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huenjin · 4 years

Text

the study of relationships.

summary — college team's volleyball captain and your roommate-cum-best friend, hwang hyunjin argues with you over guys being better than girls in relationships to help you out of one. or in which hyunjin is in love with you for years now and he finally decides that maybe he doesn't want that best friend tag anymore.

pairing — hwang hyunjin x reader, ft. minho

genre — fluff, angst | volleyball!au, f2l!au, roommates!au

rating — nc-17

word count — 15k words

note — kinda excited to post this very long plotted fic on here because first long fic for skz !!! this fic is brought to you by hq, hyunjin's long blond hair and b me mv that we never got. please please do send me constructive criticism so that i can improve on my writing for this community. happy reading!

"Whoa, whoa, whoa."

Your best friend, Hwang Hyunjin yells at the top of his voice, pitch lower in precision as you open the door and slam it shut forcefully, the sound loud enough to bounce to him clearly. Your feet storm hard against the wooden flooring of your apartment, sound bouncing off from that again and Hyunjin pauses his video game to look at you.

It's a familiar sight. Hyunjin sighs.

"Hey," he tries catching your attention but he fails. You storm into your room, hair flailing behind you in your anger, eyes blurry with the angst you feel that wraps slowly around your heart. You walk into the room and slam the door shut, so loud that a chip of wood breaks from the top of the door and falls down.

"Jesus Christ! Y/N—" Hyunjin yells to no one in particular. However, he drops his controller to the side of the couch and jumps to his feet only after pausing his game. He takes big strides to your room and in high contrast to his rash movements, his knocking on your door is very gentle.

"Can I come in?" He asks, scratching the door absentmindedly. He presses his ear and head against the door to hear a response but all he hears are your soft cries and it makes him sad.

"Y/N—"

"Go away, Hyunjin!"

"Y/N, let me in," he stresses, his leg kicking the air slightly, dangling before that. "I—"

"You're going to make fun of me."

"Will not." Hyunjin knows where this stems from and he won't deny. However, at this minute, he just wants to be there for you. Teasing could wait for an hour or so after you've calmed down. "So please?"

You hum and Hyunjin waits for a sign of protest. When he hears none, he takes it as an approval to open the door and the sight before him hurts him ever so slightly.

You are wrapped in a cocoon of your white blanket and your head is buried in the sheets outside, not ready to look up at your best friend. He frowns as he walks towards you, letting himself to sit by your side. He stretches his arm out and stops when you declare,

"I'm a world class dumpee."

"You are," he shrugs, voice tainted with a slight tease and you look up at him, glaring with your red, puffy eyes. You try shoving him but the cocoon you are wrapped in slightly falls forward too in impact. Hyunjin laughs and stretches both his arms forward to prevent you from falling forwards.

You pout, mumbling with a voice that is strained and is your proof of the urge to cry, "You promised you wouldn't."

"I'm your best friend," he shrugs and pushes your body wrapped in the thick blankets backwards, your head hitting against the pillow. A soft whine leaves your lips, followed by an oomph. "You knew I was going to tease you at the very first opportunity."

And then Hyunjin pounces on you, tickling your sides over the covers and your tickle sensitive being rushes in sensation as you laugh your heart out, chest heavy and mind focussing only on your best friend that you forget about the boy who broke up with you an hour back.

"Stop," you laugh. "Hyunjin," you whine. "Stop, you idiot," you laugh again. "I'm going to kill you—"

Hyunjin's laughter fills the air along with yours. In your perspective through your watery eyes, you see a boy with no worries and all smiles and you want to be like that. You desperately want to be like that. You push your wrapped body upwards to shove Hyunjin to the side and it works. He laughs, slowly receding with yours and he lets out a loud relieved sigh as he looks at your face with less creases and tears that now fall due to laughter.

"Hey," Hyunjin says and you turn your head to face him. His face is rigid, the childish gleam that he had just a while back long gone.

"Yeah?"

He sits up, running a hand through his hair and folding his arms soon after. "The guy was a jerk," he tells, helping you up. His hand finds the end of the blanket and unwraps it slowly from your being. "He was a mighty jerk, okay?"

"He is your teammate, Lee Minho," you stare, dead into his eyes and he shrugs.

"I know," he sighs before shrugging, giving you a nonchalant look. "What was it this time? Let me guess, he broke up with you for no reason again."

You hit the blankets that cover your thigh hard and send imaginary daggers in Hyunjin's way, "Yeah! I just don't understand why he'd break up with me."

"Uh, possibly because—"

"Is it because I'm on like close friend terms with everyone in the college volleyball team? I mean, Lee Minho always said dating—"

"Dating you would be hard, Y/N," Hyunjin continues, mocking your ex-boyfriend's voice. "You hang out with so many guys and all your best friends are dudes that it makes me jealous," Hyunjin pauses, placing his hands flat on the bed from behind as he leans back. "Ah, Lee Minho, that bastard. He always did say that to you."

You look down, fidgeting with your fingers and you roar out in anger. Hyunjin looks at you amused until you say, "Why can't guys be more like girls?"

"Excuse me?"

Hyunjin's eyebrow is raised and he laughs mockingly. He lifts his arms from behind, stretches his back before sitting up straight. He kicks his legs and raises it upwards to sit cross legged, looking straight at you and laughs again. "You are totally kidding me, right?"

"No, I'm not, Hyunjin," your eyebrows furrow. "The reason behind most, if not all, break-ups is the guy."

Hyunjin agrees with you deep down. Okay, maybe not completely but at least a ninety percent and that's a good one. However, he knows how competitive you are and if there's something that can get your head out of this post break up blues, it's this.

A competition. And so just to entice you a little, he sneers, "If anything, girls should be more like guys."

"Bitch, no," you laugh, head falling back at the sheer stupidity that rolls out from your best friend's mouth. "Men are so conceited that they had to make a whole word for treating women equal."

"Not all men simp. Plus, it's an AAVE and that people should not use it. In my defense, I've treated you like a guy my whole life," he shrugs. Lies. Lies. Lies he spews out endlessly because at one point, without him even knowing, things did change and he's seen you as a woman; as a woman he now has feelings for.

Hyunjin, to prove his point, hits you on his back like you've seen him do with all his teammates and your torso bends forward from your hips on impact. "See!" He stretches his arms, tattoos on display in the loose half sleeved black top he wears and you wince, stretching your hand back to rub only for Hyunjin to stop laughing quickly and rub your back, mumbling, "Sorry."

"Hyunjin," you shrug, mumbling, trying to guide your best friend. "Don't ever use the not all men tag, please."

He slaps a hand over his mouth, realising his error, again apologising and you stretch your hand forward quickly to protest, "No, no," you tell, "You don't have to apologise. I just hope you know how it sounds."

"I do," he falls back, lying down against your mattress. "I do and I hate that I accidentally said it."

You follow suit, and fall on the bed, hair splaying around, some falling on Hyunjin's face. He groans, moving the hair away and whining, "It got into my mouth, ew." You laugh.

Hyunjin speaks out, staring at the ceiling, "Whose fault is it that a relationship goes astray?"

"Still going to say the men," you look at the same spot he stares at. "They're—"

"It's a war."

"See!" You exclaim. "This is the issue with men. They cut us off all the time."

Hyunjin laughs, hand stretching out to hold your wrist to soothe you down and mumbling another apology, he continues, "This is a battle, Y/N; a battle that's aged long and has never come to a conclusion. The battle—"

"Get to the point."

"Look who cut me off now."

"Touché."

"Anyhow," he continues. "The battle between men and women."

"You definitely sounded like a prepubescent boy there," you look at Hyunjin. His skin is so clear, you notice, making a mental note to steal his skin care products later. He turns a second later to face you and he nods, "Don't care. Definitely going to win this."

"You wish," you let out a condescending laugh. "I'm going to beat your ass, Hyunjin."

"Kinky," he smiles that stupid, toothy grin of his, "I likey."

"You gross pubescent boy," you shove at his arms only for him to quickly hold your hand, interlocking his fingers with yours in the midst of the squabble. You let him, still laughing lightly, lungs light and mind free from all the sad thoughts.

"I see that I've got an upgrade."

"You did."

You're about to thank Hyunjin for this small gesture that probably seems to be nothing when his phone rings from the other room. The scary unexpected track to Tokyo Ghoul's opening – Unravel – that you can't help but accept that you've grown to like, plays.

He lets go of your hand and jolts upwards, jumping off the bed. A small whine leaves your lips unexpectedly and Hyunjin smiles at that. He pulls up the blankets over your body that he shifted, mumbling, "You should sleep early. You had a tough day."

"No," you whine yet again, "Let's talk more—" His phone rings louder, the scream part of the ringtone jolting you up and your hand falls on your chest in shock. "Hate when your phone does."

"And yet you sing along to it," he sings, humming the tune.

"Pfft," you scoff, holding onto the blanket, scrunching it in your grip. "Go. It's probably about the practise match against Yonsei University."

He hums in agreement, folding the blanket again carefully, right below your neck, his cold hands brushing against your clavicle and the temperature difference runs a shiver down your spine.

Hyunjin switches off the light as he walks out, gently closing the door shut and you watch your best friend throwing a small smile at you before leaving. Did you really deserve all this care? Perhaps not.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, dashes out to get the phone before the caller cuts the call in frustration. He's definitely not spending the money to call back whoever it is. That shit is expensive. He jumps a couple of steps and grabs his phone, accepting the call before looking at the name of the caller.

"Hyunjin…" It's Lee Minho. "Can you come over?"

"I really want to throw a punch at you, you bastard."

And Hyunjin does. Virtually, of course. Over the game they are playing. He couldn't afford to injure a fellow teammate when the preliminaries are right around the corner.

"Bro," Minho sighs. "Can you go easy on me?"

His game character hits Minho's again, the energy bar of the other drastically going down on the screen. Hyunjin can't stop. The frustration that he has pent up over the last hour after seeing you cry and crumble over being dumped by his other friend drives him to the edge and he delivers another punch. Minho's character dramatically collapses as soon as the energy bar is empty and he drops the console by his side, pressing his back against the sofa, arms wrapped against his chest, pouting.

"I—"

"Go on," Hyunjin glares at him. "You better have a good explanation."

Minho runs a hand through his hair and sitting up straight, turning his torso to face Hyunjin, he tells, "I don't."

"You're lucky that we have a match soon, else you'd be six feet underground," Hyunjin sighs, throwing his hands over his head and folding it behind. "I can't believe you did that to Y/N."

"I fell out of love with her," Minho says. He doesn't dare to look at Hyunjin because he fears if the glares would actually result in him six feet underground. "Can't that be the only reason?"

Hyunjin chuckles, moreso at himself than at his friend, mumbling under his breath so low that Minho thinks it's just him humming, "Is it possible to fall out of love with her?"

He wishes Lee Minho could tell him how.

Hyunjin stands up, patting his denim jeans and looking at Minho, he warns, eyebrows furrowing, "I'll help her out with this. Just don't be a jerk and start dating in like two days."

"I—" Hyunjin glares at him. "Fine."

"Practice at seven," he adds and grabs the key of his motorcycle from the table before him. "Don't be late and act normal around Y/N."

"Fine, sir," Minho rolls his eyes. He won't admit it ever but the man warning him could be the reason for his breakup. That and his insecurity and fear of you cheating on him. But it's mostly Hwang Hyunjin. He knows how he feels even if you didn't.

Hyunjin walks out of Minho's house, closing the door on his way out and getting on his motorcycle, he rides back home to you. Just as he had promised you.

He opens the door to your room as soon as he enters his house, removing his shoes and placing it to the side, only to find his ears listening to the soft snores that let free from your lips. Carefully he walks towards you, his thumb and forefinger holding your chin lightly and tilting your head upwards to help you breathe properly.

He pauses for a minute just to watch you. Your eyebrows that you dislike so much just because according to you, it's not thick enough. He loves it however, even though you would never listen to him. Your eyelashes cast a gentle shadow on your high cheekbones and he gasps because you're so beautiful. You're so near to him and yet so far.

He bends forward, pushes your fringes to the side and places a soft kiss against your forehead, mumbling the words he wishes he could tell you straight up. Even if he did, you'd probably laugh and scoff at him.

"Beautiful girl," his lips graze the skin by your forehead, "You are a fighter. You have always been a fighter. You are stronger than you think. You are braver than you believe. Every challenge that life has thrown at you, you've conquered every obstacle that has been placed in front of you. You've overcome every single one of them. You are unstoppable and unbreakable and right now, you are filled with more faith than you have ever been."

Hyunjin pulls away, softly caressing the hair by the side of your face, "So please believe in yourself. You're worth so much love. So much of it, Y/N."

"The jerseys came!"

Bang Chan screams, a huge grin on his face as he opens the door for you. He runs to Felix and holds onto his shoulders before jumping up and down in joy. He is so delighted. "It looks so good, dude."

Hyunjin smiles, running towards you and helping you with the cardboard box. "It's alright," you mumble. "I'm the manager. It's my job."

"Pfft," he scoffs. "And I'm your best friend. It's my job." He picks the huge box that covers your entire upper half, easily and places it down before the coach and the team.

Jisung rushes to your side, nudging you with his elbow, "We've got a pretty good manager." He bends down and rips open the box, taking his jersey in his hand, "Number 13, bitches. Nothing shows what an amazing libero I am like the number most feared." You laugh.

"Number 10 isn't that bad, I guess." You hear Minho's voice break through the cluster of voices and your movements still. You turn your head to look at the brown haired boy who towers over you, wearing a smile so pretty that your heart still skips a beat.

"Hey, Y/N," he smiles. "Thanks for bringing this over."

"Uh," you fidget with your fingers, averting your gaze everywhere else besides at Minho. "I guess. It's my job, yeah."

Hyunjin notices. He always does. The boy runs towards you with his jersey. Number 1 printed in big behind. The setter brings the jersey so close to your face that it's buried in the fresh opened shirt. "Number 1, of course," he laughs, scrunching the shirt in his hand as he raises both his arms above.

"Oh, shut up, Jinnie," you laugh.

"Yeah, shut up, Jinnie," Jisung echoes. The middle blocker, though not the tallest in stature, is excellent at his position and has the biggest love-hate relationship with your best friend. He folds his arms and mocks Hyunjin.

Hyunjin places his right hand down on Jisung's head, ruffling his hair after pressing down on it. He scolds the older boy, "Don't call me Jinnie. Y/N's the only one who gets to call me that."

"Stop gathering around people," The captain claps his hands together to gather all of your attention. You quickly rush to his side and he smiles at you warmly, before looking at his team and glaring at each of them as they gather around him. "Yonsei University was kind enough to arrange a practice match with us thanks to—"

"Y/N," Jisung shouts, pivoting his arms by their sockets before lifting them both high above his head, cheering for you.

"Don't cut me off, Han," the coach shoots daggers at him, frowning visibly at the disobedience. "One more time and you're running around the gymnasium twenty times."

Jisung groans, only after winking at you. You chuckle under your breath, covering your face with the notepad in your hand. Hyunjin rolls his eyes, nudging Jisung to 'keep it in his pants' in the scariest voice ever. You could feel the dark clouds around Hyunjin, the aura darkening for a split minute before he breaks out into a huge smile as he looks at you.

The coach instructs out commands; strategies to help the team win against Yonsei. Moves that he's studied after watching their matches. You know this because you watched Hyunjin do the same at home. He does it at odd timings though.

You would wake up at three in the morning to grab a glass of water and you'd find your best friend squatting in front of the television as he watches every single one of Yonsei's matches. He wouldn't listen to you telling him to go to sleep because, "Being the captain is hard, Y/N. The whole team's banking on me to set the ball perfectly at the right time. I can't..."

And you understand. You understand the worries that go around in his head, the anxiety of being the best because he's no genius. He got to the top, made a name for him all thanks to his hard work and if he needs to keep it — he won't have it any other way — he swears to god that he would practise and study till he drops dead. Hwang Hyunjin loves volleyball that much.

So, you do what any friend would do.

You would make two cups of coffee, one for him and one for yourself. You sit next to him and watch the match with him. Your head lays back against the soft material of the sofa, just watching Hyunjin's eyes fixed on the screen, studying each movement of every player, gasping occasionally at how the setter of Yonsei's team leans his head back to decoy the opposite team only to dump the ball.

You don't remember much from that night because you fall asleep way too quick in the silence and in the presence of a focussed Hyunjin, your cup of coffee half empty. You don't remember anything from that night besides the fact that you woke up in your bed the next morning, or more like, Hyunjin waking you up the next morning because you overslept. Either ways, you were back in your bed and for that, you were grateful.

And as soon as the coach is done with the instructions, the team members scramble before splitting themselves into two groups, first to do serves and then perfect shots and finally, have a practice match.

You sit next to the coach, watching each and every member. That's what the previous manager told you to do. To observe. That's what the manager must do. To observe so well that you know each member well enough to know how their mind works, how their personalities are and who they truly want to be.

This is exactly why you can't seem to ever hate Lee Minho. Because you've seen him on the court, at his very best.

He's the best darn middle blocker you've ever seen. He doesn't tower that much over people with his height but when he jumps, lifting off his feet, he is as good as a wall cemented and strong before the opponent. He has only got better with every practice match and you realise that he wants to be better. And that's how he truly is. The constant urge to do better than the person he was before and perhaps, to Minho, you are someone he wants to leave behind in the past.

There's no one to blame here and you realise that it's a lot better if you accept the truth before it hurts you more than it should.

But then, in a second, Hyunjin takes your attention away whole heartedly. The boy arches his body so beautifully as he sets the ball for Jisung who slams the ball over the net with such force that leaves you gaping, notebook slamming your thigh. The coach stands up, his heels slamming the ground first before his toes do and he is as stunned as you are, eyes wide.

Funnily, Jisung's surprised too.

"We did it!" He says slowly, his words gradually making sense to him and when it does, he rushes to him, holding his shoulders and jumping ecstatically, "Hwang Hyunjin, we fucking did it!"

"When did you guys practice that?" The coach cuts the commotion short with his question. Hyunjin turns to face him along with Jisung, scratching the back of his head. Jisung is so overjoyed that he rushes to the coach, "Today morning! It sounded delusional but we pulled it off, coach."

You look at Hyunjin, who turns his attention back to you as soon as the coach is scrambling off to tell more instructions to Jisung on how he should time it a little bit earlier to hit it with even more impact. You smile, giving him a thumbs up and Hyunjin laughs, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Are you guys finally dating now that Minho's out of the picture?" Chan nudges Hyunjin. The man stumbles a step forward on impact only to quickly look at the older with eyes so wide that he wonders if it were possible.

"What?" He splutters the words out, voice haphazard after the cough.

"Everyone in the team thinks you guys should," Chan shrugs and Hyunjin's face morphs into that of seriousness almost instantly and shoots the other male with, "Did Minho hear of this?"

"Perhaps," Chan catches the ball Felix throws at him. The coach claps his hands to bring the attention back to him, barking out orders to resume the game. Chan pats Hyunjin's shoulders, "You know what we always tell, Hyunjin, in this sport—"

"Take the shot when you see the opportunity."

"Exactly."

"Or someone's going to block again," Chan sniggers and looks at Minho, who was trying his very best to avoid your gaze, "This time round, it could be someone better than our middle blocker."

You're picking up the volleyballs lying around when the guys go to shower and change, dribbling them slightly and smiling to yourself. A figure towers over you as they drop a ball into the huge bucket. You turn around to look up at Minho.

"Can we speak?"

"Do we have more to say?"

"I guess," he shrugs.

"We can still be friends, Minho," you sigh, eyes closed. "I also won't be those annoying types to tell Hyunjin to stay away from you because you broke up with me. You should know better."

"I didn't mean that," Minho looks offended. "I wanted to apologise. I should have tried harder perhaps."

"You should have."

"I know," Minho sucks in his lower lip. "I really should have but you know—"

"Lee Minho," your voice is firm. "I've told you a gazillion times that Hyunjin and I are just friends, Minho. Somehow you made up this sort of weird thing in your head so don't drag me into this mess. This is yours."

Minho scoffs, "You're going to eat your words soon," and picks up another ball. You remember the task you had forgotten in the heat of the moment, rushing to pick up a ball to put it back. The rest of the team is slowly making their way outside.

"I doubt," you sigh, throwing the last ball into the bucket and dusting your hands together. Jisung's darting towards you, hands in the air. Minho moves to the side, gliding against the floor, making way for the shorter man to reach you, bubbling with such enthusiasm you wonder what the cause of it is.

"Felix is treating us!"

Ah, so that's the reason. You smile at Jisung, nodding your approval. You push the bucket to the side of the gymnasium with Minho's help and switch the lights off as the team exits the gymnasium.

"Lee Minho!" You hear a feminine voice through the air, your eyebrows quirking upwards automatically. Hyunjin walks to your side, sighing as he shoves his hands into the pockets of his sports jacket, mumbling so softly that you barely catch it, "I warned that asshole, God damn him."

Minho's face lights up in a way you haven't seen in a while and your heart is heavy. The woman, Irene — you hear Chan shout her name and wave at her — locks her arm with Minho's and walks with him, the man doing nothing to push her away. It shouldn't affect you. Not anymore now that the two of you have broken up and yet it hurts.

Hyunjin quickly pulls you away, preventing your eyes from lingering further even a minute more. His hand holds yours and he drags you to his motorcycle. You look down, biting the insides of your cheeks, alternating between the right and left every time you taste the copper of the blood.

"Your hand is so small," Hyunjin says. "Like look at how it fits into mine," he laughs, lifting your hand upwards as he clasps it tightly. He mumbles, "So small."

You break into a smile, watching Hyunjin tease you, momentarily drifting from the thought that upsets you and it leaves you wondering how Hyunjin does it all the time. He lets go of your hand, ruffling your hair as he bends lightly, "You've got this."

He quickly turns on the heels of his feet, pulling out the keys to his bike and igniting it. You hear Jisung scream from behind, "I thought you were taking me with you!"

Hyunjin screams back, "Carpool with the rest. I'm taking Y/N."

He lifts his leg, straddling the bike as he holds onto the handles, kicking the support free. He turns towards you and tells you to hop on and you do as he says. Your fingers hold his jacket, making sure you're not hugging him from behind. Minho's words run in your head and Hyunjin notices this small gesture of yours but he pays no heed. After all, it's been a while since he realised that what he has with you is better when it's platonic. He is too afraid to lose you.

"Jinnie," you tell him as he starts the motorbike, accelerating behind Jin who leads the way. You hear your best friend scream, "Yeah," through the loud winds that hit you.

You lean forward and speak closer into his ears, your jaw hitting his helmet, "Remember how I said the guys are to be blamed in a relationship."

"Yeah," he hints at you to proceed.

"Here's my first point. Minho back there," you point out. "It was that easy for a guy to move on. That easy," you stress your word. "While I'm here repenting if there was any way to get things back to where it was. However, there's no use in me trying because there's Minho with Irene like our relationship was a thing in the past."

"That doesn't mean he didn't care about you during the relationship. That's how guys are. They give it their everything when they're in the relationship," Hyunjin reasons and you laugh sardonically.

"You're kidding me, right? The girl definitely cares more. It almost seems so easy for the guys to break up and move on. Remember the time when you broke up with Lisa," you speak, raising your tone a little more so that Hyunjin can hear you. The motorcycle moving against the wind causes your hair to touch your mouth and you're spitting hair out facing the side. Hyunjin laughs, his grip on the accelerator tightening as he speeds up just a little bit, causing you to hold onto his jacket pockets a little tighter.

"Bro," Hyunjin mutters when you bring up Lisa. "I cried enough when she broke up with me, okay?"

"You did, for a day or two," you state. "The girl cried her heart out for a whole week. You went partying that Friday with Jisung!"

"Are we now using quantitative measurements to determine how deep our care and love is?" Hyunjin gasps, sounding very offended. "This reminds me why most relationships don't work. Because girls are shallow as fuck."

Hyunjin accelerates, missing sight of the speed breaker in front of him. It hurls you onto his chest, your arms wrapping around his waist to keep you safe. A soft scream leaves your lips as the side of your face buries into his broad back.

"Sorry," Hyunjin apologises quickly. "Didn't see that!" Hyunjin prays that you don't move your arms away but you do and he sighs, face falling. He is glad that you can't see him. Your hand is back to gripping his jacket and head back in this battle of words you're currently having with your best friend.

"It's okay," you tell him. "What's not okay is how you think women are shallow."

"They are!" He takes a turn to the left. Your thigh muscles tighten as it straddles the seat, fingers digging into his side for support. "I mean, let's be real, sweetheart. You take an hour or more to get ready for college."

"Because I want to look presentable!" You hit his broad back and he chuckles.

"Lies! You're shallow!"

"Says the person who walks around shirtless at home and stares at the mirror, lightly touching your abs and saying perfect," you tease and Hyunjin turns to look at you for a minute with his eyes wide before he turns his attention back on the road.

"You saw that?"

"Of course. I see that every day."

"But you're watching the television, how?"

"Reflections," you state.

He's gasping. The motorcycle slows down as it reaches Pizza Alvolo. The pizzeria is adjacent to a pretty park and you can hear the birds chirp lowly right before the sun is ready to set. You jump off the motorcycle, dusting the denims covering your thighs and Hyunjin removes his helmet, hooking it to the handle securely.

The rest of the team are seated in the pizzeria already waiting for the two of you, waving at you as soon as you enter the place. You rush and sit next to Jisung who has been aggravatingly patting the seat next to him. Hyunjin sits opposite to you, next to Chan. He snatches the menu from him and the elder male whines at the behaviour.

You look around and notice that Minho hasn't reached the place yet. Not that it mattered to you. You will slowly learn to stop caring so much for a man and you will soon be able to look at him and think of only the fond memories and nothing more.

Or so you thought.

The minute you see Minho walk into the pizzeria, although not with Irene, you feel the ground slip underneath you. Jisung is nice enough — albeit not knowing of the whole pickle you are in — to hold your wrist and turn your attention towards the stack of pizza boxes that come your way as he gleams, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

You look away from Minho and toward the direction Jisung points before turning to look at Hyunjin who lets out a loud sigh. You know that he's clutching at his thick thighs, nails digging into it at the sight of your uncomfortability. Hyunjin knows it will take you days to get over this break up, maybe weeks and that as a good best friend, he should wait. He should understand.

But it frustrates him so much. The sight of you being in pain, in hurt because of another man — his other best friend at that — pisses him off way more than he thought it should at first.

Hyunjin quickly takes his phone out and you narrow your eyes at him, mouthing, "Rude. Put it back into your pocket." In a second, your phone dings and you take yours out. Minho sits by Jisung's side in that second, a seat away from you and your heartbeat accelerates. You unlock your phone to see a message from Hyunjin and you lift up your head, raising an eyebrow at him and he eyes at you to open the message.

Jinnie: do you want to leave?

Your eyes widen and your lips part slightly. You don't respond immediately, locking the phone and shoving it back into your pocket. You smile at Hyunjin, trying to signal that you were alright so far. Jisung opens the cardboard boxes of the pizza and squeals. Chan looks at the situation, analysing if it'd be bad for the team on a bigger approach. Hyunjin might be the captain but had it not been for Chan's guidance, the volleyball team would not have lasted a day more with the differences.

Felix announces, "Eat to your heart's merry! I might never treat again." He takes the first bite for courtesy's sake before telling everyone to join in.

The team laughs and Minho smiles, the skin by his eyes wrinkling and your heart stops to remember all the reasons you were so madly in love with this man. It is at this minute you realise it'll take you maybe a little longer than you thought, a little longer than a casual fling and a little lesser than a long term relationship. You should have known this is bound to happen the minute you allowed yourself to let your petty emotions take over.

And maybe, just maybe, it is the fact that you have to pretend to be alright with having Minho around you that makes this heartbreak pain ten times worse.

Surprisingly, Hyunjin already seems to know because he doesn't stop glancing at you after every bite of the slice he has in his hand.

You stretch your arm out to take a slice of the pepperoni pizza on the table at the same time Minho stretches his arms out to take one. Your fingers brush against his and you jolt your hand backwards, mumbling, "Sorry."

Jisung laughs without knowing and teases, "Why would you apologise for brushing your boyfriend's hand?" He takes a bite of his pizza and as soon as he finishes chewing, he continues, "I mean, you guys do nastier stuff and suddenly, you all are prim and proper, Y/N. Love the contrast you exhibit. It's beautiful. You guys could be at it every time I catch you in the gymnasium alone. Also, you're his longest relationship. You should pride yourself—"

Jisung is speaking and you won't look up. Hyunjin has dropped the knife slightly just to try and get him to stop, though in vain and Minho's looking at you. His eyes won't leave your frame and you just want to leave. It is too early for you to be alright with this. Way too early.

"Stop, Jisung," Chan tells him, reading the situation in the room.

"Why?" Jisung's laughing. Felix understands by now, seeing your face hung down and so does the rest of the team besides the man himself. You can't even come to be angry at Jisung because he seems so innocent, unaware of it all.

You spill the beans for your own heart's safety, "Minho broke up with me."

Minho doesn't shift his eyes at anyone else and Hyunjin holds the knife again, a little too tight this time. Jisung's smile turns instantly into a frown and he turns his head to glare at your now ex-boyfriend.

He doesn't bother to filter his words. "Why the fuck did you do that, you arsehole?" Minho turns to look at Jisung for a split second before his eyes are back at yours. You lift your head to lock gaze with him and you feel your chest tighten, eyes water and it hurts.

Everything seems so much more painful.

Chan says once again, his voice firm, ready to not listen to one more word of the conversation, "Stop it, Jisung. Read the room."

You stretch your arm out to have another bite of the pizza and everyone eats in silence. The room is pregnant with the most awkward silence you had been in your whole life. You take your phone out, unlocking it and finally replying to the message.

Jisung puts another slice of pizza onto your plate and you smile at him. Felix tries breaking the uneasy tension by talking about this dude he met in his neighborhood that was kind of cute. After sitting for another two minutes, you push your chair back to Jisung's surprise and stand up. Hyunjin stands up instinctively, his calves pushing his chair back and everyone at the table looks at the two of you.

Jinnie: do you want to leave?

"I just realised I have to do some grocery shopping," you laugh nervously. "There's absolutely nothing back at home. Not that Hyunjin would buy anything and keep, right?"

Hyunjin chuckles and everyone in the room knows quite obviously that you are trying to escape the scene. They are kind enough to let you. Felix asks, spilling the oregano seasonings on top of his pizza slice, "Is Hyunjin going with you?"

"Ye—"

"No," you cut your best friend before he can give his approval. "I'll go alone." You stretch your arm out, palm facing upwards, "Keys, please?"

"Don't hurt my baby," Hyunjin's sincerity is voiced and you laugh genuinely. Little did you know he meant both you and his motorbike. He drops the key to his motorbike onto your hand and you do a little cheer. Jisung mumbles, "Cute," before stuffing his face with pizzas.

"Have a good time, guys," you wish them and grab your bag, hanging on the chair. Jisung waves enthusiastically. Felix, Chan and the rest of the team waves too. You smile fondly at your team and walk towards the door only to find Hyunjin following you.

"What do you think you are doing right now, mister?"

"Can't I walk you out at the very least, woman?" Hyunjin gapes in dismay. He pulls open the glass door and you laugh.

"Sure thing," you say and walk towards his motorbike. Hyunjin leaves the door after stepping out, the glass door swinging back to shut itself. You swing your legs over his bike, straddling the automobile and dropping your chest slightly to balance the heavy vehicle.

"You sure you'll be alright?"

"Don't you trust your teaching? You taught me how to ride this thing. Don't worry."

You look over Hyunjin's shoulder to see Minho still looking at you, worry smeared all over his face and you feel your throat constricting again as you do your best to tear your eyes away from him.

Hyunjin takes a step closer, making sure everything's alright with the vehicle so that it doesn't endanger you. He places his hand over your wrist and you look at him in confusion, "Promise me you'll take care of yourself."

"I will," you laugh. "What are you? My daddy?"

Hyunjin stiffens for a minute before he lets go of all the inappropriate thoughts that fill him for a minute there before teasing you, "Do you want me to be your daddy?"

"Nah," you throw your head back. "You aren't that rich enough." You place the helmet over your head and look at him. Hyunjin taps your helmet and hugs you slightly.

"I'll see you at home."

You start the bike on ignition and look over Hyunjin's shoulder one last time to look at Minho, locking gazes with him before you pull yours away from him towards Hyunjin.

You look ahead, the clear road in front of you and turn the accelerator only after telling Hyunjin, giggling slightly,

"Sure thing, Daddy."

Hyunjin, on the other hand, is too caught up in his worry, eyes lingering behind the trailing presence of yours that finally disappears from his sight into a speck that fades away. In any other circumstances, he would have found your petite figure driving the huge motorcycle and you even calling him daddy, although in a teasing tone, insanely hot.

Right now, however, he just hopes you are safe. He wishes he could be by your side at every second.

Gaho's Stay Here blasts on the bluetooth speaker. Hyunjin pulls open the door only to find you lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling with the most emotionless face he has ever seen you with. His eyes dart towards the empty bottles of soju on the small table in the hall.

"Y/N?"

You sit up, looking at your best friend and your lip pucker out quickly pouting at the sight of him and you stretch your arms out wide, squealing, "Hyunjinnie. You are home."

Hyunjin walks towards you, plopping on the couch and sitting next to you. He quickly lifts his arm up, hand darting back and forth at the air to steer the smell away as he frowns at you, "You reek of liquor, dude."

You quickly hug him, wrapping your arms around his frame from the side and snuggling your face into his shoulder. Hyunjin stiffens under your grip and he looks down at your being with eyes closed and he realises that you might after all just be a small being in need of some loving. He wishes to be the person to do that. Hwang Hyunjin utterly and truly wants to be your person.

Hyunjin takes your phone to stop playing the music — Stay Here that's been currently playing on repeat for the twentieth time straight — and you whine against his skin, tickles running down Hyunjin's spine.

"Don't stop the music," you mumble and Hyunjin looks at you and your figure that hugs him securely, head snuggled by his neck, chin digging into the skin by his collarbone and all Hyunjin can focus on is his heart that is beating furiously against his chest.

"Y/N," Hyunjin's voice seems like an anchor to your woozy mind and you hug him tighter, gripping stronger on to his white shirt. You hum in response and Hyunjin continues, "Gaho's music doesn't seem very fitting for the minute."

You pull apart, your face morphing and changing into that of offense as you glare at him, mumbling, "Gaho is the only one that understands me." You play the music again, the bluetooth speakers blasting with the sad slow tune in the air and you feel the want to cry all over again.

You stretch your arm out to take a soju bottle from the table to down it all out when Hyunjin stretches out to stop you, his fingers wrapping around your wrists. He locks his eyes with yours and in the softest, most caring voice you've ever heard from him, he says, "Don't, Y/N. It hurts me too."

"Can I hold you?"

In a split moment, the room is filled with just the soft beats of Gaho's Start Over playing, your raspy breaths and Hyunjin's lost stare. His grip on your wrist tightens and your mind is far too intoxicated to think if this friendship could be ruined. Your heart is heavy, chest tight and you want someone to free you. Anyone. You are clawing at the imaginary wall all by yourself and anyone could be a help. Anyone that is not Lee Minho.

"Yes," and you fall on Hyunjin at the exact same moment he pulls your hand closer towards him. The timing seems to have lapsed on to each other. Your chest on Hyunjin's, eyes looking up at him as your arms snake slowly over his torso. You snuggle forward, rubbing against his body slightly and Hyunjin sighs.

To Hyunjin, the scene is a lot dramatic just because of the soft music playing and because you are drunk off your head according to him, barely able to make decisions. He just doesn't want to do anything that will make either of your friendships but right now, in this minute with you almost on top of him, locking your eyes in his, your arms around his torso, close enough to feel every part of your being, he wants to be drunk too.

Hyunjin wants to be drunk so that he can make a mistake. Hyunjin wants to be so drunk that he can't think just because he is a coward.

"Do you feel better?" He asks and you snuggle into his chest, burying your face into it as you hold him. Your lonely heart being comforted by just his presence and in the back of your drunk head, you know you feel a little bit more that causes your heart to flutter when Hyunjin cares.

You and Hyunjin are both cowards — two small people in this big world with big emotions unwilling to risk one status for another, over the fear of losing each other.

But Hyunjin wants to risk it tonight. After years of pining, he wants to risk this golden friendship he has shared with you for years now. You are the trigger, however. You lift your face away from his chest and crawl slightly towards him, pushing yourself against him. You look at him, lips pressed together and you stretch your right arm upwards to hold his face in your hand.

"Jinnie," your voice lets out his name in such an airy tone that it seems to disappear away even before it reaches his ear. His eyes are glassy and his heart is in his throat, eager in nothing but anticipation that is risen from all his hoping.

It happens as he has imagined. You lean forward so slowly that he pictures every second vividly and in an instant, your lips are on his. Hyunjin knows it should have felt wrong but God, save him — nothing felt more right than this.

You kiss him and his whole world falls away. It lingers, like a memory that stays behind. Your lips are slow and soft against him, comforting yourself and him in ways that words would never be. Hyunjin's hand slowly lifts up to rest below your ear, his thumb caressing your cheek as your breath mingles only for a split second — one filled with hesitance and uncertainty — before you pull away, looking at your best friend.

It is just a second of a kiss. Something so small and insignificant to seemingly anyone else yet it means the whole world to Hyunjin. It is the whole world to Hyunjin because this is all that is needed to let him astray, hinge released of the stupid restrictions he has made up in his head over you.

Your small kiss is all Hyunjin needs to hold on to because in the next minute, he is pulling you towards him, hands cupping your face tightly and angling it to kiss you, encasing your lower lips in his as he moves against your coral ones. You let out a small gasp and run your fingers down his spine, holding him as close as possible until there is no space left between the two of you and you can feel the beating of his heart against your chest. Loud, clear and unknown to you that it beats for you in this minute.

Hyunjin's lips are slammed against yours, nearly knocking all wind from your lungs and you don't know if it is your feelings or Hyunjin himself. He presses his tongue to the seam of your lips and, the minute you let him in, he delves inside your mouth. Hyunjin kisses you like he thinks it is the last time he will ever be able to have his lips against yours.

Your arms move up his back and tangle around his thick, strong neck. In an instant, you pull away and arch up into his broad chest, moaning in the contact of body heat against your own, before you draw back into his lips. Hyunjin can feel the burn of hard soju in his mouth, thanks to you, and it rolls off your tongue into his, seeping down his throat and he can't hate it. There is a thrill in its own that Hyunjin knows stems from you.

If it was possible, Hyunjin would slow down time.

You pull back eventually only to hug him, humming against his neck, lips pressed against the soft expanse of his skin. Hyunjin's hand is pressed against your back as he pats you in a steady rhythm, instinctively humming to a tune that could calm you.

"Jinnie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," and he feels your weight fall on to his shoulder as you snuggle closer into his neck, your warm breath fanning against him, sending shivers down his spine. "For everything."

Hyunjin holds you for a while, silence and nothing but your breathing that is soft music to his ears, till he hears your soft snores buzzing against his eardrums and he knows you have fallen asleep in his arms, against his chest.

The next morning, you find yourself magically in your bed, comforter on top of you covering every inch of you, head aching thanks to your reckless drinking last night with no memory of whatsoever that happened. Lightheaded you should have known better.

Hyunjin chooses to be a coward, the morning after.

The greens that cover the campus is the only other thing that keeps you sane in this university. The first being, the volleyball team. However, you don't know anymore if it is still, in the present.

You sit on the same bench before a beautiful fountain with a tiger head right in the centre, watching the vast basketball court. A place that holds way more memories to you now than it did a year before.

You shake your legs, feet pointing forward as you listen to music with about half an hour in your hand to waste before you head down towards the gymnasium to meet with the volleyball team. Besides few people that walk down towards their classes, the campus looks pretty stranded as you watch every single person stay happy in their sphere.

"Y/N," you hear your name being called out through yet another one of Gaho's songs and you lift your head up, to look at the person by your side, standing and providing you the shade they probably didn't intend to.

It's the man himself, the one who broke your heart for an explanation that made no sense to you. Lee Minho.

He stands tall, towering over you and your neck aches from looking up at him that you decide to stand up, removing the earbuds and placing it on the wooden bench, next to your phone.

"You're here." You gulp. "Aren't you supposed to be headed to the gym for practice?"

The fountain is everything you associate Minho with — moreover, it is perhaps the relationship with him that you associated the beautiful water fountain with. To see the very same man before you right now is needless to say surprising.

"I could ask you the same thing," Minho chuckles. He takes out a small cone of butterscotch ice cream and extends his arm, offering it to you. You smile softly, thanking him, sitting down back on the bench. "Can I sit here?" He asks and you nod, unwrapping the wrapping paper around the ice cream.

"Yeah," you tap on the seat by your side. You take a bite of your ice cream and Minho visibly flinches, mumbling, "Still the same."

"You broke up with me like two days back. What did you expect? A nirvana attained me?" You scoff. You take another bite of the ice cream, the sensitivity hitting your teeth and you hiss.

"Brutal," Minho chuckles darkly. You scoff, turning your head away and taking another bite of your ice cream. Minho opens his ice cream and you raise an eyebrow at him, mumbling, "You don't eat ice cream though."

"Thought you might want another one," he smiles and the thought of a second ice cream lights you up. "There you go smiling like a dork as always at the thought of it." Minho laughs and you bend forward to take it, your left arm stretching forward. Minho tugs it backwards and your body moves a little more to grab at it until it's too far for you, bringing you to your present position.

Your hand is on Minho's chest, his eyes locked in yours and you are surprised. This is not in your to do list and yet with Minho's grip on your wrist, you drop your ice cream as soon as he edges closer. His face is so close that you can see the perfect plump lips pout slightly, his face glistening in the bright sun and you gasp softly. It has been a while since he has been this close and he still makes your heart go livid within you, beating crazy.

He drops his ice cream in a second, his hands pressing forward to cup your face and pull you into him to kiss the living hell out of you. Your eyes widen, arms falling limp on either side as you stiffen.

"Can I try something?" He hesitates, iron grip on you.

"Try?" You look worried and the next minute, Minho is kissing you, his plump lips on yours for a while before he moves them against yours, taking hold of your lower lip.

It is an instinct. You choose to blame it rather on instincts. Your hand moves to grab the linen draping his arm as you hold it and kiss Minho back. It is as bitter as coffee thanks to all the memories that go along with it and yet — you find yourself drowning. You find yourself wanting more. You find yourself hoping if Minho could stay, if Minho could just pretend to love you, if not.

And it breaks your heart.

All over again.

A lone tear leaves your eyes and then another, till you are crying as you kiss him. A wet messy affair at its finest. Minho pulls back in surprise feeling the wetness against his skin. He cups your face and holds you, looking at you to check for damage — little does he know of the emotional one. Or maybe he does and he chooses to ignore. Typical Lee Minho.

"Did I hurt you?"

Your emotions take over, sanity pushed to the back. You are pulling yourself from Minho as he tries to hold you to calm you down. Your fist plummets down onto his hard chest once and then, for the second time till you are hitting him over and over again till you completely break down in front of him. Minho quickly pulls you into a hug, holding you close till you completely soak his white shirt with your tears.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you—" It's a repeated chant. Over and over again till you don't remember how many times you told Minho the same thing. Your mind goes insane with the overdrive of emotions. Did you like Minho still? You don't know. You don't know whether it's the familiarity of his hugs or his kisses or his whole presence that you crave or if it's his love.

"I'm sorry," he whispers and you accept because it's the first time an apology from Lee Minho sounded this sincere. "I'm sorry for breaking your heart." He snuggles into the crook of your neck, swallowed by guilt. Perhaps this is why one should never date their friends; because you lose something much greater.

"I hate you more now for kissing me here," you manage to say, throat rasp from the crying. "How could you stain this memory too? How dare you stain the memory of the location of our first kiss? It was supposed to be a bittersweet memory when I sit here and think." Minho is still hugging you.

"I'm sorry."

It is still bittersweet in a new way, you realise — the fact that Lee Minho kisses you for the last time, you swear to God, in the very same place he kissed you for the first time. The weather changed, the people around changed and the emotions changed. Even after all that, the fountain stays proud and mighty and bears witness to more new relationships and new heartbreaks. Nothing changes besides you. Nothing changes besides what we want.

You pull away from him. Sitting straight, facing the vast basketball court and the juniors playing the game, you make a decision, firm and determined. The soft pink petals fall down from the cherry blossom trees over the two of you and Minho looks at you, and then at the spilled ice cream. To see the boughs that were so bereft in the snow become so beautifully adorned should lift your spirits infinitely and it does slightly. Their scents diffuse in the warming breeze and you hold your head high to savour it.

"Let's stay away from each other for a while."

Minho's eyes shoot up, head lifting up to face you. He does not refute. After all, he knows he has to take a step behind after breaking your heart. What he does not understand is how the two of you could stay away from each other when your friend circles overlap to a large extent.

"How?" He finally asks. "How do I help you with that?"

"By doing just that. Give me space and time to get over you. I'll come back asking for your hand in friendship again," you smile. Your tear stained visage and the difficult smile you put forth is a funny combination but you manage to pull it off well, you'd say. "You don't have to take the first step this time. Let me do this on my own, Minho."

You stand up on your own, grabbing your earphones and your phone. Minho stands up, following suit and asks, "Are you leaving?"

"Yes," you turn only to look at him as you walk backwards. "And you have to head for practice. So get going. I won't have you mess up your performance by all means." You turn back and move ahead. From everything.

"You know I wouldn't," Minho screams back and the last syllable ends with a laugh. You lift your hand to wave and you leave, far, far away from him.

You now have an open wound to stitch back and you know you have to do it on your own.

Hyunjin's phone rings right when he decides to serve the ball. He drops the ball in surprise, the sphere rolling all the way to where his phone is placed. Chan groans, stopping his pace at the sound of the phone ringing, and yells, "Yah! Hyunjin, how many times should I tell you to switch off your phone?"

Felix walks in exactly at that minute, laughing, "Anyone from outside would totally think Chan's the captain!"

Hyunjin runs to his phone, his blond hair strands falling forward, ponytail swinging left and right. Felix laughs at the sight, walking towards the ball and picking it up before throwing it at Chan who catches it swiftly. Hyunjin sees your name on the phone, eyes lighting up instantly and a smile prominent only for Chan to announce, "It's Y/N."

"Of course, it is," Felix scoffs. "Where's the rest of the guys? I thought you said we were to come early—" Felix pauses, eyes widening and gasping, "Hold up! Y/N is late. Whoa!"

"They are probably running towards the gym right now," Hyunjin says before picking up the call. He mouths to the rest, "It'll be short, I promise," and pouts. Chan sighs, only to smile and wave his hand at him to take the call.

"Y/N," Hyunjin cheers up instantly. "Where are—" He hears a choked sob from the other hand and Hyunjin stiffens, face losing the smiling in a second. "Are you alright?"

"I am," you strain it out. You barely manage through with the chokes and that pain that ripples through in waves but you eventually find the words to tell him, "I won't make it to practice today. Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

Hyunjin is angry and he doesn't even know who it is aimed at. He is just beyond mad at the fact that you are crying and someone made you cry. The thought of the skin by your eyes aching and eyes red and burning over anyone made him so angry that he could punch a wall through.

"I'm not telling you," he hears you say and he clenches his fist.

"Stop being a brat, Y/N," he stresses and Chan gestures at him, asking if there was something wrong. Hyunjin nods. "Where are you?"

"Leave me alone, Jinnie," you tell him through the phone, "Please," and his eyes widen before he calms himself down, realising that you are trying to cope all alone, a pathetic self-destructive quirk of yours that he had learned to live with after all these years. He gulps and realises you truly needed time alone and he hums in approval.

"Please reach out to me when you need me," he begs. "Please, Y/N."

Felix and Chan are staring at Hyunjin in worry when the door to the gymnasium opens and Jisung rushes into the room. He is panting and he looks around, searching for someone. Hyunjin turns away, his attention back on the call in his hands and he ends the call quickly, making a note in his mind to check up on you after practise. Not that you would let him miss practise. (Not that Hyunjin would do it to himself in the first place. He'd kill for volleyball.)

He walks towards the rest when Minho walks in, black duffel bag on his shoulder. Jisung is quick on his feet as he runs towards the other man, hands on his shoulders and he shakes the living hell out of him.

"He's gone crazy, dude," Felix mumbles and Chan laughs.

Hyunjin stays at a comfortable distance still, looking at his phone in worry every now and then. The man lifts his head and brings his attention back to the present only when he hears your name leave Jisung's mouth.

"Whoa, dude. You got back together with Y/N?"

"What?" Chan is the first to respond. "You did what?"

"I didn't get back together with her," Minho says, his voice is monotone and lacks anything more than nonchalance and it pisses the hell out of Hyunjin who has his fists still clenched tightly.

"I saw you kissing her but. . ." Jisung drops the bomb all at once in such a lost way that he doesn't realise the impact it was to have in this large gymnasium.

Hyunjin is charging forwards all at once, yelling, "You bastard," as he throws a punch at Minho. The blond dyed man is quick to put two and two together and realise that you are after all, crying because of the black haired man before him.

He pushes him back, Minho hitting the floor and Hyunjin's on top of him, punching him with his clenched fist, mind void and painted in hot red anger. Minho has his arms, blocking his punches and chooses to play on the defensive side.

In fear, we are all monsters. Hyunjin believes that he would be afraid of himself had he astral projected and looked at himself in this minute, all unhinged because of one girl — one girl he would set the world on fire for.

All that rage comes out faster than magma for Hyunjin and is just as destructive. More so because he's the captain. It consumes all that he is, so delicate under that carefully ordered world and carefully put up feign that he is alright with Minho breaking the heart of the girl he loves. Minho shrivels before him but Hyunjin does not stop. He relentlessly keeps going, stopping short of physical violence but doing far more damage with the words that he throws.

Chan tries to pull Hyunjin away as Jisung drags Minho from underneath him. The black haired man is left with bruises and a busted lip. On the other hand, Hyunjin is still fuming, along with Chan, sporting a few cuts from Minho who decided to throw a few punches in the last moment.

"Can you all stop?" Felix sighs.

"Why would you bastard make her cry again?" Hyunjin raises his voice. He's yelling at this point, loud enough for everyone passing by the gymnasium to hear. "Why the fuck would you make Y/N cry again? I told you to leave her alone!"

"This wouldn't have happened if things went different—" Hyunjin tries to rush forward to hit him again upon hearing his words, but Chan and Changbin, another teammate, have a strong grip on him. His blond ponytail lashes in anger and he fights against the two, trying to let go of himself. Minho yells back, "I would have never broken up with her if you never liked her, Hyunjin."

"What?" He stops still in his tracks, limbs falling and Chan lets go.

"How am I supposed to think it's alright for you to randomly stare at my girlfriend with heart eyes? For fuck's sake, you guys hug way more than I hug her," Minho glares, chest rising up as he vents everything he has bottled up so far. "If you had always liked her, you should have told me! I shouldn't have overheard it from Chan telling you to ask her out." Chan's face pales visibly. "I would have tried making her stay. I would have made her stay. I would have," Minho's voice lowers. "I still did, but I was too late."

Hyunjin has no words to refute. His eyes widen and his heart is in his throat, barely being able to say, "You could have taken it out on me. Why would you drag her into this? She loved you. She still wavers because of you. Your faithless love was the only hoax she was forced to believe."

Jisung pouts in awe at the words Hyunjin spills and Minho mumbles, "I don't know. I couldn't think straight."

Felix drops the ball with force, suddenly. The ball squelches before raising high and hitting the wall with impact. He folds his arms and speaks up, "Stop acting like kids." He points at Minho. "You, stop putting the blame of your failed relationship on Hyunjin. Him liking Y/N did not ruin your relationship. You killed it yourself."

"But he—"

"I liked her even before you made a move on her. Nothing has changed, Minho," Hyunjin inhales sharply.

"It's because you're a coward, you arsehole."

Hyunjin closes his eyes, looking away, mumbling, "Not going to even bother denying that. I'd be dating her if I wasn't this scared of losing her."

Felix proceeds to point at Hyunjin, glaring sharply at him, "You call yourself a captain? We have a match in a few days and you decide to lose control and beat up your teammate? One of the best middle blockers out there! What in the world are you thinking, Hyunjin? Jesus Christ, when Y/N hears of this, she's going to beat you up so bad for doing this to him in the name of the team."

Hyunjin doesn't dare to look up at Felix, shuffling the balance of his body from one feet to another. He is embarrassed. He should have never let his emotions take control of his body and yet he did.

Chan walks towards Felix before announcing, "We'll start practice in five. I want the two of you to sort this out by the end of this day. If you haven't, I don't want either of you coming to practice tomorrow."

"I'm the setter!" Hyunjin protests.

"Jeongin can do a darn good job too, so shut up and listen to me well."

"Now," Felix claps his hand, smiling once again brightly before running to pick up the ball. "Let's practice like the perfect team we are!"

"And like I couldn't stop myself. It's like something dragged me to move forward and the next thing I knew, I was on top of Minho—"

"Fuck, that'd be hot."

"Y/N, focus. And like I was beating the crap out of him."

You dab an alcoholic swab over the small wounds on his face as he seethes in pain and you sneer, "Deserved it."

"Ouch," Hyunjin fakes offense. "Side with me at least now. You aren't dating him anymore." You stop, your hand midair and you dab constantly over his wounds till Hyunjins screaming, "Ow, ow, ow. I'm sorry," and holds your wrist and pulls it away.

"But you messed up your team dynamics just because of your anger," you frown. "You and Minho better sort it out quickly, Jinnie. Else, I swear to God." You glare at him.

"What will you do?" Hyunjin laughs, scrunching his nose and teasing you. You place the bandaids over the wounds and raise an eyebrow. Hyunjin prompts, "Bite me?"

"I will," you warn and Hyunjin scoffs, "As if."

You bite him. His shoulder, to be exact. Your teeth hold onto his socket for a good one minute tightly till he is yelping, hitting your back to let go of him as he hisses in pain. You let go of him and narrow your eyes at him. Hyunjin is shocked. So shocked that he blankly stares at you with his mouth wide open.

"Are you a dog?"

"I could be one if you taunt me too much."

"Wow," he blinks and you poke the insides of your cheek with your tongue. "Wow, you're truly one of a kind." And Hyunjin breaks down laughing, holding his shoulder with his hand and bending forward overcome by intense laughter.

"Buy me mint choco," he prompts. "Because now you injured me and I want compensation."

"Excuse me?"

Hyunjin pushes himself forward, edging closer to you, looking you in your eyes before saying, "You know you have to," in a low guttural tone that your heart does a whole somersault, triple axle and then lands with an ovation. "You hurt me."

You push him away and you leap onto your feet, your eyes wide and your hand over your chest. Hyunjin looks at you with a raised eyebrow. To change the mood of the situation, you quickly announce, "Fine. You'll get mint chocolate only if you get ready and come out in five minutes. Else you pay for it on your own."

Hyunjin stands up and holding your wrist, he pulls you with him to the door. You look at him in utter confusion and ask, "What are you doing?"

Hyunjin stops in his tracks and turns to look at you, blond strands leaving his ponytail to cover his eyes slightly and pink lips so plump that you wonder how they feel. The realisation that you have started viewing your best friend as someone more than just that hits you and you look down instantly. When did this happen?

"I'll just wear a coat and so should you," Hyunjin laughs. "Ice cream can't wait."

People think of laughing as a noise that comes from the mouth more often than not, but when Hyunjin laughed it was nothing like that. The laugh is in his eyes, in the way his face changes into that vision of relaxed joy and unrestrained mirth. And yet, in all honesty, it is not in his face either. His laugh comes from within, it is just the way he is wired with the instant ability to comfort someone. Just the sound of his gales, his snickers, his giggles, was enough to transport you far away from all your worries and the tension your life has in the minute.

Enough to make you forget that you have to tell him today about the decision you have taken.

Hyunjin and you walk down the stairs and off onto the road in five minutes as planned. The cool air of the night hits you and you hold yourself closer, the long coat held tightly to your body surface. Hyunjin laughs before wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you close by just a little bit and yet enough to share his body warmth.

"Mint choco, here we come!" And he runs with you.

The thing with your stupid heart is that you don't understand why it is beating so rapidly in this moment, your heart beat easily jumping to more than 95bpm and all because Hyunjin holds you. You look at the man by your side, his blond hair moving with the air, exposing his face and you wonder — had Hwang Hyunjin always been this beautiful?

You have known Hyunjin for a long time now. Too long for you to realise that your heart had a change in its plans for emotions recently. You have known Hyunjin way too long to know that you want him for a lifetime by your side, as a best friend at the very least and the thought that if you did act upon your new emotions that you have just discovered in this cold, breezy night, you are screwed.

Hyunjin turns to look back at you after hearing absolutely no sound from you. His face pales when he realises you are looking far ahead and he wonders if you do remember now. If you remember the drunk night.

So he asks to put himself at ease, "Y/N?"

"Huh?" You jolt up to consciousness, looking properly at Hyunjin. "Yeah?"

"Do you remember the night a few days back?"

"Night? Few days back?" You ponder. "When I was drunk?"

"Yeah," Hyunjin mumbles and you raise your body in anticipation, finally wanting to ask about the magical teleportation.

"Now that we are on this topic," you fold your arms and raise your eyebrows at your best friend. Hyunjin shuffles his balance from his left to his right. "Did you carry me to bed that night?"

Hyunjin chokes on air, sputtering out incoherent words before finally forming one proper sentence, "You knew?"

"You're the only other person I live with and I don't have any recollection of going to bed so like I presumed," you look down, heat rising to your cheek and you fidget with your fingers. "That you carried me to bed."

"That's all that you remember?"

You lift your head up, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed, "Is there more?"

"Uh," Hyunjin turns back to face forward, his broad back in your vision again as he walks forward to the ice cream parlour by the junction.

"Hyunjin?" He walks quicker. "Yah! Hwang Hyunjin!" You follow him with quick, short strides, almost jogging up to him. "What did I do, Jinnie?" He opens the glass door to the ice cream parlour. "Yah, Hwang Hyunjin, tell me no matter how embarrassing it is." You follow him into the white aesthetically pretty place.

You finally catch hold of his coat and tug at it. Hyunjin turns, his cheeks flushed and you wonder what in the world happened that night. Yes, you have vague memories of hugging Hyunjin and passing out, but for him to act like this — wait, you didn't empty your stomach out on him, did you?

"Did I—" Hyunjin's eyes widens. He turns back, his attention on the man behind the counter and he points towards you.

"She's paying."

"Okay," the man nods and turns to look at you, waiting for your order. You sigh, glaring at your best friend before ordering one quantity of mint chocolate ice cream. Your eyes waver to the green ice cream and you frown in displeasure, something Hyunjin catches sight of your expression.

"How dare you?" He folds his arms, dramatically. "The only people that matter in this world are the one that like mint chocolate." The man at the counter smiles at the two of you.

You open your mouth, clicking your tongue, "I'm not paying money to eat toothpaste."

The man behind the counter laughs out loud and Hyunjin glares at him, scoffing. He takes the ice cream from his hand and waits for you to pay. The tall man looks at the two of you, again, before finally telling, "Good luck on your relationship. It's always fun to see couples have an argument over mint chocolate and still be so in love with each other." He turns to look at Hyunjin only, "For your information, I like mint chocolate."

Both Hyunjin and you look at each other, either of you waiting for the other person to disagree with the man but there is just silence. You can feel Hyunjin looking at you through the corners, waiting for you to refute like you always do. You don't and you do not even know why. The heat builds up beneath the apples of your cheek and the thought of being in a relationship with your best friend strangely brings about a wave of calmness within you, doing its best to shove the uncertainty of so many things away.

"Thank you for the ice cream," you say and walk to an empty table. Hyunjin thanks the man too, and follows you, sitting on the seat opposite to you and places the mint chocolate in between.

He watches you, unsure of the situation and you bite your lower lip nervously before shoving the cup closer to him and mumbling, "Eat. We came all the way here for you."

"You should have gotten another ice cream," Hyunjin frowns.

"It's past nine," you laugh, your hair falling over the chair as you lean back. "I can't let fat into my body after nine. You know that."

"Why do I know you?" Hyunjin puts his hand on his forehead looking at you and then he pushes the cup of ice cream towards your side. "Disappointment." You look at your best friend, disgusted and he won't take the disrespect though.

"It's a refreshing taste," he digs in and takes a big bite. "Plus, it's the right balance." He lifts the spoon with a small amount of the mint ice cream and shoves it right in front of your face. "The perfect amount of mint, chocolate and milk to make the world's most perfect ice cream."

You push his hand away and glare, "Why would you ruin two beautiful sweets," you raise an eyebrow, "Chocolate and ice cream by including," you fake a gag, "Mint?"

"Because mint balances the sweetness of the chocolate," he scoffs. "All you mediocre people won't understand. Mint chocolate was created for the elite class."

"Did you just call me mediocre?" your jaw drops and Hyunjin laughs. It's soft, airy and so carefree that you don't mind the fact that he is laughing at you and not with you. You don't mind one bit when you break down and laugh with him, unable to keep your face straight as you lean forward on the table, your head resting on your hands and you watch Hyunjin.

You decide to tell him of your decision in this minute.

"I'm going to make Seungmin manage the team," you tell Hyunjin and he stares at you, the spoon dropping from his hand and clattering against the glass rim of the ice cream cup. You continue, "He's always wanted to manage the volleyball team and I thought I should let him—"

"Why?" He sounds hurt. Disappointed, in fact and your heart plummets down.

"I thought it's time to move on."

"From the team or Minho?"

"Minho," you say, nibbling on your lower teeth. "I want to go back to him—"

"What?" Hyunjin feels his heart sink.

"Don't cut me off, hoe," you click your tongue. "I want to go back to him and be his friend. I'm not ready to ruin a friendship over this. I just won't."

Hyunjin looks down at his cup of ice cream. His spoon digs into the cold dessert over and over again till he realises that he'll do what he has always done for you — be right by your side as your pillar.

"Feed me," Hyunjin prompts and you stare at him with a void expression, mouth still open, wondering if he suggested this only and only to change the topic. Hyunjin stretches his arm out to shut your mouth. "People are going to think I'm starving you here."

"Whoa." You lift your head up. "And if I do that, people are going to think we're possibly the cutest couple out there still in our glorious honeymoon phase of it."

"Okay," Hyunjin shrugs and leans back against the chair, folding his arms against each other.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine with that."

You sit up straight and look down before finally saying, "Don't say that."

"Say what?"

"Those words that make my heart flutter. I don't know what to feel, Hyunjin." Hyunjin is too stunned to react and whine over the fact that you called him properly by his name in your conversation. The fact that he too can cause your heart to race a little bit just like you have with his all these years. "Don't say them to me if you won't ever be ready to take responsibility over them."

You place your thumb and forefinger on your forehead, squeezing the skin slightly to calm the slight ache you can feel, the vein throbbing slightly and you know it is your anxiety that kicks in because you almost spilled everything out. You quickly stand up and holding your coat tightly, you look at Hyunjin who is still seated and looking at you intently.

"I need to go to the pharmacy next door. I'll wait for you there. Finish your ice cream and come."

You don't turn to look at Hyunjin as you walk out, slightly embarrassed by your own behaviour. Between you and Hyunjin, you are the one who had to keep your cool, making sure you didn't slip up or make a mess so that you could at least have time to clean his spilt milk.

You push the door of the ice cream parlour and walk out, the doorbell ringing at your push and you hold yourself in the cold breeze. If Hyunjin did not respond to it, it is only safe to presume that he feels nothing more towards you. You could at least put two and two together. Or so you thought till Hyunjin is chasing after you, big strides and dark blond hair in the wind as his rubber band comes loose and slides off a bit.

"Y/N!" He shouts and quickly holds your wrist, pulling you so quickly that you stumble forward into him. Hyunjin grips your arms to steady you and he looks at you, his brown eyes trying to peep into your soul. He smiles, hand running through his hair only to bring more strands forward, covering his vision.

Falling in love with Hwang Hyunjin, you realise, is the easy part. He makes it so easy to fall for him — when he smiles at the sun, covering his eyes or when he is covered by the dogs in dog parks all eager to hug him because that's how he just is. You don't even realise when you fall for Hyunjin but when you do, you know you are already sinking and you are far too gone for saving.

It is, however, admitting to yourself that you fell for your best friend that is hard. The Hwang Hyunjin that you have seen since the five year old boy moved next door to you. The Hwang Hyunjin that would cross dress in your clothes. The Hwang Hyunjin that would steal your dumplings. It is the same Hwang Hyunjin that you fall for. You had all these doors with specifications that opened to only men like Lee Minho and yet like the rude asshole that you oh so adorably love he seemed to tear them down. Or perhaps those doors were meant for others and Hyunjin always had a door of his own for your heart.

You should have asked yourself why but would it have really mattered? You're here with Hyunjin by your side, whether he knows your feelings or not and you couldn't be any less glad, even if you are sometimes hiding, imagining a distance instead of seeing Hyunjin right there.

"I'll come back, Jinnie," you tell him, looking up at him and coughing slightly, trying to move back slightly to put some space between the two of you. "I'm not running away. I just need to buy some strips of paraceta—"

"I want to be responsible for them," His gaze doesn't leave yours. "I want to be responsible for you, your emotions and everything you are, if you let me."

You wouldn't dare to shift your eyes away, or focus on anything else. Just Hyunjin. Just your Hyunjin. Your heart beats so fast against your chest that you wonder if it ever had this much for any man or woman. And when Hyunjin pulls you into him, his arms wrapping around your frame, hand flat against your head that buries your face into his chest, you learn that Hwang Hyunjin's heartbeat is always your metronome — the beat your entire life seemed to have moved smoothly to.

You giggle against his chest, breaking into a smile, "Are you asking me out, Jinnie?"

"I guess," he chuckles into your hair, snuggling himself into you. He pulls you back to explain. "My original plan was to ask you out after the practice match that I'll make sure we win, but you could possibly not be there as our manager and what if I miss the chance?"

"You lovesick boy," you laugh, smiling stupidly at him. Hyunjin cups your face and presses his forehead against yours.

"I've liked you for so long, Y/N," and you blush, lips pursed and you smile back, heart fluttering.

"Thank you," you press a kiss against his cheek.

"For what?"

"For being you and for always loving me."

Hwang Hyunjin holds your face and kisses like he is capable of getting rid of all your worries, slowly bleeding into your marrows and cells and soaking you of the very essence he is. He holds you like you are a precious being — and to him, you are because he finally has you after all these years; he finally gets to call you his.

His lips are warm and tasted of mint; obviously from the mint chocolate ice cream earlier. His hands are wrapped around your waist and yours are locked around his neck pulling him down slightly. His strands of blond locks brush against your face, ticking you slightly and you giggle into the kiss. He laughs against your lips before kissing you slowly, drawing the kiss for as long as he could. When you break apart for air, you lean forward and rest your forehead against his, gathering some much needed oxygen. His smile tells you everything you need confirmation over and you smile back, sinking into his hold.

Hyunjin hugs with gentle arms that still gives the space to breathe; yet it is the hug of a strong pair of arms that tells everything that you are - every fibre of your being - that he is with you, and you wonder how he is capable of that. How he is capable of holding like you are his whole world — like he rather hold you than anything else.

Hyunjin does exactly that. He holds you tight and close to him in this cold night, ignorant of everything else around the two of you, like you and him only mattered in the place, like you and him are fireworks in this velvet dark, the blaze that dares to light up the night.

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rendevousz · 3 years

Text

not a secret anymore

natasha romanoff x fem!teen!reader

summary: nat reveals a secret to the public when your class takes a learning journey to the tower.

requested: yes

warnings: might come off as half assed writing because this probably is one of my worst works i'm so sorry 😭😭

word count: 1681

notes: i'm so sorry i haven't been writing much, i've recently just gotten extremely busy so i had no time to sit down and write (this one was literally written between all the short breaks i had 😫) and i have a few requests piling up so i hope you guys can understand if they come later <3

"hi, y/n!" ally, an agent, greeted you as you, along with your classmates, walked through the east wing hallway of the tower. your classmates—except for peter, ned and mj— turned to look at you with confused looks.

your class was having a learning journey at the avengers tower and you had contemplated on calling in sick to avoid people who worked in the tower acknowledging you around your classmates.

you were actually an avenger—yeah, crazy—, having been rescued during one of the many avengers' hostage rescue missions few years ago. you were able to single-handedly take down a few of your captors, hence why the team took interest in you then.

now, though you had been trained enough, they decided to keep you a secret in order to protect you. lord knows how many people would try hurt you if they ever found out the avengers had a new, teenage recruit. peter was technically still safe as his alter-ego is masked so you had no choice but to only go on missions that weren't in the public eye.

you also lived in the tower so the agents and staff were undoubtedly familiar with you, some even friends with you, just like ally, who had just passed by with a wave of her hand at you before turning the corner.

"did that lady just acknowledge you?" an annoying voice spoke from beside you in a mocking tone. you gulped, not wanting to respond to flash's irrelevant question.

"hey, loser, i'm talking to you," he nudged your arm with his elbow and you held the urge to grab it and flip his whole body upside down. it's not like you couldn't—you had the skills, obviously— but it's the fact that you didn't want to get in trouble for that.

you ended up keeping quiet, like you always did whenever the boy taunted you. peter taught you to do just that. if it were up to you, flash's stupid face wouldn't even dare to show itself in front of you anymore.

speaking of peter, he was nowhere to be seen by now. you internally rolled your eyes. it had only been two minutes and they were already gone. peter was probably showing them around the place. you had no idea how your teacher didn't notice the three of them missing from your group. you were so going to kill them for ditching you and leaving you alone when they knew they were your only friends. they were also the reason why flash still had his head to this day because they'd stop you from doing anything rash. now you weren't sure if flash would be safe from your fury.

"you probably work here as a cleaner on the weekends or something, huh? that's the only way people here would know you," flash jeered. you let out a breath, trying to control your anger towards the boy.

you rolled your eyes, opting to deliberately ignore his insults and walk away instead, hoping you'll bump into those three idiots of friends of yours.

"did you just ignore me?" flash asked incredulously, as if it was a crime to ignore his annoying ass. he pulled you back by your back collar, effectively halting you in your spot.

by instinct, you grabbed his hand that was on your collar, twisting it and turning his whole body around, pinning him against the wall with his twisted arm pressed against his back. it happened in just two seconds which totally caught flash off guard, the boy groaning in pain as he begged you to let him free.

you could hear a series of gasps from all around you and you internally groaned. this is why you always ignored flash's taunting. you didn't want to attract attention to yourself and have people wonder how you could defend yourself so well. but flash just had to provoke you. especially here, out of all places.

"what's going on here?" you heard a familiar voice ask and you sighed.

"oh my gosh! it's the black widow!"

"miss romanoff!"

"oh my gosh, i'm gonna need to get a picture for my mum later, she's gonna freak out!"

you stepped away from flash, releasing him as he dramatically kept rubbing at his arm. as if you even put that much pressure. flash smirked, seeing this as a chance to complain about you to an official avenger.

"this girl right here," flash points an accusing finger at you with a glare, like he wasn't just practically begging for his life twenty seconds ago. "attacked me."

you rolled your eyes, unamused. "i hardly attacked him." you told nat. the woman turned to you, an eyebrow raised as she gave you a knowing look. "this...?" she trailed off and you nodded, knowing what she was insinuating. you'd told her about flash one too many times for her not to immediately figure out who he is from a crowd of students.

"flash thompson. heard a lot about you," she turned to the boy. flash's face lit up, thinking he must've made a name for himself or something that even the black widow knew him. little did he know he did, but not for good reasons.

"i would prefer if you stop messing with y/n/n." nat gave him a sharp look and that grin was immediately wiped off his face. "i– y/n/n?" he stuttered, confused that the natasha romanoff is calling you by a nickname.

"you do know she can kick your ass if she wanted to, right? she's been silent all this while because she didn't want to hurt you but you just never seem to learn, huh?" nat took slow, calculated steps towards him until she was towering over him.

"she doesn't need anyone to protect her because she's fully capable of that but i'm just here to warn you, kid, that she, is not to be meddled with. i'm saying this for your own good, flash thompson. she's capable of much worse than whatever she just did to you. so if i hear you messing around with her or any of her friends," she pauses before continuing with a whisper. "i'll close one eye on whatever she wants to do with you."

you wished you could've taken a picture of the dead scared look on flash's face; it was priceless. you turned to nat once she stepped away from him and she put an arm around your shoulder, leading you both away from the watching crowd.

"i–i'm sorry, miss romanoff," you could hear one of your teachers say and nat stopped, effectively stopping you too as she had you in her hold. "but miss y/l/n is on a learning journey with us and she'll miss the tour of the tower if she leaves with you. we'll be discussing a lot regarding this trip in class and she won't understand what we talk about if she misses this tour. i hope you understand." he spoke nervously.

"with all due respect, y/n's seen the whole tower already," she smiles at him but you could tell it was fake. "even the avengers' residential floors which are closed to the public and most employees of the tower."

your teacher looked at her wide-eyed, mouth open but nothing coming out. nat smiles a fake one once again. "now if you'll excuse us, the both of us have avenger duties to attend to."

gasps could be heard all around you and in the midst of it all, your best friends came back and you made eye contact with them, all of them having the same shocked look on their face.

"avenger duties?! nat, what are you doing?!" you whisper-yelled at the woman who seemed to be enjoying the reactions of your classmates and teachers.

"y/n!" peter ran over to you, your other friends following suit. "oh, um hi miss romanoff," he greets shyly. "thanks a lot, guys, look what happened." you spoke sarcastically, rolling your eyes at them. nat proceeded to drag you away from your friends and the last thing you saw was them mouthing apologies and you half-heartedly mouthing to them back that it was fine.

"relax, y/n/n, the public were about to find out soon anyways." nat said nonchalantly. "what?!" you exclaimed once you two were in a different hallway.

"yeah, you're gonna have press this weekend for this. we're gonna officially announce you to the world as an avenger." she once again says nonchalantly, as if this wasn't the first time you were hearing this. "wait, wait, wait, seriously?" you asked in disbelief. no one had told you anything.

"yeah, i—ohh yeah, you don't know yet," nat remembers and you give her an unimpressed look. she wasn't usually this dumb; she only showed this side of her to you. "sorry, i uh, yeah.. i was supposed to come get you for this. meeting with fury and the rest, yknow?" she tells you and you nodded slowly, taking in the information.

"but tell me it didn't feel good that you got to do that to flash," the woman states excitedly and you playfully rolled your eyes at her. "you got to do something. i'm practically an empty threat to him," you stated matter-of-factly.

"not after this weekend you're not. he'll be afraid of you after. that's what you get for being a smelly bully." you couldn't help the little smile on your face. she really sounded like a child right now and it was adorable.

"alright, natty, whatever you say. let's go before fury releases his fury." you look at her hopefully, waiting for her to laugh at your joke which she responded with an unimpressed look. that of course didn't work as you two burst out laughing looking at each other's faces.

you walked alongside her, the woman resting an arm around your shoulder. you smiled up at her as she talked about her day.

god, you couldn't wait to be able to finally walk out in public with these people you considered family.

taglist <3

@amourtentiaa @rqmanoff @abitofeverythinggg @andreasworlsboring101 @cay-writes-fan-fiction514 @teenwonder @sevenmorningstars @fleurlovesbucky @marauvdersfate

#marvel x teen!reader #avengers x reader #avengers x teen!reader #natasha romanoff x teen!reader #avengers #avenger!reader #mcu x teen!reader #mcu x reader #avengers x avenger!reader #natasha romanoff x avenger!reader #peter parker x reader

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fific7 · 3 years

Text

Dangerous and Divine - Part 16

Billy Russo x Reader

Summary: Billy Russo is an itch you don’t want to scratch. But he’s all over you like a rash.

A/N: This does not follow canon, it’s mainly fluff & lemon zest 🍋 The GIF is from Exposed, unreleased pilot show in case you’re wondering 😌... Billy vibes.

Warnings: 18+ NSFW due to mentions of sex. Some drinking & swearing.

(My GIF)

So... after your heart-rate slowed back down to normal, you realised that, no matter how much you possibly empathised about Billy dropping her, there was no way you were going to sit back and let Madani keep coming after your man. She’d have a fight on her hands, that you could promise her.

You were trying to concentrate on your paperwork, you really were. But your mind kept circling back to Madani. Coming to a decision, you stood up and grabbed your things. Making your way downstairs, you walked through the café, stopping to let your team know that you’d be out for a while.

Getting on the subway, you made your way to Homeland HQ and asked the receptionist if you could speak to Agent Madani, specifying that you’d meet her there in Reception. You weren’t going to meet her in private, that was for damn sure. The receptionist made a call, then asked you to take a seat.

After a fifteen-minute wait, Madani and her heels came clicking their way over to you. Her eyebrows were presently in a permanently raised position. Standing up, you nodded to her and forced yourself to say civilly, “Good morning, Agent Madani.”

She nodded back at you, lips pursed. “You realise that approaching me while you have an active complaint against me is not correct procedure.”

Shrugging, you replied, “About as correct as you approaching Billy and asking him to meet you.” She flinched back, and you realised she didn’t think he would’ve told you. You carried on, “Agent Madani, this has got to stop. I feel you’re just going to keep on contacting him regardless, and you’re just going to keep getting rejected.” She opened her mouth to reply, but you held up your hand, “Hear me out, please. Look, I get it, I really do - you thought you might have something going for you with Billy. Then you find out he’s met someone else and he drops you. And I’m sorry about that. I wouldn’t be happy about that if it happened to me.”

She glanced round quickly to check there was no-one within earshot, before glaring back at you, but you carried on nevertheless, “I know you don’t believe this, but Billy and I do have a relationship, a real relationship - and yes, it’s all happened very quickly but sometimes that’s just how things do happen.” Folding her arms across herself, she huffed and said, “You’re right I don’t believe it. Billy Russo is the biggest damn player in New York City and if you think you’ve tied him down, you’re more of a fool than I thought. A damn naive, stupid, oblivious little fool.”

You nodded, “Uhuh... well, I thought a woman-to-woman talk about it might help, but I guess it’s obvious where you stand, and you’re not budging.” You started moving away, “Well, if I’m a fool then fine! - I’m a fool. That’ll be my problem to sort out. Bye, Agent Madani.” Turning, you made your way out of the building without a backward glance.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy was slowly swinging from one side to the other in his chair. His head was lying back against the headrest and his eyes gazed up at the ceiling. He was daydreaming about his girl, something he found himself doing more and more often these days. Thinking back to his visit to her office that morning, a slight smile curved over his lips. He loved it when she initiated sex. Not only did it give a big boost to his male ego - that he couldn’t deny - but it made him go all soft inside. To him, it meant that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, meant it wasn’t him starting things all the time. That’s what he was used to, after all. He’d always been the one in control.

He chuckled to himself, what in the fuck was happening to him? He was turning into a big gooey mess of a man. Shaking his head, he stood up and wandered over to the glass wall, looking down onto the training area below. He’d better get a grip of himself or one of the newbies would get one over on him, and he couldn’t have that.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

You made it back to Chelsea shortly after your unproductive meeting with Madani. Slamming your office door behind you and flouncing over to your desk, you plopped down into your chair, dropping your bag down beside you.

That obtuse bloody woman!!! And she called you a fool! Pot and kettle, love, you thought, pot and bloody kettle. Now you were going to have to admit to Billy that you’d also met up with her, and all for nothing - a complete and utter waste of time. Oh well, at least you’d tried. Not your fault she couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

But if she chased after Billy just once more, you wouldn’t be responsible for your actions - Homeland agent or not.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Madani was quietly stewing back in her office. How dare she try to do the sister act thing, ‘I get it, I really do’ .....just who does she think she is?! Miss Bloody Perfect.

She would just bide her time. There was no way on god’s green earth that Billy Russo would stay faithful to her, it just wasn’t happening.

He’d damn well admitted he’d been attracted to her. That was enough for her, to grasp onto that small sliver of hope and hold onto it tight.

And when he did fall off the Faithful Wagon, she’d make sure she was there to see it. And to catch him as he fell.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

After texting Billy to say you quite fancied a Vietnamese takeaway this evening, you went down into the café a little later on and had a long chat with Jake, catching him up on the Scorned Woman Situation. He started making you a macchiato, commenting, “She just really doesn’t get it, does she?” You leant closer to him, saying in a low voice, “The thing is, she’s succeeded in planting a seed of doubt in my head.” “What... about Billy?” You nodded, looking down. “He did have quite the reputation before he met me you know, Jake.”

He nodded, “You said. Are you thinking a leopard can’t change its spots?” You sighed, taking the small cup and saucer from him, “Well, yeah. She keeps saying he won’t stay faithful to me, hell - she even said it to his face! And... it is making me worry, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. Everything’s fine now, but what if he gets bored? Sees a pretty face out and about somewhere, feels what he says he feels about me for them?”

Jake shrugged, “But that’s the test any relationship faces. You can’t play it out on ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’. Just gotta go with ‘the here and now’. Don’t you?” Nodding, you sipped your coffee before laughing, “What you say is true, oh Yoda.” He laughed, “I am wise beyond my years, little one!” You heard the café door opening behind you, and Jake chuckled, “And talk of the devil...!” Turning your head, you saw Billy homing in on you, big smile on his face and eyes glued to you. Jake whispered, “That looks like a pretty faithful doggy to me!”

You subtly elbowed him, before fully turning to Billy and smiling back. “Hello, handsome,” you greeted him, and you were surprised to see Billy’s face go a slight shade of pink. “Hi, beautiful,” he said back, before leaning down and kissing you shyly. His hand slid down your side and took hold of your fingers, lacing his with yours, eyes gazing into yours. Okay, you thought, I know I’ve been ribbing him about being a big sap but this is a whole new level of sappiness.

You drained the last of your coffee, and said to Jake, “I’m taking off now, Jakey boy, you OK to close up?” He mock-bowed, “But of course, my Princess.” You caught an irritated look on Billy’s face and smiled to yourself, he really was a jealous ass. With or without good reason.

You nipped back upstairs to get your things and when you came back down, you saw Jake and Billy almost facing off against each other, eyes glaring. What the....? You walked quickly over to them, “Hey, guys?” They broke eye contact, Jake looking embarrassed as he met your eyes, “Uhh... have a nice evening.” You swung round to Billy, who was studying his shoes with great interest. “Okay, Jake - thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Billy’s head came up, “No! She won’t be in tomorrow.”

“What? Now, Billy, you know I’m always in the cafés on Saturday mornings,” you said with a hint of warning in your voice. He looked back at Jake, “I’ve got plans for tomorrow. You can cope, can’t you?” Jake bristled, “Of course I can!” Billy looked back at you, “See? All under control. Just for once, have a Saturday off, please sweetheart.” You looked at Jake, who just smiled at you, so you nodded, “OK, just this once, Russo.” Billy smirked in triumph and took your hand, pulling you along with him towards the door as you waved at Jake.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy almost dragged his girl out of the café, before that bastard Jake could say anything else. Who did that cheeky little shit think he was, trying to give him the “don’t hurt her or you’ll answer to me for it” speech! Her fuckin’ father or something?!

He was seething, but trying to hide it. Once they were both in the car and pulling out into the traffic, she turned slightly towards him, and he could feel her eyes boring into him, “Okay, Russo - spill.”

Sighing, he looked in his rear view mirror as he changed lanes and replied, “Your little pal back there started coming on like your Dad or big brother or sumthin’. Givin’ me the whole “if you mess her around I’ll come after you” spiel.”

Oh Jake, you thought, you numbskull. He meant well but.... obviously Billy hadn’t been impressed. You heaved a sigh and Billy glanced over at you, before making a right turn and swinging the car into his building’s underground parking lot.

“Look, that was my fault,” you said, as he parked up in his space and turned off the engine. He glanced over at you, “What d’ya mean, angel?” he asked as he unbuckled his seat belt, before opening his door and walking round to open yours. “Well... uhh, I went to see Madani this morning.” He was in the process of taking your hand as you got out of the car, but stopped and looked at you, mouth open. “You did what?” You slammed the car door. “Billy! I’m sick of her chasing after you!” He raised the remote and bleeped the car locked.

“Angel, you gotta be careful with her, she’s looking for ammo to fire back at us!” You nodded, “I know that. I met her in Reception so it was in public. I thought I’d try the woman-to-woman chat.” He took your hand in his as you both started walking to the lift doors. “Did it work?” he asked. “No it didn’t! She’s the most obtuse, stubborn woman I’ve come across in a long time.” “Uh-huh, that she definitely is. Tell me what you said to her?” The lift arrived and the doors opened, you and Billy walking into it. “Well, I told her that I got it. She thought she was gonna get somewhere with you, and you dropped her. I said I wouldn’t have been happy either. But that it had to stop, as she was just going to keep getting rejected.”

Billy chuckled, “Oh my, that must’ve gone down well.” You laughed, “She doesn’t believe we have an actual relationship, she said you were the biggest player in NYC and you’d never stay faithful to me. I get the feeling she’s gonna hang around just willing it to happen.” Billy tightened his grip on your hand, stroking your hair with his other hand, then your cheek. Before he could speak, you jumped in with, “And I might’ve admitted to Jake that she’d managed to plant that seed of doubt in my mind.” He closed his eyes, putting his head back against the lift wall. “Angel, please don’t be listenin’ to her bullshit!”

The lift doors opened, and you both began walking along to his apartment door. He suddenly stopped, wrapping his arms around you and kissing you hard. He pulled back, his dark eyes looking pained as he gazed at you, “You know she’s just tryin’ to stir things up between us, don’t you? That’s what she wants, for you to question me and my behaviour, to be suspicious of me, for us to argue.” He kissed you again, before burying his face in your hair, “Well, I ain’t gonna let that happen, sweetheart,” you heard, “....she ain’t gonna come between us. I will be faithful to you, I promise. Don’t want anyone else.”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

After a very tasty and spicy Vietnamese meal which Billy had ordered in, you both lazed on the sofa nursing your beers. He was looking at you anxiously every so often, and eventually he burst out, “I swear to you on all that’s holy, I’ll keep it in my pants!” He was gazing at you, eyes wide and deep and dark and full of fear. Yes, fear. You reached over and laid your hand along his bristly cheek, “It’s okay, Billy! I believe you, poppet.” The smirk was back, “Uh, not with the poppet thing again!”

You laughed, “Yes! You’re my big sexy poppet.” Eyebrow wiggle, “Well, when you put it like that,” and your hand was lifted up and then placed under his sweatshirt, onto his lower abdomen, where you could stroke the treasure trail of hairs leading ever downwards to his ‘crown jewels’. “Mmmm,” he smiled, eyes closing, “....you gonna keep going, sweetheart?” You didn’t bother replying, just slid your hand further down and under the waistband of his briefs. You still marvelled at how big and hard Billy got, and you very happily took hold of what was clearly marked as ‘your property’ as far as you were concerned.

You relished the feel of his velvety skin and gave him a couple of very firm strokes, before cupping his balls in the palm of your other hand and squeezing. You were pleased to hear a long, low groan from Billy and looked up at him, seeing that his eyes were tight shut in pleasure.

“So, Billy,” you asked, “...what’re these plans you’ve got that are so important I had to take Saturday off?” He opened his eyes and grinned at you, “Can’t possibly tell ya, it’s a surprise.” You took a much firmer grip of him and his hips jerked forward, “Are you sure about that, Billy?” He laughed nervously, but replied, “Very sure, sweetheart.”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

@blackbirddaredevil23 @galaxyjane @omgrachwrites @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @ourloveisforthelovely @swthxrry

#ben barnes #billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo fanfiction #billy russo imagine

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giuliafc · 3 years

Text

Betrayal Chapter 10: Panic!

<< 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 9 -- 10: Ao3 || FFN -- 11 >>

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta: Coffeebanana, Agrestebug, and Myimaginationflows

Summary: Chat Noir has a panic attack waiting for his detransformation and reveal, and Marinette tries to calm him down. Queen Bee has a mishap! (987 words)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Written for the "Snippet July" challenge of the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server @miraculousfanworks AND for LadyNoir July @ladynoirjuly Day 21 — Prejudice/roommates. Let me know what you think!

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Damn you, Lila!" groaned Chat Noir.

Volpina smirked. "I'm Volpina. Don't waste effort trying to break free; save your energy for what Jacques has in store for you!"

The black-clad superhero growled at Volpina's cackle, but soon lowered his head, not a word coming out of his mouth.

"Finally, you're quiet." Volpina mocked triumphantly as her flute started beeping. She was surprised to see Queen Bee's face on a holographic screen when she opened her communicator. "What's going on?", she asked hastily.

"The slimy fox has escaped!" exclaimed Queen Bee with a little pout on her face.

Volpina stomped her foot. "One job! I gave you ONE JOB! To watch over that stupid reporter. And what do you do? Not even half an hour later, you lose her! What kind of idiot are you?"

Unseen by Volpina, Marinette smirked and exchanged looks with Chat Noir, who nodded to her with a panicky gleam into his eyes. Suddenly, Papillon's mask appeared on Lila's face.

"No! I want to be the one to take the ring off Chat Noir's finger," argued the fox villain. The mask shined brighter and after a moment that felt endless, Volpina lowered her head. "Okay. I'll take care of it. But it doesn't end here, Queen Bee. Mess it up again and our deal is over!" She hung up the communicator and jumped onto the window sill. "Jacques is still watching you, Chat Noir. No funny business. I'll be back ASAP." That said, she disappeared out of sight.

The sentimonster folded its arms over its chest and stared, a lingering smirk popping up at the edges of its mouth.

Marinette grabbed a firm hold of the bars of her cage and gritted her teeth under the sentimonster's cold stare. "I can't believe my prejudices about Chloé were correct," she groaned. "I was so doubtful when the events of Miracle Queen happened, I wanted to believe she could change, but something inside kept telling me that it was impossible. I was right."

Chat Noir eyed the sentimonster and nodded. When his gaze met hers, Marinette noticed that the panic in his eyes hadn't faltered. She had to calm him down or he might do something rash.

"Alya will help, Chaton. We'll be okay!" Her voice trembled, as if she too doubted her words. "I need to believe that we will," she added. Her voice cracked a little, her cheeks shining with tears.

"Don't cry, Purr-incess. We're going to win, as usual. And this time we'll defeat Papillombre for good." But even he didn't believe what he'd said. The room was wrapped in an awkward silence, only broken by the rhythmical tik-tok of a large clock perched on the wall behind them. Chat Noir's Miraculous beeped. He cursed under his breath—he'd been so busy worrying about their situation that he'd forgotten about his timer. His breath caught at the sound as his face drained of blood.

"What are you going to do when Papillombre is defeated, Chaton? Will you stay home or…"

"I don't know," he muttered. "I may need to leave the country. You know, I'll only have two relatives left, and they…" He eyed the sentimonster. "...don't live here."

"Maybe we can convince your relatives to keep you here?" Marinette's hands flattened on the bars of the cage, as if trying to push on a non-existent wall. "Maybe we can live together. Share a place, you know?" She blushed to the roots of her hair. Stealing a quick look, she noticed how red his own face was at the suggestion.

"Y-you mean like roommates?" he whispered, sounding out of breath.

"Y-yeah. Of course. Roommates. Yep. we can share… a r—an apartment. Yes. Waking up in the morning, making breakfast for the two of us, watching TV until it's late at night and playing video games when we're bored of the TV." She sighed and shot him a languid look that caused him to gulp dryly. "We're going to have fun, Chaton. I'll teach you everything you don't know."

"Cooking?" asked Chat Noir, his nose glued to the bars as his pleading gaze met her hopeful one.

"Baking," she told him with a smile. He beamed at her and her smile widened. "I'm not the daughter of the best baker in Paris for nothing.You'll learn from the best, so you'll be great in no time!"

"We can get a piano for the apartment, right?" asked Chat Noir after having stayed quiet for a long instant, eyes still closed, his forehead resting against one of the bars.

"Of course, Minou. What do you want the piano for?"

"I can teach you to play." He looked at her, a radiant smile on his lips that made Marinette's heart drum furiously in her throat. "And Chinese. I can teach you that too, as I promised in Shanghai. Sorry I never managed to do that before."

"Don't worry." She smiled softly. "So that's the deal right? I teach you baking and life skills, and you teach me Chinese and how to play piano? Sounds like an excellent agreement, Chaton. We're going to be purr-fect roommates!"

He smirked. "Was that a pun, purr-incess?"

She smirked back. "Your humour must be starting to rub off me. Oh no! How am I going to survive sharing a place with a dork like you?" They laughed, but as they did, Chat Noir's Miraculous beeped a bit louder. Only one paw left; he knew his time was coming. He eyed the sentimonster as a shiver ran down his spine. Just another minute and his father would know that he’d worked against him. His stomach twisted as the Miraculous beeped one last time and a blob of green energy ran through his body.

The sentimonster's eyes widened. "Adrien?" it whispered. "I can't believe it."

Adrien's face was as white as a sheet, as if someone butchered his heart out of his chest. "Hello, Father."

To be continued… Day 22

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

Author's Note

Ehrm… yes I know. Cliffhanger!

Let me know what you thought of the chapter! It was hard to fit the prompt with where the story was at this point, but I think I managed to do it. A comment would be appreciated! You know that comments are my bread and butter!

Until (hopefully) tomorrow, bug out!

#miraculous ladynoir #miraculous love square #miraculous lb #miraculous les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #miraculous adrien #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #miraculous nathalie #nathalie sancoeur #ladynoirjuly2021 #miraculous fanworks

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saffronwritings · 4 years

Text

MonoChrome Hues

An AU where everyone can see colors except a very rare few and only get to see colors when they meet their soulmates.

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader

Warnings: Cursing?

“How is he going to become a pro-hero if he can’t see colors?” Snickered another student that had passed by the grumpy Katsuki Bakugou. His usual scowl turned further south as he heard the other UA students talking about him. “Must suck being only to see in black and white and having to guess everything.” Another one said under their breath. Bakugou slammed his hands onto the lunch table. “IF YOU EXTRAS GOT SOMETHING TO SAY THEN COME SAY IT TO MY FACE.” He shouted towards the mocking students. They shrunk away in fear and headed to the other side of the lunchroom. “Stupid extras thinking they can talk about me behind their back.” He sneered.

“Don’t listen to them Bakugou, you’re as manly as any one of them,” Kirishima reassured him. You wished you could build up the courage to talk to the brash boy in the hero studies. You were curious about him ever since you heard about his monochrome vision. Half the population was born with monochrome while the other had an extraordinary colored vision. It was rare that someone born with monochrome vision got into UA, let alone the hero program. “Earth to Y/N. You’re off in wonderland again.” My classmate said trying to get my attention back to them.

“Ah, sorry! I spaced out again.” You mentioned while trying to play it off like you were not staring at one of class 1-A’s star pupils. “We’re getting ready to head back to class, are you joining us?” They asked, standing up from the cafeteria table. “Oh, yeah! I’m coming.” You stuttered, quickly grabbing my lunch tray. You took one last glance up towards the angered Bakugou and made direct contact. You yelped in embarrassment before quickly turning away with your friends.

“Oi!” Bakugou shouted. Before you could turn completely around, he was halfway towards you. Your friends formed a protective barrier around you. “What do you want, Bakugou.” Your best friend Shizue snarled at him. “Tell your little friend to stop staring. Tell her to take a picture, it will last her longer. I am sure you guys are just like the rest of these sidekicks who think it is funny that I cannot see color! But you’ll all be kissing up to me WHEN I BECOME THE NUMBER ONE HERO.” Bakugou shouted towards your friend group, getting progressively louder.

“Common man, let’s go before you cause a scene and get detention again for blasting the cafeteria,” Kirishima said, putting a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder. “Shut up shitty-hair!” He scoffed before turning back towards the direction he came from and snatched his lunch tray up. You could hear his palms crackling within the silent cafeteria. “Are you alright, Y/N?” Shizue asked, turning around to face you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just startled is all.” You mutter, replaying the event in your head. Assessing the look of frustration on his face. If only he knew that you were more intrigued by his vision than you were judging him for it. You shook your head of your thoughts and followed your classmates back to your general studies class.

You could not seem to focus fully on the teacher’s lesson after lunch. You kept replaying the encounter with Bakugou over and over. You would not admit it, but you definitely had a crush on the boy ever since you laid eyes on him. However, your friends would never approve of you going after such a rough guy. He was not the most charming, but you could tell under his rough exterior was someone who just wanted someone to understand his struggles.

After class, you declined your friend’s offer to stay late to study for an upcoming exam you were all dreading. You gave them the excuse that your mother wanted you home early to help her cook dinner. This could not have been further from the truth, your mother always made soba on Thursdays. As much as your mother appreciated your help while cooking dinner, she preferred to make the soba herself. You were hoping to catch Bakugou at the front gate to apologize for your rude behavior during lunch.

You did not even bother stopping at your locker to grab your assignments. You rushed towards the front entrance, scanning the crowds for the crazy-haired blonde. So far, he was not in sight; you were hoping you had not missed him. “Oi! Did you not get enough of a preview in lunch?” You heard his voice snarl from behind you. You turned around to see Bakugou more annoyed than he was at lunch. His hands were crackling and popping as if he was ready to blow a fuse.

“Wait! I came to apologize!” You shouted, putting your hands in front of yourself in defense. Your quirk was nothing in comparison to anyone in the class of 1-A. “Like hell you are!” He spit back out. “I want to help!” The words came out faster than you intended for them too. This took Bakugou off guard, before snapping back into his angered state. “You, a useless sidekick wants to help me?” He sneered, but the corner of his mouth twitched as if trying not to smile.

“Sure sidekick, you want to help? I will bite. You have piqued my interest. Let us take a walk.” He stated, almost walking into you. You got out of his way and followed behind him. He led you down the road from UA down towards the park that was still in bloom with cherry blossoms. Your eyes widened at the sight as you gazed in awe at the vibrant pink colors. You went up to one of the low hanging branches and picked off a few of the flowers, tucking one into your hair.

You turned to Bakugou who was staring at you, almost curious before he realized you caught him staring at you. He then turned his head away quickly with a “tch” coming out of his mouth quickly. You took the opportunity to quickly move towards him and put the cherry blossom flower in his hair. “What the hell!” He shouted. “Calm down. Cherry blossoms are meant for good luck and fortune.” You smiled, finishing tucking the flower behind his ear.

A blush spread across his face as he turned away from you. “What did you mean you can help me, sidekick?” He demanded to know. You used your quirk, Glitch, to teleport in front of him. “I’m going to describe colors to you!” You smiled at him. He sneered at the thought. “Good luck, my mother already tried that when I was younger.” He said, almost defeated.

“Did she tell you that your eyes are red? The color of rage and extreme excitement?” You asked, making him perk his head up. “Crimson as your determination to become the number one hero.” You mused, making the blush on his face return. “She told me they were red.” He huffed, trying to ignore what else you said about his eyes. “Your hair is such a golden blonde, almost like sand but not as dull. It’s soft to look at, unlike your friend Kaminari’s.” You laughed, making a smile twitch on Bakugou’s face.

“Alright, alright. I get it. I will enlist your help for now sidekick. I do not hate your presence as much as I thought I would. You’re more tolerable than my other friends.” He proposed, crossing his arms. “Great! I have to head back to the school and grab my stuff, but I’ll see you around Bakugou.” You stated, nodding your head towards him. You turned around to start heading back towards the school before you heard his famous, “Oi!”.

A smile was plastered on your face as you turned around to meet his annoyed gaze. “I need to know what else to call you. You know, besides sidekick.” He huffed. “L/N Y/N. You can just call me, Y/N though. I’ll see you tomorrow!” You told him before heading off. Almost thought you saw the boy smile as you rounded the corner.

…

After your encounter with Bakugou, you would find him asking him questions about the colors of different things throughout the next two weeks. He was amazed to find out that Todoroki’s hair was half red instead of black, he told you he was not surprised that Midoriya’s hair and eyes were green, and that, of course, Kirishima’s hair was obnoxious. You enjoyed sharing this information with Bakugou as he seemed to really appreciate the information. Ever since that first day in the cafeteria, he was a lot less rash with you.

It was not until one day during your lunch period he approached your table with your friends from your general studies class when things got interesting. “Hey, Y/N, I have a question, can you come here?” Bakugou asked once he got your attention. “Yeah, sure.” You answered, before catching a glimpse of your best friend Shizue’s face. You waved her off like you were fine and followed the blonde out of the cafeteria. “Do you mind meeting me in front of the gates again today? I want you to explain the colors of the park to me.” He half asked, half demanded.

You smiled at his request and nodded your head. “Sure thing, I’ll make sure to grab my stuff before I head out of the school this time.” You informed him, making him roll his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He sneered before walking back to the cafeteria.

…

You saw that Bakugou was waiting for you outside of the school gates. “You’re early,” You mused at him. He huffed and started to walk towards the park. “I hate to admit it, but I do appreciate you attempting to explain color to me. While I may not be able to actually see them, I can only imagine how beautiful your world must be. I’m envious of you.” He said in a monotone voice that was hard to read. “If you are trying to thank you, then there is no need. I wish I could understand what it was like for you.” You said, dismissing his thoughts.

“Hey, I’m trying to thank you, sidekick.” He sneered, grabbing your hand to pull you to a stop. You felt a weird sensation that you swore was your quirk. For a few seconds, your vision blurred. You closed them tight to hopefully adjust your sight. When you opened them back up colors were no longer there. Everything was in black and white. You gasped as you took a look around you.

This is what Bakugou must have seen all along.

“Are you able to pass on your monochrome vision to others?” You asked in astonishment. “Not that I’m aware of.” You turned to see that Bakugou was kneeling on the ground with his hand on his head. “Are you hurt?” You asked, kneeling next to him. Suddenly, you felt another weird sensation and your eyes blurred again. When you opened your eyes the next time, your vision returned back to normal. You saw Bakugou’s bright red eyes staring at you.

Except for this time, they were staring in awe. “Your eyes are stunning.” He breathed out. He whipped his head around and almost immediately fell back over. “Oh my god, Bakugou can you see color?” You asked, covering your mouth in amazement. Tears formed at his eyes as he was taking in everything. He nodded his head before turning away so you could not see his expression.

“Is this your quirk?” He asked after a moment’s silence. “No, I can glitch myself to teleport. Not change visions.” You told him. Before you could process it, Bakugou had his hand behind your neck and pulled your face quickly to his. Your lips pressed firmly to his. You could feel your body temperature raise up immediately. When he pulled away from the kiss, you felt dazed. “What was that for?” You asked as you could feel the blush spreading across your face.

“Payment for showing me color for the first time.”

A/N: Also I do not own the banner and if you want me to credit you let me know!!

#bnha fanfiction #bnha #bnha bakugou #bnha katsuki #bnha oneshots #bnha x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugou katuski x reader #reader x bakugou #mha #mha imagines #my hero academia x reader #my fics #boku no hero academia #bnhafluff #mha fluff #mha oneshots #katsuki bakugo

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elfy-elf-imagines · 4 years

Text

Used to Be Mine P.II | Finrod

Pairing: Finrod x Human!Reader

Genre: some angst; fluff

Warnings: implied mention of suicide (very tiny mention)

Requested: Yes, but so far back idk if the original requester is even reading this

Prompt: --

Words: ~3k

It was cold that night. Not the, ‘the stars are out and the wind is gently blowing against me’, but the obnoxious kind where the wind was aggressively smacking against you as your hair blew all over the place. The kind that left bitter kisses all over your skin that would only be remedied with a velvet soft blanket and an even warmer person to snuggle closer with. But you only had a fur lined cloak and the distant memories of a roaring hearth. Perhaps running away in the middle of the night in the dead winter wasn’t a smart decision, but your mind was far too cloudy to make sound choices.

You’d hurt Finrod, you knew you had. It felt like a barbed arrow had pierced through your chest everytime you wandered too close to civilization, seeing dozens of postings offering mountains of gold to anyone who had information on you. It felt like a thousand tiny blades were piercing your skin when you‘d look at the stars, only to be reminded of Finrod’s eyes that shined like ten thousand stars. Or when the sun's rays would dare be so radiant and bright, nearly enough to blind you, and remind you of the warmth and comfort his smile brought you. Only for that to be ripped away when you were left alone in the cold

There wasn’t a day you didn’t consider turning around. Every night you’d relive your fondest memories with him, feeling his phantom touches that would wrap around you, hearing his voice whisper to you in elvish as you drift off. And every morning, even as you set off further and further away from him you’d mentally prepare a grand and emotional speech to recite to Finrod in hopes of earning his forgiveness. But you didn’t. You didn’t even dare to look behind you most days, because if you did, you knew you’d crack.

But you weren’t ready to face that yet, instead opting to increase the distance like a coward.

So you stood by the still river, watching the reflection of the stars in the water. Your camp fire rapidly burned behind you, casting everything in a warm glow, but doing little to nothing about the freezing cold. So entranced by your own thoughts, living in a fantasy that was just out of reach, you didn’t hear anything amiss. Until it was too late.

“Y/N.” a voice called from behind you, a voice you’d recognize anywhere. You froze in your place, back stiff as a board. Your heart hammered in your chest, so loud you were sure he could hear it clear as day. You know it’s him, it couldn’t be anyone but him. However there was a shadow of a doubt in the back of your head. That nasty voice that shouted to you he wasn’t really here, that this is just one big hallucination.

Needing confirmation, you turn your body, your hands that lie limp at your sides shaking like autumn leaves falling from the trees. And for a moment you hope that the little part of your brain was right, prayed that Finrod wasn’t standing before you. You didn’t want to have to face the consequences of your rash actions, to see first hand how much damage you did. Yet there he was, regal and ethereal as ever, however something seemed… off.

His pale skin that usually glowed with otherworldliness - something that clearly separated him from morals - seemed dim. He was still pale, yes, but not like the pale light that washed over the world when the moon came out or the scintillating glow of the distant stars, but more like the dead. His skin looked sallow and aged, deep set bags surrounding his eyes that looked like her ran a stick of coal under them. But worst of all was his eyes. His sapphire blue eyes that used to glitter like thousands of diamonds were dull and tired and defeated. You always knew what he was feeling or thinking just by looking into his eyes, and now you wish you hadn’t.

But hidden in the depths of the sea of despair he seemed to be drowning in, there was a slight sparkle to them. A small smile tugs on his lips, but it isn’t filled with the usual radiance he carried himself with, this one looked… exhausted, like it took all his willpower to keep himself together.

Taking all of this in, your heart stopped and your breath got caught in your throat. Your mouth grew drier than any desert as you watched him. Time seemed to grow still, seconds that used to tick by rapidly halt until it feels like a century before anything changes. You open and close your mouth, unsure of what to say. What could you say? It was written all over his face the effect you had on him when you left.

“How did you find me here?” The words finally manage to leave your mouth, your voice hoarse and quiet. You continue to watch him, unblinking.

“You always did like to be near the water. It was not difficult to find you when I began to follow the river,” he said. His voice, normally soothing and musical, the way you often imagined the gods themselves talked like, was rough and scratchy.

“I did always talk about the water, I suppose,”

The two of you stood there, silence enveloping you. It was awkward and tense. Once again you felt yourself growing antsy as the guilt crept up inside of you.

“Why did you--”

“I’m sor--”

Each of you speak simultaneously, cutting yourselves off upon hearing the other speak. It grew silent once more, the weight of your guilt burying you deeper and deeper into the ground.

“You go first,” you finally muttered, sure that the noise would be carried off with the ferocious wind. But elves always did have keener ears than the race of Man.

“Why did you leave?” he said. His words made you flinch, like a dog being scolded by its owner. Not because of any fury or fire in his words, the exact opposite actually. His tone was quiet and gentle, soothing enough to lull you to sleep right then and there. But maybe that’s what hurt most, he wasn’t angry with you, but hurt; hurt that you ran away from him.

It was stupid, you thought. And shame burned bright red on your face, embarrassed that you wrecked his heart so quickly when you took the easy way out rather than facing the problems head on. At least then, he would’ve known you weren’t happy and had an understanding of why you’d leave.

“I’m sorry. It just got too much, I guess.” you muttered as your eyes traced the forest floor a dozen times over, anything to keep your gaze from his.

“What became too much, mime úrin ar elena?” he asked. You couldn’t help but notice the substantial amount of distance between you, like an invisible barrier he refused to pull down. It hurt, like a knife to the gut, but it was understandable. A part of you wished he’d left you to wallow in your guilt and pain forever, but he deserved closure, even if you didn’t.

“Would it be too vague to say everything? I just-- I’m not made for high court, and this only proves it,” you said, trying to put more vigor into your words. Maybe if you convinced him you were better off in the woods, he’d leave sooner.

“Yes, it would. I’m not understanding you, mime mel” he said. The wind aggressively rushed past you, forcing your hair in front of your face.

“I’m not made for elven high court Finrod. They chewed me up and then spit me out. I couldn’t stay there, not anymore, who knows what other damage it would’ve done to me.” you said. Invigorated with a rush of courage, you raised your head to meet Finrod’s gaze. You immediately wished you hadn’t. His initial appearance was bad enough to be faced with, but this was worse. His eyes were trained on you, pain on display to any who might glance at them. His lips were downturned and his nose scrunched up ever so slightly. It was the only vaguely human thing he ever did whenever he was confused by something.

“Who mime mel. What did they do to you?” he exclaimed, his voice raising in volume just a hair. But it was enough to cause a shiver to run up your spine. Finrod hardly ever lost his composure and this is the closest you’ve been to seeing just that.

“Everyone! They would dance around me like a lion stalking its prey! They mocked me constantly about anything that would come to their minds” you exclaimed, straightening your posture ever so slightly.

“I wasn’t aware of this,” he muttered, to himself or you? You’re not sure.

“Of course you weren’t, my love! You always see the best in everyone, blind to the malicious intentions behind their fair faces!” you said, you voice no longer a whisper, it was a roar, a lion’s roar. You were tired. Tired of everything that involved that stupid castle and now here Finrod is, dragging up everything you fought so hard to bury deep in you. It was irrational and wrong for you to be angry, you knew this. But you also knew you were human.

A human tired of being treated like trash by the Fair Folk.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve--” he began, but you cut him off.

“And do what? Get together all of the nobility and tell them to stop being mean to your wife? There’s nothing you could’ve done Finrod,”

“And I suppose just fleeing from your problems is a better solution! To just up and leave with nothing except for a hastily written letter left behind?” he responded. His voice was no longer delicate like glass, but strong like steel. He straightened his back and squinted his eyes, carefully watching you.

“I did what I had to do! Any moment longer in that castle and I probably would’ve--” you began, swiftly cutting off your sentence, refusing to admit how far you’d spiralled.

“Death. You were considering death,” not even a second later and the steel left his voice. You couldn’t speak, you didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly, in fear of shattering the careful glass that encased the two of you. So you simply nod your head and clench your jaw.

“Mime mel--”

“Please, don’t,” you said, voice thick with emotions. It was taking all your willpower to keep any tears from falling down your face. You couldn’t crack, not now, not with Finrod so close. “I-- can’t. I’m sorry.”

Like a coward, you turned your back and began to run, disregarding your traveling pack and everything else at camp. However you’d only managed to take three steps before you felt a presence behind you. A hand tightly gripped your shoulder, not so tight that it would bruise, but enough for you to know it wasn’t the ghost of a caress caused by the wind. It turned your body, forcing you to face Finrod. He was only two paces away from you, so close you could feel his breath fanning across your face. His eyes that previously were filled with hurt and confusion still looked hurt, but there was a sliver of hope.

And that’s what made it worse. He still wanted to be with you, for you to come back to the palace and rule by his side despite your careless actions. This only caused you to shake your head again, this time more frantic and desperate than before.

“Please, we can fix this together. Just, don’t shut me out please. Our time is already so limited, why waste anymore time?” he whispered, his voice sounding like it was right by your ears. As if nature was in tune with Finrod and only him, the ferocious wind calmed down, opting for a gentle sway rather than an aggressive wave of air.

“I can’t,” you whisper, the ability to stop your tears crumbling with your words. They slowly poured down your face, the liquid reflecting in Finrod’s blue eyes. Your voice was scratchy and rough, like you hadn’t spoken in a thousand years. You would’ve looked away from him too, averted your gaze so you wouldn’t have to see the damage you continue to cause, but his hand stopped you.

They were soft and smooth, lacking any of the callouses his rigorous weapons training should’ve caused. He delicately cradled your face, as if you yourself were a silmarilli the elves coveted so ardently. His thumb traced your cheekbones and up to your temple, his warm skin a stark contrast to the bitter cold.

“You can. I’m sorry I didn’t realise how hurt you truly were, but I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to ensure that will never happen again,” he said, the passion and fire in his voice nearly melting the frostbite you could swear was creeping into your toes.

“How do you know? How can you promise that?”

“Because I don’t know what else I can do. I need you, by my side. These past months have been proof, not that I needed to be assured of my love for you,” he whispered. You were wavering. You knew it; he knew it; even the stars seemed to know it, as they shined just a bit brighter in that moment.

“And if I say no?” The question escaped your mouth before you could comprehend it. The nasty voice inside your head rearing its head, spitting at you that this is all some ruse, that he doesn’t love you. The delicate smile that creeped onto his face lowered just the slightest and his eyes dimmed a notch, and you couldn't help but notice the star matching their luminosity.

“Then I will leave here heart broken. However, I shall not pester you any longer if you truly wish to be free. Just know that you will always have a home at Nargothrond if you ever change your mind,” he said. The words sounded like poison from his mouth, twisting the knife that had been embedded in your gut since he arrived. He leaned forward, pressing a light kiss on your forehead, his lips barely making contact with your skin before pulling away.

Your heart raced in that moment, aggressively beating against your chest as it screamed how foolish you were. Head pounding and hands shaking, you make a decision in that split second. Finrod only managed one step away before your arms wound around his waist, urging him closer. He faced you, the grief melting from his face and being replaced with hopefulness and joy. The moonlight reflected beautifully off his golden hair and the urge to touch it burned in you. So you did. Removing one hand from his waist, you trailed it up towards his hair and touching any skin along the way. His hair was soft as silk and as fine as gold thread.

“I suppose I’ll come with. No sense in wasting anymore time,” you said, twirling his hair in between your fingers. A small smile formed on your face, the first genuine smile to grace your face in a long while. Your eyes lit up with glee, small lines forming under your eyes and Finrod’s face perfectly mimicked yours.

“Ni mel tye mime úrin ar elena” The moon shined just a tiny bit brighter, the stars dancing above the two of you.

“Ni mel tye too mime silme,” the flowing language of the elves felt foreign on your lips, but it was welcomed nonetheless. His smile brightened and then Finrod leaned forward, capturing your lips in a kiss. It was warm and sweet and everything good in the world, filling you with a euphoric sensation that always followed Finrod like a ghost. You smile into the kiss as the tears continue to slowly stream down your face.

At some point one of you pulls away, yet you maintain the same distance, neither of you willing to untangle from the other. Finrod pressed his forehead against yours, your noses touching as well. And you stay like that, basking in each other warm presence with big dumb smiles painted on your faces.

But it was nice, well more than nice, but you couldn’t think of any words that could describe your feelings.

So nice will have to do for now.

You weren’t naive, you knew life in high court wouldn’t just magically be better now. But the grin on Finrod’s face and the look in his eyes, a look you surely mimicked, it all seemed worth it.

Your grin widened and you leaned forward, losing yourself in another kiss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Translations from Quenya (apologies if this is wrong, I used a translator):

~ Mime mel: my love

~ Mime úrin ar elena: my sun and stars

~ Ni mel tye mime úrin ar elena: I love you my sun and stars

~ Ni mel tye too mime silme: i love you too my starlight

~~~~~~~~~~~~

TAGS: If at any point, you no longer want to be tagged, just shoot me a message! :D

@atenr | @aearonnin | @emiliessketches | @vibratingbones |

#finrod x reader #finrod imagine #lord of the rings imagine #Finrod x Human!reader #Finrod #The Silmarillion #the silmarillion imagine #The silmarillion oneshot #tolkien #LOTR #Elfy elf imagine #noldor elves #lord of the rings

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mari-vargas · 3 years

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Hey, I’ve got a weird one for you today. I want to tell the story of my favorite bully from when I was a kid.

Ya, like I said it’s a weird one.

I was bullied a lot growing up. I was quiet and didn’t really fight back over it. Honestly for the most part I didn’t care. It always felt worse for me when I tried to fit in, and I never succeeded anyways so basically my choices were “be comfortable and be made fun of for it” or “be uncomfortable and be made fun of for failing to do it right”.

Now I also have some blocked memories from bullying, so I can’t really speak to those, and I only know they exist because of an unconscious reaction to one bully approaching me and calling my name from behind while I was visiting my friend at my old school. This story is not about that however.

This is about the clique at the school I attended after that one. They were a group of mean nasty girls with money who’d pick on girls without, or would pick on you for going through puberty at a different rate than them, or for your opinion on who’s cute and who’s not or what should constitute a crush. They’d also pick on you for physical problem. One girl in our class was on crutches for months with a boot on one foot, and unfortunately she was already a target for this group because she wore her hair short and had started puberty long before anyone else (before I’d even started at this school).

There were two (and after one particular incident my opinion changed to three) especially mean girls, who I will refer to as K and M (the third is C). They would tear you down over every little thing. The thing about being the kind of kid I was, though, is that when someone is going somewhere to breakdown alone, they don’t really notice the quiet kid already occupying the hiding space due to their only two friends having a year long row with each other they didn’t have any business getting dragged into. As such I know that K, M, and C all had absolutely horrendous mothers, C had an unhealthy obsession with pleasing her father, K and M didn’t have great situations with their fathers (likely distant and mostly uninvolved), and K had some odd situations involving older siblings, and all three had stupidly high expectations placed on them—not about grades, but about appearances. So ya…I fully admit to doing the stupid thing and getting them to direct all their attention toward me and off of that one girl and away from my “friends” even though they’d basically disowned me. Because I mean really, I didn’t care what they had to say to or about me, their toxic opinions couldn’t really reach me. My friends on the other hand definitely tore me down. Their opinions did matter to me. So ya I was in a rough spot because of my “friends” and other stuff happening in my life but the bullies’ words really didn’t matter to me so I took it all on.

But this story also isn’t about me trying to say “ah yes I was strong against bullying ha ha ha!” I wasn’t, I just know that even back then I could tell whose actions were gonna affect me more. This is about one of the things the clique girls singled out on me and would’ve succeeded in actually tearing me down further than I’d ever been (again, in existing memory, because I have no clue what’s in those blocked memories and I don’t plan on ever disturbing them).

I have eczema, and a lot of triggers for it. The worst trigger to deal with though is stress. It’s not something I can remove like sugar or Red 40, it’s not something I can wash away like dust, not something I can soothe away with lotion and lots of water like dehydration. I have anxiety. Basically I’m always stressed. But anyways that year was a really rough year, with my friends fighting and my parents almost getting divorced and this was before my “twin” got her own phone so I had no reliable way to talk with her and my sister had just started driving… so I had my huge unavoidable trigger, plus this was before (or rather more specifically this was THE year) we discovered I was allergic to Red 40, and and and… Point is I had an extremely bad eczema outbreak. I’d always get it the worst on the back of my upper thighs. It was so bad that just to prevent it from getting worse while sitting in class, we had to tape these large patches of gauze over them. This school had a uniform and quite frankly the material for the bottoms was pretty uncomfortable to move in in the form of pants and shorts, so I often wore these pleated skirts my dad and I sewed because the pleats gave way more room to move.

So I’m wearing this skirt, with the gauze taped to the back of my thighs, and I’m out on the playground about to attempt the monkey bars (and being fully aware I’d fail, but I’d already finished like three books that day and it was only lunch and the monkey bars were at least still far enough away from where my friends were loudly arguing). M and K take notice that I’m gonna do something worthy of being mocked over so they gather their clique and bring them over to strike. C had been egging my friends on, but reluctantly was dragged away—reluctant that is, until she caught sight of something peculiar on the back of my thighs. So she called it out, jeeringly, “what’s that?” pointing at the gauze. So I tell her, simply, that it’s gauze. M rolls her eyes and joins C in sneering “why’s it taped on your legs?” So I tell them I have eczema and it’s pretty bad right now so it’s covered to help prevent it from getting worse. M asks what eczema is, so I start to explain “it’s a rash—“ only to be cut off by M and C loudly yelling “ew! It’s contagious your contagious you’re gonna give us all your rash” etc etc. K had been looking uncomfortable at the start of this which was unusual because usually it wasn’t C jumping in like this with M, it was usually K. I was trying to cut in to what M and C were yelling to explain that it wasn’t contagious, but again I was a quiet kid. I couldn’t cut people off, it was basically physically impossible for me at this time. But I wound up not needing to. Right when I was noticing that K wasn’t participating and was even looking uncomfortable, her discomfort transformed into determination. She cut off M and C and told them in no uncertain terms about how eczema was an autoimmune disorder transferred genetically and was in no way contagious and there was no way I could have prevented my own body from attacking me. She told them all that she had a cousin with bad eczema and that this was absolutely not something they could target to pick on me over. She then followed that up with a jibe at my lack of arm strength and my tiny feet, as though to demonstrate acceptable things to mock me over.

It might be a little stupid, but at that moment when everyone turned to mocking me for how small I was and how bad I was at climbing, I was so happy. So relieved. Because to this day I can’t stand to look at the back of my thighs, fully believing they are still covered with thick gnarled scar tissue. Because any attention brought to my eczema always made the itching and burning worse. Because any time my eczema worsened I felt horrible and that it was my fault for not being better at ignoring it. K stood up for me and saved me from the worst instance I can remember of a bully’s words actually getting to me. They didn’t stop going after me for it, but they had to do it quietly or else K would come down on them with all her righteous fury. I don’t think I ever got any physical attacks after that incident either and I know none of them wanted to touch me, still claiming I was contagious, but after that first time it didn’t bother me as much because I knew at least one of them understood.

K changed after that. She seemed to start noticing what people were truly bothered by and what they didn’t really care about, and she’d redirect mocking towards the unimportant things.

I left that school at the end of that year, but the next year apparently things in the social scene there went even worse. Remember my fighting friends? Ya that didn’t stop after just one year. Remember how C had been egging them on? She had gotten one of the other clique girls to support one while she backed the other. Soon enough, the whole clique had divided to back one or the other of my ex-friends—people they had mercilessly bullied for years and were now claiming to be besties with. I don’t know what exactly happened with K. Could’ve been something with volleyball or cheerleading. Could’ve been something with the bullying. Could’ve been a change in financial situation. But a year or two after I left she was booted to the curb from the clique. Full cold shoulder and then some.

She wanted to go to the fair, but as I mentioned her family situation was dismissive at the best of times. Her mother finally relented and said she could go IF she found someone to go with because they certainly didn’t have time for something so frivolous. She tried everyone and was shut out at every bend. Until, that is, she came across my phone number in her contacts from that brief time I was on the volleyball team because they didn’t have try outs that year because they almost didn’t have enough people for a team the year prior. So in a last ditch attempt, she messaged me to see if I’d be willing to go to the fair with her. And I thought back to that day she stood up for me, and how she had started redirecting her friends attention away from true land mines, and I went to my parents asking if I could meet a friend at the fair on that particular night. Because she needed a friend, even just for a night.

When we got there, she was all alone outside the front of the fair entrance. No family in sight. They had dropped her off and left. She was straining her neck around the crowd. I waved and ran up to her. She started crying as soon as she’d spotted me. She blubbered out her situation with her once friends and how she wouldn’t have been surprised if I hadn’t shown up because of how she used to treat me and so on and so forth. After she had calmed down we went to the fair and had a great time and I got to see a little spark of light return to her eyes.

So ya, she bullied me, and wound up getting exactly that in turn, but she also stood up for me at one of my worst moments, and I apparently did the same for her.

A year later and M for some reason invited me to a Halloween party she was throwing. I decided to go, and well that was basically the last time I ever spoke to my ex friends from that school. I was picked on by M and C and their cronies old and new while I was there and I decided that ya there was no need for me to be there and I called for a ride and left while there was still probably another 2-3 hours left of the party.

#story time #mari’s life #life before mari #life as mari #bullies #bullying #bully redemption #character development #people not changing #people can change

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earthendandinbetween · 3 years

Text

Man I can’t be trusted with anything dear god.🏃‍♂️

The hideout was abuzz with energy, high spirits and cheers from the current success over driving the Dark Heroes further out in the lands. The recent battle from the night before had proven to be a complete success for the worried tribes, and only proved further that things weren’t entirely hopeless. While the Dark Heroes schemed and nursed their wounds, the patapons and their zigoton allies celebrated for the day, a well earned section of rest.

Overall, morale and excitement was high for just about everyone. ...Except for one particular general whom had nestled himself in the still half finished infirmary.

“Would you get out of the infirmary already?” Spiderton hissed, tone low and full of frustration, “You’re not injured, I’m busy, leave!”

“I’m telling you! I think I’m sick,” The dekapon in question snapped back, trying to figure out what was so difficult about this to understand.

“...You’re sick in the head, maybe,” Came the murmured response from the kibaton, “But you’re not sick or hurt physically. You can leave now.”

“Ugh! You’re a horrible medic,” Kuwagattan hissed, rising to his feet to stomp off, “Fine! I’ll figure it out myself, but if I die it’s your fault Spiderton!”

“I’m not a medic, I’m a builder!” the zigoton general said in exasperation, “You absolute thick skulled moron, I can’t believe the audacity of you sometimes. You’ve been bothering me all morning and frankly-”

Whatever vitriolic ramble Spiderton was going on fell on deaf ears as the akumapon finally left out of the infirmary, grumbling to himself over whatever it was that was wrong with him. Did he catch a cold from the snowfields when they passed through on their way to fight the Dark Heroes? Maybe. He hadn’t had that issue before, so why now? Either way, he could deal with it. Just retrace the issues and find the root of the problem! He had colds before, this wouldn’t be any different.

So what was he doing when he first felt like...this? The dekapon tapped his chin as he started for his makeshift home by the barracks, racking his thoughts for where it all started. Early before the sun rose, he was certain of that, when they were still returning from the battle. Everyone was celebrating together, he was talking with the one person he could really stand in that group and---

The tateton had held his wrist and sincerely gushed about how proud he was of the akumapon.

That was nice...He had been thinking about that moment since it happened. Shaking his head, Kuwagattan returned to thinking with a hum. That wasn’t important right now, though there was this very low sneaking suspicion that he pushed away. Just a cold. Or exhaustion? Possibly the adrenaline was still high from returning. That could make sense with how he felt.

With a sigh, he stepped into his little home, opting to just lay back and stare at the ceiling idly. A tell-tale squeak from under the nearby blanket alerted him that a certain babatto had decided to sneak in while he was away. He had gotten surprisingly used to her doing that, and when the creature scrambled over in excitement, he simply gave her a pat on the head.

“Who keeps letting you into my house?” He mumbled, though the tone was more soft than truly annoyed, “I’m kind of caught up with something right now, bat.”

Squeak.

“No! I don’t know what’s going on!”

The babatto clambered closer, headbutting Kuwagattan’s side with another soft chirp, her wide eye blinking once or twice as she tilted her head.

“No! I’m not soft, it’s not….it’s not that!” He shouted, bringing a hand to his overly warm face as he continued “I’ve never been that soft, never will!”

...He was talking to an animal. Who had no idea what he was talking about nor could even suggest or speak outside of squeaking for food or attention. What was he doing?

The akumapon general sat up, groaning in frustration, muffling the sound with both hands this time.

“I’m talking to a babatto!” He hissed quietly, “Oh my god I’ve gone insane.”

With a sigh, he stopped denying the fact that this was not a fever, but a faint purple blush that had cropped up for the third time that day. He couldn’t let anyone see him like that.

Maybe he’d lay here and die instead! That could be a solution. Forget all about this weird feeling and just stay here forever. No one would mind, surely.

...They’d mind. He’d mind too.

It’d go away. He had never felt this before in the past, and it’d disappear by the next morning. Certainly.

What if it didn’t?

Kuwagattan kicked the wall he was laying beside, rolling back into a sitting position with his eye narrowed in complete frustration. He was tougher than any petty emotion, he shouldn’t have even given all this insanity a second thought. Yet here he was, letting all this get the best of him!

Pulling the babatto at arms-length, he decided to use her as a way of somewhat figuring out what to do himself. She couldn’t talk back or mock him, making her basically the best conversation partner.

“Look I’ll just---” He thought for a moment before continuing, “I’ll just avoid Gong until this all blows over. Can’t have emotions if there’s no one there to exasperate them, right?”

In-response to being slightly jostled, the fuzzy creature flapped her wings in minor annoyance, offering up a gentle warning growl.

“Ugh, yeah, you’re right. He wouldn’t let me do that,” The dekapon mumbled with a roll of the eye, trying to ignore the slight pang in his chest at the idea, “Besides I uh….Wouldn’t want to worry him like that.”

...Damn it. There he went again, overthinking how the other general would worry about him and how he found it obnoxiously sweet.

Oh no.

“You don’t think he’s---” Kuwagattan coughed awkwardly, “Worried now, do you? I kind of ran off to the infirmary really abruptly earlier.”

The babatto in his arms shuffled slightly, turning her body towards the entrance of his home with a peep.

“...You’re not helpful,” He grumbled, releasing the bat from his arms, watching her scramble back to the warmth of the blanket off to the corner, “I’ll just. I don’t know. Make sure no one’s looking for me real quick.”

He took a few tentative steps forwards, barely peering out from behind the cloth marking the entrance of the home, glancing about like some sort of paranoid hermit. Gods, this looked pathetic. Don’t--- just don’t think too hard about it. That’s what he told himself at least. It’s fine.

Off nearby were the two zigoton generals chatting amongst themselves. Kuwagattan had to assume that Gong had come to ask Spiderton about how things were going at camp, and judging by the absolute annoyance etched on the kibaton’s face and anger in his movements, most likely he was going off on a rant about the dekapon again. He could guess where this would go from there, and he wasn’t exactly anticipating the results. Spiderton would talk about his admittedly rash choice to visit the infirmary and ‘bother’ the zigoton for most of the morning, Gong would say he would deal with it, and well--

He sighed. Just don’t think too hard about it. He’d say he’s fine and send the tateton on his way for the day. Easy. Just--- claim he’s tired and needs more rest or something. That wouldn’t be worrying nor suspicious.

Or blame it all on Spiderton. That typically worked most of the time to deter any real conversation on the actual issue.

Well, might as well get this all over with. With a deep breath and quick check to make sure he looked presentable and not flushed any longer, the dekapon scurried out of his makeshift home, running up to the two. Spiderton offered an exasperated roll of the eye as he approached.

“Hey what’s the nerd so worked up about? I could hear him from my spot,” He snickered, offering up a ‘smirk’ when the other general growled at him with a cross of his arms, “Did he run out of metal again?”

“Oh I’m not dealing with you again, absolutely not,” The kibaton grumbled, turning on his heel to make a hasty exit, “Stay out of my infirmary, and stay away from my projects you giant--- ugh--- You giant menace!”

He snickered in response, amused at just how quickly he could annoy the other. Incredible everytime, really. The same response no matter what he did, always met with anger and ramblings that he was fairly certain even Spiderton was aware that he did not listen to nor care about.

“Spiderton,” Gong stated softly, trying to break up the tension, “I told you I’d see what the problem was. You can return to your work now, if you would like.”

And as the spider-helmed general departed, all attention was now on him. Kuwagattan fidgeted very slightly despite his attempts not to as Gong held his gaze for a moment, brow quirked in that stupid familiar worry again. This is why he was soft, he was surrounded by overt softness and stupid--- stupid kindness! He should’ve just went on his own way and left this all behind!

...He didn’t mean that. He knew he didn’t mean that. That’s why he didn’t say it.

Ugh. He really was losing his toughness. What a shame.

“Kuwagattan?” The gentle tone shown to him made the dekapon’s heart tick just a little faster despite his attempts to prevent it, “Are you quite alright? I was told that you were hovering around the infirmary today.”

“Uh yeah,” He hated how his voice was lacking it’s typical confidence right now. That’d be picked up on so easily, “I thought I was sick but--- I think I was just exhausted. You know, same reason I don’t do vigils. That and y’know, any opportunity to bother the nerd.”

Nailed it. Perfect excuse.

“You’re positive it was just exhaustion? I would hate for you to be truly ill and not tell us the truth...”

Not the perfect excuse, not the perfect excuse! His body froze up momentarily, gaze darting to the side to think of anything else. He should’ve known this was a bad idea.

“Ugh-- Yes I’m sure,” He masked it under a layer of false annoyance, “Don’t patronize me, I know what I’m doing.”

“...You’re trembling.”

He absolutely was, wasn’t he? The akumapon was completely wrapped up in this stupid emotion and it was getting much harder to hide it. Ugh. Just his luck. This couldn’t end well, something bad would happen and he would have to go off on his own away from the tribes again. He didn’t want to do that again, not when he felt like he belonged somewhere for once.

“...I just have a lot on my mind,” It was a half truth, really. He did have a lot on his mind, but not typically about any...differing situation or emotion currently, “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine. Really.”

“Would you like to tell me?” Gong responded, hand moving to gently rest on the top of his own, “You know I wouldn’t mock you for whatever it is.”

Of course he was going to pry like that. There was never hiding anything around the tateton general, he always found everything out one way or another. Some sort of sense of needing to fix or take care of everything that was established way back in zigoton territory. He could keep telling half truths, throw the other off and have him think he fixed the issue. He’d stop then.

If only the dekapon could get his own emotions under control that easily. He felt way too warm and way too nervous. That wasn’t like him at all.

“Uh...I guess,” He grumbled, fighting the oncoming flush he could feel approaching, “Just--- Don’t pry too much about it.”

“If it’s that personal, I won’t. I promise.”

Great. Great. That’d work. Just admit to having some sort of soft feelings for someone, that’d explain his behavior and it wouldn’t have to go any further than that. He wouldn’t know. This could be put to rest very quickly.

“Alright, fine,” Ah, right on cue. He knew the purple color his face was taking was growing more obvious, “I might--- I don’t know. I might--- Be fond of someone- ughhhh- And I hate it. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

He took note of the slightly surprised look Gong offered in response that slowly turned into a polite ‘smile’ as he took a step back to sit, motioning for Kuwagattan to do the same.

“I see!” The zigoton chuckled, “You really have changed a lot, haven’t you?”

Don’t remind him.

“And I am assuming you’re worried these feelings will make you seem weak?”

The dekapon furrowed his brow with a groan, “You know me too well. I hate that. Look, I know you’ll say something about ‘not being weak’ blah blah….Just move onto whatever stupid advice you have.”

Stupid advice...He knew he was absolutely lying through his teeth about how he actually felt about the sincere words that were often thrown his way. He appreciated them way more than the other knew, often clinging to even the slightest praise for days on end. If anything, he was more mad at himself over that.

“Hm, alright, I’ll move past the reassurance,” Gong responded, hint of amusement in his tone, “You’re clearly not in the mood for this to go on for very long.”

“Yeah, you think?” The beetle-helmed general huffed, “I’m not used to this, just--- hurry up so I can like--- I don’t know, move along with my damned life?”

“No need to get aggressive with me. I’m only trying to help,” He bit back the guilt he felt for the slight snap as the zigoton spoke, “If you truly want my honest advice on this, I would simply tell you to just...Be honest with them. Everyone here is nice enough, though I know you doubt that.”

Tell him? Tell him?! Oh no, no absolutely not. He was not risking that at all. Why did he have to go and ask for advice like that? That wasn’t helpful.

“Uh- why would I do something stupid like that?” Kuwagattan held back the rumble of a purr as the other rubbed a circle into the back of his hand, “I want it to go away, not--- that.”

“I cannot help you with that,” Gong quirked his brow, “I’m only telling you what I know typically works. ...Are you possibly scared of rejection? You of all people?”

The hint of a joking prod at him made the dekapon shiver again. He didn’t deserve the kindness and he wasn’t about to admit that, yes, infact, he was very scared of rejection. Ending up alone again. This was ridiculous.

“Pft, no,” He opted to state, “Why would I care about that?”

“Then I’m not sure what you’re so scared of, Kuwagattan,” Gong hummed softly, “I think anyone would be lucky to have you looking after them.”

That sentence was enough to stun the dekapon for quite a few moments, fidgeting aggressively with his free hand as his heart raced a bit faster again. He didn’t mind so much this time, unable to keep back the strange rumble of a purr that he almost forgot he was capable of. Lucky? Really? With him?

Was that maybe a---

Well it could mean--

Did it?

Should he maybe-…

He wanted to, badly. Oh no, what had he done to himself? Of all the days. It...It couldn’t end that poorly, could it? The tateton was too kind to possibly hate him for it, right?

“Well uh, that’s really nice of you to say about me,” he coughed slightly, aiming for just a little distraction for just a moment, opting to snatch both of Gong’s hands in his own, “Really, you uh--- you didn’t have to say that.”

The zigoton glanced downwards, creasing his eye like he was contemplating something, looking him up and down with a hint of confusion. Kuwagattan figured this was a silent question for what he was doing. ...He wasn’t entirely sure himself, honestly.

“And uh well um,” He stuttered slightly, unsure of where exactly to go from here.

The next action he opted for was quick, but shockingly gentle coming from the akumapon. He had remembered, though a bit vaguely, that typically zigotons showed affection through lightly bumping heads. The dekapon mostly remembered this fact from two rather obnoxious soldiers, practically inseparable those two. That was really besides the point, he figured, as he gently pressed his forehead against the tateton’s before rather rapidly pulling away.

Maybe that was a mistake. Too late to take it back now.

Gong tensed for a moment, eye wide and staring almost blankly in shock. The typical, relaxed and seemingly ‘all knowing’ air the general tried to carry had completely evaporated, replaced with that of confusion. Soon, however, he relaxed, red creeping up over his face with a blink.

“Uhm--” Kuwagattan coughed, “...So I--- guess that was obvious enough. Sorry. I’ll--- uh I’ll let you go now.”

Before he could release the other general’s hands, he felt them slightly tighten around his own as the zigoton responded with a soft shake of the head, “No, that’s not necessary, I assure you.”

Oh. He really did---

Oh.

“...I’m quite fond of you as well,” Though it was much quieter than the dekapon’s, he noticed the purr that was occurring as the tateton got slightly closer, leaning up against him to return the affection.

“You---you’re sure about that?” Kuwagattan sighed softly, “You’re not---joking?”

“Of course I’m certain, it would be cruel of me to lie to you.”

“...Okay,” The dekapon lowered himself just slightly to be more comfortable, “I’ll trust you on that...”

This was...nice. He could get used to it, surely.

#Writings (oneshots)#Stubborn Beetle (Kuwagattan)#Wise General (Gong)#Web builder (spiderton)

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maple-writes · 4 years

Text

WHG 14: Boat 4

tagging: @concealeddarkness13 (Nesri, Triel, Zenith a little) @ratracechronicler (Rebecca) and @pen-of-roses

so this might be kinda long but oh well

###

Asher was already asleep again by the time we got back to our room, small under the heap of blankets he’d buried himself under. Good. He’d been looking tired lately, despite his attempts to try and convince me otherwise. I only half registered when Triel left the room, gone to try and work a time to push the president overboard that would work now that we knew about whatever it was that was making the others think we were their enemies. I sighed and leaned against one of the walls, letting some of the others take the beds. It was all too complicated.

I looked up though when Nesri stood, announcing she was hungry and going to get something to eat and slipping out before anyone could respond. An uneasy feeling like a damp blanket over my shoulders settled in and I kept my eyes on the door. What were the chances she was about to do something rash? Something she didn’t want anyone to know about? I bit at the inside of my lip. She’d told me not to worry, not to get involved but could I? That’s what Asher had said too. I hadn’t listened then and it, it hadn’t been good but what would have happened if I hadn’t shown up?

Rebecca didn’t seem convinced either. “So,” She looked over to me. “Are you buying that whole ‘hungry’ excuse or you think she’s up to something.”

I shook my head. “There’s something going on.” How much should I tell her? I hadn’t told anyone about Asher until it was almost too late… “Don’t tell her I told you this, but she might be in danger. It’s about that magic guy.” I wasn’t going to repeat that mistake again.

She made a face. “Well. I don’t have any magic. But I do have a sword. If one of us’s in danger, we all are.” Finally someone with sense. “Think we should stick our noses in other people’s business?”

“Absolutely.” I pushed off the wall, eyeing her blade. We might need that. “Take the sword, I think she went this way.”

“Hold up.” She turned around and went straight for Elvira for a peck on the cheek. “I’m gonna go meddling.”

Despite the looming dread, I couldn’t help but grin, just a little bit as she came back with her sword after her goodbye kiss. Sweet.

We hurried down hallways looking for where she might have gone, but no luck. Maybe she was just hungry after all. Maybe we were worrying about nothing. But then we turned down an isolated corridor and both of us froze.

Triel pinned Nesri against the wall, her hand tight on her throat and voice menacing. “…What was that, hun? You think I’m lying? How do you know? Are they ever real around you? Do they ever really care? How do you know?” Nesri struggled, but it was in vain.

Triel? I raised my head, standing tall and demanding. “What’s going on?” Was this how Triel treated her crew when no one was looking?

She turned towards us, a friendly smile on her face but her hand still firmly on Nesri’s neck. “Oh, nothing. Just a chat.”

“Looks like it,” Rebecca exaggerated, gripping her sword in a pointed display. “How’s about your remove that hand from that neck or I remove the hand from your arm, pal?”

I couldn’t agree more. Friend or not Triel better do as we asked before both of us took turns wishing she had.

Nesri tried to shout something, but Triel cut her off with a tighter grip and cocked her head. “And why would you care about this broken creature? We took her when she was eight and gave her the magic. She is our property. And she is broken beyond repair. That is why I must take her back.”

Oh no, this wasn’t Triel. This wasn’t Triel. This was Churi.

He laughed over Nesri’s crying. “Oh, you should have seen our artwork.” He rounds to Nesri’s other side, pulling down the top of her collar to show shoulders criss-crossed with scarring. “It’s not as pretty now.”

I was going to kill him.

Rebecca was faster, darting forward and slicing her sword clean through his wrist. But the hand didn’t move, firm like a clamp over Nesri’s neck.

“Now, that was rude.” He reached up and reattached the hand. “As I was saying, what is she to you? How much would you sacrifice for a piece of broken property?”

“Get away from her!” I yelled and lunged, grabbing a handful of his hair and digging my other hand into his arm to pull him back, away from Nesri.

She fell to the floor and Churi slipped my grip. He turned to me, smiling. Too pleased.

“Fine.” His shape shifted, dissolving like mist off a morning pond and rematerializing again into a form that made my stomach twist.

Asher. An exact copy all the way down to the way each hair fell unkept over his face.

He crossed his arms, a cruel glare spreading across his face. “You disgust me,” He spat, “clinging to anyone who tells you pretty lies. You’re so easily deceived. You’re pathetic.” He grinned spreading his arms out to his sides. “Did you think I really loved you, let along Nesri?”

Asher laughed, sharp and jarring and I couldn’t move. He didn’t mean it. He never meant it. But, but… It wasn’t right. There were no horns. No fangs, no claws, just Asher. Just Asher in his most honest state.

“They’ve all been lying to you. They’ll never care about you.” He bent forward at the hip, jeering. “Even Striker. He’d rather you were gone, and I agree with him.” He straightened up again, gesturing loosely to Nesri, still watching from the floor. “Of course you fell for Nesri’s lies; both of you are too scarred to be anything more than a pretty face.”

He’d never been like this looking like that. Just out of nowhere. I swallowed. But it wasn’t Asher, was it? But… But how else, how would Churi know? How would he know if he didn’t, if he didn’t know something about him? How would he know if there wasn’t some truth to it?

Asher dropped his shoulders, looking me straight in they eye. “You worthless excuse for a son. Of course your mother doesn’t want you back. And she never will.” He stepped towards me, again and again until he was almost right against me, staring up with sharp mockery. “You will be along, begging for her forgiveness like you have month after month after month.” He lowered his voice to a cruel hiss. “Don’t you ever wonder why she never responds? Why no one ever comes for you? No one will listen, no one will ever care about you Cirrus.”

For a moment he lingered, watching as if daring me to say something, daring me to try and defend myself. But the words wouldn’t come, couldn’t find their way through my locked jaw.

He drew back, laughing under his breath. “Stop fighting against the inevitable. Give up and help me take the rest of your fake friends into custody. It’s the only thing a pathetic excuse like you can do.”

“Stop.” My voice shook, too much, enough he must have noticed. “Stop that’s, that’s not true.” It wasn’t, it couldn’t be.

But all Asher did was smile, sweet and condescending. “Still trying to pretend like it’s not true. Pathetic.”

He turned to Rebecca and his shape shifted again. He said something to her, something mocking and cruel but I could barely make out what he was saying anymore, staring and trying to pretend my legs didn’t shake. That my throat hadn’t tightened just a little bit. I could still almost see him, standing there in the rain spitting and growling and cursing anything around him.

Churi shifted back into Triel, leaving Rebecca crushed with her sword hanging uselessly in her hand.

“See hun?” Churi turned back to Nesri with Triel’s face. “I own your friends now. I will take anything that you think you can have. You will have nothing. Your once-friends will hate you and hurt you. You are all mine.”

Nesri was still shaking, still cowering on the ground where she’d fallen, but when Churi started to shift again something snapped. Magic buzzed through the air and the next second Churi was gone, tiny crystals littering the floor where he stood.

That was it? I stared at the scattered crystals. He was gone? I shook my head out. Nesri. I turned towards her. “Are you okay?” My voice shook more than I thought, strained out of my throat.

Nesri attempted an unconvincing smile, watching from her spot on the floor. “Don’t worry about me, what about you two?” She took a deep breath, but it didn’t seem to do much to ease her trembling. “It’s my fault anyway. You—you should hate me. I understand. I did something stupid.” Her words came faster, sharper. “I tried to stop him before he hurt any of you, and I only made it worse. I’m a stupid girl who won’t think. Instead I just rush in, damn the consequences.” She cut herself off, guilt wrenching itself hard across her face. “But—are you okay?”

Rebecca still stared at the crystals, stiff and shaken. “I dunno. I dunno if I was okay before, now. I’m all… I just don’t understand.”

“We’re fine, I think.” I tried to even out my voice and stand up straight. Steady myself at least in front of the others. I’d dealt with this before, I could handle it again. First things first we had to get out of the open where anyone could walk in on us. “Come on, lets’ get somewhere out of the way.”

No one spoke as we made our way back to our room. Churi’s words through Asher’s voice kept replaying, replaying overlaid with what he’d said back then by the lake. He’d said it just to hurt me then, he hadn’t meant it then, but then… How would Churi know anything he’d say if Asher hadn’t told him? How? I took a deep breath and tried not to think about it. Later maybe, but not now.

We stepped in through the door and Nesri blurted a rushed “I’m sorry” and all but fled to one of the corners of the room.

The few people in the room glanced between her, me and Rebecca, but stayed quiet. I sighed, soft to myself. What was she apologizing for? She sat, curled in on herself and hiding her head, small and scared. I glanced at Rebecca, but she didn’t seem up to helping just yet. She leaned against the wall, stone faced with a firm grip on the hilt of her sword and a cautious gaze. Maybe it would be best to give her a second to herself, to figure out her thoughts. If she still looked like a stalked rabbit later on I could try saying something to her then.

I left Rebecca by the wall and quietly joined Nesri in the corner, sitting on the ground beside her. As much as I wanted to say something, I couldn’t think of anything. Nothing that would probably make her feel any better anyway. So I just held out a hand, offering it to her if she wanted to take it.

But she ignored it, fresh sobs racking her shoulders and fresh tears running down her still-wet cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for fucking it up. I just wanted to protect you. But I was so terrified of him, I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. You should hate me.”

Rebecca sighed, her head thumping against the wall she leaned against. “Look. Maybe we should. But I don’t. You fucked up. We all three kinda did. It’s what people do. We fuck up, and then we, uh… Forgive each other.”

I nodded, grateful that she seemed to have a better handle on helpful words right now than I did. “I mean,” I leaned back, “if we didn’t care we wouldn’t have followed you either.”

“I don’t understand. Why do you care? I’m everything he said I was.” Nesri gulped and I did my best to try and hide the way my jaw clenched. “Thank you both so much. I care deeply about you. I haven’t lied to you about that.”

“So does that mean everything he said about us was true too?” If she said whatever he said about her was true, she must imply that it was true about us. I sighed, trying to calm down again, and lowered my voice to something gentler. “Between us, Asher’s said those things to me before. Doesn’t mean it was true. Doesn’t mean he meant it.” So it doesn’t mean whatever words he put in Triel’s mouth would be true either.

Nesri tried another smile. “You wanna spar to blow off steam?”

She was trying to deflect that, wasn’t she? I shook my head. “Absolutely not.” She wasn’t going to convince me everything was fine that easily.

Her face squished. “You’re a meanie.”

“Hey, so, Elvira says…” Rebecca blurted. “That someone can get forgiven when the person they hurt or wronged or whatever—or even if you just think you hurt or wronged them—when they don’t expect anything else from you in order to write that wrong. So, I think what we need to do here is… Tell each other what we need from each other so that we can trust each other, really trust each other and not worry about whether we’re using each other or secretly don’t care or whatever. What do we need to do or say or promise? Does that make sense?” She paused, suddenly looking embarrassed. “Or do you not wanna do that?”

Nesri smiled again. “I think it’s a wonderful idea, and I’ll do anything you need me to. But you two don’t need my forgiveness. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

And what she did wasn’t some grave sin either. It was stupid, but it wasn’t like she meant for any of this to happen. For Rebecca’s sake though I kept quiet. If It was going to make her feel better so be it.

“Well, I’d love some sort of affirmation that I’m accepted even though I’m not all bright or proper, y’know, just a little something to boost the ol’ spirits after getting dragged by a monster wearing my ex’s face instead of everyone pretending I’m perfect and I never do nothing wrong, which I do, so it’s making me more suspicious, but that’s beside the point.” She sounded sarcastic, but at the same time I was glad I held off on protesting. “Anyways. I think demanding that you don’t go off on your own or whatever is kinda against the whole thing. You want independence. From those creeps, the uh,” she faltered a moment until she remembered, “Shades, and I want that for you too. So I won’t ask you not to go off after them… And it sounds like there’s more, and you’ll have to deal with them, and maybe the rest of us will, too. So what I’m going to ask you to do is stop beting yourself up againb it, first of all. Blaming yourself for what they’re doin’s just gonna weaken you, and you’re our best shot at stopping them, so that’s not helping anyone. Second of all , just… Let us know what we can do to help. What we can do to fight them. If you don’t know anything now, that’s fine, but, like, if you learn anything that’ll help us non-magical folks stand a chance against those guys, let us know. And if you do go after them, maybe try to have some sort of plan.” She snorted at the last part. “That’s what I’m asking of you. What do you think?”

Nesri nodded. “I just mean, in this moment, you didn’t do anything wrong, following someone who was going to get herself hurt. I mean, you certainly aren’t perfect. We’ve still got to work on your popcorn-catching skills.” She smiles again, a little more sincere this time, but it fell again. “I’ll try to not beat myself up. But it might take a little while. I don’t know how normal people can fight against the Shades. I didn’t even know I could use my magic on them. But if I find anything out, I’ll let you know. And I’m not the best at making plans, so I’ll consult you before rushing in.”

Clearly, she wasn’t lying about that last part.

It seemed enough for Rebecca, and satisfied, she came up to us and offered Nesri a hand. “And I’ll come to you for lessons in popcorn martial arts. Thanks Nesri. I officially forgive you.” She shook her hand and glanced at me. “And what about you?”

Right, my turn. I crossed my arms, trying to come up with something that Rebecca hadn’t already said, but there wasn’t a lot left. “I think you beat me to it.” Then I sighed, turning to Nesri. I couldn’t help but remember another conversation I’d had, with Asher, where maybe I hadn’t been direct enough. “I don’t want you to think you have to face anything alone. Don’t just brush off whenever someone offers to help you.” Anger made me cross my arms tighter, creeping into my voice. “And don’t just pretend everything’s fine just to make us feel better.” I could have went on, but stopped myself with a glance up at Rebecca. “Is that too much?”

“I’ll,” she nodded, “I’ll try. You might have to remind me though.”

“Anything we can do to help,” Rebecca said.

Nesri started to cry again, tears welling and her breath catching. “Thank you so much.”

“Okay, what the hell happened?”

I looked up as Triel stood arms crossed in front of us. Uncharacteristic panic flashed across her face as she stood, looking down at us expecting an answer.

“Shit.” Nesri quickly stopped crying, pushing it back as she stood up. “Churi was on the yacht, so I felt I had to confront him, and Rebecca and Cirrus were suspicious of what I was going, so they followed me. But we’re not hurt.” She was smiling too wide, too nonchalant.

“Except the psychological trauma,” Rebecca chimed in. “We’re working on it.” Thank goodness for her bluntness. Straight to the point without letting Nesri dance around it.

Triel’s eyes widened and she looked back to Nesri. “You waited until I was busy on purpose, didn’t you? Shit, Nesri.” She sighed and glanced at me and Rebecca. “I’m sorry about that. I probably should have briefed everyone on what the Shades could do. It slipped my mind. Do you need anything.”

That was a pretty big slip of the mind, but nothing could be done about that now. I shrugged. “Some help talking sense into her?” It would be the next best thing.

“Hey!” Nesri gave me a light punch in the arm.

Rebecca brightened like a lightbulb went off in her head. “Can we maybe hunt down some popcorn?”

Triel laughed and assured us it would be done before disappearing to wherever someone was supposed to get some popcorn around here. Nesri sat down somewhere and I decided to give her some time alone this time, now that she’d seemed to calm down a little bit. Instead I laid out on one of the beds, stretching my arms up and behind my head until Triel returned.

She went straight for Nesri, putting a hand on her shoulder and speaking softly to her. I sat up, only half watching as Nesri replied. Something still nagged at the back of my mind, something nervous. As much as I knew Churi wasn’t Triel, I could still see her with her hand on Nesri’s throat threatening her and demeaning her in the hall.

When Triel sighed she spoke a little louder. “Why the fuck would you think that no one cares about you? Shine doesn’t throw machine parts at just anyone. I don’t give flattering nicknames to just anyone. And these idiots woud’nt go after you because they were concerned if they didn’t care. IF you let those lifes poison you, I really will make you as seductive as a fish next time I dress you up.”

“I heard that,” I crossed my arms at Triel, but the tension eased from my shoulders. That sounded the like the Triel we’d gotten used to. “The idiot part. Everything else is true though.” Nothing like Churi.

Elvira entered with popcorn in hand and the mood shifted to an exhausted relief. Almost as soon as she had it, Nesri returned to her popcorn-throwing ways. She and Rebecca hashed it out and this time I reluctantly joined in. On Rebecca’s side. Altercation with a demon or not, we weren’t going to let her win this time.

Zenith and Asher returned from preventing Lynn and Lynne from escaping just as the war was winding down, both of them surprised and frozen for a moment before they figured out what was going on. Whatever they’d done, according to Asher it’d been a success, and they were still on the ship safe and sound.

Eventually the popcorn stopped flying and I sat back down, leaving Rebecca and Nesri to discuss whatever throw strategics there were. The heaviness settled back on my shoulders and I turned to stare up and out of the little window to the late afternoon sky. How many Shades were there? Could there be more still on this boat that none of us even knew about? I leaned against the side of the bunk. How did he know about what Asher had said? How did he know? It wasn’t true, right? It still wasn’t true.

Someone sat next to me, close enough our arms brushed together as I sat up again. Asher. He leaned forward and tried to find my face, eyes dark and tired.

“Hey,” he whispered, “Are you okay?”

I sighed. How did he always know? “I’ll be alright.”

He thought for a moment, eyes flickering from me to Nesri and Rebecca. “Did something happen?”

“Let’s take a walk.” I stood, watching as Asher followed. If we were going to talk about it, I didn’t want to do it here.

In the main room people still milled about for the after-dinner programming hosted by the man who seemed to have all but a monopoly on the hosting business. I thought I saw Asher shoot him a glare when he thought I wasn’t looking, but if he did he stopped as soon as I noticed, going back to picking up a slice of cake from the table. We found a standing table by a corner, where most were passively watching the performances or staring deep into someone else’s eyes across untouched drinks. No one would be paying much attention to us here.

Asher took a bite of his cake and looked up at me. “So, what happened?”

I took a long sip of my drink, an overly milky latte with too much cinnamon. “I don’t even know.” I set it down on the table, but kept my hand on the edge. I ran my finger up and down the ceramic. How much should I tell him? Nesri probably didn’t want everyone to know or she would have told them herself. “It’s between Nesri and someone else. We handled it though.”

He nodded, cutting out another piece of cake with the side of his fork. In the dim overhead lights he looked exhausted, dark circles starting to show under his eyes, shoulders rounded and head down. His face was starting to look gaunt too, the lines just a little sharper than they were the day of the reaping. It had been weeks now since then, hadn’t it? How had it been that long?

“Did you get hurt?” Asher looked up again. “When it happened?”

“No, not really.” I took a deep breath, staring over his head at the crowd gathering around some new platter being presented at the serving tables.

He didn’t seem convinced, poking at his dessert for a moment as if thinking of how he wanted to say something. When he finally did speak it was quiet, unsure. “You haven’t looked me in the eye since I got back with Zenith.”

Hadn’t I? I tried to bury the guilt gnawing at my stomach with the latte, but it didn’t work. He was right, wasn’t he? I’d barely greeted him when he returned, and all but ignored him after that. But what could I say? What could I say that wouldn’t worry him, wouldn’t make him feel like he had to help me? I set my drink down again with a long sigh. Was I a hypocrite, for telling Nesri not to pretend everything was fine and not even attempting to do the same?

“Listen, I don’t want to get into it,” I mumbled, probably hardly loud enough for him to hear clearly. “Into what happened I mean. But you don’t hate me, right?” I all but winced. What a stupid question.

“What?” Asher’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open until he spoke again. “No, no of course not. Never. Who told you that?”

I shrugged. “Some bastard who was after Nesri.” I rested my elbows on the table and leaned forward, balancing the side of my head in my hand. “A shapeshifter. He turned into you and said, well he said a lot of things and I, I think I know none of them are true but…” I sighed again. “It hurt. I know you never mean it when you say those things, when you need some help, but it, I wasn’t expecting it.”

Asher nodded, almost to himself. His eyes dropped and he sighed. “I’m sorry, I really am, for putting you through that.” He looked up again, hair falling dark in front of his face despite all Triel had done to try and style it. “Whatever he told you though, whatever I say like that, it’s not true. You’re my best friend Cirrus. I don’t know what he said to you, but I don’t hate you. You’re not awful.” He smiled, shoulders dropping. “You’re patient at the very least, dealing with my problems this long.”

I didn’t answer right away, letting my gaze wander over the other guests. He was right, I knew he was, but it was nice to hear him say it. Hear him say something like that after what Churi had said with his voice. He hadn’t changed his mind about me, hadn’t been keeping anything from me. It’d been stupid even to worry about it. He’d never been good at hiding what he felt. Not as good at it as he thought he was anyway. If he didn’t like me, I’d know. Nesri though, I didn’t know. He’d said Nesri’d lied to me, that she’d never care for me.

My latte was near cold by now but I kept drinking it anyway. “He said something about Nesri too.” Why was I telling him this? This was stupid. “Do you think she actually likes being around me or is she lying to get me to trust her?”

“Really?” Asher laughed, quiet and under his breath but enough I could still hear over the speakers on the other end of the room. “She’s been bugging you for attention this long and you’re not sure if she likes you?”

Maybe it was a dumb question, but cautious doubt still lingered. “Okay, fine, but she could just be like that with everyone.”

Asher pointed his fork at me. “Not with me. We hardly talk. She’s nice to everyone but you don’t see her chasing them around all the time.” He stuck his fork back into his cake with a boyish grin. “You like her don’t you?”

I almost choked on my latte. “What?”

“Come on, you think I didn’t notice?” Asher’s grin widened and he leaned over the table. “I’ve only ever seen you blushing when you have a crush.”

Was it that obvious? Cursing myself, I could feel myself flushing yet again and could only hope the low light would hide it. But he was right. Again.

“Are you going to tell her?” Asher asked.

I look away. “I don’t know.” Would it even be worth it? What if I was wrong, or if she didn’t feel the same way?

Asher took another stab at his desert. “She seems to like you.” He shrugged. “Even if she doesn’t I can’t see her being mean about it.”

Maybe. “I’ll think about it.”

He seemed happy enough with that, going back to finishing the last few bites of his cake. As he finished, he glanced up at the stage set up across the room and Ceasar playing host to some kind of programming.

“Cirrus,” he started quiet. “Can I ask you a favor?” His eyes flicked to me as I nodded, trying to figure out where he was going. “Tomorrow when we’re escaping, I want to scare him a little. I’m not going to push it too far but I might need you to come get me when it’s time to go.”

I followed his gaze, watching Ceasar on stage. Toying with him certainly did sound like fun especially after his role in terrorizing Lynne, Amy, Lynn and the rest of us. “Sure.” I nodded, turning back to him. But then Churi’s words ran through my head again and I sighed. “Just, try not to do or say anything fucked up in front of Nesri, okay? She’s had a hard time.”

“Of course.” Asher nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

Good enough. I finished my latte with another glance at Ceasar. As much as I probably shouldn’t be encouraging Asher to take risks like this, I liked the idea of shaking the performer up a little bit. It was just too bad I’d be too busy tomorrow to see it for myself.

I probably should have gone for decaf. Everyone had gone to sleep ages ago, Asher curled up and sleeping with his back warm against my side. With so many of us to one room there wasn’t much choice other than to share beds but it wasn’t that bad. Staring up at the bunk above me, I’d been trying to sleep for what felt like hours. At least sharing a bed with Asher told me what I already knew, that he didn’t hate me. If he didn’t, and wanted nothing to do with me he wouldn’t have chosen to share with me instead of someone else, Zenith maybe. If he hated me he wouldn’t be all but lying on my arm.

On the other side of the row, someone sat up, quiet in the dark. I squinted for a moment before I recognized Nesri’s silhouette and propped myself up on one elbow. “Can’t sleep?” It didn’t take a genius to guess why she might still be awake.

She shook her head. “I think I might need some fresh air. If you can’t sleep too, why don’t you join me?”

“Gladly.” It wasn’t like I was getting to sleep any time soon either. I slipped out from under the blanket, gently laying it down over Asher so he hopefully wouldn’t notice I’d left. “It’s too stuffy in here.”

We ducked out of the door and into the quiet hall, just the two of us. Alone. No one else. I tucked my hands into my pockets, thinking back to what Asher’d said. She’d invited me along, did that mean he was right? That she liked me too? Or was I overthinking this?

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” Nesri broke our silence, soft and caring. “Are you doing okay?”

I sighed, quiet and almost to myself. “I’ll be alright.” And I would, this wasn’t the first time something like this had gone wrong. “There’s just… There’s a lot to think about.”

She smiled up at me. “I could help you forget it.” She said as she bumped my arm with her shoulder.

My heart skipped and my words failed. What did she mean? Even in the low night lights of the hall I could faintly see red creeping into her cheeks. I smiled, hunching over to be closer to her eye-level. “Have anything in mind?”

“I—I…” She blushed deeper and her eyes wandered everywhere but mine. “You know what? We could throw popcorn at the fish!”

Popcorn again, I should have knon. Still, “could be fun.” My smile stayed. It did sound nice, both of us on the water. “This time of night we might have the deck to ourselves.”

Not many seemed to be up this late as we found a little popcorn and walked together toward the open air upper deck. Nesri passed the bag to her one hand, and tentatively reached for mine with the other. I hesitated, nervous and melting at the same time. Slowly, I held her hand back. It was warm in mine, softer than I would have thought.

We stepped out onto the deck, lit up with soft lighting running along the underside of the railings and the far-off glow of the Capitol’s lights on the shore. Our footsteps dinged softly against the metal and the boat rocked in the gentle waves as we found a spot along a secluded railing. Nesri threw the first piece, watching it fall all the way down to the inky water. Something moved and maybe it was a small fin that breached the surface and the kernel got sucked down so maybe there were fish to feed after all. I joined in, only half paying attention to where I was throwing between trying not to be too obvious with my glances at Nesri. She looked so happy, leaning over the edge of the railing to watch shadowy fish snap up our offerings. She shifted, leaning against my side instead. I laid my arm over her shoulders and went to rest my head against hers but she suddenly stiffened and pulled away.

She sucked in a deep breath and couldn’t look right at me. “I—I’m not as put together as I seem. The Shades—they tortured me mentally but also physically. You saw a little bit but it’s all down my back, my stomach, my upper arms.” Was she talking about the scaring? “I’m broken. I’m not pretty. You’d probably be scared off if you saw my scars. So, I wanted to tell you.”

If she thought that way about hers, what would she think of mine? My face fell and I turned away, leaning against the railing. “I guess that makes two of us then.” Was I lying to her, deceiving her by not telling her? I took a deep breath before I could talk myself out of it. “I had a run in with Asher’s father once. He burned me, and it…” I hesitated. “I try not to look at it too much.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.” Nesri took another sharp breath. “We were supposed to be trying to get our minds off of painful stuff, and here I go—” She cut herself off and attempted a smile. “For the record, I wouldn’t think you’re any less handsome.”

“Easy to say.” I mumbled. Of course she would say that. She didn’t know what I looked like and she didn’t want me to feel bad. I pushed off the railing and faced her. “May a well just get it over with.” If she was going to change her mind I’d rather she do it sooner rather than later.

I undid the buttons on my shirt far enough to show the scarring across the left side of my chest. I should have been grateful it healed as well as it did and I still had decent movement where it crossed my shoulder, but it was still so obvious. So prominent. Nesri tentatively brushed her fingers over it and I looked away. I didn’t want to see her face, her reaction.

But even just out of the corner of my eye I could see her shake her head. “You’re still as handsome as before.” She breathed, mind not changed, nothing changed.

Before I could say anything though, she backed up a little and pulled up the edge of her shirt. “Showing all of them would be a little inappropriate, but here’s most of them.”

Her stomach and back looked almost like more scar than skin, old knife wounds haphazardly inflicted. I couldn’t help but stare. They were everywhere, some looking like they must have at one point been deeper than others, but still scarred the skin. How long had she been tormented like that? No wonder just seeing Churi shook her like that. Who could do something like that?

“You survived all that?” I tore my gaze away from her scars and looked up at her face, trying to hide some of the horror at the thought of what that must have been like. “That’s… That must have been hard.” And to still be optimistic as she was today?

“Seven years of it. They thought I should get special torture because they couldn’t control me as easily as they could the others.” She let her shirt down and threw the last of the popcorn into the water before squeezing her eyes shut. “But I understand if you don’t want to be around me. I—I think I might like you, but it’s fine.”

My breath caught, trapping anything I would have been able to say. She really liked me? I shuffled closer, gently draping my arm over her shoulders. When she didn’t stiffen this time, I held her, warm against my side. Did she really think I wouldn’t like her if I knew how she’d looked, what she’d been through? Had I been stupid to think she would change her mind about me for the same reasons? Maybe.

The boat turned, changing direction on it’s seemingly endless loop around the harbor. Twinkling lights shone from the shore, towering high on buildings and catching Nesri between them and the soft glow from the railings. Some of the makeup had smeared around her eyes since our dance, after getting caught by Churi, after everything that happened tonight. As pretty and shiny as it had been all in place under the hall lights, there was something so, endearing, so personal. How she’d let me be there when everything went wrong and hadn’t tried to hide it away this time.

I smiled, warmth finally melting away my frozen voice. “You know, when we danced earlier, that was my first kiss as a human.”

She blinked, flustered and wide eyed. “W-well, I hope you didn’t hate it.”

“Well I didn’t. It was nice.” I swallowed and took a breath, trying to keep up my nerve. “Except for the location.”

She hesitated, maybe even thinking the same thing I had. “Would this be a better location?”

Was this happening? I lowered my head a little. “Much better.”

“Uh. Now? Or…” She glanced down at the bag in her hand. “I guess throwing popcorn at fish isn’t entirely romantic.”

I guess not. “I don’t know.” A nervous laugh bubbled up before I could stop it. “I’m not so good at this.” I’d never gotten this far. What came next?

“Well, I wasn’t either with Kiryth,” she babbled, starting to fluster as much as I felt. “Triel said that’s hwy it didn’t work. But Triel’s also said there’s a trick, and she told me about it.” She gave me a nervous look, as if not sure what came next either.

“A trick?” I blinked. If Triel came up with chances are it was legit. “She does seem to know a few things.”

A heartbeat later and her hands gripped my shirt collar. She brushed her fingers over the skin and pulled me down and kissed me. I froze, heat flooding my face, but quickly kissed her back and wrapped my arms around her, warm and close. For now it didn’t matter we were stuck on some hellish yacht party, that tomorrow could go any kind of way, for now it was just us.

#whg 14 #writeblr hunger games #cirrus

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therestofmyfandoms · 5 years

Text

"Romeo, I must speak with you in private," the lady urged, and Romeo followed her to a nearby alleyway.

Benvolio watched as his friend walked away, a little curious, but respectful of his cousin's privacy. Mercutio, on the other hand, had no such qualms. The blonde royalty trailed after Romeo like a duckling, which caused Benvolio to sigh and follow behind him.

"Friar Laurence has agreed to marry us, you need only-" Benvolio could hear Romeo talking quietly, before Mercutio jumped 'round the corner.

"What's this about marriage? Romeo, truly you mustn't have fallen for this old woman?" When Benvolio finally caught up, Mercutio was grinning at a flustered Romeo, and the poor lady looked ready to smack the blonde.

Quickly stepping in front of his taller friend, Benvolio tried to break up the fight before it started. As well as learn more about this marriage.

"What I think Mercutio is trying to say is, 'you're getting married?'" Benvolio asked, lifting his arms ever so slightly as to stop the blonde from doing anything stupid. Which, of course, would do nothing to stop the man, but it's the thought that counts.

Romeo, for his sake, looked rather red, and could barely string two words together, much less form a sentence. The lady's face softened ever so slightly, and then explained the situation herself.

"Romeo wishes to marry Juliet, the only child of Lord and Lady Capulet," the lady said, as if that cleared everything up. Benvolio's eyebrows shot up, confusion marring his face. "They met last night, at Lord Capulet's masquerade party. They fell in love, and now wish to be married."

"Romeo…" Benvolio trailed off, staring at his lovestruck cousin. Well, at least its not Rosaline. But Rosaline would've been better then the fucking heir!

"Were you discussing wedding plans then?" Mercutio interrupted Benvolio's thoughts, setting a hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him aside so he could stand next to him. "May I be of some help? I do love weddings." Benvolio whipped his head to stare at Mercutio. Not fucking helping!!

The lady, meanwhile, glanced at the still-red Romeo, before turning to face Mercutio again. “Well, I suppose. I am Angelica, Juliet’s nurse, and currently her voice, as she cannot leave her home.” She offered her hand to Mercutio, who simply stared at it.

Benvolio, having more manners than his royal friend, quickly took her hand and bowed, kissing it lightly. “I am Benvolio Montague,” he said as he stood up again. “Romeo’s cousin. And the blonde lump beside me is Mercutio, kinsman to Prince Escalus.” He couldn’t help but grin when that earned him an elbow in his side.

“Now, what do you mean, wedding? I thought you liked Rosaline?” He asked, directing the last question at Romeo. The mention of Rosaline snapped Romeo out of it.

“Rosaline? Ugh, no. I simply followed your advice. I went to the party, I met a pretty girl, and I fell in love,” Romeo stated, rather matter-of-factly. As if it wasn’t a big deal that he just moved from one girl to the next. Although, knowing Romeo, it really wasn’t. Hopefully, though, this one would stick, especially since she seemed to like him back, and they were talking of marriage.

“Romeo. You know I love you, so don’t take this lightly. Are you sure about her? Absolutely, positively?” Benvolio asked, placing his hands on Romeo’s shoulders, staring him in the eye. That snapped the man out of his reverie.

"Yes, Benny. Of this, I don't think I could be more certain," his voice held such confidence, such love, that Benvolio could only sigh, and nod wearily.

Turning his head slightly, he looked at the nurse, Angelica.

"How can we help?"

---

Later than day, as the three men and the Friar were waiting for Juliet in his cell, Mercutio struck up a conversation.

"You know," he drawled to the room, speaking to no one in particular. "This, wedding business is awfully exciting. Makes me almost want to get married."

Benvolio almost scoffed, but then tried to cover it up with a cough.

"Hmm? You have something to say, Benny?" His voice held a mocking tone, but as the royalty swirled to face him, his eyes held something Benvolio could not identify.

"Me? Oh, nothing," he said easily. Mercutio just raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's just the thought of you getting married," -and there goes the other eyebrow. "You could never settle down like that. You'd drop her within the week!"

"Oh yeah?" Mercutio sounded almost affronted. Against his better judgement, Benvolio nodded.

"You would get bored! You could never stick around that long!" Benvolio went on, trying to stay quiet. "In fact, I'm honestly surprised you haven't left Romeo and I yet. Are we just exciting enough?" At this, Mercutio almost look like he bit into a lemon. A bit of hurt seeped into his eyes, and Benvolio started to feel bad, at least until his eyes suddenly sparked with a mischievous light, he opened his mouth.

"Hmm, I suppose you're right, in some ways. Do you think you would be better, at marriage? You think you would last longer?" Mercutio taunted, a faint smirk on his face. Benvolio, as much as he didn't want to, fell for the bait.

"Yea, actually. I think I would. I can put up with anything. I've put up with you, haven't I?" Oh no. That was it. That was what Mercutio was looking for, based on the grin that quickly took over his face.

"Oh, so you wouldn't mind a little, wager then, would you?" His grin was almost devilish, and by god was it contagious. Benvolio was slowly smiling as he nodded. "Good. Then how about…" Mercutio trailed off, as he glanced around the room. Benvolio did too, remembering that they had company for the first time. Oops.

For their part, Friar Laurence and Romeo looked really awkward, and were entirely avoiding eye contact with the other two. Mercutio laughed loudly, startling them.

"Friar, you're free, right?" The man didn't even have time to answer before Mercutio walked over and dragged him back to Benvolio. "Marry us, please."

"Wait what?" Benvolio's eyes were as big as dinner plates, he was sure. Before we could continue, Romeo jumped in.

"Mercutio, what? Is that really such a good idea?" Romeo asked, glancing between the 3 of them. "Isn't that kind of rash?" The twin glares from Mercutio and Benvolio was enough to silence him.

"Now, as I was saying-" before Mercutio could finish, a soft voice spoke from the door.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" Turning, Benvolio watched as the most beautiful girl he had ever seen walked into the room, glancing around at the mess that was happening.

Romeo quickly threw himself at her, hugging her and calling her 'my darling', 'my love', and other sickly sweet pet names. That must be Juliet then.

"Not at all, no," Mercutio grumbled under his breath as he let go of Friar Laurence, who promptly went over to the happy couple. Mercutio just stood next Benvolio, watching as they got married.

At first, Benvolio was very uncertain about this, and Romeo's devotion. After all, the man was like a puppy, falling in love with whoever gave him attention. But just watching him with Juliet, Benvolio could tell that he was truly in love. It was very much meant to be.

As the Friar finished up his prayers, Romeo and Juliet shared a tender kiss. And then Benvolio heard sniffling from beside him. He glanced at Mercutio, who wiped a tear from his eye. Then he noticed him watching.

"Its beautiful, okay? Don't judge me," he huffed, turning his head away and crossing his arms like a 5 year old. Benvolio chuckled slightly.

"I'm not, I'm not. I just didn't take you for a softie." Benvolio explained lightly, nudging him with his elbow, eyes now watching the newly-weds. They were simply staring at each other, talking quietly.

It was quiet for a bit, as the Friar went about his other business, and the married couple were spending as much time as possible together before Juliet had to leave.

Then Benvolio heard a mumble from beside him. He glanced at Mercutio. The man was tucked into himself, like a turtle. It seemed almost wrong, somehow, that the usually loud and boisterous was acting, well, nervous.

"What?" He asked, wondering if he said anything at all or if he just imagined it.

"So?" The blonde said again, a little louder. Oh, so he did say something.

"So what?"

"Do you want to? You know…"

"Do what? I'm sorry, I'm lost"

Mercutio groaned. It seemed he was done with words, even though he didn't say very many. The royalty simply waved in the direction of Friar Laurence, and then gestured between the two of them. Oh. That.

"Oh." Bevolio suddenly felt very warm. Is it hot in here? We should open a window. Is there anyone windows? His thoughts rambled on, as he struggled to think of what to say. "Uh, sure? But what will the winner get?"

Mercutio seemed to expand a bit more. He stood up straighter, with a slight smile upon his lips. "I suppose that's up to the victor, is it not? I mean, when I win, I want to choose whatever. I. Please."

"You mean, when I win." Benvolio grinned, delighted to be bantering back and forth again. "I agree to that though. Whatever we want." He stuck out his hand.

Mercutio grinned back, and quickly shook his hand. "Oh Friar!"

The call once again startled the other people in the room who were not paying attention. Friar Laurence simply sighed and made his way over to them.

"Please join your hands," the Friar instructions, and they did just that. The man began to speak a long, low prayer, blessing this union and blah blah, Benvolio tuned him out.

All he could think about was oh god what is my family going to think and were Mercutio's hands always this soft?

"To seal this union, you must do so with a kiss," the Friar interrupted his thoughts, and that brought them to a startling halt. Oh yeah. Forgot about this part.

Based on his smirk, Mercutio didn't forget. He simply grabbed Benvolio's face and pulled him into a kiss. A warm, beautiful kiss that made him weak at the knees. Then before he knew it, it was over and he was simply staring in Mercutio's eyes and clutching onto his shoulders.

Oh no Benvolio thought, watching as Mercutio's eyes glistened, almost as if he knew what he was doing to Benvolio. This is going to be harder than I thought.

#bencutio #mervolio #mercutio #benvolio #romeo #juliet #romeo and juliet #r+j #my writing #m's writing #if anyone's curious #the characters are based on the ones from the 1968 movie #we watched it in class #as we were reading it #sooo #yea anyway i may or may not continue this #just depends on feedback and also inspiration #not many people even read r+j let alone ship mercutio #but a girl can dream

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roronoa-swords · 4 years

Text

Cop and Thief

Smoker x Portgas D. Ace

Fandom: One Piece

Genre: Smut with a lil angst

Timeline: Modern AU!

Pairing: Smoker x Ace

Request: For Op-Law from wattpad. You can also find this story there under the name Da3Stuges. I share an account with two other amazing authors💚

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is the second time Portgas. When are you going to learn that doing arson is illegal?" A white haired male snarled with an irritated look on his face.

"C'mon Smokey, when are you gonna lighten up a bit? It's the 21st century, stop being so...old." The man named 'Portgas' said as he laid his head on the table.

Smoker let out a deep sigh before he uncuffed the man. "Just-...." The older man breathed. "Just get outta my sight Portgas. If I see you in here again, you're gonna regret it."

"Oh I'm soooo scared!" He mocks. "See you later old man!" The ravenette said as he ran out of the police station. Smoker's assistant, Tashigi only stood in pure, agitated disbelief.

"Why do you keep letting him go Sergeant Smoker? He's only gonna cause more trouble, not only for you, but for the entire GPD! We have to go get him!" The navy haired woman with red glasses perched on top of her head complained.

Smoker sighed. He was asked -and told- the same thing every single time. Smoker waved her off.

"Stand down Tashigi. Portgas acts like any other old reckless youngster, there is no need to get rash." Sergeant Smoker seriously needed a break. He already gained a headache trying to apprehend Portgas. He didn't need this extra addition. But, it seems Tashigi didn't get the memo.

"But sir! Portgas D. Ace is the eldest of the infamous ASL brothers! Those three terrorize any store they find! And just for food?!?! He's also allies with Whitebeard and Roger! He needs to be apprehended immediately before his entire posse raid this whole town!" The woman screeched as she tried to get her point across.

"I said stand down cadet!" He barked. "I am aware of Portgas' affiliations, I am aware of his younger brothers, and I am very much aware of the consequences of him continuing to run free." It's like the people in this damned department didn't understand.

"Please stop rambling nonsense around my head and move on from this subject. To be quite frank, I'm done with Portgas and his case. So if you want to capture him so bad, why don't you go and do it?" Smoker sneered as he has gotten fed up with Tashigi and her screeching.

"But Sergeant Smoker-.." She tried to reason but never got to finish her sentence. Smoker upped and left the room.

"Damned people. I don't know how many times they want me to repeat the same words over and over again." He grumbled as he stomped his way to his office.

"That damn brat is growing on me. Without him, these calls won't be challenging at all."

He sighed, entering his office. Sitting down on the slightly worn out chair, he gazed upon his achievements that were mounted on the wall.

'Soon, I won't have a job if I keep this up.' He thought with a sigh. This whole situation was troublesome.

Suddenly, a knock was heard.

"Enter." The tired male spoke. He waited to see who would be on the other side of his door. Surprisingly, it was Monkey D. Garp, the retired chief of police. Smoker stood up, as a sign of respect.

"G-Garp-San," He hesitated. "To what do I owe this visit? More so, why have you came to visit me?" Smoker was puzzled. Why was the greatest chief of police that ever resided in this town, here in his office?

Garp stood as strong as ever. Dressed down in his white button up and some white dress pants.

"Well, Sergeant," Garp began. " a little birdy...more-so...your assistant Tashigi, seemed to be in distress. I asked her, and she told me that you keep letting a certain freckled faced fellow go." Smoker kept his composure, but inwardly groaned. That woman could never keep her mouth shut.

"Mind explaining why you are releasing my grandson only to capture him again later on?" Garp questioned as he looked at Smoker with curious amusement.

Smoker stayed silent. It wasn't that he didn't know how to answer the question, it was more of him in denial.

"To be honest with you Chief...I'm not sure why I do that." He said scratching the back of his neck. A sign that Garp picked up from past visits, indicating he was nervous.

"Portgas brings...life to the chases we do-" Smoker paused. "him and his brothers." He continues. "So taking them in would diminish all the fun." Garp stared at him for a minute before answering.

"But you do know that even if they do rob stores for food, they have very strong and dangerous allies." He stated. "Ace with Whitebeard and Roger, Sabo with Dragon, and Luffy with Shanks. Not to mention they have their own crews. For example, Luffy and his Straw hat brats." Garp concluded as fixed Smoker with a stare.

"Though I am assuming- and hoping that this isn't the case-" Garp straightens to his full height. "Could it be that you are starting to harbor feelings for the brat?" Garp asked.

The male in question thought about the elders statement. 'Do I like Portgas? No....no I can't do that. There's no way. Unless...?' Smoker thought as he racked through his brain for answers.

Garp sighed. "Well, I've got to go. Even though they are criminals, they're still my grandkids. However, they are gonna get a rude awakening when I return back home from the holidays." He said with a menacing smile as he cracked his knuckles. He looked at Smoker then smirked at him before exited out of his office.

'That was weird.' The white haired male said as he lit up a cigar. He sat down and took a puff. He sighed out a breath as he wondered.

'What am I going to do?'

(Ace's POV)

"LUFFY! ACE! LET'S GO!" Sabo shouted. We just raided one of our favorite restaurants. We dodged a couple of frying pans, cutting boards, and a few stray eating utensils along the way. We finally arrive to our usual little hiding spot. We're here just until things die down, then we normally make our way home. Fuck I'm tired. I focus on catching my breath as Luffy starts laughing.

"Shishishi~ I got all the meat!" My idiot of a little brother exclaims.

"Lies! I got some meat too- and I aint sharing so don't give me that face." I said as my straw hat wearing brother pouts.

"You idiots argue for the most simplest things," Sabo rolled his eyes. "it's unbelievable sometimes." He sighed as he looked down in embarrassment.

"WHO YOU CALLING AN IDIOT, BARBIE DOLL?!?" I snap.

"EH!? YOU WANNA FIGHT?!" Sabo shouts back. Oh ho hooo I am not backing down bitch.

"BRING IT ON YOU SMURF!"

Sabo and I were head to head and I could see the electricity between us. "Shishishi~ usually it's me and Ace or Ace and Smokey." Luffy said as he munched on a bag of chips.

"Speaking of Smokey, he always catches you and then lets you go 5 hours later. Wanna explain?" Sabo said as he looked at me with a smirk on his face. I felt my cheeks heat up as I look the other way.

"There's nothing to explain. He catches me, we talk, then he lets me go. Nothing else." I mumbled, hoping Sabo wouldn't press into the situation more.

"Judging by your face I think you have some attraction for him." Apparently, he didn't get the hint or he got it and just didn't care.

"Ugh just drop it Sabo. Even if I DID like him there is absolutely NO POSSIBLE WAY Oyaji or that old bastard would approve." I sulk.

Sabo walks up to me and grabs my shoulders. "Wouldn't approve of what? You being gay?"

"Hmm? Oh, No, I told them my preference before and they didn't have a problem. I think they wouldn't approve because of who I chose to like. Remember," I sigh. "He's a cop. I'm a thief. Not to mention my stupid old man. It isn't gonna work."

I turn away from him as my shoulders droop. 'Besides..I think he likes that little assistant of his...despite how annoying she is.' I thought as a I succumb to my inner thoughts.

"Eh, Ace, I know you're worried about their opinion, but, if you really like him, you gotta face your fears and tell him. Rejection is always better than regret." Luffy said with a serious expression.

Sabo and I looked at him shocked. He tilts his head in confusion. 'Luffy....has a brain?' I stare at him.

"What? Is there something on my face?" He picks his nose.

'Well nevermind he's back to being an idiot.' I sweatdrop.

"Well, we should get going. Thatch needs to cook the food." Sabo said and as soon as he did, Luffy and I race back to the house.

"Hey! Wait for me! Guys!" I hear Sabo shout.

~timeskip brought to you by Marco chasing Ace around in a pineapple tank top~

"Why...did you guys..run of like that?" Sabo panted as he finally caught up with us.

"You've gotten slow Sabo..need to fix that." I say as I smirk mischievously at him. He pales at my sentence and begins to mumble something before Luffy's voice is heard, shouting so the whole block hears him. "WE'RE HOME!"

He then turns towards us, "Let's go, I want FOOODD!" and dashes inside.

Sabo and I stare at him for a second before his words fully register in my mind. "DON'T EAT ALL THE MEAT LUFFY!" I shout. I dash inside, leaving Sabo in the dust.

"Thatch! Marco! Oyaji! How are you guys?" I ask as we all sit at the table. Well Oyaji stood, but that doesn't make much of a difference.

"We're fine." Thatch hummed, "-but mind telling why you got captured today?" he questions as he glances behind him, amused.

"Oh, um...how'd you know about that?" I laugh nervously with an uneasy feeling in my chest.

"Gurararara~ We know everything around here, brat. Did you forget already?" Oyaji says, with his signature laugh.

I facepalm because of my stupidity. 'Of course Oyaji would know the smoking Sargeant.'

"Shishishi~ Ace got captured by Smokey! But their fight was..weird." Luffy's shine like literal stars as Thatch sets a plate full of meat in front of him. "Weird like how yoi?" Marco spoke, leaning on the table with a lazy smirk.

"They were saying weird stuff to each other. Like when Ace said that if Smokey has this much energy fighting, how much energy would he have in-" Luffy didn't get to finish before I shoved a piece of meat in his mouth. "OKAYY," I chuckle nervously, "we don't need to hear anymore a that, right Sabo?" I force a smile, praying that Sabo would be on my side.

Sabo looks at me before smirking. 'Oh no'

"I don't know, Ace...you were kinda..touchy with him today." He teased. "Any reason why?" I look at him with the most hateful gaze ever, but he just brushes it off. 'Damnit Sabo! You're gonna make Oyaji kill him you overgrown barbie doll!'

Everyone at the table looked at me with a face of interest. Even Izo, Vista and Haruta.

'When the hell did they get here?'

The only one who didn't had a readable expression was Oyaji. 'Fuck...he's gonna kill me'

"Were you flirting- with Sergeant Smoker, Ace?" Izo questioned me with a large smirk on his rose colored lips. Before I even had the chance to answer, the overgrown, knock-off barbie doll on the right of me spoke up.

"Flirting? It was like watching sex happen in front of my eyes-" He didn't get to finish as I slammed my fist on top of his head.

"Damnit Sabo! Are you trying to get me killed?!" I yelled as I stood up from my seat, meat on my plate forgotten.

"I mean you needed a push and I'm there to help." He winced as he rubbed the top of his head. Before I said anything, I was cut of again.

'Why the fuck do I keep getting interrupted!? I'm running out of patience.'

"Ace.." Oyaji started as he looked at me with a glare, some haki leaking through. "Are you interested in this...Sergeant?" He finished. The whole table went down in silence and Sabo looks away from me, I don't have to look at him to know he feels full of guilt.

"No Oyaji.....what gave you that idea?" I say, not looking at Oyaji in the eye.

"Ace..you know that relationship will not work. He's a Sergeant, a cop," He emphasizes. "...and you. You're a thief." He says firmly, staring into my being.

"Your relationship is gonna end up in two ways. One, he continues to set you free after every chase and loses his rank- or worse, his job-"

'I don't want to be the reason he loses his job.' I clench my fist.

"Or two, you get caught and thrown in jail." Oyaji speaks. I know what he's saying. I know what he's trying to get into my head.

"Either he's gone or your life is over."

'I know the risks....I know I don't have a chance. But why does it hurt so much hearing it from you, Oyaji?'

I thought as I bit my bottom lip.

"Honestly," He grunts. "I don't care who you date. Your father, however, is the problem." I tch. That stupid old man.

"You know he has issues trusting the police. Ever since the incident with your mother." He continued. "Of course she's alive and well, but he almost lost her, Ace. He almost lost you.

I put my head down in shame.

'I knew it. They wouldn't approve. They wouldn't accept it. Damn it.'

"I know that Oyaji..that's why I said I don't like him you know." I bark a laugh. It sounded so mechanic that Luffy had stopped eating.

"...Sabo and Luffy were just messing with me." I say flashing a pained smile, a vain attempt to seem unfazed.

"Ace.." Thatch calls. I don't answer.

"Well, that settles that. I'm going to be in my room. I'm not hungry." I slide the plate over in between Sabo and Luffy, signaling that they can have my share.

I walk out of the dining room and head to my room. 'Nothing is ever fair anymore.'

I open the door to my room and slam it closed, locking it behind me. I huff. For fuck's sake.

'I need to cool down...I don't need another lecture from Marco about burning holes into my bedroom walls again.'

Shuffling around in my room, trying to calm down- though I'm unsuccessful-, something clicks.

What if....?

I rush and throw on a shirt. I don't bother to button it up cause why not. Opening my window and climbing out, I breathe in slight anticipation.

'Maybe he's on duty tonight...'

(Sabo's POV)

I watch Ace leave the dining room with a hurt look in his eyes. 'I over did it.' I can't help but think. Pops sighs before he took a sip of his sake.

"I know the brat likes that Sergeant and frankly, I would like to see them together, but Roger wouldn't allow it."

Ah, speaking of the devil. Said man enters the house with Aunt Rouge and Uncle Rayleigh following behind him.

'Just how many people live here?' I sweatdropped.

"Ahaaa Newgate! Pass over the sake you old geezer!" Roger exclaimed, dismissing the tense atmosphere in the room. 'He either doesn't notice it, or he notices and doesn't care. Probably the latter.'

"Gurararara~ Go get your own, this one's mine." Pops said as he hogged up the rest of the sake on the table.

"Aww cmon, you drinked the rest of the booze ya old bastard." Roger complained as he took a seat next to Pops.

"For an old man he really asks like a kid yoi." Marco mumbles. "Tell me about it, and I'm married to him." Aunt Rouge added as she put two fingers on the bridge of her nose.

"Oiii!" Roger exclaimed with a pout. 'He really is a man baby'

"Roger.. Rouge.. there is something we need to...discuss." Pops says as his smile drops.

Sensing the tension in the room, Roger stopped smiling and gave a blank stare. "About what Newgate?" He questioned. "It's about Ace." Pops said.

As if the room dropped below freezing point, Roger gave Pops a ice cold stare as his haki started to leak out.

"What happened to my son?" He asked as he stood up. Marco and Thatch stood next to Pops just in case something happens.

'Now I see why Ace doesn't tell you things, Roger. You're overprotective.' I thought as I made my way over to Luffy.

"Nothing happened to him Roger..." Oyaji paused. "He's just.....experiencing feelings for someone, is all." Pops concluded.

Roger visibly relaxed and smiled "Then what's the problem? You got me all tense for nothing!" He exclaimed as he laugh, but Pops only chuckled. "Ah but wait, he's interested in an officer. Down at the GPD, there's a smokey Sergeant that's caught Ace's attention." Pops said

Roger's smile disappeared and was replaced with an angry scowl almost immediately.

"Absolutely not. There's NO WAY I'm letting my only son date an officer. After what they did to us?! No way." He said as he threw his hands up. Roger only looked away in anger and slight disbelief.

"If I may ask...what happened exactly yoi?" Marco questioned. Though, this is the first time I've seen Marco flinch when someone answered his questions.

'Now I reallyyyy understand why Ace don't tell him anything.'

"When Rouge was pregnant with Ace, I was on the run from the government. I was caught and my execution was planned, but they didn't go through with it." He started. "Because it was unsafe, Rouge was forced to hold Ace for 20 months. Thus causing his birth to be heavily delayed. When it was time for Rouge to give birth, I broke out of the prison they kept me in."

As Roger talked, I could feel the raw hatred, and bits of Haki begin to pour out into the room. ~To be continued~

#anime #portgas d ace #gol d. roger #smoker #modern au #straw hat luffy

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