#picked him up and swung him around in the middle of the airport I want to throw up

[tariah23]

The goiji fic updated too fast, I just read the last chapter last night-

[ofstoriesandstardust]

chapter 1 - how did we get here? (lt. bradley “rooster” bradshaw)

a/n: i rewatched the great balls of fire scene an embarrassing amount of times. you know, for research purposes. 

summary: Pretending to be in love with Bradley proves to be easier and yet harder than you ever imagined. Rooster breaks down and admits the truth to Phoenix. So naturally, she hatches a plan to get the two together for real. Maverick’s just happy to finally be meeting his son’s wife and not miss out on anything else.

main masterlist | top gun: maverick masterlist | flight risk masterlist | story description | prologue - lost time | chapter 2 - no such thing as a white lie

folks who wanted to be tagged: @justanothermagicalsara @jake-h-ngm-n-seresin @fangirl-316 @herladyshipxx @callsign-valley @parker-natasha @myhomeworksnotdone @kyramaximoff @pulisvertz @lass-that-is-gone @frenchtoastix @coco-loco-nut @sopheeg @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @torresbarnes @skyes-universe @supernaturaldawning​ @you-had-me-at-dead-welsh-kings​

warnings: swearing, mentions of cancer, flashbacks, slight angst towards the end, reuniting at the airport cliches, i love the nickname Sunshine and I know it’s a cliche but i don't care, however busy you think San Diego’s airport is double it,   the classic great balls of fire scene, nervous rambling, Ice is healthy and alive because I said so

word count: 4,193

You blinked, taking in the bright San Diego sunlight. The noises of the bustling airport welcomed you as you stepped out into the sunlight, taking in the lines of cars. A bright smile broke out across your face, one that could’ve gotten split your face open right down the middle. Despite the honking of horns, loud conversations, and the call of flight details over the intercom, you never would’ve missed Bradley leaned up against his Bronco, a pair of aviators perched on his face. Bradley’s always been handsome, had a natural charm, but the military had been kind to him in what it did for his physique and appearance. 

"Bradley!” You called, feet already moving towards the tall man before you knew what you were doing. His head swung towards you and a grin broke out across his face and you skid into his arms. He leaned down, slightly picking you up as your arms reached up across his large frame. The truth was, you and Bradley had always been friendly, and you liked him probably more than he liked you, but you wouldn’t deny that getting married to the kid had changed things for your friendship. You would always be fond of him and him you, no matter the distance and time that passed between the two of you. Well, at least that’s what you told yourself as he gently set you back down on the ground, large hands moving to your shoulders to take you in. 

“Well, Sunshine, look at you.” He remarks and you turn your head slightly, feeling your cheeks color lightly. “You look good.” 

“Same could be said for you Bradshaw. I see the Navy has been good to you.” He chuckles. It has been. He’s tan, built, gorgeous- wait what? You shook the thought from your brain. 

“Here, I’ll take care of this. Hop in.” He grabs your luggage, moving it to the back as you easily slid into the front seat, reminiscent of the days the two of you would go to the local dinner near campus to get those cheese fries you liked and the pizza Bradley enjoyed, although you always swore it was no good. The front door opens and he slides in, key turning in the ignition. He weaves around the multitude of cars easily and you settle in, buckling your seatbelt. “How you been Sunshine? How was the flight?” 

“Honestly, the flight wasn't too bad, I hate the airports more than anything. I’m good, keeping busy with work. But I’m happy to be out in sunny San Diego for a little bit. I prefer a West Coast summer to an East Coast one anytime.” 

“You ever been out here? To San Diego?”

“Yeah, I had family out here, not that I speak to them much these days.”

“That’s right, I knew that. Hey, do you wanna grab food on the way back to the house? I don’t know if you’ve eaten anything...”

“Yeah, that sounds great actually. I’ve only had Starbucks and that was at least six hours and an entire different timezone ago.” His laughter rings out and you smile upon hearing the sound again. 

“Any West Coast requests?”

“Please, In’N’Out. I beg of you Bradshaw.” He smirks.

“You always did have good taste. I mean, I would know, you did marry me after all.” You snort. 

“Yeah, speaking of that, what’s been up with you? I have to admit that getting a call from my fake husband to come convince his estranged godfather we’re in love was not on my 2019 Bingo card.” He sighs as the two of you make it out of airport traffic, driving past the sparkling blue of the coastline. 

“Okay, so, how much do you know about me being at UVA? I forget what I’ve told you over the years.”

“Eh, not a lot.”

“Okay, so, okay- I’ll just tell you everything because Mav’s gonna ask you questions about my parents, so congrats, you get to know more about me then most of my friends do.”

“Oh wow Bradshaw, I’m honored that you’re trusting your wife with your life story.” He smirks again. 

“Okay, so my Dad was a pilot in the Navy. He went by a callsign, it’s what we call each other up in the air. His was Goose, and his best friend’s is Maverick. My Dad died when I was young in a training accident. Mav really stepped up after the accident, his wingman Ice too, and they became my uncles. Mav’s the only father figure I’ve had. He was there for me a lot after Mom got sick when I was 14. Anyways, towards the end of Mom’s illness, when we knew she wasn’t going to get better, she asked Mav to pull my application to the Naval Academy. and he did. Mav never told me why he did it, but I was so angry that I walked out. I figured I’d do it on my own, which is how I ended up at UVA in the first place, studying Political Science. I enlisted after I graduated and you know the rest.” 

“I have a question, but I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask.”

“Ask away.” 

“Why would your Mom ask Maverick to do that? I mean, for as long as I’ve known you, the Navy was always sort of the dream for you. Why would she, or Maverick, stand in the way of that?”

He sighs. “I’d spent my whole life dreaming and talking about growing up to be like my Dad, to get to fly alongside Mav one day, and I guess- I know Mom didn’t want me to go out of the way my Dad did, dying so young and leaving so much behind. She didn’t want to lose both her boys. And Mav cared about Mom a lot and I think he still feels guilty for Dad dying even though he’s been cleared by the Navy so he did what she asked. He didn’t tell me why he did it for years and I always thought he did it because he didn’t think I was good enough to fly with him, that he was trying to stand in my way of succeeding, of being like him and my Dad.” 

“But now you guys are okay?” He nods.

“It’s not what it used to be, but we’re a lot better now. We got called back to TOPGUN- do you know what that is?” You nodded. “Okay, well, we got called back to TOPGUN for a mission. He was our instructor and we butted heads a lot. To make a classified long story short, he ended up flying the mission with us. He- he took a missile for me and I went back for him, disobeying direct orders. Against all odds, we made it back alive and I- there were quite a few moments there where I didn’t think we were coming home and I just- I looked death in the eyes and after walking away from it, all that stuff didn’t seem to be that big of a deal anymore.” The car is silent as you see the unmistakable palm trees and red and white paint that marks In’N’Out in the distance. 

“Holy shit.” You finally breathe out, brain reeling. “No wonder you want to file these divorce papers. I don’t- I can’t imagine getting that call from the Navy.”

“Yeah.”

“So, why lie to Maverick about us?”

“I don’t know- our relationship is still fragile and he was so excited I just- I couldn’t tell him the truth. And he wanted to meet you so badly, he’s been talking about it since I told him you booked your flight that, I don’t know, telling him now just seems so- I don’t know. I’m sorry I’m putting you in this position.” You shake your head.

“After everything you’ve done for me throughout the years, it’s the least I can do for you.”

-

“Walk me through it one more time. There’s a lot of them.” He huffs out a laugh. 

“I know, it's okay. So, don’t forget that my call sign is Rooster and you’re about the only person outside of Mav and Ice that call me Bradley.”

“I’m not calling you Rooster.” He chuckles.

“I know, and I’ve told them that, that you prefer to keep my work life separate from our personal life.”

“Sly Bradshaw.”

“Thanks, I’m quite proud of myself. Anyways, there’s Mav, which-”

“Yeah, got that down.”

“Great. There’s Uncle Ice, but you’ll meet him later this week.”

“Okay.”

“There’s Phoenix, She’s my wingman and one of my best friends. There’s Bob, her WSO-”

“WSO?”

“Right, you’re not a pilot. Weapons Security Officer. You’ll like Bob. There’s Hangman, who- well he and I have a complicated history and he’s kind of an ass. There’s his wingman Coyote, who’s pretty cool. You’ll like Coyote, Fanboy too. Fanboy is Payback’s WSO, and Payback’s also cool.”

“You said there was 12 of you.”

“There is, but that’s all whose coming tonight.” 

“Fuck, am I gonna have to learn more people’s names?” He laughs. 

“Yeah. Oh, and there’s Penny Benjamin, who owns the bar we’re going to tonight, and her daughter Amelia. Penny is kind of Mav’s girlfriend but if you ask them that, they’ll deny it. I actually think you’ll get along with Amelia like a house on fire, which almost gave Mav a heart attack. As far as the ring goes-” 

“I’ve taken care of that.” You hold up your hand, wriggling your fingers.”I found this ring in my childhood bedroom years ago and my parents never knew where it came from so it sort of became mine. It’ll do for our purposes. I hate traditional wedding rings anyways. What are we telling them about PDA? Pet names?”

“You hate it. Sunshine is the only nickname I’ll use for you.”

“Okay, good to know. It’s not a lie.” 

“No, it isn’t, and we’re already lying enough to them anyways. Also, you should know that my group of friends- well, we’re already pretty loud and we can definitely be competitive and well- we’re not exactly nice to each other a lot of the time, but it’s only ever in fun. I’ve told them to leave you out of it but if you catch one of us slinging insults at each other during a game of pool, just- be prepared.” 

“Anything else I should know before we throw ourselves to the wolves?” You ask, suddenly nervous as you eye the bar the two of you have just arrived at. 

“We should be good.”

“What do I do if someone asks me a question I don’t know the answer to?” 

“I won’t leave your side, I promise. It won’t happen.” You nod, let out a shaky breath as your stomach turns. Rooster takes your hand, the one thing you had both agreed on and he pushes the door open as you pray your hand doesn’t start sweating in his. The bell jingles, which attracts the attention of the woman working at the bar, and she smiles at him. 

“Well Bradshaw, I do hope this is the wonderful lady you’ve been hiding from us.” Bradley tips his head. 

“Indeed Penny. This is (Y/N), my wife.” She extends a hand over the countertop and you shake it, taking note that this is Penny, Mav’s not-girlfriend.

“Where’s Mav? Amelia?” She sighs, shaking her head. 

“Up to no good, probably.” The door opens again and a boisterous group steps through the door. Your eyes scan the group, counting a total of 5. The woman spots the two of you first and she makes a beeline for you. She’s a lot shorter than Bradley is but as you take in her posture and sharp look, you figure that this must be Phoenix. The rest of the group isn’t too far behind and one of the men claps Bradley on the shoulder. 

“Bradshaw, please tell me you finally brought your wife out of hiding.” A different man in the group, shorter this time pipes up.

“Yeah, we were starting to think she wasn’t real.”

“Especially considering you’ve never mentioned her before now.” Phoenix states, eyes narrowing. Bradley sighs. 

“Daggers, this is my wife (Y/N). Sunshine, this is Bob, Phoenix, Payback, Fanboy, and Coyote.” Coyote chuckles. 

“Sunshine?”

“Long story.” 

“It really isn’t, Bradley always thought I was a ray of sunshine during our time at UVA, that I was always so talkative and upbeat and cheerful that I needed to be referred to as Sunshine. He won’t let it go.” 

“Him and Maverick could learn a lesson about letting things go.” Penny calls, a smirk on her face. Bradley rolls his eyes in response. 

“Listen, she loves it.”

“I don’t know that I do.” He shoots you a look. 

“And what would you prefer I call you sweetheart?”

“Well, I don’t know, that’ll work.” Fanboy makes a face.

“God, could the two of you get any more in love?” Mmm, probably Fanboy.

“Shut it, Fanboy. Where’s Hangman?” 

“He got caught up at work.” Bradley’s eyes narrow at Coyote’s response.

“What’d he do?” 

“What didn’t he do should be the question.” Bob mutters. 

“You know how he is, man. Hangman leaves you hanging and poor Maverick’s and enough of it.” 

“Mav making him do pushups?”

“All 300 of ‘em.” Bradley chuckles. The door opens to reveal an older man, bomber jacket and all and you know from the moment you set eyes on him that this is the legendary Maverick. He pulls off his aviators, taking in the bar and you realize just how much Bradley takes after his godfather. 

“Pete.” Penny calls out and he turns. He smiles, making his way down to the group. He arrives at Bradley’s shoulder and smiles at you. 

“(Y/N), this is my godfather, Pete Mitchell. Mav, this is my wife.” His smile only grows, but there seems to be a hint of sadness, of melancholy, behind it. He extends his hand, but you opt for a hug instead which causes the man to laugh. 

“Nice to meet you.” He whispers and you smile. 

“You as well. Bradley’s told me so much about you.” He clears his throat and glances at Bradley like he wouldn’t have expected him to say anything about him at all. 

“I admittedly don’t know much as I would like. Here, why don’t I buy you a drink? You can tell me everything Baby Goose won’t share.” Your eyebrows raise as Bradley groans. 

“Baby Goose?”

“Mav, do we gotta- it’s been like two minutes, how are you embarrassing me already?” 

“It’s cute.” You coo and a blush starts fighting it’s way up his tan skin. 

“Yeah yeah.” He grumbles. You took a seat at the bar and Maverick settles opposite from you as the crew makes their way to the pool table, sans Hangman, who’d still yet to appear. Bradley had left you after you promised you’d be fine for a little while without him and he had departed with a kiss on your cheek to which you had blushed, inciting a chuckle and head shaking from Maverick, mumbling something about kids in love. You talked with Maverick, not sure with how much time passed, as business at the bar picked up around you. You had to admit that your nerves had gone as quickly as they’d shown and this was a lot easier than you anticipated it to be.

“So, now that Bradley’s stationed here, do you think you’ll make the move from Boston?” You paused, shrugging a shoulder. 

“I mean, we’ve talked about it but, I don’t- I love my career and my job and he’s gone so often that we aren’t sure how permanent this is that-”

Maverick shakes his head. “The news that they were becoming an official squadron together took a lot of people by surprise and we’ve only just found out. It’s okay to not have all the answers.” You bow your head. 

“I mean, I love San Diego, I would absolutely consider moving here, but I’m married to my career and I just-”

“Kid, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” You swallowed, trying not to let on that you didn’t have the answers Maverick was looking for. The doorbell jingled and you glanced up to see a tall blond strutting the door, a cocky grin on his face. Maverick sighed and you glanced over at the man. Your eyes watched as this mystery man made his way over to the pair of you.

“Pops, thanks for the extra 300 pushups, I appreciated the delay.”

“Well, you’re welcome Hangman.” Ah, so this was the belated and notorious Hangman. Hangman cocked his head but quickly turned his attention to you. 

“And what do we have here? A gorgeous lady, perhaps? And does the gorgeous lady have a name?” You open you mouth but Maverick beats you to it.

“Hangman, this is Rooster’s wife, (Y/N).” 

“Pleasure to meet you Hangman.”

“Pleasure’s all mine darling. Say, if you ever get tired of dear old Rooster, I’m happy to be of service.” He drawls, settling an arm around your shoulder. You raise an eyebrow and Maverick shakes his head. 

“Hangman, as your superior officer I feel as though I should remind you that adultery is a crime and can get you dishonorably discharged.” You gasp, turning towards Maverick.

“Is it really? I mean- I don’t know why that surprises me, I just can’t believe the Navy cares. Then again, my parents were cheating on each other so it’s not really like- you know what I’m gonna stop talking now.” Hangman huffs out a laugh removing his arm as Maverick chuckles. The sound of the the jukebox getting unplugged echoed through the Hard Deck and you looked over the piano, where Bradley was testing out a few keys. Coyote comes up behind you, groaning. You glance at him. 

“What’s he doing?” Hangman smirks. 

“Just watch and see.” The beginning chords of Great Balls of Fire begins to play and suddenly you’re taken back to when you were 20 years old, at the house party that got you into this mess in the first place.

The crickets were chirping as the music sounded far away. It was muted and you weren’t sure because it was inside or because you really felt that terrible. The wood underneath you was scratchy and you shifted uncomfortably, pulling your knees up to the step in front of you as you allow your head to fall onto your knees. You remember the wetness of your tears dripping down your face as you heard the college students singing. You swallow, trying to push back the way everything is crashing into you at once. Coming here was a bad idea, being here tonight was a bad idea, this wasn’t helping, just reminded how alone you were-

Bradley has the bar up in cheers and suddenly your chest feels tight as you come back to yourself as the chants overtake the bar, not unlike the night that you and Rooster had agreed to get married. Maverick glances at you and you take a sip of your beer, trying to shove down whatever it is that’s crawling up your throat. 

“He do this often?” You ask to no one in particular and Coyote snorts. 

“Yeah, you could say that.” 

Hangman smirks. “Ten bucks this is the first song of at least four tonight.” 

“You’re on Seresin, my money’s on at least six. He’s got his wife here and all.” Hangman glances down at you. 

“Bradshaw ever serenade you like that?” You tilt your head, watching Bradley disappear out the front door of the Hard Deck. “(Y/N)?” You shake your head, fighting the frown as he leaves. 

“Um, yeah, yeah he has. A few times in college. Uhm, not so much anymore but that just to do with the distance and everything.” You mutter, face feeling hot as you blink back tears. 

“Hey, you okay?” You hear Maverick’s voice come from next to you. 

“Uh, yeah, this is all just a lot and overwhelming and I- you know what, will you tell me more stories about Bradley? As a kid?” Maverick nods as Hangman and Coyote collect their drinks and move back to the pool table. Maverick starts telling you a story from when Bradley was in high school as you watch Phoenix move out the door behind him. 

-

He moved to the bench Penny kept towards the back patio of the Hard Deck. He sighed, sitting down gently. He watches the waves crash onto the shore as the pink hues of sunset run together with purples of evening dusk, creating a sight to behold on the horizon. San Diego really did have the best sunsets. 

“Bradshaw?” He doesn’t turn, doesn’t acknowledge Phoenix as her footsteps stop a few feet behind him. “Everything good?”

“Yeah, I’m good, just needed air for a minute.” 

“You’re separated from her, aren’t you?”

“What?” He twists, facing Natasha. She shakes her head. 

“Rooster, I’ve known you for a long time now. You’ve never mentioned a wife, you wear no ring, the way the two of you haven’t spent one moment together tonight, you’re separated from her.” He sighs, facing back to the ocean. She takes a few steps closer. “Why wouldn’t you be honest?” A pause. “Is it because of Maverick?” 

“Jesus fucking- Phoenix now is not a good time to be doing this!” He snaps but that only encourages the women to come closer. She gently sits down next to him, eyeing him with a measured look. 

“Rooster, tell me what’s going on. Talk to me. Tell me the truth.”

“You want the truth? Fine, here’s the truth. We got married less than a year into my Navy service because she was a friend of a friend and she desperately needed the benefits. We always figured we’d split when we found other partners but then we didn’t and then Mav asked about her and fuck- he’d be so disappointed in me if he knew the truth. I couldn’t lie to him.” Phoenix says nothing, just looking at him with that piercing look of hers. 

“Do you regret it?”

“No.” He says firmly. “She desperately needed those benefits and she did for a long time. It’s only been within the last five years she’s found a secure, stable job within her field. But God, seeing her in the flesh, after years, Nat, I’m- Her and I are divorcing. Going on that mission, seeing her now, it’s confirmed it. I don’t want her to get a call like the one my Mom got because she doesn’t deserve that. I care about her too much to let that happen. But lying to Maverick is harder than I thought it would be and I-”

“Rooster, hey, whoa, it’s okay.” He takes a shaky breath as his best friend eyes him. “For what it’s worth, if I didn’t know you as well as I did, I would be fooled by the performance the two of you are putting on.” She sighs, rubbing her hands together. “The idiots haven’t figured it out, no way. And Maverick just adores her, it’s so obvious. What are you gonna tell him? About why the two of you are getting divorced?”

He shrugs and gives a nervous chuckle. “I didn’t think that far in advance.” 

“You better figure it out because Maverick’s gonna be devastated you hid it from him.”

He sucks in a deep breath through gritted teeth. “I know.” 

She hesitates for a moment, biting her lip. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” He nods. There’s footsteps and they both turn to see you a few feet away, hesitating. 

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” They shake their heads and Phoenix stands up. 

She smiles and nods her head as she moves past, tossing a “It was nice to meet you.” Over her shoulder as she strides back into the Hard Deck. You replace Phoenix in the seat next to him and he looks at you. 

“Everything okay?” You ask softly. 

He nods. “Are you good?” You nod but then shake your head. 

“Yeah, it’s- I’ll be fine, it’s just a lot. Overwhelming.” 

“Do you wanna go?”

“Yes please.” You whisper, shutting your eyes briefly. He stands up, taking your hand as the two of you walk back to the car. He squeezes it, trying not to think about the way his own heart is twisting. 

-

“So Bradshaw is dumber than I ever even realized.”

“Easy there Bagman.”

“Not sure I’m following why this is relevant, Phoenix.” Payback states from where he’s leaned up against the counter.

“Because. When is the last time you’ve heard about Rooster settling down? Having a serious girlfriend?” Fanboy snorts. 

“Maybe never.”

“Exactly. And well, if they’re already married then maybe it wouldn’t hurt to you know-” She clicks her tongue and make a little motion with her shoulder. 

“Oh, I don’t like that look on your face.” Bob moaned, taking in the mischievous glint in Phoenix’s eyes. Hangman smirked.

“Whatcha got in mind Trace?”

[theratsareinspace]

Cigar Smoke and Metal-Karl Heisenberg x Reader

Check out the Masterlist for the complete fic!

Chapter 16 You pulled away from Heisenberg. “God, I love you.”

“I love you too.” He said as he stood up, pulling you up with him. “What now?”

“Hm… I dunno.” You thought.

Heisenberg fiddled with his hat, but turned when a familiar whinny caught his ear.

“Oi, Pferd!” He laughed as Pferd trotted up to you both. “What are you doing here, boy?”

He nudged Karl’s hand with his nose.

“Yeah, yeah, I missed you too, ya big sap.”

“… Donna. We forgot about Donna! She was a mess when you died, no telling how much bigger of a mess she is now…” Your eyes widened in realization.

“Well, we got a horse, let’s ride over to her place.” Karl swung up onto Pferd’s back, and he pulled you up after him.

Pferd seemed to know the way through the creepy woods, which were littered with even more creepy doll paraphernalia than before.

“She really is upset…” Karl sounded a little worried as you rode through the mist.

“She puts the creepy stuff up when she’s upset?” You asked.

“They do it to themselves because the cadou senses she’s stressed. A lot of this is from when Claudia died.”

You wrapped your arms around his form.

Eventually, you reached the door to the house. You traced the plaque above the deposit slot.

Give up your memories.

You took off the necklace Heisenberg had given you all those weeks ago and tentatively put it into the slot.

The door unlocked.

“Donna?” You called into the house as you stepped inside. It was deathly quiet.

“Hate this place…” Karl shuddered.

You made your way through the halls until you ended up in a great room of sorts. A portrait of a scar-less Donna and Angie was hanging on the wall.

One of the dolls that was sitting in a corner looked up at you. “STOP IT!!! YOU AREN’T REAL!!! YOU’RE DEAD!!!” He screeched, punching himself in the face.

You picked up the doll. “Donna, stop. It’s me. We’re back; we’re real.”

Donna appeared just behind you, touching your shoulder.

“you’re… y… you’re… you’re back…”

“Yes, we’re back.”

Donna sobbed as she crushed you and Karl into a hug.

“WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!! WE THOUGHT WE WERE ALONE AGAIN!!! YOU DUMMIES!!! YOU BUFFOONS!!! YOU NINCOMPOOPS!!!” Angie screeched as she ran in circles around you three.

“Sorry, Donna. I didn’t exactly mean to die.” Karl mumbled, unable to breathe under the pressure.

Donna let you both go. “I thought I had lost everything again… I’m so glad you’re back.”

You smiled at Donna. “Don’t thank me. Karl was the one who pulled us both out.”

She looked confused. “He was conscious?”

“Yup. Those crazy experiments were good for something after all.” Heisenberg fidgeted with a chain around his neck.

“You know, I’ve been thinking… what are we going to do now?” You asked, steering the conversation away from the experiments.

Angie handed Donna some papers.

“I did some research,” Donna said, showing the screenshots that she had printed out, “And there’s a program in Italy where you can purchase an old castle for a small amount of money. It will be a fixer upper, but—“

“Yes.” Heis said immediately. “Italy is the land of pasta, right? I wanna go there.”

You giggled. “Yes, it is. We’ll get you all the pasta you want, Heis.”

One month later, you all arrived at the Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport early one morning.

“This is some building, buttercup.” Karl marveled, looking at the scenery around him.

“… Karl, it’s an airport. It isn’t supposed to be pretty. Can I get a coffee?”

“According to the directory, there’s a Starbucks right by our gate.” Donna pointed at a map of the airport.

“I wanna double shot espresso!!!” Angie screeched from her baby carrier.

“Absolutely not. You are getting six melatonin pills.”

“Karl.” You sighed. “She’s like five pounds, max.”

“And?” He put a hand on his hip.

You rolled your eyes. “Come on, let’s get through TSA. How much metal do you have on you?”

“… my organs are made of metal.”

“Good grief. This’ll take a while.”

So much had changed in the past month. Getting Donna and Karl used to the real world had been… a challenge, to say the least. As you got into the TSA line, you recalled when you gave Karl his first cell phone.

“So, this phone calls people, sends messages, takes pictures, plays music, and gets on the internet??? All of this in this tiny little box???” Heisenberg asked as soon as you left the store.

“Well, it does a lot more than that…” You began to list off other things it can do.

“Your world really is as brilliant as they say… why didn’t I think of making something like this???”

Unfortunately, Karl was a tinkerer at heart, and he had managed to bust three phones in the span of a week. Good thing you bought insurance.

You also remembered when you took him shopping for the first time.

“Karl, people don’t wear greasy trench coats and leather straps everywhere they go. People will think you’re a… um…” you sighed. “A very strange man.”

“I am a very strange man, dollface.” He surveyed the shopping mall. “Let’s go to Hot Topic. That looks my style.”

“Karl— no—“

He had bought all the varieties of metal chain that the store carried that day.

He had also bought some metal band tees— something else he appreciated about the outside world. He was wearing one containing the logo of one of his new favorite bands—Halestorm— now.

Donna had adjusted easier than Karl; she already knew a little bit based on books she had read. She prefered more ‘girly’ clothing, like the green sundress she was wearing now. She still wore her hair to cover her scar, but she was no longer wearing her veil.

It was a whole ordeal getting through TSA, but you made it out just before your flight. You made it to the gate in time to board the plane. Donna was in the window seat, you were in the middle, and Karl was in the aisle.

“I can’t believe it…” Heisenberg mumbled, taking your hand.

“Can’t believe what, Karl?” You asked, absentmindedly flipping through the movies on the airplane TV.

“I’m free… I’m really out of there.” He squeezed your hand.

You stopped and looked at him.

“I actually thought I was going to be stuck in that hellhole for my entire crappy life,” he said with a laugh.

You gave him a soft kiss. “But you’re free.”

“You helped free me. I dunno how I’m going to make it up to you…”

You smirked. “Oh, I have a few ideas…”

The plane took off. You took one last look at Romania, remembering everything you had gone through. Though it was a part of you, as everyone’s trauma is a part of them, you wouldn’t let it define you. Nor would you let it define the people you had come to love. As you rose higher and higher into the sky, you left what had happened in Romania behind and looked forward to a bright future. You looked at Karl, and he was doing the same.

“To a new life.” you mumbled as you kissed his cheek.

“To a better life.” He responded, smiling as you crossed together into a new life.

Taglist: @xyinparadise @baphometwolf666 @lost-mother@arlotg

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[binniesthighs]

call me babydoll | reader x chan

a/n: chapter threeeee here it is!!! hehe thank you all for being patient for this update and thank you as always for giving this fic your love!! i start out the first part of this chapter in 3rd person which is a lil different, but i wanted to try it out! hehe i love hearing what ya thought of the chapter too! 😊

Pairing: self insert, female reader x bang chan 

Genre: action, mystery and suspense, fluff, smut, angst 

Tags: (of this part) bodyguard au, secret agent au, royal au, moderndayprince!chan, secretagent!reader, secretagent!jeongin, secretagent!jisung, collegestudent!seungmin, skz side characters, 3rd person for the first section, adventure and mystery, action and peril, plot driven, running out of time, slow-ish burn, growing feelings, sexual tension, explicit language, mentions of food, brief talk of gaining weight while travelling, there’s a few spoilers hidden in this one...can ya find them? ;) 

CWs: blood and other wounds, shooting at a convenience store, thoughts about death and dying when in peril 

Word count: 5.6k 

Parts

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR

Two years of pocket change and Seungmin had finally saved up enough money to afford to study abroad. It had nearly taken him life and limb, and he might’ve suffered (1) concussion from a bowl of soup being thrown at his head, but, he had done it. 

With grease stains on his sneakers Seungmin traversed the long and stretching corridor of the airport terminal with his backpack strapped onto him tightly. The air smelled different here. It was fresher than he was used to--coming from a large city center--everything here felt more pristine. Outside of the tall glass windows, airplanes lifted off into the sky like massive metal giants. He couldn’t remember properly, but the last time that he must’ve been on a plane, it likely had been when his mother...

Seungmin shook the dusty and cobwebbed ideas out from his head. 

No more sad thoughts. 

I’m gonna like it here. He thought to himself, then clipped the little buckle to his backpack straps over his chest with a determined huff. 

I’m really going to like it here. 

With his phone in hand, he tried his best to decipher what the signs said above him. Mostly, they looked like a jumbled mess of symbols, but luckily he had spent some time trying to learn the language between shifts and sneaking peeks at his little dictionary under the diner counter. The whole terminal buzzed with a lovely kind of energy, and he was thrilled to get to know it better. The first wonderful thing about travelling abroad was that no one knew who he was, and he could be whoever he wanted. In this new land, no one knew him or anything about the dingy little apartment that he had lived in. No one knew about his less than honorable roommates or the debt that he had put himself under to go to college in the first place. 

I could be a prince for all they know. 

Seungmin liked that idea a lot. 

His stomach grumbled as he passed by food stands, however he hadn’t had the chance yet to change his currency, so he knew that he would have to wait just a minute longer. Seungmin had been assigned a host family by his college, and he hoped like crazy that they would be the kind to cook for him. Seungmin had heard somewhere that kids who go on study abroad gain a ton of weight at first...but he didn’t mind. Where else would he get the chance? 

There had been a host father that had sent him an email a couple weeks ago--that he promptly had to run through Google Translate--who told him that he would meet him outside the main luggage claim area after his flight landed. Seungmin had tried to look up and see if his host family were on social media, but he could find no such profile of theirs. He decided it probably was better that it was a surprise. 

Seungmin lugged his two large suitcases out to the summer air of the new and strange land, and it finally hit him. Standing on the solid ground of another land thousands of miles away from his home, it was really all happening. 

The landscape outside was like that of a movie scene: rolling hills and jagged mountains capped with snow, adorable little homes built into the countryside and tiny cars with horizonal license plates. The sun was warm in the cerulean sky that puffed with perfectly white clouds. On the air, the scent of flowers wafted, and he was certain that there was a lake nearby too--he had researched it. There were old men in their caps with a crook in their back, and ladies with long floral skirts and dresses with Mary Janes. Each of them had smile lines on their faces and under their eyes as if they had all lived lives well lived. There were pretty girls too with slender legs and delicate arms swaddled in light scarves. 

Seungmin wouldn’t have minded getting a girlfriend on this trip. While he kept the fact to himself, Seungmin had never really done anything with a girl before outside of some awkwardly handsy kissing in middle school. Maybe this time around, he would finally get his chance: he had read somewhere that girls often like foreigners. 

“Seung Min! Seung Min?” A man’s voice called. 

The young college student whipped his head around in the direction of the sound, finally finding a middle aged man with salt-and-pepper hair with whiskers of the same color. He had red cheeks and a large nose, and looked a bit like a character from a comic. Seungmin waved back, greeting his new father. When they met, the older man threw him into a large hug with a chuckle. He smelled a bit like Tabaco and old leather. He had a couple missing teeth, but that didn’t lessen his bright smile. 

“English?” Seungmin’s host father asked. 

“Yeah! I can speak English.” He returned with a welcoming grin. 

“I thought it would be good for us to speak English since I don’t know your tongue and you don’t know mine...meet in the middle?” 

“Thank you for coming to get me!” He said, handing the man his suitcases which were just a bit too big for the tiny trunk of the car that looked as if it had come from the 80′s. In the end, they decided to put his bags in the backseat. 

The man beamed with smiling eyes. “Of course...son!” 

Seungmin gave him a little bow, “Heh, thank you.”

“Get in the car! You must be hungry right? Long flight?”

“Oh yes, it was really long.” 

“You will eat well here! Mother knows how to feed well. She will put meat on your bones. She did with me!” He guffawed out with hearty laughter, and Seungmin already knew that he would really like this man. 

“We have a room ready for you back at home, and I will show you tomorrow how to use the buses. Okay?” 

Seungmin nodded with a bit of rose to his cheeks. He found his hand wandering down to his arm which he pinched at lightly--cliché as it was. His host father coughed and the engine sputtered, then they took off away from the sounds of jet engines to the countryside which was scattered with churches with protruding steeples and all kinds of homes with red-orange roofs and perfectly symmetrical windows. Seungmin couldn’t help but keep his eyes glued to the window as they drove on to take in the whole scene. Never had he seen a place so beautiful or magical looking. They drove on past a crystal clear lake that stretched on and on to the base of a mountain appearing to claw at the heavens, and adorned in emerald green pines and other deciduous trees. If it was even possible, he had never seen greener grass in all his life. 

“Beautiful, eh?” His host father said while tuning the radio. 

“It’s amazing.” The young student said in his amazement. “Oh, do you know if there is somewhere I can change my money? I don’t have any of your money yet.” 

“Ah!” The older man said with a wink. “I know of a place. I can take you there first.” 

The radio hummed with a static fuzz as Seungmin’s host father messed with it, skipping over the channels, blurring the music and the talk radio all together. 

Seungmin tried out the best he could to make out the words he knew, but even then he didn’t focus too hard, not when he had all this to take in. 

Mad....crime....joke...violence in the South...drugs...unknown...information...hiding...red... 

“Ah!” His host father called out after changing the channel once more, “I love this song!” He held his chest with an affectionate grasp. “The song of my homeland!” 

Seungmin whipped his attention back, trying to listen to the song that sounded anthem-like, and was sung by what sounded like several men harmonizing. Seungmin tried to focus on the melody--it was nothing like he head heard before. It sounded very...honorable. 

The small car whipped up to what looked to be a gas station on the edge of the town with one single pump and a little convenience store attached to it. In the window he read the yellow and black sign saying Currency Exchange. 

“This is what you need?” 

Seungmin nodded in his thanks then stretched his legs out once he exited, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Are you coming too?” 

The older man shook his head and took out a pack of cigarettes. “I’ll gas the car, you go in.” 

The young man gave his host father one more nod, then set fourth inhaling the immaculate summer air into his lungs. It was as if the very oxygen there held the vitality of life; he almost felt bad wasting it on himself. 

The door swung open with the tiny tinkling of bells and he entered to the smell of cured meats hanging on hooks along side the dry scent of the refrigerators holding their display of soft drinks with labels that he had never seen before. He chuckled a little seeing the giant slab of meat with twine hanging from the ceiling as such. 

“Free sample?” The attendant said while he picked his teeth with a toothpick. “Foreigner?” He added after looking Seungmin up and down. 

“Yes, and no thank you. But, can I exchange my currency here?” 

The unamused man nodded in the direction of the little kiosk in the corner of the shop. He went back to reading his tabloid where he slumped in a stool surrounded by an assortment of candy and cookies. 

Seungmin picked his mother tongue first on the little screen, robotic and green, thankful to see Korean for the first time in this new place. He navigated to the options screen. Behind him, the little bells tinkled to the shop door again, followed by the sound of the attendant scrambling out of his stool, metal legs scraping the floor. 

The student turned his head around in the commotion, taking in four very strange looking customers. Firstly, they were all covered in blood in one way or another, and each of them wore clothes--pajamas from the looks of it--which were shredded, torn, and blackened by something that might’ve been soot. Three men and one woman, and they all had a bit of a crazed look to their eyes. Clearly, none of them cared that they had walked into the store looking as such. 

Seungmin pressed his body to the corner of the shop, as if this could make him invisible. The attendant cowered behind the counter with a series of scared sounding whimpers. 

“Wh-what do you want?” He asked in his native tongue with quaking breaths. 

One of the men in the group wearing a flannel with chocolate brown hair threw open one of the fridges, took out a water bottle, cracked it open, then greedily slugged the liquid down his throat. 

“Pay the man, Fox.” He said to a man with pure white hair and shattered glasses. 

The man with white hair and glasses nodded, digging through his pockets. The man with the flannel then proceeded to revenge the place, opening up snacks and shoving the cheesy dust into his mouth with gluttonous moans and crunching loudly with an open mouth. Had he not been doing something as unsavory as such, Seungmin thought that he was pretty handsome, and somewhat familiar. The other three simply stood and watched as he did so calmly, and surveyed the shelves themselves after a moment. 

The attendant clocked Seungmin with fearful and confused eyes and Seungmin truly didn’t know what to do besides melt into the corner with the currency exchange kiosk. 

A man in running clothes ran a hand through his deep brown hair, then turned to grab several first-aid supplies in his hand. Seungmin noticed that he had a horrible gash over his eye that crusted and bled into the white of his sclera. The woman approached the attendant with arms crossed over her thin camisole that was stained a number of different colors which Seungmin didn’t want to identify. He noticed that she was only wearing white socks that were nearly stained green. 

“You do currency exchange right?” She said with a bold kind of confidence. “EGP?” 

The attendant shook in his boots, then pointed a trembling finger at Seungmin. The young man nearly felt his heart stop. The woman had stern eyes that were bagged with exhaustion, but that didn’t make her any less intimating. While she too looked a wreck, there was something about her so cold and threatening that Seungmin felt like crumpling up into a ball. Over it all, she was startlingly beautiful too. 

“Are you done?” She asked him kindly, and Seungmin struggled to get out a feeble “yes.” Of course, he hadn’t actually drawn any money out yet, but this seemed to be the best answer. 

The man in running clothes dumped a large arrangement of goods on the counter with an emotionless expression: coffee drinks, shooters of alcohol, gauze and tape, Band-Aids, anti-bacterial ointment, gum, a couple lighters and toothpaste with four tooth brushes, combs, several bottles of water, sour candy, and, oddly, condoms. 

The man with white hair came behind him to provide the cash to pay, and the attendant rang the odd group up with nervous glances to the man in the flannel who destroyed the store further. That man laughed maniacally as he popped open the plastic packaging to a pastry, then shoved in as of much of it as he could, smearing white cream over his lips. 

“Bee!! You have to try this!! A day driving through the woods and this is fucking fantastic!” He jumped up and down like an ecstatic toddler--but this was a strange juxtaposition to all the blood staining his arms and the fabric of his flannel. 

“Have some decency, Your Highness.” The woman chided, then held out her hand as the bills dispensed from the little machine. 

“Your Highness?” Seungmin muttered, not really understanding why he was still in there in the first place. 

“Fucking scam.” She muttered. “Is this all that you have??” She growled at the attendant. 

“It’s a little thing!! What do you expect??” He stammered with hands thrown in the air as if she had pointed a gun at his head. 

“F, tell Carroll to wire us when we get to Egypt. This’ll barely get us a place to stay.” 

“When I get internet access, sure, I’ll try my best.” The man with white hair said with an edge to his voice, sarcasm clearly giving it a type of bite. He then took to shoving all of their goods into plastic bags since the attendant had been too fearful to do so. He slid a few spare bills onto the countertop. “This is for everything that he ate.”  

“Do you have a bathroom?” The woman demanded, and the shopkeeper nodded, giving one more fearful glance to the college student. 

“Is there somewhere around here to get clothes?” The man with running clothes asked. 

“I-In town, a couple minutes in--” 

Outside of the little store, the sound of tires screeching on cement screamed, and all four of the strangers whipped their heads in the direction. Seungmin jumped too at the sound, and held his backpack to his chest tightly as if it were some kind of safety vest. 

The four strangers gravely exchanged terrified glances before throwing their bodies to the floor without a word. 

“GET DOWN!” The woman screamed, and in milliseconds, the rapid-fire crack of machine gun bullets came shattering the glass of the convenience store. 

Seungmin too threw all of his weight to land on his stomach on the cold linoleum floors and pressed his cheek against it while his ears rang. Tiny shards of glass pricked at his hands, but this adrenaline didn’t even let him feel the pain. He was certain that he must’ve been hyperventilating, because the room had started to spin among the relentless sounds of metal shells hitting the ground and metal shelves being upended from the force. The room filled with the smell of dozen different kinds of foods as packaging was ripped open and food and drink came spilling to the ground. The shopkeeper whimpered out loud prayers in his native tongue while he hid behind the counter. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as three of the strangers whipped out hand guns from their waistbands and knelt down behind the remaining shelves to shoot back at the black van outside. 

Seungmin pinched his arm with eyes shut. 

He wished he hadn’t. 

oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. He bit the words into his lip. 

“Hey kid!” The man with white hair growled at him. “You okay?” 

While the two of them looked nearly to be the same age, this other man with snow white hair seemed to know what he was doing, so Seungmin decided to take the smallest bit of solace in that over the deafening sound of bullets. 

“I-I think so?!” 

“Keep your head down!” He said with gritted teeth, then angled his gun with a squinted eye. 

“Bee??? Bee?” The fourth man with the flannel cried. 

“Head. Down.” She said while firing more shots. 

The room filled with a thin haze, and Seungmin covered his ears with bloody fingers. 

The strangers fired their guns until there was nothing left, then escaped hiding behind the shelves with heaving chests. The young man had curled up into the fetal position, mouth feeling deathly dry with hot tears streaming down his cheeks. 

Seungmin didn’t know that he had gone on this trip for his life to end. 

How fucking cruel fate was. 

His body shook, and he clung to his bag for dear life, waiting for it all to end, and for his time to come. Seungmin would’ve thought that in the moments before he had died, he wanted to think of all the good things that had happened in his life, but, he was disappointed to find that all he could come up with was fear. 

“Did you get a look at him?” One of the strangers yelled on the other side of Seungmin’s muffled ears. 

“NO!” One of them barked back. 

“He was wearing the crest!! The red!!” The woman called out. 

The world was black behind his eyelids, but anything was better than the scene that was actually unfolding before the terrified college student. Soon, the sounds faded, and Seungmin was then really convinced that it had finally happened. This was it. He was even still scared to open his eyes. 

A grip at his arm pulled him up. 

“You okay? They’re gone. You kinda blacked out there for a second.” It was the woman had pulled him up to his feet. 

His head spun seeing the carnage of the destroyed store, and the student became dizzier by the second. 

“I-I think I’m about to black out again--” His knees felt week and his vision blurred. 

“Hey! Hey!” One of the other strangers, the one with the running clothes scooped him back up and gave a light pat to his face. “You’re alright! See?” 

Miraculously, Seungmin really was unscathed. 

“Who-who are you? Who...who the hell were they? What the FUCK was that?” 

The four of them exchanged glances once more, communicating some kind of silent understanding between all of them. 

“What’s your name kid?” The white-haired one said as he put his gun back into his waistband. 

“S-Seungmin?” 

“Ok Seungmin, there’s a lot going on here that you really shouldn’t be aware of, and there's a lot of answers that I can’t give you, I just need to to trust me, alright?” 

“O-okay?” 

Now that the shop was devoid of windows, the summer breeze came blowing into the store--an odd contrast to the mess that was made all over the glass shards and food. 

“You’re safe now. They’ve gone. No one can hurt you.” 

“A-are you sure about that?” 

“We need to get going. I don’t know why the hell they leaved when they had us cornered, but we can’t be here for long.” The man in running clothes said with a tentative bite to his lip. 

The woman nodded. “You’re right Two.”

“What do we do with him though?” The man supposedly named Two said, motioning to Seungmin. 

“D-do?” His eyes widened to frightful full moons. “D-do????” 

“We take him with?” The man in the flannel suggested and shrugged. 

The woman rolled her eyes. “You don’t call the shots on stuff like this, Your Highness.” 

“H-Highness? What??” Seungmin blabbered. 

The man with white hair snatched the young student’s bag from his hands. “You got a laptop in that bag of yours?” 

“--H-HEY!” 

He man pulled out Seungmin’s dismal Chromebook that he had also saved several months for. 

“Hm. This will do.” 

“I guess we don’t have any other choice...” The woman rolled her eyes. “Introductions later. They could be coming back.” 

“Hey, HEY!” The shopkeeper yelled, then rose from his hiding place to look in despair at his destroyed shop, and his aging cured meat slab stuck with bullet holes on the floor. 

“We’ll take care of it all. We apologize.” The man in the flannel bowed deeply. 

Sunlight stung Seungmin’s strained eyes, and he realized that he had completely forgotten about his host father in his little car from the 80′s. To his surprise, the little car was nowhere to be seen. 

“M-my dad??” He said under his breath, also realizing that all of his belongings had gone with the man too. All he now had left to his name was his passport, a spare set of clothes, his laptop, and a couple school journals. 

“Get in.” The man named Two said while throwing open the door, but then gave him squinted wink. “Been to Egypt before?” 

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

“This mission is fucked.” Jeongin muttered to you, voice echoing slightly in the cobblestone alley. 

“Yeah, it certainly seems like it.” 

You fiddled with you new blouse. It was two times as itchy as you had expected and two times as expensive, but you had been desperate. With all of the spare supplies destroyed in the bombing, you and your partner had found yourselves hopelessly empty handed. 

“Carroll is gonna have our asses. Fuck...” Jeongin slicked a hand through his hair with a bandaged arm. “We can’t take that kid to Egypt with us!! We already have to be on high alert for the prince...and now this??” 

Your partner threw his head back incredulously against the brick wall, then stopped to watch the rest of the group sitting outside of the café and garnering odd glances from passerby's. 

“Well what the hell else to do we do??” 

Jeongin shrugged, then looking to the side shamefully. “You...know what the protocol is. We can’t stay here to watch over him until someone from the agency comes...and, we’re running out of time...White Rabbit is waiting for our correspondence..” 

“Absolutely not.” 

The poor young kid, naïve as he was, you couldn’t but help but feel bad for him. Not only was he all alone out there as he had explained, it appeared as if his host father had made off with all of his things too. It was hard to not pity the kid. 

“Y/n, you know that he’ll only drag us down. If we take him with, his life becomes our problem. If he dies, we’ll have to answer to whoever his family is and we both know that could get messy. We already have a mission: get the intel, then get the prince home. Not take that kid along with us for the joyride.” 

“You’re forgetting that they’ve seen him with us now. He’s associated with us. If we leave him in the dust, there’s gonna be an innocent kid dead in a foreign land, and it’ll be our fault for letting that happen. Do you want that to happen?” 

Your partner sucked at his teeth in thought for a moment, then groaned out. 

“I really fucking hate this babysitting thing.” 

“It’s the three of us and the two of them. The odds are still pretty much in our favor.” 

“It’s still dangerous odds.” Jeongin threw his hands onto his hips, then paced the length of the alley for a small stretch. “As of now, you’re assigned to the prince. Forget about the kid, Two and I will worry about him. The prince is the priority. If shit hits the fan, don’t even think twice, take the prince and get out. Okay? You should never leave his side.” 

You nodded in agreement, feeling a sneaky sense of pride. After all of the chaos and the uncertainty, Jeongin was really coming into his own. 

From the little patio where the others were, it looked as if Chan and Seungmin were getting a long swimmingly. You assumed that it had something to do with shared trauma. Weirdly, Chan had taken to the young man like a bit of a pet. Knowing all that the prince was going through, it made sense...perhaps this also could’ve explained why he had kissed you more than once. Anyone in his position would’ve acted as frantic as such--at least, this was what you had convinced yourself. 

Two sat with the two men wearing thick black sunglasses to hide his gnarly eye wound, sipping espresso. Jeongin started walking back towards the group when you grabbed at his arm. 

“--Wait, I need to talk to you about one more thing?” 

Your partner’s rather gaudy Hawaiian-themed shirt flapped in the breeze. “What’s that?” 

You drew him in closer. “What do you make of Two? He doesn’t strike you as suspicious?” 

“Suspicious? Why?” 

“I-I don’t know...it’s just a feeling that I’m getting. We know next to nothing about him--” 

“--But isn’t that how this goes? We’re not supposed to know things about each other? That’s the point? He’s stuck with us this far...and...” 

A couple passed by the two of you with linked arms, and Jeongin stopped his thought out of distrust of the two of them listening in. 

His voice lowered even further, “If Carroll trusts him, so should we.” The young man nodded, then patted your scratched shoulder. You winced, and he quickly apologized. “It’s...fine that you’re suspicious. Its best for us to be, you know?” 

“Expect the unexpected?” 

Your partner dished out a little eyeroll, “Yeah. Something like that.” 

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

It was as if His Royal Highness Prince Chan had never seen the inside of a public airport before. Everything was just so novel to him, and he gasped out at all the little trinkets and tchotchkes. 

As excited as he was, he still tried his best to keep a solid composure under his disguise: a cap, a hoodie, and thick framed sunglasses. The royal didn’t look the most non-descript, but you figured that it was better than nothing. 

The young kid sulked seeing the inside of the airport once more, as he had claimed that he had just left from there. You still didn’t know what to make of him all the way, but at least you could tell that he had a good heart. While in the car he told you and your companions how he had saved up all this money to travel, studied the language and arranged to go to school here too. While all of his plans had been thwarted, at least the kid was still getting to travel...with a price on his head...but still...he was getting to travel. 

Now that Jeongin had been able to contact HQ thanks to the kid’s computer, everything was arranged. Flight tickets, sleeping arrangements, supplies and Bun even knew that you were on your way. You had little desire to see that man considering how you had heard that he was one to live up to his eccentric reputation, but there was little other choice. Jeongin’s words ran through and through your head, “If Carroll trusts him, so should we.” 

Over it all, it was the prince who had worried you most. He was out in the open, and undoubtedly whoever those bastards were with the red crests would be close on your tail. Your neck strained with a pain that only seemed to grow stronger with every corner that you turned to ensure that no one was there. While the handsome prince liked to joke about how his life was on your hands, it was much more serious than that. 

You had seen the fear in his eyes that night--it was so tangible that you could practically hold in your hands. He was a man terrified of death, and he knew that he had little control over it. You had control over it, but you knew that you could only stretch yourself so far. 

Your group of five neared your gate in the international terminal lined with several dozen different kinds of multi-colored flags. You situated yourself between Two and the Prince on one of the thin teal chairs with flattened cushions. Chan tapped his hands on this knees impatiently as he inspected the place. 

“Kind of exciting isn’t it?” He said with a tiny grin. 

“What?” You moved to look at him with his obscured features. “Exciting?” 

“Yeah, you know, travelling together. It kind of feels like an adventure. I mean, they’ve got a gun to our heads, but at least we’re together right?” 

You scoffed, simply amused at how he had taken the severity out of the situation. It was clear that this prince knew little about the concept of perspective. 

“I’m not following.” 

“I get that...we need to be careful, but who said that we can’t, say, enjoy the journey?” 

“You’re saying that you want us to have fun while we’re running for our lives?” 

The prince smiled. “You know that I like having fun. That and...I’m just trying to be optimistic.” Under his cap, he slicked his brown strands back. “The three of you seem to be so tense all the time. Obviously, that can’t be good for your health--” 

You cracked out with laughter. “You’re being ludicrous, Your Highness. We have to be on high alert at all times--” 

“I said, that you could call me Chan, remember?” He rather languidly spread out his legs in his seat, removing his glasses for moment. “How about, when we go to Egypt, I take you out somewhere nice to eat? We can relax, talk, get to know eachother more--” 

You raised your hand up to silence him. “--If this is just a ploy to get me alone, I politely rescind the offer. Here I was thinking that you were concerned about all three of us...” 

“--I am!” Chan quickly piped, “I-I’ll take you all out for dinner! But...but...you’ll have to allow me to take you out for drink then. Just the two of us. I still hold to my word of wanting to get to know you.” 

The prince’s face was puffed and bloated, and scraped with little pink and red cuts, but nothing stopped him from pulling out his signature charming and persuasive grin. 

“Try to kiss me again, and I won’t hesitate. You might be royalty but I don’t ca--” 

“--Hmmm no promises.” Chan then cut in, his grin turned even more indulgent while you watched him inspect your frame in that god-awful scratchy blouse. 

Next to you, Two let out a particularly amused sounding scoff of a laugh. 

“Forward as ever, Your Highness.” Jeongin deadpanned, then buried his nose in his coffee and newspaper once again. He hadn’t gotten to finish doing so earlier. 

Seungmin, the young student stifled his own laughter which then gradually got louder and louder. “I can’t fucking believe this. Me. Kim Seungmin, the most normal-ass person in the whole world with you four: a fucking prince, secret agents...and now we’re going to Egypt??? Egypt???” 

“Why does that sound like the set up to a shitty joke?” Two popped a bubble he had blown with the gum from the convenience store. Turns out he actually had a bit of a “gum habit” as he called it. 

“Settle down kid.” Jeongin said without his eyes leaving his paper. “You’ll make a scene.” 

The prince yawned, sliding his sunglasses back on. 

“I never really did end up getting as much sleep as I would’ve liked.” If you could’ve seen his eyes, you would’ve then seen him eye your shoulder. “May I?” he politely asked. 

Rather than giving him an answer, you rolled your head around as if to say do I need to? 

Chan let out a happy little hum after resting his head on your shoulder, nuzzling in slightly. 

You met your partner’s side eye, and he repeated for you, I really fucking hate this babysitting thing. 

“Thank you Bee.” Chan softly muttered, almost too quiet for you to hear. “I really do owe you everything.” He was careful at first, but he reached out his hand to rest it atop of yours. While the action made you twitch at first, you remembered how the same action had calmed him in the van when you had escaped the gala. 

You told yourself that you were just being nice. 

The young kid pulled out a journal from his backpack and started scribbling something, Two popped a bubble, snapping it on his unnaturally white teeth, and Jeongin sipped at his coffee. 

This really was the set up to a shitty joke. 

A woman cleared her throat over the intercom and announced, Flight C1180 to Cairo will be boarding in one hour. Thank you for flying with us today. 

~🌹~

Bunch of (Ro)ses! 

@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @eunaeiekim @lunarskzzz

[free-pool-trash]

all i want for christmas - isaac lahey

Hey crew! Happy holidays my loves 💓 whether you celebrate or not i hope you’re having a wonderful week! Here’s something a lil festive ;)

Enjoy + let me know what you think💓

Word count: 2.3k

Warnings: none :) just fluff

Master list

It was that time of year again. The most stressful, crazed, chaotically wonderful time of the year. Of course, it was the annual McCall pack Christmas party.

The one occasion in which there was absolutely no getting out of, whether you were in Beacon Hills or not. The only day of the year where every single member of the pack would get to see each other all at the same time.

Since graduating from High School you’d all gone your separate ways, living your own lives and fulfilling your respective destinies.

Since you’d seen your beloved pack last, you’d been contently living a quiet life in a small town in England. It was pretty sweet, you lived in a spacey cottage and worked in a very quaint bakery. It was safe to say that being a werewolf in a tiny cottagecore village was a lot easier, and entirely less stressful, than being a werewolf in Beacon Hills.

But, as they all say; home is where the heart is.

Because you lived across the world, the Christmas party was the only chance you got to see the majority of your dearest friends, so you always kept the date.

Every year without fail since the pack had formed, December 23rd, Christmas eve eve, was strictly reserved for festive supernatural celebrations.

It had been a long day of airport lines, connecting flights and luggage collections but you were finally sitting in a cab on your way to Derek Hale’s loft.

There was always the unspoken dress code of “way fancier than you need to be” at these parties, it was a code that yourself and Lydia in particular took very seriously. Even if that meant slipping into a little black dress, your favourite pair of heels, applying a full face of makeup and doing your hair in an airport bathroom.

Which for you, was the reality. But regardless, you looked hot as hell.

The cab driver’s sleavy glances at you through the rear view mirror only confirmed the fact.

“Christmas party?” The middle aged man asked, looking at you more intently than the road.

“Mhm.” You replied, faking a sincere smile.

He let out a low whistle from between his thin chapped lips and rose an ungroomed eyebrow, “Someone there you’re trying to impress?”

Now that was the golden question. With a forced chuckle you brought your gaze to rest on the crescent moon glowly in the black sky.

There was someone there that you wanted to impress, as a matter of fact.

It was one of those fickle things. A will-they-won’t-they of epic proportions and it had been going on since junior year of high school. Sure, everyone loves a slow burn, Stiles and Lydia are a perfect example of this.

However, your fire seemed to be taking its sweet time catching alight.

Shaking the thoughts away you let out an exhausted sigh, “Unfortunately, yeah. There is someone I’m trying to impress.”

The cab driver let out a chuckle, “If ya ask me, if however it is doesn’t have to pick their jaw up off of the floor after seeing you they are a fool.” He told you, not trying to hide the looks of approval he was giving the neckline of your dress very obviously.

You couldn’t stop the booming laugh that left your painted lips at his statement, he was such a creep but he was definitely onto something.

“Who knows maybe this will be the year.” You said through a laugh. The driver nodded his head and then exclaimed cockily as he, thankfully, pulled up to Derek’s complex, “Yeah, and if not, you know where to find me.”

Trying your very best to contain your laughter at the man before you, you wordlessly got out of the car, grabbing your suitcase, which was full of presents, from the trunk.

“Merry Christmas, beautiful!” He called jovially through the passenger side window, you looked over your shoulder and gave him your best fake smile, “You too.”

As you began towards the building's entrance you lowered your tone, muttering a quiet, “Creep.” Under your breath.

The sound of suitcase wheels dragging against the concrete pavement echoed through an empty lobby area as you made your way to the rickety old elevator, trust Derek to buy the entire building but choose the loft on the top floor.

A bell sounded when the elevator finally arrived, you stepped inside and waited patiently for the contraption to carry you to the top floor.

When it arrived you could hear Christmas music booming from behind the huge sliding metal door that separated the loft from the hallway, there was a lot of excited chatter inside the loft so you assumed you were the last to arrive. Fashionably late.

Just as you were about to pull the door open, you paused and pulled out your phone, opening the camera and giving yourself one last look over. The status hadn’t changed since the airport, you still looked hot as hell.

Disregarding the anxious butterflies fluttering around your stomach, you took a deep intake of breath and plastered a genuine smile on your red lips and opened the door.

“Hello my darlings!” You made your presence known with an over the top false British accent as the pack turned to see who had just arrived. The second their eyes landed on you the whole room exploded with excitement.

Lydia squealed in delight, rushing up to you and pulling you into a tight hug. Your arms wrapped around her tightly and your smile widened when she began swaying you excitedly in her arms before pulling away. The strawberry blonde held you at arm's length, her eyes scanning you from head to toe then fixing you with a knowing smirk.

“Cute dress. Who is that little number for?” She teased menacingly, raising an eyebrow as if she didn’t already know the answer.

You’d missed her little games, but that didn’t mean you’d forgotten how to play along since you’d seen her last. You put your hand over your heart and looked at her dreamily, your horrible imitation of a British accent returning, “Why it’s all for you my love.”

It was then that Stiles broke the two of you apart saying, “Y/n, you’re my best friend and we share a lot of things but I’m afraid my girlfriend is not one of them.”

With a disappointed sigh, you shot your best girl friend a wink, “Forbidden love.”

“Shut up and gimme a hug already, God.” Stiles said in an exasperated tone, but the huge grin on his face betrayed his voice as he wrapped his lanky arms around you.

“Hey Sty.” You giggled, reciprocating his hug. When he pulled away you noticed the rest of the pack were now crowding around you at the door.

Scott stood like an excited puppy waiting to get to you and the second you laid eyes on him you felt excitement burst within you.

With a huge smile on your face you threw your arms around his shoulders, squealing happily as the alpha lifted and spun you around in his hold. It felt so good to be with wolves again, you already felt stronger.

“I’ve missed you!” You told him, your feet pressed back on the ground. Scott’s smile was so bright as he exclaimed, “You too! You’re the only one I haven’t seen since last year! How are you? Are you doing okay on your own? How’s England?” He fired out in the brotherly way he usually did, you couldn’t help the fond smile on your face as you patted his cheek reassuringly, “Don’t worry, Scotty. I’m all good.”

The next few minutes were spent hugging and catching up with the others, Malia, Derek and Peter had welcomed you home in the doorway with hugs.

“Where are the puppies?” You asked, referring to Liam and Mason.

“Kitchen. Liam is trying to find something that’ll make us all drunk.” Malia told you, looking at your suitcase with expectancy.

You motioned towards the case by your side with a knowing grin, “Ok, I’ll go get those two. Your names are on the presents that are for you.”

“Yes!” Malia cheered, pecking your cheek quickly then almost sprinting to the case.

When you got to the doorway of the kitchen you leaned against the frame, watching as Liam chugged a bottle of vodka, trying to get some kind of buzz from the liquid while Mason watched in awe, “I don’t see you for a year and suddenly you’re a frat boy.” You sighed out.

Liam stopped in his tracks and looked towards you, “Oh hey, Y/n” He greeted you with an adorable smile and Mason gave you a small nod of greeting and you nodded your head towards the living area where the others were exchanging gifts.

“There’s presents for you guys if you wanna go get them.” You informed them, smiling as they all but ran past you towards the gifts.

The kitchen was empty now, save for you and a half full bottle of smirnoff. Tiredly you made your way to the wooden counter opposite the door and sat yourself up on it.

As you swung your legs gently in the air, you took a moment to close your eyes and enjoy the moment to yourself.

The moment ended with a gentle knock on the doorframe, and when you opened your eyes, there he was.

Standing in front of you, in the flesh and all of his glory was Isaac Lahey. “You mind if I join you?” He asked softly, you gave him a smile and beckoned him over.

“‘Course not. Come in.” He smiled in return and casually made his way over to you, he hoisted himself up beside you on the countertop.

“I didn’t realise you were here yet.” You told him, eyes studying his face, he hadn’t aged a day since the first day you met him.

Even now, years later, he still maintained that youthful lost boy aura. The sparkle in his eyes never dimmed either.

Isaac turned his head to face you, a warm smile decorating his lips as he did so, “Sorry I missed your entrance, I had to change. I came straight from the airport.”

You nodded in understanding, “Me too. Changed in the airport bathroom though.”

He chuckled at that, you didn’t miss the way his eyes traveled across your body or how they lingered on the hem of your dress that had ridden up ever so slightly when you’d hopped on the counter.

When he caught himself staring he cleared his throat and looked away, when he was met with the look of knowing on your face his own erupted in a blush.

“You look…” He started but trailed off.

“Incredible? Amazing? Stunningly gorgeous? Come on, Isaac. Help me out here.” You teased, bumping your shoulder against his.

“All of the above.” He answered, equally as cheekily, he knee pressing against yours as he pulled something out of his back pocket.

It was a narrow rectangular envelope, he fiddled with it nervously before holding it in your direction, “I got you a present.”

You took it from him gently, “You didn’t have to-”

“I wanted to. Open it.” He urged, blue eyes glued to you as your fingers pried the envelope seal open.

As you pulled the contents of the envelope you looked to Isaac in confusion. It was a flight ticket to Paris for New Years eve.

“A plane ticket?”

Isaac nodded, blush returning to his face, “Yeah, I know you’ve always wanted to go and there’s the completely unrelated reason that I have an apartment in the city and would really love to spend new year’s with you.” He rambled on nervously and you smiled up at him.

“So you’re essentially asking me to come for a slumber party?” You grinned, giggling when he rolled his gleaming eyes at you. “I’m kidding. I’d love to come to Paris with you.” You told him, taking his hand in yours to stop it from fidgeting.

Isaac squeezed your hand in response, a happy smile on his face, “It’d also be a really great opportunity for me to finally admit that I’m in love with you.”

There was that fire you’d been talking about, after way too many years, it was finally lighting up.

“Good. That would give me a chance to tell you that I love you too.” You played along, biting back a shit eating grin as his face moved closer to yours.

You could hear Lydia behind the door, hushing the others as they all screamed along to “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.

“She’s been standing out there listening since I came in.” Isaac whispered and you only responded by sliding your hands up his shoulders.

Absentmindedly, Isaac’s arms wrapped around your waist as you continued to lean in closer, whispering, “Then let’s stop talking.”

Isaac’s eyes widened at that and he swooped his lips the rest of the distance to yours, murmuring, “God, I love that plan.”

His lips clung to yours while your hands moved to his hair. It had been a long time coming. After all the almosts and could haves, his lips were finally on yours.

The kiss was broken when you couldn’t hold your smile back any longer, Isaac’s lips were now tinted red from your lipstick but they were formed in a breathtaking smile.

“I think we should stop talking more. Like a lot more.”

*

“They kissed!” Lydia whisper shouted to the rest of the pack, who were pretending not to listen to the conversation happening in the kitchen.

Scott let out a celebratory “Whoop!” As did Malia and Mason.

“And! She’s going to spend New Year’s with him in Paris!” Scott clapped his hands together then, holding his hand out to Stiles, “Called it. Hand it over.”

Stiles grumbled, necking the rest of his drink before fishing a twenty out of his pocket and shoving it in Scott’s hand.

[neptunetheplanet7]

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 - 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦

DM ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PUT ON THE TAGLIST!!

;mikasa ackerman x fem!lesbian!reader

;modern au, band au

word count: 2.1k

warnings: swearing, floch’s bad flirting

bold italics is a text conversation

listen to the music masterlist

prev | next

disclaimer again!! i wrote this a long time ago. i know there are things that need to be fixed and things that don’t fit right. i plan to edit this story more in the future but today is not that day :)

You took a shaky breath in as you stopped midway of putting a clean sheet on the bed Mikasa would be sleeping in. The room still had some of her old stuff in it, it's just no one ever came in here after she left. You looked around at all the items she left behind. Smiling fondly at an old picture of you two, you noticed a small figure crossed out in the background. Glancing at the rest of the photos on the shelf, you noticed that every photo had something crossed out.

After looking at each picture, you came to the conclusion the figure was Jean. She must have only taken the photos without him and did this to the rest. You frowned and walked back to the bed. Carefully, you climbed onto it and propped a few pillows up to support you as you leaned back.

For the first time in two years, you got a good look around the room. On the side of the room with the door, there was a large glass window overlooking the balcony above the living room. You always found it strange that she chose a room like that when she usually kept those blinds shut. Her bed was in the middle of the room with a tv mounted on the wall across from it. On the other side of her bed, there were a couple of bean bags below the bay window that looked out on the driveway.

You sighed and took out your phone, pulling up old texts with Mikasa. The last time you texted her was three months ago when you got too drunk at one of Reiner's ragers.

mikasa

mikasas pleasdse

come home

i miss you

i miss you so much

we all miss you so much

come home to me.

She didn't respond to that and you wouldn't know if she even looked at it. She turned her read receipts off for everyone after the first week of trying to contact her. The only time she had ever contacted anyone was two weeks after she left the house.

Don't look for me. Don't contact me.

You got a lot of your friends asking if you got the same message. She sent the same thing to everyone who tried to get in contact with her. You still didn't know where she was or what she was doing. The only thing you knew was that she was coming home the next day. You sighed. Suddenly, you didn't feel like cleaning anything else. You briskly walked out of her room and dialed the number of your best friend.

"Hey, Y/n! What's going on?" Sasha's cheery voice rang through the line.

"Hey hey, Sasha. I'm doing great. At least, I think I am. Do you wanna go somewhere? You can pick me up? Or I can pick you up if you like."

"I'll come to pick you up, honey bunny, don't you worry." You heard her struggling with her keys on the other side of the line and snorted at the noise.

"Need some help, Sash?" You grinned while skipping steps.

"Fine, thanks." She grumbled. "I'll be there in fifteen! You stay put!" She briskly hung up.

Sasha had been your best friend ever since Eren's nineteenth birthday party. She caught you and Eren coming back inside just as she was about to leave, with half the pantry in her arms. She asked for your number to make plans to hang out and chat sometime. You happily obliged, which was probably the happiest thing you had done that night.

You tossed your phone onto your bed as you walked into your room. Your room was on the first floor. You got first pick since you were the one who inherited the house. The house was big and beautiful. It was also on a lake. Perfect for the parties Eren and Jean loved to host. Perfect escape from paparazzi.

Your room had big glass doors that opened to the balcony that wrapped around the back of the house. You had a great view of the lake. The room was painted white. There was a black marble fireplace in one wall with a small wardrobe you used for storing memorable items to the band. You didn't need to use it for clothes since you had a walk-in closet in the big bathroom you partly shared with your bandmates. Jean liked to use the large bathtub.

You collapsed onto the bed and stared into the vanity mirror next to it. It was then when you realized you were still in your pajamas. "Oh shit." Your eyes widened as you hurriedly stumbled over to the closet, falling over once.

You grabbed a pair of baggy sweats and a big t-shirt. With duck socks, of course. The outfit didn't look much different than your pajamas but Sasha would probably be wearing something similar.

You threw your hair into the easiest hairstyle you could muster. You grabbed your boots and hopped up and down while trying to put them on while also leaving the room. "Jesus." You muttered.

Your phone vibrated, signaling that Sasha was here. "I'm heading out with Sasha! You're on your lonesome!" You called out to wherever Armin was in the house.

"Okay! Don't be back too late!" He shouted back.

You laughed aloud as you realized how much he sounded like a dad. You opened the front door and ran to Sasha's car. "Let me in!" You knocked on the passenger window as she reached around to find the button that unlocks the door. Once it was unlocked, you swung open the door and hopped inside.

"Nice outfit," was the first thing she said to you. You glanced at her outfit and scoffed. Your predictions were correct, she was wearing something similar.

"Gee, thanks." You gave a lopsided smile and rolled your eyes.

"Where to, honey bunny?" Sasha said, giving a mock salute while her other hand rested firmly on the steering wheel. You giggled and thought about it. You called her on such a whim that you forgot to even plan anything.

"Uh how about Brain Freezes? I could really use a catch-up with Connie right about now." You suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea! Turns out you do have a brain up there." Sasha snickered.

"Oh good one, because you're the real genius here, clearly."

After a lot of lighthearted banter, you arrived at Connie's workplace. Sasha aggressively grabbed the door handle and slammed it open, causing the bell to fall off its perch and land on your face. "Oops." You grimaced and bent down to pick up the bell. You rang it in front of her face.

"Sasha! Y/n! My two favorite customers!" Connie jumped up and down on the other side of the counter. "How can I assist you ladies today?"

"I'll have the usual." You gave a half-hearted smile, head still impaired from the bell. Sasha had quite the habit of accidentally hurting you.

Sasha snatched the bell from your grasp and started ringing it. She announced her very long order that you could barely keep up with, but Connie was used to this kind of thing, especially with her.

You noticed one of his coworkers scowling at Sasha. You didn't like Floch, to say the least. He was always inviting himself to your parties but he was rude to all of your friends at the same time. He noticed your gaze and smirked.

He strutted over to where you stood, pretending to become very interested in toppings. "How are you, Y/n? It's been a while huh?" He leaned over your shoulder in a way that workers shouldn't with their customers. You made a hasty effort to slip away from his presence.

"It really hasn't. I came here last week. I come here every week and you say that every time." You usually tried to be nice to Floch, but today you didn't feel like being nice.

"Well, even a day without you feels like an eternity." He flirted horridly. You stared blankly at him until he awkwardly cleared his throat and traded spots with Connie at the register.

Connie took off his apron and handed you and Sasha your orders. "Sorry about him. That guy really can't take a hint even if it's right in front of his face." He shot Floch a venomous glare. "Luckily, you guys got here right as my shift ended! Wanna get out of here?" His previous anger seemed to dissipate in an instant.

"Yeah, I do! Where should we go?" Sasha beamed with her spoon still in her mouth.

"Can we just drive around? I've got something I wanna tell you guys." You played with your spoon in the ice cream, averting eye contact.

"Sure thing, Y/n. Let's go." Sasha and Connie said in unison.

Sasha let you drive her car since she was preoccupied with her mountain of ice cream. Connie didn't have a car, he failed his driver's test every time he took it. You'd think he'd learn most of the material by now. "Hey, Y/n?" He asked from the backseat.

"Yeah?" You nodded to him.

"Are you gonna finish that?" He said, referring to your cup of ice cream in the front cupholder. You sighed.

"Go ahead." He thanked you over and over as he leaned over and snatched it.

"So, Y/n? What was it you wanted to tell us?" Sasha wiped her hands on her pants and set the empty container in an extra cupholder.

You gripped the steering wheel harder then relaxed. You took a shaky breath in. "Mikasa is coming home tomorrow."

Connie started choking on your ice cream. "I know, I had the same reaction." You quipped.

"Mikasa..is...WHAT?" Connie managed between coughs.

"After all this time? It's been two years. Tomorrow? That's so sudden! Are you even ready to see her?" Sasha's mouth was gaping open. You leaned over and shut it for her.

"Yes, tomorrow. I still have to get the house ready. I couldn't even make it through her old room without calling you. Jean told us this morning. I don't think we should be worried about me being ready to see her. I think we should be more concerned about her and Jean." You informed. "But, then again, she told Jean about her return first. Plus he's picking her up tomorrow at the airport. So based on that, I think they're on better terms."

"You don't think they'll get back together, do you?" Connie said, his eyebrows furrowing.

You snorted. "Of course not. You know Jean is with Marco now, and he seems pretty happy with him. They've been together for two years now, probably longer if I'm being honest."

"Then what do you have to worry about?" Sasha asked, confused.

"Are you joking? I mean, what if she has found someone? What then? What if she quits the band forever? What if we argue? She dropped off the map two years ago. Completely. She stopped responding to me, to all of us. For two years I thought she lost her interest in everything and went to live a new life, with people better than me. And now she's coming back, out of the blue! It's too much." You stressed.

Connie and Sasha made quick eye contact. "Y/n, I think you're reading too far into it. I doubt anyone could lose interest in you. You're too cool! Let's look on the bright side, she's ready to come home and you finally get to see her again," Sasha said in an attempt to lift your spirits. You smiled graciously. You really were lucky to have a friend like her. "Right, Connie?" She gestured to Connie who looked very deep in thought.

"Didn't you and Mikasa go out in high school?" You almost crashed the car from the shock of the question.

"Briefly, yes. But we weren't 'going out' so to speak. We just, like, made out a couple of times." You could feel your face grow hot at the subject. You thought you were over your crush on Mikasa, but after hearing that she was coming home, the familiar feeling was coming back.

"You're going red, Y/n. I think it was more to you than just a make-out." Connie grinned while Sasha wiggled her eyebrows.

"You're totally in love with Mikasa!" Sasha sang.

"Shut up, you two. I don't wanna get into the details right now." You couldn't even try to hide your heated face since you were the one driving the vehicle.

"Not right now? So maybe somewhere down the line, you will?" Sasha raised her eyebrows and broke out into another infectious grin.

"Whatever, Sash. Enough about Mikasa and me. I really wanna hear about you and Niccolo." You gave her a similar grin while she slowly turned red.

"Nice one, Y/n!" Connie cheered.

"You idiots should just shut it!"

posted: 8/24/21

neptunetheplanet7© 2021

no reposts, edits, or modification to my work by anyone other than me.

[ateezbabygirl]

Ateez Mafia Reaction : To their fiancée running away

PARK SEONGHWA

So far you were doing a good job at staying hidden. Although it didn’t surprise Seonghwa but angered him to the extent that even his own gang member wouldn’t go near him. Unfortunately he was able to track down your location within 72 hours and was waiting for you to come back to the apartment.

You looked around with caution before entering your apartment and locking the door behind you. You weren’t aware of Seonghwa looking at you from the shadows of the pitch black apartment as you double checked your locked doors. As soon as you thought that everything was fine you felt the his eyes on you. Your heartbeat quickened as you slowly turned around and looked at him. You were met with Seonghwa’s eerily calm face which doubled your fear.

“Are you going to threaten me to come back?”

“I don’t have to threaten you. You’ll do it willingly.”

“Well it’s either that or over my dead body. Because there is no way that I will go back with you willingly.”

“Is that so?”

Seonghwa smirked, cocking his head to the left and started loosening his tie as his eyes raked up and down your figure. You body grew hotter as he whispers in your ear , his lips slightly grazing it.

“Because I think there is another way to convince you to go back with me willingly.”

KIM HONGJOONG

All you needed was one opportunity to get away. It had to be quick and you didn’t have time to think anything through but you just knew you had to get out of here.

You got your suitcase and began shoving anything you could find into it. But you thought you had counted the time right. What you didn’t take into account was that Hongjoong could always come back home early. And that’s exactly what happened when you were putting your escape plan into action. As soon as you were exiting your shared room, Hongjoong comes in and slams the door shut.

“Going somewhere sweetheart ?”

“Hongjoong , I-“

“That too , without me ? That’s not very nice of you sweetheart.”

You were frozen in your place as Hongjoong walked towards you and takes the suitcase out of your hands. He then makes himself comfortable on your bed. Your heartbeat was so loud that you were sure it could be heard even from miles away.

“I-“

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. Now come here and sit on my lap.”

“Make me.”

Hongjoong smirks at your choice of words and shakes his head and gets up. He corners your body as his eyes settle on yours.

“If you insist.”

JEONG YUNHO

Yunho leans on the wall next to you apartment door, waiting for you to come back. He had his men surrounding the building and blocking all exits. All he had to do was pick you up and take your back home. Oh and also , teach you a lesson so that you didn’t pull anything like this ever again.

You yelped as somebody caught you by the hand and pushed you against the wall as you entered your apartment.

“Missed me baby?”

Yunho bends down to your eye level as you look around , looking for ways to escape.

“Don’t even try.”

He takes a hold of your wrists and lifts them up to pin them above your head. His free hand comes up your face as he takes you chin between his fingers and makes you face him.

“I hope you had fun but I think it’s time to come back home.”

You struggled in his strong grip but there was not much you could do in this position. His could easily overpower you without breaking a sweat. But you weren’t going down without a fight.

“Ah, I love it when you try resist, makes me want to push your limits.”

“Fuck you Yunho!”

Yunho devilishly grins at you and suddenly his hands takes a handful of your ass and squeezes it while he pushes your body against his. You bite your lip to prevent your moans from escaping.

“I’m up for it if you are.”

“I-“

”What ? Cat got your tongue baby?”

KANG YEOSANG

Yeosang knew about your apprehensions regarding his profession but it had seemed that he underestimated them, until one day he came home to find you gone. He was torn between his anger for you escape and his concern for your well being.

You had voiced your concerns regarding his business which Yeosang had casted aside. But never had he thought that you would actually run away without a trace and true to your word, you decided to leave the man with no calls or messages. Simply disappeared into thin air.

Days passed by but there was no sign of Yeosang even realizing that you were gone, or so you thought. Your bittersweet feelings clouded your mind that he didn’t care enough about you and valued his business more than you. But you had managed to get off the hook of such a dangerous man. Until that one phone call that crushed your thoughts.

“I’m giving you another week of free time princess.”

“And at the end of this week when I come home from work, I expect you to be back home. Is that understood?”

“I don’t have any reason to stay with you.”

“I will give you more than enough reasons.”

“I’m going to fuck you so hard that you’ll forget why you even wanted to leave me in the first place.”

And true to his word, at the end of the week you found yourself back home with Yeosang hovering above you as he gave you more than enough reason to stay with him.

CHOI SAN

San had enough troubles that came alongside his bothersome occupation and on top of that his fiancée had tried to run away. Packed everything and left in the middle of the night while he was out for work.

But it wasn’t long till you were standing in front of the beautiful mansion. The same mansion which was San’s safe haven and your living hell prison. His men had managed to corner you three days after you had left. Although you were sure that you were covering your tracks well. But you were no match for the mafia world’s very own Satan.

He all but practically dragged you back to your room and pushed you inside as soon as he his men got you back.

“What?!”

You tried to put up a brave front as you backed up until you reached the bed. San’s intense gaze and calm face had you sweating profusely.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

You sent a hard glare his way as he merely cocked his eyebrow at your behaviour. It was just a few moments later he finally spoke to you.

“No.”

He suddenly invaded your personal space not being able to keep your balance fell on the bed with San right on top of you.

“You can’t force me to be here or marry you, San.”

“I don’t have to force you. We both know you want it.”

San took your chin and matched your nervous eyes with his intense ones. Your heart started beating even faster and you hated how your body betrayed you.

“I can see right through you baby.”

You blushed at the nickname as San’s amusement grew.

“And the more you resist , the more I want to fuck you into the mattress till, the only thing you can remember is my name.”

SONG MINGI

It took Mingi longer than intended to find you. But soon you found yourself sitting with the devil himself in your apartment. You closely followed his every move as he paced around the room, anticipating his words. The atmosphere was so tense that you could practically cut it with a knife. was so It’s been a few hours since his men found you and until now you weren’t nervous to face him but he didn’t say a thing since he came into the room and the tension was killing you. The silence finally became too much for you.

“I changed my mind, I don’t want to get married to you.”

“Changed your mind?, you think you have a choice ?”

Mingi lowly chuckles as he finally stops pacing and turns his piercing gaze towards you. You finally get a good look as his face and feel yourself drawn to his newly pierced lips. Your cheeks redden at the thought of kissing him. Mingi’s ego inflates as he takes in your reaction to his new addition. Your eyes eyes suddenly meet his and you shake your head to get rid of the lustful thoughts clouding your mind.

“Excuse me, I- who do you think you -“

Suddenly Mingi takes long strides towards you, sweeping you off your feet and throwing you over his shoulder.

“Put me down!”

“Stop struggling, before I take you over my knee right now.”

You pay no heed to his words and continue shouting. A spank to your ass halts your protests as your clench your legs together. A whimper escapes your throat.

“What ? You like that babygirl?”

“Then be a good girl for me and wait till we get home. I swear your ass will different shades of red by the time I’ll be done with you.”

JUNG WOOYOUNG

Wooyoung even without his occupation was a scary man. His duality could put a psychopath to shame. He could easily leave you breathless with sunshine smile or leave shivers running down your spine with his harsh glare. But you didn’t want to take any chances so you instantly swung your tail under, leaving him without taking any of your belongings.

You decided to spend the night at a friend’s place for time before going on the run. But that didn’t seem to work out for you.

Harsh knocks were delivered on the door in the middle of the night that scared you to death. The door nearly flew off the hinges when you opened the door to him. Your scared , pale form met an angry Wooyoung who sent a murderous glare towards you.

“I’ll give you 1 minute to explain yourself.”

“Wooyoung , I-“

“You what ?”

“I-i-“

No matter how much you tried, words wouldn’t come out of your mouth. And Wooyoung sharp gaze wasn’t making the situation any better.

“I have no clue why you thought this was even a remotely good idea.”

Wooyoung’s thoughts mirrored yours , as you regretted your actions. Having received no response from you, he pulled you to him and forced your eyes to meet his.

“I guess I must teach you, that all actions have consequences.”

CHOI JONGHO

Jongho was a patient guy, you knew that better than anyone but now his patience was running low because of your antics. But unaware of his turmoil you ran away leaving a sweet note behind which agitated Jongho even more. Unfortunately, you miscalculated everything and didn’t even get enough time to get to the airport before a black SUV stops in front of you. And suddenly you are forced inside the car where Jongho was seated opposite of you. He tapped his fingers, expecting you to finally start talking.

“Start talking, because after this I won’t let you speak.”

“Just let me go, you will find someone else.”

“I’m afraid that this is not how it works. In short, it won’t be possible my love. Anything else ?”

His strong gaze finally meets yours and you feel trapped under his gaze unable to look away , even for a second. Jongho smirks at you lack of answer and abruptly leans in and brushes a strand of your hair away from your face. You resist the urge to lean towards the familiar warmth of your fiancé’s touch. But the action doesn’t go unnoticed by him.

“You’re mine, understood ?”

“So don’t try this again or else I won’t go easy on you like this time.”

[starshine-hockey-girl]

Summer of Love- Journey to the Emerald City- Chapter Two

Previous Chapter-  Chapter Two Officially Monogamous-https://starshine-hockey-girl.tumblr.com/post/659276133599166464/officially-monogamous

Author’s Note: I am reposting with the full chapter completed.

Warnings- SMUT; fluff-the usual stuff for Teddy and Lex

Lex and Teddy had been apart for almost two weeks. From St. Thomas, they flew to Dallas then immediately on to Pittsburgh to pack Lex's apartment and select their new apartment for the fall. They separated as Lex went onto Toronto to secure temporary housing for the first part of summer and Teddy went back to Dallas to quit her job and pack for Toronto. They reconvened in time for Penny’s birthday celebration at the lake cottage

Tuesday, June 12th, 2018

Teddy walked through sliding glass doors into the baggage claim area and walked to the bag carousel to wait for her luggage. She reached for her bag as it came around the corner and saw a large hand grab it first and put it on the ground. Teddy traced the hand to the body attached it and looked up in Lex’s eyes. He grinned down at her and she smiled. “Lex!” she jumped up into his waiting arms, “You didn’t have come pick up at the airport. I could have caught an Uber.”

He swung her around with a laugh, “and what kind of boyfriend would I be if I did that? Besides an Uber would never find the cottage.” He set her down gently and grabbed her bag, “How was your flight?”

Teddy walked beside him as he led her to his truck, “It was good. I am really nervous about meeting your family though.”

"Why are you nervous?" Lex shook his head and started this truck, "They are going to adore you.”

Teddy smiled softly, “What exactly did you tell them about me?”

He placed a hand on her knee and squeezed, “The truth- I told that I was inviting my girlfriend for Penny’s birthday.”

Teddy relaxed her shoulders, ”Can I choose the music? as she plugged in her phone and pushed play. The sounds of “Popular” began to filter into the car.

Lex whined, “Why must you torture me?” Teddy rolled her eyes, “Oh be quiet, you love it, and you love me.”

They pulled into the driveway and Lex gave her hand a squeeze, "Don't be nervous. They are going to love you."

Allison came running out of the house to greet her baby boy, "Jamieson!" He reached down and pulled his mother into a giant hug. They hadn't seen each other since Christmas and Teddy smiled at their shared joy. Richard emerged from the house followed by Penny.

Lex greeted each with warm hugs before turning back to Teddy, "This is ummm, Teddy?" He had flashbacks to their fight at Thanksgiving and furrowed his brow for a moment.

Teddy gave an almost imperceptible head nod and flashed a bright smile. "Yes, Teddy," she laughed, "so nice to meet you."

His parents looked at each other in confusion. Penny spoke up, "Who is Bliss? I thought were bringing a girl named Bliss."

Lex looked at the ground blushing and realized his mistake. Teddy rescued him, "Oh, he gave me that nickname after I insisted on calling him Lex instead of Jamie. My friend, Katie, is dating Jamie Benn and I didn't want to create any confusion. Bliss is my my middle name. Everyone but Lex, ummm, Jamie calls me Teddy."

Penny arched a single eyebrow, "You guys are weird," and turned to walk back into the house. Allison and Richard turned to walk into the house as well. "Well, that went well," Teddy joked.

Teddy walked into her room and looked around the tastefully decorated room. Lex put her bag on the bed and eyed it longingly.

Teddy felt him come up behind her and press her into the dresser from behind. They both looked into the mirror. Lex's eyes were dark with lust. Teddy shook her head, "Absolutely not, Lex."

He pouted, "Bliss......it's been two weeks. I need you."

Teddy looked into his reflection and spoke, "We have gone longer, Lex, remember?”

Lex kissed the back of her head, “52 days, I remember, but it was different then.”

Teddy raised her eyebrow, “How was it different, Lex? My body doesn’t know the difference. So do you want the entire list or just the top reason?"

Lex pushed into her and nuzzled her neck, "Start with the top."

Teddy laughed, "Your parents are literally less than 10 yards away from us. In the entire history of us fucking, we have never been THAT quiet except at Tyler's party which I marked the heck out of your neck and back. Do you really want to explain that to your parents when we go swimming later?"

Lex pouted, "But you are tempting me in that dress. Don't think I don't remember when you wore this dress to my apartment for the first time in Dallas. All I can think about is you riding my thigh."

Teddy turned around but kept eye contact with him, "Go tell them I need to take nap since I had to be up so early for my flight."

Lex smiled, "Really?"

Teddy nodded her head, "Yes, really. Now go before I come to my senses."

Lex casually walked down the stairs and informed his parents of Teddy's nap and raced back up. His parents shared a knowing look and laughed. By the time Lex arrived back into the room, Teddy was sitting on the edge of the bed with her panties off. He shut the door, locked it and unbuckled his belt. He lifted her off the bed and placed on gently on the floor. "Really Lex, the floor?"

As he thrust into her, he groaned, "I am pretty sure the bed squeaks. Bliss, you feel so good. I missed you so much."

Teddy whispered, "Quit doing 'I'm fucking my girlfriend' groaning or we are going to get caught. Now fuck me like sexy man that I love, but silently."

When they emerged later with flushed cheeks, Teddy carried down the neatly wrapped hostess gift for Allison and Richard. Allison squealed when she opened the box of fresh fruit kolaches, “Are these from the Czech Depot in West? I love them!” Lex’s parents had discovered the iconic kolache spot during their frequent trips to visit Lex in Austin. It was easier to fly into Dallas and make the drive down into Austin than transfer planes. 

“You didn’t make a special trip just to get them, did you?” Richard asked. When Teddy nodded yes, he pulled her into a hug, “Thank you. You are too sweet.”

When his father released Teddy, Lex wrapped his arms around her waist, “See, I told you that they would love you.”

Richard poked Lex in the chest, “Why didn’t you tell us that you wanted to share a room with Teddy?”

Lex blinked slowly, “I didn’t know if you had rules because of Penny.”

Richard laughed, “If I haven’t taught Penny about sex by now, we have bigger problems than where Teddy sleeps. By the way, the floor in that room creaks more than the bed so move Teddy into your room.”

Lex stood slack-jawed while Teddy doubled over in laughter, “Poor Lex, do you need some aloe for that burn?” 

The next day was filled with joy and laughter. Penny took full advantage of being the Birthday Queen and ordering her brother around. Lex dutifully played servant to all of his commands while playfully pouting. “Why doesn’t Teddy have do anything?” he whined.

 “Because she is the guest and I love her more than you,” Penny joked, “Now get us drinks!”

Lex shook his head and whined, “But I am your big brother.”

Penny retorted, “Did you bring kolaches with you? No- so she is ranking higher than you now.”

Teddy rolled eyes, “Who knew it would be so easy to impress y’all? Lex, I love you and you’re my favorite!”

Lex returned with the drinks, “You’re the only one Bliss- the only one.”

Several hours later, in their now shared room, Teddy removed her bikini to take a shower. “Bliss Babe, did you put on sunscreen earlier?” Lex asked gently. Sunbathing and swimming had turned into day drinking which had turned into Teddy falling asleep by the pool while Lex worked out. 

“Yeah, I put some on,” she replied before looking into the mirror and looking at the stark difference between the skin under her bikini and the exposed skin.

 “When? Did you reapply?” he walked over to feel her skin, “Bliss Babe, you are burned. Let me go find some aloe.”

Teddy fell back on the bed, “How can I be sunburned in Canada?”

He returned to the bedroom, “The sun still shines here. You should have reapplied sunscreen.”

Teddy touched her skin gingerly, “Thanks Captain Obvious. Yeah, this is going to be bad. I don’t know how I am going to wear a bra later.”

Lex wriggled his eyebrows and kissed her shoulder before applying the aloe vera, “I will take no bra any day I can get it.”

Teddy began to pout, “You won’t be joking when I can’t stand to be touched later tonight.” 

The rest of the Oleksiak clan and family friends arrived while Lex and Teddy had gotten ready for the party. Teddy bounced around like a ping-pong ball being introduced to everyone. Everyone seemed shocked to see Lex bring a girlfriend to Toronto, much less the cottage. Towards the end of the party, Teddy sat down next to Penny around the fire pit and handed her an envelope, “Happy Birthday Penny!”

Penny was a little tipsy from the wine and sunkissed from the day but smiled genuinely. “For me?” she laughed as she took the card. The Olympian read the funny card and saw the gift certificate for the poshest spa in town. “Teddy, this is too much!” she exclaimed.

Teddy shook her head, “No, it’s not. I hope that it’s a good spa. Lex didn’t know about spas so I had to go by online reviews. I thought maybe we could go together one day while I am still up here. I mean, if you are interested. You know, to get to know each other better.”

Penny grabbed her into a hug, “Thank you! Thank you for everything.”

Teddy look puzzled, “Everything?”

Penny looked over her shoulder at Lex who was talking to his dad and brother. Feeling their eyes, he turned and smiled. Penny looked back at Teddy, “You did that Teddy. I have never seen him so happy with a girl. I don’t know what he did to get you, but if he loves you like that so do I.”

Teddy blinked back tears, “Stop- you are going to make my cry. Y’all should know that I am a crier.” She looked at Lex, ”I just love him. Don’t you? He’s the best ever.”

Penny rolled her eyes, “Let’s not get carried away here.” 

Lex escorted the very tipsy Teddy back to their room and helped her get undressed and into one of his old t-shirts. “Let’s wash your face and brush your teeth Bliss,” he chided as she giggled.

She frowned, “Are you mad that I am tipsy? Did people like me-the weird girl from Texas?”

Lex spun her around and walked her into the bathroom, “Everyone loved you. You charmed them all with your cute little drawl which gets worse the more drunk you get.” She stopped brushing her teeth when he continued, “It’s adorable. Stop overthinking.”

They finished in the bathroom and Lex slid into bed with just his boxers. Teddy got in afterwards and rolled towards him, “Owwww, my skin hurts.” Lex opened his mouth to speak and she interrupted, “If you say one damn word about sunscreen, I am going to scream!”

He shook his head, “No, you won’t. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.” She opened her mouth to scream and he kissed her hard. 

“No fair, distracting me with kisses,” she giggled. They rolled over to spoon. Teddy began to fall asleep, “Hey Lex, did you ever bring Ashley here?”

He yawned and said, “No.” Teddy’s eyes widened, “But your parents met in Austin, right? You just didn’t bring her here? You dated her for years. We have only been together for a month.”

Lex kissed her shoulder gently, “We have been together for much more than a month- just not officially. I didn’t bring her here because I didn’t love her the way that I love you. It’s that simple.” 

Three days later, Teddy and Lex left to make the trek back to Toronto. Lex parked his truck in the underground parking and escorted her up the elevator to their temporary high rise home.  “Oh Lex, it’s perfect” she gasped as when he opened the door and walked through the light, airy condo.

Lex let a huge sigh of relief, “You don’t know how much I stressed about it.”

Teddy lept into his arms and whispered, “Show me the bedroom.” 

The blissful couple fell into a completely domestic routine. They spent the mornings together cuddling in bed or going for a run. Lex left to skate and work out while Teddy filmed her videos. They met up in the afternoon to make dinner. Frequently they ate on the balcony overlooking the lake. Nightly they snuggled on the couch and made love. 

                                           September 4, 2018

Lex and Teddy touched down in Pittsburgh at 7 AM and drove to straight their new apartment to pick up sign the lease and get the keys. He went to the Pittsburgh training facility to start his preseason workouts while Teddy waited on the furniture be delivered and the moving van containing Teddy’s belonging from Dallas. When Lex arrived back home later that afternoon, the apartment was filled with furniture and littered with moving boxes.

He found Teddy in the bedroom making the bed. He snuck up behind her and tackled her from behind. They landed with a soft bounce and Teddy laughed, “I have to put sheets on the bed Lex.”

Lex kissed her neck before moving to her mouth, “I’m just testing out the bed. You wouldn’t let me at the store.”

She spread her legs to welcome him into her, “Yes, generally they frown at customers dry humping in the furniture store. So sorry to disappoint you.”

He pressed into her, “But we are not at the store now. I need to test out the features.”

Teddy sat up on her elbows, “Oh, and what features do you need to test?” He slid off the bed onto his knees, pulled her to the edge of the bed before faceplanting into her crotch. “How’s that fit down there Lex?” she laughed.

“Don’t know. Gotta dive in before I can really tell,” he pulled her shorts and panties down and tossed them to the side.

He kissed up and down her thighs as she moaned lightly. Looking up at her, he drew tongue up along her folds, “so far so good,” before pressing his face into them. His mouth found her clit and he began sucking.

Teddy arched her back and whimpered, “yep, that seems good to me. Probably need to test out your fingers. You know just in case.”

He continued to focus on her clit while sliding two large fingers into her sex, “yeah this is comfortable for me. How about you?”

She rocked her hips off of the bed, “Good…… really fucking good, but testing out your cock is necessary. Flip me over. “

Lex expertly flipped her over , grabbed her hips and thrust into her as she panted, “This is a good height for me.”

She pushed back onto him as he pumped, “Can you reach around though?” He reached around to her clit as she began to shake and tremble underneath, “Fuck that’s good Lex. That’s good.”

He finished deep inside of her and collapsed on top of her, “Yeah, I don’t know why they would frown upon a little test drive at the store. Good to know it works though.”

They had just finished cleaning up and making the bed when there was a knock on the door. Lex smirked as he entered the living room with Teddy following behind, “Can you get it Bliss?” She passed him on the right and signed for the food delivery. Lex stood behind her perplexed, “Wait, what is this?”

Teddy placed the food on the kitchen counter, “You were expecting something else?”

Lex smiled when he realized that she had ordered ribs with all of the sides, “Bliss- you’ve been busy today.” There was another knock on the door, and he pushed her toward the door. She looked back over her shoulder then opened the door. The delivery man was holding a huge bouquet of red roses and gift bag.

Lex grabbed the flowers and put them on the counter while she opened the card. “We have so many dates to celebrate but today is the most important. Happy Anniversary Bliss! – Lex”

She looked up with tears in her eyes, “You remembered? I thought you would forget with all of this.” She waved her hands around the cluttered apartment filled with boxes. He shook his head no and pointed to the gift bag. Teddy opened the bag to find a small jewelry box inside. She opened the box and pulled out the pair of delicate necklace blue topaz necklace https://www.1stdibs.com/jewelry/necklaces/pendant-necklaces/diamond-town-106-carat-blue-topaz-080-ct-diamond-pendant-14k-white-gold/id-j_11727382/

“It’s our birthstone and matches your eyes,” he said expectantly.

She handed him the necklace to put on her neck, “I love it Lex.”

Three days Teddy woke Lex up on his day off with a smile and a packed suitcase. “Come on Lex, let’s go on adventure,” she said as she poked his ribs.

“I don’t wanna,” he mumbled as covered his head with his pillow. “I packed lingerie,” she whispered into his ear.

He lifted his head, “What kind of lingerie?”

Teddy had jumped off the bed, “Get your ass ready and you’ll find out.” Thirty minutes later, Lex threw the suitcase into the back of his truck cab and went to get into the front seat.

Teddy grabbed his arm, “I’m driving honeybunny,” and grabbed the keys out of his hand. Lex shrugged his shoulder, “Okay, but I pick the music- no Wicked!” Lex turned on the Pearl Jam station but quickly went to back to sleep. After 3 pee stops for Teddy, they pulled into their hotel parking lot five hours later.

Lex had dozed off again and woke up and looked around to get his bearings. “Where are we?” he yawned and saw the sign. “We’re in the Poconos?” he asked.

She grinned and grabbed the bag, “Just wait until you see the room.”

He followed into the hotel where they were led to their suite. “Here you go,” the bell man said, “Champagne Tower Suite. Let us know if you need anything.”

They stepped into the room and he dropped the bag, “Bliss Babe, what the fuck is that?”

Teddy jumped up and down, “It’s a champagne glass whirlpool bath. It’s taller than you!!!”

Lex looked at her and laughed, “What is else is there?”

She ran to point, “We have our own heart shaped pool-and a fireplace, and a dry sauna. The best part is the bed.” She drug up him the stairs to point the king sized round bed with twinkling lights above it. He pulled her to his chest and then sat on the bed. “This place is  ummm…..”

She straddled his waist, “Cheesy and extra like me?”

He grabbed her ass, “I was going to say sexy as fuck like you, but yours works too.”

Teddy leaned forward and kissed his neck, “We have two days of uninterrupted time to stay naked in our cheesy, extra and sexy as fuck suite before you start your season. I wanted to celebrate our new life together and the end of our summer of love.”

Lex stroked her back, “So now we move into our fall of love? I like the sound of that. Thanks Bliss.”

They sat silently for a few moments. “Whatcha thinking about Lex?” she said. “I am thinking of where I am going to fuck you first. That champagne tower is calling my name.” https://www.covepoconoresorts.com/suites/cove-haven-suites/champagne-tower-suite/

Next Chapter

https://starshine-hockey-girl.tumblr.com/post/660465318988316672/authors-notes-i-am-coming-to-terms-that-this

[willadisastercry]

Sleep deprived Keith annoying the crap out of the other paladins before crashing

Tw: depiction of sleep deprivation, insomnia, needles.

Keith has trouble sleeping sometimes... but this is a new level for him. His teammates can’t remember the last time he looked well slept and neither can he. They also don’t remember him being this hyper or social with them, like literally ever.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shiro so annoyed,” Lance whispered over a crouched Pidge as they peered around the corner into the control room.

Keith was hovering around Shiro as he typed away on the panel in front of him, working out the strategy for their next mission.

“Well, if you really think about it, the Galra are kind of like space Russia, they have a lot of real estate, the people are really tall, and—hey, wait why wouldn’t we infiltrate the loading dock first? That’s the most reliable route because the lions won’t be far, we can just cloak them ya know, like all stealth? and if we go in where...”

“I think his mouth is twitching, watch. There it is, it did it again!” Pidge pointed out, her eyes wide in amazement.

The older boy’s mouth was indeed twitching, the corner pulling up like he wanted to say something as well as drop someone, but he refrained from both.

“I think I would’ve punted Keith across the room by now... do you think Shiro meditates, he must meditate, ya know? He’s always so calm and reasonable, always telling us that we have to breathe and whatever, no one can possibly be that zen without—“

But before Lance could finish his analysis on Shiro’s freak ability to be so zen, the basis of his argument shattered with an explosion from their team leader.

“I can’t even hear myself think, Keith!” Shiro started, a vein very visibly pumping away on his forehead as his face took on a dark flush.

“I have been watching the same surveillance loop for five minutes now beccause I can’t focus with you rambling in my ear!”

The red paladin’s face fell, his antsy pacing halted and his hands tapping his side like he was anticipating something. He took a breath. He hadn’t realized he’d started trembling.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—fuck,” Keith said before turning away, “I’ll leave you alone.”

Lance and Pidge nearly toppled over with how aggressively they flung themselves away from where they had been perched while they eavesdropped. Mostly out of curiosity at how Shiro would handle a manic-ly energetic Keith.

They could hear Shiro cursing under his breath, then ushering an apology for being so harsh but Keith likely didn’t hear it as he hightailed it out of there. He moved so quickly he didn’t even notice the pair as they stood planted in the center of the hallway failing to feign even the slightest of nonchalance.

Shiro ducked his head out to find that Keith had already disappeared and became wildly flustered when he found the very guilty-looking pair instead.

“Uhuh,” he cleared his throat, “do you guys know what’s going on with Keith? I didn’t mean to be such a dick, but he’s like next level tweaking out and I have no idea why...”

“Uh, we’re not sure either,” Pidge replied, “but he’s been like this all morning.”

“Yeah, he made Coran snap and crack a crystal in half earlier...”

“Oooo and Allura stained her dress when he wouldn’t shut up about how human mice carry infection and probably shouldn’t be near food and then she like flung her coffee...”

“And poor Hunk was trying to entertain his ramblings about the how hard it is to attain cinnamon in space and that it should be rationed and ended up burning a whole batch of snickerdoodles...”

“He was bouncing off the walls, it was weird” Pidge resolved. “And Keith never has that much energy.”

“Yeah, he’s been rambling, that’s my thing! The kid hardly says more than five words in one sentence and now he can’t shut up,” Lance added, scratching his head.

“Okay,” Shiro looked like he was running over in his head a million possibilities of what could be wrong, “will you two go check on him for me... and let him know I didn’t mean to yell at him?”

“Of course.”

“We’ll let you know if we figure it out,” Lance promised before they started after their friend.

They checked the common room first as it was the next room on their way and found only a grumpy Hunk scraping the singed bits off of the plate of cookies in front of him.

“D’you see Keith?” Pidge asked, surveying the sight before her.

“No,” he gruffed sadly, taking a bite of one of the cookies and breaking it off with a loud snap.

“Okay, keep an eye out, we think something’s wrong...” Lance looked around, “I know where he might’ve gone but we have to grab something first, let’s go.”

They took off at an urgent trot, once again more out of curiosity than concern because this just didn’t occur. Keith is a guy of few words, so when he speaks it’s usually sarcasm, not a rapid flurry of silly questions that seem more like the goofy blue paladin than the tempered red. This was weird for him. And they just wanted to know why.

But their curiosity changed quickly into fear as soon as they entered the hallway of the training room because they could hear the intense whir of the simulator working. From down the hall.

“Shit Keith,” Lance said activating their bayards they stopped to pick up on the way.

“He’s got it on the highest setting—not even Shiro can handle that intensity solo,” Pidge noted as they raced for the door.

“This kid’s got a death wish,” Lance deadpanned as he wrenched the doors of the training room open, only to be immediately met with Keith’s strangled scream as his head snapped against the floor with a sickening crack, the sentry that threw him across the room quickly closing the distance between them.

Lance ran forward and knelt down, slowly lining up shots and taking down the new sentries as soon as they regenerated while Pidge made her way to the kill switch.

By the time she got to the lever and tugged it all the way down Keith was dangling from his twisted arm and throat, shuddering gasps the only noise he was able to make in protest.

Lance had just taken out the second sentry cornering Keith with a head shot when every robot assailant powered down at once, the one choking Keith releasing his grip on his throat first, his arm pulling at an awkward angle as he fell before it was released. The pale boy let out a shrill gush before clamping his lips together tightly and pulling his slumped form up with the help of the wall.

“What the fuck was that, mullet?!”

He refused to make eye contact with his worried friends as he went to storm out like before, but this time he moved slowly, gingerly.

“I needed a good workout... to clear my head,” was all he managed. They could tell he didn’t want to let on that he was in pain, but the way he grimaced when his arm swung as he walked as well as the obvious bump protruding from his shoulder where no bone should be told them otherwise.

“Oh, that’s a load! That was not a good workout, that was a good ass-whooping! And I’m not entirely sure there’s anything left in your head to clear after the way it smacked the—“

“You’re hurt,” Pidge blurted. “The sentry dislocated your shoulder, I’m staring at the head of your right humerus and I shouldn’t be able to do that...”

“Oh... huh,” was all the mind he seemed willing to pay to his injury, his eyes bleary and wider than usual as he continued to walk away from them, but they persisted.

“We’re taking you to get that checked out by Coran. Right now,” Lance ordered.

“I’m good,” he assured, shouldering the door with his other arm.

Lance reached the door handle first and pulled on it, keeping Keith from going anywhere and spurring a low groan when his bad shoulder was jolted.

“Lance...”

He looked so tired.

He closed his eyes and continued to lean heavily into the hulking door of the training room. Under the bright artificial lights his skin looked greyer than it usually did, every bone in his face sickly accentuated and sharpened, the staple bags underneath his eyes hanging heavier than ever.

“Keith, you’re hurt and something else is obviously wrong so NO, we’re not letting you storm off to go pout to maintain your stup—“

“Shut up—“

Keith’s vision tunneled, his eyes fixed in a clearly unfocused haze as he stared at nothing.

“What?” Lance questioned, very caught off guard by the sudden interjection.

“I s-said shut u-up,” he whispered as he sucked in a shuddering breath.

The shrillness of Lance’s chastisement made his head swim and he blinked away the haze that came with the sudden levity.

“Hey, take it easy...”

It seemed the more he tried to control the tremor in his voice the worse his entire body seemed to shake.

He was fading; he could feel it.

The exhaustion had given way to anxiety as the adrenaline dripped dry allowing him to fully feel the pain in his shoulder as it pulsed angrily.

It was like the tide was washing out, the tumultuous waves of the storm that settled itself in his chest receding just before the next wave surged, and then he could feel everything he’d been ignoring.

Every individual bone seemed to ache with weariness and the pressure behind his tired eyes was so immense that it made him unsteady.

“Woah, what’s going on man?”

The floor suddenly seemed to shift beneath him, like he was walking on one of those moving conveyer belts in the airport that made your feet feel weird once you were back on solid ground.

“I think you should sit down,” Pidge urged, tugging worriedly at the hem of his shirt.

As much as his pride wanted him to protest he couldn’t seem to muster enough energy to even disagree let alone have a shred of cofidence that he could possibly get himself back to his room on his own.

They seemed to understand by his silence that he wouldn’t push away their help now and then he could feel firm hands on his good shoulder and back, guiding his trembling frame down to the floor where he came to rest his head on the knee that wasn’t bouncing.

“Where you at, mullet?”

The tinier hand had never left the middle of his back and rubbed soothing circles on the tense muscles beneath it.

“Can you tell us what you feel like right now?” Pidge asked before moving a hand to steady his restless leg.

He took a strained breath.

“D-dizzy... c-cold maybe, I-I don’t know why I can’t stop s-shaking.”

“That’s okay, don’t worry about that.”

“Here, this’ll help,” Lance added as he draped his jacket over Keith’s back, careful to not have it touch his injury.

“How’s your shoulder? Is anything else hurting?”

Keith thought about it for a solid minute, finding it sort of difficult to organize his thoughts and give Pidge an answer.

“Hurts a lot. S-so does my head... I have a headache—maybe... maybe a migraine I d-don’t know.”

“Is that what was bothering you before? The lights are pretty bright in here so that’s probably not helping... why don’t we start heading to the infirmary, before it gets worse?”

He nodded slowly against his knee and lifted his head up, his eyes still pressed together tightly. He pried one open to test his head but the swirling nausea and general agony that followed was answer enough.

“You don’t have to keep them open if it hurts.”

He hummed in acknowledgment and steeled himself as they took up his good arm and pulled him to his feet then waited for him to give the go ahead before making their way.

It was almost worse when his eyes were closed. The pounding in his head had only increased while they guided him, each step rattling his brain around so painfully that it almost distracted him from the instense heat in his shoulder.

He didn’t know why his head hurt so bad and why it was making his eyes so sensitive. He knew he’d hid it, but not hard enough to warrant this. He was also really tired, practically jumping out of his skin every few moments when he let his head tip forward slightly as if to nod off, which was entirely strange and alarming seeing as he was so drowsy he almost fell asleep while still walking.

He hadn’t noticed when they made it to the infirmary, only realizing when he was being pushed to sit down on something and a light was being shone across his now opened eyes.

“No! Oh-ouch,” he inhaled sharply when the light retreated and he was left seeing a blurred strip of bright white across his field of vision.

“I apologize, my boy, it had to be done. No concussion though! We have dimmed the lights for your comfort, the aversion is most peculiar given your injuries... “

He proded Keith’s shoulder blade and the inflamed area around it, earning a hiss when he tested the dexterity of the limb.

“The scanner detects significant ligament damage that will need to be corrected in a pod after I er... set the joint in its proper place. It will hurt for only a tick and I have several nerve blockers and muscle relaxers I can inject in the area to make the process less painful. Does that sound manageable to—“

But Coran didn’t get to hear Keith’s answer, the way his face greened and he clamped a hand over mouth was telling enough. He bit back a sob as he lurched forward, not enough time or notice for anyone to prepare before Keith was dry heaving, but they didn’t really need to worry because nothing but saliva came up.

“Were you at all ill before this today? This is the first time you’ve been sick to your stomach... when was the last time you ate?”

Silence only followed for a dobash before all three launched into different themes of admonition, but they all had the same anger to them. He knew they meant well, that they were just worried, but the bite to their words made his eyes sting like hell and he was seriously worried he wouldn’t be able to keep the tears at bay before Shiro was there telling them to be quiet.

He turned his head away and tried to breathe normally, but his chest was working up and his head throbbed pitifully and the movement made the burning in his shoulder deepen to where he had to hold his breath to keep from aggravating it. But Shiro’s warm, human hand was pulling his face towards his own, his eyes taking in Keith’s form and coming to several conclusions at once, the tension everywhere, the darkness under his eyes, the tightness in his jaw, the way his hands shook entwined about themselves...

“Keith,” his voice was so low and warm, he felt his chest pang at the gentleness in it. He closed his eyes, he knew what was coming next and he was both relieved and terrified for it.

“When was the last time you got a solid night’s sleep?”

He waited, even though they both already knew the answer and then it was when his hand moved to cup the top of his head that he finally broke. He didn’t need to speak for Shiro to know the answer.

Too long. It had been entirely too long since Keith could remember going to bed and waking up refreshed, each night only more frustrating than the last as he laid his head on his pillow and closed his eyes, knowing full well it wouldn’t work. Nothing did.

This week had been too much though. Running on empty on far too many missions followed by a dozen insomnia-induced late night training sessions trying to tire himself out in order to snag only a few hours of rest.

He’d just kept excerting himself and not ever properly recharging, but not on purpose, he physically couldn’t.

That part wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help that, but he could let people know he was struggling and he had purposefully not alerted Shiro.

“Shit, Keith,” Shiro murmured with Keith’s forehead on his chest as he held back the sound of his crying, “you have to tell me when it gets bad like this! It’s not safe for you to be fighting and training when you’re not properly rested, you know that...”

Coran resumed analyzing his shoulder.

“And now you’re hurt because I snapped at you—Keith, I’m so sorry, I should’ve realized...”

“D-dont,” he managed through stiff breaths as Coran worked his bad arm gently out of his shirt, “s’not your fault, never is.”

Shiro set his jaw and eyed Coran who looked at him sadly and nodded.

“This conversation is far from over, but we have to get that shoulder fixed right now.”

Coran asked Pidge to gather some supplies and Lance to help him brace Keith.

“You’ll feel a small pinch in your arm now.”

He did. The area felt cold with the liquid that was now under his skin and Coran rubbed it for a minute before moving near his collarbone.

“This one might burn, but you’ll find it entirely numb in a dobash.”

This one was quicker, less to inject, longer to rub in so it spread. It burned and itched, earning a groan before he felt less of Coran’s fingers and more of just pressure.

“Oh, that’s... better.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

He felt someone kneeling behind him holding just below his shoulder and around his chest. Someone else was in front of him holding his arm up with their hand on his other shoulder, Shiro’s hands on his shaking one.

“Now I trust you’re familiar with what is about to happen, do you want me to explain what I am doing or—“

“Don’t explain, just—“

The pain that exploded with the hollow pop that followed was even grosser than the sound itself. Keith’s vision whited for a second and he was immediately ashen and panting as his body worked through the shock of the correction, his ears rang and so he wasn’t sure if he had screamed or not but with the way his throat ached he’d assumed he had.

Exhaustion weighed on him like a sopping wet blanket, making it difficult to keep his head up let alone his entire upper body. He wasn’t sure how long he had been leaned against Shiro’s chest once he started coming back to himself and realized he was the only thing keeping him upright.

Something was compressing his shoulder, pulling in places he didn’t quite like as it was wrapped tightly around the still damaged joint, making its way around his chest and back several times. Shiro held him away for a moment while something fell around his neck that held his arm against his chest and had an attachment to secure it to his side.

He tried to open his eyes and see what was going on but they were so very heavy and he was in awe of how he wasn’t entirely asleep by now, almost thankful for the steady ache behind his eyes as it was forcing him to keep them closed.

“You still there, Keith?”

He hummed into Shiro’s shirt in response.

“Hey, so we’re going to forgo the pod to repair all the torn ligaments for a little while. Coran thinks it’s best that you catch up on your sleep without the being frozen part... we’ll see how you’re feeling tomorrow, does that sound alright to you?”

It sounded superb to him. Truly.

He wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline crash or the general daze from sleep deprivation, but he was entirely checked out. Sufficiently out of it to care much about anything other than Coran’s lovely altean painkillers and the comfy pillow his head was now resting on.

Once he was laid down he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness almost immediately, the last thing he knew before he was consumed in bliss was the blanket that was being pulled up to his chest and Shiro calming words.

“Rest, buddy.”

And he finally did because now he actually could.

He wasn’t sure if it was the level of exhaustion he’d brought himself to or the threat of pain when he awoke, but whatever it was keeping him asleep he was grateful for it. Coran never even had to administer a sedative to keep him down during the night, just pain killers so he wouldn’t be woken up by his shoulder.

He slept for a day and a half after that, everyone taking turns watching over him while he slept so Shiro didn’t bring upon himself a similar fate.

The next time he was conscious coming deep into the next night, nearly early morning. Shiro stirred in the chair he was posted up in when Keith groaned and tried to turn over but cried out instead.

“Crap, what—hey... you’re okay,” Shiro soothed as he held Keith’s searching hand away from the thick layer of bandages covering his shoulder.

“It hurts, Shiro! It h-hurts!”

“I know, Keith, I know it hurts.”

Shiro sounded sad, Keith didn’t want to make him sad.

“I’m sorry...”

“You don’t need to be sorry for anything, bud.”

“I was stupid, I shoulda t-told you—just didn’t want you to worry.”

“I’m always going to worry about you, Keith. All of us are going to worry until you stop giving us reasons to,” he laughed weakly as he ran his hand through Keith’s hair while his breathing returned to normal.

“And until then, we’ll be here to make sure you don’t get pulverized by the training simulators and aren’t walking around delirious from not having slept in a week, okay?”

“Aha, yeah... okay.”

He tried to doze off again, but the steady pulse of pain in his shoulder seemed to prevent it. After an hour of trying, Shiro called Coran in who agreed it was also time to go into a pod.

“You will feel as good as new in no time, number four.”

Keith nodded absently as he rested his head back against the cushion in the cryopod before its doors closed with a whoosh and then cold surrounded him, lulling him off into another much needed sleep.

[nitaescence]

ix. strain

genre : DDLG!au word count : 5.4k warnings — little space, pet names, Jungkook’s head over heels, dry humping, hand job, oral sex (giving/receiving), overstimulation, squirting, things get angsty between the boys a/n : one part left ✌

sweetpea masterlist

You watched Taehyung closing his suitcase with a heavy heart.

He got ready all day to depart and join his family for Christmas holidays. You tried not to look so down.

You totally understood them wanting to spend some time with their own but you couldn’t shake the sad feeling overwhelming you when you knew you wouldn’t get that chance.

Taehyung offered to take you back to the headquarters on his way to the airport but Jungkook had interjected quite abruptly saying he would take care of it.

The time to leave came and Taehyung hugged you, making sure to let you know he would miss you and that he couldn’t wait to see you again.

You could sense his deep bonding with his family. It meant a lot to him and he was excited at the thought of seeing them again.

He kissed you softly and gently, calming a little the bittersweet feeling that had settled in your heart. The goodbyes between him and Jungkook were quicker and less warm.

“What are you doing?” Inquired Jungkook after he spotted you dragging something in his room.

“ge’ ready.” You smiled with a small pout as you dragged your blankie inside your bag.

“So you’re going back?”

You looked down and shrugged.

Spending Christmas anywhere else than at the headquarters would sound fun, not that you would be short of anything there but the boys’ company felt way better in comparison.

“What if I told you you don’t have to ?” He grinned after lying down on his bed.

You furrowed your brows, intrigued.

“no goin’ back ?” You repeated, bringing a finger to your lips.

“Hm-hm, I’ll be staying here.” Jungkook moved to rest his ching on his hands. “Y’wanna spend your holidays with me?”

You started to nod, still unsure whether he was serious about it or not.

“Yeah, baby? I’m not messin’ with you… I’m really staying.”

You were delighted, totally looking forward to the next days as you threw yourself on him and hugged his neck as tightly as you could.

Jungkook laughed, relieved. He didn’t feel bad anymore about not visiting his family. He would think of sending them a few messages and videos still.

“Whew… For a second, I was afraid you would reject me.”

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

You discovered Jungkook had a lot planned for the two of you, as if he had organized those holidays a long while ago and was impatiently waiting to get to do it all with you.

When he shared his schedule, you couldn’t tell which one of you was the most excited.

Among all the places he had in mind, there was one in particular which earned your interest — the two day journey at Disneyland.

It was settled to happen the second week so you had to suck your excitement to yourself and you did well, although the thought only was able to put a big smile on your face.

The day finally came and you couldn’t keep your feelings to yourself and Jungkook was overjoyed seeing you like this.

He felt satisfied he was able to get you interested in all the different activities he suggested to you. He couldn’t believe you hadn’t been to Disneyland yet but felt enthralled at the thought of being the one making you discover it.

Once there, he never let you out of his sight. You didn’t make it difficult for him either by being glued to his side. Everything there impressed you, from the number of people present to the different animations offered there.

Your gloved hand didn’t let go of his, not even when you wanted to take pictures with the people wearing stunning disguises—

Jungkook motioned you so would stand beside Mickey but you whined and went to hold his other hand, overwhelmed by the cartoon character standing too closely.

He chuckled at you while you kept staring curiously at the famous character from the corner of your eye.

He circled your shoulder and pecked your temple. “Smile to the camera, babygirl.”

He then went on to buy yourselves two headbands and a cute yet prohibitively expensive necklace. He encouraged you to ride as many attractions as possible.  

You made him feel warmer than he had ever been inside him and he couldn’t feel bad about that part thudding aloud within because of the fact that he had you to him alone.

He found you adorable in your ways of showing your amazement at your surroundings, wanting to make sure he knew just how much you were enjoying yourself and how much appreciative of him you felt, all bundled up in your winter clothing.

It didn’t prevent him from having naughty thoughts cross his mind every now and then and letting his hands roaming you although he tried his best to keep them to himself until you got back to your bedroom.  

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

Jungkook pushed the door open to let you in first. He helped you out of your thick jacket and as soon as you could move freely, you lunged over your new backpack filled with all the accessories he had bought you.

“_________, let’s shower first. Okay ?”

You pondered his suggestion but didn’t fuss and listened to him.

After you were done, he watched you, to his dismay, hoping to get back to your new acquisitions you hadn’t forgotten about and emptied your bag on the carpeted floor.

He followed closely after having barely dried his hair.

He did not bother to catch the towel around his hips slowly loosening and sliding down the bulging muscles of his thighs. His skin awakened at the feeling of the surrounding air, showing paths of goosebumps along his taut stomach and arms.

He pondered the thought of remaining naked and eventually decided to slip a pair of black boxers on and undid the sheets.

“Bring all of it here... Much better this way.”

You listened to him quietly and quickly moved all your things on the clean beddings.

Jungkook caught one of the Polaroids and gazed at it lovingly, then took another one.

“They’d look good in your notebook, don’t you think?”

“he’e?” You asked, opening the brand new little mermaid themed book in the middle and looking up at him with a small frown.

His eyes looked heavy and stared up lovingly at the pretty pinkish glow flaming your face across your cheekbones and nose.

His hand wrapped gently around your thin wrist, “hmhm.”  

“but, no glue?” You frowned deepened at the small pictures sliding down.

“Let’s see, we can use these for now.” He offered as he grabbed the stickers included with the book. “Like this, see?”

“oh,” you stared at his hands carefully sticking the Polaroids next to each other.

He smiled, “voilà.”

You went to lie on your front and picked one of the feltpen to add little doodles around the pictures.

Jungkook let his hand slide along your calf and beneath the hem of the bathrobe, gently kneading your smooth skin.

“________? Come lie next to me.”

You paid no mind to him.

“Baby…”

You eventually sat up when you felt proud of your drawings and turned around.

You gasped at the sight of Jungkook snuggling a pillow and snatched it from him to throw it across the room.

A lazy smirk parted his lips as you slowly curled up against him. He felt tingles spreading in his chest and downwards when your scent reached him as you rested your head beneath his chin.  

“t’ank you.”

“You’re welcome, baby. It’s your Christmas gift from me.”

“but ______ no gift.”

“It’s okay. You’re my gift.”

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

You stirred lightly, waking up little by little.

You made out Jungkook’s voice somewhat still distant and overpowered by the buzzing in your head.

You furrowed your brows and shifted.

“Careful baby,” he whispered and gently blocked you with his arm solidly rooted in the mattress to prevent you from tumbling down the edge of the bed where you were half lying on.

You turned your body the other way around and knuckled your eyes, still a bit tired.

He gazed down, cooing at you and softly nuzzled your cheek. “Are you up now?”

You slowly opened your eyes, blinking repeatedly despite the subdued light of his bedroom and a little dazed from your nap which had him smiling tenderly at you.

He kissed your cheek, hot and marked with sleep lines. “You had a good rest?”

You blinked up at him silently.

“Wanna drink?” He let you nuzzle against him and effortlessly sat up with your legs wrapped around his hips. “Up we go.”

He held you until he reached the kitchen and put you down on the counter.

You whined when he moved away from you and had him holding you some more, earning sexy chuckles from him.

Jungkook gently swung you side to side, craning his head down to peek at you staring into space. He relished moments like this, when you simply did not need anything else but to feel him while he cradled you affectionately.

Nothing, no one else made him feel protective over you as he could get during moments like these when he held your vulnerable self safely in his strong arms and felt your breathing fanning him softly.

He followed your gaze when you suddenly jerked a little away and turned your head to gaze ahead of you.

You whimpered when you looked over his shoulder while he kissed your temple.

He walked away to get your sippy cup filled with your favorite fruit juice while you sat up and stretched your spine to make out the strange thing you had noticed in the living-room.

“What’s wrong?”

You pointed behind him and he looked back.

“Oh, my surprise?”

“hm?”

“Wanna see it?”

You nodded and grabbed the cup from him and held your arms open so he could carry you again.

“Here.”

You climbed down and stared a long time at the new appearance of the living-room.

Bedsheets, blankets and comforters had been used with the help of chairs and couches to make a blanket fort.

The entrance was decorated with one of the Christmas tree garlands and opened on what appeared like a very cozy and intimate space surrounded with some cushions and your plushies.

You dropped down on your knees to get a better look.

“You like it?” He smiled down at you and you eagerly nodded, holding your cup with your two hands. “It’s just for the two of us… Go ahead… Crawl inside.”

You carefully did so and stopped midway to look back. He kneeled down to follow you and dropped heavily on one side of what served as the bed.

“I wanted to give it a name but I have no idea. I brought some of your colored pencils and books and other stuff.”

He pointed to a spot you hadn’t taken notice of behind you where several things were stacked along snacks.

“I made the roof high enough so we could still watch T.V if you want.”

You stretched your body out next to him to confirm his words and noticed along the way how wide the space of it still was with the two of you lying side by side.

He shifted to get more comfortable with a hand under his head while you chose to grab one of the sheets and pencil.

When you were finished, you held it up towards him and his eyes lit up at the words surrounded by hearts, flowers and a smiling sun — Knight Jungkook and Princess ________ ‘s castle

“Is it the name you want to give to it?”

You nodded with the soft spout of your cup hanging between your front teeth.  

Jungkook took the piece of paper from you and sat up to get beneath the garland.

“I have nothing to stick it up with,” he pouted as he looked around.

He decided to lean it against the foot of the chair holding one part of the entrance up. “Now, it’s perfect.”

He lied back down and you crawled out to look at the rendering.

Naturally, he did not miss the way his shirt rode up to reveal your asscheeks curving enticingly beneath the lace of your panties.

He gave your bum three affectionate spankings before you sat back on your heels and looked at him over your shoulder with a smile.

“Like it?”

You nodded and handed him your empty cup to get rid of. He opened his arm for you to lie your head on and turned his body to face yours closely.

“What d’you want to do? Watch cartoons?” He trailed quietly.

Your fingers were playing with his chin. You shrugged and pulled him in a sudden embrace.

You weren’t feeling one bit tired and the whole atmosphere set with your new accommodation was making you feel kittenish.

You leaned back a bit to look up at him, gazing enthralled by his features, softened thanks to the warm hues emanating from the decorative lights. Your cold hand flattened against his chest he felt warming up beneath your touch.

His eyes smiled down at you. He moved his other hand to brush your hair to the side of your face, accentuating the roundness of your cheek.

He tilted his head to press his lips on your forehead and you did the same to his collarbones. Your fingers slid down to trace along the soft skin of his taut lower stomach.

His arm underneath you curled around your shoulder and his hand gripped it when you softly brushed the very subtle trail of hair connecting his navel to the hem of his sweatpants.

The impressive print of his soft dick was quite evident, even more so when you slowly nudged your thigh between his and pressed upward.

His hips bucked in response at the same time a sigh escaped him. You grinned a little.

You knew he wasn’t wearing anything beneath the cloth and you anticipated witnessing him swelling in front of your eyes.

A languid, steady rhythm took hold of your bodies.

You were now holding your weight on one arm, allowing him to get covered in the sweet scent of your hair cascading over his face. His breath was more labored now that he felt you scratching his back deliciously.

His hands held tight onto your waist and ass, blood growing his shaft larger and larger. The thickness of his pants did not allow you to feel his twitching but you were undeniably sure, his cock was now straining up.

A quick glance downward ruled in your favor when you noticed the glistening tip peeking past the hem.

You glided your nails up his spine until you reached his hair which you tugged at gently and clawed his back again to pull his pants down.

You felt yourself clenching at the sight of his taut asscheek, hollowing with each desperate push of his hips.

You pressed on his chest to get him to lie on his lightly bruised back and he helped you take off his sweats.

You threw them somewhere behind you and crawled on top to kiss him. His hands quickly cupped your face to deepen the sweet gesture, taking both of your breaths away.

When his grip loosened, you pecked and licked your way down his veiny neck, erect nipples heaving with each of his intake of air and continued until you reached the tiny puddle of precum wetting his skin where his thick head was resting, raging.

You kneeled up between his legs, smiling sweetly at him as you gently scratched your nails softly up and down his inner thighs.

Jungkook frowned down and made a move to grip himself but you stopped him. You pinched your lips as you planted his hands on either side of his body.

“Not allowed to touch?”

You shook your head with a cheeky smile.

“Can you at least take off my shirt?” He whined, throwing his head back. “Not really fair of you…”

You brought a finger to your mouth, in faux-pondering.

“okay.”

You pulled each of your arms inside his shirt and pulled it up to get your head out.

Your hair was sticking out in a funny way and Jungkook felt his heart swelling achingly at your endearing yet alluring sight.

His teeth dragged on his lower lip as he shamelessly coveted your figure and flexed his hard cock.

He didn’t look away when you eventually lowered your face nearby. You kissed along its veiny underside, down until you reached his heavy balls which parted a little in response to your touch.

“Princess, don’t tease… Please.”

You looked down after you leant up and watched closely while you ran the tips of your fingers back up his length.

He twitched again when you rubbed him where his head and his impressive shaft met.

He craned his head down, mouth hanging open “baby…”

You wiped the mini pool of precum and coated his head with. Jungkook relaxed his neck again when you finally closed your fist around him.

You bit your lip in amusement and shifted your weight on your hand to gaze down at his features progressively overcome by pleasure.

Moans began pouring out generously along the languorous motions of your thumb across his drenched tip.    

Little by little, your fist pumped his throbbing cock and a fucked-out smile graced his angelic-like traits. He felt heavier and warmer in your palm and the lustful sight of him thrusting his oozing member at the pace of your hand turned you on all the more, ruining your underwear with your sticky juices.

“_______-”

Your eyes reluctantly teared away from his member to his face, now flaming with hot colors.

“I don’- I don’t wanna cum like this…” The veins in his neck were protruding invitingly. “Make me-... fuuck- make me cum inside you…”

Your thighs tightened and your clit throbbed.  

Jungkook let out a content sigh when you indulged him easily.

He was close, painfully so.

So much so, he couldn’t wait any longer and in the matter of seconds you were free of your panties, although it was not the way you predicted it.

“Come, sweetheart…” He beckoned softly, throwing the remnants of the torn cloth next to him. “Climb on top of me. That’s it… Yeah, just like that…”

You let go of his cock and hovered your dripping cunt above it. He couldn’t help himself. His hand snaked between you to cup the sensitive skin there.

You closed your eyes in response when he began rubbing your wet lips, sliding his middle and ring fingers up and down in languid gestures along your slit and swelling clit.

He cooed when you whined out after he inserted them, looking back and forth between you and his hand getting wetter by the second.

You tried to regain a semblance of control and took his coated hand to your lips. Enthralled, he stared up as you slid his fingers in your mouth.

You carefully sat further down on him and began rubbing yourself along his cock.

Jungkook licked his fingers after you had finished and showed the will to move his hand down but you gripped it and laced your fingers together as you picked up the pace of your hips.

He could feel his cum move along his shaft and his muscles tighten reflexively the longer you rubbed your wetness against him.

His moans and whimpers increased in intensity. His fingers tightened around yours while he craned his head to stare down where your bodies met and froze right before he shot his first spurt of cum up to his neck. Five others followed to cover his chest, stomach and purple tip.  

You decreased your pace progressively, smiling, thrilled. You leaned down to lick clean the thick spatters on his collarbones, smearing the rest of his mess on your own skin.

A little spent, Jungkook watched you closing your mouth around his sensitive tip, jolting awake his thighs.

Slowly, you bobbed your head, never looking away from his mad-like stare.

“C’mere.”

You crashed your lips together in a lazy, messy kiss.

“You know you don’t have to do that…” He grinned slackly. “One round is never enough… Never will be…”

You let him roll you on your back and gazed down when he licked himself off of you. Your lower stomach was clenching in anticipation.

He didn’t wait any longer before pressing his pads over your clit, making your thighs close reflexively.

“There’s my pretty pussy...”

You furrowed your brows as his fingers caressed the outline of your slit, sliding effortlessly along it.

“So soft… so sensitive, hm?” He cooed.

He surprised you when he puckered his lips around your clit, jolting your entire body to attention, earning a mewl past your quivering lips.

Unbeknownst to you, an animalistic, overjoyed grin crept over his face.

Your lids became heavy as he mercilessly twirled your swollen bud. The wetness pouring out of his mouth made the stimulation so much more intense that he already had you on the verge of your climax.

Unceremoniously, he thrusted in his fingers deep enough to meet the shallow end of your cervix.

“How come you’re still that tight...”

You tried a peek downward at him with your fist covering your mouth when you didn’t feel him anymore.

He bit his lips, ravenous, after he had withdrawn his fingers from your pussy to display the shimmery coating of your arousal.

A blush colored your cheeks as you watched him lap his hand clean.

You didn’t resist when he parted your legs even wider to engulf your entire cunt with his wet, warm mouth. His thick tongue flattened to slither it up earning an unforeseeable cry out of you.

Your raw bundle of nerves sparkled back to life with each of his tentative twirls and sensual strokes. Your mind steadily faded away in a black hole of mesmerization.

He pushed your legs back further until the top of your thighs touched your stomach as he slid his hot palms along the back of them.

They trembled and he hummed in satisfaction, having you overwhelmed.

He buried his mouth deeper and your mouth parted in a silent wail as you almost blacked-out in pleasure.

Your eyes were about to loll back the longer he kept swerving his tongue and he heard your pitiful attempts to have him to stop after you had regained some of your consciousness, coaxed by his overstimulation.  

You felt tumbling again, this time in a much more powerful euphoria when you felt yourself erupting everywhere, convulsing hard.

Your body gave out and you were left a whimpering, slumped-out mess beneath his victorious gaze.

You didn’t have the strength to keep your thighs away from his risky hands resting about.  

“My little baby,” he pouted, amused. “Was it too much?”

Your eyes were sealed with thick tears but you still could guess where Jungkook was and reached up. The air felt a little suffocating but it didn’t matter.

He indulged and closed the space between you as your arm rested around his neck. He softly kissed your face.

His cock brushed your clit in his motions and you moaned out in pain.

“Too sensitive?” He half-taunted.

“That’s too bad cause…”

He brought his lips right next to your ear, his tip prodding your abused cunt, and seductively whispered right before thrusting himself to hilt inside you.

“That’s the way I like you…”

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

There was no doubt about the new closeness you and Jungkook had developed in Taehyung’s eyes.

In spite of everything he was telling himself to get some kind reassurance about his worth to your eyes, it wasn’t working. Not anymore.

He had been surprised to see you after his return, not that he wasn’t happy about it but when Jungkook revealed to him that you had spent the entirety of the holidays together, he didn’t quite understand the reason he keept it quiet.

While he tidied up his room and inadvertently knocked your bag over to come across one of the polaroids from those holidays, it hurt inside.

How many more secrets did you share with him?

It felt like going back in time, to those dreadful weeks when he seemed not to be your favorite anymore, when he wasn’t your center of attention, when you weren’t acknowledging him although this time around, he hadn’t done anything wrong to you.

He tried his best to recall if he actually did but the more he observed you, the clearer it got.

And just like a deck of cards, his hopes collapsed.

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

“When are we supposed to get her back?” Jungkook shouted while getting a bottle of water out of the fridge.

“What did you say?” He asked again when he didn’t hear Taehyung the first time.

“You don’t have to worry about it.”

Jungkook frowned. “What ? Why ?”

His friend cleared his throat, “I… I put an end to the contract.”

They both remained silent a short while.

“You what ?”

“It’s over…”

“What do you mean it’s over ?”

Taehyung shrugged where he was sitting on the couch and didn’t even bother looking up from his phone. “I didn’t feel like keeping it up.”

In spite of trying his best to get his point, Jungkook couldn’t manage to since the words had trouble sinking in yet.

He forced himself not to lose his temper.

“Is it... Tell me, it’s not because you met someone that you stopped things just like that…”

“Jungkook… If one person involved wants it to stop, their choice prevails over the others.” Taehyung explained slowly after he eventually met his eyes. “Besides, you wouldn’t have been able to continue to pay the rent on your own…”

“But... I didn’t even get to have a word in it!”

“There’s nothing left to discuss… It just didn’t feel right to me… anymore…”

Jungkook tried to find legitimate reasons to show his best friend wrong but he didn’t. He couldn’t accept the idea of never seeing you again just because Taehyung suddenly didn’t feel like it.

“I don’t know… I still think it would’ve been great to… you know, discuss the matter together in the first place.”

He didn’t want this issue to be about him but — “You didn’t even let me say goodbye to her…”

“ ‘Kook, we’re not the first people she’s been with…” he huffed. “I don’t see why this is affecting you that much when I’m sure, it doesn’t mean anything to her…”

“You have no idea about that.”

Taehyung stood up and faced him, “come on… She is made to do this, to pretend it. All of it. Just to please us. Don’t tell me you’ve caught feelings for her when she was just doing her job…”

Jungkook stared hard back at him.

“But you liked her, just as much as I did… Why did all of it suddenly lose any interest to you?”

“It’s all fake. She’s expected to have us grow attached to her… She’s probably already forgotten all about you. Get over it.”

Taehyung proceeded to walk away when his roommate frowned at him.

“It’s you.”

He turned around. “What. About. Me?”

“You got jealous of us. Of me... That’s why you cancelled it.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes. “Stop it, you’re ridiculous.”

“No, Tae! I’ve seen it…” He raised a finger at him. “You couldn’t stand to see us together when you were around and … You got jealous…”

A snort escaped Jungkook.

“I’m sure the reason you got yourself some girl was so you could get yourself an excuse for when you’d take her away from me…”

“She’s not some girl… I-”

“Yeah? Well, give me names of people that get head over heels in after the week they met that stranger! Cause this feels pretty shady to me.”

The two men looked at each other, hurt.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about… I’m done with this discussion.”

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

Jungkook was left furious and didn’t talk to Taehyung the rest of the day.

He looked up the company’s information the same night.

It didn’t sit right with him. It couldn’t end this way. It was inconceivable.

The following day, he went to the headquarters, walking through the same doors he did almost a year ago when Taehyung had successfully made him agree to all of it.

He never would have imagined what those doors incorporated. He never would have thought he would become attached to you, an utter stranger who day by day had managed to catch his heart; the same way he couldn’t conceive it all didn’t mean anything to you.

He understood what your job consisted of but all those moments surely had an impact on you, at least a little bit.

A man Jungkook didn’t remember ever seeing greeted him at the reception desk. He introduced himself and asked to talk to the same lady who set up the contract between you and them.

“Mr Jeon,” she exclaimed with a polite smile. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Hm… Would it be possible to talk somewhere private?”

“I would love to,” she kept her smile on, “but unfortunately I’m in the middle of a meeting and don’t have much time ahead of me. Is it urgent?”

Jungkook looked a little distraught. He seemed to be struggling to find the best way to explain himself.

“I- … Would it be… possible to talk with ________?”

“Well, ehm-”

“We had an argument with my friend and I think there has been a misunderstanding…”

“Well, Mr Kim has been perfectly clear and more than that about you two wanting to terminate the contract.” She assured him gravely.

“It’s just I didn’t have the time to talk to her one last time and I wanted-”

“Pardon me for interrupting you but this was stated distinctly in the terms of your contract — after its termination, it is impossible for the Sylph or the caregiver previously involved to contact any formerly interested party. It is not in the company’s interest to let them interact outside the terms of a contract.”

Jungkook sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“I understand.”

“I’m not supposed to tell you that but,” she started again after a short while. “Even if there had been a possibility for me to get her to see you one last time again, it wouldn’t have been possible.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because according to our decree, a Sylph cannot get in touch with any former client if a new, potential one is interested in them.”

Jungkook couldn’t believe it.

How many days had it been since Taehyung ended it?

It couldn’t have been more than three or four.

“I see.” He nodded. “Thank you.” He didn’t know what he was thanking her for but he left without another word.

Maybe Taehyung was right after all.

Maybe, they had just been passing trade who hadn’t affected you more than any of your other clients. Maybe he was overthinking everything else. After all, acting the way you had been during all those months had nothing natural.

Jungkook spent the rest of the day in his own head, stuck in past memories he had no physical remnants of, except for that picture in his phone.

He nimbly looked for it and when he did, he stared a long time at it.

He remembered that day clearly, you had spent it inside and had stayed in bed all along. It was one of the first times you two had been on your own and quite a while after he had gotten used to you and was taken with you.

He was the one holding his phone above you two but had his face nuzzling and kissing your cheek while you were gazing up at the lense, smiling with your hands covering your mouth.

He felt upset with himself for having only one picture of you.

He edited and saved it with himself cropped out.

He tried to go to sleep but the thought of it all not meaning anything to you was simply impossible to him and it kept him awake for hours, making him wonder how he could move on to something else...

Would anyone be able to fill the void you had left inside him ?

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

Jungkook still took the liberty of visiting the company the following days in the hopes of getting updated on your situation but after the second time and in addition to the fact that he couldn’t be told anything because it fell under privacy matter, he was definitively refused entry and had to resign himself.

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

The following week, you quit your job and the company failed to mention you about Jungkook’s visits.

[ofstoriesandstardust]

flight risk chapter 1 teaser

a/n: chapter one for flight risk is well on it’s way but i wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts so far! enjoy! it’s not long but hey, a lil’ something something

You blinked, taking in the bright San Diego sunlight. The noises of the bustling airport welcomed you as you stepped out into the sunlight, taking in the lines of cars. A bright smile broke out across your face, one that could’ve gotten split your face open right down the middle. Despite the honking of horns, loud conversations, and the call of flight details over the intercom, you never would’ve missed Bradley leaned up against his Bronco, a pair of aviators perched on his face. Bradley’s always been handsome, had a natural charm, but the military had been kind to him in what it did for his physique and appearance.

"Bradley!” You called, feet already moving towards the tall man before you knew what you were doing. His head swung towards you and a grin broke out across his face as you skid into his arms. He leaned down, slightly picking you up as your arms reached up across his large frame. The truth was, you and Bradley had always been friendly, and you liked him probably more than he liked you, but you wouldn’t deny that getting married to the kid had changed things for your friendship. You would always be fond of him and him you, no matter the distance and time that passed between the two of you. Well, at least that’s what you told yourself as he gently set you back down on the ground, large hands moving to your shoulders to take you in.

“Well, Sunshine, look at you.” He remarks and you turn your head slightly, feeling your cheeks color lightly. “You look good.”

“Same could be said for you Bradshaw. I see the Navy has been good to you.” He chuckles. It has been. He’s tan, built, gorgeous- wait what? You shook the thought from your brain.

“Here, I’ll take care of this. Hop in.” He grabs your luggage, moving it to the back as you easily slid into the front seat, reminiscent of the days the two of you would go to the local diner near campus to get those cheese fries you liked and the pizza Bradley enjoyed, although you always swore it was no good. The front door opens and he slides in, key turning in the ignition. He weaves around the multitude of cars easily and you settle in, buckling your seatbelt. “How you been Sunshine? How was the flight?”

“Honestly, the flight wasn't too bad, I hate the airports more than the flying bit honestly. I’m good, keeping busy with work. But I’m happy to be out in sunny San Diego for a little bit. I prefer a West Coast summer to an East Coast one anytime.”

“You ever been out here? To San Diego?”

“Yeah, I had family out here, not that I speak to them much these days.”

“That’s right, I knew that. Hey, do you wanna grab food on the way back to the house? I don’t know if you’ve eaten anything...”

“Yeah, that sounds great actually. I’ve only had Starbucks and that was at least six hours and an entire different timezone ago.” His laughter rings out and you smile upon hearing the sound again.

“Any West Coast requests?”

“Please, In’N’Out. I beg of you Bradshaw.” He smirks.

“You always did have good taste. I mean, I would know, you did marry me after all.” You snort.

“Yeah, speaking of that, what’s been up with you? I have to admit that getting a call from my fake husband to come convince his estranged godfather we’re in love was not on my 2019 Bingo card.” He sighs as the two of you make it out of airport traffic, driving past the sparkling blue of the coastline.

[moonlit-imagines]

Two Sides of a War

Peter Parker x reader

warnings: a fight scene that makes no fucking sense bdhshagag, bad writing in general

a/n: thank you !

prompt: anonymous: “okay so dating peter parker and then fighting him during civil war cause the reader is on team cap?? thank much love you and your writing”

You and Peter were just two wannabe up-and-coming vigilantes heroes based in New York. You barely had a name for yourself, just some YouTube videos with some...interesting comments. Why are people so attracted to masks?

Peter and you crossed paths as Spider-Man and y/h/n a couple dozen times while watching over the streets of New York, after a while, you guys became good friends and revealed your identities to each other. It wasn’t long before the two of you fell for each other.

Now you were being approached by the famous Wanda Maximoff and Clint Barton, two Avengers who needed your help. You couldn’t just say no! This was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Where are we going?” You asked as you packed up your suit.

“Germany.” Hawkeye replied while you slung your backpack over your shoulder.

“I’m good to go.”

Along the way, you picked up another masked individual, Scott. He sure talked a lot, he talked until he passed out. Once it was quiet, you realized something. You hadn’t told Peter where you were. This was the coolest opportunity you’d ever received and you had yet to share it with him. You stared at your lockscreen, the picture of the two of you sitting on a rooftop eating cardboard-tasting pizza. Never again would you order from there.

You typed out your message, reading it over and over again.

Pete, you’ll never guess where I am right now. I’m in Germany, dude!! Apparently the Avengers aren’t doing to well, so they called me in. They told me I’d be home for dinner though, I don’t know if they meant dinner in NY or dinner here, either way, it’s gonna be awesome! Wish me luck, love you!!! 💙❤️💙❤️

You selected the entire message and deleted it, casting your phone aside on the seat of the van. Honestly, that text might worry him more than anything. Suddenly you just run off to another country with some rogue Avengers? Sounds a bit sketchy. Your stomach didn’t feel too good now, what if you made a mistake coming here? No way, this is your chance to do the right thing. The Accords they told you about were ridiculous, they shouldn’t have to wait for a vote on where to help. They should just be able to help.

The van came to a halt and the engine switched off.

“Ready to meet the Captain, y/n?” Clint asked you as you gathered your things.

“Definitely.” He stepped out of the van and opened the door for you, you stepped over Scott and hopped out, dropping your bag on the pavement. “Hi, I’m y/n, y/h/n. Here to help.” You waved at the three men in front of you with an awkward smile to go along with it. You were so caught up in the thought of fighting alongside these big names that you forgot that you were probably going to be extremely intimidated.

“It’s good to have you, y/n. Thanks for coming here on such short notice.” Captain America himself reached out his hand and you nearly forgot how to shake somebody’s hand. “Are we all ready to go?”

—————

You marched through the lot of the airport beside your new teammates, heart racing with anticipation, you should be a bit scared, but this was the coolest thing you’ve ever had the chance to do! After some bickering between the Tony Stark and the Captain America, Tony called out some random word.

“Underoos!” Iron Man yelled and a red figure flew onto the scene.

“That can’t be..?” You muttered loud enough for Cap to hear and he looked over to see your puzzled face. It was. “What the hell?” You said loud enough for everyone to hear, now all eyes were on you.

“Oh, shit.” Peter put his hand to his forehead, this could not be happening right now.

“Wait, kid, you know them?” Tony asked his newest recruit, who’s white eyes grew larger as he stared at you in shock.

“That’s...heh, funny story, Mr. Stark.” Peter stood up with Cap’s shield on his arm.

“I’m his partner, his s/o. You got him a new suit?” You cut in and Tony gave you a dirty look.

“I wasn’t asking you, pipsqueak.” He snapped back at you. “Of course I got him a new suit, he was wearing rags. You could use an upgrade, too.”

“This is awkward.” Peter piped in before getting punched in the face by Ant-Man. And just like that, you all scrambled to take each other down, you were determined to make it over to Peter, hiding behind a gasoline truck to talk.

“Peter, why didn’t you tell me that Tony Stark picked you up?” You and him yanked your masks off and your boyfriend engulfed you into a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark told me to keep it quiet! I honestly don’t want to fight you, this could get bad.” Peter held your cheeks in his hands and brushed his thumb on your face. “Please don’t punch me that hard.”

“I dunno, Pete, I can’t make any promises.” You joked and kissed his palm. “Kidding, be careful out there. There are some heavy hitters.” You put his mask back on and adjusted your own before running back to the fight, Peter swinging above you. The fight couldn’t have been more tense, all these friends were suddenly turned against each other and somehow you and Peter fell into the middle of it.

“Hey, Spider-Boy!” Tony called to your boyfriend. “Why don’t you take care of your little lover?” He suggested, making Peter very uncomfortable for many different reasons.

“It’s ‘Spider-Man,’” he whined and reluctantly swung back over to you, making you lose your balance and tumble backwards, “hey, me again!”

“They want you to take care of me, huh?” You crossed your arms and cocked an eyebrow, the ultimate look of disapproval. Peter lifted the bottom half of his mask for you to see his lips move.

“I think you may be on the wrong side of this one, y/n. I mean, these guys are doing something illegal.” Peter grabbed you by your upper arms and pulled you to safety, there was debris flying every which way.

“Did Tony tell you what it was?” You turned you head and gave him a know-it-all smile, Peter sucked his tongue and did you one better, an awkward smile.

“Well, no...” He rubbed the back of his neck and you nodded along.

“That’s what I thought.” You reached your arms out to him, which was deceiving since your next move was a front-flip over his shoulders, pressing the button to his web shooters and wrapping the webs around his wrists. Peter barely reacted because, well, he didn’t think his own s/o would disarm him like that. “You should sit this one out, babe. You’re doing more harm than good.” You folded his mask back down and patted his head, strutting away to help your team again.

“Y/N?! Are you serious?!” He squirmed around trying to break loose from the binds of his own weapon. “Mr. Stark? I could use a little help here!” Peter cried out while shimmying against a piece of metal to free himself. “These things are so strong! I can’t tell if I should be happy or mad at my work!”

“What’s going on, kid?” Tony flew to Peter and witnessed his struggles.

“I’m a little stuck.”

—————

The fight came to rough close for your team as everyone went down one by one.

“What’s gonna happen to them, Mr. Stark?” The freed Spider-Man asked his boss.

“Well, my young padawan, the proper authorities get to deal with them!” Tony told the Spider-Man and realized what this would mean. With a reluctant groan he looked around the airport for you. “Alright, kid, your little friend is laying on the ground near that plane wing. Go get them, I’ll cover for ‘em.”

“Thank you, sir!” Peter rushed to go and get you, worried by the fact that you were just laying there. “Y/N? Y/N, are you okay?” Peter fell to his knees and shook you by the shoulders.

“Yep! I’m good.” You answered without opening your eyes. “Can we go home? Please?” You begged him, reaching out and accidentally hitting his face.

“Yeah, let’s go.” He laced his arms under your knees and back, when you were moved you moaned in pain. “You’re gonna be okay.”

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartlisbeth // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @allthecreativeonesaretaken // @frostedgiant // @praellee //

[thetriggeredhappy]

sniperscout week day 2 ft. trying to format and play among us at the same time

Day 2: Meet Cute

@sniperscout-ship-week

The Sniper looked up as the doors swung open, a gaggle of people moving through them, some towards waiting cars, some towards the parking lot, some towards the line of taxis waiting outside. He scanned the crowd, trying to spot any of the distinguishing features he’d been told about, sifting through the visual of various men in suits and women in skirts and dresses and elderly folks and small families until finally his eyes landed on one sole man, standing with his back straight and his eyes nearly shielded entirely from view by a baseball cap emblazoned with the logo of some American sports team or another. Baseball, maybe?

He scanned the line of cars, sweeping back and forth a few times, until that pair of narrowed eyes finally swept far enough to one side to land on him. A blink, a visible brightening of his posture as the kid gave him a brief up-and-down, a goofy grin.

And damn, kid really was the word to describe him. He looked like he could be in his late teens, practically, even though gossip around base was that their newest teammate was somewhere in his mid-twenties. And he wasn’t particularly muscular, at least not from what Sniper could tell, and the way he moved as he walked over was so casual, nothing like the walk of their standard hired killer. No glances over his shoulder, clearly not strapped, probably not even carrying a knife, just walking straight up to him.

“Yo, uh,” he opened with, and his tone was easygoing enough, voice louder than expected, “are you uh, that guy that Miss... Pauling, right? That Miss Pauling sent?”

He looked at the kid. “Just get in the van,” he said flatly, and stood up to move around to the driver’s side.

By the time he opened his door, the kid had just popped open his own, looked a little nervous. He was tapping a little rhythm into the door with his fingers. “Uh, pretty sure I heard somethin’ in school about not gettin’ in random dudes’ vans, at least once or twice,” he half-joked, glancing around the inside of the van. “Especially dudes who might, y’know, maybe be armed.”

“I’m definitely armed,” Sniper deadpanned, buckling his seatbelt. “I’m also the one driving you to the base. Now get in the van.”

Somewhere between him sticking the keys in the ignition and checking his left mirror, the kid got in the car, buckled his seatbelt, deposited his bag at his feet, and kicked his feet up onto the dash. He was working on rolling the window down by the time Sniper glanced over the check the right mirror, tapping a rhythm into his own leg now. Quicker than he’d expected. He took mental note of that fact. “So, uh,” the kid said, leaning to look back out the window towards the doors of the airport, “is that Pauling lady not gonna show up? She driving separate?”

“She’s at the base,” Sniper said, trying to figure o it what accent the kid had as he pulled out of the line of cars. East Coast, he knew. What was that city called?

“Okay. So are you one of those dudes I’m supposed to be workin’ with? Because she kinda mentioned that I’m gonna be on like a team with people but she didn’t name any names and she said she’s not on that team, so are you one of those guys or are you just kind of a paper-pusher too? Or do you drive full time maybe? Weird that they’d give you a freakin’ camper-van for that, like, what if you gotta drive a couple people at once, you could get maybe two other people in here, or is this not a camper-van? Is it like, weapons and shit in the back? That’d be pretty sweet—“

“Sniper,” he cut in.

“Huh?”

“I’m the Sniper. On the team,” Sniper said, still mentally trying to catch up with what all the kid was saying. “We’ve all got titles. Don’t use real names. Got yours yet?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m uh—“ He stopped to fish through his bag, coming up with some half-crumpled papers, squinted at them. “Uhhh, the uh... Renconin—no, uh, Reconescent and—and Scouting Specialize—uh, Specialite—no, wait—okay, y’know what? Scout. I’m the Scout.”

He wondered, brow furrowing, if the paper was too crumpled to read, or if the jostling of the van was throwing him off, or if the Scout just couldn’t read. “Awright. Scout it is,” he shrugged.

“Hell yeah,” he said cheerfully, sifting back comfortably in the seat again, tossing the papers back down with his bag.

The question was burning a hole through his tongue. “How old are you, exactly?”

“Twenty-three,” he said, and out of the corner of his eye Sniper could see that he was making a face. “And yeah, yeah, I know, look way younger than that, whatever, but it’s totally true. Practically twenty-four, even! Birthday’s only two months out.”

He side-eyed the man, but decided to drop it. Apparently, the Scout didn’t.

“What about you, huh?” he prodded. “Probably like thirty-five, right? Forty?”

“Late twenties,” he said dryly, not particularly wanting to get specific.

“You’re kiddin’!” He leaned over the gearshift to elbow him in the upper arm, and Sniper tensed up at it. “Hey, it’ll be nice havin’ a younger guy around, huh?”

Sniper stared out the windshield and didn’t make eye contact.

“So what’re the rest of the guys like? They cool?” he prodded further.

“We get there in half an hour, you’ll meet them yourself.”

“Yeah, but it’d be nice to know what to expect, y’know?” The kid started fishing through his bag for something. “Any of ‘em Australian like you?”

“No,” Sniper said, voice flat. He paused for a second. “Few Americans, few Europeans, a Russian, one person who we aren’t sure about. Think they’re all at least mid-thirties, oldest nearly fifty. And none of them would be this patient with your bloody badgering, so I’d recommend being a little quieter once we get there. Already I’m about three questions away from leaving you on the side of the road with a map and making you walk.”

The Scout laughed, as if he was joking, and leaned forward to fiddle with the radio, eventually finding a station that was playing music and cracking the tab on the can of soda he’d apparently had in his bag. It was mostly quiet the remainder of the drive.

-

“Badgering, you said.”

“Did not,” Sniper mumbled.

“You absolutely did!”

Scout managed to roll over onto his front without elbowing Sniper in any soft tissues, the tiny camper-van bed making any maneuvering at all a bit of a challenge, looking up at him with that goofy grin he’d become so familiar with.

“Still annoyed about my badgering?” Scout chirped.

“What do you think?” Sniper drawled, fighting to hide the little upwards tick of the corner of his mouth that always gave him away. From the little huff of a laugh that Scout gave, apparently he didn’t quite manage it.

“What was your deal, anyways?” Scout asked, shifting a little to get more comfortable. “Like, even knowin’ you a little better now I’m pretty sure you had to be in a pretty bad mood that day.”

Sniper exhaled, trying to stretch his memory back that far. It had been a few years by then, and admittedly, his memory was a little fuzzy. “Wasn’t exactly thrilled about the growing trend of me being the team driver,” he said, reasonably sure that was accurate. “Especially such a long drive.”

“Would’ve been a shorter drive if you’d gone over the speed limit,” Scout mumbled.

Sniper shot him a look, albeit with an undercurrent of amusement. “We’re not having this argument again,” he deadpanned.

“No, for sure we’re not. It’s just funny is all that you still use your turn signal in the middle of the open freakin’ desert with no other cars around—“

“Awright, if you’re gonna get on my case for being a safe driver—“

“We’re mercenaries, Snipes, Jesus Christ, what’re they gonna do, pull you over? Are one of the dozens of cops that don’t fuckin’ exist out here gonna pull you over? It’s so ridiculous, why wouldn’t you just speed up—“

Sniper leaned in and cut him off with a firm kiss on the lips, and the second Scout processed it he was leaning into it, argument almost instantly forgotten in lieu of trying to get an arm up over Sniper’s shoulders. When they parted again, a few seconds later, Scout’s grin said that he’d effectively forgotten what they were just talking about.

Or he’d figured, anyways. Because after a few seconds of looking at each other, Scout spoke. “Badgering, you said.”

Sniper picked up the pillow from behind his head and shoved it in Scout’s face, making him squawk in indignance, and tried his damndest not to smile. Unfortunately, that trick hadn’t worked for quite some time.

[iamdunn]

Miraculous Flash Forward: Adrien Graham De Vanily

A Miraculous Fan-fic

Written By

AJ Dunn

The Agreste brand was gone as Felix stepped in to take over his uncle’s company at the behest of Adrien. Having shed off the name of that villainous man Adrien took his mother’s maiden name. Graham de Vanily. It only felt right to have his cousin who was a Graham de Vanily take over the company. He had more, business sense than Adrien. Not to mention Adrien had some things to attend to that meant staying out of the public eye. He and Felix had been identical their entire lives. It was weird although their mothers were identical twins. Felix and Adrien had different fathers as well. Felix’s father had died and Adrien’s mother remained in a coma. They had found her after his father had been captured. The miraculous’ had been returned to Ladybug who now held the miracle box as its guardian. 

Adrien looked down at his own miraculous. He often wondered if he should return it to her. The thought of returning to Paris hurt, but the thought of seeing her and the hurt he must have caused her. He couldn’t bear for her to hate him. So he stayed away. He had completed high school in London with his cousin then set off for horizons unknown after singing his cousin in as CEO of the former Agreste fashion brand. He could even stand in for Adrien as the new face. However, he didn’t have as much flair for modeling as Adrien did. 

“So you’re just going to leave me with YOUR company?” Felix asked with a wry smile. 

“Makes sense to me,” Adrien replied without looking at his cousin. It was hard enough to look in a mirror, worse to look at his identical cousin. Felix sighed.

“You can’t even look at me anymore Adrien,” Felix complained. “I know I have been… insufferable but this…” he held his hand up. 

“I’m sorry Felix you’re right.” Adrien felt ashamed. “It’s just hard.” He darted his eyes up to meet his cousins. His green eyes shown brightly, his silky blond hair slicked back in the same formal style his father always wore. Even his black suit and white shirt were straight and proper. A black-tie adorning his neck... He looked like a mannequin without even so much as a wrinkle or hair out of place. Sure he wore far less color than his father, who was a fashion designer. Felix was more… of the businessman than interested in fashion. While he still had a keen eye for it, he preferred to stick with the basics for himself. It was his way of separating himself from Gabriel Agreste. 

“So, you’re leaving then?” Felix asked coldly. He had gotten so used to having a “brother” living with him. It made for fun pranks right after Adrien moved in with him. They’d switch close. Adrien needed to laugh, he needed to make friends but it was hard for him having been sheltered for most of his life then yanked away from the only friends he ever knew. 

“In the morning.” Adrien zipped up his suitcase and set it by his bedroom door. Felix stood by the bed holding his hands behind his back spinning the silver band on his finger. Adrien wore the twin ring on his opposite hand. Felix noticed Adrien never took off the other silver ring he had. “My flight leaves at 7.” He looked at his watch. It was nearly time for dinner. “We should go, Aunt Amelie will be waiting.”

“Indeed, we won’t want to make mother wait.” Felix left the room first closing the door behind him. Adrien flipped the lock on the door then went to his mini-fridge. Only a couple of pieces left. He thought. 

“Plagg?” He asked the air. “You’re going to have to slack off on the stinky cheese for a while.” he could hear the groan coming from the mini closet to the side of his bed. He swung the door open looking in to see Plagg cuddled up on the Ladybug squishy pillow. “Hey that one is mine.” he snatched the squishy pillow and tossed it on the bed. Replacing it with a simple black round squishy pillow with a neon green pawprint in the middle. He had found them on Marinette’s website. She had designed them and Adrien couldn’t resist. Plagg pouted.

“This one isn’t as comfy as that one,” Plagg complained.

“I know you miss her, I miss Ladybug.” Adrien sat on the edge of the bed. “Maybe I should take you back.” he slouched forward placing his elbows on his knees.

“NO,” Plagg yelled. “I’m not leaving your side.”

“You might not have a choice Plagg.” he looked up at his little friend hovering only feet from his face. “Where I’m going, they don’t have stinky cheese,” Adrien smirked. Plagg looked shocked then crossed his arms and turned his head away.

“If you can walk away from Ladybug…” Plagg sighed, his arms dangling at his sides. “Then I can walk away from Camembert.” Plagg gulped his words. “As long as it’s not forever, you have to promise to go back.” Adrien chuckled.

“I will Plagg, I promise.” he stood up and headed for the door. “Let’s go eat.” Plag zipped into his shirt pocket as Adrien opened the door. 

The airport was nearly empty. Adrien had chosen this time so he could escape London without cameras following him everywhere. He had done well to avoid being in the public eye for the past few years. It wouldn’t be good if everyone in Paris found out that Adrien Agreste was leaving for China. Heaven forbid Marinette to follow him. She did have a great uncle there and he had planned to visit Cheng Sifu’s restaurant as often as possible. He found his boarding gate and took a seat in the corner where he was less likely to be spotted or recognized. He pulled his hoodie down over his eyes as whisps of his blond hair dared to expose him. He brushed them back the picked up a magazine. Marinette’s face struck him as he read the excerpt about her new company. Her designs were becoming a global sensation as his friends from his former band Kitty Section took the top spots on the chart and even knocked Jagged Stone down a peg or two. Adrien smile thinking about how proud he must be that his kids Juleka and Luka are succeeding him. There was a picture of the band. Juleka and Luka look very much the same, Rose too. Adrien’s eyes narrowed on a silver wedding band on Luka’s hand and his heart sank. Did he and Marinette get married? He closed the magazine and tossed it to the side. 

Boarding, call London to Shanghai now boarding.

Adrien stood by the window watching the sunset. He could feel Marinette standing next to him as he smiled. He looked over to her, but she wasn’t there. It was only a memory. One of his favorites. 

Adrien stepped out of the taxi at the address on his booking slip. He had leased a condo. It was paid up for the three years he planned to be here. Thanks to his trust fund which, luckily had been protected from the scandal caused by Hawk Moths’ deeds. It had been created by his mother instead of his father. Not to mention the funds from his days as a model. He didn’t have to worry about money. The now Graham De Vanily fashion industry was co-owned now, secretly of course. He wanted to maintain the guise that Adrien had disappeared in case Ladybug did in fact figure out he was Cat Noir. He couldn’t face her, not yet. 

Adrien marveled at the design of the building. It was very modern with the appearance of two bullet trains back to back. The walls were glass with a metal framework. The entrance was directly in the middle of the building. Adrien walked up to the door as bell boys scurried to his cab to grab his bags. He had taken off his hoodie so as to not look the part of a vagabond. 

“I am Adrien Graham De Vanily, I am supposed to pick up my keys from you.” He spoke Mandarin very well thanks to his father’s insistence. It helped that Master Fu and Cheng Sifu applauded him for it. Otherwise, he might have forced himself to forget it all. The guard nodded handing him a packet of papers and the keys. 

“Top floor, suite 1A.,” he told the busboys who hurried to the service elevator with his bags. “I just need you to sign a few papers here.” he slid the papers to Adrien over the counter then a pen. He signed them quickly. The guard pointed him to the resident elevators and he headed upstairs. The top floor was nearly empty as he walked down the hall to his condo. It would be his home for a while and while he had never lived on his own, he was used to being alone. He always had someone else to prepare his meals, and tend to the cleaning and daily maintenance of his home but now, he was on his own. It felt refreshing to not have to worry about close calls and coming up with excuses for the ripe smell of cheese all over everything. 

He couldn’t really complain, he was a cat kwami after all at least it wasn’t fish he was obsessed with, he’d never get the smell of rotten fish out of anything. He put the key in the door and opened it. He opened a sliding door to the right exposing a coat closet with a hanger for bags. He hung the bag closing the front door flipping the lock and deadbolt. 

“Hello,” he called there wasn’t a sound as he made his way into the living area. The room was lit with natural light exposing a room larger than the one he grew up in. The white marble carpeting was cushioned his steps as he inspected the seating. A black leather love seat with silver metal framing and two matching armchairs sat in a square around a glass table with the same silver metal for legs. There was a swirling black, tan, and gray rug under the table. The seating faced the wall opposite the window that covered the entire external wall. The daylight beamed in as he saw the entirety of Shanghai spread out for him to view. He walked to the break in the wall where sat two swinging glass doors leading to the balcony. He searched the area seeing rooftops laid out before him. He could easily leap between them and return to his room undetected. 

Returning to the sitting room he could see the large TV mounted on the wall. The art decor matched the black & silver theme. He saw the steppes leading up to the loft above the television and made his way up. The walls weren’t lined with bookshelves as his old bedroom had a bed but there was a walk-in closet and a king-sized platform bed against the wall with a railing over looking the seating area. The black slick bedside tables matched the black slick headboard with a silver bar slicing them in half. The bed was made up with a black with silver and white ivy weave bedspread. 

There was a bathroom to the far side of the unit next to a closed-off kitchen. The decal in the kitchen was white marble flooring with black marble countertops. Silver appliances finalized the theme. The bathroom might just have been bigger than the actual area of the bedroom as it comprised of a large standing shower and a jet stream tub. There counter held two sinks and medicine cabinets with another cabinet housing linens. Amelie had made all of the arrangements for the purchase and set up of the furnishing and linens, as well as the kitchen accessories. He opened the fridge. 

“Ah,” he said. “Looks like I will be doing my own grocery shopping Plagg,” he said aloud. No response. “It’s safe to come out Plagg.” the Kwam flew slowly over to him. A grumble came from the tiny stomach as he stared in horror at the empty fridge. 

“Are you trying to kill me?” Plagg groaned turning his back to Adrien crossing his arms. 

“Guess we’ll have to go out to eat.” Adrien closed the fridge and turned around. “Cheng Sifu’s?” 

“Fine.” he gruffed. “But we have to get some food before we come home.” he pointed demandingly at his owner. He was grateful to have one like Adrien, he couldn’t have imagined if Gabriel had found him and Tikki instead of Nuuroo and Duusuu. It would have been catastrophic.

They walked to the Metro and took to downtown. Adrien remembered the way to the restaurant from the last time he perused the city. He got off a few blocks from the restaurant and dipped into a mini-store. He couldn’t show up at Cheng Sifu’s empty-handed. He may have spoken Mandarin well, but he had no idea about cooking or ingredients.  He looked over various ingredients then settled on a bushed of leafy greens and grabbed a small block of Manchego for Plagg to try. He paid then headed down the sidewalk with his bag. Stepping into the restaurant which was bustling with patrons, Adrien made his way to the kitchen. 

“Cheng Sifu?” Adrien called to him in Mandarin. “I don’t know if you remember me…” 

“Adrien. My Marinette’s boyfriend.” Cheng came around the preparation counter and greeted him. Adrien’s face froze as his cheeks tinted with red. Cheng wrapped him up in a tight hug though now he was slightly taller than Cheng. Cheng, who was taller than his niece Sabine, was still a rather short and plump man. He was one of the world’s greatest chefs, but despite having been told many times that Adrien and Marinette weren’t dating, he never believed that. “How is my Marinette?”

“I … I actually haven’t…” He scratched the back of his neck as Cheng lead him into the back of the kitchen where a table was set with two chairs. Ingredients were laid out. “I haven’t seen her in two years,” Adrien announced finally. Cheng looked up saddened and confused. “I had to move away, because of… my father.” he sat down setting the bag on the table. He pulled out the leafy greens offering them to Cheng hoping this would change the subject. “Would you please teach me how to cook?” Cheng’s eyes widened as he accepted the fateful food items. 

They spend an hour preparing a meal with the ingredients Cheng had set out and the fateful ingredients Adrien had brought him. It had gotten late by the time the food was done so Cheng boxed some of it up so Adrien could take it home to eat. 

“You come back tomorrow and we make something else.” Cheng waved to Adrien as he left the restaurant. 

“Keep your promise.” Adrien reminded. He had asked Cheng to not tell anyone he was here until he was ready to go back. He promised to bring fateful food every day to learn how to cook. He wanted to impress Marinette when he went back. Adrien walked with his hands in his pockets, the bag with his food hung around his wrist. His hoodie pulled over his head as he snuck into an alleyway. He set the bag down.

“Plagg claws out.” He scooped up the bag and bound for the rooftop and slipped quietly through the shadows from one rood to another. He was on his way home when a sound caught his attention. He landed silently on the brick wall of a manor where a man was fighting off three assailants. The hand-to-hand combat of this martial art style was intriguing. He watched for a minute wondering if this man could handle himself or not. The three men seemed to be struggling as his efforts fought to subdue them. Cat Noir turned and was about to leave when he saw several more coming, this time with blades. Two of them with a saber or dao and one with a set of sai. He set his bag down without thinking another thought and dropped onto the backs of the three incoming assailants. Two of them hit the ground hard as the other tried to pull Cat off their backs. He side kicked the man in the chin sending him flying backward as he drove a single punch to the two now incapacitated assailants. The man fought off the others as they turned tail to run seeing can hovering over the unconscious bodies of their comrades. The man closed his palms together and gave a curt bow to Cat Noir in thanks. Cat returned making sure to bow lower in respect for the master. 

“Your arrival here tonight must be fate,” he said. “May I know the name of my rescuer?”

“I am called Cat Noir.” 

“Hei Mao.” You are welcome here anytime. I am Chao.” 

“Can you teach me Chao Sifu?” Cat bowed again. The man nodded curtly. “You come at night, under the cover of darkness, and I shall teach you, Hei Mao.” He turned and headed into the building. It was a small temple-looking house with an ancient appearance. Bamboo stalks and sand with stones decored the yard. A few koi ponds in the corners. He led Hei Mao to the back training ground. It was larger than the front and completely hidden from anyone outside the walls. Large trees cast their shadows over it as large stones and other terrain provided adequate advantage points for sparring and battling. 

“You meet me here after the sun goes down,” Chao said waving his hand around. “I can not start tonight. I must sit with the ancestors first.” He left Hei Mao. Mao returned to his bag and finished his trek back home. Ducking into an alley to transform back in the darkness so no one would see. 

[simp-for-spencer-reid]

Flavor shot: Holiday Blend- Blue Christmas: Part 1

Series Masterlist

“See you in like a week?” Cate wasn’t sure if she was comforting Spencer or herself with her words. Despite only being a week and a half ago, it had felt like months since they had admitted their love for one another. The two had spent every night leading up to this morning with each other. Alternating between Spencer’s apartment and Cate’s to make sure Shrimp didn’t get too lonely on his own, though he did prefer the quietness of an empty apartment. 

“Yeah, I’ll uh…” Spencer gestured to his gate at the airport. He had begun to walk towards it but turned on his heel back towards Cate. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go back to New Hampshire with you?” 

“Go see your mom for the holidays!” Cate gently pushed his shoulders. “We’ll be fine! I think we can stand to spend a few days apart.” she laughed as Spencer drew her in for one last hug. At least, that’s what they had said the last few hugs. With a final quick peck on the lips, Cate stepped backward, extending a hand, barely gripping Spencer’s fingers. “Tell her I said hi and that I wish her a Merry Christmas.” Cate smiled as she finally dropped Spencer’s hand. 

Their plans for the holidays were to celebrate with their respective families: Spencer was flying home to Vegas and Cate was going home to New Hampshire to see her family and she would drive back to Quantico with her car so she could have it back in DC. 

Cate’s own flight was booked for the next day. She was all packed for her 3 day trip back to her roots. Marta would be checking on Shrimp, feeding him and making sure he was all set while Cate was gone. Marta was also going to be Cate’s ride to the airport. 

Her flight was scheduled for noon, which would put her in New Hampshire around 2:30. And that’s where she stood right now. Standing with her carry-on and her tote bag, she looked for her dad’s pick-up truck in the terminal. Instead of a truck, she was surprised to see her older sister’s silver SUV. 

“Beth!” Cate’s face broke into a huge grin as she ran to give her sister a hug. The girls embraced each other tightly.

“It has been too long!” Beth pulled back and gave a stern look to her younger sister. “You need to call more.” Cate shrugged, her face flushing.

“I know..” Beth helped Cate put her bags into the trunk of the vehicle and they scuffled into the warmth of the car. Traffic from the airport to their home was brutal. Of course, that’s only typical due to the holidays. But, it gave the girls plenty of time to catch up.

“So, how’s the big city treating you? Still working with Marta?” Beth asked, giving a quick glance to Cate from the driver’s seat. 

“Yeah, it’s great there. It’s busy and it seems like everyday there’s something new.” Cate laughed. “I got a cat, too. A little orange one, his name’s Shrimp.” At the stop light, Cate showed Beth a picture of Shrimp on the couch, nestled in between two pairs of legs. Beth grabbed the phone, and zoomed into the hand that was mid-pet on Shrimp’s back.

“And who is that? Are you holding out on me, sis? You have a man and you didn’t think to say anything?” the light turned green. Beth shoved the phone back at Cate and continued driving. Cate blushed, turning to look out the window at familiar scenery.

“I did meet someone. His name’s Spencer.” Cate thought of Spencer, playing fond memories in her head.

“Am I gonna have to twist your arm to get more information?” Beth laughed, lightly punching Cate’s arm. “How long has this been going on?” 

“Officially?” Cate thought back. “A few months.” 

“So there’s some unofficial business in there? Let me guess, a one night stand and then friends with benefits but you caught feelings for each other?” 

“No!” Cate laughed. “Not like that at all… We were just friends for a while.” Beth gave Cate a pointed look to dish more details. “We’ve known each other for a year! You do the math!” Cate swatted Beth.

“Watch it! I’m the driver! Don’t you want to live long enough to see *Spencer* again?” Beth teased. The girls opted to sing along to the radio for the remainder of the ride. Beth asked a few more questions about Marta and Cate’s apartment back in DC, which passed the time quickly. 

Beth’s SUV pulled down the long driveway up to their parents’ house. Snow covered the ground and glistened in the afternoon sun. Cate grabbed her bags from the trunk, and followed Beth up the walkway to their backdoor. When the door swung open, Cate was met with the smell of vanilla and the warmth of the inside. Kicking the snow off her boots, she entered the house- filled with the sounds of laughter. Immediately, she saw her younger brother playing with their niece and nephew, Stella and Finn, but she was really looking forward to seeing her mom. Cate’s mom was found in the kitchen, baking sheets filled with cookies and dough waiting to go in. Once spotted by her mother, Cate opened her arms, which were still carrying her bags. 

“Hi, Mom.” Cate’s mother bounded over, slinging a dish towel over her shoulder. Cate wrapped her arms around her mom, tucking her head over her mom’s other shoulder. “I’ve missed you.” Cate closed her eyes and she felt like she was a kid again, back in her hometown and living with her parents. Her house still smelled the same. 

“Catherine.” Her mom said gently. She still looked the same to Cate: same pale skin, just a bit more wrinkled at the corners of her eyes, same dark brown hair, but with some grays starting to peek through. Her mother held her out at an arm’s length. “You look too thin, have a cookie.” Cate took a cookie from her mom with a smile. As she bit into it, Beth waltzed into the kitchen too. With an announcement.

“Cate has a boyfriend!” Beth looked smugly to Cate, while their mom looked between the two of them, before settling her gaze on Cate- who was coughing after almost choking on her cookie.

“Beth!” Cate coughed out.

“Wha-? Since when? See, this is why you need to call more!” Cate’s mother was now in interrogation mode. And make no mistake, she would get all the answers she wanted. She sternly held a finger pointed to Cate. “Who is he? And where is he?” 

“I haven’t even put my bags down yet and you’re already on my case!” Cate tried to diffuse the attention on her. Leaving her mother sputtering about Cate’s love life and confronting Beth for all she knew, Cate escaped upstairs to her childhood bedroom. 

It was still painted the same color green. A sheet set of stars and constellations were on her mattress, with a black comforter dressing the bed. All of her old posters still littered the walls and some frameless photographs were taped about the walls in the empty spaces. A smile was brought to Cate’s face, thinking of all the memories this room held. Cate set her bags down on the bed, and slowly walked downstairs. The ambush was partially her own fault. She should’ve kept her mother updated in her life. Cate had no good explanation for not calling her mom. 

“Okay now what is this about a boyfriend?” Cate’s mother was back by the oven, her cream colored apron lightly stained from the years of use. Cate settled into a stool at the island. Beth had disappeared into the living room to watch Stella and Finn wrestle with her and Cate’s younger brother, Robby.

“You’d love him. His name is Spencer and he’s smart, kind, and he-” Cate cut herself off, “He has a good job.” She wasn’t sure if she was allowed to disclose that sort of information. Cate’s mom raised her eyebrows, interested. 

“He sounds wonderful. Is he spending time with his family this Christmas Eve?” 

“Yes, he’s in Vegas visiting his mom for a few days.” Cate informed her mom. She played with some flour that dusted the countertop. 

“Well, you’ll have to come home sometime so we can all meet him.” Her mother smiled, placing a hand on Cate’s. Cate smiled at her mother. “Now, round up your brother and father to go get our chinese food. Wouldn’t be a Bennett Family Christmas without it.” Chinese food had been a staple for their Christmas Eve since Cate was a little girl. One year, Cate’s mother decided to try and cook a Christmas ham paired with mashed potatoes, candied yams, and homemade cranberry sauce. Well, Cate cooked just about as well as her mother, so it’s safe to say that that year, the house was full of smoke on Christmas Eve. The only thing salvageable was the cranberry sauce. Since that year, They’d always stuck to just baking cookies for Santa and ordering chinese food. 

Cate slowly walked to the living room, taking her time to relish in her home. She noticed new pictures framed on the walls of her niece and nephew. There were a few new knick knacks on shelves and hallway tables. The couches in the living room had been rearranged and the old wooden television stand was gone and now the tv was mounted on the wall. 

Beth was perched in the middle of the love seat, a blanket with a christmas pattern draped over her legs. Robby was kneeling on the ground- one arm outstretched and holding Finn at bay from a tickle attack and Stella was on his back, his other hand tickling her feet while she giggled uncontrollably. Cate’s father was sitting on the corner of their large couch, trying to read on his tablet, but getting distracted watching his grandchildren and his son play.

“Robby, Mom wants you and Dad to go get the food now.” Cate couldn’t keep in a chuckle. 

“Nice to see you too, Catherine.” Robby said as he rose from the carpeted living room floor. Their dad looked up over his glasses at Cate.

“Hi, Dad.” Cate met him in the middle as he brought her in for a hug.

“My Catie Girl, how is the big city life?” He asked, parting from her. 

“Oh, you know, busy and nothing like home.” she shrugged. Cate smiled at him. He placed a hand on her shoulder before going to retrieve his coat and some boots to get their order of food. Her brother Robby followed. 

Cate knelt on the ground, opening her arms as her sister’s children each ran into an arm. Embracing them both, Cate expressed how much she missed them and how big they’ve gotten. 

“Auntie Cate, I lost a tooth!” Stella bared her teeth at Cate, displaying a gap where there should have been a bottom tooth.  

“I grew one!” Finn smiled largely, showing a new tooth growing bigger than the rest.

“Oh my goodness! You guys are getting too big!” Cate smiled at them. She pulled her phone from her back pocket, swiping to find a specific picture. “I got a cat! Maybe one weekend you can come visit with your mom and you can meet him in person.” Stella and Finn’s eyes lit looking at Shrimp.

“He looks so soft!” Stella cooed.

“I bet he catches all the mice!” Finn yelled. 

“If there were any mice in my apartment, I bet he would.” Cate laughed. 

It became tradition for the family to sit on the living room floor, gathered around the spread of takeout boxes on the coffee table as a classic christmas movie played on their television. This year, they had voted and Cate, Stella and Finn won with their pick of The Polar Express. 

It was dark outside and everyone had piled their plates with fried rice, crab rangoons, teriyaki chicken and beef filled egg rolls. They shared laughs and stories of the year’s happenings with each other, catching up and making jokes like old times. 

Once filled plates were now over halfway done, Stella and Finn were both slowly falling asleep on the loveseat with Beth sitting in between them. The Polar Express was still playing, Cate’s parents were nestled together on the couch. Robby was laying on his side, leaning against the loveseat. Cate had her back against the couch, a christmas blanket wrapped around her. The house was peaceful and cozy with the glow of the christmas tree and the flicker of the movie. 

A knock on the door disrupted the lull in the living room. Cate’s parents looked quizzically at each other, not expecting anyone. Beth placed a protective hand on each of her children. Cate was the first to stand up, walking to answer the door. She presumed it was a neighbor, coming to wish them a happy holiday, despite how odd that would be.

Cate opened the door to a shivering Spencer, holding a large leather suitcase. A scarf wrapped multiple times around his neck and face muffled his voice.

“What are you doing here?” Cate couldn’t believe her eyes, but was happy to see the tall, long haired man. She let him into the house, closing the door behind him. “How did you figure out where I lived?” He set down his suitcase and unwrapped his scarf.

“I might have asked Garcia to track your phone for me.” his voice seemed off, but Cate would ask him about it later when her parents and siblings weren’t peering into the foyer from the archway into the living room. Cate and Spencer acknowledged them after staring at each other for a moment.

“Spencer, these are my parents.” Cate gestured to her mother and father, who were walking into the foyer. 

“Bill.” Cate’s dad reached out a hand to Spencer. Spencer hesitated, but figured shaking hands would make a better first impression than a spiel about germs. Cate’s mother on the other hand, brought Spencer into a hug.

“I’m Jacqueline, but please, call me Jackie!” Cate’s mother was as short as Cate was compared to Spencer. He had to bend his back far forward in her embrace as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He felt comforted by her motherly mannerisms. 

“Please, come in and help yourself to some takeout! Cate, take his things to the guest room and Spencer, I hope you like chinese food!” Her parents shuffled back into the living room as quick as they had nosed their way to the front door. Cate softly took Spencer’s hand and gave him a smile before starting up the stairs. 

The guest room was two doors down from Cate’s room on the same side of the hallway. The only thing in between them was a bathroom. Spencer felt like he walked into a cabin; the walls were a tan color and the bedspread was a quilt. Cate sat on the bed and patted the bed beside her. Spencer placed his things down on the chair in the corner before joining her on the bed. 

“I’m sorry I just showed up. I know you were spending time with your family and I was supposed to be in Vegas but I just couldn’t be alone tonight.” Spencer spilled out. 

“It’s okay, you’re more than welcome to stay. I want you to stay.” She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. “Is everything okay?” His eyes began to water, but no tears spilled out.

“I, um. My mom was having one of her bad days when I got down there. She didn’t-” his voice cracked. He closed his eyes so that he wouldn’t cry. Cate brought him in for a hug. She tried to say the right thing with her limited knowledge of the situation.

“You’re not alone, Spence. It’s hard, I’m sorry.” Cate moved her hand along his back. She fought back her own tears. Now wasn’t the time for her to cry. They held each other for a few moments and when Spencer felt confident that he wasn’t going to cry, Cate led him back down to the living room where he introduced himself to Cate’s brother and sister. He picked a bit at some of the chinese food, but he wasn’t in the mood to eat. Cate’s parents could tell something was up, but didn’t pry. 

After the movie finished, Robby and Beth carried Stella and Finn up the stairs to bed. Jackie and Bill had gone upstairs to bed as well. This left Cate and Spencer downstairs in the living room. Cate was cleaning up the coffee table and Spencer helped a bit. He was the first to break the silence.

“My mom has Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.” Spencer said as he placed some paper plates and empty takeout boxes in the trash. Cate tried not to look at him sympathetically, but she could only imagine how hard that must be.

“Spence, I’m sorry.” Cate paused in her cleaning of the kitchen counter. She made her way over to him, taking his hand in hers. “I’m here for you.” 

“She’s been fine for a while, when I write to her it’s easier because she knows it’s me, but when I was there earlier, she didn’t recognize me at first. Usually, the fog goes away after an hour, but even after I went back in the morning she didn’t know it was me. I just. I’m not ready for her to forget me yet.” His voice trailed off to only a whisper. Cate squeezed his hand.

“You’ll never be ready for that, Spencer. You’re doing the best you can for her and that’s what matters.” Cate tried to comfort him, but knew that there was nothing she could say that would make things better.

Once the rest of the cleaning was finished, Cate led Spencer up the stairs to his room again. She gave him a mini tour quietly as she whispered who was behind each closed door and where the bathrooms were if the one in between their room was occupied. She left Spencer in the guestroom to get changed and acclimated while she went back to her room to change into some sleep shorts and a bigger shirt. 

When she got back, Spencer was sitting in the bed with the side table lamp on. He had his glasses on while he read his comfort book- the same one his mother used to read to him growing up. Cate smiled and walked in, closing the door behind her. As she slipped under the covers, she knew her mother would kill her if she found out that Cate was in bed with her boyfriend under her roof, but that didn’t stop Cate from burrowing into Spencer’s side. He raised an arm to rest over her and he began to read aloud quietly. Before she knew it, Cate was sound asleep.

[miss-noo-na]

Strange Love (Part 2)

Featuring: Johnny (NCT) x Reader

Rating: Mature. Future updates to include BDSM themes

Summary: On your first trip out of town, you learn more than you bargained for about your co-worker’s personal life.

The weeks had gone by as usual, not much had changed leading up to your first assignment, save for the occasional meeting with the boss. That, and ever since he had told you to call him Johnny the name was now cemented into your head despite your efforts to remain impersonal.

Your first job was some dinky small town in Nebraska, and your boss had warned you most of these locations would be as such. They didn’t have the resources to acquire their own people, which is where you came in.

“It’s not gonna be luxurious, but you’re gonna leave feeling like you really accomplished something.” He assured you with a smile. Easy for him to say, from his swanky office in the big city.

As logistics would have it, you flew out separately and planned to meet at the hotel. When you got there, you took an Uber to the location and thought at first it might be a mistake. This was most definitely a Motel, the kind with outside hallways you saw on the side of the road.

“Are you sure this is it?” You asked the driver, looking over the address again.

“This is what you gave me.” He shrugged.

You had at least expected a Holiday Inn, or somewhere it didn't look like people checked in only never to be seen again.  You sucked it up and went to the front desk, where at the very least nothing looked broken down or dirty. Just….dated.

You were on the ground floor, right around the corner from the vending machines, as the clerk had told you with a smile. You opened the door with your keycard and you were greeted by two beds in the middle of the room, separated by a nightstand with a single lamp. They faced an old TV and the door to the bathroom.

There was a table by the window that you could do your work from and you dropped your bag in the chair in the corner. You did a quick sweep of the room, looking for anything out of place, and checked the mattress for bed bugs to be safe. It wasn’t the Ritz, but it would serve its purpose.

You sat on the end of one of the beds, idling through your phone, waiting for a text from your new business partner. It came a few moments later when he informed you he was checking in.

10 minutes later the door handle jiggled and your head shot up in its direction, your heart jumping into your throat thinking someone was trying to break in. Instead, the door swung up and Johnny stood there. He paused before entering and you stared at each other like two deers caught in headlights.

“What are you doing here.”

“This is the room he told me to come to.”

“That’s impossible, this is my room.”

Johnny stepped it and the heavy door shut behind him. He dropped his bags at his feet and extended the hand still holding his key card. You snatched it out of his hand and looked at the number written on the sleeve in marker.

“This can’t be right.”

“I’ll call the boss.”

A few minutes later Johnny was pacing the space in front of the beds, trying to get through on the managers personal line, and you nervously chewed your nails while still in your spot at the end of the bed.

“Shit.” He cursed under his breath, hanging up after another failed attempt.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” You started, looking up at him. “But even without the same room debacle, this place is less than ideal.”

“Yeah, as much money as they’re pulling in you would think they could splurge on a Super 8.” He half-joked, then noticed his phone was buzzing. He waved it at you before answering.

“Hey, Steven, yeah-” He stopped, cut off by the other man. You realized he called him by his first name and had to suppress an eye-roll.

“”Oh uh, it’s….fine. Listen, it looks like we’re in the same room and I’m wondering if there was some kind of mi- oh. Oh I see. No, no, it’s fine I totally get it.”

Your stomach sank at his tone.

“We can totally work with that, no problem. Have a good week, bye-bye.”

He hung up and sighed before turning toward you.

“So it's not a mix-up.”

“What?” You responded, feeling rage building.

“Apparently they didn’t have the budget for this project they thought they did. They’re still working on it, and this is all they could swing on short notice.”

You buried your face in your hand for a second, collecting your thoughts. “They didn’t think to mention this to us?”

“Yeah, not great planning on their part.”

The only consolation to this situation is that there were two beds. However, having to sleep, live, and work in this room with a man for the next week made you uneasy. You didn’t know him that well.

Johnny was studying your face in that moment, and then he looked around as if he was searching for something. He went and grabbed his bags and moved them next to the bed you sat at.

“You can have the bed by the wall, I’ll sleep by the door if that makes you feel better.” He nodded. You blinked up at him and realized what he was saying, then nodded and grabbed your things, moving them to the other bed. You did feel more secure over here, and felt a little endeared to him in that moment.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. We can set up our stuff here.” He gestured to the table that had a chair on each side. He started to take out his things and organize them on one side. You were thankful he was taking this in stride and meeting you halfway on it, which you had to admit you didn’t entirely expect. He was more mature than you gave him credit for.

You followed suit with getting your laptop out and set up across from him, though there wasn’t much distance between the two of you. You both sat down to get some pre-emptive notes done before you met with the team tomorrow. You worked into the evening, barely registering the sun setting until he closed his laptop and stretched.

“Do you want to get dinner?”

You glanced toward the window. “I guess we should.”

He had picked up the rental car at the airport, and you took it to the nearest restaurant, a dingy little diner down the street. The lighting was yellow and the booths were cramped but it gave off a homely feel you kind of enjoyed.

“Are you still bothered about the room?” He asked suddenly. You had already ordered and had sat in silence since you came in.

“Not really, why?”

He half-smiled, almost to himself as he shifted in his seat. “You’ve been tense since I got here.”

You blinked for a moment, “And how do you know that?”

“Your shoulders are pulled up and you keep fidgeting. I’m good at reading people’s body language, and I can just tell you haven’t taken a full breath all day. It’s not good for you, you know.”

He cast his eyes aside and took a drink after he spoke, and what he said just made your muscles seize up more. You suppressed the urge to get snappy.

“I’m naturally high-strung.” You said honestly, even if he didn’t need to know it.

“I can tell.” He chuckled. “There’s nothing to be nervous about, we’re gonna have a great day tomorrow.” He said in a strangely reassuring tone.

Your food came then and you fell back into silence, your mind wandering over thoughts about why he was reading your body language so acutely.

The greasy comfort food was just what you needed after the day you’d had and you split the bill with the company cards you were given. Back in the car, he told you he had to run to the nearest printing store to pick up the packets you were handing out tomorrow.

“You wanna go over my notes for me while I’m out? Let me know if I missed anything.” He asked, and you agreed before he let you off back at the motel and took off.

Back in the room, you took a seat at his laptop and were met with his desktop, the notes closed out. You sighed and grumbled to yourself as you opened up the files and tried to find the notes. His folders were a mess, all named with random codes and abbreviations probably only he could decipher. You clicked through countless nonsense files and folders filled with other types of work jargon that had nothing to do with the current project.

You clicked into one folder near the bottom that was filled with photos, and went to click away when something caught your eye.

You couldn’t quite tell from the thumbnails what was going on, but it looked interesting. They were high quality, almost like a professional photoshoot, and there was only ever one or two subjects in each photo. Before you could think the better of it, you double-clicked one purely out of curiosity, and when the image came into full view you drew in a sharp, surprised breath.

It was a room, dark save for windows in the background that looked out to a blurry night skyline. The focus was on a woman on her knees, mostly nude, her arms secured behind her back with ropes that stretched across her chest, stomach, and thighs. She was leaning forward, and her chin was held delicately in the hands of a man sitting in front of her. He had one arm resting on his knee, dressed in slacks and a button down shirt and tie, the other cradling the woman’s face as he looked into her eyes. You could see distinctive red marks across her skin, from her butt and across her thighs.

The man was your co-worker. The one coming back into this room any second now.

Your cheeks burned red hot as you reached up and slammed the laptop shut without thinking. You shot up from your seat and grabbed your bag, marching out of the hotel room to the vending machines, trying to get your breathing back to normal.

You stared at the list of drinks as your thoughts raced. You could conceptualize what was going on in the photos, you weren’t stupid, but putting it together with the man you just had dinner with was making you feel flush and nervous.

You dug into your bag for some spare change and got yourself a can of soda, cracking it open right there and chugging it, letting the bubbles burn down your throat and quell your nerves. You took a deep breath before you went back to the room.

When you opened the door, Johnny was leaning over the chair, looking at his opened laptop, and the photo was still open.

“Oh God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I was-”

He looked up at you, babbling away as you fidgeted with your bag and almost squeezed the can in your hand in half.

“I see you didn’t find the notes.” He said humorously, as he stood up. You had expected him to be upset, angry, or embarrassed. Instead, he had his same relaxed stance as always, and a slight smirk on his face.

“If you were curious, you could have just asked me.”

Your eyes went wide and you shook your head hard. “I was just looking for the notes, I swear.”

He laughed as he took a couple steps to close the gap between you, and gently laid his hands on your biceps for a moment. He had never stood this close before, his shadow almost dwarfed you.

“Relax, it’s okay.”

“Sorry...again, I wasn’t snooping.” You tried to assure him with a shaky breath.

He could feel you tremble under his hands and he smiled. “It’s not a big deal, yeah?”

You nodded, and he dropped his arms and went back to the table. He closed out the folder and tabbed up the notes. “Here they are.”

You blinked, a rush of emotions dissipating from your body. You felt mortified, worried, and intrigued all at the same time. His reaction, his gentle voice, and his touch further complicated those feelings.

You went to sit down and look over the notes. At first you could barely concentrate on the words, but after a few seconds of letting your heart-rate get back to normal, you began to focus on the task and found it helped get your mind off what had just happened. However, you had almost forgotten that Johnny was standing behind you, watching you go over them.

Suddenly you felt his presence at your back, as he leaned over your shoulder and pointed at the screen. You almost jumped out of your skin.

“Do you think this needs more detail?” He asked, and his voice was way too close to your left ear. You shivered but tried to play it off.

“Uhm,” You swallowed the lump in your throat. “More details wouldn’t hurt.”

“Great, I’ll do that now.” He said as he stood back up, and you moved out of his chair so he could sit down.

“I’ll finish these up and print us some copies in the morning.” He threw you a pleasant smile before he started typing away.

You both finished up for the night and he offered you the bathroom first. In the shower you had time to process the day and knocked your fist against your forehead, not only for letting yourself see what you had seen, but for letting it affect you like this. He was an adult with an adult life outside of work, it really shouldn’t have bothered you like this.

But bother wasn’t the right word and you knew that, and you got angry with yourself for what it really did. You were curious, and more importantly, you were turned on.

You grinded your teeth together in an attempt to will the thoughts out of your mind, chalking it up to a lack of physical affection lately. Besides, since when had any of that interested you? You didn’t experiment much, there was never any attempts at tying up or inflicting pain with past partners. The most you had done involved toys and maybe a blindfold, but nothing to the extent with which you saw in the photos. So why did your mind keep going back to those stark, red welts on her bare skin? What was the appeal?

You finished up in the bathroom and went straight to your bed, avoiding eye contact and turning toward the wall. Luckily you were exhausted and fell asleep without much fuss, even if that moment still lingered in your mind.

The next day most of the anxiety had worn off and you were able to conduct yourself normally, especially since you were preoccupied with other things. You brought your materials to the office, an old building probably built in the 70’s with fluorescent lighting and small rooms. The staff were friendly and happy to have you, and you found that you and Johnny worked well together. For two people who had no reason to get along, you bounced off one another as you gave your presentation and were able to avoid stepping on each other's toes. Then you went to work, each of you tackling a set of departments and getting them started on their new updates.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, you were on your feet for the whole day and with any sort of transition there were bugs in the system or things that didn’t go as planned. You dealt with it as it came, but could feel the tension building up in your neck and shoulders, the stress collecting in your body and making your muscles tight and your head a bit fuzzy. This added with the nerves of doing something new made you both drained and wired by the time the two of you left the office.

You agreed after your first day that you deserved a drink, both to celebrate the success of getting through it and starting off strong, and as a way to ease the stress of the day. You found a small restaurant with a bar and had dinner, followed by said beverages. It may not be the healthiest coping mechanism, but the white wine you were sipping was doing the trick.

“Look at us, getting along.” Johnny half smiled at you, and you let out a small laugh.

“We work surprisingly well together.” You nodded.

“Are you kidding? We were the dream team in there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took us less than a week to get them set up.”

“Lets not get ahead of ourselves.” You laughed again, and fell back into a comfortable silence.

Alcohol was always tricky with you, dredging up the things you wanted to keep hidden. Your mind flashed to that photo again and you wanted to squash it down, but the curiosity was killing you. You were off the clock now, and he had proven he was a pretty chill guy. Would it hurt to ask?

“Can I ask you a personal question?” You said as you felt the wine warm you up inside and make the words flow with less effort from your mouth.

“Hmm?”

“You don’t have to answer if it’s too nosey.”

“Try me.”

“You know the uh...thing, that I saw?” You looked at anything but him as you took another sip.

“I do.” He said slowly, and you caught his face from the corner of your eye. He might have been smirking again.

“I don’t even know how to ask this.” Your eyes darted around some more and you fidgeted in place. “Just, what was that all about?”

He laughed, a deep sound from his chest that made your ears tingle.

“It’s just something I enjoy doing in my personal time.” He shrugged casually.

“What, the photoshoot?”

“That was just a way of documenting it.”

“Documenting what?”

“The thing I like to do.” Now he really was smirking and he seemed to be enjoying stringing you along.

“Which is?”

“Dominating my sexual partners.”

You swallowed hard and nodded. “Got it, that’s what I thought.”

“Then why’d you ask?” He responded. It wasn’t confrontational, more curious.

“I mean I get the whole domination thing, I’m not that naïve.” You prefaced. “It was more so,” You cleared your throat, “ the pain aspect I don’t completely understand.”

“Ah, so I take it you’ve never been spanked before?”

You couldn’t believe you were having this conversation in a dinky small town bar with a man you practically despised a week ago, and the fact he was being so nonchalant about it.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say I haven’t,”

“Let me guess, a couple love taps from a dude during the act and that’s it?”

“Pretty much.”

He looked as though he expected that, and sat up straight before he spoke again. “I’ll put it to you like this, you know all that tension you carry in your body? And all those erratic, loud thoughts in your head that keep you from sleeping well at night?”

You knew all those things very well, and nodded along.

“Some people, when they submit to another person and let them inflict pain, find that all those things cease to exist in that moment. Your body releases a lot of chemicals in response to pain, and they happen to feel really, really good.”

You listened intently, his entire posture and manner of speaking had changed once you got to this subject, his usual chill, kind of goofy office guy persona slipping away into someone more serious, but relaxed and knowledgeable.

“So instead of that,” He nodded toward your glass of wine, “you achieve a similar effect with a few lashings.”

You thought about it for a moment before you spoke. “I thought it was just something people got off on.”

“It can be, but it’s a complex experience. Sometimes there’s no sex involved at all.”

“You’ve had situations where someone came over, you beat them with a belt, and then they just go home?” You blurted out in response.

He laughed again, louder this time, but nodded. “Yeah, sometimes.”

You didn’t know why, maybe it was the alcohol, but suddenly this all seemed way too intriguing. For years you had tried to find ways to deal with your stress. You had tried yoga, tea, getting a facial once a week, but nothing seemed to work. Sometimes you even thought drugs might do the trick, but watching your friend on molly at a concert that one time has put you off the idea.

“The pain just makes everything fade into the background, I’ve even been told it’s euphoric.”  He added, only enticing you further.

“Makes sense.” You murmured, bringing your glass back to your lips to finish it off. You felt like you were in a daze, and when he suddenly leaned in it took you by surprise.

“Are you curious to try it?”

He said it gently, quietly, so only you could hear. Immediately your cheeks burned and you leaned back.

“No! I mean, I don’t know.” You stated truthfully. Whether you did or not, the accusation that you might was horribly embarrassing to confront.

“Well if you do ever want to try it, just be careful.” His face drew down into concern. “There’s a lot of people out there that don’t know what they’re doing.”

“You’d say you’re experienced?”

“I’d like to think so.”

He seemed to pause, running his finger along the rim of his glass, hesitating before he spoke up.

“It wouldn’t be wise of me to offer up my experience, since we’re co-workers n’all.”

You gulped, wishing you had more to drink because suddenly your throat was dry.

“But if you have any more questions, you know where to find me.” He grinned, and it felt like an invitation.