#trust me i wrote out those tags for about 30 minutes.

[wrathful-reptile]

Some dragons I've drawn recently! (in order of drawing them, left to right) They are Lazarus, Hurim, Zahara, and Cloud Chaser!

These dragons are from the discontinued interactive novel/game series "Riders of Abauruth" by @13leaguestories

Click the images for better quality!

[movieexpert1978]

I posted 5,363 times in 2022

That's 1,462 more posts than 2021!

226 posts created (4%)

5,137 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@illiana-mystery

@faemorningstar

@morelikedoccock

@heythereimashley

@curbitkirby

I tagged 316 of my posts in 2022

#alfred molina - 183 posts

#fanfiction - 63 posts

#doc ock - 53 posts

#maxim horvath - 52 posts

#the sorcerer's apprentice - 36 posts

#otto octavius - 33 posts

#fluff - 30 posts

#fanfic - 30 posts

#christoph waltz - 29 posts

#maxim horvath x reader - 24 posts

Longest Tag: 45 characters

#it’s one of those days where i feel worthless

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Crescendo

So I wrote a big chunk of a story a while back. Another story between Andres Galan and my OC Luna. Luna starts seeing someone her own age. Andres respectfully takes a step back. However, things soon start spiraling for Luna. 

This is just a little Prologue to see what people think. So please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!!! 

Prologue

“Andres, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Luna speaks nervously.

“What’s that?” He asks, looking up from the papers on his desk.

“I…I wanted to start seeing someone…I hope that’s ok.”

“Luna, of course you can see someone,” he says assuring as he gets up. “I’m happy for you, truly,” he says as he caresses her face.

“I wasn’t sure how you would react.”

“Luna, I want you to be happy. I know our relationship wouldn’t last forever.”

“Andres, I still want to be friends.” He takes her hands gently and kisses her palms.

“I know…and I’m very grateful for that. I will always be here for you,” he says tenderly.

Xxxxxxxx

“So who’s this guy you’re seeing?” Senna asked eagerly. Luna moan dramatically into her palms. Senna smirks and nudges her gently. “Come on, spill it!”

“Well, he wants to be a sports journalist…”

“What! Oh no! He’s not for you.”

“What do you mean?” Luna laughs.

“I’m willing to bet he wants to do stuff for the Riots. Trust me, a lot of people around my dad are sketchy as hell,” Senna emphasized.

“He’s not sketchy and he does want to do some with the Riots but right now he’s working on stuff for the L.A. Chargers too alright,” Luna explains quickly.

“Well…what’s his name?” Senna huffs.

“Jason Schultz.”

“Uuuugh…that has rich white boy written all over it,” Senna groans.

“Hey, come on! Why are you being so critical?” Luna asks genuinely hurt. Senna squirmed as she realized that she over did it with her attitude.

“Sorry, I know that wasn’t the right way to do it, but I just want to make sure he makes you happy…ok?” Senna says.

“Thank you, I’ll be ok. He does make me happy,” she nods.

“He better!” Both girls laugh.

37 notes - Posted November 3, 2022

#4

Happy Birthday to Alfred Molina!!!

46 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

#3

Totally taking advantage of the Alfred Molina open requests. But i hope i do it right… .

How about Doc Ock (or even Bob Aldrich) being insecure about his physique. But his girlfriend changes his mind!

Thank you regardless 🐙🕷🥰

Here you go!!! Sorry this took me so long to do.

short but lots of fluff promise!!!!

tag list:

@illiana-mystery @randomfandomtrash28 @doctoraceus

@curbitkirby @tsukiakarinobara

Otto groaned as he stretched and stood up. His legs and back felt sore. It didn’t help that he had been sitting and tinkering in his lab all day.

“Uuuhgg,” he mumbled. He scratched his chin and could feel the stubble of a beard growing. He was well aware of the grey hairs starting to poke their way through his auburn hair. He was frowning as he went to the open kitchen area where his girlfriend was making dinner.

“Hey you,” she smiled at him.

“Hey,” he nodded weakly.

“Something wrong?” She knows that tone.

“It’s nothing,” he shrugs. She waits a few minutes as she works on the food.

“What’s wrong Otto?” She asks gently.

“I’m getting old…my body sucks,” he says in defeat.

“Hey! Get that out of your head right now mister!” She huffs as she hurries over to him.

“But it’s true! My legs and back ache. I’m turning grey and getting fat!” He sighs.

“Otto stop!” She laughs gently. “You could take a shower.” She suggests.

“Oh great now I stink too!”

“Hey I didn’t say that!” She playfully smacks his arm. “You work too much. Your body has been through a lot of trauma.” One of the arms shakes it’s head in denial. “It doesn’t help you have these stubborn things on your back.” She teased. “Yes, Larry I’m talking to you.”  He turned away and ignored her in defiance, making Otto smirk. She straddles his lap and faces him. “I think you’re amazing Doctor Otto Octavious,” she whispers sincerely. He wraps his arms around her and rests his head on her shoulder.

“You think so?”

“Of course Otto…I mean that…and I mean it when I say I love you so much.”

“Thank you honey…that really means a lot to me.” He whispers. She kisses his cheek and then his temple. She turns his face towards him and kisses his forehead. When he looks into her eyes she smiles and gives him a tender kiss.

“You should take a break from work. You’ve been stuck in that lab basically for the last four days.”

“No I haven’t…have I?” Flo nods an eager yes making Otto huff. “Fine.” He relents with a smile. He helps her finish dinner and they sit down to eat. “You’re right…a shower sounds good after dinner…care to join me?” Otto smirks.

“I’d love to.”  

47 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

#2

Aftercare

Doc Ocktober 31: Aftercare 

As promised, the part 2 to Submissive 

lots of fluff!!! Otto taking good care of his submissive. I have no doubt he would be great with aftercare. 

https://movieexpert1978.tumblr.com/post/675601347692953600/submissive 

Otto gently takes the belt off as carefully as he can and puts it with his coat.

“Hey…darling are you ok?” He whispered.

“Yes Otto.” She gives him a small smile.

“Wait a moment.” He says. He leaved and she hears the sound of the shower running. Otto comes back in, fully naked now and helps her to her feet. He helps her into the shower with the arms being careful not to damage anything. Otto kisses her skin gently as he lets the water run over her. “I wasn’t too hard was I?” He asked.

“Only when you held my hair too tight.” She said.

“Oh I’m sorry. Do you want me to get you an icepack once we’re out?” He asked sincerely.

“No thank you, can you just massage my head a little bit?”

“Of course love.” Otto takes some of her shampoo and gently rubs it into her head. He smiled as he hears her hum pleasantly. He loves that sound. Next, he washes her body, being as gentle as he can. The belt marks are already fading. He doesn’t want to bruise her despite her asking him to sometimes. She helps clean Otto off before the water is turned off. An arm gives them towel, making her giggle. Otto is playful as he dries off. He puts his boxers back on as they go back to the bedroom. She puts a t-shirt and panties on before getting back into bed.

“Do you want to talk about anything?” Otto asks.

“Later please.”

“Alright, sleep now my dear.” He kisses the top of her head as she drifts off listening to his heartbeat.  

52 notes - Posted February 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Garden Stroll

Just saw your message about your requests being open. How about a fic with his character from Breakable You? I’d love to read a fic where the OC doesn't leave that wonderful man for his BROTHER (who happened to be an ex). 😅😊

sorry this took me so long to get done anon. I wrote this and then I lost motivation to get this posted. I’ve just been going through a lot right now. I haven’t been motived to write at all either, so sorry about that. 

This is NSFW, safe sex, swearing, 

She wasn’t surprised to see Paul out front tending to his garden. He must have gotten an early start as he had certainly built up a sweat. She hurried inside with her things and grabbed a cold Gatorade for him.

“Hi Paul,” she smiled coming over to him.

“Oh hey there,” he nodded as he got up.

“I figured you could use a drink,” she said handing him the bottle.

“Oh thank you very much,” he nods and starting drinking. “Ahhhh…that’s good, nice and cold.”

“How’s the garden coming?”

“Oh, it’s coming, been putting in all kinds of flowers.”

“Any veggies?”

“No, even though I probably should. I’m not one for a vegetable garden. I’m a flower guy,” he says holding up a tulip.

“Your garden is always beautiful regardless. I need to do some of my own.”

“What’s that?” He asked curiously.

“Removing tree stumps,” she groaned.

“Yeah, those are always a pain. If you need a sledgehammer let me know and you can borrow mine.”

“You got a sledgehammer?”

“Yup.”

“Awesome, thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” she smiles. They go back to their own houses, and she starts working in her back yard. Paul chuckles to himself as he sometimes hears her moaning and groaning. “Damn tree stumps,” she huffs. “Get out you stupid roots!” She shouts at one point. Paul has to cover his mouth to keep from laughing too loudly. Once he’s done with his plants he heads back inside. He sneaks a glance in her backyard to see her refilling a hold she dug up, with a small stuff off to the side. Paul puts a water in the freezer and gives it a few minutes before he goes outside to return the favor.

“Here’s some water,” he announces.

“Thank you,” she sighs and eagerly drinks. “I’m sorry…I was probably way too loud,” she blushes.

“No, you were fine. I found your colorful commentary quiet hilarious actually,” he chuckles.

"Yeah...I do that a lot when I work. I didn’t need the sledgehammer this time thankfully, just went around digging them up and cutting up the roots.”

“That’s not a bad method. It saves you a bit of money.”

“For now,” she sighs. “How have you been doing Paul?” She asks kindly as she starts to pick up her things.

“I’m alright, just keeping myself busy,” he nods. He knows what she means as his divorce had just been finalized a few weeks back.

“Not too busy I hope.” He helps her put some of her tools back in the garage.

“No, just the garden and a little house work every now and then. I’m alright,” he nods in appreciation.

“That’s good. Well, thank you for your help. I need to take a shower ASAP,” she groans fanning her face.

See the full post

72 notes - Posted August 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[connor-sent-by-cyberlife]

Thanks to all who supported my Convin Demon/Priest AU lately. Your positive feedback means so much to me, you've no idea! I know this sort of AU is kind of a very special niche interest, therefore I appreciate every single comment and reblog even more. Be sure I read all of your tags, always!

I felt so inpired by this AU that I actually wrote a little drabble about how it all began. I haven't really written anything in ages, so this is kind of a big deal for me, even though the drabble is less than 1000 words long.

I hope you like it! Let me know what you think and if you'd be interested in reading more.

Please keep in mind: This is not beta-read and English isn't my first language :P.

And at last: This AU wouldn't exist without @lemonowl900's amazing Convin Demon/Priest art which started it all.

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

A 30 minutes walk from the house I lived in back then, hidden from and forgotten by the world between fir trees, the ruin of an ancient abbey could be found. High arches made of stone, broken in some places, but still strongly and proudly fighting their fight against time. It was a beautiful spot and when I look back it was the one where I felt the closest to God. When the sunrays found their way through the branches to shine through the remains of old ornaments carved by human hands so long ago, it was heavenly and peaceful, oh, so peaceful to just sit there. Sometimes I prayed, sometimes I got lost in thoughts. I spent hours and hours there all on my own, but never felt lonely a single second.I was at peace with myself and the world. On bad days though everything was different between these silent walls of stone. The things I longed to forget, the ones I tried to hide from myself so desperately came back to me then and loneliness crept under my skin like the cold on a winter's morning. And it was on one of those days when I first saw him...

I still remember the smell of the wet forest the rain of the past afternoon had left.

“Does God ever answer?” he asked curiously, his voice like honey on a tongue that had never tasted anything sweet before.

I had never met anyone during my stays at this long forgotten place. Fully immersed into my praying, searching forgiveness for my sinful thoughts, I almost jumped out of my skin. I got back on my feet - so fast I felt dizzy for a few seconds - and turned around myself two times trying to find the source of the voice. At first, I didn't trust my own eyes. I remember it was foggy that day and already starting to darken. And there was a shadow between the ancient pillars and the trunks of the trees, hard to distinguish from those until it started to walk towards me. Slowly, gracefully and threatening at the same time like a beautiful predator. All my survival instincts were on alert from one second to another and yet I didn't run away. I'm not sure if I was just unable to move or if it was a strange kind of curiosity, fascination even, that kept me there. He - it (I know while I write these sentences I will continue to switch between he and it when I talk about him, I was never able to grasp him completely) stepped out of the shadows, fully naked except for a maple leaf that covered its genitals, tall and lanky, head crowned by two big horns. A tail with an arrowhead-like ending moved like a hypnotizing snake behind its body. A creature I had feared all my life. A personification of evil already my strictly religious parents had warned me of when I was a little boy.

I wanted to ask who he was, what he was doing here, but I couldn't find my voice. And my heart was pounding so loudly, it would've probably swallowed any other sound anyway. The distance between the creature and me shrank since it continued walking towards me. I started to stumble backwards, until a solid wall stopped me. Trapped, I thought, feeling panic crawling up my throat. But as if it sensed my fear it suddenly stood still. It crooked its horned head and watched me attentively. I can't say how much time passed - me trying to find a way to win over the laws of physics and simply disappear through the stone and the...demon - even today I've difficulties to use this word - studying me as if I were a vulnerable and lost soul that deserved nothing but pity.

“Do not be afraid, mortal! I have not come to harm you.” his voice was so alluring that I wanted nothing but to believe his forked tongue.

Desperately, I fought to get my rapid breathing under control again, so I could eventually try to form some words. It took me an entire eternity - or at least it felt like that, until I managed to stutter a question.

“T-Then, then why did you come?”

Without warning his mouth turned into grin that made the blood in my veins freeze to ice. Devilish yet irresistible. It didn't took my fear away, far the opposite, but it somehow killed my flight instinct. I stopped trying to push the wall behind me away so I could run, when the creature started moving again. Slowly, its hands risen in a gesture commonly used to signalize defenselessness to allow me to lull myself into a false sense of security. And before I knew it the creature had cornered me between its arms against the cold stone behind me. Its eyes were black surrounded by an ominous red which made me think of blood. They looked into mine, directly to the bottom of my soul, digging for and finding all the sinful secrets I hid from the world. And I couldn't help but stare back, held captive, frozen in place, troubled by all the conflicting feelings that crashed down on me in this very moment. He bent his arms to lean even closer, until his mouth was right next to my ear. I could feel his hot breath against my skin, before he whispered the words that implied the promise of a forbidden sin.

“I have come to set you free, Gavin.”

(click for better quality)

³ᵈ ᵇᵃˢᵉ ᶠᶤᵍᵘʳᵉ ᵘˢᵉᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ᶜᵒᶰᶰᵒʳ ᵇʸ ˡᵉˣᵃᵏᶤᶰᵉˢˢ ᵒᶰ ʳᵉᶰᵈᵉʳᵒˢᶤᵗʸ

³ᵈ ᵇᵃˢᵉ ᶠᶤᵍᵘʳᵉ ᵘˢᵉᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ᵍᵃᵛᶤᶰ ᵇʸ ʳᵉᵈᶻˢᵗᵘᵈᶤᵒ ᵒᶰ ᵈᵃᶻ³ᵈ

[alwaysachorusgirl]

Of Wolves and Witches

Pairing: Werewolf!Bishop Losa x Witch!Reader

Word Count: 3088

For: covers the monster square for @adarafaelbarba 's moodboard fall bingo

TW: violence and accidental death via a nightmare/flashback sequence, brief mentions of mental, emotion, and physical abuse, PTSD, and covering up a crime scene

Author's Notes: The Mayans Werewolf AU that no one asked for, but i wrote it anyway. It starts out dark, but ends with fluff, I promise. This is my first time writing for Bishop, so please go easy on me... a big thank you to @itsjustmyfantasyroom for letting me run this idea by her and reassuring me that it wasn't crazy, and for encouraging me to write it.

Tags: @madamsnape921; @prurientpuddlejumper; @thatesqcrush; @welcometothemxdhouse; @raulesparza4eva; @teamsladsandgents; @rosequcrtz

He stormed into your living room, rage storming in his eyes. His aura was a swirling void of red and black. He shouldn’t have been able to break the locks on your front door, he shouldn’t have been able to walk right through your magical wards, but here he was. You straightened your posture and stood your ground, determined to not let him see how terrified you were.

“How did you get in here?”

“Really?” He pulled a glowing amulet from out of his shirt. “Not that hard when you have a little help. Benefits of having hunters for friends.”

Your eyes went wide as you realized what you were looking at. It was an enchanted amulet, one strong enough to get through your warding. You could only hope that it wasn’t strong enough to dampen your powers.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he smirked. “I know what you are. Makes me a wonder what else you haven’t been telling me.”

“Alex, get out! I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”

“You little bitch!” he spat back. “You think you can just break up me? You think you can just walk away?

“I can and I did. We’re done, Alex, it’s over. You don’t get to hurt me anymore. It’s not my fault that your fragile, insecure male ego can’t take a fucking hint.”

“Bitch, I’ll fucking hurt you whenever I fucking want to! And I don’t see your little biker friends here to protect you.…”

Then he charged, and suddenly you were on the ground with his hands around your throat.

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!”

You could feel the murderous intent radiating off him, and put your hands on his chest, trying to push him off you, but then you felt the release of kinetic energy through your palms, and Alex was flying across the room. He hit the wall, and you prayed to whatever goddess was listening that the sickening crack you heard was just the drywall breaking behind him. But then his eyes rolled back in his head, and his head lolled to one side, at what could only be described as an “unhealthy looking” angle. His lower body twitched a few times before going limp. He hung there for a moment, suspended in the air, pinned to the wall by your invisible force. Still shaking in terror, you finally lowered your hands, and Alex’s lifeless body fell to the ground with a thud.

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

“No!” you cried out, sitting bolt upright on your couch. You were covered in a cold sweat and your whole body was shaking. Your lungs gasped for air and your eyes darted around the room, searching for Alex, but he wasn’t there. You weren’t even in your old house anymore. You held your hand in your hands and took deep breaths. You were in your apartment, in Santo Padre, Alex was dead, and you were safe. The Saturday afternoon sun streamed in through the window, and the TV was still on, a marathon of Guy’s Grocery Games playing at a low volume.

“I must have fallen asleep,” you said softly to yourself, “it was only a nightmare.”

You grabbed your phone off the coffee table and checked the time. It was only 3:30, plenty of time to shower and freshen up before Bishop would pick you up at 6. You stood, and after checking your locks and wards, made your way to the bathroom.

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

Despite your best efforts to push them down, the memories of what happened next came flooding back as you stood under the warm shower spray. You had been in shock, understandably so, but you were now exposed as a witch, and had to protect yourself. The logical side of your brain kicked in and you got to work. After verifying that Alex was dead, you had used your telekinetic abilities to rip the amulet off his neck. A quick examination verified that it had only been enchanted enough to allow Alex to breach your magical wards without getting zapped, but not enough to block your own powers. The enchantment was also crude and amateurish, probably done in haste by someone with limited knowledge of witchcraft. He had mentioned having hunters for friends, and you cursed yourself for not sensing that sooner. He hadn’t been one himself. You would have read that in his aura the moment you met him, but you also hadn’t sensed his dark side. The mentally and emotionally abusive and manipulative side, the one that turned violent during an argument when you had tried to call him out on his bullshit and break up with him the first time. You had ended up in the hospital, and when you confronted him the second time, you had friends with you to back you up. And after destroying the amulet, those were the friends you called on for help with your predicament.

The Blood Moon Motorcycle Club was a found family werewolf pack, led by Jack Reynard, a fearsome and intimidating Alpha. But Jack was fiercely protective of his friends and allies and didn’t hesitate to show up with four of his most trusted lieutenants when you called and tearfully explained your situation. They got to work cleaning up the scene and going through Alex’s phone and wallet. They found a business card for an elite and dangerous organization of hunters, and the contact’s name and number on the card matched up with one of the contacts in Alex’s phone. Jack told you to start packing your bags and to make sure that you included any magical artifacts that you had. You would spend the night at their clubhouse under round-the-clock security, and in the morning, they would get you out of town. Anything that couldn’t be packed that night would be shipped to you once you were settled elsewhere. They would dispose of the body; it wasn’t the first time they’d had to do so.

Jack had called Bishop Losa, president of the Mayans Motorcycle Club in Santo Padre, California. Jack and Bishop had served together in the Marines in their younger days, and the Mayans and the Blood Moons were allies as a result of that friendship. The Mayans were another found family werewolf pack and protected Santo Padre alongside the Galindo Pack. The town was a safe haven for all supernatural beings and the humans who lived there were none the wiser.

And now you had been here for six months. You worked in a bookshop owned by another a witch, Matilda, and lived in the apartment above it. In addition to the books, you also sold your homemade herbal teas and did Tarot card readings in the shop. 2-3 times a week you would bake cookies and muffins and sell those in the shop. Your teas were so popular that you now did tea making demonstrations on Saturday mornings. You were thriving but were still plagued by nightmares and PTSD and attended therapy once a week to help you work through your struggles.

And then there was Bishop. At first, the Mayan president and Alpha had been your friend and protector. You had been too traumatized to even think about pursuing a relationship, and so you both denied the unquestionable and inexplicable attraction. The more you got to know each other, the more you were drawn to each other. Two months ago, he finally made a move while the two of you had been outside getting some air at a party at the Mayans clubhouse, asking if he could kiss you. You’d been a couple ever since.

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

You had just finished lacing up your boots when you heard the sound of a familiar motorcycle pull up to your building. You ran to the window and looked down to the street. You saw Bishop getting off his bike and removing his helmet. You exited your apartment and ran down the stairs, meeting him at the entrance at the side of the building. You threw your arms around his neck and kissed his lips. His arms encircled your waist and pulled you close.

“Hola Querida, you look beautiful.”

“Thanks, you’re not too bad, yourself, handsome.”

That got a chuckle from the Alpha. He removed one of his arms from around your back, revealing the bouquet of roses in his hand. “These are for you.”

“Bish, they’re gorgeous, thank you. You shouldn’t have.”

“And pass up the opportunity to surprise you? Not a chance.”

“Come on up. I’ll put these in water, grab a few things, then I’ll be ready to go.”

Bishop nodded and held onto your hand as he followed you up the stairs.

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

You held onto Bishop as the two of you went speeding down the back roads, away from Santo Padre. You loved dates like this: just you and Bishop on the bike, heading somewhere unknown, away from all the stress and bullshit of the day-to-day. His torso felt warm, sturdy, and safe. You could feel the vibrations from bike rattling through your body as you watched the scenery fly by. You’d been on the road for at least half an hour now.

“Almost there, Querida,” Bishop called back. “You’re gonna love this spot, I promise.”

After a few more minutes he pulled off the road and the motorcycle slowed to a stop. Bishop turned off the engine and stored the keys in his pocket. You both got off and removed your helmets. You looked around at the small, wooded area and smiled, breathing in the fresh air.

“This is nice, babe.”

“Oh, this isn’t the spot, “he told you, unlatching the soft fleece blanket and cooler from the back of his bike. He handed you the blanket. He took the cooler in one hand and grabbed your free hand with his other, interlacing his fingers with yours. “It’s this way.”

You walked for a few minutes down a short path before finally arriving at a grassy clearing. The view was breathtaking. You could see everything from your elevated perched; Santo Padre, the valley, green leafy trees swaying in the breeze, fields of wildflowers. A sense of calm settled over you that you hadn’t felt in months. You didn’t jump when Bishop came up behind you and slid his arms around your mid-section, instead relaxing into his touch and leaning against his sturdy frame. Bishop softly kissed your shoulder.

“You okay, baby?”

“Yeah,” you sighed, “this is perfect, this place in perfect. The energy here is so peaceful, and so alive. I love it.”

“I’m glad. I was thinking we could eat dinner, watch the sunset? And wait until the stars come out…You can show me all the constellations?”

You turned and slid your arms around his neck, resting your forehead against his.

“You would have thought that you were such a romantic?”

“Just don’t tell anyone, okay? Gotta maintain my tough guy image, you know?”

“Mmm…your secret is safe with me.” You pecked his lips once, twice, three times, each kiss lasting a bit longer than the rest. When you finally pulled your head away you noticed that the blanket was laid out on the ground with cooler sitting on top.

“Come on,” said Bishop, directing you over to it. You both sat down, and Bishop opened the cooler and started setting out its contents: sandwiches from the local deli, fresh strawberries from the farmer’s market, giant cupcakes from the gourmet bakery, a bottle of beer for each of you, and bottled water. He popped the caps off the beer bottles and handed you one. “Cheers.”

The two of you sat and ate, completely at ease with each other, and the conversation flowed easily. Bishop told you about the day’s antics down at the scrapyard, and you told him about the business plan you and Matilda were working on to expand the bookshop into the empty café next door.

“The theory is, that having a space to sell food and drinks will drum up more business. I can sell my tea and baked goods and do my demonstrations there. We would obviously need to hire some extra people to help, but I think we can make it work. We can’t tear down the wall between the buildings and expand without the proper permits.”

“I’m sure the town will approve whatever permits you need. They’re not going to say to ‘no’ to something that will bring more business into Santo Padre.”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the sunsets,” you said, gazing at the red, orange, and purple hues of the evening sky. “How did you find this place?”

Bishop laid down on the blanket and you stretched out next him, placing your head on his chest.

“Me and the guys had just come back from a run,” he began, “Things didn’t go so well, and I was pissed, needed to blow off some steam so I just rode around for a while. Next thing I knew, I was here. I shifted, ran around for a while until my head was clear. I come back whenever I need to get away from everything.”

You tilted your head up to meet his gaze. “Thank you for bringing me here. I needed this.”

Bishop caressed your cheek with his fingers. “You’re welcome, Querida. I’ll bring you up here whenever you want.”

“Bish, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Of course, Querida, you can ask me anything,” he replied with a chuckle.

“Can I see you in your wolf form sometime? There’s no pressure, only if you want to…”

Bishop mulled the question over in his head. You had caught him off guard with the query. None of the women he’d ever been with had asked to see his wolf form, not even his ex-wife. These days, he only shifted when it was absolutely necessary. There were advantages to being an older and more experienced wolf. He could shift at will and didn’t have to worry about losing control. But what if you didn’t like what you saw? What if he scared you away? He’d never forgive himself if that happened. Your soft, sweet voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Bish, I’m sorry, forget I said anything- “

“No, it’s okay,” he kissed your forehead, “I just wasn’t expecting that question. I’ll do it if you want me to, but just be prepared, okay? I promise I won’t hurt you, but it might not be what you’re expecting.”

“I trust you completely, and I promise, I won’t be scared.” You looked at his aura and saw the hesitancy there. He was scared. “You’re not going to lose me.”

He cupped your face with his hand and his lips found purchase with yours. He had a way of kissing you that made your mind go blank and get lost in the moment, and you loved every minute of it. You kissed him back with equal fervor, hoping that somehow you were able to convey the trust and faith you had in him. The smile on his face when you broke away seemed to indicate that you’d been successful.

Bishop rose and walked a few feet away.

“What are you doing?” you asked, confused by his actions.

“Shifting is a lot easier without clothes on,” he replied with a wink, beginning to undress.

“I’ll close my eyes and give you some privacy then,” you giggled, shutting your eyes, but occasionally cracking one open to steal glimpses of his increasingly naked form; and damn if you didn’t like what you saw!

Bishop finished disrobing and crouched down on the soft grass. He breathed deeply and cleared his mind, focusing his intention. He felt his muscle start to ripple and his joints and bones shift. It didn’t hurt at his age; it was just slightly uncomfortable. All his senses sharpened. Body hair became fur, his hands and feet morphed into oversize paws with razor sharp claws. Even his teeth changed shaped, becoming longer and more pointed. A few moments later, he stretched and shook out his fur. He looked over towards you, still sitting there with your eyes closed, and cautiously padded toward you.

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

You could hear the footfalls of his paws, and then felt his large wet nose nudging your arm. You opened your eyes and saw a massive wolf standing before you. His fur was brown and black, with specks of gray in various places. His legs were strong, and his paws appeared large enough to take out a person with one blow. But his eyes, his eyes were gentle, and you would know them anywhere.

“Oh, Bishop, you’re beautiful!”

He sat and cocked his head to one side, appearing confused.

“Yes, you heard me correctly. May I?” You held out your arms to him. Bishop bowed his head and leaned forward, allowing you to embrace him and bury your face in his fur. “Your fur is so soft!”

He put his head on your shoulder and let out a contented groan when your fingers began to massage the spot right between his ears. You giggled at that. “I take it you like that, huh?” Bishop lifted his head and licked your face in response, making you laugh even harder. You massaged his head for a little while longer before resting your forehead against his. “Thank you for letting me see you like this. I love you, Bishop.”

There was suddenly a very naked, human man in your arms. Bishop’s hands cupped your face, his eyes scanning it for any indication that he might have misheard you.

“Bish- “

“Say that again, Querida.”

“I said, I love you, Obispo Losa.”

Bishop pulled you into his lap and pressed his lips to yours, kissing you with more intensity and tenderness than he ever had before. Any doubts that you may have had about him not feeling the same quickly melted away. It went on for what felt like forever before the two of you had to pull away and come up for air.

“I love you, too, mi reina.”

You held onto one another like that for while before Bishop got dressed and rejoined you on the blanket. You spent the rest of the evening wrapped in each other’s arms and gazing at the night sky. And when a shooting star passed overhead, you made a wish that you could stay this way forever. No more looking over your shoulder, no more nightmares; just you and Bishop, ready to take on whatever the future might hold.

[eatyourchancletas]

SUMMARY |  y/n l/n; the trauma surgeon who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is taken hostage by the terrifying mafia known as ateez. despite their situations, love arises between the doctor and san; but when an enemy comes in between the group, breaking trust and belief between the members, what will san choose to save; his newfound love or his brothers?

PAIRING | choi san x male reader

INFO/CATEGORY | mafia au, angst

WARNINGS | violence, weapon usage/mention, adult language

[chapter index] [playlist]

AUTHOR’S NOTE | hello guys! here is our first chapter, alex wrote it (uwu) and i, monnie edited it (even though there was really nothing to edit cus alex’s writing is immaculate *cough*). feel free to give some feedback, whether through comment or inbox, remember we put our time and effort into these so a reblog would be nice! neways, please enjoy! 

WORD COUNT | 1.3k

“boss, the parts have been acquired, yeosang is in contact with them and they said they are ready at an abandoned lot downtown behind korea university hospital.” wooyoung reported, nodding his head at jongho. the bodyguard stood at ease once there was an affirmation that nothing dangerous was happening.

hongjoong raised his eyebrows, nodding his head. “tell the boys to get ready, we leave in 30.”

wooyoung saluted, walking off. he made his way down the corridor, spine at ease, but pace hasty. as he passed bedroom doors, he tapped on them, each door three times; signaling the time limit. for extra measure, once he reached the end of the hall, he swiftly turned around and cupped his hands over his mouth.

“prepare to leave in 30!” 

the sound of a door opening caused wooyoung to turn his head, making eye contact with his best friend. “what’s going on?”

“parts came in, we’re gonna check ‘em out.”

the boy nodded his head, turning back around to go get ready. wooyoung went to follow him, but he remembered he had to do something else. “hey, san,” he called out, the boy looking back, his eyebrow raised, “in my closet, can you get my briefcase from the top shelf?” san jerked his head giving an ‘ok’ sign.

it was his client briefcase. wooyoung carried that briefcase with him every time he went on a mission. he believed it was a smart thing to do because if they have a client that wants to pull something, there’s records. 

wooyoung doesn’t play around when money is involved, none of ateez do.

seonghwa pulled into the empty parking lot, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. “they said they’re about to pull up,” wooyoung read off the message he’d received.

hongjoong nodded his head, looking out the passenger mirror. another minute or so passed before hongjoong spotted the semi pulling up behind them. he let out a whistle, letting the boys know he was getting out. seonghwa left the engine running, grabbing his handgun and silencer from the glove compartment.

“yunho, take the wheel, just in case. san, come out to make sure they’ve got the right stuff and jongho,” he looked back at the boy before angling his head, “come out in case they try to pull something.”

the three boys followed his orders, grabbing their own choice of weapon. wooyoung was already out of the van, knowing he’d be needed either way. “what did you bring, dohwan?” hongjoong asked, arms crossed and waiting for a response.

the man beamed, smiling as if he were talking to a close friend. hongjoong eyed him, finding his behavior odd. what is he up to?

“i’ve got 2 cars from overseas. those rich bastards in gangnam really don’t know how to protect their assets,” he chuckled. he was acting odd and talking strangely—he was going to pull something.

hongjoong changed his stance, becoming more tense and straight. “hwa,” he called out. seonghwa immediately knew what he was signaling, his arms raising, aiming the gun at dohwan’s head.

dohwan’s eyes widened, hands raising. the two men behind him had their guns aimed, but they were outnumbered.

hongjoong let out a chuckle, his head tilting back, “you know, dohwan,” his eyebrows quirked up, an amusing smile on his face, “you get fidgety when you’re nervous. and we’ve done business before, so something tells me,” he stopped smiling, “you’re fucking around.”

dohwan just stared at him before he spilled. “i swear! i wasn’t going to do anything! i just—i don’t think the pay is good enough this time.”

the leader let out a hum, sucking his teeth and looking at his shoes, “this time?” he looked up, “meaning you’ve been satisfied with the pay the other times. what made you change your mind, then? give me one good reason why your pay isn’t good.”

dohwan stumbled over his wording, “you—i got you luxury cars from overseas and you’re only paying me 35 grand. those are the prices of the korean cars i give you!”

“ah,” the leader held a finger up, letting out a regretful sigh. “you see, that would have been a good reason. except,” he paused, “where on our agreement does it say i’m making you steal luxury cars? you chose to steal them yourself. you,” he pointed at him roughly, “you got greedy. you thought i’d give you more money because you went out of your way to steal an overseas vehicle? boo-hoo.”

dohwan stood in anger. “you know, you could at least be fucking grateful! i’m helping your business and those sell for way more than what you normally get, you son of a bit—” seonghwa’s gun went off, and before dohwan’s men could register, they both were shot down.

“jongho, wooyoung, please clean this up,” hongjoong pinched the bridge of his nose. he turned to seonghwa, but noticed he was focused on something else. “hwa?”

all of a sudden, the eldest had cocked the gun, stalking toward the back of the hospital building. he walked a few more yards before reaching the dumpster. he walked behind and the others watched, waiting for him to return. a few seconds went by before he emerged, holding someone in a chokehold.

the man was struggling against his grip, pulling at seonghwa’s arm, but once the man had tightened his grip on the weapon, he let himself be dragged to the group. 

“i promise, i didn’t—“

“shut up!” seonghwa growled, stopping in front of his members. 

hongjoong eyed the man, “who are you and what were you doing over there—and do not lie. i will have him put a bullet right through your skull.” by now, everyone had exited the van, helping jongho and wooyoung get rid of the bodies, but san, mingi, and yunho had been standing nearby.

the man looked around, gulping. he took a second to think, deciding not to lie because, quite frankly, he rather not have a bullet in his skull!

“i-i’m a doctor at the hospital—y/n y/l/n. my shift ended, s-so i was going to my car!” he frantically blabbered.

“why didn’t you go to your car then? why were you watching something you shouldn’t have been?” y/n looked at the man with wide eyes.

“i- if you heard something, wouldn’t you go check it out? i heard yelling, it could’ve been someone in need of medical assistance! how was i supposed to know it was...whatever this is?!”

“he’s got a point, boss,” mingi muttered but immediately lowered his head when hongjoong glared at him.

“well, dr. y/l/n, sorry. but you have to go,” he raised his right arm, loading the gun. y/n’s eyes squinted, flinching back into seonghwa’s hold. he had two guns aimed at him, he didn’t know which one would go off first, but he hoped it was the one closest to his head, to be honest.

just as hongjoong was about to pull the trigger, “wait!”

“i-i’m sorry for speaking out of turn, hyung,” he bowed his head, “but wouldn’t he be of use to us?”

hongjoong looked at him, “ and what makes you say that?”

“h-his tag. it says he’s a trauma surgeon. he’s much more advanced than yunho—not that yunho hasn’t helped us at all—but wouldn’t he be qualified enough to help us if we have worse injuries?”

hongjoong thought about it for a moment before turning to their medic. “how do you feel about it?”

yunho looked at the doctor, noticing his pleading eyes. he then looked at his boss, “i don’t doubt my abilities, but i don’t think it’s bad to have an extra medical hand on board, especially if he’s as advanced as he is.”

the leader nodded his head, “tie him up and get him in the van. the rest of you, clean up this mess.”

[hoefette]

All the petty things I hate about fate!winx and their shitty universe/world building because

I'd added most if these in tags of other posts but I'm still so mad lmao

The way characters, Aisha and Mrs Dowling specifically make references to explicitly human or American things like instagram and Harry Potter

These people are from a different dimension for ffs why are they concerned with or are even aware of this very earth-specific shit? Do they teach earth classes at school over there?

I understand not wanting to have them be oblivious so Bloom wouldn't have to explain it to them, but it simply could be ✨omitted✨

Why would you go out of your way to date your work like this lmao ew

Ms. Dowling calling Tinkerbell an air fairy.. I cannot breeve with the stupidity why did they keep that in there

Why is Ms. Dowling.. the headmistress.. teaching classes? Where are the other teachers?

We ended up with a trio of antagonists (I guess you could call them that?) by the end of the season anyway so why not give us the trix, why have the characters play double roles as friends of our protagonists and also the villains/bullies? They clearly wanted a delinquent trio, in which case they could've gender bent the trix if they wanted to keep all the unnecessary sexual tension.

It just feels like the production team was lazy, they didn't want to hire more actors, they didn't want to bother with making the world immersive or lived in or believable at best, they just didn't give enough of a fuck

They wanted to make this show and attatch Winx to it for.. what? Like did you even google the main plot points? The abridged version or sparknotes to get details on the very literal, basic characteristics of our main characters or their roles or the world they inhabit????

It lacks wonder and intrigue.. I mean Bloom moves to another dimension, a school for fairies and we don't see her marvel once at anything.. and that's because she might as well have been in Switzerland because she's in exactly the same environment she would've been in over there anyway.

They could've said Alfea was in Europe and I'd believe it because nothing about the setting makes it feel otherworldly. I'm sorry but I'm not impressed.

Why do the teachers and graduated specialists communicate via facetime ?? In the magic dimension. ??? Why do they text each other and those texts then appear on screen like .. oh look, like a bad netflix teen movie ????? HELLO ??? it's the way technology and magic could've blended in so seamless into the world THE WAY IT WAS ALREADY DONE/SHOWN. Missed opportunity. it just takes you out of it imo every time you see the ugly, bland, gray text bar. Some fucking flavour pls I'm begging

How stupid the specialist must feel clonking around with the skinniest shreds of armor, plastic swords on their backs and battery powered flashlights and cellphones in their bags. R we larping?? I know I'd be laughing and asking why we hadn't already come up with something more effective .. idk like guns. I'm surprised I ain't see one gun in there.

In the beginning Ms. Dowling says some nonsense about fairies having lost the ability to transform to explain why there are no wings, which means they could've transformed before. So are we to assume that this supposed to be set in the time proceeding the original then?? Because something is not adding up with where they should be as a magical society technologically if that's the case

How does the production team want to keep the dark academia vibes with torches lining the walls and also want them to be face timing each other, presumably from miles and miles away in the dark forest???

Pls pick an aesthetic and stick to it everything was so unnecessarily dark. Where do they charge their phones since it's the only device we see that is the slightest bit modern and dont fucking tell me they charge it with magic I will punch you in the face

Why is there only one major monarchy that we are shown? Why are Solaria the only ones contributing to the efforts to defend the school and where is this mysterious battalion we never see lmaoo it's all so bad its laughable.

Is this set in the kingdom of Solaria? And why does the queen of an alleged interdimensional superpower monarchy pull up in black SUVs??????????? Why does she pull up with Andreas?? Is he not the king of Erakleon?? Where are his soldiers and his battalion and just?? Huh!? The world just feels empty like nobody lives here fr

Are we supposed to believe that the specialists get paired up with fairies just as a normal occurence and that they have to 'trust each other' and not because the plot demands it suddenly half way through when all we've seen so far are the fairies doing normalish school and homework, and the specialists outside, being physical everyday all day. This was never even implied that they'd have to work together apart from when we see the faculty as youngins with Rosalind. But even then.. it's like well why are they even together lmao? Is this a special team formed from Rosalind’s protégées? Were they formed after graduating from Alfea or what is this?? Are they the ONLY team of specialist/fairies hunting every single burned one?? What?

Are we now supposed to buy that Musa is being switched to 'support' because that's where her strengths lie and not in combat?? Are we supposed to believe that these girls know hand to hand combat?? When was this established? We see Terra wrapping some baby vines around a dude and I'm sorry is that the practical application of her power? Is this what the fairies are supposed to do once they graduate? Or is it just a switch in curriculum because of the threats outside the barrier?? This is never made clear.

Because if not then what's the point of this?? Why do they suddenly have endless classes together when the expectation was never set for the fairies to be like soldiers or out in the field fighting ?

Where exactly are they supposed to be what was the purpose of including Aster Dell and why is it a joy ride away from Alfea lmao?? Where Bloom is from and also not from?? Plot pls make it make sense

Why are fairies from another dimension vaping or smoking weed?? They are not human so why are they engaging in specifically human vices, yol couldn't come up with anything else to characterize 'delinquents'?? Very lazy very como se dices.. no effort. Nothing a little more spicy yol could invent, at least change the name and some properties holy shit did yol even try ??

So its fairies everywhere, having a lil party in the east wing of a phat castle.. and they are playing beer pong and dressed in t shirts and jeans..

Can you hear me screaming? Can you hear me vibrating with rage?

Not one floating decoration or magical anything in sight. Just purple lights and subpar vibes

Stella's costume design: tragic. I won't discuss further because we don't have the space or time but just know that it was absolutely atrocious and I hated it. Giving very debutante vibes

The entire budget going to that lame transformation sequence that was not a transformation sequence and those horrible, barely-there fire wings

Edgelord bloom and all her fucking leather jackets. Why do 30 yo, white cis men think girls exist in a binary? They could keep her earlier characterization and make her a hothead.. Bloom literally screamed herself into a couple power upgrades in the original come ooonnnn

Let girls be feminine without it being a character flaw what is wrong with yol its 2021. They could make her more mature, more angsty or whatever the hell else and not style her like that

The way Aisha's abilities flipflop between episodes and scenes. Very inconsistent. One minute she's struggling with a drop of water and the next she is moving an entire body of water for her bestie Bloom to fake transform because the plot demands it. Why even add in her struggles at all if you're just going to ignore it?

Why was Stella with them in that scene? She didn't do anything literally.. Aisha pulled the water and she did .. nothing.

Who the fuck is Rosalind? Why would they add her in,, to add nothing to story? The company of light was a thing, they could've plucked one of them hoes to be the antagonist. Why did the winx club need their own Delores Umbridge? Valtor was right there if you wanted an evil educator type character.

The camera work was so bland during the down beats, stagnant and fixed during a fairy party and erratic and ugly and disorienting during the fight scenes

I'm not getting over the fairy party because it was a good opportunity for the production and everyone else to show the differences between where Bloom was and where she is now but instead it just looks like a regular teen high school party?? This could have been set in Switzerland fr.

Everyone's just kind of standing?? You mean to tell me these people are from all different places in the magical dimension and their customs are all the same? They all throw parties like this ??

White and flavorless I am very bored

I guess the main question or takeaway I have is just.. who is this for? Because everyone, including the showrunners keep saying that it's for us, the fans of the original. But apart from the characters sharing some names, there are really no other similarities. So again, who was this supposed to appease or placate or satisfy? Because it sure as hell wasn't the winx club fans.

Overall, this feels very much like something I wrote and probably published on ff.net when I was 13 because I thought girls couldn't be taken seriously if they liked pink, and injected angst into everything that didn't need it and had no idea how to structure scenes or dialogue. It's just bad, objectively and N*tflix will keep making shit like this because apparently some people have bad taste??? Idk yol, be easy

[sugarsugarmoon]

Summary: The summer that you meet Kim Taehyung proves to be a cruel summer. kth x reader

“I’m drunk in the back of the car, and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar. Said, “I’m fine”, but it wasn’t true. I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you. And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate.” Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer

Genre: angst, fluff, smut

Warnings: vaginal fingering, swearing, recreational alcohol use, protected and unprotected sex, impact play, light choking, everyone’s fingers in everyone’s mouths, smol amounts of exhibitionism, oral sex (f. receiving and m. receiving)

a/n: this is mostly just a story that I wrote a bunch of my friends into. Anyway, I didn’t even read it all the way through once. It could make no sense at all. It’s my your queen of not editing and not having someone beta read. I don’t remember who else I was supposed to tag. @moonpjms @glossyfever @onherwings @softguks​ @ot7always​

WC: 18K+

You pulled up your hood then firmly tucked your arms around yourself. You ducked your head as you ran across the street through the rain. The awnings covered most of the sidewalk, but the street was uncovered, rain splattering all over the black asphalt. The neon and LED lights from the shops bouncing off the wet ground, creating a constantly changing abstract art display. You felt yourself hesitate as you were coming upon the curb because you were entranced by the dancing colors.

Leaving work this late hadn’t been your plan today, but at least you’d come prepared with a jacket, knowing that the monsoon season tended to span most of the summer. You, however, had forgotten your umbrella at home. You admonished yourself in your brain for being such an airhead today, like always. Thank God for Find My iPhone, or you’d constantly be in trouble.

You look at the sidewalk ahead of you, still glinting with the lights from the shops and business, and you sighed in exasperation upon seeing the large sections ahead of you that had no awning. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but you were supposed to meet friends tonight at a bar in Gangnam. You were already running behind, not to mention the 30 minutes on the train that you had ahead of you. Now, you also had to worry about looking like a drowned rat, with your hair falling stringy and wet around your face.

You stand at the edge of the awning as if you’re looking down a steep precipice for your inevitable end. You stand for one more second, close your eyes, and accept your fate. Before you can take a step into the downpour, someone clears their throat behind you. You turn quickly to see a tall man with dark shaggy hair standing a little too close to you. You can’t see most of his face because he’s wearing a mask and a hat with a bill, but his eyes are sparkling just like the lights off the wet pavement.

“You look like maybe you could use an umbrella,” he says, and you can tell just from his tone that he has a smile on his face.

Normally, you wouldn’t accept help from a strange man on the street, but it’s raining and you’re late.

You sigh and say, reluctantly, “Are you going anywhere near Saetgang station?”

He shifts his weight in an energetic kind of way. “As a matter of fact, I happen to be going to Saetgang station.”

He shifts his umbrella to his left hand and holds it over you more than himself. You walk with your shoulders touching, and after about 2 minutes, he talks. He isn’t looking at you, but you still know it’s for you because no one else is around.

“You can just call me Tae, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks,” you pause, unsure if you want to give him any more information about yourself than you have to; stranger danger and all that. “I’m y/n.”

“Y/n? That’s an unusual name for around here.”

“Well, I’m originally from the States, but I moved here when I was very young. My dad worked at the consulate and my mother was an English teacher, so I’ve been here most of my life.” You realize the insane amount of detail you’ve just given him, and you shake your head at yourself. To shift focus, you snap, “Besides, Tae isn’t that common for around here anyway. If you were traditional Korean, wouldn’t your name be three syllables? Whoever heard of a traditional ‘just call me Tae.”

“Hey! Come on. I’ve got a Korean name. I would just like to have a tiny bit of anonymity, thank you very much. Not all of us are open books, Ms. my-father-works-for-the-consulate.”

“Worked.” Your tone drops, and you keep your head down as you see the stairs down to the subway before you. You thank the universe or God or whoever was listening to the shouting in your head for the awkward interaction to be over.

As soon as you are down the stairs and out of the rain, you thank him and try to scurry off. Hopefully you’ll never have to see that jerk again.

You swipe your transportation card and make your way to the platform to wait for the next train. The train from Yeoui-dong to Gangnam comes every 12 minutes, and you have the times memorized in your head. The last train had come at 7:11pm. You look down at your watch. 7:22pm. Perfect timing you think to yourself. Despite being slowed down slightly by just-call-me-Tae, you were still perfectly on time.

When the train arrives, you clamber inside around the car stuffed with bodies. You find a place to grab the railing overhead and cast your eyes at the floor of the car. It’s best to avoid eye contact on the train.

After the first stop, the people inside shift around, and the shoes in front of you now are not the same as the last pair. The person before you before was wearing black shoes, the kind that are so shiny that you could see your reflection in them. These shoes are slip on loafers with a little decorative metal clasps on top. Something about them is familiar. Oh shit.

You draw your eyes up the slender frame before you, and you take in the muscles on his chest that you hadn’t noticed before. When you finally look at his face, he has a smug, amused grin showing his teeth. You roll your eyes, and then your heart speeds up.

“Are you following me? What do you want? I don’t have any money.”

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “Oh my god! No! We just happened to be on the same train! I’m meeting friends at SAHM in Gangnam, I promise!”

The panic in his tone makes you want to trust him, but you still remain wary. As his words set in, you roll your eyes again.

“Seriously? SAHM? Are you kidding me call-me-Tae?”

You know you didn’t tell him where you were going except to the station, but the fact that he says he’s going to the same bar as you seems too crazy to be coincidence.

“Yes?” he says, the surprise wiped from his face to be replaced by confusion.

“Why?” you ask to yourself in exasperation.

The train stops, and people shuffle around the car. You get pushed a little closer to the man in front of you, and you feel your cheeks redden.

“Well, my friend is hanging out with his girlfriend and her friends tonight, and they invited me and some other friends too.” He’s confused, and you want to call him an idiot for not realizing that the question wasn’t directed toward him.

He reaches into the pocket on his long, sweeping tan coat. You recoil ever so slightly from the unexpected movement.

He plucks his phone from his pocket and holds it toward you. “Dude, relax,” he laughs. “I’m not stalking you. I’m not going to murder you. You’re fine. I see you clutching that pepper spray. Use it if you need, but maybe just not in the confined train car.”

You become aware of the fact that your hand is in your purse, gripping your pepper spray, and you feel a little embarrassed. You mutter an apology.

“Look.” He holds his phone out to you.

Very clearly in the group chat he shows you are several people making plans to meet up at SAHM tonight. You roll your eyes again.

“If you keep doing that, they’re gonna get stuck like that.”

Every moment with this man is more embarrassing than the last, and you cannot wait for the ride to be over. Only one more stop before yours, and you can get off the train, mosey around the station for an inconspicuous amount of minutes before going to SAHM to meet your friends.

You ride the rest of the way to Gangnam with your eyes on anything but that embarrassing man, and he doesn’t push the conversation any further.

When the doors open, just-call-me-Tae bows slightly and says it was nice to meet you. Then he disappears into the sea of people in the station.

It’s about 30 minutes later when you finally make it to the bar, and you see your friends across the crowded space. The place has a kind of rustic feel to it, lots of wood and exposed brick. It reminds you of the hipster bars back in the states when you visited family last summer, and your cousin, Lindy, had insisted that you just had to try the new bar in town. You had a good time, but those fancy hipster drinks were stronger than you thought. You’d ended up drunk, flirting with the bartender. You even started an argument with Lindy when she refused to let you go home with a stranger in a country that you didn’t know well or speak the language perfectly.

You wriggle through the crowded bar to make your way to your friends. You smile at the sight of them all laughing and drinking together. Your friend, Rey, has her arm around the waist of a guy a little taller than her, who has a mask and a cap on, covering most of his face. You assume it’s her boyfriend, who she talks about non-stop but rarely goes into detail about.

Once you reach them, you see your friends’ beautiful faces and smile. They’re all gathered around a tall table, drinking and talking loudly. You say hello to all of your friends, hugging Rey last.

“y/n, this is Jimin. I’ve told you a little bit about him,” she shouts over the loud bar sounds, beaming up at him. She’s so precious when she’s in love.

She’s talked vaguely about Jimin for a long time, and you aren’t totally sure what his job is. You know that he travels a lot for work and that sometimes Rey goes with him. You know that she never says exactly where he lives or who his friends are or anything like that. She’s so smitten that you are so excited to finally meet him.

“Hi, Jimin. I’m so glad to finally meet you!”

You shake his hand and exchange pleasantries. His eyes are the only part of his face that you can really see, but they are full of light and excitement and joy. You feel overwhelmed by the feeling of happiness in your chest just from meeting your friend's boyfriend.

“y/n, I brought some of my friends along. Everyone else has already met them, but I’d love to introduce you.”

Jimin’s friends are all gathered together, talking and drinking. Jimin pulls each of them over to introduce them, the smile in his eyes shining above the mask. He finally pulls over a man with white shirt, when he turns, it’s undeniable that the face before you is the same one that you’d hoped to never see before. Luckily, you’re drunk and having fun, so you feel a little more relaxed.

“This is my best friend, Tae,” says Jimin. Tae shakes each of your hands, and when he gets to you, he hesitates as he says, “Nice to meet you.”

“Hi, I’m y/n,” you say, with snark dripping off your tongue.

“y/n? That’s such a unique and beautiful name.”

You blush a little bit, and you’re not sure why. You know he’s just making a joke, making up for what he said before. The alcohol pulsing through your body leaves you feeling a little hazy as you realize that you’ve been holding his handshake for too long. You yank your hand away from him and rub your cheek gently.

You turn from him and make your way back over to your friends. “y/n, you are so red!” exclaims Ahhyun.

You duck your head and cover your face with your hands. You’re just red because you’re embarrassed by Tae nothing else. You throw back the rest of your drink and track down the server to get another one.

After a few drinks, you are feeling silly and giggly with your friends. Everyone, including Jimin’s friends, decides to play a game around the table, and everyone is giggling and drinking. You’ve missed nights out with your friends like this, and for some reason, you keep finding yourself next to Tae.

Someone suggests that you all play suck and blow because apparently you aren’t actual adults with real jobs and retirement accounts. At least not tonight. You end up next to your friend Seoyeon on one side and Tae on the other. As the card goes around, you look up at Tae thinking about the fact that he has yet to remove the mask from his face. He sneaks the straw from his drink up under the bottom and drinks. You laugh to yourself at the silliness of it all.

“Are you going to be able to play with that mask on?” you ask him pointedly.

“Of course. You have no idea how strong my skills are.” He giggles and sets his drink on the table.

You finish your drink, and you feel that fuzzy feeling in your head that tells you that it’s probably time for some water. You watch the group pass the card from one person to another. Jinhee intentionally drops the card as she turns to her girlfriend, Ash, an adorable girl who is studying abroad in Seoul. You feel yourself blush as they kiss, and you melt a little bit more. You’re such a hopeless romantic, and love makes you so soft.

You get the card from Seoyeon and turn to Tae. He tries his hardest to hold the card against his mouth with his mask on, but it falls. Everyone laughs as he keeps his face close to yours.

“Oops,” he whispers. His tone hints that maybe it wasn’t an accident, but you can’t tell.

Suddenly, your mind is full of the image of you pulling down his mask and kissing his lips hard, tasting the sweet alcohol on his tongue. You want to put your hands in his hair and pull his hat off. His shirt is loose, and you long to see the shape of his chest underneath it. His collarbones are poking out of the top of his shirt, and you can see how perfectly your mouth would fit on them.

You are completely lost in the lustful thoughts when someone drops a glass on the floor, and it shatters. You realize the thoughts that you’ve been having, and you feel like the heat immediately shooting into your cheeks again. You decide to head to the bathroom to try to rinse your face with cold water. Maybe it will sober you up and keep these thoughts about Tae out of your head.

You splash the water on your face and wash your hands. This is the first time that you’ve looked in the mirror since before you walked in the rain, and you can see that your hair, while not as bad as it could be, is windblown and messy. Your fingers fumble through your hair until you get it slightly more presentable. You rinse your face once more, trying to wash away the redness in your face from the drinks.

When you stumble slightly as you exit the bathroom, and you trip slightly and grab onto the arm of the man that you trip into. You look up, and a tall gruff looking man is looking down at you.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” you mutter and try to slip away from him.

“Where are you going, cutie? You didn’t even introduce yourself yet,” he says as he grabs your wrist.

“Look, I should really get back to my friends.” You’re panicking a little, and you try to wiggle your wrist free of his grasp.

“Ah, honey, won’t you stay and chat a while with me?” he starts to pull you closer to him, and you yank your wrist away from him.

“Oh goodness, darling, there you are. I’ve been looking for you,” a male voice announces from behind you. When you whip your head around, Tae is standing there.

You scoot closer to him and grab his hand. “Sorry, babe, I didn’t mean to get lost. It’s just so crowded in here. I lost direction.”

The man who had been trying to get you to stay with him looks disgruntled as Tae pulls you into his side. Before he can say anything, Tae pulls the mask down from his face and the bill of his hat up a bit to reveal the absolutely gorgeous face before you. There’s something super familiar about it that you can’t quite place. Upon seeing his face, the guy mumbles some apologies and skulks away.

“Really? Your face scared him? That pretty thing?” you ask, drunker than you felt a minute ago.

Tae laughs and pulls his mask back up. Then something clicks in your brain. You’ve seen that face before in the subway, all over the television, all over the internet. Oh fuck.

“Thanks. I have to go,” you blurt out and slink away from him.

“Wait!” he shouts after you, but you keep moving through the crowd to your friends.

When you get to the table where you’d all been gathered and grab your bag. You say a quick goodbye to Ahhyun, seeing that Rey and Jimin are way too wrapped up in each other to notice. You slip out the front door onto the cool, wet sidewalk. Luckily, the rain has stopped, so you can walk briskly toward your apartment, your shoes slapping against the wet pavement.

When you’re a little way away from the bar, you slow your walk slightly, trying to process what just happened. Tae, who is an idol, had just attempted to protect your honor in public. Why was he even there? Shouldn’t he be...dancing or something?

You’re not sure why you’re so angry at him just for being who he is. Your ego is a little bruised in that you thought this guy might actually be interested in you, but there was no way that someone like him was going to be interested in someone like you. You’d seen the female idols and movie stars; he could have anyone he wanted.

You shake your head to try to get the image of him with a beautiful super model, laughing about the girl at the bar who flirted with him like a child by being mean to him. The sound of feet on the wet sidewalk pulls your attention away from your thoughts. You turn around, and you cannot believe your eyes. Tae is walking briskly toward you.

“You’re kidding me, right?” you blurt out, hoping he isn’t within earshot.

“Look, I know we don’t really know each other, but I felt like I connected with you in a way that I haven’t with other people,” he huffs out. “Plus, you didn’t look at me differently when you saw my face. I mean...you did, but it was almost disappointment on your face. You have to know how rare that is for me, right?”

You feel the corners of your mouth tugging back. You didn’t want to admit how beautiful you thought he was or that you thought his sense of humor was funny, but it was true. You were glad that he was here because the way it felt to stand next to him was warm and real.

“I just don’t really know what you want from me,” you say as you turn your face away from him.

There’s no way that a famous idol is standing in front of you telling you that your disappointment made him feel good. You shake your head again.

“Just...hang out with me. Just one time. It will be casual, and I don’t expect anything from you, but it’s worth it to me to try to see if we can even have a friendship. I like you. I think you’re funny.”

You blush and push your hair behind your ear. You inhale and exhale deeply, trying to slow your thoughts. You don’t want anything about your life to be in the spotlight; you don’t want to be seen in public with an idol. You don’t want to have sasaeng fans who wish death upon you for just being near their “one true love.”

“I don't know. The kind of attention you get isn’t the kind that I want in my life. I don’t want everyone in Korea knowing who I am.”

His eyes drop slightly, and his shoulders sink a little lower. “You won’t have to have that kind of attention. We have ways to make sure that you aren’t seen. We can be really careful. Come over tomorrow. We can have dinner, and I can show you that you don’t have to be in the spotlight.”

You pause and sigh. “Fine.”

You can see the smile in his eyes, and you fish your phone out of your bag. You open Kakaotalk and hand it to him. He sends himself a message and hands it back to you.

“Trust me. This is going to be fun,” he says.

“I hope so. I gotta get home though. Have a goodnight, Tae,” you mutter awkwardly.

“Thanks, y/n. I will. Thanks.”

He walks away quickly, and he turns back and looks over his shoulder once before you turn and walk away from him toward home, smiling to yourself.

*****

“Kim Taehyung!”

The shout greets Tae in the hallway as he makes his way toward the practice room the next morning. He has a little bit of a headache from drinking too much, but he doesn’t let that get him down. Tae still feels the way that it felt to hold your hand in the bar. He doesn’t want to be dramatic or anything, but he feels like you might be his soulmate. He would never say that out loud though.

The voice down the hall belongs to his manager, Minjoon, who is looking at him with disappointment in his eyes.

"Kim Taehyung, I cannot believe that you slipped your team again and spent the whole night out. At a bar, Tae? Really? What if you'd been seen? What if you'd been mobbed by people?"

Tae smiles at him, with the dreamy look still in his eyes. "But I wasn't. And Jimin was out too!"

Minjoon rolls his eyes at Tae and leads him away by the wrist.

"Yes, but Jimin took the proper precautions, and he took Beomseok with him."

Tae rolls his eyes and begins to walk away. "I'm sorry, okay? I won't do it again."

His manager lets him walk away, and he feels a damper starting to fall on his good mood that he thought that nothing could ruin. He makes his way to the practice room and flops down on the floor. Jimin is in there practicing hard in the mirror, hair pushed back off of his forehead and sweat shining on his brow. He ignores Tae for a couple of minutes, focused on getting the correct moves down. Finally, he looks up and sees the lump that is Tae lying on the floor.

"What's wrong with you? I thought you had a good night last night?"

Tae flops over again, so he's turned toward the mirror, looking at Jimin's reflection in the eyes. He brings his hand up and runs it through his hair. He lets the memory of your scent sink into his brain for a moment.

"Sometimes I just get so sick of not being able to be a normal 24 year-old. Not have to take security everywhere. Not worry about the spotlight. Don't you?" he asks, feeling the desperation in his voice.

"Of course I do. My relationship would be so much easier if I was able to just be a normal guy, but I chose this life. I think that Rey loves me, so she knows that this is the way that things have to be. It can be hard some days, but it's the way it is. Plus, Minjoon-ssi shouldn't have yelled at you. Beomseok hyung was there."

Jimin walks across the room to where Tae is lying on the floor. He encourages him to stand up, and when he finally gets Tae off the floor, Jimin heads to the boombox and puts on the song "My My My" by Troye Sivan. Jimin starts dancing silly all around the room, beckoning Tae to come dance with him. Soon Tae is laughing with him, and the two are singing loudly and dancing wildly around the room. When the other members come into the room, Yoongi rolls his eyes, and Hoseok joins in dancing.

After practice, while they have time to eat lunch, Tae decides to go ahead and shoot his shot. He opens KakaoTalk and pulls up your messages. The only thing in there is a message from him to himself.

Hey, y/n, I was wondering if maybe you'd want to come over for dinner tomorrow?

Now, all that he can do is wait. Wait for you to read it. Wait for you to decide. Wait for you to respond. Even though his schedule is very busy lately with press and practices, he feels like waiting for you has been the most important thing that he's waited for in a long time.

As he waits, he eats his Kimbap quietly. Namjoon comes up to him and sits next to him.

"Hey, Tae, are you all right?" he asks gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"You've been really distracted all day. Just kind of smiling into space."

Tae takes a moment to think back to his effort in practice earlier, and he realizes that his hangover and daydreams have made him noticeably less engaged than usual. Shit.

"I'm sorry, Namjoon-hyung. I will get my head back into it." He hangs his head slightly as he says it. Maybe having you come over tomorrow was not the best idea.

Namjoon sighs and wraps his arm around Tae's shoulders. "Hey, I know how you get. Just...don't put everything into this one person, okay?"

Before Tae can question it, Namjoon has gotten up to take his bowl to the staff before they start work again. He turns and looks at Tae one more time before he leaves the room to head to the studio. Tae sighs deeply and throws his head back on his shoulders. What am I even doing? he thinks to himself.

Your name shows up on his screen when he's all but resigned himself to not hearing from you. When he opens the message, he doesn’t know what else he had expected from you.

Fine.

His heart leaps slightly in his chest at the thought of it, and he smiles at his phone. Instantly, his mind is darting between all the things he wants to do and all the arrangements that he wants to make for you. For the rest of the day, he feels like he works hard enough to make up for how much he was dragging in the morning.

*******

Be ready at 8:00. I'll send a car for you.

That's not ominous at all you think to yourself. You weren't sure if this was a good idea, but you suppose if anyone can figure out how to sneak around fans and paparazzi, it's the famous idol who simply rode the subway with you last night.

You curl your hair slightly and slap on a small amount of makeup. You don't want to look like you tried too hard, but you didn't want to look like a total schlub either. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you actually are impressed. Trying not to look too long, you pull yourself away from your reflection as you start scrutinizing that your eyeliner is slightly uneven on each side. The last time that you'd done that, you had ended up with half of each of your eyelids covered in black liquid liner, and you'd had to remove the entire look at start over.

You had sent Tae your address the day before, so you assumed that you should just wait outside for the driver. The elevator ride down from your apartment is long and slow. You realize how mildewy and old the elevator smells, even though your building was built in the 80s. When the doors of the elevator slide open, you see a black town car with black tinted windows sitting in front of the front doors of your building.

You had never seen a car with such dark tint on the windows, but this must be the kind of car that Tae has to ride in all of the time to avoid being seen. You walk up to the car, your flats making your steps nearly silent through the lobby. You see your reflection in the pitch black car. A white crop top and a purple pair of cut off shorts with flats on your feet. The outfit had seemed like a perfect summer outfit that flattered all the right parts of your body without looking like you were trying too hard to be fancy or dressed up for a "date."

For all you knew, this wasn't even a date. It was just two people hanging out. While you were lost in thought, the driver of the car came around and stood next to the rear door.

"Miss y/n?" he asked in such a formal tone, that you felt taken aback. No one ever talked to you so formally. You were the youngest in your team at work, and you were so used to being everyone's dongsaeng that you didn't know what to do with all the respect he was giving you.

"Yes, thank you," you blurt out awkwardly.

He opens the door for you, and you clamber in. The ride is almost 45 minutes with traffic, there's always traffic in Seoul. You have plenty of time to think about all the ways that this could go wrong. Think about how you're going to see your face on all the gossip sites tomorrow. You hardly let yourself relax or breathe as you sit in the car. Maybe it won't be so bad. Or maybe it will be a nightmare.

Finally, the car reaches the first gate of an apartment complex, and the driver gives the man at the gate his idea. The security office records it in a big binder and waves him on.

"You'll need to get out your ID for the second gate, miss," he says back to you.

You fish your ID out of your bag and hand it up to him as he pulls up to the second gate. He hands the IDs to the security officer, who enters the information into his computer and wishes you both a good night. Wow. You didn't know what you expected, but it wasn't this. It makes sense though.

The car pulls into the garage, and after parking, the driver leads you through the concrete labyrinth. You have to check in at the front desk too and be led by someone else in a black suit to the elevator and up to the apartment.

When you get to the door, he knocks in a unique pattern and waits a moment before Tae swings the door open.

"y/n! Hi!" he exclaims. He is beaming, and the smile spread across his face is infectious.

Shit. He's so beautiful.

He leads you into the apartment where there is a chef in the kitchen who barely looks up at you. There is one man sitting in the living room, and no one else to be seen. The man on the couch turns around and grins at you, popping up out of his seat. His eyes scrunch up slightly as he smiles at you. Shit. He's so beautiful too.

"Hi, I'm Jungkook," he says as he extends his hand out to you.

You shake it, blushing. "hi, I'm y/n."

Tae seems to see the blush in your cheeks, and he puts his body slightly between you and Jungkook. You smile to yourself at the possessiveness and jealousy that he seems to feel for his roommate.

"Jungkook was just leaving. Weren't you?"

You laugh out loud at the obvious "hint" that Tae is trying to drop. Jungkook laughs too, and the two of you make eye contact.

"Actually, I wasn't. I was just going to hang out and watch TV for a little while." He gives Tae a teasing look, and Tae flushes from his neck up to his cheeks. There's a small pleading look in his eye. It must be hard for him because his whole life is surrounded by people, even though some of them are his friends.

"Oh, you know what? I actually told Laur that I would call her tonight, and I should probably go do that because I love her." Jungkook trails off slightly, making long hard eye contact with Tae. "it was nice to meet you, y/n. Have fun!"

Jungkook disappears into one of the doors down the hall. You turn to Tae after you watch Jungkook make his way away from you. Tae has a slightly hurt look in his eyes, but he tries to hide it from you with a smile.

"What? What's wrong?" you ask.

"No. Nothing. I just don't want you to feel like you can't hang out with the other members if you want to."

You grab the sides of his face and make him look at you. "I'm here for you. I agreed to hang out with you, not them."

He smiles at this and leads you to the couch. It's a huge sectional that takes up most of the room, and you follow his lead in sitting right in the middle, leaving a little space between the two of you. You are still hesitant and don't know him well. You aren't trying to cuddle up on the couch with him just yet.

He grabs the remote to turn on the TV. On the screen are the titles of literally hundreds of movies.

"We can watch whatever you want," he says in a more normal and steady tone than you've heard from him since you were on the train.

"Why don't you pick?"

He smiles huge, and from the look in his eyes as he reads each of the titles, he is in his element. Ultimately, he selects Midnight In Paris. Before he hits play, he looks at you to confirm his decision. You nod toward him gently and smile up at him. He's taller than you remember, even sitting next to you.

You watch the movie, laughing along at Owen Wilson, until the chef in the kitchen announces that food is ready. He graciously brings it to you, and there is so much to choose from you don't know what to choose. Kimchi jjigae, oi kimchi, samgyeopsal, galbi, and tons of other food are spread out on the coffee table in front of you.

"I don't know what you like...so I told him to just make some of everything. I figured you can't go wrong with the staples."

Tae sounds nervous, but it looks amazing. There's no way you could pass up a meal like this. The two of you lean over the table, watching the movie and laughing, and eat way more food than you had planned on eating.

Once you're finished, you lean back onto the couch, certain that you're going to fall asleep. Already, this has been so nice, but you realized that you've hardly talked to Tae at all. Your plan was to come here and get to know Tae better to decide if spending time with him was worth the struggle.

When the movie ends, Tae turns to you to ask what you think of the movie. You hesitate for a second.

“It’s not that I didn’t like it, but...Woody Allen?” you know you shouldn’t be starting into it the first time you’re hanging out.

His jaw drops slightly, but after a brief discussion, he agrees that it’s hard to separate the art from the artist and there are amazing directors who haven’t done even half of the terrible shit he did. You were impressed with his maturity, and you decided that you’d definitely give him a chance.

“Would you like a glass of wine?” he asks as you sit awkwardly in silence after that discussion.

You can’t think of a single reason that you should say no, and a glass of wine sounds delicious. “Yeah,” you smile. “Why not?”

Tae heads into the kitchen, and when he returns, you laugh at the comical size of the wine glass. It is roughly the size of your head, and even though it’s only half full, it is roughly the amount of two or three glasses of wine. 

“What? These are the only glasses we have,” he laughs along with you as he sets them down.

After you’ve had the entirety of one glass of wine, you are feeling lighter and looser and less awkward. You forget about the fact that Tae is one of the most famou men in the country, and you are just hanging out with your friend. The two of you talk about your childhoods and exchange embarrassing stories from high school.

You don’t feel yourself scooting closer to Tae, or maybe he’s scooting closer to you. His face is just a few inches from your face by the time you realize it, but you don’t want to move away from him.

“I’ve had a really good time with you, tonight, y/n,” he whispers, leaning even closer to you.

You can feel his breath on your lips, and you can smell his skin and his breath. The smell of the Cabernet mixed with lavender and vanilla, and it’s more intoxicating than any drink that you’ve had. The condensation his hot breath leaves on your lips makes your skin tingle. 

“I’ve had such a wonderful time, Tae.”

You close even more of the space between the two of you. There’s less than an inch in between your mouths. You can’t stop your lips from darting down to his mouth. Shit. He’s so beautiful. His mouth is a perfect pout with his pillowy lips tinted slightly darker red from the wine. When you look back up at him, his eyes are on your mouth too. You can see him tracing every curve of your lips. Your heart pounds in your ears at the thought of kissing him, touching him.

Tae moves to close the distance between the two of you. Your lips ghost across each other, but before you can fully feel the rose petals of his, you hear a key in the lock. You feel like a teenager being caught by your parents, so you jump back from him, putting at least a foot of space between you and Tae.

Tae turns toward the door and the gorgeous, thin-framed man coming through the door. Behind him is a tall, blonde girl who is stunning. Tae’s face is flushed from the wine and the embarrassment of the moment.

“Hi Yoongi-hyung,” Tae mutters as he averts his eyes. “Hi Soph.”

The man hardly acknowledges Tae, but the woman sends a warm smile Tae’s way. “Hi, Tae! How’s your date?”

Your eyes widen at the word date, and you choke slightly on the breath that you were taking in at the moment. Her eyes dart toward you, and she immediately turns pink. She immediately becomes awkward, and Yoongi turns toward her and laughs at the blush in her cheeks.

“Well, this has been sufficiently uncomfortable.” Yoongi turns to you. “Hi, I’m Yoongi. This is my girl, Soph.”

“Hi. I’m y/n, and I am, indeed, sufficiently uncomfortable.”

Yoongi laughs and then leads Soph down the same hallway that Jungkook disappeared into, entering a different door.

After they’ve been out of sight for a moment, you turn back to Tae and say, “I should actually probably head out,” rubbing your arm awkwardly, still warm in your cheeks.

Tae calls the car for you, and a few minutes later, the rhythmic little knock on the door tells you it’s time to go. Tae walks you to the door, and before it opens, he leans in and presses his lips to your cheek. A huge smile spreads across your face, and you’re sure the security agent can tell that something just happened between the two of you.

On the way out of the gates, you can see through the tinted windows the young women gathered around outside of the gates in a contained area. They are holding signs and wearing t-shirts with Tae’s name and face on them. It gives you an uneasy feeling in your stomach, but once you’re past them, you can’t help the warm feeling that is bubbling inside of you from the night.

*****

“You didn’t even kiss her?” Jimin asks, exasperated as he sits on the couch next Tae. The two sip wine together while the television plays in the background.

Tae groans and throws his head back, hand on his forehead. “I tried, but Yoongi-hyung ruined it. He came in right when I was going to.”

Jimin starts giggling uncontrollably, eyes shut tight. His laugh is infectious, and no matter how much Tae doesn’t want to laugh at his own misery, he can’t help but laugh that of course it was Yoongi who interrupted. Any of the other members would have been cool about it, but Yoongi just had to make a sarcastic comment. The two laugh for a long time, the wine pulsing through their veins. Taehyung feels grateful that they don’t have to work early tomorrow, but this was not the end to the night that he had hoped for.

Taehyung had an image in his head of him kissing you, fingers laced into your hair. He imagined what it would feel like to have your lips against his, the smoothness of them and how pert they are. You would have leaned closer to him and run your fingers over his neck. He would have slowly moved his hand up your leg, feeling your skin up to the frayed hem of your shorts.

Tae feels himself hardening in his loose linen pants and adjusts himself awkwardly. The thing about these loose flowy pants is that while sitting down, they don’t hide anything. He looks over to make sure that Jimin didn’t see, and when he’s confident that he didn’t, he relaxes slightly.

“I’m going to though,” he states.

“You’re going to what?” Jimin asks.

“I’m going to kiss her. I’m going to make her mine.” A smile stretches across his lips, and he sinks back into the couch to watch the rest of the show with Jimin.

*******

Three weeks after hanging out at Tae’s, you are sitting at your desk looking over an expense report that someone messed up the spreadsheet for. Everything in one of the columns is one row off, and you are trying to fix it and all of the equations.Your phone vibrates next to you, and you welcome the distraction from the tedious work.

You can’t help the smile that spreads across your face as you see Tae’s name appear on the screen. Though you hadn’t seen him in person since the day that you went to his place, you were able to text everyday and video chat a few times. Things with Tae felt simple, like he was your oldest friend in the world. You couldn’t believe how well he knew you even after such a short time of knowing you.

Tae: Tonight?

What a vague message. What did he want tonight? To video chat? To hang out? For you to do your laundry?

You: Tonight will be Thursday night, yes.

You are always a little sassy with him, and he dishes it right back. The dynamic that you’ve built between the two of you is natural. You’re pretty sure this what people mean when they say that two people have chemistry, though you’ve never really understood the expression.

Tae: Oh thank goodness. I thought it was Saturday, and I’m busy Saturday.

Tae: Since it’s Thursday, do you want to hang out tonight?

You smile. You’ve been looking forward to seeing Tae since the last time, and you want to be able to pick up where you’d left off before Yoongi had interrupted the two of you. After video chatting with Tae several times, you learned that’s just sort of Yoongi’s M.O. if he interrupts anything. Be awkward and sarcastic then move on. A solid technique.

You: I guess I can pencil you in.

Tae: Excellent. Be ready at 6.

You look at the clock, and it reads 3:30pm. You only have 2.5 hours before you’re supposed to do god knows what with Tae, and you know that you are not looking your best. You figure you can leave at 4:00 if your boss doesn’t see you and you ask Aecha to cover for you.

When she agrees, you thank her profusely, slip your purse off the back of your chair, and head out the door. You get out without any trouble and walk briskly toward your apartment building. Your head is swimming with the idea of seeing Tae and the possibilities for the evening. You’re trying not to get too ahead of yourself, but all you can see in your mind’s eye is the shape of his body.

It’s been months since you were even interested in a man. You’re most recent ex, Yongsoon, had been a delightful man, but he was so boring and predictable. You never felt challenged by him. You never felt like he was that passionate about anything. You’d ended things, and even during the break up, he’d seemed so apathetic about the whole thing.

Tae didn’t feel like that. He was bright and vibrant. He had so many passions, from art to film to fashion. He made you feel like you could shine as bright, reach as high as you wanted. He also made you feel like you wanted to see what was underneath his whole clothes.

You shake your head as you unlock the door to your apartment. Stop being lustful, y/n! You rush around your apartment, trying to make your hair and make up look better. You decide that tonight, you’d like to wear a skirt. In the heat of mid June, you wanted to be able to move freely. Plus you loved the way that your black skater skirt swished when you walked or twirled. On top, you wear a purple shirt, tied up at the waist.

When your phone turns over to 6:00, you take one last look in the mirror, grab your bag, and try not to sprint down the stairs. Outside, once again, you can see the black town car with tinted windows waiting for you. The sight of it makes your heart leap a little, and you smile again. Everything about Tae makes you smile.

The driver meets you at the rear door, and he lets you into the vehicle. Expecting it to be empty, you jump a little upon seeing a figure inside. Sitting on the driver's side seat, Tae is wearing black slacks, a button up shirt, and beret-type hat. He has his mask pulled down around his chin, and he’s beaming at you. You climb in next to him, mumbling a hello as you get comfortable.

“Didn’t expect me to be here, did you?” he asks, with a sly grin on his face.

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect. You just told me to be ready. You didn’t even tell me what.”

He laughs, amused at his own vagueness. “It’s best if you only know what you need to know.”

“Well, can I know where we’re going now?”

He smirks at you and then announces, “We’re going to Ihwa Mural Village!”

He can’t be serious. A public place? While it’s light outside? With an idol? You start to panic as you think about all the possibilities of things that could go wrong. He could get rushed by people. You could get hurt. He could get hurt. It was far too risky.

Seeing the panic in your eyes, he blurts, “Don’t worry! I went the safe route this time. I have security who are going to be there, and we should be in the clear. They’ve cleared it out for a filming. We did everything we needed to keep us safe.”

You relax slightly, but you still know that people crowd around movie sets and things like that on the street. You know that Tae would never do anything to intentionally hurt you, but you are terrified.

“Hey,” he grabs your hand and squeezes it with his. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

The feeling of his warm palm in yours is comforting and feels like home. You wiggle your fingers slightly, just to take in the sensation of each of his between each of yours. 

“Okay. I trust you,” you mutter, trying to believe your own words.

The car pulls up into an area that you’ve seen before and know is usually crowded. This time, there are only three men outside, all wearing black jeans. Tae pulls up his mask and pulls down the brim of his hat. You pull your mask over your face, wishing you’d known to bring a hat with you today, but hoping everything would be fine.

After a while of walking on the deserted street, looking at murals, making jokes, and taking pictures, you get lost in the moment with Tae. You let yourself breathe into the way that his hand feels in yours, the warmth of his body next to yours. His scent is soft and subtle, just like him.

After about an hour of walking around Ihwa, he asks if you’re hungry. You smile broadly at him, but quickly realize that half of your face is covered with cloth. 

“Yes, I am starving!” you exclaim, feeling the hunger pangs in your stomach for the first time. You had been so distracted with Tae that you forgot that you hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

Tae laughs, and he leads you back to where the car was parked. The driver lets both of you into the car, and Tae thanks him by name. He slides over to the seat in the middle and wraps his fingers around your knee while you ride together. You feel him slowly creeping closer to you, and you know that if you turn it’s all over. Isn’t this what you want?

While driving through a tunnel, you turn your face to see Tae’s. His eyes are searching your face, and you can’t resist it anymore. You move toward him and press your lips to his. It’s soft and sweet, and he moves his mouth slowly, positioning his bottom lip between yours. You shift slightly, so you can turn toward him more. He wraps his hands into your hair, running his fingers along your scalp. Your hand traces its way over his shirt along his collarbone. You can feel the heat growing between your legs, but you become aware of the third person in the car.

You pull away, panting slightly, and drop your head, cheeks burning. You can’t wipe the stupid grin off of your face if you wanted to, but you don’t care because the way that Tae’s mouth felt against yours is burned into your brain forever. You’ll never forget how he melted like chocolate on your lips. Or how he tickled your scalp just right while his exhales made the peach fuzz on your face stand on end. Your senses feel heightened after kissing him, and you know that you want to do it again.

The two of you ride the rest of the way in silence, with your fingers entwined on top of your knee, and you can’t help but think that this is maybe the beginning of something wonderful.

When you get to the gate of the apartment complex, you try not to look at the crowd of people who are wondering if Tae is in fact inside this car. You pull your ID out of your wallet, and Tae pushes your hand down.

“You only have to do that when you aren’t with me.”

Once inside, he leads you to the apartment. Before he opens the door, he turns you around to face him. You’re looking up at his perfect face. He is so smooth and symmetrical, and you feel so homely next to him. He plants his hands on the wall behind either side of your head, and he leans down to you. He gives you a quick kiss on the forehead. Then the nose. Then each cheek. Then the lips. It’s so soft and sweet that you think you’re going to melt or explode or both.

He unlocks the door and leads you inside. In the kitchen, a chef is preparing food again.

“Dude, how do you do that?” you gawk at the man working in the kitchen.

“Do what?” He follows your eye line and laughs. “Oh, Bonhwa-ssi? I texted in the car. He works for us, and he’s the greatest guy ever.”

Bonhwa looks at the two of you briefly, then he goes back to chopping and preparing. You can see that this meal is a little different from the last one, but you are so excited to eat anything that your mouth starts to water.

The two of you hang out at the dining room table until Bonhwa brings over the hamburgers and sides he’s prepared. Tae is smiling at his food, and you get to see him just as he is. One bite in, and you know that you’ve never had a hamburger this good before. You try to force yourself not to eat too fast, but you can only restrain yourself so much because it is so good.

After you eat, the two of you sit at the table just staring at each other for a while. You feel a little sleepy, but you don’t want to miss a moment with Tae.

“Do you want to see my room?” Tae asks awkwardly.

You aren’t sure if he genuinely wants to show you his room or if this is his awkward attempt at getting you into a more private space. On both fronts, you are more than happy. You want to see the inward private space that’s kept only for Tae, not for the public figure. And you would be more than happy to have some private time with Tae because you can’t stop thinking about the way he felt against you.

You nod, and he pushes back his chair from the table. He helps you up onto your feet and leads you by the hand down the hallway. He opens the third door in the hallway, and upon entering the room, you feel Tae in every inch of the room. In the corner are canvases, blank and painted, stacked in the corner, and an easel stands tall above them. A desk sits in the other corner, scattered with pens and pencils. It looks like he’s been brainstorming or planning or writing, and to the small messes side there is a nice desktop computer. You don’t know too much about gaming computers, but you do know when you see a nice one. This one is definitely a nice one.

His bed is made with a gray comforter on top, and there are lamps on either bedside table. He flicks them on quickly and shuts off the overhead light.

“I hope you don’t mind. I just like the ambient light better,” he says quietly, making his way across the room to you.

Every picture in the room draws your attention. There’s one large painting on the wall. It looks like an acrylic painting done with a palette knife. It’s beautiful, and the muted colors swirl together to create intricate patterns.

“This is so beautiful, Tae. Did you do this?”

He chuckles a little and sneaks in behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist, resting his chin on your shoulder. “I wish. No, I bought this one. I hope someday to be able to do that.”

Seeing the things that Tae loves and hearing his aspirations as an artist fill your heart with warmth. His fingers sneak along the top hem of your skirt, tickling your skin and make you shiver in place. You let him continue to do it, and you drop your head back against his shoulder.

He pulls you closer against him, your back flush against his chest, and you can feel the growing stiffness in his pants against your ass. You smile. Knowing that you made Tae excited like that causes your chest to swell with pride. 

He has the option of any woman in Korea and probably the world, and he is choosing you right now. His fingers continue to dance along the skin of your waist and the top of your skirt. They slowly dip under the waistband, tracing small circles under the fabric. You can’t control the small moan that leaves your mouth when his fingers creep into the waistband of your panties.

He exhales sharply, and you feel him press against you. His other hand makes its way to the bottom of your shirt and ghosts underneath the cotton. You are rapt in the smell and the feel of him. You never want anything but his soft skin to be touching you again.

“Is this okay?” he whispers into your ear before he continues.

“Yes, it’s so much more than okay.” You turn your head, and your lips find one another. This time the kiss is desperate and pleading. It feels like if you don’t kiss him without enough passion, he won’t know how badly you want him. All of your desires try to escape off your tongue, dancing against his. Your hands try to find purchase on his hips, and you grip him on the top of his pants. One hand slides to the bulge that’s pressing against his pants and against you. His cock is hard and thick, and you immediately feel wetness pooling in your panties the second you touch it.

All you can think is how badly you want that cock in your hand, in your mouth, in your pussy. You want all of him tonight, even though you know it’s a little improper. Tae’s fingers dip all the way into your panties while the other hand finds your nipple. He gently pinches it between his index finger and thumb. He rolls it carefully, and the arousal shooting to your core is almost overwhelming. His other hand is tracing small circles through the wetness between your legs. He slides his fingers up and down your slit from your entrance to your clit. He moans a deep, low groan into your neck.

His wrap around the skin on your neck, teeth nipping at you. His breath is hot on your neck, and you lean further into him. He slips one finger into your entrance, and you inhale sharply. He begins a slow pace with his finger inside of you, just barely giving you what you crave before pulling back out again.

His teasing sets you off. You turn around to him and kiss him hard, caressing his tongue with yours. You drop to your knees before him and glance up at him, smiling, before your fingers undo the button on his slacks. Once you have his pants undone, you yank them to the floor. His cock is pleading to escape the confines of his underwear and who are you to deny it. When you pull him out, your mouth immediately waters at the sight of it. It’s thick and smooth, and you cannot wait any longer to have it inside of you. 

You let one droplet of spit fall slowly from your mouth onto the shaft of his cock. You use your tongue to swirl the wetness around it, making him slick for you to take him all the way in. Your hand wraps around the base, and, as you look up into his eyes, you slide him into your mouth. With his cock inside your mouth, you use your tongue to massage the head, slowly flicking it around the tip. Tae groans.

His hand slides into your hair, gripping it firmly. You bob your head up and down slowly, taking in all that you can, using your hand to rub it up and down as you take it into your throat. You press your face against his pubic bone, the hair tickling your nose slightly, and Tae’s hips thrust slightly further down your throat. You gag around him, and he moans again. You moan around him, knowing the vibration will feel good, plus you are so beyond turned on.

You feel his cock pulse slightly in your mouth, hardening further. He pants and uses your hair to pull your mouth away from him.

“Fuck, you make me feel so good. I’m going to cum too fast.”

You smile at his words, using your tongue to wipe the spit off of your fingers. His eyes widen and he pulls you up to his level. “Get over here.”

Tae picks you up and throws you gently against the bed. He stands above you and rips his shirt off over his head, tossing it aside. His fingers slide up your thighs and loop around the waistband of your panties. He pulls them off, leaving your skirt on.

“You’ve been teasing me all day in this skirt, haven’t you? You knew how good you looked in it when you were getting dressed.” He’s panting a little and his hair is sticking to his forehead slightly at the sweaty spots.

The gruffness of his voice and his words are making you a wanton mess for him. You know that you look good in this skirt. You know that it’s pretty short and shows off your legs. You, however, did not know that it would have this effect on Tae. With your panties thrown aside, he pulls your shirt over your head, revealing the lilac lace bralette that you have on underneath.

“Fuck,” Tae whispers to himself, eyes raking over every inch of your tits.

Tae climbs on top of you and plants his lips against your neck. He’s teasing the delicate skin and leaving little nips all over your chest and collarbone. His mouth makes its way down to your breasts, and he pulls each one gingerly out of the cups of the bralette. He marvels at them for a moment  then takes your right nipple into his mouth. You moan immediately, having extra sensitive nipples.

“Tae,” you moan out, hand lacing into his long dark hair. “Please.”

He looks up at you smiling. “Please what, darling?”

“Please....” you’re a little embarrassed to say, but you’re too turned on to care. “Please fuck me.”

He growls in his chest and pushes himself away from you. At first you think that you’ve offended him, but then he opens the drawer of his bedside table. He pulls out a condom, holds it up, and smiles at you. You take it from his hand, tearing the packaging to get the little latex shield out. Rolling it on to his cock, you can feel how hard he is, and you get even more aroused, looking at it and feeling it.

Once the condom is in place, Tae lies you back on the bed. He aligns himself with your entrance, and before he pushes himself inside of you, he asks, “You’re sure this is okay?”

You blush slightly because you did just moments ago beg him to fuck you, but you smile up at him. “Yes, Tae. I am so so okay with this. Please.”

He smiles and pushes himself slowly inside of you. Your eyes meet his as he hovers above, his eyes growing in intensity. His thrusts are rhythmic and deliberate, and you can’t believe that you feel like you’re going to cum already. Your fingers claw at his back, and you know that you’re leaving little scratch marks behind.

Soon, he pulls his cock almost all of the way out of you and thrusts it back inside, less gently than before. Your hands, unable to control themselves, grip firmly on his arms. You can feel how wide your eyes are, and you gasp for air as he does it again. Your head is growing foggy, and you feel yourself hurtling toward your orgasm, unstoppable. 

Your pussy pulses around his cock, and Tae moans out your name. The sound of your name falling off his lips while he’s inside you is enough to send you over the edge. You feel the muscles in your pussy contracting, and your clit feels like it’s covered in warmth. The orgasm tears through you, and your mind goes completely blank, only pleasure exists.

“Fuck, you’re squeezing me so tight,” Tae pants out. As you come down from your orgasm, he starts thrusting faster and less rhythmically.

“Cum for me, Tae. Please,” you say, and that’s all it takes to send Tae over the cliff. He moans deeply and spills inside of the condom with his buried deep inside of you. His breathing is rough and jagged, and you can feel all of his muscles clenching. You run your fingernails gently over his back as he comes down. The two of you stay there wrapped in each other for a moment.

With a sigh, Tae pulls his softening cock out of you. He slips the condom off and tosses it into the trash. “Stay here,” he says and disappears into the bathroom.

At this moment, you’re very glad that all the guys don’t have to share one bathroom. When he returns, it looks like he’s washed his face and gotten all the wetness off his cock. He tosses you a warm, wet cloth.

“You can use that bathroom if you need to.” He points from where he just came, and you smile at him, popping up off the bed to go take care of yourself.

When you come back out of the bathroom, Tae is standing there in his underwear, looking much more shy than his behavior just minutes ago.

“Just so you know, I wasn’t planning on that happening. I don’t want you to feel like I just brought you here for that.” He rubs the back of his neck and looks at you through his eyelashes.

“Tae, it’s okay. I really enjoyed it.”

“I just don’t want you to think that I’m just trying to use you or something. I’m not like that. I really care about you.”

You don’t know how to comfort him or make him feel validated. You hadn’t at any point in time thought that he might be using you. You’d been having filthy thoughts about him since the train ride that first night. You cross the room to him and throw your arms around him. Your fingers run through his hair at the nape of his neck.

“Tae, I asked you to fuck me. I wanted this more than I care to admit. You looked so good in that outfit today. I couldn’t help myself.”

He wraps his fingers into your hair and pulls your head back gently. He angles your head so that your mouth is free for him to kiss. He presses his mouth hard against yours. Your lips are swollen and bitten, but you kiss him back with all the affection that you're feeling. You part your lips for his tongue as it snakes back into your mouth. You feel yourself getting aroused again, and you laugh into Tae’s mouth.

“Tae, I worked all day. I kind of want to just take it easy,” you say against his mouth, immediately regretting it when his breath is no longer on your lips.

He laughs and pulls you into a hug then lets go. He walks over and picks up your shirt for you. You still have your skirt sitting on your hips where he left it, and you adjusted your bra in the bathroom. With your shirt adjusted on you, you watch Tae put on a shirt and a pair of loose comfy pants.

“Want to watch a movie?” he asks.

You smile up at him, taking his hand. “As long as it isn’t Woody Allen.”

***

After that night in Tae’s bedroom, whenever the two of you are together, you struggle to keep your hands off of each other. Whether you’re in the kitchen at the apartment, in the car together, or in Taehyung's room, you are touching each other somehow.

Being with Tae feels amazing when you’re together, but it’s hard because he is so rarely around, and you can’t have normal dates with him. After about 3 months of talking, you’ve only seen each other a few times. You feel grateful for the time that you have with him, but half the time he is too exhausted to do more than lie on the couch or in his bed together.

You love the way that Tae makes you feel, but you don’t love the way that you feel when you see him on some gossip site. You know they’re just fishing for whatever story they can get, and his name gets clicks. It still doesn’t feel good. You have mixed feelings about everything in your relationship, but you keep it to yourself.

One Friday afternoon, Tae texts you to make plans for the weekend. You see the text, but you are swamped with work and ignore it. Two hours later, he texts you again, asking if you’re angry with him.

You: No. I’m not angry. I’m just busy. What’s the plan?

Tae: I’ll pick you up at 7 tonight. I’m taking you to dinner.

Tae: AND BONUS! You can stay over tonight if you want.

You haven’t been able to stay the night at Tae’s place throughout your whole relationship because he has manager’s coming in early every morning. The other member’s girlfriends tend to leave around the same time that you do, and you’ve made friends with some of them. You feel your heart flip slightly as you read the words. You smile to yourself, trying to plan what cute jammies you’re going to take and then not wear.

When Tae picks you up, you’re wearing a dress with lace panties underneath. You made yourself up a little bit, but you figured you didn’t need to dress too nicely since dinner with Tae was always just at his house. When the driver, Beoseon, opens the door, you are taken aback by the site of Tae in a suit. He looks deadly, and you feel sinful just looking at him.

“Wow. I feel underdressed,” you say as you kiss his cheek.

“No way. You look amazing!” he says as he gives you a cheeky look that you have grown to recognize from him. “I have a special plan for us tonight.”

The two of you are all smiles in the car, hands searching each other. You hook your fingers into the waistband of his trousers, and you sneak your way into his pubic hair, resting at the base of his cock. You don’t wrap your hand around it, don’t grab on to it. Instead, you just run your fingernails gently over the skin through the hair. Teasing Taehyung is one of your favorite things because he’s normally silly and mild mannered, but as soon as he gets aroused, he becomes a determined little demon.

Tae sits still, smirking over at you while you tease. You can feel him growing harder, but he doesn’t reveal any of it on his face. Working Tae up just means that things are going to be better for you later. You smile to yourself thinking of all the things that the two of you could do.

“So, what are we having for dinner tonight?” you ask casually, as your fingers caress his cock gently, and you look up at him.

“Like I said, I have something special planned. It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. Though, if you keep that up, I’m gonna have something else in store for you too.”

The car turns a different way than it usually would to take you to Tae’s place, and you look at him with surprise. He has only taken you out the first time when you went to Ihwa Village. You’d had so much fun wandering around looking at the art with him, but you were worried about being in a public place. It was Friday night. Places would be busy. People would be walking wherever you went.

The car pulls into a service parking lot under the Horim Art Center, and you look at Tae confused. You go in through the employee entrance and take the elevator up. When you walk through the doors of the restaurant, the entire place is empty except a server, a bartender,and the kitchen staff. You turn to Tae and smile. He takes your hands in his and pulls you along to the table.

“Only the best for you, jagiya.”

The man leading you to the table pulls out a chair for you and then for Tae. This place is so fancy, and you feel a lot underdressed in your summer dress. You feel like this is the kind of place that you need to be dressed to the nines in high heels with your hair actually done instead of messily curled when you got home from work.

“Kim Taehyung, you did not tell me that I needed to be dressed for a place like this,” you glare at him.

He laughs. “y/n, you do not need to be dressed up. It’s just you and I here. We aren’t trying to impress anyone.”

“Well, maybe I’m trying to impress you,” you coo, trying to use your seductive tone on him.

Realizing that it’s just the two of you in the restaurant, you are determined to get him worked up. You slide your hand sneakily under your dress, and Tae quirks his eyebrow at you. You remove the black lace in one swift movement and the reach under the table to place it in Tae’s hand. It’s a little more awkward than you’d pictured, but it does the trick when the warm fabric hits his hand. You see his eyes widen at the feeling of them.

“Is someone feeling a little naughty?” he asks.

You wink at him and open your menu like nothing just happened. The food on the menu is all super expensive, and you are taken aback by the prices on it. You wouldn’t spend this much on dinner, opting instead to just go to the barbecue by your house. You look at Tae, and he’s smiling softly at you, an intimacy in his eyes that you haven’t seen before.

The waiter comes over and Tae orders wine for you, and you order your food.

“Tae, you shut down this whole restaurant just for me?”

“Of course not. That’s absurd.” When you cast him a confused look, he smiles. “I shut down the whole museum.”

You can feel the heat in your cheeks as the flattery overwhelms you. You know that he’s rich and famous and can do things like this but still.

“We can eat and take in some of the museum...then go back to your place maybe?” he asks.

What? What is happening? I thought he said you could stay the night with him, not him staying the night with you.

“What?” you blurt out after finishing your sip of wine.

“I’ve just never seen where you live. Not in person anyway. I just want to feel what it feels like in a space that you created.”

Your heart feels like it’s going to fucking explode. You absentmindedly start running your foot up the inside of Tae’s leg, and you reach for his hand across the table. He grabs yours loosely with one hand, and the other hand snags your foot and pulls it up toward his crotch. While the waiter delivers your food, Tae slides your shoe off, and you press your foot gently against the bulge in his pants. You can’t even start eating yet you are so focused on the way that Tae feels in your hand and against your foot.

You adjust the way that your fingers are intertwined and move both of your hands toward your mouth. Your tongue creeps out of your mouth, and you lick up the length of his pointer finger. With a satisfied little smile, you pull your fingers away and sink your whole mouth down onto the finger, sucking slowly up the length of it, staring into his eyes. There is a fire behind his eyes, and he growls a little under his breath.

“Filthy girl. We should eat dinner, and then you can tease me some more.”

“Though this food looks amazing, it’s not really what I’m craving right now, Tae,” you pout.

“Tell you what. If you eat your dinner like a good girl, you can come sit in my lap.”

Tae chuckles to himself, placing your foot on the floor, adjusting himself, and picking up his chopsticks to eat. He looks like he’s proud of the comment he’s just made, and you roll your eyes at him. You can’t deny that the comment sent heat straight to your core, but you don’t like proving him right.

You straighten your napkin in your lap and begin to eat. You look at him through your lashes, but you make sure to hold your posture perfectly like you are unaffected by his comment. The two of you eat silently for a few minutes before picking conversation back up.

When you finish eating, Tae takes you on a tour through the whole museum. He shows you all of his favorite exhibits, and the two of you spend much of the time laughing and kissing. You aren’t sure if he’s forgotten that he has your underwear in his pocket or if he’s just biding his time, but you love the little game that you’re playing.

By the end of the evening, your heart is full to bursting with the love for the man with you, and you don’t ever want to let go of his hand.

“Tae…” you pause.

He raises his eyebrows and looks at you with that curious, dark stare of his, and you feel like you’re going to melt.

“You feel like home.”

The smile that rips across his face feels like the first warm day of the spring. It wraps you up in its comfort, and you feel yourself falling even deeper for him in that moment. There are things about his life that you don’t love, but you know that you love him.

“y/n, no one has ever felt more like home to me than you do.”

You can’t control yourself, and you throw your arms around him, pulling him tightly against you while you kiss his lips. This kiss feels different, like the first kiss after saying I love you. But I love you means so many different things to so many different people, and the feeling of being home feels right to you.

Later that night, you are lying naked on Tae’s bed, hair tousled, feeling exhausted. You and Tae are having your designating scrolling time on your phones, and you hear him whisper, “Oh fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” you ask him softly, worried that something has come up with the band.

“I-I have to go.” He shoots up off the bed and throws a pair of pants on quickly before darting to the door.

You look flabbergasted at him, worried that something is really wrong.

“I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

He disappears out the door, and you’re left to wonder what you should even be doing.

*********

“This is so bad,” Tae groans as he holds his head.

He’s pacing in the kitchen while Jimin is trying to comfort him.

“Honestly, it can’t be that bad. The company will take care of it. There were only so many people there, they’re going to find who did it.”

“It’s….just...these pictures are bad, hyung. They’re really bad. Look.”

He hands his phone to Jimin whose eyes widen upon seeing the pictures on the screen. Tears are starting to roll down Tae’s cheeks, and he looks at Jimin wildly. Jimin wraps his arms around him and holds him closely. Neither man is really sure what to do.

On the screen of Tae’s phone are several slightly grainy photos of him in the restaurant earlier that night. Your face is completely visible, and your tongue is running along his finger in one of them. His finger is in your mouth in another.

“This is so bad,” he sobs out. “I can’t believe I did this to her.”

While Jimin is telling him to just breathe, you emerge from Tae’s room, hair messily thrown up. You look confused and as soon as you see the tears in Tae’s eyes, you run to him.

“y/n, I fucked up,” he whispers.

“Tae, it’s going to be okay. Shhh. Breathe through it. Tell me what happened.”

The way that you’re looking at him with so much concern in your eyes about something that he’s done to you, the last thing that he ever wanted to happen to you, something he promised wouldn’t happen. He can’t say it, so he just picks up his phone and hands it to you.

“What the-” you trail off as you look at the pictures retweeted by hundreds of thousands of people already.

Your face turns white as you look up from the screen at Tae. Your expression is grim, and he can’t tell if you’re angry or sad or numb. He’s so worried about what you’re going to say as you look at him. Instead of saying something, you turn and walk down the hall back into his room. He looks puzzled at the door, unsure what the hell you’re doing.

You return with your bag that you brought to stay the night and your phone in hand. You don’t look at him as you walk out the front door of the apartment.

“Wait, y/n, wait!” he shouts after you, taking off down the hallway.

Jimin catches him and holds him firmly in place, deceptively strong for his size.

“You have to let her go. You have to let her handle this on her own.”

The hot tears are gushing from Taehyung’s eyes, and he feels like a volcano of devastation is erupting out of him. He isn’t sure he’s ever sobbed this hard and definitely not in the last few years. His stupidity and carelessness caused you to be photographed with him. He is the reason that risque pictures of you are now online. He knows that the company will catch them, if they haven’t already, but it’s not consolation for the cost of losing you.

******

Your chest heaves as you ride in the back of the car. Beoseon is silent, but you can see his eyes flitting back to you in the rearview mirror every couple of minutes. You wish it wasn’t such a long trip home. You just want to get out and walk and feel the cool air on your face. This car is suffocating, the air inside stale and recycled. You ride in the back of the car until you can’t take it anymore. Beoseon pulls over and lets you out, and you take off briskly down the sidewalk.

You breathe in the humid midsummer air, and you think that this has to be a joke. Taehyung and Jimin had to be playing the worst prank of all time on you. He was going to call you any moment and tell you “gotcha! Jimin took them!”

It wasn’t though. You weren’t going to get that call because you say the tweet. You saw the retweets. You didn’t even want to think about the comments on it. You just want to go home and become one with your bed. You wonder if The Secret applies to becoming furniture.

You wonder to yourself why Tae hasn’t even texted you yet. You feel like this would be one of those things that he would continually text you about like that time that he thought he’d made you angry when you were arguing about mint chocolate ice cream. This was a much bigger thing than fucking ice cream, and now, radio silence.

You turn the corner, and the breeze against your skin feels calming. You can feel yourself sweating, and you realize you left your underwear at Tae’s house. You don’t even care. You left your dignity in the restaurant when you had your lips wrapped around his finger. How could you be so stupid? Nothing is private. Especially not when you’re with him.

The tears come again as you make your way up the stairs to your apartment. It’s only a matter of time before you’re getting calls from people. It doesn’t say your name anywhere, but you know how stan twitter works. They’ll find anyone and dox them.

Once in your apartment, you strip down and put on your comfiest sweater and sweatpants. The air conditioning makes you feel as chilly outside as you do inside. You can’t believe this is happening. You can’t believe you let this happen. You curl up on your bed on top of the covers and fall asleep, face wet from the tears soaking into your pillow.

You didn’t leave the house or go online all weekend. Instead opting to clean your entire apartment and reorganize your entire bedroom. You felt a little better being away from the situation. You felt worse knowing that Tae hadn’t called or texted at all. It seemed like he’d completely resigned himself to you leaving and wasn’t going to fight for you at all.

You had resigned yourself to showing your face at work on Monday, and you hoped that you would have a normal day. When you walked into the building, everything was completely normal, almost everyone ignoring you, and you feel hopeful.

The work day ends, and the only conversations that you’ve had have been about spreadsheets and the copier. You heave a sigh of relief as you walk outside. You never thought that it would be so easy to get away with dating an idol. Maybe his company took care of it? Maybe you were lucky, and no one recognized you.

Tuesday is a different story. It starts with glances from the other girls in the office.

Wednesday, Aecha comes up to you and stares at you for a minute before you turn to her.

“Can I help you with something?” you ask, thinking maybe she needs help with a task.

“Do you really know Kim Taehyung?” she asks, eyes wide, nervously holding onto her left arm with her right.

You roll your eyes. You knew this couldn’t last.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you say, with no expression on your face.

“There are just these pictures and...they really look like you.”

Her nervousness is palpable, and you feel your hands getting clammy. You had already decided that if anyone asked about it you would deny deny deny.

“Well, maybe I’ve just got one of those faces.” You shrug and turn back to your computer.

Aecha stares at you for a moment longer, but then she sighs a nevermind and walks away. After she’s gone, you let out an exhale of relief, but you are hoping that she’ll spread the word to the rest of the women at the office. You hope that no one thinks it’s you. Such lewd behavior in public could lead to you being fired.

That night is when the notifications start. Thousands of them every hour. Eventually, you turn your phone on to airplane mode just to get away from them. This. This is what you were afraid of. You decide not to read of the messages, fearing that the content could be detrimental to your already fragile psyche.

You get a phone call from your boss telling you that you should probably take the rest of the week off, and the two of you will talk about next steps when you return on Monday. You knew at that moment that your life wouldn’t be the same. You wished you had someone to talk to about it. That’s when you remember that Rey has been seeing Jimin for almost a year. There’s no way that she hasn’t been exposed if you have after a few months.

You find her number in your contacts. Afraid to turn on your phone, you hesitate slightly then swipe the screen to allow connectivity. You ignore all the badges on every app you have and call her.

You can hear voices in the background when you call her, but she sounds relieved to hear from you.

“y/n hi!” she exclaims, a little too eagerly upon picking up.

“Hey, do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course I do,” she says to you. You hear her whisper off to the side, “shut up, it’s y/n.”

There are muffled whispers on the other end. “Oh, I can talk to you later if you’re busy.”

“No, no. I’m not busy. I want to talk to you.”

“Did you hear about the pictures?” you ask meekly. 

“I did. Yeah. I saw. I’m so sorry, y/n. How are you holding up?”

“I honestly don’t know what to think. I don’t feel that bad about it in general. I haven’t read any of the messages, and I haven’t had too much happen in person either. The worst part is that I haven’t even talked to Taehyung since that night. I just don’t even know where we stand. Is he embarrassed? Is he in trouble? Does he want nothing to do with me anymore? I thought I knew what I wanted, but it’s hard when I have no one to talk to about it.”

She pauses for a moment, and you look down at your phone to see if you dropped the call.

“All I can say is this. It’s going to be hard and trying and challenging. Sometimes he’s going to be gone for months at a time. Sometimes he’s going to be too tired to talk. Sometimes people who think they’re meant to be with him are going to hate you. I decided that it didn’t matter. As long as I had Jimin, I could make it through anything. I loved him too much to not fight for him.”

Her words hit you in your heart, and you immediately start crying. You thank her and hang out the phone. You lie down on your bed staring at the ceiling for a long time, and you aren’t sure at what point you drift off to sleep.

*****

“Kim Taehyung!” a shout echoes down the hallway.

“Why is everyone always yelling my fucking name?” Tae grumbles to himself.

He stands up from his bed, dressed messily, face unshaven. When he gets to the hallway, Jimin, Jungkook, and their girlfriends are all standing around in the dining room, staring at him.

“Did I hear that you have called or text y/n AT ALL since the night that she walked out of here?” Jungkook demands. Even though he’s the youngest, his tone is commanding and dark. If anyone knows about the pain of having their private photos leaked, it’s Jungkook.

Shit.

“She doesn’t want anything to do with me. She made that clear when she walked out on me.” Tae turns to go back down the hallway.

“Seriously? You haven’t talked to her. You’ve literally said zero words to her since you showed her that someone took pictures of an incredibly intimate moment. How do you know how she feels?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “No, no. If you could have seen the look on her face...I broke the one promise I made to her.”

Jimin walks up to Taehyung and grabs him by the shoulders. “Hey, look at me.” When Taehyung lifts his eyes up to his friend’s, he can feel the tears welling behind his eyes.

“Taehyung, if you love her like you say you do, if she feels like home, you would fight for her. You know that.”

He feels the water fall on to his cheeks, and he can’t stop all the doubt running through his mind. It’s like Jimin sees it in him, and he says, “you can’t get caught up in what ifs. You have to go to her.”

He nods and runs back to his room. He throws on a casual outfit and calls Beoseon on his way out the door. He knows that if he doesn’t do something right now, then he won’t be able to say all the things that he needs to say to you.

****

A gentle knock on your door wakes you from your sleep. At first, you aren’t sure if you even heard it, when you blink your eyes open, looking around confused. Then it comes again.

You drudge yourself up off the bed and maunder to the door. The sight out of the peephole is one of the last things you expected to see. Standing in the hallway outside of your apartment, a sullen-looking Kim Taehyung is knocking softly against your door.

You unlock the door and swing it open to face him. He simply stares at you for a moment. He opens his mouth and closes it again like he doesn’t know what to say.

“Why don’t you come in?” you mutter.

Once inside, the two of you stand, shifting your weight between your feet. You aren't sure what to say, but you know that you can't just stand here in silence any longer. The things that are unsaid between you hang in the air. It's thick and heavy and difficult. Seeing Tae's face after the last several days is painful, and you hope that he'll speak first.

"I..was an idiot," he says.

It isn't really what you expected, but it was true. He was an idiot.

"Yeah. You were."

He winces slightly at the bite in your tone, but you know that he has to have more words to say.

"I wrote a song for you."

Well...this conversation is not going how you expected it to.

"Well, I'm glad you were writing a song in the five days that you weren't talking to me after a super embarrassing photo of me was posted on the internet."

You turn away from him and start to walk toward your bedroom. He grabs your hand before you are too far away from him. You remember the man in the bar the night that you met, and you freeze, melting a little at the memory. The way that he felt that first night was the reason you'd even agreed to any of this at all. The warmth of his palm on yours reminds you of all the things that you loved in your time together.

"Look, y/n. I can't ever apologize enough for abandoning you when this happened. I should have immediately called and texted and come over and hired a skywriter. Instead, I was a coward and assumed that I would know what you would say to me about it. I didn't even talk to you before assuming that you were done with me and wanted nothing to do with me. I broke a promise that I made to you. I can tell you that the company is taking legal action against that line cook, and they were fired. It doesn't change what happened, but I just want you to know that I'm trying to do everything I can to make it up to you."

You know that Tae didn't mean to hurt you. You know that. But it doesn't change the fact that he did.

"Taehyung...I know that you didn't mean to, but you hurt me. You broke promises."

"y/n, please. I love you. Please forgive me."

Those three words hang in the air, wrap around you, and overwhelm your senses. You know that you feel that way about him, but the fact that he said them first fills you with joy.

You leap at Tae, and he grabs you as you jump into his arms. You kiss him hard, breathing him in. Your lips move together, and you know that it's all worth it for him. You pull back, wrapping your fingers around his neck, messing gently with his hair.

"I love you too, Tae. You are worth it."

He grabs your bottom lip between his teeth, and you feel your heart quickening in your chest. You tug at his hair. He lets your lip go, and you slip your tongue across his bottom lip. You want to feel every inch of him, taste every part of him. Your tongue traces his bottom lip and then sneaks into his mouth. His tongue finds yours, and they feel like they were meant to be together.

He pulls back from you and drops you down on the couch. He pulls his shirt over his head, and then he grabs the hem of yours and rips it off, tossing it aside. You aren't wearing a bra, so your nipples harden at the cool air and the arousal. Tae growls quietly in the back of his throat, and he leans down to kiss you. You pull him toward you until he's on top of you.

He laughs as he kisses you, and he presses his torso against yours. He wraps his hand in your hair and pulls gently. "Is this okay?"

He pulls a little more. You nod fervently at the small sting in your scalp. He pulls harder and harder, and you smile as he pulls your hair hard. The pain makes the wetness between your legs grow, and you can't wait until he hurts you again.

"Tae?" you stare up at him. "Do something for me?"

“Anything, my love. Anything.”

“Will you...slap me?” His eyes widen, and he stiffens slightly. “Shit. If you’re not into it, then we really don’t have to do that.”

“No, yobu, that’s not it. I really love it. It’s just that I hurt you emotionally already…”

“Well...make the outside match?” You thought it would be fun and flirty, but it just sounded kinda rude. You laugh to try to make it clear that you aren’t actually upset with him.

He stares at you for a moment, then he brings his hand up away from your hip. It smacks against your cheek, and you try not to flinch as it comes down on you. The sting in your skin makes you soak through your underwear. 

“Now, I’m going to show you how much I love you,” he whisper-growls in your ear.

He drops his weight back on to the couch and pulls you into his laugh. You slightly awkwardly straddle his lap from the position you’ve been placed in. Taehyung slips two fingers into your mouth and pulls your jaw open. He rubs his fingers on your tongue, and you moan in the back of your throat. He pushes his fingers further into your mouth to back of your throat.

He brings his other hand up to the back of your head, stroking your hair, and says, “Good girl.”

Around his fingers, you plead, “Pleath Taehong.”

He smiles at your inability to properly pronounce the words.

“You sound so desperate with my fingers in your mouth like that. Sweet dumb baby can’t make words when she’s so turned on.” He’s smiling and pressing his fingers further into your mouth again. “You don’t know how desperate I am though, jagiya. Should I show you?”

You nod, and his hand leaves the back of your head and wraps around your throat, squeezing gently. “Use your words.”

“Yes Tae.”

You are starting to drool down your chin with your mouth so wide open, but you don’t care because you want to cover him in your spit. Tae shifts his weight and pulls his pants down, hard cock bursting free as soon as the fabric that contained it is gone.

“Do you see what you do to me? Every time I see you, it’s like the first time again. I feel like I’m infatuated. A lusty mess.”

You moan around his fingers, and your spit drips from your lips onto his cock, and you smile at the sight of it.

“Does my lovely baby like to see her spit on my cock?” he asks, smirking at you, still holding your jaw open.

“Yeth.” More spit falls from your mouth.

“My love, I just want to feel you,” Tae whispers against your neck. His mouth finds purchase on your collarbone. He bites down hard and then sucks the skin where he’s just bitten. He looks up at you with so much affection in his eyes, it almost hurts.

He pulls his fingers from your mouth and sucks the drool off of them. You feel like you are going to explode if you don’t get some sort of stimulation soon.

“Bedroom?” you ask him.

“Bedroom.” he states back.

You lead him into your bedroom, and he pushes you back onto your bed. You pull your sweatpants and your ruined panties off and toss them aside. Tae stands before you, completely naked, and you marvel at him. He’s so beautiful and so perfect, his honey skin stretched just right over every curvature of every muscle and bone.

Shit. He’s so beautiful.

He slowly lowers himself between your legs, and you can’t believe that it’s possible to grow any wetter until you do. He positions himself about your clitoris, blowing cool air on the aching bud. You squirm beneath him, but he holds your hips in place. His tongue makes contact with the sensitive skin, and you immediately moan. He pulls away after one lick and blows again. The pleasure and the desire are overwhelming. Your mind is losing control.

“Please. Please,” you beg without knowing what in particular you are begging for. His touch? His tongue? His love? All of it?

He chuckles against your folds, and the stimulation makes your squirm even more. He isn’t touching you, but you are dying for his touch.

“Hold still.” 

He holds your hips as the gyrate, trying to get attention in some form. He pushes a little hard on your hips, but you can’t control yourself. You are out of your mind, and you need his touch now before you die for the lack of touch.

Smack!

Tae’s hand lands on your inner thigh heavily. You look down at him with wide eyes. “I said hold still.”

With all the power you possess in your mind, you force your hips to quiet. You hold perfectly still while panting in anticipation. You want to be good so that he’ll reward you with the thing you want most, and your brain tries to focus on still hips instead of those still lips.

Finally after what feels like years, he dips his head and traces gentle patterns through your arousal. Every time his tongue passes over your clit you moan but fight to keep your hips still. You feel yourself losing your grip, hips shuddering from the pleasure, and Taehyung slides a finger inside of you. Slick with your arousal, it easily caresses the bundle of nerves inside. The stimulation from his tongue and his finger immediately send you over the edge.

It’s sudden and forceful. It feels like all of the emotions, anger, sadness, hopelessness, all burst from within you, melting into your orgasm. Your pain melts away as the only thing left in the room, hell, the world is the sensation that Tae is giving you. Your fingers pull at his hair, and even the feeling of his soft locks is too much for you, adding to the pleasure.

As the feeling begins to wind down, you can’t stop your hips from rolling against his face. He doesn’t seem to mind, hands wrapped around your ass and hips, pulling your hard against his face. When he pulls away, his chin is shining almost as much as his eyes.

“I love you, y/n.”

He climbs up on top of you and kisses you deeply. You taste yourself on his lips, and you moan into his mouth.

“Tae...fuck me raw?”

You stare up deeply into his eyes, and you hear the intake of air from him being startled. He nods, and his cock presses against you. He slides his cock through your folds, and the way the head of his cock feels against your clit causes your to shudder. It feels like small shockwaves that are left over from your orgasm are rocking through as the stimulation continues.

Once his cock is coated in your wetness, he pushes himself inside of you, and you moan a deep, heavy moan as he sheaths himself within you. The stimulation is already pushing you toward another orgasm, and you can feel yourself pulse around. He has a way of making you cum over and over so quickly.

“I love you, Tae,” you whisper, and he starts to move his hips in rhythm. The thrusts leave you breathless. He repositions himself so that his weight is resting on your legs, and he is pushing your knees up near your chest. It burns in your hamstrings, but the feeling inside of you demands more of your attention.

You moan loudly, hearing your own sounds echoing off the ceiling and the walls. Tae repositions once more. He’s holding your ankles, pressing himself deep inside of you. Another orgasm tears through you, and while you clench around him, Tae spills inside of you, filling you full of his cum. You feel him fucking it deeper inside of you. You relish the feeling of being filled with Tae, knowing that there will be a day soon where you will make him fill every hole with him.

You both pant in each other’s arms before you finally start talking.

“I mean it, y/n. I was such an idiot. I’m so sorry. I know that it doesn’t change what happened, but I think that we can try to figure out a way to make this work.” His eyes are a little desperate again, veiled in exhaustion.

“Kim Taehyung, if someone is worth it, you make sacrifices. For what it’s worth, I love you. Ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” you giggle as you say it.

He flips himself onto his back and pulls you tightly against his chest and kisses your nose. “Far from it.”

*****

On an unseasonably warm November afternoon, you lie on the roof of the recording studio where Tae is working today. He had a few minutes to sneak away for lunch, so you brought Banh Mi for him. You kissed him on the cheek when you saw him and greeted the other members.

The two of you lie looking at the sky, picking out shapes in the clouds. He’s gently holding your hand, and you are tossing Swedish Fish into his mouth.

“Isatrashcan!” he says with several gummies in his mouth.

“Isa what?” you ask, laughing at him incredulously.

He points out a long cylindrical cloud. “It’s a trash can!”

He looks so proud of himself, and you can’t help but love that about him. The sexy man that ruins you and dominates you. The devastatingly handsome man who wins awards and forgets to call you when he’s on the road. The oblivious man who almost cost you your job and almost broke your heart. He is also the love of your life.

You lean over and kiss his lips, smiling at him. You know that this trash can cloud is just the beginning of many adventures to come.

[horansqueen]

You & Me : chapter 50

A Niall Horan fanfiction ; rated MA

Sequel to AM CONVERSATIONS

(FINAL CHAPTER)

CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 6 || CHAPTER 7 || CHAPTER 8 || CHAPTER 9 || CHAPTER 10 || CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || CHAPTER 13 || CHAPTER 14 || CHAPTER 15 || CHAPTER 16 || CHAPTER 17 || CHAPTER 18 || CHAPTER 19 || CHAPTER 20 || CHAPTER 21 || CHAPTER 22 || CHAPTER 23 || CHAPTER 24 || CHAPTER 25 || CHAPTER 26 || CHAPTER 27 || CHAPTER 28 || CHAPTER 29 || CHAPTER 30 || CHAPTER 31 || CHAPTER 32 || CHAPTER 33 || CHAPTER 34 || CHAPTER 35 || CHAPTER 36 || CHAPTER 37 || CHAPTER 38 || CHAPTER 39 || CHAPTER 40 || CHAPTER 41 || CHAPTER 42 || CHAPTER 43 || CHAPTER 44 || CHAPTER 45 || CHAPTER 46 || CHAPTER 47 || CHAPTER 48 || CHAPTER 49

THANK YOU’S

I can't explain how much AM Conversations and YOU&ME has meant to me. This was a story I started just for fun after I realized how much I loved Niall. After only a few chapters, i almost let it die. It took me 4 years to decide to continue it again, despite knowing back then that no one cared or was interested to read. I don't know how I got lucky enough that you guys actually gave this story a chance. And I can't thank you enough for trusting me. I hope I entertained you through the past year and a half, and I really hope I made you go through a bunch of emotions, good and bad. I don't think all of you realize how happy you made me feel with the likes, the reblogs, the comments, the feedback and the ideas you sent me. It made me want to write more, it made me want to continue this story and actually finish it.

And here I am. It's the very first time I actually finish a story. two books. 105 chapters. Over 440k words. I can't pretend I'm not proud of this. This story will always be my baby, my favorite. And all of you who took time in your busy days to read and comment it mean more to me than I can ever explain.

I love you guys. I love you so much. I can't seem to express how grateful I am.

Julie ( @paynesqueen​ ): thank you for brainstorming with me almost every week. thank you for all your ideas, and all the help you gave me through the year I wrote these books. even when in quarantine, we'd talk for hours on the phone and you'd be there to help me. thank you for your big heart, thank you for being an incredible friend that I can always count on, thank you for listening to all my sad shit and feelings even if i know I rarely share because i feel stupid. thank you so so so so much! you're one of my best friends, and im so glad i have you in my life!

Isa ( @sushiniall​ ): you are such a beautiful persons. idk if we would have started talking if it wasnt from this story. i like to think that we would, but i can never be sure. thank you for always commenting, sending ideas, liking and reblogging. As a writer, it blows up my heart that someone would be so kind, and as a friend, it makes me want to cry. you're amazing, youre incredible, and you were always always there to cheer me up and tell me that I had talent, It made me keep going and I can never thank you enough for that. I love you. I really really do.

Laila ( @liallerr​ ) : what can i say? you've always been there for me, to make me feel better and to tell me how much you loved my writing. thank you for being such an incredible person. and thank you for being so patient with me whenever i'd message you (even if it wasnt about this story). thank you for never judging me, and for your beautiful friendship. I really hope I bring to you as much joy as you bring in my life. im so happy we met, im so glad we started talking.  i love you so so much, youre like a little sister to me. thank you for always commenting and reading my story. thank you for being you, because i cant think of a better quality in someone. thank you.

@ewhkylie​: you were always one of the first to comments every single chapter. how can i not thank you for being so loyal and giving my story a chance. i saw all the efforts you made into commenting. and every single time, it made me smile. youre amazing, thank you so much!

@llainnaroh​: thank you so much! your tags always made me smile! thank you!

@bamb11​: thank you for always caring and reading!!! youre amazing!

@behind-my-hazeleyes27​: i saw you reblog with tags or comments every time... thank you so much!

special thanks to you guys who reblogged, commented, or messaged me so often! thank you! i noticed every time!

thanks to you guys! @beachsecrets​ @wasteddarlinglover​ @torismusing @sunsetter96​ @bunbun9396 @missy14us​ @mannien​ @cybermugneckpsychic​ @mariamorris913​ @sunshine-sma​ @mypugsley​ @loulouloueh​ @awomanindeniall​ @tylkotroche​

and many many more! (im so sorry if i forgot you!)

thank you to all of you who liked and reblogged my chapters. thank you to those who recommended my stories to their friends or on your blog. thank you to the person(s) who nominated me for the 1d craft awards. thank you so much, you're all amazing!

thank you so so much to all of you who sent me anons about my chapters or the story as a whole. thank you for taking the time to do that. i love every single one of you even if i don't know who you are. just know that waking up with comments and feedback from you in my inbox made me smile every single time!

thank you to every single one of you who ever sent an idea or a request, even if i may not have used them. please know that it's not because your ideas weren't great, but just because it didnt fit in the story. (i received almost 300 requests/ideas for the 2 stories!)

thank you to the 41 persons who asked to be notified when this story was updated. I never thought it would be that many, and every single time i send you guys the link im amazed by how many of you actually care! thank you!

thank you to all of you, the silent readers. those who never messaged me, sent me comments or requests... i don't know who you are, but I know there are some of you out there. i hope at some point you get less shy and send me a comment or two!

i'm extremely thankful for all the love i received, and i'll never forget this. thank you everyone for following me in this crazy adventure. i love you all.

Olivia 💗

Chapter 50 (final chapter)

OLIVIA

I felt Niall's lips brush the skin of my neck and my lips curled. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I chuckled low, tilting my head to allow him to kiss me more. We had been back from our trip to Vegas for about a week, and had intentionally and very carefully ignored the messages and calls we had gotten. All we did was send an invitation for a party to everyone we knew, including our parents, along with plane tickets. We had taken hotel reservations for them and made sure their stay would be perfect. Everything was ready, everything was planned, and all the persons we loved the most in the world were going to be present. I was extremely stressed and as usual, Niall was totally relax about it. I had no idea how he did it, but the fact that he was so calm and laid-back helped me relax, too.

"This is amazing." he let out, pecking my skin more. "Everyone that really matters will be there."

"I hate talking in front of people, you know that." I whined, raising my nose up in a grimace.

"But everyone who'll be there actually loves you, petal." he argued, running his hands gently and slowly up my arms. "I love you the most and I'll be standing right next to you."

"How do you think they're react?"

"Mm, our moms will cry, our dads will laugh, our friends will scream and Louis will curse."

I let out a louder laughter, making Niall chuckle against my neck.

"You told him, didn't you?"

"I showed him the ring but I didn't tell him when I was going to ask you, or that we would just fly to Vegas to get married." he shrugged. "I just left him there and ran to you."

I smiled fondly and turned around in his arms to face him, tilting my chin and licking my lips as I stared in his eyes. He was wearing a tie and I gripped it gently, pulling on it. He had convinced me to wear a dress even if I knew I'd feel uncomfortable the whole evening but I knew I couldn't just wear sweatpants to this event, even if I desperately wanted to.

"How's my make up?" I finally asked, raising my eyebrows, after a few minutes of silence.

"On point." he replied, making me laugh.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?" I asked as he pulled me closer by the waist.

"No idea. None."

I laughed more and he bent down to kiss me gently. "All I know is that you're beautiful. You always are." he whispered, brushing his lips against mine again.

"You're so full of shit, Horan." I breathed back against his mouth, my lips curling slightly.

"I mean it." he insisted very low, his arms slipping around my waist as he pressed my body against his. "You're the most beautiful woman i've ever seen. You shine so much, you glow, my love."

I giggled and he smiled, moving his face slightly away to look at me. My smile faltered a bit and turned into a fond one. I wanted to stay right there, in our living room, as he'd hold me close, but I knew we had somewhere to be.

"My wife."

My eyes fluttered close and my lips curled more. All the papers were signed and the 'I do's were said. We were officially husband and wife and that thought always made my heart jump in my chest. It probably always would.

"Yes?"

"I would love to stay here and make love to you all evening but we should really get going."

I laughed a bit and shook my head, knowing it was exactly what we had been doing for the past weeks but I didn't mention anything. Instead, I tilted my head and just nodded. I was stressed and I was not sure why but after everyone was arrived and had consumed at least one drink, Niall walked up to the small stage and I frowned a bit when I saw him grab his guitar. His eyes found me and he made a quick head movement, telling me to join him.

"Go!" Louis told me, pushing me gently but I just pressed my lips together and breathed in deeply. "Come on, my queen."

I finally joined Niall and he cleared his throat, placing himself in front of the microphone. That was it, that was the moment I was dreading, and I started feeling nauseous.

"Hello everyone, thank you for coming here tonight." he let out with a smile. "I know you're all here because you think we're getting engaged."

I bit my bottom lip but suddenly, I relaxed. Perhaps, it was the sound of his voice that calmed me down, or maybe the fact that we were surrounded by all the people we loved, or maybe it was just the thought that we were married and that no one could take that away from us. Either way, I moved closer and I smiled while staring at him.

"Uhm, we're not getting engaged. In fact, if you haven’t heard from us at all in the past two weeks, it's because we flew to Vegas and got married there."

The memory of him, standing in front of me as he held my hands and promised to love me forever came back to my mind and I held my breath. Everyone started whispering but coming loud from all the murmurs was the sound of my best friend screaming "FUCK YEA!" from the middle of the room. I let out a laughter as my eyes looked for him and he sent me a 'rock on' sign with his free hand while the other was holding up a glass of wine.

"Thank you, Tommo." my boyfriend let out with a smile and a small head movement. "So you guys are here to celebrate the fact that Olivia and I are husband and wife, legally and emotionally. I waited until you were all at least a bit intoxicated to let out the news but if you're here, it's because we love you, and we wanted to live this with you. We knew you would all be happy for us, because after all, Liv and I, it was meant to be."

His eyes found me and I smiled more, I took a step closer and licked my lips as In gripped the side of my dress nervously. It took only a second for Niall's hand to reach mine and when he squeezed my fingers, I felt better.

"Thank you so much for being here. We're sorry you missed the ceremony, but it was important for us to do it just the two of us. When you find the love of your life, that one person you want to spend all your days with until the very last, then there's no reason to wait. I've always known Niall was my soulmate, but now I know I'm his too, and nothing can change that. I know it's cheesy, but each and every single one of you were with us when we said 'I do'"

Niall chuckled next to me and shook his head slightly. "Here, let me reenact what happened to you." he turned to me and just let out a low 'I do' before grabbing my face and kissing me.

It was not as gentle and emotional as it had been when it really happened, but I still felt my heart jump in my chest. I loved the feeling of his warm palms on my cheeks and the way his fingertips brushed against my jaw and neck. I loved his touch. I heard everyone start cheering and clapping and I laughed through the kiss, feeling his lips curl into a smile too.

When he pulled away, I could swear my eyes were sparkling and when his eyes met mine, he smiled even more. "Okay so I wrote a song for you." he explained when the small crowd of our families and friends became quieter. "I wanted to sing it here, in front of everyone, because I thought it was perfect for today."

I took a step back and when he started singing, I recognized the lyrics. I had read them in his notebook a few months before. It was the song he wrote in the middle of the night and I remembered watching him for so long, his pen running quickly on the paper and his hand moving in his hair from time to time, messing it on the top of his head. I remember reading the lyrics the next day and tearing up when I realized there was my name at the bottom. I remembered everything and I tried to keep the tears in as he sang.

"Yeah, I see us in black and white Crystal clear on a star lit night In all your gorgeous colors I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life See you standing in your dress Swear in front of all our friends There'll never be another I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life"

I knew Niall would have preferred a more traditional wedding, and I also knew he gave it up just for me. This small reception was the closest he would get from telling everyone that he promised to love me forever and somehow, with this song, he was doing it very clearly and openly.

"I want the world to witness When we finally say I do It's the way you love I gotta give it back to you I can't promise picket fences Or sunny afternoons But, at night when I close my eyes"

I held my breath, feeling suddenly a bit guilty that he couldn't have his family and friends with him when we got married, but I teared up at how beautiful his lyrics were, even if I already knew that. I breathed in deeply only when the song was over and without thinking, I walked up to him quickly, got on my tiptoes and kissed him.

"I love you so much." I just let out before my lips crashed against his.

Everyone started clapping again but I was not sure if it was for the kiss or the song. Either way, it didn't matter. I just deppened the kiss and he answered it without hesitation. I knew he didn't like PDA, but I couldn't help it and when he pulled me closer, I knew he didn't mind. I felt half of his guitar press on my stomach and laughed a bit.

"I love you too."

NIALL

Everyone was dancing, talking, laughing and drinking. I remained close to my wife the whole time and when I saw our parents talking together, I knew that was the ultimate test. I was pretty sure they would be okay with this but I was still a bit scared of their reaction. I felt Liv hold my hand so tight that I almost took it back. Instead, I squeezed her fingers back and smiled as we walked up to them. Quickly, my mom engulfed me in a hug and all the stress disappeared. I noticed Olivia's parents do the same to her and I hugged my dad before turning to my parents-in-law and hold out my hand to her father. It took a few seconds but his lips finally curled and he shook my hand before pulling on it and hugging me too.

"I am happy for you, son."

"Thank you."

"We're sorry that you couldn't be there with us. I promise we didn't want to hurt you, we just..." Liv started before licking her lips and pressing them together. "We just wanted to do that alone."

Her mom raised her eyebrows and they stared at each other in silence for a while.

"Es-tu heureuse?"

My girlfriend's lips curled and her eyes fluttered a bit. "I've never been happier, maman."

Her mom nodded and after a while, it was my mom's turn to hug her. When they pulled away, Olivia frowned and her lips parted. I couldn't help but think that she looked too pretty for words but I tried to push that thought away when I heard only one word escape her mouth. "How...?" My mom smiled more and chuckled slightly. "I just do."

I was about to ask them what they were talking about but I felt someone slap my back and it took me by surprise. I jumped slightly and groaned low as Louis appeared in front of me.

"Congrats mate, I'm happy for both of you." he said, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me so tight that I lost my breath.

"Thank you." I said as he let go of me to engulf my girlfriend into a tight and more emotional hug.

I stared at them for a few seconds and finally turned to Eleanor who congratulated me too before hugging me. Soon, Liam, Julie and Harry joined us and after hugging everyone, we all started talking and laughing together. I knew everything would go well but at the same time, I was a bit nervous. It was important for me that our friends and family would be okay with the fact that we got married without telling them, and I just wanted them to know it was not against them at all, but mostly just for Liv and I. We had started just the two of us, and it was just the obvious way to do this.

For the rest of the night, I spent my time watching my girlfriend dance, laugh and interact with the people we loved, telling myself that this was the happiest time of my entire life. I watched everyone leave one by one, our parents being the firsts and then our friends. Louis was the last one to leave and we decided to just leave with him.

"You know, you literally made me want to do it too." he let out low, looking at our girlfriends saying their goodbyes and making me frown. "Your speech earlier. It made me realize that maybe I shouldn't wait anymore."

My lips curled and I let out a chuckle. "Go for it." I just let out, knowing perfectly well that their couple was as strong as ours and that they both considered each other their soulmates. "I don't even know why you waited that long."

He didn't send me a glance, he just kept looking at El and after a few minutes, we said good night and left in a different cab. It's only when we walked inside and closed the door behind us that I felt all the stress disappear from my body. It was a good stress, but it was still nice to relax.

Olivia disappeared in the hall and I just sat on the couch, loosening my tie and putting my feet on the coffee table. I closed my eyes and leaned my head on the back of the couch as a bunch of memories came to mine. I had been so close to lose the love of my life forever and by my fault. I had hurt her in a way I had never hurt anyone else in my life and at the same time, I had hurt myself in a way I had never been hut before without realizing it immediately. I couldn't lie and pretend Olivia was not the best thing that has ever happened to me because she was, and I liked to believe I was for her, too. You can call it fate, you can call it destiny, you can call it 'soulmates' but in the end, it was just an other love story for most people. For me, however, it was epic and the accomplishment of a lifetime.

After everything we've been through, every wrong decisions, every mistake and every problem, we still managed to reach this point of happiness together. Olivia has always told me that love was not all you need, despite the popular song, and I knew she was right. But it was because of the love we have for each other that we actually tried over and over again. It was because of this love that we actually ended up together, because we were ready to make the effort, and because we believed in the feelings we had. I knew I would never truly be happy without her and now that we were together, I planned to do everything possible and impossible to keep her in my life.

My girlfriend came back and put something next to the couch, which I guessed was her purse. I was not surprised to see she had changed into a pair of my sweatpants and a shirt that also belonged to me but looked so much better on her. It stuck to her chest and hips in a way it didn't to me and I loved it more than I should.

"I would have loved to take that dress off of you myself." I admitted with a smirk, making her raise her nose up as she sent me a smile. "But hey, I'm not surprised."

She moved closer and gripped my tie, pulling on it gently and making me laugh right before her lips reached mine. I was a bit tipsy and mixed with my happiness, it made me sound totally drunk, but she knew me well enough to know I was just ecstatic from the night we just had had.

"You can take my sweatpants and t-shirt off later, if you want." she proposed before I nodded. "I'm not wearing anything under, if it changes anything."

I chuckled and she kissed my lips again as one of my hands reached for her waist. "Come on, sit on me, will you?"

I watched her hesitate and bite her bottom lip gently before actually straddling me. I moved my chin up, endeared by her behavior, and my hands reached for her thighs. I let my palms rub slowly on the fabric of her pants and stared at her as she licked her lips.

"Thank you for the song." she whispered, a shy smile gracing her lips as she looked away. "Honestly, I had read the lyrics before. I know I shouldn't have but it was sort of an accident."

I raised my eyebrows and smiled back at her. "You're so nosy I swear," I joked. "No one told you not to touch other people's stuff?"

"I'm sorry! I know I shouldn't have. Forgive me?" she asked with a cute grimace, making me roll my eyes with a smile.

"Of course." I just let out, moving my head slightly. "I almost sang you 'This Town' instead." I paused and she frowned. "I know I wrote it when we first dated, and I told you it was partially about you, and partially fiction... but when you were with Dylan and we met again, It hit me how it had completely turned out to be what I was actually going through. And the lyrics are still true, you know? Everything comes back to you."

Her eyes fluttered and a fond smile spread on her lips. She brought her hands to my cheeks and let her thumbs brush on my stubble. I wanted to keep telling her how much I loved her but quickly, she pressed her mouth against mine and my hands gripped her thighs at how good she tasted. I don't know how long we stayed close, her forehead leaning against mine while we both kept out eyes closed, but I focused on her weight on my lap and the aroma of honey and vanilla invading my nose. I could have stayed like that all night.

"Told you our parents would be happy." I let out after a while, making her sit back up to look at me.

"Mm, and your brother?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"He sent a text message to say congrats earlier." I explained as my hands kept running on her thighs. "You know we're gonna have to entertain our parents for a few days. That means we can't spend our days locked her to fuck anymore."

She laughed a bit and tilted her head. "I think we can take a few days break."

I frowned but shook my head, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her closer. "That's not what I meant, we can still have sex when we come back home, and if you're too exhausted I can do all the to work."

"I suspect you actually enjoy that." she laughed, making me smile more.

"Mm, maybe I do."

I pulled her closer and when her lips brushed against mine, I heard her whimper low. I slowly deepened the kiss just to taste her and she let me, moving as close to me as she could. I felt her ass rub on my thighs and groaned when it reached my cock.

"Maybe we should go to our room now, what d'you say?" I proposed in a whisper before kissing her more.

"Not yet." she murmured back, grabbing my upper lip between hers and sucking on it.

I felt myself get hornier and groaned low as I grabbed her waist and turned us around, laying her down on the couch. She let out a little scream and I quickly moved over her, smiling big.

"Fine then, we'll do it here."

We kissed a bit roughly and deeply for a while but when my hand slipped under her shirt, she quickly stopped me. "Niall wait, I have something for you first."

I frowned but even if I was curious, I definitely thought it could wait. Seeing her face though made me back away slightly and after a few seconds, I sat up and she did the same, pulling on her shirt to put it back in place.

Without a word, she reached for what she had put next to the couch and held me a white gift bag. I stared at it for a while and finally turned to her, a bit suspiciously.

"Did I miss something? An anniversary or something else that was important?"

She chuckled and shook her head, but I noticed how she was nervously playing with the fabric of her pants. "No, don't worry. I just wanted to give you a little something."

We just looked at each other for a while and I let my eyes roam on her face before finally take the colored tissues off the bag and dive my hand in it. I grabbed something and took it out but it took a few seconds for my brain to process everything. It was a piece of fabric, almost the same white as the bag but a bit lighter, and when I turned it around, I understood. On the front was written "my daddy is a rockstar" and somehow, I felt my heart jump so high in my chest I had to swallow it back.

"Petal." I whispered before turning to look at her. "Are you pregnant?"

Slowly, she nodded, her eyes never leaving mine, and I felt my heart jump for a second time. I blinked a few times, feeling tears coming to my eyes as a bunch of emotions flooded me. My eyes roamed on her and ended on her belly who looked exactly like it always did but when I looked up, I held my breath, realizing something.

"My mom knows."

She nodded slowly again. "She... she guessed it. I don't know how she knew, but she congratulated me earlier, at the party."

"You... you didn't drink?"

"Not a drip. I had soda." she explained, tilting her head and pressing her lips together. "I thought you had noticed."

I didn't answer, I just blinked again a few times before looking back at the small pajama I was holding. It seemed surreal and despite what I thought I would feel if it happened, I felt overly emotional but in a good way.

"I'm really gonna be a dad?" I asked, raising my eyebrows and finally turning to my girlfriend who just nodded. I chuckled a bit, and then some more. "Fookin' hell."

"Are you happy?"

Her question was legit since we had had a pregnancy scare a few months earlier, but it seemed like so many things had happened in such a short period of time and now that my tour was over, I felt like it was a good time to jump into this.

"Honestly, Olivia..." I turned on the couch to face her and noticed she was holding her breath and tearing up. I moved closer and her eyes fluttered. I watched one single tear fall from her left one and cupped her face, brushing my thumb on her cheekbone to catch the tear. "I thought marrying you and finally being with you was the highest moments of my life. I honestly never thought I could be even happier than I already was. But you just made me the happiest man in the whole fookin' world, pet."

She let out a loud sigh of relief and I brought my lips against hers. "I love you so much, Olivia. I can't wait for that future with you. You and Me. This is just the beginning."

[writingwithadinosaur]

“Alibi” - Oneshot

“Alibi” - Oneshot

My Masterlist - Here

My Tag List - Here

Malcolm Bright x Reader, Gil Arroyo x Daughter!Reader

Word Count: 2,000-ish

Key: Y/N = Your Name, H/C = Your Hair Color, E/C = Your Eye Color

Warnings: Mentions of murder, cursing. Large chunks of text in italics mean that it is a flashback.

Summary: After your boss is murdered, you are brought in as a suspect. In order to prove your innocence, you have to reveal a secret to your father. 

Author’s Note: This was one of those ideas that hit me like a train right as I was about to go to bed, so I scribbled as much as I could down and tried to make sense of it the next day.

We’re also gonna pretend that Gil and Jessica aren’t a thing cause then that would make this story a bit awkward.

This is not beta read, so let me know if there are any mistakes! 

If you would like to be tagged in any of my future pieces, check out my tag list above and let me know! And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

<3

- DreaSaurusREX

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, (Y/N), got any news for me?” Your boss, Mr.Naruski asked from his desk chair, casually weaving a pen in between his fingers. It was lunchtime and you had gotten salads from the meditarrian place that he liked.

“Well, Simon wanted to move his meeting with you to Friday, but there would be no way to do that unless we add another 4 hours to the day. Oh! And Mrs.Krewnshe asked me if--”

“(Y/N), sweetheart! We are on our lunch break! Which means I don’t want any news with my clients unless it's urgent. I meant news in the world of the best secretary in New York!” 

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes a little bit and smile. Mr.Naruski was a true blessing when it came to employers. He owned his own architecture business in New York and somehow wasn’t a complete asshat like some of your previous bosses. He and his wife were incredibly caring and truly understood that you had to be a human in order to work with other humans. The respect you got here was well worth the daily commute!

“Well, if you really want to know... My boyfriend set up a nice, and very last minute, date for us tonight.” You couldn’t hide the true smile that spread across your lips. Mr.Naruski leaned forward and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? And where is this ‘nice’ date happening, if I might ask?” 

“I’m not sure. He wouldn’t tell me. All he said was to be ready by 6 because we have reservations for 6:45. But I have a feeling it’s that new modern industrial place that I was telling you about. He knows I love to walk past it and appreciate the details. While I don’t think I’ve ever said out loud that I like it or would like to go inside, he has a great ability to read me.” 

Your smile grew a little more as your eyes drifted slightly down, thinking about all the times your boyfriend picked up on the smaller details in the past. He was good with surprises. Mr.Naruski watched how this interaction brought out your best side. The two of you finished your lunches and got back to work. 

Your boss had one more meeting this afternoon. It was with a company called Jetlan Inc. From the small bit of conversation you heard as Mr.Naruski escorted his guests out, it was a successful meeting. He turned back to you once the door was closed and let out a relieved sigh.

“I take it everything went well?”

“As well as I could. They are going to take tonight to mull it over and then give us a call tomorrow. So expect Samuel to call at some point.”

You wrote down a little reminder to yourself on a sticky note “May get call from Jetlan Inc.” and placed it near your desk’s phone. You went back to typing out the schedule for next week when Mr.Naruski tapped a finger on your desk.

“How about you leave early today, (Y/N)?”

“Are you sure, sir? I can stay and help with the final prep for tomorrow’s deal if you want. I should also probably finish this schedule.”

“I think I can handle that on my own. And you can add your final touches tomorrow. You,” He stood up and walked around your desk and held out his hands. You put your hands in his and he helped you up before grabbing your coat from the coat rack. “Have a date to get ready for.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh. It was almost unbelievable to have a boss that really cared about your personal life as much as your professional one like he did. You just slipped on your coat and grabbed your purse, knowing that when Naruski made up his mind, it was set. He opened the door for you and put a hand on your arm.

“He told me to ‘love with my whole heart, but be smart enough to know when to use my brain instead.’ I think it was his way of saying ‘Be safe and have fun.’” 

A small but sad smile worked its way onto your face at the thought of him being so supportive. You felt a wave of tears coming, so you finished up your story to try to stop them from falling. 

“After that, I thanked him again, and I left to go back to my apartment and get ready. The next time I saw Mr.Naruski was the next morning, behind the crime scene tape blocking my office, dead.”

You couldn’t believe that just 24 hours ago, you were happily talking to your boss about your date. And now he was dead. Murdered in his own office, two hours after you had left. You were being questioned at the NYPD by none other than JT Tarmel, Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright, and your father, Gil Arroyo. 

No one spoke, they were taking in all of the details of your alibi. It felt like forever before Malcolm broke the silence. 

“Are there security cameras in your office?”

“Yes. There is one in the main office where my desk is positioned, one in Mr.Naruski’s office, and one in the hallway outside our door.”

“Great. We can check those. They’ll show (Y/N) leaving and should have a timestamp on them that we can check.

The team did their own little nods, still thinking about your alibi. They wanted to trust you, but they needed to think of every possible thing that could have happened, or if they could find any evidence to the real killer.

“Who did you go on a date with?” Dani was sitting about 6 feet to your right, a bottle of water in her hands as she leaned forward, elbows on the table. 

“I don’t see how my dating life is relevant to my boss being murdered in his office.”

Lies. You knew why she was asking. It was a major part of your alibi and it’s the only other way that they could concretely cross you off of the suspect list. JT jumped in to try to diffuse the situation, none of them aware of how much you didn’t want to share. 

“It's just another way that we can confirm your alibi, (Y/N).” 

You could see Gil adjusting his stance as he leaned against the wall to your left. You couldn’t bring yourself to look at your father, already feeling his intense stare boring into you. 

The room was silent, but the anxiety in your chest made it feel like the room was half of its real size. You kept your posture as straight as you could while you focused on your hands that were unconsciously fidgeting on top of the table.

“Tell us the kid’s name, (Y/N).”

“Why can’t you just check the cameras like Malcolm said? That’ll show when I left at around 4:30 yesterday afternoon and when I came back today for my shift but saw the tape instead! You could even check my apartment’s security cameras!”

“Woah! We will, (Y/N). We just want to be able to cover our asses and yours.” JT tried again to calm you down, everyone know seeing how uncomfortable the idea of sharing the details of your date made you. 

Your leg started to shake under the table, that was your cue that your anxiety was getting bad. You lock eyes with Malcolm. He sees how much you’re struggling and just gives you a short nod. You knew what he was trying to say, but you really didn’t want to agree. Malcolm then took a deep breath, trying to get you to do the same. You looked down and tried to take a deep breath in.

“Why can’t you just answer the question, (Y/N)?!” Gil didn’t yell, but you could hear the annoyance in his voice. It was the final hit that broke the last of your defenses.

“Because it's Malcolm, alright?!” 

Even you were a bit shocked at the slight frustration and exasperation in your voice. As everyone let that fact settle in their brains, you closed your eyes and took a couple deep breaths, trying to accept the fact that it was out in the open now. Malcolm made his way behind you and put a comforting hand on your shoulder, lightly rubbing this thumb to try and soothe you. You opened your eyes and stared at the center of the table, your hands now clasped together. 

“Last night I left work early to go get ready for a date with Malcolm Bright. He took me to that nicer place off of 47th that has the grey brick exterior with the iron corner details. We went there to catch a break from our lives because it's been so hectic lately and we haven’t had much time to just sit and enjoy each other’s company.” 

Our reservation was for 6:45 under Malcolm’s name. You can check with the manager there, go into their electronic reservation system, and see that we checked in and everything. Or Malcolm may have some sort of confirmation email. Now do I need to go into detail about what we ordered or what cocktail I was drinking, or am I good?”

You slowly looked up to meet your father’s eyes. You expected something upset in his eyes, but instead, they were very professional. He looked from you to Malcolm, who in turn nodded, confirming your story. Gil audibly inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his nose and he rubbed a hand down his face.  

“No. You’re good, kid.”

You look back to your hands and close your eyes, focusing on your breathing. You weren’t hyperventilating, but you definitely felt a weight in your chest. 

Dani and JT looked at each other, unaware of what to do in this situation. Malcolm looked from you back to Gil, his face slightly pleading. Gil quickly tilted his head towards the door, a small sigh of relief coming from Malcolm as he moved his hand to your arm and leaned down to quietly talk in your ear.

 “C’mon, (Y/N). Let’s get some air or something to drink, okay?”

You nodded and stood up as Malcolm grabbed your coat from the rack near the door. You took yours and slung it over your arm as Malcolm opened the door for you. Before you could leave, Gil spoke up.

“I will be seeing the two of you in my office in an hour though. We need to have a chat.”

You just nod and leave already knowing what this “chat” is going to be about. Malcolm was reaching for his coat when Gil’s voice resonated again.

“Malcolm, take care of her. Go to that shop around the corner. They have those little pastries she likes. And make sure your both are back here soon. We’re not done with this.”

“Will do.” Malcolm nodded and quickly left and caught up with you, walking you safely out of the NYPD.

With that, there was still a semi-awkward air in the meeting room. Dani quietly fiddled with her water bottle and let out a “Well…”

“Heh! Yeah. That was somethi--” 

Before JT could get further, Gil pointed at him and sternly said “Don’t.” JT just raises his hands in defense and backs off. Dani couldn’t help but smirk a bit at the sight of JT getting called out. 

“So where do we go from here?” Dani calmly asked the room. 

“We need to get the security footage from the office building and (Y/N)’s apartment complex. Get in contact with the restaurant owner and see if we can check their reservation system, if not, ask Malcolm if he has any email from their reservation.”

“On it.” JT confirmed as he left the room to head to his desk and start working. Gil leaned on the table, thinking for a moment. “What do we know about this Jetlan Inc.?

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tags:  @malindacath @shadowfoxey @whovianayesha @melconnor2007 @ashenfallsof @geeksareunique @all-by-myself98 @sj-thefan

[dipplie]

This is how I cope don’t @ me

1: Top 3 pets you wish to have Bunny, Mouse, pet bee 2: Top 3 Disney Movies Tangled, Zootopia, and a close tie between The Princess and the Frog and Wreck it Ralph 3: Top 3 OTPs Nick and Judy (I’m not a furry), honestly probably the other pairings from my 3 (4) favorite movies like Felix and Calhoun or Tiana and Naveen or whatever 4: Top 3 pick up lines Pick me up- no literally please just carry me around like sweep me off my feet no like ACTUALLY like ju- 5: Top 3 summer activities Lying in the grass, listening to music on the swings, drinking from the neighbors sprinklers because you didn’t bring water on your walk 6: Top 3 school memories    -Once in 5th grade we were doing an egg drop, and I put mine off till the day before, so my parents just gave me a jar of peanut butter, and I just put the egg in the jar, and when they dropped it from the school roof it exploded all over the pavement and left a stain for years.    -Another time in 9th grade, a couple friends and I wrote a giant “send nuds” in the snow beneath my friends next class’s window, and some other kids took a picture of it and spread it around, and like the whole school was talking about it for a day or two (though we denied it was us so we didn’t get in trouble).    -And in 12th grade the last day of the 3rd semester, my AP Psych teacher said “you know you guys might not come back after spring break since the covid-19 virus might come to America.” And half the class was like: “I hope so we don’t have to come back haha.” And then we went into lockdown for a year 7: Top 3 things you find attractive Being looked at, Being talked to, Being touched at all oh my go d 8. Top 3 shops I dunno man can I say Build-a-Bear Workshop I’ve never been there 9: Top 3 romantic dates Theme park, Aquarium, Build-a-Bear Workshop 10: Top 3 drinks Milk, Milkshakes, the color purple 

11: Top 3 spices/herbs oh my god im too white for this question I think doritios are spicy, SALT 12: Top 3 apps to use not tumblr 13: Top 3 months of the year not winter 14: Top 3 clothing items Skirt, Bows, Thigh-highs 15: Top 3 kinds of flower Daffodils, Buttercups, Dandelions (yes I’m aware they’re a weed) 16: Top 3 Christmas movies Home Alone 1, Those stop motion rudolph ones, the original grinch 17: Top 3 things you don’t/Won’t miss Angsty middle schoolers, Angsty high schoolers, Angsty people 18: Top 3 games Minecraft, Stardew Valley, All the Zelda games between 2002-2009 19: Top 3 binge perfect tv shows I really don’t watch actually T.V. shows I just watch anime sometimes maybe and youtube series man 20: Top 3 kinds of candy Butterscotch, Chocolate coins, Those little pebble chocolates that looks like fish tank rocks 21: Top 3 ways to exercise/be active Well I have an answer, but I don’t think I can say it~ 22: Top 3 spirit animals (I’ve heard something about this being possibly racist so I’ll approach this wish caution) Bunnies, Lambs, a pet rock 23: Top 3 petnames Honey, Muffin, Sweetheart 24: Top 3 places you’ve been to A yearly carnival my old town had once a year, Disney World even though I almost drowned there, The Arcade in my old town called Bananas 25: Top 3 most used websites Youtube, Tumblr (regrettably), Pintrest 26: Top 3 people you last texted My boyfriend, my friend, my co-worker friend 27: Top 3 hashtags you use imagine using the tags how they’re supposed to be used 28 Top 3 items you can’t leave the house w/o clothes (i’m really funny) 29: Top 3 guilty pleasures I write self-insert sometimes I guess 30: Top 3 subjects of study/classes to take Psychology, Sociology, certain art classes 31: Top 3 things to draw/doodle My OC’s, My friends, inappropriate stuff 32: Top 3 aesthetics Cottagecore, Bloomcore, Wonderland 33: Top 3 things you’d buy if you gained three million dollars Pretty things, Cute Clothes and stuffed animals, therapy 34: Top 3 ways to treat yourself Buying pretty things, Wearing cute clothes and holding stuffed animals, therapy 35: Top 3 cartoon crushes Kyoya from OHHC, Mako from Kill La Kill, Marceline/Marshall Lee 36: Top 3 things to do in the snow Draw in it, make snow sculptures, eat it 37: Top 3 accents to hear Russian, Spanish, idk spanish 2 38: Top 3 scents Vanilla, Cream, Strawberries 39: Top 3 things to do in the rain Sit in the car quietly, make out probably, cry 40: Top 3 cupcake flavors Chocolate, Chocolate 2, Chocolate 3 41: Top 3 fruits Cherries, Strawberries, Grapes 42: Top 3 holidays to celebrate Halloween, Christmas, Valentines 43: Top 3 embarrassing moments My friend jokingly revealing my weird self insert fanfic I wrote in middle school (that was gross don’t ask about it) to my friend group, getting a constant D- in AP Stats the whole semester and the whole class secretly knowing about it, wearing an oversized minecraft shirt in my 6th grade school picture 44: Top 3 crayola colors Seafoam, Canary, Cotton Candy 45: Top 3 things you hope to accomplish in college Get back into theater and actually be included and noticed, not cry in the bathroom, feel cared about by my classmates 46: Top 3 fanfictions you’ve read don’t ask me that you can’t ask me that the last fanfics i’ve read were in middle school  47: Top 3 people you miss right now My boyfriend, Two of my friends GJ, my dopamine  48: Top 3 fears Being hated, Being alone, Being abandoned 49: Top 3 favorite literary devices (oh god it’s been a minute hang on) Alliteration, Juxtaposition, Colloquialism 50: Top 3 pet peeves Saying one thing and doing another, trying to act like you’re being the bigger person by not choosing a side, constant self deprecation 51: Top 3 music artists AJR, 3OH!3, Fake Type 52: Top 3 bad habits BFRD OCD, speaking before I think, lately I’ve been lashing out  53: Top 3 ice cream flavors Cookie Dough, Bubblegum, Cheesecake 54: Top 3 meals you love Bread and cheese, cheese with bread, I like dairy and bread 55: Top 3 things you want to say to someone in your lifetime Where are we going, What are we gonna do, what are you doing onii-chan (im so sorry) 56: Top 3 dog breeds Small, fluffy, actually a cat 57: Top 3 TV shows from your childhood The Amazing World of Gumball, Courage the Cowardly Dog, y’all remember Might Bee??? 58: Top 3 languages you speak/wish to speak Better French, More ASL, I guess Spanish would be useful 59: Top 3 series (book, movie, television) I like the first couple Saw movies but then it went kind of downhill, I eventually stopped keeping up with SU ad AT but they have lesbians now and we love that, and I guess I read Warrior Cats in middle school. 60: Top 3 pizza toppings Cheese, ???, that’s all I need 61: Top 3 youtubers you’re subscribed to Markiplier, Erolds Story, Wilbur Soot 62: Top 3 tattoo / piercing ideas Little Flower earrings, Little flower tattoos, Little flower stuff 63: Top 3 awards you want to win love trust and affection  64: Top 3 emojis 🍄🐝🍋 65: Top 3 things you’d do differently have different parents 66: Top 3 places to be in the world In love, Back up, Purgatory  67: Top 3 things you miss about being a kid Lack of responsibility and pressure, Mental illness, Lack of shame 68: Top 3 baby names Penelope, Theodore, Sofie 69: Top 3 smoothie combos/flavors Grape, Strawberry, Cherry 71: Top 3 turn ons People being patient with me, People treating me equally, Being touched kindly at ALL 72: Top 3 turn offs looking like Tyler1 73: Top 3 recipes you want to try Sugar spice and everything nice 74: Top 3 dream jobs Primary School Teacher, Child Consoler/Therapist, I dunno being a storytime animator sounds nice... 75: Top 3 lucky items Fidget Toys, Stuffed Animals, Random Office Supplies (you know the ones)

[ilcaeryx]

Tenacity: Chapter 9 - Cannibalism [Takami Keigo | Hawks/Reader]

SUMMARY: Your nightly Twitter sleuthing brings up an inappropriate question about Keigo and he spends the evening denying you any straight answers. 

TAGS: One-shot, Hawks/Reader, Takami Keigo/Reader, comedy, cute, fluff, pillow talk

NOTES: This is a part of the Tenacity one-shot compilation!!! Celebrating that it’s Friday with a one-shot featuring Hawks! I had tons of fun writing this. I can’t wait until he properly shows up in the anime.

Your boyfriend Keigo patrolled the roads and rooftops of your city during the day, a professional ensuring the citizens’ safety from villains. When he returned back home for the night, you devoted a good 15 minutes before bedtime to scroll endlessly on your phone, an amateur guardian of his Twitter tag. If you were honest, you were more like a trigger-happy vigilante than a righteous guardian. The perfect duo, to be honest.

Was he aware of your nightly sleuthing?

No. Not the fact that you were basically the head of his protection squad, at least.

Because your spare time always went by fast, your bed time approached and you got comfortable under the sheets. You checked for new Tweets under the ‘wingherohawks’ tag… thirst tweets, hate tweets or whatever the world tossed at you. This had been a routine since months back, when Keigo had whined about being unable to DM you during the day. Mind you, it hadn’t even been during the honeymoon period of your relationship; you two had been together for a solid two years now and this hadn’t been a thing prior, keeping things to the usual phone messages. However, as he had risen in hero rank he saw a need to use his social media platform often, so the two of you became much more familiar with Twitter as a result. 

There was a contrasting duality to reading what anonymous people wrote about him. While you loved the thirst tags because of their relatability, though they did make you cringe at times, you silently raged whenever you came across something that could be constructed as hate or pointless negativity. Thus, you had unofficially taken on the Hawks’ Protection Squad leader position – a one person crew reporting whatever nastiness you came across. You thought it made a difference, as he had been visibly more relaxed while browsing during the evening.

This night, your feed was pretty innocent for once. You bit the inside of your cheek, resisting a smile at a recent picture snapped of Keigo patrolling the streets, taken from his profile. It must have been after confronting a villain, as he was pushing back his hair with a dreamy expression on his face. He was intensely photogenic.

Humming, you liked the picture and continued scrolling downwards. 

“Chicken, when are you coming to bed?” you asked loudly, peering over your duvet towards the hallway. A second later, the shuffling of feathers against each other and feet slapping against the floor rang out. Your chicken did not enter the bedroom, standing by the entrance like a vampire awaiting an invitation. Holding a bowl beneath his face with one hand, he fished up some noodles.

“Angel,” he greeted you in a creamy tone and guided his chopsticks his mouth. The dark outlines around his eyes made his eyes seem like those of a cheetah, perceptive and predatory. It was an interesting diversion compared to his general relaxed body language. After slurping the last of the noodles, he wiped his hand over his lips and pointed at you with his chopsticks. “I’ll join you after I’m done eating, I promise.”

There was nothing to read online… so you were bored. This one day, you would let him break the rules of the house. “I allow you to eat in our bed now, so you can sit here.”

Keigo did a double-take and pursed his lips. “That’s not suspicious at all. What are you up to?”

“Nothing, I just want your company,” you said and padded the empty, cold space by your side next to the bed’s edge. “Your fat ass can fit here, don’t worry.”

You let out an entertained howl as he feigned a hurt expression, concealing his cheeks and eyes. “I was just about to say that you were going to kill me with cuteness someday.”

“I am cute the majority of the time and I’m pretty certain I’ll be the death of you. Be nice to me, Takami Keigo, or you’ll regret it.”

He whined and stumbled inside, shooing you tenderly to the side. Sitting down, he continued to eat. 

“What are you eating?” You rotated until you were on your side, your stomach pressed against his back.

“Leftovers from yesterday, since you didn’t devour everything. Do you want some?”

“Eh, I already brushed my teeth. Thank you for the offer.” You would 100% regret saying that later. That would be a problem for future Y/N, though.

You could hear his lips curve upwards  while answering. “Suit yourself.”

For a good twenty minutes, because Keigo never ate like a starving man, you caressed his back while he made his way through the bowl. Occasionally you exchanged quips but you didn’t demand anything other than his presence next to you.

You were content.

When Keigo had completed his night routine he crawled up in bed next to you, encroaching into your space.

“Come here,” he whispered, his voice fuzzy in the darkness. Rolling over, you nestled your head on his arm, his biceps warm against your cheek. When he drew his wing above your body and upwards, it was kind of like resting inside a tent. Feeling his silky feathers against your arm was very pleasant. With great care, he adjusted himself into comfort.

Suddenly recalling that you had to turn on your alarms, you quickly brought up your phone and did so.

“I’ve never been this turned off in my life. Bringing out your phone when you’re talking to another human being.”He stroked stray hair-strands out of your face with his free hand, twining them behind your ear, speaking to you with affection despite the harsh words.

“Unless you want to wake up at 10AM, I have to turn on the alarm.”

“To be honest, I’d love that.”

“Same.” A notification popped up and out of curiosity you tapped it. Then you read it. The Tweet that made you peace out and put your phone away. However, you refused to live with that question blistering inside you without affecting Keigo. “Chicken. I have a weird question for you.”

He hummed in a positive manner, so you proceeded.

“You’re human, right?”

Keigo ceased brushing your hair, his fingers remaining at the tip of your ear. “Well, you’ve seen me naked. You can be the judge of that.”

“I would personally say yes to that question. You’ve got hawk wings, though.”

“I wonder where this is going to end…”

“Just trust me. Look, if you’re mostly human and your wings are hawk wings, do your wings taste like human or fowl?” You didn’t want him to roll over because of your borderline creepy question, so you grasped his shoulder and pulled yourself to his naked chest.

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard this question. Damn, I wouldn’t complain if it was the last time.”

Without thinking, you burst out, “So you don’t know the answer to the question?”

“My future bride,” he said and kissed the top of your head, “consider what you just implied.”

“C’mon, self-cannibalism isn’t that bad. Hold on, what do you mean with future bride?” Whatever tiredness had settled into your limbs dispersed. You weren’t sure if he was kidding or not because his tone had been neutral, as if he were stating a fact.

“Please, stop struggling and go to sleep.”

“Keigo, what did you mean with future bride? Did you say that just to throw me off?” You brought yourself up on an elbow and showed your canines before digging your teeth into his shoulder. It was a timid bite, not worthy of the orchestrated ouch he exclaimed.

“You’re actually a cannibal in disguise!”

“That’s hardly kinkier than what we usually do. Elaborate on the bride thing.”

 “Heh, you’ll find out someday. If you’re nice to me, of course.” Keigo’s chest vibrated against your forehead as he laughed lowly.

None of you had brought up marriage before. It made you ponder whether he was pulling your leg or if he had been thinking about it. Would he be that cruel? Perhaps you would deserve it after the coming question.

“Chicken,” you said, your voice unsteady with laughter. “You have an unlimited amount of feathers, right? Have you ever thought of making dakimakuras containing your feathers? I think they would sell well. Hell, I would probably even get one myself.”

You must have broken him because he didn’t move nor speak for a good 30 seconds.

“I’ll make you one for your birthday,” he eventually said, sounding somewhat thoughtful.

“Seriously?!”

“No. You’ve got the real thing here,” he slid his free hand down your arm and brought your hand to his chest, “and you’re asking for a dakimakura? You’re breaking my heart, Y/N.”

Low-key disappointed, you drew your nails against his skin. You enjoyed how his breath quickened as you drew them between his chest muscles to the top of his stomach, yet not further. “You’re a tease. You’re absolutely horrible to me, Keigo.”

Your chicken didn’t seem interested in trading retorts anymore, so you shut up and awaited what would happen next.

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Inspired by EXO-CBX's Blooming Day.

[origcmibir-a]

I’MMA SPEAK MY THOUGHTS ON RA.YA AND THE LAST DRAGON now that I’ve fully digested the film. SPOILERS and full thoughts under the cut, but basically I think it’s a good, fun film, not one that’s heavily complex and certainly NOT worth an extra thirty bucks if you have disney+ (i watched it on one of those free movie streaming services,) but still, nice and with those classic disney tearjerker moments. I think it’s a good enough film to watch when you have the time, but it is NOT worth the 30 dollar price tag.

I personally liked Sisu as a character. I didn’t find her too annoying or cringy, and Awkafina does a good job being her typical quirky self but also more emotional and serious moments as her. As for her design, I admit it already kind of appealed to me for being a snakey, water-aesthetic looking dragon, but I do think it could have been played up far more. The original concepts of Sisu were played up more than just, elsa-looking-river dragon. She had whiskers, scales, bright violet fins and a tail that seemed reminiscent of a leafy seadragon. But even then, they chose to water down that version into the final product we got in the film. The design of the dragons had so much more potential and Disney has the resources and the money to animate a much more complex model. Don’t tell me that they don’t, when Laika created THIS fucking thing and animated it in STOP MOTION--and they’re making a lot less money than the mouse house.

Do I like the other characters? Yes I like the other characters. Raya I didn’t care so much about, but Boun? Tong? The freaking con baby? I cared for those guys more than I cared for Raya if I’m being honest. Not that Raya is a bad character, but you can absolutely tell what her message is gonna be and what her greatest vice is because she literally says it every five minutes. I’ll get more into that in the moment, but SPOILERS I didn’t start crying until the moment Boun decided to give up his piece of the dragon gem and lean against the petrified Raya’s form before his soul was taken by the druun. Like, this is a ten year-old, Disney, what the fuck, he’s IMMEDIATELY SACRIFICING HIMSELF AFTER RAYA DID DISNEY WHY DID YOU MAKE HIM LEAN AGAINST HER LIKE HE WAS ACCEPTING HIS FATE -- ( Legit though I clapped when Raya sacrificed herself. Not in the mocking way but in the ‘good job, you did it’ way. Commending her for her sacrifice. Didn’t cry til Boun gave himself up )

But anyways, the weakest part of the film is definitely how heavy handed its message is. Zootopia is a wonderful film because it’s subtle about its message until halfway into the film. It gives you plenty of realistic cues and hints for you to figure it out on your own through action and it doesn’t fucking spell it out until that final third. Raya doesn’t do this; we already know what the message of the film is going to be about, because as if they didn’t already advertise it in the trailers, the word TRUST is said like once every two minutes or so. And its a shame, because it’s said a lot more than it’s shown -- yeah, they definitely show it, but the scenes where the moral is shown compared to heard is so very little. I really liked the moment where Sisu dies. The tension between Namaari and Raya screams their distrust for them instead of words. Namaari’s grip tightening on the trigger of her crossbow; you can tell she wants to trust Sisu, but she’s both thinking of her mother’s request (to take sisu and the orb and make her people look better by fixing everything,) and the possibility that Raya and the others might jump on her. Likewise, Raya reaches for her hilt as Namaari tightens her grip, and lashes out out of fear and distrust that she was actually going to shoot. This ultimately culminates in Sisu’s unexpected death. I wish we had seen more scenes like THESE over the frequent, ‘you just need to TRUST somebody’ ted talks by sisu and the equally frequent ‘WE CAN’T TRUST ANYONE’ rebuttals by raya. those scenes of show don’t tell are certainly there, but they aren’t nearly as common as the ‘tell’ part :/

Loved it when Raya absolutely lost it and went after Namaari out of rage over Sisu’s death. Gave me strong Kubo vibes.

One thing I will give kudos to the writers to is how they wrote the common ‘last minute revival’ trope that so commonly plagues disney films -- they actually establish within the first minute of the film that those who are taken by the druun are returned to life after the druun are exterminated. So you know from the get go that all humans who are killed will be resurrected if the druun are vanquished. Though that does leave the biggest plot hole that I’m still wondering about: the dragons. In the prologue scene, the dragons who are turned to stone aren’t revived after getting rid of the druun. It was only after they were extinguished that humans began warring with each other over the dragon orb. Raya explains that the dragons didn’t come back because humans didn’t deserve them, but is that really true? Pretty sure that’s just an emotional cop-out/statement made by her in the moment?? Basically what I’m wondering is, why the heck did all the dragons come back at the end of the film?? Sisu and her siblings would make more sense, as they were the creators of the orbs, but what brought all the dragons back to the world?? I don’t heckkin know, man.

As an animation nerd, I wish we got to see more scenes of Sisu flying or swimming in the river. They barely scratched that itch that the flying scenes of HTTYD or the atmosphere of Finding Nemo. They could have definitely cut out some of those trust ted talks for lengthier segments like that.

Anyways, it was still a good movie. Not worth your thirty bucks but I’m pretty sure any disney fan would get a kick out of it. It isn’t, however, my favorite disney film and it’s far from that. It’s not meh but it’s not breathtaking either.

[brutal-kittenxx]

I decided to post my English Essay from a while back here, cause why not

It was a typical ordinary day in The Cult Of The Neighborhood with the ordinary sacrifices and rituals, but this day was different and only came once or twice a month depending on how many sacrifices were made, it was time to decide who will be choosing the next sacrifices. This is a special event for some because you can get rid of those you hate, and the first sacrifice you make will be the most exciting for there are no limits to who your first sacrifice is. This time the privilege was to fall onto Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers was surprised as he never got the honor to choose the sacrifice, and it was perfect timing too as his good friend no more was to be the sacrifice that of which he chose.The man in question to be sacrificed is David Tarantino, a known rebellion to the cult. What he had done was perform a ritual not allowed by the cult, he succeeded in performing it and even escaped, however his two partners were caught and the room was not cleaned and left a mess. The two partners' names were Billy Mays, who had to clean the room, and Phil Swift, whose job was to dismember the bodies. They admitted that the mastermind behind the ritual was David Tarantino, and Phil Swift added in that he was the one who wrote on the walls with blood “That’s a lotta damage, now we’re gonna fix it with flex seal!”. After hearing this they decided to wait for punishment until Tarantino had been captured, so that all may be killed at once. Rogers didn’t want to wait because he was rebellious but too useful to abandon, so he decided to figure out what the ritual was himself and who he sacrificed. He eventually unsolved it, but was too horrified by who it was that he didn’t tell anyone what he had figured out. Rogers knew where and how to find Tarantino but couldn’t bring himself to do it to avenge the ones he had taken away that night, but when he was chosen to be able to choose the sacrifice, he had suddenly gotten the courage to find Tarantino and sacrifice him. Upon hearing that Rogers decided to choose Tarantino as a sacrifice, the leaders were reluctant at first but eventually decided that they might as well get it over with and the sacrifice will be their punishment. There was one problem though, no matter how much other cult members wanted to help, there was a rule for sacrifices that none were to help unless they personally knew him and even if they did, they aren’t allowed to help too much as most of the ritual must be performed by the mastermind of the operation. Mister Rogers knew this and had only one friend remaining since Tarantino, this was a man who he was good friends with even before either of them joined the cult. This friend was Dr. Emmet Brown, he was crazy but knew how to get all the supplies they need and clear out an area for the ritual. Rogers decided to tell Emmet Brown his plan and the only thing that Brown could respond with was “GREAT SCOTT, That’s a Great Idea, and I know just how and where to get the materials for it!”. The Doc then left after that to get the supplies and clear out the location so that no one other than the cult knows what happened. All that was left now was to get Tarantino to agree to meetup together. Mister Rogers left to go find Tarantino, and he knew a couple possible locations. First possible location was a bar, he wasn’t there. Second possible location was a pizza shop owned by mobsters whose slogan was “We Outpizza’d The Hut”. Now, the third and final possible location was a private gun store with a shooting range called Ammu-Nation. Luckily for Mister Rogers, he had access to Ammu-Nation but he had a problem, he hadn’t been there in years. To be inconspicuous, Rogers walked in and started browsing the small firearms that he can buy without making too much contact or interaction with the others in there. While blending in he managed to notice an order for more ammo for someone named “Kobe Bryant”. Rogers knew that meant Tarantino, it was their nickname they gave each other, Rogers’ was “David Blaine”. The time that it was scheduled for was 5 hours before the deadline of the sacrifice, Rogers was going to have to be the smoothest of talkers to get him to the location before it ends. He ordered a weapon and was to pick it up 10 minutes before the order of ammo for Tarantino. Later, he arrived to pick up his weapon and decided to test it in the shooting range while waiting for Tarantino to arrive. Soon after, Tarantino arrived in an armored truck ready to have the ammo loaded in the back, and with a couple of hired guns for protection. Rogers waited for Tarantino to have little people around them, then he approached him.

“David, is that you?” “Rogers, what are you doing back here?” “I decided to check on how the place has changed and also to get a new weapon, here look at this” “How did you get something this fancy?” “The looks aren’t all, check the chamber” “Why? This is a FMJ bullet, and it is also a .375 caliber. This isn’t your style. You go for weak and common rounds found in any store with an extended mag. Preferably the glock.” “Well, I thought I'd get something stronger for special occasions.” “What type of occasions?” “Don’t know yet, but when the time comes you will be the first to know that I used it and who I use it on.” This went on for a while of them discussing the guns they use, and what they have been doing since they last talked. “Oh, Rogers, you know I have been telling you that I was planning on creating my own gang to rule this city. Those hired guns over there protecting the truck are actually some gang members. Our gang may be small and not well known but it will be better than others soon, that’s why we’re stocking up on ammo.” Rogers’ suspicion was right, the ritual performed years ago was a ritual required in the city to become a gang leader. You must sacrifice someone really close to your best friend. Either family, their girlfriend/boyfriend, or pet. The more sacrificed makes you have more respect and strength when creating your gang. Tarantino sacrificed some of the most people while in the cult, so he is well respected, but no one really joins his gang because they know just how many people he sacrificed and how crazy he was. “David, how about we hang out a little. It’s been a long time since we hung out, and I think it would be better to hang out than just have a quick conversation.” “Right you are Rogers, it is better, but I need to deliver these supplies back to the gang.” “Don’t worry about that, here just put your gangs sign on the side and make it noticeable so no one will dare mess with you.” “Alright, I’ll take your word for it. JOSEPH, you know where to take the supplies, so take them there! Now, where do you want to go hang out.” “I cleared out an arcade all for ourselves, you know the one with the games, bowling, and laser tag, or if you want it has a mini restaurant. It’s The Peak.” “Bro, I haven’t been there in a while. I’ll totally go. I’ll just get the delorean and we’ll go there.” After that he went around the corner and drove back in his delorean, no not the one from back to the future, the one from 1982. They left and arrived at The Peak with the new cult members that Tarantino doesn’t know about in the staff uniform, and no other customers there. It was going according to plan. Rogers took him around to play the games and go bowling, trying to avoid the laser tag, saying it was “the spectacular end to this day.”. They played for a couple hours and then went to the gift shop and bought a bunch of big pixy stix. Rogers got a message from “Anonymous 174” saying that the laser tag is ready, he knew that this was Emmet Brown because he is the one who he gets messages from most and messages most. He waited for Tarantino to come out of the giftshop before saying “It is time for the end, let’s go shoot some lasers”. When they went in the room to suit up, there was a box there with a note saying “the other vests and guns were either low on battery or broken, use these until we get more available.”. “David, you should be the red team. I mean, it IS your favorite color.” “Are you sure? What about you? Don’t you like it more than me?” “Yes, but this is a special occasion, you should wear it.” “Oh, alright, but you better not complain you can’t fight because you aren’t used to wearing blue.”. They then picked up their weapons and Rogers found a hidden, almost impossible note to notice in the Doc’s handwriting that said “You will need to hold down the trigger for the blast to really work, otherwise it is a normal laser gun”. This worked perfect for Rogers getting Tarantino to believe this is all real, he can shoot a couple shots first then charge one and get a hit on him. Only one problem, Tarantino likes to hide behind barricade and never come out and move until he thinks it’s been compromised. The game went on for about 30 minutes until Rogers finally snuck up on Tarantino and charged a blast on him when a lot of electricity shot out, and Tarantino’s suit was destroyed while he was knocked unconscious to the point you’d think it was a coma. When Tarantino woke up an hour later, he was tied to his buddies Phil Swift and Billy Mays with a giant pentagram beneath them. “What is the meaning of this Rogers!” “You killed my family many years ago, and I still can’t sleep because of it.” “You know I had to do it to become a gang leader!” “I trusted you, but becoming a leader of your own gang was more important to you” “Couldn’t you have killed my family” “You wouldn’t care about your family, never have, but being betrayed by me will be similar since you betrayed my whole family. Now get ready, you will feel their pain from that night.” Rogers then took off a blanket and revealed knives, swords, and tasers. He then proceeded to chop them up starting with Billy Mays, then Phil Swift, and ending with Tarantino. Before Rogers chopped up Tarantino and begun the ritual, he asked “Did you feel anything during the murder” “No, I was blinded by the possibility of becoming a gang leader” “Good, cause I definitely won’t feel anything” Then he chopped him up and begun the ritual when out of the literal darkness of the room, cult members appeared and begun the chant. IT IS DONE.

[oscar-piastri]

rewrite history [ben hardy x reader]

title: rewrite history

pairing: ben hardy x reader

summary: where ben and the reader have a huge fight because of ben’s career. he wakes up the next day in an unknown apartment, only to realise that his meeting with the reader never happened.

words: +10k (i’m shook)

taglist: @styles-charli

notes: kinda long bc ya know i had to write their whole story and how they met. I also never wrote anything that long so please, forgive me if you get lost because it can be a little bit messy

BECAUSE OF TAGGING ISSUES I AM REPOSTING THIS

Ever since you were little and watched all those romantic movies, you were dying to meet the right person, the one you’d live happily until the end. And you believed that it could happen to you when your path crossed Ben’s. Meeting Ben in high school was the highlight of your life, it only took an eye contact for you to fall head over heels for this boy, and the feeling was mutual.

You actually met during your junior year of high school. You often stayed a bit late at school to study because you knew you’d be too distracted at home, with the television playing in the background, your phone right next to you. One night, you stayed so you could practice your oral presentation for you history class for the next day. You were walking in the woods, trying to memorize your text by saying it out loud but you couldn’t help but grunt every time you’d mess up at a specific part.

“It was actually better than the previous time” you jumped with surprise when you heard this voice behind your back. You turned around slowly, still panting from the little heart attack you almost had. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare the hell out of you” the boy apologized, smiling.

You looked at him and you felt like his smile was contagious, because you were smiling back at him, completely forgetting about your history presentation for a few minutes when you noticed his beautiful eyes. And it was all it took for you to experience the amazing thing that is a coup de foudre. “It’s okay. I was just too focused on this thing for my own good” you explained, waving the paper in your hands.

“I’m Ben, by the way” he introduced himself, placing his right in front of him.

“Y/N” you replied shaking his hand. Your eyes landed on his sport bag and you couldn’t help but ask him what he was doing.

“Rugby practice. We kind of finished later than usual” you explained, dropping his bag on the ground to sit on the table behind him. “I was on my way home when I heard you speak to yourself, so I came inside” he continued and his words made you blush in embarrassment.

“I was not talking to myself! I was reciting my presentation!” You defended yourself, putting your notes in front of his face, making him laugh.

Ben looked at his watch and put his eyes on you again. “We’ve got twenty minutes before they close the door. Need help?” You couldn’t turn down Ben’s offer, your stress made it impossible to memorize everything so a little help couldn’t hurt.

You spent the last minutes trying to memorize your speech with Ben’s help, until the watchman asked the two of you to leave. You grabbed your stuff and walked with Ben to the school’s door. You eventually thanked him and left to go back home.

You spent that night completely forgetting about your presentation because Ben was the only thing in your mind, and to be honest, it wasn’t a bad thing. It allowed you to forget everything about your stress.

The next day, you successfully presented your history presentation, you knew your text, didn’t stutter, didn’t forget anything and for once in your school life, you were able to spend your presentation without your nose stuck in your notes.

After your day, you decided to find Ben and thank him for his little help that boosted you. You remembered Ben mentioned a rugby practice, so you decided to head towards the sport field, hoping you’d find him. You noticed his silhouette running during his training so you decided to sit on the bleachers to wait until it was over.

About 30 minutes later, Ben and his teammates were grabbing their bags. When Ben looked in your direction, you shyly waved at him and he instantly jogged in your direction.

“I wanted to thank you for yesterday. I don’t know what you did to me, but I slayed my presentation” you giggled before placing the book you were reading back in your bag.

“Yeah, my charm is working great. I’m pretty sure I hypnotised you with my smile and you managed to do great” Ben joked, winking at you. His act made you blush a little, because you could feel your cheeks getting warmer.

“So hum… What can I do, to properly thank you for last night?” You asked Ben with a smile.

Ben was wearing a huge and cheeky smile on his face, not hesitating any seconds before telling you what he wanted. “You can agree to go on a date with me”

You were quite surprised by his demand and you swore that your mouth stayed open while your brain was processing everything, which took a little bit of time. “Uh… Y-yeah. Sure” you eventually managed to speak, but you couldn’t hide the effect Ben had on you, as your cheeks became red for the second time in just a few minutes.

The blond boy couldn’t hide his joy either, as he took his phone out of his bag and handed it to you, so you could give me your phone number. “I’ll text you” Ben promised you before you let him go to the locker room so he could change.

Walking to get outside the field, you received a text from an unknown message and you figured it was Ben. You read his text “How about tomorrow night?” and turned around to find Ben looking at you, right in front of the locker room. You happily texted him right away, saying that you couldn’t wait.

One date, one kiss and you were already head over heels. Your relationship with Ben felt like an evidence and you couldn’t wait to finish high school by his side and see what the future was holding for the two of you. Holding hands in hallways, little kisses before going to different classes, waiting for him at his rugby practice, watching every rugby games, Ben helping you study were your daily routine, and it soon turned you into the most famous couple in your high school.

“So, what do you think? I need your opinion” Ben said, anxiously playing with his fingers.

“I think you should try it!” You replied in all honesty. “It’s worth a shot!” Ben had just told you he wanted to join a drama school. His friends were the one who suggested it, because he needed a new activity, due to the fact that he had to quit rugby. It was a terrible decision for him to make, but he was always suffering from many injuries and it could be dangerous for him if he continued to play. But now, his friends were trying to find a new passion and you couldn’t help but feel excited for Ben.

“Alright love, I trust you for this one” he said before kissing you. And this boy was right to listen to you and his friends.

Plays, famous tv show in England, Hollywood when he got cast to play in the new X-Men movie, Ben achieved all of that with his school. The more he was acting, the more he loved it. When you met Ben, he wanted to become an engineer, after that he saw himself becoming a professional rugby player, but now, the only thing he wanted to be was an actor.

Even though you were still studying, you would still attend event with your boyfriend, to show how proud you were of him and to show him your endless support.

Ben helped you study back in high school and now you were helping him learning his lines for new movie projects. Ben always turned to you for your opinion and advice. Every time he was offered a new acting proposition, you could be sure to spend the night listening to Ben’s doubts, opinions on the role and help him decide whether or not he’d accept it.

You heart would melt every time Ben mentioned you in an interview and you thanked the world every night for putting Ben in your life. It was obvious that Ben and you made the perfect team. You both have come so far and the feeling of pride was always mutual. Your career was nothing next to Ben’s acting career, but you were doing your dream job and this is what made Ben so proud of you. Everything was perfect, just like a dream. Ben was often absent but you still made it work. Your relationship was filled with supporting texts, dance sessions in the kitchen, cute pics. You adopted a dog, you got engaged and were planning the next step: maybe a baby.

But sadly, everything doesn’t stay perfect for too long. Ben was now casted in bigger movies, his fame was rising and his absences were longer and started to hurt more than they did before. Ben wasn’t asking you to attend events with him anymore, saying he didn’t want you to be harassed by fans and paparazzi, it was crazy because it never bothered him before. So you always stayed home, watching him posing with girls, who by the way, were standing way to close to him. It was painful to watch, because after years of being together, you were slowly feeling left out.  Now the kitchen was empty, Ben wasn’t here with you to dance anymore, you took your meals alone in front of the tv because he was barely home, too busy to hang out with his friends. Ben was barely talking about his schedule anymore and you found yourself betting on if he would be home that day or not.

Today was a special day for you, your birthday. You loved this day because Ben would always make his day free of any appointments and any scenes to shoot, just to spend the entire day with you. But today it was completely different, you woke up to an empty space next to you and that set up the mood for the rest of the day. If this happened a year ago, you would have thought that Ben was in the kitchen, making you an awesome breakfast but today, you refused to be fooled by a fantasy, perfectly knowing that Ben wasn’t in the house.

You heart still shattered when you left your room to find the house empty of Ben’s presence. You were still greeted by Frankie but it wasn’t the same. You walked in every single room of this house that now seemed too big for yourself, hoping to find a note from Ben, at least to say where it was, but there was no sign of it. You never felt that lonely on this day you loved this much.

Your ended up spending this day by yourself, with the company of your loyal dog just answering phone calls of your family, wishing you a happy birthday. It was hard for you to swallow your tears, not wanting to let them know about your day turning into a disaster. You friends didn’t bother make plans for you because they all thought you’d spend your day with Ben, you couldn’t blame them for not doing anything because even you thought Ben would be here with you. Every time your phone rang, you hoped it was Ben that was calling you. You left him a few texts because you were getting a little bit worried, but he never replied.

Your heart actually stopped beating when you randomly switched channels and ended up on a random emission where Ben was the guest of the day. Of course you were relieved he was fine, but you were feeling so mad that he was on tv on not with you for your birthday. You were already dialing his agent’s number but what Ben was saying made you stop.

“Yeah, I pretty much owe my career to my friends. They’re the ones that got me to switch into acting. I wasn’t sure at first but they had pretty good arguments” Ben explained to the journalist, that seemed to drink his words like it was water, not even realising that Ben was not saying the entire truth. You were upset to hear that Ben completely erased you from that life changing decision he took years ago with you. He always told you that it was because you thought it was a good idea that he actually did it, and now, he was changing history.

“Well, thank you for giving us some time Ben. But before we finish, I heard you had some big news to tell the world?” the journalist asked her last question and it made you all confused. What news were they talking about?

“Yeah, I guess this is the perfect moment to announce that I got cast in a new big movie. I’m very excited to be a part of this project, it’s gonna be a real challenge for me and I can’t wait to start shooting in a few days” Ben announced, a pure and exciting smile on his face whereas your face was wearing nothing but sadness. You jaw dropped when you fully understood his words and you grabbed the remote in a hurry to turn the tv off. You were left disappointed with a heavy silence that made you hear Ben’s words again and again in your head.

You couldn’t believe that Ben just destroyed your team, by pushing you away from his life, from his project, when you’ve been here with him since his start. He was erasing you from his professional life and you couldn’t help but ask yourself how long until he erase you from his entire life.

You forced yourself to get up and walked to your bedroom. Your mind wasn’t at it but you changed your clothes into your pajamas and climbed into bed, waiting for Ben to eventually come back.

For hours, you kept looking at the white ceiling above you. You didn’t move when you heard the door opening and Frankie barking to welcome her favorite owner. It took Ben a few minutes, that felt like an eternity for him to find his way to your bedroom.

“Are you asleep?” He asked whispering as he walked to his drawers. But you didn’t answer, and you just rolled in bed so your back was facing him. You felt his body in bed and you decided it was time to speak up.

“Do you even still love me?” Your voice broke the silence that was feeling like a terrible pain. You couldn’t look at Ben, and you wished for him to be asleep so he’d never have to answer.

“Of course I love you! Darling, why are you even asking me this dumb question?” Ben replied right away, changing his position so he could sit next to you.

You searched deep for the confidence to confront your fiancé. You turned around to see Ben and you did just like him, you sat on the bed. “You’ve been erasing me from your life, Ben! I can forgive that you don’t mention me for you debut career, but I can’t help but feel useless when I hear that you’re accepting movies without talking about it with me! I thought you always wanted to have my opinions on things. I thought we were a team, in all aspects of our life!” You cried out, letting the pain out of your body.

Ben was a little bit lost and the confusion could be read on his face from miles. “B-but we’re a team, love! Look, I know I haven’t been good to you lately but this movie, I always dreamed of something like that. I couldn’t hesitate” he confessed, trying to reassure you the best he could.

“It’s not just this… Do you know what day we are?” You told him, ready for the possible confrontation.

He seemed to think for a minute and you saw on his face that he remembered because guilt was covering your face “Your birthday…”

“I waited all day for you to come home. But I didn’t know if you were, because I don’t know what are your plans anymore. You just keep me in a blur, guessing what you’re doing” you explained trying to stay calm, but your nerves were driving you crazy and you had to get up. Your fingers landed on your engagement ring and started to twist it as you were speaking.

Ben instinctively moved from his spot to be right in front of you, putting his hands on your fingers “Please don’t take it off” he begged so quietly that it felt like it was just the sound of the wind.

“Trust me, I don’t want to… But I’m not sure I’m happy enough to keep it forever” you confessed, not wanting to lie to Ben.

“How can you even say that?! I’m giving you everything you ever wanted!” Ben argued clenching his jaw, not understanding how you could feel like that

“Yeah, everything but yourself….” You muttered and it drove Ben even more angry

“You know what, let’s not talk about that now. I’ve got an important thing tomorrow” he growled, angrily passing a hand on his blond hair.

“Wow, nice. Just ignore this. Very mature Ben” you sarcastically said, clapping your hands

“Screw it” he hissed before getting out of the bed. He grabbed his clothes and you saw him change in a hurry. You heard his footsteps on the ground and a minute later the door slammed shut, leaving you alone once again.

When you realised he was gone, you tried to bite your lips to avoid the tears from falling but it was completely useless as you became a crying mess. And as painful as it was to do it, you took off the ring and placed it on your nightstand.

Ben on the other hand, was not ready to go to sleep, as he was sitting in the local pub, trying to drown his anger in alcohol. A fight was the last thing he needed and even thought he was thinking about it, he couldn’t understand your point. You’re happy, he’s happy, the perfect couple, just like in high school.

After hours of looking at his empty drink and all the bottle in front of you, he chose to go home, hoping that you wouldn’t be mad anymore. When he got to your bedroom, he saw your sleeping silhouette and he actually smile because you were sleeping peacefully. But his smile disappeared right away when he noticed the ring on the nightstand. He knew that it wasn’t saying that you were splitting up, just that you were pushing back the wedding but it felt like he was being stabbed in the heart over and over again. He eventually collapsed on the ground, with the only wish to talk about it when you’d wake up.

Ben woke up with the worst headache when his alarm went off. He grunted trying to catch his phone and after struggling for seconds he managed to turn off the alarm, making the silence ease the pain in his head. He got up with difficulty, his legs were feeling too heavy for him.

“Love?” He called out, walking in the room, rubbing his eyes half closed to wake himself up. Ben knew the room by heart but was surprised to hit a wall on his way to the living room. “Shit since when is there a wall here?”

He kept walking, the impact against the wall made him fully awake and he couldn’t hide his panic when he didn’t recognize any of the furnitures. “What is this place?... Oh my god, did I cheat on Y/N?” Ben asked to himself, worrying about what he did or not did while he was drunk the other night.

Ben’s first instinct was to call you, he unlocked his phone in a hurry and looked for your number but there was nothing. The incomprehension was present and it got worse when he realised the lockscreen wasn’t the same. It used to be a picture of you holding Frankie and now it was a picture of him with other people. He did not even recognized who was posing with him on this picture, at least not all of them.

Ben looked around the place, ran into every room of the apartment to find clues and he noticed pictures of him framed and hanging on walls. Everything looked like at was Ben’s place. He eventually found a little dog sleeping on his bed, it wasn’t Frankie but it was still something. He tried to call Joe. He had to call Joe to seek some answers. Maybe it was a prank, maybe it was a bad dream, but one thing was sure, Ben needed answers.

But when he realised Joe was missing from his contact list, he couldn’t help but yell to express his frustration. He noticed on the kitchen table some newspapers and saw that the front page was destined to a huge article about Bohemian Rhapsody. His heart stopped beating again when he realised he wasn’t the actor playing Roger Taylor, he grabbed the sheet of papers and threw them in the nearest trash can. It was all incoherent and he eventually decided to sit on the couch and take deep breath, maybe if he was calming himself, he’d see things more clearly.

He finally opened the laptop in front of him, surprised to find himself tapping the password like he knew it for years. “Rugby0201”, what a dumb password, he’d never pick something so easy. He went on google and searched for his own name. Nothing. No article about him nor his movies, his filmography was absent and only his personal social media accounts were linked. He clicked on his twitter and instagram account; just pictures of him with what seemed to be his friends, tweets about rugby. Not a single picture with Y/N. He then searched for your name and ended up on your accounts. He was surprised to see that you were following each other, even though all your accounts were pretty much empty. Oh, he wasn’t surprised, he knew you weren’t a big fan of exposing your life on the internet. You only opened those accounts because your friends kept asking you to do that. But it still meant that you knew each other in this life.

His mind focused again on the whole situation: it could be a prank from Joe, maybe there’s a secret camera and it’s part of a plan to promote Bohemian Rhapsody? Who was he kidding? No one would go this far just for a single prank. It was time to face the truth: Ben ended up somewhere where you never fell in love, and this explains so many changes. Probably a parallel universe.

Ben closed his eyes, remembering all the good things: how you first met, your first kiss, your first time, when you met his parents and when he met your family, when you adopted Frankie, when you got engaged, just all the happy memories. Ben wanted to cry but no tears came and it made him even more sad and angry at himself.

The sound of the doorbell brought Ben back to reality. He hesitantly walked to the front door and looked through the judas hole. He saw the familiar figure of one of his friend and was glad to see someone he knew. “Great, it’s you!” Ben said, opening the door. He was ready to take this opportunity to ask his friend as many questions as he wanted, to discover who is the Ben from this life.

“Wow, you look terrible! Have you been drinking?” his friend James asked laughing when he noticed the terrible face of Ben. “You could have invited me!”

“Yeah, I feel like I don’t know where I am” he said, trying to laugh at this situation. Ben and his friend sat on the couch, Ben was playing with his hands to distract him from going crazy. He knew this friend back in his real life, but now it was a complete stranger and Ben wasn’t sure he could trust him enough to tell him about what happened to him.

“Okay… Quick question, who am I? Like… What do I do?” Ben blurred out, using this opportunity to get to know himself better.

This question raised confusion in his friend and it started to worry him. “Mate… You okay?” His friend asked.

“Just answer” Ben said raising his voice, forcing his friend to answer this fundamental question.

“You’re an engineer. You wanted to be a professional rugby player but you had to let go of this dream because of injuries. But we still play every week” His friend finally answered, still not sure of Ben’s state. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Uh? Yeah… I got so drunk, it’s messing with my head” Ben faked a laugh, hoping this lie would be a good apology.

“... Okay? Well let’s go. We don’t wanna be late to rugby” Ben’s answer seemed to be a good one because his friend let it go. “And don’t forget, about lunch tonight, it’s for a big occasion” James continued, winking at Ben.

Ben didn’t understood everything but still nodded and acted like everything was fine, not wanting to worry his friend even more. He was dying to ask about you, he wanted to know if his friend knew you too but he didn’t want to sound like a crazy person.

Ben was glad that he could play rugby today. He needed an escape, a place to let his frustration out and the field was the perfect choice. It’s not a lie that he tried to get hurt really bad on his head, just to collapse on the ground and wake up with you next to him, like nothing happen. But as he expected, none of this happened and he just ended up with a worse headache than this morning.

When he got home, he spent a long hour under the shower, his mind quickly got lost in the fog created by the hot water, and the only thing he could think of, was the shower you used to take together, because you wanted to “save the water to save the planet”. The towel wrapped around his waist, he stayed a few minutes watching himself in the mirror, asking how it all got wrong. It has been a crazy day, a living nightmare and he couldn’t wait until that the diner with his friends goes quick so he could just lay back in bed, praying to wake up in his normal life. He didn’t totally wanted to go there, he didn’t know anyone there, his friends were no longer the same he used to know, he was not the same Ben they knew, it would just add more stress to this nightmare. But once again, Ben knew he couldn’t let this opportunity to get answers vanish, so he finally decided to look for nice clothes to wear.

But before going, Ben stopped at the table and grabbed some papers and a pen. It was important for him to write everything about this situation, so on the first paper, he wrote some of his favorite memories with you. On the other one, he rewrote the night where you had the fight that changed it all. He was not done, he wanted to write everything that he could think of, and he decided to write in two different columns, the life of the two different Ben he was. Ben1, the original Ben from his previous life, a notorious actor who married the love of his life. Ben2, an engineer playing rugby with his friends and who did not married the love of his life. If he didn’t want to screw up Ben2’s life, he had to take notes about his life and keep acting like him. He didn’t know how long he’d be trapped here, so taking notes about Ben2 was the most important thing to avoid raising suspicions. The last paper that was on the table was used to write about you. What y/n1 was doing, loved and hated and who y/n2 was. Sadly, the y/n2 column stayed empty but it made Ben more determined to get to the you from this universe, and discover what he needed to do to get his life back.

Ben took off the dumb wall decorations to put those papers on the wall, so he could take a look at them everyday and never forget about those cherished memories. He sighed when the clock showed him that it was time for him to leave. When Ben got to the restaurant address his friend sent him earlier, he noticed that most of his friends were here but couldn’t help to consider them as strangers. Friends for Ben2, but strangers for Ben1. He greeted them all with a fake smile, acted like he knew what he was doing but still used the headache and the many knocks he received at his latest rugby game as an excuse to stay in retreat. His friend was late and Ben was starting to get more and more impatient. He was about to text his friend to ask what was happening when he saw his friend coming through the door.

Ben thought he was hallucinating when he recognized who was escorting his friend. His heart stopped when he realised it was really you, holding hands with his friend, all smiling. Even though you were sitting on the other side of the table, Ben kept looking at you the whole time. God you were beautiful, and he missed this vibrant smile you used to have, the one you used to give him. His heart stopped everytime you kissed his friend because he only wished to be at his place, it was were he belonged.

This night made Ben feel like he’d been tortured over and over again. And the final blow struck Ben right in the heart when he saw James getting down on his knees. Ben understood right away what was happening, because a few years back, Ben did the exact same thing. He saw himself at James’ place, as his friend took the little red box from his pocket and opened it to show the beautiful ring that was inside.

Ben’s blood boiled when he saw the happy tears in your eyes and he wished to be deaf when you said those three letters that made his heart shatter. His knuckles quickly turned white because of how strongly he was holding the cutlery in his hands. He felt like throwing up when he saw you kiss him once again, but this time with the ring around your finger. Ben was dying to get out of here, but it would just make him look like a giant dick who didn’t care about his friend’s happiness and it would affect Ben2’s life. So he stayed and watched the scene, suffering in silence while he had to congratulate the happy couple.

“This is some messed up punishment from the universe because I was a dick who pushed away the love of my life” Ben angrily yelled out loud while slamming the door shut. He was well aware that no one could hear him but he still needed to let his feelings out. He threw his keys on the ground with such a rage that the impact could have made a hole on the ground. It was either the keys or his fist on the walls, thought punching the walls would make him feel way more better.

He angrily grabbed a pencil and wrote on the Y/N2 paper “engaged to someone else”. Just writing those words was a terrible act for Ben, but it wasn’t something he could ignore. He was trapped in this universe, not knowing how to go back and the love of his life wasn’t his anymore.

“How do I get back?” Ben mumbled to himself as he wrote this exact sentence on a new paper. He kept saying this, as he laid on the couch, closing his eyes to focus on this question. He thought about your last fight, the event that started it all and a few minutes, he got up like he had just been it by an illumination.

“That’s it!! I figured it out! I just need to make her love me again and I get back to acting! So I would be following the original timeline and I’ll be able to to back!” He explained to the dog that got into the room a few minute ago, attracted by all the noise Ben was making. Damn, he felt like he was losing his sanity, elaborating dumb and meaningless plans and explaining them to a dog he didn’t know.

The dog was tilting his head to the side, trying to understand the situation but he eventually barked and Ben took that as a positive answer. He was actually glad to have a pet partner, he knew he could rant, yell, cry and tell every doubts without being judged. Speaking of the dog, Ben realised he didn’t know his name and he didn’t noticed a collar around his neck.

“I’m renaming you Joe. It suits you” he said, getting down on one knee to put the dog’s head. “From now on Joe, you’re my confidant.” He said and the dog barked to answer.

Long and painful days had passed since that night, and Ben had made no progress in his desire to go back to his universe. He didn’t see you, didn’t talk to you, nothing. It was just long days at work and small walk in the park with the renamed dog. Adjusting to this life was really tiring and Ben found it harder to elaborate new plans, so his hopes were resting on the first plan he created.

But a surprise visit from his friend James boosted his confidence and gave him ideas.

“Ben, bro, I need your help” his friend told Ben before taking a mouthful of his beer.

“What for?” Ben replied, faking an interest.

“The wedding” Ben squeezed the bottle harder when he heard those words, but he quickly calmed himself to let his friend continue.

“Look, I already have the date for the wedding, the venue is reserved but we’ve got one problem. I need to go away for a few weeks because of work, I was wondering if you could help Y/N organize the wedding?” James asked, crossing his fingers to have a positive answer.

“Mate, I think you’ll have time to help her when you get back”

“The wedding is in two months” James admitted, and it made Ben spir the beer out of his mouth in surprise. “Yeah I know. It’s rushed” James laughed at Ben’s reaction. “But it has to happen for our anniversary, that’s the day we met”

“Wow, uh… Romantic” Ben replied with a fake smile, trying to ignore the feeling of his heart being slowly destroyed.

“I mean… You’re the only one I can trust with that. So, what do you say?” James asked, not noticing the strange behavior from his friend.

And this is how Ben ended up in this coffee place, with you sitting right in front of him with your hands full of wedding magazines and notebooks. He could notice that you were having trouble catching your breath and he couldn’t help but look at the drop of seat discreetly falling from your face because you had just ran to get here on time. One thing the two versions of you had in common, you hated to be late and you were reading to come all sweaty just to be right one time. Ben ordered for you before you came, he picked your favorite drink, well he hoped it still was your favorite in this confusing timeline.

“Sorry again for being late” you apologized once again before taking a sip of your drink. “And thank you for this, how did you know it was my favorite?” you asked, placing your drink on the table, to sort the magazines on the table.

“No worries! And uh… James filled me with some informations. It looks like we’ll be spending some time together, might as well know you better” Ben replied with a lie. Of course, lying was gonna be Ben’s daily routine because it was obvious he couldn’t tell anyone the truth; no one would believe him. The situation was a little bit awkward, no one was talking but you could feel Ben’s gaze on you.

“I thought you were an engineer, since when do you know how to plan a wedding?” You joked, breaking that awkward silence you couldn’t bear.

“Uh because James asked me to help while he’s away. Apparently, I know him better than any of our friends, so I’ll be able to make the right choices for him.” Ben was dying to yell that it was a stupid idea, but he didn’t want to scare you off right away.

“Oh.. That’s nice. I didn’t know you’d help me” You stuttered while browsing through a magazine, not looking at Ben because you weren’t sure of what his reaction would be.

“Why?” Ben asked surprised. Suddenly, a feeling of doubts rushed through his body: what if Ben2 was a jerk to Y/N2 and they didn’t like each other? What if this version of you was rude to Ben2? God, not knowing the complete life of Ben2 was a nightmare for Ben.

“Because we never really talked? I mean.. We both know that we went to high school together, but we never talked back then. The first time we spoke was when James introduced me to his mates in college. It’s too bad, we could have been friends before, instead of being just acquaintance because of a mutual friend.” You confessed, smiling at Ben.

Ben realised that in this universe, he never met you after school when you were studying. The coup de foudre never happened. He couldn’t help but wonder how Ben2 was like in high school, and how it ended for him since everything changed in Ben’s timeline as soon as he met you: you motivated him to get better grades, you helped him study and he helped you train for P.E classes. He wanted to ask you what you used to think of Ben2 back in high school, but he quickly brushed off this idea because you weren’t here for that. The two of you were here to talk wedding, your wedding with James.

“So… Should we get started?” Ben finally suggested and you nodded, unfolding the list of things to do.

Ben came home later this day, completely exhausted from looking at all those magazines. He did it before, and he honestly never thought he’d have to do it again with you but not for his own wedding. But from the few hours he spent with you, he sensed that you weren’t really that different from his original timeline, it was actually a good thing because planning that wedding would be easier because he knew what you’d like or don’t.

This wedding was always in Ben’s mind, whenever he was at work, he’d only think of the next time he’ll see you to pick the tables ornaments or the flowers. The hard part was to make his brain understand that it wasn’t his wedding and that he needed to be prepared to have his heart crushed if his plan doesn’t work, making him watch you marry someone else.

Sitting on his couch, he kept staring at the paper on the wall where he wrote his ultimate goal: “be an actor and win her back”. But the more he was looking at it, the more he felt like it was a dick move; he was trying to steal his friend’s girlfriend. He could explain it, “sorry mate, your girl has to love me so I can go back to my real life, knowing that I would have messed up 3 lives here. Ben2 will see you at rugby next week”. No, it would only make them think that Ben2 is crazy and the consequences could be terrible for ben2’s life.

“Ah Joe, life is not easy” Ben told the dog as he patted his head. “I woke up in someone else’s body, in someone else’s life. Life is hard and it’s making me pay for my mistakes. Trust me, if you have a dog girlfriend or a dog boyfriend- I won’t judge, don’t miss things up” Ben concluded and his felt his dog’s eyes being lost as Joe tilted his head to his side, wondering what Ben was saying.

Days passed and Ben kept meeting with you as much as they could, because James was still away. It might sounds rude, but Ben loved the fact that your fiancé wasn’t in the picture right now because he could spend time with you. He was torn between the feeling of destroying lives and the feeling of getting his life back; sometimes he was ready to risk it all and some other days he just wanted to let you happy with James.

But this time, after meeting you once again, he was ready to put his plan in action.

“Such a Dumb James move” You randomly blurred out, closing the notebook filled with notes and addresses. “Deciding for a wedding date way too soon and leaving me to deal with everything” you sighed, massaging your temple to ease the headache you got after calling dozens of flower shops.

“You have me” Ben replied, smiling, not realising you truly meant what you just said.

“I sometimes wonder if it was a good idea. A wedding” You words raised Ben’s attention and he was showing signs of confusion. “We were doing great before he proposed, but now? Since that night he’s across the world, he left his friend planning his wedding and this dumbass doesn’t even answer the phone” You barked, throwing a pen on the table. “Don’t tell him. Please. He doesn’t know I’m having second doubts.. This conversation needs to stay a secret for now”

“Why?” Ben asked confused. He couldn’t understand the fact that you wanted to keep your doubts away from your fiancé, especially since he was the problem here.

“He’d be so mad! He got it all planned, I mean… I heard he already bought a house for us, before he had to leave. He wanted it to be a surprise for our wedding but his mother told me by accident.” At this point, you couldn’t stop the tears from falling. You were slowly starting to freak out because you just got hit by the fact that everything was happening too fast and you may not be ready to get married. Of course, you’ve been with James for years, and it felt like the right thing to say yes when he proposed. But now, your body was just filled with doubts and you weren’t sure of anything anymore. “It’s just me questioning everything, it happens during a wedding preparation. Don’t worry” You tried to hide your true feelings by faking a laugh while you whipped away your tears. “I’m fine”

Ben saw right away that you were lying, it was something he could always read on your face when you were together. “Y/N, it’s stupid, just tell him how you really feel! If he truly loves you, he’ll understand and he’ll agree to push back the wedding” Ben suggested, but you shook your head no

“He’s not as understanding as you are… Sometimes I wonder if I truly love him...” You confessed, hating yourself for even feeling this. You were feeling awful for being unsure of your feelings after spending almost 10 years with James, and you knew that he’d never understand your situation.

“Don’t make the mistake of saying goodbye to your happiness for someone” Ben simply said before he left you in this coffee place, so you could have all the time you needed to think about what you were feeling. As he walked home, he was getting more and more determined to win you back; he saw that you weren’t fully happy in this relationship and this was the breach he needed to completely start his plan without feeling remorses.

You didn’t call Ben for a few days, you basically answer to nobody’s phone calls. When James finally decided to get back at you, you always ignored him, mostly because you wanted to make him feel forgotten just like he made you feel, but also because you didn’t know how to tell him that you were no longer sure of your feelings. And the fact that you started to spend more time with Ben made you see a better version of him, one that you couldn’t dislike.

Ben, on his side decided to pursue his plan. Every night, after work, he started looking for auditions. He knew he was a good actor, damn even an amazing actor full of talent, so it shouldn’t be too hard for him to see his acting career take a huge step and be back at what he loved; movies. It was pretty bold of him to show up like that without a proper agent and all, but he didn’t care, he was running out of time.

“Wish me luck, Joe. Your old boy Ben should be back if I succeed” Ben announced before leaving his apartment to go to his first audition.

After days of ghosting people, you finally decided to call Ben. Not to ask him to join you to help you pick a dumb wedding stuff, but to let him know that James will be back, and that you were ready to slow things down with him. Ben was surprised when he saw your name on his screen and he questioned himself a few seconds, whereas he should answer or not. He finally picked up his phone right before you hang up.

“Can you come?” you gently asked, trying to hide the relief in your voice that Ben answered.

“Sorry, I have an appointment” Ben replied right away, already beating himself for answering so coldly.

“To where?” You asked back “Sorry, didn’t want to be intrusive” You continued when you didn’t hear Ben say a word.

Ben walked from his kitchen back to his living room, still silent as he sat on his couch like the nervous wreck that he was. “That’s okay” it really was okay, Ben didn't mind telling you stuff, because that’s how it has always been. “It’s for an audition”

“A casting? Does it mean that our dear mr Ben has some acting skills that we didn’t know about?” You said, laughing and teasing Ben over the phone. When Ben heard you smile, he couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on his face. God, he loved that laugh.

“Yeah, to be honest, no one knows about it” Ben explained, but still holding back the real reason of why he made that choice.

“I’m honored to be the first to know! I truly am” You spoke softly on the phone, and Ben could barely hear you

“Yeah, I trust you with that secret information” He laughed and hearing his laugh warmed your heart. It has been so long since you had a random conversation that made your heart feel like that.

“W-Why?” you timidly asked, but still feeling honored that someone you only started to be friends with only a few weeks ago, was trusting you with that, when none of his friends knew about it.

“Because you trusted me before” he said in all honesty and even know he wasn’t in the same room as you, he knew you were blushing and smiling.  “And also because we’re from the same school. Students solidarity” he added that part to bring a funny part to this truthful and emotional moment. And it worked, because at the other side of the phone, he heard you giggle softly. “Anyway, what did you wanted to talk to me about?” He asked, remembering why you called him in the first place.

“Maybe we can meet at our usual wedding planning spot aka the coffee place? Only when you finished your audition though” you suggested, not wanting Ben to feel force to come.

“Alright, I’ll text you when I’ll be out. But not too long, I’m not a famous actor yet, I still have to go to work, only took my morning off.” Ben added, which made you smile again

“Sure! And.. thank you Ben” You said before hanging up.

“I just need to make her happy again… And I know for a fact, she’s not happy with him, she doesn’t act like her true self! She’s hiding behind James, just like she did with me, and I cannot accept it this time. I’m the only one who knows the real her” Ben ranted at his only company; Joe. Ben couldn’t bear to see you unhappy in a relationship. You were both made for each other, and he’ll do anything to get you back and fix his mistakes, because he knows he’s the right man and that you belong together.

“Pushing back the wedding, uh?” Ben asked with a slight smirk. He joined you a few minutes ago and you told him the truth.

“Yeah… James was pissed off but he eventually agreed. Wasn’t easy though, but he said he was ready to wait” You explained, taking a bite of your food.

“Well, I’m happy for you” Ben lied as you showed a weak smile

“Yeah, it looks like your job with me is over. No need to have a rushed wedding anymore” you said faking a put. It felt right to spend time with Ben, you felt like you could be yourself all over again. You were completely overjoyed to discover a new Ben, and you wondered where he had been hiding this aspect of himself.

“What a bummer” He laughed to hide his fear of not being around you anymore. He wasn’t close to his goal but he was still on the good road. He still felt like a douchebag for making your couple break up, but he also knew that you deserved better than James.

“But we can still hang out as friends! Trust me, it’s better than meeting to talk about flowers. It must have been boring for you” You apologized, knowing that not all men like to help organizing weddings, especially weddings that aren’t theirs.

“No don’t worry. I can use some practice if I wanna get married someday” he said laughing a little. It was in fact hurting him, because he kept thinking about the months he spent planning his wedding back in his real life.

“Oh my god, and what a terrible friend I am! How was your audition?” You asked raising your voice, a sign that you were excited and happy to know about it.

Ben explained the process of the audition, the different roles he auditioned for over the weeks and you loved hearing about it. It was such an interesting topic and you were really glad Ben found his way there. He didn’t had a positive answer yet but you promised him that you believe in him and that someday his talent will be revealed to the world. He found this situation funny and it brought nostalgia in his mind, as a similar scene happened many years ago in his reality.

“Keep me updated! I wanna know if I’ll have a famous friend so I can show off” she joked sending Ben a wink and he chuckled at your action. You were both outside, saying goodbye as Ben was the one who ended this moment because he had to leave for work. His eyes were glued to your lips curved into a gorgeous smile, he saw your cheeks blushing and you gaze focused on him. He was battling against himself not to kiss you but you were the one who caved.

You hesitantly pressed your lips against his and you felt Ben smiling, reassured, you drowned your hands in his hair as he cupped your face in his hands. You knew it was wrong, but it felt so much like the right thing when Ben made the kiss more intense. You felt like the whole world stopped around you, and it was just the two of you with some butterflies in your stomach, something you haven’t felt in a long time.

Yet, you were still who pulled away. “I’m sorry” you simply said, twirling the ring James gave you before you left.

Ben stayed without moving, watching you leave. Remembering what just happened put a vibrant smile on his face and he felt his own cheeks blushing. For a minute, he thought that everything was fixed and now that you kissed, he would go to sleep and wake up in the right universe. But then he thought about your apology and it confused him. Did you regret it? It sure felt like you wanted that kiss as much as him, hell, you’re the one who kissed him. But maybe everything wasn’t as good as Ben expected and maybe you weren’t falling in love with him.

But he brushed those thoughts away as he walked back to his workplace. Work wasn’t the best place where he could get lost in his thoughts and in his doubts; he needed to focus if he didn’t want to mess up Ben2’s job as well as his friendship with James.

He was excited to get home, and when he did, he went straight to bed, hoping to fall asleep right away and wake up in his bed next to you. But for you, it was a complete contrast, you spent the night wide awake, looking at your engagement ring and at your fiancé that was peacefully asleep. You kept thinking about that kiss with Ben and how good you felt and it only made you rethink all of your latest decisions once again, sleep was nowhere to be found and you only wished for the sun to rise so you could go to work and put your mind somewhere else.

Ben woke up with his alarm, his eyes opened in an hurry and they closed as soon as he realised that nothing changed. He grabbed the pillow next to him and crashed it against his face to muffle his loud groans. Maybe it didn’t work because you weren’t in love with him? Maybe there was actually no way out of this? Questions were filling his brain but he still decided to stick to his plan. Maybe you weren’t the problem, maybe it’s because he wasn’t an actor yet. Joe joined him in bed and started barking and licking Ben, trying to send him the message that he was hungry and needed some food. Ben’s mind was so focused on you that he forgot the poor dog, loyal friend to Ben2. “Sorry buddy, you’re stuck with me again” he chuckled, perfectly knowing that this poor dog didn’t notice the difference.

Since that kiss, you tried to avoid Ben but you couldn’t stop the weird grimaces on your face every time James mentioned Ben, you almost choke on water pretty often and it made it harder for you to hide your guilt. Tonight was the worse night for you to have the talk with James, it was your anniversary, but you couldn’t live like that anymore.

“What’s wrong, love?” James asked, gently putting his hands on yours, to show you that he was here for you.

“We need to talk” you announced coldly, giving him a sorry look.

Ben was waiting for an important phone call, he went to a lot of castings and today he would finally have an answer for one of them. He was stressed but excited to see if he got the part. His whole plan was based on this and he couldn’t handle the failure. When he heard his ringtone he didn’t bother looking at the name on the screen and he pick up right away

“Hello?” he asked almost out of breath. He was hoping for the usual speech from the casting director but no sound came out on the other side. He only heard what looked to be someone sobbing and he knew right away who was calling him. “Y/N?” he gently asked.

“We fought all night” you blurred out between sobs and Ben sighed.

“Where do you want to meet?” Ben offered, ready to be the shoulder you could cry on. Well if he was completely honest, he was glad this happened because he was one step closer to his goal.

“Thank you…” You muttered before Ben sent you his address so you could come.

It only took you a few minutes for you to get there. To be quite honest, Ben has been waiting behind his front door ever since you hung up and he almost had a heart attack when he heard the doorbell. He didn’t forget to take away everything he put on the wall that was related to you and his plan. When you got inside, he welcomed you with a warm hug and he walked you to the living room where he put some snacks and hot tea on the table, with a few boxes of tissues. You thanked him for the gesture and he was quite proud of himself. The fact that he knew you by heart made it easier for him to prepare everything you needed to feel better. After long minutes of being silent, you noticed that Ben’s eyes were glued to your fingers, and you realised that he saw that the engagement ring was missing.

“I broke up with him this morning” you dropped this information before taking a sip of the tea. Ben’s eyes widened and he tried his best to hide the smile on his face. “He kept being angry at me because I wasn’t ready to get married, he brought that back again and again and I got tired of that. Yesterday we fought because I said I wasn’t sure of my feelings. It lasted all night- didn’t know I could yell at someone for hours” You were just speaking without stopping, you needed to tell Ben everything and how it all happened, and he just listened, not saying anything. “I think at some point I threw the ring at him? And I said we were over”

“Shit, Y/N, I’m so sorry. I kinda feel like it’s my fault” Ben apologized, feeling a little guilty.

“Don’t be” You said smiling, something you didn’t do in a few hours. “You were right, I didn’t want to marry him in the first place. I felt like I owned him something -because he loved me when no one else did, so I kept telling myself that I love him, that I wanted him when I wasn’t feeling anything anymore. I’m not gonna lie, I was putting his needs and happiness first, even if it means making me unhappy for the rest of my life. And he didn’t understand that and he just blamed me for not making this work. He completely ignored and erased the fact that I tried to make it work, for years. Well at least I saw his real face, an egoist jerk” You concluded feeling free of this dead weight that was James. But you didn’t mention to Ben that he was one of the reason why you decided to break up.

You were glad that you became closer to Ben, he made you realise something you tried to bury and he was doing his best to make you happy. You spent a few more hours with him just watching tv, he was careful not to start any subject of conversation that would make you cry and even though he tried to hide it, you knew he ignored James’ calls.

After you left, Ben put all the papers back on his wall and he kept staring at the big letters on one of the papers. “Ben’s mission: make y/n have a happy life with her dream job and a loving boyfriend”. He didn’t care about the consequences now, especially since you broke up with James; he could make you fall in love, and that would make him go back to his real life.

You announcing that you broke things off with James was just the beginning of the ending; later that day, Ben got the call he was expecting. After many auditions, he was offered a job in a promising movie. They praised him for his talent, wondering where he had been hiding for so long and Ben just felt unstoppable now.

Ben and you started to spend more and more time together, and as he started feeling that his succeeded, that he was gonna get his real life back, he realised how wrong it was. You were falling in love with him and Ben was just gonna disappear to let Ben2 come back to a life where you were in love with him while he might not be. It would just make everything worse and after spending hours thinking this through, he decided to stop trying getting his old life back. Mostly because he realised you weren’t happy in his real life, not as much as you are in this universe. And as painful as it was, Ben was ready to let go of his friends, of his acting career to put your happiness first. And to be completely honest, he didn’t hate this life, he loved his job, he loved playing rugby and seeing his friends more but most importantly, he loved seeing you happy.

He knew that by letting his old life go, he was making the right choice because he knew he’d never hurt you like he did. He used to be so unconsciously selfish, putting his needs first, not bothering to keep the love between you two, but now it was over. He had the chance to start over, a chance to put your happiness first and that’s what he did, by staying in this universe where she fell in love a second time. So he decided to turn down the acting job he was offered, because he knew that it was what made him turn away from you and he accepted leaving in this universe, as long as it was by your side.

“Why did you say no? You worked so much on this!” You asked a little bit disappointed in Ben’s decision. You believed in him and you knew he’d be a great actor.

“Because I made that mistake once, Y/N. If I do this, I’ll lose something that is way more important that the spotlight, I’ll lose the love of my life all over again, and trust me, I don’t want to be stuck in this nightmare again” Ben declared, taking your hands in his and holding them tighter. You opened your mouth to say something but no sound came out because confusion took control of everything. “Y/N, you are the love of my life” Ben confessed and you first instinct was to crash your lips against his.

The universe was giving a new chance to Ben but he didn’t understand it first; he thought it could use this opportunity to go back to his life, to retrieve what he used to have but he was wrong; the universe was giving him this chance so he could start a new life, by learning from his mistake.

“What’s wrong, Ben?” You asked your boyfriend as he watched you from the other side of the room.

“Nothing, I just love looking at you” He said with a soft smile.

[faboover]

Making Critical and Analytical Content

2 years ago I started making critical content on my YouTube channel for RWBY. Since then, I’ve wanted to take the time to go over how I started, what I have learned and how I have changed my approach to make these types of videos.

(If you choose to read this, know that it is long and the videos I link to accumulate to around 2 hours)

           Let’s start with the why. I’ve been wanting to make a series of videos expressing my thoughts and opinions on various topics for a good while before I actually started. I did have some videos talking about Titanfall (before it released) and how I wanted a change of pace with the games I played. But, these videos weren’t fully what I wanted, and were really not all that good.  I wanted to officially start my “Thoughts” series by making a video called, “Why am I Here?” I still want to make that video. Then, I wanted to make a video talking about Destiny, which would’ve ended up as a Rant. I think I still have the footage I recorded to make that video. *Checks saved video files* NOPE, it’s gone now… WAIT! I actually do still have the 3 hour video recording. Anyway, I never actually went through with making those videos. Said I would through an Update video, never did.

           Then, RWBY Volume 4 happened, and there was heated discussion. This was when I first noticed the RWDE tag. Reading and watching other’s posts and videos about the show, I decided that I would make my own videos talking about RWBY Vol. 4, but it would be in a much different format compared to how I handled videos like this before. No more rambling about a topic just trying to get through my points while on camera! (I would later break that streak) With a new goal set, RWBY Vol. 4 became the first official topic of my new “Thoughts” video series.

           I also went out in search of other opinions by reading and watching other people’s videos and posts once more. This is to see what people are talking about and what it is they are saying. I don’t really trust myself, so by going to see what other’s are saying helped me feel more confident about what I would end up writing. That’s not because I was looking for validation in the things I was going to say. It was so I could find new things to bring up that others weren’t, and find things I could either add onto or explain why I don’t agree in an indirect way. This is why I added the “Other reviewers I watched” at the bottom of the description for my videos. These were people I looked into and felt that they made good points and good videos that I either agreed or disagreed with. I don’t think I’m going to be including that going forward. (I’m still going to watch and get informed. I’m just not going to say who I watched anymore)

           I then went to write my video with the intent to have it look like I hadn’t seen or read any outside material about RWBY. No commentary, interviews, tweets, etc. Write it so I had just finished watching the Volume and am giving my critique and analysis as though it is based just on that.

           The rest of my initial approach to this was, also, SO NAÏVE. I planned to talk about the Volume and all its parts in ONE VIDEO.  Oh, how foolish I was. I seriously thought I could do this in 30 to 40 minutes (The Story video ended up being 40 minutes long). Wrote almost the entire script of the video before I actually timed how long it could take (Story, Animation, Design, and parts of Final Thoughts). I then realized my mistake when the Story section, in testing, was around 30 minutes.

           With that, I realized that I ABSOLUTELY had to split this video into parts. I also went straight into recording my Story video (https://youtu.be/GHQpfMdGAE0). And dumb me also had to include a live recorded portion of me talking for another 5 minutes after I had finished recording and was in the middle of editing it. Making the video EVEN longer than before!

           The lesson I learned after making that video is to CUT. This doesn’t just apply to making a shorter video. This also applies to making a more concise and stronger video. In order to make good, strong arguments, you got to cut the fat. Not only that, but you also have to rework your ideas/points if you really want to keep and present them. This new approach is what I applied to the next video, which would go on to become the most viewed and well liked video that I have put out to this day. If I hadn’t learned that lesson, my “Animation & Editing” video for RWBY Vol. 4 would’ve become the most hated thing I ever put out. I’m not exaggerating. You think my approach to these videos overall was bad at first? Keep reading.

           For my Animation video, I planned to make it in the style of Digibro’s “Your Anime Sucks”. I wrote it like I was live-tweeting about it. WHAT A FUCKING STUPID IDEA!!

Here are my problems:

1.    I’m not funny (shocker).

2.    I don’t have the respect and clout to make this and not get destroyed for it.

3.    It was such a change in tone compared to how I did the Story video.

4.    I DON’T KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

I still have the original script that I wrote for that video. Here are some excerpts from that:

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“More like activate the heavy cannon because it doesn’t need anyone operating or loading it.”

“You seriously need to follow the biggest thing you’ve ever seen with a telescope?”

“Jaune stating something really stupid, because it doesn’t matter if you’re not when he is. At least Ren asks a decent question.”

“I’m shocked that this projectile we can see didn’t curve around Tyrian in order to hit Nora.”

“You guys had to throw in pointless movement, didn’t you?”

“That was easy. How are they going to help Qrow and make it to Mistral now?

Oh, what the fuck?!”

Not really well thought out and put together now are they? Not even on topic!

           So, I had every action scene of Volume 4 written out like this. It was already clear I had to cut and rework EVERY. SINGLE. THING. What I ended up doing is take the points I felt strongly about and re-adjust them into a new script, which became the “Animation & Editing” video I put out (https://youtu.be/Dxvu8QaV60g). That video now sits at 2,913 views and 106 likes. Just imagine the reception it would’ve got if I hadn’t changed my approach and stuck with my original plan.

           The lesson I learned from making that is to keep cutting and don’t write based off of one’s own memory. I still cut things from the video, even after recording and editing it. I learned that I don’t have to talk about everything. I just need to focus on what I know and what I feel the strongest about. I also had to completely rewrite one section of the video and get a new example. That was the part of the video where I talked about the Line of Action. The original example was Blake and Sun clipping the wings of the Sea Dragon Grimm. What I originally wrote was incorrect for how the scene actually went and was shot, and it ended up as a poor example for what I was talking about.

           With this new mindset, I continued to rewrite my script and make my last two videos, “The New Look” and “Final Thoughts”. (The New Look: https://youtu.be/PVNObGIzCSI) The new look video went great, but my Final Thoughts video got really long, so I had to cut that into two more parts, “Miscellaneous” and “Final Thoughts”. (Miscellaneous: https://youtu.be/8do0dT86IWY ) Miscellaneous still went ok, but I made two more mistakes with the Final Thoughts video.

           In the Final Thoughts video (https://youtu.be/78UeP6BkRxI), I decided to include some of the stuff I cut from the original Animation and Editing video, among others. I also came to realize that I didn’t actually accomplish my goal of writing the scripts for these videos as though I hadn’t seen or read any outside sources or drama. I responded to one of the people who commented, who felt I was being unfair in my judgment, by admitting that Shane Newville’s Open Letter may have had an influence on me. That was an immediate sign of failure and regret on my part. Going forward, I had to do better.

And do better I did.

           I continued on by talking about the RWBY Character Shorts, which I split into two parts. One for the Ruby, Weiss, and Yang Shorts (https://youtu.be/rXjujR6p8Rs), and  another for the Blake Short (https://youtu.be/x9TvfssSmxI). The Blake short was the big one because it was the most negative video I had created up to that point. The reason for this is due to the fact that I just didn’t like the Blake Character Short.

           After that came RWBY Volume 5. I absolutely had to do better this time; especially, because I was going to say Volume 5 is worse than Volume 4. I had to be sure to write and show how Volume 4 did things better than Volume 5. I did this by showing and detailing specific scenes, stories, and moments of action.

Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 5

Story: https://youtu.be/KTptl7o9hVw

Animation & Editing: https://youtu.be/ndjxOBrBvQU

Design: https://youtu.be/FdSTf2iHHXU

Final Thoughts: https://youtu.be/09Rp88xEovo

           I think my Volume 5 videos are the best of the series so far. I continued to apply the lessons I learned. I even added little skits to the videos. I did have a really hard time writing the Final Thoughts video for Volume 5. The big one I spent the most time on was the issues with the last 4 episodes of the Volume. Almost every point I wrote had a caveat.

“So, it’s like this”, I would write.

“Wait, this here goes against that and thus makes my argument weak”, I would think soon after.

           It wasn’t going well for me due to also having to deal with school at the same time. I got really behind because of things like that. I ended up settling on just getting the basic fundamentals of the episodes and what I wanted to be sure I brought up as a way of talking about the episodes’ issues in general. I think it turned out fine, but I ended up skipping on the stuff with Blake and the White Fang as a result. I really wish I could’ve included talking about the action and editing for two of those scenes.

           With that, I have detailed the journey I have taken in making Critical RWBY content. The thing I think matters the most when creating critical content is to make sure that where you are coming from and what you value is made clear or evident by your criticisms and analysis. This gives your audience a basis to judge whether your arguments and point of view are sound and understandable. I did this with my “Design” video for Volume 5 by making it clear right from the get go that I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the subjects I talk about for the video and that what I say is based on that limited knowledge and understanding.

           I think that is why I don’t get much or any negative feedback about my videos. I have had people say my videos are a breath of fresh air compared to other “critics” (Their words not mine). Another was just astounded at how little attention I get. Wondering why my video they watched doesn’t get more views. Not a big deal. I’m recent, small, and don’t upload frequently.

           The thing with my “Thoughts” videos is that I don’t want to be definitive. I want to be a jumping off point. A place where there can be further discussion, even off my platform. I was worried at first cause I didn’t know how well my videos would be received and how I would handle any form of negative feedback, both minor and major. I think I have handled things well, but that’s probably cause of how little attention I have gotten so far. Either way, I remain motivated to keep making more videos.

           Going forward, I want to talk about more than just RWBY. I still have a lot to say in regards to the series. I just have other things I am passionate about that I want to express my thoughts on. I have already made a video on Avengers Infinity War to get started.

Before I end this, I want to list out my main influences when making these videos.

Mother’s Basement (The one I try to emulate the most)

Kaptainkristian (editing and presentation)

Every Frame a Painting (editing, writing and much more. Seriously, read this: https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338537fabc)

Chris Stuckmann (how to construct criticism)

Jeremy Jahns (how to focus and be concise)

Mauler (The amount of detail this guy gets into for what he talks about is insane)

Glass Reflection (Just good, plain, honest criticism)

Digibro (Harsh and unapologetic criticism)

Game Maker’s Toolkit (Design)

Extra Credits (Design and intent)

New Frame Plus (Animation techniques)

The Cartoon Cipher (What they do with music and their editing fascinates and amazes me)

Movies with Mikey (Fun and amazingly presented)

           Each of these teaches me how to construct my videos, and what to look for when I analyze and critique media. This is also why I seek out other opinions by other reviewers and people who discuss what I plan on talking about. It’s all about getting that extra perspective that can help build, expand and construct my own.

As I continue to make these videos, I will continue to learn and grow.

[maplestreetsims]

get to know me tag!

so, i came to catfish you all with my updated simself, also i made her with alpha cc bc why not?

I saw @galaxsims did this and i thought it might be fun, so the point of this is to make a simself and answer some q’s so people get to know you better

I’m going to tag anyone who wants to do this, Just go crazy 

   - trash under cut -

1. What is your full name? Constanza

2. What is your nickname? most people call me coti, i had a few friends that called me constance tho

3. Birthday? July 1, 2000

4. What is your favorite book series? i dont read as much as i used to so i dont have one

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? aliens yes, ghosts...maybe? just for the spookines of it all tbh

6. Who is your favorite author? i dont read dont come for me

7. What is your favorite radio station? i never listen to the radio, mostly spotify

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? anything cheese flavored, or like pizza? idk im thinkin chips here

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? amazing, cool!

10. What is your current favorite song? literally queens entire discography??? like i saw bohemian rhapsody last week, i liked queen before but now im like on hyperdrive or something

11. What is your favorite word?  chaos

12. What was the last song you listened to? Somebody to love, by (you guessed it) queen

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? hmm... i dont know, skam, maybe freaks and geeks

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? pride (2014) always makes me feel happy when i watch it, i really like it

15. Do you play video games? yes

16. What is your biggest fear? Ending up alone, but not romantically, more of like no friends, or family

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? i dont know... i just try to be a good person?? like i put myself in others peoples shoes and treat them how i would like to be treated i guess, bc i know how its like being treated like shit and i wouldnt want that for anyone lol

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? my socializing skills? or lack thereof 

19. Do you like cats or dogs better? i like them both the same

20. What is your favorite season? i dont like any season sjdjsdk

21. Are you in a relationship? nope

22. What is something you miss from your childhood? just.. happiness?? not only my own but like everyone in my family (yikes) also my innocence 

23. Who is your best friend? haha ha

24. What is your eye color? brown

25. What is your hair color? Dark brown 

26. Who is someone you love? no one honestly, maybe my pets?

27. Who is someone you trust? literally anyone who is nice to me, that’s bad

28. Who is someone you think about often? my friends, classmates

29. Are you currently excited about/for something? nothing currently

30. What is your biggest obsession? The sims, life is strange and detroit become human.....also queen?, weird combinations

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? Art attack! also the cocodrile hunter??? that was my shit!!

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? I know i just said i trust everyone but like....i dont open up, like ever

33. Are you superstitious? No

34. Do you have any unusual phobias? Elevators?? and cars...are those phobias?

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Behind

36. What is your favorite hobby? Editing, playin sims... u know

37. What was the last book you read? I cant remember fghjkljhg probably something for school

38. What was the last movie you watched? Bohemian rhapsody rip

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? i wish i could play any musical instrument, but i suck tbh

40. What is your favorite animal? cats and dogs™

41. What are your top 5 7 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow?

@pollinationqueen​ @cosmic-espie​ @omiscanking @bloomlet @gunthermunch @cowberrys and @mellocakes ♥♥

42. What superpower do you wish you had? telekinesis??? um hell yeah why would anyone want anything else

43. When and where do you feel most at peace? this is weird but when im riding the bus home, listening to music

44. What makes you smile? my simblr, youtube videos...

45. What sports do you play, if any? i wish

46. What is your favorite drink? coca cola beech! 

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? I dont even remember, but i had to write something like that around this year at least

48. Are you afraid of heights? yes

49. What is your biggest pet peeve? it used to be hearing people chew, but i think im over it

50. Have you ever been to a concert? no, never

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? No

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? a vet

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? idk sis

54. What is something you worry about? my future, and my life

55. Are you scared of the dark? sometimes

56. Do you like to sing? yes, only when im alone

57. Have you ever skipped school? yeah, but i tried not to, it felt like i was missing out and that kinda made me feel like shit??

58. What is your favorite place on the planet? i dont think i have one, but more like a bunch of them? and only at specific times if that make sense, like the outside of that theater at nightime when i went to see a play with my friends a while ago

59. Where would you like to live? mmm maybe the usa? or anywhere where i could get to speak english all the time

60. Do you have any pets? a cat and a dog, Mercury and Candy!

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? Night owl, def

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? Sunsets, im never up for sunrises anyways, unless i stayed up all night

63. Do you know how to drive? no but i hope that i do at some point, although im scared of cars

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? headphones

65. Have you ever had braces? nope, my teeth are as straight as me

66. What is your favorite genre of music? rock, indie...maybe pop rock?

67. Who is your hero? i dont have one

68. Do you read comic books? not really

69. What makes you the most angry? myself sometimes

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? Real book all the way, when i do read that is

71. What was your favorite subject in school? cinematography class???? idk how it translates properly but that was my fave, although the teacher fucking ruined it for all of us tbh

72. Do you have any siblings? nope

73. What was the last thing you bought? a bus ticket

74. How tall are you? 4′9...yikes

75. Can you cook? not at all

76. What are three things that you love? this blog, my family and my pets

77. What are three things that you hate? hooo boy

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? i have 0 friends what does that mean? jk i actually would say its pretty equal 

79. What is your sexual orientation? yes

80. Where do you currently live? Uruguay, montevideo

81. Who was the last person you texted? my dad

82. When was the last time you cried? last week

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber? jenna and julien, and probably every sims youtuber(seriously)

84. Do you like to take selfies? not so much

85. What is your favorite app? tumblr, or youtube

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? its alright

87. What is your favorite foreign accent? portugeese

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? mmm all of them

89. What is your favorite number? 7

90. Can you juggle? Nop

91. Are you religious? no

92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting? The ocean

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? hahah no

94. Are you allergic to anything? i used to be allergic to a bunch of shit when i was a kid but im not allergic to it anymore?? like chocolate, oranges....cats, and dust

95. Can you curl your tongue? Yes

96. Can you wiggle your ears? Yes

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? always hopefully

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? Forest

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you? i dont really ask for advice that often so...idk

100. Are you a good liar? No, but i try

101. What is your Hogwarts House? Hufflepuff

102. Do you talk to yourself? i used to talk to myself all the time, but now i barely do it, thats a good thing right?

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Introvert

104. Do you keep a journal/diary? no, i used to when i was a kid but it was pure garbage

105. Do you believe in second chances? Depends

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? look for an id to see if i cant turn it in, if not....well

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? Yes, but only in certain things

108. Are you ticklish? i dont even know, probably not

109. Have you ever been on a plane? no

110. Do you have any piercings? yeah, my ears

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? idk

112. Do you have any tattoos? No, but hopefully i will some day!

113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? i dont know....

114. Do you believe in karma? yeah

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? no

116. Do you want children? yeah why not

117. Who is the smartest person you know? honestly i don’t know

118. What is your most embarrassing memory? doing a cindirella theatre play for my school when i was 12, i was cindirella, i dont wanna talk about it njxkcfxf

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? not that i remember, i always end up falling asleep, dosent matter if its like 10 minutes 

120. What color are most of you clothes? green.........i dont even like green

121. Do you like adventures? yeah maybe, depends on what it is

122. Have you ever been on TV? yeah i have actually lmao, it was on a kids tv show 

123. How old are you? 18

124. What is your favorite quote? “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents” 

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? savory!!