#the floors aren’t getting done tonight because god hates me specifically

[scarofthewind]

Too Far || Slashers x Reader

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

A/N: I had two requests that were kind of the same, which I will have below. Warnings, there is angst! Enjoy! 

Request 1 by @brideofcthulhu10 : Hey! First of all I wanna say I absolutely love your slasher fics, very detailed, you have a lot of talent! (I mostly dabble with Lost Boys on my blog!) Anyhoo, I'm not sure if I sent this yet, but I was wondering if you could do Brahms reacting to an S/O who's usually very patient with him crying because of an outburst? Like she's his caretaker who usually can handle his fits, but one day he goes too far screaming in her face, breaking things, and she just falls apart?

Request 2 by anon:  Hi!I was thinking of a request if you wanna do it ofc, with Michael Myers when he is stressed out about something and maybe neglects or takes it out on s/o and she gets reallyy sad and goes for a walk at 3am and he Wakes up and not seeing her makes him feel guilty and sad and starts getting a panick attack just when she is returning and comforts him,im sorry if I’m being so specific I just wanted super angst with fluffy ending with Michael being super needy 🥺 sorry if i bother you

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━ 

Brahms Heelshire:

You had never seen him so angry over something so small in the time that you’ve been with Brahms. Not even being able to recall what the fight was about, you stood there in the center of the room that had been utterly destroyed. The lamps that were on either side of the couch were beyond repair, the book case was tipped and all it’s remains were scattered on the floor and the glass topped coffee table had long been broken. Brahms circled you like a feral animal, the glare in his eyes made you look to the floor in fear. You jumped when you heard another object being broken behind you and a coaster went flying by your head from behind you, hitting the wall in front. The small dent in the wall from the coasters collision, reminded you just how strong Brahms was. 

“You can’t do anything right!” He shouted; the sound of glass crashing followed his words. “Why do I even bother keeping you’re pathetic ass around?!” He shoved past you, moving down the hall to grab the coatrack and throw it to the floor. One of the ends broke off and rolled towards you but you didn’t dare move, or even breathe. Your heart pounded ferociously against your chest and you wondered how you hadn’t had heart failures yet from all the stress he puts you through.

“Honestly, I should just get rid of you.” Brahms continued his rampage, breaking things and ripping paintings off the walls. You had become so numb to his usual rampages, that you were surprised when you found tears pooling out from your eyes at his words. Suddenly turning around, he walked over to you and you did your best to tune him out. His words cut like a knife and all you could do was stare forward and pray that this would all blow over. 

But even then, prayers have their limits. “Why can’t you understand that I can’t stand you? You’re nothing but a good fuck and that’s all you will ever be!” That was the icing on the cake. A gasp so silent, it cut through the quiet air, left your lips and that’s when Brahms realized exactly what he’d done. It was like a switch had gone off in his head and the anger was gone, replaced with a guilt and fear of abandonment. His hands moved to cup your face but you almost tripped moving back, his eyes widening at your actions. 

Everything he said was a lie; you both knew it, but he still thought them up somehow and felt like unloading them onto you in that moment. “(Y/N), I didn’t mean it.” Brahms felt sick watching as you backed away from him into the nearest corner he managed to maneuver you in. All the thoughts in his head came to one conclusion: There was nothing he could do or say in that given time that would make you want to stay. 

“Please, listen to me.” He begged, his eyes holding so much fear you almost didn’t recognize the man before you. Brahms reached out to you gently, touching your shoulders and then your neck and then your face. “I didn’t mean any of that. Please forgive me; don’t leave me.” 

Your throat was dry and you had nothing to say, all you could do was stare. “I love you, baby, please talk to me.” You felt his thumbs wipe away the tears on your cheeks and his lips pressed kisses to your forehead. Brahms knew exactly how much he had fucked up and the guilt and shame were eating him alive. “My god, what have I done?” You tensed as he pulled you into a tight and possessive hug. Your arms stayed by your sides, not moving an inch as the words and his face full of anger, kept replaying in your head. “Don’t leave me okay? I can fix this; I’ll fix it, I swear, my love.”

Meaningless. Everything felt meaningless.

But you had nowhere to go and you loved this man, even with all his issues. So, you swallowed any pride you had left and hugged him back, hearing him sob just a bit as he swore up and down that you wouldn’t regret it. 

Michael Myers:

You couldn’t remember how you managed to get out of Michael’s grip while he was sleeping, but somehow you ended up outside in the freezing cold of night, walking down the sidewalk. You had managed to snag one of Michael’s jackets on your way out the door and thanked god it covered you well enough. 

It wasn’t like you and Michael didn’t fight; you did, a lot. Tonight’s was just different and hurt you in more ways than you thought possible. 

“Can’t you fucking leave me alone for once?” Michael’s voice was harsh as he moved away from your hands that were on his back. You realized he’d been under a lot of stress lately and he hadn’t really been himself; you were only trying to help ease the tension.

“Sometimes I really hate you and I think ‘why in the world, did I end up with her?’.” You remember that being the moment your heart sank to your stomach. The cold glare in his eyes was real, not like all the other times he’s done it. 

The moon made your shadow look odd as you watched the pavement before you, every now and then glancing around to see if anyone else was up. Your already puffy eyes burned with the feeling of tears again and you managed to choke them down. “I should’ve let your father kill you. I would be a free man right now.” 

You made your way around the block, making your way back home. “The only time you’re worth it is when your warming my cock.” You stopped, having arrived back at the front door. Your fingers twitched at the doorknob and you wondered if it was really a good idea to go back in. Michael had apologized after the fight and resulted in him not letting you out of an arm’s reach. But still. Was it worth it?

The second you opened the door, the air felt wrong. Shutting it behind you and taking your coat off, you realized why. Everything was torn apart. The furniture was all over the place and some pieces were broken, the TV was shattered and various pictures on the walls were on the ground. Loud sounds of footsteps came from upstairs when you shut the door and Michael practically tackled you. 

To say you were shocked was an understatement. The man who put on a ‘Mr. Tough Guy’ act was now trembling in your arms, pulling you closer to him with each passing second. “Michael.” You said calmly, gently stroking his back with your hands. You heard him sniffle and your made a mental note to remember this moment. 

“Look at me.” Your voice was calming and you were there. You didn’t leave him like he thought. His eyes met yours and you reached up and brushed his tears away, moving his hair from his face and cupping his cheeks in your hands. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

He shook his head, his mouth too dry to speak from all the yelling he did while you were out on a walk. He’d woken up to your side of the bed cold as ice and all he could think was that you finally left him. He tore the house apart looking for you and when he couldn’t find you, he broke. This mountain of a man who hates showing one ounce of actual emotion, broke. 

“That’s good. Can you tell me why the house looks like this?” You asked him, being very careful with your words as his hands once again pulled you against him. 

“I-I was looking for you. I thought you left me.” His body shook as though the thought alone sent a chill down his spine. “You aren’t leaving me right?” His voice was so weak it was hard to remember what this man was actual capable of. 

“Of course not, Michael. I couldn’t sleep and needed some fresh air.” You cooed, peppering kisses along his jaw and chin. “I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.” You assured him, nuzzling your face under his chin and letting him hold you close. 

“I’m so sorry for hurting you. I didn’t mean any-” You shushed him, wrapping our arms around his back. 

“I know you didn’t mean it.” Your words were music to his ears and he pulled back enough to bend down and press a kiss to your lips. “Let’s go back to bed, okay? We can clean this up in the morning.” You told him as your lips parted; you led him upstairs and to your bedroom, not leaving his arms for the rest of the night. 

[amor-immortalem]

I Could Care Less (About You)

Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort

A/N: I wanted to write something around the time when Arella first got to the devildom. We all know Mammon didn't like the MC very much. It's my own thoughts that he was especially mean in those first few weeks up until they made the pact and I kind of wanted to explore that in terms of his and Arella's relationship.

It all started with small acts of kindness. Taking the fall for him when items would go missing so he wouldn’t get strung up from the ceiling, saving a plate for him when he was late for dinner, letting him copy her homework when he didn’t finish his in time. Mammon can’t understand it. He and this human hardly know anything about each other but here she is, doing little things that would make his life just a little bit easier. Hell, he’d even stolen multiple objects of value from Arella and yet she never ratted him out to his brother despite knowing damn well who did it. She just let it slide.

If he’s being honest, it scares him. Did she like him that much or could she possibly want from something from him? Mammon was sure she was gearing up to ask for a favor from him. He decided whatever it was he wouldn’t do it. He may have had the task of looking after this human forced upon him by Lucifer but he wasn’t about to sit back and comply with it.

The demon made sure to let the human know what an inconvenience she was to him almost every day- most typically whenever he had to cancel his own plans to escort her around town. She took it like a champ though, never seeming to let it bother her. She was so kind it was almost annoying. Maybe it really didn’t bother her. That must be the only reason she’s pestering him now. He did have to give her credit for her persistence though.

“Come on, Mammon! Lucifer left me in charge of the grocery shopping and I can’t go out alone or I’ll get eaten.” Arella said as she trailed after the Avatar of Greed. Having only been here in the Devildom for only a handful of weeks, she was still actually afraid that a lower demon might make a snack out of her.

“Ask one of my brothers ta take ya. I got plans and you’re not ruinin’ ‘em this time.”

Had any of the other brothers been home, Arella gladly would have asked one of them, but they weren’t- not even Mr. Shut-In himself! It was just her and her insensitive guardian demon.

“They’re not home, you know that.”

“I don’t give a shit, human! You got a phone. Just text ‘em. Now scram! I got a poker game ta get to and you’re holdin’ me up.”

“B-but-”

“Diavolo almighty,” Mammon groans as he turns to her, “I guess ya didn’t hear me clear enough the first time so I’ll say it again nice’ an’ slow for ya so try to keep up, ‘kay? I do not care about you. I hate the fact that I have to babysit ya. You could get eaten and I couldn’t care less. Infact, my life would be considerably easier if ya weren’t around. Got it?”

“O-Okay,” Arella squeaked under the intensity of the white-haired demon’s gaze. “Understandable, have a good night then.... hope you win a lot.”

“Whatever,” Mammon huffs with a roll of the eyes. “I don’t need your well wishes.” With that, Mammon turns and heads out the door.

As she watched him go, Arella bit her lip to hold back the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. Once she was sure the demon was gone, the human sank down to floor, quiet sobs shaking her small frame. All she wanted was just an hour or two out of his time and he wouldn’t even give her that. She had never felt so resented before in all her 21 years of life- not even when her mother was alive had it ever been this bad. Now, as she wiped at her eyes, it really set in that she was left with no other option but to do this alone- gods forbid she ask one of the others for help and then it somehow get back to Lucifer that Mammon wasn’t doing his job. She would never hear the end of it from the greedy demon.

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

The trip to and from the store had gone smooth enough. No demons had really bothered to pay her any mind, not even when she slipped off one of the higher shelves and smacked her head on the shopping cart resulting in the ugly bruise that had formed on the outer edge of her right eye. Bruises were something Arella was used to covering up, so it would be a simple enough task. She only had a little way left to go before she made it back to the House of Lamentation, but nothing can ever be easy for Arella.

Standing at the gates, blocking her path, was a small pack of demons. She had seen them eyeing her up in the halls at RAD during the passing periods. As they turned to her, Arella panicked- her heart rate skyrocketing as her body screamed at her to run. She wanted to but her feet wouldn’t move. It wasn’t until her brain processed that they were moving did her body actually turn to run. By then it was too late, they were upon her in seconds, knocking her to the ground with a tackle as she struggled and let out a scream.”

“Lookit you,” the one she presumed to be the leader smiled as he brushed some of the hair away from her face. “You sure do look tasty. I wonder where we should start first with you... dark or light meat?” He took a hold of her wrist, pulling it toward his mouth. He was about to bite down when...

“Hey! The fuck do the five of ya think you’re doing?!” The Avatar of Greed snarls as he watches the scene unfold in front of him. He had been in a good night after having won nearly all the games he’d played tonight before decided to call it quits- now it was soured. “Ya know what? I’m feelin’ generous tonight, so I’ll give y’all five seconds to get off that stupid human before I gut ya and string ya up by your entrails.”

He only needed until the count of one and a change into his demon form before the pack of demons made the right choice and booked it. The Avatar of Greed let out an irritated sigh as he walked over to Arella and hoisted her up by the arm.

“You’re fucking lucky, ya know that, girly? If I didn’t come home when I did, you’d be dead right now. How are you that damn stupid, huh?”

“’m sorry, I-,” Her voice was small and a little bit slurred as she tried to get her footing.

“I don’t wanna hear any excuses, right now. Just get inside the house go lay down or somethin’- whatever it is that you humans do ta calm down.” He gave her a bit of a rough shove and she scrambled for the doors while he gathered up the bags she had dropped and brought them inside the house.

Arella made a beeline for her room and curled up under the covers. Her headache from the fall earlier was even worse and now her arm was hurting from the strength of Mammon’s grip when he pulled her up from the ground.

“I want to go home....” she sniffled quietly into her pillow. “I should have never done this.”

The human thought she’d find a place for herself on this exchange programme but now she thinks this was all a big mistake. She had no idea what exactly she was signing up for only that something in the back of her mind yelling at her to do so. These last few weeks had done nothing but to serve her late mother’s words as true: that she was trash and so deserved to be treated as such.

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

Out in the kitchen, Mammon is unloading and putting away the groceries that weren’t crushed or broken after the incident outside when he came across a bag filled exclusively with cup noodles. There had to have been at least twenty of them that she had managed to cram into the bag- all in his favorite flavor no less. A look of surprise crossed his face. He had only mentioned this in passing to her once before and he wondered how she managed to get her hands on them as this specific flavor was kept on the top shelf of that section. Not something that would be a problem for someone as tall as himself but for her? She was 4’11”! She would have had to scale the shelfs just to have even the smallest chance of reaching them.

Setting the package of cup noodles he was holding down, Mammon looked to Arella’s door before looking back to the noodles. Again, those questions rang in his head. Just what was her deal? He thinks, she’s always doin’ all these favors for me and never asks for anything in return from me. Well, no I can’t say that... She did ask one thing of me and that was ta go grocery shoppin’ with her because she was afraid ta go alone- for me ta do the one job Lucifer assigned me and I essentially told her ta fuck off. The demon thinks back to their earlier exchange- how he could see the fear in her eyes and the tears that were starting to form right before he left. Great.... Now I feel guilty... I should probably go apologize and see if I can get her to stay quiet ‘bout this whole thing...

Knocking on the door- something the demon hardly ever did- Mammon waited for a response. When he didn’t get one, he just let himself in. “Arella I-!” He stopped as there was there was a noticeable flinch from under the covers.

“I’m sorry!” She squeaked out, “Don’t hurt me.”

He raised an eyebrow at her response. Did she really think he was going to hurt her somehow? Well, all things considered, the demon can’t say he’s really all that surprised. He grabs the ends of the duvet and yanks it off of her, watching as Arella curls up and raises her arms to shield her head as if readying herself for blows that would never come.

Mammon knows that response all too intimately from the times where Lucifer would beat the ever-loving fuck out of him for indulging in his sin.

“Hey, calm down, okay. I ain’t gonna lay a hand on ya like that. Not only would Lucifer have my head, but I ain’t about beatin’ up on girls anyway.” He kneels down at the side of her bed and is horrified to see an ugly bruise marring the skin beside her eye. She does eventually calm down and pulls her arms away from her head after a few minutes of nothing happening. “Atta girl, now look at me,”

When Arella does open her pupils are dilated and now the demon is a little concerned. Humans’ pupils aren’t supposed to be that dilated, are they? That would mean... Mammon fishes his D.D.D. out of his pocket and shines the flashlight right in her eyes.

“What the fuck, Mammon!” Arella recoils as she hides her face once more and Mammon turns the flashlight off. “You’re such an ass!”

“I knew it.” He tsks, “When did you hit your head? Was it when those idiots tackled you to the ground or did you fall off one of the selves at the store?”

“I didn’t hit my head!” The human retorts, “I’m fine, my head just hurts.”

“Ya got a concussion, ya dumb human! Now out with it. Ya very obviously fell and I wanna know when it happened and how high you fell from!” For someone who couldn’t care less about her, he’s surprisingly concerned right now. If she slipped off one of the shelves at the store, he would be in hot water with Lucifer.

“I said I’m fine!” Arella abruptly stood up, swaying as she did, glaring daggers at the white-haired demon who looked up at her with a look of shock. Where did his docile little human go? “And what do you care anyway!? You said it yourself: You hate me and I’m just an inconvenience to you!”

“Now hold on a tick, I never said that exactly. You’re puttin’ words in my mouth. And you’re gonna fall standin’ on the bed like that. You’re already wobblin’.” he may not have said the part about hating her outright but at the very least he heavily implied it.

“Just get out of my ro-” She let out a yelp as she went toppling forward and the demon rushed to catch her. She landed slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“See I told ya you were gonna fall.” He huffed as he readjusted her while she pounded her fists against his back, struggling against his hold on her as he headed back out to the kitchen.

“Mammon, you put me down this instant! I’m not a sack of flour!”

“Stop being a brat and let me help ya!” The Avatar of Greed says as he places her on the island counter top. “Now stay there while I get you some ice for that bruise and some medicine for that headache of yours.”

Arella just sits there in shock of what he said. He wanted to... help her? That was new. She’s drawn out of her thoughts a few minutes later when she feels of bag of ice being pressed against the bruise. She let out a hiss as she tries to move away from it but it’s then that she notices his hand holding the other side of her face so she can’t move all that much.

“Quit squirming, will ya. It’s just a bag of ice.” He looks into her eyes before shifting the bag of ice over and running his thumb over the outside of her eye socket. “Doesn’t feel like anything’s busted in there. Ya got off lucky, kid... here take these.” he has a pill in his hand

“I’m not a kid,” Arella puffs her cheeks out in a pout. “Why’re you doing this when you said earlier that you didn’t care about me...?” she takes the medicine with a swig of water.

“Don’t get it twisted. I’m only doing this because if Lucifer finds out that you went to the store without me, I’ll be hanging from my toes for the next of the week. I’d rather not have a concussion of my own from getting dropped on my head when he decides I learned my lesson.”

“I won’t tell him if you don’t...” she says softly, “You don’t have to be nice to me. I know I don’t deserve it...”

“Huh?”

“N-nothing.”

“Now hold on there,” The demon says as he moves the bag back to where it was before, “You’re not gonna speed past that and act like ya didn’t just say what ya just said.”

“It’s nothing really,” Arella eyes dart around looking everywhere but Mammon’s. “Let’s just change the subject.”

“Alright, you can answer my earlier question then. How did you fall?”

“I slipped while climbing down from one of the shelving units at the store.... and smacked my head on the shopping cart.”

“No offense, but you’re kinda dumb. You were tryin’ ta get those noodles down, weren’t ya? You could have just grabbed whatever was at eye level or in your reach. You would have been an easy meal for a demon if you had passed out.”

“I know,” She sighed. “But that flavor is your favorite and I got everybody else’s favorites. It wouldn’t have been fair to not get yours.”

“It ain’t worth a concussion, short stack.” Once he’s sure she won’t move away, he lowers his hand from the side that isn’t icing the bruise and places it over hers. “Thanks though. And... I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t think you’d actually go out and try to get yourself eaten because I said I wouldn’t care.”

“I mean, that wasn’t my goal,” She sighed. “But I guess that’s the mess I got myself into huh?”

“Ya wouldn’t have if I would have done my job and gone with ya...” He scoots her over and then hops up on the island counter next to her. “I don’t get you, ya know...”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re too nice to me. I’ve been a jackass ta ya but you never seem to let it bother ya. You’re always coverin’ for me when I steal things from the house ta sell and you never said anything after I stole that necklace and other things from you. You save my plate at dinner when I don’t make it right away and you’ve lied right ta Lucifer’s face on multiple accounts for me... why? Why do you do these things?”

“I just wanted you to be nice to me. I know I just kind of got forced on you...  I thought maybe if I extended the olive branch first, we could be at least somewhat civil with each other... but no matter what I did, it didn’t change the way you treated me so I just kept pushing harder and harder to see if maybe...”

“I get what you’re sayin’...” he hummed. “Let’s start over then... I’ll look out for ya for the rest of the year if you’ll forgive me... It would be ta both of our benefit.”

She nodded as he hopped down from the counter. “Alright, let’s go then.”

“Go? Go where?”

“Back ta the store, some of the stuff ya bought got damaged when those demons attacked ya.”

“Oh... Alright... This isn’t some kind of trick, is it? You’re not going to ditch me, are you?”

“Nah, I won’t. And if anybody wants to eat ya, they’ll have to go through me, first. Got it?” he says as holds his hand out to her. She hesitantly took it and he tugged her along after him as they headed out. She hopes that maybe they could even become friends at some point. That maybe- just maybe- this is a turning point for them.

Find more writings on my masterlist

[svtwritess]

Chapter 5

ღ word count: 8.2k

ღ genres: fluff, (heavy-ish) angst, smut (there’s actually some in this chapter finally sry for the wait <3)

ღ pairing: wonwoo x female reader, mingyu x female reader

ღ college!au, vampire!au

ღ warnings: mentions of food, vampire stuff, oral (m & f recieving) 

“He came up to you?” 

“Yes!” you nearly yelled into the phone. You’d called Mingyu the second you left the grocery store. “He said he remembered me and that if I needed anything I should ask him, but it didn’t seem like he was talking about groceries.” you told him nervously as you walked home as quickly as possible. 

“If it’s not too much to ask please try not to go there alone. Or just… go to a different grocery store or something.” you could hear the frustration in his voice and even though you didn’t know why he had an issue with Jun, you felt bad that he was so worried. 

“Mingyu, is he a, you know…” you didn’t want to say the word out loud, just in case people heard you and thought you were half out of your mind. 

“A vampire?” 

“Yeah.” 

Mingyu let out a long breath. “Yeah, he is…” 

“Okay, that makes a lot more sense then. I was already planning on it, but I’ll steer clear of him, I promise.” you nodded in understanding, even though Mingyu couldn’t see you.

“Thank you.” he sighed in relief. You smiled at the fact that you were able to lift even the lightest weight off of his shoulders. 

“I’m home now so I gotta go, but I’ll see you tomorrow?” you asked as you unlocked your door. 

“For sure, with a coffee in hand.” you smiled at his response and ended the call before entering your apartment, closing and locking the door behind you. 

You placed the few bags you had on the counter and took the items you’d bought out of them. You put the food in the refrigerator and everything else in the cabinet under the sink. As you were collecting the bags to put them away, you heard Wonwoo’s door open. You closed your eyes and sighed, not exactly sure how the interaction was going to go. 

“You’re finally home,” he said, his tone difficult to read.

“Yep.” you replied, tossing the grocery bags in the pantry and beginning the walk to your room. You brushed past Wonwoo, avoiding eye contact, but he grabbed your wrist to stop you. 

“Listen, I’m sorry.” he said quietly and you nearly rolled your eyes. 

“There would be nothing to be sorry for if you had just warned me or something.” you said, annoyance in your voice as you turned to face him. 

“Well we agreed not to talk about that stuff, so I didn’t know where the line was,” he shrugged, letting go of you. 

“Think about it this way.” you crossed your arms, “Would you rather say something as vague as ‘hey I think you should try and find another place to stay tonight I’m doing something at home’ or me walk in on you having sex? Which one do you think is the better option? Honestly?” your words caused Wonwoo to let out a sigh as he rubbed his face with his hands.

“Look I made a mistake and I apologized. I’m sorry it happened, really, so why are you still upset?” he seemed tired and a little frustrated, but it almost seemed like he was more angry with himself than with you.

“Because you could do better than that girl from the coffee shop! I don’t know why you’re wasting your time.” you muttered as you pulled away from his grasp and finished the walk to your room. 

“Y/N!” Wonwoo yelled as he followed you. You went to close your door, but his hand stopped it, pulling it back open. “Do you know how annoying it is? Watching you go through guys that aren’t good enough for you?” 

“Wonwoo what are you talking about?” you slightly raised your voice as you turned to face him. 

“All the guys you had crushes on that didn’t like you back? Do you know how much it sucked hearing you complain about them so much when they weren’t even worth your time in the first place?” he explained, anger evident in his tone. “How much I hated knowing that you were fucking my best friend for half of high school? The way he would talk about you sometimes was like you weren’t even a person, I hated it. And now this Mingyu guy who made a move while you were moving in? How desperate can he be?!” he vented loudly, running his hands through his hair. He let out a frustrated breath as he looked at you expectantly, awaiting your response. 

“I-” you really didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know you felt that way.” you stood there awkwardly as you looked at the floor, a pained look on your face. 

“Yeah, well, I guess it’s my fault for keeping it to myself.” he leaned against the wall by your door and looked at the ceiling. 

You further contemplated what to say. You didn’t know he had been holding so much inside of him or how he did it for so long. You never had the chance to feel that way toward him because this was basically the first time he’d been with anyone romantically and you hated it, so you couldn’t imagine how he felt. 

“Why do you think…” you started nervously, “it bothers you so much?” 

The window for him to confess was wide open now, you just wondered if he would do it.

“I think we both know the answer to that,” he looked at you, “But clearly that’s not gonna happen, so what’s the point in waiting around, right?” he said as he turned to leave your room.

“What’s not gonna happen?” you asked hurriedly, taking a step toward him. He looked back at you over his shoulder.

“This,” he motioned between the two of you, “us. I know how you feel and it’s fine, I’ll get over it.” he shrugged and finally exited your room, shutting the door behind him. 

You just stood there, face blank as you tried to process everything your best friend had just admitted to you. He had feelings for you? You weren’t particularly surprised, specifically because of everything he prefaced his confession with. How did he not snap sooner? You would’ve been miserable if you were in his position. 

You buried your face in your hands, rubbing your temples before grabbing your phone out of the bag that was still on your shoulder. You tossed your purse on the floor as you fell on your bed, tears starting to fill your eyes. You couldn’t talk to Mingyu about this, but you knew there was only one other person that you’d feel even remotely comfortable talking to about the situation. You went to your contacts and selected their name, the phone only ringing a few times before they picked up. 

“Y/N?” 

“Joshua?” you sniffled, a tear rolling down your face and onto your bed. 

“Are you okay?” he inquired, sounding concerned.

“No.” you chuckled, still barely having comprehended everything. 

“What’s going on?” he asked, his sweet voice calming you down slightly. 

“Wonwoo kind of… told me that he likes me. Did you know?” 

“Wow,” Joshua let out a breathy laugh, “I’m surprised he waited ‘till now to tell you. After we stopped hooking up I asked him if he was into you, because it seemed like he was, and he said yes.” he said casually. You sat up and ran a hand through your hair. 

“God I feel horrible,” you wiped a tear off of your cheek, “what do you think I should do?” you asked as you were truly, completely lost. 

“Well my instinct says you should just date him since he’s been into you for so long, but I know it’s not that easy. He told me you’ve been seeing this guy he doesn’t like, is that true?” 

“Yeah… it’s just weird because I really like him, but if I didn’t like Wonwoo, why would I be so upset about the fact that he’s seeing someone?” you asked him, hoping he would be able to tell you since you couldn’t seem to figure out the answer yourself. 

“Y/N, I hate to break it to you, but it’s possible to like two people at once, so you might be caught in a dilemma here.” he replied and you groaned, flopping back down on your bed. 

“Well this sucks,” you said and he laughed a little. 

“Just do whatever feels right, you have good judgement.” he told you, causing you to smile slightly. 

“Thanks, I try.”

“It’s good to hear from you, Y/N,” Joshua said genuinely, “And if things don’t work out with either of them, you know where to find me.” he joked… or at least you thought he was joking. 

“Thanks Josh. I’ll talk to you soon.” 

“Sounds good.” he said contently and you both said goodbye before ending the call. 

You laid still on your bed, completely unsure of what to do as you tossed your phone beside you. How were you supposed to live with Wonwoo without things being completely awkward? Unless you dated him, but was that what you wanted? You didn’t want to leave Mingyu by any means… Wonwoo would get over it right? He said he would and he was already starting the process; you prayed that that would be enough. 

You picked up your phone again and saw that Wonwoo had texted you. 

from: wonu

1:21pm: leaving for the night, see you tomorrow

You sighed for what felt like the 100th time that night. You didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable in his own home because of you, so you decided that you would sit down with him and talk it out tomorrow. Even if it ended with remaining just friends, you wanted to give him some form of closure. 

You got a little bit of your shit together and decided to go on one of those job finding websites, beginning your much needed search for employment. You created your account, creating a resume and providing the site with the information they required. When you were done, you searched keywords for jobs that didn’t sound completely grueling, like “bookstore” and “receptionist” and even “librarian”. Most of them required some kind of prior experience, but you submitted your resume to the ones that didn’t. The site even recommended a couple of jobs to you as well, based on what you had searched, so you applied to a few of those just for the hell of it. 

You closed the web browser and went to scroll through an app on your phone when you heard a long, very unsettling gurgling noise come from your stomach. The fact that you hadn’t eaten all day smacked you in the face and you forced yourself to get out of bed.

As you padded to the kitchen, you knew exactly what you were going to make yourself. You’d bought some noodles, pasta sauce, and parmesan cheese for the house and though it was simple, it was filling, and in your opinion, delicious. 

You played some music on your phone, dancing around a little as you waited for the noodles to cook. You stirred them every once and a while, making sure the water didn’t boil over. When they were almost done, you put some of the sauce in a bowl and heated it up in the microwave. Once the timer went off, you turned the stovetop off and removed the pot of noodles from the eye it was on. After straining them, you transferred the noodles to the same bowl as the sauce and doused everything in parmesan cheese. 

You decided to watch a movie that you knew Wonwoo would never be interested in, deciding to take advantage of the fact that he (sadly) wasn’t there. Even though you were usually okay with being by yourself, for some reason you felt quite lonely. Maybe it was because you had found someone besides Wonwoo that you actually enjoyed spending time around, and it definitely helped that that someone was extremely attractive and very interested in you. 

You didn’t want to annoy him, but you found yourself wanting to be around Mingyu more and more. You’d always just assumed that he had a life outside of you, but honestly, you weren’t so sure anymore. It wasn’t by any means a bad thing, you had far less of a life than he did, you just hoped that he wanted to spend more time together just as you did.

You picked up your phone and unlocked it, finding Mingyu’s contact and pressing the call button. 

“Why hello, miss me already?” you could hear him smirking. 

“Actually yes,” you admitted, “Can you blame me?” 

“Not at all… I was just thinking about you myself.”

“Ooooh, do I get to know what about?” you asked, smiling to yourself at his words. You loved that he was comfortable enough to admit something like that to you. 

“I’m afraid that’s gonna have to stay between me and the higher power babe,” he chuckled and you blushed at the nickname. He had never called you that before. “What’s up?” 

You hesitated for a moment. “Do you think you could come over tonight? Wonwoo’s gone for the night so I thought it would be nice, but if you’re busy…” 

“I’m helping Chan study for a test he has tomorrow, but I’ll be over as soon as we’re done. I promise.”

“See you then,” you bit your lip excitedly and ended the call. 

You thought that maybe you should, no…. well? Maybe it wasn’t that crazy of an idea. Would wearing something kind of obviously sexy be too much? What if he was more in the mood than you were and then things got awkward? Or vice versa? You knew he wouldn’t push you to do anything you didn’t want to do, but you also didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. It felt like a stupid thing to be worrying about, but admittedly you were a bit tired of just kissing, and moving to ~the next step~ was pretty nerve wracking. 

You paused the movie you were watching and walked into your room, letting out a deep breath and continuously trying to convince yourself that you weren’t being ridiculous. You opened your underwear drawer and dug to the bottom of it, fishing out the sexiest pair you had that you’d only ever worn for you and you alone. You found the bra that matched it and tossed them on your bed, removing the clothes you were wearing before putting them on. You realized the black matching set was surprisingly comfortable as you contemplated what else to wear during his visit. 

You looked through your drawers, quickly realizing that sexy loungewear wasn’t something you owned, and decided to simply wear a large t-shirt that your father had given you a few years ago because it didn’t fit him. It wasn’t particularly sexy in itself, but it sent the right message. 

You padded back into the living room and plopped back down on the couch, awaiting Mingyu’s arrival. As the movie played, you checked your email to see if any of the jobs you’d applied to had gotten back to you, but as you’d only submitted your applications a little over an hour ago, you had no responses. 

You sighed and tapped your foot impatiently against the floor, leaning your head back to rest on top of the couch. You listened to the movie with your eyes closed, nearly drifting off to sleep when finally, right as the movie ended, there was a knock at your door. 

You jumped up excitedly, a smile as your face as you ran over to the door and nearly threw it open. 

“Hi,” Mingyu said, taking in your only partially covered form. You bit your lip and wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. He smiled against your lips and wrapped his arms around your waist instinctively, pressing your bodies together. 

“I missed you,” you said quietly into the kiss, gently biting down on his lower lip. He nearly growled at the action, allowing his tongue to explore your mouth as he moved his hands to grip your hips. 

“You just saw me a few hours ago,” he grunted, one of his hands moving down your body and grabbing your ass eagerly. His kisses were sloppy and his lips soft, making it impossible to focus on anything other than him. The way his tongue ran against yours went straight to your core, warmth taking over your body.

“Well you’re just as excited as I am,” you breathed out between kisses, “so what does that mean?” 

Mingyu pulled away from you and rested his forehead on yours, both of you breathing a bit heavier than normal. He smiled before pecking your lips one last time and pulling away from you. 

“I would say it means I can’t get enough of you,” he replied, pecking your forehead then prancing over to your couch. You stood there for a moment, blushing slightly and trying to comprehend his cheesy comment.

“Touché,” you smiled as you turned around. Mingyu was sitting on your couch, man spreading like no other, though you didn’t mind yet as you weren’t sitting next to him. 

“So where’d Wonwoo go?” he asked casually, fingers woven together behind his head, supporting it as he sat. You felt your heart fall into your stomach. How do I avoid this? You wondered. Should I even avoid this? 

“He, uh, just got upset with me and wanted to take a night to clear his head, that’s all…” you trailed off, avoiding eye contact as you took a spot next to him on the couch. He turned his head to look at you, eyebrows furrowed. 

“He got mad enough to leave? That must’ve been bad… do you wanna talk about it?” he offered, placing one of his hands on your thigh. You looked at him with a soft smile and shook your head. 

“Not right now, maybe another time though,” you told him and he nodded in understanding. You leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, “thank you.” 

“Anytime,” he patted your leg and pecked your lips before standing up to go to the kitchen. You reveled in the fact that you both trusted each other so much. He had his secrets and you had yours, and it made you a bit nervous, but he’d given you no reason to believe that he’d ever deceive you. 

“Are you-” you began asking him as he looked in one of your cabinets, when suddenly a very dark thought dawned on you. 

Vampires don’t eat… they drink.

“Y/N?” Mingyu’s voice shook you out of your thoughts, though your eyes were still glued to the floor and your mouth was still hanging open in sudden realization. 

“I’ve only seen you eat, what, once?” you said quietly as you looked up at him, “because you don’t need to eat...” 

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he walked over to you. He sat down on the floor in front of you and put his hands on your knees, looking into your eyes meaningfully.

“I hate this part, everyone always reacts so differently…” he gently, though nervously, ran his hands up and down your thighs, “What do you wanna know?” His voice was soft and calm, but slightly reluctant. 

“I-I mean… you drink blood, right?” you asked hesitantly, again unable to believe that you were having such a conversation in real life. 

“Yeah.” he replied casually, causing you to look at him confusedly. 

“So do you have to… kill anyone to do it?” you twiddled your fingers.

“Well when I first turned I did, no one knows how to act the first week of being a vampire. You’re suddenly so powerful that you feel like you can do anything, so you do…” he looked at his hands, reminiscing on past choices he clearly regretted. “Draining someone is the most satisfying way to feed, but it’s messy and brutal and just… wrong, so I haven’t done it in decades.” 

“So then what do you do?” you asked. You knew you should be scared, maybe disgusted even, but it wasn’t your place to judge. You had no idea what it would be like to be in his position, the things he must’ve felt, the urges he must’ve had… it couldn’t have been easy. Besides, it was 2 centuries ago. You knew he was a different person now than he was then, so if he says he hasn’t... killed anyone in a long, long while, you believed him.

“Personally, I feed on animals. I leave them alive as often as possible,” you winced at the ‘as often as possible’ part. “It’s not very filling, but it’s the safest way to do it. Sometimes Jeonghan will feed on people, on the hook ups he brings home, but he always leaves them alive and…” he hesitated for a moment, “wipes their memory after.” your jaw was on the floor and your eyes nearly fell out of your head. 

“You can do that?!” you exclaimed. Mingyu chuckled lightly, shaking his head.

“Yeah, but it’s not that easy. You have to have the blood of the vampire who’s trying to wipe your memory in your system for it to work, so it’s usually not worth it.” he explained, and you were still completely astonished. 

“How does he-”

“It only takes a drop, so usually he’ll put it in their drink or something. I think sometimes they even do it willingly.” he told you and you looked at him in disbelief. “I don’t know what kind of people Jeonghan hooks up with.” he shrugged. 

“What about Vernon? And Chan, he just turned didn’t he? Did he feed on people?” you asked, suddenly completely immersed in the topic. 

“Chan was the same way I was when I first turned, totally insatiable. I wouldn’t let him feed on people ‘cause I knew he’d go too far, so I snuck blood out of hospitals, donation trucks, anywhere I could really. And Vernon… Well Vernon’s the lucky one. Seungkwan lets him feed off of him basically whenever he needs to, and he has great self control, so it’s really not an issue.” he explained to you, nodding as he finished. 

“Wow,” you tried to take it all in, “how come you ate with me then? That time you made ramen?” 

“Well we can eat, it just basically does nothing for us in terms of stopping us from being hungry or keeping us “alive”, so it’s mostly recreational.” he used air quotes, helping you make sense of things. Questions would not stop coming into your head.

“Wait, so… do you poop?” you asked in all seriousness, though MIngyu threw his head back with laughter. 

“Okay I think that’s enough question and answer for today,” he patted your knee and stood up, heading back into the kitchen. You pouted, genuinely unsure of how a vampire’s digestive system worked, but you decided to let it go. 

You admired Mingyu’s frame as he grabbed a glass from the cabinet in front of him, then reached over to open the freezer. 

“Did you say that Seungkwan lets Vernon… feed on him?” you inquired as a thought popped into your head. 

“Yeah, why?” Mingyu replied as he popped ice cubes out of your ice cube tray. 

“Well,” you began as you stood up, making your way over to him, “how good would you say your self control is?” 

“I don’t know,” he chuckled, “depends on the situation.” He refilled the tray and put it back in the freezer before grabbing the gallon of water you kept in the refrigerator. 

“What if I told you,” you wrapped your arms around his waist from behind as he opened the jug, “that we could try something like that if you wanted to?”

“Try something like what?” he asked as he began pouring the water.

“You… feeding on me.”

Mingyu didn’t respond. You were scared you’d offended him or something, though after a silence that was much too long, you heard water flowing over the cup, and soon it was on the floor. 

“Mingyu!” you exclaimed as you stepped backward, the cold water nearly touching your feet. You heard him mutter a few curse words under his breath before setting the jug upright and nearly lunging for the paper towels.

“Sorry, I-, shit, I’m sorry.” he stumbled on his words as he unraveled the paper towels, ripping off a large portion and cleaning up the water he’d spilt on the counter. 

“Why’d you do that?” you asked, though there was no trace of anger in your voice, just confusion. You grabbed some paper towels yourself and began wiping up the water on the floor. 

“You just… surprised me, is all.” he replied, walking past you to throw his now drenched paper towels away. After the floor was dry again, you followed suit, throwing the damp sheets away before standing next to him. He had his hands pressed to the edge of the counter and was leaning on them, his head looking down at the floor.

“I-I’m sorry if I-”

“God, no,” he stopped you, “don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything, it’s just that… no one’s ever really offered me that before.” he looked over at you, his eyes soft and full of warmth.

“With how long you’ve been alive and how hot you are? I find that hard to believe.” you said playfully, reaching over to rub small, comforting circles into his back. 

“I’m serious!” he giggled, looking back down at the ground. Your smile faded, realizing he didn’t believe your words to be true. 

“So am I,” you stepped in front of him and looked into his eyes. “I meant it, but if you don’t want to then I’m not gonna force you.” He slowly stood up straight and cupped your face with both of his hands, tilting your head so you were looking up at him.

“You trust me that much?” he asked and you nodded. “And you’re sure about this?” you nodded once more. Mingyu leaned down as if he was going to kiss you, but stopped right in front of your lips. “I think,” he pecked your lips as gently as ever, “I’m in love with you.” 

You felt your heart swell in your chest and your cheeks flare up with heat, smiling even though your face was still encompassed by Mingyu’s hands. 

“So soon?!” you asked, not even bothering to try and contain your excitement. He laughed at you, releasing you from his grip and turning to grab his cup.

“Hey, I said I think,” he smirked before taking a sip of water. Your eyes wandered to the floor, and your mind to the events that happened just moments earlier when he walked through the door. Your playful manner suddenly dissipated as you remembered how his hands felt on your body, how his lips felt against yours. 

“Then why did you stop?” you asked quietly.

“Stop what?” he looked at you, clearly confused as he set it glass back on the counter.

“You know, when you got here... and I basically threw myself at you…” you eluded, trying to get him to understand.

“Yeeeah?” he looked at you, everything you were implying going completely over his head. You rolled your eyes and scoffed. 

“I’m not dressed like this,” you motioned to your ‘outfit’, “for no reason!” 

Mingyu chuckled. “I figured that’s just what you wear around the house!” He defended himself.

“With no pants on? When I knew you were coming over?” you questioned, arms crossed. He simply nodded as if he was stating the obvious. You sighed defeatedly as you walked away from him. 

“For a man who’s been alive for over 200 years you sure can be clueless sometimes!” you yelled as you opened the door to your room, heading for your bed.

Before you knew it, Mingyu was bursting through the door frame and picking you up. He threw your back down on the bed as you laughed, bouncing up and down slightly before he climbed on top of you. 

“You think I’m clueless huh?” he asked, his tone and facial expression totally serious. Your smile instantly faded, eyes widening at his demeanor and the sudden close proximities of your bodies. You went to reply, but he spoke again. “Think I didn’t wanna rip this thing off you the second I saw you?” 

He crashed his lips to yours as he lifted your leg up so it was bent at the knee before running his hand up your thigh and tugging at the hem of your shirt. 

“Then why didn’t you?” you asked against his lips, running your hands through his hair as he caressed your side. 

“Cause I didn’t wanna be wrong,” he moved his lips down to kiss your neck, a moan escaping your lips as the warmth of his mouth encapsulated your skin, “but now I know I wasn’t.” he kissed along your jaw, his tongue swiping across your sensitive skin, sending shivers down your spine. 

You reached forward and began pulling Mingyu’s shirt up, causing him to pull away from you and take it off. He looked down at you, your shirt having ridden up to just underneath your breasts. 

“What are these?” he asked, a smug expression taking over his features as he ran his thumb along the top of your underwear. You smirked up at him, glad that your plan was working. 

“Oh, nothing,” you replied as you confidently pulled your shirt the rest of the way off. 

“Oh my god,” Mingyu groaned, throwing his head back before taking in the sight before him that he could not believe he was lucky enough to be seeing. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he said in a low voice as he returned to kissing you. He was rough and passionate, teeth nearly clashing together as he ground his hardening member against your clothed core. 

“Mingyu,” you moaned lightly as you gently pulled his face away from yours, “I wanna try something.” he nodded at your words and you pushed him off of you.

“Sit,” you directed as you motioned toward the top of your bed. He looked at you curiously, but obliged and sat with his back against your headboard. You climbed onto his lap, legs on either side of his waist. He looked at you, admiration in his eyes as he ran his hands down your sides and over your hips. 

“I like this,” he stated happily and you smiled, pulling him toward you and reconnecting your lips. Your tongue ran across his bottom lip, his hands moving down to your ass, grabbing it as he inhaled sharply. “God you’re amazing,” he breathed against your lips.. 

“We haven’t even gotten to the good part,” you said, your voice sultry as you began kissing his neck, leaving a hickey here and there. Whimpers left his mouth as you kissed him, grinding yourself down on his crotch. His hard cock rubbed against your clit perfectly, your underwear dampening. He moved his hands up and unclasped your bra with ease, tossing it on the floor. He groped your breasts with vigor, loving the feeling of your breasts in his hands. Your skin was on fire and his cool hands felt amazing against your nipples

You begrudgingly took his hands off of your breasts and began kissing down his body, your hand moving to palm him through his pants. He let out a low moan, the combination of your mouth on him and your hand palming him feeling better than he could’ve imagined. 

Once you reached the band of his underwear, you pulled his pants down his legs and tossed them aside. You placed your hands on his hips as you ran your tongue along his clothed member, placing light kisses along it as he moaned beneath you. 

“Y/N please…” he begged breathlessly, eyes closed with his head leaning against your headboard. You smiled at his desperation and slowly removed his underwear before throwing it to where his pants were. You turned back toward him and stared at his member in front of you… he was… gigantic? You swallowed your pride, though you were worried that he may be too much for you to handle.

Instead of letting your insecurity show, you licked a long, slow stripe up his shaft, a guttural moan falling from Mingyu’s lips. You swirled your tongue around his tip, collecting the precum that threatened to fall from it. He let out a shaky breath and you looked up at him. His eyelids were heavy, but his eyes were on you, his chest falling up and down in a quick rhythm. You smirked at his fucked-out state and took as much of him as you could in your mouth, nearly gagging when his tip reached the back of your throat. 

“Y/N…” he whimpered, causing you to moan as you pulled off of him. Something about Mingyu, who had such a big effect on you, being so weak at your fingertips had you dripping. “That feels so good.”

“Good, I’m glad.” you smiled as you jerked him off, using your saliva as a lubricant. You moved your head back down and took the top of his member in your mouth, continuing to move your hand up and down the bottom of it. The sounds coming from your room were absolutely filthy, but admittedly, you loved it. 

Mingyu moved one of his hands into your hair as he whined, his bottom lip nearly bleeding from how hard he was biting it. You moved your mouth off of him and he almost began to complain, but then he noticed you moving lower. As you twisted your hand up and down his member, you took one of his balls into your mouth. 

“Jesus Y/N,” he nearly yelled, back arching off of your headboard. You took your hand off of his cock and put him back in your mouth, moving your hand to his balls and massaging them gently. “Fuck I’m gonna cum,” he whispered, his words causing you to moan against him. The vibration sent a feeling of euphoria through his entire body, his seed shooting into the back of your throat as he moaned your name. 

Though it had been a while since you’d blown someone, you thought you handled yourself pretty well. You tried not to make a face as you swallowed his load. It wasn’t your favorite thing to do, but you were by no means a quitter. 

You sat up and fixed your hair, allowing yourself to catch your breath as you admired Mingyu’s figure. His eyes were closed, his arms limp at his side as he attempted to recover from the whirlwind you had just thrown him into. He looked amazing… ethereal even. 

“Was that okay?” you asked innocently as you crawled toward him. He looked at you like you had 3 heads. 

“Are you kidding me?” he questioned, but you just shrugged as you went to straddle him once more. Before you could place your hands on his shoulders, he was flipping the two of you over so that you were on your back. “You’re not gonna remember your own name when I’m done with you,” he groaned against your lips as he kissed you. He ground against you and your eyes shot open as you broke the kiss.

“Are you hard?” you asked in utter disbelief. 

“Yes,” he said impatiently, spreading your legs further apart for more access. 

“But you just-”

He sat up and looked you in the eyes knowingly, “Vampire thing.”

“Oooooh…” you nodded as he returned his attention to your lips, the information you’d just learned arousing you even further. 

His lips were soft against yours, which was a great contrast to the way he kissed you. Your tongue swiped his, messily getting lost in each other’s tastes. You ran your hands through his hair and tugged on it lightly, making him moan quietly into your mouth. 

His lips moved to your neck, teeth lightly grazing across your skin every now and then. You wondered if he would bite you, as you’d given him permission, but his lips merely trailed down to your chest instead. His hand caressed your thigh as he kissed the expanse of your breasts, seemingly covering every inch of skin with kisses. Though, being the tease he is, he kissed around your nipples that were hardened with arousal, which was exactly where you wanted his mouth in that moment. He looked up at you with a smirk, knowing exactly what he was doing. 

He took his time kissing his way down your stomach. He gently ran his hand up and down your side, often whispering sweet nothings against your skin. The pace of your breathing quickened as he moved further down your body, letting out a whimper as he licked up your navel toward your belly button. He hooked his pointer finger around the waistband of your underwear, pulling them off of you in the blink of an eye.

Mingyu brought both of his hands to your knees and spread them as far as they would go. You became slightly self-conscious as he did and said nothing, he simply stared at your dripping core. Before you knew it, he was lunging toward your center, his tongue attacking your clit as if he’d been starved of your taste for days. 

He took turns licking long stripes up your folds and taking your clit in his mouth, sucking and toying with it with his tongue. The noises you were making were uncontrollable at that point, a loud moan falling from your lips when one of his fingers entered you.

“Mingyu…” you whined, your hand making your way to his hair. 

“You’re so beautiful Y/N,” he groaned against your core, “So beautiful....” 

Your cheeks flushed even more at his words. They were cheesy, but they rubbed you in exactly the right way. 

He sucked on your clit as his fingers curled inside you, eyes rolling into the back of your head as your back arched off your bed. The obscene noises you were making went straight to Mingyu’s crotch, causing him to rut his hips against the bed as he ate you out. 

He added a second finger inside of you and removed his lips from your center, causing you to whine in disapproval. He began kissing the inside of your thighs, biting down on the skin occasionally and replaced the feeling of his tongue with his finger, putting pressure on your clit as he rubbed you toward your climax. 

“Oh my god, more, please,” you begged, your other hand running through your own hair as your orgasm built up inside of you. Your breathing stuttered when he returned his tongue to your clit, moving it in a similar fashion as he did his thumb and the sensation was one you’d never felt before. A chill ran down your spine when the coil in your stomach snapped, your climax tearing through you with immense force as the combination of how good his tongue and fingers felt finally hit you. 

Your back arched off the bed once more, feral noises coming from your throat mixed with the sound of his name falling off your lips was like music to Mingyu’s ears. He didn’t stop his movements until your grip on his hair loosened and you were whining for him to stop.

He sat back on his heels before licking his lips and sucking his fingers clean. He smirked down at you, crawling back on top of your fucked-out form and pecking your lips lightly. The way you looked in that moment, a light sheen of sweat covering your forehead along with your eyelids that threatened to fall shut, made Mingyu’s heart swell. 

“I think I’ve changed my mind,” he said as he lovingly moved some stray hairs away from your face. 

“Yeah? About what?” you asked as you admired his now messy features, reveling in his touch. 

“I’m definitely in love with you.” 

For some reason your body had woken you up almost an hour before you needed to be awake, but you supposed there was no harm in that. You woke up against Mingyu’s bare chest, a light snore falling from his lips, along with a wee bit of drool. You thought it was more endearing than anything else as you stared at him, nothing but admiration in your eyes and a warm feeling in your heart. 

He was in love with you? So soon? Your mind didn’t want to believe it, but your heart couldn’t help falling for his words. Even if he didn’t mean it, even if it was premature, it felt right. It didn’t scare you. It didn’t make your heart feel like retreating even further into your body and convincing you to run away. You wanted his words to be genuine, and similarly, you wanted to be able to say it back to him just as truthfully someday soon. You knew it wouldn’t take you long to fully fall for him, there was just one thing you needed to take care of first. 

Wonwoo. The only reason you were able to sleep the previous night was because of how worn out Mingyu had made you, and you were grateful for that. You became increasingly anxious as you waited for your best friend to come home, not wanting to talk about the situation, but recognizing that you desperately needed to. 

You slowly slid your bare body out of your bed, careful not to wake Mingyu. You walked over to pick up your discarded clothes from last night, slipping the shirt you were wearing then back over your head. You were feeling cold, so you walked over to your dresser and pulled out a pair of pajama pants, slipping those on as well. 

You heard your front door open and you stood up straight, panic rushing through your body. Your eyes were wide as you weren’t expecting Wonwoo to be home so soon and before that moment you thought you might actually have some time to prepare what you wanted to say to him. Though your mind was telling you to cover Mingyu with blankets and pillows so he couldn’t be seen and stay in your room and be as silent as possible, your feet completely disregarded your thoughts as you began walking toward your bedroom door. You opened it and began walking toward your best friend who was now in the kitchen. You reached his back that was facing you and hesitated.

“Wonwoo?” you said quietly, reaching up and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off. “Do you think we could talk? Please?” you kept your voice quiet, gentle. He turned around slowly until he was facing you. 

“There’s nothing to talk about, Y/N.” he shook his head and shrugged his broad shoulders. You looked at him, loads of sympathy in your eyes. 

“Yes there is. I’m not okay with things being so awkward between us and I know you aren’t either.” you replied, trying to maintain eye contact, but he kept his eyes on the floor. 

“And how are we supposed to make things not awkward?” he asked, arms crossed as he mindlessly swiped his sock-covered foot across the tile floor. 

“Listen, if I had known you liked me before I met Mingyu, he wouldn’t even be in the picture right now. I never really admitted it, but I’ve always liked you too. Even now I’m not totally sure how I feel, I just know that I’m with Mingyu now and I really, really like him and you’re with someone else now too, so I think we should both just keep doing what we’re doing,” you let out a deep breath, Wonwoo finally looking into your eyes. “I know it’s not that easy, but… just try and focus on moving on. I’ll give you the space and time you need, I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable here, and I don’t wanna stop being friends.” you explained as calmly as you could, you didn’t want to get too emotional in fear of what you might say.

“Friends?” Wonwoo asked, disbelief in his voice. You were suddenly worrying again, wondering if you’d said something wrong. You went to defend yourself, but he spoke before you. “I thought we were best friends?” a smile creeped onto Wonwoo’s face and you rolled your eyes.

“You scared me!” you swatted his arm, barely taking note of the fact that he was pulling you into a hug, a light chuckle leaving his lips. You’d missed his laugh. 

“I’m sorry,” he hugged you tightly, “we just never got the timing right, that’s all.” he rubbed your back and you nodded against his toned chest.

“If something’s meant to happen, it will.” was all you could think to reply. You believed it, you really did, and if it was fated that the two of you end up together, you knew it would happen somehow.

You stayed in the comfort of his arms for a little bit before pulling away. You looked up into his eyes and the moment you did you knew you shouldn’t have. You got lost in his soft, cat-like orbs before admiring his nose that came to a perfect point. You moved to his lips, and when you had stared at them for far longer than was acceptable, you heard footsteps behind you.

You panicked, immediately pushing Wonwoo away and attempting to collect yourself before turning around. Mingyu was just standing there, fully dressed with a look on his face that was an uneasy combination of disappointment and insecurity. Your face fell upon seeing him. How much had he heard? 

Wonwoo looked between the two of you, but he said nothing. He merely walked to his room as quickly as he could, avoiding Mingyu’s eyes along the way. When you heard Wonwoo’s bedroom door shut, you bolted toward Mingyu and prepared to explain yourself.

“Mingyu-”

“Why…” he sighed, interrupting you, “Why did he leave yesterday?” his voice broke a little as he spoke, your heart along with it.

“He just-” you so badly wanted to keep things vague, make excuses even, but you knew the truth would come out at some point, and he deserved to know anyway. You ran your hands through your hair frustratedly. “He told me that he has feelings for me.” you admitted defeatedly. Mingyu let out a breathy laugh of disbelief, his expression quickly turning sour again.  

“Did you mean it?” he asked quietly, seriously. He was looking right at you, all of his emotions on display. 

“Mean what?” 

“What you said… about me.” his jaw clenched. 

“That… that I like you?” 

“No,” his annoyance finally got the best of him, “When you said that I wouldn’t even be in the picture right now if you had known Wonwoo liked you before you met me. Did you mean that?” his voice was harsh as he took a step closer to you. You knew he wouldn’t hurt you, but it was the first time you’d ever felt scared of him. You knew in that moment you could either lift his spirits or crush them, but in order to be truthful, you could only do the latter. 

“I-” you let out a sigh, closing your eyes. “Yes, but trust me-”

“That’s all I needed to hear.” he cut you off and headed toward the door.

“Mingyu please-” you followed him, but before you could finish your thought, the door was slamming in your face, Mingyu on the other side of it. 

You leaned your forehead against the door, tears swelling in your eyes. You couldn’t believe you’d been so careless with your words when Mingyu was just in the other room. The worst part was that you knew you meant them, but you still wouldn’t trade what you had with him for anything… or anyone. If something is meant to happen it will, your mind repeated, and you ended up with Mingyu; you knew it was no coincidence. 

You felt your heart nearly tear in half when you remembered he’d told you he was in love with you less than 12 hours ago. Warm tears began falling from your eyes, streaming down your cheeks as you ran into your room, slamming the door behind you. 

You couldn’t manage going any further. You leaned against the back of your door, your face in your hands as you cried. You couldn’t imagine how horrible he must’ve felt, hearing you say out loud that you would’ve completely disregarded him if only another man had gotten to you before him. You never thought you would hurt him, and by no means did you ever want to.

As you wiped the salty droplets caused by nothing but your own stupidity off of your cheeks, you saw your phone screen light up and begin to vibrate from its place on the floor. You walked over to it and picked it up, seeing that it was your mother calling. You texted your parents frequently, but your face scrunched in confusion as you rarely ever called each other. You attempted to pull yourself together, drying your tears once more as you answered the call, putting the phone up to your ear. 

“Mom?” 

“Y/N? Sweetie are you okay? Are you hurt?” she asked frantically, seemingly through tears.

“What? Mom, I’m fine. What’s going on?” 

“We were robbed last night.”

a/n: ..hehe :D

[lovelyirony]

Maybe 60 and 46, Pepper / Natasha? (Based off our conversation from the other day :P )

“Dance with me.”/“You look like you could use a hug.” introducing: evil businesswoman pepper and her lovely assistant, natasha 

Pepper didn’t like dealing with other businesses early in the morning. In fact, she usually didn’t. She did her worst in the mornings, and it was clear to see. 

There was a man still lying in his chair when she comes out of the meeting room, and asks for a clean-up crew. 

She hates tech start-ups. 

Her assistant didn’t last. They never did, although this one had shown promise: he was with the company for five months. 

She was sad to see him go, in shock at another mess she had made. 

“Maybe you could stop killing other businesses,” Tony tells her while they’re eating lunch. It’s a nice place, where they’re at. They have a good balsamic vinaigrette.  

“I could, but then where would the company be?” Pepper asks. “They need to know that I like to be impressed. I want success. That’s how you get what you want.” 

Tony makes a face. 

He wants to say something, but he can’t. Not when he signed the company over to her, and she’s improved it, been allowed to make her own choices, bring everything up to her standards. She’s put everyone at her heel, and by god has it been satisfying. 

But she still needs a new assistant. 

- 

Natasha Romanoff is not liking the current assignment. Then again, she doesn’t like a lot of SHIELD’s assignments. 

She likes the company, really. They’re altruistic as hell and like going through the proper channels to get the proper work done. 

But she misses the feeling of getting yourself immersed, getting your hands stained beyond belief. 

An assistant. 

They want her to be a damned assistant for Stark Industries. Investigate the CEO, figure out what kind of dirt they can dig up and get out. 

It’s insufferable. She should be doing high-speed car chases and seducing oil barons to make sure their finances get drained. 

She shouldn’t be asking what kind of creamer goes in coffee and what kind of pens they want to be ordered. 

But here she is for the interview process, and she’s wearing her best office dress, which is still a bit risky for what an office job is, but she pays everyone else no mind. She taps her heel on the floor. 

- 

Pepper hates interviewing candidates. But she has to observe who is going to be working with her, who can handle what they’re going to throw at her. 

There’s a woman in the middle of it: Natalie Rushman. 

She’s been abroad with various companies, used to do some amateur modeling, and is wearing a dress that would probably get her in trouble with HR if Pepper didn’t appreciate it so damn much. 

She’s interesting. 

Her eyes flash when Pepper asks her how comfortable she is in slightly dangerous situations. 

“What, like copy paper being out?” she asks. Pepper laughs. 

“Something a touch more dangerous than that, Miss Rushman.” 

The interview ends. 

Pepper thinks about her through the whole thing.

- 

Natasha is excited. 

Finally a job where she can use her skills. Where she can do what she needs to do, and it will be wonderful. 

Natasha shouldn’t be excited. 

But she can’t help herself as she buys four new pairs of shoes and debates on a skirt that she should bring. 

After all, she will be getting the job if Ms. Potts’ posture gave any indication. 

- 

Miss Rushman starts officially on a Wednesday after two days of training. Usually it would take anywhere from one to two weeks. But she’s scarily efficient and has apparently worked with the same kind of things. 

Pepper finds that she’s the best assistant she’s ever had. She’s already taken notes on what Pepper does throughout the day, knows when she needs to take a break for a headache, and also knows the extremely specific coffee creamer that she uses. 

It would almost terrify her, if she could still get terrified at the mundane details that people could know about you. 

But Miss Rushman makes it seem easy, and so she lets it slide. After all, it’s not like Natalie can just leave. She’s signed four different sets of paperwork that basically say if she so much as breathes wrong, Stark Industries gets her soul for eternity. 

She’ll be trapped. 

Natasha finds that aspect exciting. 

She shouldn’t find the act of Pepper Potts holding a letter-opener to a business associate’s neck hot. 

It shouldn’t be. 

But Pepper got a lovely crimson-red manicure, and she’s smiling so sweetly as she discusses what they agreed upon versus what’s happening. 

It takes Natalie Rushman a moment to process. 

“Miss Potts?” she interrupts. 

Pepper’s head slowly turns. Her strawberry-blonde hair moves smoothly over the letter-opener, over the hand clutched, trying to hold onto a way to live. 

“Yes, Miss Rushman?” 

“I have some paperwork for you to sign. Regarding the new hospital tech installment.” 

“Set them on my right. I’m finishing up some...loose ends.” 

Natalie doesn’t react to the loud noise other than a displeased hum and asking the other members in the room if they want lemon-water. 

It’s refreshing in the afternoon, and she needs to clean the cabinet behind them anyways. 

- 

Pepper gets adjusted to her assistant. And Natalie gets adjusted to her life. 

She’s comfortable with it. It’s easy, to lean on who she had to be. 

It’s a rude wake-up call when she gets lunch with Clint, and he asks how the mission is going. 

“You any closer to taking her down?” 

She blinks for a moment. Pokes at her cake. 

“Nat, come on. You know she can’t keep getting away with this, right?” 

“Why does the world need more businessmen?” Natasha murmurs. 

Clint stares at her. 

“Come on. You told me when I brought you over here that you didn’t want to turn into who they made you into again. Just because it’s easier doesn’t mean it’s worth it.” 

He’s right. 

Of course he is. Clint usually is about this type of thing. 

Pepper Potts is...well. Natasha can admire the dedication she takes with her success. 

But usual bosses don’t really kill the competition. 

Literally. 

- 

Pepper’s noticed a change in Natalie Rushman. 

She doesn’t like it. 

She doesn’t watch for as long, doesn’t talk as easily with her anymore. 

Tony says maybe all of this terrible shit is catching up with her, her conscience finally clueing her in on the situation. 

No, that’s not it. That can’t be it. Not after how she stared at Pepper, not after her smile, not after those nights where they stayed late and both gazed but never said anything. 

Natalie is in the breakroom, staring into a coffee mug that has nothing in it. 

“You look like you could use a hug,” Pepper says dryly, sidling up to her. She takes a step away. 

Hm. 

“I’m fine, just a busy day,” Natalie says. 

God, she’s not even trying to lie. That’s infuriating. 

“Your days are about to get a little bit busier,” she starts in. “I’ve decided to host a little celebration for all of the companies we’ve worked with over this past year. We’re going to have a real ball of a time, and I want you to help plan it. And attend.” 

Natasha looks at her. Really looks at her. 

Shit. 

Pepper’s onto her. She knows something is different, something is off. 

And if Natasha’s to get away, she’s still going to have fun toying with her. She’s going to make life hell. 

The saying goes that if you can’t handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. 

Natasha’s been cooking for a much longer time than Pepper, and she’s known her way around more kitchens than most. 

Bring it. 

- 

Putting together an honest-to-god ball for an eccentric, threatening CEO is fun. It shouldn’t be fun, but it is. 

The caterers are scared into arriving early, the invitations are embossed with actual gold, and the music costs way more than it should. 

Natasha is having so much fun with it that she completely forgets about her dress. 

She’s cursing as she’s tearing through her closet, looking for something that would be remotely appropriate for a ball for a sadistic CEO that she kind of has a crush on.) 

There’s a knock at the door. 

She rips it open, expecting it to be Clint or Maria to make fun of her, but it’s not. 

“Um. Delivery for Miss Rushman?” 

Oh. 

It’s a midnight blue ballgown, long-sleeved. She never would have chosen it for herself. 

The notecard attached said: 

Wear this one. I know you best. -Potts

A shiver runs up her spine. 

She’s not sure for what reason she’ll assign it to. 

But she puts it on, and it fits perfectly. She doesn’t want to think about how much it will cost. 

- 

Pepper, of course, looks like a dream. Or a nightmare. A terrifyingly beautiful nightmare. 

Her dress is burgundy, her lipstick matches. Her hair is loose, not kept in the high ponytail that is customary. 

Her eyes are a brilliant blue. They see right through her. 

“You look gorgeous, Miss Rushman,” she says, looking her up and down. “As to be expected, of course.” 

“Of course,” Natasha murmurs. 

The night will be long. 

They mingle. Natasha dutifully informs Pepper of who the lesser players on the field are, and fetches drinks. 

It’s...odd. 

It feels like something big is going to happen. And maybe it will, maybe it won’t. 

-

“Dance with me,” Pepper asks her. “Please.” 

She’s adding the last part in so that it sounds nice. But it’s a demand all the same. 

Natasha takes her hand, and maybe she should be more reserved about it, but she can’t help it. 

It’s captivating. It’s dangerous. But she accepts all the same. 

“You look beautiful tonight,” Pepper murmurs. “You far outshine every other woman here.” 

“Even you?” Natasha asks. 

Pepper rolls her eyes, but smiles. 

“Obviously, Natasha. Who else would?” 

She doesn’t notice that slip-up. Maybe it’s because she’s blown away at their close proximity, maybe it’s because Miss Potts’ perfume is absolutely intoxicating. But she doesn’t notice. 

They dance and they talk. 

“I’m happy you wore the dress.” 

“It’s not like I had anything like it in my closet,” Natasha says as Pepper smiles. 

“I figured. Not many host balls anymore.” 

“You’re a different sort.” 

“I am, aren’t I? But I think you and I are one and the same.” 

They’re isolated. 

And Natasha realizes it too late. She was a fool. 

“You haven’t quit after a year, after everything we’ve been through. Everything that I put you through. A regular person couldn’t do that, could they?” 

“You’d be surprised at what people can handle,” Natasha says. 

Pepper smiles. 

“You and I both know you’re far from an average person...Romanoff.” 

She tenses. 

“You knew?” 

“It’s a relativity new tidbit of knowledge, but having a tech genius as a colleague is...nice.” 

“What are you going to do to me?” 

“Reveal you,” Pepper says. “You’re a spy. You make your bread and butter off the fact that no one knows you for very long. And me? Well, you can’t kill me. The only thing that could possibly have an effect on me is if you killed the business. Which you don’t have the infrastructure for.” 

“And if I don’t want that? What do I have to do?” Natasha asks. 

Secrecy is her safe spot. It’s the only place where she’s ever been secure. 

“Stay. Leave that Strategic-Homeland-Whatever, and come with me. Stay with me.” 

“I don’t think I can do that,” Natasha says. “Your life and mine are too similar for that.” 

“But think of all we could do together,” she says. She brushes a hair back from Natasha’s cheek. 

It’s unbearable, that feeling. It’s a feeling that Natasha will spend all her life denying that she’ll chase. 

“I can’t.” 

Pepper looks at her. It’s a look that’s chilling. 

“Very well, Miss Romanoff. Then that will be all.” 

Pepper won’t fight her physically. She would lose that way, especially with how well-tailored the dress is on her body. 

But she has other ways of fighting. 

And god help Natasha, she knows she’s doomed. 

The worst part? 

She doesn’t exactly mind. 

[barbasbodaciousbeard]

IF You Love Someone, Let Them Go: Part 5

Summary: Since starting with SVU, Sonny hadn’t kept much terribly close to the chest. The squad knew about his family, growing up on Staten Island, the classes at Fordam. What was hidden was why he didn’t date. Sonny Carisi was also separated from his childhood sweetheart, a separation neither ever took to divorce. They had the same haunts. They’d grown up neighbors. Their paths crossed every few months, and divorce talks would turn into reminiscing would turn into a night spent together, sometimes sex sometimes just talking until the early morning. It always ended with one of them waking up alone however. How will that change when the squad finds out?

Pairings: Sonny Carisi x Original Character,

1 - 2 - 3 - 4

March 2015

“You’ll see me two times in three weeks,” Victoria smiled, wine in hand as she settled in the seat beside Sonny. It was Tommy and Bella’s engagement party, which Gianni was treating as a bridal shower. The whole engagement would only have been three months, and it seemed the two younger Carisis had cost her the months of parties and planning Gina and Teresa had given her. At least Sonny and Victoria had gotten married in a church a year after they eloped. Tommy and Bella would be getting married outdoors, while she was pregnant. Everyone pretended not to notice the slightest bit of a bump, easily confused for weight gain if you didn’t know, when Gianna was around before fussing over Bella the minute she left.

“I’m a lucky bastard.”

“I hope you told your squad.”

“We’re all going out the Saturday before. I’m doing it then.”

“Really pushed it off, huh?” she asked, and he didn’t like the hurt she was trying to hide. 

“The cases got heavy during the holidays. And then we busted up a sex ring and I was undercover. That also felt like a weird time. I kinda realized there wasn’t going to be a good one.”

“Yeah. Tommy and Bella inviting them kinda twisted your arm, huh?”

“Yeah. But it’s good. The last step.”

“They all coming?”

“Olivia for sure. I think Rollins and Amaro are coming together, and then honestly? Barba will when he finds out there’s gossip. He’s kind of a dick, but an amazing attorney. I really wanna shadow him sometime, but I’m too green to ask, y’know?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be nice when the time comes. And I think it’ll make Bella and Tommy happy. If it weren’t for them, it coulda been bad.”

“I got brother brain instead of cop brain, so yeah. I still can’t believe she’s having a baby.”

“It’s wild. And I know you don’t like Tommy, but he’s got a good heart.”

“And got locked up.”

“Everyone has their own problems.” 

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Same deal as Gina’s wedding? No marriage problems talk. Just have fun and be sentimental.”

“Deal. Though if your squad asks, I’m not ignoring it.”

“Fair. But also tell the cute stories.”

“I’ll bring the photo albums.” He laughed, arm settled around her shoulders. When they’d moved out, she’d taken to collecting all the pictures of them and adding them to a photo album. She’d gotten copies of dozens of pictures from his mom, who had always kept them organized by year in boxes. When she left, Victoria took them, and he missed being able to thumb through the pages. There were multiple volumes at this point. The pages got harder to find. She didn’t scrapbook. Instead, she used the pages with four slots each, keeping them up as time went on. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were pictures from Gina’s wedding in the most recent. Maybe there were even pictures of them separate from each other to bridge the gap. 

“Please don’t give Rollins and Barba that ammo. They’ll steal the really bad ones.”

“I like the ones from prom the best. Could we look any more 2004?”

“We looked damn good.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s not super dated.”

“True. It’s okay. We got the pictures from Gina’s wedding. We don’t look like we’re separated in them.”

“True. You got the dimples on full display.”

“I seen the dresses Bella picked. I know you hate it. You won’t like this one so much.”

“I love it.” He raised a brow at the feigned enthusiasm. “Dom, that pink is gonna be so bad on a pale red head.”

“I like you in pink.”

“You like me in anything.”

“Because you look good in anything. Dark green’s my favorite though.”

“Mine too. Thank God for Gina. I’ll wear that dress again.”

“I’m sure I’ll have to go to some fundraising thing…”

“You asking me to be your date before you even know?”

“You’re always who I ask to be my date.”

“I better be. We’re married.”

“Gettin’ awful territorial, Mrs. Carisi.”

“You put your ring on your hand today.”

“And you put them both on the right finger.”

“It’s almost like we’re making progress.”

“I want to tell you. I’m ready. But not until after the wedding.”

“Why then?”

“In case you don’t look at me all happy anymore.”

“Literally nothing you could tell me could make me not want to work on it. Unless you cheated on me.”

“You’re the first, last, and only.”

“You are too.”

“We oughta stop being sappy. People are coming and we got put with people we don’t know.”

“Gross. It’s like ma is mad at me.”

“I’m just glad she knew better than to try and make us sit apart. I’m sittin’ with my wife.”

“You two aren’t even pretending to be awkward,” Bella teased, leaning to hug Victoria and then her brother. “This nonsense almost over?”

“Butt out,” Sonny warned, but he was still smiling. “Strictly married talk.” 

“Two weeks and ya can’t use that excuse.”

“Then it’ll be strictly talks with my wife.”

“Stop, Dom,” Victoria laughed. “You look beautiful, Bella. How you feeling?”

“Kid’s making me tired as hell. I’m excited though. Tommy talks to her every night. It’s been hard, after what that bitch did. But he’s doing so good.”

“I can tell. I’m just glad you’re so happy.”

“I really am, T.” 

“You look beautiful. I like this dress a lot.”

“Thanks. I like feeling all bridal.” Sonny was content to watch Bella and Victoria catch up. Over the last year, he’d come to realize every time they talked came around to when Victoria was taking him back. He probably hadn’t helped that any, constantly acting like he didn’t know why she’d gone. Thanksgiving had changed that. He stood up to his mom more, told her he was in therapy, and openly defended Victoria. The last part wasn’t new, but this time it was specific to her decision to leave. He’d told his family in no uncertain terms that, while he thought she should’ve told him earlier instead of letting the hurt fester, he had done something wrong and he was trying to fix that so they could start over. His mom and dad didn’t like that. Generationally, bottling up feelings was more acceptable to them. His sisters, on the other hand, hugged him tight and told him they were proud of him. 

Their table filled up quickly as guests arrived, and Sonny was happy to help Victoria keep conversation moving until his parents spoke. That was the plan for tonight. Appetizers, speeches from the bride and groom’s parents, dinner, dessert, and finally dancing and cocktails. It was quickly apparent all the family’s required-but-barely-liked invites went to the table they’d put Victoria and Sonny at, a sure sign Gianna was over dealing with their drama. He was thankful his sister wouldn’t be having assigned seating at the reception for anyone, the bridal party included, though the thought of having Victoria joining his squad at a table made him nervous.

“I thought they’d never go dance,” she said softly against his ear, and Sonny smiled more from the closeness than the sentiment. Damn, it felt good to have her on his team. She wasn’t there day in and out, so these events felt more valuable to him now.

“Right? He’s from dad’s work. Known each other forever. I don’t know why the hell they invited him.” Her hair tickled his cheek as they gossiped, watching the people around the room and nursing their drinks. He decided they didn’t have a heavy case, so he’d tell the squad the next day, that way the giddiness of the evening would still be fresh. When they’d both finished their drinks, he took her hand, pulling her towards the floor. 

“I was comfy,” she protested half heartedly before she realized he’d pulled her up for Sinatra. One hand on his shoulder and the other in his, she let him lead the few moves they’d learned in a ballroom class they’d taken. It had only been a couple years into their marriage, and they took it because it made them feel older and less like imposters. Now, all either could really remember was a boxstep, and their frame was terrible. That didn’t matter though. What did matter was Sonny resting his temple against hers to sing softly against her ear. When one swing tune melted into another, she was grateful Gianna had picked the music for this wedding event. 

“Looks like we get to dance all slow again,” he teased, giving her a spin before holding her close.

“For someone getting mad when we get along, your ma worked real hard for us to get along.”

“She’s just mad it isn’t like when we were kids. If we fought in middle school, she’d give us a pizza, and we’d be over it.”

“Very true,” she grinned, looking up at him. He looked handsome, and after what came out to two years of seeing him deteriorate, she was grateful he was actually getting back to himself. She wasn’t sure if therapy, the job, or the slow progress they were making was the reason, but he was her Sonny again. He kept his hair cropped, face shaved, and smile present.

“You’re staring,” he teased before tightening his grip to dip her. 

“You look good. Like not just handsome. Happy.”

“Thanks,” he smiled softly when he pulled her up again. “I’m learning to process stuff better.”

“That’s good.”

“It sounds messed up, but thank you for leaving. It made me go to therapy. I really wasn’t being good to you, Tor. And I’m sorry for that.”

“I forgive you, Dom. I wasn’t doing a good job talking to you about it. I’m sorry for not pressing until we hit the point of no return.”

“It’s okay,” he said, forehead resting on hers. “I think we’re gonna be okay.”

“Me too.”

“Can we get somebody to take pictures of us?” 

“Bella got a photographer, and he has definitely taken several.”

“This camera shy Sonny or detective Sonny noticing?”

“It’s Sonny seeing Gina tell him to.”

“You ever feel like the kids are trying to get us back together?”

“All the time, doll. You know how often Gina or Teresa go after me? Then Bella meddles. But Mia? She’s 17 and bound and determined she’s going to be the one to talk sense into me. And she kind of is. She actually talked to me about therapy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t know why but knows my brain shuts down when I try to open up. Heard me tellin Teresa. Said it’s toxic masculinity makin’ me feel like talking about feelings is girly and I gotta get over that if I wanna stay married and making you happy.”

“I ever tell you Mia’s my favorite?”

“She’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“How long until we can run away and go to a bar?”

“Anybody else left yet?”

“Your cousin Lauren and some of Bella’s friends.”

“What bar you thinking? Because you look too pretty to not take to some classy wine bar.”

“That works for me.”

“Then let’s go tell Bella and Tommy bye.”

“What about Gianna?”

“It’s not her engagement.” Victoria almost felt like they were back in high school and cutting class as they said their goodbyes and got their coats. Why the hell his sister was getting married outdoors in winter was beyond Victoria, but she was grateful for the fact they’d probably end up rained out and inside for the ceremony. Sonny hailed a cab, waving when he saw his mother watching them from a window. 

“She’s pissed, Dom.”

“Too bad. Taking you to a nice wine bar. Ordering a cheese board.”

“You’re making it sound like a date.”

“I been shit and ain’t taken you on one in two years. Can it be?”

“I’d like that.” She was nervous, but it had become apparent he was trying. From what he said, in a couple weeks he’d be willing to open up. He was also communicating with her as it was. Maybe treating the next two weeks as a trial run could be good. Ease into the heavy discussion. He’d mentioned being afraid how she’d react. Maybe if she was always there again, he’d realize she wasn’t leaving. 

“C’mon, whatcha thinking Tor?”

“Just that I’m happy we’re making progress,” she fibbed, lacing their fingers. He looked to their hands and smiled, squeezing her fingers gently. 

“Me too.” Soon enough they were settled at the bar, and Sonny, true to his word, had ordered a bottle of wine and a cheese board. She was turned to face him, legs carefully crossed. He had the leg towards the room on the footrest around the base of her stool. She was boxed in, but it felt reassuring when paired with his hand on her leg. 

“So what’s this new squad like?” Sonny had never quite settled in anywhere since he’d become a detective, and he seemed smitten with his spot in Manhattan. 

“So Barba is the ADA. Covered him. Liv is Lieutenant. Nobody ever really gave me a shot before. Apparently I can be abrasive.” He threw the hand not on her leg up in mock affront, and she laughed. 

“You? Never.”

“I know,” he said, ignoring her sarcasm. “Rollins is cool. She’s been through a lot. She’s from Georgia though. I know you mostly grew up here, but you get that same Southern catty as her. Means it doesn’t get to me, because I know the secret. That she doesn't really mean it. Amaro is cool too. Had some problems too. Come to think of it, I don’t know why I’m acting like they won’t understand or accept our marriage. Fin’s been there longest, other than Lieu.”

“They treating you well?”

“They are. I think I’m finally not just a newbie. Barba gets mean. He’s not southern snarky though, so I think he means it.”

“I’ll fight him.”

“You’d win. He’s got a big mouth, but I don’t think he’d be scrappy.”

“I’m just real proud of you.”

“That means a lot to me, Tor.”

“You worked real hard. I watched that. And you’re going to be an amazing attorney.”

“I think I wanna try for the DA’s office if I pass the bar next year.”

“You’ll pass the bar.”

He rolled his eyes, pouring her another glass of wine as he topped off his own. When the night was over, he walked her to her door, kissing her goodnight and going to his own apartment. Sonny had decided that if it was going to be a date, he’d be a gentleman. Things were still delicate, and he had to leave early when she had a day off. He did text her the next morning to say he’d enjoyed their date, not wanting to have the wedding be the next time they talked. When he arrived at the precinct, he went to Olivia’s door, knocking. 

“What’s going on, Carisi?”

“Since the squad’s coming to my sister’s weddin’ now, I felt like I gotta tell everybody I’m married and it’s really confusing.”

“Since you hadn’t mentioned it, I assumed you were getting a divorce.”

“You knew?”

“I did get sent your file when you started here. You know, I do read those.”

“I messed up bad, y’know? She’s a baker, right? And I’ve known her since I was five. Got married when we were eighteen. It was all good until I got to homicide.” Oliva gave him a sympathetic, knowing smile. “What I told you guys? How the women got to me? I was scared if I told her, I’d, like, tarnish her. Make her see all the bad stuff we see. It’s amazing talking to her, Lieu. She never stopped seeing the best in people. And I stopped acting like her husband because I thought just being close to me would transfer all of it. She left me, but we’re in a weird limbo. She’s in the wedding, and we act married when we see each other. This’ll only be the sixth time in a year and a half. But I don’t want her to meet everyone and they’re all like who the hell are you.”

“This job can make that part of life incredibly difficult, Carisi. I feel the same way sometimes about Noah. What if they take him? What if I’m so paranoid he grows up paranoid? Or god forbid he sees pictures? I try to refocus it. I think about how he can make light in those bad times. I don’t know much about her, but I’m guessing she does too?”

“She does.”

“Tell her, Carisi. If she knows something is wrong, she’ll be able to get through it.”

“I’m telling her after the wedding. My therapist said it might make it less stressful. I’ve been afraid she’ll change her mind when I tell her.”

“It’ll work out. It is a smart idea to make sure everyone knows. Barba’s coming with me, so I’ll make sure he knows and keep him in line.”

“Thanks Lieu. For this whole talk, but also giving me a shot.”

Tag List: @cycat4077 @fear-less-write-more

[triptuckers]

Luke Hemmings - Home with you

Request: nope Pairing:  Luke Hemmings x reader Summary:  Luke is always away when you need him the most and you’re having second thoughts about your relationship with him.  Warnings: sad shit (like, sad as f u c k), language Word count:  2.9K A/N: life’s a complete and utter shitshow so I made a 5sos playlist with just a few songs in a specific order telling a story and the more you listen the sadder the songs get. why do I do this to myself. I was listening to high and I’m sad and I just want Luke to hold me. that’s it. this is angst to slight fluff, enjoy! :)

You’re sick of this damn feeling. You don’t even know if you can call it a feeling, when in reality you feel everything at the same time, or nothing at all. It sucked because you didn’t know what caused it and you didn’t know what to do about it. All you could do is wait and hope the feeling goes away.

But it’s been days and you still can’t shake it. You just wander around the apartment, trying to get some work done but you aren’t motivated at all. Yet, there’s nothing else you feel like doing. Normally, your days would be filled with all kinds of activities, but these past days have been hell on earth. And on top of that, it’s been weeks since you’ve seen Luke in person, since you’ve been able to feel his arms around you. 

He’s on tour, and the band’s doing great. He still calls and texts but you know he’s a busy man, and can’t be available to you all day every day. And you don’t want to be the annoying girlfriend that constantly messages him. Still, you need him more than ever on days like these.

Though you hate yourself for it, you started to have doubts about your relationship with Luke. You can’t deal with all of this on your own, and whenever you needed Luke, he wasn’t around. Maybe you needed to let him go and find someone who lived near, and who wouldn’t be travelling the world for weeks in a row. 

You love Luke. He’s your home and you wouldn’t be here without him. You hate that you’re having second thoughts about your relationship. You weren’t having second thoughts about Luke, you could never. Maybe there was a way for you to let him go, but not entirely. Maybe you could still be friends. You don’t know if that would solve things and make it easier. At this point, you didn’t know anything for sure.

Before you know it, you’re sitting on the kitchen floor, with your knees pulled up to your chest and your arms wrapped around them. You rest your chin on your knees as the tears silently start to flow. God, you always do this to yourself. Everything’s fine, you start to overthink, and it always ends with you on the kitchen floor crying. Why couldn’t you enjoy life for one fucking day?

You take your phone out of your pocket and open your text messages with Luke. You stare at the screen for a while, your fingertips hovering above the keyboard. Should you text him? What if he’s busy? Or worse; what if he’s not but he just doesn’t want to talk to you? What if you’re only annoying him and interrupting his time with his best friends? 

It isn’t until you notice your silent tears are now loud sobs, that you decide to actually text him. Your breathing is fast and uneven, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t stop crying. Choked sobs still escape your throat. And you can barely see the letters on your phone, your tears have blurred your vision that much. 

hi, can I call you?

After you hit send, you impatiently wait for his answer. It feels like hours to you when it’s really just minutes. You see Luke’s read your message and seconds later you can see he’s typing his reply.

of course, let me find a private spot and I'll give u a call xx

You let out a deep breath as you wait for him to call you. Your phone is shaking in your hands, and you try to keep them still. You bite your lip as you wait, and wait, and wait. The longer you wait, the more anxious you get. Why did he take so long to call you? Was he doubting if he should call you at all? Your attention turns back to your phone when it buzzes in your hand. 

Luke’s picture pops up on your screen and you close your eyes and take a deep breath before answering the call. You press your phone to your ear while your other arm is still wrapped around your knees.

‘Hi.’ you say softly, fully aware Luke can hear you crying.

‘Y/N?’ he says. You hear the worry in his voice. ‘Hey, are you crying? Is everything okay? Is that why you wanted to call?’

‘I, um, yeah. That’s why I called.’ you manage to say in between sobs. You try to control the shakiness in your voice, but without succes. Now that you’re talking, the tears streaming down your cheeks also touch your lips and you can taste the salt in them.

‘Okay, honey, take a deep breath with me, okay?’ says Luke and you nod. Given that Luke doesn’t hear you replying to him, he continues to talk. ‘Okay, Y/N, take a deep breath in.’ he says and you hear how he breathes in deeply. You breath in as well, holding it until Luke talks again. ‘And out.’ he says and you exhale. ‘Now, tell me what’s going on sweetheart.’ he says.

‘I...’ you start, but a sob escapes your throat instead of words. ‘Sorry, I’m sorry.’ you manage to say and you hear how Luke shushes you. ‘It’s okay.’ he says. ‘Take your time, whenever you’re ready.’

He’s silent on the other side of the line as you take a few breaths and try to calm yourself down before speaking again. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ you say softly, your voice scratchy and barely audible. ‘I feel so numb all the time. Or I just feel so angry or sad or both and I can’t help it and I don’t know why. I think I’m going mad, Luke.’ you say.

‘You’re not going mad.’ says Luke. ‘All those emotions are human.’ ‘Well, then I don’t want to be human.’ you say. ‘I just want it all to stop. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be bothering you with this. Sorry if I’m annoying, I’ll hang up and you can get back to the guys.’ you say and you take the phone away from your ear.

‘Y/N.’ you hear Luke’s voice coming out of the speaker of your phone. His voice is demanding yet still soft and full of love. ‘Please pick up the phone again.’

You look at his name on the screen of your phone. Why would he even be with someone as broken as you? He would be much better off with someone who is happy. Nevertheless, you put the phone back against your ear.

‘I’m here.’ you say.

‘Never say you're bothering me. Or that you’re annoying. You’re not. And please don’t hang up. Do you really think I wouldn’t want to talk with you? You’re upset and I want to help you because I love you and I care about you.’ says Luke. 

‘Sorry. I just figured, well, you probably don’t want me texting or calling you 24/7 while you’re away.’ you say and you pause. ‘I just... need you. And it’s so fucking hard when you’re away. I feel like it’s just me and no one to distract me from my thoughts and there’s no one to stop them. It’s just me and I’m all alone.’

‘Sweetheart, I can’t call you all day when I’m on tour. But I hope you know you can always text me or call me when you’re feeling this way. I’ll make time for you.’ says Luke. ‘So please text me when you’re feeling this way. Has it happened often since we left for tour?’

‘Almost every day.’ you whisper. You hated this. Now you’ll make him feel guilty about being on tour, about doing what he loves, about his fucking passion. This is why you don’t call him when you’re feeling like this.

‘Can’t you call some friends and ask if they can come over? How about family? Anyone?’ says Luke. ‘I just need you. I’m sorry.’ you say.  ‘Please don’t apologise. Never apologise for the fact that you need me. Guess what, I need you too. And I hate being away from you for so long, you know that.’ says Luke. ‘Is there anything I can do for you besides calling and texting?’

‘No.’ you say. ‘You can’t leave tour because I’m a miserable human bag of tears.’  ‘Don’t say that about yourself, we all get sad.’ says Luke. 

‘Aren’t I keeping you from soundcheck or something?’ you say, noticing how long you’ve been on the phone with him.  ‘No you’re not. We finished soundcheck about an hour ago, and after tonight’s show we have a day or three off ‘til the next one. Travel days, and a short break. Might do a bit of sightseeing.’ says Luke.

‘Okay, well, have fun.’ you say. ‘Hope tour’s fun.’ ‘It’s great. Listen, please call or text me whenever you’re feeling like this, okay? I don’t want you to be alone.’ says Luke. ‘Yeah, okay, I will.’ you say. ‘And do me a favour, take a shower and go watch a movie or something, to help get your mind off things, yeah?’ says Luke. ‘Yeah.’ you say. ‘Thanks for calling me.’ ‘Any time, honey. I love you.’ he says. ‘I love you too. Good luck tonight.’ you say and you hang up. 

You stay where you are for a while, still clutching your phone. After a while you slowly get up off the floor. The least you could do is listen to Luke and take a shower and try to distract yourself. 

When you close your eyes and let the warm water run over your skin you can’t remember the last time you took a shower. You didn’t care enough to take care of yourself. You run your hands over your face, trying to get rid of the tears but the feeling’s still there. After what feels like forever you turn the shower off and step out. 

You look in the mirror and someone you don’t recognise looks at you. The circles underneath your eyes grew bigger and bigger over the past days. You try to smile at yourself but it is more of a hopeless expression on your face than a smile. You turn away from the mirror and get dressed in a new pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. You watch movies until deep into the night, but the illuminated tv screen can only distract you for some time.

Hours have passed since your phone call with Luke and since you started watching movies, and you’re finally asleep. In a rather uncomfortable position on the couch, holding a pillow to your chest. You awake when it’s well into the afternoon the next day. 

A bit disorientated, you get up and rub your eyes. The tv is still on, showing you suggestions on what to watch next. You turn it off and head to the kitchen to make yourself some coffee. The past days you haven’t eaten a lot, so you decide to make yourself some toast as well. 

You eat it in silence and drink your coffee while looking out the window. The sun’s risen and people outside on the street are going through their usual routines. They’re hastily on their way to work, or having lunch at one of the cafe’s. You grab your phone and mindlessly scroll a bit through your social medias, looking at what your friends are doing. 

A soft click coming from the door makes you look up. You frown as you slowly get up. You and Luke are the only ones who have a key to the apartment. And other than that, Calum, Ashton and Michael also have a spare so they can drop by when they want and in case you or Luke lose yours. 

Given that all four of them are on tour, you’re confused as why someone would enter your apartment. You walk from the kitchen to the door but halfway across the room, the door already opens and a tall figure steps into the apartment. Your hands fly up to your mouth as a sob and a small ‘oh!’ leave your mouth. 

You’re looking at the love of your life, standing in the doorway. He’s home. The words ‘hello sweetheart’ haven’t even left his lips before you’ve flung yourself across the room and into his arms, sobbing violently into his chest.

Luke closes the door behind him and drops his bag on the floor before wrapping his arms around you and kissing your head countless times. You try to tell him how grateful you are that he’s here, how you don’t understand why he’s here because he’s still on tour, and how much you love him. But the only sound you manage to produce is that of uncontrollable sobs.

Luke rubs circles on your back as you hold on to him. When you finally pull away to look him in the eyes you’re smiling for the first time in days. A genuine smile, as you look up at him. Luke smiles back at you and it warms your heart, you feel like you can take on the world again.

‘I don’t get- how- you’re on tour!’ you say, laughing through your tears. Luke simply smiles even wider and kisses your forehead. ‘They allowed me to fly back home for two days.’ he says. ‘I couldn’t stand being away from you. Not after that call.’

‘I love you.’ you say. ‘I love you, I love you, Luke Hemmings, I really fucking love you.’ you say and you stand on your toes to kiss him. You taste the salt of your tears once more, but under totally different circumstances. Luke smiles through the kiss and pulls you even closer against his body. 

You feel safe again. Everything’s alright, Luke’s here. And you are home. You are finally home because Luke’s here. Holding you, kissing you. You pull away and look at him, shaking your head as if you can’t believe he’s actually here.

‘I can’t believe you’re here.’ you say breathlessly. ‘I can’t believe you’re smiling again.’ says Luke and you look into his eyes, beaming with happiness. 

‘So, you’re staying for two days?’ you say. ‘I get to have you home for two whole days?’  ‘Yep.’ says Luke as he finally lets go of you to take off his jacket and to put his bag away. ‘Two days and then I fly back out to the guys.’ 

Luke takes your hand and walks the two of you back to the couch. He sits down and you gladly cuddle up to his side. ‘Two days and then I hope you’re willing to come along for the rest of tour.’ says Luke. 

‘Oh, Lu, I’d love to. But I’ve got a deadline coming up in four days and I haven’t been able to get anything done.’ you say.  ‘Yeah, I know. About that.’ says Luke and he scratches the back of his neck. You narrow your eyes as you look at him. ‘Luke Hemmings what the hell did you do?’ you say.   ‘I might have contacted your work. They say you don’t have to work on that deadline. In fact, they want you to take a short vacation. You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned it.’ says Luke.

Part of you is kind of embarrassed he’d contact your boss and ask if you could have some time off. The other part of you is extremely grateful that he did. 

‘Well, how many days off did I get?’ you ask him.  ‘Three weeks, actually.’ says Luke. ‘I’ll be able to tag along for the rest of the American leg of tour!’ you say excitedly and Luke nods. You let out a happy squeal as you throw your arms around him yet again. Luke laughs and holds you close. You pull away and start to pepper his face with kisses, making him laugh even more. 

‘You’re the best.’ you say when you look at him. Luke looks up at you and smiles softly. ‘Anything for my girl.’ he says. ‘I couldn’t stay away from you any longer. And two days is way too short. Just promise me one thing.’  You nod. ‘Anything.’ you say. ‘Promise me you’ll never ever stop yourself from calling me because you think it’s annoying or I’m too busy.’ says Luke. ‘I promise.’ you say and Luke smiles and kisses your nose.

‘Good.’ he says. ‘Now can we please take a nap because my flight was awful. Lots of screaming kids.’ 

You laugh and nod. You get up off of the couch and hold out your hand for Luke to take. You walk the two of you back to your bedroom where you get under the covers, given that you were already in a hoodie and sweatpants. Luke changes into some comfortable clothes and gets in the bed next to you.

He pulls you close and you rest your head on his chest. ‘I love you.’ you mumble as you close your eyes. You feel how Luke moves his hand to run his fingers through your hair.

‘You say that a lot, honey. But don’t worry, I love you too. You can say it as many times as you want. I promise I’ll never get tired of it.’ says Luke. You smile and tighten your grip on his body. ‘Never?’ you say. ‘Not in a million years.’ says Luke. 

A/N:

If you want to request something, make sure to read my house rules Here’s the list of characters I write for. Everything that I have written can be found on my masterlist. Please don’t repost my work, as I spend much time and effort on it!! Thank you for reading! Much love, Jo

[urdearestmom]

brain damage

i’m back again y’all and just wrote this piece... a bit of a scene study from that scene in 3x06. basically what i wish mike had said 

also the middle part is mostly conjecture but some of it is bits that you can hear in the actual scene if you strain your ears and ignore nancy and jonathan talking over it

also DISCLAIMER i do not hate max!! i really like her actually but she was really pissing me off with this whole bit because she just does not have any basis for understanding mileven's relationship and so her advice doesn't always directly apply. she had good intentions but BRUH. anyways i could go on a whole rant about max vs mike in season 3 but i'm not gonna do that right now lmao

It’s pretty silent in here, El thinks. It always is, but tonight it’s… strange. Almost as though it’s empty. Why can’t she find them? She’s been sitting in her room for the last half hour trying to locate any of the flayed and although she can’t see it, she knows there’s a growing mountain of bloody tissues next to her on the floor. She’s starting to think that she might need to give herself a break for a little bit.

Her friends are in the living room waiting for her, and she knows they’re all anxious to find out what she might see. So far, absolutely nothing. The only thing that happens is that every so often she hears a bit of a voice. It’s just there, tickling the edges of her consciousness, and she could tune into it if she wanted to… but she’s already identified it by the cadence of the noise as Mike’s voice, and she’d said she wouldn’t spy on him. She’d done it once and he was clearly upset by it. Although they aren’t really back to how they were before, El misses him more than she lets on, and she doesn’t want to make things worse by spying again.

Outside, Mike is getting close to yelling. He sincerely hopes El can’t hear him because he is once again fighting with her new best friend.

“It can’t be good for her to be in there for this long,” he exclaims, pacing in front of her door.

“Mike, you need to relax,” says Max, looking disdainfully at him.

“What if she gets brain damage or something?!”

“Oh shit,” interrupts Lucas, looking between them. “Is that like, a real thing?”

Max scoffs. “No, it’s not. He made it up. Mike doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” she adds, raising her eyebrows defiantly as if daring him to refute her.

“Oh, and you do?! ” He retorts. Her facial expression alone is pissing him off. It’s so self-righteous, as if she knows anything at all about him or how he thinks and feels.

“No,” she says quickly. “But I think El does. See, that’s the difference between you and me. You think you know everything!”

“I don’t know everything,” he fires back. His hands are balled into fists and he’s starting to shake. “But I know her.”

Max snorts. “You’re just mad she wants to be her own person. You can’t deal with other people not doing what you tell them to.”

“What do you think this is, Russia? I’m not some dictator, okay? I’m just trying to protect El!” He says angrily. This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. Max doesn’t know the first thing about what he can or can’t deal with and acting like she does is striking his last nerve. Mike can feel the familiar boil of rage deep within him coming to a rise.

“The only person who knows anything about El’s powers is El,” says Max, with an air of finality.

Mike crosses his arms in an attempt to get himself in control of his emotions. “So if that’s true, what makes you think you have any more of a say than I do?”

She splutters for a moment and it’s so satisfying that Mike almost smirks, but it drops quickly when Max rises from her seat and stalks over to him.

“I don’t,” she seethes, poking him forcefully in the chest. “But she does, and you need to back off .”

“I’m not even on! ” He yells, throwing his arms up and pushing her away. He realizes his statement doesn’t actually make any sense but… whatever. At this point, it’s not like it matters. “She won’t listen to me! Because you put ideas in her head! You know she absorbs every new thing people tell her and you pressured her into dumping me!”

There it is. It’s out. It’s what he’s been thinking since it happened. He knew he’d messed up big-time by lying to El, but he never would have expected her to dump him over it. And the look on Max’s face as she stood by and watched had said everything he needed to know.

Max’s face is turning an alarming shade of pink and Mike thinks that he probably matches her. “I didn’t pressure her into anything, she decided! What is your problem with letting El decide things for herself?!”

“I don’t have a problem! At least I didn’t before you inserted yourself where you didn’t need to be!”

“All I did was give her choices!”

Mike takes a deep breath to retaliate, but then lets it go and turns away. “You don’t understand. Just- fucking leave me alone.”

Lucas is still staring at them; Mike can feel his friend’s eyes on his back. Why isn’t he agreeing? He was there when El- he knows what she can push herself to.

Max makes an angry noise. “Fine! It’s not my fault you can’t be wrong!” She walks toward Nancy and Jonathan and Mike follows, preparing to convince everyone else that this is a stupid idea. “Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?”

Nancy looks hard at them, her eyes searching Mike quickly before flicking back to the girl next to him.

“Who do you think should decide El’s limits… Mike, or Eleven?”

He sees red. “The way that you framed that is such bullshit. ” Why is he the villain here?!

Her braids whip around her face as she turns to him. “It’s not bullshit, Mike, this is your whole problem! And it’s also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!”

“El dumped you?” Nancy asks incredulously.

Mike throws his arms up again. “Yeah, because she’s conspiring against me! She’s corrupting her!”

“N- enlightening her!” Max throws back. “The fact is, she’s not yours. She’s her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions.”

“She’s risking her life for no reason!” He shouts.

“No reason?” Says Nancy. “Mike, the flayed are out there doing god knows what-”

“Killing, flaying,” interjects Lucas.

“Transforming into monsters,” adds Will.

Mike glares at them. Not helping.

“And El’s not stupid,” Nancy continues, shaking her head. “She knows her abilities better than any of us.”

“Exactly, thank you,” Max says victoriously. Mike closes his eyes. He cannot believe this is how this is going.

“And she is her own person-”

“Exactly!”

“With her own free will-”

“Exactly! El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn’t trust her-”

At that he has to interrupt. There’s no way he’s letting Max flip this around. “You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?!”

Max looks down, giving herself away.

Lucas stands up behind him. “Wait, what?”

Mike whirls to face him. “Oh, she didn’t tell you this?” He says sarcastically.

“No!”

“Your girlfriend used El’s powers to spy on us ,” he spits.

“No, no, no,” Max interjects. “I did not make her, it was her idea. And why are we even talking about this, seriously?”

“Yeah,” says Will. “Who cares?”

And now Mike’s annoyed at Will too. Will has no idea what is going on in Mike’s head and he’s not ever going to understand why he feels the way he does. Just the same as the rest of the Party will never really relate to Will’s struggles because they weren’t there, Will wasn’t there for theirs either. He didn’t see what she did-

“I care!” Says Lucas, and finally Mike is glad someone seems to be on his side. Thank God for small blessings.

“Yeah, I guess girlfriends don’t lie, they spy,” he says, turning back to Max at the last moment so she can truly see his ire.

“We were just joking around,” she defends.

“Would it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?” He asks.

She wrinkles her nose. “You weren’t!”

“But what if I was?!”

“Then gross!”

“Seriously, Mike?” Interrupts Nancy, and all of a sudden this has become like one of those moments where he just wants to strangle her for talking before he’s done. She does it all the fucking time and like, he guesses it’s probably part of being siblings but it leaves him fuming more often than not.

“I’m just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven’s powers,” he says carefully. This is where he needs to get his point across. He desperately needs someone to understand that he’s not trying to be controlling or police what El does or doesn’t do, he’s just trying to save her from herself. He couldn’t do it the first time, but by God if he isn’t going to try now.

“Have any of you noticed Lucas is the only one not disagreeing with me?” He asks.

Max huffs. “Lucas doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is your prob-”

“Lucas has everything to do with this!” He roars. Mike has absolutely had it up to here with her and turns on her a final time, shaking again. “You weren’t there, Max! None of you were. Except Lucas. You don’t know what she’ll do..” His voice trembles.

Lucas seems to understand what he’s getting at and lays a hand on his shoulder. Mike flashes him a grateful look. He still has a hard time thinking about that night, much less talking about it. “She vaporized herself in front of us. I tried to stop her and she did it anyway.”

The room is silent now, the only sound being the TV static from El’s bedroom where she’s still holed up. Mike takes a breath.

“It’s not that I think El doesn’t know her limits,” he says. “I just know that she doesn’t care about them. She’ll die overexerting herself before she lets something hurt one of us.”

He looks up at everyone, Jonathan and Will looking oddly similarly out of place and Nancy with her eyes trained on his face as she listens. Max isn’t looking at him. Good , he thinks. Maybe that made her feel guilty.

“How would you feel if you knew firsthand El didn’t care about dying to save her friends, huh? Wouldn’t you be worried about her?” He directs this at Max specifically, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “You guys are treating her like some kind of machine, and she’s not a machine. I still have nightmares about that day all the time.”

The room stays silent, almost as though everyone is holding a breath and waiting for him to start yelling again, but he’s not going to. He doesn’t have any energy left to expound on this topic. If Max wants to keep making him the bad guy, then whatever. He has more important things to worry about.

“I just-” He starts and stops, wondering if this is the right thing to say. “I don’t want her to die looking for the flayed when they’ve obviously vanished off the face of the Earth, so we can we please just come up with another plan because I love her and I can’t lose her again.”

Now it’s almost as though all the air has actually been sucked out of the room. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to reveal the depth of his feelings, but Mike really didn’t know what else he could say that could possibly make them understand his position. Lucas’ hand on his shoulder squeezes for a quick second and then lightly taps him as Lucas moves his arm back.

Nancy shakes her head. “I get that you don’t want her to hurt herself, Mike, but she’s already in there. There’s not much else we can do.”

“What’s going on?”

Everyone whips around to face El coming out of her bedroom doorway. Holy shit, did she hear what he said? Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit-

“Nothing. Nothing!” He says quickly.

“Just… family discussion,” adds Lucas from behind him. Mike can feel the smirk in his voice without even having to look at him.

“Oh,” says El, and suddenly Mike really wants to hug her. But this isn’t the time. He looks away.

“I found him,” she continues.

“Found… who?” Nancy asks.

“Billy.”

[demonwifey]

Birthday Surprise🎉🎁

Yo, what’s up ya’ll✌🏽 So yesterday was my birthday and thanks again to everyone on here and twitter that sent me a happy birthday wishes💗 This practically me self-inserting because I had this idea for my birthday. So it’s a gift to myself and you guys. THIS IS A 18+ FIC. IF YOU ARE NOT 18 OR OLDER, DO NOT READ. Hope you guys enjoy!💚💜🖤

Beetlejuice x black+AFAB!reader

Warnings: Drunk reader, ropeplay/shibari (kinda), NSFW🔞

Word Count: 3,064

So, Happy Birthday! You’re officially 24! Although that should have been exciting, it really wasn’t. It’s not like you were having a bad day, it just wasn’t anything special. After your 18th birthday it just seemed like another day. Although your family might have bought your favorite dessert, or your friends took you out for a fun time, birthday’s just weren’t the same as from when you were a kid. 

However, birthday’s did have a different meaning once you became an adult; specifically when you hit 21. Like you said, your friends took you out for a good time. Which basically meant getting so drunk that you wouldn’t leave bed the next morning. You didn’t mind, if only for one day out of the entire year. And this year wasn’t going to be any different...if you didn’t have a certain clingy demon staying at your place. 

Oh boy, the type of tantrum you knew Beetlejuice would throw if you were gone all night. When he first came around, he didn’t even like it when you left for work. You were gone most of the day but you’d be right back. As if that gave him any ease. Then you two started dating and he took it to a whole new level. Of course, you were able to leave. It's not like he held you hostage. But that didn’t stop him from dragging on your leg and begging not to leave while you headed for the door. Although it wasn’t easy being with Beetlejuice, you loved him nonetheless. 

Given all this knowledge of Beej’s clinginess, it made you worry about tonight. Your best friends were taking you out but you didn’t really want to go. You actually didn’t mind staying in with Beej, chowing down on some store bought birthday cupcakes, and watching your favorite movies. Not to mention, knowing Beej, the amazing birthday sex you’d get at the end of the night. That sounded WAY more appealing than standing in a hot and sweaty club with music so loud you’d have to scream to be heard.

But no matter how much you opposed, your friends begged you to come out. And you still would’ve said no if they didn’t say “Y/N, you never hang out with us anymore! All you do is stay home. It’s like you’re hanging out with some secret boyfriend or something.”  

And you not being the so subtle person accidentally froze in place before trying to counter by speaking too quickly, “Uhh, Idon’tknowwhatyou’retalkingabout.” 

And they caught on immediately. You knew your friends would’ve done everything in their power to get you talking about you “secret boyfriend”. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if he wasn’t a dead demon. So you agreed to their plans but to not be out all night. The latest being 11:00. Although they gave groans of disappointment, they still agreed. 

Now, you’d been with Beej for at least a year. Out of all the tricks and scare pranks he did to you, his reaction to your news was the scariest. He was...calm. His hair stayed it’s natural bright color. There wasn’t any change in expression on his face. Not even the slightest eyebrow twitch. He wasn’t even fazed by the outfit you had on. A short, all black, velvet dress that hugged your curves just right and a pair of 6-inch block heels to match. Your hair was done up and you had just a touch of makeup on that made you look different than your usual self. All that and no major reaction.

“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, babycakes.” He spoke. He walked up to you, still so calm and composed. Once he was close enough, a cold hand gently pushed a stray strand of hair behind your ear before an even colder palm rested against your cheek. “Practically good enough to eat.” 

“Ah...ha. Yeah, I mean. If you want me to stay here, that’s fine too, Beej. I can just call my friends and tell them-” But he quickly stopped you. 

“No, no, no. Don’t go cancelling plans on account of me, Y/N.” His voice started normal but then got lower as he finished. 

You felt his thumb make its way to your lips. It grazed them ever so lightly, like he wasn’t trying to mess with your lipstick, before adding a small pressure to your bottom lip. You knew that was a signal to open your mouth as he slipped his thumb in. He gently pressed it against your tongue before swirling it around, getting the digit wet from your saliva. You never looked away from his golden eyes, and thank God for that. Although the was able to maintain himself, the look of lust and domination in his eyes was enough to make you say “fuck whatever plans were happening tonight”. Absentmindedly, you went to swirl your tongue around his finger as well. But before you could put in any work, he slowly pulled the thumb away. 

You would’ve let out a whine if he didn’t place a hand on your lower back and walk you closer to the door. You weren’t sure if you should be scared and relieved. One one hand, he wasn’t being super drastic like normal. Which was great. You wouldn’t feel bad all night about leaving him for the night. On the other hand, what exactly was keeping him so calm? And what were his plans for when you got back? He places your purse in your hands before giving you a deep kiss on the lips.

“Beej, I-“ But before you could continue, your phone dinged. Your friends texted that they were outside. 

“Just enjoy yourself tonight, babes.” His husky voice echoed through your ears, practically making you melt in his arms. 

He then opened the door in front of you before giving a light tap on your ass. The contact was enough to make you let out a small yelp before stumbling forward out the door frame. The heat that filled your cheeks was practically burning. It’s not like you were a blushing virgin but something about this whole thing is making you feel like one. You quickly gained your balance before looking back. Beetlejuice stood in the doorway with a sinister smile on his face. The last thing you noticed was a streak of hot pink that flashed in his hair. 

“I’ll be here when you get back.” And with that, he shuts the door in front of you. The look on your face had too many emotions to uncover in one sitting. All you could do was turn to walk to your friend’s car as they waited. 

You sat in the back seat as they all screamed “Happy Birthday, biiiitttccch!” Not holding back any of the excitement in their voices. You would play along until you adjusted in your seat and felt dampness in your panties. You tried to not to squirm too much once you noticed the feeling.

“Ha...haha. Thanks, you guys.” You say, trying to remain cool. God, the night hadn’t even started and you were really to get back inside to Beej. You just pray that the night ends quick.

****

You weren’t exactly sure what time it was. All you knew was that you were somehow in the backseat of your friend’s car, head laying someone’s lap. Your words were slurred as you tried to keep singing the last song you heard before you all exited the club. Almost everyone in the car, except the driver, seemed to be drunk but not on the same level as you.

All night, your friends wouldn’t stop handing you drinks. If there was one thing they were gonna do, it was make sure you got happy drunk on your birthday. Although you tried to resist, somehow you always ended up with a newly poured glass in your hand. You had basically been thinking about Beetlejuice all night. Both scared and excited for what he had in store for you once you got home. You forget when your thoughts started getting clouded and fuzzy from the alcohol, but you assumed it was after the fourth pineapple vodka was handed to you. You were turned on when you left the house but now it was increased by ten with the alcohol in your system. 

Once the car was parked in front of your house one of your friends offered to walk with you to the door. You reassured them it was fine though. Yeah you’d probably stumble a little bit but you were perfectly able to walk on your own. You thanked everyone for a great night before trying your hardest not to fall on your ass while approaching the door. 

“Pay my tuition just to kiss me on this wet ass pussy~” You mumbled while fumbling with your keys at the door. God, you never hated door locks more than now.

After struggling for what seemed like forever, you finally unlocked and pushed through the door with success. Accidentally slamming it behind you, you flinched but giggled at the loud sound. 

“Beej, I’m home! Come get some of this wet ass pussy!” You yelled from your position. This actually would’ve been the first time Beetlejuice would’ve seen you like this. He didn’t actually know how rowdy you got when super drunk. You quickly dropped your keys and purse to the floor while your shoes weren’t far behind. No response was heard from Beetlejuice so you yelled again. 

“Beetlejuicssse! It’ss my birthday! I want birthday sex now!” You stumbled across the room while laughing at your own silliness. You loudly stomped across the room but still no answer from Beej. Now you were getting frustrated. 

“Beej! Where are you?!” You yelled but not as loud as before. Again, no answer. You thought maybe he’d left. And the thought alone made you sad. It was your birthday. Why would he leave you like this? It wouldn’t be long before you started drunk crying so you moved over to the couch, trying to quickly calm down before you lost it. As you sat thought, you noticed a box sitting on the coffee table. 

The box was small. Just about the size of your hands. It was black and white striped with a silk dark green ribbon tied to the top in a bow shape. The box basically mimicked Beej’s everyday suit. You blinked in confusion before clumsily picking it up. Did he leave this here, you thought. As if the answer wasn’t obvious. You stared at it for a moment before seeing the small note attached to the ribbon. It was black with a white heart stamped in the center. You flipped it over to see a sloppily written message on the back. 

To: My favorite babe, Y/N.

From: BJ, the sexiest demon you’ll ever know.

It took everything in your power not to snort at the message. But you smiled nonetheless. Okay, so he wasn’t here. At least he left you a gift. Maybe you two could spend the day together tomorrow. Your fingers fumbled to untie the bow just like with your keys. You were still drunk enough to laugh at yourself though. It didn’t take long for you to get the bow undone as you quickly lifted to top of the box. 

You weren’t exactly sure what you expected but this wasn’t it. Inside was one tiny thing of black and white striped rope. Nothing else. Just that. 

“Uh, okay.” You thought out loud. 

You were way too confused and way too drunk to really make sense of this. Even so, you reached inside the box to grab the robe and pull it out. Just as you were about to get a closer look at it, the rope started moving. On its own. You honestly would have blamed the alcohol for playing tricks on your mind if the rope didn’t snake it’s way up your arm. It moved so slow and smoothly like a snake slithering its way up your arm. You’d been with Beej long enough to be used to anything supernatural, so this whole thing didn’t really phase you. Not only that, but seeing the way the rope slid up your body started making you feel...aroused? Yeeaaah, maybe it was time to go to bed. 

However, just before you could get up, another piece of rope emerged from the box and wrapped around your ankle. That’s when you looked up to see the strange sight in front of you: different ends of rope slithering their way out of the tiny box. No like snakes but instead like tentacles. Again, you weren’t too phased but this was a little weird. That’s when you felt two more ends of the rope wrap around your ankle and wrist. 

Your head was still a little hazy and this whole thing was making you feel dizzy. And on top of feeling turned on, it almost was like you were on cloud nine. Just as you were about to move again, you noticed the green ribbon sliding its way up your chest. The was the last thing you saw before it quickly snapped itself around your eyes. And you weren’t sure how it happened, but somehow you blacked out.

****

You slowly blinked your eyes open once you came to. The room seemed blurry but it was slowly becoming clearer with each second. As your vision went back to normal, you could tell that you were in your bedroom...in your bedroom...upside down? What the hell? 

You shook your head before widening your eyes. You were upside down, in the air. You tilted your head backwards to see your bed directly under you. You quickly tilted back up to see your body was laying straight, like you were on your back, but entangled in the black and white rope from before. Not only that, you were completely naked. The only thing you could really see was the way the rope squeezed against your breast. Further down you could see your legs being held up and spread out with rope wrapped tightly around each ankle. Not long did it take you to feel the tightness of rope around your whole body, including the way your arms were pulled tightly behind your back. 

“Uh, fuck, ah. Beej?” You groaned, out trying to look around but not getting much of a view. It seemed as though you sobered up a little but still your head swimming. You couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol, the hundreds of questions you had, or the fact that you were hanging upside down.

“Beetlejuice?!” You called out again. The whole thing felt like deja vu from when you first got back home. But this time, he actually appeared. 

There he was, upside down, but standing in front you. This time, you could tell his demeanor was way different from before. He looked so...mischievous. His hair was a mix between hot pink and beaming green. He was dressed in his normal stripes but his suit jacket was gone. The sleeves on his shirt were rolled up, exposing his strong and moss covered forearms. He didn’t seem angry but the air seemed to be more hot when we appeared in the room. 

“Hiya, hot stuff.” He said. His scratchy voice gave you so much more ease. But you were still on edge.

“Beej, what the hell is all this? Why am I tied up like this? And why am I upside down?” You demanded. The way he looked at you after you finished was almost like he didn’t like your tone but still amused by your confusion. 

“It’s your birthday, babes. This is my present.” He said while walking closer to you. 

Before you could ask another question, he gave you a slow and sensual kiss. It was something you’d been wanting all night. Not just a kiss but any type of contact with Beej against you. And you had a feeling that he was going to give you just that. He quickly interrupted your thought with his tongue pushing its way into your mouth and swirling against your own. No longer being able to hold back, you let out such a loud sigh and moan together, it almost sounded like you came just from that. He chuckled at the sound as he pulled his tongue away, causing you to whine almost as loud.  

He lifted his hand to rub his thumb against your lips, much like he didn’t from earlier. But instead of mimicking the same action of pushing his thumb in your mouth, he only trailed his hand down your body as he walked around the side of you.

“Ahha, Beej. I’d be just fine with a present while not hanging in the air.” You spoke. But you weren’t able to see him once he walked around. “Beej, I appreciate the gesture but I think-AH~” You let out a quick gasp. 

All you could feel was one of his cold fingers rubbing against your clit. Oh...fuck. He was really going to do this. You couldn’t even finish your panicked thoughts before you felt a wet finger slowly push into you. He slowly started pumping it in and out while one finger continued to circle your clit. It wasn’t long before you became more and more wet to the point of practically dripping. 

“Ah~ Mmmmm~ Oh, Beej, yes~” You moaned, basically letting go of any fight you had inside of you. You didn’t need any more answers, you just needed Beetlejuice to make you feel good. You could’ve been embarrassed with how fast you came, letting out half a scream, even though his fingers were going painfully slow. Your breathing was slightly hitched but you were able to regain your composure quickly. But that was stunted once he flattened his tongue and gave you heat a long, slow lick. 

“Beej~” You moaned out one last time. It became very evident what his plan for you was, and you weren’t getting out of it anytime soon.

“Oh, we’re far from done. Just sit back and let me take care of you, birthday girl.” Was the last thing you heard before his tongue and fingers went to work on you. 

Yeah, it was going to be a long night. But, Happy Birthday to you.

Did ya’ll catch that W.A.P reference? 10 points to you if you did.

I know I’ve been slacking on fics for a while. I’ve been busy with school bullshit and I know I sound like a broken record saying that. But I wanna thank you guys for still sticking around and being patient with me. I’m still working on requests and I’m far from finished with writing fics. Thanks so much for reading!💚💜🖤

[vermillionflames]

part 2

nozel x oc

word count: >2k

warnings: language

I loved the beach. And the sun. I grew up in a dark castle and the sky was always grey, cloudy, and it was always fucking cold. I would sit in front of the fireplace dreaming about beaches and summer and anything else books would describe that was the opposite of winter. I also had a bangin’ body, and since my darling husband wasn’t vacationing with me, I ditched the conservative swimwear he purchased for me and threw on the smallest bikini I could find. 

 Noelle had joined me on the castle’s private beach. She had brought a book with her, though I could tell she was too busy feeling anxious to be reading. If this girl’s hair wasn’t already white as snow… 

“Noelle,” I sat up in my recliner, “Why don’t we work on your control?”

Her head snapped towards me.

“Why?”

“Because Nozel tells me you suck. And honestly, I like how you’re doing your own thing besides what your family says, but I cannot take anymore of his ranting. He’s annoying the hell out of me and since I can’t tell him to shut up I’m going to fix the problem at its root.”

She was absolutely dumbfounded.

“But nothing works. I’ve tried everything.”

“Ah, but you haven’t tried method a la House Grinberryall yet.”

“Grinberry… what’s that?”

“Nothing!” Oopsies. I move to her recliner, crossing my legs and facing her.

“Just sit like this, yes good. Keep your back straight, no one’s around here. Okay now, close your eyes. Put your hands on your knees or something to relax.”

“This seems foolish…” But she did what I said anyway.

“But it works. No concentrate on your mana and how it feels. Keep your breath steady. Good, do you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

Both our heads snapped towards the direction of the voice. A chill went down my spine. The aura was literally sucking out my energy and I was terrified for a split second before I realized I had to prepare to defend myself.

“What are you girls doing out here anyway? Planned a trip without me? I know neither of you could make it to my neck of the woods but surely you could have sent an owl.”

God dammit. Making her way over to us was Mereoleona. The one person we were hiding from. 

“Oh, well you see, this is a family trip…” I stood up in hopes to stop her from getting closer. It did not work.

“But you are the only two here?”

“No one else wanted to go?”

“Well, I’m here aren’t I,” she promptly took my spot next to Noelle and put her arm around her neck. “So, what were you feeling?”

“My mana…” Noelle looked to me for help. 

“Meditating isn’t going to work for someone like you; you need tough love training. Here, come with me,” She stood up dragging the poor girl by her arm, “I’ll throw you into a volcano and then you get out.”

“Actually,” I got in the middle of them, “Noelle is in my care right now and Nozel would be really, really mad if I let her out of my sight.”

“So you come with us. Easy.”

Why is she yelling?

“Um… I can’t do that. Volcanoes? Not a good idea for me right now.”

Mereoleona cocked her brow at me, Noelle’s jaw dropped. I can never escape it can I?

“Not like that! Ew!”

“Having babies is ew???”

“Noelle, sweetie, why don’t you go over there and practice what I taught you while I talk with Lady Mereoleona.”

“But I want to know about the baby!”

“There is no baby!”

“Noelle you should listen to your big sister… Having babies is ew. And, there is no way your brother would have given her one.”

“Nozel has to give you the baby?”

“Oh? Seraphina hasn’t taught you about this yet? I wanted to train you but this will also be worthy of my time.”

“Don’t you dare tell her anything.”

“Well, somebody has to~”

We spent the next few hours bickering. Eventually we all settled into our own thing. Mereoleona complained the water wasn’t hot enough. Noelle complained about the sand. I complained about the lioness finding us… and the lack of wine.

When the moon rose we moved into the castle's private bath house. Noelle left shortly to go to bed (but we all know she went to go practice what I taught her).

“So, did you bring her here to hide from me or is it because she got her grimoire?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mereoleona. We just both needed some sun.”

“Okay, say what you like… I won’t tell anyone your little secret.”

“I appreciate that,” I rolled my eyes.

“I’m going to head to bed. I have a long day of dealing with my family tomorrow.”

Well, I hope Kirsch is especially flamboyant and Leo is extra loud then.

“Goodnight!”

I glared at the other side of the pool. At least it was her, I guess. Nozel would have my neck for kidnapping his precious baby sister, training her, and letting Mereoleona tell her about “babies being ew.”

I made my way to my room too. Mereoleona was knocked out, I could feel, and Noelle had gone to sleep annoyed that meditating hadn’t made her strong. Well, maybe if you practice more… 

I got into bed and turned towards the window to watch the moon. I hope I don’t have any dreams tonight.

----

“Lady Seraphina,” I woke up to my name being called, “Ma’am breakfast will be ready soon. Do you need me to get your gown ready?”

I swatted my hand at the air.

“Leave me be. I’m fine.”

I could hear the door shut so I nuzzled into the covers more. Get my gown ready for me, what was I? A child? I will get dressed when I want to, by myself. For now I’m gonna lay in my bed, naked, and sleep. Wait- Why was there a servant here?! I specifically told Noelle… Maybe Mereoleona brought them. Okay back to sleep. Wait, she would not do that. Oh shi-

Before I have time to open my eyes and fully process my panic, a swoosh rips my blankets off my body. I curl into my body due to the cold air hitting my skin. Nozel throws the blanket onto the floor and crosses his arms, glaring at me. I gulp.

“Hi.” 

“Good morning, Seraphina.”

Maybe he’s not mad…

“So, what are the chances of getting that breakfast in bed?”

“Get up.”

Wishful thinking.

“Nozel-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” he turns away from me, “Put some clothes on.”

“Don’t punish Noelle for something I did.”

He turned around again.

“Mereoleona said it was her doing.”

Oh no. Oh god, what do I do now?

The door bursts open and in walks Mereoleona… with her brother behind her! I’m naked and very, very afraid. Thankfully Nozel is quick and makes a mercury wall around me. 

“Do you mind?”

“I’m just letting you know she’s innocent. And preventing her from saying anything dumb. She does that a lot, did she hit her head really hard?”

“Sister, we shouldn’t intrude on them and-”

“Aren’t you a little spurious about Nozel’s prize, Fueggy? He has the hot wife and you’re… boring. You might beat him at everything else, but your rival won with the marriage contest.”

“Because it was arranged.”

I rolled my eyes so far back I saw my brain. I felt Nozel get ready to argue.

“Oh my god, can you all just leave,” not that they could see me, but I was giving them the death glare. A bunch of adults acting like children arguing over a rivalry, I think rivalries are stupid. You would think grown men would let go of jealous feelings they had for each other when they were children, but noooo.

Once it was Nozel and I alone again he dropped the wall.

“That is why we wear pajamas. Honestly, how many nightgowns and robes do I have to buy you before you start wearing them?”

“I don’t see the problem with it, Noelle and Mereoleona saw me naked last night in the bath, the servants help me get dressed all the time, and it’s not my fault the Vermillions knocked down my door.”

“Get dressed.”

“No.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m staying here. I need to be away from you,” I hop back into bed, “Thanks for the concern though.”

“You’re coming back with me even if I have to drag you.”

Pfft, uh no.

“That would be too much work for you, husband.”

“Noelle isn’t being as ridiculous as you.”

“Probably because she’s better than me. You just have your head too far up your ass to see it.”

“I beg your pardon-”

“Honestly, what would Acier say if she saw you right now? Do you think she would be very proud of whatever it is you’re doing? I don’t think-”

He put his hands on my shoulders, his face inches from mine, I held my breath.

“Do not,” I probably went a step too far, “ever bring up my mother again.”

I am very aware of how naked I am, how little this man has been this close to me while I’m naked, and I am filled with guilt of bringing Acier into the argument.

“Nozel, I didn’t mean,” I gulp, “I just think you don't have to be so mean to Noelle.”

“And I think you should stick to what you’re good at, which is being Vice Captain and staying out of my family affairs,” He let me go and turned around, “Take your time, but you’ll be expected at the squad meeting at noon. I’ll make sure Noelle gets home.”

And with that he left, but the tension lingered. So Acier struck a nerve. Note to self, bring up something else during an argument. 

----

I hate meetings. I’m always expected to say something brilliant or encouraging. I always bull shit my way through them, but this time Nozel was sending me heavy energy. I had better do my best or he’ll be even more upset and god knows what he’ll do. Give me a shitty mission or make me go have tea with the Silva women, probably. God, did I conversing over tea.

Luckily it went by quickly and I seemed to have done a good enough job because I wasn’t bothered the rest of the day. I was supposed to be looking over mission requests and reports, but instead I was reading one of my old diaries. I did this as punishment to myself, because not only was I embarrassing, I was also stupid in love with Nozel and let this book know all about it. 

The first entries were about Lady Acier and my infatuation with her. I hung onto every word she said in those days. Then Nozel slowly became the center of my attention. Before he was cold, we would sit and talk about how we’d grow old together. I had a list of our children’s names we picked out together. There were sketches I made of the wedding dress I wanted, which I got, dried petals from flowers he had given me… What I would give to be the young again. Actually, I aged pretty nicely. I just want him to be warm again. And happy. 

A paper on my desk caught my eye. It was a list of potential new members of royal or high nobility. I scanned over it. Noelle’s name wasn’t listed. So he was serious about that too?

“Nozel, what will it take for you to stop keeping your emotions locked up?”

[notapaladin]

and thank the lord i don’t have my way (1/3)

HELLO FRIENDS IT IS THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ME POSTING THE FIRST OBSBLOOD FIC EVER. So you get not one, not two, but three fics today! Blame @arahir

Acatl has let the boundaries stay open for far too long. Tonight, he closes them. Tizoc attempts to object.

Also on AO3.

-

The Revered Speaker’s chambers are very dark and very cold. Never mind that it’s the rainy season and that the air at sunset was filled with steam rising off the puddles of the day’s deluge; the sun set long ago, and Metztli the moon illuminates nothing away from the path of the windows. The walls are splashed with murals of war and conquest that must surely be blood-bright in the light of day; they are muted and faded now, shadows on shadows.

They aren’t as faded as the man on the Revered Speaker’s sleeping mats. True, Tizoc-tzin, emperor of Tenochtitlan, is approaching his middle age, but his hair is still black and his limbs are still straight. When he smiles—cold and cruel as that smile is—he has all his teeth. He dresses in the finest quetzal feathers, turquoise, jade; even here, alone on his mat covered with jaguar skins, his loincloth is finely embroidered cotton. An emerald rod pierces his nasal septum. He is covered in the riches of his Empire. He should be magnificent, a true symbol of the power of the Mexica.

He should have died six years ago.

Acatl knows this. His bare feet are silent on the tiled stone floor, and his god is silent in his head. Mictlantecuhtli evidently has not deigned to share whatever opinion He has on this with His most faithful servant. Good. Acatl’s long since made up his mind regardless.

Tearing open the boundaries had taken all three High Priests. Closing them, but leaving them that tiny bit ajar, had taken two High Priests, the Guardian of the Duality, and the Revered Speaker of Texcoco. But to slam them shut...well. Acatl is High Priest for the Dead, High Priest of the Lord of the Place of Death, and he can do that with his bare hands.

He stops at the foot of the dais upon which Tizoc’s mat rests. For a long moment, he simply looks at the snoring, twitching man currently rumpling the blankets. He inhales. He holds for a count of three.

He could do it with his bare hands. It would be easy. He’s no trained warrior but he’s strong enough for this, strong enough to put his hands around Tizoc’s neck and squeeze until he turns purple, until his eyes bulge, until he rolls back limp. It’s what Tizoc would have done to him. (What he would have done, and what he probably—gods, he probably would have made Teomitl watch.) Or there’s his knives, lethally sharp, whose wounds always fester and never heal. It would take only the smallest scratch to have Tizoc rotting from his blackened heart outwards, to have him die slow and incoherent as pus oozes forth from every pore, whimpering like an animal, like the clergy of Tlaloc in their pens—

He exhales.

No. He will do this properly. At least this, too, is easy; he dares not chant out loud, but his lips move in the words of a prayer as his magic builds low in his gut. It won’t take much. Tizoc’s life hangs by a thread as it is, and he holds it tightly in his hand.

Tizoc stirs. Snorts. Rolls over.

He nicks his forearm, dabbing a single fingerprint of blood on the dais. And he keeps praying. The edges of the boundaries yawn wide as a mouth, ready to swallow Tizoc whole. The completion of this slow weaving will close them. My Lord, he thinks, I deliver this soul unto Your keeping.

Tizoc wakes, sees him—and screams.

Acatl smiles. He knows what Tizoc must be seeing. A man-shaped figure, his eyes voids, his bones shining like moonlight through the black glass of his skin. It’s a terrifying visage; even Teomitl, who is used to it (Teomitl, who is in awe of it, and that still knocks him flat when he thinks about it too long) flinches when he spots it out of the corner of his eye. Tizoc has always been craven, and now he looks so horrified that for a moment Acatl thinks he might not even get to finish the spell.

As the magic begins to pool together—a feeling like muscles tensing to spring, a beast of shadows preparing to leap—Tizoc finds the breath to yell, “Guards! Guards!”

He takes a breath and lets it out. His skin is an ordinary brown again, bones no longer visible through shadowed muscles, but Mictlan still leaves him feeling like a hollow shell. His voice is the voice of a corpse. “They won’t come.”

Now he supposes he has to give Tizoc credit, because the man tries to lunge for his eyes. Tries and predictably fails; already the spell Acatl’s cast is leaching through his veins, and his limbs will not obey him. Sadly, the same can’t be said for his shrill voice. “What have you done to them?! Traitor!”

He remembers sunlight on the water, and a smile that was even brighter than that. Remembers a murmur of, “Thank you, Acatl.” He lifts his chin, letting pride leak into his voice. “They are following orders tonight.”

Tizoc’s eyes move like rats in a trap, but he’s not a complete idiot. There’s only one man the army would fall into line behind so easily. When he speaks next, he sounds almost resigned. “...My brother,” he spits. “So you have corrupted him.”

Acatl grits his teeth, but there’s no need for him to lose his temper here. “Teomitl is a far better man than you could ever dream of being. You ought to thank me for your years of life; he would have put you down like the dog you are ages ago.” And I should have let him.

“I will have you flayed. I will loop the flower garland around your neck myself, I’ll make those traitorous siblings of yours watch, and then I’ll put them to the sword—”

There’s more, but Acatl isn’t paying attention. He’d once thought that no mortal justice could compete with the need to keep the Fifth World intact; he still thinks that, but by now he’s learned that sometimes pursuing justice and doing his duty are one and the same. It’s taken him long enough. Oh, he’d wavered at first—that first time Teomitl had shared his plans for the future, not even him following it up with a declaration that he was going to wait was enough to stop his heart from sinking. But then Tizoc had come back—no, had slunk back into the city, like a coyote with its ears flat and its belly pressed to the ground—and he’d been nearly stunned with the wrongness of it. That Tizoc could lead an army to its death and then let an entire priesthood to be slaughtered like beasts—it’s not an affront that can be borne. His incompetence will tear the Empire apart if the Tlaxcallans and Tarascans don’t get to them first; each campaign leaves Teomitl a little more tired, a little more snappish and run-down. Soon he won’t be able to carry the army on his back anymore.

The man he loves has new scars. He blames Tizoc for that, but first and worse he blames himself. It was his hand that put Tizoc on the throne, and it will be his hand that removes him from it. There’s only as much justice as he can make, after all.

Mictlan gnaws at his guts again, and he lets it scour him clean. In and out and in again, he breathes. The spell pulses like a living heart. Tizoc must feel it, because he bleats, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

He whispers the rest of his prayer, ignoring Tizoc for the moment. This spell is rarely used, not because of the cost—a few paltry drops of blood—but because of its very specific conditions. It only works on dead souls, not dead bodies, avoiding the attention of the Wind of Knives. It would not do to cheat a comrade of His captive. Rare is the soul that can die without harming the body; how helpful it is, then, that Quenami crafted Tizoc a new one. He must remember to thank him. “Sending your soul to Mictlan where it belongs. None will see any hand in your death but the gods’ wills.”

Tizoc’s breath rattles in his lungs. “Blasphemy. I can’t imagine your precious sister—”

“My sister? The Guardian of the Duality? That sister?” Acatl feels himself smiling. “I am restoring the order of the world. She would hold my cloak for me.” After all, she hates Tizoc too. Not as much as he does—she’s a good woman, she doesn’t nurture her grudges the way her menfolk do—but quite enough to look the other way should his soul be severed from his body by what looks to all the world like a common attack of the heart. Such a tragedy, she’ll say, and meet his eyes, and smile. He kneels to wipe away his bloody fingerprint, the only sign of his presence here tonight.

Tizoc is still trying to defend himself. The fool. “You—you can’t,” he splutters. “What about...” Eyes roll wildly as he casts about for an excuse, and finally alights on one he thinks must work. “Your patron! Surely, surely Lord Death can’t approve—”

“My lord,” Acatl says, with a gentleness he doesn’t feel. “I brought you back into this world after your death, breaking all natural laws in the vain hopes that you could do the one single task you were crowned to do. Lord Death will rejoice that I have now taken you out of it.”

“You’ll never get away with this!” he snaps. “Quenami...Quenami will...”

Ah, yes. Quenami. Acatl snorts. “You imagine he will still be alive to avenge you?”

Tizoc goes, if possible, paler. “You wouldn’t.”

He remembers, with a slow uncoiling of rage, the blade at his throat. The way Quenami had smiled. He’d wanted to carve it off his face. “I might,” he growls, but even as he says it he knows he’ll be lucky if Teomitl doesn’t get there first. “You should be happy. You’ll have company on your journey.”

He’s breathing harder now. Hyperventilating. It’s panic, not magic; he can’t even face death like a warrior. “No—no, you can’t—”

Acatl’s spine stiffens. “Only the gods and Teomitl tell me what I can and cannot do.”

“...Heh,” Tizoc spits. “Is he fucking you?”

He considers this. They’ve been discreet—possibly not discreet enough if Tizoc is asking that question, but then the man has always been paranoid of any influence on his brother, even before he was his Master of the House of Darts. He can certainly imagine Tizoc suspicious of what else Teomitl might have been learning from him, and if he’d only known then what he knew now...well. He is a man, and not a statue. Tizoc might have been right about something for once. But he isn’t, and for a moment Acatl weighs whether he deserves the truth. It’s not something he’s ever had to say out loud; Mihmatini is the only one who knows, and she doesn’t want to hear details. Finally, a bit of uncommon smugness curls his lip. “Actually,” he says coolly, “most of the time I’m fucking him.”

Disappointingly, this does not cause Tizoc to expire immediately. Teomitl will be quite displeased to have lost that bet. “You—you vile—you foul—”

Then he starts coughing, wet and disgusting, and blood gathers at his lips. Acatl lets Mictlan’s power fall away from him like an old cloak. “Rant all you like, my lord. Your time is ending. Teomitl will erase all you’ve done as though it’s never been, and the foundations of our Empire—of our world—will grow stronger for your absence.”

“I’ll kill you,” Tizoc hisses. “I’ll haunt you from beyond death, like those ghosts you’ve been slaying throughout my reign. You’ll never sleep soundly again.”

Interesting. He hadn’t thought Tizoc had been paying attention. He hums noncommittally, shaking his head. There will be no more such hauntings now that the boundaries are properly closed.

Tizoc is panting harshly now, beyond speech. Good. The guards are still nowhere to be seen, which is a further relief; as loyal as they are to Teomitl, he still doesn’t want to put them in a position to lie about whatever they might see.

Not that there is anything to see. Over the next few hours, Tizoc’s soul will unravel from its moorings so slowly, so carefully, that no magic his fellow High Priests could muster will be able to tell it’s anything other than a natural death. (He knows Acamapichtli won’t even look. He still mourns his clergy, and now they’ve been avenged.)

Acatl turns away. He’s done here. By the time the sun rises, Tizoc will be dead.

He has things to do before then.

[kewltie]

"Go away," Kasumi hisses over another stifled dinner. "You've been here nearly everyday for the past two weeks. Don't you have a home to go back to? You're rich; you can buy, like, five houses!"

Bakugou stares at her across the table. "I think you severely overestimating my income, brat," he says dryly.

"Don't lie." She huffs. "I read your in-depth profile on Hero Weekly. You're the no. 1 hero in the country and you make plenty of banks last year with just sponsorships alone."

“This stalkerish tendency of yours.” Bakugou gives her a look. "It's disturbing how much you and Deku are alike."

"I did my homework because I'm thorough like that." Kasumi scowls, arm folded over her chest. "You have to know your enemy to win. And don't even think of dodging the subject!"

Bakugou shrugs, neither denying nor agreeing to the earlier statement. "What if I just like the food here?" he muses.

She gives him a doubtful glare. "Then why do you look like you're eating glass everytime you take a bite of something?"

"You don't like my cooking?" Papa asks, poking his head out of the kitchen where he was washing the aftermath of their dinner. Hurt wrung all over his face.

Bakugou grimaces. "That wasn't what I said—" but the rest of his sentence is swallow by Kasumi's interruption. "I love your cooking, Papa," she chimes in loyally. At Papa's shyly relief smile she swivels her attention back to Bakugou, pinning him in his place with a severe glare.

Papa always been sensitive about his cooking. When they were living with Grandma Inko she did all the cooking because Papa was too busy juggling multiple jobs to keep them afloat. Between school, work, and a raising a kid, he didn't have a lot of practice in the kitchen, but does he tried anyway. And she loves him for it.

Kasumi leans over the table and drops her voice to a low ominous hiss. "I will cut you where you sit if you hurt his feelings again."

Completely unfazed by her threat, Bakugou sits back and grins sharply. "I know you never finish all of the foods on your plate," he says coolly in turn.

Kasumi doesn't jump over the table and tackle him to the ground, only because Papa raised her right. And also, because she can feel Papa hovering close behind her back. "Is that true, Kasumi-chan?" Papa asks, the words catch in the air in an anxious hitch. "You really don't like my cooking either?"

She hops down from her chair and turns to toward him, finding she standing in directly in front of him. Papa's fully out of the kitchen now, wearing a concerned frown on his face, which always make her antsy. There are few things worth protecting in this world and Papa's smile is one of them.

"It's not that! I just have a small stomach!" she insists loudly, excuses tumbling out of her mouth like broken dam. Papa isn't necessarily bad in the kitchen. He just got a rotating stable of recipes that he uses again and again. There's only so much chicken kaarage she can take per week before she become sick of chicken.

A throat clears behind her and she sighs heavily before snapping, "What?!"

"Two days ago, I saw you devoured two packs of daifuku that I'd brought with me like a living garbage compactor and that was all after dinner," Bakugou unnecessarily contributes to their conversation.

Kasumi's hands flexes at her side. Here's the thing she isn't necessary a violent person despite her barbed tongue and the bruised fists because it's not in her, but Bakugou Katsuki is seriously pushing all her buttons tonight. He'd cut through all her pretenses and lies and waved it right in her face to mock her.

She'd never felt more exposed.

"I'm sorry Papa and you can ground me after this," she says, rolling up her sleeves, "but I'm going to punch him. In the face, preferably.”

Papa's eyes widen and he abruptly catches her by the shoulders, his hands clenching down to keep her in place. "I would really, really like it if you don't."

"But I—" she protests loudly and earnestly, bouncing on the heels of her feet, "what if I only punch him a little? He’s a pro-hero, he can take it! It wouldn't even hurt him!”

Papa shakes his head. "No, Kasumi-chan," he says. Staunch in his resolution. And as firm as the floor they stand on.

And that's all it takes.

Here is the truth she holds above all else: Papa loves her absolutely, there is no one in this world who loves her more than him, and he would do anything for her, but when he make a decision he's a mountain and he won't be move. Even in spite of her. And specifically for her.

For all the good of the world, it hasn't been kind to her and Papa. So on her worst days, she's a raging inferno as hate and contempt burns within her, but Papa is the rain that comes and washes away the firestorm in her heart. Only in his arms does she ever find her piece of peace.

She thinks if Papa hasn't raised her with such loving and gentle hands, she would have grown to be a spiteful and angry child, who rages against the word blindly. "Okay, Papa," she says solemnly, shoulders slumping, but firm. "Anything you say. I won't do it, but only because you told me."

Papa's eyes are bright as he smiles at her. And that's all she'd ever wanted.

"If you two are quite done with your melodramatic theater," Bakugou humorlessly drawls. And just like that her good mood is easily broken by that annoying voice behind her.

She rolls her eyes as she turns and scoffs. "What you mean?!" she demands hotly, dropping all pretense of her usual manners in front of him, but then again she never have any for him in the first place. She never use such an offensive and coarse language in her life, but her wild temperament is all his. Kasumi may treat most adults with severe politeness, but rarely do they get her respect right off the bat. Her respect has to be earned the hard way; they have to actually put the leg work for it.

"Aren't you tired of being leashed by Deku because of your temper?" Bakugou deliberates, cocking a brow up. "You act like a mad dog half of the time, yapping away at me and then Deku has to run over to calm you down. You sulk and he has to console you. You both get emotional over it. Rinse and repeat. This is honestly getting boring to watch." The glare of his red eyes is unforgiving as they pinned her down.

Papa coughs awkwardly as he tries to stifle a laugh, because of course he would think this is all amusing. He's completely biased. "Papa," she scolds, tapping her feet impatiently because he's her Papa. He's supposed to be on her side.

Papa winces and softly says, "Sorry."

Consoled, she snaps to Bakugou with an accusatory finger. "And you, stop interfering in our family matter, Unnecessary!" she hisses spitefully, venom dropping from every word that pass her lips. "I know what you're trying to do." She glares. "You want to break us apart by exposing me so you get your nefarious hands all over my Papa. Think again! That will never happen!"

Bakugou has the absolute gall to rolls his eyes at her. "Yea, because I have so much free time to fuck around and love putting myself through utter hell just to get in Deku's pants," he says, sarcasm so thick in his voice that he's drowning in it.

Kasumi scowls, arms folded.

"Just stop coddling Deku, he's a grown man and your dad so fucking treats him like one. He doesn't need you to baby his ass," he plows on, relentlessly and unforgivingly. "If you don't like something, tell it to him straight. He won't hold it against you for the rest of his life. He’s not that stupidly petty."

Kasumi bristles. "You don't know—" the rest of her sentence is cut of when a hand lands on her shoulder. "Papa?" she says, Bakugou's earlier words making her wary.

"It's okay, Kasumi-chan, you can tell me," says Papa. His voice soft and terrifyingly assuring. "I can handle it."

Chewing on her bottom lip in thought, she tilts her head back to get a good look at him. It's ironic that she could slay giants and face the world with nothing but sheer grits and the wits on her, fearless against everything but her Papa who made her feel like a hapless babe every time he look at her with consideration.

But when all she see is the warmth in his familiar green eyes and the encouraging smile meeting her, she says, "I do you love your cooking," and it's as true as she can be. Then, with consideration, she adds, "But not all the time. Maybe you can try a new dish every now and then?"

She may be young, but she knows that sometime love isn't some grand gesture, it's the small things that matter the most. Even if it mean eating chicken karaage four times a week and every week till she's sick to her stomach and couldn't even stand the sight of chicken anymore.

Inhaling, she watches as a gauntlet of confusion runs a course through his face. "Oh." He blinks. "Oh," he says as realization finally dawns on him at last. "I see." He smiles apologetically, touching the back of his neck. "Well, I can do that. We'll try something new tomorrow!" he says cheerfully. There’s plenty of sincere enthusiasm put into it that she doesn’t think it sound like he’s faking it. Papa always been a terrible liar, but that why he has her in the first place.

She lets out her breath, long and heavy as though she didn't even realize she was holding it in the entire time she was waiting for his answer. But. No more chicken karaage. No more chicken. Oh my god. All her earlier anxiety is washed away just like that.

Papa hums thoughtfully. "Now, what would you like to eat tomorrow?"

Excited, Kasumi opens her mouth, but Bakugou lets out a loud grunt. "Yea, okay, you make it as though picking up new dishes is as easy at that. Certainly not with your rudimentary cooking skill," he says needlessly.

"Hey, back off," she snarls, ticked. "You don't even know what you're talking about so don't start with me."

"I cook," he says as casual as one would be.

"You cook?" she says, doubtful.

"I cook," he repeats, folding his arms across his chest languidly. "Not a professional chef by any mean, but better than Deku."

"Liar," she defends, loyal to the end.

"I live alone so who the hell will put food on the table if not myself?" he retorts. "And eating out everyday is stupid and a waste of my time and money, so yea I fucking cook, brat."

Chagrin, she mumbles, "It probably taste horrible."

He narrows his eyes. "It actually taste fucking awesome, you ungrateful little shit."

"Kacchan is actually good in the kitchen," Papa chirps up, because he's weak like that. Always the first to come to Bakugou’s defense. "He'd learned it all from his father, your Grandpa Masaru, who is an amazing cook!"

Kasumi clicks her tongue in annoyance as she remains unmoved.

Bakugou scoffs. "Fine," he says, sitting up. "I'll bring ingredients over tomorrow and give you hell."

"And what if I don't like it, huh?" she fires back.

He shrugs, unbothered. "Then I'll try again and again till you do."

She snorts in disbelief. "I highly doubt that," she says. "I'm picky and hard to please but okay, you can try to wow me."

"Yea, I don't think it'll be that hard when you can vaccum Deku's shitty chicken karaage everyday, your tastebud is probably already dead," he says wryly. Her barbed tongue definitely came from him.

"Hey," Papa says, and there's a visible sulk in his voice, "it's not that bad! You ate it too!"

Bakugou's gaze flickers to the side as twins’ blotch of red rises to his cheeks. "Because I'm a fucking dumbass who really like you a shit ton so I put up with it for you," he admits.

There's nothing smooth about it, it's clumsy and cringe worthy to hear; there’s absolutely nothing romantic about it, but Papa, who is a soft soul, just melts under them. "Kacchan," he breathes, and it's entire world in tied up in the word

Kasumi grimaces, because ewe. Gross. And resolves to not get her stomach sick again with by their disgusting display of affection by pushing Papa back in the kitchen to hide.

Later when she's tucked up in bed with Papa and Bakugou had when home to his own apartment, she mulls over the entire sequence of events leading up to Bakugou's promise to come back everyday to cook for them until she's pleased, and buries her face in a pillow to let out a silent scream of outrage because she'd been outplayed. Hard. And nobody to blame but herself.

[coveredinsweetpea]

I Can't Fall In Love Without You || K.J. Apa

A/n: This was requested by @namelesslosers . Thank you!! I fucked it up a bit, but i hope you’ll still like it!

Summary: Y/n is a famous singer/actress who used to date KJ. When one night, at a ceremony they’re both attending, she performs a song that’s ‘not-so-subtly’ about him, things take a turn.

-

“Y/n, hurry! why aren’t you dressed?” or “Sign your name here, here and here” or “You have to go to this event, everyone will there” Words could never describe just how sick you were of having to put up with this specific façade. This on going rush you’ve been living in, this ever lasting maze of horror filled fake smiles, exhausted in you in a way you never thought possible. The life inside you was now grey colored, and a dark aura surrounded you. At this point, you had the exact same job, hung out with the exact same people, lived in the same house and slept in the same bed as you did when you still had him. Walking inside your apartment and not hearing any “Babe, I made food, the top is a little burnt but I’ll eat that part, I swear the bottom tastes really good. Gordon Ramsey taught me” felt utterly useless, and it didn’t take long before it turned into dread. The Grammy’s were tonight, and you sighed heavily as you got out of the limousine, realizing this was yet another red carpet you’d walk without KJ by your side. You’ve done it for years before meeting him, you knew what to do and how to act, the whole thing was that you didn’t want to do it by yourself. You missed his arm around your waist, and those stupid dad jokes he’s whisper in your ear just to get you to flash that genuine smile of yours for the camera. Despite being media trained and knowing exactly what to do, how to keep your legs and shoulders, where to look and so on in order to look good in pictures, KJ knew just how much better you looked when your true feeling were showing. All things considered, you were sure no one noticed just how much different you looked without him, but frankly, you were glad they had no idea. The last thing you needed were more questions about him, considering it had been months since you two parted ways.

“God!” Mary exclaimed, rushing to you, “How many times do I have to say this! Don’t sit down!” “Yeah yeah yeah” you mumbled, standing up from the armchair. Your eyes were still trained on the screen of your phone, following carefully a thread showing all the outfits people wore to the event. You knew Joe was invited, but since he wasn’t a nominee or an important guest, you weren’t surprised you didn’t see pictures of him yet. “Looking for him again?” your best friend sighed, “You’re performing in 2 minutes, get your vibes on!” “I’d fucking have my vibes on-” you snapped, talking as you walked away from her, “If you’d just let me be!” “What’s gotten your panties in a bunch, huh?” she taunted, walking towards you, “Haven’t seen you this moody in a while” “Meg, you know I love you” you sighed, turning around just enough to be able to look her in the eye, “But now is not the time” “It’s KJ, isn’t it?” “No, it’s not” you lied with a roll of your eyes, “I’m just nervous, that’s all” To be fair, it wasn’t a complete lie. You really were more nervous than you’ve been in ages, but that was because this was the biggest stage you’d walk on without as much as a smile of encouragement from him. KJ was somewhere in the audience, and the fact that your source of confidence would just watch your performance from beginning to end without having any direct influence over it, made you knees weak. Eventually, there was no where for you to hide anymore as the time to step on stage finally came. You did so on shaky knees, but as soon as your ears were met with chants of excitement and rounds of applause, you remembered why you chose this path in life. After a few seconds the lights dimmed, and silence settled. The song you had to perform wasn’t the most vocally challenging, but the emotional baggage it brought upon you was enough to make your lungs shake with every word you sang.

“I can be out every night No one else holding me down I can do just what I like But I can’t fall in love without you I can’t fall in love without you

Please don’t fall in love without me I hope you’re sorry Can’t find the words to say Hope you’re always worried Worryin’ ‘bout me”

Your palms were sweaty against the microphone and your ears were ever so numb, that you could barely hear yourself. The emotion for this song came from somewhere deep within, and you knew your secret was out - if you could even call it a secret. But at that moment, you didn’t care about them, all you saw before your eyes were the endless nights you spent without KJ. It didn’t matter if you were alone or not, it was his company you wanted, not anyone else’s. After your performance, Shawn Mendes took the stage and ended the whole ceremony, as you watched quietly from backstage. When everything was over, you hurried to change out of your long light blue dress, and into a black one, which despite being less revealing, was shorter and tighter. Ditching your pair of high heel sandals in favor of a pair of silver stilettos, you jumped into your car, where your stylist did her magic, and turned your flawless curls into a sea of messy waves. While you were still more than a few blocks away from where the after  party was to be held, your phone started blowing up. Twitter had gone mad, 3 different hashtags involving you and KJ were trending, your Instagram follower count had gone up by 80.000 bringing you close to the 70M milestone. All kinds of magazines and websites, most of which you haven’t even heard of before were posting about you, updating, speculating and analyzing. As it turns out, performing a song that was obviously about your ex after you’ve just received the first Grammy of your career, was indeed a big deal. The way from your car and to the door of the venue was quitter than you expected, but it was still early and the paparazzi hadn’t yet found the location. You calmly walked inside, the party already in full swing. A lot of celebrities that had no business attending the ceremony but were considered important enough by the mainstream media, were invited to this party. Most of your friends were there, so it didn’t take long for you to mingle in. You tried keeping yourself busy jumping from group to group, meeting new people and seeing old friends, but your mind wasn’t having it. KJ was still haunting your thoughts, so you made your way to the bar, hoping a drink would help you get in the mood to party. As you pondered what to order, you felt a very familiar cologne invade your senses. It made your knees weak, and your heart was beating at a pace that was by no means safe as you feared that at any moment, it would physically burst out of your chest. “Two strawberry vodka” you heard him saw, and it took everything inside of you not at aww at his words, as that had been your drink, starting from your very first date, up to the last time you drank together. “Wow” you smiled, turning to him, “Classy” “You taught me” KJ laughed, already blushing. It might have been the light, but the red in his hair was darker and his dark brown roots were beginning to show - that was something you always loved about him. He was wearing a plain white t shirt tucked into black jeans, and had his hair not been red, he would have made a perfect James Dean. “What’s up?” you asked softly, facing him completely despite still leaning against the bar. “I just wanted to congratulate you” he said, waving his arm. He would have touched you, squeezed your elbow or patted your shoulder, but you sensed the fear in his gestures, and it truly pained you. “Thank you” you smiled, “This is really big, didn’t think I’d win” “I knew you would” he grinned. “Did you?” “Yeah!” KJ nodded, before his smile faded, “I actually wanted to text you last night and wish you good luck and all that, but I figured it was a bad idea” “It wasn’t” you pouted, “I would have appreciated it. But now is almost just as good” He looked at you, his eyes lingering on yours as a new kind of smile curled the corners of his lips upwards. “I know just the thing-” he mumbled, grabbing his phone out of his right pocket. He kept it so you couldn’t see what he was doing, but soon after your drinks arrived, he placed his phone back in his pocket, and an exact second later, your own buzzed. “Oh god” you giggled, rolling your eyes. It was obviously a text from him, but you didn’t hesitate to read it. “Hey, Y/N, I know we haven’t talked in ages and I hate that a lot. I am also aware I missed a lot of important things in your life, but I did follow as much as I could through the internet so my prediction is based on facts. I’ll keep this short because I know you don’t like sappy moments, but that Grammy is yours. There’s no doubt about it. One day, you’ll win an Oscar too, I know it. Good luck, angel! x” “See?” you whined, stomping your foot against the floor, “Why are you like this?” “Like what?” he asked curious, leaning his head to the side. “Like-” you stuttered, furrowing your brows, “Like you!” “Like me?” KJ laughed, advancing towards you a bit, but still keeping a decent distance between your bodies, “Why am I like me? what do you mean?” You rolled your eyes with a scoff, “You know what I mean!” “Why do I still worry about you even after all this time?” he teased, coming another step closer. Despite knowing where this was going you didn’t have it in you to stop it, “Don’t make references to my song!” “It’s a good song” he defended himself. “Of course it is” you scoffed, closing the distance between your bodies. “Why? Because you wrote it?” KJ mocked, wrapping his left arm around your middle. You looked up into his eyes and saw him smiling down at you. It warmed your heart as you haven’t seen that exact reaction in months, and to be honest, it was you absolute favorite thing in the word. He looked at you in complete awe and you were done. “No…” you whispered, “Because it’s about you” He tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, “I still love you, you know? Nothing changed for me, and it won’t anytime soon” Your teasing mood and flirty attitude disappeared in an instant, now you were sad, angry - at yourself, and had no idea what to do. “I shouldn’t have performed that song, this isn’t ok” Despite saying these things, you didn’t back away from him. Instead, you wrapped your arms around him and hid your face in his neck. KJ brought you closer to his chest, holding you tight around your middle. It was a hug at the edge between a reunion and a goodbye, and you were dead set on not letting go of him until you knew which one of the two it actually was. “Hey-” KJ said, gently pushing you away so he could look into your eyes as he spoke, “We can talk about this, whatever it is. Let’s go outside and-” “No” you shook your head, “I can’t do this tonight” “I-” he tried to speak, obviously taken aback, but you stopped him. “I waited for this night ever since I was 8. I dreamed about holding that award in my hands for so long, I don’t want anything to ruin this for me” It was visible just how much your words pained him, but he held it all back. Or at least he tried. Tears glistered at the corners of his eyes, but he still nodded in agreement, taking a step back, “I respect that” You grabbed his hand to stop him, as you didn’t want to let anything unfinished, “I do love you, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Take me back-” you said, “for tonight. Can everything go back to normal, just for this night, and we’ll talk about it in the morning, and we’ll work through things as they come, I thought I-” KJ cut you off, as he grabbed your cheeks, and kissed you. He was more passionate than you ever felt him. You’ve done this so many times, yet this felling right now, it was knew. You teeth still clanked against his, and you still licked the corner of his mouth by mistake, but your eyes remained closed, just as his, because this was new. This was the beginning of something new. It was like your very first kiss all over again. With one arm around you and a hand planted on the side of your rib cage, he held you as close as he could, every now and then sighing against your lips, sighs which eventually turned into little moans, until you had to pull away. “Scare me like that ever again-” “What?” you laughed, “Did you think we were gonna break up again, or?” “Are you ever not this sassy?” KJ exclaimed. “Would I still be the woman you fell in love with if I didn’t mock you?” He laughed out loud, “Probably not, so please don’t ever stop”

[orihara-infobroker]

Seclusion Day Twelve

“What’s on the menu tonight?” Akabayashi inquired as he entered the apartment, sniffing the air. “Something baked?”

“That’s dessert,” Shiki replied from the kitchen. “Dinner is just seared tuna steaks and barbecued vegetables.”

“Just?” Akabayashi snorted in amusement. He settled on one of the stools, glancing around. “Where’s Izaya?”

“He appropriated my office. Something about a job he just couldn’t turn down.”

Akabayashi arched a brow. “What kind of job could he possibly do when he’s not supposed to be socializing?”

Shiki gave Akabayashi a slight smile. “Research related. He didn’t give me specifics but if I were to guess, I’d say it has something to do with history, mythology or some mix of the two.”

“Why?” Akabayashi asked as he watched Shiki searing the tuna steaks in a pan. 

“Izaya majored in folklore and mythology in college.” 

“I thought he did psychology.” 

“I did both. Double major.” Akabayashi and Shiki turned to look at Izaya as he padded barefoot across the floor to join them, sniffing the air with curiosity. “Something… Apples?”

“Baked apples? Pie?” Akabayashi followed up, shifting his gaze back to Shiki.

“Close.” Shiki handed Akabayashi the plate of steaks. “Izaya, plates.” He ordered the raven as he took the vegetables off the small raclette grill. Izaya’s eyes settled on the tuna steaks and he grinned and moved to the cupboard. 

“So, what kind of research job did you take?” Akabayashi asked as he took the tuna to the table. 

Izaya followed with the plates while Shiki turned off the stove and brought the vegetables and rice. “A client who wanted a comparative summary of various folklores that would fall under the general category of human shapeshifters. Basically the client wants categories of anything involving people who turn into animals or vice versa; werewolves, kitsune, Native American skinwalkers, Celtic selkies or even gods who were known to take on animal form, like Loki or Zeus.”

Akabayashi stared at Izaya in confusion. “I regret asking.”

Izaya sighed as he filled his plate. “This is why you ended up in the yakuza,” He observed sagely. “No education and too much anger.” He shook his head, affecting an air of disappointment.

“Even if I’d been able to go to college, I wouldn’t have studied mythology,” Akabayashi replied with a shrug, smirking at Izaya’s attempt to tease him.

“What would you have studied if you’d had the chance?” Izaya asked, curious. 

Akabayashi thought about it as he filled his own plate and began eating. “I don’t know. I never gave it any thought because I knew it just wasn’t an option. Business maybe? What about you, Haruya?” They both fixed their gazes on Shiki.

“History,” Shiki replied without having to think about it. “Unfortunately, it’s not really a major that has a lot of job potential so it’s probably a good thing I didn’t go to college.”

“Ooo you could have become a history professor,” Izaya smirked. “I wonder, would you still wear white suits?”

“Of course he would.” Akabayashi grinned. “He’d be the most hated prof at the university. All the students would complain that he’s too much of a perfectionist and he marks too hard.”

Izaya laughed at the suggestion, nodding aggressively. “Definitely fits.”

Shiki arched a brow. “I was never interested in teaching. What would you have done with a business degree?”

Akabayashi shrugged. “Maybe open a bar? Run a pachinko parlour?” He joked.

Izaya gave him an amused look. “You could open a bar without a business degree.”

“Good point. No need to spend all that money on school. What about you, Izaya? If you hadn’t gotten tangled up with the yakuza, what would you have done?”

Izaya smirked. “If I had to have a proper career? Maybe I would have become a criminal psychologist. That might have been entertaining.”

“Not a regular psychologist?”

Izaya shook his head. “Listening to people talk about their boring day-to-day problems? No thanks. My wife won’t sleep with me. My husband is never home. My boss keeps passing me over for promotion. Having to sit there and pretend to care every day… Sounds tedious.”

Akabayashi chuckled. “I never figured you for antisocial.”

“I’m not antisocial.” Izaya sounded offended. “I just prefer the company of interesting people.”

“Like professional criminals?”

Izaya smirked. “Anyone whose moral compass is skewed enough to consider criminal activities as a good career choice is guaranteed to be interesting.” He paused, gazing at Akabayashi. “Well… the ones who aren’t just thugs anyway…”

Akabayashi gave Izaya a feral grin. “Thugs have their place. Not all of them are boring or stupid. Some of them just like the violence.”

“Like you?”

“I get the feeling you’re not as opposed to it as you like to pretend.”

Shiki gave a hint of a smile at Akabayashi’s observation, watching Izaya’s gaze slide away from the redhead. “I don’t think anyone with a genuine dislike of violence would be working for the yakuza.”

“Violence has its place,” Izaya replied with a grin. “Like in ridiculous superhero movies. Which one are we on?”

Shiki rose and collected the plates, stacking them by the sink. “I thought you were the one keeping track.”

“Last one we watched was Thor.” Akabayashi supplied. 

“Avengers next, then. Coffee with dessert?” He rose and moved to the coffee maker while Shiki removed the dessert from the oven.

“I’ll set up the movie.” Akabayashi moved to the living room, settling on the couch to set up the movie. Shiki and Izaya followed with plates of apple crisp and cups of coffee. Shiki settled on the opposite end with Izaya in the middle, leaning into Shiki as he pressed his bare feet against Akabayashi’s thigh. Akabayashi arched a brow at him but he just grinned back.

“Start the movie. This is where things start to really pick up.”

[elisaphoenix13]

Stowaway (Ch. 4)

"Do we have to go home already?" Cassie asks as she obnoxiously rolls around on the bed and Quill sits on the edge.

"What are you...stop. You're like a puppy. Maybe I should keep you from hanging out with Harley and Peter." Quill shoves her off the bed and she lands on the floor with a startled 'oof'.

"Ow. Rude." The celestial snorts and grabs one of his shirts for her and throws it over his shoulder at her. "No looking."

"I don't want to look. Just get changed so we can go to bed."

Cassie does so and crawls into bed as Quill changes into his own sleeping clothes, and he gets into bed. This time the teen immediately snuggled into his side for warmth before they fell asleep and they slept soundly.

For about three hours.

Quill was rudely awakened when both he and Cassie were thrown off the bed, and the god groans when his head hits the wall. Thankfully the teen had landed on him and was unharmed, but she was still a little dazed from whatever had disturbed their sleep. That was soon answered when Quill felt the ship get hit and he curses as he stumbles to his feet and rushes out of the room and up to the cockpit. That's where he discovered that a traveling quantum asteroid field had moved in the path of the ship's autopilot course.

"Fuck! Cassie get up here and buckle in! Now!" Quill yells as he jumps into his seat and takes the ship off autopilot.

He didn't have time to wait for her to get into a seat. Quill had to fly through the field as safely as possible and was relieved when Cassie managed to join him and buckle in. The poor thing was only dressed in his t-shirt, and even though it was big enough to cover her adequately, she was still probably freezing. That was the least of his worries though. Especially when part of his ship was smoking from the couple of rocks that hit it when they were sleeping. Quill needed to find a planet to land on and fast.

He caught a glimpse of one when he made it through the asteroid field, and turned toward it, causing his ship to falter and start failing. It was Berhert all over again but he didn't know if this was a habitable planet. So when they were seconds away from crashing onto the surface, Quill unbuckled himself and grabbed a space suit stashed nearby, and jumped over to Cassie. He managed to put the space suit on her and cover her with his body before the ship crashed, and he blacked out.

"...pa...Papa!" Quill gasps when he comes to and feels Cassie shaking him. He looks at the teen after sitting up, noticing that she had vacated her seat to wake him.

"Cassie...are you okay?" He manages to ask.

"Just cold."

"Fuck. Hang on."

Quill gets up with a groan and looks around the ship to assess the damage. It was still in one piece thankfully but it would still take time to repair. Exposed wires sparked, parts of the ship walls were missing and considering he wasn't suffocating, he assumed the air was safe to breathe. He made sure to use the control panel to double check his theory and it confirmed his assumption, and he also uses it to check the condition of the fuel tanks. They were miraculously in perfect condition so they didn't lose any fuel in the crash.

The celestial wills some embers of light into his hand to explore the ship as it was currently dark on the planet and the emergency lights weren't very bright. He carefully takes the stairs down after telling Cassie not to move and makes his way into the bedroom. Quill wanted to make sure there weren't any holes to let in more cold air before he had his daughter coming back and getting back into bed to stay warm.

"Baby girl, do you need light to get down here?" He calls up.

"No. Yours is bright enough." She answers.

"Alright. Come here and be careful." Cassie rejoins him about a minute later and he points to the bed after taking the space suit off of her. "Get back in bed. I'll leave some of my light here as extra warmth."

"What are you going to do?" She asks.

"Figure out what planet we're on and start making repairs. Holler if you need me." Quill answers.

Cassie nods and does as she's told, bundling up on the bed and closing her eyes to try and go back to sleep. Quill creates a bigger light to float near her and provide warmth before he leaves the room and he checks the control panel to see where exactly they had landed. What popped up on screen had the celestial staring at it for a good few seconds before cursing up a storm.

They actually crash landed on Berhert.

"I fucking hate this planet."

At least they wouldn't be attacked here...and they could breathe. Quill decided he wouldn't bother with starting repairs until morning, so he went back into the bedroom and slipped back into bed after making the light in his hand go out. Cassie wasted no time cuddling up to him and he didn't blame her one bit. He could feel how cold she was and that wasn't including the occasional shiver that rippled through her. The cold didn't affect him as much since he was a living, breathing heater and he would let his kid take advantage of the heat he gave off.

"I thought you were going to start repairs?" Cassie mumbles.

"In the morning. We're safe here. Warm up Sunshine."

"Getting there."

Then they really did sleep soundly for the rest of the night. Cassie basically glomped onto him the entire time, but it didn't bother Quill since Scott did that on a regular basis. In fact, he hardly noticed. Cassie was just a little smaller than what he was used to. When he woke up later that morning, he didn't dare move until Cassie woke up. Quill didn't want a chill to be what woke her up, especially after she was already thrown out of bed. When she did finally wake up, Quill dismissed the light floating nearby and got dressed so he could start repairs on the Milano. Knowing Cassie, she would get dressed and get some food together and pull Quill away from his task to make sure he ate.

"So how long before we start heading home again?"

Quill looks up from the tool he's using to make repairs to the ship, and away from watching the ship seemingly mend itself. "It's not as bad as it could have been. We should be heading out by tonight at the latest."

"Anything I can do to help?" The teen hands him some food and he shuts off the device to eat breakfast.

"Things were thrown around. You could put things back as best you can."

"Aren't you supposed to be the best pilot in the galaxy?" Cassie teases and Quill points at her.

"I am. I'd like to see you or anyone else fly through a quantum asteroid field with a damaged ship and come out better than we did. I could've flown with my--"

"Oh my god! Stop! Why are you like this?!" She interrupts loudly and Quill laughs.

She huffs fondly and returns inside the ship to start cleaning up after they finish eating, and Quill works on mending the outside of the ship. His plan was to fix the exterior of his ship and then work on the damage inside so at least there wasn't a breeze going in and making things colder for Cassie than they had to be. The exterior only took a couple of hours, and by the time he got inside, Cassie had cleaned up a good chunk of what had been thrown around. Whatever was left was either too heavy or were parts she wasn't sure were safe to handle or not.

Then he saw her reaching for a specific drawer in the bedroom that contained certain items and had Quill diving across the bed and grabbing her wrist. Cassie gives him a look of bewilderment when the god hits his head on the small nightstand and groans.

"Ow…"

"What is your deal?!"

"If you open that drawer, you will be opening the Pandora's Box of mine and your dad's sex life."

Cassie instantly yanks her hand away from the nightstand and Quill with a look of disgust. "Why do you even have that stuff here? I thought Dad didn't come out to space with you!"

"He doesn't. We still do things on the ship when I'm home--"

"Okay! Okay! I don't want to hear it!" She looks at the bed suspiciously. "When's the last time you washed the sheets?"

Quill snickers. "They're clean."

Cassie heaves out a sigh of relief and continues cleaning after making sure there was nothing else she should be opening. Quill got up and finished repairing the ship, and night fell by the time they were both done. When the celestial took a look around the ship, he was surprised to see that it was even cleaner than it had been before they had crashed. Even a little organized. Quill had to wonder if Cassie snuck cleaning supplies onto the ship at some point because he didn't have any of that and his ship almost sparkled.

That rubbed him the wrong way.

"You know your dad and I are going to make a mess of this when we get home."

Cassie groans from somewhere on the ship and Quill cackles.

"Stop torturing me or I really am going to move upstairs into Diana's room!"

"Tony and Stephen aren't any better. You know they've done it on the kitchen counter right?"

"NO! Why do you know that?!" Cassie screeches.

"I walked in on them."

"I don't want to talk about this!"

"What? You don't want to hear about how your pseudo mom is a--"

A bottle of cleaning solution flies at him from one of the storage rooms and smacks him on the side of his head and he rubs it. Well that answered his earlier question. Cassie was ruining the Pollock art he and Scott made on his ship.

"Ow."

"You deserved that."

[lasercruz]

@quarterdollar​ fuck you and im sorry that i took so long to answer and i hope that im mostly coherent because i am. very tired as im typing this

1: Full name Nicky Jackie Marie Cruz !!

2: Age 21

3: 3 Fears Mold, tall heights if I’m not secured (like, I’m not scared of rollercoaster heights but I’m scared of like, cliffs), and balloons esp balloon animals

4: 3 things I love I love so many things uhh hh h. Jjba, adventure zone, and my friendssss 💞

I know turn ons/offs aren’t inherently sexual but i never know what to say for them so im skipping them :0

7: My best friend you 🥺🥺

8: Sexual orientation bi

9: My best first date ive never really been on a actual date :0

10: How tall am I 5′3

11: What do I miss being with my friends physically and just watching stuff or goofing around on the floor 😭

12: What time were I born 11:02pm

13: Favourite color Dark blues

14: Do I have a crush yes shh

15: Favourite quote there so much sappy quotes that are on uquizzes a lot that i like a lot the first that comes to mind is “ You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you.” and so on and also “if i loved you less i might be able to talk about it more”

16: Favourite place As far as just physically and not like people or other stuff that comes with with a place, I miss VT campus a lot tbh more than I thought I would. To pick a more specific place, the gazebo at the duck pond cause its where I’d go if I wanted to be alone or like if my roommate was sleeping or working and i didnt want to worry about being quite and it was always super peaceful

17: Favourite food I dont really have One favorite food it just depends what I’m in the mood for but my go to answer for favorite food category wise is either chinese or seafood

18: Do I use sarcasm Depends who I’m with ?? Generally no not often but if im close with someone and just goofin yeah

19: What am I listening to right now My love song playlist. its my go to thing to listen to cause my playlist with all my music has so much on it that i end up skipping half the songs until i find something im in the mood for and this one has a lot less that i end up skipping. the current song its on is day without you by keep for cheap

20: First thing I notice in new person It depends on the person like if they have something that stands out about them, thats what I tend to notice but like. How they carry themself i guess ? cause i feel like thats a easy way to get a read on somebody before talking to them

21: Shoe size 5 mens / 7 womans

22: Eye color Brown

23: Hair color Naturally dark brown but currently dyed black with rainbow bangs

24: Favourite style of clothing this question is on so many ask games and quizzes and I never know how to answer it cause i feel like i dont really have one specific style,, I like colorful and fun stuff i guess ?

25: Ever done a prank call?  No and if you prank call a place of business youre annoying. i used to answer phones at work and we didn’t get them super often but GOD i hate prank callers

27: Meaning behind my URL emu is an old nickname and what i mainly went by until i settled on Nicky and this. is my blog.

28: Favourite movie Baby driver !!

29: Favourite song my go to answer for this is community gardens by the scary jokes

30: Favourite band THE SCARY JOKES

31: How I feel right now sleeby,,,,

32: Someone I love i love , my friendz ,, 🥺🥰

33: My current relationship status single ✌️

34: My relationship with my parents im close to my mom but i dont really get along with my dad ,

35: Favourite holiday Christmas !

36: Tattoos and piercing i have no tattoos, 3 piercings in each ear (2 on each earlobe and 1 on the top on each side)

37: Tattoos and piercing i want I want a interrobang on my wrist and an Aquarius symbol on my ankle and MAYBE the joestar birthmark, i wouldn’t mind more ear piercings and i want a septum piercing but ive seen videos of them getting done and they make me squirm i dont know if id go through with it

38: The reason I joined Tumblr sdklgkjgh i had a my little pony roleplay blog before i made my personal account

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? no we’re good friends !!

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? no not regularly at least

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? no

42: When did I last hold hands? my mom tried to hold my hand when i was half asleep on the couch the other day but like i was so out of it so like it was more our fingers together and the rest of my hand just loosely dangling so if that doesnt count, you

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? i give myself about 2 hours if im doing full makeup but thats purposefully longer than i need so i dont have to worry about rushing and i can relax and take my time

44: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? no i only shave them if they’re gonna be showing or if the Urge to be Smooth comes over me

45: Where am I right now? my room at home on my bed

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? probably Kaylie cause she doesn’t drink and i assume if im drunk with other friends there she’d be the only sober one

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? Reasonable, if i have it too loud i cant think so the only time i  have my music loud is if im doing nothing and want to Not Think

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? Ye

49: Am I excited for anything? short term im excited for the ai crushes all banks stream tonight and long term im excited to move into our apartment 

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? no im not a tell everything to someone type of person .

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? i smile most of the time like, at work (before we wore masks) id always be smiling to look nice and like. just in general if i want to Not Look Unhappy or whatever

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? my mom probably like, yesterday

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? ive never kissed any1     .

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?  nope i don’t think i really trust easily so like this doesnt rlly happen,

55: What is something I disliked about today? i woke up late cause i was up late last night so ive been tired all day I dont like the feeling

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? language barriers aside itd be super cool to meet hirohiko araki

57: What do I think about most? Whatever media im currently most into so right now adventure zone and magnus archives

58: What’s my strangest talent? umm i dunno im kinda flexable i guess ? not like ~contortionist~ level but like enough that i can freak people out sometimes

59: Do I have any strange phobias? i mentioned balloons as a fear in an eariler question so yeah that but im a lot better about it than i used to be

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? in front tbh

61: What was the last lie I told? i was on phones for the last hour and a half of my shift on friday and like. when people call and ask if an item is in stock and i can’t confirm it i, just tell them its not. like, someone asked if we had a specific kayak and i usually just search the walmart app or run over to where itd be to check but the kayaks are to far for me to run to and the app said limited stock which usually means little to none so , i just put it on hold for a bit then tell him we’re out.

62: Do I perfer talking on the phone or video chatting online? i like video chatting in theory cause its nice to see people visibly react to stuff but i tend to get too self conscious about how i look so i  just do audio only

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? yes to both !! i am both

64: Do I believe in magic? yes in some ways i suppose

65: Do I believe in luck? yes im v superstitious

66: What’s the weather like right now? its a pretty good day its sunny but not too hot :oo

67: What was the last book I’ve read? its been ages since i last read a book in full 😔  i honestly dont knwo what the last one would of been 😔 😔

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? yes !!! love it

69: Do I have any nicknames? not anything i get consistently called no

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? ive never gotten super hurt that i can think of ??

71: Do I spend money or save it? save it

72: Can I touch my nose with a tounge? no

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feets from me? doppio bean plush ,,,,

74: Favourite animal? hedgehogs!!!!

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? on my phone probably on tiktok or something waiting for jojo to come on toonami

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? I? dont think he has one i guess ??

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? butterflies by samsa but it makes me happy in the “im crying now” kinda way itss cute

78: How can you win my heart? just by being nice and respectful tbh ,

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? idk i dont really want anything fancy just my name (chosen name please god im so scared of dying and geting my birth name on my tombstone if that happens i WILL come back as a vengeful ghost) and my birth and death dates

80: What is my favorite word? saccharine

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr by my tumblr crushes (which its been YEARS since i looked at) ; frostios, 27names4tears, smollpurrito, happynaru, and warpedlamp

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? if we being real id just get so scared dsjkfsldjglg  theres so much i could say i dont know :((

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? not ? that i know of 

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? why are all the questions worded super basic except this one skdlskdjfj. Shape shifting

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? i can really think of anything really as long as a friend is asking i tend to answer truthfully ?

86: What is my current desktop picture? Sobble BUT this reminded me that i wanted to change it to a xenoblade pic so its this now :

90: Failed a class? no

91: Kissed a boy? no

92: Kissed a girl? no

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? no but oh god just thinking about that im 🥺🥺🥺🥺 id die id melt 🥺🥺

94: Had job? ye i was a cashier for a year in highschool and then i work in wamlart apparel in the summers

95: Left the house without my wallet? not when I know ill need it no, but ive left it home if im just going to a friend or family member’s house or i have my mom’s card or some cash in my pocket

96: Bullied someone on the internet? no !!

98: Played on a sports team? no lmao i dont do sports

99: Smoked weed? no

100: Did drugs? i had a weed brownie like once but it was such a small piece i didnt really feel anything

101: Smoked cigarettes? no

102: Drank alcohol? Ye

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? not currently i was vegan for a little bit to encourage a friend that was doing it though

104: Been overweight? no

105: Been underweight? no

106: Been to a wedding?  yes three, my grandma’s when she got remarried, and both my brothers

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? probably yes lmao often

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? not TV TV but if netflix and the like count then yes

109: Been outside my home country? no :(

110: Gotten my heart broken? not ? really no

111: Been to a professional sports game? ive been to a handful of Yankee games

112: Broken a bone? no

114: Been to prom? yes i went to my highschool’s and a friend’s highschool’s my senior year

115: Been in airplane? no

116: Fly by helicopter? no

117: What concerts have I been to? none :((((

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? ye

119: Learned another language? i took 3 years of Spanish in high school but i wasn’t any good at it and dont really remember much of what i did learn

120: Wore make up? yes i do often :0

123: Dyed my hair? ye a lot

124: Voted in a presidential election? yes ever since iv been old enough to i vote

125: Rode in an ambulance? no

126: Had a surgery?  dental surgery yes

127: Met someone famous? Not anyone i’d count no

128: Stalked someone on a social network? depends on what you count as stalking i guess but like not ever in a creepy way like ive been on people’s social media to find out stuff about them like. if theyre in a relationship or especially after highschool ill wonder about someone i havent talked to in awhile and ill see what theyve been up to and what theyre doing with their life and stuff

129: Peed outside? no

130: Been fishing? yes like once

131: Helped with charity? donation wise yes

132: Been rejected by a crush? ive never confessed to anyone and been rejected but once a friend told my crush i liked them and they confronted me about it and rejected me but it made me more mad at the friend that told them than it made me sad about being rejected because i knew it’d probably go like that  and it justmade thing awkward between us for awhile  😔

133: Broken a mirror? ive broken the little mirrors inside eyeshadow pallets but i havent broken full ones

134: What do I want for birthday? usually just money lol or something thoughtful and cute

135: How many kids do I want and what will be their names? i aggresivly do NOT want kids BUT hypohetically Elliot or Xander for a boy and idk what i’d nam a girl

136: Was I named after anyone? no

137: Do I like my handwriting?  its messy so no not really but if im writing something for myself like a not or whatever i dont mind as long as i can read it

138: What was my favourite toy as a child? even as a little kid i always played computer games but other than that, this guy :

139: Favourite Tv Show? Jojo

140: Where do I want to live when older? New york or japan

141: Play any musical instrument? i can kind of play harmonica

142: One of my scars, how did I get it? i burnt my thumb kinda bad on the oven a while ago its still kinda healing but right now it looks like its gonna stay a scar

143: Favourite pizza toping? i like everything/suprieme pizza but if i have to pick one single topping pepperoni

144: Am I afraid of the dark? yes :((

145: Am I afraid of heights? mentioned it earlier but yes if im not strapped in or secured etc

146: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? no im so scared of being caught doing something bad that i just. dont

147: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? i mean yes but thats life babey

149: What my greatest achievments are ive gotten awards for grades and stuff but that boring BUT i got the english department award or whatever that was called im very proud of that

151: What I’d do if I won in a lottery i donate some and save the rest tbh

152: What do I like about myself i can be pretty  sometimes 👉👈 im cute or whateva ,,,

153: My closest Tumblr friend i dont really havent “tumblr friends” aside from friends i know irl and also tey have tumblrs ,,

154: Something I fantasise about just. growing up and having my own place maybe with someone and. being comfortable and  okay and not having to worry ,,

155: Any question you’d like? dkfjhdskhf japan :000