#'higher duties' is when you fill in for someone but also don't stop your normal job

[myopinionisimportant]

I want to dive into all the Alan Wake 2 stuff, I want to see what my guy (and his new friends and foes) are up to and check out all the cool fanart and and and

but I haven't played the game yet and I kind of want to play it blind and unspoiled because theorising about stuff in Remedy games is just great fun, so I'm having to show SO MUCH self restraint about this, wah.

At least work is busy and distracting!

[your-daily-biaswrecking]

Serva me, Servabo te

save me and I will save you

pairing: photographer!Taehyung x f.reader

genre: smut, angst, slight enemies to lovers

word count: 10.5k | reading time: 60 min

chapter summary: The two of them spend their day on good terms for the first time, but still manage to find something to rile them up

warnings: switch!tae, switch!amy, oral f&m receiving, face sitting, dirty talk, teasing, a lil bit of orgasm control? some name calling (bitch), light spanking, hair pulling, unprotected vaginal sex, riding, praise, squirting, also some spooky stuff, i don’t remember what else ahh

A/N: I know absolutely nothing about photography, so if you do and you read this and think to yourself nothing is making any sense, you are right and I am wrong. Please just enjoy this as best as you can lol

All chapters | Masterlist | Read on AO3

Chapter 7: Love is just a form of possession

The place was definitely haunted. But perhaps it was in a good way. Perhaps it was magical.

It felt that way when you slowly opened your eyes to find a snoozing Taehyung just inches away from your face. His expression set in a natural pout as he had his arms snaked around your body like he was afraid he would lose you in his sleep. You bit your lip as you inspected his resting form better; his ruffled hair, his soft but dehydrated lips, his naked shoulders that were peeking under the blanket. Last night you had moved on the couch, struggling to fit on it at the same time but managing to entangle your limbs just right so that he wouldn't fall over. You had a light rug that you had found in the room over your bodies, as well as Taehyung's sweater on to keep you warm, although the heat from his bare body was all you needed.

And the fireplace. You heard it crackling before you raised your head to look over at its direction and confirm the fire was big and strong once again. Yep. This place was definitely haunted.

Taehyung's arms tightened around you, pulling himself nearer until his face was buried in your neck. "Don't go," he mumbled in a way it was hard for you to understand, with his voice heavy from his slumber. He had felt your body move while you were trying to look around the room and without even opening his eyes, his reaction was to hold you closer.

You ran a hand through his hair, smiling to yourself. "I'm not going anywhere."

Rain was still falling, not as heavy as the previous night, but it was just enough for the rhythmic melody it created by hitting the windows. That meant you were stuck in the house for one more day. Not that you had any interest in leaving, in even getting out of that room or that couch. Not only was it warm in there, in Taehyung's embrace, but it was safe, too. Perhaps, on any other occasion, you would hate yourself for just how nice you felt at that moment, but you were starting to believe that being by his side wasn't just appealing, but also necessary. You wouldn't last another day in that Manor otherwise.

"What should we have for breakfast?" you heard him whisper, right before he started stretching so much he almost fell over.

"Oh, um..." you mumbled, thinking about it. "Is it my turn to cook?"

You felt his smile against your neck, a low chuckle being produced at the back of his throat. "It is. What will you feed me?" You took a couple of seconds to think, and his smile grew. "You know, you could just offer me your cunt right now and I'd happily have that as a meal."

You groaned. "Tae!" you whined, pushing him on his chest. "You're disgusting!" He had certainly ruined the romantic atmosphere that the room was painted in. But that's just how that man is, isn't it?

He was laughing as he was trying to catch himself from falling, grabbing the sweater you were wearing and the arm of the couch. "Oh, come on," he said once he found his balance. "You can't tell me you're still shy after everything we've done."

But you rolled your eyes at him. "This isn't a matter of openness, it's just very inappropriate."

He looked up at you, licking his lip slowly as he watched your eyes. "So, you're turning me down?"

For a moment you tried to get up, but he held you tighter. The truth was that the way he was looking at you was almost making you cave in, but thankfully you could think better in the daytime. Even though you didn't have much of a reason to, anymore, you still didn't feel quite comfortable just casually doing stuff like that with him. It was too much already that you had woken up cuddling him as if he was your boyfriend.

"I need to go shower," you said, both replying to him and changing the subject in a way. "I'm so nasty from last night."

"You and I both. Do you want to shower together?" He made his proposal by reaching up a bit and kissing your jaw. It made you drop it, not to give him better access, but because his words were making you flustered again.

"No- why would we- we..."

"I'm just saying; it's cold and it's raining. There might not be a lot of hot water. We should be frugal."

Since you hadn't stopped him exactly yet, he took it as a sign to keep kissing you. Up your jawline and down your neck. And now forming a coherent thought was even more difficult. Your body squirmed around like you were being tickled, and you wanted to block him but at the same time not at all.

"Now, you're just making up excuses," you snorted, trying to sound austere but the smile he had managed to get on your lip served the exact opposite mission. "Do you want to have me for breakfast that bad?" you teased since he wasn't the only one able to do that.

But Taehyung pulled slightly away, biting his lip and looking at you through his lashes with the most innocent face he could muster. "Actually, I was hoping that if I eat you out, you might return the favor and help me out with this morning wood." And with that, he pressed upon you more, so that you could feel exactly what he was talking about. Your eyes widened and you gasped a bit, realizing that the hard thing nudging your thigh wasn't actually his knee like you thought.

"Oh..." you mumbled.

"But you don't have to!" Taehyung was quick to say when he saw your surprised reaction. But it wasn't so much surprise as it was a feeling of guilt; the man had done everything to please you the past couple of days, and you hadn't had the chance to do much for him in return. And there he was, with a pout on his lips and his dick begging for attention.

When you kissed him, you didn't do it just because you felt a sense of duty to do it, but mostly because the idea that he needed you turned you on so much, and so fast. You kissed him hard, not wasting any time to slip your tongue in his mouth, and your chest filled with pride when he started moaning. He was moaning more and louder than usual, probably being less interested in controlling himself since he still hadn't fully woken up yet, and you hadn't even touched him yet.

The rag slid down your shoulders as you moved over him, changing the position that had you both on your sides, to one where Taehyung was lying on his back and you were straddling him. You didn't have anything on other than that sweater, and so when you ground on his hard-on, it was easily gliding between your folds, making the man growl harder.

"Shit, Amy," he moaned and his voice was higher in pitch than normal. "I feel like a goddamn teenager. You're- shhh- you're gonna make me cum just like that."

You found his little voice cracks so adorable. You didn't know -could have never guessed- just how needy, desperate, whiny, and loud Taehyung got in the mornings. He always put on that facade of being in control, when in reality, deep down, all he wanted was to pleasure you as best as he could; all he was waiting for was a chance to be good for you. And then he was at your mercy for his own release. It was obvious in the way he hung from your lips, clawing at your sweater. Completely dependent on you and your moves.

"You can't cum like that, baby," you reminded him, pressing his chest down and sitting up, keeping your lips out of reach to make him whine more. You weren't used to this exactly, but damn, torturing this poor boy felt so good. Perhaps because you still wanted to hate him, so now that he was hooked on you and you were in control, you wanted to make him suffer; make him beg. Just like he had the audacity to do to you. "You can't cum before I tell you to, alright? If you do, I won't let you touch me again for the rest of our days here."

Taehyung cried out, his hips rising involuntarily to grind on your core more. "Stop," he breathed out. "Don't do that."

You laughed. Was he trying to order you around when his whole face was pink and he was panting, unable to compose himself? That was bold. Especially since what you were telling him seemed to turn him on even further.

You let two fingers run down his chest toward his belly. "You will finish in my mouth, okay? Nowhere else." Just to test him, you pushed down on his dick more, almost letting him inside you, and he crushed his head back, groaning.

"Amy- I'm so close already," he complained. "Just- just..."

You clicked your tongue, withdrawing both your hands and your hips from his body. "I don't like your tone, mister."

But he just looked at you with pitiful eyes. "I won't last if you don't..."

"You want me to suck your dick?" He nodded frantically. "You have to ask nicely."

"Son of a bitch," he sighed, biting his lip. And you could see him twitch all alone underneath you. It made you smirk.

"That's not nicely, baby," you cooed.

Taehyung's forehead started glistening as he got a little sweaty. And he groaned once more. "Amy..."

"Yes?"

He panted. "You don't even need to do much, just let me cum," he hummed.

And you chuckled. "Man, you really don't know how to ask politely, do you?" Then you snorted. "Well, what did I expect from someone like you."

You could tell all he really wanted to do was anything you asked of him; he just didn't like the fact that you were doing it on purpose. And if he just let you see exactly how desperate he was for you, then it would be a lot harder to establish himself later when he would need to again. But when one of your hands traveled south and wrapped around the base of his cock, there was truly little holding him back.

"Amy, please!" he squeaked, his voice cracking again. "Please, what do you want me to do? I've been as best as I could to you."

The words made your stomach do a flip, and you smirked, slowly running your fist up and down his length. "Yes, you have," you whispered. You lowered your head to his dick and stuck your tongue out. Taehyung watched you with wide eyes as you lazily brought the tip of your tongue on his head, gathering up all the precum that had leaked out. And he took a sharp breath in through his teeth. "You've been so good."

"I'm gonna cum," Taehyung announced, dropping his head back.

But you held him tighter. "Not yet." And you dropped your mouth entirely onto him.

Taehyung's mouth fell open in a silent cry as he did his best to control himself. This was torture. Sure, he had asked for it, but he had already woken up so close to his orgasm with the kind of dreams he was having, that all it would need to spill his seed out would have been a couple of strokes. It would have probably served him better to just go to the bathroom and deal with it himself. Now, he had this pretty girl with her warm, wet mouth all over him, sucking him off hard, and it felt so good he thought he would explode. And yet he couldn't. He had to wait.

"Amy, please," he choked out when you brought him deep enough to hit the back of your throat. "Ugh, please, let me cum."

You had never enjoyed giving someone a blowjob as much as you did at that moment. Besides the fact that Taehyung's dick was straight-up delicious, the sounds he was making and the way he was begging had your head spinning. It had you rubbing your legs together, bopping your head faster, and sipping him up harder as if you were trying to milk him. And you would have kept on doing that for so much longer, until your jaw was in too much pain, if it weren't for how his cries made you feel sorry for him.

So you popped him off your mouth just enough to say these words: "Coat my mouth with your scum, baby. Let me taste it."

You didn't have to touch him any longer; your words alone drove him over the edge he had been dancing on for a while now, spurting his seed on your offered tongue, his hands holding your head for the first time to keep you still. He gave you a couple of pumps, some of them missing the target and hitting your nose before he groaned and dropped back down. Panting and sighing, pulling his hair away from his face and whipping the sweat that had formed on his forehead. You stayed still, not sure if you wanted to spit or swallow, but since you couldn't immediately think of where you could do the former, you gulped down all that he had gifted you.

From your point of view, Taehyung had never looked hotter than he did at that moment; completely exhausted and dried up, probably without a single thought in his head. And all because of you. If you hadn't just made him finish and his dick go soft, you would have already jumped to sit on him, not even waiting to wear protection. Your core itched with want, too, and since he looked ready to go right back to sleep, you needed to go take that shower you had mentioned right away. And by shower, you know what I mean.

You went to get off the couch. But Taehyung's hand wrapped around your wrist instantly, keeping you back. His head foggy from his orgasm but still super aware of you and your movements. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go take a shower. Like I said." Your voice was a lot lower than before, much of your confidence having left you the moment that scene was over. In contrast, Taehyung seemed to be gaining his old self back little by little, considering the way his eyes were piercing you.

"Not before I'm done with you," he rasped, pulling your arm until you lost your balance and fell over his body. "Come sit on my face."

Your eyes popped open wide. "Wha- no, I'm fine."

While licking his lips, Taehyung snaked his free hand down your sides and cupped your pussy, a finger immediately sliding between your folds as if he was trying to gather up all your juices. "You call that fine?" he asked smugly as he made sure you could hear just how soaked you were. A moan caught in your throat, trying to hide how much you needed him. He smiled sweetly at you. "What, you thought I'd just leave you hanging? Come on, babe, turn around and sit that pretty ass of yours on my face because I don't have the strength to get up right now."

It would have been hard to say no to that when you could both feel the way you gushed out at his words. So you moved around until you were facing his feet and kneeled over his head. One of his arms wrapped around your hips, his other hand still playing with your folds. You hesitated coming down to him, that being a position you weren't used to, but he was pulling at you until his tongue managed to replace his fingers, licking a stripe from your clit to your entrance. You moaned, your legs shaking a bit as he gave you kitten licks to see the way you squirmed over him.

And then you felt a strong smack on your ass.

"Bitch, I said sit on my face, not hover over it!" Taehyung scolded.

"Ah!" you cried, a sound that sounded like pain at first but turned to more like thrill later. Your head whipped back, trying to see the man lying beneath you. "I am sitting," you insisted.

"If I can breathe while you do it, you're not doing it right." And then he gave you another smack on the ass, making you yelp again.

"Ah, stop! You'll suffocate."

"Good." His hands kneaded your buns strongly, waiting for you to move. But you were still uncertain. So he exhaled and raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong, Amy? I thought you hated me, yet you don't even want to choke me with those thighs? I thought you wanted to kill me?"

It was a cheap trick to rile you up. Cheap, but it worked. You let yourself drop down completely, not holding any of your weight back. It felt weird at first, you felt pretty self-conscious, but then Taehyung's arms secured you around him and his tongue slipped inside you, and you didn't have the right mind to worry about anything else. You pushed even further down, trying to get him even deeper. He squeezed and pinched your things, moving your hips as best as he could to get you to grind on his face. And once you felt how nicely your clit rubbed on him, it was hard to do otherwise.

You held onto his hips for leverage to thrust against his tongue, as you could feel the feeling inside your tummy growing rapidly. And you moaned his name like a prayer. He pushed you off him just for a second enough to take a breath before he was pressing his mouth on your sensitive bud. His tongue flat on you to let you move against it in the way it felt best for you. Voice getting higher and higher as you got closer and closer, Taehyung smacking your ass again to make you scream. And with just one more hit, you were gushing all over his face, legs, and hips shaking violently as you fell over on him.

He remained lapping at you, cleaning you up, until you got so sensitive you had to pull yourself away. You got up and suddenly remembered to check on him. "Are you okay?"

He gave you one of those boxy grins, his eyes almost closing completely by how hard he was smiling. "Couldn't be better."

"Your face is all red." He looked like he had nearly died from asphyxiation. But he kept grinning.

"To be completely honest, I did forget for a moment to breathe. But that's not your fault. It was just too good to stop." With that he sat up and swung his legs to the side, in front of you, looking up at you.

You had to laugh. His whole approach to the moment, and even his bright red face with his hair all chaotic framing it, made you feel a lot more at ease. He seemed so happy for what he had just done. Almost like he had enjoyed it more than you.

"I have never met anyone who likes this so much as you," you admitted with another giggle.

Taehyung got up finally, looking around the room to find the discarded clothing items and get dressed. "Well, you have been dating all the wrong guys then," he said matter-of-factly before he found his briefs and jumped into them. He turned to look at you again. "See, this is what happens when you have standards and won't go for someone like me."

"I'm with you right now."

"Yeah, but you still won't date me." His words made you frown momentarily. Because they sounded slightly like a complaint. Or like a wish in disguise. But before you could have the chance to think twice, he cleared his throat and started putting on his pants, the eye-contact over. "Let's go shower and then eat something. This doesn't count as breakfast."

The atmosphere was awkward, only for a little, because then you occupied yourselves enough with dressing up, and going upstairs, and getting in that shower. You didn't shower together, chose the separate bathrooms instead. Which, you thought, was for the best; he might have already seen you naked but that was only while having sex. You didn't know if you were comfortable enough to be in your birthday suit and just... exist like that around him. But you still couldn't stop thinking about him. About what he would look like with all the water hitting his face. How you would like to shampoo his hair just to be able to hold him more intimately like that. Or for him to help you scrub your back and brush your hair. Generally, showering with someone else was another one of those things you didn't do much.

You heard the doorknob turn, and it brought butterflies to your stomach, thinking he had come to find you after all. But no one came in. You peeked your head around the curtain and the door was still closed. The shadows moving on the floor betrayed someone had just walked by, but he was still not entering.

"Taehyung?" you called but got no answer. Had he changed his mind?

You finished that shower alone. When you returned to your room, you found your phone was on your bed. You blinked at it, confused as to how it could be in such plain sight, and yet you still hadn't been able to find it yesterday. You grabbed it to see if you had any more notifications, and found a couple more missed calls from Yoonji. Oh, she would kill you for not responding earlier. Thankfully, you found just enough signal -you still hadn't been able to predict when or how that happened- and you called back. But she didn't answer. And when you called a second time, she still didn't answer. There was no way Yoonji was anywhere away from her phone; she must have just gotten mad at you for not calling earlier and ignoring your calls. But what would you even say? That your phone magically disappeared and reappeared today? And that you were too busy, what with fearing for your life and the sex and all?

"What did you want to talk about?" you sent her a text. Whatever. If she can hold a grudge against you over this petty thing, then it couldn't have been anything too important. Let her reply whenever she wanted to.

Taehyung had already served some breakfast when you got down, but at least this time it wasn't anything too extravagant, had simply opted for some toasted bread with marmalade, a boiled egg, and orange juice. You talked about his work and your studies, almost like making small talk. Like you would if you were meeting for the first time. Which is so odd; the two of you really just do everything the other way around, don't you?

What was making things uncomfortable was the fact that the two of you weren't fighting anymore. You certainly weren't used to that. But at the same time, you weren't exactly okay. Sure, you talked and spent your time together, you cooked and ate your breakfast and lunch, you played games and even cuddled sometimes. But it was all a little tricky. Because you had to be careful not to enjoy yourselves too much and let any emotions slip and show, or be too weird and ruin what you had managed to get. You almost felt guilty for liking being around him. But at the same time, you almost didn't want your days there to end.

You didn't want to go back to your reality, to your routine. Back to where you didn't talk and hated each other. But that would require you to admit it out loud first, and you definitely weren't about to do that.

"Amy?" Taehyung called for you after he had gone upstairs to get something and you had parted ways for a good five minutes. Five minutes and you already wanted to be in the same space again.

"In the kitchen," you shouted to let him know where you were. You were making both of you some afternoon tea since you had liked it last time. And yes, you wanted another excuse to keep him around you.

The photographer came jogging into the room with a grin on. "Look what I found!" he exclaimed, raising his hands to reveal a camera. A very old-looking camera.

"That's not yours?"

He shook his head excitedly. "No! I found it in that room with all those antiques!" With two steps he appeared right next to you, showing the tool around like a little kid that had just gotten a new Lego set. "Loot at this baby! It's a Japanese Arsen from the 1940s! This is insane, I don't think they realize how good this is if they just have it laying around here."

You chuckled. You had never seen Taehyung so enthusiastic. You knew, of course, that he must love photography and the such, but he always seemed more of a show-off about it than having a genuine passion for it. And seeing anyone talk about their passions, even if you don't understand a word about them, is sure to make your heart warm up.

"And get the best part," he went on. "I have a film with me that I think can work with this!"

"You do? You just carry around old film with you like that?"

Taehyung started picking the camera apart, opening up things you didn't quite understand to check whatever he needed to. "I am in the middle of using different models of analog cameras for a festival of 100 years of photography that we got going on in two months. So, yeah, I have a variety of films with me right now." He finally set the machine on the counter and looked back at you. "I don't have the exact film this would normally take, which would be a Vest Pocket film that's black and white, right? But I do have a Rera Chrome 100, and they're both 127 format films, so it should work." You were just staring at him with a confused smile. "This is the only 127 film with color, too."

You felt like a grandma listening to her grandchildren talk about technology you didn't understand. But you were happy for him. "That's all very amazing!" you finally said. "Are you gonna take pictures?"

"Yeah, I was thinking we could try to. The camera seems good to me, I think it should be working," he mumbled more to himself, taking another look at it. "You wanna go catch fairies with this thing?"

His words caught you a bit off guard. "What? Fairies?"

"Well, you know, the rain finally stopped and they always come out afterward, like snails." You were pretty sure he was messing with you. But he did take your hand to pull you out of the kitchen. "All we need is a pretty bait, which is where you come in. You will sit between the flowers in the garden, I will take your pictures with this, and then when we develop them we can see if we managed to recreate that famous picture with the little girl hanging out with the fairies."

You chuckled. He was definitely messing with you about the fairies, but he still seemed pretty serious about the photoshoot.

"I thought fairies were bad," you responded right as he threw a coat over your shoulders to push you out of the front door.

"Depends on who you ask," he told you with a wink.

Everything outside was still damp, even the atmosphere somehow. There was the distinct smell of the rain and the fresh air probing your senses, and for the first time since you got there, the environment felt nice. Like anything bad had been washed away. The plants glowed a bit brighter, the trees swinging around more rhythmically. You almost felt like an intruder when Taehyung guided you through the garden. But he was great at making you feel more relaxed and confident to pose for him; helping people like that was part of his job, after all.

He shaped and forged you in all those different positions, steering your body, or your face and your eyes in the direction he needed, before snapping the few pictures the film provided. Always kissing you in between. Every time his lips hit yours, you almost got too distracted to remember what you were up to. But the cold breeze brought you back each time without fail. It was sad that you couldn't see the pictures right away; Taehyung swore they were gorgeous yet you were doubtful. You would have to wait to go back in town to prove him wrong, though. And that was only if you even talked again after that.

The afternoon carried on calmly. This time you didn't occupy yourselves with work or studying at all. The days that you had left there were getting fewer and fewer, and it was no secret that you wanted to enjoy each other's company; even if you would never admit it. So you just had that tea you had forgotten, played some more games, talked about this and that. It turns out you had a lot more in common than you would have guessed. And the conversation was easy as long as you didn't fight.

"Any ideas for dinner?" he asked you once it had started to get somewhat late.

You nodded immediately. You had already thought about this beforehand. "Yeah, pizza!"

"Pizza?"

You nodded again. "Yeah. You know, I used to date an Italian-American guy and he taught me the easiest way to make good pizza," you explained while you started walking towards the kitchen. "It's so easy even I can do it."

"Oh," Taehyung mumbled before following behind your step. "Used to date? Like, how long ago are we talking about?"

You chuckled at his clearly annoyed reaction, then peeped at him over your shoulder with a smirk. "Why do you care?"

He was quick to shrug. "I don't care," he insisted as he started engaging himself with anything he could find on the counter that had no real use. "It's just a little suspicious that you would just casually bring up your ex like that."

You were torn between laughing at him and rolling your eyes at his behavior. "Yeah, I brought him up because of the pizza. If I had just said I'll make us pizza I'm pretty sure you would have complained that I don't have the skills for that, so I offered an explanation."

Taehyung snorted. "It was unnecessary."

"Are you jealous?"

"No, why would I be jealous?" He was avoiding your eyes while you decided not to stall any longer and start getting the flour and the rest of the ingredients ready. "I'm just saying-" he kept talking behind you, "-people usually talk about their exes when they still have feelings for them. And if this is a recent relationship I don't want to get caught in between. I don't want any Italian-American dudes showing up, wanting smoke."

You couldn't help but chuckle, your tongue pressing on your cheek, and you finally humored him by glancing at him. "Tae, that's not going to happen. Don't worry, I'm not like you when it comes to relationships."

He didn't say anything else, simply helped you with anything you needed for dinner. He helped you with rolling out the dough, and cooking the sauce, and shredding the cheese. You were always thankful for the moments you were cooking or eating, because no matter what was going on with the two of you, these were moments of reconcilement every time.

You made two big pizzas and a smaller one. The crust was a bit thin, but you argued that it was the way Italians make it. In one of them, you played safe and simply used sauce and mozzarella cheese. On the next one, Taehyung got to decide the toppings, and he went with pretty much anything he could find that would work on a pizza. And on the smallest one, you had minimal sauce left and no cheese, so you just improvised with some spiciness and pepperonis. You really didn't know if you would be able to eat them, but Taehyung never complained.

The photographer fixed up the fireplace a bit so that you could go eat next to it again. And you're not sure if the food was actually pretty good or if you were just very hungry and in a good mood that couldn't be ruined easily, but you both ate everything fast until there wasn't even a crumb left. And you felt so proud of yourself. Treating Taehyung made you almost blush before you reminded yourself that he wasn't it; that he wasn't your boyfriend and all of this would be over the moment you left this house. That you shouldn't be feeling this way. Just because you liked the sex didn't mean you had to start liking the man, too.

"Wanna play beavers?" you asked him once you had finished and you didn't really have anything else to do. I mean, you did, but you couldn’t just ask that yet.

But Taehyung was busy with his phone, not even glancing at you. "Give me a second."

He had been on his phone for the past half an hour or so, on and off, and you had never seen him so glued to it before. It made you frown in curiosity. "Are you talking to someone?" you asked.

Taehyung nodded. "Yes, Jimin." His face was way too serious to be texting his best friend, and it made you worry a bit.

"Jimin?" you murmured, leaning closer like trying to peep at his screen, although that's not what you did. Was something wrong? Did Jimin know about you? Had something bad happened with Yoonji; is that why she wanted to talk to you? "What are you guys talking about?" you finally asked. Taehyung's jaw moved around as if he was chewing an invisible gum, and you weren’t sure what to do because you had never seen him like that. You leaned back away, feeling a little off. "Tae?"

"You," he said then.

It took you a second to realize what he was answering. "What?"

The photographer dropped his phone next to him, looking at you in the eyes at last. His scrutiny making you cower a little. "We're talking about you."

You gulped. "You told him what happened between us?"

He shook his head. "No. I didn't say anything." But it was clear that from his stance and his words, he was still not making any sense, so he carried on. "He is the one talking about you."

Somehow, that statement was worse than the one you had expected. You didn't know what Jimin could possibly be telling him, but it was certainly not anything good, given Taehyung's serious face. And suddenly your blood went cold, trying to think of anything wrong that you might have done. And you were so scared, and you didn't even know why. Were you scared of disappointing him? Of ruining the little that you had with him? Why did the idea of Taehyung being mad at you, make you feel so bad?

"Wha- what is he saying?"

He clicked his tongue. "Can I ask you something…?” he mumbled, straightening his back and rubbing his chin. “You keep saying your not like me when it comes to relationships. And you’re still mad about what I did three years ago. But what did you do then?”

You gulped. You had no idea what he was referring to, but somehow you already felt guilty. “What do you mean? What did I do?”

Taehyung leaned in closer to you. “I mean, you obviously hated me. How did you handle that? Very… maturely, like you constantly try to pretend to do?”

You huffed. “Just get to the point, dude. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The corner of his lips twitched, almost like he was about to smile, even though it was clear his mood was anything but cheerful, while his eyes bored into yours dangerously. And he took his time replying, either waiting for you to admit whatever it was he wanted to hear first, or simply to keep you sweating. And then he finally sighed. “You made up a rumor about me, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t what you suspected he would say, and for a split second, you frowned, confused by his words. “What? What rumor- what are you saying? I’ve never done such a thing.” You didn’t get all the way defensive like you normally would because even though you couldn’t understand what was going on straight away, you still felt that guilt in your stomach.

The photographer chuckled in the darkest way you had ever heard. “Oh, so you’re telling me you didn’t spread around that I had the smallest dick ever?”

You choked. “Wha- no, I- I didn’t…”

“Oh, please. Yoonji said so herself.”

You couldn’t lie; you knew exactly what he was referring to. Had you said those exact words before? Yes. Had the rumors spread around so much that everyone on campus knew about them and they eventually reached back to you? Also yes. But had you intended for that to happen? Absolutely not. You had simply told a friend of yours and then Taehyung’s reputation did the rest; he was in the spotlight, everyone was talking and wanting to know more about him.

“I wasn’t trying to spread any rumors,” you tried to excuse yourself. But the boy was already shaking his head at you, not exactly seeming to want to listen to you. “It wasn’t my fault. I just told one girl and then she-”

“But you didn’t even know!” he interrupted you with a bitter laugh. “You never saw me, you just straight-up lied. Why would you tell anyone something like that?” He didn’t sound hurt, nor angry. He mostly sounded disappointed and that was so much worse.

You definitely didn’t like fighting with Taehyung when you were clearly the one at fault. “To be fair-” you kept talking even when he wasn’t paying any attention to you, “-when I said you had a small dick, I meant metaphorically. As in you had small dick energy. 'Cause you were a cheating little shit.”

He scoffed. “You know I don’t actually care about that.” Saying that, he got up and you were immediately on your feet as well. “I never cared about those rumors, we both know how fake they are.” He paused and leaned closer to your face. “What I care about is that you started them,” he whispered, and it was so much worse than if he had chosen to yell instead. “That you keep pretending you’re oh-so-perfect and I’m the asshole who deserves nothing but hate. When all this time you were just as guilty.”

Your entire face burned, your fists so tight you could feel your nails digging in your palms. All because he was right and you hated being put in that situation. “I said- I didn’t actually mean to-”

“Tell me, if my dick’s so small, why can’t you get enough of it?”

Your jaw dropped dramatically. “I-”

“And you can’t stop screaming my name when I fuck you?”

You were pretty sure he was just trying to rile you up, and you shouldn’t just let him succeed that easily. But, god damnit, he was good at everything he was doing. Whether that was getting on your nerves or turning you on. “Gosh, I hate you!”

He laughed at you. “If you hate me so much, why can’t you keep your hands to yourself?”

He had gotten so close to you, starring down at you with a smirk, and at that point, you weren’t even sure what his mood was. Was he angry, trying to make you so, too? Or was he trying to get something else out of you? You pushed him back, the proximity choking you. “I’m the one who can’t keep my hands to herself?” you mocked. “Might I remind you who was begging me to touch him this morning?”

Taehyung licked his lips as he looked away. “Might I remind you who was thanking me for making her cum so hard last night?”

You snarled, stomping your foot on the floor. “And might I remind you who tried to get in the shower with me ‘cause he still hadn’t had enough?”

His smile faltered. And then he slightly frowned. “Not me.”

“Yes, you!”

But Taehyung shook his head, keeping up the amused look on his face. “I only joked about it, I didn’t actually do it,” he mumbled with his frown still on, confused as to why you were bringing it up. “It doesn’t count.”

Yet you pressed on. “Oh, come on, you didn’t just joke about it, you did it!”

“Did not.”

“Did too!” you insisted. “I heard you when you tried to get in the bathroom while I was showering, Taehyung. You can’t lie to me.”

Taehyung lost his smile completely. And he looked at you seriously, his frown deepening. “You heard what?”

“The doorknob,” you announced, with a smug look.

But the photographer’s expression didn’t change. “Amy, that wasn’t me. I didn’t go anywhere near the west wing today.”

The arrogance left you within a second, your face turning pale and your eyes wide, as they stared into his very similar ones. “Stop,” you murmured.

“What?”

“Stop playing!” you whined suddenly in a high-pitched voice.

But Taehyung raised his hands defensively. “I’m not! Amy, I swear, I’m not joking. I don’t know-”

Before he had time to finish his sentence, you threw your body on his, gripping his shirt tightly in your fists, holding onto him like your life depended on it. Perhaps it did. "Tae!” you cried. “Someone tried to get in the bathroom while I was showering! Taehyung, there was someone-”

“Are you sure?” he simply asked you, his eyes searching yours with worry. You knew he wasn’t lying by the way he was genuinely concerned, too. By the way his arms wrapped around you like he was trying to protect you.

You nodded frantically. “Yes! Tae, I’m telling you, someone turned the doorknob to get in, but then didn’t.”

“Maybe you got confused and thought that’s what happened, but…” Taehyung tried to say. He wasn’t saying that to invalidate your words or doubt you. He, too, was trying to think of a logical explanation as you were freaking out in his embrace.

“No, I’m 100% sure. I heard it, I saw it! Someone was outside the door, Taehyung, and they tried to get in!” Before you knew it, you had tears threatening to fall down your cheeks. “I thought it was you, I called your name. But no one responded.”

His fingers brushed your hair behind your ears as he talked in the most soothing voice he could muster. “Alright, alright. I believe you, Ames.”

“There was somebody, or- or something in here!” you continued wailing.

“Maybe it was a cleaning lady-”

“What cleaning lady, Tae?” you shrieked. “Have you seen any ladies in here?”

But he held your face firmer, forcing you to look into his eyes. “It must have been. Maybe she wanted to get in the bathroom, realized you were inside, and left.”

You sniffed at him, looking over your shoulder to check the room as if you would find anything out of place. “That’s just wishful thinking and you know it.” Then you buried your face right into his chest, your grip tightening. “This place is haunted! This place is haunted and we’re gonna die!”

He let you go just so that he could grab your wrists and pull your hands away from your face so that he could look at you. “Amy, no,” he rasped. “No one’s gonna die.”

“I want to leave,” you whined again, your tears blocking your view and unable to meet Taehyung’s concerned eyes. But you could still feel his thumb caressing your cheek, whipping those tears away. And it still calmed you down as much as possible.

“Hey, okay,” Taehyung mumbled before he started walking towards the door while pulling you with him. “Okay, okay…” he kept repeating under his breath as he led you through the corridor and toward the main hall. You were confused as to what he was doing until he reached for that old phone sitting on a small coffee table.

“What are you doing?” you asked. “Are you calling the owners?” Your sniffs and sobs died down, seeing more clearly now as you watched Taehyung roll in the number that was written on a card next to the phone without looking at you.

“Yes, we need to get to the bottom of this,” he stated as he raised the phone to his ear.

“Tae, why are you calling the people at this hour? You will disturb them,” you almost whispered.

But he shook his head sternly. “No, it’s more important that you feel safe. Plus, they did say we could call any time.” Before you could say another thing, Taehyung started speaking on the phone. “Good evening, I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you. Yeah, no, everything’s alright. I was just calling to ask you about the housekeepers. Yeah. Do you know if they came in this morning?”

The conversation was making you a little uncomfortable; you were never the kind to confront people at work. But just the act on behalf of Taehyung was already making you feel better. “What’re they saying?” you mouthed, and he glanced at you, his hold on your hand getting a bit stronger as though to console you.

“No, nothing’s lost. We just had a situation; we didn’t see anyone here and I wanted to know around what time they’re here.” He was nodding along to whatever the woman on the other end of the line was telling him. And while he listened, his thumb started drawing circles over your hand absentmindedly. “Yes, I think one of them tried to get in the bathroom while my friend was there- No, no, nothing like that. She was just curious to know if it was one of them. Yes. Yes, I understand.” Taehyung gave you another look, noticing how your teeth were digging into your lip, and smiled at you. “Could you? Thank you, that would be great. Yes, thank you. Have a nice evening.”

And with that, he hung up. And he turned completely toward you and smiled brighter. But he wasn’t saying anything; just looked at you like he was admiring your beauty like he forgot you were still anxiously waiting for the results of the conversation. “So?” you asked.

Taehyung leaned in and gave you a peck on the lips, holding your face with both hands. “They were here this morning and the lady said one of them probably tried to get in the bathroom to get some cleaning supplies. She said she will ask and tomorrow morning they will talk to us, okay?”

You chewed on your lip as you watched his face so close to yours. This all sounded so ridiculous suddenly; they had seriously called in for something like that? But Taehyung didn’t once make you feel like you were overreacting. He didn’t see it like that. He thought you had every right to be scared, you had every right to feel panic. And he would do anything to calm you down, to make you feel protected, as well as actually protect you if he had to. His whole stance and presence made you feel at ease.

You wrapped your arms around him and hugged him tightly. “Yes. Thank you,” you murmured against his neck.

You heard him take in a deep breath like he was trying to take in all of your aroma as if it would be his last chance. And then he sighed as he exhaled. “Don’t go anywhere, Amy. It’s more dangerous for you to leave right now.” It was a long way home on a muddy road with no lights or anything close-by for help. Late at night, with rain threatening to pick up soon and a terrible signal. Of course he didn’t want to let you go of his arms.

You shook your head a bit, still buried in the crook on his neck. “I know. I won’t leave.” You had managed to calm down a surprisingly good deal. Even though you had nothing more of an answer as to what was happening in that Manor than you did earlier when you were just guessing, it felt good enough. Taehyung was there, ready to help you in any way he could, and it was enough.

“We should just forget about this and go to sleep,” he whispered before pulling away to look at you. “Then we can see what happens in the morning, okay?” You almost started to get nervous again, your fingers gripping his shirt immediately. Without having to say anything, the photographer noticed the change in your eyes. “Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to hurt you, I will be right here to keep you safe all night. Okay?”

You pouted. “You won’t leave me alone?”

He immediately shook his head. “No, not at all, baby. I won’t leave you from my sight for a second.”

He led you to his room on the east wing, a bigger and darker room than your own. Yet somehow it felt safer, too. Perhaps because Taehyung’s energy was all over the place. A pretty and slightly scary at first room, but once inside, it’s inviting and better than the rest. That was definitely Taehyung’s energy.

He had you seated on the king-sized bed with the raven covers while he locked the door, then pushed a dresser in front of it as well, for good measure. He drew the curtains in front of the balcony door and lit up a couple of lamps around the room to make sure you would have light even after switching off the main one. And after having affirmed time and time again that you felt as safe as possible in there with him, he came to meet you in the bed. To give you another peck on the lips and hold your face a few seconds more. Looking at you like it would be the last time he would be able to.

“Let me give you something more comfortable to wear,” he offered when he noticed your jeans and how neither of you had thought about making a stop to your room before coming here.

You pointed at the shirt he was wearing. “Can I have this?” You didn’t want just anything, you wanted something that had his scent still all over it. To make you feel like you were being hugged by the boy himself.

Taehyung nodded. There was no way he would say no to you, and it wasn’t even because of the panic attack you had had earlier. In actuality, he had more or else been treating you like that from the beginning of your days here. Like deep down it was the only way he wanted to act around you; even if he liked to tease or rile you up every now and then. He probably only did that just to play into your idea of him and not scare you away with his affection.

Taehyung took off both his shirt and pants, getting in bed just with his briefs on. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said, licking his lips. You didn’t mind, but it did make you a bit flustered. Ridding yourself from your clothing too, you put on his shirt and joined him.

He immediately turned you into the little spoon, snaking his limbs around your body and caging you against his. He nuzzled his nose in your neck, giving you a couple of kisses right under your ear, but other than that there was nothing sexual about his advance. He simply held you close to keep you safe like he had promised. Cuddling into you like it was something so natural, like you had been doing it for years. And his breath on your skin felt like company, his heartbeat on your back like a lullaby, his warmth and entire presence like a shield.

It almost ached you how good you felt at that moment. Good because you loved being with Taehyung, and ached because you wouldn’t be with him for much longer.

You cleared your throat, the sound filling the quiet room entirely. “I’m sorry I spread rumors about your penis,” you whispered, hanging your head low.

A low rumble of a laugh was heard muffled from behind you. “It’s alright,” Taehyung reassured you, holding you tighter. “Even with rumors like that, every girl still wanted to fuck me. And then they could be met with a pleasant surprise, right?”

You rolled your eyes as you could tell he just wanted to make you say it. “Right…” you admitted, without going into further detail about how big he actually was. “But still, I shouldn’t have talked bad about you just because I was mad.”

He continued chuckling, clearly finding your apology amusing. Maybe because he didn’t actually see the need for one, had already moved past the subject. “It’s really fine. Plus, they only lasted a couple of months before I completely disproved them.”

You rolled your eyes again. “By fucking the entire campus.”

“You have to do what you have to do.”

You knew it was a joke but it still served as a pretty good reminder of the fuckboy he really was. Of how different the two of you really were, on a fundamental level, even if staying in that house together had overshadowed that a bit.

“You haven’t been in an actual relationship since I’ve met you, have you?” you asked, not sure why.

Taehyung ran his nose up and down the slope of your neck for a couple of seconds like a predator circling his prey. “No,” he admitted then. “Relationships aren’t really my thing.”

“Not surprising.”

“What about you?” His hands were stroking your body, not in an erotic way, simply just feeling you up while he still could.

“I only do relationships,” you replied. “One-night-stands aren’t really my thing.”

See? Fundamentally different. Even if you didn’t have everything that was already holding you back, you would still probably never work. And no, the one week on vacation here doesn’t count. Because when you are trapped away in a Victorian Manor, with no other communications, in a world so contrasting to your actual routine, with a promise that when it’s all over, it really is… all over. Then you are bound to act some type of way. You are bound to seak the other’s company, you are bound to forget about the rules, you are bound to give yourself in for a romance with an expiration date. Right?

“I’m glad you made an exception for me, then,” Taehyung whispered in your ear. And you couldn’t help but turn to look at him.

Exception. Because this wasn’t a relationship; this wasn’t going to last. Whether it would end tomorrow or the day after that barely even mattered. What mattered was that the photographer and you were a one-time thing. A one-in-a-million thing. A thing that would never, ever repeat itself. And if you liked kissing him and wanted to do it for a bit longer, you had to keep it to yourself. And if you didn’t even want this night to dawn so that you never had to leave, you couldn’t admit it aloud. And if you wished you were his exception instead, you had to just accept you weren’t.

You closed the tiny gap between you and kissed him; softly. Because this might be your last chance to do so. And he let his lips be guided in your rhythm, dipped a hand through your hair to pull you as close as you wanted to be. You couldn’t entirely see the point of indulging in an act that made your stomach rouse like never before, when you knew how it would end. Why would you let yourself get used to something so sweet, when you know you’ll only ever be chasing that high from then on? Then again, you couldn’t stop. You kept kissing him, deeper and firmer, because why wouldn’t you indulge in this while you could?

Even as your kiss became more passionate, your bodies squirming and pressing against one another more desperately, this continued to be the softest you had ever been with him. Almost like there was something more than lust at play there. And even though you could feel his dick hardening on your hip, and your panties soaking up in your wetness, even though you both clearly wanted more, neither made that move. Your lips and tongues were enough; you wanted to take your time to memorize exactly how that alone felt.

And when you had plenty of that, you straddled him gently to press down on his erection with your wet core.

“Ah, Amy,” he moaned, his mouth dropping open. “Fuck me.” It was a kind request, the man’s brain having rotten from desire and you appearing like his sole savior in the moment. His hands traveled down your body, to hold your thighs as you ground on him, sneak under his shirt and pull it over your head. Then they reached your breasts, massaging them like a kid messing with playdough. “Baby, use me.”

You growled as you pressed down on him harder, throwing your head back. Your fingers ran through his hair and you pulled it, making him whine. You loved those eager sounds he made so much. You couldn’t imagine never hearing them again.

You didn’t want to waste any more time. “Do you have a condom?”

He sighed, biting his lip with a pained expression like he just remembered, too. “I- I don’t. Only had one in my wallet, didn’t exactly think I’d get some here.”

It was clear he felt bad, thinking that meant you would stop. And he was ready to accept it. But you were too far gone for that. You couldn’t give two fucks if you had protection or not; there was nothing stopping you from feeling him where you wanted him tonight.

“It’s okay,” you said, surprising him a bit. And right away, you pulled his briefs down to free his cock that stood hard against his lower abdomen. “Just tell me before you cum.” And, with a swift movement, you pushed your panties to the side and lined him up with your entrance.

Taehyung, still somewhat processing what you were doing, widened his eyes and growled when his naked head brushed on your wet pussy. He quite literally howled as you started slowly sinking on him, spasming from how good you felt around him. And you were close to doing the same. You weren’t sure if it was the rawness of it, the intimacy of your treatment earlier, or the adrenaline from even before that, but Taehyung inside you felt so good you almost orgasmed before even bottoming out, your eyes rolling to the back of your head and your lips digging in your bottom lip.

“Gosh, princess, I love— this so much,” Taehyung moaned once he could feel all of you, his dick curved inside and pressing straight on your cervix. “Fuck yourself on my cock.”

As by his order, you started rocking up and down. Arching your back to move back and forth smoothly, and in circles, and in any way that made your man make those delicious sounds. His hands held you like you were something to worship, a goddess, as he helped you in your movements. Until you were dripping sweat and your knees hurt so much you fell forward to crush your body on his. That’s when he hugged you and started thrusting up inside you, all while kissing your forehead sweetly. You ground on him, trying to get your clit to rub against his pubic bone in order to build up your climax.

“Good girl,” Taehyung purred in your ear. Because he knew you were close, and he knew how much his words and his voice affected you. He wanted to push you over the edge with just that. “You make me feel so good, baby.” You whined in response. “You and your perfect, little cunt. Feels so good wrapped around me like that.” And you whined again, picking up the pace of grinding against him, chasing your high. “I want to feel you cumming on me, princess. Want your cum all over my bare dick.”

In his attempt to make you orgasm, his thrust became deeper and harder, and they were immediately attacking your g-spot. You cried out loud, the sensation of it along with the constant stimulation of your clit being a little too much. Your pending climax suddenly felt like so much you tried to hold back. “Tae-” you whined, trying to push back.

But his arms held you down on him more firmly. “No, no, don’t fight it. Give me everything you got.” And he continued to hit that spot inside you, pressing two fingers on your clit as well. And you had an orgasm building upon orgasm, and it was getting uncontrollably big. “Give it to me.” Your mouth fell open in a cry as you reached beyond the point of going back, yet still tried to hold it in. But Taehyung kept thrusting, kept begging. “Please, baby, please cum on me.”

How could you refuse that? You spilled on him before you could understand what was happening, screaming his name at the top of your lungs as more and more spurt sprayed out of you and onto his stomach, like it was never-ending. The high you were ridding was never-ending. A high you had never experienced before, a high you didn’t want to get off, a high sure to make you fall in love.

“That was so hot-” It was the first thing you heard after who knows how long. After you managed to recollect your mind and see in front of you again. And then you realized Taehyung was no longer inside of you; he had pulled you off him and released his own cum against your ass while you were blacked out.

When you looked down, it was a mess. You quickly got off him. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” you said.

“Princess, what are you apologizing for?” Taehyung grabbed your arm to pull you back close to him. He kissed your lips softly. “You looked like you had such fun, never apologize for that.

You bit your lip as your eyes were still glued on his glistening belly. “I… I think I… Did I just squirt?”

Taehyung smiled at your innocent and shocked expression. “You did. And I liked it so much.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Was that your first time?” he asked when he saw you were still processing everything. And when you nodded shyly, he pulled you in for another soft kiss. “First of many to come,” he said.

Almost like he was promising he would be there to make sure that was the case.

The bed was big enough for you to lazily clean yourselves and roll to a drier side to sleep. Taehyung wrapped his arms and legs around you again, the same way he had done before, nuzzling into you like you were a teddy bear. And you closed your eyes and allowed yourself to melt and mold against his body in a way that it would be the perfect fit.

The fear of the haunted Manor forgotten. The only thing on your minds being each other.  

Next Chapter

[jinmukangwrites]

Nightwing BTHB: Slowly Running Out Of Air

Star / Done // Moon / Requested // Eye / Next

Ao3

Summary: Dick wakes up chained to the bottom of a pit. Then, it starts filling up.

Warnings: Kidnapping, Hopeless Situations, Permanent Injury, Amputation, Blood, Drowning

---

To nobody's surprise, waking up is absolutely a bitch. 

He groans and shifts, trying to find his bearings, and the first thing he notices is that there's a rattling of clinking metal as his foot moves. Morbidly curious, Dick peeks his eyes open; all he sees is his own hand and a metal wall. 

Dick's head pounds like one of the seven dwarfs got stuck in his skull and is trying to mine themself out through his eye sockets. Dick wouldn't be surprised if that dwarf was named Grumpy. 

One thing this is helpful for is that he can immediately tell that he's Nightwing. There's no other time in his daily life he would wear black gloves with blue stripes going down his middle fingers. 

His causon immediately rises with this new information. Nightwing waking up somewhere like this—with a headache, on the ground, with the sound of what's most likely chains, is never good. 

He risks shifting again, making it seem like he's groggily beginning to wake up from whatever drug he's been hit with just in case someone is watching. There's definitely chains clinking down by his feet, specifically his left ankle. 

He peeks his eyes open to better survey his location, however all that he discovers is more rusted metal walls and floor of the same material. The wall is rounded and about a foot and a half from his face. When he stretches his leg that's not connected to the chains, he hits the wall behind him. He glances up, and sure enough the walls around him expand upwards what must be a little less than fifteen feet. There's a grate laying over the mouth of the walls, showing more ceiling higher up and shrouded in shadows. 

He's chained to the bottom of a metal pit. 

This doesn't sound good at all. 

He closes his eyes and stills, trying to figure out where he is and what he was doing to end up here. He was obviously doing something on patrol… perhaps a mission? He's not sure, the drugs in his system, while milder than most he's woken up with before, is making it really hard to recall much of anything. Honestly, the last thing he remembers is getting a phone call from Jason. 

He slows his breathing, stilling so that he looks asleep to anyone watching. 

Come on Dick. Just retrace your steps. You got a phone call from Jason... You answered… there was a hole in your sock. He wanted… what did Jason want…

"Big bird?" A voice calls, the tones becoming distorted as it echoes down the metal pit. "You up?"

"… Hood?" Dick tries, opening his eyes and looking up. Jason doesn't sound hurt or particularly startled, but Dick can't see anything above him other than the grating and the ceiling. 

"I've been up for the past half hour," Jason's explains, "m'not hurt. But no one's come yet."

Dick nods to himself. So they've been captured together, but their captors might not be watching. "You in a pit too?" Dick asks, slowly working himself up so he's sitting. 

He grabs onto the wall for balance when he gets to his feet. There's a heavy shackle definitely around his ankle, one that's not coming off without the key or very specific tools. It's tight too, he can feel it squeezing awkwardly against his tendons and bone. The chain connecting the shackle to an eye-hook in the floor looks several feet long, wound up in a neat pile on the floor to his side.

"No, tied to a chair up here," Jason answers as Dick begins to take stock of himself. He's been close to completely disarmed of anything useful. The only things he can find stock of is a few wingdings, some smoke pallets, his escrima sticks…

The things that are missing include his stash of small explosives, his rebreather, and his lockpicking set. Three things he's usually good at remembering to pack. 

"Do you know what happened?" Dick asks as he bends down to inspect the chains and the eye-hook. The chains are almost a half inch in diameter and expertly wielded. The chains have bits of rust here and there, but none that would suggest breakage any time soon. The eye-hook is probably his best bet, as it's thick and heavy-duty, but clearly just screwed into the floor. 

"You don't remember?" Jason scoffs, amusement in his tone. Dick grins, Jason either doesn't know or he, himself, needed some time to recall. "We were going through the Narrows before we got sniped by tranqes."

Dick brings his hand up to the bit of skin that's exposed to his neck where he immediately feels a sharp pinch of pain from what's definitely irritated skin thanks to a barbed dart being yanked out from it's target. 

That's right. They were sniped. It was just a simple patrol together, just for the heck of it, and next thing Dick knew he was collapsing to the ground with his body feeling floaty and far away. 

He huffs. "Why can't Gotham criminals ever be normal?" 

Jason snorts in response. 

Dick kneels down by the eye-hook and wraps his hands around it, looking for the best grasp despite the awkward shape and angle. Once he feels like he has an okay enough grasp, he begins to turn. 

It doesn't budge. 

"How stuck are you?" Dick calls before trying again at the hook. 

It still doesn't move as Jason answers—it must be glued in somehow. "Pretty stuck. Chair's bolted to the ground, used way too much duct-tape, took everything useful."

Dick opens his mouth to ask how likely Jason thinks he'd be able to escape on his own, but then something groans within the walls of the pit. 

"The hell?" Jason murmurs. 

"Uh, Hood?" Dick calls anxiously, walking over to where the noise came from. He places his hands on the wall and frowns at the distant rumblings under his fingertips.

Jason answers with a frustrated and cautious voice. "There's a TV on the wall in front of me, it just turned on."

Dick hums and looks down at the seam where the wall meets the floor. He frowns when he notices small sections of grating; thin but strong graphs of wire cover small little holes in the wall, barely three inches in diameter. 

However, when he turns around, he counts about 8 of these holes. 

"The quality is really bad," Jason continues, "but I think it's of you."

"What's going on?" Dick looks up and sure enough, what looks to be a small and cheap looking knockoff of a GoPro sits taped to the grating above him. 

Before either he or Jason can say anything more, the almost mechanical groaning in the walls becomes louder and then Dick finds out what those little holes near his feet are for. 

Water pours through each hole, immediately sloshing around his shoes. Panic and understanding shoots adrenalin through his veins, he kneels down in the water that's already around his ankles and forces one of his wingdings into the middle of the eye-hook, using it as a handle for him to better turn. 

At least the water isn't cold. 

"Wing?" Jason calls, and Dick grunts as the hook stays stubbornly in place. "What's going on? I can't see anything."

One of Dick's hands slips in the water and he curses, bringing his hand up to see the fabric of his gloves cut through. "They're filling it with water."

"You for real?!" 

Instead of answering, Dick tries again to break the eye-hook. Nothing works, all he does is cut the skin of his palms. 

He swears colorfully as he stands back up, glaring down through the water that's now to the middle of his shins and contemplates kicking the hook, however he has a feeling that all he's going to accomplish is gaining an aching foot. He looks up at the grating. 

"Let's say, hypothetically, that I managed to throw a wingding at you, would you have any chances of catching it and getting out?" 

Jason's silent for a beat. "Maybe. If you throw it right at me. Also I hate that you call those that."

Dick rolls his eyes and adjusts his footing, looking at the chain and trying to calculate how heavy it's going to be. He should be fine. He just needs to rise with the water to a point where he can reach the grating. Once Jason's free, he should be able to help get Dick out of this literal death trap.

He explains his plan to Jason, and while it doesn't sound as thought out as it should be, it's still all that they've got. 

That water slips over his knees, up his hips, to his chest, and eventually above his shoulders. 

Once it became impossible to stand any longer, Dick forced himself to begin a steady tread despite the chain around his ankle. He knows the higher the water rises, the more heavy the chain will become...

But he's strong. He's good at swimming. With the amount of times he's been tossed into various harbors, he has to be. 

"Wing?" Jason calls around when Dick has risen with the water to about the halfway point. Dick's left leg already burns from the strain of the chain, but he's been doing alright so far. 

"Just focus on escaping, little wing," Dick calls, kicking his unshackled leg furiously as the weight on the other drags him under for just a moment. 

The water continues to rise, and soon it becomes almost unbearable to continue swimming like this. But he has to. If he doesn't, he'll sink and drown. 

Eventually, just as his legs are beginning to go numb with strain, he manages to hook the tips of his fingers around the grating above him. With a shot of adrenalin, he realizes that this is it. This is his last shot. It all amounts to these last moments whether he'll manage to escape, or if this is where he dies. 

It's moments like these where he never feels more alive. 

He forces his hands to get a better grasp as he already holds one of his meager stash of wingdings in his grasp. He works to lift himself up into the small few feet of air above the water, but he only goes up a couple inches before he's violently stopped by a tugging on his left leg. 

Dick's stomach sinks. 

"Uh, Hood?" He calls, forcing the coming panic out of his voice as the water steadily rises higher. The ripples tickle his Adam's apple.  "I can't- I can't get higher. You're going to have to help me aim."

"Alright," Jason says, his voice calm, which must mean Dick's unsuccessfully managed to keep his cool. "Follow my voice, I think I'm to your left."

Dick nods slightly to himself, but not too much because his chin would dip in the water that way. Working the grate like it's a set of monkey bars, Dick turns step by step until Jason tells him to stop. He keeps one hand white knuckled on the bars and then brings his other hand up as far as it can go, the wingding resting in his dripping fingers. 

The shackle digs into his ankle as he tries to tug himself more upwards. 

"Okay, a little to your right," Jason instructs, and Dick does as he's told. "Kay, aim up, alright?"

"Yeah," Dick gasps, his chin slapping the water. "Right."

He throws the wingding to the best of his limited abilities. He knows he misses when Jason makes a small growling noise. 

"Put more power into it."

Dick can't help it. He lets out a burst of hysterical laughter. Power? He can barely move as it is, the only power that he's going to get with his hand just over the bars of the grate is going to come from his wrist. 

Regardless, Dick brings his hand down and grabs another one of his weapons. He counts in a blink of an eye that he only has five. 

He tries again, following Jason's instructions, and this time he gets closer to his younger brother, but it curves to the left and lands itself, apparently, into the screen of the TV. Breaking it.

"You're fine, big bird," Jason says, "you're gonna be fine. Let's just try again."

Dick can't respond. The water is brushing against his upper lip. If he could respond, he's sure he might laugh again at how hopeless this all is. 

He tries again, and all he can hear is Jason saying it slid under his chair before the water completely rises above his ears. Dick's just managing to strain and keep his nose above the surface, but already if he breathes too loudly droplets will try to suck into his lungs. 

He has two wingdings left. He can barely properly aim, and he can't even hear Jason all too well either. 

He sucks in a breath and holds it just as the water rises over his nose. 

He tries. He really tries to keep his calm and aim at Jason once again with muscle memory. He's been in deathtraps before. 

Yet, the second he lifts his second to last wingding, the water stops rising right near his elbows. Just above his head. 

And how cruel is that? 

He doesn't know if he can risk this. If he aims and fires his last two wingdings completely blind like this and misses, then it's over. 

He can hold his breath longer than most. But it doesn't matter how long he can hold his breath if he's chained down just below the surface. 

Dick looks down at the shackle around his ankle, then feels the sharp wingding in his hand. 

He needs to buy time. For himself… for Jason. He needs the shackle off so he can rise above the water and aim. 

Before he can let fear talk him out of it, he lets go of the grating above him and allows himself to sink further into the water with the weight of the chain. 

His ears are ringing and he can practically feel his pulse trying to burst from his neck, but he keeps his breath locked in his lungs and he keeps his eyes trained on his ankle. 

Before he can talk himself out of it, he lets the adrenaline drive him as he plunges his own weapon into his ankle, right below the shackle. 

Blood bursts from his leg like a cloud. Agony hits like a truck. But he keeps cutting, he keeps cutting because he has to. The adrenaline helps numb it a little. But it's all he can do to keep from screaming and sucking in the blood stained water as he hits the bone. 

It takes a good few tugs and a few more desperate slices for him to finally feel the weight of the shackle and chain drop. Before he can allow what just happened—what he's just done—to hit him, he kicks up and forces himself to swim until he reaches the surface. 

When he reaches air, he's not sure if he's coughing, sobbing, or screaming. 

It hurts. It hurts. And soon enough, the water will drain him out of every single drop of his blood.

With shaking hands, he lifts himself so he's as close to the grating as possible. He has just a second to process how scared Jason looks on that chair, like he's trying to understand or process what just happened. Dick wonders if he knows what it means for Dick to be above the water. Dick wonders if Jason thought he drowned. Dick wonders if Jason saw the whole thing on the screen of a shattered TV.

Dick allows himself just a moment to mentally apologize to Jason before he gets his whole arm out of the grating and aims with perfect precision straight into the tape holding Jason's arm to the chair. 

Right then, it feels like all the strength seeps out of him. He almost falls back into the water, wheezing, but he keeps his grasp strong and closes his eyes. 

He's okay. He's okay. He's-

Water laps into his mouth and he can taste blood.

Now he knows it's sobs escaping through his teeth. 

He holds on and forces himself to ignore the blood tasting water, ignore how weak and nauseated he's becoming. He holds on until there's a sound of a gun firing on the padlock keeping the grate down. He shifts to grab the lip of the pit as Jason lifts the grate. For a second, he slips and almost falls back into the water, but then strong hands grasp under his arms and heft him out.

Next thing he knows he's on his back in a puddle of water and blood and just trying to catch his breath. 

"Holy shit, fucking- Wing? Can you hear me?" 

Jason's panicking. Dick's coughing water. He's screaming water when Jason begins to wrap a torn piece of cloth from his leather jacket around his leg. 

A tourniquet. 

Dick writes as the agony in his left leg becomes blinding with each twist Jason makes in the cloth. 

"Jason- Jason I couldn't-" Dick tries to explain, but his brain is woozy and his chest really hurts. "I didn't-"

I couldn't breathe. I didn't think. I couldn't get out. I didn't want to die. 

"My leg- my leg, Jay- I can't-"

I can't breathe. 

"Just hold on, you're going into shock-" Jason says, his voice so much weaker than what it normally is. "All of our stuff is in here- I already pinged B."

No. No, not B. Dick doesn't need Bruce. Dick doesn't need Alfred. Or the Batcave. Or the medbay. A few pills of advil. A pat on a shoulder. 

He needs- 

"Hospital," he gasps through clenched teeth as Jason bundles up his jacket and puts it under Dick's feet to elevate them. 

Foot. Foot and mangled remains of his left leg. 

"Jay-" 

"Okay," Jason agrees, standing up and running to the other side of the room where—sure enough—all of their missing items lay. 

Dick stares up at the ceiling while Jason calls for an ambulance. He listens to the shakiness to his tone and how he seems to stumble over answers he must be being asked. If Jason's this startled… it must be really bad. 

Dick wants to look, but at the same time he knows he'll throw up the second he sees. 

He takes a deep breath and tries to fight the armada of problems trying to assault him. The drowsiness. The confusion. The nausea. The pain. The shock. 

But eventually, Jason's voice becomes a drone, and soon Dick's eyes are slipping closed.

He hears his name shouted before he falls unconscious.

When the black settles, the pain doesn't go away. 

-o-o-o-o-

When Dick wakes up the first time, it's chaos. Shouting voices, a mask pressing against his face. He tries to open his eyes and figure out what's going on, but then something nudges his leg and he sees stars. He tries to crawl back to himself, but it's like he's pinned with sharp needles through butterfly wings. Before he can even try to open his eyes again through the tears, something pinches the inside of his elbow, and Dick loses himself again.

-o-o-o-o-

The second time he wakes, it's quiet. He feels like he's eaten so much honey that it has replaced his blood. His arms are heavy as he brings them to his face to rub at his blurry eyes. 

As he rubs at them, he can feel the tugging of tubes running up his nose. The pull of a needle within the crook of his elbow. As he looks around, slowly realizing where he is—slowly remembering why he's here—the heart monitor picks up speed. 

Of course, that's when a body he didn't notice until now shoots up like they have been trying and failing to catch some shut eye. 

"Bruce," Dick calls weakly as Bruce zeros in on him. Dick's throat hurts. Everything hurts. He can't feel anything below his knee.

Thankfully, as he weakly holds his arms out, Bruce gets the message. Before Dick knows it, he's being gathered into Bruce's arms so he's sitting up and clutching to Bruce like his wrinkled suit jacket is his lifeline. 

"How bad is it?" Dick asks with wobbling lips and a wobbling voice. 

Bruce stills, then his arms tighten around Dick, and that's when Dick knows it's bad. A sob tears through his throat and he closes his eyes, pressing against Bruce. He wants to crawl away and not exist. He wants Bruce to make everything okay again. 

He doesn't want to open his eyes to look. So he keeps them closed and allows his tears to stain Bruce's tie. 

"They…" Bruce starts, sounding terribly unsure, "you were in bad shape. Shock. Infection already setting in. You lost a lot of blood... They couldn't save anything below the knee."

Dick wants to laugh at the absurdity of it all. He knows he was panicking back there, but he also purposely cut at his ankle to… to save his leg. 

He lost it anyway. He wants to laugh. Instead he sobs harder. 

Bruce tries to reassure him with the hopes the doctors have for a prosthetic, tries to explain he already has Lucius Fox on making one fit for Nightwing, but Dick can only cry and weep and mourn until eventually, he's practically boneless. He can barely keep his eyes open as Bruce lays him back down and tells him to get some more rest. 

"Sleep, Chum, everything will get better."

Dick can't find it in himself to believe him. He sleeps anyway, if not to just pretend his entire life isn't over. 

[ackernuts]

WHERE.[Erwin Smith x Daughter Reader]

𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: 𝘈𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘌𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘹 𝘈𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴(𝘀): 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘵, 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩

𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 1953 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴

It was a normal pleasant day for the Survey Corps. It's had been almost a month since they've returned from rescuing Eren and the fleeing of the traitors, Reiner and Bertoldt and been a few weeks after Historia had been crowned.

The Corps had been back on operation again after defeating Historia's father's Titan.

While most are now focusing on coming up with a plan to retake Wall Maria after Eren successfully obtained the power of Titan Hardening, Commander Erwin is on Survey Corps HQ in Trost  together with his adoptive daughter, [Name] Smith.

[Name] became a fallen soldier after she lost her eyesight in the first encounter with the Female Titan back in their 57th expedition.

Being visually impaired, she's out of duty but she's to stay in the HQ with Erwin, as per his orders.

That brings us to the present with [Name] clutching at the arm of Erwin for support as they walk towards the messhall where everyone is having dinner.

Upon arriving, the room was bustling with the cheers of the newly recruits who's oblivious of the death trap they just got themselves into.

With a blank face, [Name] ignored all the judging stares of those who doesn't know what had happened to the young ex-corporal. Erwin sat her on her usual seat together with all the higher-ups.

Hanji then helped Erwin to fetch her meal so she can eat and take her medicine. With the two of them out of [Name]'s side and the absence of the other corporal, Levi, mutters of dissatisfaction and belittling from the new cadets rung up to [Name]'s ears.

“Who is she?”

“Why is a useless blind in our ranks?”

“Who does she think she is? Thinking she can survive without a damn sight.”

“She's probably whoring with the commander.”

Having enough of the mutterings of the brats, she stood up and feel her way towards the cadets using her heightened other senses.

“What did you brats just said?” her eerie deep voice with rasp in it echoed across the room, silencing the place.

Smug chuckle of a stupid cadet then break the silence.

“You want me to repeat what I said? Ha! So you're not just a useless blind but also a deaf! Well let me repeat then! You're probably just whoring with the Commander, I mean, what does a useless blind like you doing in our ranks.”

A loud bang was then heard from one corner where the new Levi's squad was sitting, there stood an outranged Jean and Eren.

“You idiot! How dare you talk to the Commander's daughter that way?!” yell Eren with palms clenched into fist and furrowed eyebrows.

“That's a corporal you're disrespecting!” added Jean.

The cadet's smug smirk dropped almost immediately and color starting to drain off of him. The room was silence once again with a pair of footsteps rang up to their ears.

Walking back to the superior's table, Erwin and Hanji placed the trays of foods then turn to the lady standing in front of the recruit's table.

“[Name]? What are you doing?” those words fell into the deaf ears of [Name] and look straight into the cadet's eyes despite not seeing a thing other than total darkness.

“You cadet. I know you're new here in the scouts but you're not new to the military. Is that how you respect a superior?” almost immediately, the boy strung up and salute to [Name].

“You do not only bad-mouthed a corporal but also disrespect the Commander with your filthy mouth. Now receive your punishment, you're to run around the HQ and you are not to stop until I say so. I don't care if you lose your leg running your laps, after all you're not a useless blind in this ranks.” and with so much fright from the (color) haired female, he run outside without a second thought.

With that, [Name] went back to go and eat her dinner with a single thought in her mind and a doubt in her heart.

After dinner, the two then went back to Erwin's office to finish his paperwork.

“Erwin, tomorrow you're going to retake Wall Maria, right?” [Name] quietly asked.

“Yes. Also, good thing you remind me. You are to stay with Commander Shadis as we do the operation.” [Name]'s ears almost burst at her adoptive father's words.

“But Erwin, I can fight too. I can help to retake the wall.” she immediately reply. Stopping abruptly at his daughter's exclaimed, Erwin look at her with wide eyes.

“No.[Name], you're staying here where it's safe. Braun and Hoover is still out there and with Hanji's report about this beast Titan who turns a whole village into Titans, we can't risk you getting injured or worst die in there.”

“But like I said I can fight. I'm still a soldier and ---”

“[Name] you're blind! You're disabled! It's too dangerous out there. I'm doing this to protect you.--”

“So that's how it really is?! It's because I'm useless now because I can't see anymore! Why?! Back when I'm still fine, you wouldn't hesitate to give me mission after mission but now that I'm visually impaired I'm just a rug doll you're going to throw! Is it because I'm not your perfect soldier now?! That without my eyesight I'm just a weak little daisy you can pluck out of the garden?!”

“No! That's not---”

“No! It is! Don't you think I don't know that?! You think I don't know that a lot of people are waiting for me to accept that I'm good-for-nothing now so they can pull the trigger and kill me?! You think I don't know the guns pointed at me every single second?!”

Anger and hurted tears streaming down [Name]'s cheeks and Erwin's eyes filled with regret. Sighing, he walk up to his daughter and put a hand in her shoulder.

“Look, just give me more time [Nickname]. I'll put you back to the battlefield.”

“Don't call me that! Put me back? How?! Are you willingly give me your eyes? You can do that? Can you just stop pretending that you can fix everything with your gamble? Your can't do anything, you're just my adopted father anyway.”

Pain strikes Erwin's heart at the words of his daughter as she feel her way out of the office and into her own room, stumbling a couple of times before entering her bedroom.

_____

After that argument, [Name] locked herself in her room and doesn't even listen to the knock on her door by her father, bidding her a short farewell. Hours had passed and [Name] decided to get off of her bed and get ready to go visit her so-called grandpa, Cadet Instructor Keith Shadis.

Almost four days that the scouts went to retake Wall Maria and now they're back. The heroes of Shiganshina. [Name], received a letter that they found a compatible eye donor and is ready for the transplant, having her missed the return of her comrades.

Two days and the operation was successful. Her then (color except blue) eyes are now bright blue. Upon hearing the news of the operation, Hanji went and fetch the (color) tressed female and had her ride a carriage.

Much to [Name]'s surprise, Hanji hadn't uttered a single word since they took off and to her bewilderment, they stopped into the cemetery especially made for the military.

Her heart dropped at the sight of the regiment, mourning over their fallen soldiers. Frankly, she use her sight to go and look for her father that she dearly missed and hoped to apologized to.

“[Name]... I'm sorry.” she heard Hanji mumbled and ushered her to a certain tombstone where she see the name that made her whole world crumble.

There, written in the tomb is Erwin Smith. The name of the only man who have the courage to raise a meek, bruised little girl who he found on the side of the street. The very man who was so proud of her achievements, the only person who ever believed in her from the very beginning. The only one she will ever be proud to call her father.

Weak legs gave out and she fall into the ground, in front of her father's grave. Hot tears streaming down her cheeks like waterfalls. Her whole body shakes in disbelief at the loss of her beloved family. And to think that she haven't had the chance to apologise for their fight, hell, she haven't said she loved and cared for him for so long since she was six and now, she doesn't have the chance anymore.

“Who?...”

“Who is it?...”

[Name] mutters, eyes widen and lips trembling in every word. The rest of the Levi's squad, Levi and Hanji, stare at her in sympathy.

“Who was it...”

Contemplating to step forward and apologise to the crying lady, Armin ashamedly about to walk up to her when he was stopped by Levi.

“Who is it?! WHO EVER IS IT THAT TOLD YOU, YOU CAN GO WHERE I CAN'T FOLLOW YOU!!” shouted [Name] in anger, sadness and regrets.

The scouts can only hang their heads low in grieve and emptiness.

____

A week after [Name]'s outburst that forced her body to shut down and fell into a short coma. [Name] woke up and she immediately asked to be discharged to stay in her father's office and room. Upon arriving there with Hanji trailing behind her, [Name] all of a sudden, felt her whole body went numb and she fell in Erwin's office floor.

“[NAME]!” Hanji ran up to her quickly and try to assist her.

“I-I...”

“What is it? Those it hurts somewhere?”

“I- Hanji...my legs...I can't feel my legs...Hanji! I can't! My legs! I can't feel my legs.”

“Come on, let's get you back to the infirmary.” She said to the weilling woman and pick her up from the floor and into the infirmary.

“You're physically stable but it seems that you had been traumatized after all the events happened for the past weeks. Especially after loosing someone who's emotionally attached to you, it affects your capabilities to do the things you usually do with that person you always lean on. In your case, it was Erwin.” Hanji explained to the girl who's laying on the bed with a blank expression and an IV bag attached to her wrist.

“So you mean... I wouldn't be able to do the things I usually do with Dad? But... everything... I did everything with Dad. So it means I won't be able to do things even if I can see...”

_____

4 years later

The Titans are all gone and the scouts can finally venture out the outside world, with Eren's father's memories, they're able to go and see the sea that he, Armin and Mikasa always hoped to see.

[Name] is back in her old self as a soldier to make her father even more proud and to not waste the eyes that Erwin had given to her.

Once there, all of them are mesmerized by the beauty the ocean holds. Different things they notice that peaked their interest but two oddly not as hyped as everyone else, Eren and [Name].

Both are just staring off to space and muttering words to themselves.

“Hey Erwin ... Are you seeing this now? I'm sure you do. It's beautiful isn't it?... We're seeing the outside world now. All thanks to you. Ha! And stupid gambles.

I missed you Erwin. Don't worry, you're safe now. You can rest all you want.

I'll... I'll see you later Dad...Soon, I'll get to where you are now.”

The End.

[timebuzzer]

Ever After Chapter 9.7

A little reminder: This is just a work of FICTION. In addition to that, don't forget that Sage and Alex are already married here. Hahahaha! Enjoy?

- - - - -

3rd Person

After a couple of seconds, Aira felt that someone poked her back.

"Are you done?" Aira asked while still facing the door.

"Silly, Aira. As much as we would like to, there's a camera here for sure." When Aira turned around, she saw the couple trying to control their waves of laughter.

"Oh. So you will surely behave. Okay, I'll go to the toilet first. I will leave the two of you so you could freely laugh too. Bye!"

Aira left the two as she knows, it will be awkward for her to stay too.

When the door closed, an awkward silence filled the room as it was only Alex and Sage. The two looked at each other with equal yearning but they don't know what to do first.

They wanted to hug and kiss but they can't. They're afraid they can't pull away from each other once they get too close and might reveal something that would create a scandal in the future. The words they wanted to say vanished into thin air too. Both of them found it so frustrating they could only breathe out deep sighs one after another.

"Let us sit first?" Sage finally uttered. He pulled a chair for Alex then he sat in front of her. They are now sitting across each other, face to face. A couple of minutes was spent looking at each other. Then Sage suddenly shrieked "Ouch! What was that for, Alex Lee?"

Alex stumped on his foot hard, and take note, she's wearing heels. Luckily, she was sitting which exerted lesser force but it still hurt.

"Serves you right, Sage Kim! If there's no camera here, I would have bitten your arm already. You thought I would forget what you've done just because you are being handsome in your military uniform? Why won't you come out? I thought you will go out on your birthday?" Alex ranted in frustration trying to vent her piled up resentment.

"Sorry, Honey. I missed you too, so much. But when I got inside, I realized that it took so much courage for me to leave you. And I'm afraid that if I visit you again, I'll be back to square one. That's why..."

"I also feel the same way. But an opportunity like this came, and I missed you a lot, so even if I know it's hard to say goodbye again, I still said yes. I'd rather see you even just for an hour than not see you at all. But I guess we aren't on the same page here. You would rather not see me for the entire 21 months? Is that your plan?" Alex felt her tears building up on the side of her eyes.

When Sage saw her about to cry, he immediately took his handkerchief to wipe her tears. He didn't care if someone saw him doing this, but he felt this is the right thing to do at least.

"Don't cry. Sorry, Love." As he was soothing her, Alex noticed the bandage on his hand. Her tears stopped flowing out of concern.

"What is this? What happened?"

"Just a minor cut from duty. Accidents are normal here. The bandage is just big but my wound is just small and it is already healed. Don't worry." Sage reassured her then diverted the topic. "Look at your cheeks. It's not chubby anymore. I can't pinch anything. Are you eating well? Are you sleeping well, Honey?"

The two continued catching up since they cannot touch each other's hands, but their feet under the table are entangled. It was hidden so it was safe to do so. Even a little physical touch is more than enough.

"What can you say about my hair?" Alex inquired. Sage didn't mention anything about it so she asked him. Fishing for some compliments, maybe?

"You are beautiful with any hair length. But I like you in this bob cut the most." Sage answered truthfully. Short hair gave her a cute and on-the-go vibe when it was made, yet when it turned to a messy bob, it added a whole new level of a sultry aura to Alex.

"Ask me why I cut my hair."

"Why?"

"Because... I won't trim it until you fully finish your military service. So the longer it gets, the longer I waited for you. As cheesy as it may sound but my hair would be a reminder about how much I wanted to see you. You used to stroke my hair before I sleep so, I would just keep it short until you comeback. I just thought about it early this week." Alex confessed.

If they were totally alone right now, he would have kissed her already, but all he could do is to add pressure to their entangled legs to express his bliss and control himself. Then he asked, "So you are Ms. Waiting now?"

"You waited for me for how many years. This is just a small thing compared to what you did."

"Love, it doesn't matter who waited longer, who did this and that. My efforts before were done voluntarily without expecting anything from you. That is how I wanted to express my love for you in a way I think you deserved, not to make you feel indebted to me now..."

"I know, I didn't mean anything bad but this is how I wanted to express mine."

"Okay. I hope we are clear about this. We are both back to zero and there is no scorer. No pressure okay? And bear this in mine, I appreciate everything you do, no matter how small you think that is, always."

"Aye, aye, captain!" Alex gave him a salute that made him chuckle. "So when are you going out? Will you visit me on my birthday?"

"Hmmm. We'll see. I still need to work harder to rank higher. Best soldiers and higher ranks are given longer..." Sage stopped midway when he felt something moving higher underneath.

It was Alex's foot and it is started to climb upwards. She's making him feel her touch through her toes not omitting any space as it glided higher.

Sage's eyes widened in shock and gave her a glare that meant what-the-hell-are-you-doing-you're-killing-me!

"What are you saying, Honey? Higher?" Alex said mischievously. Still doing what she's doing. Although she stopped on his knee.

"Higher ranks and best soldiers... they'll be rewarded with ex...tra.. vaca..tions... Alex Lee... stop..."

Even though Sage was in his complete military gear and Alex's toes did not actually touch his skin, but what she did was enough to send him into a blazing fire.

He was trying his hardest to stop her from going higher or else he might just lose control. Only she could make him feel this way. Sending him on the brink of madness with just a simple touch of her skin not to mention with the mere toes to be exact.

"Want me to stop?" Alex asked amusingly. She knew full well, with the look on his face, that he was aroused to the fullest. She can't contain her laughter as he was giving her another you'll-be-the-death-of-me look.

But Alex wanted to tease him more. So she moved her foot a little bit higher, like an inch higher. And as much as he was glaring at her, it was evident that he was also anticipating her next move.

The tip of his ears and his neck are turning red. He also grabbed her foot and gave it a pinch, but didn't remove it. After seeing her husband struggling not to squirm, she decided to withdraw.

"What was that, Alex Lee?"

"Hmmm. Giving my husband a teaser of what he's been missing out?"

"You little temptress. You're always full of tricks on your sleeves, aren't you? You are making me crazy." Sage grunted as if collecting all the self-restraint he could find.

Alex chuckled and leaned forward on the table, placed her left arm as she rested her head on the top of her palm and seductively looked at him then whispered, "So... are you going to work hard and visit me on my birthday, my love?"

"Are you sure you want me to go out after what you've done? Did you know what you're getting yourself into? This will never go unpunished."

"Oh now I'm scared," Alex replied sardonically.

"Honey, just go out and show me. I'll wait for it." She replied nonchalantly. She sure knows how to tease her husband.

"Call. Be ready, my love... and your stamina." Sage answered haughtily and winked.

"Oh god, my husband. Why are you so handsome?" Alex thought.

"Waiting..." Alex readily agreed even though she didn't know what kind of beast she awakened in him.

Sage's thoughts wandered on ways on how to 'punish' this little temptress in front of him when he visits her. Of course, punish her not in any way that would harm her.

The married couple's teasing ended after they heard a knock on the door. When the door opened, it was Aira informing them that it was time to leave. But to the latter's surprise, the atmosphere in the room is now different.

[chaoticphilosopherharmony-blog]

Employment Do's And Don'ts, A Beginner's Guidebook

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