#like. saying people here have no concept of none of my business is an understatement that’s not even what i mean

[ilostyou]

.

[writingforyourpleasure]

I have a thing for Car wash

Genre: NonIdol!AU, SummerJob!AU

Pairing: OT7 x Reader

Summary: You do car wash as a summer job each year. But this year , 7 new employees are added to the mix.

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: none

A/N: Thoses Butter's concept photoshoot are gonna be the death of me ...

______

Summer’s Job never been dreamy or appealing you always preferred to stay home and play games or hangout with your friends.

You were doing the same summer job from your high school’s years throughout your UNI years, this year was the last year where you could work at the same gas station you usually spent your summer’s at. You were quite happy about this news because your work there wasn’t really enjoyable to say the least.

You were working as car washer.

The staff was limited to you and Gladys. Gladys was an Australian grandma’ with an heavy accent and a loud voice.

You used to complain about the underpaid job and understaff issue to her each year , but even if she tried her best to pay you more each year, the problem of understaff was remaining.

Plus you had the marvelous advantage , note the irony, to be a woman. So of course you had some guy every now and then asking you for some porn kink including cars and water to you.

And of course as soon as you dared to say to them that it was not respectful of them to ask for such favors , well their ego feeling insecure will make them insult you ‘til Gladys will come out and try to dissolve any trouble. And if they didn’t leave… well then Tallulah will come help you out. Were Gladys was a true perfect cottage core granny , Tallulah her spouse, was a weightlifting Olympics coach. So she was , massive and looked very frightening.

But since she was often occupied most of the time Gladys would have to do the trick , and if too much persistent she would call her little brother Jeff a policeman always coming in and out of the shop to check on things.

It was nice, for a summer or two, but seeing as it’s been years since you were first introduce to this summer’s job to say it became painfully annoying was an understatement.

And this year would be the same…

Or so you though.

Gladys finally took your complains about the car wash job being understaffed and recruited a few people to help out .

When she said a few, you though she was talking about 2 to 3 people.

But no, no non no no no. Gladys took in 7 people !

She promised you your check wouldn’t take any damage by the presence of those new employees , but you sincerely doubt that.

And of course you’ll have to show them around and proceed to show them how to wash a car because of course it’s not like anybody could know how to do it by themselves.

You were moody when that tons of information’s felled down on your head, but now finding yourself in front of the 7 new employees changed everything.

Apparently Gladys misspelled car wash job for model’s photoshoot coz’ those 7 boys were for sure way too beautiful to need a car wash job.

It had to be a prank, right?

So being more self aware in what you’ve been for years you showed carefully those men of to do the job. And no it wasn’t cute or sexy, far from it.

You were dressed in your yellow hoodie and black jogging with flip-flop.

For once you wished you had were those fucking shorts looking like panties more than anything, and a crop top or something similar, like all those freaks watching too much porn often asked you to.

But no , and those guys were dressed in matching outfits in jeans and whites tee.

Even if they were very dreamy swoon over , you had more pressing issues to think about.

Like why one of them started a water fight with another one, and putting a stop to it before one of them put soap into their eyes.

“Okay guys!!! Please stop …? I don’t want to have to report you to Gladys on your first day okay? So keep that behavior for when you’re on your own okay?”

“Sorry , we didn’t meant to …” Said one.

“Huh sorry to interrupt , but none of us seems to have catch your name earlier ?” Said the guy with blue hair.

You liked his hair, it was nice, like blue waves , more darker on the edges and lighter on the center of his scalp. He had such beautiful eyes too, so sharp an-

Oh god , wait did you really lost yourself by admiring him?!

“Huh miss???”

“Y-Yeah !!! Haha my name’s Y/N !” You extended your hand , losing your mind for talking in a higher voice to him , good job at not being suspect Y/N….

And you hated yourself even more for being awkward by presenting your hand to him. But he, on the other hand sensed your discomfort and made your move seem completely normal shaking your hand lightly and giving you a cute smile showing off his dimples.

“Namjoon,…. And those two are Jungkook and Taehyung, and I hate to be the one breaking it to you but we’re probably gonna have a hard time keeping them calm.”

“Oh… Okay” You just ended , looking to the two guys involved in the previous water fight, and looking back to Namjoon’s face. He was calm and put you at ease. Hargh you were staring , good job on not being a freak Y/N .

The one all covered in jean from head to toe approached you, and ever so silently spoke to you.

“Hate to be a bother Y/N, but can I have a bucket to wring out my sponge, please?”

“Huh Yeah of course huh-hu….”

“Yoongi’s the name…”

“Oh huh well yeah let me get that from Gladys to you okay I’ll be back in just a sec Yoongi.”

He nodded very calm much to your dismay as you were starting to feel anxious about advising Gladys for more employees, maybe you should have just shut it.

You entered the store who basked in a sunny light as the morning was starting to begin for most of other people’s in the city.

At the register was one of the new employees, he wore a plaid skirt and converse’s with a white thee and jean shirt. You couldn’t believe how gracious his lips draw themselves on his face. They looked pillowy and as dreamy as the six other’s man out there waiting for you.

“Huh hello ? You might remember me from earlier ? Y/N the foremost employee?”

“Of course I do you’re the sweet mango! “

“I’m sorry what ?”

“The sweet mango ! The color of your sweatshirt look alike a mango!”

“I-I Yeah it does…”

“Would you like another nickname maybe? I’m sorry if this one doesn’t fit your style haha. What about little mouse ?”

“Do I look like a little mouse ?”

“No ,you look like a fucking rat”

Said another voice coming from behind you.

“I beg you pardon?”

You turn over to the masculine voice behind you to find yourself facing a chest. Your eyes flew up to the face of the stranger, ready to take down any bratty client. And you were surprised to face a smiling shit eating brunette man glancing down at you . He was snickering and looking at you like he was mentally undressing you with his eyes.

“Yah ! Jin ! Don’t be rude to our new friend!”

You look down to the content in his arms, some sandwiches squeezed between bottles of water.

“Wait your on job duty ! Why aren’t you with the others ?” You started to take over yourself and focus on your task, keeping everything organized.

“Some of us forgot to bring our lunch to work this morning , so I volunteered to go for it , but you’ve been blocking the line too preoccupied to talk to mister big flirt over there.”

He gestured at the cashier.

“We weren’t flirt-“

“You totally were!” Gladys interrupted you coming out from the back of the shop with several boxes of energy bars .

“Gladys I would ne-“

“Don’t lie to me girl ! Okay Jimin go fill up the shelves with those and Jin , you’re lucky you have a nice face, it’s on the house for today so go back to work will you now?”

“Sure thing Gladys! Thank you so much !” He offered her a wink before smirking down at you , going back to his devices.

“AND SHE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A RAT! BUT YOU SURE TALK LIKE A BRATT!!!” Shouted Gladys at Jin, while a girl was approaching him to take care of her car and asking for his number. He was a blushing mess and Tae had to intervene to talk an eligible sentence to, the poor lost girl, after that.

“Now, Y/N what do you need sweetheart? I mean other than Jimin’s number of course?” She had said it loud enough for Jimin to hear it and bringing a cute smile on his face content of his accomplishments.

“Gladys please stop. “ You warned her with a tired face. She maybe looked old but she was fearless for sure .

“I need extra buckets for the boys, please.”

She leaved the register for what felt only two seconds before bringing over 5 extra buckets for you , to share.

“Thank you , you’re a life savior!”

“I know , should have started a sect when it was trendy.”

You left laughing to her dumb joke , but not before quickly glancing to Jimin. After that event you formed three distinct groups between all of you to get their heads in the game.

But with Jimin busy with helping out Gladys around the store, one of them was standing by himself.

“Okay since your alone I’ll help out for today.”

“Really? Thank you so much I was worried I’ll found myself alone when everyone’s having fun in groups.”

You looked around to indeed found them more busy playing around then actively work in silence .

“Yeah well normally having so much fun isn’t part of the job but I don’t want to kill the mood.”

“I’m Hoseok by the way but you can call me Hobi ! “ He said with a heart shaped smile.

“Y/N. Haha did you had to see Jimin assigning you a nickname too?”

“No this one’s for my crushes .” He said glancing up at you with stars shining eyes behind the comfort of his sunglasses.

“Yah! Hobi Does it mean I’m one of your freaking crushes?!” Yelled a not-so-speechless Jin , across the parking lot.

“Why don’t you come found out ?!” Yelled back a way too enthusiast Hoseok.

The day went by pretty quietly apart from those 7 agents of chaos you were stuck with from now.

Lunch came around pretty quickly and you all went to the back of the shop to have your break there , enjoying the nice breeze of the fan, while chatting.

“So , how come you’re all working here this summer?” You asked between bites of your meal.

“My aunt knows Gladys and told me she was recruiting , and since I was in need of a job I took it.” Said Jimin looking at you oh so charmingly.

“I have a thing for car wash.” Said Jin like it was completely normal.

“Your such a weirdo something hyung I swear… I was in need of a summer job saw the flyers by the campus and thought why not ? Here I am.”

Replied Jungkook slowly slurping down his noodles.

“We wanted to prove some sexist asshole that , no it wasn’t , a job only reserved to women.” Said a disgusted Namjoon swallowing quickly his part of the sandwich.

“I want to be a social entrepreneur.”

Said Taehyung leaving you with wide eyes.

“How is that related to bein-“

“If I succeed to make this place a rentable place from just the car wash then I could do anything.”

“And how would you do that ?” asked Jin dismissing his lunch to look over at Taehuyng.

“What about a photoshoot?”

[gallivantingheart]

the proposal pt.1

who?: jeonghan x (f)reader

word count: 1495

genre/s: fluff and a bit of fun

warnings: none!

synopsis: jeonghan has never been confused on how you feel about marriage - now it’s just a matter of how to do it.

a/n: just a fun diddy bc i love this sleepy man - no, not based off that movie with sandra bullock

note: bold italics = korean

You confuse him endlessly. More so than the likes of his cryptic self or round-about Jihoon. How you say action is your favourite genre but he catches you watching the same romance movie at least once every few weeks, singing and crying at the same parts. How your wardrobe is full of dark hoodies and you wear the same ripped jeans, but your nails are always sparkly and your draws have pastel blouses. You'll say you don't need romantic gestures, but almost always squeal when he drops flowers by your office. Or the fact you say you're bad at them but always pull the best tear-jerkers on him. Like the time you brought him dinner to the practice room - vase of flowers and all - at midnight while keeping him company, even though he knew you had a client presentation the next day. The comeback prep was gruelling, so yeah, he got a bit misty-eyed.

At least one thing he's not confused with is your opinion of marriage. Despite this comfort, even though you've been together for almost four years, you've never once brought up marriage, even casually. You cried though, when Mingyu and Chaewon got engaged at their anniversary party last year. Babbled wetly into his shoulder about how sweet love was, meant to be and the like - for the record, you were completely sober. Sobbed even longer as one of Chaewon's bridesmaids that Jeonghan had to collect you from the altar after they left the venue. And he's seen you look at apartments to share, linger on pinterest on a Saturday afternoon.

He wants it just as bad as you, but no idea how to broach it. You’ve talked about how you want a rescue cat when you move in together as well as the style of decor. Even said in passing at a park how you hope that your kids have his smile because it’s, “the most beautiful thing I get to see every day.” Jeonghan doesn’t want to overwhelm you with a grand public proposal, but he doesn’t know how to wow you like you do for him all the time. Jeonghan’s gotta be honest - he wants the whole shebang. Smiles, tears, blubbering; the lot.

He also realises that he wants it recorded for your mum when he calls her for her blessing. You moved a whole hemisphere away a year before the two of you met, to pursue a job in the entertainment industry. Something interesting and left of field found you in Korea working in concepts and marketing. So phone and video calls are a regular for the two of you. He’s also tried really hard over the years to improve his English, to bridge the gap with your family. Jeonghan thinks your mother is amazing, kind and funny - the kind of level head he expected to bring such a wonderful person like you into the world.

He’s English is nowhere near good enough for what he wants to say, so he asks for a familiar face to help out. Joshua is on the video call too, made in Shua’s clean dorm. Your mother looks a little surprised to not see you there. You both have the same texture of hair, but not much else.

“Jeonghan! How are you!” She waves.

He smiles at her enthusiasm. “Good thank you. How are you?”

“I’m really good, sweetheart. Bit of a weird time to call - everything okay? Where’s y/n?”

He sees her search the screen for her daughter, even so much as leaning side to side to try and see outside the frame. Some of her speech is still lost on him, so he looks to Joshua in question. He leans over to his ear.

“She’s wondering if everything is okay for you to be calling at this time.”

Jeonghan raises his brows and nods in understanding. Her expression changes as well, the lines around her eyes softening with the fading concern.

“It is okay. Y/N is at work. I...I have a question to ask you. Just us. It’s very important.” He twists his ring anxiously in his lap.

“Of course, what is it?”

Joshua can see the tension rising in Jeonghan’s shoulders, how quiet and hesitant he gets at the elder woman’s agreement. The way he looks at the woman, staring persistently. The American born member leans over with a smile.

“Hi y/n’s mum. It’s a bit of a speech, so I’ll be helping Jeonghan translate, okay?” He looks to his friend, nodding gently. “Jeonghan? Tell her.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a person like y/n... She’s kind and exciting and interesting and she makes me really happy. I hope I do the same for her. I can’t imagine my life now if she weren’t in it. I don’t want to lose all that. I would like your blessing in asking her to marry me.” Jeonghan says as clear as he can, without too much of his nerves or feelings getting in the way - usually an easy feat for him.

Joshua translates along the way and he picks up words here and there - happy and your name, of course. But he’s not watching his fellow member speak for once, instead analysing his potential mother-in-law’s reaction. He starts to jiggle his knee off the bed as he sees your mother’s expression roll from from a quirked brow to a warm smile, then watching her eyes go glassy and her chin wobble through said smile. Her hands go over her mouth once Joshua finishes and out of shot, his hand lies flat over Jeonghan’s on his sheets in a sign of comfort.

“I...I...yes. I would love to have you as part of the family officially. Of course you have my blessing.” Your mother pulls her hands away to murmur.

She fumbles to the side for tissues and Jeonghan looks to Joshua in shock. He heard a yes, but… Joshua is meanwhile beaming in return, laughing at his member’s expense.

“She would love to have you as part of the family. You have her blessing.”

Jeonghan grins, his chest so full and tense he feels like he might burst. Instead, he laughs, grasping shua’s shoulders to shake them

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

She shakes her head. “Of course I would say yes. You don’t know how much she talks about you when you aren’t there - how much she raved about you when the two of you first met. It was like the stories she used to make up as a little girl, come to life. I wish I was there to see her face when you ask.”

Jisoo translates and he laughs even more, elated being an understatement.

It took a little searching and contemplating on what kind of ring to get you. Nothing too big, because you used your hands for everything. Not gold, because you didn’t like the way it looked against your skin. He settles on loopholing the gold for white gold, something silver but reflective and a singular round diamond - only two carats or else you’d throw a fit at the mystery price. He gets a thin chain as well of the same material, knowing you were more likely to wear it round your neck than on your finger for fear of losing it. Seungkwan of all people was the one to help with the final decision, insisting on its chic simplicity and pretty glow.

Jeonghan decides on a little party to pop the question. Or as little as you can get with thirteen members and their partners as well as your friends and their plus ones. Under a guise of missing your friends and a celebration of your success with a client, he even whines that he’ll organise the food and drink. Everyone invited is in on it, of course, which heightens the stakes.

The box sits hot in his pocket or bag all week. All the members know about the little surprise coming up dance between trading their resident trickster or offering a helping hand. Seungkwan has pulled up as quite the miracle worker, his entertainment ties conjuring up a caterer on such short notice and Mingyu slipping the business card of the decorator of his engagement party - it’s a little worn from being worried in Seungcheol’s initial finding but that just adds to the charm. Like a group heirloom to be passed around.

Despite the client win, you’re still snowed under with new paperwork and contracts, so you’re none the wiser to the nerves brewing in your boyfriend which proves to be the perfect mix come the weekend.

He lets you sleep in even later than the two of you usually do, and encourages you to take up that nail salon voucher you’ve been humming and harring about - you deserve a treat, he whines. And when you shut the door gently, Jeonghan breathes a sigh of relief and an inhale of stress - now the fun really begins.

[razieltwelve]

The Best Present (RWBY AU Snippet)

Death sat in her temple and brooded. It wasn’t often that she brooded. She was normally more cheerful, and it was a good thing too. A depressed and broody Death usually meant a dead everything else. That said, she felt she was entitled to a bit of gloom and doom this time of year. In her lap, Zwei made a comforting sound and nudged her with his head.

“Hmm... I wish my temple was this grand and magnificent.”

Death turned her attention to the large man in red and white clothing who had strode through the doors of her temple. “Santa...”

Santa gave her a fond smile and gestured vaguely at the rest of the temple. “It’s a little bit dour don’t you think?”

Death chuckled. “Well... I am Death.” Her temple’s interior decor usually favoured red more than black, but this time of year was an exception. None of her clergy were old enough to remember when she’d first made the change, but they knew better than to question one of her few direct edicts. “Is this a business call?”

The jolly spirit of Christmas shook his head. “Not really, just a visit to an old friend.”

Old was an appropriate term. Of all the beings associated with civilisation, Santa was one of the oldest. He had existed ever since the first gift had been given while Death had existed since before the concept of time itself. To say that they were old friends was something of an understatement. After all, they were two of the most powerful cookie-loving entities in existence, and Death had been mistaken for him one more than one occasion due to her ability to seemingly go wherever she wanted and know whether or not people had been good or bad.

“I thought you’d be busy, you know, since it is Christmas Eve and all.”

Santa pulled two glasses of milk out of thin air along with two plates of cookies. He handed one glass to Death along with one of the plates of cookies. “We both know that I can be everywhere at once if I have to, maybe not all the time, but on this night, at least.”

Death dipped one of the cookies into the milk and took a bite. As expected of Santa, it tasted perfect. “So...?”

“It occurs to me,” Santa said. “That you’ve been a very good girl for a very, very, very long time, but you’ve never gotten a gift from me.”

Death chuckled. “You’re only supposed to give gifts to mortals.”

“True, but I am also supposed to bring Christmas cheer to all, so you can see my conundrum. You, one of my oldest and best friends, get sad every Christmas, which really won’t do.” Santa dipped one of his own cookies. “So I thought to myself, why not get Death a gift? True, I’m not as powerful as you are, but I’m not bound by the same restrictions either since my power isn’t truly mine in the way yours is yours.”

Death nodded. “The gifts you give people are determined by how good they’ve been. It’s such a part of your legend that it’s become a restriction of sorts.”

“A bothersome one at times,” Santa admitted. “But not in this case. And, as I’ve said, you’ve been a very good girl for aeons and aeons, so you’re due for something special.” Santa’s eyes crinkled. “Now, I can't make any promises, but you’ve built up a lot of credit, so to speak. Would you like to cash it in?”

Death raised one eyebrow. “Cash it in?”

“There’s not a lot I can give you with only one year’s worth of being good, but if you count all of the Christmases in the past where you’ve been good and never gotten anything... well, I might be able to get you something you’ve always wanted although I can’t make any promises.” Santa’s smile was warm and kind. “So... want to give it a try?”

“I suppose I could.” Death chuckled. “It’s not like I’ve got any other use for the ‘credit’ I’ve built up.”

“Even so, I need to hear you say it.” Santa grinned. “Restrictions and rules and all that.”

Death shrugged. “All right. Very well. I, Death, formally announce that I wish to use all of my accumulated Christmas credit to get the best gift ever. Will that do?”

“It just might.” Santa gave Death the rest of his cookies. He’d only eaten one. “I know that this time of year might make you sad, but on Boxing Day, take a walk around. You’ll be surprised by the happiness you find.”

X    X     X

Death walked around disguised as a mortal. Zwei was with her, disguised as a mortal dog. The pair of them were walking through one of the busier entertainment districts. It was Boxing Day, so there were actually quite a few people out and about. Most of them were families eager to watch a movie or have a Boxing Day lunch with their extended family at a restaurant.

Her lips twitched. She wondered what Weiss would think about movies and modern restaurants and all the rest of it. The queen had been quite amazed when Death had told her about some of the things the future would bring, and she’d never been entirely sure if Death had been joking or serious. Ah. It had been so fun to tease Weiss.

Idly, she wondered what Santa would give her. After all, she was Death. There was very little she couldn’t simply get herself if she was so inclined. Of course, the one thing she wanted was one of the very few things she couldn’t get. For reasons that were now obvious to her, she was forbidden from interfering with the great Cycle that governed the death and rebirth of mortal souls. In a way it was a good thing. Otherwise, there was no end to the tampering she’d do to ensure Weiss came back to her.

Death sighed. She’d promised Weiss that she would wait for her. What was a thousand years to a god like her? What was ten thousand? But she hadn’t counted on how much she’d changed. Those years with Weiss... she’d stopped marking time the way gods did and started thinking about it in more mortal terms. And to a mortal a century was a long, long time, to say nothing of how long millennia felt.

Still, there was something nice about being out here. The families bustling back and forth, the people eager to enjoy a Boxing Day sale or two... it all had an atmosphere that was difficult for the fest of the year to match and -

Someone ran into her. It spoke volumes about how lost Death was in her thoughts that she hadn’t move out of the way. It wasn’t like anyone could hurt her, but she would normally have avoided a collision simply to avoid the hassle that often came when mortals bumped into one another. And the last thing she needed was for people to realise that a god walked amongst them. She got enough veneration at her temple. She didn’t need anymore here.

But all of those thoughts ceased to matter the moment she laid eyes on the person who’d bumped into her.

It was a young woman, one wearing an Atlas University sweater to help with the winter chill. And Death would have known her and her soul anywhere. 

Weiss.

“I am so sorry!” Weiss cried as she reached into her pockets for a handkerchief. “I got coffee all over you!”

Death belatedly noticed that Weiss had indeed spilled coffee all over her. Wait... coffee was normally hot enough to hurt mortals. “Um... ouch.”

Weiss blinked and stopped dabbing at the coffee on Death’s coat. “Um... ouch?” She winced as the very obvious stain on Death’s coat refused to lighten despite her efforts. “I think I’ve ruined your coat.”

“It’s fine.” Death was smiling like an idiot, but she didn’t care. Weiss was here. She was here. Unbidden, Santa’s words came back to her. He wasn’t bound by the same rules as she was, and his power, although fleeting, could be truly incredible given the right circumstances... like when giving a gift to someone with aeons of good behaviour saved up.

Weiss bit her lip. “It looks like an expensive coat though.” She looked about furtively, and Death fought the urge to kiss the frown off her face. Death didn’t give a crap about the coat. It was something she’d created with her power as part of her disguise. “Look... I feel bad about ruining your coat, and I do have some gift vouchers for the coffee shop over there.” She pointed. “Can I make it up to you?”

Coffee with Weiss? Death grinned. “I suppose you could.” At her feet, Zwei gave a happy bark. “Oh, and this is my dog.”

“He’s adorable!” Weiss bent down, and Zwei licked her hand. “Wow. It’s like he already knows me.”

“You’d be surprised.” Death’s grin widened. “So... tell me about yourself.”

X    X     X

Zwei watched as his mistress and Weiss talked over coffee. It had been a long time since he’d seen Death smile so much. He had suspected that this would be Santa’s gift. It was the only thing his mistress wanted that she could not get for herself despite her awesome powers... which was why he’d sought out Santa not long after his meeting with Death.

Even if Santa could somehow arrange a meeting between Death and Weiss, that still left them with a problem. At some point, Weiss would die again. If Death had to wait so long to see her again, well, it might be even worse this time than the last time.

But maybe there was a way to fix that...

And Zwei wasn’t called the best dog in Creation for nothing.

“So... you want to trade in all of your Christmas credit as well?” Santa had asked him.

Zwei had nodded. He would gladly trade in all his Christmases if it meant getting Weiss back more easily from now on. If Santa really could affect the Cycle, then maybe he could guarantee a more regular rebirth schedule for Weiss as well. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d be getting nothing out of it. It was Weiss. He loved having her around, and he was sure to get plenty of naps in her lap, belly rubs, and treats to compensate him for his trouble.

“You really are a good boy, aren’t you?” Santa nodded. “Very well. I’ll do what I can. With all the credit you’ve saved up, it should be enough.” He scratched Zwei behind the ears. “And maybe pay a visit to the North Pole soon. It’s been ages since you and Rudolph got to hang out.”

X    X     X

Author’s Notes

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

[kookscrescent]

Mile High (m) │ knj

➤ pairing│Namjoon x female reader ➤ summary│You’re a nervous flyer, but your boyfriend seems to find a way to help distract you from the fact that you are 35.000 feet in the air.  ➤ rating│NC-17, mature, 18+ ➤ genre│smut, fluff, boyfriend au, idol au ➤ warnings│protected sex, bathroom sex on a private jet, a tiny bit of dirty talk, slight mentions of anxiety (nothing major i promise! - mainly the fear of flying), semi public sex, joining the mile high club ➤ word count│5.3k│semi edited ➤ release date│January 3rd 2020 ➤ disclaimer│This is all fiction! Nothing mentioned/written are facts and/or real! So please just keep that in mind when reading and enjoy! Thank you ♡

⇥ Masterlist

A small but audible ding sounds throughout the cabin, indicating that it is okay for everyone to unbuckle their safety belts. Everyone around you does just that. The various clicking noises from the buckles flying through the air.

You make no move to undo yours.

The person beside you stirs, turning his body towards you. “It’s safe to unbuckle now,” Namjoon tells you quietly. His voice soothing to the nerves cursing through your body. “Are you still feeling nervous?” He goes on to ask you.

You nod. You face turning to him and being met with the gentlest of smiles. “That’s understandable. It’s your first time in a private jet… it’s smaller than a normal plane so its normal to be nervous.”

Nervous is a bit of an understatement. You are a nervous flyer in general. Every time you have to get on a plane your entire body stiffens, your toes and fingers begin to tingle and your breathing becomes erratic. More often than not, you need a person with you to help you calm down or else you are sure to have a panic attack.

And the fact that your boyfriend has just dragged you on to a small private jet just doubles all of those feelings. It would have been fine if it was just you and Namjoon traveling alone, but it’s not. You are joined by the rest of the group, and you don’t want to cause any trouble for them or be a burden by showing your anxiety about flying. You know your anxiety is “mild” compared to what some people experience and go through, so you did the best you could to try and push it aside. That led to you not saying anything in fear that your breathing would go haywire and instead you tried to keep busy by eating.

Namjoon of course noticed that you weren’t being your usual self. Normally, you are so talkative that he sometimes has to shut you up by dragging you away from a conversation or else you could go on for days. So seeing you act differently made him stay close to you. He questioned why you were acting differently and for that you are thankful, because you honestly don’t think you would have been able to give him an answer without shedding a few tears.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper feeling like you need to apologize.

Namjoon frowns, “You don’t ever have to be sorry for fearing something!” His voice has dropped an octave. It’s his serious voice. “The mere fact that you are facing one of your fears is admirable!” He tells you and softly brushes a piece of hair away from your forehead.

“Thank you,” you murmur and he presses a quick kiss to your lips.

Feeling like Namjoon has giving you some strength with his words, you reach and unbuckle the safety belt.

“There…” you say mostly to yourself but Hoseok, who is sitting directly opposite you, hears you as well and he offers you a smile.

“Nervous flyer?” He asks.

“Yeah…”

“Don’t worry, the flight will be over before you even know it.” Hoseok tries to ease your nerves, but you know it’s easier said than done. You still have 10 and a half hours left before you land in New York and there really isn’t much for you to do to distract yourself when you are 35.000 feet in the air.

You could try watching a movie like Jimin and Jin are doing, or you could pull out your book from your bag and make an attempt at reading a few chapters, but you know none of that will work. It usually never does.

You could always try to sleep the hours off… but that will result in the hell of jet lag when you eventually land.

You could ask Namjoon to listen to some music with you? At the idea you glance next to you, seeing him pull out his small notebook and pen and his headphones – he’s going to work on writing lyrics.

Your stomach sinks but you can’t help but admire him. No matter where he is or what he is doing, he finds the time to work.

Heavily you sigh and slump back into the comfortable seat. You really don’t want to disturb him when he is writing, knowing that once he gets in the zone, he like to stay in it until he himself pulls out of it.

Guess you will just have to settle on staring into the air for now. You can do that for a bit, and it will give you some time to try and calm your nerves as well.

Closing your eyes you try to relax. You try to think of a happy memory and instantly you land on the first time you and Namjoon met. Two years ago, to be exact, you met him by accident at a small bookstore in Seoul. You were on the haunt for a novel to read but the one you really wanted was up to high on a shelf you couldn’t reach.

Enter Namjoon coming to your rescue. He had noticed you from a distance, struggling to reach the book by yourself and decided to help you. He had been so quiet walking up to you that you hadn’t heard him and didn’t even notice him until he was right behind you reaching past you to get the book.

Startled, you had turned around coming face to face with his collarbones. He handed you the book with the most handsome smile you have ever seen on a person and instantly your hands started shaking as you took the book from his grasp.

At the time you didn’t recognize him and he later told you that that was the reason why he didn’t venture far away after giving you the book. He had been curious and wanted to get to know you more, but he had been too nervous to ask you out after just having met you. He was afraid of coming off as a creep.

After that he had quietly retreated to his seat but you would be lying if you said that you hadn’t been stealing a couple glances his way and one time your eyes even met and you had been so embarrassed and went to hide on the other side of the store.

But after a while Namjoon had found you again, sitting against one of the shelves with the book open in your hands. He had finally gathered courage to ask you out, and that is exactly what he did.

You smile at the memory. Clearly remembering being sceptic when he had asked you out for a coffee. You weren’t really into the whole idol scene and you still didn’t recognize him, so to you it all seemed a little… weird? You have never been one to get asked out by guys you’ve just met before, but despite everything your parents have told you about strangers, you eventually accepted his invitation for coffee.

And now two years later, here- *thud*!

You are immediately brought back to the present time in the small cabin when the plane abruptly lowers. Your heart instantly starts to beat faster and your hands grip onto the seat for dear life.

Namjoon senses your change in posture and drops the pen in his hand and turns to you. Grabbing your hand in his, he tries to calm you down. “It’s just a little turbulence.” He continuously strokes the skin on your hand with his thumb – creating a little comfort in your body knowing that he understands. Slowly you start to relax again.

“I know, I know… I just,” breathing deeply you try to find words to justify how you are feeling, but truth is you know that it’s just turbulence, but your mind immediately goes into panic mode. “I need to find a way to distract myself.”

Namjoon switches his hold on your hand to interlacing your fingers. “What about watching a movie?” He suggests.

You smile, “That usually never works. I can never seem to focus enough on the movie to actually distract myself.” You tell him, the corners of your lips turning down to a frown. “Same goes for reading a book.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? We can talk and listen to some music together.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt you when you were writing.”

“Screw that!” He says and makes a show of closing his notebook. “I don’t have a deadline and I already have more than enough songs and melodies written for the next three albums. You are not feeling well so I would rather use my time trying to get you mind off all your worries.”

You can’t help but shy away from his eyes. The way he looks at you so adoringly when saying this has your stomach whirling with butterflies of the good kind. How you ever came to deserve being with someone as perfect as Namjoon is beyond you.

“No Joon, it’s fine… really, I don’t wa-“

“I’ve got it.” He suddenly lowers his voice so only you can hear him – even though everyone else is too occupied doing their own thing or sleeping.

“Go to the bathroom and wait for me there,” he whispers, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “I’ll knock six times so you will know its me.”

“What? Why?” You question.

“Just go.”

He makes a maneuver to pull your hand up and your body automatically follows. Standing from your seat you, you step past Namjoon and scurry down the narrow pathway between the seats and the rest of the boys. No one seems to take any care in it, probably thinking that you are just going to use the restroom. To say that you are confused is an understatement.

When you get to the bathroom, you double check that it is vacant before going inside. You gasp as the door closes behind you. This has got to be the most spacious and luxurious airplane bathroom you have ever seen! You could fit like ten people in here!

Wow!

“There’s a shower?!” You gasp with no one to answer you.

In awe, amazed at today’s technology as you step further inside the bathroom, trying to understand the concept of putting such a bathroom in a small jet. Either you are really stupid, or your brain is too wrapped around your anxiety and is drained from energy because you can’t seem to wrap your brain around this. You would be afraid to even sit on the toilet!

Footsteps emerge from the other side of the door shortly after and you wait. Someone begins knocking.

*knock* *knock* *knock* *knock* *knock*

You wait for the sixth knock before opening the door…

… *knock*

Namjoon slips through the open door, carefully making sure to lock it behind him. You stare at him in confusion, your brows knit together.

“Well?” you ask him expectantly.

“I know how to make you think of something else.”

“Okay… how?” You aren’t really sure what being in the bathroom has to do with that.

After a few moments of silence he answers you with a sly smile on his lips, “Let’s have sex.”

“W-What?” you stutter.

“Let’s have sex.” He repeats and steps closer to you.

“We’re on a plane Namjoon!” You whisper harshly, afraid that someone will walk by the door and hear you.

“So? Lots of people have sex on planes,” he tells you with no care. “It will help you take your mind off of things for a while.”

“Yes but… but the guys are right outside that door!” you sharply point to the closed door. Surely they would be able to hear every single sound you were to make in here. Right? “They’ll hear us!”

“So what? Do you honestly think they haven’t already heard us at the dorm?”

“Oh my god,” you murmur in embarrassment.

Namjoon takes two steps and your chests come in contact. He gently backs you up against the sink and rests his hands on your hips. “Have you never been the slightest bit curious to what it’s like having sex on a plane, huh?” he places a kiss just below your ear, his soft lips tickling your skin. Your hands find his wrists for support. “I can help you baby – another kiss – let me help you forget.” His voice has turned to a hoarse whisper, his words rolling through your body like an electric current.

“But they’ll he-“

He shushes you with a kiss to your lips. He lingers there for a moment letting you feel him before he pulls away. “Stop thinking about them,” he whispers, “right now it’s just you and I… okay?”

Even though he has worked himself into a hot mess, Namjoon waits for your confirmation to proceed, and only when you nod and a softly whispered yes follows, does he reconnect your lips.

Barely grazing your lips, he gently lures you in and as your lips become one all your previous worries seem to fade to the back of your mind. Moving together in sync, you move your hands from his wrists to the back of his neck where you bury your fingers in his soft locks.

He has been growing out his hair lately, and you must say that you agree with the decision!

Gradually, your kiss grows heavier. Every breath gets mingled and Namjoon’s hands travel from your hips and down your thighs. Carefully, he lifts you and sets you down on the counter space behind you.

At this angle you can fully bring him to you, your chests smushing together and you wrap your legs around his narrow waist.

His hands never rest – this time cupping both sides of your jaw to tilt your head to the side. The kiss gets heavier. You tongue is battling with his for dominance but in the end, you just give up and let him win. You like it when he takes the lead anyways.

Parting from your lips, he showers you in wet pecks down the side of your left cheek, across your jaw and down your neck, till he reaches your collarbone. There he gently bites the skin and the slight sting it leaves behind is quickly soothed by his tongue.

Moving his lips up again, he settles on a spot just below your jaw. Your sweet spot. Namjoon knows fully well that this spot makes you see stars, and of course he doesn’t waste any time in making your head spin by sucking on the tender skin there.

You gasp. The grip you have on his hair tightening and you crane your neck to allow him better access.

All your previous thoughts and worries are flying out of the door one by one with each suck and kiss to your neck. After two years of being in a relationship, Namjoon knows your body in and out – sometimes you even wonder if he knows your body better than you do. The possibility is there!

You are so distracted by your own thoughts, that you don’t even register Namjoon undoing the string on your sweatpants until his hand is already down the front of your pants – his fingers skimming over the front of your panties.

You already know where he is headed with this, “Namjoon we don’t have time for that,” you gaspingly tell him.

But he just ignores you. His fingers continuing to skim over your soaked panties… once, twice… before he pushes them aside to allow his fingers to feel your wetness. Doing your best, you attempt to hold back the groan that is threatening to leave you throat.

Despite everything you are still well aware that more than a handful of people are on the other side of the door, and they will most likely be able to hear you moaning if you don’t hold back.

He rises from the spot on your neck, your eyes connecting and exchanging a heated look before he slots his lips over yours in a lazy kiss. Two of his fingers have found their way through your soaked slit and down to your equally if not even more soaked entrance. Automatically, you are clenching around nothing but air, waiting for them moment when his fingers enter you.

You were so against the idea of having sex in an airplane bathroom only minutes ago, but with each kiss, each touch and each breath, you are becoming more and more desperate.

“Namjoon,” you whine, breaking your kiss as a rushed breath fills the room when he finally enters you with two of his fingers.

He gives you no time to adjust to the intrusion. His fingers quickly working up a rhythm that leaves you short for breath. Clinging on to him, your hands fisting in his hair and his t shirt, you bite down on his shoulder when he brings his thumb into the mix. He works it over your clit in soft circles and he slows down the pace of his fingers to match.

He slants his other hand over your clothed breast, squeezing and massaging – a pleasure added to the already burning euphoria rushing through your body. You groan, “Please,” you whisper without really knowing what you want.

You lock eyes, “What is it baby?” he breaths, planting a kiss on the corner of your lips. Down south his fingers never seize – working you softly and slowly.  

“You!” your entire body is heavy with the desire for him to do something, anything! “Just…You!”

He responds, not with words, but by looking deep into your eyes while he begins scissoring his fingers inside of you. With every push he can feel you clenching around his digits, your body craving his touch. Curling his fingers upward, he hit a tender spot that has you seeing white and the moan that escapes is inevitable.

“God, I love the sounds you make, but you have to keep it to a minimum baby.”

“I’m – ugh fuuck – I’m not going to last much longer!” you desperately mumble, trying to hold on to him as the pleasure fills you from head to toe.

The tension is building in your stomach, and your hips carelessly buck against his hand trying to create more friction to set off your orgasm. And just as the tension is about to snap, Namjoon pulls away from you completely. You whine, closing your eyes and aimlessly trying to pull him back to you.

“Why?!”

He chuckles as he battles with your fumbling hands, trying to undo his pants. “Don’t you want the real deal baby?” you nod before he is even done asking the question and no sooner do you hear the faint sound of his pants pooling around his ankles.

“Hop down and turn around,” he instructs, reaching for the condom that lays next to the sink. You hadn’t even noticed it laying there until now.

With shaky legs, you hop off the counter and automatically your sweatpants slide down your legs and you kick them off when they reach your feet. Hooking your thumbs in the side of your panties, you slide them off as well.  

Behind you, you hear the familiar sound of foil ripping and Namjoon seethes himself with the latex, “Don’t wanna make a mess,” he says and steps up behind you, his hands grabbing your ass to pull you against him.

You can feel his hard erection pressing against you, the latex somewhat of a disappointment, but he is right – now is not the time to make a mess.

“Please,” you whimper, your eyes connecting in the mirror in front of you.

“Please what? What do you want?”

“You. Please, just… I need you.”

Namjoon’s eyes drop to where he is fisting himself, giving his cock a few pumps before he lightly shifts and pushes the head inside of your waiting entrance. Already, you are tensing around him, making it harder for him to push inside fully, but with two sharp thrusts, he seethes himself fully.

Both of you groan in unison when he hits home, and Namjoon has to calm himself with a deep breath and concentrate hard on not coming on the spot. You are clenching and unclenching around his cock like crazy. You didn’t know the extent of your desperation and need, but your body is clearly speaking for itself.

Slowly, he starts a rhythm. A rhythm that stretches you out so perfectly and each subsequent stroke is making your eyes roll to the back of your head. You whimper his name a little too loud and you bite your lip. But the shame that was starting to fill your body quickly washes away with the look of pure lust and love Namjoon sends you through the mirror.

Namjoon pulls you flush against his chest. One of his arms reaching around your shoulder to your chest to keep you upright. With the same hand he grabs your breast, while the other sneaks down your body to the place where you are connected. His nimble fingers quickly find your clit, drawing quick circles over it.

You can already feel the telltales of your orgasm. “Are you gonna cum around my cock?” Namjoon whispers against your ear, his hot breath sending tingles down your spine.

“Yeah!” You erratically nod and drop your head back against his shoulder.

“Good girl,” he praises.

He speeds up. His hips snapping against your ass and the sound of skin on skin filling the bathroom. His fingers speed up too, matching the rhythm of his cock pounding in and out of your heat. He is drawing whimper after whimper from your lips and they gradually become louder as he keeps going.

Needing you to keep quiet, he moves his hand from your breast to cover your mouth. With the immense pleasure cursing through your body, your legs feel like jelly and you desperately try to hold on to anything in reach to not fall.

With one final punching thrust, your muffled whimpers turn to moans and you crash into euphoria. You are shaking wildly in Namjoon’s arms as he rides you through the waves, his cock nor his fingers on your clit seizing their movements.

Gasping for air, you slump forward onto the cold counter space, as Namjoon chases after his own orgasm – his cock continuously pounding you. Every muscle inside of you is vibrating, clenching and unclenching from the aftershock of your orgasm.

“Fuuuuck,” you hear him hiss before his head drops to your shoulder and his warm seeds fills up the condom. “Shit!”Namjoon rests his forehead on your back as he comes down, trying to catch his breath.

Eventually, he pulls away and slips from your heat. Instantly you miss the fell of him inside of you, the stretch and the way he fills you up.

You close your eyes as you bask in the post orgasm feelings. Every inch of you feels warm, your eyelids heavy and your heart full. If you had been in a bed right now, you would have turned around and cuddled all night long.

Faintly, you hear Namjoon throwing away the condom and pulling on his pants, “Are you okay?” he gently asks you when you make no move to move from your position.

With your eyes still closed, you nod, “Yeah…”

Namjoon can’t help but laugh at your fucked-out state. With your pants and underwear around your ankles and the lazy smile on your lips. You look too adorable for him to handle!

“Come on you,” he coos.

You protest when he gently peels you back to stand up. “You can’t stay in here forever,” he tells you and end up laughing when you pout.

He presses a kiss to your pouting lips before helping you clean up and get dressed. The hole time you pout. In this moment you are feeling so at ease and so relaxed that you don’t want to go back out there in case any previous feelings come back.

Running his thumb over the frown between your brows, Namjoon pulls you in for a hug.

“You smell like sex,” you say, your comment muffled against his shirt.

His chest shakes with laughter, “Yeah, well so do you,” releasing you, he reaches past you, “here, use this.”

“What is it?” you ask, taking the small perfume like bottle from him.

“It’s air freshener.”

“You’re kidding!” you deadpan. “You want me to spray air freshener on myself?”

“And on me.”

“Ew!”

“Oh come on,” he takes the bottle from your hands and sprays himself three times. “It’s either this or go back out there smelling like sex.”

Reluctantly, you take the bottle and give yourself a few sprays. It doesn’t smell bad – it leaves a sort of fresh and foresty smell lingering behind. But now you just smell like you’ve been in the woods camping for a week.

It’s better than smelling like sex, you guess.

“Ready to go out?” he asks.

“In a second,” you reply and turn to the mirror. The reflection that greets you is somewhat of a mess. Smoothing your hands down your hair you try to tame the stray pieces. Fortunately, you opted to not wear any makeup this morning, so you don’t have to worry about your mascara sitting halfway down your face or your foundation being smudge.

“Now I’m ready,” you say when you realize that this is as good as it’s going to get at this point.

With a bowed head you follow Namjoon back to your seats. No one looks up in curiosity when you both sit back down, everyone still occupied with their own things or sleeping. Maybe no one noticed you were both gone.

You sneak a look around the cabin, Jin is still watching a movie but Jimin alongside with Yoongi has fallen asleep. Jimin’s headphones are still in his ears and his feet are tugged under neat him. Jungkook is also asleep, stretched out on the seat in front of Jin. You can lightly hear him snoring. Cute.

Your eyes lock with Hoseok when you turn back. You don’t know why, but your cheeks instantly heat up. Maybe it’s because he is the only one that is not wearing any headphones? There could be a good chance that he heard what went down in the bathroom just seconds ago.

“Are you feeling any better?” he surprises you by asking.

“I-I am, thank you.”

“Good,” his innocent smile makes you feel a little more at ease. Without any further words he returns to the writing in the notebook in front of him.

Leaning back in your seat, you feel more relaxed than when you first sat down. Namjoon was right. The sex really did help you take your mind off of things and has helped you feel more comfortable.

Next to you, Namjoon offers you a bottle of water which you gladly accept and chuck about half of it before setting it down.

“Thirsty?” Namjoon quirks amused.

“Shut up,” you lightly push his shoulder with yours and hide your face behind your hair.

“Do you want to listen to some music?” he asks.

Shaking your head, you decline his offer, “No, it’s okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” you nod with a smile. “I’m gonna try and read my book.”

Namjoon accepts your explanation and takes the headphones for himself. Within seconds he begins jotting down lyrics on the white paper in front of him.

You pull your book from you bag. It’s a book you’ve only just started reading, and you don’t know how far you will get on this flight, but you might as well give it a try now that your body and mind seems to not focus so much on being 35.000 feet in the air.

You are only a few sentences into the book when Jungkook stirs awake on the other side of the aisle. His sleepy figure sitting up and rubbing his eyes from sleep. He looks around, almost confused, before he stands and walks the path to the bathroom.

With wide eyes, your stomach drops. What is you left something behind in there? Did you remember to put on your panties?! Yes, yes! You remembered! Thank god! Shit! What did Namjoon do with the condom? No, he would obviously have thrown that in the bin!

You tell yourself that there is no need to worry so much and you focus back on your book, turning a page and starting on a new chapter.

Minutes later Jungkook comes trudging back, his face a little paler than before. He comes to a stop in the middle of the aisle, right next to Namjoon’s seat.

Jungkook looks at Namjoon waiting for him to look back up at him and when he eventually does Jungkook speaks, “The next time you have sex in the bathroom remember to throw away the used condom properly.”

Red! Your entire face goes as red as a tomato! Namjoon didn’t throw away the condom?!

“Sorry,” Namjoon mumbles slightly embarrassed. “Did you…?”

“No I did not!” Jungkook shrieks in disgust, and on a laugh Namjoon leaves his seat to go take care of the situation in the bathroom.

You are left behind, mortified and you wish there was some way for you to hide, but for now you can only settle on hiding behind your hair. You don’t dare look around you, but you can feel both Jungkook and Hoseok’s eyes on you as you continue to remain silent.

“Decided to join the mile high club huh?” It’s Hoseok’s bemused voice that fills the silence just as Namjoon returns.

“I…”

“Stop embarrassing her Hoseok,” Namjoon tells him trying to sound stern, but you still catch the slight smirk in his voice. “It was my idea.”

You turn to the comfort of your boyfriend. Burying your face in his shoulder as you let your face cool down. You can feel his shoulder shaking with laughter.

“You are enjoying this, aren’t you?!” you ask pulling away.

He tries, but fails to not laugh, “A little bit.”

“You’re mean,” you pout with your arms crossed over your chest.

“It’s not that big of a deal babe,” he assures you. He pulls your arms from your chest to hug you closer to him. Your pout remains on your lips as you continue to sulk in embarrassment. “Everyone has sex.”

“Who is having sex?” Everyone turns to Jin who has finished his movie and is now joining your conversation.

“Joon and ____ had sex in the bathroom and forgot to throw away the condom.” Hoseok tells him.

“Ew!” Jin comments with a scrunched nose.

“And Jungkook found it.”

“Ew!” Jin repeats.

“Guys…” you whine. You don’t know whether to cry or laugh at this.

Namjoon repeats his previous words, “It’s no big deal ____.”

Obviously, you know that, but it’s still embarrassing to have one of his members – one of your friends – find the condom you used and call you out for it in front of everyone!

“Yeah, it’s no big deal,” Jungkook agrees from his seat. “Everyone has sex. Just, please for the love of god, remember to throw away your condoms if you ever wanna do it again! That is not a sight I ever wanna se again!” He shudders at the memory.

“Okay fine!” you grunt. “Can we please talk about something else now?!” you beg them.

They all agree to let it go and a silence settles over the cabin. Lazily, you open your book once again and try to zone in on the words on the page. It works for a little while, until Hoseoks voice rings through the cabin making everyone but you laugh.

“So, who else have joined the mile high club?”

“You are really not going to let this go, are you?” you ask with a groan.

“Nope,” Jin pops.

This flight suddenly got very long for an entirely different reason.

Thank you for reading! Remember, every reblog and comment truly motivates creators to keep on creating!

All Rights Reserved © 2020 Kookscrescent

[thebladeblaster]

Heart of the Vanguard Concept Chapter part 1

(Concept chapters are basically just to test to see if people will like a fic idea I have. This fic crosses over Yugioh Duel Monsters and Cardfight Vanguard.)

(Note: Besides the god cards this fic will stick to tcg/ocg effects for simplicity. People can also still stupidly set cards in face up defense position.)

Yugi double checked that he had everything with him before making his trip. He tiptoed out of the door he sweat dropped as he felt a fiery glare aimed directly at him. It was his grandfather Solomon Mutou holding a broom as he had been previously sweeping with tightly.

“You're not going to another card shop, are you Yugi?”, his grandfather questioned, remembering the invitation his grandson had received earlier.

“W-what…of course not grandpa. I’m just uh...going to hangout with my friends. You know Jonouchi and the others.”, Yugi replied nervously.

“Um hm...well have fun!”, Solomon replied with a wave before going back to sweeping.

After closing the door the young Mutou took a sigh of relief. He met up with his friends Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda in the subway.

“Took you long enough Yug!”, Jonouchi said.

“Sorry, you know how my grandpa gets at the idea of us going to other card shops.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...reminds me of when we went to Duke’s.”, Honda replied, sweat dropping.

“Hopefully Jonouchi doesn’t end up in a dog suit this time.”, Anzu teased.

“Shut up!!! No one’s making a dog out of me this time!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Better hope we don’t run into Kaiba on the way.”, Honda replied much to Jonouchi’s chagrin.

“If I see Kaiba I’ll wipe the floor with him!!!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Guys the bus.”, Yugi pointed out as he saw everyone boarding.

They all hastily ran onto the train so they didn’t miss it. They took a sigh of relief as Yugi looked out the window. The buildings passed by like a blur. It always felt weird for him to leave Domino City. He always seemed to be off on some strange supernatural adventure every time but this time it was different. He was going to see friends. A definite nice change of pace.

After they finally got out of the subway they were greeted with a big expansive city.

“How are we supposed to find that tiny card shop in this mess?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“Well, we got there once. We just have to find where we are so we can find it.”, Anzu replied, looking over at the map.

“Maybe we're better off calling Misaki for directions. She has a perfect memory after all.”, Honda suggested.

“Oh, that’s right!”, Anzu gasped, as she brought out her phone and started calling her number.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered.

“Oh, Anzu. Are you guys almost here?”, Misaki asked, though there was an extreme amount of background noise.

“We're having a bit of trouble. We have just arrived outside the station and this place is a bit...big. I was wondering if you could give some directions to the shop?”, Anzu asked.

“Hmm...I guess the city is pretty big. Alright.”, Misaki replied as she started giving them directions.

They were astounded at how accurate it all was. She wasn’t even there but she was leading them perfectly throughout the city. On the way they stopped as they saw a familiar face.

“Gah, Kai?!”, Yugi gasped.

It was indeed the aloof fighter Toshiki Kai. Along with him was a blond haired teen with grey eyes. He wore the same school uniform as Kai. Jonouchi growled as he saw the older teen.

“You guys are here?”, Kai questioned, completely ignoring Jonouchi’s growling.

“Yeah, Aichi invited us to come over remember?”, Anzu replied and Kai simply nodded.

“Man, this is so cool to think we’d meet the King of Games in the flesh!”, the blond said.

“Hehe. I’m not that great, I'm just an average teen like you guys.”, Yugi replied with no hint of irony.

“Cool. Name’s Taishi Miwa. Looks like you guys already know Kai. Though let’s be real who doesn’t?”, Miwa introduced.

“Yeah. My name’s Mutou Yugi. Oh wait...you already know that.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...average.”, Kai replied blandly with a hint of sarcasm, rolling his eyes as he remembered Battle City.

“Well...average kid with an ancient magic necklace.”, Yugi replied awkwardly.

“Uh huh...you're just as ‘normal’ as Aichi and Ren.”, Kai replied, which made Yugi sweat drop.

“I’m gonna clean your clock in a duel!”, Jonouchi said to Kai.

“I don’t need another hyper kid like Kamui constantly challenging me to duels.”, Kai replied.

“Grr! I’m no kid!”, Jonouchi replied.

“Really? You sure act like one.”, Kai replied.

“Down boy. You can duel him at the shop.”, Honda said as he put his arm on Jonouchi’s shoulder.

“Hey I’m no dog!!!”, Jonouchi yelled as Honda pushed him along.

Eventually they stopped before a small card shop named ‘Card Capital’. It had a poster on the front and a sliding door. The small shop was completely crowded by people clamoring to get inside.

“Hehe, maybe Misaki can give grandpa some pointers on how to get his shop this busy.”, Yugi commented.

He jumped as some turned around to see him.

“Oh my god, is that the King of Games!”

“He’s here!”

“I thought he was taller?”

“Would he really be in a place like this?”

The door slid open and they saw Misaki on the other side. She had on a white dress shirt and a orange apron with two Cs.

“Are you guys gonna come in or will I have to give your spots to one of these guys?”, Misaki questioned.

“No need. Come on guys!”, Anzu said.

They all walked into the shop. It was just as tiny as they remembered. It was full of posters advertising various card games. It had lots of chairs and tables including two standing tables. The front desk had various card packs and there was a display on the other side with various assortments of rare cards. The shop was packed with various people dueling. It was rather lively for such a small shop.

“Is it always like this?”, Anzu asked.

“Nosy? Yes. Packed? Only when we host shop tournaments here.”, Misaki replied.

“You scoundrel!!!”, they turned their attention to a familiar voice.

They walked over to see Aichi and Kamui. The latter of which shook the former by the collar. Aichi laughed it off raising up his hands in surrender. A redheaded girl with blue eyes was trying to diffuse the situation. She wore a pink top with an orange tie and a blue skirt.

“Kamui calm down.”, the redheaded girl said.

Aichi sweat dropped as the younger boy continued to shake him.

“It’s fine Kamui. I think you’re overreacting.”, Aichi replied.

“Yeah, he just beat Emi in a duel.”, a teen with brown hair and eyes wearing a grey uniform replied.

“He just?”, Kamui questioned.

“Yeah…”, Aichi replied.

None of them seemed to notice them yet.

“You were supposed to let Miss Emi win!”, Kamui shouted.

“I was?!”, Aichi questioned, completely confused.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”, Honda commented.

“It’s best if you don’t try to understand Kamui’s stupidity. You might catch it.”, Misaki replied casually.

“You say that as if you wanted Aichi to hold back against me.”, Emi replied.

“Well... I!”, Kamui was saying before he was cut off.

“I wanted to duel him at his best. Why would I want him to hold back?”, Emi replied, crossing her arms as Kamui shrinked back.

“It’s fine Emi. Kamui just got a bit overexcited.”, Aichi replied, brushing it off.

“Overexcited is an understatement.”, Miwa chuckled, making Aichi turn his attention to the new arrivals.

Aichi’s eyes brightened up as he saw them.

“Kai! Yugi! Miwa! Jonouchi!”, Aichi said.

“Are we gonna talk about how he called out Kai first…”, Honda commented as he sweat dropped.

The short teen was practically beaming which made Yugi blush. Though, he was at least taller than Yugi though not by much.

“No need to be so excited it’s just us.”, Yugi replied as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Oh, that’s that Yugi guy right? Didn’t you duel him in Battle City?”, Emi questioned.

“Yeah, your looking at the King of Games here!”, Jonouchi said as he gestured to Yugi.

“Woah cool!”, Emi replied.

“Oh uh...this is my little sister Emi.”, Aichi introduced gesturing Emi.

“Sister?!”, the Yugi gang gasped.

Jonouchi bent down to Aichi’s level.

“Don’t tell me she has crazy psychic powers too?”, Jonouchi whispered, causing Aichi to sweat drop.

“Uh...no. At least I don’t think so.”, Aichi replied.

“You don’t think so?”, Jonouchi replied as he pulled back sweat dropping.

“Hopefully it doesn’t run in the family.”, Honda whispered nervously.

“Yeah…”, Anzu replied as she sweat dropped.

“Since your here do you want to duel, Yugi?”, Aichi asked with a light blush.

“Gosh, why are you always so nervous, kid?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“I’d love to Aichi! It’s time to duel!”, Yugi replied.

“He said the thing!”, a black haired teen with v shaped hair and brown eyes with a grey uniform said.

“Oh my god this is awesome!”, the brown haired guy from before gushed.

Yugi chuckled, blushing nervously at all the attention he was getting.

“Their like two anxious peas in a pot.”, Anzu commented.

“Are we going to duel in here. I don’t think the holograms would fit.”, Yugi replied as Aichi blinked.

“Oh...yeah that’s true. We were dueling retro style with the Battle City rules in here since there’s still a lot of people who don’t have duel disks.”, Aichi replied.

“Oh? Retro’s fine.”, Yugi assured.

“Okay.”, Aichi replied as he nodded.

“You guys should use the standing fight table.”, Shin suggested.

“Who wants to stand and fight without the duel disks anymore?”, Misaki questioned, making Shin sulk.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that Kaiba would build portable hologram systems to duel with?!”, Shin questioned.

“I guess we’ll sit?”, Aichi asked.

“Yeah.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh man this will be awesome! It’s like Godzilla vs Kong or Devilman vs Mazinger Z!”, the brown haired teen gushed, embarrassing the two.

“Heh, I could take them.”, the v haired teen proclaimed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh really why don’t we duel tough guy?”, Jonouchi suggested.

“Alright I’ll take you on 3rd place Duelist Kingdom guy!”, the v haired teen replied, causing a tick mark to appear on Jonouchi’s head.

“Hey it’s Katsuya Jonouchi!!! And it was second place! I lost to Yugi!”, Jonouchi corrected.

“Yeah, whatever 3rd place guy my name is Katsumi Morikawa! You will forever remember my name after the beat down your about to endure!”, Morikawa proclaimed, causing many in the shop to sweat drop.

“You're going to wipe the floor with him, Jonouchi. He’s the worst duelist I’ve ever seen.”, Kamui commented.

“As if! I’ll show you Kamui!”, Morikawa growled.

Aichi and Yugi sweat dropped at the conversation around them.

“Are they always like this?”, Yugi questioned.

“Would you believe it’s usually worse?”, Aichi replied, making Yugi chuckle nervously.

“I know that feeling.”, Yugi replied.

Kai and Miwa had seated themselves down at one of the tables. Some duelists had actually lined up to challenge the aloof fighter.

Yugi noticed Yami’s spirit hovering over his shoulder.

“Oh, it’s just a normal duel for fun Yami.”, Yugi said.

“Fun?”, Yami questioned.

“Yeah, it’s not always shadow realm and convoluted plots.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh, hello Yami.”, Aichi greeted waving at the spirit.

“Who’s he waving at?”, Miwa questioned, confused.

[fakeoldmanfucker]

Five times HIVE really like food Daisy and/or Lincoln gave/made for him and one time he really, really didn't

Anon I don’t know if you’re the same anon from a day or two ago, but if so I give you ALL the props for sending me these wonderful questions!! And if you’re not, I still Very Much love this question. I legitimately gasped aloud in excitement when I read it :) 

1. After Lincoln and Hive get back to Earth post-season 3, and are trying to lie low while looking for Daisy, they have to get used to living in close quarters real quick. In the winters in Cincinnati when he was growing up, Lincoln would always get hot chocolate with his parents; it’s a fond memory, before he and his parents grew apart. Anyway, Lincoln gets the bright idea to have Hive try some hot cocoa, and Hive...doesn’t hate it. He doesn’t really love it, he prefers the Maya way of making hot chocolate, but that’s more a relic of his own childhood. But then something happens that they didn’t really factor in: Lincoln starts having nightmares. Hive has always had nightmares (it turns out when you have hundreds of memories in your head, these bleed into your sleeping hours and tend to take dark twists), but Lincoln’s are relatively new. Hive tries to ignore it, but Lincoln’s screaming isn’t letting him sleep (or at least that’s the excuse he gives himself) and he shuffles into Lincoln’s room with a mug of hot chocolate. Lincoln, half-asleep, accepts the drink with greedy fingers. After that, for some reason, Hive finds himself liking this version of hot chocolate a lot more than he did before. 

 2. Literally anything with spices. There wasn’t much in the way of tasty food on Maveth, so when Daisy makes him some curry on a rare break from the insanity of SHIELD, he resolves to learn the recipe as soon as he can because it is delicious. (Al’s attempts, however, are not. Daisy and Lincoln have many silent conversations about the edibility (or lack of) of Al’s trials. These often include not-quite-contained laughter.) 

 3. Okay okay but can you imagine this guy who hasn’t been on Earth in a thousand years and he comes back and there’s this cold, sweet, creamy dessert that comes in dozens of flavors? I would die. I personally cannot remember trying ice cream for the first time, so I don’t know what my reaction was, but Al? Does Not Shut Up about it for days. The team’s in a briefing and Al walks in just holding a carton of ice cream, and when Coulson pauses cause ya know...wtf is he doing here and why is he eating ice cream??? Al just waves at him to continue, and Coulson looks, very wearily, at Lincoln and, more specifically, Daisy, because he’s very aware that she was the one that introduced Al to ice cream; the two of them share a sweet tooth. 

 4. Look, I know this one is basic. But think about it: the concept of a cheeseburger didn’t even exist around 1000 AD. Wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. But nowadays? Sure, he has the memories of people who have experienced these foods. He has the memories of people who have experienced warm water and grassy meadows, but that doesn’t stop him from almost breaking the first time he experiences those things. Knowing something logically is not the same thing as knowing it emotionally. Anyway, I imagine the three of them just going out on the town, so to speak, acting like normal people. (Like sure, technically they might be kinda-sorta fugitives maybe, depending on where this takes place in the timeline, but they’ve all been in situations where they’ve needed to lie low so it’s not too much of an issue) I just have this really strong image of the three of them sitting around like, some table at an outside restaurant. And the traffic from the road is loud and the restaurant’s busy and entirely too crowded and they have to get back to HQ in half an hour cause Coulson doesn’t like Al to be out for too long, (despite Coulson repeating that Al’s a part of the team, Al is very aware he’s on thin ice and he doesn’t want to rock the boat too much, even if it’s only for Daisy and Lincoln) but for now the three of them are together and everything seems...normal, for once, which none of them have ever experienced. 

 5. To me, the ultimate group food is pizza. And this time I’m not just talking about the three of them, I’m talking about the whole team. There’s something ancient and sacred about sharing a meal with people, especially when you’re literally tearing bread (or, in this case, bread covered in tomatoes and cheese at the very least). What usually happens is this: once a week, barring any imminent disaster, the team will gather and break bread, literally. It’s a relic of bygone days really, when doom wasn’t lingering near-constant on the horizon, but it’s a tradition they cling to with fierce resilience. On these nights, Al stays in his room, sensing without ever having to be told that he is Not Welcome (caps included) at these dinners. But one night, Daisy knocks on his door, body stiff as she tries (and fails) to feign being casual, and says that he’s invited to dinner. To say that he’s shocked would be an understatement, but he goes, of course, walking in close step with Daisy. He isn’t nervous, obviously, because he’s been through too much to be unsettled by anything as small as pizza. (He is, however, apprehensive.) But it’s not just pizza, really. It’s about what it represents. Food, in my mind, and especially in literature and film, is never about food. It’s about connection, relationships, why are characters choosing to eat together and what are they eating? 

 +1. Mac n cheese. I mean do I even have to explain this one? It’s squishy and no food should be that color of yellow, Daisy. Why are you laughing, I’m right! It’s not my fault your childhoods were filled with weird shapeless blobs of food!! (This just makes them laugh harder)

Thank you again for the ask! I had a lot of fun answering it

[malethirsty]

Shifting Relationships: Sam Merlotte

Summary: It’s a rough love story, man meets boss, man falls into seemingly one sided relationship with boss, but what if all it took to bring out another side was a simple day like National Horny Day.

Warnings: M/M smut (21+), Bareback (Wrap Before You Tap!)

Inspired by: https://twitter.com/malethirst/status/1205305932273446913?s=21 & The concept of National Horny Day

This service day would be chaotic to say the least, to say it would be naturally busy is a gross understatement. At Merlotte’s Bar and Grill in Bon Temps, Louisiana, when prompted for marketing ideas you had suggested the idea of capitalising on major days in pop culture & society in order to net more customers, and your boss Sam Merlotte had been rather impressed by this. It worked positively as more people did come in, willing to part with their cash for some good old Southern hospitality and cooking, unfortunately it meant you had to cover those pop culture days that seemed utterly ridiculous, so when something like National Horny Day popped up, you wanted the floor to swallow you whole. The people of Bon Temps were normal sorts of folk, but any chance anyone got drunk or rowdy, then the entire mood changed & you were worried a spill out onto the streets would result in bad press and you waiter position being taken away, and Hell Hath No Fury Like You if someone in Bon Temps took away your position in the bar.

“Can we get an area of the premises where people can fuck?” You asked Sam, a few weeks out from the day in question. As you predicted, Sam spluttered at your suggestion “W-What? No Y/N, we are running a restaurant, not a brothel!” He responded with a shocked tone, and you quickly doubled back to explain yourself “I mean people here in Bon Temps can get overly passionate once drunk and filled with enough horniness, I thought it would be better to contain it, rather than let our town be a national circus act.” You were blushing, it was quite awkward to tell all of this to your boss. Sam turned to you, a grin starting to form “You know what Y/N, that actually sounds like a good idea, the area can be free so we don't profit off it, and people can maintain whatever composure they have without creating a mass blow out.” “Really?” You wondered and Sam nodded his head “How are we going to work it then, cause buildings take a long time to put up, and it would have to be big so that it isn't one coupling per sesh, cause that would cause more harm than good and-” you hadn’t realised you’d been blabbering without breath before Sam took ahold of your hands and looked into your eyes, a reassuring shade of blue gazing into your frantic soul “Calm down Y/N, you get so worried about things sometimes, take a breath.” He breathed in slowly through his nose and out of his mouth, you repeated his action till you calmed down “Y/N, I will handle it, you don't have to worry your pretty head about any of it”

You blushed subtly, at least what you hoped was subtle. You had a crush on your boss for quite a long time, in fact it had happened once you caught sight of him when you went to drop your resume off at Merlotte’s, when you first glanced at him, you thought as if a denim wrapped angel had fallen from the sky and into your life, he wasn’t built like society’s muscular gruff man, but you didn’t care, you’d gladly take this denim wrapped stud over anyone else. You had a big smile on your face when Sam called you back for an interview, and kept up a positive attitude in his office, so much so it led to your position. You always had a spring in your step to do whatever he asked, your heart fluttering when he turned the corner and observed the bars goings on (You made extra sure that service was top tier when you were the one out on the floor). It had been that way for a long time, but you’d kept it all to yourself due to your nerves. Thankfully Sam did not pick up on it, and smiled at you "Now, you get the outside cinema ready for the adults, and I'll take care of matters inside", and with orders now given, you sprang into action before anything else could occur.

Sam was right, people had kept themselves composed at Breakfast where the bar was only open to those experiencing the morning after, you had served Jason Stackhouse and a number of women at one booth with a smile. Lunchtime was when adults gathered in the Outdoor Cinema you set up, where a mattinee of Last Tango In Paris was being shown. The intigue the audience had toward the movie was prominent, as you bustled around waiting the customers on the side tables nexts to their seats. With a massive lot of plates covering your arms, making you look like you were attempting a balancing act rather than waiting a table, Sam stepped up to help “Looks like you might need a hand.” He grinned at you “Yeah I do Mr. Merlotte, thanks!” Sam’s hand brushed against yours as he took a plate and you drew a sudden deep breath, Sam stopped for a moment, looking at you, obviously hearing the deep breath, but seemed to decide nothing of it as he collected and escorted the plates out to the team that had also moved outside to cook. You rushed into the restaurant, blissfully empty and made your way to the bathroom where you rested against the door, taking in the moment, almost like how Marilyn Monroe would marvel at a diamond ring.

Eventually you pulled yourself from your thoughts of Sam and noticed you were hard in your work pants "Oh damn it!" You groaned. It was hard enough to work alongside Sam, but even worse when you were hard. Knowing this wouldn't go away, you moved towards the toilet, and pulled down your pants. Gripping ahold of your cock, you began to stroke it to thoughts of Sam finally combatting the sexual tension between you at closing and fucking you on the Pool Table, focusing on his beautiful body, how soft his lips were, how hard his nipples could get, how big his cock was, how it would stretch out your walls, how rough his pace was, the delicious Southern voice whispering a manner of dirty things into your ear. You had gotten closer and closer to the edge as time passed, moans and cries of Sam's name from your mouth growing louder and louder until you finally cried out as you shot your load into the toilet. You gathered paper up and tossed it down, and full flushed, determined to get rid of your moment of pleasure, not that others would mind someone walking in the bathroom on National Horny Day, but it was your boss you'd pleasured yourself over and you weren't in the mood for being sentimental. Your process was interrupted by a knock at the door, shit. Not noticing you must have spent a long time to the point you had accidentally caused a cue, you rushed washing your hands "I'll be out in a moment" you shouted back as you rushed the drying of your hands and opened the door. However no one stood in the doorframe, “Hello?” you questioned, a woof breaking the silence. You looked down to see a dog sitting on the floor, you breathed a sigh of relief, maybe the person at the door gave up and walked away, and besides, the dog couldn't have knocked, they don't have hands. “Hey! How did you get inside?” you asked stooping down, the dog turned it’s head towards the back door, as if that somehow explained it, so you crossed over to see if a door had been left open, however no doors were unlocked, and you needed a key to get back inside, you & the other Merlotte's staff had been briefed on National Horny Day protocol by Sam to not let patrons inside the restaurant for Lunch. “Well no one’s outside, let me see where my boss is, maybe you have a tag or something and I can work out where you belong.” The dog shook it’s head as if it understood you but that seemed ridiculous, animals couldn’t understand big complex sentences like that. You were about to turn to Sam’s office when the dog gave a wail “Oh, you don’t like being alone" You stretched out your hands "Come on, let me take you to Mr. Merlotte’s office, I think you’ll like him.” You made to pick up the dog, when something happened, the dog somehow morphed into none other than the naked form of your Boss! You froze in place, literally stunned.

“Y/N, don't freak out alright, let me explain.” you heard Sam say, shock overtaking you “What? How? What?” You went on, however Sam crossed to you & placed his index finger on your lips, you immediately fell silent “I'm a shifter, I have the ability to turn into any living animal on Earth as long as I’ve imprinted on it first, which I do by locking sight with it, I keep a picture of the dog you saw up in my office for easy access.” You had seen the picture before but thought it was a dog that had no value or had passed, so you never bothered him about it. Sam drew a long breath, you could see that this had been a massive weight to come off his shoulders “Y/N, please say something.” “You turned into a dog while I was working, and then shifted back in front of me, naked I might add, I need a moment.” You held onto the wall to steady yourself “Do you want water or?” Sam asked “No I need to control my breathing like earlier.” You responded back, slowly but surely steadying yourself, stopping a massive outburst of anger or confusion, you didn’t know what. After a while, you had gathered yourself, looking up you saw Sam looking both worried and sad all at once “I’m alright Sam” you said, which seemed to relax him “So you’re a shapeshifter, like a vampire but also not at the same time.” “Supes are what people like us are, short for supernaturals.” He explained “So who else knows about this?” “Very few people, please keep it that way.” You nodded, you’d worked out his motivation becoming clear for keeping you back, but you still had questions “How come I’m only finding out about this now?” "I guess I needed to get the right amount of courage to say what I needed to say, kind of like how were keeping in your desire for me." Sam responded. How could he have known that? He wasn't there! All you had heard was a knock at the door and shifted Sam outside of it and dogs didn't have hands, 'But Sam as a human before he turned does' you realised in the back of your head, your mouth going dry.

You stood frozen in place, actually stuck, not knowing what to do, what to say, or how to respond to knowing that Sam had heard you pleasuring yourself to thoughts of him. Sam made his way over to you “‘I know you want me Y/N, so let’s see what else that talkative mouth is good for.” And Sam shoved you against the wall and kissed you, deeply. It was as if a dream had suddenly burst into life right in front of you, like fairy dust had rained down, like the sun shined bright and the stars came out to shine for this alone, you closed your eyes taking in the moment, Sam’s lips against yours, tongue slipping between your lips and teeth and into your mouth, tangling with yours. Sam soon pulled away, leaving you flushed “I've known since the first day, I could smell your lust on you. I was flattered, but once that faded, I knew I loved you as well, and now we're gonna make up for lost time. On your knees” You barely recognised the rough impact your knees had with the wooden floor as you took Sam’s cock into your mouth, sucking deep. “Oh yeah, I’ve been dreaming bout this, how good your mouth would be round my cock, keep going Y/N, fuck!” You ran your tongue over the head of Sam’s cock, tasting the precum building up there, making Sam’s legs begin to buckle “Fuck get up Y/N, pool table now.” He grabbed your hand and rushed over to the other side of the bar, ridding you of your garments along the way, you noticing the beds structured around the bar "Sam, did you set up the horny den here, in the middle of the bar?" You questioned and he shrugged "You were right, it takes long to build outhouses, and we can regulate this evening's speed dating sessions to outside, but fuck all that Y/N, I’m so horny, I need you, your mouth your ass, all of you, Fuck!” Now finally both naked, you got up onto the pool table, Sam moving on top of you. “I want you Y/N. I want to be deep inside you.” "Then take me Mr. Merlotte" you breathed out "Call me Sam baby" he smirked down at you before pushing his cock forwards, burying it in your ass. You cried out, the sting apparent, Sam detecting it, soothed you with wet kisses to your face, and down your neck “Relax Y/N.” Sam said soothingly, and you listened and tried to get used to the sensation of Sam thrusting forwards, as he found a rhythm to fuck you to. “So hot” he groaned as your walls clamped down around his dick “God you're fucking tight Y/N, Goddamn!” He praised. "Fuck Sam, keep going! Fuck me with all you got Shifter" you grinned at him, and smirking back Sam fucked harder, causing you to arch into him "That's right, back your ass onto my cock & arch your back for me. Fuck yes!" You wrapped your legs around his waist, locking you in place as your boss continued to fuck you with everything he had, balls slapping against your ass. "Fuck, this is so damn hot Y/N, don't you love this? Your boss, filling you up with his cock while everyone's outside, you finally getting the man you deserve, I'm gonna have to watch myself round you now, I'll get a glimpse of your ass, mine now, and I'll think back to tonight, and then I'll be in the bathroom stroking myself to you, may even let you get me off. "Suddenly he flipped you over and began to trail his head over your chest, smelling you and rolling around “I’ve got to give you my scent, you already smell great, best scent I’ve ever smelt, but I need to get mine in there.” He explained, worried you would be freaked, he was surprised when completely unpeterbed you leant up to his face and licked the sweat off, trailing down to his chest to do the same, taking time to get a grip on his chest hair. “You don’t need to worry about me not getting you Sam, I’ve already gotten you, consider that me returning the favour.” With a softly growled “Fuck!” Sam kissed you, whilst resuming his new rough pace, the air filling with growls and grunts from the shifter, and pretty moans and groans from your mouth “Fuck I love you Y/N, I fucking love this.” You were a horny mess before your boss, needing, craving more of him, so you begged “Fuck Sam, more!” Sam obliged you, as he began to grunt louder, the sound sounding so amazing to you, he was committing these pleasurable noises because of you “Fucking insatiable, I fucking love it! By the end of this week, our scent will be filling my trailer, my office, hell even the woods where I run.” You threw your head back, letting any single lustful sound fall from you as Sam continued. The end was approaching for you, much to your displeasure which Sam was able to read from your scent “Don’t worry bout it, after service is done for tonight, I’ll take you to my trailer, gonna shower you up so you're all pretty for me, then get you in my bed and we’ll fuck the rest of the night away, alright?” Sam looked down at you, panting heavily, glistening with sweat. You couldn’t find words, so you nodded instead. Sam continued to fuck into you now stroking your cock on top of everything else and within moments you cried out a string of lustful praises to Sam as you shot your load all over the both of you. “Fuck, that’s real nice Y/N. You’re gonna make me cum. You gonna take all of my load?” he asked you breathlessly, needing your approval. Getting enough breath into your lungs you simply got out “Yes!” Sam fucked rougher, with your walls clenching down, milking him of everything he had “I’m going to give you a raise Y/N, you’re gonna make me cum, FUCK!” Sam exploded out in a moan as he shot his load deep, his arms that had been holding him up gave way, causing him to collapse onto you. Panting he gave you a string of kisses, some hickeys down your neck “Mmm. Y/N, was it worth the wait.” “Fuck yes.” You moaned causing him to laugh “Yeah it fucking was, for me as well. God I’m gonna fucking love the time we’re gonna have, gonna get you all showered, fuck a few more times, maybe I’ll cancel tomorrow, so no one can disturb us, make your ride me naked in my office, while I moan out all kinds of dirty things while you take my cock like a slut.” “Yeah, I’d like that.” “Then you got it cheré.” He picked you up off the pool table and tossed you your clothes, placing his Merlotte's shirt back on “Happy Horny Day Y/N.” He said happily sated, looking over at you with a grin “Happy Horny Day Sam.” You returned with equal charm.

[supergraphicultramoderngirl]

i don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you

summary: cyrus and tj are childhood best friends. tj’s there for him when cyrus comes out to his family and it doesn’t go well, he watches him grow up and be proud of who he is, and he may or may not fall in love in the process. the only issue is, he’s not nearly as proud of himself as cyrus is. and yeah, cyrus is always gonna be there for tj, but now, a recent college grad, he’s done hiding. will they make it out together?

word count: 6.2K

(hey so i kinda accidentally deleted the whole thing and lost all of my formatting so other than the major flashbacks the previously italicized things aren’t anymore and it bugs me too but just like,, deal with it)

taglist: @citrus-thelonious @heart-eyes-kippen @danceacademys @kippenmittens @vi-the-best-you-can @tjskipping @simplycyrus @luzawithoutu @lizzybeth-eleventyseven @green-lemonboys @oblivioustj @theobligatedklutz @nineteenohtwo @theconfusedravenclaw @i-swear-its-just-me @bambiandambi @isisisak @fallout-of-my-chair

“TJ?” Cyrus’ voice shook, cracking from the tears, but whispered from fear of his parents overhearing.

TJ may have been asleep before, but he sure as hell wasn’t now, hearing that tone in his best friend’s voice. “Cyrus? What’s wrong?”

His tone remained hushed, even less stable than before, “Can I stay over at your house tonight?”

TJ glanced over at his clock. 2:38am. Why now?

“Please,” Cyrus choked out.

TJ didn’t even hesitate in answering, “Of course. Come in through my window, okay?”

Not even ten minutes later, Cyrus crawled through the window and stood for a moment before body racking sobs erupted from him. It was painful to watch, and TJ wanted to burn alive whatever could’ve possibly made him feel that way. He didn’t deserve that. He never could.

Cyrus collapsed into TJ, who gripped him like he was falling off the edge of the earth. He knew for a fact then that he would always be there to catch him.

But Cyrus was gone before TJ woke up that morning.

———

“Hey,” TJ caught up to Cyrus while walking in the hallway towards their history class. To say that he was scared for his friend after what happened the night before was an understatement. “Are you okay?”

Cyrus laughed incredulously, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He hoisted his textbooks closer to his chest.

TJ furrowed his brows. “Last ni—“

“I don’t want to talk about it.” The look on his face was something terrifying. His lips were pressed into a tight smile, but his eyes told three stories at once. They told him to shut up, they told him he was angrier than TJ had ever seen him, they told him that he was still aching, still crushed from whatever happened.

“Okay,” TJ spoke slowly, “but you know I’ll always be here for you, right? No matter what’s going on?”

Cyrus’ hard visage almost melted for a second, like he wanted to cave in so badly, but after a flicker of fear sparked in his eyes, he shifted his gaze to his feet and continued walking.

“Yeah. I know.”

———

“What do you mean you’re ‘not gay anymore’? That isn’t exactly something you can just switch on and off, you know,” Buffy retorted, bewildered by the words coming out of her best friend’s mouth. Andi sat beside her, equally surprised and confused.

“I mean, I’m not gay anymore. It was a mistake, I probably just judged my feelings wrong or something,” Cyrus mumbled, then sighed, straightening up in his seat. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, alright?”

“Too bad, because something obviously happened if you went from total heart eyes with Jonah and TJ and running away after kissing Iris to suddenly being straight, so spill,” Buffy pushed back, trying to make sense of her friend’s behavior.

Andi leaned forward, taking his hands in hers. “Look, Cyrus, you don’t have to tell us anything, but we’re here for you no matter what, okay? We’re always gonna be here for you.”

His eyes grew misty despite not losing their closed-off demeanor, and he threw them a watery smile. “Thanks. I...” he trailed off. “I want to tell you, but I can’t. I want to tell you so badly, you know.” He stood up then, grabbing his coat. “I’m just gonna take off and head home,” he paused, “see you guys later.”

Andi and Buffy shared a worried look, shoving their baby taters away from them a bit.

They lost their appetite.

———

Sophomore year just began, and yet TJ was swamped with homework already, which became his primary focus on his walk home from school. This explains why he ran directly into someone while trying to think through his schedule, and how the hell he was possibly going to handle math this year.

TJ quickly moved to apologize, “Oh, sorry— Cyrus? Hey, what’re you doing?”

Cyrus gave him a tight-lipped smile. It’d been two years since they last talked, two years and a little bit more since that night. “I’m on my way to Andi’s,” he explained.

TJ looked down, squinting. “With two suitcases and a duffel bag?”

Cyrus nodded, yanking his jacket to cover his torso more. “Yep.”

TJ grew even more obviously concerned. “Is everything alright?”

Cyrus closed his eyes and took a terse sigh. “Everything is fine, TJ. Mind your business, please.” He shoved past the taller boy, making his way to, presumably, Andi’s house.

•••

“For two years, I’ve let you all do this to me. I’ve tried to be the mediator, I’ve tried to repress it all, but for god’s sakes, you’re all the therapists here! This is your job! Not only as a therapist, but as a parent, you should support and be there for your kids!” He took a sigh. “This is not just something I’m confused about, alright? This is a part of me that I’ve known for years, and a part of me that I’ve had for even longer. You don’t get to choose what parts of me you want around, you get all of me, or none at all. Take your pick.”

His mother closed her eyes, while the other three adults stared at him with disdain and pity, something you should never be getting from your fucking parents. “If you’re going to choose to continue living this way, then I guess we’re forced to say none at all, Cyrus.”

Cyrus’ hand shook as he pointed at her. “You are not forced in this situation, Mom. You are the one making a choice, not me.”

“Just make this easier on everyone and start packing your things,” his father interjected.

Cyrus did so, body-racking sobs overtaking him all the meanwhile, reminding him of the first time he’d tried to bring this up around them, the last time he had his rock still around.

The four adults watched him leave, they watched as he stopped himself in the doorway and turned back to say to them. “If you really think I’m going to hell, I’ll see you all there.”

The door slammed shut, and yet it was the most silent moment that house had ever had.

•••

Two weeks after their run-in, TJ spots Cyrus waltzing into school with a pride pin adorning his typical polo shirt.

Cyrus may have been proud of himself, but TJ was almost prouder.

———

The first time Cyrus got a boyfriend was when TJ really noticed it. The weird aching yet stabbing feeling in his chest, that wait, something is wrong here feeling.

That green-eyed monster feeling.

Had TJ thought it was weird he’d never really gotten a crush before while all of his friends would talk about girls all the time? No, maybe he was just a late bloomer, he presumed. Did he feel off whenever one of his teammates comments on how hot a girl is and he can’t bring himself to understand why he thinks that? No, he probably just didn’t think that specific girl was cute. Right?

Did TJ notice a weird fluttery feeling, a swoop in his stomach, something his friends only associated with their girlfriends, every time he saw Cyrus as of late? Hell yeah, he did.

And it was terrifying.

When Cyrus got a boyfriend, it made it even worse. Especially when everyone kept saying that they were shoe-ins for homecoming royalty, and that they would be the two to make it all the way past college, that they were perfect for each other. Especially since this was the period of time that Cyrus chose to become better friends with TJ again, because he “missed his company”.

Yeah, okay, guess he’ll just deal with it then. Right?

———

The universe was now obviously out to get him. That had to be it.

Two more years passed, TJ’s crush didn’t let up, and neither did his guard. He remained heavily in the closet, and was prepared to stay there for potentially the rest of his life. It’s not like people wouldn’t support him, I mean, there’s only two homophobic assholes at their school and TJ could definitely handle them, plus, his mom seemed pretty open-minded with things. The whole concept to him was just terrifying. Too many layers of different.

Anyways, two years passed, and TJ received a text from his best friend that would either ruin or save his life.

Him and Cyrus got into the same college. Cyrus’ boyfriend did not.

The universe had to be fucking with him, at this point, like come on.

———

TJ’s night before graduation was surprisingly filled with pints of ice cream and cheesy romcoms that were easy to make fun of.

Oh yeah, Cyrus’ boyfriend broke up with him that day, something about not wanting to deal with an LDR, and that he wasn’t expecting it to last, anyway. Naturally, TJ stepped in to his role as best friend and offered a place for him to sleepover.

After Cyrus threw popcorn at the screen in anger for the third time that night, he huffed and grabbed the remote to pause the movie. “I’m over this. I can’t watch this anymore. It’s unrealistic.” He looked over to TJ, who was already looking back at him. He always was, wasn’t he? “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

TJ shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been in a relationship,” he pointed out.

Cyrus sat in thought for a moment, drying tear stains shining from the glow of the TV. “Oh, wait, wow, you’ve never been in a relationship. Why the hell have you never been in a relationship?”

“I... don’t know,” he replied, but as he looked at the boy in front of him, he realized he knew exactly why.

It had always been him.

•••

A small brunette boy walked up behind the sandbox timidly. He asked with a small voice, “Can I help you make sandcastles?”

The blonde boy already sitting in the box, knees already covered in sand, turned around to see the other boy. “Yeah, of course! Do you wanna make the moat?”

The brunette boy nodded and knelt down to play with the blonde. From a distance, some of the blonde’s friends pointed and laughed. “Look, Kippen’s playing with the baby!”

As the brunette’s face dropped, the blonde knew then that he would make sure he never felt sad like that. He turned to look at the boy and said, “Don’t listen to them, they don’t know what they’re saying. They’re just a bunch of butts.”

The brunette laughed, and the blonde already loved the sound. “I’m TJ.”

“I know.” The brunette threw him a small smile. “Cyrus.”

•••

“I don’t know, TJ, something just feels off, you know? Like, I should like her, she’s my girlfriend, but I don’t know,” Cyrus ranted.

TJ internally huffed. For some reason, he always hated it when Cyrus talked about his girlfriend, Iris. He didn’t exactly know why. “Maybe you just don’t like her, Cy.”

“But she’s exactly like me! She’s like the perfect girl! And yet, nothing,” Cyrus rambled, exasperated.

“Maybe that’s why. I mean, they do say opposites attract, right?” TJ shrugged.

Cyrus squinted at him in thought. “Maybe.”

TJ couldn’t help but notice that the two of them were almost complete opposites and yet they were the best of friends.

•••

To say that TJ was jealous was an understatement.

That day was the third day in a row that Cyrus blew him off to hang out with Andi and Buffy. It was obvious he had a crush on one of them, and that’s why they had so many closed meetings. It had to be. He had just broken up with Iris, maybe he realized he actually had a crush on one of the two girls he’d grown close with over the course of middle school. TJ just wanted his best friend back.

TJ slammed his locker door shut with a huff, turning to nearly run into a confused Cyrus. “Hey, what’s wrong, Teej?”

TJ closed his eyes for a moment. “It’s nothing.”

Cyrus only grew more concerned. “It’s obviously something if it’s bothering you this much.”

TJ sighed. “Do you like Andi or Buffy?”

Cyrus’ eyes widened. “No, of course not! What in the world could possibly make you think that?!”

“You keep blowing me off for them,” TJ replied in a small voice.

“Ohhh,” Cyrus’ doe eyes widened more in realization. “Believe me, TJ, there is no way that I like either of them. I just really needed to talk something through with them.”

“What could you talk about with them and not me?” TJ asked.

“School project, that’s all. I’m really sorry for blowing you off, TJ,” Cyrus replied, patting TJ’s shoulder, then making his way to class.

———

College was underway, and with more and more work piling up and super conflicting schedules, TJ and Cyrus drifted apart again. It wasn’t intentional this time, at least, they just didn’t have enough time to see each other.

Despite not being around each other anymore, TJ still watched Cyrus thrive. He watched Cyrus join the college’s GSA and soon become president of it, he watched Cyrus put out his first short film as it quickly became a big hit, he watched as Cyrus’ film became a stand out piece in a local film festival— the first one to feature a gay main couple, and he watched as Cyrus headlined his own float for LGBT+ members of the film industry at their local pride parade. He watched Cyrus come into his own.

And yet, TJ was still trapped himself.

He studied education with a minor in history, he was a star player on the school’s basketball team, and he had a few friends. A couple friends. A friend. A roommate. Who was gone half the time with his girlfriend.

He wanted to be out, god knows he wanted to be out so badly. He wanted to confront and yell at himself, asking, why the hell aren’t you being who you are?! What’s your excuse?! Why’re you such a coward?!

Because if he truly lived as he was, maybe he would be that much happier. Have some actual friends. Do something other than work.

But god knows he couldn’t do that.

So he watched Cyrus do it instead.

———

They graduated.

TJ had a job now, he’d become a guidance counselor at a middle school maybe ten minutes away from Shadyside. Not exactly his intention going into education, but it worked well enough.

He couldn’t help but think that a certain brunette would be much better at breaking down young minds than he would be, but that certain brunette was debuting his first major film in a local theater that weekend. It was a memoir type story, about his life. TJ was too busy to see it.

It was mid afternoon in late October when it happened. TJ had been walking to his apartment, headphones in, when he ran into a stranger walking the opposite direction. He turned to apologize, “Oh, sorry— Cyrus Goodman?”

The man turned to look at him. “TJ Kippen?”

TJ smiled. “Hey, long time, no collision.”

Cyrus gave him an easygoing smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”

TJ shrugged his jacket on more, the cold biting at his spine, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. “I heard you’ve got a movie coming out this weekend?” At Cyrus’ proud nod, he continued, “I know how much you’ve loved doing that stuff. I’m really proud of you.” You have no idea how proud I am.

“Thanks, TJ,” Cyrus replied, his countenance only growing softer. Then, suddenly, he grimaced. “I guess we lost contact again, huh?”

It’s not like I wanted to. “Yeah.”

“How about I get your number and socials so that doesn’t happen again?” Cyrus said, an apparent teasing lilt to his voice.

TJ smiled softly. “Of course.”

———

Within weeks, the two became inseparable again. Yeah, they had busy schedules, but they were adults now. Priorities.

And apparently, these priorities included binging Netflix on a Friday night and ordering pizza at Cyrus’ house.

Everything that had happened between the two of them over the course of the time they had reconnected reminded TJ so vividly of the last two years of high school, it was like his giddy schoolboy crush had come back tenfold, like he had his favorite elementary school buddy back. They had both matured, sure, but they were still the same. They were still TJ and Cyrus. Attached by the hip.

“Everything on here is shitty, let’s just talk,” Cyrus suggested, turning to face TJ while they both sat on the couch.

“Okay,” TJ shrugged. “Talk about what?”

“Don’t know, didn’t think I’d get that far,” Cyrus joked, the two of them sharing a small laugh.

“Any boys?” TJ asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Cyrus shoved him with his elbow, laughing, “What is this, a middle school sleepover?”

“You didn’t say no,” TJ teased.

“No, there are no boys,” Cyrus replied, rolling his eyes. “What about you, any girls catching your eye lately?”

TJ laughed, mildly nervous now, the same as he always was whenever the topic of girls came up. “N-no, no girls.”

Cyrus scoffed, mouth full of pizza. “Please, a guy like you’s gotta have tons of ladies falling all over you.”

TJ shrugged again, more falling in on himself now, “I guess, I just don’t like any of them, though.”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “Did you have a girlfriend in college or anything either?”

TJ shook his head, crossing his arms to hide his now fidgety hands.

“TJ, have you ever even liked—“

“Cyrus, just... drop it.”

Cyrus just furrowed his eyebrows and grabbed the remote. “Ohhh...kay.” He switched it over to Hulu and picked a random show for them to watch, the comfortable silence from before having shifted into one of tension.

———

To say TJ was nervous was an understatement.

Why was he so nervous? He had no reason to be this nervous. He had 23 years to prepare for this moment, and yet he was still fucking nervous. His hands shook as he slowly took a seat on a park bench, the one nearly twenty feet away from the swing set. Their old swing set.

TJ had arrived 20 minutes earlier than he asked Cyrus to meet him, as an attempt to try and calm himself down. So far, it wasn’t working, all he could think about was how horrible this could end; how once he said it, he could never go back. It would be real.

Cyrus, being Cyrus, got there ten minutes after TJ did, slowing his pace of approaching when taking in TJ’s nervous state. “Hey, Teej, you alright?” he asked, taking his seat next to TJ.

“No,” TJ mumbled.

“I know you wanted to tell me something, but if it stresses you out this much, you don’t have to,” Cyrus said, placing his arm on his friend’s shoulder. He removed it quickly, however, when TJ flinched away. “D-did I do something?”

“No,” TJ jumped to respond. “I just, I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this, I have no reason to be, I—“

“But you are, and those feelings are valid, alright?” Cyrus said softly, as if approaching a small animal. TJ hated it. He wasn’t some fucking bunny, why couldn’t he just say it?

“Cyrus,” TJ started almost breathlessly, then took a deep sigh, looking at the ground. “I’m gay.”

“Teej.” Cyrus took TJ’s hands in his, forcing him to look back up at him. “I am so proud of you, you know that, right? I know how hard it is to come out and say it— no pun intended. Thank you for trusting me with this,” he continued, a soft smile ever present on his face.

“Of course I trust you,” TJ replied in almost a rasp. “I just feel bad that I never told you earlier.”

“You know when it’s the right time, TJ.” Cyrus let go of his hands then, and TJ did his best to mask his disappointment as he leaned back in his seat. “If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you known?”

•••

“Don’t listen to them, they don’t know what they’re saying. They’re just a bunch of butts.”

•••

“I mean, they do say opposites attract, right?”

•••

“I know how much you’ve loved doing that stuff. I’m really proud of you.”

•••

TJ closed his eyes. As long as I’ve known you. “I don’t know. Maybe I always have. Just didn’t wanna face it, I guess.��

Cyrus looked down at the ground, at his feet, nodding. “I can understand that.”

TJ looked over at Cyrus, not moving his head, and seconds later Cyrus did the same, causing them both to break out in small laughter. “Hey, now we can watch gay movies together and I can tease you about boys!” Cyrus quipped.

TJ laughed along, the two boys leaning into each other with their shoulders, and TJ tried his best to hide the small blush appearing on his cheeks.

Maybe coming out wouldn’t be that bad.

———

So maybe coming out was that bad.

It wasn’t him, necessarily, instead it was his sister, Amber. She’d brought her girlfriend home to introduce to their parents the past weekend, and apparently it hadn’t ended well, considering TJ heard nothing about it until he visited home the following weekend.

“What do you mean I shouldn’t talk to my sister anymore? Did Amber end up in jail or something?” TJ asked, sitting by the kitchen island while his mother made herself a salad.

The woman set the small knife in her hand down on the counter and turned around to face TJ, a horrifyingly icy look etched into her eyes. “Did you know that she was a homo?”

And that’s when his heart dropped into his feet.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and hoped to god that his mother didn’t notice how his face paled at her statement, saying, “No, I had no idea.”

He stared back down at the marble on the kitchen island, memorizing every crack and crevice held inside while his mother talked about who knows what— it all sounded muddled as if he was underwater to him, and he quickly escaped the confinements of the house that no longer felt like home after dinner, pulling the excuse of having lots of extra work to do out of thin air.

That’s what it felt like he was breathing. Thin air, less and less and less of it. He was suffocating.

———

Cyrus and TJ grown a lot closer since TJ came out, their glances just a little longer and their smiles just a little softer, and their Friday movie nights almost became a unspoken mandatory thing. But Cyrus noticed that TJ had been more closed off that past week, and it especially showed when he came over to watch some movie that Friday. They settled down to the couch, but significantly further away than usual.

“What, are you not going to let me use the blanket tonight or something?” Cyrus teased with a small laugh.

TJ almost snapped out of whatever dazed state he was in and tossed Cyrus the other end of the blanket with a “Yeah, sorry.”

Cyrus looked him up and down, then put the TV remote back on the table. “You know what? No movie tonight. We’re talking about whatever the hell is throwing you off.”

“Cyrus, I don’t wanna talk about it,” TJ sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Okay, fine,” Cyrus replied, turning his body to face TJ completely. “Then we can talk about something else.”

TJ knew what he was doing, they would talk about something else and then he would pull his psychoanalyzing shit and maneuver the conversation to what was bothering him because it’s not good to bottle things up. He knew that. Maybe TJ did wanna talk about it, but he couldn’t.

“Fine, whatever.”

Cyrus fiddled with a tassel on the blanket. “Any boys?” he asked, causing TJ’s breath to hitch.

Yeah, you, but it’s not like you or anyone else can ever know that.

“TJ,” Cyrus whispered, putting his hand on TJ’s, “talk to me.”

Goddamnit.

TJ looked up into Cyrus’ eyes, trying to say something, anything, but he was frozen still. At least, he was until he noticed Cyrus looking at him with the same intensity he had. He found himself leaning in and Cyrus doing the same, the closeness almost becoming overwhelming.

“Cyrus, I—“

And then they were kissing.

It was perfect, really, the feeling was amazing and the massive choir of anxiety that seemed to hover over TJ all the time lately faded in the background for a minute. He let himself enjoy it, because the second it was over, he would have to deal with it all, with all the consequences that come with it.

After Cyrus pulled away, TJ’s eyes remained closed before slowly fluttering open. Trying to form a coherent sentence at Cyrus’ expectant gaze, the best thing he could come up with was, “Are you pitying me?”

Cyrus grew an incredulous face. “What? No, TJ, I like you.”

I like you.

Oh my god, he likes me.

“I like you, too, Cy.”

The two boys shared a soft and private smile, before Cyrus mumbled, “So, what does this mean, then?”

TJ shrugged, “I don’t know, what do you want it to mean?”

Cyrus looked at him with an incredibly adorable hopeful smile that was hard to look away from. “Boyfriends?”

Ah, shit.

Cyrus obviously could see his face drop at the word, notes by his “What?”

TJ sighed. “Cyrus, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted you to ask me that, for any of what’s happened today to happen. But...”

“But what? What’s the problem?” Cyrus scoffed.

“I’m still not ready for any of this. I thought I would be, I mean, I should be by now, but I’m not. I can still barely say the fucking word out loud, let alone have a public relationship and ask someone else to deal with my bullshit fear. I really, really like you, Cyrus, but there is no fucking way that I can be any form of out right now. So unless you’re cool with, like, a secret relationship, then I can’t let anything happen right now, no matter how much it devastates me.”

Cyrus just sat in silence in front of him, eyebrows furrowed in thought. TJ watched him as the warmth slowly drained out of his eyes and was replaced with ice, the one face he never thought he would see from the brunette. Cyrus started speaking, a steady yet terrifying tone to his voice, “You think I haven’t been waiting for this, TJ? Are you kidding? I’ve liked you since, like, middle school. But I can’t do that for you, I can’t have a secret relationship. I’m not going to shove myself back in the closet just because you’re scared. I did that for way too long for too many people, and there’s no way I’m doing it again. I’m too proud of who I am now to do that.” Cyrus scooted away from him on the couch, biting his nail, before adding, “I hope that one day you are too.”

“Me too,” TJ whispered, before quickly gathering his things. “I’m gonna head out.”

“I think that would be best,” Cyrus replied quietly, tone filled with disappointment.

Shutting Cyrus’ front door felt like severing a limb.

———

Two days later, TJ got an email.

It was an automated email, from Cyrus to a bunch of his closest friends, inviting them all to watch a filming of a scene for a movie he was directing. Cyrus probably forgot to remove him from the list after what happened. He wouldn’t still want him to come, would he?

He decided to go.

He showed up the next day to the set mid-scene, probably ten minutes late, and immediately took note of Cyrus sitting in his chair. He looked drained, paler than usual, irritated. TJ hates that it was probably his fault.

He stood a distance away from the rest of the standing audience, spotting Andi and Buffy across the room, older than he had last seen them but still just as lively. Andi had grown out her hair to her shoulders with a few blonde streaks in it, and Buffy donned business attire, a large briefcase next to her suggesting to him that she’d arrived there from her job. He wondered what they’d ended up doing with their lives, but he was snapped out of his reverie by Cyrus’ exclamation.

“Oh my god, are you kidding? Can’t you see the level of emotion this monologue is supposed to have? Do you need me to act this out for you?” Cyrus shouted, getting up. “Here, give me the script,” he continued angrily as he marched toward the actor, who handed him the script fearfully.

Cyrus began reading, fully in character, not taking his eyes off the paper at first. “I know it’s gotta be hard for you, right? I mean, you have all these expectations to live up to, most of which come from your own head. I know you’re scared, Tyler. But don’t you think that I am, too? I’ve got expectations, too. I have so many people that hate me for who I am without even knowing who I am. I used to be so fucking terrified of it all, for god’s sake, my parents hated it too. But I’m proud of myself now. I don’t hate it anymore, I can’t hate something I can’t control. You can’t either.”

Cyrus looked up from the paper, locking eyes with TJ. TJ didn’t think those eyes could possibly get any deeper.

“You could be up here with me, above all of those shitty high school bullies and annoying parents and idiot strangers. I know that you have it in you, Tyler. You should give yourself the ability to be whoever the hell you want to be. You deserve to be yourself, don’t you understand that?”

Cyrus took a step forward. He was speaking to TJ now, it was obvious to anyone watching. But for some reason, it felt like no one was.

“You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

And damnit, TJ broke.

He stormed out quickly, not angrily, but instead trying to hide the free flowing tears dripping off his face.

Inside, Cyrus dropped the script, saying quietly while moving to follow TJ out,  “Uh, just excuse me for a minute.”

TJ had made his way well down the sidewalk, but Cyrus caught up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. TJ whipped around, wiping his face, to which Cyrus responded softly, “You came.”

TJ closed eyes for a moment before mumbling, “Of course I came.”

Cyrus launched into a ramble, “TJ, I didn’t mean to make that about you, I just’ve been so hung up over this, the movie isn’t even related to what’s going on and, god, I’m sorry I didn’t remove you from the goddamn email list, I—“

“You were right, though,” TJ interrupted.

“What?” Cyrus froze.

“You were right.” TJ took a step closer to him. “I shouldn’t be afraid anymore.”

“But what about what you said? About not being ready?” Cyrus whispered, also inching closer to him.

“I’m still not, Cy. I’m terrified,” TJ admitted, “because once I face it, it’s real, I can’t hide it away anymore.”

“Oh.”

“But,” TJ continued, taking another step forward, “if you’re willing to wait just a little longer, I will be ready. I just need time.” At Cyrus’ speechless gaze, he added, “I promise it won’t be another ten years, though.”

“TJ, I’m not hiding again,” Cyrus stated, the most sure he’d been this entire conversation.

“You won’t be.” TJ took a hold of one of Cyrus’ hands. “Just be there for me like you always have been, and I promise you, it’ll happen. I like you too much for it not to.”

“You promise?” Cyrus asked in a whisper.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” TJ replied, his voice raspy and smile soft and small.

Cyrus closed his eyes, sighing. “Alright.”

“Good.”

———

“How about we do something different tonight?” TJ suggested, only two weeks after he made his promise. He had a plan to fulfill it that night.

“What, do you want to watch Hulu instead of Netflix or something?” Cyrus asked, confused.

“No, I mean, let’s go to the movies,” TJ suggested, a wide grin on his face.

A hesitant smile slid its way onto Cyrus’ expression. “You never want to go out, why?”

TJ shrugged, the grin not leaving his face. “Thought it could be fun.”

Cyrus squinted, then smirked. “Drive-in?”

“Like you even need to ask,” TJ scoffed. “Let’s go.”

•••

They had pulled into the lot playing Love, Simon and Booksmart, a hazy glow setting the mood as dusk settles over the crowd. Small fireflies dot the sky, and Cyrus watched them with amazement. TJ looked with amazement too, but not at the fireflies, instead at the brunette boy next to him, wrapped under their shared blanket in the trunk of TJ’s car.

It was in that moment that TJ really got a good look at him; maybe it was the streetlight making his hair glow with a golden tint, or the way the moon reflected in his eyes, but he noticed something here never really had before. There was still his classic smile and the same cheerful brown eyes, but he was no longer the person that TJ had met long ago in middle school. He had grown into his figure, no longer lanky like he was in high school and stood only an inch shorter than himself. He wore less button ups than he used to, especially those with patterns, and TJ couldn’t remember the last time he’d worn a cardigan. He held himself differently than he used to, as well; he seemed more confident, less falling into himself and more chin raised up with somewhat of a sense of pride. He wasn’t the person TJ had gotten to know. He had changed, and TJ got to witness it, he got to see him truly come into his own.

He realized then that this was his chance to do the same.

“Cyrus?” TJ whispered, causing the brunette to tear his eyes away from Simon having a heart to heart with his mother.

“Hm?”

TJ’s voice was caught in his throat, not knowing what to say, where to start, and it was apparently enough for Cyrus to notice, as after a beat, he asked quietly, “Is there something you wanna tell me?”

“Yeah,” he rasped out, inching his hand ever so slightly towards Cyrus’.

Cyrus scooted closer to him, took TJ’s hand in his, and intertwined their fingers. “Then say it.”

TJ’s hand was practically burning, and if he turned his head just a smidge, their faces would be a mere inch apart. It was as if every molecule in his body, every force in the universe was screaming at him to just do it, just say something. “I can’t,” he whispered.

“Why not?” Cyrus asked, matching tone, and this caused TJ to turn his head.

The two boys looked at each other for a moment, as if they were both mapping out every detail of the other’s face, committing every scar and freckle to memory— that is, until TJ shifted his gaze down to Cyrus’ lips, for only a moment, a millisecond.

That must’ve been what did it, what made him snap, because then they were kissing.

It was nothing like the first one, really. The first one was questioning, a puzzle piece sliding into place, figuring out that yes, this is what I want. But this one, this one was passionate, it was I never want to lose you again, it was you’re what was meant for me this entire time, I need you, I love you...

Okay, maybe a little early for that one.

Regardless, it was perfect, and he could see the slight fear in Cyrus’ eyes when they pulled away.

“I have never wanted anything more than to be with you, Cyrus. You know that, right?” TJ mumbled, slightly out of breath.

Cyrus nodded, taking a long blink.

“And, I...” TJ looked down, fiddling with his fingers. He continued, “I’d love to be your boyfriend, if you’ll take me.”

Cyrus smiled at him, almost blinding, filled with affection and pride. He nodded, throwing his arms around TJ’s neck in a tight hug, and TJ held him back just as tight.

———

TJ never told his parents, he never felt like he needed to. He never told his parents when him and Cyrus had started dating, and he never told them three years later that the two of them had gotten engaged. Which is why some may have found it odd that he sent a wedding invitation to them with no warning. Needless to say, they never RSVP’d.

It might’ve been weird to that same some that neither of the two men’s families were at the wedding, no parents of either groom present for slow dances, only many, many friends that they had made throughout the years, old and new. But it was perfect to them. It was theirs.

[nova9]

Taiyuu oct round 2. | Aimi vs Shou |

@taiyuu-high-oct

*im on mobile so it won't let me add a tab sorry for the wall of text!!!

To say you were nervous was an understatement, a very, very big one. And that nervousness only got worse and worse as you and your other classmates got closer to where you'd all be separated.

As a new transfer, you'd not managed to form strong bonds with anyone yet, but you didn't know anyone in class 1A that didn't consider you as a good team member, no one particularly disliked you, that you knew of at least.

But that was class 1A class 1B was a different story. You knew for a fact that there were people who didn't like you for your quirk. You didn't particularly mind that at all because everyone's entitled to their own opinions. Still, now that you were going to be facing off against them, it was an utterly different situation.

Aside from the fact that you'd never really used your quirk in combat against another living thing before. Not even in sparing somehow, you'd gotten away with just avoiding activating your quirk for its intended purposes. Instead of using your blades to strike, they'd only ever been activated to defend you from blows, create armor, or other pretty mundane uses.

This morning as you sat with your classmates and listened to the principal, announce the next round of exams. You'd crossed your fingers, hoping that it would be a written one, but of course, it wasn't, why would it be?

This is a school for future hero's to master their quirks, and to protect people,

To master your quirk, you have to use it in combat.

Something that terrified you to do.

The last time you physically used your quirk on someone, they lost an arm. While yes, they would have died had you not done what you had still, the way your blades so easily cut threw his flesh and bone, like it was nothing but soft butter, was both amazing and downright terrifying.

Years of practice have given you the ability to dull your blades at will, which thanks to your classmates and trainers protective gear and quirks of their own combined with upmost discipline on your end have made it so that no one has gotten their skin broken even accidentally.

But still, you knew better than anyone else that a dull blade is still a blade; all it does is make the cut a lot less clean.

Coming to Tayuu has been both remarkable and utterly awful in the fact that it's like removing a bandage that's been on way too long and has kind of grown into the skin. You're excited to get it off, but it hurts like hell to take it off. You're also too scared to just rip it off all at once, so its just kind of dangling there on your skin getting caught and tugging on things which makes it sting even worse.

You knew that you would be using your quirk on others eventually. You knew that you'd have to do it, but now your stomach feels like it's trying to claw its way out of your throat as you got closer to the place where this whole simulation would be taking place.

As far as you comprehended, all there was to do was locate and retrieve the ball. God, you wished that you had the confidence to just think of it like that. But there was also the fact that you were up against a member of the other class. It could be against someone who hated you. It could give them a reason to attack you, forcing you to use your quirk on them, and you didn't want that.

You didn't know much about anyone from the other class. This was the first time since your enrollment that you'd taken part in a class vs. class scenario.

The field of manufactured buildings that replaced the training grounds was so vast that you couldn't even try to see who was on the other side even if you knew it was the other class the fact that you didn't know who you'd be facing off against was nerve-racking enough on its own. Not to mention the fact that you had to defeat them to get a chance at winning probably.

"Lighten up, Aimi! You'll do great!" Ameko, one of the classmates you've gotten close too called at you over her shoulder as she walked with her friends ahead of you. You'd always had a habit of trailing behind the group. Even if no one ever really given you a reason not to feel included. The opposite, they've all been inviting for the most part. Even Lymeron, with her rash personality, people often joke that if she's not trying to fight, then she doesn't love you.

You're still not used to the concept of friends, but that doesn't mean you're not interested, you've just gotta get a better hold on your quirk first then you'd feel comfortable with hug attacks or jump scares. But until then you're happy watching them be happy from a distance. Your only hope at the moment anyway was to make sure you didn't fail them.

You knew that just passing the entrance exam wasn't enough to prove that you'd be a valuable team member, wanted that fact to be carved into stone, and getting passed someone you had no clue about was one step closer you'd get to that goal.

You were on the number one spot which you hated, and you were to stand here and watch your classmates walk farther down the stone column to their own spaces.

It was nothing but something to make your already spent nerves worse. It gave you time to look out over the vast playing field clearly marked with barriers and lines that defined where you were allowed to be and where you weren't allowed to be, it also gave you time to start a complete internal meltdown.

You weren't stupid; these other students had weeks more class time than you did, most of them had a ton more experience with their quirks than you did. The chance that you were going to succeed was slim to none, but you were just stupid enough to take that chance, so when the buzzer sounded announcing the start of the game, you jumped in just as fast as anyone else.

You dodged in and out of the buildings and alleyways, not having any real point of focus other than to find this damn ball orb thing. It was much easier said than done, you could hear the sounds of battle around you, but you weren't particularly concerned with them. You were too busy flitting around looking in each and every window you could reach for the orb.

As time drew onward, you could tell that finding the orb alone was going to be almost impossible, and the threat of an unknown opponent was always on your mind. You could hear explosions going on from other fights you didn't see or hear anything from your opponent at the same time.

But what if that's the point?

What if they've got a stealth quirk made for sneaking, and if they have any kind of tracking ability, they'll have the orb back to their goal before you get a chance to even lay eyes on it.

You got deep enough in thought that you almost didn't hear it—the tapping.

It was like glass tapping against the glass, and while it was hardly audible over the other fighting, it was distinctly closer, so you played a game of high tension hot and cold with the damn noise. Either it was your opponent or something else, finding anything at this point would be better than finding something.

You were almost at a loss until you saw a faint blue flickering against a shop window. Upon closer inspection, you realized that it wasn't in the shop but the building opposite the road. It looked like an apartment building, and somewhere near the third floor was a light blue flickering glow.

Without thinking, you took the most direct route by scaling the side of the brick building with your blades as climbing gear. You noticed that it seemed more natural to hoist yourself the higher you got.

You hardly paused for a half a second to look for the ball before you busted into the room the glow was coming from with your quirk.

As you stepped into the room, you almost thought that you'd mistaken a ceiling light for your orb because it was on the ceiling.

It confused you for a moment because it looked almost like it was stuck up there, but before you had the chance to get a good look at it, it was getting closer to you, or so you thought. When you moved to step away, you realized that your feet weren't actually o the ground anymore.

You were fucking floating?!

And then it happened again.

That embarrassing thing always happens when you get startled, and you hate it, not only because it shows how little control you have over your quirk but also destroys your clothes.

"Oh, my bad." A voice said from behind you as you struggled to maneuver yourself around in the air, you started to float towards being upside down. As the person made their way around you, you were able to direct yourself towards them just as they grabbed onto the orb-like, it was nothing.

You'd seen them a couple of times in the hallway. You didn't know their name or anything, and to be honest, you didn't know what their quirk was until right this second, but apparently, it was something to do with weightlessness or antigravity. A quirk you'd never really thought you'd be going up against and had no clue how to combat.

Great.

"Hey!" You shouted as they reached for the orb so casually it was insulting. "I was here first!" You added as they looked at you with mild confusion. "Physically, I mean, I guess." They shrugged. "But my quirk is what got you up here so fast, so technically I was here first." They said.

You couldn't do much other than struggle to stay upright as they casually made their way towards the door like it was nothing. They thought that you weren't a threat, and could you blame them? YOu're floating around like a dummy.

You were so frustrated that by the time he was out the door, you were half in tears.

Here you were with your super lethal quirk reduced to nothing but a bumbling fucking balloon floating there pitying yourself.

You then noticed that you were slowly lowering towards the ground.

You didn't go directly after them as soon as your feet hit the ground because you knew that there was a chance that you'd just be floating again if they knew you were closing in on them.

You went outside the building and began climbing downwards but stopped as soon as you noticed yourself feeling lightweight again.

You froze on the spot. You didn't even know if you were breathing. You wanted to be as quiet as possible to remain undetected. You watched as they exited the building threw the main entrance lazily floating tossing the orb as if they were utterly unbothered by the fact that they were in any kind of competition at all.

You took the time you had to analyze, hoping they couldn't freaking teleport or anything else like that.

You watched taking note of the fact that there seemed to be a limited area of zero gravity around them, making everything around them float from papers and rocks in the streets to cars that seemed to lift themselves slightly when they got too near.

But there had to be something that could be done.

You finished climbing back down as they entered an ally way back towards their goal area. You had time, but not much. You had to move now that you had a prime opportunity; it could be the only chance you had.

You ran towards the alleyway, and as soon as you got the feeling of weightlessness, you anchored yourself to the ground with your blades, ruining your shoes but keeping you in place.

All you had to do was keep yourself attached to the ground or to the narrow alley walls to get done what you needed to do.

You didn't give yourself time to second guess the plan and ran for it.

When they noticed you were there, they turned around in shock, but with how quick you were landing a punch square in their snout wasn't hard and it sent them spinning in their quirk.

But it also caused them to let go of the orb, sending it floating up towards the sky. You moved on impulse, not stopping to consider if what you were doing was going to work, but thank god it did!

You were able to use their quirk to help you propel yourself upwards, gripping into the stone of the walls for leverage and kickback off of them to get closer to the orb.

You were able to grip onto it and had hardly an inch of space left on the wall to anchor yourself before you would have continued floating to the freakin moon!

Once you were secured, you looked down to see your opponent floating up towards you and the lack of gravity getting stronger every foot they got closer to you.

There was no point in fighting them. Their nose was already dripping blood that was pooling up from where you probably broke it.

Now all you had to do was get away, and with your blades, that was a done deal.

You didn't think you'd ever ran so fast in your life, and as soon as you felt your full weight on your blades, you left nothing but small box cutter sized blades out on the bottom of your feet just Incase to keep some small grip on the ground as you sprinted.

You started feeling sick the moment you got into view of your goal line. It wasn't a familiar feeling but not something you felt often. Its what happened when you used your quirk too much, your iron was too low, which made you nauseous and faint.

It didn't stop you from making it, though! You ran over your goal line and to the back to place the orb on its pedestal before promptly turning around and spilling your guts all over the ground.

Despite winning, you felt super embarrassed. Your clothes were destroyed, your makeup was running from crying before, you puked all over what was left of your shoes, and there was a possibility that you'd pass out in it.

Whats a win when it cost you all this?

"Good job Otsuka!" A voice you didn't expect to hear chimed in front of you. You looked up to see the principal of the school standing there, smiling at you like you didn't have puke covering the front of your shirt.

Laccadaisy thankfully pretended that she didn't see you using your tattered shirt sleeve to wipe the tears and vomit from your face. YOu didn't think you could have withstood embarrassment anymore at the moment.

"T-thanks, but I could've done better." You said hoarsely because your throat still stung.

"What do you mean? Last I checked your goal in quirk training was to use your quirk in battle effectively." She asked, turning her head confused. "I didn't use my quirk in battle…" you mumbled, not understanding.

She stood there for a moment before laughing at something.

"The battle wasn't to beat your opponent, the point of this test was to get the orb and you did that. You used your quirk to do that." She said confidently. "I could name more than a few people who wouldn't have had such an advantage against Mujuyo Shous Mircogravity quirk!" She added.

"But if I hadn't-" you started

"If you hadn't thought to use your quirk effectively, you would probably be floating in the sky somewhere by now." She interrupted you.

"You're thinking too critically about the whole thing. You did what you meant to do." She added as if that was the end of it before another buzzer went off in the distance.

"Opp, there's another one! I'll see you later! Go to the medbay and get checked, we're all going to meet in the mess hall when everyone's finished!" She called over her shoulder as she made her way towards the latest buzz.

Every step you took towards the med bay, you felt worse, your lightheadedness coupled with the fact that you couldn't keep yourself from shaking made you feel like you should work on your limits as much as restraining your quirk.

You tripped over your own feet about halfway there, and while it hurt when your cheek scrapped the sidewalk, the cold concrete felt good against your skin.

****

You woke up in the med bay still half out of it. The dizziness only got worse as you sat up.

"Here, this should help you feel better in no time!" The nurse said, handing you what looked like candy before you even asked any questions.

"Sorry." You muttered after shivering at the bitter taste of the completely deceiving looking purple gummy.

"For what, dear?" The nurse asked as if she had no idea what you were apologizing for.

"I know I'm a bit heavier than I look, must have been hard carrying me back here." You said.

"Oh, I didn't! Young Mujuyo did! Their quirk makes things like that easy, you know!" She said happily before someone in the cot next to you started groaning out in pain.

The same Mujuyo you'd just sucker-punched in the face brought you back? To say you were confused was an understatement, but you didn't feel like pressing the nurse for more details when you were more hungry than anything else.

When you got to the mess hall, you found a table of your classmates who'd finished their matches, and they welcomed you into the conversation with enthusiastic praise about your passing.

You did, however, catch Shou's eyes from across the room, and even though they lost, they were still laughing with his friends. When he saw you looking at them, they just smiled and gave you a wave-like he wasn't bothered at all.

[ohtheseboysilove]

Wandering souls !Prologue! [ Roger Taylor x F!Reader ]

Words : 1,700 K +

Warnings : language, angst, broken heart, roger’s being a dick,

Summary : Soulmate!AU. Reader and Roger are soulmates. Reader is happy to finally find her other half. Roger don’t believe in these bullshits and don’t accepted her . But they quickly understand that they have no choice but to be around each other. . How reader is suppose to be happy with someone who don’t want anything to do with her ?

Note : I’m such a sucker for Soulmated!AU fanfic !! If you got any good ones about Queen and Borhap, please send the links to me ! Anyway so here is my new baby, probably a series with a lot of angst and drama on the menu, Roger is having too much fun for stop it for just one girl and Reader, who didn’t ask anything, find herself attracted to someone who don’t want anything to do with her. Yup, love definitively sucks.

Masterlist & Requests

@/ none of these gifs are mine xx

Roger Taylor always found this concept of soulmate unhealthy and absolutely unfair. He wished to never meet his. He loved his life the way it was, with different girls every night and endless fun in tours. A soulmate would just tied him up to someone and that was the last thing he wanted : to be dependant of a complete stranger only because the fucking universe decided they were the perfect match for each other, ever.

No one had a rational or scientific explanation about how soulmates worked, it was different for each couple. For some people it was love at first sight, they saw each other and nothing else mattered, that was for the lucky ones. For some other, they would definitively felt the inexplicable bond between them, stronger than with anyone else but needed time as they were still strangers. There were no rule, no manual to explain how it worked. You were connected to another person and each soulmates had a different level of connection with one other, a unique link between two peoples.

Roger thought it was boring and maybe a bit scary, he liked to make his own choices but that was something where he couldn’t have any control on it. What if he didn’t like his supposedly other half ?

Of course you will, even if take time, in the end, they will be the one.

That what this smartass of Brian May had answer to his interrogations. Brian was a bit obsess with this concept, he was an endless romantic and dreamt to meet his soulmate and live happily ever after. Bullshit.

One of Roger’s friend from school started sharing dreams with his soulmate when he met her, even during sleep they were connected. It, in all honestly, scared the shit out Roger, his friend told him it was fabulous, but for the drummer only fucking weirdo could enjoy that.

And there so many other stupid things that soulmates could shared with each other, it was completely ridiculous for Rog, this stranger person suddenly invading your life because it was supposed to be like this ? Not really the cup of tea of the hothead drummer.

You, on the other hand, it was something you found amazing. Thinking that somewhere in the world, was a person destined to you and only you was magic...and reassuring. You were shy and rather reserved person, a little bit to sensitive with your head always buried into your drawing book and your fingers busied with charcoals or paint brushes. Your mind were wandering somewhere else most of the time. Finding your soulmate would be such a relief, no more awkward dates with boys which in the end were assholes or just not for you. And you could refuse an perfect and eternal love ? Certainly not you.

So when the day of the encounter with your soulmate was finally here, after twenty-two years old of living on the planet heart, saying that you were excited was an understatement. You were thrilled and incredibly nervous. What if he or she didn’t like you ? Found you boring or ugly ? Not everyone ended up with his soulmate, you could still make the choice to not be involve with your other half but it was pretty rare and not a very pleasant life, something always missing deep inside you. All you wanted was to be happy and if this person was supposed to contribute to your happiness, you would accept it without any prejudice. Your eyes were watching with an adoring smile the tiny heart on your wrist glowing redder at every seconds, meaning your soulmate was close, probably in the same pub.

You couldn’t wait to meet your other half.

Roger, well, it was another story. He had finish a gig in a shitty pub and ended up in this one, more popular and younger when he saw his own heart inked on his wrist, which was usually empty of all colours, starting to change until it became almost full with deep red, he knew what that meant and he was pissed off.

“Hell, no !” He groaned annoyingly. His eyes were glued to his skin, feeling completely useless, he couldn’t stop the inevitable to happen. “Fucking stupid universe”

His friends and bandmates sitting around him glanced toward his direction to see what was annoying their drummer.

“Holy shit Rog !” Brian’s eyes were wide open, he wouldn’t have thought about Roger to be the second to find his soulmate, he had hope he would be himself as the first was John. People who weren’t totally opposed at the idea, not like him. “Is this really happening ?”

“Nothing it’s happening, forget about it” Mumbled the blond as he hid the shape under his white sleeve, head bended above his beer. He wouldn’t take any risk to share a glance with his supposed soulmate and ruined his life. “I’m gonna stay here until the colour left then I will be safe”

“You’re fucking ridiculous Roger” John rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You can’t avoid your meeting, it gonna happening anyway”

“Deaky is right darling, stop this nonsense and let look for your little lady...or man” Freddie winked at the drummer and stood up. “Come on”

“I am not moving from here Fred and you’re gonna do the same. Sit back” The blond tugged at his forearm but the singer purely and simply ignored him.

Freddie wandering around the pub, looking at everyone’s wrist more or less discretely. He was looking for a red heart without any writing in it. The initial of your soulmate appeared once you had meet him. It wasn’t really his place to do that, against his friend’s wishes but he believed in love and knew that he was doing the right thing for his friend, he would thanks him later.

“Oh darling, you’re perfect !” You turned your head quickly when someone grabbed your hand, staring amusingly at your heart tattoo. You knew he wasn’t your soulmate, you could feel it. “I have someone to introduce you”

“Do you know my soulmate ?” You asked shyly, his big and gentle eyes observing every inch of your face. He was intimidating but seemed rather nice.

“I do, honey. He is one of my best friend and a really nice chap, when he want to of course, he can be a pain in the ass sometime” You chuckled lightly, pushing a strand of hair behind your ear as you heartbeat was increasing in your chest. “Would you come with me and meet him ?”

You pinched your lips and glanced at your two friends who were wearing wide smiles on their faces, giving you thumbs up. You took a deep breath and nodded to the man, giving him a small smile. You were so nervous but followed him in the crowd anyway. The dark-haired man stopped in front of a booth where three men and two women where seated, you discretely wiped the sweat from your hands on your skirt and waited.

“Roger, I found her” The singer was exalting as he grabbed his friend’ shoulder, giving you the hint about which one was your soulmate but it was useless, you knew it was him. “Don’t be rude and say hi, you wanker”

You could only see his messy long blond locks as his head was still half hiding by his position, mumbling not very nice words to his friend. He finally raised his head and his gaze, two deep blue eyes locked with yours. He was incredibly beautiful, longs eyelashes and harmonious face, you found yourself very lucky. The second after your little checking out you felt like a violent electric currant flying through your body, fireworks exploding in your stomach, way more powerful than the butterflies you get when the cute barman offered you a drink few hours before. It was him without a doubt, you could feel yourself already craving for a contact, wondering how smooth could be his hand in yours.

The blond frowned when he looked at you, blinked multiple times seeming a bit shocked then brutally stood up.

“I’m sorry that my friend make you waste your time sweetheart” He grabbed the hand of the girl who was sitting next to him in the booth and smirked at you. “I don’t do this whole stupid soulmate stuff, I think it rather dull so...if you will excuse me, we had make some plan for the night” He winked at you and you watched him disappeared in the crowd, the leggy brunette clinging on him.

You swallowed quietly, eyes watering as the feeling of dejection replacing the excited one in your frame. A wave of sadness washed over you, shoulders drooping heavily at the realisation of what just happened.

“Darling, I am so sorry but don’t listen to this fucker, he will come around eventually” The singer gave you a sad smile and you could feel every gaze from the booth on you, awkwardly silent at Roger’s words.

“It’s fine” You chocked out pathetically and looked at your tattoo, the heart wasn’t red anymore, it was grey, matching your heart broken. You had imagine a million time the moment, finally meeting your soulmate but that...was obviously the worst scenario case. “I...I had to go, thank for...trying” You sniffled discretely as you felt a tear escaped your glassy eyes, it was your cue to leave.

“Wait !” The dark-haired man grabbed a note pad and a pen from his back pocket and gave it to you. “Your number darling, he is gonna need it one day or another”

“I don’t think so...he made it very clear” The loud music, the smoke and the crowned place was giving you anxiety and mixed the after shock of your rejection, it was almost unbearable. You just wanted to go home and forget about this stupid night.

“Please, Roger is stubborn as a mule but he will understand his mistake. London is a big city, if you left now we won’t be able to find you again” He smiled gently and slid the pen between your fingers.

“Okay” You wrote your number with your name next to it and put back the note pad in the man’s hands. “Goodbye”

You quickly walked to the exit, the shame and sadness drowning you to the ground. You weren’t sure if you would see your soulmate ever again. Or if you even wanted to.

[alocalband]

What Happens in Vegas Bennguin, 3k, Mature Also on AO3

A few of the boys are still lounging around the pool even though the party’s died down. The rest of them drunkenly found their way into Jamie’s hotel room for video games and more drinking.

Jamie is loose and content on the bed, leaning back against the headboard. It’s the first time since the game seven double overtime loss that he hasn’t felt like throwing himself off a cliff, and he’s indulging the feeling. Drinking whatever shitty beer one of the guys hands him, watching Dicky absolutely mop the floor with Brett in Madden, letting Tyler be overly handsy and obnoxious beside him as he chirps the boys a little too loudly.

Eventually everyone breaks off to find their own fun. The sun’s still up, but they’ve been at it all day, so Jamie honestly wouldn’t mind just putting on a movie and then sleeping all the way up to their flight back tomorrow.

Tyler ends up the last one in the room with him, still sitting on the bed beside each other, as Janny determinedly heads out the door on his way to an ill-advised hookup that Tyler won’t stop falling all over himself laughing about.

Once Tyler’s able to catch his breath, he snorts and shrugs. “Well. ’What happens in Vegas,’ am I right?” he grins and takes another swig of his beer.

Jamie is just sober enough to know the next words out of his mouth are a bad idea, and just drunk enough to say them anyway. “Hey, does that mean-- Like, if I were to tell you something while we’re here, we could just leave it behind when we get back to Dallas? Just, you know, pretend I never said it?”

Tyler laughs again and nudges Jamie with his elbow, raising a crooked eyebrow. “This you asking for a free pass to rip me a new one? Go for it, man, I can take it.”

Jamie frowns. “What would I want to lay into you for?”

“I don’t know. Lack of scoring? Snagging the last beer?” He raises said beer up for emphasis, and then knocks back the rest of it.

“If I’m pissed at anyone for lack of scoring, Seggy, it’s myself.”

The change in Tyler’s expression at that is immediate, from drunken goofball to Serious Business Alternate Captain mode in .2 seconds flat. Jamie’s kind of in awe of the way the look highlights just how much Tyler’s grown up in the years since he got to Dallas.

“Hey man, we talked about this. We both had slumps. And we both did a lot of good shit too. If you start beating up on yourself again, I swear I’m gonna--”

“No, Segs, I’m not-- I’m good. You don’t have to worry.”

An easy smile tugs at Tyler’s lips as he slips right back into being pleasantly inebriated and carefree, slinging an arm around Jamie’s shoulders as if to emphasize that. “I always worry about you, Chubbs.”

He says it so casually that the words really shouldn’t make Jamie feel like he just got run into the boards.

But that breathless, helpless feeling that Tyler always manages to inspire in Jamie without even trying doesn’t excuse what Jamie does next.

“I’m gay,” he says.

Because he’s an idiot.

Tyler blinks dumbly at him for a couple seconds, and then starts to laugh.

And then abruptly stops when he sees Jamie is obviously not gonna be laughing with him.

“Holy shit,” he breathes, pulling his arm off of Jamie’s shoulders.

Jamie swallows thickly at the loss of its comforting weight, wondering if that’s his answer to the unspoken question of, Is that okay? Are we still good? He suddenly feels a lot more sober than he did thirty seconds ago.

“Stays in Vegas,” he reiterates, trying not to pass out in fear of how the rest of this conversation is going to go. Why the fuck did he finally say it out loud. And to Tyler of all people, the one guy it would pretty much devastate Jamie to get a bad reaction to this from.

Tyler puts both hands up, wide-eyed. “Of course! I wouldn’t-- fuck, are you actually serious right now? Chubbs, it’s been years. And you never--”

“It’s the NHL, Segs,” he interrupts. “And with the C... Obviously none of the guys can know.”

“They wouldn’t--”

“You don’t know that.”

Tyler looks down at his now empty beer bottle, picking at the peeling label for a long moment.

The prolonged silence is doing nothing to help Jamie’s looming panic attack. “Look, if you’re uncomfortable, it’s fine.” It’s really not, but Jamie is used to hiding heartache. “Like I said, we’re gonna pretend this whole conversation never happened, right? Nothing has to change.”

God, he hopes nothing changes. It would fucking break him if Seggy started treating him differently because of this. Damn it, why did he open his mouth at all?

Tyler’s eyes are still downcast. But then he sighs and leans over to set the beer bottle on the night stand. When he straightens, he locks his gaze with Jamie’s, his expression almost solemn. “Are you seeing anyone?”

The question catches Jamie off guard. He frowns, his brow furrowed in confusion. “No?”

Tyler nods once, decisive. And then leans in and kisses him.

To say Jamie is shocked would be an understatement. His whole body locks up, frozen, and his thoughts stutter to a halt. He doesn’t even have the presence of mind to catalogue the feeling of Tyler’s lips on his before Tyler is pulling back with a small frown. “Shit. Did I read that wrong?”

Jamie just stares at him, unable to process what’s just happened.

“Ah fuck, I’m sorry, man. I totally thought--”

“You kissed me,” Jamie manages.

Tyler looks at him like he thinks Jamie’s being intentionally obtuse. “Yeah? Duh? And I woulda done it a bajillion years ago if I thought I wouldn’t get punched for it.” He leans a little further away from Jamie. “Wait, am I gonna get punched for it?”

A hysterical little laugh bubbles up out of Jamie. He never thought this was a possibility, never allowed himself to even imagine...

He grabs a handful of Tyler’s T-shirt and reels him back in.

This kiss is long, slow and searching, the both of them active participants moving together like they already know exactly how the other will respond. Like the sixth sense they have on the ice somehow miraculously also applies to this.

When they come up for air, panting against each other’s swollen lips, Jamie has to squeeze his eyes shut tight and grip Tyler’s hips with bruising fingers to try to ground himself.

“What happens in Vegas?” Tyler asks breathlessly, but with a sort of timid caution that lets Jamie know what he’s really asking.

“It doesn’t have to. If you... It doesn’t have to stay here.”

“You sure?” He’s got one hand in Jamie’s hair and the other resting on Jamie’s thigh, slowly inching its way higher.

“Do you wanna know exactly how long I’ve been trying not to fall in love with you? Because it’s been a while.”

Tyler laughs, delighted. His face is so open and bright with his joy that Jamie can’t help but kiss him again. He wants to wrap Tyler up in his arms and never let go. He wants to be the cause of Tyler’s joy for the rest of their lives.

“If you need the receipts on how long I’ve been mooning over your stupid ass just ask Spez. He’s been throwing balls of tape at my head in the locker room every time I get too obvious about it since day fucking one.”

“Good to know.” Jamie grins. And then, a nervous stutter of his heart: “So Spez is cool with...”

Tyler purses his lips into something not quite a frown but close enough. It looks a little sad. “You know, a lot of them would be.” Jamie opens his mouth to argue, but Tyler beats him to it. “Just consider it, Cap. But not now. Right now the only thing I want you considering is my dick.”

Jamie doesn’t have the chance to roll his eyes and groan at that because Tyler heaves himself up to straddle him and start kissing again in earnest. And then Jamie’s groaning for an entirely different reason, bucking his hips up against the hard line of Tyler’s growing erection beneath his swim shorts.

Jamie tugs at Tyler’s shirt. “Off, off,” he pants against Tyler’s mouth. “Can’t believe you put a shirt on at all today.”

Tyler leans back and pulls she shirt over his head, while Jamie does the same with his own. “You keep your hotel room too cold,” he whines with an over the top pout.

Jamie gives him an unimpressed look. “You’re from Canada. You make a living being on ice.”

“Okay, okay, quit fucking chirping me and get naked already,” he says around laughter, like he’s never had this much fun. Jamie feels the same way. Being turned on while making fun of each other is a unique concept for him in the bedroom and he doesn’t know why it’s never been like this before. Maybe because he’s never had sex with someone who was a friend first.

Tyler rolls off of him so he can take off his shorts and then toss them clear across the room while Jamie eases out of his own. When Tyler turns back to face him, Jamie pounces and pins him to the bed with all of his weight.

“God that’s hot,” Tyler breathes, pupils blown.

Jamie grinds down into him, causing Tyler to close his eyes and throw his head back with a low groan. Then Jamie reaches down between them and takes them both in hand.

There is always something about watching Tyler without clothes on that feels like watching a performance. He is so fully aware when even a random phone’s camera is nearby, or where everyone’s eyes are immediately drawn whether they want to be or not. But it is very much a show, even at his most relaxed. Like he’s certain that no one in proximity would ever look at him as more than what he wants them to see: something to admire, to covet, to watch.

This is different. This feels like the show is just for Jamie’s eyes alone, and if anyone else were to try to intrude, everything about Tyler would shift. This is a Tyler just for the two of them. A Tyler that knows that Jamie’s lust is about more than just his body.

Neither of them last long, and thank god because Jamie’s embarrassingly hard just from getting to put his dick anywhere near those abs.

Tyler comes with a choked off shout. Jamie is so surprised by the fact that he goes first, and so turned on by the face Tyler makes, that he’s coming himself seconds later.

Tyler strokes him through the aftershocks. And when Jamie starts to softly whine at the overstimulation, he shimmies up the bed until they’re face to face, heads lying on the same pillow.

For a long moment the only sounds are their labored breaths and the muted noise of the strip outside the hotel room window. The further from the high of his orgasm Jamie gets, the more worried he is about what’s going through Tyler’s head. He admitted to an attraction to Jamie, but that doesn’t mean...

“...Hey,” Tyler says, oddly cautious, like he’s dipping his toes into water he’s already certain will be too cold.

“Uh, hey,” Jamie shoots back on reflex, a little too short for the situation, a little too closed off just on instinct. Shit. He can feel the air in the room shift to something wary, and this whole thing is about to get blamed on alcohol and fucking Vegas, isn’t it?

Tyler studies Jamie’s left shoulder for a long moment, pointedly not meeting his eyes. And then he rolls over so he’s on his back, several inches of space between them. He keeps his gaze on the ceiling as he says, evenly, “Okay. So. I’m gonna go.”

Jamie reaches out for him before he can second guess himself, wrapping a hand around Tyler’s tattooed forearm to keep him from getting out of bed. “Wait.”

“It’s fine, man. We don’t have to--”

“You said ‘since day one.’”

Tyler swallows thickly. “I did. And you said ‘falling in love.’”

Jamie nods. “I did.”

A small smile starts to tug at the edge of Tyler’s lips, and he does a poor job of tamping it down. “Well then I guess I’m not going anywhere, am I?”

His tone is amused and hopeful, but there’s enough of a question in his eyes that Jamie feels the need to confirm what he now suspects is true. He pulls Tyler into him, and Tyler falls against his chest without resistance. Jamie kisses him, quick and firm. “I’m keeping you for as long as I can get away with.”

“Might be awhile.” he smirks a little, playful and coy.

Jamie smirks right back. “Good.”

They manage to fit a couple more rounds in, along with room service and an HBO doc that Jamie is going to remember exactly zero of thanks to Tyler’s rudely talented mouth.

Jamie wakes up the next morning to Tyler having stolen all the blankets, burrowed down into them, his face hardly visible while his forehead is pressed into Jamie’s shoulder. It’s possibly the best way Jamie’s ever woken up, even with the mild hangover.

At the airport, waiting for their flight back to Dallas, Jamie finds himself in line at Starbucks next to Klinger. The guy is very obviously hungover, so are the rest of them, and looks like he’s going to fall over if he doesn’t get some coffee into his system in the next five minutes.

Jamie can relate, even if he’s more just tired than hungover, and so doesn’t chirp him when he yawns twice in a row and then nearly stumbles backwards into a shelf of travel mugs. He does laugh though, to which Klinger rolls his eyes and slugs him the arm, but he’s got a smile on his face.

“Hey, you have fun last night after we left? Or did you just stay in and watch TV like the old man you are?” His tone is teasing as they shuffle forward in line, though still a good six people away from the register.

Jamie considers his answer for a moment, and then considers John. His other A. Dependable and honest and just... a good guy. A guy Jamie trusts.

“Nah, I hung out with Seggy. He kept me pretty busy.” He doesn’t imbue any innuendo into it, his tone light. But he figures if Tyler really has been that obvious in the past, that maybe Klinger will read into it anyway.

And judging by the way John’s eyes widen slightly as he stares at Jamie and Jamie stares evenly right back, it looks like he was right. “Oh.”

Jamie purses his lips and waits, heart in his throat.

But then Klinger grins and punches Jamie in the arm again, only this time hard enough in his enthusiasm that Jamie winces. “Fuck yeah, man. It’s about god damn time.”

Jamie laughs and throws an arm around John to pull him into a side hug. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

He glances over at where the rest of the guys are sitting at the terminal several yards away, immediately homing in on one body in particular. Sunk down low in his seat, limbs sprawled out wide, nodding his head along to whatever music he’s got coming through his air pods. Tyler looks as relaxed as ever, and so casually, effortlessly gorgeous that Jamie can’t believe he gets to have that.

No, not just have, but keep.

And maybe even get to tell a few people about it. Have people be happy for him out in the open, instead of solely in his most rare and hidden and buried fantasies.

It doesn’t feel real, especially beneath the hot desert sun streaming in through the big windows and the slot machines making noise at the other end of the causeway. But Klinger wrapping an arm around Jamie’s waist and hugging back, laughing delightedly against Jamie’s shoulder, solidifies it. Helps Jamie feel even more confident that this definitely doesn’t have to stay in Vegas.

He gets to take this feeling home with him.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 42

Things are starting to return to normal on the Ark, and that means taking some things off Tyche’s plate!

Head’s up, this chapter has not been beta’d.  I feel like I’ve been saying that entirely too much, recently, but between my work schedule changing drastically and some things going on with @parisconstantine, getting the stories to her in a timely manner and still being able to post on time hasn’t been the most feasible thing.  Even then, her wifi situation is a bit sketchy.  So, any errors, please feel free to let me know in the comments, and they are all my errors, none are her fault. She’s going to see this at the same time all of you do!

Nervously, I ran my fingers through my hair as I made my way to the Council Chamber.  A part of me was hesitant about taking on a new assistant, no matter how necessary I knew it was.  Conor and Maverick’s speculation the night before had helped me none whatsoever. Names had been tossed around, along with opinions if either had any knowledge of the person in question. This one was rude, but that one was a toady… Around and around.  They had gotten me worked into an anxious mess by the time they started naming people who weren’t even being considered.  I could barely sleep the night before, and now looked like a not-so-fresh zombie staggering quickly to my office.

When I finally got there, it was something of a reassurance that Simon looked almost as bad.  Since leaving the Council and dumping his position on me, he had practically isolated himself from everyone on the ship.  For the past three months, however, he had been filling in and helping me.  It was more social interaction than he was used to, and the signs showed clearly on his face.

“You said my new assistant has been decided?” I asked as I walked over to the food console. “Did you eat recently?”

“Yes, and no but I’m fine,” he groaned as he leaned back and stretched his back.

I rolled my eyes hard enough that I hoped he could feel it, even though I was standing off to the side. “Bullshit. You better tell me if you like sweet or savory for breakfast, or you get whatever I pick.” I looked over my shoulder to see his face.

He yawned hugely before shrugging. “Just give me one of whatever you’re going to eat. I don’t care either way.”

“Biscuits and sausage gravy, it is.”

Once we were both settled with our food, I tried again. “So, you specifically asked me to come in today because the Council decided on my new assistant.”

Mouth full, he nodded before swallowing. “Yep. And before I tell you who it is, remember – I had no say in this, whatsoever. You vetted the list, and that constituted ‘our’ vote.  Xiomara’s approval was her vote, so this was decided by Eino, Pranav, Grey, and Huynh essentially.  It took forever, by the way, to reach a unanimous decision. Seventeen applicants? What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that there were nearly a hundred before Xiomara, Derek, Tyche, and I went through them.” I gave him a pointed look as I finished of my breakfast and took a long sip of tea.

“Fine, fine,” he waved off and paused briefly. “Before I tell you who it is, we need to discuss training and integration.  You can’t just toss someone in to the deep end with something like this, Sophia.”

“I’m not an idiot, I know that.  The plan is to have them shadow Tyche so they can get familiar with the routines, specifically mine, and gradually take over from there.”

“That won’t work,” he told me bluntly, before looking sheepish and trying a different approach. “There may be a… personality conflict?” Looking away, he scratched the back of his hand.

Simon was hiding something.

I pushed a little harder, eyes narrowed. “She already agreed to do it, for all the candidates.”

“All of them?”

“Well, yeah. She was there when I went through the files.  Tyche manages work assignments, so she needed to have a head’s up of where to allocate more people. Especially considering some of the applicants – several were in essential functions.”

He tilted his head for a moment. “Yeah, some were shot down just because of that,” he conceded with a sigh. “It wasn’t that the Council had a problem with the applicant, more so with the best candidates for replacing them in their current roles.” He raised both hands in front of his face to fend of my coming protest. “Don’t get me wrong, Tyche chose the absolute best replacements for them, it’s not her fault that the options she had available were garbage. The Council is working on planning some vocational training to fix that, give us a better selection to fill those positions in the future.  It was practically a miracle that I was available to fill in for you the past few months.”

I nodded. “That’s a good idea.  Tyche wasn’t too happy with the people she had to select from, honestly.” That was a gross understatement.  She had been fuming when it came to some of the positions she tried to find candidates to fill.  There had been three applicants we had to reject, just because they were indispensable where they were, unfortunately.  The only thing that mollified my conscience was the fact that everyone on board worked to fill time, gain skills, and pull our weight.  None of us were paid, so becoming my assistant wasn’t exactly a promotion. It was just a different way to keep busy and help out.

Simon flicked a few files to my data pad. “These candidates were eliminated almost immediately. Two of them have a tendency to gossip, which means the Council wouldn’t be able to work on any projects without word getting out to the Ark. Things get twisted and turned around entirely too easily, so either person would be a damage control nightmare.” I just nodded in understanding. Derek had pointed out the gossiping tendencies, too, but hadn’t thought it was a large enough concern to eliminate anyone.

With a deep breath, my co-Councillor continued. “The rest in that group were eliminated due to either personal or personality conflicts with the rest of the Councillors or their administrators.”  Glancing through the files, I was surprised at just how many there were – how did seven different people piss off the Council that badly?  Definitely curious, I told myself.

“The last eight were all people in essential positions,” he admitted. I noticed he paused, yet again. It was unusual to say the least – Simon never grasped at his words. “Like I said before, we had to exclude a few of those, just because there was no good way to back fill their current roles. Not the way I would want this decided, but here is the winner.”

I flicked away my datapad without looking at the file. “Simon.  Is something wrong?”

A pause. Ah-ha! There it was. “With the new administrator? Not at all, why?” He blinked at me innocently.

“I don’t mean that, I mean with you. You keep pausing before you say something, and it isn’t like you. It makes me feel like you are hiding something, and you know I don’t like that. I thought you were working on that.” I was pleading, and I knew it. But at the same time, I couldn’t take any more intrigue and secrets right now.

His fact showed clearly the conflict going on inside, before he finally slashed a hand in front of him as though cutting someone off. It was not a gesture he made, and was made even stranger by the fact that I hadn’t said anything in several minutes. With both hands, he gave his face a brisk rub before looking at me guiltily. “I know that, in the past, I was really bad about not watching what I said, and it upset or offended a lot of people. There were several situations I handled incredibly poorly, including when you first woke up. So I… may?... have been running everything I was going to say by Miys and having them advise me on more diplomatic ways to say it.” He covered his face again, this time in embarrassment.

“Simon.” I equal parts touched and horrified: touched that he was trying to hard, but horrified that he felt the need to do this, even as we approached a year after his resignation from the Council. “How long has this been going on?”

“Only since I started filling in for you on the Council,” he admitted. “I isolated myself – well, pretty much all the time, to be honest. After, you know?” He waved ambiguously, but I knew he was referring to the night he explained I would be replacing him. “And that didn’t really help in the end. The entire reason I was so rude to everyone is because I spent a year with no one but Miys, and they had no concept of Terran manners at the time. To a degree, I had to be blunt with them to accomplish anything, until there were more Terrans on the Ark. And even then, you know quite a bit of our cultural niceties aren’t exactly universal.”

I thought that over for a bit. “So, you convinced Noah to be your ad-hoc speech writer and feed you appropriate manners for certain situations?”

“Maybe? Yes.  That’s pretty much what I did.  And it’s been working, honestly!” He laughed, but it sounded a little bitter. “It’s a hard pill to swallow, knowing that someone so alien to what we know is better at being human than I am.”

“For what it’s worth, Noah is a living computer and not exactly Superman,” I advised, trying to be comforting. When Simon looked confused, I explained. “I used to study comic books. You know who Superman is, right?” He nodded, so I continued. “Believe it or not, he was a really divisive character.  Sure, he was a hero, he was good, so on, so forth. Superhero stuff, in the beginning. But he was so perfect – handsome and strong, bulletproof, x-ray or heat vision, flight, and an absolute moral compass. Sounds great, right? Except for one detail, a tiny detail and yet a huge detail at the same time: this pinnacle of humanity wasn’t human.  He wasn’t even one of our gods.  He was a flat-out alien, from another planet. Sound familiar?” Simon glanced up before nodding with embarrassment. “You’re not alone, not by a long shot. Even comic book writers who were on the cusp of being the next big name would refuse to write for Superman, even if it meant stalling their career for a while.”

“I don’t hate Miys,” Simon objected.

“Oh, I know you don’t.  But it’s very normal, very human to feel how you’re feeling about needing him to tell you what to say.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the desk. “Noah isn’t Superman.  They are brilliant, and have access to so much data at once that they have an advantage in this.  Add to that, Noah is sentient, not an actual computer, so they pass the Turing test every time without breaking a sweat.  But have you tried just, doing it on your own?  Pay attention to how people react, apologize if you upset them, and adjust your approach? You know, like every human ever has had to do?” I quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, dude.”

Simon glanced up at the ceiling again. “Hey, Miys.  I know you heard all that.”

“Correct,” came the flat buzz. Noah sounded a bit miffed.

“I’m sorry, dude. I’ve probably been bleeding resentment all over you for months, and you never even said anything. That’s horrible of me. You’ve been a super good friend, but I think Sophia may have a point on this one.”

A humming whine. “Simon, Wisdom is accurate in her explanation. Beyond works of entertainment, Terrans have shown the same reaction to deities in the past. There is significant historical precedent, so I was prepared for the possibility of this.  Also, I believe she is correct in regard to re-learning how to socialize with your people. Psychological studies indicate – “

“Thanks, Noah,” I interrupted.  This sounded like something they could ramble about for a while. Whether they admitted it or not, Noah did get excited about Terran psychology. “And thank you, for helping Simon for so long.  I know it couldn’t have been easy, on either of you.  You’re a good friend.”

“A pleasure, Wisdom,” they buzzed happily before turning off the communication system.

“So, try it the hard way?” I asked Simon, smiling gently.

He slid low in his chair, covering his face again. “If I have to, yes.  I can’t say I’ll do a great job, but I promise to try.” He peeked through his fingers. “Just… keep Tyche away from me for a bit? Until I get better at this?  I really don’t want her yelling at me again.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement. “Now, let’s see who she’s going to be training.” One issue resolved, I flicked my datapad back in front of me. My eyebrows rose when I saw who my new administrator was, though I was only mildly surprised. “And this person somehow has no personal conflicts with the Council? None?”

He shook his head with a grin, relieved the topic was changed. “Being a pest doesn’t mean they can’t work with him. And honestly, it worked in his favor here. If nothing else, he showed dedication and determination.  Actually, the only person the Council was concerned he would have a conflict with is your sister.”

“And she included a letter of recommendation, if I remember right,” I muttered softly.  Clearing my throat, I spoke up a bit. “Believe it or not, she actually advocated for him when the file passed inspection.  So did Xiomara.”

“Better find those books, Sophia,” Simon leaned back and shook his head. “I think you have some crow to eat.  Hope you didn’t burn them yet.”

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[arecomicsevengood]

On Alan Moore’s SUPREME

It is an understatement to say we live in interesting times. These are chaotic times, and I hope we survive long enough to learn from them. I do not know how they will be remembered. I only know that I do not believe that hindsight is 20/20. Rather, nostalgia has distorting effects that render eras in caricature. I know this because while people often look at things and say “hey, remember the nineties?” with this quasi-ironic tone meant to pigeonhole things according to a handful of superficial traits, I actually feel like I do remember the nineties, and they were not that, but they were very far from where we are now.

I recently tracked down collections of Alan Moore’s run on Supreme via my local library. Supreme was a character created by Rob Liefeld at Image. Liefeld and Image are both prime examples of what people think of when they think of “1990s comics,” though their influence continues to this day, maybe stronger now than it ever was then. The backlash against this stuff that followed, which involved a great deal of nostalgia, that you see in things like Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come, or Kurt Busiek’s Astro City, is, I would argue, way more definitive of the era, in that there was maybe a “square” or defensive reactionary tone that seems more out of step with the modern moment, maybe because they essentially “lost.” Moore’s Supreme is about comic book reboots, and comic book history. It’s pretty nostalgic, but it’s also one of the more optimistic Alan Moore comics: The reaction against the superficial Image work also included a rejection of the “grim and gritty” aspects of Moore’s eighties work.

These Supreme collections are out of print, which is weird. While new stories continue to be told set in this universe Rob Liefeld created, but I think it’s pretty widely acknowledged that Moore’s comics were the best things to come out of there, the stuff where the ideas make the most sense, where there’s material that can be expanded upon. I know Brandon Graham took material from Moore’s work for his Prophet run. The recent Warren Ellis/Tula Lotay Supreme: Blue Rose derives from concepts in Moore’s run. It’s vastly tonally different, aiming for some sort of slow-paced Solaris vibe of mystery, which Moore’s run explains in such a way that it feels like Ellis’ run would have less of a reason to exist were his source text widely available.

I read Moore’s first issue at the time of its release, and was not that into it. When I think of the comics I was into at the time, I understand why: Thinking of Mark Waid/Humberto Ramos series Impulse, or Christopher Priest and Mark Bright’s Quantum And Woody, the emotional connection I had with those books as a reader is basically impossible to imagine anyone having with Supreme. I don’t think Moore was interested in doing that: I think he was trying to crack “nineties comics” and was seeing a bunch of dumb garbage it was very easy to think mixing in some pastiches would improve.

Also, the character is basically just Superman, and while in some ways Supreme is “better” than, say, Scott McCloud’s Superman Adventures, in that a good deal of work and thought is being put into creating these riffs on the Superman concept, Rick Burchett’s art, drawing Bruce Timm designs, is more appealing than what Joe Bennett comes up with, though, so it’s kind of a wash. Chris Sprouse comes on board later, and when he’s drawing the book, it’s great. The book moves from being “kind of a slog even though it’s clever” to “actually pretty fun.” After working together on Supreme, Moore and Sprouse would launch Tom Strong together. That’s another comic I stopped reading early on because I wasn’t getting that much pleasure out of it. Both Supreme and Tom Strong have flashback sequences drawn by other artists (in Supreme, they’re usually handled by Rick Veitch) that are also meant to be reference some other genre or historical moment, fleshing out backstory but also demonstrating Moore’s cleverness, which is two-fold: it’s both the cleverness of a plotter, telling stories pithily, and the cleverness of a student of comics showing how much he knows, via jokey parody. This becomes tedious when baked into the structure of every issue of a comic, but it’s also how Supreme gets to have Rick Veitch pages, which are welcome when the stuff set in modern times is drawn by people whose work isn’t fun to look at. Still, it’s a superhero comic where the core of most issues is not a fight but an extended vaguely comedic riff.

Another person to continue on to Tom Strong is letterer Todd Klein, who does a great job here, enough so that, when late in the run there are issues he didn’t letter, they’re demonstrably worse and harder to read. Tom Strong does have a different colorist than Supreme though, and in some ways there are weaknesses even in Sprouse’s issues that can be laid on the coloring: It’s “nineties” in a true way, in that it’s tied to the computer coloring that was then state of the art. I am pretty sure I read the later issues of Tom Strong in collections a roommate owned, but I remember none of them. Most likely I will forget these issues of Supreme. The most impressive thing about Moore’s run is the long-term plotting, that the payoff to a year’s worth of stories is set up very early, and points that would pay off later are seeded throughout.

Still, in the mind of a kid, a year is a very long time. A developing brain pursues a lot of interests. There are very few comics I read every issue of for a year: To do that would cut into my ability to take chances on comics like, say, Alan Moore’s first issue of Supreme, when I’d never read any of the previous ones. Another reason I didn’t follow the title as a kid is this: By the time you get to the point where you have a preference for good superhero comics over bad ones, you’re also interested in non-superhero comics. The best stuff in the series are later Chris Sprouse drawn stories that work effectively as superhero comics, where multiple villains fight multiple heroes, and jokes are made steadily. This all follows up on groundwork laid earlier in the run.

These collections are not published by Image, but rather a book company called Checker I am pretty sure is no longer in business. The books at my library were not in great condition, and they’re not very well-designed. There’s an Alex Ross image on the front,  and Rob Liefeld on the back, alongside text that gives bios of Moore and Liefeld but says nothing about the Supreme comics the books contain. The interiors use Alex Ross drawings between issues, to cover for the original cover art being largely abysmal. I’m pretty sure Liefeld could reprint them at Image, although “this comic is drawn by a ton of different people, and quality varies” is not an appealing sales pitch. There were also other flashback stories, drawn by the likes of Melinda Gebbie and Kevin O’Neill, that ran in the original comics but aren’t in these collections, which I would hope a future reprint would restore. Around this time, Moore also did a run on Youngblood with Steve Skroce that was never collected, fondly remembered by some but also compromised by the fact that the last few pages currently extant, were drawn by a considerably worse artist.

What’s fun about these Supreme comics is that, for all the nostalgia for the past they contain, they’re still dense with ideas. It’s clear that what Moore appreciates about the old Superman comics he’s explicitly homaging is the imagination therein. He’s riffing, but extrapolating as well, these aren’t pure analogs. There are these science fiction or mythic elements all pressed together. I’m not saying there’s much that originates with Moore here, but in his bricolage things feel new, it’ll get your neurons firing. This is truly wild: the concept of the Supremacy, where all the alternate Supremes hang out, and its corresponding Daxia, where all the alternate reality versions of his nemesis hang out, both built in limbo, is surprisingly similar to plot points on the show Rick And Morty.

There are comics that are better than Moore’s Supreme, many more of them available now than there were twenty years ago. I read them, I write about them, and much of my championing of them stems from a preoccupation with storytelling. But there is a different kind of substance to these stories. It’s not “substance” in the sense of meaning, or emotional content. The substance is the sort of idea-space you swim in while reading fantasy or science fiction. I like to think that if you’re reading this you consider yourself a smart person, and that manifests itself as a certain snobbery in certain ways. Maybe you don’t read that sort of stuff as much as you did when you were a kid. As an adult, I’ve got other hang-ups. It is maybe a form of solipsism, though it stems from empathy, or a desire for it, obsessed over my own ability to relate to others. This is the stuff that makes up the content of “literary fiction” whereas I think of being a kid and trying to be imaginative or imagine possibilities beyond reality as essentially a spiritual quest. Reading this collection I could sense I wasn’t engaging it enough, even if only a portion of the pages were drawn well enough to make me want to engage it.

Moore is a spiritual person, obviously. You can listen to him talk about his work and artmaking and time and life and death and find a great deal of comfort. So much of his work is deeply reassuring and helpful, even though much of it is dark and more pessimistic than his Supreme run, and it’s often done through these genre pretexts. His work is much richer than what’s propped up by current trends, and it’s all informed by this grand history of literature, where what follows in Moore’s wake is frequently hollow because it doesn’t have this grounding in possibility and potential, but is instead premised on the observable. I’m making fun of Warren Ellis here, his obsession with science magazines and the idea of Moore’s run of Supreme as an observable phenomena after Moore made it exist.

It’s easy to view the way you engage this type of work as escapism, and there is truth to that, I think, when you’re an adult reader. I do think that when you’re younger, engaging with this stuff is more of a building a toolkit of ideas to engage with existence in a way that will stave off existential woe one encounters as they age. I frequently have this feeling that I am more tired than I used to be. My head is now subject to this feeling which is for all intents and purposes stupidity that maybe stems from trauma of having bad things happen to me (I have repeatedly been the victim of violent crime) and anxiety over things still to come. (Whether it be more crime or fascism or whatever, the complete collapse of the social fabric.)

There’s a feeling of being enervated I want to chase and have no idea how to, but it was genuinely present in my past. I know I can’t find it in nostalgia, in binge-reading old comics. That is 100% a trap and I know that the feeling I want is actually dependent on the absence of nostalgia, of being awake to there being possibilities in the future I can barely foresee. Moore’s run of Supreme taps into this energy, and he doesn’t think of it in a nostalgic way, the way he viewed 1963. He was engaging the moment, and finding the energy and collaborators that would propel him into the America’s Best Comics line, the sort of “better things” that might exist for a person in the near future that it is in the moment impossible to foresee. In all likelihood, the ability to manifest these things comes from a receptivity to potential that these comics evince.

Last week I turned 34, then the next day I found out my editor at The Comics Journal, Tim Hodler, was leaving it. I’m aware I need to leave Baltimore, get a new job, embark on a career path, enter into a new relationship, change everything about my life; all of these things both for their own sake but also to hopefully get the gears turning in my brain so I can write fiction again and feel that I am doing something.

When I read these book collections I was sort of wishing that like 2/3 of the pages were redrawn so that a book could exist which would have a reason to be read. Now I’m writing about it so I can remember I read it, and trying to explain why I’m doing so inevitably becomes about dissatisfaction with what is potentially giving way to something better, but I’m as overwhelmed by the facts of my own existence as Chris Sprouse would be at the fact that all the pages I would want him to redraw were already drawn by other people. Moore’s Supreme run can be reduced to these things that are essentially truisms: It’s “a moment in time,” “a transitional work.” This is true for so many things, but it is better to be these than the other thing that so much amounts to, a dead end.

[artificialqueens]

monster mash (pharon)- lem0n_b0y

a/n- hi, hello, how are ya?! here’s a sweet little thing ive been working on for while! it’s pharon reunited, where sharon doesn’t recognize phi phi at a party and follows her to the back yard to flirt with her only to see it’s her old enemy. (also thank y'all for all the sweet compliments on taxidermy butterfly ♡♡♡)

The bass of the speakers make the floor buzz with vibrations. The ‘Monster Mash’ was playing at way too loud of a volume. All around Sharon is just people yelling over the music to have conversations that none of the party goers will remember. The floor is covered in purple cups, orange and black confetti and beer bottle caps. It was a very atypical college Halloween party.

Sharon wasn’t invited to the party but there were too many people to even notice this scrawny black haired girl with dumb dollar store devil horns mounted on her head who had wiggled her way in for free beer. Part of her thought the alcohol wasn’t worth the hearing loss she’d experience but when you’re working paycheck to paycheck, a free booze are worth it.

Squeezing through the crowds to get to a near by couch, she accidentally bumps into a few blondes that were busy chatting with slurred speech. They were all dressed as so called sexy school girls. From what Sharon can make out, it’s about some boy they were all preying over. Typically drunk girl behaviour.

Sharon finally took a seat onto the empty couch. She sat there fiddling with her bottle, tapping her nails against the sweating glass as she looks through her phone. No new messages were to be seen, which she expected. It was Halloween afterall, most of her friends would be at their own parties across town or asleep at the home. Admittedly, Sharon was bored. It was one of her favorite holidays, she loved all the traditions and colors of the child centric holiday. Of course there was adult fun, as shown by the party. She had gone to this party alone in hopes to find a girl to flirt with while she was there or to drink so much beer she pukes into a pumpkin head. To which she struck no luck with girls in the large house, none had stuck out just yet.

Part of her said she should just go back to the apartment and watch Hocus Pocus for the millionth time. Lord knows she needed some sleep before working tomorrow. The other part of her said she shouldn’t go home and to keep partying til some straight girl decided to try out a girl for the night.

Leaning into the couch, Sharon looks at the TV that was playing a classic movie to watch on this seemingly anticlimactic hoilday; Halloween Town. It wasn’t the best movie but it sure is a 'feel good’ kind of film when your 4 beers into the night. She watches the screen for what seems like hours when it is mearly minutes, her ears ring from the loud music and voices surrounding her.

Her eyes drift across the room to see some more kids pile into the house. The costumes vary from vampires to sexy nuns. There was always something distasteful about costumes that are made sexy in Sharon’s taste. Perhaps it just wasn’t her cup of tea after all.

In the incoming crowd, there’s one girl that finally catches her eyes. Another blonde enters the room dressed in a sheer white top with borderline lingerie underneath. A ridiculously sparky halo hangs above her head paired with what makes out to be white wings strapped to her back. With Sharon’s interest peaked, she tries to lean over the couches arm to get a better look at the young girls face. She had disappeared from her sight.

“Well shit.” She mutters to herself as she stands to what she told herself, 'another beer’. In reality she was in a hunt for the piece of heaven she had gotten a glimps of. Pushing back through the crown was one task but to look through the giant house for a little angel was another. Making her way to the kitchen, Sharon scans the room for the blonde girl. She pushes towards the cooler of beers to grab another bottle and attempt to see the top of her halo. Her sparky little halo wasn’t staying in place by any means, she was on the move. With her beer in hand, Sharon tries to follow her calmly to where ever she was heading.

Bodies repeatly bumping into Sharon, she slowly becomes more and more annoyed. Each elbow jab to the side pushed her closer to pushing people out of her way completely. Squeezing between the last of the loud crowd she finds herself to the backdoor where the there was significantly less people. She scans the backyard as she pushes hair from her face, looking for the halo. Luckily the angel was sat near the pool with a cup in her hand. She talks to a girl in a cape. Sharon guessed from the behind view that she might be a vampire.

Sharon makes her way towards the pool to try and chat with the angel. The air was cool which was good for someone like her who was wearing all black, Halloweens always seemed to be hot but the night was looking to be in her favor. The caped girl turns around to see the approaching Sharon. The girl had wavey black hair much like her own and the brightest blue eyes anyone had ever seen, but Sharon had seen them before.

“Sharon?” The girl calls out, perking up with excitement.

“Wait- Katya!?” Sharon quickly runs towards the pool to be greeted with Katya standing up for a hug. Grabbing her quickly, Sharon spins the them around. Katya was a dear friend of hers who she never really sees. Since she lives across town, Sharon never has the time or money to visit her as often as usual. Their reunion is filled with laughs and smiles as they hug for a long moment. Sharon ends the hug to begin chatter with her old pal. She had completely forgotten about her initial game plan.

“So why are you in town?” She questions, smiling wide to the equally excited Katya. “Phi suggested this party so I decided to tag along.”

Sharon’s eyes widen as she looks down at the awkward woman that sat by the pool on her phone. Phi Phi was quietly on her phone to wait til the girls stopped their reunion. Nodding to Katya, Sharon pulls her towards the glass door silently. She had made a big mistake. “We’ll be back!” Katya yells to Phi Phi as she is forcefully moved.

Leaning against the house, Sharon quickly pulls out her box of cigarettes to hand one to Katya and placing one in her mouth. “Why did you drag me over here? Aren’t you two okay?”

“Yes! Yes yes yes- we are fine. Perfectly fine. But I just spent 10 mintutes to push through a crowd to figure out who she was because I thought she was hot. That’s an issue.” She lights her ciggerate and hands the lighter to Katya. Sharon nervously smokes, sipping her bottle between each puff of smoke. “So why not just ask her to fuck?”

That was not about to happen. “No! No no no! That’s a terrible idea. She would definitely tell me no. We just became okay with eachother so I doubt she’d say 'Ya know what Sharon, maybe we could fuck after we just patched up a year long dispute over your ex girfriend.’ That is NOT happening Katya! Not in a million years!” She huffs as she takes a long drag from her already almost burnt out cigarette. She had zero chances of fucking Phi Phi tonight. It was not even close to a possible goal. “You could at least ask! If she says no just say 'I’m sorry.’ Then it’ll be okay, right?”

“That’s so awkward! If she says no, I’ll just say sorry? That’s so fucking akward!”

“Then just don’t ask, okay?! I need to go sit with my friend so you can join if you’d like.” Katya turns to walk back to her friend who sat alone, but is quickly snatched back by Sharon. “But don’t tell her I said any of this. Got it?”

“I’m pretty sure she can hear us from here.” Katya detaches Sharon’s hand from her wrist and walks to the poolside. Sharon leans herself against the side of the house, lighting a new cigarette for herself.

She thought to herself that may have been the most awkward conversation she’s had in awhile. How was she supposed to respond? Her old friend suggesting she simply ask her ex-enemy to have sex for the night was a crazy stupid concept. She knew better than to ruin that new found comfortablilty with Phi Phi. All she thought was she look cute tonight. That could be an understatement, she looked more than just cute. Sharon admits to herself that she looks hot.

Her eyes lazily staring in her direction, she looks at her angel wings. They were poorly made, as if they just came in a pack with the halo. She twirls her finger around a lock of hair, finishing up her cigarette as she turns to go back into the house. Maybe she should just go back home period, snag a few beers on her way out and get a taxi. Before being able to plan out her way home, Sharon is stopped from re entering the noisey home by a hand on her shoulder.

Turning quickly to see who’s touching her, she’s faced with angel she had followed around. Phi Phi has a smile painted across her face as if Katya didn’t just tell her everything about the conversation she just had with Sharon. Nonetheless, she stands in front of Sharon who could feel herself heat up with nervousness. “Oh- Hey.” Is all Sharon can blurt out. She was at a loss for words.

“Don’t act so stiff like you don’t know me. How have you been?” Phi Phi bounces in her place with a smile still on her face. Her happiness was so vibrent, Sharon could feel herself start to smile like an idiot. She fiddles with her jacket before speaking with a timid voice “I’m good! I’m good. uh- how much did Katya tell you?”

Phi Phi raises a brow before responding to Sharons nervous question. She turns around to look at Katya, who had quickly taken a liking to a young woman dressed as a Barbie. “What do you mean?” As Phi Phi turns back around, she cocks her head to the side ever so slightly like a confused puppy. Katya had kept her mouth shut for once, and Sharon was suprised. With Phi Phi now standing there confused, all she could do was try and change the subject from her slight fuck up. “Uh, nevermind that. So where are you staying nowadays?”

“I actually just moved back in town, Guess I just missed the area too much.” Phi Phi smiles wide, shaking the confusion into the back of her mind. She fiddles with her sheer top, awaiting Sharon’s delayed response. Sharon had been too busy staring at her costume. “Oh thats great! I’m still living where I used to.”

“The apartments? I thought you hated it there!”

Sharon smiles sheepishly, running her hand on the back of her neck. “I hate the people in the building, but it’s nice. Just me, myself, and the ghost that likes to knock down my picture frames in my own little space.” If only the ghost was a joke. Sharon had questioned the random falling of picture frames to be a spirit for quite some time now, but often just ignores it. Phi Phis eyes lit up at the ghost joke, she smiles and chuckles over it.

“Well how’s dating been since you and Alaska broke up? Are you two still friends?” Phi Phi was hesistant to pop the question regarding her ex. It was a well known fact that she hadn’t always liked Alaska during their relationship.

“I havent jumped into another relationship but of course we’re friends. It was for the best ya know? We still hang out all the time.” Sharon reaches into her pocket for another ciggerate and holds it between her lips. “What about you? Seeing anyone?”

Phi Phi smiles sheepishly at the question. She wasn’t much of a relationship kind of person. Being on her own was kind of her thing. She would have flings here and there with men and women alike but nothing steady, nothing worth mentioning. “Nah, dating isn’t my speed. Prefer to come and go as I please.” Phi Phi takes a sip of her beer and leans against the brick wall, watching Katya scramble to flirt with the gorgeous, tall, blonde she had met. “I guess I really like being alone. I have friends to make sure I’m all good, I don’t need one person to emotionally depend on for help AND have to romantically be involved with them.”

“Keep your emotions and your romance separate I see. Same old same old.” Sharon chuckles and leans on the wall next to her. She blows smoke out and flicks ashes from her cigarette onto the patio. They both sat in silence as they looked around at all the people who had found their way into the backyard. People pushed into the pool, guys flirting with girls and getting rejected, blunts being shared to top it all off. It was like the perfect party scene you’d see in movies. Sharon turns to Phi Phi who is still focused on the surroundings, almost looking on awe. She takes another puff of her cigarette.

“Looks like Katyas getting laid tonight.” Phi Phi says, watching as the vampire and the Barbie sneak to the back of the house. She sighs a little and sips her beer. “I should probably should go interven so I’m not left here alone.” Phi Phi steps away from the wall and adjusts her outfit, along with her angel wings. She looks reluctant and seemingly saddened. Before she could say her goodbyes to Sharon, she’s yanked back towards the wall by her waist. Sharon pulls her close, holding her in place. “Please don’t leave just yet, or at least let me give you something before you go and cock block Katya.” She smoothes down the shear fabric that she had pulled Phi Phi closer by.

Phi Phi looks confused but stands there willingly. The tight grip on her waist to with the gentle, smoothing touch makes her turn to putty. She watches as Sharon’s mind scrambles to find a reason for her to stay longer. Her eyes bolt around for something to distract Phi Phi long enough to forget about Katya. Watching as her nervous facial expression grows and Sharon’s eyes scans the surrounds behind her, Phi Phi moves closer, pressing her into the wall.

She stands on her tippy toes and cups Sharon’s face. Gently pressing her lips against hers, Phi Phi keeps Sharon’s face in place to assure she doesn’t pull away. But she wouldn’t, Sharon didn’t plan on moving away. She stayed still, soaking in every second of the strange kiss. Her cigarette falls from between her fingers, every inch of Sharons body turns to mush. Phi Phi slowly smiles into the kiss before gentle pulling herself away before getting too wrapped up. She looks Sharon back in her eyes that now appear glazed over. Speechless, Phi Phi just wraps her arms around her torso in a long hug. Sharon smiles softly before wrapping her arms around the smaller girl.

“I’m really tipsy, I’m sorry I don’t know how to react.” Sharon says quietly. Phi Phi nods and rests her head onto her chest. “You looked anxious about me leaving so I distracted you. Did it work?”

“Of course it worked. I’ve wanted to kiss you all night. You look so cute as an angel.”

Phi Phi pulls away from the hug and looks up at Sharon with a big smile. “You wanted to kiss me all night?” She was genuinely shocked by it. Sharon was the last person she thought would want to kiss her, but Phi Phi knew she really wanted to kiss her. At least both of their wishes came true.

Sharon laughs and rubs the back of her neck nervously. She had completely forgotten that Katya didn’t infact tell Phi Phi about her chase after her through the party just to fuck her. Having Sharon, someone who used to hate Phi Phis guts, saying she had been dying to kiss her all night was a shocker. “Yeah… I actually didn’t recognize you when I saw you come in tonight and my first thought was I wanted to take you home with me. Is that too weird? Considering our history?”

Phi Phi laughs at the new found knowledge and smirks ever so slightly. Sharon sure did have a thing for blondes. “It’s only weird because everything about you is weird. But why don’t you just take me home, hm?” Phi Phi reaches her arm up and flicks the plastic horns that sat on Sharons head. She grins up at the now bashful Sharon. Her ghostly cheeks start bubbling up with blood at just the thought of this angel coming home with her. To her it didn’t feel like a real offer.

“Do you want to? Like actually?” Eyes widening, her nerves flood out in her speech, Sharon pulls a new cigarette from her pack in hopes to calm down.

“Only if you want to Shar-Bear. But considering I just held you against a wall to kiss you, proves that I would love to.” She bounces in her place, still smiling at the blushing Sharon. The offer starts to really sound good to Sharon as the nicotine floods her bloodstream. She takes a deep breathe before speaking. “I’d love to as well. This really is a full circle moment. From enemy’s, to friends, to fucking…”

“Oh shut up! I’m going to go tell Katya, okay? So she knows where I am.”

Phi Phi walks off to go search for her friend to make sure she was still alive and that she would need a ride in the morning. Sharon watched as she walks off to find Katya and she can do is smile. She was happy, but she wasn’t sure why. The random kiss from what was forbidden lips had really made her feel her heart thump a little harder. The harder heartbeats hadn’t been felt since she was with Alaska. Smiling as she takes in a long drag from her cigarette, she leans her head back onto the wall. A cloud of smoke is flooded in front of her as she exhales.

As the blonde angel comes running back, Sharon has finished her cigarette. Toss the butt down to the ground she holds her hands in her pocket. “Katya says she get me tomorrow morning if that’s alright?” Phi Phi abruptly stops in front of Sharon, attempting to catch her breath. Her halo had fallen crooked and some strains of hair in her face. Sharon smiles and moves the stray hair a behind her ear. “That’s fine with me. So, let’s blow this popsicle stand?”

[garfinkelstingle]

cowboy like me | kaz brekker

pairing: kaz brekker x fem!reader

warnings: none that i know of, although there’s slight spoilers to kaz’s back story- no spoilers to the plot of either soc or ck though !

word count: 2k

summary: based on taylor swifts “cowboy like me”; the bastard of the barrel was supposed to be just another con, and yet he turned out to be that much more

a/n: aah first time writing for someone other than draco and even though i’m a little scared i’m also super excited for people to read this !!! i’ve been in a writing slump but i recently read shadow & bone (so expect nikolai x reader and darkling x reader fics in the near future tehehe) and six of crows (even though i havent finished crooked kingdom yet rip) and i’m positively obsessed with my best boy kazzy!!!! so i really hope u enjoy reading this as much as i did writing it!! xxx

masterlist

They told her she was a fool, and maybe they were right. In fact, she was certain they were, because only a fool would fall for someone who carried the name Dirtyhands with nothing short of pride.

And yet here she was, gazing at him like the lovestruck fool that she was, while he was counting the kruge she brought back home earlier today.

Home. It was an insane concept to someone like her, someone who hadn’t called any place home since she had been barely six years old. She didn’t remember much of her life from before she came to reside at the Barrel, only enough to know that one day she had a family, people who cared about her and made sure she had food in her belly and boots on her feet, and the next day she suddenly didn’t.

It was hard, being a child in the most dangerous part of Ketterdam, but she managed, somehow. Not without damage, though. Those early years taught her that unless people needed something from you, they didn’t care about you, and in order to survive you needed to learn to not care about the people you needed things from in return.

That’s how she met him, and really, it’s quite ironic, and maybe they’re not wrong for calling her a fool because who would be idiotic enough to try to swindle the Bastard of the Barrel out of his money? But maybe that’s why she did it in the first place, because screwing over rich merchants was growing tiresome and after years of the same tedious and monotone routine she was finally ready for a real challenge. Or maybe if she would be honest with herself for just a second, she’d be willing to admit that she was a goner the moment she laid eyes on him that very first time, and that everything that came next was nothing but a series of meticulously planned events to get her exactly to where she was right now.

Finding out where he would be that night wasn’t hard at all. She was lucky to have been born with assets that could get her to make any man talk, let alone give her whatever money he had in his pockets and anything else her heart desired. She supposed it was only fair considering she hadn’t been very lucky in pretty much every other aspect of her life.

The hard part that night was to get him alone. There was barely anything she didn’t manage to find out about him, like how there was pretty much nothing in this world Kaz Brekker cared about more than kruge and any other riches he could get his hands on, or how in all the time that he was a part of the Dregs, there has never been a girl— or even a boy— that piqued his interest for anything other than a job or pay-check. To say that she was intrigued would have been an understatement, the same way that saying that she wasn’t at least a little bit worried that she would fail would be a lie.

However, she wasn’t really in the business of not getting what she wanted, which is why she was adamant on not only getting her hands on Kaz’s money, but also on him in general, so after a flute (or possibly three) of champagne to gain some courage, she twirled her way through the merchant’s house, drinking in the attention of pretty much every single man, and even a handful of— albeit mostly jealous— women, on her figure in her skin-tight red dress that had been a gift from her previous conquest, to stand right in front of him, just to have him keep on looking as if she wasn’t even there.

“You’re doing a very poor job of being inconspicuous, Mister Brekker.”

That seemed to snap him out of whatever thoughts were filling that scheming head of his, because finally, for the first time that night, he drank in her appearance next to him, and with a tilt of his head asked her “I have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about, Miss.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, everyone is staring at me as if I’m the thing they desire most. You, however, have not averted your eyes from the necklace on that ugly woman’s neck in more than an hour. If you don’t look at my breasts within the next couple seconds, people will assume there is either something terribly wrong with you, or that you didn’t come here to mingle with the elite after all.” she said, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

He didn’t bite, though, and instead kept staring into her eyes, only betraying the effect her words had on him with a single twitch of a muscle in his jaw. “Maybe there is something wrong with me. Sufficed to say, I still have no idea what you’re talking about, Miss.” he said, adding more venom than necessary to the last word.

She wasn’t an amateur, which is how she knew that everyone’s eyes were still on them, and that if she didn’t diffuse the tense situation within the next few seconds, people would start to ask questions, and whatever small chance she might’ve had with the Bastard of the Barrel would evaporate into thin air. Which is why she forced out an airy giggle and leaned in to whisper into his ear “If I get her to give me the necklace within the next ten minutes, will you leave this horrible place with me and buy me a drink?”

He wasn’t convinced, she knew that, because everything about him, from his posture to the look he was giving her, practically screamed that he wasn’t above cutting her up if she screwed this up for him, and yet she was confident enough to blow him a kiss and give him a wink, and then she was gone once again, twirling around the room with everyone’s eyes glued on her, except this time, his eyes were on her, too.

Getting the necklace wasn’t hard. After all, this was how she made her living, how she survived in the darkest part of a city that lived on deceit and deception, how she kept from becoming one of the girls in the Menagerie or one of the other pleasure houses. Of course this wasn’t the life she dreamt of living as a child, but it’s the life she realised would give her everything she needed, and on her terms. She never went after anyone or anything she didn’t want, and the second someone became too dangerous, she wasn’t stupid enough to stick around and watch the life she made for herself burn to the ground.

But this was easy. All she had to do was compliment the woman on the necklace, and then tell her some sob-story, how her mother had a similar one, how it got stolen after she died, and thus the last part that she had of her with it. How she searched all of Kerch for one just like that, and how once she did she realised that she would never be able to afford it, but that she wished the woman to be as happy with it as her mother had been. She didn’t even have to cry and ruin her make-up, because the second the first tear escaped her eye, the woman was unclasping the necklace and putting it on her neck instead, giving her a pat on the cheek when she weakly protested “This is too much, I couldn’t possibly accept it.” And with one last hug and watery thank you, she was winking at him again, making her way towards the door and out into the cold Ketterdam night, but not without catching the look of obvious astonishment he was giving her, and how his mouth almost formed a smile.

She knew right then and there that all the riches of the world couldn’t buy her something that would make her feel the same as his smile did.

The one drink he owed her quickly turned into dinner the next day and him asking her to accompany him on his next heist, and even though her supposed plan was to trick him out of all of his money, she would’ve ripped off every single person, merchant or beggar, in all of Kerch just to have a reason to see him again.

It didn’t take long for her after that to go against everything she believed in, against every single rule and promise she had ever made to herself and to become fully and wholly his. Not a part of the Dregs or any other gang or institution in the Barrel; just Kaz’s, only Kaz’s.

And it was perfect. She still worked the same way she always had, because even though she was foolish enough to fall in love and be happy, she wasn’t foolish enough to believe that it couldn’t be taken away from her any second, and she wasn’t about to be left again with nothing but her worn out coat and not a penny to her name. So she continued working, albeit only sticking to deceiving the merchants and their wives with words and smiles, nothing else. There were moments when she missed that part of her old life, the thrill of getting someone to come into bed with her when they were dancing with their spouse mere minutes ago, and yet she wouldn’t trade what she had with Kaz for even a single second of any of that, even in the moments when it got hard. And it did.

As much as she loved Kaz, and as much as she knew that he loved her, there were moments when she would trade the whole entire world just for him to hold her, even if it was with twenty layers of clothes, and yet she would never push him to do anything he wasn’t entirely comfortable with because his happiness came first to her, always. And of course she hated the whispers, the never ending glances in her direction and badly hid mumbles of “A man who doesn’t touch his dame is a man who touches someone else’s” but even without his reassurances she knew that there was no truth to it, not only because she knew better than anyone else that Kaz Brekker wasn’t doing any touching that didn’t involve holding someone steady while cutting their throat open with quite literally anyone, but because she knew that he never would’ve opened up to her as much as he did if he didn’t love her.

She remembered crying when he had first told her about Jordie, when he explained to her why he was the way that he was and when, for the first time since she’d known him, he looked unsure and uncertain, scared even, and when he told her that he would never be able to give her the life she deserved, and that she should probably run while the damage leaving would cause would still be at a minimum. She had told him, then, that she would never leave him, come high, come low, and that she would stay by his side for as long as he’d have her and she knew, without any doubt in her mind, that he felt the exact same way.

So maybe she was a fool for falling for the Bastard of the Barrel, but really, if it brought her to right now, to counting kruge with the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, after tricking yet another rich merchant to empty out his pockets for her, to carefully taking his gloves off and intertwining their fingers, to having him smile that heavenly smile at her that he reserved solely for her, to having him look at her with the same exact lovestruck expression she looked at him with? Well, then maybe there were worse things in life than being considered a fool.