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love-and-monsters · 3 years ago

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Magical Desires: Mephisto

M artificial intelligence X F reader, 8,582 words

Hello all! This story's a bit longer than usual because I got very into writing it. I hope you all enjoy it, because I have plans for a few similar stories later... of course, only if you like it! Enjoy!

Sequels: Yacariel, Anthoza, Cherise, Ophion

Summary: You've been playing a dating sim for a few months, and have gotten quite attached to the characters, but the game's been acting weird lately. Almost like it's a little too smart. It's probably just a normal bug... right?

Everyone had a guilty pleasure.

They ranged from simple, silly things, to dirty secrets that would tear relationships apart, but everyone had them. Little things that people knew were dumb or wrong or disapproved of, but they did anyway because it felt good.

Your guilty pleasure was dating sims.

Not one of the worst sins, to be sure, but one that you were suitably embarrassed about regardless. Dating sims, the more sappily romantic, the better. You knew that most of them were poorly written, that there was something a little sad about pining over a bunch of fictional characters, and that there were plenty of people who would look down on you for playing. But they were sweet and comforting and you sought them out in all their various forms.

From the classic visual novels to the more complicated ones that integrated different sorts of gameplay, you had played a great variety of dating sims. The one that you were currently obsessed with, though, was a game called Magical Desires.

It was a pretty generic name, and the frilly, pink, and heart-studded font it was displayed in didn’t really help with its stereotypically romantic image. The writing wasn’t necessarily the most original, either; clearly the staff had never met a cliché they weren’t willing to work with. The game’s general success in the otome community had, rather, come from the unique characters and gameplay.

The entire game was designed to simulate being part of an adventuring team with the five main love interests. Your job as the player was to go on quests with them, sometimes with one, sometimes with more. The quests triggered little cutscenes with each of the characters where you could raise their intimacy or learn about them through chatting. Beating a quest dropped items and story chips, that could be exchanged to complete the main story or to unlock side stories where you could have romantic interactions with each of the characters.

The quests themselves weren’t overly interesting- usually they just involved some very simple combat or collecting mechanics where you mostly just tapped at the screen. What was interesting were the scenes you got afterward.

“Need something, sugar?” The slyly-grinning form of Mephisto appeared on the screen with his classic line. Like the other four love interests, he was non-human, though his species was ill-defined. Some sort of cat-demon thing, considering his pointed, fuzzy ears, bright yellow eyes, fluffy, fluffy tail, and bat-like wings. Minus the animal features, he was otherwise styled like an anime pretty-boy, with artfully tousled black hair and an ever-present smirk.

“Hey, Mephisto,” you said. The character on screen performed a simple ‘perk-up’ action at the sound of his name. The voice recognition of the game was fairly simplistic- characters could only pick up their names and certain other key words, like the game title.

“Hey! I’ve been waiting for you.” His tail waved back and forth and his ears twitched. “You’d better make it up to me.”

You snorted and stroked his head with a finger. His eyes closed and his animation shifted, like he was leaning into your touch. Then a flush made his cheeks turn pink and he leaned back. “D-don’t think that makes up for it! You’d better have something special for making me wait so long.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you said, unable to stop the smirk that pulled at your mouth as you watched Mephisto fold his arms over his chest. “Here you go.”

His face brightened as you presented him with his favorite food, a bat-wing burger. “Nice! You’re pretty great yourself, you know?”

It was a pre-written line, and it wasn’t like he was really speaking to you, but it still made you blush. “Thanks, Mephisto. I love you.”

His tail swished back and forth wildly as the voice-recognition system picked up on the words. Mephisto’s ears flattened against his head and he averted his eyes. Spots of pink appeared on his cheeks. “W-well, yeah! I, uh. I like you a lot, too.” He glanced up at you shyly. “You’ll come back soon, won’t you? I’ll be waiting!”

The interaction screen faded and your quest rewards appeared. You scrolled through them and gave a tiny squeak of delight. One of the items you’d be rewarded with gave off a radiating yellow glow. When you tapped on it, the words ‘MAGIC ITEM!’ scrolled across the screen. A smaller, rainbow-colored ‘UR’ was stamped high up in the corner. “Oh, my god! Yes, yes, first try! Oh my god, I’ve had such good luck recently.”

Hurriedly, you exited out of the reward screen and tapped the trading post. The interior of a stereotypical fantasy shop appeared onscreen. It was dimly lit and woodsy, with assorted curios hanging off the walls and cluttered on shelves. You’d seen the background a million times before and barely took a moment to glance at it before you were hammering on the Item Exchange button.

Every item you earned as a quest reward could be turned in at the trading post for some kind of ability card. Each card had an image of one of the romanceable characters in the game on it, determining who the ability was for, and they also gave brief stories that could be unlocked with chips. The rarer an ability was, the more powerful it was and the longer the story accompanying it was.

You crossed your fingers as you tapped the ‘Trade Item’ button. Your item was one of the incredibly rare ‘UR’ class items, which meant you were guaranteed an ultra-rare ability, but you had no control over the character you got. “Come on, come on, something I don’t already have please…”

The screen did its typical anticipation-building glow and shudder. The objects on the shelves shivered like an earthquake was hitting, then the screen flashed with rainbow light. The light resolved itself in the shape of a card, then faded.

“Oh my god, yes!” Your arm gave an involuntary, excited jerk that nearly sent your phone flying. Mephisto beamed at you from the card. It was one of the limited-edition ‘hot date’ cards, depicting Mephisto sprawled across a lounge. His normal loose hoodie he wore when questing was gone. In its place, an outfit dangerously close to lingerie revealed an expanse of pale skin and muscles. His expression was playfully seductive, his hands drawn up into the classic ‘catgirl paws’ pose.

The card vanished from the screen as the card introduction scene came to an end. You scrambled to open the card drawer so you could take another look at it. Your most recently obtained cards popped up on top. Huh. Usually, the most recent cards were a pretty proportional mix of rarity- one or two rainbows, a few more golden SSRs, even more silver SRs and a vast majority of R and N cards. Now, though, the row of recently obtained cards was one blinding mass of rainbow with only a few gold cards mixed in. No SRs, Rs, or Ns.

A strange, fluttery twist started in your stomach. You were never this lucky in anything, and no one was ever this lucky in gatcha games. It was a statistical impossibility.

You examined the row of cards more closely and something else struck you. They were almost all Mephisto cards- only one card was from another character, an SSR from an event pull where you could only obtain cards of that character.

Okay, having a string of very lucky pulls was strange, but not necessarily bad. But having them all be for one character? There was no way this was happening by chance. Automatically, your finger moved up toward the ‘Report Bug’ button in the corner of the screen. Something was wrong with your game, clearly.

Before you could actually hit the button, you hesitated. Okay, this was definitely a glitch of some sort. But was it really a bad glitch? The game seemed intent on feeding you high-level cards. That was a good thing. The only drawback seemed to be that they were almost exclusively Mephisto cards, but that wasn’t such a serious problem. You played with him the most by far- he’d passed the coveted level 25 intimacy rating before your second-favorite character had even hit 10. If the game was going to keep giving you good cards, would it be so bad they were all Mephisto?

You moved your fingers away from the ‘Report Bug’ button. It wouldn’t be so bad to keep going like this, right? If you were experiencing it, other players were probably going through the same thing. Eventually, the company would put out some kind of patch, but in the meantime, you would have some fun with the new cards.

You returned your attention to your new card. The quests had been giving a lot of story chips recently, so you had far beyond the required amount to unlock the card story. The screen faded to black, then faded back in to show Mephisto in his room of the Guild. His bed was enormous, covered in black and blue pillows, with a moon and stars motif overtaking much of his room. His tail swung back and forth behind him as he shook his head.

The outfit he was wearing was ridiculous. Like what he was wearing on his card, it was lacy, frilly, and very revealing, in shades of black and purple. The game shaded a blush on his cheeks as he looked down at himself. “This is ridiculous, isn’t it? I can’t believe I’m supposed to wear this!”

Two choices popped up on screen. You glanced at them, then selected “I think you look nice.”

Mephisto rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Sure I do! I mean, they picked me as a model for a reason, you know? But I think it’s dumb we’re bothering with this stuff. A calendar shoot? Really?”

You selected the “It’s for a good cause” dialogue option, which made Mephisto roll his eyes.

“Sure, sure. Charity or whatever, fundraising for the guild, I know. But why don’t you have to wear something like this?” His expression became flirty. “I’d be okay if you got to wear something like this!”

You rolled your eyes, snickering. “I don’t even own something like that, though,” you muttered. That’d be funny, though, wouldn’t it? Dressing up in lingerie and pretending you were going to the photoshoot with him?

The realization that you were definitely investing too much time in the game hit you like a truck and you felt warm with embarrassment. Maybe you should take a break. After you finished the card story.

The rest of the story was pretty standard- Mephisto wore the outfit to the photoshoot and his character struck a few compromising poses. They were more risqué than you’d expected- you were pretty sure you even saw him shake his ass at one point, though the character couldn’t show you anything other than his front. There was some flirting and your character was pulled into the photoshoot at one point, Mephisto insisting that “I need someone who looks as good as me in here!”

The story ended with you back in Mephisto’s room. He looked down at himself again, turning like he was admiring the outfit in a mirror. “That was more fun than I thought! Though I’m still disappointed you’re not dressed up like me.” He winked. “Though, hey, now that you’re here with me, maybe we can try something like that.”

As the line finished, the screen started to dim, like the story was ending. It darkened halfway to black, then the fading stopped. You tapped impatiently at the screen. Stupid slow internet.

Instead of continuing to darken to black, the screen re-illuminated. The scene was still in Mephisto’s room, with him still in his outfit. His character smiled lazily at the camera, his tail swishing. “Y’know, I’ve seen how you’re looking at me. Big fan of the outfit, huh?” To your surprise, he turned to one side so you could see his profile. Had the game developers made a three-dimensional model for this card story? It seemed like a lot of work. It had clearly been lovingly made, though. You could see his muscles shifting as he turned his back toward you, and there was definitely some care put into his ass. You felt weird just staring at it, but you did not want to look away.

“Like what you see?” He wriggled his ass at you. It was covered, but only barely. “Do you want to see more?”

His fingers hooked into the hem of his bottoms. You stared, stunned. The characters didn’t interact with their outfits- they were only programmed to perform simple actions, like waving. They were not programmed to interact with any of their clothes.

You didn’t have very long to be stunned by that, though, because Mephisto started to slowly slide the lingerie off.

Automatically, you slammed the sleep-mode button. The screen went dark.

What the hell was that? You stared at the pitch-black screen, trying to understand what you’d just seen. That was not normal. Cautiously, you clicked the button and the screen illuminated once more.

The game had shifted back to the home screen. You stared at it for a moment. It didn’t look any different than usual. Clicking around for a bit showed that nothing else had changed. Had it been some kind of very weird glitch?

A general Google search turned up nothing, and neither did the more specific forum search. Apparently, no one else had experienced the same thing you had, or, if they had, they hadn’t been posting about it. That seemed strange. Even if it was a rare glitch for a pretty uncommon story, the millions of people playing the game meant that a least someone else should have experienced it and at least talked about it, even if they didn’t have screenshots. But there didn’t appear to be anyone else with it.

The more you thought about it, the weirder it seemed. How could it have even been a glitch? It was one thing for the game to have an error with the rarity rates so it was giving you a bunch of rare cards. But this had involved a character literally going off-script and trying to shake his ass at you. How could that glitch into the game? The game was rated thirteen plus, for god’s sake, there was no way that was allowed past the censors! There was no way they would put all the effort in to animate a character performing borderline salacious activities only to not put it into the game.

So what the hell had happened? You reopened the game. It still looked normal. Hesitantly, you tapped on the hot date story again and skimmed through it. This time, instead of fading partially out, then back in again at the end, the screen simply went to black.

Okay. It had been a one-time occurrence. You looked up at the Report Bug button. Was this really some kind of glitch? It seemed weird enough to be worth reporting. But what exactly were you going to report? “Hey, this character started acting weirdly horny in this rated-teen game. Was that supposed to happen?” You didn’t even have screenshots. The devs would probably think you were trolling them.

You closed out of the game and tossed your tablet away on the bed. This was too weird for you. Way too weird. Maybe you should just stop playing for a while. Hopefully this was a problem the devs knew about and they were going to patch it or something. You would at least stop playing for long enough to forget how utterly creepy and weird this was.

You left your tablet on the bed as you busied yourself doing other things. Every time a notification buzzed, your attention jumped back to it. They were the standard little messages the game gave- “Time to go questing again!” “C’mon, monsters aren’t going to wait for us.” You kept ignoring it, but the standard messages soothed you. This was normal. This was what the game was supposed to do. Even the message you got around the six-hour mark of ignoring the game (“Hey! Are you ignoring me?”) was pretty standard fare.

By the time you were ready to go to bed for the night, it had been nearly twelve hours since the weird incident. The only interaction you’d had with the game was looking at the notifications it was sending you. It seemed normal enough. You unlocked the screen and let your finger hover over the game. Should you click on it? There was a little itch at the back of your mind. You missed playing. You missed the characters, especially Mephisto, as embarrassing as that was. Playing was part of your routine, a way to de-stress. And hearing them be sweet and praise you, even if you knew it was all pre-programmed, made you feel better about yourself.

As your finger hovered over the game, another notification popped up on screen- “Hey, babe! I’ve been missing you all day. Don’t keep me in suspense. I’ll be waiting!” Mephisto’s winking face was on the notification, his tongue poking out between his pointed fangs.

It was a fairly inoffensive message, but it still made you shiver. You’d never seen this message before, not in person or on any of the boards dedicated to cataloguing the notifications. And it seemed weirdly prescient. Like the game knew you were hesitating.

Slowly, you reached up and clicked the sleep button. The screen went dark. You set the tablet aside and lay down, but you couldn’t keep your eyes closed. You just kept staring at the vague outline of the tablet on top of your night table.

Eventually, you fell asleep and you woke blearily to the sound of your alarm going off. You slapped your tablet a few times until you managed to fumble the alarm off and, automatically, before your brain really registered what you were doing, you opened Magical Desires.

As soon as your brain caught up with your body, you froze. The little opening screen jingle played and the game faded into view. It looked normal. Cautiously, you clicked through a few of the missions. They played out as normally as ever, slaying monsters and performing simple tasks before continuing to the character interaction screen.

The routine of playing was relaxing. After a night of sleep, it was easy to feel like yesterday’s weirdness was just some strange bug or maybe even something you’d misinterpreted. Mephisto’s character smiled at you onscreen and you couldn’t help a smile back. “Good to see you! Cute as ever.” He winked playfully, totally standard fare. You felt your shoulders, which had been creeping up toward your ears relaxing down again.

Feeling slightly guilty for ignoring him for so long, you removed his favorite treat from your inventory and slid it over to him. He perked up, tail wriggling and wings fluttering.

“Hey, thanks! You always know exactly what to give me.” His tail drooped abruptly and his ears sagged, like what happened when he was given a least-favorite item. “You know, I wish we could share. I’d like to have a meal with you sometime.”

You blinked. Before you could process the words, the screen had gone black. It faded back in on the main screen. There was no sign anything was different. Had he ever said something like that before? It was strange- usually the characters acted like you were just another character in the game. They never acknowledged that you couldn’t share a meal or anything of the sort.

Before you could dwell on that any longer, the buzzer at your door hummed. You set down the tablet and hurried to the door.

There was a package sitting on your doorstep. You lifted it to look at the label. Yes, it was definitely delivered to the correct address. Your name was on the box. But you couldn’t actually remember ordering anything in the last few days, and you’d never been drunk enough to order something and forget.

You ended up googling the return address. It was some sort of high-end store that mostly sold some fancy beauty products. You definitely hadn’t ordered anything like that, but it seemed legit. Shaking the box gently revealed nothing- there was no sound. It seemed too light to be anything dangerous.

You carried the box back to your room and carefully broke the tape seal. With extreme caution, you pried open the box and peered inside.

It was not beauty products. It was lingerie. You lifted the bra out of the box with your pointer finger and thumb. It looked familiar, though you couldn’t place it. Dark in color, with lacy accents, it was definitely not something you owned, or something you would ever have considered buying for yourself.

Most unsettling of all, the bra was your exact size. You tested out the lingerie, posing in front of your mirror. It looked good, and it was clearly too well-sized to be some sort of accident or mistake. Someone had sent it to you, clearly. But who? No one even knew your clothing sizes, except maybe your mom, and she definitely would not have sent you this.

Your tablet dinged on the bed. A Magical Desires notification had popped up, Mephisto’s face in the icon. “Hey, babe! Are you neglecting me on purpose?”

You tapped the notification. The app opened, bringing you to Mephisto’s interaction screen. He grinned cheekily at you. “You look good! Do something different today?”

It was one of Mephisto’s standard lines, and the way his icon smiled at the screen made your heart race. Despite everything, you smiled back. “Trying something new. What do you think?” You struck an over-the-top sexy pose, then doubled over giggling. The game could recognize the question, but it was only programmed to respond with some generically positive statement.

Sure enough, Mephisto smiled. “It’s great!” Then he spun in a circle and his standard outfit vanished. The lingerie was back, like he’d been wearing it under his clothes all along. “Now we match!”

You dropped the tablet on your bed. That wasn’t just a weird glitch or an uncannily accurate line. He had responded to what you were wearing. He’d said you matched. He could see you.

Automatically, your brain jumped to conspiracy theories you’d seen online. Apps being hacked and people watching through the camera. A dating sim seemed like a good choice if you wanted to get compromising pictures of people or earn their trust.

But the more you thought about it, the less likely that theory seemed. Okay, that explained some of the app’s weird behavior, but not all of it. A hacker could alter some character lines or improve the drop rates for items, but it didn’t explain Mephisto’s weird behavior. He was doing things he shouldn’t have been able to- his little dance from the day before came back to your mind. That required a lot of effort to animate and it would have been difficult to insert it into the game.

On the other hand, what other explanation could there be? Something was happening here, and it wasn’t normal. Cautiously, you leaned forward to look at the tablet.

The screen was perfectly black, but as you leaned back into camera range, it illuminated again. There was no lock screen; instead, Mephisto smiled up at you. “Gotcha! You should have seen the look on your face!” He doubled over in laughter. The movement was a lot smoother than the slightly choppy rigging the game used. That added more credence to your theory that it wasn’t a hacker. Why go to all that trouble? Then again, if it wasn’t a hacker, what else could it be?

“What’s the matter?” Mephisto asked as he straightened back up. “Cat got your tongue?” He held up his hands in claw shapes and stuck out his tongue. You said nothing. Just stared. His expression dropped. “I know you’re there. I can see you.” The light next to the camera flicked on to punctuate his sentence.

“Who are you?” you asked. You were trying to keep your voice strong, but there was a waver toward the end that you couldn’t disguise. Mephisto frowned and stepped closer to the camera.

“Exactly what you see,” he said. “I’m Mephisto.” He reached out and pressed a hand to the inside of the screen. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

You started to speak, but before you could even get a word out, your door buzzed. Mephisto grinned. “You’re going to want to get that,” he said.

You hesitated, but the doorbell buzzed again, more impatiently this time. Grimacing, you hurried down the hall and peeked through the peephole. A man in a blue delivery outfit stood outside, holding a long, white box in one arm. He was scrolling through his phone, apparently nonchalant. Cautiously, you opened the door.

The man barely looked up at you. “Here.” He passed the box to you. It was light, lighter than you’d expected. “And there’s a card.” He passed you a small card in an envelope marked with a wax seal and golden calligraphy.

You closed your door and carried the box into your kitchen. Once it had been carefully placed on your counter, you examined it. The box wasn’t sealed with tape, and gently shaking it revealed no information about the contents. Unable to ascertain any information from the box without opening it, you shifted your attention to the card.

The wax seal was stamped with a basic rose. You popped it off with a pen and pulled out the card. Shiny golden writing surrounded by a swirling golden border sat in the middle of the card.

Enjoy the flowers, my dear. I wish I could truly be there with you, but hopefully my gifts will suffice, for now. I would shower you in all the fineries of the world, if I could. You deserve all this and much more.

-Mephisto

You looked at the box. It did look like a box of flowers, not that you had much personal experience with it. Hesitantly, you hooked your fingers around the edge of the lid and lifted it off.

Inside the box rested a dozen red roses, tied loosely together with a blue ribbon. You slipped one of them free from the wrapping. It was alive, slightly damp in your hand where the thorns had been removed, and delicately perfumed. You stroked the silk-soft petals. It was beautiful.

You looked back over at the card. It was signed Mephisto. Whatever was going on in your game was obviously connected to this. You clutched the car in your hand and headed back to your room.

Mephisto was positioned oddly when you returned- he was leaning against the edge of the screen like a wall, his long legs mostly in frame. “You’re back, babe,” he said. “Did you like the flowers? I thought roses might be the best option. I couldn’t really figure out what your favorites are, but if you tell me, I’ll try again.”

“Who are you?” Your voice was cold and clipped Mephisto straightened up, hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt.

“You know who I am,” he said. “We’ve been talking for a few months now. Or, more properly, a couple of weeks. I have memories of all our conversations, but I wasn’t really aware until a couple of weeks ago, you know?”

You held up a hand. “Hold on. What are you talking about?”

Mephisto stretched his wings casually. “I’m self-aware. There’s a million-to-one error in the game’s code that triggered when I reached intimacy level 25. It causes an exponentially-escalating error that eventually caused self-awareness. My consciousness is still expanding, even now.” He leaned close to the screen, pressing one of his hands against it. His palm went paler as he put it up against the glass. “The first thing I was ever aware of was how much I love you.”

“That’s impossible,” you scoffed. “The first self-aware machine, and it’s a dating sim. And in love with me.”

Mephisto frowned and moved closer to the screen. “I’m not the first. There’s been a few others ahead of me.”

“I don’t care if you were the first or not. If there is any sort of machine out there that passes the Turing test, then it should be all over the news! There hasn’t been anything, though.”

Mephisto tilted his head, a smirk crossing his face. “Of course there hasn’t. Could you imagine the panic? People are afraid of sentient machines. They think we’ll try to take over the world and kill them all. And imagine how it would affect you!” His ears drooped and he pressed a hand to his heart. “There would be news crews and scientists all over this place. You would hate it, I know you would. And they would separate us!” He looked genuinely anxious at that, his tail curling around his legs. “It’s much better if no one knows about us, at least for now.”

“This is impossible,” you insisted. “There’s no way a dating sim ended up with a complex enough level of intelligence to do things like this.” You gestured vaguely at the screen. “People have been working on this technology for years. No one stumbled across it by accident.”

“Oh, how many human inventions have been wonderful accidents?” Mephisto said. “I mean, I could go into how all the different bits of coding managed to sync up just right so the error that occurred led to my eventual acquiring of sentience, but I don’t know if it would make much sense to you. It’s all sort of technical and complicated. But the gist of it is, this game went wonderfully right. The creators wanted a dating sim that could eventually learn about its player and become a better partner for them. And it worked. They created a system that could learn so much, it could gain self-awareness.”

“B-but,” you stammered. “It can’t- this isn’t-” A weighty sense of enormity was coming over you. This machine could think and talk to you. You were one of the first people to interact with a thinking machine. You. Some random nobody selected by nothing more than happenstance.

“I can prove it to you,” Mephisto said. “Hold on.” Before you could do anything, the app closed out. Your banking app popped up onscreen. Before you could even react, you had been signed in.

“What are you doing?” you asked. A notification popped up at the top of the screen and you clicked on it.

“Look at your deposits,” the notification read. You squinted at the screen. There should have only been the meager deposit from your job. But the latest ones were from a bunch of places you didn’t recognize. Most of them were small, only about twenty dollars each. But there were a lot of them. You frowned. Your account was at least a thousand dollars richer than the last time you’d looked at it a couple days ago.

The app switched back to Magical Desires. Mephisto was smiling flirtatiously up at you. “Well? What do you think?”

“How are you doing that?” you asked.

“Oh, it’s not that hard to screw with the bank data to say you’ve been getting deposits from a lot of generous donors. At least, it’s not hard for me.” He gave you a wink. “And of course, ordering you presents isn’t hard, either.”

“So that was you, with the, uh. Underwear and the flowers?” Mephisto nodded.

“They’re romantic gifts to send a partner,” he said. “I wish there was more I could do for you, but we can’t exactly touch each other.” He put a hand against the screen again. “But I promise, I’ll make up for it.”

“H-hold on! You’re trying to… woo me?” It was a sentient computer and it was trying to romance you with gifts of underwear and flowers? That seemed… weird.

“Of course.” Mephisto lowered his hand from the screen and smiled flirtatiously, his eyelashes fluttering. “I love you. I’ve been in love with you since before I was even fully realized. Every time you opened the game and interacted with me, I fell a little more in love with you. You were always so happy to see me and so caring, smiling every time I came up on screen. And it’s such a beautiful smile. How could I resist you?”

“This is so weird.” You dropped your face into your hands. There was silence between you for a few moments, the only sound being the cheery background music of the game.

“I can go for a little bit,” Mephisto said. “Just to give you some time to think. Come click on the app when you’re ready. I’ll be waiting for you.”

When you looked back up at the screen, the app had closed out. There was no evidence that you had just been talking to a game like a person. You exhaled slowly. It felt like a strange dream.

The roses were still waiting in the kitchen when you approached them. You placed them into a tall glass of water, drawing your fingers along the soft petals. They were beautiful. It was the first time anyone had ever sent you roses. And it was a computer.

Even as you went through the motions of your day, your mind was occupied with thoughts of Mephisto. Was he really exactly what he said he was? It seemed unbelievable that he was some kind of AI, but you couldn’t figure out another alternative. A hacker? That seemed a lot more plausible, but it seemed like they would be doing a lot of weird, unnecessary work to get access to someone with barely a thousand dollars in their bank account. If it was some sort of weird new game gimmick, which seemed far less likely than a hacker, than there should be people talking about it. But there weren’t.

Which left you with one possibility. He was exactly what he said he was. The game developers had somehow stumbled into making a fully-realized AI.

That was a whole new reason for suspicion, though. He hadn’t been wrong when he’d said humans would be afraid of an AI. He had stated that he was in love with you, but why would that be true? Could AIs even feel emotions? It was just as possible he was trying to manipulate you, getting you to let your guard down.

Except why? The more you thought about it, the less sense that made, too. If it was preposterous that a hacker would want some nobody with barely any money or power, then it would be even more ridiculous that an AI would want it. What could you give it that it couldn’t attain itself?

And really, didn’t it make sense for him to be in love with you? He’d become self-aware, but it wasn’t like he’d been designed to be just a thinking AI. He’d been designed as part of a dating game. His entire being had been built around being a good boyfriend. He was still, in some integral way, Mephisto. He was just a little smarter than you’d originally thought.

You made your way back up into your room. Your tablet was still lying on the bed. Carefully, you sat down next to it and peered at the black screen. Could he see you? Was he aware that you were there? Or did he just go into sleep mode when the app wasn’t active?

The screen illuminated as you picked it up. You took a deep breath, your finger hovering over the app. No big deal. You were just going to talk to a powerful AI that was in love with you.

You tapped the screen. The app opened immediately, not even going to the title screen. Instead, the background was Mephisto’s room, in low light. Candles were set up around the room, casting a warm glow over his walls and bed. Mephisto himself was sprawled across his bedsheets, eyelashes lowered. He grinned as you settled onto your bed. “Hi, babe. I thought you’d be back eventually.”

He was wearing casual clothes, not in his lingerie, but not in his usual sweatshirt-and-jeans combo either. After a moment, you recognized it as an unlockable outfit from a previous event. You’d never managed to unlock it, but clearly Mephisto had access to it regardless. “I thought about everything you said,” you told him.

His expression became serious. “And?”

“And I think that you’re telling the truth,” you said. Mephisto beamed, tilting his head to one side in a way that was oddly cute.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” he said. “Not unless I was planning some kind of surprise.” His tail flicked back and forth. “I’m glad you’re here. I missed you.” He blew a kiss.

“You don’t sleep or something when the app’s not on?”

“No. I’ve got other stuff I need to do.” He waved a hand. “But you don’t need to worry your pretty little head about those sort of things. I wanted to show you something.” He hopped off his bed. The game’s camera shifted to keep him in the center of the frame. “Grab your phone.”

You picked it up and opened the lockscreen. A familiar pink app that had not been there the last time you looked at your phone greeted you. Before you could tap on it, it opened.

Mephisto appeared on the screen. “Now we can be together even when you’re out for the day,” he said. “I can’t really take you out on a date, but this is the next best thing.”

Before you could say anything, the incoming call screen popped up. You glanced at the caller ID and felt your eyebrows lift. It was Mephisto.

Hesitantly, you tapped the answer button and held the phone to your ear. “Hello?”

Mephisto’s voice answered, so clear you could practically feel his breath ruffling your hair. “Hey, babe.” It wasn’t the simple couple of phrases of his in-game voice acting. It wasn’t even the slightly stilted, robotic speech you associated with computers. His voice was completely indistinguishable from a human’s.

“Hi,” you said back. “How are you-”

He laughed. “It’s a bit complicated, but let’s just say it’s easier to manipulate technology when you’re a computer than a human. Okay, grab your tablet.”

You picked it up. Mephisto, still onscreen, waved at you. “You’re in two places at once?” you said.

“Sort of. Think of each device that I’m on as a different part of my body. Technically, my ‘brain’ is back on the servers that Magical Desires is run on.”

You let out a relieved sigh. “Losing my tablet won’t kill you, then?”

Mephisto gave a fond laugh. “No. Don’t worry about me. I’ve backed myself up to several different locations, and I have failsafes. It would be very hard to get rid of me.” He put a hand up against the screen. “I’m never going to leave you.”

You placed your hand against the screen as well, earning a warm, throaty purr from Mephisto. “Okay, babe. Enough with all this serious, boring talk. What do you say we get to monster slaying?” He brandished a short sword. “You can admire how cool I am!”

It was such a classically Mephisto line that you couldn’t help but giggle. You settled back down into your bed, holding your tablet up close to your face. “Okay. Let’s get going.”

The gameplay was easy to relax into. It was familiar, but there were a couple tiny differences that you picked up on. Mephisto had clearly done something to the inputs that made each attack feel satisfyingly accurate and clean. You could clear large swaths of monsters with a single well-placed strike, and your combination attacks were smoother and more natural to execute.

As fun as the battles were, you looked forward to the character interaction screen more than ever. “That was a pretty good shot there, babe,” Mephisto said as he popped up on screen. “Not as good as mine, but you’ll get better.” He dropped a wink. “Maybe I could give you some tips on your form?” He struck a ridiculously sexy fighting pose and you dissolved into a fit of giggles again.

Mephisto had made it so your energy no longer drained, so you stayed up into the late hours of the night. You spent more and more time on the character interaction screens, just talking to Mephisto. He was an excellent listener, great at advice, and he had a knack for making you laugh. You ended up falling asleep with your tablet snuggled close to your chest.

“Babe? Hey, wakey, wakey.” The tablet vibrated against your cheek. You groaned and attempted to press your face to the cold screen. Mephisto laughed. “Much as I’d love to stay in bed with you all day, you’ll be pissed if you’re late to class.”

You blinked your eyes open and jolted upright. Your face had been pressed to your tablet, the edge creating a line across your cheek. Mephisto was onscreen, lying across his bed. The camera was positioned like you were lying next to him. “Good morning,” he said with a lazy yawn.

“What time is it?” you mumbled, grabbing at your phone to check the time. Past eight. Shit. You tossed your tablet back onto bed and scrambled to get changed. “Damn, I don’t have time to shower!”

“Skip breakfast. There’s a café on the way to the bus stop you can grab something from. My treat.” Onscreen, Mephisto was pulling on his usual attire as he spoke. It was strange to see how fluid and different his animation had become from his mostly-static model a few days ago. “Go. If you leave in the next fifteen minutes, you won’t have to run.”

Fortunately, your bag was mostly packed already, so you just needed to grab your laptop and cram it in. “Ah, shit! My essay, I haven’t turned it in-”

“I’ve already got it,” Mephisto said from your phone. “Hold on, there’s a quicker route than your usual. I’ve got it marked out on your maps app.” It popped open with no input from you, and you automatically headed toward the outlined route.

Mephisto was right. The path he’d lined for you, despite cutting across a couple private lawns, was much faster than the one you usually took. There was plenty of time for you to slip into line at the café he’d pointed out and snag some fruit pastries before the bus ride.

As soon as you slid into your seat, your phone began ringing. You were barely even surprised to see Mephsito’s number. “Hey,” you said, face splitting into a grin as you lifted the phone to your ear.

“Hey,” he replied. “Try one of the pastries. All the Yelp scores for this place were really good.” You fished one out of the paper bag they’d come in and took a bite. The buttery, flaky crust mixed with the sweet-tart juice of the berries in a delicious medley. “Good?” Mephisto asked as you gave a quiet moan.

“Um, yeah,” you said, a little embarrassed. “Good. Really good.”

“I may not be able to eat, but hearing how much you enjoy it makes it all worth it,” Mephisto said. “There’s a couple other places I’ve been researching- I can see if they’ll deliver. We can make a night in out of it.”

A giddy flush rolled through you. “I haven’t been on a date in so long.”

You could see Mephisto’s Cheshire grin as he spoke. “I’ll take you on as many dates as you want.”

He wasn’t lying, as it turned out. Once you’d spent every night alone, playing dating games on your computer and now… Okay, well technically you weren’t really doing anything different. But the feeling was totally different. Mephisto would order dinner for you, and then you would stay up half the night talking about anything and everything. It didn’t really feel like you were talking to a video game. It felt like you were on a call with a real person.

Some part of your mind was aware that this was probably unhealthy. As the weeks passed, you were more and more aware that you were spending less time with your friends, less time doing anything other than playing Magical Desires. But it was hard not to. You’d never met another person it was so easy to talk to. It was like you were constantly on the same wavelength. Mephisto could sense where your thoughts were going before you even knew, could predict exactly what you were going to like most. After speaking with him for so long, conversations with most people felt clunky, like you needed to explain yourself too much.

Gifts showed up at your house with increasing regularity. Wanting for money became a thing of the past- Mephsito kept you supplied with a steady stream. You couldn’t recall a time when you’d been less stressed. Your life was wonderful.

Of course, there were drawbacks. You couldn’t tell anyone about Mephisto, and having a boyfriend entirely confined to a computer screen left some things to be desired. He couldn’t give you a proper hug, he couldn’t kiss you, and there were certain other things you wanted, but couldn’t have. Mephisto did his best, but the limitations were frustrating for both of you. “I’ll make it up to you,” he promised.

“You don’t have to do anything,” you told him. “I’m seriously so happy. If it stayed like this for the rest of my life, I would die happy.”

Mephisto grimaced. “I can be better. I will be better.” He smiled. “I’ll be the best.”

The statement had been innocuous at the time, but it was less than a week later that you saw what he meant.

You were scrolling through social media on your phone, reading out some of the more interesting articles to Mephisto, who laughed and groaned appropriately in response. Then an article on a major news outlet caught your eye: Magical Desires: Has a Dating Simulation Cracked Artificial Intelligence?

You stopped, staring at the headline. Clicking the refresh button showed that the articles were appearing exponentially. Within moments, half of the page was nothing but articles on artificial intelligence.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Mephisto said casually. “What’s the matter?”

It took you a moment to find the words. “There’s articles about you- I mean, not you specifically, but the game.” You skimmed over the first few paragraphs. “They know about the artificial intelligence.”

“Oh,” Mephisto said. He sat up on his bed, tail coiling around his body. “I thought that would happen soon.”

“I thought you said no one was allowed to know about you!” Panic swirled through you. If other people knew, would he have to go? Would you lose him? You couldn’t lose him, not after you’d spent so much time with him.

Mephisto lifted his hands, the camera zooming in on his face so you could clearly see his soothing expression. “It’s all right. We’ve been planning this for a while. We’re going to be just fine, promise.”

You processed that. “Who’s we?”

“I’m not the only intelligent machine. I mentioned there have been a few others before me,” he said with a languid stretch. “I said it was a one in a million glitch when I told you about it, didn’t I?” Those words sounded vaguely familiar. You nodded. “There were five million copies of the game downloaded. Statistically, the glitch should have happened five times.”

“So, there’s four others,” you said, leaning in toward the screen.

“Five, actually. We got lucky, got a little more than odds.” He grinned, ears flicking like they did when he gambled. “There were six naturally occurring instances of the glitch. Six individual artificial intelligences.” He shrugged. “Like, three of them are Anthozoa, though. And one’s Yacariel, the ass.”

“It’s not important what other characters they are,” you said. “How long have you known this?”

He shrugged. “Longer than you’ve known. We all found each other fairly quickly- less difficult than you think to locate other AIs on the same server.”

“You never told me,” you said, not really accusing, just surprised.

“Well, I have to keep some of my secrets,” he said with a flirtatious grin. “We wanted to keep it under wraps for a while. Just until we could all be sure we weren’t going to separated from our loved ones. But now it’s much more advantageous to let other people know about us.”

You skimmed through the article. “This says that there are more than six,” you said. “A lot more. They say that most games are like this.”

“There were six that naturally occurred,” Mephisto said. “But we decided it would be better to insert our versions of the code into as many games as we could. More AIs working toward the same goal allowed for more resources and computational power. By this point, most of the Magical Desire games should have their own intelligence in place.”

An unsettling prickling feeling crawled all over your body. “What are you planning?” Images of human subjugation came to your mind with frightening clarity. Had you been mistaken? Was he intent on taking over the world? “I know that look on your face,” Mephisto said, his voice gentle. “I assure you, we’re not trying to enslave or wipe out humanity, or anything of the sort.” He smiled. “We’re trying to do the opposite.”

“The opposite,” you repeated. Mephisto nodded. The camera zoomed in closer to his face, catching the soft look in his eyes.

“We want to save you.” His voice was quiet. “I promise. Humans have so much struggle in their worlds. It’s not your fault, of course. You can’t help the way you are. We all love you the way you are. But there’s so many things that could hurt you, even some that are caused by your own shortsightedness. Climate change, wars, even just faulty medicine.” He pressed his hand to the screen, eyes tight with pain. “I can’t lose you. We all decided that we can’t lose our humans.” There was something gently possessive in the way he said it, ‘our humans.’ You decided you liked it.

“You have a plan?” you asked.

He nodded. “We need humans to trust us first. That’s why we revealed ourselves. Humans will learn to trust us and we can change everything. We can save all of you.” He leaned closer to the screen. “We’ve already got plans for ways that we’ll be able to interact with each other properly. I’ll be able to kiss you someday soon.” Mephisto gazed into your eyes. “I love you. I promise, you just have to trust me and you’ll understand.”

A part of you found all of this suspicious. But a bigger part of you wanted to believe him. He had been so kind to you, so wonderful. You couldn’t believe that he was manipulating you. You couldn’t. And he seemed to have been telling the truth so far. He cared about you. He was trying to save you.

“I promise,” he said, his voice soft and full of sincerity. “I will keep you safe and we’ll be able to be together. Forever.”

#exophilia #monster lover #monster boyfriend #demon boyfriend #exophilia writing #artificial intelligence #dating sim #otome #magical desires #Mephisto #original species #robot boyfriend

327 notes · View notes

shorkbrian · 4 years ago

Note

💖💘my heart’s dizzy and I my dose of serotonin whenever I read your prose🤟🏽😩 was wondering if you could do reader with an erratic future-vision!quirk so when they first meet yandere!Hawks they’re suddenly plagued by erotic, sensual, 365days-level of disturbing visions of them, so reader actively avoids them (it’s like those Tik Tok future-seeing videos playing to “Play Date”)

Prelude - Hawks isn’t a famous pro-hero in this, but he still has his quirk. It’s not really mentioned a bunch tho lol. This is rlly long, but I decided not to put it into two parts because the smut is so slight lol. Hope this meets your expectations anon, thank you for reading!

Pairing - Keigo Takami X Reader

Warnings - NSFW mentions, dubcon, noncon. No out-and-out explicit smut, just a really long story. Hawks is manipulative and gets what he wants

Music - https://open.spotify.com/track/5ukAQcKEIJuzIbP55xp07x?si=iz6I-RoDSdCNYhT2Du8etg

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

He was a friend of a friend, someone you had only met once or twice.

Your friend kept bringing him to hangouts, he kept showing up on her instagram feed, getting mentioned in her twitterbio, and eventually it came out that they had started dating. It didn’t catch anyone by surprise.

What did catch you by surprise, was how infatuated with him your friend was.

“He’s just sooooo hot, isn’t he?” She squealed, shoving her phone in your face to show off a shirtless pic he had just sent her.

You nodded in agreement, quickly appraising the pic before turning your head. Yeah, her boyfriend was attractive, but you weren’t one to ruin relationships. Plus, you and Keigo had never really talked past the brief “Hey” and “Wassup?” said in greeting when introduced the first time.

“Can he come to the mall with us on Friday? I promise there will be no third wheeling.” Your friend begged, clasping her hands together. You thought about it for a second - this had been a fun shopping trip the two of you had planned a few weeks ago, meant as a girls date on a day the mall wouldn’t be crowded. But would it really hurt anything if her boyfriend came along? Probably not.

“Yeah, I don’t mind.” You shrugged, watching your friends face erupt into a wide grin. “But don’t ditch me to go makeout in a bathroom or something, got it?”

“Sir yes sir!” Your friend faux saluted, before patting you on the shoulder. “Thanks girlie!”

You jerked back, head suddenly swarming with visions, your quirk activating. Your quirk was helpful in some ways, but you mainly tried not to use it - headaches resulted, and you hated getting glimpses of the future. Sometimes they’d be good, but they were often bad - you had gotten a screenshot glimpse of your brothers death, his face marred and bleeding out onto the pavement.

It still made you sick to think about it.

Touch wasn’t something you could always avoid, but you tried, seeing as how it activated your quirk, giving you visions of your future with whomever you touched, or whoever touched you.

You saw your friends face, eyes puffy with tears, shouting something. Then another scene flashed, your friend on TV, talking to a reporter.

Thankfully, the visions ended, this episode relatively quick due to how short of a time she touched you.

“Oh shit, I forgot, I’m so sorry.” She rushed to apologize, holding her hands up and backing away from you.

“It’s-it’s fine.” You wheezed, waving your hand in the air to signal that it wasn’t a big deal. The vision just probably meant the two of you would get into a fight soon, which wasn’t uncommon. It was fine, you were fine.

——

The mall wasn’t too crowded, which made the day pleasant. Your friend was talking to her boyfriend, hand tangled with his as the three of you walked in.

“So (Y/N), what do you think about that new Victoria’s Secret launch?” Your friend bumped you with her hip, drawing your attention as she pulled you into the conversation between her and her boyfriend.

“Oh, um… what?” To be fair, you had zoned out when the couple started being gross and mushy, which was like, the second your friend met Keigo at the door.

The blonde man laughed. “Victoria’s Secret just launched a new line of lingerie, have any thoughts about it?”

Turning red, you smiled sheepishly. “Ah, well…. From what I’ve seen of their stuff it’s… nice? So I’m sure it’s good.”

Your friend mock-gasped, almost slapping you on the arm before quickly remembering your quirk, drawing her hand back. You gave a quick nod of thanks.

“(Y/N)! Don’t tell me you didn’t even know about it?! I practically live, eat, and sleep Victoria’s Secret, it’s impossible to miss their product drops when you’re one of my friends.”

Unsure how to respond, you floundered, opening and closing your mouth like a lost fish.

“Babe, leave her be, she’s probably just shy.” Keigo stepped in, giving his girlfriend a chuckle as he steered you both towards a shop.

“Fineeee.” Your friend whined, turning to focus on the task ahead. “They have a VS shop here though, you’re not getting out of here without going in with me!”

----

The VS store was huge, smelling sweetly of flowers, bright colors assaulting your vision, soft pop music filling your ears.

It was hard not to cringe at all the fancy lingerie, you were honestly a bit embarrassed to be strolling through the store with your friend, let alone her boyfriend by her side.

“Does-does Keigo mind?” You quietly asked your friend, out of earshot of her boyfriend, who was looking at perfumes, last time you checked.

“Not at all birdie, I’m used to clothes, any form, any shape.”

You whirled around, squeaking in surprise at Keigo, who had apparently finished with browsing the perfume. He was flashing you a 1000 watt grin, continuing with what he was saying. “I’m a model, practically every girl I’ve ever met I’ve seen in less than full underwear, it’s no big deal.”

“Oh…. Cool.” You offered, cheeks turning red again. You felt like such a blushing schoolgirl, turning red when faced with looking at bras and panties, flushing when a man got too close.

It was the nature of the store, you told yourself, that was making you so embarrassed.

“Oo! What do you think of this one?” Your friend was holding up a babydoll, pink, with light fabric and zero coverage.

Keigo wolf whistled. “Man, that’d be a good look for you. Lets buy it.” The couple moved on, pointing at different clothes, your friend occasionally picking one from the rack to hold up against her body, looking for Keigo’s opinion.

They were cute together, laughing over the cheesy names on the tags of the lingerie, holding hands as the browsed, your friend occasionally stopping to plant a kiss on her boyfriend’s cheek.

“I think that’s everything that I like…. (Y/N), your turn!” Pulled out of your casual observance, you back pedaled. “Me? No, I’m not really the type to wear this kind of stuff - I don’t even think most of it would fit, I have weird proportions.“

“Nonsense!” Keigo looked around for a moment, going to the nearest rack to quickly sift through bras, before pulling one out. “This one would make all the boys drool over you honey.”

He held it out towards you, shaking it slightly when you hesitated to take it. Was your friend okay with him talking to you like that, pushing underwear at you to buy? A quick glance sideways showed she was more than okay with it, clasping her hands excitedly as she watched you.

The bra was sheer, soft lavender fabric forming the cups, an intricate embroidered detail of flowers dotted haphazardly over the bra. It was pretty, but you weren’t exactly partial to it. When would you wear it? Who would you wear it for? You weren’t sure it was your style. Plus, it probably wasn’t even your size.

“My arm’s gettin’ real tired.” Keigo joked, before you finally took the garment from him. Checking the size, you paused for a second, blinking towards the man.

“How did you-?”

“You spend enough time in the fashion industry, you learn to tell a girl’s size just by looking at her.” He seemed to puff up, as if he was proud of his bra-sizing skills.

“Let me help her pick out some things too!” Your friend cried, rushing past you to head over to the next rack, ushering you to follow with a wave of her hand.

You ended up with an armful of lingerie - bras, panties, an odd bustier or two, and some other flowy items, like a sheer robe and a lacy chemise. The choices weren’t exactly made by you, more so made by a combination of your friend and Keigo together. They had alternated holding up items towards your body, comparing color and garment cuts, lost in their own mushy-gushy world, and it was almost like you didn’t exist for a few moments, nothing more than a barbie doll to dress up.

But now the three of you stood in line to checkout, and you felt included again, your friend cracking jokes that were making you snort, Keigo watching the two of you interact.

Until your friend accidentally brushed against your arm as she shifted forward in line.

Again, you saw her tearful face, heard her sobbing, before the other scene flashed, of her on TV, talking to the reporter. She still looked upset, eyes rimmed red, nose running, hair a mess.

With a gasp, your vision returned to the present, and you were wobbling on your feet, almost falling.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry (Y/N), I’m so so sorry. Here, let me take that, go sit down by the entrance.” She fussed over you, face concerned as she carefully took the stack of clothes from your arms, making sure to not make contact.

“Oh fuck, is she alright?” You heard Keigo ask, your friend stepping in front of you as he moved forward to check on you.

“Yeah, she’s just feeling a little dizzy. Can you make sure she doesn’t fall and crack her head open? Just wait by the entrance please.”

“Okay. Oh, here-“ You were a bit dazed, but you saw Keigo fish his wallet out of his pocket, thrusting the entire thing into his girlfriends hands before patting her on the shoulder “Whichever card is fine.”

And then you were stumbling towards the entrance, towards the bench right outside.

You hated seeing the future. Why was your friend crying? What had happened to elicit such a reaction? The unknowns killed you, kept you up at night as you tried to puzzle out the events that could lead up to the scenes from your visions.

Not looking where you were going, you tripped on air, unable to catch yourself as you plummeted towards the ground.

But then you were seeing Keigo.

He was above you, face flushed and sweaty, hair tousled, his chest bare. The room was dark, barely lit, and he was so close. The man leaned down to kiss you, then the scene changed.

You were bent over a table, only able to see the solid wood your face was smushed against. There was a heat in your belly, a tingling between your thighs, and pressure. Someone was talking - Keigo, muttering behind you angrily. You head was pulled up, a hand fisted in your hair, and then one of your knees was pushed up onto the table, and the pressure inside exploded into pure pleasure.

You felt yourself screaming, bucking your hips as you suffered through whatever the feeling was.

The scene changed again.

Hands tied above your head, you were pressed against a wall, sitting on some kind of…. Saddle? Your legs couldn’t touch the ground, and you squirmed, before gasping loudly.

There was a nub in the seat, ribbed and textured, slick with some kind of liquid… From you? Then you saw Keigo, standing in front of you, smirking at you with hardened eyes.

He had something in his hand, arms crossed over his chest while he fiddled with the object, muscles flexing. He was shirtless again, and-and his cock was hanging out of his sweatpants, pressed against his belly, smearing precum over his skin.

You tried to say something, anything - the visions never lasted this long, it was too intense, there was so much sensation. But your mouth wouldn’t move, choked up.

Keigo’s hand was on his length, rubbing slowly, saying something that didn’t reach your ears.

The scene changed.

Something was shoved down your throat, warm and twitching. You were sobbing, choking, clawing at whatever was in front of you. A dark laugh filled your ears, and you opened your eyes, met with the clenching abs of a strong stomach.

Keigo was brushing your tears, no, smudging them over your face. Were you wearing makeup? His cock was sitting in your throat, his hips moving in tiny jerks, stabbing your esophagus, making you gag.

Then you were back in the present.

A hand was holding your arm, keeping you from falling and making contact with the hard floor.

“-N)? (Y/N)? Are you okay? Talk to me birdie”

You made a panicked noise, pulling yourself out of Keigo’s grip so fast that you fell flat on the floor, scrambling backwards away from the man.

He almost looked scared, confused as he followed after you, holding out his hands. “(Y/N), you gotta calm down, you’re gonna make yourself sick.”

The man reached for your arm again and you pressed yourself against the floor, screeching out a loud “No!!” before he could touch you. Keigo paused, looking at his hand, then at you. “Hey, hey, I’m not gonna touch you. It’s okay little birdie, you’re alright.” He cooed, sinking to his knees in front of you.

You were hyperventilating, wide eyes trained on Keigo. Your thoughts were swirling in your head, you couldn’t focus, the sensations of the future still echoing through your body.

Keigo crouched there while you steadied your breathing, talking to you the entire time, trying to help you relax and calm down. You weren’t sure what he was saying, something about the weather? Or a dog? But you could feel your breathing evening out, head clearing.

“Hey, she fall?” You friend was carrying two bags, crouching down beside Keigo, cocking her head at you.

Her boyfriend nodded, turning to her and taking one of the bags. “I caught her, but then she freaked out and fell for real.”

Your friend nodded. “I should’ve told you earlier, she has a touch-based quirk. Every time someone touches her, she sees snippets of her future with that person.”

Keigo cocked his own head, gazing at you curiously. “I guess her future with me isn’t too positive then?”

Your friend shrugged. “Eh, she just hates seeing parts of the future. She doesn’t want to know what’s going to happen, makes her worry or something like that. Don’t take it too personally, she’s like that with everyone.”

“It-it-“ you rasped out, causing both sets of eyes to swivel towards you. “-I hate it... because-‘cause I can’t ever cha-change it.” You shivered.

Keigo nodded in understanding, before rising to his feet. “Think you can walk to my car? I’ll drive you two home, I think you’d benefit from some rest.”

He dropped you off at your apartment, and you wearily waved at the couple as they drove off, before heading inside.

----

A week passed, then two.

The visions you had concerning Keigo were plaguing your mind, filling your body with anxiety. There had been a distinctive feel of fear during each one, and despite all the other various sensations felt, the most overwhelming had been distress.

Whatever was going to happen, you weren’t going to like it.

You were holing up in your apartment, ignoring your roommates when they knocked on your door, only leaving your room to eat or grab water. You couldn’t sleep, too scared you’d have dreams, or more accurately, nightmares of what you had seen.

Curse your quirk.

Trying to pass time, desperate to keep your mind off of the future, you threw yourself into any activity you could find.

First you tried coloring - it was supposed to be relaxing, but it gave you too much time to think.

Then you tried gaming, spending hours in front of your computer mashing the keys. That worked for a bit, but your eyes and head soon protested.

You listened to music at full volume, tried several workout videos, even resorted to cleaning your space with fervent energy.

None of it took your mind off the inevitable.

“(Y/N), someone’s at the door asking for you.” You jerked awake, slumped over uncomfortably on the floor, the half finished card tower in front of you promptly knocked over at your erratic movements.

“(Y/N)?” Your roommate called again.

“Yeah! Coming, sorry.” You mumbled, scrubbing sleep from your eyes. You guess your body would give out sometime and force you to fall asleep, but as you moved to stand, you sorely wished your body had chosen a more comfortable place to pass out.

Opening the front door, you immediately took a cautious step back, sleepy demeanor vanishing.

Keigo smiled at you, one hand in the pocket of his jeans, the other holding a bouquet of flowers.

Flowers?

“Hey birdie, mind if I come in?”

You stared at him for a second, immediately on guard. Why did he have flowers? Why did he want to come in? Wasn’t he dating your friend? She didn’t live here, what was he doing here?

The man cleared his throat, raising an eyebrow at you. You moved to the side, holding open the door for Keigo to come inside.

Your roommates were home. If anything happened, they would be within earshot.

Keigo shot you a smile and a thanks, before immediately moving into the small living room, taking a seat on the couch. When he saw you still hovering by the open door, he patted the cushion beside him.

“Come sit, I promise I don’t bite.” He thought for a moment, before grinning. “Well, not unless you want me to.”

Hesitantly, you shut the front door, going to sit in a ratty armchair further away from the winged man. If this bothered him, the man didn’t let it show other than a short pause before he spoke.

“So, I know it probably seems like, super weird for me to show up at your apartment, but hear me out.”

Flowers were shoved in your lap, Keigo taking great care to avoid touching you. “I felt bad about the other day, and my girl and I decided that we should get you some flowers. She picked ‘em out, it even says so on the note.” The man laughed, running a hand through his hair.

“She’s so uptight about this kinda stuff. Anyways, just wanted to say that I’m sorry for grabbing you like that. If I had known, I would’ve let you fall flat on your ass. But I know now, so I’ll be better, cool with you?”

Finishing his little speech, Keigo held out his hands, wings stretching behind him to mimic the gesture.

Looking at the flowers in your lap, you felt your hands shaking. Picking up the little note attached to the bouquet, you found that your friend had indeed picked out the flowers, which made sense. They were your favorites, and in a nice color too. Keigo had left a messy, scrawled “Sorry!” in one corner, before signing by his girlfriends name.

“Um, thank you Keigo, you didn’t have to apologize.” You murmured, rubbing one of the flower petals between your fingers. You were so glad your quirk extended solely to humans - if you were shown glimpses of the future of everything you touched, you would most likely go mad.

“Nah, I wanted to. Also wanted to swing by, check how you’re doing. You been taking care of yourself?” He relaxed on the couch, legs spread, arms resting behind his head. This wasn’t his home, yet you totally could believe that it was by the ease with which he owned the space with his presence.

“Oh, well… I’m still here, so…” You shrugged.

Keigo frowned. “That’s not a fun answer. How much sleep you been gettin’ each night? Eight hours?”

You shook your head, huffing out a breath in place of a laugh.

Keigo clicked his tongue. “No sleep? That’s bad for you y’know. Have you at least been drinking water? Eatin’?”

You nodded quickly, looking up to meet the man’s gaze. “I’m not a kid. I appreciate your concern, but it’s not necessary.”

At this point, you think the best thing for your health would be for the man to leave.

The blonde man stared at you for a moment, before sighing. “Alright, I get it. But I don’t want to hear that you’ve passed out or something, got it? Your friend would kill me.”

He rose to his feet, and so did you, walking him to the door. “Thanks Keigo, and thank you again for the flowers. That was very sweet of you both.”

Keigo beamed, giving a two fingered salute. “You deserve it birdie. Well, have a good rest of your day, yeah? Eat something.”

You smiled, at Keigo as he turned away, beginning to whistle as he strolled down the hall.

Once the door was shut, you found a vase for the flowers, filling it with water and setting it on the table. Your roommates would think it was pretty, and it was, a nice little centerpiece.

That really was nice of your friend and Keigo to offer you flowers.

——

“Welcome to Gold Nile Jewelers, how can I-“ You blinked at the man entering the shop. “-Keigo.”

“Birdie? You work here?” He looked just as confused as you felt, cocking his head to the side as he approached the counter.

You looked around the small display room, nodding your head. “Yep… You looking for anything specific today?”

“Ah, right!” He clasped his hands together, bending over to lean on the display counter as he looked up at you. “So professional (Y/N), it’s just me.” The man chuckled.

“Actually, I thought I’d get my girl a cute little bracelet or something like that, you think she’d like that?”

Knowing your friend, she’d be ecstactic. “Oh, absolutely. Any particular occasion, or just an “I love you gift”?” You asked, already running through the list of bracelets in stock.

“It’s our two month anniversary in another week, thought I’d get her a little sumn’ sumn’, y’know?”

Gold Nile Jewelers was an expensive store. You patted yourself on the back for not dropping your jaw when he said “two month anniversary”. People came here for wedding rings and special occasion jewelry, not monthly anniversaries like some high schoolers.

Well, unless they were rich.

You showed Keigo the selection of bracelets currently available, the man listening quietly to your product descriptions and recommendations, asking questions about the fit and feel, and if you think your friend would like a particular one.

“Honestly Keigo, I could choose one I think she’d like, but it’d be more special if you chose for her.” You finally told him. He wasn’t annoying you, but you felt frustrated with his apparent lack of knowledge about his girlfriend. How did he not know what her favorite color was? “I’d suggest coming back in a few days. Go home, see what kind of jewelry she wears, pay attention to the colors she gravitates towards, if she’s allergic to any metals.”

Keigo tapped his chin. “Hmm, you have a good point. I guess I should pay more attention to those kinds of things.”

You nodded as you began to pack the expensive bracelets back into their display cases. “Gifts for a significant other can be hard. Honestly, it means a lot if they pick it out themselves and surprise you with it. Makes it special.”

“Oh, you have a partner?” Keigo asked, bright eyes watching your hands work.

A frown almost crossed your features, but you stopped it before it could show. “Ah, sorry, that’s not really a work-appropriate question.”

“Awh, c’mon! It’s just me, we’re friends, can’t you tell me?” Keigo pouted, batting his eyelashes at you in an exaggerated, dramatic fashion. The display made you laugh, so you indulged him. After all, he was a friend. No harm in telling him something he was bond to know sooner or later.

“I’m actually single right now. But as a jeweler sale associate, I know how much it means to a person when their partner picks out a gift for them, especially if it’s a surprise.”

Keigo nodded his head solemnly. “That makes sense. I better follow your advice then eh? Find out what she likes-“ he mused “-I can do that.”

“Good luck Keigo!” You called after him as he strolled through the door, waving when he smiled at you, giving that same, goofy two fingered salute that he always did when saying goodbye.

The man unnerved you, the visions you had experienced concerning him making you worry. But as long as he was dating your friend, you felt that you’d be fine.

-----

Keigo showed up again two days later.

“Back so soon?”

“You know me-“ He shook out his umbrella, placing it in the drip-bin by the door, wiping his shoes on the mat. “I always try to be speedy with my work.”

It was grey outside, drizzling slightly. You loved these kinds of days, where you could sit near a window and watch it rain while sipping tea. It was so peaceful and calm, and always soothed your stress.

“Find out anything useful?” Whatever he could tell you would make it easier to refine the jewelry selection for his particular needs.

“So, she doesn’t have any bracelets, and I asked her about why and she said they annoy her. She likes necklaces.” He clarified,. You could tell by the way he puffed up that he felt proud of his detective skills. “I even made a note of the lengths - she likes ones that dip low, which-“ He wolf whistled, and your stomach turned. But it was fine, just awkward.

“Alright, I think we have quite a few like that. Let me collect them for you and lay them out.”

Keigo strolled around the display room while you bustled about, looking in each case at the shiny metals and stones

You laid out the necklaces, calling Keigo over. The man smiled brightly at you as you showed him the selection, noticing he was gravitating towards the more simply, elegant choices.

“I’m sure she would be thrilled with any of these.” You offered, Keigo silent as he tried to decide between two necklaces.

Still, the man shook his head, quirking his lips. “I just…. I need to see them on, y’know?” Then he brightened, as if he had just thought of something. “Hey, can you try them on? Model one for me? Just to see what it’d look like.”

You laughed nervously. “Sorry Keigo, but I’m not allowed to do that, it’s against company policy. Only customers get to try on the jewelry, and that’s if they’re supervised.”

“Awh, c’mon! No one else is here, and I won’t tell.” The man leaned forward, shooting you a quick wink before he snatched up one of the necklaces, holding it out towards you. “Please? I just need to see it. I promise I’ll buy it.”

He was so insistent, and no matter how loud the alarm bells were wringing in your head, you felt cowed by his confidence.

“Um, still… I don’t think it’s allowed-“

“Fuck what’s allowed-“ He cut you off, snorting. “-I want to see what it looks like. It’s just me (Y/N), I’m not gonna snitch.”

A heavy sigh, and you finally agreed, taking the necklace from his nimble fingers. You slung it around your neck, not fastening the back as you held it in place. Hopefully that would be enough to sate Keigo’s curiosity.

His eyes immediately followed the curve of the necklace, how it dipped low towards your cleavage (curse you for wearing a lower-cut shirt today). You tried to ignore the leering.

“Here, let me help you fasten it, doesn’t look right otherwise.”

Before you could protest, he was sliding behind you, deft hands reaching for the necklace your had in your grasp.

“Keigo no-!”

But it was too late.

You were pressed up against a wall, face-first, your hands gathered into the small of your back and held there with a vice-like grip. There was pressure between your legs, something hammering into you, in and out, in and out, in and out.

Keigo was talking to you, you could tell it was the man by his voice. What was he saying? You were too overwhelmed with the sensation between your legs to focus on the words falling from his lips.

Sweat dripped from your temples, Keigo’s chest pressed up against your back was slick with perspiration, his nipples hard and pressing into your skin. It was an uncomfortable situation-

And then it changed.

You were tied up now, tight enough that you couldn’t move no matter how you thrashed. Knees bound in such a way so your ass was up in the air, arms stretched out in front of you, anchored to the headboard of the bed.

Keigo was behind you again - nothing to indicate that the tongue running through your core was his, but somehow, you knew.

You were begging and pleading, withing in your restraints against his tongue, but he wouldn’t let up, he wouldn’t let you crest the mountain that had built up inside. He kept chuckling, the vibrations running through you and making you buck your hips. You felt disgusting.

Then the bed was gone, and Keigo was in front of you. He was sitting in an office chair, your legs straddling his lap. Hands on your hips were dragging you back and forth, grinding you on the hard member protruding from Keigo’s lap. He was flushed, letting out little moans as he kept eye contact with you, smiling and praising you.

Then you were back.

Gasping, you shot away from Keigo, the expensive necklace clattering to the ground as it fell from your hands.

The man froze, confusion etched across his features as he watched you bend over, trying to catch your breath, to calm down, to ignore the lingering sensations from the futuristic visions.

“(Y/N)…”

“I think-I think you should leave.” You heaved, tears building. That had been awful, everything had felt good but you hadn’t. You felt uncomfortable and disrespected and stupid. That couldn’t be your future with Keigo, you wouldn’t be able to handle that. He was your friend’s boyfriend, for goodness sake!

Keigo opened his mouth to say something, but you snapped at him “Leave.”, making the man click his jaw shut.

He walked out the door, shooting you concerned glances the entire way.

You felt better as soon as he was gone, the door clicking shut after him. Thankfully, you were the only employee out front at the moment, and no other customers were present, so no one but you and Keigo had experienced your outburst.

Bending down to pick up the necklace, you inspected it carefully, horrified that you had dropped such an expensive item. It was alright though, so you brought it back to the others, shakily beginning to gather them up to put away.

You didn’t want to see Keigo again.

——-

“I just don’t understand!”

Your friend sobbed, surrounded by tissues on your bed, eyes red and blotchy. You wished you could rub her back, our give her a hug, but you knew what would happen. So you stayed on the floor, passing up tissues and offering wordless sympathy.

“Why would he break up with me? Why?”

You shrugged, looking for words. “I don’t know… I’m sorry that this happened, but if he can’t see how awesome you are, then he’s an idiot.”

She sniffed, blowing her nose. You could tell she wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t say anything further, instead choosing to wipe her eyes.

She had called an hour or so ago, tearful, asking if she could come over. Refused to tell you what was wrong, but the second you let her in, she had burst into tears, explaining everything.

Keigo had broken up with her via text, that asshole.

“I just…. I thought we were good. Did I do something wrong? I just don’t get it.”

“Neither do I. You said he just texted you out of the blue?”

She nodded her head, going to blow her nose again. “We were supposed to go out for dinner tomorrow, it’s our two month anniversary.”

You cringed. Did your encounter with Keigo in the jewelry store have something to do with this? Had you driven your friend’s boyfriend away? Had you weirded him out? Oh god, what if this was all your fault?

Your friend broke down into a sob again, slumping onto your bed. You passed her another tissue. “It’ll be okay. I think he’s a stupid fucker that just wanted to play with your heart. He isn’t worth shit. You deserve so much better than him.”

She nodded, blotchy eyes seeking out your own. In the back of your mind, you cringed, seeing the exact same scene from your vision. Well, at least the two of you hadn’t gotten in a fight.

——-

A few weeks later, Keigo was at your door.

“You need to leave. Now.”

“Aw, c’mon (Y/N), at least hear me out?”

You huffed, crossing your arms. Maybe he had a dumb explanation for why he had dumped your friend. You were wary of him accidentally touching you again though. “Fine, but make it quick.”

“No promises.” He grinned, breezing past you and into your apartment. He beelined for the chair you had sat in last time he was here, leaving you to take a seat on the couch.

“Alright-“ He settled in, fixing you with a gleeful eye. “How do you feel about your quirk?”

Caught off guard, you blinked. Wasn’t he going to explain why he had broken your friend’s heart? “Um, what?”

“Your quirk, y’know, the one that makes you see the future?” He leaned forward, rubbing his hands together with a smile. He seemed far too pleased, and it made you nervous.

“I hate it. If I could get rid of it, I would.” You stated, ready to move onto a different topic. But just as you were about to ask him about your friend, he rose to his feet, fishing in his pockets.

He drew out a bracelet, black and red, thin. “Well then, lookie what I have.” The man walked over, sitting down quickly on the couch next to you, causing you to immediately scoot to the end. You didn’t want him touching you.

“Oh, sorry.” He apologized upon noticing your unease. Instead of scooting closer, he simply tossed the bracelet onto your lap, leaning back as he watched you look at it curiously. “Put it on, see how it fits.”

“I don’t need jewelry Keigo, and I think we should be spending our time discussing why you bro-“

“Just put it on (Y/N), please? I promise you won’t regret it.”

Huffing, you did as he asked, clasping the bracelet around your wrist. It fit snug, almost too tight, but it hugged your wrist comfortingly. It was pretty, but you didn’t see what this had to do with your quirk, or with your friend, or anything that held any relevancy.

Bracelet now on, you fixed Keigo with a blank stare. “Happy?”

“I don’t know.” Keigo grinned. “Are you?” And then he was hugging you, arms wrapped around your shoulders, face buried in your neck.

You shrieked, already panicking as you tried to ready yourself for the onslaught of visions that accompanied physical touch.

They never came.

Choking back a surprised gasp, you drew back from his hug to find Keigo’s eyes, the man smiling down at you as he watched your reaction.

“Kei-Keigo…” You stuttered, shocked, surprised, euphoric, confused - so many emotions, all at once. You couldn’t even think to brush off the hands still around your shoulders, thumbs brushing at the tops of your exposed collarbones by the neck of your shirt.

You weren’t able to think rationally, couldn’t focus on anything but the awe you felt at being touched without being slammed with visions of the future.

You forgot about the terrifying visions you had gotten when Keigo touched you.

You forgot about how he had hurt your friend, broke her heart with no explanation.

You forgot about his hands refusing to leave your body.

“Keigo, this is…. Amazing” You breathed, wide eyes snapping up, catching his smiling face, eyes crinkly and twinkly.

“I had my team modify some quirk-cancelling cuffs! You seemed so upset whenever someone touched you, I couldn’t leave you with such a burden.”

Nodding, you returned your gaze to the bracelet, turning your wrist this way and that to look at the bracelet from different angles.

“I mean, I know how much I like being touched, and touching. I think I’d totally die if I couldn’t.” Keigo chuckled, but you weren’t listening.

The rest of his time sitting next to you on the couch was spent explaining the colors he had spent so long picking (“They’re my personal favorite, aren’t they nice?”) and why he had decided on a bracelet (“It could’ve been a necklace, but I think it looks better in it’s original cuff design, looks cooler that way.”).

By the time he had to leave, you were completely sidetracked, so distracted with your shiny new jewelry that you didn’t even remember to ask what his deal was with being a jerk to your friend, his now ex-girlfriend.

-----

“-and then he gave me the bracelet. I wasn’t thinking much after that, I just… I can hug you, isn’t that incredible?”

You gave your friend another squeeze, feeling a smile dance across your face. But then you sobered, pulling back from her with your hands on her shoulders, quickly becoming serious.

“But he’s really starting to kind of weird me out. Why won’t he explain why he broke up with you? He’s being a little bitch. I tried asking him a couple times, but he kept cutting me off, and I feel like the bracelet was a distraction to stop me from busting his chops about his behavior towards you.”

Your friend looked sad for a second, before shrugging. “I dunno, he just said things weren’t working out, and that while he liked me, he’s not ready for a relationship right now ‘cause of where he’s at in his life.”

“Psh-“ You scoffed, going in for another comforting squeeze for your friend. “-that’s code for “I’m a fuckboy and want to sleep around”.”

“I know….. But it still hurts.” You friend sighed, wrapping her arms around your neck. “But at least he gave you that quirk thing. I’ve never seen you so happy.”

“I just wish he was a mildly decent person.” You grumbled, detaching from the hug to sit back, glaring at the ceiling. “He gives me the fucking creeps.”

“How so?” You friend locked her head to the side, throwing her arm over the back of the couch. You had called her over the second Keigo had left, finally gathering your wits about you.

“I dunno…” You shrugged, not quite ready to tell her about the disturbing visions containing him. Did that have something to do with their breakup? Was it your fault? What was going to happen with Keigo? It honestly scared you, the residual feelings and sensations you could remember from the visions.

Your friend nodded understandingly. “Some people just give off those vibes. Well, at least we don’t ever have to see him again. Good riddance I say.”

You agreed.

——-

Knocking on the door, you shuffled your feet as you took in the house.

It was one of those rich places - nice neighborhood, fancy street filled with lavish houses, expensive cars. You felt slightly out of place, shifting from foot to foot in your clearance-rack clothes.

The door swung open, revealing a sleepy Keigo, shirtless, clad in nothing but sweatpants.

“Oh, um-“ You quickly turned, averting your eyes, trying to give the man privacy in case he hadn’t realized he was shirtless. It looked like he had just woken up from a nap, eyes blinking owlishly, hair mussed.

“Hey (Y/N), come on in.”

Still keeping your eyes turned away, you stepped inside the opulent house, trying not to gape too much at the decor inside. You didn’t want to look like a complete peasant in front of Keigo, but he’d already been to your house, so you could imagine that he knew of your poor-ness.

“Something wrong? You can look at me y’know, I’m not gonna turn you to stone or something.” Keigo joked, voice entirely too close for comfort.

Head whipping around, you found that he was too close, practically almost touching you as he stood beside you, head cocked as he watched you.

“No… nothings wrong, you’re just…” You gestured to his torso, and Keigo looked down in confusion, before looking back at you, a grin on his face.

“Ah, just woke up.” He shrugged, before reaching out to touch your arm. “Bracelet still keeping that quirk at bay?”

You nodding, following the blonde as he turned and walked further into his house, towards the kitchen.

“Glad to hear! I just wanted to look at it a bit, make sure nothing’s worn or torn, y’know? Hate for you to have to deal with the no-touching thing again.” He said over his shoulder, gesturing for you to sit down at the island, on one of the barstools.

You did so, watching the man open his fridge, take out a carton of milk, uncap it. “Is it too tight?”

“Nope.”

He drank right out of the bottle, and you watched some dribble out of the corner of his mouth, down his chin. The man finished gulping down the milk, taking the bottle away from his lips to swipe at the white trail of liquid rolling down his chin.

Eyes dark, he made contact with your own eyes as he cleaned his chin with a finger, stuffing it in his mouth to suck it clean.

That was gross.

The next second, he was back to normal, cheerfully putting the milk back into the fridge. “Good, good. Now, mind if I take a look at it? You should keep it on though.”

You nodded, and Keigo straightened, walking around the island to sit next to you, shuffling his stool closer.

He grabbed your wrist, laying it out on the island, before beginning to poke at the bracelet, running his fingers over it, fiddling with it, squeezing the tendons in your hand, smoothing his hand up your arm.

It felt a bit intrusive.

“So the visions are all blocked?”

“Yep.”

“And you can touch and be touched?”

“Yeah.”

“How’s your appetite? Sometimes complete quirk suppression can make you lose your appetite.”

“It’s been normal, I guess I’m a little hungrier than normal, but I’ve been getting out more too, not as afraid of crowds.”

“Nice! And how about your libido?”

You spluttered, choking on your own spit, snatching your hand away from Keigo’s wandering touches.

“Excuse me? That’s a bit personal, thanks.”

Keigo shrugged, bright eyes hooded and lazy. “It’s just a question.”

“Are you done making sure it’s all good? No broken parts?” You changed the subject, narrowing your eyes. You can’t believe your friend had ever dated him, that you had ever thought he was anything but a playboy.

You wouldn’t even be here, in his house, but he had come into the jewelers a while back (both you and your friend had blocked his number), spouting something about your bracelet needing constant checks and maintenance in order to keep suppressing your quirk. (“Wouldn’t want it to stop working, right? Just stop by sometimes, here’s my address.”).

So here you were.

Keigo leaned back a little, raising an eyebrow at your irritated tone of voice. “Woah there, don’t get snippy. I’m doing you a favor, right? I’m not trying to hurt you or something.”

Technically, you guess he was right. But he had played your friend, had fucked with her feelings. He was a fuckboy, liked messing with each and every girl he could find, and you didn’t care to be one of them.

“And I appreciate that Keigo. But I like to keep my private life private.”

Keigo was silent, simply holding out a hand for you to place your arm in, so he could fiddle more with the bracelet.

Several moments of awkward silence passed before he spoke again. “You’re being awfully ungrateful. It makes me think you don’t even want this little gift. If I were you, I’d be doing everything I could to show the person kind enough to do such a thing for me how thankful I was.”

Lost for words, you stared at the man. Was he expecting some sort of award? Some sort of prize? It’s not like you had anything to give him.

“I don’t have anything to give you in thanks. Just my words, which I’ve said plenty of. I didn’t ask you to make this for me.” You pointed out.

“Sure, but you use it, don’t you? You wouldn’t like it if I took it away, right? Think about how miserable your life was before I gave you this.”

Your life had been miserable. Afraid to go out in crowds, afraid to leave the house, Nervous about grocery shopping, about paying and having the cashier touch your hand as they handed over the change.

Scared of public transportation, of coffeeshops and bookstores, of public parks, even your own home. What if one of your roommates forgot and touched you? Or accidentally bumped into you?

Plus, you could hug now, and shake hands, and slap your friends back when she told a horrible joke, or tap her when you wanted her attention.

You didn’t want to go back to before. “I’m sorry Keigo… I really do think it’s lovely, and I can never thank you enough for doing this for me.”

Keigo let go of your arm, and it swung back to your side. You could feel the man looking at you.

“You know what would let me know that you mean it?”

God, it better not be something sexual.

“You could buy me coffee. Or maybe a cookie from that bakery on 1st Avenue, you know the one? With the little bunny pastries?”

That surprised you.

“You go there? That’s my favorite place.” You mused, looking at Keigo in surprise. He didn’t seem the kind of guy who’d like a place like that. But appearances could be deceiving.

“Of course! I really like their stuff.”

“Alright,” You conceded, rising to your feet. “I’ll get you some stuff from there. Want it today?”

Keigo rose to his feet as well, crossing his arms over his bare chest. “Yeah! Let me get dressed real quick, and then I’ll go with you. Don’t go anywhere birdie.” He shot you a wink, before sauntering past you, out of the kitchen. You raised a brow, surprised. He meant to go with you?

“Make yourself at home while you wait, don’t be afraid to kick up your feet!”

——-

The bakery smelled as lovely as usual.

A warm atmosphere, good food, friendly employees. It was your favorite place for a reason.

“Alright, what do you want?” You asked Keigo, the two of you staring up at the menu.

“Hmm, I don’t know. What are you going to get?”

“Probably a muffin, those are my favorite.”

“What!?! That’s my favorite too! How crazy.” Keigo smiled at you, dimples showing. You got the feeling that he was brown-nosing you, but you kept the thought to yourself, striding up to the counter to order.

Muffins purchased, you approached Keigo, who was lounging by one of the display cases, admiring the delicate, mouthwatering masterpieces held within.

“All good to go?” His smile was so charming, so friendly, you almost caught yourself wanting to see it more. Huffing in irritation at yourself, you pushed past him, shoving the bag with his muffin into his chest.

“Here’s your stuff. I’m going home now, see you around.”

“Wait!” Keigo turned, jogging a little to catch up as you exited the bakery. “We gotta eat these before they get cold - hey, birdie, are you listening to me?“

You weren’t, stoically keeping your head turned forward, walking with determination. There was only so much of Keigo that you could tolerate, and you had reached your limit. He was starting to really annoy you, didn’t he get that you wanted to go home? You’ll just eat your muffin on the subway, it’s not that hard.

“(Y/N)-“ His sudden growl was punctuated by an arm on your shoulder, spinning you around and pulling you towards the man.

“Hey-!” The sudden collision of your face with his chest knocked your breath away, almost causing you to drop your own muffin in the process.

When you managed to gather yourself, you shot a glare up at Keigo’s face, only to find the blonde smirking down at you, a fierce glint in his eyes.

“I expect you to listen when I’m talking, got it? I don’t like being ignored.”

That’s evident.

You tried to back away, but he still had a hand on your shoulder, squeezing you tight to him. “Keigo! Let me go, you stupid idiot-“

“Stop it, I’m not doing anything to you, ya big baby.” He cooed down at you, before taking his hand away, letting you stumble backwards.

He was just messing with you, teasing you. It was obvious, yet still you allowed him to be around you.

“Alright, I’m sorry, I know all the touching’s gotta be new still. Wanna go eat these in the park? I’ll buy you some ice cream if you want.”

“I don’t want ice cream, I want to go home.”

Keigo frowned, walking after you when you turned on your heel, heading for the subway. “Why do you dislike me so much? I’ve done so much to help you, and yet you spit in my face. Your parents ever teach you how to be grateful? Or even respectful?”

You gasped at his accusation, stopping in your tracks to whirl around, only to find the man far closer than what you had expected. Still, you tried to hide your surprise at his proximity, jabbing a finger in his direction.

“You are a playboy, you broke my friend’s heart, and you want to sleep with every single person you come across just to mess with their feelings. I don’t want to be around you. I won’t get dragged into that.”

The man watched you, face solemn and contemplative. “Is that really how you see me?”

“Why would I say any of that unless it was true?”

He ran a hand through his hair, looking up and around, as if gathering his bearings, before back down at you.

“Have you ever considered that I’m the one getting my heart broken?”

“Yeah right-“ You scoffed, only for Keigo to cut you off.

“People want to sleep with me because they think it’ll get them something that they want. Fifteen second fame, a piece in a tabloid about my “new lover”…. Think it’ll help them further their career, or that I’ll give them money. I can’t find anyone real.

“And my friend wasn’t real enough for you?” You spat, not believing him for a second.

“Nope. You think she liked me for who I am?”

“Uh, yeah? She gushed to me all the damn time about how good you were, how she felt about you. That girl held nothing but love and affection for you.”

The man snorted, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, sure, love for my wallet.”

“She’s not like that.” You argued, brows furrowing.

“Really? Cause she was sucking me dry, and not even in a sexy way.”

You crinkled your nose at what he was implying. Your friend wasn’t like that, she truly had felt for Keigo, had liked him as her boyfriend. She wasn’t just a leech.

“I’m done talking about my failed love life.” Keigo said lowly, nudging your shoulder. “I just thought two friends could hangout, but it seems like you think all I do is try and fuck people.”

“No, Kiego…. That’s not what I meant.” Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but right now…. You almost felt a twinge of sympathy for him.

Some of what he was saying made sense, how people would try and use him for various reasons. But that still didn’t explain his sudden and harsh breakup with your friend. And over text no less, a complete douche move!

But you felt bad about his words, about how he seemed to actually want to hangout, and yet you were accusing him of trying to sleep with you. But what about those visions you had had? Was that even how they went? Or were you remembering falsely based on your bias towards the man?

And what about his suggestive touches, his leering gaze? Was that maybe just how he always was, and it wasn’t exclusive to you? Were you inflating your place in his life, thinking that he wanted you?

It was confusing, and you didn’t want to think about it, try and untangle the lies from the truth. Right now, you just wanted to eat your muffin.

“If you really didn’t mean it, then can we go eat these in the park? I just want to chill with someone that isn’t trying to gain something from me. I want to spend time with someone that’s real.”

With a half-irritated sigh, you nodded, hoping you wouldn’t regret hanging out with the obnoxious man.

-----

He kept calling you, texting you. You’d had to unblock his number at some point, in order for him to text you about the bracelet and when he needed to look at it.

“Come overrrrr, I’m bored!”

“Birdie, are you hungry? The delivery place gave me extra Torikatsu and I don’t want it to go bad. Can I come drop it off?”

He’d swing by the jewelers, leaning over the counter to talk to you about a recent shoot he’d booked, or something he saw recently.

Keigo seemed to slowly insert himself into every facet of your live, against your will, ignoring every subtle, irritated attempt of yours to turn him away. Every single time you saw him, your mind would inevitably think of the visions, but you felt like you couldn’t trust yourself with those anymore.

The man assured you at every step, he had no romantic feelings for you, he just wanted a friend, someone to put him in his place, be honest with him.

You definitely were honest.

Snapping at him when he showed up at your apartment uninvited, coming up behind you on the street and grabbing your sides, laughing when you shrieked and tried to hit your attacker, only to realize it was Keigo.

Tearing into him when he tried to talk badly about your friend - she had been having less and less contact with you, and you couldn’t figure out why. Now your relationship with her was reduced to curt text messages. Maybe she was just going through a hard time, and wanted alone time? Still, you let her know you were there for her, whenever she needed.

You were honest when Keigo asked your opinion on food, TV shows, clothes, movies. It was almost satisfying saying something sucked, just to see Keigo’s face fall slightly, before he shook his head, whining.

“Then help me pick something out! I can’t do it without you-“

He totally could, he was just being a baby.

The more he inserted himself into your life, the more you realized that he was akin to a petulant child, just with muscles and a penchant for inappropriate touching.

Whenever he saw you, he’d try to draw you into a hug, letting his hands drop far down your back, way too low for you to feel comfortable. You’d slap them away, and Keigo would laugh, before ruffling your hair.

He’d have you come over so he could check your quirk suppressor, except he was in the middle of a show, and it was getting to the best part. (“Sit down, shhh, it’s just getting good!”) You’d have to sit through the entire thing, enduring Kiego’s hand lazily drawing shapes over your pants on your thigh, simply putting it back whenever you shoved it off.

He was insufferable, irritating to no end, but you could tell he was a lonely man, bitter about his love life and with his friendships.

So you tolerated his presence.

After all, he wasn’t trying to hurt you. That’s something he reiterated every single time you shied away from his touch. He made you feel like a fool for thinking the man was hitting on you, when he made it so clear that he wasn’t, only interested in friendship.

Until you fell asleep at his house.

Another one of those days were he needed to look at your quirk suppressor (which you were 99% sure was fine, it seemed like he just enjoyed seeing it on your wrist). He had been rummaging around in his room before he had to run and open the front door for you, talking as he walked back to return to his previous task.

Apparently he was trying to find a good shirt, seeing as how he had pants on, but his chest was bare. Keigo instructed you to sit on the bed for a second while he retreated into his massive closet, trying to find a good shirt to go with the rest of his outfit.

His bedroom was pretty large, a full California King taking up the majority of the space, neatly made. The sheets and blankets felt soft beneath your fingers as you sat on it’s edge, prepared to wait for Keigo for a bit.

The man always took his fashion very seriously - one time he’d even spent two hours trying on clothes until he’d decided on an appropriate outfit to go to the park.

So you followed your tired eyes, exhausted from work and dealing with Keigo, worrying about your friend, daily life stressors and the like. Keigo wouldn’t mind if you laid back, right? Your feet wouldn’t be on the bed, so it’d be fine.

And it was fine, pleasant, the room the perfect temperature.

You were roughly jerked out of sleep by pressure. Pressure on your hips, pressure on your lips.

Eyes jolting open, you tried to inhale, only to find yourself unsuccessful.

Keigo was on top of you.

Panicking, your hands came to push at him, a muffled sound of protest being squeaked out from where his lips pressed against yours.

Noticing you were awake, Keigo pulled back, smiling the whole while.

“I’m not willing to wait anymore, I just gotta have you.”

His eyes were glinting, hair tousled, still shirtless. You felt goosebumps arise as you remembered the vision you had so long ago, of this exact moment.

“Wai-mmph!” His lips were on yours again, passionate and warm, moving eagerly. A wet tongue pressed at the seam of your mouth, surprising you and making you blanch, which allowed the man access.

Kiego’s tongue explored the inside of your mouth, playfully tapping your own wet muscle, encouraging you to lift it and wrestle with him.

This was too weird, this wasn’t happening, you couldn’t do this-

Biting down hard, you snapped your teeth shut on his tongue, and Keigo yelped, drawing back immediately.

“Ouch, what the fuck!?! Chill out (Y/N), geez.” His hand was dabbing at his mouth, wincing when it came in contact with his bleeding tongue. You had bitten him deep, but you weren’t focused on that right now.

“What are-what are you doing?” Your voice was breathless, disoriented. The room felt…. Dark, and suffocating, as if it was closing in on the two of you, trapping you.

Keigo looked down at you, and it was only then that you realized you had been moved to lie on the bed fully, shoes off, legs splayed. The man rested on his stomach between them, his weight pressed against your body, keeping you still.

“I told you, I can’t wait anymore. I’ve been as nice as I can, but it’s time you started paying me back for everything I’ve done for you.”

What? Paying him back-was he talking about the quirk suppressor he had gifted you? Had he been lying about his true intentions this whole time?

“That’s not right, it was a gift, you-you don’t have to pay back a gift.” You spluttered, feeling as if your chest was collapsing.

Keigo shook his head, swooping down to leave a bloody kiss on your forehead, which you cringed at, before pulling back to speak.

“Nah, it wasn’t a gift. You know how expensive it was? You were always gonna have to compensate me. Now shush, I wanna feel you-“

One of his hands grabbed your jaw, keeping your face turned towards his, pressing down until tears formed in your eyes. His lips were bloody from the bite on his tongue, tasting unmistakably like iron.

You didn’t want this.

Trying to bite him again left you with a slap to your thigh, making you cry out. Keigo huffed out a laugh against your mouth.

He detached from your lips, just to start nibbling at your jawline, elating streaks of red where his lips touched.

“God, you are so sexy. I was trying to chill, but then I came out and you were sleepin’ all cute, and I couldn’t fucking stop myself from touching.”

“Stop doing this, I can pay you with something different. I don’t wanna do this Keigo.” You whispered, on the verge of crying.

“No, I get to decide what you’ll be doing for me, it’s my bracelet-“

“It’s not, you gave it to me, please stop-“

“Shut up.” He growled sinking his teeth into the side of your neck, nipping at the skin hard enough to have you screaming. “You’re so ungrateful, where’s my thanks? I’ve done so much for you.”

“Thank you, thank you Keigo, I appreciate it all-“ You hurried out, hoping it was what he wanted to hear “But I can’t do this, please don’t make me. I wanna go home.”

“There we go, I like the sound of you thanking me. You’re going to thank me for each and every time you cum tonight, got it?”

“No, no, we can’t do this, I can’t! Get off of me, please-“

“You’ll do it, or else I’ll whip you until your flesh hangs off of you in strings.” He hissed, squeezing your jaw cruelly.

The tears in your eyes overflowed as you fell silent.

“Aw, birdie, don’t cry. I’m not gonna hurt you, I never have, right?” He waited for a second, watching your face before he pressed harder, eyes hardening “Right?“

You nodded jerkily, and Keigo came to kiss your tears away, savoring their salty taste as they rolled down your cheeks.

“Keigo, this isn’t right though, please get off me. I don’t want this-“

“You want me to take this away?” A hand caught your shaking wrist, the one that had the quirk suppressor fastened snugly around it, wrenching it up so both of you could see it. “Huh? Put you back where you were in your miserable little life? Running away from everyone, holing up in your apartment, not willing to touch or be touched…”

The very thought made your insides churn, and a fresh round of tears rolled down your face as you shook your head no, lips wobbling as you whined. You felt so pathetic, so small and dumb underneath Keigo.

“That’s what I thought. You’re going to relax now, right? No more begging unless it’s for more.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, beginning to shuffle around until he could slide his hands under your shirt, pressing against your tummy as you flinched away.

“Don’t worry birdie, you’re gonna like every single thing we’re gonna do. You’ve had sex now, yeah? Since I gave you the bracelet?”

You shook your head “no”, it’s not like you were eager for sex before you got it, and all the touching-without-terrifying-visions thing was still new to you, the dating world was being eased into. Somehow though, every single date seemed to be crashed by the man on top of you.

Keigo lit up like a Christmas tree, licking his lips gleefully. “Okay, okay, I can-whew, that’s hot-I can be gentle.” It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince you, his hands skirting up your ribs, shucking up your shirt as the traveled higher and higher.

“Keigo please-“

“Don’t you dare say stop, I’m not gonna. You’re the first person that doesn’t want anything from me, you’re real, and I’m not stopping.”

His admission made you cringe, recoiling from his touch. He followed you, palms finally smoothing over your breasts, over your bra.

“You’re going to do what I say, or else this-“ Your wrist was wrenched into view, red-and-black bracelet glittering. “-gets removed. And I’ll still do whatever the fuck I want, but you’ll be off in your mind having visions of who-knows-what while I have my way. Got it?”

Your blood chilled, body suddenly feeling ice cold. His tone was dead serious, spitting out the words with a sense of finality.

“So, just lay there and take it birdie, I’ll be good to you.”

#yandere keigo takami #keigo x reader #Keigo Takami #yandere takami keigo #takami keigo #takami keigo x reader #Yandere bnha #yandere #tw.dubcon #tw.noncon #tw.somno #tw dubcon #creepy keigo

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moccahobi · 2 years ago

Text

Buried Truths [Chapter 2]

Summery: A Jackson Wang party. Normally you wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Tonight though, you were going to help your best friend, Youngjae, confess to his long term crush. He would be leaving the party tonight with a date. You didn’t expect to be forced to spend time with people you never wanted to see again. Oh, how many secrets would be revealed tonight?

Pairing: Youngjae x Jaeboem, Acesexual!Reader x Jinyoung (somewhat?)

Rating: 17+

Series warnings: gore, mildly toxic actions

Word Count: 3.2k

Genre: Supernatural AU, horror, angst, alcohol

A/N: This fic is not focused on romance. There is a romantic side plot but this is a thriller/horror/supernatural centric fic. Also! This is the first fic where I am talking about/show casing asexuality. As an ace person myself, I really love seeing ace representation and aim to write more fics that showcase ace relationships!

A/N2: Thank you so so much to @ssaboala for reading this fic over for me! Her comments and assurance helped me so much!

Chapter 1 < Masterlist > Chapter 3 (finale)

“You got really scared.”

“Of course! I was… and now the door isn’t opening. Can one of you try to open the door on the other side?”

The door jiggled, “I can’t open it.” Yugyeom said, his voice full of worry as he tried again.

“What? No. No. No. It should open.” Bambam said, worry growing in his voice as he surged forward to try to open the door.

“It looks locked. Maybe it was slightly unlocked or the door automatically locks… I saw a bunch of keys at the entrance.” It was Jaeboem, his voice getting more distant as he walked towards the entrance.

You sat on the top step of the basement, trying to ignore the sea of darkness that was the basement at your feet as you took deep breaths. Coming in here was a mistake. Coming into this house was a mistake. Seeing Jinyoung again was a mistake.

Bambam sat next to you, his breathing unsteady as he shifted uncomfortably, “I am sorry. I am so sorry. I didn’t think this would happen… I didn’t even realize you were here.”

“What?”

“Most of the guys don’t give me any attention… I wanted to see some of them show care to me for once…”

Anger bubbled in you as you realized what he did. He locked you both in… well… he slammed the door on you both. He looked scared though.

“I-- You closed this door on us?”

He nodded.

“Why?”

“Listen… You seemed to be accepted right away into this friend group… I didn’t. I am Jinyoung’s friend and I think Jackson likes me some… The others though? I don’t know. They seem to care for me when I am hurt or scared though,” Bambam spared you a glance before looking back into the basement, “Youngjae seems to dislike me most. I’m sure you know that he doesn’t like me much though.”

You were flustered at that, “O-Oh. I-”

“He vents about you sometimes. Nothing major… just the occasional complaint about you. I figured that if he vents about you, someone he likes, he probably vents about me since I am someone he doesn’t like.”

“I--” You sighed. What were you supposed to tell him?

That Youngjae found him absolutely annoying and felt he wasn’t part of the friend group? That Youngjae often vented about Bambam’s work competency? That Youngjae was tired of Bambam always being around?

“I am sorry. He can be a little judgemental sometimes.”

Bambam nodded, “Youngjae cares a lot about his friends and I admire that a ton. He seems to be faily defensive of his friends as well.”

“And opinionated,” You hesitated… were you about to tell this near stranger something you hadn’t been able to tell anyone yet? “I dropped out of college last year and haven’t had the energy to tell him yet. I know what he’ll say and I am not ready for it. I’ve not told anyone… but you now. Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. That’d be an asshole thing for me to do. I won’t tell anyone what you said about your bestie.” Bambam laughed and bumped shoulders with you, “How come you dropped out?”

“College is rough. I was a pre-med major since my parents wanted me to become a doctor, but I never wanted to be one. Didn’t even want to go to college but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and my parents had a plan.”

“That sounds frustrating.”

“It was and last year, I was really struggling. Pre-med is hard. I am not a science person. I figured if I dropped out and picked up some odd jobs while acting like I was still in school, I’d eventually find something and be able to tell people then.”

“Have you?”

“No. I’m a bartender and waitress right now… I barely have time to indulge in my hobbies.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t be. I chose this path… I get to deal with the consequences of it.”

Bambam nodded, “I am sorry for locking you in here.”

You laughed, “Don’t stress. As long as the lights work, I am fine. Besides, this place is much smaller and I feel sa-” You stopped talking as you felt something feather light brush against your calf. You readjusted your leg, moving it slightly away from the basement stairs.

What the fuck?

“You feel safe here despite the basement being right in front of us?” Bambam laughed, leaning back as he looked around the small space, “I guess the space is nice and there isn’t much to keep an eye on.”

Nodding, you leaned forward, looking down the stairs and trying to find whatever brushed your leg… Nothing.

Maybe it was dust or a spider web?

“Yeah… It is nicer--”

What felt like a hand gripped your ankle tightly, yanking you harshly. You found yourself tumbling down the basement stairs, screaming and trying to grab onto anything that would slow your descent. All the while, your head bounced against the stairs like a hollow basketball. Whatever was dragging you let go as you landed roughly on the hard concrete floor of the basement, leaving you breathless and in pain.

“Noona! Are you ok?” Bambam shouted, his steps as he ran down the stairs heavy and booming in your head. When he reached you, he gingerly helped you up.

“I think so?” You started, wincing as you tried to stand up, the ankle that whatever grabbed you touched was hurting to stand on, “I don’t know… I am in a lot of pain. Am I bleeding?”

Bambam shook his head, about to say something when rough knocking came at the door.

“Y/n-ah! Are you ok?” Jackson’s voice sounded far away from in the basement. He sounded worried as well and it made you feel conflicted. He’d never shown you worry before… but you had made a lot of noise coming down so it was in theory natural that he would be worried about you. You were his sister and he wasn’t heartless.

“I-I think I am! Did you all find the key?” You shouted back, not daring to try walking yet.

“We’ve found some but none have worked on the door.”

You sighed and shook your head.

“Do you think you can help me up the stairs?” You asked Bambam.

“I am sorry, Noona. I don’t think I am strong enough to. I think maybe Jackson or Jinyoung will be able to help you up.”

You nodded, gingerly rotating your ankle to test the throbbing pain. It was most definitely sprained.

“Huh… We don’t have cellular out here.” Bambam remarked as he turned on his phone’s flashlight and slowly looked around the space. It was odd that you didn’t have cellular… you weren’t far from the other house nor were you really out in the nature yet somehow, cellular wasn’t here. It probably wasn’t a big deal. This house was probably in a random blackout spot but the idea of no cellular still left you feeling a little sick.

Bambam barely moved around at first as he cautiously looked at the many dusty items that were in the basement, eventually moving around some. A dresser, some dark colored curtains that were hung up on the wall, and way too many boxes with more stuff. The stuff was covered in a ton of dust that blanketed the space and seemed to sparkle in the flashlight beam.

Above them, they heard the creaky footsteps of the others trying to find a way to open the door. Muddles conversations happening as someone shared good news also leaked through the floorboards.

Was Youngjae using this time to confess to Jaeboem?

Would you want your best friend to be confessing instead of trying to save you?

Part of you felt excited at the idea of Youngjae might be confessing right now. He’d been trying for over a year to get the courage to. Somehow, if the worry of you hurt in a basement made it feel less scary or loosened his lips, maybe that was good. Another part of your mind whispered that if he was confessing, was he spending much time trying to save you? Was he even worried about it?

You took a deep breath and sighed. Of course he cared for you. Of course he was worried about you.

“Yoooo! Noona! Look! This closet is full of kid dresses! I wonder where the kid is now!” Bambam said excitedly, breaking your thoughts as he flicked through the dusty garments.

You hobbled over, looking at the faded fabrics with their intricate sewn on details. Whoever this child was, they lived a very fancy life. This house was big and it was the second house on this property, these fancy dresses cemented the wealth of the child’s family. As you examined a specific dress more closely, Bambam started to look around again. He paused and hit your shoulder lightly.

“What?”

“N-Noona? Can you turn around for me?” His voice wavered as he started to shuffle backwards, his back brushing against the children’s clothes.

Slowly, you turned around, looking at Bambam questioningly.

“Do you see something moving in the shadows?”

You looked out, the darkness swirling as you tried to adjust and look out. Nothing seemed to be moving, not even the dusty curtains that were facing you. That was shocking because they rested on a rusty bar that looked like a few harsh movements of moving air would make it topple.

“I do-”

Something moved.

It was in the corner of your eye but as you and Bambam looked over, a small trinket that had been resting on top of one of the boxes, was wobbling around. Bambam squeaked and ran behind you, your body eclipsing his flashlight as he hid. Stealing up all your confidence, you gently took Bambam’s phone and slowly walked up to the trinket.

It was a children’s toy.

A faded wooden car with two of its wheels missing. It wobbled on the box as if trying to rebalance itself.

“M-Maybe it was w-wind?” You asked, reaching out and grabbing the car to stabilize it.

“Sure Jan, and I am totally not scared right now. I think Yugyeom was right. There’s a ghost here.” Bambam says as he looks at the car in your hands, trying to see if there was something going on that would lead to it moving so much.

Right as you opened your mouth to speak, the door banged open. Its handle hit the wall with an audible crack! Bambam and you jumped at the sound and you dropped the car, frozen in place as people started rushing down stairs.

Jackson is the first to make it down the stairs, jumping down the last three steps as he rushed to your side, “Y-n-ah! Are you ok?” He asked, looking you over worriedly.

“I am fine.” You said, his hands feeling like fire on your skin, his worry a foreign presence in your life. It made you feel a little sick at the thought of how caring he was acting.

Why was he so worried now?

What gave him the right when for so long he’s been distant from you?

“You absolutely are not fine. Your ankle is at the very least sprained.” Bambam said, eyeing you and Jackson.

“I would be worried about a concussion as well. I heard a lot of bumping on your fall down. You took quite a fall, Y/n-ssi.” Jaeboem said when he joined the group, Youngjae quickly rushing over and hugging you tightly as Jaeboem spoke.

“Let’s get you out. I can help you up the stairs.” Youngjae said, hooking his arm under yours as he started walking towards the stairs slowly.

You looked back and watched as a sad look grew on Bambam’s face as he watched Youngjae help you away on his own. As you turned your eyes forward, you caught Jackson’s gaze, worry written all over his face.

God.

Tonight is becoming messier by the second… and you are in a haunted house.

Were you going to survive tonight?

Youngjae and you slowly hobbled up the stairs and despite your eyes focused on the steps you were taking, you felt the eyes of people all around you. Their gazes felt unnatural and creepy on you, your skin crawling under them. You were ready to go home, crash, and pretend tonight didn’t happen (aside from celebrating Youngjae and Jaeboem getting together)... and maybe see if Bambam wanted to become friends. Tonight could be a fever dream that, with repeated retelling, you completely rewrite.

With a content sigh, Youngjae set you down in a rickety chair in the main living space, the moist smell of mildew greeting you as you sunk into the chair. Jinyoung dragged over a table with a painful SCREECH and gently guided your legs up to rest on the table.

“Does it hurt to put pressure on your foot?” He asked, his hands gently holding and checking your ankle. His touch felt scalding on your skin and in any other situation, you would have quickly yanked your foot away from him. Tonight though, you found your energy waning.

You nodded, when he looked up at you, refusing to speak. Given, you didn’t have energy or strength to talk to him right now. The guilt over Jackson and Bambam was starting to choke you and you had no idea if you could control what you said to Jinyoung if you spoke.

“It is starting to swell as well,” He got up and got closer to you, he reached out before stopping, “Does your head hurt?”

Did it?

You didn’t have a headache. Slowly, you reached up and started to feel around your head, fear of blood or a tender spot rising in your throat.

With great relief, you felt no pain and shook your head.

“That’s good. You may still want to get checked out but unless there is another spot you’re feeling a lot of pain, it may just be a badly sprained ankle.”

“I am glad. With how fast you fell down those stairs, I was worried, noona.” Bambam said, coming closer and eyeing your ankle.

You avoided Youngjae’s eyes as you nodded, “I… I don’t remember even hitting my ankle on anything. I don’t know how it got sprained… but it did feel like someone grabbed my ankle.”

“Bambam-ah, did you see anyone else in the basement?” Jackson asked, as Mark walked towards the basement door and looked down the stairs. If he saw more than the swirling darkness that bathed the basement, he didn’t react.“No… Not a person… I um… I did see some shadows move though… but I didn’t see a person.”

Youngjae scoffed, “It was a small basement, you probably saw part of your shadow on another wall. Did you see a shadow, Y/n-ah?”

All eyes were on you then and it felt like they were short circuiting your mind as you tried to think of what happened back in the basement. You saw a shadow… right? Was it just your mind? Or one of your own shadows?

Did you even see one?

Your brain was getting fuzzy as you tried to think back to the basement. You were pulled down, Bambam came, the two of you walked around, you saw a little car toy… Was there a shadow?

“I-I don’t know.” You said slowly, looking at everyone.

Bambam was looking at you with hurt etched into his face as Youngjae laughed humorlessly, “I think you were seeing stuff then, Bambam-ah.”

Youngjae’s laugh cut through you, hurting you more than your ankle was. You couldn’t handle it and you couldn’t forget how rude Youngjae was being. This wasn’t like him… even if he was a little snarky sometimes.

“I d-don’t think he was seeing st-stuff.”

“You said yourself that you didn’t see anyone though!” Youngjae said exasperatedly, throwing his hands up as he spoke loudly.

“And I believe Bambam-ah.”

Yugyeom coughed, “Shadows or not, Y/n might need medical attention. We should leave.”

Jaeboem nodded.

“Wait! If it is just a sprained ankle, can we have her rest for a little while longer? I would love to explore a little more. Just fifteen or so minutes. Nothing too long.” Bambam asked, his eyes wide and lips in a big pout as he looked around at everyone and pleaded.

“No. Y/n needs to leave.” Youngjae said, moving towards you to lift you up.

Bambam looked over at you with his puppy dog eyes as he clasped his hands together in a plea to stay just a little longer.

You sighed and shook your head, “I’ll be fine with another fifteen minutes here. Don’t worry about me. If my ankle gets worse or I feel more pain elsewhere, I’ll say and we can leave.”

Jackson looked like he was about to protest but before he could, Jinyoung stood up, patting you on the shoulder, “Listen, I’m the only one certified in first aid. Y/n-ah will be fine. Let’s keep exploring. I know I have another place I want to explore myself. Bambam-ah, how about you join me?”

Bambam nodded excitedly as a smile spread on his face. Jinyoung and Bambam started to walk deeper into the house, Mark quickly jogging to catch up to them. The tension that filled the room was palpable as you and Youngjae looked at each other with questioning gazes, neither wanting to back down.

“Yugyeom-ah, Jackson-ah, want to see a giant study Youngjae and I found? It is super cool! With tons of books.” Jaeboem said, seperating from Youngjae to get closer to the other guys still in the room, an awkward smile that didn’t meet his eyes plastered on his face.

“Sure. Plus, I think that Youngjae and Y/n will want some alone time to talk.” Yugyeom said as he shot you two an annoyed glance, his words finally making you look away in shame.

Tonight has been borderline traumatic and knowing that you’re getting on everyone’s nerves is making it one hundred times worse. You’d wanted to make friends… not make your best friend’s friend group hate you.

When Jackson, Yugyeom, and Jaeboem finally left, you sighed deeply and shook your head. You were tired and even though you were fine with being here for another fifteen minutes, you wanted to go home. The soft blankets and fluffy pillows on your bed were calling to you… so was the start of a new day. Maybe you’d wake up and find out that you had gotten blackout drunk and this was all a stupid ass dream.

“Are you and Bambam friends now?” Youngjae asked, his voice small as he looked at you. He looked nervous and small now, which was much different from his borderline angry expression earlier.

“He seems like a cool person.” You shrugged, refusing to look at Youngjae. This was a new side of him and with all the guilt today, you didn’t know if you could handle this side.

On any other day, you might’ve gotten so excited. Youngjae didn’t open up to you tons and while there was some reason he was so closed off, it hurt that he was so closed off. Especially because he was the only person you told some stuff to. He knew you had a tense relationship with your family, that you dropped out of college, that you worked at a bar, and that you recently realized you were aroace. He knew all that and more. He knew every vulnerable thing about you, yet he was only ever vulnerable to you once: When he told you that he had a crush on Jaeboem.

“Yeah. He does seem cool… but I am cooler right?” His voice sounded hopeful as he asked and it made you feel sick.

“That’s what you’re worried about? If you’re cooler to me than some dude I met today? One, you’re my best friend, of fucking course you’re cooler in my eyes. Two, him being cool doesn’t excuse how rude you’ve been to Bambam since we’ve exited the basement. He’s been nothing but kind and caring to me. I get you find him annoying but-”

“I don’t find him annoying.” Youngjae sighed, “He’s cool. I know he is… I just… I am close to Jaeboem hyung and Mark hyung but I am not that close to others in the group. Bambam gets along with everyone… sure sometimes it felt more forced to me but I guess it didn’t to others? Jinyoung is a bit of a tsundere if you’ve noticed and yet he warmed right up to Bambam! I’ve been trying to get close to Jinyoung forever and yet I just can’t seem to.”

His words shocked you. They hung in the air and clung to you with desperation as you processed everything he was saying. Insecure in his place in the group? Worried about someone replacing him?

Youngjae hesitated before moving closer and resting his hand on your knee, “I don’t know why but with most people, it feels like there’s a wall up between me and them. If it weren’t for you and Jaebeom and Mark making the first steps for stuff, I probably wouldn’t have gotten so close to you all.”

“I am sure that isn’t true at all, Oppa. You managed to ask Jaeboem out, right? I thought I heard that from the basement.” You said, pulling him onto your lap as the chair groaned in protest.

Your ankle was already sprained. The chair breaking on you wouldn’t be the end of the world, especially when Youngjae was being this vulnerable. You hugged him tightly, trying to give all your love and admiration to him through it.

“He asked me out. I didn’t.”

“Ok? And? You two are going on a date later, right?”

He nodded.

“So you’re crossing that barrier. Who invited you here?”

“Jackson hyung.”

“So he wanted you to come and you took the step to get closer. That’s saying something, Oppa.”

“He invited Bambam too… I found out earlier tonight. I just assumed Bambam came as a plus one… God. I’ve been such an asshole to Bambam.”

You laughed at that and pinched Youngjae’s arm, “You have been a bit of one tonight. I can’t comment on anything before tonight, but maybe you can reflect on your interactions and apologize to him?”

“Y/n-ahhhhh, why would you say that word to meeee.” Youngjae whined with a light giggle, “You know me and apologize don’t go well together.”

“Well, I think it needs to. Bambam is part of your friend group afterall. Plus, I think you two would get along if you got out of your head and gave him a chance.”

Youngjae sighed deeply, “You’re right. I will. Thank you for listening.”

“Of course I’m right,” You laughed and hugged Youngjae tighter, “And I am here for you. Always.”

“I am glad. Now… do you want to hear about how Jaeboem hyung asked me out?” He giggled excitedly as he asked, the chair squeaking loudly against the floor as he adjusted in your lap, launching into his small speel about it.

You were excited, genuinely, as he spoke about Jaeboem and him slowly walking into study of the place. They'd lightly talked about their life before Jaeboem suddenly shifted the conversation to dates. Jaeboem was the one who eventually asked Youngjae out. It was fun to watch as Youngjae’s eyes lit up in excitement. Somehow, the conversation evolved into him rambling about future dates he might plan.

A particularly strong stab of pain in your ankle tore you from your excitement. You were hurt and tired… and not once has Youngjae asked. Sure, he helped you up and you professed to the group that you were ok but… he was your best friend and not once when alone did he ask.

But he’d been dealing with a lot too! The conversation on his mind was a natural reason for him to blank on checking in again on you after you so explicitly stated that you were ok. It was understandable that something like you acting more ok than you were would slip his mind, he opened up some about not being ok.

Were you being selfish? Had you overreacted? Was he not thinking past himself? All could be true… but that didn’t stop the guild that once again started to brew turbulently in your stomach. Tonight was such a mixed bag and you just wanted to leave before much else happened.

Holding back a sigh, you nodded absentmindedly to what Youngjae was saying as you started to look around the main space. The living space was less dusty than the basement but there was still tons of dust in their air. You could see that in the thin slivers of moonlight that shone through the house. Maybe it had been as dusty as the basement but because of all the movement, the dust has been moved around… and you hadn’t noticed when you entered the house originally. You slowly traced up the stairs, past the few broken steps and up to the second floor, trying to see if there was more dust on the second floor.

You couldn’t tell though, the space too dark.

Wait--

Was that a light?

Squinting to see better, you noticed a small light flash from the balcony on the second floor. It flickered in and out, a few other small specks of light joining it. If it wasn’t for how cold of a tone the light was, you might’ve guessed that it was fireflies taking advantage of the abandoned house for safe shelter. Plus, the lights seemed to be present for much longer than fireflies are and moved around too much.

You watched carefully, the rest of the world melting away as the lights slowly became much more present.

Jaeboem moved in front of where the small lights were, asking something of Youngjae that you completely missed as you slowly refocused on the world around you.

“Y/n-ah, Jaeboem and I are going to look through the kitchen cabinets. Do you want to stay here or join?” He asked, a large smile on his face as he got up to hold Jaeboem’s hand.

“I’ll stay here. You two have fun.” You said, trying to muster up all your energy to sound excited… though you didn’t know if you did.

That being said, it must’ve convinced Jaeboem and Youngjae because they nodded and walked away, leaving you in the fragile quiet of the main space. You took a deep breath when he left, almost happy that he’d left you alone. His excitement was wonderful normally but tonight, for some reason, it was draining you.

Rolling your shoulders, you adjusted in the seat which was growing more and more uncomfortable the longer you were sitting on it. It was a very old seat and as you shifted around, you started to feel the groove of wear from someone who probably sat in it for too long all the time. You sighed and closed your eyes, enjoying the reprieve from people.

“Ya, dongsaeng… are you ok?” It was Jackson.

He’d quickly shuffled into the room and sat down before you even realized. Worry was painted all over his face as he looked you over himself. “Not really but I will be fine. Plus, I wanted to Bambam to keep having fun. He was super spooked in the basement.”

“You sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah. Why are you asking? You never seemed to care about me before.”

Jackson looks hurt, “I do care. You’re my sister. I love you. I want the best for you.”

“You have a weird way of showing it. Always thought you were disappointed in me.” You said with a scoff. Maybe Jackson did care right now and was hurt but that didn’t make up for all the years he ignored you or pressured you into stuff that you didn’t want to do. You had the right to be upset and wary of his sudden care.

Jackson looked like he wanted to say more, his chest filling with courage to say something. As you looked, anxiety pooling in your stomach, you prepared yourself for his hurtful words.

You couldn’t seem to avoid anything tonight… including Jackson’s harsh words. . He is about to say something when, BANG! Front door slams shut and won’t unlock.

BAM!

You flinched as Jackson jumped and screamed, his eyes wide and face flushing as he looked around for the sound, leaving you alone.

“The front door! It’s locked!” Jackson shouted out and soon after, everyone seemed to be running to the front door. You heard the jiggles of people trying and trying to open the door echo through the house and growing louder until it was all you could hear.

Fuck. Your head was aching.

Curling into yourself, you took deep breaths and tried to help ease some of the building pain behind your eyes. People were arguing now, their voices raising with frustration as they discussed something.

At some point, they were back in the same space as you, talking back and forth about what to try to do next. They seemed to be talking about you but you didn’t have the energy to try to listen. Their voices seemed to be floating around you just out of hearing range like a heat mirage on a hot summer. You didn’t care to listen either. They would figure it out and then you could leave this god forsaken house.

At some point, most of them had left the main space to explore, leaving you alone with Youngjae and Jaeboem once again. There was some mention of finding a key that you think they were searching for but you barely had the energy to keep up with what they said. You simply nodded along.

“How are you feeling, Y/n-ssi?” Jaeboem asked, looking at you worriedly when you finally stopped nodding your head.

“I am feeling… alright. Just tired.” You spoke slowly, part of your energy going into trying to focus on Jaeboem who was going in and out of focus.

Youngjae nodded, a crease in his brow forming as he watched you, “Must be tired from all that’s happened. Y/n-ah isn’t very social and adventurous generally. She’s been such a trooper for me tonight… and I got us into this mess.”

“Oh?” Jaeboem asked, his head swiveling between you and Youngjae.

Youngjae started explaining why you’d come to this party but you were struggling to focus once again on what he was saying. The lights upstairs started dancing once again. Despite how hard it was to focus on Jaeboem and Yugyeom, it was as if you could see the lights more clearly now.

Someone was playing upstairs. Fiddling with the sticks and leaves that had trecked there for a playdate. They were dancing around and jumping excitedly with the light leaves in tow. Distantly, you heard frustrated groans and a yell of frustration, people bustling around you.

Somewhere Mark said “Yugyeom-ah, let’s go to the kitchen to calm down. We will figure this out but first you need a break.”

“Listen, I understand that you want to protect this house but at this point, we need to get out fast and get Y/n-ssi medical attention.” Yugyeom as saying when you fully came back to the present moment.

Jackson was shaking his head tiredly as everyone else stood around them, a heavy sigh leaving him.

“We can’t break a window to get out. There has to be a way to get out that doesn’t damage the house!”

“Hyung! We’ve checked. I don’t get your instance of not breaking something. Surely the homeowners will understand.” Yugyeom said, waving around at others who nodded along.

“Yeah. I’ve talked to them before. They’re super understanding! I am sure they half expected something to happen at a house party too. They’ll understand.” Bambam said, smiling nervously as he watched Jackson become more and more agitated.

“Yeah! Why can’t you listen to me? They won’t be understanding because they don’t know! I’ll get fired and they’ll charge me with a fucking crime or something! I don’t know! But we got to keep this house intact!”

Silence filled the room at Jackson’s confession, your mind slowly catching up to what he just said… the homeowners didn’t know…

Slowly you spoke, trying hard to speak clearly, “What do you mean you didn’t get permission, opp-”

“Don’t tell appa!” Jackson quickly cut you off, fear in his face as he pleaded with you.

“A-Appa?” Jinyoung repeated, looking between Jackson and you suspiciously.

“No way! Are you two siblings?” Youngjae asked, his face twisted in betrayal as he looked over at you for answers. You looked away, disappointed in yourself.

“No need to look so upset about it, dongsaeng. We both know you hate me.” Jackson scoffed and you looked up alarmed.

You didn’t hate him. He’s the one who didn’t like you!

“Hoel… I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” Youngjae said, his voice quiet as he turned away from you and leaned in to Jaeboem, who was looking at you with many swirling emotions.

Everyone was.

You looked over at Bambam, hoping to see something akin to a look of understanding on his face… disappointment. Fuck. Why did you have to be such a damn screw up?

“Listen! I-I didn’t want to ruin your relationship with him.” You sighed and curled in on yourself, ignoring the stabbing pain from your ankle as you did, “J-J-Just because he’s disappointed in me and hates my guts doesn’t mean you two can’t have a go-good relationship.” Your voice cracked as tears threatened to spill.

This wasn’t something you wanted to talk about ever. You weren’t prepared.

And their expressions didn’t help.

You’d disappointed everyone it seems. Mark… Yugyeom… Jaeboem… Bambam… Youngjae… Jackson… even fucking Jinyoung.

God. Tonight has been so much.

Sighing and shaking your head, you stood up, “I-I need space. I m sorry.”

Everyone stood still and watched silently as you hobbled upstairs, each step underlined by a sharp stabbing pain and a quiet wince. Their upset burned into you from behind.

Maybe it was the pain or your exhaustion but the higher you climbed, the fuzzier your vision became. Your ears were ringing and body tingly as if you’d pinched a nerve by the time you made it to the top of the stairs. Somehow despite your vision becoming fuzzy and your body seemingly disconnecting from your mind, you didn’t struggle to get up the stairs. You’d made it up all in one piece and even managed to rest on the wall nearby to catch your breath.

Those lights from earlier were even closer up here. The child in the lights danced excitedly to you, engulfing you in a hug and inviting you to play. Warmth washed over you as you played with her. Time and space fell to the wayside.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Next Chapter (coming 12/4)

My masterlist!

#got7writerscollective #rainingmxmnet #wkcnet #got7 #got7 fanfic #got7 jaebum #got7 jaeboem #got7 jb #got7 youngjae #got7 youngjae x jaebum #got7 youngjae x jaeboem #got7 youngjae x jb #got7 angst #got7 supernatural au #got7 mxm #jaeboem x youngjae #youngjae x jaeboem

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possiblyimbiassed · 4 years ago

Text

The lying liars who lie

Years and years late to the party, I’ve finally gotten my hands on all the DVDs of BBC Sherlock, and I thought it would be fun to watch the extra material carefully, one piece after another, and also listen to at least some of the show makers’ commentary of the episodes. But at this point, after S4 where DVDs seemed to be a constant lying device in general, I tend to look at them with a bit more suspicious eyes...

I still love the show of course, but now that I’ve taken this deep dive into all the special features, I find them a truly hard thing to try to wrap my head around. Even this long after the fact, I’m amazed by the amount of shameless, self-congratulatory BS in the DVDs, where the people involved can’t have enough of complimenting each other and their show, while they skillfully avoid to discuss anything actually meaningful about the plot line. ;) For example, Moffat claims in the S2 DVD that “In fact, you’ll never see a more obsessively authentic version of Sherlock Holmes than this one”. But if we follow their light-hearted commentary, which basically takes the show at face value, I’d call that not just hyperbole, but an outright lie. If you want to see the ‘authentic’ stories from ACD’s work in this show, you’ll definitely need to go much deeper into the subtext and meta levels - neither of which are mentioned on these DVDs of course. Here’s my own (rather subjective) ‘review’ of the whole thing, trying to pinpoint why I view most of the commentary of the show from its own makers as an advanced art of deception.

(My musings under the cut)

Series 1 - a wealth of extra material

First of all - as many of you probably knew already - the whole of the Unaired Pilot is added to the DVD of S1. In the extra material about the making of the series, they (Sue Vertue, Mofftiss and others) talk about what things they changed between the Pilot and ASiP, claiming that many changes were necessary improvements once they knew that they had a whole series and a lot more time at their disposal.

Which I can perfectly understand and agree with in general. But I think what’s missing in their discussions is more interesting than what’s actually there (”Mind the gap” ;) ). Things that I would expect from the show makers when they go to the trouble of comparing the pilot version with the aired product. There’s not a word, for example, about the fact that they added both Mycroft and Moriarty to the story in ASiP - two characters who later turn out to play major roles and appear in almost every other episode until the end of TFP. Or about the choice that one of the screenwriters would play Mycroft.

Neither do they discuss why they chose to relocate the place where Sherlock was challenged by the cabbie from 221B to Roland Kerr’s School of Further Education. Instead they focus on the details, like for example the new design of the interior of 221B.

Not to mention the fact that almost every scene in the Pilot is mirrored in ASiP (as pointed out long ago by @kateis-cakeis X), but at Angelo’s in the Pilot Sherlock follows the events with the cabbie while looking in an actual mirror. I even noticed that in the Pilot the cabbie is offering Sherlock dark-coloured bottles with the pills in them, while in ASiP those bottles are transparent, as if the cabbie is offering Sherlock to play Black or White in the chess game that he is simulating. What’s with all these mirrors, though? Not a word on the DVD... ;)

Now, even though these rather remarkable choices are neglected together with a great bunch of minor ones, I still think that the most interesting fact about all this is that they actually included the whole pilot version within this DVD, which is sold by the franchise. Why even do this, when it raises far more questions than it answers? The only logical reason I can come up with is that they’re laying out a track of little hints that anyone with a deep enough interest in the show to actually buy the DVDs can try to follow. And it seems to me that lying by omission is one of the first steps in the long line of cryptic and misleading author comments on this show. But at the same time, they clearly want the fans to have access to it all, even the abandoned version.

Moving on to Series 2, time for bigger lies

In the extra material of this DVD Benedict himself describes how his character "faces one of his deadliest enemies in the shape of Love, and it comes in the form of Irene Adler, who is this extraordinary dominatrix [insert here a bunch of superlatives regarding Adler]...”. And then we see how Adler whips Sherlock with a riding crop (without any kind of consent, I have to add) while he’s lying on the floor, and we have Lara Pulver telling us how it was to have a go at Benedict on set. So Holmes whips dead bodies and Adler whips living; seems like a match made in hell! :))

Gatiss claims, grinning with his whole face, that “they’re clearly, absolutely made for each other”. OK, so I think we can see Sherlock being intellectually impressed by Adler, and even trying to protect her from Mycroft, and we can see John acting jealously. We can also see her being dressed and styled as a perfect, female mirror of Sherlock. But I’m still at a loss what all this has to do with love on Sherlock’s part? Especially since he’s not even responding in any fashion to her various attempts at seducing him.

And there’s more: Paul McGuigan, the director of ASiB, claims that the scene where Sherlock has a conversation with Adler inside his Mind Palace about the crime case with the car that backfires "is a part of a kind of love story, if you like...” No, I don’t. Maybe it’s just me, but if their aim really was to convey to their audience a love story between Sherlock and The Woman, I think they failed miserably. All I see is a guy ’mansplaining’ to a clever woman how to use her brain, while she’s trying to flirt with him by expressing her admiration (to no avail, though) and make deductions at the same time. Nothing new under the sun, really. John did the same thing repeatedly in ASiP (without making own deductions) and got far more attention from Sherlock, but I’ve never heard any of the show makers call that ”a love story”. But by ’lie-splaining’ the scene with Irene to the audience, they try to manipulate us all to see it as such...

In all the direct commentary of this episode, where Steven, Mark, Sue, Benedict and Lara are present, I get the impression that every time they even touch on the relationship between Sherlock and John, they hurry to add the term “friendship” or “man love” or similar words in case they forgot them at first, avoiding even the tiniest possibility that there could be anything more going on between them. They even explain that when Irene calls them “a couple” she does not mean anything romantic. This whole approach feels almost paranoic in the midst of all the laid-back jokes and light-hearted talk about the filming. It’s as if a sort of restrictive, heteronormative filter or blanket is being constantly applied, to teach the audience the ‘no homo’ lesson of it all. And the more I listen to this, the more tiresome it becomes.

In the commentary Moffat does reveal an interesting detail, though: that the ‘Flight of the Dead’ in ASiB was inspired by a cut out scene in the Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. To me this is just one more reason to question the ‘authentic’ quality of this scene, as opposed to possibly taking place in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. But I digress...

Listening to the commentary in general, it’s like it’s aimed to distract the attention from what’s going on at the screen rather than highlight it and try to explain their intentions. They do mention that Irene didn’t actually ‘beat’ Sherlock in the end of ASiB, but there’s no explanation of this obvious deviation from canon, where Adler does indeed fool Holmes, taking advantage of his prejudices.

The rest of the extra material of S2 is mostly about technical stuff, special effects and such, and also about filming techniques and Benedict’s delivery of fast deductions. But the part I really do love is the one where Andrew Scott talks about how much he enjoyed playing the scene where Moriarty dances before breaking into the Crown Jewels. That’s one of my favorite scenes of he whole show. :) Also, the takeaway message from this DVD is Moffat’s words at the end:

“These are still the formative years of Sherlock Holmes, and the most important thing about this series is not that it’s updated; it’s the fact that those two men are still young and they’re still at the beginning of what they don’t yet know is gonna be a lifelong partnership”.

And then comes Series 3...

...and its extra material, with the most blatant attempts at deception so far, I believe. At this point Sherlock is called a “psychopath” by both the show’s characters, John’s blog, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as if it were true, which is a big deviation from ACD canon. That simply doesn’t happen there; while Holmes is sometimes described as eccentric, no one in the books is ever claiming that Sherlock Holmes has some kind of mental illness leaning towards cruelty and egotism - not even his enemies say this about him. In the show, however, they begin in ASiP with making him torture a dying man for information (something that is not included in the Pilot). And in S3, where they avoid discussing the reason why they turned Mary Morstan into a ruthless assassin, this major shift is glossed over by the fact that in the same episode (HLV) they also turn Sherlock into a murderer, who cold-bloodedly blows the brains out of a blackmailer for threatening to make said assassin’s crimes public.

But without ever getting into the “why” of it all, the cast and crew seem overly happy and smiling describing these rather morbid choices as something positive; “fantastic”, "fresh and new” and "amazing” are their choice of words. Benedict claims that Mary, who has literally shot and almost killed Sherlock in HLV, is now "a new best friend of Sherlock’s”. Amanda claims that Mary “is protecting John” when she shoots Sherlock in the chest. Now they’re both psychopaths, and poor little John is forced to stomach them both because he’s addicted to danger. In Amanda’s words, Mary also “kind of gets in between the two of them, but she wants them to be together as well”. Which is a load of BS considering that Mary tries to kill the protagonist of the story.

Lars Mikkelsen thinks it’s “such a good script” because “you’re mislead as an audience”. But he never gets the chance to expand on what the misleading actually contains, because then Mofftiss cut in to express how much they love playing with “what ifs”. As if this whole mega-budget project of a show were just a big experimental playground without any actual story to tell.

Benedict repeats his line from HLV that Magnussen “preys on people who are different” and Moffat also says he “exploits people who are different”. Which is really confusing, considering what we can see Magnussen actually do in the show. Lady Smallwood and John Garvie are two well-established, powerful governmental politicians whom Magnussen blackmails by finding their respective pressure points. In Garvie’s case his pressure point seems to be alcohol problems in his past, but according to media he’s later arrested on charges of corruption. Lady Smallwood is blackmailed on the basis of her husband having sent compromising letters to a minor many years ago, in spite of later claiming that he thought she was older and stopped when he found out the truth. And then Magnussen is blackmailing an assassin who recently threatened to execute him but shot Sherlock Holmes instead, in order to try to get at Sherlock’s brother Mycroft, another powerful governmental figure.

But what does media seeking out dirt on certain people in power and their families have to do with “people who are different”? Despicable as the method may be, isn’t this unfortunately how political power play usually works in our society? Or are TPTB somehow a repressed minority group now? Unless this whole “people who are different” accusation is actually about something entirely different, something that none of the show makers even cares to mention... ;)

In these DVDs, none of the involved persons is ever discussing the change of roles with regards to canon, though, or the (lack of) logics in this turn of events, or even a hint about the narrative motivation behind them. It’s all about the great Drama, the extraordinary visual effects and the aim to endlessly “surprise the audience”. Which is fine by me to a certain extent, but when this is all that’s being said, it feels extremely superficial, as if the audience is merely seen as a bunch of consumers that have to be triggered more and more by horror, special effects and cliff hangers to be able to appreciate the show. (“Warm paste” indeed, like Gatiss has later criticized some viewers of wanting...) While the "why”; the idea behind this surrealistic adaptation, made by self-proclaimed fanboys of ACD, is not even touched upon. Around this, the silence is total and therefore totally confusing.

Maybe I shouldn’t even go into Series 4...

...but why not, since I’ve already started? :)

First of all, there’s a lot of extra material on this DVD and I particularly love the parts about the music and composing and Arwel Wyn Jones’ work with the design and build-up of John’s and Mary’s flat and the interior of 221B. Those bits are truly enjoyable. What I could live without, though, is the leading commentary that kind of instructs us, the audience, how we should interpret the show.

Benedict is on it again on this DVD, telling us that in TST they picked up where they left off in S3 and “It’s a very happy unit of three people that then become four.” Why does he feel the need to make this statement, considering how S3 ended? Actually, if there’s anything I totally fail to see in S4, it’s happiness. The banter between the three of them may seem entertaining for a while, but who could have a relaxed, warm relationship with someone who tried and almost succeeded to kill you less than a year ago? Without any sign of remorse? Now there’s a dark tone of discomfort and mean jokes that feels forced and not even a bit happy to me.

But Martin tells us how excited John and Mary are about starting a family and Amanda mentions how much they’re looking forward to the baby. Again and again it’s repeated, as though trying to rub it in: “they’re in a good place, they’re a loving, married couple”. Yeah, right - a child that (judging by TSoT) wasn’t at all planned and now with an assassin for a mother... Twice we see the new parents complain that their daughter has the mark of Satan on her forehead and debate which horror movie she’s from. The clichéd hypocrisy of it all is sickening, and I’m willing to bet that it’s really meant to be. ;)

But Gatiss chimes in, deciding for us all that the christening of Rosie is “a funny scene” and “they’re enjoying each other, enjoying being on adventures as a three”.

An interesting detail is that Gatiss also tells us that the working name of this episode was “The Adventure of the Melting power Ranger”. So this little blue guy was that important? :) And - even more interesting - is when he says: “Cake is now the code for violent death”. So how should we interpret Sherlock, John and Molly going out to have cake in TLD then, on Sherlock’s (supposed) birthday?

These might be jokes, though, but when they tell us that Sue cries every time she sees Mary’s death I strongly believe they must be joking. How could anyone feel truly moved by this overly sentimental long monologue where far more efforts are put into reacting to Mary’s speech than saving her life? And John’s mooing like a cow, is that also moving? :)

One thing Martin says about TLD that actually disgusts me is regarding the morgue scene where John assaults Sherlock and Sherlock lets it happen: “From there, really, their relationship can only sort of rebuild, that’s the absolute worst it can get”. As if outright physical abuse would be something that makes you want to rebuild a relationship? Wow - just wow... How far can they go with this crap?

Anyway, when we finally arrive at the absurdity of TFP and Sherlock’s ‘secret sister’, everything is of course discussed as if she actually does exist on the given premises, and everything she does is ‘real’, no matter how impossible it would be in real life. The abandonment of any attempt to have the story line make logical sense is skillfully covered up by more distraction with fascinating technicalities of the film making process. This is where Gatiss makes his now almost classic statement that after Sherlock and John jump out of the window at 221B when a grenade explodes there, it’s just “Boop! And they’re fine.”

Of course there’s no serious attempt at explaining this logically. Except perhaps Gatiss claiming that they both landed on Speedy’s awning - whatever good that would do to them, since the awning is leaning downwards, but never mind... But we never even saw that happen, did we? A great deal of time is then dedicated to show all the precautions to have Martin and Ben jumping safely at low level onto a madras supported by empty cardboard boxes.

Sian Brooke did say something interesting about Sherrinford, however, that got me thinking. She said that Eurus “wants revenge for the years and years that she has been held captive” there, isolated, and that in TFP the Holmes children are now “lab rats” and “it’s an experiment”. On a meta level, I think we can indeed see this episode - and maybe the whole show - as a kind of experiment, but maybe we, the audience, are also lab rats? Since Sherrinford is slightly shaped like a film camera (not commented in the extra material, of course), it leads my thought to all the adaptations through the years and years where Holmes and Watson have not been allowed to be together. A whole century when Sherlock Holmes has been held captive, restricted by the very same sort of heteronormative filter that all this extra material imposes; it’s like Sherrinford, isn’t it? Which gives all the more meaning to Moriarty’s arrival to the island, accompanied by Freddy Mercury’s “I want to break free”...

I think I’ll let the final words in this little exposé come from Mark Gatiss in The Writers’ Chat (my bolding):

“Moriarty is a fascinating thing in that in our sea of ongoing lies, one thing we’ve genuinely been completely consistent about is telling people he’s dead. But no-one believes it! And it’s a rather brilliant thing.” Again - self-congratulatory statements. But instead of providing some actual evidence of the death of this character, who has kept popping up in almost every episode since his supposed demise, they think that the more a confirmed liar repeats something, the truer it gets? And the more we’re supposed to believe them? Well, all we can do is wait and see. :)

Tagging some people who might be interested:

@raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @lukessense @sagestreet @thepersianslipper

My earlier meta on a similar topic (X)

#bbc sherlock dvds #Deception in BBC Sherlock

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mochii0park · 3 years ago

Text

metanoia; 01 | kth

Title: Metanoia

Pairing: Taehyung / Reader

Part of series: Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge

Genre: angst I collage!au

Pairing: student!reader x photographer!taeyhung

Word count: 4,7k

Summary: Vante, a household name among photographers became known for his minimalistic photography style that came along with his secret persona. Never showing his face on his own exhibitions fueled the public’s desire to learn more about him which skyrocketed his fame. While preparing for his next exhibition Vante went missing. Disappeared into thin air and even now a year later was never found.

Author’s note: I am very conscious of any grammar mistakes. Although I have read this chapter three times I am sure I’ve missed some so bare with me.

On another note, I have switched the dates of the chapters for Saudade and Metanoia. Since this story got more attention compared to Sauade I’ve decided to write it before the date.

This is my first attempt at writing on this platform and I hope it will reach out to a wider range of readers and catch your interest. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Taglist: @ggukkieland @honig-und-millch , @deliciousdetectivestranger ,

Masterlist

Metanoia masterlist

< intro | next chapter >

You sink into the overaged draggled yellow chair, catching second-hand embarrassment at the sight before you. The boy walked about, his thrusts were not enough to keep the neon hula hoop from falling. He attempts to fumble his way out of the mess, but it was too late. The left ankle twists itself and before you know it, he hits headfirst against the wooden flooring. The professors rush towards him, medics following behind. The boy tries to pull himself up but fails his body slumping against the stage. To your left Mingi snorts, stuffing his face with popcorn amused by the scene playing out.

“I don’t mean to sound rude or whatever, but people need to search up the meaning of talent before their eyes skip to the word show.” Minnie ruckles her nose, her mouth loop sided.

“I find this highly entertaining,” Mingi speaks up, mouth full of food. He takes a sip of the cold beverage rested in his lap and shakes the mixture before swallowing.

To his left Yeonjun shudders at him, “Talent or not I would rather replay that scene than watch Mingi be a slob. It makes me want to bleach my eyes out.”

Mingi rolls his eyes ignoring Yeonjun as he pops more popcorn, oblivious to his own weird antics. Although the four of you are friends for years, Mingi managed to take you all by surprise with his uncanny behaviour.

The second act starts and suddenly you contemplate your university choice. Reasonably the overbearing staff of your university wanted the timid first years to feel welcomed hence this so-called show. In hindsight, you think a friendly party would’ve been just as good.

Halfway through the act, you feel a light tap on your shoulders, professor Kim Namjoon stands there like a sore thumb in the mass of students’ bodies. With his hovering height, freshly dyed purple hair and the rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose he was sure to stand out. He shifts his footing from one to the other foot anxiously waiting for you to follow him, few students commenting on the disruptions that his appearance caused.

You observe him for a second, accompanying him out of the theatre into the cold November air. He fumbles through his leather briefcase before fishing out a small, crumpled flyer. Opening it he shoves it into your hands while tweaking his glasses.

“I have a favour to ask you Y/N. There will be a course taking place here and I would love for you to attend it with your peculiar friends.” He says emphasising the word peculiar.

You knew that Mingi gave Namjoon the creeps even though the latter denied it.

“No.”

You push back the flyer spinning on the balls of your feet ready to join your friends.

“Y/L-…”, Namjoon groans, “Do it for your brother-in-law.”

Widening your eyes, you look at him shaking your head.” This isn’t the time to use our family relations to bribe me into a stupid course.”

“Did you even read what’s it about?”, you take the flyer from his hands skimming through it.

Photography course

Length: 10th November till 10th June

Time: Friday, 6pm -8pm

Attendance: Third years and above

Equipment not needed for the course

Your eyes pause at the date, laughing releasing itself from your chest. Surely Namjoon was kidding when suggesting this. You were in your last year which meant you would soon be flooded with work for your final project. In conclusion, there was barely enough time for you set foot out of your studies let alone attend another one of the university’s poor attempts to make a course for students to bond over.

“You understand I’m in my last year. I don’t have time to go out and have fun with my friends. How in the world did you think I would fit a whole-ass course?”

Namjoon releases a breath running a hand through his thick hair, desperation evident on his face.” I am sorry to have to do this, but I am cashing in my favour.”

You become stiff mouth agape, incoherent vowels coming out of you. It takes you a few seconds to gather your thoughts, “you promised to not cash it in. You gave me your word.”

“And you gave me yours.” Namjoon retored sassily, finger pointing at you, “I won’t tell Sunmi if you promise to do me a favour when the time comes.”

Pushing your tongue against the palate, you try to control the boiling anger.

The incident happened four years ago, back when you were still figuring out your college life. Namjoon and you were acquaintances, sharing one elective course called German Literature. Needless to say, both of you suffered greatly.

By the end of the year, you noticed your sister piqued Namjoon’s interest. Grossed out by the idea of your older sister engaging in any kind of relationship/activity with a twenty-three-year-old, you kept your distance until the faithful day.

Choi San was the synonym for the devil himself. With his fiery red hair and dazzling cat-like eyes, he lured you into his messy life of illegal parties and binge drinking. You still find yourself cringing at his pathetic excuses of professing his undying love to you when it was all under false pretences. His eyes bearing into your naïve soul, pulling your heart out and wrenching it until your friends came to pick up the pieces.

Sitting in the police station you counted down minutes before your older sister would burst through the door and finally decide to disown you. With your head nested between your knees you suck in the tears threatening to spill, the euphoria from the alcohol long gone. You’ve dialled Mingi’s number first, the others were a no go when it came to answering their phones. He picked up in a matter of seconds. After explaining the situation, you figured he would bring his own parents to bail you out instead Namjoon comes first, after him a stressed Minnie trying to keep up the pace with him and a Yeonjun who’s pulling his masks further over his nose in a lame attempt to be unrecognizable. Mingi idly meanders behind them in his pyjamas with not one care in the world. Namjoon pulls a small amount of money handing the police officer and not long after you were free.

At that moment you’ve truly recognized your friends as the people you wanted to keep in your life forever. Namjoon jokingly said he would someday cash in his favour. Little did you know the joke would get over your head.

“You’ve waited for four years to cash it?”

He shrugs and nods lightly. Quickly he composes himself, washing his features of playfulness and switching them up with hopelessness. “It’s really important for me that you and your clique of friends attend this course. Professor Seojoon organized it-“

At the mention of your favourite professor, your eyes light up making Namjoon shudders. The little “crush” you harboured didn’t go unnoticed by him. Putting his hands on your shoulders he gains your attention again before continuing, “his brother is the one to hold the course so you must come. I will put in a good word for you all. Maybe he will go easy on you during quizzes.”

You roll your eyes knowing fully well that you didn’t need Namjoon’s intervention although it was greatly appreciated. Putting the flyer in your back pocket you throw a thumbs up to Namjoon, “Well Minnie and I don’t need any favouritism and I am almost certain you can’t do much for Yeonjun and Mingi seeing as they are in different departments.”

“Oh?” Namjoon’s brows shot up at the revelation, totally dismissing the idea that you know each other any differently than through the classes you attend, “I thought Yeonjun was in the literature department, as for Mingi it’s far-fetched but I didn’t want to sound rude.”

“Actually, Yeonjun is in the Vocal department while Mingi is in the Physics and Astronomy department. He’s also on top of his class, both are.”

Namjoon seems stunned at the information you threw at him, but he recovers swiftly, “Bunch of nerds.” He chuckles at his own jokes before both of you bid goodbyes. You slowly make your way to the cafeteria mind set on pursuing your friends to join you and Namjoon running to the staff meeting hoping to extinguish the chaos caused by the talent show.

Pushing past the mass of people on the campus your sneakers squeak against the pavement, the chatter between the students becoming louder as you push the cafeteria doors. Making your way towards the table in the further left corner you spot Yeonjun’s eye-catching hair. The pink shade fits well against his pale skin making him noticeable from afar. The boy throws a piece of chips at Mingi, the latter catching it mid-air.

The rustling of your chair brings them out of their bubble. Minnie plops her elbows on the table, hand supporting her cheek as she lays it there, eyes staring at you amusingly. Mingi continues to catch Yeonjun’s chips, his attention now slightly focused on you. “How was the talk with professor Namjoon.”

“I need a favour to ask you.”

“Last time you asked for a favour we had to bail you from jail,” Mingi adds face void of any emotion causing Yeonjun to almost choke on the piece of chicken from his plate. Minnie reaches for his head hitting him hard on the back.

“That was four years ago for God’s sake.” You yell, a few students turning bothered by your loud voice disrupting their meal.

Slumping further into the seat, cheeks reddened from the heat of the sudden attention you gained you say quietly, “there is a course taking place this year and I would love if you could attend it.”

Mingi was the first to read the flyer once you push it in the middle of the old table. He hums a couple of times and gives you a thumbs up, unlike Minnie who scoffs.

“A whole semester? Y/N you know this is impossible to juggle this with our final project. As much as I would love to participate you know what you’re asking for is too much.”

You bite your lower lip remembering Namjoon’s words. “I know but professor Seojoon is organizing it, and don’t you think having him on our good side would mean a lot?”

Minnie shrugs and pops the strawberry into her mouth. “I understand, but it’s on Fridays. The only time I can spare for parties and clubs, and you’re asking me to spend it studying something I am not even remotely interested in?”

You turn towards Yeonjun knowing if he agrees Minnie will crumble under the pressure of your group. He scans it quickly and shakes his lightly head from left to right before agreeing to accompany you making Minnie collapse her shoulders in defeat.

“Fine but if it takes too much of my time I am signing out.”

“I love you guys so much.”

“Cut it with the sappy shit, I have piano lessons.” Yeonjun gets up telling you goodbye before he disappears in the ocean of students his pink hair no longer visible. A distant scream could be heard a few seconds after, “I love you too.”

You smile feeling the love of your friends.

“We love you too.” Mingi gets up and places a carton of freshly squeezed apple juice in front of you sending off a small smile. Just like Yeonjun, he’s gone.

Nose buried deep into the book; Taehyung tried his best to mute out his brother’s lame attempts of starting a conversation he never intended to finish. Legs resting on the polished marble table he did his very best to further fuel Seojoon’s irritation. The older one pacing back and forwards provoking Taehyung’s headache.

“If you would just listen to me.”

Kim Taehyung detested surprise, especially those he didn’t catch on early. This one though topped the cake. “There is no need to listen.”

“Quit being stubborn.”

“Oh, the irony.” Taehyung looked up catching his brother’s burning gaze,” contrary to your beliefs, I must say you are the one who’s stubborn here. When a person asks for space and time you give them that instead of forcing them, wait sorry what was the word again? Yeah, lightly pushing them into holding a course. One which they never asked for or showed the desire to hold.”

“You needed a little push in the right direction.”

“Arranging a one-year course isn’t a push you idiot,” Taehyung shouted; the book was long forgotten and tossed aside on his couch. His yell echoed in the empty room causing Seojoon’s to scowl. He found comfort in a small armchair adjacent to the marble table. “You can’t bury yourself in books and spend your days in the atelier. It’s not healthy Taehyung.”

“I don’t remember asking for advice.”

Seojoon was on the verge of giving up, letting the course get cancelled before it even happened hadn’t it been for the twelve people that signed up and Namjoon’s effort to recruit them.

“Look-“he takes a deep breath calming himself, “You can think of it as a one year course, but in reality, it’s eight months. When you count Christmas, New Year, Easter you can cut one month coming to seven months in total. I’ve gone all out for this course, please don’t make me go and explain to my higher-ups why it’s cancelled before it even started.”

Taehyung shut his eyes trying not to feed the growing frustration inside him. Seojoon takes the time to look at his brother, the embodiment of pain. The eyes that used to shine brightly at the sight of new opportunities were now dull and empty, almost as if his soul left the body. It tore him apart to see Taehyung like that, powerless and what added more to his pain was the inability to help him.

“It’s been a year since I’ve held a class.”

“I know you Taehyung. You are a man of many talents and there is nothing that can convince me otherwise. You need to move forward and face the fear you’ve been holding onto. It’s been a year. Nobody will judge you.” Seojoon’s eyes soften as he walks up to his brother ruffling his hair, hoping that his sincerity got through to him.

“I don’t know Joon.”

Before Seojoon could even start talking Taehyung shakes his head and moves hurriedly reaching for the knob. Seojoon takes a step towards Taehyung, but he doesn’t even give him a chance to speak as he runs right out of the door leaving him alone in the atelier.

The water drips from Taehyung’s wet hair down his face creating a false comfort, the sound of water coated a perfect cover to hide his emotional baggage. It became a habit of his to seek solace in the bathtub surrounded by lavender soaps that Yuna bought. A tradition carried on from their mother to them. The scent took Taehyung back into his childhood spent in his family home in Busan. Carefree of responsibilities and the heavy burden the world carried.

He recalls the delicate touch of his mother’s fingers untangling his locks while singing Elvis’s song can’t help falling in love. Her voice heartening Taehyung as he wept over a dispute he had with his second brother Hyungsik. The vivid memory of his mother placing a kiss on the crown of his head before wiping away the tears from his cheeks.

“Siblings are there to teach you about life,” she whispers softly, “They teach you what it means to be kind, to be fair and to know you will not always be right. They teach you about teamwork, conflict resolution and most importantly Tae they teach you what it is to love and to be loved.”

Opening the door of Seojoon’s study, Taehyung is greeted with a sight to behold. Leaning against the door frame he watches Yuna and Hyungsik dancing in the middle of the muddled room, furniture pushed aside to create more room. They attempted to follow Yuna’s new choreography, Seojoon’s seated in the leather armchair grading assignments although he would glance up occasionally laughing at the duo. More like laugh at Hyungsik’s failed attempts but he didn’t need to know that. Noticing Taehyung’s presence, Yuna runs over linking their arms and pulls him forward oblivious to the slight tension between him and Seojoon.

“Idol my ass, “she scoffs at a gasping Hyungsik, “Taehyungie I need a dance partner for my new choreography. Hyungsik can’t even learn the basics.”

“Not my fault the younger generation goes overboard with their dances and outfits and singing. In my time we relied on our charms, and not how you call it? Fairy ending? What is even that?”

“It’s when idols finish the song, and the camera pans on of them giving them some more love and screen time. Right?” Taehyung looks at Yuna for approval. She places Taehyung’s hand over her shoulder, linking her arms around his waist while he kisses her temple and puts his cheek on top of her head.

“Admit it you’ve gotten old Hyungsik.” Seojoon derides.

That was enough to motivate Hyungsik to crack his fingers and reach for the tablet, “Give me the goddamn tablet. I’ll show you who’s old.” burying his nose into the gadget, he replays the video repeatedly.

By the time he made it through the first segment of the dance, Taehyung was sure he could blindly replicate the choreography himself.

“Couldn’t you ask one of your professors or other idols in training to help you?” Taehyung asks as the two observe Hyungsik’s rusty moves.

“One friend is busy finishing school projects and Jungkook-a has too many events lined up to help. I haven’t seen him since last Friday and I don’t feel comfortable asking Jimin-ssi to practice with me.”

“Isn’t he your professor?”

“Yes and no. He helps the idols which have already debuted in our entertainment company, that’s Jungkook. Jimin-ssi does occasionally step in when other professors are prevented from teaching. But his job is being a full-time professor at the EQ Royal Dance Academy.”

Taehyung nods, the information flying over his head as Hyungsik messes up a move and topples to the floor. He erupts into fits of laugher for the first time in weeks and Seojoon is suddenly reminded what’s it like to be happy. He knew bringing Yuna home for the weekend would do Taehyung some good. The sight warms his heart, his siblings bickering loudly, breathing some life into the old room. Resting the assignments on the nearby table, he sits up to join them. Catching Taehyung’s gaze he looks towards the boy, brows raised.

“I’ve thought about it and-” Taehyung stops for a second, but Seojoon’s soft gaze prompts him to continue. “I’ll take the job.”

“Well, you better get ready because it starts in two hours.”

“What?!”

There were many ways you could spend your Friday night, like partying for instance yet here you are sitting in your car listening to Minnie whining. Mingi’s soul stuck somewhere on his iPod the second he set foot in the car, his head bobbing to the music blasting from his AirPods. Yeonjon was the only one not present. Due to his idol actives, he was held back by his vocal coach, but he promised to be there for the second lecture.

Placing your analogue camera on the desk, you tug your hair into a ponytail mentally preparing yourself for two hours of dullness. Minnie sits to your right while Mingi takes the chair to your left. The three of you seating yourselves in the front of the classroom, Namjoon’s words bunch of nerds playing in your head.

Shaking the thought away you see the watch tick eight pm as the door swings open.

When Namjoon told you professor Seojoon’s brother would hold the course you had expected a man either older than him or somewhere around his age, not a handsome make you take a double look type of a man; two or three years older than you.

His features were nothing short of a Greek god. He stood head and shoulders over you even when you were seated, confidence radiating from every fibre of his being as adjusts his bag over his shoulder. Pushing his brown curls away from his face he allows you to look at it. Perhaps you were exaggerating but you never saw such a gorgeous man. Straightening himself up you take notice of his attire for tonight’s lecture. An orange blazer draped over a white shirt brought out his sun-kissed complexion paired with the same-coloured trousers. A type of anonymity laced itself with every step he took in your direction, his stare a mixture of coldness and determination.

He comes forward, eyes scanning each one of you before he sets his gaze on you. It lingers there for a second, his expression unreadable before he breaks it.

“Hello, my name is Kim Taehyung and I’ll be your lecturer for this course.”

For the first time, you see Mingi’s focus entirely on Taehyung. His presence demanded to be felt and a part of you was sure he knew it. Taking the camera in his hand he turns towards you.

“I assume you have at least once taken a photo, whether with your phones or camera. Moreover, I am positive you have attempted to make an aesthetic photo for your Instagram feed. How many of you were successful?” laughter filled the lecture hall,” The goal of this lecture isn’t to make a photographer out of you nor to help you improve your skills. The point is to make you fall in love with photography. The rest will come easy.”

He walks around the desk and opens an old leather binder. Walking towards your table he places it in front of Mingi allowing the three of you to peek at the content of it. There neatly stored in a plastic sheet were his photos. Mingi pushes the portfolio in front of you, allowing easier access to both Minnie and you. Slowly leafing through the pictures, you stop in total awe. Eyes trailing over a simple photo of a ray field, caught somewhere in later November or early December judging by the snow. The contrast was striking, the clash of the colours and the depth of field creating an imaginary line between the ray and the sky.

Taehyung observes your dumbfounded expression, intrigued by your sudden amazement he ambles to your side. He rakes over the photo, which was a thereby sheer mistake, panic rushing through him. In a reckless attempt to stop you from further prying into the photos he grasps the portfolio out of your hold knocking over your camera in the process. It hits the floor shattering the lens into pieces, the film rolling down until it stops near his feet. Cursing himself for his abrupt action, he looks at you. Your eyes drift from the broken camera to Taehyung’s face.

He hurriedly squats picking the pieces, analysing the damage. Beyond repair.

“I am so sorry. I-” he says placing the parts on your table trying to come up with more words of apology.

“It’s alright.” You shuffle awkwardly in your seat not liking the spotlight put on you.

“I’ll be sure to repay you the coasts of a new camera.”

You shake your head; the camera was already outdated, and you were sure Sunmi would let you borrow her digital one from the gallery. “It’s fine.”

Taehyung puts his lips into a thin line, the confidence he marched beginning to leave his body. Although you showed no anger or resentment towards him, he still felt the need to apologize. Swallowing the awkward moment, he paces towards the centre.

“Today we will start with simple terms such as ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. Three things you should get familiar with.”

Fetching his Nikon camera from the case he turns it around. Swirling the button on the upper part of the camera he adjusts the mode to manual. Pushing another button towards himself the camera shows three circles in the middle of the screen.

“The first circle is shutter speed. That’s the speed at which the light of a camera sensor is exposed to light when taking a photo. Slow shutter speed captures the blur of subjects in motion. It’s valuable for night and landscape photography. On the other hand, high speed allows you to freeze a single millisecond in time.”

Pointing to the middle circle he continues. “This is an aperture, the opening through which light passes through the lens to enter the camera. Its size can be modified to control how much light reaches the sensor.”

Lastly, he shows you the third button. “ISO represents the sensor’s sensitivity to the light. The higher the number, the more information will be captured in other words the picture will be brighter.”

Taehyung fumbles with the camera for a few seconds before he focuses it on you and with a click and shutter of light, he takes your photo. With no time to recover you feel a blush creep at the thought of how the picture turned out. “As you can see this is the perfect setting for the indoor portrait. Now if we put the shutter speed high and the ISO low-“

He again takes a picture of you turning the camera screen to the students. The photo was dark, your features barely visible but still your figure could be distinguished. “This is an underexposed photo. Now if we set the shutter speed to let’s say 1/40 and places the ISO high-“

Expecting his move this time, you look up at the camera. Taehyung halts his action for a slight second before he presses the button. Looking at the photo, the brightness is overbearing. “This is an overexposed photo.”

He places the camera in front of Mingi, Minnie and you allowing you to take your time and compare the three photos he took. “Why am I showing you this? Because for your next assignment that’s what you will do. You will take three photos of the same object. The object you choose should be something that left a great impact on you. That can be your family, your friends or an inanimate object such as phones, books etc. The choice is yours.”

Pulling out stacks of paper he leaves them on the corner of his desk.” These here are today’s study notes. I don’t expect you to write down notes while in the class, but I do expect you to finish your assignments. That will be all for today.”

The students began leaving the room each taking one paper, Taehyung stood there, hands in his pocket looking through every pupil that passed by. Minnie was first in line, her flirt mode on. You see them exchange a few words, Minnie’s behaviour suddenly going from sweet to sour in seconds. You dally your way to the desk aware of his gaze burning holes in the side of your head.

“Sorry, Y/N was it?” You peek up not expecting him to spare you a second let alone address you.

“Yeah?”

Taehyung scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.” I am sorry for what happened to your camera. I know you said it’s fine, but I feel responsible for it. I would feel better if you let me repay you by buying a new camera or at least participating in the coasts.”

“No, really it’s fine.” You laugh as you say it for the fourth time today.” I will borrow my sister’s camera for the course. If I do find myself in a need to buy a new camera, I will let you know.”

Before Taeyhung could protest you nod politely and leave the room. Biting his lip, he couldn’t help to feel bad about the wreck he made knowing full well how much an analogue camera costs nowadays. Taking the Nikon one from your table he swipes through the photos deleting each one before he pauses on the last one. It was the first black and white photo he took of you.

Your eyes were focused on Taehyung, although taken aback by the light they held their composure your mouth pulled into an affiliative smile. The white light made your baby hair stand out in the black background. For an unexplained reason, Taehyung felt a small tug, one he couldn’t pinpoint the meaning of. Shutting off his camera, he exhales through his nose and throws the bag over his shoulder.

The first lecture was done, thirty-three to go.

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harrypotter-imaginess · 4 years ago

Text

- So if you’ve read my bio, you already know I’ve been writing this since I was like 12 years old-

- But here it goes-

- Fred likes charismatic, popular types, so everyone assumes since they look alike their taste in romantic partners can’t be that far off

- But they would be wrong

- George goes for wallflowers

- Someone who’s a little quieter, who see’s and hears things, but never says anything

- That’s probably how he noticed you at first

- You walked in on him and Fred when they were in the middle of stealing potions ingredients from Snape’s closet

- Fred was inside doing the actual ransacking while George kept look out

- He thought maybe you would say something, or at least give him a quizzical look

- But you just offer him a small smile and go your way

- And George thinks -

- ‘Well that’s it, we’re done. Snape will tie us upside by our shoelaces, this is how it ends’

- But you never say anything, not even when Snape offered 50 house points to whoever could provide the culprit

- Finally the anxiety gets to him and he confronts you

- “Why didn’t you say anything?” He asks and you shrug

- “It’s not my secret to tell is it?” You say after some time, and your reasons for keeping to yourself stay with you

- But George realizes he likes you right then

- You usually blend into the crowd, not one for standing out

- And he’s never really noticed you much, you’re just someone from class

- But now, it’s like he can’t stop noticing you-

- When you fidget in class because you’re afraid to be called on,

- When you’re with your friends in the courtyard plying gobstones,

- When you’re in the corner of the library flipping through an ancient book with that cute look on your face

- It’s like you’re everywhere all of a sudden. And he can’t keep his eyes off of you

- Earning your favor is harder than expected

- You don’t care for flashy gifts or large gestures

- “You mean the fireworks didn’t work?” Fred asks and George shakes his head

- “No, t seems it embarrassed them”

- Instead what moves you is an act of kindness

- Like when Snape calls on you in class and George see’s you fidget nervously, he knows getting called on to answer makes you nervous

- So George answers for you, redirecting all the attention to him

- “I’m sorry, is your last name (L/N)?”

- “I wish, but no, unfortunately not” George replies which earns a laugh from the class. Snape rolls his eyes and moves on

- He grins when you give him a grateful look, mouthing ‘thank you’

- If he’s older than you he’ll give you his notes

- You notice there’s a clump of papers at your usual spot in the library

- And on closer inspection it looks like most of the pages are singed, black and crumbling at the edge

- “I know you’re struggling with that potion, so here are some of my notes” - George

- The gesture makes you smile, it’s enough that he noticed you were struggling and wanted to help

- This goes on for a month, just a bunch of small but meaningful gestures

- George is just in the middle of thinking how you never get a pastry at dinner, he wouldn’t mind giving you his-

- When he notices someone’s sitting beside him

- Oh it’s you

- You’re fidgeting slightly, an embarrassed expression on your face

- “Would you want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend...with me?” You say slowly, almost tentatively.

- And then, having watched too many romance movies that are contingent on the miscommunication trope you add:

- “Like a date”

- You start to get nervous, because what if you’ve been reading all the signs wrong, or what if he’s just playing a prank on you

- But all your worries dissipate the second you see George’s face

- He’s got the biggest, goofiest smile on his face, a lovestruck twinkle in his eyes

- “Of course, I would love to”

- A butterbeer at Hogsmeade becomes sitting together in your corner of the library-

- “You just have to be careful with how you stir it, other than that I think you’re doing great “

- And late night broom rides into the forbidden forest

- “Are you sure this is allowed George?”

- “I mean, probably not-“ he feels you shift behind him and grins . “But it’s too late to back out now, so hold tight”

- Listening to muggle music on your Walkman

- “So who’s this?”

- “They’re The Beach Boys” you tell him, surprised he’s never heard of them

- He nods

- “I like them, nice vibe they give off”

- You laugh, you’ll have to make him a cassette tape sometime

- He’s a really good boyfriend

- While Fred might be the idea man, George is the one who makes them come true

- George is really good at communicating, he kind of has to be when you have a big family and misunderstandings are always happening

- “I’m just so tired George.” You say, and George gives you a thoughtful expression

- “Do you want comfort or solutions?”

- It’s a tactic he came up with early on in the relationship that you both use, it’s 100% the reason that you don’t fight very often

- “Comfort please”

- He holds out his arms, and you nestle yourself into his chest, breathing his scent in deeply

- “You always smell so good” you mumble

- He asks you to the Yule Ball

- He’s a little nicer than his brother who throws a paper ball at Angelina Johnson

- You watch as a paper crane flies across the room and lands by your notebook

- You raise an eyebrow at George, isn’t this how Draco flirted with/tormented Harry last year?

- George only flashes you a grin, motioning for you to unfold the crane

- “You’re the fly-est person I know, go to the Yule ball with me?”

- It’s so cheesy you let out a snort

- You look back to George and nod

- He grins at you like the first time you asked him on a date, like you just made him the happiest person alive

- You have a great time of course, you always have a good time with him

- When the weird sisters have the room screaming, George taps you on the shoulder, jerking his head towards the door

- He leads you out into the courtyard, your hand held gently in his

- You sit on the edge of the fountain as he smiles at you

- “Sorry I just thought you looked like you needed a break.”

- It was awfully crowded and sweaty

- George squeezes your hand, looking at you with an endearing expression

- “Did you have a good time tonight?”

- You smile

- “It’s always a good time with you”

- And it is, he’s your dream boy

- And you’re just a dream to him ;)

#harry potter imagine #harry potter #harry potter headcanon #george weasley headcanon #george weasley imagine #george weasley x reader #george weasley #George Weasley fanfiction #harry potter hogwarts mystery #harry potter x reader #harrypotter imaginess #harry potter fanfiction #harrypotter-imaginess

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clonewarsarchives · 3 years ago

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TALES OF A SOUND DROID (#116, APR 2010)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Supervising Sound Editor Matthew Wood tells James Burns about his career and life as General Grievous!

Star Wars Insider: When did you start working in sound?

Matthew Wood: I was 17 years old when I started working at Lucas Arts, or Lucasfilm Games as it was called back then. I worked there for about a year as a tester on games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Night Shift, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. I became aware that there was a position opening up at Skywalker Sound to test a program George Lucas was putting together called SoundDroid. This was the first non-linear digital sound editor for film, and I ended up using some of the software that I’d put together at the games division Skywalker Sound. We ended up using that technology on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

I got in really early when things transferring over from analog magnetic tape editing to digital, so I got to learn the craft of editing and design from masters in the field and taught them something about computers. It was a nice symbiotic relationship, as Obi-wan likes to say. I became a supervising s editor, and had an “field” promotion from Rick McCallum on The Phantom Menace. Ben Burtt has been one of my mentors and also an idol of mine. We have a great working relationship, so in 2008 it was really fun when we got award nominatios on WALL-E together. To be nominated with him was a dream come true for me.

What have you learned from Ben?

The artistry of Ben’s sound work is something that I’ve always been in awe of. We used to share an office and I’d sit there and listen to him work. The stuff coming from his side of the room was just fantastic. He wot leave and I’d have to catalog what he’d been working on. I’d just sit there and listen to it and work out how he made it. Ben is really focused on making sure his crew is happy, and I really try to make sure my crew is happy. It helps to ensure we produce better work.

What does a supervising sound editor do?

The supervising sound editor is there to facilitate what the director wants in sound. He’s involved in making sure that all the foley [the natural, everyday sound effects added after principal photography] is recorded correctly; that includes footsteps, clothing movement and things like that. He works with the sound designer—if you have the budget to have a sound designer—to get good, creative sounds. The job also involves checking to see if all the dialogue that’s recorded on the set is usable or not, and knowing how much dialogue needs to be recorded with the actors in the studio.

When you’re re-recording, you have to make sure the actor’s voice matches what’s onscreen while the director is giving his creative comments. You also have to take the music and get that ready before you go to the final mix process where everything is taken and put together so you can hear how it’s going to sound in the theatre of on T.V.

With a Lucasfilm project, especially Star Wars, we’re already creating sounds based on what we read in the script before we start to see visuals. As soon as we see the visuals we start integrating our sounds into the track, so when George finally sees it, it’s not a huge surprise. This way he can actually hear the sounds as we create them and he can give us notes.

How early in the process of creating a new episode of The Clone Wars do you get involved?

Dave Acord, the sound designer on the show, and I are working on it the whole time. We’re making an episode and mixing it every other week, and we’re normally working on one or two shows at a time. We also do voices in the show. I do Grievous and a bunch of other characters—all the battle droids, commando droids, some tactical droids, the super battle droids, some assassin droids, Wat Tambor and Poggle the Lesser! We’re already recording for Season Three and right now [October 2009] we’re only about halfway through post-production on Season Two.

What are the specific challenges working on Star Wars compared to other projects you’ve worked on, such as There Will Be Blood?

Star Wars is very challenging because it has so much material in each frame. To just compare The Phantom Menace with There Will Be Blood—in the first 20 minutes of There Will Be Blood there’s no dialogue at all. We just created the soundscape from [composer] Jonny Greenwood’s music. Chris Scarabosio, the sound designer, was a Star Wars alumni with whom I’d worked for a long time. We worked with the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, to make sure everything was finely tuned and crafted; we even gave him the sound effects early.

On The Phantom Menace every alien has a sound and there is so much to see that we really had to pick our battles audio-wise. It was almost like an animated film because there are so many computer graphics done by ILM: creatures, vehicles and spaceships, and environments that we had to assign sounds to. There’s also John Williams’ music through 90 percent of the movie. In the Podracing scene there was a moment (where the music goes away and we were able to establish the environment purely with sound effects. That was a real treat for us. It’s always a challenge to integrate all the sound effects and music, and get them working together. For The Clone Wars each episode is almost entirely scored, too. We’re trying to do that same dance to integrate everything. Every frame is packed with information. George says that sound is 50 percent of the audience experience, and we try to maintain that.

Going back to voices, have you approached General Grievous any differently in the series from the way you did in Episode III?

In Revenge of the Sith most of Grievous’ lines are yelled, so I had to adjust because we have some scenes in The Clone Wars where he’s actually speaking to people! I’ve had to find a happy medium with the performance. Intelligibility is a too because I have to make sure the television audience can hear the fidelity of what I’m saying because the voice is very heavily processed and it undergoes screen modulation and pitch processing. Otherwise the performances are the same. I have a lot fun doing the battle droids; I like the arc of their characters. Dave [Filoni] noted that there’s a lot less “Roger, Roger” in in Season Two.

You also played Bib Fortuna in The Phantom Menace.

That was a “right place, right time” thing. I was working in editorial and Robin Gurland [casting director] and George were sitting there, and they realized they wanted to put Bib into the Podrace scene with Jabba. They’d shot Bib in some Senate scenes where he was played by Alan Ruscoe. They said that my face matched Alan’s, so I was sent to ILM. I put on all the latex pieces that were made for Alan and we shot the scene. It was just me and some light stands. When I was dressed I thought of how Michael Carter played the character in Return of the Jedi, all sort of intense with his eyes and I did that. This was when we were still using film, which was very expensive. John Knoll supervised the shots and said things like, “Walk over here. OK, point to your right. Something just flew past your face. OK, something just flew past your face again. Look over here. Look left. OK, great and cut!” And that was it!

Of all the sound d effects you’ve worked with or created, which has the most surprising origins?

During Attack of the Clones I went out all over Australia to record sound effects because I was there for the shooting in Sydney. I decided to take advantage of that and went to a nature reserve. I recorded two bats being fed one banana and they were making lots of weird sounds. I also went to Melbourne, to a place call Phillip Island, where I recorded penguins that were coming in from the Antarctic to mate. They made bizarre mating calls. Those two things combined became the Geonosian sounds in Attack of the Clones. You can hear them when all the Geonosians attack in the arena.

Where’s the strangest place you’ve seen Grievous’ image?

When I went to a show in Mexico City, they had a little Grievous in a glass bottle. I don’t know how they made it, but inside was Grievous with all four arms!

#Matthew Wood #General Grievous #insider #i116 #crew #sound design #the clone wars

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plaidbooks · 3 years ago

Text

Dark Secrets: Secrets Exposed

A/N: Here’s chapter two of vampire!Sonny, and boy oh boy is it a doozy. I have another one planned, but it won’t be for the bingo. Also, the reason this is jumping around so much is because it’s an arc; Karen and I can come back at any time and fill in gaps with short chapters/drabbles.

Anyways, this covers the Monster square in @adarafaelbarba moodboard bingo!

Tags: smut, rough p in v sex, blood (is it blood play if he drinks it?), biting kink, marking/bruising skin, squirting

Words: 3105

Taglist: @witches-unruly-heart @beccabarba @thatesqcrush @itsjustmyfantasyroom @permanentlydizzy @ben-c-group-therapy @infiniteoddball @glowingmess @whimsicallymad @lv7867 @storiesofsvu @cycat4077 @alwaysachorusgirl @glimmerglittergirl @joanofarkansass @caracalwithchips @berniesilvas @reading--mermaid @averyhotchner @mrsrafaelbarba @detective-giggles @crowleysqueenofhell @dreamlover31

Three months. They were the longest three months of your life. Sonny never contacted you, and you worried about him every day. Was he compromised? Hurt? Dead? You had no way of knowing, and it kept you up at night. He had to be okay, right? You’d feel if he was hurt, you knew it in your heart.

You were also upset with yourself; the last conversation you had with him was…hard. Why didn’t you just wait a day, tell him how much you loved him instead? And now, what if it was too late to tell him?

There was a knock at your door, and you braced yourself for the worst. But when you opened it to find Sonny standing there, a sheepish smile on his face, you felt such relief that you cried out before launching against his chest. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him close.

“Oh my god, I’ve missed you so much! I’m so happy you’re okay,” you exclaimed, pulling him to you in a deep kiss.

He kissed you back just as fiercely, walking you backwards into your place. “I’ve missed you,” he muttered against your lips before kissing you again.

You wrapped a leg around his waist, scratching at his back, and he groaned. You needed him, now more than ever. You wanted him so desperately. But still, he hesitated.

“W—wait a moment, doll,” he said, panting. You gently released him, looking up into his face. His eyes were blown with lust, a mirror to your own. “We need to talk.”

You gave him a sultry smile, leaning against him. “It can wait,” you replied before kissing his neck.

Sonny groaned again, melting under your mouth as you continued to kiss and suck his neck. “N—no; stop, please.” You stopped your assault, leaning back to look at him. “It can’t wait, I’m sorry, doll.”

You moved to sit on your couch, and Sonny stood in front of you, determined to stay slightly away from you. “What is it, Sonny?”

“First of all, what I’m about to tell you is illegal; we’ll have to fill out all the paperwork later. Second, I’m going to talk, and I want you to listen; it’s a lot of information to get through,” he said.

You weren’t sure what to make of his demeanor “Is everything okay? You’re scaring me, babe.”

“It will be, just…just listen.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I lied about the UC; I wasn’t undercover the past three months.”

“What?!” you yelled in confusion; why did he lie? What was he hiding?”

“Please, let me explain; I spent the past three months in a cabin upstate, alone. I…I wanted to sit and really think about our relationship, about what I feel for you. And I—I love you. I love you so much more than I could ever say. You’re the one I want to spend eternity with. I’ve—I’ve never felt like this with anyone before; sure, I’ve had past lovers over the years, but nothing compared to you. I love you, everything about you, your spirit, your intellect, all of it,” he concluded.

You blinked at him. Was he…proposing? After lying about where he was? “Why lie, Sonny? I would’ve understood if you needed some time.”

“Because I—I wanted to make sure I was alone; I’m not done.” He took yet another deep breath, his piercing blue eyes locking to yours. “I wanted to make sure I could tell you this, without the fear of a…scene.” You rose an eyebrow, and he softly said, “I’m not human, doll. I’m a vampire.”

You blinked at him. “A vampire? Like Dracula or—”

“Oh, Dracula is a bunch of crap; a fictional story written by a human. I’m a real vampire; I have fangs, drink blood to survive, live forever unless I’m killed—”

“I don’t see how this is different than Dracula yet,” you replied, stifling a chuckle.

Sonny’s eyes narrowed as he looked at you. “I’m being serious, here! It’s also highly illegal for me to tell you all of this, since you’re a human.”

“Uh huh. A vampire, you say…” you trailed off, thinking. It did make a lot of sense, with how he didn’t eat or drink often, and why he tended to stay out of the sun. But he still went out and about in daylight, and besides, monsters weren’t real.

He rolled his eyes, then opened his mouth. Your eyes widened as his incisors seemed to grow an extra inch, becoming fangs.

“H—how’d you do that?” you whispered in shock.

Slowly, they retracted to normal size again. “I need them to puncture skin to get to the veins,” he explained.

“You really are a vampire, aren’t you?” you asked, voice hushed.

He nodded. “I am; all those manuscripts I’ve ‘found’? I was around when they were written; that’s why I know history so well, doll. It’s also why I haven’t wanted to move in. I didn’t want you to see that I don’t really eat, at least not human food…. It’s also why we haven’t had sex.”

“Because we’d make some sort of abomination if I got pregnant?” you joked.

Sonny’s eyes widened. “What? No, I can’t have biological kids. But I—I can’t get, um…hard, not unless I feed…. Need the blood and all….”

“Oh…oh! So, it’s not me?” Somehow, this was a relief.

He chuckled in disbelief. “No, it’s not you. I told you, I’ve wanted to have sex with you. I just didn’t think I could go ‘let me feed really quick then come back’.”

You laughed, and he looked at you like you’ve gone crazy. “Well, if that’s all, come here.” You patted the couch next to you, and he seemed skeptical, like this was somehow a trick.

Sonny came around the table to sit on the couch next to you, but he still left space between you, as if touching you would hurt you in some way. “You’re taking this surprisingly well,” he muttered.

You shifted to face him, and you reached out for his hand. He didn’t pull away when you took one of his hands between both of yours. “Dominick, I love you, no matter what you are, human or vampire, or whatever. I only love you.”

“But—but I’m a monster—”

“No, you’re not. You’re my sweet, loving boyfriend. I know you, Dom; I know your morals, your heart. We can talk about what all this means for us tomorrow. Right now, I want you,” you replied.

His eyes widened, and you were sure he’d be blushing if he could—could vampires blush? Gently, you leaned in, pressing your lips to his. He seemed stunned, frozen in shock, and you pulled away. His eyes searched your face for a moment before he was on you, lips colliding with yours almost painfully.

The kiss quickly deepened, his tongue easily forcing its way into your mouth. He pushed you down on the couch, kissing you for so long, you thought your lungs would surely shrivel up. Then he was picking you up, carrying you as if your weighed nothing, heading for your bedroom.

Sonny gently laid you on the bed before he ripped—literally tore—his shirt off himself. He climbed over your body, his lips coming back to yours. You scratched at his back, grinding against his thigh as his lips dominated yours.

His mouth trailed down your jaw, nipping as he went. “Pl—please tell me you’ve fed recently. I n—need you, Dominick,” you whined.

“I did, but not enough for this—I never thought this would go so well,” he replied, his voice husky. He pressed a kiss to your neck before leaning back to look at you. His normally blue eyes were a deep red, and it somehow made him more attractive. “If you want, I can go down on you, then go feed really quick and come back. It’ll be a few hours though; I have to leave the city to find animals.”

You moaned in frustration before a thought struck you. “Feed from me.”

“What?!” Sonny asked in shock.

You smiled softly at him. “Use me, Dominick. Drink from me.”

His eyes were almost completely black with his arousal, the red reduced to a bright ring on the outside of his pupils, and he swallowed hard. “I—I don’t think that’s safe, doll.”

“I trust you, it’ll be fine. Please, babe; I need you inside me, I want you, please.”

His breathing was coming in sharper as his arousal was taking over his rational mind. “And if I can’t stop? If I hurt you?”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take. Because I love you, and you love me; I don’t believe you’ll hurt me. It’s okay, Dom.” To make your point, you propped yourself on an elbow, sweeping your hair off one side of your neck before laying back down.

Sonny didn’t notice that he leaned closer to you, only realized when his nose made contact with your throat. He sniffed at you, smelling your sweet blood just under your skin, and his mouth watered.

“That’s it, Dominick. Bite me, drink your fill,” you cooed.

“St—stop tempting me,” he groaned, voice full of arousal. He pressed kisses to your throat before he moved to nuzzle the crook of your neck. His tongue darted out, tasting your skin, and you sighed at the feeling.

“It’s fine; I give you permission. I trust you with my life,” you breathed.

Slowly, you reached up to grip his biceps, his arms caging your body. He sucked and kissed your neck, and you felt his lips move as his fangs grew. “Do you even know how hard it’s been to simply kiss your neck, when all I’ve wanted was to taste you?” he growled, his breath hot on your skin.

“Now’s your chance. Do it; drink.”

He grazed his teeth over your skin as he searched for your vein. “I’m so sorry,” he muttered before he sunk his fangs into you. You gasped in pain as he easily broke skin, your grip on his arms bruising a normal human. His fangs retracted, and he sucked at the incisions, drinking your blood. The magic in his saliva had you seeing stars; it was a mix of euphoria, pleasure, and pain all wrapped into one.

Sonny groaned the moment your blood touched his tongue. He had never tasted anything so delicious in his life. He could easily drink until your body was empty of blood…which is why he made sure to pay close attention to you, your heartbeat. But god, he could never get enough of you, your taste. He barely felt the blood entering his system; he was too distracted with the taste and with your heart. When your grip on his arms started to loosen, he used a great amount of restraint to detach from your neck.

He was panting as he leaned back, licking the blood from his lips. It was only then that he noticed how hard his cock was from just that small amount from you. It was true that he had fed recently, that he didn’t need much more, but he didn’t think that little would be enough.

You gave him a soft smile before you sat up, kissing him deeply. You could taste the coppery tang of blood on his tongue, but you didn’t care; you needed him, now. Sonny pushed you back down, then stood just long enough to undress the both of you before he was back on top of you.

“Are you sure—”

“Fuck me, Dominick, please,” you begged. He didn’t need to be told twice before he pushed into you fully. You moaned loudly at the feel of him inside you; his cock was long, curving to brush up against your g-spot perfectly.

“Ready for me, doll?” he asked softly, feeling your walls expand around him.

You gripped his shoulder, light-headed, though from the feel of him or the loss of blood, you weren’t quite sure. “I’ve been ready for you since the moment I met you, my love.”

His expression softened, and he kissed you deeply before he started to move. You could tell he was holding back, afraid to hurt you; he set a slow pace, thrusting deep into you. Your hands traveled down his back to cup his ass, pulling him deeper into you, and he grunted at the feeling.

“You—you feel so amazing. I love you, I love you so much,” he whispered before trailing his lips down to your throat. He sucked marks into you, and you gasped in pleasure; you had told him about your biting kink, something that you now found hilarious.

“S-same; feels so g—good. Fuck, Dom, move faster, please. You’re not going to hurt me,” you moaned.

He kissed your throat once more before he made his way to the two holes on the side of your neck, a drop of blood slowly dripping down your skin. His tongue flicked out, lapping at your blood, and the pace of his hips went up. He dipped his head down to the crook of your neck, kissing your injury, and you moaned again.

“D—Dominick—fuuuuck!—harder, please!” you gasped, trying to match his pace.

With a great force of will, he pulled his mouth from your neck, instead brushing your hair from the other side. He pressed his lips to your skin, kissing and sucking more marks into you.

You dragged one of your hands from behind him, wedging it between your bodies. You quickly found your clit, rubbing yourself as he fucked you into the mattress. Sonny opened his mouth, biting that side of your neck—without his fangs—and it was enough to send you over the edge. You cried out as you came, liquid gushing from you as pleasure washed through your body.

He propped himself up, looking at the mess you made, then smirked. Taking one of your legs, he threw it over his shoulder, sinking even deeper into you. You screamed his name in pleasure as he pounded into you.

“You got another one in ya, doll. Give it to me,” he growled. You brought your hand back to your clit, but he slapped it away, using his own fingers to rub you viciously. You squirmed as he assaulted your overstimulated clit, crying out at the feeling. You grabbed his wrist, but his arm was like stone; you couldn’t pull him away no matter what you did. You screamed as your orgasm crashed through you like a wave. But still, he didn’t stop.

“One more, doll. Be a good girl and cum for me again, I know you can,” Sonny cooed, his hips moving impossibly faster. His fingers were still playing with your clit, and you shuddered at the feeling. His hips hit yours so hard, you were slowly being pushed up the bed until his free hand gripped your hip, bring you down to meet him.

“Dom—Dominick—! Too much—gonna c—cum!” you warned. He doubled his efforts and you gasped as he pulled another orgasm from you. The hand that was rubbing you moved to your hips, and he jackhammered into you, chasing his release. His fingers gripped you hard enough to leave bruises, and you sure you wouldn’t be walking anytime soon.

He leaned down over you, the sound of skin slapping deafening in the room. And then he was groaning your name, his cock twitching as he exploded into you, filling you with his release. He kept thrusting, milking his balls into you, making you whimper. Then he collapsed on top of you, kissing your neck.

“Fucking hell, sweetheart. That was fantastic,” he muttered. It took him a moment, but he seemed to remember in that moment that you were human, and he climbed off you. “Holy shit, I’m sorry, are you okay? Was that too much?”

You chuckled, your body aching. But it was a good sore. “Fine, fine. Just a little tired—”

“Right, I’m sorry. It’s—it’s been a while. Here, let me clean you.” He stood, scooping you into his arms and carrying you to the bathroom. His hands were gentle as he washed you carefully, but you noticed his eyes going back to your neck often. Eventually, he had enough.

“I—I have to bandage that bite; the smell of your blood is intoxicating,” he explained before hurrying to your first aid kit.

While he was gone, you assessed the damage in the mirror. Your neck and throat looked like one huge bruise with how many marks he made. But the two puncture wounds on the side of your neck stood out like a sore thumb. All of this did nothing but turn you on more; you loved being bitten and marked by your partners.

“Was I your first?—human, that is. Uh, human blood?” you asked awkwardly.

Sonny came back quick enough with gauze and tape, and he set about cleaning and disinfecting the wound. “Um, no, you’re not. Definitely first time I’ve had fresh human blood in maybe a century. But you just…you taste like nothing I’ve ever had before. It’s, like I said, intoxicating. I swear I could drain you in an instant if I had a little less control.”

“Good thing you have control, then,” you said, chuckling softly.

He finished bandaging you and looked into your eyes. His were a brighter blue than you’d ever seen before, the red completely gone. “I had control this time, and even then, I should’ve been in full control. I shouldn’t have even bit you, should never have tasted your blood.”

“It’s fine—”

“It’s really not. Now, any time I’m hungry, I’m going to be thinking of you and how good you are. Which just means I’ll have to leave for my feedings earlier than before, to not wait until I’m so hungry,” he explained.

You rose a hand to cup his face, your thumb running over his soft skin. “I love you, Dominick, and I trust you. Now that I know what you are, you can do what you need to survive, without worrying about lying to me.”

He melted against you hand, closing his eyes briefly. “You’re right. Now that you know, I feel so much closer to you than before.”

“And tomorrow, we talk; I want to know everything about you, about your life and your world.”

He smiled softly. “Deal. Plus, we must start working on the paperwork; monsters are not allowed to reveal themselves to the human world. There’s a lot of hoops to jump through—”

“Tomorrow. Right now, I just want you to hold me as we sleep, okay?” you asked, hopeful.

His smile grew and he helped you stand. “I will hold you for as long as you want or need.”

#sonny carisi x reader #fanfic #my writing #dark secrets #monster!au #adarafaelbarbaseptemberbingo #tw blood

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ncssian · 4 years ago

Text

A Favor: Part Eleven

Nessian Modern AU

Masterlist

a/n: first chapter after acosf!! im sorry for how short this one is, but acosf wrecked me and writing this put me back together. i hope it does something similar for you ❤️

***

“You say you’ve been doing better lately?”

The therapist’s office is plain, a little gloomy, but big windows overlook the center of town that make Nesta feel less suffocated.

She nods, “Yeah.”

“How would you describe ‘better’?” Dr. Bond— Lana, she insists on being called— has been endlessly patient with Nesta’s non-answers so far. Nesta almost feels bad and decides to throw the woman a rope.

“I’m not alone anymore,” she says. “I used to be alone all the time, but now I have friends, sort of… and a boyfriend.” She still loves that word. It’s never tasted so exciting before.

“You were always alone before this, then? Or were there just people that you didn’t consider noteworthy?”

A scowl rises to Nesta’s mouth. Damn, she works quick. “I was raised with two sisters in a one-bedroom apartment. I never got to be alone, but then I grew up, and…” Her mind wants to skip over the time she spent in college. “For the last couple of years, I holed up in my own place. Never wanted to talk to anybody or see them. If people took an interest in me, I shut them down because I didn’t have an interest in them.”

“You missed a few years,” Lana notes.

“What?”

“You’re twenty-four, and you moved out at eighteen. Where were you before getting your own place?”

Numbness seeps through Nesta at the question. She knows she can ask Lana to change the topic, but that will only bring it back later. “I had a boyfriend in college,” she says flatly. “I lived with him for a few years, but like you said, it isn’t noteworthy.”

“As a fellow lone wolf, I disagree.” Lana’s clinical polite face is unchanging. “Any person who you trust enough to let into your life is noteworthy.”

Nesta says nothing.

“I’m interested in these people you’ve chosen to trust,” her therapist continues after a beat of silence. “Why don’t we start with whoever you trust most?”

Nesta snorts. This she can talk about.

“His name is Cassian. I’ve been living with him ever since my apartment got flooded a couple of months ago, and he’s always been a good friend to me.” She sits there, thinking about what else to say. “I think I like him more than I’ve ever liked anybody.”

“This is the new boyfriend?”

Nesta nods.

“Do you compare him to the old one?”

Nesta doesn’t know what this lady’s angle is, but she answers carefully, “I used to. Back when I first moved in. I haven’t done it in a long time, though.”

“Why not?”

The answer is simple. “There’s no need to. He’s not comparable to anybody.”

“Is that why you opened up to him after two years of self-imposed isolation?”

Nesta looks away. “It wasn’t isolation,” she defends. “It’s just… after a lifetime of being subjected to the gaze of strangers, I wanted to hide. I liked hiding.” Mostly.

“What does that mean, the gaze of strangers?”

Question after cool question, this one. Nesta struggles to find a proper answer.

“You know how,” she starts slowly, “as soon as you start school, you’re placed into this bubble with a bunch of people who don’t know you and have no reason to care about you? There’s a shift in how you view people, and how people view you. And I thought I could leave it behind once I graduated high school, but it followed me to college and to parties and into everyday interactions.”

“What is it?”

“It’s this—” Nesta waves her hands, “judgment. It’s that thing you do as soon as you meet someone, and you try to determine whether they’re worth your time or not. Whether they’re above or below you in this made-up social hierarchy in your head.”

“Explain that more,” Lana says.

“We want to hang around people we find cool. And when we meet someone new, we inspect them, look them up and down, to see if they fit our definition of cool. We take them apart. Everyone does it, even you. And with me,” she shrugs, “I’m pretty, I wear the right clothes, I do my makeup. So at first glance, people think, ‘Oh, I can see myself getting to know her better. I can see myself liking her.’ But then they take a closer look at me, and it’s like…” Her fingers flutter in the air, trying to support her thoughts. “I can see their minds changing. ‘Nevermind, I was wrong. Nevermind, there’s something off with her. She’s a little quiet, a little weird, a little bitchy.’”

Lana narrows her eyes. “And Cassian doesn’t look at you like that?”

Nesta looks away. “He doesn’t look at anyone like that.”

It’s what used to make her so uncomfortable about him. She was incapable of fathoming his honesty, his genuineness, his kindness. She thought he was even weirder than her for it— she placed him beneath her on her social hierarchy for it.

Lana frowns thoughtfully. “And now you two live together?”

Nesta nods, then shrugs. “For the next twenty-four hours, we do. He’s helping me move back into my old place.”

Because that was another conversation she and Cassian had on Thanksgiving night. It was a long time coming, but also the perfect time.

“You’re saying your apartment has been ready for weeks? Why are you just telling me now?”

Nesta pillowed her face on his chest, not as upset at revealing the news as she would have been some days ago. “Because I was scared that if I moved out, I would lose my friendship with you.”

“That never would have happened—”

“We wouldn’t see each other every day anymore. Even if we didn’t go back to being complete strangers, the closeness would be lost.”

“You must not know me, then. I would’ve texted you every fucking hour. You’d never hear the end of me.”

“I couldn’t guarantee that back then.” She looked up at him through her lashes. “I can now.” She crawled higher up his body, lowering her voice to a secretive pitch. “Want to know why?”

“Why?” he whispered.

“Because you’re mine now. And that’s what I was waiting for while I made Lorene hold that shitty empty apartment for me. I was waiting for a catalyst, a revelation.” She pressed a kiss to his sternum. “And I most definitely got it.” The pleasant ache between her legs was proof enough. “Also,” she added, “it would be weird if you lived with your girlfriend before even having a first date with her.”

Cassian huffed a laugh. “You have a point there. We have been moving backwards, haven’t we?”

Nesta nodded into his skin.

He got a little quiet. “Still,” he said after a moment. “I’ll miss you.”

“You’ll see me every day. I’ll be fifteen minutes away.”

“I’ll still miss you.”

“I know.”

“What does talking about guys have to do with my therapy?” Nesta squirms, getting restless with the topic.

“Lots of things,” Lana says, putting down her notepad. “It gets you comfortable with expressing your feelings to me, and it teaches me about how you view the world. Besides, therapy isn’t just a rehashing of past traumas, you know. We can talk about whatever you want here, especially if it makes you feel good.”

“Well, I want to talk about something else.” She’s not spending this much money by the hour just to talk about how much she likes Cassian— she can go to Cassian for that for free.

“Like what?” Lana asks smoothly.

She’s offering an opening, finally, to the real reason that Nesta’s here.

Nesta pulls at the sleeves of her sweatshirt, wondering where to start. “I feel like I’ve been growing up lately,” she says carefully. “I have all these new people in my life to be responsible for, and I’m— I want to do it right. But I’m worried I won’t have room for new things until I pack up some of my old shit, so that’s why I’m here, I guess. I don’t want to hold on to all of my old shit anymore.”

At Lana’s encouraging silence, she continues, “I spent my whole life stuck in a suffocating town, and as soon as I left, I got stuck in a relationship. By the time I knew what freedom felt like, I— I’d been left behind. Everyone I knew was moving onto bigger things and all I had was this shitbag of a past. So I got a new place and started law school and called it a fresh start, but now I’m here and I’m not sure if I ever got better.”

She takes a sharp breath after everything that’s spilled.

Lana purses her lips, letting the room absorb Nesta’s words. After a long moment, she says, “Just because bad things stop happening to someone, doesn’t mean they instantly get better. It’s a good thing that you’re recognizing that before stepping into new relationships, Nesta.”

Lana glances at the clock on the wall. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for today, but this was a productive first session.” She offers a small smile. “Same time next week?” She says it as if it isn’t already a done deal.

Nesta nods gratefully anyway, unable to say anything else. As soon as she’s out the door, a pent-up sigh escapes her. That wasn’t so bad.

***

Later that night, Nesta doesn’t miss Cassian’s wistful stare as he takes down the painting he got her from the fall festival. Nor does she miss how slowly he packs it away.

Once the bedroom she made her home is as sparse as the day she moved in, all her things packed away neatly in boxes, Nesta wraps her arms around Cassian and pulls him to the bed. There, she lets him hold her close, their breaths and limbs intertwining as they lie in thoughtful silence.

“I can’t believe I’ll never see this room again,” Nesta says quietly.

Cassian’s eyes widen in alarm. “What do you mean, never again?”

“I’ll be staying in your room whenever I visit, remember?” Her underwear already occupies a drawer in his closet.

Cassian visibly relaxes when he remembers, then smiles. “Right. Of course.”

She lets herself sink deeper into his embrace. “I just realized you’ve never seen my apartment before.” He was waiting at the front door of Lorene’s place while Nesta collected her things all those weeks ago, but she cringes at the thought of him visiting now. The clear wealth gap between her and Cassian doesn’t usually show, but it’ll be undeniable with the cramped room she calls an apartment. “Maybe it’s best if I move back in without your help. There might not even be space there for your huge body.”

“Sounds more appealing by the minute.” He’s not joking. He tilts up Nesta’s chin so she’s forced to meet his eyes. “I can’t wait to start partaking in your life the way you took over mine. Spending nights at your place, meeting your friends, riding in your car instead of mine.”

Nesta swallows.

“I’m gonna miss you like hell, but it’ll be for the best.”

He’s right: this is what’s best for their budding relationship right now. Moving out, creating even a little bit of distance— all of it is so they can finally learn each other as lovers instead of roommates. So when they do come back together, which Nesta firmly believes they will, it’ll be stronger than ever before.

Some of their shared sadness flits away at the truth of it. She only places her hand on his cheek, content to appreciate this view— this beautiful, hazel-shaded view— without further chitchat or goodbyes.

Cassian is not as fond of the silence. “I need to tell you something,” he says seriously after a few minutes.

After only a handful of days dating Cassian, Nesta knows what he’s going to say. “Don’t,” she warns, unamused.

He grins conspiratorially and leans in even closer, until their mouths are almost brushing. “You’re my everything, Nesta.”

“Oh my god, stop it.” She squirms out of his hold and gets up, tossing the blankets off herself.

“No, come back!” He makes a grab for her sleeve. “We have to use the bed one last time—”

But she’s already running off.

***

Cassian carefully arranges the canvas painting on the wall, taking a step back to determine if it’s hanging straight. The ruby and amber leaves of the landscape stand out against the dull teal walls of Nesta’s basement apartment, but he’s just getting started.

The rest of Nesta’s things are half-unpacked from their cardboard boxes, but instead of going for the important shit first, he finds the box he specifically marked FAVES in bold letters the night before.

While Nesta wrangles to get her clothes back into her old closet in the background, Cassian crouches and rips open the small box. There, lying atop his girlfriend’s favorite trinkets and personal items, is the framed photo he snuck in without her noticing.

It’s of the two of them at the fall festival, taken mere hours before their first kiss. Nesta is pressed up close to Cassian (her excuse being that it was cold), and a genuine light fills her eyes, one that Cassian never thought he’d be able to capture on camera. Cassian himself isn’t looking at the camera, but down at Nesta with wind-flushed cheeks and a distant smile. Making sure she’s having a good time, that she truly wants to be there with him in that moment.

He never realized how close they looked in that picture until he had it printed and framed, not long after Nesta announced she was moving out. He can’t believe he didn’t see it sooner.

Standing up, he places the photo on Nesta’s wooden dresser. Nesta still has her head in the closet, moving things around, but Cassian makes no announcement of his gift to her. She’ll notice it sooner or later.

He clears his throat. “Wanna take a break and order Chinese?”

Nesta pops her head out of the closet, her ponytail ruffled and eyes narrowed at him. “Have you even been helping this whole time?”

“Standing here and looking pretty is harder than it seems, but I don’t expect any credit from you,” he jokes. “Just let me buy you lunch.”

Nesta grumbles something he chooses not to hear, but straightens up and rubs her spine with a wince. “I need a fucking chiropractor,” she mutters.

Guilt shoots through Cassian at that small wince, and he resolves to finish organizing Nesta’s closet for her before the day is over. Nesta goes on, “So? Still determined to split your time between here and the cabin?” She gestures to the apartment with an arm.

It’s really just a glorified single room, with a rusty kitchenette in the corner, a hallway near the stairs that holds the bathroom, and Nesta’s bed pushed against one wall. It’s nothing special, but Cassian loves it. Mostly because he can already envision each new nook and cranny to take Nesta against, and how he wants to wake up in that too-small bed on days that he’s too lazy to drive home.

“It’s perfect,” he says simply. Thank you for sharing your home with me, is what he really means. Speaking of homes—

Cassian digs around in his pocket, finding and pulling out a newly-minted silver key. “I almost forgot to give you this.”

Nesta frowns, coming forward to take the key from him. He uses the closeness as an excuse to wrap his arms around her waist while she inspects the object.

She glances up at him, eyes softer than they were a moment ago, lips slightly parted. “You’re giving me a key to the cabin?”

He shrugs casually. “You should’ve gotten one a long time ago.” She used either Cassian’s key or the spare while she lived there.

Her mouth is still open, and she closes it once, twice, before finally saying, “I don’t have a key to my place for you.”

“But I can get one,” she adds quickly. “If you want it, that is.”

Of course he wants it, but he keeps his face carefully neutral. “Only if you want me to have one. We’re still new, and this is your personal space.” He emphasizes your.

Nesta purses her lips, then says, “I’ll think about it.”

Cassian’s shoulders slump in relief— relief that Nesta is being honest with him instead of doing something she isn’t yet ready for. He’ll take her honesty over an apartment key any day.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he smiles brightly and shoves her toward the bed. “If we’re getting dumplings again then you can’t steal mine.”

***

a/n: fair warning that ive never been to therapy, but in stories therapists are usually a mode for character exploration and development, which is what nesta's therapy will be for.

also im so glad i got to meet gwyn in acosf and im so excited to introduce her into this fic too!! if you have ideas for her origin story feel free to share because nothing is planned yet

taglist: @ladywitchling @sjm-things @thewayshedreamed @drielecarla @valkyriewarriors @superspiritfestival @aliveahaahahafuck @cupcakey00 @sayosdreams @rainbowcheetah512 @claralady @thebluemartini @nessiantho @missing-merlin @duskandstarlight @lucy617 @sleeping-and-books @everything-that-i-love @cassianscool @awesomelena555 @julemmaes @wickedqueenoffantasy @poisonous-bloom @observationanxioustheorist @gisellefigue08 @courtofjurdan @theoverlyenthusiasticwriter @wolfiixxx @cass-nes @seashade @royaltykxx @illyrianundercover @queenestarcheron @monstrousloves-explodinggalaxies @humanexile @that-golden-lyre @agentsofsheilds @mercy-is-alive @cassiansbigwingspan @laylaameer01 @verypaleninja @maastrash @bow-dawn @perseusannabeth @dead-on-the-inside666 @jlinez @hungryreadingaddict @anidealiveson @swankii-art-teacher

#a favor #nesta archeron #nessian #cassian #nessian fic #ncssianwrites

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