#oh and the more I think about it the less cat energy I get from david...maybe electric dogboy should become a thing too...

[swordsandholly]

Cherry Bomb - tattoo parlor anothology

MDNI | poly 141 x fem fat reader | masterlist | cw: oral (reader receiving)

Part Ten: Permission

A/N: We're SO back!

You’ve never been so happy to work an extra day.

Johnny gets the shop to himself on Sundays for walk-ins. Usually, he mans the shop by himself but you need to record the cash income from the convention in the ledger. Sure, you could do that during your usual hours the upcoming Wednesday and catch up on sleep, but you have too much nervous energy coursing through you. If you were home you would just be stewing on your couch the hole day and probably spiral into a panic attack. At least here, with a task and Johnny yapping in your ear, you don’t have to think about the fact that you made out with your boss too much.

Fuck. You really did that. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

You woke up in a cold sweat, fingers brushing over your lips as you tried to decipher if it was real or dreamed. If you really kissed John, if he really held a hand on your lower back as he walked you home, if he really gave you a second, light peck before saying goodnight. The itch of his beard lingers, as well as the warmth where his hands cupped your face. It felt so good. So fucking good.

Then the context settles in. The fact that you kissed your boss makes you want to throw up - not for any dislike of it, just the fact that your job is now in limbo. Hanging in the balance until you can talk to him on Wednesday. At least you can take the next couple days to collect your thoughts - come up with a good apology that will hopefully let you keep your job and some semblance of dignity. Somehow make sense of the fact that you’ve kissed John and Kyle and surely when they find out they’ll think you’re a floosy. Loose and easy and pathetic and gross. You couldn’t quite meet your own eye in the mirror as you tried to get ready for the day.

The current, formerly “Future You” is not very happy with the now Past You. Frankly, you’d like to deck her for leaving you in this state of a permanent heart attack.

“Och, I’m about tae melt.” Johnny mutters, appearing from his room and stretching. His shirt rides up, exposing a thick happy trail that does not help you in your current spiral.

You just hum, gluing your eyes to the physical spreadsheet in front of you as you go through the sales from the convention. Numbers will clear your head. Yeah, nothing less sexy or more distracting than trying to do math with pen, paper and a TI-84 calculator.

“We should go get some ice cream.” Johnny leans over behind you, causing you to jump. Large hands settle on your shoulders as he rests his chin on the top of your head. At least Johnny is always touchy, you don’t have to read into it. You don’t think you could handle reading into it right now.

“Uh, yeah, okay.” You murmur, letting him lead you out of the office and flipping the out for lunch sign. You’ve been so lost in your head the entire day that you can’t fully pull yourself out of it - the same spiral of fears and self-degradation swirling around in your mind. A Cat 5 tornado of your own making. So stupid.

Johnny intertwines your fingers as you make your way down the street. Your hands swing lightly as you walk. Even with the heat, it doesn’t feel like too much. You’re not sure what it is - of you’re just comfortable or if Johnny just has something about him that makes touch feel perfectly natural - but it’s never overwhelming. Even when he’s hanging off you like a leech, it’s just Johnny. He doesn’t make you talk, doesn’t pry into why you’re so spaced out. He probably just thinks you’re tired. You are tired. So tired.

You don’t realize Johnny is saying something until he gently elbows your side. “Huh?”

“What d’ye want?” Johnny asks with a concerned furrow in his brow.

“Oh, uh, I can get my own-“

”My treat.” He shakes his head, batting away the hand pulling your wallet out of your back pocket. You have no choice but to give in to him - there isn’t any point in arguing with Johnny.

“Thanks for suggesting this.” You murmur, as you sit at one of the wooden, outdoor tables in front of the shop a couple blocks down from the tattoo parlor. The tables are covered in the shade of trees and an awning, luckily, keeping the sun from beating down on you. It doesn’t stop your ice cream from melting nearly faster than you can eat it, but you don’t have the heart to complain after Johnny took you out and bought it for you.

“Aye. Seemed like ye needed some cheerin’ up. Never seen ye so sullen.” Johnny comments, casually stuffing a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. His eyes are sympathetic, though.

“Oh.” You thought you’d been doing alright at hiding it - came into the shop with a jokes and everything this morning. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much Johnny actually notices between all his volume and energy.

“Gonnae tell me about it?”

“No.”

“Might help.”

You shake your head. “I- I’m- I can’t.”

“Okay.” He smiles gently, giving you a once over. His eyes are so sharp. The others do it too - take your body language in piece by piece. It doesn’t burn like when Johnny does it, though. His gaze is consuming, even when soft.

He seems to let you off the hook, though. It’s impossible to know how much he does or doesn’t know - how much any of them know. It puts you on edge, the inability to ask. After all, to ask is to admit. If you admit to it, you might lose it all. Fuck why did you kiss John? Kyle you can explain away - just a fun little bet. You’re close in age, he’s pretty, you’re together a lot, you get along. Nothing to it - even if it feels like there was. Even if it feels like every time you’re near him you’re going to melt and the air gets too thick and all you want is to pull him to the back room one more time.

John… John you can’t justify like that. He’s your boss. He’s over a decade older than you. Easily. He’s been so good to you but that’s not an excuse - it’s not right. You’re jeopardizing his place in his community. You’re jeopardizing your job. The best job you’ve ever had. The best friends you’ve ever had.

You can feel Johnny glancing at you as you walk, your eyes square on the ground and fists clenched anxiously. The heat outside only makes your head spin faster. Your cheeks feel feverishly hot. The ice cream almost curdles in your gut. Everything is too loud, too hot, too heavy.

You glance up at the clock. The day’s almost over - there probably won’t be more than one or two people that file in at most. You’ve finished with your work, currently just cross hatching on a sticky note in an attempt to calm your frayed nerves. It hasn’t worked. You need a distraction. A real, proper distraction.

“Johnny.” You snap, standing in the door way to his workroom.

“Hm?” He looks up, thick brows raised.

“I want a piercing.”

He cocks his head, taking you in from head to toe. “Aye?”

“If you have time.”

“I’ve always got time fer ye.” He grins.

You almost roll your eyes, but you’re too raw at the edges to really care about his usual flirting. There’s too much weighing on your mind - too much real anxiety knotting itself around your synapses and crushing them in it’s hold. The pain will help. It’ll ground you - sharpen your senses. You can focus on taking care of it for the next couple days between sleeping the days away until Wednesday. Until you can get this shit over with.

The only answer is to quit, right?

That’s your only option.

“What d’ye want?” Johnny asks.

You shrug. “What’d you think?”

He taps his chin, eyes slowly making their way over your body. You wonder if he can see how tense you are - body so locked up your joints ache and your jaw throbs. It’s a wonder your teeth are still there with how much you’ve been grinding them.

“How about a navel?”

“Okay.” You agree too quickly, flopping back on the pairing table. You focus in on a water mark on the ceiling above while Johnny digs through his tool cabinet, laying everything neatly on a small rolling tray.

Johnny stops above you. You don’t even turn your head to look, fists clenching and unclenching.

You’ll have to quit.

That’s your only choice. No reference calls, no contact. Will Simon hate you? Will they all? Will they talk about why you up and left? Will they show up at your apartment to demand an answer? No. You don’t mean that much - only a blip on the timeline of their shop. The corners of your eyes burn.

Johnny’s fingers skate over your soft middle, barely touching as he passes over the button of your jeans. He pauses, glancing down at you. “Bonnie?”

“Yeah?” You reply a little too harshly.

Johnny leans over you, hands on either side of your head, blue eyes burning through your skull. He blocks out the light above. “Yer doin’ this because ye want to, yeah? Not to punish yerself?”

You shrink into the table, hackles raising. It really is so easy to forget that Johnny is an observant bastard. Loud, brash, but he still sees everything. Like how he learned your coffee order by heart without you ever even saying it to him or having it written on the cup. He absorbs things, files it away, keeps it close to his chest and hides it behind his blunt, brash daily manners. You’ll miss him.

“I- yeah, I’m fine.” You wince internally at the shake in your voice.

“Y’know, we all love ye.” Johnny murmurs.

You huff, eyes darting anywhere to get away from his. Laying on the table suddenly feels slightly trapping. You can’t get your gaze fully away from where he stands over you - so close as his thick arms cage you in. “Guess so.”

“An’ there’s nothin’ tae feel guilty or bad about.”

Your eyes snap to his face, wide and worried. Does he know? Was he told? Do you ask? If you ask, you’ll be admitting to it. If you ask, then he will know for sure. If you ask, you might ruin it all. “I don’t-“

“Ye do.” He cuts you off. “An’ ye have permission, even if ye dinnae need it. It’s okay. Ye havennae done anythin’ wrong.”

You stare, mouth opening and closing lamely. Johnny. Straight forward, loud mouth, unsubtle Johnny. Fuck, you love him for it. Doesn’t dance around what he means. Doesn’t avoid what needs to be said - from his end, at least.

“Did- did you talk to-?” You stutter, struggling between needing to know and fear to admit the truth so blatantly. Even if he obviously knows something.

“Not really. Not my business.” Johnny shrugs casually.

Not his business. So they persue separately, you think. That makes sense. Probably. It’s probably wrong to make assumptions about the dynamic, about the implication that they have some sort of free for all. Then again, you don’t really know anything about their interpersonal workings much. They live together, they’re touchy. The dynamic is a mystery to you - only adding to the piles of confusion.

“Yer thinkin’ tae hard about it.” He pokes the furrow between your brows.

Oh. Is that it? You’re overthinking? No, adults talk about these things. You don’t understand the interpersonal workings here at all. Are they together? Do they just do this? Pull girls in and push them around until they get tired? That feels too cruel for them. They’ve taken such good care of you…

“I still… want to talk.” You murmur, cheeks warm.

His face softens, a light smile tugging at his lips. “An’ ye will. Kyle’s been damn near loosin’ it with ye avoiding him.”

“I’m not avoiding him!” You snap far too defensively.

“Sure ye aren’t.” Johnny shrugs, as if to tell you he knows that’s bull. Not his business, though, he said. “Just… donnae be so scared of us, aye? We’ve got yer back.”

Your shoulders drop, sore from being tensed for the entire day. “Okay.”

“Still want tae get peirced?”

You nod, chest far less tight. As though you finally let go of a breath you had been holding the entire day. “Sure, why not.”

Your shoulders slump as Johnny makes his way through the usual song and dance - showing you the freshly cleaned tools and marking the spot for the needle. Somehow the world seems… quieter. As if all the chatter in your mind had been just as deafening to your physical ears. It’s tiring. That same sting behind your eyes that you get after a long night out. Your defenses are down, and your body is finally at rest.

“Ow!” You gasp, lifting your head to meet Johnny’s impish grin with a glare. “A little warning next time!”

“Tha’s what happens when ye donnae listen.” He teases, slipping the jewelry through. “She’s cute.”

You snort. “She better be. Y’know I should tell John on you for improper conduct.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Aye, ye an’ Price know plenty about improper conduct.”

There’s no malice in the comment, or in the grin he settles on you. For once, you don’t freeze up. Don’t send yourself into a panic spiral over what he knows or thinks or feels. Johnny made himself clear. Instead you land a light smack against his arm and huff in embarrassment.

“Stand f’me.” Johnny murmurs after cleaning the piercing, a heat in his eyes that you can’t quite gauge the source of.

You do as you’re told, slipping off the table. You have to hook a finger into the waistband of your jeans to keep them up, cheeks hot as you realize how much is actually exposed with the fully undone fly. You glance up at a far too pleased Johnny. Didn’t even say a word, the mischievous bastard.

He drops to his knees in front of you. Your brows shoot damn near into the sky. Johnny mumbles something about making sure the piercing is sitting right. You roll with it, knowing he’s probably just saying whatever to get you to keep your pants undone a little longer. Your breath quickens as a large, warm hand flattens itself over your soft belly, unabashedly groping. Not that you mind, really, even if it does make your face so hot it might melt.

Your heart almost breaks out of your rib cage when he places a small kiss next to the piercing. His hand lowers, resting beside yours on the waistband of your jeans.

“May I?” Johnny murmurs, big blue eyes blinking up at you.

You have permission.

You don’t need permission.

You have it, though.

“Yeah.” You gasp, shivering at the cold air on your skin as Johnny pulls your pants halfway down your thighs.

“Pretty, pretty lass.” He murmurs, nipping at the softness of your belly and down to your thigh. “Look at ye.”

“Flatterer.” You scoff, attempting to let the tension melt off your shoulders with the usual snide remarks you slide each others way.

“M’just honest…” Johnny mumbles absently, fingers catching in the hems of your underwear. “Ye always walkin’ around in somethin’ this skintie?”

For a moment, your brows knit in confusion. That is until he pulls back and snaps the string of your thong against your hip. Your face somehow gets even hotter and you grumble out a poor excuse of, “S’laundry day…”

Your hips twitch as he traces between your lips through the cloth. So uncharacteristically slow and methodical for Johnny as he feels you, like he’s trying to memorize it. A shamefully harsh jolt runs up your spine as he presses just slightly into your clit.

“Sensitive little thing.” Johnny grins up at you. You swear the devil has a less delinquent grin.

“It’s been a while.” You shrug, aiming once again for casual and missing by a mile.

His grin only grows, eyes bright and hungry. “Let’s get these off.”

You shimmy your hips a bit to help him get both your underwear and jeans completely down. A wave of shyness overtakes you as it settles in that you’re utterly exposed to Johnny, your friend and coworker, in the middle of your workplace just as the sun has begun to edge down close to the horizon. It’s almost too much, and you almost yank your pants back on with a stammered, fake excuse, but Johnny soothes his hands up your thighs, gaze locked onto your pussy like it’s the only thing that exists and yeah… you want that.

You have permission.

“There she is.” He cups you gently, grinding the heel of his hand against your clit just hard enough to make you gasp.

Before you can say or do anything his hand retracts and Johnny settles you with the most serious look you’ve ever seen from him. It looks wrong, almost, on that face that’s supposed to have a permanent ear to ear grin.

“If ye want tae stop, I need ye tae tell me now.”

“No.” The word leaves you before you can even register the thought - desperate and breathy.

It earns a low chuckle. The only warning you get before Johnny licks a long stripe up between your lips, letting his tongue rest on your clit for just a moment before repeating the motion as though he’s not just eating you out but truly trying to truly get a taste for you. To memorize you as he drinks you in.

“Should let me give you a Christina…” He murmurs, pulling back to look at you.

“Ah, wha-“

“Look so pretty on this fat little cunt.” Johnny gives you a light smack for good measure, grinning at the visible jolt that travels up your spine before diving back in. He hooks a leg over his shoulder, leaving you balancing on your tip toes with your hands flat on the table behind you. It’s precarious and with absolutely no room to escape the attention he’s lavishing on you. It’s almost desperate, the way he moves. The way he devours. A man utterly starved.

“Fuck-“ you gasp as his tongue piercing catches your clit. Rough hands knead at the softness of your thighs and hips, urging you to press into him, to take as much as he’s giving.

“Tha’s it, ride m’face…” Your fingers lock into his mohawk and Johnny’s slurred words become the most pornographic moan you think you’ve ever heard. He practically goes limp - body relaxed and pliant while you grind down onto his tongue.

You tilt your head forward, risking looking down only to meet those big blue eyes staring up at you with all the intensity of the sun. A shaky moan passes your lips and his eyes flutter.

“J-Johnny-” The whine of his name only spurs him on - has him pressing his tongue so deep inside you and drinking you in full.

If he has any complaints about the way your heel digs between his shoulder blades as you unconsciously pull him closer, he doesn’t make it known. His nails rake over your ass, biting and stinging in contrast to everything else. It’s so much. Heat continues to pool at the base of your spine - babbling words, please and moans spill messily from your lips.

Your climax catches you off guard as Johnny sucks harshly at your clit; lighting your body aflame with only his mouth. Every muscle inside you tenses and the sounds you let out can only be described as strangled whines.

You have to yank a little at Johnny’s hair to get him to stop when the overstimulation reaches just the wrong side of too much; he’s well and truly lost in the moment. It fuels your ego to dangerous heights - the idea that this gorgeous man became that intoxicated just from your pussy.

There isn’t even time to say anything before Johnny is standing and connecting his lips with yours. You taste yourself on his tongue, his lips - somehow this is the first time you’ve found that pleasant. With heavy breaths you watch him wipe around his mouth his his palm, only to exaggeratedly lick and clean what’s left off his hand. Fucking sinful.

“Nasty man.” You sigh, too blissed out to be truly critical. Johnny winks and you roll your eyes.

“S’about quittin’ time.” He says, tilting his head to look up at you through thick lashes. “Should get ye home.”

You frown, still trying to come back to earth as you glance down. “Don’t- do you want-?”

He looks you over, your mouth goes dry as his hand drops from your hip to adjust himself. The implications of the outline through his thick denim has your head reeling and your breath quickening. Johnny chuckles at you, surely seeing it written plain across your face. You might as well start drooling and panting like a dog.

He buries his nose into the crook of your neck to nip at your skin. “Another time. Want tae savor ye.”

You shiver, unable to stop the smile that quirks up the corners of your lips. You have permission. You don’t need it, but you have it.

A/N: Sorry if this is a little rough, I'm getting back into the swing of things. It's finally time for things to get fun, tho ;)

Also please give some love to this AMAZING fanart from @eurydicescurse

[there-is-just-me-myself-and-i]

I just think Pascal has cat energy(sleepy boy who likes small areas!!) But I also have this as proof 😂(david too I guess)

Awwww 🥺🥺🥺. I kind of agree, but I think they would all make cute catboys. Also Electric Catboy would be a cool bandname 😂🖤.

[angelsknifeprty]

streamer!ellie hcs ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

a/n: this is more focused on ellie and less on ellie x reader but i am for sure gonna follow this up with something else more focused on the both of you >:3

warnings | mentions of weed, the smallest hint towards struggling with eating if you squint

word count: 698

do not buy tlou | ways to help palestine | operation olive branch | keep eyes on sudan | haiti’s history | learn about congo

𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ started off posting unlisted videos of her playing games with the stupidest, shittiest editing ever for you and her friends to watch and later decided to give streaming a try

‎ ‧₊˚౨ৎ starts off her twitch channel as a faceless streamer but does a face reveal when she hits a big milestone

‧₊˚౨ৎ has the creeper mini fridge for sure!!

‧₊˚౨ৎ has a ginger cat named garfield that she exclusively calls garfunkel on stream because her viewers made fun of her for garfield being too unoriginal

“guys, what do you mean it’s unoriginal, look at him. that’s literally garfield, the real deal. you’re all haters.”

‧₊˚౨ৎ plays a bunch of different games: minecraft obviously, fortnite, roblox (and argues with kids on there, you can’t tell me any different). also loves fnaf, elder scrolls and resident evil

‧₊˚౨ৎ more on her liking resident evil, i think she’s not super wimpy when it comes to games like that but she HATES the regenerators from the re4 remake (i’m totally not projecting…)

“i am NOT a wimp, but look at their freaky fucking arms!! and they have gross little butts too, that was not a necessary choice for the character design.”

‧₊˚౨ৎ she does find it funny when she kills them and they jiggle as they fall on the ground though

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ i’m throwing it in here that she smokes weed because i simply cannot help myself teehee :P

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ she does more chill streams of her eating n stuff as a way of comforting her viewers so they can eat along with her )):

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ and in turn chat always spams her with comments to drink water because that girl survives purely on energy drinks to combat her sleepy girl syndrome

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ abuses the soundboard so heavily, loves using a sound effect of an audience clapping and cheering when she tells the most painfully unfunny joke

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ she is ABSOLUTELY a jerma985 fan

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ loves putting her fans on blast and reacting to edits of her on stream and finds it so funny (especially the ones that have the reverb fart noise just randomly slapped in there, she thinks it’s peak humour)

“you guys think i don’t see this stuff? i have eyes everywhere. y’know what though, you guys are actually really talented.”

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ wears stupid t-shirts that say stuff like “i paused my game to be here” (omg i just found one that says “gamers make better lovers, they know all the right buttons” she would absolutely wear that)

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ she wears her silly t-shirts with pride and has the audacity to ask chat to rate how hard her fit goes

therealher0brine: BOOOOOO 🍅🍅🍅 0/10

elliebellie69: i beg that you don’t leave the house in that /lh  (╥﹏╥)

gnarpgnarp500: never beating the loser lesbian allegations i fear…

“guys you’re just not seeing the vision, sorry that you’re not this cool.”

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ oh my gosh she is OBSESSED with the little ikea alien, she has multiple of them in her room. she keeps one on her desk and when she sometimes doesn’t know what to say she’ll just hold it up super close to the camera and make incoherent high pitched babbling sounds

smelliams420: omg cancelled you can’t say that dude…

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ gets her viewers to send in clips and she’ll do high try not to laugh streams and fails miserably because she has the dumbest sense of humour ever. she’ll blame it entirely on the herb though as if her reaction wouldn’t be near enough the same when she’s sober

‧₊˚౨ৎ will occasionally play guitar on stream and she’ll sing too if you catch her in the right mood. she’s a bit awkward about it so it doesn’t happen often cuz she hates messing up and always makes a way bigger deal about it than necessary

“fuck- no wait, i was just messing with you. that fuck up was on purpose, shut up,” and her cheeks are flushed bright red as she tries to brush it off and compose herself before trying again

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ loves to get sidetracked and info dumps about stuff she is far too knowledgeable on

 ‧₊˚౨ৎ in conclusion, loser ellie supremacy

a/n: raghhh i love streamer els with my whole heart !!! i’m gonna eat her (˶˃⤙˂˶) anyways i hope you enjoyed, k bye mwah! >3< ♡

[rubra-wav]

Taking care of the main cast while they're sick

Cw: SFW, gn!reader, platonic, very briefly suggestive in Angel's, in the order of who gets sick first - last

<< [ Part 1 ]

Charlie

- She's truly a wet cat when she gets sick.

- Will not stop crying and being emotional the whole time. She hates not being able to sing or go out and about.

- Is even more emotional when you volunteer to take care of her as you're no longer as likely to get sick again.

- She's so happy she's not gonna be all alone.

- She hates being locked away in her room and not being able to participate in group activities.

- Insists they still go on without her like she's about to die from not being able to be there with them.

- Charlie spends the whole time wrapped up in a blanket in bed and watching kids' movies. I hope you like Disney movies, because she won't put on anything else.

- Says they make her 'heart' feel not sickly like she is.

- You will be cuddling her because if not, she won't stop sobbing. Vaggie is keeping her distance from her because she doesn't want to get sick too.

- I hope you're also ready to get your ear talked off by a very passionate dreamer who's been under house lock for a week because oh boy.

- For the last few days, she's gonna be trying to leave her room or convince you to let her leave. She's going antsy and stir-crazy by the end of it.

- She's extremely clingy to you as you're essentially her caretaker for the week she's sick.

- Eventually Vaggie caves in to ger girlfriend, and takes over for you anyways. Then Vaggie catches it. 💀

- Apologetic afterwards to you.

Vaggie

- She's disappointed but not really surprised.

-Probably the best and most composed of all of them when she gets sick.

- She doesn't too much like being seen sick as it makes her feel vulnerable, but when you assure her you don't think any less of her she's a lot less stiff about you being there.

- She will just chill in her room the whole time, probably reading or writing notes to remind her to do stuff when she gets out.

- The whole time she just sighs, sounding extra irritated and absolutely done with life.

- She needs to sit in darkness most of the time because she keeps getting migraines.

- Will absolutely insist she can look after herself and that she doesn't need someone near her at all times like Charlie.

- Will accept you bringing her food, helping with her duties guarding, and bringing her reports about what's gone on around the hotel.

- Really appreciates the reports actually.

- By the end of it she's considering bringing you on to possibly permanently help her out because you absolutely would be helpful.

- Most of her socialisation energy is taken up by Charlie, so she's very likely just gonna wanna be left on her own through most of it.

Niffty

- Despite being told not to, Niffty goes into the room's of those who are sick to clean, and that's how she gets sick.

- An absolute fucking nightmare to look after. It's not just you, it's also Vaggie who needs to keep her at bay.

- She doesn't understand 'rest' and 'quarantine', those do not exist.

- There will have to be a 24/7 watch on her to keep her in her room because my God, she does not sleep and stays just as insane but becomes delirous.

- Will be there barely able to stand and still cleaning.

- You will literally have to pick her up and carry her kicking back to her room.

- The only way to get her to go sleep is to get her a tranquiliser.

- There's a greatly annoying back and forth between Alastor, you and Vaggie as Alastor has the tranquilliser she usually has but just refuses.

- Thank christ when Angel just goes 'fuck this' and gets another type like it to knock her out.

- After that it's better. Niffty becomes extremely clingy to you or Vaggie while she's sedated. Vaggie walks out after the solution is found, leaving you to take care of her on your own.

- So you just cuddle her while doing whatever you have brought to do in her room.

- Afterwards she's probably gonna be clinging to you extra. She's imprinted on you during this period low-key

- It's exhausting, and you don't succeed in stopping her from spreading germs (which is ironic considering she's supposedly the clean one)

- Pentious, Husk and Angel all get sick in quick succession after Niffty.

Pentious

- His 1800's ass is gonna be so dramatic.

- Not overdramatic, because he's scared for obvious and understandable reasons.

- But still dramatic.

- He's gonna be needing reassurance every three seconds on this, and even then, he's gonna be all weepy.

- Straight up thinks he's gonna die.

- "Bring me out to the garden one last time" type attitude.

- When it becomes clear he's not going to die in approximately 10 seconds, he calms down a bit, but he's still super anxious.

- Will absolutely want to cuddle you (along with his egg boys) while he's still super delirious.

- You gotta like tight hugs because when I say cuddle, I mean he will be full-body wrapping around you with his tail around your legs and arms around your shoulders.

- Denies it happening outright after his temperature comes down, though, and is super embarrassed.

- Cheers up at about the 4 day mark.

- Stays in his room with you and probably just discusses and brainstorms ideas for different kinds of weapons and machines.

- Tbh, after he's not contagious anymore and can leave again, he's probably gonna be jealous that you're no longer giving him as much attention as you were.

Angel

- Oh, he's so mad about it.

- He dodged getting sick off of you, Charlie and Vaggie only to get sick because Niffty refused to stay down.

- The whole time he's also really anxious because he's scared Val is gonna order him to come in while he's unwell and force him to still into the studio to do some weird sickness kink type shit.

- Luckily, Val doesn't reach out at all in the time he's sick.

- Him, Husk and you kinda just chill out together doing stuff like watching movies and talking shit.

- Vaggie orders them to stick together to avoid the chance of infecting anyone a second time, and the whole time you're near them, you need to wear a mask.

- Angel is not a clingy sick person. In fact, he doesn't wanna be cuddled at all (at least in the first few days)

- Doesn't like you seeing him sick because he thinks it's super gross.

- He's getting too hot and then too cold every 3 seconds and is super annoyed over it. Just keeps angrily putting on layers and then taking them off again.

- He doesn't like getting cuddled, but he does like you taking care of him and asking if he needs anything, and you reassuring him he'll get better soon.

- He so rarely gets taken care of in that way, so he absolutely eats it up.

- Probably takes to sarcastically calling you parental nicknames when you tell him he has to take meds/eat/drink whatever.

- He starts going absolutely stir crazy by the end of it as well, he hates being cooped up.

- Very appreciative when he's finally able to gtfo and do stuff again.

Husk

- He's by far the most pissed off about getting sick (that you're aware of at least)

- He kept trying to tell Niffty to go away and go to bed, but she just kept clinging to him.

- The whole time he's unwell, he has to suffer through Alastor laughing at him, which all makes it so much worse.

- Alastor just periodically shows up to bully him, and you need to call Vaggie to kick him out for you.

- Husk does not like you trying to take care of him, and will promptly tell you to fuck off with no hesitation if you start trying to caretake him outside of getting him food and stuff.

- He's also not happy because when he's really delirious, he is actually extremely affectionate.

- The whole time he's running a fever and especially sick, he will be trying to cling to anything around but especially you.

- Does the type of thing during that period that animals do when you stop petting them and they just. Start whining and looking at you pleadingly for more attention.

- He's horrendously embarrassed about it.

- He relaxes a bit when you promise him not to ever bring it up again, but he's still extremely grumpy.

- Especially because he lowkey blames you as you're the root of the sickness, even though you did everything right with isolating and trying to make sure nobody else caught what you had.

- His appreciation is fairly low in comparison to the others.

Alastor

- Sick? Take care of him?

- HA. Funny joke.

- He doesn't get sick.

- At least, that's what he says and is absolutely fucking horrified and furious when he actually does end up unwell.

- He tries to hide it behind him being 'busy' in his radio tower and 'to leave him alone to his devices'

- Will never ever admit he's sick, let alone allow you to truly take care of him. Even the thought fills him with such disgust that his smile almost wavers.

- You don't see or hear from him the whole time, but you can tell he's sick. Some kind of intuition.

- You just bring him stuff to eat, drink and take and leave it outside the door - hauling ass tf away as you knock on the door.

- He still knows you know and are bringing him stuff, and it pisses him off massively.

- He doesn't ever bring it up though afterwards, and if you do? You're gonna suffer ngl.

-

Masterlist

[threepandas]

Like A Dangerous Cat: Yandere!Aizawa

See, here's the thing. (And don't get me wrong, to each their own.) I come across Yandere!Aizawa fics time and again, that forget his crucial truth. This man? THIS man... is fuckin EXHAUSTED.

No sexy body or "ooooh~ IMPRISON ME sempai~♡" energy is gonna motivate him enough to get out of his damn sleeping bag. No today, not tomorrow. Not EVER. He's best friends with Nemuri, for god's sake. He's seen finer tits for far less effort.

And HURTING you? Why would he do THAT? You got something to confess? He has more then a few cops on speed dial. He WILL if he must... but for your sake. Do Not Make Him Do That.

It's his napping time.

He gets that so, SO fucking rarely.

But! Does this mean he can not become a Yandere? Are we cursed to a hot hobo-daddy-less Yandere-free world?

The FUCK it does!

He has SO much love to give. And is that not the CORE of the Yandere? The love? The OBSESSION. Hey, real quick, how much of his personality has he completely reshaped around the hole Oboro left in his life? How far do you think he would GO for Mic? What do you think he would DO?

The thing is? He's not the sort of Yandere that would ever hurt or humiliate his Darling. Oh no, he'd sooner die. Take you all with him. No...

No he's a HERO.

He's gonna PROTECT them. Make them HAPPY. Bask in the light of it, like a cat on a sunbeam. And? HOW he protects them? What he needs to DO, to make sure everything is SAFE? That their dreams come true and their path is full of nothing but rose petal n light? Well... they don't need to know about THAT do they?

That's his JOB, isn't it?

To be a HERO. To PROTECT. Keep watch, just in case.

And? He is the sort of Yandere you'll NEVER notice. Others will. They'll never get the chance to WARN you, but they'll notice. Or, they'll already be so wrapped up in his madness, that it all feels normal.

You'll just... start finding your life easier, all of a sudden. Little things will start going your way. Then bigger and bigger. That creep who kept cat calling you? Finally stopped! The rumored pervert around the neighborhood? Caught! Oh! Look! You didn't even KNOW about this sale!

Wonder how the ad even GOT to you...

Still, you'll brush it off. Pet some cats. Wonder why all the guys who used to hit on you STOPPED. Figure they were messing with you. Oh, hey! Promotion! You buy nicer coffee for the weird hobo looking Hero that uses your balcony as a patrol rest stop.

You DID offer.

Even set up a lil coffee maker out there. Electric kettle. A lockable snack box n stuff. You figured he wouldn't trust food left to the open air. It's suspicious, right? He knocked on your sliding door and asked about it. You guys had a conversation and everything. Was pretty cool.

And? Slowly? He'll pull you in. Vague thank you notes becoming polite but generic "how are you"s. Which of course meanders in to questions about things you mention. Longer responses from you. More and more notes. Until? Oh, he just HAPPENS to be early today...

Slowly, carefully, dragging you into his friend group. Letting Mic do the heavy social lifting. Letting Nemuri do the loud girls nights. Letting you roam free, happy and oblivious. Careful as he peppers in the benefits of working for UA. Good pay, excellent protection, unmatchable care package...

Ah, but he's rambling, you were mentioning your unreasonable boss?

And of course, his friends will tease. He has a "crush". That's one word for what he feels. They suggest dates and hookups. It sounds awful. He has an almost comically low sex drive. You would too, with working hours like his. WOULD he though?

The second you showed interest. In anyway you'd have him. Like it's his life's MISSION to get you off. He'd do RESEARCH. Deep dives. Your computer? Hacked. Your search history? Gone through with a fine tooth comb. He found your smut stash WEEKS ago. Has copies of every title, been going through them like he's studying for a final.

He's been friends with Nemuri for YEARS. Knows things youve never even considered. If not from HER, then from her 18+ Hero work friends. They're loud. He's vaguely annoyed that it actually HAS become useful knowledge.

And? The thought of having you completely, taking you apart, holding you, boneless and soft and warm against him? Makes feels like some horny teenager, for how quick that does it for him. He has FANTASIES of what he would do to you, if he actually had enough time of to be well rested.

Wants to pamper you. Wants to limp, bruised and sore, to your apartment, so you'll WORRY. Want to pamper HIM. Want to focus on him. Pay attention to him. Be soft and careful and gentle with him. Your poor wounded hero...

Ah, he bets he could convince you to let him sleep, propped up in your arms.

It'd be so WARM.

In the meantime? He'll slowly get you used to him. Use Mic to do it. That's right, every hour is cuddle hour. It's good for mental health and hormonal regulation. Perfectly logical, really, to get some casual touch from trusted friends, right? Honestly, there's nothing to see here. He's harmless. Of course he can help braid your hair. Sure you can lean against him. Cold? Let's share a sleeping bag.

He's harmless.

Like a grumpy cat.

A big, dangerous cat.

[aohisworld]

YOON AOHI & her seven babygirls!

in other words, the evidence of ENHYPEN being babygirlified for Aohi! ⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚

poly!ot7 x addedmember!oc. — headcanons!

contains: babygirlism, some words of killing game characters, cringe writing lol

key: japanese - korean ⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩

EXHIBIT A, BAMBI's NAP:

¡! ❞ Heeseung and Aohi sat in their seats as they relaxed from performing their last show, to the back of them, Sunghoon and Jungwon entertained the camera that recorded their 'behind the scenes'.

Aohi ate her way into gaining more energy as she munched on ordered kimbap happily, her feet swinging together like a kid would with candy.

The video suddenly zooms into the munching girl, and Jungwon addresses her in the video.

(oh? what's going on in the background?)

"Heeseung-hyung is sleeping, while Aohi is eating.." Jungwon explains, pulling the camera from Sunghoon as he approaches the table, and the video is met with the scene of a sleeping Heeseung on Aohi's lap.

(he's knocked out cold ㅋㅋㅋ..)

"Hello.." Aohi spoke softly, covering her lips with her mouth as she still had some food in her mouth. She was a little shocked at the sudden arrival of her group members beside her, smiling nervously.

"Heeseung-hyung's absolutely knocked out..." Jungwon snickers, poking at the sleeping eldest on Aohi's lap. "We should draw on his face." Sunghoon suggests, instigating something he shouldn't, Jungwon agreeing.

(???)

"Aiya! Don't wake him!" Aohi whispered, slapping Jungwon's arm as she tries to protect the eldest ENHYPEN member from Sunghoon and Jungwon's terrorizing.

The two giggled like evil kids as Aohi continues to slap away the hands that kept trying to poke Heeseung, but she could only do much with one hand as the other was holding utensils to eat her food.

(protector mode on!)

"Eung..." Heeseung nods off in his sleep as his eyes slightly open at the commotion.

Aohi clicks her tongue when she realizes the two boys were successful at ruining the eldest's nap, she glares up at them, like a mother cat would to strays who nitpicked on her kittens.

Suddenly Jungwon and Sunghoon sweatdrops at Aohi's expression, they knew they went too far when Aohi clicks her tongue, a warning not to test her patience any further.

(Jungwon & Sunghoon: ^^")

"Ah, let's go bother someone else." The two troublemakers make a dash for it before Aohi could scold them or even think about getting angry at them, running off with their tails tucked between their legs.

The last of the clip shows Aohi in the background running her hand through Heeseung's hair, trying to lull him back to sleep.

A few seconds is shown to see Heeseung looking up at her with his sleepy bambi eyes, effectively getting her to smile.

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT B, AOHI'S MINI GAMING LESSON:

¡! ❞ The vlog was supposed to be peaceful, Heeseung and Aohi decided to spend some time at a gaming cafe, the aoheung content was thriving and the gaming was a win streak all around.

Until it came to Valorant. Heeseung should've known they were going to be playing her favourite game, and with Ni-ki and Sunoo, no less.

See, Heeseung is good at games, don't get him wrong, but he's never played Valorant before.

(pew pew! Heeseung tries valorant!)

Now that he's being vlogged by Aohi and her gaming minions, his dignity as her boyfriend, the eldest of enhypen, AND as the main gamer of the group were all on the line.

"Hyung! Behind- behind!" Sunoo screeched as he watched Heeseung whiff his shots on to the enemy Reyna. Heeseung just puts his head in his hands as he laughs away his failure.

Aohi could be heard having an ugly laugh as she and Ni-ki watch from their own computers.

(Enhypen loses their first valorant game....)

"Aishhh... I can't teach this hyung!" Sunoo complains as he mirrors Heeseung's actions, a small pout on his face. "It's his first game! Cut him some slack!" Aohi spoke in between her laughs.

Aohi moves towards Heeseung's computer and fixes his settings, trying to give the deer-like member some comfort when playing. "Here, try my settings."

(Mother bat helps bambi!)

Heeseung fixes his posture in his chair as they queue another game, instantly being put into a swiftplay. "You should try Phoenix, oppa, you can heal." Aohi suggests, adjusting the headphones on her head.

"Eung.." Heeseung mumbled, picking a pepero stick from the various snacks they brought to munch on.

They lock in their characters, Sunoo locks in Gekko, wwhile Ri-ki and Aohi lock in Sage and Jett, and Heeseung takes Aohi's advice, locking Phoenix in.

(will this game be a win?)

"I got a kill!" Heeseung announces, a giddy grin on his face, and a compliment from Aohi follows. "Hyung, you're so lucky- Aohi-noona doesn't give me any whenever I clutch for her." Ri-ki complains from beside him.

"You're literally immortal, you don't need any more of an ego boost." Aohi replied, her gaze focused on her computer as she tries to kill off an enemy Yoru.

"Aohi! Heal me!" Sunoo spoke, a giggle leaving his lips when Aohi is stuck between two enemies and he watches from his screen as Aohi died healing Sunoo.

"Yah! You just watched me die!" Aohi complained, but at the end, laughing with Sunoo.

The quadruplet gaming group continued to play for a few more rounds, and it came to a 4-3 game, one more round to them for a win.

(Heeseung's the only one alive!)

Aohi groans as she's double peeked by the enemy Sage and Sova, pouting her lips as she watches Heeseung's play.

Ri-ki tries to scare away Heeseung's focus by jumping at him, getting complaints from the eldest as he tries to clutch the last round. "He's not going to get this-"

"Don't be so pessimistic!" Aohi quickly shuts Ri-ki's teasing down, the baby duck pouting in his seat in return.

Heeseung watches his map and his line of sight as the enemy Sage peeks him, giving him a free one vs. one to win. "Nice!" Sunoo and Aohi spoke, after he successfully downs her.

"Sova last elbow!" Ri-ki comms to him, out of his seat as he watches from Heeseung's own monitor.

(The valorant trio is quiet, watching bambi...)

Sova peeks Heeseung from his corner, and by a stroke of luck, Heeseung manages to flick a win for the trio. Sunoo and Aohi jump out of their chairs with a yell as Ri-ki holds his head in shock.

The victory screen is shown after Heeseung defuses the spike, Aohi taking it as an opportunity to shower the eldest in compliments.

"Daebak! I didn't think you would clutch since you're so new!" Aohi pats at the boy, him grinning at Aohi and absolutely relishing in her words. "Did I make you proud, batsy?" Heeseung grins as he asks for reassurance from their female member.

"Eung! Did so good!"

Heeseung turns evilly at Sunoo and Ri-ki, who looked at him with jealousy as Aohi continues to shower their bambi member with praises.

He almost had the feeling of blowing a raspberry at the younger members, but since he was so nice, he just turns to Aohi, happily sucking up to her.

It was a successful game for ENHYPEN.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: ㅋㅋㅋ, is Jungwon the mother cat or is it Aohi rlly?

user2: I don't know if I wanna be heeseung or aohi, to sleep or to be slept on? that is the question ~

user3: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

user4: pt. 1 of heeseung babygirling in front of aohi for attention

user5: alt exhibit title: mother cat swats at kittens for disturbing their eldest hahah

user6: aohi must be scary when shes angry, look at how quick hoon and won ran *cry emoji*

user7: my mom does the same stare to me and my siblings when we misbehave ㅋㅋㅋ aohi def has little siblings

user8: waahh... Aohi is so god at gaming, no wonder she and heeseung get along so well ~

user9: heeseung looking to Aohi for more compliments during the gaming vlog cry cry cry

user10: get you a guy who looks at you for compliments like heeseung does to aohi

user11: Not heeseung looking evilly at Sunoo and Ri-ki when he got aohi's attention LMAO

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

EXHIBIT C, JAY's SMALL FASHION CRISIS:

¡! ❞ Jay was struggling to pick an outfit backstage for him to wear, complaining to a nonchalant Aohi who was doing a mukbang live on weverse for engenes.

“Oppa, how about this, why don’t you just wear something comfortable and cute at the same time?-“ Aohi chewed through her words, her chopsticks stuck into a ramyeon bowl.

(Aohi enjoying her ramyeon in the back ^^)

“Eung, you’re complaining about nothing..” Heeseung brought his two cents in, earning a ‘no one asked, hyung!’ From Jay.

Aohi turns to him, a tilt to her head. “Ah, you know what you should wear, oppa? That one pink cardigan everybody liked during the valentine’s live.” Aohi nodded her head, agreeing with her own opinion.

"Can we even wear the same outfits?" Jay grumbled, taking the pink cardigan out and patting it of imaginary dust, he tests the material to see if anything's wrong with it, before deeming it wearable.

"Jeongie, fast fashion is overrated, wear the same outfit because it's not like they'll care much!" Aohi whines, annoyed at being unable to eat her food in peace.

Jay turns to the dressing room, closing the door so he could change. With this, Aohi returns to her food, which has cooled down as she spoke to her fashionista boyfriend.

"Do you see this, engenes? They won't leave me alone, ever!" Aohi spoke towards the camera, a small playful eyeroll as she finally takes a bite of her ramyeon.

Aohi's food heaven only lasts for a few minutes as she is called by Jay again, this time, she still had ramyeon in her mouth, she couldn't even bite off before Jay called for her once again.

(fashion crisis Jay returns!!)

She turns with an eyebrow raised to look at Jay, who snorted at the way she looked, Aohi bites down on her ramyeon as she starts to scold Jay for laughing when he was bothering her first.

"Yah! Stop laughing at me! I'm hungry and you're taking away from my food time!" Aohi glared as she watched Jay double back in laughter. "I'm sorry!" Jay apologized behind his laughs.

"Go look for someone else to bother if you're gonna laugh like that!" Aohi snarked, completely over it as she returned her attention to her food once again, this time not listening to Jay's calls.

"Aohi-san..." Jay called sadly, trying to aegyo his way to get Aohi's gaze on him again. "It's pink or nothing, Park Jjongseong!" Aohi stood her ground, Heeseung laughing at Jay in the background.

Jay frowns at the call of his full name in front of engenes, he was being scolded in front of their fans!

(black cat sulking)

"Okay! okay!" Jay spoke, finally stopping his own rambling and sitting next to Aohi with a soft frown. The girl glances at Jay, continuing to speak to the engenes. "Anyways, Ri-ki's out with Jake-oppa and Sunghoon-oppa, so I'm hoping they bring me an ice cream or something-"

Que a sulking Jay laying over Aohi with a frown, "Yah! My hair's going to dip into my broth!"

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT D, JAY's BIRTHDAY LIVE:

¡! ❞ Jay sat in his seat his feet unable to still underneath the table. A small cat cake sat in front of him alongside black cat decorations. "Hello, everyone.." Jay greets the engenes with a gentle smile.

Despite it being his birthday today, he felt really sad since Aohi couldn't hang out with him, her saying something about a busy schedule.

And who wants to spend a birthday without their girlfriend?

(is our black cat sad? ㅎㅎㅎ)

"How was my day? Mm, really good, the members greeted me... Jungwon got me a gift-" Jay pulled the gift-bag from the side to show the camera. "Am I sad that Aohi didn't give me a gift?" Jay reads, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second.

"No! She's busy, so, I don't mind!"

(oh he's secretly sulking, definitely)

"Yah! It's my birthday, stop teasing me!" Jay scolds his live, a small frown on his face as the chat giggles over his annoyed features.

"It's okay because the other members and the staff did this for me so, I already got so much-" — "Aohi prepared this for you, not us."

Jay looked up at the staff, alarmed by what she said, "What?" He clarifies, wondering if what the staff said was right.

"Aohi baked the cake, and she put up the decorations, we just helped.." The staff behind the camera shrugged, and with the fact that Aohi set up the live for him, Jay couldn't hide his smile.

(his instant smile! too bright!)

All of the sudden, Jay was injected with a burst of energy as he happily looks around the setup, that he knew now, Aohi made, despite being busy, for him.

"Oh, well- Let's try the cake then!" Jay clapped his hands as he grabbed a pair of chopsticks off-screen, ready to taste the cake Aohi made, totally because he was hungry and not in any way because Aohi made his cake.

"ㅋㅋㅋ, you started to smile because you figured out Aohi set it up for you-" A staff teases Jay from behind, and he couldn't do anything but smile guiltily as he takes a bite of the cake. It was in his favourite flavour.

(happy cat =^∇^*)

"Aohi-ssi also got you a gift.."

"Where?! I'll open it now!"

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: Jay, you absolute babygirl for Aohi

user2: did anyone notice the way Jay called for Aohi in Japanese? I stan a multilingual sulking king!

user3: how does Aohi handle them *cry emoji* I think I’d be more than annoyed when I’m trying to eat huhuhu

user4: I’d like to thank Aohi for urging Jay to wear his pink cardigan again, really accents his babygirlism ㅋㅋㅋ

user5: Jay usually -> 😐 Jay when Aohi -> 🤭

user6: is this compilation of Aohi’s babygirls or is this her scolding the boys ㅋㅋ

user7: the way he instantly smiles when he finds out Aohi set up his live for him and not the staff 🫶

user8: oh park jjongseong how lucky you are to have aohi

user9: where to get an aohi?

user10: enhypen’s hubby and wifey fights and hubby goes giggly knowing wifey set his bday live up for him

user11: jaohi my roman empire 🫶

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

EXHIBIT E, JAKE's LITTLE PREDICAMENT:

¡! ❞ Jake swore he didn't mean for it to happen! He was talking with engenes who went to the event and when he looked away, the whole group was gone!

Now he sat here, absolutely lost. Various cameras and photographers called for his name, trying to get pictures of the idol as he tried not to panic at being by himself.

Jake tried to look for any signs of Aohi or the other members through the crowd, smiling softly when engenes would call his name. People filmed his lost puppy expression, giggling over the puppy-like behaviour.

(poor puppy is lost!)

Aohi was on the other side of the room, talking to a few guests with Ri-ki by her side, the boy was tall, making sure to cover Aohi well like a bodyguard.

"Ah, yes, we received the glasses well! The bags they came in were gorgeous, and I'm glad you chose us to help sponsor gentle monster." Aohi spoke happily to a sponsor, still unaware of Jake's small predicament.

Aohi smiled for pictures as she took some with guests at the event, giggling and conversing without a care in the world, it was only then, Ri-ki approached her and bent down to her ear.

"Noona, Jake-hyung's missing.."

(alarmed mama cat!)

"Where?" Aohi turned quickly, almost gaining whiplash at how fast she turned around. "What do mean he's gone, I thought he was following us?" Aohi whispered back, looking amongst the crowds for the humanified golden retriever.

"I swear we should put a leash on him! I literally look away for a few seconds and he gets lost!" Aohi sighs, turning around to the guests and saying her goodbyes as she goes to look for their elder member.

Jungwon joins them a little later, confused on the searching gazes the two held. "What are we looking for?" Jungwon asked, his hands instantly placing themselves on Aohi's back.

"More like who..- ouch! Noona!"

"Jake's not with us, and I have his phone so I can't call him.." Aohi mutters, showing Jungwon the black Samsung in her hand. Ri-ki shrugged at Jungwon's gaze turning to him, as if he doesn't know where Jake went either.

"Go look for him outside by the tables, I'll go search for him in here, call me if you find him!" Aohi ordered, quickly separating from her other two members, looking around.

(Will they find him?)

After a few moments of looking around for her puppy boyfriend, she spots a familiar blue dress shirt sitting down by an empty table as he desperately scanned the crowd, she assumed for her or the other members.

(She found him!)

"Jaeyunie!" Aohi called out, quickly walking to his side. Jake turns to the side and finds Aohi approaching his side, and his hearts feel a little lighter, sighing in relief at the sight of his girlfriend.

"Batsy..." Jake softly called out, opening his arms for Aohi to fill with her figure as his arms tightly wrapped themselves around her waist. "Oppa, where were you? We were so worried.." Aohi frowned, running her hand through his hair.

"I was talking to engenes, when I turned back you guys were gone.." Jake looked up at Aohi, mirroring her frown, but to her, he just looked like a kicked puppy.

"You be careful next time, I don't want to be in trouble with management.." Aohi scolded gently, flicking his forehead as a punishment, earning a small 'ouch!' from the boy.

"Now let go of me, before people see..." Aohi whispers, tapping on his wrapped arms. "If you promise we cuddle later?" Jake whispers back.

"Aish.." Aohi scrunched her nose, nodding at his words, and only then did Jake let go of her.

(the things she does for her boys...)

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT F, JAKE"S FAILED PEPERO GIFT:

¡! ❞ "Aohi-ssi! Turn more to the side please!" The photographer called, gently urging her to turn to the left of her. Aohi obliges, giving her best smile.

The camera took a good video of Aohi posing for the photographer's camera, her familiar rockstar charm shining through her pictures.

It was the month of February, and with this month, comes a mountain of fanservice. In this case, Aohi and Xiulin's part of the valentine's day shoot.

(Waah! Aohi's so charming in school uniforms!)

Xiulin comes up to her with a soft smirk, Aohi takes notice of the girl's attire, instead of sporting a skirt like Aohi was, she wore pants and a uniform similar to the boys.

Aohi's jaw dropped, all the girl could express was betrayal. "Unnie! No fair, you get pants!" Aohi whined as soon as the shoot's been finished.

"Sucks to suck, Batsy." Xiulin teased, taking a lollipop, a supposed-to-be prop, and placed it in her mouth.

"Do you know how horrible this skirt is? It rides up like crazy!" Aohi huffs, crossing her arms as she is escorted off the set, presumably to relax. Xiulin shrugs and pulls her to the side of the camera, which were on both of them.

"Everyone, Aohi is complaining about wearing skirts rather than pants." Xiulin explains to the camera, letting Aohi defend herself for the engenes. "I hate skirts!" Aohi shakes her fists jokingly at the camera, Xiulin laughing with her.

Suddenly a puppy sneaks onto set with Aohi's favourite Pepero in hand, cookies-n'cream. Jake greets their staff politely, bowing and asking where Aohi was last.

He wanders the set, trying not to cause anything so that people wouldn't be disturbed while working. In the distance he spots Aohi and Xiulin, a small smile forming on his face.

(puppy spots relaxing cat!)

Jake maneuvers around staff to get to the girls, spotting the camera filming them, "Hello!" Jake greets the camera, his puppy smile instantly showing through.

"Jake-oppa, what are you doing here?" Aohi spoke in surprise, suddenly seeing him take a spot beside her and Xiulin. "I thought you had a separate shoot." Xiulin agreed, popping her lollipop out of her mouth.

"Aohi, this is for you, happy Pepero day!" Jake quickly pulled the box of Pepero out, smiling giddily when she gasps, taking the snack in her hand. "Thank you!"

Xiulin looks on the interaction with an unamused expression, not the slightest bit impressed at Jake's attempt at greeting Aohi with a singular box of Pepero.

(???)

"Why is it just one?" Xiulin asks, Jake immediately deadpanning towards Xiulin. "Xiulin." — "Jaeyun-hyung." Xiulin was afraid of no man!

"It's the thought that counts, unnie!" Aohi laughs as she watches Jake deflate at his failed attempt towards even using his hyung privileges into scaring Xiulin.

"So, do I think bigger than hyung too then?" Xiulin amusingly replies, nodding her head to now... noticeable basket of... Peperos... for Aohi, and what burns worse is that the tag obviously says from Xiulin-unnie.

(The EN- boys: 0 - Xiulin: 1)

Jake laughs his failure away as he squats down, his arms crossed as he rethinks his actions, he was just trying to impress his girlfriend by getting her, her favourite pepero!

"You'll get her next time, oppa..." Aohi attempts to console the sulking puppy on the floor as the camera captures everything, further embarrassing Jake even more.

Xiulin just walks away laughing, happily taking her win.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: huhu clingy puppy hates being alone without his members

user2: it’s starting to look like Aohi’s just taking care of her seven sons hahahah

user3: oh… gentle monster Jake… my love 🫶

user4: Aohi looks like a mafia’s wife and riki and jungwon’s her bodyguards ㅋㅋㅋ

user5: So Jake’s that type? (clingy hehe)

user6: wait he’s so cute like that

user7: Sim Jaeyun, the babygirl of the babygirls.

user8: not Xiulin outdoing Jake on Pepero day??

user9: someone save Jake from Xiulin she keeps bullying him

user10: Xiulin said Xiuhi >>> Aohyun ㅋㅋㅋ

user11: Xiulin’s afraid of NONE of her oppas 😭

EXHBIT G, ENHYPEN GAINS A NEW MAKNAE:

¡! ❞ Aohi couldn't stop staring at Sunghoon after his haircut, could you really blame her? They made him so adorable, especially with his cute brown and white long-sleeve, it almost felt like ENHYPEN had gone through another addition as she watches Sunghoon look through his magazine with gusto.

(mama cat is so proud of her baby cat..)

Aohi smiles as Sunghoon laughs at something Jay said, feeling her cheeks hurt at how amused she was of Sunghoon, 'did his cheeks get fatter? He has such a cute baby-face.' Aohi thought in her head.

To engenes, this little moment could be taken as either, as a mama cat looking at her kitten with endearment, or a girl being charmed by Sunghoon's boyish charms.

Unfortunately for her, Xiulin was highly observant. "Aohi, why do you keep staring at Sunghoon-hyung like that?" She exposes the girl, who is startled by the sudden attention. Aohi looks around with widened eyes when she sees the boys looking up at her, including Sunghoon.

Aohi could only look at Sunghoon for a few moments before a guilty smile rises, and she covers it with her hand as she turns away, her shoulders shaking as if she was laughing.

(Is she laughing at sunghoon?)

"What?" Sunghoon asked, looking at her bewildered, looking at his outfit and wondering if there was something on him, put on by the boys or stuck on by staff.

Aohi struggles to explain as she waves her hand through her laughs, trying to regain composure. The boys soon join as Aohi further struggles to get a hold of herself.

Xiulin scoffs jokingly as Aohi hits the girls shoulder, as if it would stop her from laughing. "Yah! Don't hit me, I didn't do anything!" She holds Aohi's arm.

"I'm so sorry!" Aohi cried, wiping her tears with her finger as small whimpers of laughing left her lip. "Hoon-oppa just looked so cute, and I couldn't stop staring-"

"I was so embarrassed that someone noticed, that I laughed!" Aohi explained, a small giddy grin is left on her face.

The boys laughed, pushing Sunghoon around to tease him for being cute. "Ey... Aohi thinks you're so cute, aegyo, do aegyo!" Heeseung teased behind him, patting his shoulder with a smirk.

(teasing brothers and shy sunghoon~)

"Ah... stop!" Sunghoon spoke, smiling behind his hand as he tried to hide away from the camera. "Don't tease him!" Aohi laughed, trying to pry the other oppas off of Sunghoon.

"Aish, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, oppa." Aohi giggled, patting the boy's hair before ruffling it, and Sunghoon makes a move to pull at Aohi's hands, his fangs flashing as he grins.

"Ah! No!" Aohi yelped, trying to pull away as Sunghoon tries to get her out of her seat.

(taking you down with me!)

"Guys, the interview!" Xiulin reminded them with a laugh, and the boys sit up quickly, Sunghoon is quick to let go, the remnants of their antics was a toothy grin. "Sorry! I forgot there was an interview!" Aohi laughed.

Aohi readjusts herself onto the chair, making sure she looked nice, before resuming with the interview.

The group quickly adjusts back to being professional, looking through their own magazines as Aohi is caught glancing over at Sunghoon for the rest of the video.

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT H, SUNGHOON IS NOT SLEEPING’S STRONGEST SOLDIER:

¡! ❞ Sunghoon hasn't been feeling the greatest, but he was subjected to a weverse live, so he couldn't rest yet. Sunghoon set up his phone, staff being by him to help place his phone into a holder.

"Can you get through thirty minutes, Sunghoon-ssi?" The staff asked, he looked towards them, debating whether or not to ask if he could cancel tonight's live.

Sunghoon then glances at the clock, it was five minutes until he had to start, and he knows some engenes probably anticipate a live to start. Sunghoon decides against disappointing their fans with no live, and stays quiet.

"Live starting!"

Sunghoon is alerted, trying not to doze off on the couch he sat on. The staff couldn't be even more worried that Sunghoon would fall asleep.

(Sleepy hoonie :( )

"Hi, Engenes!" Sunghoon softly greets, waving a tired arm at the camera, the comments filling up quickly. Sunghoon is energized for a little bit, trying to interact with fans to keep him from dozing off.

It helps for a little while, Sunghoon gets into a rhythm of asking questions to the live and answering a few questions as well.

"Where are the others?" Sunghoon reads, "The others are enjoying their free time before bed, Heeseung is gaming right now.." Sunghoon points behind him, trying to say that the eldest as rooming in the next hotel room to his.

"Aohi and Xiulin? I think they're having dinner, we shouldn't disturb them.." Sunghoon places a finger up to his lips, telling engenes to keep from bothering Aohi and Xiulin.

"Engene, what did you eat for dinner tonight?" Sunghoon yawns as soon as he asks that question, watching the chatroom zoom past with various questions, feeling his eyelids droop.

The staff member looked on with Sunghoon worriedly, they don't want to make any sign that they were in the room, and so their only bet was texting Aohi to come to the room, in case Sunghoon ends up falling asleep.

(Droop droop... eyelids are falling!)

Aohi manages to read the text on time, and she silently enters Sunghoon's and Jay's hotel room, seeing the youngest of the hyuppa line fighting for his life trying to stay awake.

She tiptoes to the scene, gently placing her hands on Sunghoon's shoulders, startling the boy awake for a little. "You scared me..." Aohi giggles at his reaction.

"Hello, engenes! How are we?" Aohi asks, walking around the couch to sit beside Sunghoon who honestly looked ready to let go and knock himself out.

(he can't hold on any longer..)

Aohi manages to get a few sentences out of Sunghoon, answering a few more questions before Aohi turns to Sunghoon, he looked desperate to just close his eyes.

"Want to sleep on my lap, oppa?" Aohi asked, patting her lap. Sunghoon looks to the staff member, who looked like she couldn't say no to Sunghoon's soft and tired pout.

The staff member allowed him to sleep, shooing him off with the flick of her hand as she went back on her phone, Sunghoon grinning happily at the greenlight to sleep.

"Sure, I need a nap.." Sunghoon jokes, even though it was true. Sunghoon lays on Aohi's lap, and instantly the girl's hand gravitates to his soft hair.

Aohi gently runs her fingers through the strands, her acrylic nails seems to lull Sunghoon to sleep. Soon enough, the chat was giggling over how Sunghoon quickly knocked out on Aohi's lap.

"Our penguin was really tired today, engenes.."

(sleep well, little penguin!)

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: Aohi is every engene during the dicon interview because he looked extremely babygirl in that clip

user2: not hoon being teased by the rest of the hyuppa line 😭

user3: oh to be called cute by the Yoon Aohi 🫵

user4: ahh the way aohi looks at sunghoon ~ hes really her babygirl ㅎㅎㅎ

user5: Aohi notices so much about her members, I always notice her taking care of Riki but Sunghoon too?? 🥹

user6: I’m gonna need a girl who’ll put me to sleep like Aohi does for Sunghoon..

user7: is the massage that good Sunghoon 😞

user8: ㅋㅋㅋ I’m surprised they allowed Sunghoon to sleep on Aohi’s lap, they must’ve felt bad for tiring the poor boy out~

user9: move hoon it’s my turn with Aohi

user10: hoonaohi compilation next!!!

user11: sleep well indeed sunghoon!

EXHIBIT I, SUNOO’S EMOTIONAL MENT:

¡! ❞ Aohi’s favourite part of every concert is that everyone in the group gets to say something nice for the fans after the performance, and in this case, ENHYPEN had a concert in the Philippines, Aohi’s home.

Well, not that Japan isn’t her home either! She misses both homes just as much. Just, something about the air in the Philippines or just the memories that resurface when she steps back into the country makes her feel amazing.

Her favourite thing to do in the Philippines is obviously visit her old home while she has the time to do so, and it makes her happy that she could just relish in being home.

She wanted to mention that when she spoke, looking happily amongst the crowd of fans as each of the members did their moment of speaking, Jungwon going first.

“Aohi actually, speaks a lot about the Philippines,” Jungwon stops to let the translator do her job, “She gets really emotional when we get off the plane—“ Aohi pinches Jungwon gently, telling him to knock it off.

(fans awe at their playful banter..)

“It’s just a little nostalgic for me, that’s all!” The fans seem to scream encouragement to Aohi, she knows about how proud Filipino fans are of their celebrities internationally.

“I just have to say thank you, for letting us perform for you tonight, and we hope that you guys have a great experience, dancing and singing with us!” Jungwon bows as he finishes his ment, earning a gentle elbow from Aohi as she grins.

Jay seems to stop both of them by stepping in the middle, making Aohi pout now that she couldn’t annoy Jungwon, and vice versa.

(Enhypen’s cat line ㅋㅋㅋ)

“Sunoo-hyung, do you want to make a ment as well?” Jungwon spoke, tipping over to look at Sunoo from the end of the line.

Sunoo’s surprised for a little bit at the sudden mention, not having something in mind to talk about. “Ah? Ah!- Yes, uhm…”

Sunoo steps out, glancing towards Aohi, who discreetly sent him a thumbs up of encouragement.

"Well, I want to thank engenes for making the time to come see us..." Aohi claps along with the boys, who agree with Sunoo's words.

"and I'm really grateful that you guys could come to support us, even though we all have such busy lives, it means well that you guys make the time to show us your support, despite not knowing us well—"

Aohi puts her hand up to her lips as Sunoo's lips start to quiver, signaling, maybe a small emotional moment for the boy.

"Sunoo-hyung.. why're you crying?" Ri-ki spoke softly as Sunoo turns before he could even continue, trying to hand his hyung a towel to wipe his tears.

Aohi pouts softly at Sunoo's crying face, leaning back to see if he was okay, before she cuts the line and approached Sunoo with open arms, the boy instantly taking her hug.

"Aigoo-yah.... Sunoo-kun, crying already?" Aohi teased softly, and although Sunoo couldn't understand well, he laughed along with her words, knowing her intentions weren't ill.

"Sunoo-yah! You're just crying to get Aohi's attention!" Sunghoon tried to lighten the mood with the playful accusation, earning a 'no!' from said boy.

The other boys from the hyung line seemed to jump on the tease train as they try to back up Sunghoon, Sunoo smiling as he shook his head, the fans seem to scream in support of Sunghoon, as if trying to make Sunoo smile again.

"Yah! You T-types leave him alone!" Aohi shielded Sunoo from the hyung line, hugging him close and cradling his head with an angry pout, laughs could be heard from the crowd as Sunoo's is picked up by Aohi's mic.

(T-types ganging on the ENFP)

"Aish! We're supposed to be doing ments, get it together, kids!" Xiulin gently smacked Jay's and Heeseung's arms, inevitably ending the goofing session between the group members, a small aww resonated in the arena, enjoying the bickering between members.

Aohi smiled as the groups retained their line-up, but not before she pulls down her mic, covering Sunoo's mic, and putting her free hand up to whisper something in the boy's ear.

Sunoo smiled as he hears the words Aohi whispers, unable to keep his happiness to himself.

"Oppa, I'll be here whenever you cry, don't worry."

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT J, SUNOO's DRESS UP:

¡! ❞ Sunoo and Jungwon were supposed to be the ones to take care of Jjaeyul and Ayun for the day, but in a last minute decision, Aohi was joining them.

Aohi and Sunoo stood together as Jungwon dribbled the stray basketball in the court. Aohi cheers when Jungwon gets it in, a huge smile on her face. "Waahhh, really good, wonie!"

(cheerleader batsy on call!)

Suddenly, a rumbling from behind the door is heard, and Jjaeyul and Ayun make their appearance, Aohi gasping as she made a wave at the kids, who also waved happily back.

"Hello!" Aohi greeted, bending down to get on the kids' level, Aohi was extremely great with kids, having two little siblings herself, she knew her ways around keeping toddlers happy.

The kids started to talk to the trio, trying to get comfortable with the presence of the new hyungs and unnie. "How old are you, unnie?" Jjaeyul asks, looking up at Aohi curiously. "How old am I? Unnie's twenty." Aohi explains, making a zero and a two with her fingers.

"What about the hyungs?" Jjaeyul asked, pointing at Jungwon and Sunoo, who were occupied with familiarizing themselves to Ayun.

Aohi gently takes Jjaeyul's hand in hers, making sure he doesn't point since it was awkward, "the hyung over there, Jungwon-hyung, is twenty, like me." Aohi points to her brown-haired boyfriend, who doesn't seem to hear Aohi talking about him.

Sunoo approaches the two, leaving Jungwon to play with Ayun at the moment. "Hi, Jjaeyul!" Sunoo cheerfully greets, squatting down to gently shake the toddler's hand.

"How old are you?" Jjaeyul is quick to investigate, looking at Sunoo with a curious look, same as Aohi. "Me? I'm twenty-one." Sunoo nods, and Jjaeyul is happy with his answer.

"You are one year older than Aohi-noona?" Jjaeyul asks, Sunoo nods to his questin. "Eung! Why?" Sunoo asks, "You like noona?" Jjaeyul asks, shocking Aohi and Sunoo, leading to a burst of laughter from the girl.

(Sunoo is exposed?!)

"I like Aohi, she is my group-mate." Sunoo replies, looking nervously at Jungwon and Aohi, Jungwon snorts as he overheard their conversation, and Aohi's losing it behind Sunoo.

"Ah... my mom's twenty-seven, and my dad is thirty!" Jjaeyul explains, absolutely oblivious to the reason why Aohi's dying of laughter and Jungwon was trying not to laugh from afar.

"Want to switch? I want to play with Jjaeyul.." Jungwon tries to salvage his hyung's dignity, switching from Jjaeyul to Ayun in hopes that Sunoo doesn't get asked anything embarrassing.

Aohi follows after Sunoo with a smile, shooting Jungwon a thankful glance, because if not for Jungwon switching, Jjaeyul was bound to ask another embarrassing question, and she wasn't sure she was going to survive another laughing attack.

(Jungwon switches teams, team sport!)

Aohi sits beside Sunoo as Ayun pulls out a small stylist kit, complete with nail polish and a working hairdryer. "Hi, Ayun!" Aohi greeted, an adoring smile on her face. Sunoo almost forgot why he was there for a moment, before following after Aohi's greeting.

"Let's paint some nails, Ayunnie!~" Aohi sing-songed, taking the bottle of yellow polish out of the bag, picking Ayun up and placing her in her lap as she puts her hands out, letting Ayun paint her bare nails.

"Waah, you're so good at this, Ayunnie~" Aohi encourages the little toddler in her lap, Sunoo watching with a soft smile from the side lines.

Despite Ayun's lack of perfection, Aohi is happy with her manicure from the little stylist.

(Aohi, Ayun's first satisfied customer!)

"You wanna do Sunoo-oppa's nails next?" Aohi asks, pointing at Sunoo, who nods, putting his hands out for Ayun to work on. The small girl was a little hesitant, before Aohi helps her to paint Sunoo's pinky.

"Wow, oppa looks so good in yellow, Ayun! Good job!" Aohi compliments, setting the stylist off in an energy boost as she's comfortable with continuing Sunoo's manicure.

"I love it, Ayun-ah! You did so well." Sunoo smiles down at his messily painted yellow nails, and stylist Ayun rummages in her bag to get her hairdryer, thinking of drying the polish.

"Are you going to dry our hands?" Aohi asks, pulling her hands back out for her to point her toy hairdryer on. "Woah! It actually works!" Sunoo spoke, placing his chin on Aohi's shoulder.

"Right? It's actually so cool, I might buy one for myself." Aohi jokes, letting Ayun finish her blow-drying service and looking at her now dry nails with a thankful smile. "Thank you, Ayunnie.." Aohi moves aside for Ayun to finish Sunoo's nails.

"Clip?" Ayun spoke, giving the clip to Aohi with one hand as she used her other to blow-dry Sunoo's nails. "For me?" Aohi clarified, pointing to herself, and when Ayun shakes her head, Aohi speaks again.

"For oppa?"

Ayun nods at her words, she was asking Aohi to put the clip on Sunoo since she had dry nails. "Ahh, I get it." Aohi turns to Sunoo as she fixes his hair for her to clip it nicely on Sunoo's head.

(dress-up victim #1, Kim Sunoo ㅋㅋㅋ)

Aohi giggles at the cute scene where Sunoo just has a plastic flower in his hair. "You look so pretty, oppa." Aohi teased, gently running his fingers through the side where the flower wasn't clipped.

Sunoo playfully rolls his eyes, turning to Ayun and leaning his head down, "Do you think I look pretty, Ayun-ah?" Sunoo grins when the toddler nods happily.

"Ayunnie, want to go inside so we can dress Sunoo-oppa in a princess dress?"

"No! The clip is enough!"

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: Aohi is adorable! She cares so much for sunoo <3

user2: Sunoo’s babygirlism showing to Aohi ㅋㅋㅋ

user3: waahhh.. Aohi’s Sunoo’s protector ㅋㅋㅋ

user4: mama cat protecting sunoo from his teasing brothers hahaha

user5: they’re the cutest ship ever!!! sunoahi 🫶🫶🫶

user6: you know Aohi’s mad if she starts yelling at her oppas ㅋㅋㅋ

user7: Sunoo’s just relishing in Aohi’s attention huhuhu

user8: not aohi trying to put Sunoo in a princess dress lmao

user9: Aohi and Sunoo look like a Family with Ayun 🤭

user10: Aohi is trying to plot Sunoo into being a princess huhu

user11: they’re actually so cute together???? wish companies would let idols date :((

EXHIBIT K, JUNGWON’s FLOWER BOY ERA:

¡! ❞ Jungwon was supposed to go home after lunch, he was supposed to be at home, with Aohi preferably, and relaxing, maybe taking a nap with said girlfriend.

It didn’t seem like the case when the stylist brought on new clothes onto the set, matching clothes.

Aohi smiled at the pair of clothes, thinking it was adorable, she patted the fabric gently, looking over at Jungwon, who had furrowed eyebrows.

(angry cat)

‘Did he not like the outfits?..’ Aohi thought, dropping the fabric from her hands as she approached him. “Don’t like it?—“ Aohi asked, looking at the rack, then back at Jungwon.

“No… I just want to go home.” Jungwon replied, sighing, everyone around him could almost see a cat tail sway sadly while his ears folded down on himself.

“Ah…. Well! Tough it up, buttercup!” Aohi spoke in exaggerated English, patting the boy in the back in a loud manner.

“Ow!” Jungwon yelped as he rubbed his back, making Aohi laugh and rub his back.

“Are you guys done chatting over there yet?” The stylist spoke, looking over at the two cat-like members. “Eung! Coming!”

Aohi steps out of the dressing room, pulling at her skirt, despite it being over her knees. “I really hate skirts…” Aohi mumbled, scratching her head as she walks to the set of the last shoot (hopefully) of the day.

Jungwon’s sits by the stone cylinders by the set, waiting for Aohi so they could start their photoshoot.

He swings his legs around, a little stuck in his mind, whistling softly. “Jungwon-ssi!” The staff member called him over and Jungwon turns to the sound, Aohi had already been waiting for him with a pout.

Jungwon couldn’t help but smile at the pout, if he could, he would’ve already squished Aohi out of cuteness aggression.

(giddy cat ㅋㅋㅋ)

“We’re going to do the shoot in the flower field.” Aohi approached Jungwon and took his hand, and like it was reflex, she quickly intertwines her fingers with his.

To the staff, this was just natural group habits. If Aohi isn’t doing it, Sunghoon is to his other members, Jungwon does the same with Ri-ki like he’s a toddler about to get lost.

The photographer ushers the duo over, and Aohi is asked to sit down on the patch of grass. “Jungwon-ssi, I need you to lay on Aohi’s lap for this.”

Jungwon feels a little hesitant as Aohi grins, she was a naturally affectionate person, always locking pinkies with one of the boys, and if not, with Xiulin.

And since the boys and Aohi can barely show their affections without consequences, she takes what she can get, and one of her boyfriends laying on her lap? It’s practically a jackpot!

(happy aohi!)

Aohi pats her lap happily as Jungwon hesitates to lay down, fearing he might like it so much he wouldn’t want to leave her lap.

“Ey… how come Jungwon gets to lay on Aohi’s lap and I couldn’t even wrap my arm around her last time?” Jake complains from the side, a puppy-like pout.

“Shut it, dog-boy, they’re taking pictures right now.” Xiulin pulled Jake by the ear like a mother would. Jake let out yelps of complaint as he’s pulled away, Xiulin drowning out the boy’s cries.

(ㅋㅋㅋㅋ)

Aohi laughs at the sight, and the photographer takes a picture, and he smiles at the result. “Keep that smile, Aohi-ssi!” The photographer encouraged.

Jungwon could feel his cheeks warm up the more he stayed laying on Aohi’s lap, and it takes everything in his power not to cover his face.

“Won-ah, you look so red!” Aohi laughed, looking down at her lap as Jungwon let out groans of complaint.

“Don’t announce it! I know!” Jungwon replied. Aohi giggled, and she glanced to the side, a small patch of beautiful flowers bloomed beside of them.

Aohi makes a move to pluck a few out, before gently placing it in Jungwon’s hair. She seemed to be in her own little world as she showered her boyfriend in the orange flowers.

The staff makes a move to get their attention, seeing Jungwon and Aohi only looking at each other, and they worry that they forgot that they were in a shoot.

“Aohi-ssi!—“ The staff called, but the photographer stops them, camera in hand. “Don’t, they look really natural, this is perfect..” The photographer whispered, making sure he doesn’t bother the moment the two shared.

Aohi looks up after a while, seeing that the photographer was taking photos without telling them, and her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

“Were we still shooting?— I didn’t realize and I already covered Jungwon in flowers—“ Aohi looks down, and Jungwon’s hair was littered with a crown of flowers.

(Aohi’s flower boy..)

“We got our photos, Aohi-ssi, don’t worry!” The photographer reassures her, even walking up to her and showing her the shoots he had gotten.

“Wah! Jungwon-ah, you look so cute!”

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT L, THE STRAY CAT INCIDENT:

¡! ❞ See, when you put Aohi and Jungwon together, they’re the perfect cat duo. They’re both so cat-like that even Jay could sneeze at just the sight of them together.

The two didn’t mind being compared to cats though, because in all fairness they loved cats! Aohi even has some back home!

But they didn’t think it was so serious, especially on one night, where Jungwon and Aohi were making a secret vlog on their own.

“We’re going to get ice-cream, our manager doesn’t know we’re out to the convenience store—“ Aohi spoke softly, fixing her newly-cut bangs for their comeback.

“Aohi! Quickly!” Jungwon ushered as the two ran across the street, a laugh resonating from both of them.

Despite Jungwon’s leadership, with Aohi, it seemed that the girl resorted Jungwon to just a teenager doing teenager things.

(all for the ice cream?)

“Wah- I almost got ran over!-“ Aohi laughed, Jungwon scrunching his nose as he pushes against the girl’s head. “Don’t laugh about it, it was a serious situation!”

Aohi let out a yelp, rubbing the spot where Jungwon pushed. “This, engenes, is why Yang Jungwon is crazy.” Aohi points at Jungwon, who tries to grab the camera with a smile.

“Ah! No! Don’t take away my engenes!” Aohi cried out, running off where she ends up at the front of the No-staff ice cream store.

(arrived at your destination!)

“Won-ah, what are you getting?..” Aohi perched behind the boy, watching him look through the various kinds of ice cream. “Honestly I didn’t even know Korea had so much ice cream..” she mumbled.

“I’m going to get this ice cream!” Jungwon shows a strawberry Samanco to the camera. “Strawberry with chocolate!” Aohi recited a familiar sentence, pointing at the fish.

(Aohi’s aware of fandom jokes ㅋㅋ��)

“It doesn’t even have chocolate!” Jungwon laughed. “Still!” Aohi retorted, she hands off the camera to her boyfriend, wandering to look at the other types of ice creams the store had.

Jungwon points the camera at a shopping Aohi, an ice cream in hand. “Look how pretty she is, engenes.” He whispered to the camera, making sure the girl doesn’t hear.

“Aohi’s one of the prettiest girls in the world, don’t you all think?” Jungwon faces the camera, his lips curved in a cattish grin.

“Don’t think about marrying her though, she’s mine!” Jungwon joked, despite it actually being true, well— one in seventh of a fraction, true.

(Catwon protecting his cat wife)

“Wonnie, I’m done!” Aohi calls Jungwon over to the check-out machine, checking her ice-cream in. “You’re eating two?” Jungwon asked, seeing three ice-creams on the machine.

“I wanted to try the grape ice balls.” Aohi explained, showing him the package. Jungwon reads the content as he nods.

“Fair enough.” — “okay, I paid! Let’s go eat it at the park!” Aohi grabbed the bag and started to walk towards the door.

Jungwon walked faster in front of her to hold the door open. Anyone who watched the blog can see how Jungwon looked at Aohi like she was the love of his life.

Jungwon was always looking at Aohi that way, even if she doesn’t see it, and he can’t help it, even when the staff catch him.

Jungwon and Aohi continue to walk down the streets, and Aohi grabs for her screw-bar, opening it. “We’re not even at the park yet..”

“So? I have another one anyway, and i’m hungry!” Aohi took a small bite of her popsicle, Jungwon wincing.

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

Aohi only grins, “I don’t have weak teeth like you, Mr. Yang.” Aohi teased, poking the boy’s shoulder. “Nobody bites ice-cream, Aohi!” Jungwon retaliates, although it is playful.

“Whatever you say, Jungwon.” Aohi calls him by his name, earning a complaint. “Yah!”

“Shh! It’s a stray cat!” Aohi shushed, seeing a calico emerge from the parks’ bushes. Aohi made a small ‘spspsps’ sound, trying to lure it towards them.

The cat approached Aohi, sniffing at her hand, Aohi only started to rub the cat when it deemed her worthy.

“I’m still allergic, you know.” Jungwon spoke from beside her, distancing a step away from Aohi continued to pet it with Gusto.

“Oh You’re adorable! You’re such a cute boy!” Aohi cooed, the stray cat meowing happily in return. “I wish I could take you home.”

“Nuh uh, you have me and Jay-hyung at home.” Jungwon sounded very adamant at keeping the stray cat at the park.

“But!-“ — “Nope!”

(Catwon intimidated by stray cat getting cat wife’s affection)

She pouts, standing up from her squat as Jungwon ushered her over, the stray cat meowing at the sudden absence of Aohi.

“Here, I have sanitizer.” Jungwon pulls Aohi away from the stray cat, pulling his hand sanitizer from his pocket.

“Yah! No! Kitty!” Aohi whined as she’s pulled away from the stray cat, who meowed after her.

(Don’t go!!!)

The stray cat follows the two, as seen from behind the cat duo. “Engenes! I tell you, he’s crazy!” Aohi spoke into the camera, a frown on her face.

“Yah! Stop following us!” Jungwon pointed at the cat from behind him, a meow of defiance being heard.

“C’mere my cat prince!” Aohi cooed at the stray cat. “Save me from Jungwon!”

(I’ll save you, meow!~)

“Okay, blog over, Aohi’s picked me over a stray cat!” Jungwon called out, Aohi yelling ‘no!’. “You’re such a jealous guy, won-ah, it was a cute cat.” Aohi flicked Jungwon’s ear, scolding him for taking her away from the stray cat.

“I’m cuter!” Aohi laughs at this retaliation, patting the huffing Jungwon as he had a frown on his lips, a furrowed brow and his hands balled up.

“Okay, okay— don’t be angry!” Aohi salvaged what she could before Jungwon could lash his leader anger onto Aohi.

“You’re the cutest cat, obviously! You big baby!”

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user: aigoo felinez 😭

user2: jungwon would probably let aohi do anything

user3: Jungwon: you can’t defeat me, I’m leader rest of ENHA: we have an Aohi!

user4: aohi-ssi! Where do you get your cat from?

user5: I want to make Jungwon a flower crown too ㅋㅋㅋ

user6: felinez duo huhuhu

user7: not an actual cat taking Aohi from Jungwon 🤭

user8: they really tried to get aohi into the cat distribution system

user9: jungwon sulking when his cat isn’t better than an actual cat

user10: aohi biting ice cream????

user11: this duo is so funny wth 😭

EXHIBIT M, RI-KI’s ANIMAL CROSSING EXPERIENCE:

¡! ❞ Ri-ki usually gamed when he got home from anything idol-related, and his favourite game to play was always roblox.

Don’t get Aohi wrong, roblox is a fun game, and she loves to somewhat… make fun of some kids (teenagers these days, huh?) but it gets boring sometimes.

And it’s not like they allow bullying on idol vlogs either, so they had to find a family-friendly game to play for their engenes!

So this was where Aohi tries to convince Ri-ki to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons with her.

“We can play minecraft—“ Ri-ki points to the Nintendo version of the block game, getting a complaint from Aohi.

“That’s literally Roblox but survival-based!” Aohi makes him put the packaging down, Ri-ki pouting his lips.

Aohi ignores the fact that it makes Ri-ki look like a little duckling as she scans through the games. “There’s nothing else to play! Let’s just get animal crossing and go!”

“No, please let’s look for something else!” Ri-ki begged, and it was like this for five minutes until Aohi grabs a game, specifically a Barbie game, and threatens the youngest with it.

“You either play this or animal crossing, our engenes are fine with whatever!” Aohi points the Barbie packaging at him, and he seems to sweat-drop.

(sulking duck)

“Okay, but I’m not going to like it.” Aohi turned her head to the other side, “you don’t have to like it, the engenes will enjoy it anyway.”

Ri-ki and Aohi soon get home from their nearest Game Woori, two staff members already waiting for them for the film.

“Ready? We have it all set up for you.” The staff member spoke, gently fixing Aohi’s hair with a clip. “Eung, ki-ah, hurry up!” She called from the bathroom, getting a response.

“I can’t rush going to the bathroom, you know that?” Ri-ki flicks Aohi’s nose, making her glare at him.

“I CaN’T RuSh goING to ThE BathrOOM, yoU KnoW That?” Aohi mocked, and Ri-ki stared, before he started to tickle her out of revenge. Aohi is quick to squeal as she shielded her sides.

“Stop it!” Aohi tried to defend herself, before the staff members broke up the two teens. “Noona started it!” Ri-ki pointed, a laugh leaving his lips when the staff members started to scold Aohi.

(Duck-ki remains victorious over bat-hi!)

“We’ll start soon, let’s get it running!” The staff member reminded, and Aohi actually started to take the vlog seriously.

“In three, two….” The staff used his hand to signal one, and the blog was off!

“Hello, engenes!” Aohi smiled and waved her hands towards the camera, Ri-ki joining with a smile of his own.

(naohi gaming session, start!)

“Ri-ki actually didn’t want to play animal crossing, and he actually wanted to play minecraft—“ Aohi spoke, turning her nintendo switch on, "But he's been playing roblox, and he needed a relaxing game."

"So, I already have my own island—" Aohi gets a complaint from the youngest, "How come you have an island already?—" Aohi clicks her tongue and turns to Ri-ki with an annoyed look.

"How much longer are you going to interrupt me?"

(Ri-ki sweat-drops...)

"Sorry, noona..." Ri-ki spoke from his seat, a giddy smile on his face when Aohi returns to her switch. "Anyways, we'll just set Ri-ki up, and then we can get him to start his island!"

Aohi and Ri-ki spent the next hour creating their islands, along with starting Ri-ki off, and Aohi is irked with his starter villagers, "Yah! No way you got Genji and Renee!" She looks at Ri-ki's switch with furrowed brows.

"Stay jealous!" Ri-ki laughed, pulling his switch away as Aohi pouted. "Whatever, just start your island already!"

The remaining time (edited by staff to be fifteen minutes most) ends with Ri-ki being forced to decorate his island by Aohi while she showed a tour of her own island.

"So, I kind of, tried to recreate my hometown back in Japan, thankfully there was a lot of items so I was able to—" Aohi is interrupted by a tap on the shoulder by Ri-ki.

“Noona, I finished.” Aohi looked at him with a blank look, it’s been twenty minutes. What could Ri-ki have possibly decorated in twenty minutes?

“What did you do?” Aohi cut straight to the chase, looking unamused, expecting a mess of random furniture strewn around the whole island.

“I did what you asked!” Ri-ki laughed, and Aohi wasn’t convinced. “You can’t of done much with twenty minutes.” Ri-ki just grinned and Aohi couldn’t feel any easier.

(mischievous grin ㅋㅋㅋ)

“Come visit, I’ll show you!”

Aohi prepared herself for the mess Ri-ki made, to her, it felt more like taking care of a toddler the way Ri-ki would do the childish things you’d see him do.

The switch started its transition while connecting her device to Ri-ki’s.

“Engenes, I’m really scared.” Aohi honestly stated, staring at the camera with a worried side eye.

(???)

“I haven’t even done anything?” Ri-ki complained, looking at her shocked. “That’s what makes it worse! You’re gonna do something!” Aohi whined, looking to the staff members for help as they stared back, shaking their head, amused.

“I actually did something nice though, really.” Ri-li greets Aohi’s avatar at the airport, “how do you get clothes like that?..” Ri-ki asked, looking at Aohi’s avatar, looking like her.

“Because I’m cool.” Aohi replied, “now show me what you did!”

Ri-ki runs through the island with Aohi, and as the girl continued to see more and more trees and natural land, Aohi starts to feel like she’s been bamboozled by Ri-ki.

“Did you lie to me?” — “no, just walk a little further!”

Aohi sighs and does what he says, walking up to find a small place where Ri-ki had made a small park like area, with a pond in the middle.

“Oh!- Wait!- you actually decorated something!” Aohi gasped, looking around at the flowers Ri-ki collected over his island. “Wah! It’s actually so pretty!”

(impressed bat-hi)

“Noona, read this part..” Ri-ki showed Aohi a sign at a bench by the middle of the park. “Why? What does it say?” Aohi’s avatar sits by the bench while she read the sign.

“‘Ri-ki loves Aohi-noona’—“ Aohi smiles as she reads the sign, feeling her cheeks warm at the digital confession.

Ri-ki smiles at Aohi’s blushing cheeks, and it takes him his entire patience and strength to not bring his hand up to pinch her cheek or smother her in a kiss.

“Yah!- corny, it’s so corny!” Aohi shooed it off by playfully scolding Ri-ki with his teenage confession, in animal crossing no less!

(duck-ki confession.. success??)

Ri-ki giggled as Aohi playfully hit him over the shoulder, telling him to knock it off— “Is that you saying no?” Ri-ki tilts his head.

Aohi takes this opportunity to look at the camera, “only Engenes have my heart!” She makes a heart shape with her hands, looking through the middle of it with a wink.

(heart attack!)

Ri-ki just smiles, knowing that behind this fan service, Aohi has long given her heart to him and his six hyungs.

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

EXHIBIT N, AOHI’s LITTLE DUCKLING:

¡! ❞ ENHYPEN was given a week off to relax, and what better way to spend it if not to a small vacation? Aohi, Xiulin and the boys were brought to a small vacation house, where they were to spend the entirety of the week!

The group decided to travel by car, four members in each, Aohi being the extra inside of the hyung line's car

Aohi buzzed in her car seat happily, currently the passenger princess in Heeseung's Chevrolet Camaro. The group was fairly quiet, the car being filled of Aohi's music.

Aohi looked out the window, humming along with Basics by Twice, blasting on her side of the car.

"Aohi-yah, I'm opening the window." Heeseung announced, looking to his safety mirror before rolling down the passenger window, Aohi squeals at the sudden brush of air from the slight opening.

"My hair!" Aohi complained, holding her pins in place. The hyung line laughs at Aohi's pout, watching her fix her hair. "You look fine." Jay spoke, fixing her strands from the backseat.

(hairstylist Jay to the rescue!)

Heeseung spoke a soft apology, his eyes on the road. Aohi ruffled in the passenger seat. "Oppa, you have the seat warmer so high, are you trying to cook my butt?" Aohi grumbled, turning down the heat as she leaned back.

"Sorry, sorry!" Heeseung replied, soon enough the car arrived to the small vacation house, it was a beach house!

"Wah! Look at the beach!" Aohi enthusiastically pointed out the window, Heeseung parked the car and unlocked his seatbelt, doing the same for Aohi as he opened his driver's door.

Heeseung jogged from one side to the other, opening the door for her. "Thanks, seungie-ah." Aohi spoke, grabbing her stuff and getting out of her passenger seat.

(Heeseung's passenger princess treatment..)

"Hyung, you don't do that for us!" Sunghoon laughed, getting out after Jay, who was busy grabbing their stuff from the trunk.

Heeseung just shrugged at Sunghoon, closing the door when Aohi has walked away. "You have hands." And with that reply, Sunghoon sulks.

Aohi approaches the beach house, Xiulin and Sunoo calling after her. "Batsy! Wait up!" Xiulin called out, jogging up to her as Aohi opened the clear glass door. "You two are so fast!" Sunoo complained, joining the girls.

"Just excited is all, sorry, Sunoo-oppa." Aohi walked into the living room, gasping at the pretty interior, "Wah! It has a sun-roof!" Aohi pointed up at the ceiling.

"Oh now, we definitely have to take photos!" Sunoo gasped, Aohi agreeing with a squeal, the two jumped for joy like two high-schoolers at the mere thought of getting the perfect golden photos.

(photogenic duo jumps for joy!)

"Noona," Ri-ki emerged from the front entrance of the home, making a bee-line for Aohi, who turned around at the sound of him. "What's up, Ri-ki-san?" She instantly opens her arms for Ri-ki, the youngest happily taking his spot.

"I want to sleep." Ri-ki's muffled voice spoke, the mic he wore rubbing against Aohi's sweater. "Then sleep, you big duck." Aohi retorted.

"Puma! I'm a puma!" Ri-ki complained, pulling away with a pout, and Aohi laughs at the youngest's sulking behaviour. "You're still a baby-duck, don't get me started."

"Go join the others, guys! I have to cook!" Jay spoke, bringing the last of the bags inside the home. "I want to help!" Aohi raised her hand, following a grocery carrying Jay into the kitchen.

The film-camera zoomed in on Ri-ki, who seemed contemplate where to go, before turning to the kitchen and following after Aohi.

(Duck-ki follows after mama bat..)

"Yah! Go outside, I can't have three in the kitchen!" Jay tried to shoo Ri-ki away as soon as he appears by the hall of the kitchen from the living room.

"Did you follow me, ki-ah?" Aohi giggled, washing her hands as Ri-ki sat by the table in the kitchen. "I won't be in your way hyung, don't worry."

Ri-ki watched as Jay glanced at him with a distrustful look, before setting up his workspace. "Oppa, which veggie did you want me to cut again?" Aohi dried her hands as she pulls out a cutting board from seemingly nowhere.

Ri-ki peers from behind her, curious of what she was doing. "The potatoes, garlic and then just pluck the greens." Jay gently places three potatoes on her board, handing her a peeler.

(ENHYPEN's personal chefs, Aohi and Jay!)

"Are you sure you want to just watch me? Sunghoon and Jake-oppa are going swimming." Aohi looked out the window of the beach house, seeing the two hyungs ruffling around the shallow part of the waters.

Ri-ki just shakes his head. "I'll join later, I want to watch noona." Jay makes a side-eye, "Just Aohi? What about me?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. "You're not pretty enough." Ri-ki shrugged, and Jay scoffs.

"Wow, don't eat my food anymore, you hear?" Aohi laughs at Jay's and Ri-ki's playful conflict.

"As in to say! Hyung, you're too masculine and you're handsome, you know?" Ri-ki makes a smooth save, hoping to keep his Chef Jay privilege.

"Uh huh, thought so.." Jay spoke.

The trio continued to silently work. Aohi peeling potatoes and then cutting them. She finishes by placing the cubed potatoes into cold water, making sure they don't bruise over.

"I'll do the garlic, just finish the greens and then you can go, okay?" Jay patted Aohi's head gently, making her lean into his hand. "Eung!"

Ri-ki watched the interaction with puckered lips and squinted eyes, as if like a jealous duckling. "Aohi-noona, me too! Give me a headpat!" Ri-ki ordered, leaving his seat to approach the girl who was washing greens.

"What? Why? You didn't do anything-" Aohi looked over her shoulder. "I want one, anyway!" Aohi let out a huff, looking down at her greens. "Go ask Jay-oppa! I'm doing something!"

Ri-ki frowns at this, "I want one from you though." And at this, Aohi clicks her tongue. "Okay, just, let me finish washing and plucking this, and if you can wait, I'll give you a headpat." She compromises.

Ri-ki seemed to smile, satisfied with the deal, nodding softly and sitting back down. "I don't know how you handle him, he's so scary especially with his height." Aohi snorts at Jay's words, pushing her hips into his.

"he's just a big duck, that's all. We're talking about the same boy who can't sleep in a bed without someone being in it." Aohi replies, looking behind her to see Ri-ki playing on his phone.

(Clingy duck waits patiently for Aohi ㅋㅋㅋ)

"I guess you're right.." Jay looked along with Aohi, before turning back to cutting the carrots. "It makes it less scarier when we know he follows you around so much." Aohi gives Jay a side eye, before looking at the camera set up in the kitchen with a 'is he serious?' look.

Soon enough, Aohi finished with her kitchen tasks, cleaning her space. "I'm going to go join the oppas for swimming, do you need any more help?" Ahi asks Jay, who was stirring pasta sauce in a pan. "No, go have fun, batsy." Jay ushered her.

Aohi nods and places her stuff away to join Xiulin and the others on the beach. Ri-ki finally looks up from his phone to see Aohi leaving, and he silently leaves along with her.

"Ri-ki, are you good with shrimp?- Ri-ki?" Jay seems to ask into the air, turning to see the youngest was gone. "Seriously? He followed after Aohi?"

"Noona.." Ri-ki called after her, Aohi jumping as she walked down the wooden porch, looking behind her with a look of surprise. "Yah! Did you just follow after me in silence? How long have you been behind me?"

Ri-ki stayed quiet, his lips in a slight pout. "You said you'd give me a pat." He points to his head. "Aish..." Aohi clicks her tongue.

"Here, c'mon." Aohi ushers with a sigh, urging him to lean down as the camera catches the pat on camera. "You and your headpats, eung? The boys can't get one without you getting one, huh?" Aohi spoke, making a 'tsk, tsk' sound.

"You still spoil me though." a sigh leaves Aohi.

"You're right..."

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ comments:

user1: not Aohi threatening Ri-ki with a barbie video game 😭

user2: I think Naohi is the cutest between all of them, Ri-ki can’t leave his noona alone ㅋㅋㅋ

user3: Ri-ki’s so cute making a pond for her in acnh — I hope he continues with his island for her

user4: Aohi’s going to be a good mother because she has seven boys following her everywhere huhuhu

user5: You’d think it would be the other way around but noo Aohi has these boys tripping over each other

user6: Aohi’s so cute taking care of Ri-ki, I want a headpat from her too!

user7: Ri-ki’s so real for confessing to Aohi, me too ri-ki me too

user8: “only engenes have my heart” oh Yoon Aohi, You’re for the ladies 😭

user9: ive never seen such a big guy follow after someone as small as Aohi— gives me whiplash

user10: the last scene is just Jaohi and their son, ri-ki ㅋㅋㅋ

user11: now, Aohi being babygirl for enhypen next!

bonus! EXHBIT O, AOHI’s CASE OF THE CLINGIES!

¡! ❞ The TV closes with a click, Aohi yawning. "I didn't think the boys were so clingy, that there was a compilation." She looks up at Xiulin, who had an arm around Aohi.

The two cuddled on the couch late at night, the boys already sleeping in their own respective rooms.

"I don't know how you never notice it, they're so clingy, I can't even get close to you without them being asleep or on the other side of the country." Xiulin snorted, patting Aohi's head.

"I guess it just feels normal, I'm surprised the fans don't really connect the dots." Aohi shrugs, tightening her arms around Xiulin as the older girl hums.

"I think some fans have, but then again, them saying anything is a reach because we can't date our group members." Xiulin replied, glancing down at Aohi, who sleepily stared at her with a soft smile.

"Why aren't you clingy with me, unnie?" Aohi asked softly, her eyelids drooping at the midnight fatigue hitting her. Xiulin laughs quietly at her question, her hand running themselves in the girl's dyed hair.

Aohi hums, "Why're you laughing?" Xiulin shakes her head, "I don't need to be clingy because you already cling to me first." Xiulin smiled, she ruffles her hair last minute as Aohi pulls away with a grin.

"Then I'll stop depending on unnie!" Xiulin playfully scoffs at the bold statement. "I doubt you'll last before I break." Aohi whines at her words, Xiulin never letting her win their playful banter.

"One day, I'll win over your arguments, unnie.." Xiulin shakes her head, "Sure, you can dream about it tonight." Aohi groans at her words, rolling around, as if playfully annoyed with Xiulin's smart remarks.

"It's late, we should head to sleep." Xiulin starts to move from her spot. "Nuh uh, I'm too tired to move to the bedroom, let's just sleep here." Aohi yawns, further proving her point.

"You're right," Xiulin sighs and lays back down on their couch, and Aohi happily takes her spot next to Xiulin, squishing against each other to fit the small space.

Xiulin closes the few lights on with a remote, and a small bit of shuffling is heard, Aohi trying to get comfortable, the two girls laid in the dark for a bit, a yawn leaving Aohi.

"Goodnight, unnie." — "Goodnight, my babygirl."

"Unnie!" — "Sleep!"

[nickssidewitch]

🌬️*~Meet The Sturniolo Triplets’s Spirit Guides~*✨

Here is the long-awaited post where I introduce the fandom to the spirit guides of the triplets!! These guides protect them in their individual paths, sometimes intervening as a collective. I will not be sharing some of them because some are personal family members of this lifetime that have passed on, and some just don’t want to or like to be known! It’s per their requests! But, they’re not any less significant in their triplet’s life paths!

🪁 Nick’s Spirit Guides:

The Tall Androgynous Figure: If you’ve seen the movie Soul, this spirit kinda remind me of the first Jerry. They’re the leader of the group, and surprisingly either soft-spoken or just does not speak all of the time. They communicate to me the most using gestures. They act as a humbling tool for Nick, and allow him to stay grounded. There are some things they like to keep censored from the physical world about Nick, so they’re there to help keep Nick’s secrets safe and secure. They usually give me the big 🤫 whenever I channel sometimes 😭🤍 which is fair!

The Little Girl: Oh my gosh, you guys don’t understand how absolutely adorable this one is! Ugh, she’s just a doll! She’s so shy, but whenever she does speak, it’s something so emotionally profound. She communicates to me by tugging on my shirt (not my actual shirt, it’s a mental one 😭) for my attention, or she’ll draw something for someone if she likes them! She is there to help Nick heal his inner child because he still needs that reminder time and time again. He’s been through some shit, not necessarily in the physical world, but more-so mentally and spiritually, and the little girl is there to remind him to go through a safe and healthy healing process.

The Short and Loud One: He is so loud and forthright with his opinions (which is where I can see Nick gets that from 😭). He’s not a leader at all, but the way this one can SCREAM, you would think he is one. He’s kind of like Anger from Inside Out, or Terry from the Pixar movie Soul. He helps Nick to stay opinionated and open about his thoughts because I feel like Nick was scared to be open as a child. He came around Nick’s younger years to give him that strength to be loud and forthright.

The Literal Legend (reference to an Ayesha Erotica song; she’s the one who wanted me to call her that 😭🤍): She is exactly what she says she is. She always has a lipgloss or lipstick in her hand and gorgeous lips, and walks around like the world is hers (and Nick’s). She gives Nick his confidence and unapologetic bad bitch energy! She’s the one who sits down with him to watch Rupaul’s Drag Race when he has no one else to watch it with, just do he doesn’t feel alone and so he can feel the same energy those queens give 😭😭🤍

🐬 Matt’s Spirit Guides:

The Old British Man: I would say he’s one of the leaders in his group of spirit guides. He’s snarky, blunt, and can be a bit mean, but he means well in Matt’s case. He knows what Matt wants and how Matt can get there. But, sometimes he doesn’t intervene because he wants Matt to make mistakes in order to grow. He’s more of a disciplinarian type of man, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Matt. No, this man adores Matthew, and will do anything in his power to ensure that Matt takes the proper steps to enlightenment and evolution.

The Warm, Humble Lady: She’s such a kind, warm, and beautiful lady. I see her with long blonde hair and arms always extended for a hug. 🫂 I see her adorned with beautiful flowers and there are some dogs and cats surrounding her space. She gives me woodland fairy vibes! 🧚🏾‍♀️ She has some ability to humble Matt and remind him of his roots. She acts as sort of a personification of nostalgia and everything about home. He’s probably seen her in his dreams and visions, but doesn’t really remember her. She’s telling me that’s intentional 😭🤍

The Military Man: He comes and goes, but he might be a relative of his from a long time ago or from a past life. He loves Matt’s energy and has stuck by his side since he was around 8 or 10. He’s Matt’s protector in a way, and he’s able to bring Matt a sort of strength that he might need to get through certain situations. I feel like around those ages I mentioned, that’s when Matt needed strength because he was experiencing something terrible, and that’s when Mr. Military Man stepped in. He’s not authoritarian at all like the Old British Man; he’s actually quite chill and always has a smile on his face unless he’s concerned about Matt’s wellbeing. (The Military Man is so handsome with a great smile btw— oop I didn’t say that 🧍🏾‍♀️)

The Older Grandmother: She is a grandmother maternal figure for him who is also a sense of nostalgia and peace for him. She makes him feel warm and comfortable, like a warm quilted blanket by a fireplace. She just exudes grandmother energy, and I have a feeling she knew him in a past life as well.

🐯 Chris’s Spirit Guides:

The Runaway Slave: This spirit guide was very surprising to me because I’ve never channeled a white man to have a spiritual guide that’s black or was black in a past life? But that’s what she is, and her story is quite a sad yet beautiful one. She was a house slave that ran away from her plantation successfully and lived up until the Jim Crow era and then died when she was caught in one of the Northern U.S. states. She reminds Chris of strength and resilience. She is a figure of responsibility and respect, and Chris needs that a lot of the time to stay humble.

The Circus Entertainer: This spirit guide was either an acrobat or weightlifter back when circuses were all the rage! He makes Chris as happy-go-lucky as he is 😭 He never fails to give Chris a reason to laugh or smile. I think this entertainer has been through a lot and knows what it’s like to be overworked and not be able to smile. That’s why he’s there to help Chris get a break and have a laugh every once in a while. That’s why Chris sometimes laughs or smiles very randomly 😭🤍

The Tallyman Accountant: He’s a doozy 😭 He does not speak at all. He just takes notes of everything and tallies everything that happens. He helps Chris remember things because he knows Chris’s forgetful self needs that sometimes. That’s all I can say about him!

The Bubblegum Girl: She is fierce, bold, and vivacious! Her hair is in pigtails and she loves vibrant colors like electric blues or bubblegum pinks! She seems like such a skater-girl rebellious-type. She’s short and spontaneous and loves to have fun and cause havoc. Maybe that’s where Chris gets it from 😭😭🤍. She’s there to allow him to have fun, and is also sometimes his wingwoman when it comes to his social life. I love her energy so much 😭🩷.

They have other guides as well, but those are the major ones I can channel at the moment!! 🥰🤍🤍✨

You guys can say hi to them if you want! They would love that!! 🥰🤗

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝕋𝕖𝕒 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ anon request: hihi! platonic blade, welt, jing yuan and dan heng with a lynette (genshin) teen!reader?

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Hii!! Sure, here it is! I don't think I know Lynette the best but I tried my best so hopefully it's kinda alright!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ platonic

✧ Dan Heng is most than happy to have someone calm around, he already has to deal with 2 energetic kids so having 1 calm is a nice change

✧ he definitely took notice if how sly you can be, with sneaking sweets here and there for example

"You're observant... alright, run away and hide as soon as you can as well. We're being chased, so if they see you, they'll chase you too."

✧ but when he sees it in much more impressive action, he's happy to see you know how to get out of sticky situation and won't say no to you helping him if he happens to be in one himself

✧ he doesn't mind tea so of course he doesn't mind little tea parties with you either!

✧ but he'll act like a parent when he sees you getting your 5th sweet

✧ he for one cares about your health but if you tell him simple "later", he'll just sigh and leave it to someone else to get sweets away from you today

✧ and even when your cat features come in, he doesn't really mind! If anything, he thinks it's useful that you can most likely hear better

✧ he'll make it clear for others to not treat you like an animal but a living being if anything like that will take place

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@miya-akane @toyaswif3y - come get your quiet but scary trabilazer!

✧ Welt is honestly glad to see you're so calm, because that only means less problematic kids for him, or so he thought...

✧ you are indeed calm and quite smart, but apparently very sly too... March spilled out one time that you were distracting Welt just so she could spend more time on a planet and... he couldn't even be mad, he was just impressed how he didn't realized that

✧ he now definitely is more caucious around you and keeps the thing that needs to be done this day in mind, to not accidentally forget it

✧ but as if it wasn't enough... he also needs to watch over sweets with you...

✧ don't get him wrong, he doesn't mind if you resch for little treat from time to time but 5 A DAY?! Even if you brush your teeth and exercise often enough to catch up for it, he's still worried about your health...

"Which chocolate bar is it for you today? That's it then. You can eat more tomorrow, for now let's put it away and maybe go on a walk?"

✧ but something he doesn't mind is your love for tea! Himeko often makes coffee so water stays for you to make tea instead~ and he finds it better than if you were to drink energy drinks or so...

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@vodka-glrl - come get your father of the express!

✧ Jing Yuan definitely took a like of you rather quickly

✧ you were certainly a nice teenager to had around and who knows? Maybe even Yanqing could use some company of someone younger but wise?

✧ tea parties are a MUST with you, he's definitely tea enjoyer as well!!

✧ during these he usually catches up with any rumors going around that he failed to hear and you in exchange get a little sneak peaks on his side~

✧ he thinks you're wise so he won't mind telling you about a bit more serious stuff as long as you won't spread it around, but there are still some stuff he doesn't tell you obvs

✧ he finds your ability to always get our of sticky situation and know what's going on despite just arriving impressive and sometimes also amusing

"Oh? Exit? How nice... I was just thinking of looking for one. Thank you, young one."

✧ and if you happen to have any sticky connections smth aka Fatui he'll most likely know even before you met but chose to give you a chance and he wasn't disappointed so he now had more trust, but still hides some stuff in case you'll be forced to say everything you know

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@miya-akane - come get your soft general~

✧ Blade is happy from someone calm and wise finally but your slyness is sometimes still a bit unbearable for him

✧ don't get him wrong, if you want to flee, feel free, he's never gonna take your advice buuut at least you're not persistive with it!

✧ he's quite observant so if you all of the sudden start showing around you because of a mission for someone (Fatui alike) he'll notice, even if you're being stealthy as much as you can

✧ but if that doesn't happen and you stay on neutral ground, which believe is a lot for someone like him, you should be able to avoid his death stares

✧ he doesn't really like tea as much as you but he did tried it once and now he'll SOMETIMES agree to have a cup with you

✧ and cat features? He couldn care less. It's just part of you... he has ears on sides of his head, you have on top, if anything he thinks you should be proud from having better senses

✧ despite him so "not liking you", if someone gives you a hard time, he won't mind giving them a quick glance to shut them up and never approach you again

"Who said that? .... Go get ice cream with Kafka, I'll go clear the area."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@vodka-glrl - come get your cold man!

[imperhine-dea]

get lost.

aughsuhdh apologies for my sudden disappearance! i forgot how to write and how to characterize the ghouls... hopefully you guys would still like this somewhat.

ghouls featured: aether, cirrus, dewdrop/sodo, swiss

for the sake of continuity, let's say that this is the situation: someone approaches you and the ghouls start to get jealous. you deny any advances, and the person gets more aggressive. the ghouls step in.

warnings for: boundaries crossed (nothing graphic), more protectiveness and less possessiveness, a little bit of ghoul violence <3

+ the party went by smoothly, for the most part anyway. you've went around the place, stopping by to talk to a few people and small groups. you end up at the bar, leaning against the table. you catch a pair of unwanted eyes. you do your best to hide how your eyebrows furrow as you politely decline their offers to buy you a drink or take you someplace else.

+ their voice is bit louder and rougher, they take a step towards you. the interaction catches more attention as the person's actions become more aggressive. out of the corner your eye you see your ghoul approaching.

aether

- something about aether just makes him very good about feeling things out

- he takes steady steps towards you and the guy

- aether's purple gaze is almost striking as he stares them down

- he's right beside you. he trusts that you can take this one down (be that verbally or else) but he's letting you know that he's got your back

- "i think they've made themself clear. and it seems like your best option now is to go.

- that usual warm energy from him is replaced with something immovable. a threat unsaid, especially with how much force was put on that last word

- and if that person had eyes, they best back away.

- after that exchange, aether checks up on you

- he rubs your back and doesn't dwell much on that creep, instead focusing on you

- but if you ask, he's more than happy to teach them a lesson

cirrus

- cirrus is very protective, definitely

- so when she notices? she's infront of you, no questions asked

- you didn't even feel her move, just the slight gust of air

- cirrus has a sharp expression as she rests her hand on her hip

- there are little wisps that blow strands of her hair

- "hey you. what made you think that you had the right to run your mouth like that?"

- when an argument arises, cirrus punctuated her words with her tail. it slapped on the ground, sounding almost like whip that's been cracked

- that silences them quick

- if anything happens, cirrus will not have been the one to start it. but she'll counter hard. even with fabulous nails (claws).

- might have left a scar too. she will neither confirm nor deny

- she'll turn back to you as if she just swatted a fly

- "apologies, darling. but they won't be bothering you ever again. did you get hurt?"

- cirrus takes your hand and presses a kiss to your wrist

- she asks what you want to do next. she's happy to keep you distracted with a dance but won't mind if you want to go home. she'll pamper you <3

dewdrop

- he will throw hands

- his eyebrows are furrowed, he purposefully bumps against the person's shoulder

- dew's hand is protectively hovering in front of you

- "back off, shithead." he half growls

- dewdrop saw the way they talked and cornered you, he is not letting that slide

- he'll make sure to bruise that fucker in some way, drawing blood

- he looks at them with so much disgust once they scurry away. he wipes his claws and shakes it

- he sighs but it turns into a sheepish smile when facing you

- "sorry 'bout that... i couldn't help it. but more importantly, are you okay?"

- he tends to you and gives you anything you need

- dew is a little more cuddly afterwards, head rubbing against you adorably. he reminds you of a cat

- probably wants the smell of everyone else gone off you

swiss

- oh you just know that swiss always has his eyes on you

- for many reasons, but mostly because he thinks that you're eye candy

- the moment he notices something is off, he's immediately coming closer

- swiss lingers behind you, carefully eyeing them

- his hand wrapped around your waist

- swiss makes a clear sign that you're taken by the way he holds you

- "they said no." he says, annoyed. "now why don't you take your bullshit somewhere else?"

- swiss is ready to jump and fight as soon as they take a step closer

- will break their knees if needed

- but swiss will do his best to limit anything, as he wants your discomfort to end fast

- swiss clicks his tongue as they leave, eyes still glowing

- he holds your face as he moves a little closer to you

- "don't worry, i'm here for you. do you want me to... handle them later?"

- he says jokingly, but you know that you can answer and he will

- swiss kisses you on the nose

- he's more than happy to provide anything you need, kisses and comfort included. wanna order dessert? sure! cuddle? he's immediately going home and pulling you into his lap.

[garzasheart]

valeria garza as a cat mom

summary: valeria being a crazy cat woman.

author notes: sorry for not posting in so long 👎 now it's time for soft valeria hours

━ before you two got together, valeria didn't have pets. she didn't see any need to and was too busy to actually care for any animals. the only "pets" valeria had were guard dogs that she hardly saw. letting her men take care of them in her place. having a pet was a waste of time, energy, and resources. if she wanted companionship? there were plenty of women around las almas that would give her the time of day. wanted to have some fun? that's why alcohol exists. she really saw no need until you came through, stole her heart, and convinced her to buy a cat. since valeria can never say no to you, she ends up agreeing.

━ the day you bring home a black kitten, valeria is a little unconvinced. the kitten would meow loudly everytime it needed to eat and would always try to claw at her whenever valeria held the little thing. she really wasn't liking the kitten; it's annoying and takes your attention off of her and it was so needy. you weren't going to stand for valeria's dislike though.

"name him," you said to her one day while you two were watching a movie. valeria looks at you with confusion drawn all over her face, "name who?"

"the kitten, val."

valeria lets out a small oh before sighing. she's getting ready to tell you that she doesn't care about the name, but you stop her.

"c'mon, name him. for me?" you pout at her. curse you for how cute you look every time you pout. valeria looks away for a moment, trying to think.

"okay, fine... juno," she says. looking at you to see your reaction. you stay silent for a little bit. tilting your head slightly to think about the name.

then you smile at her, "cute. juno."

━ ever since that day it was like a light was switched in valeria's brain. that little rascal of a kitten seemed .. not as annoying. adorable even. when juno would cry out for food, instead of it being you to go feed him, valeria would go instead. she would let him play with her fingers too. even though you told her that if she kept doing that, when he's fully grown he will still do it and hurt her. "i have been through worse, mi vida. don't worry," the hispanic woman says. giving you her usual smile that she knows sways you every single time before going back to playing with juno.

━ valeria is the one who decides to train him. she doesn't know the first thing about training an animal, but reassured you that she will figure it out.

"amor, wouldn't it be better if we just hire someone to train him?" you say, brushing through valeria's hair. she lets out a soft hum at first. just enjoying the feeling of you gently tugging on her strands, but she replies a few minutes after. "no, it's fine. i will do it," she says.

you laugh softly. quick to remind your girlfriend that she doesn't know a thing about animals. more or less on how to train one. valeria with her stubborn and prideful nature is quick to defend herself, saying, "i can always learn. weren't you the one who said that it's never too late to try something when i put my mind to it?"

"i did say that, but amor, this is something that can be done wrong you know. you have to do it right so juno doesn't end up a menace," you explain. valeria scoffs at the last part; juno was already turning out to be quite a menace. he must gets it from valeria you think.

"just trust me, bebe. i got it," she says, ending the conversation there.

━ valeria in fact did not have it, at first. she used treats to reward juno when he did something she liked, but would give him the treat at the wrong time so it wasn't that effective. she had to go out and actually buy books, read them, and then apply the methods from the books. thankfully they worked. the downside is that she learned everything from a dog training book, so now juno knows how to sit, stay, play dead, sit & wait for his food, and immediately runs when called. at least it worked.

━ soon enough juno starts to grow. by the end of the first year, he's at his full size but doesn't act like it. always trying to sit on valeria or yours face and playing with valeria's fingers (and you always said i told you so after bandaging up her scratched up fingers). still valeria is absolutely inlove with him with now.

━ this woman comes home and cuddles him first before cuddling you (she still gets all annoyed if you don't come cuddle with them after like five minutes though). she kisses him to sleep and good morning. takes him out on little walks sometimes and always brings you along. calling them "mamas and juno dates."

━ one thing valeria refuses to do though is talk in a baby voice to him. that's all you. instead valeria talks to juno like he's a grown man. you caught her way too many times sitting on the couch, sipping on some wine, while complaining and cursing to juno about how she works with idiots. juno always sits there and looks at her like he's listening.

━ sends you so many pictures of juno when you are away. of him sleeping, eating, cuddling with her, running around, even when he's about to walk over to the litter box. those last type of photos are always accompanied with a "I think he ate too much, amor" text

━ if you facetime her while you're away, valeria will hold juno to the camera and say, "he wants kisses. give juno his kisses, mi amor."

━ valeria considers juno her and yours child. it doesn't matter that he's a furry animal, he basically came out of you.

━ she always jokes around that juno has your eyes and her personality.

━ this woman just loves her some juno.

[callmelola111]

guilty conscience ☆ part three

 ← part 1 , part 2 ⭑ part 4 , part 5 →

synopsis: it’s your first year at college and you’re 1,500 miles away from home. you’d feel completely alone if it wasn't for your attractive roommate ellie. will this attraction complicate the already uncharted territory? or will she be the answer to all your problems?

      |✯| pairing & wc: college!ellie williams x roommate!reader. wc: 2.7k

      |✯| cw (by part): 18+ themes (MDNI), fem reader, modern au!ellie, HEAVY ANGST, some swearing, heavy on sexual themes, cat lol, reader throws up, drinking, smoking, ellie acting like a piece of shit, almost kinda cheating

a/n: lots of character development in this part. looking forward to the next one though cause it will be getting sick, twisted, and hot. yes everyone, its true, expect some smut!!!! anyways hope you like all this crazy angst. thanks for all the support on previous parts, it means so much to me fr ♡

That night you went home early, never seeing Ellie’s band play. You don’t even have the energy to take off the makeup you had done special for that evening. You quickly changed to your pajamas, then slipped right into bed, all while maintaining a steady flow of tears.

You attempted to go to sleep, in fact, that’s all you really wanted to do. You didn’t want to feel the hurt of Ellie anymore. Unfortunately, sleep wasn’t in your near future. The night continued to play on a loop in your mind driving you insane. You questioned why you ever thought she would feel the same way about you as you did her. You felt stupid. 

Ellie arrived home later that night. Not ready to face her just yet, you turned towards the wall and pretended to sleep. She would’ve fell for it too, but the hitch in your breath as you tried to swallow your sobs gave you away.

“Hey… uh, are you alright?” she gently inquired. Ellie was perplexed, still not understanding why you had stormed out on her and never came back. Has she done something to you? Or maybe you were jealous of Cat? She wanted to hear you say the words.

 “If you think I’m crying over you, I-I’m not. I’m fine.” you finally muttered, putting all your defenses up. You felt embarrassed for feeling so strongly about her. This answer broke Ellie’s heart and she wasn’t quite sure why. She wished you would’ve stayed for her show, it was important, but it seemed like you could care less how your actions affected her. You humbled her in the worst way possible and it made her, in a way, resentful. Resentful enough that she wouldn’t open her eyes to the obvious fact that the two of you were more than just roommates. 

Ellie responded, impulsive and pissed off, “Well fine, I’m glad. I- I really like Cat, and I don’t need you screwing this up for me.”

“Me??? Mess it up for you??? Don’t worry Ellie, you can do that all on your own, believe me.” You cringed hearing yourself be so cruel to the girl you love. You didn’t mean it.

That night neither of you slept and it was like that for the rest of the week. You hung around Dina as much as you could to avoid Ellie's presence. Being around her was like torture. Even more like torture was the fact that you were keeping it all a secret from Dina. You felt like a fool for getting into such a stupid situation. You’d just get embarrassed and start tearing up if you tried to tell her. But that didn’t stop Dina from asking. The other day, the two of you were hanging out and she brought up Cat, or as she liked to call her “the cunt from class”, never bothering to learn her real name. 

“What ever happened with that cunt from class being at Ellie’s show the other night?”

“Oh Cat? Yeah, I guess she just happened to see a flyer and showed up. I don’t really know.” you replied trying not to sound too suspicious.

“Cat? You guys are on a first name basis now?” She chuckled, noticing your sudden unusual behavior, and questioning how you knew her name. You laughed along with her trying to play it off. Dina didn’t wanna pry though, she knew you’d tell her when you were ready. You loved how patient she was with you. You never had those kinds of friends back home. Dina saw your eyes soften as you admired the friendship the two of you shared. 

“What?” she teased.

“I just love you Dina, that's all.” you said matter-of-factly and leaned in for a big embrace. She grabbed the sides of your face and leaned in to plant a kiss on the top of your head. Whatever was going on, she knew you needed the love.

“Love you too y/n.” she smiled back at you. 

Taking advantage of the tender moment Dina mentioned, “by the way, there’s this party happening Friday and I think we should go.”

“I don’t know about a party…” you said reluctantly. You had been so down lately that you didn’t feel like partying, but that’s exactly why Dina insisted you go.

“Pleaseeee Y/n!!! A party would do you some good, You’ve been such a sad sack lately.” She was practically begging, so you gave up and agreed to go.

Meanwhile Ellie was being dragged around by Cat. It’s not that Cat was all bad news. There were some times where Ellie really liked hanging around her but it was mostly when the two of them were alone. Anytime other people came around, Cat’s attitude shifted and she became defensive and insecure. It’s like the presence of others presented this possibility that she could be abandoned by Ellie. Everyone felt like a threat.

Ellie disliked that side of her, but she could also sympathize. She knew what it felt like to be rejected and forgotten about, I mean, you were doing that to her right now. You were barely around anymore, always with that Dina girl. Maybe that was the real reason Ellie kept Cat around;

She knew she would never leave her. And if one day she did, deep down, Ellie knew she wouldn’t really care. Not like how she cares about you.

On Friday you headed over to Dina’s place and the two of you got ready for the party together. Dina did your makeup for you, she even put glitter under your eyes for a special touch. 

“You look so hot bro. The sparkles are adorable, you’re like a little fairy” Dina exclaimed, proud of her work. You looked in the mirror and smiled. You haven't felt this good in a while. Once you guys arrived at the party you went straight to the backyard of the frathouse to smoke. No way you’d be here sober.

You lit the end of the pink joint and said, “I hate to admit it but… I think you were right D. I really did need this.” You took a hit and then passed it over to her.

“What? The joint? Or some quality time with your best friend?” she teased.

“Honestly, both.” The two of you burst into laughter at your blunt response, beginning to feel the high. Even after you finished smoking, you remained outside sitting on the steps. You had gotten so wrapped into conversation with each other that you almost forgot you were at a party. With the sudden realization you were still outside and the sound of Come Get Her playing on the speakers inside, you and Dina finally decided to get up and party.

That is, until Dina gets a call from her sister and has to step aside. You wait for her, leaning on the doorframe. As she talks there’s a serious look on her face. She finally finishes her conversation and looks to you to break the news.

“Y/n I’m really sorry, but I’ve gotta go. A family emergency came up and I gotta go help out my sister like right now.” You could tell by her tone that it was urgent and she genuinely felt bad for having to ditch you. 

She continued, “but you, please stay. I think I just saw Ellie inside and I’m sure she’d be happy to party with you.” Not wanting to reveal your current situation with Ellie, you went along with it. You know Dina was only trying to help.

“Don't even worry about it D. I completely get it, family first. I love you.” you replied, bringing her in for a hug.

“Okay good, thank you for understanding babe. Byeee.” And with that, Dina was gone, and you were left to face this party alone. You couldn’t help but wonder if it was really Ellie that Dina had seen, or if she was just a little too high. Ellie didn’t seem like the frat party type, but honestly, neither did you. Even though you weren’t necessarily on speaking terms with her, you decided to go inside and look anyway.

That’s when you spot her with none other than Cat the cunt. She was hanging all over Ellie, it was almost gross. The sight left you sick and you straight-lined it to the alcohol to take a couple shots. Those couple of shots led to a couple more, and then a couple more as you watched Ellie and Cat practically suck each other’s faces off. You couldn’t stop staring though, it was almost sadistic.

Busy chaperoning the obnoxious couple, you managed to lose track of the amount of alcohol you were consuming. The nausea hit you like a truck and you stumbled to a dirty couch trying to deep breath through the churning of your stomach. A familiar voice interrupts your attempt at self-soothing.

“Y/n?” You look up at the sound of your name coming from your favorite person's mouth. As you opened yours to greet her, all that came out were chunks. Ellie jumped back, just missing the splash zone. Your throw up now soaked the frat house couch and the floor surrounding. And in front of Ellie? How embarrassing. While you were busy cursing yourself in your head for making such a scene, Ellie was cursing herself for not finding you sooner.

The idea of you drunk and all alone at a frat party scared her, and she was your protector. With that scenario flashing through her mind she scooped you into her arms and rushed you to the bathroom. The whole world was spinning as Ellie plopped you onto the floor in front of the toilet. She held back your hair and rubbed your back as you continued to vomit. You were already beginning to sober up as your body rid you of the intoxicating liquid. Ellie pushed at your baby hairs and wiped at the sweat collecting on your temples from the heaving. Despite everything, Ellie really did care for you. She couldn’t stand to see you in pain. And she couldn’t stand the thought of someone hurting you either. 

“Come back to my bandmates with me. Please?” Ellie finally spoke.

Feeling the nausea dissipate, you responded, “thanks for your help but I think I’ll be fine just walking back to the dorm.”

“A drunk girl walking 20 minutes across campus, in the dark, alone??? That’s like the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.” Ellie hated how stubborn you were.

“I’m not even that drunk anymore,” you paused for a beat, “but fine. I’ll go with you.” Ellie sighed in relief. She put you under her arm and started leading you to the door. She was so warm and you felt so safe. As she walks outside, Ellie spots Cat and knows she’s in trouble. Ellie gently sits you down on the curb so she can go deal.

“Els, what the fuck is she doing here?” Cat spits as soon as Ellie is in listening distance. 

“Listen Cat, I don’t know, but she’s really messed up and I can’t just leave her here.”

Cat raises her voice, louder this time, “what do you mean?? Are you really picking her over me?”

“I didn’t know I had to pick. Shes my fucking friend Cat.” 

“But- but… I’m your girlfriend” she says, voice trembling with insecurity. 

Ellie turns to leave the exhausted conversation, “it doesn’t work like that. I- I’ve gotta go now, we’ll talk about this later. I'm sorry.”

The next thing you know you’re sitting in a strangers kitchen and Ellie is force feeding you crackers and water, trying to sober you up. Just being there with her is already making you feel so much better. You talk and giggle through the night like you guys had never even fought. A sleeve of Saltines, 3 glasses of water, and 2 Advil later you’re beginning to feel a little more like your normal self.

This doesn’t stop Ellie from coddling you like a little baby for the rest of the night. She took off your makeup for you and even let you borrow the extra T-shirt she had brought in her backpack. You slipped into the bathroom to change into your makeshift pajamas. You stared back at your reflection in the mirror and couldn’t help but smile seeing yourself in nothing but Ellie’s baggy shirt. It was just like in your dreams; except now you were in her clothes for a different reason, not because you guys just finished having mind blowing sex. How unfortunate. You went back out into the living room and stood in front of Ellie.

“So uh, where should I sleep?” you asked with an awkward smile. Your shoulders shrunk in and you fidgeted with your charm bracelet as you waited for a response. The silence continued to drag out because Ellie was too busy imagining her own fantasies. Her heart fluttered as you stood there all coy in her shirt. She pictured you in the same exact outfit making pancakes for the both of you in the kitchen of your shared apartment. She imagined sneaking up behind you to feel your figure through the baggy clothes. She’d plant kisses all over your neck until you would finally turn around from your cooking to give her a real ki-

“Ellie..?”

Your words managed to drag her out of the fake scenario, “shit yeah um. This is a pull out couch so we can set you up there.” Ellie gestured to the couch in the middle of the room and then got up to pull it out. She fixed it up with sheets and a pillow provided by her generous bandmate who was in her bedroom just down the hall. You climbed into the covers and sat as you waited for Ellie to join you. Instead she set up on the floor next to you. 

Confused with her behavior you stated, “you can sleep up here with me. You know that right?”

“I guess I kinda thought you wouldn’t want me to.” Ellie confessed, tilting her head down in shame.

“Of course I want you to Els.” She missed hearing you call her that, how could she refuse? Ellie climbed right into bed and there was an immediate increase in tension. The thought of you right beside her with just a shirt and panties drove Ellie wild. She felt like such a piece of shit for even thinking like that, but part of her wondered if you also felt the rising tension. You both lay on your sides, backs facing each other, when you finally disturb the loud silence. 

“I missed you.”

“What do you mean? We live together.” Ellie wasn’t stupid though. 

“You know what I mean Els.” you answered, voice breaking slightly. Ellie felt so guilty knowing that a lot of this mess was her own fault. She then shifted to face your back and tugged your hips into the space between her thighs and torso. 

“I missed you too…” Ellie said against your neck, sending chills down your spine. Her arm reached past your waist and raised your T-shirt right below the start of your breasts. She took that same tattooed arm and wrapped it around your now bare tummy, pulling you in even closer. Her touch made you gasp.

Ellie was a pretty skinny girl but she was strong, you could see it in her arms, the way they flexed when she played guitar or lifted something. But, when you visualized her touch, you had never imagined it being this soft. You practically melted feeling her skin brush against yours. An ache was radiating between your legs as you clenched your thighs together in agony. You wanted her hands in places other than your plush stomach. Ellie did too, but you were coming down from being completely wasted, and she was still with Cat. It just wasn’t right.

The rest of the night you remained in the same position in fear of losing each other’s touch, but aware that nothing more would happen. Then, that morning, you woke to no touch. Ellie was already gone, and your heart broke all over again. Her guilt had taken over after Cat sent a string of texts expressing her insecurity in the relationship. She explained to Ellie that she didn’t feel loved or important because of her favoring towards you. And Cat was right, Ellie did favor you. She was trying so hard to be “good” and ignore her feelings, trying not to be a cheater, but she was hurting you (the one she truly loves) in the process. Why couldn’t she just let go of Cat? Would you ever experience a night like that with her again?

← masterlist ⭑ part 4 →

taglist ☆...

@gold-dustwomxn @robinismywifee @kitty356sworld

(P.S: for future reference, if you'd like to be tagged in the next part plz make sure you have your age visible somewhere on your profile. my blog and writing contains 18+ content and minors should not be anywhere near it. obviously there's only so much i can do but checking accounts who interact is the one thing in my control so yeah. much love-- lola ♡

[enkas-illusion]

Two Can Play a Game

Fandom / Pairing: Jujutsu Kaisen / Geto Suguru x f!reader

Rating: NSFW/Explicit - MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Content Warning: suggestive, Gojo being a menace, roommate shenanigans, wingman!Gojo, violent games, friendly banter, geto’s huge fingers…

Chapter Summary: You are stuck with your awful roommates on their Saturday games night. You were ready to be bored to death this weekend but what you were not expecting was being stranded on Geto’s lap by the end of the night.

Author's Notes: gamer!Suguru rotting my mind. Let me know if I should make a part 2! If you enjoy it, feel free to like, reblog or comment; I’d love to know your thoughts. Thank you for reading! 

-Nanami's Munchkin

Part 2

Being roommates with Satoru and Suguru was nothing short of an adventure. It always felt like you were taking care of two cats who actually did pay rent but were a pain in the ass to handle. 

The tamed one was Suguru, the black cat with black cat energy. Satoru, on the other hand, was worse than the orange cats, a menace, making your life miserable. However, you wouldn't have it any other way – a cat person always loves the little devils immensely, despite the hell they raise.

Saturday nights were game nights for the boys. Usually, Shoko, the fourth person in the house, your white dove of peace between the guys and you was out for the weekend. The dove in question, however, had betrayed you to flock in someone else’s nest so you were left alone with the men-children screaming over a stupid game.

It's true that you don't know what you've got till you don't have it anymore. You think back on all the times you open a bottle of wine, enjoy a smoke on the balcony, and share the gossip of the week with Shoko. 

You weighed your options – scrolling through reels while silently drinking your wine while pretending you don't exist would be a lot easier than spending the night witnessing your two roommates behave like toddlers. 

So you did just that, flopped down on the armchair scrolling through feed, sipping your wine quietly. You'd downed more than half the bottle before boredom hit, causing you to look up at the TV to see what Suguru and Satoru were up to. 

The amount of fun they were having playing a violent and gory game made you cringe. For them, this was no less wholesome than a fluffy princess ride at DisneyLand.

“Seriously guys, is this fun to you? You just go around killing people!” Ideally, it'd be better to let it slide without the unnecessary commentary, but this is far from ideal so you let the boredom and booze speak for you.

“Oh and Genshin is not violent at all!! Sweet little Hillichurls getting hit by a meteorite just for existing is fun, right?” Satoru mocks back in an instant without taking his eyes off the game.

“I don’t think you know Hillichurls to be calling them sweet and little,” you argue, offended that your favorite game was dragged into the conversation.

This time Suguru replies,”Maybe you are just salty because you don’t know how to use a console.”

Taking full offense, you challenge, “I would've learnt it ages ago if I wanted to…”

“What's stopping you? That way you can play your precious Genshin on the console as well. It will be fun. Then we can all have a game night.” Suguru's tone is condescending but you understand him well enough to know when to take the bait.

“Hard pass! No way I wanna play with you both. It would only make my hair whiter than this dumbass.” You say pointing at Satoru.

“Huh! The feeling's mutual darling. I’m not psyched about you ruining our sacred games night. Also, you might finally start to look a bit attractive with hair like mine.” 

Satoru’s comment ticks you off, you know better than to let it get to you but you're too far gone to think straight now. So you put down your wine glass as you stomp to where they're sitting, ripping out the console from Suguru, settling in the tiny space between the two manspreading, “You’re on, bitch!” 

“You really think you can beat me?” Satoru looks amused, Suguru has a similar look on his face.

“Just shut the fuck up and start.”

As the game starts, you realize how dumb this decision was – you'd walked right into the trap. Not only do you not know how to use the console, you don’t even know what this game was and what you needed to do.

“I’m going to find youuu~~” Satoru says in a creepy singsong voice that makes you shriek as you try to run in the game. 

Suguru just lies back on the sofa laughing at both your antics. No matter how much you tried to believe the cat analogy exclusively applied to the two, everyone knew you were one too.

“Found you!” Satoru squeals as you nevertheless try to hide and fail miserably. And before you know it, your screen turns red with the words DEFEATED on it.

You pout at Satoru and he says, “Aww, that was no fun. Let me heal you so we can go again.”

“Really! You can do that?” You ask, looking up to him with glittering eyes.

“Satoru!” you hear Suguru suddenly scold, causing you to stare at him with confusion. And before you can ask what was wrong, you hear a few more gunshots from the game. Satoru, being the absolute worst, continues to shoot your already dead character.

‘SatoruAlmighty_89 WINS’ the screen displays.

“Suguru! Satoru is so mean!” You look at Suguru with those puppy eyes that you know makes him melt. Your final trump card, given that he may or may not have called that look adorable in the past.

“‘Toru, your name doesn’t really look that well on top of the leaderboard… kind of used to seeing my own.” Suguru pokes at his best friend just to rile him up.

“Bitch please… Do you wanna go again?” Satoru takes the bait.

“Nope. Not me… her.” he says, tilting his head in your direction.

“Hmm?” you simply give him a confused look. But before you can decipher the meaning behind his words, he wraps his arm around your waist to pull you to him in one swift motion till you’re sitting on his lap. Your face turns hot as you quickly slide down to adjust between his parted thighs instead – trying to keep the atmosphere pg-13, what with Satoru in the room.

Suguru, on the other hand, couldn’t care less – he leans forward till his chest is flush against your back, resting his chin on your shoulder. His huge arms wrap around you, enveloping you into him as they hold the console in front of you. 

“Okay, let’s defeat him, shall we?” he whispers sweetly in your ear, “Let me take it from here.” you feel his hot breath behind your ear, making you blush harder than a rose.

Satoru gives you both a disgusted look, “Ugh… get a room!”

“Somebody’s bitchless.” you tease Satoru. It wasn’t hard to sense the sexual tension that had always lingered in the back ever since you had started living together with Suguru – sure, you had two other roommates but you never wanted to tear the others’ clothes off in a fervor. Shoko had once teased you that ‘if one could try cutting the sexual tension with a knife, the knife would grow blunt due to how thick it was.’ 

As you’re laughing at the now-pouting Satoru, you twist your neck to look back at Suguru, giving him a big grin that makes his heart do summersaults. 

Suguru’s fingers encompass your dainty ones as he guides them to the console. As the guys start playing the match, you move your fingers to the side of the device, letting Suguru take control as his fingers rapidly slam and rotate the buttons. You can’t look away from his hands even when the game begins. His fingers look so sexy moving around the console that you can’t help but imagine how they would feel on you.

“Pay attention to the game, sweetheart.” he whispers into your ear. His words catch you off-guard as your eyes shoot up to the screen, embarrassed that he’d caught you staring. His comment puts you into a deeper daze but you shake it off to focus on the screen, still you find your mind wandering, barely caring about the game. 

He’s so into the game that his chest often presses against you as he tries leaning forward when a battle gets too intense. At one such moment, before you can talk yourself out of it, you shift your hips back ever so slightly to press against his crotch. You swear you feel his otherwise restless movements still for a split-second but he doesn’t let his composure falter since he had a match to win.

Suguru actually manages to win as his name makes it back on top of the leaderboard. You cheer out loud and turn around to hug Suguru, but not before tilting your head to blow raspberries at Satoru.

“What are you… like five?” Satoru complains. You simply bring your hand up to do a blah-blah gesture, rolling your eyes at him dramatically.

“It’s not fair! It was two vs one.” Satoru pouts.

“Go cry about it somewhere else. A win is a win!” you tease him further. 

Satoru gets up from his place and walks off saying, “I anyway don’t play with cheaters.” 

If you weren’t reeling in the high from your win and laughing at Satoru’s antics, you would have noticed the wink he gave to Suguru before retiring to his room.

You’re still laughing as you watch him go back to his room and shut the door behind him with a ‘night, cheaters!’

When it gets quiet, you suddenly become super aware of the way you’re still perched comfortably in Suguru's lap. 

“You need to actually teach me how to use this thing.” You say as you try to break the impenetrable tension, fumbling with the console before tossing it on the sofa, beginning to get up.

Before you can move any further, you’re pulled right back into Sugurus lap as you let out a tiny squeal at the unexpected move. Your breath hitches in your throat when you feel his clearly evident boner, hard against you.

“Did you really think I'd let you off so easily after you pulled that little stunt during the game?”

[clangenrising]

Month 14 - Newleaf

Now that the nausea was behind her, Mystique was starting to enjoy pregnancy again. It wasn’t as nice as the first time, obviously, what with her being stranded in the wild territories away from her Folk, but there were perks. For one, she got her pick of the prey and plenty of it. Whenever Russetfrond would get after her for being “gluttonous”, she would remind him she was eating for three and that would shut down any kind of argument. She couldn’t tell for sure, but it seemed like he was putting in extra hunting trips just for her which was nice. 

As well, she had been able to use her growing stomach as an excuse to stop running combat drills with the Clan cats. Despite their attempts to keep it from her, she had inevitably learned about their plans to murder Razor and she wasn’t going to have any part in that. True, he wasn’t a good cat, she had come to accept that, but that didn’t mean they had to kill him. Still, Scorch in particular seemed insistent that it was the only option and she had a powerful hold over Goldenstar, or so it seemed. 

Mystique often turned her options over in her head while she sunbathed, trying to think of an alternative solution, one where no one else died and she got to go home as soon as possible. She always came up short. When it came down to it, she was just one cat. What could she do? So she tried not to think about it and focused on getting plenty of food and rest. 

Today, she was resting on top of the warriors’ den in a warm beam of sunlight, idly watching the goings on. Oddstripe and Aldertail were sharing tongues in the shade. Scorch finished talking with Goldenstar in hushed voices then joined Pantherhaze, Slatepaw, and Fogpaw as they headed out of camp. The little white tabby jumped in excitement, making Mystique laugh. It was strange to see a cat that looked so much like Ghost moving with that kind of energy instead of stomping around like an old curmudgeon. 

The new kitten, Lake, padded out of the nursery and stretched with a big yawn. Aldertail looked up and waved her over with a smile. 

Oddstripe grinned too and called, “Afternoon, Lake! How are you feeling?”

“Lots better!” Lake purred, padding over to them. “Those weird plants you gave me helped lots!” She was looking better too. Her ribs were slightly less visible under her fur, her coat glossier. Mystique had never seen a kitten look so poorly before. It was reassuring to see her improving so quickly. 

“Aren’t they something?” Aldertail chuckled. “Are you hungry?” 

“Oh, yeah,” nodded Lake. “Starving!” 

“I’ll grab you something,” said Aldertail, jumping to her paws. 

“Gee, thanks miss!” the kitten said as if it were a rare wonder. Oddstripe smiled and pulled the kitten close to give her a few licks around the ears. She giggled and sat up tall to let him. Aldertail quickly returned with a bird from the prey pile and the two adults sat back and watched as the kitten tucked into it voraciously. Mystique caught them glancing at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. It made her skin crawl, just a little, which she felt guilty for. 

She stood, hoping to get away for a bit and put them out of mind. She noticed Aldertail stiffening when she did, eyes darting over like Mystique was about to lunge for her, claws bared. She groaned under her breath and started out into the grass. 

“Uh, Mystique, hold up,” called Sparrowpaw who was on guard duty. “Where are you going?” She’d nearly forgotten he was there. 

“For a walk,” she shrugged, “I just want to be… away from here.” 

“Well, I’ll come with you,” he said. It was a statement of fact, not an offer. She sighed. He was like a smaller, more pleasant Russetfrond. 

“Fine, whatever,” she sighed. “I’m going to the river.” 

“Alright,” Sparrowpaw said. “That’s okay.” She lashed her tail. 

“I know,” she growled. “I wasn’t asking.” Back home, no one treated her this way. No one ever told her what she was and wasn’t allowed to do. Sure, Razor had jobs for her every now and then but those were things that needed to be done, not arbitrary restrictions on her free time. She was sick of it. 

Sparrowpaw blinked in surprise but said nothing - a victory for her. She made her way briskly towards the river, not worrying about her long strides out pacing her smaller companion. Her back was starting to ache and all she could think about was dunking herself in some cool, fresh water. 

When they reached the river, she slipped into the water without hesitation, sighing in relief at the sense of weightlessness. She rolled over to make sure all of her fur was doused thoroughly then threw her head back to get the water out of her eyes as she came up for air. She hummed pleasantly and looked over to see her chaperone hovering near the bank. 

“Come on in,” she said, jerking her head in invitation. “The water’s great.” 

“I’m alright,” said Sparrowpaw, settling down. “You really enjoy getting wet?”

“Yeah,” she rolled her eyes. “It’s literally the best. I don’t know why so many cats are scared of it.” 

“It’s not… scary,” he said, “just really unpleasant.” 

“Weirdo!” Mystique called, easing herself down into the shallows to let the water flow over her. 

“Maybe,” Sparrowpaw laughed awkwardly. They sat there in silence for a good, long while. Mystique closed her eyes and tilted her face to the sun and just let herself enjoy the moment. She tried not to think about home or her Folk or her brother. 

“Can I ask you a question?” said Sparrowpaw at one point. 

“Sure,” she shrugged. 

“Have you considered maybe staying after the kittens are born?” he asked. “Like, joining the Clan full time?”

“No,” Mystique said flatly. “No, I’m going back home the first chance I get.” 

“Why?” asked Sparrowpaw. 

“Uh, ‘cause it sucks out here?” she said. “You don’t know any better cause this is all you’ve ever seen, but being Exalted is a million times better than living out in the dirt and the heat. I get free food any time I want it. I have a soft bed and lots of great toys and it's always the perfect temperature inside. My Folk give me tons of attention and pets. Have you ever been pet before? It's the best.” She glanced over her shoulder at Sparrowpaw to find him looking unconvinced. 

“I haven’t,” he said. “But don’t you think you would enjoy the freedom of living out here? There's satisfaction in hunting for your food and supporting your Clan.” He seemed so earnest, it was almost sad.

“No thanks,” Mystique snorted. “Not interested.” 

He frowned. “I mean, if you stayed, maybe you and Russetfrond could stay together. I’m sure that you could make up if -”

“Look, kid,” she rolled over to look at him head on. “I don’t really care about trying to ‘make up’ with Bee Face Mc Pouterson.” Sparrowpaw’s ears pressed back against his head. “He was a bit of fun, nothing more than that. Honestly, he’s not even really my type, I was just bored.”

“O-oh,” Sparrowpaw swallowed. He looked pale. Mystique sighed. Maybe she had been too hard on the poor boy. Or maybe she’d traumatized him with her casual language. Clearly, these wild cats didn’t know how sex worked.

“What I mean to say is, it’s fine,” she said, swiping a wet paw over her face to cool it off. “I’ll have the kits and then go home. He’s happy, I’m happy, win-win.” 

“Right,” Sparrowpaw said. “I guess we’ll just have to hope things go well.” 

Mystique squinted. “You mean with the plan to kill my brother.” 

Sparrowpaw paled further. “Uh, yeah, I guess. I thought you didn’t know about that.” 

“I’m not dumb kid,” she said, “plus the camp is small. Sound travels.”

“Right…” He looked down at his paws, tail curling around them. “I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” 

“Why does it?” Mystique sat up a little taller. “Why can’t we just, like, talk to him?” 

“Because we tried that,” Sparrowpaw said, looking up at her. “He killed Smokyrose.” 

Mystique’s voice caught in her throat in a frustrated lump. “That was… That was an extreme circumstance,” she said. “It wouldn’t happen again.” 

“You have to know that’s not true, right?” Sparrowpaw said earnestly. “I mean, he’s your brother. How can you not see what he’s like?” 

“You don’t know him!” snapped Mystique, slapping one paw loudly against the surface of the water. Sparrowpaw flinched at the noise and she briefly felt guilty but she shoved the feeling down. “He’s my brother. He’s not a monster.” 

“Sorry,” Sparrowpaw swallowed. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” 

Mystique sighed, a deep frown creasing her face. He almost sounded like Aldertail. It made the Shadow Truth wriggle deep in her gut, worming its way closer to her conscious mind. She dunked her head under the water to try and get away from the feeling but even the cold shock didn’t help much. She sighed, stood, and shook out her pelt, spattering the sand with droplets. 

“I think I’m done,” she grumbled and headed back to camp to sulk.

[whumpshaped]

masterlist

tw vampire whumper, psychological whump, intimate whumper, forced comfort

"Whatever is the matter with you?"

Beck shrugged a little. He still barely even looked at Helle, let alone engaged in their banter. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

They gently took him by the chin, turning his head towards them so they'd be able to look him in the eye. They didn't seem concerned, just confused and annoyed. "Is it me? Am I the problem? Are my insults and mockery getting less... gutting?"

Beck thought he might be able to sense some semblance of care behind the joking tone, but he was too exhausted to pay too much attention. "No, that's definitely not it," he said honestly. "They're... they're definitely pretty gutting. I mean, if, if we're being honest here– they make me wanna cry half the time."

The vampire let go of him and leaned back, still fixing him with a suspicious look. "Okay. So... whatever is it, then? You barely react. Our of the two of us, you seem more dead."

"I'm tired, Helle," he admitted, and averted his eyes again. "I'm sorry. That's– I think that's just it. I'm so tired of being... afraid, and hurt, and angry. I just can't do it tonight. I bet that's very frustrating, since that seems like the only reason you even keep me around in this way instead of enthralling me and whisking me away to your mansion or whatever, but I just... I can't. I can't do it every night. I'm tired."

The silence that stretched between them wasn't a necessarily uncomfortable one. It was almost peaceful, contemplative. Beck used it to simply zone out and stare at the TV in front of him — despite the fact that it wasn't even turned on, and he was just looking at his reflection. Only his. And Helle? Helle used it to think about whatever the hell vampires thought about, when they weren't thinking about blood and torture. Maybe they were thinking about blood and torture. There was no way to know.

"I do keep you around for those tasty little emotions," they said eventually. "It is quite fun to see you react to whatever I am doing. But I think..." They grabbed him by the arm and pulled him closer, positioning him so that he was laid across the sofa with his head in their lap. "I do not have to pull from the negative ones all the time. Especially if they are a limited resource."

Beck would've lied if he said the situation didn't scare him. He felt numb, yes, but he wasn't dead. Or emotionless. His muscles still tensed up at having to navigate unfamiliar territory, and his breathing and pulse quickened. But he couldn't react in the way Helle wanted. He didn't have the energy to protest and beg.

They began gently petting his hair, like one might do with a cat. It felt... nice. It wasn't comforting, but it was objectively pleasant, and... Helle was right. It was different, and different made him feel.

"I could make the distinction differently," they murmured. "I could simply make your days bad and worse, have your brain switching between dread and more dread."

Oh, it was a foolish question, the one on the tip of his tongue; but it was a justified one. Should he risk it? Or should he keep quiet and enjoy the break?

He was never going to learn to keep his mouth shut.

"Why don't you?" he asked quietly.

The vampire scratched his scalp with sharp nails, and Beck once again felt like he was nothing but a pet. But it was so good. It felt so nice. He couldn't help but turn his head a little, lean into the touch, and even though he managed to stifle the pleased hum that threatened to breach his aura of indifference, the way he arched his back to be able to push against Helle's hand probably told them everything they wanted to know.

They smiled sweetly. "It is an odd thing, really. Sometimes I look at your adorable little face and I want nothing more than to ruin it with tears and bruises. And sometimes... sometimes I come here with that exact intent, and yet you manage to say or do something... and I just change my mind out of nowhere. Sometimes I want to see you like this."

"Like a dog."

"Like a happy dog. Relaxed, content, lazily wagging his little tail — wagging it specifically because I scratched him behind the ears." Beck felt his face heating up at the comparison, even though it was the same one he'd made a moment ago. It was different, coming from Helle. "But it does make me wonder... How would you react if I were to take it all away?"

Beck tensed again, waiting for them to do just that. For their fingers to tighten in his hair, for the claws to draw blood. For Helle's gentle expression to turn cold and cruel. He found himself desperately hoping it was merely a hypothetical.

"There it is," they whispered. "That fear. That uncertainty. That pleading look I treasure oh so much." They continued petting him, satisfied with how he was unable to relax at all now. "A little hope and kindness goes a long way, I suppose."

~

taglist: @whumpsday @the-scrapegoat @hidden-dreamland @dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night @delicateprincepaper @whumppmuhw @florissimps @nicolepascaline @oliversrarebooks @the-cyrulik @pirefyrelight @there-will-always-be-blood @pigeonwhumps @echo-goes-mmm @whumpycries @morning-star-whump

[dont-offend-the-bees]

No Rehearsing It, No Reversing It

Took a break from the big, soul-consuming, expansive multichapter fic to write... a big, soul-consuming, expansive one-shot. Look, I swear it was MEANT to be short and sweet, Charles just decided to have a self-confidence crisis all over it and then the bloody CAT KING showed up, it all went a bit mad.

Anyway, no major warnings at hand. Charles-typical self esteem issues and teen angst. There's jealousy aspects, but they don't really drive the story/get together, it's more of a side factor. This fic also flirts a little bit with Catwin and the romantic/flirtatious potential there, but it's Payneland endgame. No smut, some making out! Have fun!

9k words, also up on Ao3 (need to be signed in to read!)

~~

"Edwin?"

"Yes, Charles?"

Charles waited until Edwin looked up from his notebook. Once he had his attention, Charles directed it upward with a nod of his head and a flick of his eyes.

Edwin followed his gaze, with a little bewildered frown. "What is it?"

"Well." Charles shrugged. "Mistletoe, innit?"

Edwin's eyebrow twitched upwards. "... Yes. Well identified, Charles."

Charles chuckled, ducking his head. Wasn't always easy to tell when Edwin was genuinely lost and when he was just winding Charles up. He sidled up a little closer, nudging Edwin with his elbow. "C'mon. You know the tradition, yeah?"

Edwin looked up once more, eyes widening a bit as understanding dawned. "Oh," he said, lowering his notebook. "Yes, I do recall..." he cleared his throat, straightening his bow tie one-handed. "Is that still... observed? In this day and age?"

"I mean, it's pretty optional, but." He shrugged again. "It's nice?"

"I suppose as traditions go, it's rather..." Edwin mulled it over, with a thoughtful hum. "Quaint."

"So. You, um." Another shrug. Charles felt a bit like he couldn't keep his shoulders under control — like they were just gonna drop off and roll across the floor any minute. He tried to channel some of his nervous energy into tugging his earlobe instead. "You up for it, then?"

Edwin regarded him, like he does; all placid and cool and dead handsome with the light behind him like that. He looked good under fairy lights — who knew? They should crash office Christmas parties for cases more often. His smile, when it came, was small and a bit sly, and it made Charles feel all sort of gooey in the middle.

Then Edwin leaned in, and screw gooey, Charles felt like there were fireworks going off in his chest. He closed his eyes, tilted his head. His lips parted and —

And something quick, dry, and chaste brushed gently against his cheek like the tip of a bird's wing; there and gone in a flutter.

Charles blinked his eyes open, bleary, and found Edwin already back where he'd started. Spine straight, eyes ahead, jotting madly in his notebook.

"Thank you, Charles. A very pleasant distraction." He frowned as he consulted his page, eyes flicking between it and the room. "Although I have rather lost the thread of my observations... We might be stuck here a little while yet."

Charles had a tingling feeling on his cheek, a sense of mild disappointment in his gut, and no idea what to do with his hands or arms.

He settled on another shrug. Fourth time's the charm. "Got nowhere else to be, have we?"

~

The thing is, Charles had been doing some thinking. No, scratch that, Charles had been doing lots of thinking. More thinking than he'd ever done about just about anything else. Mulling over some thoughts, some feelings.

And the upshot was this. He was almost completely, nearly definitely, ninety nine percent certain that he was head over heels, arse over tit in love with Edwin Payne. And that was brills! Sound! Nothing wrong with that at all!

Thing is, he was having a bit of a problem with that pesky one percent.

With anyone else in the world, ninety nine percent? Good enough. More than good enough. He was pretty sure people out there had gotten married on sixty or less. Sometimes you just roll the dice, snog someone you think is a bit fit, and go from there. But Edwin wasn't just anyone, was he? Edwin was Edwin. 'Best mate' was too mild for what Edwin was; Edwin was his person. Most important person in his life and death combined. He couldn't just go for it, could he? Best case scenario: they snog, they get together, and it's all aces forever and ever.

Worst case scenario: it's Kelly Daniels all over again, only worse.

Kelly was a mate of his in primary school. Actually, she was his best mate. They did everything together. Played outside for hours, hiding from his shit dad and her drunk uncle. Stayed best mates well into secondary, even after Charles got sent off to that snobby boys' school and they could only meet up on the weekends. Had a load of firsts together — first cig, first beer, first piercing. First kiss.

Seemed like a good idea at the time. She was proper into him, and he thought he was into her, too. Why wouldn't he be? He loved her, and she was gorgeous, and there was no one else he'd rather spend his time with. Why wouldn't he be in love with her?

Except when they kissed, it felt... not like anything, really. And he'd tried again because maybe the first one was always a bit rubbish. Maybe they weren't doing it right. But still, nothing. No heart racing, no sparks, no butterflies. He didn't see what everyone had been going on about. He definitely didn't want to kiss her again. Snogging her felt like... like snogging his sister, or something. He couldn't find any romance in it.

But she could. And when he told her he didn't want to do it again she cried and ran home. Next weekend, she didn't meet him at their spot — and when he risked getting caught using the phone to call her, her uncle told him she didn't wanna talk to him.

And that was just sort of. It. His first friend, his best friend, gone in a blink. All because he didn't know what he wanted and he took a stupid chance anyway.

What happened with Kelly was sad; if the same thing happened with Edwin, it'd be devastating. Honestly, he might as well just move on to his afterlife at that point, because that was it. He wasn't doing this ghost bollocks without Edwin by his side, end of.

So obviously, that one percent was bloody haunting him. Because he'd been sure before, and it all blew up in his face. Where was the line between someone you wanted to be with forever, and someone you wanted to be with forever? He couldn't just go on looks, could he? Anyone with eyes could see Edwin was fit, but that didn’t necessarily translate to wanting to snog him, did it? And obviously, loving him as a person didn’t make it a given, either.

If he could love someone but not be in love with them, how was he supposed to know the difference without diving in headfirst? And how was he supposed to do that without trampling all over Edwin’s feelings if his hunch turned out to be wrong? He couldn't. He had to know, first. Edwin already knew his side, and he'd told him so. Now the ball was in Charles' court, and he wasn't kicking it back without a proper answer. But he didn't have one, and he didn't have any evidence to go on, either.

Not yet, anyway.

It was pretty obvious to Charles what he needed to make up that last percent.

He needed to kiss Edwin. A proper kiss, on the lips. Just to see how it felt. See if he really liked him how he thought he did. Easy enough, yeah?

Well, not really. He had to make it happen, somehow. It's not like he could just ask Edwin to kiss him. He didn't wanna get his hopes up, did he? Didn't wanna lead him on and disappoint him. What if Charles didn't feel that way, and he fucked up the best thing he ever had because he didn't know what he wanted — as bloody usual?

Luckily, Charles was a Dead Boy Detective. Gathering evidence was his bread and butter! He'd been honing his investigative skills for a puzzle just like this. It was like coaxing the facts out of a stubborn witness; a little cunning, a side of charm, finesse it a bit, and they'd spill their guts.

He had a new case, a secret case: find a sneaky, innocuous, totally above-board reason for Edwin to snog him. Then he'd know, for sure. Confirm the hunch, crack the case — find out if he was as gone for Edwin as he thought.

Edwin was dead smart, was the only thing. Smart, and still pretty stuffy — even if he'd loosened up some since Port Townsend. He wasn't just gonna kiss Charles over any little thing. And if Charles slipped up, made it obvious, Edwin would be onto him in a second.

One thing was for sure: whatever Charles did, it needed to be subtle.

~

"Mate," said Charles, swanning in the door with a grin from ear to ear. "You are gonna wanna snog me silly when I tell you what I just found."

Absolutely smashed it.

Edwin raised an unimpressed eyebrow from behind the desk. "A bold statement," he said, setting his book aside and crossing his legs. "I'll be the judge of that."

Charles might've tripped over his own feet, like, a little bit. Bloody hell. Edwin needed to stop being so fit or Charles was gonna forget the plan and lay one on him right here, right now. "What? You think I'm exaggerating?" he said, finding his feet and bounding on over.

"You do have form," said Edwin. He steepled his fingers neatly on the desk, wry smile on his lips. "Your enthusiasm has been known to get the better of you."

"Oh, ye of little faith," Charles teased, affecting the mock posh lilt that Edwin always rolled his eyes at. He hopped up on the desk and brought his knee up on it, so's to angle himself towards Edwin. "Trust me, you'll love it. C'mon, eyes shut, hands out!"

Edwin looked unconvinced, but his smile didn't budge. He did as he was told, eyes closed, hands open. And alright, maybe Charles took a moment to just sort of look at his face in the sunlight for a moment. Sue him.

Carefully, Charles reached into his bag and pulled out the box. It was a battered old thing, but considering where it'd been, it was in bang-up shape. He placed it in Edwin's hands, with ceremony. "Alright, open up!"

Edwin opened his eyes and looked at the box in mild bemusement. "How... beautifully wrapped," he quipped.

Charles snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Go on, have a look inside."

Edwin set the box down on the desk and deftly untied the fraying string. He lifted the lid to reveal a bundle of papers — old, yellowed, a bit curly at the edges, but pretty in good nick all things considered! Most importantly, the writing was legible. Rows of neat typeface, with pen scribbles and corrections here and there. Charles wasn't really looking at them, though — he was watching Edwin's face as he mouthed the title. His eyes widened and his lips froze when he reached the author's name.

"I haven't read this one," he said, incredulous. "I've read all of Futrelle's works — how did this one pass me by?"

"Passed everyone by," said Charles, with a casual shrug and a barely repressed smirk. "Went down with him on the Titanic."

Edwin goggled at him. "Explain."

"Well, it's a funny story," said Charles breezily, crossing his arms. Edwin's undivided attention on him was a hell of a feeling. He was preening, and he didn't even care. "Went on a walk, got chatting with a ghost on the docks. She was in a bit of a jam, see, needed some family heirloom to move on. Only problem is, the thing went down on the ship, didn't it? With some great uncle who died there, same as old Jacques.

"So, I put her onto that nice bloke we met a few years ago — case of the drowned diver, remember? Still hasn't moved on, believe it or not — I think he's chuffed about having all eternity to explore the sea. Asked him if he'd do us a favour. So he found the boat, dredged up the safe her family and a few other rich folks used. She dug out her trinket, lobbed the rest at me to say thanks. Gave most of it to Dave, obviously, I mean he did the hard work. But when I saw this..."

He tapped the side of the box with a satisfied grin. "Well. No way I wasn't bringing Jacques Futrelle's last stories back home for us, was I?"

Edwin, for once in his life, seemed to be completely and utterly at a loss for words.

Charles bit his lip. Played it cool. "So," he teased. "Have I earned that snog, or what?"

"Charles," said Edwin — with one of his rare, big, fucking beautiful smiles, the one that showed his teeth. "You have earned a knighthood."

He stood up from his chair, quick as a flash, and planted a firm kiss on Charles' cheek.

Charles only just resisted the urge to cry out a little to the left, you bastard!

"I must read these immediately," Edwin gushed, lifting the stack of paper from the box with reverence. "Or I suppose, rightfully, you should read them first... no, nonsense, we'll read them together. Hm, we'll have to find a way to conserve these pages. Perhaps there's an enchantment in one of my spellbooks... for now, we'll just have to take precautions. Well, no time like the present; we have just closed that case with the haunted ice cream parlour. I'd say we've earned the afternoon off!"

He patted Charles' arm with childlike enthusiasm. "Settle in, Charles — I'm simply dying to know what sort of scrape the Thinking Machine is going to puzzle his way out of, this time..."

Charles laughed; mostly at himself for thinking this would play out any other way. Still, wasn't a total dead loss, was it?

He flopped down over the desk, folding his hands behind his head. Closed his eyes as Edwin's crisp, clear reading voice filled the room with words the world might never have heard.

No kiss, then. But not a half bad substitute.

~

So, mistletoe was a bust, and so were long lost books by dead mystery writers. He'd sort of expected the first one not to work, but the second one? That was a tough gesture to top, really, wasn't it?

Since impossible manuscripts didn't grow on trees, he was back to taking smaller swings for the time being. Luckily, with Christmas behind them, that meant another handy holiday tradition round the corner. Maybe if he played his cards right, he'd get lucky this time.

"Oh, honestly," said Edwin, in a bitchy tone. "What is this fixation the culture has with socially mandated kissing in the depths of winter?"

Off to a great start.

"Just nice, really, innit?" Charles laughed, leaning back against the low brick wall. They'd tagged along with Niko and Crystal to their college campus for the new year celebrations. He thought they'd spend the night getting just walked through by oblivious gangs of tipsy undergrads. But actually, there was a pretty decent mix of living and dead at this thing. Edwin had spent most of the night chatting away with some dowdy old English professor haunting the duck pond. But the clock was ticking down, so Charles had grabbed Edwin's hand and hauled him back to the quad for the fireworks. He wasn't about to lose a prime kissing opportunity to some — no offence — stuffy old bloke and his poetry readings. "Not exactly new, is it? People have been snogging to celebrate stuff since the dawn of time, haven't they?"

Edwin sighed. "Well. Yes, technically, I suppose the tradition has roots as far back as ancient Rome, at the very least. Arguably, the same could be said for mistletoe." He scowled. "Saturnalia has much to answer for."

"Those bloody Romans, at it again." Charles scuffed his heel against the wall. Edwin was a little riled up — must be the noise, the people. Charles was gonna have to be delicate. "Still. Nice to be included, yeah? Sort of the point of traditions, innit? Feel like a part of something. Part of the human race."

Edwin looked at him, and the hard furrow of his brows softened. "Yes," he said, quietly. "I suppose there is that..."

He had that look in his eyes. The one he got sometimes when Charles had made him sad, but he was too polite and uncomfortable to say anything. It wasn't pity, exactly, but. It wasn't miles off.

Charles fucking hated that look. Made him want to smile harder and laugh louder, and point out something interesting that would get Edwin's attention off him. Get him smiling again.

Then again... maybe he'd been going about this all wrong. With the smiling and laughing and teasing. Edwin wasn't gonna snog him for a laugh, but... would he do it out of pity?

Charles looked from Edwin's eyes, to his lips, then back again. Opened his mouth to pop the question:

"Edwin!" came an eager voice from off-side.

Fucking brills.

They both turned towards the voice. Niko was trotting towards them, bobbing through the crowd like a fluorescent pink balloon. She had booze-warmed cheeks to match, and all. Her hand was laced through Crystal's, who was trailing in her wake with a wry smile and a plastic cup.

"Niko," Edwin greeted, smile blooming. The Niko Face, Charles called it. Sort of the way you'd look at an adorable hamster; if the hamster was also a genius who could give you a run for your money in a game of chess. "Are you enjoying the festivities?"

"Edwin, it's almost midnight!" she said, bouncing on her heels. "You know what that means?"

"Yes, Charles has been enlightening me on the traditions," he said.

Her mouth popped open in a little 'o', then widened into a knowing smile. "Ohhhh — were you guys gonna kiss?"

Fuck.

"Um," Charles fumbled.

"Just making conversation," said Edwin, easily, with a pat to Charles' shoulder.

"Oh. Okay — wait, that's awesome, actually. Edwin, I kinda wanted to ask you something..."

He cocked his head. "Oh?"

Charles' heart sank.

"Well I was thinking; do you remember when we talked about the starfish? Before the washer woman showed up and made everything weird and ominous?"

Edwin chuckled. "I do recall, yes."

She smiled, cheeks dimpling. She looked a little wobbly, like she'd been on the alcopops, but her eyes were bright and smart as ever. "You were so nice, when I told you I'd never been kissed. And I still haven't! And I know you have been, now, with Monty —"

Charles started, staring wide-eyed at Edwin. That was new information.

"But it's gonna be midnight soon," Niko carried right on, oblivious. "And you're my friend, and I like you, and I thought: wouldn't it be cool if Edwin was my first kiss?"

Fuck.

"So," she clapped her hands together, touching her fingers to her smiling lips. "D'you wanna kiss? As friends? I wanna, if you wanna!"

"Well. It is a tad unorthodox," said Edwin. But he was smiling, soft and gently blindsided, and Charles didn't stand a chance. "But I would be honoured."

Bloody typical.

Niko clapped her hands together with glee. It was adorable, unfortunately. No amount of being ticked off at her for swooping in and pinching his kiss made it less so.

"Thought you weren't a fan of the kissing traditions," Charles mumbled.

Over Niko's shoulder, Crystal narrowed her eyes and gave him a look.

"I daresay there's room for exceptions," said Edwin. By this point his hands were in Niko's, being pushed back and forth in a little dance. "How does this work, exactly? Are we supposed to share this kiss during the countdown?"

"After — I'll give you the signal," said Niko, conspiratorially.

Charles left them to it. Not much else to say, was there?

~

"You're still doing your stupid plan, aren't you?"

Charles glowered at her platform boots. He knew he'd regret letting Crystal in on it. "It's not stupid."

"Fine, then. Crazy plan. You're a crazy person."

"Oi, you lot are always telling me I should think things through more. Look before I leap?"

"This is overthinking, Charles." She sighed, throwing her hands up. "Whatever. I'm not gonna change your mind, so. Why bother, right?"

She sat on the bench next to him, staring out across the empty duck pond side by side. Stuffy professor bloke must've gone to join the party for the countdown — Charles wondered who he'd be snogging.

Crystal leaned in, and bumped his shoulder. "Are you really gonna sit here and mope while all your friends are back there having fun? Are you that pissed at Niko?"

Guilt knocked Charles like a cricket bat to the knees. "No. No, 'course not." And that's the thing, wasn't it? Obviously he wasn't pissed at Niko, not really. Who could be pissed at someone for wanting Edwin to be their first kiss? If he could replace his own stupid, friendship-destroying first kiss with Edwin, he'd do it in a heartbeat. He sighed, and rolled his shoulders. "It's sweet really, innit?"

She pulled her feet up onto the bench, hugging her knees. She was wearing loads of pretty rings tonight, suns and moons and staring eyes. They shimmered in the light from the quad like ripples on the pond. "I did try and talk her out of it," she said. "For you. But she's a little hammered, and she got like, super invested in the idea. I kinda didn't have the heart to push it."

"Cheers." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Nah, it's alright. It's good." He smiled at her. It probably wasn't convincing, but that was alright. There was never any need to put on airs for Crystal's sake. "She deserves it."

She let her head roll back a bit, giving him a weary look. "You do, too, you know."

He looked at his feet.

Sighing, Crystal put her feet on the ground and took his hand. "C'mon. Countdown's about to start — and the cutest girl at this party is about to make out with your boyfriend, so. I'm gonna need a kissing partner."

He laughed, and let her pull him to his feet.

~

Crystal, he knew from experience, was a good kisser. 'Least he assumed she was. He still couldn't exactly feel it, but he knew good technique when he saw it.

So when the countdown hit zero and the campus erupted into drunken hollers of 'happy new year!', Charles laughed and wrapped his arms around her. They fell into the kind of easy, fun friend-snog that he was a bloody lucky chap to have. Giggling against each other's lips, her hands playing with his hair. All in all, not a bad way to ring in the new year.

Still, he may have taken a peek over her shoulder, as the crowd started to break into a spirited chorus of Auld Lang Syne. May have let his eyes linger on the sweet way Edwin held Niko's hands between their chests. The way his eyes closed and his smile softened as he leaned down to press the most polite, perfect, gentlemanly little lingering smooch on her lips.

If he lost track of the kiss with Crystal, of where their hands were, of when she pulled away. If he spent the rest of the night not saying much, not looking anyone in the eye. If, when he helped Edwin herd their tipsy human friends safely back to their dorm, his eyes kept wandering to the little shine on Edwin's lips, where Niko's strawberry gloss had transferred...

Well. Not anyone's business, really, was it?

~

So, bit of a setback, then. But Charles wasn't giving up that easy. He'd been to actual hell and back for Edwin — he could handle a few scuppered gambits!

Still, two tries at the 'tradition' angle was already pushing his luck — Charles didn't think he'd get away with a third crack at it. Besides, the next snogging holiday on the calendar was Valentine's. If he had to wait 'til fucking February to snog Edwin he was gonna lose it. Two more months just existing around Edwin at his most kissable, not kissing him? Evil. Torture. Fucking agony.

Niko might've nicked his kiss, but the whole college party thing did give him a new idea. And when they shut down the agency after a stressful case for a well-deserved night of games and good company, he spotted the perfect opportunity.

"Spin the bottle?" said Crystal, withering. "Seriously?"

Obviously, she knew exactly what his game was. But he gave her a grin anyway, silently pleading go along with it, please, I'm begging. "I've never played it. And you girls aren't half making me feel like I've missed out on some cracking uni times. C'mon, it'll be fun — we're all mates, in't we?"

"Well, I'm out," said Jenny, unfolding herself from the couch and grabbing her leather jacket. "Thanks for the eight million rounds of Clue, I guess, but I am not sitting here making out with a bunch of kids."

"Technically, Edwin's over a hundred," Charles joked.

He saw Edwin smirk over his hand of cards. "Yes, I'm remarkably well preserved."

Charles grinned, bumping their shoulders. "And I'm fifty... three? I think?"

"Fifty four," Edwin corrected.

"And we're nineteen," added Crystal.

Jenny narrowed her eyes, casting suspicious glances between Niko and Crystal. "Weren't you sixteen, like, five minutes ago?"

"You mean when we met?" asked Crystal, tone flat. "In Port Townsend?"

"Two and half years ago?" Crystal added sweetly.

Jenny closed her eyes, exhaling through her nose. "Right. Now I'm leaving because I'm thinking about the passage of time, and I hate it." She shrugged on her jacket. "Have fun, kids. Don't catch any ghost STDs, or whatever."

A knock on the door interrupted their various squawking complaints. Edwin frowned. "Charles, you did put the sign on the front door?"

"Yeah, 'course I did," said Charles, with a roll of his eyes. "Some ghosts can't take a hint. I'll tell 'em to come back tomorrow."

He hopped up and followed Jenny to the door, spying a nondescript human-ish shape through the frosted glass. Jenny opened it, exchanged a cool nod with whoever it was, and went on her way. As she stepped out of his line of sight, Charles got a good look at their visitor.

"Oh. It's you," he said, crossing his arms and leaning on the doorframe with a scowl. "Thought I nailed down that cat flap."

The Cat King gave him a smug, punchable smirk. He was wearing his stupid skin-tight black leathers, hair all dark and slicked. Wearing sunglasses at night like a tosser. In his hand was a bottle of wine. "Cute. Heard there was a party."

"Oh!" Niko popped up at Charles' shoulder, and bobbed in a little almost-bow. "Hello, your highness!"

He returned it with a gracious nod and an actual, non-ironic smile. Charles didn't know his face was capable of those. "Niko."

"Niko, you invite this prick?" Charles muttered — not actually quiet enough for Whiskers not to overhear, but he wasn't trying that hard.

"I did," said Edwin, appearing at Charles' other shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at the Cat King. "Or at least I made contact, fairly recently. I don't recall disclosing any information about a party..."

"I read between the lines." The smarmy bugger leaned on the doorframe, ignoring Charles' defensive stance. Shoulder brushing up against Charles', he took off his shades, yellow eyes gobbling Edwin up like a meal. "Edwin," he said, drawing out the name like he liked the taste of it.

"Thomas," Edwin returned — and his lips twitched up at the corners. "I suppose you had better come in."

"Oh, well, if you insist," he grinned, shoving the bottle into Charles' hands as he brushed past him. "I just love games. What are we playing?"

"Charles was suggesting a game called spin the bottle. Are you familiar?"

Thomas spun on his heel, and arched both eyebrows at Charles. "Oh, I'm very familiar," he purred.

Christ, could this get any worse...?

~

"Thomas," said Edwin, sternly. Dead calm, considering the bottle neck was aimed at him like the barrel of a gun. "We did say no magic."

"And I am a cat of my word," Thomas swore, crossing his heart lazily. "Must be written in the stars, handsome."

Edwin's eyebrow twitched.

Thomas chuckled. "Or I'm good at spinning bottles. Nothing in the rules against that!"

Edwin hummed. "Seven in a row is impressive."

Charles glowered at the stupid bottle. "I still think he's cheating," he grumbled.

Thomas flashed eyes at him, but didn't pick Charles up on it. Why would he? He had better things to do. "Honey," he purred, slinking on his hands and knees across the circle. "I can keep this up all night..."

"Is that a threat?" said Edwin, dry as a bone — but there was a twinkle of humour in his eyes. They drifted shut, easy as you like, when Thomas tucked a finger under his chin and pressed their mouths together.

Charles squirmed in place, frustration bubbling. He didn't want to look. He didn't wanna see Edwin, with that same gentlemanly poise he'd had while kissing Niko, graciously submitting to that moggy's cheesy moves. He definitely didn't wanna see Edwin's composure crack and his breath hitch when Thomas scraped a sharp fang against his lower lip. Didn't wanna see his hands come up from their neat fold in his lap to cup, tentative, around Thomas' elbows. He didn't want to look, just like he hadn't wanted to look the first six bloody times it had happened.

But it's not like he could look away, either, could he?

Charles grabbed the bottle, snatching it from under the Cat King's boot. This might be the first time in thirty-something years he'd actually regretted sitting next to Edwin for something. Front row seats to seven kisses with this bastard wasn't exactly what he was hoping for out of this. The ones with Niko and Crystal were bad enough. "Alright, alright, don't milk it," he muttered. "My go, is it?"

Thomas broke the kiss — the sound of it grated on Charles' ears like nails on a chalkboard. "Go for it," he said, tossing Edwin a wink as he skulked back to his side of the circle. "See you in the next round."

Edwin cleared his throat, adjusting his collar.

"Charles, how long are we gonna keep doing this?" asked Crystal. Her feet were in Niko's lap and she was down to her last dregs of cider. "We've been round seven times, and there's five of us. We haven't got, like, a whole lot of combinations to work with, here."

His jaw ticked. "Yeah, but. Got a few more yet, haven't we?"

Seven spins, and Charles had managed to snog Crystal twice and Niko three times. He'd landed the bottle on himself twice. Seven spins of this stupid bottle, and Charles hadn't managed to land it on Edwin once.

Crystal groaned, flopping back on the floor with her arms over her face. "Fucking guys," she muttered.

Niko, who had one hand on Crystal's ankle and the other in a bag of crisps, shrugged. "I'm cool with it."

Charles ignored them both. He sized up his spin, took a steadying breath, and let it loose. The bottle whirled round and round, the low office light flashing off it. Rippling in slower and slower rotations 'til it landed, pointed squarely at...

The Cat King grinned, slow and insufferable. "If you wanna take the forfeit on this one, kiddo, I won't be offended." He shrugged. "I'll question your taste, but I won't be offended."

Edwin bit his lip, probably to hold back laughter, and looked away from them both.

Charles scowled. "Sod this," he said, chucking the bottle at the growing pile for recycling. "Let's play Monopoly."

~

There was a bright side, to having to spend the rest of the night with Thomas hanging off Edwin's arm like a trophy wife. And that bright side was watching him lose at Monopoly, badly. The game ended sometime after one in the morning, when Thomas swatted the pieces off the board for the third time and no one could be bothered to reset. Charles had been losing just as bad, half his cash sunk into Niko's indomitable real estate empire, but at least he wasn't getting stroppy about it.

After that, seemed everyone agreed it was the right time to call it quits. Crystal and Niko bundled up in their winter coats, hugged their goodbyes, and got going. Charles would've walked them back to their digs, but they could look after one another alright. He was more concerned about leaving Edwin and that bloody cat alone together. He didn't like the way they were hovering in the doorway, like they were saying goodbye at the end of a date.

"You've come a long way," said Edwin. "I take it you've methods of getting back to Port Townsend tonight?"

Thomas opened his mouth, a glint in his eye. Charles smacked it down with a glare over Edwin's shoulder. Didn't want him getting any ideas about trotting out some excuse to stay the night. Thomas clocked it, and gave a dramatic sigh.

"Pfft. What's a thousand miles to a cat king?" he said, with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Just a hop through the nearest shadow." His hand alighted on Edwin's arm, tracing down to his wrist with a thumb-claw. "But I love that you're worried about me. Really. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

"I'll walk you to the door," Charles blurted, before Edwin could get a word in edgeways. Which only resulted in both of them giving him looks like they knew he was full of shit.

"How chivalrous of you," Thomas drawled.

"Indeed," said Edwin, eyeing Charles up and down. Made him squirm a bit, feeling all hot and exposed under the scrutiny. He was almost grateful when Edwin turned his attention to the Cat King again. "Until next time, then."

"Promises, promises," Thomas purred.

His cocky demeanour evaporated when Edwin leaned in to brush a chaste, fleeting kiss against his cheek.

Charles chewed his lip, and looked at his feet.

"Safe travels," said Edwin, in a softer tone.

He gave a small smile, and turned on his heel to march primly back into the office. And Thomas stared after him with scarred lips softly parted, pupils blown big as planets.

Charles, with an awkward cough, stepped into the hall and shut the office door behind him. "Right," he said. "Off you go, then."

Thomas turned his eyes on him — his pupils sharpened back to points, his lip curled into a scowl. "You're a real little brat, you know that?"

Charles crossed his arms. "Just looking out for my mate. He doesn't need some mangy old stray sniffing round him all hours."

The Cat King gave him a nasty little smile, flashing his teeth. "I didn't see him complaining."

Bristling, Charles planted his feet, squared his shoulders. "You fuckin' starting, or what?"

The bastard just laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Relax, jeez. I'm not picking a fight with some pup on this... dingy little building. I'm leaving."

He turned and walked off down the hall — but he spun back round after a couple of steps. "But, um. If I can give you just one teeny tiny piece of advice?" He didn't give Charles the chance to say no. "He's not gonna wait around forever."

Hit him right between the eyes with that one. Charles flinched. "Dunno what you're —"

"Oh, puh-lease," he groaned, sliding his sunglasses out of his pocket. "You're playing a little game of your own, aren't you? And losing, by the looks of it. Honestly, it's — it's painful to watch. Well, whatever he loves me, he loves me not bullshit you're doing right now, please, enough. Quit sitting around, pulling the petals off fucking daisies, and do something about it. For all our sakes." He opened the folded shades with a flick of his wrist. "Especially his."

He put them on, turned round, and continued his swaggering walk-off. Charles, caught completely on the back foot, scrambled to recover.

"Yeah, that's right, walk away," he hollered. "And keep your bloody paws off him!"

"Oh, don't even worry about it," he drawled. He turned round one last time to lower his shades and rake judgy eyes up and down Charles' frame. "Clearly, he's more of a dog person."

He sighed, stepping backwards into the shadows at the end of the hall. He nudged the shades back up his nose, and the bright candles of his eyes went dark, too. "No accounting for taste."

He melted into the black; the last thing to disappear was the white slash of his sneer.

~

Edwin's eyes were on him the second he stepped back into the office.

"Charles," he said, levelly, setting aside his pen and notebook on the desk. "Please do tell me you didn't attempt to chase a powerful magical being out of our building with a cricket bat."

That surprised a laugh out of him, at least. "No. But would've been good, that." He slumped onto the desk at Edwin's side. "Why are you talking to that wanker again? You do remember the bit about him putting a bloody leash on you?"

"Granted, we... got off on the wrong foot." Edwin leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. "But we reached an understanding. Besides, when he's not holding his magic over one's head, he's rather..." he cleared his throat. "Entertaining."

Charles thought of that bloody moggy's wandering hands, his lips. Edwin receiving each and every kiss, oh so politely — 'til the cracks started to show. Thought of him breathless, and soft, and melting under that bastard's touch.

"Right. Entertaining." Charles sprang to his feet. "Think I'm gonna have a walk."

He didn't bother with the door again, stepping right through the window. What was wood, glass, and a three storey drop to a ghost, anyway?

~

Soon as he'd done it, he felt daft. Jumping out the window, sulking around the city in the middle of the night. All because of something a bloody cat said to him. Wasn't his proudest moment. Thing is, the cat may be a dick, but... he wasn't wrong, was he?

Why would Edwin wait forever?

He hadn't thought about it. Because they'd already been together forever, basically. And when Edwin told him he loved him, Charles said they had forever to figure out the rest and he'd bloody meant it. And yeah, alright, that was two years ago, but what was two years to them? They'd still been happy, hadn't they? Same old agency, same old friends. He thought they'd been even better, actually. Closer. Like they were all out of secrets.

But maybe that wasn't true. Edwin never told him 'bout kissing Monty, did he? Didn't tell him he was talking to the Cat King again.

And just 'cause Edwin loved him, didn't mean he had to wait for him to catch up, did it? He was growing up, growing into himself, figuring out what he wanted. Maybe he wanted to go out, meet people, snog people. Maybe he already was, and Charles was too busy sorting out his own jumbled feelings to have noticed. And y'know what, good for him. Good. For. Him.

Took Edwin a while to figure out what he wanted, sometimes. Didn't stop to think about his feelings enough, really, too buried in his books and stubbornness. But when he figured it out, he went for it. Come literal hell or high water, he went for it. Bloody fearless, he was.

Maybe if Charles was half as brave as Edwin Payne, they'd be sorted.

~

"So," said Crystal. "How's the plan going?"

Charles flopped face down on her sofa. "Shit."

"What batshit gimmick did you try this time?"

"Nasty poltergeist threw him 'cross the room. Knocked him out a bit for a minute, he was all like, dazed and that..."

"... And?"

"I... sort of... asked him if he needed mouth to mouth?"

"Charles. You're fucking killing me."

~

Alright, so. Maybe he was getting a bit desperate.

He'd trotted out every excuse in the book — as well as, let's face it, quite a few that weren't in the book for bloody good reason. He'd flirted, he'd teased and prodded. He'd made an idiot of himself explaining why going undercover as a couple was the best way to solve a case. He had looked Edwin dead in his gorgeous eyes when he asked what exactly constituted French kissing, and asked: "want me to show you, mate?"

Oh god, Crystal was right. This plan was bloody stupid. It wasn't even a plan anymore, it was a mad scramble of half-baked come-ons. And it was the best he could do because with every day that passed without kissing Edwin, the need to kiss him just grew. 'Til it was all he could think about, pushing every other thought out of his brain. There was no room for planning and scheming in his head when it was all what if I just gave him a peck, before he left? What if I pushed him against the wall a little? What if I just bloody went for it?

What if he kissed me back?

Even now, Edwin was clouding his thoughts, and he wasn't even doing anything. He was in his usual spot, at the desk, immersed in his work with a little satisfied smile on his lips. Voice light and soft as he muttered protective incantations over the pages of those salvaged short stories. The way his cadence lilted and his hands nimbly sketched out the gestures of the enchantment... Christ, Charles was going out of his mind.

He was out of ideas. He was out of plan, out of investigative tools. What the hell did that leave him with — except for the one thing he swore he'd never, never do?

"Can I kiss you?"

It was like magic, the way Edwin froze completely, head to toe. Nothing moved except his eyes, which shot to Charles and blinked, rapidly. "I... excuse me?"

Fuck. Fuck. "Sorry," Charles blurted, springing up from the couch. God, he'd blown it. He'd buggered it up. He rubbed the back of his head and didn't look Edwin in the eye. "Sorry, I didn't —"

"Charles."

He risked a glance. Edwin , papers forgotten, had both his hands braced on the desk and was staring at Charles like he was a puzzle to solve.

""Charles," he said again, calmly. Gently. "What did you just ask me?"

And just like that, it all spilled out.

"I just — I've been thinking about it, yeah? And, well, what you said to me, in hell? Well I think I might be... that, too. For you. But I don't know, and I don't wanna muck everything up, so I thought maybe if I just... kissed you, it would. I'd know, yeah? I'd know for sure and then I could give you a proper answer, right? So that's what I've been trying to do."

God, he was babbling. Fucking embarrassing. But he hated keeping secrets from Edwin and god, he was the only person Charles had wanted to talk about any of this shit with. He'd been dying to talk to him about it. Even as he felt himself digging deeper into a hole with every word, the relief of finally saying it was immense.

"I just... I wanted to give you the right answer, yeah? No fuck-ups. But now I'm going a bit mental, see, because it's been months and... and all I can think about is kissing you." He laughed at himself. "Is that mad?"

Fuck, it was quiet. He could hear the pigeons on the roof, and the faint tap-tapping of the Night Nurse on her typewriter a few doors down. Edwin didn't say anything a moment, still as a statue, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. Charles was half tempted to walk right through the window again and try and pretend this never happened later.

"...Charles," said Edwin, finally — as he carefully stood up and rounded the desk. "...If I may clarify. Would I be correct in understanding that this has been on your mind for... months, you say?"

Charles fidgeted in place. "Um. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it didn't become like, a plan 'til, um, 'round Christmas, I reckon? But I was thinking about it before that."

"So you've been thinking about... kissing me," said Edwin, drawing slowly closer. "Since last year."

"Yeah. At least, yeah."

Edwin came to a stop right in front of Charles, practically toe to toe, and gave him perhaps the most incredulous look he'd ever worn. "And you have not done so yet because...?"

I have no bloody clue, was Charles' first thought. Standing this close to Edwin's handsome face, it seemed fucking ridiculous.

But he swallowed tightly, same old doubt churning in his guts. "Because... 'cause if you don't like it, or — or if I don't like it, then..." His eyes flickered to Edwin's lips. "I... I don't wanna be the reason you never speak to me aga—"

And that was about as far as he got — because Edwin was kissing him.

Charles' breath caught, his hands flew up — fingers wrapping round Edwin's biceps and hanging on. It was, like... a shy kiss. Edwin's mouth barely opened, and he pressed politely into Charles' lips like he was rubberstamping an envelope. But it didn't matter. Charles still felt like he'd been knocked off his feet. Felt like his blood, or whatever the ghosty equivalent was, was all rushing to his head, his heart, his stomach. Felt like his knees didn't wanna hold him up.

When Edwin pulled away, too soon, you could've knocked Charles over with a feather.

"There," said Edwin, a little breathless. "I started it." He cleared his throat, straightened his waistcoat. "So if it wasn't... satisfactory, then. Well. You're not to blame. And we'll say no more of it. Agreeable terms?"

Charles gaped at him, slack jawed, starry eyed. Edwin, the madman, held his stare. He was panting softly, his pupils blown wide, and he looked nervous but he didn't back down. Steady, determined and... fucking beautiful.

Fearless. Bloody fearless.

Charles took Edwin's face in his hand, stroking his jaw. "You absolute nutter," he breathed, and pulled him in for another kiss.

This one? This one was not polite. Edwin made a fucking brilliant noise into Charles' mouth and surged into him like a tide. His hand on Charles' chest pushed, until his legs hit the sofa and he collapsed onto it. Edwin followed, still pushing, 'til he had Charles practically on his back, pressed into the leather with Edwin all but draped over him. Charles startled a bit but god, he was not complaining. He heard a soft thud, somewhere. Might've kicked something over, the tiny sofa too short for two six-foot lads to sprawl out over it like this. He didn't care. His fingers cracked through Edwin's stiff hair product as he dragged him closer. His other arm wrapped round Edwin's slim waist, locking him in.

It didn't feel like he remembered, the kissing. Back when he was alive. The heat wasn't exactly body heat, so much as... energy. Something that crackled like sparklers and tingled like spice. Edwin's lips didn't exactly feel soft or hard, warm or cold, wet or dry, but they felt real. Real and addictive and, for the moment, not even a little gentlemanly.

One thing's for sure: it did not feel like kissing Kelly Daniels in year nine.

Edwin broke away with a faint gasp. He stared down at Charles with huge eyes and his hair all out of joint, bowtie crooked. He was the most gorgeous, amazing thing Charles had ever seen and Christ, how could he have been so. Bloody. Thick?!

Charles blinked up at him. "Bloody hell," he said, awed. "I am... one thousand percent in love with you."

A mad, wild sort of hope darted across Edwin's face. But he pushed back a little, levering himself off Charles' chest. "You," he breathed, broken by a little disbelieving laugh. "You don't have to say that, Charles. Just because I did, that is. We can — hm — court a time, first, if you'd rather —"

"No, I — I mean it." Charles grabbed his face in both hands. And god, that was a bit nice, too, just holding him. How was he gonna resist doing it all the time? "I've been thinking about it and I was. I was almost sure, yeah? But now I'm definitely sure. I'm sorry. I didn't wanna say anything, 'til I knew, yeah? 'Cause, right, what if I didn't — what if you were Kelly Daniels?!"

Edwin blinked. "Who on earth is Kelly Daniels?" he asked, hopelessly bewildered.

Charles laughed. "Y'know what?" he said, hauling Edwin back down. "Doesn't matter."

Edwin kissed him again, sighing into it. His hands on Charles' neck and thumbing up under his jaw in a way that drove everything else out of his head. But too soon, he pulled back again. "I think it might matter a bit, actually," said Edwin. "On account of it being the reason we haven't been doing this for months, already."

Charles groaned. "It's — she's a girl I liked once, is all. Best mate growing up. Thought I liked her like that, but. I didn't. Screwed things up with her." His hands trailed down Edwin's arms, more than a little awed that he could just do that now. Edwin had proper nice arms. It was a good distraction from baring his soul. "Didn't wanna do that with you."

Edwin's face softened. "You never told me about her," he said. His hand, a little tentative, reached up; thumb coming up to stroke under Charles' eye. He might as well have cracked him open like an egg.

Charles squirmed a little, deflecting his vulnerability on a laugh. "It's — s'not important really, is it? Don't have to tell each other everything." He tugged at Edwin's bowtie. "I mean, you never told me you snogged Monty."

"It was hardly a snog," said Edwin, brows furrowing. "And I was not the one who... instigated."

"I'm not having a go!" Charles blurted. "I'm just. I'm just saying... I didn't tell you 'cause it didn't matter, really, did it?"

"Except it clearly did." Edwin did the worst thing he could have done — he sat up. Charles was embarrassed by how much he missed him already. Edwin perched himself primly on the edge of the sofa, straightening himself out a bit. He couldn't do much about his hair. "If it's been weighing on you. I wish you would have spoken to me about it."

His hand, after some nervous hovering, patted Charles' knee. "I've made it clear that you can come to me with things, Charles. Even if it is not always... comfortable, for me." He cleared his throat, staring straight ahead. "But I'd rather a modicum of discomfort, if it means you can speak your mind."

Charles sat up, hunching into Edwin's space. A part of him was still nervous to reach out and touch, but he did it anyway. Held Edwin's jaw, tilted his face towards him. He looked so wary, so poised and buttoned-up. You'd never guess he'd just been snogging Charles into the couch like some ghosty Casanova. He'd just let out something raw and real, trusted Charles with it, and now all Charles was doing was shutting him out.

He swallowed, stroking Edwin's cheek. "Didn't tell you 'cause I was scared," he admitted. "Haunts me a bit, what happened with her. I didn't... Didn't want you to see how fucked up I was about it.

Edwin exhaled, the hard line of his brows softening. "Charles," he said, tone warm, amused. "With utmost respect: I do not believe you could ever be 'fucked up' in any way that matters a damn to me."

Charles laughed, ducking his head and shaking it. "Alright, alright..."

"I mean, I have seen you commit murder. And arson. And there was that business in oh-nine, with the —"

"Alright!"

"Besides, I've seen far worse," said Edwin, airily. "After seventy years in hell —"

"Oh, you've been to hell?" Charles teased. "Didn't know that about you. Why didn't you say somethin' before?"

Edwin gave him a withering look, head tilted. He wasn't wearing a pair of half-moon glasses but he might as well have been peering over some. But there was a twinkle in his eye and the shadow of a smile on his lips and he was so, so fucking gorgeous it hurt to look directly at him.

"Can I kiss you?" asked Charles, again.

Edwin laughed, a surprised little thing that showed his teeth. "Have I not made the answer to that abundantly clear?"

Charles grinned, pulling him in. "Just checking."

~

"I suppose, in the interest of transparency," said Edwin, some time later. "I should tell you about Monty."

Charles hummed, eyes closed. They weren't sleeping, obviously. But it was tempting, with his ear pressed to Edwin's chest, wrapped round him like an octopus. He could almost trick himself into hearing a heartbeat, pattering soft and quick like the inflection of Edwin's voice.

"He kissed me. I'm afraid I might have... confused him, a little bit." Edwin's long, steady fingers stroked through Charles' curls. It was brills. "I was actually coming to understand my feelings for you at the time, and may have... miscommunicated. I told him immediately that I wasn't interested."

Charles tipped his head back, propping his chin on Edwin's chest, peering up at him under heavy eyelids. "How'd he take it?"

"Well, not excellently," said Edwin, with a quiet tsk. "He did try to feed us to a ghost-devouring fungus not a day later." He scratched absently behind Charles' ear. "Although I believe he was conflicted about it. Might have had a change of heart, in fact. Although when the Cat King revealed his true nature, it all got a bit lost in the shuffle."

"Mm." Charles raised an eyebrow. "Cat King was there, was he?"

Edwin fidgeted slightly under him. "...Yes."

Charles chuckled, tilting his head into Edwin's hand. "What is your deal with that bloke?" he asked, brushing a kiss across Edwin's palm. "Have you two been... you know..."

He told himself, sternly, that he would not get jealous. Hard to be jealous, really — when that prick was sulking around in some warehouse across the sea, and Charles was getting the lapcat treatment.

Edwin's eyebrow twitched. "Certainly not," he said. "But I suppose we're friends, after a fashion. And..."

Charles folded his arms on Edwin's chest and propped his chin on them, watching expectantly. "And?"

Edwin, with an awkward clear of his throat, turned to look at the back of the sofa. He couldn't blush, but Charles could practically feel the way his face was burning. "Well," he said, curtly. "It would be remiss of me not to admit that I find his attention... flattering."

Grinning, Charles pushed up on his knees. "Edwin Payne," he teased, planting his elbows either side of Edwin's head. "You tellin' me you like being admired?"

Edwin's unimpressed face wasn't fooling anyone.

Chuckling, Charles leaned down, nuzzling into his throat. "Not gonna need that cat around for that, anymore," he said, pressing a kiss under Edwin's jaw that had him squirming. "Gonna have me ogling you so much you get sick of it."

"Not possible," said Edwin. He sighed, a gorgeous, throaty sound, and his hand dug once more into Charles' hair, and tightened. "But I should very much like to see you try."

Charles grinned into his neck. This was gonna become his new addiction; making Edwin forget his manners. "Can I —?"

"Always," Edwin interrupted him, dragging his face up out of his throat. "Without question."

"Aces," Charles breathed.

And that, he decided, was enough of the chit-chat. ~~

Jacques Futrelle was a mystery author who died on the Titanic, supposedly taking the last stories he ever wrote with him. Read about him as well as some other interesting lost detective media on this blog post! Hope you enjoyed this, whatever it was! I had SO much fun with the Cat King, I'll have to write more of him. If you enjoyed please consider dropping us a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts! I sank significantly more time into this than I intended to xD (and for those curious, I'm still testing covid positive but feeling much better! Mainly just sick of being cooped up inside at this point!) 'Til next time - I need to try and wrangle chapter three of Lonely Bones into some kind of shape next 😅

[barksbog]

Do I remember correctly that you were thinking between borzoi and smooth collie or was it someone else? If it was you, any particular reason why you chose collie? Asking bc im myself considering between those two, I have experience with shelties and really like herding dogs even tho they can be worlds most sensitive babies sometimes

I can't remember if i publicly posted about it but i definitely did consider borzois!

herding dogs are great and i'm definitely very biased towards them. i love those weirdos and all their chaos.

-

the reason i ended up going for a smooth collie is mostly prey drive. Borzois are proper sight hounds and will run after fast animals and bite to kill if they can reach them. which is what they were bred for and definitely doesn't make them bad dogs!

herding dogs have a modified prey drive that makes them stalk animals around and ideally have strong restraint on lunging and biting.

i know a lot of sight hounds are very chill with cats but i just felt more comfortable going with a herder. He does annoy his tiny older siblings a lot by herding them around the house when he thinks they need to be somewhere else and is a bit rough and clumsy in his play attempts but it's all manageable.

i also live quite rural with a lot of game like hares, deer and pheasants out and about around the house and have neighbours with free roaming ducks, chicken and turkeys. so having a dog with a low prey drive is honestly just a lot more comfortable overall.

that being said tho my trainer has the worlds daintiest little rough collie who has an insane prey and kill drive. so it's not a given they will just try to befriend every outdoor cat they see.

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another point was size. smooth collies (especially males from US lines) can get quite big. Leon certainly is a good sized guy with almost 60cm shoulder height and 24kg!

borzois are A LOT larger.

i have a small car, bed and couch tbh. My mom is also struggling with physical health and already struggles with leon when he's a bit rowdy. i don't think she'd handle a dog that can get almost twice as heavy!

the accidental injury risk of my cats would have also been higher with a larger dog.

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less a direct comparison thing but a big part of why i went with a collie in the end is that they are known to be kinda annoyingly clingy and oh god he is but so am i. having a weird little guy who doesn't get annoyed by it helps my mental health a lot.

i don't have experience with shelties and how they compare but generally you can expect smooth and rough collies to be a bit lower energy and more "stubborn"/independent than border collies if that helps.