#thank u new chapter now i may sleep for good

[nerice]

war devil is a bimbo im so happy

[writeonwhiskey]

the skz house: ch 19 (18+)

a/n: thank you @bahablastplz for editing! i appreciate you 🩵 and thank you, readers, or your patience.

[ read chapter 18 here ]

Chapter 19: Of Christmas & Chokers

Over the next few days, the comfortability between you and Chan deepens. Whether you’re in the room or out being tourists, you remain almost glued together—holding hands, sitting on his lap, hugging each other, kissing. Your conversations flow naturally and without tension. In an alternate universe, perhaps this would have been an ideal trip for a couple in love. As delusional as you may have become in believing this could be a new normal, you keep one foot grounded in reality. Well, maybe not the whole foot…but at least a pinky toe.

Your days are packed with several activities such as a nighttime ATV ride, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. You both have the time of your life letting loose. Speeding, swerving, screaming at the rush of it all. You’ve never seen Chan smile so much. He is different when he’s free of the responsibility of being Chapter President…he’s carefree. You tell yourself regardless of how this ends, you’ll be glad you at least got to see him like this.

You go to a local amusement park where Chan is determined to make you face your fear of rollercoasters. However, after the second ride leaves you nearly in tears, Chan puts that mission to rest.

You venture back out on the water on a jet ski. Chan lets you do most of the driving that day, but you soon realize it’s a set up. When you’re far out enough from the beach, his hands on your hips find their way between your legs. He kisses your neck and tells you to turn off the jet ski. He fucks you with his fingers until you come, whispering in your ear how hard his cock is and what he plans to do to you later.

One of the days while you and Chan are out, the hotel staff add holiday decorations around the room, including a small, 4ft tree in the corner near the balcony windows. It makes you squeal with glee upon seeing it. You assume it’s all the hotel’s doing. Lee Know wouldn’t have done something so nice. Would Chan? He doesn’t claim it, if he had put them up to it. It doesn’t matter, though, it makes you happy to see and feel more of the holiday spirit.

When Christmas Eve comes around, there’s a break in the itinerary since a lot of places are closed for the holiday. You wind up sleeping in quite late for your standards and when you finally open your eyes, Chan is wide awake in the bed next to you. He’s sitting up, back against the pillows, laptop in front of him and headphones covering his ears. He’s consumed by whatever he’s doing, but as soon as you turn to face him, his eyes shift from the screen to you.

“She has risen,” he jokes, moving one headphone away from his ear.

“I needed that,” you reply, stretching beneath the blankets. “How long have you been up?”

“A while,” he says with a shrug. “Just working on our chapter project.”

You smile inwardly. Typically, his response would have finished with ‘a while’, you would have had to dig and pry for any further information. He, for now at least, is freely providing you with further details.

“Chapter project?” you ask. You recall hearing him discuss it months ago, but never knew what it was.

“Just something we have to put together to memorialize the year,” he tells you. He turns the laptop so you can see the screen. You recognize the sight of a music program with tracks and layers but have no further understanding of it.

“Putting your minor to use?”

“Kind of. It doubles as my senior project for the minor, so that’s a plus.” He starts moving things around on the screen, opening a folder aptly titled ‘Chapter Project’. He clicks on a few files, opening them to show you as he speaks. “I want to incorporate songs I’ve worked on with different things from the other members—Hyunjin’s artwork for example.”

You know Chan is a good student. All of the members are, really, but you know some of them drag their feet and procrastinate until the last minute. You’ve caught Hyunjin, Changbin and Jeongin rushing to meet midnight deadlines more than once.

“Can I hear something?”

You sit up on the bed, back against the pillows like Chan. The blanket falls from your chest, exposing your breasts.

“Only if you put those things away,” he says, looking pointedly at your breasts, then up to your eyes, then back down again.

“What things?” you ask innocently, leaning back against the headboard and pushing your chest out even more.

Seizing the opportunity, Chan leans over and captures your nipple in his mouth. You let out a surprised scream as he bites down around it. You push him away, swatting his arm. You promptly pull the blanket up to cover them before holding out your hand for his headphones.

He hands them over with a smile, and you put them on. He shuffles a few things around on the screen before a video starts. You assume the graphics are of Felix’s design as it feels like something you’d see in a video game. A song accompanies the images and you’re surprised to hear Chan’s voice over a jovial sounding beat, followed by Seungmin, then Changbin. You didn’t know any of them could sing.

The video is only about a minute long but you feel dumbfounded when it’s over. You remove the headphones and pass them back to Chan.

“I like it,” you say with a smile. “It’s…surprisingly good.”

“You underestimating me?” he asks teasingly.   

“My mistake,” you say sarcastically, placing a hand over your heart. “Is that a cover?”

“No, it’s an original song,” he tells you, turning the laptop back so it’s facing him. “Just waiting on Felix to finish rendering the rest of the graphics, then that one will be done.”

“You’re doing more?”

“A few more. It’ll be a mini-album.”

“Do I get a copy?”

“Hmmm…maybe. If you ask nicely.”

“Oh, never mind then,” you say nonchalantly.

Chan turns to look at you, biting his tongue between his teeth to keep from smiling as he nods.

“I’ll remember that.”

You slide down against the pillows, then turn on your side so you’re still facing him.

“I had no idea you guys could sing,” you tell him.

“Participating in choir was mandatory at our boarding school,” he shrugs. “We can hold a note.”

Chan is full of so many surprises. Most of them pleasant, these days. You want to uncover all there is to know about him, but you know you’ll never be given the time.

You cuddle up to him as he puts his headphones back on. You just lay there and watch him work, expertly navigating around the screen as he continues composing the song. You want to ask why he’s not majoring in music. You already know the answer to that, though. The choices for his future aren’t exactly his to make. His parents decided he would major in business, and sadly that’s all there is to it.

Your heart aches for him—you can see the work he put in to make something creative, the passion he has for it. And he can’t even pursue it.

It’s now 11:00pm and you and Chan have just returned to the hotel room. After dinner you both wanted to get out of the room for a bit and ended up at one of the only places open—the Magic City casino. The hours spent there are a bit of a blur. It was news to you that anyone playing at the tables or slot machines could get free drinks, so you both decided to indulge. Being so far from the hotel, though, Chan didn’t let either of you get too drunk.

As soon as you’re back to the room, Chan excuses himself to make a phone call and disappears out onto the balcony. You change into your pajamas—a pair of thin, loose fitting shorts and matching top—and return to the living room. You turn on the TV, stopping on the first channel you see playing a Christmas themed movie to entertain you while you wait for him to return. From all the food and drinks, you start to doze off until the sound of the heavy balcony door opening stirs you.

“Everything okay?” you ask when he comes back in.

“Mm,” is his reply, with a small nod of his head. “It’s Christmas day back home. I’m gonna get changed.”

You can only nod as well. His tone sounds a bit sad so you’re not sure what to say. Maybe he’s missing spending the holiday with his little brother and sister. And that makes you sad. It’s your fault he’s not with them.

Chan comes back into the living room clad in a plain black t-shirt and grey sweatpants. He sits down next to you and throws his arm around the back of the couch behind you.

All of your life you had never considered yourself to have a one-track mind but now? With Chan? Seeing him in those grey sweatpants puts one thing at the forefront of your mind, drowsiness and sadness pushed aside. You’ve got to get a hold of yourself.

“Should I open the bottle of wine the hotel left?” you suggest.

“Sure,” is his simple reply.

You stand and retrieve the bottle from the kitchen, along with two wine glasses. You pop the cork and fill both glasses before returning to Chan, handing him one.

“You sure everything’s alright? You seem a bit down…”

You don’t want the tension in the air to linger through the night and this trip has built your courage to address him this way.

“I’ll be fine,” he tells you with a soft smile. He clinks his glass against yours before downing his in one go. “You trying to stay up ‘til midnight for your present?”

You take a sip from your wine glass; happy he’s taking the initiative to change the subject to something lighter.

“I don’t see any presents under that tree,” you say, looking in the corner where the small tree is lit up.

“I haven’t put them there yet.”

“Them?”

As in multiple.

He nods.

“Oh no,” you say, a look of panic taking over your features.

You weren’t sure the two of you would even be exchanging gifts. Not only that, but you don’t feel like you truly know enough about him to get a well thought out present. And you love giving gifts. Hyunjin has a never-ending need for art supplies, so you immediately knew what to get him. You were completely puzzled when it came to Chan.

It was only after the staff added the tree that you thought it’d be nice for him to wake up with something under the tree. Being on vacation, though, you were in a bit of a predicament. All you really had convenient access to was the gift shop.

He must sense your apprehension.

“It’s okay if you didn’t get me anything,” he tries to appease you.

When the panicked look on your face turns into a frown, he takes the wine glass from your hand and places it next to his on the side table. He then pulls you into his lap so you’re straddling him and cups your face with both hands, stroking your cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

“It’s fine,” he says in a sharper tone that makes you nod in acceptance.

“I would have never imagined I’d be spending Christmas Eve with you, let alone exchanging gifts,” you tell him, leaning your forehead against his. “From English classmates to this? Never in my wildest dreams.”

“That wasn’t our first class together,” he says matter-of-factly. He leans back against the couch and takes both of your hands in his, lacing his fingers through.

You furrow your brow at his statement. You wrack your brain for any other class you may have had with him but can’t come up with any.

“What? When?”

“Freshman year…Anthropology 101. In the lecture hall.”

You think back to freshman year and the classes you took. You did, in fact, take an Anthropology course. In a large lecture hall with something close to 100 other students, including your ex.

“I always sat in the back—you were always somewhere up front. Being a nerd, I guess,” he teases. You try to pull your intertwined hands from his to hit him, but he holds onto them tighter, bringing them to his chest. “You look cute when you’re focused, you know that?”

Your brain feels like mush. None of this is ringing a bell.

“Do you remember the presentation you did for extra credit? A family heirloom?”

Now that, you do remember.

“You were so nervous, but I swear it made you look even cuter. The way you talked about the heirloom…” he continues. “…your grandmother’s bracelet, I think it was…”

“Yes,” you say softly.

The bracelet your grandmother gave your mother, who then passed it on to you, and one day you’ll give it to your own child. It feels odd to hear Chan speak about it. Something so deeply personal to you. Granted, you did tell an entire class of strangers about it. But the fact that he remembers it, remembers you?

The fact that he’s known of you this long? Why hadn’t he mentioned it before?

“Why don’t I remember you being in that class?” you ask, struggling to process this new shared history and the words he’s just spilled about you simultaneously.

“It was freshman year…plenty of stuff going on and…your ex,” he shrugs.

He hits the nail on the head with that comment. That class is where you met him.

“You know, the first few weeks of the SKZ house before we bring anyone in?” Chan asks rhetorically, “I thought maybe I’d work up the nerve to talk to you while I could…but then he was there. Always sitting next to you. Even with the class we had this semester. I thought again, maybe it was a sign, you know? But he was waiting for you outside the door after the first class ended.”

You feel a pang of sadness, hearing that. Maybe in a different timeline if he had come talk to you, things would be different. You imagine getting to know a bright-eyed freshman Chan, eager and optimistic to take on the world. Maybe he would have opted out of having an assignee if it were possible, maybe he really could have been yours.

“I remember one of the last lectures you came in with your eyes all puffy,” he continues, disrupting that dangerous train of thought, “like you’d been crying. You didn’t sit anywhere near him that day. I always wondered what happened.”

You open your mouth to speak but close it immediately. What can you say to that? To any of this? Had he really paid such close attention to you? All this time?

“He used to treat you like shit, you know.”

At that remark, you set your lips in a firm line. You untangle your hands from his and cross your arms in front of your chest. It’s true, but hearing Chan say it hits too close to home.

“And you treated me any better?”

Chan takes in your closed off body language and a silence falls over you. Neither of you want this bubble you’re in to burst yet. Perhaps he’s regretting saying any of this at all.

“The day you showed up at our house…” he speaks up again after a while, “I felt sick to my stomach, y/n. Like the universe was playing some sick fucking joke on me.”

He places his hands on your thighs, squeezing and rubbing them.

“When it came time to choose assignees, I couldn’t let you end up with anyone else. I’ve never pulled rank like that before as the chapter president, but with you I had to…and I knew Hyunjin would be good for you, too.”

You shake your head in disbelief.

The day in the hot tub creeps back into your mind. When you told Chan that your time with Hyunjin had been great and he replied with ‘I know. I’m glad’. You didn’t fully understand it then. Now, it’s as if Chan knew the emotional rollercoaster he was going to send you on and wanted to make sure you had a harness. Hyunjin.

You let out a low breath and place your hands on top of your head, locking your fingers together. This is a lot to take in.

“So, your plan was to selfishly claim me and treat me like shit?” You ask after a moment.

“I wouldn’t call it a plan,” he says in a sad tone. “I knew that I was attracted to you and after our first few nights together I had to do something to keep boundaries in place.”

The conversation you shared on the beach clarified his drive for the spankings and edging. You understand his reasonings. You know that his sexual desires and fantasies with you are kept separate from his emotional connection to you. However, it’s confusing and frustrating to know he clearly felt something for you prior to you joining the SKZ House and still kept that brick wall firmly in place between you.  

“So, you wanted to fuck me and still treat me like shit then?” You can’t help the bitter edge to your tone.

“I didn’t wanna get to close—clearly I’ve failed,” he admits. “It’s just always been in the back of my mind how long I’ve wanted you and now that I get to have you, there’s an expiration date.”

“What happens when we get back? You start treating me like that again?”

He averts his gaze from you.

“I don’t know how to—” he stops abruptly and shakes his head.

“Chan,” you say softly, reaching out to turn his head back to face you. “Please.”

“I don’t know how to be with you and be genuinely happy in this fucked up situation, y/n. I’m not gonna want it to end…but it has to.”

You sigh, resting your hands on his chest. As much as it hurts to admit, he’s right. You don’t like the thought of having to leave either of them. With Hyunjin, though, you know he will move on with ease which makes losing him slightly easier. Chan, on the other hand, after all the ground you’ve broken, the progress you’ve made…having to throw it all away will be hard. On both of you, you’re coming to realize.

But how else could you have gotten to know him? If you hadn’t shown up at the SKZ house, Chan would have once again had another assignee and not been able to interact with you anyways. Perhaps you both should at least be thankful for the time you’ve been given and enjoy it while you can.

“You can’t go back to being an asshole, Chan,” you tell him softly.

“I know.”

He grabs onto your hips and pulls you closer to him until you’re forced to lay against him. You rest your head on his shoulder as he wraps his arms around you, hugging you tightly. You stay like that for a while, the movie playing in the background but neither of you watching it. You want to remember this moment, how it feels to physically and mentally be this close to him.

An alarm suddenly goes off on his phone and Chan quickly silences it. He cups one hand around the back of your neck to guide your head up. His brown eyes bore into yours, still lingering in this shared moment. You hold his face in your hands, staring right back, not backing down. It’s not an intense stare…more like one of silent pleading and unspoken questions. You bring your face to his and place a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Wait here,” he says, kissing you once more before sliding you off his lap.

He disappears into the bedroom and when he comes back, heads straight for the Christmas tree. He places two wrapped boxes under it and you mentally kick yourself again. You hadn’t even wrapped his. Even so, you can’t hide the smile that takes over your face at the sight and the thought he must have put into this.

“Should I get yours?”

“So you did get me something?” he asks with a smirk.

“I did…but seeing that,” you say, pointing to the neatly wrapped presents under the tree, “I don’t even want to give it to you anymore.”

“It’s fine,” he says again. “I’ll wait until tomorrow. Come pick one.”

You stand from the couch and walk over to him and the tree. Both boxes are square in shape, one larger than the other. You deliberate for a moment before reaching for the larger one. You sit on the floor and pull it towards you, surprised by its weight. You look up at Chan and when he doesn’t move to join you, you pull on his hand until he sits.

“Did you wrap this yourself?”

“I asked the housekeeper to help me out with it,” he tells you.

“Resourceful.”

He taps his temple with his pointer finger.

You start ripping away the wrapping paper to reveal a white box beneath. You can’t hold back your smile as you pull the top part of the box off. You set it aside and pull out the tissue paper. When your eyes land on what’s inside, your mouth drops.

A folded, white lab coat with your last name embroidered across the breast area sits on top. You reach out and run a finger across the stitching. It feels surreal to see.

“I figured you’d need it when you go off to vet school.”

You look up at him, still smiling. You will definitely need it. Along with several other items you were already wondering how you would afford, without having to ask your parents for even more money. That’s part of the reason you ultimately decided to join the SKZ house and save the money they were sending you. At least the majority of it would go towards the next steps in your education.

“Thank you, Chan.”

It’s a thoughtful gift. And you feel the guilt of your shitty gift building.

“There’s more…” he nods towards the box.

And the guilt continues.

You lift the lab coat out of the box and gently set it outside the box. The next item is a set of black scrubs, your name embroidered on the shirt as well. You left them out of the box and sit them on top of the lab coat. When your eyes land on the item at the bottom of the box, your jaw drops again.

You reach inside the box and retrieve the stethoscope. This was one of the pricier items you hadn’t been looking forward to purchasing. You bring it closer to inspect, smiling widely. You immediately recognize it as one of the more expensive brands. It, too, is engraved with your name around it.

You feel your eyes begin to prickle and you blink furiously, not wanting to cry, but you can’t help it. It’s a thoughtful gift. One that you’ll get to take with you when the year is over. A reminder of Chan you get to keep with you forever.

You slowly raise your eyes to look at him, shaking your head softly.

“You don’t like it?” he asks, “Is it not the right kind? I wasn’t really sure…”

“It is—it is,” you say, your voice cracking. You wipe your eyes with the back of your hand and clear your throat. “It’s perfect. It’s all perfect, Chan. Thank you.”

“Wanna test it out?”

Your smile returns at that and you nod, placing the ear tubes in your ears and sliding closer to him. He pulls you onto his lap once again, putting your legs on either side of him, your butt resting on his folded legs.

You grab the bell end of the stethoscope with one hand and pull at the hem of his t-shirt with the other, lifting it up. You then place the diaphragm end to his chest and he instantly moves back, grabbing your wrist.

“That’s cold doc,” he says, voice muffled and rumbling through the ear piece.

“Sorry, I’m a rookie,” you reply sheepishly.

You bring the diaphragm end to your mouth and breathe on it to warm it up before placing it back over his heart. The digital reader immediately lights up, reading his heart rate. But you’re not focused on it. You’re looking directly into his eyes, listening to the strong, steady beat of his heart. It’s the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard.

“Sounding healthy?” he asks.

You nod.

“Well, we should make sure the reading is accurate, too.”

He cups the back of your neck and pulls your face closer, bringing your lips to his. With his other hand, he holds your wrist and the stethoscope in place. You can hear his heartbeat quicken as you kiss. You grind your hips against his, causing the steady thumping in your ear to beat faster. You want to get lost in the sound of his body’s reaction to you.

He uses his hand on your back to assist your grinding, making sure you can also feel his body’s reaction to you.  

Not wanting to jeopardize the safety of your present, you break the kiss and pull the ear tubes out. His hand drops from your wrist allowing you to turn and set the stethoscope neatly on top of the pile of the other presents behind you.

Before you can even turn back around, Chan is changing your position. He holds onto your back tightly as he lowers you down to the floor.

“I won’t write a negative review just yet—but you’ve got some learning to do, doc.”

You like to hear him call you that.

“I’m a fast learner,” you reply.

“Oh, I know,” he says with a wink.

He remains sitting in front of you, his legs still crossed, while you’re lying down. Your legs are draped over his thighs, feet on the ground on either side of him. He pushes your shirt up to expose your stomach and lightly runs his fingers in a zig-zag pattern all the way down until his hand is between your legs. The thin, pajama shorts you’re wearing are a loose fit and don’t do much to keep him out. Not that you’d want that.

He easily moves the fabric aside and his eyes snap to yours when he realizes you aren’t wearing any underwear.

“I only packed so many for the trip,” you laugh and shrug. “I can’t keep messing them up with you.”

He smirks and nods his agreement.

He slides his fingers up and down your slit, teasing your pussy until his fingers become saturated with your slick. He slowly inserts his ring and middle finger inside of you as he places his other palm on your lower stomach. You rock your hips against him in response. He curls his fingers, pressing against your inner walls each time he withdraws his hand, all the while applying steady pressure with his palm.

You can really feel his fingers rubbing against you, and you know he can too. His eyes are on his fingers pumping in and out of your pussy, then move up to your writhing body, then your face. A soft smile plays out on his lips as he watches your reaction. He adds his thumb on your clit into the mix and you let out a moan.

“Tell me what you want,” he coaxes.

You bite your lip between your teeth, arching your back. You’re too caught up in the sensations to formulate a response.

“You wanna come on my fingers?” he asks, slowing them down. “Or on my cock?”

You moan again.

“Both.”

“Greedy,” he says with a soft chuckle, still moving his fingers in and out at an achingly slow pace.

“Mmmm, yes. For you.”

Any part of him you can have.

He moves his fingers quicker, thumb still circling your clit. You sit up a little, placing your hands behind you to hold you up as you move your hips against his fingers.

He arches an eyebrow at this, a devilish smirk on his lips. He withdraws his fingers, and you protest with a whine and pout. He brings his fingers, coated in your slick, to your face and spreads it around your pouted lips. He watches closely as you lick your lips, then brings his hand to his mouth, sucking off the rest for himself.

The sight of him enjoying your taste always sends you off the rails. You grab a handful of his shirt and pull him to you until his lips are on yours. He seems a little startled, but he allows it. You kiss him, taste him, taste you.

Before you can have too much, he breaks the kiss but keeps his face against yours.

“I want you to open your other present now,” he says, lips brushing against yours as he speaks.

“Not in the morning?” you ask, catching your breath.

“No,” he says with a shake of his head. “I wanna see it on you now.”

He stretches to the side to retrieve the present and you wrap your arms around his waist to keep from falling back. He grabs it and returns to his upright position before handing it to you.

You take the present and rip the wrapping paper, much less delicately than you did the first. What could this be? He wants to see it on you? You’re excited to find out. You toss all bits of the paper behind you without a care until just the box is left. You lift the lid from the box and inside is what appears to be…a collar?

You look up to Chan with an arched brow and he just smiles widely, baring all his pearly white teeth. The part of the collar that rests on the back of the neck is black, with a belt buckle-like fastener. On the front is a thick, silver linked chain (much like the one he wears on his wrist) with a silver heart hanging from it. The heart itself has several tiny jewels spread evenly around it. The way they glitter in the light, you hope its cubic zirconia…but knowing how deep Chan’s pockets go, they might just be diamonds. You bring the heart closer for inspection and see the words 'Good Girl' engraved on it.

You’re not sure what to make of it. Both the cost, the phrase and the gift itself. He wants you to wear this? Like a dog?

He takes it out of the box and drapes it around your neck, moving your hair out of the way so he can fasten it in the back. You look up at him as he hooks a finger through the heart and tugs on it. Pulling, pulling, restricting until it’s taught against your throat.

Oh. Oh.  

“This okay?” he asks.

You appreciate that he’s asking. You’re convinced you’d let him walk you through the street with it, so long as he asks first.

You close the distance between you, placing your lips on his to convey your consent. He tugs a little tighter on the collar as you kiss before releasing it fully.

In the next moment, your hands are on his shoulders, pushing on them until his back is now against the floor. He doesn’t resist at all.

You reposition yourself comfortably on top of him. You put your hands on his biceps, squeezing them tightly before sliding up his arms to his hands. You move them up above his head then lace your fingers between his, holding them in place as you kiss him. You grind your hips into his and he lets out a moan. You feel his hardening cock pressed between your legs. You grind against it more, sliding your clit along his length. Your kisses become quicker, sloppier, as you keep grinding on him.

He tries to move his hands, but you squeeze them tighter. He lets out a grunt and uses more force to break free—reminding you that he was allowing you to keep them there. He sits up and wraps one arm around you, pulling you close as he starts to stand up. You wrap your arms around his neck, legs around his waist. He walks you both back over to the couch.

He unhooks your legs and lowers you so you’re standing in front of him. He leans down and claims your lips again, but you want him undressed. You reach for the hem of his shirt and start pulling it up. You break the kiss to get it completely off his head and before he can kiss you again, you push him onto the couch.

You lift your shirt above your head and as you’re reaching back to unhook your bra, you give a pointed look to his sweatpants. He lifts his hips from the couch and pushes them down.

“Does it look good?” you ask, running your fingers along the collar as you kneel in front of him.

He licks his lips in anticipation, “Better than I imagined.”

You reach for his hand and bring it to the collar. He tugs on the heart again, tightening it around your neck. He wraps his other hand around the base of his cock and pulls you towards it. You drop your jaw and take him in your mouth.

He sucks in a breath, watching you lower your mouth on him. He releases the collar and leans back into the couch. You replace your hand with his at the base, stroking his dick as you bob your head up and down.

You alternate between stroking, sucking, taking it out and smacking it against your lips. He moans and groans, body jerking in response to your actions. You love seeing him like this.

You take him out of you mouth fully and continue stroking him, moving your mouth instead to take each of his balls in your mouth, in turn. You glance up to his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he lets out a deep breath.

“So,” you say, returning your attention to his cock, licking slowly around the tip. “You wanna come in my mouth or in my pussy?”

He looks down at you, only able to smile and shake his head at your use of his same words against him. He leans forward and grabs the heart of the collar once more, using it to pull you to him.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you?” he asks, kissing along your lips.

You giggle and nod playfully in response.

He leans back, pulling on the collar to bring you with him until you’re forced to stand again. His other hand slips between your legs and he rubs your pussy with his fingers.

“I wanna fill you up here.”

You moan against his lips, and he releases the collar. He lightly pushes against your chest, so you stand fully then motions to your shorts. You turn around, bend over and pull them down. You move to straighten yourself, but he lurches forward to stop you.

He puts a hand on your back to keep you bent over. In the next instant you feel his other hand collide with your ass and you let out a surprised yelp. He rubs the wounded area on the right and brings his mouth to the left cheek, placing a wet kiss to it. You feel his teeth dig into your skin, causing you to gasp. He smacks the right cheek again.

He shifts his mouth to the surely reddening cheek, placing another wet kiss there. It soothes the stinging a bit. He slaps the left check, his palm gripping your ass when it lands. He then immediately slides his fingers between your legs, slipping along your wet slit until they find your opening. He pushes his fingers inside, you don’t even know how many, but it makes you feel full.

“Mmmm,” you moan, pushing back against him.

“You’re dripping for me,” he says, lacing kisses along each cheek.

“Always,” you reply. And it’s the truth.

He takes his fingers out of you and places both hands on your waist, guiding you down to him. He positions himself at your opening and you roll your head back as he slowly lowers you on his cock. You remain still when he’s fully inserted, just basking in the feel of him inside you.

You make small movements with your hips first, moving forwards and backwards.

“Fuck,” he exhales, gripping your hips tighter.

You like the way he sounds when you’re pleasing him.

You plant your feet firmly on the ground, your hands on his knees. You start to move up and down, bouncing on him and drawing more delicious groans from him.

He uses his hands on your waist to lift you higher and bring you down even harder. You cup your breasts, pinching your nipples to add to the pleasure you’re feeling. You don’t know if you’ll ever get tired of his cock filling you up. Though, you won’t exactly have the opportunity to find out.

You try to push the thought aside, but you can feel it distracting you.

Chan notices as your rhythm becomes out of sync with his. He pulls you all the way down against him, then slides his hand up your stomach, between your breasts, all the way to your neck. He covers the collar with his hand and pulls you back against his chest. You keep circling your hips on him, not wanting to lose the momentum.

“You okay?” he asks softly in your ear.

“Yeah,” you reply, but it’s a lie. “I want to see you.”

He repositions both of you so you’re lying fully on the couch and he’s on top of you. He guides one of your knees up and hooks your leg over his shoulder as he enters you again.

“Like this?”

You offer a silent nod, sliding your hands up his bare, chiseled chest, locking your fingers together behind his neck.

He starts moving again and you feel him sliding in and out, and you find yourself unable to tear your gaze from his face. His eyes are locked on you too. This feels heavy, but neither of you comment on it. He turns his head to the side to place a kiss to the leg that’s slung over his shoulder, eyes never leaving yours.

Your hands leave his neck to roam through his hair, over his face, touching every part of him you can to commit to memory. You shift your mental focus to the way he feels, beneath your fingertips, his cock inside of you.

You want the Chan you’ve had for the past week for the rest of the time you have him. Open. Earnest. You try to convey this with your eyes as he continues thrusting in and out. He grabs your breast, squeezing it tightly and you part your lips and arch your back in response.

You don’t know if you’ll survive if he goes back to treating you like you don’t matter. You can’t let him do that to you. Can you?

“I know, I know,” he says in response to your unspoken qualms. He kisses your leg once more before releasing it to lay his body flat against yours. He wraps his arms around your head in a hug of sorts, as he continues his deep and steady strokes.

Chan isn’t fucking you tonight. He’s making love to you.

You slide one hand down to where the two of you are joined, finding your clit. He lifts slightly, allowing you more room to rub circles around it.

“Come on my cock, baby,” he commands.

You whimper at his words. Baby.

You rub your clit faster as he picks up the pace of his thrusts, still driving into you as deep as he can. He angles himself so that with each thrust his dick digs against your walls. It’s enough to drive you crazy. You’re whining, moaning, panting.

“Come for me,” he says again. “Come for me baby girl.”

Your hand on his chest goes for his throat. You squeeze your fingers around it and see his eyes darken, but he doesn’t stop you. He moves his hips faster, harder.

“Chan,” you pant, “please. Right there. Don’t stop.”

And he doesn’t.

He keeps the same pace, same angle, same motions until you’re arching your back and squeezing his neck, digging your nails into his delicate skin as you come around his cock. He grits his teeth, grunting and pounding into you furiously as he comes right after.

His movements slow as he finishes. You release his neck and wrap your arms around it instead. He lowers himself on top of you, all but smothering you with his weight but you don’t care. This is a happy way to die, if it comes to that.

You kiss along his collar bone as you both catch your breath. His cock keeps twitching inside of you and you clench the walls of your pussy around him each time it does. His body jerks each time you do it.

“Stop, stop,” he pleads, chuckling softly.

You chuckle in response.

That was different. In ways you hadn’t imagined possible with Chan. The two of you stay on the couch, wrapped up in each other for a while longer.  

The following morning, you’re both woken up by a knock at the door. Chan, just as confused as you, climbs out of bed to answer it. You hear him talking to someone and he returns a few moments later.

“Another Minho surprise,” he tells you. “A couples massage.”

“That actually sounds amazing,” you murmur, pushing off the blankets.

You both go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. You put your hair up in a messy bun then go to the living room while Chan lets in the masseuses. There’s one male and one female. After setting up their massage tables in the open space between the couch and the TV, they leave for the hallway allowing you both some privacy to remove your clothing.

Chan watches you undress with a sly smile on his face, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. You stick your tongue out at him and throw your pajama shirt at his face, but he dodges it and catches it in his hand. He folds it neatly and sets it on the couch before removing his own shirt.

When you’re both settled on the tables, they re-enter.

“You’re with me, sir,” you hear Chan say and lift your head.

He’s motioning for the male masseuse to come to him.

“I need firmer hands,” he adds.

But you know that’s not it. No other man outside of the SKZ House is allowed to touch you in the way the masseuse will need to. You know it’s because of that. But it still makes you feel warm inside to think Chan personally doesn’t want anyone else touching you.

After the massage, you and Chan shower together then order a late brunch. He opens his present that you are now extremely embarrassed to give him. When he pulls out the pair of neon blue swim trunks with “Miami Vice” written on it, you hide your face, and he immediately laughs.

“These are loud,” he says. “I’ll wear them to the beach tomorrow.”

Next, he pulls out a refrigerator magnet with “Miami” written across it with palm trees surrounding it.

“To be fair,” you say, wanting to explain, “I had no clue what to get you. You’re not exactly an open book.”

“That is fair,” he agrees. He looks at you with a soft smile, as if he wishes things had been different. He kisses your forehead. “Thank you anyways.”

You spend your final two days mostly relaxing and staying close to the hotel. You spend time at the beach again, Chan in his neon blue swim trunks and looking fucking delectable in them.

Getting on the plane to go home, you’re hit with an overwhelming sense of sadness. Chan’s behavior hasn’t changed yet, and you’re praying that it doesn’t. That even though you both know how this has to end; he can find it within himself to not push you out again. You lean on him and hold his hand for most of the flight back.

Changbin picks you up from the airport and Chan rides up front while you sit in the back. He asks how the trip was and you both reply that it was good. He then addresses Chan in Korean and you’re left clueless in the back seat. But whatever is said, you can feel the weight of it from Chan’s reaction. He leans back in his seat, slouches, and runs his hand through his hair.

You try not to think much of it, but it must be important. They don’t typically speak Korean in front of any of the assignees unless it’s about something that, to be frank, is none of their business.

The car ride is over far too soon, and they still haven’t filled you in on what’s happening.

Once in the driveway, you notice a black car parked in front of the house with a Rolls Royce emblem on the front. You immediately furrow your brow, curiosity and anxiety spiking through the roof at this point.

Changbin exits the car first. You remain planted in the backseat, waiting for Chan to say or explain anything.

He lets out a low breath and leans back against the headrest, eyes closed.

“My dad’s here,” he announces.

Your eyes open wide, and even more confusion sets in. Is it an unexpected visit? Is he not happy to see his father?

“You don’t want him to be?” you ask slowly, carefully.

“Well, it’s never exactly a cause for celebration when any of our parents show up,” he says dryly. “Just…stay out of his way.”

Chan opens his door and you follow in suit.

Changbin has pulled the luggage from the trunk, he’s holding the handle to yours and Chan grabs his own. You move to walk past them both, but Chan grabs your arm to stop you.

You turn to face him, trying to read his expression but a mask is in place.

“Chan,” you say, placing a hand to his chest.

A glint, a flicker of something crosses over his eyes and you see your Chan for a split second.

He kisses your forehead.

“After us. And then straight upstairs, okay?” he says softly.

You nod your head and wait for them to walk to the door first.

As soon as you enter the house, you can feel the commanding presence of his father. Your eyes are drawn straight to him on the living room couch, looking all business in a tailored black suit, black hair slicked back.

“Appa.” Chan says.

“Hello,” you say politely with a small bow at the waist.

You know he told you to go straight upstairs, but it would feel rude to pass by without speaking to him.

His father spares half a glance at you before staring daggers at his son.

Changbin heads for the stairs with your suitcase and you follow him. You look back at Chan and offer as encouraging a smile as you can muster. Chan doesn’t turn to look at you. He walks towards his father like a man heading to the gallows and the sight of him like that punctures your already fragile heart.

[ read chapter 20 here ]

a/n: oof. thoughts? feelings? a lot to unpack here. thank you all again for your patience! and sorry the tags still aren't working :(

[spookypete-94]

Dark Horse-Matching Bands

Chapter 8 (Final Chapter)

PriceXFem!Reader

Reader is a single mother, working double shifts at a restaurant. Father of the child starts to become a problem while reader is at work and Price offers a solution. Slight age gap between reader around 25 and Price around 35.

This is it! This chapter is lots of fluff, happy ending. After this is completed plan on working some more Simon things and then have an idea of returning to this, but writing it through Price's POV. Will be darker in influence than this one however. Think our Captain is a little more selfish then what this story portrays. Kind of like the other half of the coin thing.

Thank you all for taking the time and reading this series, just really wanted to do something sweet. <3 I truly do appreciate this fanbase and its readers.

Adrenaline had worn off by the time you had reached your bed. Body heavy like someone had tucked concrete into it making relief fill you by the time you had hit your pillow. After it all, you really thought sleep was going to be hard… but honestly it was the easiest that had been delivered to you all night.

In fact, when you woke up in the morning, you felt so far out of it. Honestly, you probably could have slept for another 5 hours. Finally forcing yourself to come to, you realized it was your phone vibrating on the nightstand. Quickly picking it up, you palmed it until it answered.

“Mornin’, lovie.” Your heart mended and melted at the voice.

“John.”

“How’d you sleep love?”

“Honestly… not terrible.”

“Best you have in a while, huh.” He had wanted it to sound like a question, but instead it came out as a matter-of-fact statement. You both know why you slept so well. You had no reason to fear anymore. Your biggest fear was dead.

“Yeah… How’s Abel?”

“Still sleepin’, him, Johnny and Kyle stayed up late telling ghost stories.” There was a joke hidden somewhere in there, sleep just kept it hidden from you.

“He catch any fish?” You asked instead.

“He did, learned to clean them too. Had a proper day of teaching with him.”

It made you smile. The idea of Abel spending time with a male figure that was teaching him real life lessons.

“Good.”

“I’ll have him call you when he wakes up. Think you should probably go make a cuppa’ and turn the news on for now love.” A hint. An order what had been done last night.

“Ok, see you in a while John.”

Finally doing what he advised, you sat with a cup of coffee in your hands steam still rising off the top. The remote was on the table in front of you, parallel with the TV.

It seemed so far away and the thought of picking it up to turn the TV on almost too heavy for you. Like the concrete from last night had returned all at once. A heavy breath in, you reached for it, powering it on and flipping on the news.

The very first headline BODY HAS BEEN FOUND.

Instantly, you shut your eyes, seeing the murder scene all over once again in your small bathroom. Forcing them back open, you watched. Listening intently while the newscaster explained that a male body had been found in an alleyway after what looked like a bar fight gone wrong.

The face was so mangled from a beer bottle they assumed; they were having a hard time identifying the victim. Your heart pounded so loudly, Blood trying to reach your head filling your ears, rushing like an ocean and beating like a drum. You had done this. You had destroyed any facial recognition of him… all by your hand. The thoughts came in like a flood. The father of your child. What kind of monster were you?

A loud knocking on your door brought you back, making you jump and spill coffee down the front of John’s shirt. Quickly jumping up to look through the peephole, two officers stood waiting. Like the good girl you were, you opened the door for them.

“Morning Ma’am, may we come in?” They politely asked. Giving a wide birth on the door, you obliged.

“We’re here to notify you of some news…”

Afternoon had rolled around. You sat outside waiting for their vehicle to pull up. John had kept his promise to you, and Abel had called you shortly after the officers left. After Abel had passed the phone back to your husband he asked about your visitors. Finding it strange that you had not told John about the officers stopping by yet to give you a death notification, you still told him about it.

 One of the officers had known John, his name Alex Keller, a detective for the force. Alex had called you by your maiden name, politely you corrected him and explained how you were freshly married, what your new name was and who you married.

“Have known John for a long time. Good man.”

Maybe Alex had called John to let him know he met you and what had happened…

Seemingly they asked a few questions about your personal life with your ex. How long you had known him, how you had known him. The basic stuff. News to you however, your ex had been estranged from his family for years now. He had no relationship with them whatsoever. They had tried to reach out to his parents, but they had cut him off due to behavioral problems. How ironic his own knew what kind of person he was and chose to do nothing about it. All the officers were looking for was a few answers and a place to do a proper death notification.

“Do you see it possible that he could have been in involved in a bar fight?”

“Yes,” you honestly nodded.

“Did he have anger problems?”

“Yes.”

From there you told the tale of the physical and verbal abuse from the very beginning… all the way to his untimely end.

“Well Mrs. Price, we are sorry for your loss. At this time, it is still under investigation, but it appears to us that he was involved in a bar fight. Was attacked with a beer bottle and then strangled. His wallet was left behind with his ID, but nothing else in it. It looks to be a murder and mugging. Here’s our contact if you need anything else from us.”

It seemed so routine for them, like they had expected this outcome from you already. The innocent baby momma rid of the evil that plagues her and her child. Towards the end, it was like someone had held up a seashell to your ear. You could hear the conversation… but it was like they were so far away at the same time. Shock was settling in. Thankfully it wasn’t long after that, they had left your humble abode. Pleasantries exchanged and not even a suspect on the list…  How was this possible?

And there you sat on the porch, waiting in a chair outside… Counting your lucky stars you were not placed in a jumpsuit behind bars. Still wearing the guilt all the same. Your happiness finally arriving on 4 wheels as a little boy jumped out to greet you.

“Mom!”

John had stopped to pick up dinner. Your favorite to try to cheer you up and thank you for letting him go on a trip shortly after you were married.

Finding the words finally at the dinner table, you explained to him to the best of your ability about his father passing.

Abel took it in stride. Yes, he was hurt and disturbed someone could do this his father, but he was the sweet boy you had raised after all. Abel did start asking a few questions, where John thankfully took over for you. He could tell it was hard for you to lie to Abel about what had really happened. It was something you would never ever tell him, wanting to take it to your grave now. John and his boys being the only ones who knew what had happened. Of course, none of them saw the sin in it like you did, they only saw justice. Simon, in fact telling you once that if was not you that really killed him, it was Ghost himself that had. Like it was a joke, trying to make you feel better. All it could do was place a sad smile on your lips.

“Worlds better of without him.” John had grumbled into your ear once you were both settled into bed, hand rubbing up and down your sides. That was the moment you tried to explain to John, it was not the fact that it was the man that had hurt you over and over since you were a teenager, but the fact it was a human life in general.

“Happens every day. Eventually bad behavior is answered one way or another.”

“But it makes me bad too.” You argued in a whispered hiss to him.

“No, it makes you a mother willing to defend what is hers. You really expect me to believe that you were goin’ to let him take you away from Abel and I? He paid his consequence. We could have worked it out like adults.” His hand had found your ring finger on your left-hand stroking over his mother’s band, something he seemed to do when you or he needed soothed.

Reaching for his hand, you realized it had a wedding band in return. Pulling it up out of the sheets glancing at it, knowing you had not given him one yet. It was opal on set in gold that matched yours.

“Had it made with the stone that Abel got on his field trip. The maker rushed it for me so we could match.”

“It’s pretty…” you whispered, holding it up yours. Husband and Wife finally made whole. Married for convenience for you, convenience you would ironically not need any more since your ex was dead.

It wouldn’t change anything for you though, you would pick John over and over in this lifetime and the next. He had shown you loyalty and love in a time and place no other stranger would… Except the other three of John’s that made it clear they envied their Captain that is. Who knew a group of men could care so much for a woman in dire need of it. Perhaps soldiers made the best lovers when created correctly? Who knew.

Life had changed so much in just a few years. Thinking back, you had always just pictured yourself working and slaving away at the diner. Yes, you were grateful for it, but a part of you would always want more for yourself and Abel. Here it finally was. In a new strong and sturdy house John had built for you. Working part time at the diner now, home at night with Abel and John. Sometimes John would be gone for months at a time, not always able to communicate with you either. Worry sometimes would fill your mind, but he always found his way back to you.

On one of his returns, he had given you a child. Now round with his seed, ready to pop he sat with you at the hospital. This time was entirely different. Instead of having to do it alone here John was with you. Not able to go to every appointment, he at least made the milestone ones. When worry and panic would rise within you from the pregnancy, he would quell it down. Thumb rubbing across your wedding band making you reach for his to do the same. Life was perfect. Honestly it left you confused on what exactly you had done to deserve such an outcome, but maybe if you didn’t question it, whatever greater force was out there would let you keep it.

Being thankful rewarded you with a healthy, beautiful little girl, a branch off John’s tree. Her bright blue eyes identical to his with his heavy brown locks. After all John had given you, you let him name her. A man of pattern and devotion, he named her after his mother. Sarah. So here you sat… babe bundled into a blanket in a rocking chair watching John and Abel out in the yard. No longer haunted, you were protected and loved. More importantly though, Abel and Sarah would be defended for their childhood. Something that was not provided to you or John.

Life is good.

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[kurishiri]

06 . . . “ drowning in the shallows ”

— 🐚 elbert’s main route chapter 6 his side story. thanks to @myusuchaa for providing a recording! 🥺🫶

— this translation may not be 100% accurate or may contain creative liberties for characterization or narrative flow purposes. if you enjoy, please consider reblogging, but don’t repost or claim these as your own!

— cw: objectification, non-consensual touching, bullying.

——It was as though I was drowning in the shallows.

(I wonder if Kate is alright.)

When I saw that she was by Al’s side from my peripheral vision, though, I let out a sigh in relief.

(...Thank goodness.)

Middle-aged gentleman: Oh, you mustn’t turn away from me. Look at me, Elbert.

Elbert: …Alright.

Middle-aged gentleman: Truly, your beauty is second to none.

Green-eyed lady: Elbert, turn toward me as well… My, are you a little short on sleep, perhaps?

Elbert: …I’m fine.

White-haired lady: Are you sure? You aren’t so scared you can’t sleep, aren’t you? I can sing you a lullaby again.

Elbert: …Thank you.

I was showered with admiration that I was beautiful.

Gazes would tangle with each other, and hands would reach out toward me.

And every time, I would push down the discomfort I felt rushing through me, and swallow down the nausea threatening to overflow.

(...I, can’t breathe.)

They were distant relatives of mine, and so, after my father’s death, they would try to ‘love’ me in excess.

At times like these, it was always the same — it felt like I was drowning.

Even so, I would bear it without moving from where I was, and for me, that was my only choice.

Because, if I tried to breathe again and move from where I was, my Curse would make the people around me sad.

The discomfort, and the repulsion, too——

I accepted it all, as it should be.

Elbert: ......

But, even so, I could never grow accustomed to the way they touched me, as though leaving their fingerprints so that it clung to my body.

My breathing felt like it would lose its rhythm at any moment, so I numbed my own heart to bear it.

And at that moment, I suddenly felt someone gently touch my elbow.

(......) [surprised]

The hand touching my body — its touch somewhat hesitant as though concerned for me — was not my own, and yet, it felt much more comforting...

...and when I turned around, there I saw Kate, her brows furrowed in worry.

Kate: Lord Elbert, it would appear as though the host has not yet arrived… so, would you care to come outside?

Elbert: …Kate.

Kate: U, um… your complexion looks slightly pale, and so I figured going outside for some fresh air would benefit you…

(Ahh...)

(I’ve made you sad again.)

And yet, just a single word from her was like magic, as it became easier to breathe, dispeling that which had been making me suffer.

It made me want to cling onto that hand which extended toward me, and rise up from the deep depths of the water that threatened to drown me.

(But... I can’t.)

(I, can’t move from here.)

(Not until I have the ‘most beautiful thing in the world.’)

I stood where I was, unable to take her hand and return the gesture.

——That would bring about my own ruin. [1]

Green-eyed lady: I apologize, but who might you be? Elbert, is she a new guard or something else of the sort?

Green-eyed lady: If that is the case, then excuse me, but your dress looks like it’s weeping. Not to mention your conduct is quite disgraceful.

(...!)

The sharp point of the spear that should have been pointed toward me was now facing her, baring its fangs.

Middle-aged gentleman: Haha, there is no need to go that far; I feel bad for her now.

Middle-aged gentleman: Young miss, we have been Elbert’s acquaintances since he was young. So, would you mind staying out of this?

(...Stop this.)

The feelings, which had become dull and muddy as it robbed me of my breathing from within the depths of my chest,

tried to pull the chains, crawling out from within.

Middle-aged gentleman: Are you listening, young miss?

Kate: …!

Grabbing her jaw, he roughly lifted her face so that she had to look up.

(Please, don’t hurt her...)

Middle-aged gentleman: Now, that just won’t do, a rubbish stone like you, standing among the finest gem in the showcase.

White-haired lady: Truly… she is a disgrace to beauty.

Middle-aged gentleman: What is that look in your eyes?

The moment when those eyes, directed toward Kate, became clouded in wrath,

The discomfort and the repulsion, and the sadness and anger all became a chaotic mess as they mixed together——

and spilled from my throat.

Elbert: ……Could you stop?

(She... has not committed a single sin.)

——She was strong, and kind.

Even when the sins before her eyes tried to hurt her, she tried her best to look forward with a smile.

Even when she lamented over the things that had hurt her, she tried to not let sadness consume her.

And, when she thought of another’s happiness——she would look so happy as she smiled.

Kate was like the shell she found at the beach — as pure as the snow.

(There is no reason for Kate to receive this kind of slander...)

(...Not a single one.)

Elbert: Touching her, criticizing her… please stop that.

E: ...Please.

It was like my throat, filled to the brim with something muddy on the brink of overflowing, had squeezed out those words in a murmur.

They at last let go of her jaw.

Middle-aged gentleman: ...If you say so, Elbert, I suppose it cannot be helped.

White-haired lady: I apologize, that may have been a little uncouth of me. I will be careful from now on.

Green-eyed lady: Let us meet again, Elbert. In a quiet place no one can interrupt, that is.

They looked somewhat disappointed, but nonetheless they tried to distance themselves.

(...Thank goodness.)

(Now Kate doesn’t have to go through any more pain.)

But——

Kate: W-wait.

Kate’s brows were furrowed as she, for some reason, called out to stop them.

(...Kate?)

Kate: If it’s possible, could you treat him the same way you treat me?

Elbert: ... [surprised]

Middle-aged gentleman: ...What you are saying is beyond me.

Kate: I’m saying that you could greet him more normally...

White-haired lady: ...Don’t get full of yourself. You are naught but a stranger; do not speak with me ever again.

With those biting words, they left Kate alone for sure this time.

This entire time, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her — not once.

(Kate is strong, and kind.)

(Even when she knows her actions will hurt herself, she tries to face them nevertheless.)

—— Flashback ——

???: Uu... hu... hic...

Kate: ...! Sorry about that...!

Elbert: ...!

—— End flashback ——

——Just like that day when she had pushed my chest away and ran to Daisy’s side in the pool of blood,

she was trying to pull me out from the water’s depths.

(Every time I feel that strength of hers, and that kindness, too, I...)

(...I can never, look away from her.)

Elbert: Kate...

Kate: ...I’m sorry, even though I don’t know your circumstances, I did something out of turn.

Elbert: ...No... you have no need to apologize.

E: Rather, I apologize for making you see that... I’m sorry.

Kate: But, it’s not your fault...

Elbert: ... [surprised]

Before I knew it, I had become desperate.

Kate: Things like admiration, or love... those are not justifiable reasons to push their selfish desires onto you.

K: Can I ask why, didn’t you resist?

(You are strong, and kind.)

(But...)

(...Maybe, just a little too kind.)

Elbert: ......I’m used to it. And...

E: With that distance, one careless move and... I would have stepped into their shadows.

E: I don’t want to do that to them.

Kate: Lord Elbert, you...

K: ...are too kind.

Elbert: ...That’s not true.

Kate: ...No, it is.

(...She doesn’t know.)

Just how much one’s sad memories could gnaw at one’s heart as if being eaten by worms, or even kill them.

And, just how much this life of mine may be abhorrently cursed.

Neither did she know the sins I have committed — she was privy to none.

(Just as there was no reason for you to be hurt,)

(There was no reason for me to be protected by you... Kate.)

Elbert: ...As I thought, I am not kind.

E: Like now, I’ve made you sad.

I wanted to return that kindness with a smile of my own, but it seemed her sad expression wouldn’t let up.

Just from her eyes, I could tell that she was so wholeheartedly worried for me to the point it hurt...

...and once again, I was able to breathe.

——Is she, beautiful?

I felt like, from the deepest, darkest depths of the hole that was agape in my chest, I could hear a hollow voice.

(...I don’t know.)

(And it’s fine if I still don’t know the answer.)

(Not yet, at least——)

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NOTES:

[1] the original line here is [ーーそれが、災いした] (sore ga, wazawai shita). I wasn’t completely sure how to translate it, but 災いする (wazawai suru), the dictionary form of 災いした (wazawai shita), means to ‘bring the ruin of’ or to ‘cause misfortune.’ If anyone’s got a better or more accurate way to translate this, I’m all ears!

[eepyuii]

frostbite — pt. 7

pairing ; childe x gender neutral!reader

content ; childhood friends to “rivals” to lovers, slowburn-ish

cw ; none

notes ; happy new year!! it’s story quest time which meaaans- its teucer town. a lot of the reader and teucer being besties and *some* tiny particles of romantic feelings (if u catch them). also just a really lighthearted and humorous chapter :3

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three knocks.

“sergeant?”

“hm? yes, ekaterina? come in.”

the secretary steps up to your desk, where you sit pitifully, head resting on your hands. it’s been some months since osial’s attack and you’ve mysteriously remained stationed at liyue, not that you mind, of course. the traveler and paimon have long since been on their way to inazuma and, according to news you heard from all around, seem like they successfully solved the crises surrounding the electro archon and the vision hunt decree. not only has there been word on the streets of their feats but you’ve also noticed a noticeable increase in inazuman immigrants by the harbor.

but- back to the matter at hand, today you find yourself incredibly more fatigued than usual, perhaps due to your struggles with getting even a good wink of sleep the night before. the sunlight creeping through the windows seems to sting your eyes harsher than normal for early morning but you still try your best to open them and read the letter ekaterina has just placed in front of you.

noticing the strain in your efforts to, well, be awake at the moment, ekaterina clears her throat.

“it’s a mandate from the doctor himself.”

now that gets you up, though not in a good way. the sheer reminder of that man’s existence is enough to shoot an icy burn into your spine, one that makes you flinch into full consciousness.

skimming more effectively through the lines, you find that the mandate talks about a ruin guard research lab here in liyue under his guise, obviously, that he is requiring you to briefly oversee in his absence. not as bad as you thought but also not entirely good. the doctor has never presently explained his affinity for ruin guard robotics to you- because truly, why would he? but it’s no less than apparent how big his interest in them is, in your experience.

with a long, heavy sigh, you nod.

“i see. thank you, ekaterina, you may go.”

she bows politely and turns to leave while you reread the letter to gather the full details of the research lab. once ekaterina is by the door to your office, you take note of the sound of as her heels stop abruptly as she yelps in surprise, muttering a small ‘hello, master childe’ and carrying on her way. the next moment, they very devil she spoke of is bursting into the room.

“good morning, doc!” he chirps with surprising energy for how early it is and places a closed cup on your desk.

“here! i got you some coffee, thought it might help wake you up.”

“thanks a lot… wait, how did you know i was tired-“

“and with that act of courtesy, i would like to propose my own favor to be granted by yours truly. and that is for us to sp-“

“childe, i cannot spar with you today.”

with that, the harbinger slumps into himself like a fussing child, ironic, and groans softly. he’s about to try his very persuasive best to convince you anyway when he spots the letter in your hands and raises an eyebrow curiously.

“what’s that?”

you sigh again, pinching the bridge of your nose. “a mandate from dottore asking me to check up on one of his ruin guard research facilities, here in liyue.”

childe seems to empathize with your disdain for the request and scoffs, mumbling about ‘that lunatic and his little toy robots…’.

“hm, well i wish you luck with that. i’ve also got myself some less than stellar debts to collect today, might as well busy myself somehow even if ekaterina thinks i shouldn’t.”

“good luck with that too.”

childe turns to leave, slightly less chipper than he was when he walked in, until he stops by the door to turn around. “you’re still owing me a spar for that coffee!”

“whatever!”

grassy mountains, building ruins, ginkgo trees- minlin was just like any other area of liyue, though you’d never steal any merit from the relaxing scenery of the entire region. every new place you visited took your breath away with its beauty all the same.

it’s become an unspoken habit to deal with ruin guards at this point and you knew their patterned behaviors and limits like no other, maybe only the doctor himself. several of them sat inactivated in the ruins around you, as expected, and you took note of each one for your report diligently. as you’re approaching the entrance of the lab itself, you spot another ruin guard sat against a crumbled tower- except it was not the only thing there, there were people too. it’s not hard to decipher that it turns out to be the traveler and paimon and… someone else.

wait… surely it’s not him.

“teucer?”

all three of them immediately turn around, except teucer lights up at the sight of you and jumps from his crouching position to run at you with full speed. despite being perplexed at his presence, you still kneel to welcome him with open arms.

“big sibling y/n!! you’re here!!” he yells out, elated.

you chuckle fondly and stand up with teucer clung onto your torso.

“it’s good to see you too, teuce’, but… what in the heavens are you doing all the way here?”

looking over teucer’s shoulder, you turn to the other two, who look just as confused about the entire situation as you do.

“and you two as well, weren’t you supposed to be in inazuma still?”

“mm-yeah, we were taking a bit of a break! we’re on our way to sumeru next and liyue’s the shortest way there so… might as well take some leisurely time off.”

paimon elaborates, until she and the traveler share a look and the two of them sigh.

“unfortunately, the millelith asked us to check out these rui- ahem, i mean mr. cyclops showing up around this area. and as we were doing that, we ran into teucer over here!”

you breathe out a laugh, pitying the pair’s lack of… well- time to take a break without any tasks given to them. ‘talk about leisurely…’ you mutter, quiet enough so teucer doesn’t hear. speaking of him…

“that still doesn’t explain how you were here at all, mister.” you poke the boy’s side with the hand that isn’t holding him up against you and he giggles uncontrollably, attempting to dodge your finger.

“ahahahahah! s-stop! hahah… i’m here to see big brother at the institute for toy research! you work there too, right?”

what.

oh- is that what he thinks childe does? dear gods, that’s too funny. however you do understand why childe would lie about your jobs, you think you’d do much the same. still it takes everything within you to not burst out laughing at the revelation, even the traveler seems to notice so, somewhat understanding the reason but also somewhat not. you huff out a breath to calm the urge to cackle and turn to the two once again.

“listen, you guys don’t need to worry about this one anymore, i’ll take care of him. oh! and don’t worry about the- err, mr cyclops replicas, i’ll sort them out too. go take your break, you deserve it.”

“but- they’re my friends! they like toys like i do! a-and they made the pinky promise!” teucer retaliates.

gods damn the snezhnayan pinky swear.

“plus, he did give us this big bag of mora to take care of him…” paimon eyes the traveler, who returns the glance with a nod as if they’re silently communicating.

“and yeah- we’d much rather go see this ‘toy institute’ than deal with mr. cyclops right now.”

you nod in agreement and gesture for all of you to head back to the harbor, partially to avoid seeing the millelith soldiers patrolling the area.

“so- just out of curiosity, teuce’, what exactly did your brother say about me working with toys?”

“he said you’re a toy doctor! you take care of the toys who get hurt or sick.”

“yeah, that checks out.”

—

arriving back at northland bank, the first thing you spot is childe and ekaterina discussing something at the center of the room, oblivious to your presence for the moment. that is, until teucer bursts from your tired arms to run to his older brother.

paimon, somehow, remains oblivious enough to what is right in front of her enough to whisper. “huh? what’s he doing here…”

“yay, my brother! i found you!” exclaims teucer and childe immediately perks up, ceasing any doubts that paimon might’ve had.

“i know that voice… why, if it isn’t my little brother teucer! my goodness!”

the harbinger takes his younger brother into his arms, much like you did before, except he wraps him in a nearly bone crushing hug before setting him back down.

“haha.. what a nice surprise, teucer! i thought i would have to wait till i return home before seeing you again. how are the others, tonia and anthon? is everybody keeping well?”

“they miss you a lot! tonia prays for you every day at dinner.” it seems that only after teucer’s response is when the realization of the sheer absurdity that is teucer’s presence sets within childe, his face morphing into confusion.

“wait a second… what are you doing here in liyue, teucer? how have i not heard anything about this?”

that entire interaction, you remained merely watching from behind with an irrepressible fond smile on your face- you were so lost in their reunion that you almost miss the incredulous glare childe throws to you, like he’s silently asking if you had anything to do with this. you jump slightly once noticing it and quickly shrug, shaking your head to signify that you’re just as clueless as him.

“well, what happened was- i saw a boat that looked like it was selling toys, so obviously i thought you were on board. and then when i got off i just kept walking and walking… and then, i found a mr. cyclops!”

unbelievable.

“mr cyclops scared off a bad guy, and then i found this nice lady and-and then y/n found us! so we came looking for you.”

childe seems to have another moment of realization, where another fleeting glance comes your way and he sighs, facing off to the side to mouth to himself ‘of course, the research lab…’.

“teucer…” he starts off and you seem to understand what he’s about to say right away, leaving teucer’s side to be right in front of him, beside childe. you kneel to teucer’s height and hold out your hands for him to hold, to make him feel less like he’s being scolded. his tiny hands are dwarfed by yours in a way that makes your heart swell.

“…teuce’, what you did was really dangerous. we’re both happy to see you, really, but please promise you won’t do anything like this ever again.”

childe nods in agreement and teucer sighs, letting go of your hands to put them behind his back sheepishly.

“okay, i promise… please don’t be mad at me.”

“we’re not mad at you. we just care about your safety, that’s all.” childe reassures.

“if you hadn’t met these nice people, and even more if y/n hadn’t found you, things could’ve been a lot more dangerous for you, teucer. i hope you said a big thank-you to all of them?”

“yep! i always remember my please’s and thank-you’s!

“oohh so you did notice we were here… you were just ignoring us, gotcha.” paimon adds sarcastically as she and the traveler look at childe through a sassy glare.

“haha… forgive me, it’s always family first where i’m from. don’t take it personally. i know we’ve had our differences up to now but.. a few minor quibbles aside, we get on quite well, don’t you think?”

the traveler’s incredulous reaction tells you that perhaps teucer shouldn’t listen to the conversation while they sort out their, erm, quibbles- so you gently take him by the hand and lead him off ever so slightly to the side, where you know he’ll be at least distracted enough to not listen. kneeling down, you once again take his impossibly adorable hands into yours and fiddle with them playfully, he only grins in oblivious amusement.

“so, teuce’, tell me more- how’re things back home? you’re not too bored without us there, are you?”

“mm-no, i’m just fine! anthon still plays with me a bunch and tonia always reads me the letters big brother sends us, she always tells such cool stories!”

“yeah? like what?”

the young boy thinks for a moment, rubbing his chin like he’s mentally paging through the deepest, most riveting tales he can recall.

“hmm.. oh! one time she told me the story of how big brother discovered a new version of mr. cyclops! he’s bigger and.. and stronger and he’s got huge horns, like a deer! he’s like mr. cyclops' big brother.”

well, at least childe is keeping his lies somewhat accurate. but the way teucer beams and hops excitedly as he talks about the bigger mr. cyclops, or a ruin grader as you know it, seems to justify keeping him in the dark. the way his big blue eyes shine with wonder is in itself a treasure worth protecting. you’ve practically long forgotten that you’re supposed to be stalling out a conversation to distract him.

“that’s so awesome, teucer!” you grin back at him. “what other stories does your brother tell?”

“hm..- oh yeah! he also talks about you in his letters.”

oh?

“does he?” you’re unsure if you should feel good or bad about the revelation, gods know what childe says to his siblings about you.

“yeah he does! he talks about how you take such good care of the toys when they get hurt and how smart you are and how…”

suddenly, teucer trails off as he turns to the trio still conversing near you, like he’s heard something that’s caught his attention. he entirely abandons the sentence he’d left unfinished to join their side again and you find yourself feeling the smidgenmost bit disappointed that he didn’t finish speaking. you only sigh to yourself and smooth your clothes down from the crouching position you were in, joining back in as well.

“that’s right, my brother’s the greatest! he’s mr. cyclops’ bestest friend!”

childe chuckles in somewhat faux delight, to satisfy teucer and make it seem like he approves of his brother’s message, before leaning over to the traveler and whisper, as you hear it,- ‘just humor me in front of teucer, if you’d be so kind…’

“ahem- ah yes! ekaterina, i will deal with the issue of the outstanding payment right away.”

“hey! slinking off, are we?” paimon accuses.

“but, master childe, would it not be improper to ask you to deal with… debt collection?”

“a bet is a bet, isn’t it? and if you lose a bet with an agent.. well, you might as well get some exercise out of it.”

“are you going off to sell toys now?” teucer interjects, partially with admiration for his brother and partially with disappointment that he has to leave.

“that’s right. as much as i’d like to catch up a little longer, teucer, duty calls! i’m sure y/n and ms. nice lady will keep you company while i’m out, though.”

childe implies with a pleading glance thrown to you and the traveler. you nod gladly while the traveler puts her hand to her forehead momentarily and paimon mumbles a complaint about having to babysit for childe.

“sure!” teucer confirms as well. “i really like y/n and this lady already! and anyway, the nice lady made a pinky promise to take good care of me.”

the harbinger ends up leaving the four of you with a hefty bag of mora to spend out in the city while he’s working and you firstly decide to take him to an elderly lady’s kite shop. she patiently explains how to use the kites and teucer asks for a mr. cyclops shaped kite, because why wouldn’t he- you manage to convince the lady to make a custom build for it with a shining pile of mora. next, you take him to wanmin restaurant, where chef mao graciously offers to make a special dish for teucer, who can’t eat spicy food. you don’t blame him, personally- snezhnayan dishes tend to steer away from spice specifically and lean more towards warm, filling meals to endure the cold temperatures. however, the food teucer asks for turns out sickeningly sweet and even paimon, the awarded food enthusiast, feels nauseated at the end. finally, he asks you to give the wharf a better look than when he was stepping off his boat. paimon proceeds to give a mouthful of an explanation about liyue’s trade port, which ends up too confusing for teucer to even care. instead, his attention is caught by a ship anchor left in the wharf.

“teucer, don’t run off!” you urge as he takes off to see the anchor.

“that metal hook is huge! and it gets bigger the closer we get!”

“this is an anchor. docked ships use it to hold themselves in position, to stop wind and waves from blowing them away.” paimon explains.

“hmm, an anchor… got it. but i think i might get it mixed up with commodore hook.”

“commodore hook..? is that another one of your weird toy names?”

“my brother always sends me a really big toy for my birthday- commodore hook, blacksteel jack, iron tony… we keep them all in your backyard!”

“are they as big as the anchor?” the traveler asks.

“yeah, and that’s why i can’t bring them with me all the time. it’s a shame…”

you choke on your breath at a realization. “i-is that what your father was keeping under a tarp in the backyard..?”

teucer nods cluelessly. you’ve seen tarped objects behind childe’s family house that had some absurd silhouettes hidden by the protective fabric and the snow, but you’ve only ever assumed they were left over building materials- not gigantic fucking robots because why would you ever assume that’s what he’d send a child for his birthday. you’ll have to have a talk with him about gift giving at a later time.

“but my favorite is mr. cyclops. even though i mostly came here to see my brother, the other big thing i wanted to do was play with mr. cyclops! oh- are they selling fish over there, let’s have a look!”

and just like that, teucer is gone again. paimon stomps her foot in the air as she heaves frustratedly.

“quit! running! off!”

you briefly go to see the fish on display as teucer tells you of the time when childe caught him an impossibly large fish just because he asked for it. somewhere in the back of your head, you find it endearing that childe has kept up the habit of fishing just like when his father would take you on his trips to ice fish as well. maybe you could get him to go fishing in liyue, just the two of you when you have some free ti- wait, what are you saying? you’re supposed to be watching out for teucer, who conveniently has gone off to see the boats and seems to have his entire good mood flipped around.

“teuce’, you look upset, what’s wrong? are you tired?” you coo.

he sighs melancholically and covers his face behind his hands. “i miss my brother…”

“what? but we were just with him!” argues paimon.

“yea, but for such a short time that it doesn’t even count! take me to see my brother, i don’t wanna play anymore!”

you sigh and look to the other designated babysitters. they look back with defeated shrugs- seems like you’ve done what you can to entertain him for the moment. turning back to teucer, you offer to carry him in your hold as you leave for qingxu pool, where childe said he would be, and he gladly accepts. from behind you, a low gurgle can be heard.

“urgh… paimon may never recover from that dish.”

taglist ; @kentply @osaemu @rain-and-a-nice-nap

[misssalvatore1904]

The Original Faery

Chapter 1

A/n: Adelaide Kane is kinda how I pictured Cassiopeia Salvatore.

Just a heads up, this chapter will be pretty confusing but don’t worry, it’ll make sense in time😜 I hope u like it.

——————————————————————————

“Girls! Wake up! You have to go to school!”

I groaned as I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling before literally rolling out of bed. I let out an oof as I made impact with the ground.

“Come on sleeping beauty.” Giggles Caroline from the doorway to my room.

“Not everyone can get up at dawn and still function.” I roll my eyes at my sister, who has always been a morning person. “Us mere mortals however, need a few minutes.”

She laughs as she walks downstairs for breakfast.

I got to my feet, shuffled to the bathroom, and got ready for the first day of school.

I give my mum a kiss on her cheek as I enter the kitchen.

“Don’t forget that you’re supposed to show that new kid around school today, sweetheart.” She reminds me, with a kiss on my forehead, before heading to the door. “Have a good first day girls.” She was halfway out the door before she pops her head back through the doorway, “I may be home late but there’s some leftover Chinese food from last night. Or you can go pick something up after school.” She blows us a quick air kiss before finally disappearing.

“Do you think she’s investigating that animal attack last night?” Care asks, seemingly thrilled by the thought.

“She is the Sheriff, so… most likely.” I reply, still too tired for a proper conversation.

We eat breakfast in relative silence, before washing the dishes.

Just as I dried the last plate and put it away, Caroline asks :“Do you need a ride to school?”

“Yeah. My bike freaked out on me the other day.”

“Mum said that having a motorbike was a bad idea.”

“She was more concerned about cost, Care. And besides, I made it, so there’s bound to be a few hiccups.” She just rolls her eyes at me.

“Whatever, but I thought I was supposed to be the irresponsible one.” I laugh at that. Caroline has always been the one to sneak us into parties and get into all sorts of trouble. But I didn’t exactly have a pearly white record either, I get into fights at school (only when someone’s being a douche) and I did illegally assemble a blue 2010 Kawasaki Ninja 650R over the summer.

…

“Thanks for the ride, Care!” I call as I sprint for the administration office to greet the new kid. I push people out of the way, and I realised I probably looked like a maniac, but I needed to be on time!

I burst into the office with a loud proclamation; “I’m here!” I pant, resting my hands on my knees for balance.

When I finally look up, I come face to face with the new kid, and he was staring at me like he saw a ghost.

“Cassie?” He whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear.

“Yeah… How’d you know my name?” I ask, now suspicious of this mildly familiar boy. Looking at him gave me this itching feeling in my mind, as if it was trying to remember something.

“Uh, I was sent an email saying that Cassie Forbes would be showing me around.”

“Oh.” Is all I could think of as a response.

He sticks his hand out for me to shake, “Stefan Salvatore. Pleasure to meet you.”

I couldn’t help but snort at the formality, but I shake his hand anyway. “Nice to meet you too. Ready for a grand tour?” I ask with a little flourish and a fistful of glitter.

“You carry glitter in your pocket?” Stefan asks with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“Of course. How else am I suppose to be dramatic?” I say with an impish grin. He returns the smile.

“What’s first on the tour?”

“I suppose your locker, then English class, I think.”

“Lead the way.”

We talk about the teachers and various classes and extra curricular activities available at the school on the way to his locker.

I kept sneaking glances at Stefan, trying to figure out why he seemed familiar, and why he seemed so…distraught when he saw me. It was infuriating.

When we reached the lockers, I let out an extremely loud groan.

“What’s wrong?” Stefan asks, seemingly concerned.

“Tyler Lockwood.” I mumble back.

“Hey Little Forbes,” it was a nickname a lot of people were fond of, since I only just reached 5ft tall, “how was the summer?”

“Not too bad. But I’m sure you’re going to explain why yours was better.” I say with a grin.

Tyler flings his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t be like that Cassie.”

I roll my eyes, “How was your summer, Ty?”

“Wonderful, thank you for asking.” He says with a shit-eating grin. While Tyler was a pain in the ass sometimes, he was my friend.

“By the way, this is Stefan Salvatore, he’s new.”

Tyler looks Stefan up and down, “Hey.”

“Hey.” Stefan replies.

I wriggle free from Tyler’s grip and move towards Stefan’s locker, tapping it. “This is your locker, put your books and bag in, then we need to get to English.”

Stefan follows my instructions, keeping his English books tucked under one arm.

“First day of school. Let’s do this!” I throw a handful of glitter at Tyler, as I finish my proclamation. He sputters a bit, “Don’t you have a make up Bio test to get to Tyler?”

“Shit.” With that he sprints off.

“Shall we?” I ask Stefan.

“We shall.”

…

The day went smoothly after that, and finally, it was last period: biology. Ugh. While the subject was interesting at times, I hated our practical lessons when we dissected things. It made me sick.

It was also very content heavy, with homework and assignments practically everyday. I dragged my feet the whole way there.

But my spirits lifted when I saw Stefan occupying the previously empty seat next to mine.

I grin as I approach him, “Looks like we’re lab partners.”

He chuckles, “Yeah. Looks like it.”

“I hope you’re not gonna make me do all the work.” I tease.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Alright class has started. Attention up here.” The teacher, Mrs Thompson, says with a clap as she enters the room.

…

“I can’t believe she gave us an assignment on the first day back.” I groan, as Stefan and I exit the classroom.

“Yeah, it sucks, but at least it’s a simple one.”

“I guess,” I huff, “but I have no information about my ancestry.”

“Wouldn’t the town hall have information about the Forbes family? I mean, they are one of the founding families.”

“I’m actually adopted. So..” I trail off with a shrug.

“Oh. Sorry?”

I laugh at Stefan’s fumbling. “It’s fine. My real family abandoned me, so as far as I’m concerned, I am a Forbes.”

Stefan smiles slightly, “well, my house has a lot of books on pretty much everything, so we can start with my ancestors. Then later this week you can ask your mum about your parents, then maybe we can find something in the town records?” Stefan suggests.

“Alright,” I say with a grimace, I knew talking about my ‘real family’ made my mum feel bad, but this was for school, “can we start tomorrow? I’m going to the grill with some friends tonight.”

“Okay.” He says with a smile.

“Cool. Can I get your phone number? So we can arrange a time?”

Stefan recites his number, and I type it into my phone quickly. With that a wave goodbye, making my way to Caroline’s car.

…

“Thanks, Vic.” Matt says with a smile as Vickie put a plate of hot chips in the middle of the table.

“Need another refill?” Vickie asks Tyler, with a flirty smile.

“I’d love one.” Tyler replies, with an equally flirty smile.

Matt watches the exchange with suspicion. And as Vickie saunters away, I slap Tyler upside the head.

“Ow!” Tyler exclaims, rubbing the back of his head, “what was that for?”

“I can’t believe you, hooking up with your best friend’s sister, that’s low, even for you.” I chastise him.

“I’m not hooking up with Matt’s sister!”

“You’re such a dick.” Matt signs, disappointed.

We sit in uncomfortable silence for a bit, munching on some chips.

“Wanna play some pool?” Tyler asks.

Matt just rolls his eyes and gets up, heading over to Bonnie.

“Sure,” I sigh, “ I’m still mad at you though.”

“Then I’m sure kicking my ass at pool will make you feel better.” He replies with a grin.

We go over to the pool table playing a few rounds (all of which, I win) before we take a breather, chatting with Caroline.

Then Elena walks in, followed closely by Stefan. I quickly look over at Matt, and see his crestfallen expression. He stands up to greet Stefan and Elena politely though, before walking away dejectedly. I quickly follow, making sure he’s okay.

…

“So. You were born in Mystic Falls?” Caroline asks, as we sit around a table, trying to subtly interrogate Stefan.

“Mmhm. And I moved when I was still young.” Stefan replies conversationally, apparently unaware of how Bonnie and Caroline were trying to sus him out.

“Parents?” Bonnie asks.

“My parents passed away.” My heart falls, though I don’t know why I would feel that strongly about it. That itching feeling in my mind returning. I had tuned out the conversation, but Caroline’s voice snapped me out of it. But I could feel Stefan’s eyes travel to me for a brief moment.

“So Stefan. If you’re new then you don’t know about the party tomorrow.” Caroline chirps.

“It’s a school thing in the Falls.” Bonnie explains.

“I thought you said nothing was happening tomorrow.” Stefan accuses, with a small smile.

I laugh. “Alright, two things, and I list them on my fingers, “one, I said I was free tomorrow, because I’m not going -“

“oh yes you are.” Caroline interrupts.

“- two,” I continue, “the party isn’t until late, we could do some school work beforehand, IF you wanted to go.”

Stefan smirks, then turns to Elena, “are you going?”

“Of course she is.” Bonnie replies instead of Elena. Elena gives Bonnie a small smile, then ticks some hair behind her ear.

*******************************************************

History was a boring event as always, with Mr Tanner talking about the battle of Willow Creek.

“How many casualties resulted in this battle? Miss Bennett?”

“Umm, a lot. I’m not sure, but like a whole lot.” Bonnie says, trying her best.

“Cute becomes dumb in an instant Miss Bennett. Mr Donovan, would you like to take this moment to overcome your imbedded jock stereotype?”

“It’s okay, Mr Tanner, I’m cool with it.” Matt replies coolly.

“Hm, Elena? Maybe you can enlighten us about one of the towns most significant events?”

“Sorry, i-i don’t know.” Elena stammers.

“ I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break.” Tanner was such an ass!

“346 casualties, unless you’re counting the local civilians.” Stefan interrupts smoothly.

“That’s correct. Mr ?”

“Salvatore.”

“Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here in Mystic Falls?”

“Distant.”

“Except of course there were no civilian casualties in this battle-“

“Actually there were 27. Confederate soldiers fired on the church believing it to be housing weapons, but they were wrong -“ Stefan corrects.

“There were also 13 other casualties.” I blurt. Everyone looks at me. I had no idea where that information came from. “They were believed to be witches.”

…

After school I went to the Salvatore boarding house, where Stefan lives with his uncle. I knock on the door and wait politely for someone to open the door.

The door creaks open, and a man, who I assume was Stefan’s uncle. He had that same look of shock on his face that Stefan did, as he sees me.

“Cassie?” He asks disbelievingly.

“Yeah…” it was starting to freak me out, how this family somehow knew me, and that itching feeling in my mind was starting to piss me off.

Before I could say anything else, Stefan appears behind his uncle. “Hey, I’m about to go to the party, wanna come?”

I release a breath, “nah. I just came here to see if you had any books that I can read, to start us off on our reports for bio.”

Stefan gestures for me to enter the house, his uncle now composed. “I thought you didn’t want to do all the work.” Stefan teases.

I roll my eyes, “I’m not going to do all the work, I just thought that if you’re gonna be slacking off tonight, I might as well start us off.” I say with a grin.

He smiles back, we enter what looks like a mini library, filled with books, Stefan walks over to one of the shelves and pulls a few books off.

“These books are about the Salvatore family, but please don’t read them all, come over tomorrow and I’ll help you out.”

“Okay,” I say with a smile, “but I demand donuts, to help with brain productivity.”

Stefan laughs “Deal.”

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A/n: I hope u all enjoyed this chapter, and I’m sorry it took so long😊

[literaphobe]

hello. it is walking up the walls like a spider anon. chapter 5 made me feel like [car crash noises] [cartoon spring sound effect] [train rushes by] /pos. the PARALLELS!!!!!!! ladybug and chat noir being possessive but in different ways...... im losing my mind. the inner conflict you crafted for chat noir is literally so good. like. he wants to sleep with her so bad. but he knows that if he does he'll be even more infatuated with her. and he is so afraid that it'll be a one time thing that he keeps putting it off. "His dreams are the only place where they've ever been in love" ? WRECKED ME. my eyes bulged out of my head like a cartoon character and i heard the BONK sound effect so vividly i may as well have heard it in real life.

like god. chat noir thinks that this is the only way that he'll ever be able to be that close to ladybug and KNOWS that it will kill him because he's a romantic and wants to share everything with her but he STILL goes along with it because (see above reason).

as always. the dialogue and descriptions are banger. you have such a knack for fast-paced, witty, dynamic dialogue that makes reading such an engaging experience. the flow is so great that sometimes i'll be reading, then look at my scroll bar in despair (😦) because i realize i'm nearing the end of the chapter. i'm spinning tvl ladybug and chat noir so fast in my head that i think i can become a new source of clean renewable energy. the way that ladybug is quick to figure out plans and chat noir is quick to figure out ladybug. like they both try so desperately to fix things but in different ways.

literaphobe i am ur number one fan thank u for posting this fic 🫶

OH SPIDER ANON… im afraid IM your number one fan actually…

tvl chat noir’s inner conflict seems very confusing and convoluted to ladybug but it’s very simple really. he responds best and loses his inhibitions most easily WHEN she shows signs of yearning or potential feelings for him. aka when she gets jealous, when she reveals her desire to sleep with him ISNT reckless/she’s been thinking of it for a while/wanting it all for a while Blah Blah Blah and similarly he pulls away when he’s reminded of the fleeting, one-off nature of their arrangement, or when he’s aware that other romantic prospects exist in tvl ladybug’s life……… and he’ll keep doing this until he gets some form of confirmation or they come to an agreement about a more Indefinite arrangement

at the end of the day tho. he’s still Very weak for her. so if push comes to shove he could very easily Give In to her whims at the right moment, wrong time, etc etc etc

GIVES YOU SUCH A TIGHT HUG ANON… you make writing this fic so worth it :) thank you for your lovely remarks i reread and cherish them dearly -> as always to anyone reading this ch5 of tvl is out now!! im replying to my ch4 comments soon (SORRY) and I can’t wait to see what u all have to say :D

[lailosh]

HOLIWISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Hope ur taking care and life's isnt to heavy on ya

So i was wondering...........u like....if u don't sharing with us

Bit of oc lore👀?

Specialy that story of urs where the gal gets reicarnated and falls in love with the prince, not sure if it has a title yet skksksk

Wanna learn more about it <3333

Hope u have a good one 💕

You want to know about...  my oc lore? Oh boy, never had anyone ask about them before ngl I'm a little nervous now (also, I'm doing great thanks for asking 💕)

Okay, alright! Let's start with some little facts about the two main characters shall we? 

Iola (it's an "i" btw), our beautiful female lead, was once your average 19 yo girl who worked at a small bakery on the outskirts of the city to support herself back when she was still on earth. She was an orphan, had a few good friends, and absolutely loved reading romance in her free time! 

One of her favorite romance novels/ webcomic actually was one about a poor noble lady who her mother insisted that she goes to the royal hall to have some fun since she never went before and and also because it was the crown prince's birthday! a big event really. And after the prince saw her at the ball, he fell in love with her and now is doing everything to be with her. A cliche story I know but Iola kept reading it because, well, the art style nice! and um... She may or may not had little crush on one of the supporting characters (that would be our guy Leonhard!).

She's not sure how it started... I mean he was handsome yes, but so was everybody else really. He also didn't have that big of a role in the story aside from protection the young lady like he prince has ordered him, but she thought it was cute how attentive and caring he was when taking care of her.

Fast-forward after a few more chapters, Iola was devastated to find out that her favorite character got killed trying protect the prince and his soon-to-be bride. So much so that she didn't notice when she accidentally turned on the kitchen stove which led to her dying in her sleep due the the leaking gas.

... Or did she? Because next thing she knows she's waking up in a completely different place surrounded by all these strange people who were sobbing and cheering about how happy they were to have her back after she's been in a coma so long.

Confused (rightfully so), she tries to ask them who are they and what's going on. But her current body is so week that she can't move a muscle or speak. Fortunately, and after some time, she slowly regained her health as well the memories of the body that she now possess.

At first, she didn't realize that she got transferred into the novel that she was reading. So she spent most of her time trying to get used her new home and the fact that she has someone to call family now (it felt so weird to her to call a strange man 'father' the first couple of times, but she got used to it... eventually).

She actually realized she was inside the novel after her father introduced her to the captain of the royal knights one day when they went out to see the horses (apparently, and her new dad was a very important nobleman who owns most of the animal farms and stables in the country).

After realizing that,  she made it her main mission to get closer to him but to also try and prevent him from dying like he did in the original novel.

Now for Leonhard! As I previously mentioned he is the captain of the royal knights, he's 23 years old, and even though he's a person of a higher rank, most people avoid interacting with him because they find him to be intimidating and scary looking because of his scars. That's why he doesn't have any real friends or any other kind of relationship with anyone (aside from the queen and the crown prince)

He used to have a family before, but his poor mother died of the plague when he was little and his father sold him to a slave master for like 3 silver coins because he didn't want to take care of him anymore.

After that Leonhard was forced to become an underground ring fighter at a very young age to survive, that went on for almost 7 years until the queen and her knights came to arrest the slave master and everyone that was involved in that incident. Recognizing his strength (and feeling sorry for the pitiful boy), the queen took him in under her care and encouraged him to become a knight to work for her.

Feeling forever in debit for the queen, he accepted her offer and did just that. training day after day none stop until he became an official knight at 15, as well as the youngest royal captain the country has ever seen at 18, and also receiving the title of fearless hero at 22 after winning a war in only 3 years.

So you could imagine his surprise and confusion when the famous ill daughter of a well known noble man suddenly appears in his life demanding to be his friend, because why would she want that? He can't understand her reasoning at all. Not to mention all the bizarre things that she does and say all the time, and yet... He can't help but feel drawn to everything about her...

Hcjskxjslkk okay I should stop now or else I'll never shut up about them hehe

But yeah! This is roughly the lore of these two! I hope that it was a little interesting and that I didn't bore you too much talking about them XD oh also! The original title for my story was going to be "let me love him!" But idk I might change it later on.

@miraclecherryblossomsblog

[winterviolet1]

Vampire Oneus x Male reader

Fluff

Warning: None

Chapter 2: Friendly Neighbor dinner

Three days later

It's been three day since I have moved into my new place. I have already met my first neighbor Seoho as he was the first to greet and welcome me on my first day here. I was surprised at first since my last neighbors haven't greet my family and I when we moved to our old house.

Since it was in the late morning. I was getting ready for the day as I had my morning coffee. Since I haven't been fully dressed yet, I was in my sleeping short and was shirtless cause I was comfortable like this. So as I started to drink my coffee, I heard someone knock on my door. "I wonder if it's Seoho?" Taking my coffee cup with me, I went over to my front door and open it see who it was. It wasn't Seoho but another gentleman that look a bit younger then him:

"O-Oh *Slightly blushes* U-Um I'm Keonhee, I'm friends with Seoho" Keonhee said as he was a bit red. "A friend with Seoho huh, are you one of his roommates that he mentioned?" Keonhee looked a little surprise before nodding his head. "Ah my apologies, I'm Y/n. I'm your guys new neighbor next door" I said while introducing myself since I already know Keonhee name now. "What brings you here if I may ask?" I was curious on what brought Keonhee here as I took a drink of my coffee. I let him in my place as he walks in before turning to me as I close the door.

"Well Seoho and the others wonder if you would like to come over for a friendly neighbor dinner at our place" Keonhee spoke as I place my mug on the coffee table. Seoho mentioned about a neighborly dinner if I was settled in enough. "A neighborly dinner huh" I thought about it as Keonhee nodded his head. "Seoho said that you don't have to if your not fully settled in since you only been here for a few days now" It was nice to know that I wasn't being forced to an event. I haven't been around a lot of people or gotten a chance to get to know others so why not.

Keonhee POV:

"Let say if I do come over, what time would you like for me to show up?" Y/n said as he gave me his full attention. I do admit the Y/n is a charming and interesting fella. But I try not to pay attention to his abs or scars that are visible to see. "I can text Seoho to ask if you want, I honestly don't know myself yet" I said as I looked around a bit of Y/n living room. "You do what you want, there no need to rush for anytime since it only noon now" Y/n said as he picked up his coffee cup and went to the kitchen to go rinse his cup.

I did pulled my phone out and sent Seoho a text. It wasn't long for him to text back a time. "Seoho said that it's up to you on the time" I let Y/n know what Seoho said as Y/n walked out of the kitchen while drying his hand. "Well, how does 7:30 sound?" I nodded my head as I sent Seoho the time Y/n said. Seoho then sent me a text saying it was a good time to get ready.

Y/n POV:

"Seoho said alright and he and the others can't wait to have you over" Keonhee said as he puts his phone away into his pocket. I nodded my head while I randomly stretch a bit. I saw Keonhee face turn red as he looked the other away all shy. I chuckled softly before I remember something. "Mind waiting here for a moment" Keonhee looked at me curious while he nodded his head.

I went to the kitchen and grabbed a bag I bought to thank the guys for the welcome gift. Heading back over to Keonhee. I handed Keonhee the bag as he tilt his head confused while taking the bag from my hand. "What's this?" Keonhee ask as he looked inside then looked back at me. "It's my thank you gift for you and your friends for the welcome gift you guys gave me" I said with a soft small smile as Keonhee looked surprised before giving me a gentle smile.

"It's no problem Y/n"

----------

7:30 PM

As time passes and it was now 7:30 PM. I took a breath and try to relax as I head over to Seoho and his friends place. This was the first time in a while that I was invited over to another person place. Now standing outside of the guys place. I rung the doorbell and waited to for someone to answer the door.

"I hope the others are alright for me being here" I said to myself as I waited. Not before long, I saw someone coming to the door. As they open it. I saw a blonde hair short guy about my age answering the door:

"You must be Y/n right?" The blonde boy ask and I nodded my head. "It's nice to meet you finally, I'm Yeo Hwanwoong" Hwanwoong smiled softly as he bowed. I also bowed respectful before he let me in and guide me around the place. When he showed him the dining room that was connected to their living. I saw Keonhee was talking to a guy with slight long hair while Seoho was cooking with a guy that looked about a year or two younger the Hwanwoong.

"Guys, Y/n is here!" Hwanwoong said loud for everyone to hear. I tense a little when all the guys turn to look at me. Keonhee smiled as he and his friend came over to greet me. "Welcome Y/n, we hope this isn't to uncomfortable for ya is it?" Keonhee said as he wanted to make sure that I was alright with all of this. "It's all good Keonhee, I'm still getting use to being around new people" I reassure him that it was alright. I turn my attention to his friend next to him:

"Oh yeah, this is our good friend GunHak. Don't mind him if he is a little quiet, he's a bit shy to new people" Keonhee said as GunHak shyly advert his eyes to a different direction. "Just call me Leedo" GunHak said softly as I was a little surprise by how deep tone his voice was. "It's nice to meet you Leedo" I bowed as he quickly did the same before shyly looking away again. Hwanwoong and Keonhee chuckled softly as Seoho came over and smiled softly. "Welcome Y/n, food is ready so why don't we all go have a eat while DongJu and I bring the food over" I nodded my head as the others followed along an we all went to take a seat at the dinning table.

As Seoho and 'DongJu' brought over platers of food onto the table. I looked around for a moment to see how nice and clean their place is. "If you like Y/n, we can give you a house tour after dinner if you like?" Hwanwoong offered as Seoho set the last plate down onto the table. "That's alright, I shouldn't over stay my welcome since you guys did invite me over for dinner" I didn't want to over stay myself after they were kind enough to invite me over. "Your not over staying your welcome Y/n, we invited you over cause we want to get to know you and have a friendly chat" Seoho said as he and DongJu take their seat.

"Now let's start eating before the food get cold"

[daincrediblegg]

WIP Game

Tagged by @brotherdusk (thank u dear)

The Rules are these:

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can’t share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

MY WIPS:

DIALOGUE BANG BANG (the infamous now 52 page document containing all the dialogue scenes from one warm line)

Chapter 1: Sun Dogs

Tooth and Claw

Paranorma

Untitled Document (that contains francis/lady terror/ jfj throuple stuff that I started last week that may be spoilers oops)

And Now, some Jop and Lady Terror from Dialogue Bang Bang that I wrote exactly a week ago (taking place in the interim between “First Shot’s a Winner Lads” and “A Mercy”):

“Jopson.” “Miss Sinclair, hello.” “Feels like I hardly see you these days.” “Yes, it is hard to get away.” “If… if I may ask…” “How is he?” “He is…” “Please, don’t spare my sensitivities. I want to know.” “He’s in the thick of it now.” “He’s emptying his stomach more often than he’s able to fill it. And sleeps fitfully whenever he calms long enough to do so. His mood swings. Hour to hour it seems. And the tremors…” “I can’t say it’s a good way, Miss.” “You don’t look much in a good way yourself.” “Yeah… but I’d rather lose a little sleep myself to make sure the Captain is well again.” “Jopson, you don’t have to do it all alone, you know.” “Oh Miss Sinclair, you really shouldn’t-” “Jopson. Bless your heart but you need to care for yourself as well.” “Besides I… I want to see him.” “Please, Thomas.” “You’re very kind, Miss Sinclair.”  “But he gave express orders to keep the men out.” “Well, technically you won’t be disobeying orders. I am a woman, after all.” “You do have such a clever ear for the wording of things, Miss Sinclair.” “Here. Bring him this.” “And only sips of water, if he asks. Doctor MacDonald says it may be the only way he’ll be able to keep it down.” “I think can manage that.” “Please, get some rest, Jopson. You’ve earned it well enough.” “Only because I know he’s in good hands, Miss Sinclair.” “Good night.” “Sleep well.”

And in return... I tag (with no pressure attached as ever)...  @prismatica-the-strange @ajokeformur-ray @kittensmctavish and frankly anyone else who would like to participate (but also @trantors knows I’m staring a hole into her soul girl you must show the world some of your wips or I’m going to explode)

[sunshine-overload]

[BSTS] Main Story S4CH4 ‘The One Without’ - Part 2

Part 1

Chapter 3

(cw: stuff gets kinda heavy from here on 🥲 warnings specifically for hospitals and emergency surgery)

-backstage-

saki: Great work, Lico-san, Heath-san. That was a really fun show!

lico: Thanks for the support, Kotori-chan~

heath: Thank you.

lico: I'm covered in sweat so I'm gonna go take a shower. What about you, Heath?

heath: I'll go after taking a little break.

lico: Ok. See you later then.

-lico leaves-

saki: Are you feeling ok, Heath-san?

heath: Yeah. I'm just... a bit tired. I guess I'll go and take a seat and rest. Would you come with me?

saki: Yes, of course.

-break room-

heath: I've calmed down now.

saki: You worked hard again today, Heath-san.

heath: Thanks. Say, was my singing good?

saki: Yes! It had a real sense of speed to it, it was wonderful. Everyone else's performances really added to it too.

heath: That so? You see, I don't possess a certain ability. The ability of being ‘healthy’. When you lack something, you have to make up for it through something else. Like with hard work, or time.

saki: Heath-san...

heath: I'm sure that my life will be shorter than that of a healthy person’s. That's why, whilst I'm still here, I want to create something that no one else can match up to. That is what I'm on the stage for.

saki: Your songs and shows always portray new worlds each time. That's why one day you'll be able to create something that you're satisfied with, Heath-san. I'm sure of it.

heath: Yeah, for sure. Yawn... I'm sleepy. I'm done for the day. It's been a while since I've felt this tired, maybe it's because I feel at ease having you beside me. Could I close my eyes for a moment?

saki: Sure. Sleep well, Heath-san.

-time pass, lico walks up in his casual clothes-

lico: Sorry for the wait~ Wait, hm? Is he asleep?

saki: Yes, he said he was going to take a short nap. He only fell asleep a little while ago.

lico: Hm. Oi, Heath, wake up. At least wipe the sweat off your body first, it's not good for you to sleep like that.

heath: .......

lico: Just how deep of a sleep is he in? Oi, wake up already. Oi. C'mon, Heath...?

-lico steps over to check him-

saki: U-um, is something the matter, Lico-san?

lico: Stay calm ok, Kotori-chan? I need you to keep calling out to Heath. I'll go and get Kei to call a car!

saki: Ok! I understand!

-saki moves closer to heath-

saki: Heath-san! Heath-san! Please hang in there! Heath-san!

—end

-

Chapter 3 extra

-hospital reception area-

takami: How is he?

kei: He's in a critical condition. His symptoms are those of acute respiratory failure.

lico: Respiratory... What? So you mean he's in a really bad way then?

kei: His chances of surviving are fifty fifty.

lico: What...? Are you being serious right now?

takami: Saki-san said that Heath was sleeping, yes? In the worst case scenario, this may even cause damage to his brain.

lico: ...No way.

kei: For now, all we can do is have faith in the doctor's abilities. There is nothing more that we can do for him right now. Takami, thank you for making arrangements so promptly.

takami: I simply did as I was told to.

kei: Lico, pass this information on to your team members. If I receive any news I shall contact you. That is all for now.

lico: Say... Aren't you acting pretty damn distant this time around? Last time Heath collapsed you took care of him to the point it was unlike you.

kei: ...…. (exhales)

kei: This is my own problem. It is nothing that you need to concern yourself with. Rather, you should be thinking about your own team right now. The team that Heath staked his life on creating, the place where he belongs.

It was you along with him and Mizuki that started it, was it not? Will you continue on, or will you let it all come to an end? In any case, you have a lot that you must now consider.

lico: ......

kei: The show must go on. Withdrawing from the versus is also an option you can think about.

-kei leaves-

takami: Lico, thank you for bringing him here. This isn't something that Mizuki will be able to decide by himself, so do your best as their number 2.

-takami leaves-

lico: Godammit... Just what the hell am I supposed to do in a situation like this?

—end

-

Chapter 3 SideA

-break room-

saki: Mizuki-san... Are you alright?

mizuki: ......

mizuki: Ah. What the heck, it's just you. What is it?

saki: Oh, it's nothing, I was just wondering if you're alright.

mizuki: Of course I’m fine.

saki: Um, Heath-san is...

mizuki: ...I know. He really was overdoing it after all. But, this sorta thing happened last time too and he was fine, so it'll be fine again.

saki: Yeah, I hope you're right...

mizuki: Of course I am. You worry too much.

saki: Sorry...

mizuki: Once he returns I've gotta give him a good whack. Want me to give him a punch for you too? Or are you gonna slap him yourself?

saki: Please don't punch him. I'm fine, there's no need to do that.

mizuki: You sure? Then I guess I'll let him off the hook.

saki: Yes.

mizuki: .......

mizuki: I'm going for a walk outside. Just leave me alone for a bit.

saki: Ok... Take care.

mizuki: Yeah.

-mizuki leaves-

—end

-

Chapter 3 SideA extra 

-starless lobby-

maica: Rindou.

rindou: Hm? What is it?

maica: Is it true that Heath was taken to the hospital?

rindou: Oh, yes... It's true.

maica: He's collapsed on stage once before too, hasn't he? B still has shows to perform, what are they going to do?

rindou: I don't know... Only Team C has shows today. So I think a solution will be decided tomorrow. Maica, don't talk about Heath's situation where we can be overheard. If Team B keeps performing it will become known to the guests eventually but I wouldn't want to cause them any unnecessary worry by spreading gossip.

maica: You're right, it would be bad if they overheard. I'll be more careful. I wonder what's going to happen.

rindou: I don't know either...It's a decision that will require all of the team leader's input as well as Kei's. However, no matter what shape it takes, I think that the shows will go on.

maica: Yeah. Team C are still here too after all. As for what Heath will do from now on, we won't know until he returns and we can talk to him... Speaking of, how has your sister been recently?

rindou: She's been well, her condition is stable.

maica: I see, that's good. Team P won't be too busy for a while so you should take the opportunity to visit her. I'll handle the team related stuff.

rindou: Yes, thank you.

—end

-

Chapter 3 SideB

-rehearsal room-

hari: Have you heard? Heath was taken to hospital.

zakuro: Indeed, so I've heard. His condition is quite a serious one as well.

hari: Are we going to continue the versus in these circumstances?

mokuren: Of course.

hari: Firstly, Team B won't be able to perform, right? So the problem of whether it will continue lies there.

mokuren: Then go and tell Team B to drop out of the versus.

hari: That's...

zakuro: Impossible, yes? Our opponents are a pack of wild dogs, even if one is missing it's inevitable that the other four will still attack.

hari: ...Are you saying they'll perform with only four members?

zakuro: Who knows? This is Team B we're talking about, it's not outside the realm of possibility for them.

hari: It's not a formation that will work for a Starless show. Their singer is the one that's missing after all.

mokuren: Those guys haven't cared from the beginning what a 'Starless' show should consist of. They just want a place where they can run wild together, it doesn't particularly have to be here. That's the kind of group that they are.

hari: .......

mokuren: Mizuki's fists are still raised. Until the other side surrenders I have no intention of stopping this versus.

hari: So you'd like to continue this as an endurance contest until the winner is decided?

mokuren: Endurance contest? You've misunderstood. I've already won against them.

hari: Huh?

mokuren: Originally Team B were supposed to have a solo performance. But that's not the current situation is it? Failing to address their glaring issue, they accepted the versus and had their amount of shows cut in half. Team B's opportunity to express themselves was stolen by us. Is that not the same as winning?

hari: So you're saying you don't care about the results of the versus?

mokuren: That's a different story. The more you fight the more you'll win. That's all there is to it.

hari: Your goal is to simply stand on the stage and that has already been achieved. I see, I understand now.

mokuren: Exactly. However, that doesn't mean there isn't anything I'm unsure about...

zakuro: Oh dear, as expected of our leader. Arranging your thoughts in such a way.

mokuren: Hmph... Let's up the ante, once everything is ready we will make the final adjustments.

—end

-

Chapter 3 SideB extra

-behind starless-

kokuyou: So you were out here.

akira: Hm? What's up?

mokuren: Heath was taken to the hospital.

akira: Again? And so, is he ok?

kokuyou: I don't know the details but it sounds like it's pretty serious this time.

akira: That so? He's so stubborn after all. What's going to happen to their shows?

kokuyou: They'll probably continue as is. Mokuren isn't going to go easy on them, not until B admits their defeat.

akira: Ah, yeah that sounds like them alright. And it's not like Mizuki is going to back down either, so the versus will continue.

kokuyou: Exactly... So, what about you?

akira: Me? All of this has nothing to do with me, no? Heath is Heath and I'm me. Besides, this whole show was a question of whether this would happen sooner or later, wasn't it?

kokuyou: Maybe.

akira: Well, once things have settled I guess I'll go and check up on him.

kokuyou: ......(smoking)

—end

-

Chapter 4

-starless office-

haseyama: And so, how is Heath?

kei: He has yet to regain consciousness.

haseyama: Right. So he won't be returning any time soon then?

mizuki: ....….

haseyama: Oi, Mizuki. Just give it up, it's your loss.

mizuki: As if!! B hasn't lost yet!

-mizuki tries to punch haseyama but kokuyou stops him-

kokuyou: Chill out, Mizuki. It's the truth, without Heath you can't perform. You can't decide this by yourself, go back to your team and discuss it with them.

mizuki: Tch... Fine.

-time pass, restaurant (not starless)-

kongou: Without Heath it's impossible for us to perform right?

ran: If it was just the song that we needed then we have the recording but...

mizuki: That's it! Let's do that.

lico: Sure, but then what are we going to do about missing a person?

mizuki: What do you mean?

lico: Are you stupid? A show is performed with five people. We need someone to fill in.

kongou: Hmm, how about asking Gui to help us?

lico: You're saying he can learn Heath's part this quickly?

mizuki: No. Nobody can stand in Heath's spot but Heath. Don't fill it with anyone else.

lico: Excuse me?

ran: Oi Mizuki, now isn't the time to keep being unreasonable. I hate to say it but you're to blame for Heath gettin' up on stage this time. So quit obsessin' over the details.

mizuki: Heath's spot won't be filled by anyone else. Even without Heath we'll win.

lico: Have you lost it? Are you saying we'll perform as four? Are you serious?

kongou: As four...

ran: ....... (serious)

ran: Well, fine, we can do that this time. If that's what our leader has decided it can't be helped. Let's perform as four. However, just remember this, Mizuki. Your decisions are decidin’ whether we live or die. That's the responsibility that you’re carryin’ on ya back. Never forget that.

ran: (suddenly smiling again) Welp, I said what I wanted to say, I'll be headin’ home now. Cya tomorrow~

-ran leaves-

kongou: See you.

mizuki: ...Godammit.

—end

-

Chapter 4 extra

-izakaya-

ginsei: Sorry I'm late.

menou: No worries. We just started ordering without you.

nekome: Yo~

ginsei: Are the other two not coming?

maica: Rindou messaged me saying he'd be late. Sinju is with him.

ginsei: Oh, are they still at Starless? I didn't realise.

menou: No point doing a cheers now. Here's your beer Ginsei.

ginsei: Thanks. (drinks) Phew... Today was another tiring day.

nekome: Pfft hahah, that's your opening after having some beer? How come you're completely exhausted when we don't even have a show right now? Ah, is it cause you're getting old?

ginsei: Quit teasing me. I've had to take the shifts that Mizuki's been boycotting.

maica: What, why you?

ginsei: I got asked by Unei-kun and couldn't find a way to refuse.

nekome: It's cause you look like a pushover. You just have that sorta face.

ginsei: My face has nothing to do with this.  And while I do have sympathy for Mizuki I just wish he'd notify me in advance.

nekome: So Mizuki's boycotting work huh~ I see, I see.

menou: How nostalgic. He used to run away all the time because he hates Rindou, didn't he?

maica: Had he always been like that from the start?

menou: As far as I know, yeah. Haru-san had a knack for incorporating it into P's shows.

nekome: Ah~ That sounds like her~

ginsei: There's no way Koharu-sama would've done that. She looked after Mizuki more than anyone.

menou: Uwah, there it is.

nekome: Whenever I hear Ginsei talk like this it feels like I'm back at the old Starless~

ginsei: ...These drunks.

maica: Before they left today Team B looked like they were at a loss... What do you think Mizuki will do?

ginsei: Who knows. Mizuki is a team leader, so I'm sure he'll work something out on his own. He's different from the days where he would just run away from everything.

—end

-

Chapter 4 SideA

-rehearsal room-

mizuki: Oi, cut the music.

kongou: Got it.

mizuki: Guys, we can't perform like this, where's the energy? Lico, Kongou, you gotta be more like 'GYAA' or it won't have any impact.

lico: (heavy breathing) ...Listen. It seems like you're too dumb to understand this so I'll put it bluntly. It's impossible for four people to keep up with something that was meant for five. Our own parts aside, needing to fill in for Heath's is unmanageable.

kongou: We're just doing what we can... Say, Mizuki. I know it's a bit late but couldn't we still try and look for a substitute?

mizuki: No way. Even if we got someone they wouldn't be able to match up with us. No one but us can do this.

kongou: Hm...

lico: Then why don't you cover for Heath's part yourself. You’re the leader and it was your decision. Surely you can do it and weren't just bluffing.

mizuki: You bastard...

-ran breaks them up-

ran: Ok ok, stop~! Lico, I get what ya sayin' but watch the wordin' yeah?

lico: ...Tch.

ran: You too Mizuki, you need to realise that what ya sayin' is unrealistic.

mizuki: I already—

ran: 'Know that' is what ya wanna say right? Mizuki, ya don't get it at all. Ya need to properly think about a feasible way for us to perform this show as four people. This is what ya proposed and what ya wanted, isn't it?

mizuki: Tch... I'm gonna go wash my face.

ran: Sure.

-mizuki leaves-

kongou: Thanks Ran, I thought that was going to turn into a fight.

ran: No problem~ But ya really ain't very useful when it matters huh, Kongou.

kongou: Sorry about that…

—end

-

Chapter 4 SideA extra

-outside shrine, day time-

mizuki: ......

gui: Mizuki.

mizuki: What? Oh it's you, Gui.

gui: Here.

mizuki: Hm? What's this?

-opens bag-

mizuki: Takoyaki! But why? Are you giving these to me?

gui: Yeah.

mizuki: For reals? Thanks! Holy crap, it's the 16 pack! C'mon eat some with me.

gui: Ok.

-gui sits with mizuki-

mizuki: (eating noises) Takoyaki tastes swo gwood!

gui: (also eating) ...Yeah.

mizuki: How come you brought these to me?

gui: Kongou told me to bring you something to eat if I saw you. You didn't eat your staff meal today.

mizuki: ...You guys don't need to worry about something like that. You're overblowing it, I just wanted to step outside.

gui: .......

mizuki: Gui, these are from the usual takoyaki joint right?

gui: Yeah.

mizuki: How come you bought nothing but takoyaki? They have sets with karaage too don't they?

gui: Yes.

mizuki: Why didn't you get that one? I wanna eat it.

gui: Ok.

—end

-

Chapter 4 SideB

-break room-

hari: Things have turned out how you predicted, Zakuro.

zakuro: Hm? Predicting the future is not my forte, whatever could you be talking about?

hari: Team B will be performing as a group of four.

zakuro: Oh I see, I do recall saying that.

kasumi: It's a show that was made for five, so it's going to be tough on them~

hari: I know right. I wonder why they didn't try to find a substitute.

kasumi: I think it's probably due to Mizuki's personality. He wouldn't want to find a substitute.

zakuro: How admirable. Does he mean to say that no one on this earth could be a replacement for Heath?

hari: Admirable, you say? Hm, I suppose. However, what about when you look at it as a leader's decision? If Mokuren were to be in the same situation, do you think they'd decide for us to stand on stage as four?

kasumi: I don't think so. Mokuren would find a substitute for any position.

hari: Right? Most probably of all the current team leaders, Mizuki is the only one who wouldn't find a replacement.

zakuro: Hm. So basically you think that Mizuki is a fool?

hari: Yes. I think that he is foolish. However, I feel like this is also part of Team B's appeal in some way or another.

zakuro: Oh? How would you describe their appeal then?

hari: Their bonds, I suppose. They have a strong sense of unity and don't change.

kasumi: Whereas for Team K or Team P, the members switching out doesn't cause any issues.

hari: I think the team leader's disposition also plays a large part in it. However, this time Heath's absence has exposed Team B's weak point. I wonder how they will compensate for this issue from now on.

zakuro: As expected of you Hari, worrying about our rivals future. We must follow your noble example.

hari: Ah, no, I wasn't trying to say I was worried about them...

zakuro: However our opponents are mad dogs, if you let your guard down they'll be at your throat in an instant. Team B are a wounded beast that's missing part of itself. Let us proceed without getting too careless.

—end

-

Chapter 4 SideB extra

-starless hallway-

saki: Hello, Qu-san.

qu: Oh, hello. And to you too, Yakou.

yakou: Hey, did your rehearsal finish?

qu: Yeah, there weren't any issues.

yakou: That's good. Cause I mean, Team B are trying and failing to make it work with four people, so I can't help but think that I'm glad C also has a show—

qu: Yakou.

yakou: Ah, sorry. She was there when Heath collapsed right? My bad, I should've been more considerate.

saki: No it's fine... I think the ones that are the most worried are Team B themselves.

yakou: The versus is continuing then huh...

qu: Seems like it, that's what Team B want.  So we need to fight back. I don't like it but if we hesitate then the guests will realise something is up. Not to mention Mokuren is the kind of person who won't back down until a conclusion is reached.

yakou: Mokuren huh... They seem like the type that wouldn't compromise when it comes to a competition.

qu: There's that but it seems Mokuren also has his own opinions towards Team B, or more specifically towards Mizuki.

saki: Huh? Mokuren-san does?

qu: I wouldn't go as far as to say he regards Mizuki as an enemy, but lately he seems to be quite fixated on him.

yakou: You mean like, as rivals?

qu: No, nothing friendly like that. Their beliefs towards the stage are just fundamentally different. They can't see eye to eye.

yakou: Mm... I kind of get what you mean.

qu: In Team B's case, they all move forward with the same feelings, the place they arrive at together would be called their goal. Team C is different. We all individually find a way to move towards the goal that's decided by our leader.

saki: When you put it that why, your teams really are completely different.

yakou: Yeah, it's like your directions were different from the very start.

qu: That's why I don't think it's possible for those two to become rivals.

yakou: I see. Thanks, sorry for asking about strange things right before your show.

qu: It's fine. I should get going, I hope you enjoy the show.

saki: Yes, please do your best.

yakou: We should get going too, I'll take you to your seat.

—end

To Part 3

[maiverie]

( ୨୧ ) ── ꒰ update ! ꒱

hi hi everyone !! just wanted to share a super quick update <3 i know this account hasn't been properly active in a month so i firstly wanted to apologise for the inactivity and also keep u all in the loop abt what i have planned in the future :>

( note : it's kinda late here so i'll answer asks tmr :0 <3 )

ㅤㅤ↳ the reason for my inactivity is quite multifactorial but boils down to a lack of motivation to write / be on tumblr + many commitments irl !! ive been working + studying a lot, which has kept me busy :(

ㅤㅤ↳ i don't have plans to deactivate this acc or anything so don't be concerned about that!! not that anyone would even care saslkddjsj just wanna put that out there!! i still very much have a passion for writing, though admittedly my motivation has taken a bit of a hit. nothing really to do with you guys / tumblr,,, i think i just have a tendency to overthink things and sometimes writing can be stressful when ur brain literally mf hates itself :’>

ㅤㅤ↳ a few months ago i reached a new milestone (4 digits!!! that is literally so effing slay IM CRYING) but didn't get the chance to say anything soooo THANK U ALL SOOO MUCHHHH AAAA im seriously in awe at that number because tbh i really don't feel like i've achieved much w this acc T_T sometimes im super embarrassed that my masterlist is so puny and i've only got the one completed fic,, but reaching such a cool milestone is more than enough for me to be utterly grateful. in saying that, i'm so so so sorry abt how horrible my updating schedule is :’’> i'll definitely try to work on it and be more consistent :( in the meantime, if anyone has any idea on like milestone ideas then pls pls pls lmk *-* <333

ㅤㅤ↳ anyways, if you're wondering what my plans are next, the first thing i want to do is update & finally complete triage !!! i have about 2-3k written so far but the final chapter will probably reach 7k+ (kms) :’’> i have sm wips i want to publish and start, but i probably won't do anything about them until my other ongoing fics (misconduct and doublespeak) are on a somewhat steady trajectory to getting finished (i.e. i have a good understanding of where they're headed).

ㅤㅤ↳ to any moots that are reading this (but tbh blr literally looks so dead that i wouldn't even be surprised if nobody sees / reads this HAHAHS), i will defs catch up on all ur updates <33 i really wanna be active again on this acc so ill probably be reaching out sometime soon to say hi :’>

ㅤㅤ↳ lastly, i noticed some people are recommending my fics and asldk;fjl;kjew im literally crying like it genuinely makes me so happy that people are even reading my shit like?? hello?? yall got some questionable ass taste but tysm for enjoying my fics :< i gen love yall sm u !! don't !! even !! know !! sooo yeah thank you so much for all the likes, comments, reblogs, recommendations, or any other sliver of interaction bc yall are the best and i love writing and i love enhypen and i love u all MWAH MWAH MWAH !! anyway i'm probably gna sleep now but tysm for reading this long ass post aksjjadjss ill answer asks tmr!!!

ㅤㅤ— lots and lots of luv from mai <333

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[myherowritings]

PART 3. ACCIDENTAL SUGAR DADDY?

SUMMARY. Todoroki Shouto was a wealthy, young CEO who inherited his father’s enterprise. You were a barista at a local cafe who wouldn’t mind some extra cash. One day, Shouto came in during an early morning shift and tipped you such a large sum of money, you were certain it had to have been an accident. To your surprise and complete pleasure: It was not.

PAIRING. ceo!todoroki shouto x barista!reader

WORD COUNT. 2.4k

GENRE. ceo/barista au, fluff, eventual smut

WARNINGS. none in this chapter

A/N. happy new year y’all! :3 i hope you have a good 2021 and here is some flirty ceo!shouto for u to enjoy as we enter the new year hehe ;) thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy! xx sof

SERIES MASTERLIST

© myherowritings — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, copying, or translating of any kind is not allowed. do not read my writing as asmr. do not plagiarize.

“I heard you dropped by this weekend,” you said as a greeting, a playful smile on your lips. “Looking for me?”

If the tips of his ears didn’t tinge pink, you would have guessed Shouto was completely unaffected by your words. 

“Mn.” He drew his attention away from your gaze and pointedly adjusted his cufflinks. “Good morning to you too.” 

You laughed, accepting you wouldn’t get anything out of your attempt at teasing. “Morning, Shouto. How was your weekend?” 

The cafe was quite busy this hour, but Miyazaki took over the other register to alleviate the stress (though, what she really said was so you and pretty boy—who happened to be rich rich—could talk). Whatever the reason, you were glad for a small break whenever you could get it.

“You could say it was busy,” he replied, sounding a bit tired. For the first time since you met him, you actually noticed how exhausted he looked. You wanted to put cucumbers on his eyes and lay his head down on your lap to coax him to sleep. Nonetheless, he smiled softly at you. “And yours? I hope you were able to have time to rest and relax.”

You nodded. “I just slept a lot and caught up on the shows I missed throughout the week.”

“The real way a weekend should be spent.” 

His voice was teasing but he didn’t sound mocking. Just...somewhat playful. There was something about his tone that made you want to hear it again.

“Something tells me you need a weekend away where you could just relax and do nothing,” you commented, tapping the back of your pen to your chin. “Do you not have any days off at work?” 

He considered this. “Depends what you mean by day off.” 

“If you have to ask that, that probably means you don’t have a day off, huh?” you said with a frown, holding your hand over your chest as you sighed dramatically. “You poor thing. Overworked and tired. Maybe I should steal you away one weekend and get you to just relax.” 

You were only half-serious.

“Maybe you should,” agreed Shouto, sounding full-serious.

“Maybe I will,” you blurted before you could stop yourself. Maybe you could if you actually had his number… Then, feeling shameful you said, “But, ah, anyway, what can I get for you today? We actually have cheese danishes again!”

His face brightened. “You do? I’ll take five dozen.”

With a laugh you took down his order. You really weren’t sure where all these pastries were going when he bought it, but judging from his expression, you figured it must be somewhere good. 

“And for your drink?”

“This time I’ll have a large green tea with almond milk, please.” 

You nodded but tilted your head to the side in question. “No coffee with extra shots of espresso today?” 

“I add too much sugar and creamer to my coffee,” he admitted sheepishly. “And with all the baked goods I’ve been eating I realized I may have had an excess amount of sweets lately.” 

With an understanding laugh you patted his hand that was resting on the counter woefully. “I can definitely relate to that. If too many sweets are bad for you they shouldn’t have made it taste so good.”

Shouto glanced down at where your hands touched, an expression you couldn’t quite discern on his face. Averting your gaze, you quickly pulled your hand back. Was that inappropriate of you? Did he find it too pushy?

“Oh— Sorry about that,” you said, rubbing your elbow with your opposite hand. “Got a bit ahead of myself there.”

“No, it’s fine.” He blinked once. “I didn’t mind.”

Unsure if he meant anything by that and unsure if you were reading too much into things, you simply brushed the topic off and moved on to getting his order in telling him the price. 

“Paying by card again, I’m assuming?” you asked before hitting the appropriate button on the screen.

“Correct.”

By now the sight of the sleek and pretty credit card was one you grew rather fond of as he scanned over the payment terminal and signed his name. Was it weird you wanted to examine his signature more closely? Shouto seemed like the type of person who would have a fancy signature that somehow looked like art. 

As per routine, you told him his order would be ready for pick up at his right and, before he left the register, he thanked you and gave you another $100. 

Did it feel any less strange than the first time he tipped you? Not really, no. But you still weren’t going to complain about a generous tip from a willing customer.

Before he left with his cheese danishes and cup of tea in hand, he stopped by next to you with a small smile. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Y/N.”

You grinned back. “Can’t wait, Shouto!” 

— ✩ —

This went on for a whole other week. By this point, he had given you over $1,000 in tip and you were starting to feel like you should give him something in return despite him assuring you he didn’t expect anything. 

When you told your friends about the nice guy you met while you were working and they asked for the details, the first thing they said in response to your situation was, “Sugar daddy?” 

Before they planted that thought into your head, you just took it as a rich businessman who hated the rich and believed in redistribution of wealth—you couldn’t complain about that. That made him even more appealing, if you must say. But once Kaminari and Ashido whispered those two words, you couldn’t help but see the comparisons. 

You had no issues with sugar daddies or sugar babies; as long as they were two consenting adults, what did it matter to you? It just wasn’t something you were looking for at the time and you didn’t want Shouto to get the wrong impression or involve yourself in something you weren’t ready to. 

As you commuted to work for your next morning shift, you told yourself today was the day you’d thank him one final time for the tips, but tell him you couldn’t accept anymore. You were sure he’d be understanding but you also hoped it wouldn’t deter him from coming to see you. That was the last thing you’d want. 

“Mrs. Miyazaki,” you said between customers. “When Shouto comes in, do you think I can step away from the register to talk to him for a little? I promise it’ll be brief!”

She waved her hand dismissively. “That’s not a problem. Are you finally going to ask him out or something?”

You scratched the back of your neck. “Or something, yeah.” 

Thankfully, by the time Shouto arrived today, it was later than he normally came, meaning rush hour was almost dying down. 

“Good morning! Someone’s a little late today,” you teased. “Overslept?” 

“I wish,” he sighed wistfully. “I had a meeting early this morning and it just ended. Didn’t have a chance to pick up some coffee or pastries beforehand.” 

You frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope whoever was hosting the meeting at least provided you guys drinks and snacks!” 

He paused. “He did, but… I just thought yours were better.” 

Smiling at the compliment, you preened. “Well, I can’t say I’m not surprised. And I’m glad you were able to drop by still. Would’ve missed you too much otherwise.”

Again, you were only half-serious.

“Hm. I would’ve missed you too.”

And again, he seemed full-serious. Not that you minded. 

After taking his order and watching him pay, you pulled him to the side, looking over at your boss so she knew what was going on. She gave you a brief nod as you turned your attention to Shouto. 

A lapse of silence went by and he spoke up, “Did you have something you wanted to say?” 

“Yeah, actually.” You wrung your fingers nervously, hoping you wouldn’t say anything to offend him since you knew his actions were coming from a kind place. “I just wanted to say… I’m not really looking for a sugar daddy right now.”

He blinked once. Then twice. “Pardon?” 

You stared at him, unsure what to say. 

“I— Sorry. I wasn’t… It’s not my intention to be a...sugar daddy either.” Shouto’s face flushed a bright pink that made your own cheeks warm up in response. 

“But the—the money? I just… I guess I thought…” You winced.

So he wasn’t trying to pick up a sugar baby… Well, this was awkward. But regardless, you think you’ve gotten close enough to him to the point where it would feel weird accepting money from him. 

“I’m sorry if I was unclear. It really is just a tip to show appreciation for your service here.” 

You shook your head. “No! Sorry, that makes sense! My friends just said… And then I…” you trailed off, feeling a million times more flustered than when you started. “Sorry about that. The sugar daddy mishap aside, I still wanted to say that I really appreciate the tips you gave, but I don’t think I can accept them anymore.” 

Slowly, he nodded, adjusting the collar of his dress shirt. “I understand. Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened!” you were quick to assure. “I really am thankful, but… I think we’ve gotten too close for me to be comfortable accepting that much money, you know?”

Shouto tilted his head to the side, listening intently. 

“Like,” you tried to explain, fiddling with your apron, “over the past few weeks I just think we’ve gotten to know each other more and I think of you as a friend of sorts now.” You peered at him through your lashes, hoping your words were making sense. “I think as a relationship develops—for me, at least—adding money into the mix can cause weird power imbalances if not communicated properly. And I just don’t want that for us.” 

He thought through your words for a while before agreeing. “I get what you mean. I wouldn’t want to unintentionally make you feel like you owe me anything, so if you’re not comfortable with it, I can stop.” 

“Thanks, Shouto,” you said with a beam, glad he was so receptive. Really though, what else did you expect? From your interactions with him you took him to be kindhearted and open. Of course he wouldn’t be upset over this. “But just to be clear, this doesn’t mean you should stop coming! Right? I don’t want to stop being your friend or anything!” 

With a small laugh, he nodded. “Sure. I wouldn’t want to part with my favorite cafe. And I’d like to keep being friends as well.”

Those words warmed your heart. You really were nervous about this confrontation earlier; you didn’t want voicing your opinion to mean ending your friendship. (Although, if you sharing what you were comfortable with was enough to end a relationship, then you supposed it was bound to be a toxic and stifling one in the long run and it was good to know in the beginning to end it before it could grow.) Turns out, however, that you didn’t even need to worry about that. He was understanding and sweet and you were glad to have gotten this out of the way.

“Well, as new friends,” you said, gently nudging his side, “maybe we should get to know each other more? Exchange numbers… Hang out outside of this cafe…” You ran through some suggestions, almost bouncing on your feet in excitement. “I mean, I know you’re always so busy and might not have much free time to hang out. But— If you’re ever free one weekend…” 

“I’d enjoy that,” he cut in, saving you from blabbering your mouth off and accidentally embarrassing yourself. “Didn’t you say you’d steal me away from work to relax? I’m still holding you to that.” 

The beginnings of a smirk formed on his face as he looked at your flustered expression. Was he teasing you?

You huffed, pretending to be insulted by his playful mocking. “Guess I’ll really have to do it then.” 

“Guess so.”

“Maybe you should give me your number first so we could plan it.” 

“Okay.”

He handed you his phone and you handed him yours, both of your adding your numbers to the contact list. Smiling, you held the phone in front of the two of you to take a contact picture of yourself for Shouto’s phone. To your complete surprise, he laughed before promptly following suit and taking a selfie for his contact image. 

“Cute,” you said when he handed you back your phone. 

“You too.” 

Placing your device back in your pocket, you looked at him, hand on hip. “Since when did you become such a smooth-talker? Am I going to have to guard my heart now?” 

His only response was a shrug, but you could see hints of a smile playing on his face. The two of you seemed to be smiling a lot lately, you couldn’t help but notice. 

“I should probably let you go to work now—and I should go back to mine.” You gestured to the growing line at the front of the store. Your manager looked like she had things under control, but you didn’t want to take advantage of her kindness. “You should text me later though. If you want.”

“I’ll do that,” Shouto promised, picking up his drink and pastry boxes from the side counter. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Y/N. And… I’ll message you soon.” 

As you watched him leave the store, you were certain you had a silly look on your face as you stared in a trance. 

“I’ll turn my phone off silent just for you!” you said to his back, hoping he understood what a momentous occasion this was. Your phone was always on silent (unless you were playing a game, of course). But for Shouto, you could handle hearing the obnoxious ringtone and text tone. 

With an amused expression he nodded before waving goodbye.

Later on that day, at the end of your shift, you noticed a new message from a certain someone that made your stomach flutter.

Shouto: Hi there. It’s Shouto :)

You never knew those four simple words would be enough to keep the grin plastered on your face up until the moment your head hit your pillow to fall asleep. But, damn— Were you glad that happened to be the case. 

a/n: whY WAS SHOUTO AND Y/N EXCHANGING NUMBERS SO CUTE idk that scene got me all blushy and :DDD HFJDKSF like taking a selfie with shouto and getting his number? only goal in life BFHFGF,, also y/n said no more tips how we feeling? ;o 

what to expect in the next part:

an unwanted visitor ಥ_ಥ

shouto has a...proposition for y/n 

FLIRTING FLUFF SO MUCH CUTENESS U MIGHT CRY

y/n struggles with their fEeLiNGs~

[doctorstethoscope]

Moment || Aaron Hotchner x gn Reader

A/N: hiiii besties expanding on a lil prompt from the weekend due to popular demand! Thank you to @the-modernmary for  helping me with it!! If u liked this teeny bit of angst u will love her fics!!

just a little note for those of you who read The Right: I am going on vacation this coming Saturday-Wednesday. I will have the chapters queued to post for y’all, but I will not be able to respond to taglist requests or update the masterlist until I come back! Still let me know what you think about the chapters though, they’re some good ones! ok onto this fic.

contains: slight cursing, alcohol consumption

wc: 1.7k

You take a deep breath as you walk out of Strauss’s office, taking exactly one beat to regain your composure before hastily making your way over to Hotch’s office, letting yourself in without knocking. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” you said by way of greeting as you crossed his office and settled into one of the chairs across from his desk.

“Tell you what?” Hotch asks, looking up from his paperwork with confusion knit across his brow. 

“That Strauss was going to harangue me the second I walked into the building this morning. I seriously didn’t even make it past security before she nabbed me.” You told him, disgruntled. 

“I didn’t know. What did she want?” Aaron asks, and you look up and see that he’s telling the truth-- he really didn’t know. 

“Oh… I assumed she would have cleared it with you before she asked me.” You said, your boisterous energy deflating the longer you sat in the chair. 

“Is she pulling you for undercover work? She always does that, and she never asks if we have anything coming up or what your consult workload is--” 

“No, Hotch. She’s, uh, she’s not pulling me for undercover work.”

“What is it?” 

“She said the director tapped me to lead the field office in Vegas.” You confessed, looking up and seeing the air leave Aaron’s chest. 

“Wow.” Aaron says, blinking. 

“Yeah,” you agreed. 

“And you’re going to take it?” He asked. 

“I told her that I needed some time to think about it.” You answer him.

“What’s there to think about?” He wonders. 

There’s a moment where you think you might actually roll your eyes at him. There’s a moment where you consider begging him to give you a reason to stay. There’s a moment where you consider crossing the desk and depositing yourself in his lap, kissing him with the weight of all of the feelings that had you wanting to stay. 

But, after a moment, you realize that none of that’s happening. He’s sitting across from you, looking at you like you’d be the biggest fool in the world not to take advantage of this opportunity, and maybe he was right. Maybe you would spend the rest of your life wanting him one-sidedly, wondering what good you could have done for the world if you had simply accepted that he’d never love you back. 

“Nothing,” you answered, after a moment. “There’s absolutely nothing to think about at all.”

****************************

Aaron’s barely even distracted when you swing his door open and plop yourself into one of his chairs first thing in the morning. He’s used to it, by now. He may have been a less-than-willing participant in your friendship at the beginning of your relationship, but now he was glad to call you someone he was close to. His closest friend, really. 

His ears perk up when you mention Strauss. “Is she pulling you for undercover work?’ He starts to rant, already planning the tirade he’s going to deliver to Erin when he notices your demeanor change. You’re… shy, all of a sudden. You’ve never hidden from him before. He doesn’t like it. 

“She said the director tapped me for the field director position in Vegas,” You revealed. The sentence hit him like a punch in the gut.

“Wow,” is all he can manage to get out, fighting the way his throat threatens to close up. “And you’re going to take it?” He asks, although he knows the answer will break his heart. 

“I told her I needed some time to think about it.”

“What’s there to think about?’ He asked, allowing himself to hope for a moment that you’ll make some grand confession, to imagine for a moment that you might possibly feel the same way he does, to believe for a moment that he’s worthy of your love. But he’s not.

“Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing to think about at all,” you tell him, standing up and leaving with a forced casualness. 

Aaron had been married long enough to know that that tone and those words together mean the exact opposite of what they are supposed to mean-- but he was still confused. What could possibly make you stay? And how could he find it before you left? 

*****************

The following days between you and Aaron had been chilly, to say the least. You didn’t bounce ideas off of each other on cases like you normally would. You came to the opposite conclusions at every turn. You were out of sync, and everyone felt it. So when the case wrapped up on a Friday afternoon, you were more than happy to rush home to a bottle of wine, a pint of ice cream, your moving boxes and some trashy reality television.

You’d given up on packing after about an hour. Your heart just wasn’t in it. So instead, you lounged in your pajamas, sipping at your wine in the hopes that it would guide you to your first full night of sleep since you’d spoken with Strauss. You’re just about to head to bed when there’s a knock at your door. You swing it open, revealing Aaron, holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. 

“I was an asshole.” He offers. “Am I interrupting anything, or?”

“Just packing,” you say, wanting to twist the knife a little bit even if it wasn’t truthful. Aaron is undeterred, and steps inside anyways. 

“I didn’t want you to leave with us still in the middle of the fight. You can be as mad as you want in the morning, but have a glass of champagne with me?” He asks, with those big brown eyes you could never refuse. 

“Fine,” you sighed, still easily won over by him, even when you were heartbroken and mad. 

“Here, you open it. Congratulations,” he tells you, handing over the bottle. You start picking at the foil, and he speaks up in the silence. “Things are going to be different without you, you know. I like that our team is structured the way it is… as a team, but you know, in a lot of ways, it was nice to have a partner in you.”

“You know, come to think of it, I’m not sure if I even have cups. They might be packed away,” you say, still picking at the foil and decidedly not looking Aaron in the eye. He chuckles a little at your comment.

 “I don’t know what I’m going to do when you’re gone. I mean, who else can rein in Derek, or get to see me the big picture, or talk Emily off the ledge when I’m sure she’s about to go rogue?’ 

“It’s going to be okay,” you tell him, setting the bottle on the counter, still unopened. Aaron heaves a sigh. 

“You should stay.” He says, after a moment. 

“What?” You say, blinking, because surely you must be drunk or dreaming or something else. 

“You should stay here. You don’t have to take the job in Vegas.” 

“Haha, very funny,” you joked, bringing your attention back to the bottle to avoid looking him in the eye. 

“I’m serious. Listen, I know I said there was nothing to think about, but I changed my mind.” 

“Oh, did you? And what if I haven’t changed mine?” You asked, getting angry now. 

Not able to hold back for another second, he takes your face in both of his hands and kisses you. “Just, think about that before you board a plane. Okay?” He says, and before you can even speak, you hear the door swing shut behind him. 

Damn you, Hotchner. 

You don’t sleep a wink.  When 8am finally rolls around, you pull yourself out of bed and get dressed, heading over to Aaron’s. As you buckle your seatbelt, you realize that you know you have to go over there but you have no clue what it is you even want to say to him. You hope you’ll figure it out without sounding completely insane as you knock on Aaron’s door, and he swings it open, still in his sweatpants and incredibly surprised to find you on his doorstep.

“I’m even more mad at you right now than I was last night,” you tell him by way of greeting.

“That’s understandable. I haven’t been very fair to you,” he agrees, and the fact that he’s being so reasonable only makes you angrier. You slip past him and step inside the apartment. 

“I don’t get it. You couldn’t just let me move on, start a new life and forget about the torch I’ve been burning for my boss the entire time I’ve worked here? You had to have the last word, even if I was leaving forever.” 

“No,” Aaron says, and you bite your tongue, trying to allow him a moment to respond even if you weren’t feeling all that gracious. “No, I couldn’t let you move on thinking the torch you were carrying ws unrequited.”

You’re struck by his words. “What are you trying to say?” 

“I’m sorry, it doesn’t matter. It’s a great opportunity for you in Vegas. I’m happy for you, and you shouldn’t let this--” 

“Hotch, what are you trying to say?”

“Just that I’m proud of you, and I know that you’ll do excellent work, and--”

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to hide from me.” You call him out, and he looks at you for a moment. This time, you don’t break his glance. 

“I’m not trying to hide. I’m just too late.” He tells you, looking down at the floor. 

“Tell me, Hotchner. Tell me, please.” You beg of him, shifting to try to get him to look you in the eye.

“I love you, and I figured it out too late.” 

You draw in a sharp breath, and he’s sure he’s ruined any vestiges of friendship that still existed between the two of you in this moment, and that you’ll board your plane to Las Vegas and he’ll become a creepy old boss that you never think about again. He takes a moment to look at you, a moment to mourn what might have been, a moment to remember the way your laugh made him smile while the memories were still fresh. He takes a moment, and then you speak up.

“No,” you correct him. “You figured it out just in time.”

tagging: @choppa-style @wanniiieeee @zheezs14 @torykjamie @maureen4y

@ssavanessa22 @isthatme-thatsme @g-l-pierce @ssahotchie @infinite-tides

 @itsmytimetoodream @averyhotchner @msmarvelsmain @hotforhotchner11 @hotchinkevlar

hi besties I tried to tag everyone who said they wanted to be on my regular hotch list and a few of y’all who regularly interact with the right but if i made a mistake/u want to be removed u can lmk I will not be offended!!!

[chihirolovebot]

HELLO! Okay, first, just finished reading the new chapter of Sleep Awake and AAA, I loved it so so so much! HONESTLY HOW DO YOU THIS? Congrats so so much on everything!!! Happy anniversary, and to many more!

Second, ahem- so I feel awkward asking questions like this… but I honestly was kinda wondering if you have advice for writers…? Not specific advice I guess, but just tips for how to actually stay motivated and focused to write, how to make things not seem rushed, how to plan things, idk, anything. You’re just so good at writing and I have nobody else to ask (lol imagine having no friends 😀).

Enjoy your day and rest easy, you deserve it. :)

-Aiko

AHHH thank u so much!! im very happy u enjoyed!!

the truth is, a lot of my motivation comes from my adhd and the fact that i hyperfixate on stuff. when i started sleep awake, i didn't have any kind of schedule or even really a plan — my updates in the beginning were extremely frequent because i had a few goals in mind that i wanted to get to. now it's a lot more like planning a real story with arcs and an independent plot, which is why updates are much less frequent. motivation has just never really been an issue with me — but i have struggled with motivation on a lot of my other works, so i get what you mean.

for me, i stick with sleep awake because i just love it. i think it's good to have a few solid ideas to base a story around — a specific scene or plot point you want to get to, something to build the story around. maybe you want a conversation between two characters, or you want character a to do something to character b and character c to find out about it. stuff like that really kept me going and made filling out the gaps in between te scenes i want a lot easier.

i can't stress this enough — plan your story!! it can be as detailed or nondescript as you like, but at least make a skeleton. in this plan, PUT IN THE SCENES YOU WANT TO WRITE!! stuff that motivates you!! and then fill in the gaps. that's the way i do it and it's what works for me. chapter 3 of the game specifically took a lotttt of planning because it's so canon-divergent - i remember i had to write out the whole murder scene, a plan for the trial, the truth bullets. planning stuff out like this also helps immensely with setting things up so they don't seem rushed!!

i try to sort of separate my story into 'segments', aka the chapters of the game, with each segment having a different role and arc for the reader. this way i can set up what their goal is going to be ahead of time — take the reader being suspected of rantaro's murder, for example. i made a plan for this to happen around when i was writing the fourth or fifth chapter of the story, so i could begin setting up the events that would lead everyone to the conclusion of suspecting the reader (like having miu send them to the warehouse where the shotput balls are, having shuichi think they overhead him and kaede's plan to catch the mastermind, a lot of little details that ended up making them look super guilty in the trial).

planning is super essential and i am Not a writer who plans. ever. i literally didn't make a plan for this story until like chapter five. now i do it before every chapter — i establish what the reader's arc will be this chapter, how it differs and grows from the last one, how their relationships with each character will change. knowing your plot points ahead of writing them gives you so much time to set them up so they conclude satisfyingly!!

WHEW okay this got. incredibly long and most of it is word-vomit but i hope it helped a little!! and remember what works for me may not work for you. BUT i wish u a lot of luck in ur writing, and i hope this could be of some help?? at all??

i hope u have a good day too!! rest ur mind and eat well and drink water <33

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Red Strings of Fate (Ch. 11)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood

Previous Chapter: Invisible Ties

Next Chapter: Goldenrod

Tags: Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, please mention it in the comments below ty <3

Additional notes: This is so funny but I made a mistake in assuming the previous Goodwill event was held in Tokyo. Rewatched JJK and found out it was in Kyoto so I had to rewrite it XD.

Chapter 11: Kyoto-Tokyo Goodwill Event

Breakfast was a quiet affair. He brought out a short table and you had the meal side by side.

It was grilled salmon and miso soup. You both stole glances at each other when the other wasn't looking.

A domestic life with Noritoshi. Yeah you could get used to this. "Thank you for the meal Noritoshi." You smiled and offered to wash the dishes.

He stood behind you in the small kitchenette as you did, humming softly to yourself. Noritoshi was holding your waist gently and leaning his forehead against your shoulder. Thumbing small circles into the sides of your hips.

You quietly smiled at yourself, not expecting Noritoshi to love physical affection this much. After washing the dishes, you laughed as you placed your ice cold hands on his neck, forcing him to let go of you and flinch back with a frown.

Leaving Noritoshi’s dorm after breakfast had terrible timing apparently. You bumped into Todo senpai on your way out.

“Ah.” You both stared at each other for a bit. Noritoshi was still behind you, the door to his dorm room open. It didn’t help that you had your pillows and blankets in your hands.

And you were still in pajamas.

“So is this like a thing now? Congratulations on getting together.” Todo smiled down at you.

“Ah uhm- we- I- “ You stuttered, but Noritoshi wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you to him.

“Yes we are dating. And what of it?” He stared Todo down. You were flustered but incredibly pleased upon finally hearing a solid label between the two of you.

Todo just grinned. “So you actually have decent taste in women huh Kamo?”

“The best.” He replied dryly. You flushed and whined at Noritoshi, pawing at his robes. He just pulled you closer and hid your face in his chest.

“Didn’t know you had this shy side Tsuchi chan.” Todo was laughing. He bid both of you goodbye, and by the end of the day the entire campus knew both of you were dating.

But of course the both of you didn’t know it yet. “So…. you’re my boyfriend now Toshi?” you reached up to twirl his hair in your fingers as you made your belongings float in midair.

His eyes sparkled at the nickname. He leaned down close to you, “So it seems. Are you unhappy?”

“No. I’m happy.” You leaned up to press your lips against the corner of his.

Noritoshi sent you off, only letting you go after he had gotten a huge hug from you with a deep kiss to the cheek. He realized with a small jolt that he was pretty much touch-starved (no surprises there).

Wishing for more of your hugs and kisses already, and you just left for a few moments. He sighed heavily and shook his head.

Later that day, you bumped into Miwa as you were leaving your dorm. It was the weekend so you all had no classes and missions. She hesitantly called out a “Congratulations. You finally got together with Kamo senpai yeah?”

You looked at her in surprise. “How did you-”

“Todo senpai.”

“That man really doesn’t keep his mouth shut.”

◇◇◇

It was a different experience, having the other students tease the both of you about your new relationship as a real boyfriend and girlfriend. You felt weird by calling him your lover.

"I called it!" Mai proudly smirked down at you. "We all did Mai chan." Momo senpai giggled, bumping her hip with yours as you looked shocked over the bets they placed.

Noritoshi always had a soft smile for you. He recently managed his time better, finishing his studies very early so he could spend more time with you.

Not shy to take your hand whenever you meet in the hallways and drag you for a picnic under the huge Plum Tree or just to hug you quickly before going off to a mission.

You were more open, hopping up to him in the hallways and greeting him cheerfully. ‘It was nice’, you thought to yourself.

Ever the overthinker, you at times think of the secrets he mentioned having. Probably personal matters he wasn’t ready to talk about. That’s fine, you had your own fair share as well. Time will heal and bring whatever it may to the both of you.

◇◇◇

The Kyoto-Tokyo sister school goodwill event was drawing near. You and your fellow first years wished all your participating seniors good luck.

“I heard they also have a Special Grade 1st year student in Tokyo Tech.” You perked up at that, “Is that so?”

“I highly doubt they’d come though. Just like how you aren’t participating, Tsuchi. Usually 2nd and 3rd years are the ones participating. It is going to be held here in Kyoto Tech since we won last year.” Todo grinned.

You wondered about that.

◇◇◇

Just a few days before the goodwill event, Utahime texted you and said Noritoshi was injured from a mission. So of course you flew as fast as you could to his room, where he was being treated.

"Noritoshi!!" You wheezed out, entering his room in a burst of wind. You had come back from a lunch date with an old classmate from elementary.

You hurried over to his bedside and looked him over. He slowly turned to you, eyes widening. He smiled, "An angel is here."

You flushed and laughed out loud, "Noritoshi you've lost it. It's just me. Y/n." You brushed some stray hairs out of his face.

He continued staring at you dreamily, “Angel”. You were all dressed up, face fully made up. Rouge lipstick with a light touch of blush on your cheeks. You had your round shades on, prettily framing your face.

He used a free and uninjured hand to reach and cup your cheek. You leaned into his touch before pushing his arm back down. "You need rest." You said gently.

You placed your hands over his chest and activated your reverse cursed technique. He groaned as he felt his skin stitch back together. "Shhh, it will be fine."

He wasn't that badly injured thank goodness. “Angel, have you seen my y/n? I miss her.” He whined. You patted him on the forehead and shushed him with a quick kiss.

Why was he behaving like this?? You turned to the nurse packing their things from the corner, “I put him on anesthesia. He will be loopy for a bit.”

“Ah.” This might be a little bit fun. “Toshiii~ It’s me y/n how could you not recognize me?” You pouted. Noritoshi pouted and whined in return. The nurse pointedly ignored both of you and quickly left the room.

He stared at you with the biggest eyes he’s ever made, seemingly thinking hard. “Don’t think too hard, you’ll lose brain cells.” you whispered.

“Hold me.” He demanded not unlike a child asking for candy. And so you sat beside him and held onto his hand. You watched as he fell asleep, clinging onto your hand.

This loose-tongued and childish side to Noritoshi was just too adorable.

◇◇◇

Noritoshi stirred awake, seeing you so close to him. You were laying on top of his chest, one hand holding onto his.

He stared at your profile half sprawled over his blanket and reached to put a hand on your back and rubbed it soothingly. Then let his hand rest on the back of your neck while tracing small circles on it with the pad of his thumb.

You were so sweet on him. It was a wonder to Noritoshi, who felt as though he was always lacking in physical affection. To see someone sincerely take care of him without requesting anything in return was refreshing for a change.

He watched as you stirred, then your hand tightened in his and you brought it close to your lips, all while you were still fast asleep. Noritoshi’s eyes twinkled. What were you dreaming about? Was it about him?

He watched as you slowly woke up. “Mmmm Toshiii~” you blearily reached out for him. You were able to wash up and change your clothes while he was asleep.

He pulled you into his bed, making your half sprawl over his lap. “Why didn’t you get in bed with me? Surely your back must hurt? It’s late now, sleep with me.” You looked at the clock and to your surprise it was indeed late. 2am.

“Okayy” you were still whiny, half asleep, and slightly grumpy from waking up. You both settled in the bed and fell asleep holding hands.

◇◇◇

It was finally the day of the Kyoto-Tokyo Goodwill event. You were all out, 1st, 2nd and 3rd years with Utahime sensei and Principal Gakuganji, waiting for the Tokyo group to arrive.

Then you felt this ominous presence from afar. You took a few steps back, cursed energy flaring and winds whipping around you. Everyone looked at you in concern and Noritoshi whispered as he squeezed your hand, "Angel, you okay?"

You still found it funny how he now takes to calling you his angel when it’s just the two of you after you told him about his embarrassing moment when he was loopy on sedatives.

You stared off at a distance. "Everyone... Something… big is coming." You didn't realize that you felt Rika's presence from afar. Everyone tensed and looked in the same direction you were as the Tokyo participants came.

There were some really loud 2nd and 3rd years, but the one that stood out was a rather reserved boy with black hair. He had a Katana bag hooked over one shoulder. And a massive curse looming over him. ‘How is that thing not exorcised yet?!’

"Yooooo Everyone from Kyoto hello!!"

That voice. Your eye twitched. "Nice to meet you all again." Gojo Satoru cheerily yelled. Introductions were exchanged. The group challenge on the first day is Capture the Flag. The details for the individual battles tomorrow are yet to be announced.

Everyone was surprised to hear that the first year, Okkotsu Yuuta, the special grade cursed human, was participating to even out the numbers.

Based on that amount of cursed energy…. Tokyo school might win this year, you thought grimly. 'As long as there are no casualties please.' You prayed to yourself. You wished Noritoshi good luck with a quick hug.

After the participants were dismissed and released to their positions, the Kyoto 1st year's followed the two principals and Utahime sensei.

"Neko-chaaaan! How cruel, you don't wanna greet me?" His damn voice was so fucking loud everyone in the vicinity turned to Satoru.

(His nickname for you was cute but the story wasn't. When you were 4 years old, the Tsuchi family cat always ran away from you. You tried to be more catlike to befriend it, which Satoru found hilarious. Ergo, he started calling you Cat or Neko chan.)

Your eye twitched again as always does with Satoru. "Toru nii, it's been a while." You said, looking at the man leering down at your figure. He pulled you in for a side hug and ruffled your hair. "I missed you loads, it's been a while huh. How's school?"

"Not too bad." You fixed and patted your hair back down, aware of the eyes on you.

"Mmm, I bet." His bright blue [six] eyes could see the red strings linking your pinky to Noritoshi's. "You got a boyfriend by any chance y/n?"

You stopped at that and looked up at him. "Did Hiroki tell you anything?" "Nup" he always pops his P's obnoxiously.

You looked to the side and murmured "I do."

"You have a boyf-ooms" You slapped your hand over his mouth, floating up to his height. You could practically see his blue eyes gleaming behind those white bandages. "Keep your voice down dimwit." You hissed.

He licked your hand. "You're gross as always Toru," you wiped it on his sleeve as you walked on air to match his height.

"You should have told me you got a boyfriend. Anywayss, my students are gonna kick ass. Yuuta is pretty strong and he's the type to go all out you know?" He nudged you.

"Noritoshi and the senpais won't go down without a fight." You said. “Heehhh, is that so?”

You caught up a bit with him, making small talk as you made your way to the viewing rooms.

◇◇◇

Miwa later pulled you aside, "You know Gojo Satoru?! Isn't he, like, super famous?!"

"Uhhh?? He is?? … uhm I don't know. But we are family friends, he's like a brother to me really." You said confusedly. "The Tsuchimikado and Gojo clans always got along. His dad and my dad are friends."

"Ahhh I see." She nodded. She was still unfamiliar with the Great 3 clans and minor clans of Jujutsushi so it was understandable for her to be curious.

The rest of you filed into the room. The teachers allowed all of you to watch on the screens, so that you can get familiar with the goodwill event.

"Psst! Y/n sit beside me." You laughed as Satoru eagerly patted the seat beside him, sounding more like a teenager than a teacher. You scooted over to his side as he brought out snacks, chips, and popcorn. You stared at him. "You think this is a movie?"

"It's free entertainment." He shrugged.

And the event started. You all watched on the screens as both schools fought against curses while defending their home base flag and trying to take down the enemy's flag.

Todo, of course, was on the front lines, recklessly plowing into Tokyo high's home base. Hakari, a 3rd year, was facing him off, somehow holding his ground against him.

Noritoshi was following Momo around, taking down curses and stopping the other team's students from charging in.

But before they knew it, Yuuta was on the other side, flag in his hands. It wasn't a quick match but a rather rough one. At the very least, no one was injured badly.

Your eyes watched Okkotsu’s movements. It was very obvious he was new to fighting, but his brute force of cursed energy played well to his strengths. You were looking forward to tomorrow's matches.

Blood Bound: Table of Contents