#like they had the same. degree n shit before she went into directing

[crayonverse]

Douglas: Yeah! Marcus was my best invention, a bionic android with Adam, Bree, and Chase’s abilities! They were even stronger than the team combined, haha. Too bad they got crushed under a pile of rubble where I used to live.

Giselle, someone who has a thirst for revenge on Douglas and makes evil androids for a hobby: Oh? Really? Out of curiosity, where exactly did you live and is there security around the site?

Douglas, extremely in love and stupid: (immediately writing down the address)

[imagines-r-s]

terms and conditions

chapter 2

series masterlist

a/n: sorry for how long this took. because of school, i was only able to work on it occasionally, which i am genuinely so sorry for. i appreciate your patience.

taglist: @stxrniqlo @dojacatismywife @gillybear17 @obx-thoughts

warnings: mentions of asher

w.c: 2.8k

“Why won’t you just tell us what he did to you?” Charlie asked, pacing behind you as you continued to play one of your favorite pieces on the piano.

“I don’t know why you keep asking, Miller, she’s playing the piano right now, which is basically y/n saying ‘shut the fuck up and leave me alone’,” Rafe said, not looking up from his phone. Rafe knew better than anyone that you picked whatever songs you played based off your mood. 

Like the time that you only played the end of ‘Bennie and the Jets’ by Elton John for a week after finding out that you got to go to see one of your favorite artists in concert with VIP tickets for a meet and greet. Or throughout everything that happened with your dad, when all you played were a variety of depressing piano ballads by Taylor Swift, Bon Iver, and Lord Huron. 

And for the past hour, you’ve been playing songs by all three. 

“Yes, which I also know is a sign she needs to talk about whatever is bothering her,” Charlie said, moving to sit next to Rafe on the couch, “please tell me you know that, too.”

“Yeah, I know, but after yesterday at the restaurant I can tell that we won’t get it out of her anytime. And before you ask, yes that worries me, but I can’t really do much about it at this exact moment.”

The two of them looked over to you as you played the ending of “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron and as soon as they heard you start another song, Charlie pulled you from the piano. “Okay, honey. I’m either going to need you to play something more lively or get away from the piano.”

Your eyebrows furrowed, “but you love my playing?”

“Yes, yes, I do, but not when it’s the same depressing shit that Rafe has on his sad playlist for when Kie repeatedly rejects him.”

“Hey,” Rafe said, incredulously, “you said you wouldn’t bring that up, dude.”

“Yeah, sorry. Anyways, you’re here for the summer and summer is fun, okay? So, no more sad music. Now go get ready, we’re going out to the country club today.”

“Do we have to?”

“Yes,” the boys said simultaneously. 

“We’ll meet you out there in 15 and Kelce and Top are on their way,” Rafe added before walking away. 

☾⋆

You had lived rent free in JJ’s head since he saw you at The Wreck the other day. He knew that he would get to see you if Ward worked his plan of having JJ show you around and such, but there was something about you that he couldn’t ignore - he didn’t exactly know what that was yet, but he knew there was something. 

Trying to gather his bearings for work, he went back to the kitchen and put on his apron - hoping that to some extent dealing with a bunch of rich assholes might take his mind off you to some degree. The only problem was as he walked out to deal with his tables, he saw you and the boys making their way toward one of his usual tables. 

“Maybank, you get the Cameron table,” his manager, Justin’s, voice rang out. 

“JT, please, just this one time, can you take it?”

“One, quit calling me JT, asshat. And two, I thought you settled your stuff with Rafe and them?”

“Yes, but-”

“Then, if there’s not another logical reason, I will not be adding a table to my service today.”

“Could bribery work?”

“I make a lot more money than you, Maybank, so unless it’s a valuable quantity, it’s still a no from me, dawg. Just go serve them. The sooner you do, the sooner they leave,” Justin said, practically shoving JJ towards the table. 

JJ resisted the pushing to the best of his ability, “JT, please, I’m begging.”

“Go.” And with that JJ finally let up and made his way over to your table.

Rafe was the first to notice JJ heading their way and sent a subtle nod in his direction. “Maybank, hey man. You our server today?”

Much to his dismay, yes. “Yeah, you guys get to be graced with my presence. What can I get you guys started with today?” JJ asked, getting his notepad out from his back pocket. Maybe if he kept his eyes focused on that, he wouldn’t make too much of a fool of himself. Quickly getting everyone’s drink order, his eyes finally looked where he had been avoiding - you. “Um, hey, what about you?”

He quickly noticed the way that your eyes immediately met his and the way that you smiled at him. “I’ll just get a water, thank you,” you paused, looking for his name tag, “JJ.”

For that reason he immediately regretted wearing his nametag today. “Alright, I’ll be back with that as soon as possible.”

“I think our dear friend just made JJ Maybank flustered, which I must applaud her for,” Kelce said, earning nods of agreement from everyone, but you, who was very much out of the loop. 

“Why is that such a big deal?”

“Well, he’s not necessarily the biggest playboy anymore - Rafe has taken that spot - but he is typically not visibly into people, so it’s very entertaining to witness,” Kelce said, filling you in on the situation. 

“He just asked what I wanted to drink?” you asked, even more confused how they came to that specific conclusion from that minor of an interaction. 

“Yes, but he literally looked everywhere except you and then whenever he finally spoke up, it was rushed and mumbly. He’s a cocky son of a bitch, who usually is not phased by basic conversation, so that definitely counts for something,” Topper chimed in. 

“I doubt it’s anything, see he’s coming back now, we’ll see.”

Everyone’s attention was focused on the interaction - mainly to prove their own point correct. “Alright, I have the waters, the teas, and the Shirley Temple - which by the way Charlie, I hate you for ordering that right now.”

“Sorry, blondie, I hate to disappoint,” Charlie spoke with fake sympathy. 

“It’s all good,” he spoke before turning toward you, “okay, and I’ll start with you as far as what you want to eat. What’s it going to be, babe?”

“Oh, babe? I got my own nickname now?” you asked, egging him on to prove everyone’s point wrong. 

“Well, I mean, sorry. If you don’t want the nickname-” He was so screwed. 

“J, it’s cool. What would you recommend though?”

“Oh, um. Honestly, I’m not a salad person, but I really like our salads. Any of our pasta is to die for, just up to you and what you like.”

You smiled, “Ok, well surprise me, I’m cool with whatever.” Listening as he got the rest of everyone’s orders, you quickly noted how different he acted with everyone else in comparison to you. You could tell just by those quick moments that there was a very obvious difference in dynamics. “Look, I’m not going to say that any of you are right, but there was definitely a difference.”

“Told you,” Rafe and Charlie said, simultaneously. 

The rest of lunch went smoothly, with quite a few more interactions between you and JJ. You could tell that over time he was beginning to get a bit more comfortable with you, to the point that the two of you were both cracking jokes later on. Eventually as all of you finished eating, you gathered your things to head out, “Hey man, see you tomorrow morning?” Rafe asked, which threw you off slightly. 

“Yeah, Rose and Ward both want me to help with planning for Midsummer’s, so I’ll be there pretty much everyday for the next month,” he spoke as he started packing up the table.

“Wait, you work for the Cameron’s?” you spoke up, seeking clarification. 

“Yeah, I do the gardening for Rose and then any other lawn work, boat stuff, or whatever else for Ward. Anything helps, you know. Anyways, you guys have a good one, I’ll see you around.”

JJ watched as the group left the country club as he got the table cleaned up. He headed back to the kitchen ready for another table when Justin stopped him, “so she’s the reason you didn’t want to work that table, huh?”

☾⋆

Waking up the next morning, you finally decided to unpack for the summer. Taking out your clothes and getting your makeup and toiletries settled, you tried to make the Cameron guest room as homey as you could - especially considering that you didn’t exactly have any other options. As you were folding some clothes into your drawer, you heard a soft knock on your door, “come in.” 

“Hey, I come with peace offerings and hope that you’ll talk about your problems,” Rafe said, carrying in the tray that held your favorite breakfast items. “Obviously, you can still have breakfast, even if you don’t talk about whatever happened, but you already know my preference.” He finished off by sending you a sickly, sweet smile before sitting on the edge of your bed.

“What do you want to know, Rafe?” you said, putting some clothes on a hanger and turning away from him. 

“Whatever you’re fine with sharing, Buttercup. I’m not going to force anything out of you, but there’s obviously much to discuss. I just don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to anyone about anything that’s going on, you know. I’ll be here for you either way, tea time or not.”

Joining Rafe on the side of your bed, you let out a deep breath and a small chuckle, “uh. Asher or why am I here first?”

“Well, not to start this off on a wrong foot, but the Asher thing has been pressing on me since yesterday.”

“Connections are connections.”

“Connections are- huh?”

“That’s what Asher told me right before I broke up with him. The situations kinda go hand in hand, so it kinda just varies on what playing field you look at it on, but nonetheless, I-”

“He said that to you? What the fuck, y/n?” 

You let out another sigh, “do you remember that school that I told you about?”

“With the really nice music program… Johnston’s, right?” he watched as you nodded, “yeah, you mentioned it before you tried out how excited you were and how you were going to convince your mom to let you go, if you got it.”

You nodded, staring straight ahead, “yeah, uh, she found out I got in, got really upset about it, and said I couldn’t go. So, in rational fashion, I went to my boyfriend with the issue and he said it was a silly hobby of mine and that I need to focus on my actual career, like my mom wants. I tried to talk to him about it and how it wasn’t just a hobby and then he started going on about how he should have known I wasn’t serious about being CEO and that he should have picked a better connection.”

Rafe sat in a moment in stunned silence as he processed what you had told him, “y/n.”

“Yeah?” you asked, as if you hadn’t just dropped the most shocking information he could have heard. 

“What the actual fuck?” he stood up quickly and started pacing, “Yeah, no, I see why you didn’t tell anyone else because then you would have had to convince more people not to fly to Asher and pummel his face in. I’m only here right now as I’m still in conversation with you, but what?”

“Yeah, I really don’t know and I just… I feel stupid for not knowing, you know.”

“Don’t blame yourself for his mediocrity. That’s a him problem, not you. I’m sorry you were victim to it though because that was so out of pocket. Is he why you’re here?”

“To some extent, I guess. Not exactly,” you continued watching him pace, “but please don’t tell the boys until I’m ready, I understand why you think you should, but please wait a while.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course, buttercup. Whatever you need I’m here for you,” he made a final turn before giving you a hug. “You deserve so much better than that. I’m sorry.”

You stayed quiet for quite some time. “I think I’m just going to take today easy; practice some piano, do whatever.”

“Please don’t play any Lord Huron, I can’t deal with that today, too.”

“Yeah, I can make do without Lord Huron, got to make sure I save that for whenever Kie rejects you again.” 

“Oh, hey, that was unnecessary. And for payback, I won’t tell you that JJ works today.” 

Grabbing a pillow from your bed, you quickly tossed it in his direction, “oh my god, leave.”

Finishing up your breakfast, you made your way downstairs to the piano. Even throughout all that had happened, you found no ill will towards how you felt about playing the piano. Asher’s words of it only being a hobby and your mother’s disapproval were easily drowned out when your hands hit the keys and the melody of these familiar songs filled the air. If there was one thing that you could always count on, it was this.

Walking into Tannyhill, JJ’s ears immediately picked up on the sound of a piano playing, but he continued on his way under the assumption that it was just someone listening to music. It wasn’t until he passed the Grand Room where the piano was, that he saw you sitting there. The song was familiar to him, but not enough that he could immediately recognize the song; but in all honesty, the song was the least of his concerns. 

Maybe it was the outfit you picked today. Or the way your hair looked today. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that your body showed how into the music you were. The way that your hands moved so gracefully; or that your body swayed with the music; or how after specific parts of the song, the corners of your mouth would lift up. 

“J, it’s rude to stare” you said, causing his eyes to snap to you, only to find that your eyes weren’t even on him. 

“I wasn’t staring,” he said, “I was just, um, admiring. That was really good by the way.” 

As you finished up the song, you finally took the opportunity to look at him. Your eyes immediately went to the red cutout tee that he was wearing that day, moreso the way his arms looked in the shirt itself. 

Noticing the way that you were staring at him, some of his usual cockiness was able to seep through whatever wall you had somehow put up, “It’s rude to stare, you know.”

“Don’t worry, J, I was just admiring,” he watched as you stood up from the piano and made your way closer to him. “What all are you working on today?”

“Nothing crazy, just pulling weeds for Rose. Why? What’s up?”

“Oh, I was just wondering and I like to ask questions, so.” 

The smile on JJ’s face grew a little, “well, perfect for you, I love answering questions,” He actually hated answering questions, but he wanted a reason to keep talking to you, “but you have to let me ask you some questions, too. Deal?” 

“Deal.” 

☾⋆

JJ didn’t leave Tannyhill for another few hours, which normally he would have been quick to complain about, but he was able to spend all that time with you. Really, he had no room to complain, the only thing in his head was the nagging thought about what Ward was having him do. 

He chose to ignore the fact that he was at least two hours late to the plans that he had with the pogues, but he knew that they would forgive him for it. Riding back to the Chateau, he was immediately welcomed to everyone chilling out with drinks in hand already. 

“Well, would you look at that? JJ finally decided to join us,” John B’s voice rang out as he made his way up the steps of the chateau, “how was work?”

“It was good, can’t complain when all I had to do was pull some weeds.” 

“Doesn’t pulling weeds only take you like an hour? You were gone for four,” Pope’s voice added. 

“Yeah, usually, I don't know what all happened, uh, the ecosystem and all that was on overdrive,” he spoke slowly, hoping that whatever he was saying made sense, “so it took a while.” 

“Something was on overdrive, that’s for sure,” Sarah said, “something to do with a specific pianist that’s residing in my house for the summer?”

A chuckle left his mouth before he could pick up on it, “pianist. That’s such a funny word.”

“Didn’t answer the question,” Sarah stated. 

“I just figured that it would be smart to introduce myself,” he said, with a simple shrug. Maybe they would believe that an introduction took four hours.

[ahsokathegray]

I Bleed the Same || Thirty-One

Pairing: Rexsoka

Summary: Ahsoka and Rex try and make sense of who and what they are after Order 66 occurs. Figuring out what to do with themselves, they remain together for a period of time before parting in their own directions.

Warnings: slow burn, mentions of Order 66, ptsd, injury, death, and future nsfw situations

Word Count: 5,824

A/N: recap on the shit bitchass Bonteri did to Ahsoka and canon typical violence. so stunning, holding a knife at someone's throat, and mistreatment of Rex :(

read on ao3! / series masterlist

The sisters waved them off as the Y-wing departed the garage. It was bittersweet leaving R7 behind for now, but Ahsoka stood by her decision. As tough as it was, she’d only continue worrying over him if he was sitting in the droid slot behind her. 

Rex punched Nar Shaddaa’s coordinates into the nav and the swell of hyperspace enveloped them. Ahsoka rested her head on the cushion, glad to occupy the gunner’s seat again instead of seeing it empty as Rex set off on his own. In a funny sort of way, just the back of his blonde head brought about an immense amount of comfort to her, something she couldn’t ever remember not having. It was something she deeply missed during her time away from the Jedi and the Republic. 

She then plucked the datapad from her pack and went over the details of the mission again. When she and the girls had traced Lux’s coordinates, she’d drawn up a quick plan of action. He was transmitting from somewhere below the surface, in an industrial sector that’s been out of commission for a few years. 

Whatever happened on Onderon must’ve been bad if it sent him to a planet with a reputation like that of Nar Shaddaa’s. Sure, Lux was working against the Empire to some degree, but how was he making credits? Did he still have access to his family’s accounts? If he wasn’t a freedom fighter anymore, was he even still a Senator? He wasn’t exceptionally good at either one of those things. 

Ahsoka let go a sigh of relief, knowing he couldn’t be a bounty hunter. But she knew that he could still turn her and Rex in without being a gun for hire or man of wealth. If he wanted Imperial favor, all he had to do was give names. Not only that, but the planet was allegedly filled to the brim with such assassins and other low lives. If Lux didn’t turn them in, then someone else might. Rex, at least, was listed as killed in action. Ahsoka hoped that meant that she’d been sorted into that category as well. 

“I can practically hear the gears turning back there,” Rex said, breaking the silence, “Anything on your mind?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line. They hadn’t spoken much since Trace found them together in the bedroom. The sheer embarrassment was enough to render them both speechless for the time being. She looked down to where her thigh holster was strapped, remembering his touch and how it had left her head foggy. His blaster sat snug inside the accessory, a constant reminder of his protection. “Just, I’m not sure how well our relationship has held up… Lux and I, I mean. I’m afraid there’s a chance he’ll turn us in.”

“There’s no way in hell I’ll allow that to happen,” Rex assured her. The kid would eat hot plasma straight from a blaster if he even so much as considered it. “Trace and Rafa could’ve easily done the same.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she agreed. There was a time that Rafa wouldn’t have thought twice about it, if it meant she’d make a few extra credits. 

Rex thought harder, the knowledge that she and Lux apparently knew each other well to some degree gnawed at him. Normally, she confided in him about that sort of thing. “What exactly happened between the two of you? If you don’t mind my asking, I don’t remember you ever mentioning him.”

This was what she’d been dreading to tell him. Ever since hearing Lux’s voice over the transceiver, she knew she’d had to tell Rex. Anakin had detected some of it during their time on Onderon, but even he hadn’t known to the full extent everything that had transpired. 

If she was being truthful, she always worried more about what he’d say over her affections for the Captain versus her silly infatuation for Lux. 

The irony was unmistakable now that she knew what she did about Anakin. Both she and her Master had attempted to keep such things hidden from one another — her juvenile crush on the Captain and Anakin’s relationship with Padmè. Even when she’d thought she’d discovered the full truth of it; even when she’d told him as she left the Order… she still had no idea how deep it had actually run. Not until after seeing Padmè on Naboo…

With her fleeting feelings for Lux turned into ash, telling Rex now felt rather awkward.

The Captain had always leant her a listening ear, often hearing her frustrations over missions and the decisions her Master made. Later, it had been more so about the war. At some point down the line, Rex had started to appreciate her company rather than rolling his eyes over it. But around the same time Lux started appearing, Ahsoka had withdrawn to some degree. Even her relationship with her Master had started feeling strained. 

“I didn’t. It was in the middle of the war and I was just at that age when he popped up. We met on Raxus, where Padmè and I went undercover to speak with Senator Mina Bonteri about peace negotiations. We met for the second time on Mandalore, where he attempted to bring light to Dooku’s deception after his mother was killed. I acted rashly. Thought I was helping him escape by taking him to Coruscant, but he had other plans.”

Rex had a clear look of disgust on his face, “So he’s a Separatist?”

“Was a Separatist,” she corrected. 

There was a hefty pause between them for several moments.“I suppose I’d rather him be that than Imperial…” Rex trailed. No matter what, he trusted Ahsoka’s judgment. She tended to have had pretty far-fetched ideas at times, but they nearly always worked out.

Ahsoka prepared herself to continue, knowing Rex’s opinion would change once he heard the remainder of what she had to say. “He commandeered my shuttle while I was stunned. R2 and I woke up later, still on the ship. He’d taken us to the planet Carlac, where he met with Death Watch.”

Rex interrupted her story, “Wait a second, go back. Why were you stunned?”

“He— Lux stunned me,” she revealed. 

Rex was wearing the very expression she figured he would be. “Ahsoka, forgive me, but I ask this respectfully. Why didn’t you tell me this when it happened? I would’ve beat the bastard’s face in on Onderon had I known.”

“I know,” she said quietly, her face heating up. But under no circumstances was she about to tell him of her previously girlish feelings for him. If she was being honest, her misplaced and false attraction for Lux had only even come to be out of her keenness to keep her crush on the Captain hidden. “Anyway, Corlac is actually where R2 and I met Bo-Katan. She was much more arrogant when I first knew her,” Ahsoka sighed, “Anyway, I was supposed to stay on the ship.”

“But you didn’t,” Rex said. 

She cracked a grin, “You know me. But he’d taken my lightsabers. I had no choice. If I’d had it my way, I would’ve chewed him out and had us leave right then and there, but they showed up at the rendezvous. I played into the situation, spinning this lie that I was his betrothed and thinking nothing of it. And later, Lux… to keep my identity as a Jedi hidden further… kissed me as they came into the tent.”

Rex brows pinched together, the lines in his face deepened. He was visibly vexed, with his head cocked and jaw tightening, two fists forming at his sides. “He did what?” Rex ground out in a tone she’d never heard before.

Ahsoka’s eyes were glued to him, regretting her choice in waiting so long to bring this up. With the amount of ship and transparisteel between them, she felt so helpless. Knowing that he did as well, she attempted to calm him by not letting him know that the event still bothered her. “It was a long time ago, Rex. It’s water under the bridge now.”

“Like hell it is,” he spat, the anger that had been bubbling in his chest finally bursting free. Ahsoka worried her lip. “This kid just keeps earning points, doesn’t he? So far he’s stunned you, kidnapped you, taken your lightsabers, and forced himself onto you. Just when I thought I couldn’t despise him any further… This is all too far. When we get there, I’m—”

“Rex, please. It’s fine. This was all before Onderon,” she tried. 

He laughed darkly, “Oh it’s far from fine. If locating Saw weren’t so important, I’d turn this ship around without a second thought. If I’d known all of this beforehand, I would’ve knocked the living daylights out of him instead of teaching him how to neutralize a tank.” Rex’s nostrils flared, sick at the thought of someone disrespecting Ahsoka and taking advantage of her — a Jedi — in such a way. “He’ll be no better than a sorry clanker after I’m through with him.”

She learned forward to get a better glimpse of him. He wasn’t only fuming, he was also deeply saddened with her words. His Force signature was aflame, pushing and pulling with intense waves of emotion, each one battling for superiority. “Rex, I know you’re angry, but he’s our best shot at finding Saw. I don’t like this any more than you do, but we could use all the allies we can get right about now,” she reasoned in a soft voice. 

Closing his eyes, Rex digested her words. She was right, of course. She was always right. He took a deep breath and willed his fists to loosen, “Tell me the rest.”

Ahsoka waited for a minute, giving him ample enough time to process the words she’d already said. She knew that Rex wasn’t as trigger happy as some of his other brothers, but she’d also never seen him this angry before. He was enraged. At this rate, she was more concerned with Lux’s safety than she was their own. With someone like Rex this outraged over the mishandling of her well-being, no one that crossed their path would have a chance at hurting her. 

“The last time I saw him was on Onderon,” she finally continued, “He and Steela — Saw’s sister — had developed a romantic interest in one another between Carlac and our mission with the rebels. When we got there to help them, I sorta came along into the middle of it. I think he convinced himself he felt something for me… which made the entire trip pretty uncomfortable. It was like he had to decide between us or something.” 

“But you were a Jedi,” Rex added. 

She nodded, “Yes. But more importantly, the feelings were not real. For some reason, it had taken me until that mission to understand that. As Jedi, it’s something we weren’t permitted to feel, so like Anakin, I entertained the idea of challenging that.”

They made eye contact for a split second before drifting elsewhere. In so many ways, she wished to have been around when Rex knew about Anakin and Padmé. Ahsoka wondered if Anakin had been comfortable enough in discussing it with his Captain, that she would’ve had more knowledge about it than she did presently. Rex shook his head. He knew the General and the Commander well. A small, selfish part of his mind made him wonder what Skywalker would say now… if he knew as much about them as they did about him.

~~~

Nar Shaddaa was disturbingly similar to Coruscant, except where Coruscant’s corruption wasn’t visible to the naked eye, Nar Shaddaa’s was. The scum and villainy was practically greeting them in waves as they descended into the planet’s atmosphere. Ahsoka held her breath, finally not feeling so sick as she and Rex had control over how quickly the gravity pulled them in. 

They followed the coordinates that the Holotrace device had spit out, into the abandoned industrial yard. For now at least, they could bypass the city. No matter how far they drifted from it, the tall city still stood ominously by. Rex kept the ship high so as to hide their destination from any potential onlookers. Despite being no longer in use, this portion of the planet was still cast in a hazy fog — as if there were still workers there creating it with their hard, underpaid labor. 

Ahsoka gauged her surroundings. Looking up at the night sky, there was significantly less vehicle traffic in this area. Only one string of vehicles crossed overhead and Ahsoka could imagine a day when there might’ve been multiple. Memories of the same, back on Coruscant, came rushing back to her and she redirected her attention back to Rex. 

“You alright, Ahsoka?” he asked, worry lines etched into his forehead as he landed the craft. 

“Yeah. I just don’t have a good feeling about this place. The quicker we get out the better,” she said, joining him outside of the ship.

Rex adjusted his cloak, forgoing his helmet and pulling the hood up to conceal his face. It wasn’t a change that he favored, but he needed to look as far from a clone as possible. Ahsoka followed suit and made sure she could still reach for the blaster he’d given her with the added layer of fabric. She gave him a tight nod and they began to walk the rest of the way to the coordinates. It was about four klicks out and somewhere beneath them. 

Although the industrial yard was no longer in use, it seemed as if some Nar Shaddaa’s citizens had taken up residency in the various warehouses and shops. The area was still in use, just in a different way. It was hard not to draw parallels from this to their own galaxy as a whole. Ahsoka hadn’t expected to see anyone down in this part of the planet, but here they were, just like her and Rex… surviving. Rex’s shoulders brushed her own and she realized that he’d minimized the distance between them. “Stay close,” he muttered under his breath, watching the passing of hands as illegal transactions were being made all around them. 

Ahsoka kept her eyes in front of her, but was still privy to the heavy smell of spice in the area. It burned her nose and if she didn’t know they were in the industrial sector, she would’ve attributed all the smoke to the various spices that were present. She laughed inwardly, thinking that the more suspicious they looked, that the less suspicious they’d appear to passersby. 

They then hung a left and started down further into the planet. The steps to the lift creaked beneath them and she wondered if the fall would kill them before someone else got the chance to. Rex used the mechanism to pry open the lift doors and they groaned apart. He stepped in first to make sure it was stable before allowing Ahsoka inside. Miraculously, the power still worked just fine. As they descended, the rickety lift shook a concerning amount, but Rex appeared much calmer here than he had in the residential area. 

She wasn’t sure if his protectiveness had increased due to the reputation of the planet, or if it was because they were getting closer to Lux. Either way, she felt tremendously guilty for his shift in mood. 

“Rex, Lux is harmless,” she started, watching as they passed through varying levels of rust. 

He gave her a sideways glance from under his hood, “Sounds as though he’s far from it.”

She crossed her arms and sighed, “I was once naive to the state of the war, to how it affected the galaxy’s citizens. I thought I knew the Jedi, the Sith, pirates, bounty hunters, politicians… I thought I knew the clear lines that separated them. But the truth is, I didn’t know people. They ride the line in the middle, which isn’t clear, but rather quite muddled — none of them acting as clear indicators between the categories. If Lux thinks he can pull a fast one now, he’s sorely mistaken. I wouldn’t have suspected treachery from him before, but I’ve learned much about the galaxy since we last spoke. Besides, I didn’t have you with me then. Now I do.”

Rex’s face relaxed a bit and she thought she could see the hint of a smile on his lips. The lift door then opened and, if the smile had been there, it had faded as he scanned the area. Ahsoka reached for her pistol, already seeing that Rex had his pointed forwards. They exited the lift slowly and marched onwards. Only two klicks remaining. The smog grew thicker the closer they got, no doubt the reason Lux was situated here rather than on the surface. 

“I don’t like this,” she spoke through her teeth, mirroring as much of Rex’s stance that she could. 

“Yeah, I don’t either,” he spoke from behind her, his footsteps slowing. 

The air grew warmer and the light grew dimmer as they pushed through the fog. Rex took another step and she felt a dull shock through the Force, telling her that he was about to be in danger. She acted fast and snagged a fistful of loose fabric on his cloak, “Watch your step.”

He looked down to see that the floor had given way in front of him and that he was about to step into a hole that had no bottom. “Thank you,” he said quietly, and resumed the path. 

Ahsoka’s fingers were starting to sweat and her grip on the blaster wasn’t what she wanted it to be. They stumbled upon an old speeder and stopped for a moment. She wiped her hands on the legs of her jumpsuit and looked up at Rex. He wasn’t looking at her this time, but rather the shadow of a squat warehouse behind her. He swallowed and unclipped his macrobinoculars to get a better look. “The coordinates are through there,” he spoke, stepping onto the speeder to get a better vantage point, “I see a broken viewport on the side. We could easily slip in undetected. Just gotta watch for glass on the floor.”

They inched closer, careful to minimize their noise as Rex led them to the point of entry. He carefully put one foot inside and then the other before helping Ahsoka slip inside as well. 

“Step here,” he whispered, giving her his arms to guide her through. They’d crunched a bit of glass, but nothing that would raise too much alarm if anyone was home.

Some small rodents caught sight of them and scurried off, disappearing behind dusty furniture and old equipment. Their current coordinates and the ones on the device were close. Rex’s intuition had served him right. This was where Lux’s news broadcasts had originated from. They cleared the first room and pressed further into the warehouse. A simple cot sat against a wall in the next room, along with a table so full with weapons the surface of it couldn’t be seen. Ahsoka narrowed her eyes and she turned back around to find a cup of caf sitting on the floor, steam still rising from it. 

Rex’s back was against hers in an instant. Evidently, he’d seen something just as telling. Footsteps were already approaching in three different directions. The sound was low in pitch. It was shoes against the ground, not clankers. 

He heard Ahsoka switch her blaster to stun and he did the same with his own. If any killing were going to be done, it would be after they got their answers not before. Three people stepped into the room, blocking any potential exits. Ahsoka recognized them as some of the freedom fighters they’d taught on Onderon as she and Rex made a small, deliberate circle to survey the threat. 

No sign of Lux, but these were Saw Gererra’s people!

“Care to tell us what you’re doing in here?” asked one of the women, her own blaster clicking into a live setting. They must’ve heard them climbing in through the viewport. 

“We’re just looking for someone. We didn’t realize that this facility was still in use,” Ahsoka answered, her borrowed blaster not pointing down just yet. 

A second woman laughed, “Find that hard to believe. Someone had to have tipped you off. No one’s been down through here in years.”

“Make that something,” the man said. Ahsoka snapped her head but didn’t find that it belonged to Lux. He pointed at the device that Rex was holding. “Why don’t you take those hoods off and tell us what you really know.”

Rex clenched his teeth, his blaster locked into position. He was ready to spray them with as many stun rounds as it took. Behind him, Ahsoka had other ideas. Her blaster was returned to its holster and she held her hands up in defense, moving to her montrals to carefully lift the hood away from her face. “I’m looking for a Lux Bonteri. We’re old friends of his,” she explained, hands still in the air. 

The first woman’s mouth dropped slightly as she realized where she knew Ahsoka from. Her blaster was pointed with more resolve than before, “You’re that Jedi!”

“Former Jedi,” Rex clarified. Everyone flicked their eyes at him then back to Ahsoka. 

“The Jedi were executed for treason,” the man spat, “We shouldn’t trust them.”

Ahsoka backed into Rex a bit more and he took her silent nudge as an unspoken word to remove his cloak. “The Jedi didn’t commit treason. Like she said, she’s no longer a Jedi. Left a long time ago. We don’t want any trouble. All we want is to be pointed in the right direction,” he gritted out. 

“You’re a clone. You’re Imperial!” shouted the first woman, fear laced in her voice. 

Ahsoka’s patience was waning. “All we want is information and we’ll be on our way.”

The second woman scoffed and was about to make another comment when a fourth pair of footsteps began making their way into the room. The three freedom fighters shared a look between them, trying to decide how to proceed. The owner of the footsteps then spoke, “I thought I recognized the voice, but I had to be sure of it myself. Can’t say I ever thought I’d see you again, Ahsoka Tano.”

Lux Bonteri stepped into the room. Behind her, Rex tensed and stood to his full height, no doubt glowering at the boy. Even the way he spoke her name made them both shift uncomfortably. 

“Lux,” Ahsoka addressed him, watching him from the barrel of her blaster, “Tell your people to lower their weapons. We only want to know where Saw is.”

~~~

He looked between her and the fighters, not giving any indication that he was going to fulfill her request. “You know I can’t do that. We were friends once, but I’ve heard many things in the days since the rise of the Empire.”

“So have we,” Rex added, keeping his aim pointed between Lux’s eyes.

Ahsoka was growing impatient with the boy. “The Jedi didn’t do anything. We have a common enemy, Lux. We know you’re working against them. How can you trust a thing they have to say?”

“I don’t. There’s no one left to trust. You’ll forgive me for my apprehensiveness here. Tell me how you found us.”

Rex tossed the device to the male fighter beside him, who then walked it over to Lux and placed it into his hand. With as much hatred as he could possibly vocalize, Rex answered, “This was able to decode your voice and pinpoint the exact origin of the transmissions. Next time you broadcast, you might want to use a droid.”

Lux was in disbelief. The same device he’d used to trace Count Dooku’s transmission years ago, had now been used by Ahsoka to trace him. He visibly paled and wiped the data from the device, tossing it back to the male fighter. 

“He won’t like this, Bonteri,” the first woman said. 

“I’m aware of that.”

Ahsoka made the choice to lower her weapon first. She made sure Rex was aware and that he did the same. “We only want to know where Saw is. Rex and I are no friends of the Empire. We are not going to turn you in,” she emphasized. 

He drummed his fingers against his pants leg. Perhaps if he took them to Saw, he’d have more control over the situation. The last thing he needed was Saw knowing the full extent of how a clone and a Jedi stumbled into their secondary base of operations. “Fine,” he decided after a long while, “But I’m not telling you where he is. I’ll have to take you there myself if you wish to speak with him.”

Rex’s jaw tightened and he waited for Ahsoka’s answer, already knowing that she’d agree to the condition. She gave Lux a nod and without a word more, he gave the go-ahead to his people. 

“Lux, wait!” Ahsoka protested, but she and Rex had already been hit square in the gut with two stuns each. 

She blinked her eyes open, vision still blurry from being out. Rolling her head, she loosened the muscles that had stiffened from her fall earlier. In her attempt to put a hand to her head, she found that her wrists were bound behind her. Looking down, Rex’s blaster was missing as well. Panic rushed through her system, the only thing on her mind was Rex’s current whereabouts. 

The room she was in was small and cold. It appeared to be a makeshift holding cell and not a very good one at that. Ahsoka struggled to wiggle free of her binders, unable to break free of the restraints. Something that Master Plo had once taught her came to mind. The more you panic, the less logically you are able to think. 

She hung her head and closed her eyes, focusing on Rex’s Force signature. It was warm. He was nearby somewhere, but the pain rippling through caused her to shudder and lose her breath. Ahsoka tried her best to overcome his fright and send him some comfort, but was interrupted. Murmurs could be heard from outside the room. She stood from the small chair she was in and pressed a montral to the room. It sounded like two voices arguing. 

“Just get the Jedi and come on. He’s ready,” a nasally voice said. 

The door slid open and the ray shield behind it deactivated. Two people stepped into the room and nudged her out with blasters. “Alright, Jedi, let’s go. Move it and don’t try anything funny. We’ve been given orders to shoot if you do.”

“I can walk out the door just fine by myself, thanks,” Ahsoka spat, rolling her shoulders back to keep their weapons from digging into her. They led her down a long, dark corridor. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of who stood at the end of it. Saw was arms crossed and pure business in the room that the hallway led into. As she came closer, she could tell many people occupied the room he was in. She had no idea where they’d been taken or how long she’d been unconscious for, but she instinctively began to count what were her potential enemies.

Seventeen fighters.

Ahsoka lifted her chin higher and scanned their faces again. Rex had been nowhere in sight. Surely she’d miscounted. Saw looked her up and down suspiciously, “Looking for him?” He gestured behind her and she spun on her heel. Rex stood in the doorway she’d just come through, his hands also bound, and a vibroblade at his neck. It took three men to keep him under control. 

She turned back towards Saw, seething, “I don’t think you want to do that.” Her blood had just run cold, her instincts kicking in and charging up. She’d do anything to protect Rex. 

“Is that a threat?” he asked, almost laughing, “I sure hope that’s all it is, Jedi. I have no qualms about killing your pet, so, why don’t you go ahead and tell me why you’re looking for me. Trying to save your life by giving mine? I’d think again if you’re betting that our new Emperor plays by the rules you’re used to.”

“If you hurt him, I will kill you,” she warned, her voice lowering as she glared at him. 

He cocked an eyebrow and began to walk circles around her. “Seems as though the Jedi don’t play by the rules either anymore.”

“I haven’t been a Jedi for a long time, Saw. And they did nothing wrong. The entire Order was framed so that Palpatine could take more power for himself! You seem to know as well as Rex and I that the self-proclaimed Emperor isn’t as good as we thought,” she said. 

“Rex? The Captain with your lot on Onderon,” he commented, swishing her words around in his mouth and looking between the two of them before stopping. The person with a blade to Rex’s throat brought it closer, prompting the clone to bare his teeth and thrash around to keep himself away from it. His eyes didn’t leave Ahsoka for a second. “Funny, I can’t tell your clones apart from one another.”

Lux stood in the corner, watching the whole thing play out with the rest of the freedom fighters. 

Ahsoka swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. Somehow Gerrera knew a verbal attack on the clones would provoke her. “You have a good memory. You’ll remember then the promise I just made you. Let him go and we’ll tell you everything.”

Saw chewed on her words and gave a nod to the three men keeping Rex restrained. They let him go and he fell to his knees at their feet. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, his focus still not leaving her. 

“Thank you,” she acknowledged, wanting nothing more in that moment than to collapse next to Rex and make sure he was alright.

“Out with it then. Before I change my mind.”

“I know you’re on guard. All of you are. And you have every right to be. Like you all have no doubt seen, we’ve seen the truth as well. This new Empire is unjust. If we’re going to rally against it, we need to do that together. No one person can do it alone. Saw, we have every reason to believe that you’re still fighting for freedom. It’s not just a planet-wide issue now, it’s the entire galaxy. We needed each other before. We need each other now, too,” she said calmly, but her gaze trained fiercely on Saw. “Do you really want to help the Empire by turning us in? We have a common enemy here.”

The small crowd began to whisper amongst themselves, Ahsoka’s words conveying nothing but the truth. Lux pushed to the front and spoke to Saw privately during the commotion. Despite his efforts to be discreet, Ahsoka’s montrals served her well. “Well… having a Jedi might be useful if—”

“Can it, Bonteri. I've had it with you today. I’ll deal with you later,” Saw sneered. “Everyone quiet down!”

Ahsoka stood in the middle of the room, her hands bound but her confidence unwavering. If Saw was anything like Steela, and she suspected that he was, he’d need some time to think before making any decisions. 

His people settled and the air grew still once more. “What about him?” Saw asked, pointing to where Rex was on the floor. “If the Jedi are innocent like you say, then why did the clones take the order?”

As soon as Saw said the words, she knew that it had hurt Rex. It was something he’d never be able to fully forgive himself for and something they each worked through everyday since it happened. He didn’t deserve to be humiliated in this way.

“Look at the side of his head,” she gestured. One of the men turned Rex's head roughly to look for it — displaying the scar for everyone to see. Ahsoka’s heart fell even further as she watched him wince, but continued to explain, “The clones were all implanted with inhibitor chips early in the stages of their development. They were programmed at a young age to carry out the orders. No Jedi was aware of this, nor were any of the clones. Only after removal, did Rex get his control back. They weren’t themsel—”

“Alright, I don’t care about the chips. So long as this one is incapable of blindly following orders, then I don’t need to restrain him,” Saw cut her off. 

Rex turned his head down in shame, having never before been treated in such a debasing way. He wasn’t some animal that needed to be chained up. Saw hadn’t been this distasteful the last time they’d all been in the same place, so much of his faith in the man had now dwindled. And Rex already knew everything he needed to know about the greasy haired Senator boy pretending to be a man. 

Saw gave Ahsoka one last sneer before waving a hand to the three men behind Rex, “Take them away. I’ll have a decision by morning.” With that, he dismissed the room and disappeared with Lux on his tail. 

The three men wrenched Rex up to his feet and escorted him and Ahsoka back down the hall. They were single-file and unable to speak to one another as they were returned to their cells. Rex was ahead of her and they’d placed him into the room directly next to hers, sealing them inside. 

Ahsoka threw her head back in exasperation, wanting to relax but knowing that she couldn’t. She should’ve been able to. It should’ve relieved her to know that Saw was contemplating it at least. Although she had the utmost confidence that he wouldn’t turn them away, she couldn’t get her mind off of Rex’s state. He’d already expressed his concern in being on Nar Shaddaa and breaking bread with someone who didn’t have her best interest at heart. 

Being upset with herself was an understatement. 

Just knowing that he was in the next room clawed at her. They’d treated him so harshly. Whether it was to make a point, or because he was a clone, she didn’t know. Whatever the reason, it was wrong. She didn’t know Saw well, but this wasn’t how people were supposed to be treated. It spoke volumes about his character. 

Ahsoka closed her eyes and sighed. The wall she shared with Rex willed her over and she placed her back to the surface, sliding down until she hit the floor. “I’m so sorry, Rex,” she whispered, hoping he could hear her words through a bond she didn’t even know if he was aware of yet.

[contemplativepancakes]

sunsets for somebody else

Daphne runs into her long lost husband arguing with another man in the grocery store. Things start to take a turn when she realizes they're married.

The bottle of bleach drops from Daphne’s hand into her cart, landing with a sloshing thud as she takes in the scene in front of her, frozen in her tracks. Emmanuel is standing right in front of her, arguing with another man about cleaning supplies.

Wearing a beige trench coat for some inexplicable reason—it’s almost 90 degrees outside—Emmanuel listens to a man who’s explaining in minute detail how to clean an oven. They’re both wearing wedding rings, and Daphne’s heart swells for a moment before she realizes it’s a different ring from the one she gave Emmanuel all those years ago.

“Dean, I don’t think this is safe for Jack. This is going to create noxious fumes,” Emmanuel says, squinting at the ingredients of the cleaner apparently-Dean had thrust at him.

Dean pinches the bridge of his nose, and Daphne squeezes the handle of her shopping cart harder, feeling faint. It’s not every day you come across your long lost husband at the Stop N’ Shop.

“I think the kid can take some fumes,” Dean says, plucking the bottle out of Emmanuel’s hands and putting it in the cart. “We wouldn’t even have to worry about this if someone didn’t let the pizza fall onto the bottom of the oven.”

“The directions said to put it directly on the middle rack!” Emmanuel protests, and Dean rubs a hand down Emmanuel’s back in a familiar way that makes Daphne’s stomach roil.

She’s not jealous, she’s not. She was just helping Emmanuel when she found him, after all. Their marriage was simply one of…convenience for Emmanuel. It’s not like he had a birth certificate with him, or a social security number. What did Daphne get out of all this? Well. Daphne looks at his cheek bones wistfully, her gaze dipping down to his strong forearms his trench coat is rolled up to reveal.

Dean rolls his eyes fondly, and then he tugs Emmanuel into his side, kissing him on the temple. Daphne jerks her stare away for a moment before returning it, noticing now that their wedding rings match.

“Emmanuel?” she chokes out, against her better judgment.

For a long second, she doesn’t think Emmanuel heard her, but he turns around. “Daphne?”

Daphne nods, her words forsaking her. She doesn’t miss the way Dean clutches possessively at Emmanuel’s hip.

“I…thought you were dead,” she finally says. “I filed a missing person report.”

Dean squints at her, before something like recognition passes over her face, and now that she thinks about it, Daphne recognizes him, too. He’s the one who showed up right before everything went to shit. Horror stories of Stockholm syndrome flash through her mind.

“Emmanuel, are you…happy?” she settles on.

Emmanuel gives her a smile, leaning harder into Dean. “I am.”

“Good. That’s. Good,” she says, a strangled look on her face, she’s sure. “Would you want to catch up some time?” she asks before she fully registers what’s coming out of her mouth.

Emmanuel gives her a warm smile. “I’d love that.”

As they set up a time to get coffee, Daphne tries to ignore the glare Dean levels at her throughout the whole conversation. He insists that their meeting be tomorrow, since apparently they won’t be in the area for long. Daphne tries to ignore the warning bells in her mind that tell her she’s about to get murdered and takes solace in the fact that at least they’re meeting in a public place.

Besides, even if Emmanuel’s husband is a serial killer, surely Emmanuel won’t let him murder her, right?

-

The next day, Daphne hems and haws as she debates what to wear. Whatever this is, it’s the exact opposite of a date, anyway. She knocks on the door of her foster child, Alex, to wake them up before she goes into the bathroom to do her hair and makeup. Really, she’s just doing it for herself. She’s allowed to want to look nice!

When she finally deems herself as ready as she’s going to get, she goes back to Alex’s room to make sure they’re actually up. To her pleasant surprise, they’re sitting on the edge of their bed putting on their socks and almost ready. “Excited for school today?” she asks.

Alex makes a face at her. “Never,” they say, but their voice at least has the edge of a smile to it.

They’ve come a long way since they were first placed with her, and even though Daphne knows she shouldn’t be getting overly attached, she can’t help it. She walks down the steps and into the kitchen, deliberating for a moment on breakfast before putting frozen waffles into the toaster. If she’s about to get murdered while Alex is at school, she can at least make sure the last thing she made for them wasn’t cereal.

Alex tromps down the steps, dragging their bookbag behind them, and Daphne hides her smile behind her glass of orange juice. Alex lights up at the sight of the waffles, disturbingly easy to please, as always. They inhale them, as teenagers do, before putting their dishes in the sink. Daphne cracks open her laptop as they wait for the bus, attempting to get some of her work done for the day since she’ll be taking a break later for the coffee. She really hopes her boss doesn’t try and call her while she’s out.

Or, maybe she does. She’s not sure she’s prepared for the level of awkwardness that she’s about to go through, but maybe it won’t be as bad as she thinks. She really wants to know what Emmanuel has been up to for all of this time. She’s still…embarrassingly hung up on him, and it would be nice to get some closure.

The bus pulling up in front of the house jerks her out of her thoughts, and she gives Alex a wave before they race off to get on. She watches them settle into a seat with one of their friends, and smiles at the fact that they even have friends now.

In the end, Daphne doesn’t manage to get much work done before she clambers into her car and drives to the coffee shop they agreed on. She doesn’t really think she needs caffeine with the way her leg is bouncing already.

Emmanuel and Dean are already there when she walks in, Emmanuel with a cup of black coffee he’s dumping sugar packets into and Dean with something with whipped cream and chocolate syrup drizzled on top. She gives them a tentative wave before ordering hot chocolate for herself, settling herself delicately in the seat across from them.

“So,” Dean says. “You were Cas’s wife?”

She squints. “Cas?”

Emmanuel speaks up. “After I regained my memories, I remembered that was my name.”

“Oh.” Smiling weakly, she tries to reconcile that. “You have them all back now?”

Emman—Cas nods.

“Just forgot about me, though?” she tries to ask lightly, but it comes out a little garbled.

“You took advantage of him!” Dean explodes from the other side of the table, making Daphne flinch. “Who the fuck finds someone naked with no memories and marries them?”

“Dean,” Cas chastises, his arm shifting like he’s putting his hand on Dean’s thigh under the table.

“I was helping him,” Daphne says hotly. “Would you have just wanted me to leave him there?”

Cutting Dean off before he can say anything else, Cas looks at Daphne and smiles in a way that makes her heart flutter. “I’m very grateful. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’m sorry I didn’t reach out to let you know I was alright.”

Dean crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair, taking a sip of his sugar monstrosity. He comes away with a whipped cream mustache, and it’s hard not to laugh as he wipes it away in total seriousness.

“So,” Daphne says. “You two have a kid? Jack?”

Scowling, which seems to be Dean’s automatic reflex, he exchanges a glance with Cas before softening. “Yeah, we have a kid. He’s four.”

Daphne thinks maybe Dean should have been a little bit more concerned about the fumes of cleaning chemicals if they have a four year old, but she keeps her judgments to herself. Cas beams. “He’s very bright.”

Returning the smile tentatively, Daphne asks, “How long have you two been married?”

“It’s almost our one year anniversary,” Dean says gruffly.

Daphne tries not to let it affect her, even if that’s more time than she ever got with Cas. “Practically newly weds, then!”

“It’s been an adventure; that’s certain,” Cas says, smiling serenely even as Dean elbows his ribs. “Tell us about you, Daphne. What have you been doing?”

Daphne shrugs a shoulder. “Oh, not too much.” Mourning the man I pulled out of the woods and saved and married, she doesn’t say. She knows Emmanuel never felt the same way about her that she did him. “I got approved to be a foster parent, so I’ve had a few kids come through.”

“Helping people has always been your calling,” Cas says softly.

Daphne takes a few minutes to gush about Alex, and her previous kids before them, before she notices Dean’s not actively glaring at her anymore.

“That’s…nice,” he begrudges when she finishes.

“What do you do, Dean?”

Looking like he just dropped something on his foot, he stammers before he hastily says, “I work construction.”

Daphne squints at him. She has the feeling he’s lying to her, but she has no idea why he would be.

“And what about you, Cas?”

“Oh, I mostly just take care of Jack.”

“You’re a stay at home dad?” she asks, the thought making her stomach twist into knots and heat rise to her face.

“Of a sorts,” Cas agrees.

God, they’re making it impossible to carry on a conversation with them. Daphne keeps a smile pasted to her face. “What do you two do for fun?”

“I’m convinced Dean thinks fun is superfluous,” Cas confides, even as Dean splutters at him. “But I like to drag him to thrift stores with me. Dean likes to bake, also.”

“I work on cars, too,” Dean says, and Daphne can feel his desperation to maintain his facade.

She tries not to quirk a smile at his discomfort. They chat for a while longer, Dean getting increasingly dodgy about the questions she asks before she finally excuses herself to go to the bathroom. She shuts the door behind her and looks down at the dank floor. Is she getting what she wanted out of this? She has no idea what she even imagined happening when she asked to catch up. Emmanuel running away with her? Maybe in her wildest fantasies. Taking a deep breath to ground herself, she looks in the mirror and checks her makeup, rubbing at her under eye circles before walking back out of the bathroom.

Cas is at the counter ordering another drink, for Dean, by the sound of the sugar content, and she walks over to him. Hesitating before she bites the bullet, she asks, “You’re not…like, being held against your will, right? That Dean seems,” she pauses, “interesting.”

Cas laughs warmly, putting a hand over Daphne’s. “No, nothing like that. This is a choice of my own free will, believe it or not. Dean is much more caring than he lets on.”

Well, Daphne’s not sure she believes it, but. At least he’s happy, and in the end, that’s all she’s ever wanted for him.

[sammygvfslut]

i like you a latte | s. kiszka

Summary: Words cannot espresso how much you mean to Sammy Kiszka.

Word Count: 2.3k

A/N: Hey besties!!! this is my first ever sam fic, and i really hope you guys enjoy it! it’s super cheesy so beware of some tooth-rotting fluff ahead. any and all feedback is appreciated <3

Loud chattering and the sounds of espresso machines hissing and whistling filled the cafe. Every few seconds or so when a new customer walked in, a soft ringing above the door rang. Glancing at the clock, you sighed as it read 7am. Way too early for your liking. You wished to be back in bed under the covers with your cat Joey snuggling. Plus, the cold weather made it even harder for you to get out of bed every morning. Damn you, winter.

“Good morning.” A voice said suddenly, startling you as you slightly jumped. “Whoops, didn’t mean to scare you there for a sec.”

Turning around at the voice, your heart fluttered and a smile pulled at the corners of your lips. “G-Good morning, Sam! Nope, didn’t scare me at all. I was just uh...focusing very hard and you caught me off guard.”

A chuckle rumbled from his chest, his own lips curving and flashing that beautiful grin. God, he made you melt. You took a quick chance to admire his appearance for the day, luscious brown locks pulled back into a low bun with a few stray pieces framing his face, and he wore a slightly oversized brown grandpa looking sweater. He exuded true fall energy today and all you wanted to do was snuggle with him watching a movie while sipping on hot chocolate. “Right. Focusing on what exactly? Staring at the register?”  

“S-Sure. Yes, the register.” Totally not him instead. “Um, I realized it turned off right now and my mind blanked to turn it back on.”

Sam placed a hand on your shoulder as he laughed, his touch leaving a wave of goosebumps to rise out of your skin. “You’re so cute. I’ll leave you to that then, but if you need help trying to get the register to turn back on again, let me know.” And with that, he sent you a wink and turned on his heel away to start on the customers orders.

Alright, alright. So maybe early shifts weren’t as bad as you thought thanks to your insanely charming co-worker. Sam and you had been working together for the past year, and almost instantly you started falling for him. He welcomed you with open arms and he was a great help when it came to your training. Your co-workers were nice too, but Sam took that extra step in making sure you were comfortable with what you were doing. If you made a mistake and were freaking out about it, he somehow knew the way to calm you down. He was too precious and good for this cruel world. And most of all, out of your league too.

With his dashing looks and amazing personality, you just knew there was no way he’d ever feel the same about you. Except, any time you’d voice that thought to any of your friends at work, they’d tell you you’re crazy and that he likes you too. Apparently they caught on to the signs more than you did, which wasn’t a shocker considering that you’d have no clue if a guy was interested in you unless he blatantly confessed. So, trying to figure out hints was completely pointless for you.

“Uh oh, she’s deep in thought,” one of your friends/co-workers, Danny, teased. He also happened to be Sam’s best friend, and current band mate since the pair are in a band with Sam’s older twin brothers. “I bet I can guess what, or who you were thinking about.”

“Don’t even say it,” you warned with a finger, “He’s literally four feet away from us—”

“So?” Danny rolled her eyes with his arms folded. “Why don’t you just tell him how you feel? Come on, it’s been almost a year now. What’s the worst that can happen if you confess?”

“He can hear me.” You stared blankly at him, shaking your head. “Absolutely not though, Danny. I will not embarrass myself from the humiliation I’d have to face from his rejection.”

Danny groaned frustratedly, placing his hands on both your shoulders and shaking them. “You’re so hopeless! Y/N, how many times do the guys and I have to tell you he likes you too!” He raised his voice a little louder than necessary which accidentally caught the attention of almost everyone in the cafe. Sam included unfortunately. Danny’s eyes widened, silently cursing under his breath. “Carry on, everyone.”

As much as you hated to admit it, Danny wasn’t lying when he mentioned about the guys agreeing that Sam likes you too. Every time you came over Josh’s apartment and Sam was there he’d find any little excuse to have his arm around you or teasing you constantly. You’d shake it off that he was just treating you like a friend would, but of course the guys would disagree with you.

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Danny told you sternly, “But for now, and don’t make it obvious, but Sam’s looking at you.” A mischievous grin spread across his face as he winked and stepped to the next register before greeting a new customer and taking their order.

Heart pounding out of your chest, you slowly looked over your shoulder in Sam’s direction. You saw his head quickly turn and finish off the drink in front of him. Your cheeks burned at this and tried taking deep, slow breaths to calm yourself down. Didn’t work much, but as a new customer waved and told you their order, your breathing turned back to normal.

On the other end of the counter, Sam was currently freaking the hell out from what he heard a few minutes ago between you and Danny. He didn’t mean to, but he also wasn’t that far from either of you. Plus, Danny wasn’t the best at keeping his voice low. He had a strong feeling he knew you were talking about him, and for that reason alone he overflowed the cup he was pouring into and made a mess. He cursed under his breath and wiped his hands on his apron, shaking his head.

You caught sight of this and rushed to his side, grabbing a cloth from under the sink and started wiping the sticky counter. Sam was certain his cheeks were tomato red from his embarrassment, making a complete fool of himself for not paying attention to what he was doing. More so focusing on your conversation and your damn smile from earlier. You weren’t the only one here with a crush.

“T-Thanks, Y/N.” Sam chuckled nervously, throwing the cup in the trash and tossing the drink pitcher he held in the sink. “I’m normally not this much of a dumbass.”

“I’m not too sure about that one, Kiszka.” You teased lightly with a grin. “It happens, don’t worry,” you assured. “I’m just glad it was cold tea you spilled and not steaming coffee. I’d hate for you to get a third degree burn. That happened to me once, don’t recommend it.”

“Didn’t I drive you to the hospital for that?” he asked. “I think that might’ve happened a few months ago.”

Your eyes widened at the memory. “Oh shit, you’re right. God, I’m still so sorry I had to drag you into that.”

Sam shook his head, lips curving and cheeks no longer flushed. “For the hundredth time, stop apologizing about that, Y/N. You know you can count on me for anything, so of course I didn’t mind driving you to the hospital. I remember even blasting some ABBA on the way over there so you’d have something else to focus on instead of the pain you endured.”

You smiled at the memory. “Didn’t we also go out for ice cream afterwards?”

He nodded, lightly rubbing his arm. “Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, I always have fun when I’m with you.”

Your breath caught in your throat at his last few words, blinking slowly. “O-Oh.”

Oh? That’s all you have to say? Nice one, Y/N.

Sam’s heart dropped. Fuck. Maybe you weren’t talking about him after all. Maybe it was Danny or one of his brothers that you had a crush on and he was mistaken about it. He wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow him whole right about now. Being anywhere but here sounded splendid to him.

“Y-Y/N, I—“

“Ihavefunwhenimwithyoutoo,” you muttered all too quickly, and poor Sam barely even understood what you said. He didn’t have the chance to ask you to repeat yourself because you quickly walked away to the back and he was left with a tug at his chest, frowning.

Within the next few days after Sam’s tea spill, literally, things between you and him became...awkward. Something went off in him to become even more clumsy than normal and forget everything he’s ever known when you’re near him. He’d get flustered, stuttering a lot, messing up orders, dropping dishes, and nearly tripping all the time. He hated it so much and wished he could just muster up the courage and apologize for being such an idiot and confess his feelings to you. Even during your hangouts with the guys, Sam and you wouldn’t interact as much and honestly you were well aware you were being super childish and immature about the situation. Sam did too, and he needed to snap the fuck out of it.

The next few days at work Sam would ignore Danny’s little side comments about his immaturity and continued working in silence. For the rest of his shift he didn’t talk much to anyone other than the customers. He wanted to talk to you when he had the chance, but then he’d quickly back out and walk the opposite direction.

He couldn’t figure out why it was so futile for him to just grow a sack and tell you he likes you. He’d never gone through this struggle before. Then again, as cheesy as it sounded, the other girls he’d asked out in the past couldn’t compare to you. Never in a million years, and maybe he was too afraid that he didn’t deserve someone as amazing as you.

Nearing closing that same day, it was only you, Sam, and Danny. The flow of customers died down and not many people came in towards the end of the night which you were grateful for. It finally gave you the chance to relax a bit and start cleaning things up ahead of time so you wouldn’t have to stay after. Joey and a nice warm bath were waiting for you at home.

While Sam decided on working the register and you and Danny would clean, he grabbed your arm and led you into the back.

“What are you two still doing not dating each other or talking?! It’s been way too long now, Y/N. And since it’s only us three tonight, you have no other choice. Come on, I know you can’t take this any longer, and he can’t either. I can take over the register for a bit while you and him talk.”

You chewed on your bottom lip, contemplating his offering. As incredibly thankful as you were for his help, you were also scared shitless of the possible outcome. Perhaps it was finally time though that you say fuck it and say what you needed to. You couldn’t go on for any longer to keep your feelings bottled up inside. Maybe, just maybe he might feel the same way, and by God you hoped that would be the case.

Inhaling, you nodded slowly and made your way back to where you were. Your eyes searched for Sam and saw he was busy making a drink, except there was no one else here besides you, him and Danny. It could’ve been a drink for him, so you shrugged this off and went towards the sink to start washing the dishes.

A few moments later, Sam cleared his throat from behind you. “H-Hey Y/N, so um, I know the créme brûlée latte is your favorite, and I thought I’d make you one. You seemed really stressed and busy today and I wanted to try to cheer you up. I hope that’s okay.”

Your heart swelled at his generosity and your cheeks burned as you felt his gaze burning into you, his palms soaking from nervousness. “Sam, you didn’t have to do that for me.”

He shrugged casually, a small smile on his lips and his cheeks tinted a light pink. “It’s okay, I wanted to. And I uh, tried my best on the art. Hope you like it.”

Raising a brow, your gaze dropped on your cup and your eyes widened as you saw what he was referring to. A small coffee cup with the words I like you a latte around it.

“It’s true,” Sam chewed on his bottom lip while running his fingers through his hair. “I really like you Y/N, and I’m so sorry for acting like such an idiot these last few days around you. I don’t know what came over me, and I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you much either.”

Setting your cup on the counter, you took a step closer to him and cupped his cheek, rubbing your thumb softly against his soft skin. “You don’t have to apologize for anything, Sam. I’m sorry for not talking to you too, as well as for making a fool of myself. I tend to do that around someone I like.”

Finally, the realization dawned on Sam as a wide grin pulled at his lips. “Glad we’re on the same boat.”

“I-Is it alright if I kiss you?” he asked shyly, his eyes sparkling as he looked at you.

You giggled. “You don’t even have to ask, loverboy.” You playfully rolled your eyes and cupped his other cheek before connecting his lips with yours.

A smirk pulled at Danny’s lips as he glanced at the two of you, shaking his head. Josh and Jake owed him $20 now. 

It was about damn time that Sam and you finally espresso’d your love for each other. 

tagging these lovely folks bc they helped inspired me and their work is amazing <3 @godlygreta​ / @flowervanfleet​ / @dharma-divine​

[hangezoeenthusiast]

The Little Things

gn!reader

pronouns: they/them

person: wilbur soot

summary: there was three things that you and wilbur did together

word count: 848

you were obviously dating wilbur soot, living in the same house as him, in the same bed, all that lovey dovey shit, so there was little things that you and he did together

1. share stuff(mostly clothing) with wilbur

like shirts and sweaters, oh how he loved to see you in his stuff

you looked SO GOOD, LIKE DAMN YOU GO BESTIE

he would feel so shy, seeing you in his sweater that was too big for you

"love, you should wear my stuff more often, it looks great on you."

he secretly simps for you when you walk in the room

oh how good they look, he would think EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. you would even be in a close proximity of him (im listening to wilbur's music rn while making this, pog)

his mind constantly would be, y/n, y/n, y/n, what are they doing, i wanna cuddle with them, where are they, etc.

you would get flustered when he would complement you on your fit

"ohh, you look absolutely in those pants."

"omg, you look great in that sweater."

"why don't you wear that more, your beauty has enhanced even more." (this might sound like shit, but he means you are already beautiful before and after, 10/10 before and 10/10 after)

with him, he would wear your beanies and other stuff that you crocheted, but it would be mostly beanies

like you would make them for him CONSTANTLY since he's such a huge fucking simp for you

"what'cha making love, oh a beanie?" he would secretly scream in his head YES, YES, YES, YES

"love, when are you going to finish the beanie, i wanna show chat," he would pout

"can you wait like 5 more minutes, i'm almost done."

"thanks darling." he would leave, leaving a peck on your cheek

when you finished, you went back to him, sneaked behind him, and put the beanie on his head

"oh shit, you scared me love, did you finish?"

you would nod, and then he would take off the beanie and put it close to the camera

"you see chat, they are SOO good at crocheting."

chat would definitely spam y/n pog

you would make other stuff, like sweaters, winter hats, scarfs, mittens, etc.

he would flaunt them out in public SO MUCH it gives headaches

he would do anything to give you the attention you deserve

you get the idea

2. cooking

cooking with wilbur was REALLY CHAOTIC

like, he couldn't cook a goddamn thing in his life except frozen pizzas, AND THAT DOESN'T EVEN COUNT AS COOKING

so you being the awesome chef you were ;), you obviously had to help your poor boyfriend with cooking

"wilbur, that's salt, not sugar."

"wilby, noo, not 405 degrees, 375 degrees."

he would be so clueless you would probably have to guide him with everything

but when you both make it together, it tastes DELICIOUS

LIKE DAMN, IT WAS A WHOLE COOKED MEAL COURSE (like you ;), jk, don't wanna make you uncomfy)

because of your wonderful cooking skills, it kinda passed onto wilbur

so in the morning, he would make you your favorite meal

"thanks wilby, you're finally catching on."

3. music

and the last thing you would share would be music

you both have your own playlist that you share, filled with his music, one direction, yungblud, halsey, and others (i dont know why, but im seriously addicted to mysoginistic songs, like it brings the BOY out of me that i don't want to unleash, like for example everywhere i go by hollywood undead and she's so nice by pink guy, also my axe by insane clown posse)

you would also have a romantic playlist for dancing

*casually plays as the world caves in by matt maltese*(but seriously, it's a great song, i suggest you listen to it)

music would even go onto him trying to teach you how to play internet ruined me

"it's not that key, it's THAT key."

"y/n WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU ARE BUTCHERING MY SONG."

"sorry wilby 😣 "

he would apologize so much after you said sorry, hugging you and shit, thinking that you were actually sad (TOO BAD BITCH, I AIN'T NO SYMPATHETIC /j)

hahahah, also prepare for him to pop quiz you on random stuff that is significant in your relationship, yaknow, to make sure you love him, JK JK, he's just a bored, lonely boiii

"y/n what was the day we met?""ummm, i believe may 7?""NOO YOU GOT IT WRONG"

you would run away from him, knowing that he becomes full on psycho /j

"COME BACK HERE Y/N, I WANNA GIVE YOU A PRESENT."

so ending that on a crazy note, you do sincererly love wilbur and he with you

you would go miles and miles to be with him

i hate how sappy i got there, but i gotta feed the mcyt/dream smp fans with some fluff, yaknow, to even out the angst and smut/nsfw honestly, i need someone who would be like this

[justkending]

Moral of the Story. Chapter Four.

Summary: Marrying too young out of highschool leads to a naive and failed marriage. Now 10 years later, word comes that the divorce was never actually completed. Bucky and Y/N have to come back together after all this time to settle what wasn’t all those years back. Passive attitudes, miscommunicated endings, and reminiscing of old loves and lives all comes back for the two.

Pairing: Bucky x Y/N

Word Count:

A/N: 

Chapter Four:

Bucky groaned as the alarm blared throughout the room. Rolling over to his side, he threw his head into the pillow. That didn’t stop the beeping like he had hoped, so with a groan he pushed up, smacking the red numbers that screamed at him. He rolled back onto his back and blinked up at the bare ceiling.

Today was the day…

_________________

Y/N couldn’t seem to sleep at all, so she woke up early at 6:30 jumping into the shower. Having the extra time, she took it to have a nice long soak in the hot water. The schedule of the day running through her mind.

The chance of them running into each other was practically at 100%. They had a time frame of 9-10 to get in and sign what they needed. Mr. Murdock said something along the lines that it would take about 30-45 minutes to get everything finalized and copied. 

So yeah… Within an hour frame of needed 30-45 minutes of signing shit and getting multiple copies made, meant Bucky and her would most likely be sitting next to the other as it was done. 

She let out a tired and irritated moan as she finally decided to turn off the water. She had it running for so long, her hands were prunes and the water was becoming lukewarm. The world was telling her to suck it up and move on with the day. 

____________

The car ride there was dreadful. Every stop light just elongated the inevitable meeting. Every turn brought him closer to the terrifying reunion. 

He was running early to begin with, but after hitting traffic from a wreck, he was now running just a few minutes behind. So weaving through the people who didn’t understand New York traffic was his specialty in showing up in time. 

____________

She stopped at the coffee shop by her house before really heading to the attorneys office. The car ride to the place was easy and smooth on her end. From coming from the outskirts of Brooklyn, the inner city traffic was avoided for the most part. So she was there early. She even had a second to sit in her car and drink the latte she had bought. Something about Brooklyn latte’s was 10x better than anything California had.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact they actually had cold weather to pair the hot drink with, whereas where she now lived, the lowest low in temperatures was 70 degrees. 

________________

Getting there with just 3 minutes to spare, Bucky rushed out of the car and walked with a hint of speed to the door that read Nelson and Murdock Law Firm. 

No sign of Y/N yet, but as he walked in, he heard a shout from the street that caused him to turn as soon as he walked in. He didn’t have a second to register what the shout was about as he took two steps in and ran straight into someone’s back. 

“Whoa!” he said, using his hands to brace himself on the mystery person's shoulders, and the other person making the same exclamation. “Oh God, I’m so sor-”

Before he could finish the apology, the women turned showing the face of his matured high-school-sweetheart. 

“Oh,” he let out in a breathy turn. He could tell just from past experience with her, she had a snarky comment on her tongue at the run in, but upon seeing him, the words died on her lips. “Hey.”

She looked great. Like, really great after all these years. Not that she wasn’t a beautiful gal to begin with, but you never know how someone’s going to age. However, she looked almost the same. 

Sure, she had aged some, but just like a nice bottle of the finest wine in all the vineyards of California. Maybe that was her secret given her new home. 

Her Y/H/C hair was styled in loose curls. It was voluminous with a healthy shine to it. She had on an off white, canvas dress that cinched at the waist with buttons going down it. And she had a layered gold necklace going down her chest where the buttons were undone. She looked both professional yet casual at the same time. 

Bucky realized he had been staring when she awkwardly looked around her trying to not pay attention to his analyzing eyes. 

“Hey,” she said, letting out a deep breath. 

She didn’t miss how good he looked either. Even in those facebook pictures that she had found the night before, the ones she found him just as attractive, they didn’t do the real man justice. His hair was just as long as the most recent picture his mother had posted, and he looked more muscular than she ever remembered. The scrubs didn't do his build justice. 

He was wearing a navy blue v-neck tight fitting t-shirt. A brown leather jacket that looked as though it was tailored specifically for him and him alone. And lastly, he had on a pair of jeans that of course, fit in him all the right places. 

There was a very awkward silence as they stood there not knowing what else to say. Neither now looking at the other, but instead looking at every little inanimate object item in the office. 

After what felt like eons of the most tense silence to exist, Bucky was about to speak up again, but was cut off from another person running in late.

“Oh, gosh. I’m so sorry guys,” the voice sighed, out of breath from what they presumed was running to get there on time. “Foggy was supposed to pick me up and we were going to ride together, but he got food poisoning last night, so I had to take the train last minute.”

The man had dark brown hair, a nice suit, and a pair of sunglasses on even though it was overcast today and the sun was barely peeking through the heavy clouds. 

“Foggy?” Y/N asked with a tilt of her head. 

Bucky turned back looking at her with the same question on his mind, but watching the small action of confusion brought him back 10 years. God, it had been so long he had almost forgotten the little mannerisms she had that he found adorable. And damn her for still having that adorable action. 

“Oh, right. Franklin Nelson. My co-attorney,” he nodded. “We’ve been friends since we were in college. Friends call him Foggy.”

“Oh, I see,” Y/N nodded with a kind smile. 

“Anyway, I won’t bore you with my morning chaos. I’m sure you two are ready to get this over with and go on about your day,” he smiled, and pulled a walking stick out from around him as he closed the door. One that neither had realized he had been holding until now. “You two much be James and Y/N. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Matthew Murdock.

“It’s nice to meet you Matthew,” Y/N replied sweetly.

“Yes, thank you for helping us out,” Bucky nodded, placing his hands nervously in his pockets. 

“It’s my pleasure. I’m so sorry about everything that you guys are having to fix,” he said apologetically. But I’m sure you guys want to go about your day, so please, right this way,” he motioned to the door that was across from them. 

Bucky and Y/N both shared an impressed look on their faces as they watched him maneuver through the office gracefully. 

They followed close behind him and once they were seated in the chairs in front of the desk, Bucky began to fidget in his spot. Sure the office had been redone and really didn’t look much like it had all those years ago, but the layout was the same. And all it was doing to him was bringing back memories he hated trudging back to the surface. 

He subtly looked over at Y/N and saw her sitting in perfect posture watching Matthew as if if she were to look at him and only him, then she wouldn’t have to face Bucky. 

Why did he expect anything less? Of course she hated him just as much as she had all those years. She was probably dreading this meeting just as much as him. That small speck of hope that maybe they could be somewhat normal and civil upon meeting again after all this time, completely faded at that point. 

“Ok, this really shouldn’t take all that much time since Foggy and I went ahead and wrote up all the things that needed signed and double checked. So we should be able to breeze through all this,” Matthew nodded, bringing up a thick file that looked as though it had tabs on the side organizing them. 

Y/N looked over wondering just how he knew the difference between documents and noticed on each tab, there were bariel markings along them. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, out of all places to live, why New York? It’s got to be hard getting around such a crazy busy city given.. ” Bucky asked, but didn’t finish not sure how to word it. Y/N snapped her head in his direction and smacked his arm. “Ow!” Bucky jumped, sending her raised eyebrows. “What the hell?”

“I’m assuming you’re asking because of this,” Matthew laughed casually as he pointed to his glasses. “Don’t worry. You would be surprised just how often I get asked that.”

“Yeah, it was just a question,” Bucky pouted toward Y/N while rubbing his assaulted arm. The two falling back into their old behaviors rather fast. 

“I wasn’t always blind. I mean I have been for a good chunk of my life, but I’ve lived in New York my whole life as well,” Matthew went on to explain as he moved papers around. “If anything it would be harder for me to get around if I moved any place else. I know this place like the back of my hand.”

“That’s impressive,” Bucky nodded, getting comfortable in his seat. 

“Eh, it’s either learn or get bumped around the sidewalk of a place full of people who don’t give a second glance to anyone who’s in their way,” Matthew shrugged. “Oh, I need to go grab something before we start.”

He maneuvered through the room leaving the door open as he went across the office. Tension filled the air as they were left alone for a second time in the past 5 minutes. 

Y/N was sitting straight forward, her eyes wandering here and there around the meeting room, but careful not to go over to Bucky’s side of the room. He looked down seeing her hands were fiddling in her lap. She was tapping her thumbs together while his leg bounced up and down.

Bucky had opened his mouth to start to say something, but even he wasn’t sure what was about to come out. Lucky for him, Matthew came back in and went back to his seat. 

“Sorry about that. I thought I had it all, but needed to get some pens and one last paper I left on the printer last night.”

“You’re fine,” Y/N said professionally, but kindly. “I have one quick question, if you don’t mind.” Matthew nodded her on with a soft smile. “What exactly happened to Hammer after all this chaos was discovered?”

“Oh, yes. He, uh, he will not be an issue to anyone else to put it lightly. His license was revoked and terminated and he is currently on trial for money laundering and malpractice,” he answered. 

“Serves him right,” Bucky mumbled, and instead of getting a smack to the arm, Y/N nodded in agreement. 

“Ok, if you two are ready, let’s begin,” Matthew smiled before grabbing the first set of papers. 

The two straightened in their seats and the process began.

After a few minutes of just signing, Matthew started to make notes of updated information for the two. 

“Ok, Mrs. Barnes, sorry, Y/N,” he corrected quickly. “What is your line of profession at the moment?”

“I work at Horizon Labs in L.A. It’s a company a friend and I from college started up. I’m a Sustainable-Conscious Financial Advisor for a lot of smaller businesses as well as some bigger ones we recently just became partners with,” she answered. 

“Horizon Labs, huh?” Matthew said with an impressed look. Bucky turned to look at her as she lightly blushed. “I think I listened to a podcast about them. You guys help companies use recycled goods and find energy efficient technology, right?”

“We just redirect them to people who can help them get those resources. It’s practically just connecting the companies that would work great together in helping the environment,” she nodded humbly. 

“That’s amazing,” Matthew smiled. “We need more people and companies like that.”

“Thank you.”

He made note of that on a computer. “I’m assuming with all that, you have to be a little too busy for a second job, right? I don’t need to make note of another?”

“Uh, actually,” she added, Bucky’s already focused eyes on her quirked at her response. “I just invested in a Woman’s shelter with another friend of mine. I haven’t really got to do much with it, but it is a second job as of lately.”

“Wait? Nat?” Bucky caught on.

“Uh, yeah,” she nodded almost shyly. Probably the second time out of this whole meeting that she actually made eye contact with him. “My company works with them in getting some of the resources and items they need for the shelter. I talked with Nat and I invested into it some to help with some with their financial advisements.” 

“Wow, th-that’s,” Bucky faltered. “That sounds like you,” he said with a breathy laugh thinking about how maybe she really hadn’t changed all these years. That being one of the ‘reasons’ they had broken it off, how people change and all. But that’s a story for another time.

Y/N didn’t show a response to his words, but she did take them in. 

“So you run a woman’s home and you run a well-off business that promotes eco-friendly resources for the environment?”

“Well, I don’t run the woman’s home. That’s all my friends doing. I just help where help is asked if I can,” she answered once again humbly. No sense of egotistical pride hinted in her explanations or answers. 

“That’s extremely impressive Y/N,” Matthew gushed some, and Bucky noticed the smallest form of attraction come off the lawyer. He straightened at that. “I’ll make a note of it. And you Mr. Barnes. What is your occupation?”

Bucky relaxed his shoulders and focused back at the issue at hand. Trying to not get jealous of something that wasn’t even his to be jealous of. 

“I’m one of the head occupational therapist at Stark Theracorp,” he answered. Now it was Y/N’s turn to look at him intrigued. “I run the geriatric occupational therapy floor and manage our equipment and employees. ”

“Two very impressive people in the work field from what I’m getting,” Matthew chuckled some as he made the notes. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have to ask about income from the both of you for the record. If you want to write it on a paper and hand it to me you can or if you are comfortable saying it outloud that works too. Either way, I’ll have Foggy add it in later to the finalized papers.”

“Wait, so we aren’t finalizing it today?” Y/N asked, somewhat shocked. 

“Did Foggy not tell you?” Matthew asked. “I thought he reached out to you before this meeting.”

“I don’t believe so,” Y/N shook her head. 

“Well, the reason this one is so quick is because I just need a few signatures and updated notes on you two. After that, I’ll make the altercations for the official papers and I’ll send those to you both on their own to get the final signature. You can either bring them to me here, fax them, or have them sent via mail after you signed off on them.”

“Oh, I see,” Y/N nodded. The look of defeat in her posture and facial expressions.

It hurt Bucky a little seeing her reaction to it. Did she really want to get away from him that bad? Was he that much of a nuisance in her life? I mean, yeah, they were supposed to be divorced 9 years ago, but he didn’t want it then and it still hurt seeing just how much she wanted it now. 

“That’s not an issue is it? I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience,” Matthew apologized. 

“No, no. It’s ok,” she said in reassurance to him. But she let out an almost bitter laugh before she spoke again. “We’ve been married for the past 9 years apparently. What’s a few more days?”

“I guess that’s true,” Matthew laughed with her. 

Bucky rolled his eyes discreetly. He really hated how she was reacting with all this. It wasn’t surprising, but doesn’t mean it hurts any less seeing how badly she wanted out of the situation.  

“Mr. Barnes, are you ok with that?” 

“I’ll survive a few more days, I guess,” he returned just as bitterly as Y/N. The two looked at each other one more time, but this time, anger and annoyance was clear on both of their faces.

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[kinktae]

bitchin’ || pt. 10 (FINAL)

The 80s were a time of choices. Which perm was right for you? What color neon would you wear next? None of these choices, however, were more questionable than a certain deal you made with Jeon Jungkook.

pairing: fratboy!jungkook x reader

word count: 5.1k

genre: 1980s au, eventual smut, e2l

warnings: angst

A/N: This fic was inspired by To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Thank you to @junqkook for letting me use her likeness! Thank you all for sticking with this story and these characters <3

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10

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PART TEN (FINAL) 

Jungkook wasn't looking for you when he finally found you that day on campus. He had just come from the student services building, leaving the meeting with his counselor feeling somewhat content. He had officially changed his major to digital communications and multimedia. He never would have done it if it weren’t for you making him feel like he could, of course.

It had a full week since break had ended, and he felt like he was in hell, knowing you were somewhere nearby on campus, but not knowing whether or not you’d want to see him yet. If ever.

He had just finished buying his lunch and was heading to find a table to sit outside when he finally saw you.

You looked just as lovely as he remembered you, your hair braided prettily with your torso bundled up tight in your oversized jacket. You always hated the cold weather, he remembered.

You weren’t by yourself, though, Yara and Taehyung sat with you, laughing amongst themselves. The three of you together looked so normal that before he could stop himself; he found himself walking over to your table, his heart in his throat.

“Hey, guys.”

All conversation came to a halt, the three students turning to face the cautious frat boy, looking familiar yet different all the same.

Jungkook’s words sung awkwardly in the air for a moment as Yara and Taehyung exchanged a quick look. You didn’t need to see Jungkook to know the words had come from him. You recognized the soft timbre of his voice immediately, your eyes locking down on the denim material of your jeans.

Fuck.

For a moment, Jungkook worried that his greeting might go by ignored altogether. The idea made him feel sick, that he had lost the three most important people to him within three weeks.

Taehyung broke away from Yara’s stare, thankfully flashing a genuine smile at him, “Sup, JK. Long time no see. How was your break?”

You let yourself steal a glance at Jungkook as Taehyung sat up and offered him a hug, which he returned gratefully.

You were surprised. His hair was no longer shaggy and long like you remembered it. Instead, it had been freshly cut, looking healthy and neatly styled for the first time since you met Jungkook.

But despite his clean look, there was something off about him. Something that made you feel guilty.

“It was fine.” Jungkook responded halfheartedly, eyes flickering over to you experimentally. You were the whole reason he had come over after all. His stomach sank as he found your eyes jerking away from him, directing your attention to anywhere but him.

“Take a seat, man.” Taehyung invited, ignored the deadly glare being drilled into the side of his face by your best friend.

Jungkook contemplated for a moment, but nodded, joining the table hesitantly.

“Hey, Yara.” He began politely, blatantly aware of the way the girl in question was looking at him as if he were the gum on her shoe that she had stepped in.

“Jockstrap.” The petite girl acknowledged him dryly.

You could feel his attention shift over to you.

God, please don’t.

“Y/N.” His voice was soft and apologetic, and you wanted to scream. You’d be lying if you hadn’t been toying with the idea of possibly meeting up with him once back in school, but as he sat across from you; looking at you as if you were the only person in this room, you felt yourself begin to panic.

Yara could feel the way you had tensed beside her, every alarm in her protective best friend system going off. She turned to you immediately.

“So, Y/N, you never finished your story. How was Erik?” She began casually as if the two of you had been discussing this topic before Jungkook arrived.

“Um...” You blinked, confused at the sudden change of conversation by your scheming best friend.

“Was it weird to catch up with him after all this time?” She continued, words loud and clear as her lips wrapping around the straw of her drink.

“Oh, um...” you caught on, mind racing as you caught Jungkook’s eyes widening at Yara’s words from the corner of your eye.

You knew exactly what your best friend was trying to do. She knew how Jungkook felt about your ex and was using that against him. Two weeks ago, you would’ve gladly rubbed Erik in Jungkook’s face, but after weeks of contemplation, you just felt crummy.

“Erik as in… you ex-fiancé Erik?” You heard Jungkook speak up finally, not even bothering to hide the disbelief in his tone.

And then, you made the mistake of meeting his eyes. All the nerve you could have possibly called upon at that moment dissipating the moment you saw the disquiet confusion in his eyes.

“I, um…”

He didn’t have to say a word. You knew exactly how he felt, his face said it all.

“...have to go.” You finished weakly, chair dragging against the tile floor as you stood up abruptly.

Jungkook was the next up on his feet, “Y/N.”

Any effort he had planned on going after you was halted by an angry-looking Yara, who was throwing her bag over her shoulder as she hurried after you.

“Back off, shit head.” She scowled as she jogged off, leaving Jungkook feeling terrible, sinking back into his seat with a defeated breath.

Taehyung couldn’t help but stare at his best friend with pity. And as much as he wanted to offer some words of comfort, he had none, caught in between friends.

“Fries?” He finally spoke up, a sheepish smile on his handsome face.

Jungkook turned to face his brother slowly, eyes falling on the tray of the potato treat on the table before reaching for one, offering Taehyung a grateful smile that didn’t seem to reach his eyes.

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Jungkook had no idea what he was doing. In fact, standing in front of the dorm door of two girls who he knew most definitely hated him had him feeling like a real tool.

Of course, Jungkook wanted everything to go back to the way it was, with you and him still spending every second together and with Yara as your abrasive, but supportive cheerleader. But he had given up on the idea after the first 15 unanswered phone calls. He had given up on you ever returning his feelings, and that wasn’t why he was here.

As he rapped his knuckles against the door, he knew that he had come to apologize. You were owed at least that much. If you listened, he would tell you how sorry he was and just how much he would take it all back if he could. How he didn’t want to keep bothering you, but couldn’t leave you alone until you got the apology you deserved.

All courage seeped out of him, however, the second he was met with a tiny stature and auburn hair, the scarier of the dorm’s residents answering the door. Meaning he had seconds to get his point across before Yara shut the door in his face.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me right now—”

To his surprise, however, the scary girl walked out into the hall to face him, shutting the dorm door behind her.

Jungkook took a step back as a precaution, knowing better than to piss off an already angry Yara.

“Oh no, I’ve got loads to say to you, actually." Yara said once she was sure the door was closed, her voice low and hard. "Like how you’re a jerk. A tool. A coward. Not to mention a total scumbag–”

Jungkook nodded, interrupting her without thinking, "I know, and I–"

"Oh, I'm not done!” She huffed, and the meathead fell quiet. “A fool. A buffoon. A pathetic excuse for a man. A lecherous ape. A salacious, prurient degenerate!"

Jungkook flinched at Yara’s words. And what colorful words they were too. She was making good use of that English degree, he supposed.

A few silent, tense moments ticked by, neither of them saying a word.

"Anything else?" Jungkook offered, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously. Yara glared at him, arms crossed over her chest defensively.

"...Bedswerver."

He blinked, "Is that even a word?"

"I dunno, I read it in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale the other day. Just felt right, not gonna lie." She shrugged passively.

"Well... I guess I deserved that."

"You think?" She scoffed, clearly still heated. “You’ve been fooling around with Y/N all this time like it’s nothing, and at the first chance, you fuck your ex… only to sleep with Y/N again immediately after! Do you realize what a fucking douche move that is? To both Y/N and Kiri?”

Jungkook could feel his cheeks turning red, very much feeling like a child getting reprimanded by their parent. A child who was undoubtedly in the wrong.

“You're right. I fucked up. Majorly. And I know we can't ever go back to the way we were, that's not why I’m here. I hurt her. She deserves so much – far more than I could ever give her – but at least this... at least I can give her the apology she deserves."

Yara pressed her lips together, letting out a huff if agreement, “I'm surprised your itty bitty, underdeveloped, primitive ant-brain could figure that much out."

Jungkook frowned. She really was laying on the insults thick, wasn’t she?

“Ok, fine, sorry, I'm done now.” She sighed, arms coming back to her sides.

Of course, she was pissed. This entire situation was so entirely frustrating. From the moment those two had shook hands, it was evident that their relationship was heading down a path that neither of them was ready for.

Staring down the dark-haired boy, Yara wondered if this all could have been avoided if these two boneheads were just honest with one another from the beginning. But no, instead, feelings went left unsaid, and her best friend got dirty dicked in the process.

Relationships – even fake ones – were way too much drama for Yara.

Jungkook had remained quiet for now, allowing the door keeper to stare him down, trying to decipher his sincerity in his intentions. She let out a hum.

“You have 15 minutes.”

Jungkook felt his shoulders relax.

“She’s in the living room. I’ll be standing out here the entire time, and if I hear you as so much as raise your voice even a single decibel, I will rip off your dick.”

Of course Yara was going to let Jungkook in; she knew there was a lot still needed to be said between the two of them, and Y/N deserved a chance to speak her mind as well. Besides, Y/N had been rambling all week about reaching out to Jungkook herself. It was the closure both of them needed, and she wasn’t bitter enough to deny him that opportunity. She was just currently enjoying the way he squirmed under her stare.

“Thank you, Yara.”

“I'm serious. You will be penis-less. You'll go crying to the doctors to try and reattach it, but it'll be all in vain as I'll have ripped it to shreds by the time you reach them, way past the point of reconstruction. Do you understand?" She deadpanned.

Jungkook swallowed, head nodding rapidly, "I understand.”

Letting out a sigh, Yara stepped aside, clearing the path to the door.

“Don't fuck this up, jockstrap." She warned, an unexpected softness in her tone.

Holding her stare for a moment, he sent her one final grateful nod, reaching out and pushing the door open.

Entering the dorm, there was a weird sense of melancholy to the space. What once was a place where he spent most of his time, now just felt like an unfamiliar dorm– one in which he wasn’t particularly welcomed.

"Y/N?”

You weren’t propped up on the couch like he had expected you to be. In fact, as Jungkook scanned the space, he realized you weren’t in the common area at all.

Were you in your room? He wasn’t exactly sure how comfortable he felt walking into your room without your permission, given the current circumstances.

Whatever inner debate he was having, however, stopped off quickly as he took note of the light coming from within the shot door of the bathroom. And most notably, the shadow of two feet from underneath the door.

You had panicked.

Naturally, at the sound of Jungkook’s voice, you scurried over to press your ear to the door, hung on his and Yara’s every word. When you heard that he was coming in, you were sent scrambling for a place to hide. The bathroom was merely the best you could do with such a short time frame.

You cursed internally as his footsteps neared your way, stopping once he had reached the locked door. 

"I know you're in there."

You tutted, “So? Am I not allowed to use the bathroom in my own dorm?"

"You aren't using the bathroom." His voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Yes, I am."

"No, you're not. You’re pee shy and there is no way you'd be using the restroom with me in the room."

You grimaced. In all the time you had spent with Jungkook, you had timed all your bathroom activities skillfully so that there was no chance he could hear you. This bathroom habit wasn’t only with him. Even Yara had to be tucked away in her room for you to pee comfortably. It was an odd, insignificant quirk of yours and frankly, a stupid thing for him to remember.

“Please… can we talk?”

“Just leave me alone, Jungkook.” You leaned your back into the door, voice void of emotion.

“I can't. Not with how we left things.” He placed a hand against the door, wishing it was your face he was holding instead. “You’re my best friend, Y/N.”

Bitterly, you thought back when Jungkook had called Kiri his best friend the night the two of you first slept together. One way or another, it always seemed to come back to her. 

God, did it piss you off.

Angry now, you pushed yourself off the door, turning to face it as you imagining it was Jungkook's stupid face your eyes were burrowing into.

“You said Kiri came over asking for you back, yet you still came over and slept with me the next day. Even though the two of you had sex the night before. Do you understand how that makes me feel?”

“I’m—”

“Like garbage!" You emphasized, the white paint of the door somehow irritating you further. "I felt like I was something you threw away and picked back up whenever you felt like getting your dick wet.”

Your chest was rising and falling rapidly, and you tried your hardest to not let your emotions get the best of you.

“Not to mention to everyone else, it looks like you cheated on me. Which makes me look like a fucking idiot." You scoffed.

Jungkook said nothing in reply, which somehow made it easier to say all you should have said that day in your room.

“It just sucks to realize that someone you once cared about sees you as nothing more than a toy. It fucking sucks.”

Your words were small now, clearly hurt, and it made Jungkook’s heart sink.

“Fuck, Y/N, you’re right, you’re totally right. It was fucked upand gross and disrespectful, and I'm so fucking sorry I did that to you. I’m so sorry I hurt you like that. Y/N, you’re not just a toy to me. You’re more. You are so much fucking more.”

“...Why did you sleep with her?” You muttered pathetically, selfishly wanting to know.

Jungkook pressed his lips together. He had been asking himself that very question every day since he did it.

"I just... I thought it was what I wanted. It was what I was supposed to want.” His eyebrows furrowed. "The entire time, I kept telling myself... This is it. I got what I wanted. Y/N was right. We're both gonna be happy now. But that’s not what happened. And that scared me."

God, how he wished he could see you right now.

"I didn't come over the next day to sleep with you. I just saw you... that was not... my head went blank and– ah, fuck, I practiced what I was gonna say on the way here. What am I even saying right now?" Jungkook groaned out to himself suddenly, hands entangling themselves in his hair.

How was he supposed to tell you that the second you opened that door that morning, all logical thinking stopped, and all he could think about was the fact how much he had missed you last night and how badly he needed to feel your lips again to forget hers. How he lost himself in the way you felt and tasted wasn't strong enough to stop himself.

In fact, he had nearly forgotten all about his terrible mistake when you suddenly brought up spending Christmas together, realization sinking over him. Of course, he wanted to spend it together, but there was no way he could lie to you for any longer. No way he could meet your parents after what he had done.

There was no sugarcoating it. He really was pathetic. And there is no easy way to tell you that.

"Why are you here? Honestly, Jungkook, what do you want from me?" Your words rang out suddenly, taking Jungkook by surprise.

What did he want from you?

What didn't he want from you? He wanted all of you. He wanted to tell you that you were the only thing he thought about all winter break. How you could take his heart and do whatever you deemed fit with it. That you had him wrapped around your finger, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

But none of that mattered now.

"I know we can never go back to how we were before. What we had is ruined and that's because of me. I just wanted to apologize for ever making you feel like all I ever wanted was sex from you. I'm so fucking sorry."

You had your hands buried in your palms, wishing this wasn’t all so hard. That you had just broken the contract off the second you realized you had real feelings for him.

"The night at the roller rink, you told me that if I love something and it inspires me then I should go after it, right?”

Lifting your head from your hands, you frowned at Jungkook’s words.

Your roller skating date? God, that felt like ages ago...

“Yeah. So?”

“S-So, um–" Jungkook stuttered, ears turning red as he contemplated his next words, "so, for me... you're that something. And I couldn't just let you go with at least letting you know how sorry I was. Fuck, that was so lame, sorry, I probably sound like such a wastoid right now."

You wanted to cry, not because you weren’t happy but because you were so tired of hating Jungkook and pretending like you didn't just want to run back to him. You had spent the last three weeks rejecting his calls yet wondering all the same what he was doing. Your heart and mind were in constant paradox, torn between wanting him back and wanting him to know just how much he had hurt you.

Your mind ultimately won the battle, of course, but as Jungkook stood just a few inches of drywood apart pouring his heart out, it was hard to say which major organ was responsible for your next words.

The creak of the door being pushed open sent Jungkook's eyes wide, revealing your hesitant form. You had your arms crossed over your chest as if to guard the contents inside of it.

You looked like an angel underneath the bathroom's blue fluorescent lights, beautiful and lovely, a stark contrast from your next crushing sentence.

“I slept with Erik.”

You weren’t expecting the news to go over well with him, but what you weren’t expecting was the way Jungkook’s face fell entirely slack as if he had just witnessed his world fall in front of him.

You weren’t exactly proud of what you had done. You and Erik had gone out for dinner, admittedly enjoying each other’s company and catching up on all the years you spent apart. You didn’t have plans on sleeping with Erik when you first called him up. Honestly, it was Jungkook’s name being continuously brought up during the car ride home that spurred on the impulsive decision to kiss Erik, just to get him to shut up really. But more than that, you knew precisely where kissing him would lead.

As always, Erik was predictable, and he fed into your request without question, and you felt terrible about it. It was a mistake at worst and a distraction at best.

Hardly even a distraction, as Jungkook was inescapable. He was in the back of your mind the entire time, looking at you with sad doe eyes that you were trying your hardest to ignore.

Even as you slipped back on your shirt when the deed was done, code brown starting to set in as the reality of what you had done hit you, you couldn’t escape him, as Erik wished you well and that he hoped things between the frat boy and you worked out.

Needless to say, you spent the rest of you break absolutely miserable — hating yourself using Erik in the same way Jungkook had used you.

The sound of Jungkook swallowing dryly brought you back from your thoughts. “Did you… I mean, are you two back together?”

He placed a hand into the front of his jean’s pocket as you contemplated your next words.

He continued on, “If… if he makes you happy..."

A gross feeling washed over you, watching as the boy you loved tried to hide the way his breath was trembling. You bit down on your bottom lip.

“When Erik and I…” you paused as you watched Jungkook’s expression fall further, “I was expecting it to be all intense and emotional. Because I once loved him.”

You frowned, the memory still somewhat fresh, “But I wasn’t. It felt foreign and detached and—”

“Wrong.” Jungkook finished for you, a melancholic shine in his eyes. You nodded.

“I didn’t understand at first. I have been having casual sex with you for all this time, but it felt nothing like that.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” He breathed.

You turned away from him a moment, trying to grab hold of your wit before you could once again flee from the scene, leaving your meathead ex fake boyfriend in your dust.

"I'm not saying what you did was justifiable, because it's not, but... I guess I'm not exactly in any position to not forgive you. Because I used Erik to forget about you. And it felt horrible."

"What are you saying?" Jungkook didn’t know what to make of what your cautious words.

Turning back towards him, you held his stare with certainty.

"I'm saying that... I forgive you."

A sharp breath came tumbling out of the boy’s mouth, eyes growing wide as he tried to make sense of how he had ever earned your forgiveness after what he had done to you.

He took a step towards you instinctively, only to be stopped as you held out a hand to halt him.

“I need you to understand something.” Your arms tightened around yourself, growing shaky. “I don’t need you. I had a life before you, and I know I'll have one after you.”

Jungkook nodded at you, despite how much it hurt him. He understood. You had given him forgiveness; he wasn’t owed anything more.

All you had to do was say the word, and he’d be out of your hair forever. He’d do anything you’d ask him to, despite the way every part of him was screaming for you.

“I don’t need you… but I don’t think I want a life without you.” You finished shyly.

Your eyes were locked with his when suddenly a small noise escaped him, eyes pulling away from yours as his head moved to attempt to hide the way his eyes had grown wet.

At the sight of a tear rolling down the side of his face, you were by his side, hands gripping his jacket worriedly.

"Wha– Why are you crying?!" You panicked, never having dealt with a crying meathead before. This was uncharted territory.

"Fuck, I'm sorry. I just..." your heart lurched at his broken tone, watching as he wiped at his cheeks with the back of his hands. "Didn't think I'd ever see you again after this. I missed you so much. I'm so fucking sorry for hurting you."

“I missed you, too.” You cooed softly, tugging at his jacket so that he’d face you again.

And suddenly, the sound of paper hitting the floor rang out, the two of you pulling back to look at what had come tumbling out of Jungkook’s pocket.

“What’s that?” You asked innocently, not seeing the way his cheeks had gone pink.

“N-Nothing.” He was quick to reach for it, cursing lowly as you beat him to it, taking the crumpled up paper in your hands.

He watched miserably as you pried it back open, scanning through the paper in confusion.

“Jungkook… What is this?” You muttered.

Jungkook’s face was positively burning, time moving slowly as he realized what was about to happen.

“I, um, wrote it one night when I couldn’t sleep... I forgot I put it in this jacket. I meant to throw it away.”

Your face held an expression of uncertainty, as if unsure how to proceed. It was undoubtedly addressed to you, an affectionate “Nerd” up on the top.

So you opened the paper further, flatting it out with your hands as you began to read.

“Do you mean what you wrote?” You finally spoke, voice wavering.

Jungkook wished he could disappear into the floor right now. Never in this wildest dreams did he imagine a scenario where you would find out about his feelings for you through a sappy love note he had written when he was moping around late one night.

“Yeah, I do.” He told you honestly, your heart skipping several beats.

In that case, it was time you were honest as well.

“You're right when you say things can't go back to the way things were.” You began, cheeks warm. “Not because you ruined it but because I'm not putting myself through that again. I'm sick of half-assing shit and tired of lying to you and to myself. I know what I want, and it's you… not because I have something to prove, not because I want to make Kiri jealous but because of the sole reason that you make me happy." Your strong facade began to crumble as insecurity began to suddenly sink in. “But if you don’t want that, if you don’t want something real... then nevermind, I guess.”

And all at once, Jungkook realized that all this time it hadn’t been just him.

Two arms made their way around you, and suddenly, you were engulfed in warmth, Jungkook’s close proximity pulling a wave of emotions out of you.

“I love you, nerd. I don't why it took me so long to realize that, but I know without a doubt that you are it for me. Nothing could change the way I feel about you.”

And finally, you let out a cry, breaking down all the walls you had built up to keep Jungkook from perceiving you as weak. Because maybe you were. Maybe you were weak for this boy, but as you buried your wet face into his chest, you no longer cared, the weight of everything you had felt these past three weeks crushing down on you.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Jungkook cooed softly, chin coming up to rest upon your head.

"I love you, too." Was your weepy reply.

Jungkook’s eyes fluttered shut, tears rolling down his cheeks as he pressed a kiss into your head, wanting nothing more than to stay like this with you forever.

"Are you two dorks done crying?" Yara’s voice rang out suddenly, causing both of you to jump apart.

"Yara, you creep! Privacy, dude! Ever try knocking?" You sniffed, wiping at your face hurriedly.

How long had she been standing there?

"What? Like you were peeing with Jungkook in the bathroom? Please." She waved you off, walking back into the living room to give you two some privacy. She did say Jungkook had 15 minutes before she’d have to come back in after all. "Anyway, Tae will be over in 10 minutes for the Saved By The Bell marathon that’s on so you guys are more than welcomed to join." She called out from her newly seated position on the couch.

"Sure, whatever..." You huffed back, flashing Jungkook an exasperated look. So much for that special moment.

Jungkook didn’t seem too bothered though, the fullest, most boyish grin on his lips, taking in the puffy-eyed girl in front of him that he could now with full confidence call his.

And that girl couldn’t help but smile back at him just as stupidly because for once, there was nothing fake about your boyfriend.

"How is it that a piece of paper is the start of both our real and fake relationship?" He mused suddenly, hands reaching to take yours. You hummed, taking in the way your fingers intertwined.

“Funnily enough, we broke, like, every rule of our contract." You quirked up a brow.

“You know…” Jungkook began, flashing you a mischievous look, “it states very clearly on the bottom that the contract will be terminated upon completion. We can’t terminate the contract if we never completed it.”

“What are you saying? We keep the contract going?” You laughed.

“I’m saying that you are contractually stuck with me.”

“That contract is in desperate need of some amendments.” You rolled your eyes.

“Yeah? And what did you have in mind?” His hands found your waist, pulling you into him.

“Rule number one has gotta go. The one kiss policy just won’t slide with me.”

Jungkook let out a laugh, his palm finding your cheek, eyes locked on your lips. You were preening for his kiss, mouth parting slightly as you anticipated it.

“Partners?”

The question took you by surprise, eyes widening at your not so pretend lover.

Idiot.

“Partners.” You smiled softly, eyes shiny and brimming with tears as he kissed you for what must have been the millionth time, but still somehow felt like the first.

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And just like that, bitchin’ is over :’( thank u all for ur support, seriously I was not expecting this kind of response (consistent too!) to this story and I'm so beyond grateful and I hope you all know I never take your engagement for granted. thank you for letting me share my stories <3

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 129

MASTERLIST

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Word Count: 3,050ish

Summary: The separate teams prepare for the battle against Thanos. (gifs aren’t mine)

Y/N was standing in front, staring at space as it whizzed by, when Tony came over and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He pressed a kiss just behind her ear, pulling her closer.

“What are you thinking about?” Tony whispered.

“How I’m suppose to be prepared for something, but I have no idea what,” Y/N whispered.

“The fate of the universe is not on you.”

“But it is, Tony… and there’s—“

“No.” He quickly, yet carefully, turned Y/N around to face him. “This is not on you.” His hands held Y/N’s face to look at him. “Whatever happens is not your fault.”

“You can’t say that. We don’t know what will happen yet.”

“You’re right, we don’t. But I will not let you feel the way you are feeling. And I promise, that I will not let anything happen to you.”

“I’m not worried about me… I’m worried about everyone else… it’s too much… it’s all too much…” 

Her eyes were tearing up, and this was all breaking Tony’s heart. He pulled her into his chest, cradling her head. It was killing him to see her like this, but he really didn’t know how to fix it. Tony didn’t understand exactly what Y/N needed to do, and he was coming to the conclusion that she didn’t either.

The two could feel the engines begin to slow. With Tony keeping an arm around Y/N, the two looked through the large window. The ship was approaching a planet. Peter and Dr. Strange joined the couple by the window.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Peter asked.

“I think we’re here,” Strange replied.

“I don’t think this rig has a self-park function,” Tony said, looking around. He left Y/N’s side, waving Peter over to where he was going. “Get your hand into this steering gimbal. Close those around it. You understand?”

“Yep, got it,” Peter responded, quickly following Tony’s directions as Tony put one of his arms in it as well.

“This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta to move at the same time.”

“Okay. Okay. Ready.” Out the window, Y/N could see that the ship was heading straight for the center of some wreckage. “We might wanna turn. Turn! Turn! Turn!!”

Tony tapped his reactor, armoring up. “Y/N! Get over here!”

Before Y/N could reach Tony’s side, the ship clipped a piece of rumble on the planet, throwing Y/N to the side. Peter has his helmet come up as Dr. Strange stepped between them, creating a shield for the rough landing. As the ship, shook and plowed through the dirt, Y/N portaled herself over to Tony. She wrapped her arms around him to keep steady, only for them both to be thrown to the ground. Parts of the ship flew off before it finally came to a stop. Tony’s helmet disappeared as he searched Y/N for any injuries. He quickly noticed that her breathing was fast and her eyes were clenched shut.

“Honey, honey,” Tony called. “You’re okay. Hey, look at me. Look at me.” She shakily looked up at Tony from her position curled up into his side. “We are safe. You are okay. You’re not hurt. Right?”

“I… I’m… o-okay…” Y/N stuttered softly.

“You haven’t had something like that in awhile.” Tony sighed before kissing her head. “I’ll get us out of here. I promise.” Dr. Strange came over and helped them up. “You alright?” Tony asked Strange, who nodded. “That was close. I owe you one.”

“Let me just say,” Peter started, descending from above like a spider, “if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry.”

Tony pointed at Peter. “I don't wanna hear another single pop culture out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?”

“I'm trying to say that... something is coming.”

Suddenly, a grenade rolled into view and the foursome was thrown back as it fired an energy pulse. Three beings appeared in the doorway.

“THANOS!” A blue man yelled. 

He flung a blade at Dr. Strange, who deflected it with a mystical shield and in return his cloak smothered the man’s face, throwing him to the floor. Y/N and Tony were quickly on their feet. One of the men went straight for Tony. They have a brief dogfight until a magnetic disc pinned Tony face first to a structure. An alien woman came up from behind Y/N, putting her hands on her head, entering her mind.

“Sleep,” the alien woman commanded. Y/N dropped to the floor, unconscious. 

“Y/N!” Tony shouted.

The alien walked towards Peter, who was crawling back frantically. “AH!” Peter exclaimed. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Please don’t put your eggs in me!”

Peter shot a web at Mantis in a panic, pinning her arms to her body just before the man that attacked Tony flew at him feet-first, kicking him away.

“Stay down, clown!” The man ordered.

The man fired at Spider-man, who extended his spider legs and leapt away. Peter couldn’t get far before an electric-like cord wrapped around him and his six new legs. It set him rolling across the deck.

“Die, blanket of death!” The blue man cried, struggling with he cloak.

Tony pulled free of the magnet and stepped on the blue man’s torso. The cloak pulled free as soon as Tony had the man securely under his foot. The other man had Spider-Man in a head-lock, gun pointed at his head. Dr. Strange had a musical shield up and stood ready to attack. The alien woman struggled to her feet, still covered with webbing.

“Ugh…” Y/N groaned, slowing sitting up while holding her head. 

“Y/N,” Tony called. “Are you—“

“Alright, everybody stay where you are!” The man holding Spider-Man in a headlock ordered. “Chill the F out.” The man powered off his helmet. “I’m gonna ask you this one time. Where’s Gamora?”

Tony hid his helmet as well. “Yeah, I'll do you one better,” Tony responded. “Who’s Gamora?”

“I’ll do you one better. Why is Gamora?” The man beneath Tony’s foot fired back.

“Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little freak,” the man holding Spider-Man threatened.

“Let's do it!” Tony responded, extending a nano-tech canon at the blue man. “You shoot my guy, I blast him. Let's go!”

“Do it, Quill! I can take it!” The blue man exclaimed.

“No, he can’t take it!” The alien woman replied.

“She’s right,” Dr. Strange said. “You can’t.”

"Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is?” Quill continued. “That's fine. I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself.” He looked at Spider-Man. “Starting with you.”

“Stop!” Y/N yelled, freezing everyone in place. She stood up. “No one is killing anyone!”

“Why can’t I—“

“She’s controlling us,” the alien woman stated. “She’s extremely powerful.”

“Wait, what? Thanos?” Dr. Strange questioned, realizing what Quill had said. “Alright, let me ask you this one time: What master do you serve?”

“What master do I serve?” Quill repeated. “What am I supposed to say? “Jesus”?"

“You’re from Earth?” Tony asked.

“I'm not from Earth. I'm from Missouri.”

“Yeah, that's on Earth, dip-shit. What are you hasseling us for?”

“So, you’re not with Thanos?” Spider-Man questioned.

“With Thanos?!” Quill repeated. “No, I'm here to kill Thanos! He took my girl- Wai- who are you?”

Spider-Man’s helmet disappeared. “We’re the Avengers, man.”

“Oh.”

“You’re the ones Thor told us about!” The alien woman stated.

“Thor,” Y/N breathed out, still keeping everyone in place. 

“You know Thor?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Quill responded. “Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving.”

“Where is he now?” Dr. Strange asked.

“With our other friends, going to make a weapon,” the woman responded.

“Y/N, you can let us go know,” Tony said. 

With a deep breath, Y/N let everyone be free. They all moved to standing positions, Tony beside Y/N.

“So you’re Y/N?” The woman walked up to her. “Thor mentioned you.”

“Really?” Y/N questioned.

“He said you were powerful,” Quill stated. “But he also said you were on Earth.”

“Yeah, guess not all Thor says is true.”

“Star-Lord, by the way,” Quill introduced himself.

“Right,” Tony nodded. “I’m Iron Man. This is Dr. Strange and Spider-Man.” He pointed to the others he introduced.

“I’m Drax,” the blue man said.

“And I’m Mantis,” the alien woman added.

“Okay, now that introductions are out of the way,” Tony started, “let’s go see what’s out there.”

Grabbing Y/N’s hand, Tony led her, and the others, towards an opening in the ship. The planet outside had clearly been through something war-like, and there was no sign of life anywhere. Star-Lord went down on one knee, getting out some sort of device.

“The heck happened to this planet?” He wondered. “It’s eight degrees off its axis.” He stood up. “Gravitational pull is all over the place.”

“Yeah, we can see that,” Y/N commented, looking at Mantis who was jumping joyfully high up in the air behind Star-Lord.

“Yeah, we got one advantage. He’s coming to us,” Tony stated. “We'll use it. All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet.” Drax then choose this time to yawn. “Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?”

“I stopped listening after you said, "We need a plan.”” Drax replied.

“Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page.”

“See, "not winging it" isn't really what they do,” Star-Lord responded.

“Uh, what exactly is it that they do?” Spider-Man asked.

“Kick names, take ass,” Mantis answered, meekly.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Drax agreed.

Tony paused, looking deeply hopeless. Quietly, Y/N’s breathing hitched as her head started buzzing. Thankfully, Tony didn’t notice to worry about it.

“Alright, just get over here, please,” Tony continued. “Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?”

“‘Mr. Lord’,” Star-Lord repeated with a chuckle. “Star-Lord is fine.” He motioned Drax and Mantis to come closer.

“We gotta coalesce. 'Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude—“

“Dude, don't call us plucky. We don't know what it means. Alright, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good.”

“Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe,” Drax urged.

“A dance-off?” Y/N repeated, trying to ignore the buzzing.

“It’s not a… it’s not… it’s nothing,” Star-Lord stuttered.

“Like in Footloose, the movie?” Spider-Man wondered.

“Exactly like Footloose! Is it still the greatest movie in history?”

“It never was.”

“Don’t encourage this, alright?” Tony told Peter.

“Okay.”

“We’re getting no help from Flash Gordon here.”

“Flash Gordon?” Star-Lord repeated. “By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm half human.” He pointed at Y/N, Tony, and Parker. “So that 50% of me that's stupid? That's 100% you.”

“Your math is blowing my mind.”

“Excuse me,” Mantis nervously interrupted. “But… does your friend often do that?”

Everyone looked in the direction Mantis was pointing. Floating slightly above the ground, was Dr. Strange clearly using the Time Stone. Strange was cross-legged with green energy forming circular patterns around his forearms. His eyes were closed and his head jerked rapidly from side to side, blurring. The others went to his side. 

As Y/N grew closer, a green strand of energy slowing touched her head. She froze and her eyes shone green. Everyone was too busy with Strange to notice though. Her vision quickly changed. It was dark at first, but slowly each of the Stones shined on a gauntlet. The fingers snapped and her field of vision was suddenly filled with people screaming and disappearing into ash. She looked around for anyone she knew, no one was recognizable. 

Quickly, the setting changed. She was standing on a war-torn battle, that was vaguely familiar. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people and aliens were battling each other. She recognized many of those people as her family, her friends. They were dirty, bloody, and clearly fighting for their lives. Y/N looked around to see Thanos fighting herself.

“In five years time, the final battle will commence,” the Stones gravely voice filled her ears. “This is where you will be needed… If you try to stop what happens here today, we will stop you.”

Outside Y/N’s mind, Tony had made his was to Strange.

“Strange, we alright?” Tony wondered. Strange snapped out of his trance and fell forward, letting out a cry. “You’re back. You’re alright.” Tony steadied him.

“Hey, what was that?” Peter asked.

“I went forward in time to view alternate futures,” Strange Panted. “To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.”

“How many did you see?” Star-Lord wonders.

“14,000,605.”

“How many did we win?” Tony asked.

Strange stared intently at Tony for a moment, almost sad like. Before looking past him at Y/N. “One.”

Everyone turned to look where Strange was looking. Y/N was still standing, with green eyes and green energy encircling her head. Tony rushed over, grasping Y/N by the arms.

“Y/N!” Tony called, trying gently to shake her out of whatever was happening. “Come on, honey. Push through!”

~~~

The quinjet ride to Wakanda was full of silent tension, silent worry. No one knew what exactly was coming, or how to stop it.

“Drop 2600, heading 0-3-0,” Steve instructed, walking up behind Sam who was piloting.

“I hope you’re right about this, Cap,” Sam said. “Or we’re gonna land a lot faster than you want to.”

From the looks of it, they were heading straight for the trees. But as the quinjet continued on, the tree were revealed to be a camouflage force field and the grand city of Wakanda appeared. Once they landed, Steve and Natasha exited first, with Rhodey, Bruce, Wanda, Vision, and Sam behind them.

“Seems like I’m always thanking you for something,” Steve stated as he reached out to shake T’Challa’s.

T’Challa shook Steve’s hand before looking at Bruce. “Uh, we don’t do that here,” T’Challa said, waving for Bruce to stop. “So how big of an assault can we expect?” T’Challa turned around and the team began following after him.

“Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault,” Bruce answered, trying to push his way closer to the front.

“How we looking?” Nat asked.

“You will have my King’s Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and…” T’Challa trialed off, as Bucky walked up to the others.

“A semi-stable, 100-year-old man,” Bucky joked. With smiles on their faces, Steve and Bucky shared a hug.

“How you been, Buck?” Steve asked.

“Uh, not bad, for the end of the world,” he replied with a smile. “Have you… uh, have you heard from Y/N?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Steve shook his head and sighed. “But I have heard she’s been sneaking around with you and Stark. You’re going to have to tell me all about it as soon as this is through.”

Bucky let out a light laugh. “As long as you buy the beer.”

~~~

Leaving Rhodey, Bucky, and Sam to watch from outside, the rest went and met Shuri in her lab. Vision laid down on an exam table while Shuri used her technology to create a hologram projection of the Mind Stone above him. Bruce was on the other side of the table, watching her very movement. 

“Whoa. The structure is polymorphic,” Shuri stated.

“Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially,” Bruce told her.

“Why didn’t you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?” Shuri asked. Vision turned to Bruce, seemingly asking the same thing with his eyes.

“Because, we didn’t think of it,” Bruce answered with uncertainty. 

“I’m sure you did your best,” Shuri reassured with a smile. 

“Can you do it?” Wanda asked.

“Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures.” Shuri turned to T’Challa. “It will take time, brother.”

“How long?” Steve asked, stepping closer to them.

“As long as you can give me.” 

A chime went off and Okoye quickly projected a hologram globe into her palm. “Something’s entered the atmosphere,” Okoye informed.

“Hey, Cap, we got a situation here,” Sam warned over the comms. 

Almost as soon as his words ended, a forcefield formed over the city. Bucky and Sam watched as alien vessels landed outside the barrier. One of them tried to go through, getting destroyed.

“Gosh, I love this place,” Bucky said.

“Yeah, don’t start celebrating yet, guys,” Rhodey warned. “We got incoming outside the dome.”

The landing vessels emitted shock waves and debris, destroying the forest. The Captain and the King looked at each other, both deeply concerned. Vision struggled to sit up and slide off the exam table, holding onto his side.

“It’s too late,” he said. “We need to destroy the stone now.”

“Vision, get your ass back on the table,” Nat demanded.

“We will hold them off,” T’Challa stated as he and his guards started for the door. 

Steve turned to Wanda. “Wanda, as soon as the stone’s out of his head… you blow it to hell,” He instructed.

“I will,” Wanda replied.

“Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures,” T’Challa commanded. He stopped before fully exiting the room, turned, and pointed to Steve. “And get this man a shield.”

Steve looked out the window, watching the ships crash land outside the barrier. He couldn’t help but wonder what all this had to do with his sister exactly. But there was a bigger question than that in his mind, a more important question.

“Where the hell are you, Y/N?” He whispered to himself.

next chapter >

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2​​. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

[clairecrive]

“Useless planning” - Sirius Black x reader

A/n: this is my first time writing Sirius even though I love him to death and he's my favourite... I lowkey think I didn't do a good enough job but oh well. Here it is, I hope you like it anyway.

Warnings: none, fluff all the way

Word count: 3K 

(let me know if you wanna be added to the taglist)

(I know this is Billy but I thought the sub to be quite fitting)

Insecurities were normal. Everyone has them. And the same went with flaws and imperfections. Nothing to be ashamed about. That's what y/n and Marlene were trying to convince Lily about. Of course, it's easier said than done but acknowledging the fact is the first step into accepting them.

"James tells me that they're beautiful and that I shouldn't worry about them but I don't know. I don't like them." Lily had confessed to feeling self-conscious about her scars and stretch marks and reticent she was in letting James see her body for this very reason. Of course, the boy you love telling you that you're beautiful the way you are is certainly flattering but not problem-solving in this case. At least, y/n thought so and let her friends know.

"I don't think seeing it that way is going to help."

"When has James helped to make something better?" Marlene snickered making y/n roll her eyes and Lily glower at her.

"They don't have to be beautiful and you don't have to look at them in that way. They're just natural, you know? There's a reason you have them, meaning that it's your body's reaction to something." Sometimes, it helped using the scientific approach. Others, however, sharing was indeed caring.

"And in fact, everyone has them. Look." So pulling her skirt up a bit, y/n showed the marks that adorned her thighs.

"How are you so confident about them?"

"I'm not, actually. And it has taken me a long time to accept them, let alone show them this way." In fact, it had taken a long time for y/n to come to terms with the way her body was and to accept it and love it. It was still a work in progress if she had to be honest. But she was not ashamed to wear shorts or mini skirts now and that was indeed progress.

"And, I'm not saying that James is wrong or anything. I'm sure he told you that because they're a part of you and that boy cherishes the ground you walk on like you're a saint or something. He just wants to help and that's sweet of him. I think though, that this is something you have to come to terms on your own too." Y/n felt like adding. By all means, James' efforts were appreciated but she didn't want her friend loving herself through someone elses' love.

"Y/n's right. Don't think you're beautiful because Jamesie says so but because you are." Marlene agreed before throwing a chocolate frog in her mouth.

"So you're saying that Sirius telling you you're beautiful didn't help you even a bit?" Lily threw with a suggestive raise of eyebrows pointed at y/n who barely shrugged not wanting to indulge her.

"It's like with Remus, you know? He has five people telling him that he's the most precious human being on this heart and that his scars hardly make him less attractive but does he agree? Of course not. And yeah, us telling him certainly helps but it's something he has to realize himself or the situation won't ever change." But she couldn't help herself and had to add, "Besides, Sirius says that about every girl at Hogwarts. It's hardly helpful."

"She has a point." Still munching on her sweet, Marlene agreed yet again even though this time her tone had grown sombre. It had been a while and she was over it but she had been one of those girls to make the mistake of fooling herself into thinking that Sirius was going to give her more.

"He doesn't look at them the way he looks at you though." Stubborn as always, Lily insisted.

"I'm sure it's 'cause he sees a challenge."

"If only he knew you liked him."

"Why don't you tell him, then? He's been after you since the year started." Following up on Marlene's lead, Lily wondered.

"Don't get me wrong, I like him alright. But I'm not interested in what he can give me."

"Mindblowing sex?" Marlene pointed out in an a-matter-of-fact tone

"Fleeting interest and attention." To which y/n sternly replied.

"His attention is hardly fleeting seeing as it's been months."

"Lily, why are you pursuing this? We both see how he is with girls and I refuse to end up like that."

"There's nothing wrong in liking someone and letting them know." Lily got defensive, maybe because she was thinking of James. Whatever the case, she wasn't going to change y/n's mind. She was not being delusional, just pragmatic.

"They're pathetic." Marlene snickered and even if y/n agreed to some degree, she ignored her.

"No there's not. It's the end result that I'm referring to." Y/n conceded but the problem wasn't that. It took a lot of courage to publicly pursue someone, that she had to admit.

"Which is?"

"Heartbroken," Marlene answered solemnly earning a nod from y/n.

The group of girls were utterly clueless about the material they had provided for the aforementioned guys who were currently under the invisibility cloak.

Remus rosy-cheeked but flattered at y/n's words. Not that it was the first time he had heard them but it was always nice to feel appreciated. James was glad that his efforts were not noticed by everyone but especially by Lily even though he didn't like the fact that she was still worrying about something that seemed so meaningless for him. Peter looked bored to death as he couldn't be bothered with girl problems while Sirius was pouting despite the fact that the girl he had been chasing for months had confessed to liking him back.

But that pout was short-lived as Sirius Black was known for being a man of action. Now that he knew why y/n was so reticent in giving in to his flirting, he had the key to solving this problem. The smirk he was so infamous for took its place on his lips while a plan was already forming in his mind.

"Stop blushing, Moony, we tell you that every day and so does y/n. Now c'mon I have a girl to woo." And with that, he pushed everyone away and filling them in on his plan when they were out of the girls' earshot.

The first phase of the plan was to take place in a couple of hours at lunch. He was to show that his attention was solely reserved for y/n and her only. Sirius knew that he had a reputation and even he was aware that he was a big flirt. While he knew that it was completely harmless, he could see how it looked in y/n's eyes. Or in everyone's really.

So when lunchtime came around, Sirius took his place at the Gryffindor table. Y/n usually sat with them, on the bench across from him and beside Remus. Deep in conversation with Moony, she didn't notice him sitting down but he didn't do anything to grab her attention. He waited patiently for y/n to be done with whatever she was talking about with Remus to finally speak.

"Hello there, angel. Aren't you looking cute tonight." The plan was in motion, his charm: on.

"Hi, Sirius." And yet, y/n appeared to be unbothered.

"I heard you got into a little of a catfight."

"You made it sound like we pulled each others' hair or something."

"Isn't that what happened?"

"Of course not. I was just telling Moony what happened, he can fill you in." She said dismissively while gathering her things.

"Why don't you do it?" Sirius tried to keep the desperation out of his voice but given the smirk Remus gave him, he was failing. Just like the first phase of his plan.

"I have a class to attend Black." Rolling her eyes at him, y/n stood up not before leaving a kiss on Remus' head, " see you later Moons."

"Don't I get a kiss too?" She heard Sirius' cry of indignation and didn't even turn around to respond.  

"My kisses are for those you can appreciate them and you get far too many of those from others to do so."

"I swear if I didn't hear her before, I'd say she's head over heels for you," Sirius complained to his friend slouching in his seat. His eyes following her silhouette until y/n walked out of the room.

"She's my best friend." Shrugging his shoulders, Remus brushed away his worries. Yes, y/n was affectionate with him but she had always been this way. There was nothing romantic behind her gestures.

"We've known her the same amount of time, why is she so comfortable with you than she is with me? You're not the one constantly flirting with her."

"She's cautious about opening up with people and as you've heard before she doesn't trust you with her feelings." He pointed out what Sirius already knew given her previous confession. The first phase of the plan had seemingly failed. Y/n hadn't stuck around long enough for him to put it into motion but he had not lost hope yet.

"You seemed to have your work cut out for you though, Pads," Remus said after a while and told him about the fight he had mentioned when he first sat down. Apparently, some girl was complaining to one of her friends about him and the way he had treated her. What had made y/n compelled to butt in and defend his honour though, was that the girl had twisted what actually happened, spreading instead some nasty shit about him to no doubt get her revenge. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, after all.

"You know how much she hates confrontations and arguing but she went straight into one for you. It must mean you've done something right."

Sirius couldn't help the smile that found its way on his lips at Remus' words. He had gathered as much seeing as he knew her well. They had been friends since first year after all. Also, because that meant that he didn't need most of the phases of his plan but one: earning y/n's trust.

He knew that he had it in some quantity seeing as you were friends. He just had to nudge her to take a step in the direction he knew she wanted to take but was too afraid to.

So, when your last class ended, he made sure to be waiting for you outside. As always you were one of the last to get out, Marlene and Lily on your side.

"Since when do you specialize in chaperone activities, Black?" Marlene snickered when she noticed him leaning on the wall.

"Only for the fairest maiden of the kingdom, of course."

His charm was one of the things he was most known for but he had never been able to work his magic on you in that way. One day, you were talking with Remus about some books you were reading and how enchanted you were with old stories and myths and legends. Sirius of course had no idea what you were talking about, not having read that particular book, but he was familiar enough with the subject thanks to his education. So he had started talking like a medieval knight just to catch your attention and maybe to annoy you but he was pleased to notice the amusement in your eyes and how you'd respond to him in a similar tone, playing along with him. Whenever you two started talking like this, the others would always look at you weirdly but none of you seemed bothered by it, least of all Sirius. Whatever he could do to make you smile, he'd do it gladly.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure, dear sir?" She played along and Sirius was counting on it. He briefly threw a suggestive look at Lily who seemed to understand as she pulled Marlene away ignoring her protests.

"Oh no, the pleasure is all mine, my lady. Would you give me the honour of coming with me? I have a surprise for you." And to top it all, he offered her his arm. Y/n didn't know whether to roll her eyes at him or indulge him but she'd be lying to herself if she said that she wasn't intrigued.

"How can I say no when you ask so politely, sir."  And so she took his arm and followed him through the hallways up to the Astronomy Tower. Y/n knew what this place meant to Sirius. They had even spent a lot of time there together. It had kind of become their place when they needed some peace and quiet or to simply spend some time together away from the noisiness of the common room.

"I'm here to prove that I'm worthy of your affections, my chérie." He solemnly said after you sat down. If this whole thing had been somewhat normal between you, this was certainly not and it definitely took her by surprise.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you like me, y/n."

"That's hardly a secret, Sirius. We're friends, of course, I like you."

"I mean, you like me as I like you. Not just as friends."

"Who told you?"

"Most importantly, I know why you're refusing my advances."

"Look, Sirius-"

"Please, let me say this first and I promise that I won't bother you after if you say no." Despite the pun he and his friends would always throw around, he wasn't known to be this serious and he hardly ever was. Taken back by the sheer determination she found in his eyes and in his tone, y/n simply nodded and let him talk.

"I understand your reservations, if I were you I'd be thinking the same. You know me though, y/n, better than most and you know that I care about you. I can see why you'd be afraid of opening your heart to me but I swear I wouldn't be insisting so much if I wasn't sure that this is what I want." y/n had never heard Sirius talk about his feelings so freely. She'd be lying if she denied how his words touched her, her heartbeat would give her away.

But there was also something else on stake.

"It's not that, Sirius."

"Then what is it? Don't you trust me?"

"I do trust you. It's just- I don't want to get heartbroken and ruin our friendship at the same time."

"If you trust me then why are you so sure that I'm going to hurt you?" Sirius wears his heart on his sleeve, that was one of the things y/n had always admired him for. How brave he was to always show and tell every that went pass his mind. Now, seeing him like this, arms crossed on his chest, his eyes flashing, her heart helpelessly hurt and she almost winced at the fact that she was hurting him.

"Oh no, Sirius, no. I don't think you'd do that willingly. After all, it's not anyone's fault if you lose interest in me or just stop caring for me in that way. And when that happens, I'm not sure I can go back to just being friends. Thus, ruining our group of friends and that is not something I'm willing to give up to attempt whatever it is you're proposing." She quickly tried to explain, desperate to make him see that it wasn't about him, not completely. Mostly, she was afraid. Afraid of admitting her feelings for him, afraid of indulging them knowing that when you have something special, it means that you can lose it.

"That goes both ways you know." But Sirius was always able to see right through her. And he knew what he felt and now that he also knew how she felt, he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"I did not wake up yesterday and realized I have feelings for you, Sirius." she scoffed, not telling him that she had been in love with him since they come back from the summer break in their third year. They were now in their fifth.

"It didn't happen to me neither. If you haven't noticed, I've been chasing you for months."

"Yes, while always having an alternative option on the go."

"I thought you had learned by now not to listen to rumours." Sirius tilted his head in a way that reminded y/n of an adorable puppy.

"When it comes to you and girls, Sirius, they're not rumours. At least, not the part that interested me."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you treat them right and I know that you don't offer them more than what you give them. Those are rumours they spread in hope that other girls will stay away from you and you'd go back to them. But you do get with them. Sure, Katy was talking bullshit about you being an asshole and I know that's not true but I also know that you have been with her."

"A year ago."

"Then why is she still talking about it?"

"Don't know, angel. I'm pretty memorable if I do say so myself."

"So, you're saying that you haven't been with anyone in a year?"

"I've been too busy with you, chérie."

Well, that was news. Y/n had to admit that she hadn't seen this coming. And it definitely changed things. Sirius had been right when he said that she knew him better than most. And so, when she looked into his eyes, she knew that along with smug and cocky he was also being honest.

"Well, I've just checked your agenda, my love, and it seems it will be so for quite some time."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"A bit of both."

"I'm more than fine with it, angel. Now, give me a kiss and bring me to heaven."

[kaiparker-avengerssmut]

Their Doll 10

The Mission

B.Barnes x Stark!Reader, S.Rogers x Stark!Reader

series synopsis:  y/n Stark, all records of her non existent, and yet Hydra still find her. When she is kidnapped by a certain super-soldier and no one believes her, she finds herself searching for unexpected familiarity in her not-so-distant past.

Series Warnings: smut, violence, torture, swearing

Chapter Summary: the mission to find Bucky goes horribly wrong

Warnings: mentions of non-con, torture, violence, swearing

A/n: The timeline in this has been altered, as there I things I wanted to include but I also wanted this fic to follow the storyline/timeline of Winter Soldier and Civil war.So for purposes of this fanfic, Peter Parker was discovered by Tony at a much younger age - when he was bitten - and has been an intern with him since, almost like a protégée.(For the purposes of this story Peter was bitten much younger too - more like when he was 9 or ten rather than 14/15)

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

THE mission would be awkward, to say the least. I didn't stop cursing my dad and his sly smile the whole way there. Of course he had to assign me and Steve of all people to do the mission. Great. A whole weekend of bitter, grumbling Steve and his not-so-subtle death glares. The act pulled up outside the motel, dropping us off with our suitcases that secretly only held a few clothing changes but were mostly filled with kit. We trudged up to the from desk, keeping our eyes down. The hood of my baggy grey jumper was pulled up, my hair draped around my face as to cover me. Steve wore a cap (haha, funny) and some glasses, his jacked zipped up the whole way so he could turtle back into it in he needed to.

"How can I help you?" The perky woman spoke from the other side of the counter, tearing her head away from her computer for a second.

"Um, we have a room. For, ugh, Johnson." Steve said in a deeper voice than normal. The girl turned her attention back to the computer, typing something before walking over to the back room, sliding a keycard onto the counter when she returned. "We have two rooms." Steve continued. She shook her head.

"It says right here one room." She corrected, pointing to her computer screen. I rolled my eyes, haha, very funny Tony. Steve nodded, grabbing the room key and walking off. "Have a great stay!" She called after us, although we were already at the door.

I sighed as I walked through the door of the small room, surveying the two twin beds, small bathroom - which Steve would barely fit in - and tiny wardrobe. Tony really spared no expense when it came to his best friend, I thought with a laugh in my head.

"Left or right?" Steve asked, taking off his glasses and hat.

"Left." I said, dumping the bag on the end of the bed to my left. Steve nodded curtly, dropping his bad to the floor and pulling a t-shirt and some sweats out. I grabbed a t-shirt and some shorts from mine, walking towards the bathroom.

Once inside, I slipped into the clothes, brushing my teeth with one of the provided toothbrushes and washing my face with a small towel. I walked out, dumping my other cloths into my bag before climbing into the creaky bed. I spared a glance for Steve, who was laid in his bed, eyes trained on the wall.

"Night." I said, before my head crashed to the horrible pillow and falling into a broken and unpleasant sleep.

...

The next day, we were up and ready. Not a word spoken until we left the motel. We reached the abandoned computer lab we were supposed to check out, but before we could get further my vision was overcrowded by darkness.

I groggily woke up, my head lifting slowly from where it was hanging forward. I went to move my wrists but nothing happened, instead the rattling of chains filled my ears. I looked up to see I was suspended from the ceiling, my feet barely touching the ground so I was uncomfortably resting on the tips of my toes. My arms ached like hell, my head overcome with a splitting headache. I groaned, my gaze finally landing on Steve in front of me.

My eyes widened upon seeing him. He was starring back at me from where he sat in an armchair, his hands and legs secured to the chair by thick metal that even he couldn't break and a similar strap was across his chest. It was only when I went to speak that I noticed that a cloth was in my mouth, tied around the back of my head and preventing me from doing anything. Shit. HYRDA. They were the only ones other than the avengers who new who I was and what I could do.

"Y/n? You awake?" Steve hesitantly asked. I nodded. Before he could talk to me any more the heavy metal door creaked open, an all-to-familiar man walking in.

"This is simple, you tell me what I want to know and you leave, unharmed. If not, I guess I'll get to have a bit of fun." The General spoke with a menacing grin, waving some controller around in the air. "So, Cap, why are you here?" Nothing. "I said, why are you here?" When he was once again met with silence, a scream ripped through the room, Steve's body attempting to convulse in the restraints.

"Why are you here?" He shouted, Steve's screams echoing for longer this time.

...

After what felt like hours, the General kicked a wall near by, groaning in frustration.

"This isn't working. I guess I'll have to take a different approach." He muttered to himself, chucking the remote to the side and walking up behind me. Shivers rocked through me as he moved my hair over one shoulder, bringing his lips to my ear. "I wonder if your screams still sound the same." He all but whispered, the metal restraints around my arms falling free. His thick, rough hand held the back of my neck in a painful grip, pulling at the delicate tendons as he yanked me to my feet and led me a few meters away to a large trough of water.

My knees hit the floor harshly and I winced, trying my hardest to move away from the water but his grip on my neck only tightened as he lowered my face until it sat an inch above the water. Steve looked on with a heavy - yet emotionless - stare.

"Why. Are. You. Here?" He said in a sickly calm tone, and when met with no answer once again, my head was submerged. The realisation hit me a second later, my mouth clamping shut at the water began to flood into it and up to my nostrils. Eventually the pressing weight on my chest begun, my mouth opening with a muffled scream as the liquid flowed into my lungs.

"Stop!" I heard a muffled shout, followed by a snide chide.

"Tell me what you're here for!"

No response.

Suddenly my head was pulled up, water sputtering from me as I struggled to take in enough air.

"What are you here for?!" And I was under again. And again. And again. And again.

But there was never a response.

"I'll stop when you give me answers." The statement was directed at Steve, but scared me still, my now wet and dangled hair still wrapped around the man's fist and my knees now burning from the rough concrete floor biting through my tactical gear.

I mustered my strength, gaze raising to see the worry on Steve's face. I threw him a wink.

"I can do this-" I spluttered, my cough resounding around the room. "All day." I said breathily, more coughs climbing my throat. I could hear the smirk in the man's voice.

"Me too, sweet cheeks."

My head was under again.

...

Soon enough the General got bored, ordering some guards to escort us back to some cells. My heart must've stopped beating in my chest when I saw the cell, abandoned and clearly barely touched in the weeks I was gone. I had stopped dead in my tracks, only to start moving again with a shove from one of the guards.

Even worse, I was soon being put into the silencer again, the metal contraption leaving me mute as I simply looked forward with shellacked eyes. Steve looked in in what seemed to be pity as the guards wrestled him into the soldier's cell, locking him down in place with the thick metal straps that they used to use on The Winter Soldier.

I longed to see him again, to feel his skin on mine as his lips conceded every inch of my body, his hot breath on my neck and next to my ear as he whispered sweet and dirty nothings, longed to him him inside me again, reaching all the right places and-

The snap of the door as it slammed shut pulled my instantly from my thoughts, the noise resounding around the room almost mockingly as me and Steve were left behind, simply staring at each other.

...

Days past, and I'd been keeping count only by the general routine we seemed to face at what I assumed was daily. Four days back in the hell hole, and all I wanted to do was gauge the General's eyes out or plunge a knife through someone's head. But HYDRA new my strengths, my weaknesses, and used them against me - against us.

One thing I could never stand was the cold. I guess you could say that's how I found myself where I currently was, locked into a glass, soundproof chamber, whilst the menacing, malevolent clouds of cold rolled in at a torturously slow pace - slow enough that I felt the temperature drop at every degree that it decreased by. I was shivering, spluttering and so, so cold. My teeth chattered so hard behind the silencer I doubted I'd have any teeth left soon, my fingers were so cold they were a bit rand red and my eyes lashes had formed little icicles.

Steve was once again detained on the other side, the General clearly pressing questions at him that he wouldn't answer and I couldn't hear. I'd have to assume that when Steve answered the questions I would be allowed out of this chamber, but I very much doubted that Steve would give in quickly.

All of a sudden people seemed to look around as if a loud noise had been blaring, the General's face worrisome as he darted from the room.

In that moment I guessed that the intrusion alarm must've sounded, and my suspicions were only confirmed when a circular slab of the ceiling crashed down in front of the chamber. I attempted to smile as I caught sight of Clint lowering himself down through the hole he'd created, eyes lighting up when his met mine. When the man made contact with the ground, he fished some kind of gadget from his pocket, making quick work of Steve's metal bounds before helping the super soldier to his feet.

Steve was a little wobbly at first, but steadies himself quickly and rushed over to me. His fists pounded at the cage, but the glass wouldn't give in to his strength nor to that of any of counts little Clint's and gizmos. They looked at me with scared expressions, the glass clouding over with the crawling ice as it coated the glass with its coldness. Clints's head snapped away to the door, soon followed by Steve's and I had gathered that someone was coming.

Both avengers quickly looked back to me, and al I could make out was an 'I'm sorry' that had called from Steve's lips before they were fleeing out of the door.

...

I faced the punishment for their actions. I couldn't even look at myself out of the shame I currently felt. I was allowed a shower, but I had guards stood barely a meter outside the curtain as I raked my shaking fingers brought the hair, legs unstable and body sore from exactly what I endured.

They'd shown no mercy, not relent. After hours, I was exhausted, so worn out I could barely keep my eyes open. But I wanted my shower - needed it - to scrub away all remnants of what just happened.

It was just my luck of of HYDRA's missions had succeeded, that they had twenty men all awaiting an award for their hard efforts.

And reward them, the General did.

I couldn't help the vomit that crawled up my throat, nor the gagging as I threw up in the corner of the cubicle. I swiped away the remainders on my face, grabbing a brush and scrabbling my skin raw in order to forget them. But nothing worked, and I doubted it ever would.

...

Battered, shaking, thinning, jittery, bruised and broke, my body could barely take any other day of this. I had lost count of the days by now, and I couldn't find in in myself to even care how long it'd been. I was sure it hadn't been nearly as long as it felt - Steve had probably only been gone for a few days at the most. But my body said otherwise, my aching limbs and hoarse throat enough evidence.

I had become familiar with the sound of my own screams and cries, as many of the HYDRA agents were now, too. Every day, they spent as much time as they could torturing me, trying to get the information they needed from my and failing miserably.

Even though I'd only been with the avengers for a few weeks, my venom and resentment for HYDRA ran so deep it was enough to keep me quiet. I'd do anything to make sure that non of their plans ever succeed again. So if that meant enduring this torture, do he it.

I looked up suddenly as the door opened loudly, a grimace finding my face when two guards stepping in the room. But they didn't stop at the door to bark orders at me like usual, no. They continued into the cell, yanking me up my my arms and tugging my out of the small cell with hard expression occupying their faces.

I yelped as I was pushed harshly into a room I’d never seen before, my feet stumble over one another as I tumbled through the door. The guards filed in behind me, hands clasped in front of them as my head rose to meet gazes with the General’s.

“Ready to talk yet, Miss Stark?” He asked, an almost mocking coo inclining his words. He released me from the silencer, so that I could answer him. I glared up at him, my knees uncomfortable against the harsh concrete floor. He crouched down to my level, peering into my eyes with raised brows in question.

“Fuck you.” I snapped, mustering all the saliva I could before spitting it at his face. He flinched back when it splattered over his cheek, his fingers swiping through the spittle before he was shaking it from them and standing back to his full height.

“It appears this one is never going to cooperate. If she won’t give us information, why let our experimentations on her possibly...benefit the girl the the future?” The general spike menacingly to the guards behind me. “How about way find a way to shut her up?”

[omgrachwrites]

Park Avenue Princess - Matt Murdock

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Reader

Characters: Matt Murdock, Reader, Frank Castle

Summary: After an unsuccessful night of trying to get over your ex boyfriend, you all but run out of the bar and into a man that you would never associate with in a million years. Though, you knew it was okay because you’d never see him again.

Warnings: lil steamy, angst, fluff, ooc Frank.

Disclaimer: Frank will be ooc!

Words: 1460

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this part, please let me know what you think! Frank has literally only just come into Daredevil but I love him and wanted to write something with him in! There will be a sequel to his once I get to know Frank’s character more! For the record, I love Josie’s bar! I love you all! xxx

Sweat glistened on your body as your back arched right off the silk sheets and your mouth opened in a silent gasp, you pouted as a strong hand was placed on your hips to hold you down. You threaded your fingers through the thick hair and pulled, making your lover groan from between your thighs. You cried out loud, your voice high pitched as Matt drove you to your climax.

Matt lifted his head with a cheeky grin as he wiped his rosebud lips with the back of his hand as he kissed his way back up your body until his lips hovered over yours, “delicious as always,” he muttered before kissing you. You sighed against Matt’s mouth as you tasted yourself on his tongue as you kissed him back.

You giggled and rolled over so you were straddling Matt, gazing down at the beautiful man below you as his chest heaved. Smirking down at him, you stroked a finger against his rough jaw, “now it’s my turn to rock your world, Matty,” you cooed.

Matt laughed as he wrapped his arms around your waist, “is that a promise, Miss Y/L/N.”

“Oh, absolutely,” you breathed as you leaned down and kissed him deeply.

The bar was a complete dive, you wrinkled your nose at the scent of stale beer and you cringed as the patrons noisily played pool. You normally wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this, but you were out with your best friends from high school and they wanted to cheer you up. For them, you would do almost anything. Sitting in this bar on a Friday night was just proof of how much you loved them.

“Come on, Park Avenue Princess! Don’t look so glum, we’re only helping you to get back on the horse,” your friend Jack snickered, his thick accent was distorted from the swill that passed for beer that he’d been drinking.

You glared at him as you took a tentative sip of what passed for a vodka martini. Though, you knew he was right, Matt had dumped you about three months ago and you knew that you needed to stop wallowing. But, it was hard, you missed Matt more than anything, everywhere you went, you looked for him. You looked for someone that you didn’t even know anymore. According to Matt, he had fallen out of love with you – maybe you had been too highly strung for him – but you could tell that something else was going on.

“So, you decided to bring me to a bar where he’s a regular?” you laughed.

“Look on the bright side; if he comes here tonight then it’ll be like ripping a band aid off, better to get it over with. It’s just a shame that he won’t be able to see how beautiful you look,” Molly, Jack’s girlfriend said kindly as she placed her hand over yours.

You smiled at the pretty girl as you squeezed her hand before turning back to Jack and you narrowed your eyes at his smirking face, “I’m not a Park Avenue Princess.”

At your words, Jack threw his head back as he laughed, “shit, Y/N! You live in a fancy apartment complex, with a doorman and you’ve still got enough dough to buy those designer shoes,” he nodded at your shoes as you scoffed and rolled your eyes, “must be that fancy college degree.”

You were the only one in this friendship group that had gone to college and they had always held it against you, “it’s not that fancy,” you laughed as your other friend Tony brought over a fresh round of drinks and he scoffed at your words, “I’m still the same Y/N from high school, the same Y/N that grew up in Hell’s Kitchen,” you promised them with a smile.

These people were your best friends and you certainly didn’t think that you were any better than them, “want a game of pool Y/N?” Tony asked with a sly smirk and you couldn’t stop the shudder and wince that ran through you at the mere thought, “I rest my case, Your Honour,” he said with a gleeful laugh.

“Fine!” you stood up, feeling determination boil in your chest, “would a Park Avenue Princess suggest doing shots of tequila until we black out?” you smirked as you were answered with a resounding whooping cheer.

You shoved and pushed your way through the sea of sweaty bodies until you finally got to the bar and put your order in, shouting over the booming music. You heard him before you saw him; his soft and tender voice in your ear caused your heart to plummet in your chest. That was the voice you had missed, the voice that had whispered dirty things to you in the middle of the night and gave you words of encouragement in the daylight.

“Y/N? I heard your voice, I thought I’d meet you here, you certainly never came here with me,” you winced at the note of hurt in his voice and you turned to him with a sigh.

His hair was dark and wavy, you itched to run your fingers through it as he stood there looking like a million dollars in that suit of his. His beautiful chocolate brown eyes were hidden behind his glasses and his mouth was set in a firm line, “I’m here with my friends Matt,” you picked the shots up and Matt gently rested his hand on your elbow.

“Y/N,” his voice was gentle as he cooed to you and you couldn’t let him lure you back in with his sweet and honeyed tongue, “we should talk, please just allow me to talk to you.”

You sighed sadly as you shook your head, knowing full well that he couldn’t see you, “I think that you’ve said everything that you’ve needed to, Matt,” you longed to ask him why you weren’t good enough for him, “excuse me,” you ignored his calls of your name as you made your way back over to your friends.

It was an amazing thing; you found that you could actually have fun, even in a place as wretched as this. You hardly spared a thought for Matt as you downed numerous shots of tequila, smiling as it warmed your insides wonderfully. You felt absolutely fine as you drank with your friends, until there was a lull in the loud rock music. You heard the most beautiful tinkling laugh and you glanced in the direction that it was coming from and you wished that you hadn’t.

A beautiful blonde woman with a kind smile was sitting with Matt and his friend Foggy. Matt smiled at her and he leaned closer to her so she could whisper in his ear. You wondered if she was the reason why he’d dumped you. He used to look at you like that and it felt like a knife to your heart as hot tears pricked behind your eyes. You shouldn’t have been so upset, he wasn’t yours anymore but you couldn’t help it.

“I can’t do this,” you muttered as you got up from your seat; it had all started off so well.

“Y/N,” Molly sighed and you forced out a smile as you looked at your friends.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m just gonna get a cab, I’ll call you when I get home,” your friends nodded at you sympathetically.

You weaved your way through the bar and by the time you got to the door, the tears were freely flowing down your cheeks, why weren’t you good enough for him? You bumped into someone as you got out into the warm night air of Hell’s Kitchen.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, looking up at the tall man. He was dressed in a jacket, even in this heat with black jeans and boots, he looked very menacing. The stranger had rough but handsome features; never in your life would you associate with a man like him.

He frowned down at you as he saw your tears, “you alright doll?” he asked in a gruff voice and you nodded, swiping at your eyes, “need a cab beautiful?” you flushed and nodded, trying to look anywhere but him.

The stranger huffed out a laugh as he flashed a smirk at you, his gaze lingering on your bare legs as he hailed a cab. With a hand on your lower back he helped you into the cab, “have a good night, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” you forced out a smile as he closed the door. As the cab began to move, you found yourself craning your head for one last look at the handsome stranger. You could stare at him without shame; after all, you would never see him again.

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

@smiithys​ @elayneblack​ @amelie-black​

[princessofprocrastination]

Just A Bet (GeorgeNotFound)

MASTERLIST

pairing : georgenotfound / george x reader - dreamwastaken/dream / clay x reader

summary : you’re just a bet to him. that is, until he realizes that you’re someone with a title. he scrambles to pick up your broken pieces, but he doesn’t realise that he’s too late. (angst) (trigger warning) (happy ending)

a/n : here’s sorta a little AU for you guys, don’t take any of this seriously, some things in this are clearly made up. side note ; holy shit i have more than a 100 followers right now. thank you so so much. 

everyone has probably dreamt of being a princess, a real one. for example, when the movie ‘the princess diaries’ came out, people wanted to be mia thermopolis and rule genovia. 

sounds like a dream, that is, to be going to high school and have plenty of paparazzi’s chasing you, or to be able to be recognized everywhere. 

in reality, it is the complete opposite of living the dream. you could barely walk out without being recognized if you didn’t cover up your face in some way. you were restricted to do many things, even to just hang out with your friends to grab lunch. 

to other people, they might just tell you to suck it up, that in the end of the day, you’re royalty, and that these are only tiny problems. 

you agreed, sure. but you did want to smell the fresh flowers outside. you wanted to be able to get food from wherever, with whoever without people’s prying eyes. 

you just wanted freedom. 

to whom might be reading this might be confused. you’re a princess. just like the movie, yes. princess of saudi arabia, you are. 

you are fairly young, still in your twenties. most people your age are out having fun going on a girls night, or still studying for their degrees, or even working right now. 

but you were prohibited to leave the castle. you were told to leave on the queen’s orders, only during meal times.

some days, you really liked it, being a princess. if you weren’t being egoistical, you would say that your face really did suit the royal title. 

you didn’t have to leave your room to make stacks of money. but the problem with that was, what would you do with the money if you couldn’t leave the house?

so you went on the internet. you settled on the internet. with the queen’s permission, of course. 

sure, she can be strict like all the time, but she tried her best to give you your freedom. so she let you have social media accounts. you being you, the public immediately found your accounts. 

you couldn’t find new friends, they were too scared to come across you. so you just entertained yourself. 

this isn’t bragging, but a lot of people knew who you were, but that doesn’t mean everyone does.

since you barely had a childhood, with being born and raised royal, you entertained yourself watching minecraft youtubers. for some reason, it calmed you. 

dream team, as you called the group, caught your eye. you watched all of their videos, caught up with every single live streams of theirs, even followed their instagrams and twitters. 

one morning, when you woke up, you found your instagram notifications fuller than other days. you were fairly confused. that is, until you realised that the whole of dream team had followed you back. 

they definitely know who you are and what you do now, right? they have a large fanbase, surely, they would’ve told the boys. 

your followers, since seeing the boys follow you, have told you to start playing games. you didn’t disappoint them. you asked your parents if you could and they granted you permission to do whatever you wanted. 

they told you “this would entertain the public and love you even more.” and smiled at you. you thought maybe they hit themselves in the head today with the leniency they gave you. but you pushed that thought. maybe they thought you have grown old enough. 

valkyrae, a streamer on twitch had reached out to you after knowing about your gaming desires. she asked if you wanted to join her and her group to play among us together. 

you almost immediately agreed and the rest of her friends welcomed you in with opened arms. 

your mum gave you one condition, that you had to follow in order to film yourself playing games. that is, if you kept yourself poised and respectable. you agreed to her shenanigans and started to play with rae. 

playing with her meant that you met countless different content creators, such as corpse husband and pokimane. they all were super nice to you, even when you had told them that they didn’t have to be nice to you because of your title. 

soon you had found yourself in an amazing group of friends and you felt great about yourself. 

you and rae had sustained such amazing friendship that she had came over to your house multiple times for meals. 

you’d text her “come over to my house, let’s eat lunch.” 

and she’d reply with “your castle you mean?” she jokes around. 

your friendship was loved by many people out there. 

one thing you didn’t say was that not everyone was obligated to know who you are, which then happens to be funny to see when they did end up finding out who you are. 

just the fact that they show such shock to their faces, and the tone in their voice changes. 

“holy fuck, she’s royal.” toast says as he came back from googling your name to know more about how you came about in a game of among us. 

“i’m so sorry for the past rounds.” he apologizes for the time he accuses you for no reason.

“please treat me the same way you used to, i’m just y/n when i’m playing games, definitely not a princess.” you told him. 

you didn’t have a big ego, although your parents did. “they need to know that you’re important.” they told you, but it never stuck to you. you wanted to be respected as a person, for your personalities, not because of a stupid title you were born in. 

sykkuno, rae and you had decided to make an smp, where you three would start building things for fun and stream it. 

you three had enough fun until it got boring, for you to start asking your other friends to join. the first person you offered to tour your little world was corpse since you and him had clicked so well. 

because you started playing minecraft and streaming it, it got the attention of minecraft youtubers. and for some reason, the seventeen year old, tommyinnit had found you interesting enough to talk to you. 

with tommy being that close to you, you attracted tubbo and wilbur soot, as well.

“i am in a vc with a princess.” tommy had said on stream when you two decided to play minecraft along with tubbo and wilbur. 

sure, the teenage boy got a little annoying at times, but you found it entertaining and funny. of course, tommy being tommy, he’d ask slightly personal questions about how royalty works in saudi arabia. 

not that he knew how royalty works in general, anyways. 

“the queen is still my favourite woman, but you come in close second.” he told you once. you laughed at that. 

no big title could stop you from fangirling the moment the man, dream itself had sent you a donation, and then later sending you a direct message. 

“let’s play minecraft together soon, seen me your discord.” he dmed you one day. of course you complied. 

for some reason, you never had the chance to play with george, and you played minecraft with sapnap and dream separately, never together. not that you were complaining. 

you decided on a more chill and laid back stream on that specific day, not really feeling like going on a minecraft server or play among us with your bestfriends when you got a text from an unknown number. 

hey. they sent

who’s this? you sent a text back.

my bad, this is george. they sent a text back to you.

holy shit. why would george text you. sure, you have played minecraft and among us with him sometimes but he isn’t one to give out his number so this was weird to you. 

although you consider to be close to the entirety to the dream team, you often tried to avoid texting them, especially outside of streaming. you didn’t want it to be awkward or tense. 

surprisingly, as your conversation with george lengthened, it became less and less awkward. the more you two texted, the more you felt like you and him had been friends for the longest time. 

being the princess, raised in a castle meant that you didn’t really have a social life. other than being put together with some prince of another country in hopes you’ll fall in love with them or marry them, you haven’t really had a legitimate boyfriend. not even a crush. 

to you, the princes in the world can be arrogant, snobby. they act like they are the most important thing in the world, that if they walk in a restaurant, everyone was to drop all their work for other people to entertain them. 

sure, this could just be the way that they were raised, but you didn’t want that in a man, a husband. it wouldn’t kill to be a little humble. 

princes are also a bore. they live practically the same lifestyle as you. conversations were never interesting, always the usual. 

to summarise this, since you and george have been talking and texting, you had fallen for him. hard. and it seems like he’s feeling the same way, just that the both of you hadn’t really said anything. 

-

DREAM’S POV

being really close friends with someone, more than one person, bestfriends, that is, meant that we had a group chat together. 

nothing constructive was ever said, only boys being boys. 

nick was the one to bring it up. and since he is the youngest, he sure does say some stupid things. 

dude, you should try to get in y/n’s pants. nick asked george in the groupchat.

there was a running joke between the nick and i. george lives under a rock, basically. when everyone was walking on eggshells around you, trying not to offend a princess, he never really cared. 

and that was when nick and i found out that george had no clue you held such a title on your pretty little head. 

you are a beautiful girl, no doubting that. i was sure that many people, even before you started streaming had a major crush on you. george definitely fits right in. he was practically vomiting hearts when he first saw you. 

it was meant to be funny. it was never meant to go this far. nick didn’t mean for his little bet to break a heart, let alone a princess. 

but he did. well, technically george did. he was so brutal with it. he toyed with your feelings, like he had no care in this world. 

no one would’ve guessed that the little cute, short george would do something as bad as he did. 

and now, no one can find you. no one. 

you were there, smiling in front of your camera one day and you were gone the other. just gone. no one knew where you went. 

granted, you are royal. it must not be hard to get people to hide you. but at the same time, you had major reporters trying to find you. and they couldn’t. what does that leave us? 

where did you go? 

come back. 

and although i know you want to hear this from george instead of his friends, you won’t. because he probably doesn’t.

we miss you. 

please just text us, we need to know you’re safe. 

-

YOUR POV

you left. you had to. it had been extremely humiliating. 

you didn’t think someone as sweet as george would do that, it all happened so quick. 

you had flown to england to meet him. he encouraged you to. it felt amazing to leave your hometown, you’ve lived there all your life. you definitely needed to fresh air. 

it took a lot of convincing your parents to let you fly to england. without a doubt, you knew that the only way you’ll get to leave is if you had a guard with you. 

this isn’t that kind of cliche story, your guard could literally be your dad, get your head out of the gutter, you are utterly in love with george, and you were sure george knew that and that’s why he encouraged you to fly to him. 

the first couple of days were fun. he brought you to all over brighton for you to experience what it’s like in england. he told you he wanted you to get your first real experience as a tourist, and that was what he did. 

winding down for the night, you brought him to relax in your hotel suite. frankly, george was surprised that you could afford such a place. but he didn’t want to ask where you got the money from, he didn’t really care. 

all he wanted to do was to complete his dare. his ego was too big to lose this time. 

that night was when you decided to tell him about your feelings about him. you were pretty confident that it was going to go smooth sailing. just the way he treated you showed so much about his feelings. 

so you did, you told him. while you told him that you love him, more than friends love each other, he looked you in the eyes. you weren’t sure what that meant. 

but he smiled. or smirked, you weren’t sure. 

and he kissed you. and the night didn’t end with you just kissing. 

so you thought the night was amazing, that it couldn’t get any better than that. 

that was, until you woke up the next morning. 

-

you woke up, sun shining straight into your suite, curtains wide open. 

although you didn’t really feel the presence of another person in the room with you, you brushed it off. you felt like something was off, that something was missing. 

you rolled over in your hotel bed, to see if the british man was laying next to you. 

he wasn’t. in fact, he was not in the hotel room at all. you checked the bathroom, the small little living room in your suite. he was found nowhere. 

you tried to see if he had left traces of himself in your hotel room, a sign that he was indeed there and that you hadn’t been dreaming it all. 

but the pain between your legs caused by the brit told you that it was all not a dream. 

so you did what a logical person would, text him. maybe he left to get food. 

but you knew that wasn’t the case the moment you had unlocked your phone. 

texts flood in, your social media notifications seemed to not be stopping anytime soon. 

you opened your texts messages. a couple from your parents, a lot from rae, multiple from some minecraft youtubers who you called friends. 

besides your parents, they were asking if you were okay. they were telling you to stay safe and to lay off social media for a while. 

your parents were practically screaming at you through texts. they called you a disgrace, not an honour to the family. you didn’t understand where this was coming from. 

you opened twitter, knowing that it was going to be the easiest way for you to find out what had happened, and why were you involved in it. 

you were trending. number one worldwide. you clicked on your name. your phone left your hand, falling hard to your hotel floor with a loud thud as you covered your mouth with both your hands, crying. 

two pictures. two photos that said it all. 

first photo was of you in bed, obviously naked under the hotel duvet. you were still sleeping. there was light coming from the windows, that showed that it had barely been sunrise when it was taken. 

second photo was what hit you the hardest. you wanted the earth to swallow you from below. it was a photo of your back, very naked back. it was clear that it was a photo that had been taken during sex. 

and it was obvious who you had it with, because he was the one who posted it all over twitter. 

george. 

that was why he left, with no traces of him ever being in the hotel room. 

you weren’t sure what was his motive. but you sure did know that he had completely broke you. 

crying, you picked up your phone from the floor, calling rae. 

“oh my god, tell me you’re okay.” she was panicking on the phone.

“i need to leave.” you told her. you knew that she would immediately understand the severity of the four words you told her. 

since then, you never came back. to the eyes of public, it was as if you never even existed. you were gone. 

-

you moved with rae. 

she had to leave her roommates to settle in with you. her roommates weren’t mad at her for leaving them. they completely understood, you needed the help.

although her roommates wanted to help you, they couldn’t. you needed to have the least amount of people to be with you. 

it didn’t help that they were all content creators, too. 

rae told people that she moved because she wanted her own space, so that she can make better videos. when she announced she was moving, not one person speculated that you had been the reason of her move. 

you paid for the house, you needed to. you owed her. no matter the amount of times she told you that you owed her nothing, that she was just doing it because she loves you, you couldn’t let her pay for a single thing. 

you needed to up your security, too. so you two had decided to get a house that was pretty big, somewhere in the mountains, with top security, away from other people. 

your parents soon calmed down after that day. they told you to come back, the begged you to come back. but you told them that you needed the time alone at that moment, and assured them that you would be okay. 

so they did what parents would. they made sure you were well taken care of. they sent you massive amounts of money, sent your their trusted guards to stay around the house. 

they did this all for you without the knowledge of the public. 

your parents told reporters that you were well safe, and would not be in the public eye, not until you were ready. 

you helped rae film certain videos. well, not like there was anything good to do in the massive mansion, anyways. 

all your social media pages were still up, just not updated. you left everything. you had created a more private one, for your close and trusted friends to follow. 

and you thought that nothing could really top that eventful day in england. 

but it did. 

you’re sat on toilet in on of the bathrooms, rae rubbing your back.

pregnant. it was clearly written on the test.

no fucking way. 

-

in no ways were you ready to be a mother. 

as a little kid, you had dreamt of being a mum, alongside a successful man who took responsibility. 

you never would have seen yourself to be a mother alone, with the help of your bestfriend. 

you never thought that you would be a mother, whose dad is someone who clearly doesn’t want anything to do with you. 

rae stayed with you all the time. even through the gross vomit sessions in the morning, or all the time, in your case. 

but you were in no way shape or form ready for a child. you had to raise a child on your own. even the thought of that had emotionally drained you. 

weeks after you found out you were pregnant, you were significantly getting more moody, and rae knew that. 

she made sure you ate well, slept well and kept up with eating vitamins each day. that was until, you couldn’t take it all anymore. 

maybe it was the stress. well, it was the stress. 

you blamed it all on the emotional toll the pregnancy took on you. your body was practically screaming for help. help that you need, but you weren’t in the right head space to offer the help to yourself. 

it was a typically normal day for rae and you. besides rae screaming in her gaming room while streaming, it had been pretty quiet. 

you felt queasy, but you pushed it off. it was normal for you nowadays. everything almost made you throw up. the look of something, the smell. 

but on that day, it was a different type of feeling in your stomach.

one second, you were walking into the kitchen, trying to get some water, and the other, you were on the floor, in pain. 

you screamed. this was the worst type of pain you’ve felt in your life. you screamed for anyone who could hear you. you were sure that even rae’s stream could hear you, but you didn’t care. 

soon you heard multiple footsteps. one of your guards came to your aid before rae did. he supported your head on his lap, him sitting on the floor. 

he told the other guard who came soon after he did to call the ambulance. 

that was when you finally found out what was happening. 

“holy shit, she’s bleeding.” rae repeated to herself. 

you were bleeding? that wasn’t good, right? that meant bad things, doesn’t it?

you felt like you were floating, like your limbs were as light as a feather. that was because you were losing consciousness. 

you lost it. you lost it and found out it was a boy. 

now the two boys you love more than your life aren’t here with you, forever. 

you cried for weeks, rae next to you, making sure you were still alive and eating. she was the only one that stayed by your side in real life. sure, your online friends did care about you, but they just couldn’t be there with you. 

clay and nick had always been texting you, sometimes calling to try their luck, clay mostly. you knew they cared about you, and they wanted to make sure that you’re okay. but you felt embarrassed. you didn’t want to face anyone, even if people kept saying that you did nothing wrong. 

apparently rae’s stream heard your scream, and that was how rae found out that you were in danger. she couldn’t hear through her headphones, but her chat kept spamming her about it, and that raised alarms. 

they kept asking about the ‘mysterious girl screaming’ in rae’s stream. it was short lived, though. rae told them that she had a friend over and that they were injured, and that rested the chaos for a little. 

you were sure that some people knew you were living with her. most of them were almost like detectives, after all. 

you didn’t blame the stans. it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that you would live with her, anyways. 

since the awful day at the hospital, you have texted clay and nick. you wanted to tell them that you were okay, that you aren’t hurt, at least not physically anymore. 

it didn’t take you long to start calling clay daily again. other than rae, you didn’t really have anyone. so you told clay. 

it felt weird talking about a baby that used to be in you to someone whose bestfriend was the dad of. but he completely understood you. sure, he couldn’t say for experience, seeing as he clearly can’t get pregnant, but he supported you, made sure you let it all out to him. 

you and clay grew close, almost bestfriends. although you and nick were close, he’s still in college, and that meant that he usually didn’t have time to talk to you as much as clay did, and you didn’t blame him. school can be a pain in the ass.

but you still made sure to never keep nick in the dark. as much as clay is one of your bestfriends, so is nick. 

clay made sure never to talk about george to you, which deemed to be difficult since they had been friends for years. he had accidentally slipped his name out to you a couple times, but you were sure he didn’t meant to do that. 

other than the usual “george has been sleeping like a log” and “he slept through the smp war.” you hadn’t heard anything else about him, but it seemed like he was doing well. 

clay had told you about the bet. 

“nick brought it up, but we didn’t think he was actually going to go through with it.” the floridian said. 

you aren’t the type to hold grudges, not even if they did you really dirty, so you told clay that you were on the path of being fully healthy and that he didn’t need to apologise for his friend’s behaviour. 

“are you ever going to come back?” he asks you in a facetime call. you knew exactly what he was talking about. he wanted to know if you’d ever come back on the internet. 

you didn’t even know the answer yourself. you weren’t sure. so you told him that. 

“maybe, maybe not. who knows.” and that was months ago. 

you had plenty of time to heal, to get back on track. but nothing could top your pain of losing your child, that you never got to hold, to kiss, to spoil. 

telling your mother about the loss of your baby was the hardest. she is a traditional woman, always telling you to get married before bearing children, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love the baby you were carrying in you. 

she cried on the phone, sobbing, hiccupping. you wanted to hug her so bad, she even asked you when you’d come back, but you told her you needed time, but you’d be there soon. 

for some reason, although you got maximum hours of sleep each day, you still felt exhausted. you consulted a doctor, but he told you that it was normal since your body is still fragile, but the exhaustion never really went away as months go by. 

being bored at home, and hearing rae having fun made you feel lonely, it made you feel like you were left out. so you made the decision to come back. not to stream, but to appear in rae’s videos.

rae and the rest of the group welcomed you with open arms. they were caring and made sure you felt comfortable again, not stepping any boundaries. not that you cared, the public was bound to know everything soon enough. 

so you did that. 

you were playing proximity chat among us, with the usual people. at that point, you and the other nine people were still in the lobby, chatting, until corpse sounded out. 

“what have you been doing nowadays?” harmless question, in your opinion. 

you didn’t want to hide anything anymore, and rae knew what was about to happen.

“been having a lot of rest. doctor said that i’m still fragile.” you told corpse. 

“are you sick?” toast asks. some people would’ve been offended at that question, or take it the wrong way, but you didn’t. 

“actually, i suffered a miscarriage recently.” you told them honestly. 

there was no awkward silence. immediately, everyone started apologising, saying “sorry for your loss.” 

you brushed them off, telling them that it’s okay, that they didn’t offend you at all for asking that question. 

“feels good to get it out my chest.” you told them, laughing at the end of that sentence. 

“she hasn’t slept well at all, she really wanted to tell you guys.” rae told her

one by one, they all spoke to you, asked you if it was even okay that you all talked about it on streams. you told them that it had been your choice to tell people this way, and they had nothing to worry about. 

on the other hand, it was tough for george. not at first, though. he thought it was going to be easy, having sex with a pretty, virgin girl and ditch her alone in a country she she hasn’t personally been to.

but that changed the moment she disappeared. the guilt never really hit george until people started bashing him on the internet. 

at first, people were too focused on the girl. people discriminated you, called you a slut. they didn’t think that george was wrong at all, although he was the one who took the explicit photos and posted it. 

but then, people, mostly woman had started to realise indeed how messed up it was. 

george really couldn’t care that you “left.” but then people kept on commenting on his posts. specifically, they often left a comment saying “really bold of you to do that to a princess.”

at the start, he thought the comments meant that they couldn’t believe he did such terrible things to their princess, someone wholesome they cherished. he didn’t realise that his comments literally meant that you are a princess. 

so he googled it. he wanted to know why people kept calling you ‘princess’ or ‘next on the throne’. he was curious, and he wasn’t expecting it all to be real. 

when he googled your name, a huge google tab came out. 

princess of saudi arabia. 

this must be a typo, right? he couldn’t deny that you are indeed a pretty girl, he just couldn’t believe that he had done such things to someone so royal. 

he never even thought that one day, he would score to talk to celebrities, let alone be able to be in bed with an actual princess. 

so he doubted it. 

but then he kept looking. 

he looked at images of you. photos of you with a small tiara, next to what seemed to be the queen of saudi arabia, wearing a long, modest emerald gown. the photo was taken when the king had a birthday. 

picture after picture, he started to doubt his thoughts even more. 

he couldn’t lie, your face really fit the title. if he really thought about it, your existence screamed royalty. the way you spoke, your poise, the way you strut in a hallway and was able to wow a crowd without trying. 

george always assumed that people only stared at you in public because of how beautiful you are. he never really realised it all until now. 

usually, guys can be insecure when they hear rude comments about how a lanky man is able to get a beautiful, confident woman. but to george, he felt even more egoistical. he used you, truly like a trophy wife. 

that was until he really realised. 

now, he thinks that everything he did was just a plain asshole move, not saying it isn’t if he did it to any other normal girl.

“i fucking messed up” he thought to himself, reading press conferences about your princess title.

if he thought he messed up then, wait till he found out you were pregnant, and then later losing it. 

he felt like he was in a fever dream. it felt like a written book, not real life. 

he kept slapping himself, pinching himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. it all felt unreal. so many things were happening. 

now, he’s more concerned than guilty. he wanted to know if you’re okay. even he felt like he can’t cope with the information he was given, how would you feel?

furthermore, he kept reading theories that the scream in the background of valkyrae’s stream was yours. had you lost the baby there? had you lost his baby there?

-

he called clay and nick. he wanted to double check. it was all a lot to handle, knowing you’re a princess and a mother in the same week. 

nick screamed at him on discord for hours, literally. george knew clay was just as mad, just as disappointed. he just didn’t have the energy to say it all, even though all he wanted to do was fly to england and beat george up. 

although it took george a while to realise everything he did was messed up, he came to. and he really did want to contact you. but really, anyone in your position wouldn’t even glance at his name twice after what he did. 

he was happy that you were looking healthy on rae’s stream. although you weren’t really ready to stream on your own again and many people understood that, and never pushed you. 

but whenever he saw you sometimes on rae’s facecam, he could see that pain, deeply hidden in your eyes. you were trying to cover up the fact that you were still trying to heal. 

-

CLAY’S POV

it was infuriating to see george not really giving a shit at first, and then changing to a new man. it took you to tell the world about your lost child for him to own up to his mistakes.

nick and i had been friends with him for years, it takes a lot to just dump a friend, a close one at that. so we did what we could, help him wake up from this “dream” he’s in. 

that didn’t mean we weren’t mad at him still. 

if he didn’t want to own up, i will. 

-

the subsequent years came by and went really quickly. people were starting to forget the drama that you and george were in. people soon became uninterested about it, but still stayed with you, encouraging you to heal slowly and take your time. 

that was what you liked about the internet. granted, some people can be mean, but the people who supported you were the ones that helped you keep going, helped you find a reason to wake up in the morning. 

no, you’d never forget that you lost a child, and you were reminded by the people on the internet who made it a pact to make sure george never forgot that too. 

george did end up talking to you a couple years ago. you accepted his apology, but not him. you were sure he only wanted to apologise after knowing that you were the next in the throne. 

speaking of throne, you were back in the castle. not permanently, but you visited often. you still lived with rae, and you had actually started streaming on your own again a few months before george reached out to you. 

clay and nick had been supportive of you since the start, still clearly apologetic even though you told him that you had forgotten about it and that it hadn’t even been their fault in the first place. 

but they were persistent, clay more than nick since nick was still very busy with college. you loved the two of them and considered them to be one of your best friends, aside from rae. 

-

GEORGE’S POV 

it was difficult. i felt like i had no shame to just text her one day after being gone for so long. but i actually felt bad. i know it was a rocky start. 

i had been so focused on winning the bet and not wanting to be called a pussy from my friends that i disregarded you, your feelings.

i knew from the start that you had been a great girl. you were just so sweet to everyone you meet, even strangers. it warmed my heart, it made me feel safe to be around you all the time. 

not that i can say that right now anyways, i didn’t have the right at all, after what i did to you. 

i don’t know what love is, given the fact that multiple girls had left me before this. i asked myself often if what i felt for my exes were actually love, or had i just been desperate. 

but i felt like when i was with you, it had been love, or close enough. 

but i couldn’t just burst it out one day that i love you, we weren’t really even dating. 

given that you had been pure, prior to me, it was shocking to see you so open, so welcoming to me. it was like you had known me forever, that you trusted me. 

and i took advantage of that, and later i got the consequences. 

i suffered the consequences. i see him with you. and i see that you’re happier with him. if it was any other guy, i think it would hurt less. 

but it was my own best friend. it was clay. 

all the instagram photos you post, his face blurred or covered, or when he posts a photo of you, it all hurt. 

i started the fall for you, for your genuine heart, and when i finally decide to do something about it, someone else had done it before me. 

deep down, i knew that clay would’ve been the better choice for you anyway. but it still hurt me. hearing his voice coming from behind you when you stream without your facecam. 

everyone was so supportive of you and clay, they’re obviously happy that you found someone who treats you better, even i knew that.

i wished i hadn’t taken you for granted, i wish i hadn’t listened to the stupid voice in my head reminding that you were all just a bet, that i wouldn’t love you like you think i would. 

i felt left out. 

a while ago, you were in florida with nick and your boyfriend, clay. it stung to see nick and you streaming so happily, not remembering me. 

but i deserved it. and i knew you deserve to be happy, after everything i did to you.

but that didn’t compare to the pain i felt now, a year later, seeing photos of clay and you, his face turned from the camera, facing you. he was down on one knee, proposing. 

and although you were crying and your hands covered the bottom half of your face, i could see how happy you are, i could see the amount of love you held for clay. 

how i wish i had done things a little more differently. 

[pretend-writer]

Heaven’s Missing An Angel (Peter Parker x reader)

Summary: Peter comforts Y/N, his best friend that he’s in love with. 

Title Reference: Heaven’s Missing An Angel x 98 Degrees

Word Count: 2k words

Warning: swearing, violence, alcohol and partying

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

Sitting in the corner of the room, I sipped on the last bit of beer I had left in my cup. This party was alright, I mainly came because Y/N wanted to come and I figured I could keep my best friend some company. But since she said she was getting another drink about an hour ago, she was nowhere to be found.

MJ and Ned were playing beer pong on the other side of the room, said that they haven't seen her in a while either. Not that they were paying attention, they were too busy winning for the seventh time in a row.

Although I was a tad bit worried about her, I knew she was probably somewhere with her boyfriend. She mentioned that he was going to meet her here, since the both of them agreed to come to the party separately.

Five minutes or so have passed and MJ and Ned finally got beaten in the game, they both seemed pissed as they were coming towards me.

'Can you believe that bullshit? Who plays by that rule?' Ned ranted before she sat next to me.

'They were a bunch of cheaters, I'll tell you that.' MJ rolled her eyes, then patted my shoulder. 'Where's your girlfriend?'

Turning my head to her, I shook my head. 'She's not my girlfriend.'

'You wish she was.' Ned joked, MJ jumping in and laughing as well.

They weren't wrong, I've had a crush on Y/N for as long as I could remember. Ned, MJ, Y/N and I all graduated high school together then came to the same college. We've all been best friends for a while except I've been in love with her, despite her eventually getting a boyfriend a year or so ago.

It did hurt me a bit, deep down I felt like we had that unspoken feelings for each other. We've been the closest out of the four of us, we'd tell each other everything. So when she told me about David, it broke my heart.

Checking on my phone to see if Y/N had texted me, I had few unimportant notifications from other apps but not from her. Maybe I was lying to myself when I said I was only a little bit worried.

'Maybe David will know where she is.' MJ signaled where he was as she nodded her head up and down towards his direction. As I turned around, I saw him getting a beer with his friends. 'Y/N isn't with him, maybe she went somewhere.'

I got up to walk into the hallway where he was at, raising my brows as I made contact with him. 'Hey, have you seen Y/N?'

David was visibly drunk, his eyes barely opened and giggling as if whatever I said was the funniest thing on Earth. He even reeked of beer. 'She left about half an hour ago, dude.'

'Left? Where did she go?'

He shrugged, laughing again. 'She got pissed at me as always and fucking left me. Who knows, we're probably broken up I don't really know.'

'Did you do something to her? She wouldn't get mad for no reason.'

'I don't know the details okay? You're asking too many fucking questions. I said one thing and she flipped, same shit she always does.'

His attitude and the tone of his voice got me really upset, I think MJ noticed because she walked up next to me. 'Peter, let's go.'

'No.' I took a step closer to David. 'So what did you say to her, huh?'

'It's not your damn business, Parker. Back off.'

'I need you to tell me what you said that made her upset!' I yelled at him, annoyed at how he dealt with his argument with Y/N.

He was always a prick, picking fights with Y/N whenever it was convenient for him. David loved to nitpick on everything she did, I already knew that whatever happened was because of him.

David rolled his eyes, chuckling as he continued to talk to his friends and completely ignoring me as if he didn't hear what I just said.

That was a huge mistake on his end because the next thing I did was something I wasn't quite proud of. Maybe it was the beer that I've been drinking for the past few hours I've been at this party, I couldn't help but throw a punch at David's smug little face.

'You motherfucker.' David cursed as he threw a punch right back at me, followed by MJ's gasp from behind.

Clenching my jaw, anger took over me as I tackled David and threw our bodies across the hallway. I sat on his stomach, continuing to punch him multiple times in his face, swearing at him.

MJ and Ned pulled me away, using their full strength as they constantly yelled at me to stop. It took a while for me to cool down and recollect my thoughts, it was rare for me to get really angry at someone.

'Parker! You fucking asshole.' David groaned as he laid across the hallway with a bloody nose. 'What the fuck did you do that for!?'

He knew exactly why I did that, he was a fucking dick and Y/N didn't deserve any of the shit he dragged her through. David knew better to not mess with my best friend and whatever he did made her really upset to a point where she ran away.

Shaking my head, I left him there and turned away to start looking for Y/N. She left the party about half an hour ago, she could be anywhere.

My friends followed me from behind, worried about Y/N as much as I was. Not only did she leave without telling anyone where she was going, she was drunk and we were too far from campus, we wouldn't know where to look for her.

'You think she walked?' Ned asked as he checked his social media to see if there was any sign of Y/N.

'I think so.' MJ agreed. 'Remember spring break, sophomore year? She went on a stroll without telling us because of her argument with her parents? I think she's walking to blow off some steam.'

Ned added. 'But we don't know where she is.'

'I'll go find her.' I said before I ran out the door to look for Y/N.

Didn't know where I was going, I ran towards the first direction that came to mind. It would've been much easier if I had my suit, I could've covered more grounds and would be able to find her faster.

'Y/N?' I called her name, running back and forth around the neighborhood, trees, everything where I'd think Y/N may possibly be.

The further and longer it took for me to find her, the more scared I got. I continued to yell her name, hoping that she'd hear me.

'Peter?' I heard from behind me, quickly turning around. 'Peter, I'm here.'

She was curled up next to the bushes, couldn't tell if she was severely drunk or she was just so upset. 'Y/N, why did you leave the party without saying anything to us?'

Y/N just shook her head, 'I'm sorry. I just-I wasn't thinking. David was just pissing me off like always.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.' I sympathized with her, knowing how much of a dick David was, especially to her. 'Why do you stay with him?'

'Because I thought we loved each other.' She sighed and looked my way, realizing that I had blood and bruises on my face. 'Oh my- Peter. What happened to you?'

'Ah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it.'

She scooted over me, carefully rubbing the blood off of my face with her shirt. 'It was David, wasn't it? I'm so sorry, this has nothing to do with you and it's my-'

'No, he deserved what was coming and he just had shit to say back. No worries, I promise.'

Y/N was concentrated as she continued to wipe my face. She had never been this close to my face before, I wish I could just kiss her to make everything alright.

She paused, noticing that I was lost in my thoughts, realizing that I was staring longer than I should've. Y/N smiled lightly, 'Why are you always so nice to me?'

'Because you're my best friend, Y/N.'

'But you don't think that, right? You don't want to be my best friend.'

'Why would you say that? Of course I want to.'

Y/N licked her lips, keeping eye contact with me. 'MJ told me, Peter. I know that you want more.'

My heart dropped as I heard those words from her. Why did MJ tell her, knowing that I was scared to lose her as my best friend. Her and Ned both know how much I care for her, I couldn't bare to lose our friendship over my stupid feelings I couldn't control.

'Don't get mad at MJ, she didn't tell me to just spill your secret.'

'So why did she tell you then?'

She buried her head between her legs, breathing in and out. Y/N seemed nervous, I even felt her palm starting to get sweaty.

I didn't want to force her to say anything if she didn't feel comfortable or if she didn't want to. It made no sense however, that MJ decided to tell Y/N about how I felt about her.

'Just know that her intentions were good, okay?'

'Y/N, just tell me why she told you.'

'It doesn't matter.'

'Of course it matters.' I said it sternly this time, emphasizing how much this all meant to me. 'It matters because now you know that I love you, Y/N. How are we supposed to be friends now?'

She shook her head, 'We can always be friends, Peter.'

This was the moment I was afraid of facing; having Y/N know my true feelings and having her be uncomfortable around me. I never wanted for her to feel weird with me, this was why I kept everything to myself for so long.

'Y/N, I don't want to drag my feelings knowing that things will be weird betw-'

'I love you, Peter.' She chuckled under her breath, shaking her head. 'I-I hid everything, trying to ignore my feelings for so long. That's why I started dating David, I thought I finally got over you Peter. Turns out I didn't.'

My mind was blank, not understanding this circumstances at all. It still didn't process in my mind that Y/N loved me also, I thought that we had a special connection but never thought it actually be true.

'Why didn't you ever tell me?'

'Peter, you're the best person I've ever met. You've always been so kind to me and everyone else, I didn't think I deserve you.'

My heart fell, scooting over to her as I grabbed her hand. 'You know I care about you a lot.'

'You care and love so much, about me, about your friends, even about the world. Even before you became Spider-Man, you've always cared for people. I don't deserve someone as great as you and I just want the best for you.'

'But Y/N, you are the best.' I lifted her chin so I can gaze into her eyes, 'You are so much more than you see yourself, you're amazing, loving, funny. I wouldn't be the person that I am today if it weren't for you.'

She bit her lip, caressing her thumb across my cheek. Eyeing my lips, Y/N looked up and flashed a smile. Reading her queues, I leaned in to kiss her, something that I've wanted to do to her for as long as I could remember.

It was so special, so magical then I've anticipated. I was so in love with her, so in love with my best friend and I wouldn't know what I'd do without her.

'Ooo, David is going to kill you.' Ned laughed, crossing his arms as he walked alongside of MJ. 'He's going to give you a matching bruise on the other side of your face.'

'Ha, it'll be worth it.' I smiled, cheesing hard because I was too darn happy. Nothing really mattered anymore, my dreams came true and I'd sacrifice it all to have her in my life.

MJ grinned, 'See? What did I tell ya, Y/N? He's gaga over you and you wouldn't believe me.'

Ned's eyes widened, looking at me and back to MJ. 'No! You told Y/N that Peter loved her!? Did you hear that Peter?'

I laughed and nodded. 'Yeah, now I'm aware since Y/N told me. I owe you a punch on the shoulder by the way, MJ.'

'Hey, all I hear is "thank you MJ, you're the reason my baby is all mine now." You're welcome by the way.'

[komfortkiri]

HELP WANTED (PART 2)

WOLF QUIRK F!READER x HANTA SERO x EIJIRO KIRISHIMA WORD COUNT: 2,997 TW/CW: ABSENT PARENT MENTION (I know some people get really bothered about absent parents)

NOTES: No banner yet. And yes, I posted two parts in one day BECAUSE I’M LIVING FOR THIS. The next part I’ll include things from Kiri and Sero’s POV. I got tired toward the end of this one and wanted to finish and post it before going to sleep.

Your alarm went off at 6:45 AM, allowing you more time to actually get ready and look like a decent human being.. well, sort of. You laid there for a moment, though, thinking that if this really went well, you could be leaving within the next week. You’d have to tell your father and though he’d be hurt, it wasn’t like you wouldn’t come back to visit. With a deep breath, you threw your legs off the side of the bed, holding your arms over your head to stretch. The stretch was so good that you almost fell back into your mattress and went back to sleep but you shook your head and rose to your feet, proceeding to your bathroom to shower.

After you took your shower from Hell, you walked out of your bathroom and back into your room, making your way to your closet to browse over the clothes you had. You realized quickly that you should probably do some upgrading to your wardrobe but you’ll worry about that another day. Your eyes scanned over everything and nothing really stood out to you so you pulled out your phone to check the weather, seeing that it was pretty cold out— roughly 23 degrees. Coffee definitely sounded luxurious right now and that thought alone made you check the time to see that it was now 7:15 AM. You took a little longer in the shower but the scorching water felt like Heaven to you.

You sighed, taking a long-sleeved, burgundy turtleneck half-shirt off of a hanger along with a pair of black high-waisted jeans. You tossed both articles of clothing onto the bed then went to your small dresser in the corner of your room to open the top drawer, pulling out a white colored bra and a matching pair of panties to go with it. You closed that drawer then opened the second drawer, getting some black socks that rose to just under your knee. Once you had everything, you dropped your towel then threw your undergarments on, along with your socks.

During your dressing, you received a text message from the Kiri person so you rushed over to it, hoping they weren’t cancelling the get together. Relief washed over you whenever you read the message.

FROM KIRI: Morning! Wanted to send you a text to tell you that me and my roommate are getting ready and should be at the coffee shop closer to 8:30 AM. We still on?

You replied rather quickly, it was almost creepy.. like you were waiting for a text.

TO KIRI: Good morning! Yes, of course! I’m getting ready right now as well.. I may be there earlier than you both since it’s right around the corner from me!

Once the message delivered, you threw your phone back onto your bed then put on your shirt and pants, which had a special made hole just for your tail, then walked over to your full body mirror hanging on the wall. “Not bad.. Not bad at all.” It was almost like you were hoping these were men that you were meeting. You scoffed at your thought, nah. You walked back to the bathroom to grab your hair brush, one for the hair on your head and another for the fur on your tail. It was weird in a way.. you had to color coordinate what you used for your tail because the fur wasn’t as soft as your actual hair was. Once you finished grooming yourself, you put on a pair of flat-bottom, over-the-knee, black boots. 

Time, what was the— shit! Your damned tail, taking so much time to brush through. It was now 8:05 so you had to rush a little bit if you wanted to be extra early and order what you needed so you grabbed your black trench coat off your coat rack, grabbed your phone then your backpack that held your wallet and other necessities that you may need throughout the day and booked it out of your room and out of your front door. Your dad must have had to work this morning, considering his car wasn’t out front but nonetheless, you expected as much from a police officer.

NO TIME TO THINK, you thought so you turned in the direction of the coffee shop and started walking. Your walking turned into walking fast then into.. running, which doesn’t affect you much considering it’s part of who you are. You thankfully had a bottle of perfume with you, just in case you smelt like a wet dog and you sprayed a few pumps amongst your coat and a few on your neck. You took a minute to catch your breath right outside Camille’s front door then walked in.

“My, my.. Look who it is! If it isn’t my dear Y/N! I haven’t seen you in a few weeks, must be pulling extra shifts at the animal shelter, huh?” Camille practically rushed to you, bringing you into a hug. All you could do was smile and accept her embrace then return it. If you were being honest, you really needed the hug. “Hi, Camille! I’m sorry I haven’t been visiting like I normally do. I have picked up a few more shifts so I can save up for a place of my own.” You took a seat at your usual spot, right up close to where she made most things. There was a small little bar, in which, Camille practically saved your seat every morning when you started coming in. She was like a mom to you, which was nice in its own way considering yours wasn’t worth a shit. 

Camille knew just about everything about your life so you felt awful knowing that you hadn’t been around in a few weeks but you had to do what you need to first. “You know, darling, whenever you stopped coming in, these two very handsome boys started coming in every morning. It was almost fate in a way. They kept me company while you were gone, but don’t get me wrong, I’m glad my favorite girl is back.” Boys? Was this elderly woman really trying to hint at hooking you up right now? All you could do was shake your head and laugh as she set your usual in front of you— hot hazelnut coffee, extra sweet. You lifted the glass mug to your lips, speaking from behind it, “Boys, huh? Camille, are you trying to set me up?” A smirk formed along your face as you took a sip of the coffee, humming softly in satisfaction, your ears falling back some. She always did make the best coffee, it never failed.

The older woman laughed then leaned back onto the counter opposite from the one you were at, “Now, you know I wouldn’t meddle into your love life, dear. All I’m saying is, they are complete gentleman.” She leaned forward on her elbow, whispering her next statement. “If I was year and years younger, I’d probably take both of them.” This made you snort then double over in laughter, “Camille! Shame on you!” All she did was shrug then before she could respond, her eyes lit up when she realized who was entering her shop. You noticed this look and raised an eyebrow, sipping your coffee. Camille realized your eyes were on her and she nodded toward the door, mouthing that’s them. You tried your best not to make it obvious but you turned your head just enough to the side to peer over your shoulder and boy, she was not kidding. However, these were definitely not boys.. they were pure men. 

You quickly turned your head before they realized you were ogling them, your insides heating up. All you could think of was how the good Lord above took his sweet time crafting both of them. Your heightened sense of hearing allowed you to listen in on what was being said between both of the guys and Camille so you just barely turned your left ear to the side, lifting your coffee again to take another sip.

“My boys! Where have you been? Fighting crime as usual?” Camille greeted both with a big hug each before one of them answered her. “Yes ma’am, you know us. We have to make sure nothing happens to your wonderful coffee shop.” Your heart skipped a beat at that statement. Smooth. “Always such sweethearts, come. I want you to meet another regular of mine.” Please don’t, please don’t, plea— “Y/N?” Your face was probably as red as a beet at this point but you turn anyway with a smile that was semi-forced. You hadn’t much prepared well on talking to… very, very attractive men. “Boys, this is Y/N. Y/N, this is Eijiro and Hanta.” You shook each of their hands, your insides felt like they were being lit on fire at this point.

The man known as Kirishima smiled, “You can call me either Ei, Eiji or Kiri, though.” The fire was immediately put out by his statement. You were thanking all the Gods that you didn’t have your coffee in your hand because you would have dropped it. “D-Did you say Kiri?” You cleared your throat, scratching the back of your head nervously. 

“Yeah, do you know me? I mean, I’m a pro-hero but do you know someone I know or—“ You cut him off, not meaning to, but you had to get it out. “No, I.. I inquired about the roommate ad you had put up. We texted this morning and last night?” Kirishima and Sero’s eyes widened and they looked at each other. Something tells you they really weren’t expecting the person they were meeting to be a woman, but you were in the same boat because you didn’t expect for the two people you were meeting to be two gorgeous piece of asses either.

Sero spoke this time as he looked back at you, “So you are looking to be our roommate?” You blushed a soft shade of pink, not really knowing how to properly answer that but you did anyway. “Well, I-I didn’t really plan on you guys being, well… guys.” Both men laughed then Kirishima sat next to you, Sero sitting next to him on the other side. Camille put their coffees in front of him, Sero’s was partnered with a bagel. She gave you a wink then rushed back to the kitchen, peering out the little window in the door. All you could do was shake your head with a grin. “If it makes you uncomfortable, you definitely don’t have to move in with us but we’d like to be your friend.” 

You smiled at that but thought of the trouble you’d get yourself in just by being their friend. It was almost impossible not to yank both by their collars to the bathroom and— “Wolf quirk, eh?” Sero’s voice shook you out of your inappropriate thoughts. It’s almost like he knew where your head was spiraling to. “Y-Yeah. My dad is also part wolf as well.” You nodded, clearing your throat even though you really didn’t need to as there was nothing to clear. 

“What about your mom?” Sero pressed, not knowing that talking about your mother was something you hated doing. You sighed quietly, eyes darting in front of you to a blank space on the white wall in front of you. Your ear fell back, tone filled with… hatred when you spoke, which you didn’t intend for, but your burning rage for her was not controllable. “Don’t know her. She left not too long after I was a baby. Just up and left in the middle of the night and nobody has seen her since.” 

Kirishima looked at Sero, eyes saying way to go, idiot. He wanted to lighten the mood so he changed the subject quickly, “So, uh.. about your quirk..” You three sat there for what felt like hours just talking, having casual conversation. They asked about your quirk, showing high interest in every aspect of it. You reassured them that you didn’t shed hair so they didn’t need to worry about any of that. You didn’t realize that they were pro-heroes until they told you their hero names and you almost choked on your semi-hot coffee. You had heard of both but you never really are around the action to put a face to the name. They both do a lot of good work around your city, in which, you are thankful for with your father being on the police force. Without them, your dad would probably have been hurt or worse. 

Your anger about your mother had withered away and you were really enjoying yourself with the two men next to you. Your tail was moving to-and-fro the entire time, meaning you were happy. It got silent at one point and that prompted to Sero clear his throat then bump his elbow into Kirishima’s own, basically trying to push on this conversation. Kirishima turned his body a little toward you, his tone was soft, “Um.. This roommate thing.. It’s obvious you aren’t a serial killer, unless you’re a really good actor. You don’t have to give us an answ—“ You held your finger up with a smile because it was clear he was about to start rambling on due to nerves and not wanting to overstep. “You don’t have to say anymore. I’m super down for being your roommate.” It seemed like relief washed over the both of them because they smiled at you. “Hell yeah, you can move your stuff in at any time. Just let us know when so we can help you.” Sero nodded in your direction and you nodded back with a smile.

Moving in.. with two insanely attractive men.. What could go wrong, right?

[snelbz]

Swipe Left {Rowaelin Fluff AU}

A/N: We’ve been writing some aaangsty shit lately, and we needed a break to get some fluff out. Enjoy!

As always, written along side the loml, @tacmc​.

Attention, all passengers. All flights departing from Adarlan have been delayed, due to inclement weather. Please see the nearest information screen for more details.

Aelin dropped her head in her hands and groaned. She knew she should have taken the direct flight from Wendlyn to Terrasen, rather than booking the one with a layover in Adarlan. She knew she should have, but instead she decided to save a few bucks, and booked the cheaper flight, with the longer travel time.

And now Adarlan was experiencing some of the worst weather she’d ever seen.

As she looked around for an information board at her gate, a brilliant flash of lightning raced across the sky. The accompanying rumble of thunder shook the airport and Aelin begrudgingly accepted that grounding the flights may have been the right thing to do.

She sighed and pulled her phone out, noticing a text from Lysandra. She opened it, finding a picture of her feet shoved in the sand and a drink in her hands, with a text that read, Got my beach, got my beer. All I’m missing is you, bitch. What time do you get in?

She sighed and replied, Flights out of Adarlan we’re just grounded. No clue.

Her best friend’s response was short, sweet, and to the point:

Fuuuuuuuuck

Aelin laughed to herself, but closed out of her messages and began to peruse her social media apps, eventually opening Tinder.

She made a face, looking around the airport and thinking about how stupid it would be to thumb through her possible matches while in a another country. Especially one she wasn’t staying in for very long.

And then decided, why the hell not.

A blonde man who looked far too much like her cousin was the first that popped up.

No, definitely not.

Then a young man with striking blue eyes, raven black hair and a mischievous grin graced her screen. Mmm, maybe…, she thought to herself, scrolling down to read through his bio. Loves dogs, an avid reader, and-.

Nope, to the left he goes. A doctor. 

Aelin wasn’t sure she could handle dating another doctor.

On and on she went, finding a flaw in nearly every profile she looked at.

Muscle head. Swipe.

Drinks too much. Swipe.

Doesn’t drink enough. Swipe.

Too old. Swipe.

Too young, she thought, swiping left at the photo of a teen in his high school basketball uniform. He’d definitely lied about his age to get on here.

And then she was pinned in place by the most striking pair of green eyes she’d ever seen.

And those cheek bones, by the wyrd, she was jealous.

She scrolled through his pictures, wondering if the silver hair was natural or if he had to dye it to keep it that shimmering hue.

Gods, he was gorgeous. She looked through his pictures again, every single one of them a candid, but couldn’t help but hear that little voice in the back of her head.

What’s the catch?

He’s definitely too good to be true.

Scrolling down, she decided to read through his bio.

Rowan, 28

11th grade history teacher by day.

Whiskey aficionado and trivia extraordinaire by night.

Aelin blinked at the short and sweet description the man had written for himself and after swiping through his pictures one more time, decided there was no way this guy was real.

She was sure that whoever this Rowan guy was, he may have been an eleventh grade history teacher, and he may have been kickass at trivia, but there was no way in hell he looked like that. No, she was sure that was just some poor, unsuspecting model, with the most kissable, gorgeous face she’d ever seen, who’d had pictures lifted from his personal Instagram. She even thought about trying to reverse image search the model to see if she could figure out who he was. If she did, it would only be fair of her to let him know.

But until then, she wasn’t exactly in the mood to be catfished...again.

She swiped left, sending him to the pile of men she’d rejected.

“Ouch, so that’s a hard no, then?”

The voice came from behind her and Aelin whirled, so fast that her blonde hair fanned out around her.

That hair. Those eyes. That damn bone structure.

Aelin blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

The man - Rowan, she realized - chuckled. “Can’t say it wasn’t entertaining watching you swipe left on the entire male population of Adarlan.” He smirked. “But after spending so long on mine, I thought you’d at least swipe right.”

Aelin was still stunned. “Fuck, you’re not a catfish?”

A silver brow arched and he chuckled again as he said, “No, definitely not a cat or a fish. All male.”

“So you teach teenagers?” She asked, gesturing to him. “So that’s your real job, even with a face like that?”

He asked, “A face like what?”

“You’re gorgeous,” Aelin said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, then she realized what she’d said. She covered her face with her hands, feeling her cheeks and the tips of her ears reddening.

But his grin only widened as his eyes narrowed, the most ridiculously handsome, smug look crossing over his face. “Do you judge everyone so harshly? What? I can’t be pretty and smart?”

Aelin’s hands slid off her face as she met his gaze, once again. “I never called you pretty.”

“But you called me gorgeous,” he countered, and at her scowl he breathed a laugh. “I’m Rowan.”

“I know,” she said, and held up her phone. “I cyber stalked you, remember?”

“Ah,” he said, leaning forward. “I can’t deny I did the same to you, Aelin.”

Oh, she liked the way her name sounded on his lips. His voice alone, that accent, had her toes curling.

“Did you swipe right?” She asked, slipping her phone in her back pocket.

Rowan smirked. “Guess you’ll never know, since you decided to swipe left.”

He adjusted the laptop case on his shoulder and winked, before walking over and sitting down at the closest plug, leaving Aelin staring.

————

How to unswipe left on tinder.

The question she typed in her browser mocked her and she sighed.

She picked at her unappetizing chicken - she thought it was chicken, at least - she’d picked up in the airport food court and looked around. The place was packed, travelers from everywhere stuck here until the storm passed. Almost every table was occupied, though she had gotten lucky and found one of the small ones by the wall. She was inclined to stay here until her flight finally departed, but she figured she could at least go to the bar until her flight and give someone else her table.

She was putting her trash on the tray, getting ready to get up when a head of silver hair sat down at the table across from her.

She blinked, watching his every movement as he plopped his tray down on the tabletop. He, unlike Aelin, went with burrito. After consuming her chicken...ish lunch, the burrito looked wonderful. She eyed it with envy.

“May I join you?” he asked, not bothering to wait for her to reply as he unwrapped the burrito from the foil and taking a bite.

Aelin opened her mouth to reply, but her lips snatched shut. She had already finished eating, was ready to go waste her time elsewhere. “I was headed to the bar.”

Rowan nodded, slowly, as he took another bite. He waited to swallow before asking, “So, first you swipe left, then you don’t want to eat with me? Apparently I need to take a hint. Then again...you did say I was gorgeous...so.” 

Aelin was caught somewhere between wanting to run and hide, and wanting to jump his bones. The latter was more appealing, but the former felt easier, all things considering. 

She pursed her lips. “Did you swipe, right?”

The gleam in his eye was wicked. “Have lunch with me.”

She exhaled through her nose. “Fine.”

Rowan raised an eyebrow. “Don’t act so excited about it.”

Aelin closed her eyes and sighed. She was being a bitch.

Well, she was a bitch, but she was letting her bitch show.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You kind of...caught me on an off day.”

He looked around while he chewed,at their surroundings, at the people around them. “Yeah, I think we’re all having an off day.”

Aelin let Rowan eat, not asking him questions every few minutes, despite wanting to, though she did respond to his while he quietly ate.

He asked what she did for a living, she said she didn’t know because she was on the way home from graduating college. He asked what her degree was in, she said literature and English education.

He was balling up the aluminum foil and standing when he asked, “So you have a degree in education but you don’t know what you want to do for a living?”

They grabbed their various bags and carry-ons and she shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He said, obviously, “Have you thought about teaching?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course, I have, but I have more passion for literature and English than I do for standing up in front of a classroom full of kids only to be disrespected and unappreciated.” 

Rowan looked at her, thoughtfully. “I had the same fear when I began, once I got my degree. But, I fucking love history, and my kids, for the most part, are great. If you choose to become an educator...well, the vibe of your classroom is in your hands.”

Aelin’s eyes narrowed but she didn’t protest. “Come get a drink with me.”

Rowan arched a brow. “Is this a date?”

Aelin put a hand on her hip. “Did you swipe right?”

He tilted his head. “Let me buy you a drink.”

“You said you’d tell me if I had lunch with you,” she laughed.

“I didn’t, actually.” He was smirking and Aelin wanted to wipe it off his handsome face, in whatever way she could. “I just mentioned that you should eat with me after I asked and you chose to.”

Aelin opened her mouth to disagree but then snapped it closed. He was right. “You tricked me.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

She stopped walking and he stopped and turned. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, “Tell me if you swiped right and I’ll have a drink with you.”

He smirked. “Deal.”

She crossed her arms, waiting.

Rowan just arched a brow. “Come on. I’ll tell you after the first drink.”

Aelin’s mouth fell open, but Rowan was walking away, down the terminal. Aelin wanted so desperately to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he confessed, but she didn’t. Unable to control herself, she only walked after him, intrigued.

“What gate are you flying out of?” Rowan asked as she caught up to him. 

She knew exactly which gate it was, but she wanted to see if she could make him squirm. “C.”

She kept her head straight, didn’t glance over at him as he looked at her. She just asked, “You?”

That half smile returned and she knew that he knew she was trying to mess with him. “C, as well.”

They got to the bar and sat down, being waited in quickly, despite the larger than normal crowd. Aelin ordered a jack and coke and Rowan a 7&7.

The bartender gave them their ID’s back and said, “Thank you, and happy birthday, Miss Galathynius.”

She cringed as Rowan turned to look at her. “It’s your birthday?”

She lifted her hands and gave a half-assed attempt at spirit fingers. “Surprise.”

He stared at her for a moment before he said, “You should’ve said something.”

“What’s the point?” she muttered.

Rowan blinked, still watching her through his side-eye. “What do you mean?”

Aelin snorted as their drinks were slid in front of them. “I was supposed to be celebrating my birthday at home, with my best friend on the beach; but, instead, I’m here, stuck at the airport. I don’t even remember the last time I’ve had an interesting birthday.”

Rowan nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, I spent my last birthday in the hospital.”

“What?” Aelin asked, sipping her drink. “How?”

“Horrible food poisoning,” he laughed. “I’ve never been that sick in my life.”

Aelin shook her head. “Maybe we can celebrate our birthdays together.”

Rowan chuckled. “My birthday was five months ago.”

Aelin took another drink and set her glass down. “And?” She shrugged. “It’s someone’s birthday everyday. Why not make it yours?”

Rowan eyed her for a moment, his lips teasing the edge of his glass. Then, he said, “Alright. Fine. Today is both of our birthdays, what should we do?”

“Raise hell, obviously,” Aelin answered, shrugging, as she took a sip from her glass.

Rowan only grinned. “And what does raising hell look like to Aelin Galathynius?”

She smirked, but a thunder clap drew her attention to the windows they sat across from, to the storm raging outside. A crease formed between her brows. “Definitely doesn’t look like an extended layover in Adarlan.”

Rowan watched her, wanting to brush back the hair that slipped from behind her ear. He turned to the bartender and said, “Two shots of Gentleman’s.”

Aelin’s eyebrows raised. “Well, that’s one way to wake hell up.”

The small glasses were set in front of them and Rowan said, “To raising hell, Miss Galathynius.”

Aelin rolled her eyes and threw the shot back.

The bourbon warmed her entire body and she shook her head, blowing out a sharp breath. Rowan was watching her, a small smile on his face. He paid up their tab and they made their way over to the information board by the bar entrance.

“Has yours been updated?” Rowan asked, scanning the flights.

Aelin found hers instantly. “No, still just delayed.”

He nodded. “Mine too.”

“So,” she began. “What’s next on the birthday agenda?”

An easy smile spread across his face as he said, “Presents.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Presents?”

They walked over to one of the small convenience stores tucked in between the Starbucks and the restrooms. “Since today isn’t actually my birthday, I don’t get anything. But you do.”

She looked at the glorified gas station snacks lined up in the fancy shelving. “Oh goodie, a Snickers bar and the latest issue of Erilea Weekly.”

“Is that what you want?” He asked.

She laughed. “Not really. I don’t need anything though.”

“Everyone needs something on their birthday.” Aelin glanced up at him and he was looking down at her.

You could kiss me, she thought. That would be a pretty good gift.

Instead she said, “Okay, then surprise me.”

Rowan’s smile grew. “Gladly.”

Rowan took a step and Aelin followed, but then he froze, and blinked. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean what am I doing?” Aelin asked, taking a step back, confused.

But Rowan only arched a brow and grinned. “If I’m going to surprise you, you can’t see what I pick out. Go away.”

Aelin snorted but sighed. “Fine. My gate is C-17. I’ll be there when you’re done.”

Rowan’s smile was triumphant. “See you there.”

Aelin headed back to the gate, sitting by the window and watching the storms swirl around them. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. It was Lysandra, but no picture accompanied her text this time.

How goes the long, boring wait?

She sighed. Long and boring. I have company though.

The text immediately showed “Read” and the grey typing bubbles reappeared.

Company? How?

Where? The airport?

Is he hot?

How did you meet?

Aelin smirked and typed back. I swiped left on him.

The bubbles reappeared and left and reappeared. I’m not following.

He’s gorgeous, so after hardcore staring at this face, I decided I didn’t want to get catfished.

So I swiped left.

And then I turned around and found him standing there, looking just as pretty as his pictures.

She hit send and waited, anticipating Lysandra’s next question.

What’s his name??

She laughed, knowing that Lysandra was probably driving Aedion insane with her commentary.

She replied, Rowan. And no, I don’t have a last name, but I think he’s flying into Orynth and he’s a history teacher.

The message sent and Aelin waited for her reply. The message was read, but nothing came in.

Twenty minutes later, when Lysandra hadn’t texted back and Rowan hadn’t shown, Aelin began to chew on the inside of her cheek.

She suddenly felt ridiculous. Most likely, Rowan had used it as an excuse to get rid of her. They were strangers, and nothing more. He wanted to get her a gift? Bullshit. He probably thought it was pathetic that she was spending her birthday alone in an airport and was getting a laugh out of the whole scenario. 

Aelin rose to her feet with the intention of grabbing her bag and going to the ladies room just for something to do, but then she saw him coming toward her, a shopping bag in hand.

“Going somewhere?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

She dropped her purse back into the seat she’d been occupying. “Just to the ladies room.” She smiled sweetly, hoping he didn’t realize she’d been about to bail.

Granted, she thought he’d bailed on her.

He nodded. “Well, then, I’ll be here.”

He sat down in the spot next to the one she vacated and smiled at her.

Aelin began to walk away, but she turned and looked back at him. “By the way, you’re not, like, a serial killer that’s going to sell my organs on the black market, right?”

Rowan laughed, the sound rich and full and reminded Aelin of a bonfire on a crisp Autumn evening. “No, I’m not a serial killer and no, I won’t sell your organs on the black market.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Or the white market?”

He shook his head, chuckling, “How about this? I have no intention of causing you any bodily harm or removing your organs from where they already are.”

Aelin smiled and nodded, and continued into the bathroom. When she was washing her hands, her phone vibrated again and upon she pulling it from her pocket, she discovered why Lysandra had gone dark.

His name is Rowan Whitethorn. He’s twenty-eight, fit as fuck and looks like he could fuck you into a fit. He’s a teacher at Orynth Prep, where he’s also the coach of the varsity baseball team. His birthday is January seventh and he has a kitten named Snowball.

Aelin sighed and shook her head, laughing at her best friend.

You’re terrifying sometimes, you know that, right?

Her phone buzzed again.

Enjoy, bitch.

Then about twenty pictures flooded her inbox.

She had done a thorough job, Aelin had to admit. The few pictures she sent of Rowan shirtless certainly proved her “fit” comment. She didn’t feel the least bit shamed as she zoomed in on his washboard abs.

Aelin couldn’t help but stare, and gape, before she shoved her phone back into her pocket and went back out toward the gate, where Rowan was still sitting, scrolling through his phone. The second he sat her coming, his phone was put away.

“I was beginning to think you got lost,” he said, cocking his head to the side. 

Aelin cleared her throat. “I- yes, I did.”

His eyes flicked to the bathroom, which was a direct line to where he was sitting.

She sat and tucked the loose hairs behind her ears. “So what’s my present?”

She smiled and he couldn’t fight the tugging on the corners of his own lips. He handed her the shopping bag. “Happy birthday, Aelin.”

She opened it up, first pulling out a stuffed teddy bear, that was red and gold, the colors of Adarlan’s flag. In the center of its stomach was a big gold heart. She laughed. “Cute.”

He shrugged as if to say, I know.

She reached in and pulled out a t-shirt that read I’d rather be spending my birthday on the beach, but I’m stuck with a hot piece of ass at the airport.

Aelin threw her head back and laughed. “Where did you find this?”

He was chuckling himself. “You can convince people to make anything for the right price.”

She shook her head and pulled the last item out of the bag. It was a glass shot glass. Aelin didn’t even read the text printed, because Rowan said, “I was hoping you’d take a shot on me and let me take you to dinner.”

Aelin stared at him, blinked, then howled. Rowan watched her as she laughed, heartily, his slow grin spreading.

Once she calmed down, she wiped at her eyes and said, “Well, I can’t say no to that, can I?”

Rowan’s eyes were soft as he said, “I was hoping not.”

Aelin put her gifts back in the bag and said, “Thank you, really. This was sweet.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, softly. “Is that a yes to dinner, then?”

She smiled, and took his hand, resting on his lap. “It’s a date.”