck that he was careful today.” Jungkook walks towards you sheepishly.

“And that you decided to be such an idiot.”

Jungkook lowers his eyes. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight Y/n. After your call I just…. I’ve been…I should have….”

His embarrassment makes you feel ashamed of your words. Sure you were looking for some comfort but not once did you think of the tension you were putting him through. Though it warms your heart when you realize he thinks so much about you, that he cares so much. You reach up and lean in to plant a soft peck on his cheek. “I shouldn’t have over reacted. I’m so sorry. I’ve been such a nuisance the whole of today…”

He pushes your hair and tucks it behind your ear. “What happened Y/n?”

You sigh tiredly and hold his hand which lingers near your face as you walk him towards the pool. Kicking off your heels you sit at the edge dipping your feet in the waters. They are cool not cold, lapping up against your mid shins. Jungkook lets go your hand and rolls up his pant up before sitting down next to you, dangling his feet in the water. He reaches out for the sandwich in your other hand, opens the wrapper a little more and hands it you, ushering you to eat. “Now speak.”

You take a deep breath and a bite and look at him, wondering where to start from. Even though it’s dimly lit you are able to notice what he’s wearing. A black jacket over a black t-shirt and a black pair of sweatpants. It’s so in contrast to all that you have seen him in all these days yet this seems more familiar to you than those formal suits. Maybe because it looks so natural on him or so much more like him. Why it would seem something ‘like him’ when you didn’t know anything much about him, puzzles you. Yet you can’t help but get the feeling.

“We were supposed to be watching a drama right now.” You remember, feeling bad. Jungkook nods and then tilts his head. “I think I’ve had my fair share of drama today.”

You smile. ‘I was looking forward to it. Specially because I was half expecting you to turn up in a suit with a bouquet of flowers and a limousine.”

Jungkook snorts shaking his head. “I’m sorry seeing me in a suit the last few days gave you such an impression. I don’t do flowers and poetry and romance Y/n. I expected you would have understood by now, that I’m more of a realistic and practical person.”

You recollect the image of him relieved when he saw you and the sensation of his lips against your temple. What he says and how he was don’t seem to match.

“Is this how you usually are?”

“More or less yeah.”

“So the suits were just for the ‘Electra complex’?”

He laughs looking at you and pushes your elbow up, prompting you to take a bite from the sandwich.

“Yeah, the Electra complex.”

“You think it worked?” You tease him taking a bite. “All those newspapers and the glasses and the suits?”

“If they didn’t, you wouldn’t have agreed to go on a date with me.”

You blush and thank god that it’s too dark for him to see the redness on your skin, even with the light of the water reflecting on your face. “I don’t remember talking about a date.”

“In my opinion when a guy and a girl are interested in each other and mutually consent to go out together with no purpose that’s significant to their daily, personal or professional lives, it’s called a date.”

You laugh because it sounds like such a textbook definition, but don’t agree or deny it. Jungkook smiles looking at you before turning his attention on the waters.

“I’d like it if you wear white to our next meeting.” You purposely stress on the word to tease him. “I feel like is a color that would suit you more.”

It strange because the expression on Jungkook’s face falls. It’s like you said something he didn’t want to hear.

“Let’s just say my habit of wearing white had to be changed because of someone.”

“Someone you loved?”

The bitter-sweetness in his voice is so evident of the fact, it makes you wonder why you even had to ask something so obvious. Jungkook doesn’t reply. He pushes your arm once more to remind you to eat your sandwich.

“Why are you avoiding telling me what happened Y/n?” You freeze half way through the bite you are taking. “You seem to want to ask and talk about everything but that and while I don’t mind giving answers, I think you owe me some first.”

You sigh realizing that you tried to be smart with him but Jungkook is way smarter. He has seen right through it. You slowly chew on your bite. “I don’t think it’s right to involve you Jungkook. I don’t want to do that.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong Y/n.” Jungkook’s face is expressionless. “I am already involved.”

The surety and confidence in his voice make you raise your eyebrows and look at him questioningly.

“You involved me the moment you called me to your restaurant. Moreover you are in my house now. How am I supposed to help you if you won’t tell me how I can?”

“Let me stay here for a couple of days.” You gather the courage to ask him that. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you why and I’m not expecting you to say yes, but if you can even consider it, it will be a huge favor on me.”

Jungkook takes your hand in his, tracing circles at the back of your hand. “You can stay as long as you want. I’ll talk to Taehyung. But I’m sure he won’t mind.”

You look at him blankly. You don’t know what to show. Gratitude for being so considerate about you? Confusion for being so considerate about you, someone he barely interacted with? Or fear for being so considerate about you, someone he seems to know so much about for someone he has barely interacted with.

“Why?” Jungkook looks at your blank face as you question him. “Why do you care so much?”

He takes a breath before answering. “Because I like you.”

He’s searching for something deep in your eyes.

“And because I’m hoping that all this concern for you, will make you in turn concerned about me and give me the last piece of the sandwich.”

He makes a pleading face as you look at your hand to see a small piece of bread remaining, the mayonnaise oozing out a little from the lettuce. “I’m starving.”

You stare at Jungkook letting out a short exasperated breath. “Do you know what a possibly romantic moment you have ruined? There were so many other things you could have said Jeon Jungkook.”

Jungkook grins “Sorry love, but I told you. I don’t do romance.”

“Sorry love, but I didn’t tell you. I don’t share my sandwich.”

You mock his voice plopping the last of the sandwich into you mouth, chewing furiously hard and fast as Jungkook makes a disappointed face. As you swallow the last remains of it, the feeling gives a satisfaction but the butterflies in your stomach somehow are not calming down as his words ring in your head. Sorry love.

You turn to face Jungkook who is looking at you smugly and lean back a little doubting his intentions. “What?”

He lets go your hand and runs his thumb across the edge of your lips, swiping some of the mayonnaise that happened to staining the edges and licks his finger clean.

“Tasty.” he raises an eyebrow playfully and resumes looking at the water.

It turns you on more than you care to admit. Maybe because the dimness is perfect, or the two of you are alone and in such a close proximity or maybe because the night is still young, holding a hundred different possibilities, you choose to run your eyes all over him, taking in all the details you avoiding looking at.

Jungkook turns to you and you quickly look away, staring at the water, leaning in to run your fingers through it. “It would be nice to get into the water. I’ve been dying to feel a little clean.”

“Get in then.” Jungkook shrugs. “The water is constantly regulated so you can practically take a bath in it if you have soap. Taehyung does it sometimes when he’s really bored.”

“Do you think he’ll mind if I splash in for a bit?”

“Nope. Feel free.”

You get up, but pause, still not comfortable with the idea of randomly swimming in someone else’s property and shake Jungkook’s shoulders who looks up at you as you ask him.

“Do you want to join me?”

You wonder why the sparkle in his eyes darken to amber, as he stands up. “You want me to?”

“Why not?” You shrug. If Jungkook was also in the waters with you, then technically, it wouldn’t exactly look like you were trespassing.

“As you wish.” He reaches up and unzips his jacket.

You almost squeak, What are you doing? but it is perfectly obvious what he is doing. You asked him to join you and it isn’t like you could just wade in with your clothes on. You just didn’t think this far ahead.

He drops the jacket and grabs the material behind his neck, pulling his T-shirt off over his head and you just stare. Stare at the honey-colored skin with occasional tattoos, a fading scar at the making his way from the lines of his abs, down into his pants, his dancer like slender body, the chiseled abs- He pulls free of the shirt and shakes out his dark hair and looks at you, hands on his belt, giving his familiar crooked smile.

“Keeping your clothes on? I could promise not to look, but I’d be lying.”

You strip out of your blazer and throw it at him. He catches it and drops it onto the pile of his clothes, grinning.

“Pervert, though your honesty earns you some points.”

“I’m twenty-three. we’re all perverts,” He steps out of his pants. He is wearing black boxer shorts, and to your mixed relief and slight regret, he keeps them on as he lowers himself into into the water which is just high enough to hide his lower torso. You pull your top off and then your skirt as Jungkook looks up at you.

His eyes travel down from your face to your body, your plain cotton panties and bra. You wish you’d worn something prettier. Your bra is pale blue cotton, the totally boring kind you could buy at the supermarket, though Jungkook is looking at it like it is something remarkable and amazing.

He flushes suddenly, and averts his eyes, backing away and then ducks under the water to resurface again, looking less flustered but a lot wetter, his hair dark black and streaming rivulets. “It feels good.”

You take a breath and dive forward, the water closing over your head. It is easy to float; the moment you let yourself, you bob to the surface, shaking water from your hair. A spray of water droplets makes you look up. Jungkook is running his hands through his hair shaking it. You look at him, more like stare, with a sudden sinking in your stomach, if the heavens would ever be kind enough to let you see a day when you could call him yours.

“I‘m getting scared at the way you are looking at me.” He jokes, playing with himself in the water. “What kind of intentions are you harboring exactly?”

You pause.

Somehow you don’t think for a minute before replying.

“I think someone wants to kill me.”

Jungkook is looking at you as shocked as you are feeling.

You don’t know why you told him that. Especially after denying to do so many times. Maybe because he just radiates a sense of trustworthiness or maybe because you feel like you can connect to him in a different way. But you really trust him and its evident because you open up and spill your fears.

“What do you mean?” Jungkook moves closer to you in the water until the two of you are side by side, backs against the wall of the pool.

“When I went out for lunch today I overheard someone in the men’s washroom agreeing over the phone I think? because I could only hear one person speak. He was say something like making me confess everything and in the worst case scenario, he will do away with me.”

Jungkook looks like he’s thinking hard. The intelligence in him must have realized something you didn’t.

“I called Hoseok and he said someone broke into his room when he was out for lunch and he was clearing the mess. When I told him what I heard he asked me to go somewhere no one can think of finding me and that he will keep me updated about everything.”

“Who is Hoseok?” There is a tightness in Jungkook’s voice.

“Someone I trust if you are suspecting him.”

“Who is he Y/n?” He repeats, voice still the same.

“He is in charge of the artificial intelligence department in my office.”

“You talked to him today morning in the coffee shop over the phone didn’t you?”

“Yes.” You look at Jungkook curiously. “So?”

“Did you meet him before you went for lunch?”

“Yeah I did.”

“What for?”

You hesitate. Jungkook glances at you understandingly.

“I’m trying to help Y/n.”

“There was a murder downtown in an abandoned building two days ago. The victim was a colleague of mine, my office east branch in charge. I had asked Hoseok to do a background check on him so I went to check what he gathered.”

“Why did you need a background check done on him?”

“Because I suspect that the murder is not a rival’s job like my father insists. I think it’s done for personal reasons.”

“You are not a detective Y/n. Your job is not to find out who killed him.”

“But I don’t like seeing my father tensed Jungkook.” Jungkook looks away far into the water, mind working fast again. “And I think I am right. That man was involved in some illegal tradings for a long time now. There is evidence which shows he had been selling our business secrets and material to some other company. I’m scared to tell my father about it now because he trusted that man so much. It would break his heart to know what a cheat he was.”

Jungkook is silent.

“What are you thinking?” You want to know what he has made out of everything.

“So you are telling me that after coffee with me, you went to your office. Worked with Hoseok on this. And when you were both out for lunch, Hoseok’s room was broken in to and there was a plan to attack you” He takes a deep thoughtful breath. “Why do you think this person broke into Hoseok’s room?”

“You think it’s the same person?”

“Of course it is. It’s too much of a coincidence Y/n. And trust me. “You haven’t seen him this serious before. “Coincidences do not just happen. What could someone possibly want from Hoseok?”

“He is the Artificial Intelligence in charge. He does have a lot of valuable information.”

“Information which is clearly common to the both of you because both of you were targeted….. I don’t think this person wants to kill you Y/n. When I went to your house and your office, there were things scattered everywhere like someone was looking through them for something. If their intention was to kill you or hurt you, they wouldn’t have left behind such traces because you will get alert. And going by the conversation you heard, it seems like killing you was the last option, perhaps if you didn’t cooperate.”

You nod as he continues because what he is saying does make sense.

“So I’m guessing the common point here is, information. That too the information you have gathered about Mr. Wook. I think someone didn’t want you or anybody else to find out about it and was hence trying to retrieve any information you have stored or shared about him.”

“That makes sense Jungkook but how would someone know if I was trying to access any information about Mr. Wook? I mean no one but Hoseok and I knew about it and we were careful because he is one of the highly confidential employees. ”

“Don’t you think that’s odd? There is so much evidence about a highly confidential employee’s illegal activities in your company’s systems?”

“Do you think someone employed him knowing about it?” You try to think like Jungkook.

“Could be. That’s possible. He might just be a pawn” Jungkook muses suspiciously. “Can anyone get any sort of mail or signal when you try to access the information of such employees?”

You shake your head. “Only the members of the board get a detailed report of whatever happens in the company’s network. If Hoseok or I didn’t tell anyone, the only possible people who can know are the board members. That too if they check it, which they don’t most of the time because they have better things to do.”

“But the fact that someone tried to break in shows that someone did monitor the network and that this someone doesn’t want you or anyone else to find out about Mr. Wook. And whoever this is is definitely a board member because according to what you are saying only they can see such activity.”

“And this person may also be Mr.Wook’s accomplice or the one who brought him into the company in the first place.” You cover your mouth in realization. “There is a bigger player who is a cheat and he is among the Board members. Jungkook, my father?! I need to tell him everything. He needs to know there are traitors in the company!” You panic worrying about him when Jungkook holds your hand firmly.

“The people who you are dealing with are probably very dangerous Y/n. If they can storm into your office and break in in broad daylight, they can also trace calls you make to your father because they know he is the first person you will call to tell everything. Your hideout will be revealed in an instant.”

“What do I do now Jungkook?” You feel like you are going to slip into an abyss. “I’m suddenly too afraid of everything.”

“Just try to stay away from anything and everything dangerous for a few days. I will take you back to your father once everything settles a little.”

“But I’ve put you in danger too haven’t I?” You panic moving a little away from him. “What if I am discovered here? They need me alive for information but you?….” You shake your head at the thought of what might happen to him, tears somehow brimming in your eyes, overwhelmed by everything. “I don’t like the idea of people getting hurt because of me Jungkook. I can’t stay here.”

You begin to raise yourself in the water to leave but Jungkook stands in front of you, trapping you between him, his arms on either side of you and the wall behind.

“Do you expect me to let you go when I know you will get hurt out there?”

The sudden close proximity, the pitch darkness only allowing you to see little of each other, the silence of the night, they all leave you speechless.

“Stay Y/n.” He moves a little closer. “I don’t think I can bear losing you again.”

You don’t know what that means. Maybe being tensed about you the last few hours has really affected him, but it feels as though the mere thought of being away from you pains him.

He holds your hips and pulls you towards him through the water. It is just deep enough that his feet touches the ground, but yours didn’t quite as you clench your hands on his shoulders to keep yourself upright and he draws your legs around his waist. You stare down at him, heat coiling in your stomach, and he rises up to kiss you just as you lean in, your lips crashing together with a force that sends a shock of pleasure-pain through you. His hands slide up your skin; you tangle you fingers in the wet curls at the nape of his neck. He parts your lips, strokes inside with his tongue. You are both shuddering and gasping, your breath mingling with his.

He reaches behind you with one hand to steady the two of you against the wall of the pool, but it was slick with water and he half-slips; you break away from kissing him as he finds his footing, his left arm still wrapped tightly against you, pressing your body to his. His pupils are too wide and his heart hammering against yours.

“That was,” he gasps, and presses his face to the juncture of your neck and shoulder and breathes as if he is breathing you in; he is shaking a little, although his grip on you is steady and firm. “That was—unexpected.”

“It was,” you murmur, touching his hair gently, as he presses a kiss to your throat, and he tips his head back to look up at you. For a moment he just looks at you in astonishment, his lips parted slightly; You feel your cheeks flush. He is looking at you like you were the first star that had ever come out in the sky, a miracle painted across the face of the world that he could barely believe in. “I want—” he says, and the breaks off, groaning. “I need to kiss you gain.”

Instead of nodding, you lean down to press your lips to his. It is a hard, hot, driving kiss, a nip at your lower lip and the clash of tongues and teeth, both of you pressing as hard as you could to get close, closer. His arms wrap you completely, and suddenly he is lifting you up on the wall behind you with his hands under your knees and pushes you back as he raises himself up placing both hands on either sides of you, water pouring off him in streams.

You slide yourself back feeling the pile of clothes behind you as he hovers before you, situated on his knees. You want to stop the world and take all the time to look at him, but you cannot because you want him so much. Lying back you pull him down on top of you, kissing him fiercely until he groans and whispers, “Y/n, I can’t—you have to tell me—I can’t think—”

He draws back leaving just enough distance between the two of your faces to see each other. He is flushed, his eyes black with desire, his hair, beginning to curl as it dried, hanging into his eyes. You tug lightly at the strands wound between your fingers. “It’s okay,” you whisper back. “It’s okay. I want to.” you kiss him, slow and hard. “I want to, if you do.”

“If I want to?” There is a wild edge to his soft laugh. “Can’t you tell?” And then he is kissing you again, sucking your lower lip into his mouth, kissing your throat and mouthing your collarbone as you run your hands all over him as if you are drawing him, your hands mapping his body. As if, like a painting, he is coming to life under your hands.

When his hands slide underneath your bra, you gasp at the sensation, then nod at him when he freezes, his eyes questioning. Go on. He stops at each moment, stops before removing each piece of clothing from either of you, asking you with eyes and words if he should keep going, and each time you nod and say, Yes, go on, yes. And when finally there is nothing between you but skin, you hands still, thinking that there is no way to ever be closer to another person than this, that to take another step would be like cracking open your chest and exposing your heart.

You feel Jungkook’s muscles flex as his weight shifts and suddenly everything seems very real; you feel a sudden flash of nerves: This is really happening. You still and he notices. Raising himself with his elbows on either side of you, keeping his weight off your body, all of him is tense and shaking. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m not on a pill….”

Jungkook reaches for the wallet in his pant that is in the discarded pile behind you and you hear the crackle of foil. Anticipating, you meet his irises which are luminescent rims of gold and you see them soften as he begins to pull back, his fingers slightly grazing your skin, the sensation making you shiver.

“We don’t have to Y/n. If you want to take it slow-”

“No,” you whisper, and pull him down again. “Kiss me,” you plead, and he does, hot languorous slow kisses that speed up as his heartbeat did, as the movement of your bodies quicken against each other. Each kiss is different, each rising higher and higher like a spark as a fire grew: quick soft kisses, long slow worshipful kisses, playful light kisses, adoring kisses. You abandon yourself to the kisses, the language of them, the wordless speech that passes between the two of you. His hands are shaking, but they are quick and skilled on your body, light touches maddening you until you push and pull at him, urging him on with the mute appeal of fingers and lips and hands.

And even at the final moment, when you do flinch, you press him to go on, wrapping yourself around him, not letting him go. You keep your eyes wide open as he shudders apart, his face against your neck, saying your name over and over, and when finally you close your eyes, the stars are aligned and shining in a strange way, telling you something you will later wish that you had understood that night.

When you wake up the following morning you are in a bed neatly tucked under comforters, dressed in a black shirt and your panties. There is a sore feeling between your legs but you smile remembering how your hands and lips traced each other last night and the desperate moans and groans that were drawn against each other skin. But the smile falters as soon as the realization dawns and you pull the sheets closer to you with mixed feelings about last night. You just slept with Jungkook. Jeon Jungkook. A man you met only three days ago. You only met Jungkook three days ago, and things had escalated to this already. Which was completely fine if yesterday’s act was purely physical and lust driven. But it wasn’t.

There was something more. You could feel that there was something more between the two of you. Considering again that it had only been three days it was definitely not love, it was too soon to fall for someone. But the way he was with you, the way he handled your body, he seemed like he was really familiar with it, knowing exactly where to touch you to drive you mad. Or he just was really eager and experienced with women in general which did not come across as a shock to you considering the way last night happened. Whatever it was, as far as you could remember it was one of your best nights.

Jungkook walks into the room, shirtless, with a coffee in his hand as he places it next to you on the bed-side table, smiling.

“Morning.” He tilts your chin up with a hand under it and leans down to place a brief kiss. You suddenly wish he was wearing a shirt so you could grab him by the material under the sheets with you.

“How am I inside?” You assume it’s his room because it looks like a typical guys landing. Football merchandise everywhere, cables and video games controllers lying around, socks and shirts all over the place.

“I carried you in. Taehyung came home at about 5 today morning. I had to hear an earful from him about forgetting the keys especially when I was bringing a girl home.” He chuckles.

“Ohh my god.” You flush. “He didn’t see me…?”

“I had you dressed before he came home don’t worry.” He kicks aside a pair of shoes, pulling a bean bag from the corner of the room to the edge of the bed and sits down.

“Why didn’t you dress me in my clothes?” You drink the coffee instantly liking it’s taste.

“Because I like seeing you in these.” he cocks his head, running his eyes over your figure. “ It makes me feel like you belong to me.”

You raise your eyebrow. “Do I?”

“If you want to.” He shrugs like whether you say yes or no it won’t matter to him but his eyes are telling otherwise. He wants you.

You slowly nod your head and decide to play with him for a bit. “I’ll consider the offer.”

He grins but he’s more relaxed now.

“Where are my clothes?” You push the sheets off as you finish your coffee and Jungkook gets up and walks to the cupboard, taking a set of clothes out.

“These are Taehyung’s ex girlfriends. She left them here. I forgot you didn’t have an extra set and threw yours for washing.” He looks adorably apologetic biting his lip. “I’ll get you new ones later today.”

You shake your head exasperatedly and ask him to get out so you can bathe and change.

“What, it’s nothing I haven’t seen?” He smirks as you turn red.

“Get out Jungkook, it’s too bright here.” you mumble, still a little shy.

He turns around, silently obeying but you cannot ignore the flash of a hurtful memory in his eyes. You had brought back an unwanted souvenir of something again.

When you get out of the shower, and dress in the clothes Jungkook gave you, you feel strange. It’s a crop top and jeans. As far as you remember you have never worn or even owned something like this. It had always been formals or semi formals. Yet it feels so strangely comfortable to be wearing something so foreign to you. You pull your hair up into a bun casually and take one last look at yourself before leaving.

You can hear laughter of two boys in the kitchen, one you were familiar with and one you weren’t. You walk in slowly past sleeping Bruno to see Jungkook sitting on the kitchen platform as a tall, blonde haired man was busy making what looked like eggs, on the stove next to him. Jungkook slides off the surface when he sees you and kisses you deep, pulling you closer. As he pulls back, you see his friend watch the two of you a little more than keenly and turn his back to face you, laughing softly. Jungkook whispers in your ear, leaning in. “So he knows you have me under consideration and that he is not allowed to get any ideas.”

You laugh silently as you sit down at the small table across them.

“Y/n right?” The blonde turns to you, smiling warmly. “Jungkook’s told me a lot about you. I’m Taehyung.”

‘‘Hi.” You smile at him. the man in front of you is a bit taller than Jungkook, much leaner and extremely good looking. Like an impish faerie of some kind. Jungkook narrows his eyes at your shameless observation at which you shrug.

“I’m making breakfast, would you like some?”

“Yeah I’m kind of starving. But I can make it myself, you need not take the trouble.”

Taehyung looks at Jungkook then you with a raised eyebrow. “You can cook?”

You blush and press your lips tightly together shaking your head. Of course not. You remember hardly entering the kitchen of your house more than twice. You’ve never had the need to cook or even the feeling of being hungry. Everything here is so new to you.

Jungkook and Taehyung chuckle. “I thought so. But that’s okay. I enjoy making it. How would you like your eggs?” Taehyung turns to face the stove again.

“Thoroughly whipped.” Jungkook smirks as you widen your eyes at him.

“Is that experience speaking?” Taehyung’s voice is amused.

“Maybe. I may have-”

“Scrambled!” You cut through him staring at Jungkook pointedly. “I’d like them scrambled.”

“As you wish.” But he’s laughing and both men bump their fists against each other.

You take a deep breath ignoring them. “Taehyung, I was meaning to ask you if Jungkook told you about me needing a place to stay.”

Taehyung turns to you and nods. “He did, don’t worry. You can stay for as long as you want. A feminine presence is what this house is missing anyways.”

“I don’t want to be a burden of any sort. I mean I wish I can help around the house and stuff but I really don’t know how to…..”

“I figured.” Taehyung smiles. “I’m not expecting you to be a Snow White for us dwarfs here. Just be careful while you are here, that’s enough. As long as you don’t put yourself and us in danger, I don’t see what the problem could possibly be.” He places two toasts and a scrambled egg before you.

“Exactly. I don’t know if I can promise ‘no danger’. You don’t know how the situation is. It screams danger.”

“But you can avoid that danger.” Taehyung crosses his arms. “Don’t try to contact anyone. Don’t get out of the house often. Don’t use your phone. I have an old phone for you to use in which I shall install a new SIM. But I will expect you to use it as less as possible. Mr.Wook and his men maybe be more dangerous than we estimate them to be.” You narrowed your eyes at his words. Mr. Wook?

“Just a second, I’ll be back.” You nod as he leaves and eat hungrily, talking to Jungkook between your bites.

“What does Taehyung work as?”

“An engineer. Electrical engineer to be exact. His office is in the same locality as yours.”

You grow silent. Is this a coincidence?

Taehyung returns with a couple of things in his hand - a phone and a pair of keys.

“Here this is for you. Jungkook and my numbers are saved in it in case you want to contact us. And this is a spare key to the house.”

“Thanks.” You take it into your hands feeling the cool metal. “It’s not a good idea to call home and tell them I’m alright is it?”

Taehyung nods his head. “Jungkook and I were talking about it. Since neither you nor we know about the people who attacked you, we might be underestimating them or even overestimating them. But to be as cautious as possible we can assume that they are tracking the calls you make to the people you contact most often like your father, his brother, Cho, all of them. Let’s give it two days time. Jungkook and I will keep a lookout for anything suspicious. If we find that it’s all clear you may do as you wish.”

You agree as Taehyung turns his back to you, pushing up his sleeves to do the dishes. Then suddenly he rolls them back down. “Isn’t it your turn to wash Jungkook?”

“No~” Jungkook is stuffing cereal in his mouth to avoid his friend’s eye. Taehyung tackles him over and both boys begin to bicker, tickling each other as you laugh, amused at their childishness forgetting all that you had to be worried about.

Living with these boys was maybe going to be much more fun that you had thought.

Living with the boys was absolutely not fun.

It had been only two days and you were bored to the core already. They were hardly at home, especially Taehyung. But that was understandable considering he had a job but Jungkook? You didn’t know what an unemployed man did for so many hours outside the house. When he was home though he spent every minute with you. You would sit together with him for hours talking or playing some video game or just tangled in the sheets. In hardly two days you had gotten so used to his presence that you felt a strange kind of emptiness when he was not around.

Today, the third day of your staying here, you got up at nearly 11 in the morning. After finishing your daily activities you had breakfast, watched a tv show, swam around in the pool, played with Bruno, even cleaned the house for the first time in your life because you were so bored and the time was only 3. It’s funny. Time runs fast when you don’t want it to and doesn’t move when you need it to.

The front lock makes a creaking noise and you sit up immediately, raising your defenses. Jungkook opens the door with Taehyung behind him and they have dozens of bags in their hands. You relax at the sight of them and walk up to help them with their haul.

“Looks like you guys shopped.”

“Mhmm.” Jungkook plants a kiss on your cheek as Taehyung looks away. “And I got you some clothes as well. Something more of your style.’“

“Really?” he laughs as your eyes light up in excitement and you quickly rummage through the boxes.

“That’s for tonight.” Taehyung points out a neat looking expensive package. “It’s a surprise.”

You look at Jungkook who smiles, urging you to open it and see a pretty red knee length dress waiting for you under the covers.

“Wow.” You whisper feeling the exquisite material beneath your fingers. “Why so suddenly?”

“We figured you were getting bored at home so we thought we shall take you out tonight.”

“That’s….that’s nice.” You swallow nothing.

Saturday night would be a good night to go out. But given the current situation you were in you didn’t know if you would enjoy yourself especially when your family had no idea about your condition and whereabouts. When your father had no idea of the situation he was possibly in. Nevertheless you force a smile. It is sweet of the boys to think about you.

“I know what you are thinking. And I know you are worried. That’s why I am taking you out. Not to party or for a fancy dinner like all men want to take their dates” Jungkook smiles titling his head. “I’m taking you out to meet Cho.”

“What?” You could feel yourself getting light with happiness.

“I met her after her working hours today. Told her you were fine and that we would meet her tonight.”

“For real?” You still can’t believe it.

Jungkook laughs nodding and you throw yourself at him, hugging him tight. “Thank you thank you thank you! I thought it would be days before I see her.”

Taehyung is pulling out his own clothes from the boxes. “Kookie is more worried about you than you give him credit for.” You smile at the man who has his arms around you and kiss him softly.

“Where are we going tonight?” You look at both men. “It can’t be a public place for sure, I’d be an easy target.”

“Exactly. That’s why we ruled out the club, restaurant and mall. We were thinking maybe a movie? The place would be dark so you are less likely to be seen, there isn’t opportunity for commotion as such.”

“Yeah.” You agree to Jungkook’s words. ““Movie seems fine.”

“It’s my only night free to enjoy too so come on now, don’t bore me with those stupid meaningless action films.” Taehyung crosses his arms looking displeased.

“Do you have a better idea?” Jungkook frowns.

“Drama?” Taehyung suggests immediately. “We can watch a play. The new one in town I heard, is pretty good.”

“The one you suggested earlier this week?” You turn to Jungkook questioning him.

“Yeah I’ve heard it’s good too. You wanna go? I don’t mind.”

“Me neither.” You shrug. Meeting Cho is the priority here. You didn’t care when and how and where that happened. If you could pass on the message to your father through her it then a load would be lifted from your chest.

“Then it’s decided. The play it is.” Taehyung stands up and takes his things to his room. As you and Jungkook retreat to his room you can’t help but notice that Taehyung is little too excited about this.

3 hours later 2 of you are dressed perfectly well for the occasion and waiting outside one of the city’s biggest theaters amidst the light snowfall. You are wrapped with a huge comfortable overcoat and by Jungkook’s protective arms as you stand burying your face in the crook of his neck. It helps you not only feel warm but to hide as well. You, after all, should be seen as less as possible. Yet from time to time you raise your head to rest your chin on his shoulder and fascinatedly look over it at the well dressed crowd pouring in and out of the grand entrance.

“Are you too warm?” Jungkook whispers in your ear and nodding you pull him even closer. “Yeah, but I like it.”

You can feel him smile against your hair as he tightens his grip around you slowly swaying together to the rhythm of the street music.

“What’s the play about?” You look at the poster that’s hanging high up on the outer wall of the theater. It has two intertwined figures in the snow much like how you and Jungkook were standing.

“Something about revenge for love.” Jungkook’s voice was uncertain. “Though I’m not sure. We shall find out in a while I guess.”

You agree. Jungkook is playing with the strands of your hair twirling it between his fingers, growing bored. Of course he is bored, the two of you had been waiting for far too long. You train your eyes to focus on the street. “Cho should be here by now. Taehyung called to inform that he reached her house over half an hour ago.”

“They are probably on the way. They should be here any moment.”

“How again are they going to recognize each other?”

“They met today in the afternoon when I went to see her.”

“How did you recognize her by the way?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?” Jungkook is smiling. Of course he knew her. He knows everything.

“Right. Dumb question. But how did she recognize you?”

“She didn’t. She thought I was there to kidnap her or something. Took a while to get her to believe me.

”You laugh imagining the kind of scene Cho must’ve created. Even though the last few days with Jungkook had been nice and you enjoyed them, you really did miss her. The fact that Jungkook was sweet enough to reach out to her for you makes you appreciate him more and more than you think you can.

You feel a vibration against your thigh and Jungkook pulls you back a little to take the phone from his pocket. “Hello…..Alright…..Yeah got it. We’re coming.”

You look at him curiously as he answers. “They are here but at another entrance. We shall meet them inside.”

He zips your coat all the way up till its half covering your face and takes your hand, leading you in, diving into the crowd. 10 minutes of pushing through the crowd and desperate searching later, you feel a tap on the shoulder and a female figure crush you tightly in her embrace.

“Y/n! I’ve been so worried! Where have you been?! I went to the police station at least five times in the last two days, your dad is worried sick, your uncle is going mad looking for you, he nearly tore down my whole house thinking I was hiding you or something! What happened? Are you okay? Did Jungkook try any funny business with you?-”

“Hey!”

“-I’ll punch him in the balls if he has-”

“Cho Cho Cho relax!” You signal your friend to calm down. “I’m fine. Everything is fine. And I owe it all to these two men here alright? Jungkook has helped me a lot.” Jungkook looks at your best friend pointedly. “And I’ll tell you everything that happened don’t worry.”

“Ladies, we should move in first, we are obstructing the crowd.” Taehyung gestures with his hand, ushering you to move in.

The four of you shuffle in the crowd to find your seats and take them. The lights dim as you begin explaining everything to Cho. The first thing you think of is that watching this play was such a horrible idea. Your objective of meeting Cho today was to talk to her and that was hardly possible in a place everyone is required to keep quiet. You signal her to wait till the play was over and decide to concentrate on the drama instead.

The play isn’t that boring, the choice is pretty good. It’s got everything. Romance, tragedy, comedy and even a little bit of horror. You quickly grip Jungkook’s hand when the stage was filled with people dressed in black jackets and white masks, looming over the characters. They were symbolic of retribution or something Jungkook whispered but you were only thinking about the way he took your hand and held it for the rest of the play after that moment.

When the story ends you are simply sitting clutching your heart. The worst kind of tragedies are the ones that happen for no damn reason. This was one of them. Jungkook hands you a kerchief but you don’t find any tears in your eyes. It was like you had been through pain much worse than that you had seen.

“How about you go to the washroom?” Taehyung suggests as soon as you begin walking out along with the crowd. “You’ll be less seen and less vulnerable that way and you’ll also get time to talk.”

You and Cho nod as she leads you away down the stairs, five floors down to the washroom on the first floor and locks the door behind you. Leaning against the sink you take a deep breath and begin narrating everything. Everything you saw, everything you heard, What Jungkook told you, what you thought about it.

“You are telling me you trusted that Jungkook over me?” Cho looks exasperated. “Why didn’t you come to me Y/n?”

“Because practically the whole world knows what good friends we are. I have only ever hang out with you Cho. Don’t you get it? What if these people found me? You would have been in danger as well!”

“Ha! I’m glad you were willing to out Jungkook in danger instead of me then.”

You sigh. “Why do you hate him so much? He’s not bad-”

“I don’t know Y/n. I just don’t get the right vibes from him.”

“I don’t get the right vibes from Taehyung.” You mutter under your breath.

“What? But he’s so sweet!” Your best friend looks so dreamy eyed it makes you want to puke.

“I first doubted him when he mentioned Mr. Wooks name. I’m still wondering as to how he knows? I never mentioned it even once. Moreover he’s an electrical engineer. Mr. Wook’s accident happened due to electricity remember? He works near my office as well. So close to me. He stays in a house that is too big for the salary of an engineer. He feeds a unemployed man moreover. He definitely is getting money from elsewhere. And the way he looks at me and Jungkook….It just doesn’t feel right.”

“When you are in situations like this everything seems suspicious Y/n, you’re thinking about it too much. You happen to forget that this very man let you stay in his house, didn’t attack you while you were with him and helped me talk to you today-”

“Actually Jungkook did that-”

“Taehyung doesn’t not seem to be shady at all Y/n. If anyone should be suspected it’s Jungkook. I don’t believe a man as intelligent as you claim he is would ever get caught and arrested for something as simple as robbing food. He’s-”

“But he did! Hoseok checked it for me. His name is in the prison records.”

“Exactly why I’m getting even more annoyed. He removes every doubt and suspicion on him so easily and so perfectly. It seems too well planned.”

“Don’t you think you are overthinking this? Jungkook has helped me time and again Cho. And I trust him. And I like him too. In fact….” You remember the last few days in his house and how you felt with him around.

“Don’t tell me you are in love with him.” Cho’s voice is threatening.

“Can someone possibly fall in love in a week? I really don’t know. But what I feel with him is different. Very different. It’s like a ‘meant-to-be’ kind of feeling.”

“Can you even hear yourself? You are Y/n, daughter of a billionaire, CEO of a company, heir to uncountable estates, you have men lining up for you and you are losing your mind over him?”

“Matters of the heart are unpredictable I guess.” You shrug as Cho literally throws her hands in the air.

“Un-fucking-believable.” You roll your eyes at her. “You will regret this one day Y/n. I can feel you will-”

A scream.

A loud scream rings through the walls and the two of you straighten, eyes snapping wide. Gathering your things hurriedly, you quickly open the door and see the crowd running here and there in panic. What had happened? Jungkook, where was he? Without thinking twice you make your way through the crowd looking for him as Cho pushes through behind you begging you to wait. You don’t listen to her. You are just running.

When you reach the center of the hall, in front of you there is a silently muttering crowd circling a something. Cho catches up to you and looks equally curious. You push through, apologizing but not hesitating as you make your way to the front to see what was going on. But when your eyes fall on the sight before you, there’s a hundred different things going on in your body. Your breathing hitches. You feel nausea rising at the back of your throat. Your knees feel weak. You head is spinning and your hands are shaking a little.

A body. Someone’s body lying a pool of dark crimson. The person is dressed in a suit that looks eerily familiar. You can’t see the face but it seems to be a young man. For some reason your first thought is Jungkook. Your attackers, they didn’t do this to Jungkook did they?

Leaving the house was a mistake. You shouldn’t have come out. You should never have agreed to.

Someone in the crowd moves forward to turn over the person and reveal his face. You don’t want to see. The foreboding feeling making the hair on your skin stand is warning you not to see.

The sound of sirens fills the silent air and then you can hear footstep as the police force gathers around the place. An officer ushers the crowd to stay away and move back while another one approaches the man who seems to be dead by now and turns him over.

The ground slips from beneath your feet as you fall to your knees in shock. Your hands have found their place over your mouth which as a chilling, soundless scream leaves you when recognize the face dripping with blood. A person you last expected to see.

Your uncle.

And in his hand is a small fluttering paper which reads a number.

You move Jungkook’s hand which is wrapped around you slowly so as to not wake him up. He lets out a breath against the nape of your neck and shifts a little but he’s still sleeping. Swinging your legs off the bed you get up and walk to the window, feeling the moonlight caress your skin. The wind for others probably feels cool and pleasant. For you it is chilly. The night is silent. Deadly silent. And the silence that was once comforting is now terrifying. It scares you more than anything.

“Y/n?” You turn to see Jungkook rubbing his eyes groggily, waking up. Despite yourself and what happened in the last one week you smile. “I’m here.”

You lean against the cold metal of the window behind you, looking at him. Jungkook pushes the covers off himself and gets out of the bed, walking towards you. He’s shirtless like always, hair messed up, eyes still not fully opened, the dark circles around them evident. Suddenly a feeling of guilt washes over you. He had been losing so much sleep because of you the past few days. Either because you are always screaming due to haunted memories or he cannot feel your warmth next to him. The first few days when he got up you could see panic in his eyes, as though the idea of losing you was unbearable. But now he knows you are around here somewhere. It’s enough for him if you are around. And it’s enough for you if he’s around. Somehow, no matter which situation you find yourself in, Jungkook is always around.

You watch as your uncle’s body is concealed completely under a white cloth and lead away by the medical officers who confirmed he was dead. You hadn’t moved the whole time. Not when the police came, not when the body was examined, not when the forensic investigators arrived. Never. Not once did you move. Breathing was a compulsion. An act that was required to stay alive. If being alive was not necessary to catch the person behind all this, you doubt you would have even taken a breath.

“I’m looking for eyewitnesses.” The officer’s voice rings in the closed walls of the theater. “This act has happened in such a packed public place, are you telling me no one saw anything?” You can hear the desperation in his voice. If a man who was not even close to being related to your uncle was feeling this way, how would you be feeling? “If anyone saw something, even a small suspicious thing please come forward. We shall-”

The crowd gasps and breaks into a sudden frenzy of whispers.

It is only then you allow yourself to move. You raise your eyes which had been frozen watching a single tile in the center of the room and look up to see far away in the crowd a hand raised. A witness.

“Who is that?’ The officer demands, gesturing with his hand for the person to come forward. “Everyone move, make way!”

And as the crowd parts, you see the owner of the raised hand and this time you definitely forgot to breath.

It’s Jungkook.

Jungkook stands next to you looking of the window, taking a deep breath. “You are going to catch a cold if you stand here.”

“The only thing I’m looking forward to catch right now is the one because of whom my life is this messed up.”

The bitterness in your voice causes him to stiffen. Or maybe the fact that this days every time you open your mouth you only had this to talk about made him react like that.

“Sorry.” You mutter.

Jungkook shakes his head taking your face in both his hands. “I get how you are feeling love. I know….But everyone is trying their best. Your father, the police. Everyone is trying. We’ll find this person whoever it is. You meanwhile need to sleep Y/n. This insomnia is going to ruin your health”

He raises you head a little, his soft eyes comforting you. “Do you want me to put you to sleep?”

Its such a sweet proposition, it melts your heart. You turn your head slightly to kiss the palm that’s resting on your cheek. “Thank you for always being there.”

Jungkook wraps you in his embrace, his arms around your shoulders tracing the soft lines of your shoulder blades, and yours are around his waist, your fingers fiddling with the material of his pant.

“Always.” He says, like he does every single time.

And you smile at the whisper like you do every single time.

You are standing by the grave dressed in black.

People around you are colored in the same darkness, standing under the umbrellas in the tears of the sky. Water is dripping excruciatingly slowly from the edge of the cloth above you, people are leaving flowers, saying a few words and walking away. As morning turns to afternoon to evening and the sky darkens, everyone comes and everyone leaves. Everyone except Jungkook who was holding the umbrella under which you were, standing behind you with your hand in his. He hasn’t said a word till now because he knows there is nothing you can listen to comfort your soul. He knows its too shattered to be healed. Nevertheless he stands and its enough. Him just being there is enough.

You hear the sound of a car pull up. Then the sound of mud being squashed by shoes. Then the noise of water hitting another umbrella.

“The officer.” Jungkook whispers.

You nod and turn to see the blue uniformed man with an umbrella in one hand and a rolled paper in the other, standing at a little distance away from you. The two of you walk up to him and then all three of you together make way to the sheltered area a few feet away.

“The sketch is here.” The officer holds out the paper in his hand for you. “We haven’t started the investigation on it yet as we need to complete some formalities. We shall soon run identity checks and about gather information him.”

You nod again, taking the scroll into your hands. The scroll that contains the face of the man who had killed your uncle. The man whom you should despise so much right now. You didn’t know if you could bear to look at his face.

“I understand your whole family feels threatened Y/n. So I thought you and your father would want to take a look at it first. Consider this a favor beyond my legal limitations.” You nod as usual.

He turns to Jungkook who closes the umbrella, shaking the excess water “Mr. Jeon, please take a look at it one last time and assure us that this is the killer. This is the man you saw pushing the victim off the fifth floor that night?”

Jungkook looks at you and you can see his throat move as he swallows nothing. He is tensed. For you, for how things will be now, for what you seeing this mans face finally means. He takes the scroll from your hand and rolls it open slowly.

You’ve never seen the man.

He has sharp features - His bone structure was symmetrical, cheek bones high and prominent. Nose sculpted perfectly. Hair tossed to the side as though by the wind. - A sickeningly beautiful face. But most importantly he had soft eyes. Eyes so soft it seems so unbelievable that he would kill someone. While you should have felt insane rage looking at the face of the man who killed your uncle, you don’t. Rather it’s an empty feeling. A very empty feeling.

“It’s him.” Jungkook confirms. “I’m positive.”

“Alright. Thank you Mr. Jeon. Your cooperation is deeply appreciated by the police department.” They exchange bows as you continue to stare at the portrait. Who is this man? And why was he after your family? Why had he killed your uncle? Why does he want to kill your father?

“Y/n, you may take it to your father.” The officer grabs your attention. “I would have personally given it to him but I think as the investigation officer, it’s better I don’t be seen around him. Its legally safer that way.”

You don’t want to. At a situation like this you were perhaps the only child in the world who didn’t want to see her parent. Rather couldn’t bear to see him.

Your father didn’t come even once to see your uncle. The brother he loved so much. The news articles and media said it was because he was fearing for his own life. That he might be attacked next. But your father isn’t a coward. He would never hide out of fear, especially if it meant not seeing your uncle one last time. That meant there was only reason he never came.

Because of you. Because you were always around. Because like you, he too blamed you for what happened. Because if you had told him about the attack on you earlier, if you had told him about Mr. Wook, your uncle would have never been No.2.

“You don’t seem to want to go.” Jungkook speaks as soon as the officer leaves. He knows you well.

“I think I’ve hurt him more than my uncles death has.”Jungkook is silent. He understands. “Can you go give it? I don’t think I can face him Jungkook. Just hand it over to him in his office will you? That way you can meet him too and he’ll also know you are the witness.”

You are waiting for an answer but Jungkook is taking too long. You expected him to immediately agree. Considering how he has been the past few days you expected him to help you like always.

But he shakes his head.

“I would have gone if your fear isn’t the one sending me there.” He places his hands on your shoulders softly. “You will have to face him some time or the other Y/n. The more you delay it the more distance you are creating and the harder it is going to be for you to later cover. There is nothing to blame yourself for Y/n. I’m sure he doesn’t either.”

“He hasn’t spoken to me even once. Not a single word Jungkook. He didn’t even look at me.”

“Grief often doesn’t allow people to be in their right minds. Just go Y/n. You’re his daughter. And now he only has you.”

He’s right. You should go. You should see your father. For his sake at least if not for yours. You look at Jungkook and the assurance written all over his face.

It’s a common misconception that those who do not face any sorrows in their life are very lucky. Wrong. It’s a misconception for a reason. Because being in pain is unavoidable. At some point in their life, everyone goes through something that shatters them, something that brutally destroys the inner them, something that kills them on the inside. No one is lucky enough to not be hurt.

Lucky people are those who have someone to stand by them throughout the struggle, someone to guide them. Someone to lean on, someone who willingly becomes their pillar of support. You got more than what you asked from Jungkook.

“Thank you.” Wrapping your arms around his neck, you feel every cell of your body expressing its gratitude to him for not letting you break. “Thank you for always being there.”

“Always.”

And you smile.

Jungkook tucks you under the sheets, lying down next to you. The two of you face each but with the moonlight falling on your face, you cannot see his. It’s merging in the shadows, the beauty of it lost somewhere in the darkness.

“What are you thinking?”

So many things. So many things that you don’t have an answer to his question. So many things that were making less and less sense as each day went by. So many things you should tell Jungkook but you were hiding. Because the plot was getting thicker with every passing minute. Things were not adding up, nothing was making sense. Especially the news that you got to know when you sat for your interrogation. When you mentioned that you saw a paper in your uncle’s hand with the number 2.

It was only then that you found out that Mr. Wook was No.1.

That he had a strikingly similar paper stuffed in his hand when he was found dead. Square, white and a strong smell of lavender.

But what you fail to understand is how the two deaths are connected. What did your uncle and Mr. Wook have in common? They hardly ever interacted. It was purely business between them. And what did these deaths have to do with the attack on you and Hoseok? These were definitely related, Jungkook was right. It could not be a coincidence. And your father? What role did he play in all of this? What you found out that day when you went to his office, how did that fit into this puzzle?

“Hoseok!” You hurry towards him before he enters your fathers cabin.

“Y/n?” He seems relieved, giving you a quick hug. “Are you alright? I’m so sorry about everything that’s….” He trails away. There’s too much going on now to say anything.

“I’m fine. It’s alright. I….I need a favor.”

‘Sure. Anything.”

You hand him the scroll in your hand. “This is the sketch made on the basis of the witness description of the killer. I need you to give this to my father.”

“Are you not coming in?”

You shake your head. You had planned to. You really did want to see your father. But somehow you lost all the confidence and determination you walked in here with. You didn’t think you could do it.

“Don’t tell him I’m here. Just say the officer gave it or something…”

“But why? You’re…you aren’t feeling guilty are you? Don’t blame yourself Y/n There was no way you could foresee this.”

“I know. Everyone has been telling me that. But I’m not ready. Not yet. Just help me this once Hoseok.”

He pats your head like the concerned support he has always been. “Take care.” and leaves with the scroll.

You turn to leave but your feet aren’t taking a step forward. You were so close to your father but leaving without so much as a look at him. You didn’t know how he was and where he ate on time or not, whether he took his medicines. You didn’t know anything. But you ought to know. Whether he would detest you for it or not, you had to know.

Taking a deep a breath you make up your mind. Slightly opening the door of the cabin you peak in to see Hoseok walking up to the man who is beyond exhausted. He looks so tired. Like he hadn’t slept days together. Sitting slouched in the couch he is cleaning his glasses and you wonder if there is a man more pitiable than him in the world considering all he was forced to go through. This was all your fault.

The moment Hoseok reaches him and hands the scroll telling him something you cannot hear, your father sits up straight in an instant, eyes turning redder. Immediately taking the scroll he fumbles with it in his urgency and rolls it open at an arms distance from him. You expect him to look mad. To feel all the anger somehow you failed to feel.

But he stands up in shock, shaking his head vehemently.

There is no fury. There is fear.

“It cannot be him. It cannot be. It cannot be.” He mutters walking around. Your father recognized him. That meant it was an enemy’s attack, not personal vengeance like you assumed it to be. So it did make sense that both Mr. Wook and your uncle were killed. It was because of business. But you were wrong. You only know that when your father’s scream of frustration jolts you to your senses.

“It cannot be him do you hear me! This man! He’s dead! He died 2 years ago!”

Your father slams his hand on the table, standing behind it. “And I killed him with my own hands!”

You feel your eyes widen.

“I killed Kim Namjoon with my own hands!”

You take a step backward despite your body growing numb. Just now you thought everything is making sense. But now it isn’t anymore. What was going on? What was going on?

You don’t know anymore. You simply run.

"I’m thinking about calling Cho.” You answer Jungkook, not so truthfully. “She’s been leaving me messages about coming over and staying with her. I ought to get back to her.”

“Do you want to leave?” There is disappointment in his voice but he’s trying not to show it.

“No.” You scoot closer to him, burying your face at the crook of his neck. “I don’t want to leave.”

“Hmm.” He strokes your hair softly, trying to lull you to sleep. It’s not working. But you pretend that it is as you shut your eyes. Not even a minute passes before Jungkook is fast asleep.

Like always, you are awake the whole night.

Morning coffee is an addiction you didn’t how you developed. Your body needs it to function, to think, to work. That’s why you stopped drinking it. To avoid and all thoughts that made their way into your head.

“Hoseok.” Jungkook hands you a phone as you drink the orange juice he was nice enough to make in the morning. The expression on his face is neutral. Like he’s not too pleased with a call. Jungkook has never been too pleased with Hoseok. If the situation was different you would have found it cute. Now you just take the phone and Jungkook leaves you alone.

“Hello?”

“Y/n. I have something to tell you.”

“Hmm.”

“Your father has called for a special officer from Busan. The man is going to be taking over the case now because he’s apparently your father’s old friend and he trusts him a lot. He has requested to meet you and talk.”

“When? and Where?”

“At the church on the hill. At 12. He’s currently interrogating Cho at her house. It seems she called you to let you know but you didn’t pick up.” You didn’t pick up anyone’s calls the past few days. You didn’t find much energy to talk. Or the interest. But your father was sending this man. And you were willing to do anything to cooperate.

“Send me a picture of him so I can recognize him. Let him know I’ll be on time.”

“I myself don’t know how he looks. He’ll be with Cho so don’t worry.”

“Thanks Hoseok.”

“Take care Y/n.” Then the line cuts. He doesn’t say more. No one says more these days. Because no amount is enough.

“I need to go to the church on the hill in the afternoon.” You walk into Jungkook’s bedroom and see him rummaging through a pile of clothes strewn everywhere on the floor. “What in the world are you doing?”

“I’m picking an outfit for my interview. Why a church?” He picks up a plain blue shirt and scans it. You walk in the mess and pick a white shirt. He shakes his head and stows it back in the cupboard.

“Simply. Cause I want some peace.” You don’t know why you are lying. Maybe because you want to protect him. Because things are getting out of hand. Because as usual, nothing makes sense.

“I’ll drop you when I leave. Don’t go alone.”

“I hope you get the job.” You sit down at the edge of the bed. “Your brain deserves it.”

He lets out a short laugh. “I hope I do too. Staying dependent on Taehyung for long is not an option for me anymore.”

“And you have me as a burden to look after moreover. I….I should just go back home Jungkook.”

Jungkook sits on his knees before you trying to look at your face which you didn’t raise. “Hey. I don’t think you are a burden Y/n. I don’t want you to go back home either. I’m trying for a job and when I get it, one day I’ll have a home of my own. The only place I’d love to see you go to if you get out of here is there.”

You smile because his eyes show that his proposition is so genuine. But you don’t know what to say. You don’t know how to reply to that. Given the current situation and the emotional turmoil you are going through, you cannot express how you feel about it. Jungkook understands it and gets up.

“Get ready soon. I’ll be waiting in the porch.”

He walks out leaving you alone in a sea of shirts. You fall back into the bed, your hair fanning around you, your heart beating erratically. Whether it was because of Jungkook or it was a warning of the next confusing thing you were going to discover today, you didn’t know.

It was time to find out.

You wave to Jungkook who drops you outside by the steps of the church in his motorcycle. He is wearing a suit again, black this time, ready for his interview. He kisses you to be careful but for some reason you feel like lingering around his lips for a minute. He pulls back, raising the accelerator as you wish him luck and send him away. He grows smaller and smaller and then disappears down the road.

You turn and walk up the stairs, legs still shaking a little from the motorcycle ride. You hate motorcycles. Absolutely detest them. Never once in your life did you remember getting on on one. But somehow today you willingly sat on it and came all the way here too. You didn’t flinch even a bit the whole time, didn’t feel uncomfortable, didn’t feel anything. Because you felt nothing these days.

Your phone lets out a notification tone and you see a message from the police officer who was previously in charge of the case. A video. To be more accurate the security cctv footage of the theater.

You watch it once. And then again and again and again. You don’t see the face of the man named Namjoon at all.

The phone rings, flashing the officers name.

“Hello?”

“Y/n have you seen the video yet?”

“Yeah but I can’t see my uncle or the killer…. ”

“There are many blind spots on the fifth floor Y/n. The act of pushing your uncle down was unfortunately not captured by any camera. It happened, very well planned, in a blind spot, leaving no evidence. But the other cameras show the people who were on the fifth floor when the incident happened and who used the exits as well. Everyone’s face is visible and we didn’t spot the man in the drawing. Our guess hence is that the killer is the one in the black jacket and white mask. The only person whose face could not be seen. We tried tracing him in the video but…..”

“But?”

“There are hundreds of people wearing the same thing Y/n. The exact same thing. Same jacket and mask combination. When we inquired they said it was because a drama that was being hosted there was selling this costume as its promotional merchandise. It seems to be the attire of some of their important characters. There is no way to say which of the people dressed alike is the killer. There is no way to track him.”

You grow silent. The officer seems to be missing something. Something very crucial. Another something that didn’t add up. But you didn’t.

“He’s quite smart Y/n. Definitely a good trick played to mess with the cctv footage. If we go around tracing the video of each person dressed like that, it could be months before we find the culprit. We can-”

You cut the call without replying to watch the video again. You can see the white masked man leaving the fifth floor, through the stairs but hundreds of people in the same attire are leaving through the exits on the other floor. There is no saying as to which floor he got off at and where he went from there. The officer was right. Even if they tracked each person in that attire, it would take too long. Maybe long enough for a No. 3 to happen.

But the officer didn’t seem to realize something. Something that you first only suspected but as you watched the footage again and again, now it is confirmed.

If the killer was wearing a mask, how in the world did Jungkook see his face?

Jungkook drives his bike down the hill slowly, thinking hard and fast. Why did you want to come here so suddenly? Something told him it was more than just to ‘feel peace’. You had been a little strange the past few days. Jungkook assumed it was because of everything that was going on and so your behavior was understandable. But today he wasn’t getting the same feeling. Something was about to go terribly wrong today.

Jungkook had hardly finished thinking that when he was forced to slam the brakes at the sight before him.

The police officer. That very police officer from Busan. He was standing right there by a parked car, smoking a cigarette like after all he had done he still had the right to enjoy his life. Jungkook could feel the fury rise in him. The mad desire. The desire to kill him.

The officer drops his cigarette on the ground and crushed it with the heel of his foot, turning to face Jungkook who had by now reached a couple of feet in front of him. The officer looks annoyed, raising his head, running his eyes from down to up at the person blocking his way but when he saw Jungkook’s face he panicked.

“You!” He pointed a shaking finger at Jungkook. Of course he recognized him. He was the only one who recognized him. “You here? you…..”

A look of realization dawns on his face as he takes a step back. “You are the one. I knew you were the one helping that girl. I knew it! I even told them but they didn’t listen.” He runs his shaking hands through his hair frustratedly, eyes darting here and there nervously. “And they are dying one by one. And now you’ll kill me too isn’t it?” His other hand moved behind him grabbing the gun stashed in the back pocket thinking Jungkook wasn’t watching. But Jungkook was watching. He was watching everything.

Even before the man had a chance to fully draw out the gun, Jungkook moved as quick as lightening, turning the tables over in a blink of an eye. He and the officer were standing exactly where they were.

But the gun was in Jungkook’s hand, and the aim was at it’s owner.

“It’s high time you paid for your sins don’t you think officer?”

“Who are you? What have I even done to you? Why are you doing this young man? Let me live.” He pleads. He pleads very pitifully. Jungkook almost wants to let him go. “I beg you! I beg you…..”

“Think of all the people who begged you this way officer. What did you do to them?” Jungkook adjusts the gun in his grip.

“I was wrong! I did make mistakes I’ll…I’lll..”

“Don’t say it. You’ll never repent. You’ll never regret your mistakes. You’ll never change. There is only one thing I have to say to you officer.”

Jungkook takes a step forward, eyes constantly on the sinner before him.

“Goodbye.” He aims the gun to his chest placing his finger on the trigger. “Goodbye number 3.”

And he shoots, the bullet striking exactly at the center of the uniformed man’s chest. Satisfaction. Jungkook can feel the satisfaction and the sense of victory run through him as a crimson flower blooms in the enemy’s shirt and the police officer at last succumbs before him. But the feeling is gone as soon as it comes because a petrified figure is revealed to be standing behind him.

Cho.

Jungkook lowers his gun as she points her shaking finger at him, eyes blown wide, sweat dripping down her neck.

“You.” Jungkook takes a step towards her but she begins to walk back. “You’re a murderer! You killed a police officer Jungkook! “ She covers her mouth her breath hitching. “He…he was here to help Y/n! You killed him? Why? You…….” A look of realization dawns on her face. “You killed her uncle and Mr. Wook as well didn’t you? You are the one behind all this aren’t you? I knew it. I knew it! I was telling Y/n you had some big purpose behind doing all this. But I had no idea…..Oh my god…..Do you want to kill her as well? She trusted you Jungkook! Do you want to kill her as well-”

“Cho you need to listen to me-”

“I need to find Y/n. I need to tell her she’s in danger. And I swear to god nothing is going to stop me from telling her everything. I’m going to expose you today Jeon Jungkook, even if it means putting my life at risk.”

“Cho please stop. Just listen-”

“There’s nothing left to listen! I….I…..Get out of my way Jungkook. Get out!”

Jungkook runs his hands in his hair for messing up. For leaving a witness. A price will have to be paid for this.

“Fine.” Cho stopped her tracks looking bewildered. “Fine. I’ll let you go. Go tell Y/n I’m a murderer.”

He takes a step forward. “Go tell that to the very woman who asked me to kill these men.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Cho looks at him ridiculously. “Why would Y/n ask you to kill her own family? That’s insane, she loves them to the end of the world. I know her Jungkook. She would never. So stop lying and move.”

“Really?” Jungkook laughs and its maniacal.

Insane.

Desperate.

Sad.

“Do you really know her?”

Another step.

“Because if you did then the first thing you’d know is her name is not Y/n L/n.”

Another step.

“Her name is Jeon Y/n.”

One last step.

“And she’s my wife.”

143 notes · View notes