#&. unfortunately I got two left feet .& (playlist)

[hopedefined]

@thwipsthrown

[huramuna]

banshee's lament - chapter 1.

aemond targaryen x stark ofc minor jacaerys velaryon x stark ofc masterlist prev | next

a former ward of alicent hightower and aemond's childhood companion, shera stark, returns to king's landing after ten years. ten years after the incident at driftmark that left her and aemond permanently disfigured. after so many years apart, shera and aemond are almost strangers. almost.

a/n: i posted the first two chapters of this story before, but they're being reworked -- so just poof what you know about them out of your mind when reading it now and think of it as a clean slate.

wordcount: 3k

@huramuna-fics - follow & turn on notifications for just my fic postings! no taglists right now, sorry.

content: smut, angst, fluff, disabled ofc, aemond being delulu & obsessive, major canon divergence, ofc has a service direwolf, i'm taking canon rules and putting them in a blender and taking a shot, arranged marriage

story playlist

The wind had finally died down that day, the trees somewhat still over the horizon. Their branches still wobbled with some errant breeze, whistling through the wood like a song. 

The window was pushed outward, the crisp air crossing paths with the smell of smoke, whirling and mingling like lost friends. A small fireplace was warming the room as the lady perched on her windowsill, dark copper curls hanging around her like tendrils. Shera took in a deep breath of air— it was crisp and refreshing, pushing away the errant effects of sleepiness. 

Her skin prickled in goosebumps beneath her nightgown as she turned to her bed. A large black mass was snoozing softly still, taking up the majority of the mattress. Slinking over, she snuggled herself close to the giant canine, blowing softly on his muzzle to wake him. Large amber eyes met brown and milky blue, pupils dilating and constricting in tandem, before the wolf let out a sleepy chuff. 

“Wake up, my love,” Shera whispered, fingers digging into his shaggy mane as she scratched just the right spot. “Moongeist, we must start the day.” she hummed. 

The direwolf rolled over onto his back, belly exposed to the chilled air. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, one leg kicking as his companion got the one itch just out of reach of his own claws. 

“Oh, you’re a ham,” Shera mumbled into his fur, peppering him with kisses. “You’re no wolf, you’re a honey glazed ham,” she tickled his belly, causing him to let out an almost laughing whine. “With a side of sweet potatoes and winter chard.” she rolled next to him, snuggling into him like he was a person. Sprawled out from the tip of his outstretched legs, up to his nose, he outmatched Shera’s height by about one and a half feet. Westeros would surely need to watch out if her wolf ever learned to walk on two feet! 

They lazed together for the better part of an hour before Shera called in the maids— but not before donning her veil and choker. The maids would only help dress her from the neck down, and were ushered out after for Shera to do her hair alone. She took in a deep breath as they fastened the corset around her form. 

“May need to lay off the blueberry hand pies , my lady,” one of the maids murmured. “‘Tis getting hard to lace you up.” 

Shera felt a swirling pit in her stomach at the comment— it wasn’t a secret that she was no svelte ermine. She had curves and a bit of extra mass in the softer areas of her body, coupled with scarred stretch marks around her sizable bosom and thighs. “… hm.” she snorted, not wanting to dignify the maid’s comment with a response. This was, unfortunately, the norm. The jabs, the pokes, the insults between sentences— even the serving girls have become brazen, snickering as Shera walked past. She didn’t exactly understand it— mayhaps it was because she could hardly speak to defend herself, mayhaps they think her daft and non-understanding of their less than tactful barbs. 

As normal as it was, it made it no less tiring. “Just… lace it up,” she quipped, a bit too harshly, as she held her thumb and forefinger to her throat at the scratch of pain. “… I have things to attend to…” 

“Yes, my lady.” the maids responded in tandem, squeezing poor Shera into a corset much too tight. 

After they left, Shera picked up a shoe and threw it at the door, startling Moongeist. “Damned ptarmigans… clucking hens… when do they cease?” she groaned, patting the wolf on the head as he, ever dutifully, retrieved her shoe. “I’m… we’re the wolves— they’re supposed to be afraid of me.” she continued, as it usually went. She would whisper and murmur to herself (to Moongeist) while she readied herself. Sitting in front of the open window, her fingers deftly weaved through her auburn locks, working absentmindedly into a braid. She pinned the braid upon her head, glanced at the mirror, then unpinned it. 

It became a back and forth task as she meticulously decided on a hairstyle— she wasn’t usually so vain, but apparently, Prince Jacaerys was arriving for a meeting. She’d spent some time with him the past few moons as they ‘courted’. He was polite, of course, and had grown into himself well since their childhood. But… Shera felt nothing for him, princely charm be damned. And she was increasingly sure he felt the same, more inclined to enjoy the company of Cregan rather than her. 

But that was the way of the world, wasn’t it? To be trapped in a loveless box for titles, for armies and alliances, for oaths— that was fate. And fate… was usually unchanged. Shera oft cursed the Gods, the Old and the New, for weaving her tapestry of life in such a bereft and depressing manner. If she were to look upon it, it’d be dreary and uncouth, not fit to hang upon a wall, destined to rot and mold in a cellar for eternity. 

But what did Shera know of love, anyhow. How could she— for who would love a banshee?

She settled on twin braids that settled upon her back, pinned up into two loops. Adjusting her veil in the mirror and assuring she wasn’t too visible, she made for the door, Moongeist pressed to her. 

The winding halls of Winterfell had become second nature, muscle memory— but her mind wandered, imploring herself to think… Did she remember such paths at the Red Keep? She hoped her memory, if nothing else, would serve her well one day. 

None of the denizens she passed by in the corridors spoke to her, only gave her stiff nods before avoiding her eye line. Was she such an abhorrent sight? Her heels clicked against the stone, fingertips skimming the walls as she stayed close to them, using the familiar winding gait to guide her to the Great Hall. Her stomach grumbled under her tight corset– she hadn’t even had time to break her fast before already being shoved to the dragon’s maw. She heard the whispers of the ‘dashing dragon prince’ arriving early, upon his dragon which was the color of a witch’s brew, green and sprightly. Shera couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she pushed the heavy oaken door to the hall. 

Cregan was there, beard trimmed so as to not be unsightly, and laden in dark aurochs fur. Their ancestral weapon, Ice, was strapped to his back like a second spine, rigid and unyielding. He was faced towards the fire in the hearth, while Jacaerys was to his side, the two already deep in conversation.

The sound of the door opening was as good of an indication of her arrival as she would get, and they both turned to her in tandem. Jacaerys, gallant and princely as ever, rushed to her side, but not before stopping a few paces before, as Moongeist was pressed to her thigh with a wary look in his eye.

“My lady,” Jacaerys exclaimed, flashing his dazzling smile, his brown mop of curls bouncing as he approached, albeit cautiously. “You look radiant as ever.” 

Shera’s brow rose from under her veil– her facial expressions were hardly seen, and she was able to give her unabashed reactions to things quite often. She was woe to master the art of masking, so she simply did not. He called her radiant– an alluring lie if she ever heard one, he couldn’t see her face, how could she possibly be radiant? She presumed his mother had been schooling him in the art of politics. That is what this is, isn’t it? It’s all just… politicking. 

“My prince,” Shera responded softly, giving Moongeist an ever subtle command to sit to the side, allowing Jace to take her arm. She didn’t much like being touched by other people, it made her skin crawl, but she too needed to… continue the charade. “Thank you– you are quite early, I hope I look… presentable.” 

“We were waiting for a bit, Shera,” Cregan commented offhandedly, cracking his knuckles slightly. He was a bit annoyed, she could tell. “But, ladies do take long to get ready, do they not, my prince?” 

“It wasn’t a long wait, no worries,” Jace responded coolly. “But yes, it takes a small army and frequent turning of an hourglass for my mother to finally be ready, I imagine it’s similar for most ladies.”

Ah, yes. As if it doesn’t take Cregan an hour to pick out his furs for the day, pompous ass. And did Jacaerys don himself in that heavy dragonscale plated armor? Doubtful. Shera suppressed the urge to give an indignant huff. “My… deepest apologies,” she murmured. “I do hope my dear brother wasn’t such a terrible conversationalist.”

Cregan snorted as Jace guided Shera to her seat, pushing it in for her. “My mother– she wishes to meet you, of course,” Jacaerys prattled, scooting into the chair next to her (and Cregan). “We are going to go to the Queen for approval for the official betrothal… and subsequent wedding.” 

Shera blinked slowly as she absorbed the information. She expected to have to meet Princess Rhaenyra at some point and for the Queen to become involved in the betrothal– but the wedding? Subsequent? The nail on her pointer finger dug into the nail bed of her thumb idly, picking, picking, picking as she mulled over her next words. “... will the wedding be soon, my prince?” she asked, sneaking a glance at Cregan, who had a glazed over look in his eye.

“... my mother wishes to secure the… union before her ascension, my lady.”

“The King is not yet dead– I don’t understand the rush.” Shera blurted out, her nail sinking deeper into her flesh. She felt like there was some sort of secret she was not a part of, some undisclosed plan that she wasn’t privy to Oh, yes, of course– she was just the pawn, wasn’t she? 

“That is well and true– my grandsire, the King, has been in poorly health for the past few years. It is… only a matter of time.” Jace stammered, trying to regain the upper hand in the conversation. 

“Rhaenyra’s ascension will happen sooner than later, Shera. It is only a wish that you and Jacaerys are well bonded by then, mayhaps even producing an heir.” Cregan interjected. 

She wanted to vomit, she wanted to scream, she wanted to lash out at everyone– she was a vessel, a puppet for a greater vision of Westeros that nobody cared if she was specifically a part of– ‘twas only her luck she was the sister of the Warden of the North, who held an amassing army and ferocity for those he was bidden for. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Warmth spread onto her fingertip and Moongeist shuffled at her feet, a low whine coming from the back of his throat. She felt such a rage come over her for a split second, her vision blurring as she felt the overwhelming need to sink her teeth into someone and make them feel her despair. 

“Okay.” she finally said, her voice sounding far away and small, as if it wasn’t even hers.

Jacaerys and Cregan conversated further while Shera stared off into some small point in the distance until her eyes watered from not blinking, blood pooling and staining against her nails. 

“Thank you. I must break my fast now,” Shera suddenly spoke up, not caring if the two of them were in the middle of a conversation. “We will leave within a fortnight.” 

The journey from the hall back to her room was a blur, she remembers curtsying to Jacaerys and bidding him goodbye and some other innocuous pleasantries. Sitting back at her desk, she tore off her veil in frustration, bracelets and earrings alike jingling. She put her head in her hands, feeling the all too familiar ache of tears building. 

She didn’t want to go— why did she have to be married? Why was it her destiny to be a pawn? To be a wife? Especially to someone who was there. Her throat clenched as she tried to hold back the tears— to no avail. They burned and stung, her already tender demeanor withering. 

Prying her hands away, she looked over her desk. It was strewn with miscellaneous books to which she struggled to read, along with some half-done charcoal sketches of prospective sewing projects. Shera wasn’t known for outbursts, as her quiet and ghostly prefecture was one that stayed in the background of things. But, she felt a roiling in her stomach, wrought over like forged castle steel, molten and aching and hot— it burned in her like a plague, working its way through her and exiting her body in the form of a wail, coupled with her arms sweeping off the contents of her desk to the floor. 

The momentary feeling of anguish subsided as soon as it came and her throat ached from her cry. Her eyes felt heavy as she tried to get up and subsequently failed, sinking to the ground like a discarded rag. Moongeist let out a whine, propping his head under Shera’s arm, having her rest some of her weight upon him.

“I’m pathetic, my love,” she whispered, feeling all the part of a fallen porcelain doll, placated on her bottom upon the floor, legs out in front of her as if she were a child on a playroom floor. “Nothing like the Winter Kings of yore. I’m sorry.” Shera’s thumb rubbed on the wolf’s ear as she wallowed momentarily in self-pity and self-loathing. 

Gathering some strength, she pushed the papers below her desk to the side. The sweeping motion befell something new— no, not new. ‘Twas old, upon inspection. It was a stack of letters, covered in dust now, but neatly tied together with wool twine. Unveiling one, she skimmed it over to the best of her ability.

Dearest Shera, 

It isn’t the same without you here. My head hurts all of the time, I keep bumping into things and I can scarcely write. In fact, I am having Helaena pen this to you right now. She says hello. 

Mother is in shambles, frayed at the ends like your old blue dinner dress. Her and grandsire are constantly whispering and she cries more often. I think she misses you. 

As does Helaena. As do I. Mayhaps even Aegon.

Does your head hurt as well? What do you do to help with the pain? Are you able to walk without bumping into things? 

I hope to hear from you soon. 

Best, 

Aemond Targaryen

That had been the first letter sent to her from King’s Landing— Cregan, to his own dismay, sat down and read it to her after she had spinned herself into a crying fit, sending the maesters into a tizzy as she threatened to reopen the stitches upon her throat. 

In her poppy-addled young mind, she hadn’t recognized that it was not Aemond’s writing or words, but most definitely Helaena’s, as the letter Shera sent back were those of Cregan, and not hers. 

Prince Aemond, 

It is an honor to hear from you. I’m recovering quite well, at the behest of my brother. Winterfell is very different from the South, but I am finally finding my footing here in the cold. 

I have been a wolf at heart this entire time, like my forefathers. 

My ability to walk has been improving, as the maesters here are excellently equipped for such a feat. 

It is my hope that we can both find a sense of normalcy in our lives once more. 

I wish you well. 

Regards,

Shera Stark

She’d hardly remembered when Cregan read it aloud, and she didn’t catch the cold, rigid wording, bereft of any warmth and camaraderie that she would have included. Truth be told, at the time of it being written, Shera couldn’t even hold her own spoon to sip at bone broth, much less walk. 

It was unclear to her still, to this day, why Cregan felt the need to lie about her condition— but it was apparently a well placed one, as the next letter to come was in another tone all together. It was about three moons afterward, and the handwriting was different. It was a bit shaky, but proper and dignified. 

Lady Stark, 

I am most gracious for your reply. It is a balm to the Queen to hear you are doing well. 

Let us both hope we are well on the road to our full recoveries. 

Stay warm.

Signed,

Prince Aemond Targaryen

Shera’s fingers traced over the letter, she could still recognize it as Aemond’s handwriting— but the tone seemed clipped and cold, colder than even Cregan’s letter was. 

There were a few more envelopes in the stack, but if she remembered correctly, there was nothing of substance. Her chest ached occasionally when she thought about it all— did Aemond think of her still? Or was she just a silly footnote in his life? She abhorred to admit to herself, much less anyone else, that she still did. Aemond Targaryen still had a place in her mind, an undeterred host in the recesses of her brain that she couldn’t rid herself of— if she even wanted to. She wondered what he looked like now. Was he finally as tall as Aegon, mayhaps more? Did he finally get his hands upon the book he had been wanting to read? She hoped he spent his days flying upon Vhagar’s back— a gift that he had paid the price for. 

She did as well. But her price wasn’t for Vhagar. It was for Aemond.

Her throat burned and constricted with the threat of tears once more as she pulled herself from the floor, Moongeist’s body pressed to her hip to guide her. Padding to the fireplace, which was nursing a few hot coals and sparse flame, she fed the letters into the fire one by one. The flames grew as they burned, the ink upon the pages fettering into nothing but ash and sickly memory. 

Were they strangers now? 

Does he remember her? 

… why does she still wish to see him? 

A wolf travels south at the behest of one dragon– but her mind upon another.

How sordid.

[stillxnunpxidintern]

Platonic Ace & Reader Imagine - Nooo! Not My Boy!

With Shanks x Reader

(Unfortunately Canonical Character Deaths, for this one) (The playlist I made to help write this)

You were running across the battlefield, dodging attacks from marines and pirates alike, refusing to listen to anyone, your crew mates and captain included. Nothing was more important than getting to your eldest boy, as tears steamed down your face with a pain in your heart, that you've never felt before and never wanted to again, as you refuse to knowledge the truth, even when the vivre card burned up in your hand.

Everything seem to slow down as you reached the spot where your boy was, laying on the ground with a smile on his face and a hole in his chest. A piercing heart-breaking scream ripe from your throat as you slid to your knees and pulled him to your arms and clenched him against your chest as you wailed, your boy, your Ace was gone.

Nothing else mattered to you in that moment, apart from holding Ace and praying to any gods that would listen to give you, your eldest boy back, he didn't deserve this fate simply because of who blood flowed in his veins.

Holding Ace in your arms all you could do is remember the first time you him met, along with Sabo and Luffy. He was only 10 but he standing at the front metal pipe in hand, demanding who you were, ready to protect his brothers. Another pain filled sob from you as you knew he had died protecting Luffy always being the big brother, and willing to do anything to protect him.

Upon that thought you lifted your head up as you looked around for Luffy, your youngest but not being able to see him, gave you both a mix of fear and relief, not knowing of his own injuries and fate.

As you stayed there on the ground cradling Ace, the war had come to an end, not that you paying attention to that. Soon you could a familiar voice speaking, but unsure of what they were saying as you paid no mind, until you were pulled away from Ace. You fought against the two arms that were wrapped around you, as you wailed, screamed and demanded to realised, that your boy needed you.

The arms didn't budged no matter what you did to try and get free, and soon everything just blurred around you as time seemed to go from nearly frozen to super sonic. Soon you found yourself back in your & Shanks shared cabin on the bed, and could hear activity all around the ship, meaning the crew was getting ready to leave.

The thought of the ship leaving, suddenly had you panicking irrationally, as all you thought was Ace was being left behind. As you rushed off the bed you tripped over your own feet and falling to your knees as another heart-breaking wailed came and a fresh wave of tears started to fall.

You could hear the door opening and close, making you looking up to be your red haired captain and lover.

Shanks got on to the floor in front of you and pulled you against his chest, as you gripped his shirt and sobbed into it, asking him to bring your boy, he was an emperor of the sea, he was powerful, so why couldn't he do it, all said between sobs.

All could he do in this moment was hold too you and let you cry, and said a few words of comfort, not that any of of them would make a different to you in that moment.

Some point, he was able to move you to the bed and sat with his back against the wall, and kept you against his chest your sobs turned to silent tears, with his chin resting on top of your head and arm wrapped around you.

You were unsure of how long Shanks had been holding you within the dark and quiet of the cabin, until a knock on the door made him release his hold on you, going to answer the door. A few words were spoken, before closing the door and pulling his cloak off, covering you with it as he placed a kiss on your forehead and said he would be back when he could.

Alone with your thought again, you clenched your fists into black cloak as you thought against more tears that threaten to fall, as you thought back to the last time you spoke to Ace. Wishing you had told him much you loved him and how proud of him you were but to stop the chase on Blackbeard, it was not his fault what happened even, even if he was the 2nd division commander and to listen to Whitebeard.

He's your stubborn boy and did what he wanted if someone wronged him or someone he cared about, you paused in your thought and correct yourself, he had been a stubborn boy and that thought that having to use past tense him to talk about him now, made the tears falls against as sobbed you in the pillow.

At some point you had stopped sobbing but tears were stilling falling down your cheek, as you just stared blankly at the wall in front of you, with the cloak wrapped around you.

When Shanks arrived back some time later, he brought some food and tried to get you to eat some but you had no appetite and he wasn't going force you. He was finally able to coax you into sleeping after a sometimes, he kept you tucked tightly against himself.

You dreamed of when you lived with the boys for over a year. That was one of the best time of your life, you hasn't planned to stay long, as you were just island hopping and seeing the world, but meeting boys and getting to know them, made you stay and you soon claimed them as your own.

You taught them how to steal and pickpocket better, as that how you got most of your money, but everything changed quickly into a nightmare as you remembered Sabo being shot and sunk by a Celestial Dragon, then you started running around looking for Ace and Luffy.

You were unable to find Luffy, but quickly found Ace but his clothes was covered in blood as he turned around to face you, there was a hole in his little chest making you scream, as you held him tightly and could hear him asking where you were.

A scream escaped your lips as you sat up awake, eyes wet, as you franticly search the room before it felt like the walls were closing in on you. Needing to get out of there quickly, you jumped from the bed and escaped the room, hearing your name being shouted but you didn't stop, it still felt like the walls were closing in.

Stepping out on to the deck, you were hit with cold wind and a night sky, making you stop as you stared at the stars, as another memory hits you, making you clasp a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from making more noise.

A warm body was soon stood behind you, already knowing it was Shanks, as he placed his hand over your heart and then you placed your free hand on his. Something you both did from time to time as a reminded to each other, when sometimes words weren't enough.

He tried to suggest going back to the cabin but a quickly shook your head, you didn't want to be in an enclosed space, so instead you made your way up to the quarterdeck and palm trees. Ever the dutiful lover, Shanks came you with and the two of you sat next two each other under the palm trees, staring at the stars.

It was just silence behind the two of you, even though you wanted to speak you couldn't find the word to starts. Lifting your hand up and traced some of the constellation, remembering how you taught both Ace and Luffy how to use some of the stars to work out what direction they were heading when on the sea and how happy they had been to learn about it.

That memory had tears falling again, as you finally broke the silence saying how unfair it was, Ace didn't ask to be Roger son, and because of that your boy was gone. You knew that Roger wasn't what the government painted him, you heard from stories from everyone who knew him, mainly Shanks, but some small part of you wanted to hate the man but you just couldn't.

Shanks moved you around so that you were sitting in between his legs again and back against his chest. He then asked you for some stories you had with the boys. You thought for a few moments, as you couldn't remember what one you had told him before.

Then one of your favourite come up and so you began to tell him about it.

It was winter on Mt Colubo and it was in the minus numbers with thick snow, it wasn't the thickest you had been but was for Luffy and Ace, and it stayed that like for over a week.

You had made sure that they were both wrapped up warm before they went outside, and you had then began to make some homemade ice skate. It took you about day/day and half to make them. They were very simple version so that they could just fit over their own shoes. You gifted them to the boy in evening and then the following day you take them out to the lake, that was still completely frozen over.

You made sure that the ice was thickness by stepping on to the ice first and skating over the lake a few times to double check it was safe. Once you back on the side of the lake, you helped them with their skates and then helped them on to the ice.

When you showed them how to skate, you started with Luffy and held his hands as you got him on his ice and pulled him along, as you tell him how to skate. Once you were sure Luffy was good on his own for now, you went back to Ace and held a hand to out to him but said he didn't need help and got on the ice himself.

You let him do what he wanted, and it only took a few minutes as he fell for the first, and you chuckled as offered to help him but again said no. For the rest of the afternoon you watched and skated around boys, causing them both to fall a couple of times, but from every fall Ace did learn how to skate, even if he was covered in quite a few bruises by the end.

He had been so stubborn with the need to prove that he could it without any help, and you had told him so many times he didn't need to learn how to do everything on his own anymore.

You could feel Shanks chuckle behind you, probably thinking about Luffy skating. That was good day cause it was one of the few times you got to see Ace just be child, even if he didn't want helping learning to skate, and then the following day when they went back you got to see the smile on his face as skated without falling over, a smile that made you so happy to see.

The rest of the night went by quickly as you told Shanks some other stories you had from living with them, The sky was changing to orange and pinks, as the sun began to rise and there was sound of movements coming from below as the crew began to wake. Shanks was soon standing and pulling you with him, as he steered you back down to the cabin.

He left you on the bed with a quick kiss as he went grab some breakfast for you. The thought of seeing the look that the crew would give makes you want to hide away for days. You knew they wouldn't say or hold anything against you for your reaction but still you would able to see it in the faces.

While alone you finally changed your clothes, getting out of the bloody clothes and threw them in the corner of the cabin, hoping that out of sight out of mind would help. You were doing your best to hold back the tears as you got into clean clothes, knowing that your eyes didn't need to be anymore red or sore.

When your red hair lover returned with a plate of food, he place it in your hands and sat a cup down near you. Looking at the food and thought of eating still made your stomach churn but you knew not eating would just make you feel sick and make Shanks worry more, so you just nibbled on different bits, but as he said nothing you took it as a sign he wasn't going to press the matter.

When finished with breakfast, you thought about sleeping but you were unsure if you wanted to sleep alone after last night, so when you asked Shanks, he told you he had a few things to do but would come nap later on with you.

He did come back as promised in the afternoon and the two of napped for a couple hours, with Shanks having a tight hold on you. Over the next couple days he was busier than normal but you stayed hidden below deck, normally in the laundry room, and were thankful that you didn't see many people, just some of the senior crew.

Alone again as your lover was dealing with something with Whitebeard crew, so you tried to busy your mind by tidying the up the cabin, apart from where you threw your clothes days before, and probably needed thrown out now. At some point during the tidying you found a small box that you had forgotten about and saw that it held a wooden circle with a happy face craved into it.

Happy face that you were all to well.

Seeing the little craved face stare up at you, as it was the last thing that Ace had given you with a promise to make a matching sad face and knowing that wouldn't happen now, something in you snapped, as your all anger poured out, destroying everything you got your hands on.

You promised Ace & Luffy that you would always there for them when needed, no matter where you were would come to help them, but you had failed your boys, you broke that promise and Ace had paid the highest price.

You would of given your life if it meant they would of gotten away alive, instead the Red Force werre off stopping Kaido. As soon as you heard of Ace execution you should of left and done anything in your power to get to Marineford, but all that failure on your part just fuelled your anger even more, as you never felt more useless than now.

When there was nothing else to destroy, you curled up in a ball in the middle of the cabin, clenching the wooden piece in your hands against your chest, begging once again through tears for your boy to be given back to you.

At some point you just ended up starung at one of the wall, in an almost catatonic state, as you were unresponsive to anything, from the knocks on door, voice speaking to you, to being touched and moved around and to then placed on the bed as the cuts you gained were treated. Not a single sound left you as you just stared at the wall.

It was a few hours later when Shanks returned to the cabin, to check up on you and there still seem to be no difference. Sighing softly to himself, he sat by your side and looked at your clenched hands.

Carefully taking hold of your hands, he gently removed your fingers from around what you were holding.

The feeling of someone trying to take your wooden craving, had you lashing you, snapping you of your unresponsive state and doing your best to keep hold it. However you were quickly pinned down on the bed, by Shanks using his full weight to keep you down.

When he was able to get the item out of yours hands, he placed it on side table out of your reach for now before looking down at you with concerned written over his face, as he cupped your cheek watching as a few tears fell.

He then starting to spoke to you softly, he knows that your hurting a lot and he's not telling you to how to grieve, as everyone does it differently, but he needs you to come get him, Beck or any of the senior crew, when you start to feel angry or want to rage/fight, cause there will more time when it happens and he wants to be there for you, so you wouldn't hurt yourself again.

Listening to what your lover said had more tears falling as his love for you, especially the last few days, truly showed through and wondered what you did to deserve him. He then shushed you and wrapped you tears, not they stopped any.

After a few minutes Shanks sat up and moved off of you, which allowed for you to see sit up, and see the damaged you did to room and started to feel guilty for it. You apologized for it but he just quickly shushed then kissed your forehead, as he sat against the wall and pulled you to his chest, a familiar position between you two over these last days.

While leaning against him, Shanks asked you to tell him of how the both you met. You were taken back by that and confused by it, and asked why he wanted to hear, he knew that how it went he was there. He didn't elaborate and just asked again.

Even if it did confuse you, you began to re-tell him both the two of you met.

It had been over 6 months since you left Ace and Luffy, and was currently on a island that you couldn't remember the name right now. You had been there a few days now, just enjoying yourself, when you heard whispers that a pirate ship had docked and ever curious you went to see what crew it was.

You notice the jolly roger had two red lines over the left eyes, and something told you knew who it was but couldn't place for some reason.

You could whine and knew he was pouting behind you, as you said you couldn't remember who's crew it.

You spent the rest of the afternoon trying to wreak your brain for any information that could help identify the crew but still coming up blank, so you gave up on it for the time being and went to one of the local bar near the port. Upon entering you noticed it was busier than normal as you sat at the bar and ordered your drink, before turning around and looking around the bar, till your eyes landed on a few men off to the side, keeping your eyes mostly the one with bright red hair and three scars over his eyes.

That when it hit you, and felt like an idiot that it took you that long to recognise the crew. It was the Red Hair Pirates that was docked, and with how much Luffy had talked about them, you really felt stupid. You held your face in your left hand at how you forgot something important, you then sighed and took a long sip of your drink. You then stared at the back wall, as your tried to remember what Luffy had told you but all your brain was saying 'Pretty man' and nothing useful.

The shaking behind you, told you that he was containing his laugher, before he teased you about being a 'pretty man'. Paying no heed to him you continued on.

After finishing your drink, you decided that you were going have a early night, and left for your temporary lodging for the night. You planned to speak to Luffy in the morning and find out more about Red Hair Pirates, before seeing if befriending them is worth it.

The following morning you had grabbed your Den Den Mushi and called up the boys, having given both of them one before you left them, so they could always ring you. You were sure they should be up but they could be hunting or training, so all you could do it just wait and hoped one of them answer.

You were just about to end the call and try again later, when a tiny sleepy voice answered. You couldn't help but smile hearing Luffy voice and let him wake up a little more, before asking him questions about the Red Hair Pirate and their captain in particular.

Luffy spent good time talking about them, you could almost see the stars in his eyes as spoke. At some point Ace popped up and said hello before asking why you wanted to know about Red Hair Pirate, and you told him that you were making sure you'll survive your next game of cat & mouse.

You bid the boys goodbye and would promise to call them in the coming week and to have fun hunting, before ending the call after they said bye to you. With what Luffy had told you it was defiantly gonna be a fun night.

When early evening came, you made your way back to the bar and finding it was still quiet and claimed your preferred spot, at the end of the bar as allowed you see who was entering. While waiting for your unsuspected 'Victim' to arrive, you ordered some food and first drink of the night.

Hearing Shanks scoff behind you made you pause, as he whined about being called the victim, as he wasn't one hiding on the chase.

It was about hour before later when they arrived and you were on your second drink and watched them from the corner of your eyes, letting them settle and drink before beginning your game.

Once they seem to of had drunk enough you deemed suitable, you downed the rest of your drink, and made your way over with a smile on your lip and your eyes holding some excitement. The guys all cheered when you come over. You ignore the red haired captain for a moment as you turned your attention to First Mate.

You smiled at him, as you leant forward put your lips against his ear and begin whispering to him, offering him a bet, that if you were able to take something from his captain and not get caught until sunrise, you win and if you do get caught he wins, and placed the the bet of 25,000 berries.

You moved backward and looked at him waiting for his answer, he looked for at you a few second thinking it over and gave a nod and both shook hands on it. With that done you then sat on his leg as there wasn't any more chairs for you to sit in, and then turned your attention to the red hair man, smiling at him, as he asked what that was about.

You gave him a little wag of your finger and told him, that he would find out soon enough he just had to wait. You then began to chat to them all and get to know, plying them all with more drinks knowing they can handle their drinks.

At somepoint, your migrated from Becks leg and into Shanks lap, laughing with him and taking little sips from his drink, so you keep your thought as clear as possible. During that time you had managed to get to his cloak off without him noticing to you knowledge at least.

Starting to feel a buzz of excitement and knowing that sunrise wasn't far away, you decided that now was a good time leave. Knowing that he was fairly drunk, you distracted him by kissing him before grabbing the cloak and leaving the bar with your prize in hand.

Shanks gave a grumble, as he said he remembered that and the look that Beck gave him, after you had left.

You began making your through the street, keeping the cloak bundle in your arms, before starting to go down alleyways and take back streets, using your observation haki as you knew that Shanks wasn't someone to turn a blind eye to, even when drunk.

A grin appeared on your face as you ducked behind a little wall and quickly pulled the cloak on, to help blend into the darkness. Hearing the sounds of sandals on the ground you took a few more steps quietly backward till you out view, not that it would any difference.

You heard the red hair captain call out to you, suggesting you leave the cloak and it all be forgotten about. You however weren't about to lose the bet, and end the game of cat & mouse before it's began. You could feel that he was slightly annoyed but he was also excited and playful, with that you made your way on to the roof a building.

Being quiet and agile were what you excelled at, as stealing was how you made most of your money, so moving other the roofs silently as you could was nothing new, but this chase was getting fun as there are times when he cut off your route and you had to make a sudden change.

The whole time Shanks was calling out you terms of endearment such as Sweetheart and Darling mainly, but sometimes a throwing a couple of other ones there, even he tried to pspspsps you like a cat.

You were unware of how much time had passed, but you soon started to notice the changing of the sky, as sun rise was approaching and you started to form a plan in your head, but you need to get him further away from his ship, so that by the time you reached the ship sun would be up.

After a few very close class, you managed to get him further away and quickly took a moment to calm yourself, you couldn't lose now, not at the last hurdle. Giving yourself prep talk got that last bit of energy running through your body as you began heading back way to his ship, over roofs and through alleyways slipping just out of sight each time from him.

By the time you reach the docks you felt so tired, but it was pasted sunrise and you had won the bet. You waltzed up to the ship and spotted Beck on the docks smoking, probably waiting for his captain to return. Upon seeing you he exhaled and rubbed his eyes.

You just grinned at him and handed over the cloak to him before telling him you would back your winning later, as you were in dire need of sleep now. Just as you gave a yawn, you found yourself suddenly on the ground with a weight on top of you.

Slightly fazed for a moment, you tried to get out from there weight but it held you down easily, stopping you from moving as you felt lips next to your ears, as Shanks called you little mouse and that he caught you.

Upon hearing him saying that, you just chuckled and told him just because he caught him doesn't mean he won. Feeling his weight move of your back, you rolled over at him and grinned up at him, before telling him that you won a few berries from his first mate, cause he didn't catch you before the sunrise.

You watched as Shanks gave his first mate a pout as he asked why he didn't say anything about bet, he would of made sure to caught you if he knew. You gave a little giggle while watching him before asking how he could of been sure he would of caught of you.

He looked at you and grinned down at you, before saying you were good but he was better. You raised an eyebrow at him before standing up and dusting yourself off, then telling him sure he was, whatever he believed to helped him sleep at night.

Shanks narrowed his eyes with a playful smile on his lips, as the stepped closer, almost touching chest to chest, as he looked down and told you that he could catch you in 10 minutes and as he wouldn't be drunk this time.

A shiver went up your spine, at the challenging and thrill of playing another, more serious game of cat and mouse with him. You grinned back and said you been promised that before and let down. He leant down so you were face to face now and promised to give you a good chase.

You gave him playful smile but nothing said nothing else as you stepped around him and walked away, given both the captain and first mate a quick wave.

Finishing how you both met, you then asked him again why wanted to hear it, he knew it he was there or otherwise you would be concerned. Shanks pulled you closer as he said he wanted to hear you laugh and smile as well distracting you for a little while from your pain, then pressed a kissed in your hair.

Hearing him say that, know that he was doing it mainly for your benefit, made you feel once gain that you didn't to deserve him and fought back against the tears, as you turned around his hold snuggled further into his hold.

The last couple of days leading up to arriving near Sphinx, had you feeling more heartbroken and your eyes constantly red from how much you had cried and wiped your eyes free of tears, but you how could you not when your boy was was about to buried, and this would be the final place for Ace.

It just was another reminder that you wouldn't get to see him grow anymore, or hearing news of him causing chaos again or seeing him out on the sea.

You wouldn't get to lecturing him any more for how reckless he could be, with him just grinning and laughing at you, before you smack him with Haki when you came across him while out at sea, arms crossed over your chest as you narrowed your eyes at him, as he laughed.

It made you remember the time he came to find Shanks to thank him for saving Luffy as child.

You were huddled between Lucky Roo, Shanks and Beck, as you were still freezing and couldn't seem to get warm, even with body heat and a fire going.

There was noise coming from the cave entrance and but you tuned it out for the moment, as you rubbed your hands together and tried to bury yourself in Shanks back, that made him chuckle.

You weren't really listening to Shanks and the new comer exchanged some words, until hearing Shanks say Luffy and brother, which made your snapped up real quick and looked forward to the person at the front of the group.

Before anyone could say or do anything, you were in front of your eldest boy, holding Ace's face in your hands and could see slight red on his cheek, making his freckles stand out more. You took a step back from him and looked at him fully, he had grown up and became a handsome young man, which made you feel proud.

You then looked at his outfit and started lecturing him on on wearing clothes that were a weather appropriate, with your hands moving everywhere as you talked. There were a few chuckles from both group as you went on.

However Ace just laughed at you, and hugged you saying he didn't need to worry about that now, thanks to his devil fruit. While you could feel the heat radiating from him, you didn't back down from your lecture.

Once you were finished, you smiled at him and told him how happy you were to see him, as you sat back down in between Shanks and Beck, suddenly feeling a lot warmer than you had been.

That had been a good night, getting to see Ace after so long and seeing how far he had come, along with some stories of him and Luffy, neither had told you about.

Just before Ace and his crew departed from the cave, you had told him to call you more, but he just gave you a cheeky smile and said he'll try.

And thinking how he wouldn't get to Luffy become King of the Pirates and had nearly broken you, had it not been for the Beck and Hongo telling you that both Luffy brothers will be watching him and will see him became king of the pirates.

When came time to lay both Ace and Whitebeard, Shanks had kept you by his side, his hand on your back as comfort.

Standing in front of Ace grave and you told him, that you were going to spend the rest of your life missing him, in so many ways. That there will times when you miss him and you know that what it was and other times it will be an ache that creeps in.

You pause before placing a kiss on your finger and place it on his name before finishing off with saying until the end of time you were going to miss him forever, that he will always be your eldest boy and promised him that you would do everything in your power to make sure Luffy achieved his dream, and make Blackbeard regret his choices.

Once finished you stood up and moved back to your previous position and stare at the grave one more time, before heading back down to join the rest of the crew, leaving Shanks and Marco to speak.

Once everything done and the crew was back on the Red Force, you went back to cabin and gave yourself about two hours to let out all tears and sobs you held back, then you would join the crew on deck and toast a drink to both Ace and Whitebeard.

Over following week or so, you finally were able to find something out about Luffy, and the relief you felt knowing that your youngest and only boy now was alive, made most of the tension & worry you were still holding onto leave, almost sagging against Shanks hearing that bit of news.

You needed to speak him and trying to get a hold of him was harder than you expected but you did it, you got to speak to Luffy and cried the whole time speaking him, but you didn't care he was your last boy.

Before ending the call you told him just how proud of him you were and how much you loved. Then told him, that if he ever needed you for anything you will do everything in power to be there.

With the knowledge that Luffy was being cared for and getting trained by Rayleigh, so he could protect his crew in the future, it made you think about your short-coming, you might be stealthy & able get things easily, and could fight well, but you knew you need to better and expanded your arsenal, so you turned to Yasopp to learn how to shoot like a sniper.

Most of the crew chose to see this as a positive thing, expanding your skills set and focusing on something. Shanks and Beck however had a few more thoughts on this and had been keeping a close eyes you, especially with how they had seen you reacted when Blackbeard had been mentioned in the newspapers, and you learning to snipe was too much of a coincidence to them, so they were keeping a close eyes on you just encase you chose to do something reckless.

With the sun starting to set, you were leaning against the railing watching horizon, thinking about the how people said there were five stage of grief but you for you decided that there were six now, with revenge as the 6th stage, as it seem that this new was a little part of you wouldn't rest till you got it.

And you made a promise to Ace, that if you get the chance you were gonna make Blackbeard regret it by putting one right between his eyes.

[searchingfortheuniverse]

Where the Love Light Gleams

Hi, @bobparkhurst! I'm your HBO War Secret Santa! I was a little bit surprised by which of your listed pairings jumped out at me since I'm usually the ultimate rare pair fan, but Webgott felt so right that I couldn't not. Hopefully this provides the joy you were looking for while keeping these two in character! Unfortunately the playlist is only available via Spotify because I had a hard enough time getting that to embed let alone anything that's universally free, but the songs are listed so you can find them elsewhere if it's easier.

The fic is also available on AO3 here.

Joe jams his hands back in his pockets, mentally cursing himself for not buying a better pair of gloves.

"Yeah, just go out there, Joe, I'm sure you won't freeze to death, Joe," he mutters to himself, "Fuckin' idiot."

The idiot in question is, of course, himself. It's embarrassing that he'd decided that this was a good idea, really. The trip over to Cambridge had been a lot more money than he'd hoped, but he hadn't really been able to back out – he'd embarrassed himself enough by calling about six of the guys he's been carefully ignoring for well over a year just so he could scrounge an address off them.

The door he's just knocked on swings open. The motion shakes him from his thoughts and leaves him staring at Webster, who gapes at him like a fish.

"Merry Christmas," Joe says.

Webster blinks. "It's only Christmas Eve."

"Merry Christmas Eve."

"You're Jewish."

"Alright, then, Jesus Christ. Happy Hanukkah. Now let me in, it's fuckin' freezing out here."

Wordlessly, Web stands back and lets Joe walk inside. Joe stamps his feet on the mat, getting much snow off as he can (because he's trying not to start out being a complete asshole today and drip all over Web's floor, at least) before pulling his jacket, scarf and gloves off and hanging them on the post at the bottom of the stairs.

"There's a coat stand right there," Web protests, and Joe rolls his eyes but moves the clothes before tugging his boots off as well.

"A guy travels across the country to see you and you complain where he puts his jacket?"

"What are you doing here, Joe?"

"I just said, didn't I? I'm here to see you, Web. Don't tell me you're not pleased to see me?"

"I— No, Joe, I'm pleased to see you, but—"

"What's the problem, then?"

"It's been over a year!" Web says, his voice rising in volume as he speaks. "No letters, no calls, you didn't even say goodbye! I thought we were friends, and you just left! And now you show up here, with no warning? What did you expect, Joe?"

"You didn't try either!" Joe spits back. He hates how easily Webster's always managed to get a reaction out of him.

"You made it look like you didn't want me to!"

"Well, maybe I didn't!"

"Then why are you here?"

"Jesus Christ, I missed you, alright? Are you happy?"

Web slumps, the fight gone all at once. "I... Sure, Joe. Come on, I'll make coffee. If you'd called ahead, I'd have picked you up. I'm surprised you didn't freeze to death out there."

"Not much of a surprise if I call, is it?" Joe says, but he dutifully follows Web into his tatty kitchen and sits down as his host bustles around.

Soon, a steaming cup of coffee is in front of him, and he gratefully wraps his hands around it. Webster takes a seat opposite him and does the same with his own mug.

"Was there anything you wanted to do?" It's asked surprisingly hesitantly. "There's not much open, since it's Christmas Eve, but I'm sure there's got to be a coffee shop or a bar open."

"Whatever you want," Joe says.

"How about just a walk, then? Once you've warmed up, I mean. I'll lend you a thicker pair of gloves. Maybe a coat, too, and some dry boots."

"You want to just give me the closet, too?"

Web flushes pink. "You're such an asshole, Joe."

Okay, so the 'don't be an asshole' mission is a bust.

"A walk sounds good," he says quickly.

"Okay, then," Web says, visibly relaxing as he lets a long breath out, "We'll walk later."

***

When they do go for their walk, the streets of Cambridge are all but deserted, muffled by the blanket of snow across it. They grab another cup of coffee each from a man who wishes them well for the holidays before turning to walk down a quiet road. Most shops are shut, as Web had predicted, but there's one with lights on.

Web stops short beside it, glances at Joe, and then says, "Wait here a minute, okay?"

"What, and die of cold while you warm up?"

"I don't want to take coffee in," Web replies, somewhat suspiciously, "Just hold this for two minutes, alright?"

"Whatever," Joe says with a shrug, "Just don't leave me standing here like an idiot for too long."

Web's in and out quickly, emerging with a flat brown paper bag under one arm, and Joe hands him his coffee back. He's definitely not observing the line of his throat as he tilts his head back a little while he takes a sip. Fuck. Not this again. It's bad enough that he came all the way here. That's enough.

But...

As they walk, Web's hands are tucked into his pockets, his elbows sticking out ever so slightly. Joe's are too, so when their arms knock, it's not a surprise. Somehow, though, Webster goes an even deeper pink than he already was from the cold. Interesting.

***

Web doesn't have a spare room. That's not really such a problem – they both know Joe's slept in worse places – but Web's determined to be a good host and offers up his bed.

"I showed up uninvited," Joe says, "Just let me take the fuckin' couch."

"No."

"That's it? Mr. "I'm back at school" literature guy can't make a better argument?"

"I guess not," Web says.

"Good for you, going back to school, though." He catches sight of Webster's attempt to start to bite back. "No, hey, I mean it, alright? I really do. It's what you said you were gonna do, and you did it."

"Oh," Web says, looking mollified, "Thanks, then, I guess. How about you? You said you were going to meet a–" He coughs. "A nice Jewish girl with, uh..."

Joe takes pity on him and doesn't make him finish the sentence. "Guess it wasn't in the cards."

"I'm sorry. I should have figured you'd have said something."

"Not your fault, Web." Other than the fact that now, somehow, I want you more than any Jewish girl I could imagine. "Forget about it."

"Please just take the bed," Webster says.

"Nice try. No."

It takes a bit more arguing, but eventually Joe is situated on the couch. It takes him a while to get to sleep, listening through the thin walls as Web's breathing evens out.

***

It's strange for Joe, waking up in a house that isn't his own with someone else there. Web's movements are clearly intended to be quiet, but Joe's never quite got past the habit of waking at the slightest of sounds just in case. It seems Web never got over the early rising, either.

Joe gives up on trying to sleep just in time for Web to approach him with coffee. He takes it gratefully, taking a massive gulp straight away and ignoring the scalding heat as it goes down.

"Merry Christmas," Web says.

"Haven't you heard? I'm Jewish."

"Fuck you, Joe," Web says, though for once there's no heat there.

He sits down in the other chair in the room, sipping at his own coffee in a much more measured way than Joe. Joe's a bit embarrassed at having missed the brown paper bag from yesterday in Web's hand until the other stretches his arm out to pass it over.

"What's this?"

"You love to read," Web says wryly, "Right?"

Joe peels back the paper and lets the two comics books – one Flash Gordon, one Dick Tracy – fall into his lap.

"Fuck," he says, "You remember that conversation that well?"

"I– Look, if you don't want them–"

"Don't even think about taking them back," Joe says, and to his mild horror his voice is thickening with emotion, "They're mine."

"Oh," Web says, seemingly wordless at the surprising amount of an emotion that isn't rage or irritation in Joe's voice.

"I didn't get you anything."

"I didn't exactly expect you to."

Fuck. Is he really going to do this? Then again, nobody's ever accused Joe Liebgott of being a coward.

"Hey, actually, I do have something for you. Close your eyes."

Web eyes him suspiciously. "Why?"

"Jesus Christ," Joe says, exasperated.

And then he crosses the room in two strides, bends down, and presses his lips to Web's.

Almost automatically, David's hand comes up to curl around the back of Joe's neck as he melts under the attention. The moment feels like it stretches for eternity but also like a single instant, and Joe regrets it bitterly when they both eventually pull away.

"I– You– What?"

"For fuck's sake, Web, can't you just stop talking for once?"

"Fuck you."

And then David is kissing him again and the argument is forgotten before it really starts.

***

The radio is playing low as Joe flips through his Flash Gordon with his feet in Web's lap. They've had some sort of cheap approximation of a Christmas meal, and Joe's feeling comfortably lethargic. He feels a little guilty for missing the last few days of Hanukkah with his family, but it's not like it's the most important holiday he’s missing.

There's a crackle as the song changes, and David pulls a face. "God, I hate this song."

As Bing Crosby croons that he'll be home for Christmas, Joe hesitates for a second. He knows exactly why David doesn't like this song – he can think of several of the others who probably feel the same. Then he swings his feet to the floor and stands. He stretches his hand out and looks at Web expectantly.

"Come on then. Let's make a good link for it or whatever. At least it's good for dancing, right?"

Web takes his hand and lets himself be pulled up into Joe's arms. And then the two of them are dancing, and it's warmth and light and everything either of them could want.

"You were, you know," David says.

"I was what?"

"Home for Christmas. Even if you're late."

"I got here the day before!"

"A year late."

"Hey, Web?"

"Yeah, Lieb?"

"Shut up.”

[adelaidedrubman]

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC MONDAY 

tagged by absolutely no one and requested by fewer still, but in the spirit of kicking off the summer of hook, line, and sinker i am also taking the liberty of starting wip music monday whether anyone likes it or not. afflicting @v0idbuggy @poetikat @henbased @florbelles @unholymilf @socially-awkward-skeleton @direwombat @strangefable @derelictheretic @corvosattano @shallow-gravy @nuclearstorms @cassietrn @confidentandgood @afarcryfrommymain @vampireninjabunnies-blog @nightbloodbix @voidika @firstaidspray @megraen @roofgeese @trench-rot @strafethesesinners @blissfulalchemist @inafieldofdaisies @clicheantagonist, please feel free to drop a wip and a tune that vibes with it!

naturally i am sharing another hl&s playlist banger. pov you’re jestiny and this is what you desperately wish your ex-girlfriends’ internal monologue to be as they watch your current partner fail to bait a hook, but unfortunately probably only the last part applies:

i heard you had to drive him home after two umbrella drinks / i heard he’s got a prius ’cause he’s into being green / my buddy said he saw y’all eating that sushi stuff / baby that don’t sound like you, that don’t sound like love / sounds like it sucks he can’t even bait a hook / he can’t even skin a buck / he don’t know who jack daniels is / ain’t ever drove a truck / knows how to throw out a line / but not the kind in a field and stream book / no darling i ain’t even worried you’ll come running back / he can’t even bait a hook ... [outro] nah you’re the one that’s gonna be sorry when you’re headin’ to get tofu and he has a flat tire in his foreign car and don’t know how to change it and you’ll get your new gucci shoes wet and you’re mad and irritated, i’ve seen you irritated, i’m telling you, better him than me actually

epic blunder, this is how they actually see you and your new man. wip excerpt from hl&s c.3, tentatively titled “throw out a line” (warnings for jessie typical emotional regulation and references to stalking behavior, played for laughs but called for what it is in text):

“Ms. Woodhouse,” John held out a hand towards the brunette that was met with nothing but a scowl in return. 

He made an apologetic ‘ah’ noise and wiped the hand on his shirt, but Jessie knew it was not the fish guts Sherri was repulsed by.  “My apologies.” He bowed. “I haven’t yet had the privilege of patronizing your little store.” Jessie smiled. Patronizing was right. And Sherri deserved it. “It’s so difficult when I have my own boat ramp right in the backyard to remember to get out there to support the small business owners in the community.”  “Support?” Skylar cut in, scowling even harder than Sherri did. “When have you ever supported any business around here? You call trying to shut everyone down and take their property from ’em support?”  Huh. That’s weird  — Skylar seemed to have history with this guy. And it was bad enough he was a lawyer at all, did she fuck up and start pretending to date a fucking foreclosure attorney or something?  John waved the accusation off. “Please, I hate discussing business matters during my recreation time.” He reached into his back pocket to take out his wallet, pulling another hundred dollar bill from it. “I would love to support Can of Worms now.”  John turned to Sherri, gauchely waving the bill in front of her. “I’m afraid my lovely date and I have fished through all of our bait. But it seems you have plenty left. He nodded towards the unopened can at Sherri’s feet. “I’d like to purchase it.”  Sherri met him with a dead-eyed stare. “Store’s closed.”  John turned, looking across the water at the Can of Worms storefront. “Your hours say open until 9.”  “Well, I’m not on the clock.”  “Oh, don’t be unreasonable. I’m paying well above market rate for something I could just waste time going over and buying from you, for much cheaper, in the store.”  “No, you couldn’t,” Skylar said. “Store’s closed.”  He pointed behind him. “I see it open.”  “Store’s always closed to you.” Jestiny gave up on pretending not to notice the conversation, setting aside her beer to slam her hands down on the side of the boat. “Well, sell it to fuckin’ me, then!”  “God, Jessie,” Sherri groaned, leaning down to hold her head in her hands. “Can’t you just fucking leave us alone? Following us, harassing us while we’re trying to fish? We broke up with you. We don’t want you around.”  “Shit’s sad,” Skylar agreed. “Just stop. Don’t make us get a fuckin’ restraining order or something.”  Jestiny kicked the side of the boat, hard. “They’re called Orders of Protection, in fucking Montana!”  “You learn that from your slimebag lawyer boyfriend?” Skylar asked. Jessie frowned. That was hitting below the belt, she thought. “And did he learn it from law school, or ’cause half the fucking County wants to take one out on his creepy ass?” Sherri brought a hand over her mouth to stifle her laugh at Skylar’s joke. “They really are perfect for each other, huh?” she giggled against Skylar’s shoulder, setting her chin atop it and looking up at her adoringly.  Jessie felt flames crawl up in her belly. Of all the infuriating insults.  “Yeah, we fucking are! I finally have someone who can keep up with me behind the rod and on an intellectual fuckin’ level!” she forced herself to flash an adoring smile of her own at the man she shouted over. “And he’s got an actual sense of humor! Just look at his outfit.”  John turned to shoot Jessie a glare.  “Yeah,” Skylar laughed, turning to nudge the flyaway hairs clinging to Sherri’s dewy brown skin away with the sun speckled tip of her nose so that she could finally whisper her teasing directly into the brunette’s ear. “Looks like you and me were the only ones that didn’t think to come dressed for the circus.” 

“I fucking heard that!” 

[karolinesvrsion]

just this once, okay? | bruce yamada x fem!reader

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5

if you haven't already, go check out the playlist for this series!!

taglist: @bettyssneaker @ellemfaoh @finneysbaseball @urfavkorean @retirement-home @sweetrabbit

when a crushing and helpless bruce yamada seeks aid from an unaware and breezy y/n, he suggests they fake date in order to make his crush jealous. what could go wrong? they were friendly, and y/n was beautiful. bruce’s plan is fool proof. at least that’s what he thinks.

a/n: for the sake of the story, everyone is the same age (16-17) and in junior year of high school, except gwen, who is a freshman. and the grabber doesn't exist because i said so.

❦

it was officially the first day of autumn, your favorite time of year. unfortunately, it was also the time where everyone began to get sick.

you were seated in the back of the class, your chin placed comfortably in your hand. it was way too early in the morning to be learning about angular momentum.

bruce seemed to be running late. the seat to your right was still empty, and to the left of you was robin, who was doodling little stars on his desk. suddenly, bruce walked in sluggishly, dark bags under his eyes.

"hey, woah, are you okay?" you greeted, his appearance taking you by surprise. he was wearing dark sweatpants and a big crewneck.

"yeah, i'm fine!" bruce said, but it was obvious that he was starting to get sick. "my nose might be like, just a little bit congested, but i'm fine!"

"ew, dude, you're getting sick." robin interjected, covering his mouth with his shirt. "stay back, i don't wanna catch your disgusting bruce germs."

"my what?" bruce scoffed. "i'm not sick, robin. i don't get sick!"

"well, you are now." robin scooted his entire desk at least two feet to the left. he took out a small pocket-sized hand sanitizer from his backpack and rubbed some all over his hands and arms. "give him some so he's less contagious."

"i'm not contagious!" bruce defended.

"just take the hand sanitizer, bruce," you laughed, "he won't leave you alone if you don't take it."

"fine." he grumbled, rubbing his hands together.

"are you sure you're feeling okay?" you asked bruce, giving him a sense of comfort that he so desperately wanted to push away, but unfortunately couldn't.

"yeah, yeah i'll be fine." he smiled.

the class went by pretty quickly, with robin making jokes about how it must suck real bad to get sick, and bruce fake-laughing at all of them, it was pretty entertaining to say the least.

throughout the rest of the day, you noticed less and less students in your classes. everyone was getting sick, and it seemed like bruce was next.

bruce got sick, of course. he told his mom multiple times that he was fine, but she could see right through him. "i don't want to stay home tomorrow, mom, i'm fine, really!"

"you just want to go to school to see y/n, don't you?" she asked smugly.

"mom!" he blushed furiously. "please, just let me go to school, i'll be fine!"

"bruce, you're staying home tomorrow, and that's final. okay? understood?" mrs. yamada finalized, giving him a cup of tea.

"understood." bruce mumbled, taking the piping hot tea back to his room. he started doing the pile of homework laying on his desk when he heard the phone ring.

"hello?" his mom answered. "oh, y/n, how nice of you to call!"

bruce's eyes widened and he ran to the living room. "mom! it's y/n?" he mouthed.

mrs. yamada held a hand up to his face. "yes, of course you can speak to him, just give me a second!"

"mom, give me the phone!" he mouthed frantically, earning a sharp glare.

"yes, yes, well, bruce is so eager to speak with you, it looks like!" his mother spoke, teasing him purposely.

"oh, is he?" your voice spoke from the other line.

"yes, he is!" she laughed, smiling sarcastically at her son. "i think you two make a cute pair, you know? you two remind me of—"

"okay, mom!" bruce gently took the phone from his mom's hands.

she was laughing quietly to herself and began to walk away, but not before saying. "amy was right. you are totally in love with her."

bruce chose to ignore his mom's words. "hey, y/n/n! what's going on?"

"bruce, hey! i was actually just wondering if you were feeling any better?" you said. "i know you said you were fine, but you looked like crap, so, i don't know, i just wanted to check up on you."

"well, i'll admit, i did look like crap," you laughed at this, making bruce smile, "but my mom is making me stay home tomorrow."

your smile faltered a little. "oh, okay. well, i guess i'll see you wednesday, then."

"yeah, see you wednesday."

neither of you hung up, though. you two just stayed on the phone, no words were exchanged, nothing was heard. that is, until your mom called your name. "shoot, bruce, my mom's calling me, i gotta go!"

"oh, cool! i mean, um, yeah, that's cool." he stuttered. "i'll see you wednesday, y/n/n!"

"yeah, see you then!"

after bruce hung up, you started thinking— more like accepting, really— you wanted to accept that you had a crush on bruce, but you couldn't. it would freak him out, or worse, ruin your friendship with him.

you decided it would be best not to tell him, and simply hide your feelings for him until this was over. if clara would change her mind, or start feeling differently for bruce, this would all be over, and everything would go back to normal.

you woke up to the sound of coughing— very loud coughing. you reluctantly stumbled out of bed, slipping out of your room and into the hall.

your mother was stepping out of allie's room, a frown appearing on her face. "well, allie has a fever, and an obnoxious cough." she showed you the thermometer, which read 100.5 degrees. "i can't stay home with her today, though, crap."

"wyatt and i can stay with her, if you want?" you offered.

as soon as you said that, wyatt stepped out of his room. his hair was messy and he looked like he had just walked out of a thunderstorm. "no, we can't."

"yes, we can!" you slapped his chest. you weren't one to be excited about skipping school, but today was one of those days where there was nothing important going on at school. plus, you could check up on bruce.

"yeah, alright." your mom reluctantly agreed. "but make sure you two don't just leave her to fend for herself, okay? i trust both of you to actually check up on her."

"okay, we will!" you grinned. wyatt shrugged and walked back into his room.

your mom shook her head. "you got this?"

"i got this, mom." you reassured her.

"okay, i should be back by three, make sure to give allie the red cough syrup on the counter, she'll put up a fight, but she needs it okay?" she rambled, gathering her many belongings. "she can watch tv as long as she wants, but she has to sleep for at least an hour or two."

"mom!" you interrupted, placing your hands on her shoulders. "i got this, okay? she'll be fine."

"okay, okay," she nodded, "okay, uh, be good!"

taking care of allie was harder than you thought, at least for the first hour. your mom was right— she put up a huge fight when you tried to give her the cough syrup, you ended up with a few bruises on your arms. after you managed to give her the medicine, she fell asleep for two hours.

it was about ten am and you were making breakfast when she popped out around the corner, practically staring into your soul. "what, allie?"

"how come you and wyatt are staying at home?" she asked, eyeing you suspiciously. "where's mom?"

"mom had to go to work today, and i'm here because she didn't want to leave you alone, and in all honestly, i don't know why wyatt is here because he's no help at all." you replied.

"okay, then." allie hummed, clearly amused.

she finished eating pretty quickly, and after that, taking care of her was much easier. she went into the living room to watch tv and color some pages of her coloring book that gwen gave her for her birthday.

it was twelve pm, and allie was now sitting in the beanbag in the living room— her attention span was much better than yours if she could sit there for hours without leaving.

you decided this would be a good time to stop by bruce's house, just to make sure he was okay. "hey, allie?"

"hm?" she stayed focused on her coloring book.

"do you mind if i leave for a little bit?" you asked. "i'll be back soon, i just need to go, um, get some, uh, cookies."

"cookies?" allie scrunched her nose. "mom got cookies yesterday, though."

"yeah, but not the cookies with m&m's." you tried, knowing m&m cookies are her favorites.

allie's head perked up. "you're getting m&m cookies?"

"only if you don't tell anyone i left." you whispered. allie gave you a toothy grin and nodded, shaking your hand.

you felt kind of ridiculous walking to the diner to get bruce the chicken soup that he loved, but you did anyways. you finally accepted that you had a crush on him— reluctantly, of course.

it was almost painful to knock on bruce's front door, the paper bag in your left hand suddenly feeling very heavy. you knocked three times, and when mrs. yamada opened the front door, your eyes widened.

"mrs. yamada!" you laughed dryly, trying to diffuse the tension— that was only sensed by you.

"y/n, hello! i wasn't expecting you so early." she raised an eyebrow. "you're not skipping school, are you?"

"no! i mean, well, yes, but i'm," you breathed, "allie has a fever, and a really gross cough, and i offered to stay at home to take care of her so my mom didn't have to call in sick for work."

"oh, yes, that's so sweet, y/n!" she chuckled. "oh, come in, what is that you've got?"

"um, i got some chicken soup for bruce." you admitted sheepishly. "from that diner he likes."

"that's so kind of you, y/n." she smiled. "i actually have to leave in about ten minutes, but i trust you two, so— bruce!"

when bruce walked out, you had to stifle a laugh. his usually perfect hair was sticking up in every direction, he was wearing a pajama set with small puppies on them, with a fuzzy blanket wrapped around his body. the cherry on top was todd— who he was carrying on his back.

"y/n?" he looked like he was pouting, but really he had just woken up. bruce looked down at what he was wearing. "oh god, mom! why didn't you— wait did you skip school for this?"

"oh, please." you added. "i wouldn't skip school just to deliver chicken soup! i stayed at home to take care of allie today, 'cause she's sick."

"oh, that sucks." he stated. "is that the chicken soup from the diner we went to the other day?"

"it is." you smiled. "are you okay? are you feeling better?"

"not really." he grimaced. "i think i'd feel ten times better if i had some of that chicken soup, though."

his mom laughed loudly at this. "okay, you two seem fine here. i'm going to go to work now, i'll see you when i get back." she squished his face and kissed each of his cheeks.

"mom, c'mon, she's right there." bruce groaned, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink.

she rolled her eyes, turning to you. "he's so dramatic."

you nodded, smiling politely. "yeah, i agree."

bruce shook his head, stuffing his hands into his pockets lazily. he waved goodbye to his mom and walked towards you. "you brought me chicken soup?"

you flushed. "yeah, i did. i thought it was cheesy at first, y'know, cause, i mean that's what they do in those corny romance movies, but i thought it would be nice."

"wow, maybe i should get sick more often." he teased.

"you're not one of those people who slurp their soup loudly, are you?" you asked. one of your biggest pet peeves was when people slurped things, which was one of the main reasons you never let finney eat cereal at your house.

"oh, god no." bruce feigned offense. "god, who do you think i am?"

"just a question, bruce!" you laughed.

he might've been sick, but hanging out with him was a whole lot of fun. bruce put on a movie and you two sat on the couch as he enjoyed the soup.

"y'know, i told allie that i was gonna go get cookies." you admitted. "my excuse for leaving the house was that i was gonna go get m&m cookies!"

"that's such a lame excuse, y/n/n." bruce scoffed. "you're better than this."

"not really." you giggled. "i've never snuck out, y'know? like, ever."

"i figured." he responded. "finney told me you chickened out on sneaking out to go to the drive-in with him and robin last year."

"what— why would he tell you that?" you held your head in your hands, laughing to yourself.

"hey, does finney still have a thing for donna?" bruce asked spontaneously. "i mean, i never see them hanging out like they used to, y'know?"

"yeah, they stopped liking one another forever ago, in like sixth grade." you answered. "finney didn't go too into detail about it, all he said was that donna wasn't into him like that, and that he couldn't tell us what she said."

"oh, that's a little dramatic, but, i guess it makes sense." bruce shrugged. "hey, do you know how finney learned to dutch braid? amy's been begging all of us to braid her hair for volleyball tournaments, but she wants dutch braids, and none of us know how to dutch braid."

you smirked. "yeah, i taught him how to dutch and french braid, actually."

"you did?" his eyes widened in amazement. "wow, d'you think you could teach me how to braid hair?"

"yeah, sure." you blushed slightly. you split your hair into two and began braiding it from the top, showing bruce how to do each 'hair stitch' as he liked to call them.

"okay, now, your turn!" you grinned.

bruce's smile faltered. "what? no, i can't do this, your side looks so good, and mine is gonna look terrible!"

"come on, you'll do fine!" you tried to cheer him up. "and if it looks terrible, you can try again, it's okay."

bruce looked hesitant, but as he saw the determined look in your eyes, he agreed. "okay, fine. i'll try."

he wasn't all that bad at the dutch braids, in all fairness. he pulled your hair a couple times, but he did well. "wow, so i think all you need to practice is keeping the braid tight. it's a little loose, so it might fall out easily, but it looks good!"

"really?" bruce's eyes brightened. "really, you mean it?" you nodded happily, making his smile grow wider. "thank the lord! i mean, i thought i screwed it up bad, y/n/n!"

"well, you didn't screw it up too bad, don't worry." you checked your wristwatch and saw that it was almost one o'clock. "crap, i gotta go! allie gets annoyed when she's hungry, and i've been gone for like forty-five minutes!"

"oh, shoot." bruce mumbled. "oh, hey! i've got the m&m cookies she likes so you don't have to stop!" you gave him a suspicious look. "i told her that every time she passes a baseball test, she gets a cookie, and she requested these."

you smiled. "so you went out and bought her m&m cookies? you didn't have to do that, y'know?"

"yeah, i know, but it's good motivation!" he shrugged it off like it was nothing, but to you, it meant a lot. he had a really sweet bond with allie— someone who hated meeting new people. she was probably so open to meeting him because he's cute, but still, it was new.

"thank you, bruce." you hugged him, which took him by surprise at first, but he quickly melted into it.

"it's no big deal, really."

you two stood there, hugging one another, until you finally pulled back. feeling brave, you placed a small kiss on his cheek, making him turn bright red.

"okay, see you tomorrow, bye!" you rushed out the door, smiling to yourself. no way i just did that. you thought.

no way she just did that. bruce thought, smiling to himself.

[bluewatersfairy]

more than enough - j.t.

for the best experience, please listen to this song whilst reading 🤍🌌

synopsis: on vacation, reader helps jayson rest and relax 

warnings: mature content, MINORS DNI!  oral sex (female receiving), unprotected sex (don’t forget to wrap before you tap), shower sex.  it’s lowkey tame compared to some other fics i’ve written lmao.

word count: 5.4k (so sorry)

•••

Quietly, you followed the cobblestone path around the side of your air b&b, wrapping your robe around your body just a little bit tighter.  You appreciated the darkness, and were genuinely surprised and in awe of the view of the stars there was in this part of the world.  The light pollution was so little, it almost made being surrounded by darkness comforting, like a childhood blanket.  You wanted to bathe in the darkness, lay on the grass or the roof and stare at the sky to see just how many stars you cold see, but you didn’t want to do it alone.  Plus, the half court at the back of the house had lights with far too much power and it did not seem like they were turning off anytime soon. 

“You know,” you began as you walked through the entrance, your voice pulling Jayson’s attention away form the ball in his hands, “the point of a vacation is to rest and relax.”  You leant against the fence, your arms crossed over your stomach to keep your robe closed. 

“I am resting and relaxing,” he replied with a smile, his hands tossing the ball back and forth to one another, like a nervous habit, “this is relaxing to me.”  He dribbled the ball twice before shooting it at the hoop, his eyes never leaving yours. 

“It’s not exactly resting though,” you countered as he started to walk towards you, his hands behind his back.  As he got closer, you could make out the droplets of sweat that covered his naked torso and dripped down his forehead.  He did not look relaxed or rested at all. 

Jayson’s lips pressed to the top of your head as he came to a stop in front of you. “I rest during the day and relax out here at night.”  

You rolled your eyes and took a step back to move to find his phone to turn off his speaker.  His eyes stayed glued to you as you moved, the feeling leaving an icy touch at the bottom of your spine.  Instinctively, you pulled your shoulders back to combat the shiver, not wanting to distract his trance.  You were able to stop his music and turn off his speaker before he protested in any type of way. 

“Cmon now Ma, it’s just us two out here for miles, I’m not disturbing anybody.”  His hands found your hips as he came up behind you, “let my finish this playlist and then I’ll be inside, I promise.”  

Sweetly, Jayson placed a kiss on your jaw as one of his hands pushed you into him.  It didn’t take much more than that to realise he was about to use his size against you, and he was making a grab for his phone and speaker.  

“I would say you’re disturbing me.” you said as you dodged his hand again, carefully backing away from him and judging the situation.  Jayson had a somewhat wicked look in his eyes, the playful type that could switch very easily.  

“Let me make it up to you then,” he said as he lunged for you again.  He barely missed you, almost managing to grab the tie of your robe to pull you in.

“You can make it up to me by coming inside,” you quipped as you made a jump for the gate.  Unfortunately Jayson anticipated your moved and partially caught you mid-air, swinging you around as you squealed.  

“Thank you.” 

Victorious, he now held his phone and speaker.  You could hear his smirk as he put you down.  As you turned to face him again, your robe lost the little hold it had left and opened, exposing the black satin and lace babydoll you had on.  In real time, you watched Jayson shut down, the ball he had at his feet being kicked to the side as he stepped towards you.  

“Don’t,” you stopped him by grabbing his wrist, “you are not getting your sweat all over this.  It is new.  I will kill you.”  You let go of his hand and he smiled lightly.

“Yes ma’am,” he said with his hands up in defense.  

Jayson slid his tongue over his bottom lip and tilted his head to the right.  His eyes followed the lace to the swell of your chest and down to your thick thighs.  He cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“You’re not very subtle,” you teased, “might be something to work on if you want me to come to more of your games.”

You started to walk around him, nudging the basketball gently towards the baseline.  Jayson’s eyes followed, but he didn’t move from where he stood. 

“Maybe I’ll second think that,” he mumbled as he finally turned to face you at the exit, “you might just be too distracting.”

“Clearly not that distracting,” you teased with your hands behind your back, “if I was, you would already be in the shower getting ready to fuck me, but alas,” you shrugged, “here you stand.” 

Jayson raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips together.  You bit back saying something more and turned to walk back around the side of the house and to your bedroom.  You didn’t need to add anything extra to your walk, your babydoll and robe had given him enough to think about.  Plus, you had told him what you wanted, it wouldn’t be long for him to follow you.  

Back in your room, you picked up your book from the bedside table and laid out.  You figured it wouldn’t be long until Jayson joined you, but you preferred doing something with your time.  Time either passed quickly, or you were reading faster than usual because when the bedroom door reopened, you’d reached the climax of the chapter and things were starting to fall in line.  

“Those lights are hot,” Jayson interrupted your concentration as he dropped his shirt on the bed.  He shook his head when you made eye contact over the top of your book.  

He made another comment about the lights and as important as you were sure it was, you weren’t really taking it in.  Your eyes scanned over his shoulders and down his toned arms and over his torso.  You swore he was wearing his sweats lower than before.

“You just gon’ stare or answer my question?” He snapped his fingers in front of him, bringing you back to reality.

“You look yummy, is it my fault?” you countered, placing your book back on the bedside table.  He chuckled and you pulled yourself to your feet.

“See, I’m inside because of you so some could argue it is your fault.”  He smirked as you came to stand in front of him.

Looking down at you, he fiddled with the drawstrings of his pants.  He had a cocky demeanor, his smug grin as irritating as it was attractive.  His pants dropped as you stepped closer to him again and he took your chin between his fingers.  

“Would you like to join me in the shower?” he asked as he dipped his head closer to yours, his lips hovering over yours.  

“Do you even need to ask?” 

Jayson nodded his head and took a step back from your body.  He traced the band of his briefs before pulling them down, knowing you were watching his every move.  When his back turned so he could open the bathroom door, he tensed and flexed his back muscles.  Though you focused your attention of his body, you tried your best not to roll your eyes at his cocky manner.  You knew he thought he was top 5, he didn’t need to know that you see him the same way, just that he isn’t 5, 4, 3, or 2.  

Alina Baraz’s soft voice filled the bathroom, something that had only ever been an invitation for you.  You let your robe fall down your shoulders and tossed it lazily at the bed before sauntering towards the doorway.  You caught a glimpse of yourself in the room’s mirror and you couldn’t help but take a second look.  The soft curves of your figure filled out your baby doll beautifully, you looked angelic, sun-kissed and edible.   

He’d dimmed the lights in the bathroom, giving the room more of a soothing nuance than the burning yellow lights typically offered.  Jayson was already under the water and staring directly at you when you looked up at him.  The shower was only separated from the rest of the bathroom by one sheet of glass.  This meant that it was easy to slip in and out, and even easier to watch your lover if you pleased.  Just as you were from the moment you stepped in, you barely paid attention to the unused towel that sat folded on the floor.  Instead, you watched as the water pebbled over his hair and down his chest.  He noticed, his chin jutting up as he bit back a smirk.  

“I know I say it all the time,” he shrugged as his eyes scanned down your figure, “but God took his sweet time with you Ma.”  

As if by instinct, you rolled your eyes and locked the door behind you.  

His gaze burnt into your back and raised the hairs on your neck.  Blind to his actions, you still knew where his attention laid, unwavering.  You smoothed your hands over the satin material and tugged at the hem, suddenly very aware of how little it covered.  He knocked down a towel or two on his way in and you knew that if you were to bend over, he’d be able to see all of you, something that never came without a flash of nerves.  So you crouched instead and he let his disapproval be known. 

“I’d much rather you voice your disapproving thoughts than make sounds about them,” you ran your tongue over your bottom lip as you turned to face him.  Jayson hadn’t moved since you’d first walked in, it was his body language that gave him away.  Someone else wanted a part of the conversations.

“Cmon now,” he taunted, “I’ve never complained before, why would I start now?”

You took another step towards him with your hands held behind your back.  He licked his bottom lip as you took another step, his eyes tight on your thighs.  They were hypnotic to him.  Once he’d first touched them, he couldn’t seem to get enough.  Always staring, always touching.  If the opportunity presented itself, he’d rest his head in your lap, his fingers tracing up and down your thighs, his lips following suit.  He paid extra attention to them when he was between them.  Biting and sucking, kissing them as he played with your mental and told you secrets until your head was spinning.  

“I like you in black,” he mumbled, half a world away.  You lifted the hem ever so slightly, gripping the material at your waist.  He sucked in a breath, his eyes slowly losing that innocent glimmer that had initially brought you in.

“Take it off,” Jayson breathed out.  You’d stopped in your stride and watched as his head lowered ever so slightly.  He looked you in the eye and waited for some type of response.  You liked it like this, when you weren’t sure what his next move would be.

“Good boys use their manners.”  It was your turn to taunt him and he raised his chin again.  You smiled ever so slightly, you liked to challenge him.  Where was the fun in compliance?  

“Please,” he forced out, his head shaking side to side, “take it off.”

You bit the inside of your cheek as you examined him one last time.  His chest was rising and falling at a slightly faster pace than usual and blood was clearly pulsing through him at a heightened speed.  If it wasn’t evident through the redness in his forehead and cheeks, his hardened cock gave it all away. 

“As you please,” you curtseyed before pulling the luscious material over your head.  You tossed it to the basin and let Jayson drink in your body before you made your way to his beckoning embrace.  

“You should dress in those things more often,” he mumbled against the top of your head as his hands wrapped around your waist.  You tilted your head up and caught his eye before he gently pressed his lips to yours, “it makes watching you undress that much more interesting.”

You laughed as he smiled and pressed your hands into his chest, “here I was thinking watching me get undressed after work was the most interesting part of your day.”  He grinned down at you and you raised to your tippy toes.  You snaked your hands around his neck, feeling the hot water mix with the grit on the surface of his skin as you kissed him.  You loved the sound your lips made when you were kissing.  It made your heart sing, just like everything with Jayson did. 

“Turn around,” you chuckled as you pulled away from him, “I’ll wash your back.”

He made an offhanded comment about cleanliness but you just rolled your eyes.  While he washed his face and chest, you ran a cloth with lathered body wash over his tattooed back.  You were gentle but made sure to get rid of the sweat that covered him, rinsing the wash before running your fingers up and down his back.  He hummed as you did it, his head tilting back in ecstasy.  

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so tall,” he paused as you pressed a kiss to his back, “I love it when you play all in my hair.”  He was facing you again, his hands gripping at your waist. 

“Baths baby,” you reminded him, running the trapped water over his shoulders, “we don’t always have to stand.”

Jayson opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, but instead, he lifted you and turned so you were under the stream of water.  You gasped as the warm water hit you directly in the back and again when he pressed you to the side of the tiled wall.

“Thought you liked standing?” he suggested, his head lowered so his mouth was mere centimetres from your own.  His voice had changed again, deeper, raspier, sexier.

Your fingernails danced on the sides of his torso, suddenly unsure where they should go.  You could embrace him, pull his naked body on top of your own.  Or, you could bring them up to his chest and neck and silently ask his mouth to cover yours.  Every passing moment sent a direct pulse to your sex, burning and pooling, eager for his touch.  

“Not such a talker now, are you?” he smirked at his taunt and moved even closer to you if that was possible.  The hand that was on your waist reached for you right breast.  His palm, slightly wet from the shower, pressed into your hardened nipple and he caressed it with the intention of seeing it move.  The small gesture forced you to inhale sharply, your mouth jutting open a little more.  

“Jayson,” you breathed out with your eyes searching for his, “I prefer it when you’re standing and I’m bent over.”  He covered your mouth with his own before he could smile, trying his best to hide it from you. 

He trapped you against the wall as you kissed, one hand still holding your breast while the other arm wrapped around your waist.  You barely processed the fact that your feet were no longer on the ground when you wrapped your arms around him as your lips smacked.  He hummed as he pulled you away from the wall, your legs coming around his waist.

“What’s your plan here, Tatum?” you asked between kisses, your giggles filling the steamy room.  “I don’t trust these floors.”  Your teeth grazed and you raked your hand through his curls, tugging ever so slightly.  

“Don’t worry,” he answered as he placed you back on the floor, your bodies still flushed together, “I got this all worked out.”  

Jayson gripped at your hips and turned you to face the wall.  Your hands reached out instinctively to give you more supported.  As much as you trusted his word, there were too many shower-sex horror stories playing in your mind.  You welcomed his strong arm around your waist, but instead of simply holding you, he slid his hand over the curve of your stomach and slipped it between your thighs.  You gasped, leaning back against him as he felt the mess he’d caused.  

He hummed in approval, “this all from kissing?”  he teased his index and middle finger through your slit, playing in your slick before he collected it on his fingers.  

“Sometimes all it takes is kissing,” you answered after swallowing hard.  

“Sometimes, huh?”

He lifted his fingers and put them in his mouth.  Quietly he clicked his tongue, “tell me,” he began as he tapped his fingers at your pout.  You opened your mouth and could partially hear him smirking, “have you ever tasted something so sweet?”

You let out a soft moan against his fingers as you sucked.  He purposely made it so you’d have to do more than just lick his fingers to taste yourself, he’d taken most for himself.  You kept sucking as he started to retract his fingers, anticipating his next move perfectly.  He pushed his fingers back in your mouth, again and again, marveling at the way you took them with no hesitation, no resistance.  

“Fuck,” he groaned as he pulled his fingers out completely, “you really are somethin’.”  

Jayson unwrapped his arm from your waist and pushed on the curve of your back.  Your ass poked out towards him more and your front leant forward.  You closed your eyes at the feeling of his large hands on your ass.  

“The prettiest fucking pussy,” his hand came down hard on your ass as he spoke, causing you to squeal.  “That’s all mine, ain’t it, beautiful?”

“All yours,” you breathed out as his thumbs pressed into your thighs.  “You don’t even have to ask.”  

His smile became evident as his lips skimmed over your hips.  He lingered for a second before leaving a light kiss over the trails that scattered your body.  He’d lowered himself to a crouch, you assumed as his teeth sunk playfully into the top of your ass. 

“I think my name would look nice here,” he slipped his arm around you as he spoke, his lips dragging kisses everywhere he saw fit.  “Some cursive or somethin’,” his fingers grazed over your vulva, your eyes closing in preparation, “then everyone will know.”

Jayson let her index and middle finger hover just below your clit.  He could feel the heat radiating and was fighting every urge he had to fall in.  

“You go first,” you answered as his other hand slipped between your thighs, gently rubbing your inner thighs, “I’m not committing to anything unless you’ve done it first.”  

He chuckled and dropped his fingers to circle your clit and entrance.  He was building the tension in your stomach with expertise.  He was giving you just enough to offer some relief.  The kisses and marks he left on your ass a welcomed sensation, but what he was doing between your thighs was bordering on irritating.  You wanted more from him, needed it.  You wanted to focus on what he was doing, concentrate on each stroke and circle he drew to give yourself more.

He kissed your ass again before he leant his head back and looked up at you.  The expression he was met with made him grin.  Your bottom lip was already swollen from biting and your eyes were squeezed closed as if you were concentrating.  Which you were, mostly on your breathing and the feeling of him between your thighs.  

“I’m committed baby,” he said with a shrug, his eyes scanning over your face.  He loved seeing you with your eyes squeezed shut and your bottom lip swollen from biting.  It did something to his voice, putting it somewhere between casual and serious. “I’d get your silhouette tatted tomorrow if I could.”

You made eye contact with him as he finished his sentence and smiled at the look on his face.  He was still being somewhat serious but the casual tone made it sound the opposite.  His face was contradicting, several signals being sent your way.  But instead of analysing, you just smiled. 

“Bet.”

Once the word had fallen from your mouth, his fingers came in contact with your clit and his second hand joined the motions.  A surprised moan caught you off guard and you quickly looked down, as if you were unsure of how he was teasing your entrance while playing with your clit.

“That’s-” you started before releasing another moan, “exactly what I need.”

Jayson had no intention of giving you any less than that.  He was maybe even more committed to that than he was to his life with you, especially with all you’d done for him.  

This vacation had had everything to do with him.  He needed a break from work, a week away from the real world, and some time to himself.  He’d felt little to no guilt about the world he’d stepped away from.  He felt he was still keeping his skills in check from the time he spent on the half court and working out most morning.  But he was beginning to realise just how little he’d done for you during this trip. 

You’d gone out of your way for him, running him baths, making him do self care in both yours and his ways, and had even given him a couple massages that left him sleepy and horny.  You’d spent all this time catering to him and making it so he had no choice to relax - he hadn’t given back half as much as he believed he should have been.  Sex is a two way street and he never failed to make you climax, but that didn’t mean the sex was equal.  He wanted to flip it, at least for the night, and give you a little more than he had been.  

Jayson’s thoughts were cut off as he felt you squirm under his touch.  He brought his eyes back to your pussy and pushed your back again, forcing you to arch and expose yourself more.  He smiled, already able to see how sticky and creamy he was making you.  He kept his index and middle fingers teasing your clit but freed his second hand so he could spread you out. 

He needed to taste you, aching for it with every inch of his being.  The feeling came in cycles, each time around more intense.  He had to have you, just like all those times before.  The second his taste buds pushed through your swollen lips, he knew this was where he belonged. 

Attentively, he worked his tongue against your sex, taking as much as he could and sucking in every last drop.  Your moans and words of praise egged him on, pushing himself deeper with every stroke.  When you tried to pull yourself forward, away from him for just a moment, he gripped your hips and pulled you back onto his face.  

“Fuck, Jay,” you panted out as you clasped your hand over his much larger one.  

The feeling in the pit of your stomach had built up much quicker than you had wanted it to.  The resistance of the push and pull was growing weak with every passing second.  Your knees felt weak and you could barely keep your eyes open.  All that your body could pay attention to was the heat between your thighs and the way Jayson had clearly mastered your body.  

You clenched every part of you with hopes of prolonging the experiences.  You loved the sensation of the rough pads on his fingers digging into your hips and were hypnotised by the hunger he had for you.  

“Oh fuck,” your voice much louder than you anticipated, “I’m gonn-”

Cut off by your own high pitched moan, you released on his face.  He fought cheek and tongue to gather every drop, not caring about the way your thighs were fighting to press together or the way your hands were trying to push him off.  He was so much stronger that all it did was make you weaker.  He didn’t care about the snap in your stomach or your heightened senses.  He wasn’t done until he’d cleaned up.

“Oh my God,” you laughed as he finally pulled back, “do you want me to fall?”

“You’re fine,” he laughed as he stood to his full height, “I would’ve caught you regardless.”

You turned to face him and braced your hands on his chest.  Your hesitation to speak was taken as an opportunity by Jayson to kiss you, his mouth covering yours.  You tasted sweet on his tongue, an ache planting your feet to the tiles.  You held tightly to his sides, bringing him closer to keep you up.

“Stop thinking about falling,” he mumbled through your kiss.  He snaked his arm around your waist again and you smiled, “just trust that I got you.”

You kissed him again, pulling his head down so it was easier.  He reacted to your pull, moving so you were completely covered by his body, skin-to-skin as your lips smacked together.  You trailed your hand down his chest and over the plane of his stomach.  Your mouth opened a little more to allow his tongue to slip in and brush against yours.  His hand cupped your jaw and angled your mouth up to his. 

Your hand quickly found the base of his harden cock, ever so slightly stroking it before picking it up.  Jayson audibly responded in a deep groan.  He didn’t move to stop you nor encourage you, he just kept his mouth on yours.  

You teased your way over his length, feeling the heat of his throbbing tip grow.  An throaty moan escaped him as you circled your thumb over the tip.  He pulled away from you, his forehead resting against yours as you both panted.  You hadn’t realised just how heavy the two of you had gotten until you were gasping for air.  

“Cmon baby,” he drew your attention up to his gaze, “don’t just tease me.”  His stare was intense, his eyes and voiced darkened as you continued to tease his dick, softly stroking and making sure to feel every inch of it.  

“Pass me the lube,” you said against his lips, your eyes meeting.  He nodded his head and turned away from you for a moment to grab the tube on the shower shelf.  You spat on your hand and wrapped it around his dick again, your spit making it more pleasurable.  

He’d opened the tube when he’d passed it to you and you were quick to squeeze some onto your hand.  Back on his cock, he let out another moan, his muscles tensing as he took a sharp inhale. 

“Turn around,” he urged, “I need to feel you.”

You did as you were told, sticking your ass out as your front met the tiled wall again.  Jayson licked his fingers and rubbed it on your entrance before wrapped his hand around his girth.  He tapped on your ass before sliding into your sex, both of you moaning in response. 

He wrapped himself around you, his arms pulling you into his chest and his hand cupping your face.  He was fully inside you, his tip kissing your sweet spot and pulsating inside you.  He didn’t move for what seemed like forever, his lips nipping at your neck while you both settled into the feeling around you.  Jayson liked being inside you, he liked the warmth and the silky feeling of your walls.  It was comforting, just as much as it was arousing and torturous.  

“Jay baby,” you croaked out, your head lulling back to rest on him, “move, please.  Fuck me, please.  I need you to fuck my shit up.”

He groaned in your ear and slowly moved his hips back.  When he pushed back into you, you let out a mix of a squeal and a moan.  The second time he drew back, he did it with a little more rhythm and didn’t fuck back into you the whole way.  Instead, he moved how he was holding you, with one of his hands dropping to between your thighs.  The other loosely wrapped around your throat and keep you close to him.  After that, he had no sense of control over himself.  All he could think about was chasing the release he so desperately wanted. 

Soon enough, the sounds of r&b were accompanied by yours and Jayson’s moans and groans and incoherent words and expletives.  He was deep within you, toying with your clit and dragging over your g-spot each time he pulled in and out of you.  You grabbed at his arms that were wrapped securely around you just so you could touch him, suddenly needing to feel even more of him as he fucked you. 

“Lemme see you,” you croaked out in between moans.  You were in no state to consider actions and it seemed Jayson just went off of instinct.  He scooped you up, his dick still buried in your pussy, and turned you around in his arms.  He slipped out for a few moments when you wrapped your legs around him but you reached between you and reconnected you.  

Holding you in a different position, Jayson started to let you fuck into him.  His strong arms moved your body against his pelvis while you messily kissed one another.  

“Just like that, fuck,” you exclaimed as he caught one tit in his mouth.  Your arms wrapped around his head and you started to let yourself go.  Your hands clawed at his back and your eyes squeezed shut as your pussy contracted around him.

“Look at me,” his voice ordered over the music, “look at me while you cum all over my fucking dick.”

You forced yourself to do as he said.  In the name of perfect timing, the second you made eye contact with him was the moment your release overtook you.  “Oh my God,” you gasped, your hand cupping his face, “I can feel you in my stomach.”

Unable to stop himself, Jayson pushed you down on top of his cock as he exploded inside you.  You watched as he tried his best to keep his eyes on you, his face scrunched up in pleasure and relief.  When his shoulders relaxed, you pulled yourself up a little and joined your lips to his.  

“Just for the record,” you began in between kisses, “this does not count as resting or relaxing.”

Jayson laughter filled the air and he raised his hand to get caught in your hair.  He kissed you deeply, lowering you to be on your feet again as he did so.  

“It’s a little like relaxing,” he said, cupping your face in his hands.  His thumb caressed your swollen bottom lip and he grinned, “I’m relaxed.”

Just as you were about to respond, the once hot stream of water turned ice cold.  You both yelped, rushing to get away from the freezing stream.  The floors being tiled and your legs both being rather weak made it so you both almost slipped, grabbing at the sheet of glass to steady yourselves and you erupted into laughter.  

“How the fuck did we run out of hot water?” Jayson exclaimed as he blindly reached into the shower to turn the mixer off.  The fog was growing thicker with the presence of cold air.  It was making everything feel a lot more difficult and dramatic than it needed to be.  

“We were a while,” you answered him, hands out feeling around for the towel rail, “why the fuck did you lower the lights, Tatum?”

Wrapped in robes and laughing about nothing in particular, you both feel into bed.  Jayson pulled you on top of him in a matter of moments and you rested your head on his chest, pulling the robe open.  You watched as his chest rose and fell and listened to his heart beat.  You scattered kisses over top of it before resting your chin on your hands and looking up at him. 

“So, about those tattoos…”

[cowboyb1ues]

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my sweet, beautiful and sexy tumblrinas out there!! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a longer fic so I’m very sorry if it isn’t as good as some of my other writing but I want to get back into the swing of it, so I hope that it’s sufficient!

Also, the ending is shit, you have been warned.

A fic about Mason trying to be romantic and surprise his girlfriend for the day of Love.

Mason Mount x fem!reader (2.8k) 

My masterlist :)

The February air pricked at your skin as you walked down the familiar street, the wind breezing past you and dancing with your hair on the way. The late afternoon hour was reflected in the rapidly darkening sky and the light from the street lamps keeping you company.

You had your face buried in the thick material of your scarf, hoping to preserve some of the heat that had filled your body after having spent the entire day at the university library. Despite your efforts you could feel your nose and the tips of your ears had long since turned a shade of red that could compete with Rudolph.

Your hands were buried deep in the pockets of your coat and you cursed yourself for forgetting your beanie and gloves before leaving in your haste that morning. The comforting sound of your playlist playing through your earphones did little to none to distract you from the frost bite you were sure was forming on your toes through your boots, even with two pairs of socks covering your feet.

The textbooks and the laptop in your bag slammed against you as you hurried down the street. Your bag was digging into your shoulder and you wanted nothing more than for your boyfriend to be available for the evening, in hopes he could help you get some of the tension out of your shoulder.

However, you knew you would be greeted by an empty apartment and your boyfriend would be nowhere near in sight. 

Mason had texted you earlier in the day and had delivered the unfortunate news that he was caught up with some training and a recovery session that evening. The message had come through while you were buried deep in a textbook, so with a defeated sigh you had to reluctantly toss the idea of spending time with your boyfriend in the trash.

It wasn’t that you had a lot planned, but you hadn’t had the time to see each other a lot lately, with university starting again after Christmas and Mason going back to training and playing games regularly. But you had hoped that he would have managed to sneak home so you could have had dinner together while swapping gifts.

But that simply wasn’t the case.

So instead of spending your first Valentine’s Day together as a couple you had instead spent it in the library working on essay after essay while Mason was stuck at Cobham all day.

You sighed to yourself and thought that maybe if you were lucky he would have forgotten one of his hoodies at your place when he left before you woke up that morning, so you wouldn’t be completely without him.

You fished your keys out of your pocket as you neared your apartment and pushed the door to the building up, savouring the feeling of heat that washed over your cold body.

You stopped at your mailbox and looked through the bills that had been thrown in there by the mailman, but you felt a smile creep up on your lips when you saw your best friend had sent you a card, wishing you a happy Valentine’s.

You kept the smile on your face as you trudged up the several flights of stairs until you finally got to your landing.

You put the key in the lock and turned it. You had opened the door just a few centimetres before you heard a familiar yell at you through the small opening.

“No!”

You furrowed your brows and tried to open the door further, but was stopped when a heavy body pressed against the other side.

You tried to peek in through the small gap and you felt your eyes widen when an eye looked back at you, the familiar shade of honey brown slowing your racing heart.

“What are you doing here?” He asked before you had the chance to speak, his entire body filling up the gap while simultaneously putting all of its weight in the wood so you wouldn’t be able to open it further.

“I live here,” you simply replied and tried to push the door again, despite knowing that it would be a useless attempt.

“But you said that you were gonna be home at seven,” he said through the door. He had tilted his head just the slightest so that you could now only see his nose, mouth and chin.

You furrowed your brows and reached for your phone to see it was half past six, thirty minutes early apparently.

“I finished my essay early,” you shrugged your shoulders despite the fact that he almost couldn’t see you and stuffed your phone back in your pockets.

You saw rather than heard him let out a small huff and you couldn’t help the small laugh that slipped past your lips at the pout that was forming on his face.

Before he had the chance to do anything else, you leaned further into the open space where his mouth was visible and carefully and calculated pressed a small kiss, only the slightest of touch, to his pouting lips. Through the delicate press of lips you could feel a small smile form on his lips.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” you whispered against his lips, your hands leaning against the front of the door and the wooden doorframe.

Mason was swift in opening the door so he could step out onto the landing and closed the door so you wouldn’t be able to see whatever he had been doing inside of your apartment.

He stepped in front of you, his longer hair falling over his forehead and the stubble that was growing out again ever so slowly decorating his soft cheeks.

He was wearing an old battered Nike hoodie and a pair of jeans, with his white socks peeking out from underneath.

He gave you a small smile, which you were quick to return and cupped your face between his large hands. He leaned in, his nose bumping against yours in a way that made your heart flutter like a hummingbird.

“Happy Valentine’s Day baby,” he whispered before leaning in to give you a kiss, this one a little deeper than the one you offered him through the crack of the door.

You pulled away from the kiss ever so slightly, the lingering feeling of his winter chapped lips still clear on your own. Your eyes remained closed as you bumped your nose against his once again, your cheek nuzzling into his warm hand.

“I thought you were gonna be at Cobham all evening,” you mumbled into the miniscule space left between you, your lips brushing his as the words left your mouth.

One of his hands left your cheek and travelled to the back of your head so he could tangle his long fingers in your windswept hair. His other slithered down to wrap itself around your coat covered waist as he pulled you in for a hug. “Can a guy not surprise his girlfriend anymore?”

You let out a small laugh, your red nose bumping his cheekbone as he swayed you slightly from side to side in the middle of the landing.

“He can,” you started and lifted one of your hands to scratch the hairs in the nape of his neck. “But the girlfriend tends to get confused when he refuses to let her into her own apartment.”

He chuckled against you and squeezed you tighter through your many layers.

“You’re freezing,” he mumbled against the soft skin of your cheek before pressing a kiss to the place his lips lingered. He managed to sneak his hand around your waist under your coat and jumper, so his warm palm rubbed against the bare skin of your freezing skin.

“It was a long walk,” you hummed, leaning all of your weight on him, the fatigue of sitting in the library and walking thirty minutes in the cold suddenly hitting you like a ton of bricks.

He tilted his head so he could look into your eyes, the golden specks in pools of brown bringing you nothing but comfort as he pressed a final kiss to the tip of your frozen nose.

“I’m not quite done so you have to wait in your room,” he said, the dimple in his cheek making a sneaky appearance.

“Done with what?” you furrow your brows, trying to glance over his shoulder when he cracks the door open.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” he shrugged his shoulders before quickly stepping behind you so his hands could cover your eyes.

“Is this really necessary?” you asked, a sigh leaving your lips as you lifted your hands in front of you to try to navigate your way through your front door and into the small small space you called a hallway.

“Deadly,” he said into the back of your head, taking slow steps behind you as he followed your careful movements.

You heard him kick the door shut when you finally stepped into your apartment, the smell of home cooking wafting through the air, the sounds of something simmering on the stove caught your attention over the low sound of one of Mason’s playlists coming through your small speaker on the windowsill in your kitchen.

“Smells nice,” you hummed, arms still ahead of you as you tried to blindly make your way to your bedroom.

“Thanks,” he murmured, paying attention only to making sure you didn’t accidently bump into anything on the way.

“Are we here?” you asked, feeling a door in front of you touch the tips of your fingers.

“Yep,” he said, covering your eyes messily with one hand while reaching around you to open the door so you could shuffle inside.

He gave you a gentle push into the room, and after you had blinked a couple of times your eyes landed on him and his smirking face peeked from around the door, just like he had done five minutes prior.

“I’ll call you when everything’s ready,” he said before turning his lips into a pucker, his eyes filled with romance and mischief.

You leaned against the door as well and gave him a brief kiss before you started shedding your coat and scarf.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” you asked with your eyes focused on taking all of your things out of your bag and sat it on your desk.

You turned around with your book in hand to see him still looking at you, his head leaning against the doorframe and a slight flush to his cheeks.

His eyes had the slightest crinkles around them and you wanted nothing more than let your fingers run over them, longing to feel his happiness under your fingertips. In the warm yellow light of the lamp hanging from the ceiling in your room casted shadows over his face, the light making his red cheeks even more kissable than usual.

“I’m sure, love,” he said with a small wink before closing the bedroom door before you had the chance to say anything else.

You let out a huff and started to sort through the textbooks you had brought with you to the library. As you tucked one away that you hadn’t actually used, you noticed a small piece of paper peeking out from the side.

You opened the book and took out the little folded note and smiled when you read your name in Mason’s handwriting accompanied by a messy heart.

You opened the note just as you heard something fall to the floor out in the kitchen.

“What was that?” you called out to him, your eyebrows furrowed as you tried to place the loud noise.

“Nothing!” he called back, his voice muffled through the wooden door.

You shook your head and tucked some of your hair behind your ear before turning back to the note in your hand. You opened it and felt your cheeks flush red at the sweet message written inside.

Happy Valentine’s Day my love! You’re sleeping right now and are looking really pretty and it’s making me not want to leave for training. I love you more than you will ever know. Yours always, Mason x

You felt a small smile paint itself on your lips, your heart swelling and almost spilling over with all the love you had for the man trying to cook you dinner in your small kitchen.

You sat down at your desk and pulled out the small tin box where you kept all of the other love notes Mason had given you over the year you had been dating. The small pieces of paper flickered through your fingers as you shuffled through them, some brief and sweet others longer and heartfelt. One of them was just a post it note he had left on your bathroom mirror with your initials together in an arrow heart.

You sat rummaging through with no feeling of the time flying by you as you sat there, until you had a small knock coming from the door.

“Dinner’s ready,” he smiled sweetly, but his eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the warm glow of the light being reflected in the wall of unshed tears in your beautiful eyes. “What’s wrong?” he was quick to ask, swiftly making his way through the room so he could crouch down in front of you, his hands rubbing over your jeans covered knees.

“Nothing,” you blabbered, using one of your hands to wipe away a stray tear before taking his newest love note in your hand and showing it to him. “I just love you a lot.”

His eyes landed on the small piece of paper and he shook his head and chuckled.

“Silly girl,” he said with a smile before pressing a kiss to your forehead as he stood up from his squatting position.

He reached his hand out to you to take and he lifted you up from the chair and tugged you into his side with his arm wrapped around your shoulder. He pressed a series of small kisses to your temple as he led you out to the kitchen and the dinner table you had managed to jam into the small space.

You felt your eyes well with tears again when you saw he had set the table with a couple of candles, wine glasses that were already filled and his special pasta dish plated and ready to be tasted.

You turned your eyes to look up at him and gave him a wobbly smile before throwing your arms around his neck and squeezed him as tight as you could.

“You didn’t have to do all of this,” you mumbled into his hoodie, your eyes shut to prevent any more tears from falling. 

His arms wrapped around you and he lifted you just the tiniest bit of the ground as he soaked in all the love you were willing to offer him, his own heart stored with every kiss and laughter you had ever given him.

“I love you,” was simply his reply.

Because he might not have had to cook you dinner, but how could he not? The love for you that was constantly swimming around in his body seemed to overflow and he didn’t know what to do.

He would never be able to tell you just how you made him feel, and he most certainly knew that he would never be able to write you the love letters you deserve. Hell, if he had the penmanship he would write you all the sonnets in the world. 

But until he learned that, he would offer you what he had. He would leave you all the post-it notes that he could, let you take the stupidest pictures of him just to see you smile, cook you dinners which recipes he had gotten from his mother. 

There wasn’t anything in the world that he wouldn’t do for you because he loves you, it’s as simple as that.

When he sets you back down on your feet you give him a kiss. Your hands cupping his stubble covered cheeks while his hands were wrapped around your forearms. Your tongue gently danced with his while you stood on the tippy toes in your mix matched socks.

“Just wait until you see the card I got you,” he mumbled against your pouting lips when he pulled away.

He reluctantly pulled away from your embrace and pulled your chair out for you, gesturing you to sit down and followed you with his eyes as you did so before pressing a kiss to the crown of your head before taking his own seat opposite you.

And the next morning there was a shirtless Mason snoring beside you, his love note stuck to the fridge, a crude valentines card still laying on the dinner table and a warm fuzzy love spilling over with every beat of your love-stocked heart. And you closed your eyes again and smiled when you felt his arm wrap around your waist under the light pink duvet.

[parkers-gal]

simple acts of intimacy that actually mean a lot T.H.

wc: 3.1k (fluff)

taking something out of your pocket

"Tom!" you called for him.

"Hey, babe," he greeted you. You had just gotten back from a shopping spree, and you were holding about seven heavy bags, two drinks in your hand. Harrison and Harry were seated on the couch in front of the two of you, Tuwaine in the kitchen getting more snacks. 

"I didn't bring my purse," you huffed, out of breath from the walk. "Can you check for my phone? My wallet?" 

Tom smiled softly in response, sending you an easy nod. "Of course," he said, moving to the pockets of your jeans. 

He searched the front right pocket first, his fingers strong and warm and lean, and the touch made you giggle. He found your keys in the front right pocket, momentarily holding them up for you to see before moving to the next pocket. He found your phone and wallet pocketed in the back pockets, and then he was by your front again, searching your left pocket. 

"Your chapstick," he held it up, and you giggled again as he opened it and applied it to his own lips and then your own. "They say you get more alike to your significant other, y'know," he smirked, and you laughed again with a nod. 

knowing just how to calm you down

It was a dangerous scenario to be in in the first place, though it wasn't your's nor Tom's fault. After dealing with a rather rude man from the front desk, you were rushing out of the building, Tom barely trailing after you. Just as you were making it to the car, he rushed ahead of you, halting you.

"Hey- hey, hey, hey," he said, hands gesturing for you to slow. There were frustrated tears in your eyes, threatening to spill if any one move prompted them. You'd hope Tom could be the dam to keep them up. "It's alright," he assured you. 

"No, its-! It's not!" You exclaimed, breaking your silence. "N-now I have find another way to do it and I can't t-" 

"Love," he cut you off, hand caressing your arm, moving you into his embrace slightly. "He's an asshole- he had no right to tell you those things, okay? We're gonna find another way, but later, okay? Listen to me, listen to my voice," he whispered. "And look at my eyes," he moved your chin, engaging eye contact. "We're going to be alright." 

A smile broke out onto your face for the first time, and you nodded, fully accepting his hug and hiding in his chest. 

calling to make sure you've eaten

Calling in between takes and scenes wasn't uncommon, and especially calling during lunch. Tom had a tendency to forget to eat or take breaks; wearing the Spider-man suit was a big contributor to his re-prioritization, his reason for the distractions. Unfortunately, he tended to bring this habit onto the sets of different films. Luckily, you had paid mind to the habit, and made sure to check in on him everyday, especially if you weren't on set all the time. 

"Hi, angel," Tom spoke into the phone after picking it up. 

"Hi, Tommy!" You exclaimed excitedly. "How's filming?"

"Good, tiring. Miss you," he huffed out, still with a smile. 

"Miss you too bubs, tell everyone I say ''hey.'" you replied. "Have you eaten today?"

Tom was nodding off silently to a crew worker who had asked him a quick question. "Hm?" he laughed a light one. "Oh, yes I have. Have you, darling?"

"I have, I have, no worries," you assured him. "Drinking water?"

"Just got a new bottle," Tom smiled. "Alright well," he trailed off disappointingly, "I hate this part but, they're calling me now. I call you when the shoots over. Love you, baby." 

You hummed, "'kay, love you Tommy. And good luck!" You giggled before hanging up.

"Y/N?' Harry asked Tom, looking to the phone. 

"Mhm," Tom smiled. "She says 'hi'." 

wearing/borrowing clothes

"Hey, Y/N, have you seen my-?" Tom stopped short in his tracks, barely through the doorway. He smiled at the sight of you, a pint of ice cream sitting on the table in front of you, an open book in your lap and a spoon in your mouth.

You hummed, "What was that, hun?"

He eyed your figure, clad in his pink sweatshirt, before shaking his head. Upon realizing you weren't looking at him, he breathed out a laugh. "Never mind."

You hummed again, glancing up to him before smiling softly at him. 

**

"Hey, love?" Tom hollered from within the depths of the closet. 

"Yeah?" you shouted back, applying some lip gloss as you looked into the bathroom mirror. 

"Does this work with my outfit?" 

You laughed before walking over to him. You smiled at him: he was holding a baseball cap in one hand, your beanie fitted on his head. Though he loved his buzzcut, he also loved to wear matching hats, though this time you were wearing the sweatshirt. 

"I like the beanie," you agreed. 

He glanced up with a smile, setting the baseball cap down. "Me too." 

zipping up/ unzipping

Tom was waiting in the living room for you. It was almost routine, that whenever the two of you were attending a gala or a premiere together, he'd wait to see your final look, and god he loved the reveal every time. This time, however, was one of the first times you were doing everything on your own, no makeup artists or stylists there to assist you. 

"Tommy?" you yelled softly. 

Tom's head perked up, and he slipped his phone into the pockets of his dress pants before making his way to the closed bedroom door.

"Yes, love?"

You opened the door, stepping towards him slowly. Tom was awestruck, mouth agape and eyes wide. You were absolutely stunning, from every and all angles, and Tom swore his heart leapt into his throat.

"Tom?" you repeated, waving a hand in front of his face. 

It had just occurred to him that you had been talking and he had completely tuned your voice out, too taken up by the sight in front of him. 

"Sorry- what?" he asked, finally looking at you. 

"Can you zip me up?" you asked again, softly. You turned around, gesturing to your zipper. Tom smiled, fingertips softly grazing the lower portion of your back, before softly gripping the zipper. The fingertips of his left hand ran up your spine, his right hand with the zipper following along. He left a small kiss on your shoulder and you went straight back into the bedroom to get the remaining accessories for your outfit. 

putting jewelry on for each other

After you chose a few rings, you walked back over to Tom with a necklace in hand. You placed both ends in his hands with a hopeful smile before spinning around, making sure your hair was not in the way. Tom clipped both ends and let the jewelry dangle off your neck. He left another kiss on your shoulder before you intertwined your hands.

remembering coffee/tea orders verbatim

"Go find us a booth," Tom whispered in your ear, hand on the small of your back as he gave you a nudge, and the two of you separated into two different directions, you towards the seats and him towards the line to the barista. 

"Hi, how're you?" The barista greeted.

Tom returned a smile," I'm good, how're you?" 

"I'm good, what can I get you today?"

"Can I get a hot chamomile tea with some lemon...?"

"Size?"

"Uhm, medium please." 

The barista, Sophia, nodded. "Anything else?" 

"Yeah uhm, a medium honey cream latte? Not too heavy on the creamer?"

"Got it. Will that be all for you today?" 

"Yes I think so," Tom replied, handing her his credit card before moving to the counter to pick up the drinks. 

When he had both, he made his way over to you, who found a booth by a window. 

"Hey, love," Tom trailed excitedly, placing the mugs down softly. "I got your favorite." 

"Light on the cream?" 

Tom sat down across from you. "Light on the cream," he repeated with a smile.

dancing in the kitchen

A quick trip to the kitchen for some toast had started a mini concert by the sink and in front of the dishes. Tom was clad in a pair of sweats, white socks helping him slide on the cool tiled floor, his pink hoodie fresh on his torso. 

The speakers were playing a playlist of his favorites, which also consisted of your favorites, because you had introduced him to several new artists and genres. Song after song came on, distracting him from the opening and closing of the front door. 

Hearing the commotion from the cooking room, you left your bags by the door, going upstairs to change into some comfy clothes and finding your boyfriend rocking out to some of Taylor Swift's Lover. 

You giggled from the doorway, and he spun around to look at you, lowering the large metal spoon away from his mouth. 

"Hi," you laughed again. 

"Hi," he panted. 

"What," you took a sip of water. "are you doing?" 

"Dancing in the kitchen, obviously."

You nodded, drinking your water again with a smile. 

"Care to join me?"

You set the cup down with raised eyebrows. "Thomas..." 

Mariah Carey started ringing through the speakers, and the spoon went back up to his mouth as he started singing his heart out. 

"C'mon, Y/N...." he smirked. "You know you want to," he held his hand out. 

You rolled your eyes playfully before extending your arm, accepting his hand. "Fine.."

Tom grinned in victory, singing louder again, and you joined him, twirling him around as he did the same for you, toast long forgotten in the toaster oven. 

knowing what food you're craving based on your attitude

"I'm bored," you whined to Tom, who was sitting next to you on the couch, looking at his phone. 

He chuckled quietly as he clicked the device off. "Yeah, whaddya want to do?"

"Cuddle. I'm cold." 

He grinned again, turning to you, caressing the skin of your ankle, which was splayed across his lap. 

"Are you hungry, my cuddle bug?" he asked after pulling you into his chest, arms circling around you. 

"Mhm," you nodded, fiddling with his fingers. "How'd you know?" 

He grinned again, his face out of sight for you. "What if we eat... pho?"

You gasped, louder for dramatics, hand slamming down on his, halting your movements. "Thomas Stanley Holland how did you fucking know?" you whined, feet kicking lightly. 

He chuckled again, kissing the back of your ear before opening the Ubereats app on his phone. 

offering to drive instead

The gala was coming to a close, and you and Tom had both taken the clue to get ready to leave, heading out to the parking lot after saying your goodbyes to the present participants. 

Rounding the car, you pulled the key out of your hand-purse, unlocking the car. Your hand was still intertwined with Tom's, about to separate to get into your respective seats, when he spoke. 

"Do you want me to drive instead, love?" 

You glanced to his eyes with a thankful nod. "Will you?" you asked, reaching to give him the key. 

"Of course," he smiled, moving to the other side of the car, giving your temple a kiss as he rubbed your arm, taking the key from you and closing your car door after you had been seated.

remembering confessions from late nights or simple words that are forgotten by most

"Hey did you book the flights for next month?" You asked Tom, sitting across from him at the dining table, planner in front of you, a pen and your phone in each of your hands. 

"Just up till the nineteenth," he replied, thumbs moving across the keyboard of his cell phone. 

"Got it." 

"Oh also," Tom looked up from his phone, forearms leaning on the edge of the table as he looked at you, focused on writing more details into that little book you loved so much. "I booked us a round trip to Mae Raem. I talked to Harry and I managed to get a week off from work, in between films I think."

Your eyes were fixed on the boy sitting across from you, hands frozen in their places. 

"You what? "

"I booked us a flight To Mae-" 

"I heard that part!" You exclaimed with a laugh. "Why the fuck are we going to Thailand?!"

"Well I just-" he looked off to different parts of the room, the tips of his ears turning scarlet as his cheeks heated up. "I remember you saying you wanted to go to this little place in Thailand and I just- I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. I was just waiting until I had free time in my schedule." 

"Tom you moved film times for this trip!" You laughed. "Why- how did you even remember that? It was like three A.M. when we were talking about those crazy dreams and shit," you laughed. 

"I don't know," he put his phone down, fiddling with his fingers and knuckles. "You just sounded so passionate about it- I just remembered the sound of your voice, I guess. It seems like fun." 

You clicked your pen, putting it down, and closing the planner. "Yeah, yeah it does."

remembering to buy something you'd forgotten to (grocery shopping) 

"Oh fuck, I'm out of jaffa cakes," you huffed, closing a cupboard door. 

"Let's go to the market then," Tom said, finishing his cup of tea.

**

A shower and a car drive later, the two of you were walking into the supermarket, Tom leaning on the cart as he followed you. You spotted the chip aisle, and headed straight for it. Tom chuckled at your behavior, suspecting that perhaps you were stocking up on your cravings-foods, knowing your period was coming too. 

Aisle after aisle the two of you went before grabbing a few boxes of brownie mix. You saw the aisle with cereal, and left Tom on his own. He chuckled, moving over the next aisle. 

"I think I'm done," you huffed, placing your last items in the cart. Tom nodded, putting a bag of apples into the cart before moving into a line for the cash register. 

"Wait lets do the self checkout thing." 

"Really?" Tom laughed at your suggestion before reluctantly agreeing, heading into the direction. He was scanning while you were bagging, the two of you moving like clockwork. 

Tom paid the receipt before stopping abruptly. "Wait fuck, I forgot something." 

"What?" you asked. 

"Nothing, I'll meet you at the car." 

"'Kay," you replied, rolling the cart out of the shop. Tom went off to find your favorite jaffa cakes, buying some extra danishes as well. When he paid, he added the items to the bags in the trunk before joining you in the front seat. 

"Ready?" He asked, turning the engine on. You hummed a confirmation, and Tom changed the car's shift, driving home. 

After the two of you brought the bags into the kitchen (in one trip, because two trips are for loser), you began unloading the items into their spots in the kitchen. 

"Wait," you groaned after opening the cupboard. "I forgot the fucking jaffa cakes!" 

"Ah ah," Tom spoke, pulling the sweet out of a bag he'd just unloaded. 

You gasped, jaw slightly ajar as you reached for the food. "Oh. My. God," you looked at the wrapping. "I fucking love you." 

Tom laughed, "Well," he was moving forward, his face two inches from yours, "it's a good thing I fucking love you too." 

and finally, showering together

"Tommy! I missed you," You greeted him, rushing to your boyfriend, jumping into his embrace just as he closed the front door. 

He groaned with a laugh, arms on your waist. "I missed you too, angel."

"Are you sore? Tired?" 

He chuckled again, "mhm." 

"Let's go get you cleaned up and we can go to bed then," you smiled at him, fingers running over the hair of his brows, trying to smooth out the stray one. 

"Sounds like a plan, darling." 

Making your way up the stairs, you ridded Tom of his coat. You went into the bathroom to turn on the shower, hoping to get the water warm, before pulling him into the bathroom with you. 

"We can do face masks or we can fall asleep watching movies." 

He booped your nose before answering. "Let's do the face masks tomorrow."

"'kay, arms up now, mister," you ordered him playfully, and he rolled his eyes before complying. 

"My limbs still work, yanno-" 

"Sure mister I-love-being-babied." 

"I do not!" he denied, cheeks reddening. 

"You secretly love it," you kissed his nose after removing his shirt, hands splaying across his bare chest and abs. He visibly shivered at your touch, and you smirked. 

"Now get in the shower, you big doof," you playfully pushed him in the direction of the shower before stepping out of the bathroom. 

Tom, unknowing of your full plans, hopped into the shower, letting the heated water cascade down his skin and drench his hair. As he was about to reach for the bottle of shampoo, you opened the shower door, your bare skin coming into view as you joined Tom in the shower. 

His eyebrows shot up, movements stopped. 

"Uh-" 

"Hi," you said with a giggle. "Let me," you took the shampoo from his hand, squirting some into your hand before rubbing it onto the top of his head, fingers running through his unruly curls as he hummed contently at the feeling, always loving when you did anything to his hair. 

"Rinse now," you said, moving to clean the strands out, ridding them of the suds. You repeated the process with conditioner (your conditioner, because though Tom would deny it, he secretly loved it, and cheered internally when you picked it up instead of his own) before reaching for the body-wash. 

"Uh-uh, let me do this one," he took the bottle from your hands, starting to clean himself. 

You laughed at his attempts before snatching the bottle from him. "You can't even reach this part of your back!" 

"I'm a gymnast! I'm flexible enough to reach that!" he breathed out a laugh. 

You giggled, shaking your head and letting your fingers caress his shoulder blades, his lower back as well as his ribs. You spun him around so you could continue on his chest as well, and his eyes were closed in bliss. When you finished, you walked him backwards under the streaming water of the shower head, arms wrapping around his lower stomach, hugging him, chin resting on his chest as he looked down at you. 

"Thank you for this, love." 

"Anything for you Tommy." 

He kissed the tip of your nose and smiled. 

[helliontherapscallion]

Magnum Opus (Adrenaline Junkie Part 7)

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5     Part 6     Part 8     Part 9     Part 10     Part 11     Part 12     Part 13     Part 14     Part 15     Part 16     Part 17

Spotify Playlist (collaborative)

Warnings: swearing

Word count: 2,451

(A/N): our dear little (y/n) needed a break from the angst, so I gave them one : )

You were finally done with the prototype for your prosthetic. It took blood, sweat, and tears and hours upon hours to get the measurements precisely right, but you were finally done. You were one step closer to freedom and you were ecstatic. You were practically vibrating with excitement.

Sprinting up the stairs with your pride and joy closed and wrapped in a sheet, you made a beeline for the front door passing Philza in the process. You heard him ask you something, but you were already darting past him through the door and outside. Before long, you were at the top of the cliff you designated as your test site. 

The cliff was perfect for gliding. It towered over the ground at a perfect height for you to gain air resistance in time and overlooked a vast, empty field that stretched as far as the eye could see. A few herds of chickens and cows were scattered here and there, but if you were careful you could probably steer away. Probably. If you hit a cow, it wouldn’t hurt that much, right? 

Sliding on the prosthetic was a little bit of a struggle. You had to awkwardly twist your body around and uncomfortably reach for your upper back to fasten the leather belts securely around your nub, but you would get faster at it once you put it on more. Smiling in satisfaction when it was on, you tested out the abduction and adduction capabilities of the iron joints by pulling on the string you attached to the ends of each joint. The wing opened and closed with ease.

Now, the only thing you had to test out was if it worked or not. You backed up to the point of the cliff where it started to slope down and took a few deep breaths. Here goes nothing.

You broke into a sprint towards the edge of the cliff. The precipice was coming nearer and nearer, there’s no backing out now, you had to follow through if you wanted a successful flight. If you killed yourself in the name of innovation, then so be it. 

When you bunched up the muscles in your legs to jump out as far as you could, you pulled the rope that extends your wing and firmly pulled it taut. You wobbled in the air slightly before you stabilized yourself. The air was flowing freely past you as you glide through the warm summer air. 

You started to laugh loudly in triumph as you soared through the air. For the first time in almost one and a half years, you felt truly free. You felt infinite even like nothing could drag you down. Time around you seemed to slow down as you relished the feeling of freedom and being emancipated from your life on the ground. The warm air rustling through the base of your feathers on your left wing felt like heaven. 

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. You were getting closer and closer to the ground, so you had to land. You extended your legs under you and your feet made contact with the grass below you. Your momentum made you take a few swift steps forward, but overall, you landed safely. 

Cackling, you jumped up and down in place and repeatedly punched the air. Your wing fluttered happily rustling the strands of grass around you with strong gusts of air.

“YES YES YES YES I FUCKING DID IT!”

“I’M BRILLIANT!”

“HOLY SHIT!”

The nearby herds of animals scurried away from you, their peaceful grazing interrupted by your excited shouting. Normally you would’ve felt bad for them, but you didn’t care; your invention worked! You had to show your family, they had to see this.

Philza was startled by the front door bursting open and banging against the wall. Your loud voice booming through the silence of the house. There goes his quiet day.

“DAADDDDD, WILBUR, TECHNO, TOMMY COME HERE I FUCKING DID IT! I! FUCKING! FIGURED! IT! OUUUUTTTT!”

You heard footsteps running towards you as Philza ran down the hallways and into your field of vision. His startled wide eyes scanned your form. Your face was split in a wide grin and your eyes were impossibly wide as they regarded him. Your entire body was practically vibrating like you were barely keeping your excitement and elation at bay. Your wing was flittering rapidly behind you.

But what caught his eye was the leather attached to your back where your other wing was supposed to be. It was the exact same size as your left wing.

“I-Is that…?”

You giggled uncontrollably in glee. “Yes! Oh, I need to show you how it works!”

You grabbed his hand and drug him to the couch with a surprising amount of strength. Plopping him down, you began spewing and gesturing wildly towards your newest invention.

“Ok ok ok, so this is just a prototype of course, but I was inspired by a bat’s wings with the leather and the general structure. I made the joints and the structural support rods out of thin iron so that it doesn’t weigh it down or make any drag. I can open and close it with this,” you pulled the rope and the wing opened, “and I have a hole for my wing to go into and it’s secured by belts and it even lets me glide and ohmygoddadisntitamazing?”

Philza looked at you with disbelief as you rattled on about how your invention works. How exactly did you make this without him noticing that you were making it? Where did you learn how to work with leather? When you were done, he looked at you with a smile.

“It’s fantastic hun. But how do you know that it lets you glide?”

You paused and gave him a sheepish smile. “About that… I may have, kinda… sorta, jumpedoffacliff.”

“You what? Do you understand how dangerous that was?”

You felt a burning anger flare up from deep inside of you. You just found out that you could somewhat fly again and he has the audacity to not care. “Yes, but how was I supposed to know if it worked or not? It’s not like I have anyone with the same sized wing as I do. The measurements had to be exact. One wrong measurement would make you crash! But that’s not the important part, I can fly again! Don’t you care about that?”

His eyes softened. “Of course I do, (y/n). It’s amazing that you can fly again but I’m just worried about how you tested it out. What if it didn’t work? You could’ve died again, (y/n).”

You felt your eye twitch. “Dad, life is all about risk. If you don’t take a risk every now and then, you’re just… standing still! What kind of life is that?”

He held your heated glare with sad, desperate eyes. “I… I just can’t lose you again, (y/n). Promise me that I won’t lose you again. That you won’t do reckless things like this anymore.”

Oh.

You let your stance relax and your left wing tucked itself back in. Walking over to him, you sat next to him, wrapping your left wing around him in an awkward kind of side hug. Fiddling with your thumbs, you replied softly. “You aren’t going to lose me again anytime soon, that I can promise you, but I can’t promise that I won’t do reckless things. Like I said, life is all about risks. You have to take them if you wanna move on. I wanna move on with my life, I’m sick of being stuck in one place.”

He rubbed at his eyes tiredly as he sighed. There was no convincing you when you were like this. He’s learned that trying to steer you in another direction is like Sisyphus finally reaching the top of the mountain only to have the massive stone roll back down again. Getting you to agree was something that went against your motives just wasn’t going to happen. 

“...Do you want to move out?”

“What? Nonononono, I don’t want to move out yet. I just meant that I was tired of not moving on with life after that thing took my wing.”

He gave a watery chuckle. “Good, I wouldn’t have anybody to make me breakfast in the mornings or split wood with me if you moved out.” 

He twisted his upper body towards you and pulled you into a warm hug. “I’m not leaving anytime soon. You don’t need to worry about me anymore.”

You two stayed like that for a while before he pulled back and gestured for you to turn around. You obliged and he got a closer look at your prosthetic, opening and closing it with the rope.

“...This is just a prototype. I’m still trying to figure out a way to automatically move the wing without having to pull the rope.”

He hummed in thought. “Have you thought about using redstone?”

“Yeah, but everything’s just too… bulky. I might have to make a tiny sensor so that it receives impulses from my muscles and moves when I want it to. That’s gonna take me a long time.”

“I’m sure that you’ll figure it out soon, you’re creative. Probably the most innovative of your generation… I’m proud of you, ya know. You’ve grown up and overcome so much in such a short amount of time.” He said genuinely.

You felt your face heat up and a small smile shaped your lips. You loved it when people praised you for your achievements, especially your dad. It warmed your heart to hear that he’s still proud of you, even if you’re almost an adult now. 

He clapped a hand on your shoulder and started to walk to the door.

“...Where are you going?”

He looked over his shoulder with a smirk. “We are gonna go find your brothers so we can show them how amazing you are.”

Your eyes lit up and your previous excitement returned tenfold. Laughing boisterously, you grabbed his hand and started sprinting, dragging him behind you. He laughed with you as he kept up with you with ease. 

You two ran until you hit the forest where Tommy was with Tubbo at the goat hybrid’s bee farm. They looked at you with alarm as you both almost crashed into one of the hives. Bees buzzed around peacefully, completely contradicting the energy you and Philza had. 

“Tommy, Tubbo, you have to follow us!”

They glanced at each other. “Why-”

You shushed them. “No questions! I have something to show you!”

You turned on your heel and started to sprint towards the woods where you can hear the soft strumming of a guitar. 

“WIILLBURRRRR”

His head poked out from behind a large tree trunk. “What could you possibly want? I’m practicing.”

“No time to explain, follow me.”

You once again ran away towards the shooting range Techno was in. Currently, he was working on his aim with a crossbow. 

“Techno!”

He jumped and accidentally pressed the trigger, making the arrow completely miss the target by several feet. He lightly glared at you. “(Y/n), don’t do that. I could’ve sho-”

“Sorry Tech, but you’re coming with me. I have something to show you.”

Like you did with Tommy and Wilbur, you darted off without letting him respond. In no time, you and your family reached the cliff. At the top, you turned towards them with a slightly crazed grin and sparkling eyes. They looked extremely confused as to why they were up there.

“I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve brought you here today. Well boys, I present to you,” you paused for dramatic effect, “my magnum opus!”

You yanked the rope and your leather wing extended with a glorious fwoosh. You watched as their jaws dropped and they looked at you with differing expressions. Philza looked at you with beaming pride, Techno and Wilbur looked at you with complete surprise, Tubbo smiled widely at you, and Tommy was speechless.

Grinning wider, you pointed out all the intricacies of your invention. They all listened attentively, absorbing every single detail you explained. They were fascinated with the idea of using prosthetics. 

You smirked. “Now, I’m sure you all would like a live demonstration. Step aside.”

You turned around and started walking towards where you started your take off earlier. You steeled your nerves and broke into a sprint. Once again jumping off the cliff and pulling your wing open, you heard your family gasp as you wobbled in the air slightly before you steadied yourself and began gliding. Their horrified gasps and shouts quickly turned into cheering as you glided away from them. 

As you were midair, you heard the flutter of feathers behind you as Philza appeared in your peripheral vision. He was grinning widely at you as his giant wings flapped to keep him next to you. You grinned back and in that moment, everything felt right. You would always have your family to support you.

You landed safely on the ground with a few steps and Philza followed suit, pulling you into a soft winged hug. You squeezed him back with vigor.

“(Y/n),” he whispered. “I am so, so proud of you, my little inventor.”

You felt tears sting your eyes as you hugged him tighter. You could hear your brothers and Tubbo (whom you considered your pseudo brother at this point with how often he hangs around the house) running towards you two. It would be a minute or two until they reached you. Until then, you just wanted to stay in your dad’s loving embrace. 

“OI DAD DON’T HOG THEM!”

You were ripped away from Philza’s comforting embrace and pulled into Tommy’s chest. He squeezed you in a bone crushing hug and started to spin you around.

“(Y/N) THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL! THE WAY YOU FLEW WITHOUT BOTH WINGS HOLY SHIT THAT WAS POG!”

He let you go and you were given a congratulatory pat on the back and wide smile from Tubbo, who wasn’t quite accustomed to you yet. Techno smiled at you with pride and rustled your hair and Wilbur swung his arm around your shoulders, leading you back towards the house. “Well, I say this calls for a celebration.”

The feathers on your wing fluffed up proudly at the praise. “I’m down, but first could one of you help me take this off? It hurts after a while of wearing it.”

The rest of the night was illuminated with laughter and joy, the house booming with life. This was another moment where you felt infinite in the universe, surrounded by the people you hold dearest.

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@bongwaterflavoredgatorade  @kakamiissad  @jayistrash4  @lifestylesleep  @speedymaximoff  @sun-shark-tooth  @appetiteofapeoplepleaser  @lestrangenymph  @kinismanditory  @dragons-lurk-here  @rinzyx05  @the-wandering-pan-ace  @sparkling-gayyyy  @angelic-scent  @shinipii  @dont-hug-me-im-a-fander  @izzydimensional  @used-avocado

[babytaes]

The Kickback

summary: What happens when your long-life crush's secret is discovered? In hopes of not wanting him to find out, what do you do... nothing.

pairing: dk x female reader

genre: fluff, slice of life, crack lol.

warnings: profanity

word count: 3k

a/n: today is my birthday and I wanted to share this one that has been in my drafts for so long. this campus life is stressful but I’m finding time to upload here and there. I hope you enjoy and have a great day/night. Much love from Babytaes! :) Also I really didn’t read this over sooo... if it doesn’t make sense. Take it up with corporation. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“Dear diary, I saw my crush today. I saw him in the living room after my brother invited him over with another friend. It's not as if I'm scared of him. I've spoken with him numerous times. I mean, I'm almost fluent in his language, lol. Seeing him and hearing his boisterous laugh was still entertaining. I'm wondering if he'll be at the kickback this weekend; if so, maybe I'll have the bravery to approach him. Okay, goodbye journal, love y/n.”

Your life consisted of short, insignificant interactions with him; however, when you had a crush, life was exciting and unpredictable. Since you're so near to him on a daily basis, your crush increased exponentially as you couldn't control your intrusive thoughts.

Yes, you did think of him, probably 25/8. It's not like you didn't know him, but you only knew the head version of him. And we all know they could be two different people. So the only thing left to do is keep it secret.

It's impossible for your secret to come out when you're the only one who knows about it. Right? Unfortunately, this isn't a movie, and your secret was revealed, and the perpetrator was none other than your arch-nemesis, Boo Seungkwan.

Okay, not quite that far, but you and him frequently collided because you and him could never agree on anything. He's just Boo, and he has his own behavior category.

He was the second-to-last person you wanted to find out about, after your crush, of course. From this point on, your life was not going as planned.

Your secret would never be revealed to Lee Seokmin, and you would do anything to protect it.

“What are you doing?” You leapt to your feet as you hurriedly closed your diary, terrified of prying eyes.

You rolled your eyes and stuffed your journal into a drawer with random papers, saying, "Shit, why don't you ever knock."

“Well, this is my shared dorm, and you're basically free living here,” he chuckled. You gave him a sidelong glance.

He was right.

“Is that a way you treat your twin? Is it now.”

He strolled away, completely oblivious to your yelling, and into the kitchen.

“Shut up, and get your ass out here we have to go shopping for the kickback. If you’re not out in 10 I’m leaving your ass.”

Great sibling love, what more could you ask for.  As much as you know that this is the way he expresses his love, you still got up and started getting ready for the day despite his warning.

Amidst your constant disagreements with him, you still loved him. The only problem was that you had to keep your love interest hidden from him. You could see it now and the big brother trying to protect and all that annoying shit.

You were old enough to take care of yourself and you didn’t want unruly men to ruin something that you wanted for so long.

“Coming, if you leave me, I'll tell Mom.” And I think we can all agree that I am the favorite twin.” As he slammed the fridge door shut, you could hear his huge scoffs.

You hurriedly grabbed your purse and beanie as you dashed for the door, laughing at his tantrums. He had a habit of leaving you behind.

We will not speak of March 5, 2017.

“Hey, wait up,” you said as you ran to his car and jumped in before him, grabbing the aux before him.

He started the car and sped out of the dorm parking lot on his way to the store, saying, "You're such a pain in the ass."

“Oh, don't act as if you don't love me.”

“Whoever said I did must have lied to you. Mingyu laughed as he accelerated through Seoul's crowded streets.

The jokes, the laughter, and the love were all part of the experience of living with one of the biggest Kpop groups.

You wouldn’t have it any other way!

While listening to your playlist, the song "Come to You" perfectly complemented the mood.

You smiled as you passed many streets and watched the busy lives of many different people. You could say you had an imaginative mind.

We arrived at the store a long way down the road, grabbed one of the carts, and proceeded to a separate aisle of the store.

Buying stuff was always expensive with a party of 13 and more friends on the way. Almost everything had to be doubled, and the meat had to be tripled. When throwing a party, everyone is required to provide a dish.

You didn't seem to mind; after all, you weren't paying, so you just chilled on the cart while you watched Mingyu placed the goods in neatly.

You told Mingyu to grab a specific chip as you walked to the chip aisle, and he furrowed his brow.

“What are those? I've never seen them before.

"Dokyeom likes them," you blurted out without a second thought. As you mentally processed what you had said, you stared at him with wide eyes.

Shit.

“When they're not there, Dokyeom and Soonyoung get upset.” You shook your head and scooted by him, tossing two bags into the overflowing shopping cart.

“Oh-okay I guess you can get them.”

As you pushed the cart toward the cashier, you mentally slapped yourself in the face. You were certain that you would not crack.

The ride home was silent as the only noise was the continuous taps from Mingyu's fingers on the wheel.

Mingyu called wonwoo on his phone as he drove up to the dorm and asked him to help with the groceries.

As you heard Mingyu pout over the phone, he refused, and not even minutes after, wonwoo is strolling down the driveway on his way to the car.

“You shouldn't even have picked up I know I wouldn't"  Wonwoo pushed your shoulder and chuckled at your humor. “I know”

“Heyyy I'm right here,” Mingyu began to sulk as he observed his sister speaking without him.

You and wonwoo both chuckled as you gathered your belongings and began walking away from Mingyu.

---

The days went by slowly as you reached the door. It was time to leave the house. You grabbed a jacket and purse. Today, the boys went to Hybe for a quick practice session before heading out for the weekend.

Because you are such a good friend and thoughtful person, you decided to buy them a few drinks as a gift. It wasn't anything special, you didn't want to see anyone, noo.

It took some time to order everything, especially with the large number of 13 items. Since you've known each other for most of your lives, the drinks on the list haven't changed. Ice Americanos and Frappes were the most popular drinks.

As soon as you arrived at the Hybe building, you swiftly grabbed the bag containing the drinks and proceeded to their floor. You finally made it to their practice room after thanking the employees for their assistance.

Slowly pushing the door open, you drew the attention of almost everyone as they turned to face you. As a number of them raced over to you and took the beverages from you, smiles crept across their faces.

As they sipped their drinks, the room was filled with thank yous and hellos.

The voice of an angel said, "Thanks again, y/n." He gave you a short smile before returning to his practice. Oblivious to people around you, words spilled out.

“Fuck, he's so attractive.”

“Whose good looking?” As you slowly turned around, you heard a voice speaking to you from behind you.

Fuck

It's Boo Seungkwan. He smiled at you as he grabbed a drink from your hand. He cocked his head as he sipped it, and his eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you said dokyeom is good looking, no fucking way.”

As you coughed to relieve the high tension in the air, you started to mentally sweat.

“That's insane, I said the room was in good condition," you said as you slapped his shoulder and shook your head.

Come on, y/n, that didn't even make sense.

“You know you're not going to fool me, y/n?” Afraid that someone would find out, you dragged him into a back room and locked the door behind him

“Shit..shit..shit. If you tell anyone, I swear I'll -

Laughing, before raising his eyebrows after taking a sip of his americano, he cut you off.

"You're right, this is important information. But you already know that I'll keep my mouth shut about the situation. I don’t even know what we’re talking about right now.”

Seungkwan heard dokyeom announce that practice had resumed as the door opened. Before he left, he smiled at you and waved goodbye.

“Y/n and dokyeom in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. As you were about to leap across the couch to silence him, he jumped up and ran out of the door laughing.

All of a sudden, your mind was filled with confusion and paranoia.

It became increasingly difficult to watch them practice as the session progressed. Your thoughts were not positive, and your attitude was slowly deteriorating.

Imagining the worst-case scenario. You paced in the back room when you heard a knock at the door. As you mentally prepared yourself, it caught you off guard. While walking side by side, Hansol and Seungkwan were whispering.

“Did they know?” You didn’t want anyone to find out so you ran, and didn’t stop running. To avoid society, you hurried out the door after saying a quick goodbye to the boys.

The goodbyes were not even heard as you hurried out of the Hybe parking lot without looking back. In a small group, information spreads quickly. And he was bound to find out.

Flushed and worried, you staggered into the dorm room. You knew your secret was going to get out eventually. In the case where Hansol and Seungkwan knew, Joshua is likely to know.

And since Joshua is close to the older boys, Seungcheol and Jeonghan know. The news would then spread to Hoshi, and then the entire performance team would be in the know.

The only remaining candidates are Mingyu and dk. If Mingyu finds out, it's game over for you at that point.

There was no point of living any more. Having completed a full loop of the house, you had come to your room for the final time. You slowly melted to the ground and fell out.

Dokyeon is more likely to know if Mingyu knows.

"What went wrong?" Unable to control yourself as you rolled around the floor, you erupted into a tantrum.

You sat up and shook your head, "I'll just have to leave the country," you said. "Man, you're so smart. Your plan y/n is fantastic."

You ran to your room, grabbed your suitcase from your closet, and began tossing things into.

No need to pack everything since you were only going to be gone for a year. As soon as your adrenaline slowed down, you began packing.

(A few hours later)

You were relieved when your clothes fit into your luggage when you had finally done packing. You were on your way now, and as long as it wasn't here, everything was good.

“Ah, I figured it out; now let's book it.”

When you approached the door, you unlocked it, and we were greeted with a pleasant surprise.

You walked up to the door and opened it, where you were greeted by Mingyu and his gang. Outside the door, you could see him, hao, dk, and wonwoo. They stared at you as they looked you up and down, perplexed as to why you appeared to be departing.

“Um, what is going on and where are you going?” Mingyu reacted with a rejoinder of his own.

Your throat felt as though it was clogging up, and you began sweating furiously under your armpits. Thank god for hoodies.

“Well, I was simply going to visit a friend's house,” you explained.

You knew he wouldn't believe you; he knew most of your friends, and they didn't live that far away for you to be carrying that much.

“First, that's a lie, and second, I need to speak with you, so your "buddy" will have to wait.” You sighed and closed your eyes.

Your escape had to wait.

Mingyu took your suitcase and slid it near the door, while the other members shuffled awkwardly into the room. While the other lads sat in the living room, Wonwoo went to his room.

“Maybe I could escape now?”

“What did you say y/n?” minghao said as he glanced at you.

You waved your hand in front of them and did a walk of shame to your room as you physically and mentally prepared yourself for whatever Mingyu had to say.

So much for your crush now.

Mingyu sat on the edge of your bed, arms crossed, staring at you.

“Sit down, he patted the bed on your side before lightly coughing.

"Some rumors have been going around, so I wanted to clear the air."

Seeing what he was about to say made your heart race, and you couldn't take it any longer. Does anyone else hear their loud banging, could Mingyu hear it?

You leapt to your feet and shouted at him before apologizing on your knees.

What a sight to see, a grown ass woman on her knees apologizing to her twin brother.

“I apologize; I should have told you first, but I was afraid you'd tell him. That's why I kept it a secret and plus dating a member of seventeen. That's dangerous enough-“.

Mingyu's "WHAT" cut you off.

You came to a halt as he got up, slowly staring up at him.

“Wait, weren't we discussing my crush on Dokyeom or something else?” Worries began to creep in as sweat began to accumulate on your brow.

“What the fuck, you have a crush on do-?” you exclaimed as you jumped to your feet and tackled Mingyu to the ground.

“Don't say it so loudly; he'll hear you.” As Mingyu began to pace around the room, as he pushed you off of him.

You could see his anger as he panicked, and his small rage tantrum was truly uncomfortable because he couldn't communicate his ideas to you because he was afraid of his companions' sensitive ears.

He pointed to the door and said, "Wait, so you do have a crush on him." You sighed, shaking your head.

As he walked away from you, he had another outburst.

Everything is now turning to shit, this was your only chance.

“I have to escape” you said as you dashed out the door and to your suitcase. Mingyu was standing behind you, staring at you in terror.

It wasn't in the plan for you to fall on him, but it was still nice. Focus y/n.

“I’m sorry, dokyeom; it was my fault. I didn't realize you were there. “Are you okay?” As you extended your hand to him, you pushed yourself off of him.

“Yeah, I'm OK, are you okay?” he asked. You've had quite a tumble.”

“Yeah I’m good, I live with a clumsily brother so I’m fine”

“Hey!"

You swiftly let go of each other and placed your hands behind your back as you became embarrassed.

“Hey, Seungcheol texted the group chat and said he wants to go out to eat. He said whoever can come.”

The boys instantly got ready as they wanted to eat, food is a great scapegoat. As you saw them exit the dorm, you took a step back and found your way back to your room.

“Is leaving still an option?” you murmured into your pillows, plopping your exhausted body on your bed and overthinking life.

---

You rolled over and looked at the clock, which reads 9:30 a.m.

You turned over in your bed, unable to yell, and trudged to the bathroom to make yourself presentable.

“What have you gotten yourself into, y/n?” You stripped off your clothing and stepped into the hot water after turning on the shower.

You didn't spend much time in the shower, but today you were engrossed in how your plan had devolved into this ordeal.

Resting your head on the tile as the hot water traced down your back, you contemplated on what the HELL you were going to do.

*BANG BANG*

“Y/n hurry up, we have to prepare.”

Hearing Mingyu's voice drew you back to reality as you turned off the water and got out of the shower, unlocking the door and letting him in.

“Hey, no snarky remark?” he said as he watched you walk to your room with your head down. You ignored him as you closed the door and prepared for the party.

It didn't take long for your calm disposition to be noticed, since you were the outspoken one. Even if you tried to fake it, it didn't work out.

You grinned as you walked through the background of Seungcheol and Jeonghan shared housing, looking at the celebration.

There were groups of people near the pool, at the grill, and even by the chairs, as you could see.

“Hey, bring the food inside; I'll take the meat to cheol,” mingyu said, shaking your head as you picked up the bags and headed to the kitchen, where you recognized some familiar faces.

“Y/nnnnnnnnn, heyyyyy, I’ve missed you.” When you saw her, you put the bags on the counter and hugged her, smiling into her embrace.

“It's great to see you again, yeji; how are you and the rest of the group doing?” Are the others here?” As she led you back outside, she interlaced your hands in hers.

You saw dokyeom and a few other people descend the steps before you left, as he waved and gave you a quick glance.

As you reach for a drink from the cooler, your heart begins to race. Something had to be turned off if you wanted to make it through the night, and this was the only way.

You took a sip and coughed loudly as you followed Yeji to the poolside.

It was going to be a long night for you.

---

As you and a group of individuals began to dance uncontrollably, the effects of the alcohol in your system began to show as you staggered to the grill.

“HeEeeyyYY, Wheeeere d'ya think yeeeeer goin’?” you slurred, jabbing a finger into seungcheol’s back

The other members laughed as they glanced at you, plainly detecting your intoxication.

“I forgot how drunk you can get, so why don't you take a break,” your overprotective brother says, making you scream within.

He always did this.

Gerroff me!” you said. “I’m ash sober ash ’m gonna git. And nuffink I - wait wait wait - nuffink you can do ‘boutit.” As you ambled back to the kitchen without so much as a hiccup in their direction, they laugh.

As you struggled to reach the door, you fell forward and were grabbed by a hand. As he lifted you from your imminent doom, his hold felt warm. With your eyes enlarged, you focused on the individual and stared at his face.

As you grabbed on to him, your words tumbled out of your mouth, “Ohmygoshimsosorry.” He drew you closer to him by taking your hands in his.

Saying your heart was racing was an understatement, it was literally pounding out of your chest. You were hand in hand with your crush, who you believed was exceptionally attractive and talented, and you wished he knew more about your sentiments or could somehow fill them.

But you know no huge idol like him would go for you. Feeling that made you sober up real fast as you felt your arm being pulled upstairs, you had no idea where you were going but it looked like someone's room.

Dokyeom eased open the door as he sat you on the bed and went to get some water from a little fridge. He handed it to you and sat next to you.

“Thanks”

“No problem, also I've been trying to talk to you all night but you appear to be occupied.”

As you took a sip of water, your heart began to beat faster; “waitttt, we donthavetotalk. Let’s dance! As he chuckled at your erratic movements, you began to wander around the room, pulling your hands into yours.

The alcohol was definitely making its way out of your system.

As he spun you around, his body in tune with the music, the bass of the song could still be heard. Even though this felt like a dream you didn’t quite care at the moment. Was it because you'd finally met the boy from your dreams, or was it because he wanted to meet you in person?

Your connection with him got stronger by the second, as did your heartbeat, which began to rise steadily with it. You couldn't keep stalling any longer; you needed to listen to what he was saying.

“I think I'm sober up for now,” you said as you let go of his hand.

Dokyeom chuckled before tossing his head back, “I didn't realize you could move like that” he said as they sat back on the bed, a little closer than before.

“I guess I learnt a few things along the way when you're friends with the best dancers out here.” As you finished your sentence, he peered into your eyes, making no sound as the room fell silent.

“Soo, what did you want to talk about?” you awkwardly state to relieve some tension in the air.

“I don't know how to explain it, but I kind of heard your "secret" as it passed through the practice room, and I simply wanted to be the first one to tell you about it because-

Your heart stopped pounding as your world came crashing down around you. You didn't want to hear it; the rejection; you'd rather live in your fantasy world, where you don't have to worry about anything. It wasn't true if you didn't hear it.

“Wait, if you can't reconcile those feelings, don't say anything; just let me go.” They're probably curious about our whereabouts anyway.” And with that, you stood up and walked towards the door, but you were pulled back by his hand.

He kissed you as swiftly as his hands linked with yours. You were taken aback at first by his passion, but you regained your calm and reminded yourself of what was going on: he was really kissing you, and you were really kissing him, and the rest of the world was inconsequential.

You were chilling on the outside while shouting for joy at the top of your lungs on the inside, as if your inner child had been set free. You had to be sure if this was a dream or if it was happening in real life.

“Ouch”

“Why did you do that?” Dokyeom asked as he gripped your arm in his.

“I had to double-check that I wasn't dreaming; this isn't the first time something like this has happened to me.”

“So you're saying I've been in your dreams?” he laughed as he cocked his head to the side and placed his hand in yours.”

You smacked your forehead and shook your head, realizing you couldn't get out of this one, and now he knew you fantasize about him. You didn't mind because the lad of your dreams was right in front of your eyes.

AND HE WAS HOLDING YOUR MF HAND. It was clear that your diary needed to be updated.

Stopping at the door, you placed your palm on his chest and worriedly stared at him.

“Wait, how did you find out?” 

“Well, a tiny birdie was chattering loudly about it, his name rhymes with coo,” he said as he grabbed your hand in his and opened the door and began the walk downstairs.

“Fucking Boo Seungkwan”

[hopedefined]

the thing I need you to understand about my love for rogue picking up, carrying, and throwing people is that in my head they all react like this:

[anabsolutetrainwreck]

i can hate you sometimes || h. styles

warnings: pre-covid, mentions of sex, swearing, kissing

word count: 2.2k

summary: you and harry have mutual friends, but that doesn’t mean you two are friends. but when harry gets caught in the rain and you’re the closest person he can turn to, it makes for a much more awkward night...

Though you could respect Harry’s artistic abilities when it came to creating music, you could barely tolerate him as a person. Likewise, he wasn’t at all too fond of you. You shared friends in common, which often unfortunately resulted in many a night out with him and your mutual friends.

Yes, Harry was a respectful man. That was perhaps the one thing you could say didn’t irritate you about him. Everything else, the subtle cockiness he played off as jokes; the incessant need to be centre of attention; the bloated ego, which left him thinking he was above everyone else, all of that stuff, you couldn’t stand. But he wasn’t going to stop you from enjoying time with your friends, so you continued to go out drinking with them or go out for big meals with them or on lavish holidays with them. Unfortunately, he had the same mindset. You were both very stubborn.

Going out with your friends when Harry was there seemed like a difficult task at first. But if you sat at the opposite end of the table or stayed fairly distant in a club, the night tended to run smoothly. The one time you’d been left alone was around a year ago when you and Harry had gone out for dinner with Sarah and Mitch. Sarah had gone to the toilet and Mitch had gone to pay the bill. It had been two or three minutes maybe, but it felt like long, excruciating hours. Days, even. You’d distracted yourself by finishing off your wine and trying hard to look anywhere but in Harry’s direction. He’d busied himself with his phone and trying hard to look anywhere but your direction. But, either way, it had been perhaps the most awkward experience of your life.

And now, on a quiet Sunday evening, you found yourself preparing some pasta. Your dog, albeit too big for his own good, was curled up in front of the fireplace. You had your laptop set up on your coffee table, your classical music playlist floating through your house.

It had begun raining heavily about five minutes ago. The droplets were pelting down on your large windows. You had some candles set up and a glass of wine waiting for you on the coffee table in your living room. It was the perfect romantic evening for one.

A knock on your front door took your attention from the boiling water before you. You quickly jogged through to your hallway, opening the door. And, much to your surprise and perhaps disappointment, you were met with the face of Harry Styles. “Can I help you?” you asked, staring at him expectantly.

He sighed, almost embarrassed to ask, but said, “Can I stop at yours until the rain passes?”

You looked him up and down. Stop at yours? Why did that send your stomach into a state of flutters? “Just get an uber,” you said firmly.

He winced, “My phone’s dead. Can you at least let me charge it so I can get an uber?”

You weren’t a fan of Harry (biggest understatement of the year), but that didn’t mean you were an utter asshole. Of course you would let him stop at yours for a little while. Anyone would, right? You sighed, making sure he knew this was a reluctant decision of yours, “Sure.”

He thanked you as he shuffled into your house. He removed his coat and hung it up on your coat rack. Quietly, he followed you into your living room. “Here,” you said curtly, passing him one of your spare chargers.

The entire exchange was even more awkward than last year’s meal with Sarah and Mitch. Benny, your dog, was quite clearly enthralled about the arrival of Harry. He jumped up at the brunette man, his tongue hanging loose. As you tended to your exuberant pasta meal, you could hear Harry petting Benny.

On the few occasions Harry had met Benny, he loved the dog. But, Benny was a dog after all and it was hard to hate a dog. Especially one as lovable and as cuddly as Benny. Harry’s footsteps became louder as he entered the kitchen, Benny, tail wagging, not far behind. It was only when you looked up did you notice Harry carrying your laptop with him. Your first instinct was to tell him to put it the fuck down; it was your laptop - you paid good money for it. But something seemed to stop you from snapping at the man, who was soaked from the rain, in front of you. Usually, you struggled with biting your tongue around Harry. He was just infuriating. “Can I please put something else on?” he asked, gesturing to the screen, which had Spotify open.

You shrugged. You weren’t that bothered if he wasn’t in the mood to listen to your collection of great classical records. It was his loss. Besides, your pasta was nearly finished and then  you’d dish it up and settle down in front of the tv. “Sure.”

There was a moment of silence after he’d paused to whatever piece was playing. “What’s this?” his voice came suddenly.

You knew exactly what he’d found. And you practically kicked yourself for forgetting you had it. It was your playlist, simply titled ‘sex’. A sex playlist. A playlist for sex. “I didn’t take you as the type to have a designated sex playlist,” he said, smirking.

“Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” you grumbled, your cheeks heating up.

“Clearly. Some interesting choices on here, Y/N. Not as many of mine as I thought there’d be,” he said.

There was none. None of Harry’s songs on your sex playlist and, if he was being honest, it kind of irritated him slightly. The thought of you having sex to his voice was an enriching one. But what most definitely pissed him off, was the sight of a couple Liam Payne songs and a few of Zayn’s. “I didn’t think Sign of the Times was right for the occasion,” you shrugged. “Do you want some pasta?”

“If there’s some going,” he said quickly. “I do have other songs you know. Besides, Sign of the Times is a great sex song. Starts off slow, builds to a climax...”

You turned to look at him. Only then did you realise you were actually having this conversation with him. Still, you pressed on. “All songs build to a climax one way or another. It’s called a crescendo.”

“Yeah, I know what it’s fucking called,” he sighed. “I’m the musician here.”

“And yet you can’t appreciate classical music. Anyway, if you’re so convinced you have good sex songs, name a few,” you challenged.

He spoke as he followed you through to the living room. You set his bowl of pasta (you always had a habit of making your portions way too large) down on the coffee table beside the candles and wine. “Okay, Kiwi.”

You hummed in thought, “What if I want something a little slower? Like, Kiwi could totally ruin the mood.”

He shifted in his seat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his phone light up, signalling it had at least a little bit of power. But now he was eating your fresh pasta and discussing sex songs with you, and frankly, he didn’t want to leave. “Woman? You can’t tell me you’ve never had sex with Woman playing,” he said.

“Well, I can. So I will: I’ve never had sex with Woman playing,” you replied; you liked this game.

“Okay, come on. She is the perfect sex song,” he said smugly.

Now this one tripped you up. Because you’d had sex to She before. It had come on when the guy you were sleeping with asked if he could shuffle his playlist. She had come on second, maybe. And those six minutes had been the best of your life. You told yourself it was just the guy you were seeing at the time, and he certainly didn’t mind the compliment. But, in hindsight, you realised it was probably the fact that Harry was singing about living in daydreams in the background. In that moment, the sex hadn’t even been at the forefront of your mind. It was his fucking velvet voice. “I wouldn’t know.”

He smirked, “You’ve had sex to She, haven’t you?”

“No.”

“You have! I knew it.”

“Piss off, Harry.”

You hoped your nonchalant replies would be enough to deter his attention from the subject at hand. But alas, he didn’t seem to pick up on it. That, or he was deliberately ignoring your tone. You were beginning to regret letting Harry into your house. And you weren’t afraid to tell him so. “I wish I’d just left you in the rain.”

He scoffed, “That’s not very nice, Y/N.”

You rolled your eyes at him, making sure he saw. God, you could really hate him sometimes. “Harry, we’re literally discussing my sex life. It’s none of your business. And a bit personal, don’t you think? You don’t even know my surname.”

You got to your feet and made your way through to the kitchen, placing your empty bowl in the sink. You could hear him behind you, you just wanted to turn around and tell him to give you a moment to yourself. He was like a puppy. Before you had the chance to do so, you felt him lean over, placing his bowl beside yours. He was so close. 

Turning around slowly, you were met with him. He was there, right there. You looked up at him. He wasn’t moving. You were torn between pushing past him, making sure he knew you were angry and staying for a while, basking in the sexual tension that was buzzing around in the air. “I do know your surname,” was all he said.

He was so close, his eyes exploring your face as if he’d never seen it before. Trapped between Harry and the kitchen counter, you’d fantasised about this moment for ages. Harry’s face a mere few centimetres away from your own. You could feel his breath on your face. It was warm, welcoming. “Do you?” you choked out. 

He nodded slightly. The revelation of Harry knowing your surname was almost surprising to you. You didn’t think he paid that much attention to anything that had something to do with you. Up until this point, standing in your kitchen, neither of you daring to make the first move, you’d thought he only knew your first name because he was obliged to. 

You both yearned the simple delight of the other’s touch. All the pent up sexual tension from the last years, longing looks disguised as glares of disgust and the little snarky remarks used as an excuse to talk to each other, all of that began unravelling at the seams. He looked at you and you looked at him, both of you daring the other to make the first point of euphoric contact. “Harry,” you forced out quietly, hoping he’d take that as a sign that he could touch you, kiss you, anything.

“What do you want?” he hummed gently. “What can I give you?”

“Just kiss me.”

You were also embarrassed that, after years of suppressing your enrapturing feelings, you were asking him to kiss you. And still, he didn’t touch you. It was like he was playing some sick game with you. And then the dreadful thought that he might just be doing all of this to give him a means to mock you in the future. If that was the case, he’d have the perfect upper hand over you. “Do you still wish you’d left me in the rain?” he asked, almost taunting you as he left you practically begging for his touch. 

You shook your head, “No, no. God, no. Harry, please.”

“Anything you want, darling.”

“Kiss me.”

“Only if you’re sure you want me to.”

“I do, Harry. Please.”

And when he was sure he had your definite consent, he didn’t waste another moment. He placed his large hand on your cheek, the tips of his fingers buried in your hair. His lips on yours was perhaps the most perfect form of ecstasy. As you wrapped your arms around his neck, tilting your head up to meet his, you were sure you’d travelled to some distant infatuating dreamland you only ever hear about. 

Reluctantly, you pulled away, panting slightly, “Don’t go.”

“What?”

“Don’t get an uber. Stay with me tonight.”

A smile crept its way up into Harry’s features. He tried to hide how elated he was that you’d proposed he spend the night with you. A grin tugged at the corners of his lips, which were parted slightly. All he wanted to do was indulge his need for your perfect taste all night. From the moment the sky went from the most divine lavender colour to the most starry black, to the moment it turned back to the most marvellous oranges and reds in the waking of the sun. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that to me.”

part two.

[3wisellamas]

Giant Sweet Cap’n Cakes Headcanon Masterpost!

(Fun fact, I thought most of these up while on one REALLY long hike.  ^^;  You can tell I fell for these three pretty hard.)

Music:

-I like the idea that, while the three all share a love of hip hop, glitch hop, electronic music in general, and a little lo-fi for chill times, they all have different tastes outside of those.  (Meaning if you pass them the aux cord, they WILL argue!)

-Sweet's actually the biggest audiophile of the group, with by far the most eclectic tastes; he will literally put together playlists that go from dubstep to heavy metal to classical to rap to vaporwave to even country.  The others don't really get it, but they're cool with whatever he puts on, and learn a lot of new music from him!

-He also owns an electric guitar, which he just plugs into himself to use as an amp and plays early in the morning to wake the others up if needed (he's the early riser and the other two are night owls...)

-Cap'n's definitely got a more narrow focus than the other two; he likes rap and also R&B, jazz, and even a little swing/electro swing.  He's also been caught more than once listening to cheesy romantic pop songs, claiming he's just into them for their potential madamoizel-attracting uses but really he's just a sappy romantic.

-He can also rap, very well in fact, and gets Sweet to beatbox while he freestyles. 

-Heck, he's just got a good singing voice in general, helped by having a built-in autotune, and dominates at karaoke!

-K_K also has a really broad range, but stays more towards the electronic end of the spectrum -- melodic dubstep, synthpop, disco, trance, chiptune, DnB, even occasionally puts on straight-up ambient spa music to chill out to (the only genre the other two will NOT tolerate.)

-K_K has also, in the past, set up entire mini-raves just by themselves, complete with glowsticks and everything, while Cap'n and Sweet were out doing whatever.  They were...not pleased, when they got back, mostly because they weren't invited.  All three got to have one together eventually though.  

-Physical media is king in their shop; if it's not on a CD, cassette tape, or a vinyl record (or an 8-track, though they have to dig out their old player for it), they will refuse to play it, and might even ask you to leave.  "MP3" is an extremely dirty word to them.

-(In fact, they don't get along too well with the MP3 player-headed robots elsewhere in the city.)

-They are indeed always listening to music on physical media as well -- K_K and Cap'n are their own CD players (though Cap'n's one of those models that's also got a built-in FM radio), while Sweet has a straight-up Walkman.    

-(He's also the group's cassette champion, claiming his media of choice is superior to CDs because you can record music on BOTH sides of the tape!  The other two just don't have the heart to point out that each side only holds half as much music as a CD, and you don't even have to rewind those...)

-Jury's still out on Hit Clips.  Cap'n and Sweet think they're just toys, but K_K genuinely collects and appreciates them and treats them like actual music (it helps that they are only around four seconds long!)

-Believe it or not, the headphones are only decoration, all three actually just...listen to their music entirely within their own heads, though they can also switch to playing it externally on their speakers as well.  Perks of being robots!  Though, sometimes K_K has his internal volume up too high, and misses things that other people say because of it.

-Sweet also has an input port, and connects himself to his turntable to act as the speakers!  The other two are WAY too embarrassed to ask if they can use it as well.

-Sweet can play almost any instrument you throw at him, as long as it's not a woodwind (Surprisingly, he can do brass, since those work on vibration rather than air!).  He prefers his guitar or violin when he isn't spinning records on his turntable.  Where the other two just enjoy music, he's the actual trained musician.

Voice headcanons:

-Sweet:  Kind of deep, bass-y, lots of reverb, a slight tinny audio distortion to it like a low-quality recording that becomes much more pronounced when he gets upset or starts shouting.  And since he's a speaker, you can literally feel the vibrations he makes when he's speaking!

-Cap'n:  Scout from TF2.  I am sorry, but I absolutely cannot get that out of my head for him.  XD  However, he's actually putting that voice on as an "accent" of sorts, his real voice is actually super autotune-y like K_K's, and it comes out whenever he gets flustered, his pitch only getting higher and higher as it gets worse...

-K_K:  Pure autotune, he can just do whatever the hell he wants with his voice -- pitch, tone, whatever, and while he tends to keep it a little higher he can and does change it to fit his mood!  He often has a completely different voice every day, but the others are used to it.  He also just straight-up vocalizes sound effects (like, the kind that make you go "How did you just make that sound with your mouth?!") and can mimic other people perfectly (though the slight mechanical distortion does give it away).  There are absolutely no rules when it comes to K_K's voice.

-They harmonize perfectly whenever they sing together! 

Sweet:

-I like to think Sweet's actually the brains of the group; like, not SMART, he just holds their one collective braincell most often.  He does any technical work when they're building stuff, like soldering circuits or the occasional programming, and even handles a lot of the actual business operations and pays the bills.  The other two also like to follow his lead when it comes to rebellion plans, even if he’s not the official leader.

-That said, though?  It's balanced out by him being rather hotheaded and having the shortest temper by a lot.  There are REASONS why he's not usually out selling bagels with the others -- he's unfortunately prone to some more "extreme" sales tactics, like hurling half their stock at random passersby until they finally agree to buy some.  On the plus side, he's always the first to step up to defend the gang from anything that dares to harm them, and is always on guard.

-He can also hold a heck of a grudge -- don't ever get on his bad side!  Cap'n and K_K are mostly immune to this though, if he gets upset with them he works through it by the end of the day.  It helps that they can all hug it out.

-He's a bit of a perfectionist, often working overtime to try and get everything they build exactly right.  He can get really frustrated when things don't work out the way he plans, or when he can't make sense of a problem, or when Cap'n and K_K are goofing off instead of doing their part, and needs to go blast some loud music and blow off steam.

-He does have a really tough time keeping his balance, since his head is a bit heavier than the rest of his body, but he takes tripping over his own feet constantly in stride.  The biggest problem he has is with dancing -- while he'll join in with the others on occasion, he can't match their more acrobatic moves and sticks more to actually PLAYING the music they're dancing to.

-He's also really, really unlucky, just in general.  He actually considers the other two his good luck charms, since they help him out whenever he trips or gets into a bad spot!

-He's the fashionista of the group, surprisingly.  It's difficult for him to find clothes that fit his body, so he tends to get a little creative with it and has a whole closet full of different stuff!  And since Cap'n is roughly the same size they'll occasionally swap jackets.

Cap’n:

-Cap'n actually has managed to score a handful of dates with girls in the past!  However, NONE of them went well, and only one actually made it to the second date (only to break up right in the middle of it), so he always ends up returning home heartbroken and in tears.  Sweet and K_K, by this point just ready for it whenever they hear that he's going out that night, always dry him off before he shorts himself out, take him to bed and cuddle with him (platonically, I don't see them as brothers but I also don't see them as having that conversation until Cap'n's ready, which he clearly is NOT), remind him that it doesn't hurt forever and he isn't unlovable and that he'll find someone eventually, etc.

-They have sat him down multiple times to try and gently suggest to Cap'n that he might just not be into women?  And that he’s actually turning them off by trying so hard?  To which he's always just like "No, of course not.  I'm straight.  Love the ladies.  Totally.  Oh no they didn't catch me checkin' out that one dude earlier did they?  Is that what this is about?!"

-(Basically, Cap'n is just a hopeless romantic in love with the idea of being in love, but is absolutely clueless as to how it works or what he actually wants, and his best buds are always there to catch him when he falls.  ;v; )

-The glasses are prescription -- he's SUPER nearsighted, a hardware glitch he refuses to fix.  Sometimes when he's working on something close up he'll take them off, panicking when he can't find them afterwards, only to have the others point out that they're just on his head.  He’s also got non-tinted glasses, but you will not catch him DEAD wearing those unless it’s an absolute emergency.

-This dude is SUPREMELY insecure with himself.  Like, his rather questionable fixation on romance aside, he basically runs off of others' validation, the "cool" persona he's spent much of his life building up being how he hides the fact that he isn't really sure who he is, or what he wants to do with his life, or what he's even good for -- the others have learned to check on him now and then whenever he hides away in the back of the shop, since he can slip into some pretty dark places when left alone to sulk.  It took a long time for him to open up even to them to share his feelings, and sometimes still has doubts about whether they or anyone else really care about him as more than just The Smooth One...

-He's the only one of the three to actually enjoy the occasional silence, especially when he's trying to think, or whenever he's upset.  So, his headphones also serve a dual purpose -- they're noise-cancelling!

-He's the video guy, carrying around a small camcorder and constantly trying to record the group's activities, to put together into music videos!  He also just likes to record himself doing stupid stunts for posterity, though K_K just takes these and makes (affectionate) blooper reels.

-Cap'n is not his real name, similar to K_K.  However, unlike K_K, he refuses to say what it is, just that it's embarrassing.

K_K:

-K_K has a bad habit of just completely zoning out when he gets into his music, getting completely lost in the groove and needing to be pulled back to reality.  It's not a bad thing during jam sessions, but at work, or in the middle of a battle...not so much.

-He kind of needs to have some kind of music going at all times -- silence drives him absolutely CRAZY!  Though, because he gets distracted by his own music, he then misses out on entire conversations, only tuning back in towards the end.  Sometimes the other two have to repeat or summarize what they just said for him.

-He knows sign language, and taught the others to use it.  They're able to communicate reasonably well no matter how loud their shop gets, or on days when K_K isn't able to form words properly (he's just shy, and even when he isn't he gets tongue-tied a LOT).

-He's easily the best dancer of the three, and uses his extendable body to get really creative with his moves!  He even knows a little ballroom, somehow, which he'll pull out sometimes to make the others laugh.

-(Seriously, K_K CANNOT stand to see Sweet or Cap'n not smiling.  He'll do anything to keep the group's spirits up, usually cracking jokes during a scrap project or doing little favors, and they appreciate all his efforts!)

-K_K has the WORST sleep cycle, ever.  If you let him, he will stay up all night working or partying, finally going to bed at 6AM, and will then sleep until 6PM if the others don't wake him up at some point.  If they know he was up really late they'll let him sleep in a little, but he's often pretty sleep-deprived and running solely on sugar and caffeine, which doesn't help his natural loopiness.  

-He is a VERY physical guy.  Seriously, he will just scoop up and hold Sweet or Cap'n like a cat every five minutes; at first they were just like "Oh.  Okay.  We're hugging now I guess," but after a while they got more used to it and even anticipate when K_K is going to do it.  And he also initiates tons of snuggles and gives piggyback rides whenever one of his bandmates (usually Sweet) requests.  

-K_K actually scrapbooks, collecting pictures and little mementos of places he and the others have gone and things they've done.  After the library fountain is sealed, he pulls them out to show everyone else from Cyber City and reminisce about home.

-It's very hard to make K_K angry, since he tends to stay super chill and brushes off almost everything.  But, on those very, very rare occasions when something does get under his metal outer casing, he'll go full-on silent treatment, not speaking to anyone for up to a week as he sulks and stomps around the junk shop, and even refuses to play any music!  And no amount of sweets or hugs or cheering up will bring him out of it, either; the other two have learned to just wait him out and let him have his space, letting him come to them when he's finally ready to talk about it.

Misc:

-Though all three love everything sweet, K_K's the only one who really goes overboard with it, making whole meals out of candy.  Sweet, ironically enough, actually prefers more salty/savory snacks, while the less is said about Cap'n's hot sauce addiction, the better.

-Okay, actually, I will say more about it.  Cap'n loves spicy food in general, and literally drinks tabasco sauce right from the bottle.  However, he's got a bad habit of daring himself to eat hotter and hotter stuff, ESPECIALLY if someone is watching, and can easily get in WAY over his head before begging for milk.

-They also all totally drink battery acid like Queen.

-Heck, being both Darkners and robots, they can really eat literally anything.  Normal food, milk, oil, batteries, gallons of pure sugar, toothpaste, moss, glitter (NEVER let K_K get hold of any though, he gets lost in the sauce), broken glass, etc, and of course their own deep-fried CDs.  Only thing they can't do is water, since, you know, robots.

-With a lot of the aesthetics of Cyber City being close to turn-of-the millennium and early 2000s (CDs and boomboxes, popup ads, wired mice, Queen theorized to be one of those see-through iMacs, EVERYTHING about Spamton), I like the idea that the boys DO NOT have smartphones, and if you handed them one they'd have no clue how to use it or what to do with it.  But they do have cell phones:  Sweet's got an old flip phone covered in stickers (courtesy of K_K), Cap'n splurged for one of those that slide open and with a camera (he set his background to a tiny, grainy photo of the three of them!), and K_K has one of those indestructible Nokia bricks, that Sweet got him after he kept breaking all his other ones.  They can all text, but that's about as high-tech as they get.

-Same with tablets or newer computers in general, they might share one tiny netbook at most.  Cap’n never remembers to log out of his Dark World dating profile, so the others will snoop or post embarrassing things to it.

-They're really, really durable, even without milk -- they're made of 90s plastic and electronics, so it takes a LOT to take one of them down!  Plus, they regularly repair each other back at the shop (it took a LONG time for them to gain enough trust to physically open and work on each other), so as long as at least one's left to drag the other two to safety they'll be just fine.

-However, if they get splashed with water, caught in the rain, or worse, drowned, they will short out, or shut down on the spot to prevent damage.  Once they completely dry out, though, they'll start right back up, no worse for wear.  When only one of them gets waterlogged the other two will break out the hair dryers to dry them out faster, or even pop them into the oven in a pan of rice like an iPod that got dropped in the toilet...

Finally, backstory?

-Cap'n and K_K met first -- maybe both as new recruits to another, much less savory gang of music equipment robots, and bonded as a result of being put upon by the more established members (Cap'n probably even had to defend K_K more than once when his inattentiveness got him into trouble!)  But, they both had enough one day, and decided to break off and form their own thing, making music and selling CD bagels to support themselves.

-Sweet, meanwhile, has the complete opposite background, coming from a rich and important family of musicians in Cyber City who regularly entertained Queen in her mansion (hence why he always used to get sweets from her!)  But, he was kind of the black sheep, preferring his own style of music, and decided to strike out on his own as a street musician instead.

-They met when Cap'n and K_K accidentally set up to sell bagels on Sweet's usual corner, and he battled them to reclaim his turf.  But, they were evenly-matched (even two-to-one; Sweet's definitely the strongest of the trio!), and impressed each other with both their fighting and musical skills, so Sweet decided to join their tiny group, and thus Sweet Cap'n Cakes was formed.  

-After the whole situation with Queen is resolved, SCC turns their rebellion into an anti-DRM kind of thing?  Nobody can hold back the music, man!

[boredandelusive]

Can I request a fluff one shot of Noritoshi Kamo with a Chubby Reader?

This user also requested it would be in an arranged marriage type of situation.

word count: 1.5k~

I try to make it gender neutral reader, but some gendered words might be used. I hope you enjoy. I don’t know why this took me a while, but now that it’s done... yeah.

As the Kamo family was traditional, a tradition to keep the bloodline alive was through arranged marriage. The ceremony was a month ago, and though neither you or Noritoshi knew one another all that well, it would be a growing experience.

Currently, you both arrived to your new home, courtesy of his family buying out a traditional home. "Hey, Noritoshi," you said as you put your things down. "Since we're in an arranged marriage, why don't we get to know each other, at least?"

"How do you mean?" Seeing as you were his first wife, and preferably only wife, he didn't know how to be in a relationship. That was the down part of having strict parents, but luckily you would be there to teach him what it was like in a relationship.

“I mean, why don’t we go out on a date? It’s the best way to get to know one another and the arranged marriage won’t feel so... arranged.” You clarified, which he thought for a moment. “We could go to the movies, or there’s a restaurant nearby that we could try. Bowling, maybe? I don’t know if you like bowling or skating.” 

“I don’t know how to skate,” he said, which caught your attention, but you smiled.

“I’d be willing to teach you, if you want me to. Come on, we can go later. Until then, why don’t we do something to pass the time?” You suggested, though nothing really came to mind.

“Mario Kart?” He suggested, which you nodded eagerly. “I only have it on Switch.”

“That’s fine, let’s play.”

As the day passed, you checked the clock and saw it was 7 PM. Now would be the best time to go to the skating rink. “Are you ready to go?” You asked as your voice carried down the hallway.

“Just about,” he answered before stepping out of his room with his clothes on. As both of you were adults, casual clothes were the way to go. “Did you make the reservation for the tickets?” 

“Yep, and I’ll send it to you once we get there. I paid for them earlier, so we’ll be able to walk right in. I think we get wristbands, but I could be wrong.” You shrugged before glancing to your shoes. As it didn’t matter which pair you wore, because they would be switched out with skates, you put on your tennis shoes and got up. 

As you both left the house, you moved to the passenger door, though Noritoshi’s voice stopped you. “Let me,” he suggested and reached out to the door handle. As he opened the door, you looked at him and gave a small smile.

“I guess chivalry isn’t dead after all, is it?” You teased before getting into the car. Watching him close the door behind you, you took out your phone and pulled up your music playlist. As he got into the car and turned it on, you connected your phone to the car.

“I thought the driver was the one that picked the songs,” he fake-pouted, which you glanced to him and scoffed. “What? Driver is king over music.” 

“Right, and about when the passenger has a better music taste then the driver?” You asked as you clicked on the first song in the playlist. Not having it play yet, you glanced over to him. Unfortunately, he had his eyes peeled to the road, so he couldn’t give you his casual side-eye.

“You don’t have better taste than me. Who do you listen to?” He asked in an offended tone, which you glanced to your phone.

“Some Mother Mother, Melanie Martinez, Doja Cat, Steve Lacy, and city-pop from the 80s. What do you listen to?” You ask as you glanced to him then his phone on the mount.

“Mother Mother, Two Feet, Joji, The Weeknd,” he listed off some of his favorite artists, which you scoffed. “Don’t make fun,” he defended himself.

“I’m not making fun, but do you know what your favorite artists tell me? You’re either bored, trying to discover yourself, or you’re bored.” You didn’t dare accent what you meant, but seeing as he didn’t understand.

“And do you know what your music taste tells me about you? You’re either going through genres like it’s playing cards or you’re trying your taste in different styles. You probably don’t have a favorite because you’re still seeing if there’s more out there you might like.” Look at that, he read you like a book, but you scoffed.

Opening your mouth and about to say anything, the car stopped as he parked into one of the parking slots. “We’re here,” he pointed out, making you laugh dryly and watched as he got out the car. Once he opened your side, he extended his hand toward you.

Taking it with ease, you got out the car and grabbed your phone. “You’re hilarious, Noritoshi.” You mentioned as you stopped the music and sent him a screenshot of his ticket. 

“I try my best,” he smiled before moving to the entrance. Keeping his phone open, both of you went to the vender and he scanned your tickets. 

“Welcome to Shibuya Skating Ring. Hope you enjoy your stay,” he beamed with false emotion. Once you two went inside, he followed you to the shoe swap. Placing yours on the platform first, you watched as they went into the back and came back with skates.

“You don’t use speed skates?” He questioned, which you shook your head. “I thought you said you knew how to skate,” he teased, which you scoffed as you sat down to put the skates on.

“Uh, excuse you. I know how to skate. I’m just not going to risk my life for speed skates, alright? Normal skates bring me comfort, speed skates bring me anxiety. And even the, you’re not one to talk, you have normal skates, too!” You pointed out as you lightly punched his arm.

“That’s because I don’t know how to skate. There’s a difference.” He playfully defended as you stood up first. Putting his hands out to try and find balance, you grabbed them and helped him keep straight. 

“I didn’t know it was this hard to balance.” He muttered as he looked down to his legs. 

“That’s because you’re scared. Bend your knees. You never want to skate with straight legs. That’s the best way to have your joints lock.” You reminded, and as he did so, his feet evened out. “Now, first thing to learn: kick-off.”

“Shouldn’t we be getting on the ring to do that?” He asked, though you shook your head.

“You always want to learn on carpet before going on the rink. You’d be a bowling ball on a rink full of pins. Learn to shift your weight between feet. Meet me down there,” you say as you skate away from him and stop toward the other end of the carpeted arcade.

“I don’t think I can do it,” he discouraged, though you scoffed and shook your head.

“You learned how to be a jujutsu sorcerer and it didn’t take that long to learn it. You can handle something as simple as skating. Meet me over here,” you called out, which he sighed before slowly skating his way toward you.

“It’s not as difficult as I imagined,” he stated, though the second he’d gotten closer to you, he started to lose balance. Instead of him falling over, you caught him in your embrace. “But braking is something else.” 

“That’s because you use the stopper at the front of the skate. Either that or you turn your foot at an almost 90-degree angle and use the side of the wheel to stop it. When we get on the rink, don’t let go, alright?” You asked as you started bringing him to the rink.

“Don’t let go,” he muttered as you stepped onto the rink with his hand in yours. However, as he almost slipped getting down, he held onto your torso.

“I should say the opposite to you,” you grumbled as he continued clinging onto you. “Can you let go of me know? You’re clinging on like a kid, and it’ll be hard for me to move.” 

“You’re soft, so no, I’m not letting go.” He reminded, though you shook your head. “Fine, just don’t let me fall.” 

“it’ll be impossible, trust me,” you said sarcastically as you kicked off with him doing the same. “Who knew you would be a scaredy cat when it came to skating?” 

“I’m not scared, I just don’t want to fall,” he muttered as he shifted his hands to hold onto your forearm. As you turned around and moved in front of him, he moved his hands into yours. 

“Then let’s try this. Just follow my movements and you’ll be fine,” you assure, which he nodded. “Had I’d known you would’ve been a big baby with this, we would’ve chosen somewhere else. This whole arranged marriage thing is strange.” 

“I’m not a big baby. And going off your words, you’re not the only one that doesn’t sit right with the arranged marriage part. I’m just... glad it was with you. It gives me a chance to get to know you better so things aren’t so awkward.” He excused, which you gave a humble smile.

“Then let’s agree that we won’t see this as an arranged marriage, but as a chance to get to know one another better. Deal?” You asked holding out your pinky, still unconsciously skating backward.

“Deal.” 

[butgilinsky]

meant to be // np

warning; stress/anxiety, mentions a toxic ex but doesn't go into detail abt it, fluffy nolan, i think that's it?

summary; when you go MIA, Nolan makes sure you're okay. based on the song meant to be by bebe rexha & florida georgia line

word count; 2.8k+

a/n; this is a part of my yee haw series (all fics are stand alones, so don't worry about that) if you have any interest in checking those out too! until then, enjoy fluffy nolan

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You were usually pretty good at telling yourself that you were blowing things out of proportion. It didn’t always stop you from doing so, but it usually talked you off a ledge. This week, it seemed that there was no talking yourself off of the ledge.

Other than the fact that you were five pages into your portfolio that you were submitting to Temple in an attempt to get into their MFA program, one that you’d been wanting to go to for years at this point, your ex had made a recent appearance in your life. As if the stress from applying to grad school wasn’t enough for you to handle, you had run straight into your ex on your way home from grabbing coffee.

It would’ve been enough if you had just run into him, if you had to exchange pleasantries with the same person who shattered your heart into so many pieces you were still recovering two years after the break up. The same person that traumatized you enough to have to put your current relationship on a speed so slow that you were sure a sloth would have moved faster.

Nolan had been patient with you, which you were beyond thankful for. He was fine with things going at a snail’s pace, given that you weren’t the only one between the two of you that had a rocky past with romantic relationships. It wasn’t news to anyone that you were together, but it had been confusing for just about everyone outside of the two of you.

There wasn’t a label on it, neither of you needed one to know where you stood. Both of you had an understanding that you were just as damaged as you were interested in each other, and working slow without any labels or the need to structure your relationship in society’s idea of normalcy was your middle ground. It allowed the two of you to breathe, without leaving a lingering doubt about how the two of you felt about each other.

People pestered the two of you about it, why you wouldn’t wear a WAGs jacket or introduce Nolan to your parents when they were in town. They didn’t get it, but they didn’t need to. You and Nolan communicated very well with one another, and if the two of you knew what was going on with everything, then nobody else needed to. Neither of you needed anyone else’s validation to be content with where the two of you stood.

But then you ran into your ex. Your shoulder collided with his on the street and while you thought you were piecing yourself back together from everything he put you through, the mere sight of him sent you down a spiral that you had avoided for as long as you possibly could.

It’s not that you missed your ex, because you didn’t. You didn’t miss him or the way he spoke to you, nor did you miss the lack of communication and being left in the dark more often than not. Seeing him made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but everything he put you through came to the forefront of your mind, and you were unintentionally overwhelmed with the worry that you’d end up in the same scenario with Nolan one day.

You didn’t think that Nolan would hurt you, not the way you’d been hurt in the past. You trusted him more than you’ve ever trusted anyone, and he proved that he deserved that trust. It wasn’t the thought that Nolan would become the person your ex had been, but the thought that there would be a day where Nolan was your ex.

It was scary and deafening, and the reason you couldn’t finish your portfolio. You’d been writing for hours, or trying to. The chair you were sitting in had grown uncomfortable in the first hour, and you had migrated around the apartment to look for a place that didn’t hurt your ass or your back. Unfortunately you couldn’t find one, opting to sit on the floor in between your couch and your coffee table. You’d been so lost in thought that you had spent six hours without responding to anyone, not even realizing that time had gone by that quickly until you got a call.

The only reason you even saw the call was the fact that the notification popped up on your computer. You knew he knew something was up because he rarely ever facetimed you without asking if you were free first; though, if he had texted you first there was no way of you knowing with your phone in a completely different room. He only ever facetimed you unannounced when you didn’t answer your phone for a while. He knew you could answer facetime calls on your laptop, and while you weren’t always in the mood to talk to him at that moment, it was enough to get your attention and let you know that he was worried about you.

But you answered it today, regardless of the fact that you looked a mess and felt even worse. You answered because you needed him to ground you, to pull your head out of the clouds and silence the thoughts that had been buzzing in your mind for over 24 hours.

“Hey.” you forced a small smile to your lips before reaching behind you to turn on a lamp, unaware of the darkness you were encased in until now.

“You okay? You’ve been MIA all day.” you rolled your eyes gently, a playful smile playing on your lips.

“It hasn’t been all day.” you tried to assure him that he was being slightly over dramatic, but the look in his eyes told you that that was not the case.

“Y/n, it’s midnight.” that it was, though it was the first time you were realizing that. You had no idea what time it was, and sitting in front of your computer for the past six hours had not helped that fact. “What happened? Talk to me.”

“This portfolio’s just stressing me out.” he hummed, unsure that was the full reason. He could tell in the way that your forehead creased and your eyes narrowed slightly that there was more than just a little stress going on. You’d been stressed about this thing for weeks, there had to be something else that was going on with you.

“So you’re not going to tell me what’s wrong?” you sighed softly, unsure if you wanted to unpack all of that right now. “Alright. Be ready in ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes? Nolan I can’t get ready in ten minutes-”

“Just put a pair of sweats on and go stand outside. I’ll be there in ten.” he hung up then, not giving you much of an option but to do as he said.

Nine minutes after Nolan hung up on you, you were standing outside, teeth chattering lightly while you bounced on the balls of your feet. The familiar car pulling up in front of you made you smile, and when you stepped up to the door you heard the lock click.

You pulled yourself into his car quickly, sighing out in relief at the warmth that encased you. Your eyes found his, a warmth spreading through your chest as you leaned over the center console to kiss him softly. He hummed against your lips, chasing you for just a moment when you pulled back. The next one lasted just a second longer, noses bumping against one another softly.

He pulled back then, moving to kiss your cheek before sitting back in his seat and moving the gear shift into drive. His right hand found its home on your thigh, the warmth from his palm radiating through your sweats and into your skin.

“Where are we going?” your voice was soft and peaceful, like the sound of home on a cold winter evening that Nolan wished he could live in forever.

“Nowhere.” he shrugged, glancing over at you for a moment to smile at you. He didn’t have a destination in mind, just driving around the city for the night. It wasn’t the first time the two of you had done this before, and you doubt it’d be the last.

These nights were your favorite; Nolan driving absolutely nowhere with his hand on your thigh and his ear offered up to you. Sometimes you didn’t talk for hours, just listened to whatever playlist the two of you chose and drove until one or both of you got too tired to continue. Sometimes you ended up hours away from home, which got the two of you (usually Nolan) into trouble from time to time.

“What’s up, what’s rotting your mind?” you leaned your head onto his shoulder, wanting to be close to him more than anything right now.

“It’s stupid.” you whispered gently.

His hand moved up from your thigh to cup the underside of your jaw. He moved towards you, eyes still locked on the road while his lips pecked yours softly. It was cheesy and a bit awkward, but it wasn’t the first time he’d done something like that. It was meant to soothe you, and it did. Nolan wasn’t a man of many words but his actions always spoke loud enough for you to hear him clearly.

“It’s not stupid if it’s bothering you.” his voice was as gentle as his heart, something you loved dearly about him. He wasn’t pushy or demanding, rather patient and gentle.

“I ran into Kai yesterday.” his muscles tensed, along with his hand gripping your thigh just a little tighter than it previously had been. It wasn’t a huge change but you picked up on it, along with the way his jaw clenched and he sighed through his nose.

Nolan had never met Kai, and you hoped he never would. Not because you thought Nolan would kill him or anything, but because you wished that nobody in your current life had to ever interact with people from your past. Kai knew a completely different person than the one Nolan knew, and you didn’t want to be the person you used to be. You didn’t want Nolan to be subjected to hearing about her or the life she previously led.

“Did he say something to you?” you didn’t expect much different from him. He’d always been a safe amount of protective. He wasn’t the type to run out of the house at the first sound of danger and pummel everyone into the ground, he just wanted to make sure you were alright. He wouldn’t put a bounty out on Kai, but if he did or said something that was still bothering you, he’d do everything he possibly could to make you feel better.

“I mean yes, but not in the way that you’re thinking. It wasn’t what he said it’s just,” you sighed, one that made your cheeks puff out and your eyes flutter shut for a moment.

“It’s just that now you’re scared that that’s how we’ll end up.” you lifted your head off of his shoulder, looking at him with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow.

“How’d you learn how to read minds? That’s a pretty cool party trick, you know?” he laughed gently and tapped the inside of your thigh while shaking his head at you. You always tried to lighten the mood by making small little jokes out of things and while some people found it to be unbearable, Nolan loved every single second of it.

“I wish I could read your mind, it’d make things a lot easier most of the time.” you rolled your eyes but laughed, finding truth in his words.

“I just don’t want history to repeat itself, you know? I’m just scared that the things I’ve been trying to avoid are inevitable. What if they happen anyway? What if everything I’ve been working for is useless and everything i’ve run from is my destiny?” Nolan sighed softly and pulled into a parking garage, one that you weren’t familiar with.

“Everything you and Kai went through, stays between the two of you. I’m not him, and I’ll never be him. I won’t say we’ll never fight, because I obviously can’t guarantee that. We’ll fight, everyone does, but we’ll get past it. We’ll survive it all. That, I can assure you. I can promise you that I would never treat you the way that that douche did.”

He doesn’t promise you the world, nor does he promise to shoot for the stars. He doesn’t promise that things will always be alright, but that’s what you love about Nolan. He doesn’t set unrealistic expectations. He doesn’t tell you what you want to hear just to make you feel better. He’ll do a lot of things to make you feel better, but lying to you isn’t one of them.

“If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, you know? You just have to let it be, which you’re not entirely skilled at.” you punch his arm softly just as he parks at the top of the parking garage that’s almost completely empty.

“What if what it’s meant to be isn’t what I want it to be, though?” Nolan shook his head gently and turned towards you, a soft smile sitting on his lips.

“It won’t be at times, but that doesn’t mean it won’t ever be. If people could write out their lives exactly like they wanted them to be, nobody’s lives would align. You have to let things play out, baby, and I know that’s the scariest thing about life itself, but it’ll work out. If it’s meant to be, I promise it’ll be.”

Your lips move before your mind can catch up. You’re so immersed in him, neck deep in whatever he’s cooked up for you, but you don’t try to get out. He’s everything you’ve ever wanted and more. You didn’t think that anyone could be so perfectly hand crafted, treated with such care that even his flaws were beautiful. You didn’t plan on telling him you loved him, didn’t plan on saying the words that have done nothing but haunt you for the last few years.

“I love you.” it comes out in a breath, like it’s lifted a weight off of your shoulders.

He can tell you didn’t mean to say it, because your eyes blow wide open and your lips part in a way that he can tell you’ve spoken out of impulse rather than preparation. Your cheeks are hot and your hands shake just enough for Nolan to reach for one of them and hold it tightly in his own.

He’s smiling, which is as confusing as the small laugh that he lets out. It’s confusing and almost angering, but you don’t have time to ask because the second your brow furrows, he’s tumbling out an explanation for his reaction.

“I love you too. Have for a while, probably always will.” it melts your heart that’s sunk into your stomach. You’re not sure what you did that made the universe gift you with Nolan, though you believe it to be something between adopting a child in a past life or buying a woman’s order at Taco Bell when she forgot her wallet at home.

He expects you to say something else, maybe ask if he’s joking or not, but you don’t. You’re frozen in your spot, tears building up in your eyes that make Nolan meet you over the center console and pull you into his chest. He doesn’t know exactly why you’re so emotional, but he has a feeling it has to do with your traumatic past and the fear that others have installed in you. He just wants you to be happy, especially if he gets to stick around to make it happen himself.

“I love you so much, and it’s fucking terrifying.” he kisses the top of your head, his hand moving up and down your back in the most soothing pattern he can come up with.

“I know, and I’m scared too. Maybe we always will be, but we can’t spend too much time worrying about it or else we won’t get to experience it. We’ll ruin it for ourselves, and I don’t want to do that.” you shook your head, your silent way of telling him that you don’t want to do that either. You wanted to let yourself cherish falling in love with Nolan.

“If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, right?” he smiles down at you, one of the widest smiles you’ve ever seen him present. You store it in your memory, hoping you’d never forget the sight of him smiling at you like you were the only thing that mattered in the word.

“That’s right, baby. And I have a pretty good feeling about us.”

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