#not perfectionist as in like 'wow its perfect now!' but as in i have to tear apart every flaw of a drawing until im left with scraps | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ah-ga-seven · 3 years

Text

Till The End of Summer - Chapter 15 (Bonus: The End)

>> series masterlist <<

Pairing: Choi Yeonjun x Reader

In a Nutshell: College!AU, Rich Kids, Friends to Lovers, Fuckboy athlete Yeonjun, Overprotective Best friend Soobin, contains all of TXT and other Idol cameos, Omnipresent perspective.

Genre: Fluff, Angst.

Synopsis: You and Yeonjun are caught up in a cat and mouse game because of unspoken feelings and endless pining for each others’ attention. With the summer break approaching and lots of college parties, will you finally get a chance to explore your feelings for each other; even though the world, Yeonjun’s family, past and reputation makes things complicated?

Word count: 7K

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Warnings: None??

Yeonjun was following you around the house like a lost puppy as you were running around like a crazy person, gathering stuff you needed while you were half-dressed and half ready to leave the house.

“Baby, slow down,” he says as he zipped up your dress from the back while you were putting on your heels.

“No, we’re gonna be late for our best friends' wedding. Ugh, I knew we shouldn’t have showered together, that always ends with dickstractions.”

Yeonjun stopped in his tracks, unable to suppress his laughter. “Did you just say dickstrations?”

You turn around on your heels, a little startled at how close he was. You hadn’t looked at him since he changed into his suit and suddenly you feel your mouth grow dry at the sight.

He noticed how you were gawking at him and grinned, holding you by your waist. “Like what you see?” he asks all seductively, running his hands through his roughly slicked-back black locks. He looked ravishing, even better than the runway models of his own fashion shows.

You nod, biting your lip as he inches closer for a kiss, but you stop him as realization hits you. “Babe no, my make-up.”

He rolled his eyes, letting go of you so you could finish getting ready, and sat down on your king-sized bed, watching you put on the diamond choker necklace he got you for Christmas last year.

“I can’t believe they’re getting married,” he mumbles as he stares into distance.

“That’s usually what happens when you get engaged, babe.”

Your tone was a little bitchier than you intended, but after 5 years of being together while all of your friends were getting married left and right, you had no idea why you hadn’t been proposed to yet.

The thing is, between Yeonjun starting his own luxury fashion brand and your demanding job at a scientific research facility, you haven’t had the time to even think about having a wedding of your own, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want one.

Yeonjun looked at you a little puzzled and just as he was going to open his mouth to speak, his phone started to ring.

You looked at him through the mirror as you put your diamond earrings on and by the frown that had taken over his features you knew it had to be work.

He picked up with a sigh. “I thought I told you not to call me today unless it was an emergency, so this better be good.”

Yeonjun as a businessman was a full 360 from who he was at home or with his friends. It’s not like he was an asshole but…the reason why his brand got to showcase its creations next to majors like Balenciaga and Céline so quickly wasn’t because of his soft side.

You make eye contact and you raise your brow in question, but he just silently mouthed that it was work as he opened your bedroom door.

He walked out, not wanting you to hear him rant to his employees about some fuck up on their side.

You quietly put your lipstick in your clutch as you hear him close his office door behind him. Well shit. It must be bad if he doesn't want you to hear.

You hoped that whatever it was wouldn’t spoil the mood.

You fix a piece of Yeonjun’s hair as he’s driving and pout. He was stressed and nervous, you could tell by the way he was biting the inside of his cheek. he was Soobin’s best man, and you were Mia’s maid of honor; so, you were heading there earlier to welcome the guests and help them wherever you could.

“Are you nervous baby?” you ask as you intertwine your fingers with his.

He sighs, raising your intertwined hand to his plump lips to give the back of your hand a sweet kiss before putting both of your hands in his lap. “I have so many responsibilities tonight, I thought weddings were supposed to be fun,” he mumbles, anxiety evident in his voice.

Yeonjun is a perfectionist, so everything had to go perfect today. And given the fact that he had quite the role to uphold tonight, if anything were to be less than perfect, he’d be to blame.

At least that’s how he sees it.

After all these years Yeonjun is still hard on himself, but since it comes from a place of love for Soobin and Mia his perfectionism is even worse.

“It’ll be funnnn” you drag your words as you shake his shoulder to get him to lighten up and it seemed to work as he displayed his pearly whites to you in a boyish smile.

When you arrive at the venue, you’re in complete awe of how beautifully the place was decorated.

White flower walls and branches were set up throughout the place, they had starlight projectors, big round tables for their guests and the stage was beautifully decorated with polaroid pictures of them and their loved ones.

It was breathtaking and absolutely adorable. From the details of the engraved silverware to all the guests' names on their respective champagne glasses, they literally thought of everything.

You excitedly look around as you hold on to Yeonjun's arm as you drag him around the empty venue. “Oh my god, and this! They’re polaroids from our college days look!” you point at one of the pictures on the flower wall in front of you and Yeonjun leans forward to look at the group picture of the boys, Mia and yourself.

“This was at my welcome home party, look. I’m knocked out on your lap.” You giggle excitedly and start looking at the other pictures with childlike enthusiasm and suddenly Yeonjun finds himself simping over how cute you are right now.

He looked around him and noticed how a few staff members were fixing some flower arrangements or plates without minding the two of you, which gave him the perfect reason to be clingy.

“You look so beautiful,” he says as he snakes his arms around your waist from behind, leaning his head on your shoulder.

You’re surprised by his sudden display of affection and try to turn around but he holds you in place as he softly kisses your neck.

“Yeonjun, stop. I swear if you leave a hickey, I’ll kill you. Both of our parents are coming.”

He smiles against your skin. “We’re adults.”

“No, I’m the adult, you’re a man child” you argue with a smile and he let out an amused chuckle, reluctantly letting go of you.

“Fine. Just wait till we get home.” He threatens as he casually smacks your ass.

Your moment was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat and when you turn around you are met with Soobin’s tall and handsome form.

He was wearing the white suit Yeonjun designed for him, his hair was slicked back and he had the prettiest smile on his face as he laid eyes on both of you.

“Soobin!” you yell as you launch forward to hug him. He stumbled a step back and chuckled as you hold him at an arm's length. “Wow, you clean up nicely. You look great! So handsome.” You compliment him with a wink and he smiles at you all giddily. “Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself.”

“Ok, enough doting on each other,” Yeonjun says rolling his eyes as he pulls you back so you’d stand next to him again. The action made both Soobin and yourself burst out into laughter.

“What are you jealous of, I’m literally getting married.’ Soobin boasts all confidently as he wraps an arm around Yeonjun. “I’m jealous that no one’s complimenting me.” Yeonjun pouts and your eyes nearly roll out of your skull as you hear Soobin trying to heal Yeonjun’s ego with compliments.

You softly knock on the door before you peek your head through and make eye contact with Mia through the full body mirror she was facing. Her parents were next to her as well as her brother and her make-up artist.

You both look at each other with shocked facial expressions and when you lock eyes with her, you immediately start to tear up.

She looked beautiful. The strapless lace mermaid gown she was wearing was absolutely show-stopping. Her hair was down, long and wavy, and her make-up was also flawless. You had never seen her like this, and suddenly it hit you that two of your best friends were getting married to each other.

“Mia…” your voice was almost inaudible and when she turned around to see the tears in your eyes, she started to choke up as well.

“Shit, no. Don’t make me cry, my face will melt,” she says as she starts waving her hands to fan herself and the two of you start to giggle as you move closer to embrace her carefully without ruining her attire.

You greet her family before they left to give you a moment alone and turn to her again once they left.

“How does Soobin look?” she asks all excitedly. They hadn’t seen each other today and looking at Mia you were sure that Soobin would start crying once he saw her. “Almost as pretty as you do,” you joke as you walk to the small window of her dressing room that had a view of the main entrance.

“Are you nervous?”

The place was already getting packed with friends and family, and you spotted the table you’d be seated at, seeing that the boys and their partners were already there.

“Nah, well maybe a little. I’m sure the nerves will go away once I look in his eyes.”

You pout at her cute statement and look at the clock. “Half an hour till showtime.”

“Oh, shit. Well, I have to get going. I’m taking some pictures with my family before the ceremony, I’ll see you in a bit!”

You nod at her with a smile as she rushes out of her dressing room and make your way down the stairs. You were scanning the halls for Yeonjun but couldn’t find him or the boys when you swore you just saw them.

Your parents would arrive any minute now too, so your mind was in overdrive trying to find any familiar face at this point. You decide to just make your way to your table but halfway there you felt a slight tug on your wrist.

“Y/n? Is that you?”

You turn around a little bewildered because you were so focused on finding either Yeonjun, your friends, or your parents but when you see the man in front of you, you almost want to disappear.

It’s your fucking ex-boyfriend. Of course, he’d be here, he’s Soobin’s cousin.

You try not to look too startled but when he goes in for the hug you can’t hide your shock at seeing him again after all this time. “Minjae?”

“The one and only.”

Ew. He’s still smug. What did you even see in him?

You look around quickly to find an excuse to leave but everyone was still missing from your assigned table.

“Can I just say, you look gorgeous. Red is your color,” he states while biting his lip as he looks you up and down. The action made you awkwardly scratch your neck in response. “Uhm, thanks.”

“Why are you alone?” he asks as he bit his lip, unapologetically looking you up and down.

“Oh, I can’t find my boyfriend, I think he went to prepare something with his friends.” You made sure to mention that you were seeing someone and that that particular someone was here with you right now, but Minjae didn’t seem to be fazed by the information

Your relationship ended on bad terms since he cheated and you. You left for college right after your breakup so you never really got closure, of course, you had to run into him here. Just your fucking luck.

“Hmm, is he in his right mind leaving a pretty girl like you all by herself out here?” he asks with a smirk while you try your best not to gag.

If you could tell him off, you would. But the last thing you wanted was to cause a scene at your best friends’ wedding.

“Uhm, I think I’m gonna go find him.” You try to escape but Minjae follows your figure and stops you from walking away by standing in front of you again.

“Wow wow, not so fast sweetheart, let’s catch up.” He caresses your upper arm and you flinch at the contact, subtly avoiding his touch.

“I know we didn’t end things on great terms but I’m a changed man, I swear,” he says as he takes a step closer. He was trying to intimidate you and clearly wasn’t fazed by the fact that people were passing by the two of you left and right as it started to get busier and busier while you only got more and more uncomfortable by his presence.

“Yeah…that’s nice Minjae but I-”

“and I mean, how serious could that relationship of yours be? I don’t see a ring on your finger.” He interrupts you, wiggling his fingers around to show that he wasn’t wearing one either.

You’re at a loss for words and just about had it. The audacity?

Soobin always hated Minjae, and now you are starting to understand why.

“Do you see the man on her arm?” Yeonjun’s voice was crystal clear.

He showed up out of nowhere, grabbing your hand to snake around his arm as he nonchalantly put his hand in his pocket while he looked Minjae dead in the eye with a stoic expression.

You cling onto him, relieved that he showed up. He checked on you quickly but when he saw the distress in your enlarged pupils his jaw clenched.

“Was he bothering you?”

Yeonjun didn’t give a shit. People were starting to look your way, including Soobin and his parents.

“I-”

“Oh, wait. You’re Choi Yeonjun, right? That designer.” Once again you are cut off by Minjae, and Yeonjun wasn’t having it, rolling his eyes as annoyance got the best of him.

“Yes. I’m surprised you know of my brand. Looking at your H&M suit I wouldn’t guess you could afford it.” Yeonjun says with a smug grin and all you can do is snort at his comment.

Minjae stiffened, not expecting Yeonjun to come for his throat like that but he tried to act nonchalantly; laughing it away.

“I-it’s Zara.” Minjae tries, but Yeonjun licked his lip as he looked down with a smirk. He pulled you into him and placed a kiss on top of your head. “Let’s get going baby. Soobin needs us to be ready.”

Yeonjun placed his hand on the small of your back to guide you to where Soobin was standing and you finally start to breathe normally again.

“Who the fuck was that?” Yeonjun asks visibly annoyed.

“Choi Minjae. I used to date him in high school,” You explain in a hushed tone as you make your way through the venue.

“Choi as in Soobin?” he asks wide-eyed

“Yes, they’re cousins.”

Yeonjun stayed quiet but you knew this would be a topic of discussion later on.

He wiped the annoyed scowl off his face as he approached Soobin and replaced it with a smile.

“What was that about?” Soobin asks as he turns to the two of you.

“Just Minjae being a dick. What else is new,” You sigh, making Soobin clench his jaw as he eyes Minjae who had by now sat down next to Soobin’s aunt and uncle at their assigned seats.

“It’s ok, Yeonjun told him off he won’t try it again. What’s a wedding without a little family drama am I right?” you try to calm Soobin’s protective side down a little, but even after all these years, nothing has changed in that aspect.

“He’s the ex that cheated on you right?” Yeonjun asked and you nod, giving him a look. “Let’s just let it go ok, the ceremony is about to start.”

Your attention is shifted to Hueningkai, who hugged Soobin from the back, making Soobin jump at the sudden attack. “Hiiii” he cooed as he rubbed his belly.

Soobin and Yeonjun start beaming at him and you watch them have their moment until he turns to you for a hug. “Hi babyface,” you tease, making Hueningkai cringe.

“Stop calling me that, I’m 25,” he complains, but he secretly loves it and before you knew it you were joined by Beomgyu and Taehyun.

It wasn’t long before the ceremony would start. Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Hueningkai stood on Soobin’s side of the altar, and you stood on Mia’s side with Ryujin and some of Mia’s childhood friends and cousins.

As both yourself and Yeonjun were appointed as maid of honor and best man, you stood in the front. Yeonjun stood with his head held high, eyeing you and giving you a mischievous wink as you made eye contact. You winked back with a smile which made him chuckle and look down to control his facial expressions.

When you look out on the crowd you make eye contact with your dad who was shaking his head with amusement at how childish the two of you were being and suddenly embarrassment flushes over you, especially when you saw that Yeonjun’s mother had the exact same expression on her face as she was seated next to your parents. A sight you could never get used to.

The music started to play, all of the guests stood up simultaneously and the large white double doors at the entrance opened to show Mia holding on to her fathers’ arm. People started to cheer including yourself and the boys, and without much time Soobin was already choking up and biting his lip to suppress tears.

Yeonjun looked at Soobin with glistening eyes, patting his shoulder to show comfort as Mia approached.

It was beautiful. All of it. From their vows to their first kiss as husband and wife, it was like a scene out of a movie. The pure happiness you felt for your friends was almost overwhelming and after congratulating the newlywed couple and dinner with soppy speeches by the boys, yourself and their parents it was finally time to party.

You helped Mia change into something more comfortable in her dressing room and sighed as you looked at her. “How does it feel to be married?” you ask with a smirk, which Mia reciprocated. “Not much is different, other than the fact that I can call him my husband.”

“Must be nice, I’m in my late twenties and still call Yeonjun my boyfriend. It’s getting weird. The questions of people around me are even worse.”

“Like what?”

“Why aren’t you married, don’t you wanna settle down? Are the two of you in an open relationship, are you sure he’s not cheating on you? The list goes on.”

Mia’s face contorted from confusion to disgust. “Who the fuck says that.”

“My co-workers.” You huff. “But enough about me, I’m sorry. This is your day.” You try to laugh it off, but Mia is a literal psychologist, so she wouldn’t just let this go.

“Hmm, no. The dance floor can wait,” she says as she sat down on the couch, patting the empty spot beside her to tell you to sit down.

You try to protest but she grabs your wrist and pulls you down with her, making you look her in the eye.

“Have the two of you talked about marriage?”

“Yes and No.”

“Does he know you wanna get married?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, then…why hasn’t he asked.”

“Girl, you tell me.” You sigh. “Do you think he’s having second thoughts? With his brand and the people he’s around, they're a different caliber of gorgeous.”

“Y/n.” Mia scoffs. “Yeonjun would die without you, and you know he isn’t that shallow. He loves you more than anything. He still looks at you the way he looked at you in college. Just talk to him…”

“And say what? Hey dude, why haven’t you proposed to me yet?”

“…yeah.” She shrugged, not getting why you wouldn’t just talk to him about it but you honestly didn’t know how to bring up the conversation. If you both talked about it and he proposed somewhere in the future, it’d mean that he did it because you wanted him to and not because he wanted to.

“I can’t do that; my pride is in the way.” You explain giving her the short answer to your thoughts.

“I can talk to him.”

“No Mia, please. No.”

“Ah, come on. I won’t make it obvious; you know me.”

Mia plopped herself down on the seat next to Yeonjun.

“So, when are you two getting married?” she says without a filter, making you choke on your drink. You had fire spewing from your pupils as you look at her, mouthing a ‘bitch what the fuck’ to her which she just shrugged off, turning her attention to Yeonjun.

“Uhm…” Yeonjun chugged his champagne in one shot and bit the inside of his cheek.

Shit.. he only does that when he’s nervous about something.

“I mean, we haven’t really had the time. Our jobs are too demanding right now.” He explains with a soft smile, hoping that Mia would leave him alone about it, but he knew better.

You awkwardly shift in your seat and wanted to avert the conversation, but the other boys were already busting it down on the dance floor with Soobin, meaning the three of you were alone.

Yeonjun looked at you and noticed that you weren’t looking at him or Mia and sighed.

“I don’t know, the whole concept of marriage is kinda outdated right? I mean no offense of course. You just got married.” He gave Mia one of his hypnotizing smiles but if you heard that right then that was the confirmation you needed. He got up, kissing the top of your head. “You coming to dance with me?” he asked innocently but you just shook your head.

He isn’t planning on proposing to you. Not now, not ever.

“I’m sitting this one out.”

Yeonjun nodded understandably and walked towards his friends, making a dumbfounded Mia look at you with concern.

“….He…thinks it’s lame?” Mia says confused as ever.

“I don’t know Mia, I’ll just let it go for now.”

“No, listen to me y/n. If this is what you want for your future, then you have to let him know. Otherwise, he’ll never get it. You don’t want to have to explain to your kids why daddy never married mommy.”

You sigh loudly, slouching in your seat while rubbing your forehead. “Wait,” Mia says. “He does want to have kids, right?”

“Yes, he does.”

“Ok…at least you have that in common.” She tries to joke to lighten the mood but you glared at her.

“Mia…”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I know it’s not funny.” She shrugged, holding out her hand. “Wanna go dance?”

“No, I’m gonna look for my parents and Yeonjun’s mom.” You say looking around to find them.

Mia pouted at your rejection but she understood that you weren’t in the mood right now. “I expect at least one dance with my best friend, ok?” she pouted at you and you give her a weak-hearted smile.

“Ok, I promise. But later, ok?”

She nods and you both get up as you part ways.

Yeonjun kept an eye on you and frowned when Mia approached without you.

“Where is she going?” he asked as he looked at Mia. “To say hi to her parents and your mom.”

Soobin wrapped an arm around Mia’s waist and pulled her into him with a twirl. “There’s my lovely wife,” he says as he pecks her lips.

“Oh, Jesus.” Taehyun says shaking his head. “We’ve entered a new era.”

“Let them be, they just got married.” Beomgyu chuckled as he swayed to the beat with Ryujin’s arms wrapped around his neck.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of calling you, my husband.” Mia says with a laugh as she threw her head back in laughter as Soobin attacked her with kisses, and suddenly the puzzle pieces fell into place for Yeonjun at the sight.

The realization took over his features and he was immediately alarmed.

“I’m gonna go find y/n.” he says without looking back at his friends before he storms off to find you.

“What do we do now?” Hueningkai asks in confusion.

“What was planned,” Mia says shrugging her shoulders.

Yeonjun arrived at the table both of your parents were seated at, but you were nowhere to be found.

“Hey dad, have you seen y/n?” Yeonjun asks putting a hand on your father’s shoulder.

Your dad looked up at him with a smile and shrugged. “Haven’t seen her kid.”

“She went that way.” Yeonjun’s mother says pointing to the main entrance.

Yeonjun nodded and wanted to bolt off into your direction but your mother stopped him. “Everything ok?”

“Y-yeah, I just need to tell her something,” he says as he rushed off.

The three of them follow Yeonjun with their eyes in confusion while his mother lets out an exasperated sigh.

“I hope it’s not serious.” Your dad says raising an eyebrow.

“Knowing my son, it’s serious.” She states as she downs her champagne, grabbing another one of the waiters’ tray swiftly as they passed by.

Yeonjun made his way outside of the venue. The sun had set and it was chilly out; making him worry even more because if you were out here, you’d probably be freezing.

He walked around the perimeter of the venue and stopped in his tracks when he saw you sitting alone on the steps, looking out on the lake with a wine glass in your hand.

He sighed as he watched you take a sip while you were lost in deep thought and took off the blazer to his suit as he approached you.

He draped it over your shoulders, startling you in the process but when you look up at him you instantly relax.

He sat down next to you with a low groan, taking the wine glass from your hold while taking a sip.

“That’s mine.” You try to sound playful but your tone of voice sounded rather sad, making him sigh while putting the wine glass down next to him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you want to get married?” He asks as he stares into what seems like your soul. It made you feel incredibly vulnerable and small.

“What did Mia say to you?”

“Nothing. It clicked to me when you walked off and then she called Soobin her husband and it just…”

He cut himself off as you avoided eye contact and closed his mouth with a slight pout.

“Baby…tell me.”

“Nothing I say will make sense to you,” you say with a bitter smile as you stare at the fountain in the middle of the lake. Your eyes fixated on the lights that changed color and your vision got blurry.

“Try me.” He says as he put his hand on your thigh but you stiffened at his touch, which made him frown. Having had enough of your vagueness he laced his fingers through your hair and made you look at him.

His sweet demeanor had shifted to a sterner one. He wanted answers, even if you thought they wouldn’t make sense.

He cocked his eyebrow and licked his lips, waiting for you to speak.

“Yes, I do, but I…” you take a deep breath to collect your thoughts and start rambling.

“Of course I want to get married to you Yeonjun. It’s been five years. Incredible years at that, but as time passes, I want to be able to call you my husband. I’ll be 80 years old with grandchildren and a boyfriend, and call me old-fashioned but that’s not exactly how I pictured my life to be.”

He pursed his lips together as he listened to you attentively, furrowing his eyebrows a little to understand.

“Yeonjun. If I have to tell you that I want to get married, then you’d only propose to me because I basically told you to do so and I don’t want that. I don’t want you to do something because you feel like you have to. If the thought never crossed your mind, then…that says enough”

“Y/n…I’m sorry. I just never thought that-”

“It’s ok. I’ll get over it.” You say interrupting him.

“No. Baby, hear me out.” He made you look at him again. “You have to realize that the only example of a marriage I ever had was the one my parents were in. They hated each other. Married out of a business agreement and stayed together because a piece of paper tied them together. I don’t want that for us.”

“Yeonjun, we’re nothing like your parents ever were.”

He wasn’t helping his case with that comment. You took his hand off of your cheek and reached over for your wine glass, taking a sip once you retrieved it.

Yeonjun’s eyes were darting back and forth, trying to find the right thing to say but he knew that nothing he’d say right now would make a difference.

“I’m sorry…” Yeonjun says with sadness. He looked like a lost puppy. Truly unable to grasp why you were so upset about this, and honestly you had enough of trying to explain to him why marriage was so important to you.

Your parents were the perfect example of a successful marriage, and all you wanted was something as genuine as their love.

“Can we just talk at home? I don’t want to spoil the mood for our friends. They must be wondering where we are.”

He sighed, rubbing his forehead in agony. He watched you get up and jolted upwards in lightning speed to match your tempo.

“I don’t want to go back in there like this, we need to talk about this somehow.”

“We just did Yeonjun. I want to get married, you don’t, and last time I checked I can’t marry myself so I’m just gonna have to deal with it.”

“Y/n..”

By now you had arrived at the entrance. You downed your drink and set the empty glass down on a random tray and waltzed inside of the ballroom with big strides.

“Hey bitch, catch!” Mia yells as she throws you her bouquet.

You hadn’t even noticed how the music stopped and look at her wide-eyed. What the hell was she thinking? Wasn’t the look of thunder on your face enough of a hint that you weren’t in for her jokes right now.

You look back and Yeonjun somehow disappeared from your line of sight, making you even more confused and annoyed than you already were.

“Mia, what the hell.” You furrow your eyebrows at her and notice how suddenly all eyes were on you.

People were standing in a circle and most of the tables were set aside to create the space that you were now standing in the middle of right now.

Soobin smiled at you, he wrapped his arm around Mia’s shoulder, pulling her into him as his eyes disappeared into crescent moons. He watched your eyes widen as Tae, Gyu and Kai approached you. Tae covered your eyes as Beomgyu and Hueningkai sat you down on a random chair they brought with them.

What the fuck was going on?

- Before the wedding -

“I can’t believe they’re getting married,” he mumbles as he stares into distance.

“That’s usually what happens when you get engaged, babe.”

Yeonjun looked up at you in surprise as you were looking at him through the mirror while putting on your earrings.

Are you on to him? He dumbfoundedly stared back at you, trying to find the right words to avert your attention to a different topic but then his phone started to ring.

It was Soobin.

His eyes widened. Lying wasn’t something he was good at, but he didn’t want you to catch on.

He picked up with a sigh. “I thought I told you not to call me today unless it was an emergency, so this better be good.”

He looked at you, mouthing to you that it was a work thing as he disappeared from your shared bedroom and into his home office.

He closed the door behind him, pacing back and forth.

“Sorry, y/n was in the room,” Yeonjun says with a relieved sigh.

“Is she suspecting anything?” Soobin asks a little worried.

“No, at least I don’t think so.”

“Good. We planned this for way too long for it to be ruined. Everything is set up. She won’t know what’s coming for her.”

Yeonjun smiled, retrieving the square box from his back pocket as he opened it, staring at the 12-carat diamond ring in its case.

“I hope so.”

As Taehyun removed his hands from your line of sight a still image was projected on the wall in front of you.

You blink a couple of times to look around and see how Mia and Soobin were giddily smiling at you. You give the boys a look but they just laughed it off, motioning you to look at the monitor, and that’s when the video started playing.

It was a full timeline of your relationship with Yeonjun, videos and pictures of your college days, videos of yourself and Yeonjun decorating the house for Christmas, family dinners, important milestones; he documented all of it.

Deep down inside you knew what was about to happen but after everything that just went down, it was incredibly hard to believe.

You're entranced by what you were seeing, completely frozen and in shock to even move until the video cut to a clip of Soobin and yourself as kids, you guessed you were about 5 years old at the time.

Little Soobin and yourself were having a pretend wedding ceremony, making everyone in the room swoon and chuckle.

You still remembered this day clearly. You made Soobin dress up with you and play house but 5-year-old you came to the genius realization that in order to play house, you’d have to get married first.

Your eyes started to water at the sight, and then your dad who was behind the camera cleared his throat in the video.

“Soobin, are you going to marry y/n when you’re older?” he asks panning the camcorder around to show that both of your moms were present too.

“Ew dad, no.” you crossed your tiny arms over each other and gave Soobin a grossed out glare.

“No, probably not.” Soobin agreed too as he shrugged his shoulders.

“But when I do get married, I’ll make sure y/n gets married too.” He says with a small lisp, determination evident on his features as he pursed his lips together to show off his dimples.

Your parents started to laugh in the clip. “That’s not how it works Soobin.”

“Yes it is!” little you agreed with Soobin, linking arms with him as you stared straight into the camera.

“Let’s pinky promise.” You grinned at him, linking your tiny pinky with his. “Promise!”

The video stopped and you wiped a tear from your face as you give both Mia and Soobin a sentimental smile. Beomgyu helped you stand up and ran off to stand next to the others, who were by now joined by your parents and Yeonjun’s mother.

Both yours and Yeonjun’s favorite song started to play softly, and you turn around to see where it was coming from as Daniel Caesars' voice rang through the speakers.

‘Through drought and famine’

‘Natural disasters’

‘My baby has been around, for me.’

You were met with Yeonjun’s charming smile as he walked closer to you, taking your hands to lace his fingers with yours.

“What is all this…” you look at him with watery eyes,

“Aren’t you going to keep the promise you made to Soobin?”

He smiled at you as he let go of one hand, taking a tiny black velvet box of out his pocket as he got down on one knee.

You cover your mouth out of shock, tears welling up in your eyes once more as you give him a small nudge.

“You asshole.” You huff in tears, making everyone in the room laugh including Yeonjun. "And all of you were in on it?" you ask looking back at your friends who were nodding their heads in unison.

You chuckled through your tears, averting your attention back to Yeonjun who was still knelt down before you.

“You’re my home y/n.” he says with watery eyes. “Throughout everything, you are the one thing in my life that is unchanged. I know it was far from easy to love me for the past 5 years, but with all the craziness you have stood by me. With this ring, I want to show you that I’ll stand by you too…until death do us part” he states with a soft smile, and by now your mother has started to cry, including Yeonjun’s mother; the ice queen herself.

“Y/n.” he says taking a deep breathe. “Will you marry me?”

You sniff your tears away, scrunching your nose as you start to nod furiously.

“Yes.”

Yeonjun smiled up at you, quickly putting the ring on your finger before he got up and spun you around in his arms as people started to cheer, even Minjae was bitterly clapping his hands to congratulate you.

Yeonjun hugged you tightly as you buried your face in his chest, crying at the surreal and perfect moment. He giggled as a tear ran down his face too. Burying his nose in your hair as he held you as close as possible.

“I love you,” you manage to get out before you lean in to kiss him.

“I love you too.”

- 1 year later -

“Oooh my god Mia, you’re about to pop.” Yeonjun says with big eyes as he opens the door for Mia and Soobin to enter your home.

Yeonjun and yourself had gotten back from your month-long honeymoon a few days back and you invited everyone over for a Sunday dinner.

“Gee thanks. It’s not like I’m 8 months pregnant or anything.” She huffs as she waddles to the living room to sit down next to Taehyun and his boyfriend of two years, who had already arrived prior to them.

Yeonjun chuckled, throwing an arm around Soobin.

“How are you holding up, father to be?” he asks as he squeezed Soobin’s shoulder

“I can’t wait till the baby comes. Her hormones have been crazy lately, she made me get cheese nuggets last night at 2 am.” Soobin says as he rubs his eyes.

“Oh, y/n makes me do that without the pregnant part.”

You emerge from your kitchen at the sound of your name. “You talkin shit Choi?”

“No, I just told Soobin how much I loved you.” Yeonjun says through his teeth with a smile and all Soobin could do was laugh at the interaction.

You roll your eyes, wiping your hands on your apron as you take it off.

“Dinner will be ready in like half an hour.” You announce as you walk into the living room.

When you lay eyes on Mia you immediately run over to her, squeezing her as you rubbed her belly. “She’s gonna be the cutest baby ever.” you pout.

“Have you thought of a name yet?” Taehyun asks as he reached over to touch Mia’s baby bump as well.

“We’re still deciding,” Mia says with a smile, and at that the doorbell rang once again.

You got up to open the door and were greeted with the smiles of a by now engaged Beomgyu and Ryujin, followed by Hueningkai and his girlfriend Won-young

The night was spent enjoying the food you made, you reminisced about your college days and talked about everything from your honeymoon to brainstorming baby names for Mia and Soobin.

Time flew by when you were all together.

The group was enjoying a drink at the bar area of your kitchen and you were pouring yourself a virgin martini in full concentration mode.

Yeonjun snakes his arms around your waist from behind and kissed your temple sweetly as he came to check on you. You leaned into his touch, the both of you stared at the group of people that you call your family, smiling contently as you look up at Yeonjun to peck his lips.

“When do we tell them?” he asks as he rubbed your tummy.

You turn around to face him, giving him a nervous smile. ‘I’m worried that Mia might give birth on the spot when she hears the news.”

Yeonjun snorted at your comment, touching your stomach once again as he stared down in wonder. “I still can’t believe it,” he comments as he's lost in thought to a month ago when you told him about it.

Yeonjun was quick to serve everyone a brownie for dessert, carefully instructing them to wait before they took a bite.

You got up to stand next to him at the edge of your dinner table and had the giddiest smile on your face.

“…Brownies?” Beomgyu asks wide-eyed.

“The last time you made these I developed PTSD.” Soobin says, reminiscing back to the night where you told everyone you had bagged an exchange to Brown University.

“So, you have news again?” Taehyun asks carefully and Yeonjun just nodded with a smile, pulling out his phone to record their reactions once they broke off a piece.

“You’re not immigrating to another country or anything this time, right?” Mia asked, making you and Yeonjun chuckle at the absurd guess.

“Come on guys, open it up.” You clapped your hands excitedly and waited for them to break off a piece with their forks.

Ryujin was the first one to catch on as she discovered the blue and pink cream filling, followed by loud gasps and screams from everyone.

‘WE’RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY IN THE FAMILY!?” Hueningkai yells with big eyes, asking for confirmation as everyone looked at the two of you with anticipation.

All you could do was smile and nod and suddenly you were bombarded with hugs, kisses, and even tears from an overwhelmed Mia.

“I-I’m s-so h-happy for you!” she sniffed through her tears as she hugged both you and Yeonjun clumsily yet tightly.

Soobin approached you next with a huge grin on his face. “Our kids are going to be just like us, like all of us” He said with watery eyes, looking at Yeonjun and the rest of the boys with proudness and love emitting from his pupils.

“Together forever.”

A/N: Thank you so much for the overwhelming love and support all of you have given me throughout the series. Till the End of Summer has officially ended.

I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.

334 notes · View notes

space-lynn · 3 years

Text

I’m back with another Unintentional Gods AU snippet! A big thank you to my friends (Fen and Marcus) for inspiring me to write this. Nash Viseriox and Q’ryxthec are OCs that belong to me. They’ll probably show up more in future snippets.

Just a little fyi, Sasha’s transmasc and transitioned when he was 19, and since the name Sasha is already unisex, no point in changing it. Enjoy reading!

@fermented-writers-block Sorry for the mention, thought you’d wanna see this :)

~~~~~

Perfect, everything had to be absolutely perfect for tonight. 22-year-old Sasha Waybright, ever the perfectionist, had to make sure his plans were perfect. It was his and his girlfriends’ anniversary and he had a special surprise waiting for them. He was excited and nervous as he flitted about, making sure nothing was amiss. Once he had finished his 294th inspection, he was satisfied.

“Excited for tonight?” a deep voice asked behind him, chuckling.

“Yes! And nervous,” the blond laughed, turning around to face Nash Viseriox, one of his celestial best friends and a fellow space god. “Thanks for helping me out with this.”

“No problem,” Nash said, looking around. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”

“You think they’ll like it?”

“Oh, they’ll love it.”

Sasha nervously pushed his thumbs together, eyes darting around the area, seeking out whatever thing could be out of place.

“Are the other gods actually fine with this?”

“Y’know they are, you’re not the first to start something like this and you won’t be the last. The three of you deserve a break, Sash. What better way than to give you all a day off on the day of your 6-year anniversary.”

An anxious but grateful smile made its way onto Sasha’s lips.

“Now, I’m no time god but shouldn’t you be heading back to get dressed?”

“Shit. Right! Thanks again, Nash.”

Another chuckle from the draconic god, “Go and have fun tonight.”

Sasha nodded, teleporting away.

-----

He arrived at the doorstep to their home and placed a hand on the doorknob. It glowed red at his touch, the magical mechanism within unlocking the door for him. He opened it and stepped in, calling out, “Hey, girls! I’m back!”

“Hey, Sashimi!” Marcy chirped.

“Hi, Sash!” Anne greeted.

He grinned, moving forward and wrapping his arms around them both, pressing a kiss on each girl’s forehead. They were both dressed up, Anne in a light blue sundress and white ballet flats and Marcy in a green blouse, a black pleated skirt and black flats. “Are you two ready for tonight?”

“Mhm,” Anne nodded. “Food’s all packed. Sorry if that’s my anniversary gift for the two of you.”

“That’s good enough for us, Anna-Banana.”

“Mar Mar is right, as always.”

“Well, I can’t wait to see what you two have in store.”

“Neither can I,” Sasha said.

“How do I not know your surprise? I’m literally a goddess of knowledge.”

Sasha smirked, “I’ve had some help. From certain gods who know a thing or two about keeping things from gods like you. Could you two wait outside? I need to change.”

“You look good enough like this,” Anne teased.

“Kind of sweaty and dressed in messy clothes? Yeah, no,” he snorted.

Marcy laughed, “Go ahead, Anne and I will wait.”

He gave both of his girlfriends kisses of thanks, and went upstairs to change into a red casual button down shirt, jeans and black chelsea boots. He traveled back down the stairs and to his girlfriends outside, fingers twitching as he summoned two pieces of cloth.

“Took you long enough,” Marcy said and he rolled his eyes.

He offered the cloth to them, looks of bewilderment on their faces.

“Blindfolds,” he said, as if that could answer their unsaid questions.

“Uh, Sash?” Anne asked, her hands fiddled with the boxes of food she held.

“Trust me,” he smiled reassuringly.

The girls looked at one another then nodded at him, taking the blindfolds from him. He held onto their food, willing them away to a safe space. Once his girlfriends’ eyes were covered, without them able to peek through, Sasha warned them before he teleported them to his surprise. It threw Anne and Marcy off but they patiently waited for Sasha as he said, “Hang on a second.”

Their boyfriend moved a few steps in front of them, grinning. “You can take them off.”

And they did, blinking their eyes. Anne and Marcy looked around with awe in their eyes.

“So? Do you like it?” Sasha asked, getting nervous.

“Holy shit, Sash,” Marcy whispered. “We love it.”

Anne nodded, a grin stretching her lips. “This is so fucking beautiful.”

God, he sure hoped it was. He’d spent months on this surprise, hoping his girls would like it.

With the help of certain gods, he’d created a small floating island in space, big enough for what he’d placed there and big enough for the three of them. There was a large tree to the side, a cherry blossom eternally in full bloom, flowers colored pink, blue and green. In front of it was a pond lined with rocks, lily pads floating about and koi fishes swimming within, their bodies made from condensed nebulae, their eyes, fins, whiskers and tail a bright white color. The water ran from the pond, creating a small stream to the edge and to a mini waterfall, disappearing into space. There were bookshelves lined in a semicircle opposite of the tree, filled with tomes, novels and other reading materials. There in the middle was a table with three chairs. In the center of the island was a blue-red-and-green picnic blanket, laid out and ready for them. There were wooden posts that surrounded the entire area, carrying lanterns that held starflies, celestial creatures born from supernovas that were pretty much like fireflies.

He watched as his girlfriends walked around, examining everything.

Marcy turned to him, one hand on the spines of the books, and asked, “How did you… do all this?”

“Had some help. The tree, the pond and the island, got to thank Fen for that. And to Marcus for this being a date night idea.”

“No wonder Fen was occupied in the last few months.” Anne shot him a look. “He was busy helping you out with” -- she motioned around them -- “this.”

“The next time I see Marcus, I’m giving him my thanks,” Marcy said. “And the books?”

“Q’ryxthec.”

“I did tell them my faves from other worlds.”

“And the koi and fireflies?” Anne knelt down by the pond, watching the koi fish swim.

“Nash helped me catch the starflies and I made the koi,” he said shyly. “Boy, did I fail a lot.”

“Well, they're gorgeous. Everything here is!”

For the hundredth time that day, a smile graced Sasha’s lips. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, I just wanted to make this night special.”

His girlfriends walked towards, lacing their fingers together. A few bouts of giggles escaped them.

“It’s special enough with you,” Marcy said softly.

The blond chuckled. He glanced at the two of them. With a snap of his fingers, their meal was on the blanket, already out of their boxes and on plates with utensils, still warm.

“Now how about we have some dinner?”

-----

After their meal, Marcy’s gifts -- matching necklaces made from a special metal from another planet with gems in their colors -- and a conversation underneath the stars, Anne stood up, stretching her legs and arms. Marcy followed suit, a sigh of contentment escaping her lips.

The goddess of knowledge smiled at Sasha. “This was a really awesome night Sashimi. Thank you.”

“I agree with Marshmallow,” Anne chirped, a giggle escaping her lips. “How long did this take you?”

Sasha grinned at them, “7 months, give or take.”

Marcy’s eyes widened, “Wow. All this effort” -- she motioned around them -- “for us?”

Anne’s smile softened, “You didn’t have to, you know?”

The space god stood up, taking both of his girlfriend’s hands in his. “I wanted to.”

“Dork,” Anne teased.

“Your one and only,” Sasha smirked.

They kissed him on the cheeks and he chuckled.

“There’s... still one more surprise I have for the two of you.”

The happy looks on their faces turned into confusion. It made Sasha gulp, hands sweating at what he was about to do.

“There’s more?” Anne asked, bewildered. Marcy was just as puzzled beside her.

The blond nodded. “Yes. We-We’ve been together for 6 years now, and it’s been the best 6 years of my life. Sure, there were a couple of hiccups in our relationship but we’ve been through them together. I love you both so much that I wouldn’t mind going through them with both of you for the rest of eternity.”

He then got down on one knee, timidly watching his two lovers’ eyes grow wide. He held his right hand out, two black rings materialising in his palm, both with glowing intricate carvings etched onto the surface. One in blue, the other in green.

“Anne Boonchuy and Marcy Wu, my sunshine and my moonlight,” -- Anne sniffled while Marcy choked back a sob -- “will you both do me the honor of becoming my wives?”

“YES!” they both screamed, tackling Sasha into the ground.

Anne nuzzled her cheek against her boyfriend’s-- no wait, her fiance’s cheek, saying, “Yes, yes, a million times yes!”

Marcy grabbed onto Sasha’s shirt, pressing kisses on one side of his face. She pulled back just a bit to say, “Always a yes.”

Sasha beamed brightly at them, sharing a kiss with the two of them and watched as Anne and Marcy shared a kiss with one another, a warm and fuzzy feeling blooming in his chest.

They decidedly snuggled up together to watch the stars above for a few more hours, happy and content on their little island. The future was looking bright for them, and they honestly couldn’t wait.

~~~~~

Just pure fluff. My face hurts so much from smiling when I wrote this. I hope all of you enjoyed reading this! Have a very nice morning, afternoon or evening! Until my next snippet~ :3

#amphibia #amphibia fanfic #fanfic snippet #sasha waybright #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #sashannarcy #unintentional gods au #transmasc sasha #original character #nash viseriox #q'ryxthec #marriage proposal #if I don't get this sort of date night #what's the point of living #fluff

22 notes · View notes

algernoninwonderland · 3 years

Text

'Lie' - wow, that's an episode and stuff. It had some genuinely great ideas and some sincerely terrible things in it too, it left a bitter taste in my mouth and I wish it hadn't

The Good

Chat Noir truly is a cat, overdramatic and teasing and inconsiderate and flawed, that's great.

He drinks milk when he's sad. It's genuinely funny!

All these parallels between the Tsurugis and the Agrestes. Some basic directing ideas but they work really well.

Kagami likes Toulouse Lautrec, she's a perfectionist artist and has to keep it a secret from her mother. And this isn't a hobby related to Adrien or her family's legacy, it's the thing she enjoys doing on her own. It's a good idea!

The repetitiveness of the "throwing the paper ball in the bin" motive. That's basic directing, again. But it works well. I like it when things work well, and sometimes they do.

Kagami sees through the lies of the Jedi Adrien's facade in a way none of the other characters have this far. I'd go as far as to say that she's a lot more perceptive about him than Marinette.

She's really assertive and that isn't shown to be necessarily an absolutely bad thing, or an absolutely good thing. There's some nuance in there. Can you believe it?

Nice fencing scene there, all these sparks weren't really necessary but it's done competently. They got the movements and the speed right.

The show really hammers down the fact that being friends/dating a superhero without knowing their secret identity means you're forced to deal with them vanishing all the time and hiding things from you and that it's pretty terrible. Kagami's expression progressively sours as Adrien is shown to disappear more and more. That's good directing.

Some good character blocking and shot composition during the scene taking place outside the Hôtel de Ville.

“A cop never lies!” “You're lying!”

Bob Roth calling out Jagged Stone.

Fang, the true Best Boy of this show.

Some really stellar voice acting from Benjamin Bollen. He's always good.

Kagami isn't the bad guy for taking her distances with Adrien! Wowie!

The Bad

Cheap ship teasing is cheap.

Would they really leave Adrien making a sadder face in that TV show thing? Nah, that's a moment that completely breaks that conceit.

Portraiture as the capture of the truth within people, “portraits can't lie” and all that stuff. The art historian within me is shrivelling.

The show is mixing up a lot of stuff for the sake of this “truth and honesty and lies” and remains very superficial about these things.

What is Adrien's “true self” anyway? Is his being a clown as Chat Noir part of his facade or not? It's really interesting and that would require an episode of its own but no, have a handful of minutes instead, that should do the trick, right? No it doesn't…

Everything after the 13 minute mark, really.

What kind of villain design is that? What is it meant to convey? Liars are paralysed… That's it? Wow. I'm genuinely impressed. Incredible stuff. I am awed.

That white ball of light means some pretty ugly rendering. Like, really ugly. There's exactly one good-looking shot during this akuma fight and it's the one they used in the season's trailer.

DQ Animation and Artage Studio are getting better. They're still not as good as SAMG. Which means that the character acting is really wooden during the more subtle moments, and generally not as good as the scenes would require. Character make weird faces that don't quite work during some scenes. It's not distractingly awful but it's not good.

It's a show with a fandom that uses every little character detail to call a character they don't like the literal devil. Kagami expressing her anger physically is a double-edged sword.

Some really weird shots with weird camerawork.

The Ugly

Do you remember when Marinette said she loved Adrien because he was kind and caring and all of that stuff and then started drooling over the picture-perfect, airbrushed image of him instead of trying to get to know him as a person, meaning that she's in love with his image? But then the show still tried to push the idea that she was truly in love with him as a person? They're still doing this now. We've had the exact same joke for like two seasons. And yet we're meant to root for Adrien and Marinette to get together because…???

Chat Noir acts irresponsibly, yet has immense responsibilities, the show portrays him as funny and as always it’s inconsequential, he never has to face the consequences of his actions for more than five seconds

That scene with Chloé and Sabrina. Is is supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be awful? I don't know. It was just rubbish.

I get that the point is that Kagami has to lie to spend more time with Adrien and that she's done so during Ikari Gozen already but are you sure this is the same character who needed an app to talk to people just a couple of episodes ago? The same character who absolutely despised liars earlier on? Why not show her second-guessing herself then?

She's a fast learner, for sure, she's been shown to get better at complimenting Marinette in the span of just two episodes, but this is a whole other level of off-screen character development. She used to lie by omission, now she's a very chatty liar.

Which just confirms that in Miraculous, characters change radically to accommodate the episode's theme. They have no integrity, no internal coherence. It's a recurring flaw with the writing and it's never been as glaring as it is now.

That cheese analogy is awful and gross. I already thought that the "changing targets" stuff from the earlier seasons was awful but this is just as bad. So people you want to date are like game or fermented milk, then. How romantic. Not objectifying at all. What a great conception of what relationships are like.

Some pretty awful writing. Chat Noir "dying” was cheap and fell completely flat and the dialogue came straight out of a Wattpad fic.

Shadow Moth's “Noooooooo”, straight out of Revenge of the Siths.

And now the lesson of the episode is… Love Square, Hell Yeah? Really?

What was that final scene? It's rushed and stupid and we're meant to be satisfied with it but it's the worst thing ever and “sometimes we must lie but we know we can trust each other” is such a hypocritical line when you take the show as it has been this far. And yet you're meant to clap and be happy about it?

This episode is a mess and I don't know what we're supposed to do with it. Give Kagami her own show.

#ml #miraculous #ml s4 #ml s4 spoilers #ml lie spoilers #ml lie #kagami tsurugi #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #ml writers salt #ml canon salt #ml critical #ml salt #adrien salt #yes i use 'stuff' a lot

86 notes · View notes

kiingocreative · 3 years

Text

Ready to edit, format, or publish your book? We offer editing and coaching services! Send a DM or go to https://kiingo.co/services

"Perfectionism and procrastination have such a fine line. You say, 'Well, I want it to be good. I want it to be perfect.' But what you're really doing is not doing your work. You're putting off showing up and being visible because then you're going to be judged, and it might suck.” - Jen Sincero

The killer of progress is perfectionism. We all want to create work that others look at and say, “Wow, this is perfection.” Because when they say, “This really isn’t very good,” what we hear is, “You suck as a person.” Separating yourself from your work is important and very difficult.

Creating is such a personal action. Putting your work into the world takes vulnerability. We want to make sure we are putting our best work forward. That makes total sense.

But this need to be perfect and polished destroys our progress. I have worked with writers who may never finish their book because they want to edit every word as they go until each word is perfect and they feel safe to move on. And I have also been that writer myself. I so desperately wanted my first book to be PERFECT. In fact, I wanted it so badly that it seeped into my plot and I created a character who was made in a lab so she could be perfect! But that desire is stifling.

Friend, here’s the truth: bad writing is the path to greatness. It’s been said you can edit a bad page; you can’t edit a blank one. Now I would like to add more to that and scream it loudly so everyone in the back row can hear: WE DON’T EXIST TO BE PERFECT! So why would you expect your creations to be what you can not?

I believe all creators have a perfectionist problem. It isn’t just you. Every book on writing advice I have read to date, mentions fighting their inner perfectionist. We care about our work and that is a really really good thing. What is not good is letting that care overtake your ability to put words on paper.

So what do we do about it? I always have some bit about how to overcome these situations. How do we do this?

You can’t!

Sike. You can. You absolutely can. But it takes intention.

First, give your inner critic a name.

Did you see the new(ish) Disney movie, Luca? When Luca struggles with her inner fear, Alberto says, “Silencio Bruno!” and from then on when the voice in Luca’s head is telling him to run away, he tells “Bruno” to be quiet. This is a great depiction of a tool we can use to silence our own inner fear (or perfectionist).

Give your inner perfectionist a name and a job. Name it Sally, Percy, Billy Bob, or Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramírez. When it wants to pipe up during a first draft and warn you of imperfections tell it to zip its lip and wait its turn. Then when it comes time to line edit, let it out, and allow it to have a field day all over your manuscript. Those last edits are the perfect time for your perfectionist but not a moment before.

Next, slowly adapt to rejection.

We need to learn how to handle small rejections in order to build up to larger ones. If you want to traditionally publish but are terrified of being turned down by every agent out there so you don’t even want to try—submit short stories to small magazines first. Dip your toes into something that feels less risky. If you are accepted, awesome! If you are rejected, sweet! Either way, you are moving forward.

Finally, and this is the hardest part, learn to separate ‘you’ from your work.

When you read a book, do you judge the author’s character? Hopefully not. When you find a typo in a New York Times Bestseller do you call whoever is in charge of the list and demand it be redacted? Heavens no! You are not your work. Your work is not a reflection of your worth. Your work is like a child. You do your best to give it a heartbeat and help it grow up strong but once your job is done you release it into the world and allow it to succeed or fail on its own. It is its own creation. Even if you are the worst wordsmith in the world, you still matter.

You got this.

11 notes · View notes

sunshineandcybertronians · 4 years

Text

Buffer - Knock Out x reader

Word count: 2, 503 Warnings: none A/N: Was washing a car, decided to write this and did a TON of research.

"(Y/n), you need to wash me and buff out these scratches. Earth is fun to race on, but can be a pain when dirt gets all over my finish!" Your friend, Knockout complained while brushing himself off as he entered the medbay. "And it doesn't help that the Autobots have to scratch me whenever I'm just doing my job.”

A while ago, when you were minding your own business, simply walking on the outskirts of Jasper, you spotted a fight. But not a normal fist exchange, giant robots who you would learn were called cybertronians. Knockout was in that fight. Before the other bots could, he grabbed you, transformed into an Aston Martin, and pulled you through a green-blue, swirling portal.

When he changed back when on the Nemesis, you, being the perfectionist you were at times, pointed out a nasty scratch and that he'd need to get that buffed out. To that comment he agreed. He told you that he captured you so you wouldn't run and tell all of your human friends about him, and later when their leader, Megatron questioned keeping you alive, he also said that you would be a good bargaining chip if the Autobots had something they wanted. Now you weren't a hostage. You helped Knockout with injured Decepticons, which you noted that he was actually a fairly good teacher. And, of course, you aided him with his cosmetic needs.

You smiled upon seeing him again, but it faded to a look of concern when he came closer and you could see the marks. The worst spot was above his right headlight. It had several small, horizontal cuts where the pain had been stripped off as if someone had taken a rock and swiped while dug it into that area.

"You're right." Then you remembered your act. "But I just buffed you two days ago," but even as you stated it, you were already getting out the wash mitts and buckets. The truth was, you loved Knockout's appearance and his paintjob, and would do anything to keep it looking as shiny and clean as Knockout always kept it. Plus, he was your friend. Even so, you would often pretend to resist because if he knew how willing you were to help him, he would have you doing it every three hours.

"Three days," he corrected. "And you're my assistant, thus you help me when I need it. Plus you never seem to mind once you're doing it."

You rolled your eyes playfully and made your way down to the floor, using the makeshift human sized stairs, holding a bucket of soup and water. "I think you forgot to mention that I'm your friend," you didn't even pretend to be upset in anyway.

"I didn't think I needed to." He lifted an optic ridge slightly and gave you a look that made your face faintly warm up.

"Okay, transform now so I can actually wash you," you set down the buckets and loosely cross your arms.

He complied and you got to work. Letting the blue, soft wash mitt around your hand soak into the soupy water, your thoughts wandered to when you got it.

You were standing at the counter with a wash mitt that had soft tassels covering it, along with soup and various other objects.

"That's a lot of stuff for washing a car," the balding middle aged man in the store's uniform commented. "It's going to look like you have a furry paw with this thing on," he joked, holding up the mitt before setting it down again.

"Maybe, but it's very absorbent and has chenille microfibers, making cleaning more efficient and will not scratch like a sponge or cloth would. Plus, wearing it will make it easier to move and get the correct motion," you blurted out a fragment of what you learned while googling the best materials to make Knock look even more perfect.

The man whistled and shook his head. "Wow. That's a lot of research. You must really love your car."

You thought about it for a second and nodded with a smile, "Yes, I do."

Now, you focused on the present, wiping the mitt full of soup smoothing over Knockout's hood. It was a task you always poured yourself into, being sure to clean every part of him aside from the undercarriage. You took care and extra time on the scratched area, absent mindedly admiring the paint that was still flawless, soup suds now adorning it.

"Is that good enough?" you asked, slipping off the wet wash mitt and setting it into the bucket. Although you were fairly certain you had done well enough, you wanted his opinion. The hand mirror that was sitting nearby was picked up by you and you held it up so Knockout could observe your work.

He hummed in approval. "Not bad, but I think I'll judge after you rinse and dry me."

"Will do," you agreed. You quickly grabbed the hose. Water spouted from the nozzle poured over him, washing the bits of white soup off of him and onto the floor. Once the bits of white disappeared, you twisted the hose until no more water leaked out of it. You stared at the paint intently to make sure you didn't accidentally leave microscopic scratches when cleaning him. The result satisfied you. Without any further delay, you whipped out a towel. Not just any towel, you couldn't use a normal one for drying off a car, especially not Knockout. It was a microfiber waffle weave towel. You began blotting off the water like you always would. Wiping could result in picked up dirt and scraping it along the paint, which was the last thing you or the medic wanted.

As soon as the rest of the water was picked up, you draped the towel on your arm and said, "Finished with the washing." Your mind was already making a list of what you needed next to buff him out.

He transformed back into bot form to inspect your work while you spun around to get the rotary buffer and other supplies."Not bad. Like always." He turned his arm over to check the door with its gray pattern. "And to think I once thought a human could never do something like this."

"Well I had to learn. I can't do a mediocre job on the great Knockout," you added with a playful smile.

"Where did you learn all of this? You certainly didn't know at first."

A lot of time on the internet, you were tempted to say. And you meant A LOT of time on the internet. Instead you settled for with a shrug, "I just picked it up."

His optics caught the area where the paint was torn off from the battle and he scowled. "But now it's time to get rid of THAT."

"On it," you carried the buffer, compound bottle, and bucket of paint as best you could. "Now that it's clean, I can reapply the paint."

Since Knockout would have to face the possibility of his paint getting ripped off whenever he encountered an Autobot, he had tons of his paint, so you wouldn't have to jump through hoops to find the right color and make sure it was made out of the right material so it wouldn't react badly with the rest of the paint.

You began to mask the headlight below the area you would repaint, as to not get anything on it that wasn't supposed to be there. There was no scratches in the primer, so you didn't need to add primer. With Knockout always keeping himself in prime condition, you didn't need to remove any rust since there was none. That removed two possible steps. You applied the wax and grease remover to the gray area before using a 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the area for the paint to stick.

While doing this, you heard Knockout grunt from the slight pain caused by the sandpaper. "Sorry, are you alright? Should I be more gentle?" you asked with concern.

"Yeah. It's just a little uncomfortable. I'll be okay, just keep on doing that," he answered as his lights flickered at his words.

You nodded. Once you were done sliding the sandpaper back and forth, you washed that spot again to remove any debris. Next was the actual painting. The can hissed from the seal being broken as you slowly and delicately opened it. After mixing it, you painted on several thin layers. While waiting for each layer to dry, you would either talk to Knockout or he would transform to get some work done if it was semi dry.

When that was done, you pulled out three pieces of sandpaper to even the new paint that stuck up a little. Starting with the 1,000 grit sandpaper to get off the majority, then moving to 2,000 and after 3,000 as you got close to the level of the rest of the paint and needed more fine sandpaper. The next step was to add top coat, which was easier then the previous step.

In other words the whole thing was a long, tedious process. You understood completely why Knockout got so irritated whenever his paint was scratched. Especially since you were the one to fix it most of the time. Plus, you knew it made Knockout upset and you wanted him to look his best.

"Okay." You wiped off your forehead with your wrist. "Now time to get to the actual buffing. Would you like to do this part?" You sincerely hoped he said yes, because no matter how much you wanted to help him, you were getting tired.

"Mmm, I think I'll let you do it," his smooth voice answered. You could tell by his voice he didn't need time to think about it at all.

Sighing, you shook your head with a smile. "Of course. I'm just glad most of the time I'm polishing you and, less frequently, washing you."

"I'm sure you want my paint to look perfect just as much as I do, considering how much effort you put in."

"Maybe," you replied, tongue in cheek.

Now you needed to cover the windows and anything you didn't want compound on. Choosing the appropriate buffing pad and compound, you got right to it. You got the soft circular piece wet and squirted the cream onto it. Slowly and carefully rubbing the spinning pad in circles, making sure you got every spot. It took little effort for you to keep the pressure constant, considering how many times you had done it. The only time you had to think about it was when you reached an edge.

It was beautiful the way it made light swirls at first and make it disappear to reveal shiny paint. You absent mindedly tuned out the whirring of the motor as your brain wandered. Mostly thinking about Knockout, his finish, and how great he looked.

When that was over, you sighed and bent over with your hands on your knees, knowing you had to rinse and wash him all over again. If it weren't for the fact that there were lots of times you had to wait a certain amount of time after a step, you would have been completely winded.

"You're doing a great job, doll," he softly encouraged. "After you wash me off again, I can dry myself."

"Really?" you looked up and smiled at his kind offer that was much appreciated.

"Yep. Although, you'll need to get the parts that are difficult to reach."

"Deal," you almost laughed and felt your smile grow and energy returning.

You practically skipped to the hose. Once you finished spraying the crystal clear water onto him, wiping suds onto him, and rinsing him off all over again, you began to walk over to the corner to relax. A sharp, cool object touched your shoulder and you turned around to see Knockout with his helm tilted.

"I believe I need something." A smirk adorned his handsome face.

You remembered the towel. "Oh." You rushed to get it and bolted back over to him.

He held out his servo for the waffle weave towel. You smiled and nearly fell into a daydream as you stared up at him and handed it to him. Your heart skipped a beat when the edge of your hand brushed against the cool metal of his servo. After a few seconds, you managed to snap yourself out of it before he noticed. You turned, paced over, and flopped into your chair.

Sitting down in the bean bag chair, you bit your lip while you admired Knockout reaching all around his frame to dry himself off. You wished that you could wash and buff him while he was in bot mode, but then you wouldn't be able to reach very far with how small you were.

The daydream and staring session only ended when Knockout tossed the towel to you. It softly hit you in the face and dropped into your lap, leaving a shocked expression on your face.

"Now it's your turn." Knockout winked and shifted back into an Aston Martin.

A low laugh vibrated in your throat, but never left your mouth. You quickly inspected him and got any spot he missed. After that was completed, you got another pad and wax. You set it on low speed and smeared and smoothed the wax onto him. It took a good amount of time, but it seemed faster with you spacing out. As a final touch, you wiped him down with a microfiber cloth to take off any extra wax that didn't need to be there.

When you were finally, completely done, he looked absolutely gorgeous. His paint was a thing of beauty. You had gotten a lot of practice at that kind of thing by being around Knockout, and it showed. You could see your reflection on him. He seemed even more attractive and shiny after transforming.

He whistled while admiring your handy work. "You're a master at this."

"Why would I give you any less except my best?" You threw your extra hand into the air as you used the other to put the rotary buffer away.

His optics looked it over another time. "This is nice. Can you do this again another time?

You let out a laugh before you could stop yourself. "No. I just did it." part of you was exhausted and never wanted to do it again, but another part was completely okay with it because, well, he was Knockout.

"C'mon, you know you love me." He set a servo on his shining hip, showing off his signature, amazing grin.

A smirk crept onto your lips. "Yes, I do."

Extended ending: "Argh!" you heard Starscream's voice from behind the door after Knockout walked out. "Your finish is so bright, it's hurting my optics! Did you make (Y/n) buff you again?!"

You gently held your hand over your mouth and giggled.

#TFP #Knockout x reader #Knock Out x reader #Knockout #Transformers Prime #tfp x reader

202 notes · View notes

randomideasmybrainhas · 3 years

Text

Flying rocks and kisses

Trying to gain inspiration through power outages, and got prompted for a Suyin request, which I’m actually pretty excited about, gives me a bit of a challenge now. Since they didn’t choose which prompt, I’ll start with 3, and I’ll just play around with a few different people. While, I’m a le $ bean, I’m open to also writing for my boys- so you can request anyone, not just the lovely ladies of ALTA and LOK (but lets be real, they’re the important ones and deserve more love). Here goes nothing, let me know what you think, and hope you enjoy!!

Prompt #3: “Shit, watch out!” She screamed as a large boulder was flying at her crush at an extremely fast pace, fast enough all she could do was jump in front of it, and prepare for the sudden pain.

Word count: 2,973

Requestor: @Helplesslesbean

—-

Having grown up in the lovely city of Zafou for all my life, and following the guards around the city has made me grown accustomed to all the ins and outs of the city and especially the large mansion which resides my personal favorite human, Suyin Beifong. Granted yes, she is the same age as my parents, and I should definitely not be major crushing on her, but I mean… How can you not? Look at her, she’s the fiercest woman I know and would do anything for her family and she made this entire city from nothing, and she’s a Beifong! Her mother literally invented metal bending, which is our entire city. She also started a dance troupe and has worked countless of tiresome hours to perfect her dancers for their plays. I go to every performance and practice.

Speaking of the lovely, perfectionist of a woman, I sat outside helping Kuvira, Suyin’s adoptive daughter practice her dance routine since I’m always at the practices, Kuvira has me help her practice, because like mother, like daughter, she’s also a perfectionist. Something about being abandoned as a child… As we were going over how to jump from the bottom to the top to interlock her ankle with Lucy’s, Su walked up and instantly I started getting nervous, and Kuvira knows my little secret, but finds it weird and childish. Which is probably is, but I ignore her, and keep my little crush on the matriarch to myself.

“Aww, wonderfully done Kuvira and (y/n)!! That was performed beautifully! I should create a routine without metal bending, so you can participate (y/n)! You’d be such a lovely dancer, might even steal the show!” Su exclaimed in joy while walking up to the two of us, with my pale complexion becoming as red at the Fire Nation.

“It could’ve been better. Again.” Kuvira said while getting back to the starting position. I just sighed, we’ve been going at this all morning. Usually Su would come by earlier on to watch the practice, but with the Avatar being in town, she’s been preoccupied , which works out for you, since every time she watches you, you get nervous and mess up, and especially when Kuvira trains with you, that usually has you ending on your ass, with a lot of bruises. Kuvira isn’t easy-going, and will use your crush on Su to her full advantage.

“Oh, Kuvira, you need to learn to take a break, it looks like (y/n) could use one, here have some water.” Su said while pushing Kuvira back down with a water bottle that she brought up. She then handed me one, and I quickly grabbed it, trying to ignore the slight spark of electricity that went off between our fingers when the brushed each other, and quickly downed half the bottle in one go.

“Wow, you must be thirsty (y/n), I can get you another if you’d like.” Su said, which made you choke on the second half of the bottle, and had you sputtering out that you were okay. Kuvira just scoffed and pushed Su out of the way to go over the form again, she didn’t think it was strong enough. You got back up and started to practice again, ignoring Su’s lingering eyes on you. You kept up with the routine, and eventually Su had to attend to some other things around the city.

—-

After you finished up, you got cleaned up and ready for bed.You were brushing your teeth when you heard a knock on the door. Confused because Kuvira has a strict sleep schedule that is not to be interupted, and that even means as soon as it’s after dinner, you never hear from her. You finished wiping your mouth and opened your door. Standing there was Su in her long, luxurious emerald green gown with her metal plates and you could smell her fresh perfume she always wore to bed and light green slippers.

“Su? How can I help you?” You ask, while trying to keep your blush down, or at least not blistering red. You were also trying to ignore the fact that while normal people who don’t crush on others twice their age, they also don’t wear just a large t shirt to bed, with NOTHING underneath.

“(Y/N), I just wanted to check in with you about a few things, do you mind if I come in?” Su asks. You let her in, but try to ignore that her perfume has you leaning in closer and wishing you could just curl up in bed with her forever.

As Su walks in, she slightly brushes you with your arm, and the hair on your arm stands up as you clear your throat and close the door behind her. You follow Su into the room as she sits on your bed and you awkwardly stand there. You just look down at the floor, and wait for her to speak. She just sits there and stares at you, and you’re quite confused what she’s looking at, and why she isn’t talking yet.

“Are you not going to sit?” Su asks. You shuffle and sit next to her, but trying to keep some space between you, for your benefit so you won’t do anything too stupid. This crossed Su’s mind, and she completely ignored it and scooted closer to you and rested her hands on your forearm and knee, which prompted you to swallow loudly, as you tried to ignore your pounding heart.

“I’ve talked with Kuvira before, and she always says how great you are at talking things through, and I have some concerns.” She starts with, causing you to die a little inside, thinking she knows your little secret. “With my sister being here, and being so resentful against me and my family, I don’t know what to do or say, and my husband is well… we’re not how we used to be, and I feel like you’d have good insight.”

“Uhhh yeah. Um. You’re not?” I squeaked out, not really sure to answer that. She’s not how she used to be with her husband? But they always seemed to be the perfect duo. How is she not doing well with him? Are they splitting up? What happened? Okay (y/n), focus. She’s starting at you. I need to concentrate on what she’s saying. I hear her speaking, but nothing is coming to my ears, I’m just staring at her perfect lips, and wow. They’re so kissable. I wish I could, just…

“(Y/N) are you okay? You seem out of it. I knew this would be too much, just forget I said anything, and have yourself a goodnight.” Su rushed out as she got up to leave. I didn’t know what to do, because now she thinks it’s her fault. I did the only logical thing to do. I grabbed her retreating hand and yanked her back down to me and before she could question anything, I grabbed her face pulled it closer and slammed my lips on her lips. I instantly wrapped my hands into her hair pulling her closer and enjoying this moment.

She was completely frozen. That’s when the panic started, and I soon realized this was not where she was going with this, and I’m an idiot. Just when I started to pull back, there was a loud bang that shook the mansion, cause me to fall to the floor and Su to stand up immediately. Horrible timing, but I could always just stare at her from this angle. Any angle to be honest. Thats when another loud bang shook the walls, and before I could get up, Su grabbed my hands to lift me up, surprisingly quickly and strong.

“I need to investigate, stay here (y/n).” Su said eyes piercing through mine.

“But I-“

“I mean it, don’t leave your room in any circumstance until I come get you.” Su said, then looked at my lips, gave me a quick peck on the cheek instead, and ran out of the room, metal bending the door behind her so I couldn’t get out. Damn metal benders. Though, joke is on her, because Kuvira used to lock me in my room all the time for dinner as a joke. I carved out some hollowed areas to crawl through that gives me outdoor access through the vents. Granted this was 10 years ago, when I was much smaller, but will have to do in a pinch. I wiggled through and I don’t know if its all the training I’ve done with Kuvira to stay toned and made this a piece of cake, or all the sweat I’ve gathered from thinking about the kiss I just shared with Su. Of course she didn’t want to kiss me, I’m her adoptive daughter’s friend, why would she me as anything else? Welp, time to move out I suppose. You know, Fire nation looks lovely this time of year. Another loud bang followed by shouting was heard, and I got back to focus and busted the vent and crawled out.

When I got up, I see about 20 guards, Su and her twins, team avatar, and Lin. I can’t specifically spot out Kuvira, but I’m sure she’s somewhere amongst the guards. Who I can’t find oddly is the avatar. Isn’t this her thing? Investigation loud bangs? Then I spotted it. The giant metal plates in the center of.. lava? Well that’s new. Some buff, bald man had the knocked out avatar over his shoulder, and everyone was firing metal at him. But some of the guards were fighting a woman with water arms, and a guy who was lavabending?! Who are these people?! My training with Kuvira kicked in, and while I don’t have some super fancy bending like these people, or really any bending, I know how to throw a punch and dodge cheap shots that Kuvira loves to throw at me.

I run into the action and I spot Kuvira bending her plates at the lady with water arms, but miserably failing. I run up to her and push her behind a pillar.

“(Y/N)! You can’t be out here, these aren’t normal people. Go call back up!” Kuvira shouted while protecting you from an explosion near by.

“Idiot, I’ve trained with you, I can help. But you’re such and earth bender. You’re only thinking within the box of fighting. These obviously aren’t normal people. You need to outsmart them, not out bend them.” You shout over all the commotion and duck your head into Kuvira’s arms while splinters of metal go flying a little too close to your face. Kuvira puts up a shield next to you to protect you, and you continue on you theory. “If you can distract the water bending with set up 12-4, then I jump off your back and go and electrocute her. Water hates electricity.” You shout over the loud bangs.

“That could work, but if you get injured, Su will kill me.” Kuvira shouts, while contemplating.

“That’s okay, I think she already wants to kill me now. I kissed her earlier.” You shout/whisper to Kuvira. She just stares at you with large eyes, and punches your arm. You just shake your head and nod to her. Kuvira get the guards to line up in 12-4, a common move they do to surprise an attacker, with surrounding forces, and my added presence should hopefully hit it home. I waited for the right moment and then when I saw Kuvira was ready and water lady spun around I ran and jumped on Kuvira’s back and she launched me into the air, and thankful for all her dance routines, I flipped next to water arms lady and with the baton fully charged with electricity, I went to electrocute her to take her out, and it was going perfect, except we didn’t account for mr. lavabender to have heart eyes for her, and jump in, and shoot the ground from underneath me, and shoot me into the air, and given it was unpredicted, I was flying far, and crashed into Lin. And man, if I thought Su was strong, her older sister is earth itself, and pure muscle. I groaned from the not so soft landing. I think the ground would’ve been a better landing than Lin.

“Watch it kid. This isn’t a circus.” She grunts roughly and tosses you aside. Ahh, so now you see the resentment Su was talking about from earlier. You roll off and sit up brushing the dirt off you. That didn’t go as planned. Before you could think of another suggestion, you looked up and saw Su fighting with her twins and you see combustion bender (how did I miss her earlier?!) Directly aim for a rock pile near by Su, to throw all of them at her at once, so she couldn’t dodge it, and before you knew what to do, your body was running full speed at Su, screaming, “Shit, watch out!” as a large boulder was flying at her crush at an extremely fast pace, fast enough all she could do was jump in front of it, and prepare for the sudden pain.

You know those moments when everything slows down, and you just embrace what is happening, but it gives you a chance to look around? This was one of those moments, and you thought you were toast. For sure, going to be flattened out into nothing. Though while you looked around, you see guards running all over, team avatar helping Lin get the avatar, and the twins under the protection of their mother, who is shielding her body to protect them, and staring at you. You feel the wind of the the boulder about to hit you, and you ready yourself for the impact…. That never comes? You look in front of you to see all the boulders that were flying towards you at full speed are now hitting the combustion lady and Lin escaped with the avatar. What really surprised you was the air being blasted from your hands. I’m an airbender?????

Then the bald man took his staff and the other 3 talented benders into a gust of wind and they were gone. Okay, if I am an airbender, I need to learn that trick. You look back to see if Su is okay, but are instead greeted with arms instantly wrapping around you and the intoxicating smell of Su’s perfume and a bit of mix of burnt earth…You awkwardly return her hug and bury your face into her shoulder, even though she is about an inch or two shorter than I am.

“You idiot, I told you to stay put! And why would you jump in front of those boulders? I’m an earth bender, I can handle it!” Su screams at you, and you wince.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t see you get hurt, and that was a lot. Even the best of us need help sometimes.” You say as you rub the back of your neck. She just shakes her head at you and brings you in closer.

—-

After all the crazy moments and discovering the bald man named Zaheer, had all the airbenders, team avatar went after him, and though you wanted to join in on the fight, Su asked you to stay, and while you do love her, you aren’t sure if you can.

She pulled you aside after the meeting into a small room that was almost never used. “(y/n), I can’t have you in danger again, especially now that you’re an airbender, you’re a bigger target for Zaheer. Please don’t go. I can’t have you getting hurt.” Su says quietly while holding your hand and searching your eyes. You really struggled, you wanted to say okay to make her feel better and happy, but you had to help.

“Su, I-“

She stopped me by kissing me on the lips, and I think I just died… Is this the spirit world? Sparks shout out from my closed eyelids, and I pulled her in closer to my body as if this was a dream I was hoping to never awake from. Eventually we both pulled away for air, and searched each others eyes while resting our foreheads together. I eventually spoke up, “okay… I’ll stay back.”

Su visibly sighed and relaxed against my body, and I held her tight and kissed the top of her forehead. I’m not comfortable with the idea of her going out alone, but I heard Kuvira can’t go, and someone needs to stay back to keep her from taking over the kingdom.

—-

I hope you all enjoyed this, and sorry it went so long!! I just ramble a lot in my head, and it kinda comes out as word vomit, and this is what you get… Please leave a like and comment for support!!

Also side side note: I know you choose #6, but I wanted to switch it up!!

#lesbian #korra #lok #suyin #suyin x reader #fanfic #lesbian fanfic #blushes and kisses #alta

36 notes · View notes

livinginncity · 4 years

Text

Late Nights In The Studio w/ Taeil

♚: taeil x reader

❡: fluff

ⱳƈ: 3.5k

⚠︎: none really. some swearing, the typical talk of stress as an idol, but really just some tooth-rotting sentimental fluff.

you couldn’t exactly say how things escalated so quickly. you had gotten a text from taeyong explaining in barely comprehensible texts, of which you have come to decipher with ease, that your boyfriend had not been satisfied with today’s recording session. a text you received many times before and did not doubt you would see again, as it meant the love of your life had once again been consumed by his passion for music with the assistance of his perfectionist nature.

upon seeing said text, you couldn’t help but to heave a sigh. ‘a long night for you, is a long night for me,’ you had once told him, and every part of your being agreed wholeheartedly. not once did you regret saying such a thing, you still remind him whenever he attempts to dissuade you from indulging him with your presence on late nights like these. the sigh was due to your own day being rather eventful in the most unpleasant ways possible. as your mind began to wander back over such things, you arrived at the corner of the street you had been walking along where a small chinese restaurant sat—allowing you to break from your previous train of thought.

“hey, y/n.” as you entered you were greeted by a familiar face, one that allowed a smile to wiggle its way onto your own. “the usual, I’m guessing?”

“hey.”

your feet dragged themselves to the counter and you plopped down into one of the seats that sat across from the register, your bag landing on the floor right beside it. face feeling hot, your forehead sought out the cool surface of the countertop.

“hello. earth to y/n.” the young adult spoke again, prompting you to roll onto your cheek to face him.

“yeah, the usual.” the response was immediately shouted into the back where his mother was sure to be. “actually, can you add three dàntà?”

“must you make my life harder?” again, the order was relayed to the sweet lady whom you’d loved as soon as you met, before he turned back to continue speaking. “so i’m gonna take a wild guess and assume your celebrity boyfriend is glued to the floor in front of a mic again.”

his words brought a chuckle from your lips at the reminder of your boyfriend’s apparent predictable nature.

“you would be correct.”

“why don’t you just ask him to leave the studio a bit earlier? You're clearly not having the easiest of days either.”

“are you actually serious? asking that man to leave the studio or practice early would be like asking your mom to close the restaurant early.”

“i’ll be in my grave before she ever agrees to that.”

“exactly. plus, it’s not that bad. i just bring him food and i might pass out on the couch in the studio. he usually feels bad when i do though, so we’ll leave pretty soon after that.”

“so you just eat and sleep? you’re so lazy.”

“look, i’ve been swamped with so much schoolwork and work-work that i’m dreaming pie charts and the odyssey all together—cut me some slack.”

“yeah, yeah. just sounds like excuses to me. and to think my ap class cousin just sits on her ass all d-“ he was interrupted by a smack to the back of his head.

“what did i tell you about using that kind of language in the restaurant?” you stood up and walked over to meet the older lady at the entrance of the kitchen, quickly being enveloped in her arms. “especially to my precious, little niece.”

“hi, auntie. has he been giving you a hard time? i told you i’d beat him up the next time i was here, if so.”

a light smack to your arm was felt as she let out a warm laugh. “oh, hush. how have you been? are your grades okay? what about that internship? how is that going?”

“my grades are okay, and my internship is going well. my boss is pretty nice and they seem to like my ideas, so i think they might consider hiring me as permanent staff once it’s over.”

“that’s great, sweetie. now…tell me about this boyfriend of yours.”

it took about another thirty minutes to shake your extremely talkative aunt, but you managed to do so before the food started getting cold and finally made your way out of the small takeout joint.

finally arriving at the familiar building, you hastily made your way up the numerous stairs and stopped in front of the recording room.

you couldn’t help the sigh that left your lips as you watched taeil through the clear window that took up a majority of the door. it seemed you had arrived a little late because he was now sitting in front of the panel, that had more nobs and buttons than your simple mind could comprehend the use for, with his head in his hands and elbows resting on his knees.

you decided to knock before entering to signal your arrival and shut the door gently behind you. upon seeing your figure his head rolled back, accompanied by a groan and hands sliding his face.

you simply let out a teasing huff, followed by a ‘well, it’s nice to see you, too,’ and carefully set the food on the clear section of the desk to let yourself settle between his legs as he wrapped his arms around your thighs and nestled his face into your midsection.

you both stayed there for a minute and the male in front of you let out a contented sigh when you let your fingers play with and run through the hair atop his head. the pair of you separated only when the rumbling of your stomach decided to ruin the brief moment of domesticity.

you moved rather slow despite being slightly embarrassed, which gave taeil enough time to nibble at your stomach through the material of your shirt. you snorted as you slapped the back of the boy's head before turning to set out the food.

“stop doing that, you weirdo. i don’t know where the hell you got the idea to start doing that from.” he just let a small smile show and pulled you sideways into his lap and scooted the chair closer to the desk.

“but you laugh every time i do it.” you rolled your eyes at that.

“that’s because it tickles.” the words came out before you could comprehend who you’d just said them to. ‘stop, please,’ ‘food...cold,’ and ‘okay, i like it,’ leave your mouth before your lungs are finally allowed a breath again.

“you know you don’t have to do this every time, y/n.” your boyfriend finally spoke after the two of had scarfed down the majority of your meal in silence—not uncomfortable, but clear that something had been on his mind besides his music. you turned to face him more before he continued.

“you’re working so hard every day, finishing up your last years of school and securing the internship you’ve been longing for since day one of university. you do all that and you still come here to make sure i’m not cooped up in that recording booth all night, that i’ve eaten, that i stop stressing myself out. i get so stuck in my own head and life that i never come to visit you at work on your lunch break or drop you off for your morning classes before i head to practice. how have you not broken up with me, y/n? i’m really not even wor-“

you swallowed the bite you had taken before proceeding to shove the whole dàntà into his mouth, clapping the crumbs if your hands and patting them on your jeans for good measure. the pastry resided there while he sat in a slight shock, and he slowly became aware of its protrusion as lifted his hand to take it out and set it on the table.

your hands found the familiar holds of his shoulders as you leveled your eyes with his, orbs seeming to gaze directly into his soul. all he could think at that moment was ‘wow.’

“i do this ‘every time’ because i don’t get to do it every time. your schedule is so hectic with the concerts, tours, fan meets, promotions, and jacket shootings, that the times when you’re recording or practicing are the only times that i can really be with you.”

his gaze seemed to fall at your words, but you continued at your own pace because even you can admit that he at least owed you that.

“but even though those moments are brief, i absolutely love to be there for them. because i can see how passionate you are. when you dance, you dance as if your life depends on it. you practice every move until your not just content, but satisfied with how they turn out. and when you record, it doesn’t matter how many times the producer says it sounds perfect. you’ll do take after take until you deem it worthy for your fans to hear.”

your hands rubbed over his shoulders before moving up to cup his face. they looked glossy and you knew if you continued to stare at them, your own would soon mirror them. yet you continued to look at him anyway.

“seeing your passion continue so strongly after making it through your trainee years, pushes me to continue in the times i feel like giving up. and to know that i can offer you solace amongst all that you must do, even if it’s only for a brief moment, makes me even more sure that i will never regret being in this relationship with you and that you are really fucking dumb for ever doubting it.”

by now, more than a few tears had made their way down his face and yours, but you just let your thumbs wipe them aside before pulling him into a slow, telling kiss. even so, you wanted to say it. again and again and again, until he heard it so much that he couldn’t help but start to feel that way about himself.

“moon taeil, i am in love with you. i’ve known that i loved you since our third date when you tripped and spilled that hot ass coffee onto my new white dress and kept apologizing until i let you buy me something from the store across the street. you didn’t even question me when i picked out a hoodie with bunny ears that was most definitely way too large for my size. and quite frankly, i think i’ll love you even after the sun finally claims this earth. and even in our next life, should we have one.

“i’ve cried on the nights when you were off in another country, i’ve laughed on the nights where i watch the videos of you and the boys on variety shows, and i’ve felt an overwhelming swell of pride on the nights that i see you on stage or accepting yet another award for the hard work you never stopped putting in. being with you is worth every night spent alone, every nap taken on that surprisingly comfortable and overpriced couch, and every penny lost to my nosy ass aunt’s restaurant, so long as i know that you’ll always come back. that sometimes i get to wake up to you in my bed after you’ve been gone for months, that every once in a while you offer to buy me that same couch for christmas—which i really am thinking about accepting soon so please keep asking—and that whenever i walk in here after a long ass day for the both of us, you take the time to sit and eat the same damn food i bring every time without fail. i’m sorry it took me so long to let you know how grateful i am to have you in my life. i’m sorry i left you to fight this battle on your own.”

somewhere in between your words, you had shifted to straddle him so you could face him fully. you could feel his fingertips digging into your hips before they clenched tightly around your shirt, his head falling into your chest, and broken sobs filled the small room.

you held him close and let his tears soak your shirt—knowing full well now that he had felt insecure about your relationship much longer than what you originally thought. it made you feel guilty. for not seeing something so important. a sudden movement interrupted your thoughts and you looked to see that taeil was now staring right into you.

“i love you, y/n. i love you, i love you, i love you. god, i am so fucking in love with you. i know i’m not always around, and that there are so many more things i could be doing to spend even more of the little time we have together. i see you living the life i wonder if i could’ve had if i had chosen a path different from the one i’m on now, see you busting your ass to get your phd and masters despite having to put yourself through school, and i see you when you pass out on that couch surrounded by loads of papers that i know no other intern would be expected to do or be trusted with, and yet you always manage to finish after slaving away over them and surprising your bosses with each assignment.

“i know how much you cry and beat yourself up when you score low on a test, how much you stress when a deadline is approaching for your classes and internship, and how much you try to keep up with me, your family, and even what’s going on in the other twenty-two member’s lives and sometimes i just can't help but wonder, ‘how is she so strong.’” you’d done a good job keeping your tears at bay as you watch him cry, but you joined him as he continued. it was now your turn to bury your face into his chest, and he spoke over your sobs.

“babygirl, you are so strong. you are so strong, and i can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that the blood, sweat, and tears that you’ve put into everything you do will be worth it. you will feel that satisfaction and pride in yourself, and i want to be with you when it all pays off. to see that smile on your face and those happy tears you try to hide from everybody because they all think it’s cute to see you so overjoyed. so i promise you, y/n, it won’t always be like this.

“one day, things will settle down a bit, and we’ll get to spend time judging and adjusting to each other’s weird ass habits, and i’ll attempt making you an edible breakfast, take you to work and pick you up on your lunch break, and we’ll hide away from the world on our surprisingly comfortable and overpriced couch while watching dramas that have no damn reason being that cheesy, and listening to true crime podcasts while discussing how we’d get away with murder and that we’d make the perfect partners in crime.”

taeil lifts your head, just as you had done him, but instead kisses away your tears. you let out a slightly embarrassing giggle before sniffling your runny nose. taeil’s face was still tear-streaked, but now wore a large smile that felt a hundred times lighter and you could feel your aching face mirror it. he took your right hand and intertwined it with his left, and you could see him take a large breath before he let out the last of his words.

“i will marry you one day, y/n. we’ll have at least one kid before so they can be apart of the wedding, and we’ll have at least two girls and one boy. we’ll adopt one or two and make sure our kids are as fashionable as taeyong, and we’ll sing them to sleep together, and teach them the importance of hard work and that it does pay off. i am so helplessly in love with you, y/n, and i promise you that i’ll show you that all this, with school, work, me, was worth it.”

and you sat there, staring into the eyes of the one and only love of your life, with a finally visible future—a future that felt almost certain with the amount of confidence that flowed from him and his words—and you could really feel it now. his promise of the hard work and effort paying off eventually, you could feel it planting it’s roots in the seeds you laid both as an individual and together.

“oh, you will be the death of me, moon taeil. and i don’t think there could be a better way to go.”

this was only the beginning of a very sappy, vert fluffy love story and you were in no rush to finish it.

fin.

bonus:

you both ended up at your place that night, kissing, cuddling, fucking. taeil had to go back to finish recording and helping out at the studio, and you decided to call in. your hard work showing in how fast they were to praise and accept your request—insisting you take a couple more on top of that.

and so you walked to the same building that morning hand-in-hand, careful to look out for dispatch and any other paid stalkers that liked to lurk around every corner for the next scandal.

you took the elevator up this time, but when you walked to the studio containing the recording booth, you were a bit surprised at the sight of the other twenty-two neos and multiple staffs huddled into it. how they all fit in there, you’ll never know, but you could hear various sniffles going around the room and caught sight of many tear-stained faces and glossy eyes.

you knocked on the metal frame of the door, causing everyone to turn to you and taeil, and what shock you most was that some burst even further into tears upon seeing you. yukhei and taeyong seemed to push their way to the doorway and enveloped the two of you in a tight hug—tighter for you as you were the one that ended up in yukhei’s arms.

“umm,” you looked to taeil for assistance, but he seemed just as clueless as you. “what’s…all this about?”

you look over at johnny as he cleared his throat. he hadn’t been crying, but looked rather happy by whatever had caused such a gathering. “if i may…”

he clicked a button and, as clear as day, you heard, “i will marry you one day, y/n. we’ll have at least one kid before so they can be apart of the wedding, and we’ll have at least two girls and one boy. we’ll adopt one or two and make sure our kids are as fashionable as taeyong, and we’ll sing them to sleep together, and-“

you found that your brain could only comprehend the soundboard in this very moment, and that was to ensure that you and taeil would indeed actually live to make those words come true before dying of embarrassment.

you searched for taeil’s eyes in the crowded room to find him as red as his punch era hair, still wrapped in taeyong’s hold. the younger lifted his head from the shoulder of the older male to look down at him—eyes sparkling.

“do you really mean it, hyung? you want your’s and y/n’s kids to be as fashionable as me? you think i’m fashionable? hyung!” his last word came out muffled as he was quick to burrow back into the crook of taeil’s neck.

and then the questions erupted.

“is that three kids or five?”

“will we all be uncles?”

“there can only be one godfather, right?”

“wait, are you even catholic?”

“well, if they have five there can be five of us, right?”

“i think i’d rather have one named after me.” “omg, i didn’t even think about that! you guys will definitely name one after me, right?”

“i don’t know about you, but i'm sure they’ll name one after me.”

“ha, yeah right. as if anyone in their right mind you name their child or children after you dorks.”

“yah! what was that?”

“yah? yah? what year were you born again.”

“wait, wait, hyung! i’m sorry!”

you managed to slip out with taeil’s hand in your own and began to sprint down the hallway and few flights of stairs. the two of you stopped about halfway down the stairwell panting, out of breath, and laughing any oxygen out of your lungs. you leaned on opposite sides of the stairwell, but you managed to calm yourself enough to push off your wall and walk over to taeil.

you stood in front of him and grabbed both of his hands before going up on your toes to kiss him for a bit. when you finally pulled away, per your lung's request, you settled your head in his chest and wrapped your arms around his torso. a door slamming somewhere above you startled you away from each other.

“hyung, noona! you still haven’t said who you’re gonna name them after!”

you two looked at each other for a second before nodding simultaneously.

“Run.”

#nct #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct fluff #nct 127 #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 fluff #taeil #moon taeil #taeil fluff #this was supposed to be a smut but i got emotional #sorry you will not taste taeil's phat juicy ass today

62 notes · View notes

jimins-ass-eater · 4 years

Text

the goblin queen | pjm

➛authors: @illneverrecover & @jimins-ass-eater ; executive consultant @quinnkook

➛pairing: Park Jimin x reader

➛genre: Labyrinth!AU, Goblin Queen!Reader, action, fantasy, some fluff, smut

➛word count: 11,298 (definitely didn’t think we’d write this much)

➛rating: M

➛warnings: action scenes, cursing, half naked tattooed & pierced Jungkook, mentions of alcohol, mentions of drugging/poisoning, heavy kissing, light bondage, power play (with both reader & Jimin), oral sex (male receiving), mentions of face sitting, unprotected vaginal sex, marking/biting, slight dirty talk

➛summary: When Jimin makes a desperate wish after giant mistake, he didn’t expect to find himself stuck in a Labyrinth, under the control of a mysterious Goblin Queen. Unable to escape, he has to defeat the trials of the maze - with the help of some new friends - in order to defeat her. However, she has a penchant for pretty things, and well, Jimin sure is pretty.

➛notes: I can’t think of a better way to break back into writing again than with two of my favorite people by my side, @illneverrecover and @quinnkook. Thank you both for being there to cheer me on, give feedback, and be the kindest support system ever. For this project, we decided to take the story/movie of Labyrinth, and turn it on its head for the network @ksmutclub “Twisted Fairtytales: Members in Distress”, with Jimin as Sarah, and the reader as mysterious and sexy Goblin Queen. This was exciting to write and I really hope that this gives me more confidence to continue writing in the future! Thank you for reading!

Failure has never been a thing in Jimin’s world.

He knew what it was, of course. Has seen others fall to its clutches, danced with the devil a few times himself, but he always pulled out at the last moment. Toed the line before forging ahead.

He was a perfectionist, and it showed. From his perfectly colored silver hair, his immaculate wardrobe, to his charming presence, his pristine work record. Jimin had worked hard his whole life to get where he was, and it wasn’t something he took lightly.

Which is why he cannot believe he made such a stupid mistake.

A small miscalculation, an extra digit where one shouldn’t be. He should have triple checked it, should have quadruple checked it - hell, he should have sent it to that obnoxious, always smirking auditor Wooyoung, just to be sure - but he didn’t. Not this time. He was confident, he was in a hurry, and he never made mistakes.

Until now.

It wasn’t something he could sweep under the rug, either. It had cost his company, Han Industries, an absurd amount of money; an amount that while only a drop in the bucket for the multimillionaire of a CEO, was still a substantial loss. His boss didn’t even seem angry, which was one of the worst parts, honestly. Jimin could handle yelling, berating, a stapler flying past his head - but what he couldn’t handle was the low disappointment in his superior’s tone, the disapproval in his eyes as he sent him home for the rest of the day.

He doesn’t know what’s next. Despite a spotless record before now, he wouldn’t be surprised if they suspend him. Fire him. He deserves it anyway, making such an idiotic error. How could he be so stupid?

Drinking a glass of wine on the back deck doesn’t relax him like he had hoped, instead it makes him feel itchy in his button down, has panic clawing in his throat. With one miscalculation, the perfect life Jimin had built for himself has all but crumbled, and what does he have to show for it?

The moon is full, bright, illuminating his balcony and shedding light to his shame. He feels tears prick behind his eyes, his vision swimming.

“I wish I could just disappear,”

The words hang heavy in the air alongside his anguish, and he blinks the wetness away, wiping at his cheeks. Sighing, he goes to take another sip of wine, when something appears in his periphery.

It seemed to be a small animal, creeping across the expanse of his backyard, however what stood out to him was the way it seemed to be glowing. Straining his eyes, he makes out the shape of a fox; long, bushy tail perked up in the air, sharp eyes and ears trained towards him, staring. It’s fur was as white as fresh snow, but the cast of the moon made it look like it was made of starlight, silver and shining.

Gasping, he freezes, watching as it slowly trots through the grass, edging closer to where he stands and the vast forest to the side of his home. It’s only when it gets closer that Jimin can see that it has something perched in it’s mouth, a rectangular shaped piece of leather, about the size of a-

Wait, is that his briefcase?

Without thinking, Jimin drops his wine glass and takes off towards the creature, shouting and waving his arms.

“HEY! Hey, drop that! That’s not YOURS!”

Sprinting through the grass, he continues to chase the silver fox, startling a bit when it tears off in the direction of the woods. “No! No, don’t go in there, drop it! Give it back!”

His desperation has him following, any sense of danger pushed to the back of his mind as he pursues the animal deeper into the forest, shouting expletives as he weaves through the trees. He couldn’t afford to lose his briefcase, lose his last connection and only hope at getting his job back, and it fuels him to run farther, even when the woodland becomes so thick he can barely see the light of the moon.

After what seems like ages, the fox sprints into a large open field, a clearing that is stopped abruptly by a large, intimating wall. Jimin stumbles to stop, his momentum making him fall forward, dropping his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

It had to be at least 12 feet high, made of dark brick covered in vines and foliage interwoven throughout. He has no idea what it would belong to - can’t recall any buildings this far out into the country - but before he can ponder for too long, the sly little beast gives him one last lingering stare before leaping through the wall, vanishing into thin air.

“What? No! HEY!”

Exasperation, misery, and a bit of stupidity has him following suit, speeding towards the place in the wall where it had disappeared in foolish determination.

“I’m going to catch you!” he yells before squeezing his eyes tight, and leaping towards the same spot in the wall -

-before leaping through it, vanishing into thin air.

When he opens his eyes, Jimin finds himself surrounded by the giant walls, sandwiched into a vast alley, no end in sight. He groans, fingers immediately flying up to massage his throbbing temple. How he got here, he can’t quite remember. It was like how one falls into a dream, except the pain in his head reminds him that this is all very much real. He remembers the fox, and his briefcase, and not much else. His hands, well groomed and adorned in silver rings, reach out for the giant walls that surround him. They’re solid, cool to the touch and so smooth that there’s no way he could climb them. He huffs. Jimin has one of two options: stay put or explore. Not one to sit around and do nothing, he decides to walk, his fingers trailing along the wall on his left as he makes his way forward.

He walks for an indeterminate length of time. The sun overhead barely moves, but it feels like very early morning. The landscape remains unchanged. Just two large walls on either side that cage him in, until he stumbles literally across an opening. Well, actually it was the legs of someone huddled up against the wall in front of an opening. The jostled stranger grunts as Jimin composes himself.

“Ouch. Why don’t you watch where you’re going,” the grumpy stranger snarls.

“I’m so sorry. I was walking, and I didn’t even see you! Where did you even come from?”

“Me? I’ve been here this whole time. It’s you that came out of nowhere.”

Jimin scoffs. “Well, sorry. Look. I’m trying to get out of this place. Do you know where I am?”

“I don’t even know who you are, so how should I know where you are?”

“My name is Jimin,” he extends a hand out of habit.

The stranger grasps his hand. “Woah, would you look at that. You’ve got some very nice rings, there, Jimin.”

Jimin pulls back his hand and wipes it inconspicuously on his pant leg, “Yes, well. Thank you. I’m sorry but I didn’t catch your name.”

“That’s because I didn’t say it.” The stranger smirks. “My name is Yoongi. And I’m just a simple troll who guards the entrance to the labyrinth by order of the Goblin Queen herself.”

Jimin blinks. “I’m sorry. Troll? Goblin Queen? I must be dreaming.”

“No, I’m afraid to tell you this is very much real. But you don’t have to take my word for it. You see that hourglass over there? You have 24 hours before the sand is up. If you can’t reach the Goblin Queen’s castle in that time, then you’ll be stuck here forever… and that briefcase of yours will be hers.”

Wait a minute, briefcase? “How do you know about the briefcase?” Jimin crosses his arms suspiciously.

“Because she told me about it! Obviously!” Yoongi huffs his dark hair out of his face and rolls his eyes in exasperation. “Look, are you going to flap your jaws here all day? Time’s a’ wastin’. I’d get a move on if I were you.”

Jimin looks past Yoongi’s shoulder. The labyrinth continued on, but there was no way for him to know how to get to the Goblin Queen’s castle. He met Yoongi’s gaze. “Take me to her castle.”

“What?” Yoongi starts to laugh. “Wow. That was a good one. I almost believed you for a second.”

“I’m serious. Take me there. You know the Queen so surely you know the way.”

Yoongi narrows his dark eyes. “And why should I take you there? Out of the goodness of my heart? The Queen will have my head if she finds out I helped you!”

Jimin folds his arms across his chest. Yoongi’s eyes flit down to the rings on his finger for a brief moment. It gives him an idea. “No, of course not. I’ll offer you a trade. My rings for your guidance.”

Yoongi’s face falters. “Who says I want those things?”

“Oh! Well, I guess that wasn’t a good trade then. Seeing as I have nothing left to offer, I guess I’ll just be on my way. Nice to meet you, Yoongi.” He waves his fingers in front of Yoongi’s face on purpose and sets off into the labyrinth. A few moments later he hears it:

“Wait!”

Jimin smiles, then turns around. “Yes?”

“I’ll do it. The trade. I’ll take your rings.”

“Wonderful,” Jimin beams as he begins to slide the rings loose.

Yoongi hobbles over to him, and Jimin thinks he must have been sleeping there a long time. He snatches the rings from Jimin’s outstretched palm and places them gleefully in his own fingers. He flexes his fingers in the sunlight as he admires them. Satisfied, he squares his shoulders and looks Jimin in the eye. “Before we go, I have one thing to say.”

Jimin nods for him to continue.

“Remember this. Things in the labyrinth aren’t always what they seem. Wherever you came from… this place is very different. I can assure you.”

“Oh… kay. Well, thanks for the terrifying reminder. I will be sure to take care. Plus, I have you now. Right?” He smiles widely and claps Yoongi on the shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Just try to keep up,” Yoongi grumbles as he starts down the packed earth path.

Jimin curses out loud as another low branch catches on his pant leg. As the path they walk on takes yet another winding curve, he can’t help but whine. “Is there no end in sight? God, I feel like I’ve been walking forever.” His feet land heavy on the packed dry earth.

“Well, this is a labyrinth. I’m not sure what to tell you,” Yoongi replies dryly.

“You could, I don’t know… lie to me? Tell me it’s over soon? Give me some hope of seeing the end?!”

Yoongi rolls his eyes. “And have to deal with the whining when you inevitably figure out the truth? No thanks. You’re lucky I’m even helping you, remember? The Queen will surely punish me when she finds out.” Yoongi’s lips quirk slightly as he imagines for a moment what sweet torment the Queen would plan for him.

Jimin opens his mouth to retort, but a primal yell stops them both in their tracks. It’s coming from up ahead, the same direction they’re supposed to be traveling. Jimin’s eyes find Yoongi’s, wide with an unspoken question. Before he can attempt to ask what the hell is going on, another yell can be heard, this time it sounds like one of pain.

“Someone’s hurt!” Jimin yells before dashing off toward the sound. He hears Yoongi shout behind him but the message is scrambled and he’s too far gone to care. He jumps over gnarled roots, flies down the twisting, shaded labyrinthine path. Another wail, closer now, and he’s answering out, “Hold on! I’m coming!” He crashes into a clearing, eyes scanning the unexpected sight before him. Bodies, goblins of sorts, lie crumpled and groaning in a heap. They’re injured and broken, but that’s not what makes his eyes widen. The tall, chest heaving hunk of sweaty shirtless muscle is what takes his breath from him. “W-who are you?” Jimin’s voice sounds more afraid than he’d like it to.

The beast turns toward him. Long black shaggy curls cover half of its face, but Jimin can feel its eyes on him. It straightens up to its full height and Jimin gulps as he scans it from head to toe. Two large, black gnarled horns sprout from its thick locks, a large rounded nose sits above pink sculpted lips. His jaw is set firm and determined. His shoulders, the widest part of him so far, are bare in the sunlight as is his torso. A silver ring decorates each nipple, and tattoos spiral down both arms and end at his fingers. His waist cinches in and is accentuated by his tight fitting black pants that strain under the hulk of his thighs.

He’s breathtaking.

The beast smirks and stalks towards Jimin. He starts from his staring with a shout and raises his fists. “Hey! Hey you! D-dont come closer! I’ll kick your ass!”

The beast only chuckles and raises his fists in kind, but looks relaxed, as one does when they’re fighting a much weaker and pitiful opponent.

“I’m warning you!” Jimin puffs out his chest to look more menacing.

“Woah woah! Wait! Wait!” Yoongi’s voice cuts the tension and the fighters both relax their stance. Yoongi breaks up the scene but is so winded from running after Jimin that he needs a moment. He raises a finger into the air as he bends at the waist and holds onto a knee. “Phew. God. I hate. Hate. Running. Ugh.” He straightens up and wipes his brow. “Jimin, meet Jungkook. Jungkook, meet Jimin. Jimin is a friend. Okay?”

Jungkook’s shoulders sag, and all the fight leaves him. He flicks his hair out of his eyes and big, brown eyes twinkle in wonder as he opens his mouth to speak. “Friend?”

“Yes, Jungkook. He’s a friend,” Yoongi pants out, still trying to find his breath.

Jungkook turns towards Jimin and smiles brightly, his eyes crinkling adorably. “Friend!” he shouts and runs toward Jimin, gathering the smaller man up in his arms and hugging him tightly despite Jimin’s obvious struggling.

“Nice… to meet… you too. Buddy.” Jimin croaks out, the breath nearly squashed from his lungs.

Jungkook beams and sets him back down. He’s all smiles as he looks back and forth between Jimin and Yoongi. He was so very glad to have another friend here. It was lonely in the labyrinth. And now he would have a new friend to beat up goblins with. It would be so much fun!

Yoongi straightens up. “Well. I’m glad I was able to stop that from going down. Thank goodness. Jungkook is the nicest person in this forsaken place, can’t imagine what I would have done if I came onto the scene to see you laying a hand on him.”

Jimin laughs. “What are you talking about? I wouldn’t have even landed a punch on him.”

“Shame on you for even thinking of hitting our Jungkookie. He’s our soft baby. No one is allowed to hurt him.”

Jimin smiles and shakes his head. “Aww, Yoongi. I’m starting to think the biggest soft baby in this place isn’t Jungkook, but you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m vicious.”

“Yeah, sure. Says the guy who helps a stranger through a labyrinth even though he hates physical exercise and protects big muscle baby here from getting picked on.” Jimin’s eyes sparkle as Yoongi’s cheeks start to turn pink. Jimin can’t help but coo and try to pinch them. “Aww, are you blushing? You are! So cute! Oh I just want to hug you now!” He approaches Yoongi with open arms.

“No! Absolutely not! No hugging!”

“Too bad! I’m going to!”

“No! Don’t!!!”

Poor Yoongi is too tired to evade Jimin for long, and winds up caged in the younger man’s arms. As soon as Jimin connects, the ground beneath the three of them begins to shake violently.

“What’s happening!” Jimin yells.

Jungkook looks around in panic.

“You idiot! I said no hugging!!!!” Yoongi bellows as the ground beneath them gives out and swallows the three of them up without a trace.

A tiny worm inches across the ground that just moments ago had swallowed them whole. It shakes its little head and sighs in pity. “What a shame,” it squeaks. “Had they kept going along this path, they’d be at the Queen’s castle in no time.”

The fall is only a moment, but it’s disorienting all the same. Jimin lands on a grassy knoll then rolls several feet before coming to a stop flat on his ass. He sits up, slowly, while groaning and trying to figure out where the hell they are. Yoongi and Jungkook are equally slow to get up, but seem to be otherwise unharmed. Jimin blinks, the area around him is nothing like he’s ever seen in the labyrinth before. It looks like a muggy swampland. Thick, murky water burbles and bubbles, and moss covered trees curl towards the sky with gnarled branches. It takes a deep breath to calm himself, and nearly wretches. The stench of death and flatulence and all things rotten slides into his nostrils and decides to make a permanent home there.

Jimin turns towards his companions. “What is that SMELL?”

“That,” Yoongi sighs, pinching his nose, “is the bog of eternal stench.”

“Smells bad!” Jungkook wails pathetically.

Yoongi extends a hand to poor Jungkook and helps him stand. Jimin stands as well, and wonders if he should breathe through his mouth and risk tasting the foul air, or if he should just give up and suffocate right there and then.

“I’m never hugging you again,” Jimin pouts.

“Preferable, honestly.”

Yoongi walks to the edge of the swamp and surveys the situation. He frowns as Jungkook and Jimin join him on either side. “Do you see that?” He points at the far end of the swampy bog. “There’s a bridge that leads out of here. The only problem is-”

“How do we get to it?” Jimin finishes Yoongi’s question.

“That… I don’t know,” Yoongi ponders deep in thought.

“Why can’t we just swim across?”

Yoongi looks at Jimin, “It’s not a bad idea except that, well, you’d drown. This muck is as thick as quicksand. Once you go in, you never get out.”

Jimin swallowed. He was willing to trust Yoongi on this one. “Well, could we make a boat?”

“Hmmm,” Yoongi answers noncommittally and continues to stew in his thoughts.

Jimin chews on his lip. “What do you think, Jungkook?” There’s no answer. Not even a grunt. Panic sets off in his gut. Oh no, did the poor guy wander off and get sucked into the bog? “Hey, Yoongi. Where’s Jungkook?”

“Hmm? Oh. He walked off over there, somewhere.” Yoongi’s hand waves off in the direction of Jungkook’s travel, and then he goes right back to sitting in his thoughts, muttering to himself.

Jimin jogs off in search of the man of few words. It was crazy to think that just a bit ago, Jimin was about to fight him and now he’s worried for his safety. The labyrinth works in strange ways like that - you can meet someone and suddenly they become your lifelong best friend. Jimin continued along the waterline, carefully tip-toeing over tree roots and making sure not to step too close to the water’s edge. The bog still reeked of death, and there was no getting used to the smell. He pushed through low lying branches and bushes, hoping the big lug would show himself at any moment. “Jungkook? Where are you?” He waited for a response. Nothing. His shoulders slumped. If he went too far, would he be able to find his way back to Yoongi? He looked back nervously the way he came. Resolve took hold in his gut. No, it didn’t matter. He was going to find Jungkook, and then they could look for Yoongi together. He nodded and pushed onward.

The sound of Jungkook’s laughter breaks through the symphony of the swamp. Jimin sighs in relief and starts off in its direction. “Jungkook! Hey! Where are you? Answer me!” The laughter gets louder and Jimin breaks into a run, and after pushing through some thick underbrush, he stumbles into a little beach of sorts on the bog. Jungkook turns and stares at him in surprise.

“Jimin?”

“Yeah! Why didn’t you answer me? I kept calling your name. We were looking for you. You can’t just run off like that.” Jimin huffs in annoyance, brushing sticks out of his silver hair. He stops and looks around. There’s not a soul to be seen. “Who were you laughing with, Jungkook?”

Jungkook points to the boulders on the shoreline. “Rocks!”

“You… were laughing at the… rocks?”

Jungkook nods and smiles. “With the rocks,” he corrects.

“...Right. Okay. Well. Um, we should probably get back to Yoongi. We’re trying to figure out how to get across this place to the other side. Say goodbye to the rocks.”

Jungkook waves enthusiastically to the rocks, then follows Jimin back to Yoongi, who from the looks of things has decided to give up from the way he sits dejectedly on his rump with his nose pinched. “It’s hopeless,” he declares. “There’s no way to get across this place. Might as well just… wallow.”

“What? No! I refuse to wallow.” Jimin puts his hands on his hips and surveys the surroundings. “What if… What if we used something to cross, like… a tree branch or something.”

“And how are you going to cut down some branches? Do you have an axe on you?” Yoongi sasses.

“Well, no. But… I’m sure there’s some fallen branches somewhere.”

“Already checked.”

“Ugh!” Jimin plops down next to Yoongi. “This is awful.”

“Yep.”

“If I hug you again, would we leave this place?” Jimin starts to wrap his arm around Yoongi’s shoulders.

“Please, don’t touch me,” he flinches but doesn’t push Jimin off him when he goes in for a one armed hug.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Jimin sighed, and looked back out to the bog. He narrowed his eyes. Something was different. He heard Jungkook giggling again with some large stones and rocks and then it hit him. Those rocks weren’t there before! “Hey, Jungkook!”

The shaggy haired man turned around.

“Where did those rocks come from?”

Jungkook pointed at the boggy water. “From the swamp!”

Jimin and Yoongi looked at each other. “Jungkook,” Jimin continued, “did you pull them out of the swamp?”

“No! Rocks come when I call for them.”

Yoongi grabs Jimin’s shoulder. “We could use them as stepping stones across the swamp! Hey! Jungkookie, could you ask the rocks to make a path for us across the swamp? We want to get the bridge over there.”

Jungkook puts his hand over his brow and squints at the bridge, then turns around and flashes them a big smile. “Of course! The rocks are my friends!” He then whistles a short little tune and suddenly the rocks begin to rumble and roll towards the water. Jimin jumps to his feet in wonderment as rocks and boulders from all directions roll and tumble over the landscape and into the marsh. Some bubble up from the murky depths below. Soon enough there is a neat little path that leads from one side to the other. The trio quickly makes their way across the stones, and once on the other side they rush towards the bridge.

“Come on, it’s just over this bridge and then we’re out of here,” Yoongi shouts.

The sound of a sword being unsheathed slices through the air. “Halt,” a deep voice bellows.

They skid to a halt.

“Not so fast,” the stranger declares as he steps into view.

“Who are you?” Jimin blurts out before he can think twice.

“Who am I? You don’t know of the great, the brave, the fashionable Sir Taehyung?” The stranger, Sir Taehyung is just as confused as they are. He sheathed his sword. “I can’t believe you’ve never heard of me.” He pouts adorably, looking less like a knight and more like a kid who’s just been told fairytales aren’t real. Jimin takes him in - Taehyung is dressed smartly in a tan, billowy shirt tucked into black slacks, which in turn are tucked into worn leather boots. Around his waist his scabbard hangs, bejeweled in scarlet rubies and navy sapphires. His thick dark hair is styled longer in the back than in the front, and is curled and waved in a way that looks dashing. Atop his head is a hat that is punctuated with a long, thin, ruby red tail of a bird. He looks every part of the knight in shining armor except… he doesn’t have the armor.

“I’m very sorry, Sir Taehyung,” Jimin steps forward. “But I’m new here. My name is Jimin, and this is Yoong and Jungkook. I was led here by the Goblin Queen, and she sent us to this dreadful place. We just want to get out.”

Sir Taehyung nods. “Hmm, a very sad story. Still. I can’t let you cross. It’s my duty to protect this bridge. None shall cross without my permission.”

Jimin pauses for a moment, then decides to test his luck. “Well then. May we have your permission?”

Sir Taehyung opens his mouth. Then closes it. He furrows his brow deep in thought. “Well. I suppose. No one has ever asked before. But well, why not?” He smiles wide, a large box-like grin and gestures for the trio to pass. “You may cross the bridge!”

“Thank you!” Jimin smiles. Jungkook and Yoongi head over first, but Jimin stops halfway across. It felt wrong to leave the knight there all alone. Something in his heart decided he should invite him along for the journey. “Hey, Sir Taehyung. Why don’t you come with us?”

Taehyung blinked in surprise. “Me? But… I… the bridge?”

“We’re going on a quest to defeat the labyrinth and Goblin Queen. We could surely use your skills along the way?” Yoongi and Jungkook crossed back and stood with Jimin now, nodding encouragingly at the knight.

He blushed a little, “Well, I suppose I could help. Knights should always help those in need, after all.” He looked around at the bog, the bridge, the place he had protected for as long as he could remember. No one had ever come by until today. Perhaps it would be years before someone would again. He nodded. “Right, well. I shall join your company, and help you defeat this evil Goblin Queen. Or I shall die trying.” He bowed respectfully, tipping his hat off in the process. He grabbed it off the ground and stood back up. “Ahem. Well. Lead the way, Jimin, Yoongi, and Jungkook.”

Jungkook smiled, “New friend!”

Sir Taehyung’s lip quirked into a shy smile. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

“Yoongi.”

Your sultry voice in his ear sends a shiver down his spine. He hates it. Hates how badly you affect him. Jimin, Jungkook, and Sir Taehyung are up ahead, taking a rest and chatting while Yoongi was supposed to be taking a bathroom break in the dense woods. Then you showed up.

“What do you want?” He spits out, trying to sound gruff. It’s cute how tough he’s trying to be.

Choosing to ignore his attitude for the moment, you continue. “I want you to give our Jimin a little something from me.”

Yoongi crosses his arms and turns his head. He looks so much like a petulant child that you almost bark out a laugh. You manage a cough at the last moment. “Ahem. Come on, Yoongi baby, don’t be like this.”

His eyes glance over at you for a second, before he turns away again. “No. Why don’t you do it yourself.”

You click your tongue. “Stop being a little brat. You know I can’t give him anything in person. That ruins the fun.” When he doesn’t budge you let out a sigh. “Are you jealous?”

Yoongi takes the bait. “...No.”

You raise your eyebrow.

Your silence makes him sweat. He breaks. “I just don’t understand why you need more.”

“There it is.”

“You’ve already got me. And…Seokjin. Namjoon. Why him? He’s just a dramatic brat.”

You crack a smile at that. “Oh? I would say it takes one to know one.”

Yoongi whines. “Exactly! So why do you need another one?”

“Because,” you saunter forward and tap his nose, “I quite like the idea of punishing two little brats. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

“...I guess. But why do I have to do it? Why can’t I just stay in the castle with you?”

“Awww, is someone jealous? Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you touched yourself without permission last week. I told you I’d have to punish you.” His expression sours at having been put in place. “Now, give him this.” You pull a soft, delectable peach from thin air. Yoongi snatches it and tucks it away in his vest.

“Is it poisoned?” He tries to ask without sounding too excited.

“Oh god, no. I just wanted to give him a little boost. I was quite impressed with his show of strength against Jungkook, and with how quickly he was able to get out of the bog.” You sigh wistfully as your eyes drool over Jungkook’s body. “I do wish the little sweet wasn’t so terrified of me.”

“I don’t think he’d survive you,” Yoongi sniffs.

“I think it’s the other way around, darling.” Yoongi pulls a face. You turn to vanish back to the castle. “Don’t forget to give that to him, baby. If you do well, I’ll consider your punishment over.” The tinkle of your giggles rings in the air long after you’re gone, teasing Yoongi and making him huff.

“Fine. I guess I will.” He fights the curl of his lips that threaten to smile as he turns and joins up the rest of the party.

The hot sun beats overhead. How many hours has it been since entering? Does time even exist here? Jimin lets his body collapse, first onto his knees and then back on his rear. He kicks his feet out.

“I’m just so tired!” He whines.

Yoongi rolls eyes and mutters something about a drama queen, but it goes undetected by Jimin. He takes a seat on a nearby rock and begins to fiddle with his rings, smiling softly at them. “You know,” he muses, fingering the delicate silverwork of his new favorite, “you could just, I don’t know. Stop whining so much. No one’s made it this far into the labyrinth before. Consider yourself lucky you’re not dead.”

Jimin furrows his brow. “I’ve been walking for ages, and I’m so hungry that I’m sure I’ll die of starvation at this point. Not that you care.” He pauses, a thought runs across his face and he sits up, eyes now narrowed in suspicion. “Yoongi.”

The tone of his voice makes the troll pause and slowly turn his head towards Jimin.

“Yes?”

“Why aren’t you hungry? Do trolls not eat?”

“Uh. Um. Well, we do, but-”

“So then, what. Have you been snacking without me? What the hell?”

“No! I haven’t-”

“What’s in all those pockets anyway? No one wears a stupid vest like that unless they’ve got snacks in their pockets. Share. Now.”

Yoongi crosses his arms protectively over his chest and vest as Jimin stalks toward him, a murderous hangry glint in his eyes. “Wait! No!” He protests but Jimin is already patting him down, feeling for anything - a cracker, a crumb, something. Soon enough, he finds it. The round globe of a peach that Yoongi had been hiding from him.

“What is this?” Jimin fumes.

“You don’t want to eat it.” Yoongi gulps.

“Like hell I don’t! I’m starving.” His hand dives in for the peach but Yoongi grabs his wrist with surprising force. “What are you doing? At least you could share it!”

Yoongi chews on his lip, and then meets Jimin’s eyes. “Are you sure you want to eat this peach?”

Jimin screws up his face in disbelief. “Uhhh? What the hell? Yes! I’m hungry!”

Yoongi sighs, heavy and full of burden. It’s no ordinary peach, but of course he can’t say that. The Queen would have his head. He grimaces as he pulls the fruit from his vest pocket. It’s a beautiful specimen - perfectly ripe, a gorgeous hue of orange and coral, and the sweet smell of its juicy innards perfume the air. It’s mouthwatering and enticing - just as the Queen intended.

Jimin snatches it from Yoongi’s outstretched hand. “How could you hold out on me like this?!”

But Yoongi stays silent, watching him devour the fruit with a strange twinge of some unfamiliar emotion in his gut. For a brief moment he wonders what this means. Could he have started to care for this poor, wayward soul? A loud thud breaks him out of his thoughts. The remains of the peach rolls along the ground, stopping against his boot. Yoongi grunts down at it, then shrugs, and the feelings he wondered about disappeared as quickly as they came.

“What happened to Jimin!” Sir Taehyung rushes over and begins to check the pulse against Jimin’s limp wrist.

“He’s fine. Sleeping. Just ate a bewitched peach. It will wear off in a little while. For now I suggest we all just relax and wait for him to wake up.” Yoongi adjusts himself into a suitable position for a snooze. His fingers hypnotically stroke his rings until he’s snoring peacefully. Taehyung and Jungkook decide to follow suit, and soon, they begin to doze in the afternoon sun.

Jimin gasps, suddenly transplanted into an unfamiliar place. He blinks his eyes. The air around him is hazy, and his mind feels fuzzy. It feels like a dream, but he knows he isn’t dreaming. Right? The haze pulls back and his body is revealed in a full length mirror that wraps around him on all four sides. What he sees reflected back confuses him - it’s him, but not how he remembers himself. He steps closer to the mirror. The crisp sound of dress shoes clack across the hardwood floor. He stops and examines himself. His silver hair is swept effortlessly back off his face, his eyes are smoked out in soft hues of brown, and one rhinestone is placed delicately under each eye. His full lips are soft pink, a light sheen of tint on them. He lifts his hands and marvels at his clothing. All white. His shirt is almost sheer, the gauzy fabric is cool and soft over his skin, and is tucked neatly into white slacks that fit tightly to his legs.

A laugh breaks his concentration, and he whips his head around, the silver pendant earrings dangling from the quickness of his movement. The mirrored walls are now gone and he finds himself in the middle of a lively ballroom. Men and women and other creatures wear masks that hide their faces, but they don’t seem to be bothered by his sudden appearance. Some dance. Some drink champagne. Some hang on the bodies of others, their hands groping in obvious debauchery. The whole scene is dizzying and intoxicating. Chandeliers and jewels sparkle overhead. Tables laden with food and drink invite him to imbibe. Jimin steps forward into the ballroom and is folded into the mix of bodies and merriment. He goes to grasp a crystal champagne flute, but stops short. Warmth runs down his spine like liquid gold, as if painted on his skin with a lover’s caress. He shivers, eyes fluttering for the briefest of moments, and then he turns to see you, the Goblin Queen.

You’re surrounded by party-goers but all of your attention is on him. Jimin swallows under your intense gaze. Dressed in all black, your costume for the evening amplifies your power which radiates off of you in waves. You stand from your place of honor and Jimin swears the whole party seems to fade away. You smirk and tilt your head, and then lift a finger to beckon him closer. He takes one step, two, and then crashes into the shoulder of someone dancing, knocking him off course. When he regains his footing, he’s lost you in the crowd again. With annoyance he pushes on. Can’t these people see that you’ve called for him? He weaves between dancing bodies. His patience grows thin. Why? He doesn’t know. Jimin feels he must get to you anyway he can, but try as he might he just can’t find you. He slumps and exhales to blow off steam. Where are you?

“Caught you, pretty.” A melodious voice rings lowly in his ear. Yours. He tries to turn around but your fingers wrap around his hip. “Ah, ah. You’ll stay put. Let me admire you.”

He chews on his plush bottom lip as your hand drops away from his body, and you pull back to gaze at the glorious view his back holds. A smile curls your lips up and you slink around to his front, taking slow steps to allow your eyes to drink him in. Jimin squirms. He’s not in control, but he’s quickly finding out he doesn’t hate this. By the time you round his front, he’s itching to hear your thoughts. Did you like what you saw? Was he good enough for you? He’d be anything you wanted him to be. He can’t help but let his eyes wander down your body, appreciating the way your dress hugs your body. The dips and valleys he wants to sink his fingers into. His fingers curl into fists at his side.

You giggle, and it sounds like twinkling diamonds in his ears. Your index finger catches under his chin, and you lift his gaze up to meet yours. “I can tell you’re dying to touch me, Jimin.” He gulps. “Why don’t you dance with me, then?” He nods obediently and steps forward to pull your waist against him. His hand splays across your lower back and you feel his fingers press into the curve of your spine. Your chest pushes against his as he takes a step and leads you into a waltz. He’s beautiful up close. Perfection. You smile at your luck in luring him into your labyrinth. But he wasn’t yours yet. He still needed to find you in your castle.

“Jimin.” His name sighs past your lips. “Do you know who I am?”

He nods. “I do.” He voices his thready reply.

“Say it.”

“You’re the Goblin Queen.”

You grin. “So smart.” He twirls you into his arms as he preens. “Now indulge me,” you resume as the steps pick back up, “do you wish to see me in private? Without all these eyes around?” Your smirk insinuates the pleasures you could show him.

Jimin feels entranced. “Yes,” he answers without thinking.

The music stops but you don’t pull away. You cup his cheek and bring your face closer to his, and you can feel the warm puff of his breath as it escapes his lips with a shudder. “Then come find me,” you whisper against his lips. You pull back, and begin to walk backwards. “Wake up, and come to me, Jimin. I’m waiting.”

Jimin frowns. “Wake up?”

The sound of glass cracking pierces the moment, and with a jump he looks around. The party around him begins to break apart like shards of mirror, distorting the once beautiful party into a horrific sight. “No!” He cries. “Wait! How will I find you?” But you are nowhere to be found. He tries to run, but can’t move forward. And then he feels himself slipping, slipping, until everything goes black.

“Do you think the poor lad will wake up,” Sir Taehyung muses, cleaning his monocle against his fine silk shirt.

Yoongi grunts in his sleep, not bothering to open his eyes. “S’fine. She said it wouldn’t kill him, anyhow.” He readjusts and yawns. “Let’s just enjoy the peace and quiet while we-”

“Look!” Jungkook points towards Jimin, who now begins to twitch to life.

“So much for a long nap,” Yoongi grumbles, as Jungkook and Sir Taehyung rush to Jimin’s side. They attempt to help him up, but Jimin shoots up with a gasp and exclaims, “I must get to the castle!”

Sir Taehyung and Jungkook blink at each other. “Are you,” Sir Taehyung starts, and then shakes his head, “you do realize the Goblin Queen just tried to poison you? Are you sure?”

Jungkook looks worried and shakes his head.

“I don’t care what you think, I have to get there. As fast as I can!” He scrambles to stand up but his legs aren’t working yet and he crashes into Jungkook, who easily steadies his body and holds him upright. Jimin struggles in his grip.

“Jimin, I really don’t think it’s a good idea-” Sir Taehyung starts.

“-Let him go.”

They all turn to look at Yoongi, who speaks with such resignation that it renders them silent. Jungkook blinks his wide eyes a few times as if to process what his friend just said, but soon his hands fall from Jimin’s shoulders. Jimin rubs at the skin tenderly, his eyebrows furrowing and lips pouting at the strength of Jungkook’s grip. Yoongi hops down from his perch on the rock, all eyes on him as he silently makes off down the path. He stops for a moment and calls out, not bothering to turn around, “Are you going to follow me, or what?” then continues down the path. Jungkook and Sir Taehyung exchange bewildered glances, but Jimin nearly trips over his own feet as he goes to follow Yoongi. He’s practically skipping circles around Yoongi as they walk off down the path. Jungkook sighs and shakes his head.

“Yeah, I know. I’m worried about him, too,” Sir Taehyung admits. His hand grips Jungkook’s bare shoulder in comfort. “But, what can we do? He’s made up his mind. Let’s just see that he gets to the castle safely, alright?”

Jungkook nods solemnly. “Yeah,” his voice is quiet, but clear. “I’m just afraid we’ll be meeting the Queen, too, if we get too close.” He chews on his lip, a worried habit of his. “I’ve never met her before, Tae. What if she tries to...” his eyes dart around and then he lowers his voice, “...curse us?”

Sir Taehyung shrugs as his eyes focus on Yoongi’s retreating back. “I’ve never met her before, either. But Yoongi told me that the Queen is someone you’d wish you’d never meet, because after you do, your mind and body are never right again unless she makes it so.” He shivers. “I didn’t have the heart to ask him what he meant after that, he looked so tormented.”

“Ah, that sounds so scary!”

Sir Taehyung stares at the path towards the castle. “Yes, it does. I think one of these days I will have to go to the castle and deal with the Queen myself. I am, afterall, a knight!” He squares his shoulders and valiantly marches off. Jungkook watches in awe as his friend in figurative shining armor walks bravely towards the castle. He nods resolutely and scrambles to catch up.

The walk to the castle isn’t as long as Jimin thought it would be. Once they cleared the thick maze of woods, the path opened up to a clearing that revealed the castle in all its splendor. The company all stopped and looked on in awe. Towers of crystal and white stone gleamed in the sun. The grounds that surrounded the castle were beautifully landscaped. There were flowers of every type and color imaginable, perfectly frozen in full bloom by what Jimin guessed had to be by the power of your magic. There were no guards. No gates that kept people out. Only an open invitation inside. The thought made his heart race. He wanted to run the rest of the way and into the castle, but Yoongi spoke before his legs could move.

“Well. This is where we say goodbye.” Yoongi turned toward Jimin and held his hand out, Jimin’s rings glittering on his fingers.

Jimin smiled at his outstretched hand. “You speak as if we’ll never see each other again. But we know that’s not the case, right?” He takes Yoongi’s hand and shakes it.

“Hmph. You’ve grown to be pretty full of yourself in a short amount of time. What makes you think I want to see you again?” The smile on Yoongi’s face betrays his brusque words.

Jimin shakes his head and turns toward Sir Taehyung. “Thank you, for all your help Sir Taehyung. If not for your bravery and kindness, I would have probably killed Yoongi long ago-”

“-Why you little-”

“-I hope we can see each other soon,” Jimin continues, despite Yoongi’s grumbles.

Sir Taehyung balks. “But, shouldn’t we go inside with you?”

Jimin shakes his head. “No, I need to… Want to face her alone.”

“But why?”

Jimin smiles. “Because… that’s the way I like to do things.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes.

“Alright,” Sir Taehyung agrees, “if that’s the way you want to do it, then that’s the way it must be done. But should you need us…”

“Yes, should you need us...,” Jungkook steps forward.

“Don’t worry,” Jimin smirks. “I won’t need you. But should things get exhausting, I suppose I could call.”

Sir Taehyung and Jungkook exchange bewildered expressions. “Right,” Yoongi waves his hands and pushes Jimin at the back. “Get a move on lover boy. The Queen is waiting for you, and she doesn’t like it when her guests are late.”

The inside of the castle is dark, despite the sun shining only moments before he stepped through the cool walls. Jimin’s eyes strain to adjust to the dim light, scanning the room. He can’t say he’s ever been inside a castle before, but it’s just what he would have pictured. Giant, orante rooms filled with large furniture and decadent furnishings, everything gold and shining and ethereal.

He isn’t sure where to go, but that doesn’t stop him. His feet lead him on the path that feels right, a pull of an invisible thread. As he climbs a set of stairs, he rounds a corner before he's in front of a heavyweight door, embellished with gold, red, and black swirling designs. His gut told him you would be waiting behind it, and his hand raises in anticipation of a knock.

Instead, it swings open, beckoning him inside. This room wasn’t any brighter than the others, however a copious amount of pillar candles have been lit, edging around the base of the room.

And in the center is you.

Adorning your true self to greet your guest, you had spared no expense in preparing for Jimin’s arrival. Plush lips were painted blood red, eyes lined with dark kohl, your body draped in midnight silk. You were a vision, and you knew it.

Blinking, he squints, heart racing. “Are… are you.. Her?”

Instead of a response, he feels the air change, an electricity licking up his spine. Every nerve from his head to the tips of his toes lights up as you saunter closer, his vision clearing just as you step before him.

He sucks air between his teeth. You’re beautiful.

Beautiful and powerful and terrifying, all at once, and Jimin feels like his heart will beat out of his chest.

“I am the Goblin Queen, yes,” you purr, stepping into his inseam. A single manicured finger reaches out to trace the bottom of his pout, the nail leaving a reddened path to his mouth. “You have seen me before, in many forms - but not my true one.”

The fox. He hadn’t thought about the shining silver creature in what seems like days, but at your words it all came rushing back, how he got here, what the little vixen had stolen from him…

His briefcase.

As if his thought summoned it out of thin air, he notes it off to the side of the room, resting safely on top of an ornate desk to your right. It was in pristine condition, not a single scratch on the leather, but he couldn’t seem to focus on that. His attention kept being drawn back to you.

Jimin forces his gaze away from your sparkling irises, instead roaming over your body in a full assessment. Stunning, he thinks, the way your black skin tight silk dress hugs every line of your form, the way you’re soft in all the right places, skin luminous. He feels like a moth drawn to flame, a helpless creature finally falling into your trap, right where you want him.

A small voice in the back of his mind told him that he should be scared; should be nervous as to what it means that he was in your clutches, after surviving the trials you had forced him into. Yoongi and the others had told him just how dangerous you were, all the wicked things you had done. His guard should be up - he should be looking for a way to grab the briefcase, escape, be ready to battle - but instead he just felt the blood rushing to his groin at the way you were looking at him like he was your next meal.

“What do you think?”

Blinking, it takes Jimin a moment to realize you’ve asked a question. “I think… I think you’re amazing,�� he breathes, earning him a small smile.

“I’m so glad you think so, sweet boy.” Your breath was warm on his cheek, and Jimin felt drunk on your voice alone. “I did this all for you, you know.”

When he didn’t answer, seemingly too awestruck, you continue. “Stealing your briefcase. Bringing you here, the trials, the friends you made along the way - coming to me now. It was all for you Jimin, all by design.”

Draping your arms around his shoulders, you remain still for a moment before dragging your hands down his body until they were laced on top of his own. You place them around your waist, squeezing once to make sure he maintains the hold before going back to encircle his neck.

Leaning closer, your lips ghost the shell of his ear. “So tell me again… do you like it?”

Jimin gulps, swallowing thickly around the lump in his throat. His lungs feel like they’re going to burst, his eyes rolling back before closing. He didn’t know what was happening, what you want from him, but he knew he didn’t want to stop.

“Y-yes, I like it....” He stumbles, trying to find the right word. “Your Majesty?”

Your answering giggle sounded like the tinkling of bells, and Jimin wonders if he’s ever heard a laugh sound that pretty before.

“You can call me that,” you murmur, returning to your feet to stare into his warm gaze. “Or, if you’re really good, you can call me Y/N.”

“Y/N,” he tries, the name feeling odd on his tongue yet making sense once said aloud. It fit you somehow, this otherworldly being, this goddess queen who had brought him here…

His brow furrows, and he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth. Why had you brought him here? He was no one, nothing special, just a stupid man who made an arrogant wish in a moment of weakness. He wasn’t worth all of this trouble. So why?

As if you can read his mind, you grasp his jaw gently in your palm, forcing his eyes back on your own. “What are you thinking in that pretty head of yours, hmm?”

“I just - I’m trying to make sense of it all,” His tongue darts out to wet his lips. “Why someone like you would bring me here? Would want me?”

Cupping his face, you cluck your tongue, shaking your head. “Of course I would want you, don’t think such dreadful things about yourself. I won’t have it.”

Jimin nods and you give him a smile, thumb still tracing over the delicate bone in his cheek. “I wanted you for the same reason I want anything - because I’m a collector of pretty things,” you tap his nose playfully, before moving to caress his plush pout.

“And you, my dear Jimin, are very pretty.”

Taking a step back, you let your hand fall to his chest, moving to walk around him in a slow circle, a predator assessing her prey. “You’re pretty, and brave, and strong. Kind. The others took to you so quickly. Yoongi was so protective, so jealous - after a mere day. You’re a good man, with a good heart. Passed all the trials with ease.”

Arriving back in front of him, you follow the line of his collarbone to his shoulders, kneading the muscle there before pressing your chest against his own. “I want to spoil you, make you feel good. Don’t you think you deserve a reward for all your hard work?”

Jimin shivers, your statements sinking deep into his mind. It didn’t make sense; how he had come here to defeat you, to demand to go home, and now… now all he can think about is pleasing you. Intoxicating, that’s what you are - with words dripping with honey and hands that can’t seem to stop touching him - and the idea of you continuing to do so makes him ache with need.

“Yes,” he croaks, voice thick. “I want that.”

An exquisite, almost sinister smirk tugs the edge of your lips. “Good boy.”

He’s being guided further into your chambers before he can speak another word, stumbling over his own feet until the backs of his legs hit something soft, yet firm.

The edge of the bed.

A gentle push has him plopping down, his body boneless as he watches you in wonderment, your every move captivating him completely. He stares hungrily as you let your hands explore his abdomen, one leg raising to hitch over his hip.

“Is it okay if I sit here?”

“Y-yes. Yes please,”

And then you’re in his lap, and his senses are in overload as he breathes you in, feels your warmth through the confines of his clothes. You haven’t even kissed him, yet Jimin feels arousal pooling low in his gut at how you feel on top of him. He wants to kiss you, wants to dig his fingers into the flesh on your hips, but instead he stays still, waiting for your next move.

“First things first, let’s get rid of this,” you breathe, yanking the cotton shirt over his head and tossing it behind you.

Bare before you, you lick your lips at the sight of his golden chest, his toned stomach. Manicured nails rake through his silvered hair, lulling his eyes close as you lean forward, nose lightly grazing his own. In this moment, Jimin can’t think of anything else - what got him here, what he’s gone through - only you, only how much he wants to feel your lips on his own.

And then the space between you is gone - your mouth eager, sliding his bottom lip between your teeth as your tongue seeks its mate. He reciprocates with a groan, frozen hands now free and grasping at your waist in his desire to taste you, to feel you deeper. You smile against his mouth at his boldness, drinking in the way the lust builds in the air between you, fueling your fervor.

You allow him to continue the passionate kiss for several moments, enjoying the sweetness of his tongue in your mouth before pulling away, chest heaving.

Jimin tries to chase your lips, making you giggle as you refrain from giving in. Instead you click your tongue, chastising him. “Ah ha, behave yourself,” you croon, watching as his gaze darkens. “I’m supposed to be giving you a treat, remember?”

“But kissing you is a treat, please-”

“Oh, listen to that. What good manners.” You twist back, reaching for something beside the bed that Jimin can’t see. “I’ll give you what you want, don’t worry.”

Righting yourself, he sees what you’ve grabbed - a long, midnight black silk ribbon, the matching companion to your dress, about the width of his hand. You drag the material against his exposed skin, delighting in the shiver it sends down his spine.

“But first, I’m going to tie your hands. You touch me when I say you can.” It’s a demand, not a request, but you pause, giving him a chance to speak up. When he nods, you reward him with a wide smile, arranging his arms around his back.

It’s torture, feeling you pressed up against him while you bind him, your hands working deftly despite not being able to have a good view around his body. He feels the tickle of the excess fabric as you finish it off into a bow, arms flexing to test the strength of the bind - which was more secure than he expected.

“There,” you sigh, arranging yourself back on his lap. “You look like a pretty present, all tied up for me like this.”

Jimin gulps visibly, his pants becoming impossibly tight against his growing length. He could feel the desperation to have you build, your tease slowly becoming torture.

“Yes, all for you, Y/N… your majesty.”

Wrapping your hands around his neck, you rock your hips forward, moaning when you feel his hardness beneath you. Jimin whines, pelvis raising in attempts to recreate the pressure.

“Please, please touch me… I’m being so good…” he’s babbling, but he can’t make himself care, almost delirious in his need. “Right?”

“You are,” you murmur, writhing against his bulge once more. “So good, Jiminie.”

This time when you meet his lips, you take your time, pressing chaste closed mouth kisses over every inch of his mouth before taking it deeper, your tongue taking it’s time to savor his taste. The passion from before was still there, just more tempered, lips moving languidly as if you had all the time in the world to explore him.

A gentle shove is all it takes to have Jimin falling onto his back, wincing at the weight on his trapped wrists. Nipping at his lip, you pull the flesh between your teeth before trailing down his form, pausing to nuzzle at his neck.

He’s panting as you lick and suck blossoms on the base of his throat, hips rising to undulate against you. You allow it, enjoying his blatant wanton desire for you, the way it makes your panties cling to your center. Having the beautiful man pliant under your fingertips made you flush, dominance coursing through your veins, re-energizing your soul.

Sliding down, you continue your path, pausing to admire and lavish his abdomen with affection, arousal building at each noise he rewarded you with. Jimin certainly wasn’t afraid to be vocal, and it was something you didn’t know you were missing; something you certainly never got much of with Yoongi. It was delicious,to have him moan and whine your name, and you couldn’t wait to take him in your mouth to see what pretty music he’d make for you then.

Sharpened nails play with the elastic at his waist, a deft hand unbuttoning his slacks to begin to drag them down his legs. Hunger burned in your throat at the thought of seeing him naked, tied and splayed before you, at your mercy willingly. But it’s as you are slipping his briefs down his form that Jimin raises his head to look at you, eyebrows pinched.

“Is there something wrong, sweet boy?”

He gulps, as if he’s been drowning and has finally breached the surface for air. “No no, nothing’s wrong.. It’s just… I don’t,”

Hushing him, you rub soothing circles on his bare thighs. “It’s okay, love. We have all the time in the world, there’s no rush, no pressure. We can stop at any time-”

“No! I don’t want to stop!” his eyes are wide, earnest. “It’s just, I was thinking… and what happens after? After all this?”

His voice is so genuine, sincerity in every word, and it takes you a moment to stop from giggling at how serious he looks while half naked and tied up on your bed.

Instead you give a reassuring smile, rising up to meet his eyes. “Whatever you want, Jiminie. You aren’t a prisoner. You made it through the labyrinth, beat all the challenges laid before you. When we’re finished, I can return you home - right back into bed, if you so wish.”

“And what if,” he pauses, breaking your gaze and looking down. “What if I don’t want to leave?”

The question surprises you, but in a thrilling way that has your heart racing. You had never thought he’d want to stay, amongst you and the others, become yours for eternity. But it was an appetizing thought.

“Then don’t.”

Gliding back down over his lap, you rip the remaining fabric blocking him from your vision, his cock throbbing and glistening at it’s reddened tip. Tracing a finger up his length, you collect some of his arousal from his leaking tip, before bringing it up to your lips.

Locking eyes, you send the silent command for him to not look away before popping the digit into your mouth, humming lowly at the taste.

Jimin’s answering groan is almost feral, pupils lust blown and pleading.

“Shall I continue?”

He nods frantically, babbles of “yes” and “please” still echoing around the room as you return to his length, stroking it softly, pressing your lips gently at the junction of his hip.

The slow pace gave you a chance to fully admire him like this; flushed, tied up, painfully hard under your touch. His cock was every bit as pretty as he was - not too long but wonderfully thick, with a slight curve up towards his belly.

“You’re so beautiful, Jiminie,” you murmur between kisses, tongue flicking out to swirl at his tip. “Beautiful and delicious.”

It’s then that you sink him deeper on to the bed of your tongue, encircling your lips around him. Slowly you drag up and down, lowering a bit more on his length at each pass until you’ve swallowed him completely, moaning.

“Oh god,” he whines, his pelvis rising to thrust against you. “You feel so good, Y/N.”

His words spur you on and you kick up the pace, bobbing on him until he’s squirming against the bed, lost to his pleasure. Seeing him in this state fuels your arousal, the wetness between your legs now accompanied with a throbbing need to be filled. You want nothing more than to straddle his waist and slip him inside of you, feel him fully - but not yet. You want to savor him for just a bit longer.

A free hand comes to cup his balls as you work him over with your mouth, squeezing them slightly, and he cries out your name. “If you keep doing that, I’m gonna cum.”

Smirking, you pull him out of your mouth with a lewd pop. “What if that’s what I want?” your hand comes to replace your lips, gliding up and down his salvia slickened length. “What if I want you to lose control?”

“Fuck,” he keens, tossing his head back on the bed. He wants so badly to reach out for you, to feel you, to make you moan out his name. He could return the favor, have you come undone on his tongue, his fingers. If he closes his eyes, he can almost taste you, imagine how tightly you’d squeeze him as he worked you open.

He wants it, desperately.

“Please, I want to touch you too, want to make you feel good,” he meets your eyes, unshed pleas in his gaze. “You can come sit on my face if you don’t want to untie me. Or let me finish inside you, whatever you want. Please, Your Majesty,”

“You beg so prettily too, Jiminie,” cooing, you languidly lick up his shaft, considering his words.

You did like the idea of lowering yourself over his mouth, leaving him only with his tongue and lips to bring you to the brink, hands still trapped behind his back. Letting him get you off, but still having the control, having the power. But ultimately, you were too impatient for drawn out foreplay. You needed to have him inside of you, and you needed it now.

Instead of answering, you give his cock one last peck before maneuvering up on the bed, kneeling before him. You tease the straps of your negligee, letting them fall around your shoulders before pulling it down over your breasts, your hips.

Jimin gasps in awe, wishing for the millionth time that his hands weren’t bound. “I can’t believe you're real,” he whispers, licking his lips. “You’re gorgeous.”

For some reason, his candor has you blushing, his words striking something deep within your chest. You try to shrug it off, paint a salacious grin on your lips, but you feel your legs shaking as you swing to straddle his hips.

Leaning down, you hover over his mouth for a moment.

“Thank you.”

And then your lips are intertwined, pelvis rocking against his, soaked panties the only barrier stopping him from slipping inside of you. A flick of the wrist has them discarded, and the warmth of your center directly on his dick has Jimin groaning into your mouth.

Raising your hips, you line yourself up with his tip before plunging down, crying out at the sudden fullness of him deep inside you. For a moment, neither of you move, measuring your breaths to adjust to the pleasant burn. Looking down at him, a pang of fondness rings through your core, and you give him a small smile before you move again, this time with more speed.

Carnal hunger takes over as your hips gain momentum, sheathing him deep within your cunt over and over, head rolling back with a moan. Relentless, you place your hands on his chest for balance, clenching against him as you bounce on his lap, blistering heat building low in your belly.

“You feel so good, Jiminie,” you sigh, eyes closing. “Gonna make me cum.”

“Y/N,” Jimin growls, voice low. “Untie my hands, please.”

His request goes through you, his words heard but not processed. Instead, you dig your nails into his chest, arch your back into him more.

Jimin sits up then, core strength lifting his torso off the bed and causing you to fall back against his thighs. His mouth is immediately on your breasts, sucking and toying with your hardened bud as you continue to ride him.

“I said - untie me, please.”

Head dizzy with lust, your hands move automatically, reaching behind him to pull at the end of the black ribbon to release him. It’s only when his hands rise to grasp your waist, his pelvis thrusting up into yours at an alarming rate that you realize what you’ve done.

“Jimin, oh god-”

Now that he’s free he cannot get enough of your flesh beneath his palms, hands roving and groping you all over - pulling at your thighs, your hips, your breasts. His pace never slows; burying himself within you so deep that he hits the spot inside that makes you see stars, hurtling you towards your end. It’s as if you’ve awoken a ravenous beast inside him, one that feeds on the pleasures of your body, and he won’t stop until he gets his fill and has you pulsing around him, cries of his name on your lips.

The band in your belly pulls taunt at his onslaught, orgasm teetering on the edge - and you sink your hands into his hair, yanking back at the base to expose his throat for you to descend your mouth onto.

“So good, such a good boy - gonna make me cum,”

Jimin growls, hands enclosing around your waist before pinning you down on your back, cock never leaving your cunt, his sweat sheened form now towering above you.

“Yes, Y/N, give it to me. Let go for me,” he praises, lifting your legs to rest on his shoulders, bending you in half. He begins plunging into you, long digits toying with your clit, rolling it between his thumb and finger. “Wanna feel you come undone.”

Once his mouth returns to your nipple, biting it softly, you feel a snap in your gut, throwing you over the edge and full force into your high. You close your eyes against the euphoria, riding out the shockwaves hammering through your body as he continues his ministrations. It takes centuries for you to come down, for your breath to return, and when you open your eyes you see Jimin’s gaze black and lust blown, full bottom lip trapped between his teeth.

“I c-can’t last,” he breathes, voice rushed. “Feels too good, you feel too-”

“Jiminie, cum for me. Fill your queen up,”

A pained cry tears free from his throat, staccato hips pressing into you once, twice before he’s releasing inside of you, fingers bruising on the meat of your thigh. Just like everything else about him, Jimin is pretty when he cums, face flushed and eyes squeezed tight, chest glistening and heaving.

He gives a final thrust, as if ensuring that his seed was deep in your core before collapsing on top of you with a heavy sigh, nuzzling into the crook of your neck.

A hand comes up to play with the hair at his nape as if it's the most natural thing in the world, soothing and melting him against you. You were always tender afterwards, always attentive to your pretty little play things, but there was something about Jimin that makes you feel a bit vulnerable as well.

Waiting until his breathing slows, you gently nudge him onto the bed, sliding out to head to the washroom and clean yourself up. When you return, you're dressed in a new flowing nightgown, this one a deep royal purple, a matching wash cloth in your hand.

Jimin barely even blinks while you clean him up and tuck him under the covers, only opening his eyes when you bring a glass to his lips.

"Will you stay with me?" his eyes are round, bright, and you begin to realize how much this beautiful brave man and his brazen sincerity has affected you.

"If you want me to." You shrug, swallowing a smile at his request. "Or you can just rest, and I can come back in the morning-"

"No!" his voice is loud, but there's no edge to it, only urgency. "Please - I want you to stay."

Climbing in beside him, you pull the man to your chest, petting him once more as he curls into you, his eyes returning closed. He's asleep in moments, and you spend most of the night watching him as he rests, tracing your hands over his broad shoulders, drinking in the way he looks in your bed. Memorizing his form so that when day breaks, you’ll have a way to remember him.

And as the sun starts to rise, the early light of dawn casting the room in a pink glow, you can't help but to think how his last words were the one thing you wanted to request of him as well.

94 notes · View notes

suganovakawa · 4 years

Text

s’mores!

— end your summer day with a tasty treat in hinata, kageyama, tsukishima, and tadashi’s company!

third years edition <3

second years edition <3

— gen masterlist.

shoyo hinata.

✧｡ his eyes are literally sparkling when you ask if he wanted to make s’mores with you

✧｡ of course he wanted to make s’mores , that would mean he’d be able to spend more time with you !

✧｡ he knows he’s bad at nature and will not pretend otherwise

✧｡ but he’ll try his very best to make up for it , and prove that he’s a man instead of just a little boy

✧｡ alas , making s’mores and volleyball are two different activities ; and you end up doing most of the work

✧｡ but it’s okay ! you don’t mind , and hinata insists on roasting the marshmallows to make up for it

✧｡ you’re laughing as hinata tries to roast both of your marshmallows at the same time with one stick in each hand , but it’s not exactly working as well as he’d like it to

✧｡ shoyo sweetie you dropped a marshmallow in the fire

✧｡ oh dear , there goes the other one

✧｡ “ nope ! do not touch the sticks , y/n ! i got this ! ”

✧｡ “ shoyo , it’s fine , it’s really no big deal — ”

✧｡ “ i will be the one to roast our marshmallows and that is that ”

✧｡ periodt sis

✧｡ give him credit , it finally worked after a few tries !! he put both marshmallows on one stick and managed to keep them in tact

✧｡ putting both of your s’mores together took teamwork , and both of you settled down in front of the fire , enjoying your sweet treat together

✧｡ you wipe some of the marshmallow and chocolate residue on the side of his mouth , watching him blush at your touch

✧｡ “ you’re a messy eater , shoyo ”

✧｡ “ h-hey ! so are you , y/n ! ”

✧｡ “ but i don’t have any crumbs on my face ? ”

✧｡ “ yes you do ! right here . ”

✧｡ and this guy goes in for the kill and just smooches you on the lips

✧｡ you’re swatting him away with an embarrassed hand while it’s his turn to be a tease

✧｡ “ hah ! who’s the blushing cutie now , huh ? ”

✧｡ he’s pulling you into his arms and cuddling you tightly as he peppers your face in kisses , and you have no opposition to it <3

tobio kageyama.

✧｡ omfg tobio is such a perfectionist

✧｡ he needs everything to go smoothly

✧｡ does it go smoothly ? well no

✧｡ this boy has everything prepared almost a week before tonight ; you recalled him asking if you ever wanted to make s'mores during the summer but WOW

✧｡ like shoyo , he still has much to learn about nature

✧｡ i mean , for someone who spends 24 / 7 on volleyball , he's not exactly looking into starting fires

✧｡ you're actually the one who has to teach him how to actually start it , since he refuses to let you do so

✧｡ " tobio , just give me the lighter "

✧｡ " no . i can do this myself , how hard can it be ? "

✧｡ the dumbfounded look on his face gave you all the answers you needed

✧｡ he starts yelling because he accidentally lit a few blades of grass on fire

✧｡ and let me tell you , he's in full Panic Mode

✧｡ he's ready to call the fire department he's that panicked over mf grass

✧｡ you're rolling around LAUGHING SO HARD and kags is looking at you like you have two heads

✧｡ that's when he realizes the fire just went out on its own

✧｡ he's so embarrassed he slithers down into his chair and just sits there , he can't even continue making s'mores so you just take over

✧｡ " tobio , stop being so pouty , i have your s'more for you "

✧｡ he's still completely awkward as he reaches out to grab his campfire sandwich with one hand

✧｡ he slowly snaps out of it as you sit down next to him , resting your head on his shoulder as you enjoy the tastiness of your lil s'more

✧｡ you tease him and his awkwardness for the rest of the night but you know he secretly loves it <3

✧｡ bonus points if you never let kageyama forget about the time he started yelling about grass from now on

kei tsukishima.

✧｡ just what will it take for this walking tree to go outside

✧｡ you've been begging for kei to do something , anything , with you outside , but he claims nature " isn't worth his time " little brat

✧｡ finally you give up after constant rejections and begin to walk away

✧｡ " maybe i'll ask tadashi to make s'mores with me , i doubt he'll say no to that "

✧｡ ohohoho , now that caught his attention

✧｡ he's already got a hand around your wrist , dragging you to the backyard before you could even step out the front door

✧｡ he's got a lil pout on his face but he refuses to show you

✧｡ y/n one , kei zero

✧｡ or maybe not as easy as you think ; even with tsuki outside he's just plopped on his chair , letting you do all the work without doing so much as showing you sass by freaking crossing his legs like damn i see how it is

✧｡ you noticed the little shit— two can play at this game

✧｡ you sat yourself on the grass across from him , roasting only one mallow ; for yourself of course

✧｡ tsukishima realizes you're already eating a s'more and literally sits up to get a second look at you

✧｡ " you didn't make me a s'more ? "

✧｡ " you never asked , kei "

✧｡ " i just did ? "

✧｡ " politely , grumpyshima "

✧｡ it took THREE attempts before you finally got his stubborn ass to say please

✧｡ you could tell he was embarrassed as you finally made a s'more for your boyfriend , a victory grin all over your face

✧｡ you handed it to him but before you could walk away again he scooped you with one arm and pulled you close to him , an aloof blush coloring his cheeks nicely as he stuffed his mouth with the s'more

✧｡ " a ' thank you ' would be nice , kei "

✧｡ " yeah . thanks "

✧｡ you smile in content because you know you're the only person that can get away with giving tsukishima this much attitude

✧｡ even if he'll never say it out loud , you know how much he appreciates his time with you as he kisses the top of your head quietly

yamaguchi tadashi.

✧｡ both of you are excited to make s'mores together !!

✧｡ it was an elaborated idea , tadashi wanted to go outside and you wanted food

✧｡ s'mores were the perfect happy medium

✧｡ tadashi actually knew how to start a fire , but he was pretty messy when it actually come down to making s'mores

✧｡ both of you were just chatter boxes , talking about who knows what while the marshmallows were roasting

✧｡ oh shit you weren't paying attention and now they're burnt

✧｡ yamaguchi can't help but laugh as you audibly gasp at the sight of the black marshmallows at the ends of the sticks

✧｡ " omg i burnt them i need to start over "

✧｡ " no no , you don't need to !! burnt marshmallows actually taste really good , trust me !! "

✧｡ and hell yes burnt marshmallows taste delicious

✧｡ so good that you and tadashi purposely rest your next marshmallows over the fire and wait until they explode in flames before taking them out and making them into a s'more

✧｡ who knows how much you guys had , the bag of marshmallows was at the bottom by the time the two of you called it quits

✧｡ sadly the fire died out a few moments after your last s'mores were finished , so the two of you quickly headed inside since it was chilly

✧｡ even though the two of you dreaded the thought of a soon-to-come nightmare in your stomachs , it was movie marathon time

✧｡ you guys cuddled up in blankets as you watched disney movies until the you both fell asleep

✧｡ tadashi still had a sugar craving when he woke up whoops

222 notes · View notes

rfaromance · 3 years

Note

Hello!!! Excited to see a new Tumblr for MM!!! I was hoping to be able to request a Valentine’s Day fluff story with Zen where the MC struggles with seeing Zen get all his gifts from his fans and feeling like her attempts pale in comparison?? Thank you for taking the time to read my idea!! Have a great day!!

I LOVE this idea! I hope you enjoy my very first MM fanfiction! >w<

Friday, February 11.

One.

On what should have been an average Thursday evening, Zen entered the living room with a bouquet of red roses in his hands. MC wasn’t unaccustomed to seeing him with handfuls of daisies, tulips, or carnations, but red roses were… a little disconcerting, to say the least. Despite herself, she couldn’t prevent her nose from crinkling slightly at the sight of them.

“Hey, babe. Why do you have a sour look on your face?” The soft, sing-song voice of the musical actor traveled through the air, and even his teasing words had such a rhythmic lull to them that MC couldn’t help but smile. The corners of her mouth twitched upward as he approached, gently placed the bouquet on the coffee table, and kneeled in front of her, lowering himself so that they were eye level. “That’s much better, princess,” he cooed. “Seriously though,” he went on, rising to his full height, “is something wrong? Do I need to take the trash out?” He began to back towards the kitchen, his nose twitching as he inhaled deeply.

“It’s nothing,” the young woman tried to reassure him, but a small doubt lingered in the back of her mind: perhaps she just wanted to reassure herself.

She couldn’t keep my eyes off of those blood-colored blooms, especially not after he picked out a vase for them and placed them directly on the kitchen counter.

Saturday, February 12.

Three.

A spritz. A wipe. A sneeze. A sigh.

Dusting was probably one of MC’s least favorite activities on the face of the planet, but she had noticed that Zen’s allergies were bothering him the night before.

As much as she wanted to attribute his sudden sniffles to that curious cluster of crimson roses, she knew that the more likely reason was that the pair simply had not had the time to properly clean the apartment in…

She swallowed hard. Had it been that long?

In any event, she was determined to make their cozy home glisten from top to bottom as she awaited Zen’s arrival. His attention to detail was absolutely immaculate; whether he was acting, working out, or merely carrying out mundane daily tasks, he was an absolute perfectionist.

(Fitting, for he was absolute perfection himself.)

Knowing the type of keen eye she was up against, MC was exceptionally careful not to skip any speck of dust, not to miss any molecule, not to forget any frame of furniture.

Flowers could brighten up a home, but she was going to pour in her hard labor to ensure that the home itself sparkled in a way that outshone even a bouquet of red roses.

“Wow,” a whistle sounded from the front entrance, but MC continued to clean. “Cinderella, don’t you need a break? Now that your prince has arrived, it’s time for the ball.”

Cheesy as always.

MC barely stifled a laugh as she shook her head. “Let me finish this table,” she declared, “and then I suppose I can turn into a princess for… your… sake…” She had lifted her head to cast a beaming smile at him, a smile through all the dust and dirt and grime and grease that coated her face.

That smile nearly evaporated when she saw the two boxes of chocolates in his arms. Not one, but two. She mustered all of the strength that she could to keep a semblance of a smile on her face, but she had no doubt that it must have come off as colder than she would have intended.

“Hey, do you like raspberry, my love?” Zen asked. He placed one of the boxes—an unassuming rectangular box—on the kitchen counter. However, as he flipped the heart-shaped box over in his long, slender hands, MC could feel her own heart flip over as well inside her chest. “One of my coworkers in this new musical gave me a box of raspberry-crème filled chocolates, but I’m not really a fan of the flavor.”

“I do,” MC murmured, unable to pull her gaze away from the pretty pink box of chocolates in Zen’s hands. “Your cast must like you very much,” she added as nonchalantly as possible before turning back to scrub a particularly stubborn stain on the leg of the table.

Raspberry. A fruit that was simultaneously sweet and sour, fiercely fresh and then tantalizingly tart.

How fitting for the way she felt tonight.

Sunday, February 13.

Six.

The slow creaking of the door on its rusty hinges reverberated around the room, silent aside from the low hum of the stovetop and the sizzles and cracks of the frying pan.

“Zenny!” MC called excitedly, not taking her eyes off of the eggs that she was cooking meticulously. Zen liked his eggs a little runny, whereas MC liked hers a little on the crispier side, so she always made sure to prepare his eggs first.

Plus, tonight the young woman was a little… eager to impress him.

Fresh flowers in the living room. Sweet smells in the kitchen.

Everything they could do, she could do better. At least, that was the goal.

“Dinner is almost ready,” she went on, and carefully she brought the heat down to a low simmer. “Yours will be done first, but since the pan is already hot, I won’t be too far behind you.” She dared to take a peek at him, tearing her eyes away from the stovetop for just a moment.

At least, she thought it was only a moment, because as soon as her gaze rested upon the objects cradled in her beloved’s arms, time seemed to freeze.

“Should I… prepare an extra plate?” she murmured, and even though every one of her vocal cords strained to add an amused, teasing, lighthearted quality to her voice, she couldn’t help but hear how pained she truly was. Her tone, her expression, her posture—without a doubt, they would all reveal to Zen just how deflated she truly felt.

“Oh, for this guy?” Zen tried to shift all of his belongings into one arm so that he could rub the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, one of the stagehands gave him to me.” He then used his free hand to pluck a (rather large) teddy bear from his arm and hold it out in front of him. “I’ve never even heard her speak before today, but the director gave us the day off tomorrow, so I suppose she felt… a little emboldened by the occasion.” He chuckled and shook his head. “She’s a sweet girl, but an odd one at th—Hey, MC, are you feeling okay? You look really pale.” At once, Zen dropped his gifts onto the couch and scurried into the kitchen. “Let me—”

MC spun around and turned her attention back to the eggs. “I’m fine,” she told him, and she winced as she realized how terse she sounded. “I’m just hungry.”

Zen didn’t seem convinced by her paltry acting, but nevertheless he obliged. “Can I help, Princess?”

MC just shook her head and reached for the spatula. “Just get ready. I don’t want your eggs to get cold. There’s beer in the fridge, too,” she added. “Your favorite.”

A bear. A candle. An envelope. All intruders into their happy home.

Hopefully his eggs wouldn’t taste too salty from the tears dripping down her cheeks.

Monday, February 14.

Mondays were exceptionally difficult to endure. The beginning of the workweek was always a hassle. Even though Zen may have had a day off from rehearsals, as his manager, MC still had contracts to negotiate and schedules to plan. Normally, she would have been able to persevere through the day with the thought of a delightful date awaiting her when she arrived home…

But given the events of the past couple of days, she couldn’t even relish in the fact that today was Valentine’s Day.

Zen had pronounced his love for her loudly and clearly at the RFA party, so why did girls still feel the urge to shower him in gifts? Were they just expressing respect and admiration, or did they have ulterior motives? This level of paranoia was unusual, and MC felt sick to her stomach at how negative she was being. She could handle stress. She could handle rigorous work. She could handle mystery. She could handle false allegations of sexual harassment, for God’s sake.

So why was she so vulnerable this Valentine’s Day, when she knew how much Zen loved her?

“I need to take a nice, long bath,” she murmured as she rummaged around in her bag for her keys. “Goodness, I really need to cut my bangs. I can hardly see into my own purse.” The faint starlight overhead hardly provided her with any assistance. Just how late had she stayed discussing Zen’s newest performance offer?

Finally she managed to withdraw the keys to the apartment, and carefully she inserted them into the door. Their apartment was somewhat on the older side, so every now and then the door would be stubborn and require a bit of elbow grease in order to open, but much to her surprise, it slid open with ease tonight.

Even more surprising was the scene that awaited her.

The lights were off, but candlelight provided a low, hazy guide to the layout of the apartment. Sweet scents of cinnamon and vanilla wafted in the air, drifting lazily from the candles to her unprepared nose. A mellow melody echoed throughout the apartment, and at once she recognized the aria from one of Zen’s most popular musicals: Zorro. A faint blush rose to her cheeks as she imagined the poster for that particular play.

Zen himself, however, was nowhere in sight.

“Zenny?” MC called out hesitantly, brushing her bangs out of her face as she took a humble step forward. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard a soft crunch underneath her feet; rose petals littered the ground, lining out a path for her to follow.

Apparently the kitchen was not part of that path.

“Alright, alright, I’ll play along,” she mumbled, and for the first time in days, she could feel a little spark of laughter rising inside her chest. “Zenny?” she called out again as she slung her purse off of her shoulder and delicately reached over to place it on a chair within her reach. “This is awfully extravagant, even for you,” she commented. Not that she didn’t like it—quite the contrary. With every step she took, heading deeper into the labyrinth that he had prepared, she caught whiff of new smells and sight of new décor: cherry blossom and sweet pea tickled her nose while photographs and posters awaited her eyes. Scenes of the two of them on the set, selfies of the two of them on their dates. The idea of Zen plastering pictures of himself around the apartment did not surprise her, but what did catch her off guard was that in at least 70% of them… she was beside him.

That was saying something, considering how many selfies he took.

Finally the rose petals came to an end before the bedroom door. Zen must have been waiting for her in there, right? “I’m coming in,” MC announced, but she still didn’t receive a reply. The only response came from the music humming around the apartment: Zen’s voice, without a doubt, but not actually directed at her.

One. Two. Three.

She inhaled and exhaled deeply before turning the doorknob and entering the room.

However, what awaited her on Zen’s bed was not at all what she expected to see. Instead of his familiar face, she spotted a teddy bear sitting there, staring up at her with button eyes and a gentle grin. It was the same teddy bear from yesterday, but in its paws it held a note specifically directed at her:

“Bonjour, mademoiselle MC.”

MC chuckled as she read the note. “Feeling French tonight, monsieur?” she murmured. She gently petted the teddy bear’s head, and as she picked it up to give it a soft squeeze, she noticed that a plate was sitting behind it on the duvet. “What in the world…?”

Should she laugh? Cry? Shake her head? All of the above?

A plate lined with chocolates around the edges, and in the middle was a cluster of fish-shaped buns in the shape of a heart.

“I hope our cuisine is to your taste, madam.”

MC whirled around at the sound of that voice, a sweet symphony to her ears. The man of the hour had arrived, the mastermind behind this entire display. Zen awaited her, adorning a dress shirt, tie, and a pair of freshly pressed slacks. “Too much?” he guessed, and he dropped the lofty tone from his voice with a laugh. “You’ve been working hard. Too hard. I…” He began to fiddle with the edges of his sleeves. “I’ve been a little insensitive, bringing all of those gifts home.”

MC felt a pang in her chest. Had she been that obvious? “You shouldn’t have to hide anything from me,” she insisted, trying to comfort him. “Plus, I know how popular you are. I see it at work.”

Zen considered her words for a moment, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, well, that still doesn’t mean I should flaunt them in your face… unless they’re for you, and not for me.”

The young woman furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of his words. “For me?” she echoed. Realization suddenly dawned upon her like the sun cresting the horizon, and she clapped her hands over her mouth to suppress her gasp. The rose petals. The candles. The teddy bear. The chocolates. “You… Zen, you…”

“Oh, don’t cry!” Zen exclaimed, rushing forward to dab at her cheeks. “Oh God, don’t cry. Look at my face—that will make you smile. Well, wait, God made a mistake when creating me, so you might cry tears of joy. Oh, this is a pickle….”

That low rumble from before, that little spark of joy and laughter, rose up in her chest and tickled her throat until it finally poured out from her lips in the form of a gleeful giggle. “Never change, Zen,” she whispered. ‘Never change from the thoughtful, loving man that you are,’ she added silently.

“On stage, I will be Zen, and I will change into whomever the crowd wants to see,” he murmured, and suddenly he leaned in until his lips were nearly pressed against hers, so that she could feel his hot breath tickling her skin. “But for you, my valentine, I will always be Hyun Ryu.”

#zen #hyun ryu #mystic messenger #mysmes #mysme #mm fiction #mm fanfic

23 notes · View notes

imagineaworlds · 4 years

Text

I Love You (Part Thirteen) -- Aaron Hotchner

Written By: @desperately-bisexual

Request: None.

Warnings: The lightest bit of smut. Dom/sub relationship. Name calling. Teasing. Cursing. Talk about murder. Talk about kidnapping.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Greenaway!Reader

Word Count: 9765

Timeline: Season 2 Episode 22. Two months after part twelve.

It was a relief whenever Hotch and I were scheduled to see Jack, and JJ would tell us on that morning at 10AM that we had no cases. Knowing that we had the whole day to just get through work together, then we could go pick up Jack from school and spend some time with him… That was everything. Getting to see his face light up when he’d see us waiting outside of his school, getting to sit down with him to help him with his homework, and then getting to read him a bedtime story to help him fall asleep were all small things that made only seeing him every few days or so worth it. Since I started dating Hotch and met Jack, I felt like I had a new reason to rush home from work, or to be more careful during cases.

After the case the team had just gotten back from, JJ was trying her best to push off some cases because there was still so much to be done around the office. Hotch had paperwork piling on his desk from at least the past ten cases, and Strauss was beginning to ask questions. He was supposed to write up a report about the last case we worked on in Washington, but that was all because of me and Morgan, and both of us felt bad that he practically had to do our work because ended up shooting one of the Unsubs— and Hotch wasn’t even there…

Paul Mulford and his brother, Johnny Mulford, had been kidnapping people from their incapacitated cars on the side of the highway, then taking them out into the mountains in order to hunt them like animals. Before we managed to catch up to the Mulford brothers, they had killed at least twenty-five victims of either gender, any race, any age, etc. There had been no clear victimology, but the M.O. was clear enough to show that the brothers had been raised to hunt humans, not animals; and that this was a sport for them. When we caught them, Johnny had already been stabbed multiple times and eventually bled out before he could tell us where his brother went. Morgan and I went running through the woods together to see if we could follow Paul’s trail, and sure enough, we found him standing on a hill with his bow aimed at another victim he had been chasing for a few days. When Morgan told Paul to put his weapon down, Paul refused and aimed his weapon again, this time at us. Morgan and I had no other choice but to shoot him before he could shoot us.

Hotch wasn’t there, and he hadn’t even made the call; yet, Strauss was still making him write up the report. Hotch had been stuck at work for hours at night, hardly ever coming home because he just decided to sleep at the office due to how much work he needed to do. After Washington, though, when Morgan and I found out that Hotch was taking on that load of paperwork, too, we decided that we had to step in. I stayed late one night with Hotch since we weren’t supposed to have Jack for another day, and when he accidentally fell asleep on the couch in his office, I snuck in and stole the Mulford case file from the bottom of the pile. I ran out before he could wake up or notice, and I held the file up in victory as I ran over to Morgan in the bullpen. And Hotch never realized once he woke up that I had taken it— that was how much work he had. Besides, I was willing to take the heat from Strauss if it would become a problem, and I was more than fine with Hotch giving me… trouble… for it, if it came down to it.

Morgan and I managed to sneak out of the office and head home for the night before Hotch would notice that we had stuck around to do some work. In the morning, I packed some fresh clothes for Hotch and picked up some breakfast for him. At Quantico, his office blinds were shut and his door was locked. I groaned as I balanced everything in one hand and grabbed my ring of keys where I had a spare to Hotch’s office for… safe keeping… Alright, technically, I wasn’t supposed to have it, but he wasn’t going to tell and neither was I.

Hotch sat up suddenly from the couch and immediately reached out for the papers in front of him to make it look like he had been working this entire time and hadn’t fallen asleep at all. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was just me, and he put the papers back down. I giggled and kissed his cheek as I sat down next to him. As I handed him his coffee and breakfast, he thanked me. He set the coffee down on the table before reaching back to hold my chin between his fingers and pull me in for a kiss. I smiled against his lips, then put the bag of clothes down at our feet before leaning back against the cushions.

“How did you sleep?” I asked.

He leaned back with me, “Okay, I think. I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep. What time did you get home?”

“About ten,” I lied.

It was more like midnight when Morgan and I called it quits. We were slowly starting to realize how much work Hotch actually had to do compared to the rest of us. It was easy for us to just come into work, get the cases, find the Unsubs, come back to Quantico, do some paperwork, then head back home. But Hotch spent a lot of his time doing the paperwork that the rest of the team technically should have already been doing. Just this one case file alone was going to take the entire day for Morgan and I to complete— together. I couldn’t imagine how long it would take Hotch with how much of a neat freak and perfectionist he was. Everything had to be done the right way when it came to Aaron Hotchner— which was probably why he didn’t like it whenever I got bratty with him. Our home life, our relationship, our sex life, and our jobs had to be absolutely perfect for him or it would offset his entire mood, and then everything else would come crashing down like a domino effect. And I hated that he was always under that pressure, and he never shared it with me. Perhaps Hotch and I were all too alike in the way that neither of us liked to be a burden to others, and sometimes the pain we were dealing with was something that just had to be dealt with privately. He probably didn’t tell me about all of the work he had because he didn’t want me to end up taking on some of the load to help him out— which was exactly what happened, anyhow.

“I brought you a change of clothes,” I told him, kicking the bag at our feet. “Fingers crossed that JJ doesn’t pull us into a case today.”

Hotch nodded agreeingly, putting his hand on my knee to help him lean forward again. “One can only hope,” he chuckled while picking up his coffee again to take a sip. His hand stayed on my knee as he got comfortable again. “Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to.”

I put my hand over his for a moment before he flipped his palm over and intertwined his fingers with mine. “You’re just lucky that I remembered to grab you another tie,” I smirked.

He raised a brow in confusion, so I decided to enlighten him. With my free hand, I dug into the bag of clothes and pulled out the tie I brought for him. The red one he nearly wore to the Super Bowl party. The very same one he used to tie me up. He liked to wear it whenever he was in a mood because he liked to watch me squirm every time he would put it on. It was certainly the last thing he expected of me to bring it for him. But I liked catching him off guard with it when he had always managed to do it to me.

Hotch grabbed the end of the tie after I had wrapped it around my palm to show him what I meant, and he tugged lightly. His lips pressed against mine, but he didn’t pull away immediately like I had anticipated, so I did. He groaned quietly.

“You taste like coffee,” I whispered.

“I could taste like you,” he whispered back.

I bit my bottom lip. “Maybe after work, boss,” I patted his chest and unwrapped the tie from my hand. He was really regretting all of the rules he made for us, I could see it. I turned away like I was going to get up and walk out the door, but Hotch caught the back of my neck before I could get far and made me look at him. I gulped when I recognized the look in his eyes that told me I was on thin ice. “Sir…”

“Don’t ‘Sir’ me.”

“We’re at work…”

His hand slowly made its way from cradling the back of my neck to holding the front. “Oh, I won’t do anything now.” Shit. “Maybe after work,” he leaned in close, “brat.” His lips barely touched mine this time for another light kiss before he let go of my throat and turned back to his work and breakfast. “You have some work to do, don’t you?” he asked me after I hadn't left his office yet.

I cleared my throat and found the courage to stand on my weak legs. I shouldn’t have played with fire, I knew that… but… Wow… And now I was supposed to go work and not think about that? He knew what he was doing, and I figured that I should have seen it all ending up like that— or maybe I did, and that was why I had done it? That was more likely, to be perfectly honest. He knew what he was doing, and I knew what I was doing; but I thought that I’d have the upper hand since the rules were his own. Then again, there was the incident on the jet that one time… Maybe the rules weren’t necessarily “rules” but more of “guidelines” that Hotch liked to bend when it suited him.

The office door opened just before I could put my hand on the doorknob. JJ pushed into the room with a welcoming morning smile, not a “I’m sorry to do this, but we have a case” frown. Our good luck for the week was still going strong. She noticed the coffee, breakfast, and change of clothes for Hotch and realized that I had gone to all that trouble for him. She complimented me for doing it since “Hotch didn’t deserve it”, according to her. I laughed politely despite the fact that I could feel Hotch’s eyes staring at me and my knees were still wobbly. Once she told us that there were no cases yet, so there was no reason to gather in the boardroom, we both thanked her, and then I quickly pushed past to get to my desk.

Morgan was already at his desk, working on some other paperwork he had to do that wasn’t necessarily too important. When I sat down at my desk, he wheeled over while still in his chair with the Mulford files for us to start going through again. I picked up a pen and grabbed half of the stack, but while my eyes were glued to the pages, my mind was wandering. Hotch was sitting up in his office, likely also distracted, and that just made the need worse. No wonder Hotch never got any work done.

“Did you already write the account of finding Johnny Mulford?” Morgan asked, looking up from his work.

I batted my eyes as I shook away my trance. I looked at him in confusion, not having processed what he asked me yet. “Sorry,” I apologized for not paying attention.

“Did you write the report about how we found Johnny Mulford yet?” he asked again.

I shook my head, “No, sorry.”

We had agreed that I would take on the job of writing about how we found the Mulford’s family tow business— which was how they were able to trick their victims into trusting them— and I’d also talk about how we found Johnny Mulford already bleeding out, which was his cause of death. Morgan was going to write about how we found the victims in the woods and how we had no choice but to shoot Paul Mulford. It was us or him, and we didn’t hesitate to protect ourselves and each other. That was part of the job, but Morgan was better at explaining those kinds of things, so he took on the task of writing up that part of the report. It looked like he was already down recounting how we found the victims, and he was moving onto the hard part, which was Paul; and I still hadn’t finished documenting the information about the family business and how they hid the victims’ cars in shipping containers on the property before they could send them to the junkyard.

“Sorry, I’ll get right on that.”

Morgan shook his head and snorted, “Sure you will.” I glared at him and he jabbed my arm with the back of his pen. “I’m only messing around, Greenaway. What’s got your panties in a twist?”

My face fell flat. I picked up a sticky note, wadded it up, and chucked it at his bald head. “Don’t ever talk about my panties again.”

Morgan cringed away from my attack, “Aye, aye, Captain.” He rubbed his head where I hit him, “Did you have to throw it that hard?”

“You literally did it to yourself.”

“It’s been two hours of us just sitting here, writing this entire report out silently, and you have hardly done anything. Should I be worried?” He gasped, “Do I need to give Hotch the ‘don’t hurt my child’ talk? Because I will.”

I chuckled, “Right. Let me know when you’re going to do that so I can remember to hide all of the guns first.”

“So he didn’t upset you?”

“No. Hotch didn’t upset me. Why are you grilling me? What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m hungry and I’m bored. There’s a lot wrong with me.”

“You could say that again,” I laughed.

He grabbed his chest like his heart was aching. “Why do you have to hurt me so?”

“Because you deserve it when you’re being an epic tool.”

“Fair enough.”

“Don’t give him too much of a hard time,” Hotch commented as he walked up to us through the bullpen. Morgan and I both rushed to cover up our work before he could get too close and see that we were working on the Mulford case. When I looked back up, I noticed that Hotch was wearing the new clothes I had brought for him— including the red tie. I shifted in my seat, my thighs rubbing together ever so slightly. Hotch silently noticed, then proceeded to look suspiciously down at the files we used to cover what we were really working on. “Morgan, do you mind if I steal them away for an early lunch?”

Morgan glanced at his watch, “It’s only noon.”

“Like I said, early lunch.”

Honestly, with the work we had, I wasn’t sure how either of us could afford to go to an early lunch. He had all of those cases to review up in his office, and Morgan was right about me not making any headway with my half of the work. I looked around my desk to silently show him just how much work I had sitting around.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do here,” I told him.

“You can spare an hour, right?”

He looked to Morgan for back up, and I looked to Morgan for help getting out of it. I wanted to get this full report done sooner than later because I was supposed to be picking up Jack from school around 3:30. I just didn’t understand why Hotch was being so insistent on this. We hardly ever went out for lunch unless it was something special, and there wasn’t much that was particularly special about that day, besides maybe the tie, of course.

“Go for it,” Morgan gave in. I looked at him with wide eyes that said: “What the fuck?” and he grinned. “They get grumpy when they’re hungry,” he explained.

Hotch thanked Morgan before grabbing my things for me in order to coax me towards the door. I tried to protest, but Hotch was still walking and Morgan was still grinning. I glared at Morgan before throwing my arms up in defeat then chasing after Hotch. He held the door open for me and I walked straight past him and for the elevator. He handed me my purse after somehow beating me to pressing the “down” button.

Hotch picked a nearby restaurant that was considerably nicer than anything I had expected. I figured we would grab sandwiches or maybe even go to a diner like usual, but he picked a place where people normally had important business meetings where they wanted to look sophisticated and rich. It wasn’t the type of place one would go to for just an hour, which was the timeline Hotch gave Morgan before managing to take me away.

We got a table next to the window, the afternoon sun peaking through the trees that were planted on the sidewalk just outside. Hotch pulled out my chair for me before sliding it in under me then taking his seat across from me. I watched him as he silently picked up his menu to start looking for what sounded good to him. I squinted shortly at him, still trying to figure him out before cautiously picking up my own menu to look.

When the waiter came over to take our order, Hotch went first then nodded to me to go. After I gave my order, the waiter left and Hotch turned his phone over on the table to stop thinking about all of the different notifications he was getting from the office still. I put my elbows on the table and propped my chin up on my hand as I continued to stare at him. He was sitting up straight, staring back at me, thinking about something. We challenged each other in silence to see who would break first, but I knew that it wouldn’t be me. He would eventually want to know what I was thinking about, while I had a strong guess as to what it was he was imagining. Even if he had an idea of what I was thinking about, he certainly didn’t know the extent of it. There were so many unspeakable things of what I wanted him to do that had been racing through my mind all morning, and him sitting there with a stern silence wasn’t helping anything.

He reclined to the side, resting his left elbow on the arm of the chair, his thumb gently tracing his bottom lip back and forth. He was purposefully drawing attention to his mouth and fingers. I didn’t move, though. I still wasn’t going to give in.

The waiter returned with our food after a few minutes. He put Hotch’s food down first, and Hotch nodded a “thank you” before I got my food, too. He asked if we needed anything else, but Hotch and I both shook our heads. When Hotch and I were alone again, he picked up his fork and a steak knife before cutting into the filet he ordered. Yeah, it was that kind of a restaurant.

“Well, this is fun,” he said. He finally gave up.

“You’re the one who wanted to come here and haven’t said anything.”

“That’s because I was busy admiring.”

“Is that why you wanted to come here? Privacy?”

He nodded and took a bite. “Also, have you seen the Mulford case sitting around anywhere?” he asked, cutting into his steak again. I raised a faux brow of curiosity in response to his question. I was trying to keep my cool so that he couldn’t profile the truth out of me. “I was just curious because I went to start it today and noticed that it was gone.”

Well, shit. How did he already get through all of those other cases so quickly? What happened after I left his office that suddenly he was caught up enough to notice that the file was gone?

“You’re already starting the Mulford report? What about all those other cases you had sitting on your desk?”

“I pulled them as reference for the Mulford case. I just had to finish up the serial arsonist case file and then I was supposed to start the Mulford one today. The odd thing, though,” he mumbled before taking a bite. He waited to speak as he chewed, his eyes coming back up from his plate to look at me. He continued once his words had spun around in my head for a minute, “The odd thing is that I had it last night before I fell asleep. Now, I asked you what time you left the office, and you lied when you said ten o’clock. How do I know this? Well, I asked Anderson to check in with security, and they said that you and Morgan didn’t leave until about fifteen minutes passed midnight.” He took another bite. “So I had my suspicions, obviously, but it wasn’t until I decided to test you that I realized you and Morgan had taken it.”

“Test me?” I asked carefully, grabbing a french fry from my plate to make it look like I was entirely unfazed.

He nodded and sipped his water. “You never pass up the opportunity to go to lunch with me, but you were adamant about staying to work on whatever it was the two of you covered up on your desk before I could see.” He put his knife and fork down on the edge of his plate. “So, tell me, how’s your progress coming along?”

“Progress?”

I figured that playing dumb was better than flat out admitting anything. If the blame was put on Morgan, Hotch would just tell him to not do it again, but if the blame were put on me, there was a lot more that could happen to me behind closed doors. And while the thought itself was certainly appealing— especially after what Hotch said to me in his office that morning— I wasn’t actively looking to punish myself by continuing to dig myself into the hole I had created.

“You looked a little distracted after leaving my office,” he continued, “so I just want to make sure that you’re getting your work done and aren’t thinking about anything too hard.”

I choked on my food as he said it. “Stop it,” I whispered.

He knew he got me, and so he made the next move. “How much did you two do?”

“We thought you had more work than just those two cases. We were just trying to help out since we didn’t have much else to do.”

Hotch smirked.

“What?” I asked him.

“I wasn’t about to start the Mulford case,” he admitted. “I do have a bunch of other cases to work on, but I just happened to notice that it was gone.” I kicked his shin under the table. “How much did you do?” He just wanted to know now; he didn’t want to prove a point or find a reason to use his tie later— he had already done that.

Lying wasn’t going to get me anywhere now. I had practically admitted that we took the Mulford case and were working on it for him. “Almost half,” I gave in. “Someone’s been a little distracting all morning,” my ankle passed over his timidly.

“I told you after work, didn’t I?”

“But we have Jack,” I whined, knowing that our entire focus would be on spending time with him. I wanted Hotch… I wanted him so badly…

“He has to go to bed eventually.”

“You’re the worst.”

“No. I just enjoy watching you flounder. Besides, it sounds like you have a lot of work to do now.” He reached over the table and took my hand in his, “Seriously, though, thank you. You didn’t have to start that report, and you didn’t have to bring me breakfast and clothes this morning.”

“Of course I did… I love you. I’m here to help you whenever you need it— even if you refuse to ask for it.”

His eyes softened, “I’ll worry about picking up Jack at 3:30 so that you and Morgan can finish the report.”

“No, Hotch,” I shook my head vigorously, “you have so much going—”

“Let me do this since you’ve been doing so much. Please.”

I stared at him and felt his hand squeeze mine in a pleading way. How was I supposed to argue that? I didn’t do nearly as much as Hotch, we both knew it. Bringing him breakfast and clothes and taking on one case report was nowhere near close to what Hotch did for work and for me. Yet, he was insisting on doing more. I knew that even if I tried to argue it, he’d insist that I didn’t have to do what I did and so he wanted to step out of his way to do more. As a profiler, it was easy to look at our relationship and determine that we were a classic dominant and submissive couple, obviously. In our line of work, we would always discuss how the dominants would control their submissives, but they would also do anything to protect their submissives. Hotch and I weren’t any different in that respect. He’d be very commanding with me, which I loved, but he always had to go the extra mile for me because that was his role as the dominant. As the submissive, I was supposed to listen, obey, and just… feel loved. That was all he wanted for me. By going out of my way to help him out over the past couple of days, he felt the urge to return the favors ten fold to “prove” his love in some way. So even if I tried to argue against him going to pick up Jack, he’d ultimately slide back into his dominant personality, forcing me into my submissive state, and I’d have no choice but to let him. Either way, he was going to end up picking up Jack from school, and I was going to finish my work at the office with Morgan. And if I listened and obeyed like I was supposed to, our night would be fairly long, just as he promised.

“Fine,” I nodded. He stretched my hand across the table and kissed my knuckles. “But I’m going to bring him some ice cream home to make up for not picking him up since he was looking forward to it.”

Hotch gently released my hand and allowed me to retreat it back onto my lap. “Please don’t spoil him,” he smiled.

“Listen, I already spoil you enough, but he’s my favorite, so you can imagine the kind of pressure I’m under to spoil him even more,” I chuckled.

“He’s going to think that you’re cooler than me.” He picked up his knife and fork again.

“I’ve always been cooler than you.”

He chortled and nodded before taking another bite. I smiled back before grabbing another fry.

Back at the office, I followed Hotch up to his office, passing by Morgan, who was still working on his half of the report. Hotch closed and locked his office door behind me, the blinds were still still closed, and he turned off the lights. I grabbed his tie and pulled him close and he grabbed my waist to show me the same courtesy. He pushed me up against the wall, trapping me in his arms and against his whole body. I moaned into his mouth and grabbed at his hair. He groaned and slid his knee between my thighs.

“I still have work to do,” he whispered breathlessly, trying to find a reason to not keep going. The rules… We had to remember the rules… But it was so hard. “You’re going to have to wait.”

I moaned into his mouth again, “Please. I need you.”

“We can’t.”

“Sir…”

An animalistic groan left his throat as he forcefully parted himself from me. His chest was rising and falling dramatically as he tried to catch his breath and keep himself away from me. He wanted me, I could see it in his eyes, but he was trying so hard not to fuck me against that wall. I wanted him so bad— no, I needed him. It all started that morning and I couldn’t stop thinking about it since. He had so much more self control than I did, though, and he was going to do anything in his power to not break the one rule he held sacred. While I didn’t want to actively push that boundary with him, he had been practically encouraging my need for him.

“Please,” I whined, pulling at his tie again. I wanted him to pull it off his neck again and wrap it around my wrists before fucking me until I couldn’t stand. “Please, Sir.”

“Just a few more hours,” he pleaded with me. I leaned forward and kissed him again, but he put his hand on my chest and pushed me back against the wall. “I have to go talk to Gideon.” He took steps away from me as quickly as possible, knowing that he would pound me against the wall if he waited even one more second.

I took in a deep breath and collected myself as I stood up right against the wall. “I hate you so much,” I said quietly, fixing my hair.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you later.”

I looked between him and his tie for a moment, and he caught me staring. He smirked and I bit my lip. “Promise?”

He nodded eagerly, “I promise.”

I released my lip from between my teeth and pushed myself off the wall. “Okay.”

I tried my best to walk towards the door without falling over or just jumping right into his arms. I unlocked the door, opened it, and we both walked out. No one in the bullpen looked up at us, which was a sign that we hadn’t been too obvious, at least. We headed for the ramp in front of Gideon’s office so that he could divert into there and I could continue on towards the bullpen, but something caught our attention in Gideon’s office.

Hotch stuck his head in to see what Gideon was doing in a dark room, “You don’t have class today?”

Gideon shook his head, “Only around four this evening.” That was about two hours away.

Hotch stepped into the room, and I looked in to see what was so interesting. “You have Chaplin on film?” Hotch chuckled, impressed.

“Take a seat,” Gideon invited Hotch. “You, too, Y/N,” he smiled at me, catching me before I could run past to let them talk.

“Oh, no,” I insisted, throwing my hands up. “I don’t want to impose, and I should be getting back to work.”

“You can spare a few minutes. Come on.”

Yeah, I could spare a few minutes over an hour and a half ago when Hotch took me out to lunch. Now, Morgan was waiting for me to come back and finish the report with him. While Hotch knew the truth about the report, Gideon didn’t, and he couldn’t know. As far as he was aware, everyone was just sticking around until it was time to go home or they had finished their busy-work. Since neither time had approached for me, Gideon figured I had nothing better to do but to sit down and watch some movies.

I figured that I’d be able to sit down for a few minutes before being able to excuse myself to go work again, so I accepted Gideon’s offer. I walked in and stepped across the view of the projector. Hotch and I grabbed two of the chairs in the room and turned them to face the wall where Gideon was projecting some of Charlie Chaplin’s old movies. He had an old-timey, vintage projector that needed to be watched carefully to make sure that the film wouldn’t burn up or fall apart.

“My great-grandfather worked for one of the first big film companies in Chicago— since they made movies in Illinois at the time, not California. When they closed down, they let me grandpa take a few films home with him.”

Hotch chuckled again, “They let him take them home?”

Gideon laughed, too, “That's the story that’s been passed down, so I think we’ll stick with it.”

“I can’t believe you’ve had these hiding all this time,” I said, gazing in awe upon Charlie Chaplin’s brilliance. “It’s amazing.”

“Have you ever seen Chaplin?” Hotch asked me.

I shook my head. I knew who Chaplin was, but I had never seen anything of his creation. He was a pure genius. Movies like this were never made anymore, and it was such a shame. The creativity that was once so vibrant in these silent films had been slowly erased over time in the industry.

Our attention was pulled away from the screen when Morgan peeked his head into the room to see what we were doing. We looked at each other and he gave a slight nod back towards the bullpen, a silent signal that he was calling me back to work since I had been away for so long. Fair enough, I figured. Morgan probably didn’t expect that Hotch and I would be away for so long, and now I was hiding with him in Gideon’s office just watching old Chaplin movies.

I sighed, throwing my palms onto my knees, “Duty calls, boys.” I pushed myself to my feet.

Hotch and Gideon both gave short waves of goodbye as I walked past the projector and met up with Morgan in the doorway. I led the way down the ramp and into the bullpen. Morgan caught up with me just as I was sitting down at my desk. All of his work seemed to be done and neatly filed away in the case folder. He sat down with me and started talking me through everything he discussed in his half of the report. He described each of the crime scenes and how the victims were found, and how those clues led us to the Mulford family’s tow truck business. Once he wrote all of that out, he moved onto how we chased after Paul Mulford through the woods, found him aiming his weapon at their next target, and when we tried to stop him peacefully, he turned his bow on me, and Morgan and I had no choice to shoot him. The report itself was much more detailed than that, but that was the basic gist of it.

Morgan rolled his chair back over to his desk after showing me everything, “And with that, I am done for the day. It’s been lovely, but I’m ready to go home, put my feet up, crack open a beer, and watch TV for the next five hours.” He grabbed his shoulder bag from under his desk, “I will see you all tomorrow.” Everyone in the bullpen nodded and wished him a great rest of his afternoon and evening since he was so lucky to be going home early.

I hung my head over the work I had to do and tried to focus on just getting it done. Hotch was offering to pick up Jack for me, but Jack had been so excited to have me pick him up and work on his homework with him. He liked the way I taught him math because it didn’t come easily to him, but I somehow made it easy for him. I took the wins where I could get them, and if taking time out of my work to help Jack with his meant that I got a little more time with him and a few new memories to hold onto during cases, I wasn’t going to pass up on those opportunities. I just wanted to get home as soon as possible.

“We’ve got a case!” JJ told us while running into the office. Everyone spun around in their chairs to watch as she walked right by the break room and towards the ramp.

Morgan sighed, having just left Garcia’s office to say goodbye to her, and threw his head back in disappointment. “Come on, J! Let me live a little here!”

“Sorry, bud,” she smiled lightly as she kept storming up the ramp and into Gideon’s office.

Everyone moved onto their feet and slowly started making their way to the boardroom. The Mulford case was still open on my desk like I had hope that I would be able to get back to it in a few minutes, and then I would just go home to be with Hotch and Jack. We all knew that wasn’t going to be the case, though. Whatever case JJ had for us, wherever we were going, whatever we were going to do, we weren’t going to be home in time for dinner; which meant that neither Hotch nor I could pick Jack up now… He was going to be devastated— more so than Hotch and I were. We absolutely hated getting this close to seeing him, only to have the opportunity ripped away from us because of a new case.

“Everyone, this is Detective Cal McGee from the Kansas City Police Department,” JJ introduced us to the man standing in the room with her as we took our seats. I sat between Emily and Morgan, Spencer on Morgan’s other side, Hotch across from me, and Gideon on the couch. “We have sixty-three potential victims missing from his district.”

“Sixty-three?” Hotch inquired. JJ nodded and started handing out the case files. “How have they not been reported missing yet? How did it get this far?”

“Because they’re all homeless,” Detective McGee said, taking a step closer to the table. He set down a stack of mini notebooks and arranged them into neatly placed nine piles of seven.

“So, then, you aren’t actually sure if they are missing,” Hotch corrected. “Homeless people disappear all the time, simply because they don’t have anywhere to go and they don’t know anyone. It’s entirely possible they just moved on from your district.”

McGee shook his head adamantly, “No. I’m sure that they’re all missing. I just can’t seem to convince anyone else of it.”

“What proof do you have?”

McGee started passing out the mini notebooks in front of him to everyone around the table. Gideon was still reclining on the couch with his glasses on and the daily newspaper in his hands. I picked up one of the notebooks and flipped through it. The front page had a nickname for someone, and past that was a journal of who this person was as the detective had seen them and gotten to know them. Their age, their height, their build, the hair color, eye color, weight, posture, any noticeable handicaps, etc. There were pages upon pages about their personality and their history, but then it came to an abrupt end on the seventeenth of this month.

“I’ve tried to talk to people about this, but no one seems to believe me, so they won’t launch an official investigation. I was hoping that you guys could, though.”

“I don’t understand, what are these?” I asked, holding up the notebook in my hand before trading it for another on the table.

“Records,” the detective answered, taking the notebooks that had already been skimmed through and stacking them back in neat piles. “Since most of these people have been neglected by society and the government, there’s no one out there who wants to keep an eye on them, except for me. By keeping records of everyone I see, I can try to hopefully reunite them with someone they know— or, in this case, track that they’ve suddenly gone missing without a trace. I’ve already run all of the different names they have all given me through our computers and everything came up blank. If there happened to be any official records, they had been forgotten and there was nothing about them dying or going missing. For the most part, however, it came up blank. There’s nothing about where these people went.”

“Simply being gone isn’t a federal issue, I’m afraid,” Gideon broke the bad news from the couch. “We need an official invitation into your district by the Chief of Police or Chief of Detectives. Someone higher up has to tell us that they need our help.”

“Um… I— I don’t know… I don’t know if I can do that,” he stuttered nervously, rearranging all of the notebooks in front of him again.

“Unless we’re officially asked, we can’t help you,” Hotch said.

“Hotch,” JJ whispered, “there could be sixty-three victims here…”

She had a point. Sixty-three people just don’t go missing like this. If they weren’t homeless, more people would have been paying attention, too. We were these people’s only hope. There had to be something that he could do, right? He could talk to the district for McGee since he clearly hadn’t made any headway with them. Hotch knew as well as the rest of us what this meant and just how bad this could be. He wasn’t an asshole, he wasn’t just going to let these people continue to stay or go missing. If could help in some way, he was going to try.

“Well, I suppose that you and I could go with the detective and talk to his superiors,” Hotch offered to JJ. “If we get an invitation, we could send for the rest of you,” he addressed the team. We all nodded. It was a good plan. “JJ, be ready in thirty,” he stood up. “Y/N,” he gestured to the door, referencing that he wanted to speak to me privately outside. I pushed myself out of my seat and followed him out of the board room. He kept walking away from me as I tried to stay at his side. “Leave the Mulford report alone for now, I need you to take Jack over to Haley’s house for me.”

I stopped in my tracks for a moment as I processed what he had told me, but he didn’t stop. He wanted me to go to Haley’s house? He wanted me to meet Haley? And under these circumstances? He didn’t want to wait until he could officially introduce us and be the mediator in case claws were to come out? From what I knew, Haley was a wonderful person who loved Hotch very much, but she just couldn’t take him being away for so long anymore, and that was understandable. But she still loved Hotch, as I understood it, and she was still Jack’s mother. It would make sense if she were to feel protective and territorial over her ex-husband and son when it came to me. I was Hotch’s new partner, and things were going really well for us. Like, really well. If she had any hope that they were going to get back together someday, that was squashed when things between her ex and I got serious.

I skipped up a few steps to catch up to Hotch, “You’re not serious—”

“Just pick him up from school and drop him off at her house.”

“Hotch, no— Why can’t Jessica pick him up?”

“She took on another shift at work, apparently. What’s wrong with you?” he raised a brow as he turned into his office.

I stopped in the doorway and watched as Hotch grabbed his go bag. “I just don’t understand why you want me to visit your ex-wife so bad.”

He set his go bag on his desk and stared at me. “This isn’t about Haley,” he shook his head, disappointed that I would think anything otherwise. “If we end up taking this case, you need to be here and ready to get on the jet. You can’t be at home with Jack.” He threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and walked over to me. “You don’t have to do anything but take him up to the door, explain to Haley that we have a new case out of state, and we’ll call her when we’re done to give her a heads up that we’re going to pick him up. That’s all.” He put a hand on my cheek and caressed it with his thumb.

“Doesn’t that break, like, a thousand custody rules?” I asked.

Hotch never talked to me about what happened with his divorce to Haley. It was a painful time for him, and the memories stung even worse. All I knew was that he had made it as painless as possible for everyone in order to protect both Haley and Jack. He didn’t want to hurt his relationship with either of them, so he signed whatever she wanted. But I didn’t know what the custody rules surrounding their divorce entailed except for the fact that Hotch would tell me when it was our turn to see Jack, and we would drop him off at Jessica’s house if we ever needed to go into work suddenly. I didn’t know if Haley wanted me to even be around her son. I didn’t know if Haley was alright with me just leaving him at her door and then coming back to collect him whenever we felt like.

“When Haley and I got divorced, we knew that this would happen, and so we took into account that there could be times when my custody days would be impeded. We decided that if need be, she could just take him during cases and I would pick him up afterwards and he’d spend the amount of time he was supposed to stay with me afterwards.” He kissed my forehead before shrugging playfully to ease my nerves. “She’ll understand.”

I looked at him and made sure that his touch wouldn’t leave my cheek yet. “What if she doesn’t like me?”

“Does it matter?”

Of course it fucking mattered. I loved Hotch and Jack with every fiber of my being. I wanted to spend every second of my future with them, but living that life included having to know and get along with Haley for the sake of both Jack and Hotch. If she didn’t like me, she could end up making my life hell, and she could possibly take it out on Hotch by not letting us see Jack as often or with such a flexible schedule as he insisted they had. I also didn’t want to hate her because she was Jack’s mother, and he, naturally, loved her. I didn’t want to have to put him in an awkward position growing up where he would be put between this feud Haley and I could potentially have. There was so much at stake with this first meeting, and Hotch was acting like it was just another random day.

“You’re going to be fine,” he reassured me. “Just get back here as soon as you can.” He lifted my chin and pulled me in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“Call me when you land.”

“I’ll try. I’ll call the school and let them know that you’re picking him up.”

“I love you.”

He pulled his hand away from my face and grabbed my hand before we started walking towards the door together. The team was still sitting in the boardroom with Detective McGee, covering all of the different missing persons cases as fast as they could. When we reached the bullpen, Hotch released his grip on my hand before anyone could notice, and we parted ways. He went to go talk with JJ over in the break room and I went to my desk to grab my purse. I caught a quick glance of the back of Hotch’s head before I pushed through the glass doors of the BAU and hurried for the elevator before it could close on me.

Jack’s school was already letting kids out when I pulled up to the building behind the line of other cars against the curb. After I parked the car, I hurried into the school and shyly asked someone where Jack’s grade’s classroom would be. They kindly directed me and I thanked them before heading off. I navigated all of the different hallways until I found the doorway that I had been sent to. There was a teacher standing just outside with a clipboard and a pen. I walked over and she asked me who I was picking up.

“Jack Hotchner,” I answered.

“What’s your name?”

“Y/N Greenaway.”

“Greenaway? Where’s Haley or Jessica?” she asked me. Oh, so she knew them by name… Well…

I dodged her question to get to the point. “My boyfriend called to tell the school that I would be picking him up.”

“Y/N!” Jack exclaimed from the back of the classroom. He came running over to me with his backpack in his hand rather than on his back.

I leaned down and caught him in my arms before resting him on my hip. “What’s up, little man?” I asked rhetorically. I turned back to the teacher. “Are we good to go?”

She nodded warily and crossed mine and Jack’s name off the list of pick ups. “See you tomorrow, Jack,” she smiled. He waved goodbye to her as I took his backpack in my other hand and started carrying him out of the school.

“How was school?” I brushed some dirt off of his forehead that had likely collected during recess.

“Good. Are we going to get ice cream?”

He knew that I always liked to spoil him with ice cream whenever he was at our house, and he must have figured that since I promised to pick him up from school, we were going to head straight to Dairy Queen or Cold Stone. I felt bad for having to burst his bubble because he was so excited to hang out with me and see his dad, but it was better to just rip the bandaid off rather than wait until we got to his mother’s house.

“I’m sorry, little man, your dad and I have to go on another case this afternoon. I have to take you to your mom’s house.”

Jack frowned, “But you promised that we were going to get ice cream.”

“I know, but your dad and I have to go save the world again, so we don’t have time for ice cream.” I set him down in front of the car door and opened it up for him. He climbed inside and I set his backpack on the floor in front of him before reaching in to help him with his buckle. “We’ll get ice cream when we come back and pick you up from your mom’s house, though. How does that sound?”

Jack was still pouting, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. He looked exactly like Hotch when he was mad, too. I wanted to chuckle, but I knew that it would only make Jack more upset. I crossed my arms and frowned, too, and leaned against the back of the passenger’s side car seat.

“Why the long face, little man?” I asked. He knew that it was always possible that Hotch and I would need to leave randomly and in a hurry. He was used to it. Usually, he didn’t even mind because he knew that we were off saving the world, which ultimately protected him and his mom, too.

“I wanted to stay at your house tonight,” he whined quietly. “You promised.”

My eyes softened as I gave up the joke of mimicking him in order to wipe off some more dirt I found on his chin. He was such a messy kid… “I know, buddy. And I’m so sorry. But you know that when the police need our help, we have to go. If I could, I’d stay at home with you all the time. That’s how much I love you, you know that?” Jack nodded, still forcing a frown on his face. “Come on, Jack,” I begged quietly.

It was already hard enough having to leave him again when we got so close to having more time with him. His puppy dog pouting wasn’t helping anything. I wanted to stay with him, I wanted to take him for ice cream, and I wanted to read him bedtime stories that night, but I had no choice. When duty called, duty called. And, honestly, the best case scenario was that when Hotch and JJ would land in Kansas City, they’d tell us that we can’t get the case, and we’d all be sent home. Maybe this was all for naught and Jack would be staying at our house tonight, anyways. Until then, though, I just needed him to work with me and not make this any harder.

I reached out and “stole his nose” with my fingers. “I love you,” I told him.

He instinctively wiped his nose and smiled behind his hand. “I love you, too.”

I “put his nose back” before pushing myself up from reclining on the seat. He was smiling, he was trying not to giggle, and we were going to be fine. I closed his door and went around the back of the car to get to the driver’s side car door.

When we pulled up to Haley’s house, Jack unbuckled himself, grabbed his bag, and let himself out of the car. I threw my keys in my palm after closing my car door behind me. Jack waited for me on the sidewalk. I held out my hand as I got closer and he took it. We walked together up the sidewalk and to Haley’s front door. I reached over and rang the doorbell. We waited a moment before the lock clicked and Haley opened the door.

“Mommy!” Jack cheered as he let go of my hand and ran to hug her.

Haley smiled and picked him up, “Hey, kiddo.” She looked up at me, “You must be Y/N. Aaron called to tell me you were dropping him off. Thank you for picking him up and bringing him here.”

“It was no really no problem,” I smiled back, fidgeting with the keys in my hands. Jack wriggled out of Haley’s arms and ran into the house to go play or start doing homework— whatever he fancied before his mother would inevitably force him to start his homework, irregardless. “I’m sorry for springing him on you like this.”

“It’s really no problem,” she shook her head, still smiling. “I get it.” She glanced over her shoulder quickly to make sure that Jack was gone. “He was really excited about seeing you guys. It’s been a few weeks.”

“I know…” I whispered, looking at my hands. “There’s not much I can do about it.”

Haley chuckled shortly, “That sounds familiar.”

I brought my eyes back up to meet hers. She was sizing me up, that much was obvious. She wanted to know if I was good for Hotch and their son. She wanted to know the kind of person I was and if she could trust me around Jack. I didn’t blame her. I was a stranger that was now sleeping in her old bed beside her ex-husband and I was now a large part of her son’s life. She wanted to know if I was responsible, if I showed in any way just how much I loved Hotch and Jack. She wanted to know that I would keep them safe.

My phone started ringing as the awkward silence hung in the air. I answered, “Aaron?”

“We got the case,” he told me.

I sighed quietly so that he couldn’t hear it. We weren’t going to get to see Jack for at least another few days. “Okay. I’ll head back to the office. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He hung up the call.

I stuffed my phone back in my pocket. “I have to go,” I told her. She nodded understandingly. I bowed my head and turned to start walking back to the car, but I stopped myself in my tracks. I spun on my heels to face Haley before she could close the front door, “Will you tell him that I’m sorry for me again? I don’t think he quite believes me.”

She paused, her hand still on the inside doorknob, and then she nodded. “He loves you a lot, you know. He tells me all the time.”

I smiled to myself as I continued on my way towards the car after silently acknowledging her statement.

What she said lifted my spirits more than realized, I think. I didn’t like having to leave Jack at all, but to think that he was mad at me, that made it only more painful. For Haley, his mother, to have the bravery to look me in the eye and admit that her son loved me, that was a relief. She didn’t have to be kind to me like that. Hell, I was scared shitless just before meeting her because there were so many reasons for her to hate me and make my life a living hell. But something about how she sized me up— or profiled me, if you will— made her mind up about me. She was okay with me being in Hotch and Jack’s life, and she was okay with Jack loving me as a parent figure. That meant everything to me.

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagines #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfiction #aaron hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch hotchner #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner imagines

38 notes · View notes