#work boots melbourne

[uniformsuppliersmelbourne]

Choose From A Large Selection of Work Uniforms online That Help in Time-Saving and Convenience

Convenience is one of the main benefits of purchasing work uniforms online. From the convenience of your home or workplace, you may peruse a large assortment of designs, sizes, and colours. This lets you place orders whenever it's convenient for you and does away with the necessity for in-person shopping journeys.

When compared to conventional establishments, online retailers usually provide a wider selection of beauty therapist uniforms. You may choose from a variety of materials, hues, and personalisation choices in both classic and contemporary styles. You may get uniforms that precisely fit the needs and branding of your organisation thanks to our wide collection.

Fabricated Safety Boots that are Lightweight

On the other hand, work boots in Melbourne made of composite or synthetic steel provide several unique benefits. Their lightweight design is one noteworthy feature that makes them a great option for anyone who need to move quickly and with agility. Better chemical resistance is a common characteristic of synthetic materials, shielding the boots from certain chemicals that may otherwise destroy them.

Because of this characteristic, synthetic boots are appropriate for sectors of the economy where chemical exposure is a major risk. Moreover, the expeditious drying characteristic of synthetic materials gives an advantage under damp circumstances, guaranteeing that the boots dry more rapidly than their leather equivalents.

Competitively Priced Customisation Options

Numerous online sellers of uniforms provide personalisation options including screen printing and embroidery. This implies that you may immediately emblazon the uniforms with your company's logo, employee designations, or other branding components. Customisation gives clients and consumers a consistent impression of your business and strengthens its identity.

Examine the uniform criteria of your organisation before placing an order. Take into account elements including your company's operations, the kind of work your staff members perform, and any particular uniform requirements. This will assist you in selecting the appropriate look, material, and usefulness for your uniforms.

Compared to physical locations, online sellers frequently have access to greater prices and volume discounts. You may save money and receive the most value for what you spend by placing larger orders. This guarantees you receive high-quality items and assists you in selecting the ideal uniforms for your requirements.

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[otwayfootwear]

The History of Gumboots

Gumboots Melbourne have a long and rich history. They were first used for mining purposes, and they soon became a popular form of dance, which has been performed in many countries. The gumboot originated in South Africa, and is a traditional dance that is associated with the country's cultural heritage. The gumboot dance began as an expression of unity among the people, and later developed into a unique dance form.

The main benefits of wearing gumboots are that they are waterproof, warm, safe, and easy to clean. Unlike other types of footwear, you can simply wash and dry gumboots to keep them in good condition. Besides that, they are also comfortable and can be put on again after a rainy day.

Gumboots are popular among all kinds of people, from farmers to fishermen. They keep feet dry in the harsh environment. The gumboots are also popular with cow cockies, who use them when milking cows. Even firefighters and surgeons wear gumboots. They also make a great fashion statement. Many young people also wear gumboots to summer camps or school. They are also essential for farmers, and they often come with hip waders.

Gumboot dancers are common in tourist areas of South Africa, such as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The routines are often parodies of gold-mining officers and based on African worker dances. The dance involves idiophones that are similar to those used in African-American step dances.

[moonlightndaydreams]

Room 143 | idol!han x fem!reader

Read Part 1 here | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Delulu! Absolute delulu!

So we all know a skz comeback is in the works (including a tour) and I have suddenly felt all nostalgic about seeing them in Sydney in 2023.

Last year I wrote a little fic about y/n going to the concert and by chance having a night of passion with the yummy Han Jisung.

I thought it might be nice to revisit it with a rework (the original had an original female character but I’m changing it to y/n).

I’ve only changed a little bit so far and want to know if you want me to continue to share the fic?

Plus…. I thought it might be nice to revisit to celebrate 1k followers here.

If someone had told you that you would have one night with Han Jisung, you would have laughed in their face.

[ Han heard your frustrated, pathetic cry. “Tell me what you need me to do.” He whispered huskily between kisses.

“Touch me, Han.” You breathed, and you reached down to touch his hand on your thigh. “Please.” Your voice was barely audible.

He let out a shaky breath and looked down to where your hands were resting together on your leg. Your hand slid back up his arm to grip his bicep, and he slowly inched his fingers up the inside of your leg, his hungry eyes following his hand as it disappeared under your skirt. ]

Earlier that day…

It was finally Tuesday, and you woke up in the hotel room with excitement. Tonight was the night. Stray Kids were having their Sydney concerts tonight and tomorrow night and you were going to both!

You flicked the sheet off of you but continued to lay there trying to ground yourself in the reality that you were actually going to see them in real life. They would be in the same place as you. At the same time. You squealed and flapped your arms and legs around in excitement. You were such a nerd.

Sydney had been hot this week. February was the hottest month of the year in Australia, but this week was outrageously hot, and STAYS were getting worried about the outfits they had chosen for the night. It was definitely not the weather for black pants and boots, or any of the punk/goth-like attire many had planned to wear. You’d been sweating for days, and you hoped the boys would be able to cope tonight. They had already performed two concerts in Melbourne, and that city had had a heatwave too.

You had arrived at the hotel yesterday evening, to give yourself a little bit of a mini break from your busy life, and, because you didn’t know anyone who liked Kpop, your mini break was also a solo one.

But that didn’t bother you at all. You knew from the STAY’s Facebook group that many were going to the concerts solo. You loved the idea that young people these days are happy to enjoy the things that light them up, even if no one else they know likes it.

You checked the time on your phone. 8am. You had too many hours to kill, and decided you’d go have some breakfast and then go do a workout in the hotel’s gym. That should pass some time and get a smidge of your pent up excitement out of your restless body.

Down in the restaurant you ate the standard “Continental breakfast”, and filled up on pastries and orange juice. The restaurant was practically empty. Any business folk would have already eaten (if they had even eaten at all) and be off to work, and since it wasn’t the weekend, there weren’t any families around. Empty and quiet.

Once you had enough to eat and drink you headed to the gym room.

You’re not the fittest person in the world, and you were definitely not the most confident person in a gym setting, but you did like to make sure you exercised three times a week to relieve stress.

You were thankful the gym was empty too. Good, no one would see your awkwardness. The room was moderately sized, with several treadmills and elliptical machines along the back wall, a floor area for mat work, some strength training equipment and free weights along the full length mirrored side wall. Two weights benches were parked nearby.

After warming up on an exercise bike you wandered over to the weights and picked up the 4 kg dumbbell and sat down on a bench and began a set of bicep curls.

That’s when you heard voices outside. Male voices. Getting closer to the gym.

Fuck. Don’t tell me some gym guys are going to come in here?

You could feel your skin flushing as you became flustered. You listened hard trying to find out what the voices were saying.

One voice was bellowing loudly, another laughing. But you couldn’t understand them. They were speaking a foreign language.

The gym door burst open and three men dressed in black confidently sauntered in.

They noticed you right away and nodded a polite hello to you, bowing slightly when they did.

You automatically responded with a friendly smile and a “hello, how are you.” But inside you had frozen.

It was fucking 3Racha.

A/n: I’d love to know if you want more of the story???

@channieandhisgoonsquad @noellllslut @itsseohannbin @weareapackofstrays @xxkissesforchanniexx @starr-lvst @queenmea604 @queen-in-the-shadows @bethanysnow @newhope8 @chuuchuu1224 @vanillacupcakefrosting @3rachasdomesticbanana @fun-fanfics @palindrome969 @wolfennracha @rhonnie23 @jisunglyricist @strayywayy @yaorzu-blog @armystay89 @igetcarriedawaywithyou @everythingboutkpop @jiminssluttyminx

[edutainer2022]

@janetm74, I did a little thing for this prompt:

"I'll come quietly. Just don't hurt them."

***

Scott didn't know about coding and cybersecurity nowhere nearly as much as John or Brains did (or Alan, for that matter), but he knew enough to understand John didn't know about these files. The folder miraculously slipped past Eos, John approved and Kayo vetted firewalls, and materialized on the desktop in his private study. He used it far less frequently than Dad's desk or even Dad's old office, but sometimes insomnia struck when his batteries were running low and going down to get some work done was too much effort.

That meant he couldn't really know how long the folder had been there, which made his insides run cold. What made his hands numb, to boot, were the latest photos in the unnamed folder - pictures of his brothers on the latest rescue. Up close and from a distance. The pictures were not scrambled by their tech. Another batch were from Alan’s recent school trip to Melbourne. From Virgil and Gordon's night on the town. Maybe most unnerving of all - from INSIDE Five and a training hangar on Gran Roca. 

Scott swallowed hard, though his throat went instantly dry, and clicked on the last file - a candid photo of himself in the Tracy Tower penthouse, tying a tie, smiling at a hologram off screen, likely talking to a brother before a day of meetings. The file was uncharacteristically heavy so, just as he suspected, there was a hidden attachment, riding on it. Several more files popped up. Realistically, he should have gotten Kayo and John on the case by then, middle of the night or not, but Scott was frozen in place by the sheer magnitude of morbid implications.

One of the files featured four DNA sequences, neatly labeled Virgil through Allie. Nothing more, nothing less. Scott's vision swam. The threat was as conspicuous as it was cruel - spanning anything from customized targeted neurotoxins or viruses, nanobots masked in a bloodstream, carrying explosives to heart or brain, to a smart bullet, programmed to follow the target DNA like a bloodhound.

Their family had access to almost unlimited research resources and brainpower to counter even something that sophisticated, but Scott wouldn't ever take a chance the assault on his brothers wouldn't have an instant lethal effect. Since his own DNA was not on the list of targets, Scott had a pretty good idea what could be in the next file. It wasn't a sum - of course it wouldn't be that easy. When was it ever! It wasn't even a list of Tracy Industries or IR tech they wanted specs for. It was an instruction he needed to follow on his way. The destination he'd receive upon confirmation of being... cooperative. Whoever they were - wanted him to show up in person.

The next file was a cloaked, heavily encrypted chatbot where Scott typed in his response. Kayo would have his head for going through with it, heavily backed up by John and Penelope, but he couldn't risk his... everything. The only life he would willingly ever give up was his own. He typed in a quick message.

The response, likely pregenerated and tracable, biped almost immediately. No sarcastic niceties or eery foreboding of the consequences of Scott sharing any details of this arrangement with anyone, least of all his family or the GDF. Just a geotag. Scott had to catch himself from slumping sideways on the edge of the desk, as his vision went black for a moment.

The next thing he did after getting his breathing under control and passably certain not to keel over in the middle of his bedroom, was a beeline to his walk-in closet, the palm print activated safe in the far nook of it. His fingers hovered briefly over the cold shape of the gun he kept there, but moved on. Weapons, comms and trackers would be the first things stripped off of him, before he'd be moved to a different location, no doubt. He reached for a secure, strictly offline tablet, stashed in the safe. It held his will - updated frequently to include the ever expanding assets and charities he personally oversaw, in his line of work and lifestyle he left little to chance. He wouldn't have his family go through the same legal hoops Dad's unforeseen demise put himself through. Joint guardianship documents for Alan and Gordon. Gordie was turning 20 in several months, but Allie was still firmly a minor in any jurisdiction, and Grandma wasn't getting any younger since they had to do it the first time around. The consensus, Scott knew nobody wanted to think about ever since the first draft of his will after IR went operational again, was to name Virgil as Alan’s next-in-line guardian. Virgil, his trusted SIC and deputy biggest brother  - Allie would be taken care of. They all would. Scott could see deep brown eyes darken with pain and betrayal in the shadows of the closet - Scott trusted Virgil with his life and with absolutely everything important in his life, but not with THIS. He couldn't.

The tablet also hosted security codes and off the books protocols for IR operations and the island. That was for John. Some of them Casey, Lord Hugh and Kyrano read him into, no other family members present, after the search for Dad had been called off. Some were on an encrypted thumb drive kept in an indefinitely rented deposit box in the bowels of a Swiss bank, with instructions from Dad to transfer to him exclusively or to destroy. The instructions were clearly devised to be put in action decades later than they were and it hurt like hell to touch that thought. Some of the directives not even John knew about by now. That was about to change, soon. If Scott knew his ginger brother, he could be sure at least Virgil or the Tinies would never know.

His whole being ached to make one last round of the villa and check up on his loved ones - he harbored no illusions of ever seeing them again. But he couldn't risk missing the window of John's sleep cycle and not slipping out at least somewhat undetected. Eos and Kayo's sensors would flag him leaving the island in a private jet, not One, but he knew enough to not raise alarm and cover his tracks with a bogus errand in Warsaw at one of TI recent acquisitions. That was as far as he could take the traceable jet. But with Brains' reinforced engines, hopefully, he'd touch down and be on his way, before his absence would be noticed around Gordon's morning swim. As late as breakfast on the island, if he were lucky and they thought he were working some issues out on a long run.

***

A ring of lights changed from default white to orange - something John had come to recognize as a perplexed frown. A hurricane he had been keeping tabs on shifted from yellow to red and the alert woke him up earlier than he estimated. But the hurricane wasn't the source of confusion for his protégé.

"What is it, Eos?"

"I'm detecting a discrepancy in Scott Tracy's schedule and itinerary. He hadn't been due at any of the Tracy Industries subsidiaries this week or the next."

It was John's turn to frown. Scott business meetings and engagements schedule was guarded with what John was sure his PA's life and strictly need to know with any on site security teams. Unbeknownst to Scott himself, since his recent loosing round with exhaustion, hypoglycemia and dehydration, about two thirds of the "matters that urgently required Mr. Tracy's attention", be it Tracy Industries or GDF, hell or high water, were rerouted through Five and screened first by John himself, then Virgil, Grandma or Kayo, depending on the occasion. An ad hoc meeting at a new, fairly minor, Eastern European subsidiary would certainly NEVER slip past the carefully erected firewall around their favorite overworked idiot. Yet the lit up line on the holomap clearly outlined the flight path of Tracy S - Scott's personal jet, almost as fast as Shadow, but rarely taken out for a spin these past years.

John moved to enhance the map and shuddered. He'd probably faint if he were not in zero G already - the destination dot flashed over an abandoned airfield in Poland, in the grey zone now, 5 miles of a forest track shy of the Bereznik border.

A red alert clackson blared over the still sleepy island...

TBC?

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Mechanic : The last of the V8 Interceptors... a piece of history!

Mechanic : Would've been a shame to blow it up. 

The Pursuit Special, also referred to as the Last of the V8 Interceptors, is the iconic black GT Falcon muscle car featuring a distinctive supercharger driven by the title character Mad Max during much of the Mad Max franchise, where it appears in Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and in Mad Max: Fury Road, as well as both video games.

The first car shown in the film with the title of Pursuit Special is a 1972 HQ Holden Monaro[V8 coupe stolen by Nightrider (played by Vince Gil), an escaped cop killer, who dies in an accident that destroys the vehicle. The more famous Pursuit Special is a heavily modified Ford Falcon XB GT, built on a vehicle originally assembled stock at the Ford plant in November 1973. Maxwell "Mad Max" Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is offered the black Pursuit Special, as an incentive to stay on the force as their top pursuit man after he reveals his desire to resign. Although Max turns the offer down, he later uses the black car to exact his revenge on an outlaw motorcycle gang who killed his wife and son.

The vehicle started out as a standard white 351 cu in (5.8 L) Australian built 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Hardtop when in 1976, filmmakers Byron Kennedy and George Miller began preproduction on Mad Max. The movie's art director Jon Dowding designed the Interceptor and commissioned Melbourne-based car customizers Graf-X International to modify the GT Falcon. Peter Arcadipane, Ray Beckerley, John Evans, and painter Rod Smythe transformed the car as specified for the film.

The main modifications are the black paint scheme, roof and boot spoilers, wheel arch flares, and front nose cone and air-dam designed by Arcadipane (marketed as the "Concorde" style). Also, eight individual exhaust side pipes were added (only two of them being functional, others appeared to be working because of the vibrations the first two created). The most famous feature of the car is a Weiand 6-71 supercharger[5] protruding through the bonnet. The impressive looking supercharger, in reality, was nonfunctional; functional superchargers are typically driven constantly by the engine and cannot be switched on and off, as portrayed in the first two Mad Max films.

1973 Ford XB Falcon GT 351

Pursuit Special, when the term is used, generally refers to Max's more famous V8 Interceptor Pursuit Special, a 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT 351, commissioned at great expense by Police Commissioner Labatouche and the Main Force Patrol's (MFP) commander, Fifi Macaffee.

[overtrred28]

Stargirl | matildas x original character fic [part sixteen]

Words; 2.9k

Pairings; matildas team x astrid taylor (OC)

Warnings; swearing

masterlist

Astrid was now home for the Christmas break, allowing herself close to three weeks before she had to return to Sweden for training ahead of the last leg of the season. Her schedule had been quite hectic since the October international window, long training sessions, four last club games and the final Matildas games in mid november. 

The best part of the games against Sweden and Thailand, were that the squad were back on home soil and with their families for longer ahead of the Christmas break.

In the match against Sweden at AAMI park in Melbourne, Astrid played a phenomenal game of football for a whole second half, bringing on fresh legs and a certain attitude that comes with playing for your country on home soil. Herself, Caitlin, Mary and Sam had managed to score and provide an easy 4-0 win over the Swedes. 

Astrid hoped her parents might have been able to make it to the game, but timing just didn’t work to get them down to Melbourne. It didn’t phase her though, she knew they were cheering from home and the next game against Thailand just so happened to be at her home stadium in the Central Coast. 

Astrid hadn’t been home in what felt like forever and the emotions hit her hard after the Thailand match. When her number appeared on the substitute board to take over for Courtnee, she could hear her family cheering louder than ever from the sideline, trying not to look over at the friends and family box in fear of distracting herself. 

But that would actually be the thing that egged her on even more. They were already leading 2-0 but that didn’t mean they had to stop there. She was far out on the right when the ball fell to her feet,not her usual position when playing for Hammarby but one she found herself falling into more when with the Matildas. 

She tried dribbling it in towards Sam who was up front but a Thailand defender was not letting up, so the smartest move was to get up near the corner and let the opposition knock it out. And that’s exactly what happened.  

The crowd cheered behind her as she walked past Steph who was making her way over to take the corner, giving each other a high five in passing before Astrid made her way to the middle, standing out just further than the group and away from opposing players like they had planned in training. 

Steph raised her hands when ready, eyeing up who was available in the box to knock it in but the Thailand players were all over the Matildas, ready to deflect. So Steph struck hard, angling the ball slightly farther over, watching it fly towards Astrid who was ready out the back. It had become known that Astrid was able to strike hard and fast from far out, as well as very close to the net. So Astrid caught the ball with her chest, knocking it down to her right boot and taking a wide step with her left. 

The crowd went silent as they watched in anticipation, the ball flying high over the players heads, slipping past the hands of the goalie and directly into the back of the net. The crowd roared in celebration, Astrid’s family jumping up and down from the box as they watched her run directly to Steph and jump onto her. 

The girls were all screaming as they ran and dogpiled the pair on the pitch, Astrid and Steph still holding tightly onto each other as the pile began to disperse. The game ended 3-0 in the Matildas favour, making sure to consolidate the Thailand players before congratulating their teammates and eventually starting their lap around the pitch.

“What a shot kid, you fucking weapon.” Astrid felt a pair of hands jump on her shoulders, turning with a smile to find Sam’s face next to her own. 

“Yeah whatever.” Astrid tried to shrug the compliment off, always very humble and quiet about her skills and rejecting any genuine praise.

“It was incredible and you know it. Go celebrate with your family.” Sam shook her shoulders and pushed her in the direction of her friends and family in the stands. She ran over while clapping to the crowd around her but was more focused on making it to her parents. 

“MUM! DAD!” Astrid smiled once she spotted the back of their heads, pulling their attention to her and away from their current conversation. She made it to the barrier and began climbing over so she could give them a proper hug. 

She always felt safe in their arms and it had been so long since the last time that every bit of homesickness she bottled up over the last few months began to come up. 

“I missed you so much.” Tears pooled in her eyes and Joanna pulled Astrid’s face out from her chest, looking slightly up at her due to the height difference. 

“Oh my darling. We missed you too.” She wiped her daughters' tears and smiled at her, Mark standing beside them with a hand on Astrid’s shoulder. 

“That was a cracking goal my girl.” Mark shook her shoulder as she laughed with him, shaking her head at him. 

“Thanks dad.” She gave him a side hug, Mark giving her a kiss on the head. 

“Clearly working hard over there in Sweden huh?” He commented and she silently nodded, a pang to her heart as she remembered again just how far away she really lived from them. 

“Yeah, guess so.” Astrid let out a small chuckle. It’s very easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of playing matches and training, that often Astrid forgot she was only 18 and living halfway across the world away from her family. But it was what she wanted and needed to do for her career. 

“Do you need to head back and get ready to leave with the team?” Her mum broke Astrid out of her thoughts, rubbing her arm gently. 

“Uh yeah.” She looked back at the field and saw them wrapping up their interactions with fans. “Are we still on for lunch tomorrow?” Astrid looked between her parents. 

“Of course.” Joanna and Mark nodded. “Go on darling, we’ll see you later.” Joanna signalled for Astrid to head off, seeing Kyra, Charli and Courtney waiting for her at the tunnel, waving over at her parents. 

“Bye.” She blew them a kiss and jumped back over the barrier, waving to a few fans who were calling out her name, stopping for a minute to take a few photos. 

“Excuse me?” A young boy called out from the end near the tunnel, Astrid turning her head to find him, walking over and bending down to his height at the barrier. 

“Hi there. What’s your name?” She put her hand out for a high five. 

“Liam.” He smiled and completed the high five.

“Nice to meet you Liam, did you enjoy the game?” She asked him, holding on the barrier to talk to him. He nodded eagerly in excitement. 

“I cheered really loudly when you scored.” He jumped up and down, Astrid laughing softly. “You’re my favourite.” He smiled largely and Astrid’s heart practically melted. 

“Well thank you Liam.” She placed a hand on her heart. “Kyra, did you hear that?” She looked over to the brunette, grinning. “He said I’m his favourite.” She raised his eyebrows and Kyra dramatically clutched her heart in pain. Astrid laughed alongside Liam as they watched Charli and Courtney shaking their heads at Kyra in disapproval. “Well Liam, would you like my jersey? Since I’m your favourite?” His jaw dropped and Astrid started to stand. 

“Yes, please.” He asked while in shock, nodding his head excitingly. 

“Okay, one sec.” Astrid ran to find a bib, putting it on in place of the jersey and heading back to Liam and his parents who were standing behind him. She was given a sharpie and put her signature under her number before handing it to him. 

“Thank you!” He looked up at her with wide eyes and a smile.

“You’re more than welcome bud.” She gave him another high five before walking down the tunnel with the girls. “Sucked in.” Astrid stuck her tongue out at Kyra confidently but quickly lost it when Kyra began chasing her down the tunnel towards the change rooms.

“You two are children!” Charli yelled as they ran down the hallway, Astrid looking back to see how closely Kyra was running behind her until she finally caught up, wrapping her arms around Astrid and picking her up and throwing Astrid over her shoulder. 

“Put me down!” Astrid pounded on Kyra’s back as the older girl just laughed and carried her into the changeroom where the rest of the team were getting unready after the match. “Please someone help me.” She cried out as Kyra continued to carry her, now spinning around in circles. 

“We’ve learnt it’s best not to become involved when it comes to you two.” Alanna snickered from the corner, Caitlin and Mackenzie laughing alongside her as the rest of the group silently agreed. 

“You all suck!” Astrid continued to hit Kyra’s back but it seemed to be no use. “Mini!” Astrid spotted Katrina walking in the room with Harper and reached her hands out to her. “Please tell your child to let me down.”

“Not my child.” Mini stated but deep down she knew that these younger players were her kids in a way, and she doesn’t like when her kids misbehave. “Kyra put her down before she throws up all over us.” Mini crossed her hands over her chest and Kyra knew that meant business. So she slowly stopped spinning and gently placed Astrid down. 

“Thank you Mini.” Astrid brushed her hair back down, gave Kyra a death stare and collected her things before walking to the showers without another word. 

“Ooooo silent treatment. In the bad books now Kyra.” Charli commented from the doorway, everyone else laughing at the midfielder standing in the middle of the room looking very lost. 

Astrid continued to ignore Kyra, not only because she was mad at her but also because it was fun to watch her walk around with puppy eyes and wait for Astrid to talk to her. Even on the bus ride, the younger took a seat next to Steph and Kyra was left to find another one to sulk in and watch Astrid from a distance. 

The next day after recovery, Astrid had been picked up by her parents and taken to lunch, wanting to catch up with their daughter after so long apart, even though they message and facetime as often as they can with the time differences and Astrid’s busy schedule. 

Meanwhile, Kyra spent those few hours thinking up ways to apologise to Astrid, something she normally wouldn't do after being childish like that. But the fact Astrid had yet to speak to her, she felt really bad and wanted to make it up to her. 

So when Astrid returned to her hotel room, she was surprised to hear a knock on her door, interrupting her packing process. She didn’t know what to expect when opening the door but it certainly wasn’t this.

“What the fuck Kyra?” Astrid struggled not to laugh at the ridiculous sight she saw in front of her.  Kyra was standing there, a pout on her face and a small cake that had Taylor Swift’s face printed on it in her hands. 

“I’m sorry for yesterday, I just wanted to have fun and I took it too far. Will you please forgive me?” Kyra finally spoke and Astrid could not believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

“You’re actually such an idiot, oh my god.” Astrid finally let out a laugh, in absolute disbelief that this was real. She pulled her phone out from her shorts pocket and took a photo of Kyra in the doorway. “I appreciate it though, thank you.” Kyra seemed to let her breath go after hearing that. 

“You’re welcome. Can I come in?” Kyra asked and Astrid opened the door wider, using her hand to gesture back into the room, shutting the door after Kyra made her way in. 

“Where did you get this?” Astrid further inspected the cake Kyra had now placed on desk, pulling out two forks from her pocket. 

“Some cake shop I found online said they did realistic photos on cakes. So I called them up and asked for a Taylor Swift cake.” Kyra spoke casually, watching Astrid’s facial expression change with every word. 

“That is genuinely the funniest thing I’ve ever heard you say, and you’ve said a lot of things.” Astrid bit back her smile. “But to be honest I was only ignoring you to see how long you could go without begging for my forgiveness. And it's safe to say I’m impressed.” Kyra smiled at her and handed her a fork. 

“Thank you. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without talking to you ever.” Kyra spoke as she ate a bite of cake. Astrid ate her own piece and thought about it. 

“I think you’re right.” She nodded before another thought popped into her head. “Should we be eating this?” She paused before her second bite, Kyra shrugging in response as she shovelled more cake into her face. 

“Who cares? We’re technically on break and we can call it a cheat day.” Astrid silently agreed with her and ate more cake. 

They sat in silence as they ate almost half of the cake together before lying back on Astrid’s bed and slowly entering food comas. 

“That was really good.” Astrid finally spoke and Kyra hummed in agreement. “Thank you for doing that Ky, you didn’t have to.”Astrid turned her head to look at Kyra beside her. 

“I had to make it up to you in some way. Thought that was a pretty good way.” Kyra turned her head and smiled at her. 

“Yeah it was.” Astrid spoke then let out a yawn. “I think it's time for a nap.” She rolled onto her side more.. 

“I’ll go then.” Kyra began to sit up, Astrid furrowed her brows at the sudden movement. 

“You can stay,” The words rushed out very quickly, stopping Kyra in her tracks. “Only if you like. You don’t have to.” Astrid corrected herself, Kyra turning to look down at her. 

“Uh… sure.” Kyra nodded and slowly laid back down beside Astrid, turning to face her body inwards and looking at Astrid. “So you forgive me then?” Kyra wanted confirmation that all was forgiven and no longer in the bad books. 

“You know… I could never stay mad at you Ky.” Astrid’s eyes fluttered shut as she found herself drifting off into sleep. Kyra bit back a smile and slowly closed her own eyes. 

“Oh…my…god.” Charli whispered as she entered her and Astrid’s shared room, trying to compose herself as she stumbled upon Astrid and Kyra asleep on the bed…cuddling… together. Throughout their food coma nap they had subconsciously moved closer and Astrid was now resting upon Kyra, who had laid a hand on her back. 

“Shhhhhh. Don’t wake them.” Mini gripped Charli’s arm, the rest of the team trailed behind them, wanting to find out where the pair of young misfits had been hiding for the past two hours and why they were yet to turn up for dinner. Most of them expected the duo to be plotting ways to mess up the other players' lives or arguing with one another over something stupid. But what they were looking at was certain to be at the very bottom of their list’s. 

“Enough gawking!” Steph had begun quietly pushing everyone back out the door, all sharing the photos with one another for later blackmailing purposes. “Leave them alone.” She reached Charli and Mini who were both trying to hold back their laughter as they urged closer to the bed with their phones, Steph gripping their elbows and escorting out of the room. 

The door closed and that’s when they both finally woke up, Astrid opening her eyes to find her arm had ended up draped over Kyra’s waist and her head resting upon her chest. She looked up to meet Kyra’s eyes, both of them very confused as to how they ended up like this, quickly separating from one another. 

“Shit, we almost missed dinner.” Kyra looked at the time on her phone, now seeing multiple messages from Charli, Mini, Courtney and even Steph asking where she was, Astrid receiving the same amount as she reached for hers.

“Let’s go then.” Astrid brushed her hair back down before standing and walking to the door, Kyra following behind. 

A week later Astrid was back in her childhood bedroom and enjoying time off from her hectic schedule, but finding herself missing the craziness of living and playing abroad with some of her favourite people. 

So it was decided among the Sweden squad that they would spend the quality time needed with their families before and during Christmas, but meet up together again to celebrate new years with one another and welcome in the new year while holidaying in Fiji. And because they were on their break, things were allowed to get a little crazy. And what happens in Fiji… stays in Fiji.

to be continued...

[gumnut-logic]

“It’s the last house at the end of the street, Virgil.”

“FAB, Thunderbird Five.” It was said without the usual spark. The grey of the destroyed landscape sucked everything from everything. A pall of smoke and haze, black remnants of lives, homes and the tragedy of the night before.

International Rescue had been called to a massive bushfire in the Yarra Ranges in Victoria, Australia. The CFA had had it under control the previous day, John keeping an eye on it anyway, but an unexpected change in wind direction in the evening had it jumping firebreaks and tearing through an unprotected valley and directly through a township.

With the vast tall forests of mountain ash, eucalypts full of volatile oil just waiting to burst into flame, combined with the hot and blustery northerly, not even IR could stop the firestorm from taking lives and property.

Thunderbird Two had her fire suppression equipment, but the massive plane was a speck against the wall of flame.

There were forces of nature that just couldn’t be stopped.

The Tracys dodged and nabbed trapped people. Thunderbird Two deployed a huge water cannon, sourcing water from the local reservoir, as the CFA water bombed around them, desperate to protect what lives they could. But nothing was stopping the fire.

It tore through the town leaving agony in its wake.

Dawn was grey and dismal, but it brought rain. The sky rumbled, threatening to spark more fires in the ranges, but the deluge came and dampened the remaining flame enough to once again get the front under control.

But it was too late for the town.

It was gone.

Virgil walked the length of the street, his exo-suit rubbing on aching shoulders. Burnt out cars and collapsed homes lined the road from one end to the other. The skeletons of black trees marched off into the distance behind it all.

Haze hovered above ash-clogged puddles in the pavement.

It wasn’t what Christmas morning was supposed to be.

The last house at the end of the street had fully collapsed in on itself. A burnt-out car sat in the driveway, its trunk lid and one of its doors open.

Virgil closed his eyes for a moment, knowing what that likely meant.

He steeled himself and walked past the remains he knew he was going to find in the car.

Nothing could be done.

Nothing.

He focussed on the whine of his suit as his boots stepped in wet ash and strode across the front yard to the remains of the house. He had to clear his throat to speak to John. “Tell me where, Thunderbird Five.”

“Possibly in the basement? The lifesign is below ground level.”

The house had been old, the wooden floorboards disintegrating in the heat. Virgil leapt through the remains of a wall, landing on rubble in what had likely been a wine cellar. The heat had been so intense, that glass bottles had become slag.

Glass crunched under his boots. “Right or left?”

“Eastern side, southern corner.”

There was a mass of rubble collapsed against the only standing wall of the building.

“This is International Rescue. Can anyone hear me?”

He turned up the pickups on his exterior mikes.

Nothing. It was probably a blip. How the hell could anything survive this holocaust?

His shoulders dropped.

But then...something? A whimper?

Maybe?

Virgil began digging.

It took him a good fifteen minutes of solid work to move enough burnt masonry to reach a hole in the wall at the very base of the structure. And in what appeared to be the bottom of a dumb waiter he found the lifesign.

The little puppy whimpered at him, trembling with fear.

Aw, hell.

“John, lifesign is a dog.”

“One moment, Thunderbird Two.” The puppy stared, the green, yellow and blue of Virgil’s suit reflected in its brown eyes. “There is no dog registered at that address. Deliver to the local authorities. You are needed to airlift some survivors to Melbourne. Report to Scott on the other side of town.”

“FAB, Thunderbird Five.”

Virgil slid his arms out from the suit and bent aching knees. “Hey, little one, do you want to come with me?”

The puppy shivered and looked him up and down, hesitating.

“I’m with International Rescue, we’re here to help.” He took a step closer. “It’s okay, I promise.”

Maybe it was something in his voice, his stance, or simply because the puppy had no choice, but as Virgil reached into the box it was sitting in, the puppy made no protest as he picked it up.

A quick examination for injury revealed her to be a girl. She shuddered up against Virgil’s chest. “Don’t worry, it’s all over, you’re safe.”

Sliding one arm back into his suit, he started making his way out of the ruined building, turning his back on the tiny hole that had somehow saved the little dog’s life.

-o-o-o-

Perhaps it was because she sat so quietly with him. Perhaps because it was Christmas Day. Most likely it was because Virgil had reached his limit of pain.

When he found the RSPCA tent, specially set up for lost pets, he gently handed over the little puppy. She let out a whimper and began crying.

No barking, just this godawful crying that tore at his heart.

“You will be fine here, little one.” The attendant was one of those kindly older ladies and she hugged the gangly bundle of fluff to her chest as Virgil turned to leave, Scott in his ear.

But the puppy let out such a scream of anguish, Virgil turned around without thinking. She was struggling in the volunteer’s arms and before either of them could react, she managed to wriggle free and dash over to him, her little body trembling on his left boot.

He reached down and gathered her into his arms. “You can’t come with me. I can’t-“ But she was rubbing her head up under his chin, little sounds in her throat.

And he couldn’t.

Just couldn’t.

His eyes met the eyes of the lady volunteer and she smiled. “We will keep her details if you would like to take her with you. If anyone contacts us, we can let you know.” And the volunteer was just as hopeful as the puppy in his arms. After all, there was no life at the RSPCA unless a home was found.

He looked down at her little brown eyes again.

No, he couldn’t.

Damnit, Scott was going to kill him.

Maybe for just a few days?

The excuse provided a simple solution, so he took it.

Without a word, he handed his IR contact details to the volunteer, and, puppy in hand, turned his back to the tent and strode towards the big green hulk parked in the distant haze.

“Well, little one, you have definitely made an interesting choice. Let me introduce you to my big green partner.”

-o-o-o-

It was well past Christmas lunch, or rather the lack of it, before IR was given the all clear to return to base. During the entire time, the little puppy sat beside Virgil’s pilot chair, apparently unfazed by the deep bass rumble of Thunderbird Two.

When he picked up both Gordon and Alan the dynamic changed just a little.

Gordon dragged himself onto the flight deck first, a groan in every step. “Christmas just gets more exciting every year.” It was true. Nine out of ten Christmas Days were side-swiped by a disaster, to the point that the Tracy Christmas tradition was a modular and movable celebration nowadays. No guarantees and no defined day. It happened around December twenty-fifth, there about, when they could, between call outs.

Suddenly the little puppy was in his lap.

“What is that?”

Virgil looked up. His brother was covered in soot and looked as tired as Virgil felt. “This is Bo.” And he had no idea where the name came from, it just seemed right and the moment clicked.

“Bo?”

“Yeah.” Newly christened Bo peered up at Gordon around Virgil’s arm. “She survived the fire.” A swallow. “Her family didn’t.”

“Oh.”

Alan, as always, had more energy than any of them, and showed it as he waltzed into the cabin. “So why aren’t we moving?”

Bo let off a sharp bark.

Everyone jumped.

“What the hell, Virgil?”

Bo was literally glaring at Alan.

“Hey, Bo, calm down, that’s just Alan. He’s annoying, but tolerable.” The little puppy looked up at him, her gorgeous brown eyes just melting him inside. He was so gone.

“Hey!” That from Alan.

“Scott’s going to kill you.” That from Gordon, who was approaching slowly.

“Yeah, I know.” It was a sigh.

Gordon crouched down beside Virgil’s chair. “Hey, little one, what gave you the idea to attach yourself to this big oaf?” Pulling off one of his gloves, the aquanaut reached out and offered the puppy his hand. She eyed him warily before tentatively sniffing at his fingers.

She sneezed.

Alan snorted.

Bo blinked and stared at Gordon for a moment. The aquanaut kept still and eventually she sniffed at him again, before nuzzling at his hand. He blatantly took that as permission and gently rubbed behind her ear. “You are a cute little thing, aren’t you.”

She licked his wrist.

“Oh, I can see why our heavy lifter fell for you. You’ve got it all in those brown eyes of yours, haven’t you.” Gordon shrugged. “Though I will admit they are the best colour for manipulation.”

“And he speaks from experience.” To Virgil’s surprise, Gordon actually jumped. “Did you forget I was here? Not absorbed by those brown eyes are we?” He couldn’t help but smile at his brother. At least one was as besotted as he had to admit he was.

Yes, Scott was definitely going to kill him.

“Shut up, Virgil.”

Bo backed off, once again hiding behind Virgil’s baldric.

“Hey, Gordon, watch the tone.”

“Sorry, Bo.”

“Are we actually going home at some point? I have a date with my bed.”

Gordon stood up, pulling out the co-pilot’s seat. “No rush, Allie, she’ll wait for you.”

“Augh.”

“Sit down, Alan, I’m just finishing pre-flight.” Tired and cranky could easily become nasty if not attended to.

Bo curled up, nestled against his harness, as Alan grumpily pulled out his seat.

“Virgil, where the hell are you?”

Speaking of tired and cranky... “Launching now, Thunderbird One.” As if prompted, he received clearance from Australian Air Control.

TB2 rumbled beneath as he activated VTOL, ash and dust swirling up around them. As soon as he had enough height, he engaged her rear thrusters and tore off over the Alps, across the coast and out into the Tasman.

“ETA fifteen minutes.” At least they weren’t too far from home.

Bo fell asleep in his lap.

-o-o-o-

Virgil was on the verge of joining Bo in slumber as Thunderbird Two spun slowly in her hanger, eventually coming to a final stop.

So tired.

Beside him, Alan poked Gordon awake. “Ugh, what? Oh.” You could almost hear his brain booting.

Virgil worked around Bo as he did his post-flight checks, his brothers, well, mostly Gordon, groaning as they got to their feet and waddled towards the hatch. “C’mon, Virg, Alan’s pining for his bed.”

“You two go ahead. I just need to finish post-flight.” He didn’t turn around, but he could feel Gordon’s eyes on him.

“Sure, whatever.” And he heard the hatch lower to the hangar floor.

His brothers gone, Virgil let himself relax back against his chair, his shoulders sagging. He let out a long breath. “So, Bo, how are we going to do this?”

The puppy woke as if on command and turned to stare up at him. Gently her tail began to wag.

Virgil let a tired smile cross his face.

Encouraged, Bo jumped up and put her two front paws on his chest, reaching up, trying to lick his face despite not quite being tall enough.

The smile became a grin.

“Okay, okay.” He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up as he pushed his seat backwards and stood. Immediately he was bathed in puppy drool. He couldn’t help but laugh. He surfaced above her licking and cradled her in his arms. “We need to get you some food.” His stomach rumbled ominously. “We need to get me some food.”

And a shower. A shower definitely wouldn’t hurt.

If he could hold off the sleep.

If he didn’t call it a stagger, it wasn’t a stagger, but he had obviously been sitting in his seat for far too long ferrying all those survivors to Melbourne on repeated trips. It was his turn to groan as both his back and legs complained loudly at the sudden demands for movement.

Bo started chewing on his glove.

Somehow he made it back to his rooms without encountering anyone. Shutting the door, he let Bo loose on the floor and began stripping off his uniform, hitting the buttons on his preprogrammed shower cubicle. Moments later he walked under the spray and let it wash the day from his skin.

God, that felt good.

As his muscles relaxed under the heat, sleep became more and more attractive, and by the time he stumbled out of the water, all thoughts of food had vanished.

He took the three steps across his room from the ensuite and threw himself facedown on the bed, still partly wet, still naked.

He was asleep within moments.

-o-o-o-

He was being kissed.

Her lips were warm, her tongue wet, her whiskers soft against his stubble...

Uh?

She licked his eye.

Wha-?

Virgil, always slow to respond upon waking, opened said eye only to get an eyeful of slobber. A soft paw thwapped him on the cheek. Huh? he blinked attempting to clear his eyesight, a hand coming up to defend himself.

Fortunately, his brain came online and memory kicked in. “B-Bo?”

A tongue wrapped around his nose and left it wet.

Ugh.

He wiped his face with his hand, stretching backwards on his pillow, desperate to get out of reach.

The puppy landed on his chest, her paws kneading his chest hair, her little claws completing his wake-up process rather abruptly.

Oh god.

“Bo, down, honey, down.”

He was completely ignored.

Sitting up, he attempted to grab her in his arms, but missed. The little puppy landed on things that puppies had no right to land on. Or stomp on for that matter.

He winced.

“Ooh, okay, come here.” He lifted her off his lap, holding her close, her tail pummelling his belly. “I’m awake, okay.” Again he found himself pinned by her brown eyes. “Aww, c’mon with the cute, Bo, you’re going to melt my brain.”

“Assuming you have a brain to melt.” And Scott was standing in his doorway.

Virgil glared up at him. “Don’t you knock?”

“I did. Grandma sent me to tell you that Christmas dinner is ready.”

Virgil frowned at his brother over the top of Bo’s ears, ignoring the glare the blue eyes were directing at the puppy in his arms. “I thought we’d do Christmas tomorrow.”

“We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Grandma thought it would be best to sneak it in tonight, since it is Christmas Day, after all.” Scott’s lips thinned. “Where did you get that from?”

“She’s a rescue.”

“Usually we leave our rescues on the continent we find them.”

“She had no one.”

“Unfortunately, that is nothing new.” And one of his hands had moved to his hip.

Virgil sighed. “Scott, it’s fine, it’s only for a few days.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

Virgil held back his retort. He knew to pick his fights and now was not the time. “Her name is Bo.”

Scott looked at him and then at Bo. “Hurry up, your dinner is getting cold.” The ghost of a smirk. “And don’t forget to wear clothes.”

“Funny, funny, ha, ha.” But his brother had left.

Virgil let his shoulders drop. “Sorry, Bo, I think you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

Bo just licked him some more.

It wasn’t until he went looking for his boots that he discovered the wonderful deposits Bo had left for him on the floor.

Ugh.

And apparently one of his favourite boots had served as a meal also.

He closed his eyes and sighed again.

Half dressed, he cleaned up the mess, and five minutes later he waltzed downstairs, Bo in his arms and barefoot. Time to face the inevitable music.

-o-o-o-

A Tracy Christmas used to be snow, roast turkey, stockings by the fire, the occasional Christmas carol and family.

Since starting International Rescue it had changed.

Firstly, they were in the tropics. The only fires available in those temperatures were ones that required firefighting equipment. Having grown up with snow, it was still extremely weird. But it had its advantages. For one you could go outside in the minimum of clothing, something Gordon took advantage of every day of the year. There were no snowball fights, but these were fast replaced with water fights. There was no ice skating, but there was water skiing if anyone could get up the energy to get the boat out. And surfing, let’s not forget Scott’s attempts at that. Virgil would admit that he didn’t mind a little surfboard action himself. He wouldn’t say he was very good at it, but at least Gordon had never had to save him like he had Scott.

There were still Christmas trees and tinsel and stockings that no-one ever considered wearing hung from the nearest mantelpiece-looking piece of furniture.

There was still turkey and roast potatoes and all the yummy food crucial for a good Christmas meal, but it was often cooked outside in barbecue ovens and seafood and cold food had been added to the menu. In fact, the traditional dinner had become more of a banquet by the pool.

As Virgil walked out onto the patio, he couldn’t help but smile at the Christmas tree that had obviously been hurriedly moved out here from the comms room. It sat a little lopsided and the star on top was having a few issues with gravity. That was new, as was the liberal tinsel and Christmas lights strung from palm tree to palm tree, across the pool and back several times.

“Fifty bucks says Gordon tries to water volleyball the tinsel at least once.”

Virgil smirked as he stepped up beside his next youngest brother. “Not touching that one. I value my money.”

John was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and had a beer in his hand. Bo was immediately interested in this new person. She strained towards John, her nose literally twitching towards the hand holding the beer.

His brother must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and instinctively took a step away.

“Oh, sorry, John, this is Bo.” Bo was climbing over his arm, desperate to get closer to the astronaut. Virgil held her tight, worried she would fall.

“Uh, hello.” John turned towards them, frowning. “Since when do you own a dog?”

“Since this morning.”

“Does Scott know?” They both instinctively looked over at their eldest brother who was hovering over one of the barbecues energetically discussing something with Grandma - probably how not to burn the food.

“He does.”

“And you still have it?”

“Her.”

“Her.”

“Yes.”

“Good luck with that one.” John drank his beer.

“She had no one else.”

John arched an eyebrow at him and then frowned. “Oh, Virgil.” His shoulders slumped.

“I am an adult now, John. It won’t be like last time.”

“God, I hope not.”

Virgil stared at his brother, only to see the genuine concern in his green eyes. A sigh. “It won’t happen again.”

John reached out and gently touched his shoulder. “No, it won’t, because you will remember that you have four brothers who are all here for you, won’t you.” God, that green gaze was penetrating.

“It will be fine.”

Bo yipped at John, her tail beating Virgil’s chest.

The astronaut smiled and offered the little dog his hand. She sniffed and licked him almost immediately.

“I think you have been approved.”

John smiled and Virgil couldn’t help but do the same.

“Virgil!” And Grandma was arrowing in on his position.

“Incoming.” John was smirking.

“Hey, Grandma.”

But his grandmother only had eyes for Bo. “Who is this?”

Virgil smiled again. “This is Bo. Bo, this is Grandma.”

Bo whacked him with her tail and literally leapt from his arms into his grandmother’s.

“Woah.” Suddenly with arms full of wriggling puppy enthusiastically licking her face, his grandmother was laughing. “Oh dear, you are a cutie. Let me have a look at you.” And she held Bo out at arms length, her eyes critical. “A little hard to tell at her age, but my bet says she’s of boxer stock, around three months old. Such a beautiful brindle and that face.” Virgil couldn’t help but agree. Bo looked like she had dipped her face in a pot of ink, her brown eyes surrounded by gorgeous black coat that quickly bled to brindle down her back with a spot of white on her front. “Where did you find her?”

Virgil looked at his feet, remembered why they were bare, and looked back up at his grandmother. “This morning’s rescue. She lost everything.”

Grandma turned her attention back to Bo. “Oh, honey. You survived the fire?” Bo licked her nose. “Well, you are safe here.” Grandma curled her arms around the puppy and scratched her ears. “Has Virgil fed you anything yet?” She glanced at him and he shrugged. He got frowned at for his trouble. Grandma turned away, walking towards the barbecues with Bo in her arms. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

Virgil rolled his eyes.

“Well, that didn’t take long, did it?” John was still smirking at him.

A series of barks and a yelp from Grandma, and suddenly Bo was dashing amongst legs in his direction. “Woah.” He crouched down and caught her as she leapt for him. She wriggled and licked, her little body trembling under his hands. “Hey, hey, honey, it’s okay, you’re safe.” She snuggled up under his chin. He couldn’t help but return the hug.

Grandma approached, worry on her face. “I’m sorry, Virgil, I didn’t realise.”

“It’s okay.” He reached an arm around his grandmother, bringing her into the hug. “She’s just had a scary day.” He pulled both of them close.

Scott was glaring at him from a distance.

John smiled at them and drank his beer.

Bo started chewing on his collar.

-o-o-o-

As the evening progressed, Bo slowly let herself part from Virgil as each of the members of his family, bar Alan and Scott, came to say hello or fed her from the table. There was one interesting moment when the little puppy encountered Sherbert for the first time.

Bo yipped.

Sherbert yapped.

And as the entire party fell silent, the two dogs stared each other down.

Virgil was poised for a rescue and Penelope was not far behind him, but a moment later Bo licked Sherbert across the nose, Sherbert gently butted the little puppy with his head, and from that point onwards they were best of friends, Sherbert quite proudly showing his new friend around.

But never out of sight of Virgil.

Bo and Parker had a staring moment not long after, but Sherbert barrelled on in and head butted the driver, snapping him out of it. It wasn’t long before the little puppy had him rubbing her ears as well.

Kayo stood her distance, assessing Bo as much as the puppy was assessing her. A calm arched eyebrow slowly rose as Bo tilted her head up at the security specialist. She pressed her lips together and faced Virgil. “There will be training.”

Virgil blinked and his sister turned and stalked off. Bo eyed her the entire time, only finally distracted by a yelp from Alan as Gordon threw him in the pool.

The engineer was left wondering if he should be worried or not.

The meal was delicious, of course. Scott had managed to keep Grandma away from the barbecues and MAX had been on task for a good part of the day. There was the mandatory turkey, and this year a couple of large snapper had been baked to perfection, along with some crayfish, oysters, salads and roast vegetables. This was followed by pie, oh, so much pie, Christmas cookies, and Christmas pudding with custard and the option of ice cream.

Virgil, as usual, made sure he took advantage of all the options. Consequently, post-banquet found him sprawled on a pool lounger staring up at the stars amongst the tinsel overhead. Bo, who had also eaten probably more than she should have, was curled up between his feet.

The soft sounds of quiet carols and muted conversation wafting across the water lulled him gently to sleep.

-o-o-o-

Scott felt like Scrooge. He was tired, worried and even a little angry. He was not enjoying himself, no matter how hard he tried. Grandma had cornered him at least twice, her hand on his shoulder trying to soothe his ire.

The annoying thing was that he wasn’t even sure what he was angry about. The rescue hadn’t been the best, but they had done what they could and some lives had been saved that otherwise wouldn’t have. The team had performed well, no one had been injured, they were all back home safe and sound.

And there was food, family and Christmas. There wasn’t really much more he could ask for.

His eyes settled on Virgil, asleep on one of the loungers, oblivious to the tinsel being draped across his hair by Gordon behind him.

Scott sighed.

But then a little head bobbed up between his brother’s bare feet and Bo barked at Gordon quite firmly.

Virgil was obviously far too out of it to wake, but Gordon looked appropriately abashed at the challenge.

Scott found himself smiling.

Realised he was smiling, dumped the smile and frowned.

Gordon scampered off leaving a sleeping Virgil in a crown of silver tinsel.

The little dog leapt off the lounger and chased after the aquanaut.

Okay, he had to admit the dog was adorable. He could see what had captured his brother’s eye, and Scott certainly had no objection to adding to their family.

But Virgil...when Virgil loved, he loved with his whole heart, and last time he had lost a pet, it had been bad, so bad.

They had lost so much in their lives already, why volunteer to lose more?

He sighed. It was stupid to think that way, but part of him could remember that devastated teenager, the depression and the mess that followed. Virgil had been as broken as the rest of them when their mother died, but when his dog died two years later, his reaction had been so self-destructive he had needed counselling and a therapist. Scott didn’t know if the two incidents were related or if it was how his brother connected to pets, or whatever. He only knew he never wanted to see his brother go through that again.

Their father was missing, and here was Virgil with a pet once again.

Sure, he was an adult now, and had tackled so much loss since, but...

Another sigh.

A yip and he looked down to see said dog staring up at him with a mouth full of tinsel, tail wagging.

“Gordon!”

“Yesssss, masster?” His brother sidled up with a bow.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Did you want to face your brother having to tell him that his new puppy died choking on tinsel?”

“Oh, shit.”

“Exactly.”

The aquanaut scooped up the little dog and with gentle words extricated the tinsel from her mouth.

A moment later Gordon held her up to his cheek and Scott had the experience of two sets of brown eyes staring at him adoration.

“Oh, for the love of-“

“A puppy?” Gordon grinned at him. “She is a rather cute, isn’t she?”

“Leave it, Gordon.”

His brother frowned. “What’s chewing on your underwear?”

“Gordon-“

“Hey, it was a legit question, bro. You’re a grumpy ass on Christmas Day. Where’s the merry? We have food and there will be presents. And there is a puppy. You couldn’t ask for more cuteness.” Gordon held up Bo who attempted to lick Scott’s nose.

“Gordon-‘

“Nope, so not going down with you, bro. We’ve earned some happy. We’re all here, in one piece, it’s lovely weather. Cheer up, for goodness sake.” Despite himself, Gordon frowned. “Here have some puppy love.” And suddenly Scott found himself with his arms full of wriggling Bo. Gordon turned and walked off, eventually calling out to Alan, no doubt looking for mischief.

Bo tilted her head to one side and stared up at him.

Aw, hell, weaponised cuteness.

She jumped up and licked his nose.

Scott sighed.

Voice low. ���You know, you better look after my brother. He’s a good man and he does a lot of good things.” A swallow. “He’s a little prone to heroics. Perhaps we can team up in that department and help keep his butt alive.”

Her tongue lolled out one side of her mouth and she grinned.

“Maybe try that on the Hood and solve all our problems.”

He gave in and drew her close to his chest, rubbing under her chin.

“I really hope we don’t regret this.”

-o-o-o-

“PRESENTS!”

Alan’s voice cut through his slumber and shook him awake. Wha-?

“Time to wake up, sleepy head.” Scott’s voice.

A sharp little bark.

Bo.

He flung his eyes open, and immediately squinted at the fairy lights floating in the light breeze far above. A blink and to his left a shadow formed into his eldest brother. His blue eyes were smiling as he sat on the next lounge over, holding Bo, scratching her gently. She was obviously enjoying it.

Virgil frowned. “I thought you were pissed at me.”

“I was.” His brother shrugged. “I got over it.” Bo was licking Scott’s fingers.

Wow, the ability to tame the savage big brother. The little girl must be heaven-sent.

There was a whir of wheels and MAX tore out onto the patio decked out in tinsel and lugging brightly coloured presents. MiniMAX darted in behind him carrying a smaller present which was deposited carefully on the table before he disappeared inside only to return with another.

“You okay?”

“Huh?” Virgil peered up at his brother before stretching the length of the lounger. Several joints cracked and the ache across his shoulders from the morning vaguely made its presence known. A yawn. “I’m fine. Just tired. This morning sucked.”

Tinsel slid down his face. He sighed and threw it off. Gordon was getting repetitive.

Scott dipped his head, attempting to hide a smile, and looked down at Bo. “True.” He scratched her under her chin one more time before offering her to him. “Here.”

Bo didn’t bother to wait for him to sit up, she bounded out of Scott’s arms and onto Virgil’s belly. “Oof.” She then danced up and down on it.

Scott grinned at him. “She’s not going to be little when she grows up.”

“Augh, she’s not little now.” He managed to capture her enough so he could sit up, but she struggled free excitedly and dashed from his arms, jumping on the lounger, just as MiniMAX buzzed over with a small present.

Bo barked at him and MiniMAX dodged to deposit the present in Virgil’s lap. He caught it, but with his hands now occupied, he wasn’t fast enough to grab Bo before she let off another bark, jumped excitedly and latched her teeth onto the little robot.

The result was immediate.

MiniMAX shrieked, several of his legs caught in the puppy’s mouth, and with a whir of rotor blades, took off madly across the patio.

With Bo hanging on.

“Bo!” Virgil dropped the present and made a grab for the pair, but missed.

Every eye turned to see what the commotion was about. Virgil stumbled over the lounger and kicked it out of the way. He was vaguely aware of Scott doing something similar. “Brains!”

MiniMAX was obviously panicking. The little robot darted about trying to shake off his assailant. Bo was whining in her throat.

Virgil dashed after them.

Despite the puppy’s weight, MiniMAX still managed a great deal of height, Brains’ ‘build ‘em tough’ policy obviously carrying through to his robots. Despite having the strength to carry the puppy, the off-balance mass hampered MiniMAX’s navigation and they were wobbling all over the place.

All Virgil could see was a tragedy in the making. The pool, the concrete, anything horribly solid. He ran beneath them, desperately attempting to reach the now whining puppy. Family members and furniture were dodged and shoved out of the way as he clambered after them.

A chair ended up in the pool. Gordon squawked and almost joined it. Virgil leapt off an empty lounge, made a grab for them, missed and ended up in the Christmas tree.

Fake pine needles jabbed him in the face as he went down in a pile of tinsel and Christmas baubles. He swore, his clothing caught, his hair caught, and his everything tangled in tinsel, but he made it to his feet just in time to see Bo let go.

“No!”

Oblivious to everything other than the puppy falling, Virgil finally got traction under his bare feet, took a running leap and grabbed Bo from the air. He instinctively wrapped himself around her, rolling in midair, tinsel and baubles flung in all directions.

As he plummeted into the pool.

The splash took his senses, muffling exclamations, and repeated shouts of his name. There was dark blue, and wet, and, for a moment, blessed silence.

Then logic reasserted itself and he kicked for the surface.

Sound, light and cool air on his skin. He blinked water out of his eyes as he lifted Bo up so she could breathe, his legs kicking to keep them afloat.

She whined at him as if to tell him off, sneezed, and began enthusiastically licking the saltwater off his face.

He couldn’t help but grin, and he knew he wasn’t the only one as laughter drifted across the water.

“You trashed the tree, Virg.”

“I don’t think he cares, Gordon.” He looked up to see Grandma smiling at him.

And no, he didn’t. As Scott poked him with a pole to help drag him to the edge and Bo decided his ear might do for her next meal, he suddenly felt joy. It could simply have been relief, but he was going to tack it up as Christmas joy and enjoy it while he could.

-o-o-o-

“Only you, Virgil.”

“It wasn’t intentional.”

“I have no doubt of that, it never is.”

“Aw, c’mon, Scott.”

“If it was intentional then I would have to accuse you of doing it deliberately just to get out of helping with the Christmas dishes.”

“We have a dishwasher.” Bo let off a bark as MiniMAX flew past dragging a bag full of recyclable cups, plates and cutlery, giving Virgil and his dog an extremely wide berth. “And there are hardly any dishes.”

“You are still getting out of clean up.”

“C’mon, Scott, you know me better than that. Ow!”

“Sit still. I’ve almost got all of it.”

Virgil leant back against the lounge, Bo curled up in his lap. “I’m not particularly happy about this either you know.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“I know that, Ow!”

“Well, if you would watch where you were going, you wouldn’t have collided with the Christmas tree. And what’s with the bare feet anyway?”

“Bo ate one of my boots.”

Scott snorted and pulled out yet another tiny piece of glass Christmas bauble from the bottom of Virgil’s left foot. “She hasn’t been here twenty-four hours yet and she has already caused havoc.”

“She’s a puppy.”

“I noticed.” Scott sighed, peering through his magnifying visor at his brother’s foot. “I think that’s all of it. Please don’t do that again. You’ll be limping for a week.”

“I’m not planning on it.”

As Scott wrapped his foot in gauze, he eyed the puppy on Virgil’s lap. “And you, young lady, I thought we had a deal.”

To Virgil’s surprise, Bo’s head bobbed up and she looked distinctly guilty.

Scott arched an eyebrow. “Hmm, don’t let it happen again.”

Bo yapped at him.

Virgil stared at both of them. “What?”

“None of your business, you just lay back and look after yourself.” And Scott was smirking.

Ooookaay.

He relaxed back against the lounge and stared up at the fairy lights above.

Bo stomped up the length of him and licked his eyeball.

He coughed up a laugh and grabbed an armful of wriggly puppy.

“I think that was a Merry Christmas, Virg.” Scott held his injured foot and grinned. “Merry Christmas.”

-o-o-o-

[ricardian-werewolf]

5. God save the queen/The fascist regime!

THAT SOUND FUN!

The walls of the Tower of London were made of stone. 8 centuries old, they had gone through several iterations. But Jane cared not. She dug her burning wrists into the silvered bonds and thrashed wildly, growling like a caged animal to be let out. Let free. 

Behind the bars of her prison, Lord Melbourne conferred quietly with Victoria, who smirked, and mimed something. In her hands was a canister of something, and her hands were gloved. Jane watched through slitted eyelids, feeling the throbbing ache of double black eyes, a bruised jaw and broken collarbone. She’d fought capture as much as a girl familiar with the feeling of being bent over by a man and brought to her knees could be - like some sort of canine beast who didn’t want to die at the end of the hunter’s gun.

I’m going to rip that woman’s neck open, and stick her head on a fucking pike. See how she likes getting her eyes pecked out by crows. Or maybe I should let her live, cast her into the Wastes and give her a hoe, so she can dig her own grave when the cataracts eat through her eyes, and her lungs corrode under the fluid leaching from her cracked lips.

Jane decided that the second option was much more deliciously awful, and settled back into her seat to keep watching her captors discuss something.

“... the gas should - kill her. At least from what I read…”

Jane swallowed, tried to not think about the ventilation in the walls.

“... if it doesn’t, we’ll do what we did with that bastard boy who’s Gloucester’s. Put her in Room 101.”

Jane’s fingers became clawed and she worked to saw through her bonds, but found them to be cutting her own nails. That plan thus abandoned, twisting her head from left to right, she noted the double-strength glass observation wall to her left, the silver bars behind it, and to her right, in front, and behind, the ventilated walls. 

They’d put her in here to die. 

You’ll die, you’ll die, you’ll die. All Nikolai will have to marry is a fucking corpse! Imagine that. You’ll meet your end, Jane. Just like how that fucked up, deformed thing you called your baby looked. As bloodied and ugly as it. Oh, he won’t make you into a bride. With luck, there won’t even be anything left to bury!

Not if I get out.

Since when have you ever got out of anything, Jane? Certainly not much, hmmm?

Shut up, Ruth. SHUT UP!

It’s a shame, you know. You never would’ve made a good mother, anyways. Always too pre-occupied with surviving, and protecting that freak, Augusta. I should’ve left her in that shell hole. And YOU! I should’ve taken my mother’s advice and aborted you while I still could.

Tears poured down Jane’s cheeks as she thrashed in her bonds once more. Hysterics in times of panic were seemingly an inheritable trait of the Becketts. Jane growled, imagining her mother as something very small, fragile, and easy to crush with the sole of her boot. A mouse.

She would kill her mother as soon as she got out of her bonds. Take her in the middle of the night with Nikolai’s knife to her throat, a line of red underlining her name. Dead, and burned in some corpse-pile on the Wastes’s edge. Or perhaps in their heart. Burned and buried in the town that had been the epicenter of an attack that’d made them all this way. Ruth didn’t even deserve a funeral, or much else. How could a woman who’d claimed to love her own daughter side with her rapist when push came to shove, had turned her back on Jane when she’d birthed her monster - her own minotaur who was dead from the moment it came into the world?

But you’ll die here. And good riddance too.

You underestimate me, Ruth.

No, I don’t. You play the fox, but you’ll always be the rabbit, tucked low to the ground, afraid. Any and all conflict has you running for the hills. It’s a miracle you lasted this long, anyways. If we’d ever ended up in that god-forsaken Nazi version of england who nuked us, I’d have turned you over and had them deal with you. Consider this penance for your sins.

Sins you straddled me with, by not helping me! 

Sins you deserve! Now, quiet, I hear a hissing noise.

Jane’s face drained of all color, and she frantically whipped her head from side to side, trying desperately to plug her nostrils, keep her mouth closed. The gas stung her eyes, making black spots dance in the edges of her vision. Screaming would do nothing - her lungs would fill with gas, kill her, and she’d die here, face frozen in some grotesque scream. So she fought vainly to live.

What she didn’t hear over the hissing of this nest of vipers was the sounds of screams,and swords clashing through the Tower’s halls. The ancient stone structure was being laid siege to by none other than some of Richard’s best soldiers. Amongst them was Cecily-Anne, burns and all, desperate to drag Jane out from under Melbourne’s grasp. 

None knew what awaited them underground. 

Jane’s vision began to swim alarmingly, as the black spots blossomed and she lolled back. Her lips parted, and a small gasp escaped her. Then, all faded out. ****

When she came too, Jane blinked twice. She expected to see the wooden beams and stone ceiling of the cell she’d become so intimately knowledgeable of. What faced her now was some sort of gauzy fabric made of cyan and edged in gold leaf and stars. A double-headed eagle glared down at her, flanked by a fox and a stout, and at their feet were White Roses and thorned fire-flowers.

Aware of a resounding pressure on her hand, Jane weakly turned her head to her side and found Nikolai’s eyes watching her, puffy with tears shed and smeared with blood. His knuckles were busted and broken. His fingernails were long, shadowed. He must’ve transformed.

For what?

“You,” he coughed, and Jane blinked again, then spoke, shuddering:

“Me?”

Nikolai nodded, and shushed her as she tried to speak again. “Your lungs are damaged, from the gas. You were nearly-” he bit his lip, and fumbled weakly for a handkerchief as tears splashed down his cheeks. Finding none, he wiped his eyes on his ripped and worn tunic sleeve. “Dead. If I’d been but a minute later…”

Who found me? She signed, coughing.

“Cecily. She has the instincts of a mother fox seeking its cubs when she’s in the right kind of mood. And what we found-” Nikolai choked, and reached with shaking hands for his canteen of water. Taking a sip, he gently helped Jane’s head up and let her drink her fill. 

“You’d destroyed the entire complex. From top to bottom. They’d gotten the gasses mixed up. It wasn’t Zyklon B - just Mustard gas. The Zykon was supposed to have silver flakes in it. The fabrikators are examining it now for disposal-” Nikolai rambled, but stopped at Jane’s widened eyes.

I destroyed it? How?

Nikolai peered at her, and noted her flinch when he reached to touch her fevered cheek. Withdrawing his hand, he gently kissed her knuckles, watching her reaction all the while. This was one of their safe touches. Kissing her hands, knuckles, palm, all were good. Anything else required more time, and for her especially to be in a better mental space. She doubted he’d ever bed her, or that she could ever stand to have a man’s hands on her like that, skirts hiked up.

She squeezed her eyes shut, but the tears still came. Through her blurred vision, she caught Nikolai’s eyes watching her, and fell into his arms with a horrific, almost animalistic noise of fear and surrender. Her fragility felt wrong, felt alien.

Look at you. Going to a man like him. He’ll hurt you. They all do.

Jane’s eyes popped open as she stared past Nikolai’s shoulder, to the stone walls of the Tower’s inner keep. Ruth was wrong - she’d always been wrong. Nothing she’d ever said had been anything but a lie.

I’m done with you. Get out of my head. 

It’ll take more than that, Janie.

Jane closed her eyes again, rested her temple on Nikolai’s shoulder, and felt his fingers trailing over her jail-style chop. It’d grown ratty, needed a barber. She missed her braids something awful. She longed to grow her hair long again, for the intricate dos she’d wanted to do for ages and ages. She missed Cecily’s fingers in her hair, twisting her strands into intricate coils when all they had were bits of twine and ratty ribbons to make her into a princess.

Now, she’d be a queen.

Saints willing.

Where’s Cecily? Jane signed, using the sign for Cecily that was intimate to her - the sign for wolf. Nikolai’s grin returned, and Jane relaxed a smidgen. It was good to see him smile. She’d longed to see it, to see him. Ever since they’d bumped shoulders on accident in the York streets near the Minster, she as Cecily’s lady in waiting, and he as Richard’s son’s bodyguard, there was an almost nuclear level spark between them.

She’d been - days? Weeks? - out of a long tenure in London with Anne Neville, ferried north on the riverways and put into only a mere few inns. She was tired, anxious over Melbourne’s machinations to take Cecily back after she’d escaped Ives’s bloodied teeth and the cold of Fort Spencer. What she hadn’t needed then was a distraction in the form of A “First Army,” infantryman who’d risen through the ranks because he “cared,” for his people and was really a prince and a privateer. 

Now, she stared, hating, at the walls of the White Tower. The Princes weren’t dead - either somewhere between Shene and the border with Scotland, Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel had taken their Gyptian upbringing, and weaponized it. East Anglia was set to recover soon enough. Provided Richard went good on his promises to go into debt with the Americans. Richard had considered writing to the pope, then promptly decided that the papal state would be very interested in why England’s king was so suddenly the afore-named Prince killer, and refuse to recognize england as none other than a heretical state given over to loping monster-dogs and blood-sucking fops. 

Canada and the rest of the empire were off limits. Ravka was well recovered enough to give them loans priced amicably enough that the interest wouldn’t cause the stewards and Richard’s council to have aneurysms en-masse. That would be messy. And bloodsoaked. 

Jane would be the bride-price, a union between House Lantsov and House Beckett. Plantagenet. Jane corrected herself. She raised her head to look Nikolai in the eye and grinned again, showing her crooked and chipped teeth. He ran his hand through her hair and grimaced.

“She’s under our feet. It seems there’s a network of tunnels and cells and torture rooms, and-”

A missile silo, stocked with enough warheads to level America. She signed, watching Nikolai’s face like a hawk.

He swallowed nervously, and stilled his hand. “Prisoners?”

Dead, or some are alive. I know there was a scientist I was airmarking for Richard. Hopefully he wasn’t killed. Had a limp, you see. Sickly. Something in his lungs. He’s very good with something called Hextech.

“No idea what that means, though it sounds like what Fabrikators do.” Nikolai straightened, stretching his legs out to rest on an ottoman, and reached for a glass of tea. “Do you want anything? Tea? Kvas? Brandy?”

What I’d like is a nap. Jane thought, and rubbed at her head. There were bandages encircling her temples like a medical diadem, and she winced as her vision went spotty. Guess I was pretty banged up?

“You were nearly dead,” Nikolai replied, sipping his crystal-cut glass of tea. His eyes studied hers intimately, then cut away to stare at the soldier standing in the entrance to the tent, gripping his cap and wringing it between his hands.

[debdarkpetal]

Queen Gazette, "Back at the Hotel Sleazy", 9 jun 1976. By Ann Finnegan.

For all those fans who were misled by the media,

Queen did not spend a couple of days-relaxing on sunny

Perth beaches - it rained the whole bloody time they

were there. (In Melbourne the hotel was 'besiged' by

fans, who to quote Pete Brown — Queen's personal

manager - seemed to be emergirig'from the wood work).

Not to be put off however, by the Australian conditions

Freddie Mercury (lead vocals and keyboards) attended

the press conference in white pants and a simply

sumptuous summer synthetic top with delicate butterfly

sleeves curling gently over his shoulders. He was

even more beautiful than Sophia Loren.

They were all quite chatty only Roger (Meddows-

Taylor, the drummer) would keep interjecting, usually

over John Deacon (bass) who said not an audible word.

Q&A :

Press: WouId you describe your music as mock opera?

Freddie: They call it cock-opera back home.

Roger: I suppose because the vocals are in the 'grand

style'.

Press: When is your next album coming out?

Freddie: We'll have a rest and think about it..

Roger: We just don't bung'em together.

Brian: We don't sort of write sitting in hotel rooms

you know.

Freddie: We gather influences.

Press: Your music has been described as snob rock

What do you think?

Freddie: I couldn't describe our music as anything. We

certainly don't put across that this it intelligent

music that is on a completely different level

to the people who come to it.

Roger: It's written for the people. That's what it's

all about.

Press: The theme of death recurs on your albums

Why this preoccupation?

Roger: Freddie's morbid mind.

Press to Freddie:Do you consider yourself a sex-symbol?

Freddie: You're joking dear. I'm just a singer dear

Press to Roger: Do you consider yourself a superstar?

Roger: As meaningless, (blows kisses)

Roger on the media - absurd for a magazine to combine

bine rock and politics.

Press: Roger, you're noted for your amazing screams.

Freddie: It's a controlled scream. I'd rather call it art.

Undauted by the fearless Australians they continued

talking about their lyrics and the esoteric implication

Roger: Freddie just loves the word 'Beelzebub .

Freddie: yes, well, Brian's got a taste for unusual words.

Roger: You talking about dandling on your knee and

things?

All four of them write songs and each has at least one

song on 'A Night At The Opera'.

Brian: It's very difficult to talk about our songs as a

group because we all have different ideas of

what the songs are about.

Roger: No we don't.

Freddie: Roger's the sensitive one. 'I'm in love with

my car' is the most sensitive song on the

album (Night At The Opera).

Roger did tend to sit there pouting at the bows on his

pink lame gym-boots. One hardly noticed the dark

roots in this gold angelic hair. We did ask, but unfortunately

Roger didn't have a pic of himself in the gym boots.

Roger was later accosted by David Essex fans in

the foyer of the hotel, who wished to know if he was a

popstar, girls now have Roger's autograph Back

to the lyrics....

Freddie: Every song is written by one of us and means

something special to each one of us. Certain

songs have a very literal meaning and can be

understood straight away. Then there are some

songs that can be taken on a lot of different

levels.

He describes a lot of his songs as fantasies. 'We want to

consciously lose ourselves. There are certain things we

want to escape from in our lives or whatever.' He feels

that people should create their own private fantasies

from the images in his songs and so doesn't like to talk

about what they mean to him. 'I'd hate to shatter someone's

illusion. If I listen to somebody's songs I conjure

up a fantasy of what its about and I like to keep it that

way.'

He elaborated further .. . 'Lyrically it is helpful to use

certain words. You see it depends .... sometimes I want

to use words that are phonetically useful. In the beginning

they're surface words but you entwine them into

the meaning of a song. That's what I mean about

different levels.'

Brian May has a different approach to his songs, 'There's

usually something serious behind them, but I feel a big

responsibility not to over-indulge in ideologies. In

'White Queen' I was very interested in that significance

of Queens and White Ladies in English folk lore. The

song started off as a personal experience, the frustration

of not being able to communicate, I was thinking about

Robert Graves' White Goddess' and that became involved

in the song. '

Roger:

Brian:

Romantic slush.

Our 'Now I'm Here' song is really about our

first American tour. A big experience for anybody.

It's a conglomeration of all the experiences

we had on that tour. We had a great

time with Mott the Hoople. I suppose they

taught us to be a touring band.

We're very critical about each other and very

cynical. We don't get deeply into meanings

because you're living

have to

do it it all the time. You

me on

With the stage show the band is doing something

different to stimulating their records.

Brian: "You don't

get up there and behave like you do in the street. You

go up there to entertain people and give them some kind

of excitement". They have rearranged some of their

songs especially for stage performance, including a medley

of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Killer Queen', 'Black Queen'

and 'Leyroy Brown', which grinds down into 'March

of the Black Queen' and then skips out on a lighter

note which features Brian on genuine Japanese ukulele.

The brilliant solo Brian performs in 'Brighton Rock',

with sweet high Paganini frills and harmonies, stimulating

two or three guitars on stage, is in a style he has

evolved himself. He got the idea the first time he was

in a recording studio.

Says Brian: "It was my first

experience of doing multi-tracking. It happened to be

in the cannon-things which repeat themselves. You play

one, then you play the same over the top of it after a

time interval. Later we started to do those things on

stage but there was the problem of how to do it. We

started having a single delay and then another one over

the top of it. Then afterwards you do another repeat on

the second. You can then do three part harmonies

with yourself. We started to base it all on ten second

solos and it grew and grew. There's a lot of other people

doing it now and I'm glad because its a thing you can

play around with.'

In the stage arrangement of "Prophet's Song' Freddie

uses a similar echo feedback system which multiplies

his voice into a celestial choir. His voice floats as a vision

- "Listen to the madman' - while Brian plays some

beautiful guitar.

Brian describes their encore performance as the time

when the band really unwinds. "It's nice at the encore

to just completely unbend and make a fool of yourself.

It gets rid of the tension between the band and the

audience. I used to get a kick out of going to concerts

to see rock groups like the 'Who' and feeling involved,

like the group knew you were there. We go by the kinds

of things we think people would like at an encore. It's

at a very basic level really, an energy level, a physical

level. Rock and Roll is kind of a body music. I get as

much satisfaction out of basic rock'n roll like Status

Quo as the most sophisticated music I know.'

The audience certainly enjoyed it and really let

loose their energy.

Roger (who claimed the most female

screams) in rainbow mop-wig opened the encore wjth

slow heavy rock-beat as Freddie did a dramatic entrance

in a silk kimono. As he eased into 'Big Spender', he

peeled off to striped hot pants for an outrageous version

of 'Jailhouse Rock' - simple hard-driving rock'n'roll

that had everybody out of their sets.

gettin' feelin' thru

transistors

Brian was rather upset that the Australian Press

should see them as a manufactured band. If 'Bohemian

,Rhapsody' can be seen as incorporating the spectrum of

theirs talent - mood changes, heavy stuff, the soft

it is not because they (men of letters from

universities) have developed a magic 'X' formula

can be seen as a musical progression,

working of motifs off their other albums. Brian can

y say that, ' They obviously didn't see us in the earl-

stages.

We started playing because

I vision that we thought was

over a year and a half we were playing

usally you gather people around who

the way it happened.

We're very lucky really

have the kind of audience who are attentive

to directions we choose to follow. One of us

end up with a song and we'll say, yeah it needs

that kind of treatment and maybe that turns out to be

something you call heavy and sometimes something

which is light.'

To get back to the charge that they are a manufactured

band, while he doesn't like it, he can only take it as

a compliment that they think the band is so good. He

doesn't consider himself a technician "technically I've

stayed the same for the last six or seven years. Progress

is what you feel and what you are putting across. That's

what playing is about for us.'

Freddie: There's a lot of music there too.

Roger: A bit of music, yeah.

Via _letusclingtogether_ on Facebook.

[sepelios]

[ olivia cooke, cis-woman, she/her ] look who just landed! WREN PALMER, i sure hope you packed all you need. perhaps you’re not worried as an X CODER at X ACADEMY & INFORMANT for THE GREY LILIES. the city has plenty of spots for a 32 year old HUMAN like you. you’ll be known in the city soon enough as THE TRAITOR, being INQUISITIVE and ANXIOUS.

.ACCESSREQUEST record; employee number 039278 authorising... ACCESS GRANTED

EMPLOYEE NUMBER 039278 <BASICS>

full name: wren palmer

nickname: none (but is open to them!)

date of birth: 12th march, 2373

gender: cis woman

pronouns: she/her

sexual orientation: bisexual (women/nb)

romantic orientation: biromantic

current age: thirty two

modification: human

affiliation: x academy the grey lilies

birthplace: melbourne, australia (earth)

current neighbourhood: akumu

occupation: x coder, specialising in android programming

known languages: english, indonesian, japanese

<PERSONALITY>

positive traits: inquisitive, compassionate, observant, just

neutral traits: analytical, intelligent, unassuming, inhibited

negative traits: anxious, sensitive, impatient, obsessive

peeves: being interrupted, people who don't apologise, doors left ajar, code that doesn't work, gum chewing

fears: getting caught as an informant by her employers, confrontation in general, hospitals, feeling lonely for the rest of her life

skills: coding and programming, going unnoticed, problem solving, listening attentively

goals: help expose the true nature of x academy, find some sort of closure for the death of her brother

<APPEARANCE>

faceclaim: olivia cooke

height: 5’6”

eye colour: dark brown

hair colour: auburn

clothing style: best described as dark academia reimagined by someone who works in tech — typically soft, loose fabrics in warmer earth tones, wide-legged trousers, oversized shirts and knitwear, graphic tshirts, boots or sneakers

jewellery: small hoop earrings, a simple gold necklace with a small star pendant, a gold signet ring

tattoos: a bird in flight on the back of her right shoulder

marks/scars: none

modifications: none

scent/fragrance: violet, musk, bergamot

<INSPIRATIONS>

quote: "i learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

label: the traitor — a person who betrays someone or something, such as a friend, cause, or principle

tropes: cowardly lion; amateur sleuth; fighting from the inside; the atoner; taking up the mantle; beware the quiet ones

parallels: elisa esposito (the shape of water); mabel mora (only murders in the building); peeta mellark (the hunger games); klaus baudelaire (a series of unfortunate events); allison cameron (house)

song: the body is a blade — japanese breakfast

<FAVOURITES>

likes: waking up early, the ritual of a coffee and a pastry every morning on her way to work, burning candles, oversized knitwear, avoiding social obligations, antiques

dislikes: sweltering heat, having her photograph taken, ketchup, large crowds, frequent feelings of overwhelming dread

hobbies: visiting the cemetery, cooking for herself, people watching, long runs, weekly phonecalls with her parents that she always tries to avoid

habits: stress smoking, tucking a pen or pencil behind her ear, spending hours walking around the grocery store, cracking her knuckles when nervous

cherished item: the gold ring she wears at all times that belonged to her brother

<SUMMARY> death of a loved one tw

the palmers moved from earth to new jakarta with their two children, having bought into the propaganda of there being a better life available for everyone on mars. as it turned out, this better life was out of reach for them. the only place they could afford to live was the slums in akumu, and the well-paying jobs that they had been promised failed to materialise, forcing them into blue-collar labour for minimal wages.

wren grew up wanting to live a more comfortable life, and when she developed an interest in tech, she used this to drive her, aspiring to one day work for x academy. her twin brother, robin, took a different path, instead growing bitter about the disparity of wealth in the city and wanting to punish those in positions of power who exploited the lower classes.

eventually, wren was accepted at the university in sora around the same time her brother was inducted into the grey lilies. though she didn't judge his choices, and even empathised with him, she didn't engage with that side of his life, though he repeatedly told her that her skills in coding could be useful to the gang. they maintained a relationship, even as she was offered a job at x academy after her graduation and he begged her not to take it, even as he repeatedly put himself in more danger and she tried to get him to stop taking risks with his life. this back and forth, endless worrying about the other, last for several years.

when robin told her that he thought there was a link between the golden tears and x academy, wren dismissed it as a lie designed to get her on his side. the two fought bitterly over it, and she stormed out of his apartment. several days later, wren was notified that he had been killed in a clash with the golden tears.

after taking as much bereavement leave as she was allowed to take, wren returned to work at x academy with her brother's warnings echoing around her mind, and decided that it was finally time for her to hear him out. incrementally, and without drawing attention to herself, she began to look into this where she could, only to discover that he had been correct. horrified at the company for its association with the gang, and at herself for living in denial, she approached the grey lilies with an offer to be their informant, replacing robin.

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

A priest with a gun sets the scene in TV’s newest ‘whydunit’

Jay Ryan, Luke Arnold and Bella Heathcote star in Scrublands. Credit: Stan

The story starts with a bang. A priest in his white and purple robes strides out of a country-town church with a rifle – yes, a priest with a rifle – and starts shooting parishioners, leaving five of them dead. Father Byron Swift is then himself shot dead in self-defence by the local copper. Thus begins the saga of Scrublands, a new mini-series set in regional Australia – and obviously there’s no mystery about whodunit.

Jay Ryan stars as the gun-toting Father Byron Swift in Scrublands. Credit: Stan

In fact, at first there’s no mystery about anything at all. The priest had recently been accused of paedophilia, and the official explanation is that he got himself killed rather than face up to the crime. But then, a year later, burnt-out Sydney Morning Herald journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in town to write a perfunctory story about how the town is faring 12 months on, and starts to smell a rat.

Based on former journalist Chris Hammer’s best-selling novel of the same name, Scrublands is a thriller set in a remote country town, Riversend, which has been battered by years of drought, fire and flood, is reeling from a terrible act of violence, and harbours a profound distrust of outsiders generally, and anyone in the media specifically.

Producer David Redman, whose credits include Charlie & Boots and Strange Bedfellows, says distilling the novel, a whydunit rather than a whodunit, into a four-part series is no mean feat. “It’s amazing how much story you can tell in four episodes,” he says. “It’s pacy. No one’s going to fall asleep in this one, particularly not after the opening scene. It’s such an iconic and unusual way to start, as far as making sure you have an engaged, attentive audience.”

Writer Felicity Packard (Underbelly, Janet King) agrees. “The opening scene is pretty much what takes place in the novel. That’s a really powerful way to start. You’re not hiding your light under a bushel, it’s right up there in episode one, scene one.”

Luke Arnold plays burnt-out Sydney Morning Herald journalist Martin Scarsden in Scrublands. Credit: Sarah Enticknap/Stan

Director Greg McLean has form when it comes to filming Australian crime drama. His CV includes the legendary outback horror flick Wolf Creek. Packard enthuses about his vision. “He has such a strong idea of what he’s doing. He’s already got the edit in his head, so he know what he’s shooting for. He doesn’t just shoot the shit out of things, he knows what he wants.”

The story revolves around two men, the charismatic and dedicated but mysterious priest Byron, played by Jay Ryan (The Creamerie, Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake) and the jaded, frustrated journalist Martin, played by Luke Arnold (Michael Hutchence in INXS biopic Never Tear Us Apart). Linking the two is Mandy Bond, played by Bella Heathcote (The Man in the High Castle, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows), the beguiling owner of the local bookstore-cafe who has a few secrets of her own.

Bella Heathcote in Scrublands. Credit: Narelle Portanier

It was McLean who introduced Heathcote to the project. “I’d worked with him on Bloom [with Bryan Brown and Jacki Weaver] a couple of years ago and he and I were going to do another project together and that didn’t happen sadly, and he said, ‘I’ve got this other great project.’ He sent me the first two episodes, and I was hooked, I wanted to know what happened next.”

Heathcote’s character, who had studied at uni in Melbourne before returning to look after her dying mother, fascinated the actor. “Mandy just seems so tough and cool. No bullshit, the way she carries herself through life, the way she interacts with people in the town. I just really admired her. So often she has those quips I wish I had in any given situation!”

Instinctively playing her cards close to her chest, Mandy has to decide if she can trust the journalist who’s just shown up in town. Martin, meanwhile, is reassessing his commitment to unearthing the truth after an investigative story that spun horribly out of control.

“Martin is someone who was jet setting around the world righting wrongs, bringing justice to the world,” Arnold says. “This truth is so important that you know, if I’m going to hurt a few people along the way, it’s worth it if the story gets out.”

“There’s been the tragedy of a massacre happening here and the media stomping around, and is Martin going to contribute to that, or through setting the story straight can he help give this town a new future?”

The other main character in the story is the fictional town of Riversend. Film crews worked on location around Maldon, near Bendigo, and at the more remote Nyah West, up in the Mallee. “The advantage we have over the book is we can show things,” says Redman. “So visually, I don’t know if it’s literally a thousand words per image but we are definitely able to express the sense of isolation very quickly through what we show.”

The town author Chris Hammer created is inherently cinematic, Arnold says. “The idea of the kind of isolated town that was really wrecked by the event, picking up the pieces, so lent itself to screen”, Arnold says. “These key moments, these key locations, the bookstore-cafe being the centrepiece for a bit of romance.

“This was a beautiful country town, there was the chance for a flourishing community, but what happens when a town gets tarred with this, all people now think of when they hear Riversend is this awful massacre. If you’re a business owner, if you’re a local, if your family has grown up here what does this do to yourself, your future, your investment in your community and your family?”

There’s always the temptation, Redman says, to make films in studios, citing his movies Charlie and Boots and Strange Bedfellows, both starring Paul Hogan, as examples that benefited hugely from breaking out and working on location. On this production, recent floods gave them plenty of detail to work with. “In Baringhup [near Maldon] there was a caravan park we were using for some of the scenes. In October last year it was 2 metres under water so all the caravans were ruined, these were people’s houses. We could’ve created that visually on a backlot somewhere, but you wouldn’t have got the same feeling that these are people’s homes.”

Also, filming on location can produce moments of visual serendipity. Packard recalls a scene where Martin is talking to the sympathetic local cop Robbie (played by Adam Zwar). “At the end of the scene Robbie’s left sitting on a park bench. Greg McLean didn’t call ‘cut’ straight away, just waited to see what the actors might do. The actors didn’t do anything, but a flock of 200 corellas came swooping down and circled around him and then took off. The whole crew just gasped.”

With its dramatic scenery and the increasingly murky activities of the townsfolk, the series has all the hallmarks of an Australian thriller, but still, the heroes, villains and victims of this tale are not the usual suspects. “There’s an awful lot of stories about young women being killed,” says Packard. ”Not that it’s great to see five men being shot dead, but we’re doing something quite different there, it’s a different sort of crime.”

Scrublands premieres on Stan on November 16.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Pedantic, chapter one - a Malevolent AU

Arthur Lester is the best IT architect in the world, and the reason Carcosa, Inc. has its fingers in every pie. Government, medical, everyone in the world uses its systems.

Arthur is also going blind, with a rare genetic condition that can’t be fixed.

The looming depression is bad. He can’t imagine a life where he can’t create anymore. Arthur nearly gives up… until a deeply annoying cybersecurity programmer prods him into trying something new.

Great, right? Now, if only this John Doe weren’t clearly hiding something so wild that not even PI Parker Yang can dig it out…

Chapter One: Time for a bet.

AO3

----------

Arthur couldn’t see his view.

He knew it was good. He could still see when picking out the penthouse three years ago. He also knew it was a complete waste for him to hang on to this view now when he couldn’t see it, but he didn’t give a fuck. It felt like revenge against whatever force saw fit to do this to him, by depriving some other bastard of a view like this.

I’m telling you, it isn’t compliant, the robotic voice in his head said, synthesizing that fucking American’s words in the least emotional manner possible.

Arthur had never heard John’s actual voice, but was certain it wasn’t emotionless. “It does. I checked it against CIC standards, and YTM, and even the elusive Carney and Dobbs scale. You’re wrong.”

No, you are, argued the distant engineer.

Arthur didn’t have time for this. “Listen, Mister Doe, it is two o’clock in the morning here. I know damn well what I sent you works. So the problem is on your end, and I expect you to figure it out. ”

Silence. A long moment of silence.

Arthur knew precisely two things about John Doe. One, he was some sort of security whiz, capable of sniffing out backdoors and potential risks before even the pro hackers did, and two, John Doe absolutely hated his guts.

It was personal. Had to be. He never agreed to anything, always dragged out every damned conversation. Damned pedantic son of a bitch.

Finally, an answer: I think you need to check your code.

Check his code! Arthur did not need to check his code. “Excuse me?”

Check your code.

“No. It is two o’clock in the morning here, Doe.”

It is noon here, Lester. I have four hours to get this implemented. If you don’t fix your fucking code, I will.

And there we go. Pointless threats. Inappropriate language.

The sucky thing was, while normally altering code like this without approval would be enough to get someone fired, John Doe could get away with it.

Doe had come out of nowhere; Arthur had never heard of him, and he’d made no waves, but boom, old Hastur had promoted him to chief of cybersecurity for the whole company, and evidently paid him enough to live comfortably in the Upper East Side, Manhattan.

And Arthur had to admit: Doe was some kind of golden boy. He knew his stuff. It may feel like he sprang fully-formed from Hastur’s head, but he knew cybersecurity. It was like he had a fucking pipeline to the bad guys, the way he was able to spot exploits before anyone else could grab hold.

What Doe didn’t know was art. Or beauty. Or utility. Or any of the things Arthur’s entire life had revolved around since he was twelve and used Python to design his first Linux GUI.

Arthur sighed. He turned away from his glass walls and wraparound balcony, from the view of Melbourne at night which he could not see, and made his way to his computer.

His monitor—enormous, because all the text had to be, as well—booted up, and he sighed as he entered the usual frustrating and painful balance of trying to focus, squinting, dealing with the pain of the monitor’s brightness (without which he couldn’t see the damn screen) and adjusting the size of the text until he could handle it and read through what he’d written.

Gods, this was a gorgeous design. Lullabye, he called it, because it was designed to help after a DDOS attack, to put all relevant and endangered systems right to sleep, cutting off access, stopping whatever invasion was going on right in its tracks.

It was flawless. It was efficient. It was beautiful. It was a hell of a major project to go out on.

He could not spot whatever put Doe in a tizzy. Fuck.

The easy solution would be to give Doe permission to patch it, requiring detailed notes of what changes he made.

The medium-hard solution would be to give him permission to patch it, but live, with Arthur sharing his screen, so Doe couldn’t do anything unmonitored (and maybe Arthur could finally understand how Doe thought).

The dangerous solution was to refuse him, foment more conflict for no pay out, and watch Doe have his way, anyway.

Damn it. But it’s perfect, he thought, unable to keep from whining a little.

Arthur sighed. Carcosa had been good to him. Hastur had rewarded his artistry over and over. The ungrateful thing would be not to trust Doe. “Fine,” Arthur muttered. “Cassilda, email John Doe.”

Emailing, she replied through the implants in his head, voice as musical as he designed her to be, damn near singing.

“Permission granted to make changes to the code as long as we do a screenshare and all changes are approved by me. Send.”

Silence for a moment.

About fucking time, Lester. Here’s my number. Text is fucking faster.

This guy knew his stuff, but he did not know how to be fucking appropriate in a fucking business setting. “Is he serious?” Arthur said. Maybe he did spring fully-formed from Hastur’s head, he snorted. Being a year old would explain it all. “Reply: If you’re trying to cover your ass legally, that won’t work with a company phone.” It was both sarcasm and a warning. Also, logic. Touché!

Arthur’s smugness lasted all of the 60 seconds it took for Doe to receive and reply: I have my own personal phone and so do you. Don’t be a dick. Let’s get this done.

How did… What? Why did Doe know that? “I’m not a dick,” Arthur muttered, trying to decide if this was a great big personal information violation, or…

Well, it was, but did it really matter? He could change the number. Block Doe. Whatever he wanted to do here. And it would be quicker. The Hyades global network was faster than any email because Arthur had helped design it. (Hastur had given him an incredible bonus that year.) “Cassilda, send Doe my phone number.” Okay, why had he done that? Why? “Because I’m not a dick,” he answered himself. “I’m an idiot.”

The reply took literally as long as Doe needed to save the contact to his phone. Nice to meet you.

“We haven’t met yet, Doe,” said Arthur, replying through Cassilda.

Call me John. Now let’s fix this code.

“Damn you, there’s nothing to fix!”

An exclamation mark! A swear word! Looks like I finally got some emotion out of you.

Arthur gaped at nothing. “I will have you know that you get plenty of emotion from me. Primarily, frustration.”

Glad to know you’re not frigid. Okay, I’m sending the screenshare request now.

“Frigid? What the fuck… Wait, wait, give me a moment. Got it, got it. You prick.”

Better believe I am. Now, pay attention. Line 1004. Doe—John—read the code to him via text, because Cassilda would read it next.

Arthur paled. It had a typo.

He couldn’t see the typo. The font showed the difference between a lower-case l and a numeral 1, but he couldn’t see it.

He leaned in, face nearly to the monitor, peering. The serifs might as well have all been erased.

See it? Good. Next we’ll jump down to line 8524.

Arthur didn’t reply. He swallowed.

It was another typo, but this one… he didn’t need to know this was the big one. The typo on 1004 just rendered that bit of code inoperable; nothing would happen. But this one…

This one. Instead of a semi colon, it was a colon, which meant…

This is the big one, said John unnecessarily. Arthur didn’t reply. This one means this process keeps running, and the particular ping it creates to find the invading bug also leaves it open to malicious injection.

“I was right,” Arthur whispered, because he had been. He’d thought, deep down, this would be his last major project.

About what?

Arthur hadn’t meant to send that. He leaned back in his chair, reducing the familiar, beloved language on the screen to blurry dots and squiggles, and was surprised to find he was crying. He wiped his face, furious. “Nothing.”

Tell me. It could be relevant.

Fuck him. “It’s not relevant.”

It might be. We’re getting this fixed so you can go to bed and I can go get drunk. Come on, Lester.

He sighed. “Arthur. Just Arthur.”

All right, Just Arthur. What were you right about?

Arthur checked. Cassilda confirmed that “just” had been capitalized. Like receiving a knighthood, or something.

He laughed weakly. “Didn’t know you were funny, Doe.” A pause. “John.”

Only when it’s worth my while.

So… well, this moment was certainly worth his while. They had three hours left to implement this thing. “Just that this was my last big hurrah. That’s all. I knew. I knew it. Just didn’t want to know it, if you get what I mean.”

Why the hell had he said that?

Arthur sighed. There was no undo send with Hyades and the Carcosa phone line (Dancer—it had long put Apple out of business). It was better, Arthur believed and had argued, to have a record of communication, even when things were sent by accident. Better to have that record, legal and powerful, then try to handle the fallout of removed knowledge and the potential for deceit.

It doesn’t have to be, fucking hell.

That made him laugh for some reason. “Right. Sure.”

It doesn’t. I’m guessing the coding doesn’t work so great with Cassilda for you?

No, it had not worked with Cassilda. Cassilda could read it all out (Line 147, from enum import Enum semicolon. Line 148, class Day(Enum) colon. Line 149, all capitalized letters, MONDAY space equal sign space the numeral 1).

Yeah, he couldn’t do that. It was like trying to listen to an audiobook one godsdamned letter at a time. “It doesn’t work for what I do.”

You just need someone who knows how you think who can put your stuff into code, then. You’re good at this, Arthur.

“I’m going blind, John.” Which of course he knew. Everyone knew. Fucking TIME magazine knew.

So?

“Excuse me?”

You a betting man?

“Oh, what the hell are you saying?” Arthur muttered. “Don’t send that!”

It’s already sent, Arthur. My apologies.

He sighed. “No, it’s fine. Continue to send automatically unless instructed not to. I guess we’re doing this.”

John was scrolling on his end, highlighting bits of code and fixing them. It wasn’t a lot. The whole thing was nearly 100 million lines of code, and Arthur had made a total of four mistakes. That wasn’t bad.

Except that when Arthur could see, he never made any.

The code scrolled. Too fast; he didn’t have time to focus on what John was doing (and doing quickly, with an ease that spoke of artistry the idiot himself did not understand). The next generation, folks, picking up the slack.

One wild, intrusive thought of throwing himself off his expensive balcony later, Arthur shook it off. “What bet?”

Let’s design something together.

Oh, this could go so badly. “What?”

Don’t know yet, but here’s the catch.

“Of course there’s a catch.”

Heh, heh, heh.

What a silly text to send. Arthur’s lips quirked. “Out with it, you dork.”

You share your vision with me, and I design it. Your specs. I won’t interfere with your idea of beauty or whatever you call it. You stick to the parts you love—making it pretty, and how the user accesses it. I’ll make sure it works.

Arthur swallowed. He’d never successfully designed with anybody. It always fell apart. “I don’t know.”

Let’s make it big. We won’t announce it. If it falls apart and I lose the bet, I’ll do whatever you want. Quit. Shave my head. Whatever.

Arthur laughed. “Shave your head?”

But if I win—

Arthur waited. He frowned. “Did you fall on your overlarge head and die?”

Shut up. If I win, you have to keep creating shit, and I get to be smug at you over coffee.

Eh? “That’s—” He didn’t know what to say. “What kind of a stupid bet is that?”

Beneficial to us both. You think my best work isn’t done on your coattails? It is. My star rises and falls with yours. I need you, and for once, you need me, too.

That was too much, and Arthur walked away from the desk. He had to pace.

This shouldn’t be personal, but it was. “How the hell was that both flattering and infuriating at the same… need… what in fuck’s name…”

Of course, Casdilda sent that.

By all means, keep going. This is funny as fuck.

“Fuck you.” Arthur sat back down. He was shaken. He felt like he was a million years old.

It’s cleaned up. Do you want to test it?

“No, it’s ready to go live. I… I trust you.” Because he had to, at least in this. But this bet… insane. Insulting. Ingratiating? What the hell? How was he supposed to take this? It was the weirdest thing he’d ever been offered.

And it’s implemented. Congratulations. Updates are going out now. Got any champagne?

“It’s three in the morning. What I have is bed. We’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight, Doe.”

It’s John. Dick.

Arthur decided not to answer out of pure pettiness, and was still churning the entire conversation in his head when he fell asleep.

------

CHAPTER TWO

Notes:

This was posted on the road and written on my phone, so I beg your patience as I correct inevitable coding errors typos. Also, the tech stuff is made up. Just pretend it’s an alternative future. We’re all here for John and Arthur, anyway.

[crinkled-emotions]

OK ok ok ok I'm TRYING to remain calm over the puppy (lol not working)

It can me a prompt idea. I don't know if you're taking on requests still.....

Bradley's childhood dog that Mav had kept over the years passes away a couple of months after the mission and him and Mav making up so B did get some time with him. (Yeah the dog was a very good healthy boy that lived to about 20😅) And then I'm thinking maybe Hangster vibes, Jake buys him this puppy to cheer him up 😭😭🥰🥰

Quick little one while I work on the Slider fic from March (I know, I'm crying about it too, I am in the process of getting some shit sorted and I kept getting writer's block)

Funny story, my childhood dog was a mutt and he actually lived until he was seventeen. He survived being lost in Melbourne, a fight with a bulldog (which he actually won?) and being run over by a tractor. His name was Jack and I miss him sm but now I have Boss who is the biggest shithead ever (see: video of him yowling and then getting zoomies)

Brisket is... potentially the cutest puppy I've ever seen (I'm only saying that because I didn't know my dog until he was 6 months old lmao, I may continue to be biased) and I feel like he matches the shithead energy (affectionate) Glen has deep down... anyway! On to the fic!

CW: the passing of a beloved pet

-

"Holy shit, Jet's still here?!"

Bradley dumped his duffel bag on the floor and barrelled over to the dog asleep on Maverick's kitchen floor, gently kneeling and extending his hand first just in case the dog didn't recognise him. Instead of getting a growl or maybe even a head lift, the dog lazily thumped his tail and stretched out.

"Jet is nearly sixteen, his hearing is pretty much gone and before I left he walked into my leg."

Maverick's own luggage hit the floor and he made his way over, pressing a kiss to Rooster's hair and then heading for the kitchen. Jet's ears pricked up and he was gone in seconds, trotting off to follow Maverick in hopes of some kitchen scraps. Rooster trailed after him, taking a seat at the island and accepting the cheese sandwich passed to him. He pretended not to see the spare piece "dropped" to the floor where Jet was sitting at his godfather's feet.

"I didn't think he was still alive," Bradley murmured between bites of sandwich. Maverick hummed, reaching down to give the older dog a pat.

"Well, I'd say he knew you'd come home when you were ready, and he wanted to see that."

Maverick then glanced up at Rooster, and rounded the corner to hug him.

"Glad you're home, kid," he murmured.

"Thanks for letting me back in, Mav."

-

As per usual, Jake was wearing his usual shit-eating grin when Bradley got home, sitting on their couch with a book, the football on in the background and a beer in his lap. Peak Seresin behaviour.

"Hey, baby. How was Mav?"

"Uh, good, my dog from right before I left is still alive."

"Jet?"

Jake tossed the book to the coffee table, carefully putting his beer down to extend his arms to his boyfriend. They kissed and then Bradley flopped down beside him, taking the beer for himself.

"Yeah, did I ever tell you the story of Jet?"

"Getting childhood stories from you is like pulling teeth, Roos," Jake replied. That got him a glare, followed by an eye roll and then Bradley leaned into his side.

"So, my mom, she died when I was fifteen, right? And I wasn't coping all that hot. Mav was getting called away on deployments because he can't follow the rules and I think he worried that me staying with Ice all the time was displacing... so one night he comes home after work with this puppy. It pissed everywhere and I'm pretty sure he chewed at least three pairs of Mav's boots, but Jet was what I needed when talking to people or even thinking of going to a therapist would be enough to send me into a panic attack."

"I didn't know you were that anxious," Jake murmured, reaching over to push his fingers through Bradley's curls.

"I'm not; it was the grief and I was constantly moving between Mav's, Ice's, even Penny's, once, when Mav and Ice were in the shit together."

"I can't even imagine- wait... the Ice? As in Iceman?"

"Yes, Jake. Keep up, babe."

-

Sitting in Maverick's kitchen, there was silence. Jake, Bradley and Maverick were all in various positions, but Jake had a hand on his boyfriend's shoulder and Maverick was waiting for what he was thinking was going to be another fight.

"Was it quick?" Bradley asked quietly. Maverick nodded, eyes on the floor. Despite knowing he wasn't in trouble, the worst feeling in the world was Bradley being upset with him and Bradley was giving off those vibes.

"He went in his sleep, the vet said. It was age, he wasn't in pain."

"I need him," Bradley murmured. Jake rubbed between his shoulders, sighing as he turned to Maverick.

"Have you already buried him?"

"I was waiting for you two to get here."

Jet was gone. After sixteen years, he was gone. Bradley was staring at the island counter, brows furrowed, and he finally glanced up at Mav.

"Let's just do it now, what's another one to bury?"

"Roo-"

"-Bradley-"

He held up a hand, effectively stopping his boyfriend and godfather.

"No, let's just do it."

-

It had been a couple of months, and whilst he'd given Bradley some time to grieve, Jake was getting the itch to get him a little surprise... no, not the sexy surprise, hEY- get your head out of the gutter! Before Bradley found out Jet was still alive they'd been talking about getting a pet once they'd moved in together properly. Jake had been more or less living at Bradley's for almost a year, so when his lease came up for renewal he didn't hesitate to cancel it at Bradley's insistence that he move in for real. Jake was surprised at how much Jet's passing had affected his boyfriend, but he understood the underhanded grieving of his mother all over again that was associated with the pet. He didn't want to overstep, but- well. It just so happened a local shelter was having an adoption drive over the weekend while Bradley went to an event with Maverick for TOPGUN. Perfect timing, if you ask him.

"B, you home?"

"Here."

Bradley waved from the desk in the living area, huffing at the computer in front of him. He was working through some documents by the look on his face, and Jake cleared his throat as he knelt on the ground to put the item in his arms down.

"I, uh, went to the store."

"What, did you forget cheese again? You know how I feel about cheese."

"Yeah, I also know how your stomach feels about cheese. Admit you're lactose intolerant already."

Bradley closed the laptop and wheeled around before Jake was even slightly ready and immediately his eyebrows shot up.

"The store, huh?"

"I never said which store," Jake grinned. He glanced up at Bradley, sending him a cautious smile.

"This little guy doesn't have a name, and he's not to replace Jet, but I felt like the house had been a little too quiet lately- oof! Oh, okay, this is nice. Hey, can you hug the puppy too? I think he'd like that."

Bradley pulled away from Jake's shoulder to give him a kiss, and then knelt by the tiny puppy yapping at their feet.

"Hey, hey, shhhhhh..."

The dog darted around his feet before Bradley carefully caught him and lifted him to his chest, grimacing at the wet licks on his neck.

"The first time Mav ever picked up Jet, the dog pissed all down his shirt," he murmured, laughing to himself. Jake snorted, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Do you want to give him a name?"

"What do you think?"

"Well, you named Jet after your love for the air, so..."

Jake beamed.

"Oh, I think I know the perfect name."

-

"Oh my god, look at you! Hi Roo- gimme the puppy, holy shit!"

Phoenix darted around Rooster's offer of a hug when he opened the door, taking the puppy from his arms and giving kisses to his nose. The puppy yapped and his tail was wagging a million miles an hour at the excitement.

"B! Is that the dog again?"

Jake came down the stairs, rounding the corner to look for the puppy.

"Hey, Tooster! C'mere, dude!"

The puppy barker from Phoenix's arms. She couldn't help the way she gaped between her best friend and Hangman, before she smirked.

"Jake, you didn't."

"I did, but I'd like some clarification on what exactly I did."

"Rooster and Tooster?"

"He goes by Toaster a majority of the time, he burns energy and farts all the damn time so the house is full of hot air."

Phoenix stifled a snort, and then buried her face into the puppy's fur to stop laughing. Jake and Bradley exchanged a look, and then Bradley smacked his ass on his way to the kitchen.

"He loves cheese, and naps, and doing zoomies around Jake's feet in the kitchen."

"Ha, Roos, he's you."

"I'm not allowed to discuss the resemblance, I get sex-iled," Jake grumbled.

-

[moonlightndaydreams]

Room 143 Series: A Han Jisung 18+ fanfic - Part 1 - A Night to Remember (the beginning of the 143 Series)

Premise: If someone told me I would spend a night with Han Jisung, I would have laughed in your face.

Stray Kids are in Sydney Australia for their Maniac concerts, and so am I. Little did I know that I would be staying at the same hotel as them, or what was going to unfold that night.

Characters: Han/ OFC, Very little mentions of Stray Kids Ensemble.

Trigger Warnings/ Warnings: smut, oral sex, vaginal fingering, unprotected sex, sex toys, mild spanking, angst, romantic feelings, videotaping sex, cum eating, explicit language, making love, anal sex.

This is an adult 18+ story.

Approx 22k words

If someone had told me that I would have one night with Han Jisung, I would have laughed in your face.

[ Han heard my frustrated, pathetic cry. “Tell me what you need me to do.” He whispered huskily between kisses.

“Touch me, Han.” I breathed, and I reached down to touch his hand on my thigh. “Please.” My voice was barely audible.

He let out a shaky breath and looked down to where our hands were resting together on my leg. My hand slid back up his arm to grip his bicep, and he slowly inched his fingers up the inside of my leg, his hungry eyes following his hand as it disappeared under my skirt. ]

Sophie pov Earlier that day…

It was finally Tuesday, and I woke up in the hotel room with excitement. Tonight was the night. Stray Kids were having their Sydney concerts tonight and tomorrow night and I was going to both! YES!

I flicked the sheet off of me but continued to lay there trying to ground myself that I was actually going to see them in real life. They would be in the same place as me. At the same time. I squealed and flapped my arms and legs around in excitement. I was such a nerd.

Sydney had been hot this week. February was the hottest month of the year in Australia, but this week was outrageously hot, and STAYS were getting worried about the outfits they had chosen for the night. It was definitely not the weather for black pants and boots, or any of the punk/goth-like attire many had planned to wear. I’d been sweating for days! I hoped the boys would be able to cope tonight. They had already performed two concerts in Melbourne, and that city had had a heatwave too.

I had arrived at the hotel yesterday evening, to give myself a little bit of a mini break from my busy life, and, because I didn’t know anyone who liked Kpop, my mini break was also a solo one.

But that didn’t bother me at all. I knew from the STAY’s Facebook group that many were going to the concerts solo. I loved the idea that young people these days are happy to enjoy the things that light them up, even if no one else they know likes it. I am a slightly older STAY. Early thirties. So doing things independently doesn’t seem as big a deal as it would have 15 years ago. I was fine with flying solo.

I checked the time on my phone. 8am. I had too many hours to kill, and decided I’d go and have some breakfast and then go do a workout in the hotel’s gym. That should pass some time and get a smidge of my pent up excitement out of my restless body.

I went down to the restaurant where breakfast was your standard “Continental breakfast”, and I filled up on pastries and orange juice. The restaurant was practically empty. Any business folk would have already eaten (if they had even eaten at all) and be off to work, and since it wasn’t the weekend there weren’t any families around. Empty and quiet.

Once I had enough to eat and drink I headed to the gym room.

I wasn’t the fittest person in the world, and I was definitely not the most confident person in a gym setting, but I did like to make sure I exercised three times a week.

I opened the door to the gym and found it to be empty. Good, no one would see my awkwardness. The room was moderately sized, with several treadmills and elliptical machines along the back wall, a floor area for mat work, some strength training equipment and free weights along the full length mirrored side wall. Two weights benches were parked nearby.

After warming up on an exercise bike, I decided I’d use some free weights today. I wandered over to the weights and picked up the 4 kg dumbbell and sat down on a bench and began a set of bicep curls.

Even though I was alone I felt so uncoordinated and self-conscious. But I tried to push through. Something I had learned about myself a long time ago was that after the first ten minutes of anything, some of that weird anxiety lessens, and I settle into what I am doing. So my first goal was to get through ten minutes and surely I would feel okay after that.

That’s when I heard voices outside. Male voices. Getting closer to the gym.

Fuck. Don’t tell me some gym bros are going to come in here?

I could feel my skin flushing as I became flustered. I listened hard trying to find out what the voices were saying.

I could here them. One voice was bellowing loudly, another laughing. But I couldn’t understand them. They were speaking a foreign language.

The gym door burst open and three men dressed in black confidently sauntered in.

They noticed me right away and nodded a polite hello to me, bowing slightly when they did.

I automatically responded with a friendly smile and a “hello, how are you.” But inside I was frozen.

It was fucking 3Racha.

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

The three men moved so confidently around the gym whilst I tried to mind my own business and not look at them. Every now and then I would steal a glance, and each time I could feel my heartbeat kick up a gear.

They looked like gods as they helped each other with weights, admiring each other’s physique as their muscles became pumped up. Changbin said something to Han and Chan burst out laughing uncontrollably. Han then pouted and complained. Was Changbin teasing him? I smiled to myself as I watched their interactions. If it wasn’t for the nerves and anxiety swirling around my body telling me that this is fucking real, I would have pinched myself to see if I was dreaming.

I felt like an outsider who had no idea what I was doing. I couldn’t stay any longer. But I also couldn’t leave. I’d be an idiot to walk away from this scenario. But I couldn’t keep sitting there with my 4kg dumbell. I needed to move onto some other exercise.

I scanned the room, seeking out a piece of equipment to use. Something that didn’t look too difficult. The pull down bar. Yes, I have used one of those before.

So over to the pull down bar I went. It was set to some outrageously heavy weight that only Chan and and Changbin would be able to manage, which meant that I’d have to figure out how to change the weight setting. I stood there looking for the pin that readjusts the weight. How the fuck do I do this?

“You look a little lost with that.” Oh my fucking god. Chan. My heart stopped and felt like I couldn’t find my words. Be polite. Be polite. Somehow I managed to pull a smile and actually speak.

“Um… yeah I… I’m just trying to adjust the weight.” Okay, so I managed to speak, but it didn’t come out well.

Chan came in closer so he could adjust the machine. He was standing so close to me that I could feel a warmth radiating off of him, and the smell of his skin which was of a fresh deodorant and sweat mingled together. His bare arms so close that if I reached out I would touch them.

“What setting would you like?” he looked at me and smiled that gorgeous smile we all know and love.

“Um… maybe the second lightest.” I said shyly realising what a weakling I am.

If Chan had any judgment about how not-strong I was he didn’t show it. He just simply slot the pin in, and then held the handle bar steady as I sat down on the seat. He was about to pull it down for me when I felt someone come up behind me. It was Changbin. He took hold of the handle bar, ushering Chan to let go of it, and pulled it down so I could hold onto it. Chan let him, taking step back, but stayed lingering by my side.

Changbin’s thick arms were on either side of mine as he held the bar steady for me to take hold of, his hands merely inches away from mine. I couldn’t breathe.

“Thank you.” I managed as Changbin let go and stepped back. By now Han was hovering around as well and I felt like I could die of embarrassment on the spot. How was I supposed to do this with them all watching me?

I took a deep breath and pulled the bar down, and then released it back up. Although I didn’t know how to change the weight on the equipment, I did know how to do the exercise properly with good form. Thank God. Satisfied that I was doing it correctly, Chan and Han went back to what they were doing at the bench press, but Changbin took this as an opportunity to be ‘personal trainer’ and stood close by watching, nodding. Approving.

“I think you can do heavier.” He stated, more to himself than to me. He took hold of the handle bar again, this time his fingers brushed mine, sending a shiver through my body, and eased the bar back up to it’s starting position. Then he considered what weight to set the machine. I watched him with one of his arms crossed across his chest, across his skin tight black t shirt, his other hand at his mouth in thought. Han was back now standing at Changbin’s side.

“What do you think? This one?” he asked Han.

I looked from Changbin to Han. Han looked at me. I felt my skin redden. He raised his eyebrows up and down at me as if to say “look at Changbin… He can’t help himself can he?”. I let out a small chuckle and Han laughed too.

“Okay try this one.” Changbin had reset the weight and helped me get back into position.

It was far heavier than I expected, but manageable.

“Changbin! A hand.” Chan called out over at the bench press. Satisfied he’d selected the correct weight for me, Changbin went back over to his leader, leaving Han to supervise me.

I felt like I was going to die. Han fucking Jisung. In the flesh. His slim body was covered with a white muscle tee, showing off his toned arms and he had slim black sweatpants on. We were in the middle of a heatwave and he had sweatpants on!

I had experienced performance anxiety in the past but this would have to top it. I attempted to keep my breath steady and my mind focused on the exercise. I tried to block out this stunning young man’s energy. This stunning young man who was… gazing?…at me.

After I completed ten pull downs, Han took the bar from me and let it slide back up. His chest grazing my back as he did so. My breath hitched. Was that on purpose? Then he came around and crouched down next to me, and from seemingly nowhere, he pulled out a bottled water and offered it to me.

“My names Han.” He said “and over there, that’s Chan and Changbin.” He pointed to his band members then turned his attention back to me, waiting for me to introduce myself.

I smirked. I wasn’t sure what to say. “I know.” I whispered quietly.

Han raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth in surprise.

“You know who we are?” he leaned forward “are you a Stay?” added excitedly.

I nodded. “Umm.. Yes.. But only a new one. I am not sure I know enough to even call myself a Stay. I am going to the concert tonight though.”

“You’re a Stay. Trust me.” Han grinned.

A dreaded thought hit me then. What if they think I stalked them here!

“I wouldn’t have imagined JYP would have put you guys up at this hotel, though.” I hoped that didn’t sound extra stalker-like.

“Actually we weren’t meant to originally. It’s all been changed up last minute. But it’s not too bad. I got to meet a Stay and that is always a bonus.” He playfully punched me in the arm.

“My name’s Sophie.” I offered.

“Nice to meet you, Sophie.” Han grinned. His smile was infectious, and I found myself grinning like an idiot at him.

The next little while was spent with mostly me talking about where I live, what I do and how I came there alone and that I'm going to their concert. 

“So how are you getting to the venue?” Chan piped up. By then all three members were sitting around chatting to me, and I felt more comfortable and at ease.

“I don’t know. I guess an Uber?” I replied.

“Don’t be silly. You can come with us.” Han said and turned to Chan. “Can’t she Hyung?” Han looked hopeful.

“It’s okay. I am a grown woman.” I didn’t want to cause any problems or tension between the members or staff.

Chan held up his hand. “Of course she can come with us, but you’ll have to get her a pass and she’ll have to be there for soundcheck, and we won’t get back here until quite late.”

This was too much. I didn’t need any special treatment.

“Look. I’m really grateful you want to look after me, or be kind or… whatever… but it’s really okay.” I insisted.

“What’s your room number? I will collect you myself.” Han said sounding chivalrous. It was rather endearing to see him eager to take care of me.

Maybe I should run with this and see where it goes?

I swallowed hard. “Okay,” I said. “Room 143.”

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

Back in my room I flopped down onto the bed. What the hell just happened? I kicked my legs in flurry, and brought my hands up over my face to muffle a squeal. After I let reality sink in, I sat straight up. I needed to get ready! Han had said we had to leave by 2pm and that left… I looked down at my phone… two hours.

I jumped in the shower, but my mind was still in the gym with Han, Chan and Changbin. How does something this exciting happen to me? Me!! It just kept repeating itself over and over in my mind like one of those TikTok looped edits.

I don’t know how I managed it, but before I knew it I had blow dried my hair, applied my makeup and was slipping on my frayed denim skirt, and a pink and white tee covered in little love hearts. The theme I was trying for was “Maxident”.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the knock on my hotel door.

Was it already time?

I hurried to the door, almost tripping over my own feet. “Coming. Just a sec.” I called out. I took a deep, steadying breath, and opened the door.

There stood Han… Han. Fucking. Jisung. Standing at my hotel room door. He was now donning baggy cargo pants and a grey, oversized hoodie, which he had pulled up over his bucket cap. He was gorgeous, and I felt my nerves pick up.

“Hi there.” I smiled and welcomed him into the room.

“Room 143?” he replied pointing at my room number “143 I love you!” he sang and finger hearted me, making me laugh. “I’ve got you something.” He gestured to the black cross-body bag he was wearing.

I ushered Han into my room. My room. Argghh how was this even real?

The hotel room was pretty standard of hotel rooms. An ensuite bathroom off to the right when you entered the room, a double bed in the middle, and a 2 seater couch and coffee table on the other side of the bed. A large window looked out onto a mediocre view.

“So…this is my humble abode for the next day or two.” I said gesturing around the room as though I was giving him a tour. Han scanned the room like it was somehow unique, until I saw his gaze land on an item of clothing laying on the floor… a black lace garment. Fuck, my bra!

In the most ungraceful way, I kicked the bra away and under the bed. “Sorry about that.” I stuttered. How fucking embarrassing. Han simply grinned at me as though he wanted to tease me, but he didn’t say a word.

“So… I brought you a present.” He said as he pulled off his cross-body bag. My eyes widened as he unzipped it and he pulled out a band tshirt. “I thought seeing as though you are part of the team tonight, you would like to wear this?” he handed me the shirt.

“Naww… thanks…Han.” I unfolded the black shirt and held it up against my body. The little green Maniac logo on one breast, and green print on the back.

I looked up from the shirt and met his eyes to find him looking at me expectantly. “Go try it on.” He encouraged me. “I mean I love what you’re wearing right now, so you don’t have to change it if you don’t want to,” He scratched his head nervously, “but I’d love to see you in it.” He added coyly, lowering his eyes to the floor. A rush of heat rose through my body.

“Of course. Yes…Just give me a minute.” I choked. “Um, I’ll be right back. Grab a drink if you’d like.” I waved towards the mini bar and kettle.

I stood at the bathroom sink in my new band t-shirt, trying to decide whether to tuck it into my skirt or not. What would Han prefer? Stop it, Sophie. He’s just being kind. It’s not like he’s attracted to you. I turned from side to side to get an idea of how I looked, and settled on tucking it in to highlight my hourglass figure. Then I touched up my make up. Han Jisung is in my room! I slapped my cheek to bring myself back to my senses, my stinging skin telling me this was very real. Okay, breathe Sophie. You can do this.

I stepped back into the room to find Han making two cups of tea. It was an interesting sight. Him looking all street-wise whilst brewing a comforting warm tea. Just like he can deliver hard hitting rap lines and then turn around act like a Baby-girl.

“Tada!” I exclaimed and Han turned around. He looked me up and down and nodded in approval. “Looks good, baby!” He grinned nervousnessly, fidgeting with the cords of his hoodie.

“Aren’t you hot in that?” I asked pointing to his hoodie? “It’s so hot today! Even for those that live here!”

“It is hot today.” He whispered and bit his lip, like he wasn’t talking about just the weather.

I ignored the sudden tension that had filled the room. It was suddenly suffocating, and I started twirling my hair around my finger to try to look busy.

“Well… feel free to take it off if you’re too hot, ok.” What the fuck are you saying? But Han was already removing the hoodie and his bucket cap anyway, and draped them on my bed before returning his attention to the tea. His long, slender neck, now on full display, had a thin sheen of perspiration. It set off something inside of me. I am not generally a fan of sweat, but seeing Han with just a light amount of perspiration, well, it was doing something to me. I wanted to…taste it.

“Tea’s ready!” he announced, turning around with a hot teacup in each hand. “Should we sit on the couch…?” he nodded towards the two seater couch at the other side of the room.

“Huh? Mmm.. Yes… sure…” I was brought back to reality, and it seemed I was finding it difficult to find my words, so I just awkwardly led the way and sat down.

Han placed the tea on the timber coffee table and settled into the couch and grinned at me. My eyes darted around the room nervously. What was one supposed to say to a Kpop idol who was sitting in your hotel room and just made you a fucking cup of tea?

“So…” I sucked in my breath and picked at the the hem of my skirt with my fingers.

“This is awkward for you isn’t it?” he concluded, tilting his head to the side as he watched my nervous hands busy with the frayed hem.

He glanced up capturing my gaze and I nodded, sucking in my lip. “Yeah… Sorry?” I offered.

“You don’t need to be nervous around me, baby.” He chimed endearingly. It was supposed to make me feel at ease, but all it did was make me nearly choke on air.

“If it helps, I’m nervous too.” He continued, leaning in closer like it was a secret. He looked so perfect. Big eager eyes, and an expression of wonderment, like he thought he was the lucky one in this situation.

“Really?” I whispered. “You’re nervous too?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He seemed so confident and outgoing, although I had only ever seen him perform.

He nodded. “I am the most nervous person I know!”

I laughed softly. Han looked at me suspiciously. “What is it? Why are you laughing?” he teased.

“Han,” my laugh becoming louder. “I’m the most nervous person I know!”

The rapper looked at me in disbelief, mouth hung open.

“Mm mm,” I nodded. “You don’t want to know how nervous I was in the gym this morning.” I confessed, smacking him lightly on the arm.

“You looked pretty cool and calm to me.” He argued cheekily.

“Well you don’t look nervous right now!” I taunted.

Han grabbed my hand from the hem of my skirt and held it against his chest. “Feel how fast my heart is.” He whispered seriously. I could feel his hard pecs under his shirt and the pulsing of his heart against my hand, as he stared into my fucking soul. My eyes were locked on his. I couldn’t escape his gaze. Han may have thought his heart was beating fast, but it was nothing like the racing of my heart. The pounding sounding like a fucking drum line was standing in the room.

“Can you feel it?” he asked hopefully. Oh god what was happening?

My mouth was dry. I needed a drink. I pulled my hand back quickly, and without thinking, I picked up my teacup and took a big sip in a bid to busy myself. Big mistake. “Fuck!” I pulled my mouth away and almost spilled tea down my new shirt. “I burnt my tongue!” I couldn’t believe how stupid I must’ve looked.

Han chuckled “Well it is fresh, baby.” He teased and he took the cup off me, returning it to the table. Baby?

I hung my head. Why oh why did I do that? I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head, hoping to shake out the embarrassment.

“Oh my god,” Han’s teasing turned serious as he saw my reaction, springing from his seat to dart to the mini bar to grab a bottle of water.

“Here,” he offered me the water. “Drink this, it will help.”

I took a big gulp of water, hoping that it will dissipate my embarrassment as well as my burnt tongue.

“Hey!” Han edged closer to my side, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?” I could feel his eyes on me even though my gaze was firmly fixed to the floor.

I shook my head. “I’m just so clumsy.” I whispered and looked up shyly to meet his gaze. His eyes were kind and warm, and he was smirking a little.

“Baby,” Baby? Really, does he have to keep saying that? I knew he said it to everyone, but it didn’t stop my heart from skipping a beat. “You are talking to the clumsiest Idol known to man!” he sat up proudly. “You want someone to forget lyrics? You’re looking at him. You want someone who falls on his butt? Me!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his words. He was far from clumsy, but his attempt to be relatable and make me feel better, well, it was kind of working.

“You’re good? You promise?” he asked again, double checking, rubbing my shoulder. I nodded my reassurances along with a smile.

“Good.” He whispered, nodding satisfied that I was okay. My eyes drifted to where his hand was still lingering on my shoulder, although now he’d stopped rubbing it. Han followed my gaze to where his hand rested, and for a moment it felt like time stood still. My heart stopped, my lungs weren’t working, and butterflies were starting to swirl around in my stomach. I could’ve sworn I saw longing in his eyes, and his breath catch in his throat. He abruptly came to his senses, quickly retracting his hand and nervously pushing his hair back.

“So,” he picked up his tea and blew on it before carefully taking a sip. “I take it you don’t live super close if you’re staying in a hotel?” he asked. “Wow! That is hot!” he gasped, referring to the tea, and quickly placed it back on the table.

“I guess not, I live about two hours from here. I could’ve driven home after the concert, but you know what?” I looked at Han “I wanted to just have a bit of a break. You know, from the real world. Just a couple of days.”

Han nodded approvingly. “I’d love to have a few days just for myself.” He gazed softly across the the room as though he was imagining what it’d be like to have time off to do whatever the hell he wanted.

“I take it you don’t get a lot of free time?” I asked curiously.

Han shook his head. “Nah," he paused momentarily and smiled. “but it’s all good. I certainly don’t have anything to complain about, that’s for sure.” It was as though he was trying to convince himself, more than me.

His demeanor seemed so bubbly and energetic, but as we talked there on the couch I could feel there was a lot more going on for him. It felt like underneath that happy, dorky young man there was something else, like something was missing. A sense of emptiness, perhaps? Sadness? Loneliness? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but what I was quickly noticing was that Han, although he wanted to come across as carefree and fun, deep down he yearned for something. Whether that was more of something, less of something, or something different to what he currently had, I didn’t know.

“Are you okay, Han?” I asked seemingly breaking his thoughts.

The young man paused, considering my question. “Really. I don’t have anything to complain about.” He repeated, but his words sounded empty. “But lately I’ve been lonely. I mean, I have the guys, the staff,” he sighed. “But… I don’t know. I’m tired and I suppose, maybe, I need some newness in my life.” He nodded to himself thinking through what he had just said out loud. It seemed like he was processing his thoughts and speaking them out loud for the first time. “I feel like I need some respite. From everything.” He half smiled.

A pang of empathy rushed over me and without thinking I reached for his hand that was resting on his thigh and squeezed it tightly. For a long moment, Han studied my hand covering his, and sucked in his lip. Then he looked up locking eyes with me questioningly.

I thought there was no longer any oxygen left in the room. I didn’t even know if I’d even taken a breath for the past three minutes, and it seemed Han wasn’t breathing either. We were both frozen still. The only sign that we weren’t actually frozen in time was his expression as he searched my face, like he was silently asking me a million questions and trying to find the answers in my eyes.

“The tea is probably good to drink now.” He said, swallowing, not breaking eye contact.

“Yeah… the tea.” I acknowledged, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away either.

Han cupped my face with his other hand, causing me to finally remember how to exhale. With slightly parted lips and eyes that conveyed a glimmer of want, he glanced down at my mouth and subconsciously licked his lips. His eyes flickered back up to mine for a brief moment before returning them to my mouth as he slowly closed the space between our faces. He was merely inches away and I could feel his hot breath close to my skin. I wanted nothing more than to feel his breath directly against my mouth. I wanted his breath in my mouth. I wanted to taste him, and have his wet tongue slip inside me. I wanted his teeth to hungrily bite into my lip and then softly kiss away the pain.

“Can I kiss you?” he breathed.

I bit my lip and nodded.

Han’s lips had barely even touched mine, but I could already feel the electricity shoot through my veins, making my body tingle. The butterflies in my stomach started to go berserk and I truly thought they’d make me float away if it weren’t for Han’s hand on my cheek.

He pulled away momentarily searching my eyes for permission to continue. I let go of his hand and slipped it around the back of his neck his skin hot and sweaty underneath my fingers. I needed to hold on for dear life if he was going to keep kissing me.

Our lips connected again, starting off slowly and carefully as though one of us would break if either of us moved too suddenly. His lips were soft and he tasted like mint. Did he brush his teeth before coming here? His hand slid from my cheek to my waist and in response I melted in closer to his body. Han took this opportunity to deepen the kiss, parting my mouth slightly so he could sneak his tongue inside to find mine. He moaned and peeled away again.

“Is this okay?” he panted, checking in with me.

“Yes, don’t stop” I begged, wrapping both my arms around the back of his neck and finding his mouth again with a sense urgency. My heart kicked up a notch when I felt his hand land firmly on my thigh, my skin burning from the touch. I dove my tongue into his mouth and his fingers squeezed the flesh of my leg as he let out a low groan.

My body was rapidly responding to the man that was kissing me. We were only kissing and I’d only just met him, but my core ached for more, my panties close to soaking. Han’s hand wasn’t far away from where I was craving to be touched. All he’d have to do was slide it up the inside of my leg and he’d be there.

I gripped his upper arm (the one attached to the hand on my leg), pulling him closer, encouraging him to keep going, inviting him to explore my body. His hand moved to the inside of my thigh, sending shivers up my leg all the way to where I wanted him most. He was setting me on fire and I whimpered with need.

Han heard my frustrated, pathetic cry. “Tell me what you need me to do.” He whispered huskily between kisses.

“Touch me, Han.” I breathed, and I reached down to touch his hand on my thigh. “Please.” My voice was barely audible.

He let out a shaky breath and looked down to where our hands were resting together on my thigh. My hand slid back up his arm to grip his bicep, and he slowly inched his fingers up the inside of my leg, his hungry eyes following his hand as it disappeared under my skirt.

“Han!” I gasped when his fingers reached my panties.

Han smirked as he pressed his finger against me. “Is this what you wanted?” His eyes were hooded and hazy with desire. I whimpered and nodded, parting my legs a little to give him more access. Han ran his finger along my underwear, grazing over my clitoris. “You’re soaking!” he sounded surprised. His fingers moved more hurriedly, finding the edge of my panties and pulling them to the side. “Kiss me.” He commanded and I smashed my mouth back onto his. He slid a finger through my wetness, rubbing it over my bare clit.

“Fuck!” I huffed. Then he sunk two fingers deep inside of me. My eyes rolled back from the relief of finally being filled making me throw my head back in pleasure. His hot, wet mouth moved to my neck, sucking and nibbling my skin as he started to move his fingers in and out of my pussy.

“You’re so wet, baby.” He cooed. “You really needed this, huh?”

“Mhh-hhm” was all I could manage. I had lost access to my vocabulary. All I could do was lose myself to Han and how incredible he felt.

“Sophie?” he kissed up the side of my neck and brought his mouth to my ear. “There’s something I want to try, if you’ll let me.”

“Yes, anything.” I panted. I didn’t care what he planned to do, I just wanted more of him.

Han removed his fingers from me and brought his glistening fingers up to his mouth and sucked my wetness off them. “You taste so good. I want to taste more of you.” He leaned his forehead on mine. “Will you let me?”

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Han pov:

“Sophie?” Han kissed up the side of her neck and brought his mouth to her ear. “There’s something I want to try, if you’ll let me.”

“Yes, anything.” She panted. Her voice was husky and so fucking sexy.

He removed his fingers from her pussy and brought his glistening fingers up to his mouth to taste her wetness. “You taste so good. I want to taste more of you.” He leaned his forehead on hers. “Will you let me?”

Han could’ve just kept making out with Sophie, but he felt an uncontrollable urge to serve the woman in front of him. It had been so long since he felt the kind of nerves that came with desire, and it felt good to lose himself to whatever was unfolding. Even though he didn’t know her, the woman in front of him illuminated warmth and comfort, and understanding, and he wanted to envelope himself in her aura. He wanted to taste her. He wanted to please her. To satisfy her.

“Yes…please…” she purred, her neediness going straight to his already throbbing cock.

“Lean back for me, baby.” He breathed.

Sophie sank against the back of the couch, not taking her eyes off of him as he slid to the floor in front of her, pushing the coffee table away to make room.

Han’s hands trembled slightly as he undid the button on her skirt. He could’ve just slid it up around her waist, but he wanted the option to explore her body more easily. He slid both her skirt and soaked panties slowly down her legs and carefully put them to the side, then leaned in and kissed her mouth softly while his fingers gently dug into her hips. His lips tingled and his cock twitched as she deepened the kiss and slid her tongue into his mouth. Han felt his insides melt as his heart rate rose (and his dick getting even harder). He could kiss her forever.

They only had forty five minutes until they needed to be in the vans to head to the venue. That wasn’t nearly enough time. But the next forty five minutes were theirs, just theirs, and no one else’s. Part of him wanted to devour Sophie rough and urgently, but what he wanted more was to slowly savour every second, making the most of the little time they had.

A small whimper escaped Han as Sophie tried to pull his hips between her legs and kiss him more frantically. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. It was enough to spur him on. Han matched her intensity with the kiss before pulling himself away.

Sophie reached for the hem of her shirt.

“No, baby. Leave it on for me.” He panted. The thought of eating her out while she was wearing their band t shirt turned Han on more than he could imagine.

Sophie nestled back into the couch and opened her legs offering herself to him. Han met her eyes. They were looking at him longingly and beckoning him to come closer. Then he dropped his gaze to her slightly parted mouth. Her lips were silently begging him to ruin her. Then he allowed his gaze to drop all the way down to her centre, between her legs.

Fuck! Han subconsciously licked his lips as he took in her beauty. She was a goddess. 

“Touch me Han.” Sophie panted.

It was all he needed to hear. He hooked his arms under her thighs and pressed his mouth against her pussy. Sophie gasped. Han groaned. 

Han had only gone down on a woman a handful of times. It was always a rushed encounter, and he didn’t think he’d ever made a woman orgasm through oral sex either.

He realised that he might not be equipped to satisfy Sophie and that frightened him somewhat. He didn’t want to disappoint her. But he knew that he was great at improvising, he was after all one of the best freestyle rappers. He had a clever, talented mouth. He could learn as he goes.

Han carefully tuned into how Sophie responded to his ministrations. 

He learned that she lets out shallow pants and whimpers if he used to tip of his tongue on her clitoris.

He learned she made long, low moans when he used the flat of his tongue to lick stripes up from her entrance all the way up to her sensitive nub.

He learned that she stilled in anticipation when used his hands to spread her lips with his fingers.

And he learned that she rocked her hips when he slid his tongue inside of her while rubbing her clit in firm, fast circles. 

Han never knew that anything could taste this good. He felt like a starving man who had been offered the most scarce delicacy in the world and he was trying not to consume it too fast.

He’d never had anyone respond to his touch like Sophie was either. She was hot and wet, and when he stole glances of her face her cheeks were flushed and her eyes unfocused.

Han wanted to worship this woman. 

“Sophie, baby. I want to put my fingers inside you again.”  He said “tell me how you’d like me to do it.” Han didn’t want to undo all his good work with clumsy finger fucking.

Sophie looked dazed but managed to find her words.

“I like two.” She said through a ragged breath. “Palm facing up.” She added. Han licked two of his fingers and brought them to her entrance. “And.. could you keep using your mouth too?” 

He slid two fingers into her vagina as he sucked and licked her clit firmly. Then he began to gently thrust his fingers in and out of her in rhythm with his tongue. 

She was so wet that his fingers slid easily, and the wet sounds of him fucking her with his fingers made his cock ache. Han couldn’t help but imagine his cock inside her. He could tell it was swollen and in need of a release. He knew there’d be pre-cum leaking into his boxers. He tried to concentrate on bringing Sophie to the edge, but his mind kept thinking about her wet, tight walls squeezing his cock.

“Han?” Fuck, his name sounded so fucking hot coming out of her mouth. “Han…please… I’m close”.

Han registered Sophie’s words, and it was enough to push the thoughts of being buried inside her away.

“Yes baby…tell me what you need me to do.” Han encouraged her to guide him.

“Curl your fingers… push up…into…against the front of my body…keep sucking my clit”. She managed between groans.

Han did exactly what she asked. He curled his fingers and began to thrust them the way she'd described. He could feel the flesh there had a different texture, and he focused his attention there. He used his mouth with a renewed vigour.

Sophie was coming undone. Her hips started to buck against his hand, and she was getting louder as she was getting closer. Her legs began to shake and her back arch. 

“I’m coming. Don’t stop.” She said and threw her head back. Her whole body tensed and stilled, but Han could feel her walls squeeze and then pulse around his fingers. He supported her through her orgasm and eventually her body melted back into the couch and he removed his fingers.

It was the most incredible thing Han had ever witnessed. Again, he was overcome with the urge to lick her wetness off his fingers. So he did. He wanted to remember this taste forever.

Sophie sat up and cupped Han’s face in her hands. She looked freshly fucked and so gorgeous. Her cheeks were pink. Her lips were full. Her eyes warm and happy.

Han couldn’t help himself and pulled her in for a sloppy kiss. 

“That was so good, Han.” She grinned like a drunk fool. It made Han’s heart burst.

“You were so perfect, Sophie”. Han whispered.

——--------------

After they had both calmed down and their heart rates had returned to normal, Han realised that they only had 15 minutes to get down to the cars that were taking them to the venue.

Panic set in as they scrambled to get dressed, tidy their hair, compose themselves and get where they needed to be.

But they made it with 2 minutes to spare.

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

Sophie pov

Before I knew it I was seated in the arena with the perfect view of the extended stage. The atmosphere was buzzing as Stay were getting excited. Before the show I was able to get a behind the scenes glimpse into what goes into a production like this. It was fascinating and I felt grateful for the opportunity to see how it all came together. Sitting next to me were two young women, probably around nineteen, and they started chatting to me.

“This is SO exciting!!! How long have you been a Stay?” the black haired girl asked me. I was embarrassed to admit it had only been a few months.

“Oh so you’re a Baby Stay?” the lighter haired girl said excitedly, and leaned forward. “Do you have a bias?” she asked wiggling her eyebrows. What the hell was I supposed to say? Did I have a bias? “Kind of?” I squeaked. “What about you?” I quickly deflected the question.

“Jisung.” The black haired girl cooed, closing her eyes, imagining her bias.

“Oh!” I choked and cleared my throat. “Yeah, I like him too.” I said smiling. I wonder if she’s imagined him between her legs? How many people in this room have visualised him doing all sorts of obscene things to them? Oh god Sophie, stop. Just stop. Focus.

I watched Han as he performed their stages. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Everything he did on stage was magic. Whether he was rapping, singing like an angel, or being a goof-ball during the intermissions, he was captivating. Stay loved his sense of humour and listened intently as he told us about going to the pool with Lee Know and just walking around in the water because he can’t swim.

Han didn’t really search for me in the audience, instead focusing all his attention on performing for their fans. Muddy Water was next, which meant that Han and just three other members were going to wander around the second stage in a less structured and choreographed way. I knew it was going to be a treat. Han fucking Jisung looked so god damned hot strutting around that stage. All of them did. When it was his turn to rap, I could really hear how skilled, smooth and talented his mouth was, and what it’d be like to have him rap in my ear in his bedroom voice. I couldn’t help but think about that mouth between my legs only hours before, giving me the best orgasm of my life.

Oh God it was the best orgasm of my life. I felt an ache between my legs and a moistness developing. Surely I’m not the only one here horny in this place? I crossed my legs and ignored the pressure that was building.

Shaking my head to jolt myself back to reality, I looked up at the stage to see Han had stopped in front of me and was making eye contact with some of the nearby fans. His eyes found mine and he smirked and brought two fingers, the two that were inside me earlier, up to his mouth and licked them, then winked at me. The horror on my face made him laugh as he continued to wander the stage.

It was quite a flurry after the show. I was ushered backstage where I met Han in a corridor.

“What did you think? Did you have fun? What was your favourite part?” he bombarded me enthusiastically with questions.

“It was fucking amazing! All of it!” I squealed excitedly. Han beamed at me, “and your favourite part?” he looked at me devilishly.

“Ummm…” I thought for a moment. “The part where Chan lifts his shirt in Charmer.” I teased. Han’s face turned to feigned disapproval, like I was a traitor.

“Okay, okay…” I laughed. “I really loved it when you hit the high notes in Hellevator.”

Han looked proud and happy. “Was that the only part you liked?”

What was he pushing for? Oh. I realised what he was hinting at. “Yes, yes… In Muddy Water you reminded a fan of something you are very good at doing.” I stated coolly, but I felt like I was going red.

Han grinned and raised an eyebrow. “Did I?” he said pretending he had no idea what I was talking about.

“Hannie!” a voice interrupted. We turned to see Chan ushering us into a room.

“Come, join us Sophie.” Han gestured for me to lead the way.

I entered a rather large, unremarkable space, much like a conference room. Several black couches were positioned around the room, and there were so many people chatting excitedly. I assumed they were staff of some sort. The room smelled of sweat and deodorant and although I knew the air conditioner would be cranking, it wasn’t enough to cut through how hot the night was. I was sweating too, the thick band tshirt clinging to my skin. My makeup had probably melted off long ago. I felt so un-sexy.

“Come meet some of the guys.” Han said, holding my elbow and guiding me over to the right side of the room. “This is Lee Know.”

Sitting on the black leather couch in front of me was the most intimidating man I had ever seen. He wordlessly glared at Han as if to say “How fucking dare you bring a woman home.” Han made an innocent face, and blinked his big gorgeous doe-eyes that said “I haven’t done anything wrong… Can we keep her?”

I stood there awkwardly. Is MInsung really a thing? They both looked at me and burst out laughing. “Come on Hyung, we are not on stage anymore!” Han whined. Lee Know’s face softened and he bowed his head, greeting me politely. “Hello, nice to meet you. Did you have a nice night?” Lee Know smiled. Maybe he wasn’t as intimidating as I first thought. Just a man of few words.

Han continued to introduce me to the other members and some of their staff. Everyone was really polite, and I wondered how often they see this situation. Does Han find a girl in every city?

“Would you like a drink? Are you thirsty?” Han pointed to a table with bottles of water. He opened a bottle before handing it to me, and grabbed one for himself. I was so parched that I had already nearly finished the bottle by the time we sat down on one of the couches.

Han grinned at me sheepishly. “You know, Sophie… I have a secret.” He leaned in close “You know when I licked my fingers in Muddy Water?” I felt my skin burn up at the memory. “I could still taste you.”

I felt my stomach drop and arousal hit me like a flash flood. My vagina clenched with need. Why did he have to say that? I looked away only to lock eyes on the beauty that was Hyunjin. He was sitting on a nearby couch watching us curiously. The look in his eyes made me feel like he was reading my mind and that he knew exactly what Han had just said and what he was referring to, even though he wasn’t even in earshot. He parted his mouth and his tongue slid slightly along his lip like he was concentrating on something really hard.

I swallowed and tore my eyes away, preferring to stare at the floor instead.

“You don’t think I’m weird do you?” Han whispered. I lifted my head to look at him. He looked worried.

Embarrassed, I smiled and shook my head. “No… it was kind of… hot.” I admitted.

“Excuse me…sorry.” A middle aged woman politely interrupted. I was relieved. She had perfect timing. “We are taking you back to the hotel now.” My heart dropped. Already? I snapped my head back to Han. He looked crestfallen. Did it feel too soon for him too?

“I’ll walk her out to the car.” He insisted. The woman bowed and nodded.

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

Han walked with me along corridor that led to where the vehicles were waiting. I couldn’t believe this was over already. We walked in silence. Each step we took was a step closer to goodbye. I fucking hated it. We had almost reached the exit door, when Han suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me through a side door and into a some sort of dimly lit storage room.

“I didn’t really think that’d be unlocked.” He said surprised, referring to the door.

“Han what are you doing? The car… it’s waiting for me.” I protested.

“I need to kiss you… feel you… one more time.” He purred.

Han gently pushed me against the wall, pressing his body against me and moaning low. His hands slowly roamed my body. His lips found mine. Oh god I wanted him. I wanted him to take me then and there. My heart pounded, my body silently screamed for him. I pulled his hips hard against me so I could feel how much he wanted me too.

I peeled my mouth away from his, but his lips landed on my neck, making me swoon. “I have to go…” I whimpered. Every part of me wanted him to ignore my words and keep me there longer.

“I wish you didn’t have to go.” He panted and pressed his head against mine. “I could just take you right here… right now… if you wanted me to. Do you want me to, baby?”

We looked into each other’s eyes for what felt like an eternity as we silently considered how possible, how easy it would really be for him to hike my skirt up and slip himself inside of me.

“I want you to…” I whispered. Han exhaled and his hand flew to the button on his jeans. Adrenaline coursed through me as my body anticipated what was about to happen.

“Hey are you in here!?” a deep voice said as the door flew open, startling us.

“God. S-ssorry…” It was Felix. “Guys… Um…they’re asking if you still need a lift, Sophie.” Felix eyes were everywhere but on us.

Han looked at me sadly. “Yeah. I’ll walk her out. Just give me second.” He said solemnly, adjusting his crotch to try and hide his erection.

This time, Han really did walk me to the car. I felt heavy. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cling onto him. I didn't want this to end.

Han apoligised to the driver saying he was to blame, not me, for making them wait.

“Bye Sophie.” He said as I stepped into the van and took my seat.

As I was driven away, Han didn’t move to go back inside. He just stood there watching the van drive away. I watched him too, for as I could, before the van turned the corner and I could no longer see him.

It was over.

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

I got back to the hotel and had a long, hot shower (even though the night was stinking hot). Today had been like a dream. From running into 3Racha this morning, to having Han Jisung going down on me, to the incredible VIP treament in at the concert, to almost having sex with him in a storage room. If only Felix hadn’t barged in, I would have been able to feel him inside of me.

I sighed deeply, as the water washed any trace of Han off my skin. My mind flashed to Han watching me drive away earlier that night. Today would be hard to get over. I felt a pang in my chest.

Don't you dare get sad.

I slid into bed and pulled out a drawstring bag from the side table and shimmied off my panties. Today might be hard to get over, but I was still horny. I pulled out my small bullet vibrator. I let my mind drift off with thoughts of Han Jisung standing nervously in my hotel room. Han Jisung holding me close, kissing my body as he made his way down to the place he drove me wild. Han Jisung's fingers inside of me.  Han Jisung on stage. Han Jisung fucking me in a storage room. Han Jisung knocking on my door.

Han Jisung knocking on my door?

My eyes flicked open as I registered the tiny knock on the hotel room door.

What the fuck? The intrusion scared me, my heart almost flung out of my chest, pumping adrenaline through my veins. There is no way this could possibly be -

I tossed the toy on the bed, padded to the door and cracked it open.

It was Han fucking Jisung.

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

The feelings that came over me when I saw Han standing there freshly washed and in a new set of sweatpants and hoodie, was hard to describe. There was this dull ache in my chest that resembled angst and heartbreak, but also a tension that flooded south to my core.

It was like a longing. Longing to be close to him. Fuck my body absolutely craved him. But there was also a knowing. Knowing deep down this probably wasn’t a good idea. There was a chance I’d let my heart get in the way and I would then have to get over him. He would be long gone in a couple of days.

Who was I kidding? My heart was already in it and I would have to get over it, regardless of whether I let him in or turn him away.

You should turn him away. For your own good, Sophie.

I don’t want to turn him away.

I didn’t have the courage to look at his face. I just kept my gaze somewhere chest level, but I knew he was watching me. I could feel his eyes burning into my skin, and I knew if I dared look, I’d see want in his eyes.

I didn’t need to look.

I couldn’t bare to look.

The tension was so thick I thought I was going to choke.

Neither of us had said a word yet. We both knew what he was asking by simply being at my door. We both knew what it would mean if I let him in.

You shouldn’t let him in, Sophie. It’ll only lead to heartache.

I want to let him in.

I swallowed a lump in my throat and slowly, bravely, met his eyes.

I shouldn’t have looked.

Longing. Hope. Desire. Hunger. Sadness. How could eyes convey so many emotions all at once? And how could eyes look so fucking beautiful?

My body felt like it was melting, like he had some fucking lasers coming out him or something, and I was about to become a puddle on the floor.

Despite my brain screaming that this was a bad idea, I stepped back and opened the door, making space for him to pass through.

Still a word had not been spoken.

My heart kicked up a beat as I pushed the door closed, and I rested my head momentarily on the door frame.

You’ve let him in.

I’ll take my chances.

It was lucky I took a second to ground myself, because when I turned around Han was on me. His mouth smashed against mine in a messy, feral kiss, and his hands gripped the sides of my waist to push me back against the door.

He’d already lost his hoodie and was now in a singlet tee. I ran my hands up his arms, over his toned muscles, then I slid them down his chest and stomach, feeling the muscles tense under my touch. His skin felt electric under my fingertips sending shocks through my body.

He slowed down to caress me gently. His hand brushed my cheek and he planted hot, breathy kisses on my neck. His hard cock pressed against me, making me ache for him. It was almost unbearable.

“I had to come, Sophie.” He panted. “I couldn’t just end things like that.” Referring to earlier at the concert venue. “I hope it’s okay, baby… I want you so fucking badly.”

“I want you too.” I whispered, tugging gently at his elastic waistband. A choked whimper escaped him when my hand gripped his cock and released it from his pants.

He was rock hard, and as I explored it with my hand, I could feel that it was already leaking. He was about to find out that I was leaking too.

Han’s hand dropped from my waist to reach under the hem of my short nightshirt and slid its way up between my thighs to find my bare pussy. I let out a sharp exhale at the touch. My body absolutely craved him. Han hissed through his teeth from the unexpected access, and leaned close to my ear.

“You’re such a bad girl,” he whispered low “I like it.” And he parted my lips with his finger and slid it roughly back and forth over my clitoris, as he buried his face in my neck.

“Fuck! You’re so wet baby!” Han sounded incredulous as he explored my lips, my clitoris, and teased the entrance to my vagina.

I really do love it when he calls me baby.

I started to writhe against him. I wanted to make him hungrier. I wanted him to snap. I wanted him to ruin me.

“It’s for you, Han.” I confessed, as I tried to guide his cock between my thighs.

He reached his hands under my thighs and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pinned me hard against the hotel door.

I held on for dear life, my arms around his neck, as the tip of his cock brushed against my entrance. It was so incredibly close, but not quite where we needed it to be. It was pure agony for both of us.

Frustrated, and desperate, Han swiveled his hips in such a way that it only took a moment to line himself up.

I ached for him to be inside me, and we both gasped when the tip of his cock slipped inside.

Han stopped still. He glanced down at where we were barely connected, and then looked back up at me questioningly. It was like he was running through some internal dialogue, some sort of inner conflict, and he was frozen.

“This is okay, right?” he said searching my face. “Cos I want you so bad, Sophie.”

“Fuck, yes…please.”

He pressed his cheek against mine, inhaled deeply, and sank me down onto his length in one motion, until he was buried all the way inside of me. We both sighed in relief and the stretch felt excruciatingly delicious.

Then he started to fuck me. He needed the friction. I needed the sharp jolts of his powerful thrusts. His hips slamming into me at a relentless pace, like some wild beast.

Han fucking Jisung was inside my hotel room.

Han Fucking Jisung was inside of me!

“I was going to go slow…” he panted as he hammered into me “I promised myself I was…but I couldn’t stop myself…I can’t hold back…” he said breathlessly. “There’s just too much…feeling… so much… I…don’t know the words…” he trailed off as he vigorously worked his hips.

He didn’t need his words though. I knew what he meant. It was like the the desire…the need… was so strong and so…visceral…that we just might lose our minds if we didn’t get it out of our bodies. And the only way to rid ourselves from that feeling was to meet it with this hot, burning release.

“I want to make love to you after this…let me stay the night…can I… can I stay…?… you feel so hot…and tight…” he choked.

His words were my undoing.

He wants to stay?

This isn’t going to be the only time?

We’re going to have sex again!

He wants to ‘make love to me’?

Knowing that I didn’t need to hold onto this moment forever, knowing that we had all night, my body let go completely and I slipped over the edge. I felt like I had been kicked in the guts and thrown off a cliff. I held on tighter to Han to try and slow the fall.

“Come inside me, Han…I need you to co-.." I didn’t finish my sentence. Han’s hips had become erratic and a stifled whimper came from him as he reached his own climax.

“Baby…” He panted as he slowed down. “How can something feel that good?” he chuckled.

Then, with him still inside me, Han took us over to the bed, gently laying us down on the mattress. He hovered over me and kissed me as he pulled out and collapsed by my side, pulling me against him. I could feel his semen leaking out of me, sticking to my inner thigh. But I didn’t care. As far as I was concerned it was part of Han, and I wanted him to completely own me.

“Sophie, baby?” Han said finally.

“Mmm hmm.?”

Han propped himself up on an elbow and searched my face, tenderly brushing some hair out of my eyes. He looked contemplative, but he still had that hope in his expression.

“Can I really spend the night with you?”

I broke out I a smile. “Of course. You know, Han, I’d say yes to anything to you asked.” It was true too. This man could ask absolutely anything and I’d say yes.

The thought scared me.

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

I reached up and traced my thumb along Han’s bottom lip. Han fucking Jisung had the most perfectly plush, perfectly shaped, perfectly pink lips. They were wildly talented too, in so many ways. He had certainly shown me that today. But there was something I hadn’t seen yet. Not up close anyway. I had this secret “thing” for something he did when he rapped, where he pulled the corner of his top lip up in what can only be described as a -

“Snarl for me Han.” I demanded. “You know… like when you’re rapping.”

Han’s eyes widened in surprise, then his features softened momentarily before he narrowed his eyebrows in an expression of "you naughty girl.”

“Okay… but I have to do it rapping.” He said and sat himself up to kneel on the bed about to prepare himself for a private performance.

“Wait!” I sat up suddenly too, and kneeled in front of him reaching for his shirt. Han followed his gaze to where my hand grabbed onto the fabric.

“I want you completely naked first.” I stared at him dead seriously. Han’s mouth fell open.

“Oh you are a bad girl.” He was trying to sound dark and sexy, but he couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice. He sounded thrilled that he was about to be naked and began lifting his shirt.

But I tugged his hands away and shook my head. “I want to undress you.” I whispered. Han was frozen to the spot except to open his mouth to speak, and when he realised no words would come out, he simply nodded vigorously.

I took my time lifting his shirt, slowly revealing his slim waist and bellybutton, his hard abdominal muscles, then his chest and nipples. A shaky exhale escaped me as I pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it to the side. Han didn’t move, his eyes just followed my hands as I let them roam his bare upper body, dragging my thumb across a pink nipple and leaning in to graze my tongue over the other.

My other hand explored the peaks and valleys of his abs as it made it’s way down to waistband of his sweatpants.

“Stand at the edge of the bed.” I directed Han to stand up so I could remove his sweatpants.

I couldn’t hide the lust in my eyes as I bit my lip. A naked Han Jisung standing before me and about to give me a private show. Han Jisung following my instructions. Something was triggered in me. Whatever it was made me want to demand naughty things of him. It made me to want to deny him just to make him beg. It made me want to be mean just so I could make it better again.

But the feeling was fleeting, and left just as quickly as it arrived when Han spoke.

“So…what is the lovely lady’s request?”

“Hmmm…” what to ask for? “What about… Venom?” I sat back on the bed as Han proceeded to perform for me, showing off that ‘snarl’ I loved as much as possible.

As he was rapping I knelt on the mattress and slowly lifted my nightshirt, revealing my breasts. Han stumbled on his lines as he took in the sight of them for the first time. Then I tossed the shirt to the side.

“Continue.” I instructed.

He moved on from Venom to then demonstrate dance moves like the ‘Poppin’ part of Maniac, which now that I had seen in this context, could never be unseen again.

It all finished in a fit of laughter from both of us as the performances got less and less serious and more about making me cringe.

His finale was taking a run up and landing face down on the bed.

“Owww!!!” he cried and lifted his head. “What was that?”

He picked up the item that had assaulted him when he landed on the mattress and looked at it quizzically, and held it up for inspection.

My bullet vibrator.

Han pushed the button on the side and the unmistakable buzzing sound began pulsing from the device.

“Who are you?” He said looking up at me wide eyed and mouth open.

I smirked. “Well I thought I’d need it after going to a Stray Kids concert. Apparently those guys dance pretty raunchy.” I winked at him.

Han chuckled and turned the vibrator off, which took some time for him to figure out. “So…any other surprises?” he asked cheekily raising his eyebrows up and down.

I sucked in my lips and looked up at the ceiling. “Well…” I hesitated as I considered showing him my other items I kept in my drawstring bag.

“I have these.” I took the bag from the bedside table, loosened the strings and tipped the contents out on the bed in front of Han.

His eyes bulged as he registered what was in front of him. One slimline black vibrator dildo, a second bullet vibrator, and two butt plugs - one black, the other with a white fluffy tail attached, and a little bottle of lube.

“I like options.” I offered as an explanation of why I needed more of one kind of toy.

“You certainly do!” he gasped as he picked up the black dildo and admired its curves and texture.

As Han curiously experimented with the settings, I let my eyes drift down his body. His shoulders and back were muscular and sinewy. I needed to run my nails down that back later. His hips were slim and perfect for wrapping my legs around. I’d already done that, but the thought of doing that again made my heart beat faster.

Then my eyes landed on his round, pert ass.

Oh my God. I have to touch it.

My legs felt like they had a life of their own as they crawled me closer to sit by his side, and my hands moved of their own accord as I firmly grabbed one, meaty cheek and squeezed it in my hand.

“Hey! That’s my butt!” Han squealed and looked back at me in surprise.

I stared back at him, not attempting to move my hand at all.

“Don’t stop.” He added and went back to exploring my sex toys.

I alternated between squeezing and massaging one cheek, then moved onto the other. His ass looked scrumptious. Perfectly perky, but squishy enough to sink my fingers around. I knew why people refer to an ass as ‘buns’, because Han’s looked like two perfectly baked bread buns.

I growled and smacked him on the left cheek, finishing with a hungry squeeze.

Han gasped. I repeated the action. It just felt so satisfying. Then I did the same on the other cheek. I followed up with a gentle rub of the area I just slapped.

Han started responding with little gasps and his hips began to grind into the bed. When I paused he whimpered and wiggled his ass at me.

He likes this.

I felt encouraged to continue and that feeling I had earlier of wanting to be mean, making him beg and me being in control came back to the forefront. I wanted to make his cheeks burn red and and make him wait for permission to touch himself, or touch me, or to come. I wanted him to whimper and beg for relief.

“Do you like this baby?” I cooed and my hand landed down on his skin in a loud slap.

Han shuddered. “Yes..” He panted. “It feels… so good… please… don’t stop.”

I massaged the red skin, soothing it momentarily before spanking it again. Han’s breaths were becoming louder and more laboured as I increased the intensity of each slap. His hips desperately pressed into the bed for friction.

I want to wreck him.

I glanced back up towards Han’s head, he had the fluffy tail plug in his hand, his fingers stroking the long white furry tail and staring at it longingly.

I smirked. I knew what I wanted to do. “You like that toy do you, baby?” I leaned down and kissed his butt cheek. It took all my effort not to sink my teeth into the flesh.

What is happening to me?

Where are these urges coming from?

“Does Han want me to share my toy with him?” I held my breath. Was this too much? Had I gone too far? Would he leave?

Han nodded. “Hannie wants...” He whispered.

Hannie? He was calling himself in the third person.

I carefully took the plug from him, and the lube, applying a generous amount the to the steel plug. This toy was new. I admired the long white fluffy tail attached to a vibrating silver bullet. It would look so good with Han’s ass.

Straddling his thighs I realised I had no idea what I was doing. I had never touched a man’s asshole before, let along insert something. But there was no backing out. Han had given up on the rest of my toys. They’d been pushed aside. The side of his face was buried into the mattress, his hands gripping the sheets on either side of his head. His hips still wiggling in frustration.

“Patience, Hannie.” I said.

I placed one hand on his cheek, pushing it to the side so I could find my target. Then I turned the vibrator on and placed the tip on his rim. Han sucked his breath in at the contact, then relaxed into the bed as I gently massaged him with the tip.

I wasn’t sure when I should apply more pressure. What if I actually hurt him? But the sounds he was making, the beautiful, needy moans, prompted me to push the tip in slightly.

Han let out a long, deep, relieving moan at the stretch. The plug wasn’t all that thick or long, it was dainty, and I wondered if maybe I should just push it in all the way.

“Hannie? Do you think you can take the rest?” I asked gently.

“Fuck… yes… just put it in.” He sounded frustrated.

I pushed the plug in all the way and turned the vibration up to full.

“Yes… fuck… yes… baby…” Han was writhing underneath me, but he couldn’t do much while I was still straddling his thighs.

I simultaneously massaged both Han’s cheeks roughly, pulling them apart on each circle, eliciting a sharp breath from him each time I did it.

I was so fucking turned on I could feel the wetness between my legs.

“Hannie,” I said crawling up to meet his face with mine. “Can you put this one in me?” I held out the little black butt plug and offered it to him.

I positioned myself on all fours, while Han knelt behind me.

“Here, baby, put some lube on it first.” I instructed. Han didn’t look like he was alert at all.

I heard a squeeze of lube, presumably on the plug, and then cold lube being smeared on my entrance. Then I felt the vibration against me. I was so ready, so aroused, so desperate that I began to back myself onto the vibrating plug. The stretch burned, but eased quickly, and it was only a moment later that it was snugly inside of me. The vibrations pulsed through entire pelvis and causing my whole body to shake.

But I needed more.

And so did Han.

I felt the head of his cock push against me, trying to squeeze inside. But I was tight. As the tip stretched me open, both of us gasped.

“You’re so tight with that in there.” He growled. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I whined in frustration. “Just fuck me already, Han.” And I pushed back hard against him as he pushed equally as hard into me.

I felt so filled up, so stretched, and so stimulated that I knew this wouldn’t last long.

“I...I c..can feel the vibrations through your walls.” Han exclaimed. I could only imagine what Han must be feeling, with the vibrator inside of him sending shivers through his body, to having his cock being squeezed in my tight, clenching and vibrating vagina.

I lost all sense of myself as Han fucked me for the second time. I forgot my name, where I was, everything. Everything except how good it felt to have Han fucking Jisung inside me, ruining me, owning me, and taking me to ecstasy.

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

Han pov.

Han laid on his back panting. He had just had his mind blown to oblivion. His brain tried desperately to catch up with what had just transpired. He’d never shown a woman that side of himself before. The side that liked to be submissive. He’d never had a women play with his ass like that either.

Sophie leaned over him and kissed his neck. “I’ll be right back.” She cooed bringing him back to reality.

She quickly checked her phone then placed it back on the bedside table and disappeared into the bathroom.

Han’s eyes gravitated to the phone. The screen hadn’t locked yet. His brain started to kick into overdrive. Could he? Should he? Before he could talk himself out of it, he grabbed her phone and opened the contacts.

Then he selected “Create a New Contact.” He stared at the screen.

What the fuck do you think you’re doing Jisung? He said to himself. But his fingers kept going as he entered the name Han Jisung. Then he typed in his number.

Really, what the fuck are you doing, you idiot?

Then, he phoned the number letting the call connect. Lastly, Han went to the recent call log and deleted the phone call he just made.

This is a bad idea.

He heard Sophie exiting the bathroom, and he quickly put the phone back where she’d left it.

She slipped back into bed laying herself against his side and placed a leg across his stomach. Han turned his head to kiss her, his hand resting on her thigh. She was so soft, warm, safe.

He’d wanted to go slow. That’s what he’d decided when he made his way to her door earlier. He wanted to take his time with her. He wanted to remember every moment - every sigh, every whimper, every quiver of her muscles. He wanted to look into her eyes while he slowly fucked her.

But this was good too. More than good. This was the best sex he’d ever had. He grinned. He still wanted to... make love... to her though. Why do those words keep popping in his head? Oh why had he said that out loud to her before? MAKE LOVE? He covered his eyes with his free hand. How fucking cringe.

He stole a glance at Sophie, worried she might be reading his mind, but she had dozed off, her breath had settled into a calm and steady rhythm.

Han let himself settle into the bed and drift off to sleep too. In the back of his mind he remembered what she’d said earlier that day. “This is my humble abode for the next day or two.” Did that mean she would be still here tomorrow night?

Could he see her again?

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

Han squinted as he opened his eyes to the glaring morning sun streaming through the crack in the blinds.

Where the fuck am I? He rubbed his eyes as the memory of last night’s events came back to him.

He registered the limbs that were wrapped around his body, and sighed in relief. It was real. It wasn’t a dream, he thought as he turned his gaze to the woman in his arms. Fast asleep. She must have tired herself out, he chuckled to himself and stroked her hair, moving it out of her face.

Sophie was older than he was, he was sure. A Noona. He wondered how old she was. Thirty maybe? It didn’t matter though, did it? This could never go anywhere anyway. All Han knew for sure was that he lost his capacity for commonsense and self-control when he was near her.

His muscles tensed as the goddess wrapped around him stirred and eventually opened her bleary eyes.

“Hey, baby.” He whispered. Sophie blinked several times to wake herself up properly, then leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. Han’s skin burned at the touch and a warmth spread from his chest to the rest of his body. Imagine waking up to someone like this everyday? He pushed that thought away immediately. He had another concert to think about.

Shit, the concert. Fuck, what time was it?

Panicked, Han glanced around the room trying to locate his pants where he kept his phone. “What time is it?” he cried.

“10 o’clock.” Sophie answered looking at her phone.

“Fuck!” He sprang out of bed, scrambling for his clothes. Frantically he searched his pockets and eventually pulled out his phone.

10 missed calls. Fuck, he was in trouble. He unlocked his phone to see who exactly had been calling him. Five calls from Chan, 4 from Changbin and one from…and one from… He remembered what he had done last night.

Guilt replaced the panic that Han was feeling, and as he dressed he peeked over at Sophie who was sitting propped up on the bed watching him with a worried expression. It was a bad idea to have her number. It was a bad idea to leave the door of possibility open.

“Sophie?” He said “I have to go. I’m late.” He choked and gestured at his phone.

Sophie nodded in understanding and smiled, but Han didn’t miss the solemn expression that appeared for just a fraction of a second.

He felt like he’d been kicked in the guts and his eyes began to prickle. His mind, his fight or flight response, the adrenalin coursing through him, they were all screaming at him to hurry the fuck up and get where he supposed to be.

But his heart, his fucking heart, rooted him to the spot, paralysing him.

Sophie bit her lip and looked at him with hazy eyes, and Han felt like he was being magnetised towards her. It was like something in her had reached out and grabbed onto his heart and was literally pulling him to her.

He didn’t know how, but the next thing he knew he was sitting by her on the bed, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her like his life depended on it. They explored each other’s mouths, their tongues dancing together, trying to memorise the feeling and the taste. He felt himself getting hard again.

Sophie reached down towards Han’s rapidly growing erection with one hand, her other hand cupped his cheek “Can I take care of you first?” She gazed at him longingly. 

“Baby… I’m not sure there’s time…I’m going to need to be quick…” Sophie put a finger to his mouth to sush him.

“I want to take care of you… will you let me?” Han’s heart began to pound. How could he say no? He wanted to stay for as long as possible. He wanted to stay forever. He wanted to forget about commitments, schedules and work. He was tired. He was lonely. He needed connection outside of his band mates.

Han nodded. It was all he could do. Despite knowing that he should have already left, Han stood next to the bed while Sophie made quick work of undoing his pants.

“You shouldn’t have bothered getting dressed.” She teased, freeing his cock.

Han knew he didn’t have the biggest or thickest dick in the world, but he knew it was pretty. Well as pretty as cocks could be, and he loved the way Sophie’s eyes widened as she admired it hungrily.

All thought left him when she took him in her hand and licked the leaking pre-cum from his tip. 

“Fuck, Baby!” He hissed in surprise.

Sophie looked up at him. “Use me.” She said. Han blinked. “Fuck my face…Do it how it feels good for you…I want to take care of you… I know you need to be quick…Please...I want to take it. I trust you.” The last part was whispered.

Sophie opened her mouth for Han’s cock, locking her eyes on his has he sank himself into her mouth. 

“Fuck!” He sucked in a sharp breath.

Sophie giggled around his dick sending shivers through Han’s entire body. Her mouth felt so good that he couldn’t hold back even if he wanted to, and he began thrusting himself in and out of her mouth fast.

Her eyes watered as he assaulted the back of her throat. For a split second he worried that he was too much, that he was going too hard, but when she reached around to cup his ass and pull him in deeper into her mouth, he let go completely, ramming himself into her with abandon before releasing himself down her throat. 

Han pulled out and knelt down on the floor in front of Sophie bringing her in for a kiss. He needed to kiss her. He needed to be close to her. He didn’t even care that she hadn’t completely finished swallowing his cum and that he could taste it in her mouth.

“Baby…” Han reluctantly broke the kiss. “Did I hear you right, you will still be here tonight?” he said hopefully.

Sophie brushed the hair out of his eyes. “Yes, Han. I’ll still be here tonight.”

Han’s breath hitched at the possibility of seeing her again, but then he remembered. He had commitments after the show, and he didn’t know how long that would take.

“Sophie, baby… I really wanna see you again tonight.” He kissed her cheek, then nibbled her ear, drawing a slight shiver from her. “Could I? Would it be okay?” His hand explored her stomach and drifted up to cup her breast. Sophie leaned into him humming in approval. “Yes, Han… You still have to make love to me remember.” She grinned sheepishly.

“Oh you heard me say that huh?” He said, turning beet red.

“Mmm. I did… it made me come… actually.” It was Sophie’s turn to burn red.

Han raised an eyebrow “Really?” he was surprised. He was convinced she’d think it was cheesy. Then for another long moment he kissed her again.

“Hey…” His tone turned serious.

“I have to do some things…after the show… and I’m not sure how late I will get here. But I’ll come. I promise. I just don’t know how what time it will be… I hope…”

“Han!” Sophie took his face in her hands. “It’s okay. I’ll wait for you.” She beamed that beautiful warm smile, and Han felt himself relax.

She stood up and climbed off the bed and Han drank in her naked form as she sauntered over to the coffee table.

“Here.” She held out a keycard for the hotel room. “They gave me two of these at check in…” She trailed off, handing him the card.

Han looked at the rectangle piece of plastic in his hand, and then looked at Sophie with a hopeful gaze.

“Just let yourself in when you get here.”

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

Sophie pov.

I didn’t tell Han that I was going to the concert that night. I didn’t want to give him the chance to offer me special treatment, or take more of his attention when he needed to focus on his actual job. I imagined the disapproving glares I would have got from his fellow band members when they realised that I was the reason Han was late to his schedule.

No today I would stay out of his way.

After Han left, I went back to bed for a bit longer to try and get a little more sleep, but the events of last night kept running over and over through my head. That was so wild. It seemed that Han fucking Jisung knew how to unlock parts of me that I never knew were locked up!

I reached down between my thighs and touched myself. I was slightly tender, and the contact from my fingers sent a shiver through me. He felt so perfect inside me. It sounded so cliche but it was as if he was made for me.

What am I saying? Of course he isn’t made for me! He lives in another country. He is far too young for me. He’s a fucking idol for Christ's sake!

I let out a big, loud sigh. Get up, Sophie. Pull yourself together.

I gathered the used toys and went into to the bathroom to clean them up. A smirk plastered on my face as I washed the silver-fluffy-tail plug, carefully holding the fluffy tail out the water. Han Jisung you are going to be a hard man to forget.

——

The day passed so painfully slow. Every time I thought I was distracted, my mind would either wander to the activities of last night, or to the possibilities of what was to come later that night.

Those thoughts were okay. It was the intrusive thoughts that bothered me somewhat. In the cafe I imagined Han sitting in the seat across from me trying to feed me a piece of cake, wide eyed and silly. When I was walking outside the strip of shops I imagined Han by my side, arm linked with mine as we browsed shops and bought each other gifts. When I was in the Uber I imagined I was going to see my boyfriend perform on stage.

I felt a rush of adrenalin when I arrived at the venue, the energy amongst Stays was buzzing. I took my seat, this time further away than the evening before, and took a deep breath.

He’s not your boyfriend. He’s an idol. He is unattainable.

He is just a bit of fun. An unforgettable experience. One I will never forget.

He just wants to get his rocks off. It’s not about you.

He says he wants to make love to me.

He’ll probably just fuck you again. If he turns up at all.

I gave him my key card. He’s going to come to me tonight.

He might not.

Shut up and just enjoy the show.

The concert was amazing as expected. This time I got to hear Changbin’s solo “Mirror Mirror” and Chan looked like was almost going to cry when he said is ending speech.

Han was his usual energiser bunny self. Where did this man get his energy? Considering what he got up to last night.

I was almost going to cry too. It was all going to be over too soon, and I wasn’t talking about the concert.

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

Anticipation buzzed through me as I laid in bed that night. Han fucking Jisung was going to be here soon.

But the hours passed and he still hadn’t arrived. I tossed and turned restlessly. Part of me was waiting to hear the door. Part of me felt agitated that I couldn’t fall asleep. I cared too much about whether or not he turned up and it made me angry with myself.

Where was he?

See he isn’t coming.

Yes he will, you’ll see.

Just go to sleep.

I eventually resigned myself to the possibility that he might not come at all, and eventually I fell asleep.

——-----------------

Han pov.

Han was distracted and fidgety after the show. He had to do some official work with the other members, but all he could think about was when he could go to Sophie. Was she waiting for him? Did she think he wasn’t coming?

Once they had wrapped things up Hyunjin took Han to the side. “Hannie, bro, what’s going on with you?” he whispered. “It’s that Noona isn’t it?”

Han dropped his head but didn’t say anything.

“It is!” Hyunjin blew out a loud breath. “Did you sleep with her last night?”

Han lifted his head to meet his friend’s eyes and nodded. “I…She… she makes me feel…” he drifted off, he wasn’t sure how he could narrow down everything he felt into one word.

“Comforted?” Hyunjin offered, wrapping an arm around Han’s shoulder.

Yes. Comforted. That was the perfect way to describe it. But he felt a myriad of other feelings too. Safe. Warm. Euphoric. Complete. Satisfied. Insatiable. But comforted? That resonated with Han the mostl

“She does, Hyunjin. She makes me feel really good. She helps me forget about the pressure… the stress…” he smiled just at the thought of her. But his smile disintegrated when he thought about the reality of the situation. Sophie could never be his, as much as he wanted to pretend that she could be.

“Shh… It’s okay.” He soothed. “Are you going to go to her tonight too?”

“I know I shouldn’t, Hyung” Han sobbed.

Han leaned his head against Hyunjin’s chest and Hyunjin wrapped his arms around him entirely, holding him in a strong embrace.

Hyunjin stroked Han’s hair affectionately. “Hannie. I think you’d regret it more if you didn’t go to her tonight.”

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

Han’s nerves skyrocketed as approached room 143. This was going to be his last chance with Sophie. He wanted to make it count. He wanted to make it a night to remember. He wanted to memorise every single thing that was about to happen so he could draw upon it again and again.

He stood outside Sophie’s room and took a deep breath. This is it Han. He nervously pulled the key card out of his pocket and studied it for a moment. Was this the right thing to do? He silently told his brain to shut the fuck up, and with a shaky hand opened Sophie’s door and slipped inside.

Han moved quietly, shedding his clothing and slid into bed beside Sophie. She was asleep and she was…naked. He scooched up to spoon her, pressing his entire body against hers, and nuzzled his face into her shoulder.

He didn’t want to wake her, but he also didn’t want to lose a moment either. He was leaving the country tomorrow. He slowly peppered light kisses along her neck and shoulder, and his hand delicately stroked her arm as it made it’s way down to caress her hip. He pressed his hardening length against her ass, the pressure against his cock made him release a shaky breath and bite his bottom lip. He explored her body with a slow and gentle touch while his mouth continued to nip at her neck. He felt her breath change from a slow, steady rhythm to shallow gasps, and as she woke she started to push her ass back against him.

Han pulled away, allowing Sophie to roll onto her back, and he moved to hover over her, holding himself up with his arms either side of her.

“You’re here?” she said wearily.  “Yes baby. I came as soon as I could… I’m sorry it’s so late.” 

Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her for a kiss. It was like he’d been gone for a month. Her mouth devoured him, her hungry tongue searching for his.

“I need to see you… can we put a lamp on?” Han needed to see everything if he was going to add it to his memory bank. With a flick of a switch above the bed one of the bedside lamps came to life.

Now Han could see properly, he set to work. If yesterday was all about release and relief, tonight would be all about creating a memory that he could draw upon time and time again. Tonight he was going to go slow and take his time.

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

Sophie pov.

Han Jisung was really here! See he hadn’t stood me up. He hovered over me with an expression of overwhelm and desperation that made me yearn for him with every cell of my being. The way his wide eyes bored into me made me feel both vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

He explored my bottom lip with his tongue, slowly running the tip along the sensitive skin and slowly pushed it into my mouth as our lips connected. His tongue massaged mine. Slowly. Deliberately. The way he was kissing me made my pelvis ache, my vagina squeeze tight and my body feel drunk. He pulled away and looked down on me with now hooded eyes and he bit down hard on his his lower lip, before leaning down to kiss the side of my neck, nipping at it and sucking the flesh. I let out a slight squeal and he smiled against my skin. 

Han’s hands and mouth explored every inch of my skin, first making his way from my neck to my breasts. He pinched one nipple lightly while his mouth found the other and sunk his teeth around it. It was pure heaven having his mouth attached to me like this. Then he swapped, taking the other nipple between his lips and flicking his tongue over it before biting it gently.

Eventually, his mouth made it’s way to my stomach and he kissed me there while his hands massaged my breasts. I didn’t take my eyes off of him while he worked his way down to my core. 

Han knew exactly what to do. He’d really paid attention yesterday, and he applied the same technique that had taken me over the edge. But this time he slowed the pace right down, and then he alternated from gentle and soft motions to hungry and passionate. I loved both, and I showed him how good he felt by rewarding him deep moans and whimpers.

He brought me to orgasm with his fingers deep inside me and his mouth covering my clitoris. I saw stars and I thought I was going to float away from how fucking amazing it felt. 

He made his way back up my body just as slowly as he went down it, making sure he gave every inch of skin equal care and attention. “I wanna remember. Every. Single. Part. Of. You.” He said between kisses to my stomach and crawled his way back up to be face to face with me. His lips glistened with my wetness and he had the audacity to lick his lips. “You taste so fucking good. Did you know that?” and he leaned down to kiss me messily so I could taste myself on him. “See… delicious right?” and he crashed his mouth back down on mine.

My hands explored Han’s body too, running them up and down his back. Stroking the back of his neck where his shaved undercut met his skin, and then slid them all the way to his fucking perky ass to pull his hips down to press against mine. I could feel his hard cock trapped between us and I was ready to beg him to be inside of me.

As if sensing my thoughts, or reading my body’s signals, Han lifted his hips enough to slide his hand down to my lips, sliding it through my wetness.

“Fuck!” I didn’t know if I had said it or if he did. All I knew is that this was pure bliss.

He removed his fingers and reached around the back of my thigh pulling it to the side, giving him access to nestle between my legs. With eyes locked on mine he allowed the head of his penis to brush against my lips. I inhaled sharply and my eyes plead with him to sink into me. He didn’t break eye contact as he pushed his hips against me and his cock effortlessly found my entrance and slipped inside with one motion.

Han let out a wobbly exhale, and once he was fully inside, he pushed even further ensuring he was as deep as possible. The stretch felt incredible, the pressure against my cervix exquisite. He really was made for me. 

“You doing okay, baby?” he panted. He hadn’t even started moving yet and he looked out of breath.

“Mmm-hmm” I nodded. I wanted him to start moving. I wanted him closer. I wanted him to consume me.

He began to move in and out of me, and the kisses started again. On my mouth. On my neck. My shoulder. My nipples. Whatever hand wasn’t propping himself up was caressing me tenderly.

He pulled away and leaned up on both his elbows to drink in my body with his gaze. Then he looked down to watch his cock as he pulled it out almost the whole way only to push it in again with long languid strokes. His mouth hung open and his tongue poked out the side and he lifted his head back up to me. 

“Your cock looks so good doing that to me.” I said.

“It sure fucking does. Your pussy takes me so well. It’s like we were made for each other.”

It was like we were made for each other.

Something in me snapped and I pulled him back down so that his whole weight was crushing me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist so that I could cling to him and hold him as close as possible. 

Han took both my wrists and pinned them above my head with one hand, and reached around to my ass with the other, pulling my cheek to the side so he could grind deeper. He buried his face in my neck and sucked the skin hard enough it was going to leave marks. I wanted him to leave evidence.

His thrusts were still slow but they had more force behind them now. He’d pull out so slowly only to slam back in, hitting my cervix and creating a loud slapping sound as his body connected with mine.I wanted him to make me sore so I could feel him for days to come.

I want him to hurt me.

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

Han pov.

Han knew he wanted to make love to Sophie, but he didn’t know making love could mean pinning her hands above her head as he his cock slammed into her. He didn’t know it could mean bursting the blood vessels on her neck or pinching her nipple so hard she arched her back and cried his name. He didn’t know it could mean digging his fingers so hard into her hips that she was bound to bruise, and he didn’t know it could mean placing a hand on her neck and gently applying pressure while she watched him with lustful eyes. But it was making love and Han couldn’t think of any other name to describe what has happening. It felt so…right.

Han balanced his forceful ministrations with tender kisses, gentle caresses and sweet words. He loved to hear the different ways her body responded under his touch, from high pitched cries, to long low moans and everything in between.

“Ride me, baby.” He huffed lifting Sophie up and top of him as he flipped onto his back. He had the perfect view now as she rolled her hips against him and eagerly cupped her own breasts. Han laid back and enjoyed what was happening above him. He watched her facial expression as she rode him, her breasts as she massaged them, and then his eyes drifted down to where the was sitting flush against his pelvis.

Sophie leaned down to kiss him gently as she began to move up and down along his length. He wrapped his arms around her tight and lifted his hips to meet hers as she slid back down his cock. She was so fucking wet too. Obscene, wet noises filled the room as their breathing became ragged and strained.

“I’m really close…. Can you come with me?” He stammered.

“Yes…I’m…I’m gonna come…I’m close…” and with that Sophie lifted back up and threw her head back as she bucked and rocked on him with abandonment. Han held her hips guiding her as she started to falter and he felt her walls tighten around him. It sent Han over the edge and he choked on his breath as he released himself deep inside of her. He felt like the air had been stolen from his lungs and his entire body buzzed.

“That was fucking incredible, Han.” Sophie flopped down on his chest panting. “Where did you learn to be so good at that, huh?”

Han stroked her back that was now covered in a sheen of sweat. He could feel her heart racing against him.

“What? Making love?” he joked.

“Yeah…Making love. How’d you learn to be so good at it?”

“I don’t know…I’ve never really…made love before. It had always just been sex.”

Sophie slowly slid off his spent cock and laid against his side.

“If that's what making love's supposed to be Han, then I’d never done it either." She smiled.

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

Sophie Pov.

Han made love to me three more times that night. The man truly had an endless supply of energy and an endless supply of semen! Each time we started slow, his cock would struggle to squeeze into my sore and swollen lips.

“I’m not hurting you am I baby?” He’d ask me each time.

“No Han, it feels achingly good…keep going.” Would be my answer.

I lost count of the number of times he took me to the stars. During one time tears sprung from his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, sending me into a blubbering mess. We both came and then broke down in sobs. Fuck he made my heart ache so bad.

Eventually, Han did run out of energy and we fell asleep covered in sweat, tears and cum. We could clean up in the morning, but for now I needed to be mingled with him for a while longer.

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

“Can I video you?” Han asked through ragged breaths. I hesitated. He wants to what? He wants to video me?

My brain ran through all the possible implications. 

What if someone saw it?

What if it got leaked?

If I let him record me I’d have no control over it.

Has he done this before?

Does he video all his encounters?

Does he have a whole hard drive of conquests?

Han and I had woken up half an hour earlier at half past five in the morning, so that we could have a few more hours together. He was lazily fucking me, because we needed to be connected for as long as possible, when he popped the video question.

“Baby,” he broke my thoughts. “We don’t have to…” he reassured me. “I..don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He stroked my inner thigh lightly, tenderly.

“Yes…” I whispered. “Yes it’s okay…it’s just…I’ve never done something like that before.” I lowered my eyes sheepishly.

“Me either…But I really want to… If you’re okay with it.”

I studied his face. His expression was soft and caring. He was being honest. He was telling the truth.

I nodded. “Yes… let’s do it.” My concern faded and was replaced with a nervous smile.

He’s going to have me forever.

He’s going to jerk off to this later.

I’m going to make him come long after today.

The thought excited me.

Han pulled out of me and fetched his phone. Then repositioned himself, kneeling between my legs.

He looked up at me. “Are you ready, Sophie.” He whispered.

I sucked in my bottom lip and nodded profusely.

Holding the phone near his chest, he aimed it down towards my pussy. Then with a few pumps of his cock with his hand he pushed the head against my lips, sliding it from the entrance up to my clitoris. I gasped and looked down to watch his cock slide up and down through my sensitive labia. They were swollen and sore now from all the delicious fucking we’d been doing, yet I wanted him to give me more.

“Han…” I squeaked, my voice cracking. He looked up at me, camera following his gaze. “I…Please…I need your cock inside me…” I begged. I wanted him to know how much I needed him, right now in this moment, and every time he watched his video in the future. I hooked a hand under each of my thighs and pulled them as wide as I could so I could give him the best view possible.

With what could only described as a growl, Han pointed the camera back down between us, and plunged his cock inside of me.

“Fuck… you feel so tight…baby.” He panted. He’d been saying that all night, as though every time he penetrated me was for the first time. For me, each time I felt that first push inside of me it felt like relief. Relief that he was finally back where I needed him most. Back where he belonged.

His jaw was slack, mouth agape, as he concentrated on long, slow thrusts. He’d drag his cock out almost to the tip, pause, then squeeze back inside to the hilt. His eyes flickering between what he saw in real life, and the screen on his phone. The noises I was making were becoming obscene and pornographic. I needed him to know how good, how perfect, he felt.

He looked so fucking hot filming me like this just as it felt so erotic being filmed!

“I wanna see you play with yourself, baby.” He instructed.

I let go of one of my legs and Han pressed against it with his free hand, keeping it pinned out of the way. He was stronger than me and pushed my leg further than I thought it could go.

I reached down to my pussy and spread my lips with two fingers, exposing my most intimate parts to the man filming me.

Han’s eyes glazed over, his eyes hooded, and he hadn’t closed his mouth yet. He hungrily licked his lip as he watched me begin to swirl my fingers over my clit and then rub and flick the nub in an upward motion.

The camera drifted up my body and to my face. I stared right into the lens with with an expression of pure ecstasy. I bit my lower lip hard as my eyes begged him to ruin me.

Han whispered a “Fuck!” under his breath and he suddenly snapped his hips faster, making my breasts bounce and knock the breath out of me.

“That’s it, Han… Fuck me faster…harder…” I cried out. “I wanna come on your cock!”

Han’s hips pounded into me, and the sudden change from the relentless, slow thrusts that he had been torturing me with previously, to this forceful pace, tipped me over the precipice. My back arched off the bed, my hands gripped the sheets as I released a long, primal guttural moan. I didn’t care how I sounded or how I looked, or what it must’ve looked like on video. I was too wrapped up in the moment to give a fuck.

“That was so god damned hot.” Han said dead seriously. He’d stopped fucking me and was staring at me in wonderment.

“You make me this way.” I panted and relaxed my body back into the bed.

Han paused in thought. “Baby…Sophie…?” he put the phone down on the bed beside him and crawled up to meet my face. He stroked my cheek and kissed my jawline. “There’s something…one more thing I want to try…” he hovered over me, looking in my eyes with a nervous expression. “And… We really don’t have to do it… And if we start…and you feel like you need to stop… you have to tell me, ‘kay?”

I cupped his adorable cheeks with both hands and kissed him.

“Han…” I cooed. “What is it? What do you want to try?”

Han swallowed “I wanna fuck your ass.” He said and exhaled loudly.

I raised an eyebrow, then softened my face. “Then do it.”

Han’s eyes widened. “Really? You’re sure?” he sounded shocked. “Okay… Um…Well…lube…We’ll need the lube.” He scrambled off me to retrieve the lube from the bedside table (we’d been using it here and there throughout the night), and I positioned myself on all fours.

Han knelt behind me. “Do I need to…you know… prep you?” He had already squirted some lube on his fingers and massaging my rim. Oh fuck! It felt so good. I dug my teeth into my lower lip to muffle a moan when his thumb breached my opening. His other hand greedily attacked my sopping pussy, slipping two fingers inside of me and digging into my g-spot.

“Fuck Han!” I squealed. “You’re gonna make me come again doing that!” my surprised reaction morphed into a laugh, and then into a low moan as his fingers dug at my sensitive walls.

“Just trying to get you ready to take me.” He grinned and slid his two fingers out only to return with three fingers directed straight into my g-spot. I mewled at the stretch and the ache in my pelvis.

“Ah but Han, baby, that’s not the hole you’re getting me ready for!” I teased. He growled roughly and removed his thumb from my ass and repositioned his hand so he could press against me with two lubricated fingers. “Are you ready, baby?”

I nodded “Please…hurry.”

He pushed his two fingers into me.

“Is that better?”

“Mmm-hhhm.” I hissed through gritted my teeth.

“Does it hurt, baby? I can stop.”

Does it hurt, baby? Those words made me want nothing more than to have him hurt me deliberately just to say those words. But in my mind instead of “I can stop” he’d say “Can you be a good girl and take it for me?”

“Yes…yes it hurts but in the best possible way.” I managed through my panting breath. “Hurt me more.” I whined.

Han hesitated.

“I’ll say red if I need you stop, okay?” I promised.

“Okay baby, if you’re sure.” His words were barely a whisper.

Han removed all his digits and I cried out at the emptiness. The emptiness wasn’t just in my body, it was in my heart too. Is this what it will feel like when this is over?

I felt Han’s cock push against my rim. “If you’re ready, baby, I want you take me, okay? All of me. I know how badly you want it.” He pushed the head past my rim.

“Oh…fucking…God…” The stretch was like nothing I’d ever felt. It was like I was being split in two. I gripped the sheets and squeezed my eyes shut, panting until the burning eased.

“M..more…” I mumbled. “I…want…need -”

“Shhh. It’s okay, baby. It won’t be long until I’m fucking you, okay?” Han cooed and massaged my ass cheeks.

As Han continued to penetrate me it sounded like he was struggling to compose himself. His breath was short and shallow and he kept muttering how “fucking tight” I was and how good it felt. It felt satisfying knowing that I made him feel this way.

I continued to hiss through my teeth at the intensity of pleasure I felt with every slight movement that was caused merely from our breathing.

It felt like Han was filling up my entire body, stretching me so wide I thought I’d die.

And then I felt his hips against me. He was completely inside me.

“You’re taking me so well.” He was saying all the right things to make me completely lose my mind, and I started bucking against him.

Holding onto my hips, Han guided me forward halfway off his cock and then slid my hips back to meet his.

“Jesus Christ…this…fuck…Oh shit…This feels…” Han cried “I have to go harder…is that okay? Do you think you can take it?” He pulled hips away and slammed then against me, ramming his cock into me. Then again, groaning loudly.

My arms gave way making me fall face first into the mattress, and my legs were struggling to hold me up. He was so deep inside me it felt like I was going to choke on his cock. My body felt like it was going to burst into a million pieces and scatter across the universe.

“Yes, Han…Please…Fuck the FEELINGS out of me!”

Han stopped abruptly and went quiet.

“Han?” my voice was tiny and wobbly. Fuck! Shit! Why did he stop?

He pulled his cock out of my ass and flipped me onto my back forcefully. Anger burned in his eyes and his brow furrowed as he glared at me. Wordlessly, he grabbed a pillow, folded it in half and pushed it underneath my hips He grabbed my legs not caring how hard he gripped me and hooked them over his shoulders. Leaning forward, he cupped the side of my face and roughly shoved a thumb into the corner of my mouth forcing me to suck his thumb. Then his hand slipped down to my neck. I stared into his burning, furious eyes as he squeezed his hand around my neck. I felt the air constrict. My eyes widened.

“WHY DID YOU SAY THAT?” he growled. “Why do want me to fuck…the feelings… out of you?” he winced at the last part, his voice sounding hurt. The anger in his eyes turning to despair.

I placed a hand over the hand on my neck, tears welling up in my eyes. He released his grip, but his hand remained where it was. He dropped his head and sighed.

“Han…” I sobbed. “It hurts.” He looked up at me confused. “In here.” I moved his hand from around my neck and placed it on my chest. His eyes followed his hand to where I’d placed it over my heart. “I thought maybe you could…like…fuck it away.”

Han’s face turned soft. “Oh baby,” he soothed and took my hand to his chest “it hurts for me too.”

Tears streamed down my face as I sobbed loudly.

“Baby…shh” he leaned in kissing away my tears, stroking my face. “It’ll be okay. It will. I promise.”

“I know…it’s just…hard.” I sniffled.

“Hey, come here.” He said soothingly and mouth met mine with a slow deep kiss. A kiss that made every part of me surrender, and every inch of my body and every cell of my being melt. His tongue danced tenderly with mine, and I moaned into his mouth making him smile. I sucked on his lower lip taking the flesh into my mouth savoring the feel and the taste, before pushing my tongue into his mouth.

I could feel his cock twitching against me.

“It seems you’re getting excited again, Sir.” I teased.

“Grrr… you make me crazy, you know that?” He grinned.

I smirked, although I must have looked a complete mess with my puffy eyes and tear-stained face.

“You know…” he leaned in close to my ear. “I won’t fuck your feelings out…but I tell you what I can do.” He whispered darkly.

“What?” I asked eagerly, my breath hitching.

“I can fuck your brains out.”

He pushed himself up to kneel between my legs. “Would you like me to do that?” he asked, pressing himself against my ass again.

“Yes, Han I want you to.”

He reapplied whatever remaining lube we still had to his dick, and with barely any warning he pushed his entire length into me.

I welcomed every sensation that came with it. The burning, the stretch, the fullness, the pain. The sensations were amplified more than double, as they resonated with how my heart felt too. It too burned, and stretched, felt full, and it was definitely in pain. My heart and body together.

I closed my eyes losing myself to the feeling as Han hovered above me.

“Don’t take you eyes off me.” It was more of a beg than a demand or request.

I locked my eyes on his, his face contorted with angst and euphoria as his cock dragged along my inner walls and I squeezed around him like a vice.

“I’m gonna fuck your brains out now…and you can’t come ‘till I say.” He said huskily. “And you can’t look away. I wanna see your eyes the whole time.”

“O…okay..” I nodded.

Han set a brutal pace. It was the hardest he’d gone the entire two nights together. His hips snapped fast, rutting into me relentlessly. He slammed into me so hard that I knew that I would be feeling this for days. It’s what I had wanted all along, to feel him even after this. His body was sweaty and burning hot as I ran my hands over his biceps and shoulders, and my fingernails down his back.

The noises were absolutely obscene, my groans, whimpers and cries becoming louder and more feral. Han was making a lot of noise too, his breathing was laboured and heavy, and he kept muttering in Korean. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, but when they were they dark and hazy and locked on mine. We only truly broke eye contact when our mouth crashed together in messy, wet kisses.

“Fuck, I really do think you were made for me, Soph-” he breathed.

I could feel my orgasm approaching, and was nearly sent hurtling over the edge with one particularly hard thrust that made me cry out. “Han…!”

“Yes, Sophie?” he said as he slowed his pace for a moment.

“I…I’m so…so close.” I whined.

Han smiled and kissed me. “Me too, baby. You can come when you’re ready, okay?” he leaned his forehead on mine. “I won’t be far behind you.”

I nodded. “Okay… keep going.”

Han began to move again but he didn’t match the pace he had set before. His thrusts still had force behind them, but they were much slower and it heightened the sensations. I could focus on how exactly his cock felt as it dragged against my insides, or the how my stretched rim felt as he passed through it back and forth, or how my vagina would clench and ache as it yearned to be filled.

“Oh God! Oh….fuck!!!” My entire body stiffened and I choked on my breath as I saw stars. My orgasm wouldn’t slow down, it just kept going and I dug my fingers into his shoulders as I cried out.

“Come for me Han. I want you to own me.” I somehow managed, even though I thought my lungs had stopped working.

Han groaned as he released himself deep inside me, coating my walls as my extended orgasm eventually faded.

Han pulled out and collapsed on top of me out of breath and panting. He removed the pillow, not caring about the cum seeping out underneath me (we’d given up caring at this point), and propped himself up on and elbow.

“That was…intense.” He grinned the biggest fucked-out grin I’d ever seen. “You’re incredible.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I’m so lucky to have met you, you know that?”

I stroked his cheek. “You know what happened, don’t you?”

He looked at me intrigued. “What?” he smirked.

“We turned what was supposed to be raw and dirty anal sex into making love.”

“Ha!” he bellowed “True! You know what that means, right?”

I shook my head “No. What?”

“With all this making love, we might be in love.” He nestled his head onto my chest and I wrapped my arms around him tight.

“Maybe.” I sighed, but I didn’t let my mind entertain that idea.

————

Han pov.

Han turned on the shower and waited for the hot water to come through.

“I can’t promise I won’t grope you.” He joked as he ushered Sophie into the shower with him. She stepped into the cubicle and allowed Han to soap her up.

“And I can’t promise I won’t spank your ass.” She equally teased, smacking him on the butt.

Their time together was almost over and they had finally come to terms with it (not just putting on a brave face, surely).

And after their shower they ordered room service breakfast and scoffed down muffins and fruit because it was tasty (not to squash down their sadness, or anything like that).

Eventually, it really was time to say goodbye.

“Sophie,” He held her tight as they stood at the hotel room entrance. “I’ll never forget what.. What we shared. You don’t know how much you’ve helped me…to feel like myself again.”

“You’d better not forget!” She playfully punched his arm. “You’ve got a fucking porno of me in your phone!”

Han grinned like an idiot. “Yeah!” he feigned embarrassment.

“Well…” he started and looked down at his feet.

“Yeah…” Sophie responded quietly, eyes downcast.

“I.. I have to go.”

Then Sophie threw her arms around him, almost knocking him over.

And she kissed him. Really kissed him. A kiss that was full of love and sorrow. A kiss that was a “thank you” and a “you’re welcome”. A kiss that was a “goodbye” and an “until next time”.

And Han kissed her back. He wanted to say so much but he couldn’t find the words. At least not English words. Actually, even the Korean words were hard to find. It was unlike Han to be speechless. But he tried to convey how he felt in the way he kissed her. A slow, tender, deep kiss. He tried to memorise the softness of her lips, and the taste of her tongue, the way she’d bite his lip as he pulled his mouth away.

“Remember me, okay?” He whispered.

“How could I ever forget you?” she replied.

—-----------------------

Tears had already escaped Han as he walked back to his room, and once he was inside he fell to the floor sobbing uncontrollably, where no one could hear or see him.

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

One Month Later

Han Pov.

A month later Han was in a hotel room in Atlanta. He’d just finished a show he was alone again with his thoughts.

Even though he always kept himself busy, thoughts of Sophie still crept into his head. He hardly slept because he’d dream about her. Last night he dreamed that she was on tour with him, but when he woke up he was alone.

He searched for her face everywhere he went. Every show, every meet, fucking everywhere! He searched even when he knew there was no possibility that she’d even be there. He wrote songs about her. He tried to distract himself with work.

And every night he would open his phone and watch the video of her. Seeing how she came undone on his cock always made him so hard and so heartbroken.

Sometimes he’d jerk off to watching the video like a porno. Sometimes he’d just listen to the audio in the dark and fantasise about fucking her while he got off.

Sometimes he just watched it without masturbating just to see her face and hear her voice.

And sometimes he’d cry when he watched it.

“Pull yourself together.” He would say, “or this is the last time I’m going to watch this.”

He even contemplated deleting the video entirely but he could never bring himself to do it.

That night, Han opened his contact list, like he did every night, and brought Sophie’s number up on the screen.

“You can’t fucking call her.”  He’d say each and every time.

This time he hit dial.

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

Sophie Pov.

After my time with Han my life went back to it’s regular rhythm, but it was like I was living on autopilot, and in some sort of hazy state. It was like I was doing all of the things Sophie does, but nothing felt right anymore.

Stray Kids were finishing their final leg of their tour and it took every ounce of will power not to watch clips of Han on Instagram. I didn’t want to be reminded of him, and I knew if I did look, it would be like picking a scab off a wound too soon.

It was a struggle to move on and I had often found myself thinking about him. 

It would start when I opened my eyes in the morning. I’d imagine he was curled up beside me. Then I’d wonder what he was doing right now. If he was in Korea was he still fast asleep? What is he dreaming about? Does he dream about me? If he was in another country what is he doing? Do I creep into his mind too?

Does he watch the video he took?

And then eventually I’d get up and go about my day functioning as best I could. 

I didn’t know how he felt. All I knew for sure was that I hadn’t forgot about him.

The weeks passed and the foggy haze that had been clouding be began to ease just slightly. I’d decided that it was okay to be sad and to grieve. It was a special, once in a lifetime, romantic encounter, and I shouldn’t want to forget it. I somehow found the trust in myself that eventually the pain will fade and this will one day be a cherished memory. One that will make my heart burst with happiness, rather than feel heavy and ache. I just wish it’d hurry the fuck up.

One Friday afternoon I was in a cafe working on my laptop, enjoying a coffee and cake. Stray Kids were in the US finishing off their tour. I knew because I’d started to become brave and and sneak a few peeks at Instagram. It was okay if I looked at clips of the other members, but if I saw Han my chest would pound and I’d have to turn it off. I was still not ready to look at him.

I finished my work, packed up and paid for my afternoon tea before heading out into the warm afternoon sun. 

As I walked I focused my mind on my surroundings.

What could I see? The beautiful parkland to my left. The green grass. Trees that have been there far longer than I’ve been alive.

What could I feel? The warm sun. The breeze. The heaviness of my laptop bag strap digging into my shoulder.

What could I hear? People talking. Seagulls squawking. My phone ringing.

My phone ringing? Fuck! 

I scrambled into by bag searching for my phone. It was probably a client. I pulled it out and looked at who was calling me.

Incoming Call: Han Jisung

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Han fucking Jisung?

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

Han video called me every week. And in between he’d send me selfies and sweet messages. Occasionally, I’d get a cheeky dick pic. He said those particular photos were to make me so hungry that I’d fly to Korea.

I would count down the days until our video calls. It’s where we got to learn about, and get to know each other properly. We’d talk about everything. From my childhood to his time as a trainee, our passions, interests, dreams. Sometimes we’d talk about random shit, or he’d show me a new song.

He’d share with me his struggles and worries, and he’d listen to mine, always offering me empathy.

Sometimes our calls turned sexy and he’d masturbate while he instructed me to undress and play with myself. Sometimes he’d get me to use my toys or demonstrate the fluffy plug for him. 

One particular evening we were on one of our calls and I’d slipped my top off for him. 

“Fuck, baby! I’ll never get sick of your tits!” He hissed and I knew he was playing with himself.

“I should’ve given them more attention.” He said regretfully.

I responded with a seductive smirk and began to play with my nipples and then cup them in my palms, squeezing and massaging them. 

“Imagine these wrapped around you cock, Han.” I suggested huskily as I pushed my breasts together. “Would you like to fuck my tits?”

Han’s mouth fell open and his tongue hung out the corner as he worked his cock. I couldn’t see what he was doing but his face told me that he’d come because of the way he squeezed his eyes shut, and from the choked sound in his throat. I loved seeing Han’s “pleasure face” as we’d affectionately started calling it. 

Once he came back down to earth he stared at me lovingly, and reached out to touch the screen.

“I’d give anything to hold you right now.” He whispered. He had pure longing in his eyes.

I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. I’d planned to taunt and tease him and drop hints. But the pained, tormented look he was giving me melted my heart.

“Well baby!” I smiled. “You will get to touch me very soon.” 

Han’s expression changed from longing to confusion, and then to hope. He raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened questioningly as realisation hit him.

“Wait! What? … Does that…. mean?” 

I grinned “Yep, Han. I’ve bought flights to Korea!”

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

Thank you for taking the time to read my Han and Sophie story... I am a sucker for a Han love story.

Hope you enjoyed.

[astra-galaxie]

“Hey, Hemlock! Is this your card?” - Oberon Douglas

Biographical information

Full Name: Oberon Indigo Douglas

Alias(es):

Midsummer (codename)

Ronnie (nickname)

O (nickname)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Pansexual

Status: Alive

Age: 36 (season 3)

Birth: 1980

Race: Human

Nationality: Australian

Origin: Melbourne, Australia

Residence:

Melbourne, Australia

New York City, USA (formerly)

Concordia, USA (formerly)

Profession(s): U.N.I.T. Agent

Past profession(s): Firefighter

Family:

Nathan Pandit (husband)

Avi Douglas (son)

Lars Douglas (brother)

Namgung Angela (ex-sister-in-law) (incarcerated)

April Douglas (niece)

May Douglas (niece)

June Douglas (niece)

Poppy Douglas (mother)

Ryan “Digger” Douglas (father)

Devi Pandit (mother-in-law) (incarcerated)

Léon Toussaint (father-in-law)

Affiliation(s): U.N.I.T.

Profile

Height: 6’0” Age: 36 (season 3) Weight: 175lbs Eyes: green Blood: A+

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Oberon Douglas is a tall man with a lean build, shoulder-length dirty blond hair, a short beard, and emerald green eyes. His fair skin has whitish, pale pink burn scars; the most obvious ones are the scars around his right eye, the left side of his neck, across his chest, his arms, and the back of his right hand.

In his suspect appearance, Oberon wears dark-wash jeans, a dark gray tank top under a purple button-up shirt that he rolls up sleeves, and dark brown work boots. He has a black leather necklace with three fake fangs and four small hoop earrings on his left ear: two on the lower lob and the other two on the shell.

Since Oberon sustained hearing loss from his older U.N.I.T. days and the fire, he has hearing aids. He can hear without them, but it sounds hushed and mumbled. He wears standard hearing aids but insisted on the casings being bright purple, his favourite colour.

In his U.N.I.T. uniform, he wears tight black pants tucked into calf-high black boots with purple straps, a fitted black leather jacket, a dark purple belt, and slim, dark purple protective gloves that can withstand the impact of his explosive cards. He also wears his U.N.I.T. equipment, including his gauntlet, headphones, communicator (built-in to his gauntlet), sonic choker, and a handgun kept in his waist holster.

As a Bureau agent, Oberon wears fitted black pants, black boots with purple laces, a light gray shirt, and a dark purple leather jacket with a Bureau badge pinned to the left side.

Per his suspect appearance in United in Ashes, it is known that Oberon knows chemistry and is a musician (he plays the drums).

History

The younger brother of Lars Douglas, Oberon hails from the land down under. He grew up in the city of Melbourne with his parents and Lars. He was raised listening to his father's army stories and his mother's tales of her time as a rock star.

When Oberon was young, he decided to join the military as his father had. But Oberon never imagined that recruiters from U.N.I.T would be watching the applicants that day. He had impressed them with his initiative and creativity so much that they offered him a position. Oberon accepted the offer and began his training to become a U.N.I.T agent.

He grew close to Director Kavi Pandit and became a trusted agent and friend. This was even before he met the Director's grandson, Nathan Pandit. Oberon was Kavi's first choice for high-security missions, like the mission to take down Switch Labs.

Oberon's contact inside Switch Labs was Nathan, who had reported the laboratory to his grandfather after discovering their illegal experiments. The two got along well (too well, in Kavi's opinion), and Oberon volunteered to become Nathan's partner after the younger joined the agency to avoid going to jail.

The two became some of U.N.I.T's best agents with one of the highest mission success rates. The two eventually developed a romantic relationship but kept it a secret from the agency. However, Kavi claims to have always known about the couple's feelings for each other. The Director knew they would never let it interfere with their work, so he saw no reason to break them up.

After years of working together, Kavi sent Oberon and Nathan on an undercover mission to Concordia. While away from the control of U.N.I.T, they decided to get married. Oberon proposed using a silver ring with black gems. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Nathan, and to his delight, his boyfriend felt the same.

The couple eloped with Kavi, who was now retired from U.N.I.T as their witness. They knew they wanted a proper wedding with their families and friends after leaving the agency, so they began dreaming and planning the event together. They documented their ideas in a scrapbook with plans to finalize the details once they retired from U.N.I.T.

To Oberon's surprise, one day, Nathan approached him, asking if he wanted to try having a child together. They had talked about having kids one day, but the topic of trying to have biological children was a touchy subject for Nathan. Oberon would have loved to have a child that shared the two's DNA, but he would never force his husband to do something he wasn't comfortable with.

But Nathan was the one who offered to try and get pregnant. He told Oberon that after thinking about it for a long time, he wanted to have a child with his husband. But if he couldn't carry the child to term, he wasn’t sure if he would try for a second time.

Oberon respected his husband's choice and helped Nathan transition from hormone supplements to prenatal medication. It took the couple several tries, but eventually, they had a positive pregnancy test confirming the conception of their child.

It was nine long, hard months before they welcomed their son into the world, but Oberon stayed by his husband's side the entire time. He got and made everything Nathan craved (no matter how strange) and handled the ever-changing mood swings.

He also nearly got his hand broken during the labour and delivery.

But it was all worth it to hold Avi for the first time. Oberon fell in love when Avi looked at him with his matching green eyes, and he swore to treasure and protect his son every day for the rest of his life.

Like his brother Lars, Oberon is a natural father. Nathan always says his husband is the fun parent because Oberon knows how to interact with kids. Oberon argues that Nathan needs to give himself more credit regarding his parenting skills. While he may be awkward around other children, Nathan has a special bond with Avi; he always knows what his son needs, even when Oberon is at a complete loss for what the boy wants.

A couple of years after Avi was born, Oberon and Nathan began planning their life after leaving U.N.I.T. They decided to move to Australia since they would be closer to Oberon's family, and Avi would be able to see his younger cousins more often. They designed the type of house they wanted to buy, the area they would live in, and even what careers they would pursue. Oberon still wanted to be an emergency responder but was considering becoming a paramedic. Meanwhile, Nathan was looking into getting certified to be a veterinarian.

And then the fire happened.

Oberon and Nathan woke up in the middle of the night to their house nearly engulfed in flames. Oberon sent Nathan to get Avi while looking for a way out of the house. The stairs were unusable, and there was no other exit from the second floor. The only way out was for them to go out a window and climb down the tree that grew beside it.

Oberon was about to head to the window when the ceiling collapsed on top of him. He was pinned under a support beam as the fire grew more intense. Nathan returned carrying Avi and tried to move the beam, but it wouldn't budge. Oberon begged Nathan to leave him so that he and Avi would survive, and after a parting kiss, Oberon watched the two run through the fire to freedom.

After the two were gone, Oberon continued to try and free himself. As the fire burned around him, it weakened the support beam, and he could crawl out from under it. He couldn't use the window he thought Nathan and Avi had gone through, so he went into the room beside it and climbed down the tree. Once outside, he found firefighters and paramedics arriving to help, but he saw no signs of his boys.

Oberon feared that Nathan and Avi were still inside and tried to go back in and save them. But the firefighters stopped and wrestled him to the ambulance, where he passed out due to smoke inhalation. He was brought to the hospital, where doctors placed him into a medical coma to help his recovery.

A few weeks later, he was awakened from his coma with Lars and their parents sitting beside his bed. He wanted to ask them where Nathan and Avi were, but he couldn't talk due to his intubation tube. His family was so happy to see him awake, but no one even mentioned his husband and son's conditions.

It wasn't until later that night after his parents and brother left, that Director Kovac came and told him the "truth" about the fire. He said that Nathan and Avi got trapped in the nursery when trying to escape and were burned to death. Oberon couldn't believe that his boys were gone and demanded proof, but Kovac claimed their ashes had long been sent to Kavi in India for burial.

Oberon fell into a severe depression after that, and while he started recovering physically, his mental health was deteriorating. He couldn’t bring himself to contact Kavi or Léon because of his survivor’s guilt, and he feared travelling to India to find his boys’ graves. His family never knew how deeply he was hurting, and it wasn't until one day, Lars found his brother overdosing on his pain meds that Oberon finally started to get the help he needed.

After this incident, Oberon told Lars about Nathan, Avi, and his secret life. Lars was shocked to find out there had been a brother-in-law and nephew he never got to meet, but he understood why Oberon had to keep them a secret. They eventually told their parents and Angela but decided to wait and tell the triplets about their lost uncle and cousin when they were older.

With the support he needed, Oberon slowly recovered mentally and emotionally from the fire. While improving his mental health, he travelled to Australia (at the time, he and his parents lived with Lars, Angela, and the triplets in the USA) and noticed a house for sale in the area he and Nathan wanted to move to. It was the size they wanted, had a large yard, was in a great school district, and the commute into the city was reasonable. The only downside was that the house needed a lot of renovations.

But Oberon needed something to do with all his free time, so he bought the house, moved back to Australia and began renovating it into the home he dreamed of living in with his family. He knows his parents and Lars were concerned about him making a home for the family he no longer had, but the work seemed to be helping him, so they supported him. And about a year later, his parents moved to Australia and bought a home near their son.

As Oberon renovated the house, he slowly began moving in the stuff he had in storage from Concordia. When he and Nathan decided to leave U.N.I.T and move to Australia, the couple put their important and irreplaceable items into a storage unit. Oberon was the one with the key, and U.N.I.T told Nathan that he could only access the storage unit after his mission in Grimsborough, so unknown to Nathan, Oberon had the stuff shipped to Australia.

Even though Oberon believed his boys were gone, he never felt closer to them than when he worked on their house. The only things of theirs that he never parted with were Avi's stuffed Koala, Lala, and Nathan's hair comb. Both items were gifts from Oberon that Nathan and Avi treasured dearly.

The hair comb was a welcome gift after Oberon and Nathan became partners. Oberon knew the other man liked snakes and saw that Nathan (who had yet to start transitioning) always struggled to keep his hair out of his face. So when he found the snake-themed hair comb, he thought it was the perfect gift.

Oberon hadn't planned on Nathan cutting off most of his hair right before he could give him the comb.

Thankfully, Nathan saved the man from dying from embarrassment by taking the comb and sliding it into his hair, commenting, "I have thick hair." Nathan loved the hair comb and wore it whenever and wherever he could.

As for Avi's Koala, when Oberon and Nathan told their son they would be moving to Australia, Oberon got the toy to celebrate. Avi fell in love with the stuffie and the idea of moving to his dad's home country. But since the boy was so young, he had difficulty saying "Koala," so he called his new friend Lala.

Oberon didn't know if he could move on from losing his husband and son, but he was coming to terms with his life. So even if he couldn't see himself finding a new partner or starting a new family, he knew he would be alright with the rest of his family helping him, and one day he would see his boys again.

Events of Criminal Case

Season 1

Nathan and Avi mention Oberon throughout the course of Grimsborough. However, he isn’t mentioned by name until the end of The Ways of Death after Adalet and Jones find the Douglas family scrapbook, and Jones begs to know Nathan’s husband’s name.

Season 2

During Pacific Bay, Oberon is mentioned again when Nathan reveals that he and his husband work for a spy agency called U.N.I.T. Nathan continues to explain that Director Kovac ordered the fire, which “killed” Oberon. But unknown to Nathan and Avi, Oberon freed himself from under the support beam, escaping the house from another window and climbing down the tree growing near it. But sadly, Nathan and Avi had already been taken to the hospital by U.N.I.T agents, so Oberon believed they were still trapped inside.

Oberon was referenced once more during Adalet and Fili’s wedding. Nathan commented that the two had eloped because of their undercover mission. But the couple planned to have a proper wedding with their family and friends once the mission was over, and Oberon was so excited to introduce Nathan and Avi to his family.

Also, during Pacific Bay, Oberon was the agent who rescued Fili from SOMBRA after the man had been captured in Melbourne. Even though he was on medical leave, Oberon still monitored the radio waves for emergencies in his area. He intercepted Fili's distress signal and decided to rescue the MI6 agent.

After Oberon had rescued Fili and staged the scene to make the kidnappers think the Irishman had been killed, he brought the younger to a U.N.I.T-protected hospital for treatment. Oberon stayed with Fili until the man was discharged but never told him his full name. Fili only knew the man as "O" and "Midsummer" for secrecy reasons. That's why Fili never made the connection to Nathan's husband.

Season 3

It is revealed that Oberon hadn’t died in the fire after Carmen and Jack found his lighter on their crime scene during United in Ashes. After confirming that the lighter belonged to Oberon, Lars informed his teammates that his brother had been through a lot in the past years and asked them to be gentle during their questioning. The agents promised to honour the request, and they went to Oberon's house to ask him about being at the crime scene.

Oberon was stunned to hear that his boss had been murdered, but he wasn't sad that the man was gone. He respected Nicolas but never liked how the Brit had supported Director Kovac's unethical ideas when he was Assistant Director. But other than that, he had no reason to kill the man, nor could he think of the most likely potential killer out of Nicolas's enemies.

But the team later discovered that Oberon did have an excellent motive for possibly killing Nicolas. Nicolas supported the plan to "kill" Nathan and Avi and was the one who started the fire. Oberon had seen Nicolas standing outside the house that night but had no proof to incriminate the man. But despite having motive, means, and opportunity, the Bureau found Oberon innocent of murder.

In the additional investigation following the case, Lars invited Jack to meet his parents and check on Oberon at his brother's house. When they arrived, they found Oberon running around his house looking for something while Digger and Poppy tried to calm him down. After Lars got his brother to take some deep breaths, Oberon explained that he'd lost his husband's hair comb. He knew he had it on him when he visited the park, but now he couldn't find it.

Lars and Jack offered to search the park for the comb. They managed to find the accessory but discovered it covered in dirt and soot. Lars brought the comb to the plane, and Jonah used a special cleaner to clean silver. Afterward, Lars and Jack returned the hair comb to Oberon.

Oberon cried when he saw the cleaned hair comb. He explained that the only thing U.N.I.T salvaged from the fire was Nathan's dirty, soot-covered hair comb. Oberon had never been able to bring himself to clean it after the fire, feeling like if he did, he would be destroying the memories of his husband.

But after holding the cleaned comb, Oberon felt like it was Nathan's way of telling him it was time to move on, but that Oberon didn't need to forget about him and Avi. Oberon thanked his brother and Jack for finding the comb, and Lars stayed to help his family set up for the cookout in Oberon's backyard.

But that cookout would need to be put on hold because a SOMBRA mind-controlled Fili threatened to attack the team and their families. He and his family rushed to the Bureau's plane, where he was met by someone he hadn't seen in years: Léon Toussaint. Oberon immediately began apologizing to Léon for failing to save Nathan and Avi, but to both men's confusion, Léon says he thought Oberon had died in the fire.

The conversation was soon interrupted by Avi, who had exited his seat to see who his grandfather was talking to. He was so happy to see his father that he barely even questioned how his dad was alive. Even though he was stunned to see Avi alive, Oberon wasted no time embracing his son, crying tears of joy as he held the boy.

A few moments later, Nathan arrived to find his husband alive and hugging their son. He nearly tackled Oberon as he pulled him into a kiss, both momentarily forgetting about everyone else in the room.

It wasn't until they were reminded about the threat at hand that the couple decided to put the reunion on hold.

Oberon later helped the Bureau take down Fili and bring the Irishman to a hospital to make sure SOMBRA hadn't left any other "surprises" inside the man. He was later present when Nathan updated the Bureau on Fili's condition.

When it was time for the Bureau to resume their hunt for SOMBRA, Oberon and Nathan said that they would be helping Fili recover while he was in Australia. They also promised to search the Bureau's plane for SOMBRA bugs and give its security system a U.N.I.T/G.I.A upgrade. Once the plane was ready, Nathan volunteered to fly it to wherever the team was while Oberon stayed with Fili.

While in Australia, Oberon helps Fili recover from SOMBRA's control and practice his new powers. It was a challenge and dangerous at times, but Oberon wouldn't abandon his new friend, especially not when he needed him most! Oberon also got to spend time with his son Avi after spending years thinking the boy was dead. And when he was offered the position of co-pilot for the Bureau, Oberon immediately accepted, and he, Fili, Avi, and Dean rejoined the Bureau in Antarctica.

Oberon continued making appearances throughout the final two regions of Save The World. Most often, he was with Nathan as he helped his husband bring the bodies of murder victims to the plane for autopsy or simply wanted to be with Nathan. When he wasn't with his husband, he could be found either in the cockpit with Fili or spending time with Avi when he wasn't working. He also spent time getting to know the rest of the team, and he and Jonah became good friends as they bonded over their shared interest in weapons.

During The Darkest Hour, Oberon was hospitalized alongside Jonah after the two had been caught in the explosion from the bomb Angela had planted on the plane. His hearing aids exploded in his ears, and while the doctors managed to remove the pieces, Oberon's hearing was damaged even further. He was angry at Angela for trying to kill the Bureau and taking away more of his hearing. Still, he knew she would be punished for her crimes in an even higher security prison once Natasha's murder was solved and the US president was saved. After the case had been closed, Oberon and Jonah were discharged from the hospital and returned to the team.

Oberon was sad that Dupont was lost in the fight to defeat SOMBRA. He knows that death is always a possibility in his line of work, but he never thought the historian would be the one killed. But at least Dupont was able to see SOMBRA be defeated and the award the Bureau received from the UN before he passed away. Oberon knows that Dupont died proudly and that no one will forget about what he did to help destroy SOMBRA.

Following SOMBRA's defeat and Dupont's death, the Bureau was joined by their families in New York. Oberon was happy to see his parents even if his mother fussed over him and his injuries, but Nathan assured her he would be able to hear once his ears had recovered and he could be fitted for new hearing aids. And as they celebrated the defeat of SOMBRA and buried Dupont, Oberon looked forward to his future with his husband and son as they planned to move to Grimsborough and take the time to be a family again before thinking about the next chapter of their lives.

Organization(s)

U.N.I.T.

Rank: Agent

Bureau (disbanded)

Rank: Co-pilot

Story Information

First appeared: United in Ashes

Trivia

Lars references his brother during Rest and Relaxation. When teaching Jack how to play the guitar, he mentions the drummer of his band who is Oberon

Oberon is right-handed, but after the fire burned his right hand, he forced himself to learn how to use his left hand for certain things so he wouldn’t strain his right hand

The support beam which he got trapped under burned his back. He still struggles to lie on his back for extended periods of time

He is named after Oberon, King of the fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream

It is a running joke for people to call Nathan the "Indian boy" in reference to the character from the story

They plan never to tell anyone that Nathan's deadname is Titania

He was inspired to apply to the Australian military by his father

He got his flare for dramatics from his mother

Along with knowing how to play the drums, Oberon plays the guitar, saxophone, piano, and kazoo

The last one was so he could annoy Lars after his brother wouldn't stop playing the didgeridoo

The fangs on his necklace are fake, but he always makes up new stories to tell people how he got them. He’s used everything from fighting sharks to Tasmanian Devils

He wanted to be a magician as a kid

A few characters inspire his U.N.I.T. equipment. His sonic choker is based on Black Canary's canary cry (DC) and Present Mic’s voice quirk (BNHA), while his explosive playing cards come from Gambit (Marvel)

Disclaimer: Character design was created using Rinmarugames Mega Anime Avatar Creator! I have only made minor edits to the design! Background courtesy of CriminalArtist5

Links to my stories:

The Case of the Criminal (Ao3/Wattpad)

Killer Bay (Ao3/Wattpad)

Where in the World are the Killers? (Ao3/Wattpad)

[blurredblonde]

BUCKET LIST, including the strange, the wild, the weird, and the borderline undoable

Go to a nude beach

spread eagle naked towards the sun

use Pinterest business to do brand links and get any amount of $$ from that alone

go to a pole dancing class

try hot yoga

do a burlesque show in Melbourne

post an animation to youtube

start a webtoon

learn to sew

get an apartment by myself

get an apartment with friends

post a shitty homemade music video in a lana del rey way with the help of friends

get a perm

visit coney island

be 125 pounds

get a the dachshund tattoo

post a vlog like im famous

be a extra in a movie

act in a gay indie movie like norman reedus

go to a gorillaz concert

get a snake

get a record player

meet a sugar mommy

go to a jazz bar alone

get a dressed up like a old hollywood star and go have a night on the town

get my license

own a mustang

ride a motorcycle

go to a mosh pit

go to a rave

get black out drunk

go skinny dipping

publish a art book

own a beach house

get a red gingham bikini

take a slutty picture in a american flag bikini and post it to instagram

go diving with whale sharks

be a art director on a project

do a mural on a wall

complete a painting on an obnoxiously large canvas

make a pop song with no knowledge of music or mixing

work on a big animated film

Do a boudoir photoshoot

party in paris

do a full cosplay

pet a pigeon

get a scuba diving license

explore an abandoned building

kiss a stranger

get in a fist fight

flash my boobs at something

attend a figure drawing class

be the nude model at a figure drawing class

receive fanart of my own characters

create a reel showing school doodles

be the cinematographer for a project

take a history class

be a dive instructor

post a animation meme to a jack stauber song

go on vacation all by myself

have sex

be in a youtube video

go on the video side of omegle

visit japan

go to a film festival

jump off a pier

do a pin-up photoshoot

go to an acting interview

heh

open an online store

do artist alley at a convention

cross country roadtrip with friends

stargaze on top of a car

invest in stocks and real estate

go on a cruise to thailand and thrift there

go to the new york library

visit bora bora

learn to play guitar

draw on the sidewalk with chalk

nurture and take care of a plant

grow my own food

get chickens

join a club in uni

take a pottery class

work out in a gym

surf a barrel

buy a surfboard

meditate for 50 days in a row

travel in a van

fly first class

go on a blind date

buy and fill a photo album book

kiss in the rain

do a thirty-day photography challenge and post the whole thing

explore the woods by my house

go to a ball/masquerade party

host a dinner party

say yes to everything for a day

grow my hair past my ass

become mildly fluent in french

attend golbeins animation workshop

buy an obnoxiously large rug

smell the tomford cherry perfume

get a Brazilian wax

get henna done

go to Brisbane museum by myself

get my i.d

go wine tasting

visit Miami

Meet my online best friend

dine at the ritz

go on a gameshow

do tent camping

win a sweepstake

create a artist porfolio/website

be featured in a gallery

go to okinawa

learn to ballroom dance

ride a horse on a beach/ and or backwards

go to a country club

bake a pie

buy a tourist t-shirt

do a escape room

live in Santa Barbara

stay in cape cod

belly dancing class

get my art viral on tiktok

do a commision

buy a fancy wardrobe

have a room with a slanted roof

sleep in a pool in an inflatable pool

snuggle with nurse sharks

bayonetta mui mui glasses.

go out in a pair of high heels

do a show at a convention

stay at the madonna inn

do lesbian handkerchief flagging in public

do a 'nude' photoshoot

own every sims 4 pack

complete a sims4 generations challenge

play subnautica

swim a motel pool at night

pick a girl from a bar

get a drinks bought for me

smoke a ciggrette

try mixology

get a hickey

have a friend or myself sew vintage patterns

wear a tailored suit

buy real cowgirl boots

bathe in a heart shaped tub

take a rose petal bath

stick a polaroid of myself somewhere public

use spray paint

do a vintage glamour competition

own a house with stain glass windows

go to a cathedral

get pink lace curtains

paint a room

milk a cow

replay Detriot become human

do a live stream

do a lesbian event like a cruise or smth

go to a pride parade

participate on a float in a parade

be a scare actor

act in a play

see a broadway show

shoot a gun

drive a convertible

see lana del rey in concert

do modelling work

do a commercial

buy a sewing machine

drive the road without directions

write a screenplay

submit a film for a competition

pitch an animated show

take a opportunity that scares me

do public karaoke

buy a shitty 2000s camera

get a boat license

buy a boat

go to a random diner

sell clothes on depop

play a drinking game with mates

stay in a hotel with mates

do a draw my life

do a drawing for each section of my Pinterest board

get my fortune told/ future read

buy some mega flare jeans

post a picture of myself to Pinterest/ start a 'me' board

buy some colorful tights

get blue streaks through my blonde hair like aquamarine

drop in on a skateboard

buy a castle

party at Hearst castle

post another fanfic to ao3

dress up in a slutty Halloween costume,its a rite of passage

bake and decorate a fancy cake for someone