#the confusing shirt and stripes are part of her life now

[nameification]

I think elisa would wear fully black-and-white striped clothing as like. either sleepwear or casual wear. yes this is based off the many times I have startled my mother by purposefully wearing identical striped shirts and shorts. yes I think elisa does it and then vienna or dehlia found out laughed abt it and one of them (cough. vienna) started imitating her

[peachesyeo]

The Cherry Club - Part One

word count - 1.7k pairings - dpr ian x bm x mingyu x jungkook x mingi x fem!reader genre - mature, smut, slight crack(?) chapter warnings - dom!dprian, dom!bm, switch!mingyu, switch!jungkook, switch!reader, switch!mingi, noona kink (mingixreader), safe sex (hey wear condoms pls), exhibitionism, breeding kink, reverse cowgirl, doggy position, cockwarming, polyamory implied, mxm action implied, porn with little plot ig.

author's notes - for @sousydive, my baby. i'm sorry that i'm late ): and there’s a part two… I’m going off for my internship so here’s something… I PROMISE ILL UPDATE 1117 JUST GIVE ME ANOTHER 20 YEARS… ILL NEVER ACCEPT SMUT REQUESTS EVER AGAIN

back to masterlist? (svt) back to masterlist? (atz)

“I bet I can make you cum from just my fingers.”

You groaned, covering your face with your fingers as a very drunk Jungkook straddled a very drunk Mingyu, wagging his index finger in his face. Next to you, BM let out a bark of laughter, while Mingi, whose head is in your lap, is already half-gone from the alcohol, his entire face red. 

“The fuck you mean? Yah, I bet I can make you cum untouched!” Mingyu hollered back, pushing Jungkook off him and straddled the latter instead, pulling his collar roughly. Christian leaned back into the couch, watching the two 97 men bicker with an air of interest. 

The six of you were gathered at Christian’s house, sitting in a circle in his living room while drinking alcohol. No matter how busy the six of you are, you all would find time to drink with each other at least once every two weeks. And it’s Christian’s turn to host the drinking session this week. 

You had no idea how the topic of the conversation changed from work, life to sex - well, this cycle always repeats every session. You wouldn’t even be surprised if Mingyu and Jungkook starts fucking on the floor now.

“You weren’t so cocky sucking my dick last session!” Jungkook suddenly gained strength, knocking Mingyu off him. The poor man screeched, his head knocking into BM’s knee. You laughed as the two groaned, one rubbing his head and the other, his knee. 

“For the record, you didn’t last very long, too, Kook.” Christian pointed out, where Mingyu’s eyes widened. He clapped his hands, shooting a smug smirk at Jungkook. “See? Even hyung said so. I can just lick a fat stripe up your balls and you’ll be cumming in no time-”

At this point, you just want to cut your ears off. “Just start fucking and get out of here already?” You pointed out, pouring another shot down your throat. Mingi stirred slightly at your words, his eyes clouded with sleepiness and confusion. “W-what? Who’s fucking?” 

“No one, Mingi-ah, are you sure you don’t want to go up to the guest bedroom?” Christian said quickly, meeting your eyes. You blushed, as Mingi sat up groggily, his hair sprouting up in all directions. 

“Nah. I wanna stay and watch the fucking.” Christian coughed, choking on his whiskey. BM had forgotten the pain in his knee and started laughing hysterically, while Mingyu and Jungkook only had eyes for each other, slipping into their own world. 

“Really? At least I don’t just cum untouched from watching Matthew hyung rail Y/n!”

It’s your turn to choke on your drink. The fiery whiskey splattered all over your shirt and collar at Jungkook’s words.

“You can’t just drag me into your rivalry shit, you fucking dumb bunny!” You yelled indignantly, crawling over Mingi to pull at Jungkook’s ears. You could feel his hands wrapping around your waist, his fingers drawing circles on your hips as you pinch Jungkook’s cheeks. “You two can suck each other off all you want!”

“Speaking of railing Y/n,” everyone turned to look at Christian, whose eyes were on you. “Who here fucks you the best, Y/n-ah?”

Silence. You gulped, sensing danger from his words. The stares from the five men in the room were dark and intense, and you couldn’t help but feel turned on. “That’s… That’s not fair-”

“Of course I fuck her the best.” You let out a moan when you feel something brushed against your clothed clit. You have no idea when, but Mingi’s fingers have already slipped under your fairly modest skirt, his grip on your waist strong. “Right, noona?”

The temperature around you seems to rise. A finger gripped your chin, and you looked up to see Jungkook gazing down at you, the smell of his cologne filling your nose. “No, I fucked you the best, don’t I, Y/n-ah?” He questioned, his eyes flickering from your eyes to your lips. “Come on, just tell the truth.”

“Why don’t we all fuck Y/n once, and let her crown the winner?” Christian suggested, his voice hoarse with want and need. Your pink tongue darted out to lick at your dry red lips, and you placed your palm on Jungkook’s thighs, supporting yourself. 

“Why not, Sir?”

Oh, you’ve done it. You hear a giggle from Mingi, as your eyes land on Christian. He raised a brow at you, a vein popping in his neck.“Very well, Y/n-ah,” he said slowly, getting up. You slapped Jungkook's hand off you and struggled to get up from Mingi's lap, but the youngest of the group had a strong grip on you. "Since you asked for it, rather rudely, I shall give you what you want."

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-" "Can't hold on anymore longer?" "I'm fucking sensitive, you dickhead!" "Come on, noona, squeeze him a little tighter." "Song Mingi, I swear, fuck off!"

You let out a loud moan of Jungkook's name as BM rubbed your clit, muttering encouraging phrases like 'Go on, Queen, milk him dry' or 'Kookie is near, you can do it' while leaving red hickeys all over your neck.

Jungkook was laying on the bed right under you, holding down your wrist to either side of him as he thrusted upwards, bickering with Mingi and Mingyu as he did so. Christian sat the furthest away, watching the show while palming himself.

"We're not holding a competition to who lasts the longest, gentlemen," BM straightened his back up, ignoring your whine at the loss of stimulation to your clit. "It's who fucks Y/n the best."

In reply to his words, Jungkook heaved a particularly hard thrust upwards. You whine, feeling a poke at the gentle curve of your cervix. "Ju-Jung-ah!"

"Not gonna l-last long, princess." Jungkook warned, letting go of your wrists. Mingi sighed, looking at the both of you dreamily. "Noona, you look like a Queen impaled on her dick throne."

His words caused snorts of laughter around the room. You made a noise of laughter and moan, as Jungkook had flipped you around on his member, his hips suddenly jerking upwards at a fast pace. You squeaked, clenching around him involuntarily. “And it’s a… fuck… dick t-throne made of gold.” Jungkook’s voice cracked as he came with a groan. You have already come once, and with a rub of your clit, you came again, panting as you fell on top of Jungkook’s chest.

“Get out, it’s my turn.” Mingyu said eagerly as Jungkook pulled out of you, pulling off his condom while giving you a deep kiss. Mingyu scowled, getting on top of the both of you and pulled you off Jungkook, who rolled off the bed while giving Mingyu his middle finger. Mingyu muttered a curse under his breath as he speared into you at one go. The both of you sighed as he slid in, fitting snugly in you.

“You ready, my Queen?” You hear Mingyu teased behind you, and you reply to him with a simple squeeze. Mingyu’s groan caused laughter from the spectators, especially from Jungkook. You smirk in victory, only to freeze when Mingyu bites on your shoulder as his hips begin to move.

If Jungkook’s thrusts were slow and romantical, Mingyu’s were just animalistic. He jerks in and out of you at high speed, leaving you to moan and drool helplessly as your head sinks into the pillow before you. Mingyu’s breathy moans came from behind you, his whispers driving you insane along with the thrusts of his lips. “I’m going to fill you up, Y/n-ah,” he moans, his cock pushing in and out of you at lightning speed. “Full of my cum. Leave you limping around Christian hyung’s hallways dripping.” He nips along your earlobe as he thrusts hard, his grip around your waist so tight that you are sure that it is going to bruise. “Don’t you like that, Y/n-ah? Round and full of my babies?”

There was a loud smack and Mingyu yelped. His grip on your waist loosen and his tempo stumbled for a moment. BM had smacked Mingyu’s ass cheeks, scowling. “You don’t get to knock Y/n up before Christian hyung or I do, Gyu-ah.” He said, his eyes staring into yours. “Be a good puppy and keep fucking.”

“It’s just dirty talk, hyung!” Mingyu huffed, resuming his insane pace. “You stimulated Y/n when Jungkook was railing her-”

He groaned again, feeling you squeezing him. “Shut u-up and fuck me!” You hissed, your hands reaching back to pinch at Mingyu’s waist. Mingyu pouted and stopped talking, and soon the sound of skin on skin reverberated throughout the room.

You pushed your face into the sheets, your moans stifled by the silky material. Your fingers grabbed desperately onto the pillow, before something pried them off. You looked up to see Mingi smiling sweetly at you, his fingers hooked within yours.

“She's trembling.” BM said somewhere from your left. The dirty mutters from Mingyu paused, and his hips jerked faster. Soon, the dam in you collapsed, and your elbows gave away. Mingyu was still moving, and you weakly shook your head. “No… Please…”

“Go finish off somewhere.” BM slapped Mingyu’s ass again, rolling a condom on himself and the younger pouted. “It's not my fault I last longer than a certain someone.”

“Fuck you!” Jungkook yelled as Mingyu pulled up. BM flipped me around, chucking as my dazed eyes followed his form. “It's only been three orgasms, and you have three people left, Y/n-ah.”

“Unless noona can take both at the same time.” Your heart thumped as Mingi spoke, playing with your fingers. His gaze was dark and predatory, matching BM’s as he looked right at you. “Can't you, noona?”

Before you can speak, Christian spoke. “Of course she can take it. But it's still an individual competition.”

“I-” You wanted to protest, but BM gently pulled you upwards. Pressing a light kiss onto your lips, he gently sank you onto his hard member. “You asked for this, Y/n-ah. Remember?”

You whined, looking right at Christian. The both of you held gazes, until the older man sighed. “Alright, just take a little break.”

You smell triumphantly as someone moves behind you — Mingi — and draws a line down your spine. You sat there, cockwamring BM, as he gave you time to recover.

Mingyu was still jerking himself off, bickering with Jungkook from time to time. You buried your face into BM’s chest, as Mingi’s finger slid down slowly right in between your ass. A gasp escaped you as he teased the part that connects you and BM. “Mingi-“

“Don’t worry, noona,” you hear him whisper, goosebumps rising. “We’re going to have a very, very long night.”

permanent taglist (ateez) - @watermelon2319 @levishun permanent taglist - @sousydive @yeodeulz @oddracha @jaerisdiction @yukichan67

@evidive @onysmamas @hoeforalbedo @fantasy2wonderland @epiclegend19

©peachesyeo, 2024

i do not own the dividers nor pictures used in banner. all credit goes to their original owners.

[passionateseadruid]

Snake King’s Bride 8

Holiday havoc part 2

Notes:

Warning! This chapter has talk of sensitive topics such as very dubious consent! Read at your own risk!

You felt… numb.

Why did it have to happen this way. Here you were laying in the aftermath of last night, laying in a pool of your own tears. Claw marks littered the headboard. His scent engulfed you. And after everything he’d left you to deal with the aftermath on your own.

"What's the point of any of this? Why don't we just go down to Vegas and fucking elope? He's already ruined my life. He's taken my best friend and family away from me. And now… now he's taken the one thing I had left."

"Ma'am?" A voice came from the open door. It was Styx, they looked concerned, and very very nervous.

"Styx!" You pulled the cover up to your neck. They sighed and walked into the closet and after a few seconds they walked out with a huge robe. They gently sit next to you and pulled the robe around you. "You don't have to." You insisted.

"Please don't make this difficult ma'am."

"You really shouldn't. I'm sure Lucifer doesn't pay you nearly enough to deal with his bullshit." You smiled half joking, at least trying to make yourself feel better.

"He doesn't pay me at all." They mumbled turning towards the door, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

"What?"

"It's... complicated. I can't work anywhere else. So in exchange for eternal service he gifts me the comfiest clothes and feeds me the finest foods and keeps a very expensive roof over my head." They explained.

"More like an unpayable debt over your head." You mumbled and scoffed it off.

"His highness has asked that I accompany you to the shopping center today to pick out presents for his party next week. The gift from Mr. Fizzarolli came in last night. I'm a bit confused why it was already wrapped inside but I'll not push it." Styx bowed and lead you into the closet.

"Thanks. Hey do you know who I have to get gifts for? I assume I have to get one for Charlie. Should I get one for Renesme and Nina? Do I get one for you?"

"You have one for Lucifer. You'll need one for Princess Charlie, each of the other 6 deadly sins, you'll probably want one for Mr. Fizzarolli, Miss Bee's boyfriend will not be joining us this year, and the rest of the sins do not have dates for the evening. It should just be you and Mr. Fizzarolli."

"Alright! Let's get going!" You walked out of the closet. You dressed in a black jumper and a dark gray and light gray striped shirt underneath.

Styx took your hand and they grabbed their necklace. A portal opened before you and you two stepped through and into a desolate corner of the mall.

"Wow." You smiled at them excitedly. 

"Yeah um, His- his majesty gave me a magic crystal to teleport around Hell."

"Speaking of Lucifer how long have you been working for him."

"Oh goodness. Since Princess Charlie was young. I was practically the one who raised her. Lilith was to busy singing and flirting and fighting with His Highness. She'd insist that the princess shouldn't be around him because he's self destructive but she wouldn't put in the work to raise her daughter."

"So... speaking of Lilith. She is or was human right?"

"Correct."

"So Charlie is half human. Did she..."

Styx seemed to pick up on what you were trying to ask. "Princess Charlie was a menace during her adolescent years. She threw a box of feminine products at her father. Then she started going out with the son of her fathers former closest friend to spite him. She also went through the emo phase after the two of them broke up." They laughed.

You smiled at them. "It's nice to see you so emotional for once instead of so stoic."

You two walked around the mall trying to find things for your friends (and the other people you were obligated to buy gifts for). First you went to a jewelry store and bought pink and purple ‘hers and hers’ flower necklaces for Renesme and Nina. You may not know them all that well but you do know that the two of them love each other. You ended up getting some rose gold designer sunglasses for Fizz. Nina walked around getting gifts for the other sins for you. You didn't care what Styx got for the Sins. You were more focused on what to get for Pluto and Styx. You decided to play it safe and Pluto a paper $100 gift card to any store in hell. If it’s not clear you’re just giving her a 100 bucks.

"Hey Styx since we're here what would you like."

"Oh! Ma'am, you don't have to get me anything."

"Please? I really want to get you something as a way to thank you for all the nice work you do."

"Ma'am that's… really not necessary." They stared at you as you gave them the puppy dog eyes. "Fine, if you don't mind I'd really like some knitting needles and yarn. I could make you something in return." They smiled.

"Styx…" you put your hands on their shoulders. "I'm not Lucifer. This isn't a transactional thing. Do whatever you want with them but please remember that this is your gift not mine." You gently smiled and took their hand.

////////////////////////////////////////

As the party started and guests started to poor in you smoothed out your dress. It was mainly white but it cinched up in places around the skirt to show of the red petticoat underneath. The bodice was a Queen Anne neckline and there was some red accents on the sleeves.

First to show was unsurprisingly Satan as he was the closest Sin to the pride ring and to the King of Hell in general. Then surprisingly Ozzie and Fizz showed up next. After that Bee dragged Belphy through the door, her legs under Bee’s arms, kinda like sadness and Joy from Inside Out. And then Mammon showed up. And finally Levi made a grand entrance.

"Okay everyone is here, I'm going to go get some food." Before you could listen to Lucifer’s protests you had rushed to the living room where the reception was being held. As you looked through the snack bar you felt someone bump into you someone tall.

"Sorry." Your eyes went wide. There is only one person who'd apologize in hell. You turned around and say Charlie smiling at you. "Hey! I didn't see you in the Foyer. Dad said you ran off to get a snack. Merry Sinsmas." She walked away.

You weren't expecting Charlie to be at the party.

"This is bad." You froze.

"Hm? what do you mean?" Fizz asked. You could hardly understand him with the fudge he was stuffing into his mouth though.

You pulled him away from the living and into the butlers pantry. You let him go and slammed the door to get some privacy and started to rub the anxiety out of your temples.

"Woah! Hey! Look you're cute but I don't swing that way."

"Please for one second could we not joke about this. I'm less than 30 minutes away from dying at the hands of my Naughter." You whisper yelled. Moving from your temples to the crick in your neck. You could feel your pulse beating irregularly.

"What?"

"My Naughter. Because she's Not my Daughter."

"Yet." He shoved the last bit of fudge from his plate into his mouth. "While I'm in here you don't mind if I raid your guys chip stash do you?"

"Go ahead. It's his anyway. I don't care what you do with it." You leaned forward onto one of the bottom cabinets. He stretched his robotic arms up and sifted through the upper cabinets.

"They might not be yours yet but after tonight they probably will be. Tonight is the night that Charlie will finally come to see you as a new parental figure. Either that or she'll straight up kill you for disrespecting her dad." You felt your pulse pick up as sweat dripped down your neck. You wanted to run, wanted to scream, wanted to cry. "Mmh mmh! These are delicious! Sorry, Mammon doesn't let me snack even when I'm off his dime. Ozzie on the other hand practically mother birds food down my throat."

"Have your fill. At least one of the last things I'll see is my friend being truly happy. Doing what he wants to do."

Fizz stopped munching down the chips and looked you in the eyes. "Listen. The little princess might be upset but she's known for being the sweetest most forgiving being in Hell. I'm sure if you just explained to her that he kidnapped you-."

"And kinda forced himself on me." You admitted, cutting Fizz off.

"He did what?" His eyes were like saucers.

"Well… kinda? I mean… it's complicated. We were at a party with my family and then I got mad at him because he was traumatizing my niece and nephews and then I wanted to break off this engagement and I thought maybe I could get away while I was on earth. Then he appeared through my fireplace and was absolutely ready to murder my family so I made a deal with him that if he didn't hurt my family he could do whatever he wanted to me."x

"Firstly, that explains what Ozzie meant when he said something off handedly about you and the king getting frisky. Secondly, Red that's blackmail. There is no black and white to this situation. There is a clear and present danger in your life." He squeezed your shoulders and used his contact name for you.

"Yeah and right now it's name is Charlie Morningstar. She's going to kill me."

"Look everything’s going to be fine. I'll talk to Ozzie after the party about seeing if you can stay with us for a while. I'm here for you, everything is going to be okay." Fizz hugged you. You found yourself falling into his warm embrace, and for the first time in hell… you cried. You wrapped your arms around his skinny body so tight it felt like he was going to pop. You were safe. If only for a moment.

////////////////////////////////////////

"Froggy! Where are you?" A voice called.

"Shit!" Fizz whispered in a sacred tone. "It's Ozzie. Dry your tears and stay in here okay?" Fizz opened the door right as Asmodeus was opening it from the other side. "Hi Oz."

"I thought you already came out of the closet?" Oz teased. "Hey lil hen!" He looked over to you, and took Fizz's hand.

"That's new." You remarked and followed behind them.

"Well female ducks are called Hens." Oz smiled at you.

…

"Oo! Looks like we're just in time for the end of the presents." Oz informed you both. They must've started early because you know that you and Fizz weren't in the pantry for half an hour.

"Aw. A wreath for the hotel! How thoughtful." Charlie smiled at your gift.

"Honey come here I want to hug you once I see what you got me."

"I'm good where I am." You said with a slight tremble in your voice. Charlie frowned and Furrowed her brow.

Lucifer opened the box and his face fell when he saw what it was. "You got me a white dildo, bedazzled with the words go fuck yourself written on it." And Go Fuck Yourself is in all capital letters too.

"Yep." You felt like you were going to pass out.

"That's disgusting." Charlie glared at you.

"To be fair I was going to get him a single sock instead but I couldn’t find anywhere that sold one sock and I didn't want to throw away money and throw away a sock."

"Can you please have a little more class than that? You're going to be the queen of Hell soon."

"Oh yes because if Hell's known for anything it's there upstanding citizens."

"Those are my people!"

"No, they're not! Your people are currently being treated like chew toys for the amusement of the rich. Your people are being abused and unfairly paid, sometimes not even being paid, while you and your father are profiting from their pain. Your people are the Imps and the Hellhound, and all the other Hellborn. Why is it that everyone in this room out ranks me in terms or raw power and/or social status and yet, I'm the only one who has actually done something for the Imps. So I restate what's on this dildo here. Both of you can go FUCK yourselves! After all the pain I’ve been through for the past 4 months, I’ve had enough! Good night and I hope you have a Merry Fucking Sinsmas!"

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

North To The Future [Chapter 7: King Of Wishful Thinking]

The year is 1999. You are just beginning your veterinary practice in Juneau, Alaska. Aegon is a mysterious, troubled newcomer to town. You kind of hate him. You are also kind of obsessed with him. Falling for him might legitimately ruin your life…but can you help it? Oh, and there’s a serial killer on the loose known only as the Ice Fisher.

Chapter warnings: Language, alcoholism, addiction, murder, discussions of sex, outdoor excursions, Trent being the Hulk, Sunfyre sightings, emotional outbursts, a late-night phone call, a wild traumatic backstory appears! Also I have bronchitis and wrote this while very heavily medicated, in my Aegon Era you could say.

Word count: 6.7k.

Link to chapter list (and all my writing): HERE.

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When you return from helping to deliver a calf on Mr. Campbell’s reindeer farm, you find Aegon in the vet clinic lobby. He is squaring up with Jennifer; the heap of twenty-dollar bills he stacks on the counter are crisp and uncrumpled, very much unlike his usual currency. He counts until he gets to $300 and then tucks his thin, tattered wallet into the back pocket of his jeans. He’s wearing half of his hair in a man bun again, along with his long-sleeve shirt that’s striped with black and white: night and stars, ink and snow. He startles when he turns to leave and sees you.

“How did you get that?”

“I told you,” Aegon says. “I sold a kidney. The slicing part was unpleasant, but I feel so much lighter now.”

“No, really.”

He shrugs nonchalantly. He seems mostly sober. “I pawned something.”

“Pawned what?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“It honestly doesn’t.”

“What do you own that’s worth that much…?” You glance through the window. His green Nova is straddling two spaces in the parking lot, illuminated by dim melancholy streetlights. If it wasn’t the car, what was it? What the hell was it?

Aegon holds his hands open, empty. “You wanted me to pay you back. Now you’re mad that I paid you back. I don’t know how to win with you, Appletini.”

The words themselves are irritated, he should sound irritated; but he just sounds sad. A heavy quilt of silence settles over the lobby. Your gaze is tangled up in his: blue, oceanic, mottled like a bruise. Jen watches from behind the front desk with huge, zooming eyes. She clears her throat to get your attention. Bear mace! she mouths, pointing at your purse.

You shake off your paralysis. “I’m sorry,” you tell Aegon. “Thanks for the money.”

He rubs the back of his neck anxiously. “Do you want to get a drink or something? Maybe talk…about…things…?”

“No. I’m covered in reindeer placenta.”

“Fine.” He blows by you, yanks open the front door, and is gone before you can take it back.

What’s there to talk about? you think, trying to convince yourself that you made the right decision. He’s still with Kimmie, I’m still with Trent, his time in Juneau is still ticking down towards zero. And yet, as his Nova swerves out of the parking lot, you feel an ache in your bones like a fracture.

“You okay?” Jen asks.

“Yeah. Can I get that $300?”

Confused but ever-compliant, Jen hands you the $300 in twenties.

“Do I have any more appointments this afternoon?”

“No, Ms. Flynn just called to reschedule Hyacinth’s yearly checkup.”

Oh yes, Hyacinth the semi-tamed opossum. Not your favorite client. “Perfect. Let’s close up a little early. I need to go home and scrub the blood out of my hair.”

In the midst of the steam and the pounding rainfall of the shower, you turn it over and over again in your mind: What did he pawn? What did he risk losing to pay me back? Reindeer blood, viscous and lifegiving, turns the soap bubbles dark pink as they are sucked down the drain. It’s not until you step out onto the bathmat and catch a glimpse of your reflection in the fogged mirror—of the foamy white flecks of soap still dappling your throat like pearls—that you remember the gold chain necklace Aegon wore to Thanksgiving dinner.

$300? you think doubtfully. A pawn shop will only loan someone a portion of the value of the item they hold as collateral, rarely more than half. Usually much less. Is that chain worth $600, $800, $1,000? Maybe. If it’s real gold. You don’t want to imagine how Aegon ended up with something like that. There’s no honorable answer. You throw on jeans and a chunky royal blue sweater and head out to your Jeep Cherokee.

There is only one pawn shop in Juneau, which makes things easy. You arrive ten minutes before closing time. Sure enough, store owner Mark Morehouse confirms your hypothesis: a peculiar white-haired out-of-towner showed up earlier today, offered a gold chain, received cash in return.

“But I didn’t give him $300,” Mark says. “I gave him $500.”

“$500?!” you exclaim. “You really think that necklace is worth a grand?”

“A couple grand, more likely. Haven’t gotten a proper appraisal yet.”

“Well…” You count every last cent of cash you have in your purse. The cannister of bear mace clatters as you dig through gum wrappers, pens, tissues, strawberry Creme Savers, crinkled receipts. “I can give you $410 now and a solemn vow to settle the balance later. Plus interest, of course.”

Indisputably, it is a breach of pawn shop ethics to let one customer walk out with another’s collateral before they’ve had adequate opportunity to pay back the loan. But Mark grew up with your parents, just like Dale did, and Heather’s parents, and Joyce’s parents, and half of your vet clinic clients, on and on until Juneau feels less like a city than an inescapably embroiled web. Everybody knows everybody…though not well enough to recognize the face of a killer. You explain to Mark that the white-haired out-of-towner is in fact a friend, and one that you are trying to do a favor for. He gives you the gold chain necklace in exchange for your cash and your word. It’s worth a lot around here. Vince and Debbie are good, honest people; surely their daughter must be too.

“Be careful,” Mark calls after you as you depart. “Until they catch that murderer, you shouldn’t be running around town alone after dark. And you definitely shouldn’t be getting too cozy with strangers.”

“Aegon’s not a stranger,” you say, smiling a little as you linger in the doorway. “Not anymore.”

Once you’re back in your Jeep, you turn on the heat and the interior light and inspect the chain more closely. It definitely feels expensive: heavy, flawless, golden links that are smooth like butter when you thread them between your fingers. On the long rectangular clasp, you find this engraved in artful cursive letters:

Happy birthday, dearest Aegon!

You flip the clasp over. There are three more words on the back, accompanied by—however bizarrely—a tiny praying mantis.

Much love, Helaena

“Helaena?” you say to no one as your Jeep idles outside the pawn shop. “Who the fuck is Helaena?!”

You have no right to be jealous, and yet you can feel the dark green poison of it growing into you like ivy: needling through joints, cracking bones, drinking up rust-scarlet marrow. You hate how much you want him. You hate that so many people on this planet carry pieces of him that you will never know. You shift your Jeep into drive and glide through the night towards his apartment building.

You shouldn’t go up there, you tell yourself as you park under a streetlight. He might be busy. He might not be alone. He might be with Kimmie.

But maybe that’s what part of you is hoping for. Maybe you’re looking for a chance to interrupt them, to stop them, to work up the courage to tell Kimmie the truth. She would listen if you told her, you believe that wholeheartedly; Kimmie has never been malicious, only self-involved, only shallow in a way that can be frustrating but also somehow pure. You always know exactly what Kimmie’s intentions are. She is as clear as still water, as glass.

As it turns out, Aegon is alone in his apartment. When you turn the spare key he gave you in the lock and open the front door, you find him sprawled on the couch and three rum and Cokes deep. He’s watching reruns of the X-Files. He yelps in surprise, flails, rolls onto the floor with a loud thud.

“Hi,” you say. Sunfyre frolics over to greet you, barking gleefully. You stroke his silky amber fur and scratch his ears, admiring the neat faint line of the scar on his muzzle. It was excellent suturing, you have to admit to yourself. It was a job well done.

“Jesus Christ, I thought you might be…” Aegon shakes his head as he lurches to his feet. “Never mind.”

“Kimmie?”

“No. Kimmie wouldn’t break and enter. And she doesn’t have a key.”

You stare at each other across the sparce room, silent except for the X-Files, the clacking of Sunfyre’s nails on the hardwood floor, the swishing of his tail. Then you toss Aegon the necklace. He grabs it out of the air, the shock blatant on his face. “You lied again.”

“About what?” he says, puzzled.

“You are married.”

Aegon remembers the engraving and then chuckles in relief. “Helaena’s not my wife. She’s my sister.”

“Oh.” This is interesting. This is a rare divulgence; you don’t intend to waste it. “Older or younger?”

“Younger.”

“Is Helaena your only sibling?”

“Too many questions.” He holds up the necklace. “Why did you pay to get this back?”

“I decided I didn’t want your money. You don’t seem to have an abundance of it, and I wouldn’t want to deprive you and Sunfyre of anything. Food. Rent. Condoms. Rum and Cokes.”

“That’s very thoughtful. My nonexistent illegitimate children send their regards.” He considers you. “I can’t give you the rest of the $500 yet. I don’t have it on me anymore.”

“Forget about the money. You need it far more than I do.”

He seems to find this amusing, though you aren’t sure why. “That’s fair, I guess.”

“Why do you hate Microsoft so much?”

Aegon is taken aback; he wasn’t expecting that. He finds his footing. “With computers and the internet, there are no more secrets, no more mysteries. I think the world is a more interesting place when you still have room to wonder. You shouldn’t be able to get all the answers to life’s thorniest predicaments from a cold white screen. You should have to go out and find them yourself. You should have to pay sweat and blood for them.”

“How contrarian. Self-righteous, even.”

He smiles. “That’s the Aquarius in me.”

You smile back, unable to help it. “Are you coming tomorrow?” Tomorrow is Saturday, December 11th. Heather has planned a hiking excursion in the Tongass National Forest; it’s forecasted to be unseasonably warm, 40 degrees by noon, practically balmy by Alaskan standards. You’ll have a few hours of daylight to enjoy before sunset around 3 p.m. And since the Juneau Police Department is adamant that no one traverses the trails alone until the Ice Fisher is apprehended…a group outing is both a welcome excuse to socialize and the only sensible option.

“I don’t know.” Aegon is avoidant; he stuffs the chain necklace into his jeans pocket and reties his man bun. “Do you want me to go?”

“No.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“I mean, I don’t not want you to go, but I also don’t want you to go. I don’t care, that’s what I mean. I have no preference.”

“Okay…?”

“I want you to do whatever you want to do.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to intrude, so I don’t want to go if you don’t want me there.”

“I’m not saying I don’t want you to go hiking, I’m just saying I also don’t not want you to go hiking.”

He sighs dramatically. “You are being remarkably unhelpful.”

“I’m sure Kimmie would like you to attend,” you jibe.

He throws up his hands, exasperated. “She probably would!”

“She hasn’t mentioned it?”

“Kimmie and I don’t do much…um…talking.”

You frown sullenly at the scuffed, dusty floor. “Awesome.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you and Trent have lots of profound conversations when you hang out,” Aegon snaps. “You talk about science and animals and Ricky Martin and travelling the world and he talks about…what? Commercial fishing? Godzilla?”

“Steak tacos, mostly.”

That’s supposed to be a joke, but no one laughs. You actually wince at it. Aegon swallows noisily. He starts to say something, stops, starts again, gives up. He comes to you and points to your left hand. “Do you mind?”

You offer it freely. He massages your hand until it is supple and relaxed, gently bends and flexes your fingers, and then runs his calloused fingerprints down the lines of your palm as he studies them. You feel it everywhere: a cool tingling that shoots up your forearm, a jolt down your spine, the quickening of your heartbeat, a fresh wave of longing that crashes into you like the ocean against rocks. Why do I still want this? Why can’t I, after everything that’s happened, just learn how to hate him?

Aegon smirks crookedly. “It says you want me to go hiking tomorrow.”

“Who am I to disagree with an illustrious Taco Bell medium?”

Aegon drops your hand. “Is Trent going?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

He nods. “I’ll be there.”

“Okay. Fine.”

“Fine.”

You give Sunfyre a parting kiss on the top of his head and turn to go…but your eyes catch on the magnets that clutter Aegon’s refrigerator, the vestiges of cities and experiences and women that he’s collected like seashells from the types of beaches you’ve never been to.

San Diego, you think vaguely, wistfully, looking at the splashing dolphin magnet. That’s where he said his favorite beach is.

“…You alright?” Aegon asks tentatively, following your eyeline.

Not really. Not anymore. You leave without answering him.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Truth or dare?” Kimmie asks, grinning from across the flames.

You’re gathered around a crackling campfire, sitting on stumps and felled logs; Trent rolled over an impressively massive one for you and him to share. Aegon is next to Kimmie, Joyce is next to Rob, and Heather is once again lamenting her awkward singleness. There’s snow on the ground, though it’s squishy and melting under the short-lived midday sun. There are hotdogs and marshmallows being roasted on sticks; bags of hotdog buns, graham crackers, and Hershey’s chocolate are passed around in a never-ending rotation. As far as drinks, mostly everyone is sticking to Surge and Snapple. Trent has had a few Heinekens. Aegon is pouring spiced rum from a Captain Morgan bottle into his half-drank cans of Coke. Heather’s battery-powered yellow Sony boombox is playing a Go West cassette tape. Their biggest hit, King Of Wishful Thinking, thrums through the forest of towering pine trees. Sunfyre—wearing a jacket and dog boots so snow doesn’t get impacted between his footpads—romps blissfully around the woods, eating fallen bits of hotdogs and graham crackers whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“Seriously?” Heather says. “Are we twelve years old? We’re not playing truth or dare.”

“Come on, please?” Kimmie presses her palms together as if in prayer, like she’s the patron saint of indecent party games. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be so fun.”

“I’m game,” Trent says.

“Me too!” Rob adds, gnawing on his fourth hotdog.

Joyce bites into a s’more, gooey chocolate-stained marshmallow oozing out from between the graham crackers. “I decline to participate.”

“You can’t decline,” Kimmie pouts. She peers around for inspiration, then spots the creek babbling a few yards away. She announces triumphantly: “You can only surrender!”

Joyce blinks at her. “Explain.”

“If anyone refuses to play, they have to dunk their face in the water for five seconds.”

“But it’s freezing cold!”

“You are a menace to civilized society,” Heather tells Kimmie. “You should be on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Right next to Osama bin Laden.”

“Who?” Trent asks.

“He’s behind bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa,” you explain. “Killed hundreds of people.”

Trent smiles at you proudly, drapes a heavy arm across your shoulders, pulls you in close and kisses your temple. “You’re too fucking smart, you know that?” You giggle dutifully but lean away from him, mortified. Aegon mixes more rum into his Coke can. “She’s so fly. I’m always learning new stuff from her.”

“Oh yeah? Getting some quality anatomy lessons?” Rob teases.

Trent brays out laughter and flips his hair. “Man, I wish. No anatomy lessons yet. But, you know…Christmas is right around the corner…it’s a very romantic time of year…maybe I’ll find her wrapped in a bow under a Christmas tree.”

“Please shut up immediately,” Heather says, disgusted. “You’re my brother. I don’t want to know about your sex life. I barely want to know about your non-sex-related life.” Aegon casts her a rare glance of approval, of gratitude. You can relate; you’re feeling pretty grateful too.

“So we’re playing truth or dare?” Kimmie prompts.

“I’m willing if everyone else is,” you say. Kimmie, ecstatic, leaps out of her seat and sprints around the campfire to hug you before returning to her log.

Aegon slurps on his unorthodox rum and Coke. “Same.”

Joyce groans. “Fine, I guess I’ll play.”

“Okay,” Heather relents. “If it will make you happy, Kimmie, then I’ll mentally transport myself back to the dark days of middle school and play this asinine game with you.”

“Yay!” Kimmie cheers. “Okay, I’ll start.” Her mischievous gaze travels around the circle. You try to appear inconspicuous by focusing your attention on your s’more. “Rob, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” he says, sitting up straighter and grinning enthusiastically.

“Go lick a tree.”

You burst out laughing; this really is so middle school.

“A tree?” Rob says, already scoping out the selection.

“Yup. A tree. Any tree.”

Rob stands, plods through the snow to a monstrous pine tree, and takes a long, slow lick of the bark. Everyone applauds his commitment. He returns to sit beside Joyce, who gives him a smile so swift it’s almost imperceivable. Joyce likes to pretend she’s above silliness—and maybe she is most of the time—but she’s still human.

“So you choose the next victim,” Kimmie instructs Rob.

“Okay, let’s see…” He makes a great show of scrutinizing everyone else before coming back to Joyce. “Darling Joyce, truth or dare?”

“If you try to make me lick something, I’ll stab you with your own hotdog stick.”

Rob smiles placidly. “Does that mean you’re choosing dare?”

“Yeah, I’ll choose dare. Only because Heather thinks I wouldn’t.”

“I am shocked,” Heather says, deadpan. “My heart just stopped. Someone resuscitate me.”

Rob thinks, tapping his bearded chin. “Hmm. Okay, Joyce, I dare you to stand on this log and serenade us with the entire Friends theme song.”

“No,” Joyce gasps, horrified.

“She can’t,” Heather says. “She’s allergic to fun and spontaneity.”

“I’ll do it,” Joyce huffs. She balances on top of the log and sings—even managing a few reluctant dance moves—while the rest of you clap at the appropriate moments: “So no one told you life was going to be this way…your job’s a joke, you’re broke, you’re love life’s DOA…”

“Who do you choose, Joyce?” Kimmie asks when the song has ended.

“Heather, obviously.” She is delighted, anticipating revenge. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Heather says primly, winking as she sips her can of Surge.

“You bitch! Who’s allergic to fun now?!”

“So ask me a fun question.”

Joyce sighs in defeat. “What are the five best books you’ve ever read?”

“You’re pathetic.”

“I need new reading material…!”

Next, Heather dares Kimmie to get a Sharpie tattoo drawn on her face—producing a black marker from her hiking backpack—though she gives Kimmie the generous courtesy of choosing the artist herself. Kimmie asks Aegon to do it. He sketches a cartoonish little dragon on her right cheek. He’s wearing all black again: black parka, black turtleneck, black jeans, black combat boots. You pet Sunfyre while Aegon draws on Kimmie’s cheek with his right hand, holding her face still with his left. You hate seeing him touch her. The blood burns in your own face, in your throat, in your lungs, all over.

“It’s getting warm by the fire,” you say casually, and start taking off your parka; you still have a turquoise sweater and white thermal T-shirt on underneath.

“Here, let me help you…” Trent reaches over and tugs at your parka, his large hands forceful and intrusive somehow.

“I got it.”

“Just let me—”

“Trent, I got it!” you insist. He lifts his hands away in capitulation. Aegon has stopped drawing Kimmie’s dragon and is watching Trent, who fortunately doesn’t seem very offended. You finish taking off your parka and fold it up neatly, setting it beside you on the log. Sunfyre whimpers until you resume petting him. There is an uncomfortable lull; Joyce assembles another s’more, Heather pretends to inspect her chipping nail polish, the hotdog Rob is roasting catches on fire and he flings it into a snowbank. Aegon looks back to Kimmie and finishes her dragon, tucking the Sharpie absentmindedly into his jeans pocket once he’s done.

“Trent,” Kimmie says. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare, totally!”

“Hmm…” She wordlessly deliberates. “Oh, I know! I dare you to make out with the most beautiful girl here.” She beams, sweetly, innocuously. She thinks she’s giving you a compliment. Aegon’s jaw falls open and he glares at her, furious. Before Kimmie can notice, he clears his face and takes a swig of rum straight from the bottle.

Trent chuckles. “Easiest dare I’ve ever agreed to.” And then he turns towards you.

“Wait, right now?” you say nervously. “In front of everybody?”

“Or Trent can always dunk his face in the creek,” Heather suggests. Joyce nods along.

“Not necessary at all,” Trent replies cheerfully. “Right, babe?”

What can you say?

No, you think abruptly, jarringly. I don’t want him to touch me. I could say no.

But there’s something that stops you from refusing…or, more accurately, several things. Firstly, you can’t really refuse without making it evident to everyone that you are less than smitten with Trent. Secondly, if you’re going to be forced to watch Aegon have his hands all over Kimmie, the least you can do in return is stop pushing Trent’s away. And lastly…

I don’t want to make Trent angry. I don’t know what he’s capable of when he’s angry.

You can’t bring yourself to believe that Trent is a serial killer, his size 12 L.L.Bean boots notwithstanding; in your estimation, he lacks the brutality, the cunningness, the strategic thinking. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of hurting someone. That doesn’t mean you have no reasons to fear him.

“Okay,” you tell Trent, conjuring up a timid smile. “But, like, thirty seconds tops. PG-13, not R.”

“You got it.” He flips his hair off his forehead, grips your face rather roughly, and kisses you. His lips are soft and warm, but ravenously hungry; his tongue pushes into your mouth and explores you like a conqueror. He doesn’t try to feel you up—thank God—but one hand drops down to slink around your waist. You try to act like you’re enjoying this; but when Trent finally pulls away, your expression is palpably ashamed. You chug half a can of Surge to wash him out of you.

“Aww, no, she’s embarrassed!” Kimmie cries. She rushes over and squeezes in beside you on the edge of the log, constricting you in a familiar and theatrical embrace, stroking your hair. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” You can’t help but feel better. Kimmie has no boundaries, that’s true, but it’s not universally a bad thing. Aegon takes another swallow of his rum. He looks shellshocked; he looks despondent.

“My turn to pick someone now, right?” Trent says.

“Right,” Kimmie concurs.

“Babe,” he says to you. “Truth or dare?”

“Oh, definitely truth.” Everyone laughs…well, everyone except Aegon. He’s watching you now, chewing the corner of his bottom lip. His eyes are intense, dark, seeking. His wayward lock of white-blond hair rests on his cheek.

Trent asks you: “What is your ultimate fantasy?”

“Stop!” Heather begs her brother. “Stop being so…so…so slutty!”

“He didn’t say sexual fantasy,” Joyce counters. “She could tell us that her ultimate fantasy is moving to Los Angeles and becoming a vet to celebrities. She could work on those tiny purse dogs all day. Maybe she could even meet Ricky Martin.”

“Yeah,” Trent agrees, though perhaps halfheartedly. “Whatever kind of fantasy.”

You ponder this for a while before you speak. “I want to lie on the beach in San Diego, California. I want to hear the waves crashing and feel the sun beating down on me. And I want to throw fish to the sea lions and watch them waddle around, barking like dogs. That’s my fantasy. Oh, and I want to eat like a million tacos. Not Taco Bell tacos, real tacos.”

“Okay, but Ricky Martin would be there too, right?” Rob jokes, eliciting laughter from everyone except Aegon.

“Naked,” Joyce adds.

“Sure.” You smile a little pensively, a little mournfully. “Why not? Ricky Martin can be there too. It’s just a fantasy, after all. It’s not real.”

“Why haven’t you gone there yet, babe?” Trent asks sympathetically, scoring himself several good boyfriend points.

“Well, you know…there’s the vet clinic…and my family…the timing has just never been right.”

“You’ll go to San Diego one day,” Heather promises.

Kimmie nuzzles against you, resting her head on your shoulder. “She hasn’t gone yet because she’s a mature, responsible person, truly the best of us.”

“Because she’s a coward,” Aegon mutters.

Everyone goes quiet and stares at him. Aegon looks stunned, like he hadn’t intended to say that out loud. Sunfyre snorts and canters off into the woods.

“What?” you say.

Aegon shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“No, really. What did you just say?”

Rob tries to broker a peace. “It doesn’t matter—”

“It does matter.” Your voice is dark like night, cutting like glass. “You think it’s cowardly to have responsibilities? You think it’s cowardly to care about other people?”

Aegon gulps down more rum and glares at you through the campfire flames. “I think it’s cowardly to blame other people for your lack of a spine, yeah.”

“Aegon!” Kimmie scolds harshly, incredulously.

Trent begins: “Hey, man, not cool—”

“You know what’s really cowardly?” you level at Aegon like the barrel of a gun. “Spending your entire life running away from things—things that are worthwhile, things that you want, things that you are desperate for—because you’re too fucking weak to cope with the possibility of losing them.”

And then you stand, tearing away from Kimmie and Trent when they try to stop you. You flee into the trees, scalding tears brimming in your eyes. Branches rip at you; one carves a shallow gash across your cheek just below your left eye. Snow collapses under your boots.

Faintly, you can hear Aegon saying to the others: “I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll apologize.” And a few moments later, rapidly approaching: “Hey! Stop! Hey!”

“Leave me alone!” you scream over your shoulder. You run until you trip over a gnarled tree root and fall to the ground, sobbing, wet, cold, miserable.

Aegon catches up to you and bends over, gasping for air, his hands on his knees. Even from several feet away, you can smell the rum sweating out of him. “Are you psychotic?! You can’t just run off into the woods by yourself, there’s a killer on the loose!”

“Like you’d care if I got murdered!” you shout up at him. “It’d be the best day of your life, then you’d be free to fuck whoever you want and drink yourself to death without the inconvenience of having to be around me, boring, uptight, accountable, revoltingly cowardly me—!”

“God, you’re so fucking stupid—”

“Why are you even still here?! You could be jetting off to some other city, some other new adventure, you could leave anytime you wanted, so why if you hate me so much are you still here?!”

“Because I’m stuck here now!” he roars.

That doesn’t make any sense. That’s incompatible with absolutely everything about him. “Why?!”

He stands up straight and rubs his face with both hands. He’s calmer now; he’s trying to compose himself. His eyes are glistening, you realize. His cheeks are flushed. “Because of the Ice Fisher.”

“What are you talking about?”

He struggles to get it out. “I can’t leave…you…here…alone…until they catch whoever the killer is.”

You gaze up at him, not understanding. “Why do you care about what happens to me?”

“I think the answer to that is really obvious.”

“No, it’s not, because you don’t like me, you don’t respect me, you don’t want me—”

“I want you all the time,” Aegon says, and the feverish words in your throat vanish. “All the time. I pass out at night wanting you, I wake up hungover wanting you, I want you all the fucking time. I want you in the vet clinic, I want you in the bar, I want you in my apartment, I want you in the middle of the woods, I never for a single solitary goddamn second stop wanting you, and it’s hell, in case you’re wondering. But that’s not good enough for you. So now I’m the idiot. I’m never the one who gets left. I’m the one who leaves people, I’m the one who packs my bags in the middle of the night and catches a flight to the next city, I’m the one who runs away. It’s always me. But I showed you who I am and you couldn’t leave fast enough.”

Oh god, you realize. I can’t stop forgiving him. I can’t stop wanting him. I love him, I love him, I love him. “I wasn’t leaving you, Aegon. I was trying to fix you.”

“I’m not fixable!”

“But why?”

“I’m just not, I never have been, I’m never going to be. I can’t magically transform myself into the person you wish I was. Believe me, I would if I could, but I can’t. And I can’t stay here forever. I’m on a clock, I’m always on a goddamn clock. I’m just hoping they arrest the Ice Fisher before…before…” He trails off, staring vacantly into the wilderness.

“Before what?”

He says nothing. You haul yourself out of the snow and go to him. “Your face…” he whispers, touching the cut just beneath your eye.

“Before what, Aegon?” you ask, you plead. “I want to help you. I want to understand. What are you so afraid of? What is it? What the hell is it?”

He takes several steps away from you, looks down at his boots, stays that way for what feels like forever. “Okay,” he begins at last, his voice shaking.

Oh my god, he’s finally going to tell me. He really is. You brace yourself for the inevitable: he’s married, he’s a father, he’s being pursued by drug lords he’s indebted to, he’s a criminal, he’s a con artist, he’s a killer.

“My dad was the first investor in Microsoft.”

Your mind goes blank like a chalkboard wiped clean. “Microsoft…the…the company that’s worth $600 billion…?”

“Yeah. That one.” He gestures randomly. “My dad is a venture capitalist. So he owns equity stakes in a bunch of different businesses. When Bill Gates was just starting out, he and his partners needed money, so my dad invested and they gave him equity in return. A healthy slice of equity, because they weren’t worth anything yet. And so…as the company grew…”

“Wait, you’re a…?” You gawk at him. “You’re a…billionaire?!”

“Not me,” Aegon says. “Them! They’re the billionaires. Not me. I’m just a guy.”

“You are them, Aegon, because you’re the same people, you’re…you’re…”

“No, I’m not, because I left. I left when I was nineteen and I’ve never been back since. That was six years ago. Almost exactly six years ago.”

“You grew up in Miami,��� you say, your voice sounding very far away.

“Yeah. Gorgeous mansion on the ocean, boarding schools, yachts, golfing, parties with lobster and prime rib, all of it.”

“And you left…because…?”

“Because I was the oldest son and the heir to the empire, and I didn’t want any of it. I didn’t want to live in a suit, I didn’t want to stare at a screen all day, I didn’t want to spend my life scheming, counting, networking, grasping. And I was no good at anything. I was an abject failure by any possible metric, and everyone knew it. All I ever wanted to do was work outside where I could see the sun and the stars, drink, get high, play guitar and sing punk rock songs. All I wanted to do was live. So I left. There’s more to it than that—a lot more to it—but now you know where I came from. I’ve never told anybody that. Not once in the last six years.”

“You don’t talk to anyone from Miami? Ever? No letters, postcards, phone calls, nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“You don’t ever miss your family?”

He smiles grimly. “I’m glad that you’ve lived the kind of life that makes it next to impossible for you to comprehend why someone would want to run away from home and never look back. Really, I’m genuinely happy for you. But that’s just not my reality.”

The revelation hits you like a fist. “They’re still searching for you.”

Aegon nods. “One of them in particular.”

“Helaena?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

“I don’t want to tell you that.” He glances at your cut again and shudders. “I don’t know how he’s finding me. But he is. I’ve seen him twice.”

“Twice? Since you left home…?”

“He didn’t see me, but I saw him. From a distance both times. Once in Phoenix, once in San Francisco. Both around the six month mark. If I stay too long in one place, he finds me. And if he ever gets ahold of me, I won’t be able to stop him from dragging me back home. Nothing on earth can stop him when he wants something.”

“How can you be so sure it was him?” you say. “If it was from far away, maybe you were just imagining it…maybe you saw someone who looked kind of like him, and because you’re so afraid of being found you thought it was him, but it wasn’t really—”

“He’s very distinct looking. Very, very distinct looking. There’s no mistaking him.” Aegon picks up a handful of clean snow, takes a small clump of it between his fingers, wipes the length of your cut with it gently, carefully. It soothes the stinging. It cools the roaring blood in your face. “Every year there are less and less people without internet. If someone Googles my last name, my family is the first result that pops up. Articles about my father’s success, my mother’s grace and beauty and philanthropy, the socialite daughter, the degenerate eldest son. One day there will be nowhere left to hide.”

“You never tried to change your name?”

“To legally change my name, I’d have to publish a public announcement so creditors—or anyone else—can come forward and object to it if they have a reason. The media would pick it up. There would be headlines, news commentators, maybe even court hearings. My family would find out, and they would come get me.”

“They’re that determined? They’re that capable?”

“One of them, yes.”

“You can’t stay in Juneau,” you say, your voice splintering like thin ice.

“No, I can’t. Not forever. But hopefully long enough make sure you’ll be safe once I’m gone.”

You look at him. “Do you have any idea who the Ice Fisher could be?”

He shrugs, like if he ignores the possibility he can make it disappear. “Not really. I guess…I guess have one person I’m concerned about. I don’t really think it’s him, I can’t bring myself to believe that, I never thought he was capable of violence before, but now…now…something about him worries me. It keeps me awake at night.” He pauses. “It scares the hell out of me, because he’s so close to you.”

Trent. He means Trent. And I can’t disagree. “I don’t know what to do about him.”

“Don’t make him angry,” Aegon says urgently. “I’m not saying you have to do anything with him that you don’t want to, no, he doesn’t own you, he shouldn’t bully you into anything. I’m just saying to avoid confrontations. And try not to be alone with him.”

“I understand. I won’t make him angry.”

Aegon takes the Sharpie out of his pocket. “Here. Give me your arm.” You do so without any hesitation. He considers your left palm, then decides against it: too noticeable, too easy to get smudged. He pushes your sleeve up to your elbow and writes a phone number across the soft skin of your forearm in black ink. “This is for if he ever tries to do anything that you’re not cool with. Or if you just need to talk. Okay?”

“Okay,” you agree quietly.

He puts the cap on the Sharpie and tucks it away again. Out of the trees appears Sunfyre, panting and jubilant to see you both. He accepts pats and scratches and then heads back towards the campfire. You and Aegon follow him, walking close enough to touch each other but not daring to.

“You’re alive!” Heather rejoices when she sees you. And then she glowers at Aegon. “Get over here. I’m going to gut you like a deer, Greek boy.”

“It’s fine,” you say. “We talked, we’re friends again, everything’s good.”

“Really?” Kimmie asks hopefully.

“Yup,” Aegon says, standing beside her but making no eye contact.

“You better be.” Trent grins, hugs you—lifting you clear off the ground—and then notices where the branch gashed your cheek. “What happened to your face, babe?”

“Just a tree. I ran into it, it’s my fault. I can clean it up when I get home.”

“That’s the great thing about being a doctor,” Trent says brightly. “Even an animal doctor. You can fix almost anything yourself.”

You glance at Aegon, heavy with a steely grey fog like grief. “Yes. Almost anything.”

You ride home the same way you arrived to the hiking expedition, with Trent and Heather; Aegon and Sunfyre leave in Kimmie’s pink Land Cruiser. When you get inside, the first thing you do is write down Aegon’s phone number on a Post-it note and stick it inside the top drawer of your nightstand. You shower, tend to your shallow cut—“not too bad, ladybug,” your dad offers supportively, “not too bad at all”—and help your mom make dinner: reindeer sausage from Mr. Campbell’s farm, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, broccolini, homemade chocolate bread for dessert. Not quite prime rib and lobster, you think dazedly, your mind swimming.

Hours later, as you lay in bed gazing up at your ceiling, you can’t stop hearing what Aegon said, his voice deep and raw and achingly beautiful. I want you all the time. I never for a single solitary goddamn second stop wanting you.

You get out the Post-it note, pick up the phone on top of your nightstand, dial the number for Aegon’s shabby little apartment on the other side of Juneau. He answers almost immediately. He’s very tipsy, but alert.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” you say softly, and only silence follows. You wring the phone’s blue spiral cord between restless fingers. “It’s—”

“I know who it is.” Now you can hear that he’s smiling. “What can I do for you, Appletini?”

“Tell me about San Diego.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” you say. And then again: “Everything.”

And that’s exactly what he does: he paints a vision with his words, he tells you about driving through the Mars-red canyons and peaks of the Laguna Mountains until you crest the top and see the Pacific Ocean, endless and sapphire blue and glittering under sunlight that bakes the shadows from your bones. He tells you about the surfers, the dolphins, the cliffsides, the sea lions, the sailboats, the hot air balloons and kites and parasailers, the historic district of the city that still remembers its origins as a Spanish fort and mission. You can almost see it; you can almost reach out and touch it.

You listen to Aegon until you fall asleep, the phone tumbling out of your grasp and onto the pillow beside you; and even then, your dreams are filled with him.

[cartooncartoonpanic]

#004 On the brink

(CW: Medical trauma, mentions of child test subjects and amputations)

You ask Blossom if she's still a superhero, and this, at least, she seems excited to talk about.

"Well...crime's kind of slowed down in the past few years. Obviously we haven't been fighting you. Mojo got taken to a facility outside of the city I think. Him got kind of bored since we aren't as scared anymore-"

"Yeah, too bored to be a parent" You interrupt, understandably bitter that the man who brought you back to life never checked up on you in the past few years.

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't... You don't have to apologize for what HE did. Keep going. "

"Well...I think Sedusa got a modelling contract or something? Someone in the Gangreen gang joined a popular band I think and they all went for a tour, Fuzzy invested in some ear plugs and doesn't really care about what goes on in Townsville, and the Ameboa boys...well they're still at it I guess. So yeah...we don't really go out as a team anymore like that" That last part did sound a bit sad.

"That's really all the big criminals in Townsville?" You could have sworn there was another one who he had met before

"Oh right, Princess...that's an entire situation" She whispered and tried to hint with her eyes at someone else in the room.

"She's not a criminal anymore but...she's still sort of our enemy. Or at least making Bubbles' life harder..." Sure enough a girl in a suit with gold trim and a crown hair clip was looking at both of you. Was that Princess? Did she know you were talking about her?

"Do you do any fighting?" You change the subject back, agreeing that it's probably for the best not to get into any drama.

"To be honest...I'm kind of a soloist these days. I don't know if thats the term...but Bubbles has her veterenarian internship and Buttercup has a pretty intense training schedule so usually I'm the one who takes on any new villains who pop up. Aside from this mech robot guy though, most of them don't come back. The process is a bit different though. Since its just me most of the time, I wear a costume and use a cool nickname. It's a secret though" She seemed to be having a lot of fun.

You wonder briefly, if you were a hero with a secret identity, and did all of the things that the girls did, would people praise you? Give you the benefit of the doubt? Stop treating you like a dangerous criminal? Was it possible for you, of all people, to be good? But you don't vocalize these thoughts. Especially not to her. And definitely not now of all times.

You ask Blossom if she knows anybody else here, aside from the obvious she and her siblings, you and your siblings, and princess.

"Hmmm...I think so. Some of them I only know from tv but if you mean personally...The guy with the striped shirt is one of Buttercups workout partners...I remember his name also starts with a B but I don't know what it is. And then that guy with the white hair is Edd.

Apparently his two best friends are named that too. I know, confusing... They seem exhausting to be around when they're all together but Edd's pretty nice when it's just us. We were in chess club together. The girl with the ballet shoes the really tall blonde one, her name is Deedee, and she was a big fan of my sisters and I when she was younger so we got asked to come to her birthday party as special guests and our parents got along enough that we went over to their house pretty often. And then there's her brother~" She dreamily sighed before covering her mouth, embarassed.

So she had a crush. For some reason the thought bothered you a lot. Maybe it was because you wished she spoke about you that way. Maybe it's because the fact that she's able to be comfortable enough with someone to fall in love is more proof that she got to live a happy normal life, while you didn't. Is there anything that's fair?

"I wonder why all of these people are here though. Do you know any of them?"

You look around. Aside from the obvious of the powerpuff girls, your own brothers, and princess, nobody seems like someone you've seen before. Except...there's a guy with black hair in what seems to be goggles and a cape. Even among villains people would think this guy is trying to hard and this is coming from the kid of a monkey who wore a turban. You could have sworn you recognized that face. you don't remember where you saw him, but just looking at him makes you tense.

Wait. He recognizes you too.

And he's coming towards you.

A flood of memories come back to you and leave you paralyzed at the same time. The sterile white walls. The injections. The blood samples. The sedatives.

The invasive examinations. The terrifying people in lab coats. The repeated talk about how this is all you would be good for.

The amputation.

YOU'RE CERTAIN THIS IS THE MAN WHO RUINED YOUR LIFE

Your panic becomes rage as everything around you tunes out. There is no hotel dining room. There are no other people. It's you and the evil scientist. He's speaking but you can barely hear him over everything racing through your head. Even now he doesn't have a sense of boundaries. He seems to be trying to pull your jacket off of your body, saying something about not believing they went through with it. At first you dont know what he's doing until he grabs your arm. Or rather...your metal prosthetic arm.

[piracytheorist]

Hello love!! 🌷🌷

I'm not sure if you've talked about this before but....

The intro of season 1 part 2 is from loid's pov i think?? It just makes so much sense that way (that's why there's so less of loid in it and yor just looks so pretty in it (she always does tho tbh))

And also also, in the penguin episode where the forgers go to the aquarium, loid and your are sorta matching (the white and blue stripes) that was so cute help

I'm obsessed with spy x family and I'm desperately waiting for the new chapters and anime 😭😭

Hiiii 💜💜

About the opening, I think the song more than the visuals themselves is from Loid's POV. The intro shows Yor with her stilettos in her hands, obviously on her way to an assassination, and it also shows a flashback moment of Yor and Yuri where he buries his dead pet goldfish.

At this point, Loid doesn't know Yor is an assassin, so there's no reason for him to "see" Yor like that, and he shouldn't know about that flashback moment either.

Now, there are definitely moments that seem to be from his POV.

But the main vibe I'm getting from the visuals is "Sad life background vs. wholesomeness in a family"

According to a translation of the song by @akehono, (which for me, who doesn't know any Japanese, is the clearest translation of this song I've found, other translations were too confusing) I think Loid fits the most as the POV character of it. While being part of the Forgers brought more light into Anya and Yor's lives, they never truly locked their hearts away - Loid has.

So yeah, because I've seen this take before, I think the intro explores different POVs - the thing is though, that the Loid-centric moments have a little more distance.

He's not openly affectionate, his expressions are more restrained, and because of that, the focus on Anya and Yor's happy faces stands out.

He still has his heart locked away, but he's on his way towards opening it.

So I think it's more of a "multiple POV but Yor and Anya are at the same place emotionally while Loid holds back" kind of thing.

As for the matching blue and white stripes!! Anya matches too!

There seems to be a t-shirt or something under her dress, that also has blue and white stripes. I'm sure if they had Bond at this point they'd wrap a blue-and-white-striped scarf or something around his neck. They are so cute!

I'm SO excited for the new season, for me it's been an even longer wait because I don't read the manga so the last "new" thing I saw was last December XD

You're welcome to come talk to me about the show (just be mindful to not spoil me about manga stuff!), I am also super obsessed with it I could talk about it all day :D

[trashiewrites]

You remembered?

Pairing: John Price x Celine Oswell (OC)  Words:1544 warnings: none Notes: OC CONTENT OC CONTENT! Thx to people like @pricescigar and @sleepyconfusedpotato for the courage with their amazing content to do more OC stuff! <3 I was squealing the entire time making this!

ART OF THE PHOTO MENTIONED IN THE FIC

Two kids played in a large grass field, a boy and a girl. The two laughed and giggled as they ran around, slowly catching up to each other. "I'm going to get you, Celine!"

"In your dreams, Jonathan!" She stuck out her tongue and ran faster. Under their feet, the dirt was mush, but they didn't seem to care. His arm extended fully, so close to grabbing the back of her shirt. Victory tickled the tip of his tongue and a wide grin on his face.

"Almost-" That was before the sight of her striped sweater left his view. "What the!" In his attempt to turn around, his foot slipped from under him. Leading the poor boy to fall back on the muddy ground, "Celine!" The girl laughed at a small distance, holding her stomach from the pain.

"Look who wins today!" She wiped a stray tear from her eye, "You ready to admit it, John? I outsmarted you!"

"Never." He spoke quietly, trying to stand up; he winced in pain. "Ow!" Celine looked back at him; her face was no longer grinning.

"Hey, you alright?" She took a step closer. "Don't tell me you pulled something..."

"I don't think so; can you help me up?" John extended his hand out, and Celine huffed before heading over.

"John, I swear to god! You better not pull anything funny!" She took his hand in hers and began to pull. John, instead of getting up. He swiped her feet, causing her to slip and fall back. "JOHN!"

"How does it feel, Celine!" He laughed aloud, "Thinking I wouldn't get revenge!" he moved to sit next to her, "Also," he whispered, "You're it~"

"That's not fair! I won, fair and square!" She crossed her arm and looked away from him, "Now look, my skirt is all messy!"

"Not like you care about getting messy," John said sarcastically. He secretly grabbed a handful of mud, smearing it on the side of her skirt. "Isn't that your favorite part?" She looked with her mouth agape; quickly, it turned into a grin.

"Oh, you did not just," she scooped some and planted it upon his blue shirt, "Two can play that game!" The two quickly stood and began hurling mud at each other. The chaos didn't cease until the two huffed from exhaustion, calling truces and moving to more dry land to collapse on. The two sat side to side; John looked at the sky while Celine looked at their clothes. "Our moms are going to KILL us."

"We can deal with that later," John used a hand to lift her head, "Look at the sunset; Isn't it pretty?" She grabbed his hand and held it tight. The shades of red and yellow painted the sky like a painting; it took her breath away. Her eyes grew wide, fascinated by the array she saw. From the side, John chuckles.

"What's so funny?" Celine looked over with a confused look. John covered his mouth, looking elsewhere. "Hey! Come on, what did you laugh about?"

"Nothing."

"Not buying it!"

"Fine..." John playfully groaned, "I find it funny how we have seen the sunset together so many times."

"And?" She leaned closer, "Do you not want to anymore!"

"No, no, no..." John pushed her lightly, sharing a quick laugh, "It's just that every time we see the sunset, you have the same reaction."

"Every time?"

"Every single time." The two sat silently for a while, looking as the sun disappeared. Celine shyly looked back and forth between the boy next to her and the sky.

"John, do you think we'll be married one day?" She held tightly to his hand. He looked back at her undeniably, shocked. "Mum said she and Papa were friends for a long time before getting married... So, do you think we would?" John took a deep breath, rubbing the back of his neck. He had known her practically his entire life, but the idea lingered in his head.

"I mean, I guess I wouldn't mind..." She grasped his hand deathly tight, hearing his response. She squirmed with joy and hugged her best friend tightly.

"Ya know, they say that you get married, you take the other's last name!" Celine chuckled, "Think about it, Jonathan Oswell... I think it has a good ring to it!" John pushed her away gently.

"You know they usually take the man's name, right?" He leaned back on his hand, " My mum's last name was Wilco before meeting my pa."

"Does it have to be that way though?" Celine tilted her head curiously, "My mama still used her last name! I don't know about my dad." John shrugged and thought to himself for a moment.

"I don't know; I honestly think Celine Price doesn't sound bad." She hummed upon hearing the name, looking puzzled to pick which. To her, both sounded cool and had a ring to them.

"Ah! We'll worry about it later!" Celine stood up, "We have plenty of time anyway!"

"Celine!!" In the distance, they hear voices call, "Jonathan! Come along, both of you; it's getting late!" Celine looked behind over the hill her mother came. She stood still in shock as she saw the two, "What in the world happened to you two? Covered in mud, must have had lots of fun."

"We did, mama! Tons and tons of fun; we did so much!" Celine grinned ear to ear; her mother smiled sweetly at the two.

"Tell me about it on the way back; dinner's wait for you, little lady." She ruffled Celine's hair, "I'm sure your mother's expecting you too, John."

"I'm sure she is, Mrs. Oswell; I hope she won't mind the mud." On the way back, both took turns telling everything that happened that day, everything but the little marriage talks. Reaching Celine's doorstep, her mother stops them both at the door.

"Stay here; I want to take a picture of you two!" She rushed in, back not even a minute later with a camera. "Alrighty, stand next to each other and give me a big smile, okay?" Celine's mother kneeled, putting the camera to her face. "Say cheese!"

"Cheese!" the two said in unison, a quick flash, and a click later.

Yet that was 14 years ago; hell, maybe even more. John Price held the polaroid in his hands. Surely, it had seen better days but that didn't matter. The photo itself was a gift handed to him before leaving for the forces by her. He made a promise to come to visit; which he hasn't been able to do at all since his family moved away from his old family home. He felt horrible; not a second goes by when he never thought of her. Now years later, she's sat right there. Right in front of him, in the most unlikely of situations. His fingers fidget with the Polaroid, glancing down at it once more before sliding it into his pocket.

She sat at the edge of the railing, staring off into the moonlight. Her long hair moved gently with the wind. She was in disbelief of such a reunion but part of her hidden filled with joy. She felt such bitterness in his unkept promises. Yet knowing, none of it was his fault. It pained her to see his face, every time she did, she was left speechless. No words come when there is so much, she wished to say. It left her frustrated and confused.

John took a step to the railing, leaning against it, and stared up at the sky as she did. The cool Russian breeze nipped at his face. From time to time, he'd look over and just stare. It amazed him how she was much more beautiful than he remembered. Her blue eyes mirrored the stars, though her face and expressions matured; he could still that look in her eyes. "You know," he spoke, "I still think Celine Price sounded better... Ya know," Celine looked over to him, eyes wide with shock yet also curious.

"You remembered that?" She chuckled, her lips curving to a small smile. He inched ever so closer to her.

"It's a core memory to me; I couldn't forget that..." he pulled the polaroid from his pocket and motioned it to her, "to be honest, you are the single thing that has never left my mind. I am a man of few regrets, but my biggest one was leaving you, Celine." Celine took the photo; seeing her younger self was odd to her. Such good times had long since passed, yet she yearned for days like those again. "Celine," John spoke softly, interrupting Celine's train of thought, "how about when this is all over, we make up some lost time? Perhaps, a few dinners?" Celine burst into laughter, leaning back enough that she almost fell. John moved behind her, bracing her before she completely fell. "What's so funny?"

"After all these years, John, you still are so awkward about this!" She muttered between her chuckles. She took a deep breath; before comfortably resting her back on his chest, "but yes, I would love to. After we finish the mission, of course."

"Naturally..." John wrapped his arms around her waist; she placed a hand atop his. "I've missed you, Celine."

"I've missed you too, Jonathan... I'm glad you remembered."

[iamvegorott]

My Boy Part 1 of 3

This is a commission by the one and only @voonespelle I hope the rest of you enjoy it as well!

Summary: When Yancy comes to the Iplier Manor, Dark feels a strange bond with him and soon discovers that he is the missing child of Celine, which, in turn, makes Yancy his child as well. Yancy is now thrown into a new life with a new parent and a new large family to adjust to

A New Iplier

“Maybe they won’t be humanoid?” Wilford suggested from his spot on the arm of the couch, barely even sitting on it with how excited he was. 

“Oh! Like a big ol’ blob of tentacles?” Bing suggested, bouncing to his feet from the other couch to gesture with his arms. 

“Please don’t suggest anything with tentacles in this place,” Google said with a groan. 

“Why not, dude?”  

“I have several answers to that question, and Wilford is one of them.” Google yanked down on Bing’s arm and made him sit again. 

“Why is Wilford an answer?” Bing only got a look from Google. 

“Really? He is well-known to-” 

“Nope. We are not having this discussion right now.” Edward stopped Bim from finishing that sentence. When Bim looked like he was going to protest, Edward placed his hand on his head. He turned it to make Bim look at CJ and RJ who both had confused faces. 

“Nevermind.” Bim did not want to be the one to explain that to the twins, especially when he knew Dark was also in the room and would not be the…happiest about that.  

Dark stood at the edge of the room, leaning against the entryway with his arms crossed. He appeared to be away from the group, but to those who knew how the place functioned, he was right where he needed to be. Dark could see everything in the room, the door, the windows, and the entrance to the kitchen. He would seem closed off to strangers with his arms crossed, but his leaning told the others he was free to be spoken to casually. Although one of them never cared to see if Dark was open for conversation and just did so. 

“Do you have any guesses?” Wilford was no longer on the couch and stood right next to Dark. 

“They can be anything as long as they’re calm and peaceful,” Dark stated.

“So, they need to be another girl?” Yandere said with a big giggle. 

“You say that like you’re peaceful.” Bim teased. “You’ve stabbed almost as many people as Wilford’s shot that wasn’t work-related.” 

“A girl has to defend herself,” Yandere said with a little huff and a flick of her hair. 

“You stabbed a man because he gave you a ‘strange look’ after you stabbed a different man.” 

“No witnesses.” Yandere casually crossed her legs. 

“She gets that from you,” Wilford said with a playful nudge to Dark’s side, getting an eye roll from him. 

“What if they’re a child one?” Edward suggested. “We never know what age the Ego will take until they appear.” 

“If it’s another kid, that’s another one for Dark to adopt.” Bing laughed, feeling the glare Dark gave him, and he moved to hide behind Google. 

“Both of you are half correct and half wrong.” Host’s voice stuck out from the group, nearly feeling like it had echoed without being loud.

“What does that mean?” Dark didn’t get an answer to his question as there was a knock on the door.   

“I got it!” Bing rushed over, getting himself a little further from Dark. He swung open the door and shouted hello to the newest Iplier.  

“Uh…hi?” The man awkwardly stepped into the house, arms crossed and body slightly slouched over. He wore a white shirt and black and white striped pants. Tattoos were on his arms, knuckles, and neck. His hair slicked back, and he looked extremely uncomfortable. 

“Earth to Dark?” Wilford sang softly, waving a hand at Dark’s face when he noticed he was staring at the man. “Am I going to need to call Anti?”

“Something’s off,” Dark stated. Wilford lowered his hand when there was no reaction to the Anti comment. 

“Off?” 

“I can’t explain it. Something about him seems…familiar?” 

“In a good way or a bad way?” 

“I don’t know.” Dark straightened up when he saw Bing making his way over to them with the man.

“These two are the big ones you’ll want to know.” Bing gestured at Wilford and Dark. 

“Wilford Warfstache.” Wilford greeted with a big smile, sticking his hand out. The man looked at the hand for a moment before nodding and taking it. 

“Yancy.” His name got Dark to stiffen, that feeling of familiarity hitting him stronger. It was to the point that it was almost frustrating that he couldn’t place it. 

“Got’cha!” Wilford gave Yancy’s hand a good shake. He let it go and pointed to Dark. “And this guy, right here, is the main man of the Manor, Darkiplier. Everyone just calls him Dark. Unless you’re An-”

“Enough.” Dark cut Wilford off, finally coming back to the present. “Welcome to the Manor. As you’ve heard, I am the one in charge. I will be taking you to where you’ll be staying.” With that, he turned and started walking. Yancy hesitated before Wilford gave him a nudge towards where Dark had headed off, and he did a quick jog to catch up. 

“Did yous all already have a room for me or somethin?” Yancy asked, voice clear enough for Dark to note his distinctive accent.

“The Manor creates one whenever we have a new Iplier,” Dark answered.

“A new…what?” 

“That will come to make sense in time. If I told you everything now, you’d get overwhelmed. It will all start to make sense as reality finishes adjusting itself.”

“Okay?”

“Once your room appears, everyone else will know where it is, and you will know the location of the others’ rooms as well. Don’t ask how that works. It just does.”  

“I miss prison already,” Yancy muttered to himself. 

“You will be given time to adjust and adapt to how everything works around here, and then you will need to meet the others.”

“Others?”

“Yes, others.” Dark stopped, and, in the next blink, a door appeared on the wall next to them. “There are two other groups of people like us. We all work together to ensure funding is well beyond our needs and help if there is an unexpected change.” 

“When yous say work together, yous mean like a job? What do all of yous do?” 

“That is a different conversation to have when you settle. We adjust according to what the individual can do.” Dark took the doorknob. “Now, let’s see what…” His voice trailed off after opening the door.

“The fuck?” Yancy said when he looked into the room as well. “Why do I have a nursery?” 

“I know this nursery.” Dark stepped into the room. It dug into a deep, deep part of Dark’s brain. He knew this room.

He had designed it himself.

Well…it wasn’t ‘him’ but a part of who he used to be. 

“Are we in the wrong room? Cause I ain’t a baby.” Yancy took a step into the room as well. He and Dark watched as the room slowly morphed, taking the form of a room more fitting for an adult. “Alright…that was weird.” 

“Yancy?” Dark repeated the name. 

“Yeah?” Yancy thought he was about to be asked something.

“There’s…no way…but…” Dark turned to face Yancy. “You’re my son.” 

“You’re hilarious.” Yancy rolled his eyes

“I’m not joking.” Dark’s tone changed, it becoming soft. The aura around him showing only red at this point. 

“Cut it out.” Yancy took a step back. 

“I can explain. Before, I was who I am today. A part of me was a woman named Celine. She was a seer with advanced magical abilities. After giving birth to you, she feared that you were in danger and sent you through the best way to put it, time, and now the universe has shifted in a way to bring you here. You’re my son. I know that on your left hip, there’s a brown birthmark that almost looks like a heart.” Dark didn’t know how he knew half that stuff, but it all came out as if someone else was speaking it. He also didn’t notice how Yancy’s eyes grew wider and wider. Pure panic was on his face when Dark mentioned his birthmark. 

“Stop it!” Yancy screamed and then ran off, bumping into Wilford but kept going. 

“Do I need to get him?” Wilford asked.

“Let him go. He’s going to need a moment.” Dark rubbed at his face, a strong wave of emotions hitting him. “The way he went, I know where he’ll end up.”

“What happened?” Wilford stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, assuming this was a conversation for only them.

“Long story short, Yancy is Celine’s son…my son.” Dark made a face, showing Wilford that saying those words was odd for him. He was still trying to understand himself what was going on. 

“He’s the kid?” Wilford hummed. “I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. Thought he was gone off somewhere else forever.” 

“You knew?” Dark was now trying to dig into those memories again.

“Yeah, Celine asked me to help when she was pregnant. That’s how the whole ‘affair’ thing happened. She didn’t think the father could be a good one.” Wilford spoke casually, now nosing through the room to see what the Manor gave Yancy. 

“That explains a lot.” Dark was now rubbing his temples, a headache starting to form.

“So, what’s the plan then?” Wilford's brow raised when he opened a desk drawer and saw drawing supplies. 

“Right now, I’m going to give him some time. I’ll do the usual lap, check on the others, and then I’ll speak to him.” Dark lowered his hands and let out a sigh.

“Just let me know the deal, and I’ll go with whatever.” Wilford strolled over to the closet and was about to open it but was stopped by Dark grabbing his arms. 

“That’s enough snooping,” Dark said as he guided Wilford out of the room. 

“You never let me look in the closets,” Wilford whined.

x~x~x

Dark finished speaking to almost everyone in the Manor, checking that they knew where the room was and if there were any changes to themselves. So far, everyone was all the same, and there were no other signs of interference. He and Wilford were the only ones with a different connection to Yancy from their past. 

Eventually, Dark went to where he knew Yancy would be, along with the final Ipliers he needed to check on. He went out the back door and saw Yancy sitting at the edge of the grass yard. Yancy had his knees tucked under him, arms hugging them to his chest, and his chin rested on his knees as he watched Yandere, Bim, CJ, and RJ play out in the yard and on one of the swingsets out there. 

Without a word, Dark sat himself down next to Yancy. He watched the four playing as well, smiling a little at the scene of RJ and CJ pulling Bim up a slide while Yandere was laughing and tickling Bim, making him squirm and making it harder for the twins to pull him. The two of them just sat there for a good while, just watching, and Yancy was the one to break the silence. 

“Why yous give me up?” Yancy didn’t look at Dark as he asked that question. 

“There wasn’t much choice.” Dark chewed on his lip. “It was the only way to make sure you were safe.” He heard Yancy scoff at that and was expecting him to say something about that, but instead, he got another question. 

“Who’s my dad then?” 

“I-” Dark really wasn’t expecting that. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to answer. He knew he had to say something or risk Yancy running away again. “He’s…well…he’s complicated. All of this is complicated. And, to be honest, I hope you never meet him, or at least you won’t be alone if you do.” 

“So I’d have fucked up parents no matter what?” Yancy let out a sigh. “Great, I love this, this is just perfect.” He started talking with his hands, words spilling out. “I’m going from havin’ shit parents that I had to kill with my own hands to save myself because the one that gave birth to me sent me off because my birth father is a fucking nightmare as well. Why couldn’t I have just been left where I was? I was doing just fine there. I don’t want to find myself gettin' attached just to have it torn away again. I ain’t having it, I ain't.”

“You won’t have to.” Dark only spoke when Yancy stopped. 

“How do yous know?”  

“Firstly, it’ll take a lot to kill one of us.” Dark weakly chuckled, trying to help the mood a bit. “And we’re also very different from the average household. We’re loud, chaotic, and messy, but we’re caring of each other. Willing to kill to protect one another. You’re one of us, which means you fall under that. It will take time to believe that, but it’s true. You’re an Iplier, and you’re stuck with us now.” 

“I guess.” Yancy let out a sigh. “I’m used to stickin’ out, being the weird one, but I’ll try to work with it.” 

“Being an odd one means you’ll fit in just fine.” Dark placed a hand on Yancy’s shoulder, giving him a smile when he finally looked at him.  

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

Part 2: Link

Part 3: Link

AO3: Link

[deathon1leg]

we all know by now that blue represents mike and yellow represents will but... i’m also a FIRM believer that red represents el. (and this is a good thing for byler!)

here’s why.

⚠️spoilers ahead for all of st but mostly s4⚠️

this is gonna be a long one, so, strap in. i promise i’ll make it worth your time!!

also, i’m sure someone’s talked about this at least a little already so i’m sorry if i end up reiterating someone else’s point!

i’m gonna be focusing mainly on season 4, but i wanna start by saying stranger things has always heavily utilized primary colors, aka blue, red, and yellow, for characters’ clothing, set design, lighting, and promotion. now, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean anything but things add up when we get further into it.

here are just a few examples:

in the poster, clothing, and even the background lights in the s3 mall pic, primary colors are the main ones used.

so... what’s with the colors?

if you’re here you probably know fellow delusional bylers have made wonderful analysis posts about the strategic use of yellow and blue to represent will and mike, and i’ll add some links if i can find them, but to summarize: will is most seen wearing yellow, mike is most seen wearing blue, and they often wear each other’s colors in elements of their outfits. here’s a couple examples from season 4:

anyway, these are obviously two out of three of the primary colors that stranger things loves to use so much, and mike and will could be considered two out of three of the main characters.

the third primary color is red.

the third main character is el.

i know this sounds like a reach, but hear me out, okay?

eleven is often seen wearing red. it’s hard to say if it’s to the extent that mike and will wear their own colors because of all the time she’s spent in her hospital gown or the sensory deprivation suit, but it’s definitely prominent. mike and will’s outfits also often have red in them, just as el’s outfits often have blue and yellow.

she usually doesn’t wear a LOT of red, it’s almost always an accenting color to the rest of the outfit. i’ll explain what i think the reason for this is later, and more on why i think it’s her color. this is just me establishing this notion so we can get into it.

what does the use of each color in their outfits mean?

mike, will, and el’s clothes often include each other’s colors, be it a whole shirt or a few stripes, as you can see in some of the pictures above.

from what i’ve gathered the use of each color indicates how much the wearer is thinking about the character it represents, or how important the character currently is to the wearer. this includes when they’re wearing their own color.

i think el beginning to wear more red than she used to signifies her becoming more of her own person, which could also be why she still doesn’t wear that much of it—her life since escaping the lab has been all about saving the world and obsessing over her boyfriend, she hasn’t had time to fully realize who she is as a person.

that, and the idea that the the colors they’re wearing correlate to who they’re thinking about/who’s important to them helps put the s4 ending scene in better context.

i believe (at least in this scene) that white symbolizes neutrality, as in either no specific person at all or maybe every person as a whole. i included her white sensory deprivation tank outfit because i think it encapsulates neutrality, because being in one of those makes it feel like you’re sort of floating in nothingness.

her outfit in the last scene of s4 is almost completely white with a little bit of pink on the bottom of her sleeves and the flowers in her shirt, and an even smaller amount of yellow and green as a part of the flowers. mike’s confession and max’s near-death might’ve caused her numbness and/or confusion, explaining the neutrality. pink is just a lighter version of red (or red + white) showing that her sense of self is still there, but dimming. then there’s yellow for will, and green for will + mike. there’s no blue at all—she’s probably just done with mike’s shit.

even though i’m focusing on clothes i should point out that all around her in the field are yellow, red, and blue flowers. from some camera angles yellow flowers are the majority which could be hinting at will becoming the main character again in s5. all of the flowers are dying as the upside down takes over their world, and the sky flashes with red lightning. el picks up a dead flower and you can’t tell at that point what color it was, but it might’ve been yellow based on the others in the bunch, which... i’m not actually sure what that means.

the dying flowers look a whole lot like the ones mike brought her in the airport and they’re even the same colors, suggesting a m*leven breakup.

the previous “person they’re thinking about” theory also goes for set design and lighting, but in terms of clothes, here are some of what are imo the most concrete examples of this in s4

in the top left, will’s waiting for mike to arrive at the airport and he’s SO excited to see him and give him his painting. his shirt is all blue, because his head is completely full of mike.

in the top middle, mike is having a serious argument with el but he doesn’t really care about it. he’s mostly thinking about himself hence the blue shirt, and thinking a little bit about will, hence the thin yellow stripes.

in the top right, el’s shirt is blue and the flannel over it has blue and red stripes, but the base of the flannel... is green. green = blue + yellow. to be fair, the brightness on that picture is significantly turned up and in the original it mostly looks blue, but there is undeniably green in there, especially in other pics. she wore this during her and mike’s fight and while being arrested when mike was telling her that he would fix everything. i don’t think she believed him. i think the green is her beginning to get suspicious.

in the middle, will is emotionally supporting el during her presentation and comforting her when she gets bullied, so his shirt is mostly red stripes. it’s very hard to see here but there are super thin lines of blue, yellow, and green between the red ones.

in the bottom left, el’s dress has big blue, red, purple, and green stripes with scribbles of yellow on most of them. once again green = blue + yellow, but the ones on her dress are leaning more toward blue. then of course, purple = blue + red, mike and el. the stripes on her flannel are blue with yellow on the edges. she’s excited to see her boyfriend for the first time in a while, and will’s tagging along, so she’s thinking about all of them, including herself, and her and mike as a couple.

in the bottom middle, mike’s hat is mostly blue and orange. orange = red + yellow, so he’s thinking about el and will at the same time, and blue means he’s thinking about himself. there’s also some blue-ish green and a few small red circles for el. he wears this when he first arrives in cali, showing that his mind is pretty much split on will and el even though he gives el all his attention.

lastly, in the bottom right is another shot of mike’s cali outfit with his t-shirt being blue and his over-shirt being yellow. this illustrates even further that he’s thinking a lot about will even when seeing his gf for the first time in ages and focusing on her! even his glasses chain is yellow! mike wheeler i know what you are.

so. that was long. but we’re not done yet.

does each character’s color have a deeper meaning?

honestly, yes, i think so.

i’m not some color theory (or film theory) expert and even the small bits i’ve gathered could be wrong, but here’s what i think:

will’s yellow represents the sun

mike’s blue represents the sky

el’s red represents the upside down

let me elaborate.

i’m mostly gonna go in depth for my thoughts on el to support my “red” theory, but i’ll start with will and mike.

the sun and the sky go hand-in-hand, you can’t have one without the other... kinda like two boys we know. they’re also (at least to me) the most obvious blue and yellow “duo”s i can think of, and there’s lots of symbolism of them that fits mike and will as a duo.

i can’t think of a lot of examples for this off the top of my head, but notice the pictures of will being hit with direct sunlight while mike’s in the shadows beside him. also a picture of el during her fight with mike in nearly the same spot as the pic of will next to it, but no sunshine is on her. this could be meant to show us how mike views will vs how he views her.

mike is the vast, never-ending sky and will is the giant, warming star that lights him up.

okay, now for el. this one’s important.

el opened the first ever gate to the upside down—this is one of the most crucial plot points in the entire show, let alone for just her character. el sent 001 to the upside down and he created his own area of it to keep his victims in. el bleeds out of her nose when she uses her powers, and out of her eyes and ears if she overworks herself.

in general, she has a connection to the upside down and vecna different from any other person in the show.

all of these things are red.

are you convinced yet?

what do their colors mean in relation to each other?

as i just mentioned, will and mike represent the sun and the sky, some of the most basic symbols for the universe and the earth out there. the sun and the sky are worldly, natural, supposed to be there.

here’s where things look up for byler.

i wanna preface this by saying i absolutely LOVE eleven. she’s always been one of my favorite characters, and i’ve been watching since the beginning. i’m not trying to say she’s unnatural or not meant to be with the rest of the group, hell no. this is just my interpretation of what the show has given us and what it could be for the future of mike, will, and el.

el’s red represents the upside down, which is quite literally the opposite of worldly, a dreadful mirror of the natural universe. this isn’t to say el’s from the upside down because she’s not, she just happens to be connected to it not of her own volition, and opened a portal to it without knowing what she was doing.

this blatantly separates her from will and mike. their motifs are embodiments of the universe and go together effortlessly, while el’s motif is, well, basically the anti-universe. sorry el. love u.

but, is there any other significance behind the use of primary colors besides them being the “main” colors and these three being the main characters?

well...

i don’t know about you but this looks awfully like a triangle to me.

it’s love triangle symbolism, everyone. pack your things, we’re going home.

besides the obvious that there’s nothing going on between el and will because they’re siblings... there’s a clear love triangle between the three of them regarding el dating mike while will has a crush on him, and the fact that mike will inevitably have to choose who he wants to be with if they continue the storyline they’re on.

they’ve given us some pretty blatant imagery of this in s4. will is in the middle or on the sidelines of basically every m*leven scene this season (and they want us to root for him!)

additional primary color imagery

there’s a few more things i want to point out.

had anyone else noticed they’ve shown us three different versions of the upside down with three different colors?

i’m gonna be real and say i have no idea what this could mean. i’ll leave that up to you. what i do know is that the top one, the yellow upside down, is the untouched version of it before vecna altered it. the middle blue one is the current version of the upside down, BUT it does have lots of flashes of red lightning. the bottom red one is... honestly i don’t even know, but vecna takes his victims there.

one more thing i noticed before i go:

this season 4 poster that uses the three primary colors and... green.

we all remember that green = blue + yellow, so.

this could very well just be a graphic design choice, because green is usually what’s added to the other three if another color is needed, but... who knows.

in conclusion, we already knew that mike and will are blue and yellow, but i’m also positive that el is red.

byler endgame is in our sights!!!

if you read this entire thing, first of all, wow. second, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! i hope you found this interesting :)

[stagefoureddiediaz]

5x11 Costume meta

Now I’ve had a little time to process here is the 5x11 meta. 

Lets start at the beginning and work our way through!!

May is in yellow and stripes!! - so we are getting communication - and a change of direction - in this instance she is communicating about Eddies change of direction from firefighter to public service officer!

Then we get to the Eddie montage which I wrote about in my sneak peak meta so I’m just gonna post it below to save repeating myself!

I couldn’t resist topless stretching Eddie 

Eddies colour palette appears to have been reduced down to black, white and  grey - those are the only colour tees we’re seeing him in that clip - there is literally no colour left in his world - other than the blue of his uniform - and when you’ve reduced your world down like that and your job isn’t fulfilling - well we all know how its going to go - on the floor sobbing! They are also slightly over sized - the life he’s now living doesn’t fit him and its sucking the life out of him, the fact that they’re a bit looser on him is designed to show a bit of weight loss - a symbol of depression, but also if al he’s got is a treadmill then he’s going to be getting leaner - loosing the conditioning that he gets from weightlifting as part of his firefighter life - getting that conditioning back will be a bit like the mental journey he’s about to go through!

all of those tees are new tees - symbolic of new era (they haven’t been broken down to make them look lived in as wardrobe would normally do) - they are fresh out the packet crisp (think about the one in 2x07 when he gets dressed after sex with Shannon - stretched out and worn looking!) but them being so new and crisp is also a sign of Eddie trying to re-invent himself as this new ‘safer’ not at risk person.

Sweat - he is working hard at going nowhere - a nice little touch!

but in addition - now we have the full scene we can see the transition from no shirt -singlets - tees all in black white or grey  -the transition from being ‘okay’ with his choice to becoming increasingly worn down and unsatisfied by it - literally covering himself more and more and building up a protective barrier. The other interesting thing is his boots - which are scuffed and not looking particularly smart - again a sign that not all is ok - its the little things that start to slip first - so these boots looking less than perfectly polished is a manifestation of that - Eddie was in the military those boots would in normal circumstances be immaculate and highly polished.

Then we get to the dinner/kitchen scene!

Eddie’s semi transparent shirt is showing us that he’s more transparent than he thinks - that he’s not doing as good a job as he thinks of hiding the truth - that he wants to be a firefighter again the shirt is a representation of his defences (especially around Buck and Chris)are wearing thin! Chris being in the grey jumper - he is the most wrapped up of those at the table and is therefore the most protected -  the grey is showing that he is neutral and we don’t really get anything from him to contradict this (except when he teams up with Buck to deliver some amazing sass). 

We also have Taylor in a green semi transparent printed shirt - we see her in a fair amount of green and the print is again hinting at confusion - she is clearly trying to figure out what is going on between Buck and Eddie (small aside Taylor saying ‘is that possible’ after Buck stating that Eddie will be back at he firehouse has me ) because they are not subtle!!

Buck is in navy blue for this scene (we do get  tiny peek at a white vest under the shirt) v Eddie being in white in white - this is very much intentional - it is a reverse parallel of the shooting only the shots being fired are verbal ones and the one left bleeding this time is Buck, while Eddie is left covered in metaphorical blood - which he hasn’t yet realised and the blood is Bucks trauma at not understanding Eddies decision to leave the 118. The gun/bullet in this scenario is Christopher and Eddies own trauma.

The mom and Dad in the car - wearing red and blue - like i’ve spoken about in this post - but we also have the army green of Eddie worn by the father as well!

 Buck in white at bar - there is obviously the tie in to buck wearing white anti meaning bad things are going to happen and it continues to play out here, but there is also something in the choice of a hoodie for me as well especially because we see him (from Eddies perspective) bathed in light - it is a contrast to everyone else in the scene - they are all in semi darkness and wearing darker tones - they are very much playing into renaissance religious iconography - portraying Buck as an angel - the hood of the hoodie forming a sort of halo (in Eddie’s eyes as we view it from his perspective / but also a bit of Lucifer moment - Eddie feeling betrayed by his most loyal friend but also Buck later on betraying how far he has come as a person and showing how far he is going to fall.

I am very  👀👀👀 the fact that  Lucy is in army green - in the same way that they’ve used this colour to parallel Taylor with Eddie before (and indeed in this very episode!), it feels to me like they are doing it again here with Lucy - we’ll have to see if that continues.

its also interesting to note the difference in the layers they’re wearing - Lucy is much less covered up - more open, whereas Buck is protecting himself by wearing a thick hoodie and a jacket, but those layers to protect himself are also him wearing a mask - hence the return of Buck 1.0 - its easy to slip into something you’re familia with that you’ve used as a form of protection in the past!

Eddie in black and Khaki jacket - the same style he wears when in mourning - the loss of Shannon, his firefam, his job that he loves etc at the bar - he is mourning his friendships and what he has lost/ given up for Christopher - its highlighting his disconnect from everything that is important to him - tying in with the past things that meant the same.

Keeping Bobby in an LAFD tee and then having Athena in a white jumper - more costume paralleling between Athena and Buddie - especially interesting when you look at the two conversations in those scenes - moving on?!!!

Chris space theme pajamas make a return - and accompanied by striped sleeves - stripe theory for the win - Eddie is changing direction again and the  universe is still screaming at him!

The grey jacket looks to be the same (or very similar) as the one Eddie wears to therapy later in the season. its paired with a light shirt here - when Eddie is feeling hopeful of his return to firefighting whereas paired with the grey later shows how far Eddie is going to descend in to the murky depths of his trauma - he views this moment as his opportunity to save himself - to be able to shut that storage locker back up and not deal with the things that we’ve seen increasingly running through his mind as the episode has progressed

Bobby in dark red parallel with buck lawsuit. there are a couple of parallels - Bobby in the same role is in the same colour way for both scenes, where as Eddie and Buck, while both in jackets, Eddie is in another semi transparent tee - Bobby has seen that Eddie is not doing well mentally and try to push him in the direction of therapy (fully knowing that he has already filled Eddies job) whereas Buck in his button down shirt in the the one firing the initial shot in 3x06 - it is about the formality of a lawsuit versus the comfort of Eddie thinking he would be able to return to his family.

we also get a look at Eddies Watch in this scene - it pops into view while Bobby is talking about taking the time to carry for your wellbeing 

I’m very interested that we’ve seen Buck start to wear a watch out of work in 5x11 - its not something he’s done a lot before, but in this episode - every scene out of work - he’s been wearing his watch!

he’s also in black and yes - that shirt has a tiny pattern on it - there is definite mirroring of the I love you scene here - Buck doing something he’s not really on board with - confessing love and having Taylor move in - sticking plasters on a fractured relationship.

Taylor wearing a triangle necklace when Buck fails to tell her about kissing Lucy 👀👀

One last thing to notice about the costuming of Buck and Eddie throughout 5x11 is that both their colour palettes have been matched up - we only see them wear black, white, navy, green or grey - especially in key moments - and always in opposite of each other - when Eddie is in black, Buck is in white such as at the bar or when Eddie is in white then Buck is in dark navy in the kitchen scene. the same is true for those last two scenes we see them in - Eddie trying to return to the 118 is wearing a white shirt, while Buck trying to confess to his girlfriend is in black - these are interesting because we enter those scenes with a hopeful Eddie and a Buck full of dread - the colours reflect this and by the end of those scenes you could say the opposite is true - they’ve reversed - I know that is an overly simplistic way to describe where they are mentally but that its a bigger thing that the two small moments which will add to the mental health pile, but thats not wha these costumes are about.

Hopefully this has been interesting and helpful! any questions - my inbox is open (work has got busy, so it might take me a little while to reply, but I will answer you!) 💜💜💜

tagging for interest @prettyboyandthekid @adamsparirsh @theladyyavilee @oneawkwardcookie @lovecolibri @loveyourownsmiilee @leothil @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @moniquekatie @reallysmartladymariecurie @kitkatpancakestack @yramesoruniverse @outrunningthedark @ktinastrikesback @arrenemris @talespinner230 @mytherapybuddie @fiona-fififi​

[salazarslytherin]

full (r.l x y/n)

requested: yes! [hi i got a request! can u write a smut where remus has a breeding kink and he’s scared that it’ll freak the reader out but she’s actually rlly into it n he just cums a lot into her (this is probably the spiciest thing i’ve ever typed in my life 💀💀)] send in your own request here!

🃛 masterlist!

cw/tw: tiny bit of angst at the beginning, insecurities?, breeding!kink, slight degradation, fem!reader, handjob, fingering etc. just SMUT.

word count: 2.3k

a/n: i hope you like it y'all! if you do, pls do reblog/follow!! x

☯︎ join tag list here tag list: @marvelslut16, @siriusbarnesslut, @marimorena06, @weasleysbitch2, @reg-arcturus-black

Remus had been avoiding you for the past three days. Three days since you’d spoken to your boyfriend, two and half since you’d even seen him. It sucked.

The reasoning behind it was somehow worse - you’d tried to tell him you wanted to sleep with him, and he had literally run away.

So you were set on finding the boy and talking it out , and if it came to it, breaking up with him.

You didn’t want to be with someone who didn’t want you, especially to the extent of intentional avoidance.

You were in a relationship, not an extended game of hide and seek.

So you’d concocted a plan - Tuesdays were when the other boys had quidditch practice, and Remus would be in his dorm on his own for at least three hours, studying, doing homework, or whatever it was that he would do on his own.

Now, today was Tuesday, which meant that tomorrow morning you’d either be very satisfied, or very single.

You weren't even quite certain what you'd expected to come out of the confrontation – a screaming match where you found out all the reasons why he didn't want you? A startling confession where you found out that your boyfriend was a virgin?

Nevertheless, you stalked towards the Marauders' dorm room, intent on confronting him, only to falter as you reached the heavy doors, hearing sounds coming from the other side.

Registering what the noises were, you ground your teeth loudly, clenching your jaw as you gripped the doorknob.

"Oh fuck off."

⚔︎

You slammed the door open, Remus rolling off his bed in shock at the sound.

"Are you joking?!"

Remus looked at you in confusion and fear, kneeling beside the bed with his head peeking over the side, a sheepish blush coating his cheeks.

"Um, Y/N, do you mind? I was kind of in the middle of something..."

You let out a laugh of exasperation, throwing your schoolbag on the ground in frustration.

"Yeah, I know. I could hear you outside. Am I just so unattractive to you, that I basically tell you to fuck me and you had to run away from me? You'd rather fuck your own hand than me?!"

Bending over to pick up your bag, you could practically your heart breaking as Remus scrambled to put on his pants.

Your fears had been confirmed – he didn't find you as attractive as you found him, and it hurt. You just wanted to run far, far away from him, to hide yourself away and be able to release the tears that were threatening to escape.

But as you turned to run from the room, that familiar grasp landed on your wrist, stopping you from leaving the dreaded place.

"Y/N, wait–"

"No, I get it, okay? I don't need to hear you say it out loud."

Your voice cracked as you tried to wrench your hand out of the werewolf's grip, unable to hide your sadness and hurt as you were turned to face the boy.

"Y/N! Please, let me explain myself, please. If you want to leave afterwards, you can. I just, please?"

You didn't really want to hear his explanations, but some masochistic, yet hopeful, part of you wanted to know just why he didn't want you.

Maybe you could change for him?

You relaxed in his arms, still not quite looking into Remus' arms as you no longer made any attempts to run away.

"You're right, I did run away from you when you said you were ready to sleep with me."

Your eyes squeezed shut, not wanting to hear the rest of his words.

"But that's just because I was afraid you wouldn't want to be with me anymore if I told you what I wanted."

Your eyes opened slowly as you lifted your head to look at the boy, your brows furrowed in confusion as you peered at him.

"What d'you mean?"

It was Remus' turn to become flustered now, his hands moving from your side to cover his face in embarrassment.

"I–okay. You know how you thought I ran away from you because I didn't find you attractive?"

You nodded, still half-convinced that was the truth, the reason why he'd avoided you for so long.

"It, it was the opposite."

You raised a brow in disbelief, unable to stop a skeptical laugh from escaping your mouth, Remus' hands falling away from his face so he could look into your eyes.

"It's true! I, fuck this is embarrassing, and you're probably going to run away from me if I tell you the truth."

You crossed your arms with a huff.

"Well right now I'm not quite certain there is a 'truth' that you speak of! I'm quite certain you're just making it all up, trying to hide the fact that you think I'm unattractive."

Remus grit his teeth, his hands gripping your shoulders firmly as if to shake you awake.

"No! That's absurd. I, I find you so bloody attractive, and, fuck it I'm just going to say it and if you break up with me I won't even blame you. I've been having dreams of you and I, but in those dreams," Remus' hands relaxed from your shoulders, falling to his side in embarrassment, "I would, um, cum inside of you, and uh, fill you with my pups."

Your jaw fell open at the boy's admission, his right hand rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably before continuing to speak.

"And I've never even thought of that before! I think you're just so bloody hot that you've awoken some sort of primal instinct inside me, I just want to ruin you, and–and breed you. Fuck this sounds so creepy doesn't it."

You were incapable of shutting your jaw at this point. This was far from what you thought you'd hear from your boyfriend's mouth today.

"Y/N... I've scared you away, haven't I? I mean, of course you'd be freaked out..."

The boy continued to mumble to himself, terrified that he'd ruined your relationship, certain that you'd break up with him.

Contrary to what he thought though, you found his words incredibly hot.

And you'd be damned if you didn't make that a reality.

⚔︎

In the middle of Remus' ramblings, he was barely able to register that you'd moved towards him, placing your hands onto his cheeks until your soft voice rang in his ears.

"Remus?"

The brunette's eyes snapped to meet yours, gaze darting between each of your eyes as he awaited your words.

"Fucking ruin me, please."

Before the last word even left your mouth fully, Remus was already on top of you, his lips capturing yours hungrily, like you were his first meal in weeks and he was dying to have you.

As Remus devoured you, he backed the two of you onto his bed, his legs lodged between yours as you gripped onto his neck, eager to have him.

You arched your back as you were overcome with need, trying desperately to grind your clothed cunt onto his hard-on, but the boy only tutted at you, moving away from your lips to push your hips down on the bed.

"Such a desperate little slut, hmm?"

You only whined in return, trying to grind into his legs that were between you, Remus smirking down at you.

"Take your clothes off love."

Your hands moved to unbutton your school shirt without a second word, fingers moving in a flurry to throw it off before tossing your bra across the room, Remus moving at very much the same speed as he removed his clothes.

You both quickly found yourselves naked, admiring each other through lust-filled eyes as the boy lowered himself slowly towards you, his lips ghosting over yours as you laid yourself back down.

"So beautiful."

His lips quickly captured yours, both your hands exploring each other's bodies for the first time – tingles of excitement running through your bodies.

Your hands traced his scars as his ran down your curves, him stopping to suck in a breath as you cupped his cock, fully hardened under your fingers.

"Fuck, don't tease me Y/N."

You only licked the boy's lips in return, but was treated with a taste of your own medicine as his hand brushed your lower lips softly, tracing your slit teasingly slowly.

"Remus... Please."

Your cupped hand became a grip – encircling the werewolf's member as you began to pump up and down his shaft slowly, eliciting a low moan from Remus.

He responded by slipping a finger into you, the kiss broken as both your lips were preoccupied with a mixture of swears and moans, asking the other to hasten their pace as you two built up your orgasms.

"Wait, fuck stop. Stop Y/N."

Remus' other hand came to stop your hand as he kept himself up on his knees, pulling away from your close contact to look into your eyes.

"'m too fucking close, wanna cum inside you."

You swore you could feel your eyes darken at the boy's words, and so did his.

"Then fuck me."

⚔︎

Remus gripped your thighs tightly as he kissed down your body, spreading your legs and leaving a kiss on your soaking centre. You let out a shaky moan as he planted his tongue against it, licking a stripe up your lips.

"For next time."

The boy moved back up your body, his head hovering over yours as he looked down at his cock, pumping the already erect shaft before tracing his head along your lips.

"R-Remus, please. Want to feel you inside me."

The boy tutted at you mockingly, before sinking himself inside you slowly, moaning at the feeling of your walls stretching around him.

"Fuck, you're so tight baby."

You moaned around him in a mix of pain and pleasure – his fingers not at all preparing you for his cock, stretching you in a way that none of your exes could ever compete with.

"You're so big Re, please, fuck."

Remus pressed a wet kiss to your forehead, his face contorted in pleasure as he awaited your green light to start moving.

After a moment, you nodded as the feeling of being full sent tingles down your spine, letting out a loud moan as the boy began moving out of you slowly, shifting himself so he could grip your hips more firmly for support.

"F-faster."

You muttered out as you clenched your walls around Remus, your orgasm already building from when he prepared you.

"Yeah, my desperate little slut wants me to go faster?"

His hips hastened the speed as his words made you whine loudly, his head lowering to leave kisses on your neck, marking you for the world to see.

“I’m close Re, fuck.”

“Me too princess.”

The boy buried his face into your neck as he began twitching inside of you, his speed faltering for a second as he let out a moan that could border on animalistic, cumming inside you.

The feeling of being filled more than you knew possible pushed you over the edge as Remus continued thrusting his seed deeper into you, moaning as your walls fluttered around him, cumming at the feeling of your boyfriend inside you.

"You look so fucking gorgeous right now love, such a good little cumslut for me, hmm?"

You could only whine in response as Remus continued fucking into you, his cock hardening yet again at the thought of you full of him.

"Gonna look so pretty filled with m'pups, love. Going to fill you up over and over and over again, watch my cum leak out of you because of how full you are."

You moaned at Remus' filthy words, turning to kiss his neck, softly nibbling on his earlobe as you gripped onto his shoulders.

"Yes Re, fuck. Fill me up, feel so good with you inside me. Making me feel so full. Wanna have your pups, want you to cum inside me. Make me yours Re."

It didn't take long for a second orgasm to start building, and it definitely didn't help that Remus had moved one hand to start rubbing at your clit, making you moan at the overstimulation.

"Feel good, hmm, love?"

You nodded into the boy's neck, your eyes squeezed shut as pleasure coursed throughout your body, unable to process proper words. The only sounds that filled the room were the sinful slaps of skin against skin, and a faint noise that made you blush.

It was the sound of Remus' cock slipping in and out of you, slick with the combination of both of your cum.

"Re, I-, fuck, close, again."

Unable to string together a proper sentence, your walls began fluttering around Remus yet again.

"So am I love. You feel so good, making me lose control. Wait for me, we'll cum together."

Your eyes rolled backwards, waiting for Remus. The task seemed impossible as pleasure pulsed throughout your body, your toes curling and legs shaking at the feelings.

"Re, please, I need to cum so badly. You feel so good."

Your nails dug into Remus' back, the feeling burning into him and making him groan into your neck.

"Yes, fuck Y/N. Cum with me love."

Finally able to release, you let out a moan that bordered on pornographic, seeing stars as your eyes squeezed shut much harder than before. You felt ropes of Remus' cum hit your walls, another animalistic groan reaching your ears as he bit into your neck, making you moan softly in the midst of a post-orgasmic bliss.

Panting, your chests rose and fall in tandem as Remus fell on top of you, his cock limp inside you. After a moment, he spoke up.

"Y'know you squirted?"

Your eyes shot open, staring at the boy who craned his neck to look down at you.

"I-, what?"

The werewolf let out a boyish smile, tongue running over his teeth as he stared down at you.

"It was hot."

[sweetbillwriting]

The Stranger I Love

Part 6 - The misfit (Theo's perspective)

Characters: AU Axel Cluney (Zeitgeist) from Deadpool 2 played by Bill Skarsgård. The rest is my own original characters.

Warnings: 18+,cheating, mentions of weight and body image, mentions of death, violence, murder, toxic relationships, child abuse, neglect from society authorities, mental health problems.

Notes: Warning to sensitive readers! This chapter will contain heavy subjects. Now we also have a new perspective, Theo’s and the rest of the story will be from her perspective.

I had always liked the library. All the shelfs with so many books, so much knowledge. The small rooms in the space the shelfs created. The high roof that created some sort of feeling of freedom. It was my safe place. I could really be myself there. Maybe it said something about my personality or just that I had much to study. When you studied medicine you had that. I liked to use that as an excuse to why my life was boring, that I didn't have time with so much else. In reality I had just got stuck, stuck in my typical routine and felt anxious every time I would do something new. But it started to become really stale. That was when Axel showed up in my life. He was, for a long time a stranger, a stranger I watched. A stranger I started to love more or less. It sounds creepy but if it's mutual it becomes a totally other thing.

I saw Axel at the library for the first time in the beginning of September. You couldn't really miss him and he made everyone take another look at him. He was dressed in short black denim shorts with working boots and a black tank top with a rip on the chest. With his boots he wore high baseball socks with yellow stripes. As I said, everyone looked at him. I was used to people thinking I stood out at the university but it wasn't anything compared to him, with all the ink doodled all over his body. On top of that his face stood out just as much. When I looked at all of him he looked like a mix between a young Tommy Lee and the doll from The Boy. Not the man behind the doll but rather Axel looked like the doll. I think he scared some of the younger students with his look.

He started to come into the library every day and every time I took a fascinated look at him. He would unintentionally put on some sort of grungy punk fashion show everyday. One day he had an Adidas t-shirt with big bleach stains with cargo shorts, the next day he had a black net tank with tight ripped black jeans. Everyone looked at him. That tall tattooed doll. He didn't seem to care at all. Like he was used to it. It was during the beginning of October that he noticed me. Probably because I looked like a black hole compared to the other students. He sat down at the table next to me and smiled a little at me. It wasn't flirty, just a polite friendly smile you give to someone when you're in their space. I felt my cheeks glow but I smiled back and then looked back at my computer quickly. He wore a vintage Harley Davidson tee with green cargo shorts and his usual boots. It had become colder but he wore shorts anyway. Either he lived for the whole grunge style or he was just a bit odd. He didn't seem to have a jacket either. He was probably odd, still my heart beated hard in my chest, I could hear it in my ears. I felt stupid. I could never get a guy like him. Never. He was hot in a totally new league. The guys I had thought was hot before I saw him would disappear into the wall next to this guy.

I looked at him without him noticing. He looked confused and mostly just stared down at the laptop in front of him. I wanted to help but would never dare to ask. There was something about him that made me want to take care of him. He looked a bit lost and his eyes showed vulnerability. Maybe he wasn't as cool as I had thought earlier. Or he was that cool sensitive guy. The artsy type.

The more I saw of him I fantasized about him. First about just meeting him, be with him but after a while he became the face of my sexual fantasies. He was the one in my mind when I touched myself. This made it even weirder to see him and especially the times he was close and he smiled at me. In my imagination I more or less had a relationship with the guy.

I sat and really tried to study even if he sat in front of me, dressed in a budweiser tee with a big hole by the collar so it showed his naked shoulder. It was black with ink and I could see the head of some sort of bird through the hole. He stood up and walked away to the shelfs. He had just left all of his things behind. Of course I wouldn't let anyone take them but he couldn't know that. He came back but instead of walking back to his table he turned to me. I looked down at my book and tried to look busy. I had dreamt of talking to him for weeks but now when maybe it would happen I didn't even dare to look at him.

"Ehh, do you know where the shelf for design history is?" He asked with a smooth voice.

I looked up at him and got caught in the plumpness of his lips. Fuck.

"I think it must be in the art section?" I said with a small voice.

"And where is that?" He smiled embarrassed.

I couldn't just let him hang. I wanted contact with him, now I could have a chance. I just wanted to know a bit about him, not like I thought he would become my boyfriend. As I said, I wouldn't have a chance.

"I can show you, I should just…" I trailed off as I started to pack my things.

"I think you should do the same, it's in another part of the library."

He shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care.

"There have been thefts here." I continued.

"Really? I didn't think the students here did such things." He said and walked back to his spot at the table to collect his laptop. He carried it under his arm like it was a book.

I smiled a little and then started to walk to the art shelves. I noticed people looking at us, I was used to some stares but not like this.

"Design history," I pointed to a sign on a shelf.

"Aaah! Nice!" He said like I saved his life.

He smiled big. As I was turning around to walk back I felt a warm hand on my naked wrist.

"I didn't get your name?" I looked up at his face and swallowed hard. He said it so real and honest. Like a kid trying to get a friend.

"Theo…. What's yours?"

"Axel," he said and gave me a crooked smile. Could he have a more attractive name?

"It was really nice of you to help. You are here quite often right?" He said and put his Mac down on a table close by.

"Almost everyday. I like the library."

"I could almost see that. You look like a library girl," I smiled amused.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, warm and soft and like stable." It felt like a nice way to call me fat.

"Oh," I said and looked away with a hurt look. Of course he was an asshole. What did I believe? He saw me just as a fat library girl and he was the cool guy, going home to his equally cool thin girl friend.

"You are really beautiful, do you know that?" He suddenly said and all my negative feelings burned up and I looked into his soulful eyes.

"I don't mean that in a creepy way. Or in a… I don't know, you are just a gorgeous girl and I thought you should know."

His words warmed me like a summer day and I was forced to put my hands on my cheeks to hide my blush. Axel smiled a little.

"I'm also often here, so if you want to have a friendly coffee with me sometimes that would be awesome. I don't know anyone here."

I nodded and I probably smiled like an idiot.

"Absolutely."

"And we can listen to Chelsea Wolfe and you can tell me about that little tattoo you have in your neck," he said and I looked at him a bit confused. How did he know these details?

"I saw on your phone once that you listened to her." He smiled and stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

"Do you like her?"

"All the cool kids do," he said and wiggled with his brows. I laughed a little. He was so perfect. But even if he said I was gorgeous I could feel that he wasn't mine to look at. There was something that made my feelings towards him feel wrong. A girlfriend, I thought and my gut feeling said the same. But I was more than pleased to be his friend, or so I thought.

×

I noticed quickly that Axel was the impulsive type and even sort of a misfit. He didn't think about what others thought about him or cared what the rules were. It began when he started to sit with me in the library. He never asked if it was okay and he treated me like a friend at once. He was way too loud for being in a library and most often sat on top of the table. I saw library staff looking at him but Axel's appearance probably made them look the other way. One day he suddenly jumped one table and over the next to join me instead of going around. He did it smoothly and athletic like the tables were made for him to jump between. He smiled big at me when he jumped down from the table. He had made everyone look at him.

"Hey!" He said a bit breathless and continued to smile a big contagious smile. I looked at him and laughed while shaking my head.

"Emm… Axel, the tables aren't really made for jumping on," I said and he turned around and looked at them but also at the people sitting by the tables.

"Oh, I just took a shortcut," he shrugged his shoulders. "But I will remember that." He sat down next to me and gave me a hug with one arm, he smelled like wood oil and something musky.

"Are you happy today?" I asked and hugged him back.

"Yeah and I've realized I love this library. It's so cozy." He leaned back in the chair so much it looked like it would tip over.

I smiled, it was hard to not to, Axel looked like a happy child.

"Should I help you with that essay?” I asked and opened his MacBook for him. He nodded and looked at me up and down. His eyes stayed a bit too long at my neckline but I didn't react to it. He had wonder eyes but it felt like he did that with everyone. As I said, had l learned Axel had problems with his impulse control and watching girls' tits was probably one of them. I started to show him how to write an essay, helped him even start to write the introduction. He listened observantly and smiled at me every time I looked at him. The butterflies in my stomach were having a party but I tried not to think about it.

"Do you know a place to eat around here? One that serves vegan food? I eat the same sandwich every day from that truck by the fountain." He said when he had finished his introduction paragraph.

"Are you a vegan?" Suddenly he became even more attractive.

"Yeah," he just said and saved his document.

I closed my book.

"There is a vegan place by the hospital, I can show you?"

"You can eat with me," he said without asking. He didn't need to anyway. I loved being in Axel's messy, wild world.

I took him to the restaurant and we sat down by a table by the window. Axel had that net tank top but with a khaki patterned zip hoodie over it. People still looked at him even if I thought he looked more normal.

"I want to know more about you, spill," he said. I had become used to Axel saying what he thought.

"Ehh… You know I am studying to become a doctor and you know about my cats, Shadow and Dark." He nodded.

"But are you from here? I mean, you don't look like you are from here," he said with food in his mouth. I took his word as a complement.

"I am, but from outside of the town. I have lived like between here and the neighboring town. Close to nature."

"Really, I live in that area and my dad owns quite a lot of land and has sheeps. He said with big eyes.

"Cluney?" I said with furrowed brows.

"Yeah! My dad is Oscar Cluney!" He said excitedly. "But where do you live?"

"My parents live in the manor, Crane Duns Manor? I live in town now."

Axel smiled and dragged his hand over the stubble on his jaw.

"I used to steal apples from you. And once I also let your dogs out of the kennel…"

I just shook my head amused.

"I know, you are the Cluney boy after all," I said teasingly.

"So you heard about me too?"

"I am four years younger than you. I heard it all," I said first teasingly but then I remember all the other stuff about Axel.

"...But you didn't have it so easy…" I said carefully. Axel looked down at his empty plate and sighed.

"So you know about that too?"

"Probably not everything but I know that your dad was in prison for a few years…"

"Because he killed my mother's brother. You can say it… I have talked about it to my therapist…" He looked out the window and then looked at me.

"Do you want to go out to my fathers land and take a walk? It's really nice this time of year."

×

Of course I said yes. We took Axel's car out to his fathers and parked it in front of a barn. I jumped out and looked around. It was beautiful with the big fields, the orange and red trees and the sheeps that roamed around calmly. Axel stood next to me and I could feel his eyes on me.

"You are so pretty," he suddenly said and I looked up at him. I wanted to smile but it felt wrong.

"I don't think your girlfriend would like that you say those things to me."

We started to walk slowly.

"It's just the truth. I don't mean to come on to you or something." I could feel his eyes on me but I continued to look at the surroundings.

"Sometimes it's better to not tell the truth, you know. She would probably see it as a slight against her if she could hear you."

Axel was quiet.

"You're right. I have neglected her."

I didn't say anything, just waited for him to continue.

"But we fight so much and I can't even go out for a walk without her condescending looks… I can't really talk to her. Not the way I can talk to you or… even some of her family."

I nodded a little.

"I won’t tell you to talk to her because you have obviously tried but maybe you should think about what you want with your relationship? It isn't fair to either of you to be in some sort of limbo." I said and took his hand carefully in mine, just as comfort, I was surprised when he just continued to hold it.

"My dad isn't a bad man, you know that right?" He said and hugged my hand in his.

"I know, he has always been really nice to me and my brothers."

He nodded.

"Younger brothers?"

"A lot younger, 9 and 12. And they’ve started to become just as awful as you were." I joked.

Axel smiled amused but then looked at the gray sky and became quiet for a while.

"...my uncle liked to slap me around. He moved in with us after my mom's death, said he was there to help but in reality he was homeless. He was always angry at me, I guess I have some diagnosis and I was a troublesome kid. So when I was like eleven I think, he started to beat me up. One time he grabbed my hair so hard he actually pulled off a big chunk. I was forced to shave it all off because it looked insane." He said the last part with humor but it was obviously a defense. I looked at his profile and could almost see that young boy in his face while he told me. My heart beated hard out of anger and sadness. It also beated hard because I obviously loved the man walking next to me. Axel was hard to not love.

"Dad was so angry but he didn't dare to do anything because when he did my uncle called social service and said it was my dad that beat me up. And those fucking idiots belived him instead of my father. They didn't even talk to me. They took me away for a few months to some kind of home for troubled kids but then they let me go back. As soon as I was home my uncle started to beat me again. He beat me up so hard one night that he broke several of my ribs, my face looked like a purple balloon. It was then my father killed him."

The tears streamed down Axel's cheeks but he just continued to talk. When he took a break I pulled him down in a hug. He cried and cried and I joined him. Right then and there I hadn’t known how few people Axel had told his story to but in the future I would feel honored that he told me.

We were standing at a weird angle so we laid down on the field even though it was a bit damp and he snuggled into my chest. I would never have let anyone else do so but just as when I saw for the first time, I just wanted to take care of him. He took a deep breath and snuggled my tits a bit more.

"He broke his skull against the pavement while they fought. When the police came they finally listened to us, about my uncle's abuse. Hello, they could see my face. My dad was convicted to four years in prison for causing another's death. And for me it was back to that home."

"I would have killed him too, your uncle I mean," I said with tears in my throat. "I would have crushed that skull in a thousand pieces."

Even if Axel cried I could feel him smile against my chest.

"I'm so glad you are my friend." He whispered and then he kissed the top of my breast. I put a finger against his lips.

"I'm happy we are friends too but friends don't do that, okay? I really love… our friendship but you can't do that when you have a girlfriend." He looked up at me and nodded, he looked guilty but then laid down on my chest again.

On the way back to town, we sat quiet in the car. So much had been said, so much had been done. It felt like we had done something really bad and maybe it was. Has Axel cheated? And what did he see in me to do such a thing? I looked at his tattooed hands on the steering wheel, big and strong. I watched his face. Beautiful but sad. I knew I loved him even if we hadn't known each other very long. I had loved having him against my chest, even the kiss. I thought about those plump lips around my nipple and was surprised by my own thoughts. I wanted him so close against my chest like a baby. He has had such a tough life and I wanted to be just that stable person he could lean against.

"I'm so fucking hungry. Do you know any good pizza places?"

"There is one close to McDonalds. They have many different vegan pizzas."

I said and blushed about what I had fantasized about.

"I know I don't need to say this but I want to say it anyway. What I told you stay between us two, right?" He said and gave me a short look.

"Of course Axe, of course."

"My girlfriend doesn't know about it yet."

I watched him with furrowed brows. Had he told me instead of his girlfriend?

"Maybe… you should tell her?" I said carefully.

"I know. I know. It's just… I can't even form the words in my head when I'm with her. And I'm afraid she will judge my dad."

"Does she know your dad?"

"Yeah, we live so close." He parked the car outside of the pizza place but we stayed in the car.

"Then she probably will understand. Don't you think so?"

Axel turned his eyes to me now when he didn't need to watch the road. His eyes were a bit red from all the crying.

"No. She can be really judgemental. I know it is because she isn't as used to "the hard life" but it can be really frustrating when she is so stuck in her ways. She doesn’t like that I am studying. Or that I have started running, she sees that and feels like I am changing so much. I am still the same, I just like doing other things."

I wondered why he was with her. I wondered why he didn't dump her and come and suck my tits for real but I was quiet. I guess there was something that made him stay.

"It's probably just hard for her to see that you do things while she is left behind. It can be really provoking seeing someone dare to try something new."

Axel smiled a little.

"What?" I asked and smiled confused.

"You just say such wise things. And really try to understand her." He said and smiled a bit bigger. I smiled back.

"So, pizza?" I asked.

"Pizza!" He said with a weird cartoonish voice and I laughed.

We stood and looked at the menus, I wanted something with sundried tomatoes, I loved that. I looked at Axel who stood with furrowed brows, looking at the menu.

"What do you want?"

He squinted his eyes and walked a bit closer.

I laughed a little.

"Can't you see?"

"No, it's the same thing at the lectures. They write everything so fucking small." He said and walked even closer. The staff watched amused.

"Axel, I can read for you."

"Yeah, yeah." He said and walked back to me.

"But tomorrow you should make an appointment with the optician." He nodded a little absent minded.

"What's that?"

"An optician? They help you get glasses. You need it." I smiled at his hard thinking face.

"Glasses?"

"You are nearsighted, that's why you get closer to things to see."

Axel nodded again.

"Okay, but can you help me with that?" I laughed and walked closer to him.

He was so lovable I just wanted to eat his face.

"Of course."

I wanted to call him baby but I knew I couldn't. Friends didn't do that.

×

[l-artemisia-del-secolo]

Could you do a second part to Baby Bump where Yelena and her gf celebrate their baby’s first Halloween?

Hello, dear anon. Thank you for the request!

First Halloween

Everything's like in the request above. Happy family life. Next parts

Masterlist

Your last few days were full of new experiences. Before Yelena all the Halloween craze was never a part of your routine and you always tried to avoid it. Never interested in the costumes. treats or parties. But with Yelena it all flooded in your life with a new impetus. She adored the simple concept of celebrating a holiday. Didn't matter with one, but she was overwhelmed by only the possibility of creating traditions. At first for herself, then also for her girlfriend  and now for her family.  After everything you both lived through, she wanted your daughter to have as much happiness as it was possible to give. Both of you wanted that. And infected by Halloween mood, you were spending all of your free time at work to find a perfect costume for your little copy of Yelena. Tonight you did and even left the office before lunch to get home earlier.

Yelena had a day off and the much hated household duties were her responsibility tonight. Fanny announced your arrival, when you were just appearing in the driveway. As soon as she heard the familiar barking, she gladly stopped whatever boring thing she was doing.

"Why are you so early?" She greeted you with a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Can't I just want to spend more time with my girls?" 

Yelena let you go in while grabbing bags from your hands. 

"Thank you. But I'll keep this one." 

You went to your daughter's room while Yelena was unpacking everything in the kitchen. 

"Lena! Be so kind to come here." 

Whatever it was, it wasn't your "I love my wife very much" voice. More like "Yelena Belova, what the hell is this?"

"I didn't..." 

"Why exactly is our daughter dressed as an Avengers' merchandise stand?"

Yelena couldn't help but smile, when she saw your confused look as your fingers were touching the different pieces of clothing.

Your daughter tried to catch the thumb and squealed when she felt the warmth of your chest.

"I can explain." 

"Mhm." You were studying that weird outfit. 

T-shirt with a hawkeye symbol, plastic repulsar on the right hand and widow bites on the left, plush Thor's helmet and violet socks as a nod to Hulk.

"Every single member wanted her to be in their costume and send tiny versions of their outfits. And I just didn't know what to do."

 "And the only logical choice?" You came closer to your wife.

"Was to try all of them on." Yelena almost felt being wrapped by the glowing light you were emitting after becoming a mother.

"And which one is better?"

"Frankly I have no idea. They all look..."

"Awful, don't they?" You smiled, because you noticed how she stopped herself from agreeing with you.

"I'd say weird."

You knew Yelena didn't want to say "no" to any of the heroes, especially after all the support and patience they gave both of you during the pregnancy, but this was clearly far from her understanding of a perfect first Halloween image,

"I bought her something. And if it's better than these, we choose our variant. If not, we'll just toss a coin, deal?" You offered.

Yelena opened the bag, you left on a bedside table and gasped.

"You have to be kidding me."

"Nope."

She was holding a tiny green vest with tiny pockets and a tiny stripe with black widow insignia on it.

"I'm sure, she'd like to be dressed as a greatest hero ever." You leaned in to kiss her and your daughter tried to grab the vest. "And my favourite Avenger."

"She already likes it." Yelena let out half sigh, half laugh.

"Of course. Who needs repulsors, when you can have such a vest."

Your wife quickly got rid of the pieces of different costumes and zipped the vest on your daughter.

"How do you like it?" She took the girl from your hands.

"I think it's perfect." You grinned. "Go, find yours. I want to take a picture."

"There's one thing" She suddenly stopped at the doorway. "You will tell them, that we have our own costume."

"Yelena, come on." You whined.

"It's not my fault, you found a perfect one."

[pinkteapotwriting]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do a wolfstar x reader. Where they find out the reader has a daddy kink, but she’s too shy to tell them? Also Remus and Sirius are a little older than her so she was worried that they’d assume she was only in a relationship with them due to the kink? I love your writing ♥️

Wolfstar x Fem!reader

Warning : Daddy kink, pet names, super sub fem reader, slight degradation, cream pie, male and female receiving. So yeah porn with no plot enjoy

Word count : 2365

I worked really hard on this and I hope you like it darling <3

---

You had always been attracted to older men. You were more likely to develop a crush on a professor rather than one of the boys in your class. It’s just how it has always been, and that’s why you were so happy with your relationship with Remus and Sirius. They were your dream partners, and although you were young, it felt like you had waited forever for people as kind, attentive, and uhhh dedicated to your pleasure. Everything about them just screamed dominance, perfectly suited to your daddy kink.

That’s why it was so frustrating you couldn’t get rid of that fear. That fear that you could scare them away. Of course they cared about you, but Remus was especially adamant that he would never want to hold you back. You adored them, loved them with all your heart. Everything with them was so incredibly satisfying, but to be able to go that extra step into submissiveness, for them to take control the way you desired them to, would make everything that much better. You didn’t want to risk losing them, and even if you didn’t, it’s hard being vulnerable in that way. Taking that first step would be hard, but you knew you would want the same from them. Even though this was somewhat embarrassing. 

---

“Sirius you shouldn’t have, really you don’t have to spend money on me. What did you get anyway?”

“Don’t worry love, it’s more for my benefit than anything.”

“Remus, do you know what it is.”

“Apparently it will be better for me if I’m surprised just the same.”

Sirius handed you a small black bag, with pink tissue paper blocking the top, hindering you from peeking inside.

“Remus and I will meet you upstairs in the bed room, we’ll leave you to appreciate your gift.”

“Pads that’s weird.”

“Moony I promise you’ll appreciate it, trust me.” 

They parted from you, Sirius with a peck to the cheek, and Remus with a lingering forehead kiss. Once you heard them trudge up the stairs of Sirius’s childhood home, you peaked into the bag and raised your eyebrows at the white lace hidden inside.

More for his benefit huh?

---

“Sirius, Remus, I’m ready. Can I come in now?”

They both sat leaning against the headboard. Remus’s right arm across Sirius’s shoulders, playing with the ends of his hair absentmindedly. Sirius was absolutely giddy, so giddy in fact Remus answered for him.

“Come on in Love.”

The floral lace bra supported you in all the best ways, two little pink bows adorned where the straps and the cups met. The white thong hugged your hips, complimenting your thighs and waist. It also had one small pink bow centered in the front of the waistband. Angelic is the way Remus would describe you, while Sirius would describe you as sexy as fuck. Not quite as eloquent, but it gets the job done.

“Siri, you didn’t have to but-”

“But?”

“I feel pretty.”

“You’re much more than pretty Y/N” Remus scolded.

“Does this mean you’ll let me spoil you more often, don’t mind having a sugar daddy so much huh?”

Your face immediately fell as you contemplated the effects his words had on you. Not that you needed him to spend money on you, but the idea of being good for him, of him spoiling his perfect Y/N, Daddy’s girl,  had even more wetness pooling in between your legs. Sirius mistook it for concern though, not the combination of horniness and embarrassment that it was.

“Hey Y/N, I was just kidding, you know I love you right? You’re much more than this thing that we fuck. We want you safe, and we like getting you these things because it’s kind of fun spoiling you. I’d do it much more if you’d let me. And I’m sorry, I was just making a joke with the whole sugar daddy thing.

Remus zoned in on your thighs rubbing together at the word Daddy.

“Sirius wait, Y/N, is there something you’re not telling us?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Sirius joking about being a sugar daddy didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

He smirked as you rubbed your thighs together at the word daddy, pleased that his little test worked. Sirius seemed to be catching on too.

“You know Y/N, we’re not that much older than you. Didn’t cross my mind we’d fit into that category. 

“I don’t understand Sirius.”

“You know perfectly well what I mean. Why don’t you tell us what’s going on and maybe it’ll turn out the way you like.”

“Well…”

You could not make yourself look away from your hands; watching them fiddle around anxiously. Remus’s voice soothed you though.

“It’s alright sweetheart. We want you to feel safe and comfortable telling us anything.”

You took a deep breath.

“I was scared to tell you because I didn’t want you to think that I was in the relationship for this reason. I love you both so much and would hate to make you guys feel insecure about it. I kind of have a Daddy kink.”

Remus kept his poker face, but if you looked close enough there was a hint of a smirk there. Sirius had the biggest shit eating grin there ever was, because he knew he was going to be having the best sex of his life tonight.

Their silence terrified you.

“I’m so sorry, I really shouldn’t of said anyth-”

Remus held up a hand to halt your apology, then patted his thigh.

“Why don’t you come sit on Daddy’s lap, angel?”

A shot of pleasure went straight from your spine directly to your aching cunt. You didn’t even know how to respond. So you figured it was best to obey. You crawled up from the end of the bed and straddled his right thigh, the one that was closest to Sirius. Sirius reached for the waistband of your panties and tugged upwards so they could rubbed deliciously across your clit. Remus had to grip your hips and stop you from grinding.

“You know moony, I bought these because she’s supposed to be our innocent little Y/N. Had no idea she was so dirty. Kind of ironic isn’t it.”

“Oh totally and completely ironic. She may not be a pure as we thought, but she’s still a good girl. Isn’t that right Bunny? You like being a good girl for your Daddies.”

When you whimpered instead of answering Remus tightened his grip on your hips and started helping you grind up and down his thigh. Sirius smacked your ass, which had you jolt forward, colliding with Remus’s chest and burrowing your face in his neck.

“Answer his question pup.

“Yes, I like being good for my daddies.”

You whined when Remus halted your movements once again. He raised a questioning eyebrow which had you bite your tongue instantly. You had just said you wanted to be good for them. 

“Aw, I think our desperate baby wants to cum moony.”

“Looks like it. Do you want Siri to eat you out bunny? You want your daddy to make you cum?”

You turned to look at Sirius’s smug expression.

“Yes please, want it so bad.”

“We can tell.”

Sirius’s comment had your expression turning bashful again. He gripped your jaw between his thumb and forefingers before you could turn away though. 

“That doesn’t mean hide it. I like it when you’re openly needy for us. Makes me want to fuck you hard and satiate every little desire of yours. Now climb off Remus’s lap puppy. Gonna make you  cum on my face.” 

You were almost disappointed when he let go of your face, until you remembered what he was about to do. You all too happily turned around and wiggled in as you sat between Remus’s thighs. 

“Not like that pup, ass up for me okay? I think it’s only fair if you take care of Remus while I take care of you. Understand?”

“Yes Daddy.” you hesitated for a moment, confused by Remus still fully clothed. You wanted to see him. You traced the top of his pants lightly with your forefinger. 

“Daddy can I take these off?”

“Please do.”

He pulled off his shirt as you undid his belt buckle and he watched you kiss below his belly button, and lower and lower as you pulled his pants off. Once you had them halfway off Sirius pulled them the rest of the way. You rubbed his prominent bulge through and nuzzled your cheek against his thigh before pressing a kiss against his clothed dick. He laced his fingers through your hair and you would have leaned into the touch, but instead he pulled your head to make eye contact with him.

“No teasing puppy, get right down to it.”

“Sorry daddy.”

“It’s okay love.”

You pulled his cock out from his underwear and were thoroughly impressed by how hard it was considering you barely touched him. You spat onto your hand and jerked his cock for a few strokes, but not wanting to get reprimanded for teasing you licked from the base to the tip then let the head of his cock slip past your lips. That’s when Sirius quickly discarded your panties and slid underneath your parted legs. 

“So wet baby, is this all just from calling us Daddy hmm? Should have told us sooner.”

You continued to bob up and down on Remus’s cock, wanting to earn his satisfaction. Sirius licked a bold stripe across your pussy.

“Such a good girl, fuck.”

Then he properly dove in, flicking his tongue against your clit and teasing your entrance with his fingers.

“Fuck, thinks she likes that pads. You like it when Daddy eats you out?”

You let out a muffled mm hmm against his cock, the vibrations had him throwing his head back and groaning. Sirius didn’t want to waste time talking though, his mouth and now his fingers were occupied, thrusting in and out of your dripping cunt. Bringing you that much closer to your release, while you brought Remus to his. 

“Fuck bunny, m’gonna come down your pretty little throat shit-”

He was now prodding the back of your throat, and you were completely relaxed and taking him like a champ. You felt him twitch so you pulled off just a little bit as his seed painted the inside of your mouth. He stared with lust blown eyes as you showed him your now clean tongue. He cupped your cheek and stroked it with his thumb.

“So good for me baby, such a good girl. You wanna ride Sirius? I think you’re ready now.”

Sirius placed one last gentle kiss to your clit before parting from you and allowing you to shimmy down and straddle his lap.

“Sorry pup, know that feels good but I wanna feel you cum on my cock.”

“S’okay daddy, whatever you want.”

“Mmm, that’s right baby. Why don’t you put it in now and bounce like a good bunny? You wanna be a good bunny?”

“Yes Daddy.”

“Wait.” Remus interjected.

He gripped your wrist before you could grab his dick.

“What?” Sirius sounded quite annoyed.

“Make her say it. I wanna hear her say it.”

“Well bunny, hop to it.”

Remus rolled his eyes at the pun but quickly fixed his eyes back on to you.

“Wanna, Wanna bounce on your cock daddy.”

“Like a what?”

You put your head down in embarrassment.

“Like a good bunny.”

Sirius gripped his cock, placed the tip in your entrance, and slammed up in one foul swoop. You clasped your hand over your mouth, maybe to keep some of the breath in your lungs or maybe because you didn’t want to moan so loud. You really weren’t sure. All you knew was that Sirius was going absolutely feral.

Remus moved behind you and unclasped your bra, finally freeing your boobs from their constraints. He grasped one with his left hand, while the other reached down to rub your clit.

“D-daddy, gonna cum. Can I cum?”

Remus rubbed your clit faster.

“Ask Siri love.”

“Sir, can I cum please.”

“No, Hold it.”

“But da-”

“Hold it.”

Remus was now kissing the expanse of your neck and shoulders, while rolling your nipple between his two fingers. Tears were rolling down your face at the effort it took in holding back your orgasm. All while Sirius was keeping a brutal steady pace from underneath.

“Daddy Please.”

“Go on them cum. Make a mess on my cock.”

You swear you lost your vision for a second. All the sensitivity, all of the built up pleasure finally erupted all at once and if Remus wasn’t holding you you would have collapsed. 

“Atta girl- Fuck”

You hissed in overstimulation as you felt his warmth spread and drip out of your cunt. Remus finally did let you collapse once Sirius had pulled out. 

“Alright love, lets get cleaned up.”

“I don’t think I can walk quite yet Remus.”

Sirius only smiled with a smugness that made Draco Malfoy look humble.

That stupid grin could always get you in trouble.

Especially now that he knows you have a daddy kink.

---

Bonus

The warm bath water soothed your aching muscles almost as much as Sirius scrubbing shampoo into your scalp did.

“Y/N..”

You peaked one eye open at the lanky man in front of you.

“Yes Remus?”

“So obviously Sirius and I have a daddy kink too. The funny thing is we didn’t want to tell you because we didn’t want you to think we were dating you for your age.”

“That is funny, wish one of us would of said something sooner.”

Sirius pecked your cheek.

“Me too love.”

“Besides, you two couldn’t get rid of me that easy. I kind of love you.”

“Only kind of?” Remus teased.

“Kind of love you sounded better than completely obsessed.”

“Well then,” Remus cupped both your cheeks “I kind of love you too.”

“Me too.” Sirius promised. 

The words were casual, but the tone was so intense. It reassured you that they wouldn’t be so easily scared off either.

And there were some things you had much more confidence to tell them now.

---

@sunny-bunnny @quindolyn @accioweaslcy @weasleyposts @bluemoonyblurbs @emmaev @side-blog-shit @agalandhermarvelobsession 

[selfcarecap]

if you’re taking requests I’d love a Peter story where the reader is feeling horrible because of bad stretch marks and he makes her feel better about them by making a big deal of how amazing they are 🥺

Warnings: insecurities, mentions of weight gain/loss, a lil bit suggestive like a few mentions of sex

-this is a repost of an old fic-

You feel Peter‘s hand trailing up the back of your thigh, slowly reaching your butt.

You‘re both on your bed, just hanging out. You were looking at memes together, cuddling, but it seems like Peter got bored of them, and now he‘s lying further down on the bed, just trying to be close to you.

His touch is innocent but it makes you nervous.

Now his fingers brush the side of your thigh- right there.

You turn your hips so you‘re lying on his hand, stopping him from touching you. “That’s too close,” you say.

“Too close to what?” He asks, confused, pulling his hand away from underneath you, lifting your shirt instead to lay his hand on your stomach.

You grab his hand, pushing it away.

Confusion flashes through his eyes once more, and he sits up, “What’s wrong?”

“Just... don’t go too close to my stretch marks,” you say, looking down at your phone to avoid his eyes.

He’s quiet and when you look up at him he’s got his eyebrows furrowed, “What?”

“Please don‘t touch my stretch marks,” you repeat, pulling your shirt down again, and making sure your cotton shorts are covering up your ass as good as possible.

“What, why? There‘s nothing wrong with them. I really like them actually,” he leans down to kiss your stretch marks but you pull away.

“I don‘t like them so could you please leave them alone,” you turn around with a huff, looking at your phone.

You see him take off his shirt from the corner of your eye, “Peter, I’m not in the mood. What are you doing?”

“I know, but look. Come here,” he says.

You turn around again. All you can see are his back muscles and you don’t know what he wants you to do.

“What now?” You ask.

He turns his head to the side, and now you’ve got his back and his jawline to look at.

“They should be here somewhere.” He says, his fingers reaching behind his back.

Soon you see what he’s trying to show you.

Right there on his lower back, Peter has stretch marks. Some more red, some faded, matching the colour of his skin.

“I didn’t know you had these,” you say as you trail them with your fingers.

“You don‘t see me from the back that often, I guess. But loads of guys have stretch marks too and no one cares, so I don‘t get why women are shamed for having them.”

He’s about to turn around again, but you bend down and lightly press a few kisses to them. They’re beautiful.

“Do you have stretch marks anywhere else?”

“I used to have them on my hips but they‘ve faded. Actually, for a while I had them everywhere, because after I was bitten I grew and gained muscle over night so obviously the skin stretched and it left stretch marks. But they’re gone now. I guess my back must have stretched the most, that’s why the stretch marks are still there,” he shrugs.

He turns around again, pulling his shirt back on.

“You heal faster than normal humans, right? Why have the stretch marks on your back not healed then?” You ask.

“The word ‘heal’ implies that they’re unhealthy or bad and need to be fixed. But there‘s nothing wrong with my stretch marks and there‘s nothing wrong with your stretch marks either.”

Now you feel stupid.

You never meant to say anything bad about his stretch marks. You like his. Why don’t you like them on yourself? You hope one day you will.

“There’s nothing wrong with them,” Peter continues, “And in fact I actually think they‘re quite sexy.”

You throw him a look, unimpressed, “Okay. Maybe I can believe that there‘s nothing wrong with them but you can‘t tell me they‘re sexy.”

“Who out of us two listens to that City Girls song?”

“What City Girls so-“

“Stripes on my ass so he call this pussy Tigger,” Peter sings without missing a beat, sassy and in the melody of the song too.

You giggle at how cute he is, and honestly, he has a point.

“You’re my little Tiger,” he says. This time you fully laugh out loud as he attempts a little roar and bites into your ass where your stretch marks are.

A second later he sits back up, “No but I really do love them. I love them a lot. I love seeing them when I take you from behind, can‘t believe I’ve never told you that.”

Your mouth falls open and your face gets hot. “You won’t ever be in that position again then.”

“That’s okay. As long as I still get to see the cute ones on your stomach.”

“Peter, stop,” you say, not fully meaning it, when he starts littering your stomach with kisses.

“What? Stretch marks are a normal part of your body. Isn‘t it so cool how our bodies just change while we change and go through life? I don‘t want you to feel bad about them. I wish you could see them how I see them so you could love them too.”

He lifts your shirt again, waiting for you to stop him. But you nod and he buries his face in your skin, kissing you a thousand times.

Although you love having Peter so close, your thoughts won’t shut up.

You know Peter is being serious. He’s not just saying it to be nice, he really does love your stretch marks just like he loves the rest of your body.

Thinking back to what he just showed you, you thought the stretch marks on his back were kind of cool.

So you wonder again, why can’t you think the same way about your own body?

Maybe it’s because the patriarchy and capitalism constantly create new ridiculous beauty standards that make women feel bad and insecure about their bodies so that they spend money on products that are supposed to fix things that shouldn’t even be an issue in the first place in order to feel worthy and feel better about themselves, further feeding into those standards—... or something like that, maybe.

“Okay maybe they‘re not that bad. But you will not call me or any parts of my body Tiger,” you say.

“Tigers are actually the most powerful and in my opinion most beautiful cat species living today,” Peter says casually.

You smile at him and get up, walking in front of your full length mirror.

Turning to the side, you lift your shorts a little, exposing the stretch marks on your thighs. Through the mirror you see Peter looking at you, licking his lips.

You lift your shorts up even more, looking at the stretch marks on your ass.

You don’t exactly love them. But you’re starting to see that they might not be that bad after all. They’re kind of cute, even.

Peter walks over to you, plopping down to his knees next to you.

He looks up at you for approval, and you smile when his arms wrap around your thighs. “So gorgeous,” he mumbles, kissing his way up your thighs and your stretch marks.

“What about these though?” You ask, pulling your shirt up.

You look at the stretch marks on your belly, and some loose skin that you have from losing and gaining weight.

“These are just as beautiful,” he grins at you, moving in front of you.

His kisses along your belly tickle, and Peter looks up at you in pure adoration when he hears you laugh.

The stretch marks are not your best friends yet, and maybe they’ll never be. But you feel less insecure about them already.

Maybe one day you can love them too.

[cheolbooluvr]

mint choco

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pairing: mingyu x fem!reader

genre: romance, some fluff(?), some angst, reader is a ~cool girl~ B) , tsundere!reader, soft boy!mingyu, ice cream, 2gyuniverse

word count: 4.9k

warnings: profanity (reader is a potty mouth), mentions of alcohol,

a/n: i'm gone for like 3 weeks and then post 2 fics within 24 hrs of each other oops. wrote this as part of the ficscafe dialogue prompt event! i ended up using so many prompts alkjadjslkl; but anyways, this one's for the bestie @gyukult : ] thank you to @minghaofilm and @hoshblr for beta reading <3 lava u both!! plz plz plz plz plz let me know what you thought, feedback is the only way i can get better as an author and know if my fics are okay :')

a/n pt 2: gyu's part is finally out! if you're curious abt what happens w cheol and mingyu's friend, check out strawberry cheesecake! enjoy <3

my masterlist ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

｡☆✼★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★✼☆｡

prompts 1, 3, 11, 26, 40, 44, 47

｡☆✼★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★✼☆｡

God, you hated him so much. You hated him more than Choi Seungcheol who was mostly to blame for the situation you were in now. If not for your lovestruck best friend, you wouldn’t be sitting here on a double date with him, his girlfriend, and this tall dumbass of a human, Mingyu.

You could remember that day very clearly, the day that set everything into motion.

“Choi Seungcheol, I swear to fucking���” You had burst through the ice cream shop doors to find your best friend standing blankly with a jar of maraschino cherries in his hand. Next to him, the cashier opened one eye to look at you, neon red juice dripping down her cheek. “Dear god, don’t tell me you popped the girl in the eye?”

He looked to her then back to you, not realizing what had just happened until you came in. “What? Wait. Shit. It’s not what it looks like—”

“What the hell?” Another voice entered the small shop, all eyes, including yours, turning to the ridiculously tall guy coming from the back room. He was wearing the same uniform as the girl, only instead of a red and white pinstripe dress, he was wearing a matching shirt and bright red pants. The stripes were already ugly as hell, and to make things worse, they had those god awful paper hats that looked straight out of a 50’s diner. But that was the vibe of the ice cream parlor, wasn’t it? “Is this guy bothering you?”

“What?” the girl asked, genuinely confused by the situation. When she realized her friend was getting defensive, she quickly shook her head. “No, he was just helping me.”

The tall boy looked at her briefly before attempting to shift his gaze to Seungcheol, though his eyes stopped at you instead.

“What?” you mouthed to him, jutting your chin out. You expected him to look away immediately—speaking from past experience, people tended to avoid looking at you. You couldn’t help it if your resting bitch face kept their eyes off you, but that’s exactly what you wanted. Yet, for some reason, his eyes lingered on you longer than they should have. And you hated every moment of it.

He returned his attention to his coworker who was now assuring the two guys that she was fine and it really wasn’t a big deal. You walked over to Seungcheol and punched his shoulder. Wrong move. Realizing that was the shoulder he just got a tattoo on, you look at him apologetically when he turns and glares at you, biting his lip to keep calm.

“Dude, let’s go.” This time, you hit his arm with the back of your hand. “I have shit to do today.”

Seungcheol raised his eyebrow at you with suspicion, but he didn’t argue. He slowly but surely turned around, the two of you leaving the ice cream parlor.

“The fuck was that about?” you asked him.

“Nothing,” he replied, but you knew him better than that. You and Seungcheol had known each other for lord knows how long. In another life, maybe you would have called him your best friend, but that’s not something you would say out loud while you were still breathing on this earth.

———

A few days later, you were riding around town with Seungcheol again when you found yourself outside a familiar building. The plaster was painted a yellow, once bright but now dull from years of harsh sunlight. The sign to the parlor was also chipping and run down, the letters of ‘A Scoop of Heaven’ fading to the point it was barely legible in the daylight.

You don’t say anything to him, but you have a guess that this might have something to do with the cashier from yesterday.

“Ice cream? Again?” you asked, the judgement in your voice far from subtle.

“Shut up,” he shot back.

“I’ll wait out here.” You leaned against your bike, pulling out your phone to keep you busy while your friend went inside.

Seungcheol approached the counter, clearly he was a man on a mission. “Where’s your friend?” he asked Mingyu.

“Where’s your friend?” he rebutted.

“Mine? Why are you asking about her? I’m just asking about yours because of her eye yesterday.”

“I don’t know. I just find her… intriguing.”

“You got some kind of horror kink, dude?”

“What? No. What the hell?”

“Look, buddy, if I were you, I’d save yourself the time and energy. She’s not worth it unless you like living in fear.”

“Oh, come on. She can’t be that bad.”

“She really is. Trust me.”

Mingyu shrugged. “What’s your name? I’ll let her know you stopped by.”

“Seungcheol,” he said, putting his hand out.

Mingyu grasped it firmly, shaking it as if they were businessmen closing a deal. “Mingyu. Nice to meet you. Are you gonna get some ice cream or are you just here for my friend?”

“Oh. Right. A strawberry cheesecake for me, and a mint chocolate for my friend. Single scoop each.”

So, you liked mint chocolate ice cream, huh? “Sounds good.” Mingyu pulled the metal scoop from small tub of water,

“Here,” Seungcheol said, shoving the cup of ice cream in front of you.

“Easy, buddy, this jacket is real leather,” you reminded him.

“A little ice cream isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

“Oh, yeah?” You raised your eyebrow at him. He looked back at you, confusion embedded in the wrinkles of his forehead, though soon they relaxed when he realized what you were doing. You started chasing him around the parking lot with your spoon, threatening to get it all over his jacket, something he definitely wouldn’t have appreciated.

Mingyu watched this go down from behind the counter, his eyes wandering every once in a while as he helped other customers. It was nice seeing you smile like that, though a part of him wished he could be the reason for it.

You could care less about anyone or anything else, but somehow, you were unsure of when these “group hangs” started happening. Maybe it was when Seungcheol started bringing his new girlfriend around that Mingyu started trailing along like a lost puppy. Regardless of the reason, you didn’t enjoy it one bit.

All of that bullshit led to you spending the day at the beach with these three. You didn’t mind Seungcheol’s girlfriend — she was your polar opposite. You wore denim and leather jackets, she wore flowy pants and sundresses. But maybe in another life, you two would have been friends. What you did mind, however, was the giant, bumbling idiot sitting next to you. It was still unclear how Seungcheol managed to rope you into these things, but one thing was for sure — you hated Mingyu. From the moment you met him, something about him just rubbed you the wrong way. Maybe it was how tall he was, or his caramel skin that you could just eat—

Shit.

“We’re gonna go on a walk,” Seungcheol announced to you and Mingyu. Shit, shit, shit. You watched your best friend take his girl’s hand as the two of them wandered off, acting like a cute couple. You were happy he was happy—again, not something you’d ever tell him, but damn it, they were gross. That left you with Mingyu…alone. Your worst nightmare come true.

“How’d you like the food?” Mingyu asked.

Ugh, small talk. Gross. “It was fine.” Well, actually, it was pretty delicious, but you? Showing any emotion other than indifference? Unheard of.

“Seungcheol told me you liked sandwiches, so I made them.”

“You made these?” There was a lot to unpack here: first, classic Seungcheol to make someone else do his dirty work. Second, Mingyu made those? For you?

“Yeah, took me a few hours.” The more he spoke, the more you wanted to punch him in those big biceps of his. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Mingyu was stupid and you hated him.

“Why would you do that?”

“What do you mean ‘why’?”

“What do you mean what do I mean ‘why’?”

“Because… I like you?”

Holy shit. There was no way this was happening right now. “Well, stop.”

“I can’t just stop.”

“Whatever you’re thinking in your tiny little brain of yours, stop it. There’s nothing going on here.”

“Nothing? At all?” You could tell by the way his voice quivered that he took offense to your denial, but what did you care?

“Not a single, damn thing.”

“Not after all of those double dates?” Despite you two hanging out with Seungcheol and his girlfriend a lot, you assumed that it was mutually understood that you were both the third and fourth wheels, not on some double date thing.

“In your dreams,” you scoffed. Silence fell upon you two, the crashing of the waves on the shore and screeching seagulls the only noise to fill the air. This whole situation felt like a set up, and if there was one thing you hated more than Mingyu, it was being pushed to do something you didn’t want to do.

That was the last time you saw him. Or heard from him, for that matter. You stopped going with Seungcheol to the parlor, he stopped coming along with his friend to the bar to visit you and Seungcheol. What was supposed to happen was that you would go along with your life exactly as planned, free of nuisances like Mingyu, and everything would be just fucking dandy.

But it wasn’t.

The days felt shorter, life became more dull, something in your life was missing. You hated not knowing what you were feeling, and the only way to settle this was to go on a ride, so you hopped on your motorcycle and hit the road, no destination in sight.

Riding around the city was supposed to be your release, but the adrenaline still wasn’t enough to clear your head of whatever was going on. You rode some more until finally you found yourself on a familiar path.

No, you shouldn’t go there, you couldn’t.

But it was like your bike had a mind of its own, slowing down right in front of the stupid ice cream parlor. You checked the gas meter only to find the needle teetering on the 'E'.

Great. Fucking great. Pulling out your phone to text Seungcheol, your eyes immediately fell upon the 1% at the top right corner of your screen. Of course. A heavy sigh left your lips, you looked towards the shop that was bustling with families and teenagers looking to have a sweet treat to counter the sweltering heat of the summer. You could go in there and hope that it was Seungcheol’s girlfriend and not Mingyu. Yeah. That could work, right? You’d ask her to text him and tell him what was up, and he’d be over in no time. Okay, you thought to yourself. Let’s just hope for the best. You adjusted your leather jacket (how you and Seungcheol always managed to wear one despite the temperature was a mystery to anyone and everyone), taking quick strides to enter the shop.

You had hoped for the best, but apparently you didn’t prepare for the worst. Mingyu was helping a customer when he heard the shop door bell ding.

“Hi, welcome to —”

You froze in the doorway, staring at him as customers reluctantly tried to maneuver around you.

How long had it been since you heard Mingyu say your name like that? No. Now was not the time. “Where’s your friend?”

“Why are you looking for her?”

“I need her to text Cheol for me.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why do you need her to text him?”

“Can you just leave me alone?”

“I’m trying to help you.”

“I never asked for your help.”

“Why do you always have to be like this?”

“What? It’s none of your business.”

Mingyu said your name with such desperation laced throughout his voice. It was exasperated, and honestly? You hated the way it sounded. “Just tell me what’s going on. Please.”

“Can you shut up? Everybody’s staring at us.” You had unintentionally stopped the flow of business when you got into this argument with the store’s only cashier. Seungcheol’s girlfriend had left just minutes before you arrived, and funnily enough, she was on the back of his motorbike. Frustration built within you, your muscles tensing at the unwanted attention. “Forget it.” You stormed out the door, but Mingyu came trailing behind you after apologizing to the customers about having to deal with this “emergency.”

“What do you need Seungcheol for? Just tell me, and I’ll help—” he stopped himself. “Just let me hear you out.”

“I don’t want to tell you shit.” Tears began to form at the corners of your eyes. What the hell? You rarely ever cried, so why was this happening now, in front of the last person you wanted to see? “I’m sick of you.”

Without looking back, you marched forward, your legs working to get you anywhere but here. The sun was beginning to set when you found yourself a couple blocks down at the bar you worked at. It was your day off, and your coworkers were surprised to see you (you weren't exactly the type to be there voluntarily), but they didn’t ask questions when you sat down and asked for a shot of Hennessy. The gold liquid burned your throat, a feeling preferential to your frustration of today’s events. What was Mingyu’s deal? Why was he always looking out for you when he clearly had other girls who liked him way more than you? And why did a part of you miss when he would follow you around like a lost puppy? As the night progressed, your demands for one shot after the other increased. Eventually, your manager had to come out to stop you, her eyes clearly concerned about your current state of being.

“Let me call you a cab,” she told you as she escorted you outside, her hands keeping you steady in your drunken state.

“It’s okay,” you replied, shaking her off. “I can walk. My friend...there...he works...and his friend…Cheol’s girlfriend...”

Mingyu was cleaning up shop, mopping when he heard the bell ding again. Strange, he thought. The OPEN sign was clearly off and any sensible person would read the store hours first.

“Sorry, we’re closed—”

“Shut up, stupid.” Your words were garbled, but intelligible.

“What are you doing here?”

“Where’s my bike?”

“It’s outside.”

“Bike...” You sauntered outside to the exact spot where you had left it earlier in the day. Mingyu watched on carefully until he realized you were trying to ride it, a brief moment of panic washing over him before he remembered that it didn’t have any more gas. After you had left, he inspected the motorcycle to // see what you might need help with, soon realizing that you had indeed run out of gas. From there, it didn’t take long for him to guess that your phone had run out of battery. It took all of his willpower to not run after you right then and there, but there were customers waiting for him, so he returned inside. He texted Seungcheol and his girlfriend to see if they had seen you, but they hadn’t. He grew anxious as the night went by, but he couldn’t just leave. He was determined to go find you after he closed up, little did he expect that you would come sauntering in yourself, piss drunk.

Currently, you were leaning over your bike, hugging it for dear life.

“Bikey,” you mumbled. “I miss you so much.”

Mingyu couldn’t help but laugh at this sight. For all he knew, you were cold, aloof, an I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-anyone-else kind of person, the kind of person other people were afraid of. Your heart was surrounded by four walls, barbed wire to keep anyone and everyone out. But in this moment, you were just like anyone else, soft and silly, upset at the fact that your motorcycle didn’t “Vroom vroom,” like you wanted it to.

“Hey, we should get you home,” Mingyu chided you gently. His arms wrapped around your shoulder, but you shook him off in protest.

“I don’t want to go home,” you pouted.

“Well, where do you want to go?”

“I want to stay here,” you stomped, like a small child throwing a tantrum. With you. The words came out so fast that Mingyu barely had time to process any of it. When he had registered what came out of your mouth, his jaw went slack.

“What did you just say?”

“I said,” you drawled. “I want to stay here.”

“With me?”

“I want ice cream.” Honestly, it was silly of him to think you would ever repeat yourself, even if you were drunk. But hey, it was worth a shot (no pun intended).

“I can get you ice cream.”

Your face lit up, just like a child’s would. “Really?”

“Really,” he replied, the softest smile forming on his face.

“I want mint choco,” you told him, attempting to stand up from your bike, though failing and stumbling to the ground. Luckily, Mingyu’s reflexes were fast enough to catch you from hitting the ground, your body in his arms. “Nice arms…”

“You like my arms?”

“I want mint choco.”

“Okay, let’s get you some mint choco.”

He lifted you up and brought you inside, sitting you down in a booth in case you tipped over. He had already cleaned the scoops, though he didn’t mind pulling out another one, even if it meant staying a little longer just to clean everything all over again. He opened the glass case, the cool air coming out at him all at once. Scooping one small heap of mint chocolate ice cream into a paper cup, he closed the case and returned to you, placing the ice cream in front of you.

You could barely grab the spoon, much less scoop some into your mouth, so Mingyu took it upon himself to feed you. He rested his head on one hand while the other held the spoon to your mouth.

“You know,” you told him, your words long and slurred. “I could get used to this.”

“What? Me feeding you?”

“Just… spending time with you.”

Mingyu was thankful you were drunk, otherwise you would have heard the booming of his heart as it palpitated from your words. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s nice.”

“You’re so much nicer when you’re drunk.”

“Hey,” you pouted, eyebrows furrowing in response.

“You’re cute when you’re angry. You know that?”

“I’m not cute.”

“I think you’re cute.”

“I think you’re cute...hic!” Oh, the hiccups. Whenever you got shy or embarrassed, you would start hiccupping. Fortunately, being in your drunken state, you could care less.

“Are you saying you like me?”

You nodded fervently.

“Like, like like me?”

Your head would have rolled off if you nodded any harder, your hair falling in front of your face. Mingyu looked at you tenderly, his hand tucking a stray hair behind your ear. Your eyes softened, contrary to the usual glare you would give him. Without thinking, you leaned in, your face quickly closing the gap between the two of you. “Are we about to kiss right now?”

Mingyu chuckled. “Alright, no more drinks, time to get you home.”

“I don’t want to go home.”

“Well, you have to.” Mingyu took your cup and spoon and threw it in the trash. He helped you up and the two of you got into his car. It took him a while to get your address out of you, eventually resorting to Seungcheol for a response. The drive home was quiet, both of you lost in your thoughts. It was hard to believe what you had said to him earlier. Did you really like him? Or were you just saying nonsense because you were drunk?

As nice as it was to hear these words from you, he would only take them at face value. If you meant anything you said, he’d want to hear it from you when you weren’t five shots of Hennessy and two beers in.

“We’re here,” he spoke softly. When you didn’t respond, he turned to find you asleep, your head resting on the window. He got out of the car and came around to your side, opening the door as slowly as possible so you wouldn’t come flying out. Your body flopped into his arms, and he rearranged himself so you were on his back.

Seungcheol came downstairs to open the door for you two and show Mingyu where you kept your spare key.

“Thanks, man,” Mingyu told him.

“No problem. Text me if you need anything.” Seungcheol waved him off, returning to his own apartment where his girlfriend was waiting for him.

“Shit,” Mingyu huffed. “Maybe I should have asked him to open the door first.”

“Stupid,” you mumbled, half-asleep, but still slightly conscious.

A small chuckle left Mingyu’s lips. There was that same feisty energy you always had.

Finally, he was able to unlock the door to your apartment, the interior a stark contrast to the rest of your aesthetic. It was full of earthy tones, from the beige walls, to your tan comforter and matching pillows, it was very warm compared to your usual persona you showed the rest of the world. Mingyu set you down gently on your bed, a groan coming from the depths of your chest as you shoved your face into the pillow. Mingyu searched your apartment for a towel to wipe down your face with — it was the least he could do without overstepping his boundaries, you would just have to deal with waking up in a rough state in the morning.

Sunlight trickled through your blinds, hitting your eyes just perfectly (as in, it was blinding the shit out of you) when you woke up. Last night had been a bit of a blur, though you tried to put together bits and pieces. On your bedside table, your phone was plugged in and at 100% battery. You pulled the charger out to check your messages, just one from Seungcheol asking how you were.

Not one to enjoy texting, you called him.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” his hoarse voice teased from the other end. He had probably just woken up, too, judging by the raspiness in his voice.

“Shut up,” you told him.

“How’s the hangover?”

“I feel like shit, but it’s not the worst hangover I’ve ever had.”

“Drink some water,” he nagged. He was a couple years older than you which meant he felt the need to act like an older brother sometimes, and you couldn’t say you appreciated it much.

“Okay, mom. Thanks for taking care of me last night.”

“What?”

“What? Didn’t you bring me back last night?”

Seungcheol’s laughter was bad news. You could only imagine what was to come out of his mouth next. “All I did was let Mingyu into the building and show him where your key was.”

“You did what?”

“Why do you sound so surprised? Aren’t you two dating or is that just a fuck ton of repressed sexual tension?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

If you had the energy to storm up to his apartment, you absolutely would have, and you would have ended him right then and there.

“Look,” he continued. “All I’m saying is that y’all got something going on.”

“That’s none of your business.” You weren’t sure if you were angry, annoyed, or embarrassed because maybe, just maybe, he was right. Pulling the phone away from your ear, you hung up on your friend. “I hate him.”

You sat up in your bed, hunched over from the slight stomach ache and soreness in your muscles. Blurred memories of the previous started flooding back, including the ones of your confession to him, though you couldn’t quite make out what exactly was said or what the response was. On your bedside table, where your phone had previously been, was a cup of water and a small note.

Make sure you drink the whole glass and take some painkillers for the headache.

There was no name at the bottom, but you knew Mingyu had written it based off of Seungcheol’s words. You pulled yourself out of bed to take a cold shower. The goal was to clear your mind of Mingyu, but as the droplets of water hit your face, he was the only thing you could think about. For so long, you had denied any and all feelings for him because you were afraid. Afraid of letting your walls down, afraid of being vulnerable with someone and afraid of having your world completely shattered just as it had been in your last relationship.

But there was something comforting about Mingyu, something that made you feel safe while also courageous to let your guard down again for the first time in a long time. You stepped out of the shower with a new resolve, ready to love face him and your feelings.

Your hands shook as you put on a fresh band t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts. You couldn’t be bothered to put on your usual white t-shirt, dark denim jeans, and leather jacket, not in this near 100 degree weather. Your bike was nowhere to be seen, which meant it was still at the shop. Great. Well, it didn’t matter because you were headed there anyway. The only option you had was to take the bus which you absolutely hated, because, well, you hated people. But between that and walking, it was your best choice.

As you neared the ice cream parlor, your breath grew shorter, the palpitations in your chest growing at an increasing speed. You paused, staring at your bike out in front, exactly where you had left it yesterday. Maybe you shouldn’t do this. Maybe this was a bad idea. Besides, you couldn’t exactly remember what you had said to Mingyu last night, nor what his response was. What if you confessed everything and he rejected you? But why would he take you home? He wasn’t an asshole though, you told yourself, so even if he did reject you, maybe he only took care of you out of pity.

“You know what? I’ll just grab my bike and walk it to the nearest gas station and leave,” you whispered under your breath. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Just go grab it real quick. He’s probably busy, so he’ll never see me.”

You took big strides to the motorcycle, being careful not to look inside the shop, though your curiosity nearly got the best of you.

Inside, Mingyu was talking to his friend/Seungcheol’s girlfriend when you entered his line of sight. He watched you curiously, your steps hurried and frantic, his face lighting up since he knew you would show up at some point.

“Did you text her?” his friend asked.

“No, but I figured she’d have to come get her motorcycle at some point,” he replied. She nodded, knowing full well how much you and her boyfriend depended on getting around the city on your beloved bikes.

“Where is she going?”

Mingyu looked out the window again, having been briefly distracted by an error on the cash register. “I… don’t know.”

“You should go check—” she told him, but he was already out the door, calling out your name.

You froze, chills running down your spine. Shit. Nothing ever went as planned whenever it had anything to do with Mingyu, though secretly, maybe that’s exactly what you wanted.

“How are you feeling?” he asked you.

“Um, fine,” you replied sheepishly.

He wasn’t sure what to say or what to do, so he stood there, the two of you basking in a familiar, yet still uncomfortable, silence.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “So, do you have anything to say to me?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“No?”

He raised his eyebrow in curiosity. “Do you remember anything from last night?”

“No.” Yes. Kind of.

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said, a smug grin forming on his face. God, he was so hot, but so annoying.

You absolutely despised how he could make your blood boil yet also make your heart beat faster than you’ve ever experienced. Time slowed as the two of you stood there awkwardly, just staring at each other like cowboys in a bad Hollywood Western showdown.

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.” Why wouldn’t he just answer you? You didn’t come here to play games. In fact, it took a lot of courage to even come here in the first place, and you weren’t exactly sure what it was, but something inside you snapped.

“You know what, Mingyu? I’m so tired of you. I'm so tired of walking around on eggshells with you that I finally found the courage to come here and tell you how I feel. But then you decide it’s funny to mess with me? Haven’t you had enough?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that I came here because I like you, Mingyu,” you blurted. You were huffing and puffing when the realization that you just confessed your feelings to him washed over you. Mingyu did nothing but smile, his body coming closer with every step he took.

“You said it, not me,” he said.

“Stop right there.”

“So, you’ll go out with me, right? Officially?”

“I’ll go on....dates,” you said, suddenly shy. “With you.”

“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing this whole time?”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

“Just,” you sighed. “Kiss me, you idiot.”

You didn’t have to say it twice because Mingyu was already grabbing you by the waist, pulling you in until your noses were smushed together.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” he whispered to you.

Just this once, you were willing to say it out loud. “I have, too.”