#so i work in 20 minute spurts with 10 minute breaks

[sabraeal]

i got tagged by @l0chn3ss....again, over a week ago....I’M CATCHING UP I PROMISE

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

I think I just have always used this username for internet things. I picked it back when I was working on a fic that involved a hierarchy of angels -- Sabraeal’s dominion is healing and illness. It seemed apropos, back when I was certain I was going to cure cancer with my biology degree

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/favorites, follows/subscriptions, visitor hits, kudos)

In a move that surprises no one, Seven Suitors for Shirayuki on AO3.

On tumblr it is Were Hearts Not an Unknown Country

3. What is your FFnNet/AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

It’s the same as my tumblr icon, and I love it. @heartamplifier made it for me and it is gorgeous

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Besides @superhappybubbleslove and @claudeng80 on tumblr, I have a handful of semi=regular commenters on AO3 who I don’t know personally but would probably die for

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I feel like not one SPECIFICALLY. I have phases where I’m like, time to go hurt myself and read ISM’s fics, or like time to go read sarah’s regency fic and scream about how i want them to make out, or like let’s read the sexy alt timeline to Ever After again because I feel like lightly suffering. Sometimes I get in the mood for fics from other pairings I love and go read their greatest hits

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I had 46 bookmarked and 7 stories subbed to

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Modern AUs, for some reason, and when I’m lucky, fantasy/magic AUs

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

57 user subscriptions, 345 fic subscriptions, 487 bookmarks

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Not...overly? Though I just realized I might be signing myself up for shark dick, Shape of Water-esque smut and I just....don’t know how i feel about that turn in my life.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

I’d love to be able to focus more when I write. I have such little non-baby time to write, and I can have a real problem buckling down and getting stuff done. Thanks ADD, you’re a real peach/

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Uhhhhh well, I guess popular ships, since Obiyuki EXPLODED since I started writing for it. But I do have some rare pair content coming up, so my time right now is split

12. How many stories have you posted on FFNet/AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

I have 40 works, though some of those are collections of one-shots, so that’s anyone’s guess, honestly

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

I am not counting that, lord have mercy.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

Write them down! As long as I’ve decided they’re gonna get written, everything gets written down (unless it’s SUPER short)

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

NOT YET

16. How did you discover FFNet/AO3?

Oh children. Children. I’m over 30. I was THERE when that shit was made.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on FFNet/AO3?

I’d say in terms of ANS, yes, but it’s a big fish, small pond situation. In terms of popular authors in bigger fandoms, I am a very, very small fish

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

I....do not?

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Not...specifically? I was always really driven to write. In terms of fandom...I think I only was so determined to post Seven Suitors because I thought @infinitelystrangemachinex needed to be able to read more than 2 good fics that weren’t her own writing

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Enjoy the process. If you’re only focused on telling the events, you’ll always be bored after you’ve outlined the story. Get pumped for showing off your skills.

You can’t improve in a vacuum. Talk out your plots with people. Let people edit your shit. Too many times people think they have to do it alone, and that’s how you stagnate as a writer.

Take writing advice from people you want to write like. Anon comments, random comments -- none of them matter, because you have no idea whether what these people want align with how you want to write. Listen to them, sure, decide if there’s something in it you can use, but -- this person could think Twilight was a good romance. Or Tolkein was good at character development. You don’t need their opinion.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I always know where I’m going. Maybe not SOLIDLY, but I don’t start a fic where all I know is the beginning

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

HAHAH YEP. I deleted it. It’s one thing to have constructive criticism (whether it’s helpful or not), but this was basically “don’t think this is mindless hate...*two comments worth of mindless hate*”

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Anything with a lot of limbs

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

SO MANY. I have a Seven Suitor’s B-side, a Suzuri WFB fic, a stupidly huge mitsukiki mermaid AU, the next chapter of Merry & Bright, the next chapter of Sensitive Negotiations, and sometimes I even get to pick away at the second part of the Stripper!Shirayuki fic

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

Yep. I like knowing where my focus will be (though I tend to work on multiple things at once)

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

I try to have fic-related goals, like -- I’ll finish this scene, i’ll get to this part -- and I try to have a few fics i get through in a day (between 2-4, usually). But I also only dedicate two 20-minute sprints to each fic per day (except on saturdays, which are for plowing through fics close to being finished)

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

DEFINITELY

28. What is your favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

Only looking at finished fics, probably either A Lion to Terrify the Wolves or Creatures of a Brief Season

29. What is your least favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I don’t think there’s any specific fic i don’t like? Maybe something I wrote as a teeny tiny, that never saw the light of day.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Hopefully published? We’ll see. Have to have time to work on original things, first.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

Dialogue

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Keeping track of all the details over a long period of time *deep sigh*

33. Why do you write?

I enjoy telling stories! I can’t imagine not doing it

for tagging.... @superhappybubbleslove, @infinitelystrangemachinex, @thelionshoarde, @claudeng80 @codango

[kenmascatears]

pretty setter squads favorite positions

description: some of the setters and their favorite sex positions

people: kenma, akaashi, atsumu, oikawa

genre: smut, haikyuu x fem! reader

warnings: creampie, cockwarming, public sex, orgasm denial, praise kink, mention of an ahegao face, squirting

part one || part two

kenma

+ he loves cowgirl

+ he hates breaking a sweat and straining himself so this position is his go to

+ doing minimal work and watching your body? he loves it

kenma watched you take him in fascination, your cunt fluttering helplessly around his cock, leaving rings of translucent slick around his base and dripping down his balls. 

you always got so worked up in this position, with his dick hitting all your spots, rubbing against your front wall, and brushing against your cervix. 

“k-kenma,” you moan, “need your help!”

you had been bouncing up and down on his cock, playing with your nipples while kenma guided your hips back and forth for the past 10 minutes, unable to cum. 

while his cock was doing a good job, you needed his fingers as well. reaching down, kenma thumbed your clit, rubbing it in light circles.

 just a few touches were enough to send you over the edge, wailing and moaning his name, cunt fluttering and gushing slick all over his cock.

your body seemed to glow in the moment, kenma thought, with your head thrown back, body heaving and trembling, and nipples hardening from the sensation. 

 yes, kenma thought to himself, he definitely enjoyed you on top. 

akaashi

+ he loves taking you from the side

+ having you spooned against him while he takes you is his favorite thing to do

+ the combination of intimacy and lust makes the moment extra special to him

+ throw some cockwarming in and you have a normal sunday morning in your household

akaashi’s arm pulled you closer to him as he lazily thrusted into your needy cunt. you had woken up wanting him, but the combined tiredness between you two had led you to where you were, lying on your sides, back pressed against his chest as he slowly fucked you. 

your quiet moans filled your bedroom as the light from the rising sun filled the room, creating a soft glow around the two of you.

“keiji ‘m close” you groaned out, rocking your hips back and forth for some more momentum. 

akaashi, reaching down, palmed one of your tits, playing with your nipple, as the other rubbed sloppy circles into your clit. 

the added stimulation sent you headfirst into your orgasm. it was slow to rise and quick to fade but intense, your whole body contracting and shaking as you gushed around akaashi.

feeling your body tremble and contract around him sent akaashi into his orgasm. head falling onto your shoulder, he quietly moaned as his cock spurted out cum, filling you up to the brim. 

he moved to pull out but you grabbed his arm. 

“can we stay like this for a while?” you sleepily asked him, cuddling into him. 

“of course baby” he quietly replied, indulging in your wishes. 

as the two of you drifted off, akaashi thought to himself, this is the perfect start to the day

atsumu

+ he loves quickies (which isn’t really a position but still)

+ he’ll take you anywhere he can and at anytime

+ pulling down your panties and just fucking you hard and fast gets him off everytime

+ it’s a great stress reliever, especially before volleyball games

+ bonus points if you initiate it

“ya gotta be quiet princess” atsumu whispered in your ear as he thrusted into you, hard and fast. 

20 minutes before his game started, atsumu had whisked you off into a storage closet, pulling down your panties, and pressing you against the wall. 

he was currently fucking into you, lewd sounds filling the closet as your pussy clamped around him, leaking slick all over his cock and balls. 

removing a hand from the wall, you snaked a hand down your body but before you could reach your clit atsumu yanked it away. 

“i got you baby,�� he said, “use your words and tell me what you want.”

“‘tsumu please” you moaned out, not caring about being quiet, “‘m so close.” 

chuckling, he began to circle your clit the way you liked, thrusting into you harder and faster. 

your peak built up quickly, and just as you were on the precipice of cumming, atsumu pulled his fingers away and pulled out, spurting his cum all over your ass. 

you let out a cry of despair as your cunt clenched around nothing, orgasm fading, leaving you a mess. an angry, gasping, trembling mess. 

you turned to atsumu, who was tucking himself back into his volleyball shorts. 

“atsumu what the fu-” you started. 

cutting you off he replied with a smirk and a gleam in his eyes, “if i win the match, i’ll do whatever you want me to do tonight.” and left the closet, leaving you needy and with cum dripping down your legs. 

as atsumu walked to the court he thought to himself.

bokuto was right, sex is a great destresser before games

oikawa

+ he loves taking you from behind

+ watching your back arch so nicely for him while he sinks his cock into you is a turn on

+ he loves how easily you squirt in this position

+ the visual aspect, as well as the praise you deliver is his motivator

pressing a hand on the small of your back, oikawa pushed you further into the bed as he snapped his hips into yours. 

mesmerized with the sight of his cock sinking into your cunt, he didn’t fail to notice your juices gushing all over his cock and balls as you moaned into the sheets about how good you felt and how well he was fucking you. 

the praise motivated oikawa even more. 

you didn’t fail to notice the change in his behavior as he switched from fast, hard strokes to deep, slow ones, making sure to hit all your spots. 

you squirmed, the sensitivity from your previous orgasm getting the best of you as he brushed against your cervix. 

“toru please,” you whined “it’s too much!”

pulling you up so your chest was flush against his back, he whispered in your ear “but you like it don’t you gorgeous? you’re still pressing up against me, like you want more.”

and he was right. you had subconsciously been thrusting back up against him, yearning for more. 

as you nodded your head, he resumed his tempo of fucking you, hand snaking down to play with your little bud. 

it turned out, he mused, that contact was all you needed, as you had come again from that simple contact. 

you were utterly fucked out, eyes rolled back and tongue poking out of your mouth as you twitched and gushed juices onto his cock. 

this time, he didn’t stop playing with your clit, continuing to rub it until you squirted all over his cock and the bed beneath you, moaning his name all the while. 

the visual you were delivering, combined with the feeling of your walls tightening around him, sent oikawa spiraling towards his orgasm. 

“‘m gonna fill you up with my cum,” he moaned into your ear. 

and that he did, his head dropping to your shoulder as his cock pulsed, painting your walls with hot spurts of cum. 

“fuck _____,” he groaned when he was spent. 

lifting you off of him, he watched a combination of your juices and his cum leak out of your pussy. 

as you laid on the bed, completely spent and on the brink of sleep, he went and got a cloth to clean you up. 

as he cleaned you he thought to himself

i need to make her cum like that more often.

part two

[yoichichi]

Intern!Eren HC

warning(s): none

a/n: some Intern!Eren HC based off my CEO!Levi x secretary!reader post you can read here <- if you’d like :) I got one person requesting it in my inbox and that’s all I needed LOL :) I’d love to hear from you guys in my inbox! Hope you enjoy <3 I’m also gonna be posting more characters from this ~universe so feel free to send in thoughts or ideas !

FIRST OFF HES SO STUPID LIKE PLS

I’m sorry but hear me out:

He’s very intelligent, right. He was well composed in his interview to be an intern, his resume was wonderfully organized full of all kinds of references and experience, he can hold a corporate conversation like nobody’s business, and he’s definitely got this natural charm working for him

But this man can’t work a photo copier for the life of him 😭

He doesn’t know the difference between business casual & smart casual (tbh who tf does)

He is always joking with boss Levi at the WORST times

He’s AWFUL at finding things pls

Someone will tell him to go grab more printer paper from the cabinets in the break room and he’ll just go and stand in there like 🧍

“Cabinets, cabinets... okayyy what one.”

^he definitely talks to himself like that ALL the time but more on that later

But anyways he’ll be searching through all the cabinets and just,,, not see it and he’d start freaking out like oh fuck they’re gonna fire me cause my dumbass can’t find the fuckin printer paper

He’d just come back like

“Um, uh, Miss Parker I couldn’t find the printer paper🧍.”

She’s an older lady in the advertising department of the company that just finds him so endearing pls

so she goes and just opens the first cupboard he looked in and hands it to him like “here sweetie, make sure to open your eyes next time.”

She’s so sweet but poor baby is so red and embarrassed 😭

It’s even worse when she asks him to load it and he just - breaks it

he accidentally pulled too hard trying to open the paper compartment and ripped one of the plastic front pieces off and is just holding it in his hand like 😰

He jus tapes it on w scotch tape and bolts out of the room once it’s loaded and then blames it on Jean when Levi asks why the hell the printer in the front office is broken

“Yeah no I have no idea sir, I think it might’ve been Jean, I mean I saw him in here last buttt, yeah no I really don’t know sorry!”

Queue Eren speed walking to the bathroom so he can collect himself abdjdjajdjf

But on the note of breaking things it’s totally happened more than once

I STRONGLY HC this mf as being clumsy a lil like he just never fully got used to his height after he had his growth spurt

So he has a habit of tripping over himself or hitting his head on cabinets and such

This also means long arms accidentally knocking these over 😭

His first day he reached across his lil intern desk adjacent to Jeans to answer the phone and just completely knocked off his stapler and it kinda came apart

So once he was done with the call he was like no biggie I can fix this :)

And then he spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how the hell to put it back together

Levi happened upon him at his desk with google up on his computer, “how to put together stapler”, and he was fiddling with it in his lap and Levi was just 🤨

Eren was so embarrassed and went beet red

But as soon as Jean started chuckling Levi was like “well help him? I’d rather not have a broken stapler and besides, it’d give you two idiots something to do.”

So of course jean was like ok 🙄 but now him and eren have been arguing and BOTH been trying to fix it for another 10 minutes

Levi comes over to check on them and he’s so disappointed he’s just like “give me the fucking stapler” and puts the pieces back together and hands it to eren like 😐.

But yeah, Eren has a tendency to break things LOL

Ok back to mans talking to himself

He can be forgetful when it comes to tasks he needs to do so you’ll often find him walking around the office muttering things to himself like “phone, phone. Listen to the voicemail on the phone.”

And sometimes he’ll sing it to himself instead of speaking it cause it he finds it keeps him entertained 🥺🤲🏼

He also has a bad habit of just humming at his desk period

Jean absolutely hates it, especially when the songs Eren’s humming get stuck in Jeans head LMAO

Levi implied he was proud of Erens work ~once and he almost cried, he had to excuse himself and Miss Parker thought he was gonna throw up

One time Levi joked about long hair not being dress code and immediately had to take it back before Eren and Jean had a crisis at their desk

But even with his little quirks and shenanigans he takes his internship very seriously and is highly knowledgeable about the core responsibilities of the job, which is definitely a reason Levi accepted his application in the first place

Eren is so punctual it’s insane, he hasn’t missed a single day at his internship and has never been more than a minute late

And he’s so cute always asking Levi what he could do better at the end of his day or if there’s anything else he needs from him

At some point Levi had to ask him to only ask it once a week cause he has other things to worry about too 😭

But Levi did admire his determination to improve

Eren may be a little silly but he’ll be damned if he’s gonna lose this internship <3

————————

Eeeeek okok so this is officially a part of my CEO!levi universe LMAO any work that is based in this will be tagged appropriately! I’m also thinking of posting a pt.2 to this with reader 😏! Lemme know if you guys are interested! I’ll be having some more works come out with other aot boys in this universe too :)! Anyways yes I’d love any and all thoughts <3

requests are open

-🐇out

taglist: @plutowrites @armins-futon @peachysimp (if you’d like to be added to aot, hq, mha, or a mixture of those jus lemme know!)

[meandmyechoes]

So I've been trying to make sense of Ahsokas timeline in s7 considering the growth of her lekku when we first see her again in Coruscants underworld and I thought you'd be the best person to ask😂

Do you think her design is a design error that animators didn't think through as they like to do or do you think it actually indicates she's been away from the order for idk 3 months or something before she stumbles into the sisters? Also how much time do you think she spent with Bo-Katan (lekku growth again, new armor, they are kinda familiar with each other too) I have some thoughts but I'm not aware of any canon info on this. :')

okay let's break this down.

Design

No, the design is definitely intentional, considering Ms. Ahsoka 'D' (7.05-08) and 'E' (7.09-12) exist. They are two different 3D models and the lekku growth is noted on the character sheets. (and no, I have no idea what the Ahsoka C model is. Not mortis adult ver., not youngling ver., not Rebels adult ver., not monkey boots/original walkabout outfit)

Timeline

Actually, this problem is pretty simple, by using Anakin as a benchmark. Ahsoka met Anakin on Coruscant before he leaves for the Outer Rim Sieges in 7.06, and she saw him again during the Siege on Yerbana. So, Ahsoka stayed with Bo-Katan roughly as long as the Outer Rim Sieges has gone on.

ROTS novel states the Sieges to be 'five months' long (Ch 9). That is no longer Disney canon and does not comply with events of TCW really. so I suggest we compress the number to 3, the minimum for Padme's a baby bump to show. With 2021 Character Encyclopedia listing the Lawless arc as the earliest event in 19BBY,

it gives us the feasible timeline of: (month.week)

1.1-2 Lawless arc (5.14-16)

1.3-4 Wrong Jedi arc (5.17-20)

(2-3 Season 6, Utapau arc, Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple Part 2, Thrawn Alliances)

3.3 Ahsoka's Walkabout (7.05-08)

3-6 Outer Rim Sieges

~5 Bad Batch arc (7.01-04)

6.3-4 ROTS/Siege of Mandalore (7.09-7.12)

In conclusion, after leaving the Order, Ahsoka spent about two months on her own, maximum two weeks with the Martez sisters and a little under three months with Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls. The Siege of Mandalore, as concurrent with Revenge of the Sith, takes about 10 days, as established in the rots timeline by allthingskenobi.

this rough work of course, neglects all hyperspace travel time.

Comments

After solving the problem, I realize it is not an intuitive reading. the lekku growth between models B and D (S5-S7) is greater than D and E (walkabout-siege), logically, then so should the B-D timeskip be longer than D-E. The feasible timeline says otherwise: B-D is 2 months apart while D-E is 3. Now I have to work backwards and suggest B-D is Ahsoka's growth spurt to explain the non-linear increase.

Last year, I initially based Bo-Katan and Ahsoka period together to be a month long based on similar observation: Not just the in-S7 growth is relatively shorter than between S5-S7, it was barely noticeable on the first watch, definitely so to the untrained eye. So I don't assume much time has passed. Especially, since Maul is an elusive target, and Bo-Katan claims, 'every minute we waste here, gives Maul an opportunity to slip away' (7.09) to highlight the urgency of the matter.

What did Ahsoka do in the blank months?

The Walkabout arc is written about an Ahsoka fresh from leaving the Order. Then, there was the Sith Temple arc in the original season 8, that was suppose to fill up the blank months after, and reconnects her back to the GAR for Siege of Mandalore. With the cancellation and revival, the Sith Temple arc is no longer compatible and thus Walkabout is pushed back to the brink of EP III. Therefore, we can only assume she travels across Coruscant, meditating and finding herself in the Force.

(concept art for original walkabout arc, by Tara Rueping)

[omg-im-such-a-masochist]

📽📼LET’S (NOT) KEEP IT PG📼📽

Prompt: Y/N feels bored to death with her life and the absence of her boyfriend Drew. Until he decided to break her routine a little bit, by sending her a not so PG friendly video..

Word count: Long-ish

Pairing: Drew McIntyre x Reader

Warnings: +18, nsfw video, masturbation(male and female), dirty talking, cursing and just pure filth!

Tagging: @blondekel77 , @jibbles26 , @lustyromantic , @drewmcintyrekoccsrocbwdgfan , @akiko-tanaka , @new-zealand-chic @drew-is-boo

Notes: I was going to wait to post this until later this week, but I just couldn’t help myself! This man fucks me up big time... Y’all know the drill loves,sorry for misspellings,english isn’t my first language (bla bla bla),check out my other stories if you’d like to(it would make your girl here very happy 😊) and if you’re comfortable with it,please let me know what you think? Some feedback is always welcomed and appreciated ❤️You can check out my other stories typing ‘masochist writes’ on the search bar on my page and my newest story as a fixed post.Okay,now let’s get to the fun part,shall we? Hope you’ll enjoy 😉

“I cannot be the only person who feels bored to death with her own life, right?” I ask Drew through the webcam

“No, love” He chuckles “You’re not the only one. I feel quite bored myself”

“You? Bored? About wrestling? Thanks for the support babe, but I thought we agreed on not lying to each other on this relationship”

Wrestling was Drew’s life! And I mean it! What kind of person has for a hobby what he does professionally? Drew. What kind of person talks about wrestling all the time, everyday, tries to teach you about it and loves to convince you to watch wrestling matches with him? Drew!

He laughed “I didn’t said I was bored about wrestling, love...” He deviously smirked

“What are you bored about then?” Oh my, this could be fun...

“Not having you with me” He take his shirt off “I miss you babe, I miss kissing you, touching you” His right hand roams down his jeans “I miss waking up to your ass pressed against my cock, I miss the way you ride me” He palmed his semi hard bulge “I miss eating you out, I miss fucking you from behind, I miss how you moan for me to go faster” He unbuttoned his jeans, pulling the zipper down

“Fuck Drew, why are you so good at this?” I was already feeling my lace panties dampen with pleasure

“Show me what you’re wearing, princess” He lazily smirks

I stand up to remove the oversized t-shirt I was wearing (which was one of his) and revealed my baby pink lace bra and panties, one of his favorite.

“Fuck me, lass! You’re gonna kill me..” His hand sank down inside his jeans and I could see him grabbing a handful of his erection

“Drew...don’t be selfish” I whine “I wanna see it” I pouted

“Yeah? You want to see what you’ve done to me?” His hand is slowly moving up and down

“Drewy please daddy, l want to see you jack off baby, don’t be mean to me”

He grinned at me and began to take his jeans off, when his fingers hooked on his boxers to pull it down, I heard

“Hey man, why are you taking so long? We’re going to miss the party!”

Dolph bursted through the door and Drew quickly covered himself with a blanket

“BLOODY HELL, DOLPH! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO FUCKING KNOCK?” Drew yelled

“Why should I knock if it’s my room too?” Dolph asked confused

“I’M BUSY, DAMN IT!” Drew yelled again

“Oh! Are you jacking off?“ Dolph giggles “Uuuhhh I’m so gonna tell Y/N that you’re jacking off to porn like a 15 year old boy” His full on laughing now

“Shut up!”

“What are you watching anyways?” Dolph turns the screen to him and sees me (now dressed back with Drew’s t-shirt)

“Oh fuck! Y/N...hi”

“Hi Dolph, how’s going?”

“Good, good. You?” He awkwardly says

“Peachy, just peachy”

“Wait, so if it isn’t porn then....oh my fuck, I just interrupted something didn’t I?”

Drew answers yes and I say no at the same time

“Sorry guys, it really wasn’t my intention”

“It’s ok Dolph, we know you didn’t meant it” I say and Drew just huffed

“Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow then babe” I say “Tell Bayley I’m wishing her a happy birthday”

Drew sighed “I will, love. I love you”

“I love you too, D.”

“Love you more, bye bye” He says

“Bye Y/N” Dolph waves at me and I can’t help but chuckle

“Bye Dolph, have fun at the party”

“Sure thing ma’am!” He winks and Drew stares at him with a deadly glare.

Before I finished the Skype call I saw Drew punching Dolph’s arm, calling him a fucking cockblock.

Later that night, I was getting ready to go to bed when I received a text

❤️Drewy❤️: I can’t stop thinking about you...

With a video attached to it

*A video? Maybe is from Bayley’s birthday party* I thought, since sometimes we would send each other’s videos whenever something was worth watching.

I press play on the video and my jaw dropped

Drew was in the hotel bathroom, naked. He smirks and winks at the camera and roamed it down to film his hand going up and down his deliciously thick hard cock. Every once in a while he would squeeze the head of his cock and made his way down the shaft again.

I texted him back.

Y/N: Are you really gonna tease me like that McIntyre? You’re playing so dirty right now...🔥

He answered in less than 5 seconds

❤️Drewy❤️: You asked me earlier, to show it you...I’m just giving you, what you asked for baby 😉 But if you don’t want to see it anymore, I understand 😔

Y/N: Don’t you dare! I want to see everything! Until the very last drop..🤤

❤️Drewy❤️: I got you baby 😉 I’ll give you something to help you out, while I’m not home 😏😈

20 minutes later, I received a 10 minutes video from Drew. I lay down the bed and pressed play.

Drew has settled the phone on the bathroom countertop, his right hand working a figure 8 shape on his length, his left hand would every now and then cup his balls or slide down his long silky dark hair. The sight of him, that way, was the most lustful thing I had ever seen, in my whole life! I always saw myself as so damn lucky for having that man, but now? I was more than certain! I was even thinking about going to church and properly thank God for creating this man (and giving him to me, of course)

His grunts and moans were making me wetter and wetter to the point where I was envying his hand for being wrapped around his cock.

My own hands found my slick slit, two fingers sliding in easily due the wetness of my core.

Drew turned up the pace of his hand and squeezed his dick harder. Suddenly I hear

“Oh fuck Y/N, I wanna fuck you so bad right now baby. My hand is not as good as your pussy, not as tight, not as warm and definitely not as wet” He stopped his actions on his length, gathering a glob of spit on his mouth, Drew let it fall on his cock making me moan at the rawness of it.

He closes his hand around his thickness and I can hear how wet it is, as it slides through his shaft so easily.

“I can’t wait to go home, so my cock can make you feel real good” He grunts “I hate to think that all of my cum will be wasted on my hand when it could have such a better use inside your pussy” His accent grew thicker by the minute

“Or would you like it inside your mouth? I bet you do, love...We both know how much you love giving me head. And you’re so fucking good at it! The best blowjob I’ve ever gotten...Taking it all in, chocking on it like a good little slut”

My fingers were now imitating his pace and I could already feel my orgasm quickly approaching.

“Fuck baby I’m gonna cum” He moans and I see spurts of thick white cum, shooting down his hand, dripping on the floor.

The vision was enough to make me cum as well, my walls clenching tightly around my fingers.

Drew takes the phone off the countertop and zooms in his length and release.

I felt a mini orgasm rush through me as I saw up close the veins of his cock and his cum slipping down his shaft.

“I wished you could lick me clean right now, princess” He focus on his face again and says “Fuck babe, I miss you so much, see you when I get home” He winks and smiles, ending the video.

I decide to call him, he answered on the second ring

“Wow, you should open an OnlyFans account, you’re too good at this!” I joke

He laughed loudly before saying “Oh no baby, that’s just for you eyes only”

“So I have the ok to save it and watch it every fucking day?”

“Yeah, I want you to watch it every fucking day because then you’ll have no time to think about any other man” He teased

“As if I could think about any other man but you” I huffed “You ruined me McIntyre”

“Not the way that I wanted to, though” I can listen the malice on his voice

“Oh but you did! I’ve never came so hard with just my fingers”

“That was my intention, lass” He chuckled

“But you should be careful though, you know?” I say, my voice filled with worry

“Why? Are you gonna post it on PornHub?” He cackle

“You know I would never do that! But I’m just saying you should be careful because... I might send you one while you’re at the gym” My voice low with lust

“Y/N, don’t you dare to do that!” He warns me, but I can hear the excitement behind it.

“Oh you wait and see, baby, you just wait and see...”

God, I love this man!....

Please tell me how many Holy Mary’s should I pray for this devious Scottish sin I just committed? 🤣 Please leave me some feedback if you’re comfortable with it, is always welcomed and appreciated 🥰😘

[krastbannert]

Hi Krispy!

15, 20 and 25 in trying to get to know my author

15) why did you start writing?

It's been so incredibly long that to be honest...I'm not sure I remember the exact reason. I know the first thing I wrote was a Skyrim fanfic that took place after the game's main story ended, and I think I wrote it because I wanted to know what happened after Alduin's death? That's as much as I can remember, though.

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

Usually I'll sit down for a long session and have little spurts of activity within it - I'll write for 30-45 minutes at a time, take a break for 10-15 minutes, then repeat for...however long. Couple hours at a time, usually.

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

This is more than a few lines, for sure, but I'm really fond of this section for some reason.

From Brave Soldier Girl Chapter III, 'so open your eyes child, let's be on our way':

“Are you afraid of me?” She asks an orderly as she’s escorted to her room. She doesn’t know why she asks - the question just…appears in her mind. 

There’s just a brief moment of hesitation before he shakes his head.

“Uh, no, princess, I-I’m not,” he replies, as he wrestles with the window, finally thrusting it open. For a moment, he seems to be telling the truth - but when he turns, she can tell: he’s not. He’s lying, at least somewhat. His voice wavers, but his gaze is steady, and there’s…something in his eyes.

(Is that…pity?

She doesn’t want pity.)

She looks away from the orderly as he pauses in the doorway, trying to will her voice to sound louder, to steady itself. It doesn’t work. Her voice just comes out as a ghost of a whisper as the orderly closes the door.

“You should be.”

(She knows she is.

Azula thinks, sometimes, that she sounds as crazy as the world says she is.)

------

Asks came from this ask game!

[angelicmichael]

Oohh, could you do number 10 from the physical affection prompts? "Lifting someone up out of excitement"? Maybe a pregnancy announcement or love confession with whichever Cody guy you feel most inspired by?

A/N: sooo I decided to use duncan for this prompt since I've never written for him before!! Also, I like a challenge so.. I made this both a pregnancy announcement and love confession 👉🏻👈🏻 hope you dont mind!! I hope you enjoy this dear anon 💖. This is a bit long and plot heavy hehe

~

Waking up to extreme nausea was not how you had originally planned to spend last weekend. What was supposed to be a fun weekend with your friends.. and fuck buddy.. only ended in you becoming best friends with the toilet with one too many plans cancelled.

You hated being sick; but feeling sick and miserable and guilty at the same time was beyond overwhelming. Most of your friends forgave you and understood why you had to reschedule plans. However... your fuck buddy which went by the name 'Duncan' wasnt going to be so forgiving.

Not at first anyway; you knew he would come around eventually.. give or take a few days.

Although, Duncans opinion of you was not the only thing you were stressed out about lately. You also wanted to know why the fuck you got so sick so fast.

It wasnt flu season, you had no reason to be sick, it certainly was not food poisoning... There was only 'one' thing it could still be..

You could be fucking pregnant.

Being pregnant in itself was not something you dreaded; being a mother was something you always knew you wanted to be, and would be one day.

The problem of being pregnant here had to do with 'who' the father would be. And that would be none other than Duncan fucking Shepard.

You knew it was him; you hadn't had sex with anyone in months besides him. Plus.. you two weren't exactly the most careful either when it came to using protection. You knew deep down if you were really pregnant at all; it would have to be with his baby.

Although, things still werent as simple as they seem.

Again, you really had no doubt that Duncan would make a good father, it was just the circumstances you two were in currently that complicated things.

He didnt know you loved him. You two weren't official, you two just happened to be really good friends who, you know.. had sex.

You were nearly certain he didnt love you back, not in the way that you meant anyway. You knew instinctively that when he said 'I love you' to you that he meant it in a way that he would say to his friend or family.. That's probably all he saw you as anyway, just as a friend or family.

That thought made you sick if you started to think that's how you can duncan could end up forever unless you or him made a move. It was a thought that frequently plagued you and even gave you insomnia most nights.

Those thoughts of you and Duncans 'relationship' are what caused you to get a pregnancy test. You needed to know why the fuck you were sick, and if those thoughts about you and Duncan were rational or simply your anxiety attempting to manifest. And of course to your fucking demise, it was a positive test.

You first sat in shock; and then you did the most stupid thing you could think of - you called Duncan.

Of course you didnt outright tell him, you only told him that you needed to see him ASAP and that he needed to come over to see you.

That was about 20 minutes ago.

You awaited for him anxiously in your apartment; you sat on your bed - fully clothed with a bit of makeup splashed on your face in a attempt to look put together. You were absolutely terrified to even think about what the fuck was about to happen.

Your thoughts were racing as you sat in the dark. You didnt even bother turning on the lights; the blinds were drawn as well. Sitting in the dark was kind of comforting - it made everything feel less real.. As if you were dreaming. Although, the anxiety you still felt reminded you that you were in fact, still awake. You truly had no clue what kind of conversation you were about to have.

You didnt even jump when you heard the front door loudly pop open, you had given him one of the keys to your apartment. You listened diligently to his loud footsteps echoing in the living room, as he gradually grew closer and closer to your room. Then, the door opened as you inhaled.

Duncan looked distraught as he entered the room. His hair was slightly disheveled, his outfit looked slightly wrinkled as well. Overall, he looked put together but the longer you stared at him - the more apparent it was that he wasnt okay. He wasted no time in getting to you once he opened the door, it almost threw you off guard at how calm he looked.. something you weren't expecting. You nearly laughed at how out of character this was for Duncan.

"Hey, are you okay"? Duncan asked, speaking rather quickly.

You watched as Duncan hurriedly but cautiously approached you; sitting next to you on your bed.

"I- I mean, yeah I'm okay. I just wanted to see you". You (semi) smoothly lied, thinly smiling in a attempt to try to sell your poorly told lie.

He rolled his eyes and gave you a look as if he automatically knew you were giving him bullshit.

"(Y/n), I know your sick, baby. Just tell me the truth". He said.

Your heart leapt into your throat once you heard him call you the petname. Duncan definetly called you pet names before but it was a rare, once in a long time type of thing. However, it felt like to you that the fact he called you 'baby' only solidified what you knew you had to do.

You had to tell him.

He deserved to know; and you deserved to move on with your life or to attempt too.

"Duncan.. I.. I cant keep doing this anymore". You started, speaking slowly. Your words tumbled fast out of your mouth, knowing that Duncan was about to interrupt you any minute.

"I need you to decide whether you want to be fully committed to me, or to not be in my life at all. I dont really know how to say this but, I'm in a stage of my life where I cant 'fake' be with you, Duncan. I cant only be with you behind closed doors. That's just.. not going to work anymore". You said confidently.

Even though you sounded confident, you really felt quite the opposite. You had no idea what to expect of how he would react. What if he just left?? What if he didnt want to be with you, at all??

You held your breath as he continued to sit next to you; the silence almost deafening.

You looked over at Duncan, he studied his hands which were clasped together over his knees. He looked as if he wanted to speak but he couldnt get the words out... until he finally did break the silence.

"So, what are you suggesting? What are you trying to get at here, exactly"? He prompted. His voice was still slow and calm but he sounded slightly irritated and on edge. You couldnt blame him.

Your mouth grew dry as you shifted uncomfortably. You were thankful he responded but yet.. you now were the one at a loss for words.

"I'm suggesting that.. we should start dating. I cant keep doing this-" You started but Duncan made you ate your words as he interrupted you with a rough kiss.

You felt the world stop and almost turn into slow motion as you really started to melt into the kiss. You let your previous anxiety inducing thoughts melt away the longer you two kissed, as you focused on being present in the moment.

After Duncan slowly and begrudgingly pulled away from you, you two sat in silence for a couple seconds.

"So that's why your acting like this"? Duncan asked with a sly smirk.

You swore it was as if he already knew the answer, yet chose to ask you anyway just to be a smartass.

"So.. you actually want to date me?? Your know what your agreeing too, right"? You said, partially teasing and.. actually being serious.

"(Y/n), do you really think I would be talking to you this long if I had no interest in you? Of course I want to date you, what kind of question is that"?! Duncan retorted playfully with a quiet chuckle.

You grinned, letting out a shallow laugh with the realization that the biggest news still remained untold; a deep pit felt like it resided in your stomach.

You weren't quite out of the woods yet.

In order to help relieve your anxiety, you suddenly stood up off your bed. You paced around your room, running a hand shakily through your hair.

"I still have to tell you something". You admitted, your back turned to him.

There was no way you could even fathom making eye contact with him now. To your horror, you could hear your bed gently squeak as you could only guess as he stood up.

By the time you felt his hand on your shoulder, it was too late to even hear his footsteps. You jumped and turned around with a sharp inhale - to your surprise, nearly chest to chest with the main himself.

Duncan.

"What are you trying to hide for, hm"? He said teasingly.

He moved his face closer to yours; his lips *so* close to yours. The corner of your mouth upturned in a small closed mouth smile.

You uttered a quick, "I'm not". As you stole a quick kiss.

You anxiously took a few paces back. Taking a deep breath before whipping around and making eye contact on a sudden spurt of courage you felt.

"I'm pregnant, Duncan". You spoke.

You felt almost as if you were dreaming when you saw his reaction, he was fucking smiling. Was he actually fucking happy?!

You stood there frozen as he quickly approached you and gently held your waist. Before you could even comprehend or really even complain of what was happening - you felt him gently lift you up and give you a quick spin before landing you back down safely on your feet.

Duncans smile was infectious; before you knew it you were grinning and laughing along with him.

Any doubt you previously had immeadietly disintigrated and was replaced with hope and joy. You knew Duncan was going to make the best father, and that you two only had your lives ahead of you.

~

Taglist: @mina672 @michaellangdonstanaccount @langdonsexual @jimmason @blakewaterxx @dark-mei-rose @9layerdevilfoodcake @prophecy-is-inevitable @matildaofoz @beautyiswithinchaos @frenchlangdon @beyond-repentance

[cheswirls]

[ pt 1/2 of the tensemi track au!! small note, when i started this (almost) a year ago i confused the one mile records with the 100 meter records, so this fic goes w/ the assumption the 100m record is 4 seconds. yes i know the 100m record is 10s. no i am not going to change it. just read it regarding this info, and it should be smooth. ]

year one |

the spring before eita’s freshman year, he has a growth spurt. it’s not anything big, only a handful of inches, but it’s enough to make a difference as he works around it in his training regimen. his legs get longer, his steps grow wider, and by the time track and field tryouts come around, he’s confident he’s adjusted enough to the change to make a difference.

“next, semi-san!”

a whistle blows as eita lines up and crouches on the third lane, eyes lifting to catch the 100 meter mark in his sight. he tenses his arms and lifts his figure, and on the next whistle he’s off.

eita likes running. he can’t remember a time in his life when he didn’t. but it’s the short bursts he likes best. he doesn’t have to worry about pacing himself. he doesn’t have the time to watch anyone around him. ten seconds and it’s over. ten seconds and he’s at the finish line, breaking a couple paces after, hands on his knees for a brief moment before he straightens up and turns.

everyone is silent around him. it wouldn’t bother eita so much, but they’re all watching him, and a feeling of unease creeps up his spine. it’s only elevated when they all start breaking out in chaotic whispers, and he turns his head to see the assistant coach blinking at his stopwatch.

“semi-san,” the head coach calls, and eita steps forward, shoes leaving the track for the grass on the inner field. the assistant coach finally moves his gaze away, looking incredulously to semi, but it sharply turns to pride and something else, like he just found an old treasure buried deep in a treasure chest.

“what was your average last year?” the head coach asks, and eita stumbles through his answer, mind still fixed on the expression of the assistant coach and the implications it suddenly held.

and that was how semi eita first learned he could run 100 meters in six seconds.

-

they have him come to day two of tryouts to run another. just to prove it wasn’t a fluke. eita knows it wasn’t, because he had run several that past night, just to prove to himself that it was all real. the same result happens. 6.4 seconds and his feet cross the line.

one of the football coaches that served as an assistant during off-season casually flips through a stapled bunch of papers, frowning slightly when he reached the end. “this is your only event?” he asks semi.

eita nods, and the assistant coach from the other day hums, taking the list to flip back a couple pages.

“why don’t you try for a 200 as well? i’m sure with-”

“i’m sorry, but i only run sprints.” both coaches look up in surprise, and eita bows sharply. then he turns and jogs off, done for the day.

when the list of names comes out the next day, he isn’t surprised to find he’s made it. he is surprised that there is only a single reporting time, and that they aren’t all separated by event immediately. he seeks out the head coach with a frown, bemused by the provided training. eita trains alone. it’s not that he minds the company, but he has his own routine. it worked through middle school, and it worked through the spring, and it would work now. besides, going through the same practice the long-distance runners did wouldn’t help him. it was just impractical. especially with his results.

the head coach takes his speech in stride, and then he tosses his head back and laughs. after calming down, he pats semi on the shoulder and shakes his head. “tell you what, kid. you place at nationals, and i’ll let you do whatever you want. but this year, i want you to try things our way. you came to shiratorizawa for a reason, right?” he winks.

the suggestion irks him, but he can’t deny the truth in the words. so, with a long-suffering sigh, eita bows his head and hurries off to join practice.

-

midway through pre-season is when eita has enough. usually, they’re divided by mid, long, and short distance, and given slightly different training exercises. today, though-

“everyone is running three miles.” one of the coaches points to the perimeter of the field, where a gate lines the outside. “there’s a road around the gate that circles the football fields and the tennis courts. twice around and back should be the distance you need. once you’re done, you’re free to go.”

everyone starts heading off, and eita snaps from his frozen position. “i can’t run three miles!” he bursts. a few people pause to look, some snickering, but he ignores them. a look from the coaches has him backing up, however, switching out his words. “i can walk three miles. can i -can i do that? that wouldn’t be that long. i could do it in, uh-” he breaks off, mumbling the math, the 20 on average so times three- “an hour. can i do that?”

one of the assistant answers him with another question. “can you run one mile?”

eita blinks. “yes,” he says, because he might be a sprinter, but one mile is nothing. the coach nods.

“okay. then walk two and run one. is that acceptable?”

eita purses his lips. “yes,” he mutters, and doesn’t stick around to see them change their minds.

-

shiratorizawa is an elite school. he knew this coming here, he knew the competition would be rough, he knew everyone around him was the best in their field. he thought he was good enough to be able to keep up.

but with a near four second improvement in his time, semi goes from good to untouchable.

there’s one other shiratorizawa athlete in his event, an upperclassman eita had never spoken with, but they’re in different heats and his concentration is pinpoint. it’s hot, but the breeze is there to cool him off, and eita sits down on the grass to do his stretches. if anyone approaches him, he doesn’t notice. there’s a group of girls a few paces away wearing the same purple uniform as him, but they don’t pay any attention to him, so he does the same.

he lines up when his rotation comes up and takes a deep breath as he crouches into position.

in, out. bang.

eita’s eyes lock on to the finish mark and he unconsciously speeds up, lungs burning, muscles twitching, giving his all for this short burst.

he doesn’t look behind him when he finishes, only up, but it’s not the same as middle school. the scoreboard still has results from two events ago. he sighs and walks off the track, hands on his head. he’d been used to having results immediately, but miyagi was a big region, and there were still three more heats to go before they compiled the results.

one of the assistant coaches comes up and hands him a water, congratulates him. eita nods in thanks, taking it, but he doesn’t feel excited. he may have won his heat, but he still didn’t know where he placed overall.

he kind of zones out, one minute gazing at the track as people line up for the 200 meter, and then the next he’s met with people carting out hurdles from the infield. he blinks and looks up to the scoreboard, and right on cue an announcer comes on to reveal the results for the mens 100 meter.

eita lets out a breath as he sees his name first. it’s not until he sees the point gap between him and second place does he realize how easy a time he had it. there’s nearly a five point lead. he’d completely crushed the competition.

later, as eita descends the podium with his medal, a handful of people in purple come up to congratulate him. eita doesn’t really recognize their faces, much less know their names, so he just does his best to smile and nod.

practice doesn’t change. and of course it wouldn’t. the coach’s offer was for semi to place at nationals, not a regional meet. the win didn’t count for anything but his pride. none of them did until the qualifier, it was all for the experience.

eita still practices alone, within the team. he’s divided up with the short distance runners and sent through the same paces, but he keeps to himself as he completes the drills. he doesn’t even know what the other runners think of him, and he really doesn’t care, either. he’s there to run.

-

end-of-term exams come around on the first week of july, and the track team is given a full ten days off in light of it.

at first, eita does as usual. grades have never been anything he’s really needed to concern himself with. he spends the extra time training, pushing himself in his newfound solitude.

but then all his tests are over, and school is preparing to shut down for summer break. before the week can let out, with five days to go until practice resumes as usual, eita runs, breathless, into the staff room, managing to corner one of the assistant coaches before he can leave.

“you want a key to the gym?” eita nods and he scratches his head, lightly frowning. “you know, the break is there for you to rest, and not just because of exams.”

“i get plenty of rest,” eita argues.

the coach sighs. “of course you do. look, we’re not supposed to let first-years wander off with keys, but . .” he shrugs, leaning forward in his chair to sort through a desk drawer. “you’re a good kid, semi-kun. if you think you need the equipment in the gym, i’ll let you borrow this.” he holds out a plain keyring and eita takes it with a nod. “give it back next time you see me, okay? and don’t forget when the next team practice is!”

eita is euphoric when given the opportunity. he’s halfway home when he notices the skip in his step, and then he realizes just how much energy he was pent up with, immediately setting off in a different direction. it takes half an hour before he’s sure he can return home without his mom yelling at him to quit bouncing off the walls, and by the time he’s on the porch steps he’s panting so bad he tries to use the gym key to unlock the front door.

his usual solo workout he’d adapted to before high school serves him well in the break, and adding on the private use of the gym makes it even better. the lights still turn on, thankfully, and the windows let in the sun just enough that even if they didn’t, it might not even matter. it’s not unusual to be here alone like he thought it might be -mostly it’s just quiet, which -even if he was reluctant to admit it- has grown quite odd. he’s accustomed to the low rumble that accompanied a large group -feet on the turf, murmurs, whistle blows, the shuffling of equipment.

on the morning of the eleventh day, eita wakes up early and jogs down to the school, keys jangling hidden in his pocket. he finds the particular coach he’d borrowed them from and manages to sneak them back without anyone else becoming wiser. if he was lucky, that would mean he’d have earned the trust to have them again.

-

the miyagi prefectural athletics meet in the middle of july doubled as the national qualifier for two weeks later, in august. even if the venue hadn’t been close by eita’s home, shiratorizawa still put the school’s budget to good use, transporting all the students in one go once they had gathered at the school.

eita’s internal musings he’d had since middle school of but i could have gotten there faster if i had walked from home take a hard backseat to the thrumming in his veins, the pure ecstasy he feels where he was headed and what he was headed there for.

the coaches camp out a big spot on the infield and shiratorizawa gathers into a cluster, throwing down personal bags and coolers and various other things until all around eita is a sea of royal purple.

there are three hours until his event, but he starts stretching right away, slipping off his warmup jacket and his trainers so he has enough traction to rest his feet on his shoulders. his eyes glance to the track periodically while he goes through the motions, watching as various smaller events take place.

noise to his left makes him glance up, sliding both legs to the turf. there’s a large crowd gathered around one of the field events -he can’t tell which one from his height. eita eyes the time and thinks, just for a moment, about going to investigate.

then he tunes that part of his brain out, resuming his stretches.

he goes for a run, careful to keep out of the way. he sprawls out on the infield, staring up at the sun as it tracks higher in the sky. it’s a nice day, overall. not too hot. a little cloudy, but not enough to threaten to rain.

his shoelaces get readjusted as someone comes to inform him of his heat. he has a number pinned to his back, the sun appears just a bit from behind thin clouds, and the roar of the crowd pulls him finally onto the track.

he’d missed competing in this spot. prefecturals were the same location no matter what school grade you were in. it felt like coming home.

he breathes out deep and crouches in his lane, looking down to adjust his footing before looking up to the finish line. it’s a singular focus, and slowly but surely, all the noise around him fades, until it’s only the internal sounds of adrenaline ringing in his ears.

bang. and he’s off.

his spikes dig in on the line before he fully realizes, having to force himself to stop several paces after, nearly tripping over himself. he looks back over his shoulder, breathing heavy, and throws his arms over his head.

there are still runners crossing the finish line. it’s a wild feeling, one eita’s never bothered to cash in on, and one that makes him absolutely dizzy with delight.

he crushes the time from his previous meet, and seeing the seconds lined up with the overall results has him feeling almost insane. there truly was no competition out here anymore. if he wanted a challenge, he’d have to go looking for it.

and that was exactly what he was going to do, he realizes, as he steps off the podium with a gold medal in hand and the proud gaze of the head coach on him.

-

nationals is in fukui, a six hour train ride away, on the second of august. on the first of the month, shiratorizawa loads onto a train in the morning. eita is not surprised to see many of his peers around him that would be competing in nationals -shiratorizawa was simply that kind of school.

eita has been on the shinkansen before, and knowing what kind of trip it would be, takes some of his summer homework to finish. since he also knows that they would be changing lines in tokyo for the one to kanazawa, he picks some of the less challenging, mind-numbing ones so that he’ll have enough awareness to switch trains.

eita sits in an aisle seat next to a boy he doesn’t know. it’s mostly uneventful, with him scribbling away at his papers and the boy leaning forward to talk to the students that sat in the row ahead. when eita feels like the noise around him is too much, he puts an earbud in and plays songs at random from his phone.

at kanazawa, they switch to a regular train for the last leg of the trip to fukui. it’s definitely hotter closer to the coast like this, and eita feels the lingering regret in his choice of clothing as his track jacket starts sticking to him. the train ride this time should be less than an hour, so everything is packed up in his backpack, and his overnight bag rests in his free hands as he waits for the train at the station.

“semi-san?” he hears as he climbs aboard, sighing in relief at the air conditioning. he looks over to find a girl with a high ponytail leaning out of her seat and into the aisle to address him. she smiles when he makes eye contact. “there’s a free seat here. come sit with us!”

and that’s how he finds himself nestled in with a few second-years. the seats face each other here, which means there was more leg room. everyone has their bags by their feet instead of the overhead slots, and eita follows suit, pushing his overnight bag under the window seat he’d been given and unzipping his other bag as he places it against the wall.

“-don’t understand why i had to give up my seat,” the boy to his left is complaining. it gives eita pause, as he’s reaching for his earbuds. the girl adjacent to him visibly rolls her eyes, rocking her feet forward to knock against the boy’s.

“semi’s a first year, silly. he’s probably never seen this before.”

“if it matters that much to you i’ll switch,” the boy across from eita says, and at that point he’s got one earbud in and his music switched on, so he no longer pays attention as they begin to switch around.

he does end up gazing out the window as they begin to move, and is surprised that he can see the coastline from here. a tap on his arm makes him glance to his left, where the girl has apparently switched seats to. she half-waves and points to her ear, and eita startles, moving to pause the music.

“you’re only wearing one,” she notes.

he shrugs. “i want to be able to hear if something happens.”

she lets out a little laugh at this, slouching in her seat. her legs are thrown over her bag, and she switches which is crossed over the other at the ankle. “don’t worry about that,” she tells him. “i’ll let you know.”

it’s an odd bout of kindness, and eita suddenly feels weird that he doesn’t know her name, or any of their names, really, even when they knew his. she moves into a conversation with the boys, leaving him to his own devices, and eita takes the chance to shrug off the awkwardness, pushing both earbuds in and closing his eyes.

maybe he falls asleep, he’s not sure, but a shaking on his arm gets him to open his eyes. it takes a moment for his vision to settle, and then his arm is shaken again, and he lolls his head to see the second-year girl nodding toward the aisle, where one of the assistant coaches stood.

eita takes the hint and pulls the earbuds out.

“-passing out your room assignments,” the coach is saying, handing stacks of envelopes to whoever was in reach. the boy adjacent to eita accepts the bundle, flipping through to grab the one with his name, and then handing the other three their own. eita takes his gingerly, frowning lightly at his name, and then tugs the flap open to find a list of names on a slip of paper next to a room number, and a key-card for the place they were staying.”

“oh, cool,” the one across from him, in the other window seat, was saying. eita glances up and then glances back up when he sees he’s being watched. “looks like we’re sharing.”

eita looks back down to the names, pursing his lips. maybe he lucked out, then, that out of the three he didn’t recognize, one of them he’d already met.

“that’s convenient,” the girl says. “who else is there?”

instead of listening to him list off the names, she leans into eita’s space and reads for herself. eita takes this in stride, turning the paper to face her, and her eyes light up when she recognizes the connection.

“oh, it’s all the short-distance. i guess there are only five of you. take care of semi-san, okay? he’s the only kouhai you’ve got on this trip.”

eita blinks, caught up on the last part. he misses his roommate’s confirmation as he puzzles this out, and ends up speaking before he realizes. “i’m the only first year?”

they all look at him, and then one by one, start bursting into laughter.

“man, you’re really out of your element here, huh?” the other boy, the not-roommate, says. eita’s lips purse as he tries to think of a comeback. he holds out his hands. “i didn’t mean anything bad. just, well-”

“you’re not very social, is what he’s saying,” the girl says. “there’s a girl on the relay team that’s a first-year, but you’re the only one with an individual event.”

oh. there had been so many that morning that he had just assumed almost everyone had placed for nationals. knowing most of them were second and third-years was . . well, it certainly helped his ego. not that he was letting that go to his head or anything.

before he can ask more, the train arrives, and he’s quickly grabbing his things before being pushed off and led away by one of the boys he’d be staying with.

-

fukui is nice. hot. humid. it’s a dizzying combination that has him staying in the hotel lobby instead of venturing out to see the sights, declining every invitation he’s offered. he finishes the portion of homework he’d been working through on the shinkansen, then puts the rest away for the trip back home. his mom calls after he’s procured a bottle of water, and he visits with her for a minute, lounging on one of the seats in the air-conditioned space.

after showering away a morning’s worth of travel, eita lies down in the unit on one of the beds. he’s the only one in the room, and after his lightheadedness doesn’t quite clear up upon consuming an energy bar, he doesn’t wait for any of the upperclassmen to return to tell him to take the pull-out bed, falling asleep on top of the duvet.

he ends up skipping dinner. when he wakes it’s late, around eleven, and the only light in the room comes from a small lamp near the wall on the other side of the bed. eita glances over to see the boy from the train leaning back against the pillows, scrolling on his phone. he looks up when eita turns and nods to the bedside table on eita’s side, where a peeled orange and a handful of crackers sat.

“for me?” eita murmurs, noticing the room’s other occupants are asleep.

“mhmm. you should try and sleep more, but eat that first. you’ll need something in you before tomorrow.”

“thanks,” he mumbles, reaching over to pull the meal into his lap. he doesn’t necessarily feel bad anymore, but something is still off, which is concerning. maybe it was the change in weather.

the salt from the crackers helps. the orange is good too. eita can’t believe it’s peeled. he sure lucked out with the upperclassmen he was assigned.

“i’m going to bed,” the boy says, after eita has finished and tossed the napkin away. he reaches over to turn off the light, and waves his lit phone for eita to see. “i set an alarm for the morning, so don’t be scared when it goes off.”

“oh, okay,” eita whispers, climbing under the covers. “thank you.”

“nah, don’t sweat it. that’s what i’m here for -to make your life easier.”

“not to win tomorrow?”

“well, that too. night, semi.”

“night.”

-

the next morning eita’s head is swimming, and nothing helps. his pained frown persists through a hot shower, a light breakfast, two medication pills, and the bus ride over to the stadium. he tries to ward off his concerned roommate that he really should be remembering the name of, but all that really gets him is more persistent near-coddling, until eita finally has enough and goes to sprawl in the grass near a corner of the track.

the sky is cloudless and the sun bright, this time. the heat is not helping in the slightest. eita rests a condensating water bottle against his forehead and extends his arms into the air, trying to convince himself to sit up and stretch.

maybe it was nerves. though, he’s never experienced anything like that before. maybe not never, maybe when he was younger, but it’s been a long time, and it wasn’t really something he’d think to concern himself over anymore, so this had to be the cause of something else.

he hopes he’s not sick. that would suck.

he goes through warmup and forgets everything as soon as he’s done it, leaving his body thrumming and his mind blank. he’s not the only one who’s noticed, either, as one of the coaches comes over to have a look at him, coercing him back into the fold and closer to where the rest of shiratorizawa is gathered.

“you still don’t look great,” he says, and eita snorts.

“i’ll be okay,” he mutters.

“still wanna run?” he asks, and eita nods. “alright, that’s your choice. just take it easy until then. keep yourself hydrated. you eat enough this morning?” another nod. “good. come grab someone if you get worse.”

it’s less than ten seconds. he’s only in one event. and it’s nationals, for crying out loud. even if he was dying eita still wouldn’t give up his chance to run.

but when he finally steps into his lane, he feels like his insides have been replaced with cotton. he squeezes his eyes shut and his vision clears, but he still feels slow, heavy. uncoordinated.

at least he knows he can stay in-between his own set of lines. he has enough awareness to position himself with the others, and to hear the signal to start.

that’s about the only thing he remembers. one of the coaches hands him a water when he comes off the track, tells him to eat something. he sits in the grass and drains half the bottle, then nearly passes out.

eventually he does end up falling asleep. he doesn’t feel any better when he’s woken up, but he’s regained enough awareness to put that as secondary, and his results as priority.

when he sees them his heart falls.

-

at eita’s first athletics nationals for the 100m sprint he clocks in at 8.6 seconds. the time is still leagues above his peers, and the only ones ahead of him are third-years.

he places fourth.

even with a remarkable time in his less-than-perfect condition, it’s still not enough for a medal.

the head coach finds him on the field as the sun is setting, and everything is beginning to wrap up. he sits easy beside eita, who rests with his head on his knees. “you still feel sick?”

“sorta?” eita mumbles. he’d eaten lunch, and drank a lot of water and pocari, and camped out in the shade near the bleachers. he’d thought, briefly, about watching other events -at the very least the event of the senpai who’d watched out for him- but he just hadn’t felt well enough to try.

“you timed in at under nine seconds feeling like shit,” coach says bluntly, and eita blinks, moving his head to face him properly. he shrugs. “c’mon, semi, you’re sixteen. i know you’ve heard worse.”

he wasn’t wrong, but it still was a little unexpected.

“you’re the only sixteen-year-old to place in the top twenty. wanna know how i know? because there’s only fifteen slots for 100 meter at nationals, and there’s not another first year around who’s come even close to touching those times. i’ve had enough people on my ass this afternoon telling me that to start to believe it.”

“people have been talking about me?” eita mutters in quiet disbelief.

“yeah, kid, had to beat ‘em off with a stick. wasn’t gonna let anyone interview you while you still looked like you would keel over at any moment. i saved you the trouble, let me tell you.”

he leans back further, gaze rising to the sky, as eita blinks and tries to come to terms with this.

“you didn’t do as well as you wanted, but you still did pretty damn amazing. fourth in the country out of people between sixteen and eighteen is nothing to scoff at. you’ve given me a lot to consider.”

eita looks up. “like what?”

coach shrugs, climbing to his feet and holding out a hand for eita. “i’ll decide on the train. you’ll hear about it by the time the new term starts.” he grins, pulls eita close to pat him on the back. “good work today. can’t wait to see what you’ll do when you’re in good condition.”

-

as promised, eita is greeted with news coming into the second term. big news.

even though he didn’t place at nationals, the head coach allows him a training exemption -two days a week with the team, and that was it. that was all he was obligated for, anyway. if he wanted to show up every day, they’d be happy to have him. if he wanted to focus on his own regimen, well, the staff knew how serious he was, and were happy to oblige him to a certain extent.

semi forks over his adjusted training regimen and has it added on to by one of the assistant coaches, and then sent loose. he pushes himself, balancing mediocre classwork with punishing workouts, and begins to spend less and less time with the team as a whole.

winter break comes and he again borrows one of the gym keys -this time asking the head coach directly. the granted request marks a sudden shift in eita’s mindset. they’re watching me, he realizes. it’s euphoric. he’s a first-year at a powerhouse school like shiratorizawa, and yet he’s being given this special attention.

by the time third term rolls around, it’s too cold to bother with anything but indoor workouts. eita is a regular occurrence in the staff room to borrow and return the gym key. he takes care of his health when he goes running outside. and he pushes himself, faster and harder and further and higher, to the point it becomes noticeable by his peers when he shows up for team practice that he was aiming for another level.

year 2 |

eita gets asked at the opening ceremony to show up to the first day of tryouts, so during the second week of the new term, he forgoes his study period to head out early to the field. none of the first-years are there yet, since school isn’t technically out, but a handful of second and third-years are, gathered close with the coaching staff.

there’s no skirting around them, especially since he didn’t know the reason his presence was required. one of the assistant coaches gets his attention and beckons him closer.

“i’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here,” he says, and eita nods. he grins, holding up a stopwatch next. “it’s about time to reevaluate your record, right?”

oh. oh. suddenly he feels a million times more excited.

“there’s a little more to it than that,” he continues, but eita could care less at this point. “not that you stuck around long enough to see it, but those of you here are our little exhibition gang for the next few days. something for the new kids to be excited about. it’s one thing to know shiratorizawa’s accolades by name, but it’s another thing entirely to see the competition yourself. so we’re re-assessing a handful of you now rather than at official practice, and in return, the first-years get to see what the track and field team is made of.”

“fine by me,” eita answers, nearly unable to keep still. he was used to being watched at this point. and this was beneficial for him, too, so who cared, really?

the coach rolls his eyes. “somehow i knew you’d be less-than-interested in that last part. but that’s okay. the group for day one is everyone you see here, and there will be separate groups for the other two days, so after we’re done with you today we’ll just see you again when practice starts.”

eita was ushered off to join the other students until tryouts began, with instructions to come find that particular short-distance coach so they could time him and cut him loose. he’s greeted after a minute by the relay girl he’d met at nationals, and they engage in idle conversation about the new school year until a plethora of students start to trickle in through the gates.

“i know it’s intended to be the other way around, but this is a good chance to observe them, too,” she ends up saying, and eita, confused, turns back to her. she rolls her eyes. “you never know who’ll end up being your competition. i remember last year, everyone was kinda shocked when a first-year timed in at under ten seconds on a sprint.”

it takes him a moment -too long, really- to catch on, but when he does, he sits up straight in a hurry, pointing to himself. she throws her head back and laughs, her long ponytail trailing on the track.

“you do what you want,” she tells him. “but keep in mind: it’s not a bad idea to watch at how they do.”

one of the older girls calls to her, and she jumps up to go get her hair braided before tryouts really began. eita sits, partially shocked, and thinks that this year, it would maybe be a good idea to not be so self-absorbed.

-

he thinks that, but in actuality, he doesn’t engage with the first-years at all. he stays around the short-distance group his assigned coach was watching over, and while he’s close enough to watch, he’s also far enough for them to not try and engage him. it probably helps that he’s in his track jacket, so they know he’s an upperclassman and not another first-year for them to try and make friends with.

the coach signals for him after he’s warmed up, and eita moves to the track where a third-year short-distance runner was waiting. his arms go over his head in a stretch as the third-year takes a seat near him on the infield, glancing to the coach waiting at the finish mark.

“okay,” eita puffs out, crouching down. “ready.”

the third-year moves to face their coach entirely, cupping his hands over his mouth to be heard over the bustle that was tryouts. eita’s fingertips tense on the track.

“go!” he shouts, more for the coach’s benefit than eita’s own, and eita rockets off. any lingering thoughts he’d had before that moment evaporate. he has a sole focus, leaving no room for anything, not even the pounding of his heart in his chest.

he breaks around three feet after the line, puffing out breaths and feeling the heat of the sun stark on his skin after the exertion. after giving himself a moment he turns to see the coach jotting something down on a clipboard. he glances up and nods at eita, and eita comes closer, meeting up with the third-year that hangs half a step back.

“6.1,” he’s told, and eita’s eyes widen. even if it’s within expectations, the notion that he’d improved is sending him. his mind keeps flashing back to the scoreboard at fukui, to the leading two times. if he could outrun those now, and he would only keep getting better, then. then-

“you’ve shaved off .3 seconds from this time last year. very nice.” the coach nods behind eita, and eita cocks his head slightly and then turns it fully over his shoulder when he finds the head coach standing close by, hands on his hips.

“nice going, kid,” he says, and eita nods. a clap on his shoulder has him looking forward again. the third-year is grinning, lips pulled wide enough to show teeth.

“that’s amazing, semi-kun! i’ve never met anyone with that kinda time before.”

“thanks,” he mutters, suddenly numbed by all the praise. shit, he could be able to thank this guy by name. he didn’t even know what event he ran. was it the 300m? the 150?

the hand moves from his shoulder to his hair, ruffling the two-toned strands, but eita is unbothered, letting it happen. “we’re done, right?” he asks the short-distance coach.

“you two can go,” he assures them. “but take semi by the mids before that. i want him to see kawanishi, and they should be about to start.”

“got it!”

eita lets himself be dragged away, towards another end of the field. “who’s kawanishi?” he mumbles.

“a first-year high jumper. well, that’s what he’s known for, but field events are tomorrow, and they wanted him to try an 800 meter today.”

“hm.”

they take a seat near the mids group, more aligned with the edge of the track. it’s easy enough to spot kawanishi before he’s pointed out to eita -he’s the tallest one there. definitely looked like a high jumper. did he even have the stamina for two laps? long legs weren’t everything.

but thoughts like those quickly dissipate when the first six are lined up and take off. he tunes out his upperclassman to watch, overanalyzing as the mid-distance runners ran around the track. kawanishi wasn’t bad, actually. he needed to pace himself better, but if they thought he was a good fit, the coaches would teach him how.

his form is good. eita hasn’t seen textbook form like that in a long time. he wonders, briefly, if that was kawanishi’s style, or if he didn’t know any other way just yet.

regardless, he clocks in first out of his group. when he crosses the line eita finds that he’s been leaning forward, and sits back in a hurry. his companion muffles a laugh and eita huffs, standing. “that was it, right?”

“almost,” the third-year says, cheerful, and jumps to his feet as well. “swing by the clubroom with me. i’m supposed to give you taiju’s things.” eita must look confused again, because he’s grabbed by the elbow and hauled off. “geez, you’ve never been to the clubroom, huh? i know you don’t show up to practice that much, but c’mon, semi-kun, that’s like, a sacred space! especially now that you’re a second-year, you should practically be living there!”

“i remember a taiju, i think,” eita mutters.

“he was the third-year 100 meter runner the year before. club vice captain? clocked in at ninth in nationals? any of this ringing a bell?”

“uh, sorry,” eita ends up saying, throwing his head back.

“dude, don’t beat yourself up about it.” they stop and eita looks back down to see the other jangling a key into a scuffed door. “he’s only the guy you outran while you were on the verge of heat exhaustion.” he snickers. “plus, he’s gone now, so there’s no one around to offend, right? let me look -ah, here it is.” he pulls out a stack from a cubby and gestures eita closer. “coach wanted you to have his keys, said something about you not bothering him anymore for ‘em.”

“oh.” eita takes them numbly. “thanks.”

the other shrugs. “eh, he said it fondly, so i don’t think he was too pinched up about it. take care of those, alright? here, he left these too.”

eita is handed a thin plastic bag, and his grip goes tighter on it when he realizes what they were. “really?”

“yeah, he wasn’t gonna run in college, so he left his spare spikes here. they’re pretty cool, i think he got them from overseas. well, it’s your choice if you wanna use them, alright? don’t feel like you have to or anything.”

“i don’t really use spikes,” eita admits. “i mean, i haven’t really tried.”

“first time for everything, right?” when eita looks up the third-year is smiling. “if you do decide to try ‘em out, you’ll have top-dollar ones to experiment with.”

this year really was . . starting to look different. and season hadn’t even started yet.

-

the second week of practice, and the third time semi shows up in the new term, the track team is graced by a visitor.

eita is collapsed on the slanted part of the hill leading away from the track after an exercise, breathing deep and clenching a water bottle tight in his hands. he raises it up for a drink when a loud ‘HEY!’ gets his attention, and ends up squirting water in his face, gasping at the cold sensation. one of the other runners near him breaks out into laughter. he’s not the only one, and eita sits up to look over his shoulder, catching the offender as he meanders down the hill.

he’s tall, even doubled-over, having caught sight of eita’s accident and burst into this howling laughter that immediately gains the attention of everyone around who had overlooked him. eita purses his lips, setting the bottle in the grass between his legs.

“s-sorry, i didn’t meant to scare ya like that!” he assures eita, but his expression suggests he didn’t quite mean it.

“what are you doing here, tendou?” someone asks, and now eita has a name to put with the face.

“just checking in,” he says, waving the other off. he’s still in his school uniform, eita notes, even after school had been out for a- wait, checking in for what!?

“student council need something?” someone else asks. “what did we do for the vice president himself to come all the way out here?”

tendou flaps his hand harder, if possible. “nothing! i’m serious. i’m supposed to go check in with the clubs throughout the week, see that everything is running smoothly. it’s just a courtesy visit.”

“where’s ushijima, then? the president too good for courtesy visits?”

“waka’s at practice,” tendou states, a little too blunt. he stops short, hands in his pockets now, and a little too close for eita’s liking. “he’s done his share, so i told him to skip out today. i’ll bring him next time.” he perks up. “oh! yama’s here! later!”

he runs off, shouting loudly for one of the mid-distance runners, and eita collapses in the grass again, breathing out slow now that the wake of the hurricane has passed.

-

it’s the same day the following week that the student council shows up at the track field. eita spots the shock of red hair from across the field and inwardly grimaces. as expected, over time the volume rises, and by the time eita’s group is given a moment to cool down, two sets of footsteps are fast approaching.

“oh, perfect, you’re done,” tendou addresses the group as a whole, and eita closes his eyes as he flops to the ground, no longer willing to squint up at the bright sun.

“for now,” someone says.

“hey, you brought the president this time!” someone else says, and eita risks the sun to open his eyes.

before he can make out the other properly, coach is urging them all to get up. three laps around the track, and then they were good to go. eita is relieved, honestly. it had been a long enough practice already, and he didn’t really wanna be stuck around the two outsiders for longer than necessary.

his luck doesn’t last, though, as his name is called halfway through his second lap. eita slows to a jog, then stops entirely when he sees just who was vying for his attention, trying his best not to gawk.

the man was a hulk, for lack of a better word. if he hadn’t been in a student uniform, eita would’ve thought him a teacher. he blinks, pointing to himself, and the guy nods, moving down the hill a little to get closer. eita purses his lips, looks to the side at the others running, then sighs and moves to the outside lane.

“who’s this guy, waka?” tendou asks, and damn if he didn’t come out of nowhere, making eita jump, unable to contain himself as he’s startled. tendou blinks in surprise, then his face lights up, placing eita from the week before.

“semi eita,” waka says. “we’re in the same class.”

“we-” eita cuts himself off before he can finish embarrassing himself. if this guy says they were, eita would believe him. the student council president definitely had more social awareness than the likes of him.

he seems to catch on anyways, frowning slightly and offering his hand. eita takes it after hesitating long enough for it to matter. “ushijima wakatoshi,” he tells eita, and eita nods, reminding himself to commit the name to memory.

“hah? you mean you have waka in class and don’t even remember?” tendou starts laughing. “how do you miss a presence like that?”

eita turns his head to the side, fighting back a blush. ushijima must take pity on him, because he gestures to another group of people further down the way. “satori, there’s still more people, right?”

“yeah, yeah, go on ahead,” tendou says, waving him off. ushijima shrugs.

“good to see you, semi-kun.”

“uh, sure,” eita mumbles.

he turns to get back into a center lane, but tendou stops him. “hey, wait! i wanted to ask you something.”

eita’s careful as he bites down on his lip. “what is it?”

“your hair is neat!” tendou’s smile shows all his teeth, this time. “did you do it yourself?”

“oh.” eita reaches up subconsciously, fingering the darker tips. “yeah, last summer.” he probably needed to do it again, since he’d gotten his hair cut since then. though he’d really just been planning on growing it out, so that he wouldn’t have to mess with it for a while.

before tendou can say anything else, eita points to the track. “i’m. um. gonna go.”

“yeah yeah yeah.” tendou flaps his hand again and eita fights back a grimace. must be a habit or something. “thanks for letting me steal your time. i’ll let you get back to it.”

-

eita picks a different day of the week to show up for practice. the reason he gives isn’t anything special, but he was unwilling to admit the true reason was so that he could avoid the student council.

unfortunately it doesn’t matter.

he has his shoes off so he can balance his heel on his shoulder better, camped out on the grass a little further apart from the others moving about the field. once he feels like he can do it, he leans back and uses his hand to push his leg up by the ankle, until it’s extended all the way in the air. he sets his other hand back in the grass and breathes out, mentally counting down to when he could release.

“damn, you’re pretty flexible, huh?”

eita’s arm falters and his leg curls a little. he leans back to see around it, and his face goes carefully blank when he sees tendou satori standing there. he lets his leg drop fully, foot loud on the grass.

“what?”

“bet that’s good for all sorts of things,” tendou says, and eita frowns. he really needed to stretch his other leg, but like hell was he going to put himself on display for tendou to see, not after that comment. he moves his arm across his chest instead, looking straight ahead across the field.

“don’t you have other people to bother?” he says after he’s done with both arms, then promptly snaps his jaw shut, a little mortified. he hadn’t meant to say that. out loud.

tendou takes it in stride, laughing as he settles on the grass. “i’m just checking up,” he assures eita. “don’t have to go talk to everyone. i’m too busy today anyways.”

“then why me?” eita mutters, and if his ears are red then he can’t help it.

“you’re interesting.” eita frowns, glancing over at him. “no, really. i’m not being mean or anything. you just seem like a cool guy, semi-kun.”

“i’m pretty average,” he mumbles.

“yama says you’re good at your event.”

eita raises a brow and tendou rolls his eyes. “seriously? do you know anyone in your grade? yamagata hayato! he’s a mid-distance runner?”

“um.” eita turns away again. “uh.”

“semi! you ready or what?” someone shouts from across the field. eita takes the chance and climbs to his feet.

“gotta go,” he mutters. then he leaves tendou to sit there.

-

“waka!” a voice drawls out, and eita, who had bent down to retrieve a fallen object, jumps, ramming his head on the underside of his desk. he breathes out in pain, moving back to his knees, and his hand comes up to feel around his head.

“oh? semisemi, is that you?”

“what?” eita opens his eyes to squint, glancing to the open classroom door. tendou stood in front of it, one hand still on the handle.

“what are you doing on the ground, semisemi?” tendou moves fully into the near-empty room, hands in his pockets. eita drops his hand from his hair and slowly moves to his feet.

“that’s not my name,” he mutters, placing his pen back on his desk.

“oh, come now.” tendou waves his hand. “haven’t you ever heard of nicknames?”

“don’t people get those from their friends?”

tendou stumbles back for dramatics, holding a hand over his heart. “semisemi! you wound me. and here i thought we had something special.”

eita rolls his eyes and resumes packing up his bag.

“hey, have you seen waka around?”

“ushijima-san already left. no, i don’t know where.”

“oh. hum. too bad.” tendou’s eyes are still on him, curious, and he leans back against an empty desk. “you’re not in a rush to leave. no practice today?”

“not today,” eita answers, zipping his bag shut. it was actually one of his days off, since he’d been coerced into taking a day of rest during the week, so there wasn’t any self-practice, either. hm. actually, now that he thought about it, maybe he shouldn’t have said-

“then come do something with me!” tendou proclaims, and eita falters, missing he bag’s straps and dropping it down onto the chair instead. he forgets it momentarily to stare up at tendou, who doesn’t give him a moment to refuse or reconsider. “i have to gain that friendship status if i want nickname rights, right? don’t suddenly tell me you have stuff to do, either! even if you do, well, i’ll just come with you! moral support! the works!”

he truthfully only caught about half of that, and that was enough for a headache to develop. eita frowns and picks up his bag proper. “i don’t have anything to do,” he mumbles. “but-”

“so it’s settled!”

“don’t you have student council things to take care of?”

“already done!” tendou kicks off the ground to sit fully on the desk, swinging his legs in the air. “i was gonna grab waka, but this works better! c’mon, semisemi, we’ll do anything you want. it’s your off day, so you can treat yourself, right? let’s go get ice cream! i’ll buy you some taiyaki! can’t go wrong with kakigori!”

“why are they all food related?” eita mutters, then shakes his head. “fine, okay. we can go.”

“yes!” tendou jumps from the desk and raises his arms high. the next moment he’s dragging eita from the classroom and down the hall. “oh this is gonna be so much fun. there’s a combini not far from here me and waka hit up sometimes, they have the cutest cashier, you’ll love it, i swear.”

eita pulls his phone out on the outskirts of school grounds, sending a quick message to his mom that he’d be home later than usual. tendou catches on and stops talking, trailing back from where he’s ahead of eita to look down at the phone.

“who’s that?”

“my mom?” eita snaps the phone shut and stuffs it in a pocket. “i’m usually home by now on fridays, so.”

“you don’t live in the dorms?” eita shakes his head and tendou hums, leaning his head back with one hand under his chin. “come to think of it, i’ve never seen you around. still, i didn’t think we had any commuters at shiratorizawa.”

“home isn’t far,” eita mutters. “school is already expensive as is.”

“you don’t have a sports scholarship?”

“it doesn’t cover it all,” eita admits. “really, it’s not that big a deal. can we talk about something else?”

tendou loops his arm through eita’s own. “sure thing, semisemi!” he gets dragged up a set of steps, then automatic doors open for a rush of cold air to greet them. “here’s the place i was talking about. taka-chan! hi!”

eita looks over to see the girl behind the register wave at them, a slightly exasperated smile on her face. he’s tugged over to the freezer before he can contemplate that.

they sit against the railings outside the store while they eat so they can catch the shade. it’s not bad. tendou had paid for his melon ice, and it was amazing to watch him tackle his own double popsicle, insisting he could finish both.

eita ends up finishing first, and in the end they start moving before tendou has a chance to toss his second popsicle stick. they trail up the road and tendou starts whining when he’s halfway done, complaining of a stomachache.

“gari-gari-kun would be disappointed,” eita drones, as he watches melted blue spill onto the sidewalk. tendou whines louder and eita hides a snort with both hands, turning his head away.

“so mean to me, semisemi. won’t even help me finish.”

“you took on that challenge all on your own. leave me out of it.”

“mmmm, i guess.” tendou sighs and drops the hand with the now-empty stick to his side. his fingers are all sticky. “hey, where are we going?”

eita perks up. “you have to go back, right? i was-”

“yeah,” tendou drawls, cutting eita off. “but not now. being there is so stifling sometimes. plus, i’ll have to work when i get back!”

eita raises a brow. “i thought you said you already finished?” tendou turns away and his lips curl up. “or is this you running away?”

“it’s n-” tendou cuts himself off, face suddenly as red as his hair. “not,” he mutters, quieter. “maybe,” he finishes.

“the vice president, skipping out on his duties.” eita shakes his head. “what will people think?”

“nothing if you don’t tell them,” tendou bites, moving closer and raising his sticky hands. “got it, semisemi?”

eita moves back, shuddering. “don’t you dare.”

“i bought you ice cream.”

“i took you off campus.”

“i made your day more exciting!” tendou winks and eita rolls his eyes.

“i’m indulging you.”

“yeah, you are.” tendou steps back. “let me walk you home.”

“huh?”

“you have to go back, right?” he says, echoing eita’s earlier words. “i’ll take you there. don’t worry, i’m good with directions, and i have waka on speed-dial if i get lost.”

eita blinks. “if you’re trying to be convincing you’re doing a terrible job. what’s in it for me?”

“getting to bring a friend home to your mom?”

eita crosses his arms over his chest. tendou tries again.

“helping a friend shirk his responsibilities for a little longer?”

“mhmm.”

“semisemi, please! i’m begging you!” he falls to the ground. “i’m on my knees!”

eita, unable to contain his act any longer, bursts into laughter. tendou’s expression breaks as he realizes he’s being messed with, and he reaches forward with his hands again. eita jumps back, laughing harder, a little more panicked now. tendou stumbles to his feet and eita runs off, not surprised that the other follows.

“i have long legs, semisemi!” tendou calls.

“if you think that means you can outrun me, that’s a bad call,” eita answers, speeding up around a corner. he spins on his heel to break and presses himself to the concrete wall, watching with baited breath as tendou appears and moves right past him, then pauses several paces away, confused.

“this is my street,” eita admits, and tendou whips around. eita points ahead. “we just go all the way down, then take a left. easy, right?”

“oh.” tendou stops, panting from the exertion. “easy,” he echoes. “sure.” he swallows, regaining some of his composure. “you can run really fast.”

eita raises a brow and tendou waves him off. “i know, i know. let’s just go already.”

-

there’s a practice meet with two other schools a week before midterms. perhaps because of this, shiratorizawa hosts, enabling their live-in student population the option of not having to travel while they were busy trying to cram for tests.

for eita, it didn’t really matter that much. he had always tested well. as long as he had the practical portions down, any sort of written exam wasn’t something he bothered himself with stressing over.

the rest of the team was another story. he discovers this when he walks into the clubroom on the day of the meet.

papers are strewn absolutely everywhere, enough so that he has a hard time walking around them all. about seven people are gathered around the low table in the corner, and the rest are laid out across the floor, each inhabiting their own space with textbooks, highlighters, notecards -the works. eita feels like he’s entered through a portal into another world. his presence doesn’t get much attention. those that do notice only offer a simple greeting before resuming their studying.

eita does his best to maneuver around it all and plant himself in front of his cubby, pushing his bag into the space and unbuttoning his summer uniform. he pulls on a loose shirt and ties his jacket to his waist, and only then does he bother addressing the room as a whole.

“y’know, there’s only an hour until we start,” he says, raising his voice just a little. it takes a moment for everyone to process, and then one more for the tumultuous effect to appear, people scrambling to their feet, the sound of books shutting audible as they raced to get out of their uniforms.

eita opts to leave the chaos behind, trailing from the room with his shoes in hand.

there’s already people at the field, but they all leave eita alone. he walks along the concrete until another path becomes unavoidable, then sits out of the way to put his shoes on, observing the surroundings as he does so.

the ones in green he thinks are datekogyo. he doesn’t know about the others -he hadn’t really asked, either. eita rolls onto the grass proper and moves himself into a more isolated corner of the hill, spreading his legs out in front of him.

“semi-san?”

“mm?” he pulls his head back to see a ginger in purple standing behind him. something about him is strangely familiar.

“mii-san is looking for you. said something about causing an uproar earlier.”

it takes a moment to click, and when it does eita resumes stretching with a snort. “their own fault,” he mutters. “where is she?”

“helping another school get settled.”

“that’s the captain for ya.” eita throws his arms over his head and locks his hands in a stretch. “okay, thanks for telling me. i’ll go see her in a minute.”

“taichi!” someone calls, and the shadow over eita disappears. he locks his knees and splays out sideways on the ground, twisting to stretch his midsection and hips at the same time.

mii’s long hair is already braided when he reaches her. she’s still in conversation, but pins him with a look that has him stiffen where he stands, waiting until she’s done. when she breaks away, it’s to a stab a finger to his chest that has eita reflexively moving back.

“i know you were trying to help, but have some tact next time, please.” she rolls her eyes as eita opens his mouth to protest. “some of them practically live in the clubroom right now. they’re stressed enough as is with midterms coming up. don’t make it worse.”

“got it,” he mutters.

“tai-kun grabbed you, right?”

eita raises his head, blinks. “the . . ginger?”

“oh.” mii covers a laugh with her hand and eita frowns. “i thought you had gotten better with names. kawanishi taichi. the first year in high jump? you saw him at tryouts, right?”

“isn’t he a mid?” eita remembers the face, now that he thinks about it. “his form was all stiff, though.”

“that’s what he’s trying today. i think they wanted him on a 300 too, but his field event happens at the same time, so it’s a no-go.” she shrugs, and a call of her name captures her attention. “anyway, i just wanted you to see him again. play nice with the first years today!”

-

short-distance events are the last of the running events this time -if you didn’t count relays, that is- so that gives eita plenty of time to warmup and then sit back and do whatever. it’s during some of this downtime that a loud call of his full name has him turning to attention, spying a burly man in dark green approaching.

eita points to himself in question and the man’s face lights up. “i thought so!” he calls, louder even as he’s far closer than last time. “it’s been- oh, right! introductions.” he holds out a hand. “i’m kamasaki yasushi! we ran against each other in-”

“middle school,” eita finishes, finally placing the face. “you’ve gotten taller. uh. a lot taller.”

kamasaki throws his head back and laughs, loud enough to attract unwanted attention. if eita hadn’t already been subjected to the whirlwind known as tendou satori, he might’ve been intimidated.

“word is you’ve gotten faster! can’t wait to see it in person.” he holds out a fist. “may the best man win.”

eita bumps it with his own, accepting the challenge. “sure thing.”

-

he ends up corralled into watching the mid-distance events, having nothing better to do at that point. one in particular catches his attention, and he squints down at the track as he spies familiar ginger hair.

“oh, taichi-kun?” reo, one of the particular people that had roped him into this activity, and the secondary vice captain of the team, reclines back in his seat in the stands. he moves his hands from behind his head to below his chin as he muses. “hmm. i think it’s just the 800 meter today. he should do pretty well. he’s loosened up since pre-season, at least. but if you want my opinion, haya-chan is beating out everyone today.”

eita must look as outwardly confused as he feels inside, because reo rocks forward to point over the railing, at another shiratorizawa athlete pacing near the starting line. “yamagata hayato. he’s a second-year like you.”

“i’ve heard of him,” eita mutters.

reo smirks, leaning back again. “well, guess that’s the bare minimum. his older brother, hayashi, has the school record for the 600 meter. he was outgoing when i was a first-year, got injured or something, so that’s about all i know. haya-chan’s real serious about running. he’s kinda like you, in that respect. though, he definitely has more social awareness.”

eita hunches further into his seat. “you don’t have to rub it in.”

reo laughs, reaching over to slap eita’s back. “i’m just messing with you! cheer up, kid.”

“hm.”

he can’t lie that he’s intrigued by yamagata, knowing he was the one tendou was always running to when he showed for practice. but as the first heat lines up, his attention diverts to kawanishi.

eita doesn’t really . . mid-distance events were fine, but it still took a minute for the results. it wasn’t like watching short-distance, way less engaging, but it was at least more entertaining than watching the mile-runners.

eita’s interest dips after the first several seconds, and he feels his eyes wander over the gathered crowd in the stands. he’s not sure who he’s looking for, among all the students that had come out perhaps for a break from studying, but he doesn’t find them before there’s a swell in noise that has him facing the track again, watching several runners enter the last lap.

kawanishi taichi’s form really has loosened, but he’s not sure that’s a good thing. he seems more lanky in his movements now, and while his long legs made up for it, the dip in speed was still noticeable.

he ends up crossing the finish line in third. it’s close, but there’s still another heat, so eita has doubts about him placing.

“not bad,” reo mumbles, leaned on the railing. he crosses his arms over each other and looks over at eita. “for someone new at it.”

“good point,” eita answers. he watches as yamagata moves to clap his junior on the back, taking his place in the same lane. eita can’t tell -he thinks kawanishi looks off-put. whether it’s from the results or yamagata’s reassurance is up in the air.

“i think haya-chan is really gunning for ishikawa this year,” reo notes.

eita blinks. “ishi- what’s there?”

“nationals.”

eita frowns. “there hasn’t been a confirmed location yet.”

reo rolls his eyes. “my god, you and mii are both the same. it’s between ishikawa and ibaraki. and ishikawa is further to travel to, so why not get my hopes up for it?”

“but we went to the west coast last year.”

“ishikawa is twice as long a trip as ibaraki,” reo argues, holding up two fingers and moving them apart to illustrate his point.

“i think you need to get out more,” semi says, before the other can begin a tirade he really doesn’t want to hear.

“all i’m saying is-”

the starting shot interrupts reo, and they both turn to watch as the second heat takes off. yamagata instantly pulls a lead, but he’s pacing himself, because it doesn’t last, two people on his heels once they’re out of the first bend. eita loses interest on the second straight, but reo’s narration keeps him entertained enough to keep his eyes from wandering.

“see how they’re dropping off now? but watch haya-chan. he’s not speeding up or slowing down -it’s all been the same pace since the beginning.”

he was right. lap two comes around, and everyone besides yamagata was beginning to stagger, losing form or speed as they tried to push themselves, or recover from an earlier stint. he comes around the final bend several paces ahead of the rest, and in the final stretch pushes off into a dead sprint, easily placing first.

“wow,” eita mutters, as he lets reo stand and wrap an arm around his neck and shout in celebration. the crowd goes crazy and then settles as the results are compiled, and reo releases eita to stretch his arms above his head.

“alright, time for me to go.”

“good luck out there,” eita tells him, and he tosses him a thumbs-up in return before running off.

-

eita is on the infield, spread-eagle, when it finally gets dark enough to switch on the stadium floodlights. he takes it in stride, eyeing the setting sun, and is grateful that there was no school the following day.

“must be nice to have a two minute walk home,” he mutters to himself, thinking about everyone that lived on campus.

“there you are, semi! ready to go?”

he looks up from his legs to see the head coach ambling over. he can’t make out his eyes underneath the shade of the hat he wore, but his lips were pulled into a low grin, and that was enough to go on.

“ready,” he replies. “you sticking around to watch?”

“well, i’ll see what happens. there are a few things going on that i’ll have my eye on.”

eita nods, bending his legs so the bottoms of his feet press together. his shoes are in the grass to the side. coach eyes them for a moment.

“you got taiju’s old spikes, right? thought about trying them out yet?”

eita hums. “maybe. i don’t know. that seems like a big change to make.” he relaxes his legs, sitting up properly. “what i do now works.”

coach shrugs. “just a thought. you do what you want.” his pocket buzzes and he pulls out his phone. “hm. gotta run. i’ll find you again later, alright?”

“yeah.” eita waves him off, settling back to pull on his shoes and tighten the laces.

there’s only one heat for the 100m, and it supercharges eita, knowing he didn’t get the chance to instantly know results like this very often. kamasaki catches his eye from the far lane, but eita only distractedly nods at him, already slipping into hyper-focus mode. his record for the new term was 6.1s. as long as he aimed for that, he was golden.

he presses his fingerpads onto the track, looking up from them to eye the finish line. in, and out.

the breeze ruffles his hair, but he’s never let his bangs grow long enough to fall into his eyes. everything he does prepares him to run. every inconvenience considered.

his toes curl in his shoes, and very briefly, he wonders what a little more traction would feel like.

then the signal fires, and all his wonders disappear, taken up by one single focus.

he breaks easy three steps after the line, one foot in front of the other, and takes a moment to breathe. then he looks up to the scoreboard, not a moment too late, results flickering into the screen.

6.12 seconds. that was his time. second place was in the nines, and everyone else fell from there.

eita breathes out again, lifting his hands to rest on his head. that was the best he’d ever done, and it was for a practice meet.

“god, semi, they really weren’t kidding with saying you got faster!”

eita snaps out of it as kamasaki approaches. he didn’t catch the first part, but context wasn’t needed as he continues, so eita forgets about it.

“six seconds? that’s almost unbelievable, man.” kamasaki shakes his head. “here i was, thinking my height gave me an edge. you sure proved me wrong.”

eita glances at the scores again, confirming kamasaki’s time was second. “yours is still good,” he says, and kamasaki wrinkles his nose, so he presses on. “no, really. it’s not pity. that’s a top time in miyagi for sure.”

kamasaki laughs, but it’s awkward. his hand lands on eita’s shoulder. “well, thanks. good job today. it’s hard to believe we’re the same age.”

a roar from the crowd leaves them both distracted, and eita angles his head to the side of the field. “what’s that?” he mutters.

“i think high jump is still going on,” kamasaki confesses. “or maybe it’s triple. listen, i gotta run, i’m in a relay event soon. it was good to see you!” he pounds a fist to his chest. “next time i won’t lose!”

eita watches him go, replaying their conversation in his head as something catches his attention. he only realizes it was the comment about height, the same thing tendou had said to him, when mii comes up from behind and pokes at the backs of his knees, leaving him stumbling forward.

“sorry i missed it, but hey, that time speaks for itself,” she says, laughing off his annoyed expression. “seriously, how are you a highschooler? that much dedication should be illegal.”

“you really sure you wanna say that, captain?” eita quips.

she raises her hands in surrender. “hey, all i’m saying is that there are limits. you better do well on midterms, alright, or coach will have my head. even if you’re not here full-time, you’re still my responsibility as part of the team.” she hums, prying off her headband and smoothing back her hair so she can readjust it. “oh yeah, satori was looking for you earlier.”

eita perks up. “tendou?”

“don’t know what the vice pres wants, but he seemed pretty adamant about it, so i thought i’d warn you.” she jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “he should be near that way somewhere. well, field events are over now, so maybe now. worth a shot though.” she shrugs. “relay is starting, so i’m off. come watch if you have time!”

“good luck,” eita calls, moving away as well.

even with the swell in people, it’s not hard to spot tendou. ushijima is with him, but upon noticing eita, tendou breaks away to meet him, waving wildly.

“semisemi! i can’t believe you were competing- listen, this event we were watching was crazy! that first year you got has some serious talent.”

eita, confused, tips his head. “elaborate.”

“high jump! kawanishi-kun! yama made us watch, and wow, i’m glad he did. oh, did you see yama run? he’s pretty amazing, right? that’s really what i came for, but yama promised kawanishi-kun he’d watch his event, and then we got roped into it, and now the sun isn’t out anymore, but y’know, no school tomorrow, so it’s cool-”

“tendou,” eita interrupts, watching the other’s jaw snap shut. “mii-san said you needed me.”

“mayu? oh right! come with me!” tendou takes him by the arm and drags him forward, until they’re near ushijima again. “waka! look! i found him!”

“it was more like i found you,” eita mutters, but it goes unnoticed.

“hello, semi-kun,”ushijima says. eita nods back. “i look forward to working with you.”

“what?” eita stumbles, caught off-guard.

ushijima hums, taking his reaction in stride, then turns to tendou. “satori, you didn’t tell him yet, did you?”

tendou waves him off. “not yet, waka, geez, way to jump the gun. where’s yama?”

“with his junior.”

“oh fine then, forget about him. hey, semisemi, listen.” he turns to grab eita by both shoulders, and eita, shocked, lets it happen. “i need a favor.”

his lips downturn, slightly. “w-what?”

“be on our relay team for sports day.”

“huh?” eita deadpans, mentally tracking the dates. “but that’s weeks away!”

“it’s on june fifth,” ushijima supplies, and eita’s eyes fall shut.

“and student council’s already planned it,” he realizes. “why me, exactly?”

“we need a fourth person!” tendou finally releases him, stepping back. “and you’re perfect! no matter how far behind we are, if we put you as the last leg, it’s a guaranteed win! at least, that’s what yama said,” he finishes, trailing off and losing some of his energy with the last bit.

eita’s brows rise. “you have no idea, do you?”

tendou snaps his fingers. “relay runner. right? that’s why yama-”

“those are going on now.”

tendou falters, but he regains his energy in a heartbeat. “please be on our team!” he holds a thumbs-up and eita’s arms cross over his chest.

“if it’s that important to you, i suppose i can consider.”

“you’re messing with me again, aren’t you?” tendou mutters, turning his hand so it’s a thumbs-down.

eita snorts. “who plans out stuff this far in advance?”

“me! it’s literally my job!”

“oh, right.”

tendou sighs, turning to ushijima and slowly shaking his head.

eita shrugs. “well, if that’s all you-”

“wait, wait!” tendou yells, stopping up. “it’s late. come eat with us.”

“i can’t leave until this is all over,” eita admits, a little touched by the invite.

“then i’ll bring you something. you must be starved from being out here so long. here, give me your line.”

eita feels strangely coerced, as he enters his line info into tendou’s phone, but he doesn’t mind, either. his own phone was still sitting in his jacket, out on the field. he should probably go grab it.

“just sit somewhere i can reach you,” tendou tells him, and eita assures him he would, waving the two off. he could at least get his jacket before retreating to the outskirts again. it was cold, even for may. and tendou was right -he was hungry. even if he went home to a hot meal waiting, it would still have to be after everything was wrapped up here, and that would take time.

it was. nice. for him to bring eita something. to go out of his way like that.

he’d never had a friend quite like that before.

-

miracleboy. what can you even eat??? waka is being unhelpful miracleboy. theres fruit miracleboy. you want an apple? miracleboy. oh wait miracleboy. [photo attached]

eita is reclined on a higher part of the hill, having a better view of the entire track from up here. he’s distracted from relays by tendou’s incessant messages, but he doesn’t mind, smiling and rolling his eyes each time his phone chimes.

semieita the muffins look good

miracleboy. noted! ill grab a couple

semieita thanks

miracleboy. yama says hi, btw miracleboy. [photo attached]

eita squints up at his phone, opening the attachment to see a blurry picture of yamagata hayato halfway forming a peace sign. the background is obviously the school cafeteria.

semieita odd, since he’s supposed to be here

miracleboy. hes “““lost””” rn semisemi miracleboy. b back before it ends

semieita right. sure. got it. whatever you say

miracleboy. how can you b that sarcastic thru text

“semi-san?”

eita looks up from his phone to find kawanishi taichi hiking up closer, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. he drops his phone to his chest, sitting up a little more.

kawanishi stops short, looking ruffled. “have you seen yamagata-san around?”

“no,” eita says, perhaps a little too quickly. “but i can help, if you need something,” he tries, trying to smooth it over. “you’re kawanishi, right?”

“you can just call me taichi,” he mutters, face turned to the ground.

“taichi-kun, then.” eita blinks, as taichi stays like that. his phone buzzes and he pockets it, moving to properly sit up. “everything okay?”

“uh, yeah.” taichi shrugs. “sorry. i’m just a little lost.”

eita gestures to the grass and, after a moment, taichi sits down. “i saw your event,” he starts. this gains taichi’s attention, and he finally looks up again. “not the main one,” eita clarifies. “the 800. you did pretty well, for your first time.”

taichi’s lips quick up, turning wry. “not really my strong suit, huh? you should’ve seen my field event.”

“next time,” eita promises.

taichi perks up a little more. “really?”

“as long as they don’t overlap again.” he nods, committing before he can back out.

“i’d like that,” taichi admits. “and, um, you were really amazing today! i’ve never seen someone that fast in person.”

eita blinks, and then it all hits him, and he can’t believe he didn’t realize sooner. the bashfulness, the quiet, the wanting, the praise -kawanishi taichi, to a certain extent, looked up to eita.

it’s the first moment being an upperclassman has really hit him, really set in. he doesn’t know what to do with this information. actually, he has an idea, but he thinks trying to ruffle taichi’s hair would be too much.

“’in person’ is an interesting distinction to make.”

“well, i mean.” taichi turns his head to the side. “i’ve seen the olympics,” he mutters.

eita can’t help the laugh that tears from his throat. taichi doesn’t seem to mind. he wants to say something, eita can tell, but before he can eita’s phone starts going off, and he pries it from his pocket.

it’s tendou, calling. “what?” he answers.

“semisemi, thank god! i thought someone got you! how could you just not reply like that?”

eita’s smile is easy on his lips. “i was busy.”

“well, get un-busy! i need to know where you are.”

eita rolls his eyes and relays his location, then glances down at taichi. “hey, is yamagata sneaking back with you? tell him he forgot something.”

“shhh, semisemi, secret, remember? and forgot wha-”

there’s noise on the other end, muffled, though eita makes out a tai-chan in the midst.

“noted,” tendou eventually says. “see you soon. don’t move or anything! you’re a lot harder to find than i am!”

eita hangs up and tosses the phone into the grass next to his feet. “alright, kid, you’re all set. wanna wait here?” he points down to the field. “or you can join the party down there.”

literal, as all the members of the shiratorizawa boys 4x400m relay are dog-piled by their peers and then lifted into the air. the victory shouts reach all the way up here.

“oh, nao’s in there,” taichi says, mostly to himself. eita smiles and leans forward.

“go see him, then. yamagata will find you soon enough.”

“okay.” taichi stands, moves down a few feet, then turns back. “thanks, semi-san.”

eita waves him down.

-

“one delivery for semisemi!”

eita leans his head back to see tendou sliding down from over the incline. he presents a package made from a wrapped napkin that eita reaches up to carefully take.

inside are two mixed-berry muffins, each just smaller than his fist, and a handful of ocean crackers. there’s warmth coming from the muffins.

“thanks,” he says, while tendou takes a seat next to him, spreading his lanky limbs across the grass.

“no problem. oh hey, mayu’s race is starting!”

eita turns to the field with one of the muffins in hand, biting into it. he squints when he makes out the girls dressed in purple. “which one’s she?”

“there!” tendou points to the leadoff, and when she turns to address the others, her braid flies over her shoulder. eita hums.

“mii-san?” that would make this the 4x100m, and the last race of the night.

“yep. man, i’m glad i caught it, since she asked me to stay. would’ve had to ask someone for the results otherwise, and that’s a whole hassle, y’know?”

eita stuffs some of the crackers past his lips. “you mean, to make it seem like you watched?”

tendou winces, then turns hard to face him. “listen, semisemi, do you have any idea what mayu is like when she’s mad?”

“a little,” eita answers, recalling earlier that afternoon. he shivers, suddenly understanding. “good point.”

mayu. something about that bugged him. and, hadn’t she called him satori, earlier?

eita finishes the first muffin and glances over at tendou, finding him completely transfixed as all the relay runners get into position. well, if he came to that conclusion, it was understandable, right? it made sense, right?

eita finishes his food, and the girls win their race, and the two of them pick their way back down to solid ground as the commotion settles. eita hangs back a step or two behind tendou as he moves easily across a corner of the field and onto the track. “mayu!” he calls, gaining the track team captain’s attention with ease.

“satori!” she calls back, and then she’s swept up into a hug. “you actually stuck around!”

“you were amazing! are you like that every time? why aren’t you on top of the world yet?”

mii blushes at this, pushing him away. “that’s too much,” she says, and tendou backs off with a laugh.

“nice one, captain,” eita chimes in, and mii looks over at him, her eyes lighting up.

“semi!” she folds him into a hug, too, probably still high off the euphoria. “i know you’re glad this is all over. thanks for sticking around.”

“no problem,” he wheezes, and she releases him with a laugh that breaks into a thoughtful look.

“hey, how are you getting home? it’s so dark out now.”

eita shrugs. “i’ll-”

“you still have your bike, right?” she asks tendou. “why don’t you take him?”

“oho!” tendou claps his hands together. “i like the way you think, mayu. i even know the way,” he sings, dragging the last word out.

“don’t i get a say?” eita asks, disgruntled.

“nope!” both of them reply in sync, smiling at him.

“just tag along with this guy a little longer,” mii orders, pointing to tendou. “for my peace of mind.”

“i’ll have to go grab my bike,” tendou notes, and mii shrugs.

“you can go now. just meet semi at the clubroom.”

“isn’t there a meeting soon?” eita asks, gesturing to everyone around them packing up.

mii shakes her head. “yes and no. it’s not important. i’ll tell them you went home early. just remember there’s no practice next week.”

“sure i won’t miss anything?”

“i’ll message satori if it’s important.”

“why do i feel like you’re trying to get rid of me?”

“nah.” she flaps her hand, gesturing for him to go away. “you’re imagining it. try not to move anyone’s stuff around when you grab your things, okay, or i’ll have to kill you to appease the masses.”

that certainly explained away the ulterior motive. “sleeping there is unhealthy,” eita calls, once he’s further away.

“some of us don’t test well like you do!” mii shouts back as she takes off her headband. she moves it over her thumb and uses it like a slingshot, firing at another third-year who screams in response.

eita leaves behind the track field’s happy atmosphere for one of his own making. he throws his button-up on over his shirt, letting it hang open, and trades his shorts for shiratorizawa’s standard slacks, knowing it was only bound to get colder.

tendou is waiting for him when he leaves, sitting easy on a bicycle, legs splayed on the ground on either side of the front wheel. he looks up and his smile grows when he sees eita. “all ready?”

“there’s not a stand on the back,” eita notes, hesitance growing as he approaches. “how are we doing this?”

“pegs!” tendou kicks back at one and eita nearly rolls his eyes to the back of his skull.

“that’s one solution, i guess,” he mutters as he climbs up, placing his hands on tendou’s shoulders for balance. tendou hums and kicks off, and eita hopes his biking skills aren’t as wild as the rest of him.

surprisingly, there are no incidents. eita is deposited on his doorstep in good care, and he waves at tendou until he can’t make him out anymore before going inside.

-

eita is cooling off in the shade from a day’s worth of events when tendou finally manages to find him and inform him of their latest plight.

“what?” his face scrunches up. “yamagata’s sick? is he skipping? how does that even happen?”

“yama just has the worst luck like that,” tendou whines, stomping his foot. “waka went to find us a replacement, but as far as i know he’s only planning to ask reon, and he’s already on a team with the other volleyball second-years. we might be outta luck here.”

eita shrugs, not really that disappointed by it, even as tendou resumes his whining. eventually he lets tendou pull him to his feet, and they re-join the festivities.

“oh, but i did enter you in the 50 meter,” tendou says, the only part of his never-ending rant that eita tunes in to listen to, and it has him braking, so that tendou is forced to pause when he refuses to release eita’s arm.

“what?”

“the race?” tendou frowns. “you have to race, eita. especially since the relay is off. i know it’s not far, but c’mon, running is your thing. you’ll love it.”

“i wish you would’ve asked before doing it,” eita mutters, still refusing to budge.

“aw, c’mon semisemi, do it for yama! think at how miserable he is, missing out on all this.”

“yeah, whatever, i’ll do it.” he looks down at his sneakers. “but i need my shoes if i’m doing this for real.”

tendou perks back up. “then let’s go!”

eita raises a brow. “to the other side of the school? ha ha, tendou. very funny.”

“if we’re careful we can go and be back before anyone notices.”

“and since when are you careful or tactful about anything?”

tendou winks. “you’d be surprised. plus, i have a fallback card. and if you’re with me, it applies to you too.”

“yeah?” he crosses his arms. “let’s hear it, then.”

“student council perks mean i can run around the school without anyone batting an eye. if someone asks i’ll make up an excuse.”

oh. that actually was a good point.

his thought must show on his face, because tendou grins, and he knows he’s yielded the argument with no further conversation necessary.

“this room is nice,” tendou notes, looking around as eita jerks his duffel from his cubby.

“‘s fine.” eita gives up on subtlety and kicks his sneakers off, then sits down on the ground to wrestle his socks off. he’d come grab them before practice.

he’s stretching several minutes before the all-out race was due to start when tendou asks the question he’d been pondering in the clubroom.

“hey, semisemi, so yama showed me this magazine article the other day, and it said all the pro trackletes never wear socks. so what about you? you switched from the school-issued ones, but the half-size you have on now are still a layer between you and the shoes.”

eita pauses, bent forward. “please never say trackletes again,” he says absently, gears turning in his mind as he looks down at his feet.

while tendou is blubbering about something he could care less about, eita rips one shoe off then pries the sock from his foot and wiggles his free toes. his gaze moves between them and the shoe. “i’ve never thought about that,” he admits, and tendou stops talking.

“the article said for some it was for comfort, that others could feel the ground better underfoot, or their shoe fit tighter without the added layer,” tendou adds slowly, watching as eita unties the laces and slips the shoe back on, barefoot.

he doesn’t quite frown, but his lips twist, once his foot is all the way in. he pulls on the laces a little, shifts his foot around. then he pulls tighter and ties a single knot, and stands.

“it’s weird,” he mumbles. “but not bad. it’s-” he sits back down and slips his other shoe off to repeat the process, and tendou hangs back and watches until he’s back on his feet, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“yeah, okay,” he starts, and then there’s a call for the race participants, and he bends down to pick up his socks and press them into tendou’s hands. “hold onto these for me.”

“what?” tendou cries. “you’re giving me-! semi!”

“hey, this was your idea!” eita calls, already heading off, bouncing every other step.

it’s not an all-out race, because there’s only so much space, so eita is delegated to waiting a while. he walks around in his shoes for a spell, getting used to the feeling.

50 meters was nothing. a perfect test, really.

and like that, the competition had, for eita, turned into an experiment.

-

“that didn’t feel too bad,” eita admits as he stuffs his socks in the pocket of his shorts. tendou cries out when he sees this.

“you could’ve done that from the beginning!”

eita shrugs. “consider it payback for entering me without permission.”

“yeah, whatever.” tendou slouches. “have fun at practice. i’ll be here, cleaning up.”

eita knocks at his shoulder. “thanks for the suggestion.”

“don’t get any blisters.”

“i’ll be careful.”

-

the first open track meet for miyagi prefecture is almost three weeks since eita started running sockless, and ten minutes to go to his event, he’s panicking.

a rewind is necessary, so in simple terms, this is what happened to cause the needless panic.

eita stretches. it’s hot. he pulls on his shoes, doing the laces up tight, but after a lap around the perimeter of the infield, his feet feel clammy, and in particular, his left shoe is loose. not enough to come off, not by far, but enough to where it matters, to where it’s an unnecessary distraction.

eita sits back down and undoes the knot, then pulls excessively tight on the laces to lock his foot into place.

and they snap.

-

“it’s over,” eita groans, lying with his hands over his face and his eyes closed to the harsh sunlight overhead. not that it mattered, because the combined shadows of mii and reo crouching over him blocked it out. they both share a look.

“yeah, that sucks,” reo starts, but he’s cut off abruptly -eita suspects it’s because of mii, mostly because he’s been on the end of her sharp elbows before.

“you still have time.” mii hums, pulling out her phone. “i wonder if concessions sells any as trinkets. would be worth a shot.” her voice trails off as she moves away, raising her phone to her ear. reo crouches down near eita’s head.

“you need new shoes?” he ponders. “maybe they’re too stretched out.”

“i can think about that after the meet is over,” eita mutters, removing his hands from his face. he opens his eyes to half-mast. “where did mii-san go? i don’t want to wallow anymore. she’s good at snapping people out of it.”

“well, sorry for not being good enough emotional support. she’s-”

“hey, semi, get up.” mii kicks at his foot -specifically, at the shoe with the broken laces. “i called satori. he’s at the edge of the field.”

“tendou?” eita mutters, leaning up on his elbows. “what’s he gonna do?”

“didn’t say. but you have five minutes, so i’d just go along with it.”

“maybe he’ll put me out of my misery,” eita sighs, leaning his head back and letting the rest of him go slack.

“four minutes and counting,” reo sings, and that’s enough to drive him to a stand, stumbling in the direction mii points to.

tendou is indeed waiting, just on the other side of the small fence separating the turf from the rest. when eita reaches him he immediately jumps it with zero regards to his inability to be there, then pulls eita down to the ground so they’re both out of the way.

“give me your shoe,” he demands, and eita tugs it off and tosses it over. with deft fingers, tendou removes the bright laces, mapping the path at he tugs them loose. then he pulls an old pair of white ones out and starts lacing them in the same pattern.

eita’s brow creases as he watches. “that was fast. how did you get spares out here?”

“they’re mine,” tendou says. “as in, from my kicks, now,” he elaborates, and eita blanches, looking down to tendou’s left shoe that was indeed laceless.

“what? why would you do that?” he sputters.

“you don’t have any time.” tendou shrugs. “you can give them back after your race, alright? here, i’m done.” he hands the shoe back and eita numbly slips it back on, doing the laces up tight until everything is snug.

“thank you,” eita mumbles, nearly at a loss for words. tendou helps him to his feet and claps him on the shoulder.

“if you don’t win with my laces, i might have to fine you,” he jokes. eita rolls his eyes, the numb spell officially broken as he shakes off tendou’s hand.

maybe he’s still frazzled, or maybe he’s not quite used to the new style just yet, because eita’s time is less-than-impressive, for his standards. he clocks in at just under seven seconds, which is more than enough to place him at first, but there’s a lack of self satisfaction from it.

“time for new shoes,” one of the assistant coaches suggests, when he tries to explain this. “shame about the laces. i don’t think you’ve gotten slower with no socks, so if you like it, keep doing it. you’ve got one month until the qualifier, so there’s time to figure out what you do and don’t like.”

that was pretty solid advice, actually. another of the short-distance coaches makes a note about modifying his regimen if he had to break in new shoes, and it leaves eita strangely touched.

he finds tendou nearly in the same spot he’d left him in, back on the correct side of the fence but leaned so far over it that it almost didn’t matter. he grins as he catches eita’s eye, and eita knows that this time, he’d caught his event as it happened.

this time it’s eita that climbs over to settle on the concrete on the other side of the barrier. tendou slides down until he’s sat beside eita, accepting his laces back when they’re finally pulled free. he’s doing them up in his own shoe again when he finally bothers to speak.

“wanna go shopping for more?”

“you seem like the last person i should go get shoelaces with,” eita say before he can help himself. tendou throws back his head and laughs.

“why not? we could get some cool ones. like in neon colors, or stripes, or words, or-”

eita breathes out in annoyance and tendou breaks off as he catches the tail-end of a mock-deadpan expression that conveys this was the exact reason he was hesitant to take tendou along. then he’s turning the other way to hide a smile, a brief upturn of the corners of his lips, and tendou reaches out to jab him in the side, causing eita to squeak.

“wanna go later?” tendou offers. “not like you’re tired or anything. you only have one race, right?”

eita shakes his head. “yeah, but. tomorrow. tomorrow,” he promises, and tendou settles back.

“no backing out now, semisemi.”

“don’t make me regret this.”

-

there’s no school the next day, so eita and tendou meet up at the shopping district in the early afternoon. the first sporting goods store they wander into is small, and it doesn’t take long for them to be the only ones occupying the space.

eita pulls off four boxes from the shelves from the same brand as his current track shoes and drops them to the floor next to a bench. tendou leans over and pries the tip of one of the lids up, whistling when he sees the style.

unfortunately, the pair he really liked end up being one of two eita near immediately nix as he removes them from the box, not even bothering to try them on as he finds faults with closer examination that he couldn’t live with.

“shut up, tendou!” he snaps as the other’s whining becomes intolerable. “i practically have to live in these shoes! they need to be perfect, or as close as possible.”

eventually it gets to the point where eita wonders why he’d invited tendou in the first place, and banishes the other to another section of the store. that only meant he’d have to deal with having replacement shoelaces forced onto him later, but he was willing if it meant getting through this part quietly.

he puts one shoe from the remaining pairs on each foot and gently kicks the ground with his heel. it felt weird to try on shoes without socks, but if he was going to be wearing them like this anyway, it was the only good way to test them out.

after walking around some eita finds a frown forming on his face. there was only one thing he needed to see about, and he couldn’t-

wait.

“hey, tendou,” he calls, and after a moment, the redhead appears from behind a shelf, expression suggesting he was still sulking. “are we still the only customers?”

“yeah. staff is in the back, too, so-” he breaks off, blinking, and then grins. “what are you planning?”

“i need a straight shot,” he confesses. “twenty meters or so.”

“if you’re at the back wall you could run down the center aisle.” tendou rocks back on his heels, thinking. “you should hit twenty before the door. let me see if anything’s in the way.”

technically there weren’t any other customers to disturb, but eita is silently grateful none of the staff was around to catch them, knowing it would be something they’d disapprove of.

with tendou’s help they clear a path and eita leans one foot against the back wall, eyeing the distance. the store wasn’t big, but he’d brake well before the door.

he crouches down, lets his fingers run over the smooth flooring.

then he rockets off, near full speed, and his teeth are clenched by the time he’s stopped. tendou moves forward, humming in approval.

“that’s not a good sign,” he says, as eita tugs the left shoe off.

“no, it is. it’s this one.” he vaguely points to the shoe on his right foot. “this one’s good.”

“as close to perfect as possible,” tendou quotes, nodding. he trails eita as he wanders back to retrieve the box, and the other shoe to the pair. “except the laces are white, so you need better ones.”

eita rolls his eyes, but he’s still in front of tendou, so it’s purely for his own satisfaction. “they are a little short,” he mentions, and that’s enough to have tendou running off again.

in the end he ends up with the shoes, a lavender pair of laces (“because school colors, semisemi!” tendou had insisted) and a black pair of spares. he’s smiling when they exit the store, and tendou notices, nudging him with his shoulder.

“well that was fun!”

“nope,” eita argues, but there’s no heat to it, and he’s still smiling, so tendou reads it as a joke right away.

-

before the end of the month, eita is coerced into seeing a volleyball game. he has better things to do -like break in the shoes- and doesn’t really know anything about volleyball -and would rather break in the shoes- and wants to focus on other things -like the sho

but tendou tells him he could run to school and back home, and that’s enough to make eita show up at the gymnasium that evening, looking a little lost among the teems of people that had showed up for a mere practice match.

“no one has anything better to do,” tendou tells him, leading him over to a few free spaces in the stands. eita recognizes oohira from 2-B when he turns to address tendou, having heard the remark.

“it’s pre-exam jitters. people will take any chance they get to focus on something that isn’t academic related.” he nods to eita from tendou’s other side. “hey, semi.”

eita nods back, gaze falling to the court. “ushijima-san. is he any good?”

oohira coughs, trying to be polite, but tendou has no problem in throwing his head back and cackling, and eita leans away, frowning as he realizes he’s asked a stupid question.

“waka’s on another level,” tendou tells him, once he’s calmed down. “well, all of our sports teams are top-tier, and volleyball is no exception. just watch. you’ll see.”

eita sees.

shiratorizawa destroys their opponent in the first set 25-14. ushijima ends it with a spike into the court so hard eita feels his teeth chatter. if anyone had gone for that, their arms would’ve come off, for sure.

they’re switching sides for the second set when a shuffling occurs further down the stands, and suddenly oohira is being pushed over, causing tendou to suddenly very much be in eita’s space. “what-”

“sorry i’m late,” the newcomer says, peeking out from behind oohira’s bulk. “i couldn’t find my phone.”

“yama!” tendou exclaims. “it’s about time!”

“you always have the same excuse,” oohira notes.

“because it’s true,” yamagata protests. “it keeps happening to me! i must’ve rolled some bad luck at new years, because this didn’t happen at all last year.”

“he’s very forgetful, semisemi,” tendou turns to tell him, holding one hand over the side of his mouth.

yamagata perks up as he catches the words. “semi’s here?” he leans more around oohira.

“oh, right! you two don’t really know each other, huh?” tendou slings an arm around eita, ignoring his grunt of protest. “yama, this is semi eita! semi, this is yamagata. you’re in the same club. if you bothered to show up more than twice a week you might’ve had-” he breaks off to gasp “-a real conversation before all this!”

“it’s not like i’m skipping,” eita protests, brows furrowed. he waves distractedly to yamagata, who returns it after shaking a look with oohira. “i just get more done by myself.”

“that sounds like a motto you shouldn’t strive for,” tendou points out, and eita finally escapes from his hold as the whistle to start the second set sounds.

yamagata snorts. “well, semi’s leagues better than the rest of us. the coaches are practically fast-tracking him for the all-youth.”

eita blinks, attention ripped from the match, and he has to physically turn his head to look down toward yamagata. “what?”

yamagata glances over, sees eita’s expression, and then turns to him properly. “yeah, the under-eighteen reps? wakatoshi’s one of them too.”

“they’ve said that?” eita asks, a little stunned.

he shrugs. “no, but it’s implied. they’re helping you with individual training. it’s like singling you out of the group. no one on the team can deny that you’d be the one deserving of special attention. i mean, did you see your time at the practice meet? impressive doesn’t cut it.”

“you’re over-exaggerating,” eita mumbles, barely audible over the roar of the crowd as shiratorizawa earns another point.

“they could be prepping you for worlds,” yamagata muses. “never can tell what coach is thinking.”

“wait wait wait.” tendou throws his hands in the air. “you’re telling me semi is potentially qualified to compete internationally?”

yamagata shrugs, and there’s a pointed look in his eye. “you tell me. you saw him run last time.”

“i still think that’s a bit much,” eita protests.

“you wouldn’t want to?” yamagata smiles, and though it’s more along the lines of a leer, it’s sincere, too. “if they give you the chance, you should take it, semi. you’re good enough. everyone on the team knows that.”

those words stay with him through the rest of the match, and on his run home. everyone on the team. it wasn’t said with any sort of malice. and before, when he had talked about eita getting special attention, there wasn’t any jealousy coloring the words. the consensus was that eita was amazing, incredible, even, and everyone on the team respected that.

but he hadn’t thought. well. about that before. he knew he liked running. he knew he was good at it. but he’d never thought about competing outside the nationwide school system. much less globally. he’d never even considered it before.

and now that the seed is planted, he can’t deny that if he was given the chance, he’d probably take it.

that’s why he leaves early, just after the practice match ends in shiratorizawa’s victory. tendou is high off the win and anxious to tell ushijima so, but he stays back to see eita off, recognizing there was a lot on his mind and he wasn’t going to stick around.

“it wasn’t a complete waste of time,” eita ends up saying, and tendou sputters.

“just admit you had fun!”

“yeah, fine.” eita sighs, then smiles. “it was fun. thanks for inviting me. i’ll see you around.”

he leaves fully invested in internal thoughts, so tendou’s sudden blush goes completely unnoticed. well, to him.

“dude,” yamagata says, coming up behind tendou. he pokes tendou’s arm, making sure his friend is still alive. “you got it bad.”

if anything, tendou blushes harder, spinning on his heel to glare down at yamagata. “SHUT-

-

practice today is one of those longer exercises that cover the entire team, and they’re free to leave after they finish. after dismissing everyone to get to it, one of the mid-distance coaches calls out to eita, stopping him before he can begin.

“how are the shoes?” he asks, and eita is a bit taken aback. “are they broken in?”

“for the most part,” he answers after a moment.

“well, take it at your own pace, then. wouldn’t want you getting blisters. it’s been pretty hot lately. usually when you stop running with socks one of the main things you look out for is making sure your feet stay dry. are those breathable enough?”

eita looks down at his shoes, then curves them in, feeling around. “they’re good. i’ve been washing them, too, but not too much. i’m worried they’ll lose shape.”

“start putting in powder and you’ll get away with washing less.” eita’s face screws up and he takes this into account. “not a lot. not enough to lose grip. just a little here and there. i have some in my bag if you ever want to try it out.”

“yeah, thanks.”

he notices, now. has ever since the volleyball match. the coaches do their best to accommodate him when he shows up for practice. they care about everyone, of course. he wouldn’t know for sure unless he hung around more, but he’s almost positive they looked out for all the athletes under their care. made sure they were doing well. checked in when they weren’t.

and yet, it’s different. when they give everyone the same set of exercises but tell eita he can change his to a certain extent, yeah, it’s noticeable. it’s not uncomfortable. he doesn’t mind. just merely an observation, one that makes yamagata’s words take root, that makes the gears in his mind start turning, start hoping.

maybe if i make a good impression at nationals again, it’ll open up more doors.

“no,” he mutters later, as he’s running. “i’m going to win nationals. that’ll open up more doors than i’ll know what to do with.”

“you’ve got some high ambitions.”

eita perks up, turning his head to see kawanishi taichi suddenly keeping stride with him. he slows a little to make it easier for the first-year, but it’s apparently unwelcome, because taichi’s lips twist into a light frown.

“you heard that,” eita states. taichi looks at him funny and eita rolls his eyes. “yeah, guess i was talking aloud. i don’t know. i think nationals last year in fukui has been the only real competition i’ve had since i came here.”

“that sounds depressing,” taichi answers, deadpan. eita snorts before he can catch himself, and slowly, taichi’s lips quirk up in response.

“and you?” eita asks, suddenly curious. “you’re the track star of your grade. what do you think of everything so far?”

taichi takes a minute to answer, but it’s worth it, because eita likes his response. the change to a mid-distance event. the challenge. being encouraged to push himself. having upperclassman around willing to help him where he needs it.

“i like it here,” he finishes.

“yeah,” eita echoes. “me too.”

“do you?” taichi shrugs when eita turns to look at him questioningly. “you just said there’s no real challenge. and you’re never here. i mean, you are, you are right now, but not a lot. not as much as you could be, if being around a support system was something you really cared about.”

“i think,” eita starts, after mulling it over, “that i like to do things my own way, and that takes priority. being here hasn’t changed that. but the experiences i’ve had with the team have changed things. changed me. everyone motivates me to do better, to be better. better at, like, normal things, not just running. i like shiratorizawa because everyone is at the top of their game, and yet everyone stays humble. like you. you’re amazing at your field event, and yet you’re trying a track event to experiment, even if it means getting lower results than you’re used to. you didn’t mention high jump at all when you talked about why you liked this place.

“so that’s why, even here in miyagi, every meet i’m so excited i can’t hardly stand it. i’m pushed to improve myself. even if it’s only me versus the clock, i still have so much fun. it’s supposed to be fun, in the end, right?” he smiles. “i’m glad i came to a school that makes running fun.”

taichi is quiet, but he still keeps pace with eita. it’s not until they’re almost done that he speaks again, expressing his desire for eita to see him compete again.

eita laughs, admiring his determination. “i said i would, right? if-”

“no,” taichi interrupts. “the mid-distance one. i wasn’t sure, before, because i’m still not nearly as good as i want to be. but.” he bites down on his lip. “but, after hearing all that, i realize it doesn’t really matter. i’m not going to be amazing right out of the gate, and i don’t care. i still want you to see me run.”

“then it’s a promise.” taichi looks over and eita smiles. “at the qualifier. work hard until then.”

-

tendou and yamagata exchange looks as eita rehashes his conversation with taichi the day before.

then yamagata’s look turns into a leer that tendou rolls his eyes at.

“semisemi, i’m not sure i’d call that admiration,” tendou says.

“huh?” eita looks up from his lunch, brows creased. “then what is it?”

“it’s-” yamagata is cut off with an elbow to his stomach, wheezing, and tendou takes control of the conversation again.

“don’t worry about it. kawanishi-kun will mention it when he wants to.”

eita hums, but doesn’t probe for further explanation.

-

exams come and go, but even as summer rears its head full-force, eita still finds himself venturing out to school.

it would still be a few days until regular practice resumed, so the only reason he had for being here was one tendou satori.

“waka’s family live on the outskirts of the city,” he explains to eita one afternoon, when they’re sprawled in the shade of one of the big trees in the front courtyard. he spreads his arms in the air. “big place. he’ll come back for volleyball, but being home is more important to his folks, so he makes a point to divide his time.

“yama’s mom lives alone with his younger sisters, so he goes home during breaks to help out. i think the girls would cry if their big brother decided not to come, so it’s always been an easy choice for him.

and my parents aren’t in miyagi, so it’s either i make the long haul home, or choose the easy option and stay here.” his nose wrinkles in quiet distaste. “i’d rather be alone here all summer than go back to that house.”

eita doesn’t know what all to think of that, but he doesn’t ask, either, not wanting to bother tendou. he seemed on the verge of being upset. better to not make it worse.

“well, i’m here.” he lolls his head to the side to stare at tendou. “i’ve got nothing going on. my parents are chill. if you get tired of campus you can stay over.”

tendou turns his head to look back. “and if i don’t?”

“i can keep coming back, just like this.” eita’s fingers twitch, ruffling the grass. he doesn’t move them further. “whenever you want.”

tendou grins. “that’s a dangerous game to play, semisemi.”

“well, i mean, if it’s absurd enough i can always say no.”

“damn. here’s me thinking sneaking you onto campus at four in the morning would be pretty awesome.”

“yeah, you’ll have to try something else. you wake me up in the middle of the night and i’ll have to contemplate killing you.”

“scary.”

“normal.”

“i’m telling you, that’s not a normal response.”

“and what would you know about normal?”

“hey.” tendou kicks out, landing a blow under eita’s knee, and he winces. in the next moment he’s kicking back, hard enough to bruise, and all tendou does is flop from his back onto his side, facing him, and start laughing.

“you said you had something to try,” tendou says later, when they’ve both calmed down.

“yeah. i’m thinking about putting spikes in,” eita admits.

“your shoes?” tendou sits up halfway, leaning on an elbow. “like yama has? the ones for better traction?”

“i got some at the start of first term,” eita mumbles, nodding. “really good ones. i’ve been debating using them. lots of people want me to try, so i think it’d be good to indulge them if they think i’ll like it. but at the same time . . i don’t know. i’m worried, i guess. about the change. being elevated like that, even if it’s less than a centimeter from the track -it makes me nervous. i like to be able to feel myself push off at every step. having spikes in means i’ll be sacrificing some of that.”

“you can always take them out,” tendou notes. “if you don’t like them.” he sits up fully. “let’s go now! no one’s on the track, so it’s perfect. the spikes are in your clubroom, right?” eita nods. “and you have the key, right?” another nod. tendou grins and pulls himself to his feet, then offers a hand to eita to do the same.

eita lets himself be hoisted up, and then tendou is physically dragging him across campus, until they’re in front of a battered door and eita is wrestling the key into the lock in his sudden excitement.

it takes a minute to put all the spikes in. they do it in the clubroom, even with the lack of air conditioning, because it meant being out of the hot sun for a bit. eita leaves barefoot when he’s ready, shoes swinging from one hand, and takes tendou out onto the track, climbing up the fence and then over the hill.

“no one is around to care,” eita says, as he sits down to throw the shoes on. “besides, even if they do, it’ll hurt your reputation more than mine.”

tendou places a hand over his heart. “ouch, semisemi.”

walking is weird, with the spikes, but walking wasn’t really the point. eita locks his knees and bends down to touch his toes, feeling the strain in his legs. “damn,” he mutters, realizing he wasn’t going to get away with not stretching properly. he kicks the shoes off and flops down on the track’s perimeter, bringing the bottom of his feet together and pressing down on his knees with his elbows. “give me a minute,” he throws over his shoulder.

but tendou isn’t there. it takes a second to realize he’s re-settled in front of eita, and even then, he’s still shocked when tendou reaches forward to grab his leg at the bend of his knee, pulling until it straightened out.

“lean back, semisemi,” tendou murmurs, moving his foot into the air. “i used to do this for waka all the time.”

eita doesn’t know what compels him, but he obeys, lying back on the grass. tendou rises to his knees and pushes eita’s leg until it’s in a deep stretch towards his chest. he tugs eita’s toes down and the entire leg twitches with the added effort.

tendou does his other leg after a spell, the exact same and then a couple extra, and then unceremoniously drops both legs to the ground. eita huffs in surprise as they land, and his eyes pop open. it’s not long until he’s glaring at tendou, even with their angle awkward for eye contact.

this time, when eita settles onto the track, he moves into a low start position. “count me off,” he mutters, and tendou moves to rest in the next lane, nodding.

“three.”

just to the forty. he could see the mark.

“two.”

or maybe the full 100, who was he kidding.

“one.”

actually, if this was a true test, shouldn’t he just go as far as possible? get a feel for it?

“go!”

eita is near the 80m mark before he slows, blinking down at the shoes. he jogs back over.

“well?” when he looks up tendou is bent forward, eager. “how was it?”

“dragging.” eita purses his lips. “it felt like i was digging into the track. but instead of being able to push off easier, it felt like i was getting stuck.”

“you probably have to get used to them.”

“i know. i just don’t like adjusting. i just like things to be good, y’know?”

“i hear ya.” tendou leans his chin against an open palm. “try again. this time go all the way down, then run back.”

they pass the better part of the afternoon like that, indulging eita’s whims. not that tendou seemed to mind. he even takes eita home, as they both realize the only pair of shoes he’d worn out now weren’t suitable to walk around the streets in. eita’s mom is certainly surprised, when she opens the door to find her son barefoot. she waves to tendou just before he leaves again.

“that was nice of him,” she mentions, while eita drops his track shoes in the entryway and explains away his earlier plight. when he stands again it’s in house slippers. “you have a good friend, eita.”

friend. eita wonders when exactly that had happened.

[namjoonmiluna]

Breaking Free - BTS (M)

btsIf you’ve enjoyed my story please share & visit the link at the bottom to view the rest. Thank you!

Main characters : Kim Namjoon & a girl an average girl named Jenilyn. All BTS members are side characters. Suga becomes a main character in later chapters.

Genre/Warning : Written as a Kdrama. 18+ Triggers for mature content, emotional abuse, physical assault, violence, & sexual content. Later chapters may contain mental instability, drug use, racial undertones and sexual assault. Read with caution.

Length of Fic : Very long, at least a novel or two in length currently. It is not completed.

Summary : Purely by chance, a ordinary girl's life is forever changed by her favorite man-band. The simple act of choosing a new career path sets off a chain of events taking her on a journey of love, jealousy, heartbreak, desire, destiny, & drama. With a target on her back she fights to stand tall in the face of adversity.

I tried to make this story very digestible for new and old army. There is a lot of the fandom put into it and I tried to keep their personalities as close to accurate as possible.

Chapter 1 - The Meeting

It had been a long night. One of those nights that make you question why you even work there anymore. She was alone, as she usually was. The gift shop was small - only the sound of the FM radio, 90s, 00's and today's. There had not been a customer in hours. It was late, but nearing the end of her shift. She went to the restroom where she could see the eyeliner rubbing under her eyes. She did her best to fix it and laughed at herself in the mirror. Her blonde hair, now frizzy and limp from a long day - rested on her shoulders, cascading down her upper back. Why is it I'm always the one covering the shift when someone calls off, she asked herself. Her breasts were large and bouncy, held up by a small waist. Her hips were wide with an ass to match. She looked ridiculous. Thank god I can go home soon, she thought. The white tee looked stretched out from the day. She untied the black and white flannel shirt she had tied around her waist and put it on over her shirt. Her skinny jeans had torn a little more from when she had put them on, exposing more of her thighs than she liked. She thought about how she looked and quickly brushed it off - it was closing time soon anyway. She planned to crawl into bed as soon as she could.

   It was 15 minutes until closing when she noticed lights in front of the store. She had already turned off some of the overhead lights, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness - the headlights all but blinded her.

   Great, last-minute customers, she thought to herself, the absolute worst kind.

   She could see many figures getting out of what looked like a bus. One by one, seven entered the store. Each bringing multiple pieces of luggage and handbags. They all looked tired, and perhaps a little angry. One last man entered after them. Entering the store he removed his sunglasses, tucking them into his jacket pocket. The man looked tall, mature. Thick black hair and of clear Asian decent. He had slightly beady eyes and a rounded nose. His lips were thick and dark.

   "Hi! Can I help you?" she asked loudly from across the store.

   The older man walked to her counter, offering out his hand, "Seijin" he smiled. "I know it's late. Our vehicle broke down and there isn't much around here. I realize this is a campground, but I'm hoping you may have somewhere we can stay?"

She took his hand and shook. She looked to the boys, to Seijin, and back again. Trying to piece together what she was seeing, she managed to spit out, "Um, yeah! We should have something available. Let me find out for you. Are you wanting 8 rentals?" She asked him. He nodded.

   She could see that some of the boys had sat down on the floor, two more laid down, resting their heads on their bags. There was one in particular who laid on the other members of the group, flopping his arms and legs enthusiastically over them. Another slowly walked around, picking up things and calling to the others to look at what he found before setting the item back down. He was curious about all the oddities to seen around him.

   She made a few phones calls and figured out availability. "Okay so, we have 4 deluxe rentals, and 4 regular. The deluxe come with linens but ---" she paused "the regulars do not." She braced herself for him to cop an attitude with her - her years in the recreation industry had toughened her skin giving her the ability to handle any disgruntled customer with ease. She tried not too let it bother her too much, that's just how it was - being mad about it wouldn't change it.

   "Okay" one of the boys on the floor groaned, loudly. It sounded like he wanted to lay on an actual bed as quickly as possible.

   Seijin laughed at the boy who groaned, "I guess that's fine, then."

She made him a map of where the rentals were located. The park spanned a total of 80 acres. She handed it to him and vaguely gestured to where they were located, which was all over the map in different areas.

He looked down to study it, seeing that all of them were in different parts of the campground he said, "I hate to ask another favor but can you possibly take them to the rooms? They are exhausted - it's been a tough day. Anonymity is of importance."

   Still slightly stunned from the strangeness of it all, she managed to get out, "Yeah for sure, but I can't leave for 10 mins when I can close up shop." She pointed to the clock above her.

   Seijin, "That is just fine. Boys." He turned towards the boys, who seemed to be getting comfortable on the floor, "do you want to get any snacks before the nice girl closes?"

   She laughed to herself. Girl. She was in her early 30s, far from a girl. Although she had always presented younger. Coworkers always assumed she was in her early 20s. She didn't bother to correct them. It must be her skin care routine. In her mind if you act young, you stay young. It had worked well so far.

   A few of the boys jumped up. One boy followed the others around explaining what things were as they picked them up. They spoke a foreign language that sounded extremely familiar to her, perhaps a movie she watched with subtitles. Even though they spoke a different language, they riddled each other with English phrases, often spurting out words like "Ok" "Yes!" "Let's go" or "Fighting". The boy following them around laughed and shook his head, often covering his face with his hands. He's super cute, she thought to herself as she watched them walk around the store.

While the boys walked around, another man entered the store, he immediately walked to the counter and greeted Jen. He was tall and just slightly on the chubby side, he had a full beard and looked like he lived in the country his entire life. The boy following the others around the store gave him a side-eye, paying close attention to their conversation. As the member of the group most fluent in English it was hard for him not to listen. Their conversation sounded like they knew each other extremely well.

"Hey Jen" he called.

"Oh hey, Brody!" she chimed, "it's late what are you doing here?"

"We're leaving tonight" he mentioned, "someone at work got into an accident and I have to work tomorrow after all."

"Oh" she said, her voice sounding slightly disappointed.

"I'm really sorry" he apologized, "you know I was really looking forward to seeing you."

She nodded, "it's fine, we'll get together another time."

He laughed, "yeah I hope so." He looked around the store to see the guys walking around, "do you know them?"

"I don't" she said, "they just booked some rentals for the night."

"Nice to meet you" he yelled through the store, "I'm Brody."

The guys turned around and mumbled hellos to him for a second before continuing on their way.

"Not very friendly" he murmured.

Jen laughed, "give them a break, I'm pretty sure they are foreigners."

"I can see that" he said, looking to them again. He moved his gaze back to her. He gave her a big smile and dropped his head sideways.

She laughed, knowing he wanted a hug before he left.

She walked around the counter and gave him a big hug. His arms wrapped around her so tightly they arms reached his body again on the opposite side. He hummed while he hugged her before picking her up in the air and setting her back down.

The boy following the others couldn't help but notice her. She has great body lines, he thought to himself. During the hug, her back faced him.

She stepped back from him, "drive safe."

He leaned forward quickly to whisper in her ear, "the tall one is checking you out." She turned around quickly to find him staring in their direction, only to quickly look away. Jen giggled.

He nodded, "I'll talk to you soon" he said before turning to leave.

   She turned around as one of the boys opened the fridge and loudly yelled "SPRITE!" in plain English. The other boys laughed next to him, each grabbing their own drinks. Lots of bottled water and Gatorade - the typical drinks any young guy would choose.

   Items were piling up on the counter : chips, snacks, sprite, bottles of water, slim jims - even cups of ramen noodles. Enough snacks and drinks for seven.

   She packed up the items, making sure to bag the items separately. Each took their bag and went back to sit on the floor. They seemed a little happier and began eating their snacks. The sounds of snack bags crinkling covered up the music on the radio. She could hear light conversation and laughter coming from them. They reminded her of children.

   The last boy stepped up to the counter, shaking his head and laughing, "These guys act like they haven't eaten in days. How much do we owe?"

He was extremely exotic looking. His heart shaped face matched perfectly with his thin eyebrows. He had somewhat soft cheekbones and jawline. His chin sharp when he smiled. His lips were gorgeous and full. She always preferred men who looked different - normal was boring to her. His hair looked to be between a blonde and silver with a hint of blue, as if it was fading out. He stood tall and lean, towering over her 5'4" frame. His shoulders back, he knew how to carry himself to make others feel slightly intimidated. She wasn't intimidated by him in the least, but she did think he was attractive.

She laughed, "$134.89" From the looks of it, they had a very long day.

   The boy threw his head back, looking at the others happily eating their snacks. He handed her a credit card. She ran the card on what seemed like an ancient credit card reader.

"Boyfriend?" he asked in very clear English, his voice low and deep.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Brody" he smiled, "is he your boyfriend?"

"Oh god no" she laughed, "we're just friends."

"Not interested in him?" he asked, curiously.

"I um.." she thought for a minute on how she should respond, "We've known each other since we were teens. At one point we considered dating - on our first date we went to see a harry potter movie so that tells you how long ago that was."

He laughed and nodded, "didn't hit it off?"

"We did but--" she laughed, "it turns out he's in love with his best friend and I wasn't trying to get involved with that."

He grimaced, "ouch."

"He's persistent, I'll give him that" she laughed, "to this day he's still chasing her and she has at least a few boyfriends at any given time."

"He's just basically a backup but he keeps his hopes up" she explained, "whatever works for him." She truly did hope he gave up the chase and found someone, she felt he needed it desperately.

He nodded thinking about all the strange things he learned while in America.

He fiddled with things on the counter, accidentally knocking some candy on to the floor. He would occasionally catch a passing glance at her when he thought she wasn't looking, only to sheepishly smile and look down to avoid direct eye contact.

"Sorry" he apologized, bending over to put them back. She laughed. He is clumsy in the cutest way, she thought to herself.

   "I'm sorry this thing is so slow" she said nervously. She hated how long it took, waiting for it to finish made her anxious in his presence. Awkward forced conversations were a pet peeve of hers.

   He shot her a sideways smile, dimple forming on his cheek. "That's okay" he said, flashing a peace sign over his right eye. "You can call me RM"  he said, loosely introducing himself to her.

   And just like that she knew exactly who he was. Who THEY were. Maybe it was how late it was, but she hadn't put two and two together. Her heart started racing, she gulped and tried to control her breathing. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG, she thought to herself.

Kim Namjoon, also known as RM was the leader, spokesperson and main rapper for one of the most popular K-Pop groups from South Korea. His singing voice a tenor while his rapping voice ventured closer to baritone - sometimes sounding almost throaty. He grew up in the small city of Islan. As a boy, he had big dreams of being a superhero and changing the world. He felt his music did just that. He chose the stage name of Rap Monster, later changing it to just RM - a better reflection of who he thought he was. During their debut, Namjoon was one of the most hated members. Often receiving hate from "fans" who claimed he shouldn't be in the group at all. He worked hard to prove the naysayers wrong. A lyricist by nature, he provides many of the lyrics for the group. His belief in the group so strong that when asked if he would like to go solo or stay with the group - he chose Bangtan Sonyeondan without hesitation. He believed in the group and each of its members without fault. He had a tendency to hold onto his feelings without letting others know, and doing so has lead him to depression and anxiety in the past. He struggled and continued to struggle with loving himself - something he admitted he will strive for until his death. Although he was technically the "middle child" of the group, he was considered to be in the hyung line - a term used in South Korea that meant eldest of the group. Lover of all things cute and quirky - he had many collections of toys and figurines. If he could choose his own middle name it would be fashion which doubled as his passion.

He looked back over to the guys, "I'm kind of like the leader of the group." He looked back at her and gave her the sweetest smile. His smile is so charming, she thought to herself.

   She collected her thoughts before responding, "Jenilyn" pointing to her name tag. "You can just call me Jen."

   The credit card finally went through, she handed him the card and receipt to sign.

She added the receipt to the register and checked the time. "One minute is close enough" she announced packing up her register. The boys rolled their luggage outside while she finished closing. She put her register drawer in the safe, turned off the lights and clocked out for the night.

Locking the front door to the gift shop, she turned around to say, "I can't fit all of you in my car at once. I can take two of you at a time." She pointed to her pearl white Hyundai Elantra in the parking lot.

"You guys want to introduce yourselves?" RM asked, suggesting the guys to be more polite towards her. He physically pushed one of them closer to her gently.

Two of the boys stepped forward while RM loaded their luggage.

"V" one said in a low tone, bowing slightly and avoiding eye contact. He was slightly shorter than RM, although he kept his head down making him feel even shorter, closer to her own height. His voice sultry and deep. When he did smile, his mouth formed an almost stretched out heart shape. His dark hair looked messy, slightly curly, covering his eyes. He looks like a shaggy puppy, she thought to herself. He had a beautiful set of eyelashes that would make any girl envious. He was extremely shy towards her. She imagined he would look great in a preppy sweater vest or a leather jacket, his beauty knew no bounds.

Kim Taehung, also known as V. - A quirky guy and baritone vocals for the group. Easily distracted by animals and would occasionally act a little strange - so much so that anti-fans dubbed him as an alien, a nickname which he hated.  Considers his dog to be his child. Gets bored easily and sleeps with his eyes open - fans often wondered if he slept during American interviews. Originally considered to be the "pretty" one in the group. While it sounds like a compliment, it was more often used as an insult - that the only thing he had going for him were his looks. Like Namjoon, he worked hard to improve his vocal skills - proving everyone wrong. Very honest about his true feelings in the moment. He was the third youngest member of the group, making him part of the maknae line - a word used in South Korea that referred to the youngest. His personality and quirks made him seem much older than many of the group members.

She smiled at him, "Nice to meet you, V."

RM pushed the other boy on the back softly.

"Suga" he said. He was about an inch shorter than V. His hair also looked a little shaggy, although not as long as V's. His hair stopped just at the top of his eyebrows. His face somewhat round, with a chubby babydoll look. His eyes were dark and almost triangular in shape, as if he was judging the situation. They looked to be a cross between both monolid and double eye lids. His features were soft, even delicate at times. He pulled off the look well. The first thing she noticed about him was his confidence, nothing really seemed to bother him and he had no problems looking her in the eye. He didn't try to present himself in any particular way - he existed as he was. She loved that he could be that way.

Min Yoongi, known as Suga - Another rapper for the group and one of the fastest rappers in the industry of kpop. As a descendant of a very powerful clan during the Joseon dynasty, he had a rich heritage despite growing up poor. He spent much of his time producing his own music as well as music for the group. Slightly anti-social due to his social anxiety, he did the best he could in social situations. He could most often be found observing the group and letting the other guys lead the way. In his down time he liked to sleep, write lyrics and play games on his phone. He thought his fans to be the most special as he saw himself as average looking at best. Slightly obsessed with basketball, his favorite manga featured the sport. He didn't care to show certain parts of his body and remained covered at all times. He suffered from a shoulder injury he acquired during his trainee days, when he took a side job for extra cash. He kept his emotions well hidden, very rarely allowing his true feelings to escape. He remained a loud advocate for mental health and depression as his fight had been long and difficult. Loved to be hugged by the other members but pretended to hate it. Fans called him "sleepy" for his sleeping habits as well as "meow meow" for his cat-like appearance. Even though he looked the youngest, he was the second-eldest member of the group he - was hyung to all members aside from Jin. In their debut days, he felt like he got shafted by the company - he thought he'd be joining an all rap group and with focus on music production with little choreography required. Success and their fan base, known as ARMY, helped him come to terms with and accept his new life as an idol.

"Nice to meet you Suga" she said, opening the car door. Both boys sat in the back of the car, moving the pillows around in her back seat.

Everything in her car was galaxy themed - from the car seat covers to the pillows. Suga picked up one of the pillows, fluffing it in his hands. "You like stars?" he asked.

She laughed, reversing out of her parking space. "Yeah I really like the galaxy patterns. The colors are super pretty."

He nodded his head, placing the pillow next to him and using it as an arm rest.

"I actually have lights installed in the floorboard. Let me get going and I'll turn them on" she put the car in drive and slowly took off. The speed limit was 5 mph in the park. She flipped the switch located under her dash, lighting up the floorboards in purple lighting.

"Oh cool" Suga said checking out the floorboard. He stared at her dashboard, "Bluetooth?"

"Unfortunately, no. But I do have an aux" she said passing the cord back to him. He took the cord and plugged his phone in, playing the next song on his spotify. Drake.

"Do you listen to Drake?" he asked, curious about her.

"I do like Drake. I actually love almost all music" she said pulling into the parking space of the rental. She popped open her trunk. She got out and helped V with his luggage, handing him the key to the rental. She stepped into the rental really quick to show him some key features. "If you need to use the hot water you will need to push this button about 15 minutes in advance." He nodded and said "thanks."

She got back into the car with Suga, who had moved to the front seat in her absence. It had taken several minutes to get V all settled in, Suga still jamming out to Drake when she got back in.

"Geesh, you scared me" she laughed, seeing him in the front seat. He smiled a big smile at her. She pulled out of the parking spot and headed to his rental to drop him off.

"Anyway so as I was saying I really do love just about anything" she laughed, "I remember watching Drake on Degrassi when I was a kid. He was always one of my favorites. Drake is just slightly older than me so I was really at the right age to relate to those struggles in the show." She paused, "I spent a good deal of time watching it."

He smiled at her, still bobbing his head to the music. She pulled into the parking space for Suga's rental. She opened the trunk to help him with his bag.

She laughed, "Oh, wow. You only have one bag? You pack surprisingly light." She handed him the key. "There is extra bedding in the closet."

He smiled at her, his eyes looked tired but he remained attentive to her. "Can I text you?" he asked, holding his phone.

"I uhh.." she wasn't sure what to say.

"As friends" he said laughing slightly.

"Oh okay, sure" he handed her his phone and she entered her number, handing it back to him with a smile, "have a good night Suga."

She got back into her car and made her way up to the front again. She pulled into her parking space and got out, motioning for the next set of boys to get in. RM loaded their luggage into the back.

Another boy stepped up to introduce himself, this one slightly more aggressive than the others. "Jin" he said, "also known as worldwide handsome." He was tall, although slightly shorter than RM with dark hair. Lean, but stockier than the others - very broad shouldered. She imagined he would give a very comforting hug. His eyes were slightly cat-like, flattering his oblong face perfectly. His cheekbones and jawline strong. He had beautiful full lips that looked almost heart shaped when he didn't smile.

Kim Seokjin, Jin for short - Another vocal for the group - one that was renowned for being a "silver voice". His stable breathing and strong falsetto made him extremely versatile in all genres. A funny guy with a mild temper - he was considered the mom of the group, always making sure the guys were well taken care of - bringing them ice cream to cheer them up. Often times preparing meals and lunches for them. Cooking was another passion of his. He had a love of telling uncle jokes. His laugh was contagious and his face would turn red when he felt like people were staring at him too much. He was a terrible liar and loved to be complimented. Easy going until he got worked up - once slightly angered he would speak so fast it was hard to understand him. So handsome that his fans named him "Mr. Worldwide Handsome", meaning he was considered handsome in every country he visited. He was the eldest member of the group.

RM laughed while he put the luggage in the trunk, "It's late can we give the flirting a rest?" He rolled his eyes at Jin.

Jen smiled at Jin, he was very handsome, although in a very traditional sense. Very Hollywood actor. She preferred a man with more unique features but she could appreciate his beauty all the same. He obviously spent a great deal of time perfecting himself and he was proud. "Nice to meet you, worldwide handsome" she said giving him a smile.

His black hair fell over his face as he stepped forward, "Jungkook." His eyes were big and bright as if he was excited about something. Of all of them, he smelled the best, smelling slightly fruity with base notes of vanilla and chocolate. It smelled very familiar to her. He smells slightly feminine but it suits him well. I am pretty sure I own that perfume, she thought to herself. He had beautifully cut features, as if he could pull off both the innocent boy look and a badass at the same time. His lips featured a prominent cupid's bow and reminded her of her own lips. Very full on bottom with a slightly thinner upper lip. He looked sweet and innocent.

Jeon Jeongguk, stage name Jungkook. - For lack of a better word, he was the most "average guy" out of all of them. As the youngest member of the group he was known as the "golden" maknae - a term given to the absolute youngest member. Although he seemed like an average guy with his love of manga, food and video games - his outstanding appearance and professionalism told a different story. His vocals rivaled the greatest of singers - new and old. While the other members preferred to dress in expensive clothing, he stayed with his tried-and-true brands. He was one of if not the most popular member in the group. Fans gave him the nickname of Kookie. Despite their success he had average dreams - he wished to eventually get married and have kids, to settle down and live an average life. Training as an idol from a young age, he joined the group as a teen - his childlike demeanor still holding true. He had an uncanny ability for learning quickly and excelling at everything he tried. It often left him feeling like he needed work harder to feel like he worked just as hard as the other members, to the point of dehydration and exhaustion.

"Nice to meet you Jungkook" she said opening the car door. Jin sat in front with her, Jungkook in the back. Jungkook laid down in the backseat, getting comfortable on her pillows. I'll take him home last since he's so comfortable, she thought to herself. She handed the aux cord to Jin, "Suga wanted to listen to music on the way. You can too if you like." He nodded and set the cord down without playing music.

Her phone sat in the cup holder between the front seats. Her phone starting going off. Her text notification for one of her friends was, "Waste it on me", specifically, RM's part of the song all the way to the end. She quickly took the phone, placing it face down to end the notification. She laughed, slightly embarrassed.

Jungkook immediately started singing and continued singing after the notification stopped. He really does have a beautiful voice, she thought to herself. It was extremely soothing to her and made her feel more relaxed.

"A fan?" Jin asked, curiously looking at her.

She could feel her face getting flushed, "I am." She nodded hoping the moment passed quickly.

"You didn't ask for an autograph?" he asked, although it sounded more like a statement.

She smiled, pulling into the parking space for his rental, "You guys looked tired and honestly I'm not into that kind of thing." She stepped out of the vehicle to help him carry his bags.

He gave her a half smile and raised an eyebrow slightly, getting out of the car with her, "What do you mean?"

She opened the trunk and started removing his bags, setting them gently on the gravel, "I don't really like to get close to celebrities. I like to admire from afar." She paused and stared at him. "In my mind if I can give them one less crazed fan to worry about, maybe their lives will be a little more peaceful." She handed him the key for the rental.

He hugged her, his broad shoulders wrapped around her. I was right, his hugs are the best, she thought to herself. She left her arms to the side without hugging back. He thanked her and headed up the stairs to his rental. She waited until he got inside before leaving.

Jungkook had sat up by the time she got back in the car. In her rear view mirror she could see him smiling at her. He moved close behind her, using her seat to pull himself forward. She felt as if he liked being able to intimidate her slightly. Perhaps he is into power plays, she thought to herself. He was so close to her that she could feel him breathing on her neck. It was kind of weird but slightly erotic. She wasn't even sure if he did it on purpose or not. He looked too sweet and innocent to do it purposely.

She pulled into the parking space, opening the trunk once again. He joined her at the back of the car, removing his luggage. He stood directly in front of her with a big smile on his face. His wide eyes open as if he had a million racing thoughts. After several moments he reached out to her hand, holding it within his. She looked down, noticing the tattoos on his hands. She looked up to see him smiling at her still. She laughed and took her hand back, handing him the key.

"Goodnight Jungkook" she said. He gave her another big smile, this time big enough to crinkle his eyes. He went to his rental while she made she he got in safely.

She drove back to the front of the park. She couldn't stop thinking about how flirty the guys had been. They were all so cute but man are they good at making me feel uncomfortable, she thought to herself.

She opened the trunk and didn't bother getting out of the car this time. It was already nearing midnight and she was exhausted. RM helped load their luggage, lightly patting the trunk after he closed it. Seijin sat next to her in the front seat, another hopped into the backseat, he sat in the middle, leaning in between Seijin & Jen.

"I'm J-Hope" he said cheerfully. He had a very thick Asian accent, suiting him perfectly. He shared a similar height to the other guys, although he seemed noticeably thinner. Very fashionable. He had a slightly longer face cut with a strong jawline and high cheekbones, Like RM he had dimples when he smiled. An adorable nose that turned up slightly at the end. She had always known that he was really cute, but his personality really won her over. He was extremely kind and happy. She often wished she could be that person. Being an introvert, she often tried to conserve her energy for situations she really wanted to enjoy. Being outwardly happy all the time exhausted her in most cases. It was rare she found someone didn't drain her mentally, she thought most people to be energy vampires.

Jung Hoseok, stage name J-Hope and sometimes referred to as Hobi. - The final rapper of the group and another member who received much criticism in their debut days. Anti-fans asked him to leave the group on numerous occasions which he eventually considered before deciding not to - the love and trust of his group pulling him back. He was the best dancer and most fashionable of the group. His laugh was contagious and animated - he had no problems with falling over from laughter. Spending too much time in water made him seasick and roller coasters scared him to death, though he did think it was fun after the fact. He is known as the happiest member of the group - often gritting his teeth and hiding any problems he faced. He was considered to be the second-to-the-last favorite member of the group, after RM of course, in their debut days. His fan base grew as they reached unimaginable levels of success. As the third eldest member of the group, he was a part of the hyung line.

Seijin sat quietly as J-Hope talked both to, and at, Jen. He often nodded his head in agreement, listening to him be so happy. She pulled into the parking space for Seijin's rental. She had her hand on the door handle when Seijin said, "I'll get my bags. You stay here." She smiled at him and handed him the key. He returned a smile adding, "thank you" before exiting and grabbing his bags. She waited until he entered the rental before backing up. She pulled into J-Hope's rental, a mere 40 feet away. She exited her car, helping him remove his bags. He had more bags than most of the other guys. She set his bags gently on the gravel.

He smiled at her, he swayed back and fourth slightly as if he was nervous. She handed him the key. He picked up his bags and turned away for a brief moment before turning around to ask, "phone?" he asked in English, making a phone call gesture next to his face.

She laughed, louder than she probably should with how late it was, "You are the second person to ask tonight. Let me see your phone." He handed her the phone and smiled, a low chuckle escaping his lips.

"Second? Who asked first - V?" he asked.

She entered her number into his phone. She handed it back to him, still laughing about it, "Suga."

He looked at her stunned before returning the phone to his pocket. "I can't believe that. He doesn't even respond to us."

Her laugh died down into a smile, "Well he hasn't actually texted yet so...." her voiced trailed off, dropping her smile. She could feel how tired she was now, even with the excitement of meeting BTS she felt like she could fall asleep at any given moment.

He smiled at her again, giving her a thumbs up before entering his rental. She waited until he got inside and she could see the lights pop on.

Seijin & Hope's rentals were in the back in the campground, it took her awhile to get back to the front. Pulling into her parking spot she could see RM and Jimin outside the store. Jimin laying on the ground, resting his head on RM's thigh. RM staring off into the distance, resting his head against the window of the store. They both looked fatigued. She couldn't imagine what they had gone through.

   She exited the car, and gestured them to get in.

    The last boy she had not been properly introduced to stood up slowly and whined half-playfully and half-seriously,  "I'm hunnnnngry."

   RM rolled his eyes. "Jimin, you just ate" he said with a sigh.

   "No, real food" he whined again. This time almost stomping his foot, his blonde hair bouncing with the motion. Compared to the others, he looked petite, but strong. His lips plump and a generously handsome smile. His had slightly chubby cheeks yet still prominent cheek bones, very doll like. He seemed comfortable in his sexuality and that in itself was attractive to her. He presented himself in a very fun, childlike manner. She could see immediately that he often needed reassurance from the others.

Park Jimin, stage name Jimin. - The second-youngest in the group after Jungkook. Lead vocals and well known for his falsetto - he had the voice of an angel. He was a sensitive guy with a need for attention. He loved being the center of it just as much as he loved showering the other members in it. He loved to compliment and purchase gifts for the other guys, always holding on to or touching the other members. In their debut days, he felt out of place when they would strive for a "bad boy" image. In more recent years he allowed his true personality to shine brighter and was met with complete acceptance from his fans. As one of the most popular members, he loves his fans more than life itself. In their early days, he was one of the most hated members - not by his fans but by fans of rival groups. So much so that he had received multiple threats on his life. He struggled in the beginning with loving himself as he was. In his quest to find perfection he often starved himself to the point of exhaustion. Recent years had treated him much better and he was a happier person because of it. He was one of the sweetest members of the group and his love for army knew no bounds.

RM sighed loudly, tilting his head back, letting his arms fall to the side.

   "I have food, not a lot but I can probably get you something?" Jen offered.

   "It's really not necessary--" RM said before being cut off by Jimin.

   "What kind?!" Jimin asked, practically jumping up and down.

   "Umm, chips, fruits" she said thinking, "maybe some spicy ramen?"

   Jimin didn't even say anything before getting up, he bounced around happily next to her.

   "It's been a really long night for everybody, we don't mean to waste more of your--" RM rebutted, trying to calm Jimin.

   "It's really no big deal. I live in the apartment up there" she said, pointing towards the sky above the gift shop.

   RM looked up to see there was an apartment above the A frame building. Jimin looked to him expectantly. He smiled, rolled his eyes slightly and said, "Well, let's get it."

   They walked around the building and up the set of stairs, dragging their luggage behind them. Jen helped Jimin with his as she noticed his struggle.

She placed her key in the lock and turned the doorknob, forcefully pushing the door open. Immediately the smell of blueberry pancake filled their senses.

"Mmm" Jimin said, smelling the air, "what smells so good?"

She giggled at him, "It's a candle. I love candles but I'm especially fond of fall scented ones."

The apartment was small, but cozy. She loved the shabby chic look and decorated her space to reflect that. Lots of white and ivory with subtle pops of pink. It was calming to her.

   Jimin dropped his bags near the door. Walking through the kitchen, he immediately opened the fridge and started pulling things out, naming things as he went. "Strawberries, blueberries." He found the bananas on the counter. She handed him a plate, smiling at how happy he was.

   RM sighed loudlly, giving up at this point.

   "If you keep walking straight you'll find the living room. You can sit down if you want" Jen offered.

   RM thanked her with a smile, and headed to the couch. He removed the pillows from the corner and placed them in his lap, laying his head back and letting his neck hang. It feels so good to sit on something other than a bus seat, he thought to himself. He looked around to survey the room - clearly a girls space. Candles. Blankets. Throw pillows. He found the remote and turned on the TV, scrolling through her apps. He scrolled through, finally deciding on Funimation, he reached across to grab a blanket. Covering himself he could smell the faint scent of perfume. It smelled beautiful and warm, just like she did. Slightly expensive, but not too expensive. He breathed deep and let the scent fill him.

She walked into the hallway leading to the living room, stopping at the console table to empty her pockets. She usually carried so many things with her, always her phone but also lip balm, a small vial of perfume, and a pen. She plugged her phone into it's charger. "I'm going to change my shirt" she yelled, unsure if they would even care. It felt super awkward having them in her apartment but they acted like it wasn't a big deal. They are probably used to meeting strangers, she thought to herself. She closed her bedroom door and took off her shirt, adding it to the laundry basket. She rummaged through her drawer to find something comfortable, but appropriate. She chose a plain white tee that ruched on one side. She typically preferred to get comfortable as soon as she got home - getting out of her jeans as fast as possible. To her, pants were leg prisons and shoes were foot prisons.

   She entered her living room. "Comfy?" she asked, sitting down on the opposite side of the couch. She admired how cute he looked snuggled in her blanket.

   He smiled, "Yah" purposely snuggling a little more.

   She giggled, "Jimin found the fruit and he's having a good time in there." She said, reaching for another blanket.

   He laughed and shook his head, "I bet he is."

   "We can share" he said, throwing a corner of the blanket at her.

   Damn he's cute, she thought. She wasn't even sure how she was containing her inner fan-girl. Her heart was screaming but she managed to play it so cool. She thought her heart might burst with how fast it was beating. She covered her legs and snuggled on the couch. She was happy, but so very tired. She could feel her eyes slowly closing against her desire to stay awake.

   Jimin finally emerged from the kitchen, smiling and rubbing his tummy. He sighed, eyelids half closed.

   "Ready to go?" Jen asked, sitting up on the couch. Jimin nodded. She got up to take Jimin to his home for the night.

   "Do you mind if I stay here?" RM asked "Thinking about that ramen now."

   "Oh yeah sure. Pans are in the cabinet near the sink. Ramen in the upper cabinet" she said heading out the door, carrying some of the bags for Jimin. He watched through the blinds as she helped Jimin into the car, loading his bags for him. Jimin seems to like her a lot, he thought to himself, I can see why - she is lovely.

RM got up and began looking through the cabinets, finding the extra spicy noodles and boiling the water. He finished the noodles, drained and then mixed them together.

   She had gotten halfway to drop Jimin off when she realized she forgot her phone. CRAP, she thought to herself, It's late anyway, I will be okay. Jimin sat in the front seat next to her, leaning his head against the door. He fell asleep on the ride. He looked peaceful, as if the car ride comforted him in ways he had not been comforted in a long time. She pulled into the parking space, letting him sleep a minute longer before waking him up.

   RM sat the bowl down, deciding he needed to find the bathroom. He entered her bedroom. Small, but plenty of room with a desk and vanity. Curious, he opened her closet doors. The closet was surprisingly big for how small the apartment was. He looked over her clothing, fashionable, mostly tees and denim. Comfortable shoes - Adidas and converse. Clearly a girl who dresses to be cute and comfortable. He closed the doors. Exactly what he expected based on the little he knew about her.

   He went to the bathroom, located next to the closet.

   Exiting the bathroom, he had a clear view of her desk across the room. He walked closer and realized that her screensaver was none other than BTS. He moved the mouse to see that her background had a picture of him, specifically from the "Butter" concept photo shoot. He raised an eyebrow and smiled.

On the other end of the wall sat her vanity, slightly messy as if she used it often. It had a large Hollywood glamour style mirror, surrounded by fifteen bright light bulbs. Exiting the bedroom he could hear music. Getting closer to the source, he could hear it was a BTS song. Mic Drop, in particular. He picked up her phone from the table and looked at it, recognizing the number that texted her.

The text message contained only one word. "Hey." He laughed a little, shook his head and said, "Suga" to himself out loud.

He set the phone down, only for it to immediately begin ringing again, this time a phone call. He picked up the phone again to see "Ex" calling. He let it ring, setting it down and listening to "I'm fine" playing. He sang along softly to it.

   He picked up his bowl of ramen again about the time she walked in. She shut the door quietly.

   "Jimin is safe" she said turning off the porch light. "Poor thing fell asleep on the drive" she mentioned.

   RM, slurping his noodles, raised both eyebrows, "You had a call."

   Immediately she knew that her ringtone was on. He heard it. Oh god he heard it, she thought to herself.

   "It was Ex?" he asked.

   "Yeah" she sighed, "my ex husband."

   Still eating his noodles, he made a sound between huh and oh?

He gave her a big smile, "And Suga texted you." She blushed, slightly embarrassed. He laughed, louder this time, "I can't even get him to text me."

   She picked up the phone, adding Suga as a contact. She returned the call to her ex. He listened to her from the kitchen.

   "Yeah what did you want?"

   "What does it even matter?"

   She sighed.

   "We've been through this. I'm done and it's over".

   RM heard the anger rising in her voice, and gestured with two fingers for her to give him the phone. She handed it over, giving him a sideways look.

   "Yea man, she said no. Its over." He ended the call and smiled - both dimples showing this time.

   "What did you do?" she asked, panicking.

   "Now he knows you're with a man. He'll leave you alone" he shrugged.

   It was silent as they returned to the living room, "Not something you can fix?" he asked out of curiosity.

   She laughed. "No, it is not" she said, plopping down on the couch.

   He sat down on the other end, one eyebrow up as if he questioned her.

   She leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. It was always hard for her to hold back her tears when someone asked directly. "After five years of marriage he decided that he would rather have girls on only fans." She looked at him dead in the eyes, "and fuck them." She looked down this time, "more than a few times."

   RM was quiet. He had no words that would comfort her in the moment. She seems like a really chill girl, he thought to himself. He moved closer and rubbed her upper back softly, offering what little support he could think of.

   She laughed as she wiped away the tears. "Its alright. He's the one that's missing out. I'm fucking great" she announced.

   RM laughed. She's kind of cocky - I like it, he thought. Clapping his hands together he said, "It's been a long night and I think we're both tired.."

   She blinked at him a few times. She didn't really want to go anywhere at this point. She wanted to fall asleep when Jimin did earlier. "You can stay here if you want?" she offered, half question half offer.

   He nodded his head in agreement. She brought him some pillows and a larger blanket for the couch.

   "Bathrooms off my room if you need it" she smiled. She went into her room, changing out of her jeans and into ruched shorts. She faced the desk fan towards her bed before getting in, she preferred the cold when she slept.

   She fell asleep quickly.

The group chat that they used to communicate with each other was on fire that night :

Suga : Thoughts? She's cute

V : Very

J-Hope : Her car smelled nice

Jimin : Her apartment smelled nice too

Suga : What?! You went to her apartment?

V : I'm thirsty, do you think she'd help? :D

Jin : Too much V

RM : Jimin complained he was hungry

Jimin : I'm full now : )

Jin :  She seems really nice. Reminds me of my mom.

Suga : She likes drake

Jungkook : Cool girl

Jin : She likes us

Jungkook : Yeah all of her ringtones are bts.

RM : I can't believe Suga is actually responding to us in group chat.

J-Hope : A pretty girl will do that to him.

V : We should invite her to the show tomorrow night

Suga : YAS!

RM : We will ask Seijin in the morning.

Jimin: *clapping emoji*

RM : *sent a picture of him laying on her couch to the chat*

J-Hope : You stayed with her?!?!

Suga : OMG

   He didn't respond further after sending the picture. He laid on the couch, thinking about the day. She was obviously a fan but she treated him like any other person. It was refreshing. He thought about Suga asking for her phone number. It almost pained him to think about and he wasn't sure why. To think of it, all of the guys seemed really smitten by her, he thought to himself before falling asleep.

   He fell asleep for a couple of hours before waking up in the night. He walked through her room to the bathroom. He could see her silhouette in the moonlight. She was sleeping on her stomach with one leg bent. He could see her butt poking out the bottom of her shorts. He went to the bathroom and came back. He admired her figure. Her butt was idealistic, the kind that many women would photo shop to copy. Almost too good to be real, he thought. He slowly climbed into bed next to her.

   Him laying next to her woke her slightly. She was a very light sleeper, with any kind of noise waking her. She could feel his body next to hers. Wiggling closer she rested her head next to his and offered him half of the blanket. They slept together but in the most innocent way. Similar to how you would sleep with a very good friend - cuddled together without sexual expectations. Neither of them had been cuddled in so long, both enjoying it immensely.

He woke up very early. He stared at her while as she slept. He wished he could lay next to her for awhile longer but there was a van waiting to pick them up. Before he left, he took a selfie with her phone, entering himself as a contact. He noticed Suga had sent her another text message as she didn't respond to the first. He smiled, surprised that Suga tried a second time. It was unlike him to pursue someone more than once.

He found a notebook on her counter and wrote her a note before grabbing his bags to head out the door. He quietly closed the front door when he left, his luggage behind him. Before getting into the car he dug out his journal. He sat between Suga & J-Hope. Once settled and on their way, he wrote yesterday's journal entry :

"Today was a great day. The day was long and the ride even longer. Our vehicle broke down on the way to Chicago. We stopped at a campground and met a really nice girl. Pretty. Smart. I slept on her couch and then moved into the bed with her. It was lovely."

He read his entry over, adding small details he wanted to remember. J-Hope couldn't help but notice his entry, "She's pretty" he admitted.

RM laughed, "Yeah so pretty Suga got her number." Suga laughed, letting out a little snort.

"Had to try" he responded.

J-Hope blushed, covering his face.

RM laughed, "You asked for her number too didn't you? How many of you do you think she can see at once?"

V, who sat behind RM, leaned forward between the seats, "I wanted to ask her but I was too shy. She seems really confident."

Suga laughed at V's misfortune. "You weren't able to form words around her."

RM smiled as he listened to the boys jokingly fight over the girl. They often fawned over pretty girls, but usually not the same one. His mind got lost in thought.

Suga's phone went off. He looked at it, seeing a text from Jen. "I win." he said, showing the text message around as if it were a gold medal.

Both V and J-Hope sighed. RM laughed at their behavior. It was cute and charming, but also somewhat childish. He rolled his eyes listening to them talk about her.

Jen woke several times during the night to find him snuggled with her pillows. She thought he looked like a sweet angel when he slept. He snored softly and looked at peace.

In the morning, he was gone. She yawned and stretched. He didn't wear a cologne - instead he smelled of incense with hints of honey and lemon. His scent lingered on her sheets. It smelled as interesting as he was.

It was her day off, she wasn't in a hurry to do anything today. She made her morning coffee. She looked out the window, mug in hand, to see if the bus was outside. It wasn't. For a minute she thought it was all a dream until she noticed a note on her console table.

"Thank you for everything. -Namjoon"

She smiled at the note and looked at the dishes in the sink from the noodles and in that instant it hit her like a truck. Last night was real. And amazing - but short-lived. She honestly had the best night of her life. It really doesn't go up from here, she thought to herself.

   Her doorbell rang. She opened the door to find flowers on the deck. A beautiful bouquet of mixed flowers of all colors. Bringing the flowers in, she set them on her dining table and checked the card.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/278213084-breaking-free-bts-rm-kim-namjoon-fanfiction

[dimensionwriter]

Wrapped Around Your Finger

Part 3 (Valentine's Edition 2)

Part 1 Part 2

Naga! Male x reader

Word count: 1447

Warning: nothing but the usual fluff

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Okay, you got this. You are prepared and this is going to go well. Yep, it's going to be fine.

You glanced back at your bed to see that it was covered in a bunch of gifts. Last year, Corel went all out for Valentine's Day for you and this year, you wanted to return the favor.

But that wasn't it either. You were starting to get weird feelings for Corel before Valentine last year and it's only been getting stronger. After thinking it over, you realized that you were in love with your best friend.

You wanted to talk yourself into getting rid of those feelings, but you couldn't do it not matter how hard you tried. Corel is the best thing to have happen to you and you want to become even closer to him. So, this Valentine's Day you were to going to ask him to be yours.

You didn't know how he was going to respond, but hopefully it was going to be well.

Grabbing a duffel bag and throwing all the gifts in it, you made your way next door. Corel had just called you and told you he had to go to work for a few hours. So that gave you ample of time for your plan. All you had to do was find a way into his house, set everything up, wait for him to get home, butter him up, ask him on a date, and hopefully get a yes. Simply, right?

You jogged next door and walked to his front door. Corel had hid a spare key in the 'broken' light fixture outside because he didn't want to pay for any more broke windows. Break a window once and you get treated like you did it a hundred times.

You grab the cold glass and twisted it off. You were met with the sight of a small black key with your initials on it. A smile came onto your lips as you grabbed it and pushed it into the keyhole.

The door unlocked smoothly and with one small push, the door swung open. Placing the glass back on the light, you put the key in your back pocket. Well let's get to work.

It took your a total of 2 hours to finish everything. The living room was reformed. You pushed the giant couches into a straight line far from the tv. In the new created space you place the 20 large red and white pillows on the ground with a 10 feet long white blanket onto, all brought just for this occasion. A few rose petals were sprinkled on top with small heart chocolates with red wrapping.

You brought some LED lights and place it around the living room and put it on a nice light red tint. The colour looked fantastic on the white table carrying all of Corel's favorite snacks. There was the chocolate covered strawberries, oreos, chips, caramel popcorn, and heart shaped pretzels. You also had some real food in the kitchen inside the stove in order to keep it warm.

You brought a few movies over too, since it was kind of you guys thing to have a bunch of movie nights. Most of them was humorous but just in case you brought a romance one. Maybe it could help him get in the mood for romance.

The sound of the door being messed with made your blood run cold. Oh gosh, it's time. Just play it cool. It's okay.

But, is it though? Maybe this is too much. The atmosphere seems too romantic than it seem friendly. What if he picks that up and rejects you before you could even ask?

"Oh hey-what?" Corel froze at the door as he stared all around the room. You stayed glued in your spot as your wringed your fingers against eachother. "What is this?"

Sweat starting pouring out of your body as your eyes met his yellow ones. "Happy Brithday!" You blurted out before your brain processed what it just spurted out. "I mean Happy Valentine's Day because it's Valentine's Day, so yeah."

Corel didn't say anything and just stood there at the door. His pupil was changing between dilating and shrinking.

"Yeah, I remember you saying you wish you had a bed of nothing but pillows because sometimes you tail falls off the bed or the springs would hurt. And-and I got some food," you sputtered out as you pointed to every object. You turned around as you looked at your set up. It was too much, wasn't it?

"Sorry, guess I did go overboard," you admitted grabbing the side of your arm. You turned around and all you saw were round black eyes with a yellow ring around it.

Before your could scream at Corel's closeness, his cold fingers were placed behind your neck. And then he got closer. Yeah, so close that his lips were touching yours.

Why was he putting his lips against yours?

You blinked before it hit you. Corel was kissing you. He was kissing you. Corel, the person you're suppose to ask out, is kissing you.

He pulled away and you head absentmindedly followed, missing the coolness to his skin. "I'm so sorry. I-I just couldn't- you- adorable and I- I love you. Like love as in more than friends. I want you to be mines."

You stood there with your mouth gaping open. He loves you too. He wants to be with you. He even asked you to be his.

"No," you said feeling despair come over you. You were suppose to ask him. He's always taking the big steps in your relationship and you wanted to do it this time.

Corel face drop and his hand dropped for your side. His eyes slowly turned to slits and were becoming slightly glossy. Spreading across his cheeks, a deep red blush took over.

"Wait, Corel I wasn't saying no to you. I was saying no because I was going to ask you to be mines, but you beat me to it," you explained quickly while waving your hands at him, as if that could wipe away your mistake. "You're always 10 steps ahead of me like always."

"You scared me," he whimpered letting out a sigh of relief. He stepped forward and plopped his head on your shoulder. His arms snaked their way around your waist and pulled you eve closer. A burst of butterflies flew around inside your chest at his proximity. "I thought I just messed up our relationship so bad."

"Well in a way you did," you teased wiggling your eyebrows. Corel rotated his head to show his confused face. Bending down, you slide his head until both your foreheads were touching. "We're not simply friends any more. You're my boyfriend now."

A giant goofy smile broke onto his face and you swear you could hear a small happy hiss coming from him. He open his mouth and let out the cutest giggle.

He squeeze you closer as he picked you up and spun you around. "Say it again."

You let out a laugh as you leaned more into him as he continue spinning. "You're my boyfriend. Now put me down before your drop me." You let out a squeal as he lightly tossed you in the air before catching you.

"I would never," he hummed snuggling more into you. A smile came onto your face as you looked down at him. As you looked down at your Corel.

"Corel, I would love nothing more than to stand here in your arms, but I don't want my hard work going to waste," you teased after 2 minutes of him cuddling you. He froze for a split second before he popped up.

"I wouldn't dream of wasting your hard work. C'mon," he yelled grabbing your hand and tugging you towards the pillow pile. He threw himself down and since his hand was encasing yours, you fell right on top of him.

Something thick and cold began to wrap itself around your legs causing you to look down. A black and purple snake tail was slowly wrapping itself around your legs.

You glanced back up at Corel with a quirked eyebrow. He let out a small laugh as he tighten his tail's grip on you. "Sorry, I'm just attracted to hot things." He threw a wink your way which was responded by a playful roll of your eyes.

"You better be lucky I like your goofy self," you teased poking his cheeks. A giant smile came onto his face as he threw his arms around you and pulled you closer.

Guess your Valentine's turned out alright after all.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

You know I had to do another Valentine story with this character. If you guys are interested, I don't mind maybe doing one more Valentine story (even though it's over, but let's ignore that). Anyway, please remember to LIKE the story so I know that you guys actually enjoy it and to COMMENT anything, it really motivates me when I see you guys spamming me with comments on my story.

Thank you so much for reading my story and I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day.

💜💜💜

[horansqueen]

You & Me : chapter 41

A Niall Horan fanfiction ; rated MA

Sequel to AM CONVERSATIONS

CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 6 || CHAPTER 7 || CHAPTER 8 || CHAPTER 9 || CHAPTER 10 || CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || CHAPTER 13 || CHAPTER 14 || CHAPTER 15 || CHAPTER 16 || CHAPTER 17 || CHAPTER 18 || CHAPTER 19 || CHAPTER 20 || CHAPTER 21 || CHAPTER 22 || CHAPTER 23 || CHAPTER 24 || CHAPTER 25 || CHAPTER 26 || CHAPTER 27 || CHAPTER 28 || CHAPTER 29 || CHAPTER 30 || CHAPTER 31 || CHAPTER 32 || CHAPTER 33 || CHAPTER 34|| CHAPTER 35 || CHAPTER 36 || CHAPTER 37 || CHAPTER 38 || CHAPTER 39 || CHAPTER 40

NOTES:

-one chapter is her pov, the next is his -4.6k -im sorry, i never proofread, i hate it. -there WILL be smut. but not only smut. -this is a romance, comedy, smut story. -for the summary, check my MASTERLIST.

READ AM CONVERSATIONS AGAIN ON WATTPAD HERE

- notes: hope the smut isnt too much lol! oh and, couldnt find the gif i wanted but this one will do. this chapter was fun to write and i dont think it was a filler chapter lol! only a few chapters left, im super nervous! at the same time, this story is getting less and less popular sooo idk, maybe its time? idk. if you read and comment and like and reblog, I LOVE YOU!

if you want to be on the list of blogs i notify when this is updated, just message me :)

requests! : posting them at the bottom because of spoilers!

TAKE A LOOK AT THE CHARACTERS HERE

Chapter 41 : His chapter

NIALL

May 15th, 2018

I was so close to ask her to marry me when we were in Spain. I kept looking at her ring finger, imagining what the ring I had bought would look on her hand, and telling myself that now that we were official, anything was possible, and I wanted it. I wanted the impossible, I wanted everything. The words "marry me" almost escaped my lips exactly 11 times and even now, I was wondering how I actually stopped myself from just doing it.

We were back in California for a few days and I had convinced her to spend her time in my house instead to go back to hers. Most likely, Louis was there with Eleanor or he was spending all his time at her place. Either way, I thought we were better at my house but I knew that eventually, she'd want to see Louis and get back in her stuff anyway.

I woke up and blinked a few times as the sun peeked through the curtains but not enough to light the room. It was dark but I could see clearly and when I turned around, I realized she was laying on her back, completely naked, and the covers were only hiding one of he legs. She was still asleep, her hair messy around her head, and I couldn't help but reach for my cock as my eyes roamed on her. I got on my knees gently, making sure I wouldn't make the mattress move too much, and let one of my hands run on her breasts while I grabbed my dick with the other, stroking it slowly. I rubbed my thumb on one of her nipples until it got hard and finally, I let my fingertips brush down her body to reach between her legs, her skin so soft against mine. Slowly, I moved one of her knees before letting two of my fingers run on her slit. The more I was touching her, the harder I was getting and I moved closer to her on my knees just to rub the tip of my cock on her nipple.

"Jesus Christ." I whispered before she moved lightly in her sleep, letting out a low whimper.

I stopped moving and waited until she did too to continue touching her, my heart skipping a beat. The sensation was incredible and it made me want to rub my dick all over her body. I turned my body slightly and reached for her lips with my dick this time, feeling myself get even hornier when she licked her lips. It brushed on the tip of my cock and I let out a low groan as my eyes fluttered. I knew the whole thing was turning me on more than it should and all I could think about was getting between her legs and pushing my cock deep inside her.

Instead, I reached for her pussy again, rubbing one of my fingers gently on her clit as I felt her get wetter. Her body jerked a bit and she moaned low again before I let out an other curse word and slipped two fingers inside her, moving them in and out of her extremely slowly. I could hear how wet she was and I felt my cock throb in my hand. I was so turned on by her that I could barely believe I was doing that but she was so gorgeous, laying there completely naked in my white sheets, and the way she made me hard was just un-fucking-believable. I finally moved between her legs very slowly only to rub the tip of my dick on her clit. It slid easily due to how wet she was from me fingering her and this time, she let out a louder moan as one of her legs twitched. I jerked off harder between her legs as I pushed my thumb inside of her and rubbed her clit harder with one of my fingers until I was closer to an orgasm and without thinking, I took my hand away and pushed the tip of my cock inside her. Her walls pressed around it and I knew she was waking up. I took my cock out as I felt an orgasm reach me, cumming a bit inside of her before spurting on her pussy.

"Holy fuck."

I let out a moan as I watched her pussy get covered with my cum and when I looked up, her lips were parted and she was staring at me.

"Did you just cum all over me?" she asked in a low tone, her eyebrows raised.

"I.. did. I'm sorry."

Her eyes fell on my still hard cock as I shook it slightly and she bit her bottom lip before spreading her legs apart more and reaching for her pussy. I looked at her fingers gather some of my cum and slide it down until her clit. She let out a louder whimper as she started rubbing herself with the vestige of my orgasm and I couldn't help but let out an other curse word.

"You should have woken me up." she pointed, her voice a mix of a whimper and a whisper.

"I know petal but you looked so vulnerable and hot just laying there, naked and asleep." I admitted, my eyes never leaving her fingers as she flicked them on her clit. "Fuck, you love rubbing your clit with my sperm?"

I didn't know if it was my words or just the fact that she was touching herself but she let out an other moan and her back arched suddenly. I brought one of my hands closer and once again pushed two of my fingers inside her as she kept touching herself and squirming on the bed.

"I want to watch you cum, darling."

It only took her about half a minute before she started shaking and when my named escaped her lips, I could swear I got dizzy and my vision got blurred for a few seconds.

"Oh fuck, Niall!"

Something stirred in my stomach and I just stared at her as she came, grinding on my fingers and squirming even more. When she came down from her high and relaxed on the mattress, I took my fingers out and slowly lied down over her. Her eyes were still closed and her lips were still parted as she panted. I brushed my mouth against hers and she whimpered as I felt my whole body vibrate.

"You did so well, petal. That was so fucking hot."

She brought her hands to my head, slipping her fingers in my hair, before kissing me deeply. I tilted my head slightly, tasting her as she whimpered in my mouth. I swallowed her moans and when i pulled away to look in her eyes, she sighed low.

"I don't want to go to work today." she admitted, raising her nose up and making an amused smile appear on my lips.

"You have to."

"I could call in sick?" she asked, her eyebrows raised and her face full of hope.

I laughed and shook my head, making her groan immediately. "Nope, you have to go. I'll go with you, how's that?"

"Better than nothing I guess."

I chuckled and got up, searching through my stuff to find clean clothes and when I glanced at her, my lips curled again.

"Stop staring at me and get ready. I'll make coffee and we can leave." The alarm on her phone started ringing as soon as I finished my sentence and I raised my eyebrows. "See? You have to wake up. Take a shower, I'll wait for you in the kitchen."

I heard her groan and turned around when I heard a sound only to realize she had tried throwing a pillow at me but had failed miserably. I laughed and shook my head but turned back around and reached the kitchen.

We ate toasts quickly as we walked to the car and remained silent the whole ride until we were there. We should both have gotten out of the car, I knew it, but instead, we remained sitting there, looking in front of us, and I kept wondering how we should act together. We were never the type to show too much affection in public. It happened before with friends around, or family sometimes, but not when random strangers could see. This time, we were with a lot of strangers and I was wondering if I should hold her hand or not. Should I kiss her temple sometimes? Or just go straight for the mouth? I didn't know anymore and if I wanted to be frank, I had never asked myself that question in any other relationships before.

"Ready?"

"No."

I frowned and turned to her but it took her a few seconds to look back at me. She sighed and shrugged before shaking her head a bit.

"Things have been particularly awkward with Dylan even since Heidi posted all those lyrics about us on instagram." she admitted, closing her eyes tight for a few seconds before opening them again. "We're filming the season's finale today and, I don't know, I'm nervous I guess."

"Anything special about the final episode?"

She stared at me, her eyes roaming on my face, and her lips parted. "His character is breaking up with my character."

We looked at each other in silence and after a while, I reached for her hand on her thigh and squeezed her fingers tight. I knew why it made her feel like this and I knew it was not only because of her relationship with Dylan being awkward. This scene was our scene. It was that day I broke up with her and tore her heart in pieces. I held my breath, feeling suddenly extremely exposed. I had no really realized before how big this was. Of course, I knew her tv show was inspired by our story but it just hit me that people were actually watching it, and I was wondering how many of them now knew almost exactly what had happened between us?

"I'm here with you. It'll go amazingly, trust me." I pointed out, knowing it was not the right time to have a big discussion about her writing. "Remember in Italy? I almost believed you were breaking up with me to go marry your ex boyfriend."

She chuckled a bit. "You totally believed it."

"Maybe I did." I quickly replied. "But only for a few minutes, because I believe in us, I believe in our love, and I believe in you. So you go in there and play that scene and show them how incredible you are."

Her lips curled a bit and she rolled her eyes before finally nodding. I smiled more and we got out of the car to walk in. I thought I'd see Dylan first but when my eyes met Heidi's, I felt my heart jump up in my throat, almost throwing it up. I felt Olivia tense next to me and I held my breath when she saw us. She sent us a big smile but I could read so much pettiness behind it that it made me grimace.

"Hi!"

I glanced at Olivia who frowned and licked her lips. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh you didn't know?" Heidi replied, her eyebrows raised and her lips curled into a satisfied smile. "I'm with Dylan now."

As if on cue, he appeared and stood next to Heidi but I noticed his eyes never left my girlfriend and it bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Of course, I couldn't expect him to just forget about her, after all, he was ready to marry her, but at the same time I wanted him to move on as quickly as he could. If that was to be done with Heidi then be it : i was ready to put up with her on the set.

"I hope it doesn't bother you too much." Heidi added, tilting her head and looking at Liv who sent her a smile back.

Dylan and I were just keeping quiet, not really sure what we were supposed to say or do, and I pushed both my hands in my pockets.

"Oh no, not at all. It's all good." Olivia replied with a shrug. "I mean, it's not the first time you run after one of my exes, you know? Oh! Maybe I could make you a list of all the men and women I dated? Would save you some time."

I almost choked on my own spit, not really expecting that reply. I knew what kind of person my girlfriend was but she had always played it low with Heidi because she knew it was not worth it. It seemed like this time, she had had enough.

I thought Heidi would answer something rude but instead, her facial expression changed into a surprised one and finally, her eyes got smaller. She was pissed, I knew it, but she'd never prove it to Olivia. She found her smile back and breathed in, wrapping her arm around Dylan's and looking up at him.

"Can you show me the set?"

He nodded and they left but he glanced back at us when he was farther and I finally sighed, turning to my girlfriend who was smiling. I thought she'd be a bit mad, or upset that her ex boyfriend was now with my ex girlfriend, but she didn't seem to care... until her smile fell down and she closed her eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong suddenly?" I asked with a frown, taking a step closer and wrapping my fingers around her arm.

"I just realized Heidi was going to be there for the finale." she admitted, looking up at me. "She'll... see all of it. She'll see how it went... between... us."

It was the very first time Olivia admitted that her tv show was about us and I licked my lips, feeling something stir in my stomach. I didn't care that Heidi saw it, but I cared that the whole world would.

"You shouldn't care about her. She's with Dylan just to get to you or get back at us. She's here to piss you off and make you feel like shit. Don't let it get to you. Don't let her win."

She turned her whole body my way and her lips curled slightly into a fond smile. Slowly, she got on her tiptoe and pressed her lips gently against mine. It took me by surprise but I just answered her kiss and when she got back down on her feet, she tilted her head.

"Liv, can I ask you something?" I asked seriously, licking my lips as she nodded, her smile faltering a bit. "I know your tv show is based on our story but... for the next season, could you change that?"

I was scared to hurt her but at the same time, it was something I just needed to ask. If she said she didn't want to, I would accept it, but she knew my private life was a big deal for me and when she started nibbling on her bottom lip, I knew she felt guilty. I could read it on her face.

"I'm sorry, Niall. I never thought people would connect the show with our story but that was stupid of me. I mean, when I wrote that, I thought I'd never see you again, so I sort of wrote to... let it all out, you know?" she stopped and sighed. "Of course I'll make it different. I'll think of a whole other story for the characters, and make sure it has nothing in common with our story. Except maybe... well, the fact that they're soulmates."

I smiled and nodded, chuckling slightly. "I don't know if they are, but I know we are."

                                                 ----

I wandered around the studio while they were filming, and finally ended up at the cafeteria to grab a bite. I sat alone and started checking messages I got on my phone when I felt a presence in front of me and looked up. I was not surprised to see Heidi but I was not pleased either.

"Niall, we need to talk."

I blinked a few times and licked my lips, not really in the mood to discuss with her, but I finally just sighed and put my phone down as she sat down. I noticed she was holding a sheet in her hands and it made me frown. I didn't have time to ask her about it, she simply leaned against the table to move closer to me and instinctively, I moved my upper body away from hers.

"You know you could have just called me." she let out, confusing me and making me frown. "I know you miss me, and honestly I think we should get back together. I forgive you, I know you were a bit lost and..." she shook her head and I was even more puzzled. "It doesn't matter."

I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts back into place but I just licked my lips again. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She put the sheet on the table and pushed it closer to me. It took me half a second to realize it was my handwriting and after reading only a few words, I knew it was which song of mine.

"Wait, where did you find that? I thought I lost it!"

The song was not finished but as my eyes roamed on the lyrics, I had a bunch of ideas on how to actually complete it and I held my breath.

"I found it in my boxes... the ones from your place that you've had sent to my place." she explained, reaching out to put her fingers on top of my hand.

I stopped moving completely and my eyes dropped to our hands. I felt frozen in place, a bit startled by her behavior and not really knowing how to react.

"What are you doing?" I just asked, my eyes still staring at her fingers brushing gently against my hand.

"You're right. We should get back together, Niall." she added. "I mean, I know you're trying to make me jealous with her but let's be real. Who could really be jealous of her?"

Quickly, I shook my head and pulled my hand away from hers, mad that she would talk shit about my girlfriend again. "Do you even listen to yourself? You know damn well I'm with Liv and.. aren't you with Dylan? I love her, okay! I'm not trying to make anyone jealous, I'm just trying to love her the way she deserves to be loved... the way I failed to love her the first time. And you have nothing to do with any of this. What even makes you think I want to be with you?" I was frowning, getting pissed at her behavior, and I started wondering why I ever wanted to be with her in first place.

"Because of that song! You wrote it for me and put it in one of my boxes for me to find!"

I rolled my eyes, angry that she could even think I wrote one song about her.

"I wrote this about Olivia! I wrote that in the first week I saw her again at the bakery after not seeing her for over a year. It isn't about you, Heidi. It got in one of your boxes by mistake!" I explained a bit rudely, looking in her eyes to make sure she understood. "I love Olivia, not you. You need to let it go, okay? And those instagram posts you make.. For fuck's sake, Heidi! What's the point? Make me feel bad? Alright, I'm sorry I cheated on you, I should have broken up with you before and that was a mistake, okay? Now please, leave me the fuck alone."

Without giving her time to answer, I got up and left her by herself at the table before hiding in Liv's dressing room. I searched for a pen, my heart racing as I feared I'd forget the words dancing around in my head, and finally found one before leaning against the counter. I started scribbling fast, almost dropping the pen a few times as I held my breath. I scratched the first line and quickly replaced it to 'Maybe we are the champagne lovers' and went to the chorus to add a few lines, too.

'So come on love me when the lights burn low Meet me underneath the sheets Cause you got a hold of me baby, enough to pull me back in deep You used to love me when the lights burned low Now we’re tearing at the seams We've both had enough of this, baby, so promise me that when you leave You won’t say you’ll come back to me.'

I stared at the words and re-read them a few times before licking my lips. I was still lost in my thoughts when the door opened and I jumped a little, turning to see my girlfriend walking in. I sent her a fond smile and moved up from the counter as she wrapped her arms around me. I held her close, the paper burning on my fingertips, and kissed the top of her head.

I couldn't stop thinking about the lyrics and remembered exactly how I felt when I wrote most of the song. I missed her and I missed what we had. I didn't like where we were and I couldn't believe she was marrying someone else. The parts about sheets I had added reminded me of when we would hide under the covers and we had done it quite often in the past few weeks, making the whole meaning even more powerful.

"How did it go?"

"Not bad for now." she admitted, moving away. "But I think we'll film the rest an other day. It took longer than it was supposed to."

"Good, then maybe Heidi won't be there when you film the final scene." I suggested, raising my eyebrows.

"Hopefully." she replied with a smile before frowning. "What's that?"

My traits softened and I brought the sheet up again to read the lyrics. "A song. For you."

"Can I hear it?" she asked making me look up. Her eyebrows were raised and she was biting her bottom lip. She was so endearing that I almost said yes.

"Soon, okay?. I need a piano for this one."

                                                       ----

May 19th, 2018

Olivia actually slept a good part of the day and I ended up at the pub with Julia, who was back to California too since her tour was over. I had an other first part for the other half of the tour and I knew I was going to miss her dearly. It was not like me to be super emotional, but with time, Julia easily became one of my closest friends and traveling with her had been a blast. I couldn't pretend that the fact that she listened to me complain about my love life didn't help us to become closer but it would be a lie.

"Where's your girlfriend today? I wanted to see her." I felt my lips curl more as I looked at her and she frowned. "What?"

"Oh no it's just... hearing someone else call her my 'girlfriend' is very cool." I pointed out with a chuckle, scratching the back of my head, feeling a bit embarrassed. I couldn't believe I had said that.

"That's what she is now, right?" Julia asked with a small laugh. "That's what you've wanted for months. You've been complaining about it every single day!"

"What? Come on, don't exaggerate." I argued, raising my nose up.

"I'm not!" she laughed again before getting a bit more serious. "I'm very happy for you, Niall. Now it's time to move forward, you know?"

"Meaning?" I raised my eyebrows after taking a long sip of beer.

"Meaning... plan the future and don't fuck up."

I stared at her and nodded with a small smile. I knew she was right, and she was not the only one who told me to not fuck it all up this time. I really didn't intend to, and I knew I wouldn't. I had lost Olivia before, and I had learned from that. I was not going to lose her again.

I was a bit tipsy when I got back home but she didn't even notice me. I stared at her, wearing only one of my t-shirts and a pair of black panties, standing in front of the tv in the living room as old songs from the 90's played full volume in the background. I was pretty sure I recognized a Backstreet Boys song ending and just as I thought it couldn't be funnier, a Spice Girls song followed and she started dancing and singing very loudly. I started laughing but she didn't hear me because of how loud the music was and it made me happy to know I could watch her a few more minutes. She jumped on the couch and pretended to have a microphone as she sang the lyrics and tried to do the dance and when she just started dancing around my living room, I took a few steps closer and she jumped, putting one of her hands on her chest as if it would help slow down the beatings of her heart.

"Fuck, you scared me!" she let out with a chuckle after pausing the music.

I didn't say anything. I just stared at her with a fond smile, thinking of everything we went through and how much I loved her.

"Move in." I let out as she was taking a sip of wine.

She frowned and chuckled again. "What?"

"Move in with me. Here."

Her lips parted and her eyebrows raised before she let out the air from her lungs quickly from her mouth in a surprised way. She licked her lips and cleared her throat before putting her glass back on the coffee table and taking a step closer.

"Are you... sure you can handle that?"

I knew she was referring to the fact that we were different, but it didn't matter. Yea, she was messy and yea it was annoying, but it was such a small problem and I knew we could compromise. In fact, I knew we'd both be way happier if we lived together and I wanted it. I wanted it so bad I could feel it in my bones.

"Yes." I let out in a low tone. "I want your grumpy face in the morning. I want your way too sweet morning coffee... I-I want your mess all over my fucking house, Olivia. I want to smell you when I step foot here after a long work day. I want to start a life with you. I want you to have your own dressers, not just a few drawers in mine. I want to share everything I have with you. I want to share myself with you."

She pressed her lips together and swallowed and I could swear she was tearing up.

"I want all that, too." she admitted, tilting her head. "I want to spend my life with you, Niall."

My lips curled in a big smile. "Then let's take that step. Move in with me."

It took her about a minute but she finally just chuckled and shook her head. "Okay. Let's do this."

REQUESTS

(i changed the first one just a little bit hope its ok!)

[kaiparker-avengerssmut]

Shackled

Pairing | Lucien x Reader

Warnings | NON-CON, smut, kidnapping, violence, bondage

Word count | 1740

Summary | getting kidnapped by Lucien and he fucks you

A/n | this fic contains Non consensual sex and dark themes, please DO NOT READ if this makes you uncomfortable

A/n | (Based in the time of season 3 of TO) You are a Siphon. You are living with the mikaelsons. You had been like a sister to Rebekah a few years ago while she was in Mystic falls and after she moved back to New Orleans you dated Jeremy. After you two broke up you needed to get away so you moved to New Orleans after Rebekah invited you to stay with them. You and Kol always flirted and had endless banter but neither of you ever persude each other. You are currently out trying to find some dark object of Kol’s that Cami must have lost when she took them as it wasn’t in your apartment.

“Kol, do you even know where you’re going?” You whined. “Of course darling, do you mistake me with a fool?” You rolled your eyes and continued following him. You were walking down a back ally in New Orleans, blindly following Kol who apparently knew exactly where he was going. Suddenly a hand clamped over your mouth and your vision went black.

Your eyes fluttered open as you slowly regained consciousness. Your wrists were bound by chains hanging from the ceiling and you were kneeling with you arms in the air. Your white camisole was torn and stained red but your ripped black jeans were gone, leaving you in your red lace underwear. Shit. The sound of footsteps echoed through your hearing and you saw him from the corner of your eye. You hind your head in defeat, knowing he would most certainly kill you. He stopped right infront of you. “Lucien.” You venomously spat. He grabbed your chin and tilted your head up to look at him, “Someone’s happy to see me.” He smirked. “Fuck you.” You retorted. He let go of you chin and walked over to a table. He picked something up and walked back over to you, lifting your chin and daring you to break eye contact with him. “Let’s have some fun, shall we?” Suddenly the leather hit your skin ferociously. You screamed in pain as he struck your back over and over until he drew blood. He stopped after 20 lashes. “Having fun, darling? I’m sure we can work something else out if you’re not.” He smirked at you again. “Oh fuck you and your torture just let me go.” You almost shouted. He dropped the whip and kneeled down behind you, his hand wrapping round your throat and turning your head to look at him, the other one snaking round your chest and grabbing your boob, holding you firmly into him. “So feisty. You’d do well to remember I’m a 1000 year old vampire and you’re a worthless mortal.” He said into your cheek. “And when you’re 1000 years old you get bored very easily. So your going to be my entertainment, y/n.” His hand trailed from your boob to your core and slipped into your panties, rubbing circles on your clit. “You have no idea how badly I want to fuck your brains out.” He pushed his hard-on unto you ass, “you feel that? That’s all because of you, darling.” He growled in your ear as sighs and quiet moans tumbled from your lips. He has your juices running over his fingers quickly and took his hand out your panties, satisfied. He shoved his fingers down your throat and used his other hand to move your panties to the side.

“Now the real fun begins” he chuckled. The sound of his zip made your eyes widen and you let out a cry of pain and pleasure as his cock slid into your tight cunt. “Fuck, Y/N, your pussy is so tight around my big dick.” Lucien cooed in your ear. He began pumping at a punishing rate, his fingers leaving your mouth as you started gagging. He slapped your ass 1,2,3...10 times. Hard. “My handprint looks so good on your big ass.” He hummed. A constant flow of moans and curse words left your mouth as he continued to bury himself in you roughly. He reached round and grabbed your boobs in turn, hard enough to leave bruises. Suddenly, he stopped, his dick still inside you. He grabbed your hair and pulled your head back enough for you to look into his eyes. “Fuck yourself on my cock, y/n. Pleasure yourself in me.” He commanded. When you refused to move he bared his fangs and sank them onto your neck. You instantly began grinding against his dick and he moaned your name. “Fuck, y/n, I’ve been wanting to fuck you since the minute I first met you.” He said.

He pulled out of you and walked around to your front, where he grabbed you by a fist-full of your hair and forced his cock into your mouth. “I’ve been wondering what your pretty little mouth could do except insult me.” He snarled. He rammed his dick into your mouth for a while until you had saliva dripping down your chin. “Good girl.” He praised. “Taking my dick so well. Let’s see how far you can go.” He held your head in place so you were taking him all the way and his top brushed you back of your throat. You gagged around him and tears pricked your eyes. “Oh fuck” he moaned. He pulled your head back, allowing you to get some air before eventually doing the same thing over and over until you struggled to breathe. He started to moan as his cum released into your mouth in hot spurts, “come on slut, swallow it. Swallow it all.” He spat. You did as he said and he pulled out. Your head hung as you regained your breath.

There was a sudden banging on the door and your heard kol’s voice. “y/n! Y/n? Are you in there? Y/N!!” He shouted. Lucien appeared over you and ripped the chains off you, leaving blood dripping from your wrists. You were covered in bruises and aches all over, your legs so weak you collapsed the second you were free. Lucien grabbed you and held you against him with his arm over your chest. You started to struggle against him but it was no use as you were no-where near as strong as him. The door gave way to reveal Kol and Freya stood there. Just as Kol was about to rush over to you Lucien spoke. “If you take a step closer, I feed her my blood and snap her neck. Oh god. You didn’t want to be a vampire. Let alone a heratic. You hated your powers and had a strict, no vampire blood rule unless it was a life or death situation. Lucien bit into his wrist and held it over your mouth. You had no choice but to drink as you started choking on his blood. your vision was blurred with tears and you heard Freya mutter something. A spell. Before Lucien could react he was screaming. He let go of you and you collapsed. The sun started to burn him. He was on fire. He ran as fast as he could to a sheltered area of the apartment. Freya must have de-activated his daylight ring.

Kol rushed to your side and cradled you into his chest. "It'll be alright darling. I promise. Did he hurt you?" he asked calmly. You nodded. "Where, darling?" you looked up at him and spoke, "M-my stomach, an-and my, um, m-my-" you cut yourself off as you broke down into tears. "I think she means to say her thighs and hips." Lucien smirked. Kol's face contorted with anger and he passed you to Freya. Kol had Lucien held up against the wall in an instant. "You what?!" he shouted. Lucien maintained his smirk and said, "OH she was wonderful, no wonder all you mikaelsons are desperate to get in her pants." Kol growled and threw Lucien into the sunlight. he screeched and dashed back to the shade, hitting the wall and gasping. "Why you little-" Kol was cut-off by Freya. "Kol, I know you want your revenge, but its going to have to wait. We need to get y/n out of here and my spell will wear-off soon. We can't risk endangering her again. Let's go." Kol let out a frustrated sigh and came over to you, picking you up bridal-style and walking out the penthouse with you.

Back at the  Mikaelson compound you woke up to Kol brushing your face with the back of his hand. "Sorry, darling. I didn't mean to wake you." he said. "Oh-uh, don't worry about it." You smiled weakly. He brushed your hair out your face and smile softly back. "When I saw you, all I could think was to rip that bastard's head off. I couldn't stand to see you in pain." He admitted. "I'm okay now." You replied gently. "Well, you see, y/n..." oh god. He never used your name. He always came up with some kind of pet-name. "I realised that if I ever lost you, my world would just...collapse. So o guess what I'm saying is I like you. As more than a bloody friend." He sighed. Ignoring the pain, your reached up and placed a tentative kiss on his lips, cupping his cheek with your hand. It took him a moment to register what happened, but when he did he kissed you back passionately - as if he'd been waiting to do it for a long time. You pulled back, gunning pike an idiot. "Kol." "Yes darling." You took a deep breath, your face turning serious, "I guess what I have to say is..could you get me some food? I'm starving and unlike you, I actually have to eat." A goofy smile broke out on your face. "And to think for a second there I thought you were going to declare you undying love for me, darling." He chuckled and kissed your forehead before standing up and heading to the kitchen. "Kol." "What now?" He stopped and spun on his head. "I like you too." You smiled. His face broke out into an expression of pure joy and he walked out the room.

[ks-caster]

The 100 Season 7 Episode 4 - Post-Liveblog Recap

Okay, so I liveblogged an episode for the first time - and it turned out to be a nice way to stay focused through the commercial breaks. Might continue to do that for the rest of the season.

But TBH I started doing it just so I could bitch about the CLEAR AND BLATANT LACK OF A SCENE WHERE SANCTUM!KRU REALIZE THAT BELLAMY AND ANOMOLY!KRU ARE MISSING. That was an important scene that the whole fandom, more or less, has been waiting for the entire time for various reasons. 

How do the characters react? Who figures out that something’s wrong first? Does Clarke sense Bellamy’s absence because they have a bond? Does Emori go looking for her space sister to comfort her other space sister only to find her missing? 

(Actually, she does. That’s my headcanon and I’m sticking to it. Might fic later. Accounts for Emori’s complete absence while her bestie Raven is falling apart.)

Edit: here's the fic!

Anyway, back to the episode - whoever was in charge of editing really really dropped the ball. Missing realization scene, poorly ordered Raven and Clarke scenes. The music during the Dev-and-Hope montage was a nice touch but just too loud enough that I really had trouble telling what they were saying - and the pacing would have felt better with just one show of teenage!Hope before we got 20-year-old her. The cut from Orlando agreeing to train Anomaly!Kru to 5 years later was WAY too abrupt for me to get a feel for the character and relationship development that they were trying to shoehorn in in order to create conflict at the end. I got where they were going with everything, but in a I’m-reading-a-newbie-writer’s-fanfic-because-I-love-the-story-concept-and-want-to-support-them kind of way and not in a I’m-watching-a-show-made-by-experienced-professionals-and-paying-for-the-privilege-in-ad-revenue kind of way. Disappointing.

Jumping around here for a bit: I gotta say I’m loving the makeovers this season! Hair and makeup did a great job on bringing back the old Raven without losing the maturity they gave her, giving Murphy and Emori their Gucci Royalty Vibes without losing the feel of their individual styles, and making Hope look like she can’t find quite the balance between feral forest girl and innocent shut-in who can’t bear to take a life (which is accurate to her character, of course). 

And Echo! So I really, really didn’t like her makeovers in seasons 5 and especially 6, because it felt like they were trying too hard to make her look pretty in a 21st Century kind of way. She looked softer, more vulnerable, which really contradicted her character traits - but I thought that might’ve been on purpose, to show a change in her (that she did indeed allow herself to become softer and more vulnerable for her family). And her post-time-skip (not that one. Or that one. The other one. There’s a lot of those. Bah.) look feels like a return to herself; she’s beautiful but in a no-nonsense, don’t-forget-I-can-cut-your-throat kind of way. (Is this because I just really love the butch look on woman and am myself a butch woman? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.)

Side note: Where the hell did they get clippers on Penance? Those haircuts were entirely too even to have been done with scissors. I’ll buy that Gabriel and Orlando shaved their heads and their perfect round cuts were growout, but Hope and Echo? Electric clippers. Like I said I like the looks, but guys, there’s no way.

I liked that I got a better feel for Hope’s character this episode - she’s trying so hard to be like her mom and Aunty O and all the heroes they told her about when she was a child, but the truth is she’s been in one real battle, she froze, and her best and only friend died. And since her only role models were these incredibly strong people who didn’t give up, back down, hesitate, that wouldn’t be an easy thing for her to get over. (Given that Diyoza was pregnant with her for two entire seasons, I’d really like to have more time developing Hope’s character - or even the same amount of screen time but go easier on the timeskips, lol. She keeps having growth/maturity/life experience spurts so it’s hard to keep up with the development that we’re shown.

So, 5 (7? Wasn’t she 22? There’s still 2 years we missed right?) years after watching her friend die, and 5 (7?) years of blaming herself for freezing, she’s put into the same position, and she stabs some lady in the neck. Kid didn’t steal her coping mechanisms! All joking aside thought, the kid basically relived her trauma in real life - honestly her reaction was 100% valid.

I’m sure I’m supposed to be upset by Echo’s choice to kill the remaining gold-head people. But I think the only reason that’s supposed to bother me is that she promised (ish - she was real explicitly clear that she’d do what was necessary to rescue Bellamy and them were the breaks) Orlando that she wouldn’t. I think I’m supposed to care about the fractured relationship between AnomalyKru and Orlando.

I don’t. I don’t know if it’s the super-fast timeskip (it was weird enough to see the changed dynamics in SpaceKru when I deeply knew all of the characters AND we got time to see the changes play out) or the fact that I didn’t really get to know Orlando in a way that made me super sympathetic to him (I’ll get to that in a minute) or if it’s just that he was smart enough to know he was being played from the start (see Navy SEAL mom didn’t teach you how to swim and Echo again being 100% clear that killing people might still happen) and walked right in anyway. Either way, his betrayal wasn’t enough of a motivator for me as an audience member to be bothered about how things ended between him and AnomalyKru. I kind of shrugged and moved on.

More on Orlando... So The 100 has had several plotlines that center around people doing dangerous, terrible and downright ridiculous things because of their religions; see the kidnapping and conclave of freaking children killing each other to become commander, Gaia’s whole character arc + starting a new religion around Octavia/WonKru betraying that religion to go back to their old one centering on Madi, WHO IS GODDAMN TWELVE, all of Sanctum and season 6, the Sanctum conflict here in season 7, and now this goddamn Bardo Disciple shite.

Now I’m not dishing on real life religion or religious people - I happen to have one of those myself - but the plot of some-people-take-their-religion-way-too-far-drink-the-koolaid-and-hurt-people-around-them has been done and done and done on this show. And now here we have Orlando, who was a high-ranking member of his religion, drank the koolaid, cast out, still a true believer and therefore dangerous because his perspective is fundamentally skewed. I don’t know anything about this religion but that it’s militarized (they can arrest people) and think that sentencing people to 10 years of madness-inducing Geneva Convention violations and then bringing them back to their families two days later is okay. I don’t really want to know anything else, because I’m worried that the show is going to work hard on making this religion scarier than the Sanctum one (needing to one-up themselves with the big bad, of course) which just keeps making the commander religion look humane in comparison. 

Which it wasn’t. But I digress.

So Orlando was kinda’ cool, but getting in too deep with a fundamentalist who was complicit in his own abuse by said religion (and so who knows what he thought was okay to do to other people) and then it ended badly.

Cue shocked Pikachu.

Moving on. Clarke. Baby. After the harrowing experience of the radiation destroying the radio so you couldn’t say goodbye to your mom when you were supposed to go to space, then missing your time window and getting left behind on Earth, and the radio broke them too so you couldn’t even be sure your friends would leave in time until they blasted off, and then calling Bellamy every day when you knew he couldn’t hear you, and ALL OF THE FREAKING LAST SEASON WHERE YOU WERE POSSESSED AND WOULD HAVE GIVEN ANYTHING TO LET YOUR FRIENDS AND DAUGHTER KNOW BOTH THAT THAT WASN’T YOU AND THEN LATER THAT YOU WERE ALIVE and THEN your MOTHER getting possessed and you had to check to see if it was really her and it WASN’T. Clarke. 

After all that terrifying inability to communicate.

You leave Gaia behind to warn everyone of the danger. INSTEAD OF CALLING THEM ON A PIECE OF HANDY TECHNOLOGY OR TAKING A QUICK TRIP BACK YOURSELF. TO TELL YOUR DAUGHTER WHERE YOU WERE GOING. YOU DON’T THINK THAT MAYBE MAKING EXTRA SURE THAT EVERYTHING GETS COMMUNICATED CLEARLY AND IMMEDIATELY MIGHT BE A PRIORITY.

And then Gaia gets kidnapped. Honestly, cool! Not ‘cause I’m rooting for Gaia to be hurt (I don’t care all that much about her tbh) but I LOVE Indra and I want her to have more screen time and development this season - and or the chance to cut people up with her sword - and kidnapping her daughter seems like a great way to facilitate that.

*Looks at list* Oh, right, Jordan. I forgot you were here. Honestly I can’t figure out what the fuck is going on with you, and since I’ve had a whole season of not connecting with you because the story was too busy focusing on external plot... I don’t see that changing any time soon buddy. Sorry.

Oh and that FrEaKiNg PrOmO! 

My garbage boy! My chaos gremlin! My excellent-at-impersonating-a-deity-even-if-it-goes-against-his-programming! What are they doing?! 

I’m torn between NO DON’T HURT HIM and YES HURT HIM BECAUSE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND BRAVERY BWAHAHAHA. At least I know there’ll be Murphy and hopefully Memori content in the next episode. That’s the good shit. It’s the only thing left about this show that still feels “pure,” not that I didn’t know what sort of darkness I was signing up for when I started but just because he and Emori are sort of the last light in the darkness, and it’s nice to get a break periodically.

[copias-thrall]

Hellloooo! 💜 Love your writing!! What would it be like if a female s/o tied Dew up and teased him? Would he retaliate? 👀👀

Thank you, dear sweet anon. What a delicious ask. 😋 

You tie Dewdrop up—at hands and feet—so he’s splayed out for you. It’ll be fun! you had told him when floating the idea. He’d been mildly curious and had agreed.

But right now he is being tested so hard. He’s naked, restrained, and at your mercy as you work you mouth across his chest, your hands lightly stroking his sides. You’re trying to work his erogenous zones, but in his opinion you’re not touching anywhere fun.

He’s straining and tensing at those bonds, really being a whiny bitch.

“Aww, c'mon. PLEASE,” he pants. “Just fucking touch me, already.“

“I am touching you,” you murmur as you nibble his earlobe.

“The fuck you are.”

You sit up and look him in the eye. 

“Be quiet,” you hiss at him.

He pouts and rolls his eyes, his arms testing the bonds again.

You lean down and give his chest soft kisses, earning a grumble when you take his nipples in between your lips. Then, you trace his abs with your tongue. You make him think you’re about to take his hard dick into your mouth … but instead you trail your tongue down his V to the crease of his leg.

He growls in frustration as he wiggles and huffs at you. So you bite his thigh. Hard.

“Fucking OW,” he says, even as his dick spurts precum.

“You’re being a baby,” you say up at him.

That shuts him up … for maybe a few minutes.

You’re sucking and nipping up along his thighs, carefully avoiding his balls, when he blurts out,

“Unholy Lucifer, you’re a fucking tease!”

You lean up to glare at him “Every time you speak, I add 5 minutes to this.” Then you press your thumb behind his balls. He tries to arch, but he’s tied, so all he can do is tense and fight against the restraints.

“You fucking bitch.”

“That’s 5 more.”

He’s really doing it to himself. If he’d just kept him mouth shut, you’d be sucking his dick already.

… but you knew that when you tied him up.

You lean back on your haunches, spreading your legs wide, and begin to touch yourself in quick swipes. He can see everything, and his dick gives kick. He exhales heavily, bites his lip, and flops back as much as he can.

“Oh fuck. PLEASE.”

“You talk too much,” you say, before climbing up his body to shut him up with your cunt.

At first, he doesn’t even do anything—just glares up at you.

“You can either lick my clit or I can leave you here for the band to find. You’re fucking choice.”

Begrudgingly he starts lapping, his eyes glaring daggers at you.

It’s … not good initially. But then you start moaning and rocking, and he seems to forget that he’s not in control here (Or maybe this is the one thing he can control right now). So he starts licking and sucking at you in earnest, looking up every now and then to gauge your response.

His tongue expertly laps and wriggles at your firming clit, and you feel yourself approaching your climax. You’re trembling and panting as his tongue works you over the precipice, and you ride his mouth as you cum, your fingers gripped tight around his horns for leverage as your moan out your pleasure.

When you’re done, you quickly flip around—your legs still straddling his face—so you can dip down and take the tip of his cock in your mouth.

“Holy shit fuck!” he cries out.

It’s a good thing he’s restrained, otherwise you’d be gagging on it.

You linger like that—just sucking his cockhead and pressing your tongue into the sensitive spot—knowing how desperate Dew is to have his whole cock sheathed in your mouth. He’s whining and writhing under you, and you draw off him.

“Do I have to keep you quiet again?” you say, before lowering your pussy back down to his mouth. This time he immediately gets with the program, and you reward him by taking his dick a bit deeper. You take it deeper with each new bob of your head, and he cums fairly quickly—his release getting half in your mouth and half on your face. You hear and feel him moan into your folds, but you don’t get off until you … well, get off.

You carefully roll off him, turning around so you can rest your head on his shoulder. “Mmm. That was nice,” you say as you wipe the cum from your face and rub it into his skin.

He’s panting, face shiny with your slick, when he turns his head and says, “Fuck you.”

“Hmm, yes,” you say as you begin to get up and pull on your clothes. “I’ll be back in 10 minutes. Stay put now!” You give him a wide smile over your shoulder as you leave, and he curses after you. 

You should have known better than to leave him unattended. The restraints are hardly military-grade, and you tied them with a quick-release knot. 

You’re in so much trouble.

You’re washing your face and hands in the kitchenette sink—and then he’s there behind you, pushing up your skirt and ripping the seat of your panties in half. You don’t even get a chance to break away before you’re trapped in between his heaving chest and the hard surface of the counter.

He leans down to speak into you ear as he presses you flat and says, “I think you forgot who’s really in control here.” He kicks your legs wide—and then he’s got one of his arms hiking up your leg for better access and the other on the back of your neck to hold you in place. You have no warning before he roughly penetrates you and starts thrusting hard enough there’s an audible slap slap slap as his pelvis slams into the meat of your ass.

There’s nowhere to go; you’re pinned and at his mercy as he fucks into you and bites with hard teeth into your shoulder. And you’re wet, of course you’re wet—a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by him. He grunts in satisfaction

“I can’t even punish you right. You’re enjoying this.” He lets your leg go and straightens up. “Keep your fucking legs closed.”

He curls one hand into your hair, angling your neck back enough that he can curl the other around your throat. He starting fucking into you again in slow, hard thrusts that jolt you in place.

“It’s not much of a punishment if you enjoy it, is it?” He gives your throat a little squeeze. “I want you to cum just like this, or not at all.”

He’s going out of his way to not help you—no careful angling of his cock, or pressure on your clit, but your thighs are pressed tight together. You’re certain it is cheating—but with the way he’s pounding into you, you’re sure he won’t notice. Your squeeze your thighs rhythmically against your clit until you’re a shaking, trembling mess. Your orgasm is just there, but you still don’t have enough direct contact to push you over. You can’t really whine, but you’re wheezing and gulping hard against the pressure of his palm.

“Yeah, just like that. Just like that, baby. You can do it. You’re almost there. I want you to cum around my cock.”

Dew tightens the grip on your neck until you’re pushed over the edge from the rush.

You can’t really moan, but you let out a rasp as you feel those first intense spasms of your orgasm. As soon as Dew feels you shaking and clenching around him, he lets you drop, his hands flying to your hips so he can jackrabbit into you. Growling, he buries himself as deep as he can when he cums hard. He collapses onto you—still letting out small rumbles as he crushes you into the counter—his hips still giving little, abortive twitches into you. 

When he catches his breath, he hauls you up and manhandles you over to a chair—you’re too sloppy from your orgasm to do anything but be led.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you cheated, little girl.”

He lays you over his knees and catches your arm behind your back.

“That’s 20 for breaking my rules.”

With a firm palm he gives you 10 hard spanks on each cheek in quick succession as you squirm and moan at the sting. When he’s done, he dips his fingers into your folds.

“Fuck, you’re still so wet. You enjoyed that too didn’t you?”

You press your hips back into his touch. “Please, Dew. PLEASE.”

He fingers you gently for a few minutes, his slick finger slip sliding over your throbbing clit. Then he unceremoniously jostles you off his lap as he stands up, leaving you at your knees on the floor. 

“Hmm, no. I don’t think I will. You’ll never learn your lesson if I do.”

You whine in displeasure, gripping the chair legs—but he won’t be moved.

“Can I touch myself?” you ask as you look up at him, hand already surreptitiously creeping over your thigh.

He thinks about for a minute. “Yeah, sure,” he says. “But you can only use your thighs, since you like that so much.” And then he settles himself on the couch.

You glare at him, but he only smiles wickedly at you.

[writinginthesecrettrees]

4th of July

Currently not thinking of Henriksen sitting in his office, pouring over crime stats and police reports going back over the last 10 years, looking for some sign of what the Winchesters do for the 4th of July, unable to find a hint because this day is not about him.

It’s only them.

-

Sam is naked, bent backwards over the sun-warm hood of the Impala. The sky is brilliant, scarlet and gold fading into a deeper blue as the sun dips lower towards the distant horizon, and Dean doesn’t see it, too intent on lazily kissing Sam between sips of beer while they wait for true dark. A box full of firecrackers and sparklers waits in the backseat, and a man in a blue pinstriped suit waits in the trunk while the drugs that kept him quiet slowly wear off. If they’ve timed it right - and Sam’s a master of timing - he’ll be fully sober by the time they’re ready.

In the summer of ‘96, it was almost accidental. Sammy waited for Dean in a park after dark, sitting on a picnic table and swinging his bare legs beautiful, and Dean couldn’t really blame the perv for walking over to him, money in hand. That didn’t save the man, though, not when Dean walked up and saw him with his hands all over Sammy, saw Sammy kneeling at the man’s feet, saw the world disappear behind a haze of red.

They’d picked him a week ago, picked him up three days ago, Sam playing pretty prostitute in a dark alley, and Dean waiting, quivering eager, with a syringe and it was so, so easy. Like it is every year. There’s no sport in it, not like there used to be, but that’s not the point. As the mark’s eyes dilate and his voice goes from a sharp yell to a lazy slur, Dean watches Sam, bent over in his ridiculous denim booty shorts and too-tight tank top and beautiful while he pulls out credit cards and cash, shoving those in his pocket before dropping the wallet in their burn bag.

“What the fuck, Sammy?” he’d screamed when Sam dragged him off the man, curled on his side bruised and bloody from Dean’s assault, and Sammy grabbed Dean’s fist, pulled it to his little boy lips and sucked his knuckles clean. Dean groaned at the sight, baby brother’s eyes big and dark and looking up at him with crimson smeared over his lips. “What the fuck, Sammy?” he whispered, trembling with his need to take but it’s a line they hadn’t crossed yet.

Keeping the mark sedated and tied up in the bathtub of a motel was stupidly simple. A “Do Not Disturb” sign and $20 bucks to the housekeeping staff - “Just need some towels, darlin’, thanks,” - gives them complete privacy, and Sam’s good at breaking into hospitals, knows how to find the drugs and dosage they need to keep him docile. Dean searches out the exact right spot for their celebration later, gathers supplies. When they’re not busy with preparations, Dean takes a knife, makes shallow cuts on the mark’s chest and arms, whispers the story of why this is happening to a man too drugged to hear it until Sam lures him back to bed.

“I thought… like we talked about, I thought we could do it like that,” Sammy said and his voice was breathless with excitement. And that’s what Dean had been thinking, too, thinking about finally finally putting his hands on Sam, and he’d found a field full of fireflies, wanted to make it special for his baby boy, but then he’d found Sam with some other man all over him. “He deserves it,” Sammy continued, and Dean remembered other conversations, other wishes and desires shared in the dark, and he started to understand. Started to smile at the pathetic thing, whimpering in pain and trying to crawl away. 

Summer is Dean’s favorite time of year, when blood dries sticky almost as soon as it’s out of a body and the slaughter smell of a kill hangs heavy in the air and Sammy turns into a cat in heat, always at his dick. Baby’s backed up almost to the door of the room, and it takes less than a minute to walk the mark from the door to the trunk, get him safely stored away from prying eyes. Dean slams the trunk shut and Sam presses up against him, wraps around him all lips and legs and they rub frantically against each other until a shocked gasp reminds them that they’re not alone and if they didn’t already have plans for the night Dean would shoot Mrs. Middle America for the interruption.

Dean hauled the man up over his shoulder and he sobbed, begged them to let him go until Sammy, bright beautiful Sammy, pulled off a sock and stuffed it in his mouth, muffling his cries with the improvised gag. “Good boy,” Dean said and Sammy glowed at the praise. Sam ran ahead, spread a tarp from the trunk in the backseat and Dean dumped the creep on it, tore rags into strips and trussed him up like a pig. Sammy was already in the front seat, hanging over to watch and bouncing with excitement, and Dean grinned at him. “Gonna have so much fun tonight, baby,” he said, and kicked the man when he started struggling, eyes wide with fear.

The field Dean chose is over an hour out of town, and it takes them three to get there because Sammy’s a damn tease. Snuggles up to him and runs long fingers whisper-soft over his inseam, bends down to mouth over his cock, get the denim wet with spit and precome, nuzzle at him and talk about everything they’re gonna do tonight, how much it’ll hurt, how the blood will run sticky red over them and how they’ll lick it off, until Dean pulls off the road to fuck him again. And again. 

The field was silvery-pale in the moonlight and the fireflies danced in the grass, twinkling lights that Sammy ran after, laughing. Dean followed, pulled the man who thought he could put his hands on Sam after him. The moonlight washed away all color, left the blood dried on his clothes and skin black, and Dean wanted to see if it would be scarlet again when it flowed fresh. He yanked the rag-leash tied to the man’s wrists, sent him stumbling forward. A kick to the back of the knee dropped him, and Sammy came back, eyes sparkling brighter than any stars and the butterfly knife Dean gave him for his last birthday in his hand. 

The thumps in the trunk get louder as the sun dips down, and Dean grins down. “Time, baby brother,” and Sammy smiles back up at him, wraps arms and legs around Dean and lets Dean carry him around to the back of the car where a tarp is laid out waiting. He kneels there, shining in the moonlight and Dean remembers back years to a night of firsts, and that memory is why this night, out of all the year, is always the same. Always Sammy playing bait, always some creep thinking cash means he gets to touch what’s Dean’s, always fireworks in an empty field. He’s sentimental like that. Dean smiles fondly at the love of his life, turns to get their toy from the trunk.

He fought back. flailed wildly when Sammy brought his knife up, managed to knock the blade away and the boy down, and Sammy gave a yelp of surprise that had the red haze floating into Dean’s eyes again. His own knife was in his hand in an instant and the first spurt of arterial blood on his face had him aching hard. He stabbed into the flesh before him again, felt more blood and other bits spill out of the body under his knees, felt sharp and bright and alive. Dean raised his arm again and Sammy’s hands on his arm stopped him. He turned to Sam, snarled, and Sam didn’t flinch. Just licked his lips and said “I want to, too.” Dean let Sam take the knife, let him peel his fingers from the handle, watched as Sam climbed onto the body in front of him. Moaned as Sam leaned back into him, pressed hard against his dick. Sam took his time choosing his strike, finally brought the point of the blade to rest against the body’s chest and leaned, let his weight drive the blade between the ribs. The movement pushed his ass harder into Dean, and Dean rubbed himself against Sam. “That’s the heart,” Sam said, looking over his shoulder. Dean leaned forward, caught his lips in a kiss and it was sweeter than he’d dreamed, copper-bright with a stranger’s blood.

This year’s perv must have a killer headache, coming of the cocktail of drugs Sammy’s pumped into him over the last few days. His suit is rumpled, filthy and foul-smelling after being worn for days. That doesn’t matter. Dean grins and tosses a bag to Sam, and Sam grins back as he pulls out a handful of railroad spikes and a mallet. The man’s eyes roll in terror, show white all around. Dean sits on his stomach, grabs one leg while he thrashes and tries to throw Dean off. Sam sits on the other to stop his kicking, pulls off the fancy shoe, and hammers a spike through his foot and the tarp into the ground. The man screams, high and thin, and Dean laughs. “No one here for miles,” he tells him, and Sam shoots him a glare. Sam never likes the screamers. With the first foot nailed down, it’s easy to get the second, and then release the handcuffs to nail his hands down, spikes driven through the wrists with Sammy’s usual precision. Wouldn’t do to have him bleed out before the game’s done.

After that first taste, Dean went crazy, couldn’t get enough, felt like he’d been starving for years and found a feast. Grabbed his knife back from Sammy because the fastest way to get him naked was to slice the clothes off him, pushed him down on the gory body and painted roses on his skin with dead man’s blood, sucked and bit everywhere until Sam was covered neck to knees in vivid bruises and bite marks, thrashed about and begged for more.

Sam sets to work in earnest while Dean watches and the man screams for help. Scarlet lines open across the skin, blood welling up in runes carved into the flesh. It’s beautiful, pristine, and Dean wants to shove his fingers into the cuts, tear them wide and smear the gore across the man’s chest but it’s not his turn and ruining Sammy’s fun would ruin his later. And Sam kneeling over the struggling man is just as beautiful now as it was then, back when Sam was small and soft and fit under his chin while they killed a man just like the one on the ground. Sam cuts deeper, slices through skin and fat and muscle, scrapes flesh away from ribs so the bone shines white before blood flows in and the man’s screams go silent, turn to great wheezing breaths. His blood flows freely, coats Sam’s hands and legs and glistens black in the moonlight.

Sammy’s arms and legs wrapped around him as he sank in and everything was hot and wet and perfect on their bed of flesh. Dean stilled, had to stop or it would be over too soon and he’d waited thirteen years for this, needed it to last. Sammy was impatient, though, always had been. He dug blunt nails into Dean’s back, sharp teeth into his arm, heels into Dean’s hips and that gave him enough leverage to start fucking himself up on Dean’s cock. Dean started thrusting, hard and fast, pushing Sam deeper into the body beneath them.

“Gettin’ too old for this,” Dean grunts as he climbs up behind Sam, ruts against him. Sam looks back at him, wild-eyed with the kill, and laughs, and Dean smiles, loves Sam in all his moods but this one is a special favorite. Sam stretches out, slides his hands along the splayed arms, laces his fingers with the corpse’s and tips his hips up so Dean slides easily into his hole, still slick with lube and come, and Dean marvels at how this never gets old.

After it was over, after he’d licked Sammy clean inside and out, after dismembering what was left of the pile of flesh and bone and wrapping it tightly in the tarp, after they’d washed off as well as they could with damp cloths and bottled water, they sat on Baby and set off stolen fireworks. Sam cuddled close to him, clung tight, and Dean decided then that no one could know what had happened there. When they left, the field was in flames, and the body was sunk in weighted bags in a nearby lake.

They pack the body into garbage bags, shove it back into the truck to dispose of in a pig farm two towns over, leave the man’s suit in the field soaked in cheap vodka. Set off fireworks that they ignore, laying back on the hood of the Impala and kissing lazily, playing a game of “remember when.” Before they leave, Sam lights a sparkler, tosses it on the suit and watches it catch. They drive off with the field glowing orange in the rearview mirror, the sun barely peeking over the horizon.

-

Henriksen spends days trying to find a sign of them, but accidental fires aren’t even on his radar, too common when people are setting off fireworks across the country, and this night - this kill - is not for him.

It’s only them.

-

(masterpost)

[toddysdiaries]

Sweet Boy Part 2: Bratty Boy - David Dobrik x Reader (SMUT)

((GIF IS NOT MINE))

Pairing: David Dobrik x Reader

Requested?: yes, by four anons and @minsugagenius

‘Can you please do another part for sweet boy? Like David being a brat😍’

‘Please do another part of sweet boi 😍’

‘Please continue the David one sweet boy is so fucking good’ 

‘CAn u do another sex session for sweet boy?’

‘Could u do another sex session for sweet boy?’

Summary: David’s already on punishment when he starts acting like a brat. David also drops a bombshell on you. (This is all about knowing when a punishment needs to end and learning to tell the signs that a sub makes - I’m by no means any kind of expert, but ya)

Words: 2,007 words

Warnings: heavy smut, dom/sub relationship, spanking, paddling, prostate milking, cock cages, David being a brat

A/N: Requests are open! No more Jeff requests at the moment PLEASE. Also, I’m really sorry if there are any mistakes in this, it’s 01:20am and I just wanted to get this up.

Lately, you and David had been playing a new game. Like usual you'd tie David up, but rather than teasing him yourself, you’d turn the wand vibrator on and press it against his clothed cock. It was much harder for David to stay in control, the poor boy. Of course, if he didn't follow your instructions he'd be punished.

David was currently being punished for cumming all over himself, unable to handle the intense pleasure that the vibrator brought him. He knew better than to break your rules, so you had had to punish him. David was currently sporting a plastic cock cage under his clothes and pouting the whole way through the dinner that the pair of you were having.

You were starting to get quite irate at the behaviour that David was displaying. The other times that you'd had to punish David throughout the fourth months of your arrangement, David had taken it well.

But now you had a whiny brat sat opposite you, pulling at his trousers. You knew that he wasn't uncomfortable in the cage, the first time that you'd made him wear it you'd checked that it fit well and didn't pinch at delicate skin and he'd only been wearing it for three days anyway.

You huffed slightly. "Colour, David?"

David's eyes widened like he hadn't just been almost rocking his chair back and forth in an expensive restaurant. "G-green, miss," David whispered.

"Are you sure?" you took a sip of your wine, looking over the lip of the glass at your squirming sub.

"Yes, miss."

You set the glass down again. "Then why are you burning a hole in that chair with all the squirming you're doing?"

"S'uncomfortable." he muttered, pushing his food around his plate.

"Try again, David." You glared lightly, still aware that you were in the middle of a nice restaurant.

David flopped back in his chair, acting childishly. "I just want it off."

"Stop being a brat." You spoke quietly, but directly. "You know why you've got it on."

The pair of you finished your meal in silence. David began to realise that he was making his punishment worse and ate his meal nicely, still shifting every so often. As usual, Davis settled the bill, and the two of you left the restaurant.

David handed you the keys to his car, another thing that he liked to give up when he was subbing for you. Sitting quietly next to you, David realised he'd definitely messed up. He'd been a good sub for you so far until you'd started playing your newest game, even then this was only the third time. He didn't know what your next punishment would be. He knew that you'd talk it through it through with him before you acted, but not know what you were going to do with him made him feel slightly anxious.

Before David had realised it, you were pulling up at his house. "Get inside, David." Poor David tried pulling himself out of the car so quickly he forgot to take his seatbelt off and almost fell out of the car.

You remained in the car for a few minutes after David left, wanting to calm down slightly, so you didn't take it out on your sub. You hoped that David was already naked and in position for you, otherwise, you'd have to add more to his punishment. You got out of the car and power walked through the house and into David's bedroom.

Surely enough, David was naked and knelt on the floor, little pink cock cage (chosen for maximum humiliation) enclosing his neglected cock.  Hands on his thighs, David's head was downcast. "Colour?"

There was a pause. "Yellow."

You frowned slightly. David had never said anything but green. "Alright, come and sit on the bed."

David complied quickly, hand falling into his lap and covering the cock cage. "What are you going to do, miss?"

Raising an eyebrow, you bent down and pulled David's box of toys out and out came the paddle, lotion and a bottle of lube. "First, I'm going to milk your prostate. Then I'll give you 10 warm-up swats with my hand and then 20 swats with the paddle. You will count them. If you lose track, you get an extra swat. Finally, you'll get an extra two days in your cage. Colour?"

David pouted lightly at the thought of his cock being in captivity for an extra two days. "Green."

"Anything else you need or would like to discuss?" You asked, turning so David could unzip your dress, so you had more room to move.

"I'm very sorry for being a brat, miss." David's lips pouted out more, eyelashes fluttering.

You nodded. "Well, we can put it behind us after you've had your punishment. On your back on the bed, spread your legs. Put a cushion under your hips."

Picking up the lube, you uncapped it and applied some onto your fingers, rubbing it in. You pushed David's legs open further and rubbed the fingers of your unlubed hand against David's perineum. "Colour?"

"Green, miss." David squirmed slightly at the light touches to his private place.

Your unlubed hand moved up to hold onto David's slightly swollen balls, while the lubed one moved downwards, pushing between the cleft of David's ass. Finger rubbing against David's puckered hole, you moved your hand to his stomach and rubbed gentle. "Relax for me."

David relaxed a little under your finger, hole loosening ever so slightly. You pressed the tip of your finger in and moved it around, attempting to relax the clenched passage. "David, colour?"

"Green." He gritted out. "S'just weird."

"Then relax for me, brat. I'll have to double your swats if you can't relax for me and let me do this." You felt the tension leave David's body at the threat of extra swats.

You slipped your finger in further and pressed against David's prostate. David moaned slightly. It felt odd to be getting such pleasure but not getting hard. David had never had his prostate played with at all, it was completely new for him.

As you continued to press against David's prostate, your other hand moving back to his balls to rub slightly at the swollen skin, David whimpered and pushed back against your hand. David's thighs shook as your finger continued to move against his prostate.

"There we go, there's a good little brat." You squeezed David's balls, pulling a loud moan from the man.

You found the perfect rhythm and continued to work David's prostate and rub at his balls until David grunted. "Miss! I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna..." David thought that it was a strange feeling, being aware that he was about to cum when his cock was still limp between his legs, unable to get hard due to a pink cock cage. He wanted to sob out of frustration at not being able to have a full orgasm, suddenly realising exactly what this part of the punishment was designed to do, similar to his ruined orgasm he got.

"It's okay, let it out." You continued to press against David's prostate to milk his orgasm out of him.

David let out a loud whine and then cum shot out of his mostly soft cock, spurting over his thighs and stomach. You continued to press at his prostate until the cum stopped coming and David whimpered with sensitivity.

You withdrew your finger from David and wiped your fingers on a wipe. "This will go back on tomorrow morning, okay?" You unlocked the cage and gently used a wipe to clean up the cum that covered his cock and thighs. You didn't return the cage, figuring that David could use a small break from the cage as he was going to have an extra two days in it. "Lay your torso against the bed, knees on the ground."

"Yes, miss." David moved quickly and obediently, displaying his round ass for you.

You perched on the edge of the bed and rubbed David's back. "Relax, little brat." You could physically see all the tension leak out of David's body.

Trailing your hands lower, you noticed the goosebumps rising on David's skin. You rubbed the skin of David's ass, lightly squeezing every so often. That was to relax David, and it was also so the first swat would come as a complete surprise.

David yelped when the first smack came down on his right ass cheek. "One!" The second stroke landed on his left cheek, quickly followed by the third on his right cheek. "Two, three!"

You rubbed your hand over David's left cheek, rubbing out the tension in the muscle. "Colour?"

"Green, miss." Followed quickly by the four and fifth slap. "Four, five."

You move down to David's sit-spot and soon finished the ten warm-up swats. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, miss. Green." David replied slightly shakily. He felt the bed move as you picked up the paddle.

"We're going to start with the paddle now, okay little brat?" You brushed the paddle over David's red, heated bottom. "Remember your safe words, brat?"

"Green for I'm good, yellow for stop and talk and red for stop right now." David recited to you.

You hummed. "You're a good, little brat." You brought the paddle down on David's ass, you'd tested the paddle out on a pillow, as you weren't used to it, to gain an idea of how hard to hit. While you were hurting David, you didn't want to injure him or leave him hurting for too long.

"One."  David gasped, hands grasping at the duvet as the swat wracked his body. "Two, three, four." David started sobbing softly.

"Colour?" You stroked David's back lightly.

"G-green."

"Good boy." You gave David the next four swats in quick succession, rotating cheeks. David counted them out loud, gentle sobs wracking through his body.

You rubbed David's back, letting him have a slight break. "You ready for the next four, baby?"

David sniffled lightly. "Yes, miss. Green, miss." You gave the next four swats slower than the previous eight, aiming them a little lower too. David missed number eight.

"David." Your tone warned. David needed to give you the next number soon, or he was getting an extra swat.

"I don't- I don't... eight, eight!" David cried out, not wanting an extra swat.

"It's okay, it's okay, you got it." You soothed the man gently. "Colour?"

"Green." His throat was hoarse from the yelling, and it was reflected in his voice.

"You're over halfway done now, just two more lots of four left." You spoke gently.

David sobbed loudly. "Please, just spank me. I want cuddles." Your heart almost broke in that moment.

"David... colour?"

David sniffle into the duvet. "Yellow. But, I need my spanks, I was a brat!"

"What about you owe me the last eight spanks. We can do them tomorrow." You reasoned with the shaking boy, he was clearly reaching his limit, and you really didn't want to get there.

"Yes please, miss." David whimpered. "I'll talk them so well tomorrow."

"Okay, okay, come here." You moved back on the bed and opened your arms for David, and he threw himself into them. "Careful, I need to put some lotion on your ass."

David moved, so he was laying on you, ass in the air. You applied some lotion onto David's ass with a light touch. David hissed at the touch but melted into you at the coolness on the heat from the swats.

"There you go, sweet boy?" You murmured, stroking David's hair.

Red bloodshot eyes looked up at you, tearstained cheeks glinting in the light. "I'm your sweet boy again?"

"Oh, baby! Just because you were being a brat doesn't mean that you stopped being my sweet boy. You'll always be my sweet boy."

David sobbed softly. He really hadn't meant to be a brat, it just happened.

"Sleep, sweet boy." You stroked his hair, cooing quietly.

"I love you." David murmured, falling asleep.

Your eyes widened.