#oh.. good morning. oops. forgot to post this yesterday

[groupwest]

my silkworm cocoons.. + vintage zodiac ashtray

[eddiernunson]

Trapped | Eddie Munson | Part 4 | 18+

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Paring: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 10.5 K

Warnings: Smut, oral f! receiving, unprotected penetration (wrap it up, don’t do this), first date talk, dirty talk, knee grinding, general newbie when it comes to writing smut.

This is smut, and it's very like lovey smut. Hope y'all don't mind.

Authors note: Oh jeez I’ve written smut but I’ve never written it when it’s all the way I always back out when I try. Sorry it’s been so long I was really upset on the first and I think we all understand why 😭 I miss him. I did just spend the last like three days working hard on this.. hopefully you’ll enjoy. Lots of build up. It’ll be worth it, I hope. Also I love writing Eddie do dirty talk. I know he's a virgin here but I feel like he'd just be good at it. MINORS DNI

edit: totally forgot a read more. oops.

Your shift ended at 5, and your date was at 7. After you were done work, you dragged Robin right into your car so she could help you get ready at your house. Your parents were home when you arrived, your mom rushing to you as the door closed behind you and Robin. “Aaah, there’s my girl! Haven’t seen you since yesterday morning!” As she says this, she grabs your face cheeks rubbing your increasingly red face. Thank goodness this wasn’t the first time Robin was over. With Robin’s aloof parents it was a bit much for her at first but now Robin usually sits back, smug ass looks on her face, watching as your face gets redder and blotchier.

“Hi mom,” you say annoyed yet loving it at the same time. “Sorry, I ended up staying later than expected at Nancy’s last night.”

Your mom pets your hair, her head tilted and smile warm. “Oh of course! Did you have fun at least?”

You felt Robin elbow your right lower back. “Yeah, Y/N. Did you have fun?”

Your mom’s question was innocent and genuine. Robin was just being an ass. She knew damn well where you were last night.

“Yes, thank you both for asking, Robin.” Your mom puts her hands down from your face as you turn to face her. “I had a lot of fun.” Robin makes a subtle gagging face as you glare at her. “I need to get ready for something tonight, I have about 90 minutes.”

“Oh, okay. Let me know if you need anything.” You’re running up the stairs with Robin right behind you. As you think you’re in the clear your mom says, “Wait, hunny I was doing laundry today and I found a Metallica shirt on your floor. Was that yours? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”

Thank God you are both around the corner of the steps because the look Robin gave you would’ve given you away in a heartbeat. “He gave you a shirt!?” She whispers, her eyes wide and face red.

“Mom, I think a friend lent that to me when I might’ve spilled something on myself.” You thought quickly. “When I tried to give it back, he just told me to keep it.” You were such a shitty liar.

Your mom knew this very well. Your lies stopped the age you realized she wasn’t buying any of them, you were that bad. “Okay, alright.” Her voice didn’t sound like she was convinced. “Just checking. Did you want me to wash it?”

“No, it’s not really that dirty yet.”

A beat. “Okay. Love you, dear!”

You run to your room, yelling you loved her too before closing the door behind you. “Your mom knows something is up.” Robin says, her face serious. “You’re gonna have to tell her.”

You fly your hands up exasperated, running across your somewhat now organized room from your mom cleaning up to your closet. “I know, I know. When I tell her I’m not going to be able to spend any more nights at his trailer, though. I really liked waking up there.”

“You realize, when Eddie comes to pick you up that the cat will be out of the bag?” Robin points out, rubbing her hands together as she sits on your bed criss-cross.

You toss a dress you thought about wearing onto her face, mildly annoyed. “Stop pointing out flaws in my plan and just help me choose something before I go nuts!”

Robin takes off the dress off her head, slightly unamused. She comes to your closet where you were and starts sifting through your many many clothes. “Jesus, you own a lot of clothing.” She mutters starting to pick out options.

As she goes through your closet, you sit at your vanity, playing with makeup ideas. Do you want to do bright, or go more subtle? Should you do your hair? What about just a pretty bow in your hair? You hear the phone ring downstairs as you put your head in your hands, too anxious to make another decision.

“Y/N! Phone call! Who is Steve?” Your mom’s voice is closer as she calls you, becoming suggestive as she says Steve’s name. She knocks once before tossing you the phone. “Is that whose t-shirt I found?” You put your hand over the mouthpiece, really hoping he didn’t hear that.

“No, mom. He is just our co-worker. And someone I might hang out from time to time. I’ll tell you about the t-shirt later.” You say, hoping that’ll get rid of her.

Your mom put her hands up, as if to say, Alright, I give. Out the door she went, closing it behind her.

“Steve Harrington, you’d better have a good reason for calling before my damn date.” You talk into the phone, scratching at your forehead out of stress. Robin gets your attention, holding between two dresses. You point the one on the left, narrowing down to a final few.

“Well- I never!” Steve says, almost sounding offended. “Also did I hear something about a t-shirt being found? Rookie mistake, L/N.” You roll your eyes, exasperated.

“Yeah, yeah, tell me what you want before I hang up on you.” You say, turning toward Robin and picking the dress on the right.

“I just honestly wanted to wish you luck tonight. Also, I pulled in a few favours and got you a reservation down at Chef’s Table for 7:30”

You stop in your pacing tracks, your eyes wide. “Wait, did you tell-“

“Munson already knows,” he says, interrupting you, “he asked me to call these favours in.”

You hear rustling of a phone being stolen. “Hey, are you finally dating him, so we can stop watching him stare at you across the cafeteria?”

“Henderson, you-“ Steve in the background, faint but coming closer as he catches up to Dustin. Rustling again and Steve’s voice even louder now as he’s in control of the phone again. “Always the goddamn babysitter.”

“Have any last pieces of advice, oh wise one?” You ask, picking another dress Robin had you choose between.

“Be yourself.” He says simply. “You work with two dating disasters who both had to learn this the hard way when it comes to dating. Just do it. Have fun.”

You thank him and press the hang up button, mind racing at the phone call. “Alright, Robin what other dresses do I have to pick between now?”

Robin is now on your bed, laying across it and reading a magazine you had left out. “Oh, you already picked it out.” She points her thumb to your closet. You look to the dress on a hanger, hung up on the door. It was perfect. “I guess when Steve was occupying your noggin you weren’t thinking so hard about what you wanted to wear.”

You glanced at the time, thinking you might need to shower. It was only 5:45. A 15-minute shower will be ok, right? “Robin I’m going to have a shower. You can stay and read about Ralph Macchio. I’ll be right out.” You toss her the magazine, a big editorial about The Karate Kid. You didn’t know it would be useless to Robin who was already reading about Fast Times, but it was the thought to her that counted.

You showered quickly, shaving some areas admittedly a little haphazardly. You washed your hair, your face, everywhere else, and was out of the shower in less than 8 minutes. You grabbed the good blow-dryer on the way to your room, wanting to dry your hair immediately. When you enter the room, Robin had called Steve back, hearing the end of “She’s so nervous it’s adorable” from Robin

You cleared your throat, announcing your presence. Robin stopped talking, her hands stuck in place on the magazine.  You shook your hair dryer to her, signalling its about to get a little loud in here. She understood and let Steve go. “Hey, I-I thought you’d take longer than that.”

“My anxiety is also a time traveller. She doesn’t let me take my time when I feel anxious.” You inform her.

Robin knew what you meant. “Mine never shuts up.”

When your hair is finally dry you shut off the tool one last time, the final dry test done. You get your hair out of the way, clipping it back. As you do your makeup more subtle than you initially planned on, you really appreciate the way Robin has come into your life. The two of you talk about anything and everything, getting your mind from your date. You’re about finished your hair when you hear a honk outside. Robin looks out your window by your bed and starts getting up.

You give her a questioning look as you spray the last piece into place, not knowing what was happening. “Steve offered me a ride home.”

“That’s really sweet of him,” you say, getting up from your vanity. “Can you give me a hug before my nerves set in?”

Robin isn’t affectionate by any means, so she knows when you ask for it, it means you need it. “Here,” she says her arms open awkwardly.

“Thanks for helping me get ready tonight, Robin. I really needed it.”

Robin patted your head affectionately. “As long as you call me to tell me how everything went. Seriously. I want to know. Also plug Nancy in she has been dying to know details, too.”

You nodded sheepishly, unsure what exactly they were hoping in these phone calls. “Go give Steve a punch in the shoulder for me.”

“You know it!” Robin shouted as she went down the stairs to your front door.

Less than five minutes (felt like an hour) passed when the doorbell rang. “I got it!” Your mom calls from downstairs. Uh oh.

You put your ear to the door, dying to know how this will go. You still haven’t told your mom you were going for a date. You were curious how she would react when Eddie Munson shows up.

“Why, hello.” Your mom says in an overly polite tone.

“Hello, Mrs. L/N,” Eddie says, his voice sounded higher than normal, more polite. He had a parents’ voice.  “I’m here to take Y/N out on our date tonight.”

Silence. You wished you could see your mom’s reaction to this. “Y/N L/N! Eddie Munson is here to pick you up for your date tonight!”

You ran to the stairs, fighting back the giggles as you reach the top. You put one hand on the banister, suddenly aware of how cliché this all is. But it was perfect.

You start walking down, avoiding the bewildered look your mom is giving you. As Eddie pulls into focus, you can see the way he is looking at you. His brown eyes soft and wide, the corner of his lips turning up as you come closer. You can take in his outfit for tonight. He’s wearing a white button down, not tucked into a pair of unripped blue jeans. His hair looks more groomed than normal. You switch your glance momentarily to his hands; he’s still wearing his rings. Good.

As you look back up to his face, you take one last step onto the main floor at the front entrance. You fiddle with your hair, tucking some pieces behind your ears. You look down at the floor sheepishly, and finally glance to your mother. It takes every ounce of self control to not burst out laughing when you see her face.

“So, is this is whose shirt I found this morning?” Your mom says, talking purposely loud enough so Eddie could hear.

Eddie smiled widely at that, both dimples on his face clear as day. He was struggling to hold back laughter, avoiding eye contact with you and your mom.

“Can I tell you later?” You say, grabbing your jacket slowly as if to not alert her you were leaving.

“Oh, we’ll talk later.” She threatens, her eyes serious but her mouth somewhat upturned. “Have her home by midnight.”

Eddie coughs. “Uh, yes m’am.”

“Bye mom!” You yell behind you as you grab Eddie’s hand and shut the door.

As the door closes Eddie breaks into laughter. “She found the shirt?” He asks, now catching his breath.

“Apparently, I am no good at sneaking.” You say shrugging. “I didn’t realize my mom knew every piece of clothing I owned. I thought she would just think it’s a pajama shirt.”

Eddie stops and his van, leaning his back against his passenger door as if to block you from getting in. “Can I point out something I don’t think you have thought of?”

“Whats that?” You ask, staring a glimpse of his lips now that you’re up close to him.

Eddie pus his hand up to frame your face, pinky resting on your jawline. “We don’t smell the same sweetheart. She might’ve thought it was yours until she smelled my cologne.”

Your eyes go wide as you realize how she knew the shirt couldn’t have been yours. Shit, you were not good at this sneaking around thing. Eddie chuckles lowly as he leans and gives you a kiss, allowing you to breathe him in. As he kissed you his other hand went to your hip, thumb swaying absentmindedly. As Eddie separated from you, you realized you were standing there with your hands by your sides, taken aback on how your night has barely started yet he can leave you speechless.

He tugs you back a half a step, your brain too foggy to understand what he was doing. He turns around and opens the door. He moves out of your way to pat the fabric of the passenger seat. You get in wordlessly, Eddie closing the door behind you before scooting into the to the driver’s seat.

Eddie starts the van, his music coming on a little lower than you normally expect coming from his van. He smiles shyly, aware of this deliberate choice. “I didn’t want to leave a bad impression when I pulled up.”

He is so cute. You had no words still, so you grab his hand, the one with the rings, and you intertwine yours into it.

He pulls off to the road, heading the right way to which Steve mentioned. He passes a few lights and lets the feeling of being hand in hand get comfortable before saying “So incase you were wondering the plans for tonight I can break it down.”

You smile closed mouth, turning to face him as he keeps his eyes on the road. “Harrington already spoiled Chef’s Table, I’m afraid.”

You see the reaction on his face, the immediate clenching of the jaw, followed by him relaxing and regulating himself. You were impressed. “Can’t tell nothing to nobody these days,” he says, a hint of humour in his voice.

Your hands fly up to your face as you laugh, the honesty of his statement very true. “You can’t trust Steve Harrington with dating secrets. He will spill. Tell Robin if you must keep it from me, but if you need connections Steve was the way to go.”

Eddie huffs a laugh out, his eyes squinted, and his smile closed but wide.

“Chef’s Table, anywhere else? We do have five hours.” You ask nicely, petting his hand to butter him up.

Oh, did that work. “Yes, I figured if we have time, and we might we can hang back at my place again. Watch something a little better than Back to the Future, maybe.” He said, shrugging.

Your brain says something that you have to muster the courage to say out loud. “I hope when you say watch a movie, you really mean make out on your couch again.” The words felt like they came out jumbled and out of breath, but Eddie literally does not hear that part.

He only can resist the urge to pull over and start making out with you right now. Cause the way you looked tonight; he was barely holding it in as it was. “You can’t say something like that looking the way you look right now,” Eddie grimaces, his hand tightening around yours. “That’s not fair.”

You giggle, finally taking his eyes off him. It wasn’t long before he was pulling up to the parking lot of Chef’s Table, less reckless than usual.

You hold your breath as he holds your hand and escorts you to the door, gulping.

Oh god, shit. You could barely breathe. Please go well.

-

Eddie led the way into the restaurant, the candle lit atmosphere engulfing the two of you. Shit. You’ve never been here before, but it was intimate and fuckin’ romantic. The host at the front greeted the both of you, warm smile in a suit and tie. “Good evening, do you have a reservation?” He asks politely.

“Yeah, we have one for 7:30 for Munson,” Eddie says, clearing this throat after. As the host looks to his reservation list, Eddie yawns, his forearm flexing has his hand squeezes around yours. “Sorry, darlin,” he whispers, leaning down to tell you. “Being crazy excited for tonight has kind of worn me out.”

You bump into him without moving your feet, not looking at him to avoid him seeing the smile that captivated your face.

“Oh, I see it. Harrington’s favour.” The Host mumbles under his breath. “Yes, Munson. Sorry that took so long. Right this way.”

The host leads the two of you down a long line of tables, passing candle lit couples as you continue to an ever-dimmer back area. “A back corner table with lower lighting, as per request.” You will have to both kill and thank him later. “Here are your menus. Can I get started off with a drink tonight?”

“Water” You say.

“Coke.”

“Perfect. Your waitress will be right out to help you out.” The host, hair somewhat like Steve’s and a dazzling smile, probably would’ve made you blush maybe a week ago. Tonight, the only thing you cared about was the man with the scraggly hair next to you in the booth, arms crossed and leaning on the table, looking at his menu.

You grabbed your menu; suddenly aware you had never been here before and you have no clue what’s on the table. “So,” Eddie says, feeling him scooch closer to you. “Three years huh?”

You set the menu back down, relieved in the momentary release from the bubbling anxiety of a new restaurant. Sad news meant that this anxiety was replaced with the anxiety of being this close with him. “Yeah, three years. It would still be ongoing if it weren’t for my meddling friends. I would’ve probably let myself stare at you until graduation.” You spoke honestly, it made you feel vulnerable and entirely too open.

“Really? So, how are they meddling friends?” Eddie says his body turned towards you and his chin resting in one hand.

You smiled, thinking about how their antics gave you more action than any of them were expecting. “Well, to start, I’ve known the Wheelers for quite some time. My parents are friends with their parents. I’ve never been all that close with their kids until three or so years ago. By some miracle Nancy didn’t even know I had a crush on you until around this August when I saw you at the library doing some research and I nearly crashed into a whole bookshelf. From then on, she couldn’t unsee it.

“Then Mike got into your club like I had hoped he would and upon hearing this I nearly panicked. I was at their house, just hanging out and I remember full on choking on my soda when he announced it. Nancy was very prompt about asking what you were like so Mike could describe you without feeling weird. After he said that you were, and don’t tell him I told you, literally the nicest, coolest guy he’s ever met he saw my face and finally put 2 and 2 together.”

“Alright here are your drinks,” a young girl’s voice interrupts your story, giving you the coke and Eddie the water. “Hi, I’m Daisy I’ll be serving you tonight.” You look up at Daisy, a girl what you swear is everything you were insecure about not having. A better body type, her hair was picture-perfect, she even managed to make an awkward dining uniform look half decent. “Are you ordering any appetizers for tonight or do you need more time?”

And she’s also only talking to Eddie. She hasn’t even glanced at you.

Eddie looks up at her and looks back down at the appetizers. “We’ll have the breadsticks, please.” He says, his voice overly polite and unlike himself.

“Great, I’ll bring that right out for you,” Daisy promises, awkwardly avoiding any words to negate from acknowledging your presence.

Daisy leaves, leaving you to look at Eddie with wide eyes. What if he decided that you weren’t what he wanted? What if the moment he knew he had more options he took it? You pushed this thought aside as he grabs your hand. He’s here with you.

“So oblivious Mike Wheeler knew, what next?” Eddie asks one hand holding yours and one supporting his head.

You blank for half a second before remembering your train of thought. “Well, he told his three best friends and his girlfriend El, who told her best friend Max, who ended up retelling Lucas, who told his sister Erica, who probably told Tina.” You sighed. More people knew about your stupid crush than you realized. “Before Nancy found out it, I worked at Scoops Ahoy! at the mall before it burnt down with Harrington and Robin. I told Robin when she asked why I wasn’t hitting on any of the guys who came in. Well 1, I’m too nervous to, and 2, I had already liked you for two years at that point. That’s when Harrington also found out, but he didn’t know that I had never spoken to you. He assumed we had interacted once or twice at least but I neither confirmed nor denied. I just carefully avoided the subject.” Eddie squeezed your hand, his head tilted and attention fully onto you. It felt like the stars in the sky were all aligned.

“For the record Steve said if he knew about my crush on you earlier, he would’ve shoved us in a closet and locked the door.” Eddie chuckled, letting go of your hand to start fidgeting with his rings. You look away for a second, that absolute tease. “I don’t know how well you know Nancy Wheeler, but she gets shit done. So, she sent Mike to ask you to pick up a movie for him, told my co workers to go on break for 5:30. Honestly, that was the only way I was going to talk to you. Trapping me. Then of course last night with DnD and ‘not enough seats in the car’ was absolutely planned. Erica was in on it.”

“Wait she planned that shit?” Eddie asks, genuine surprise in his features.

“Could you not tell?” You ask.  

“Oh god no. Most people don’t go into a scenario like that thinking they’re being set up, sweetheart.” You shrug your shoulders, apologetic. “I just figured that I got lucky. I got to spend more time with you.”

Holy shit how did this man own your ass so easily. You took a moment to recover from hearing those words come out of his mouth. “The only person that didn’t know very much about it was my mom, and she found out the moment she opened the door. I wouldn’t be that shy about liking someone unless it was for a good reason.”

Eddie narrowed his eyes, sitting closer now. “That reason is?”

“I think you know, Munson.”

“Not sure I do, L/N. I’d appreciate it if you would expand.” Eddie knew what you meant. You just looked so cute when you squirmed.

You sighed, prepared to tell the embarrassing truth. “My mom knew I liked someone. Sometime in freshman year she was asking basic questions about how school was going. She mentioned boys and I just went completely silent. Every time she brought up the idea of liking someone and I would just..stutter through the conversation. I think she knew the person I liked was just not someone she was expecting. You’re very different than I am from what I’ve observed.”

You paused, giving Eddie a moment to soak in what you told him. “I also didn’t tell people outright most of the time because if it was mine, and only mine then no one could ruin it. What if you found out and you wanted nothing to do with me? What if you laughed at me? Worse if you let me down gently. Rejection wasn’t an option if nothing was ever going to be done about it. To me, it felt like a crush where you have it despite knowing you had no chance with the person.”

“No chance? You thought you had no-“

Eddie was interrupted by the sound of white flatware hitting the table. “Here you go. Did you get a chance to look at the menu yet?”

You picked up the menu, quickly spotting something you usually look for at other restaurants. Eddie ordered one of the specials, barely glancing at his menu. “Perfect choice,” she says, again only looking at him. “I’ll be right out with your food.”

Eddie stared off at her for a moment, face unreadable.

“She’s pretty,” you say, feeding off a reaction from him.

Eddie looks back to you, his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. “Is she? Never noticed.”

You smirk, looking down at your fingers fidgeting on the table. “I mean I would probably be able to tell more if she actually looked at me.”

His jaw clenched, he reaches out and put his hand on your further shoulder. “You noticed that too, huh?” He lets his face turn into a smile, he was just looking at you softly, his eyes wandering around your face. “She doesn’t want me. She wants the thrill of stealing someone’s date. Next time I won’t say a word to her. You can speak for me. If you say something I don’t want, fuck it. I will eat it happily if it means taking Daisy down a peg.”

You giggle at that, Eddie’s long lashes suddenly coming directly into view as he puts his forehead against yours. “I’m here with you. I want to know you. Don’t mind awful girls like her.”

You wanted to savour this moment. You closed your eyes, wanting nothing more to just kiss him. Would making out in the only nice restaurant in town be in bad faith? Probably. Probably, yeah. You regrettably disconnect your forehead.

“I wanted to get back to what you said there before. What made you believe you had no chance?” Eddie’s face looks concerned, looking in your eyes as you avoided his.

You looked into his eyes, noting the concern he had for you. “You need to talk to someone to have a chance, for one. For two, you are” you pause, feeling anxious about what you wanted to say. He tucks the loose hair framing your face behind your ears, silently encouraging. You take a breath. “You are so out of my league, it’s insane.”

Eddie loses his breath, grabbing your face and kissing your lips. Hard. He stops, you’re both sat up, feels like you’re airborne.  “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be.”  He says it against your skin, his breath against your cheek. You lean your head back, staring at his face.

You really couldn’t believe you were here, right now. You grabbed his hand, interlocking them as you kissed the back of it.

“Enough about me and my embarrassingly long crush on you. What about you? Tell me why you’re here. Please.”  

“Well, at school I tend to get stared at a lot. Sometimes just getting up to throw garbage in the trash feels like walking down a really bizarre runway. I’ve been able to tell when it’s vindictive versus when it’s fearful. Random jocks or lost little sheep are a dime a dozen each. When I first noticed yours, you were a freshman. There was that look of fear in your eyes, which I’m used to but now I’m wondering if that was cause you were a freshman. I didn’t know what to make of it until I caught you consistently over the next few weeks.”

Your eyes went wide, not believing what you are hearing. “You have been catching me staring at you since my first week?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, I’ve made a game of it. I see if I can catch you with out you noticing. When you do notice, I don’t catch you again for another week or so.” Eddie shrugs. “I never approached you because the idea that someone was looking because they might want me for something more than a friend was almost too good to be true. Plus, there was one other factor.” Eddie paused, reaching forward for the still untouched bread sticks. “You want a bread stick?” He asks, pointing one towards you.

“Why breadsticks?” you ask, accepting his offer.

“Do you not like breadsticks?” He retorts, knowing the answer.

“I do, its just-“

“Exactly. Everyone likes them.” Eddie says cutting you off. “Now eat. I got shit to say.”

You follow his demand without delay, adding butter generously before you start chewing on some admittedly damn delicious bread.

“Good girl.” Well, that just awakened something in you didn’t expect. Hopefully your expression didn’t give you away.

Eddie noted the pause in your chewing. It did.

“I don’t know if you can tell, but people at Hawkins High and just Hawkins in general don’t like me.” Eddie was saying as he chewed on his piece of stick. He laughed without humour. “With being called a freak at the end of Junior High somewhat as a joke to being Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson by the entire town in two years comes with a lot of baggage. I usually don’t tend to spend too much time mulling over it since I owe them literally nothing, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Even my club and my band members know that if they associate with me, their social standing immediately plummets. Like I’m talking” he makes a whistle descending in pitch followed by an explosion, his hands mimicking an explosion for effect. “And sure, they don’t mind. Most of them never had a good standing on a social ladder to begin with. I can kind of live with my friends being social outcasts because of simple association, but I could never live with the idea of it affecting someone who would be the closest to me. Having someone who I care about in that way being scrutinized for caring back would kill me. I couldn’t fathom the idea of you, shy as you are, also facing what I receive daily. It completely stopped me from ever approaching you.” Eddie paused, his mouth full busy working on a breadstick again. You were done with them for now, leaving room for actual dinner.

Eddie swallowed his piece audibly, you sit there waiting patiently for him to continue. “I mean, I could’ve probably had a fling with a girl maybe behind closed doors.” Eddie waited, dramatic effect. “That’s just not my style. If I am dating someone, I want to show them off. I want them to wear my rings, sit on my lap during hellfire, make other people uncomfortable by how obsessed I am with them.” His voice had increased in volume as he continued. He stopped, realizing how loud he had gotten. With Eddie, passion means volume. In everything.

Your breathing was heavy, imagining yourself on Eddie’s lap giggling in the cafeteria. You’ve pictured yourself sitting with Hellfire once or twice, usually only right next to him. Now the picture was much clearer, the smiley kisses, the groans from his club members, the middle finger Eddie flips them in return. You felt your face heat up dramatically. “You okay there, sweetheart?” Eddie asked, putting his hand up to hold your face.

“’M fine.” You say, squeaking out the words.

“So, I convinced myself it was for your own good that I didn’t approach you. I was perfectly fine. Until all of your meddling friends got in the way.” Eddie licked his lips letting his hand drop down.

“Alright I have your food right here.” Daisy sets down the food, awkwardly apart from each other considering you and Eddie were sat shoulder to shoulder. “Can I help you with any thing else?” Daisy flirts, a bit too comfortable.

Eddie grabs his plate and silverware as if Daisy wasn’t there. Then you remembered only you were speaking to her now. “Can we please get some refills?”

Daisy’s eyes turn sharply to you, a glare before a dazzlingly fake smile appears on her face. “Of course! Anything else?” Her eyes are back to Eddie, hoping for him to respond.

“Mmm, this is really good,” Eddie exclaims, looking to you.

You move the breadsticks forward on the table to her. “We’re done with these, thanks!”

Daisy doesn’t say a word, taking the hint. Hands off, bitch. She walks off in what you could only describe in what a toddler does when they don’t get their way. Why were you jealous of her again?

Eddie starts laughing next you, his mouth full of food still as he struggles to keep it in. He finally swallows, his contagious laughter infecting you. “Do you mind continuing?” You ask sheepishly. “We were really getting into the good part.”

“Patience is a virtue, Y/N.” He retorts. “But I think you have plenty of it if you want to put up with me. Your friends ruined my plan of not ruining you. Seeing you so close put a wedge in the wheel of my bicycle of life.”

You giggled, reaching for your silverware as you realized you should start working on your meal. It looked genuinely good. Now you understood why your parents opted to come here every time they needed a night out.

“Literally everything I had thought about before went to shit. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I fully panicked. I got high that night to numb it and it just intensified it by a million. I spent well into the night perched on my bed like a goddamn gargoyle scared. I mean, once I have spoken to you, I just couldn't not speak to you again. I had whole idea panned out for next week, but they crashed it. I was planning on talking to you more and more as the week went by. Yesterday I just initially planned on saying hello after first period. Lunch time was a happy accident, but it gave me the courage to ask you sit next to me.”

You were sure glad you were eating because you were pretty sure what he was saying would’ve made an empty stomach churn. You found it impossible that he was this overworked about you. The way you were freaking out after Thursday was the same way he was, too.

“I was going to keep talking to you every day more and more before asking you out on Friday to take you out on Saturday. You girls are sneaky. Ruined the plan. Last night, you couldn’t have ruined the plan any better than you did.” Eddie took another bite, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe it.

You swallowed your current bite, a question hopping into your brain and out of your mouth before you could stop it. “Were you nervous, last night?”

“Oh, fuck yeah,” Eddie answers like it was obvious, mouth full. He swallows, “I’m a hell of a fidgeter so I just made the popcorn to stop myself from pacing around the trailer like a madman, sending you running.”

You are almost done your bowl, surprised at how much you’ve eaten while listening to him. This felt incredibly easy right now. You had forgotten the feeling you had on Thursday at work, how incredibly uneasy and nervous you were. You were nervous now, but it was pretty jitters. “I spent about what felt like ten minutes overthinking what movie to watch. I thought asking if you were a virgin would send me walking 7 miles home.” You nearly held back what you had just said, but you’re quickly realizing you didn’t want to. Not anymore.

“Not going to lie, that one hurt my ego a little bit.” Eddie says, finishing up his dinner. “The fact that you didn’t flip out about it made me feel better.”

You melted, turning your body so you could reach out to pet his hair comfortably. “Why would I flip out? We all go at our own paces. Plus, you have the ability to make one into jelly even without the experience.” You feel yourself open up more and more as the evening goes on.

“Princess you might want to watch it unless we skip going back to the trailer and make out here.” Eddie warns you, his eyes dark and his voice a tad rough. “I know we have a dark corner but it ain’t that dark.”

You fail to hold back a smile, proud of yourself. You take your hand out of his hair, somewhat reluctantly. “I guess I can wait.”

Daisy comes back at the end of your sentence, much less cheerful than she has been all night. She drops the check on the table, both of you haven’t even asked for one. She grabs both of your plates and wordlessly walks off.

“Wow. I’ve seen the basketball team take losses easier than this girl has taken your rejection,” you comment.

Eddie shrugged, never seeing a game before. “Well, the way she was behaving you figure she is looking to hook up with other women’s dates often. Either she’s not used to rejection or just a brat. Neither one is the better option.” At the end of his sentence, he reaches forward for the bill, his face wincing ever so slightly upon seeing the total.

“Hey, let me see,” You grab the check, and squish your face at the total. “Ouch. Do you want help paying for it?”

Eddie shakes his head, his hair doing a dance around his face. “No, its ok. I make an ok amount dealing with the assholes. I make them pay an asshole tax. They wanna buy from me but still make me out to be a villain for existing? Sure. For a price.”

You smile at the thought then shake it out of your head. “I work, and have been saving since I was 13,” you state, surprising him. “I have enough to go half, let me. Please, Eddie. This is way too much for a first date.”

Eddie gulps. “If you insist, sweetheart.”

Eddie uses his card, you giving him enough cash after Daisy returns with it. “Did you tip?” You ask, scooting out of the booth with him.

“Nope. Didn’t earn one.” Eddie says, placing his arm around you. He kisses your temple as the two of you walk back down the dimly lit aisle, still lined up with couples on dates. You wondered how many first dates tonight were as good as the one you were having.

The host wished you goodnight as you headed out the door, an airiness of amusement in his voice. You wondered if Daisy complained about not getting what she had wanted. Oh well, she’ll live.

You walk back into the night, the crisp almost winter air dark and slightly cold. You nearly trip over yourselves as you both half run to his van. It was unspoken, but there. You were going back to his trailer, but it was not to watch a movie.

-

Eddie is driving as his normal reckless self, wanting to get to the trailer as quickly as possible. The silence the two of you sit in is comfortable, but there was an air of excitement. A buzz, if you will. You held his hand as a Metallica tape played in the background. Eddie mumbled along to the words, his lyrical voice relaxing you as you kissed his ringed knuckles.

“You know, I sometimes watch when you draw with your finger on your desk. Always wondered what it is.” Eddie muttered, his fingers flexing under your lips.

“Nothing important. Stars, doodles. Our classes together are so boring I just need something to do with my hands.” You answer, knowing your question for him. “Why do you wear your rings?”

Eddie turned his hand over against your lips, highlighting his rings. “I liked the first one I tried on, found the next two over time. Now I just feel safer with them on my fingers. You like ‘em?”

Your voice went small. “A little.”

Eddie chuckled, taking his hand from your lips and used his hand to rub your cheek. You leant into it, smiling.

You closed your eyes, enjoying the warmth of his hand against your cheek. You felt Eddie’s speed slow down, approaching his trailer. As soon as Eddie hit the breaks, his van was put into park and the keys were ripped out of the ignition. He hopped out of the van and ran around the front to open your door. You appreciated his enthusiasm, excitement bubbling up from your toes and up your entire body.

Arousal sat in your gut, something that kept a wet spot on your panties all night. You grabbed Eddies hand as you hopped out of the van, keeping hold of it as his pace forced you to run quickly to his front door with him. You run up the mini front porch, Eddie unlocking the door with a fumbled single hand, determined to unlock it still holding yours.

He flings the door open, slamming against the wall of the trailer. Eddie tugs you inside, his teeth showing through a big smile. You wanted to smile, you really did, but all you felt were nerves. Your core was aching, your thighs tense and chest heavy.

Eddie slammed the door shut and did something you weren’t expecting. He pushed you up against the door, connecting his lips hard against yours. You were suddenly trapped with the wall against your back and Eddie’s chest against yours. His rough hands on your jaw, the smell of him so strong, you inhale sharply, everything finally catching up to you. You start kissing him back, loving that the kisses started open mouthed. His other hand on your hip, solid and digging into your skin.

These kisses feel desperate, wanting, and a little rough. Eddie cuts a kiss off with a bite of your lip, earning a whimper right out of you. He kisses his way down to your neck, starting to use his teeth against your neck. You whimpered again, feeling too much at once. “You look so goddamn good right now,” Eddie nearly growls, the vibrations of his voice only making it feel better. “When I found out we had 5 hours to do what ever we wanted I almost just skipped the reservation and took you here.”

You grab his neck pulling his face back up to kiss him. By its own admission, your knee rises, hooking around his hip. Eddie backs up from you for only one moment, lifting his arms up and back to grab at his shirt. As he takes his shirt off, he watches you, his brown eyes dark. You would cower under his stare if it didn’t drive you so wild. His shirt hasn’t even hit the ground when Eddie’s lips are on yours again. He presses even closer to you now, you only barely touching the floor as he semi holds you up. He moves his knee in as he deepens the kiss, making direct contact with your clothed cunt.

You pull back from the kiss suddenly, moaning at the long-awaited release. Eddie watches you against the door after mistakenly using his knee against you. He leans into your ear, “You liked that sweetheart? What happens if I,” He does it again, aiming this time. You whine higher, louder. Your cunt gives itself away happily, soaking through your panties and surely through his jeans. Eddie’s hands are digging into your back, helping to support you as you’re basically off the ground and grinding helplessly against his knee. You feel his breath against your face as he chuckles lowly. You lean your head against the door, moving your hips for more friction. “Oh sweetheart you’re so wet, already.” Eddie kisses you again, moving his knee again, a final time. “Were you thinking about this at dinner, baby? I was, it was just so hard to hold back in that booth. Surely it was dark enough no one would have noticed if my fingers just,” he moves his hand up your dress and next to his knee, light pressure in the crevice where your legs meet your center, “slipped.”

You let out a frustrated moan, your fingers digging into where they were at the base of his neck. “Please, Eddie,” you whine, grinding against him needily.

Eddie stops his kisses, tilting his head very slightly. “Please, what princess?” He leans into your ear, “Use your words baby”

“Touch me, finger me, please do something!” You whine, his knee stagnant now and you doing all the work.

“Hmmm, so needy.” He says, finally letting his knee down and setting you down on the floor. He grabs your hand, leading you down the hallway to his room.

As soon as you’re through the entrance of his room, he grabs you by the face again, kissing you hard. You waddle backwards until you hit his bed, falling backwards, Eddie falling onto you. You giggle as he straddles you, suddenly can’t believe that it’s happening again. Eddie starts lapping your neck, making his way to the crook. He places his hand under the hem of your dress, barely touching you on your thigh. “I have one question that I almost asked you on our date tonight.”

You looked at him, craning your neck to see his face. “What?”

He leaned into your ear, real close to you. “Have you ever thought of me while touching yourself?” He places a single finger onto the center of your throbbing  core, not placing any pressure.

You were taken aback by his question, the breath in your lungs gone. You definitely did. A lot. You felt too shy to verbally confirm, so you nod your head.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Eddie says rewarding your silent yes with very light pressure on your clothed folds.

You grab at Eddie’s arms, your nails digging into his biceps. “Yes, yes I did.”

Eddie groans at that, holding back again. He couldn’t get the picture of you grinding on your own fingers out of his head.

He rewards your verbal confirmation with a small up and down motion, you got wetter, feeling your juices coat your thighs. “H-how many times, princess?”

You gulp, trying to focus on the warm feeling in your stomach. “Once or twice,” you pause as the pressure of his fingers gets harder as you say it, “a week.”

Eddie looks up at you, his eyes vulnerable and momentary confidence he had gone. “Really?”

He wasn’t being judgemental; he couldn’t believe that you were thinking of him like that. Weekly.

You nod your head, looking into his eyes, searching for any hint of him being disgusted or freaked out. You didn’t see any. If anything, all you saw was wonder and curiosity.

Eddie bites his lip, letting his finger moving your panties aside, moving his two fingers along your folds and hovering over your entrance. “Can you tell me what you were thinking about, sweetheart?”

Your eyes were closing against your own admission, already in bliss. “You, obviously.”

“C’mon, don’t be smartass,” Eddie chides as he pauses his movements. You grind your hips up, wanting a better release. Your clit was aching at this point, begging to be touched. “What had you so riled up?”

“Your hands, God your rings. Your arms, your tongue when you stick it out, your back. Just to-“you pause when Eddie places his thumb on your clit, rubbing small circles. “Ah! Just to name a few.”

Eddie’s eyes roll in the back of his head, incredibly turned on and starting to crave friction himself just from watching you come apart. “Jesus that is the hottest thing I’ve ever heard. Take off your dress.”

You immediately sit up, taking your dress off as fast as you can. As he straddles you, you are now half naked with only a set of matching bra and panties, you feel small. You try to distract yourself from this feeling, accepting the look Eddie gave you as confirmation he was liking this, too. Eddie leans down to kiss you, trailing down your chest and through the valley of your tits, using your hand under one of the cup of your bra. He plays with the nipple between two of his fingers, experimenting to see how you reacted. When your chest heaved and eyes closed, he moved the fabric aside, moving in to suck on your nipple for a moment, teasing you with his teeth.

Once he was satisfied, he moved further down, leaving wet kisses as he moved further down and down your stomach. “God, you’re stunning like this,” Eddie mumbles against your skin, his hands exploring all he can reach. “Falling apart for me. I love watching this.”

He finally reached your aching cunt, begging for the attention it once had. Eddie’s slow pace is replaced rather quickly by him moving your panties off in one quick fluid motion. You move your head up to look at his face, seeing him lick his lips as he openly stares at your pussy. It makes you open your legs more, willing to be more open. He leans in, breathing on you.

Your legs start to twitch, barely holding up. “Please touch me,” you beg, your head falling back down onto his bed.

Eddie leans in, lapping one long lick down the center of your folds, his tongue just barley going into your entrance. Your legs close in on his head because of this, tensing up because of the insane amount of pleasure it just gave you. Your head is woozy, one hand in his sheets, the other searching for him. Eddie grabs your legs, and pulls your hips downward, so he can be right on top of your pussy I rather than just near it.

He wastes no time again, digging right back in. Eddie continues lapping along your folds, taking a moment to suck on them. The sensation sends waves of pleasure through your body. You feel yourself get wetter, your pussy juices flowing down and drenching your thighs. Eddie moans against you, gripping your thighs, his dry hands feeling rough against them. You start to need more release, your hips grinding up and into his face. One of his hands on your thighs goes to your hips, holding them down.

You whimper, the feeling of wanting more still there.

He laughs, the hot breath against your pussy overstimulating you. “Patience, sweetheart.” He says, low but loud enough for you to hear him.

“I can’t, I can’t,” you whine, the knot in your stomach beginning, your thighs right up against his face.

“Relax your hips, sweetheart,” Eddie whispers, stopping. You open your eyes, facing his ceiling, a poster or two in the corner in your eye. You let your hips relax, your eyes focusing and unfocusing, your legs shaky. “Good girl.” You tense up reflexively to this, shifting your hips.

After letting you relax once more, Eddie starts to lightly tread one finger along the folds of your entrance, allowing only one fraction of his fingertip enter you. The finger crooks, bending as it barely presses against you. “Please, Eddie. More.” You beg him. This was too much to handle.

Your eyes closed, almost blissed out from the world, you don’t see the dark smile Eddie gives you mouth wide from the ecstasy he feels by being able to see you come undone like this. He finally places his finger inside of you, all the way to his knuckle where you can feel slight pressure of his ring. It goes back out just as slowly, starting to pick up the pace. As it builds pace, he starts to suck on your clit in a rhythm.

You feel yourself come closer to the edge, the not in your stomach becoming tighter and tighter. You don’t know if you believed he had limited experience like he claimed because he was so damn good at it. “Is this what you thought about princess? My fingers fucking you like this?”

You moaned loudly at this, nodding your head. “Uh-huh.”

Eddie takes his hands off holding your hips down, letting your hips buckle up instantly. As he leans in, he supports his crouched self onto the bed, you look at him, feeling the position change. You can see what he’s doing now, working on you but supporting himself that allows him to grind up against the bed for some release of his own. You let your head lay back down, eyes rolling in your head as you comprehend what he’s doing.

“I’m close, Eddie,” You moan, continuing to grind up against him.

He moves his finger faster, adding a second one to help. “Come on, sweetheart.” Eddie said, sounding a bit out of breath. “You’re doing so good, baby, taking this so well.”

“Just like that.”

Eddie bends his fingers then, hooking right against your g spot. It was the perfect thing to send you over the edge. Eddie could see from your brows knit together and face squished up you were close. You had no time to even warn him, the knot in your stomach snapping all at once. “Good girl,” Eddie says, working you through your high. You feel like you’re floating, unable to feel his bed beneath you. You grab onto him, attempting to ground yourself. Your vision goes white momentarily, your legs shaking.

You come down, feeling like a feather just flown into the wind on its downward trajectory. Slowly swaying back and forth as it floats down. You open your eyes, the ceiling coming into focus, Eddie’s heavy breathing grounding you. You sit up slowly, using your hands to support your shaking weight. You were still shaking in the aftermath, feeling yourself pulse around his fingers.

He takes his fingers out when you sit up. You take in his appearance, hair disheveled, and pink mouth with a wet shine on it. You reach down, grabbing his hands and pulling him towards you. He happily obliges, crawling up to you with a stupid big grin on his face. He slams his lips against yours, forcing you to fall right back down onto your back. You laugh into it, his chest against your half uncovered one. You preen your hands behind your own back, reaching for the clasp of your bra. “Can you help me?” You ask, now lying awkwardly on your arms.

He looks over you, huffing a laugh as he sees you with your arms trapped behind your back. Eddie reaches behind your back, unclasping your bra for you after fumbling with it for half a second. He rips it off you, tossing it aside to god knows where.

As Eddie leans in to kiss you, the fresh feeling of his skin directly against yours, you are all too aware his jeans are still on, boner pressing against the harsh fabric. You reach down, grabbing at his bulge. “You need to get rid of these jeans,” you mutter, starting to kiss his jaw as you move your hands to undo his jeans.

Eddie pulls away, giving you a look you couldn’t quite place. He opens his mouth, hesitating.

“You can tell me anything.” You say, pausing on his belt loops.

“I want you.” Eddie says, his face unwavering and suddenly serious.

You smile, reassuring him. “Baby, I don’t think I could’ve made it clearer; you have me. You literally owned my lingering eyes for way too long.”

Eddie gulped, looking away from you, mustering courage. “I want” Eddie paused, sighing. “I want to fuck you.”

Your smile fades, his words drenching the sheets beneath you. “Yeah?” You ask, your voice soft.

Eddie nods, his eyes moving up and down along your body.

You tighten your grip on his belt loops, leaning in to kiss him. As your lips connect, Eddie moans into it, loud and needy. You bring his pants and briefs down in one swift movement, keeping his lips on yours. He kicks them off the bed, his cock now brushing against your stomach. You break from him, keeping your foreheads connected as you reach down to start to fist him. Eddie bucks his hips into your hand, needing the release you offered him.

“You think you’re ready?” You ask, moving your hand at a steady pace, flicking your thumb against his slit occasionally. “I don’t want to rush you into doing something you’re not ready for.”

“I have been wanting to fuck you since I saw you in my shirt yesterday morning.” Eddie says gruffly. “I have condoms, in the drawer.”

You feel impulsive. “Who said anything about a condom? I want you too. I want to feel all of you.”  

Eddie’s eyes noticeably widen, taken aback by your bold statement. “Oh.”

You reach up to kiss him again, more tender than you’ve been kissing him all night. “Please, I want you inside of me. Now.”

Eddie’s breath hitched, framing his hand on your cheek. He leans up to reposition himself, moving your legs so he’s sat in-between them. He pauses, cock in his hand as he hovers around your entrance. He looks at you, one last time to make sure you were all in. You lick your lips, your eyes moving up to his face as you nod.

“Shit,” Eddie mutters, scooting towards you. You feel the head of his cock barely touch the folds of your entrance, moving up and down to position himself. “Ready baby?” He asks, his voice barely coming out.

You look at him, knowing this was his first time. "Are you?"

Eddie nods, his face looking desperate. He really wanted to be inside of you. You squeeze his hand, and nod.

Eddie finally moves himself into you, moaning as your wet heat completely enwraps his cock. “Fuck,” he grunts.

He was bigger than you anticipated, needing a moment to adjust. You held your hand out to signal for him to wait.

“You okay?” He asks, concern in his voice.

“Mmhmm” You whimper, your legs tense and eyes squeezed tight. “You’re just, really big.” A moment passes, and the pain transfers to pleasure. You nod.

He moves in a little more, now only halfway in. His hands are on your hips, caressing them to comfort you as you wince again. It takes only a moment before you’re ready for more. “You can move, if you want.”

Eddie starts to pump, only moving about an inch. “Oh shit” You mutter, you move your legs to frame his hips.

“Fuck princess you feel so good. So tight.” He whispers, barely able to hold back from thrusting hard into you.

“More, Eddie.” You whisper, wanting to feel even fuller.

His hips buckle at your request, going deeper inside you. “How does that feel, Y/N?” Eddie asks, voice gruff.

Your voice is barely intelligible, eyes rolling back at the mere feeling of Eddie fucking into you.

Holy shit you were fucking Eddie Munson. The man you’ve wanted for three years. Holy shit.  

“Your perfect little cunt feels so goddamn good princess,” he moans, his thrusts gaining in speed.

You have too much to say back at him, but your mind and your mouth don’t seem to connect at the moment. You grab at him, pulling him so his forehead rests against yours. He used the more solid foundation he had to fuck into you harder, now thrusting his entire length into you.

As he continues moving faster, you lift your legs wider, your feet up in the air as his cock fucks your pussy open. “Baby, that feels so good,” You manage, not sure if he can even understand what you’re saying.

He leans into your neck, nipping at your skin as the rhythm gets sloppier.

Eddie is mumbling something, border lining on rambling at this point. “So good..so...tight…fucking..Y/N…”

You grab his face, pulling your foreheads together again. “Eddie, are you getting close?” You felt yourself get close again, a second orgasm usually not far behind a first. Eddie nodded, his face in a desperate state. “Where do you want to come?”

Eddie’s hips start losing it’s steady rhythm, bucking into you. It’s perfect, it’s needy, it’s rough. “Let me come on those beautiful tits, sweetheart.”

You move your hands to cup them, playing with your own nipples. Eddie leans in at the sight, rewarding you with messaging your bright red bud. The mixed sensations are enough to send you over the edge, your cunt tightening around him.

Eddie jerks his hips out, crawling onto you so he’s straddled onto your stomach. He buckles into his hand, wet come shooting out of his cock. He moans into it, clearly forgotten how to be self conscious about how he sounds. You open your mouth and stick your tongue as you come down from your high more easily, accepting the rogue come happily.

He collapses onto you, his hair in your face as he lands on the pillow you’re resting on.

A moment passes, both of you catching your breath. He’s covered in sweat, and as are you, despite him doing most of the work. Eddie lifts his head up to your face, connecting your foreheads. “That was,” he breathes a bit more, a loss for words.

“I know,” you say, agreeing. Eddie smiles, leaning down for a kiss.

This kiss you share is sweet, closed. Not the kind of kiss one usually gives after literally fucking the sense out of someone.

Eddie collapse next to you, yanking you into his arms so you are cuddling. You close your eyes, allowing yourself to sit in this moment before you realize. “Eddie can you get me a cloth, please? I’m still covered in your come.”

Eddie chuckles and kisses your forehead.

He gets up wordlessly, not bothering to put on any clothes as he wonders into the kitchen to grab you a wet cloth. You glance at your watch, not knowing the time. It was almost 11. When Eddie comes in with a wet cloth, you reach out for it. He yanks it out of reach. “Allow me.”

Eddie wipes the cloth on your chest and a little on your neck, completely taking care of you. He runs back out to throw the dirty cloth into the laundry and comes back after a bit of scrounging around in the kitchen. He had a glass of water. “Here. Drink up.”

You sit up, your legs feeling weak. “Thanks.” You take a sip, keeping an eye on him. You drink it all in one go, handing the glass back to him. “You know it’s just after eleven?”

“Well then, I guess we better get going soon then if we want to make curfew.” Eddie sighs dramatically.

You roll your eyes at him, shaking your head. You scoot yourself so you’re standing, nearly unable to. Eddie almost asks what you’re doing when you reach in to give him a hug. “I really like you, Eddie.”

Eddie pets your hair, kissing your head. “Well, I really like you too.”

“Did we just?” You ask, all too aware that you were both still completely naked.

Eddie rests his chin on your head, nodding. “Yes, princess we did just fuck. And I think we do an ok job of it.”

You hide your happy face into his chest, nuzzling the slight hair. You stay like that for another ten minutes before you both had to get ready to avoid being late for your curfew.

The ride back is not as quiet, the music turned down so you could talk. You talk about everything, what you were planning on doing tomorrow, the assignment you still haven’t done.

You hold his hand absentmindedly drawing on it with your other. You felt yourself falling harder than you could even think possible. Hell, you thought for one second you might be in love with him.

As he was talking animatedly about his new campaign he had planned, you listen intently, laughing at his antics.

You really could get used to this.

-

taglist: @emturtles @yourthebrokengirl @steeldaisies

[dynamic-power]

The Happiness We Deserve

Chapter 7

Read it here on ao3

Rated E | 1k (11.6k total)

CW: None for this chapter

Jay stops by while Ian is still over

Chapter 1

I posted this yesterday and forgot to post it here too. Oops. 😅

An hour and a shared bowl later, they were pleasantly high and relaxed further into the couch. It was nice, sitting there with Ian and talking about everything and nothing. Ian told him about his cat, about his coworkers, about living in the city. Mickey told him about the Alibi and about his time in prison. 

They ended up talking about Ian’s family, too. Ian listened eagerly as Mickey told him little stories about his nieces and nephews, embarrassing things about his siblings, things he did and didn’t like about their partners. 

Everything seemed to click into place. They slipped back into a comfortable atmosphere. It may have been the beers or the weed, but Mickey was enjoying the evening. 

They did not talk about their past beyond sharing a few remembered stories from childhood. They didn’t talk about how things were left between them; how their last real conversation had been while Ian was sick, how he had broken Mickey’s heart that day, or how he stopped visiting. They didn’t talk about the fact that he’d left without saying goodbye to anyone. Not just Mickey, but Lip and Liam and Carl and Debbie. 

And that was okay. Mickey was fine with that. He didn’t want to bring up the shitty stuff; he wanted to enjoy laughing and talking with a friend that he hadn’t seen in a long time. 

It was okay and Mickey was fine with moving on. 

But that was a lie. 

Because really, he wanted to scream and yell. He wanted to curse Ian for leaving things the way he did. He wanted to ask how he could do that, wanted to know if what he said he’d felt for Mickey were lies. How else could he have let him go so easily? He wanted to know if everything they’d gone through together had fucked him up as much as it had fucked up Mickey. 

He wanted to know if maybe, maybe, Ian had lingering doubts. If maybe his heart still yearned for-

But Mickey wasn’t going to allow himself to dwell on any of that. 

Instead, he smiled, and nodded, and laughed as Ian told him about his life. The one he lived apart from Mickey.

Mickey was finishing off their second bowl when the door to his apartment unlocked and swung open. 

Jay appeared in the doorway, still dressed in his suit from work, with his overnight bag slung over one shoulder. His nose scrunched as he smelled the weed. “Mickey,” he said with a sigh, closing the door and locking it, “you know I don’t like it when-”

He turned around and cut himself off with a small, “oh.”

Ian looked about as startled as Mickey felt. His wild eyes darted to Mickey briefly before looking back to Jay, offering him a little wave. “Uh,” he said, “sorry.”

“I didn’t know he’d still be here,” Jay said stiffly.

“I didn’t know you’d be comin’ by,” Mickey said, feeling a little annoyed. He knew that was unfair; Jay had a key and an open invitation. 

“Yeah, well. I texted you when I left the office. I took the morning off tomorrow, so I figured we could…” He trailed off with a wave of his hand, but didn’t put down his bag or remove his jacket. “But if you’re busy-”

“No,” Ian said with a firm shake of his head, “I’m not staying much longer.” He looked down at his watch. “I should actually be getting back to the hotel. Doug will be waiting up for me.” It was a lie; he’d already told Mickey that Doug had gone to bed before he’d even come over. The model had a ridiculously early call time and needed rest. Mickey wanted to call Ian out on it, but he held his tongue. 

“It was good to see you,” Jay said before Ian had even moved from the couch. With a clearly annoyed glance at Mickey, Jay disappeared into the bedroom. The door shut with a soft click. 

“Um,” Ian said, laughing nervously and rubbing his thighs with his hands, “I don’t think he likes me very much.”

“I know he doesn’t,” Mickey said with a snort. “But that’s okay. Makes sense, after all.” He should have stopped talking, but he was high and his mouth was moving before his brain could even process the words. “It’s not often that your boyfriend is visited by the one who got away.”

They both froze. The room was completely silent for a moment, before Ian cleared his throat. “The what?”

“Nothin’,” Mickey said quickly, setting the bong on the coffee table and standing from the couch. “I didn’t say nothin’, and you didn’t-”

“It’s okay, Mick,” Ian interrupted. His voice was strained, like it physically hurt him to say the next words. “You got away from me, too.”

Emotion rushed through Mickey. Anger, confusion, desperation, sadness. I didn’t go anywhere, he wanted to shout, you could have had me if you’d just stayed.

He swallowed it all down, clenching his fists as Ian rose from the couch. “I’ll call you an uber,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket. Opening it, he saw that he did, in fact, have a missed call and three new texts from Jay. 

Ian’s hand fell on his arm, warm and rough. Just like everything else about this older version of Ian, it was both foreign and familiar. Mickey made the mistake of looking up. Ian was so close.

His eyes were intense. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and his brow creased for a moment. “Mickey.”

Mickey felt his face flush and his eyes sting with the familiar feel of unshed tears. “Ian.” His voice shook. 

Ian darted forward and Mickey’s breath stopped as his warm mouth landed on his cheek. “Thanks for tonight,” Ian murmured against his skin. And then he was gone, leaving Mickey standing in the middle of his apartment with one hand clenched around his phone and the other pressed to his cheek. 

Mickey wiped angrily at his eyes and stomped over to his door, locking it behind Ian. Then he went to his bedroom, standing in front of the door and taking a few deep, measured breaths before pushing it open. 

[bluestbirdie]

9, 15, 29

Thank you! In the absence of declaring which one you want, I am deliberately misconstruing your request to extend to both writer and reader edition. If you did mean both, cool.

Writer Edition

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Yeah, that's totally Jazzprowl. I only have a couple WIPs (UFOs, really) without one or the other.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you? So, I'm taking most of the stuff I've ever written into next year, in the hopes something gets finished. But there are a few WIPs I'm more excited for and am more likely to complete than others. One I definitely plan to work on and hopefully post next year is the Witch AU, whose working title we will not reveal because it is a Big Spoiler!! It's Witch Hunter Jazz / Witch Prowl with a side of Green the familiar, and it will be a longfic. I'm super excited because I've come up with an awesome conflict and already worked bits of it into the early story. (Actually, after a period of not working on this WIP I forgot that there was an overarching conflict and then later came across my notes on it again. Such a good feeling.)

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? Oh, hard question. I stayed in a room with a big, beautiful, east-facing window that inspired the opening of Smoke & Mirrors. Reading it just reminds me of the lazy mornings I spent there.

Prowl woke with the sun. For one, daylight streamed inside his window and lit his cottage better than any lantern - and the view outside was particularly beautiful this time of year. Second, the potions he planned to brew today would take the entirety of the daylight hours to complete and test. As they did yesterday. […] Waking, however, did not necessarily mean getting up. Prowl took the opportunity to wallow in his tiredness. The morning rays gently warmed his plating. Unusually, a thick berthsheet lay over his helm - he accepted it, since it kept the sunlight from shining directly into his optics. […]

Reader Edition

9. Favorite rare pair you read works for this year? Oooh, difficult. My favorite characters have so much chemistry with everyone… If I had to choose one rarepair, I'd choose Prowl/Skywarp. Love seeing Prowl and Seekers.

15. Favorite canon concept you read this year? I have read very little canon this year, oops… since I know for sure I read some IDW2019, I'm going to go with the funny little palm greeting they have in that series. Or, I know that I definitely read about how they have the news, which is delightfully domestic.

29. Do you have any works you think are required reading for (fandom)? Transformers? No. Jazz/Prowl? No, but I recommend Aard-Rinn's Crime in Crystals series. If for some reason anyone here likes Resident Evil, and wants to see like the only two major characters who never met in canon meet, the Leon/Wesker fandom is for you. I rec the Things We Don't Tell Chris series by acid rounds (some works explicit).

[just-another-blog-of-fluff]

The Waiting Game

Warnings: tickling, fluff

Word count: 3200

I'm not as happy with how this one came out as the last two, but if I keep thinking about it I'll never post it so... hope it's alright!

* * *

You knew you shouldn’t tell anyone. You knew there would be consequences. But it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

You had been taking care of your friend’s pet hamster while they were away for the weekend. For the most part, you’d kept it in your room in its cage to avoid bothering the others with all the noise it made overnight, running on its squeaky wheel at all hours. When everyone else had left the compound for the day, you decided the poor animal could use some real exercise. You had placed the critter in his little hamster ball and brought him to the common area so he could roll around freely.

Except, the little door that closed the ball wasn’t latched all the way. Oops.

Before you knew it, you were crawling around on your hands and knees trying to locate your friend’s pet. You left little snacks out around the room in hopes it would get curious and come out of hiding to munch on something. You were so focused on the task at hand you hadn’t noticed Loki had entered the room, until you heard his voice behind you.

“What in the norns are you doing?” he inquired. You turned to look at him, just as you saw a little fuzzy creature tear across the room and right in front of the dark-haired god. He let out a somewhat undignified yelp as he jumped back. Luckily, the hamster stopped at one of the treats you’d left for him, giving you ample opportunity to scoop him up in your hands. “W-what is that?”

“This is my friend’s hamster!” you explained, giggling at his reaction. “The better question is – what was that noise you made? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of this little thing?”

“Of course not! It merely startled me, is all,” he quickly insisted. You held the hamster out toward him, and Loki took a nearly imperceptible step backward.

“Mmhmm, ok. Not scared. Got it.” Grinning, you moved your hand back and petted the hamster gently on the head. “What would the others think if they knew you a tiny little rodent made you freak out?”

Loki narrowed his eyes at you. “Never speak of this,” he demanded, pointing a finger firmly at you to emphasize. He quickly left the room after that, likely to regain his composure.

But you couldn’t just not tell anyone about this gold nugget of information you’d just learned. So, naturally, you told his brother. And Thor, not one for keeping secrets, told everyone else. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of teasing over the next couple of days. You steered clear of the god, knowing he would not take kindly to your having informed the rest of the team about the little incident.

You couldn’t avoid him forever, though. A couple days later, after having returned the pet to your friend, you were making breakfast for yourself in the kitchen when Loki’s voice echoed from the doorway.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he stated, his tone ominous. You turned from the stove to meet his eye, smiling sweetly to mask your nervousness at being confronted by the trickster.

“No, of course not! We just haven’t crossed paths,” you fibbed. He rolled his eyes.

“Oh yes – I suppose yesterday in the hallway you just realized you forgot something SO important you had to literally sprint in the opposite direction as you saw me approach?”

“Oh… alright, fine. Yes, I’ve been avoiding you. Wouldn’t you do the same?” Loki stepped into the kitchen, taking a few gradual steps toward you.

“You must know there are consequences when you cross me,” he warned. “You humiliated me, and so I think it only fair I do the same to you.”

“Well good luck with that, I’m an open book. There’s no secrets you can use against me,” you quipped.

“You see, I thought that may be the case, so I started querying the other Avengers,” he explained, now standing only a few feet away from you. Instinctively, you put down your half-cooked breakfast and took a step away from the advancing Asgardian. “Most of them had fairly useless information – scared of spiders, fairly standard human weakness… sleeps with a stuffed bear, which everyone already seemed to know about…”

“Please. That’s not embarrassing,” you huffed.

“…and then I spoke to the spider child. He provided me with some very interesting information about you.” Loki smirked, causing you to laugh nervously.

“Oh, do tell,” you urged, folding your arms across your chest, and trying to play it off as a laugh of disbelief. Loki had now backed you into the corner of the kitchen, which you hadn’t realized until your back met the cold plaster of the wall.

“He informed me that the only time he’s ever seen you truly flustered and embarrassed was during one of your sparring matches, when he accidentally learned about your little secret.” Realization dawned on you, and you tensed up immediately. “He described how you’d begged him not to tell anyone, and he hadn’t up until this point. Apparently he finds me threatening, so it wasn’t difficult to convince him to start talking.”

“I-I don’t know what he could possibly be talking about,” you muttered.

“I think you do,” Loki argued. He pounced at you, lunging with his hands aimed at your sides, causing you to squeak and curl into yourself. His hands stopped inches away from you, close enough that your skin tingled from sheer proximity to his fingertips. “You’re ticklish. Severely, based on that reaction.”

“Pshh, no I’m not! That’s… that’s ridiculous,” you denied, your lie exposed by your nervous giggles and blushing face.

“Mmhmm, I’m sure.” His hands darted toward your belly, again stopping right before he made contact. You yelped and whipped your arms down across your torso to protect yourself. Loki’s smirk only grew wider.

“Ok, fine. You’re right. Just… get it over with!” you begged.

“Oh no. Where would be the fun in that?” he chuckled, stepping back and allowing you space to move away from the wall. “I’ve got to build some anticipation. Catch you when you least expect it.”

“That’s just mean!” you groaned. Loki laughed again, turning around to leave the kitchen. Just before he left, he called over his shoulder.

“You’d better watch your back.”

* * *

Loki’s little game went on for days.

You were on edge at any given moment. Peeking around corners before entering rooms, listening through doors before opening them, trying to ensure your safety before making a move. You half expected him to jump out of nowhere and attack you with tickles on your way down the hallway, but it never happened. Still, you made your travel between rooms as brief as possible.

You wouldn’t say you were dreading the moment he finally did decide to pounce. In fact, in a way the idea made your heart flutter with excitement. What made you most nervous was the thought of the team figuring out you actually enjoyed being tickled, especially Loki. You were certain that that would be the embarrassing part. That, and the fact that you were already flustered by being around Loki long before he figured out this bit of information about you.

You couldn’t always avoid him. There were times that you had to be in the same room for prolonged periods, like during meetings. Loki always seemed to have things set up before you arrived so that the only seat remaining in the room was next to him. You considered sitting on the floor, once, but Steve gave you a scorning look which made you shrink down into the chair beside Loki, albeit begrudgingly. During these meetings, Loki always made sure to keep you on your toes; leaning towards you abruptly and placing his hand on the back of your chair, making you jump, only to whisper something about the meeting presentation, or some ridiculous observation about his brother.

It wasn’t just during work-related gatherings, either. One night, you joined a few of your teammates in the common room to watch a TV show together. Wanda stood up from the couch beside you to go grab a snack from the kitchen, and out of nowhere Loki swooped in and sat down in the spot she previously occupied.

“Good evening,” he greeted you, smirking as you shuffled further toward the edge of the couch to increase the distance between the two of you.

“Loki,” you grunted stiffly in reply.

“Now, y/n, that’s no way to greet your fellow team member,” he scolded tauntingly, clapping a hand on your shoulder, and causing you to flinch away reflexively. He leaned back against the couch, casually propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of you – a stark contrast from your position, huddled in the corner of the couch hugging your knees to your chest in an effort to make yourself as small as possible. “Pray tell, what are we watching?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” you huffed. Maybe this whole situation was making you feel a little bratty toward the Asgardian, but in all honesty he really did deserve it.

Suddenly he lunged toward you, causing you to squeak and jolt away from his fingertips. He never touched you, though, closing his fingers around the TV remote sitting on the couch beside you with a smug grin on his face.

“My, my, aren’t we jittery this evening?” he teased, settling back into his seat as he pointed the remote toward the TV to check the guide and find out the show title you had refused to provide.

“Everything alright over there, antsy-pants?” Tony asked, having witnessed the whole interaction.

“Yup! Just peachy,” you replied quickly, shooting Loki a quick glare.

“Peachy? Uh… alright then…” Tony scrutinized you for a moment before turning his attention back to the TV screen.

Needless to say, you didn’t really remember any of the rest of the show from that evening.

Then, as if these group gatherings weren’t enough, there was also your regularly scheduled training sessions. One morning, when Nat had you practicing throwing punches at the punching bag, you sensed Loki lurking around behind you. You turned your head just enough to catch him in your peripheral vision standing a few feet away, observing you silently.

“Better watch yourself – I might just throw one of these punches in your direction,” you threatened, keeping your eye on him as you continued to practice.

“Such hostility,” he teased. “Surely this much stress can’t be good for a mortal such as yourself.” He quickly advanced toward you, causing you to spin around and throw your hands up in front of you in defense. A deep, throaty laugh escaped his lips at your reaction. “You’ve only proven my point. You must learn not to be so tense.” He grabbed hold of your shoulder and turned you around, kneading both shoulders with his strong hands. Under normal circumstances, you’d have melted under his touch, but you were unwilling to let your guard down even for a moment. You grabbed his wrists and turned back to face him, pointing an accusing finger in his face.

“I’m not just going to let you slip past my defenses that easily,” you warned, stepping backward toward the door to leave while he smirked at you in amusement.

“Oh, don’t worry - I’m certain of that.”

* * *

After a week of this charade, you were really getting anxious. You were starting to flinch at every little sound, every rapid movement anyone made in your direction. Even when it wasn’t Loki you were interacting with, you couldn’t help but feel uneasy. The anticipation was literally driving you insane.

You entered the training room that morning ready to release some of your stress in your sparring session. Unfortunately, Steve had started noticing over the last few days that you and Loki were in the middle of some sort of conflict, and so he assigned the two of you as sparring partners, telling you to either fight it out or get over whatever it was. Reluctantly, you stepped out onto the sparring mat and faced your opponent, already starting to feel nervous butterflies in your stomach. Loki shot you his characteristic mischievous smirk, ducking into his fighting stance.

“I’ll do my best to make this a fair fight,” he goaded. You mimicked his stance, narrowing your eyes at him across the mat.

“Just get on with it, Loki,” you ordered. You didn’t wait around for him to make the first move, throwing a quick one-two punch which he dodged easily. He countered with a jab toward your ribs, stopping just before he made contact, but it was enough to make you flinch. You aimed a low-sweeping kick at his ankles but missed again as he hopped over your leg. Frustrated, you threw another sloppy punch toward his shoulder, but he grabbed hold of your wrist and yanked you toward him, spinning you around easily and pinning your arm behind your back, his other hand gripping your waist.

“Do you yield?” he asked, his voice low in your ear. You spun back around and yanked your wrist free in one fluid motion, driving him backward by slamming your forearm into his chest.

“Not just yet,” you grunted, grinning as he stumbled from the unexpected force. Loki quickly regained his balance, wasting no time in lunging at you again. This time, he aimed his hand toward your side, causing you to yelp and twist awkwardly to avoid his touch.

“Did Natasha teach you that move? Your form is getting sloppy.”

“You know exactly what made me move like that,” you muttered, jumping back on the offensive and landing a couple of blows to his shoulder. He retaliated with a jab straight at your stomach, stopping his own momentum early enough that he merely tapped his fist against your belly. You doubled over, wrapping both arms around your torso protectively.

“It seems your fighting skills require quite a bit of work.”

“Damnit, Loki!” you shouted, unable to take it anymore. “If you’re going to do it, just do it!”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” he replied, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Oh, you know exactly what I mean. You’ve been finding every excuse to lean toward me or make a sudden move in my direction to make me think you’re going to do it. I can’t stand it anymore!” You didn’t quite realize how loudly you were shouting at this point, causing heads to turn in your direction without your noticing. “I know this was all part of your grand plan, to drive me insane with anticipation. You win! I give! Just… get it over with already, please!”

In one swift motion, Loki tackled you flat on your back onto the mat, arms pinned over your head. You felt your stomach somersault, partially from the sudden drop to the floor and partially from the wide smirk on Loki’s face as he hovered over you.

“Well, since you asked so nicely…” Loki released both of your wrists and latched both hands to your sides, squeezing rapidly. You burst into uncontrollable laughter at the agonizingly ticklish sensation. Even Loki seemed somewhat taken aback by your reaction. “No wonder you were so concerned; the spider boy certainly wasn’t lying.”

“Damn you Peteheher!!!” you groaned through your laughter. At this point, everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing to see what the sudden commotion was about. You could feel your face burning, knowing everyone’s eyes were on you as Loki tickled you senseless.

You couldn’t bring yourself to fight back very hard, though; after all, you’d been waiting for this to happen for an entire week. You hoped it didn’t seem too obvious. You didn’t dwell on it for long, though, as Loki’s fingers crawled up to your ribs, depriving you of all coherent thought.

“Do you regret spreading humiliating rumors about me yet?” he teased, his smirk widening.

“N-no!”

“Tsk, tsk, wrong answer, darling,” Loki shook his head in mock disappointment, his hands darting back down to your sides so he could dig his thumbs into your hips.

“Lo… Loki… wahahait!” you pleaded, shrieking at the new sensation, and swatting feebly at his hands.

“I’m sorry, I’m not comprehending what you’re trying to tell me.” He was laughing now, clearly enjoying himself as he made you squirm under his torturous fingers. “Come, now, darling; I know you can fight better than that.” You shook your head rapidly, grasping weakly at his wrists. He moved to scribble lightly into your belly, trying to allow you the chance to talk while still keeping you giggling. “Use your words, love.”

“I-I cahahan’t!” you protested.

“You can’t? Or you’ve chosen not to?” Your eyes widened a bit, realizing he’d caught on to you. “Are you enjoying this?”

Blushing furiously, you rolled abruptly to the side to break his hold and scrambled to your feet, gasping for breath. Loki stood as well, staring you down for just a moment before lunging toward you. You turned and began to run, but the god easily caught up to you, grabbing hold of your arm and yanking you backward so he could trap you in what you could only describe as a bear hug.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Um…” Your heart was pounding in your chest from both exertion and embarrassment. “No? That would be… that would be weird.”

“On the contrary; I find it amusing. Dare I say… endearing, even.”

“Really..? Are you sure-” You were cut off by your own hysterical laughter as Loki dug his fingertips into your ribs, tickling you with renewed vigor. With your arms pinned to your sides and your back pressed flush against his chest, there was very little hope of you escaping this time.

“Surely you understand the implications of this newfound knowledge, dear? You’ve provided me with the perfect excuse to torment you whenever I’d like.”

“Stohohop teasing… LOKIHIHI!” you pleaded, your knees going weak as his fingers darted up and down your sides. You’d completely forgotten about everyone else in the room at this point, your mind going fuzzy. The only thing keeping you standing upright at this point was Loki holding your weight up as he tortured you.

By the time he released you from his hold, your stomach hurt from laughing so hard, and tears of mirth blurred your vision. It had been quite some time since anyone had tickled you like that. Heat still prickled in your cheeks, but you felt happy, nonetheless.

“Damn. Now I know how to cheer you up when you’re moping around the tower,” Tony quipped, walking past you and patting your shoulder as everyone finally returned to their own training exercises.

“Shut up, Tony,” you groaned, hiding your face in your hands. A swift poke in the sides made you jerk both arms down away from your face.

“I do believe we’re even,” Loki stated, smirking.

“Fine. We’re even. Now – can we finish our sparring match? Without cheating this time?” You shoved his shoulder playfully to emphasize your point. He only grinned wider.

“Darling, I refuse to make promises that I don’t intend to keep.”

[honey-dewey]

Dye Day Disasters Part Two

Pairing: Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey/Reader

Word Count: 1,594

Warnings: Mentions of spicy times, but nothing explicit. 

Permanent Taglist: @phoenixhalliwell @star-wars-hell

Three months after you and Dio dye your hair for the first time, he makes a deal with you. You can go with him when he visits his sister if he gets to pick your next hair color. I’m sure that won’t be a decision you regret, right? (Spoiler alert, it isn’t.)

A/N: This is a shameless continuation of a story I posted yesterday, Dye Day Disasters. I have no shame and apparently no self control either. Oops. 

You sighed, kicking your feet and waiting. You’d never been good at waiting, but with Dio, waiting patiently got you rewarded, so you were willing to sit by the door and simply wait.

Dio had gone out to the store for dyes and other stuff, and you and him had struck a bargain before he had left. You were both headed out to visit his sister, and he agreed that he’d take you with him for the visit if and only if he got to pick your hair color this time around. You’d relented. In the months since Dio had dyed your hair the first time, you’d gone through plenty of colors, your favorite still being the deep teal with blue streaks that made you look like a mermaid. But now, the fate of your hair was in Dio’s hands.

The door opened, and you eagerly jumped up, seeing Dio walk in with the bag of goodies. “Were you waiting on the floor for me?”

“No!” You lied, hugging Dio tightly. “C’mon, we’re gonna be late.”

Dio smiled, putting the bag down. “Calm down darling. Everly knows we’ll probably be late.”

You pouted. “We won’t be late!”

Grabbing your hands, Dio leaned in close. “Oh really? Because you do get a reward for sitting pretty while I was gone.”

So you were definitely going to be late. Dio rewarded you while you both showered, staying in until the water ran freezing. After that, you had to take care in covering the budding bruises Dio left all over your skin. Yeah, definitely going to be late.

And you were. Thankfully, not by much. Everly, who you’d only met once or twice, was eager to see you, happily hugging you and smiling when you winced at her tight embrace. “Oh honey,” she said. “Did Dio ruin you last night?”

“This morning,” you admitted sheepishly. “I’m gonna get even with him, I swear.”

Everly laughed. “Well, come in!”

You followed her through her house, Dio behind you. Everly chatted to you both, leading you into the garage, which was set up like a one man salon.

“This is where I do most of my work,” she said. “And if I’m not wrong, Dio texted me and told me we’d be using it.”

Dio nodded. “Just dyeing,” he said. “Nothing ridiculous.”

Everly groaned overdramatically. “Fine,” she said. “But, and do remind me to show off the photos, you looked so fun with bubblegum pink hair. Who’s first?”

Dio pointed to you. “They need bleach.”

You grinned. “Yeah. Learned that one the hard way. I was orange for a while when we tried to go from yellow to red.”

“That’s just basic color theory,” Everly said, pointing to the chair. “Sit. What color are we doing?”

Dio pulled Everly aside and showed her the dye, and she eagerly nodded. “Oh that’ll look so good!” She said happily, turning back to you. “But definitely bleach first, to make it pop.”

Still in the dark about your hair color, you said a silent goodbye to the slightly faded navy blue color you had now while Everly pulled a towel that was already bleach stained across your shoulders. “So,” she said, grabbing a bottle of bleach and measuring a decent amount into a bowl. “How goes it baby brother?”

Rolling his eyes at the baby brother comment, Dio began to tell Everly about life. You added bits when he missed something or said something wrong, but you mostly just listened as Everly bleached your hair.

Finally, once you were fairly certain you were going to fall asleep, Everly put the bleach bowl down and nodded. “Alrighty,” she said. “C’mon up now. I gotta fix all of that.” She gestured in Dio’s general direction and you suppressed a smile. “And it might take a while.”

You stood and Dio took your place, shedding his jacket and watching Everly in the mirror. “Have you talked to Brynn recently?”

Everly shrugged. “Yeah. She was here a few weeks ago,” she said, shaking out a cape and pulling it over Dio’s shoulders. “She’s doing well. We went dress shopping.”

Dio nodded, putting his chin to his chest when Everly pushed his head down. “That’s good,” he said.

“Yeah,” Everly agreed. “Oh, and Viv says hi. I saw her yesterday. She was disappointed she couldn’t see you.”

“She lives down the street from me,” Dio said. “She can literally walk to my apartment and visit.”

Everly laughed. “You know Viv. She won’t do it.”

Dio rolled his eyes, and you smiled. Sometimes you forgot how well Dio got along with his sisters.

“Okay baby bro,” Everly said, ruffling Dio’s hair once she was done, in her words, neatening him up. “Hop up. It ain’t your turn anymore.”

She didn’t make Dio get up, mostly because you and him didn’t need to swap places yet. Instead, she sat you in front of a sink and rinsed the bleach away, humming. “So,” she said, looking down at you. “When’s he gonna propose?”

You heard Dio drop something, and you almost knocked your head on the side of the sink in shock. “What?”

Everly laughed. “You two have been together for ages,” she said. “And when I mentioned I was seeing Dio, mom made me promise to ask when you two were getting married.”

“Everly, I will stab you with something,” Dio said, sounding strained.

“And we have not been together for ages,” you added. “It’s been two years.”

Everly rolled her eyes. “You’ve known each other for almost five though,” she said.

“Still not getting married!” You said, and Everly smiled.

“Okay, okay, I’m just the messenger,” she said, wrapping your head in a towel. “Dio. Up.”

Dio stood, sitting where you’d just been while you took his place. Everly dried your hair, asking Dio to turn some music on while she worked. He did, hooking her phone up to an aux cord and immediately flinching at her selection of music. “ABBA? Really?”

“Excuse you!” Everly said over the hair dryer. “ABBA is excellent!”

Dio said nothing, and out of the corner of your eye, you could see him tapping his foot along to the music.

“Finally, the fun part,” Everly said eagerly, turning the chair around so you couldn’t see yourself in the mirror. “Dio, wanna help?”

Dio eagerly got up, standing on your left while Everly took your right.

“Is it gonna be half-and-half again?” You asked. Dio shushed you, putting on gloves and beginning to carefully section your hair. So that was a yes.

Everly mixed the colors behind you, handing Dio a bowl and smiling. “Here we go.”

Between Everly and Dio, the process was much quicker than it was at home. Everly was done first, and began to prep Dio’s black dye while he finished up his side of your head.

Finally, when your hair was entirely coated in dye, you stood so Dio could sit. You tried to sneak a peek in the mirror exactly once, and found yourself unsuccessful and completely deterred from doing it again. Unsuccessful because Everly had put a black towel around your head and deterred because Dio pinched your thigh really hard. “No peeking.”

You pouted, making a very dignified face at Dio and humming along to ‘Killer Queen’ while Everly worked black dye into Dio’s hair.

Finally, he joined you, and you pouted in his direction.

“What?”

“You pinched me!”

Dio smiled. “Would you like me to kiss it better?”

Your pout disappeared. “Can I pinch you back?”

Sighing, Dio bared his arm, and you pinched the sensitive skin on the inside of his elbow. He didn’t even flinch.

“You’re both dorks!” Everly said from across the room.

You smiled, standing up and plopping back down on Dio’s lap, leaning against his chest. He immediately accommodated for you, shifting so you’d both be comfortable.

“Yeah, dorks,” Everly decided, sitting in her chair and swinging around slowly. She held up her phone. “Say hi to Viv.”

You both waved to the phone, and Everly sent the video. “Alright. Forty five minutes. Are y’all in the mood for a movie?”

The answer was yes, mostly because Everly put on Corpse Bride. It was one of Dio’s favorites, so you two stayed cuddled up and watched the first half of the movie. When Everly’s timer went off, you reluctantly stood and stretched, sitting at the sink again and damn near falling asleep as she rinsed the excess dye out.

After a very lengthy blow dry session where Dio was adamant you still couldn’t look, you were allowed to turn around.

“Oh my god,” you breathed, finally seeing your hair. “Dio, I love it!”

Dio smiled. “I knew you would.”

Your hair, which had been navy at the start of this ordeal, was now split between baby blue and a paler pink, reminding you of cotton candy.

Everly grinned. “He picked well. I have to say, not everyone can pull these colors off.”

After that, Dio’s hair was washed and dried, and Everly made good on her promise to send you home with Polaroids of Dio with highlighter pink hair. You waved goodbye, promising to come back soon.

“Did you have fun today?” Dio asked as you two got in the car to go home.

“Yeah,” you said, yawning. “I’m exhausted though.”

Dio smiled. “Get some rest. And thank you for trusting me.”

You leaned back, cradling your head between the car seat and the door. “Wasn’t any question about it Dio,” you said softly. “I’ll always trust you.”

“Always?”

“Always.”

[im-a-prettywoman]

oops forgot to post this yesterday but im not counting this weekend. yesterday i went to this party and it was SO FUN. oh my god it was so fun. okay so i got kinda wasted and then smoked a bit (and i got a bit of the munchies but whateva). ive never been so fucked before, but like in a good way yk. anywaysss this morning i was super hungover and decided that it wasn't worth my energy to count calories--i'm just gonna focus on getting my brain working again.

so overall: this was such a great weekend, even though i didn't count. but this week im gonna try to do some low res to get my body back on track. okay, cool!!

[tsukikento]

Too Fast For Your Own Good Part 1

(part 2) (part 3)

Pairing: Takami Keigo (Hawks x Reader)

Words: 4814

Summary: Soulmate!AU - the first words your soulmate says to you is written on your body in ink.

Genre/Warnings: Nothing? Fluff maybe?

A/N: I got carried away and this got too long so now it’s two parts! Hahaha oops sorry. Anyways, pls enjoy I spent hella time on this! Also posted on my ao3 @ allie_win

When Takami Keigo turned 13, a small tattoo formed on his back, just between his wings. 

The first thing he remembers was the burning sensation he felt in the middle of the night. He remembers yelping from the pain, turning on the light, and looking in the mirror to see what it was. 

Takami was worried that something was happening to his wings, but he was relieved to see that it was his soulmate mark, something he completely forgot about. 

I know I am.

Takami spent that night staring at the marking, admiring the way they curved around his wings. Finally, he had the promise of love.

The next day, Takami came to training sleep-deprived yet still shining happily. He remembers telling a man at the company about it, only for him to brush it off by saying, “Don’t think about your soulmate mark, you will be a hero with no time for romance.”

After that, Takami did not anticipate the meeting of his soulmate. Those words got Takami through a lot of tough situations. They pathed the way for his personality to form.

~~

When Y/L/N Y/N turned 13, a small tattoo formed on your back, just between your shoulder blades.

The burning sensation that you woke up to in the middle of the night scared you so much that you accidentally stopped time. The colorful world turned gray and you took this chance to turn on the lights and check the new mark.

Your parents expected this and preemptively explained the situation to you. They did not, however, describe the pain you were currently feeling.

You spent as much time as you could looking at the words on your back before turning off the lights, getting back into bed, and letting time once again flow without immediate interruptions.

So apparently you’re faster than me?

The words didn’t leave your head that night, and your parents also questioned the meaning when they saw it in the morning. 

A thought that frequently crossed your mind was that obviously you were faster than them. You could stop time! Granted, you couldn’t breathe while you were stopping time, which meant you had to spend time training your breathing, but you could currently go a whole minute without feeling your lungs heat up.

The idea of speed eventually made sense when you were signing up to take the entrance exam at U.A. High School. The professor signing you up asked to see your quirk, to which you paused time, moved to stand next to the professor, and started time.

“Wow, teleportation!” The professor complimented.

Although you were about to correct him, he gave you a number and called the next person up, not allowing you to speak. 

Regardless of how many times you tried to correct someone about your quirk, they constantly interrupted you and didn’t listen. Eventually, you gave up, deciding that deception may be the best choice for you.

From there, and into your graduation, you were known as Teleportation Hero: Telethon.

~~ Present Time - Age 20

When you awoke from a deep sleep on your first day off in two weeks, you were greeted by cool air and birds singing on a bright Sunday morning. You yawned, stretched your limbs, and relished in the warm sunshine coming through your windows that juxtaposed the wind passing by your exposed leg.

Today, you had plans. Relaxation plans specifically. A Swedish massage and celebrity-scale facial were waiting to meet you at your 2 pm appointment today, giving you ample time to eat and get ready. You had been anticipating this appointment for the past month, allowing the excitement to push you through the tough and tireless month you had faced. 

What made this appointment all the more worth it was the effort you put into yesterday’s mission. An earthquake villain appeared in the city and sent down multiple buildings in their wake. The entire situation was incredibly tiring, from the hours spent stopping time and carrying people out of buildings to the paperwork you filled out till midnight yesterday.

You turned onto your side and grabbed your phone off the side table.

You had a few push notifications from various apps as well as a couple texts from your friend, Kaoruko Awata, regarding the dinner plans you both had and your boss Edgeshot, wishing you a good day off. You smiled at the text and responded before putting your phone away. You would love to spend time responding to fans, but you wanted to use less time on your phone today, choosing to focus more on life and nature.

Eventually, you made your way out of bed and got dressed in some exercise clothes. Your stomach was growling at this point, and you were really craving some waffles and a cup of coffee.

Once done cooking, you turned on the television and reached across your coffee table to grab your coffee and felt your muscles ache, reminding you once again of the day previous.

You got the call seconds after the earthquake, and you immediately rushed over. 

Multiple buildings were crumbling down, some were ablaze in wild, red and yellow fires. Heroes were scattered across the scene, all rushing around to help the hundreds of civilians harmed. Some flew through the sky, others working to stop the fires. You didn’t spend much time taking in the scene, opting to begin the rescue mission; you of all people knew the importance of time.

The world thought you could effortlessly transport people from location to location. Opposingly, the process of saving people was rather tedious. You knew the importance of this mission, and you spent as much time as you could in the gray and frozen world you effortlessly created, but you still had to hold your title as Teleportation Hero. At this point, if the world found out you were lying about your quirk, they wouldn’t be able to trust you.

Oh, the hole you had dug yourself was deep and there was no one to help you out of it.

Around 12 pm, you finished your food, turned off the television and pulled out the book you were currently reading. With your busy schedule, you had very little time to read, but your New Year's Resolution was to read more, and this was one of the few days you could stick to that goal.

Regardless of the interesting story, you found yourself drifting back to yesterday’s events.

You had arrived so quickly to the scene that you had no communication earpieces set up and ended up stopping a healing hero to hear about the ongoing battle. 

“You okay?” The healing hero asked first and foremost, ignoring your question.

“Just quirk overuse,” You breathlessly replied. “How is everything going?” You asked again.

“Good, but it’s a slow process,” They replied. The healing hero grabbed a few serums off their belt and mixed them together in a small bottle. “The villain isn’t caught yet, but apparently they are narrowing in on him. He’s on the run right now.”

You nodded in response, silently praying that they catch him to ensure that no one else was hurt. 

“Here, drink this. It’ll give you a burst of energy,” The healing hero said while holding out a vile of blue liquid.

“Thanks,” You replied and immediately downed the shot. It burned down your throat and you felt the energy immediately rush through. It was definitely increasing your adrenaline. You handed the healing hero the bottle back and stopped time to rush into a new building. 

When you realized you had been daydreaming instead of focusing on the story, you silently scolded yourself and grabbed a cup of water to clear your head. You saw the clock read 1 pm, and you decided to get ready now instead of being perpetually late like usual.

You fondly reminded yourself how lucky you were to have a time manipulation quirk that helped counteract your horrible habit of being late.

~~

You ended up finishing the entire process of your massage and facial appointment around 5 pm, giving you less than two hours before your dinner date with Awata. The plan was for her to come over around 6:30, with food in hand, she had just texted you 5 restaurant options for you to judge. You lazed around your house as you looked up each restaurant’s menu and selected your top 2.

From your two, Awata ended up choosing the pizza place and told you that she would call to order right away. About 20 minutes later, you got a text from Awata letting you know that she was on her way.

You replied and went into the kitchen to grab out plates for the pizza. You downed the rest of the water you had been sipping periodically and walked across your small studio apartment to change into a more appropriate outfit than the one you had worn to your appointment.

Once in a comfortable yet surprisingly cute outfit, you moved back into your living room to wait for your friend. It was so uncommon that you got a whole day off without any training or any extra errands to run for work and you were going to utilize every second of rest. You laid down on your couch and quickly got lost in your thoughts.

Your mind wandered to Awata, reflecting on your great friendship with her. Although she was incredibly quiet and soft-spoken, she had the true heart of a hero and craved helping people. Not only that, but she had slowly been getting funnier and funnier due to her job at Sir Nighteye’s office.

You still remembered the smile on her face when she told you that she got the job with a silly joke.

Around 6:30, Awata texted you to buzz her up, and by the time she got upstairs, you had moved the plates and two full cups of water to the coffee table. You got up from your couch at the sound of a knock at your door.

“Hey, Ms. Hero Allstar,” Awata said as she waltzed into your condo with two personal-sized pizzas. “So, what’s it like?”

“What’s what like?” You mumbled, more focused on the steaming pizza that was being handed to you. You both were already drooling at the prospect of gooey cheese and carbs.

“Being so famous!” Your friend yelled as she took on her shoes before plopping down on your love seat.

You scoffed at her comment and rolled your eyes before opening up your pizza, “I’m not even in the top 2,000 heroes.” You grabbed a slice and moved it onto your plate.

“Not after today,” Awata replied, as she joined you in opening up her own pizza.

You looked up at your friend with a confused face, not able to reply because your mouth was filled with pizza.

“Wait, do you really not know?” Awata asked. She reached over and grabbed your television remote, switching it onto a local news station.

The image of two anchors came onto the screen. The view of them quickly switched away to a video of the wreckage from today. “They saved a total of 137 civilians in the span of only two hours. Additionally, no additional damage was caused in the process. This success skyrocketed Telethon to top charts online.”

The screen cut to a scene of you using your quirk to grab multiple people in only a few seconds. You gawked and looked over to your friend. 

“It was truly impressive, but what can you expect from a member of Edgeshot’s agency” The female anchor spoke as the screen cut back to them.

“It is,” The male agreed. “In fact, we have some quotes from yesterday about the situation.”

The healing hero from before popped onto screen. “I worked with Telethon for only a moment today, giving them one of my serums to help give them the energy needed to save people. I feel honored I got to be a part of this record-breaking defeat.”

The screen cut to a young boy, possibly 12 years old.

“Telethon was so cool yesterday!” Their face was bright and it warmed your heart to see their support. “Not only were they fast, but they were fast for hours! That’s endurance! Most speed heroes don’t have that, they might even be faster than Hawks!”

The screen cut back to the chuckling anchors and you looked over to your friend as they talked about the multiple videos circling the internet that almost all had millions of views.

“Holy shit.”

Awata nodded excitedly. “I know.” Although quiet, she could get just as excited as you during great events. She was smiling wider than you were right now.

If you were in your right mind, you might have noticed the correlation between the speed comment, Hawks, and your soulmate mark. However, you were too excited about this new fame to even think about it.

The rest of your night was spent celebrating with Awata, both of you having a few drinks and stuffing your faces with indulgent American-style barbecue.

~~

As weeks passed, the fame for you continued to rise. Your rating approval shot through the roof and you were being stopped more often to give autographs and take photos.

Not only had your fame been rising, but so had the idea of you being faster than Hawks. Although you admired Hawks, you kept away from the drama, opting to focus more on improving your skills to meet the new expectations you were being given.

~~

After about a month of this challenge circulating, Hawks couldn’t help but make a comment. He was so much more popular and powerful than this wannabe, and no one was going to stop him from being the fastest hero. He was being bombarded daily for a comment about the speculation of someone being faster than him. Not only did he hate the attention, but he hated how the doubt of his strengths got to him.

One day, when paparazzi were surrounding him and pestering him about the challenge, he snapped and shouted into the camera.

“There is no way Telethon is faster than me and I will prove it! This is my official challenge for them to come out of hiding and actually race me!” He looked straight into the camera and spoke eerily calm, “I am too fast for my own good.”

~~

You still remembered the fear you felt when you watched the clip on the internet only a few hours after it went viral.

You will admit that you made a connection between your soulmate mark and Hawks’ words at the time, but you brushed them off. Too often were you disappointed after talking to a cute boy that you had been admiring. 

It’s not like you could focus on relationships as a hero anyways.

~~

The next day, your manager told you that he contacted Hawks’ manager and arranged an obstacle race for that Friday.

“It will be great PR,” They claimed, “Even if you don’t win!”

You reluctantly agreed, not like you had much of a choice, and awaited the email that would contain everything you needed to know from the time and date to the price of tickets.

The prospect made you incredibly afraid. To you, the debating of who was faster was more fun than anything. The idea of having to prove yourself was driving you crazy.

What if you couldn’t hold your breath long enough? What if Hawks was so fast that he beat you before you could even stop time?

You sighed and leaned farther back into your soft couch, wishing that the cushions would swallow you up. Maybe this was all a dream and a nice nap would wake you up?

You bit your lip and read through the email, your thoughts drifting off periodically. 

~~

Over the next couple days, you worked privately at expanding your air capacity. Your manager wasn’t allowed to tell you anything about the course, so you had to work hard to perfect your breathing and your speed.

You laid down on the floor of the gym, no one was there because of how late it was. 

Your mind got lost in the thought of how you could technically even win a speed race. Sure you would have to run through everything, but to everyone else, it would just look like you were flashing from one place to the next.

A few years back, you met someone else with a teleportation quirk. They described it as flashing place to place, although they were restricted to only moving about 15 meters. You always thought of your quirk as a time stopping quirk rather than teleportation, but it did help you in battles that people just thought it was teleportation.

Grunting, you got up from your spot on the ground and got back on the treadmill. You stopped time and continued to run for as long as you could, dreading the competition tomorrow.

~~

You woke up to your alarm, the sky was gray and a chilly air flooded through your room, making you cling to your blankets. You heard the sound of rain outside and groaned. You checked your phone, but were too tired to respond to any texts you had received that day.

You got out of bed, your muscles aching and started preparing an ice bath. You hated ice baths more than anything else in the world, but they still dramatically helped your aching muscles. As you stepped into the freezing cold water, you tried your best not to focus on how much it hurt to sit in an ice bath.

After only a couple minutes, you practically jumped out of the water, deciding that you had been in their long enough. You wrapped your body in a towel and started drying off as you made your way to your room. 

You threw on a sweater and sweatpants to keep you warm and started stretching your muscles. From there, you grabbed yourself a freshly brewed cup of coffee and began applying the makeup involved in your hero costume. You made sure to apply a thick foundation and powder to make sure you didn’t appear too greasy in the photos.

You grabbed a snack once done with your makeup and grabbed your bag with any necessities or costume things you would need. Your manager told you to change there so you simply packed everything you would need. 

After double checking that you had everything necessary for the day and competition, you stopped time and casually made your way to the stadium, watching the still rain water in your own gray world.

Luckily, the place wasn’t too far away from your house and you were able to make it there by only needing to start time again a couple of times and take a breath. When you arrived, you were whisked away by your manager who had you immediately get dressed. You then had a couple people fix up your makeup and style your hair.

As this was done, your manager informed you that you would be starting the day with an interview, yours being right after Hawks’. He told you a couple questions they were going to ask and steered you to answer in certain ways.

“We don’t want to give too much away, just make it interesting and fun,” You manager said as the hair and makeup team finished up and left quickly.

You looked at yourself in the mirror and admired the way everything came together before your manager ushered you to the calling curtain. On the other side, you could clearly hear the interview going on between the woman and Hawks.

“So, Hawks, how are you feeling about this whole situation?” The interviewer asked. “You seemed quite angry at all the attention Telethon was getting.”

From your position, there was also a small television that pointed directly at them. You saw the expression of the interviewing as she asked Hawks the question. Her voice was practically dripping with sensuality as she tried to keep Hawks’ attention.

The camera cut to Hawks who was casually sitting back as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Honestly, I wasn’t. I was upset that I was getting attention. I don’t like when paparazzi follow me everywhere.” He looked from the audience to the interviewer and smirked. “I’m happy that Telethon is getting attention, they deserve it. Granted, I wholeheartedly doubt their faster than me.”

“Oh, really?” The lady inquired. You could tell she was reaching for strings to create drama. She leaned forward and you noted how her skirt inched up just slightly

“Well, I am too fast for my own good,” Hawks replied, grinning and waving his hands to prove his point.. “I’m happy that Telethon is gaining attention, they are a great hero. However, no one will ever be faster than me.”

“Well, Hawks, I’ll be looking for you at the finish line then,” The lady smirked at the blond hero.

You groaned at the obvious bias the interviewer had.

“Anyways,” She started, “That’s all the time we have for Hawks. We are going to take a short break and be back with Teleportation Hero: Telethon!”

The audience clapped and Hawks waved goodbye to the crowd before making his way towards the back. In fact, he was making his way towards you. You gulped down the lump in your throat as your manager began making a few more notes in your ear about what to say in the interview.

You looked down as Hawks approached you, too nervous to look up at him. Not only was he the current number two hero, but he was also your maybe soulmate. You hated to dwell on love like so many people nowadays, but the idea that the Takami Keigo could be the love of your life could make anyone nervous. 

He smirked at you as a sound person came up and started taking his mic off of him and putting it onto you.

Your sense of smell was suddenly crowded with a deep musk, that smelled of woodlands and cherries. The smell was airy and delightful and you noted that it had to have been coming from Hawks.

Finally seeing the number two hero up close made you painfully aware of how handsome he was. 

His dirty blonde hair naturally swept back because of how much time he spent flying. His golden skin practically glowed as he smirked down at you, making you all the more self conscious.

Most of all, you couldn’t take your eyes off his wings. You were sure your face was mirroring their crimson color based on how hot you suddenly felt. They looked so soft and beautiful and you felt a strong pull to touch them as if someone was whispering in your ear.

As you felt the mic being clipped onto your hero uniform, you attempted to bring yourself back into reality. You swallowed your nerves and looked up at the smirking hero in front of you. You could tell he was amused at how obviously starstruck you were. Even with his mic off, he seemed to linger for a few moments to watch you, his eyes trailing up and down your body.

It made you all the more nervous.

You watched as his mouth opened, as if he was about to speak. However, you were quickly pushed by your manager as they ushered you onto stage.

“Wave at the fans!” They said as you were pushed through the red curtain.

You focused back on the crowd as the flashing lights filled your vision. You tried your best not to squint and wave at the people around you. You were making your way to the chair and the interviewer that was awaiting you, when you suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed. You took a few deep breaths and tried to calm yourself.

You gingerly sat down in the seat and smiled brightly at the woman in front of you.

After the applause died down, the interviewer became speaking. “Welcome, Telethon, we are happy to see you today.”

“Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” You replied. Although annoyed, you could still be nice and spread positivity for your young fans. “As a fairly new hero and not very high ranked hero, it is incredibly surreal to be gaining so much attention and thanks for my work. I keep reminding myself to try my best for all the new fans I’ve gained.”

The audience erupted into applause and you could tell the lady was a bit annoyed that you were coming off as so nice and humble. You brushed off her attitude, knowing that you were being true to yourself.

Regardless of how you acted in your own life, you were a hero nonetheless and wanted to be a good role model for aspiring heroes.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure you’re loving the attention,” The lady, who you still didn’t know the name of, said. “However, do you really think you are faster than the number 2 hero?”

You smiled politely at the woman in front of you, even though you were silently wishing she would be hit by a train. “Actually, I’m here for the challenge. Regardless of whether or not I win, I am always looking for a challenge to better myself and gain new experiences.”

“Oh, so you are just doing this to get close to top heroes like Hawks?” The women interjected, stopping you from further explaining yourself.

“No,” You sternly replied. “Like I said, I personally want new experiences and to keep reaching for ways to become a better hero. For example, I’ve been training for the past two days to prepare, and I know my speed has increased, and I’ll be proud of that even if I don't end up winning.”

The interviewer was practically pouting from your ability to easily recover from her questions meant to stump you. From there, the interviewer asked you a few easier questions, such as one about your employment at Edgeshot’s company.

Eventually, she prompted you to say goodbye to the audience and you politely waved and she asked people to tune in at 4 pm today for the competition.

You waved goodbye as you walked off stage and were immediately meeted by the sound person and your manager.

“That was great,” They cheekily grinned at you, knowing full well how annoyed you were with the rude lady.

“Thanks,” You replied, glad your manager was able to understand you so well. “You mind if I take a breather?”

“Not at all, just be back in half an hour,” He replied, “Your bags are in the green room.”

“Thanks,” You mumbled as you made your way around the building to find the green room. Everyone was rapidly walking around and the whole building was incredibly busy. You groaned and stopped time, using this as a chance to search around a quiet area and find the room.

Not only were you pissed that the interviewer was treating you like a child, but you were ridiculously nervous for the competition. You knew it was supposed to be a casual competition, but Hawks made it seem serious for him. He was the number two hero for god’s sake! If he lost to you, it could ruin his career.

Not only was the moral dilemma of letting Hawks win vs. trying your hardest bothering you, but so was Hawks. In the brief minute you were around him, your body filled with uncertainty and you felt intoxicated on his smell and appearance. Maybe it was you getting caught up in the idea that he may be your soulmate, or maybe it was your body telling you he was.

Regardless of your nerves, you were currently most caught up in anger for the interviewer. You entered the green room, and stared straight at the glorious display of food. You didn’t bother to look around the room as you started time again and groan in frustration.

“So you are just doing this to get close to top heroes,” You mumbled, changing your voice to match how annoying it sounded coming from the interviewer’s mouth. “Like I need it, I’m Edgeshot’s top employee and she would have known that if she did any research before the interview.”

You groaned loudly again and turned to face the couch. No one could explain how flustered you felt when you saw Hawks sitting on the couch, eating a plate of fried chicken. When you met his eyes, you felt his golden eyes bore into his soul.

He adjusted to be sitting up straight and moved to place the plate next to him. He cleared his throat and took a sip of water. You watched him the entire time, too embarrassed to speak.

“So,” He finally began, “apparently you’re faster than me?”

[horrorlad]

Horrorlad Reviews: The Dentist (1996)

Or at least, like, talks about it a bunch. 

Boy was I overthinking my first real Horror Lad post! It was going to be Grave Encounters, but that will have to wait, because I got insomnia and decided to rewatch a movie I hadn’t seen seen since I was 14, which wound up being the perfect opportunity to write out a post!

Let’s talk about The Dentist!

So, The Dentist is a 1996 movie starring Corbin Bernsen. It was directed by Brian Yuzna (one of the producers of Re-Animator, he also directed the 1989 body horror film Society which I haven’t seen, though a cursory image search tells me I need to add to my watch list immediately).

Anyway, The Dentist is about a teethsman who catches his wife giving some other guy a BJ and gets so grossed out about it that he has a nervous breakdown about, uh, how dirty mouths are, I guess? He loses his absolute shit (though he didn’t seem to have it all that together to begin with; this guy’s Jack Torrance is way more Kubrick than King), and we the audience get to tag along for all the wacky fun.

Full disclosure: I can’t give an unbiased review of this movie. I watched it several times in high school, then completely forgot about it for ten years, until tonight. There’s too much nostalgia wrapped up in it.

That said, upon rewatching it, I am in LOVE with the structure of it as a film. You know how, some movies, you can tell that the people behind the scenes are having a blast? This is one of those movies. The structure of the shots vary wildly, and I suspect that there was not one tripod or stabilizer on that set. The makeup and effects are fun, every actor has an opportunity to shine at least once, and the pacing is totally bonkers. I will note, however, that for a slasher movie the confirmed death count is pretty low, AND most of the murders are less dentistry-related than you might expect. Still, it’s a good time, and right now it’s available to watch for free (with commercials) on Tubi, which is pretty sweet!

Read on for the content warnings and spoilers. In the meantime, I give The Dentist 3.5 tanks of nitrous oxide (use with caution).

Content warnings and plot synopsis below the cut.

Content Warnings

Also, I don’t really know what to classify this one as, but there is a lot of “ick” factor to this movie — rotting teeth, sludge, etc. If you’re easily squicked out by that sort of stuff, I’d proceed with caution.

Dental torture (and how!) – it’s basically the whole movie, folks.

Sexual assault – multiple instances, including a character having their head forced down while giving oral sex (in a daydream), and another character being assaulted while on nitrous oxide.

Spousal abuse (physical and emotional) – again, there’s a lot of this.

Child abuse – A young child has their gums stabbed by the dentist.

Animal abuse – a dog is shot offscreen.

--------------------------------------

Okay, spoiler time!

Whoo boy, here we go!

I have no idea why I watched this movie so much as a teen. Probably because it was free on FearNet (remember FearNet?) and I would watch just about anything.

Watching it as an adult, my first thought is… man this is weirdly paced. My second thought is that there’s a lot more non-dental-related murders than I would have expected, but we’ll come back to that.

So, our hero(?) is a dentist, and we meet him at the beginning of a framing device, miming dentistry and offering to tell us about his story. The bulk of the movie is then a flashback about how he got to where he is, interspersed with his monologuing or whatever. We meet him and his wife (who are a straight couple in a movie and thus required to completely hate one another) on their anniversary, a fact which becomes clear while he’s in the middle of throwing a fit about his laundry.

Pictured: a totally hinged man. Nothing unhinged going on here, no sir.

At any rate, he gets all suspicious after an interaction with the pool guy, and catches his wife having an affair with the guy. He continues framing-device-monologuing about decay and the world being filthy and all that, daydreams about assaulting his wife and murdering the pool boy, etc. He follows the pool guy to the neighbor’s house, acts all weird, shoots a dog — your basic Tuesday.

Eventually, he winds up at the office, starts hallucinating, assaults a couple of patients, and finally calls an early end to the day (self care is important). We get this delightful (in a heavy-handed sort of way) scene that keeps cutting back and forth between him setting out spooky dental tools and his wife getting dressed for the big anniversary surprise he’s has planned, and that’s when things really start to go haywire.

Okay.

So like.

I get that he’s a dentist.

I get that he’s a dentist whose whole shtick is having the themed exam rooms (though why we have aaaalll these rooms for a bunch of hygienists and one dentist is a little beyond me).

But you mean to tell me that this dude’s special anniversary surprise for his wife was to show her his new, opera-themed dental exam room?

“Oh, honey… you really, really shouldn’t have…”

Like, I know he’s settled on a revenge plot by this point, but I still definitely believe that this guy was legitimately planning the entire time to show his wife his fancy new dental suite as an anniversary surprise. Not to be that guy, but no wonder she was having an affair.

Honestly though, I love this scene. I love the camera PoV shots as he shows off the dental suite, I love the excessive gesturing with his left hand. I love how the scene starts off with his point-of-view of her, and then transitions into her point-of-view of him, cut with those big beautiful teeth-yanking shots. It’s ridiculous.

And then, they get home, he has some monologuing about the pool, etc.

Next scene, it’s the next day, some cops come to ask questions about the murdered dog, his wife is out back on a pool chair with her giant sunhat covering her face (the way normal, totally-not-drugged people hang out by the pool) while the pool guy does his pool guy stuff. Eventually the cops leave, yadda yadda yadda, the pool guy scoops the wife’s tongue out of the pool, he sees how fucked up she is, the dentist murders the shit out of him. It’s beautiful.

Don’t you love it when you finish your to-do list first thing in the morning?

The end.

Wait, no, that’s not right.

Somehow, there’s still almost half a movie left.

This movie starts with this dude fighting with his wife, catching his wife cheating with the pool guy, hallucinating his wife’s nasty mouth on everyone, etc. You’d think that, with his wife tortured all to shit and the pool guy dead, the movie would have wrapped up.

I mentioned before that the pacing of the movie is weird, which it is. I mean, he has his “oop guess I’m evil now” scene on his way to work the next day, which basically means that just over half of this movie is the origin story. It could be longer, with the big climactic nonsense taking up the last quarter or so. It could be shorter, with him freaking out about his wife, losing his shit, and having a proper dental rampage. Instead, The Dentist flies in the face of conventional story structure.

But this man is a busy man. He’s a dentist, damn it.

He has to get back to work!

Things are happening fast now, let’s get condensed.

We go back to work, he pulls some malpractice shit on that lady whose dog he shot yesterday, then strangles Jessica-the-hygienist (I think that’s her job) when she calls him on it. Later, a man from the IRS comes in and uses the dentist’s shady tax junk to get free dental work which is, uh, inadvisable. IRS man, Marvin Goldblum, starts talking about our dentist’s wife (and about how unhinged shiksas are in bed, in case we somehow we didn’t piece together that he’s an awful Jewish caricature), and I’m sure the rest of his appointment goes totally normally.

Get a guy who looks at you like this.

Meanwhile, the cops are definitely onto him regarding the murder of that dog (after all, murdering dogs is THEIR turf). They go to his house, where he left the body of the pool guy he murdered just laying around outside for anyone to find (which they do). Then they go upstairs and find his wife, who is alive but so fucked up.

Back at the office, Karen-the-other-hygienist, looking for her coworker who got murdered earlier, stumbles upon the very fucked up IRS dude. We get to listen to the dentist give a little monologue about how grossed out he is that his wife put some dude’s “dirty, rotten… in her mouth!” before he injects air into a vein in Karen-the-other-hygienist’s neck to kill her.

Next up, this girl who has been waiting for two days to get her braces off gets called back. She’s adorable and chipper, so this, of course, can only go well. When’s the last time you had your dentist pull a gun on you?

Our scrappy youngster runs off, and he gives chase (we find that Mr. Goldblum’s jaw elongation procedure is going well by the way), before eventually letting her go after she promises to take very, very good care of her teeth.

After all, he’s got his next job to get to.

Let’s go teach dental students the importance of pulling out everyone’s teeth!

Yeeep, he’s a teacher! And after he shoots one of his students while hallucinating, the cops show up, resulting in the slowest chase scene any movie has ever had (I mean the dude is literally just briskly walking down the hall and he still gets away from them). Anyway, the dentist winds up in an auditorium where a woman is practicing her opera singing. The dentist is entranced by this (we know he loves opera from that scene with his wife earlier) and reaches out to the singer, but he hallucinates his wife’s hecked up face on her and drops to his knees, presumably to have the rest of his nervous breakdown. The cops… uh… well, they just kinda stand around looking disapprovingly at him while he sits on the floor. And that’s… that’s it, I guess?

“Nah, let him rest, he’s had a big day.” 

 In our final scene, we have some orderlies at his new mental institution drag him down for his regular appointment, where his wife (who I guess is a dentist now) starts drilling at his teeth. This may or may not be a hallucination. It probably doesn’t matter.

Wow. That certainly was a film.

Alright, so, I’ve been typing up my thoughts as I watch, and I think I’ve figured out what I like about this movie, that had me coming back to it over and over as a youngster. There are some movies that just look fun to film, and this is one of them. A number of the shots are really charming, for lack of a better word. There’s the anniversary scene with his wife I mentioned before, but so many others — this movie plays around with point of view, extreme close-ups, some very fun effects used to indicate the hallucinations… there’s even a sideways shot of one of the cops coming down the stairs. I seem to have a real fondness for that sort-of manic, anything-goes approach to filming. Related side note: is there a single steady shot on this whole film? I’m beginning to doubt it.

Corbin Bernsen does a great job. I mean, all the actors do, really, but he is something else. Like, I can’t think offhand of many actors who could successfully take the character “dentist in bad marriage has a nervous breakdown because his wife gives someone else a blow job and it grosses him out; goes on torturemurder spree” without overacting to the point of distraction. “What are you talking about, this dude’s hammier than Easter dinner,” you say. Now, I get the urge here, but I have to disagree; Bernsen plays a fantastic Emasculated White Guy Throwing A Fit.

That picture I posted up there, after the bit about the laundry argument? A dude who makes that face over the idea of wearing the wrong cuff links to work is at most twelve seconds away from completely losing his shit at any given moment. And the dude’s anniversary surprise for his wife was to show off his new, opera-themed dental exam room; none of this behavior seems too off the wall for that character. Granted, I haven’t seen the sequel yet, and the image searches do suggest that our dear dentist is about to use his well-cared-for teeth to chew the hell out of some scenery in The Dentist 2, but in this movie? I’m just saying it’s not an unbelievable portrayal.

Disgruntled white dudes aside, the rest of the cast seems to have a fun time too. Shout out to the receptionist literally sobbing over what a great dentist this guy is (stunning work). If nothing else, stop by for wee baby Mark Ruffalo before he was famous. It’s adorable.

LOOK AT HIM.

ALL THAT SAID, I have to state again how surprised I am by the sheer number of not-dental-related murders! Like, by my count, this guy commits a hefty amount of malpractice, but for a guy on a torturemurder spree, he sure does seem to keep his torture and his murder fairly separate. Let’s tally it:

I’m tired, let’s wrap this up. The Dentist is a fun movie about a dude who loses his shit, does some dental torture, does some murder, does ZERO dental torturemurders, and then just kinda tuckers himself out and sits down. It’s a big silly mess, and I love it.

Tortures: six

The kid at the beginning, the lady he sexually assaults (it counts), his wife (not dead), that lady whose dog he shot, Marvin the IRS guy (alive when last we see him), and the person at the dental school near the end.

Murders: three people, one dog.

The dog (shot), the pool guy (knifed), Jessica-the-hygienist (strangled), Karen-the-other-hygienist (air injected into artery), and that’s… it..? He does shoot that person at the dental school, but it doesn’t appear to be a fatal wound, and Marvin the IRS guy was alive when we saw him last.

Torturemurders: HECKIN’ ZERO.

Zero! None of the tortures are murdered, and nobody he murders is tortured! What the heck kind of slasher dentist doesn’t even kill people via dentistry? No wonder everyone looks down on him at the end.

Alright, first post written. I’m going to bed.

[dontgotothenetherworld]

ap psychology

anonymous asked:  Can I request readers putting all her studying off till the week before AP exams and she starts studying an unhealthy amount, like sometimes forgetting to eat all day because of it and even made herself sick from stress over it but reader refuses to complain because she did it to herself and Lydia's just there helping her review and making sure she takes time to care for herself ect? Bonus if Reader thinks she did bad and Lydia assuring her she did fine and has an 'i told you don't moment? 

anonymous asked: Totally didn't request that bc that's my situation-

for some reason when i tried to queue this w/ the original ask, tumblr wanted to put the cut in the ask and i couldn’t delete it

this is out of date now, but i was uninspired to write for a hella long time sorry. also! i’m going to draw from my experiences w/ ap this year, and the only ap exam i had to take was psych, so that’s also going to be the case for reader :)

also, i feel like my lydia is a bit out of character? idk it’ll probably take a while to get back to the way i used to write her.

1303 words

cw: femreader. food

you cursed under your breath. months ago, months! you told yourself you would start studying for your ap exam. you only had the one exam to study for, so you told yourself that if you just did a little bit everyday, you would be fine.

but here you were, about three days until your ap psychology exam, and you hadn’t studied any of it. you had hardly even watched the videos your teacher had posted as the digital learning content. but to be fair, the stuff he was talking about in them were the last unit or two of psych, and you wouldn’t have to worry about them, because you weren’t going to be tested on them.

you groaned and dragged your feet downstairs, to where you hid your backpack. the friday weeks ago, when your school told everyone that classes would go digital for a few weeks because of the coronavirus, your teacher had come prepared. he gave everyone that showed up to class, which, granted, wasn’t that many but still- a huge packet covering everything that you had studied this year. it was some forty pages long.

okay, it was, like, thirty five because you crossed out the pages about personality and disorders. which was a shame, because those are the units that everyone takes psychology to learn about. no one goes, “oh boy, i can’t wait to learn about how to test if a baby has depth perception!” or “i can’t wait to learn about all the different types of visual illusions!” but whatever.

you flipped to page thirty five, to see how many questions you were in for. just over 250, except that’s counting all the charts as individual questions. yeah, that makes sense. one and a half pages of listing what researchers discovered what is equivalent to answering which cortex of the brain processes visual stimuli.

wait a minute. lydia was also taking psych. studying sucks, but if you could do it with your girlfriend, that’d be so much less painful.

you texted her, “hey lyds, have u finished the psych packet yet?”

”yea i finished it yesterday, why?” she texted back almost immediately.

shit. looks like you’ll have to suffer through this alone. “nvm”

you looked at the time, 1:46. damn, already? it felt like you had only just woken up. you made yourself a coffee, and set up shop on the desk you have never used in your bedroom, with laptop open beside you. you planned on googling everything, rather than going through your notes, mostly because you forgot where you put them, but this would still take ages.

an hour passed, and you felt like you were dying on the inside. if you had to answer one more question about behavioral psych, you were going to scream. behavioral psych is by far the worst part of psychology! watson and skinner be damned! people are people not some computer code! people have feelings! you can’t just ignore them! and the feeling you were feeling right now was not a good one!

you wanted to stop, but you weren’t sure if you stopped now if you’d be able to finish the packet. so you kept on going.

you went another five hours, taking five minute tik tok breaks every hour to keep you sane. you looked at the clock, and realized you hadn’t eaten anything today. you grabbed a box of cheez-its and made your way back upstairs, and went back to work. this time, you ate a cheez-it every time you finished a question, or you filled out a row in a chart.

you didn’t know when you fell asleep, but you woke up in the morning with about half the packet filled out. considering the exam was in one day, and four-ish hours, you thought that was good.

as you made your morning coffee, you checked the messages lydia had sent you. “are you doing okay? normally we talk a lot but…” “wait, are you working on the study guide?” “y/n! please take breaks! remember! you need food!” “and water!”

you sent back, “if i eat my cheez-its, and i drink my coffee while i study, then i don’t have to take breaks.”

you went back to your desk, and plugged your phone in across the room so you wouldn’t be distracted. but also because you forgot to charge it before you passed out, so it was at three percent, because apparently you had kept it open to tik tok all night, and the video just kept looping. oops.

for a while, the studying seemed easier. you felt like you had less to do, and you didn’t need to worry about getting it done in time, because you had more than enough of it. but because you didn’t need to rush, you became more productive.

you finished the second half of the packet by six that evening. you do admit, you got a bit lazy in the last few pages, but it was done!

shit. studying isn’t just writing stuff down, you have to read it over, right? you don’t really study that much.

but you decided to take an hour or two’s break for… breakfast? dinner? maybe even lunch? whatever, leftover pizza, because you had just only now just realized the intense rumbling in your stomach.

you checked your phone for the first time in hours. you were actually kind of proud of yourself. you usually were on your phone every waking hour, which was probably a problem, but you had shown enormous restraint… by spending every waking hour staring at your laptop. it’s all about choosing your battles.

you quickly dismissed some twitter notifications before tapping on a new message from lydia. “babe, i’m getting really worried about you, please call me when you see this.” you furrowed your brows. worried? about you? why?

you called lydia, and she picked up nearly immediately.

”y/n!” she gasped with relief, “don’t do that to me again!”

you felt stupid for wondering what she was talking about, but you kind of needed to know, “what do you mean?”

”you’ve been offline for hours, and i couldn’t get to you! and then when i heard what you were eating, that got me worried. have you eaten today?”

”three slices of pizza right now.” you swallowed a bite.

”is that your first meal today?”

”unless you count coffee, yeah. i’ll do better tomorrow, i promise. speaking of tomorrow, we’ve got the psych exam, and i need to keep studying. i’ll call after the exam, so like three?”

”y/n.”

”yeah?”

”you do realize this exam is online, right? and at home?”

”uh, yeah.” you swallowed.

”and you have both a laptop and a phone?”

”lydia, what are you saying?” cheating. she was definitely talking about cheating.

”i’m saying, that you don’t really need to know the definitions, because our dear old pal google can be there to help you out with those. and you’re smart, so i assume you know the concepts.”

”you think very highly, of me, my dear.” you took another bite of pizza. “so, what you’re saying is, i wasted two days studying?”

”yes, that is exactly what i’m saying.”

”shit. wait, why were you studying?”

”ugh, because i am nowhere near as good as you at being able to understand things.”

”you know, definitions explain the concept too.”

”what are you saying?” asked lydia.

”i think we’ve both wasted a lot of time studying when we didn’t need to.”

”fuck.” lydia breathed.

”yeah, we’re both idiots. do you wanna watch something on netflix? you haven’t finished parks and rec yet, right?”

”no, i just finished an episode before you called me.”

”which one?”

”season four, episode seven.”

”wait, is the next episode smallest park? we need to watch that, like, now.”

@meangirlsx @meangirlmurphy @eliza-is-confused @boredomimi @book--butterfly

[hithelleth]

What I’ve Watched Lately

It’s been two months since the last one, so time for another one of these compilations.

I’ll start with documentaries, there were a few:

World War II in Colour was a rewatch, always recommendable for memory refresher and comparison-with-the-present reality check.

The Secret Story of the Knights Templar: The Rise and Fall of a Knightly Order killed the time, provided some new info, but I wasn’t into it I guess and mostly did other things while watching.

Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream was also interesting refresher course in history with some info I hadn’t known before, and it was nice to watch because it was, as we’d say vibing with me – I’ve never been to Vienna, but so much of who we are and in particularly of our history has been directly influenced by Vienna and a millennium+ of Austrian overrule, so it feels very ours on one hand. On the other hand, it was frustrating that the British (or American, IDK) narrator kept emphasising how Vienna has been a capital of nations, mentioning, of course, everyone except us dirty uncouth Slavs (apart from the losing and gaining of Bohemia and parts of Poland), not even in terms of Spring of Nations. Because in the large scope of world history we just don’t matter (not even as being handy to be subjugated and oppressed by whichever power of the time. It’s as if we aren’t people, just peasants to be exploited while not even being given a thought.) Oops, I’m bitter.

Tutankhamun (2016) is what we call ‘acted’ documentary mini-series about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb with Max Irons and Sam Elliot. I have only the third episode left and I’m liking it very much. I do recommend!

Speaking of TV shows:

I’m watching the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small (2019 - ). It’s my current relaxation show, where I can just sit back and enjoy, it has such a calm, comforting feel. There’s only one episode left of S1, and it has already been renewed for S2, so I can warmly recommend it.

I’ve also been watching Miss Scarlet and the Duke, I also only have one episode left and I’m absolutely loving it, but I think this one will get its own post after I finish it (the last episode is actually on tonight, but I think I’ll watch it tomorrow or on Tuesday).

I talked about World on Fire in a separate post a while back, because it was that good and I loved it.

So, at least I’ve been lucky with TV shows picks this dreary end of autumn/early not-winter, but all the good shit is ending, I’ll have to find some new ones (as if I don’t have a backlist of *checks* oh, yeah, 40. Ahem.)

I have a bunch of movies listed in my notes:

Holidate (2020) was okay, solid fun. Same goes for A Simple Wedding (2018) which I think I mentioned somewhere before (at least it kept my attention which is what I measure things I watch against these days.)

I tried to watch Rebecca (2020) for about 20 minutes in the background but it didn’t grip me so I quit.

I remember I hated the end message of What Men Want (2019), but I forgot why or what it was.

I watched A Bigger Splash (2015) because of reasons, it was quirky in that distinct European movie way (which is not meant in a bad way most of the time), completely with moral dilemmas and everything.

Then Came You (2020) was a nice change for a romcom with older characters and a hilarious morning after role-reversal scene. ;)

Midway (2019) had an almost documentary feel and as I had just rewatched the above mentioned WW II documentary, I could really appreciate it.

Love, Wedding, Repeat (2020) was nice and fun with the 4th wall breaking narrator.

Happiest Season (2020) couldn’t keep my attention and I hated Kristen Stewart’s GF for the most of it except the last 10-15 minutes, but I appreciated that her dad (Victor Garber!) at the end decided that his political career is not worth his daughter having to deny who she really is.

Godmothered (2020) looked fun but I wasn’t able to watch it in peace, so, IDK. I liked the end message that HEA is not just about finding romantic love but any kind of love and happiness.

The best of them was Australia which I rewatched yesterday and the day before in two parts for who-knows-which time. ;)

Oh, and of course, there was that week when Destiel reminded me of the Iconic book(TM) and movie and I had to hunt them down and reread and rewatch and then spent a week in a single-fan hell (because everyone and their mom had to read the book in school and therefore hates it – I’m a rare outlier.)

But the ship is so my type. And I relate to the poor heroine with a heart-condition very much. Also instant death from happiness after getting proposed to is an excellent way to go. ;)

(The book and movie are called Cvetje v Jeseni (Blossoms in Autumn), if anyone’s interested.

The book is supposedly translated into English but the translation is nowhere to be found (figures.)

The movie is, however, easily legally available for purchase and has English subtitles, it’s also 90% faithful to the book and what is different doesn’t affect the story and characterisation. It also stars the cream of our 1970s acting talent. (The book/movie are otherwise set in the late 19th century.)

If anyone wants, ask and I can send you a link. There, I’ve done the free promo of our cultural heritage because god knows our government (whichever) sure af won’t.)

That’s enough for now, I believe.

[fics-not-tragedies]

In a Week: Chapter 2 🌲

I know that there aren’t many people interested in this fic, but honestly this will be going on for some time, because it’s my favorite idea! Also I forgot to post it yesterday, oops...

Words: 3060; Warnings: none, unless you want another warning for alcohol drinking, then you have it; Summary: Flo meets Andrew who decides to keep her occupied with his presence through the whole week.

Hozier tag list:

@letoursilencebreaktonight​​​​​; @angelpeachamber​​​​​; @sgt-morgan​​​​​; @julessbrown​​​​​;

Sunday, 11:05pm

After ordering two Malibus, desperately trying not to down them before he even had the chance to ask her about her name, Andrew pulled the chair back and sat down, sliding the glass across the table to her, his hand longing on it, hoping she’d brush her fingers against his skin.

There was something about this girl, the way her impossibly green eyes lit up whenever she looked in his direction that made him want to give her anything she could possibly want. She wrapped her fingertips around the bottom part of the glass, purposely avoiding his hand and pulled it closer to her.

He cleared his throat, suddenly becoming aware of the silence that had been building between them since he sat, but before he could form something clever or witty, he simply spat out the most obvious question that had been circulating since he first caught her gaze.

“What’s your name?” He asked slowly, bringing the glass to his lips and taking a sip.

“Flo” she replied quickly. Andrew nodded, toying with the word in his mind before deciding that it absolutely suited her. He had a thing for noting when people didn’t suit their names but Flo unquestionably did. It was strong, bold and gorgeous and he practiced saying it out loud, enjoying the way it rolled off his tongue.

“Technically it’s Florence” she smiled watching his narrow lips, her cheeks blushing slightly, but she held her chin high, determined to keep her confidence she was still trying to work on, “but I prefer to be called Flo.”

“It’s still a great name” he announced, sinking further into his seat and fixing his eyes on her. There was an ease, an instant softness to the way they spoke to each other despite the overly long pauses.

“Thank you” she said with a shy smile, tucking strands of straw blonde hair behind her ears.

Andrew was mesmerized by the movement of her small hands, the slim gold jewelry that decorated her fingers, her black painted nails.

“Do you have a name?” She asked, feeling utterly ridiculous at the way she phrased it.

Stop trying to be cool.

Andrew squinted at her a little, as if he was trying to work something out, but replied after a second.

“Andrew. Andrew, Andy. You can call me any name that you think suits me.”

“I like them all. Can’t I pick them all?”

“If you want to” he chuckled and they both took their drinks into their hands, silently sipping for a moment or two. The record changed and he looked in the record player’s direction as she tried to figure out what tune is being played now. When she turned back to face him he was grinning from ear to ear, his long hair messy as he ran his hand through it again, wide grin on his face. She smiled back helplessly, “What do you do, honey?” he asked, his lips pressed into the edge of the glass.

“What do I do?”

“Yeah, em… for work and everything that includes” he continued, placing his drink onto the table, pressing his hands together, as he explained himself.

“Oh!” She exclaimed, her face bright, “I’m the head of IT department in a big company. Big office. Big desk. Got one of those spiny chairs too” Andrew was amused by the way she wiggled her finger to explain the movement of her chair. Flo usually held back from talking about her job, men were usually intimidated by her success, but Andrew was different, seemed to understand her even though they just met, “What do you do?”

“What do I do?” He replied quickly, pausing from taking another sip.

So she didn’t know. What a relief.

“Yeah?” He tilted his head and bit the inside of his lip, thinking, glancing away for a moment. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to explain this. Everywhere he went, people just knew him. But not this girl, this girl was different. Just being himself wouldn’t cut it this time. She was a challenge. And that was exciting.

“I’m a musician and I’m in a band.”

“You are?” She answered quickly, her eyes squinting with excitement at his confession, the vague familiarity of his face striking her again, “That’s so cool! I’d love to hear some of your tunes” he watched as she lean forward enthusiastically, her hair falling over shoulders, soft like honey.

Andrew was obsessed, bewitched, mesmerized by her every move. Not only was she dazzling in every way, she was oblivious to who he was, completely unfazed by it all and it was magical. A complete fantasy. A clean slate.

“Em… perhaps. I don’t usually play my music…”

“Oh why not!” She pouted, “Not even for me?” even the way her lips formed words delighted him. He swallowed sharply, trying to focus on what she was saying. What was she saying? He was lost.

“We will see” he replied with a shrug, though he already knew he would do anything she wanted him to.

“What do you play?” She continued adamantly and he laughed, hoping they would move on from the topic, but she seemed genuinely interested in him as he was in her and she was clearly not going to give up without a fight.

“Are we still talking about… em… me?”

“Yes” she replied confidently, batting her long lashes in his direction.

“The guitar, piano… and… em… other stuff. I do the singing as well.”

“Ooh… I always wanted to learn to play the guitar, but never really had the chance to start it” she grinned and nodded to the direction of the music, “Promise me you’ll play me something on the piano! I noticed it in the ballroom as I walked here.”

“Yeah, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Andrew” she warned, winking at him. He exhaled sharply and smiled, all warm and intoxicated.

“Never do” Andrew took another mouthful of his Malibu and tried to keep his eyes from wandering over Flo’s body, “I’m here for the whole week” he stated.

“Good” she replied sharply, the thought of a whole week with this man beginning to excite her beyond any rational explanation, “Me too.”

“Why are you here Flo? Em… are you running away from something, honey?”

“How did you worked out that one?” She replied, a slight panic in her voice. Was she really that easy to read? She pushed a few loose strands of hair from her eyes, not used to feeling so vulnerable.

“Well…” he mumbled, lowering his voice and leaning across the table slightly, “I was only guessing, but em… now I know I was right somehow.”

“Maybe I just needed to get away for the week?” She replied, crossing her arms on her chest, unintentionally drawing more attention to it.

“But why did you needed to get away for the week?” He continued teasingly, pointing his finger and raising one eyebrow before taking another sip from his glass which was nearing empty, “That the em… main question now.”

Flo glanced down at her own glass, realizing that she already had more than she  planned to drink tonight, she was nearly three cocktails down. She swirled her finger over the edge of her glass. Then she moved her eyes back to his, the warmness of his eyes making her toes curl and found herself spilling all her secrets without hesitation.

“Well if you must know, uh… I just needed to take a break from everything” there was an obvious crack to her voice that which Andrew couldn’t help but find endearing, even though he embarrassingly wanted to comfort her. He had to slow down on the drink, “I have to rethink my life and perhaps start something new.”

“Oh yes, em… I get that” he sighed, gritting his teeth, “I’m sorry to hear that.” though the perfect stranger opposite her was nothing but a perfect stranger, she knew he was being genuine, that he really was sorry. His eyebrows pulled in and he pulled the softness expression she has ever seen, then like a perfect contradiction he added… “Life sometimes gets too fucked up.”

“Yeah…” she mumbled into her drink, taking another huge sip of it.

The issues and problems mixed together. The loneliness. The way her heart was ripped out of her chest many years ago. Everything that had lead her to this very moment.

Andrew’s voice broke her from her trance, “You’re still on this planet with me, honey?” He waved his hand in her face goofily and she blinked herself back to the room. First the beautiful record sounds, then the stunning vintage decor, then him.

“Yes. Sorry. I’m here.” Flo tipped the remnants of her glass back, savoring the taste of the liquor in her throat and patted her lips dry.

“Look, Lo” he began, scratching his nose and she giggled instinctively at her new nickname, “Em… can I call you Lo?” She nodded in response, “I know you’re feeling absolutely shitty now, but I think em… I think I have em… a plan.”

“Great, because I have no plan.”

“How about we em… spend the whole week together. I can take you for long walks in the woods if the weather gets better and em… I’ll try my best to make you feel better. Even if I had to play the piano for the whole fucking night.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t…”

“Never do” he repeated, cutting her off with a wild grin before she could finish the sentence. He stared her down, his round muddy green eyes unblinking, somehow soft and sexy at the same time, “Well?”

She pursed her lips, weighing the options. Three scenarios were crystal clear in her mind.

Scenario one was an awkward, drunken one night stand which they’d both regret in the morning.

Scenario two was that one of them would make advances on the other and they would argue explosively about it.

And scenario three was that they would spend the weekend simply enjoying each other’s company, until another Monday afternoon comes and they’d never speak again.

She couldn’t decide which sounded best in her head. Unable to determine what she really wanted from her week away from reality, she looked momentarily back to him, tilting her head. She was unable to keep the smile from stretching across her lips when he wiggled his eyebrows in her direction, smoothing his hair back. She shook her head and laughed.

“Fine. I’m in.”

“Another drink?” He asked, waving over a waiter before she even had a chance to reply.

Sunday, 11:25pm

“Surname?”

“Hozier Byrne.”

“Oooh, sexy” she laughed, the alcohol well and truly absorbed into her bloodstream now, “Wait a second… Hozier? Like… you sang that song about church?”

“Sadly I did… em… same question?” He replied, drumming his long fingers on the table, trying to keep his hand occupied.

“Hayes.”

“Flo Hayes…” he mused, rolling the name over in his deep drawl.

“Do you believe in miracles?” She asked, focused on learning as much as she could.

“Em, I think so. Like me being here with you is a miracle, somehow isn’t it?” He chuckled, the creases around his eyes more obvious than before, “Do you?”

“You can’t just ask the same question back every time, Andy” Flo replied, rolling her eyes.

“But you always ask good questions!” he pressed his finger to his temple for a moment, focusing his brain through the fogginess the drinking had brought on, “Do you like em… sleeping?”

“Do I like sleeping?!” Flo scoffed, “Yes. But come on you can do much better than that!”

“Oh Lo, I don’t know… em… you ever broke someone's heart?” Flo could tell he was proud of himself.

“That’s a good one! Probably my first boyfriend. We were 17 and I moved to another country never seeing him again.”

“He probably never got over you em… he probably wrote sad songs about you” Andrew proclaimed as he finished the last of another glass, his voice bold despite the fact he was beginning to slur. Flo was briefly aware of a nervous sensation building in her stomach but ignored it, having the next question prepared as a distraction.

“Okay, you ever wrote a song about your ex?”

“Uhhh…” he took final sip of his drink before placing the empty glass on the table with a loud thud, “Great amount of my songs are the ones about my exes… It’s the yearning for something you once had, but now it’s all lost.”

“The yearning” she repeated after him, before taking a sip from her glass. Before he could say anything else she threw another question at him, “What was your last text?”

He fumbled through his pants pockets to fish out his phone out of them. He tried to unlock it, but the drunken haze wasn’t helping him with dealing with electronic devices.

“Do you need help with it?” Flo asked.

Though he had genuinely been struggling, Andrew took this perfect opportunity to drag his chair closer to hers, so that his whole body was close to her, the table between them had been killing him. Suddenly her knee was against his and he tried not to notice, handing her his phone. She flipped her hair over her shoulder effortlessly and took it from him, her fingers almost brushing his.

Her neck was exposed to him now, pale and smooth and inviting and he inhaled a little too loudly, drunk instantly on her perfume. She was sweet and spicy all at once and he reeled in the uniqueness of it. If she had been a random girl at a random bar, he’d have made all of the moves by now. But there was something untouchable about Flo - he knew he had to work for that opportunity and he was more than happy to.

“Who’s Alex?” She asked seconds later, looking up at him and catching her breath in her throat, not used to him being this close.

“He’s my close friend. He’s in the band with me.”

“Mhm. So your last text was ‘miss you too’” Andrew grinned awkwardly, taking his phone back, only half embarrassed.

“It’s your turn” Flo chuckled.

“Emmm” Andrew licked his lips absent-minded, silently craving a cigarette, even though he knew he shouldn’t be getting into smoking again, determined to drag it out as long as possible so he could stay with her, “Would you rather go to the outer space or… or dive to the bottom of a bog?”

“Easy” she declared, clapping her hands together, “Space. It’s so fascinating and beautiful. All of those stars and colors… And I hate bogs. Too many germs.”

“Well, you wouldn’t have to touch the bog water, you’d in a bog submarine” she giggled a little at his words.

“Bog submarine sounds really interesting, but the stars are much prettier Andrew” she added, “Don’t you think?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay, Andrew. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?”

“Lots of alarms. So many of them that my phone once scolded me for having too many… emm… good cup of tea, toasts and my dog.”

“So you’re single?” Flo blurted, her mouth outrunning her brain for once. Apparently she wasn’t even trying to be cool anymore, “Except for the dog of course” she added with a large smile on her face.

“A good boyfriend would be sat here, on my chair, right next to you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she laughed, the corners of her full lips twisted upwards. Andrew cleared his throat.

“You’re pretty… em… and I hope you’re aware of it.”

“Oh shhh…” she waved him off, her cheeks unusually hot, before adding a quiet: “thank you.”

“So you agree with me?” He purred, his lips parted as if waiting for something. He couldn’t remember the last time a girl had actually accepted his compliment and it was so refreshing, her self-assured nature making him somehow more eager to please.

“Am I not allowed to agree?”

“Of course you can agree. Don’t think anybody could disagree” Andrew and Flo locked eyes for a moment obviously too long, each of them scared to be the first to turn away. Eventually Andrew broke away, consumed by her intensity, devastated that his glass was empty, instead occupying himself with the search for his lighter.

“Is it my turn?” She asked, finishing the leftovers of her fourth? Or was it the fifth? cocktail to divert her mind from wandering further into the ridiculously gorgeous way he smelt.

“No, em… you already asked your question, honey.”

“I did?”

“Em… yes… em… you asked if I was single.”

“Right” she nodded, nonchalantly pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.

“I need a cigarette” Andrew announced at last, convinced he couldn’t sit here and be tortured by her for a moment longer.

“Need?”

“Quite desperate need” she was unsure whether he was talking about the cigarette or her now, Andrew pulled a cigarette from his packet and balanced it between his lips. The movement was so slick, so rehearsed. Flo wondered how many girls had watched him make exactly the same move. She shuffled in her chair uncomfortably as he stood and did up the button on the front of his red flannel shirt.

“Okay. I’ll…”

“You’re going with me, yes?” He asked plainly, more of a statement than a question, his palm outstretched to pull her up.

Andrew swallowed and she watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat, enchanted by the fluffiness of his beard, the softness of his skin.

How could she ever say no to him? She reached out for him and he couldn’t help but stroke down her wrist, taking the tips of her fingers in his, the simple touch enough to make her light-headed. He pulled her up with ease, stroking her palm with his thumb as he reluctantly let go.

Andrew was relieved to have at last touched her, knowing he could now die happy just having done that but he was heartbroken to let go once she was standing. She exhaled sharply, her eyes glowing an unrivaled green under the vintage bulbs, a delicate smile stretched on her face.

“You ever broke someone's heart?” he asked her before. Fuck, if she didn’t break his every time she smiled at him like that.

[kaffeinic]

Caffeinic | Bang Chan

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Epilogue

Pairing: Reader x Barista!Bang Chan

Genre: Neutral // Fluff // Romance

Warnings: None

Preamble: You’ve been going to the same coffee shop for the past four years. You’ve ordered the same thing almost every single day, and you never, ever skip on that part of your morning. So, when Mrs. Park hired a new barista and the once serene café was suddenly flooded with people every second of the day, you were less than thrilled.

You stared at the scene before you. Junseok was sweaty and tired, panting heavily. Chan was holding a half-brewed cup of coffee, seemingly moving closer to you. Seoyeon was leaning low with a deep v-neck shirt toward Chan, but turned to Junseok with disgust when she saw his ragged state. You sat in your chair, gingerly fiddling with the handle of your mug, not completely sure what to do next.

“Are you alright?” Chan asked Junseok. The messy boy stood up straight and brushed himself off. He walked toward you and smiled.

“Could I speak to you for a moment?” He asked. You looked up at Chan, who seemed just as confused as you, then looked back at Junseok.

“Okay.”

He led you to the exit of the café, holding the door open. You hesitantly walked through as he followed suit. You noticed that his hands were shaky and his gaze seemed to be avoiding yours.

“I got your text,” He said. “and I’m here to tell you that I feel the same.” He looked at you with a shy smile, which was returned with a confused raise of your brow.

“What do you mean?” You asked. He smiled and grabbed your hands.

“You sent me a text about how you feel about me.” He said, smiling. His grin slowly dissipated when he noticed that you weren’t aware of what was happening. “What’s wrong? Why do you look so confused?” He asked.

“Why are you confusing me?” You retorted. “I still haven’t seen my phone since the party.” You explained. Junseok’s eyes widened as he released your hands.

“I-” He fumbled. “I’m so sorry. I got a text from your number saying that you wanted to be more than friends.” He explained. “Which you apparently didn’t send. I feel like such an idiot. Oh my gosh, I just-” He stuttered. “I can’t believe I just told you that. Oh no.” He ran his fingers through his hair and turned away from you.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault.” You said. You then realized why he was so bent out of shape. “Oh. OH.” You suddenly were reanimated, moving around nervously.

“Do you like me?” Junseok had turned to look at you, his eyes sincere and his mouth turned into a worried frown.

“I-” You began. “I am interested in someone else; I’m sorry.” You said. He looked down, tears brimming his eyes. After a moment, he raised his head, smiling.

“It’s Chan, right?” He asked. “I thought you seemed close during the party.” He was quiet for a bit until you broke the silence.

“Are we still friends?” You asked him, hopeful. Though you may not feel an attraction to him, you had enjoyed his company. He truly was a great guy.

“Of course. I’ll see you at the university.” He said, twiddling his thumbs. He looked at you sheepishly, running a hand through his hair again. “Bye, Y/n.”

You looked at him with concern. “Okay, see you.”

He waved as he walked down the sidewalk. Part of you felt absolutely horrible for hurting him. You looked back and forth between the empty space Junseok once stood and the café’s entrance. You slowly made your way back inside, sitting down quietly.

“Y/n?” Chan said. You looked up at him and smiled. “What was that all about?” He asked. You contemplated telling him the details, but decided against it.

“Junseok got a text from my number.” You said. “I didn’t send it.”

“Your phone is still missing.” Chan said. He stared off in thought. “Someone must be sending texts in your name.” He paused. “How did they get through your passcode?” He asked. You looked at him and blinked.

“I didn’t have one set.” You explained.

“Of all of the irresponsible-” Chan started on a tangent, spinning around in annoyance. “Are you kidding me?” He asked. “Setting up the security is step one!”

After a few more minutes of scolding you as he worked, Chan fell silent. You attempted to take a sip of your coffee, but it had become cold a long while ago. Your expression soured at the room temperature latte, causing Chan’s face to light up as he laughed at your reaction.

“That was gold. Wow. I should just serve you cold lattes.” He paused. “Because I’m cold hearted.” He paused again, waiting for you to laugh. “Get it?”

“Oh, I got it. It just wasn’t very good.” You retorted. He laughed through the pain, getting back to work. You giggled at the interaction before deciding it was a good time for you to leave. You needed to at least attempt to shut down your phone.

After gathering your things and saying your goodbyes, you made your way back to the subway station, wiping a bead of sweat from your forehead. You needed to get to your data provider to turn off the service to your number until you got your phone back.

When you entered the store a clerk immediately tried to talk you into buying a new phone, rather than finding your old one, at which you rolled your eyes and insisted on trying to search for your phone instead. Once that was taken care of, you decided you’d turn in for the day and chill at home. You spent most of the time reading books and watching your favourite television shows. Still, you felt that deep hollowness in your stomach. Why would someone tell Junseok that you had feelings for him?

Sighing for the umpteenth time, you turned off the television, closed your book, and washed up for bed. You tried to get some sleep, but you didn’t really have good results.

After an entire night of tossing and turning in your bed, you showered, styling your hair for the next day. There were dark bags under your eyes and your skin was dull with fatigue. Huffing, you gathered your things and walked out of the front door, locking it behind you. The first few classes at the university weren’t very eventful. You heard your professor drone on about the Korean language and how intricately it can be spun into wondrous stories with hidden meanings. You quite enjoyed that lecture. Comparatively speaking, that is.

You dragged yourself to your last class of the day, running a hand through your now messy hair. You heard someone call your name from behind.

“Y/n, hey.” It was Junseok. He still seemed a bit nervous after your last conversation. Being perfectly honest, you were, too. His hands were stuffed precariously in his pockets as he glanced at you. “It’s good to see you.” He said. You shot him a smile.

“Likewise. Is this your last class?” You asked him. He nodded, but said nothing. “Mine, too.”

After that somewhat clumsy conversation, you two parted ways and took your seats. The last lesson bored you half to death, but you made it through without taking a nap - at least not too long. Oops.

It was now time for you to make your way to the café. You didn’t have nearly as many textbooks on hand today, which helped a bit with the walk you had to take. For the most part, the café was still quiet. You checked your watch, realizing that the majority of the high school students weren’t yet out for the day. With that, you smiled to yourself.

“Hello, beautiful.” You heard Chan greet you as soon as you walked in the door, earning him a shy smile.

“Hi.” You said. He laughed at your demeanor.

“How’re you feeling?” He asked. You shrugged.

“Not bad. Lectures aren’t the greatest thing in the world, but that’s not unusual. What about you?” You said. “Is Seoyeon still stalking you?” Chan openly laughed at your choice of words.

“I haven’t seen her in person today, but through social media, yes. She must not have any responsibility to be able to be online as much as she is.” He muttered. He looked considerably better today than he did yesterday, but you could still find signs of fatigue. “Can I ask you a question?” Chan asked. You perked up and nodded.

“Yeah, of course.” You said. Chan looked down a bit, a sweet smile gracing his face. His dimples puckered his cheeks and it made your heart flutter.

“Can I take you on that date?” He asked. You blinked in confusion. Suddenly, the realization hit you.

“Oh lord. I completely forgot with everything that was going on yesterday! I’m so sorry!” You exclaimed. You thought back to the plans Chan had made with you to go to his favourite coffee house, smiling.

“Yeah, I know. I just thought you had enough on your plate.” He said. “Honestly, I wasn’t up for it, either. Seoyeon is relentless.” He explained. It was then that you thought about just how much she seemed to want him. A twinge of jealously washed over you, and your expression darkened. Chan noticed immediately. “Are you alright?” He asked. You nodded.

“Yeah. I’m just worried.” You said. Chan walked around the back counter and closer to you, placing his hands on your shoulders.

“You don’t need to worry, love. She is the last person I want to be anywhere near.” His hands lightly rubbed up and down your arms. You felt the heat from his fingertips sinking deep into your skin. It felt like fire.

“I know.” You laughed. “I’m dumb. Sorry.” Chan smiled and leaned in, pulling you into a hug. You slowly wrapped your arms around his torso, taking in his scent. Not long after, you heard someone clearing their throat from the back of the café. It was Mrs. Park.

“You two seem well acquainted.” She said, smiling.

The three of you laughed as you pulled away from Chan’s embrace, his hands lingering on yours. You looked away.

“Coffee?” He asked. You looked up at him and nodded.

“Coffee.” You said.

~

Hey, guys! Let me know how you feel about this chapter. As always, I truly appreciate a good reblog, especially with some feedback! Comment, hit that like button, and have an amazing day! I’ll see you guys again soon! 💕

* DISCLAIMER: I do not own any gifs/photos used in this post. I do own the written content. Do NOT repost/edit. *

🏷 @a-toxic-galaxy • @hoshithehamster • @woo-for-woojin • @lovely-little-lesbib

[inevitablekickline]

Day 4 - August 4

Well, today was an early morning start! I don't feel half bad, however, and was actually half-awake fifteen minutes before I needed to be up. I set my alarm for 5:45am so I'd have plenty of time to get up, orient myself, get dressed, etc...and also not forget my water bottle and meals like I did yesterday, oops haha! The early early morning is so I can go to church beforehand, and then I'll probably end up heading to the coffee shop right by school to have some breakfast as I'll definitely have a bit of free time before rehearsal begins at 9am (as usual).

Forgot to do OOTD before I started doing stuff, but I'm feeling very James Potter tbh and I'll try to snap a pic eventually.

A lady complemented my singing in church, which made me smile!

And about the breakfast? Yup, I was correct. I got coffee and a bagel and just chilled for a while.

Morning rehearsal was SO FUN, we started learning the Act 1 finale song, and I get flipped twice. I'll be sore, but it's SO MUCH FUN I DON'T EVEN CARE. This song is basically as 80s as it gets (I mean... I'll probably be saying that a lot), with aerobics everywhere. I love it. Oh my gosh.

Lunch was pesto pasta and some broccoli, and the break seemed to go by just like that.

So the afternoon rehearsal wasn't as exciting, especially the second half. It was a more complicated number in terms of entrances and moving chairs, instead of learning dancing and the like. BUT ya know, it's all part of the process! It'll come together eventually. I THINK we're doing the opening number version of Footloose tonight, so that's exciting! I know I'm quite possibly going to be in a stretchy silver dress for that one SO...that'll be a fun process haha. As I said, it stretches, so that'll be my saving grace, along with jazz shorts!

Dinner was rice and chicken, and the chicken was just a bit dry from being reheated, but it still tasted good, and it's good to have carbs while exercising a lot. I got back to the studio pretty early, and the door was locked, so that meant...time to chill in the car with crappy air conditioning! Finally managed to take a picture, even though you can't really see my leggings and you can barely see the flannel I'd been taking off and putting back on throughout the day. My hair is going crazy because of humidity, so...thank goodness you can't see it much, haha.

So the rest of this never posted. Great! Nighr rehearsal was alright, we were all getting a little restless and unfocused but we learned more which is good.

I got home and I was just...so tired. So very very tired.

Here's to Day 5!

[shannonjoyschlesinger]

The Widow’s Mite and My Depression Leggings

[ Photo Credit ]

After this past General Conference, I decided something I was going to change and work on was my Sabbath Day Observance. It was inspired by Elder Holland’s talk from April 2019, Behold the Lamb of God.

Part of my better Sabbath Day Observance was going to be dressing intentionally for the Lord.

But yesterday... oh yesterday...

My Seasonal Depression started creeping in a couple weeks ago, and by last Sunday, I saw the symptoms charging at me with absolute fearlessness. Euf.

Yesterday, there was no Shannon-Sunday photo and inspirational quote on Social Media like there usually is. Trust me, I had one prepared and everything. It was even a quote by Shonda Rhimes, so you know it was going to be a good post.

The point of changing my Sabbath Day Ways was in an attempt to dedicate my day to Heavenly Father in a more pure and loving way. The point was to reflect what was in my heart and give it to my Heavenly Father. The point was an act of expressing gratitude for all I’ve been given. I’ve been by no means perfect at it. I even forgot that I was meant to do it the first week I put a reminder in my planner... oops.

But it’s been SUCH a good practice.

Yesterday, I did dress reflective of what was in my heart. But I didn’t put on a dress like I usually do.

I put on an oversized Fall Out Boy t-shirt and fuzzy Christmas leggings. It’s a miracle that I put a bra on. And the only reason why I bothered to put socks on is because the basement gets cold in the winter, and the anti-depressants I take can make my feet extra cold. (I’m serious, it’s such a funny side effect).

I sang the song “Sad Forever” over and over when I was driving home from the studio. I don’t wanna be sad forever, I don’t wanna be sad no more. I don’t wanna wake up and wonder, what the hell am I doing this for?

My “Intentional Sunday Outfit” screams depression. My Heavenly Father deserves more from me than my depression leggings. But that was what was in my heart AND SO WITH ALL MY MIGHT, MIND AND STRENGTH, I’M PUTTING MY FUZZY-DEPRESSION LEGGINGS ON THE ALTER OF GOD.

Calling it my sacrifice.

Calling it my devotion.

Calling it all that I have.

AND LEAVING IT AT THE FOOT OF THE LORD.

Heal me, don’t heal me... It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that my whole heart is at the alter.

So there it is.

The fuzzy-depression leggins are clean at least, unlike the leggings I wore to the studio this morning that smell like sweat.

My Fuzzy Depression Leggings at the Alter of God: Heavenly Father, my life is your life. Thank you for the good days and the bad. Thank you for blessing me with such a good job that I can afford fuzzy leggings in the first place. Thank you for the amazing miracles that keep cropping up in my life. Thank you for the safety and freedoms I currently experience. Thank you for the hope and peace you provide. Thank you for my body, and thank you for all the amazing things that my body does. Thank you for the opportunity to heal and grow. I love you.

[skiesofthesketchy]

The Office: part 3

AN:// lol bet yalls weren’t expecting to hear from me! yeahhhh... sorry it took me forever to post this next part. u know how life goes... :) anyway, here it is! long overdue but i hope you guys like it!! pls let me know what you think! much love <3

Part One and Part Two in case you forgot (which is my fault oops)

Author: skiesofthesketchy

Pairing: Dylan O’Brien + reader

Word Count: 3,378

Warnings: Just some cursing.

Rays of sun kissed every corner of the large park as I swung happily, enjoying the breeze through my hair and the soft squeaks from the swing set. “I bet I can jump off farther than you can,” he said from beside me.

“Yeah right.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Hell yeah! When I win you have to buy me an ice cream cone. Actually TWO so that I can shove one in your face and eat the other while I laugh at you,” I giggled, swinging higher and higher.

“No. When I win, you’ll be the one covered in ice cream!”

“You wish,” I laughed. “Go on then, jump!”

And he did, landing with a thump in the grass, only stumbling sideways a little. “And that is how it’s done,” he cheered arrogantly. “Now jump already so I can shove an ice cream cone in your face!”

“Whatever!” I yelled as I prepared to jump from the swing. I was flying until I hit the ground rather ungracefully, and stumbled backwards, landing on my ass. All I could hear now was Dylan’s howls of laughter. The bastard didn’t even bother to help me up.

I stood and dusted myself off while he composed himself, though it took a few minutes. “That was great,” he said, wiping an imaginary tear from under his eye. “Now it’s time to pay up.”

I pouted but followed Dylan reluctantly to the ice cream stand across the park. I watched him pay for a vanilla ice cream cone, and when he turned to me, I took off in a sprint.

“Hey! Come back here Y/N!”

“You’ll never catch me!” I yelled over my shoulder. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun him but I ran as fast as I could. I passed a group of children playing soccer and a few dogs playing fetch with their owners, everyone enjoying the sunny afternoon.

Running out of energy, I headed for the large elm tree in the middle of the park, where I rested and caught my breath, preparing myself for the inevitable.

“Dang, you’ve gotten faster,” he remarked, just as out of breath as I was.

“Just do it already,” I pleaded, closing my eyes and waiting for the cold treat to coat my face.

“You didn’t think I’d actually dump this ice cream on you, did you?” he chuckled.

I opened my eyes. “What do you mean? I lost the bet.”

“But that would be mean. I got this so we could share it,” he smiled, pulling me against with his arm around my waist. I was surprised, but smiled at him- the boy of my dreams. “Here,” he said, before abruptly shoving the ice cream onto my mouth and chin.

“Dylan!” I screamed. “I can’t believe I fell for that!”

He threw his head back and laughed loudly, which distracted him enough for me to snatch the cone from his hand and do the same thing he did to me.

“Hey!” I only smirked at him while licking whatever ice cream was left in the cone. “That was uncalled for.”

“You deserved it.”

Dylan glared at me playfully before grabbing me by the waist again and pulling me in for a kiss, our sticky ice cream faces now smooshed together.

I broke the messy kiss. “You’re crazy, Dylan O’Brien.”

“Not as crazy as you.”

-----

Great. This is just great. Memories that I haven’t recalled in months now invaded my mind with a thick fog that I couldn’t see through. I couldn’t sleep last night, and trying to focus right now seems impossible, as I trudge into my office building in my zombie-like state. Why can’t I stop thinking about him?

I try to push any thought of Dylan and Lauren out of my head as I make my way to my desk after stepping off the elevator. Quietly mumbling a hello to Ben, I slouch at my desk and start my computer.

“Well, good morning to you too, sleepy head,” Ben chirped, pursing his lips with his usual sass.

I just gave him a look as if to say, “I’m not in the mood.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I know you have your cranky mornings, but you don’t have to be a soggy hoe about it.”

“Sorry,” I huffed. “I just... don’t want to be here right now.”

Ben sighed dramatically. “I do not know why I put up with you sometimes,” he said, taking one of two coffees from his desk and putting it onto mine.

I swiftly grabbed the coffee and greedily took a few gulps, immediately feeling better. Did I mention how much I love coffee? “Me neither, but I’m incredibly lucky that you do,” I hummed, leaning over and kissing Ben on the cheek.

He laughed. “It is quite amazing how fast your mood changes with a little caffeine. You’re welcome baby doll.” He cleared his throat. “So what’s the deal?”

“With?”

“Queen Bitch and your man. Duh”

“I wouldn’t know. I just walked in. And I wholeheartedly hope that I don’t have find out all the gory details of last night.”

“And I wholeheartedly hope you do, because work was just starting to get boring before you walked in with lover boy yesterday. Oh wait, two lover boys.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well I’m glad my hot mess of a life amuses you. And I’m gonna pretend you didn’t just refer to my co-workers as ‘Lover Boys.’”

Before Ben could respond, a laugh echoed throughout the office; one that drives me absolutely insane. Lauren, with her arm hooked on Dylan’s, cackled as they entered. What's so funny? And why does my desk have to be so close to the elevators?

I caught Dylan’s eyes and he smiled and nodded towards me. I forced a smile back, but my face dropped once I met glances with Lauren. Her eyebrow raised and she smirked. “What kind of game is she playing?” I mumbled, as the two of them made their way towards their desks.

“Who even knows?” Ben chimed in to what was supposed to be my own personal conversation. “But by the looks of it, their date last night went well.”

All I could do was groan. Of all the girls at the office, why her? If Lauren wasn’t in the equation, I probably wouldn’t be having these feelings for him flooding back to me, though Ben would probably disagree.

“Whatever. I’m just going to focus on work, and not think about them at all,” I said, trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince Ben.

“Whatever you say, Hun.”

----------------------------------

The morning went by excruciatingly slow. It felt like I had been perched at this desk for days, but only a few hours have passed. I tapped my fingers impatiently, finding it hard to sit still.

“Can you chill?” Ben asked. “It’s bad enough I have to deal with your leg bouncin’ all the time. Please don’t make tapping a thing or I will have to murder you mercilessly. Right here in the office. Don’t embarrass us like that, Y/N.”

“I think I need another coffee.”

“No, no, no. Caffeine will just make you more fidgety. Go take a walk or something. Here,” he said, handing me a pile of folders. “Go run these reports over to Trends for me. Thanks hun bun.”

“Ben, no.” He knows fully well that Dylan works over in Trends.

“Girl, yes. You and I both know that you’re just dying to talk to him.”

“No, I most definitely don’t want to talk to him.”

“Yes you do. Now go.”

“No.” Ben gave me a look that reminded me of when my mom used to scold me as a child. “Ugh,” I pouted. “Fine. But I hate you.”

“Sure you do.”

Bringing the large stack of folders up to my chest, I stood up and started heading towards the Trends area. Striding over, I put the reports on James’ desk, the leader of the team. He nodded to me as a thank you, and I pivoted to head back to my desk, but someone called my name.

“Oh, hey Dylan,” I responded, walking over to his desk. I was kind of hoping to avoid him, since he was oh so snuggly with Lauren this morning, and I would rather not have to hear about it, but it was too late now. He had stood up and made his way around the desk to lean on it. “How are you?”

“Doing pretty good. How ‘bout yourself?” he asked.

“A little tired, not gonna lie. This day just feels like it’s dragging on.”

He laughed. “I know what you mean.” I peered around, checking to see if Lauren was ready to pop out of nowhere like she usually does.

“So...” I hesitated, not really sure if I should actually finish this sentence. “How was your date last night?” I asked, nudging his side as I turned to lean on his desk beside him, my teasing and cheery attitude hopefully covering up the fact that my whole body was burning with anger and, fine I'll admit it, jealousy.

Dylan looked at me with the same expression he had yesterday after I found out him and Lauren would be going out together. Studying my features, analyzing my expression.

I kept up my happy demeanor even though the way he looked at me caused more mini flashbacks of our past relationship to pop into my head.

“Oh,” he said after a moment, finally turning away. “It was nice.”

“Just nice?” I asked, still teasing.

He let a sheepish laugh leave his lips. “Yes, it was the perfect amount of nice. Quite nice indeed.” I smiled when he decided to humor me.

“Hmm, interesting. I didn't think you were the type of guy to settle for ‘nice,’” I replied, using air quotes. I was technically implying that he could do better than Lauren, and I was only half hoping he would pick up on that.

“Oh, Y/N.” He stood up and placed himself in front of me. “I know you think you know me, but I've changed a lot in the past two years.” Is that a smirk I see?

“Well, Dylan, I've changed a lot too,” I poked him in the chest.

He squinted and the corners of his mouth quirked up. “I can tell.”

Though I was curious to find out what about me he found noticeably different, I ignored that part of me. “I’m guessing you’re still a huge Star Wars nerd, though.”

“Of course! How can anyone not like Star Wars?” he defended himself, laughing.

“I’m not trying to knock Star Wars, I’m just making fun of you.”

Dylan gasped mockingly. “At least I’m not obsessed with that dumb reality tv show! What was it? The Bachelor?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I watch it for comedic purposes! And the Bachelorette is way better. Boy drama is hilarious.”

As we laughed together, I found myself staring at him again. The moment felt exactly like the one we shared yesterday just minutes after we had met for the first time in two years. I knew what he was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing: this feels just like old times.

“Dyl!” We both heard Lauren’s annoying call, but neither one of us acknowledged it, trying to stay in our moment for just a few seconds longer before we were inevitably interrupted.

I was the first to look away from Dylan and at Lauren, who seemed to be pissed judging by the way she stomped over to us in her heels. Her perfectly perfect smile wasn’t enough to cover up her mood this time. It was only when Lauren firmly grabbed Dylan’s shoulder that his eyes left me.

“Hi babe!” she squealed, completely ignoring my presence now. “Look what I brought you!” Her face was dangerously close to his and to be honest, he looked kind of uncomfortable with the proximity. Or maybe it was the yelling. Why the fuck was she so loud and high-pitched all the time? “It’s green juice. It’s like super healthy for you, and that’s why I got you one! You have to keep your energy up, it’s still your first week on the job!”

“Oh, Lauren. Thanks,” he said, taking the bottle of green, lumpy slime in his hand.

“It’s no problem at all! Anything I can do to help you, babe!” There’s that word again. Cringe.

Since Lauren obviously doesn’t give a damn that Dylan and I were having a conversation, I’ll just leave. I don’t want to hear her obnoxious voice anymore. If I don’t leave now, I might have to hear her spew something about their “nice” date last night.

“I had a lot of fun last night,” Lauren whispered, bringing her arms around his neck, not ashamed at all to act so clingy while in the office. I’m going to vomit.

“Alright, and that’s my cue to go.”

“Oh! Y/N, I didn’t see you there,” Lauren smiled sweetly, still clinging to Dylan.

“Sure you didn’t,” I replied, not in the mood to play fake nice today. I smiled at Dylan before squeezing past them.

“Wait, Y/N,” he called after me.

Instead of sticking around to hear what he wanted to stay, I glanced back with a, “See you later!” before heading back to my desk.

“So, how’d it go with Lover Boy?” Ben asked. I huffed.

“It was going great, until you-know-who showed up.” Ben and I made an “Eck,” sound in unison.

“Let me guess. Lauren has already made wedding announcements?” I just snickered in response. What did Lauren mean when she said she “had fun” last night? Did they just have a delightful dinner or did they...

“Y/N. I need you in my office,” Cheryl interrupted my thoughts, thankfully. She sped away before I could even respond to her, but I quickly got up to follow her back to her office.

After closing the door behind me, I took a seat in front of Cheryl’s desk. “Has the new employee been acquainted?” she asked bluntly, and somewhat disinterested as she looked over papers on her desk.

“Mr. O’Brien? Yes,” I replied. “He settled in easily and has been hard at work. He fits in nicely in my personal opinion.”

“Good. That’s very good,” she glanced up for a moment before shuffling through more documents. “Remember to have his report written up by next week.”

“Of course.”

“Also, I need you to help finalize the current campaign proposal before we bring it to the board tomorrow. I would do it myself but I need to leave early today.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Great. Mr. Barnes is waiting for you in his office.”

“Ethan?” I said aloud without thinking.

“Yes. Is that a problem?” She looked at me confused.

“No, ma’am. Of course not.”

“I understand you two are dating now, but I expect you to keep it professional while at work.”

I found myself too shocked to respond as she ushered me out of her office without another word. Even my fucking boss thinks Ethan and I are dating. Great. If this “news” has reached Cheryl already, why haven’t I been contacted by HR? I guess I’ll deal with that problem when it arrives.

Slouching my way over to Ethan’s personal office, I mentally prepared myself for his flirty demeanor and cocky persona. I knocked a few times before letting myself in.

“Y/N. What a pleasant surprise,” he said, winking at me. “For what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Cheryl wanted me to help you with the campaign proposal you’re working on.”

“Oh, perfect. Come have a seat.”

I made myself comfortable across from him at his desk while he rearranged papers and folders, handing me a few. “Alright let’s get started.”

I was surprised to find that Ethan and I working together on this project was strictly professional. No snide remarks or innuendos from him. He’s actually a decent person to be around when he’s working. We finished rather quickly and I was relieved. It’s well past lunch hour and I haven’t eaten. “Thanks for your help on this. If I had to handle this myself it would’ve taken forever.”

“No problem,” I replied. “I’m happy to be of service.” I stood up and stretched a little before making my way to the door. I only made a few steps before I felt Ethan grab my hand.

“Wait, Y/N.”

“Yeah?”

“I just wanted to apologize,” he said.

“For what?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

“For yesterday. I basically demanded that you go to lunch with me, and I came off like a total jackass. I’m sorry.” I searched his steel blue eyes and all I found was sincerity. I never thought I’d hear an actual apology from Ethan Barnes.

“I appreciate your apology,” I smiled.

“For what it’s worth, I’m really glad you said yes. I had a great time,” he said with a soft smile.

“Me too.” I looked down at his hand still holding mine, and wondered what would happen next. I don’t know if I want anything to happen at all. Maybe I should just leave...

“O-oh,” we heard someone say from the doorway, and my head snapped up to see it was Dylan. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said audaciously, chest out and eyes scanning Ethan and his grip he still had on me. It was obvious he wasn’t sorry at all, and his bold aura that entered the small room made me drop Ethan’s hand as if I had done something wrong.

“A polite knock wouldn’t have killed you,” Ethan shot back, obviously annoyed. But there was something else in his tone... Suddenly I could feel the tension in the room, and it was rising as the two glared at each other.

“Well anyway, Y/N, I need to talk to you about this report,” Dylan said, completely ignoring Ethan’s reply.

Wanting to avoid whatever the hell was going on here, I left Ethan’s side and started towards Dylan and the exit. “Um, yeah of course--”

“What was your name again? Was it Daniel?” Ethan interrupted my flee, stalking forwards arrogantly.

“It’s Dylan.” His jaw clenched as he mimicked the dominant posture Ethan displayed.

“Right,” Ethan dismissed. “Well I just want to emphasize to knock next time,” he all but growled. “It’s rude and incredibly unprofessional to barge in the way you just did, and Y/N and I were not finished doing business.”

“Whatever I walked into sure as hell didn’t look like business.”

I saw the anger rising in Ethan’s eyes and I wanted to interject, but I’m too occupied with confusion as to why I’m suddenly standing in a warzone between the two alpha-males. Both obviously have issues with one another but I can’t figure out why.

“Whatever business I have with Y/N is none of your business. So why don’t you go ahead and show yourself out while we finish up here,” the blonde sneered. They’re talking like I’m not even here.

“You see, I would but I kinda have this really important work thing that I need her help on, so yeah. Not leaving without her. Thanks though.”

Ethan was all but fuming because of Dylan’s remark, and I finally came out of my shock and confusion long enough to cut in. “Alright boys. That’s enough. Ethan, we were done anyway.” I looked into his blue eyes with a warning not to argue. Turning to Dylan, I gestured for him to lead the way out, wanting to keep myself between the two. With the door shutting loudly behind me, I took a deep breath, happy to be out of that intense situation. Why it escalated so much was still a mystery to me.

“So, what is this report we’re looking at?” I asked, as we walked back through the office and towards my workspace.

“Here,” he responded, handing me a folder covered in colorful sticky notes. He was obviously still tense. “James told me you were the best person to talk to about this.” I sat down in my chair and quickly skimmed the first few pages.

“Right, okay. Well--”

“Are you hungry?” he interjected. “We can talk about it over lunch.”

“God, I’m starving! Yes please.”