#my parents had the recap on and i had to walk out of the room

[kiarastromboli]

Teach me (Chris Sturniolo x y/n)

Part.2 Part.3

Masterlist.

Warning: Virgin reader, Smut content, don’t like it = don’t read it :)

Summary: Chris shows up in the middle of the night in your room, asking for answers to the exam you both are supposed to take in the following days, and things take an unexpected turn.

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We are on a summer Tuesday evening, the air warm and heavy, the sound of cicadas outside, and the gentle breeze causing tree branches to brush against my window sill, absolute calm. The house was silent; it was already 11:25 PM, the only reason I wasn't asleep? I was busy revising for the upcoming major exam. Honestly, I didn't need to; I had the knowledge and even more, but I'm a perfectionist. Why settle for the minimum when you can achieve much more?

Anyway, I allowed myself to study a bit more tonight since I have no classes tomorrow. I had some music playing in the background, loud enough for me to hear but not too loud to distract me. Tonight, nothing could distract me!

*knock knock knock*

I jumped in surprise when I heard faint noises coming from the window at the other end of my room. I thought I was impossible to distract, but apparently, I was wrong.

I walked slowly towards the window; it was probably my cat scratching to come in. Well, I wasn't sure; what else could it be?

I pulled the curtain covering my window to open it and came face to face with Chris Sturniolo.

WAIT, WHAT? What is that rascal Chris doing at my window? Oh my god, if my parents hear him, I'm done for.

Let me give you a brief recap to better understand the situation and the reason for my current anxiety.

My name is Y/n, and honestly, there's not much to say about me. I'm a quiet girl, the complete opposite of what one would consider "cool" and "popular." I'm disciplined, polite, courteous, studious, discreet – in short, the perfect little girl who will have a good diploma, an excellent job in an excellent city, and an excellent family. I do what is expected of me without questioning, and I never, I repeat, NEVER go against the rules.

Chris, on the other hand, is Chris. If I were a boy, I would be absolutely the opposite of that guy. He plays on the high school lacrosse team with his brother. He's a real jerk – sorry, I don't want to sound vulgar, but he's a real jerk. He spends his time skipping classes to do who knows what with who knows who. He thinks he's "cool" and "popular" because all the girls run after him, but the truth is, he's just a good-looking guy with a devilish behavior. Back in elementary school, I had a crush on him; when he found out, he mocked me, and he never stopped, even now in high school. So, yes, he's an immature jerk.

What could Chris possibly be doing at my window in the middle of the night when my parents are at home? My father has always been strict about no boys in my room, and certainly not in the middle of the night?

"Are you going to let me in?" he said, looking up at me.

"Absolutely not! How do you know where I live? You can't stay here; you have to leave now!" I shouted in a panic, looking around to make sure no one saw him here.

"Let me in, and I'll answer all your little questions," he said with a smirk.

"Oh my god," I whispered to myself, bringing my hand to my forehead. "No, Chris, you don't understand; my parents are here. If they know there's a boy at my window—"

"Okay, if you don't let me in, I'll knock on the front door, pretending to be your boyfriend. It's up to you," he said, cutting me off before moving away from my window.

"NO! Okay, fine, come in," I sighed. "Damn, damn, damn," I muttered to myself as I moved away from the window to lock the door to my room.

"Your room is cool," he said, dropping onto my bed as if it were his own. "What's his name?" he added, picking up a stuffed animal lying on my bed.

"Get your filthy body off my clean bed, please," I snapped, grabbing my stuffed animal from his hands with a brisk motion.

"Relax; I just wanted to chat," he said, rolling his eyes before getting up to move towards me. "Nice pajamas," he said with a smirk, scanning my body with his eyes.

I blushed uncontrollably; I was wearing really short shorts and an equally short tank top. What? It's fine; I know what you're thinking. I'll stop you right there; it's summer, it's super hot, and I didn't anticipate Mr. Troublemaker's surprise visit.

"What do you want?" I asked timidly, stuttering and crossing my arms to hide my stomach. I hated having my body exposed in front of others; it made me feel vulnerable.

"I need your help for the exam coming up next week," he said, moving towards my desk. "And before you refuse to help me, I have an offer you can't refuse!" he said, turning to me, leaning against my desk this time.

"And did you have to come and ask for my help in the middle of the night, Chris, seriously?" I replied, annoyed.

"I stole the test papers from the teachers' lounge. If you help me, you can memorize all the answers by heart," he said, crossing his arms with a smug smile.

I laughed when he presented his "impossible to refuse" offer. What an idiot. "If you think that I, Y/n, will help you cheat on the most important exam of the year, you're way dumber than I thought."

"Oh yeah? You seemed pretty bothered by the bad grade you got in gym yesterday," he said, advancing towards me. "You know, I know the coach really well, well enough to be able to change your grade."

Damn, it was the only grade below average I had all year. It's true that it would be convenient to make it disappear. What? No, Y/n, you're crazy; this is Chris we're talking about, he's a manipulator, and you're falling into his trap. Oh my god, stop; I need to get him out of here.

"Why do you want me to help you? Find the answers yourself," I replied, giving him a dark look.

"Because I don't feel like it, and you love this kind of thing," he said, rolling his eyes. "Y/n, it's beneficial for both of us. Look, you ensure you get 100% on the exam, in addition to seeing your gym grade increase, and it will save me from repeating this year."

"Get out of my room, Chris; I'm not going to help you cheat. It's bad," I said, crossing my arms.

"Bad? Who do you think you are? Come on, we don't care; it's just an exam!" he said, laughing.

"You don't care, but I do," I said, pointing to the window he came in through.

He smiled arrogantly before licking his lips, looking at me. "You're more tenacious than I thought," he said, plunging his eyes into mine. "I like that."

I won't lie; his words made me a little nervous at the moment. Okay, I said he was a big jerk,

not that he was ugly!

"Oh, are you blushing because of me? Does what I say affect you?" he said, slowly approaching me.

"G-Get out of my room," I said weakly, stepping back.

"Why? You don't want me to leave your room, Y/n. Don't lie to me; I know you like me," he said confidently, continuing to advance towards me until my back hit the door of my room.

I swallowed hard as I felt my throat tighten due to the proximity between us. "You're insane. I would have to be crazy to like a guy like you," I said timidly, avoiding his gaze.

"I'm sure I can drive you crazy," he said, grabbing my chin to force me to look him in the eyes.

A wave of heat engulfed me; I slightly opened my mouth to get more air. My heartbeat accelerated; I must be all red now.

"Listen," he said, getting even closer to me. "If you help me with this exam," he said, placing his hand in the small of my back, "in addition to the things I've already offered you," he said, slowly lowering his hand to my hip, "I can also show you a few things you might like," he said softly, plunging his eyes into mine.

I cleared my throat. "What are you talking about?" I said all timid.

"Oh, come on, Y/n, you know exactly what I'm talking about; you're dying for it. Look at yourself," he said with an arrogant smile. "And if you want to know, I'm dying for it too," he whispered in my ear, making my knees weak.

"Stop lying, you don't give a damn about me. You're acting like an asshole with me; you only want the answers to this exam," I said, stuttering and trying not to be swayed by his sweet words.

"Y/n, I know where you live because I follow you after school every day to make sure nothing happens to you on the way," he said, moving his face a few centimeters away from mine. "I spend my time teasing you in the hope of getting closer to you," he added, running his hand over my cheek. "If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't have even noticed the bad grades you're getting in PE," he said, rolling his eyes.

If these were lies, then he's a very good liar. Oh my god, my mother always warned me about bad boys like Chris, but I felt like fainting when his hand tightened a little more around my hip. "Chris—"

"You know what, screw this exam; I'll study it on my own. Let me kiss you, and I promise to leave your room and never bother you about this exam again," he said, almost sounding desperate. Wait, is he serious? Chris has a crush on me? I must be dreaming; it can't be possible.

"Chris, if this is a joke, it's really not funny," I said uncertainly, furrowing my brow when he moved his face closer to mine.

"I'm dead serious," he said, fixing his gaze on my lips.

My eyes were switching between his and his lips; I didn't know what to do. I was bewildered by the situation until Chris placed his soft lips on mine. My eyes instinctively closed to better savor the moment. I was kissing the most handsome guy in high school in my room, just like in the movies. His hand slid under my shorts to grab my buttock, making me sigh in surprise during our kiss. He seized the opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth, dancing with mine. He started smiling against my lips when he heard a pathetic moan die in our kiss as he began to knead my buttocks.

"Chris," I said, separating our lips and pushing him by his chest.

"What?" he said with a confused look as I moved away from him.

"We're not going to do this," I told him, shaking my head. "My parents are here; you can't just barge into my room in the middle of the night and coerce me with sex to get the answers to this damn exam," I said, offended.

"Y/n, I don't care about the exam. I did all this to get closer to you!" he said, taking a step towards me.

I stepped back when he tried to grab my hand to hold it in his. "Okay, prove it," I said, crossing my arms. "You said you would leave me alone about this exam and leave my room if I let you kiss me," I added, heading to the window to open it again.

He opened his mouth to speak before changing his mind, shaking his head.

"Show me you're not a liar," I said, pointing to the window.

He sighed before moving towards the window. "I'm not a liar, Y/n," he said, furrowing his brow before starting to pass his legs through the window.

There, I was finally rid of him. I should feel relieved, right? So why does something deep inside me break seeing him leave?

Without thinking, before he had time to pass through my window entirely, I grabbed him by his T-shirt to kiss him again. I couldn't let him go like that. I don't know what was happening to me, but everything was screaming at me to throw myself on his lips and never leave them.

He straightened up before closing the window with one hand. His other hand came to caress my cheek.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; we headed towards my desk without paying attention. He grabbed the back of my thighs to make me sit on my desk just behind me. His lips left mine to move towards my neck, his arms tightened around my waist, and my thighs surrounded his.

"Do you still want me to leave your room now?" he said arrogantly.

"Shut up," I said, feeling my breath quicken when he started sucking on the skin of my neck between his lips. "Chris, you can't leave marks," I said, a little panicked.

"Why not? You're mine," he said authoritatively, raising his face in front of mine and grabbing my throat in his hand.

"First, I'm not yours, Chris, and second, my father will kill me if he sees hickies on my neck," I said, chuckling timidly at his reaction.

Without a word, he began kissing my neck again before slowly moving towards my chest, making me anxious. "What are you doing?" I asked, stuttering.

"I'm leaving my mark where I'm sure no one else will see it," he whispered before grabbing the fabric of my tank top to slightly uncover my breast and place his lips on it.

"Chris—" I said, jumping when he started sucking a hickey on that sensitive area.

I could feel shivers running through my entire body; my back arched, and my thighs instinctively tightened around his waist while a few silent moans escaped my lips.

"Are you always this sensitive, or am I the one making you feel this way?" he said, raising his head towards me with a big smile.

I started blushing uncontrollably when he said that; I didn't even have a response to his question. I had never done anything like this with a boy before.

"Did you lose your tongue?" he asked, tilting his head to the side before coming to fix a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I-I don't know," I said in an almost inaudible voice. "Is it wrong?" I asked, embarrassed.

"No, not at all," he said, frowning. "What do you mean by 'I don't know'?" he asked, confused.

"I—" I didn't know what to answer. A silence settled at that moment; he looked me in the eyes before realizing.

"You've never done anything with a boy?" he asked, surprised.

I simply shook my head from side to side, too embarrassed to say anything.

His arrogant smile covered his lips a few seconds later. "Do you want me to teach you?"

My eyes widened when I heard that. I hesitated for a moment before nodding timidly.

"Use words, princess," he said, stroking my waist to encourage me to speak.

"I want you to teach me how to do it," I said, feeling a wave of confidence in myself.

He smiled before kissing me again; this time our kiss was slow and gentle, as if to reassure me. His hands played with the hem of my tank top. "Can I take this off?" he asked calmly.

"Take yours off first," I asked directly. I didn't want to be the only one exposed for some reason. My statement made him chuckle, and he separated from my lips to remove his t-shirt.

I took a moment to observe him. Unconsciously, I started biting my lips, and Chris smiled at my reaction. "It's your turn now," he said, moving towards me again.

Once again, I hesitated for a moment, looking into his eyes. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to, you know," he said without breaking eye contact.

His words were enough to make me feel comfortable. I took my tank top off over my head without overthinking it. "But I want to," I said before covering my chest, feeling a wave of embarrassment engulf me.

Chris immediately grabbed my arms. "You don't need to hide from me, Y/n," I let him remove my arms from the way, and he directed his eyes to my chest, licking his lips. "You're beautiful," he said before pressing his lips against mine once again.

I felt more and more at ease with him. My hands, which were previously at the back of his neck, started to travel along his chest down to his waist, where he hastily seized my wrist. "Slow down, princess."

"What? Did I do it wrong? Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" I asked, panicking. He chuckled at my reaction.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," he said, smiling. "We have all the time in the world, don't rush yourself," he whispered before kissing my neck again.

My hand found its place in his hair, and he gradually directed his kisses towards my chest, prompting me to throw my head back at the new sensation of his lips around my nipples.

One of his hands slipped between my thighs, making me jump and tilt my head forward at the proximity of his hand to my sensitive area.

He began to gently caress my pussy through my clothes, causing a silent moan to escape my lips.

I could feel my head starting to spin due to all this sudden stimulation; I couldn't help but squirm in all directions. "Can I take off your shorts?" he asked, looking up at me.

"Y-yes," I replied timidly before he slowly removed my shorts and resumed kissing me, this time moving down to my stomach, making me breathe harder.

He stopped kissing me when he reached the level of my white panties to examine them closely. "You're so wet that I can see the trace on your panties," he said with a smirk.

Embarrassment washed over me. "I'm sorry," I said softly, trying to close my thighs, but he grabbed them to force me to keep them open.

"Don't be," he said, bringing his head closer to my thighs. "I like it," he said, planting a kiss on my clothed pussy, making me shiver. "You're so sensitive; I bet I could make you come in less than 5 minutes with my tongue," he said, running his fingers between the fabric of my panties and my skin.

"Do you want me to do it?" he asked, looking up at me with a sly smile. I timidly nodded. "Say it," he said in a firm tone.

"What?" I asked, a bit embarrassed.

"If you want me to do it, you'll have to ask me, Y/n," he said arrogantly.

"Chris," I said in a frustrated moan; I could see his smile widening, amused by the situation. He returned to plant another kiss on my still-clothed pussy. "I-I want you to make me come with your tongue," I said, almost inaudibly moaning.

"Anything you want, princess," he said satisfied before removing my panties. I lifted my hips to help him, and he placed a few kisses around my sensitive area before putting my legs over his shoulders and diving his head between my legs.

The upper part of my body leaned forward slightly at the sensation of his lips around my clit. Instinctively, my hand pressed into his long, wavy hair, and I couldn't control the soft moans that escaped me. "Y/n, quiet down; your parents will hear you," he said, chuckling against me before getting back to work.

His tongue applied pressure to my clit, driving me wild. One of his hands reached for my breasts to play with them, mainly to prevent me from squirming all over my desk, which kept creaking. He moved his tongue in circular motions, gradually increasing the speed. After a few seconds, I felt something new in my lower abdomen, as if it were knotting due to the pressure. My thighs started to tighten slightly around his face without me realizing it. When I lowered my eyes to look at him, I could see his beautiful blue eyes already fixed on me, admiring me as if I were his last meal.

My eyebrows furrowed when all this stimulation started to take over. "Chris," I struggled to say in a weak voice; it felt like I was about to faint. "Oh my—fucking god," I said, throwing my head back and covering my mouth with my hand.

Chris didn't stop; on the contrary, he accelerated his movements, and his grip on my breasts became much firmer. He started moaning between my legs, and the vibrations of his moans against my clit were enough to push me over the edge. My legs began to tremble. "Fuck—Chris," I said before reaching orgasm on his face.

He slowed down the movement of his tongue before completely stopping to let me ride out my orgasm. "I told you," he said, straightening up and using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, "less than 5 minutes."

I chuckled at his remark, "You never stop boasting, huh?" I said with a smile, and his hands came around my cheeks before placing a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Never," he said, smiling before I reconnected our lips, making him smile at my hungry kiss. "What do you want?" he asked, separating our lips.

"I want to pleasure you too," I replied, playing with his necklace. He licked his lips, looking into my eyes.

"Is that what you want?" he asked, pressing his pelvis against mine to make me feel his erection through his pants, and I nodded.

"Yes, that's what I want," I said with an innocent look.

He immediately reconnected our lips without waiting a second longer, then grabbed the back of my thighs to carry me to my bed.

He gently placed me at the edge of the bed before leaning forward to kiss me again. "If you want us to stop, let me know," I brought my hands to his belt to remove it while he looked at me with desire.

I lowered his pants and stared at his erect member. Suddenly, panic resurfaced. "You don't have to do this," he said, bringing his hand to my cheek.

I looked up to meet his reassuring gaze. "I don't know how to do it," I said timidly, "but I want to." I added, placing my hand on his thigh.

"Do what feels right, I'll guide you," he said, never taking his eyes off me, as I slid down his boxers to his ankles.

The apprehension and stress were still there, but it was too late; after all, I was already committed. I really wanted it; I was just terribly afraid of messing up. I stopped overthinking and took his member in my hand, giving him a look to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. He nodded to indicate I should continue. I began hesitant strokes with my hand, eliciting a moan from his mouth.

His hand came to caress the top of my head, and I threw him a last uncertain glance before taking him into my mouth. He flinched and took a step back when I started, and I immediately looked up at him in panic. "Sorry," I apologized embarrassedly.

"No, don't be. It's okay; you just need to avoid letting your teeth touch it. It's not very pleasant," he explained in a reassuring voice before coming back towards me.

I nodded, and this time, I made sure my teeth didn't touch him. His hand returned to my hair. "Yeah, like that," he moaned, making my pussy clench at the tone of his voice. I continued my movements with closed eyes. "You can use your hand for what you can't fit in your mouth," he said weakly, and I did as he instructed. I could feel how much he was holding back from thrusting into my mouth to avoid rushing me, and the muffled sounds from his mouth sent an electric shock to my pussy.

"Fuck, you need to stop," he said, throwing his head back. I pulled away and looked up at him, confused.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked, feeling lost.

"No, baby, you did a great job. It's just that I was about to come," he said, caressing my cheek and catching his breath.

"Oh," I said, chuckling. "Maybe you can come inside me?" I said without thinking, excited by the moment; I wanted more.

"Y/n," he said, diving his eyes into mine before I got up, grabbed the back of his neck, and kissed him again. "Is this really what you want?" he asked before reconnecting our lips.

"Please," I said pathetically, guided by my desires and excitement at that moment. My hands tangled in his hair, and his hands firmly gripped my hips.

"I don't have a condom, princess," he emphasized, smiling against my lips.

"I have..." I said timidly before heading to my bedside table to take out a new box of condoms.

A sly smile appeared, and I could already feel his remarks coming. So, before he had a chance to say anything, I cut him off, "I'm a virgin, not irresponsible, Chris," I said, rolling my eyes when I stood in front of him.

"I didn't say anything," he said, chuckling, before pushing me onto the bed and positioning himself above me to kiss me again. "Are you sure this is really what you want, Y/n?" he asked, directing his lips to my neck. "I don't want you to feel forced into anything. What we've done already is more than enough for now," he added.

"Jeez, Chris, stop talking," I said, chuckling, before grabbing his head between my hands to kiss him even more passionately than before.

"Are you that impatient?" he said, chuckling. "I need to stretch you a bit first, okay?" he said, directing his fingers towards my entrance. I simply nodded, and he pushed the first finger inside, prompting me to raise my head at the sensation. "Is it okay?"

"Yes, you can add another finger," I said, feeling my breath quicken. He inserted a second finger and began to move them in and out to stretch me.

"I wish your parents weren't here so I could hear you better, Y/n. You make beautiful sounds," he said, burying his head in my neck and curling his fingers inside me to stretch me further.

"Chris," I said, moaning and pulling slightly on his hair, "I need more."

"Do you think you're ready?" he asked, looking into my eyes. He had never looked at me like that before; his gaze was tender and caring.

"Yes," I replied, nodding. He grabbed a condom and opened it with his mouth. I could feel the pressure building, but I wasn't going to back down. I was going to do it; I was ready to do it.

He put on the condom and positioned himself at my entrance. "Tell me if you want me to stop, and I'll do it immediately," he said, and I nodded. "It might hurt a bit at the beginning if it's too much for you—"

"Chris, just do it," I said, cutting him off when I felt the stress overwhelm me.

He began to push slowly inside me, scrutinizing any sign of discomfort on my face. My eyebrows furrowed at the burning sensation when he started penetrating me. "Fuck," I said, glancing down to see what was happening between my legs before letting my head fall back on the pillow. He stopped halfway to make sure it wasn't too much for me. "Don't stop," I said, breathing quickly, and he resumed his advance until he touched the depth, prompting me to bury my head in his neck to muffle a moan.

"Are you okay?" he asked without moving from where he was.

"Yes, you can move," I said before he began to make slow thrusts. At first, it burned a little; it was uncomfortable, but with each subsequent movement, the pain transformed into pleasure.

"Oh my god, you're so tight, Y/n, fuckkk," he said, moaning against my lips. His thrusts gradually accelerated, and my hand gripped his bicep.

"It-feels good," I admitted, moaning softly and clenching my jaw.

"I've dreamt of this for so long; it's even better than in my dreams," he said, gripping onto my hips.

"You dreamed of this?" I asked him, confused, not knowing if he was being honest with what he was saying.

"Mhm," he simply hummed before lowering his free hand between our bodies to massage my clit. "You're mine now," he said in my ear, and my grip around his bicep tightened with the stimulation he was providing at that moment. His hip movements accelerated again, knotting my lower abdomen for the second time tonight. "Say it," he added in an authoritative tone.

"I'm yours, Chris," I said with the little strength I had left. My mind didn't know where to focus at that moment.

"Yes, and this pussy is mine too, Y/n," he said, moaning in my ear, driving me crazy. "I want you to cum again for me, princess," he said, accelerating his thrusts, yet still gentle and delicate.

My eyes rolled back, and my legs tightened around him. "Let go, princess," he said breathlessly. "Cum all over me." With his words, I threw my head back and started clenching around him. "Fuck, I can feel you clenching around me, baby," he said, burying his head in my neck, and I started to climax. I grabbed his hand, placing it over my mouth to muffle any noise, and shortly after, he climaxed too.

"Oh my god," I said before he let all his weight fall on me, moaning one last time.

"I never want to move from here," he said, smiling against my neck.

"You'll have to before my parents wake up," I said, chuckling. "It's already a miracle they didn't hear us," I said, running my hand through his hair.

He sat up and withdrew from me before tossing the condom into my trash bin. I sat up, covering myself with my blanket. "Will this happen again?" I asked him timidly, looking at him as he put on his boxers.

"Of course, it will, princess," he said, smiling, before sitting next to me and rubbing my thigh. "Can I stay a little longer?" he asked, locking his eyes with mine, and I nodded.

He settled next to me, pulling me close and gently running his hand over my curves. "Send me the exam tomorrow; I don't have class. I'll give you the answers," I told him, looking up at him.

"I thought this was bad, and good girls like you don't do these kinds of things," he said, chuckling and furrowing his brows.

"Good girls like me aren't supposed to sleep with bad boys like you," I replied, straddling him to be on top, and he sat up to kiss me.

"I told you I'd drive you crazy," he said, smiling against my lips.

Masterlist.

[lilysbookshelf987]

New camper: Percy Jackson x reader (daughter of apollo)

A/n: thank you so much for giving this a read! This is my first time writing for the PJO universe so let me know if you like it! Requests are open! No NSFW or Smut! Enjoy

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"Good morning" Percy said tiredly, greeting his best friend Grover at the dining pavilion, taking a seat next to him.

"Morning" Grover replied, "hey did you see Annabeth on your way here? She's usually the first one here and I haven't seen her yet"

As if almost on cue she was walking towards the boys, an excited smirk painted across her face.

"Camp Half-Blood has a new camper!"

"What?!" replied Percy

"She showed up late last night, all alone. Chiron told me she had been hurt pretty badly but he took her into the infirmary and gave her some Ambrosia"

"She took it? So, she's definitely a half-blood?" Percy asked

"Yep! We should be meeting her later today" Annabeth was ecstatic, she loved new campers!

--time skip--

As the day went on there was still no sight of the new camper. Word had made its way around camp and people began to take their guesses as to who was her parent.

"I hope she's in our cabin!" A child of Aphrodite had said

"No! I bet she HAS to be in ours! Showing up without a Satyr by her side means she's a warrior"an Ares kid chimed

"As long as she's not in ours I dont care" a tired looking Hermes kid said.

It was almost dinner time when Chiron had found Percy, sparring with someone from the Ares cabin.

"Percy can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Yeah sure" he said, removing his helmet and recapping his sword.

"Im sure you've heard we've had a new camper join us."

"Yeah it's all over camp" he replied

"Ah yes. Well let's say she hasn't been thrilled to learn about her new family. Reminds me a lot of you when you first came here"

Percy thought back to his first few days at camp. He was confused, scared, angry, and very much overwhelmed.

"I was wondering if you could help ease her mind by speaking to her. You understand what she's feeling better than I can."

"And im not half horse" Percy smiled

"Yes there is that" Chiron chuckled

"Alright I want to meet her!" Percy agreed. He really did want to help, but he also knew how jealous Annabeth would be that he met her first. The two walked into the big house and there she was, staring down at her feet.

"Y/N, this is Percy, son of Poseidon. Percy this is Y/N. I'm sure you two will get long swimmingly" Chiron chuckled at his own joke, "I will give you two some privacy" with that, he left the room. Leaving the two teenagers alone.

An awkward silence filled the room, when finally Y/N broke the silence.

"Son of Poseidon, huh?" she asked

"That's me" he smiled, proud of the title he held.

"That's crazy, the gods don't exist!"

"They do exist. I know it all feels a bit insane at first but-"

"A bit?! My whole life i've had these things coming after me and I didn't understand why. I thought I was insane and seeing things, but apparently that's normal?! And my dad? The reason he's neglected me my whole life was because he was a god?! There's just no way"

"Hey, it's gonna be ok. I know how you feel. I felt like that when I first got here. All my life my dad wasn't someone I had thought about much because I had my mom, and thats all I needed. Then I find out that he's now the most important thing in my life? I had so many emotions, but if you just give this place a chance? I promise everything gets a lot less scary"

This seem to get to the girl. She started to tear up.

"Ok, i'll try." she whispered

"I'll show you around and it'll all be ok, I promise."

The two made their way around camp, Y/N was mostly silent. "The sun is so warm here, it's not like that where I'm from"

"Everything is a little bit stronger here."

"I can tell" she smiled

"So, do you have any idea who your dad might be?" Percy asked, careful not to poke at the sensitive subject.

"I think but I'm not sure. My mom used to talk about Apollo, a way she never did about other Gods"

"Ok then...then we have to find a way for him to see you! If he see's you, he'll claim you!"

"Yeah but how?"

"Gods dont claim you because they feel like it, you have to work for it" Annabeth said, inviting herself to the conversation.

"Y/N this is Annabeth, daughter of Athena"

"Hey" Y/n said

"Percy have you taken her to the archery field? Apollo kids thrive there"

"No I didn't"

"Seaweed brain c'mon!" Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Lets go" she led the two there and put a bow and arrow in Y/N's hands. The girl had fired it easily and hit the bullseye.

"Beginners luck?" y/n asked

"Go again" Chiron said, but before she could something came flying down at her, she shot it down easily.

"That could've killed us" Percy said, mouth agape, "and you shot it down with ease!" he said

"Look!" One of the campers said

Y/N was becoming engulfed in a bright light and a sun appeared over her head. She was now an official resident of cabin 7

[babyboiboyega]

The Study Room Pt. 3 (HBCU!Shuri x Black!Fem!reader)

HBCU!Shuri x Black!Fem!Reader

Word Count: 6.9k (wHEW)

Content: fluff, a little profanity, angst, slight violence, shit is getting real lmao

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A/N: HELLO! I did change some things in the first part. Instead of Queen Ramonda calling Shuri, Okoye is the person who calls her! Mainly because I kind of changed my mind about bringing Ramonda back to life for this series. I love her character literally so much...but I think its important to stay with the storyline of how her death affected Shuri. I think that's all I have to say. OH! This series will have another name sooner rather than later! With the plot I have in my mind, "The Study Room" doesn't really fit...but we'll see!

Other than that...enjoy the third part! 

TRANSLATIONS:

Ikumkani wam: my queen

Ukumkanikazi: queen

Ngoku: now

******

Recap: 

“Okay. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

The smile on Shuri’s face radiated fondness and a softness that no one else on campus had seen as she watched your breaths even out. Even as she was sure that you were asleep, she continued to rub your hand, the motion that had put you to sleep relaxing her more and more.

You weren’t awake to hear her words, but she spoke them nonetheless into the darkened room.

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

**********

You didn’t know how long you had been sleeping when you were awoken by your phone buzzing on the bedside table next to you. It had been so tempting to ignore it, but then the memory of recent events flew to the forefront of your mind. The only people you could think of that would call you at such a time of the night were close family members, Imani, and Imani’s parents. After the night’s events, it wasn’t surprising when you picked up your phone to see Imani’s mother calling you.

Quickly sliding out of bed, you quietly walked into Shuri’s bathroom, closing the door softly behind you.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Y/N. It’s Mrs. Byers.”

It was easy to keep the fatigue at bay for the meantime, especially as you figured that she was only calling because of some kind of update on Imani. However, you couldn’t stop your eyes from closing, one of your hands reaching up to rub at them.

“Hey, Mrs. Byers. How’s Imani? Is everything okay?”

The both of you spoke quietly on the phone for the next few minutes. She told you of the small update they had been given in the middle of the night, and how the update meant that they’d be able to take Imani home first thing in the morning. She had even asked if you were okay and if you had found a place to stay for the night, to which you replied with a rather vague confirmation that you had indeed found a place to stay. 

After asking her to have Imani call in the morning, if she was up for it, the call ended with both of you bidding the other goodnight. Almost immediately after hanging up, the stress that had been seizing your body during the entire ordeal dissipated. Mrs. Byers’ confirmation that her daughter would be perfectly fine prompted that exhaustion from earlier to smack into you, this time, completely unbridled and without the influence of stress and worry. 

You didn’t waste another second stepping back into the darkened room, intent on crawling right back into Shuri’s bed and resuming your sleep. Your steps came up short as you saw Shuri’s shadowy figure sitting up on the edge of her bed, facing you. She reached over, fiddling with something on the bedside table, and then there was a soft, purple glow emitting from some kind of crystal/rock. 

“Everything okay?”

Despite being dead tired, your exhausted brain still held enough energy to start racing at the sound of her groggy, raspy voice and how it was full of worry. She moved to stand up but you quickly held out a hand, walking towards her.

“No, it's fine. Everything’s good. That was Imani’s mom and she was just letting me know that they’ll be able to take her home in the morning.”

She nodded, rubbing at her face. In the dim lighting of the room, you could make out a small smile on her face. 

“That’s good. I’m glad. So…you comin' back to bed?”

Her question quite literally rendered you speechless, and it was solely because of the innuendo her words held. The question was one that most would expect to hear from their partner…not their friend that they had surely grown feelings for and who they had to share a bed with.

Not to mention the light and hopeful tone in her voice as she asked the question, almost as if she wanted you to get back into bed. As if she wanted to share a space that could certainly be seen as intimate in some settings with you. 

“Y/N?”

“Huh? Yeah! Yeah, I’m coming back to bed.”

God, were you thankful for the dim lighting of the room. If not for it, she would have surely been able to see your face and the way you had to bite back a giddy smile as you walked back to your side. She held the covers up as you slid back into your space, and only once you were laying down did she pull the covers over the two of you after turning off the lamp.

It felt natural getting back into the same position you two had initially gone to sleep in. The only difference this time was that, instead of Shuri reaching for your hand and tracing shapes, you reached for hers. This time, you traced idle shapes into her skin, letting your eyes shut and letting sleep once again claim you both. 

*************

Waking up just a few hours later was a little different. As the first signs of consciousness reached you, the various reminders that you weren’t in your own bed once again confronted you. 

For starters, where the sun usually streamed through your window, beaming directly into your face in your dorm, the opposite could be said for Shuri’s. There were nice, blackout curtains covering the windows of her room that you hadn’t noticed the night before (presumably to provide her a good enough sense of privacy), and the same crystal that had given off the soft, purple light last night was on. The relaxing aura it gave off reminded you of the woman it belonged to- the same woman who was missing from her own room. 

Slowly sitting up, you fixed your bonnet, surprised to not find it on the other side of the bed (or room). Your eyes, still a little heavy with sleep, looked around the room for the one person you wanted to see only to come up empty. They closed again, your head falling to the pillow as a sigh left your mouth. The urge to grab the cover and pull it right back over you continued to grow the longer you laid there, but your attention was soon drawn to the door of Shuri’s room as the sound of keys being inserted rang out. The door swung open right as you sat up, eyes instantly finding the princess herself.

“Oh, good morning. How’d you sleep?”

She carried two paper bags in her hand that she sat down on her desk while she shed her coat, exposing her t-shirt and sweatpants, the clothes she had worn to bed.  Kicking off her shoes and turning to you, she walked in your direction, picking up the bags.

“I slept pretty okay. How’d you sleep? Also I’m sorry for waking you up last night.” Shuri proceeded to grab a tray-like item, setting it on her bed in front of you. She set the bags on the tray before crawling back into bed, sitting beside you.

“It’s totally fine. I’m just glad your friend is okay.” There was a smile on her face as she glanced at you before reaching into her bag. Your eyebrows furrowed as she motioned for you to do the same, and upon leaning closer, the smell of food became apparent. 

“Thank you- did you get us breakfast?”

To answer, she unboxed her food, showcasing it to you. She held a bagel topped with cream cheese and fruit out for you to see. It looked delicious, and you found yourself actually wanting to try it; that is until you remembered that she had gotten you your own food.

Reaching into your own bag, you pulled out a sandwich item wrapped with parchment paper. The mouth-watering smell grew, and as it did, you could feel it tugging at a familiar part of your brain. Opening the paper showed that your breakfast consisted of a croissant that was stuffed with what looked and smelled to be nutella and slices of fruit. You immediately recognized it as your go to order from one of your favorite cafes on campus. 

You looked up, ready to thank her generously for breakfast, but then you realized not one, but two things. The first realization was that Shuri’s dorm wasn’t the closest to the cafe, having to be at least a 10 minute walk. The second realization came after you looked closer at Shuri and saw little droplets of water in her curls. Eyebrows furrowing, you leaned forward without thinking, catching a drop of water that had been getting ready to fall off of a curl and right onto her face. You quickly pulled your hand back, though, at the way Shuri froze, her eyes softening at your actions.

“Shuri…don’t tell me it was raining and you walked to get breakfast.”

Once again, instead of answering, she simply shrugged with a knowing smile on her face. She raised her bagel to her mouth, taking a bite as she gazed at you.

You gawked at her, eyes wide in disbelief. She let it go on for a second before she motioned to your food in your hand, her eyebrows raising.

“You need to eat before it gets cold.”

She somehow sounded both teasing and demanding at the same time, and the thrill that it sent through you made you lose all words you were going to say. Wordlessly, you lifted the crescent to your mouth, taking a bite. You couldn’t help the small, satisfied sigh that left your mouth at the taste of your favorite breakfast item. 

It had admittedly been a while since the last time you had it, due to things just being a little extra hectic lately. Winter break was approaching which also meant the arrival of finals, something you had gratefully finished the week before. But even after finishing your last exam, going to your favorite cafe hadn’t been on your list of priorities, unfortunately. But leave it to Shuri to provide a reminder of why and how much you loved the cafe.

A minute or two of you both eating in content silence passed until you broke it. You spoke softly, not wanting to disrupt the air of tranquility.

“Can I ask what kind of lamp that is?”

She glanced over her shoulder at the crystal lamp still providing a little bit of light before turning back to you. 

“It’s quartz crystal infused with vibranium from Wakanda. Given to me as a ‘going away’ present by a friend.” She smiled fondly as she spoke, but then she motioned to something behind you.

“I have two. One on this side, and one on your side.”

The only thing that distracted you from possibly overthinking her usage of the words ‘your side’ was when she placed her food back on the tray and leaned over. She rose onto her knees, reaching over your lap to turn the lamp on. She was close enough for you to smell the hair products in her hair, undoubtedly activated by the rain outside. They smelled natural and soothing; nothing like the chemical filled products often found in the states. 

You set a hand behind you, leaning back on it to give her more space, no matter how much you wanted to lean forward. Her hand landed on the other side of your lap, propping her up as she leaned over, fiddling with the lamp. You watched as the same light emitted from it only for it to change into a soft, blue color. 

Leaning in the same direction as her, you looked closer at the light, taking the time to truly admire it. The only word that could be used to describe it was…enchanting. You wouldn’t call it magical; there was something much deeper about its appeal to call it simply ‘magical’. 

“So the quartz reacts to the vibranium, making it glow like that.” You assumed, eyes narrowing slightly in curiosity. “I’m assuming it was your genius addition that makes it possible to change the color.” 

Your words were said with a smile as you turned your head to look at her only to finally realize how close you two were. She nodded, her gaze unwavering from where it connected with yours. Her voice was soft as she responded.

“Yeah…I developed a way to alter the smallest bit of irradiation inside of the crystal, which makes it change colors.” 

The answer was simple enough, but you still couldn’t help staring in awe at her. She had taken an already scientifically advanced item and further advanced it. It wasn’t a surprise that she could do it, but it was still something to be in awe of.

“It…it makes sense. It’s also not surprising that you made it better.” A breathless laugh left your mouth, making her laugh softly. She propped herself up more which only brought her face closer to yours. It was obvious how your heart sped up if your quickened breaths were anything to go by. 

“Is that what you think? That I make things better?”

Was this really happening?

Shuri’s eyes unabashedly looked down at your lips, and the next breath you took in stuttered slightly. Her movements were slow as she leaned closer, drawing her face closer to yours until the air from her next words could be felt on your lips.

When she spoke, her voice was rough around the edges, as if she were straining herself back from doing more and trying her best to get them out. Her free hand raced, tracing a path from the tips of your free hand up to your elbow, which she used to pull you closer. You didn’t offer any resistance, essentially a pile of puddy in her hands. Your name left her mouth on a  breathless exhale.

“Tell me to stop…if you don’t want this, tell me to stop.”

You couldn’t possibly make your voice work right, so you settled with shaking your head. Her movements paused in their entirety; she stopped drawing you closer and her tracing stopped.

“I need to hear it.”

“I don’t want you to stop.” Your voice was merely a whisper, almost getting stuck in your throat as you forced them out. The breathlessness of your voice made a crooked smile appear on Shuri’s face as she leaned forward once more. She lifted her hand, using it to tip your chin back.

Your body felt as if it were on fire as she paused again, simply observing the position she had you in. The spots where her skin came into contact with yours were the hottest, though it felt as if molten lava flowed from those spots and through your veins. She still had that damned smile on your face, and you wanted nothing to kiss it right off. You could feel something close to defiance entering your mind, spurred on by the way she continued to tease you, even in the slightest. It made you clench your jaw, lifting your chin more as you hardened your gaze where it connected with hers…and she immediately recognized your look for what it was. 

Her eyebrows rose in a mixture of surprise and amusement, and then she was finally about to close the gap, her lips skimming just the surface of your bottom lip-

Only for you both to quickly separate at the sound of 3 heavy knocks landing on her door. It quickly shattered the air surrounding you; the tranquility, the vulnerability, the tension.  It didn’t get rid of it in its entirety, for it still simmered right there on the surface, turning more into a need than a want. 

A quick glance Shuri’s way showed her rubbing a hand down her face in frustration and turning towards the door. She quickly scooted to the edge of the bed before pausing, sending a look over her shoulder at you. The attraction that had been in her eyes mere seconds ago was still there, but it almost seemed masked now. You couldn’t find an ounce of regret in her eyes, but the sudden change had your heart beating quickly, and not in anticipation. More so in nervousness.

“*Ikumkani wam…I know you are in there. You know I have no reservation about kicking this door down.”

Shuri’s eyes widened almost comically as she turned back to the door, quickly making her way towards it. As her back was turned, you took the chance to place a hand against your chest, willing your heart to go back to its regular pace. 

“Okoye? What are you doing here?”

She swung the door open, only enough to speak to the person outside- Okoye, she had said. The name sounded familiar, though you were seriously questioning your own judgment at the moment.

Okoye. Okoye.

Connecting the name to the multiple stories Shuri had told about the stoic, intelligent, and deadly General of Wakanda’s army made you scramble to get out of bed. You had no idea what you would do, but for some reason, being caught in Shuri’s bed by the general of an army seemed to be at the bottom of the list of things you wanted to go through so early in the morning. 

Flinging the covers to the side sent your phone flying and bouncing off of the wall. A few events happened in the span of a few seconds, effectively turning the morning into chaos. 

Your foot became caught in the comforter as you hurried to reach for it, causing you to follow its path and land in a heap on the floor. Shuri quickly turned at the sound just in time to see you go over the side of the bed, and the door was pushed out of her hand as the general quickly stepped in.

Hand closing around your phone, you managed to right yourself and grabbed the bed to pull yourself up. You came face to face with something metal and something so sharp it almost became invisible as you pulled yourself back up. Your body tensed so quickly and so much that it wasn’t a surprise when a painful tweak went through your back, though you didn’t dare move. 

Eyes flickering from the edge of the weapon to the face of the newcomer, the damn General, you slowly and shakily raised your hands. You didn’t even blink, too afraid of doing something that could even potentially be seen as threatening. 

“Okoye, wait!”

Shuri’s voice seemed like the damn voice of an angel as she quickly rushed forward, placing a hand on Okoye’s arm. She spoke slowly but firmly.

“She’s a friend, not a threat. You brought a spear in here?”

Your gratitude undoubtedly showed on your face as you looked at Shuri, because she nodded assuredly, giving you a small, tight smile. At Shuri’s actions and words, Okoye retracted her spear, tilting her chin up as she assessed you. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t unkind…but it wasn’t kind either.

“Oh, I can see that. And I brought a spear because I felt the need to.” Her head turned to face Shuri and you almost immediately sagged in relief, though your eyes widened as her spear retracted into a small, hand sized pole. 

“You felt the need to bring a vibranium spear to a college campus, and then threaten my friend with it-”

“Shuri, we need to talk. It’s important.”

There must have been something in Okoye’s voice that spoke to the seriousness of the situation because Shuri paused, stepping closer to her. Her eyebrows furrowed and the typical playful Shuri you knew quickly disappeared, a more regal version of her appearing. 

“What is it? What’s happened?”

Assuming that the two of them would have just forgotten about you while discussing, presumably what would be Wakandan business, was a little foolish of you. So when Okoye didn’t respond, instead choosing to look expectantly in your direction. She raised an eyebrow, and you immediately got the message. 

Once again, you found yourself rushing to stand to your feet. You were able to do so without incident this time, quickly snatching your phone up. You nodded in understanding.

“Oh! Yeah, of course. I’ll go-uh, do something and let you two talk.”

Nevermind the fact that you had no idea where you would go. You still had on your pjs and bonnet and it was raining outside…but now Okoye was staring at you, waiting for you to leave. Her attention only made you move faster. 

“Wait, no, wait.” Right as you reached for your shoes, a hand landed on your arm, effectively pausing your actions. You spoke before Shuri could continue, placing your hand on top of hers. 

“It’s okay. If it’s important then I probably shouldn’t be here. Especially if it has to do with…Wakanda. I’ll go get us some lunch. Just call me when you’re done.” You sent her a smile that was surprisingly easy to muster up, especially in the face of all the chaos and confusion that had just happened.

She looked at you for a few seconds, undoubtedly trying to see through your words and to see what you were truly thinking. When she was seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she sighed in resignation. Nodding, she squeezed your arm gently before letting it go. 

“Alright. I’ll call as soon as we’re done.” 

You nodded, leaning down to put on your shoes. Once you grabbed your coat, you made your way to the door, pausing to awkwardly nod a goodbye at Okoye. She had the heart to give you the tiniest, strained smile before nodding back, and then you were closing the door behind you. 

The second the door closed, Shuri was whirling to stare incredulously at Okoye, mouth agape. 

“I have to say, Okoye. I’m both surprised and not that you’d barge in while I’m at school and then basically order my friend to leave.”

“We both know that’s not just your friend.”

Okoye rolled her eyes, stepping around her and in the direction of the covered windows. She pulled a curtain aside just enough to peek outside before letting it fall back into place. Shuri opened and closed her mouth, looking for a response. Before she could find one,  Okoye  turned to face Shuri, letting out a sigh.

“You’re being watched.”

Shuri tensed, her body freezing at Okoye’s words. She was being watched? Who would follow the sitting queen of Wakanda? Who would risk getting in trouble with Wakanda because of their stalker tendencies?

At Shuri’s silence, Okoye stepped closer. She brandished her kimoyo beads and then they were both looking at projections of pictures…pictures that consisted of Shuri in different parts of the campus they were currently on. There were some of her walking between classes, eating in the dining hall, even when she had studied in the library. 

Instead of feeling fear or nervousness, she felt irritation. Annoyance. Leave it to some person without boundaries on campus to make her college-going experience weird. Her irritation showed on her face as she looked at Okoye. 

“It’s probably just some weirdo here on campus.”

Her words trailed off as Okoye shook her head, her eyes widening to convey the seriousness of the situation.

“You don’t understand, Shuri. They sent these to the Doras who are assigned to you. They knew who they were and what they were here for and managed to send pictures to them. Not only that, but we are unable to trace where they came from as of right now. Whoever they are…they know how to cover their tracks.”

Shuri’s mind raced slightly as she turned away, her fingers fidgeting. What the hell did they want- what were they hoping to achieve by sending those pictures? Was it a scare tactic? A threat of some kind? A demand?

“**Ukumkanikazi, I think it's best if you come back to Wakanda. At least for the time being, and until we can figure this out.”

Shuri instantly hated the idea of letting this nameless and faceless person, or people, put her life on pause. Sure, she had a life in Wakanda, but that life was one full of royal duties and inheritance. She quite enjoyed this life she had made on her own; she had gotten into college on her own, picked out her classes, made friends…all on her own. And now this…creep felt entitled enough to insert their unwanted and stalker-like personality into it. 

She felt as if she were running, despite the fact that she had already planned on going back to Wakanda for winter break. That was the only reason she wasn’t giving Okoye such a hard time right now, but she’d make sure to carve time out of her schedule to do so later on. 

“I had already planned on coming back for break. I…can’t just up and leave now. Let me at least talk to my fri- to Y/N, explain what's going on.”

She wouldn’t even entertain the thought of leaving without explaining herself to you. Even if she were to do something like that, she had a feeling that you wouldn’t be…too mad at her, especially in the face of a situation like this. You’d want her to do exactly what Okoye said, especially if it meant that she’d be away from the people surveilling her.

Okoye sent her a knowing look, one that let Shuri know that she knew exactly what had been happening at the time of her arrival. She sent one back that let Okoye know that she wouldn’t be leaving unless she spoke to you.

Finally, after a brief staredown from the two hard-headed women, Okoye let out a resigned sigh. She waved a hand, turning towards her door.

“Fine. Call your little…friend. And then pack your things and meet me on the roof. I don’t want to have to come and find you, Shuri.” 

She copied Okoye’s actions, raising a hand and half heartedly waving in agreement as she sought out her phone. Her hand closed around it right as she heard the door shut, and it took her less than a few seconds to find your name and click on it. 

As it rang, she moved around her room, taking note of the things she’d end up packing. It wouldn’t be a lot; she had everything she needed and more already in Wakanda…but she wanted to take her posters and the little trinkets she had acquired during her time in America. Maybe she’d have time to come back and get them once everything calmed down-

No. Why was she thinking as if she’d never be able to come back? She’d make sure she’d be able to come back, so she would leave those posters and trinkets. Okay, maybe she’d take a few of them. 

The phone continued to ring, making her eyebrows furrow. She pulled it away from her ear, hanging the call up only to call right back. She tried not to let the nervous feeling in her chest grow, but the longer the call rang without being answered, the more it became apparent. 

She continued to listen to the ringing as a series of knocks landed on her door. She barely registered the knocking, even as she went to open the door. There had been a small, hopeful feeling that your face would’ve been on the other side of the door, but instead it was Okoye once again. Upon hearing your voicemail answer instead of your voice, she let out a sigh.

“I’m coming, Okoye. I’m still trying to reach her-”

“Shuri, you need to see this.”

The urge to tell Okoye to just wait a second died instantly as she caught a glimpse of what she wanted her to see. She had more pictures projected from her kimoyo beads, all of them still showing Shuri, but she wasn’t the only one in them this time. 

Shuri’s heart dropped as she stepped closer, her eyes focusing on the other face in the pictures; the only person she had been seen with on campus.

You.

She quickly looked at Okoye, worry clear as day on her face. That worry that had been gnawing at her nerves turned into a violent pang that wracked through her body as the pictures continued to change, all of them consisting of you and her. As she continued to watch, she dialed your number again, internally pleading that you’d just answer the phone.

“For Bast’s sake, answer the phone. Please-” Her words cut off abruptly at the last picture in the stack. 

If it hadn’t been taken by some threatening stalker, the picture would have been sweet. Perfect, even. But no, because of the circumstances, the moment captured became tainted. It became…scary.

The picture showed the two of you leaving the library after one of your many study sessions, right as you two bid each other goodnight and went your separate ways. You both were faced the opposite direction of the other, hands up and undoubtedly waving bye. 

On the back of the last picture, crudely scribbled in red ink, were the words:

DONT YOU UNDERSTAND THE SAHDE IN HER HEART

BE GRAETFUL DEAR  OUR UNION IS FATED

DELIVERANC DEMANDS YOU DO YOU PART

The lack of punctuation, the scribbling, the typos, the message itself said enough about who this person was, and just how unhinged they were. The projection allowed her to see how the word “HER” seemed to be worse than the other words, almost intelligible…and scribbled right over where your face was on the other side of the picture. 

“When did you get these?” 

The look on Okoye’s face didn’t help the situation at all. In fact, it only made it harder for Shuri. She to take a deep breath around the tight feeling in her chest, though the feeling didn’t go anywhere. 

“Ayo received these 10 minutes ago.”

Shuri cursed loudly, quickly walking around Okoye and towards her door. There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation as she stepped into the hallway, Okoye hot on her heels. 

“Shuri, we have to have a plan!”

“The plan is to find Y/N before anything can happen!” 

There wasn’t room in Shuri’s voice for any negotiation as they burst into the stairwell and flew down the stairs. Okoye could only follow, speaking into her kimoyo beads to the assigned Doras who were placed on campus. She gave them your description and stressed how important it was to find you.

Shuri, on the other hand, only thought about how she would literally go through anything and anyone to get to you. 

**********

You literally hadn’t known what to do the second you stepped out of Shuri’s dorm building, so you had picked a direction, and simply started walking in it. It didn’t take long for you to realize that you were walking in the direction of the library. You hadn’t brought your bag with you, so you didn’t have your computer, but maybe you could find something to do while there. 

Of course and unsurprisingly, as you walked, hood up and trying to shield your face from the rain, your thoughts strayed to Shuri and what she and Okoye had to talk about. You hoped it wasn’t anything too worrisome, for you knew exactly how much Shuri cared for her home country. She’d drop any and everything in a heartbeat to go and deal with whatever needed to be dealt with.

Making this conclusion made you come to the realization that…any and everything included you. You honestly couldn’t fault her; she was queen of an entire country. There were more important things she’d have to worry about- things a lot more important than you two meeting in the library and eating things from the cafe together. More important things than…than whatever had happened in her room. 

You let out a heavy sigh, one full of acceptance that there’d probably never be a time where you’d be considered above her duties- nor did you expect to be. 

You pulled out your phone, glancing down at it for a quick second, looking for a call from Shuri that you knew hadn’t come yet. That one second was enough for you to practically run into another person, so hard that you stumbled back a few steps.

The other person, also with a rain jacket covering their body, their hood up, simply rushed past you. Your head turned to follow their retreating figure, eyebrows furrowed and your lips twisted.

“Excuse you. Damn…I thought we learned manners at a young age.”

You placed your hands back in your pockets, turning to continue your walk. The interaction was instantly pushed to the back of your mind as you thought of maybe picking up lunch for the two of you. But you two had literally just had breakfast, not even an hour ago. There was nothing wrong with an early lunch, right? Maybe you could call it brunch?

Or maybe you’d ask if you could take a nap. Maybe it was the rain and dreary skies making you feel a little tired, because you hadn’t felt so…heavy and slow moving when you had left Shuri’s dorm. 

The feeling persisted, and it only occurred to you that something was wrong when you felt as if you were running out of breath. It was impossible; you’d only been walking. Then came the feeling of being hot despite seeing your breath leave your mouth in a white cloud. The cold rain couldn’t offer any reprieve.

Something was wrong. 

The next step you tried to take felt too heavy, too clumsy. As soon as you managed to lift it and bring it down, you felt your knee go out. You couldn’t do anything but allow gravity to take over, your body coming into contact with the brick walkway. You tried to catch yourself with your hands, though the second you settled your weight on them, they flew out from under you.

Your tongue felt like lead in your mouth, too numb to move. The feeling of your heart speeding up was concerning and honestly the scariest thing you had ever been through. You could feel your heart beating, but it felt too violent- like it was trying to burst from your chest. 

Your actions weren’t your own as you ripped your jacket off, rolling to lay on your side. The fact that you were laying in the middle of the walkway didn’t cross your mind; the only thing you could focus on was the feeling of your body burning from the inside out. 

Your phone had flown out of your hand as you had hit the ground, and in a distant part of your mind, you could hear it ringing. You didn’t have the strength to reach out and find it. 

Your lips formed words but your throat was too dry to push them out. Just the effort of trying to call out for help was painful, but you continued to try, nonetheless. Your pain-addled brain kept thinking only one thing. Only one name continued to form on your lips as a threatening and malicious darkness seeped into your vision. 

**********

“Have they found her yet?”

Shuri’s voice was firm in her questioning, but anyone who knew her could hear the thinly concealed panic in it. 

Her and Okoye had raced outside before picking a direction. It wasn’t just any random direction, it was what Shuri had thought of. Her reason for picking the direction was because it led straight to the library, one of your comfort spots. Where else would you go after being unexpectedly kicked out of her dorm?

Okoye barked a question into her kimoyo beads as they ran, but the answer they received back only made Shuri’s footsteps quicken. She had to remind herself that with her recently acquired…abilities, she could now outrun Okoye, so she tried her absolute hardest to keep pace with her.

“Get the talon in the air and locate her. ***Ngoku!”

She heard Okoye’s orders, but they seemed to go in one ear and out the other as soon as Shuri looked ahead. If she thought her heart dropped earlier, that was nothing compared to what she felt as she saw a figure lying in the middle of the walkway, still. Too still.

The gasp she let out was ragged as she recognized the jacket you had walked out of her dorm with. It was easy to completely forget Okoye as she sprinted to your side, instantly dropping to her knees. 

Her hands hovered, not knowing where to touch you… not knowing what was wrong with you. She hastily pulled her kimoyo beads off of her wrist, placing them on your chest. She sucked in a sharp breath at how cold your skin was and prayed that it was only because of the cold rain. 

“Griot, what are her vitals?”

The beads projected your too slow heart rate above your chest, the sight making Shuri’s hands shake as she placed them against your cheeks. 

“She appears to be suffering from bradycardia as a result of some unknown substance. Life scans show a small puncture wound on the inside of her right elbow.”

A quick glance at the mentioned limb proved the AI’s words. There was a small circle, almost imperceptible, in the crook of your arm. There was a bead of dried blood near the site, probably having dropped at the time of the injection.

“Your highness, she seems to be slightly gaining consciousness.”

Shuri leaned over, shielding the rain from falling into your face and calling your name softly. In response, you let out a low, hoarse groan, the action physically hurting you. 

“We’re going to get you help, okay? I’m not going anywhere. Can you hear me?”

Your eyes wouldn’t open, but you didn’t need your sight to know that it was Shuri leaning over you. Your lips once again formed her name, though you couldn’t tell if sound escaped you or not. 

“I’m here. You think you can stay awake for me? That’s all I need you to do- just stay awake.” You were too out of it to hear the way her voice shook. It was hard to distinguish anything when your body was in a constant state of crippling pain- a pain you had never experienced before. 

Shuri could see your lips moving slightly, and she had to lower her head to hear you whisper her name. It gave her a little solace that you were able to tell who she was, though she wouldn’t calm down completely until you were stable and back to your regular self. 

“The talon is here. We’ll put her in the cradle and stabilize her.” 

Okoye spoke quickly, glancing up as the aircraft arrived and hovered over them. Shuri didn’t dare look away from you, her eyes flickering between your projected vitals and your face. 

She’d have to confront her fear and panic at the idea of losing you later; right now, you needed her and she needed to keep a clear head in order to help you. She still didn’t know what you had been injected with, which meant she didn’t have a cure. She didn’t know how to help you, and that thought alone made her chest seize. 

She lifted your upper half onto her lap, wiping away the tears that had unknowingly leaked from the corners of your eyes. Seeing you, someone who was usually so lively and who always made her laugh, in such a state of pain was all it took for her to take the situation more seriously. 

This person had targeted you; an innocent. Your only mistake was befriending her, and she didn’t need to think hard to assume that you thought the same thing.

Shuri’s gaze stayed on your still figure, willing you to open your eyes or say something else; even as the talon’s levitating technology carefully pulled them inside the ship. The second the ship’s entrance closed, she was pulling you into her chest and placing you in the cradle: the technology used to stabilize and treat the injured until they could get back to their lab. 

“Griot-”

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Stabilize her vitals. Take a blood sample and analyze it for familiar properties, and then compare it to every cure we have in Wakanda.”

She put her hands flat on the cradle as you were slowly sealed inside of it, as if she could reach through the glass and heal you yourself. Bast, she wished she could. Anything to help you. 

Even after her AI had done everything requested of it, she stayed in the same spot. Even after she was alerted that you were stabilized for now, she stayed in the same spot. She’d be damned if she left your side after you were hurt because of your connection to her. 

“General Okoye.”

She appeared by Shuri’s side almost instantly, eyebrows furrowed and eyes questioning.

“I want you to lead the search for the person that did this.”

They had both known that Okoye would lead the search, as it was her job. But hearing her agree to it calmed the smallest portion of Shuri’s nerves. It reassured her that someone she could trust and someone she knew would get the job done was working on it. 

“Of course, Ukumkanikazi. We’ll find them.”

Shuri lifted her eyes, meeting Okoye’s hard and confident gaze, and nodded once in thanks. 

She knew that Okoye would beg to differ should she hear her inner thoughts, but this was no longer about her being surveilled. This was about them targeting a woman who she cared immensely for…all to get to her. 

Oh, she’d find them. By any means necessary.

Sorry for the little cliff hanger and...ya know...the whole “we nearly kissed but got interrupted” trope. I love slow burns with palpable tension, but with circumstances that keep them apart LMAO

Hope you all enjoyed this part! I'm really excited to continue this series, and once again, I'd like to thank you all for the continuous love and support y'all are providing.

Stay safe, y'all! <3

Taglist:

@honey-teaaaaaaaa , @tchhairbandhere , @jessiap , @zane2408 , @bananasplits-world , @yellowjacketmurder , @barkbarkbo , @butterflyybabe , @bananafishok , @zestgodtj

Underline won't let me tag the account!

[artdcnaldson]

ok ok ok, so what im thinking is something like this.

its summer vacation btw, probably the summer right before he goes pro/art leaves for stanford

patrick has never really been very invested in his parents lives, but he wasnt surprised in the slightest when they had announced their divorce earlier that year. everyone had seen that coming for years. what he is surprised by tho is you, walking around his parents - well i guess now just his dads- house in tiny pj shorts and one of his old shirts from the academy. one that he'd left behind in his room ages ago. who are you... and why are you in his house?

turns out his dad had moved on from the divorce very quickly. so quickly in fact that his dads new wife, your mom, and you had already been moved into the house. before patrick was even told about any of you. patrick is pissed. not because he really cares about his parents relationships, he couldnt care less, but he's pissed that he now wont have the second floor all to himself. he has to share it with you. not that you're even sharing a bathroom or anything, this house is enormous. but his space is being invaded by some chick he's never even met.

i want him to be so pissed at his dad that hes totally taking it out on you, teasing the shit out of you, always flirting with you in that infuriating but oh so attractive way. you cant really tell if he actually wants to fuck you, or if hes just an ass who gets off on being a perv and pissing you off. i want it to start as a way for him to spend the hours, summers at the house are boring and never ending, he needs some form of entertainment. but then slowly he starts enjoying the way you groan at him when hes whispering over the noise of the dinner party to sneak away for a quicky with him.

i need to be so confused on whether he truly means it, does he actually want to fuck you? its wrong, and its very dirty. i dont think reader would be like overly innocent here, shes had sex before, nothing crazy though. nothing like the things patrick tells her about, nothing like the nights he recaps in her unwilling ear over breakfast...

i just need him to be a cocky asshole whos insistent that he will make you beg for him by the end of summer.............. hope this makes sense

-🐞

GODDDDDDD fell to my knees sobbing shaking

As soon as he’s been forced through cursory introductions (And this is your new stepsister, she’s your age too), he’s slammed his door and locked himself in his room.

He can tell you’ve been snooping— his shit is all off-kilter and scattered. CD’s out of order in his organizer (it’s by genre, then alphabetical, it’s not that hard), DVDs removed from his shelf and stacked on his dresser. His TV turns on to MTV, which he doesn’t fucking watch. It should turn on to Spike, or nothing. Worse, the carton of cigarettes he kept stashed in his bedside table was gone.

So he walks over to your door, which you’ve decorated with fucking stickers and a dry erase sign that you’ve scribbled on in lime green marker (Keep Out!). He shoves the door open and finds you straddling the windowsill, one dangling out the window as you smoke.

“What the fuck, don’t you knock?” You snap.

He grabs the cigarette from your mouth and you slap at his arm. It tastes faintly like marshmallows, must be from your sparkly lipgloss. “Keep the fuck out of my room,” he says firmly, exhaling smoke into the air. Your room smells like fresh paint— he realizes then you’ve painted the walls pink. “And buy your own fucking cigarettes.”

You look at him, roll your eyes. “We’re siblings now, we’re supposed to share,” you deadpan. He grits his teeth. Because you’re wearing one of his shirts, you’ve got one of his CD players on your dresser playing the Pussycat Dolls. You climb back inside the window and he swallows hard at the sight of your shorts all ridden up.

You have a nice ass, honestly— he stares at it when you bend over to grab the rest of the carton. When you turn, his reaction time is delayed. You sneer when you realize what he was doing. “Take your cigarettes back, perv.”

You shove him out of the room and slam the door in his face. He grins. You’re pretty hot when you’re annoyed with him.

That weekend, you’re in a study that had been repurposed into a game room— big TV, ping pong table, a big, caved in couch. You’re curled up beneath a blanket watching some movie he’s never heard of.

It makes you scowl when he sits down, pulls your legs into his lap. “Can you not?” You mutter.

He shrugs, trails delicate touches along your calves. Your toes flex, you instinctively lean into his touch. “I’m bonding with you,” he says. “Isn’t that what mommy and daddy want?”

Your face turns in disgust. “Gross. I’m not calling your fucking dad that.”

He laughs, trails his fingers a little higher so they brush against your knee. “No? You don’t want to be my cute little sister? Don’t want a big brother to scare all the boys off?” You shake your head, but your thighs part slightly, inviting his touch higher. He feels your thighs tense, only a bit. “Oh? Now who’s the perv?”

You kick him hard, scramble out of his lap. “You’re disgusting, Patrick.”

He grins, watches you walk away. You made it too easy for him.

[starrytowonder]

Success Stories ʕ⁠´⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠`⁠ʔ

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My posts on success stories seem to do well anyways, so here's so more to help motivate you. :')

Revising that my dog didn't run away: this one is more of a tear jerker. So I have a little Pomeranian dog, and for the time being he was being kept outside because we were doing house remodeling that had wood dust and other chemicals in the air that would be bad for him- so I thought keeping him outside would be safe. My dad decided to let him out of his closed area, and for a while my dog was just having fun running around! I decided to take a nap and just relax for the day since I had to do some writing earlier lol. Anyways, after I woke up, it was already late and around 6-7 pm, my dad walks in and he goes "is the dog in here?" while bursting in my room, and I said "no." and he just kinda scrambled off. My gut feeling just KNEW something was up, and I felt like shit for a good few seconds. I decided to try revising in case of the worst case scenario happening - having some more context, our house is literally next to a busy open street, if our dog got loose the chances of him being run over were extremely high. So anyways, after I "revised" (i simply stated "i have nothing to worry about, my dog is safe and in his house that he has outside), I just persisted. Throughout the day my parents and sisters avoided talking about my "missing" dog because they knew if I heard that he was gone, id have a meltdown. However they are not good at whispering or keeping secrets, so whenever i overheard them talking I would just affirm and remained calm. At around 10pm, my sister comes in my room annoyed ASF and this was the interaction:

Sis: do you know what just happened?

Me: Huh?

Sis: Oh...sorry we didn't tell you, *recaps what I just said*.

Me: the dogs missing?!

Sis: no, my dad went to go check in the dogs house and he was in there! He was inside of a hole where there were light cables ...blah blah blah.

So in conclusion for this story: by persisting that my dog never escaped and was in his house the whole time, he was. Simple.

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Having desired fanfictions written: this is more of a funny one that I do but just noticed that I do it. Whenever I join a fandom and absolutely drool over a character, i always want specific fanfictions written for them that don't exist when I join the fandom. So I'm always like "damn it'd be nice to have a fanfiction that does x" and then usually a few hours later a fanfiction with EXACTLY what I wanted is posted. Granted - they sometimes aren't written that well but regardless...they exist 😏🤞

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Remember how I was struggling with feeling pretty? I started using Slade's Incarnated sub to help. For the first few nights I looped that bad boy on repeat all night, and yeah the results were great! My acne faded and I lost tummy fat, and overall I felt so much prettier. For extra context I had some meltdowns before this (three to be exact) where I looked at myself in the mirror and burst into tears because I felt ugly. Now, after reading Slade's description for the sub, I realized that one of the benefits was sorta listed like: this sub works by also you not needing to overused it- which made me stop using it completely for one night. That night that I stopped using it, I woke up with some of the clearest skin I've had in a while and also longer lashes blah blah blah... basically how Slade said the sub would work. It's been a few days where I've done this and I've noticed that the results from the sub seem to be multiplying very well, I've started to feel even better by the day about how I feel and I know what I wanna look like etc. etc. I also used to have an awful neck hump cus of my shitty posture, and now it's basically gone!! My back so smooth now and my posture is also getting better lol dw.

All in all, ive gotten prettier both internally and externally, and i am so happy about it!

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[azucarmorena97]

Money Ties (Jungkook Love Story || Pt.5)

Pt.4 || Pt.6

Your parents have worked hard to get to the top and have made sure to teach you everything you need to know to be successful in this business: from tough but lucrative financial decisions, down to the right ball gown for any given banquet. A promising and extravagant future awaits you- that is, if you agree to one teensy detail...

Son of Mr.Jeon Sr. and heir to June Company, Jeon Jungkook is an immature playboy with nothing to offer a woman but good looks and a crap ton of money, and he stands to inherit much MUCH more, so long as you both enter into the arranged marriage contract that was drawn up before the pair of you were even born.

You're more than willing to try, but you're not sure you'll be able to stand each other long enough to inherit a single penny...

Series Warnings: There will be smut in the near future and I will label those chapters as such. As I say before most of my pieces- I do not endorse any themes, ideas, or behaviors in this series. This is all purely fiction/fantasy! Feel free to inbox me suggestions/ideas/what you'd like to see in this series and I'll see what I can do! Enjoy <3

Recap: The day is only halfway over, but your body feels so tired- as though all the stress that your mind wouldn't let you feel earlier has just flooded back to you. You need a nap- afterall, you're grabbing dinner with your fiance's family later.

You sit in front of your computer, Zoom call already started on your end; you're just waiting for your parents to log into the meeting. You're nervous but expectant; you know they're going to chew you out, but you're ready for it. At the end of the day, what's done is done. You hear the ding of the notification that they're in the waiting room. With a sigh, you click to let them in. It takes a moment to connect, but when it does, you see a close up of your dad's forehead as he struggles to figure out how to use the Zoom, with your mom right behind him trying to coach. It's a miracle someone so business savvy to be so hopeless at technology. If it weren't for you being angry at them right now, you'd say they looked adorable. "Can you hear me?" You ask. "There, there- it's done," Your mom says, lightly hitting him on his shoulder to get him to sit down.

"H-How are you guys?" You ask, trying your best to sound casual. Your mom gives a tired smile, while your dad gives you, what seems to be, the silent treatment, "We're better now that we finally get to talk to you face to face," She leans forward a bit. "We?" You ask, glancing at your dad, "Doesn't seem like everybody on this call wants to be here." "Oh stop, we both want to be here. We miss you. We were just worried about the deal falling through and not being able to see the arrangement go the way we wanted it to." "Well, the deal went well. Far better than it would have if I'd used that original contract. I hope you both understand why I had to take things into my own hands." She nods slowly, "We...understand." We. We. We. "Dad? Is there anything you want to say?" He looks at you for a moment, and then crosses his arms and looks away. You purse your lips and nod, "Well, then there's nothing more to really say then, is there?" "Y/n-" Your mom begins to try to plead with you to stay but you're already putting your airpods back into the case, "I've got stuff to do before I go to dinner with the Jeon's. I'll text you later, mom." She looks genuinely sad, but you can't afford to let this call ruin the rest of your day, so you simply exit the meeting and slam your laptop closed.

You pull up to the restaurant in the black car they'd sent for you, and as soon as you step out, you're in awe at the amount of people out and about. Lights everywhere, laughter, shouting- it's so much more alive than during the day. This location was such a good investment for the Jeons. You sling your mini purse over your shoulder and walk inside to the host's station. "Welcome to Juniper Two, do you have a reservation?" He asks. "Uhm yes, I'm with the Jeon party." "Ah yes, Mr.Jungkook has been expecting you. Right this way," He says, beginning to walk you to the back area where the tables are. Jungkook? He leads you to a table tucked away in a small corner, and there he is: sitting all alone, elbows on the table and playing with a piece of plastic, presumably from the straw in his drink. "Mr.Jungkook, your guest has arrived." Jungkook turns and he immediately stands to bow- though he does so in such an abrupt way, that he bangs his legs against the table, causing for everyone in your section to look over. You can see the blush in his cheeks as he bows profusely and apologetically, and you stifle a laugh. "Hello, Y/n," He says, looking a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. "Hello, Jungkook." "May I take your coat, Ma'am?" The host asks. You nod, "Yes, please." You slide it off with minimal effort, revealing a red dress with a slightly plunging sweatheart neckline, showing only the right amount of cleavage for what was supposed to be a family dinner. The host takes your coat and then pushes the chair in after you. "Are your parents running late?" You ask, leaning back in the chair. "Uhm, no- they won't be joining us at all tonight." "Oh?" "They thought it might be a good idea for us to...get to know each other better," He says, seeming quite different than the past few days: less aloof and more shifty. It's almost like it being just the two of you has him feeling...nervous. "Oh," You say, feeling slightly nervous yourself now. Way to apply the pressure. He nods slowly, "So..." "So..." You both sit in silence for almost an entire minute, trying so hard to think of what to say but it's like your own nerves are grabbing you by the throat and making it impossible. Finally, the waiter arrives with waters and it's almost like you both sigh in relief that there's something to distract you from the deafening silence. "Good evening, my name is Jimin, I'll be your server this evening. Will you be interested in hearing tonight's wine recommendations for tonight?" "Yes," You and Jungkook both say in unison, trying to delay making conversation just a bit longer. Jimin reads over the list of wines and then you motion toward Jungkook for him to pick since you're not much of a drinker yourself. He orders the wine as well as the appetizers, and then you're back to the silence.

After another minute, you can't take it anymore, "Okay, this is weird." He lets out a deep breath, "Super weird." "I just feel like it's like- a lot." He nods, "Yeah. I- I told my parents they should've come. I told them." "Well, it's not that- I think we just gotta start small, you know?" "What do you mean?" He asks, furrowing his brows. "Like...okay, what's your favorite color?" He scoffs, "You're asking me my favorite color? What are we, five?" "Just answer the question," You glare at him. "Black," He says without even a second's thought. "Black? Ugh, how boring." "Hey, you can't judge my answer- it's against the rules." "Rules? This isn't a game, there are no rules." "There are. It's like in school; there are no wrong answers. It's the rule," He says with a shrug. You snort and roll your eyes, "Alright, fine." "What's your favorite color? Dookie brown?" He asks, laughing slightly at his own stupid joke. "'Dookie brown? Now who's the five year old? My favorite color is..." You think for a moment, "pink." This time, he's the one to scoff, "Pink? Of all the colors for a girl to pick- don't you think pink is a little, you know, on the nose?" "Okay, and...? So I like to be cliche some times- sue me. And anyway, you just broke the rules." "I thought there were no rules," He says smugly, raising an eyebrow though you ignore him completely. "Alright next question-" You begin to say, though he interrupts you, "Hey, hey, hey- it's my turn." "No it isn't- you asked me what my favorite color is." "No, you asked me that, but you have to provide your answer as well. It's the second rule." "Okay, fine," You laugh. "What is your greatest phobia?" "Heights." "Damn, didn't even have to think about it, did you?" "Nope. Even on the way over to Korea, I felt queasy just glancing out of the window." "Wuss. Flying is easy work." "Okay then, what's your phobia, Mr.Tough Guy?" "I'd say the only thing I'm afraid of- with scientific backing, might I add- is a microwave." There's a moment of silence as you register what he's just said. You need the time to process it because you're not sure he really just said something so goofy. "Microwaves," You echo, an incredulous tone in your voice, "And I'm the wuss?" You burst out laughing.

An hour so goes by and you've both gotten halfway through you food and almost an entire bottle of wine. You're laughing, cracking jokes, keeping it lighthearted and it really feels like the night is turning out to be quite pleasant- which you never thought you'd say about time spent with Jungkook. "Alright, how old were you when you had your first boyfriend?" He asks, raising a brow at you. You take another sip of your wine, cheeks getting hot from embarrassment. You have always hated this question... "Pass." He blinks a few times, "Pass? Like, you pass the question?" You nod, giving a sheepish smile. "Nope. Against the rules," He says, crossing his arms. "Oh, come on- enough with the rules." "Nope, without rules there is no rhyme or reason- it'll be chaos," He says exaggeratedly, "And besides, if we're literally gonna be married, I have to know this question." "This question, specifically?" You scoff. "Yup, quite important information. Might be on the test," He shrugs. You swish the last bit of wine in your mouth before finally swallowing, "Alright, I...I've never... I've never had a boyfriend."

For a moment, there's only silence as Jungkook is now the one to process your answer. "Never?" "Nope," You laugh nervously. "But how?" He asks. "What do you mean how?" "I mean, you're educated, successful, pretty-" It's like the words catch in his throat as he says them, because he abruptly stops talking, but his mouth hangs open. You smirk, "Go on, don't stop." "I- I- don't start getting a big head," His face flushes and he immediately reaches for his wine glass. You laugh, "It's not that I can't get a boyfriend, it's that I... I never wanted to get attached to anyone, because of..." You trail off, though he nods his head, knowing exactly what you're referring to, "I just never wanted to hurt anyone or to get hurt, myself, when it would have to end." "I...I understand." "Have you ever?" "Oh yeah, like seven of 'em." Of course. "Any of them serious?" You ask, the picture you'd seen of him and that model girl, Lisa, pops into your mind. He whirls the wine in his glass and looks away, "Nah, none of them." You narrow your eyes at him, taking in his avoidant expression. You know he's lying but you decide not to press. He stretches out, his long arms seeming to never end as he reaches upward. You check the time and figure he's probably going to end dinner here. "You wanna go take a walk to get dessert?" He asks. He's caught you by surprise with his invitation, though it's definitely a pleasant surprise. "Sure."

The distance from the restaurant to the ice cream parlor is only a short walk away. The air is nice and cool, which is perfect because you've completely forgotten your coat at the restaurant. "You'll love this place, it's great," He says excitedly. It's a cute, tiny-house looking parlor: pretty flowers planted alongside it, with a walk-up window for customers where a short line is already formed. The atmosphere is quite nice, string of outdoor lights hang over an area with wooden picnic tables. You approach the line that is now only one person long. "Which flavor are you getting?" You ask. "Red bean. It is, hands down, the best ice cream flavor." You purse your lips, "Agree to disagree." "Agree to disagree? Are you insane? I'm almost willing to bet you're gonna order something super basic like 'cookies and cream'," He scoffs, mimicking a high-pitched female voice. "Try mint-chip." "Mint chip? That's somehow worse." "Next!"

You carry your ice cream cones to one of the nearby tables, sitting across from each other, and it isn't until you settle in that you realize that his ice cream is almost finished. "Dude, it's been two minutes since we got these- how are you already almost finished?" You ask, your full cone still looking perfectly round after a few licks. He shrugs, "I'm just a fast eater, I guess." He then proceeds to take a bite of the ice cream. You're horrified. "You bite your ice cream?" "You don't?" He asks. "I'm not a monster, Jungkook." "Oh shut up," He laughs. Another silence falls, though it's much different from the silence from earlier when you'd first sat down at dinner; it's a comfortable silence, like when you'd sat together at the bar that night. "Did your dad threaten bodily harm on you when my dad told him about the contract changes?" "No," You laugh, "I mean, he isn't speaking to me right now. but that's about it." You feel a little sting in your heart at the thought. "How do you feel about that?" He asks, his face falling slowly from a smile to a more serious expression. You think for a moment, contemplating whether or not to answer honestly. "I'm fine," You shrug. "You're lying." "I'm not- Okay, fine. I am. I just...I don't know how to talk about that." "About what? Your parents?" "Yeah..." "Me either," He sighs, "I could write books about the multitude of issues I have with them." "Same... I just...don't really know where the issues came from, I mean- we used to be so close and then it's like, once I hit my teen years, he got more and more..." "Distant?" He finishes. You nod. "Yeah...seems to be a common theme in both our dad's personalities, huh?" He snorts, taking a bite of his cone. "Guess that's why they're besties," You sigh. "Do you think maybe your dad-" Jungkook begins, though he's interrupted by a male voice coming up from behind you. "Jungkook!"

You both turn to see a tall, slender, dark-haired guy coming up to your table. Jungkook's face goes from fairly relaxed to visibly more tense. "Jungkook-a, where you been at?" They say, giving each other that lazy handshake that all 'bros' do. "Eh, you know. Been here and there," Jungkook says. "And how is this?" The guy asks, a sly smile growing on his face. "This? This is- this is my- my uhm," Jungkook struggles to get the words out. Understandably so, as it feels strange to call each other anything other than your first names, at this point in time- though it does bother you just a tiny bit. "I"m Y/n, nice to meet you...?" "Seokjin. Kim Seokjin," He says, swiftly grabbing your hand and giving the back of it a kiss, "at you service." Jungkook rolls his eyes, an annoyed expression visible to you even behind his fake smile. "What are you up to tonight, Jin," Jungkook asks, his feeble attempts at conversation working, though only on Seokjin. "You know me, always out on the prowl," He smiles, glancing at you once more. It's in that moment that you smell it- the distant aroma of booze, masked under whatever cologne this guy's wearing. "Are you drunk?" Jungkook asks, face twisting slightly in disapproval. "Not at all. Just a little...buzzed, is all." Right after he says this, he stumbles slightly, "Buzzed, my ass," Jungkook sighs, taking his phone out of his pocket. "Aw, don't do it," Seokjin whines, though it's lost on you as to why. "I have to." "Aw man," Literal tears start to fall out of his eyes. What the hell is happening?

Only about ten minutes go by, and a black car is pulling up at the curb by where you're all sitting. Seokjin has been leaning on Jungkook's shoulder, switching back and forth between mumbling and crying. The door to the car swings open, and out steps a very beautiful woman: heart-shaped face, shapely legs, and long hair draped over her shoulder like some kind of Rapunzel. These girls only exist in music videos, how is this even possible? "Jin! Get your ass in the car, right now!" The woman yells. "I'm sorry baby," Seokjin cries. "Don't 'I'm sorry' me. Get inside." "Rosie, baby, please. I wasn't gonna do anything, I promise. I was just having a little fun." "Like I believe that crock of shit," She scoffs. By this point, everyone's looking over at all four of you, though Jungkook seems completely unfazed. Almost like he's used to this. Seokjin looks like a lamb headed for slaughter as he walks over to the car and gets in. She slams his door shut and then walks over to where you and Jin are. "Thanks for letting me know," She says to Jungkook with a sigh. She sees you standing next to him, but just looks you up and down without a word- like she's sizing you up. You're immediately on guard, staring her down right back. "No problem," He says simply, "Don't bring him to my party." "Oh stop Jungkook, he's my boyfriend. I can't not bring him- he won't get fucked up." "Yes he will, and I'm not having him puking on people like he did on New Years." "He won't drink. I'll make sure of it," She says, about to turn around though before she does, she turns to look at Jungkook, "Oh, and Lisa says for you to text her back," She glances at you and you swear you see a smirk on her face. Jungkook doesn't respond; just looks away with a lazy nod.

When you both sit back down, Jungkook is quiet- like he's lost in thought. "So...who's Lisa?" You ask, pretending to be completely oblivious. "She's...just a mutual friend between Rosé and I." Again, it seems like a topic he'd rather avoid. "Alrighty..." You say, pursing your lips. "You don't with your ice cream?" He asks, pointing to your now half-eaten cone. "Oh, yeah." He takes it and walks over to thee trash can nearby. "Ready to go?" "Yeah, I am." You're not sure what happened but the vibe is different. Completely off from what it was before Seokjin walked up earlier. "We'll take the sam car- I'm staying at the hotel tonight," He says. You nod, "Alright."

Initially, the car ride is quiet too, though after only a few minutes, it seems like Jungkook loosens up again. "So, what's the verdict?" He asks. You furrow your brows, "On...?" "On me. Am I...marriage material," He smirks. You chuckle, "Oh, we'll have to keep seeing about that." "Will we, now?" He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a little pink box with a very pretty white bow. "What's this?" You ask. "Just open it," He says with a gentle smile, handing you the box. You swallow hard, taking it from his hand and slowly removing the lid. Why is your heart beating so fast?

When you finally see what's inside, you gasp. Sat in a little white cushion is a delicate gold ring, an oval cut diamond in the center with smaller diamons surrounding it. It might just be the most beautiful ring you've ever seen. "Am I marriage material now?" He asks, his expression soft as he watches you admire the ring. "Jungkook- where did you get this?" "It was my grandmother's ring. You look at him, "Jungkook, I can't accept this. This is too- too grand. A family heirloom," You protest. He shakes his head, "It's nothing, really. My parents saved it for me for when I get married, and we're already pretty much there. And I...didn't feel right not giving you an engagement ring." You could cry, honestly. It's beautiful and completely unexprected. "Thank you so much, Jungkook. I- I really do love it."

After twenty minutes, you pull up to the hotel, both of you stepping out of the car and walking into the lobby. Inside the elevator, you turn to him, "I had a nice time, Mr.Jeon." "I did too...Mrs.Jeon," He says, and for some insane reason, hearing him call you that sends your stomach doing flips. You look away, hiding your blush, though he doesn't seem to notice. When you finally pull up to your floor, you both step out of the elevator, though he stays standing just outside of it. "Alright, well...good night," You say, giving him a sort of awkward wave, to which he laughs, "Good night, Y/n." You walk down to the end of the hall and when you approach your door, you slide the card key in. When you look back, you see he's still standing there, watching to make sure you're in. You wave once more, and he nods and heads into the elevator, and then you close your door behind you.

Once inside, you feel almost like you're floating on a cloud. You look down at your hand and can't help but smile. Oh, how easy it is to get carried away and forget that none of this organic....but is it so bad to dream?

[ni-kiiiii]

Insecurities • Hwang Hyunjin pt.2

Pt.1 pt.2

-angst, fluff

A/n: I made apart 2 because someone asked ( thank you for enjoying it💗) and because I like the storyline.

Enjoy

——————————————————————————RECAP

Hyunjin wraps his leg over you and you fell asleep like babies.

——————————————————————————

You woke to Hyunjin room door closing. You didn’t think anything of it so you went back to sleep and cuddled back with Hyunjin.

Hyunjin was already awake when you woke for a second time but the thing is he was just staring at you.

“What are you staring at” you lowly cause you still have disgusting morning breath.

“ Your beautiful face” he said proudly.

“Yeah whatever” you mumble. You were still insecure about yourself so no matter what hyunjin said it wouldn’t matter.

You got up out the bed and went to the living room to get your bag with your stuff. While you walked to The living room Sohee and her minions were staring at you with grins . You didn’t know why so you just grabbed your bags and walked to the bathroom. When you got in and opened your bag you saw the most disgusting things on your clothes. Mustard, relish, rice, ketchup, and you name it. You were so pissed off right now. But the only thing safe was your toothbrush ‘thank the lord’. You turned the sink on and You put toothpaste on your toothbrush and dipped your toothbrush and water. Then you started brushing your teeth and tongue ( ppl forget to do that like wtf) until you felt like your were finished.

You left the bathroom and went straight out the main door to go home.

- Time skip (then next day at school)

You were happy that you and Hyunjin were on good terms but not only that y’all were dating officially. But no one knew about it of course.

When You were walking through the school gates you noticed almost all of the girls were staring at you with disgusted eyes. Then when you walked through the school halls you saw people whispering when they saw you. You knew it had something with Sohee, she was the so called “QUEEN” in the school. Her parents where the head of the school so she would never get in trouble.

- time skip

Lunch is when things start to get bad. When you leaving fourth period to go to lunch someone grabbed you by the hair and threw you on the floor. Then proceeded to drag me by the hair all the way to the girls bathroom. You were so much pain you couldn’t even describe it They caught you at a good time because no one was in the halls when this happened.

“ your a fucking slut for sleeping with Hyunjin”

“Who do you think you are sleeping with him”

“ your not even pretty”

“ your just fat and ugly”

“She should kill herself”

‘Welp there goes my confidence’ you thought.

These girl went on with these horrible comments until one of the girl went on one knee to be on my level. “ the next time we see you with Hyunjin we will really hurt you” she snarled. Then they left while laughing.

You sat there with tears threatening to fall from eyes because you didn’t want to cry for stupid people like them. But it was very hard not too because your scalp felt like it was gonna explode from the pain.

You took yourself to one of the bathroom stalls and checked your phone. You smiled when you saw Hyunjin had texted you. At least you knew he was worried about you.

You took a deep breath, looked in the mirror to make sure you didn’t look hurt in anyway and left the bathroom to go to the lunchroom. When you arrived to the lunchroom EVERYONE WAS STARING AT YOU, even the boys. You just tuned everyone out and walked to sit across from hyunjin. When finally you sat down and looked at Hyunjin looked like he wanted to punch someone.

“ what’s wrong Hyunjin” you asked

He didn’t even bother to respond he just pulled up the video of me getting dragged with hateful comments.

“Oh” you deadpanned.

“It’s fine I’m really o-” you were cut off by Hyunjin.

“LISTEN UP EVERYONE!” HYUNJIN yelled grabbing everyone’s attention.

“ME AND Y/N ARE JUST BEST FRIENDS WE KNEW EACH OTHER SINCE SECOND GRADE SO OF COURSE WERE CLOSE. SO STOP BULLYING HER BECAUSE SHE DID NOTHING WRONG. …. TO THE GIRLS WHO BULLIED Y/N, YOU GUYS NEVER HAD CHANCE WITH ME , ESPECIALLY THE WHO GRABBED HER BY THE HAIR. ALSO I ALREADY HAVE A GIRLFRIEND SO PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE.” Hyunjin had yelled so that everyone could here him since the cafeteria was huge.

Hyunjin sat back down but this time next to me. He started massaging my head since he knew getting dragged by the hair definitely hurt.

You turned to look at him “you didn’t have to do that you know”

“I know I didn’t I did it because care for you” Hyunjin replied.

You put your head down because you flustered and tired from just happend.

- time skip to later that day

(Fluff 💗)

You were cuddling on Hyunjin couch since you guys made plans to hang out. You had your legs wrapped around his waist while you had your head nestled between the crook of his neck. Hyunjin had his arms wrapped you holding you tight. This was the norm. You guys were comfortable with each other so nothing felt weird or awkward.

You wanted spicy things up so started kissing him neck. You felt hyunjin get tense so you stopped not wanted to invade his boundaries.

“Why did you stop?” hyunjin whined.

With that response you started kissing him on the neck.

“ now baby kiss me on the lips” he said out of the blue.

This time you got tense.

‘ OMG HE WANTS ME TO KISS HIM IN THE LIPS’ you screamed in your mind.

“ I wouldn’t hyune but I don’t know how” you say putting your head down in embarrassment.

“ It’s okay I don’t judge ” he grinned

Hyunjin lifted your head with his thumb and kissed you. You didn’t know how to kiss but you sure tried for him.

-

You and Hyunjin were endgame together. No one ever fucked around with you every since hyunjin stuck up for that day. Which was amazing for you because you knew your insecurities weren’t gonna get any better if those girls kept bullying you. As time passed so did your insecurities and Hyunjin helped you with it. He told you every day that your perfect the way your until you believed him and that’s why you loved him.

THE END

——————————————————————————

A/n: Ty guys for liking my work it means a lot me. @armystay89 here you go💗

I hope you guys this story

[lovepotionsandlust]

Part 6

You stood at your kitchen sink, looking out the window, watching the snow fall. You could not believe what had all transpired in the last two days. As if sensing you thinking of him, Fred came up from behind you, resting his hands on either side of you on the counter. His chin resting on your shoulder, completely encapsulating you in his presence.

“Lost in thought, are we?”

You chuckled, “yeah, something like that.”

“As much as I never want to leave, I fear if Mum and Dad return to my absence, you may never hear from me again.” He pressed a kiss to your temple.

“Are you sure you can handle Molly alone?”

“Well, that depends, are you offering to come with me?”

You turned to face him, “does the hero need saving?”

A sly smile spread across his face, inching his lips ever so closer to yours. “Do you think you could save me Angel?”

“hmm, I think I could find some time in my ever busying schedule.” Leaning up closing the gap between you, pressing a slow kiss to his lips, his hand embracing your cheek.

Pulling away from you, his eyes stay locked on yours. “Would you really come back to the Burrow with me? I think they may take it easier on me if you were there.”

“Of course, Freddie. Gives me some time to catch up with my favorite Weasley.”

His eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Ginny, Fred, I am talking about Ginny.”

“So… how do I get higher on that list?”

“If you keep repeating this morning, that may just do it.”

Slipping out from his arms you walked towards your room, Fred chasing behind you.

“Your wish is my command.”

***

Arriving at the Burrow, Freds fingers intertwined with yours. Giving his hand a squeeze of reassurance you made your way to the front door. You had yet to visit the Burrow, with you being an only child, your parents frequently traveling, Ginny had always joined you at your home.  There was something so enchanting about the multiple additions they had built onto the house. You could feel the love oozing out of the mismatched windows. Multitudes of voices could be heard from inside as you reached the front stoop. The door swinging open before either of you could reach for the knob.

“Where have you been?” Molly Weasley stood in the door frame, hands on her hips. Her eyes focused on Fred, her expression changing to surprise as she caught you in her sight.

“Ginny is upstairs dear. Go on up.” Unsure what to do you looked up at Fred, him giving you a nod of assurance that he would be ok. You pulled away slipping past Molly, making your way to the large staircase. Following up the stairs, making notice of all the family photos, and childhood drawings littering the walls. Doors branching off in all directions, at every level feeling as if you would never find Ginny’s room. Passing a door half painted orange, half purple you knew this must have been the twin’s room. From the level above you, you heard Ginny’s voice, rushing to her door, you pushed in through without knocking.

Looking up at you surprised, she rushed to you.  “Finished snogging my brother, have you?” she said with a smile, pulling you into a hug.

“I have no idea what you are talking about Gin.”

“Then what’s this?” pushing your hair to the side to expose your poorly covered hickey on your neck. You shoved her by her shoulder, quickly pulling your hair back down, a deep blush covering your cheeks.

“Like I said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” You sat on the edge of her bed, she plopped herself down next to you. Having many questions of what all had happened, Ginny started her interrogation. Cautious of some details, you recapped the events of the night before. How the other girls had been circled around the table when you had arrived, how you made him choke on his drink mid conversation.

Curious of how much trouble the twins were in, you inquired about what had happened with George before your arrival. Ginny shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Georges name, for what you had believed to be due to a verbal assault given by Molly prior to you getting to the Burrow.

She told you as much as she could, about how Harry, Ron, Hermione and herself tried to reason with Molly about what had happened. How cruel Umbridge had been to the students, all showing the scars fading on their hands. Explaining that the twins were helping more people than she could have understood. Nevertheless, still angry that the boys had given up their academic career in the process, her upset had pulled back.

 Ginny’s door pushed open, expecting to see Fred, you were surprised to see George standing there. Rushing over to hug him, you almost knocked him off his feet with your embrace. You could not see his face to notice how red it had become. His eyes flashed to Ginny with panic of embarrassing himself.

“Now what was that for? -- You do know I’m George, right?”

You pulled away to look at him, “Of course I know you’re George!” you slapped his shoulder playfully. “No matter how much you two may look alike, its not that difficult to tell you both apart. I did not have the chance to thank you for what you did to Umbridge back at school.”

“Oh... You’re welcome, I guess. Just couldn’t take what she was doing any longer. Fred and I always believed we were destined for more than academic achievement.”  

“Well, you performed brilliantly if I do say so myself.”

George’s stomach flipped at the way you smiled up at him. Ginny noticed George getting a bit too comfortable with you.

“We should probably go check on Fred, don’t you think? Mum has had him down there for quite some time.” George felt as if Ginny was staring directly into his soul, the extra punch to Freds name pulling him back to reality.

You turned to look at Ginny to respond when George noticed the purple mark on your neck. A tinge of pain rushed through him, quickly turning to anger.

“I am sure he is just fine, but feel free to go rescue lover boy, I’ll be in my room.” Turning on his heel, he retreated to his room, closing the door behind him.

“What is his deal?”

“Who knows.” She shrugged. “Come on lets go, I’m feeling a bit peckish, I’m sure we could find a spot of something downstairs.”

You followed Ginny out of her room, stopping to look back at Georges door, wondering why he had become so cold when Fred was mentioned. You wanted to continue down the stairs after Ginny, but your legs wouldn’t allow you to follow. Everything in you was telling you to go check on George.

“Hey Gin, I will be right down, don’t wait up.”

Ginny knew you were asking for trouble by going back but knew there was no chance she was going to be able to stop you. She disappeared down the stairs without another word. You knocked softly on George’s door, awaiting a response, but met with silence.

“Hey Georgie, you better be decent because I’m coming in.” You covered your eyes opening the door, stepping inside. After waiting a moment, you peeked through your fingers, “am I safe?”

He chuckled, “yeah, you’re safe.”

You opened your eyes to find George standing at the window. He turned to face you, leaning against the windowsill, arms crossed over his chest.

“I thought you were going downstairs?”

“I will be, but I figured I would come check on you.”

George’s thoughts were filled with static; you had come to check on him? Not only were you in his room, but this was also the first time you were ever alone together. He wished he could just reach out and embrace you. He realized he had been standing there silently for a pause too long. Clearing his throat before continuing.

“Yeah, I am ok. Just a bit tense lately.”

Stepping closer to him, you searched his face for any form of indication of what he was thinking. “George… You know you can talk to me, right?”

He memorized how you said his name, if he never heard anything again, he would be happy. Turning back towards the window, attempting to regain his composure. Nodding silently, he swallowed back the burning sensation he felt in his throat.

“Yeah, thank you. If I need anything I will be sure to let you know, you should probably go check on Fred though.”

He could feel your presence closing in on him as you got closer to him. You reached out to touch his arm, goosebumps instantly spreading across his skin. Your voice calling him back to his room.

“I know when someone is not okay, and I can tell that you’re more than just tense. I won’t push you if you don’t want to talk to me. I am here for you too though.” You angled your head trying to meet his gaze. He glanced at you briefly, just long enough for you to notice the tears welling in his eyes.

“I told you to go check on Fred, I’m fine.” Pulling his arm from under your touch. It hurt him to turn you away, to be so cold towards you. Having you so close to him was almost too much for him to bear.

“I can see I have overstayed my welcome.” You backed your way out of his room, stopping just as you reached the door frame, “I meant what I said though. If you need anything, come find me.” You closed the door behind you.

Listening to the stairs creak as you made your decent, his emotions overran his capability to hold himself together. Falling on his knees he felt as if he was fighting to breathe. The reality of his situation crashing over him. Not only was he in love with you, he was completely enamored with you. He felt so torn, was he really going to let you come between him and Fred?   Was he really going to let Fred come between you and him?

***

Regaining the group downstairs, you tried to hide the hurt that must have been written on your face. Ginny watched you carefully, attempting to read your expression.  You smiled at her, doing your best to convince her everything was fine. She nodded, knowing better but not wanting to confront you with everyone else around.  You found Fred was still talking with Arthur and Molly, his attention turning to you. The tone of their conversation was much lighter than you had anticipated. Arthur departed the conversation first, approaching you.

“Ah, I heard you were somewhere around here. So nice to see you again!” He enveloped you in a hug, whispering in your ear “Keep him out of more trouble, will you?”

“If only that was possible.” He patted your arm before making his way to the kitchen, Molly was the next to make her way to you.

“So, I hear you and my boy? Are you sure you know what you are getting into?” her hands found her hips again giving you a concerned look.

 Fred finding his place at your side, “Mum, I can barely keep up with her most of the time, I am sure she will be just fine.”

“We will see about that, now come to the kitchen for lunch.” She gave Fred a look of warning, exiting to the kitchen.

He turned to you resting a kiss on your forehead, “What was all that whispering with Dad about? Keeping secrets are we?”

“It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you, now, would it?”

“And she’s worried that I am going to give you a run for your money?”

Fred leaned in to kiss you only to be stopped by Ginny throwing a ball of yarn at him.

“Hey is it not enough that I have to know about you two, without having to watch you snog in my own home?”

With a fake gasp you turned to her, “Ginny are you feeling left out? Come here, there’s enough of me to go around.”  

“Don’t you dare.” You chased after her, rounding the couch making kissy noises at her. “Come on Gin, you know you love me!”

“Not that much!”

***

After joining the table for lunch, you could not help but notice George’s chair remaining empty. You did your best to keep your mind from thoughts of him. It did not make sense to you, Fred was sat right next to you, Ginny across the table, why were you so locked in on George? You felt Freds hand make its way to your thigh under the table, giving it a gentle squeeze pulling you back to reality. A blush running across your cheeks, you bit back a smile as his hand slid further up your leg. Ginny kicked both you and Fred from under the table, her eyes flashing to Molly who was watching you curiously.

“Thank you so much for lunch Mrs. Weasley.”

“Please, call me Molly. So how long will you be staying with us dear? It is so nice to have you here with us for a change.”

You shrugged, “I honestly was not sure, I don’t want to impose.”

“You are not an imposition, feel free to stay as long as you would like.” Molly gave you a warm smile.

“Ginny tells us your parents have yet to return from their travels?” Arthur added.

“No, they should be home in a few days. I sent them an owl this morning letting them know everything was ok and not to rush home. School will be back in session soon enough.”

“Well, you are more than welcome here, the girls are sharing Ginny’s room, it’s a tight squeeze but we always have room.” Arthur stated, popping another bite into his mouth.

Freds grip on your leg tightened, the thought of spending more time with each other making you both smile.

“I could stay for a while longer.”

***

Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Fred and yourself had made your way into the snow. Ron, Fred and Harry were hurling snowballs at one another. You busied yourself alongside Ginny and Hermione building a snowman. Being around everyone in such a casual setting was the most relaxed you had felt in ages. Between Umbridge’s constant beratement, preparation for the O.W.Ls, and the recent passing of Cedric, you had been greatly stressed. Regardless of how cold your fingers and the tip of your nose had become; warmth was radiating from within you.  Fred coming up from behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist. You stood wrapped in his arms admiring your work as Hermione added the final stone to the snowman’s face, completing his cheerful demeanor.

“Do you think you would want to take a walk with me? Just the two of us?” Fred questioned in your ear.

“Planning your escape already Freddie?”

“Only if you are coming with me,” he pressed a kiss to the crook of your neck. “So, what do you say?”

“I would love to accompany you for a walk Weasley.”

***

Walking hand in hand, Fred pulled you to the woods with him. The voices of everyone else fading into the background as you pushed further into the trees.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Don’t you trust me beautiful?”

“Are you aware of who you are?”

He paused thinking for a moment, “that is completely fair, if I am being honest with you.” He chuckled, “just a few more minutes, I promise.”

As you continued to follow you came to a clearing in the trees, a small tent caught your attention. Fred pulled back the opening, “your palace awaits your majesty.”

Bending down you entered what from the outside seemed as if it was only a few feet wide, inside was a room that had more space than the twins and Ginny’s room combined.

“Dad enchanted this for a trip not too long ago, I found it in the garage. Put it up out here for when I need to get away from everything. He thinks he lost it, part of me thinks he knows that I took it but doesn’t want to say anything. George and I have been working on our inventions in here from time to time.”

“Your own little hideaway I see.” “It is quiet out here; the house can get so loud. We already had a full house, now with Harry and Hermione staying with us frequently, I feel as if I can barely hear myself think.” He looked around the room, not meeting your eyes “Seeing you are so good at keeping secrets, can you keep another?”

 “I think I can keep a secret for you.”

Fred crossed the room to come toe to toe with you. His thumb and forefinger embraced your chin tilting your head up to him. He took a moment looking into your eyes, a blush forming on his cheeks as you smiled up at him.

“Out with it Weasley.”

He let out a sigh of contentment, “the only other time everything had ever felt this quiet was the first time I met you. It was like everything around me had shut off. In a world of madness and chaos, just being in your presence brought me peace. That is how I knew, I needed you to be mine.”

Butterflies filled your stomach listening to his words. The way he called you “mine” causing your heart rate to increase rapidly.

“Is it my turn to tell you something?”

“Anything.”

“My family is rarely around; I am sure you have noticed that. I have always been on my own. I have great friends don’t get me wrong, but it’s an isolating existence when you go home alone constantly.”

Fred looked down at you concerned, his heart breaking for you. He started to respond but you quickly stopped him.

“Please don’t say that you are sorry or feel pity for me. I have learned a lot on my own throughout the years. How to have a voice, how to take care of myself, how not to take care of the people I care for. The weight of my own existence on my shoulders as I had no one to guide me. Being around you, around your family- that weight feels just a bit lighter. I cannot explain it, obviously I have been friends with Ginny for a long time, but being here, with all of you? This is the most family I have ever felt.”

His eyes searched yours, “so what I am hearing, is that we both needed a soft place to land.”

You nodded up at him.

“And what a perfect place to land.”

 Wrapping your arms around his shoulder you pulled him down to you kissing him deeply. A small whine leaving him as he wrapped his arms around you.

[heroesfan101]

To Light a Fire

For @love-and-lore's winter event! The theme of this collab is "hearth". A hearth is traditionally associated with home, and often used to symbolize family, fertility, love and warmth. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to do something for my current obsession. Mostly fluffy but is a little suggestive at times.

Word Count: 1.3k

Ship: Takigawa Chris Yuu x Me

Laughter fills what was a quiet home as Chris and I walk through the door. The evening had been nothing short of entertaining, having joined Chris and his juniors for their annual Christmas Eve party at Miyuki’s.

We laughed as we recapped some of the best memories of the night. From how well Miyuki can cook to Sawamura almost getting run out of Miyuki’s kitchen to Kuramochi’s willingness to be “security” and fight Sawamura at any moment.

“I have to say you have some pretty interesting juniors. Were they always like this?” I ask with a giggle. Chris laughs, slipping off his coat and shoes, “Some things never change.”

As I go to take off my boots, Chris’s sturdy frame stands to the side of my body to keep me steady despite my best efforts to balance on one foot. I give him a gentle smile as thanks before we move from the foyer to the living room to sit on the sofa, soft jazz music filling the space as our entrance music.

The atmosphere is light and cozy, picture frames of us and our important moments on the walls. In front of us is a tv above a fireplace with our Christmas tree to the right. I snuggle up to him and he puts his arm around me, simply enjoying each other’s company.

“Maybe we could host next year and give poor Miyuki a break. We do have the space after all now that we have a house.” I suggest absentmindedly, nearly purring at Chris’s thumb gently rubbing my arm.

He laughs, “Knowing Miyuki, he wouldn’t say it out loud but I do think he enjoys hosting. It’s just like old times you know? But I will ask him, my love.” I lean in and kiss his cheek softly before resting my head on his shoulder, enjoying his warmth when he perks up.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” He says before tapping my arm, signaling me to move.

“What did you forget? Why are you leaving me? I was cozy.” I playfully groan, causing him to roll his eyes in return. He glides across the room and leans down to plug in the tree lights. Suddenly, the room is all aglow and my eyes light up. With the evening curtains of the sky drawn, the lights seemed even brighter than before. It easily illuminated the soft brown eyes of my love and it felt so special.

“I hope that my reason is acceptable in your sight.” Chris jokes and I laugh, “I’ll allow it, just this once.” He settles back into the sofa and I take back my spot, pressed into his side.

“We did a really good job on this tree. I’m proud of us even thought I had to climb on you to put the star up there.” I giggle at the memory of Chris hoisting me up by my waist as I lean over his face.

“I mean I didn’t mind the view.” He adds coyly with a grin and my mouth drops open in fake shock.

“Oh really now? Is this truly who you are Chris? What would your juniors say if they could see you now?” I gently smack his shoulder and tease him.

But like always, he’s quick with his comeback, “Well Sawamura did say we would make good parents.” I laugh as I quickly recall how Sawamura was filled with spirit saying how happy he was for us and he couldn’t wait to be an uncle so he could repay his Chris-senpai. He, of course, plans to be the best uncle, which of course caused yet another fight.

“He did say that.” I giggle. Without missing a beat, Chris says, “And I’m inclined to agree with him.”

I stopped laughing and look at him, almost in disbelief. Chris had a small smile on his lips but in his eyes, I could see he was serious. The room blurred around me and the only thing I could focus on was him. Suddenly, thoughts flashed before my eyes of children running around the house and celebrating holidays in our home as a family. It could be a reality.

A gentle calling of my name brings back the finer details of the room. My eyes meet his as he offers me a soft apology for his sudden declaration. I shake my head and take his hand.

“No, I think we would be great parents.” I agree with him, eyes a little teary with excitement. Refusing to let the tears fall, I rest my head on his shoulder and feel a soft kiss pressed to the top of my head.

“How many kids would you want?” I ask and he replies quickly, “As many as you would be willing to give us. I was thinking two maybe three?”

“Me too. There would never be a dull moment.” I say with a soft sigh, before looking at the mantle of our fireplace where our stockings were hung up. My heart pounds as I look at it with fresh eyes, noticing there was more space for at least another two stockings.

“You know, since we’re talking about things we want, would you mind starting a fire? I think it would be very romantic and festive, don’t you?” My voice drops a little as I make my request. Chris easily catches the change in tone and the gleam in my eyes and grins, “I have a feeling it’s more than that, am I right sweetheart?” I sigh dramatically as he teases me, but I easily give in to him.

“I’ve always wanted to make love near a fireplace.” I answer wistfully. His grin solidifies, “Now that can be arranged, but none of our gifts are under the tree yet so you’ll have to bring your gifts first.”

“What? Why do I have to go first?” I ask, clearly caught off guard but Chris sees through me as he laughs, “Because you will peak at the gifts if I go first, just like last time.”

“I did not! I was looking for my ribbon and it rolled near the bag!” I claim as he nods along to my likely story. “Of course, sweetheart, of course. My offer still stands.”

“Fine but no peaking!” I claim in defeat. He laughs and goes in the guest room while I make a few trips back and forth through the hall, positioning the gifts under the tree.

After a bit of time, I tell him I’m done before grabbing a few things and heading to the bathroom. Not long after, I smell the smoke of a beginning fire. Opening the door, the sounds of light crackles fill the air. The warmth surrounds my body, made easy by my mid-thigh silk robe.

Chris calls for me gently and I walk into our living room to see the fire going and lights dimmed low. The tree was shining brightly but the main attraction was the smile on Chris’s face. Sitting on some soft blankets, he reached out his hand to me as I came to sit next to him taking in the scenery.

“The tree looks beautiful; we did a good job.” I whisper in awe.

“Yes, perfect for our first Christmas in this house.” He agrees, while wrapping his right around me. My left hand grabs his own, rings clinking as they twinkle with the fire’s light. The depth of his voice sends shivers up my spine as he asks, “Are you comfortable, my love? I think it might be a little too warm for your robe.”

“I think you’re right, Chris. Why don’t you do the honors?” I whisper in his ear, before kissing him softly. Our lips conveying the excitement and anticipation for a holiday made for love. Losing ourselves in the kiss, it’s only a matter of time before the sash around my waist is loosened and we continue into the night with love and each other.

[broughtandborn]

Vacation recap, feel free to skip

Andy and I spent seven nights at a Sandals resort in Curaçao and it was incredibly expensive and so, so great. 5 stars, would recommend.

The resort is the newest Sandals resort, and apparently their opening a few years ago was delayed and pretty rocky because of covid so early reviews were decidedly mixed. Everything seems to have been ironed out and from our perspective everything was super smooth.

We flew out from a big airport an hour away at 6 am so the trip started with dropping the kids off the night before and getting up at 2. We were at the resort in time for a late lunch and they had our stuff brought to our room and a cheese plate and wine and balloons and a card for our anniversary in the room when we got up there. The staff were incredibly attentive and they all seemed invested in keeping the guests happy. They all were cheerful and pleasant and went out of their way to make things as easy for us as possible.

Our room looked out over a gorgeous garden with a peek of the ocean beyond and a sort of lazy river pool below us, which was incredible. It felt secluded and the garden was always abuzz with tons of birds and butterflies. We spent a bunch of time in the mornings out on the balcony with coffee watching the hummingbirds and these big yellow butterflies that were the exact same color as some of the flowers, so it looked like the flowers would just pick up and flutter away.

The resort is pretty large so they have bicycle racks scattered around and you can just hop on a bike and leave it wherever you decide you're done with it. The main pool was lovely and they have entertainment going next to it all day. The "quiet" pool isn't actually far enough away from the entertainment to be quiet but there are other smaller pools scattered around that are very quiet. The beach is on a channel, protected by a dock, with tons of beach chairs and palapas. There's another area of beach to walk on that's too rocky and rough for swimming but it's very pretty to look out at -- pure turquoise water that drops of suddenly into dark blue.

The food and drink are all included and very good. There were a few perplexing things (a "charcuterie tray" that included one very thick slice of garlic bread and slices of salami wrapped around chutney to make little pouches???) but there's a solid variety and the service was usually very good, especially for the number of people they're feeding. They have three tiny restaurants in food trucks that are open most of the day and they were so good. Each restaurant has its own style (sushi, Italian, Greek, South American, etc.) and they do a great job with the menus. We were asked at every single meal about allergies or food issues and they took it very seriously. There is room to improve in their desserts but my standards there are very high. There are bars scattered all over and most of them have signature drinks that are delicious.

One of the days we were there we hired a guy through a local tour company to take us all over the island and it was amazing. We saw a million things we'd never have known to even look for and we snorkeled with sea turtles and got fresh coconuts and ate an amazing meal at a little hole in the wall kind of place. It was supposed to be eight hours but we were having a great time and he kept wanting to show us other stuff so we were out for ten full hours and were exhausted when we got back.

The trip home was annoying -- delays and multiple gate changes on both legs of the flight, so we got home at 3:30 a.m. instead of midnight, but it could have been a whole lot worse and we were already planning on the girls spending the extra night at my parents' so we were the only ones impacted by it. The girls had a great week with my folks and it seemed easier on them than we expected. We FaceTimed with them for a few minutes every day and that def helped.

The best price you'll ever get at a Sandals is if you book another trip while you're still there, so we did. You can book up to two years out and you can change your details for most of that time so we have almost two years to figure it all out, but this trip was so lovely that we both very much want to do it again. It's wildly impulsive of us to commit without blocking out budget and childcare and stuff ahead of time but this trip was so great that we were like "we'll figure it out, let's just do it."

Overall, it was an incredible week, and it was really great to have so much time with Andy to just hang out and have fun. I'm so glad we did it. The end.

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Episode 5 Incoherent Thoughts

Spoilers for Loki episode 5. And also my fic, Scattered to the Wind, because holy shit.

My stomach hurts, guys

I've been texting my best friend about this upcoming episode all day. I'd say I was getting progressively more unhinged, but I definitely started out unhinged and fluctuated from there.

Oh my GOD the title is making me feel better already

Oh god never mind I'm scared again after the recap and the haunting intro music

FUCK THAT ONE TEAR ON LOKI'S FACE

SHIT WAIT DID HE TIME SLIP I BET HE TIME SLIPPED

NO HE WENT TO THE PIE ROOM ;.;

FUCK YES HE DID TIME SLIP

OH MONKEY FUCK

THE TIME SLIPS ARE SHORTER

OH MY GOD I'VE FOR SURE HAD A NIGHTMARE LIKE THIS WHERE EVERYTHING TURNS TO SPAGHETTI THAT'S HORRIFYING

NO NOT THE CLOCK TICKING

EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE IN CAPS THIS EP ISN'T IT

I'LL TELL YOU, THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN EP 5 OF LAST SEASON. I TOOK NOTES ALL IN CAPS TOO

YES CASEY'S IN JAIL I WAS FUCKING RIGHT PLEASE BE ALCATRAZ sorry spoilers for Scattered to the Wind

OH MY GOD WHO WAS RIGHT ABOUT FUCKING ALL OF THIS

WAS THAT A BOAT

I WAS FUCKING RIGHT I WAS FUCKING RIGHT I WAS FUCKING RIGHT

FUCK NOW PEOPLE ARE GONNA READ IT AND BE ALL "UM ACTUALLY IT WAS 1962 NOT 1935" AND IM GONNA BE ALL "UM ACTUALLY I FUCKING CALLED THIS ENTIRE THING SO STOW IT"

GUT US LIKE FISH

LOKI

OKAY I GOT THE NAME WRONG BUT LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE

YES MOBIUS GIMME

NO LAME FUCK OFF MARVEL

SIX YEARS OFF FOR B-15 I SWEAR TO GOD IF HER NAME IS ANN I'LL LOSE IT

WRONG PLACE BUT I UNDERSTAND. ACCENT, AND I PUT HER IN LONDON BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE WAS IN AMERICA

UGH SHE'S SO GOOD AND SHE'S A PEDIATRICIAN I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THAT TOO

BUT SHE'S IN NEW YORK IN 2012 WHAT MONTH IS IT BECAUSE SHE MIGHT KNOW LOKI

MOBIUS YES HOLY SHIT

DON FUCKING DON DO NOT GIVE ME YOUR LAST NAME PLEASE I MEAN I SHIP THORKI SO FANONICALLY I'LL BE FINE WITH IT BUT LIKE EVEN MARVEL WOULDN'T DO THAT RIGHT

NO NOT THE CHILDREN PLEASE LET THAT BE THE FICTIONAL PART

YES MIDWEST BUT WRONG STATE AND WAY WRONG YEAR [I! HAVE! THEORIES! THOUGH!]

MOBIUS HONEY SELL THE MAN A DIRT BIKE MORE JET SKIS FOR YOU

I'M CRYING ABOUT THE COMPARISON BETWEEN LOKI AND THE INFLATABLE GUY OH MY GOD THAT WAS PERFECT

That face was not good enough

Okay the slow walk and stare was perfect though

Wait I just remembered I screenshotted a bingo card for this episode specifically wait I'm gonna be a ball of anxiety and procrastinate and see if I got any squares yet I'll play it in a sec.

God Don is doing to Loki what Mobius did to OB in episode 1. Mo it's okay to tell someone you don't recognize them when they recognize you. It makes the interaction afterward way less awkward and a lot easier.

Fuck what's wrong with your son why doesn't he talk to his mom/dad/parent FUCK I HOPE HIS MOM DIDN'T JUST DIE THAT WOULD BE SO SHITTY

THAT LYING BITCH

THAT ASSHOLE IN THE LOKIUS TAG AFTER EPISODE ONE WHAT A LYING BITCH [No I have a thought though, and I'm sure someone else has had it by now.]

MOBIUS TALK TO YOUR KIDS HOLY FUCK OH MY GOD

WAIT

IF IT'S BILLY AND TOMMY I'LL FUCKING SCREAM

NO LOKI

OH MY GOD WAS I RIGHT ABOUT EVERYONE

RIGHT STATE WRONG TIME IF HE'S A PROFESSOR I'LL SHIT MYSELF

OH BABY MY DARLING

I LIKE THIS BETTER

AWW

SOMEHOW I LOVE HIM MORE

THE POSIT ITS. OB!!!!

IS THAT THE LOOM

THE LINES FROM THE TRAILER

WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

IF SYLVIE'S IN BROXTON AND HAS FORGOTTEN SHE CAN DO MAGIC I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO

I SWEAR TO GOD YOU GUYS I DIDN'T WATCH THIS EPISODE UNTIL NOW WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING

THIS IS SO WEIRD I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO

OH MY GOD IT'S NOT THE LOOM IT'S HIS WORKSHOP

HE'S STAYING SO LONG

OH MY GOD IS HIS REAL WHY GONNA BE BECAUSE HE LOVES MOBIUS? I'LL DIE

YES OB I WROTE THIS WE JUST TAKE BRAD OUT OF THE EQUATION AND I'M OKAY WITH THAT

SO I WAS GONNA SAY IRISH BOYS, KEVIN AND SEAN, BUT

BUT SEAN JUST ASKED FOR A DOG AND A SNAKE

THIS MAN IS AN ODIN VARIANT THE KIDS ARE LOKI AND THOR I DON'T LIKE THIS I DON'T LIKE IT HERE I WANT TO LEAVE

Baby Loki would have absolutely played with matches he stole

Baby Thor loves snakes

Take me back to before I was afraid of who Mobius was gonna be when I thought he was Theo and that was the end of it. Take me back even to when I thought he might be Loki but he was married so we might've actually gotten a Sigyn variant. Take me back to when I thought he might be Sigyn and his wife the Loki variant. Hell, take me back to an hour ago when I thought I was just gonna ship another version of thorki. This is a terrible theory.

Loki my god you are terrible at talking to your amnesiac love interest

MOBIUS I THOUGHT YOU SAID ON THE MARKET FOR A SECOND AND I FREAKED

MOBIUS OH MY GOD STOP TRYING TO SELL PEOPLE JET SKIS AND THOSE ARE YOURS

HE REMEMBERS WORD FOR WORD WHAT MOBIUS SAID

YOU GUYS I HAD TO LOOK THAT UP FOR THE FIC TO GET IT RIGHT AND HE RECITES IT WORD FOR FUCKING WORD OFF THE CUFF

AND THAT'S WHEN I STARTED CRYING

LOKI GIVE HIM HIS MEMORIES BEFORE HE CALLS THE COPS I HATE THIS

IT'S OKAY OB YOU'RE GONNA MEET CASEY SOON HOLY SHIT THOUGH I'D CALL 18 MONTHS FAST AND HOW DID YOU FIND HIM

THAT'S WHAT HE SAID TO SYLVIE

LOKI GIVE HIM HIS MEMORIES HE HAS CHILDREN WHO DON'T HAVE A MOM

You can MOVE the time doors??

LOKI GIVE HIM HIS MEMORIES

ALSO WHERE THE FUCK IS SYLVIE

SPACE NAME

OH MY GOD THERE SHE IS, IN BROXTON JUST LIKE I SAID

OKAY THANK GOD

OH MY GOD THERE'S BRAD

YES HE SAID IT HE WANTS HIS FRIENDS BACK HE HAS FRIENDS HE'S NEVER HAD FRIENDS AND NOW HE DOES I'M NOT CRYING I WASN'T CRYING TWO HOURS AGO WHEN I WAS SHOUTING HE HAS FRIENDS NOW IN MY CAR I'M NOT CRYING YOU ARE

I'M FUCKING BAWLING WHO AM I KIDDING

SYLVIE IT'S OKAY FOR HIM TO WANT FRIENDS IT'S OKAY FOR HIM TO HAVE FRIENDS THAT'S NOT SELFISH THAT'S BEING A PERSON

CASEY SHUT UP AND JUST FLIRT WITH HIM

LOKI NO DARLING

DUDE YOU SAID THAT LIKE YOU'RE SELLING HER DRUGS

SYLVIE

YEAH WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN GIRL

CASEY

OB NO

MOBIUS, B-15

SYLVIE

I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID THE FUCKING BLIP AGAIN

TIME LOOP FUCK THIS

FUCK NO FUCK THIS

NO NO

OH HE MEANT HIM OH THANK GOD I THOUGHT HE WAS ABOUT TO GO ALL SYLKI ON ME

LOKIIIIIIIIIIIII YESSSSSSSSSS <3

[dekusheroacademia]

The Ultra Stage: The greatest hero - some final thoughts PART 1/3

I have no professional training to do reviews, so I'm commenting just as a fan of MHA, musicals and the previous Ultra Stage adaptations. First of all, I watched it three times, all in Tokyo, the opening day with Shin Tamura as Deku, and then the 6th (both shows that day) where Yasuhito (the understudy) played Deku, because Tamura was sick. So this post will be a summary of all three dates experiences, but here in part 1 I will focus on small background scenes, differences between shows and Deku.

If you wanna read a detailed summary, I'll make a part two soon, otherwise it's in my pinned post at arthurianmaiden on twitter.

If you wanna read my ship thoughts only (stuff about iidabaku, bakudeku, izuocha, kiribaku and kacchako), I will make a part three!

THE PLOT / HOW CLOSE TO THE MANGA

As usual, the musical is pretty loyal to the plot. They slightly changed the order of one thing as they introduced the license exam and the meeting of the other schools before the naming of their special moves.

The musical starts with a recap of Bakugou and Deku, their childhood, middle school, sludge, previous fights and Kamino. In general the theme of the musical is that All Might has fallen, and the next greatest hero are Deku and Bakugou both. The musical centers then both as protagonists, while in previous stages usually Deku was front and centre.

Then we see the teachers convincing the parents, the rooms challenge, we meet the other schools for the exam, and then the students decide the names of their heroes moves. The license exam takes the rest of the first act, and the first part of the second act, while the second part of the second act is Deku vs Kacchan 2. The musical ends with Bakugou and Deku cleaning the dormitories.

The last song is the only song that is not new: "I want to be a hero". But it's acted much differently than usual. In the setting, Deku faces adversity and is attacked by enemies. Bakugou fires an AP shot and frees him, before walking up a ramp and out of the stage. The rest of the song sees Deku being kind of thrown from class 1a student to student, as if they can't save him. The last one is Kirishima who grabs him but then Deku falls right in front of Bakugou, and the stage only illuminates them. This is a call back of the start of the musical, when Deku is shoved onto the ground, while Bakugou taunts him. This time it almost looks like the musical is teasing the possibility of Bakugou offering his hand to Deku.

The rest of the song is done with both Deku and Bakugou at the center, instead of focusing on Deku as usual in the previous stages.

DEKU

As I said, Shin Tamura is recovering from tonsillitis, so the second and third show I watched had his understudy Yasuhito. You can find his twitter at yasuhito_nk.

Shin Tamura was amazing as usual, and he'll probably be back for the dvd recording the 21st! So I'll mainly talk about Yasuhito. If I had to describe the difference between them, I think I could say that Yasuhito feels much more like season 1 Deku, his voice is higher, amazing powerful singing voice too, and maybe because Shimura's clothes are bigger for him, he also looked smaller! He did feel more insecure, and season 1 Deku, than Tamura whom, I think, has a more commanding presence. They are also so good at expressing strong emotion on stage with their body language (as the face is not always visible to the audience), and he often grasped his own shirt to express nervousness. At the end of Deku vs Kacchan 2, he also seemed readier to keep fighting and his fists were balled up when Kacchan won.

I'm a bit sad that we won't hear a recording of his songs, because his voice was so powerful!!

Here's him and Kobayashi (Bakugou's actor) from his twitter (source)

BACKGROUND INTERACTIONS

The musical had a lot of fun background interactions between characters! I probably missed so many! Here are some cute ones I noticed. I'll vaguely go in order if characters.

Iida and Ochako interacts A LOT. Ochako in general is very energetic! Her and Deku jumped around like nerds when they saw Ms Joke. Ochako also fainted when she saw Momo's bed, and Iida had to pick her up, but she kept falling down. Another cute thing, she tried to out-oui Aoyama when they announced Sato as the winner of the room competition. She also was the first character to jump in to talk to Bakugou after the school started again (so the first time the students see themselves since Kamino), and she tried to cover Tsuyu's view when Bakugou makes Kaminari use his quirk.

Todoroki was hilarious. My eyes were always on him basically. During the room song he was constantly doozing off and sleepy, and got mad when Aoyama's dazzling took woke him up. The actor is a great dancer, so it's always fun to see him act in dance scenes because he pretend to be constantly confused. Another funny moment was when Aoyama showed him his license (because Todoroki didn't pass), and Todoroki picked it up but accidentally burnt it, and then run after Aoyama to apologize.

Mina was amazingly energetic too! Definitely hard to miss! She exchanged some words with Kirishima about his new costume, one show I saw her nudging Aizawa after they met Ms Joke. She also teases Bakugou a bunch and notably she's one of the few characters who does not slowly back away from him. At the end, she has different versions of her teasing, when Bakugou is vacuuming the dorms. In one occasion she took the cable of the vacuum and pulled it around him, to trap him inside.

Aoyama is such a star. I just wanted to write that one if the funniest scenes is right at the end when he throws glitter everywhere while Bakugou and Deku are vacuuming.

Most of Deku and Bakugou backgrounds scenes were looking at each other (ex. When Bakugou gives Kirishima the money, Deku states at him and follows him almost), or with Mineta, Todoroki and Iida (for Deku), Kirishima for Bakugou.

WHAT CHANGES

The show was overall identical all three times! Only a few scenes changed. In order of appearance:

1) Eraserhead and Mic intermission thing, plus their interaction with Aoyama later change! Some I've seen: Erasermic talking about sea creatures and algae, Mic complaining that he sees all orange (and Aizawa explains that it's because of his glasses, later he brings him an orange to ask him what colour it is), something about driving. The scenes with them and Aoyama I've seen were instead one about Aoyama doing cpr on Aizawa with "merci!", one that i could not really get but it seemed like word play and it ended up cracking Aizawa's actor so much that he could not stop laughing and start the next line (he had to hide his face in his scarf), and the third one I've seen had Aoyama singing a song about himself.

2) There is a scene where Aizawa and Mineta introduce the dorms. Iida joins and these are a bit different, but I could not tell what they were saying 😅. In the last one tho, Iida was song singing something, and then talking but Aizawa and Mineta left him on the stage.

3) The BUNNY! The bunny scenes change too. During the room introduction, Bakugou comes out dressed as Koda's rabbit. In the first I've watched, everyone fawns over him, he hops like a rabbit and then him and Koda hug. In the second I've seen, Bakugou stomps out very Bakugou like. Koda asks him for his name, and Bakugou replies grumpily before stomping out. In the third scene I've seen, he walks out and everyone is fawning over him.... Then Deku pats his head, and Bakugou yells something angry at him before stomping away. Deku is left looking in disbelief, and he rubs his eyes as if not understanding why the rabbit is so Kacchan like.

4) There were other very small changes here and there. For example, Aoyama interacts a bit with Seiji after he is revealed to not have passed. In one case, Aoyama teaches him how to do the classic oui pose, in another he was teaching him some dance moves!

5) Another small difference was in the interaction between Itejiro and Bakugou. In one case, they exchanged words while Itejiro was walking on the ramp, in another they were actually about to fight, and Kirishima had to manhandle Bakugou away.

6) Also, when the class does their Plus ultra, Bakugou grumpily partecipates, so that's always a bit different. And one time, Inasa took off the blood on his face before walking away, instead of walking away with it, and the students were surprised (it was funny!).

7) Only the first day we had the cast coming out to say a few things! I'm not sure if the next day it did not happen because Tamura was not there, or if it just happens on the opening show.

I'll post soon a bkdk and ships centric post!!

[winderlylandchime]

Hello! So to recap my day: took the dude to the doctor. He in all seriousness during HIS OWN IMPORTANT CHECK UP, asked the doctor about testicular cancer and what can happen to a person. The doctor obviously got a bit worried and started checking his test results thinking he missed something. My brother continued to ask questions about it, such as ‘how can chemo affect sex? Is chemo or radiation the same for testicular cancer as it is for other cancers?’ And so on. I am trying to intervene to stop this madness and my brother talks over me so it’s as if im not even in the room. And mid questioning, the doctor is going through the test results looking kinda more and more worried until you could actually see a lightbulb go off and he just stopped dead in his tracks and went ‘(his name), please for the love of god, tell me that this is NOT about that guy from the tv show and that you have a legitimate reason as to why you’re asking me this’ And this idiot goes ‘okay, sure…but i think we both know the truth.’ The doctor got a little angry at him and had to explain that his check up is real life and Brian’s cancer is fake and my brother actually fucking gasped! Hand on his fucking chest! And went ‘well its real to me, it literally just happened!….hey did i tell you, I got a cat named Brian?’ Then he started showing pictures of Brian the cat to the nurses and the doctor had to bribe him with a coffee (for the next check up) if he focused on and i quote ‘himself and not a version of brian human OR feline’ also keep in mind, he is wearing his Team Brian shirt while all this is happening.

ANYWAY, then we got to the vet. And for some reason i thought he got all his weird energy out of him. Wrong. We walked in and he was holding the fucking cat like a baby. Mind you he IS STILL WEARING THE FUCKING SHIRT. He explains he is there to get any type of papers he would need and shots and all that for his new cat. I’m thinking wow look at him actually acting like an adult. Just to set the scene: it’s a waiting room with a counter and there were 3 people behind it, two are standing behind the receptionist (one was the vet and the other vet tech). And theyre like helping her with the cats file she’s putting together. She asks for his info and is writing it down and then she goes ‘and the cat’s name?’ And he looks at them (while he is holding the cat like a baby) and goes ‘this sweet little baby here, is Brian’ and they all look down at the file and she goes ‘…Brian. Okay’ and then they all stop and just slowly look up and look at his shirt and he’s confused and looks down and goes ‘oh no, that’s a different Brian. *long pause* he’s also a sweet little baby…except when he’s a dick’ And I’m dying inside but i think we can all tell by now I’ve experienced worse with him. So the vet asks to go with him and we’re in his office and he casually points to the shirt while checking the cat and goes ‘so who’s that Brian?’ This man went ‘okay so. My Brian is named after my other Brian’ and the vet tech nicely goes (thinking she’s dealing with a normal person) ‘oh so is that your boyfriend?’ and he goes ‘ha, i wish. No, it’s a tv character..besides he’s already taken so not like id have a shot’ and the vet tech clearly still trying to make conversation asks him ‘what tv character is that?’ And then all hell broke loose. It was like a kid in a candy store that was on speed. In a span of 5-10 minutes, he managed to tell the entire plot of season 1-3. And then he finished it off with ‘now I’m on season 4. They just broke up…again. AND HE HAS CANCER! On his balls! That’s just cruel. And now he’s all sick and Justin is gone and I am so so so scared. Thank god, i have my other Brian’ and then the receptionist walks in with papers and no knowledge what all happened and goes ‘so Brian is now all yours to take home’ and the fucking vet goes ‘i bet you wish she was talking about the other one, huh?’ And then when we got home, he called our parents on zoom to introduce the cat and that’s also a whole other story.

Dear sweet anon! I had a few minutes between meetings today and read these messages and showed up to a meeting where I'm the boss completely laughing and with tears streaming down my face.

Your brother is doing research about testicular cancer with his actual doctor. I'm dying. This is some fanfic prep he's doing. (Also, can we discuss Brian's death wish for a cancer with a 99% survival rate? And he calls Justin dramatic!)

‘oh so is that your boyfriend?’ and he goes ‘ha, i wish. No, it’s a tv character..besides he’s already taken so not like id have a shot’

DEAD. He, too, has a crush on Gale. Lesbians and straight men, I guess!

[tinyinvadr]

The next chapter is here!

TW: Abandonment

Borrowed Family

Chapter 4

The coast was clear, not a human in sight. I crept along the wall until I found the secret entrance into our home. Mom was gonna be so happy to see me! She and Dad would be so proud that I made it back by myself.

Well, okay, Dib helped, but they didn’t have to KNOW that!

I walked through the tunnel leading to the living room, and I could hear voices in the distance. It sounded like Dad was already home. He must’ve been so worried that he couldn’t find me.

As I got closer, I was able to hear what they were saying.

“It sure is quiet without Rosie here.” Mom said.

“Yes, much quieter. Now we don’t have to worry about being discovered.”

I stopped in my tracks. What did Dad mean by that?

“It really is a shame, isn’t it? I tried so many times, but that kid just doesn’t listen. I hate that we had to do this, but we’ve had too many close calls. We can’t afford to keep a kid with a behavior problem, it could cost all of us our lives.”

Oh… That’s what he meant.

Dad told me many times before that borrowers don’t keep problem children. I always thought that was an empty threat, and he wouldn’t REALLY get rid of me, but…

All I could do in that moment was sit down, curling in on myself and crying. They tried to ditch me. Dad took me to that house so he could leave me there and never come back. He didn’t even seem to care what happened to me, either. I could’ve died, and it wouldn’t have mattered.

These awful thoughts kept flowing through my head, and I just wanted to throw the biggest tantrum ever. I wanted them to know how much they hurt me, and I wanted them to feel horrible about it.

With all my strength, I gave the support beam behind me a swift kick, making it shake a little. I heard my Mom let out a startled yell.

“You’re being too loud.” I muttered under my breath.

I wanted to kick the beam again, but my eyes trailed up to something moving above my head. Apparently, there was a spider living at the top of that beam, and I disturbed it.

The creature slowly descended, and I froze up in terror. I never liked those things.

“H-Hi! Sorry if I bothered you. You can go back up, now!”

The spider kept climbing down its own thread, with no intention of stopping. It was getting closer and closer, and I started feeling itchy chills all over.

Maybe I was a problem child.

Finally getting the sense to run, I darted down the tunnel, stopping at the exit that led out into the humans’ house to catch my breath. I couldn’t stay here. My parents didn’t want me, and I couldn’t take care of myself. I was doomed.

The only thing I could think of to do was go back to Dib, but I didn’t want to put that burden on him. He was a kid, just like me. Still, I really didn’t have any other choice. I’d just have to hope he still wanted me around.

So, I left the walls that night for the last time and never looked back.

I left that house and ran across the lawn, the electric field in front of Dib’s house guiding me as it cast a blue glow on the grass.

When I crawled under the door, I didn’t see anyone, and my heart sank. Dib had to have gone back upstairs. I was almost about to give up all hope, but then, I heard footsteps coming from the kitchen.

I watched and waited, and sure enough, it was Dib. Without thinking, I ran right towards him. He didn’t seem to notice me, so I grabbed onto the bottom of his long black coat and tugged on it.

He stopped and looked down, seeing me standing right by his foot.

“Recap? What are you doing back here? I thought you went home.”

At that, I started crying again. That place wasn’t my home anymore. I don’t think it ever was.

“Whoa, okay, I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s get you somewhere safe first. I could’ve stepped on you.”

He knelt down, offering his hand again, and I climbed on. This time, he held me cradled against his chest, with his other hand guarding me.

I buried my face in his shirt as he carried me upstairs, still crying my eyes out. He didn’t say a word until we got to his room, and he closed the door behind us. As I felt him try to move me away from his chest, I clung to his shirt. I… wasn’t ready to let go yet.

“O-Okay, you can stay there. Do you wanna tell me what happened?”

It was hard to get the words out through my sobs, but I had to say something. “Dib… c-can I stay with you for a while?”

“Of course, but… why do you need to stay here?”

I just kept crying. How could I even explain something so horrible?

“Y-You know how my Dad told me to wait for him in this house? Well… it turns out, he kind of… lied to me. H-He brought me here so he could… leave me and never come back.”

At that, Dib suddenly smushed me against his chest, holding me so tight but still being careful not to hurt me. He started to gently run his finger across the back of my head, taking slow, deep breaths. It was like he knew how much pain I was in, and was doing everything in his power to bring me comfort. I honestly didn’t expect this. I already knew he was harmless, but I wasn’t sure he would even know what to do in this situation.

“Recap… I’m so sorry… you can stay as long as you need to, okay?”

I gave him a little nod as he continued rubbing my head.

“We’re gonna figure this out. I hate that you have to go through this, but I’ll do what I can to help you. Man… if I had known what was going on sooner…”

He trailed off, at a loss for words. That was okay, though. I was already under so much stress from what happened that I didn’t want to think about it anymore. So, I shifted all of my focus onto how warm and calming it was to be held by Dib. I was so nervous the first couple times, but in this moment, I felt strangely safe.

I stopped crying after a while, but neither of us made any move to separate. Of course, I was perfectly fine with that. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy, and I let out a yawn.

“Alright, let’s get you to bed. Are you good with sleeping on my coat again? I’ll try to find something more like an actual bed for you tomorrow, but I can’t think of anything else right now.”

I yawned again. “Yeah, the coat’s fine.”

So, Dib set me down on the desk, and folded up his coat like he did the night before.

“We can talk more in the morning. I’ll be home all day tomorrow since it’s the weekend. Until then, you should definitely get some sleep. Let me know if you need anything else. I’m a really light sleeper, so I should wake up if you drop something off the desk again.”

With that in mind, I climbed onto the coat-bed, and immediately flopped down onto my back. I was unbelievably tired.

Dib climbed into his own bed, and before I went to sleep, I looked over at him and smiled.

“Thanks, Dib.”

[aloneatpeace]

In another universe

Chapter 12

Agatha harknes

ɪɴsɪᴅᴇ ᴏғ ᴡᴇsᴛᴠɪᴇᴡ

You wake from your slumber still tried from last night events. You close your eye for a minute it's so silent so silent there no sound from tv or the sound harry Or kids your eye shoot open and jump out bed.

"Alex??? “ you welcomed with a silence.

" boys ???? where are you??? "

"Alex "

"MOM..... MOM??? " At your kids scream you run out of the house. There scream come from the neighbors house. You blast open the door and enter the house.

"MOM..... MOM " You run towards where the your kids scream coming you reach a basement door with purple vines and light coming.

"boys ?? " You meet with a chilling silence.

You enter the basement it's looked like a sacred place with ancient weird symbols on the wall you look around frantically for your kids.

"Y/n, y/n . You didn't think you were the only girl with magic in this town " You startled at the new voice. Your eyes wide at women who stand in front you. "The names Agatha Harkness. It's nice it finally meet you without getting tossed away "

You stand there shocked to your core . You seen this women throughout your life. She was there whenever you're life fall apart she was the cause of it.

"She does look shocked to meet the real us doesn't she " Agatha chuckle at the rabbit in her arms. You try to get inside her head using your power.

"That's adorable my thoughts are not available to you toots they never will. So don't give yourself a migraine. We have some work to do "

"Where are my children ? “ you eyes darkening per minute. She chuckle at you. You try to use your magic But nothing happens Agatha set the rabbit down and binds your hands behind your back and legs with her magic. You powerless now and she hover you in the air and walk around the basement.

"Didn't you notice " She points to the wall which had symbols on it " Basic protection spell, one in each wall no? Nothing? " Agatha roll her eyes at your lack of knowledge in witchcraft.

You grunt and struggle against the magic restrictions. "These are runnes, y/n. In a given space only a witch that cast the runnes can use her magic. How do you not know the fundamental. Who are you. Who are you?. "

She rants about you as she hover you in the air, middle of the basement room. You continue to get our her hold but fail miserably.

"Oh, y/n when I sensed this place the after glow of so many spells cast all at once. I couldn't make heads or tails of it " She stop by the table and flipping through a spell book "mind control. A classic. Quick incantation and a feeble psyche  and your good to go " You turn your head away from her but she grab your chin making you look at her " With thousands of people under your tumb all interacting with each other according to complex storyline ,well that's something special and of course there is transmutation years of study to achieve even the smallest convincing illusion but Westview through your lens " Agatha turn a spider on the wall to a bird " Every little detail in place. You even running illusion milles away at the edge of the town. Magic on auto pilot what is your secret sister? ".

"  I didn't.... I ... Don't " You couldn't even comprehend what she was saying. You don't where is your husband and how is your childrens.

"Just recap everything from your childhood, kidnapped, scarified but Rebirthed parents dead, brother dead only lover had dead . You know you could have saved all of them " Agatha fake sympathize you but her words make you question your whole existence.

" What???.... I... Try.... I tried.... I tried.... I couldn't..."tears freely fall

" Yes y/n . You could have save them they would be alive if you were smart enough "

Images of your parents and jack and Alex came into your mind the pain and helplessness was bearable but the disappointed look crushed you. Maybe Agatha is right you could have saved them it's all your fault "I wanted.. to... I couldn't, im sorry "

"And now your childrens ,You forget I have your children " Agatha remind you. Suddenly your in your living room.

"Mom.... Help... Mom help us " You run out house to the streets. Agatha float in the air. Magic restrainings in her hands that connected Your children's neck.

"I know what you are " Agatha call out. Your childrens struggle to get out of the tight grip, tugging helplessly. "It's okey boys It's going to okey " You look into there eyes try to clam the down. You look up to Agatha eyes murderous looking

"You have know idea how dangerous you are y/n. You're supposed be a myth ,  a being capable of spontaneous creation and here you are using it make breakfast and dinner"

"Let go of my children " You said through gritted teeth. Eyes and boby filling up with range.

" Oh.. Yes, your childrens and Alex. The whole little life you are made in this chaos magic y/n " Agatha stare at you with power hungry eyes.

"And that's make you the scarlet witch "

"My powers work out here. You know that right. " You remarks

" I'm counting on it " She release your kids you scream no when they fall to the ground.

"Mom " Your kids run towards you and you hug them tightly.

" You go get your father okey " You put your hands on both their shoulder.

"But mom we can help ".they both plead you simultaneously.

" boys listen to me you be with your father. " You make the turn into other direction. "Now go".

Cas teleport everyone into the hex without any harm. They all stand in front of a pet store and alex walkout of the store with a cat in his hand.

" Well there is the man of the hour " Klaus point at him. They walk towards him without wasting a time .

Seeing bunch of people making their way towards him alex shoot them a confused look. "Can i help you with anything? ".

" Yeah your little wife.. "

"Dean " Sam yell at his brother before turning into Alex's with a apologetic smile. " Alex we have to tell you something and you have to patiently listen to us "

Alex who now glaring at dean glance at sam "well it's up to me where there i should I listen whatever you have to say and now I don't planning to do that " He walk past them , sam glare at dean for messing up before they can talk.

Kol speed in front of Alex making him jump back. " You are going to listen mate and your going to stay " Alex glare at kol before things can turn into a mess bonnie interfere.

" Alex you need to listen to us please " At Bonnie's desperate voice Alex let out a sign.

"y/n has been lying to you whole time. do you know what is happening outside the Westview " dean ask alex.

"she won't lie to me " alex clenched his jaw at accusation against you.

sam stand in front of alex " I know you think that everything happening is real but it's not. it's all lie and she is keeping you trapped in here"

that's make alex losses his control grabbing sams shirt " she is not laying . I know everything she never lied to me. I know that I'm dead and I'm not real and she created all of this ".dean stand by sams side to aid his brother

" what ??".

" I know what is happening okey. she told me everything " alex slowly release him with a defected sign.

"then you know what happening is wrong. you have to tell her and stop this " dean tell him.

"alex thousands of people are trapped in here and they don't deserve this " stefan add.

"You can't go along with this alex it's not fair to the people she can't control them " Sam try to reason with him

" Witches created to balance the nature her she is using to hurt people it's not acceptable " Elijah who was silent the whole time speaks

"it's not wrong .what wrong and unfair is ,what happened to us, is that right ? No ?. I deserved to live happily with her .we deserve to live happily but they took everything from me, from her. Where was the moral when they took everything from us . If you were so righteous where were you when she was being hunted ??where were you when they kill me and her brother her family right in front of you??? Why didn't no one helped us when we needed saving .we deserve to have this you can't say otherwise." at alex confession they stood silent knowing what happened to them indeed unfair . Alex start to walk away

"DAD.... DAD " the sound of his children make he turn to see his boys running towards them.

"boys??? what are you doing?" alex crouch down to their level. the group glance at the kids worried.

"why are you guys running???. where is mom ? "

" mom is in danger " Oliver yell at him tears in eyes.

" what??? what do mean ? " alex eyes wide at his sons word. the group look at each other wondering how you're in trouble.

"there....is this lady... " they start to tug his hands "just come to home dad mom needes us ".without looking back at the group Alex run towards you with your kids.

" come on " sam run after him dean look at cas only to see the angel to disappear. he let out a goran before following after sam.

Series masterlist

[lyon-amore]

Time Trial Chapter 9 - 'The Fantastic 4'

Chapter 8

I am translating a text when I hear a faint sound behind my door. It looked like someone was crying.     I get up from the chair, leaving the book to one side of the keyboard to avoid pressure on the keys. I am having a hard time with the translation to see any repeated letter. I rest my head on the door and manage to hear what the sound is. It is looked like a woman who was crying.

    I open the door and see that everything is dark, but the sound is clearer. I took out my cell phone and turned on the flashlight and still, I could not see what was in front of me.      “Hello?” I shout, waiting for an answer. But I do not get any “Where are you?”     The crying continues and I start to follow it.     I turn my head to see the door to my room, but I am already too far away.     I take a deep breath and continue to follow the voice.

     The crying voice deviates from the path to the left side. I turn a little and follow her again.     “Tell me what your name is?”      Receiving no response other than her crying, I continue following the female voice.     "Katherine? It is you?” I ask, waiting for a yes.     It makes me nervous that she did not answer, fearing that maybe they did something to keep her from talking. Or that they have forced her.

      I walk quickly and the voice changes direction again.      I start running, asking her to talk to me. Please try to contact me with any words of help.      I feel pressure in my chest when I see that I cannot reach her. Whoever she is, hearing her cry makes me not stand it, because I cannot help her.     “Please! Let me help you!” I feel my voice break as I scream “Talk to me!”      I feel like I do not get tired while I run, as if my stamina were infinite.

     The crying is heard everywhere and I stop. I look around, but I cannot see anyone.      I try to calm down, but the voice gets in my head, causing me to hyperventilate. I... I do not know where it comes from... I cannot find it...     "Jake, don't leave me alone." I hear from behind me and notice how they hug me. The hands press against my body, as if holding on, not wanting to let go.

     I wake up with a jump in my desk chair.. I pass my hands to the level where I had noticed her hands gripping me tightly. It had been a dream all too real.      I rub my face trying to clear it. Whose voice was that? I guess my subconscious created it because of stress.      I hear the entrance door and I slowly get up from the chair, my body still shaking from sleep.

     When I leave, I find Albert, leaving the keys on the cabinet.     "I thought you were sleeping." he says when he sees me.     “I fell asleep translating texts” a yawn escapes me and I sit on the couch “. We have new information from Paul.”     “And what is? Is he on the most wanted list?”     "I am sorry to disappoint you, but no" I hear him grunt, annoyed “. Sally has already looked into his rrcprd and apparently he has several crimes accumulated in his teens.”     “And how did they accept him into the university?”      I arch an eyebrow and he nods, understanding.      Money. His parents must have paid a large sum of money to the university to accept him.     "But there is more" I see how he crosses his arms, waiting for more news “. Bianca and Paul knew each other before and most likely had something.”     “The boy with whom she went to buy drugs was surely…”     “Paul.”     “Ok, let's recap” Albert snorts and joins his fingers, giving small touches “, so, both girls possibly dated a psychopath and that psychopath involved in shady things did something to both of them” I nod, but not very convinced since, thanks to Sally, we do not understand why it took her so long to get revenge on them “And what are you going to do?”     “Sally will continue investigating everything related to Bianca's past that may have had consequences now.”     Albert nods. His expression seems worried. He is also affected by Bianca's past, although it pains him to admit it.     "Also..." I take a breath, prepared to tell him about the email "I received an email from 'Master' yesterday" Al's look is surprised. I do not think this news was expected.     “And… What did he tell you in that email?” he drags his words slowly, as if he were afraid to ask.     "They have already started bid up." I answer, a little tired “. And I cannot do anything to stop it.”     “Hey, Jake” Albert looks at me compassionately, giving me a little tap on the shoulder “it's not your fault what Katherine is going through, don't let that guy torture you.”     "I know, I am trying to be calm." I lean my head back, breathing calmly.     "Too calm, I would say." he tells me and I turn my head to see him "Are you sure you're okay?"     "Yes, perfectly" I answered calmly “. We just need to get close to Paul, but since they have forbidden me, we are going to need Alice... but I do not have her phone number, so I would like you to come with me to-“     "Wait, I'll give you her number" I look at him, surprised, watching him take out his cell phone “. She gave it to me because she was worried, but until now I haven't touched it. You know why.”     “And why did she give it to you knowing that you don't get along?”     “Because if she gave it to you, then she would think you would be afraid of her.” I receive Alice's contact through Albert's chat “What if we created a group? Maybe that way you'll feel better.”      The truth is that yes, it would be better. And we would better share the information we have when we cannot see each other.

    I create a group by adding Albert and Alice, and in a few seconds, she connects. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alice And this?

Albert It was my idea

Alice So can you have ideas?

Albert And ingenious

Alice Aha… 🙄

Jake Ok, I would like to continue reading your lovers' fight, but I have not made the group for that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “How can you say that about us?” Albert’s tone is as if he had been offended.     “Are not you flirting?”     "I'll gouge out my eyes first, Jake." I hear him let out a weak laugh. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alice I would say more like divorced people

Albert I agree with that

Alice Ok and what do you want from me? A new mission from the boss?

Jake We have to get Paul to talk.

Albert And we thought a feminine touch would be nice

Alice Do you mean, ask him questions?

Jake Well… Better not use your interrogation techniques, I have already seen them. Just try to get closer to him and be friends with him.

Alice I just got a little nervous, nothing more!

Albert Aw… Alice is a bad cop? What a surprise

Alice Learning! Interacting with people is still a bit difficult for me

Albert You could threaten him, you're good at that

Alice I still don’t have the title of “Bad Cop” But if you want, I can take care of him the hard way

Jake No problems. We would attract attention.

Alice Okay, so how do we do it?

Jake There is a bar we go to and he showed up. Maybe he spends his weekends there too.

Alice What if we go tomorrow? We go as a group, have a fun time and wait for him to appear

Albert I do not think it’s a bad idea And I haven’t had fun in a long time And by the way, we can invite Jeremy and let him understand why we do this And so he can apologize

Alice It is necessary?

Jake Albert likes to go with friends to have a good time. It is their way of saying that you belong to the group :)

Alice Aw, how cute! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I notice Albert’s gaze on me. I think he did not like what I said.     Again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Albert Friends are important to me

Alice 😊

Jake So, tomorrow we meet at eight at our apartment.

Albert I will send a message to Jeremy I’m sure he’ll accept if I explain it to him first

Alice OK Well see you tomorrow Goodbye guys 🙂

-----Alice has disconnected----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Well" Albert gets up from the couch and stretches ", I'm going to sleep, tomorrow I want to be able to talk to Jeremy with a clear mind" he waves goodbye “. Good night Jake.”     “Good night Al.”      I see how he enters his room and I stay in the living room looking at my cell phone.      After that dream, I am nervous. I do not want to close my eyes and listen to that voice that cries non-stop and not be able to do anything.      My conscience simply tortures me for not having been able to do anything for any of them.

     In the end I ended up falling asleep on the couch while watching 'The Lord of the Rings'. I am sure Albert would kill me for falling asleep watching it, but I just needed to relax, not watch a movie. Something that would comfort me.      I receive a message from Facebook and smile. It reminds me of when Hannah would also send me good morning messages every morning and she would tell me what she had dreamed of. Sometimes I did it too if it was just a fun dream, so as not to worry my sister.      And I have this feeling again when I see Sally's message, I have someone to nickname 'Little Sister'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally Good morning Jareth 😊 I was busy with some things and today they have me “kidnapped” all day A classmate's birthday is today and she wants all of us in the class to spend the whole day there, then go to the cinema... 😑 So I'll be out all day, but tomorrow I'll look for Bianca's social media

Jareth Good morning Sally :) Do not worry, we have plans today too. We are going to try to get closer to Paul with Alice's help.

Sally And how will you do it?

Jareth Go to the bar where we met him for the first time.

Sally Aw… I wish I could go with you, it would be more fun

Jareth Sorry, we would not take minors to a bar.

Sally But if you act as a babysitter… Would not be bad…

Jareth Forget it.

Sally Oh come on I was joking Did you really believe it? 😝 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I let out a sigh. The truth is yes, because knowing that she wants to investigate, I see her very capable of getting into trouble for wanting to be here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jareth I do not know when you are joking, if I am honest.

Sally Oh! I get it, there are people who have a hard time catching even sarcasm in text Anyway, have a good Sunday

Jareth Likewise. Have a good time with your friends.

Sally Classmates Ugh… I’ll try 😑 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I startle when I feel weight on my shoulders. Albert laughs loudly after scaring me.     “Who are you talking to so early, Mister Smile?”    "Sally told me that she cannot investigate Bianca today, she is busy" I reply and he sits on the arm of the couch ". Apparently she prefers to come with us to the bar than to her friend's birthday." I replied, leaving the cell phone on the table, throwing it.     “Will there be boys? Do we have to worry about our little girl? " He starts joking and I roll my eyes "Come on Jake, leave that 'big brother' side, I'm sure she'll be fine" I look at him strangely and he lets out a laugh “. Today we all have a day without worrying about research—“     “You know we are going to the bar so Alice can approach a suspect, right? It is not a day of rest.”     "Sometimes you're very boring" he grabs my hood, pulling it over my head to cover me “. I'm going to write to Jeremy, you change, I know you've slept with your clothes on” I hear him walk away as I lower my hood “, I saw you last night when I left the room to go to the bathroom. So, get ready now.”      I get up with a little effort, almost crawling.      I have to listen to him or he will get angry with me. I know it was my idea, but I am not looking forward to going there knowing it was the last thing we did before Katherine disappeared. I just hope it does not happen again tonight.

     The morning passes normally. I wear comfortable clothes and we try to have conversation topics unrelated to the case, about classes, movies or series, anything that makes us feel a little more normal. Although I know it is hard, pretending that everything is fine is difficult.      In the end it is Albert who excuses himself by saying that he is going to study a little after having turned on the television so we can play with the console and see that the news is talking about the case again. It was what made us remember that he was still annoyed.      I am sure we will find something more suspicious about Paul after tonight. Everything indicates that it could have been him.

     At seven there is a knock at the door and I am going to open it. Jeremy was already dressed up, with a slightly uncomfortable expression.     “Hello” he says, almost in a whisper “. I have agreed to come to apologize...”     "Hello, Alice has not come yet." I say, standing aside "How are you?"     “More calm.”      We enter the living room and Albert comes out dressed up. He smiles when he sees Jeremy and offers him his hand to give him a high five.     "Hey, Jer" he greets him with an animated voice ", I'm glad you decided to come in the end."     “How to reject an invitation from you?” Jeremy answers as a question “and I don't want to be angry with you either, so... I'll make the effort to get along with her.”     “Perfect, Ah, Jake! The bathroom is now free, I've finished getting ready.”     "Alright. Albert, explain everything to Jeremy in the meantime." I tell him as I go to the bathroom.      Albert makes a nodding noise in his throat.

     When I finish showering, I look at my reflection. I am a little upset because I almost could not sleep last night and my body still hurts from falling asleep.      I run my hands behind my neck, stretching. It is been a long time since I went running to get rid of all this and I miss it, at least, to be able to remove this tension that accompanies me in those moments when I have been nervous.      I walk out of the bathroom and hear Albert whisper something to Jeremy.      I then hear the sound of the cell phone taking a photo, which makes me turn around quickly.     “Hey Jer, how much do you think girls would pay to get a photo of Jake's tattoo?”     “Let's say a hundred euros?” Jeremy continues the joke.     “Delete that photo, now.” I warn him, feeling my cheeks heat up at his question.     “Nah, I'll pass it on to Katherine when we find her, I'm sure she'll want to see it live after this.”      I try not to get more nervous, but this is supposed to be everyday life, making jokes, not worrying about any crime for a moment.      “I think anyone would want to see it” Jeremy picks up his cell phone, looking at the photo “, you would even be the idol of all the teenage girls, they would have you in their folders.”      I shake my head, erasing that image as I remember Hannah and her confession, then Sally and her jokes. I had connected them too much to separate that image from my head. Discomfort courses through my body, making me nauseous.      I take Jeremy's cell phone easily and delete the photo. I do not want to have those thoughts about any of them.     “The joke is over,” I throw the cell phone at Albert, who lets out a snort.     “Bored…”      I go to the room and begin to remember that night. These are the same steps I took before meeting Katherine.      I take a deep breath and try not to choose the same clothes from that night. I take the opposite colors of that night, I even take out the blue denim jacket. I do not remember the last time I wore it. It shows that I feel comfortable in simple clothes, that I do not need anything flashy.      I receive a chat message.      I was right. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally You win, it was worth accepting [IMG20231010113241] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I let out a long sigh when I saw the photo. It was the poster for the latest Twilight movie in the cinema.     &lt;<I will never understand how they can like those movies.>>      In the photo, her hand was also seen —it looks small because of her clothes— making the peace symbol. Her nails are painted black, matching what she appeared to be wearing a sweatshirt from the look of the sleeve.      Although there was something striking about that sleeve, the brand's red initials could be seen on the side. It looked like the one I gave to that girl, but that would be too much of a coincidence, right? Maybe it is just hers.      I hear them calling me and I put my phone away, completely forgetting the message.

     I leave the room and see them ready to leave.     "Alice is coming, let's go downstairs and wait for her." Albert announces to me.      I approach them and my friend opens the door, grabbing his copy of keys.     “How long have he had her phone number?” Jeremy asks.     "I was also surprised when I found out." I whisper so that Albert does not hear us. I am sure he would get upset again if I said anything about the relationship they have now.      We go down the stairs of the building until we reach the street, where Alice's car parks in front of us.      I take out my phone and check to see if I have any new messages in my email.     “Dude…” Albert punches me in the chest, catching my attention.     “Ow! What is the matter?”      He points his chin at me and I direct my gaze to Alice, who has just gotten out of the car.      I do not see anything special in her. What is it? What is in a dress? What, like us, has been fixed? Because I do not see that it has anything striking. Plus, she has to get Paul's attention, which is what is important.     "Hello guys" Alice approached us, nervous “. Hello Jeremy…”      As I see that Albert is distracted by looking like an idiot at Alice, I give Jeremy a little discreet nudge so he can answer.     "Hello Alice" Jeremy greets a little awkwardly “. I... I want to apologize for how I treated you...” my friend's voice sounds shaky “I thought you could be a problem for us.”     “They've told you about me, right?”     "The truth is that no" I reply, being the one affected ". it's not something-"     "You like to tell, I imagine" she shrugs, uncomfortable “. Well Jeremy, I accept your apology and, I promise you that I will not be a danger and that” now she looks at Albert and me, with an apologetic look “I will do everything possible to help you.”      Albert lets out a laugh, closing his hand into a fist.      Alice looks at him, letting out a laugh, accepting the friendly fist.      I also do the same with her, showing that it is true, since we have met again, she has shown that she has changed. She is no longer that annoying teenager, she learned her lesson because of what she did.      Jeremy sighs and does so with her too.     “Well, we are now a real team” Albert smiles proudly “and so is Sally, even if she is not here.”     "I will let her know." I reply with a smile.     “Well, shall we go now?” Alice points to her car.     "It is better that they do not see us together," I comment, crossing my arms. "If they see us going with you, they will surely be suspicious. You follow us and wait a little for us to enter and then you enter the bar.”     “It feels like a real mission.” Albert says excitedly, walking towards his car.      Alice nods seriously and returns to hers.      Jeremy and I followed Albert. Jeremy lets out a laugh when he sees our friend.      It feels fine one night with no problems.

     When we enter the bar, we see Paul with his friends. I only know Christian and Phil's name. The group is quite loud, but it does not seem like anyone cares.      Albert takes out his cell phone while we sit away from them, avoiding conflicts. While he takes care of telling Alice, Jeremy and I order the usual drinks.     “And what do we hope to achieve with this?” Jeremy asks us, crossing his arms over the table.     "So that Alice can investigate him closely" I answer, leaning a little so that no one can hear us ", if we can find out what types of contacts he has, we may get closer to the 'Master'."     “So you're going to let a normal person and not the police investigate dangerous people?”     “No one in the police knows about that website” Albert explains “, so if we get information, we could take the police to the right place where Katherine is” I nod at his words, still distracted waiting for a new message “. She's coming in.” Albert taps me on the shoulder, warning me.     “Do not draw attention to yourself.” I warn him “. We are just going to watch.”      I sigh nervously and took out my cell phone when I hear the notification sound. I did not think I would get another photo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally I'm screaming! What baby is this?! [IMG20231025124038] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     The truth is that I do not know much about the plot, but when I see the photo of the movie, I cannot help but laugh. Is this really what you like?     "What's fun, Jake?" Albert asks me, before drinking.     “Sally gave me a photo of the latest Twilight movie.” I show him the photo and he almost chokes on his beer.     “What an ugly thing. How did those movies become popular?”     "They're not that bad" Jeremy answers “. Just because you don't like romantic movies, doesn't mean they're bad.”     "Hey, I don't have a problem with romantic movies" Albert points out, frowning. Although I know he is not really angry “, with this saga alone, they make vampires look ridiculous.”     "I would give my opinion, but I have not seen a single one of them." I tell them while shrugging my shoulders.     “You got away for The best” my best friend taps me on the shoulder “, the protagonist is not interesting at all and the vampire is a stalker.”     “You're exaggerating, Albert” Jeremy rolls his eyes “, just because you don't understand.”     “Believe me, I understood it correctly: everyone is idiots.”      Who would have thought that I would be talking to my friends, in a bar, about a teen movie?

     We watch as Paul approaches Alice's table and they begin to talk. We stay at our table, attentive in case things get complicated, but continuing with our conversations.      I can see both Albert and Jeremy nervous, when they look surreptitiously. Albert knows everything Paul did in the past, so I understand why he cares about Alice.

     I feel like time passes slowly, but the interaction between Alice and Paul seems to be going well.      We see Paul get up from the bar, and head to the bathrooms, leaving Alice alone.      One of Paul’s friends, Phil, approaches her, sitting next to her.     "Shit" I hear Albert mutter under his breath when we see the guy getting too close to her ", this isn't good."      At one point, Phil slowly caresses Alice's arm and she pushes him away a little roughly, and then he laughs as he approaches her face. We hear Alice tell him to leave her alone.     “I don't like this.” Albert stands up, forcefully pushing the chair back, striding away.     “Wait Al!” I exclaim under my breath, following him.     "Great..." I hear Jeremy say, following me.      We get to the bar and Al pulls Phil away by his jacket.      Alice looks at me nervously and I signal for her to stay calm.     “And what the hell is wrong with you, asshole?” Phil pushes him, offended.     “She told you no, or haven't you heard?” Albert responds to his push with another.     “Al, stay out of trouble.” I warn him, knowing it is not in his best interest because of the police and their investigation.     "That's it Al, listen to your boyfriend" Phil laughs at us, taking out a cigarette, ", leave me with the woman and go to a corner to fuck, will you?"     “ ‘Leave me with the woman’?” Alice gets up from the stool offended “But who do you think you are, asshole?!”     “No, leave it to me.” Albert pushes her away, thus preventing Phil from doing anything to her.     “And what are you going to do?” The idiot of Phil blows smoke to the side, with a stupid smile on his face “You weren't able to fuck Bianca, I don't think you can fuck this one either, but don't worry, I'm an expert, your mother reminded me last night.”      With those words, Albert punches Phil, which draws people's attention.      Phil puts his hand to his face, his nose is bleeding. He raises his fist to hit him, but… Albert dodges him and the punch in the eye ends up in my face.      I put a hand to my face, feeling sore. I had never gotten into a fistfight, to be honest.      I really cannot stand this guy.      I was going to push him to the ground, but Albert beats me to it and they start fighting each other.     “Albert, stop! Stop!” Both Alice and Jeremy shout, trying to separate them.      I join them and we manage to separate them.      Phil’s friends also separate him fro my friend, because he keeps trying to throw himself at Albert, wanting to hit him again.     “Let me go!” He exclaims furiously “Let me at least beat up this bastard and take his bitch away!”     “Well, let finish this!” Alice takes off her heel, ready to throw it at him.      I see how a hand stops her and we all turn to look.      Officer Connors with two other police officers with them.     “They called us because there were riots.” he tells us with a cold voice. I can tell he is disappointed in us.      Great.

     They took us to the police station and put us in a cell to, according to Connors, calm us down.      They have given us some ice packs to reduce the swelling from the blows.      Well, except Jeremy, he is the only one he have not touched and Alice is talking to Connors, explaining what happened. I guess since it was not on her work schedule, I do not think they are going to fire her.     “Are you Ok?” Albert asks me, almost unable to speak because of the hit that Phil had put on his lip.     "Perfectly." I reply, raising my thumb.     “As soon as we get out of these cells, you're going to die.” we hear Phil in the next cell say.     “Shut up now!” Albert shouts at him.      We hear the click of heels and Jeremy, who has been quiet since we were put in the cell, stands up and looks through the bars.     "Philip Hawkins!" We sat up scared at that feminine scream “You're going to return to Duskwood on the first train in the morning!”     "It's Angelica Hawkins." Jeremy whispers.     “Who?”I raise an eyebrow, confused.     "She's in her last year of college." Albert also whispers back to me.     “And having to see Jessy every day? I pass, I stay here—“     “No! It's over! You will come back and help in the house! I can't keep you out of your problems forever! I may be your sister, but I can't always be saving your ass!”      Albert covers his mouth, laughing. And I cannot help but smile when I hear how his sister tells him off.      We listen to them open the cell next door and wait for them to say something while we listen to Phil and his sister leave.

     After a few minutes, Agent Connors opens the door to our cell and sighs, looking at us with disappointment.     “Didn't you guys have to stay away from problems?” He tells us angrily “You're lucky that Alice said that you defended her, If not, I think you would be arrested right now for causing a disturbance at the bar.”      I hang my head, unable to look him in the eyes. I feel quite guilty about his words, because there is partly a story behind why we were there.      Alice peeks out from behind him, smiling at us.     “Although Mister Fisher, you're going to have to come to the interrogation room so we can talk about what happened.”      Albert nods, getting up from the bench.     "You guys go back home, I'll take him later" Alice says, motioning with her head as if to indicate Albert “. Thanks for wanting to defend me, guys.”     "You're welcome, Alice" Albert tells her with a smile and then looks at us ", we'll see you later."     "Sure." I say with a small smile, so that it does not show that I am nervous.     "We promise not to cause any more problems." I notice Jeremy's voice shake.      I can understand, it is the first time we have been stopped.      We leave the cell and Connors stops me. I feel uncomfortable, it is like he is questioning me with his eyes.     “It's a coincidence that you were at the bar on the same day as Paul Bailey.”      I swallow a little nervously. I think he must know we are hiding something.     “We just wanted to have fun one night.” I reply, trying not to sound suspicious.     “I hope so...”      I can tell he is hesitant by the look he gives me. Has he noticed that I am lying? Does he know I am hiding something? There is no way he can tell just by looking at me.     He lets go of my shoulder, walking away from me.     "Good night guys" he signals to Albert and Alice “. Come on, we have to talk.”      Albert waves goodbye and Alice moves her hand slowly.      A police officer escorts us to the civilian parking lots, where they have taken our car and gives us the keys.

     We get into the car and I start driving to Jeremy's house, who is still silent.     “Do you think the university will find out about this?” I ask him, trying to start a conversation with him.      I glance at him quickly, seeing that he is looking out the car window, distracted.     “Jeremy?”     “What?” he asks me nervously.     “Is everything alright?”     "I'm... a little tired" he answers slowly “. Being in the police station has exhausted me, too much stress.”     "I agree" I nod without taking my eyes off the road ", for a moment I thought they were really going to arrest us."      He makes a sound in his throat, agreeing with me.     “Jake?”     “What is?”     “I…”      I stay silent during the ride, waiting for Jeremy to say something. But he remains silent.      It is been a hard night, I know.

     When I get home, I went straight to my room, taking off my shoes and lying on the bed, covering my face with my hands.      I wonder if after tonight we will be more suspicious than before.      Sally sends me a message and I pick up my cell phone to look at it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally What a perfect ending! ❤️ I have even cried and I hardly cry in movies

Jareth Good for you :) Although I will never understand them.

Sally Well you should In the future you can find the woman of your dreams and she likes the saga You’re going to have to put up with it, hehe

Jareth Only if she can stand watching the Star Wars movies.

Sally Nerd 😝

Jareth And with great honor :P

Sally And? How was your night? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I put a hand to my eye, still a little sore. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jareth Let us say… I do not think I will stop by the bar for a while.

Sally What happened?

Jareth A fight. Albert defended Alice and when he dodged a blow, I received it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I wait for Sally to answer, because I notice something is wrong.

     When she does, I roll my eyes at her response. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally I’m sorry! I was laughing! It’s just that it’s hard for me to imagine a geek like you getting into bar fights!

Jareth Very funny. Well, you do not know how much it hurt, he hit hard.

Sally Did he hit you that hard?

Jareth Yes. But at least it does not hurt as much anymore.

Sally Are you at least okay? Have you been seen by a doctor if you broke something?

Jareth Enough with the jokes.

Sally I'm not kidding, I really care 🙁 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I wonder if she is serious or still joking because she put that emoji. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jareth It is true what you say?

Sally Of course! So… Are you okay?

Jareth Yes, thanks for caring. :)

Sally I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you because of me. At the end of the day, I’m asking you to do the research for me 🙁

Jareth It is my choice. And your desire to investigate is more dangerous than mine.

Sally I like to be able to observe everything And what about the police? Kind?

Jareth Agent Connors is the one who came to arrest us.

Sally You're lucky it was him

Jareth Why is that?

Sally Because if you’re already home, it means he knows you didn’t have any bad intentions He knows perfectly well when a person is good 😄 And he may have liked you, hehe

Jareth I have already noticed. He is a great man :)

Sally 😊 Just don’t behave like a suspect and everything will be fine with him. You might even become good friends 😉

Jareth I will heed your advice ;)

Sally He he 😄 And who hit you? Was it Paul? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     I was going to answer her and I am surprised when there is a knock on the door. If it were Albert, he would have opened it.      I apologize to Sally for a moment and get out of bed to go to the entrance.

     I look through the peephole and see Jeremy, hugging himself.      I open the door and see that he is crying. He had never seen him like this.     “Jake…”     “What— Jeremy, What is wrong?” I ask scared, since I had left him in his house.     "I..." He is pale, as if he had seen something that scared him "Albert wasn't the last person to see Bianca... It was me."

Chapter 10