#to be fair its such a perfect fucking name also none us can agree on how it’s pronounced only that we’re all probably saying it wrong💀

[fagdykebassboy]

my drummer already has our band name in his ig bio😭 girl we came up with it not five fucking hours ago😭😭😭

[unhealthyfanobsession]

If you’re still taking prompts:

“Keeping a secret from your best friend is difficult... but when that secret is that you're madly in love with her, it's downright impossible. At least that's what Cassian thought, until he was a little tipsy and sharing a sleeping bag with said best friend. (College, modern AU)”

With smut please?🧎🏾‍♀️🙏🏽👀🥺

Oh hey bestie! So I think maybe you had like after a college party in mind for this but I went a… different way. Also it’s only smut-adjacent because I think good smut requires a Drabble of its own I think I’m sorry. Hope you enjoy!!!

Camping.

Nesta had two weeks between the end of her internship and the beginning of her last year of college, and somehow, she let herself get dragged along on her sister’s annual camping trip.

Their whole friend group was weird and twisted around like Ivy vines with who was closest to who, who was related to who, who was dating who, who had slept with who’s father (looking at you MOR!), and Nesta tended to avoid the big group things.

But this was only Feyre, Rhys, Azriel, and the real reason she was there… Cassian. Fucking Cassian dragging her off into the woods.

Nesta loved her sisters. She did. She wouldn’t spend time with them and pretend she didn’t hate their boyfriends if she didn’t love them. (Pretending not to hate Rhys and Lucien, for Nesta, pretty much required the energy of a full time job.)

She loved her sisters. But she was there for Cassian. Because she liked Cassian. Genuinely and entirely liked him. Nesta Archeron liked another human being. They’d been best friends since eighth grade when he tried to ask her out on the swing set and she elbowed him in the jaw.

Saying yes to that middle school date would’ve been the worst mistake of her life. Because then she’d have had this short drama filled relationship with Cassian and she wouldn’t have gotten to keep him. And she really loved that she got to keep him. Even if sometimes she wished he’d been her first kiss instead of Tomas.

Anyway, when he said he was going on this camping trip Nesta realized she had to go too. Because there was no way she was spending her free time somewhere that he wasn’t. He was her person. The person she wanted to spend her free time with.

“Pathetic,” Cassian grinned, plucking the pack right off of her back as if it weighed no more than a purse. As if she hadn’t been struggling under its weight for the past 4 kilometres.

“I agreed to camping. I didn’t realize a 7 hour hike was involved to get to the damn place.”

“Two hours at most, sweetheart.” Nesta scowled, pretending, as she always did, to hate his little endearments. “And all of the best spots require a hike. Otherwise they’re overcrowded.”

“Maybe overcrowded is a good thing. Maybe overcrowded means loud and safe instead of offering ourselves up to be a bear buffet.”

“I’ll protect you from any bears, I promise, Nes.”

Nesta glared. “You’re going to fight off a bear if it tries to eat me?”

“Of course I am,” Cassian nodded. “These muscles aren’t just for show.”

Nesta laughed. “How sad I’m going to lose my best friend on this trip. Don’t worry I’ll come up with something nice for the tombstone. “Here lies Cassian. Tried to fight a bear so his muscles would have a purpose.”

“I take it back, you can get eaten by the bear.”

“I’m going to shove you in front of the bear.”

Their water break had landed then both a few hundred feet behind Feyre, Rhys, and Azriel, so Cassian kept hold of her backpack as they moved, teasing her that he was still faster with two packs than she was with none.

When they arrived at the little clearing Nesta had to admit it was beautiful. Serene. A big patch of grass surrounded by trees with a stunning view over the mountains from a clearing just a few feet away.

“Worth the hike?” Cassian asked as he set up their tent. That was the deal. If Nesta was going to camp then he had to do all of the work. Because she didn’t know how to do it. Also he had to share his tent with her because seriously? Why would she own a tent? She wasn’t a damn mountain man.

“It is really pretty.”

“I told you you’d like camping, Nesta!” Feyre called out from over fifty feet away where Azriel, Cassian, and Nesta all banded together to force her and Rhys to put their tent. Far away from the other two. Nesta was so not sleeping on the ground AND listening to her little sister have sex all night.

“Cassian?” Consciousness pulled lightly through Cassian’s sleepy mind. “Cass? CASS!” He shot bolt upright, body instinctively turning to Nesta, looking her over, checking her for injuries or any other thing that might have her yelling his name into the pitch black tent.

“Oh good, you’re awake.”

Cassian laughed. It was probably 3am and she’d just woken him up, and still he was laughing. Man he had it bad.

“What’s up, buttercup?” He made a show of flipping around to face her even though he couldn’t really see her.

“I’m freezing.”

As his eyes adjusted, Cassian looked her over with a frown. She was bundled up in her sleeping bag, wearing his sweater… which he hadn’t given her, but he had discarded in between them before he went to sleep so that was fair game he guessed. It was far from the first time in over a decade of friendship that she’d stolen his sweater, but man… it still did something to him.

“Your sleeping bag isn’t made for below freezing temperatures, is it?”

Nesta stared at him. Blinked. “No. Why would it have to be? It’s August!”

“It’s colder up in the mountains,” Cassian explained. “Especially over night.”

“Great. I’ve been brought into the mountains to freeze to death and now Eris is going to win the gold medal for our year.”

Cassian laughed, “Well I can’t allow that. The horror.” This was probably a bad idea. No it was definitely a bad idea, but the words couldn’t be stopped from leaving his mouth once they popped into his mind. “Come share mine.”

Cassian half unzipped his sleeping bag and made a show of shuffling himself over.

“You’re too big.” She said.

“Thanks I work out,” Nesta glared at his cocky smirk. “Come on Nes, it’s this or letting Eris win the gold medal.”

Nesta huffed, but unzipped her sleeping bag and crawled over to his, her legs were cool as they tangled with his in the tight sleeping bag. Cassian pulled her in, one arm wrapping instinctively around her shoulders to pull her against his chest, before he zipped the sleeping bag up again after her.

This had been such a bad idea. But what could he do? Let her freeze?

Cassian told Nesta everything, so it was already difficult enough to be keeping a secret from his best friend... but when that secret was that he had been madly in love with her since middle school, the situation became impossible. And pulling her perfect body tight up against his and wrapping her in his arms, hands moving up and down her shoulders quickly to try and warm her up, was not helping the situation.

“Thanks,” Nesta murmured sleepily. “I’m already a lot more comfortable.”

Me too, Cassian thought but would never say.

“Hey Cass?” Nesta’s voice was teasing. “What do we do if you wake up with morning wood?”

Cassian chuckled into her hair, a little bit drunk on the familiar scent of rosehips and iron will.

“Then I guess we’ll finally have sex.” He deadpanned.

Nesta’s jaw dropped. Ok. Bad joke. “I’m not having sex with you for the first time in a tent Cassian!”

Now Cassian’s jaw dropped. That was her issue with his suggestion? “I… Nesta I was joking. But… the tent is the problem? The only problem?”

“Grow a pair!” Nesta batted at him with her hand, an impressive feat considering she was all but pinned between him and the sleeping bag. “I thought this was you finally making a move.”

Cassian stared down at her. It was pitch black, but even with just the shadowy outlines of her features, he could see her exact expression in his mind.

“I wouldn’t use you freezing as a ploy to make a move, Nesta.”

“And why not?” She humphed, “it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“It’s… coercive.”

“Do I look coerced to you, Cassian?” Nesta ran her foot up his bare calf and Cassian shuddered.

“I can’t have sex with you if you’re looking for a friends with benefits, Nes.” Nesta paused her movements. “I… fuck, our friendship means so much to me and I’m so afraid to fuck it up. And if we start having sex I won’t be able to handle it being just sex and you’ll start to resent me so we just… shouldn’t go there.”

Nesta’s arms wrapped around him now, struggling to span the full width of his chest. “And if it wasn’t just sex?”

“Please don’t fuck with me about this,” he whispered. Low and Ernest in a way he almost never was.

“What?”

“Dont joke about this if you’re playing around or I don’t… you have to know, Nes. You have to know how completely in love with you I am.”

“Yeah,” Nesta tucked her head under his chin. “I know. I’ve just been waiting for you to make a move.”

It was dark. Cassian could barely see her. But there, with his arms around his best friend in the world, sharing a sleeping bag to keep her warm, Cassian nudged her out of his chest and found her lips in the pitch black.

Why had he kept this secret for so long? Everything in the world was better when he was kissing his best friend.

[loser-writings]

Hi how your day? I was wondering if I could request (ship) All Might and Eraserhead mated to the same ProHero!Alpha. Both of them ended pregnant. Do they both make a massive nest together and move into a bigger place or the alpha home assuming it's bigger. How does the alpha take care of them both? I hope you have a nice day. ☺

This was so much fun to write! I absolutely adore Erasermight so I hope this does the trick!!!

Pregnant Omega EraserMight with A!Hero reader

Toshinori was the Omega who realized he was pregnant first. He instantly gets overwhelmed and really anxious because of his current condition. He is an older Omega who didn’t expect to be fertile, especially with the condition his body is in, so he is overwhelmed.

Despite being on Testosterone to help with his hero work, Aizawa found out he was pregnant soon after. Unlike Toshinori, HE panicked because he had lost a baby and is scared it would happen again. Also, his body is still adjusted to Testosterone so he is quick to rush off of them. He wants his body to adjust as quickly as possible back to his original Omega state.

Neither Omega admits that they’re pregnant at first. Toshinori does notice that Aizawa isn’t taking his testosterone and Aizawa notices how cautious Toshinori is. Both start nesting together subconsciously and cuddling more often, but neither say anything.

Both come clean to each other at about 6 weeks in. They both noticed their scents changing and the cravings. Also, Aizawas body is starting to go back to how it was before he got on T, curves starting to appear in his hips and thighs mainly.

Both men create a huge ass nest together. Aizawa never really nested much and Toshinori Nests like a mad man. Together, they make a pretty big nest and constantly cuddle. Thats when they start discussing how to tell their Alpha about the pregnancy.

Aizawa let Toshinori do the majority of the planning since Aizawa grew more tired after figuring out he was pregnant. As Aizawa slept, Toshinori worked on making a little gift box with the pregnancy tests from both men, little baby allmight merch, and even some baby Eraserhead stuff that Toshinori mightve found and or commissioned for-

When you got home from hero work, Both men sat you down and announced the pregnancy. You were in shock that not just one omega, but both were carrying pups and it ended up with you sobbing in their arms. Toshinori also cried, and Aizawa teared up.

Due to your mates being high risk (and the fact they were both also pro heroes and one was indeed All Might), The hero commission allowed you the option to stay home and take care of them as you please. You still work and do patrols, but you do end up accepting this offer and start staying home with your omegas more.

Both Omegas enjoy coming home from UA to see that the house had been cleaned and you were making dinner for them. Toshinori especially adored the extra time with you and even more when it means he gets extra attention from you. Aizawa also enjoys the attention, but he is less obvious about it compared to Toshinori.

Both men continue to teach at UA for a few months. Once Toshinori started having some issues though, the three of you and Nezu all agreed that it would be better for Toshinori to start staying home full time. Toshinori hated this idea, but if it meant keeping the pup safe, then he would be okay with it.

Aizawa on the other hand continues to hide the pregnancy and teach he really starts showing. By then, it’s considered a risk for him to continue working with the students, and he is told to take it easy til the pups are born. 

Once Toshinori got told to stay home, you decide to fully stop with hero work so you could make sure he is safe. He really appreciates it even though he constantly tells you that you don’t have to stop working for his sake.

All three of you mutually agree that a bigger house is needed. You all stay near UA, but move into a house thats a bit bigger. It was a nice feeling knowing that both omegas agreed on the house and instantly made themselves at home there.

At the new house, you constantly have both omegas rushing to you to scent their things and things for the nursery. Your scent glands actually start to burn from how much scent they are producing.   

The house smells like a cafe, and you honestly adore it. Toshinoris green tea scent turned similar to that of Matcha tea and Aizawas usually bitter coffee scent turned more milky and sweet. Walking into your house was very comforting for not only you, but you often noticed how Izuku, Shinsou, Hizashi, and Nemuri all relaxed when coming inside. 

Both men are CONSTANTLY purring. Aizawa used to blush about purring and complain that he never purrs, but the pregnancy makes it very clear that when his Omega is content, his purr will be contagious and cause you and Toshinori to purr just as loud. 

One problem with both men though is that they...are fucking stubborn. It’s not unusual to find Toshinori trying to do shit on his own despite being told that he pretty much needs to be on bed rest. He will whine and complain about how he can do it himself, and you PROMPTLY have to use alpha voice on him just to get him back to bed. Aizawa, while not as bad as Toshinori, will also try to do stuff for himself or for Toshinori when you’re not around.

In the nursery, you notice how both omegas seem to mix their ideas into it. You can spot very obvious All might things in the room, but Aizawa is VERY insistent on adding cloud decorations in areas like the Baby mobile. When you ask about it, he promptly brushes it off and just smiles at it. You figure its just best to leave the omegas to what they want.

None of you are surprised when Toshinori is the first to let out a panicked chirp and cry out that its time to go to the hospital. You end up grabbing the three bags for both Omegas and yourself, and you do your best to help both Omegas to the car so you could take them to the hospital

More surprising is that when you get there, Aizawas water promptly breaks as well. Now you’re in panicked Alpha mode as you rush to be there for both Omegas as the babies get delivered. 

God,,,,You might as well call yourself Midoriya because as your Omegas are in labor, you think your hands may be broken. Even if Toshinori is in his weak form, for fucks sake his grip strength is still crazy and...fuck Aizawa is NOT fun to be with when he is in Labor.

Soon though, you hear a babies cry and turn your attention to Toshinori, then moments later you do the same to Aizawa.

Thankfully, there were no complications and you three are left to scent the pups in your room. Slowly, you pass around the two children and your heart drops when you notice something. 

Toshinori had a son. Crazy blond hair tufts on his head. As you hold him, you can only grin as you know that Aizawa is going to break seeing the pup.

Aizawa had a daughter. Dark hair, fair skin, and breathtakingly beautiful. No doubt Toshinori would cry holding her.

Sure enough, when you place each baby in the other omegas arms, both men Tear up and cry while cradling the pups. You knew this would be a lot for them, not just because they are now parents, but because of the names they picked for the kids and their now shocking appearances

As you admire your Omegas cradling the pups, you can’t help but admit it.

Nana and Oboro were perfect names for the pups.

[shhhlikeme]

“Losty Aone” / “Losty Mountain Man🏔” Series: 

Outtake Collection #16:

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A/N: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii babies!!!!!!!!!! Let’s fucking goooooooooooooo! I’m excited for y’all to read this juicy marathon. As of right now, I am unsure of how many collections it will be but it’s going to be one of the longest marathons ii. Check back every 20 minutes or so if you caught this immediately. Oh and I will be trying again to put my post under a read more but if it fucks up an deletes half the chapter again I am DONE and I TRIED okay??? xo

***ALSO I did not add my taglist to the last marathon so you guys might have missed collections 13-15!!!!***

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Your Losty Heartbreak and Your Spy Kids Debut 😎🖊📚

Sigh. The curse of being a young adult, I tell ya. 

You are annoyed. 

Yes, two months after the breakup you are still completely heartbroken, even though, yes, it was your genius idea to break up with the love of your life: a man that girls only dream about having as a S/O….

but it was a selfless decision.

Aone Takanobu deserved more, better… than you. That was your rationale.

It’s not fair of you to just accept the perfect man because he was lost enough to lock onto you and not someone on his level. 

While it was a selfless decision , it was still a decision you selfishly regretted because …you were so in love with that man at the time that you did it….

You are….

But you will stifle those emotions so that he can get over you and hopefully see his own worth. 

But that didn’t mean you couldn’t be annoyed. Because you were. And at what, exactly? Well:

After dating and breaking up with him, Aone had females constantly approaching him. A/N: Not constantly but it felt that way for you ofc lol

You guess it’s nice that the females of Date Teko gave him the courtesy of one month to get over you but STILL!

Kusa and Katana said that Takanobu’s admirers shot up because everyone witnessed how he treated you, how amazing he was to you, and they fell for that along with his looks.

Your ex’s new admirers are hoping they can get a man that just as inwardly beautiful as he is outwardly and hopefully he will like them, too

In other words: They want what you had. 

And what did you want? 

Well:

You wanted to rip some hair out. Yours or theirs? You’ll leave that up to subjective interpretation. 

EVERY TIME you walked past your ex—that you still love—’s locker there was some brat or another staring up at him in admiration like he was Mount fucking Everest. 

You wanted to scream. 

but isn’t this what you wanted, Y/N? Your Mountain man to find someone else? Your conscience would ask. 

Shut the hell up, conscience. You’d bark back. 

You heard from Katana who was keeping tags on his every admirer that he denied them all dates (which defeats the purpose of your break-up, but you smiled nonetheless) but that Aone did agree to host a study session with a group of girls that apparently begged/needed his help in all subjects before finals. 

give me a fucking break, you and your conscious agreed.

“Ugh. He’s too kind for his own good. Can’t he see those girls just want an excuse to be near him?!?!” You raged about the study session as you peered closely through the passenger side window to make sure that Kusa got inside her house safely. It was 6pm, and you had just heard the news while on the way home from dinner at your favourite restaurant. Katana drove. From her doorstep, Kusa waved at you before closing her door.  

This Saturday, your best friends forced you on your first outing since the breakup, dressing you and even doing your makeup despite your complaining about leaving the house. You had to admit that the food that you did order at the restaurant was decent enough, but really—you would much prefer to still be in bed, flipping through pictures of Aone and Perdu and having a good cry.

Katana rolled her eyes as she stopped at a red light, responding to your initial question. “Ugh. Yeah, they are smarter than we thought. But you’re okay with this, right? I mean this is what you said you  wanted when you broke up with him. You said you want him to find a new girl,”” Katana fished for your true feelings, sounding a lot like your annoying conscience. 

You sulked, picturing other females near the man you are in love with. It made you sick. But, instead, you said, “Of course I am Okay with it. I want him to be the happiest he can be.”

Katana fixed her eyes on the road and bit her tongue so that she wouldn’t laugh. 

You had no idea why you weren’t being fully honest with your friends, but perhaps it made you believe it more the more you said it aloud. “I know Kusa had that assignment to do tonight… and you have that one with Kenji tomorrow, right? so do you want to come over? My mom got me another tub of cookie dough ice cream, and we can rewatch Bad Girls Club again.” You asked Katana in that voice that meant you didn’t want to be alone tonight.

Katana smirked. It was an evil smirk. “I’ll do you one better.”

“Uhhh… Katana….you missed my turn.” Your eyes widened when the cheer captain passed your street, and then passed her own street a few seconds later. “Katana!”

“Word on the cheer team is that Aone-san’s first study session ends in 20 at the local library. I wanna check it out.”

“What?! No you will not—!” You yelled, but you couldn’t help the surge of excitement that flew through your body thinking about seeing that man again. It was always like this.

“—Oh, lighten up— it’s not like I will be joining the damn study session.”

“You won’t?” You asked, surprised.

“Obviously not! Muri is studying something else there, so I need to give her back her notes anyway. It’s only a plus that I’ll get to see how desperate those girls are being with my besties ex. Incognito, kay? I was going to drop you off first and go, but it looks like you don’t wanna be alone. Right?” 

Your pretty best friend waited a few seconds for a response, and when she didn’t get one, she nodded. “Exactly.” She turned into the school’s practically empty parking lot, finding her favourite spot. “So, you can stay in the car. No prob. And I won’t tell you anything about it.” 

You frowned, watching as Katana reached in the backseat for her purse so that she could take out the notes she had for Muri.

“Okay,” you whispered anxiously.  

“I’ll be like, 10 minutes.” The brunette removed her keys from the ignition and stepped outside of her car.

You stayed where you were as Katana’s figure disappeared into the one of the Date Teko’s many entrances. You began to think about what your friend was going to see in there: Aone leaning over the shoulder of pretty Date Teko girls? Helping them with their homework the way he would help you? These girls smelling his fresh icy mountain scent, and leaning in closer, the way you would to him?

Naturally, you began to panic internally.

You pictured the girls twirling their hair flirtatiously and telling him that they didn’t understand when they did, just to keep him hovering over them longer. The same way you used to. 

😤😤😤

Your foot started tapping on its own inside Katana’s car, thinking about how your lost ex-boyfriend wouldn’t even pick up any of it as flirting, ugh. 

Your imagination created even more concerning visuals: more giggling, more oblivious Aone, more shoulder brushing, more oblivious Aone, and then some more….. yeah. Should it really have come as no surprise that you soon found yourself hidden behind a dusty bookshelf in the anatomy section of your school’s library on a Saturday, squatted down and peeping through the slits between books to catch glimpses of your ex boyfriend hosting a study session?!

You blamed your active imagination. 

Behind the dusty shelves, you whimpered because the obstructed vision due to the books covered the white haired beauty perfectly. You held a disgusting book to the right a bit.

“Oh,” your stomach flipped. “He looks so cute.” You put on a 🥺 face when you noticed how utterly adorable a standing Takanobu looked decked out in forest green sweatpants and a matching hoodie with the hood on, and his white hair barely visible. 

Your stomach flips were quickly bumped away by sheer annoyance as you saw him then do exactly what brought you up here, just as you thought: innocently leaning down to help a blonde third-year girl you knew by the name of Sutairu Elyts with a question she was asking. She was smiling way too much for someone doing boring ass school work on Saturday, you noted. Flipping her hair, giggling, and obnoxiously putting her cleavage in Aone’s line of sight. You picked up the dusty library book that was obstructing your view and stopped yourself from tossing it at Sutairu— instead choosing to toss it to the side without a care in the world, trying to get a closer look at how close the girl was going to get while Aone answered her question. 

You were close to literally poking your head through the bookshelf hole completely, when someone to the left of your hiding spot cleared their throat very loudly. You jumped, bumping your head and hissing in pain. 

You removed your head from the bookshelf and looked up at the cause of your newfound migraine.

There stood Katana, her arms crossed and a knowing smile on her face. “You got here faster than I thought,” She reached down to help you up. “Now, come on. None of this amateur shit. You know my style. When it comes to cute boys: make it obvious, and make it count.”

***

Aone was in the middle of teaching Algebra to a group of students (he doesn’t register the fact that they are all conveniently female and all too well dressed for a study session) who had desperately begged him for his help, to the point where the teacher just asked Aone to do it. 

He didn’t mind, the teacher offered him extra credit and everyone he was teaching was nice, they didn’t mind him being pretty silent, plus Kenji fully supported it. So why not? Aone mainly supported it because it was a great distraction from his broken heart and his plan…. 

Or so he thought it would be—before he spotted you in the library.

His heart skipped a beat because he absolutely was not expecting to see you today. His plan wasnt supposed to be put into action until Monday! Trying not to freak out, Aone watched you enter from a side that wasnt the entry way—which is pretty odd—but he shoved the thought to the side anyway because there you were, looking busy.

“Wow.” Takanobu couldn’t stop himself from mouthing when his eyes found you. He mouthed it to himself, of course, but it caused the observant participants in his study group to whip around to see what he was looking at. 

you were dressed pretty casually, coming from dinner with the girls, but Aone hadn’t seen you dressed in anything other than your school or cheer uniforms since your breakup, so it took him by surprise

Not to mention you looked really, really, really good:

Aone watched you scan the bookshelves with Katana—which, if Takanobu was thinking straight— he would realistically call bs on you ever coming to the library for no reason, ESPECIALLY on a Saturday— but you looked too gorgeous to him to care 

Now that he is working alongside you in a project, he has been able to crawl out of depression a bit, simply because your mere presence made him feel whole again, so he basked in the delight he felt any time he was able to see you.

Aone realized that even though he struck out the first time and failed to make you want to be with him, he had nothing to lose if he tried again. 

The premise of Aone’s plan presides on the idea that you are the only girl he wants. Therefore, he just has to prove that to you. Silently. Strategically. 

So that’s the only reason why Aone was able to to shift his focus right now and look away from you, effectively returning to helping his study group and making them forget you even walked in. 

Aone’s mission is to become the man that you want and need, naturally. He will exude more confidence: which is a testament to the fact that he was here right now: tutoring a bunch of girls who have asked him out and he has rejected before because of you,

He wants word to get back to you that your ex is the type of guy who knows how to be just friends with people who had feelings for him. Just in case you wanted to start there with him.

He wants to be your friend. Aone wants to be anything to you but a stranger. It’s the only way his heart stops aching and if that’s all you can give him is a friendship after this project is over, then that is what he would willingly accept!  

Aone forced himself to look back down, getting up to step around the circular table to help with the other girls’ study guides. 

He was able to keep his cool for the most part, but almost lost it twice... 

Once when you dropped a book and bent down to pick it up, showcasing how amazing your butt looked in those jeans. 

Aone cleared his throat to get his own attention back and turned away quickly when he felt a familiar stir under his sweatpants. He stuffed his hands deep in his sweatpants pockets and directed his energy back to the paper in front of him. He erased an answer for one of his students and plugged in the correct one.

The second time Takanobu almost lost his cool was when he heard you make a cute noise and his eyes flicked back up to you. You were trying to reach a book that was too high for you but probably met the height of his ear, your hand above your head, your bodyweight on your toes which gravitationally rose your top up as well, exposing the naked skin on your lower back. 

Aone’s throat went dry and he bit back a groan because the last time he’d stared at that lower back of yours so intensely: you were in a perfect arch, naked, using his dick to pleasure yourself when he told he was on the phone. 

Cue hands in pockets again.

He recalled how that section of your back had a light layer of sweat on it back then, making it glisten as he bit his lip, trying not to moan to the feeling of your tight and juicy walls running up and down his length. Holy, shit, that feel good. 

Aone began thinking about helping you get that book and then fucking you against that bookshelf you were leaning on: holding you up in his arm, the other hand used to place it behind your head as a cushion so that you did not harm yourself when he sheathed his big dick inside your absolutely perfect box, so hot and so delicious, and soo hard not to cum inside within the first minute…..

👁👅👁 Aone’s eyes glazed over to the point where one of his tutor-ies had to snap their fingers in front of his face. 

Highly embarrassed, Takanobu pulled it together ASAP, muttering a quick and sincere apology and thinking only of his plan. Trusting in his plan, he refused to look up in your general direction again. He didn’t trust himself to. 

***

“He barely looked my way….” You sobbed into your cookie dough ice cream later that night, Katana rubbing your back and removing your hair out the tub. 

“Please, Y/N,” Katana begged, absolutely gutted seeing her best friend like this. “Please be honest with yourself and make sure you truly stand by the decision you made.”

———————————

A New Aone and a Perfect Plan? ✅🤩

Mountain Man put absolutely all of his energy into his plan to get you back. His understanding is that you broke up with him because he wasn’t good enough for you, so that means he would just have to make himself good enough for you. While Kenji was completely against Aone trying to get back the girl who broke his heart, Kenji found himself agreeing with the plan since it meant that his best friend would be speaking, playing volleyball, and overall living life again while it was in action. The plan was to essentially fake it till you make it—show you that Takanobu could be the man you deserved. 

The gist of the plan was for Aone to disallow himself to be zombie-like anymore, because you probably didn’t like that. He started spending more time with his friends again, and he was eating again. He was banking on this plan, and if it didn’t work—sure, he’d be crushed for the rest of his life—but at least he’d have no regrets. It wouldn’t be easy, he’d have to speak back to other females kindly letting them down when all he wanted to do was speak to you. He’d have to ignore you when you walked by which meant going against his every instinct, and he’d have to speak to you confidently in class when you two were working on the project and small talk about your lives, when all he wanted to do was lean in and kiss you until he could taste you even when he pulled away. 

Thoughts of you consumed him, still, but they were now hopeful thoughts. He was not going to let his dream girl walk away that easily. 

A/N: GO BABY GOOOOO

You, on the other hand, took this new and confident Aone as a sign that he was getting over you. He didn’t seem very sad anymore, you didn’t see that same dejected and lost eyes you saw when he pushed his best friend away from you. You saw intensity there, like he was now focused on a new task in his life. It confused you, and it hurt like a bitch, because deep down you knew he’d move on soon and you wouldn’t. 

But this is what you wanted, right? 🙄🙄Repeated your conscience, again. You really wanted to fight her. 

“Y/N, you seem out of it today.” Mountain Man stopped writing the outline of the content analysis in class to stare down at you. You could see the concern in his eyes, but you refused to believe it was anything more than the concern anyone would feel for an ex turned friend, and nothing more. 

Embarrassed, you realized that you must have zoned-out, and now this gorgeous man that you wanted to jump was calling you out on your odd behaviour. “W-was I?’ You shook your head then looked down in your lap. “Sorry.” 

Aone placed his pencil down, heart pounding because he wanted that frown of yours to disappear so badly. “Is it about your University Cheerleading tryouts?” He asked kindly, too kindly—if you had any hope of getting over him in the next 5 years. 

You looked up at him, confused as to why he’d even mention that. 

The white haired beauty blushed. “Kogane—he, uh, well…” Aone took a second to look away and collect his thoughts because your big beautiful eyes were making him lose his train of thought. He reminded himself of his plan and collected himself, returning to your gaze. “Kogane-san mentioned to Kenji and I this morning that Kusa needed someone to film her audition tape, because that is the only way cheerleaders are able to send in your tryouts for schools that are too far away, correct?”

“Oh,” You nodded. “Ya—“

Aone continued without missing a beat. “I know Kogane is helping film Kusa’s, and you mentioned yesterday that Katana is out of town for a camp… so, and feel free to say no: but I’d love to offer you my help, Y/N. With filming and editing.” 

There was a pause in which you just looked at Aone with those big beautiful eyes that he thinks about 24/7. 

Afraid that he might be coming onto way too strong, which goes against his super slow plan, Takanobu adds: “As friends. Offer you my help as friend.” 

Your heart sunk, but he looked so sweet asking, not to mention you really did need to get on that tryout instead of pushing it off until you miss it completely and don’t end up going to University—

If you didn’t get a cheer scholarship you were screwed; Aone knew this. Not to mention you would love to see him more; Aone did not know this.

“I’ve taken photography as my elective for the past three years and do pretty well in that class in terms of grades, so I just thought…” Mountain Man was scared shitless, nervously listing off his accomplishments like this was an interview…. mostly due to the fact that you hadn’t answered him yet. Too fast, she can tell you want her back—now she’ll never give you another chance. Failure. Aone opened his mouth to retract his offer, but you interrupted him before he could get the first word out. 

“Um, yes. Sure. I’d love your help, Aone-san. I promise it won’t take long. Thank you so much.” 

Aone nodded even though he was bursting at the seams inside. Mountain Man couldn’t believe it. After  being broken up with because your feelings weren’t there, you agreed to spend non-school related time with him?! The middle blocker couldn’t help but think that you wouldn’t have said yes, had he still been acting like a zombie. Actually, he wouldn’t even have dared asked, if he was still acting like a zombie. Now he gets to help you and see you more than he has since the breakup, and he considers this like a gift! Yes!

“Great. Just tell me where and when you would like to have your audition, and I will be there.” A very cool reply.

You even rewarded him even more with a smile. “How about next Tuesday? Here on the field since it’s getting warm out again? I need to rehearse a lot and that gives me enough time.”

“Understood.” A cool second later, Takanobu had to excuse himself to the washroom so that he could celebrate in silence. He texted his friends and took a deep breath.

Selfishly, Aone also wanted to help you with this particular audition because he wanted you to go to the same University as he and Kenji. He wanted to help you with your future assignments and he wanted to see you everyday. How great would that be? A little torturous, too. But if you were on a cheer team and happy, then: mostly great. 

Baby steps, Mountain Man sighed contentedly. He would get you back in baby steps, and this was the first one. 

He just had to keep following the plan.

———————————

Taglist: @galagcica @chaichai-the-weeb @nairobiisqueen @bisasterrr @juminly @simply-not-the-same @marvelousbakugou @qyuanon 💛

Outtake #17: CLICK HERE!

[soundofseventeen]

Can You Sit By My Side? (Wen Junhui)

Hi! I hope everyone’s okay! Please remember to help support the black community during these times and help them use their voices! Our requests are still open, but please be sure to read the conditions before requesting! (if you have no money, click here to stream this! The longer you go, the more it’ll donate!) This will be the last non requested fic I write! Lastly, happy birthday Jun!!!

Inspo: Can You Sit By My Side

Word count: 7616

Pregnancy stage: third trimester

You grunted with the effort of taking the plates down from its spot. Sure, now they chose to disappear when each of them have stuck to your side in hopes you’d ask for help. “See? You’re already making things hard for me.” You placed your hand over your tummy and sure enough, the princess kicked in response and you laughed. “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” She moved around again, loving the sound of your voice. “Why don’t you move when you hear your uncles? Guys! She’s moving.” 

It never ceased to surprise you that Jihoon was usually the first to arrive, despite swearing that he didn’t even like kids. “Is my favorite niece up from her nap already?” He frowned when he saw that she wasn’t moving. “Oh come on, are you really doing this right now?”

You took his hand and guided to where her feet currently were, placing pressure on it, and when she kicked, he jumped up in response. “I can’t tell if she likes you or just likes making your life hard. But at least she knows who you are. I can never get her to move for Mingyu.”

“That’s because no one likes Mingyu...or Seungkwan for that matter.”

“I wanna feel her kick next!” Jeonghan came into the kitchen, almost knocking the plates from your hand. “She never does it for me unless I’m singing and that’s not fair.”

You rolled your eyes but you knew he had a point. Your unborn child already had good taste in voices but she was a devious one, mostly moving around when she heard anyone singing, and it had to be a raw performance. None of that studio version mumbo jumbo. “Is the pizza here yet? I’m starving.”

“Almost and Jun is also on his way back from the Mexican place with that torta you wanted.” he shook his head. “I’ll never understand a woman’s cravings.”

“You’re just mad because you ended up with the morning sickness. And so did Seungcheol….Chan too.”

“The cravings are weird,” Joshua piped in, coming in with the jar of peanut butter in his hands. “I can’t stop eating this and I’m breaking out so bad. You better name her after me once you give birth, or at least buy me some good facial products.” He asked to touch your stomach with his eyes and you nodded, shooting Jeonghan a small smirk when you felt her kick. “Aww, princess, you’re gonna be the most beautiful of all.”

Mingyu showed up next, water still dripping from hair from being in the pool, but still drying up, and he seemed to be the only one who noticed you still needed to bring the stuff outside. He wordlessly took the plates from your hand and grabbed some plastic bags that were on the table and headed back out. He liked to think he got the worst end of the stick with his hormones being out of whack and being a little more emotional about things. He was the only one who cried when you  announced your pregnancy and when he found out you were having a girl. But that also meant he took it a little personally when she kicked him once and then never again. 

“Mingyu, you're my favorite!” You yelled out to him and she moved around, possibly in agreement. “You’re the biggest little shit I know, do you know that?” Once you ushered everyone outside, you found the rest of the boys, either diving into the pool to stay cool or setting up the table. You noticed that Jun had come home and was playing the piano like no one was around. (Oh Jun, the one thing he wanted was a piano in the backyard when you bought the house and you didn’t know why, but you weren’t complaining.) 

The tune was more than familiar and you weren’t the only one who recognized it because little Wen Meihui started moving like crazy, so you sighed, going to sit next to your husband as he played it happily. You made a face at Jihoon sampling everything that had been laid out on the table and shook your head. (Jihoon had shown the first sign of your pregnancy but no one had given it a second thought at the time, since he was a self-proclaimed foodie, but then when Hao started showing the same symptoms, you had grown a little suspicious.)

Jun didn’t stop playing even as you sat down, but he looked up and smiled at you but even then you knew he wasn’t singing it just for you. He picked up the habit of toying with the instrument when he realized he was gonna be a father, but out of nervousness. And once the little princess had grown into a baby who could hear, she started moving around every time Junhui sat down at the keys. Her favorite seemed to be “Can You Sit By My Side?” and from there, he easily became the favorite parent, which Jun would so rub it in your face in the future. And he fell in love with knowing she recognized him by his voice, often telling her about his day and putting his hands over your belly as he built his connection with her.

When he wasn’t terrified of becoming a parent, that is. With Wonwoo’s (another one with cravings...and spicy foods at that) help, they found beginner books on how to become a good father and how to be patient with you. He and Jihoon turned his home office into a nursery, complete with a Winnie the Pooh theme and baby proofed the place. Seungcheol provided the labor and drove you to your appointments and the boys just turned your house (and their dorms) upside down with clothes and toys and baby food and everything she may have needed.

You rested your head on Junhui’s shoulder, closing your eyes and breathing deeply, trying not to wince from the parade currently happening inside of you. You smiled nonetheless, overjoyed at the reception and Junhui slowly came to a stop, still in his own little paradise.

“Can I protect you by your side?” he whispered, placing a soft kiss to your nose and touching your stomach tenderly with both hands before he pressed another kiss there.

*

Newborn days:

“Jun, come on I need to feed her before I make dinner.”

“But I haven’t held Meihui in forever,” he pouted, cradling her close to his chest. “What if I have to go on tour tomorrow and can’t see her until the end of the year?” He wedged his finger between one of her hands, cooing gently.

“Jun, paternity leave is the reason why you won’t be seeing your band mates for a while. Come on you big baby.”

“Baobei, didn’t you pump? I can feed her.” He looked up at you, looking very unsure and very nervous. “Can I just hold her for a few more minutes? I-I don’t wanna let her go yet.” 

You kissed his unkempt hair, a little jealous that even though he’s been running on the same hours of sleep as you have, he looked like he was in much better shape. “Okay.”

“Can you sit by my side for a little while? I feel like I haven’t been close to you.”

“Okay.” You complied, snuggling close to his arm, hearing him recite the lyrics only loud enough for her to hear. You adjusted the little hat on Meihui’s head so she wouldn’t be cold.

“Can you believe we made someone this beautiful?” It was his turn to kiss your unbrushed hair. “What do you think she’s gonna be like?” Meihui made a small whimpering noise and Jun shushed her gently, rocking her in small motions, feeling a little smug that he was able to calm her down.

“It’s still too early to tell, but if she’s anything like you, we may have our work cut out for us.”

“But if she’s anything like you, we may have to call in our reinforcements.” He stayed quiet for a moment, then spoke again. “Did you really mean it when you said you wanted her to learn Korean?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t it be kinda fucked up to not to give your friends the chance to love her too?”

“I mean, they can always learn Chinese...it’s not that hard.” Another kiss to Meihui. “Our princess is gonna be the smartest human in the world...and the kindest.” This time the kiss was directed at you. “Thank you for giving me the best gift ever.”

You thought back to the dang piano (not the one outside but the one at Pledis...the one that still resided in Universe Factory), the reason you had gotten pregnant in the first place, and every moment that came after until right now. You would’ve done it all over again….just not anytime soon. 

“You know I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you. You know that right?”

“Wen Junhui...you told me that on our third date, when you proposed and every time it seemed like a good idea. Trust me, I know.” 

He cleared his throat. “Baobei, you know you’re the queen of my universe and I would steal all the stars in the sky for you, but I’m talking to Mei.”

Of course he was.

*

Six months old: 

“Alright my little princess, today it’s just you and me. Do you like that?” As if she understood him, Meihui smiled at him, squealing at the idea. “Yay!” he clapped his hands, and she mimicked his movements. “I knew you would.” 

After changing her diaper, he brought her downstairs, along with the swing she’d be in while he made breakfast. It wasn’t everyday he had a father/daughter day but after begging Soonyoung’s fiancee to take you out looking for a wedding dress, you agreed to it and asked Junhui if he would like to spend a day with her. (He was a little curious to see how that future would turn out. They’d both met the American tourist years back when she had been leaving the hair salon to keep her red hair intact.) 

So far, it’s been perfect. Like himself, Meihui was a late riser so he didn’t need to worry about losing much sleep, so he managed to make the bed he heard her making noise so naturally it was time to start the day. He sighed to himself, forgetting that she needed to eat too, so he placed the swing on the side of one of the walls and brought out the high chair instead. “Okay what sounds good for breakfast? I think pancakes for me, but how about you?” 

He placed her on the chair and handed her a spoon which she banged on the table to her heart’s content while he rummaged the cabinets for something for her. “I found some apple juice!” He shook one of the bottles eagerly. “Yes or no?” He poured it into one of her bottles and she picked it up after some difficulty. (A proud parent moment right there.) “Now food! It’s too early for chicken, I think you finished the peas last night...aha! Rice cereal so you can have breakfast with me!”

She drank her juice while he made his pancakes and poured himself a cup of coffee and talked to her as if she was more grown. “Now for the best part,” he rubbed his hands together while he  picked up the remote, “what to watch! I’m thinking Mickey Mouse. You?” She didn't give him an expression, so he tried again. “I would say PJ Masks but they scared you last time. Winnie the Pooh?”

“EEEEE!” 

“I thought so.” He mixed her cereal together and tapped her shoulder. “Can I sit by your side?”

He stared at her while she made more of a mess than actually eating her food, but he was endeared nonetheless. Her eyes, he noted, came out more like yours, but she had inherited his hair, both in color and type, and the freckle above her lip had become more prominent. She was perfect just the way she was.

*

Ten months old:

Jun would’ve given anything to have been able to bring you both on tour, but he knew there would have been so many new adjustments that would’ve been made and he wasn’t too keen on the idea of people laying eyes on his princess just yet. He shared whatever he could, but it was a big step to actually bring her into the public eye. Add him most likely not going up onstage just to spend time with her into the mix and the results wouldn’t be good. Plus he was a little jealous of the vocalists who could coax her into their arms. (If they wanted a child, they could go and do it themselves, thank you.) Every moment he would call you, they would all bunch around his laptop and fight for her attention. (Seungkwan and Seokmin had the upper hand here.) But it was finally over.

You had waited pretty patiently at the Incheon Airport, even with a fussy infant who missed her father. You had managed to get her to go down for a nap while you passed the time reading articles on soothing her sore gums. (Teething...probably the worst thing about having a baby.) And then when she woke up, it took everything in you to get her stop crying. She didn’t stop when you took her out of the carrier and bounced her, nor when you pointed at random things to distract her. The diaper wasn’t an issue….and she wasn’t gassy. You could hear the annoyed travelers whispering and giving you dirty looks, but you ignored them. You finally pulled out your phone and went to the gallery….a last resort for things like this.

A daddy’s girl through and through, Mei immediately stopped her wailing at seeing Junhui on the screen, on that piano playing her favorite song. You could almost swear that he had written it just for her even now, because it always calmed her down and Jun had taken it upon himself to record himself and send it to you for emergencies and it had come in handy multiple times already. Meihui clapped once (the newest thing she learned how to do) and reached for the phone and ultimately putting it in her mouth.

“Princess, we don’t eat that. I need that for things.” Which resulted in mindless babble. “You know, the insurance doesn’t cover baby drool, so if you mess it up, I have to buy a new one, right?” She looked up at you and gave you a gummy smile, unfazed. “If something happens to this, we’re stuck here.” She pulled the phone out of her mouth long enough to squeal at Jun and then squirm in your arms. Your mother-in-law had been quick to confirm that Jun couldn’t stay still and was always making noise….so yep, another point for Junhui. “Okay, fine if it keeps you happy.” You were happy that she had been born in the early fall because she could enjoy the nice clothes right now. 

A few arrivals later, the boys emerged, looking jet lagged but still scoping their surroundings and when they found you, they raced towards you (your child), in hopes of getting there first. Mingyu beat everyone, taking the child out of your arms before you could even say hi. “There’s the most beautiful girl in the world!” He pulled a lollipop out of his pocket and after taking the wrapper off, gave it to her. A lot of them, while waiting their turn, enveloped you in a hug and caught you up with the latest tour stories. Junhui finally showed up, helping a hobbling Minghao.

Once he got the younger boy into a seat, he ran to you, throwing every emotion he felt into the hug, and not minding the PDA he displayed showering you with kisses, one for every time he missed you and one for every time he woke up without you on the other side of the bed. “Hi,” he finally said.

“Hi,” you breathed, not wanting to let him go yet. “I love you.”

“I love you.” He kept you in his arms a little longer until he remembered he had a daughter that he missed dearly. He pulled away, but kept one arm firmly around you, just in case he still felt like he was dreaming. He looked around, finally finding his precious baby in Mingyu’s arms. Meihui had apparently found it funny to be licking her lollipop and then sticking it on Mingyu’s face and repeating the process whenever the lollipop would start unsticking. 

“Your hair is as quiet as the dark night…” he began quietly, “making me think of you from night ‘til dawn.” As predicted she looked around for the familiar voice as Junhui continued the tune of his song, not making any more obvious movements he was around her. He bonked his head on yours slowly, enjoying Mingyu spinning around in circles every time she almost spotted him. “If you listen to this song word by word,” he took baby steps towards her, making sure he still had a hold on you, “line by line, can you sit by my side?” Mei finally seemed to outsmart Mingyu, but she managed to turn her head before he could spin and her eyes landed on Jun.

And she cried for him, reaching for him.

*

One year old:

“Junhui, is all this necessary?” You swatted the balloons out of your face, shaking your head at his decorations. Your backyard had turned into a jungle of colors and different shapes and you had to keep yourself calm from the way you noticed an inflatable water slide hovering dangerously close to the swimming pool and you just hoped that none of your husband’s best friends would be dumb enough to use it as a makeshift waterslide.

“Oh its absolutely necessary Baobei,” he argued, keeping a firm grip around Mei hands while she walked. (She had learned to stand not too long ago and once she learned to walk on her own, it’d be game over.) “She only turns one once!” 

“I know, but couldn’t we have taken her to the park or the aquarium or something? It doesn’t need to be a big thing for her.”

“Ah-mah,” Mei called out to you. “Ah-mah.”

“Wow, that’s my big girl,” you cooed. “You’re almost there.” It took so much of your energy to squat but you managed. “Come here.”

“No. Ah-pah.” She struggled to stay in place even when Junhui directed her movements towards you. “No. Ah-pah,” she whimpered.

“She has spoken,” he said smugly. 

“You know, I’m offended right now, but when she’s a moody teenager, I won’t be.” You stood up, walked over to him, pressed a kiss to his cheek and went inside. “The pizza’s almost ready, father of the year.”

“Is there a Chicago style one for Seokmin? I swear he goes on his honeymoon with his wife and spends the entire time in Chicago and now he’s actually thinking of moving there just because she’s from the Midwest.”

“Wen Junhui, do you know you’re whipped for your bandmates?” Yes, you made a special one just for him, because you knew it’d be breaking some kind of promise. “That was the last one that went in.” You squinted at the toddler. “Tell me you’re not gonna give me a hard time today. Your father may be past the wild bachelor parties, but he still knows how to throw them. Should I be surprised if you get a chocolate fountain for this?”

His mouth dropped open. “Did you get the bank statement already?”

You exhaled, unsure why you were even surprised. “Did you get a petting zoo too?”

“I’m thinking of waiting for her fourth birthday, don’t you think...I’ll have you know that I couldn’t find one available for today.”

“Wen Junhui….”

“Wen Y/N, I want you to know that I would’ve done so much for you, but you would’ve yelled at me. I actually had to wait to get a ring on your finger just so I can do this for her.”

“Jun, we got married ages before I was pregnant.”

“Yeah, but now I have an excuse to go all out.” He let go of Mei’s hands and carried her, so he could use his hand to entwine them with one of yours. “Don’t worry my love, I just want her to have the best day of her life. I will try to tone it down from now on.” He rubbed his thumb on your knuckles.

“Next time, just tell me you wanna plan something so elaborate so I can tell you no. We’re the only ones who have a kid right now so it wasn’t necessary.” 

“Oh no, the water slide is for us, and the fountain is for you, because you wanted one.” He placed a kiss on your temple. “How much longer until DK’s pizza is ready.”

“It’ll be awhile. Why?”

“Can you sit by my side, so we can enjoy this little family time for a bit? After all, a year ago, you gave me one of the best things in life.” He guided you to the gazebo to enjoy the warm sun and maybe a little bit of alcohol to relax the tension in your muscles. Junhui sat Mei on his lap and she fell back on him, her eyes closing. “I guess she might be taking a nap.” he wrapped his arm around you and brought you close to him. “So it’s just you and me.” He puckered his lips to kiss you.

“HEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.” Someone yelled from the front yard.

“And whoever decided to show up early.” You stood up, pulled him with you and gave him a quick peck. “Alright dad of the year. Entertain our guests.”

*

Two years old

“It’s here!” Jun screamed coming in as his way of greeting one night.

You looked up at him, trying not to look afraid. The Halloween season brought out the scariest movies and even though you had grown up, it was still foolish of you to binge watch something. “What’d you get now?” You placed your hand over your heart, the racing had gone down slightly but not enough.

“It’s a surprise.” He dropped a kiss on your forehead and headed straight for the kitchen. “How was work?”

“Day off, remember?” You picked up the book that had fallen on your lap when he burst in. “Shh, I just put Meihui down for bed. I think she might be getting over a fever. She didn’t eat much tonight.”

“You know she doesn’t like carrots, right?”

You weren’t sure if the irony was humorous or horrible but you didn’t say anything. “I know; I made her soup. The chicken is for you.” You heard the footsteps going upstairs. “Hey get down here. If you wake her up, you’re putting her back to sleep.” That and you didn’t wanna be alone. “Junhui!” You shook your head. He acted as if he wasn’t going to have an entire morning with her the next day.

“Baobei,” he popped up next to you, and while you did fall off the couch in surprise (and fear), it took everything in you not to scream. “Have you-I’m sorry!”

“Help me up.” That did it; no more scary movies unless you had someone with you. “What’d you need?” It was funny but you still shot him a small glare which still took him a while to compose himself.

“Have you made any plans for Halloween?” He asked sitting next to you.

“No...why?” You hoped he didn’t rope you into something that required you to leave the house.

“Chan is having a party to celebrate his new promotion and he said we should go!”

“Can I think about it?”

“But I’ve already got the costumes,” he pouted. “Please! We’re gonna look so cute together.” 

“You mean, you and Mei are gonna look cute.”

“All three of us!” He heard slight coughing and he turned around to see the love of his life looking dazed and tired, holding the stuffed penguin Cheol had given her. “Hi Princess! Why are you up so late?”

“M-my throat,” she whimpered. “I sit...your side?”

“Okay Princess. Look, do you wanna see your Halloween costume?” He patted his lap and picked her up so she could rest comfortably.

“Scary?” she asked.

“No. It’s cute, like you.” He pressed a kiss to her to her head and then tapped your nose. “Baobei, do you have the scissors? Can you grab them please? And the box in our room? Father duties, you see.”

You shook your head but if it meant he got to take care of her, you would’ve fixed the broken window in the attic. Going into the closet scared you a little at the moment but you weren’t so afraid anymore. But you may have run back downstairs just in case something was waiting for you if you let your guard down. (That’s how it always happened in the movies.) 

Junhui was stroking Mei’s hair when you got back and showing pictures of who knows what and he met your gaze with the biggest grin you’ve only whenever he was plotting something. “Which one are you opening first?”

“The one on the couch. I think you’re gonna like it.” He kissed Mei’s cheek, not minding that she was close to falling back asleep, but he could feel that she wasn’t as warm as before.

“Pajamas? You’re making a big deal out of her costume when it’s just sleepwear?”

“Open mine next! It’ll make more sense.” You ignored his oddly gleeful expression and he made a noise when you pulled out his. “Get it Baobei? Because he saves her even though he scared her!”

Well it definitely explained why he wanted to perfect Meihui’s pigtails and that meant that the box by his feet was yours, and you could only hope he wasn’t a little shit about it. “What am I?”

“Besides my beautiful wife, my everlasting soulmate, and the mother of all my kids?” He waggled his eyebrows at you. “You’re just gonna have to open it yourself.” He kicked it over to you, and it concerned you at how light it was.

You glided the scissors overs over the tape and when you saw the green inflatable, you let out a deep gust of air, not sure whether to be annoyed or amused. “Are you fucking kidding me?” You smacked his shoulder. “Wen Junhui, I hate you.” And then you started cracking up because he was a dumb genius.

“We look good though. I’ve even been showing Meihui how to be Boo.”

“Okay but why do I have to be Mike Wazowski and you get to be Sully?”

“I mean, you could’ve been Randall because she’s scared of you.”

“Wen Junui!” You shook your head, loving the effect of feeling drunk on life he currently gave you. “Why are you so salty?”

*

Three years old

“Grandma!” Meihui jumped out of Jun’s arms and ran to her legs, squealing in delight.

“How’s my favorite princess?” She bent to her level and whispered something in her ear and stepped aside, Meihui calling out to her grandpa. She cradled Jun’s face and placed a kiss to his cheek and did the same to you. “How was Disney?”

“Exhausting. I think we’re happy to be here with you guys,” he admitted, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “I have never seen anyone get so excited over Cinderella the way she did.” 

“I haven’t been to Disneyland in years!” you exclaimed in the midst of finding your present for the in laws. “And she’s my favorite princess! You’re just jealous because I couldn’t marry Prince Charming.” You pulled out a snow globe to add to her ever growing collection. “For you.”

“Thank you, my child. Come in. I just started making tea. Are you hungry? There might be rice in the fridge.”

“See, Baobei? We didn’t stop along the way so my mom would’ve been able to feed us and now I have to tell her no.” He glanced apologetically at her. “You have such a thoughtless daughter in law, Mom. I’m sorry.”

“Why do you still give the poor girl such a hard time?” she scolded him.

“Mom, he’s just jealous because I’m your favorite.” You removed your shoes. “Thank you for letting us spend the night. It’s gonna be a long flight back to Korea and I appreciate it. Is there anything  I can help you with since your son will pass out in about five minutes?”

“I’m tired,” he pouted. “Let me go say hi to dad first and then I can tell him how you’re both so mean to me.”

“How do you put up with him?” she shook her head.

“A box of apple juice and crackers.” And no, you weren’t kidding. The older Meihui got, the younger Jun seemed to feel. He now deemed chocolate milk too sweet but if Mei was drinking it, so was he; he liked his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into triangles just like her. “But, if he’s happy I’m happy.” 

“You guys always look happier every time I see you.” She poured two cups of tea and placed them on the table, motioning for you to sit down. “I knew you were a keeper from the moment I met you. But you know that. Tell me, how is everything? Everyone?’

You dove into the events in your life back home, stemming from Vernon finally settling down with someone and dropping hints about Wonwoo’s new book coming out soon to you quitting your job and so you could spend more time with Mei who was feeling jealous now that Jeonghan had become a father to twins and had to get used to sharing the spotlight. Jun and his dad entered the room to grab drinks and Mei skipped behind them chatting their ears off about the fireworks and asking her grandpa to carry her.  Anyone that Junhui loved more than life was her favorite person in the world, and who better than that than the man who stepped in and raised Junhui as his own?

“It’s funny...Mei looks so much like you but she acts so much like Jun. It’s a funny thing.”

“Jun spends so much time with her. He takes her to work every Wednesday and Saturday, and on his days off he takes her, I don’t know where. And to think he was scared of being a father.” The nights he’d be pacing and religiously finding all the parenting sites to help him. It all seemed like a long time ago, especially when he liked to hog her now. You placed your hands over your mother in law’s. “You have the most incredible son; I hope you know that.”

She squeezed your hands. “He has the most incredible wife.”

The late afternoon progressed into dusk, with everyone eating dinner in the backyard to enjoy the breeze and the dusk brought drinks and dessert to the night until Mei was too tired to stay up, falling asleep on Junhui and you bringing out your sweater to keep her warm. Everyone called it quits a little after midnight after a card game since the day would bring traveling back home. 

“Don’t be strangers,” your father in law warned you while you waited for your flight to be called. “I want to see you all in our home more often.”

“Can I stay with them Mommy?” Meihui asked, tugging on your hand. “Please?”

“You can but then we won’t have time to pick you up.” You knelt to her level, wiping her face clean, getting rid of all the stickiness from the orange juice. “And we’ll miss you a lot.” You let go of her hand. “Now, go say ‘bye and tell them thank you.”

The tears in her eyes as she said her goodbyes hurt you more than it should’ve, but you weren’t gonna tell her you planned to spend her next birthday and Christmas with them or that they’d be visiting you in a few weeks for Jun’s birthday. It hurt you too though, but you couldn’t say anything. They waited until you cleared airport security for them to leave and even then you cried. But at least, you could go home, unpack and resume your everyday-ish life. But first the boarding.

“Baobei, window or aisle?” Jun asked you and you shrugged. “Princess, do you want to sit in the middle?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” 

“Are you scared?” He picked her up, and let you take the window seat. He felt the need to give you a kiss on your cheek which flustered you. “Because I am. And I need someone to hold my hand. Can you sit by my side?”

She nodded at that. “Okay. Daddy? Can you sing that song?”

*

Four years old

“Hey you.” Jun removed his glasses, annoyed at how the prescription made him dizzy. He really was getting old now. He loved the days when you slept in and then left for the day with one of the boys’ wives. It meant he could be somewhat productive and he tried but he had pulled a muscle trying to remember one of his martial arts moves. He currently was on the couch, an ice pack on his knee. “What’s up? Can you sit by my side?” He picked up little Mei who looked confused.

“Daddy, Uncle Joshua called Mommy a bad word the other day.”

“He did? Do you want me to beat him up?” He was surprised to say the least. He had always been kind to you, especially when his marriage fell through the cracks and he needed a shoulder to lean on when the divorce had been finalized.

“No, can you tell him not to call her that though? It’s mean.”

“What’d he call her?”

“Y/N. I’ve never heard anyone call her that.”

He almost snickered but the look on her face told him not to do it. “ Princess, what do you think your mommy’s name is?”

“Baobei. You always call her that.”

Okay, now he saw the misunderstanding. “Her name is Y/N but I call her Baobei.”

“Why?’

“We’ve been together for a long time, and I don’t like calling her Y/N.”

“Why? Is it ugly?”

He almost lost his shit there; he really did. “No. It’s just something I call her, even before you were born...and before we got married. I like calling her that.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s like me calling you princess. Your name is Meihui.”

“Why?”

“Because I told your mom if she didn’t give us matching names, I’d be sad.”

Her eyes widened at the realization, her mouth forming into an ‘o’, and forgetting she was so confused. “I’m like you Daddy!” She wrapped her arms around him and then pulled back. “Wait a minute. You and Mommy were together before I came here?”

“That’s right.” 

“You didn’t want me a long time ago?”

Oh no. He wasn’t about to have this conversation with her. She was too young to know how she came into this world. He was gonna let you have this when she was older and he wasn’t around. Ah shit….if she was into boys, that’d be a hard thing to explain. No, he wasn’t thinking about the sex talk and how he’d have to explain it. “Of course we wanted you! We just couldn’t find you. We looked at all the doctor’s places and then one day, we did and we took you home.”

She nodded slowly. “Why?”

*

Five years old

“Are you ready for your first day of school, Princess?” Junhui bent to her level and adjusted the collar around her neck, keeping himself busy so he wouldn’t cry at leaving her behind.

She shook her head. “I don’t know nobody. I wanna go home.”

“We can pick you up after school, Mei, and it won’t be for a long day.” You looked around for a clock, relieved that it was an analog clock so you could explain it to her. You pointed at it. “When the hands are all the way up, you can come home and we’ll be out here waiting.”

“You don’t love me anymore?”

You never did understand how kids always thought that you leaving them alone for a couple hours meant you didn’t love them anymore. But that was also partially her fault. No one told her to run to the toy section when you were getting groceries and she had lost you. Of course, Junhui looked just as offended when you recounted the story. “Of course we do. We just want you to learn. The smarter you are, the more you-” you trailed off, not sure how to finish it. She already knew her colors and could count to 10...in the three languages she knew. 

And eventually, if she wanted to, she could learn more. She needed Chinese to speak with her dad, Korean with her uncles and English because Joshua and Seungkwan insisted she’d get more opportunities in the long run. But you didn’t wanna burn her out and lose any interest she had in learning them. But right now, a private school away from the spotlight and media would do in helping her concentrate. 

“Daddy, can you sit by my side? I’m scared.”

“I wish I could, Princess, but you have to stay here and I need to talk to your uncle Jihoon about something. I’ll be here after school though, okay? And then we can go see some of your uncles, okay?”

“Can we see Uncle Hao? I miss him.”

“Only if you promise you can do this like a big girl.”

“I promise.”

*

Six years old

You looked suspiciously at the father and daughter, both covered in mud and blocking the door to go outside. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing!” they said simultaneously and beamed at you. They looked at each other, some sort of conversation between them, then back at you.

“How was work, Baobei?” He spoke first, wrapping his hand around your arm in an attempt to distract you . “Did you like it?”

“It was fine. What did you two do today?” When you had gotten home from your first job back in a couple of years, it had been strangely silent, the house in perfect shape. These days, Jun was scrubbing crayon off of the wall, or removing a carpet stain. But today, they rushed indoors dirty from head to toe and you had half a mind to tell them they’d be washing and drying off outside.

“We had ice cream!” Meihui spoke. After I did my homework, daddy said I did a good job and we went out!”

“Mm-hmm, and why are you dirty?’ You heard a thump at the door and then muffled barking. You turned to Junhui who had his hands up in surrender. “I can explain Baobei.” He opened the door slowly and in trodded a Shiba Inu as dirty as the culprits. It took one look at you and growled slightly.

“Wen Jun...hui,” you pinched your nose, at a loss for words. Even after so many years with him, he had always managed to surprise you. “Why?”

“We didn’t mean to. Honest. We really were just getting ice cream and then this little guy followed us outta nowhere. He looked like a stray and nobody was calling out for him, and Mei asked if we could keep him.”

“So you told her yes.” Naturally. He really didn’t know how to put his foot down when it came to her. 

“Baobei, look at her. She did that thing with her eyes that you do when you want something. Can you blame me?” 

No, you couldn’t but you weren’t telling him that. You knew the exact expression he was talking about because you used it one too many times on him and still use it. Then again, Junhui really couldn’t tell you no. You’ve tried that too. You really had queen of his heart titled somewhere. “Yes. It’s not that hard, watch. Mei, go get in the shower and get ready for dinner. And stay away from the chocolate chip cookies. They’re for dessert.”

“Just one Mom?” As expected, she gazed up at you. Those cookies you had realized, were her biggest weakness and would make every excuse possible to get her hands on one. “I promise I’ll eat my food.”

“No.” She turned her attention to the other person who wouldn’t deny her anything, but you beat her to it. “Don’t think about it child. He’s with me on this. And he’s also in trouble for the dog. So, upstairs, now.”

“Daddy, can you sit by my side at dinner tonight? And play that song before bedtime?” She batted her eyelashes. “I miss it.”

Yes, Princess. Shower first and then dinner. I heard it’s your favorite tonight.”

“Mom-om, there aren’t any monsters in there, right?”

“No, I had your Uncle Hoshi come and scare them away.” Children. She was somehow convinced Soonyoung was the loudest person alive and therefore, the only one who could get rid of monsters, the boogeyman and anyone who made her so much as flinch. “Please go shower.” once she was out of sight, you faced him smugly. “See? Not that hard.”

“But Baobei, I don’t wanna see her sad.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Wen Junhui,” you sighed, stepping forward and after debating the risk of getting muddy, you kissed him a couple of times, and shivered at the coldness.

“Why do you say that?” he asked between kisses.

“Meihui wanted a cat, but you know I have a weakness for these pups.” Said pup had somehow fallen asleep in the family drama and would be out a little longer. “Go shower too. I’m not letting you into our bed like that.” Or maybe you could stay a little while like this. You missed moments like this when you could forget you were a parent and you felt no responsibilities other than to mold yourself to your husband’s form.

“EWWWWWWW.”

Or not.

*

Age seven

“Are you gonna tell me, or do we have to play a guessing game?”Junhui peered over his banana split to gaze at the daughter who had been anything but smiley lately. Between his voice actor role and once again fretting the duties of a second time dad, he hadn’t time to do much else besides tuck her in at night and read a bedtime story or two. 

“I miss Cla-i-fonia,” she sighed. “Uncle Joshua took me to the beach and the movies and a lot of places with his new lady friend.” She mushed the Neapolitan together until it became an ugly color.

“Guessing game it is...are you sad you’re getting a little brother?” She looked at him grudgingly but nodded. “Why?”

“What if you love him more than me?” She sniffled, surprised at herself. “You didn’t even ask me if I wanted a brother. You just told me we were getting one.”

“Okay Princess, can you sit by my side for a moment please?” She reluctantly slid off from her spot in the booth and sat next to him. He cupped both of Mei’s cheeks with his hands. “You are my one and only, okay? You were here first, and no one’s gonna take that from you. I’m still deciding what I’m gonna call him, but you...you’re always gonna be my princess.”

“Okay Daddy.”

“Now what’s the other thing bothering you? You still don’t look too happy.”

“Are you gonna be mad?”

“At you? I don’t think so. Is it bad?”

“Well, no, but I think I might hurt Mom’s feelings.”

“Is this about your brother?”

“No. Me.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “How come I don’t have eyes like yours? My eyes look big and circle-y like Mom’s and uncle Vernon’s. They aren’t like yours or my uncles or the kids at my school.”

“Has someone been making fun of you?”

She shook her head. “No, but when you were making me at the hospital...why didn’t you give me your eyes? Why Mom’s?”

Oh he hated genetics...and how this conversation could end. He had to think carefully because seven year olds played with toys and threw tantrums over not getting a candy bar. They didn’t ask questions like this. At least not this seriously. “I wish I could say that they ran out of my eyes when that happened, but I told Mom that I wanted her eyes for you because they’re the most beautiful ones I’ve seen. And they are my favorite.”

“Is that why you love me so much?”

Junhui cut off a piece of banana and fed it to Mei. “I love you because Mom and I made someone who turned out to be everything we wanted and more. It was scary not being a dad at first, but now, I can’t remember why we went so long without you.”

She nodded. “Okay, but Daddy, don’t give my brother your eyes. Or sing him my favorite song.”

“That song is just for you, and only you.” But also you. Meihui didn’t have to know it was why she was conceived, but that could be the family secret. “Are you feeling better now?”

“A lot. Can we go home now?” She finally smiled, revealing a couple of her missing teeth. She wrapped her arms around him. “I love you.”

“I love you.” He waited until Meihui let go and grabbed her hand. “Your hair is as quiet as the dark night…”

[thepaperpanda]

Uncle Venom || Eddie Brock x Reader

|| Part II ||

Summary: Reader turns out to be pregnant. A huge change is nearing for both her and Eddie. What Venom will say about it?

Warnings: none

Words: 2666

Authors: Cass & Rouge

You felt like you had the most terrible hangover all the time. You were nauseous and liable to vomit at the slightest provocation. You couldn't even fill up your car with petrol without the fumes making you wretch and heave. And it lasted all damn day. How could anything so natural feel so bad? It was worse than gastric flu, at least with the flu you knew it would be over in a few days. This could go on for another seven months.

"Goddamn," you cursed as soon as you crossed the threshold of Eddie's flat, holding shopping bags in both of your hands. You put them on the floor and closed the door behind you.

The most stressing thing was still ahead - you had to inform Eddie.

Eddie was doing something in the kitchen with Venom looking over his shoulder. "Pal, I swear. If you won't stop drolling on the cake butter, you’ll eat it raw," man muttered before looking over his shoulder to spot you. "Y/N, finally, I was getting worried!," Eddie said and walked to you despite Venom's whining.

"No, no, don't leave that tasty cake, Eddie, you fucker!," Venom whined sadly but his face lit up as soon as he spotted you. "Y/N, my saviour has come!"

You smiled gently and stroked Venom's head. "Hello, boys. Eddie," you looked at your boyfriend. "Listen, after dinner we have to talk, okay?"

Eddie wrapped his arm around you and hugged you gently before taking the bag from you, he watched Venom eagerly dived into it to look after something for him. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Eddie looked at you with a worried gaze. "Is everything allright, sweetheart?"

"Later. I'm hungry," you smiled his question away and poked Venom's head. "Pal, I bought you your favourite chocolate bars with nuts."

Venom made huge, puppy eyes and licked his face with his long tongue. "Y/N is a queen, see that, Eddie? Take an example from her, she treats me like a real family member."

Eddie looked at Venom even more annoyed. "Just because you are nice to her. You are a dick for me so I treat you equally and you eat the cake raw,”he said and his attention returned to you. "Y/N, you are sure it can wait? You made me really worried now."

"I am," you growled at him, waving your hands angrily. "Unpack this bags and I'll put the cake into the oven, Jesus. I asked you to do it and it's fucking too much for you? Oh, great! Have you seen how our kitchen looks like?! Has any tornado came through it?," You yelled helplessly as soon as you spotted the mess in the kitchen.

Venom and Eddie both looked at you in shock because of your sudden outburst. "This... can't be normal," Eddie muttered looking at Venom until he realized that symbiot is just looking at the cake form with his tongue stuck out. "You don't even listen to me, parasite!,” He growled at Venom.

Venom stiffened and straighten his form, towering over man, looking down at Eddie. "Don't call me parasite, you pussy. You ain't any better. You just pissed Y/N off. I told you to clean!"

You raised hand to silent them both. "I go lay down, my head is spinning around. I need a moment of silence, I need to gather my thoughts. You two, clean the kitchen, unpack the bags and prepare dinner. And no, Eddie, I won't be eating Chinese food again," you gave him a look before you left to the bedroom.

"You little!," Eddie was ready to grab Venom in the attempt of chocking him but he immediately reacted to your hand. He listened to you, nodding his head. When you disappeared in the bedroom, Eddie looked at Venom. "You lick off the leftovers and I wash the plates, deal?"

Venom frowned his forehead. "Do we really look like a vaccum cleaner?," He snorted but after this he started to licking food from the counter with his tongue. "Mmm, delicious."

"Now you look like a vacuum cleaner, V,” Eddie said, shaking his head.

Eddie started to work hard to clean the whole kitchen and to wash all the dishes. Later he took upon himself to prepare your favorite meal.

When the meal was ready, Eddie prepared the table at walked to you. He knocked on the door. "Y/N? Sweetheart? Dinner is ready and it's not the Chinese food."

You came to the kitchen after few minutes, yawning, with your hair pinned in a bun. "Wow, I wasn't expecting something like this," you clapped hands and took cutlery in your hands.

Meal tasted delicious and you couldn't get over the rice Eddie has prepared, it was perfect.

Eddie and Venom ate with you, Eddie shyly looked at you. "I hope you like it... I though it will be better than Chinese food," he said quietly, giving Venom big piece of chicken meat.

Venom tried his best to stop himself from eating like a monster. He formed a hand and grabbed piece of meat, taking little bites of it, looking shyly at you.

You thanked Eddie and went to brush your teeth.

When finally you got back, you asked Brock to the living room. You took a place on the couch, crossing legs and looking at him, you let out a deep sigh of concern. "Listen, Eddie. Soon our lives is going to change."

When you were gone Eddie went to quickly clean the dishes again before he went to living room as you asked. Eddie looked at you completely puzzled. "Our lives are going to change. Are you leaving me?," He asked shocked.

You rolled your eyes. "If you'll still be behaving like a pussy, I'll consider such a possibility," he grunted.

Venom couldn't help but giggled loudly, until he spotted angry glance of his host.

Eddie frowned. "You know! After today I wouldn't mind it! I have enough of Venom calling me names and treating me like a piece of trash. I don't need to listen such a things fromthe woman I love,”he growled getting up from his seat, pointing on you. "So stop acting like you would be on your fucking period."

"I'm fucking pregnant!," You yelled at him, also getting up.

Venom blinked and hid behind Eddie's shoulder.

Eddie blinked just as Venom did. "Wait... Wait, you are what?!"

“Fucking pregnant!," You growled. "What means you'll be a father."

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!," Eddie yelled and suddenly picked you up only to spin you around. "This is the best news ever, Y/N!"

"Eddie, stop spinning around, we'll vomit," Venom warned.

"Shut up, next time eat less," Eddie said setting you back on the floor only to hug you tightly. "Do you realize you made me the happiest man with parasite in the entire world?!"

You smiled at him softly and stroked his cheek briefly. "I happen to know."

He hugged you tightly, placing his hand on your belly. "My God, look at it, Venom. There is a new life growing,” Eddie said proudly but quickly he started to panic. "But we need so many stuff."

But Venom didn't look happy at all. He observed you for awhile with interest but soon he turned his head away.

"V? What's wrong?," Eddie asked looking confiused.

Venom didn't respond to man's question, he disconnected himself from Eddie and crawled aside, sitting in front of the window.

Eddie looked at Venom and back at you, then he walked to the window. "Hey, what's wrong, pal? Talk to us."

Venom formed head and looked at Eddie, then turned around to face you.

"What's wrong with you, V?," You asked as you sat in the floor next to the symbiote.

Eddie joined you soon and nodded his head. "Exactly, buddy. You can talk to us, you know that."

"Eddie?," Venom looked at his host. "Is Y/N going to die if the new life is in her?"

"No, of course not. The baby will grow inside her belly and then it will come out. They both will be happy and alive, and healthy," Eddie explained and looked at you. "I feel like we would be talking with our firstborn."

Venom looked at man sadly.

You also glared at your boyfriend angrily, frowning.You offered hand to symbiote. "He is our firstborn of some kind," you said quietly.

Venom looked at you, his white eyes widened, symbiote instinctively nuzzled to your hand.

"Sure he is, now come back here, buddy. You don't need to be worried about anything, both of us will be here... well, three of us, soon," Eddie corrected himself with a short laugh.

"Yeah, funny, Edward," symbiote snapped. "When this little alien will be born, you'll kick me out because you won't be needing me anymore. I'll end up in some dirty drain, all alone... Hungry...," Symbiote started shaking all over its form.

Eddie rolled his eyes and picked Venom up, he set him on his shoulder and started to scratch his head. "Such a stupid thing will never, ever happen, V. You are part of our little family and child will never change it. We will always keep you happy and well-fed."

"Yea! We won't be Y/N's favourite parasite anymore! You'll be focused on your child!," Symbiote was whimpering.

You got up and walked to Eddie, stroking Venom's head as well. "V, how do you think, will we be able to prepare everything on our own? Without such a great planner like you?," You asked.

"Y/N is right. No one makes plans as good as you and child requires a lot of planning, buddy,” Eddie said shrugging. "There is really no need to whimper."

"Okay, okay," Venom agreed. But suddenly he frowned again. "Eddie, may I ask you something?"

"Yes, always,”man nodded.

"Are children tasty?"

Eddie blinked. "No, they aren't! You can't eat them!"

"But if they're chubby and pink, they have to be tasty!"

Eddie just facepalmed and looked at you. "Will you help me with that?"

"V, children are little sentient beings that cannot be eaten," you explained with firm face.

Symbiote nodded at your words, accepting them fully. "Of course, Y/N, whatever you say."

"Sure, you listen to her,” Eddie rolled his eyes. "This isn't fair."

"We listen to the only person with balls here," Venom stack his huge tongue out and licked Eddie's face. "But we love you still."

"I love you too, V,” Eddie shook his head, petting Venom's head.

___few months later___ With each contraction came a pain that dominated yours entire being. In those moments, for those seconds that stretched into infinity, there was nothing else. You could hear screaming from other rooms, yet you made no sound at all. When the pain passed it was only for a minute or so and you breathed with closed eyes, unwilling to re-engage with life outside of your own body. The room might as well have been empty for all the awareness you had, and when they did talk, touch, gain your attention you found it so hard. To reply you had to find yourself from the deepest recess of your own mind and drag yourself forward, to use your voice, open your eyes. The midwife was telling you that is was time, time to push. With a guttural grunt you did so and was told to stop, one was enough. You felt the baby crowning, the hot stretching of flesh and held your breath. Without any further effort the baby slid into the hands of the midwife. There was elation, a girl at last, and in seconds she was there, little being rooting for a mother and it all was accompanied by loud cry.

Eddie was walking in a circle on the hallway, nervously biting on his finger. "V... I will go crazy. THIS IS CRAZY! What if she will die!? I WON'T BE ALBE TO RAISE A CHILD ALONE!,” Eddie whimpered stepping into a total panic state.

"Months ago you were assuring us that Y/N is not going to die and now you mention death?," Venom snarled.

"I am just panicking! It takes so long and I miss her!," Eddie said, flopping on the chair. "I want to already see her and the baby."

"We want it too!," Venom nodded his head.

Midwife came out of the labour room. "Mr Brock?," She said loudly holding papers in hands.

Eddie immediately jumped off his seat and walked to the woman. "Yes, yes! That's me! Is she allright?! Is baby allright?! Are they both healthy?! May I see them?!"

"Your girlfriend feels exhausted but she's stable. And I'm happy to tell you that you're the father of a beautiful, little girl," woman said with a smile. "Now we will take miss Y/N at the gynecology ward, there you'll be able to visit her, don't forget she went through a lot and she needs rest," she reminded Eddie before going back to her work.

Eddie looked at Venom with a smile. "Did you hear that!? Our ladies made it!"

"So we have Y/N and little Y/N as well?," Symbiote whispered into man's ear, hiding beneath his hoodie.

Eddie nodded. "You can say that. You see, human kids are a combination of both parents. So there is part of me and part of her in this bbab," he explained as he walked to get to the right ward. "The child will also get her own name. Will you help us with that?"

"Can't we name the kid Venomella? It would suit," symbiote suggested. Venom considered Eddie's words. "So you want to tell us the kid will be, in some way, such a pussy like you?"

"One more word and I will leave you here alone," Eddie warned. "And about this name, we will ask Y/N what she thinks about it."

After few minutes Eddie got to right ward. He slowly walked into your room and smiled, looking at you.

You were laying on the bed, eyes closed, steady breathing. And on your chest was laying little baby wrapped in a blanket, your arm was holding the bundle tightly.

"Is it her?," Venom asked forming his full head.

Eddie nodded. "Yes, it's her," he whispered before kissing your forehead. Grabbing a chair, Eddie sat down next to your bed. "Say hi to new member of the family, V."

Venom tilted his head and peeked into the blanket. There was a tiny, pink body, shivering at the slightest touch. "Hi, we're Venom and we'll protect you," Venom said.

You opened your eyes and looked at Eddie. "Hi, love."

"Hey there, sweetheart. How do you feel?," Eddie asked, keeping eye on Venom. "Venom came up with a name for our baby girl but I don't know if you will like it."

"Mmmm?," You asked sleepily.

"What would you say to Venomella?," Eddie asked with a smile.

“Sorry, Venom but this sucks," you let out a brief giggle. "We'll figure it out when we all will be back home."

Eddie laughed. "You see? I was right Venom, so? Do you like your little sister?," Brock asked before kissing your cheek. "I need to say, I am proud of you."

You smiled at him and closed eyes. "I'm tired," you whispered.

Venom sniffed onto little kid you were holding in your arms.

"I know but you can rest now, you really need it," Eddie said then looked at Venom. "Why do you sniff her?"

"Her scent is reassuring," symbiote said and disconnected with Eddie only to wrap his form around the sleeping girl. "We protect."

Eddie looked at you. "You okay with that? I can leave him with you and go grab you something to drink or eat."

But you didn't reply. You fell asleep pretty quickly due to exhaust.

Your baby girl was also slepping.

Venom closed his eyes as well yet he opened one for a second.

"Go get her flowers and chocolates, women like it," he adviced. "We'll protect our girls. We all are Venom.”

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[nosferatyou]

If I Can Be So Bold: Chapter 1 (Jack White x OC)

Summary: Rosalie and her band “By Elliston” move from Nashville to Detroit to continue their music careers and move away from their demons. Rosalie notices an unhappy face in the crowd of their first show, and is instantly drawn to him. While she doesn't mind that hes easy on the eyes she does mind his less than stellar attitude about their music. 

Word Count: 3K

Warnings: Drug use, language, and mentions of abuse.

Notes: Well this has been brewing for A WHILE. I’ve been everywhere deciding on a plot, but after tedious planning this is finally a reality. I hope the 5 Jack White fans on here enjoy this. This will be a series so strap in folks. We got young jack. we got old jack. we got everything in between. (also series names are hard) Enjoy! Appreciate all the research i did!

Chapter Two

“Do you want another?” 

He holds his hand above me, his dark eyes burning holes into me, he pulls back more as if ready to strike again. As if on command, I recoil from the movement, feeling smaller than I ever had.

My head shoots up, suddenly back in Zoot’s coffee house. I blink a couple of times, trying to wake myself up. I couldn’t remember what she asked.

“What?” I asked her, phasing back into reality again, and not what was a horrific nightmare.

Sat next to me was my best friend and singer in our band was Harry, or Harriet if you want to be technical. Her head was held high, and she was practically jumping out of her skin with excitement, she seemed more than ready for our first show in a new town.

 She moved one of her two shots in front of me and asked again. 

“Are you deaf, Lee? I asked if you wanted another shot before we go on.” 

I quickly sat up and grabbed it off the makeshift bar, anything to shake off what I was feeling. 

We clinked our drinks together, and she yelled out a toast over the crowd of people behind us. 

“To fresh starts and new stomping grounds!” 

We clinked our drinks and quickly downed them, both of us coughing from our burning throats, but as soon as we saw our red faces, we burst out into laughter. 

“We are horrible at shots, aren’t we?” I said in between wheezes of laughter.

“We truly are.” She paused and grabbed the bottle. “One more for good luck!.”

It seems like this is the night, if any, to drink. 

We’d just gotten to Detroit. Like just got here a week ago and are already booking shows. We all decided to move her for reasons I won’t mention, but I’ll just say that we needed to switch up our scene a bit. 

Our band “By Elliston” had grown pretty big in the Nashville scene, we played pretty frequently at the Exit/In. Which is not the biggest venue in the world, but it means something for the Nashville scene. I mean, we technically shared a stage with Muddy Waters and BB King, so that’s at least something to brag about.

 We were known in the Nashville punk scene and had made some significant headway, but thanks to shitty people and our big egos, we decided to move to Detroit. Known for its great music and cars.

 And here we are at Zoot’s Coffee shop, which is arguably a coffee shop honestly. Off a dark street, that no person with money would venture down, and the outside seems like nothing is out of the ordinary, it’s just a house on a street. But the inside. Its a home, its a coffee shop, and venue for anyone who has an instrument. 

Its packed wall to wall with people, barely any standing room, especially near the stage, which is just a raised corner of the living room. Its the perfect venue for any rock band. Small and loud.

We (being the band and me) all lived for music, and it is our life’s blood.

 I grew up in a very southern home and was always surrounded by music, thanks to my dad. Id never met a man who loves Johnny Cash more than him or country music for that matter. Cash would always play through the house, or Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings. That kind of thing. However, I can’t stand to listen to any of them now. Overplayed and over appreciated is what I always said.

 That did spark something in me. I started playing guitar, thanks to my dad… and then I picked up the bass and then drums. And so on and so on. The moral is that If you hand me any stringed instrument ill know how to play it.

The other girls. Jo, Harriet, and Ezra. All got into good music when they were in high school, which also when we all met. Thanks to the high school band or orchestra. I played violin, as did Jo and Harriet, Ezra played the stand-up bass and continues with the bass to this day.

 Now we’ve all moved on the from hot cross buns and into a world of rock and roll. We used to be terrible, covering a lot of Alice in Chains and Nirvana. 

Graduating class of ‘93 for all of us, and we lived in a world of grunge. Five years later and we’ve since moved on from our teenage ways. We’ve embraced the blues and everything around it. However, we get a bit heavier than our inspirations, with my heavy fuzz and Harriet’s raspy yelps. With the look of punk dads (a lot of fun button-ups, dark makeup, and Dr. Martens boot) and the sounds of 4 angry ladies, we tore up Nashville.

We played a lot of house shows, met many a band, lost many a group, met a dumb boy who won’t be named (its John), and had a lot of fun tearing up the Nashville scene. 

As we grew, we played bigger venues, the show of ‘96 at The End being the staple of our career. We’d never played as good as we did then, and none of us are convinced we’ll play as well as we did that night.

 Either way, we were thrust forward, and our movement grew, we were making money from our shows, plus we played bigger venues. The Exit/In and The East Room, to name a couple. Last month we felt we needed a change of scenery to grow. As incredible, the Nashville scene is, its also quite small. Few venues and fewer people. That’s the other girl’s excuse, at least. 

We scrounged up what we could, found an apartment here, and moved as soon as we could. Unlike the others, I had to burn some bridges to get here, but more will be made here. We scooped out the scene the moment we arrived and set up a show here, and we are all buzzing to perform again. 

“So, who are we opening for again?” I asked as we headed to our van to start and unload our gear. 

“The White somethings.” Jo absentmindedly answered, wrapping her jacket around herself for warmth.

Harriet quickly cut in, “The White Stripes, you mean.” Correcting her.

We all arrived at our shared van and started grabbing our mess of cables and cases.

Harriet continued, “I’ve been asking around all night about them, you know. To learn about the enemy and such.” 

Jo popped her head up from the front seat and asked, “When have you had the time to ask around? I was with you literally all night.” 

Harriet picked up her small load for the night and parked a seat on the car next to ours, lighting a cig while she sat.

“I have my ways.” She said, wiggling her eyebrows before taking a long drag.

“Anyways, here’s what I’ve learned. They’ve been around a year, the drummer learned when they got together, and guitarist leads the show.” She spoke with her ever-present dramatics, waving the cig around after every word. 

“They can’t be that good if the drummers new, and they’ve only been playing a year.” Said Ezra, who was effortlessly carrying what seemed to be the world’s most massive bass amp. 

“I don’t know, Z. It seems agreed that they know how to rock a room.” Harriet pipped up.

“What does it mean for us then?” Asked Jo who’s joint was lit and already in her mouth, and arms were full with various drums. Explains why she was digging around the front seat.

I quickly cut in, not about to let them get nervous over a baby band. “Absolutely nothing. We’ve got six years on them. These Detroit kids won’t know what hit them, we’re from music city for god’s sake.” 

“That’s the spirit, Lee!  Now get your asses inside so we can set up.” Harriet popped off the car and started walking towards the door, beckoning us towards her.

“Feel like helping us speed up the process, Harry?” Joked Jo.

“You’re big girls. I’m gonna go try and spot the enemy.” She yelled back to us.

“Oh, have fun, we will just be here carrying your band!” I yelled out.

“I knew I could count on you, darling!” She called out, throwing a wink and cigarette butt our way. 

When we had finally reached the stage, the already crowded room had doubled in bodies. While most bands would be shaking in their boots, it only spurred us on more. While we all have our fair share of disagreements, we have one thing in common. Our shared headspaces before a show. All ready to take on anything, and our confidence is unwavering. The bigger, the better. It’s honestly what’s kept us together this whole time. 

Now all eyes were on us, and it was a tough crowd, it was dead silent. The girls and I all exchanged a look and nodded. I always started us off. We had a set opener, it never changed and worked every time, but after that was a free for all. I usually took charge and just chose whatever I was feeling, but if not me, then Harriet. The other two just flowed with whatever we threw their way.

I always started first with the heavy riff, joined in by Ezra, then Jo, and finally Harriet. 

The riff is what pulled them in, and it was always quite the sight. I got fully into it every time. It was dark, straightforward, and full of fuzz and feedback. 

By the time Harriet joins in its mayhem, I speed up and play power chords. It’s not slow, but it’s not so fast that it’ll make your head spin. 

As the short show progressed, we felt like how we used to feel every night. Pure joy, which is what we all fucking needed. 

We improvised. I mashed up whatever songs I even threw in a little Stooges to thank the locals for letting us play. Though I did notice the gaze of one oddball in the back, who was just… watching.

 While that doesn’t sound weird, it was sure out of the ordinary. He sat in the back, arms crossed leaned against the wall. The whole mysterious boy schtick was down pact. He wasn’t scowling, but he didn’t seem happy. It was off-putting and kept my focus over towards that corner of the room, but didn’t hinder the performance. Maybe it fueled it. 

The show couldn’t have gone better, though. The crowd did not hide their whoops and hollers when we finished our last song of the set. I was already riding that performance high and will be for the rest of the night. 

“Thanks for a great first night, Detroit! We’re “By Elliston,” and we hope to see you next time!”

Screamed out Harriet for a final goodbye as we headed off the stage, their applause carrying us off the small stage. 

The moment we put down our instruments, we about took each other out, tacking one another to the ground.

 As tradition carries, after every show, we used to just aggressively group hug, but over time we’ve grown more and more… excited. At one of our last shows at The Exit/In, I accidentally knocked out Jo by slamming into her too hard. If that gives any frame of reference to what our dog piles look like now.

“Ladies. If every show goes somewhat like that here, I think we will rule this scene.” Ezra said from the bottom of the pile, her words garbled from the mass of bodies. 

“Alright, Lee, get your ass off the top, you’re gonna snuff me out down here.” 

Without much warning, she slid out from underneath us, and the rest of us went down to the ground, causing all of us to erupt in laughter. 

Once we all straightened ourselves out, we went to the van and had a celebratory cig, the first of many “celebratory” cigs of the night, 

To my right was Harriet leaning against the tail light, and Jo and Ezra were sitting in the van next to me. Harriet broke the silence.

“You know I missed this, Lee. I’m glad you’re back.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean Har-” While talking I’d noticed three figures a few cars over walking to their own. My eyes widened in surprise. I grabbed Harriet’s arm suddenly and dragged her in with the rest of us.

“Shut up. It’s him.”

“What I wasn’t even talking-” she stopped and sat up to face, she wasn’t upset, but she sure looked confused. “Wait, who is “Him?” 

I looked around to check to see if he could hear. 

“I saw him when we were playing. He kept just… staring at me. It was weeeird.”

“Why’d you pull me in the car then??” 

“I panicked! It was just weird!” 

Ezra peaked her head out of the car in curiosity and asked. “Which one is it, the young blondie or the black-haired beauty?”

“Gah Jesus, not the child, Ezra! It’s the hot one.”

Harriet whipped her head out of the car to look at them, speaking a bit too loudly.

“Lee, you need to start off saying it was a HOT stranger! You have my interest now.”

“I’m going to kill both you. Get your dumbasses back in the car.”

We huddled back up, Harriet has a look in her eye that I don’t like.

“So, what’s the plan of action here, Lee?” Asked Harriet.

“Nothing. He’s a scowler. Sure a hot one at that, but if he can’t enjoy what we make, then what’s the point? When we played that stooges song, he looked like he was going to blow his top.”

“I think you’ve missed the point here, Lee. Point one,  You’re fresh out of a toxic sludge of a relationship. Point two, hot stranger. And finally. Point three, he’s a hot stranger in a band. I’m not passing up this opportunity.”

She gave us a wink, took a final drag of her cig, and hopped out of the car. She was going over to them.

“Harriet, you fucker don’t you dare,” I said with gritted teeth. “I’ve tackled you once today, and  I’ll do it again.”

She chuckled. “You’re all talk, kid. I’m off to make friends!”

“Bastard!” I yelled, leaping out of the car and towards her. I was too late, she just about ran over to them, and I was quickly in tow behind her. 

“Well, look at that, Lee! New people. Hi there, I'm Harriet, but you can call me Harry. and this is Rosalie.” She extended her hand towards the three strangers.

“Its Lee actually, she’s just an asshole.” 

All of them looked slightly taken aback. They were sure as hell wasn’t expecting her hand in their face, or two random ladies in their space. The newly named “hot stranger” was the first to speak up. He seemed rightly hesitant.

“I’m Jack, and this is my sister, Meg. This over here is my nephew, Ben. He’s our pinball wizard. Or Roadie in technical terms.” 

“Well, good to meet Y’all!” Once she shook ben’s hand, he spoke up. Man he was young. Was he maybe 16? Not over 18 is the point.

“You guys played a hell of a show. The Stooges? Blues? You’re going to give these two a run for their money.”

Jack shifted on his heels when ben mentioned this. Same face as before, and little less friendly than introductions.

“Well, its all that Tennessee blood in us. Now we arent from Memphis, but Nashville’s close enough, right?” Harriet winked at the kid. His cheeks flushed a deep red. 

Jack shifted his eyes back to me, but they wander somewhere else. 

I clear my throat, he snaps his head up and makes eye contact with me, a small smirk falls on his face. 

“Well, you all seem busy, so Harriet and I are going to go back over there. Have a good show.”

I grab her arm and try to drag her away casually.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She whisper yells to me. We find ourselves on the other side of our van, out of their sight.

“Lee, You have never been one to shy away from new people. Especially men. Remember us, fresh out of high school? You practically had a different man in your bed every night. That whole nervous persona is new. Go seduce a hot stranger!”

“Jesus, Harriet! Lower your goddamn voice! First off its Jack, And yes I know. Different times though. I’m not going to go over there in front of his sister and prepubescent nephew to try and get in his pants.”

“Aw, come on, Lee! It’d be fun! Plus, you need a fucking rebound, girl.”

“Okay, well, talk me into this when its not a family reunion.” 

“You got yourself a deal, Rosalie.”

We started to make our way back to the other girls.

“Alright, ladies, let’s go catch our headliner,” I said, opening the van doors. A plume of smoke rolled out of it the moment the doors opened. I grabbed the joint from Ezra, taking a hit before going inside. I handed it back to the faded bass player and headed back inside.

[moonlit-jeno]

Love Sick

Chapter 2- Donghyuck

pairing: nct dream ‘00 line + reader

genre/warnings: zombie!au, fluff, eventual smut, angst. some graphic violence/ gore

words: 2.3k

summary:

“You’re telling me that I slept through the beginning of the zombie   apocalypse.” You deadpan, expecting at least one of them to break   character and laugh. All four boys remain grim.

masterlist | prev | next

They drive for hours, Jeno eventually switching with Jaemin so that he can get some sleep. They’ve only dared to stop once so far to grab a can of gasoline, the empty gas station far too foreboding for them to feel comfortable at. And then they’re driving again, through the dark streets, headed god knows where. There’s no cell reception and GPS isn’t working, so they’re driving blind. The map Jaemin grabbed is ancient and has been folded so many times that the creases blend in with the roads.

It’s early morning when Jaemin takes a right turn that leads them down a dirt road, with the trees growing thicker and blocking out some of the sunlight. Donghyuck shudders at the fear he gets from this place.

“Are you sure we should go this way?” Renjun asks, turning behind them to see how far from the main road they are.

There’s a nod from Jaemin. “Yeah, it looks alright. No harm in exploring.” Donghyuck snorts. Sure, they’re in a fast car with locked doors, but their eyes aren’t protected from the horrific sights around them. He’s still scarred from watching the guy bash his own head in an attempt to get to them, and he doesn’t want to add any more memories to that part of his brain.

The trees get a little thinner in one area, and Donghyuck has to squint to realize that there’s a house there. “Jaem, look.”

The car slows, Jaemin and Renjun leaning closer to get a better look. Jeno is snoring in the passenger seat, having driven for the majority of the trip.

“It’s fucking massive.” Renjun points out, and he isn’t wrong. The house is at least double the size of Hyuck’s own home. “Guess land out here’s cheaper.” It’s quiet as they decide what to do, the car humming idly. Donghyuck knows what they’re all thinking, what they’re all scared to say. They can’t stay in this car forever, and this house seems perfect. Isolated, huge, probably has running water and electricity. Of course, it only seems perfect from the outside. They have no way of knowing what’s on the inside. The place could be crawling with zombies- he cringes just thinking of the word- or it could have some people who don’t take kindly to strangers. He can only pray that it’s empty and that its owners don’t plan on returning.

“We should go in.” Jaemin murmurs, pulling over to the side of the road. Renjun hums in agreement, and Donghyuck hates himself for agreeing too. It’s the logical decision, but he feels sick to his stomach at the prospect of potentially running into a zombie. At the prospect of dying.

Hyuck reaches one shaking hand forward and nudges Jeno awake. He needs his sleep, sure, but he needs to be a part of this decision. He startles awake with a sharp inhale, looking around for a second before his brain fully wakes up.

“Well, shit.” Jeno coughs to clear his throat, laughing humorlessly. “Guess it wasn’t just a bad dream?”

Renjun doesn’t seem to have the patience for small talk. “We found a house. It’s pretty secluded, and we’re going to have to stop at some point anyways. Here seems as good a place as any.” Jeno blinks before turning his head and looking at the house. He shrugs. “I guess. Who’s going in?” Silence. None of them had thought that far ahead. “Someone should stay in the car.” Renjun points out. He doesn’t add the words “in case something goes wrong”, but they all hear them anyways.

Donghyuck considers it for all of one second before he realizes that a) it would leave him alone and vulnerable, b) he’s a horrendous driver, and c) he won’t be able to handle not knowing what’s happening to his friends in the house.

“Not me.” He says, meeting Jaemin’s quirked eyebrow with a stare of his own. “What? You’ve all seen my driving.” That at least gets him a snort and a ‘fair enough’ from Jeno. Renjun shrugs. “I’ll do it.” Another beat of silence. “Guess that means we’re going in.” Jaemin says, looking from Jeno to Donghyuck. “Guess it does.” He hopes his voice isn’t shaking as badly as he thinks it is.

Jeno mumbles a ‘fuck this’ and hops out of the car, Jaemin quickly following suit. Renjun pulls them all in for a quick hug before hopping into the front seat.

The walk up to the house is both the shortest and longest walk Donghyuck has ever experienced. He needs to know if it’s empty, if there’s something inside, but he also doesn’t. His day’s been bad enough already; he doesn’t need to add ‘being chased by zombies’ to the list of things that have happened to him.

They get to the front door, and it’s surprisingly clean- no peeling paint, the tiny windows at the top of the door clear of fingerprints and dust. Donghyuck looks to the side and finds some potted plants next to a pair of shoes. Jeno and Jaemin have noticed it too.

“We should knock?”  Jaemin tries to suggest. It comes out as more of a question, and he clears his throat. “I mean, it looks like there might be someone here. They might be more willing to help us if we’re polite?” Jeno shrugs. Donghyuck glances back to the truck, engine humming softly. Renjun’s looking out the window nervously. “Right. On the count of three?” “One.” Donghyuck puts his fist up first. Jaemin and Jeno follow hesitantly.

“Two.” There so much that could go wrong. Donghyuck’s never been good at running, especially not under pressure. He wonders if an angry zombie is enough to turn him into an Olympic sprinter.

Jeno’s in a fighting stance, probably subconsciously. A habit from all his years of picking fights on the streets, before he started boxing and found a healthy way to channel his anger. He wonders if Jeno would be able to throw a punch, or if all his muscles would lock up. Donghyuck knows what would happen if he tried it himself.

“Three.” They knock together, three hands on one piece of wood. His heartbeat is pounding in his ears, stomach twisting so violently that he has to lean against Jaemin for support. He expects the door to fly open, expects 10 raging monsters to come pouring out, expects to stare straight into the barrel of an angry farmers gun. He holds his breath.

Nothing happens. Jaemin, who’s eyes had been squeezed shut, blinks at the door in confusion, leaning forward to knock again. There’s no response. He tries the doorknob, but it doesn’t budge.

“Strange. Should we break in?” Jeno asks, jumping up on his tiptoes to try and peer in through the windows at the top. It’s useless, they’re too high.

Jaemin nods and Hyuck steps back, prepared to have to ram his full body weight into the door. But the youngest just kneels down, pulling something out of his pocket before setting to work.

“Are you- where did you learn to pick a lock?” Donghyuck squints, watching the door open. Jaemin stands back up and winks, pocketing his paper clip. “That doesn’t answer my question!” They’re all slightly more at ease after no mysterious noises have come from inside. But the fear is still there, curling and stabbing at his gut. “We should check all the rooms first, make sure there’s nothing hiding.” Jeno’s suggestion is logical, of course, but that doesn’t mean Donghyuck likes it. Especially since they’d decided to split up for this part, so he can’t hide behind Jaemin or cling onto Jeno’s hand. He voices his complaints under his breath as he creaks open a door, peering into it and seeing in relief as nothing jumps out. Three more doors are opened, all devoid of zombies.

They regroup in the kitchen, Donghyuck being the last to join. Renjun’s there, groceries lining the table and floor. “Jesus, how long did I take.” Jaemin shrugs. “Pretty long. But there was no screaming, so we figured you were alright. Find anything?”

“Nah. All the rooms upstairs are empty, I even check the closets. You guys?” Two heads are shaken at him. “One of the doors was locked so I couldn’t check it, but I figure it’s fine. Didn’t want to bust it down and find out that I was wrong.” Jeno tries for humor but misses the mark. For once, Donghyuck doesn’t make fun of him.

“I was betting that you passed out in fear.” Renjun pipes up, and Donghyuck sends him a glare that he hopes is scathing. He gets a smile in return.

There’s a glass of water on the table and Donghyuck’s sandpaper mouth decides hey, that looks delicious. “Where’d you guys find the water?” Silence. The other three turn to look at the glass, the plate next to it. Jaemin swallows thickly. “It was there when we got here. Probably the owners.” Hyuck frowns, walking over to the plate. There’s breadcrumbs still on it and he pokes them. “Seems pretty fresh.” “It’s probably from yesterday. Left, figured they’d clean it when they came back.” Donghyuck feels bile rise in his throat when he realizes that they probably won’t be coming back, because they won’t be able to. It makes him think of other people that might not be coming back- namely his parents- and he shuts down that train of thought before he starts crying.

There’s another beat of silence before Renjun’s standing, walking over to the fridge. “We should take stock of what food they have. I don’t know how long we’re gonna be here, but we should eat the fresh food first. If there even is any.”

Donghyuck’s brain momentarily short circuits- it’s only been one day since the entire world seemingly turned upside down. It feels like it’s been a year.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts by Renjun shoving a plastic bag into his hands. It has four containers in it, and the receipt stapled to the bag reads that it’s from yesterday. His stomach growls.

“Shit, when’s the last time we ate?” His appetite, previously repressed by hunger, makes itself known with a by twisting itself in pain, growling again.

“Too long ago.” Jaemin says, pulling out half a container of soup. “Lunch time?”

The four boys watch impatiently as the food rotates in the microwave, the loud buzzing taunting them. The seconds count down impossibly slow, until finally it beeps. Jeno’s out of his chair in an instant, straight up moaning when the door opens and the scent of Chinese takeout fills the air. “It smells so good.”

“It’s also mine.” That voice doesn’t belong to any of them. All four boys freeze, whipping around to face the source.

A girl stands in the doorway, leaning against the wall. She looks to be around their age. “The cops are on their way. Figured I’d at least give you a chance to avoid jail.” Renjun, always the sharpest, easily replies. “No they aren’t. The phone lines are down. Nice try, though.”

She frowns. “Shit. Are you here to kill me then? Or just to eat my food?” The way she asks the question is so calm, it’s as if she’s asking about the weather. Donghyuck can’t help his giggle. She glances at him and he quickly calms his expression.

“We’re hiding. We thought this house was empty, but apparently these three couldn’t do their job right.” Renjun motions to the other boys, and okay, wow. He feels a little attacked.

“I didn’t check one room because it was locked!” Jeno exclaims, exasperated.

They start bickering, and Hyuck turns his attention back to the girl. She’s wearing a shirt that looks like it’s three sizes too big, the hem reaching past whatever pants she’s wearing. Her hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in about a week, and there’s smudges of leftover makeup around her eyes. She’s pretty- not the time to be focusing on these things, but whatever, he can’t help it- even though she’s half asleep and looks about ready to give up and go back to bed. The biggest yawn he’s ever seen leaves her and then she’s walking over to the counter, plopping down on it.

“Sorry, hiding from who? I’m going to tell you right now that I will not be happy if the feds come knocking down my door.” She swings her legs back and forth, the action revealing neon pink sleep shorts.

The four boys all share a look. Jaemin opens his mouth, then closes it, considering the options. Obviously they have to tell her the truth, but there’s not really a way to say it that won’t sound crazy. There’s no evidence to back them up. No internet access to show her proof.

They have a silent conversation for a while- consisting of a lot of furrowed brows and widening eyes- before Donghyuck has enough and leans back in his seat, turning to her. “Zombies.” She snorts. “Yeah, I’m sure. Honestly, if you would’ve said aliens, I would’ve let you stay. But zombies? That’s kind of lame, don’t you think.” Renjun rolls his eyes. “Believe me, I wouldn’t be hiding from aliens. They would be hiding from me.” It’s Jeno’s turn to roll his eyes. “Injun, that’s not helping.” “We’re not joking.” Jaemin says, glaring at the other two before turning his attention to the girl. “Believe me, I wish it was. And I know it sounds crazy, but we saw it happen right in front of us.”

“You’re telling me that I slept through the beginning of the zombie   apocalypse.” She deadpans, obviously expecting at least one of them to break character and laugh.

All four boys remain grim.

The smile quickly fades into a frown and she looks at them more carefully. Maybe it’s the fear and pain in their eyes at the memory of yesterday’s events. Maybe she can see through all of them, can see the horrifying images that are printed on the back of their eyelids. Whatever it is, she finally seems to believe them.

“You’re serious?” They all nod. “Shit.” She hops off the counter, walking over to them. “Pass me the food, you have some explaining to do.”

[aspiratixxn]

Ink spills on  your skin (1/?)

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: None at the moment

Summary: 

If the perfect blank canvas walked in, wouldn’t you want to paint it too? Or in which one Wei Wuxian colors the entire world of one Lan Wangji.

Inspired beautifully by @eledsart‘s Tattoo Artist WWX drawings!

[Link to AO3]

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

Wen Qing is going to kill him.

Look, when you’re friends with Wei Wuxian this long you learn all his quirks and habits, including the one where he gets up barely five minutes before opening and comes barreling around corners like a bull in Spain. She’s seen him skid right into walls with how fast he’s going, tumbling over himself and popping right back up with that megawatt smile still pasted on his face. But sometimes, especially when it’s this important, you’d think he wouldn’t be late.

She’s carrying A-Yuan in her arms, bouncing him up and down as he dozes off. Wei Wuxian is lucky that she adores A-Yuan’s little toddler face but mark her words, Wei Wuxian is going to pay for making her wait. She’s waiting in front of the shop, not open yet. It never opens before noon, since the gods themselves would not be able to drag Wei Wuxian out of bed.

Last night, he had requested (begged) with his big puppy eyes for Wen Qing to take A-Yuan, just for the night because he was going to be up working and he didn’t want A-yuan to be kept awake by his paper shuffling or his bone popping. Bones don’t pop, she said, but agreed anyways. Besides, Wen Ning was begging too with his own big puppy eyes behind Wei Wuxian and she wasn’t so cruel as to say no.

But now it’s time for her to get to her own work and she taps her foot, rolling her eyes when she finally spots him sprinting down the street like he’s going for the olympic gold. Another thing she’s learned about Wei Wuxian is that he’s really good at dodging obstacles, weaving over, under and around people and their items. Someone shouts as he barely misses them. Wen Qing is starting to think maybe she can get to her appointment with her professor on time when she watches him crash straight into someone else, sending a whole flurry of papers out of their arms and into the air.

She sighs, pulls out her phone and emails her professor.

Wei Wuxian has the worst luck. He’s always managed to get into trouble, whether he was looking for it or not. He always liked to say that trouble was looking for him and Wen Qing would smack him over the head with her notebook. But man, this is probably the worst since he can see Wen Qing in her knee-length red cardigan, impatiently bouncing his ward on her hip. He knows she’s got an appointment and he’s going to be really sorry about this later. Should’ve been more careful, he thinks as papers flutter and the person he bowled over sits up. “Sorry! So sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going! Well I was but then again I was going like seventy three miles an hour and I didn’t mean to bump into you I’m so sorry again,” he’s babbling a little but he can see the exasperation in Wen Qing’s face as she pulls out her phone and he’s scrambling to pick up sheets of paper, collecting them in a haphazard pile in his arms with corners sticking in every direction. Most of the sheets aren’t even facing up probably but he’s really got to go. Once he’s acquired most of them on the ground near him and has done a quick sweep around to make sure he hasn’t missed any, he holds them out and sheepishly smiles. “Sorry again, I didn’t mea-”

So here’s the thing about Wei Wuxian. He is many things. Troublemaker, chaos creator, absolute fucking moron. Brilliant designer, inventor and artist. He is also, now, in love.

His jaw drops as does the volume of his voice, an awed whisper. “Holy shit you’re so fucking cute.” And it’s true, an angel in all their radiance has descended and blessed Wei Wuxian with an adorable fucking person.

Said person looks like they’ve swallowed a lemon with their sharp eyes and pursed lips and yet still, he is captured by the hazel gold that gleams in the sun. He could sit for hours and count the flecks in their eyes that dance as they shift to collect more papers with their long fingered hands, elegant in a way that Wei Wuxian could never be. The slope of his broad shoulders held high, the thickness of his thighs that were pressed against the formal black of his slacks. And his hair, a bit fluffy. Wei Wuxian wonders if he could run his hands through it, it looks so soft.

“Shameless.” He’s broken out of his dream by a tight voice as the person finishes collecting their papers and stands, compelling him to stand as well, still holding a pile of papers. Mouth slightly agape in how beautiful that one word sounded. Head filled with thoughts about how his name might sound, formed by those lips. The man takes the stack of papers with a small huff, glaring once more at Wei Wuxian and then he strides past. He smells like sandalwood and bergamot.

Wei Wuxian is many things and as of this moment forth, he is also a lovestruck idiot.

“Wei Wuxian!” Wen Qing’s irritable voice breaks him out of his daze and his face falls. Aw, shit . A-Yuan’s big eyes brighten and he reaches his little toddler hands out, wanting his Xian-gege to pick him up even as Wen Qing bounces him. She, on the other hand, does not look as cute with a glowering frown that makes Wei Wuxian’s entire soul shrivel up a little. If looks could kill.

He sprints the last distance, apologies pouring from his mouth again. He’s said sorry seventy three times today and it hasn’t even been an hour since he woke up. That’s got to be a new record. “Wen Qing, you, light of my life, are the only thing that keeps me grounded in this world so cruel.” She rolls her eyes. “I’m so fuc- uh, so sorry I’m late! I missed my bus and then it would’ve taken forever to arrive again so I kind of sprinted across like seven blocks? And then I ran into this absolute cutie-”

“I’m aware. I saw you.” He shuts his mouth with a blush that could reach the high heavens. “Now stop being a moron and take A-Yuan or my professor really will have my head.” She holds out her arms and A-Yuan already has his arms outstretched, making little grabby hands. Wei Wuxian takes the precious gift gratefully, shifting to perch A-Yuan on his own hip. He bows to her, another quiet apology as A-Yuan starts babbling off everything they did last night, from dinner to a movie to board games and coloring and magic tricks with Wen Ning. “I’ll be late tonight, Wen Ning will bring you guys dinner later today. And do not forget that you need to get milk from the store. A-Yuan was very upset we didn’t have any this morning.”

Wei Wuxian at least has the sense to look slightly ashamed of himself but he pops up just as quick with a salute. “Yes ma’am!” A-Yuan mimics him before dissolving into giggles, pulling on Wei Wuxian’s sleeves. “Do you want anything? Maybe some tiramisu? I can also make my classic double chocolate chip cookies!” A-Yuan lights up and though Wen Qing still has a sour look on her face, she nods. Her phone buzzes and she sighs, reaching up to pat A-Yuan’s head before bustling off and vanishing in the crowd.

“Xian-gege, Xian-gege! I want to play! Can I color on you again?” Wei Wuxian chuckles as he starts to shuffle around for his keys. “Ning-gege says he made lots of these!” He has to resist a shudder when A-Yuan’s slightly clammy hands start poking around his neck where wreaths of flowers and other tattoos crawl up. “And he said that jiejie made them too! Can they make some for me?” Fishing out his keyring, Wei Wuxian just laughs again.

“Maybe when you’re a little bigger A-Yuan.” That earns him a pout but soon enough it morphs into a look of wonder as Wei Wuxian unlocks the door and opens up his store. Yiling Tattoo was well known in the area for its incredible artists who were always fair with their price. Wei Wuxian was the only one who was there all the time (as the owner) but people whispered far and wide about the delicate lines Nie Huaisang painted or the more bold and contrasted work that Jiang Cheng marked. Jiang Yanli was also a commonplace sight though she had apparently retired since her marriage to THE Jin Zixuan, multimillionaire and heir to the Jin luxury goods empire. There was also the recently hired Xiao Xingchen, who had made a name for himself using intricate dot work and wandering the globe with his tools.

Setting A-Yuan down, Wei Wuxian gets to work flicking on all the lights and starting up the thermostat. He takes all the tools and sticks them into the autoclave. They’ll be ready when the shop opens, probably. Just in case, Wei Wuxian has always kept an up-to-date stash of disposable, sterile tools tucked away in the supply room. He puts A-Yuan up on the counter of the front desk (where Mianmian works) and pecks his cheek, sending the child into peals of laughter. “Be good while I clean okay?” A-Yuan nods but as Wei Wuxian turns to get the cleaning supplies, he’s stopped by a rather firm grip on his sleeves. “Mm? What’s up bud?”

“Wanna help gege.” Wei Wuxian might keel over and die right now with how adorable A-Yuan looks, cheeks puffed out and determined eyes. “Can I? Please?” Wei Wuxian wonders how in the world he ever got this precious little bundle of joy in his life.

“Mm, are you suuuuure? It’s hard woooooork.” Even sitting on the counter, A-Yuan doesn’t quite reach eye level so he has to crouch as he speaks, pinching A-Yuan’s cheek. “You don’t want to play a little?” But even so, A-Yuan isn’t deterred and shakes his head vigorously.

“Nu-uh! Wanna help Xian-gege! Pleeeeeease?” And who’s Wei Wuxian to turn down such an honest request.So he picks out the disinfectant and the mop and all the other cleaning supplies he needs to make this place as germ free as possible. He sets A-Yuan on the floor and crouches, lowering his voice to a stage whisper, “Okay, here’s the plan…”

It takes longer than usual to finish cleaning up but they finish before the store opens. Mianmian is the first to arrive, laughing as she watched A-Yuan delicately place the design images around the walls in the waiting area. She knows the drill, already prepared with so many activities for him. Today’s activity seems to be some sort of lanyard weaving or something, if Wei Wuxian’s eyes don’t betray him when he sees the spools poking out from her “A-Yuan bag”.

Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang are right on her heels, arriving only a few minutes later. Nie Huaisang has a smirk on his face as he pulls out a coffee from behind his back. Caramel macchiato just like Wei Wuxian likes. He stows the cleaning supplies away first before taking the cup with a moan. “Nie Huaisang, love of my life!” Jiang Cheng snorts and rolls his eyes.

“Put a hand on him and you’ll lose it.” Wei Wuxian quickly jerks his hands back, feigning offense. Jiang Cheng should have a PhD in eye rolling, right up there with Wen Qing. He stalks off to go enjoy the coffee in the backroom they reserve for more private tattoos and piercings. Sighing, he sits and glances over the schedule of appointments on his phone. They have about half an hour before opening so he takes his sweet time sipping.

It’s a busy day as always. Jiang Cheng is working on a large piece that stretches across the whole back. Huaisang is doing mostly touch ups and walk-ins. And Wei Wuxian, well, he’s only got one appointment in the evening so he resolves to spend time designing and drawing up front with Mianmian and A-Yuan. She handles most of the admin work so he can sit back with his thick black notebook, bursting with all kinds of drawings. Mostly stylized though he does have a few that are more realistic.

The bell chimes and he looks up, expecting a customer or perhaps his shijie with a bowl of steaming lotus root and rib soup. Instead, his book flies out of his hand and slams into the counter and he pushes his chair back to stand and look at the face of the very angel who he had crashed into in the morning.

Accompanied by another man with similar features and a much kinder smile. Accompanied by Nie Mingjue. (“Ah, da-ge!”) Accompanied by Jin Guangyao (probably, Wei Wuxian doesn’t remember the Jins very well despite being family).

Wei Wuxian has a knack for names and faces but he swears up and down he would’ve remembered seeing these two brothers (?) before if they were friends with Nie Mingjue. He swallows, leaning so far forward over the counter that he’s inches from the tipping point. “So,” he smirks, eyes lidded, “what’s a beauty like you doing here?”

Behind him, Mianmian covers A-Yuan’s ears and snickers. Wei Wuxian is far too into his head to care though there’s no doubt that she’s going to rib him into the ether later. For his credit though, the angel just levels a cool stare and Wei Wuxian finds that he really doesn’t mind it at all. Especially when he notes that his ears are turning a gentle shade of pink.

The other handsome stranger sweeps in, saving his brother (?) the trouble of finding a real reply. His lips crest in a smile but his eyes dance with a mild threat and Wei Wuxian backs off, knowing there’s trouble to be had and for once not wanting to get into it. “We have an appointment. With Wei Wuxian.” One glance at Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao shows exactly how smitten they are with this pretty, pretty voice that floats melodically in a shop full of buzzing needles.

“Uh, that’d be me! You’re…” He glances down at the open appointment list on Mianmian’s computer. “Lan Xichen?” He receives a nod. Returning with a nod of his own, he quickly pulls up the appointment details. As a matter of fact, it’s not just Lan Xichen but apparently also Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao. They’re getting matching tattoos? Wei Wuxian had never pegged Nie Mingjue as the type but there’s a first for everything he supposes as he prints the details out and sticks the paper into his notebook. “Well, follow me I guess.” He hopes the angel follows too as he takes them to the consultation room in the back.

Wei Wuxian has a process when it comes to his art. First, accept no walk-in that isn’t well thought out. Second, never ink on the first meeting without thorough discussion of every detail, including a sketch if it’s a simple design. Third, he will not touch other people’s work just like he would hope no one touches his own. Finally, the tattoo must be completed with a customer satisfied before he lets it go. Granted, this has caused some problems in the past with people who would stumble in drunk and demand something in his style without any care or consideration. And with a few disgruntled customers who thought they were getting one thing even when he went through the whole process with them from start to finish. It was always weird when someone was upset with their finished product when they had been the ones to okay every detail (with forms!) every step of the way.  

The angel does follow though a bit slower. Gold eyes seem to flick every which way, taking in the organized mess that is the Yiling tattoo parlor. With Jiang Cheng’s grimace as he intensely shades and Nie Huaisang’s tongue poking out as he finishes the last delicate line on a camellia, it’s no wonder. Still, Wei Wuxian kind of wished those eyes would be watching him. Maybe they would be when he was working later.

The backroom is much quieter, with padding in the walls to block noise going in and out. He gestures at the chairs across the table and the four of them take a seat, the angel sitting a bit further in the back. Wei Wuxian takes his own seat and sets his book on the table, flipping open to a fresh page and popping the cap off his pen to take notes. “Alright, what’re we in for today?”

There’s a moment when the three exchange looks and Wei Wuxian feels like they’re arguing about who should speak. In the end it’s Lan Xichen who does it, though he seems a bit annoyed if the slight tightness in his voice is any indicator. “We were looking for something that could connect across motifs of nature.” Okay, kinda broad. Thankfully it looks like they’ve put thought into this as each of them pulls out a sheet of paper. It’s funny to see them side by side. Lan Xichen’s is folded so neatly it doesn’t seem human. Nie Mingjue’s is kind of crumpled, like he shoved it into his pocket without thinking. And Jin Guangyao’s is neat and messy at the same time, the corners and edges having taken a beating.

Wei Wuxian collects them and scans them with bursting concentration, taking his pen and marking up the pages without restraint. He can see Nie Mingjue twitch a little out of the corner of his eye but well, what’s paper for if not for ink? It seems like their motifs are centered around osmanthus or plum blossom flowers, colorful flames, and the moon hidden behind clouds. Okay, well, nothing too unusual. But this is going to be a pretty big project and Wei Wuxian chews on his lip as he compiles a list of things to consider and ask.

Thankfully (again), it seems like they already have a basic shape idea in mind as well as style, size and coloring. Wei Wuxian is so goddamn thankful that they really did think this through. It makes his life so much easier and within the hour, he’s already got a rough sketch which he shows off with pride.

It’s a circle of flames intertwined with osmanthus and plum blossom both, circling around the hidden full moon. He’s scribbled some rough details around the edge, indicating size and colorings. This piece isn’t his usual kind (it’s more up Nie Huaisang’s alley actually) but as they pore over the drawing, he finds himself getting more and more invested. There are small tweaks and details but it seems like overall they’re satisfied with the design. Jin Guangyao requests that the flames be a little more explosive and Nie Mingjue seems entirely caught up on the positioning of the flowers. Xichen focuses specifically on the moon but by the end of a long session, they’ve settled on a final design which Wei Wuxian will draw up later and send to them in its final form, without all the scribbles in the margins.

He pulls up a few forms and has them fill out basic information as well as consenting to the tattoo design and process. They will be charged at least partially upfront due to the size and complexity of the piece. Finally, they fill out details about where they want the tattoos and any final notes they want to be taken into consideration.

All this while, the angel has sat ramrod straight, watching with a level of curiosity that doesn’t show anywhere but in the gleam of his eyes. Wei Wuxian wonders what it might take for him to stop looking like a complete sourpuss. With the forms signed and returned to him, he collects them with the three papers they brought and puts them all collectively into his notebook. He stretches and stands, letting out a sigh. “That’ll be all for today. I’ll send over the final design within the next few days. Please feel free to make any changes but do be reasonable about them. We’ll set up another appointment with Mianmian and we can start inking when everything’s in order. Sound good?”

He’s met with three identical nods. Lan Xichen’s smile is brighter than the sun. Jin Guangyao is more reserved but his lips curl and he has that happy bounce in his step. Nie Mingjue even cracks a grin and ruffles Wei Wuxian’s hair on the way out. As he takes them back out to the front, Wei Wuxian notices that the angel hasn’t spoken once, nor does he seem to intend to. He’s ringing them up for the consultation fee and maybe his staring wasn’t quite as covert as he had hoped since Lan Xichen, when handing over his card to pay, also gestures to the silent beauty. “This is my brother, Lan Wangji. He’s here for… Emotional support.” That gets a snort out of Wei Wuxian that breaks out into full laughter as Wangji looks like a strangled cat. Lan Wangji, a name pretty enough to match. How would it taste in his mouth?

“Well!” He slides the receipt across for a signature, never breaking eye contact with Lan Wangji. “It was nice to meet you both, I look forward to your future patronage and then some.” He wiggles his eyebrows and Lan Wangji’s ears flare red that seem to crawl to his cheeks. Again, he speaks just one word in that perfect, beautiful voice of his.

“Shameless.”

[the-odd-job]

Up in Flames chapter 3 - Leave It All Behind (Ashes Part 2)

Warnings: Major Character Death, Chose Not to Use Category: Other Fandom: Transformers Relationships: Megatron/Sunstreaker, Megatron/Sideswipe, Sideswipe & Sunstreaker Characters: Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Megatron, Soundwave, Ravage, Hook, Optimus Additional Tags: Dubcon, Mechpreg, Sticky Words: 3140

( Previous )

::Sunstreaker: presence requested at comm. room.::

Soundwave’s voice floated through his comm. line after he’d accepted the request for the link, and really he wasn’t… He just wasn’t going to slagging question how Soundwave knew his frequency when Sunstreaker very much had never shared it with him.

Soundwave knew way too many damn things, that much was for sure.

::I have no fragging idea where that is,:: Sunstreaker grumbled back.

They hadn’t even had the slagging time to find Hook’s repair bay yet. His valve cover was absolutely not attached to his person yet, and Sunstreaker didn’t much fancy walking around without it.

Especially since he was still likely to drip a trail wherever he went.

Primus could damn all of this right now, please.

::Soundwave: will send Ravage to show the way.::

Right. ::Well, thank you, but would he mind showing the way to Hook’s medbay first?::

Soundwave paused for a second, and Sunstreaker wasn’t sure what the frag he did during that pause, but where he’d half expected the answer to be ‘no, now hurry up’, Soundwave instead responded with, ::Ravage: will show the way to medical bay.::

And then Soundwave cut the call.

...Alright. So. Apparently this was a thing now. Getting shown around by a damn cat.  

He shared a glance with Sideswipe and they finished what they were doing, namely, touching up their paint jobs and finishes. Aside from his missing valve cover and some dents, he was looking just like he hadn’t gotten railed by the almighty Megatron the night before.

They knew what they were doing on the frame care front, was all.

Limits to everything, though. Dinged and bent valve covers went beyond their ability to touch up. Sunstreaker had stored his in his subspace for now. Maybe it could be used, maybe it couldn’t be used, but if nothing else, it was scrap metal. That was always useful to someone.

They didn’t have to wait long after that before there was a ping at their door, and… It wasn’t opened immediately after. Instead the person at the other side waited politely until Sideswipe opened the door and looked down.

None other than Ravage was sitting in front of their door, meeting Sideswipe’s gaze with that thoroughly neutral look that the panther didn’t seem capable of getting rid of. “You needed to be shown to the medical bay, yes? If you’d please follow me.”

Polite. But the brothers filed out after the cat and followed along as Ravage trotted down the hall. A few ramps up, more hallways that they did their best to keep track of, and they came to the end of a short hallway ending in large double doors. They opened on their approach, and on the other side was indeed a repair bay.

“Hook, if you would!” Ravage called out as they entered. The twins had a look around. It was as gloomy as the rest of the ship, but beyond that it looked reasonably well equipped. And clean. Sunstreaker wasn’t sure why he’d expected the Decepticon medbay to be grimy, but it wasn’t.

Hook appeared around a corner and had one up down look at them.

“What do you need?” he asked when nothing immediately jumped out at him.

“Megatron kindly ripped off my valve cover,” Sunstreaker responded, crossing his arms across his chassis. “I’d like it reattached.”

To his credit, Hook didn’t much react, just gestured to one of the berths and went to get some whatever tools. Sunstreaker took the invitation and got on the berth, spreading his legs at Hook’s approach.

Hook didn’t give him any damn warning before he started poking around. Sunstreaker twitched when he felt the Constructicon’s digits pawing at the edges of his valve—probably checking the connectors and the integrity of the surrounding plating. “There’s some bending,” came Hook’s verdict. “I’ll need to fix that too. Do you still have the cover?”

Sunstreaker nodded and reached into his subspace, fetching the piece of metal and handing it to the medic. Hook turned it around in his servos before nodding. “I can still use this. A moment and I’ll have this fixed.” With that, he wandered over to a workbench and began the process of straightening the cover back to its original shape.

It took… Way longer than he would’ve expected from Ratchet, but Sunstreaker tried to wait patiently. Sideswipe fidgeted restlessly and tried to strike up a conversation with Ravage a few times, but the cassette turned out to not be incredibly chatty. Sideswipe had very little success and eventually just slouched against the wall next to the doors.

Finally, though, Hook came back over to him and busied himself between his legs again. His touch was sure in the way of someone who knew what they were doing, but slow like one’s who wanted to make sure they exercised the utmost care in what they did.

Ratchet was sure, but he was also swift. Not so much it would have reduced the quality of his work, he was better than that, but he didn’t waste time.

Sunstreaker wasn’t sure if Hook was wasting time either, but pits, he could’ve still worked a little faster. 

But even if it took twice the time, his cover was eventually snapped neatly in place and Sunstreaker felt significantly more… Covered. “That should do it,” Hook said with a satisfied nod. “Try to retract it next time, maybe?”

Sunstreaker grunted. “No promises. Thanks.”

“Yeah yeah,” and Hook left, disappearing back around the corner he’d come from. No ‘now get out of my medbay’, surprisingly.

Or maybe it was just Ratchet who was grouchy enough to chase you out with a wrench.

Sideswipe shrugged at him, so Sunstreaker went ahead and jumped off the berth. Ravage nodded at the both of them before he led the way out of the medbay.

“Why does Soundwave want us in the comm. room, anyway?” Sideswipe asked as they followed the cassette.

Ravage glanced at him before answering. “Optimus Prime wishes to speak with you.”

Sunstreaker growled. “What the slag does he want?”

“He hasn’t said, but I expect it concerns the matter of your defection.”

Yeah, that’s about what they’d figure too. It wasn’t really a stretch to imagine there were things that had left unsaid when they’d left the Autobots, as sudden and unplanned as that had been. Or whatever else regarding the whole situation.

There was a heck of a lot to unpack. Take your fragging pick of what it could be. 

“Has he just been… Waiting? Like, Soundwave asked us to come to the comm. room first, the whole medbay detour wasn’t much planned,” Sideswipe asked. 

He wasn’t sure if Ravage’s face could even form the expression, but it almost looked like he smiled. “Lord Megatron informed him of the reason for your delay, fear not.”

Wait.

Wait wait wait. 

“Are you telling me,” Sunstreaker hissed, “that Megatron fucking told Optimus he took off my valve cover and I needed to have it reattached?”

“Yes.” And that was definitely amusement in Ravage’s voice, smile or no smile.

Sideswipe burst out laughing, but Sunstreaker couldn’t resist the urge to facepalm. Right, now the fragging Prime of all people knew Megatron played it rough—like that couldn’t be expected anyway. Prime didn’t much like it rough, though. 

He could only imagine Optimus’ goddamn concern at news like those. And it did look a little bad. Usually when both parties agreed to interface, the covers came off voluntarily. 

He was going to hear about this still, wasn’t he?

They came to the doors of the comm. room before he had the chance to say anything more on the topic. Soundwave was standing on one side of the room, there but out of the way. Megatron stood in front of the large main screen with his arms clasped behind his back, glancing their way as they entered.

And on the screen itself was Optimus, the Ark’s orange interior as his backdrop. 

“Ah, he’s here,” Megatron intoned upon seeing them, gesturing for them to approach. Sunstreaker scowled; Sideswipe still felt a bit giggly—but they walked over to the screen until they were within Optimus’ view. “As you can see, in perfect health.”

“No thanks to you,” Sunstreaker snarled with a glare at the warlord.

Optimus cleared his vocalizer. “Twins,” he said in greeting. “Are you alright?” And there came the concern, right out the gate. Optimus’ optics dropped a little lower, although it looked like he was rather looking at their ruined insignias, rather than anything further down.

Sunstreaker rolled his optics, but Sideswipe threw his arm around his shoulders and grinned at Optimus. “Just dandy~ Hook’s totally decent at the repair stuff,” he laughed, just to see Optimus’ look of distress at the reminder of what the slag Sunstreaker had needed fixed. Sunstreaker barely resisted the urge to have his palm meet his face again.

At least Sideswipe was having fun.

“What do you want?” Sunstreaker asked with that out of the way, crossing his arms and frowning at the screen—and very aware Megatron was standing at his shoulder, overlooking the whole conversation. It didn’t matter to Sunstreaker, but he wondered if it was giving Optimus a hard time. 

Maybe he wouldn’t expect Sunstreaker would dare speak the truth with the tyrant present. To pits with that! He wasn’t a fragging coward and he was not here to please Megatron. Damn mech could think what he wanted of anything Sunstreaker said, it was no paint off his back. 

...Up until the moment it might be. He was far from putting violent retaliation past Megatron. 

Not enough of a deterrent, though. Optimus would get the fragging truth, no matter what that might be.

“I wanted to ask how you were doing…” Optimus started, which was fair enough coming from him–

–But he continued, “...and remind you that you’re always welcome among the Autobots, twins.”

Sideswipe removed his arm from his shoulders and straightened, the both of them more than a little surprised at the declaration.

And suspicious over it. “Seriously?” Sunstreaker asked, his disbelief ringing loud and clear in his voice. “After I fragged Megatron? And got knocked up by him? And kept the sparkling? And lied about what the frag was going on?”

“I won’t pretend those aren’t serious, even condemnable infractions,” Optimus said, sounding like he was choosing his words very carefully, “but I don’t want you to think that joining the Decepticons is your only choice in this situation.”

Oh, so that was it? Optimus just didn’t want them on the Decepticon side? Why? Because he just happened to hate the Decepticons? Because he didn’t want the twins fighting against him?

Sunstreaker scowled. “And would the other Autobots agree? I’m pretty sure Cliffjumper and Red Alert are glad to see us gone, and they’re not the only ones.”

“They can be reminded,” Optimus rumbled, and where that would’ve sounded all kinds of threatening coming from someone like Megatron, he knew what Optimus’ ‘reminders’ were like.

Peaceful talks in his office with some light berating, that’s what. 

It never worked on anyone except those far too eager to please. “You never managed to shut Cliffjumper and Red up even before we did anything to earn their distrust,” Sunstreaker growled. Well, hadn’t done anything beyond being too violent, too Decepticon.

They weren’t Decepticons, never were, still weren’t, but that didn’t mean their conduct wasn’t more becoming of the purple faction. “What reason do I have to trust you’d have any more luck now that my disloyalty has been proven?”

“You’d have the command on your side,” Optimus said. Aside from Red Alert? And as if that was enough if the rank and file were busy hating on them. 

There was one more issue here, too.

“Even if I wanted to come back—which I don’t—you really think he’d let me?” Sunstreaker asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at Megatron. The tyrant had made it abundantly clear he wasn’t going to let Sunstreaker just leave while he was carrying the damn mech’s sparkling, even if Optimus wasn’t necessarily aware of the extent of Megatron’s determination. 

But the Prime should be able to guess, just based on the manner in which Megatron had fetched him—just based on the warlord’s general personality. Optimus was more familiar with it than most on the Autobot side.

“I’m willing to force the issue,” came Optimus’ answer, his optics flicking to Megatron. Sunstreaker could hear the tyrant’s engine rev quietly, although Megatron stayed silent otherwise and didn’t interrupt their conversation.

Force the issue, huh? Megatron would assuredly do the same, and then what? Sunstreaker would be stuck with two factions fighting over him? If the Autobots even agreed to fight for him.

Somehow that thought didn’t much appeal to him. Oh, it would be entertaining no doubt, but it wouldn’t necessarily end so mighty well for him.

“I don’t need you to,” Sunstreaker said, revving his own engine loud enough that it was sure to carry to Optimus. “I’m perfectly fine staying right here.”

Optimus looked disbelieving, prompting Sunstreaker to roll his optics again. Of course the Prime wouldn’t fragging believe him, especially after that valve cover incident. Someone like Optimus wouldn’t understand how the slag someone could be fine with suffering through things like that—mech was fragging convinced Sunstreaker needed saving from the evil, evil warlord named Megatron, wasn’t he?

He needed no saving. Frag, he’d save himself if it came down to it. He didn’t need one Prime’s help for it.

Megatron’s servo landed on his shoulder, heavy—a claim for Optimus to see, if there ever was one. For as long as he carrying the mech’s offspring, Megatron had a vested interest in him, and with how possessive over the sparklet he was behaving, Sunstreaker wasn’t sure there was anything anyone could do to stand in Megatron’s way if someone tried to remove it from his sphere of influence. His sparkling, how many times had the tyrant repeated that?

Was the weight of the servo approving too, though? Sunstreaker had just denied he wanted to return to the Autobots, exactly as Megatron wanted.

But he didn’t do this for Megatron, he did this for himself, and for the lack of a future he had in the Autobots.

Nothing the Prime could say would change how his troops felt, and no doubt his troops would feel Sunstreaker was nothing but a certified traitor. And the sparkling, too. Its future would be guaranteed with Megatron, at least in some way—but the Autobots? Would they treat it as anything more than the goddamn creation of their enemy? Prejudiced against it from the beginning?

No, the Autobots weren’t an option. 

Optimus looked like he was about to say something, but Sideswipe pulsed a question at him that Sunstreaker proceeded to voice before the Prime could get a word in. “Would you have pulled me from battles if you’d known I was carrying?” as Megatron claimed?

The Prime hesitated for a second or two before nodding. “Yes. I would not risk the life of one who had no say in it.”

Did he know Sunstreaker found that answer displeasing? Well, he did after Sunstreaker narrowed his optics at him. Megatron’s servo tightened on his plating—no doubt the tyrant wanted him to remember he had called the truth on this matter. 

So Optimus wouldn’t have let him fight, even though it was his fragging frame and his fragging life—shouldn’t he have a say in what he did with it, sparkling or no sparkling?

The Prime wasn’t so different from Megatron. They were both interested in controlling him now that he was carrying—just for slightly different reasons. 

But both of their reasons revolved around the sparklet. His goddamn sparklet.

Everyone seemed very ready to brush that little detail under the rug. He was the carrier. Shouldn’t he have some fragging say?

“Cool. So, recap, I’m not coming back, I’m perfectly okay with staying right here... Was that all, then?” Sunstreaker asked, snapping his words—aggravated.

Optimus sighed and his shoulders slumped just so. “Will I see you on the battlefield?” he asked still.

Sunstreaker hesitated for a moment before he shook his helm. “No. I’m not fighting for him.”

He couldn’t tell if Optimus was relieved, although he would’ve guessed yes. It would be so like the Prime. “Then that is all,” Optimus nodded. Sunstreaker could just feel Megatron shifting, and Sideswipe glanced up at him—Megatron nodded to Soundwave, and the screen blinked to black, cutting the call rather abruptly.

“That went well,” Megatron commented after. It didn’t sound like sarcasm, and really, what reason for sarcasm was there? Hadn’t Sunstreaker said everything Megatron had wanted to hear? Not because he gave a damn about what the tyrant wanted, but… For now, and through some force, their wills aligned.

He had no options but to stay with the Decepticons or try to get back to the Autobots’ ‘protection’, and it was easy to choose between those two. So… What Megatron wanted.

“Why did you let him call?” Sunstreaker asked, looking up at the warlord.

Megatron met his optics. “He needed to hear for himself that you’re not leaving.”

Sunstreaker scoffed. “You think he’ll believe me with you hovering there the whole time? He’ll think I’m scared of you or something, and just saying what you’re pressuring me to say.”

“If he didn’t believe you and tries something, he will regret it,” Megatron growled at that, rather viciously. His grip on his shoulder tightened again—possessive, almost.

Sunstreaker shivered from helm to pede. Oh, there were promises of so many bad things in that gesture.

He didn’t find himself minding any of them very much.

“Are you scared of me, though?” Megatron asked, a bit out of the blue. Sunstreaker cocked an optical ridge at him.

“Of course not. Why would I be?” Was he stupidly fearless, considering who the slag he was asking that from? Maybe, but it was the truth. 

Megatron’s rumble sounded amused, but he didn’t try to give him reasons. “So you meant what you said about not wanting to return to the Autobots?”

“Of course,” Sunstreaker repeated, shrugging his free shoulder. “They’d treat me as an outcast after the slag I did, even more than they already did. And what of the sparkling? I doubt they’d view it as an innocent bystander to this whole spectacle, considering who the frag its sire is.”

“Precisely,” Megatron snarled. The corner of Sunstreaker’s mouth twitched up into a half smile. 

“Basically, we have nothing to go back to,” Sideswipe said, shrugging too—and nowhere else to go, although he didn’t say that much. Everyone knew it was the state of things, anyway. “So you’re stuck with us for now.”

“And I’ll make you regret it,” Sunstreaker promised.

Megatron laughed. “I look forward to that.”

( Next )

[cutie1365]

A Kid from Queens Part 10

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Info: CA: Civil War Era. Tony Stark enlists his daughter to find the web slinging spider in Queens.

Word count: 3.5k

Warnings: language, lmk if I should add anything

(no Far From Home spoilers)

A/N: I’ve mapped out the rest of the story through Homecoming and I’m excited!!...  Please give this some love! Like and reblog, let me know your favorite part and what you think is coming next in the comments! Please, these things are so small but help us writers so much! Thank you!

Masterlist linked in my bio. Taglist in the reblog (inactive will be removed)

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The moment you woke up you knew: today would not be a good day. Your head was pounding, it was as if you had a pulse vibrating from ear to ear. You threw the covers off of yourself and sat up, your legs dangling over the side of the bed. You held your head in your hands for a moment before glancing to your bedside table, where you noticed a glass of water and pain meds that you certainly didn’t put there.

You were immediately struck with a wave of embarrassment. You didn’t expect to get that drunk, and you hated feeling like a burden. You felt horrible that Peter had to go so far out of his way to get you home and into bed.

It wasn’t until you were pulling the coffee pot out of its metal entrapment that you remembered.

I kissed Peter... and confessed that I liked him.

Your face went flush, all you could think about was how your father would kill you and Peter if he ever found out. Yesterday’s article already has him suspicious.

You felt trapped, you were running through your mind what you would even say. Surely after your brief texts last night he’d want to continue the conversation. Before, you could be honest when you said nothing happened, now... not so much. You didn’t want to lie to your father, or yourself. Slowly more and more memories came back to you from the party and you began to feel a pressure in your chest. You weren’t sure if it was just embarrassment, or anxiety for what was to come, or a combination of the two. You needed to get out of the tower, that was all you knew, you needed to escape and take some time to sort everything out.

That’s how you ended up two hours later at the compound upstate. You weren’t sure yet if you wanted to forget about everything that happened, or to fixate on every detail and relive it.

You hadn’t even been sitting on the balcony of your room for 30 minutes when you heard a jet landing. Surely your father wasn’t back a week early?

You slowly made your way out onto the tarmac, greeting a few Stark employees on your way. Your feet hit the dark pavement and you waited, wrapping your arms comfortingly around yourself wondering what you would even say to your father. You had no idea.

The jet door fell open as your father began his descent down the stairs and it hit you. All your emotions at once: guilt, embarrassment, heartache, all of it. As Tony’s eyes landed on you, he raised an eyebrow in confusion before shifting into parent mode.

“Young lady we got a lot to talk about-” Tony began to scold you as he stepped of the plane, an authoritative finger pointed at you. He was cut of by you throwing yourself into his arms, wrapping your own around him, breath shaking as you began to cry.

Tony was confused and stood frozen for a moment before enveloping you in his arms and rubbing soothing circles onto your back.

“Baby, what happened?” Tony asked, worried.

You unburied your head from his chest and looked up at him. He saw your tears, your expression, and your inability to articulate what was wrong. It was as if you couldn’t form the words. Your lips parted to speak but you just shook your head.

“You gotta talk to me, kid, I can’t read your mind.” Tony spoke softly.

“I- I fucked up.” You confessed, and he raised a brow in response.

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An hour later you found yourself sitting in a conference room with Tony and your publicist, Linda. You’d told Tony everything... well, nearly everything. You’d left out some of the intimate details, but he got the gist. You’d agreed on one thing: no more secrets. He wasn’t mad, per se, sure he felt betrayed but at the end of the day he understood. Young love wasn’t a mystery to him, even though most of his younger days were spent as a playboy.

Tony wanted you to be happy, as all fathers would. But he also recognized the conflict of interest. He was the figurehead of the Avengers. You couldn’t be dating someone who is practically a member of the team, especially one with his identity still a secret. That was another thing you had agreed on: for both of your safeties, you couldn’t be together.

Now this agreement was met with tears... lots of them. You knew you’d be putting Peter at risk, and you’d be sneaking around. You were tired of sneaking around. You wanted to love someone and let the whole world know. You wanted to be happy with no buts. You were tired of buts.

I want to be with you... but we can’t tell your father.

You’re brilliant... but you’re too young.

You’re a Stark... but you’re not Tony.

So you vowed, from that day forward, to never lie to those that you loved unless absolutely necessary. No more secrets. You’d made a promise. You’d also made a mess of things and had a press nightmare that needed to be dealt with.

That’s where Linda came in. She’s been your families publicist for years. And you had rudely hung up on her at the party. Maybe if you had listened and never went to that stupid party none of this would have happened. Of course, that picture of you and Spider-Man would still have been circulating New York faster than one of your jet engines.

Linda had a plan. She didn’t know that you actually knew Spider-Man and that the article was true. She just thought you didn’t want the bad publicity, and to be linked to a ‘vigilante’, especially with everything going on with the Accords.

In reality you didn’t care about protecting yourself from this backlash, you cared about protecting Peter. If the public thinks you’re dating, the bad guys will think that too. Starks have enough enemies and you didn’t want to put him in the line of fire, no matter what your heart wants. You had to change their minds... whatever it takes. Linda had a plan... but so did you, though you knew your father would hate it.

Linda’s plan was, well, going to be fucking exhausting for you. For years you’d denied any and every interviewer that came your way. You had always hated the idea. You were an electrical engineer, not some media plaything. But you knew that if you wanted to have any control over the public’s image of you, and to keep Peter safe, this was the price. You would do all of the shitty interviews you detested for years: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, you get the point. You’d play their game, steer the conversation.

“Are you sure this will work?” Tony questioned, knowing you were very vocal about never doing interviews. They didn’t care about what you had to say or your brain, they cared about how you look and your last name.

“It would have about a 75% success rate. We can’t delete the article, we can’t make people forget, but we can change the subject. I think we would have even better results if there was something equally as big that you were moving that subject too.” Linda explained.

“And it won’t look suspicious that I’ve never accepted an interview in my life, and now after this picture comes out I’m on everyone’s screens?” You asked, skeptically.

“With the right cover you should be fine. I was thinking you could be promoting the philanthropy work of Stark Industries.” Linda suggested.

“What if we were announcing some type of new grant or scholarship program? Promoting kids in the STEM field, open for anyone to apply? We could be offering a few internship positions or a chance to meet Tony, something interactive, worthy of an announcement.” You spit-balled.

“A real Stark Internship program.” Tony nodded. You both knew that was Peter’s cover when he went to Berlin, so why not make it a real thing? It had also been something you were thinking about, despite the unfortunate circumstances it had been brought up in.

“It’s perfect, we can even have you doing some of the interviewing, so there’s another incentive.” Linda beamed.

“Great, how fun.” You rolled your eyes, Tony gave you a warning look as if to say ‘You don’t get to be picky, we’re trying to fix your mess here’.

“I think this will work perfectly. I’ve got some friends at NBC so I bet I can get you on within the next week. We need to start big, maybe late night, and work our way out. I’m thinking YouTube, I’m thinking morning talk shows, you’re gonna be a household name by the end of the month.” Linda stood, excited, and rushed off to get to work.

You put your head down onto the cold conference table and sighed. Tony rolled his chair towards you and began to rub your back.

“You’re doing the right thing here kid.” Tony spoke softly.

“Doesn’t feel like it. What will I even say to him?” You looked up to him, eyes prickling as tears threatened to spill.

“The truth never hurt.” Tony suggested. Since when did he get so grown up and mature?

“Then why do I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest?” You groaned, laying back onto the table, your head hitting it with a thud.

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the dramatic one here, right? You had a crush, he’s a good kid I get it, but you’ll get over it. Right?” Tony said, as if it was going to be that easy.

“Mhmm.” You let out a mumble of agreement, but something told you it was never going to be that simple. It never was when it came to you and Peter, you would always have unfinished business.

“Alright, come on I got something that will cheer you up.” Tony helped you to your feet and took your hands into his, “Close your eyes”.

He led you from the room, and judging by the proximity and number of turns, you had surmised that he led you into the lab.

“Are you ready?” Tony asked, you simply nodded, “Ok open ‘em.”

Your eyes shot open and grew wide. Anyone else would have seen a triangular hunk of metal sitting on a table.

“Oh my god, did you finish it?” You lifted it gently from the table and began to analyze it.

“Mm, it’s a little finicky, needs your magic touch kiddo. Have fun.” Tony patted your back and left you to work. He knew that was exactly what you needed to get your mind of everything. You needed to tinker, you needed to create, to think and use your mind, and most certainly not think about Peter Parker.

You had been so concentrated on your work that you didn’t notice a figure drifting through the door.

“Ms. Stark, I had not expected to see you here at the Compound.” You recognized the voice immediately, one that had guided you your whole life, and yet now he was, well, a ‘he’.

“Vision! You scared me.” You laughed.

“My apologies.” He smiled, accessing your work. “Working on something new?”

“It’s just a housing unit for nanoparticles. One day one of these will replace all of Tony’s clunky old suits.” You smiled.

“Well if anyone can do it, it’s you Ms. Stark.” Vision smiled politely.

“Thanks Vision. How’s the compound been here without me?” You joked, taking a break from your work.

“I must admit it has been quieter. It’s not quite the same without the Captain and Natasha. Perhaps we need some ‘young blood’ as they say, like your friend Mr. Spider-“ Vision began but was cut off by F.R.I.D.A.Y. altering you of an incoming call from Happy. You quickly apologized to Vision before telling F.R.I.D.A.Y. to put him through.

“Y/N,” Happy sounded frantic, as per usual these days, “The kids looking for you.” Your eyes grew wide, you weren’t ready to face this yet.

“Happy, I’m upstate.” You stated.

“Upstate? You promised me Monday.” Happy spoke and it was as if you could hear his heart palpitating with stress.

“Everything’s packed, you can have it moved out whenever you want. Hap, I gotta go I’m in the lab.” You hoped he could move your stuff out early and cross one thing off his to-do list, not that it would have much of an effect on his stress levels.

“Well what do you want me to tell the kid, he won’t stop texting me.” Shit. If he had been texting Happy that probably means he’s been texting you, and that wasn’t something you wanted to deal with right now, but you knew that the longer you put it off the worse it would be.

“I’ll be back Monday Hap, I’m sure you can handle him for two days.” You snapped, ending the call. You rested your head in your hands with a sigh.

“It does not bode well to put off our problems Ms. Stark, especially when involving your heart, and the heart of another.” Vision spoke wisely, as if he understood the entire situation.

“Easier said than done Vis.” You muttered.

You spent the rest of the night tinkering in the lab. You had a suspicion that your father could have very easily finished his work on the housing unit, but instead saw it as an opportunity to both distract you and keep you busy.

When you finally decided to retire for the night with a nice hot bath, you had yet to check your phone for most of the day. You were dreading the inevitable, but as you tucked yourself in bed you knew you had to face it sometime. The bright screen illuminated your face as you read the notifications littering your lock screen.

Peter Parker 9:45

Hey, how’re you feeling this morning?

Peter Parker 2:30

Stopped by the tower to check on you, you ok?

Missed call from Peter Parker at 4:41

Peter Parker 8:50

You’re kinda worrying me Y/N, are you ok?

You felt bad for ignoring him all day, but even now all you felt was embarrassment at your actions the night before. You weren’t sure how he was going to react in the light of day. Details of your conversation were still blurry, but you sure remember that kiss, and him pushing you off of him. Sure he did so with good reason, and it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Why had you even decided to do that in the first place? You decided on a quick and simple reply before your thoughts began to spiral and throw you into another panic attack.

Hey Peter, sorry I’ve been in the lab upstate all day. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’ll be out of town til Monday.

Vague but better than ignoring. And only a little white lie. You decided to return to town tomorrow, Sunday afternoon, not Monday. You knew Happy would have moved your stuff into the apartment by then and you’d like to start unpacking.

As you attempted to fall asleep, you tried to keep your mind off of Peter, but that proved to be an impossible task.

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The next morning, you enjoyed a peaceful drive back into the city. When you arrived, the movers were still working on getting all the furniture inside and into place. Instead of sitting in the apartment and watching them work, you decided to take a stroll around Central Park to clear your head. You needed some alone time with your thoughts to work out everything. You still had details to put together for the Stark Internship and the execution of Linda’s plan to get the world to stop asking about Spider-Man. She basically wanted to turn you into some sort of social media influencer, and the idea disgusted you.

You spent the rest of the night thinking and relaxing, vowing in the morning to start working on the piles of boxes now littering your apartment.

And true to your word, that’s what you did.

As Monday afternoon rolled around, you had successfully unpacked and organized the contents of about 15% of your boxes. Not a small feat considering half of them were shoes; thank god for walk in closets.

You were busy unpacking boxes of books and alphabetizing them onto your book shelves in the living room when you heard a knock at the door. You furrowed your brows in confusion, not thinking anyone knew this address besides your father.

You opened the door, revealing the curly haired boy that had consumed your thoughts for three nights in a row now.

“Peter, what are you doing here?” You asked, a stack of books still in your hands, letting him into the apartment. Your heart sank, knowing what you were about to do.

“I just wanted to talk to you about some stuff.” Peter admitted, while you walked back to the bookshelf and resumed placing the books into their new home.

“Peter this isn’t a great time.” You tried to put this off, hoping maybe you could prolong this internal purgatory you were in.

“Y/N, about the party-“ Peter began, fidgeting with his hands nervously.

“Ok, guess we’re doing this,” You slammed the remaining books from your arms down onto the coffee table, whipping around to face him, “Listen, um, I shouldn’t have- I’m sorry. It was a mistake. I was drunk, I’m overwhelmed with all this moving stuff and-“

“It’s ok.” Peter nodded sweetly, but you could tell he was breaking inside.

“It’s not,” You didn’t even sound like yourself, like you were already playing the role of the woman your father and publicist so desperately wanted you to be, “My father was right, this can’t happen Peter. There’s too much risk involved.”

“What if it’s worth the risk?” Peter asked, almost begging you to listen. You removed your hands from your hips and began to wave them about as you ranted.

“People like us don't get to make that decision Peter, we don’t get to choose ourselves over the job we have to do, and the people that need to be protected.” Your voice raising in volume.

“Is this your dad talking, or you? You really don’t think you deserve to be happy?” Peter argued, knowing you didn’t sound like yourself. But his words hurt, because you knew he was right and there was nothing you could do, because you knew how dangerous it could be.

“I think you should go Peter.” You spoke, turning your back to him, you dropped your head into your hand. Peter thought you were angry with him, and had turned in an attempt to restrain yourself, so he tried once more. Last chance.

“Y/N. Look at me and tell me honestly that it was a mistake, and that you don’t care about me.” Peter spoke with more confidence than he had the whole conversation. You turned back to him after a minute and slowly dropped your hand and lifted your chin, your vision clouded with tears.

“Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Your voice shook as your tears ran free. Peters eyes grew wide, he hadn’t expected that.

And almost in a moment of clarity he realized, you did care about him, that much was obvious from your reaction, but he also realized this wasn’t your decision. And that meant that you didn’t have much power to change it. You were hurting, and he just wanted to sweep you up in his arms and make you forget all the pain, but he knew that would make things worse.

As he left with a nod and a mumbled apology he realized just how much of a fool he had been. A fool to think he, just some kid from Queens, had a chance with the brilliant billionaire he’d soon never be able to forget.

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You gave yourself an hour to cry and grieve the loss of someone who’s still alive, before making your way back out into the world.

Linda had her plans... and so did you. You knew there was one thing you needed if you really were going to sell this whole ‘perfect Stark girl’ media image and finally put to bed the Spider-Man rumors.

That’s how you found yourself, two hours later standing in front of a large oak door in a sundress. You knew the best way to forget about Peter, was to occupy your mind. You needed work, a distraction, and answers. Were your intentions pure? No, but then again neither were his... and you were getting impatient.

You knocked again, as the door was pulled open, revealing a face in utter shock.

“Y/N?” He asked, his eyes growing wider, if that was even possible.

“Thomas. We need to talk.” You spoke with so little emotion that it scared even you as you strutted past him and into the lavish townhome.

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[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 4x02-- The Gang Tries to Serve a Subpoena

Under the cut.

This isn’t the first episode of season 4, but since it’s the first episode that doesn’t take place in an AU… it’s basically the first episode. 

Reddick, Boseman, and Lockhart has been rebranded as “RBL: A division of STR Laurie”. Remember when Will tried to rebrand Lockhart/Gardner as “LG”? At least RBL isn’t a well-known appliance brand. But I think this might be the same “sleek” font as the LG rebrand.

The acquisition of the firm has led to a remodel. I enjoy how every season RBL looks a little bit less like the LG set.

This remodel makes the offices look like a spaceship/villain’s lair/cyberpunk nightclub. There is a giant spiky cocoon thing (nope, I don’t have better words to describe that) coming out of the ceiling in the conference room and a new spiral staircase near the name partners’ offices. It looks ridiculous and intimidating (and it is supposed to). 

There are also dogs roaming around off lash.

And neon lights and a giant fucking GARGOYLE outside of Adrian’s office. It’s so huge it looks like it was taken from the Harold Washington Library. (This may be the most authentically Chicago thing in this episode.)

Much like the last episode, the first thing we see after the teaser is Diane arriving at work and being greeted by Marissa. And, also much like the last episode, Diane is disoriented.

As it turns out, there’s been a bit of a time jump since the end of the last episode-- Diane’s been traveling/resting (doctor’s orders), so this is her first day back to work in 9 months. “What happened here?” Diane asks. Does it make sense a name partner would be so out of the loop on major renovations? Nah. We are not meant to spend much time wondering why Diane/Adrian/Liz would agree to an acquisition or how the talks played out. This is the premise for season 4 and we’re just supposed to accept it. I’m usually wary of this kind of re-premising, but this doesn’t bug me too much. We saw last season the firm had no identity (bc when the firm had an identity in season 1 it was ALL BC OF BARBARA KOLSTAD) and we saw them lose their top clients. Diane’s been on leave so she probably wasn’t that involved in conversations, Adrian probably welcomes acquisition because it’s more money, and Liz… has always only been idealistic to a point.

My point is: our heroes aren’t actually, and have never been, heroes. Sure, they’re the underdogs dealing with a big corporation… but also, they sold to the big corporation.

Marissa says the cocoon spike thing is a sunset. K.

Jay’s never been up to STR Laurie’s floor. The dogs running around, however, have been upstairs. Monday and Wednesday are pet days, but the pets always come through the RBL floor instead of the STR Laurie floor. 

The name partners can bring dogs. (How many name partners are there if there are this many dogs and STR Laurie is at most 4 people and RBL is 3 and none of the RBL partners brought in dogs?)

JUSTICE FOR JUSTICE! (Poor Justice is probably not still around 11 years later but I had to say it.)

In the partners’ meeting, even the food everyone’s eating looks more upscale. Adrian officially welcomes Diane back. One of the non-name partners is not so happy to have her back. Or, rather, he’s not so happy the name partners got a ton of money in the deal and the non-name partners got screwed. Fair point.

I guess neither Lucca nor Rosalyn got the partnership.

Adrian expositions that they were acquired because they couldn’t survive after losing ChumHum, and STR Laurie is the 7th largest firm in the world. Got it. 

Diane’s check from the acquisition of the firm is so huge it stuns her. You would think she would have known these details. But we’re here now and this show works better if you look at the themes instead of wanting all of the character motivations to always make sense. I’d probably be chewing this plot out if it happened on TGW-- why would x make y decision!? Why didn’t we get to see it!?-- but with TGF I have an easier time accepting radical changes in tone. 

And TGF did need a change in tone. You can’t get that much mileage out of episodes about 45 (whose name might not even be mentioned this ep? I will try to look out for that as I watch) and clearly no one on the writing staff is interested in small, character driven intraoffice power struggles as the primary plots. If the writers have something to say about massive corporations, I’d rather sacrifice a few scenes of character development for a season that has a POV than sit through a season as uninspired as s7 of TGW.

(Perhaps this is why I’ve always liked TGW season 6 more than others-- it’s messy, but it’s INTERESTING. I like the Kings’ work best when it has energy and say what you will about season 6, but it’s not lacking for energy.) 

There is a dog peeing on Adrian’s office door and he is NOT happy about it (no one would be, but he is ESPECIALLY fed up). One gets the sense he’s not just appalled that it’s happening but tired of the dogs altogether. 

Diane is summoned to go upstairs to meet with the overlords. According to Adrian, Mr. Laurie isn’t bad, but Mr. Firth might be. 

Upstairs, there is a very long, very white hallway. It looks like it’s out of a sci-fi movie. 

I see TGF has finally leaned in to their tradition of casting British actors by just… having STR Laurie be a British firm. 

The set decoration of Mr. Firth’s office looks like it belongs on Evil. It’s over the top, has a piece of art that looks like horns (much like the therapist monster thingy… just watch Evil okay) and light fixtures that are clearly crosses. 

Mr. Firth asks Diane what she wants to do and she says she wants to get back to work. “What work?” he asks. Diane wants to get back to her clients and Mr. Firth tells a story about a poor man who wanted to give everything, even the moon, to a thief. Neither Diane nor I understand. Mr. Firth says this story is about how he’s giving Diane her “moon” by having her head up their pro-bono cases because she shines when she has a goliath to face. True, but what does this have to do with the story!? I legit thought that story was going to be about how Diane gives too much of herself and should learn to accept high pay checks while doing no work and getting out of STR Laurie’s way. Maybe I missed something?

Anyway, Diane is getting the pro bono department with 22 lawyers and 40 cases. This is to keep her happy and to make STR Laurie look good. Feels too good to be true. Diane gets investigator time and partner billable hours, and she’s told this is fine-- make the firm a good citizen no matter how much it costs. WTF is going on here? Is this a trick?

Diane walks downstairs, happy, as Lucca heads up the stairs. Maybe she’s not a partner, but she’s important enough to be summoned upstairs. 

Mr. Firth explains to Lucca that he is “the sorting hat of lawyers.” Lucca explains she’s never read Harry Potter because she doesn’t “like wizard shit.” Impressively brave to say that to your new overlord, Lucca. I have missed you and your give no fucks attitude. 

“Yes, fuck wizard shit,” Mr. Firth responds, somewhat stiltedly. 

Mr. Firth wants Lucca to work on a divorce case for one of their top clients as the client has a personality clash with their head of family law. Their head of family law is, of course, David Lee. Welcome back, I guess. At least David Lee happening to end up at this firm that acquired RBL makes a ton more sense than all the ways they found to keep David Lee relevant to TGW in its last two seasons. 

David Lee hasn’t changed a bit.

Diane’s first client is XIOMARA VILLANUEVA!!!!!! 

But in this universe, she’s a restaurant owner whose restaurant is about to be torn down because of eminent domain. Diane tries one of her usual tricks- asking Xo (I’m sure she has a name on this show and once they say it again I will stop calling her Xo) to bring her food truck outside of the courthouse so everyone can smell how great her food is and be more sympathetic to her case. 

“You’re not the lawyer I expected,” Xo tells Diane. Diane responds, “I’ve changed.” Diane, I am pretty sure that’s not what she meant, but ok!

Lucca and David Lee’s first meeting with Bianca Skye, the high profile client, is a bit awkward, but Bianca instantly takes a liking to Lucca. (“I didn’t know this firm had any black lawyers,” Bianca notes. “Oh, they hide us,” Lucca jokes. But it’s not really a joke when all the black lawyers are the RBL staff and they’re on a different floor…)

David Lee has Bianca tell Lucca her whole case-- which is fairly straightforward-- with way too much detail. Before Lucca asks David if he’s just trying to run up billable hours, it’s clear he’s dragging this out on purpose.

“Oh good, the Angry Black Woman has made an appearance,” awful human being David Lee says after Lucca calls him out. 

David Lee plays rank on her and tells her to watch and learn. Yes, making a racist comment and then being condescending without explaining your strategy is DEFINITELY the way to get the lawyer characterized by her complete lack of interest in being a cog in a machine on your side. 

Adrian, Liz, and Barry are all helping Diane do a mock trial before her first day back in court. It’s fun. 

Adrian is SO over the dogs. His face when a pack of them run past is priceless. 

Diane’s mock trial strategy goes well; the evidence is on her side. And Julius, as luck would have it, is the judge on this case. (Why this is in federal court I don’t know.)

Julius is very happy to be a judge. 

Canning is back. Feels weird to have him here without Alicia. But, honestly, I was prepared for worse. As we’ll see as this scene progresses, Canning is the PERFECT person to have as opposing counsel. If there’s a new rule to exploit, he’d be the first to know about it. If there’s a slimy strategy to use while playing innocent, that’s his schtick. If there’s a corporation doing bad things, he’s your guy. 

Canning tries to explain his condition to Julius. I guess Julius must have been in the New York office when Canning was at LG in late season 5. Diane laughs, knowing that Julius can’t be tricked by Canning. 

Canning probably also knows it won’t work, because he’s already prepared to ask Julius to recuse himself. I feel like this is entirely reasonable. Diane isn’t just an acquaintance… they were partners at the same firm for over a decade.

Diane is TOTALLY the type of white lady to overdo the pronunciation of “chorizo”. 

The delicious smelling food seems like it’s going to work, but we quickly learn that what used to constitute tricky is now just child’s play. The CEO of Rare Orchard, who has been subpoenaed, has decided not to show up. He doesn’t have an excuse. He isn’t delaying. He’s just not going to show up. Like, remember when we thought it was egregious that the CEO Canning was defending in 4x11 kept putting off depositions and Alicia calling the judge was an effective strategy? HA! (Anyone know if this case is based on something or if it’s the writers taking some creative liberties for the sake of plot? My fear is that aspects of it are real because I can’t see the writers being this interested in a plot point they invented.)

Canning says he thinks the CEO doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the subpoena. Julius reminds Canning that he is a federal judge and his subpoena is legitimate. Canning is all, “yes, I know that’s your position” as though laws are opinions. AAAAAAAAA.

This show loves this kind of thing, just totally taking the basic assumptions away and letting chaos reign. 

This CEO sent Julius a memo telling him to “go fuck yourself.” Eeek.

Diane doesn’t even get to do much lawyering.

Then there is a random cut (which I hate) to a scene of a massive set falling apart during a battle scene. Why the fuck is this here? And what is this from? If I ff to the credits will it tell me? Nope. Dammit. Someone help me out here. 

Credits! Things are exploding again, yay! Aside from the images on the TV, these credits look really similar to S3. I think they may have increased the saturation on the color of the liquids exploding but I could be making things up.

Julius’s outrage at the situation continues after the credits. 

David Lee tries to get Lucca to agree to just be comforting to the client. Lucca is like, no, because I was brought on for a reason I am going to do my job. 

DLee calls this “PC shit” and says something else racist. Bianca answers the door and asks to do the depo prep on the run. What this means is that they’re all getting on her private jet and going to St. Lucia. 

David Lee is TERRIFIED of the private jet. I would be too since I hate small planes (and all planes, but particularly small ones), but I am still enjoying watching him squirm. Lucca is too. 

Lucca DELIGHTS in reminding David they’re in a small metal tube with nothing holding them up. It’s fantastic. 

Bianca offers David Lee a CBD cocktail, because of course she does. This episode is doing a good job of reminding me of why David Lee and Canning were both once really effective characters, so if the writers can use them this way moving forward, I’ll be happy.

Bianca googled Lucca and demands to see pictures of her very cute baby. She then takes Lucca’s phone and starts up Tinder. This is a strange dynamic because it’s friendly but also sudden and also Bianca is paying Lucca for this time. But both of them could use friends, so I’m just going to be cautiously optimistic a real friendship could grow out of this. 

David Lee chugging a CBD cocktail is most definitely something I needed in my life. Thank you writers! 

Our characters are wealthy but everyone they deal with in this episode is ultrawealthy. Like, disgustingly wealthy. Bianca seems nice but holy shit no one needs to fly to St. Lucia for lunch. 

Court stuff happens. This episode is more interesting than just “court stuff happens” but the point is pretty simple-- Julius gets increasingly outraged at the breakdown of the system he believes in, and things keep getting more and more bizarre. 

Julius turns to the corrupt judge Adrian is sleeping with (I think the writers need to tell me what I am supposed to think of her because��� I just don’t understand who she’s supposed to be, unless “corrupt judge who creeps me out yet for some reason Adrian is still into” is the point OR unless I am supposed to see her corruption as somehow excusable... ) for advice. She calls their job “shadow play” and says the system is all fake. That would explain why she’s open to bribery, then. She agrees to help Julius get the CEO into court, but I think she’s just helping to illustrate how futile this will be if he tries to resist again.

David Lee also doesn’t like the food on the island. It’s so funny. 

Lucca’s dress is really cute.

Bianca says Lucca must think she’s crazy for flying just to get guava for lunch. Lucca says, “No, it’s just a very different lifestyle from mine.” That’s an understatement. Bianca’s life changed in the last few years, and she’s worried it’s all going to go away (so, it’s implied, she’s living it up now). It seems she has some sort of skincare/cosmetics empire. 

Bianca is worried that in the next recession (oh look at that timely comment), her products will be the first thing people cut back on. Curious to know if this is happening. 

Bianca’s other concern is that she has no friends now because she’s rich. Everyone wants something. “You’re so full of shit,” Lucca says, refusing to pity Bianca. This makes Bianca like her more. 

Bianca talks about a service to matchmake friends. She found it weird, but she doesn’t find “this” (befriending Lucca, even though she is probably paying Lucca WAY more than the friend matchmaker fee) weird. Lucca is always entering into friendships so formally! Okay it’s just two scenes (this one and the one where she and Alicia become friends) but still.

Lucca reminds Bianca she’s also her lawyer.

Bianca asks if DLee is drawing out the case. She’s not stupid. Lucca says David isn’t drawing it out, but I think they both know the answer.

(Question based on what happens later in the ep- if David actually has reasoning, then why in the world would he not tell Bianca OR Lucca about it? And why do they need to have overly long meetings to draw things out? Can’t they just schedule them with large gaps? Idk the whole thing is weird and if David isn’t going to share his strategy that’s on him.)

The CEO finally shows up in court and Julius thinks he’s won. He hasn’t. He says he’s asserting privilege he can’t reveal because it is privileged. The CEO acts like Julius is in the wrong, which pisses Julius off. The CEO gets held in custody and Julius says that the restaurant can’t be bulldozed until the CEO complies. 

Then Julius gets the mysterious MEMO 618. Dun dun dun. 

I know there must be more but I feel like we know what Memo 618 is? Like, no we don’t know who sent it or exactly what it means, but we know the effect of what it does. What is the mystery? Who sent it? 

At night, Julius takes the mystery memo to Judge Hazelwood. She plays dumb because-- as we find out later-- Adrian is within earshot. Adrian’s jacket is apparently very recognizable because Julius spots it. I believe it; Adrian has a distinctive style. 

Adrian talks about taking their relationship public. So Judge Hazelwood bribing people didn’t end the relationship? 

Adrian also asks about Memo 618. He knows she knows what it is. She distracts him by getting on top of him.

Depositions for Bianca’s divorce get contentious but she has the upperhand. Lucca suggests that Bianca settle now and get the ex out of her life-- “balance money with psychological wellness.” Sounds reasonable to me!

At work, Judge Hazelwood is more forthcoming. And Julius did recognize the jacket. Judge Hazelwood tells Julius to let the CEO out and stop asking about the memo. Julius wants to get her on tape, but instead she tells him to get in an Uber and go to an address. She also warns that the court has a program if you break your phone. Sounds like a threat…

Julius finds the Uber easily and then goes on a long journey to the countryside. The driver, it turns out, is a former federal judge who didn’t comply with a mystery memo and he warns Julius to just do what they say or he’ll end up an Uber driver barely able to support his family. (THINK OF YOUR SIX CHILDREN, JULIUS.) 

Lucca wearing heels at her standing desk is… just silly, why would she do this? She wouldn’t take off one heel to stretch her foot; she would have a pair of flats to wear in her office. (This episode is written and directed by men, just fyi.) (Do women actually do this? I hate heels so I would never even consider it, but I feel like everyone hates heels??? Even the people who wear them all the time???) 

David is all mad at Lucca for encouraging Bianca to settle because it has tax implications. Two things: One, if there’s this obvious reason to delay, I feel like Lucca would have figured it out. Two, LUCCA IS ON DAVID’S SIDE. And if he’s allowed to say this out loud now, he could have said it earlier. So… no pity for David Lee. This is why you cooperate with your colleagues instead of antagonizing them. 

Liz-- who has been quite underused in this episode-- is also fed up with the dogs. She and Adrian storm upstairs to say, in Adrian’s words, “they can’t use this floor as a toilet for their motherfucking dogs.” 

They bust through the doors to the long hallway (which in real life would DEFINITELY have a key card reader on it) and push past the receptionist. 

Mr. Firth is holding a very cute dog named Avenger. Mr. Firth also refers to Liz as “Elizabeth”. 

Liz asks that the dogs stop “shitting” on their floor. After all, this was supposed to be a partnership, not an acquisition (does anyone believe that? I think Liz is just using their BS corporate talk against them). Mr. Firth says he will find a way to deal with the dogs. Adrian takes the opportunity to mention that the equity partners need their money. “How do we want to satisfy this?” Mr. Firth asks. “Give them money,” Liz says. Mr. Firth agrees to meet about this next week. He also gives Liz and Adrian access to the executive elevator. He’s just trying to appease them so they’ll be more on his side.

Liz and Adrian both recognize that was too easy, but decide to take the win. I feel like this problem is going to come back…

Julius apologizes and releases the CEO. He recuses himself but says that in the meantime the restaurant will stand. 

Diane knows something’s off and confronts Julius. She’s furious but Julius asks her to leave. I wonder what Diane would’ve done in Julius’s situation. It’s very easy to become complicit…

The restaurant is torn down anyway, making Diane even angrier. She tells Julius it’s on him and he reminds her that he is a judge.

And this is how systems are perpetuated.

That’s the end of the episode, save for the message about the two week break before episode 3 from the cast and crew. I appreciate that they included this, and that they included the whole crew rather than just the Kings and the cast. 

I don’t even recognize most of the crew! I recognize the cast (duh), Dan Lawson (the costume designer), the makeup artist (I think I’ve seen her in various instagram posts), Brooke Kennedy, and the Kings. 

Jonathan Coulton is in the video too (he’s totally a part of the TGF family at this point-- and is one of few people to be on TGW, BrainDead, TGF, AND Evil) to lead everyone in an adorable (but somewhat out of sync) singalong. Awwww. 

[caps-lockdown]

Sweater Weather Part Five

Here’s the next installment! Enjoy!

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Fem!PottsRelativeReader!

Words: 4,047

WARNING THIS CHAPTER IS PRETTY STEAMY AND IS AS CLOSE TO SMUT AS I’LL BE WRITING FOR THIS FIC. Reader discretion is advised! Warnings/Ratings: R/Possible 18+ For more flirty and sexy! Steve Rogers, mentions of booze, language, a TON of flirting/adult situations. You’ve been warned, the temperature isn’t the only thing hot in this chapter! Reader discretion is advised. 

Also AU in the fact NO ONE DIED during Endgame/Steve didn’t go back. Also as much as I adore Morgan Stark, she isn’t around yet. I didn’t know where this would fit timeline wise, so just ignore the timeline. Kay? Cool.

Summary: You’ve just moved to New York after a long 3 year stint travelling the world and helping with various charities, taking a new job with Stark Industries thanks to your cousin Pepper. A trip out to surprise Tony and The Avengers for the weekend turns from good to terrible when the a/c at the compound breaks. How will you beat the heat for the record breaking weekend? 

In Y/N Y/L/N format, I don’t own any gifs, outfits or characters except for the Reader and her friend Kate. No beta so I DO own all of my mistakes. 

Part Five

The room was cold and the yet the first thing you noticed was the very warm arm that was draped lazily across your waist, and the heat that radiated off of whoever’s broad chest that was behind you. This isn’t right. Your eyes were too heavy with the hangover that was flooding your system to open, but you managed to force your body to turn over. You were pretty sure you were giving molasses on a cold day a run for its money with how slow you shifted your weight, finally facing the sleeping person after what felt like eons. Who the fuck is in my bed?

You swam through your memories from last night, your eyes darting behind your eyelids in panic as you couldn’t remember anything past Thor helping you to your room. Oh shit. Thor is in my bed?! You brought your shaking hands up to his chest. Wait. Hardly any chest hair. Doesn’t Thor have some? You cursed internally, not having seen most of the guys shirtless in well over three years so you couldn’t actually guess. You were going to have to just deal with the budding migraine and open your damn eyes. Sunlight be damned.

You went into cardiac arrest the minute you cracked an eye open to find Steve-Fucking-God-Damn-Captain America-Rogers sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of how his flexing arm was pulling you into him closer. This had to be a dream.

“Um….Steve?” You whispered, poking the sleeping soldier hard with your index finger, a small huff from the man who was violating your space being the only response you were given. “Steve, wake the HELL up!” A sleepy smile graced his features, the blonde snuggling you closer and putting both arms around you.

“I’m having that dream again.” Your body fully awoke at his soft statement, and you almost wanted to let him sleep, thinking it really sweet that you had plagued his sleep as much as he had yours over the time you had spent apart. “You’re so perfect. Y/N.” A beam of a smile swept over your features, allowing your hands to remain on his chest and resting your head against it, taking him in and hearing his heartbeat. This felt amazing. It just felt right.

That ended within five seconds of his large hands dropping from your waist, roughly latching onto your ass. The not polite and none too subtle squeeze of his digits into your soft flesh set you promptly the fuck off.

“STEVEN GRANT ROGERS WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” You voice was shrill as you let out your loud screech. Your heart threatened to burst from its cavity as you pushed him hard, the good Captain jerking his eyes awake with a groan and staring down into your pissed off facial features.

“OH SHIT!” Steve launched himself off your bed and onto the hard floor with a loud thud, his eyes adjusting to the room and realizing he was in fact, not in his bedroom like he had thought previously the evening before when he drunkenly forced his way into it. “Y/N I can explain…”

“I DON’T WANT AN EXPLANATION, I WANT YOU OUT!” You cried, grabbing your pillows and throwing them in an assault on the equally hungover, but not quite awake blonde man, him scrambling to his feet and running a hand over his face.

“Doll I didn’t mean…”

“Rogers if you are not out of my room in the next FIVE seconds I will start screaming for Tony.” You handed him the ultimatum with clenched teeth, the target of your frustration chuckling nervously as he gave a timid nod.

“I’ll go but I want you to know something.” Your left eye twitched at the nerve of this man. Coming into YOUR room while you were asleep, and CUDDLING with you?! That you could deal with just fine. Quite willingly, actually. But you would NOT stand for being groped in your bed, no matter how much you had craved his hands on you before. It wasn’t right, and you were not an easy piece of ass. Not to mention the initial shock of him even being in your bed, shirtless, was enough to freak you out. What if you two had done something? Your mind was reeling at the thought. There is no way you would have and not remembered. “I’m not sorry.”

Your ears were burning, much like the rest of your face as you sputtered, “W….What?”

He sighed, blonde hair falling in his face. His blue eyes held a sense of insecurity in them as he stared at your figure, his own breath caught as you appeared to look breathless yourself. “Waking up next to you is something I never thought I’d get to do again, so regardless of the how,” A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips before he forced it away, “I am not going to apologize for finally getting to hold you while we slept in a bed instead of a couch. I won’t apologize for having the best night of sleep I’ve had in years because for a moment it felt right having you in my arms. Not once. Not ever. I’m not sorry.”

You sat, staring at him slack jawed as he turned his back and simply walked out of your room.

Kate’s number was punched into your phone without you looking, you nearly in tears as she happily answered. “Hey beautiful! You finally get some super dick last night?”

“Kate I think I fucked up. Big time.” Your conversation was muted through the door, Steve leaning against it with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had the night on repeat in his brain, trying to gauge if he had done anything unforgivable in his drunken slumber. Not counting this morning of course. He had honest to god thought it was a dream, believing whole heartedly that your frame laying next to his was nothing more than a ghost. A vision he never got to see come true. He never would have reacted that way if he had known the truth. Steve Rogers was NOT that guy. He could sense the panic in your voice an assumed you had no idea what had happened after you had gotten to your room. Rightly so he’d imagine, with all of the drinks you had consumed. He knew you weren’t really mad at him, but all he could do was give you space. He turned his head to the right, seeing Nat’s door open. A very guilty looking James Barnes emerged, his eyes wide as if Steve had grown a third head when he looked to see the man sharing the hallway with him. Steve grinned, arms crossing over his shoulders.

“Good morning pal. Sleep well?”

“Could ask you the same thing. Punk.” The former man shook his head, his face changing into one of sadness as he tried to make out your nervous and upset sentences from between layers of wood. “Damn. Tell me on the way to breakfast?”

The two began their walk of shame towards the kitchen, filling each other in on what exactly had and hadn’t happened the night prior. You hung up with Kate, dragging your body out of bed, figuring out how (with the help from Kate of course) you would let the man who you had kicked out know you would never be doing that again.

~~After Breakfast~~

“Jesus I thought it was hot before.” Sam muttered, Bucky and Steve both nodding dumbly in agreement as they watched from the large window overlooking the expansive patch of green grass outside the compound. Nat, Pepper, and now Carol Danvers, who had brought a very adorable kid by the name of Peter Parker to the compound to ask Tony some very important questions about upgrades to his suit, had taken to sunbathing. In bikinis.

“You gonna be alright when Y/N comes out in a few?” Bucky side eyed his oldest friend, the man glaring at him as he lightly shoved his non flesh arm. “Or are we gonna have to put you back on ice to cool down?”

“I’ll be just…” His voice died in the back of his throat as he saw your figure step out onto the lawn in your very curve fitting blue bikini.

His ragged breath betrayed him to his two friends, his eyes glued to the sway of your hips barely covered in the fabric. He had to advert his gaze, but only for a second when you bent over at the waist, gladly accepting the glass of sweet tea Pepper held out for you from her chair. The curve of your backside, the very same one he had managed to literally snag handfuls of this morning taunted him as you chose to lay down on your stomach on your own lawn chair, unaware of his heated stare. When Tony lightly misted your beautiful frame with tanning oil, your body jerking at the sudden coolness he felt his throat go bone dry. This just wasn’t fair.

“You were saying Rogers?” Sam chuckled at Steve’s sudden silence, the super soldier hearing nothing but his own blood pounding in his ears. “Can’t say I blame ya though, Princess Peach is looking particularly ripe and juicy today. Right Barnes?”

The brunette gave an appreciative whistle, “Very true Wilson, I agree.” His eyes weren’t looking at you though, they were gawking at a certain red head’s tight black bikini clad body. The three men collectively groaned as Tony ruined their perving session, outing them to the four women, who in turn sat up and stared disappointedly. Your scowl turned into a smirk when the two of you locked eyes. Well shit. “I guess we better start working on our apologies fellas.”

“That requires us to feel guilty first.” Sam shot out, none of them paying attention to Peter as he rushed outside with a new pitcher of tea for the ladies. They didn’t miss Pepper barely missing Tony’s face with her palm when he attempted to untie the string holding up her bikini top on her neck. At least he would be in the dog house with them. “Let’s go, Stark is outnumbered and unarmed, time to level the playing field.”

“What are we playing?” Thor asked, sidling up to the trio who began their trek to the large door that lead outside, Sam starting to take off his shirt.

“We’re setting a thirst trap Blondie, beating the women at their own game.” He tossed his shirt carelessly to the side, the other three quickly understanding and stripping themselves of their tops. “Now act like you aren’t sorry for getting caught Rogers. Y/N has already led on she can barely restrain herself around you. She told me she feels awful for kicking you out of her bed this morning. Just turn on the charm and she’ll be on you like a koala bear.”

“Easy for you to say Sam, you didn’t shamelessly grab her ass this morning because you thought you were dreaming.” The door opened and instantly Steve wanted to crawl back into the less sticky air of the compound living room.

“True, but did she once tell you to stop?” Before he could respond to his friends query, you had taken the chance at straddling your chair, your eyes glazing over at the sight of the shirtless men as they walked, no strutted into your field of vision. Sweet Jesus three years had passed and they only managed to look even more delicious. Aged like fine wine. Steve’s abs had beads of sweat clinging to them, and you would kill to have been the reason for them instead of the hot as balls weather. He was beautiful, strong shoulders and those powerful arms you had woken up in almost daring you to wind yourself back into them. You bit your lower lip as he imitated your previous smirk with ease. This just wasn’t fair.

“Good afternoon ladies, fine weather we’re having huh?” Bucky said cheerfully, the four women sending him a mixture of mock glares and middle fingers. “Wow why the hostility?”

“You were gawking at us earlier, sorry if we aren’t happy to see you.” Carol’s voice was plain and flat, the winter soldier’s smile only widening at Nat’s eyes sweeping over him the same way he had done to her just moment before stepping outside.

“That isn’t stopping you from staring at us now, is it?” He retorted.

Carol huffed, turning to stare at the fabric of her chair instead of the four shirtless gods. Peter looked confused but chose to say nothing. Tony just chuckled at the double standard of it all. You crossed your arms under your chest, trying to keep your knowing smile at bay when Steve’s gaze dropped to your assets as they were gently lifted in your bikini top. “My eyes are up here Cap.”

“Wasn’t looking at em Doll.” Steve offered lowly, your body heating up as he brazenly continued his visual appraisal of your figure. It was like all of the blood in your body had turned into liquid fire, and you barely contained a shiver as he moved to place his hands on either side of your chair, giving you flash backs to when he had dropped you on the couch a couple of nights previously.

“Well at least you’re honest.” You whispered, swallowing as he leaned down, face in front of yours, his expression dark and god damn he was going to pay dearly for all of this teasing later. “Something on your mind Rogers?” You cooed.

“I thought I warned you about your shorts getting any shorter Sweetheart.” His voice had come out as a deep growl, the rumble from his chest making your head spin and you went to grip the metal frame of the chair in response to his seductive statement. With every word you were beginning to kick yourself even harder for not jumping his ass this morning. “Might just have to teach you a lesson about what happens when you don’t listen.”

“That a threat? Or a promise?” You whispered back, eyes never leaving his.

Tony’s gagging sounds in the background reminded the two of you that you weren’t alone.

“Seriously you two, go get a fucking room already. I think m’gonna be sick.” You rolled your eyes at your dramatic cousin in law, Peter stifling a laugh at the absurdity of his mentor’s exaggerated heaving motions. Steve leaned up from the chair, shaking his head and sitting his fine ass down on the grass.

“So, how are we going to beat this heat Mister Stark?” Peter’s question stopped the older man’s performance, Tony standing up straight and looking at his nails.

“Any bright ideas Y/N?”

You already had six by the end of breakfast.

~~Later~~

“Y/N, you are an absolute GENIUS!” Nat exclaimed happily on your right, you looking at your masterpiece of the weekend. A couple of tarps, some bungee cords and a garden hose later you had turned the bed of your truck into a redneck pool.

“Yea Short Stack, amazing job. Now move over.” You stared at your cousin as if he was crazy, Tony taking a small step backwards. “I mean…ladies first?”

“Better. You heard the man, ladies.” The four of you hurriedly climbed into the truck bed, happy sighs of contentment leaving your mouths as you sunk into the cooling liquid. The plastic from the tarp was something you’d have to get used to feeling on your skin, but otherwise you were in complete bliss. The men looked upset as they realized there was really only enough room for one more body. “Now who are we gonna let join us?”

“Well it’s my tarp.” Tony started.

“But you’ve been an asshole all weekend, Stark.” Sam cut in.

“I’d like to nominate myself, as I am the best looking male here.” Bucky added, the women laughing and forcing the man to pout.

“I think you need to get your eyes checked Pal.” Steve said with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m not going to suggest any one of us, it’s entirely up to you goddesses to decide.” Thor smiled warmly at you, your heart melting only slightly. “But I might add that Bruce would not be a suitable option if you want your truck to remain intact.”

“Yea where is Banner?” Nat asked, and everyone in the group looked wrecked with guilt, having not seen the giant man since earlier that morning. “Seriously? How did we lose Bruce?”

“I’m sure he’s somewhere,” You waved away the worry, putting your eyes on Peter who stood staring at his feet. “Parker, you’re in.”

The excited teen didn’t need to be told a second time, scrambling up into the back of the truck with all the gusto raging hormones could buy. He smiled brightly, muttering “Thank you” and “You guys are so nice” repeatedly as he sat on the edge, plunging his feet into the soothing water.

“Fine. I see how it is. We’ll just make our own club and you won’t be invited!” Tony huffed, crossing his arms like a toddler and pouting. It fell on deaf ears, the five of you in the truck paying him no mind as you started splashing at each other. “Let’s go guys.”

The time flew by as you enjoyed your friend’s company, and you quickly had taken a major liking to Peter. He was like a younger brother, super sweet and engaging, and quite the amazing listener. You were a bit put off at first hearing just how he knew the team, feeling the need to protect him as he recalled stories of the battles he had been a part of. Especially during the accords situation. You heart pounded with concern as he told you about Thanos, and all of the features on his suit Tony had made him. You’d never tell but you were more than relieved to hear of the “instant kill” function your cousin had put into it.  

“Well we might as well let the guys have a turn now that we’re legit becoming prunes.” Carol conceded, the rest of you agreeing and standing up from the water. It was still stupid hot outside, and truthfully you were feeling a bit bad at not allowing the guys to join you earlier. Or at the very least take turns.

“I’m thirsty, someone come with me to get some drinks from the kitchen?” You inquired, stretching your limbs before beginning your descent out of the back of your vehicle.

“I’ll go with you miss Y/N!” Peter piped up, clamoring after you. You couldn’t help but giggle at his eagerness to accompany you, suspecting that being someone new meant for new conversations. You’d never been happier to have your ear talked off before, but this kid was easily becoming your favorite.

“Huh, that’s weird. They aren’t in here.” Your statement came out confused upon entering the empty living room area, the fans and coolers mostly missing. “Where the hell did they all go?”

“Shh miss Y/N, you hear that?” Your eyes met Peter’s and he motioned towards the kitchen, where you could hear the faint deep laughter of Steve and Thor. Tiptoeing into the large kitchen, you were once again met with an empty room, your expression puzzled when you looked back at the teen who shrugged. “I know we heard…look!”

He moved to look at the small sign that was haphazardly taped to the large door leading to the walk in freezer of the compound, the messy writing no doubt the byproduct of your cousin.

“He-Man-Woman-Hater-Freezer. How original.” You let out an exasperated sigh at the lengths these childish men would go to. “They’ll get over it.”

You threw the door open to see the small group of men sitting among the floor of the freezer, Tony and Sam wearing a few more layers of clothes, the rest of the inhabits still shirtless and looking super pleased with themselves.

“Hey Short Stack can’t you read?!” Tony glared at you, Steve unable to keep his eyes in his head at your figure gracing his presence again. “You aren’t welcome here! Be gone! Before someone drops a house on you!”

“Stop being so damn dramatic Snark, we were just wondering where you went off to. We’ve decided to let you all take a dip in the pool I built, if any of you were still interested.”

“Well thanks but we don’t need your second rate pool…” Tony began, looking betrayed shortly after as Sam and Thor moved to join you. “What the fuck guys?”

“Hey, watch your damn mouth! There’s a teenager here!” You retorted in mock shock, moving to cover Peter’s ears who only laughed lightly. “Did you find Bruce?”

“Obviously not. Do you see him in here?” Sam asked, squeezing past you to take off his clothing in preparation to heading back into the heat wave. “I bet ten bucks he chickened out and ran off to find a/c.”

“You owe me ten bucks then Wilson.” The familiar voice of Bruce Banner boomed through the freezer, and all of your eyes came to rest upon a rather large pile of bagged and frozen vegetables. A large grin broke your face as you noticed an out of place green toe sticking out from under a bag of broccoli. “Also, you guys smell horrible. Make sure you shower before you taint Y/N’s hard work with your nasty man stench.”

“Thank you, but I’m sooooo calling you Jolly Green Giant from now on.” Laughter rose out of you when the man moved the container of carrots off his eyes to narrow them at you, you batting your eyelashes innocently.

“Alright well I don’t know about you suckers but I’m gonna go get in that pool!” Sam brought everyone back to earth, the rest of the guys clearing out and following Parker out to the grounds. Your hand went to grab Steve’s wrist, tugging him in the opposite direction once Tony was out of your sights, dragging the man with you until you were both standing in front of the door that led to your room.

“Somethin on your mind Y/N?” His voice was soft as you tried to steel your nerves, your pulse erratic. You had talked with Kate about what you were going to say when you finally got this beautiful man alone, but now that the moment was here you were back to being the uncertain mess you had been all weekend. “Sweetheart? You’re making me nervous here.”

Seeing the same insecurity in his stunning blue eyes that made your heart hurt when you kicked him out of your room that morning pushed all of your words out the nearest window.

“Oh screw it.” You admonished, quickly putting your arms around his neck and pulling Steve’s lips to yours. He was quick to the jump, arms wrapping around you and walking you backwards until you were against your door, smiling into the kiss and making your knees weak. You pushed all of your emotions into it, the years of longing and passion bruising both of your lips as he deepened the kiss, returning the mutual feelings with a reckless abandon. Kissing him was everything you had been dreaming over the years, his lips pillow soft as they nipped at your bottom lip, tongue darting out to meet yours in a languid dance. It was perfect, he was perfect.

A deep groan fell out from his throat when he detached his mouth from yours, moving along your jaw line and peppering kisses along the column of your neck. “Doll you are going to be the death of me.” You moaned at his hot whisper against your skin, feeling him smirk into your shoulder. You couldn’t agree with him more.

“We don’t have much time before I have to help Pepper with dinner. Maybe an hour, hour and a half tops.” You got out heatedly as he continued his assault on your neck, hands moving across your body and leaving a searing fire in their absence.

“Then let’s not waste anymore time.” He growled, pulling on the handle behind you and pushing you through the door, your giggles fading into moans as he kicked it shut behind him.

Tag List: @kaytizzle @cuffski @giggleberts @pies-wands-and-more @chrisevansfanfic @yesno18 @zsuzstyina @zombiepotterfour @evanstush

[dat-town]

CODE Z3RO | CODE 03

characters: BTS & Red Velvet genre: thriller, futuristic au warning: none summary: The twelve most ambitious and promising university students are welcomed in Choego, the world’s first entirely artificial intelligence-driven city, to compete for five job contracts that could change their life. But what if something goes wrong? What if they get trapped? What if the city suddenly turns against them? Can they find a way out before the countdown reaches zero? words: 5K tagged: @philosopher-of-fandoms​

➼ Chapter Index

At the peak of dawn, merely a sliver of burgundy illuminating the glass and metal giant, Choego indeed resembled a ghost town. There were no people around, not a single proof of living creatures without the buzzing of a city with cars and pedestrians. Even the flickering electricity disappeared from few sections of the town.

Park Jimin, older son of the Park Genetic Industries’ CEO, was so used to the nightlife of the capital city, he found the calm quietness way too eerie. It was surreal and unnatural and yet, he felt a pang of pride to be one of the first ones to explore its labyrinth. However, he found it rather embarrassing to compete with people who complained about having to wake up without enough of their beauty sleep. That said, he agreed with Jungkook on the missing girl’s case. It wasn’t the younger boy’s fault that Little Miss Perfect took too long to get ready. They were better off without her anyway. It was a competition after all and despite the importance of their team work, it wouldn’t have hurt to get rid off the weakest links. Born into a wealthy and prestigious family, Jimin had always known what he was expected to do: to reach for the stars and achieve more. So it was the perfect opportunity for him to show that he was worthy to be the heir of the company.

“Can someone explain in detail what the hell happened and why we had to leave the dorms?” Hoseok, one of his supposed-to-be roommates groaned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

The group of eleven stood in the middle of the street packed with luggages, staring ahead of the road with dim artificial lights while the other end of the road disappeared into darkness. It was a good question because even though it was quite obvious to anybody that something happened, not everybody could figure out what exactly was wrong. What was the researchers’ plan with all this? Setting the beginning of the simulation in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be sleeping? What would have happened if nobody had woken up? Where were those damned cameras watching each of their moves? And what were they supposed to do without instructions?

“The electricity got cut off in the buildings next to ours and the following ones were those near our dorm building. I guess the simulation tries to imitate an evacuation,” the eldest boy, Seokjin, said and if he was any good in what he was majoring in, they could trust him.

“So we should get out of the city? That doesn’t make sense,” the lilac haired, quite temperamental Taehyung spoke up posing the question that had been on everybody’s mind. But if not out, then what were they supposed to do?

“Do you have any better idea?”

“Okay what about we all calm down and I call dr. Han?” Jimin suggested already fishing out his phone from his back pocket. He didn’t like to stay in the dark for too long. He needed answers and normally he had his own methods to get them. Money and power weren't nice things to take advantage of, yet why wouldn't he use his privilege when he could? 

While Namjoon murmured something like that they should be figuring it out by themselves, Jimin had already pressed call on the lady's contact and waited… fruitlessly as even the annoying beep sound remained silent. He double-checked the signal on his phone and let out a frustrated sigh at the sight of the saturated bars of the icon. “What the hell.”

His disappointed reaction didn't went unnoticed and Hoseok, who stood next to him, raised an eyebrow at him curiously. “What?”

“There’s no signal and no internet either in the area like we were totally cut off the outer world,” the boy answered, his fingers twitching to check his emails and social media despite knowing that without internet he wouldn't access anything for now. Even his mobile data was somehow disabled on this land which was ridiculous. What kind of test was it? Lexical knowledge was so outdated and old fashioned. Isn't their analytic thinking and resourcefulness should have been rewarded? However, not everybody agreed with him on this matter. Seokjin for example took the news with a short nod as if it was a known fact. He wasn't the only one.

“Well it’s only fair. They don’t want certain people asking for help from the outside,” Taehyung mumbled under his nose barely audible but certainly loud enough for Jimin to hear it.

“What are you trying to say?” the chaebol guy straightened his back trying to look intimidating as he strolled to the mocking boy of his age. It wasn't the first time he was judged because of his family's influence but this was one of the times the accusation left a nasty taste in his mouth like swallowing a bitter pill. Of course, he knew these people were often just envious of his background, so usually he didn't care about them but under the careful watching eyes of the miniature cameras and the surveillance of researchers reevaluating their every move, he wasn't willing to be ridiculed by somebody who had the manners of a caveman. No wonder why the guy had the strong dialect of Gyeongsang Province.

“Oh nothing. I’m just saying that it might be better this way. Equal chances for everyone,” Taehyung shrugged with a challenging look in his eyes.

Jimin's hands itched to punch him straight on the nose, wipe off that shit-eating grin off his face but he couldn't let himself lose his cool over the stupidity of a rival. As a marketing major, being an expert in manipulating people, maybe it was Taehyung’s ultimate goal from the beginning: to rile up and provoke everybody he could. He was nothing more than a kid with a big mouth from the countryside. Only bark, no bite, Jimin was sure and he was smarter than to play this game.

The corner of his mouth twitched as he stared down at the tanned guy - which was quite bold on his part being the shorter one. Then as arrogant as he could, he took a step back with a huff and turned his back on Taehyung. The others stared at their intermezzo expecting it to blow up and most of them seemed relieved, relaxing their tensed shoulders as they saw nothing extraordinary was going to happen under the dim lights of street lamps so early in the morning.

"Let's not argue, guys, we need to work together," Seokjin said in a parental voice which earned a few eyerolls on the youngers’ part. Even if according to the conservative Korean age system, it was polite and a must-do thing to respect their elders no matter what, Jimin didn't plan on playing the role of the perfect dongsaeng.

"But if we cannot leave the city, then what should we do during an evacuation simulation?" one of the girls with baby face spoke up and Jimin recognized her as the Psychology student from the introduction they did on their way to the dorms.

For a while, her question fell on deaf ears but her patience was rewarded with an answer after a whole minute of utter silence.

“We need to keep moving,” a dark haired figure said quietly but still bringing all the attention to himself. Min Yoongi, the mysterious postgrad student, majoring in some fancy named IT stuff, had a cold demeanor and he certainly didn't get on the good side of anyone present after boosting his own ego at the meeting. But if he was so smart, how could he not have any better idea than ‘to move’?

To be honest, Jimin eyed him quite suspiciously because unlike everybody else the guy barely had anything on him. He only threw a small backpack on one shoulder but nothing else which was stupid, wasn’t it? They didn’t knew how long they were going to be gone or what they would need, so his confidence was either recklessness or arrogance.

“Why?” Hoseok whined trying and failing to suppress a long whine. “Can’t we just stay here and rest a little? Not even the Sun is up.”

“Sure. If you came for having fun, be my guest. I won’t shed a tear when you won’t be one of the chosen candidates at the end of the test,” Taehyung said in a mocking tone and to his own dislike, even if he didn’t voice out his opinion, Jimin had to agree with him. They all came here with a purpose and if the researchers woke them up in the middle of the night, they must have had a good reason behind it.

“Oh you have a big mouth on you, don’t you? Then tell me what the fuck is happening because I’m quite sure you’re just as clueless as the rest of us, Mr. Know It All,” Hoseok had enough of being the clown everybody made fun of and told the younger guy off easily. He was right, kind of. They could only guess the cause, some better than others though.

“The technology behind it is pretty simple,” Jeon Jungkook spoke up in a low voice, almost shy but confident in his knowledge. Of course, he knew. Among all of them there had been three other engineers apart from Jimin whose bioengineering knowledge couldn’t help much in this case. However, this was the time for the others to shine. The chaebol boy hated it, the feeling of being useless and depending on others but he was also keen on cooperating if Jungkook had anything useful to say.

“And will you tell us, Golden Boy?” Taehyung crooked an eyebrow at him, voice sounding harsh and impatient.

“Normally complex security systems similar to this have a timer and every certain minute, it goes off in different sections of the place, so if we assume that the city has districts or any kind of separated areas with different electricity panels, they will turn off one by one. The dorm’s was the last one to go, so maybe where we are right now is the next one. Whoever is controlling this, they can easily guide us anywhere they want to unless we find a city map with the sections and their order to know it beforehand.”

After Jungkook’s explanation, Jimin hummed, considering. The whole situation reminded him of those old escape games he used to play on his father’s computer when he was little.

“What happens to the sections that got turned off?” he prompted.

It was time for Namjoon, majoring in mechanical engineering, to have his part of the conversation:

“Those sections are cut off electricity that’s for sure and since basically everything runs with electricity here, that can be pretty dangerous if you’re in a closed area like a building.”

“But they wouldn’t do anything that could possibly hurt us, right? The researchers don’t mean harm to us,” Joohyun’s lips quivered and she looked cold even in her light blazer pulled over the pretty blouse she wore. She seemed worried about Sooyoung being left behind but even the hypothesis was ridiculous. Who would dare to hurt them? Even if the simulation was discreetly kept as a secret from the country’s common netizens, the whole committee that chose them for these roles, knew about them. And their family - including Jimin’s influential father - were aware of their whereabouts and would never let anything like that happen. “It’s just a psychological test, right?” 

“I guess,” Seokjin nodded with a lazy shrug as his gaze wandered to his little sister. “They test our reactions, skills and boundaries. They want the five best, so they need to push us a little over the edge.”

“This isn’t the kind of test I signed up for to be honest,” Hoseok admitted while scratching his nape. He looked tired already and the day hadn’t even started yet.

“Well, it’s apparently too late to turn back and give up. Or maybe you can just chill out here and wait to see for yourself what happens when this section is switched off,” Taehyung snorted which was nothing new and Jimin realized fairly quickly that the marketing student cannot be trusted. He was obviously here to win, ready to step over anybody in his way.

They kept snickering in hushed voices but the chaebol guy had rather looked around than to pay attention to them. Maybe it was the early time or just the personality of the group’s other members but they were all uncharastically quiet. Wendy almost dozed off on his boyfriend's shoulder a bit, Joohyun and Seulgi stared ahead of them into the distance at the hundreds of glass buildings reflecting the amplitude of light. And there was the journalist girl, too young to even be there in Jimin’s humble opinion, walked around as if she was on a vacation in a museum and even took photos. She was lucky that her brother was with her or otherwise she would have been in quite a trouble without a chaperon. Too young and too naive to think nobody would notice her secretly snapping photos of the youngest engineering student.

Love has no place in a competition, they said and a part of Wendy agreed, sadly. If you were as ambitious as her, you were bound to lose something even if you won. Sure, she loved Namjoon, they had been dating for more than two years now after that fateful frat party at SNU, but she treasured her dreams more. Being here was a huge step towards becoming what she had always wanted to be: somebody in charge of big chances, helping people, being more than a cog in the system. She couldn’t let herself get distracted but at times like this, nerves tense and breathing shallow, she leaned onto her boyfriend.

Namjoon was a kind soul, a big softie who liked to think of everything in black and white. He could talk about the stars for hours and sometimes he lost track of his own train of thought. He built small robots in his free time and once when Wendy’s car broke down in the middle of nowhere, he drove all the way there and spent an hour single-handedly fixing the gears. But in spite of his huge love for physics and the theory of relativity, he loved Wendy more and they both knew it.

That was the root of all their problems. Wendy thought they were too young to settle down, they had time, a whole life ahead of them and she would have been willing to sacrifice a relationship for her career. On the other hand, Namjoon was a hopeless romantic claiming that she was the one for him and he would have given up everything for her.

This competition was a challenge for both of them. They were majoring in so different fields that their application didn’t endangered the other’s and heck, who would have thought that they both make it there? There was such a slight chance and yet, here they were, fighting for one of those five contracts. One for both of them which seemed even more impossible.

“You up?” a calloused hand nudged her shoulder gently and snapped her out of the crazy theories. Namjoon’s voice had always soothed the girl, so she was able to sigh content despite the circumstances.

“Yeah, just needed a breather. I wouldn’t have thought it’d be so hectic already.”

And it wasn’t even that bad. They have done nothing but wake up and leave the building as soon as it was possible. The most difficult part was to cooperate with others. A system’s weakest point was always the human variable.

Namjoon hummed, agreeing and for a few precious moments they could enjoy this soft bubble around them. It was a fragile little thing, bursting out with the first question thrown into the pit.

“What are we going to do now?”

It felt like the million dollar question in a game show and nobody knew the right answer, the one that they should have figured out, earning points by the researchers.

“I’d pay a visit to the main lab. They have lots of stuff there and maybe we will meet somebody there who can help,” Jimin suggested, fingers adjusting the hem of his Gucci shirt. Wendy had to stop herself from snorting. As if the researchers wanted them to seek help. She firmly believed that they were on their own because that would have made it the perfect trial. Trial of what? That was the good question actually.

“Good idea,” another guy supported the cause but the med student also had a reasonable suggestion:

“We need to find food and water, too. We never know when we need those,” she claimed and as the only medical assistance in the team, Wendy felt like she had to think of everybody’s wellbeing.

Maybe if she weren’t so stubborn and earnest, they would have all gone to the center in that instant, but she couldn’t bypass Joohyun’s nervous behaviour. The eldest girl had been pacing up and down like a lot of others not knowing what to do with themselves. However, unlike the others, she was looking around quite panicked, glancing backwards at the dark dorms on the other end of the street. It was enough for Wendy to take actions and pry herself out of Namjoon’s loving arms to rush to the other girl.

“Hey... what’s wrong?” she asked gently, a soft hand on the shoulder, massaging it with reassuring circles. Joohyun’s breathing became irregular and hasty as the panic settled deep in her bones.

“Insulin. I forgot to bring my insulin,” she replied and incoherently mumbled something about putting it into the common kitchen’s fridge the previous day. They still had hours until breakfast time when Joohyun would have to take the insulin shot before eating, but the thought of not having the medicine on her seemed enough to freak her out which made it worse.

“Oh no, why haven’t you told us before?” Wendy sucked in a breath with a little shake of her head. Of course, nobody would go around announcing to have diabetes since none of them had any idea something like this would happen. With one of her hands still rubbing on the shoulder blades of the other, Wendy raised the volume of her voice to call out to the whole team.“Guys, we need to go to the hospital. Joohyun needs medicine.”

“Fuck it, she can just go alone,” Taehyung growled unimpressed without even sparing a glance at the pale girl resembling an eerie ghost under the moonlight.

“Actually we should go. The hospital must have food in the canteen and if I remember correctly it’s not far from the researchers’ headquarters,” Seokjin stepped in to soothe the uptight nerves.

“It’s right next to it,” a soft, quiet voice supplied and a few heads snapped towards the girl with heart-shaped face and almond eyes. Kang Seulgi, as far as Wendy knew, had majored in architecture and was currently continuing her studies in environmentally-friendly architectural engineering. So at least nobody doubt her word.

“Okay, so you wanna split up? Or do we need to vote?” Seokjin who seemed to be good at managing the team work and handling conflicts looked around. Wendy admired him for his collected, calm words and the way he dealt with even the roughest reactions. He was great in damage control and without him they would have been struggling still to get out of a shutdown area. “Great so who doesn’t agree on going to the hospital for food and then checking out the lab?”

Not a single soul protested, not a single hand flew into the air.

In the end, without much commotion, all eleven of them started walking towards the general direction of downtown. Yet, without a map or GPS signal, it took them almost an hour  from the dorms in the residential area to collectively get to the canal dividing the island into two. From the shore at least they could already see the U-shaped building of the hospital and directly on its left, the prestigious building of the researchers.

“We’re here,” Namjoon breathed and pointed at the stocky, glass-walled building with the universal red positive sign of hospitals. Wendy who walked beside Joohyun to keep a careful eye on her looked up relieved.

“Thank god, I really need to pee,” Hoseok let out a sigh and despite the weight of his backpack and suitcase, he jogged ahead to search for a toilette in the building. The two-winged glass door opened as soon as he touched the control panel with his bracelet.

“Nobody wanted to know,” the med student murmured with an eye roll.

Each of them followed Hoseok without precaution into the hospital which was the first open building they found at the break of dawn. Even illuminated by the orange hues of the rising Sun, the city was still so lonely like an empty shell. They all wondered: where were the researchers? Have they gone home into their commonplace houses on the mainland? Or were they in a very different dorm, safe from the turned off electrical circuits? There was nothing like this in their schedule that was placed on their bunk beds. According to that, they had nothing to do until the meeting at nine o’clock.

Inside of the building, they split into smaller groups in search for the canteen, toilettes or just so they can drop off their heavy bags.

“Come on, let’s find insulin for you. Then we can eat,” Wendy nudged the older girl in the side and a slight discomfort settled in her throat as her boyfriend followed them.

“You don’t have to come with us,” she said sulkily like a child angry at their parents for sending a guardian even though they were old enough to be by themselves. That was exactly what she feared when both her and Namjoon’s application was accepted. She needed her own space, the alone time while the boy like physical closeness. He wasn’t touchy but he liked to be there with her even if it didn’t meant for her.

“I know, still I’d like to. But I won’t if you would prefer me not to,” Namjoon’s steps halted and Wendy immediately felt guilty as she looked at the sincerity on his handsome face and heard his genuine voice. She knew Namjoon would always agree to her terms if she voiced them out, but that became a burden after some time. Shouldn’t he have learnt that by now?

“Whatever,” she shrugged and didn’t turn around to watch her boyfriend’s smile fade as she walked towards the pharmacy of the hospital with Joohyun by her side.

Of course, it was closed, like everything normally at 5am, but they didn’t have time to wait for the opening time. Wendy’s empathy was greater than her sense of justice anyway, so she didn’t waste time to climb over the counter.

“What are you doing?” Joohyun questioned furrowing her neat eyebrows.

“Getting you insulin. I won’t wait and sit around. They want us to prove our resourcefulness. Here it is,” the girl flicked her red hair behind her shoulder.

On the shelves there were regular vitamins and medicines, nothing that needed prescription which was understandable. It wouldn’t have been wise to let those be out in the open for everyone to take. The med student’s eyes scanned through the names of the boxes but quickly realized she won’t find the insulin here. Gosh, how could she be so stupid?

“Don’t you see a fridge or freezer?” she asked Joohyun who eventually followed her suite. They were both looking at every corner they could until the psychology major squealed.

“Here.” She squatted down to the small refrigerator hidden under the counter. “It won’t open.”

And she was right. No matter how much they tried to move the metal door it didn’t nudge for god’s sake until…

“Wait!” Joohyun stopped suddenly, looking down at her wrist and the glimmering silver bracelet on it. Lightly she touched it to the small screen next to the fridge and waited. A few moments later the panel displayed Authorification accepted and the door opened with a beep.

Luckily, inside there was the desired insulin to both of their relief and they found syringe right on the next shelf. Injecting the serum was a piece of cake after all this.

“Thank you. Really,” Joohyun whispered, words a bit broken as she looked up at the dishevelled haired girl. Wendy, taken aback by the gesture amidst the supposed to be fierce competition, blinked dumbfounded at first.

“You’re welcome,” she nodded and hoped she wouldn’t have to regret helping her later.

Jimin grimaced at the pre-wrapped food in the hospital canteen. They had found a storage behind the empty stools that opened under the touch of their identifying bracelets but its content couldn’t satisfy the chaebol’s taste. Sure, he knew he wouldn’t get caviar or any other fancy food but sandwiches? Dry waffles and bottled banana milk? What was he, a freaking child?

He forced down a few bites of a ham sandwich just to fill his grumbling stomach with something but deep down he hoped that the evacuation test either ends soon or people start to fill the city with daylight and they can have a normal meal like they did yesterday evening. He had already finished when he saw the cyber tech guy stand up from one of the tables where he had eaten alone and wander down the hallways. It was suspicious enough for him to get up and follow him.

It took a few turns until he managed to catch up and since he wasn’t even trying to be subtle, he was certain Yoongi knew that he was being followed. Yet, the older guy didn’t question him nor he seemed surprised when Jimin spoke up.

“Where are you going?”

Yoongi looked at him from under his dark lashes. 

“The main nurse desk or the offices. Somewhere in here there must be something about the evacuation plan. They also have to have extra generators and torches,” he said and it seemed so logical. Why hadn’t anyone else thought of that before? And why he didn’t tell anyone about his little plan? Did he intend on getting all the good points for himself?

“I can help,” Jimin offered not wanting to be left out and Yoongi gave him a stern glance. He looked a bit wary but sighed, giving in.

“Okay.”

The two guys followed the maps on the corners of the walls to find the main reception of nurses but looking through the closets, they couldn’t find anything useful. Only when they arrived to the camera control room on the sixth floor, did their pursuit turn out to be fruitful.

“Ah huh,” Jimin remarked as he pulled out a set of torches, batteries from one of the drawers. They also found a huge but not too detailed city map on the wall of which Yoongi took a photo of before he sat down in front of the computer. As soon as it booted up, a nice robotic female voice greeted them.

“Good morning, Min Yoongi and Park Jimin. How may I help you today?”

“How the-” the chaebol wanted to curse as he jumped back in surprise.

“Artificial intelligence, dumbass, we used the bracelets to get in, remember?” Yoongi groaned under his breath and then cleared his throat raising his eyes to the six black computer screens on the wall. “Uh... hello. Can you tell us the purpose of this simulation?”

“Keyword: simulation, purpose. Searching… One search result found within 0.563 seconds.” The computer decoded his question and a few moments later a video footage appeared on each monitor. It played a recording of them from yesterday when they talked to Miss Raina.

“Don’t forget, even though we evaluate you individually, you have to work together in teams to succeed the simulation. Any questions?”

“What is the simulation about exactly?”

“I can’t tell you, sorry. It would change your natural reactions and the results of our research would be false.”

Yoongi sighed.

“We already know that but...”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you. There’s nothing more in the database that you can have access to,” the computer interrupted his protest in a calm, soothing voice but it couldn’t ease neither of them. Jimin’s jaw clenched as he watched the whole situation unfold, the still picture of the video of them on the screens.

“Great.”

“Can I help you with anything else?” the strangely real voice asked nicely and the IT guy didn’t even have to think about the next question.

“What’s happening in the city?”

“The main computer is shutting down the sectors one by one. But you have already known this, didn’t you, Min Yoongi? You graduated Computer Science on the top of your class a year ahead-”

“Enough,” said boy hissed and Jimin had to admit: it was scary, that this computer knew so much about them. It must have been in their files for the application but still… What else did it know? Did it have access to their social media, too? Because fuck, then he was screwed.

“Shutting down… Have a lovely day in Choego, Min Yoongi and Park Jimin!” the computer said goodbye because it interpreted Yoongi’s earlier harsh word as an order and just as he wanted to make it more clear (Hey, wait…!), the monitors’ screens changed to live video footage of different parts of the hospital. Currently it showed the others heading towards the eastern wing of the experimental labs in the basement.

“Shit.”

“What? What’s happening?” Jimin leaned closer confused because he didn’t see anything wrong. Yoongi typed on the computer so fast he could barely follow with his eyes.

“The lab room, they are going towards for god knows why, is specially guarded. It has some messed up defence system if they don’t have the right authorization,” Yoongi whispered and the chaebol couldn’t decide what was the scarier: the flashing red exclamation mark on a certain part of the screen or the tremble in the usually collected older guy’s voice. “We need to warn them.”

[jhsince94]

Just a short AU that's been stuck in my mind for a long long long time now :)

Prompt: Big shot music producer Beca Mitchell is in a secret relationship with Chloe Beale, a famous actress for years now and now they're on a same project. A movie where Chloe is starring and Beca is scoring. However things got riled up once the people behind the movie suggested revealing their secret relationship and making it as a movie stunt.

im so bad at writing the story's prompt but here ya goo

-----

"Really Ms. Mitchell?" A smirk came with the voice of a man who stood up. Beca raised a brow. "We are very certain that among everyone in this room, it is you who knows most of how this industry works" It was Kevin, one of the production manager if she could remember and name the face right.

Giving up to the brunette's empty response, Kevin decided to proceed further, "All we're saying here is that we could totally make something more out of your relationship with Ms. Beale. Something that could definitely benefit not just the movie but both of your careers as well. I mean, everyone here is aware of how huge it would be to reveal that the world's hottest DJ is finally off the market and is secretly dating one of the Hollywood's best actress for over a year now- if my sources are right. Then right there we could also break the news that both of you are in fact working together in a movie. News outlets would lose their minds, Beca. It'll be huge." Beca couldn't help but to release a loud scoff at this. She's was actually impressed that she's hearing all this bullshit this early. Though that initial reaction from the DJ didn't stopped Kevin from speaking again, "We can now also forget Tom Carter since there would be no use of him to be involved with Chloe if we push this through. I'm sure we could wipe every article we've generated very quickly, if we settle this right away"

Having a hard time believing what she's hearing, Beca grinned widely as she eyed Jesse from her side. It seemed like she had totally heard it right after all. If only Kevin came straight to the point a little earlier she shouldn't have asked him to repeat how shitty this idea have been.

Her relationship with Chloe is something she kept dearly personal and away from any hollywood business tricks or stunts successively straight for over a year, and now, hearing it to be proposed as some sort of movie prop or generic stand in issue to bring fame and hype to the film is completely the very reason she is having none of this crap.

"I'm sorry but this has been a huge misunderstanding. See, Beca and Ms. Beale aren't actually a thing. Where did you even get that from?" Jesse had stood up, looking over to Jessica, Chloe's manager, who was kept still and mute from her position just beside the redhead, so much to his and Beca's surprise and disappointment.

"No, Jesse it's fine" Beca spoke. If they had gone this far of a plan, it just means that they've already figured out the relationship, and denying it right now in the middle of this wouldn't make much difference.

So, clearing out her voice, she said, "I don't know how else to put it in a lesser rude way but I would have to turn down this crappy idea, Kevin. I've always had my personal life most certainly my relationships with whoever set to be out of any contract. I got this straight during the signing, didn't I?" The brunette pressed her lips tight together and gave him a disappointed look before she leaned back again.

Few of the movie heads and executives started to share their surprised glances and opposing opinions as the room fell silent.

"Wow, that was quiet a rejection we weren't prepared for" Kevin spoke uneasily between the silence. Beca had mentally groaned and looked over the man again, curious of what he has left to say. "We were actually kind of hoping to receive the same positive reaction we got from Ms. Beale's team but, okay..." The man trailed off, gazing over to the redhead and her manager who were seated at the other end of the table. And when Beca's just right at losing all her interest to this meeting, her mind however suddenly came to full attention at his last words.

"What do you mean?" Beca asked, her brows meeting while her eyes went over to Chloe's direction. Kevin didn't speak for a moment while he let the DJ and Chloe's eyes meet for a second- and right at there, Beca could've already cursed and snapped, but the amount of surprise she had didn't actually helped when she read the guilt in Chloe's eyes.

Not knowing what to say, Beca managed to stand up to her knee, keeping her eyes only to Chloe.

"I- I.. I dont get it"

"You see, Beca.. we and Chloe's team had planned this to be something equally beneficial to everyone who might be included. We just didn't expect that it is you who's actually with Ms. Beale and not Tom" Beca could swear that her heart clutched right there. It almost feels like there were thousand knives that came straight at her, stabbing her everywhere in ways she started to physically feel it through her chest. "And giving that Ms. Beale have taken this as something positive when we talked it over to them, we kind of expected to receive-"

"What does that mean?" Jesse went ahead to cut Kevin off, confusion was driving his voice.

"What the fuck is going on, Jessica?" Beca found her voice just seconds after Jesse. Her heart is starting to heave in a mixture of confusion, anger and pain as she looked over to Chloe's manager. Jessica had not spoken a word. Her lips were firmly pressed and it was starting to drive Beca even mad.

"Can we get a run through of what you actually mean? We don't want to wrap our heads into something we aren't sure of" Jesse came again, trying to sound professional but failing with disappointment on his tone.

"Why don't we get Chloe's team to explain it?" Kevin asked, glancing over to the redhead and her handler's side.

"Why don't you just all cut this fucking chase and actually explain it?" Beca bit back.

"Beca" A light tap brought Beca to see that Jesse is now standing beside her with a look she already know what meant.

"No. I need to know what the fuck is going on here that I feel like everybody in this room knows something I don't. I feel like being played on, Jesse" Anger was now majorly evident in her tone. her face has gone full red and her eyes were furious as she continues to shift over at Chloe and Jessica in hope to hear something other than to receive the same gaze of guilt she's all been getting.

"Now quit this fucking game and answer my goddamn question, Jessica!" The brunette snapped. Anger rose through her, luckily Jesse was there fast enough to hold her back as he tried to sit her down and calm a bit. But Beca evidently had enough to just sit back.

"I'm sure we could settle this in a calmer way" Kevin tried as the room started to feel the tension from the DJ.

"Am I really not gonna hear a single thing, Chlo?" Beca spoke again, ignoring everything and everyone around. Her voice was lighter than earlier but it spoke volume to Chloe when she drove her nearly crying eyes to the Brunette. Beca's stare has slowly gone cold.

"I'm sorry, Beca but Chloe really did thought of this as something good for the both of you. She also thought that you guys have already to waited to have the perfect timing to break the silence and to finall-"

"That's bullshit!" Beca snapped again, feeling another massive wave of pain in her chest. The puzzle came very painful to finally fit together. She was played into a game she had no idea of and on top of all that, she couldn't hide that she's disappointed that Chloe, of all people actually knew and agreed to this.

"Chlo.. babe, what is this?" Beca trailed off. And if anyone knew better than Chloe, they could totally tell that her tone was actually helpless.

Everyone from the room were just as perplexed as Chloe when they heard Beca spoke, let alone for the first time dropped the name she is only used to hear when they're alone. But that didn't kept Chloe from speaking nothing, only causing another addition to the DJ's frustration.

Beca wanted to scream, hell she wanted tear this place down. But the situation of this- with knowing everything, with Chloe not speaking and not even bothering to stand up against this or to at least defend their relationship is only making her weak that all she managed was to let out a frail breath.

That is just when Jesse had got her to seat at last. The room was in complete silence. The plain sound of the air system and constant whisper of a few people were the only evident noise before they heard Chloe's silent sobs. Gathering all the energy she has left, she looked over to Chloe. The redhead's breathing was starting to hitch as her shoulders paced up and down through her continuous sobs. It was painful to see. Beca wanted to run to her, to embrace her and to get them out of this place but the pain of betrayal from the person she least expected it from is keeping her still on her foot.

"Beca" She heard Jesse from behind as she starts to feel her body loosing all its strength. "Let's get you out. I'll be the one to talk to them about this." He says, gripping both of her shoulders to the way out, but she shrugged it.

"No, I get it. I understand everything now" Beca's voice came again, way calmer but this time her tone was pitching every bitterness and pain she has. "I just hope you guys had your fair share of enjoyment with seeing how I got teamed up upon and got played into whatever fame stunt this is" Her voice started to break when she felt Jesse's hand over her shoulders. She was feeling every muscle of her tensing up as she hold back her tears. "It's just so stupid of me to actually fall to this" She spat out. Pain was written all over her face.

"Becs, we should go" Jesse voice's rang from behind again, this time tugging her enough to slightly turn from everyone.

Beca shook her head, ready to speak again when Jesse cut her off with another look.

"Let's go" Jesse whispered but firmer this time, ushering the brunette's shoulder but Beca tipped it off once again, looking back at everyone for the last time.

"This will be the last time you'll hear from me" The DJ spoke and looked over to Jesse. "I want to be pulled out from this movie, I don't care if I lose every contract I'm in with this management" she added, her hands were clenched hard enough that her knuckles were starting to flush white while her eyes were starting to draw the tears she's been fighting to keep. "Halt every decision they made, and also make sure to pay every media outlets they've teamed up with. I don't want any issue of me connected to anyone in this room lying around the second I get out"

"We made everyone sign a none disclosure agreement last week so that should work just fine to keep them from releasing anything against you to the media" Jesse answered.

Nodding to that, Beca didn't bother to throw another glance. This has took a toll on her and that is all she was left to give. With nothing left to say she breathed out once again and finally walked straight out of the room, leaving her pained heart right on the door.

[foursideharmony]

That Thing Where We Post About Our Own Sides

I realize that the fandom is currently hanging around the intersection of We’re Not Talking About That Anymore Street and NEW CONTENT NEW CONTENT NEW CONTENT Boulevard, but I’ve been sitting on this for MONTHS and it’s about time I got it out there. Here, then, are my own Sides--names, functions, descriptions, and relationships with each other.

Sophia is my Intellect—a combination of reason, curiosity, objectivity, pragmatism, and a dash of pedantry. She is the nominal leader of my Sides, if only because she is the only one with any decent organizational skills whatsoever. She wants to learn everything and is deeply frustrated by all the things she doesn’t know, as well as any absence of sense she perceives in the actions of others. She takes on the responsibility of reining in the others’ wilder, more “unrealistic” impulses, but at her core she just wants to get along with them better. She is half the reason I have so many bookshelves, and is definitely behind my preference for linguistic precision. Her key element is Earth, the element of the tangible and material. Motto: “Catalog the world.” Fashion sense: Business casual.

Solena is my Introversion/Independence—the “go it alone” facet. She is proud, stubborn (they’re all stubborn, but she tops the list), quiet, and sometimes a little rude in a standoffish way. It’s not that she doesn’t like people, but she doesn’t understand them very well. Her key element is Wood—like a lone tree atop a hill, she stands on her own, bothers no one, and asks nothing but to be unbothered in turn. Motto: “Ignore the world.” Fashion sense: Casual

Wanda is my Wonder—my inner child, the part of me that is absolutely gobsmacked by how amazing the world is. She is an unabashed sensualist, bordering on a hedonist; she loves food, music, movies, nature, culture, art, science, and fantasy. (She is the other half of the reason I have so many bookshelves.) She is also largely responsible for my spirituality—if the things we can see and prove are this astounding, imagine what the things we can’t see and prove are like! Her key element is Water, the element of emotion, change, and variety. Motto: “Experience the world.” Fashion sense: Whimsical/Fantasy (she likes “witch” clothes)

Madge is my Creativity, which makes her a multifaceted facet—she writes, sews, does all kinds of crafts, sings, and tells jokes. She usually sports at least one or two Band-aids on her fingers, from pin jabs, hot glue burns, and paper cuts. She is very much a perfectionist who often consults the other Sides to make sure she hasn’t overlooked anything. Her key element is Air, the element of ideas and freedom. Motto: “Reinvent the world.” Fashion sense: Cosplay and/or period costume

Justine is my Justice—my moral center, which is based on fairness and equity. Nothing enrages her more than bullies, cheats, and oppressors. She was pretty quiet, humming along in the background, for most of my life, but suddenly got angry and LOUD…oh, around November 2016. She is a crusader…a paladin, in D&D terms, though she’s more of a chaotic good “Holy Liberator” than a standard lawful good paladin. She means well, but she tends toward knee-jerk reactions and has trouble with the idea of compromise. Her key element is Fire, the element of will power and zeal. Motto: “Save the world.” Fashion sense: Superhero + protest buttons

Melanie is my Pessimism—a knotty ball of anxiety, depression, and cynicism. Her main talent is seeing the worst in every person, situation, or thing she encounters. She claims to be keeping my expectations low so that if there are any surprises, at least they’ll be pleasant ones, but she’s not happy and she knows it. None of the others like her much, even though they need her to balance out the team. She doesn’t like herself much either, but she’d rather be who she is than disappear, and due to her worldview, those are the only two options she can think of. Her key element is Ice, the element of stasis and gloom. Motto: “Avoid the world.” Fashion sense: Pajamas

And finally, the true villain of the piece:

Sadie is my Cruelty/Vengeance, the part of me that wants to take all my hurts and turn them back on those who hurt me, those who stood by and let it happen, and everyone else in the vicinity just in case they were thinking about fucking with me. She often tries to convince me that she’s Justine having a bad day…and she honestly might be; they’ve never been seen together. But that doesn’t mean Sadie is just another way of being righteous—she’s my ideals turned inside-out and toxic, and I shut her down as much as possible. She leaks through in little acts of pettiness and spite. Her key element is Metal—hard and sharp, sometimes appearing to shine brightly but only because there’s a light source nearby (i.e. possessing no light of its own). Motto: “Burn the world.” Fashion sense: Supervillain

Relationships:

Sophia/Solena: Get along great, but low energy. Perfect for working and studying with no distractions. Sophia reminds Solena that I can’t spend all my time alone.

Sophia/Wanda: Share a love of new experiences/information as well as science. There are plenty of activities that allow them to enjoy one another’s company. On the downside, Sophia finds Wanda a little too flighty sometimes, and Wanda finds Sophia to be a bit of a buzzkill when it comes to magic and fantasy.

Sophia/Madge: Complicated. Sophia provides Madge with a lot of inspiration and checks her work for accuracy and “correctness,” but she also holds her back from really cutting loose with wild ideas.

Sophia/Justine: Sophia does research so that Justine won’t be fooled by spurious claims that play to her biases. She also helps Justine strategize her actions. Not exactly a friendship, but a good working relationship.

Sophia/Melanie: Tense. Sophia considers Melanie’s negativity to be intensely unhealthy, but she looks to Melanie to spot problems that she can solve. Melanie, conversely, appreciates Sophia’s attempts to use rationality to ground her, but is convinced that she doesn’t properly understand where the negativity comes from.

Sophia/Sadie: These two don’t directly interact much. Sophia is too amoral to be either tempted or horrified by the prospect of revenge, so Sadie has no way to hook her.

Solena/Wanda: No major clashes, although Solena sometimes finds Wanda’s energy to be overwhelming. They both appreciate things like a walk in the woods.

Solena/Madge: Plenty of conflict here, but it’s not rancorous. Madge is the most extroverted of the crew, which naturally clashes with Solena’s definitive introversion.

Solena/Justine: Fundamental incompatibility—Justine wants to HELP ALL THE PEOPLE, while Solena's not interested in people at all and would rather stay home than march or phone bank.

Solena/Melanie: Pretty harmonious, but not always stable. Solena's preference for solitude gives Melanie space to sort through her many, many issues...but that space can easily turn into an echo chamber where the issues reinforce each other instead.

Solena/Sadie: They can agree on one thing: People suck. But even Solena finds Sadie's response to social disappointment to be monstrous. Why go out of my way to hurt people when I can just withdraw? Sadie thinks merely withdrawing is recklessly inadequate to protect me from further heartbreak.

Wanda/Madge: These two form a intoxicating feedback loop of inspiration and creation, occasionally requiring one of the others (usually Sophia, but sometimes Melanie) to step in and stop them before they drain too much of my function. A very high-energy pair.

Wanda/Justine: They don't have much to do with each other most of the time, but certain things leave them both clutching each other, breathless with awe...things like people coming together to multiply their power for good.

Wanda/Melanie: Wanda thinks Melanie is an absolute, 100% spoilsport. Melanie thinks Wanda is a naive idiot. Not much love lost here.

Wanda/Sadie: Wanda is terrified of Sadie, whose mere existence brings into question Wanda's foundational belief that the world is basically good and magical. For her part, Sadie is even more contemptuous of Wanda than Melanie is.

Madge/Justine: Almost the opposite of Sophia/Justine—these two get along very well, but Madge's fantasies tend to distract Justine from buckling down and doing the necessary work of her various missions. All the same, Madge is the one who gives Justine an end goal to aspire to.

Madge/Melanie: Another fundamental clash, but there are exceptions—Madge's perfectionism means that she sometimes appreciates a harsh critic to point out weaknesses in her work. Sometimes. Meanwhile, Melanie is holding out hope that Madge will invent some miraculous solution to my mental issues. They want to like each other better.

Madge/Sadie: Madge is actually the one best able to rein Sadie in, by feeding her outlandish revenge scenarios involving things like time travel or voodoo magic, thus distracting her from plotting more realistic forms of revenge that would definitely end badly for me.

Justine/Melanie: Justine is trying to improve the real, actual world. Melanie's constant pronouncements of doom are Not Helping.

Justine/Sadie: As previously mentioned, these two might actually be “flip Sides” of each other. They certainly never directly interact. Their ideas about how to handle wrongdoing are completely incompatible and if they did somehow meet...violence would almost certainly ensue.

Melanie/Sadie: Sadie is actively trying to recruit Melanie to her cause, and even use her as an unwitting agent to get the other Sides either on-board or shut them up. Melanie knows this, and she's terrified about it. What if Sadie succeeds? What if she's right? Whatifwhatifwhatif...