#(the coffee in my username is in reference to coffee's for closers)

[coffeeghoulie]

OMG YOU WENT TO A FOB CONCERT? im so happy for ya :D pete with the roses looks so cool. hope you enjoyed your night! what was your favorite song in the setlist?

I did! It was an incredible night. As much as I love Ghost, FOB's been my favorite band since I was 13, and I was really excited to get to see them this close. This was my second time seeing them, the first time was last summer in Chicago. (I actually get to see them one more time this tour on Saturday lol)

I mean, I have to say that my favorite song of the setlist was Pavlove, I got the second ever performance of it! But I cried hearing What a Catch, Donnie and Kintsugi Kid, not to mention Spotlight, which was a very touching tribute to Casey Benjamin, a close friend of Patrick's who passed a few days ago.

It's tied for the best concert I've been to, tied with my Ritual last summer lol

[pinkthrone445]

This might be a weird request, but can you write a fic where reader is a new teacher at abbot and is like really innocent, kinda like Ms honey from Matilda for reference, and Melissa just wants to ruin her and her innocence.

This is definitely kinky so I would understand if u don’t want to write it! But if you do their sex would definitely be kinky!🤭

-Caught in the moment-

Pairing:Melissa Schemmenti x Reader

Gender:Smut, very detailed Smut! Kinky

Warnings:yes! +18 Smut, Kinks

Summary:Melissa decides to show you what it was like to be with a real woman.

Hi! I love your username, it made me laugh a lot. I hope you like it, enjoy it and that it's what you expected 💞💞

Usually innocence went hand in hand with one's age, the younger one, the more innocent. But lately almost no one preserves their innocence, children from a very young age already know many things that perhaps they shouldn't, it was noticeable in their vocabulary and in their way of acting. They knew a lot about sex, drugs, and alcohol, lost their virginity at a very young age, and had almost no childhood anymore. Melissa knew all this, she saw it at school every day, especially in the slightly older students.

So accustomed to this behavior, she was surprised when you came to work at school, she never thought that the most innocent person there would end up being a teacher.

Mel loved your innocence, she actually loved disturbing it, she had so much fun making you nervous and making you stutter and blush. Barbara often called her out by telling her to stop bothering you, but as always, the redhead ignored her.

Your students called you Miss Honey because of how sweet you were to them, you always went above and beyond to protect and help them.

Many teachers loved you, but others didn't like the way you were, they thought that your innocence was just a façade...

Ava went into the teachers' room to make herself a coffee, everyone was there except you

-"What's up slackers" - she greeted everyone while grabbing her cup- "I need to know... What do you think about the new teacher?"-She whispered, looking for gossip

-"I think she's a good teacher, I haven't seen much of her classes but the kids love her for a reason" - Barbara commented truthfully

-"The other day when I was walking down the hallway I saw how she taught history to the little ones, they were so focused on her, I myself was attracted by the way she teaches and I stayed listening to her for a long time" - Jacob commented

-"Oh come on! Now that Janine is not here, the new girl is the new Janine, with her whiny voice and cheerful self... Help me here Melissa" - Ava kept insisting, trying to get some interesting comment out of them, but the redhead just shrugged her shoulders

-"I don't know, I like her" - Melissa said simply

-"Shocking" - Barbara commented, earning herself a blow to the arm from her friend.

-"Good morning my fellow pears" - You commented entering the room and everyone fell silent, especially Ava, without giving it much importance you started to make a coffee-"Anyone want more coffee?" - You offered and everyone refused, but Mel said yes and handed you her cup, which you carefully refilled and returned, the redhead brushed your hand smiling and took your wrist and brought you closer to her

-"Thank you little lamb" - Mel whispered kissing your wrist and then took a sip of her coffee humming, smiling and looking into your eyes- "Perfect and sweet like you..."-She whispered making you blush, her eyes, her smile, her lips on your wrist, everything she was was hypnotic, making it hard to take your gaze away from her. Someone coughed making you fall back into reality again

-"I made cookies, someone wants some?"-You offered to change the subject and avoid looking at the redhead, who followed your interaction with a lot of curiosity.

This wasn't the first time Mel had done that kind of thing only to see you blush and make you nervous, she did it so often that by this point others saw it as normal.

At the end of the break, you returned to your classroom with your students, who were excited to see you again.

Whenever Mel could, she would take advantage of the moment and pass by the door of your classroom just to listen to you talk to the children, conveniently your classroom was next to hers so she listened to you whenever she wanted.

-"Miss honey, a kid at lunchtime pushed me and my glasses broke" - A little boy commented to you with teary eyes just as the redhead was passing through the door, the boy was holding his glasses in his little hands and you sighed kneeling beside him with a soft expression, letting your flowery dress touch the ground, carefully you took his glasses and caressed his little face

-"I'm so sorry little one, do you know who it was?" - You asked him and he nodded-"Very well, I'll talk to their parents after school, yes?" - You whispered, and the little guy nodded again-"Would a hug make you feel better?" - The little boy nodded and you hugged him tight while he let out a few little sobs-"I'll fix your glasses right now" - You whispered hugging him and looked at the others kids-"Kids, do we have a friend who hasn't had a good day, any ideas to make him feel better?" - You asked questions and the kids started saying good ideas to help him, Mel smiled and went on her way.

At the end of the day, when almost all the children had left, you stayed at the school waiting for the parents of the child who had hit and broken your student's glasses. The aggressive kid was a few years older than your students, so he had more strength, and for some reason he had an arrogant smile as you waited for their parents.

Melissa was about to go to her car when she saw you in the driveway with the student, so she stayed next to you

-"Hi little lamb... You okay?" - She whispered and you nodded, avoiding looking her in the eye

-"Yes... I'm just waiting for his parents... That here they come" - You whispered seeing the student's parents. You tried to calmly and kindly explain the situation to them, but they were quite aggressive and defended their child at all costs, which made you understand why the boy had such an arrogant smile, he knew he wouldn't be in trouble because his parents stood up for him always

-"Look, I understand if you want to trust your son and his behavior, but many saw him push and hit one of my students and broke his glasses, I wish he would at least apologize or help the parents pay for his new glasses..."-You said, trying to make your voice as firm as possible

-"You're not going to come and tell us what to do or how to raise him"-They answered you in a bad way and you sighed

-"No one is imposing any of that on you , but if you don't start correcting and disciplining your child, he's going to get into more and more trouble... And he maybe ends up being a bad person" - You whispered without much confidence

-"Are you accusing my son of being a bad person? Who do you think you are?" - One of the parents got very angry and accused you by pushing your shoulder

-"Hey, let's calm down" - Melissa tried to diffuse the situation

-"No, that's not what I meant... I meant that if you don't discipline him he could end up being disrespectful and aggressive like you" - You didn't want to say it like that, but nerves got the words out before you could register them. And before you could correct yourself, a fist blocked your view. One of the parents had struck you with his fist over one of your eyes, stumbling you up and making you take a few steps back

-"Hey asshole!" - Melissa screamed and hit him back, standing up for you. The blow left you a little dizzy and you didn't register much more of what happened until Mel guided you to your classroom and brought an ice pack for your eye-"Are you with me litte lamb?" - she whispered putting the ice in your eye and you nodded

-"Are they gone?" - You asked sitting on a table looking at her with your good eye

-"Yes... Mr. Johnson called the police and they took care of it... It's cute how you wanted to defend your student, but we need to work on your reflexes..."-she joked and you nodded

-"Yeah... Thank you for standing up for me...and for this" - You pointed to the ice she was still holding, Mel smiled and carefully stroked your cheek

-"Don't even mention it" - She whispered and you couldn't help but smile at her, taking advantage of how close she was to admire her beauty, but the redhead frowned-"Stop looking at me like that" - Whispered

-"Why?" - You laughed

-"You look at me like a deer dazzled down by the lights of a car" - The redhead was still frowning

-"I'm dazzle by your gorgeous face..." - You whispered embarrassedly and she laughed

-"If you're going to flirt, at least do it with confidence... Do you want me to teach you? "-She joked and you jokingly shoved her

-"Maybe I don't know much about sex or that, but I know how to flirt, you just make me nervous..." - You confessed a little embarrassed

-"Do you want to learn?" - Mel whispered and stood between your legs, you looked up in confusion

-"What?" - you asked

-"If you want me to teach you, about sex... I'm sure if you know more about sex you'd be more confident to flirt with me" - she commented with an arrogant smile and you rolled your eyes

-"I don't think that fixes things, I'm shy by nature..."-You murmured looking away from her, tired of her making fun of you

-"Hey..."-Mel grabbed your jaw making you look at her-"I'm not making fun of you, I'm trying to make you understand how much I'm attracted to you...Look hon, I'm an older woman, I know what I want and like and I won't be messing around anymore, I  want you, I love how you are, but I want to ruin that innocence and make you mine, I want the most inappropriate memories to come to your head when you think of me..."-she responded making you blush more, but you were too nervous to be able to respond-"Jesus! I'm telling you all these things and you keep looking at me with that innocent face, as if I didn't notice how you look at me out of the corner of your eye or how you look at my breasts when I bend down... Please tell me this isn't just my imagination because I'm going crazy..."-Melissa whispered, setting the ice on the table, you barely smiled and kissed the tip of her nose, which confused the redhead as she didn't expect that

-"I like you... But... I've never been with a woman, I don't know how to do any of this..."-You whispered embarrassedly and the redhead laughed caressing your jaw

-"Leave it to me, you just relax and enjoy" - She whispered before kissing your lip softly and slowly. Her lips were soft and had a little cherry flavor from her lipstick, they were plump and strong, expert at kissing. A shiver ran down your head, down your spine and down your feet as her teeth brushed your lips and she took a gentle bite pulling a little, an involuntary moan escaped your lips and you blushed a lot as you listened to yourself. You knew how to kiss, you'd done it several times, but she was something unlike anything you'd tried before. Mel smiled arrogantly as she listened to you and looked into your eyes with great desire, as if with your moan you would have activated something animalistic in her. Her firm hands rested on your thighs without taking her eyes off your face

-"You know? Your dresses always drive me crazy... But your moans are something else..."-she whispered over your lips and began to kiss your jaw as her hands lifted your floral dress a little so she could caress your skin, her nails purposely scratched your legs and you moaned softly again. Her kisses on your neck, her body against yours, her hands, everything around you was Melissa, and you couldn't be happier about it.

Mel began to kiss the neckline of your dress, gently biting your breasts as her hand moved up your leg reaching for the edge of your underwear

-"Mel..."-Her name came out like a groan from your mouth, in the ears of the redhead it sounded as if the angels were singing praises to god-"We're still in school, what if someone comes?" - Your voice trembled, but not with fear, but with pleasure

-"There's no one left, there's only Mr. Johnson cleaning the classrooms, but it will take a long time for him to get here..."-She whispered and pulled your dress up to your waist, smiling at the sight of your pink underwear with small flowers-"God, I want to ruin you so bad"-She murmured in a deep voice and knelt in front of you, licking her lips as if you were a delicious dish and she was a hungry woman who hadn't eaten in months. You tried to close your legs a little so you wouldn't feel so vulnerable, but the redhead grabbed your knees avoiding it. She carefully grabbed one of your legs and began kissing it from your knee to almost your crotch, taking small bites along the way. And you just thought about how pathetic you should look trying to hold back your moans.-"I told you to relax..."-Melissa murmured against your thigh as if she could read your mind. Her free hand moved up your body to your chest and gently pushed you so that you were laying over the table, resting on your shoulders so that you wouldn't lie completely flat. Because of that position your legs spread further apart and that satisfied the redhead. With the tip of her nose, Melissa brushed and pressed her nose on your crotch over your underwear, causing you to shiver and a gasp to come out of your mouth as you let your head fall back-"That's it, relax..."-she whispered, and her nose brushed your crotch again, specially over the wet patch that had formed in your underwear. Which made her smile arrogantly when she saw how wet you were thanks to her. Gently she blew air from her mouth on where it was wet, giving you chills from how cold it felt. Her tongue traveled the same path her nose had traveled, it felt soft, the mixture of your juices with her saliva, but also the underwear generated friction against your fols and clit, which made you move your hips against her mouth, looking for more of it, more of her.

Mel pulled your underwear to the side without taking it off, coming face to face with your dripping entrance. Two of her fingers collected your juices and then spread it all over your vagina, then kept your lips open and separated. Your entrance was practically beating at this point, begging for her, for something else

-"Look at you, you don't look so innocent now little lamb..." - she whispered before burying her face between your legs. Her plump lips expertly sucked on your clit, alternating with the tip of her tongue to play with it too. At this point you were so wet that it was spreading down her chin and even wetting your desk. The redhead clawed at your legs again as her tongue penetrated you as deep as it could. At this point your moans were animalistic and desperate. You carefully rested your body on one of your hands and with the other you grabbed her hair by pulling it and pushing her face deeper and closer to you, without worrying if she could breathe or not. When the redhead's nose pressed down on your button, you started riding it on her face and it was a matter of seconds until you came on her face, letting out your loudest moan along with her name and a few insults. Without much strength you lay back completely on your desk while the redhead continued to lick your folds trying to make sure nothing went to waste. Your breathing was ragged and you felt like you were on another planet, as Melissa kissed your legs softly trying to help you come back to reality.

The moment your body reacted and you opened your eyes staring at the ceiling, your blood ran cold

-"FUCK!" - You screamed and Mel looked at you worriedly, when she followed your gaze, she saw on the ceiling a very well hidden, almost imperceptible camera, camera that had probably captured everything that had happened and that it was surely hiding and recording in Ava's office.

[wishitweresummer]

Home Alone Together For The First Time (Dream x GeorgeNotFound)

Word Count: 780

     George cackled and smacked Dream; them both sitting close together on the couch watching back Dream's freshly edited video before he would post it.

My friends are so funny, he thought to himself. Dream barely flinched at George's affectionate smack. George covered his mouth a little as he quieted down before stopping himself.

“Oh! I don't have to be quiet. Sapnap isn't even here streaming or sleeping or whatever!", George exclaimed, his old habit of referring to his friends by their usernames ever-present.

"Nope, we're all alone.", Dream responded, nodding as he replayed a small part of the video over and over trying to check that the audio was synced.

"Is this our first time alone in the house?", George questioned.

"Oh yeah, it totally is.", Dream grinning at his best friend amusedly. "We can do whatever we want. The whole house is ours.", he wheezed and then wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"Shut up! What does that mean!", George laughed and shoved his shoulder, they both laughed as they bumped into each other on the couch.

Dream placed his laptop on the coffee table in front of them and headed into the kitchen.

"I'm grabbing a Coke, want anything!"

"Nah.", George responded and slid down the couch a little as he picked up his phone and started scrolling through Twitter. Dream wandered back with an open Coke can in hand and eyed the back of his best friend's head. They had been living together in the house with Sapnap for about 3 weeks now and this was their first time alone. The house was a little quieter. He loved the chaotic-ness of his living situation so much. No boredom in this house. He stepped closer to the back of the couch and placed a firm hand on George's shoulder. George startled and let out a soft squeal, giggling and nudging away the hand.

"What?", Dream asked amused.

"Don't tickle me.", George huffed.

"I didn't...how did I tickle you? What, this tickles?", Dream abandoned his Coke on the nearest surface and clamped both hands down on George's shoulders. George squawked, but was also expecting the move so he slid all the way down and jumped to his feet.

"Fuck off!"

Dream laughed at how ticklish his best friend was.

"You’re so fucking ticklish.", he shook his head and leaped over the couch. George stumbled back away from him.

"Dream get away!", he shouted, ready to sprint.

"Manhunt...", Dream mumbled as the urge to chase him reminded him of the old shenanigans in Minecraft.

"No!", George yelled and took off running at the word.

"Oh Geeeeorge!!!", Dream hollered as he chased him. George let out his signature high pitched scream as he ducked out of Dream's clutches, sliding across the wood floor in his socks and scrambling down the hallway.

"Dream fuck off!!!", he cried. His heart pounded against his chest as he realized the wall he would soon hit. He twisted around and attempted to run past Dream, but was quickly taken down. "NO!", he cried out. He burst into insane screeching laughter after just 2 seconds of Dream tickling his sides. Dream had twisted him onto his back and straddled him. George's hands shoved roughly at his chest and hands uselessly as he cackled like a maniac. "I fucking…hate you!!!", he shrieked.

"Don't say that! I caught you fair and square!". Dream barked out a loud laugh and then wheezed at how red George's face had become already. "You look like...a tomato!", he wheezed painfully.

George screamed and kicked the ground roughly, throwing his head back and laughing at an incredible volume. Dream had wedged his fingers into George's armpits and he was absolutely losing it. Dream grinned excitedly down at his squirming best friend. George's crazy laugh was cutting in and out as his cheeks grew more and more red.

"Stahp!", he choked out. Dream stilled his fingers and George calmed down to hysterical giggling. So, not-calm at all. Dream giggled amusedly as he wiggled his fingers for just another second and listened happily to George's desperate squeal. "I'm dying!", he gasped out.

     Dream pulled his fingers out of George's armpits and the boy wrapped his arms around himself. He was gasping out dramatically for each breath of air. "Trying to murder me!", he whined. Dream wheezed on top of him.

"God, you are so ticklish it's insane."

"Shut up!!!"

"Hi guys I'm home!!", Sapnap's voice called out, a door slamming shut after. "Oh, what's going on?".

     Before him George was breathless and red on the floor with a giggly Dream straddling him.

"Manhunt.", Dream grinned sheepishly.

(Art is by @kazenomegaminowanpisu )

[misscammiedawn]

75 and 76?

From this Ask Meme

75. What’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you?

Gosh--

I am lucky to be with the most lovely human beings and have had wonderful people in our past

I could go through every small thing-- any of the personalized items handcrafted designed to represent a specific relationship with each of the 5 (known/present) parts of our system; the letters that we treasure; the gifts that melt our heart; the dates; the traveling long distance to hold our hand after surgery; surprise meals when not expecting it; treating our fantasies like a wish list; giving me a home and a family when we needed them; loving us in general.

But truly?

Honestly?

The answer that means the most?

They called me by my name.

...it doesn't matter if it's 2018-2019 when we were finally coming out as trans, 2022-2023 when our therapist was helping us accept we were a system or the days when we were a username on a webforum and our name being something that needed to be earned through friendship and trust?

Hearing our name spoken with recognition, love and acceptance means the world-- showing that you see me and care is the sweetest thing I can imagine

The gestures are just window dressing to that sentiment

76. What’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for someone?

I dunno?

I don't think we're good at reciprocating-- Daja would likely say otherwise-- but it's something we lost when the previous stage of our life ended

In the married era we used to do big romantic gestures, we wore a tuxedo into Chicago and came to a concert performance at Civic Opera House that our ex was performing at with a bouquet of roses-- we had our silly little Valentines ritual where we both worked retail and hit Denny's at 2am and we put a flower inside a styrofoam cup with a kitty smile on (a reference to a novel I wrote for her)

Our little Family meant the world to me back then and I tried to do sweet things to our detriment-- especially as I was always better at doing it for some members of the family than others and that would have given a dramatically skewed perspective; in hindsight a "advent calendar" of OC art commissions is only as sweet as it is knowing that others did not receive that

I think that's why we stopped doing the dramatic sweet gestures in current life-- they were built up from a lens of monogamy and they were kind of self-serving? Like we wanted to feed on the enthusiasm and joy of the reactions and that lead to trying to find something that would get a reaction and from the ones who gave the best reactions which favored those with more extroverted expression and those who wore their passion on their sleeves

We just don't wanna alienate our shyer/reserved partners by pouring into the ones who react brightly-- y'know? It's unfair

We still do nice things-- we will read entire book series' to get closer to those we love-- we'll learn all the lore and music of a band to attend a concert with them-- we'll go halvsies with their spouse-human to get a piece of merchandise that is perfect for them

But these days what we have learned is to share a language with them-- to be able to craft intimate and appropriate gestures that are part of the relationship we have-- whether it be coffee dates-- a hypnosis session just for them-- a gift related to a personal experience we shared or just promises of things we'll share in a future that may or may not ever come

I just want to be sweet-- not do sweet things

I feel our life would have been better from the start if we learned that sweetness and kindness were not performative gestures

[aijamisespava]

I Remember It...All Too Well

Last week, I stayed up until midnight waiting for Taylor Swift's rerecording of her 4th album RED. And let me tell you, it was...an experience. I bought breakfast sandwiches at my school convenience store (I'm in college), got some coffee for a "breakfast at midnight" ordeal like she sings in the song "22." I painted my nails red hours before while listening to the songs she owns (basically any album not released by Big Machine, singles that came out during the Lover era, and her rerecording of Fearless earlier this year). And it ended with me staying up until 2am listening to refreshed versions of an album first released when I was 10 years old. I also dressed in red, with a hat, a scarf, and OF COURSE red lipstick! To top it all off, I watched the premiere of the All Too Well Short Film on Youtube on my dorm bed...holding a pillow my mom had made of my Red 2012 t-shirt that was my birthday gift just the week before.

Oh yeah, I might have wanted to start like this. As you can kinda tell, I am a Swiftie. I have been since her first album, and stayed for the whole time. I mean, look at my username here. 1989sspeakingnow is a reference to my two favorite albums of hers, 1989 and Speak Now. My Wattpad bio has my album ranking of all her albums, and yes. I have three things of red lipstick. And I bought the Taylor Latte at Starbucks last week as well. Okay, enough about me, let's get to the point of what this blog will be about.

One thing I had been doing since this past summer was ranking albums that I listen to often. It's so interesting because you're listening to them and finding your favorite song, but it's hard when you love the artist and all their songs are good (Like me ranking Taylor Swift's songs!). And I had been wondering what to do with my rankings because I don't want to just leave them for nobody to know, but I am a little nervous about people being like "bUt WhY iS tHiS sOnG sO lOw (or hIgH)?" So I figured I would put them here.

Normally, I would put a reason as to why (in my own opinion) a song ranked where it did, but with 29 songs to rank? I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give the ranking, and then I am going to pick a couple songs that I want to highlight at the end. This blog is going to be long enough. So buckle up! Here is my ranking for RED (Taylor's Version)! *note: I'm not putting (Taylor's Version) or (From The Vault) on these songs. They're Taylor's now, and I will prolly discuss my favorite vault songs later*

29. State Of Grace (Acoustic) 28. Run (feat. Ed Sheeran) 27. I Almost Do 26. Treacherous 25. Sad Beautiful Tragic 24. The Lucky One 23. The Moment I Knew 22. Girl At Home 21. Starlight 20. Holy Ground 19. Better Man 18. State Of Grace 17. Come Back...Be Here 16. Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) 15. Forever Winter 14. 22 13. Stay Stay Stay 12. Babe 11. Everything Has Changed (feat. Ed Sheeran) 10. Red 9. I Bet You Think About Me (feat. Chris Stapleton) 8. Message In A Bottle 7. The Very First Night 6. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together 5. Begin Again 4. The Last Time (feat. Gary Lightbody) 3. I Knew You Were Trouble 2. All Too Well 1. All Too Well (10 Minute Version)

Songs to Highlight: I have to start off with "Girl At Home". I LOVED the electro pop additions to it, and it made a song that was already a bop a bop even more. Mind you, I had already ranked the original songs from RED, and just added the vault tracks in when listening to them, so that's why "Girl At Home" ranks so low.

Next, I want to talk about "Message In A Bottle" and "The Very First Night." Those songs are actually closer to being tied! I loved their happy feel and was already jamming to them when I was barely a minute into listening to it.

"I Bet You Think About Me" was definitely one song I was not expecting to like so much. I had faded from the country scene not long after RED was released in 2012. Not to mention the high expectations I had for it after hearing Chris Stapleton perform at the CMA awards a couple nights before. But oh my goodness did I love it! The music video that came out on Monday was also hilarious and matched the tone of the song. *note: favorite line is "Oh my god, she's insane, she wrote a song about me"*

I had already really liked "The Last Time" when I heard it before. It ranked at number 3 in my original rankings before the rerecording. But OH MY GOD GARY LIGHTBODY! I had spent the whole song saying that Gary Lightbody's voice sounded amazing! It's one of the songs I have had on repeat this whole week! And the strings at the bridge to the end? LOVE IT!

I think the most anticipated song on RED was "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" and I was also highly anticipating it. The original "All Too Well" was my favorite song of not just the album, but of Taylor's whole discography. After hearing the whole 10 minutes, I had said on my socials that "Only All Too Well could beat All Too Well." This version of All Too Well overtook the original by so much. Not to mention that it was already number 7 of my most listened to tracks of the month literally 3 days after the album was released. I think I have this on repeat too.

Well, that's my ranking of RED (Taylor's Version). All the songs are amazing and I'm so happy she owns them! I may be back on here later to get my Fearless (Taylor's Version), Lover, folklore, and evermore rankings up. So, see you later!

[beastenraged]

About your kh story idea of SI in Ventus's body. The one who doesn't know KH. Can you give some snippet? Or just raw ideas? Cause I just like this oblivious person being dropped sideway into KH, causing confusion everywhere.

Yeah, let me just shove some stuff I’ve written under a readmore. 

Note: It’s set in the space between DDD and KH3. I’ve also moved up some events that I’m pretty sure happen either during KH3 or right at its beginning for...reasons. Also, using my usual worldbuilding extra for lulz. 

Out of (Anime) Body Experience

My room’s cold. Frigid. 

The heater go out again? Third time this month, stupid landlord...

I smack my lips, hand reaching up to rub at my face. No blankets, probably pushed off by my active sleeping. Sleeping I would like go back to, fuck the cold. 

Feels awfully hard for my bed. 

I snort and roll over. 

Only there for to be nothing to roll onto. 

WHACK!

“Fuck!”

That hurt! The floor is super hard. Not great for smashing your face against. 

I peel myself off and sit up, rubbing at my sore nose. 

Wait...that hand. Not my hand. 

And the rest of me? I look myself over. This isn’t right at all. 

My new clothes are a mismatched black and white mix, and seem kind of small for some reason? Tiger-like stripes (scars, maybe?) stretching curling around my arms, my wrists, in a pale brown. Hair’s not in my face, should check that out...

My fingers brush the top of my head. My hair...it’s all pokey. Spiky. Naturally, no gel needed apparently. Could be a really bad case of bedhead, but bouncing the hair with my head...it stays in the same spiky shape pretty stubbornly. 

“What the hell.”

Okay...everything is anime. Why is everything anime? Am I dreaming?

I glance behind me at my “bed.” Not a bed at all, but a white throne. Chain patterns surround it, on the walls and floor. 

Also, a pressing problem: what the fuck was my new body doing sleeping on a throne? That’s never a good thing in a story. Implies some sort of special destiny whenever it happens. A special destiny that does not belong to me, stranger of this body. 

Maybe my surroundings will provide me with some clues. 

First observation: everything is very...white. A neon, eye blinding white. The white of mad scientist laboratories from fiction. Possibly real life too, don’t you need stuff to be white to see if blood and shit gets on the floor?

...actually, that’s my second observation. My first is that I’m anime now. 

Another point of interest: do I know what anime? If it is an anime, I guess. Can’t tell without a mirror, unfortunately. 

Well, can’t see my face at least. I reach up and tug a chunk of hair down into my field of vision. 

Blond. Bright blond. 

...

Well, that told me...not a lot. Blond’s the usual tropey thing, isn’t it? Probably makes me a...possible protagonist. Not good for my future health and wellbeing. 

If this is an anime, again. Still don’t know that for certain. 

This shit’s way too weird for me. 

Need a breather. 

I sit down on the throne again, for a spot of thinking. Shiver as goosebumps race along my new skin. 

My fingers drum against its arm. 

My list of facts so far: 

-Room is white. Very white. Also cold. 

-No bed. Just a probably symbolic throne. 

-Anime hair, anime clothes, anime body. Not my body. New. Also short?

Also. Probably, possibly a dream. Doesn’t feel like one, but...who knows for certain? 

“Gotta find a way out.”

Won’t that be fun...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

I shield my eyes as I look over the building I’ve just vacated. 

A...castle. A weird Alice in Wonderland, on a bad acid trip type of a castle, pointy green roofs everywhere. Not a speck of white to be seen, unlike the entirety of its interior. 

A castle. Huh.

“That explains the throne.”

Better not be a prince, new body. I don’t have any idea how to run a country. 

My current surroundings are gray fog-mist. Everywhere. 

No landmarks, other than the castle. 

My chest heaves. Great. Time to pick a random direction and walk. 

Everything keeps looking the same even after who knows how long I’ve spent walking through the shitty fog. 

Probably magical or something like that. Meant to protect the castle most likely, from people finding it. 

Really inconvenient to me, trying to leave the castle. 

I groan and pop my back. I better not get stuck here for-

Wait.

A shiver runs across my back. A someone-is-watching-me kind of shiver. I turn and there’s...

There’s someone about my size standing in my way. 

Wearing a black coat, and a strange faceless helmet made of a pitch black glass. 

Yeah, this guy is clearly some sort of villain. 

Whoever you are, I dub thee Mr. Helmet. Nah, Dark Helmet. Better reference.

“Hey, Venty-Wenty. Fancy meeting you here,” a pretty roughed up male voice grinds out. 

Huh, that's a derogatory nickname if I’ve ever heard one. Also a clue. 

Apparently this body did belong to someone else at some point. Someone who this guy has a derogatory nickname for. 

Venty-Wenty. 

...

Oh God, please let this body’s name not be a type of coffee. Please.

Fishcake was bad enough. 

Dark Helmet seems to be expecting an answer of some sort. 

I really don’t have enough information nor the desire to pretend to be someone I’m not. Straightforward it is. 

“Who’s that?”

Dark Helmet doesn’t seem happy with that, moving more into my personal space. 

“...did you forget again?”

Again, an important clue. My body reacts before my head does, shoving the guy out of my space. My mouth follows after. “Back off.”

A choke of a laugh. This guy needs some cough medicine or something, stat. “Venty-wenty, I can’t do that.”

Okay, enough of this. 

“Look, I’m not this guy you’re looking for and frankly? I don’t give a shit.”

I turn my back on him. Have my own answers to look for, away from this dude. 

Look, I know, I know, dumb mistake on my part. Hindsight 20/20. 

Catch a swish of something smashing towards me, in the corner of my eye. 

Dark Helmet’s already displayed a temper. A dislike for whoever owned this body before me. Why wouldn’t he attack me from behind?

With a fizzle of something that jitters in my veins, I twist and my hand stretches out. 

CLANG

The strange weapon Dark Helmet’s using clashes against some kind of sword, cold metal suddenly appearing out of nowhere in my hand. 

A sword that- 

Wait. 

Wait just a damn minute-!

I know what kind of weapon this is. You wander around long enough in any anime or video game adjacent part of the internet, you learn at least about the kind of weapon I’m currently using to keep myself from getting a severe case of stabbitis. 

A Keyblade. 

“Shit, Kingdom Hearts?!” I blurt out.

Dark Helmet moves his helmet head closer to me. Enough to catch some of my puzzled blue--eyed reflection in the black glass. A head tilt of some sorts, maybe? Can’t see his expression, makes everything harder on my part.

“What?”

“Shit, fuck. Just ignore that.”

I press back with my “Keyblade.” My body somehow manages the rest, doing some kind of flick that pushes me away from the masked guy. Out of his reach. 

A state of being that doesn’t matter much with video game mechanics or any kind of anime stuff. 

...Wait, is that something I have to worry about? Food for later thought. 

More importantly, Kingdom Hearts! I don’t know anything about it, other than the Keyblades and shadow monsters called Heartless and there’s Disney characters!

The main character’s either...Riku or Sori? Can’t remember. 

Definitely not me. 

...Considering I’m currently going up against what is most likely a minor villain of some kind, that doesn’t actually make me feel better. 

My face screws up in a scowl. “Go away, got it? I don’t want to fight you!”

“I’m going to beat some sense into you, Ventus.” Dark Helmet lifts his own Keyblade into some overarching attack stance, like the one Obi Wan always uses in Star Wars. 

Finally got a name. But...got a fight too. 

Of course it’s going this way. 

It’s totally anime, shounen anime at that. Fighting solves everything, right?

Great. 

I’m no Naruto though, able to pull off a talk-no-jutsu. Just...try not to die, I guess. 

I sigh and attempt...to do something. I don’t actually know real fighting stances, so I hope the position my new body has fallen into automatically will do me some good. 

Dark Helmet makes a hissing growl noise and goes right into it. 

Time for one last word. 

Perfect for the situation, I settle on, 

“Fuck!” 

(>.<)

Don’t really want to go by my real name. 

What can I use instead? 

...

Not one of my most recent handles, even if they can’t access 

Well, there is that really old internet username I used back when I was a dumb Spyro fanboy on the edge of middle school wandering through forums I probably shouldn’t have been going through. 

sparxbestfriend11.

Or an actual name out of that...

“Sparx.”

[nastybuckybarnes]

Importance  -  Four

Bucky Barnes X WOC!Teacher!Reader AU

Pairing: Bucky X WOC!Teacher!Reader 

Summary: A student’s father catches your eye and his daughter steals your heart. However falling for him might be the most dangerous decision of your life, for his job leaves virtually no room for anyone who could possibly be a liability.

Chapter Summary: Trick-or-treating with Nat and Steve leads to revelations. Because he’s away so much, Violet starts pushing Bucky away, only to come to you instead.

Chapter Warnings: Fluff, Racial Curiosity, Fluff, Language, Minor Angst,

Word Count: 3.8K

A/N: Um… so I really liked this??? Waaaaaaayyyyy long overdue. I’m so sorry but some of the tags aren’t working. Send me an ask if you’ve changed your username please!!!

SOME TAGS AREN’T WORKING!!

MASTERLIST SERIES MASTERLIST

~*~

It’s been three weeks since you woke up on the couch belonging to one James Barnes. Three weeks since you shared coffee and pancakes with him and his daughter. Three weeks since your relationship with the man began to change.

Every time he picks her up from school the two of you share longing looks and the occasional lust-filled glance (mostly from him). Every night she spends at your house or you spend at theirs, is a night you become closer to what may be the absolute sweetest girl you’ve ever known in your life.

Every single time he sends you a random text or calls to see how the two of you are doing is one step deeper into this pit of adoration for the man and his daughter.

“Hey miss (Y/l/n), what’s for supper?” Violet asks as the two of you walk to your car.

“I’m not sure, Violet. What would you like?” She thinks about this as you strap her in.

“Tacos?” You grin and nod, patting her knee gently. “I can do that. Do you think your daddy has all the ingredients at home?” She shrugs, staring out the window as you start driving to her house.

~

You’re almost finished cooking when the front door opens.

“Hello?” You call cautiously, grabbing Violet’s hand and hiding her behind the chair.

“(Y/n)?” You let out a breath of relief and usher Violet to sit back down and continue colouring.

“James. I thought you’d be working late again tonight.” He walks into the kitchen in a crisp black suit, his hair slicked back.

“I thought I told you I wouldn’t be working too late. I guess not. “ You can’t take your eyes off of him. He looks absolutely delicious.

“Well, I guess I’ll just finish cooking then get out of your hair-” “no it’s fine,” he interrupts, setting a briefcase down on the table. “You don’t need to go. Stay and eat the food you cooked.” You smile rather shyly but nod, turning back to the stove and continuing to cook.

This, Bucky decides, is a feeling and image he can get used to.

“Hey miss (Y/l/n) can I tell daddy what you told us today?” Violet asks suddenly, looking up from her drawing. “Of course.” She smiles up at her dad and sets down the crayons.

“We’re doing a Christmas Concert at school! And we’re gonna have nice costumes and sing fun songs and it’s gonna be really really fun!” He smiles and looks between the two of you. “Is that so? Well, I’d better book it off work! Planning for Christmas already (Y/n)? It’s not even Halloween.”

You shrug, smiling at the man. “The Christmas concert is a big deal. We spend months learning the choreography, songs, and designing sets and costumes.” He nods, impressed. “Well if there’s anything I can do to help with it, let me know.” You smile and nod, stirring the seasonings into the meat.

“Violet, can you help miss (Y/l/n) set the table for dinner while I go take a shower?” Violet nods and starts putting all her colouring stuff away while her dad jogs up the stairs to his room.

“Hey, miss (Y/l/n)… do you like my daddy?” She asks while setting out napkins for the three of you. You purse your lips and ponder her question. She’s a lot smarter and more devious than she seems, so you know there’s probably a less innocent meaning behind this question.

“I do. He’s a very kind man and he treats you and me very well.” She nods and looks up at you, her wide eyes full of wonder. “If you marry my daddy will you be my mommy?” You stare at her, having no appropriate answer to this question.

“It smells amazing (Y/n),” James says, interrupting in the most perfect way.

“Thank you. Here, have a seat. Violet, why don’t you tell your daddy what we did today at school? And tell him about the Halloween party we’ve got planned.” She launches into a detailed explanation of everything she did today at school, not leaving out a single thing, then talks about Halloween and the party at school and what she wants to dress up as this year.

“And Vincent is dressing up as a painter because his name is one that a famous painter had, and I think I should maybe be either Wonder Woman, or maybe an owl or a pirate. I don’t know yet. I think a pirate costume would be fun.” You nod in agreement, your eyes flashing to her fathers only to find him already watching you.

“I think you’ll make a fantastic Pirate,” you encourage, smiling at the five-year-old.

“What are you gonna be, miss (Y/l/n)?” You shake your head and reach over to wipe some sauce off the side of her mouth. “That’s a surprise. But I’m sure you’ll like it.” She smiles cheekily up at you and nods. “Are we gonna go out trick-or-treating this year?” She asks hopefully.

You glance up and wait to hear his answer. “I think I work that night.” Her face falls. “I can… take her. If it’s alright with you. Natasha and Steve could come along too.” He watches you for a moment then nods.

“I’ll call them tomorrow and ask if they’re free. Thank you, (Y/n). For saving my daughters happiness once again.” You laugh softly and brush him off. “Don’t worry about it. I love spending time with the little rugrat.” She sticks her tongue out at you and you giggle, reaching over and giving her rosy cheek a gentle pinch.

~*~

“Happy Halloween, Violet!” You exclaim when you meet her outside of her house.

“Hi, Miss (Y/l/n)! I was just telling Aunty Nat what you dressed up as today for our class party!” You smile warmly as Natasha and Steve come out of the house, he dressed as a fireman and her dressed as a ballerina.

“Now, who’s ready to go get some candy?” Nat asks. Violet smiles excitedly and raises her hand before starting down the street.

You walk slightly behind her with Steve and Natasha, a smile on your face as she interacts with some of the other kids.

“Bucky talks about you all the time,” Steve suddenly blurts, earning himself a sharp elbow in the ribs from the redhead.

“Way to be subtle,” she murmurs before smiling over at you.

“What my darling fiancé means to say, is that James really appreciates you watching Violet.” You smile, slightly embarrassed, then wave them off.

“I love doing it. Violet is… she’s amazing. I really enjoy spending time with her.” Steve watches the way you look at Violet, a smile on his face.

“She enjoys spending time with you too. Whenever she comes over she’s always talking about how much fun she has with you and how much she enjoys spending time with you. She really cares about you. And I can tell that you really care about her, too.” You nod, watching as Violet collects another handful of candy.

“James also enjoys spending time with you, although he won’t admit it. He… he likes you. And before you deny it, we can see that you like him too. And I know, you can’t exactly start seeing the father of a student, but just…think about it, okay?” You simply nod at Natasha’s words, trying to push them to the back of your mind until you have time to fully ponder them.

Violet continues going door-to-door for another hour and a half, stopping only to get a water bottle from you.

When you arrive back to her house, she’s tired and ready to get to bed.

“Can you bring her inside? Steve and I should be getting home about now. We’re expecting some people over for dinner… now, actually.” You nod at Natasha’s request and usher the sleepy five-year-old into her house, waving at the pair as they get into their car and drive away.

“Violet? You home?” Jame’s -or Bucky, as Steve referred to him multiple times throughout the night- calls.

“Yeah,” she replies softly. He comes down the stairs and you swear your jaw drops.

He’s wearing nothing more than a pair of grey sweatpants, giving you a perfect view of his muscular chest, v-line, and little treasure trail. And of course, his pants leave little to the imagination. You can see the outline of something rather large.

Quickly snapping your eyes up, you offer him a smile.

“(Y/n)! I-I didn’t know you were here!” He scratches his chest awkwardly then looks at your costume. “You look… beautiful.” You feel butterflies flutter in your belly. “Thanks,” you whisper. Violet looks between the two of you with furrowed brows. “Daddy can Miss (Y/l/n) stay and make us breakfast tomorrow morning?” She asks. You and Bucky share a laugh. “Well, I don’t think she wants to stay in her Halloween costume, do you?” Violet shrugs and rubs her eyes.

“Maybe she does. But I-” The shrill ringing of a phone cuts her off and she pouts as her father dashes away to answer.

He speaks in hushed tones with the person on the other line for a while before coming back with a sheepish yet annoyed look on his face.

“You have to go to work again, don’t you?” Violet asks glumly, crossing her arms over her chest. Bucky nods and crouches down on his knees.

“I do. But you know that I’ll be back, right?” She tugs out of his grip and presses her face into your leg.

“(Y/n), I absolutely hate to do this to you. I really, truly do, but could you watch her for a couple of hours? I wouldn’t be asking you this if it wasn’t an emergency.” You nod your head yes, running your fingers through Violet’s hair.

“Of course. Do I… is there any time for me to go home and get changed?” He presses his lips together in a tight line and you take that as your answer.

“You can borrow something of mine for the night. I’ll drive you to your house as soon as I get home.” You take a deep breath at his proposition but nod, knowing he needs this more than you need your monkey pyjamas.

“I’ll go grab you something to wear and get changed myself. I… I really don’t know when I’ll be home. I’ve got spare toothbrushes and you can grab another pair of clothes if you need to for some reason.”

He hurries upstairs and you look down to Violet.

“Are you okay, Violet?” She shakes her head and sniffles a few times, looking up at you. Your heart breaks at the sad look in her eyes and you can’t help but crouch down and pull her into a hug. “It’s okay,” you whisper. She holds you tightly as her dad comes back down the stairs.

He sets a pile of clothes down on the couch then crouches down to your level.

“Violet?” He asks, rubbing his hand on her back. She shakes her head and pulls away from him, burrowing into your costume as much as she can. Bucky’s face falls and he looks down.

“I’ll be home tomorrow, okay honey? And then we can do whatever you want all day, okay?” She ignores him and he closes his eyes for a moment while rising back up to his feet.

“Thank you so much (Y/n). I’ll pay you for this, I promise. I know you’d probably rather be at home watching TV or something.” You shake your head furiously, picking Violet up in your arms and rocking her slowly. “I love spending time with her. Sure, a fairy costume isn’t my ideal outfit for a Friday night, but we’ll make due. Now go on. You’ve gotta go to work.”

He grabs his keys, wallet, and phone and walks to the door, hesitating and turning to you.

“I’ll give her a bath and a snack if she wants one. I know the drill, James. Now go.” He smiles at you then hurries out the door, locking it behind himself.

You stand there comforting Violet for a few moments before pulling back to look at her. “Hey, let’s go get your bath ready, okay?” She sniffles and nods, hugging you again as you start up the stairs and towards the Princess themed bathroom.

You set her down on her feet, rinse out the bathtub, then put the plug in and start filling it.

“Do you have any bubbles or anything you want to use tonight?” You ask softly, smiling as she opens a cabinet and pulls out a basket of bath bombs. She hands one to you and you place it in the water, watching with her as it fizzes and dissolves.

“I’m going to change really quick. Can you go grab a hairbrush and some pyjamas?” She leaves the room without another word and you frown, saddened at her sadness.

You run down the stairs and grab the change of clothes then hurry back into the bathroom to change.

Once you’re finished you open the door and stop the water, smiling gently at Violet.

“It smells nice in here, doesn’t it?” You ask, trying to lift her spirits. She nods and sets her change of clothes on the counter.

“Can you help me out of my costume please?” You nod, unzipping the back and helping her remove her costume.

As soon as she’s out of it she’s stepping into the warm water. You let her relax for a few minutes before slowly starting to brush her hair.

“Are you okay, Violet?” You ask softly after a while, your fingers gently massaging her scalp.

“Yeah. I just don’t like how Daddy’s never home anymore. I just wanna spend time with him.” You sigh softly and nod.

“When I was a little girl, my daddy was gone a lot too. I stayed mostly with my grandma. And… I never really had any friends I could talk to when I was sad. No one wanted to be my friend. But I want to be your friend and I want you to talk to me when you get sad, okay?” She nods and sighs, the sound shaky.

“When you were little… did people make fun of you? Because sometimes Jasmine makes fun of me for not having a mommy.” Your heart breaks and you make a mental note to talk to Jasmine about that.

“When I was little, I used to get made fun of a lot. For the colour of my skin, and the shape of my nose, and the way my hair looks. They’d call me mean names and say I looked like a monkey. It really hurt my feelings. And sometimes when kids were really mean, they’d make fun of me for not having a mom on mothers day or a dad on fathers day.”

Violet turns and looks up at you with tears in her eyes. “Why would anyone be so mean to you, Miss (Y/l/n)? You’re the nicest person in the world.” You feel tears prick your own eyes and you can’t help but lean down and hug her, ignoring the water splashing onto your -Bucky’s- clothes.

When she turns back around you wipe away your tears and start braiding her hair into two dutch braids.

Once you’re finished and she’s all clean, you help her out of the tub and wrap her up in a fluffy white towel.

“Dry off and get into your pyjamas. If you need help, let me know. I’m gonna just be cleaning up in here.”

She nods and scurries out of the bathroom, grabbing her clothes on the way.

While you’re cleaning the bathroom, you find yourself thinking about what Natasha was saying earlier.

Yes, you like Bucky. Should you? Probably not. Will you do anything about it? Probably not. Will you continue pining over him like a school girl? Probably.

“Miss (Y/l/n) I need help!” You push yourself to your feet and try not to trip over the large sweatpants Bucky gave you to wear.

“I’m coming, Violet!” You enter her room and frown, wondering what she needs help with. She’s all changed and lying down in bed.

“Can you put Mickey Mouse on my TV? Please?” You nod and sit down beside her bed, scrolling through the Disney shows until you find the one she wants.

once it’s playing you go to leave, only for her to grab onto your hand.

“Please don’t go. Daddy always goes. I don’t want you to go too.” You nod and go to sit back down until she pulls on your hand, scooching over in her bed.

“Please?” She whimpers, her eyes so vulnerable and soft that you’d rather die than say no. You climb in next to her and sigh heavily, knowing you’re not gonna be able to finish cleaning the bathroom tonight.

“Miss (Y/l/n)… why does my daddy pick work over me?” Your heart clenches and you kiss the top of her head. “He’s not… picking it over you. He needs to work in order to buy you food and clothes and everything you want.” She sniffles and wipes her face. “I don’t want food or clothes. I just want him to be home with me! He’s never home with me anymore!” She starts crying, borderline sobbing, and you can’t do anything except hold her tightly in your arms and attempt to soothe her.

When she eventually cries herself to sleep, you continue rocking her, not wanting to ever let her go. She’s so young and so small and yet so full of sadness. It makes you cry a little just witnessing it.

Eventually, though, you fall asleep too. In her little pink bed wrapped in her Mickey Mouse blankets with her cuddling you as if her life depends on it.

~*~

Bucky comes home to the smell of waffles cooking. He can’t help but groan softly and let his stuff drop to the floor with a ‘thud’.

“James?” The sound of his name rolling off your tongue sends a shiver down his spine. “Yeah, it’s me.” He rubs his eyes and walks towards the kitchen, smiling as he sees that you’re still wearing his t-shirt and sweatpants.

“It’s nearly noon!” You exclaim, looking at the bags under his eyes with concern.

“Work’s getting intense. Hasn’t been like this since before Violet was born. Speaking of, where is she?” You bite your bottom lip, a part of you wanting to protect Violet’s heart and another part wanting the two of them to make up.

“She’s… upset with you. Last night she was crying because you guys never get to spend any time together anymore. And I guess it really isn’t my place, but if I were you I’d start picking her over my job instead of the other way around.”

He sighs heavily and sits down at the kitchen table, holding his face in his hands.

“I know I should. And I never ever wanted to make her cry. God, I’m the worst father ever.”

You put down your spatula and walk over to him, grabbing his wrists and tugging his hands away from his face. He looks up at you with glossy eyes and you can’t fight the urge to brush some of his hair away from his face.

“You’re an amazing father, James. You’ve raised Violet into a beautiful and smart girl. She’s kind and gentle and perfect. You’re just… having a hard time finding balance in your life right now. Everyone goes through that. And it’s not totally horrible to admit you need help.” He looks up at you with an unreadable expression on his face.

“What I’ve observed over the past few weeks is that you’re both not enjoying being away from each other. You need to work less and she needs to see you more. She needs her dad.” He nods and takes a few deep breaths.

“Thank you so much for everything (Y/n). You have no idea how much it means to me to have you here.” Your heart stutters and you smile gently, letting go of his wrists as he stands up.

“I care a lot about Violet. And about you too. I don’t want her to be upset and I don’t want you to work yourself to death.” One of his hands comes up and cups your cheek, making your eyelids flutter.

“We care about you too, (Y/n). I care about you. Perhaps a little too much.” You look up into his endless blue eyes and part your lips, one of your hands coming up and covering his.

He licks his lips then slowly inches forwards, pressing his lips to yours in a cautious yet amazing kiss.

You lose your grip on reality as your hands move to his hair, kissing him with everything you have while he holds your waist.

“Are the waffles ready yet?” Violet’s voice makes the two of you jump apart, both of you panting and watching each other.

“Almost,” you reply while turning back to face the counter, your heart racing in your chest as you think about what just happened.

“Oh… you’re home,” Violet whispers to her dad. You glance over and frown as you see her standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Come here, sweetheart. I’ve gotta talk to you.” She walks over to him hesitantly and he scoops her up and sits her on his lap.

“I’m so so sorry that I haven’t been around much lately. But I want you to know that I’m going to be around more starting now. And I don’t work today and tomorrow so we can hang out all day and night. Okay?” She mulls over his words for a few moments before a bright smile covers her face.

“Okay! Thank you, daddy! I’ve missed you!” She pulls back suddenly with a frown and looks over at you.

“We’re not gonna be getting rid of Miss (Y/l/n), right? Can she join us instead?” You suppress a giggle at her word choice then wait to hear her father’s answer.

“I don’t plan on getting rid of her. And if she wants to come along with us she’s more than welcome to. But I think she might want to go home and change into her own clothes at some point.” The three of you laugh softly and you can’t help but sigh at how perfect everything feels.

It all feels right.

For now at least.

~*~

TAGS:

PERMANENT TAGS: @smolbeanbucky @wildefire @inumorph @impalatobakerstreet @nanna022 @mummy-woves-you @m-a-t-91 @wtfholland @bookgirlunicorn @beautifulwisdom2001 @deep-sea-glitter @mrhiddles-81 @iamwarrenspeace @bitchacho25 @escapetheshackles @i-know-i-can @buckyssoul @avnngrs @swoonhui @destiel-artemis @frozenhuntress67 @unlikelygalaxygiver

MARVEL: @fallenangelfangirl @look-to-the-stars-and-wish @maladaptive-ninja-returns @cliffordasparagus @april-14-blog @potteritis @momc95 @shakzer00 @inkedaztec @cal-ifornication @heartislubbingdubbing @my-suga-kookies

IMPORTANCE: @beansparker @slender--spirit @teenage-fever10 @marbleowl @valynsia @sillydecoy @ficdupshorty @buckysthot @kaaeila @jetaimeamore

BUCKY: @chuuulip @nerd-without-a-cause @natashasnight @dragonrosegardens @saharzek

[petersquips]

Stark Contrast [CHAPTER THREE]

Masterlist | Introduction | Chapter One | Chapter Two || Chapter Four (pt 1) | Chapter Four (pt 2)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Word count: 5,991

Warnings: Slight aggression, but mostly it’s all the ever-loving fluff you could want.

Chapter Summary: Y/N is suspended for hitting Amadeus Cho and struggles to make amends with her family. While she continues to wrestle with her place as a young woman in the world, now in the spotlight, Peter invites her to a sister march.

A/N: Inspired by the album “A Woman’s Guide to Survival” by Miss Li. This is the chapter that came to me on the tram and made me want to write this fic, so I hope I’ve done it justice.

If you want to be added to the tag list for this fic, Inbox me and I‘ll add your username. Members of the tag list MUST reblog. I look forward to your feedback, friends!

Y/N was sitting in the middle of the training room working on yesterday’s schoolwork. She liked the training room. It was wall to wall windows on three sides, the floor was black and glossy, and it just felt vast. It was a good place to be alone, and more than ever Y/N wanted to be alone this week. Tony still hadn’t really forgiven her for forcing him to talk the principal down from expulsion to suspension, Pepper was unsuccessfully trying to act normal, and Steve just seemed disappointed. So if she could avoid all of them for the week of her suspension and keep up on her school work, it was really the best she could ask for.

“There you are.” The warm voice of Peter echoed through the giant room as his amplified footfalls grew closer to where she sat in the center of the floor. “Delivery,” he lamely joked, as he approached and dropped a pile of paper next to the girl. Y/N didn’t move from the problem she was working on and she didn’t so much as acknowledge her friend, so Peter carefully sat down next to her and asked, “Still that bad, huh?”

“They’ll come around,” Y/N assured him, or perhaps herself, as she finished writing down the answer to the math problem she had been working on when the boy walked in. She sighed in disbelief. She didn’t really know any of them at all. She’d only been around for a few weeks and she’d already screwed up. She had no way of knowing how long this would last, and her new family aside, she herself had been struggling with the grey moral area she seemed to be sitting in. Disgruntled, Y/N pushed the textbook away from herself, asking, “Is what I did really that bad?”

“I mean, it’s not the approach I would have taken…” Peter pandered lightly.

Y/N jumped on his statement asking, “and what approach would you have taken?” She was desperate for some form of validation. She didn’t want to feel like a bad person. “If someone was boasting, lying about you like a sexual conquest, making you a trophy to be won because of your name, what would you have done?” She was staring straight into Peter’s soul, begging him for an answer.

Peter looked away uncomfortably. “I don’t know,” he admitted to the floor, pulling one knee up to his chest.

“I can’t even picture it,” Y/N realized. She looked off into the distance and could see the quin-jet through the far wall. She lived in a place full of such integrity. This was a place of heroes, and she was just some kid who could handle a cafeteria tray like a baseball bat.

After a moment's silence the gentle boy finally inquired, “Why did you do it?” She’d been asking herself the same question. She paused the think, and then came to a conclusion.

“Because my words meant nothing,” Y/N responded urgently. “No one was going to believe my word over Amadeus Cho, you know that. So I had to be louder.” And she was. The sound of the plastic smacking against Cho’s face was very loud, indeed.

“You really thought all that out during the walk from our table to his?” Peter quizzed in disbelief, looking back at the girl in awe.

“No!” Y/N scoffed as she gave the obvious response. “He was being a dick and I got angry.” Peter snorted at the abrupt change of tone in their conversation and began laughing along with the girl. Y/N was relieved to be laughing with Peter after everything that had happened. If she could laugh despite the guilty pit in her stomach, maybe things would be okay. The two began to grow quiet again, and Y/N sighed and confessed, “I do feel bad.” She didn’t like the serious conversation and she didn’t like feeling guilty, but she knew she needed it, so she continued to explain, “He’s not a bad person. I mean- I don’t think I believe that he’s a bad person, he just did some bad things-“ she paused to self-assess, “But did you hear that smack?” She was mortified. “That shit had to have hurt, and at the end of the day he made some bad choices, but I’m the one who actually hurt someone.”

“Hey,” Peter said as he elbowed Y/N in the side. “He did hurt you. In more ways than one,” the boy mumbled the second half, before quickly inquiring, “How’s that healing up, by the way?” She knew what he was referring to, but Y/N preferred to pretend it wasn’t there, because if it wasn’t there, maybe it didn’t happen. Peter kindly held out a hand to receive the Y/N’s arm and examine it. The bruising had mostly healed, but the last yellow remnants wrapped around her wrist in a splotchy fashion. He frowned and sighed at the sight. “Tell you what,” the boy said, staring at the remnants of her encounter with Amadeus Cho. “Don’t schedule anything for Sunday,” Peter commanded before suddenly standing up and casually walking toward the exit of the vast room.

“What?” Y/N quizzed. When she got no response she yelled after him in her confusion. “Peter!”

“Don’t ask any questions,” Peter called back as he turned around and began walking backwards. “Just trust me on this.” Y/N was confused why her friend would be so coded and was tentative to let him walk away on that note, but she inhaled sharply and nodded in agreement, earning a charming smile from Peter before he disappeared from the room.

It was quiet again and Y/N felt small in the huge facility. The teen miserably looked at the fresh stack of assignments Peter had left her. She had only just reached the end of the work he dropped off yesterday, and she didn’t want to keep going. Y/N groaned and dropped her face into the trigonometry book she’d been working out of before Peter had shown up. “Just land the fucking quin-jet on my head,” she mumbled into the pages, the sound of her voice echoing circles around her. She realized how pathetic she must look and quickly sat up with a gasp, shaking her head as if to wring out the bad vibes. She was completely determined to keep chipping away at the pile of work before her.

She begrudgingly crammed in the last of her trigonometry work and threw the heavy textbook across the room just to get it further away from her. It landed on the tile floor with a resonant smack that rang in her ears and made her immediately regret the impulsive act. Still, she was intent on powering through and picked up the fresh pile of work are started from the beginning of her day, pulling off the AP Lit sheets on existentialism and transcendentalism. She pushed through organic chemistry equations and the introductory history of the world, and by the time she had finished it all the training room was glowing orange with the light of the sunset over the horizon. It was beautiful. The same sunset she’d watched with such uncertainty her first day in the facility. Now it simply filled her with peace, a familiar view in the midst of her renewed confusion.

Y/N began to collect all of the completed paperwork as she watched the warm light of the sun disappear into a blue haze. Gathering everything into her arms, she quietly made her way out of the comforting room and across the building in the dim light. As she wandered down the many halls it took to get to her room, she caught a glimpse of Tony sitting on the couch of the lounge with a drink in his hand, a nightly ritual for the man. The girl paused. She didn’t want to be seen by him, and she especially didn’t want to talk. Y/N nervously ducked her head and tried to sneak by unnoticed.

Just as she’d reached the opposite wall, the man called, “Y/N.” Clearly, he’d noticed. The teen awkwardly stepped backwards, reversing back into view.

“Yeah?” Y/N asked tentatively. Tony didn’t speak, just curtly waved his free hand, a gesture that said, ‘come over here’ with ultimate clarity. Y/N anxiously hurried over to the man, setting the heavy pile of books and homework on the coffee table. She had a feeling this might take a while, and if she kept holding all of those papers her arms would give out before the conversation even started. She didn’t feel like sitting. She’d been sitting all day, so the teen opted to stand in front of the aloof man. She was antsy and began rolling her feet over to the side and back just to keep moving.

Tony rubbed his mouth with his free hand as he leaned forward and set the glass of liquor next to his child’s assignments. As he sat back into the couch he revealed his first card, “Peter told me what you said today-”

“Traitor,” Y/N whispered to the side.

Her  heart leapt into her throat when Tony aggressively demanded, “No, see, this is where you listen.” The violent tone made Y/N fearfully snap back to center, looking at the man and trying to ignore the pounding in her chest. “Peter’s a smart kid and he cares about you. He told me because I care about you, too.”

This was a statement that made Y/N uneasy. She wasn’t convinced and she immediately argued, “You barely even know me.” It was in a hushed, hurt tone. She couldn’t understand where Tony got this idea that he had to put on this concerned parent persona when he’d only known her for a few weeks. She hadn’t exactly done anything to earn his affection since she’d shown up. It hurt to know that she didn’t really have anyone to care for her the way family should, and her own body betrayed her as water began to flood across Y/N’s eyes.

“Don’t I?” the man asked as he pushed off from the couch to stand, causing Y/N to stumble backward in her fear. “I know you’re a strong personality, you don’t like being told what to do. If someone tells you what to do you’re most likely going to do the opposite. You like black even though it’s not a color. Your favorite flavor of ice cream is cake batter, I know because it keeps disappearing from the freezer, and I know that you feel guilty about hitting that boy,” Tony finished. His face softened as he begged, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well…” Y/N was annoyed by the persistence of this conversation, and insisted with a bitter tone, “it doesn’t exactly make a difference, now does it?” She didn’t understand this mode of conversing with Tony. So much of what they had done so far was quips and arguing. She didn’t understand why he was so determined and concerned, and she was completely unprepared to deal with it.

“It makes all the difference,” Tony protested. The aggressive nature in his sharp tone startled Y/N and caused the first tear to brim over and roll down her cheek. She thought she wanted to argue with her biological father, but she felt so emotionally fragile she wasn’t sure she could handle it anymore. “We all make dumb mistakes in the heat of the moment, but feeling remorse is what makes you a good person. It means you care about doing the right thing.” Y/N took two steps back, needing to distance herself from the man. She was overwhelmed. Where was this conversation days ago? Before she felt so alone in the great big office building she was so lucky as to call home. And now that it was here she was terrified, this wasn’t what she wanted. It didn’t feel good to be receiving this relentless support, it felt like suffocating and she couldn’t breathe.

The tears began to rain down her face and Tony took a step toward his daughter, while the girl took another step back and yelled, “Stop!” she paused to summon enough air to finish the command, “…consoling me, it doesn’t help!”

“What do you want me to do?” Tony asked pointedly. He was at a loss, but he just wouldn’t give up.

“I don’t know!” The teen near screamed back. She felt her face turning red and thought she must look like a maniac with the water drenching her cheeks. “I’m going crazy here! One moment I’m fine and I understand that what happened with Cho was not my fault, and the next I’m tearing apart all of my clothing in frustration!” She was ranting with no end, and she didn’t feel like stopping. “I keep saying I don’t think he would have forced anything on me and I don’t think he would have hurt me if Peter hadn’t shown up, but I don’t know that. I don’t feel safe anymore, Tony.” She stopped to breathe. The tears suddenly stopped as she said her peace and her face felt sticky like rice as the trails of water began to dry.

Tony inhaled deeply and bumbled the air out through pursed lips as he dropped back on the couch. Y/N watched as the man desperately picked up his drink from the coffee table and downed the mostly-full glass in one go. It was nerve-wracking. These were not the actions of a man in control, and Tony controlled everything in that tower. Tony sat with the empty glass in his trembling hand, hanging limply at his side. He stared at the unlit fireplace across the room and for a moment things seemed still. Then Stark unexpectedly jumped up and yelled as he violently threw his glass across the room. Y/N flinched in terror as it thunderously shattered against the wood floor, scattering in devastation.

Pepper came running into the room in a frenzy, her long silky robe flowing behind her. “What happened?” she asked urgently as she observed the shards of glass and the horrified teen. “Tony?” Pepper inquired carefully as she slowly approached the man consumed by stifled rage. Y/N watched as Pepper strategically touched his stiff shoulder. Carelessly, Tony shook her off and dropped to the couch once again, burying his face in his hands as they worked their way into his hair. He looked ill, almost like he might vomit if the eyes in the room weren’t staring at him. Pepper sat next to the distraught man and glanced up at Y/N, suggesting, “Maybe you should head to your room for the night.”

Y/N nodded and without any argument began hurrying out of the lounge in her panic. Tony held up a hand to signal her to wait. The girl slowed down as she approached the hallway before deciding to stop and listen to what the man had left to say. He hesitantly lifted his head from the other hand and looked at the teenager in anguish. “It’s tearing me apart, too, kid,” Tony mentioned hoarsely. Pepper began to coddle the man only to be met with him holding up a hand to her and complaining, “I’m fine.” Tony got up and walked toward the teenager who was waiting frightfully where the hallway met the corner of the room. He spoke as he crossed, “I don’t know what to do to help because I couldn’t keep this from happening to you in the first place, and I can’t help feeling that that’s on me.”

“I-i…” Y/N stuttered, the sound barely reaching her lips. “It’s no one’s fault,” the girl insisted quietly. At some points, she believed it more than others, but she maintained that it was true. Tony finally stopped face to face with the young and vulnerable teenager. She fearfully looked between his sad eyes, unsure what to say to the man who was meant to care for her. “I don’t blame you,” she whispered.

Tony nodded irregularly and simply said, “Get some sleep,” before turning around and walking back to Pepper. Y/N watched the broken man sit down next to his wife and lay his head on her shoulder. The teen felt stupid to have never realized that Tony took a hit that night, too. She glanced once more at Pepper combing through the mans hair and whispering comfort to him before tearing away to her room. She needed sleep. She needed today to be over.

She woke up early Sunday morning and was eager to see Peter after avoiding Tony all of Saturday. It scared her seeing him so manic Friday night, and she didn’t want to encounter it again. She wasn’t sure if it was nerves or excitement, but as she glanced at the clock she wasn’t surprised to see it read, “4:48 AM”. Y/N knew herself and she knew she wouldn’t get back to sleep, and she’d felt so trapped and stiff being suspended in the facility all week. A peculiar urge came over her that she just couldn’t shake and she rushed across the room to her closet, throwing on her Midtown gym tee with some ill-fitting shorts. She hurriedly pinned her hair back and ran downstairs to the lobby of the building. She saw Steve on the front patio stretching out and jogged to the entrance. As she opened the door, she felt the crisp morning air of autumn cool her skin and Steve looked over the shoulder he was stretching in calm surprise. 

“Can I come with you?” the teen asked uncertainly. She knew she couldn’t keep up with a genetically enhanced soldier, and it seemed silly to even entertain the notion, but it was less about getting out and more about being a part of the family she was dumped into. She could run on her own anytime, and while she needed to feel the movement and the burning in her limbs after such a stressful week, she had an overwhelming urge to do it with Steve.

“As if you hadn’t been punished enough already,” Steve teased, smirking as he waved the girl over to join him in stretching. She wasn’t exactly an expert in the sport of running. She did some track and field in elementary school, but not much else. So she tried to follow Cap, doing the stretches as she saw him doing them. After about five minutes of loosening the tension that resided in her stressed joints, Steve asked, “Are you ready?” Y/N was uncertain if this was a trick question or not. Of course, she’d never be ready to keep up with the mighty Captain America, but she nodded, determined to try her best.

Steve began jogging down the long driveway, and Y/N ran beside him. She knew he was holding himself back for her benefit, but she was kind of glad he was doing it. It meant he wasn’t doing anything begrudgingly. He actually wanted to spend the time with the teenager, and that meant the world to Y/N in the midst of her internal crisis. Everything was so uncertain lately, swirling with confusion in an ever-changing atmosphere. She wanted to join Steve’s ritual because it was consistent. It was always the same, and it was reliable, and Y/N needed that after everything that had come crashing down in her life over the last month. So she pushed, even when her tongue began to taste of metal, she sped up when her body begged her to slow down, and when her mind started to wander from the present task she would glance at Steve, and the determined look on his face as he watched the road before them would inspire her to keep present.

They paused at a drinking fountain located in a nearby park where Y/N could catch her breath and get a drink. She knew this wasn’t Steve’s normal ritual, but she could tell he was looking out for her, trying to make sure he didn’t push her too hard, so he forced her to stop and take a break. As she leaned into the bubbling stream of water, Steve placed his hands on his hips and looked off into the distance mentioning, “You know, Tony means well.” Y/N pulled her face away from the refreshing water and looked at the man, imitating his posture as Cap continued, “He just doesn’t know what to do this time.” Y/N was both intrigued by Steve’s insight and annoyed that her life continued to be the business of everyone in the Avenger’s Facility. The large man sighed and shook his head as he explained, “He wants to do the right thing to help you, he just doesn’t know what that is and it scares him-“

“I’m fine,” Y/N interrupted bitterly. She began walking along the path they’d been running down. “I don’t need his help.”

“Do you really believe that?” Steve asked with the kind of insight only a 100-some-year-old-man could provide. It was infuriating how considerately aware he was.

“I appreciate it, Steve,” Y/N mentioned limply, turning back around to face the man who was still standing at the water fountain, “but I really don’t want to talk about this right now.” At that she turned around and began running again, forcing herself to go faster than she thought possible. Within the blink of an eye, Cap was running right by her side once again like a bug you just can’t seem to shake off. She was really thankful that he hadn’t pushed the matter. It made her feel like she’d been listened to, and that triumph made her want to push harder, to run fast enough that Steve was doing more than just a jog beside her. She tried to smash her feet into the pavement as hard as they would allow, and lengthened her stride, catching that knowing smile in Steve’s perfect teeth as he sped up.

The burn of the rest of the run was almost unbearable, but Y/N was persistent. By the time she got back upstairs to her room and into the shower she was spitting down the drain, half expecting red blood to be swirling around at her feet. The cool water felt relieving as it ran over her sweaty body. Her muscles were sore, but the burning had died down. She used her favorite soap to thoroughly cleanse her body, delighting in the sweet scent, and took extra time to care for her hair even if Peter would be there in less than an hour. She was in a push for time as she stood infront of her wardrobe wrapped in a towel with a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, trying to figure out what to wear when she didn’t even know where they were going. She decided to just wear her normal ensemble with the exception of pulling out her light-wash denim jacket instead of the leather jacket. It seemed brighter, and it may have been the adrenaline from the run, but she was feeling more playful and present. She was lacing up her classic red converse when her phone began vibrating with Peter’s text that he had arrived. The girl bounded down the stairs and across the building, feeling the pain of the mornings run as she hurried to the lobby where Peter stood speaking to Tony. The sight of her friend made her smile. She felt really good about today.

His Aunt May had dropped him off at the facility, but they took Y/N’s Audi. It was strange for her to have to look away from the console so Peter could secretly type in the address of where they were going just to preserve the surprise. She never could have been prepared for where they arrived. It was a small park, but it was full of people. There were some stands around the edges of the field for groups and organizations from Planned Parenthood to Midtown School’s own feminism club. Without stopping to explain what he’d gotten them into, Peter walked off straight toward the booth from their school, and Y/N raced after him in confusion. The Midtown Feminist Club had small tent covering a modest table with a single petition in the center of it. There were only a few girls from school at the table, but front and center shouting at the crowd was MJ, only pausing her rallying to smile at Peter and Y/N as they approached.

“You guys made it!” Michelle exclaimed gladly as she reached over the table and embraced Peter.

As the two pulled away from each other Y/N admitted, “I’m still not exactly sure what we made it to,” hoping for some voluntary answers.

“Its a sister march,” MJ explained. “It’s not that big, but we’ve been growing every year. It's a festival and march for supporting women, which is why I’m standing here with a petition you two have yet to sign,” the girl pointed out, not caring to hide her ulterior motives as she held up two pens expectantly.

“What for?” Y/N asked as she leaned down to push pen to paper and sign it regardless of the answer. She may not know MJ like Peter did but the girl was still her friend and Y/N wanted to support her.

“We at the Midtown School Feminist Club believe that feminine hygiene products should be supplied in all bathrooms in the school, so this is a petition to the head of schools to divert funding toward that cause.” Y/N was thrilled by MJ’s proposal as she added the still unfamiliar ‘Stark’ to the end of her signature. Having to bring and organize one’s own sanitary products was like asking someone to carry around their own toilet paper. It wasn’t exactly a choice. It seemed like every day there was a teenage girl asking around for a tampon because they just so happened to run out, or not have one because their period took them by surprise. It was a common and biological issue, and it made sense to her that these products should be accessible. Y/N smiled kindly as she handed the pen back to Michelle.

As Peter leaned down on the table to sign his name on MJ’s petition, Y/N asked self-consciously, “So what exactly does one do at a sister march?”

“I have schedules if you want one,” the girl at the table offered. She grabbed a post-card looking itinerary from the left side of the table and handed it to Y/N, who glanced it over as MJ explained, “The booths will be up for another hour and then we march.” Peter lifted his head and MJ gave a closed-mouth grin as she took the second pen back. She seemed to be in her happy place. Y/N noticed she was much more talkative when there was activism involved. “Oh, I have pins, too!” the girl exclaimed as she pulled a couple of buttons from a small cardboard box and handed them to her friends. Y/N examined the baby pink pin in her hand. It had a multi-gender symbol in the middle and around it read, ‘Midtown School Feminist Club’. It looked like it had been designed in Microsoft Paint 15 years ago, but the identity of it made Y/N’s heart flutter as she proudly placed the pin over her heart on the denim jacket. It felt like being a part of something bigger than she was. She looked at a smiley Peter who had just pinned the button onto his sweater and felt the corner of her lip turn up at the adorable boy.

When Michelle began explaining the petition to attendees who approached the table, Peter and Y/N decided to keep walking and explore the festival. They were approaching the booth next to MJ’s when Y/N asked, “So why did you take me here, Peter?” He picked up a pin from a bowl and handed it to Y/N as she strolled alongside the boy uneasily and stumbled over the uneven terrain.

Peter glanced at the ground nervously, before responding, “I thought you could stand for seeing that you’re not alone and that you’re supported.”

Y/N sighed, frustrated that she couldn’t seem to get away from this conversation with anyone. “Is this about the Amadeus Cho thing?” She didn’t want to talk about it. Why could no one get that through their thick heads? She was fine. It sucked, but she wasn’t stuck on it.

Peter stumbled over a bump of grass as he attempted to explain, “Well, yeah, but-”

“Peter, I’m fine,” Y/N insisted, her heart sinking at the topic that resurfaced like a buoy. It was incessant and she was tired of having it.

“I don’t think you believe that as much as you want everyone else to,” Peter stated firmly, taking Y/N back. This was a level of assertiveness she’d never seen from the boy and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to it.

The boy handed her another button he’d picked off of the table for Planned Parenthood and Y/N systematically added it to her jacket as they continued wandering. “He made some bad decisions, but he didn’t hurt me. If anything I’m more angry at him spreading rumors that he scored a Stark,” Y/N admitted, turning to look at her feet in shame and discomfort.

Peter stopped walking and looked at the closed-off girl. He sighed and confessed, “I don’t get why you’re more upset about him lying about what happened than you are what actually happened.”

It was a revelation to be had. Y/N hadn’t even realized that was what she was feeling and it was hard to come to terms with. It was the presumptions about her for sure, the disgusting toxic masculinity, yes, but at its core, it was all about that name. She wasn’t mad about the party because he did listen to her, and he did stop, but when she showed up to school Monday, “He reduced me to nothing but a name,” she spoke aloud for Peter as she continued to process this realization. “Ask anyone at school and the first thing they’re going to say about me is that I’m Tony Stark’s daughter, but I’m not Tony Stark.” It was hard to explain how being know as Tony Stark’s daughter, how even with all those eyes watching her, or even because they were watching her, she could be completely erased and ignored.

“Well if you ask me,” Peter began unsolicited, “You need to own your name.” Y/N looked up at him, baffled. “People aren’t going to stop knowing you as Tony Stark’s daughter, so you need to change what that means to be a Stark.”

“I guess you’re right,” Y/N responded slowly, still trying to fully comprehend what it was she was agreeing to. They began walking again as she mulled it over. The made their way to the next booth for a nearby safe house for victims of domestic abuse, and Peter handed the fretted teen a small pin that said ‘You are not alone.’ The more she read that message, the more she felt like she understood what Peter was trying to do for her. She was surrounded by people who got it. She’d been having this conversation for days now about Amadeus Cho and how she was dealing with it and it only led to more confusion, but she was standing in this crowd of women, and they understood because they were going through it, too. She didn’t have to tell them a word about what happened, or why she did what she did, or how she felt. They all knew it because they’d felt all those insecurities themselves. She pinned the button on with the rest and continued on with Peter with an open mind and willing attitude she hadn’t held before.

After an hour of visiting all the booths, Y/N’s jacket was plastered with buttons of varying sizes. Planned Parenthood, “Sisters not Cisters”, and “The future is female” littered across the denim, and Y/N was ecstatic. She felt like she could be proud of the beautiful controversy she was wearing and she was ready to show it off to the streets of New York. They caught up with MJ as the crowd began to move and Y/N’s heart fluttered with excitement. Taking those first steps felt momentous, and it was huge. Michelle held up a sign between her two friends and yelled protests and chants along with the crowd, and it made Y/N feel powerful to follow such strong young woman’s lead. Soon enough Peter joined his friend in shouting and Y/N mustered the rest of her energy to scream, “My body, my choice!” on repeat with the mass of women. She felt supported and safe, not just with this crowd, but Peter who had the perspective to bring her to the sister march in the first place, and was now yelling feminist chants full-heartedly at her side.

By nightfall, the group spread around candles to be held as they continued through the darkness. MJ had pushed her way to the front lines and left Y/N and Peter to slow down to the back of the crowd. As a nice woman in front of them lit their candles, Y/N couldn’t help turning to her friend and saying, “Thank you for bringing me today, Peter.” She couldn’t explain how much it meant to her to be in that street. It didn’t fix anything, and it didn’t take away her confusion about everything surrounding her incident with Cho, but she finally felt free again. Walking with Peter in the crowd, felt like facing her fears, and she knew she could return to school Monday with renewed energy, holding her head high.

“You know I would have done anything to bring that smile back to your face,” the boy teased, poking her cheek with a free finger, which caused the girl to turn away shyly. For the first time she felt beautiful, her guard dropping away completely as she marched alongside the supportive boy.

“Would you want a ride to school on Monday?” Y/N asked quickly, eager to change the subject to something normal and friendly.

“Yeah,” Peter accepted mindlessly.

“Yeah?” Y/N wasn’t sure what she expected, but still his answer surprised her. “Cool,” she said, looking forward awkwardly as they continued following the warm candlelight through the sleepy streets of New York.

It was a beautiful orange glow that flickered on the walls of brick buildings. The screaming of chants had mostly died down to soft murmur as the women peacefully marched on. Y/N felt the back of Peter’s hand sweep across her cold fingers as she listened to the lullaby of the protesters. She couldn’t stop thinking how safe she felt surrounded by these people she didn’t even know, and with whom she’d just started walking with this morning. She felt courageous for the first time in a long time as she observed the giant shadows of their bodies casting on the wall. Y/N felt Peter’s hand once again, as it slowly brushed down her wrist and caught on her finger. The clear intent on his end made her pulse flutter. It seemed strange as she tangled her fingers uncoordinatedly with her friend, but as they sorted themselves out and he took her hand in his, it felt so right, she knew it couldn’t be wrong. 

[stark-web-warriors]

Stark Contrast [CHAPTER THREE]

Masterlist | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Word count: 5,991

Warnings: Slight aggression, but mostly it’s all the ever-loving fluff you could want.

Chapter Summary: Y/N is suspended for hitting Amadeus Cho and struggles to make amends with her family. While she continues to wrestle with her place as a young woman in the world, now in the spotlight, Peter invites her to a sister march.

A/N: Inspired by the album “A Woman’s Guide to Survival” by Miss Li. This is the chapter that came to me on the tram and made me want to write this fic, so I hope I’ve done it justice.

If you want to be added to the tag list for this fic, Inbox me and I‘ll add your username. Members of the tag list MUST reblog. I look forward to your feedback, friends!

Chapter Three

Y/N was sitting in the middle of the training room working on yesterday’s schoolwork. She liked the training room. It was wall to wall windows on three sides, the floor was black and glossy, and it just felt vast. It was a good place to be alone, and more than ever Y/N wanted to be alone this week. Tony still hadn’t really forgiven her for forcing him to talk the principal down from expulsion to suspension, Pepper was unsuccessfully trying to act normal, and Steve just seemed disappointed. So if she could avoid all of them for the week of her suspension and keep up on her school work, it was really the best she could ask for.

“There you are.” The warm voice of Peter echoed through the giant room as his amplified footfalls grew closer to where she sat in the center of the floor. “Delivery,” he lamely joked, as he approached and dropped a pile of paper next to the girl. Y/N didn’t move from the problem she was working on and she didn’t so much as acknowledge her friend, so Peter carefully sat down next to her and asked, “Still that bad, huh?”

“They’ll come around,” Y/N assured him, or perhaps herself, as she finished writing down the answer to the math problem she had been working on when the boy walked in. She sighed in disbelief. She didn’t really know any of them at all. She’d only been around for a few weeks and she’d already screwed up. She had no way of knowing how long this would last, and her new family aside, she herself had been struggling with the grey moral area she seemed to be sitting in. Disgruntled, Y/N pushed the textbook away from herself, asking, “Is what I did really that bad?”

“I mean, it’s not the approach I would have taken…” Peter pandered lightly.

Y/N jumped on his statement asking, “and what approach would you have taken?” She was desperate for some form of validation. She didn’t want to feel like a bad person. “If someone was boasting, lying about you like a sexual conquest, making you a trophy to be won because of your name, what would you have done?” She was staring straight into Peter’s soul, begging him for an answer.

Peter looked away uncomfortably. “I don’t know,” he admitted to the floor, pulling one knee up to his chest.

“I can’t even picture it,” Y/N realized. She looked off into the distance and could see the quin-jet through the far wall. She lived in a place full of such integrity. This was a place of heroes, and she was just some kid who could handle a cafeteria tray like a baseball bat.

After a moment's silence the gentle boy finally inquired, “Why did you do it?” She’d been asking herself the same question. She paused the think, and then came to a conclusion.

“Because my words meant nothing,” Y/N responded urgently. “No one was going to believe my word over Amadeus Cho, you know that. So I had to be louder.” And she was. The sound of the plastic smacking against Cho’s face was very loud, indeed.

“You really thought all that out during the walk from our table to his?” Peter quizzed in disbelief, looking back at the girl in awe.

“No!” Y/N scoffed as she gave the obvious response. “He was being a dick and I got angry.” Peter snorted at the abrupt change of tone in their conversation and began laughing along with the girl. Y/N was relieved to be laughing with Peter after everything that had happened. If she could laugh despite the guilty pit in her stomach, maybe things would be okay. The two began to grow quiet again, and Y/N sighed and confessed, “I do feel bad.” She didn’t like the serious conversation and she didn’t like feeling guilty, but she knew she needed it, so she continued to explain, “He’s not a bad person. I mean- I don’t think I believe that he’s a bad person, he just did some bad things-“ she paused to self-assess, “But did you hear that smack?” She was mortified. “That shit had to have hurt, and at the end of the day he made some bad choices, but I’m the one who actually hurt someone.”

“Hey,” Peter said as he elbowed Y/N in the side. “He did hurt you. In more ways than one,” the boy mumbled the second half, before quickly inquiring, “How’s that healing up, by the way?” She knew what he was referring to, but Y/N preferred to pretend it wasn’t there, because if it wasn’t there, maybe it didn’t happen. Peter kindly held out a hand to receive the Y/N’s arm and examine it. The bruising had mostly healed, but the last yellow remnants wrapped around her wrist in a splotchy fashion. He frowned and sighed at the sight. “Tell you what,” the boy said, staring at the remnants of her encounter with Amadeus Cho. “Don’t schedule anything for Sunday,” Peter commanded before suddenly standing up and casually walking toward the exit of the vast room.

“What?” Y/N quizzed. When she got no response she yelled after him in her confusion. “Peter!”

“Don’t ask any questions,” Peter called back as he turned around and began walking backwards. “Just trust me on this.” Y/N was confused why her friend would be so coded and was tentative to let him walk away on that note, but she inhaled sharply and nodded in agreement, earning a charming smile from Peter before he disappeared from the room.

It was quiet again and Y/N felt small in the huge facility. The teen miserably looked at the fresh stack of assignments Peter had left her. She had only just reached the end of the work he dropped off yesterday, and she didn’t want to keep going. Y/N groaned and dropped her face into the trigonometry book she’d been working out of before Peter had shown up. “Just land the fucking quin-jet on my head,” she mumbled into the pages, the sound of her voice echoing circles around her. She realized how pathetic she must look and quickly sat up with a gasp, shaking her head as if to wring out the bad vibes. She was completely determined to keep chipping away at the pile of work before her.

She begrudgingly crammed in the last of her trigonometry work and threw the heavy textbook across the room just to get it further away from her. It landed on the tile floor with a resonant smack that rang in her ears and made her immediately regret the impulsive act. Still, she was intent on powering through and picked up the fresh pile of work are started from the beginning of her day, pulling off the AP Lit sheets on existentialism and transcendentalism. She pushed through organic chemistry equations and the introductory history of the world, and by the time she had finished it all the training room was glowing orange with the light of the sunset over the horizon. It was beautiful. The same sunset she’d watched with such uncertainty her first day in the facility. Now it simply filled her with peace, a familiar view in the midst of her renewed confusion.

Y/N began to collect all of the completed paperwork as she watched the warm light of the sun disappear into a blue haze. Gathering everything into her arms, she quietly made her way out of the comforting room and across the building in the dim light. As she wandered down the many halls it took to get to her room, she caught a glimpse of Tony sitting on the couch of the lounge with a drink in his hand, a nightly ritual for the man. The girl paused. She didn’t want to be seen by him, and she especially didn’t want to talk. Y/N nervously ducked her head and tried to sneak by unnoticed.

Just as she’d reached the opposite wall, the man called, “Y/N.” Clearly, he’d noticed. The teen awkwardly stepped backwards, reversing back into view.

“Yeah?” Y/N asked tentatively. Tony didn’t speak, just curtly waved his free hand, a gesture that said, ‘come over here’ with ultimate clarity. Y/N anxiously hurried over to the man, setting the heavy pile of books and homework on the coffee table. She had a feeling this might take a while, and if she kept holding all of those papers her arms would give out before the conversation even started. She didn’t feel like sitting. She’d been sitting all day, so the teen opted to stand in front of the aloof man. She was antsy and began rolling her feet over to the side and back just to keep moving.

Tony rubbed his mouth with his free hand as he leaned forward and set the glass of liquor next to his child’s assignments. As he sat back into the couch he revealed his first card, “Peter told me what you said today-”

“Traitor,” Y/N whispered to the side.

Her  heart leapt into her throat when Tony aggressively demanded, “No, see, this is where you listen.” The violent tone made Y/N fearfully snap back to center, looking at the man and trying to ignore the pounding in her chest. “Peter’s a smart kid and he cares about you. He told me because I care about you, too.”

This was a statement that made Y/N uneasy. She wasn’t convinced and she immediately argued, “You barely even know me.” It was in a hushed, hurt tone. She couldn’t understand where Tony got this idea that he had to put on this concerned parent persona when he’d only known her for a few weeks. She hadn’t exactly done anything to earn his affection since she’d shown up. It hurt to know that she didn’t really have anyone to care for her the way family should, and her own body betrayed her as water began to flood across Y/N’s eyes.

“Don’t I?” the man asked as he pushed off from the couch to stand, causing Y/N to stumble backward in her fear. “I know you’re a strong personality, you don’t like being told what to do. If someone tells you what to do you’re most likely going to do the opposite. You like black even though it’s not a color. Your favorite flavor of ice cream is cake batter, I know because it keeps disappearing from the freezer, and I know that you feel guilty about hitting that boy,” Tony finished. His face softened as he begged, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well…” Y/N was annoyed by the persistence of this conversation, and insisted with a bitter tone, “it doesn’t exactly make a difference, now does it?” She didn’t understand this mode of conversing with Tony. So much of what they had done so far was quips and arguing. She didn’t understand why he was so determined and concerned, and she was completely unprepared to deal with it.

“It makes all the difference,” Tony protested. The aggressive nature in his sharp tone startled Y/N and caused the first tear to brim over and roll down her cheek. She thought she wanted to argue with her biological father, but she felt so emotionally fragile she wasn’t sure she could handle it anymore. “We all make dumb mistakes in the heat of the moment, but feeling remorse is what makes you a good person. It means you care about doing the right thing.” Y/N took two steps back, needing to distance herself from the man. She was overwhelmed. Where was this conversation days ago? Before she felt so alone in the great big office building she was so lucky as to call home. And now that it was here she was terrified, this wasn’t what she wanted. It didn’t feel good to be receiving this relentless support, it felt like suffocating and she couldn’t breathe.

The tears began to rain down her face and Tony took a step toward his daughter, while the girl took another step back and yelled, “Stop!” she paused to summon enough air to finish the command, “…consoling me, it doesn’t help!”

“What do you want me to do?” Tony asked pointedly. He was at a loss, but he just wouldn’t give up.

“I don’t know!” The teen near screamed back. She felt her face turning red and thought she must look like a maniac with the water drenching her cheeks. “I’m going crazy here! One moment I’m fine and I understand that what happened with Cho was not my fault, and the next I’m tearing apart all of my clothing in frustration!” She was ranting with no end, and she didn’t feel like stopping. “I keep saying I don’t think he would have forced anything on me and I don’t think he would have hurt me if Peter hadn’t shown up, but I don’t know that. I don’t feel safe anymore, Tony.” She stopped to breathe. The tears suddenly stopped as she said her peace and her face felt sticky like rice as the trails of water began to dry.

Tony inhaled deeply and bumbled the air out through pursed lips as he dropped back on the couch. Y/N watched as the man desperately picked up his drink from the coffee table and downed the mostly-full glass in one go. It was nerve-wracking. These were not the actions of a man in control, and Tony controlled everything in that tower. Tony sat with the empty glass in his trembling hand, hanging limply at his side. He stared at the unlit fireplace across the room and for a moment things seemed still. Then Stark unexpectedly jumped up and yelled as he violently threw his glass across the room. Y/N flinched in terror as it thunderously shattered against the wood floor, scattering in devastation.

Pepper came running into the room in a frenzy, her long silky robe flowing behind her. “What happened?” she asked urgently as she observed the shards of glass and the horrified teen. “Tony?” Pepper inquired carefully as she slowly approached the man consumed by stifled rage. Y/N watched as Pepper strategically touched his stiff shoulder. Carelessly, Tony shook her off and dropped to the couch once again, burying his face in his hands as they worked their way into his hair. He looked ill, almost like he might vomit if the eyes in the room weren’t staring at him. Pepper sat next to the distraught man and glanced up at Y/N, suggesting, “Maybe you should head to your room for the night.”

Y/N nodded and without any argument began hurrying out of the lounge in her panic. Tony held up a hand to signal her to wait. The girl slowed down as she approached the hallway before deciding to stop and listen to what the man had left to say. He hesitantly lifted his head from the other hand and looked at the teenager in anguish. “It’s tearing me apart, too, kid,” Tony mentioned hoarsely. Pepper began to coddle the man only to be met with him holding up a hand to her and complaining, “I’m fine.” Tony got up and walked toward the teenager who was waiting frightfully where the hallway met the corner of the room. He spoke as he crossed, “I don’t know what to do to help because I couldn’t keep this from happening to you in the first place, and I can’t help feeling that that’s on me.”

“I-i…” Y/N stuttered, the sound barely reaching her lips. “It’s no one’s fault,” the girl insisted quietly. At some points, she believed it more than others, but she maintained that it was true. Tony finally stopped face to face with the young and vulnerable teenager. She fearfully looked between his sad eyes, unsure what to say to the man who was meant to care for her. “I don’t blame you,” she whispered.

Tony nodded irregularly and simply said, “Get some sleep,” before turning around and walking back to Pepper. Y/N watched the broken man sit down next to his wife and lay his head on her shoulder. The teen felt stupid to have never realized that Tony took a hit that night, too. She glanced once more at Pepper combing through the mans hair and whispering comfort to him before tearing away to her room. She needed sleep. She needed today to be over.

She woke up early Sunday morning and was eager to see Peter after avoiding Tony all of Saturday. It scared her seeing him so manic Friday night, and she didn’t want to encounter it again. She wasn’t sure if it was nerves or excitement, but as she glanced at the clock she wasn’t surprised to see it read, “4:48 AM”. Y/N knew herself and she knew she wouldn’t get back to sleep, and she’d felt so trapped and stiff being suspended in the facility all week. A peculiar urge came over her that she just couldn’t shake and she rushed across the room to her closet, throwing on her Midtown gym tee with some ill-fitting shorts. She hurriedly pinned her hair back and ran downstairs to the lobby of the building. She saw Steve on the front patio stretching out and jogged to the entrance. As she opened the door, she felt the crisp morning air of autumn cool her skin and Steve looked over the shoulder he was stretching in calm surprise. 

“Can I come with you?” the teen asked uncertainly. She knew she couldn’t keep up with a genetically enhanced soldier, and it seemed silly to even entertain the notion, but it was less about getting out and more about being a part of the family she was dumped into. She could run on her own anytime, and while she needed to feel the movement and the burning in her limbs after such a stressful week, she had an overwhelming urge to do it with Steve.

“As if you hadn’t been punished enough already,” Steve teased, smirking as he waved the girl over to join him in stretching. She wasn’t exactly an expert in the sport of running. She did some track and field in elementary school, but not much else. So she tried to follow Cap, doing the stretches as she saw him doing them. After about five minutes of loosening the tension that resided in her stressed joints, Steve asked, “Are you ready?” Y/N was uncertain if this was a trick question or not. Of course, she’d never be ready to keep up with the mighty Captain America, but she nodded, determined to try her best.

Steve began jogging down the long driveway, and Y/N ran beside him. She knew he was holding himself back for her benefit, but she was kind of glad he was doing it. It meant he wasn’t doing anything begrudgingly. He actually wanted to spend the time with the teenager, and that meant the world to Y/N in the midst of her internal crisis. Everything was so uncertain lately, swirling with confusion in an ever-changing atmosphere. She wanted to join Steve’s ritual because it was consistent. It was always the same, and it was reliable, and Y/N needed that after everything that had come crashing down in her life over the last month. So she pushed, even when her tongue began to taste of metal, she sped up when her body begged her to slow down, and when her mind started to wander from the present task she would glance at Steve, and the determined look on his face as he watched the road before them would inspire her to keep present.

They paused at a drinking fountain located in a nearby park where Y/N could catch her breath and get a drink. She knew this wasn’t Steve’s normal ritual, but she could tell he was looking out for her, trying to make sure he didn’t push her too hard, so he forced her to stop and take a break. As she leaned into the bubbling stream of water, Steve placed his hands on his hips and looked off into the distance mentioning, “You know, Tony means well.” Y/N pulled her face away from the refreshing water and looked at the man, imitating his posture as Cap continued, “He just doesn’t know what to do this time.” Y/N was both intrigued by Steve’s insight and annoyed that her life continued to be the business of everyone in the Avenger’s Facility. The large man sighed and shook his head as he explained, “He wants to do the right thing to help you, he just doesn’t know what that is and it scares him-“

“I’m fine,” Y/N interrupted bitterly. She began walking along the path they’d been running down. “I don’t need his help.”

“Do you really believe that?” Steve asked with the kind of insight only a 100-some-year-old-man could provide. It was infuriating how considerately aware he was.

“I appreciate it, Steve,” Y/N mentioned limply, turning back around to face the man who was still standing at the water fountain, “but I really don’t want to talk about this right now.” At that she turned around and began running again, forcing herself to go faster than she thought possible. Within the blink of an eye, Cap was running right by her side once again like a bug you just can’t seem to shake off. She was really thankful that he hadn’t pushed the matter. It made her feel like she’d been listened to, and that triumph made her want to push harder, to run fast enough that Steve was doing more than just a jog beside her. She tried to smash her feet into the pavement as hard as they would allow, and lengthened her stride, catching that knowing smile in Steve’s perfect teeth as he sped up.

The burn of the rest of the run was almost unbearable, but Y/N was persistent. By the time she got back upstairs to her room and into the shower she was spitting down the drain, half expecting red blood to be swirling around at her feet. The cool water felt relieving as it ran over her sweaty body. Her muscles were sore, but the burning had died down. She used her favorite soap to thoroughly cleanse her body, delighting in the sweet scent, and took extra time to care for her hair even if Peter would be there in less than an hour. She was in a push for time as she stood infront of her wardrobe wrapped in a towel with a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, trying to figure out what to wear when she didn’t even know where they were going. She decided to just wear her normal ensemble with the exception of pulling out her light-wash denim jacket instead of the leather jacket. It seemed brighter, and it may have been the adrenaline from the run, but she was feeling more playful and present. She was lacing up her classic red converse when her phone began vibrating with Peter’s text that he had arrived. The girl bounded down the stairs and across the building, feeling the pain of the mornings run as she hurried to the lobby where Peter stood speaking to Tony. The sight of her friend made her smile. She felt really good about today.

His Aunt May had dropped him off at the facility, but they took Y/N’s Audi. It was strange for her to have to look away from the console so Peter could secretly type in the address of where they were going just to preserve the surprise. She never could have been prepared for where they arrived. It was a small park, but it was full of people. There were some stands around the edges of the field for groups and organizations from Planned Parenthood to Midtown School’s own feminism club. Without stopping to explain what he’d gotten them into, Peter walked off straight toward the booth from their school, and Y/N raced after him in confusion. The Midtown Feminist Club had small tent covering a modest table with a single petition in the center of it. There were only a few girls from school at the table, but front and center shouting at the crowd was MJ, only pausing her rallying to smile at Peter and Y/N as they approached.

“You guys made it!” Michelle exclaimed gladly as she reached over the table and embraced Peter.

As the two pulled away from each other Y/N admitted, “I’m still not exactly sure what we made it to,” hoping for some voluntary answers.

“Its a sister march,” MJ explained. “It’s not that big, but we’ve been growing every year. It's a festival and march for supporting women, which is why I’m standing here with a petition you two have yet to sign,” the girl pointed out, not caring to hide her ulterior motives as she held up two pens expectantly.

“What for?” Y/N asked as she leaned down to push pen to paper and sign it regardless of the answer. She may not know MJ like Peter did but the girl was still her friend and Y/N wanted to support her.

“We at the Midtown School Feminist Club believe that feminine hygiene products should be supplied in all bathrooms in the school, so this is a petition to the head of schools to divert funding toward that cause.” Y/N was thrilled by MJ’s proposal as she added the still unfamiliar ‘Stark’ to the end of her signature. Having to bring and organize one’s own sanitary products was like asking someone to carry around their own toilet paper. It wasn’t exactly a choice. It seemed like every day there was a teenage girl asking around for a tampon because they just so happened to run out, or not have one because their period took them by surprise. It was a common and biological issue, and it made sense to her that these products should be accessible. Y/N smiled kindly as she handed the pen back to Michelle.

As Peter leaned down on the table to sign his name on MJ’s petition, Y/N asked self-consciously, “So what exactly does one do at a sister march?”

“I have schedules if you want one,” the girl at the table offered. She grabbed a post-card looking itinerary from the left side of the table and handed it to Y/N, who glanced it over as MJ explained, “The booths will be up for another hour and then we march.” Peter lifted his head and MJ gave a closed-mouth grin as she took the second pen back. She seemed to be in her happy place. Y/N noticed she was much more talkative when there was activism involved. “Oh, I have pins, too!” the girl exclaimed as she pulled a couple of buttons from a small cardboard box and handed them to her friends. Y/N examined the baby pink pin in her hand. It had a multi-gender symbol in the middle and around it read, ‘Midtown School Feminist Club’. It looked like it had been designed in Microsoft Paint 15 years ago, but the identity of it made Y/N’s heart flutter as she proudly placed the pin over her heart on the denim jacket. It felt like being a part of something bigger than she was. She looked at a smiley Peter who had just pinned the button onto his sweater and felt the corner of her lip turn up at the adorable boy.

When Michelle began explaining the petition to attendees who approached the table, Peter and Y/N decided to keep walking and explore the festival. They were approaching the booth next to MJ’s when Y/N asked, “So why did you take me here, Peter?” He picked up a pin from a bowl and handed it to Y/N as she strolled alongside the boy uneasily and stumbled over the uneven terrain.

Peter glanced at the ground nervously, before responding, “I thought you could stand for seeing that you’re not alone and that you’re supported.”

Y/N sighed, frustrated that she couldn’t seem to get away from this conversation with anyone. “Is this about the Amadeus Cho thing?” She didn’t want to talk about it. Why could no one get that through their thick heads? She was fine. It sucked, but she wasn’t stuck on it.

Peter stumbled over a bump of grass as he attempted to explain, “Well, yeah, but-”

“Peter, I’m fine,” Y/N insisted, her heart sinking at the topic that resurfaced like a buoy. It was incessant and she was tired of having it.

“I don’t think you believe that as much as you want everyone else to,” Peter stated firmly, taking Y/N back. This was a level of assertiveness she’d never seen from the boy and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to it.

The boy handed her another button he’d picked off of the table for Planned Parenthood and Y/N systematically added it to her jacket as they continued wandering. “He made some bad decisions, but he didn’t hurt me. If anything I’m more angry at him spreading rumors that he scored a Stark,” Y/N admitted, turning to look at her feet in shame and discomfort.

Peter stopped walking and looked at the closed-off girl. He sighed and confessed, “I don’t get why you’re more upset about him lying about what happened than you are what actually happened.”

It was a revelation to be had. Y/N hadn’t even realized that was what she was feeling and it was hard to come to terms with. It was the presumptions about her for sure, the disgusting toxic masculinity, yes, but at its core, it was all about that name. She wasn’t mad about the party because he did listen to her, and he did stop, but when she showed up to school Monday, “He reduced me to nothing but a name,” she spoke aloud for Peter as she continued to process this realization. “Ask anyone at school and the first thing they’re going to say about me is that I’m Tony Stark’s daughter, but I’m not Tony Stark.” It was hard to explain how being know as Tony Stark’s daughter, how even with all those eyes watching her, or even because they were watching her, she could be completely erased and ignored.

“Well if you ask me,” Peter began unsolicited, “You need to own your name.” Y/N looked up at him, baffled. “People aren’t going to stop knowing you as Tony Stark’s daughter, so you need to change what that means to be a Stark.”

“I guess you’re right,” Y/N responded slowly, still trying to fully comprehend what it was she was agreeing to. They began walking again as she mulled it over. The made their way to the next booth for a nearby safe house for victims of domestic abuse, and Peter handed the fretted teen a small pin that said ‘You are not alone.’ The more she read that message, the more she felt like she understood what Peter was trying to do for her. She was surrounded by people who got it. She’d been having this conversation for days now about Amadeus Cho and how she was dealing with it and it only led to more confusion, but she was standing in this crowd of women, and they understood because they were going through it, too. She didn’t have to tell them a word about what happened, or why she did what she did, or how she felt. They all knew it because they’d felt all those insecurities themselves. She pinned the button on with the rest and continued on with Peter with an open mind and willing attitude she hadn’t held before.

After an hour of visiting all the booths, Y/N’s jacket was plastered with buttons of varying sizes. Planned Parenthood, “Sisters not Cisters”, and “The future is female” littered across the denim, and Y/N was ecstatic. She felt like she could be proud of the beautiful controversy she was wearing and she was ready to show it off to the streets of New York. They caught up with MJ as the crowd began to move and Y/N’s heart fluttered with excitement. Taking those first steps felt momentous, and it was huge. Michelle held up a sign between her two friends and yelled protests and chants along with the crowd, and it made Y/N feel powerful to follow such strong young woman’s lead. Soon enough Peter joined his friend in shouting and Y/N mustered the rest of her energy to scream, “My body, my choice!” on repeat with the mass of women. She felt supported and safe, not just with this crowd, but Peter who had the perspective to bring her to the sister march in the first place, and was now yelling feminist chants full-heartedly at her side.

By nightfall, the group spread around candles to be held as they continued through the darkness. MJ had pushed her way to the front lines and left Y/N and Peter to slow down to the back of the crowd. As a nice woman in front of them lit their candles, Y/N couldn’t help turning to her friend and saying, “Thank you for bringing me today, Peter.” She couldn’t explain how much it meant to her to be in that street. It didn’t fix anything, and it didn’t take away her confusion about everything surrounding her incident with Cho, but she finally felt free again. Walking with Peter in the crowd, felt like facing her fears, and she knew she could return to school Monday with renewed energy, holding her head high.

“You know I would have done anything to bring that smile back to your face,” the boy teased, poking her cheek with a free finger, which caused the girl to turn away shyly. For the first time she felt beautiful, her guard dropping away completely as she marched alongside the supportive boy.

“Would you want a ride to school on Monday?” Y/N asked quickly, eager to change the subject to something normal and friendly.

“Yeah,” Peter accepted mindlessly.

“Yeah?” Y/N wasn’t sure what she expected, but still his answer surprised her. “Cool,” she said, looking forward awkwardly as they continued following the warm candlelight through the sleepy streets of New York.

It was a beautiful orange glow that flickered on the walls of brick buildings. The screaming of chants had mostly died down to soft murmur as the women peacefully marched on. Y/N felt the back of Peter’s hand sweep across her cold fingers as she listened to the lullaby of the protesters. She couldn’t stop thinking how safe she felt surrounded by these people she didn’t even know, and with whom she’d just started walking with this morning. She felt courageous for the first time in a long time as she observed the giant shadows of their bodies casting on the wall. Y/N felt Peter’s hand once again, as it slowly brushed down her wrist and caught on her finger. The clear intent on his end made her pulse flutter. It seemed strange as she tangled her fingers uncoordinatedly with her friend, but as they sorted themselves out and he took her hand in his, it felt so right, she knew it couldn’t be wrong. 

Happy Birthday to the Anon who inboxed me!

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[sooghostwriter]

Bodyguard

Pairings: Do Kyung Soo x OC

Genre: Mature,  Romance, Angst (But not love angst), fluff 

Warnings: Main character under trauma.

Summary: Ae Ra is a singer who has been receiving threatening messages and letters for a while now, but she didn’t give them importance. Until one day the sender decides to act and kidnaps her. It’s then when her agency decides that she needs protection, so they hired two bodyguards for her. Mister Do and Mister Park.

Chapter 9 

She was back at her house two days later. An intern from her agency made sure to keep her house fresh, the plants watered and her fridge full. It wasn’t too hard to go back to her normal life. At least inside her house. She really missed her bed, her studio, her garden, and even her furniture. She even was able to sleep alone. At least the night of Chanyeol’s shift.

By the third day she decided that it was time to start facing things. She wanted to end this issue as fast as possible “Mister Lee Joon Young in now been questioned by my partner and the psychologist” It felt weird to finally know the name of that man. She wasn’t sure if it was a good weird or bad weird “I was at home once and I saw her perform on stage” She read on his statement “And I could see it. Her body language, the way she looked at the camera and her lyrics, she was calling for an uprising so her twisted ideas could reign, followed by a horde of innocent people who would do everything she said, they are all organized, ready to attack at any moment” Ae Ra couldn’t believe what she was reading “We ask him what his sources were, with the excuse that we needed to investigate it so we could press charges against you, he gave us a list of websites, hashtags, usernames, etc” He stopped and sighed in frustration “They were all fansites, blogs dedicated to you, fan accounts, and the words they used to refer to you are Queen, goddess , and everybody professed rather feverishly they love and blind trust towards you, acting like a cult, this only feed is fantasy” Chanyeol and Kyung Soo were showing their anger in different ways. Chanyeol was holding his head between his hands, shaking it in disbelief. Kyung Soo was laying back, his arms folded across his chest, and a leg bouncing in exasperation. He looked so mad that it scared her. It was tragicomic, Minseok always joked about how every fan meeting looked like mass, someone took it literal “That’s all we have for now, he believes he is in the right, so his attitude towards us is of course not the best, but he already confessed, everything is there, so we don’t need you to meet him, not until the trial at least” That was a relief. She was ready to face him, but that readiness was a lot of fake it until you make it. She was still terrified by him. And she didn’t even know what he looked like.     The detective walked them out of his office and engaged in a light conversation with them when they heard a small commotion ahead. Ae Ra stopped on her track, instinct maybe, and Chanyeol and Kyung Soo stood behind her. A couple of policemen walked in front of them, talking in their radios, and a couple of steps behind, two more cops walked by holding a handcuffed man. Ae Ra looked down out of respect and watched the three pairs of feet walked by, but one of them stopped “Ae Ra” A male voice called quietly “It’s you Ae Ra” He said louder this time, almost shouting. She looked up, she knew she shouldn’t have to, she should have taken a step back. But she didn’t, she looked up and met the eyes of the men calling her name. Lee Joon Young. He was tall, with long limbs, gaunt, and his skin lacked any shine or color. His eyes were red and big. He stared at her without blinking. He kept struggling, trying to free himself from the grip of the policemen, moving closer to her. She wanted to move away, but her legs didn’t respond “Let me go so I can finish her!” He shouted right on her face, but before she could move away, Kyung Soo pulled her behind him and rushed on his direction. Chanyeol was quicker this time and grabbed Kyung Soo, passing his arms under his armpits and over his chest. Kyung Soo tried to charge again, but Chanyeol stopped him. Joon Young began laughing, a loud, terrifying laugh “Look at that, your toy boy is here!” She was sure she felt the same rush of anger that Kyung Soo felt, wash over her. She took two big steps, but Chanyeol stopped her too, grabbing her by her jacket, stopping her from taking one step closer. She was furious, him calling Kyung Soo like that remained her of the times he tried to hurt him. She wasn’t going to let that happen again. She tried to take her jacket off so she could move, but Chanyeol noticed it and pulled her again, making her lose some balance. Only then Kyung Soo looked away from Joon Young and moved her attention to Ae Ra, worried that she could fall. At the same time, the two policemen were able to control Lee Joon Young and took him out of the place. Chanyeol didn’t release his friend or Ae Ra, just in case “You two are making a scene, let’s go!” He grabbed them both by the arm and walked them back into the detective’s office.

++

A couple of days later, Mister Min arrived at her house with her lawyer. Kim Junmyeon looked as young as he was, and she liked that.  Maybe he wasn’t very experienced, but he had the ethics that only youth gives you. And if Mister Min brought him, it meant he was good. Mister Min, Junmyeon, Kyung Soo sat at her dining table with her, cups of coffee at hand and folders with police reports inside “Lee Joon Young confessed all his crimes, although he didn’t really need to, his fingerprints were found on the gun that was used to shoot you, his car and motorcycle matched the ones seeing on the footage,  and we are going to use that,  but he sustains that it was a favor for our country, the defense is having a hard time” “What about Jin Tae Ri?” “Well in her case, she has a record, she recognized that she attacked you in the bathroom and broke into your house, the bathroom attack was a femicide attempt, which will give her the highest sentence and she was also an accomplice all the way” She was asking about that, sure, but she was worried about something else “What Miss Ji is really worried about is their mental state, Miss Jin has a story of substance abuse and Mister Lee has a diagnose of schizophrenia” Kyung Soo was able to put into words what she was really worried about. Junmyeon was worried about sentences and how many laws they broke, and it was great because he was a lawyer. And Ae Ra was conscious about how much they both hurt her and affected her these last months, but she also knew that it was something beyond their control. So they couldn’t pay for what they did as everybody does. And also, they got Kyung Soo in the middle. That wasn’t going to go unnoticed.  “Miss Ji, I can ask for a number of years…but the prosecution needs a stand on that matters too, I understand your position and I support it, and I can promise you that I will try to help you, helping them” That was all she was asking for “Thanks Mister Kim” He smiled warmly at her and kept informing them about the curse of the case.

+++

After weeks, she stayed by herself at her house for the first time. She missed the company, but she didn’t feel lonely or scared. One time a bird clashed with her kitchen window, and she almost called the police, yes. But after she took a couple of deep breaths, as her therapist recommended, she was back to normal. Therapy was doing wonders. And not only in the matters related to Jin Tae Ri and Lee Joon Young. She now had new weapons to come back to her idol lifestyle. She learned that she didn’t need everyone’s approval, that resting was necessary, that her own image couldn’t be based on how people saw her and that she didn’t own an explanation to anyone regarding her life. Most specifically her private life. She realized that therapy will become a health necessity for her, like the 6 pills of vitamins and supplements she took every day.

Kyung Soo arrived a bit after dinner time “I thought today was Chanyeol’s shift” She commented as he great her at the door, kissing her warm cheeks and giving her a long hug “It was, but we reached a deal” A deal was kind of a big word. He simply told Chanyeol that he was going to Ae Ra’s house, and he only agreed. He grabbed her hand and walked her inside the house into the living room. He sat in the couch and patted the spot beside him. Ae Ra sat as close as she could and passed her arms around his waist resting her head on his shoulder “Did you eat? I cooked some pasta like you taught me” He regretted the bowl of Udon he ate, he wanted to try her food “Don’t worry, I ate with Chanyeol before I came here” He embraced her back, pulling her even closer and kissed the top of her head “Ae Ra, Chanyeol and I had a meeting today with your boss and our boss” “Our bosses, remember we are coworkers” He laughed softly and ruffled her hair “Right, I forgot, well, a lot of things came from that meeting” He prompted her to move so he could look at her when talking about this matter. She released him from her hold but grabbed his hand. He was pleased with the skinship “Tell me, tell me!” She asked eagerly “First, your agency will be hiring the services from our agency permanently for you and your colleagues, which got us two big bonus checks” He was going to be able to afford a new mattress and a better oven “Congratulations!” “Thank you, also, we talk about our contracts” He saw the change on her face. From happy too wary in a second “You are going to have a bodyguard from now on, that will accompany you only in public appearances” “And is not you” She guessed “And is not Chanyeol” She was right again “Is a colleague and friend of us, Jongin” Her expression softened a little bit “If he is your friend, I guess is alright, when is he starting?” “After your trial” Now she was free of tension “You wanna see him, I’m sure I have pictures with him” He fetched his phone from his back pocket and searched for a picture. He found one of Jongin and Chanyeol at the new year party of the agency in full suit. Ae Ra’s eyebrows went up “Is he going to protect me with how beautiful he is? Is he planning of dazzling people?” He laughed at her comment and looked at the picture again. He did look quite dazzling “Don’t look at him too much, you could end up falling in love with him” He joked, bringing up their inside jokes “Impossible” She leaned forward, tilting her head, her eyes focused on his. He knew that look. He liked that look. He grabbed her strongly by her waist, pulling her on his lap. He wrapped Ae Ra’s body with his arms, nosing her neck taking in her wonderful scent. She circled his neck with her arms and caressed his back and head absentmindedly. He felt like taking a nap. Ae Ra always talked about how he was a strength for her. How he brought her peace and calm. But she had no idea how peaceful felt to be in her arms. How healing her warmth was. And it wasn’t that he was particularly stressed, but the world always drove him a bit mad. Too much noise and too many things going around. But being with Ae Ra felt as if she was stopping time, and he had time to breathe.

++++

She met with Mister Kim several times before the trail. He always came in with new information. He confessed that this was the first time he worked almost hand in hand with the prosecution “Next week we will present our evidence, they will say that it was all product of his schizophrenia and her drug abuse, and then we will ask for a sentence that the judge has to approve” “What sentence are you asking for?” “15 years…that’s the minimum” He clarified, but still it sounded like so much “He hasn’t been very collaborative with his lawyer. They could lower if he accepted that he is sick and needs treatment for example, but he isn’t doing it yet…in fact, he keeps repeating that you need to be put on trial” Ae Ra was worried about that. She had to be at the trail. And if he kept acting as he did before when encountering her, the situation wasn’t going to be pretty “What should I say? If I get ask if I am sending secrets messages through my music and all that, what should I say?” Junmyeon gave her a funny look. And when she heard what she just asked, she felt stupid “Ok, I know what I should say, no, of course, but how?” It was an honest question. Did she need to be calm? Or be emphatic? Maybe giggle before answer because it was a stupid question, should she bring proof that she wasn’t a dictator? “If they ask you, just say no, explain what your writing process is, what you write about, actually Joon Young told the police which are the songs with subliminal messages” He pulled a list of ten songs from one of the folders. They were all singles, of course “This is insane, this two are about summer, this one is about partying, this three are about not giving up and the rest are love songs” Junmyeon asked her if she wrote all of them. She did. He recommended her to bring the drafts for the songs, notebooks, etc, so they could have it on hand. Just in case. Their meeting went on for two hours. He had to go to the police station for the last bit of proofs “Miss Ji, we can’t make him go through therapy before the trial, I wish we could,  I will do my best so you both have a fair trial, but you have to remember that justice is here for a reason” “Why are you telling me that?” “Your manager and bodyguard told me that you could be thinking of drop all charges on him” Those bastards, how could they read her so well “Don’t worry Mister Kim, I will not do that, I trust you” He bowed at her smiling, and then left. A couple of minutes before he left, she got a message from him – Sorry, forgot to tell you that the trial is set for next Friday – She had to run to the bathroom for the sudden nausea she got.

+++++

She wasn’t surprised when she arrived at the court and a sea of reporters rushed to her. Chanyeol and Kyung Soo stayed next to her, unwavering. She didn’t answer any question as instructed by Mister Kim and walked inside the building. Head up, as Kyung Soo instructed. She was amazed at how she didn’t fade, even after not eating for almost a day. Her anxiety got the best of her and only water could go down her throat. Any solid thing was immediately rejected. It scared her a little bit. This was worse than on other occasions. She even had a pregnancy test, because of nausea. The idea of having to relive everything that happened in the last months. Every fear, every encounter disgusted her. Mister Kim promised her that she wouldn’t have to talk more than necessary, after all, there were proofs that spoke for themselves. But having to hear everything, as if someone was reading a horror novel to her, wasn’t appealing at all. Chanyeol, Kyung Soo, Mister Min, Sehun, Minseok, Baekhyun were witnesses. Specially Kyung Soo and Chanyeol since they were there at the worst attacks. She sat next to Junmyeon as a couple of journalists allowed at the courtroom arrived. She could recognize two girls from her fan site, a small group of people wearing t-shirts with her name on it and people from her agency. Time passed so slowly. Junmyeon told her that in 10 minutes Lee Joon Young was going to arrive. But those 10 minutes never passed. And then he arrived. And suddenly everything happened very fast. First thing Joon Young does when he arrives is lock eyes with her and grin menacingly. She looked away immediately and found Kyung Soo’s eyes looking at her. He looked peaceful as always. He smiled softly at her, and involuntarily she smiled back. How not to. And he did that for the rest of the trial until it was his turn to give a statement. Lee Joon Young remained quiet the entire time. When Chanyeol and Kyung Soo testified, Mister Kim asked them very specific questions, then the prosecutor did the same and Joon Young stayed quiet the entire time. Smiling sometimes, nodding or talking to himself. Ae Ra avoided his figure. He only looked at whoever was standing in the witness stand. She didn’t quite listen to what they were saying though. It was self-defense. The last one to give his statement was Mister Min. Ae Ra couldn’t avoid listening to him. He spoke seriously, but every word was charged with a fatherly feeling an emotionality. Once he was done, the defense had their turn. It all went as Junmyeon told her. The prosecutor did what he could with what little he had. He didn’t deny any accusation. And when he reached the motive for the attacks, his tone was apologetic. But the whole room reacted. Her agency never published the whole story. They all knew Ae Ra took the hiatus for the attacks, but no one knew who was attacking her, or how. The angriest ones were her fans. The small group that made it to the courtroom complained loudly at the lawyer and Lee Joon Young. She could feel the shade they were sending them. The defense finished and the judge called for a twenty minutes recess and left the room, so he could come back with the verdict. The police took Lee Joon Young to another room and Ae Ra went to sit between Chanyeol and Kyung Soo. He grabbed her hand and hid it under his coat, meanwhile Chanyeol and Baekhyun distracted her with silly comments. Junmyeon looked confident and it was contagious. She was feeling positive all of the sudden. This could end up soon and in the way she hoped. Twenty minutes passed. This time faster, and they all went back to their sits. The judge, a middle-aged man who looked bored started going over the case. Pointing out the facts, how believable the evidence presented was “After considering the evidence showed to me, listen to all the witnesses and considering the mental situation of the accused, besides him not being able to recognize it, I came to the decision that Mister Lee Joon Young will be sentenced to 15 years at psychiatrist facility designated by this court, where he will receive the treatment he needs to overcome his situation, but also serve his sentence for the several times he broke the law. Because even if the history that his mind was making up about Miss Ji and her intentions for the citizens of South Korea was true, killing her was never the answer. As she came to justice to clean this situation, he should have done the same” He hit the table with his hammer, and everybody stood up as he left. Joon Young lost it there. He started shouting that he wasn’t crazy and that she needed to be erased from here. Before he could keep shouting and getting himself another charge, two big bulky officers came and almost lifted him from the floor, taking him out. Hearing Joon Young’s loud voice scared her again, and she was sure the memory of it will keep making her jump in shock. She could hear him shout outside, until the sound was a low hum. No one celebrated. No one clapped. And she was thankful for it. Her fans didn’t try to talk to her out of respect, but she made sure to thank them for being there. She answered a couple of questions from the journalist but cut it short since she was planning on giving a press conference. After everybody left only her friends and boyfriend stayed with her. They didn’t congratulate her nor celebrate. They only hugged her and patted her back. There was nothing to celebrate really, so she was kind of relieved by her friends’ actions. They took their time to go out, although time wasn’t going to help. The journalists outside the court were able to wait for her under heavy rain if it was necessary. They resumed their positions and Chanyeol and Kyung Soo sandwiched her and walked outside, pushing back every daring journalist and photographer that came too close. She jumped inside the van, and went to the back seat, feeling exhausted “Now go straight home, take a bath, eat and then go to bed, we need you strong for tomorrows trial with Jin Tae Ri” Right, it wasn’t over yet, she thought, falling asleep on the back seat.

++++++

After the two trials, she stayed at her parents’ house for a couple of days. Her house was still surrounded by journalists. It was a very emotional visit. She didn’t inform them about all the things that happened to her this past month. She forbid them to go to the trial or google her and they obeyed. That’s why when she told them everything that happened, they broke into tears, especially her dad. She spend some good thirty minutes being hugged by them. Just like that time when she was 10 and broke her arm, they didn’t know what else to do to comfort her, to make the pain go away “But there is no more pain mom and dad” She assured them “And that’s the next thing that I want to talk about with you both…Kyung Soo you can come in now”. When Kyung Soo was driving her to her parent's place, she dropped the bomb “Since we are visiting them and is your shift, I will tell mom and dad that we are dating” He almost crash with the car ahead “Can you wait until we stop working together?” “Why?” “Well…what are they going to think about me? We started dating, we work together and we pretty much live together, that makes me look like a horrible man” She giggled and hold his hand “My mom already knows about us, and she doesn’t care, my dad is going to be busy thanking you for taking care of me and all that, don’t worry they are going to love you, and also, they are modern people, they got married after I was born and my mom is 7 years older than my dad and she was his boss at the company they worked” “I…ok…yeah it’s like us” “It’s not like us, because she was his boss and we are…” “Coworkers, yes, we are coworkers” He interrupted her, sounding exasperated but still smiling. He wasn’t smiling when he came to their living room though. He was dead serious, he was good at that. She gave him a signal to relax, but he ignored her. Kyung Soo sat on the sofa in front of them and remained silent “As mom already knows, so I guess dad you are informed too, Kyung Soo and I are dating” Kyung Soo bowed until his chest almost touched his knees. Ae Ra stood up and sat next to him, she didn’t like how lonely and sorry he looked there by himself “I’m aware of your relationship…I’m glad you brought him, we are going to have a couple of days to know each other better” “I’m sorry we have to meet under this circumstances Kyung Soo” Her mom spoke to him softly, smiling at him “I’m sorry I didn’t come here early ma’am” “Oh, those are silly details, don’t worry” Her dad got up and stood in front of Kyung Soo, signaling him to get up too. He did so with military obedience, and her dad immediately catch him in a hug “My wife told me all the great things about you, I know how much you have done for our daughter, I’m glad I can call you son from now on” She always knew she got her talent with words from her dad. After the crying and after her parents finally left Kyung Soo alone with all their hugs, she was able to get her boyfriend back and go for a walk with him. It was already dark outside and there were very few people on the streets. Kyung Soo bought two coffees and they walked for almost three hours around the neighborhood. She showed him her high school, her old house, the place where she took piano lessons since she was six, the laundromat where she worked for the first time “And last, the next year I was hired by my agency, the owner plays one of my records every day” “Were you a good employee?” “Of course I was…although one time I was careless and a red sock went inside a charge of white clothing…thank god it was my dad’s clothing, he wore pink shirts and t-shirts for months” Kyung Soo broke into a goofy laugh, his apple cheeks glistening in the night lights. It was so nice to see him laughing like that again.  It felt like in the past week everybody around her, including herself, were pained, or pitying and Kyung Soo wasn’t the exception. She knew why, she wasn’t going to blame him. He was always the one giving her calm and reassurance, but he was as human as she was, and he was only worried for her. But know everything was over. Jin Tae Ri and Lee Joon Young were sentenced, and they were going to receive the help they needed. Her agency was taking care of the press and arranging her press conference, and finally her marvelous fans were taking care of all the hate she could get in social media. Now her only worry was to go back to her normal life. She got a text from her mom telling them to go back home for a midnight snack, so they turned around and walked back, holding each other by the waist, sharing some warmth. It was three in the morning when they went to sleep. Her parents went to their room, Kyung Soo got a futon on the living room and she went to her room. She didn’t go to bed immediately though. She waited until her parents were asleep, to snick out of the room to the living room. She found him in bed already, but still awake “Ae Ra, go to sleep” He told her from under the covers “No, I want to cuddle, move” She got under the covers and pushed Kyung Soo to the side until her body was firmly pressed to his. Despite the initial response, he immediately enveloped her in his arms, kissing her nape “What if your parents come in?” “They are already sleeping, nothing can wake them up” He hugged her tighter, so she imagined he had already given up “I like your parents” “They like you” “Thank god, so we are really doing this? Dating?” She turned around in his embrace, curious “What do you mean? We have been dating for almost a month now” “Yes,  but now you introduce me to your parents, so is very official” He was right, kind of “Actually, we haven’t informed my other parents yet, my agency” Kyung Soo cursed under his breath “Look, I will take care of that, but only after Jongin starts working with me” “So this Monday” “That soon! Today is Thursday!” Kyung Soo covered her mouth, but it was too late, with some luck, her parents wouldn’t hear her yelling “If it helps, tomorrow Chanyeol will be with you, but I’m going to take Saturday and Sunday shift” That did help, a lot “And then on Monday Jongin will take over, but since you don’t have a schedule until Friday, Chanyeol and I will guide him through some stuff at your house and agency, so for some days you are going to have three bodyguards” Not bad, she thought “Kyung Soo, I still have to talk with my agency, but for the time being, I prefer us to keep dating in secret, I want to avoid any situation where you could get hurt, some fans can be very rude and hurtful, you don’t deserve going through those things… at least meanwhile all this fades off” “Whatever you want Ae Ra, I want the best for us, especially for you, I can only follow what you say in this matter, you know best, so whenever you feel ready, open up about us” She felt a burn in his heart, not a bad one. It was just a burst of something. That burst she felt whenever she saw him, but it was stronger when he said those kinds of things. Words of understanding, support, care and love. She planted a chaste kiss on his lips, because what else does one do on those situations. He smiled and she knew she did well. She caressed his cheeks, his cute ears and head “Are you willing to be kept in the shadows? I can’t tell the world about you, I can’t even take you out on dates” As she asked him, her voice broke. He was alarmed for a second, but then smiled at her again, returning her caresses “I don’t like going out that much either” She moved her hands away from his face and hugged him. His lips pressed against her forehead, hers resting on the base of his neck. Kyung Soo whispered different words of love until she fell asleep.

The next morning she was awakened by her mom “Ae Ra, wake up and go to your bed before your dad comes in, poor Kyung Soo would be mortified” She followed her mom’s order, half-awake, half asleep and was able to release herself from Kyung Soo’s grip. She saw Kyung Soo move peacefully on his sleep. It was still 7 in the morning, he still had some minutes of sleep left. As she closed the door of her room, a strange feeling settled in her chest. This peace and this homely feeling they have been sharing all this time were coming to an end. She was on her way to come back to her normal life. To the busy schedules, the airport life, the rumors and the lack of privacy. And despite all the things Kyung Soo told her that night, one could never know how he would actually feel when rumors of her dating another celebrity came out, or when she cancels dates, when she was so physically and emotionally exhausted that she didn’t want to see anyone or when the first possessive fans started attacking him. She trusted that he was brave and that he loved her. But this wasn’t about her. She was terrified of the mere thought of him getting hurt.

___

Note: After watching police show after police show (Bones, The Mentalist, Brooklyn 99, etc). After watching so many dramas with lawyers on it (Suspicious Partner, Lawless lawyer, While you were sleeping, etc) here I am forgetting every single term and how the law works. Fuck it.

Next week, last chapter!!

[crowkingwrites]

Username: InfernalHeir

Pairing: Ramsay Bolton X Reader

For this one, I decided to combine two fic requests.

Words: 3474  // Ao3 Link //Game of Thrones Masterlist

You pressed ‘post’ on your most recent blogpost detailing yet another day in the thoughts of your mind. Of course, not many people would read about another female college student, but you had your followers. Some were your friends who enjoyed your writing, others were book nerds, but you loved them all.

One person would always comment and like your posts, but you never knew who. You asked your friends, but all of them claimed it wasn’t them. You clicked on the profile only to learn that this user had no posts of their own. Only their username: InfernalHeir.

Some days the user bothered you. Asking personal questions you’d rather not answer. Other times InfernalHeir would be sweet. Complimenting your writing, intelligence, and kindness. Still, you’d wondered who it was.

*Ding! Ding!*

A notification on your phone went off, and there it was. ‘InfernalHeir has liked your post’. You shrugged it off and turned in for the night. You had an early exam in the morning in American Western History. Some students preferred to stay up late, but you enjoyed your early bedtime. You curled up with another book and a cup of warm tea.

The next morning, you walked out of your first class feeling slightly defeated. A fast-talking, excited blonde walked alongside you.

“Can you believe that? Another Disney Channel star going into rehab,” she shook her head and stared at her phone. “That’s sad. That says something about Disney. Geez. What do you wanna do for lunch?”

“Gabe?” you replied.

“Oh right! Gabe! I almost forgot,” she said. “This is why I have you. I swear to god I wouldn’t survive without you. I’ll text Gabe back. Think he’ll meet us in the dining hall?”

Hillary was the type of friend who went out and partied every weekend. She was also the friend who had too many friends on facebook. Most people envied you for being her very best friend. Hillary stuck to you like Shaggy stuck to sandwiches. She was your only true friend, and you loved her dearly.

“So, Gabe texted us back. He’s down with the dining hall. But, he’s not alone. He’s got people with him. Including Tony,” Hillary wiggled her eyebrows. Your face started to turn red. You tried to hide yourself in your books. “You gotta talk to him!”

“I don’t know,” your voice trailed off.

“Oh come on! He totally likes you!” Hillary kept talking. “And you guys would be such a cute couple! Seriously! Like think of every bookish, quiet girl, right? And then think about like every athletic dude, right? Like you guys are Hollywood-movie-dream couple, ok? You have to talk to him!”

“You really think he likes me?” you said with a little bit of confidence.

“Honey! It’s so obvi!” Hillary threw her hands in the air. “He smiles at you all the time. He always likes your pics on Instagram. Like do you need any other sign?”

You smiled to yourself as you both walked through the doors of the dining hall. You saw Gabe from a mile away. His purple afro stood out against everyone else in the room. He wore a shirt stained with all different colors of paint. The college basketball team surrounded him and Tony. Tony stuffed his mouth full of spaghetti and meatballs.

“Gabe!” Hillary shouted out. A smile came to Gabe’s face.

“There’s my big girl! What’s up, mama?!” Gabe laughed and embraced Hillary. She giggled.

“You gotta stop callin’ me mama!”

“I’ll stop calling you mama when you stop cookin’ like my Mama, alright?” Gabe flirted with her. “What’s up, Y/N?”

You smiled and nodded at Gabe. Hillary tried to drg you to parties all of the time. She simply couldn’t understand why you hated people. People were great! Gabe would stick up for you when you ran out of excuses for Hillary. He knew you were only just shy. Gabe nodded back at you.

“Y/N!” Tony shouted for you. He patted a seat next to him. You glanced back at Hillary who pushed you Tony’s way. You happily took your seat next to him. Tony smelled of the woods at midday and apples baking into a pie. Every time you sat close to him, you wished you could give him a long hug.

“Hi,” you managed to say.

“Hey you,” Tony nudged you. “How are you today?” You felt butterflies in your tummy. Their wings tickled your insides. It brought a big smile to your face.

“I’m good,” you smiled.

“Good. Good,” Tony nodded, smiling back. Every day it was like this. A smile here. A question there. Your shyness prevented you from doing any actual talking to Tony. He made you nervous. If you messed up in front of him, you’d fear you would never show your face in front of him again. Days like this made you feel helpless in every sense.

You started to write your daily blog post for the night. A familiar song came on your Spotify, and you smiled because the timing was too perfect.

Hi everyone!

I can’t help myself anymore. If I don’t put this into writing, I might explode! There’s this guy I can’t stop thinking about. He’s tall and sweet and every time I see him I wanna just collapse into his arms and never leave. I feel so ~helpless~ (Ah! AH! Hamilton reference anyone??) And its sooooooooooooooooooo perfect that Taylor Swift started to play. Now, I’m listening to You Belong With Me, and fuck! These feels guys!! I really think we belong together so much. Its just I cant fucking talk to him. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh kill me.

If anyone out there can tell the girls who reads too much how to actually flirt with another dude please help.

You pressed ‘post’ and your thoughts went live to the Internet. It wasn’t long after until you started to get comments from people.

LilyRose29: Try talking about movies! Guys always have movies they wanna talk about.

Potterhead4Ever: Slide into his Dmsssssss

HilsBils: I swear to God!!!!!!!!!! If you don’t talk to tomorrow I’m telling on you.

You chuckled at Hillary’s comment. She loved drama and you bet she wasn’t kidding either. You made a mental note that Hillary would put you and Tony together somehow and force you to say something other than ‘I’m good’. You refreshed the page to find a new comment at the bottom.

InfernalHeir: If he’s jock, he only wants to fuck you and leave you. He doesn’t deserve you.

Your stomach turned a bit at the hateful comment. It was comments like this that made you wonder who the frick this user was. They will say awful things like this, but then compliment you as if you were some perfect coffee shop girl au. You hated it, but it made you think. Tony was on the college basketball team. He was a jock, and they had a certain reputation.

The next day, you took a trip to the bookstore. Every Saturday, you slowly wandered around a bookstore and let yourself drink in the different worlds and discoveries and lives and deaths of everything and everyone. It was your time to yourself and you loved every second of it. You let your coffee warm your hands as you skimmed through cooking books.

You heard a book drop nearby and you jerked your head around to see. Picking up the book was a familiar face. His messy brown hair and startling stare stuck out. Ramsay Bolton. Hillary told you some odd things about him. How he would talk about himself, yet no one seemed to know anything concrete about him. How rich his family was. Hillary had secretly confessed that she thought he would shoot up the place if anyone ever said ‘no’ to him.

He looked your way as he picked up the book, and stayed there when the book returned to the shelf. Ramsay didn’t move. Feeling something off, you left the bookstore early.

The next week was filled with even more butterflies from Tony. Both of you texted back and forth. Mostly gifs and memes, but you texted him. He even studied with you! It wasn’t until Friday when you and Tony were left alone at a party when he asked you out. You immediately squealed and told the Internet what happened. You felt like your heart beat a thousand times over. Saturday came again, and you did your ritual.

The bookstore smelled of candles burning and musty air. It made you wonder if anyone has made a candle that smelled of old books yet. You bumped into someone in front of you. Before you could mumble your apology, you noticed the same blue eyes from the Saturday before.

“Good morning, Y/N,” Ramsay said. His intense stare caught you frozen. “What do you have there?”

“Two books,” you said quickly. You glanced at the exit. It wasn’t too far.

“About what?” Ramsay tried to get a closer look by coming closer to you.

“Nothing important,” you darted towards the door before e could say anything else. Of course, you told Hillary the whole thing.

“No way!” she said, pinning her hair up from tonight’s party. “You gotta stay away from him. He gives me the creeps.”

Tony held your hand at the party, but he didn’t ask you to dance. Both of you were in agreement that you were both bad dancers.

“Hey, uh, can I get you a drink?” he asked you. You nodded enthusiastically. When Tony left you sitting by yourself, someone else took his spot.

“Is he bothering you?” Ramsay asked. Shocked that he was here at the party, you cowered away from him. He got closer to you. “I mean it. Is he bothering you?”

“No,” you said. You looked away from him, hoping he would leave.

“You can tell me.” Ramsay didn’t take the physical hint from you. “I can make him leave if you want me to.”

“Hey!” you both heard. Tony held two drinks in his hand and glared at Ramsay. “The fuck you doing?”

Ramsay stood up slowly. You watched them stare each other down until Ramsay slowly walked away from you. You took the drink from Tony as he walked you away into a more private space.

“You good? Did he bother you?” Tony asked you. His eyebrows knitted while he waited for your response.

“Yeah. I don’t really like him,” you told him in confidence.

“Yeah. No one does,” Tony continued. “You tell me if he bother you again, ok? I got you, babygirl.” You smiled at his new nickname for you. Babygirl. You repeated it in your head over and over. When you logged into your blog again, you found a private message.

InfernalHeir: you've got a smile that could light up this whole town // I know you better then that Hey what you doing with a boy like that.

You closed your laptop as you mouthed some curse words. Lyrics from You Belong With Me. Who was InfernalHeir and how did they know you and Tony were together tonight?

You tried not to put any energy into the idea. Or anything that InfernalHeir did, but this was getting personal. You sat in the library with Tony. Each of you worked on your own essay. Well, at least you did. Tony scrolled from meme to meme to meme. You typed away on a paper until you got an airdrop notification.

‘Item from “InfernalHeir”

You opened it up to see another set of lyrics from Taylor Swift’s song. Along with a more personal message.

I know your favorite songs And you tell me about your dreams I think I know where you belong I think I know it's with me

Think Tony knows you? He doesn’t know you like I do.

InfernalHeir knew who Tony was. You looked around the library and saw other students just studying or pretending to study like Tony was. You slammed your laptop and started to pack your things.

“Hey, hey, hey! What’s wrong, babygirl?” Tony asked, slowing you down. You bit your lip.

“You’re gonna think its stupid.” You responded to him. You didn’t like feeling vulnerable like this.

“Try me,” Tony said. You told him the story of InfernalHeir and their comments, including the most recent one now. Tony hugged you tight.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “That’s messed up. That’s really messed up. There’s no way you have enemies. You’re too quiet for that. Can you think of anyone who doesn’t like you?”

You shook your head. You had very limited friends. You wouldn’t do or say anything too terrible about anybody. Tony assured you it was only some internet troll who got off on doing stuff like this to people. Both of you decided to do dinner by yourselves, leaving the usual friend group behind.

Tony and you giggled and flirted in each other’s company at a 50’s themed diner. You shared a cookies and cream milkshake as you threw fries at one another. He held your hand more and escorted you back to his car where both of you saw his front tire punctured and flatted. A quickly written note was attached to the knife in the tire.

“Memorizing you is as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song.”

“Oh fuck no!” Tony became livid. “This is enough. This is seriously fucking enough. This dude is done.”

“Wait, how do you know it’s a guy?” you asked.

“Oh, I bet I fucking know which one too,” Tony scrolled through his phone. You wanted to ask tony what he meant, but you heard Gabe on the other end of the line. Each of them cussed and revved each other up. Next thing you knew, Tony threw back two vodka shots before getting into a car with Gabe and their drug dealer.

“What’s going on?” you asked, more worried than ever. “What did you mean you knew who InfernalHeir was?”

“Hey, don’t worry babygirl,” Tony winked. “He won’t be bothering you anymore after this. I promise.” His warm lips collided with yours and you felt the world melting slowly away like your favorite candle. The car sped away and you silently hoped everything was OK.

The weekend passed without anything from Tony or InfernalHeir. It bothered you, but it also brought you relief. You laughed to yourself remembering a certain wizard’s words: ‘You’re gonna suffer, but you’re gonna be happy about it.’ Ronald Weasley’s words couldn’t be truer. You paced in your room Monday night. You texted Tony and posted another blog post and waited to see who would respond first.

You stared at your computer for a while until you heard your phone text song go off. You felt a sense of relief. You knew tony would text you back. He was right. InfernalHeir wouldn’t bother you again. You unlocked your phone and saw that the newest text was not sent from Tony.

Unknown: You didn’t think it would be that easy to be rid of me, did you?

A dreadful feeling settled in your heart. You knew it was InfernalHeir. It had to be. You turned off your phone and fell asleep. Tomorrow was a new day. Nothing to worry about. Tomorrow would be fine.

First, you heard Tony was in the hospital. Then, Gabe refusing to tell Hillary where he was last Saturday. More unknown texts were sent to your phone.

You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me. You belong with me.

It made your stomach turn. You started to feel trapped. You hadn’t made a single post in three days. Your irl friends understood why. Internet fans asked if you were okay.

Potterhead4Ever: are you okay?

CaptainCronch: Sending good vibes and hugs!

But, someone else texted your phone. The one person that kept on terrorizing you. You saw the unknown number and their text.

Why did you stop posting? Was it something I did?

The anger built up in you like nothing else. You weren’t the type that was easy to anger, but you had enough. Your fingers typed faster than they ever did before. You could feel color rushing your face as you pressed send to InfernalHeir. He responded back immediately.

Unknown: What if we meet? I can explain everything.

You: Why should I give you that chance?

Unknown: Because I love you.

The four words shocked you. It chilled the room and made your heart beat faster than it ever did before. No one ever told you that. You never had a boyfriend. You’ve kissed boys, but never a boyfriend. Your thumbs hovered over your keyboard. Your head seemed like television static. Everything was fuzzy and not a single coherent thought was there. Luckily for you, InfernalHeir texted you first.

Unknown: Please say yes. I don’t want to do anything bad to you. If you don’t say yes, I’m gonna have to resort to desperate measures. Please don’t make me go that far. Look outside. I left you something.

You dropped your phone on your bed. You slowly made your way to the door and opened it. The creaking noises disturbed the stillness of the college dorm room corridor. On your door, there was a single rose. The thorns were not removed and another note was attached to it. In a quick scrawl of handwriting, you read the note.

Every single day Every word you say Every game you play Every night you stay I'll be watching you

You must have been fucking crazy. You considered putting yourself into therapy as you passed the psychology section in the bookstore. It was the only place that made you feel safe enough to meet someone here. Hillary texted you that she and Gabe got into another fight. She wondered what you knew about that particular Saturday night. As much as you wanted to tell your best friend the truth, you had to find a way to cover for Gabe.

You: I promise you he wasn’t with any girls. Him and the guys did something. It had nothing to do with girls.

When you looked up from your phone, you saw Ramsay Bolton approaching you. You felt your heart racing as if your body was telling you to run. He closed the space between you.

“Hello there, babygirl,” he smiled at you. You looked past him.

“Not now, please. I’m meeting someone here,” you said. Ramsay tucked his finger beneath your chin and moved your attention to him.

“I know.” He said. The sudden realization hit you hard.

“You’re InfernalHeir?” you asked. He nodded with a smirk.

“I am.”

You felt your anger and confusion bubbling up inside of you. You wanted to take your nails and scratch his face out. You wanted to ask him why. You wanted to hug him for all of the kind things he would say about you. You wanted to slap him.

“Why?” was all that came out of you. “Why me?”

“I have done some awful things to your boyfriend and you ask me why?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” you said. Ramsay cocked his eyebrow.

“Oh,” he reacted with a smile on his face. “Tony’s not your boyfriend.”

“No.”

“But you do want one though.”

“What?”

“I’ve read all your posts. Your thoughts. Your dreams. Your silly little heart wants someone to love. My silly little heart wants yours.”

“You think I want you?” Your anger took over your mind. “After everything you’ve said? After everything you’ve done? Tony’s in the hospital!”

“And to think he did that for a girl who doesn’t consider him to be her boyfriend,” Ramsay smirked. He backed you into the wall. His arm blocked you from the exit door. “I’ve heard your cries for love. I can answer them. I can cherish you and love you for all of my days.”

“And if I don’t let you?”

“Then, I’ll take you if I have to. I won’t let anyone else have you. I can’t let that happen, babygirl,” Ramsay’s smile cut you more than it calmed you. Ramsay tilted your head up as his lips brushed yours. You felt something inside of you burn. You moved along with the kiss and deepened it. Ramsay’s passion met yours as he held you there. His fingers entangled in your hair. When Ramsay finally broke the kiss, he took a breath and his eyes dilated when he looked ta you again. “I love you so much. Don’t make me hurt you.”

Ultimate Tag List (People who wished to be tagged in EVERY work I post.)

@angelicshinigami @sugarwastaken @carilov09 @disneyprincessbuffyannesummers @i-theredqueen@sleepylunarwolf  @loki-0fasgard @ravenqueenbr

Ramsay Tag List (People who wish to be tagged in everything Ramsay Bolton related)

@boltonblade  @why-so-red @sj-thefan @sunshinesydney @drunkenpoets @antiscocialfanwarrior

If you wish to be added, removed, or switched from any taglists, only ask friend!

[carmenlire]

Higher than the Big Trees Ch. 27

First of all, check out this BEAUTIFUL edit for Alec’s single Carousel that the amazing, talented @kindaresilient created <3 :’) 

read on ao3

Walking into his loft, Magnus tosses his keys into the bowl he keeps in the foyer for just that purpose. He’s smiling-- has been since he left Alec’s place less than an hour ago.

Toeing off his shoes, he makes his way into his apartment. It’s still early and he goes directly to his french doors where the sunlight is streaming through the windows.

It’s a beautiful day. He feels light. Happy.

He hadn’t been anticipating seeing Alec for a few days, at least. He’d climbed out of bed yesterday at a dastardly early hour and thrown on the closest outfit, intent on going to Uptown, drinking his weight in coffee, and catching up on his work.

What a coincidence that he’d run into Alec. They’d only talked for a few minutes but it’d filled Magnus with warmth, an almost giddy feeling rising in his chest. God, he was so gone over this boy.

He really hadn’t been angling for a dinner invitation but Alec had extended one anyway and Magnus was helpless to resist. He’d spent the better part of the day at Uptown, working and trying to ignore the looks Luke had been casting his way.

Finally, when getting a refill, he’d asked Luke why he was looking at Magnus like he was trying to smuggle the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre.

“We’ve been friends for what, three years,” Luke had asked.

Lips quirking, Magnus had agreed. “That sounds about right.”

“You don’t strike me as particularly shy, Bane.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

“Or cowardly.”

Growing more confused by the second, Magnus had replied, “I try not to be.” Tilting his head, his voice had been dry as he’d slowly asked, “What’s this about, Luke?”

With a piercing look, Luke answered, “How much do you know about Alec?”

Blinking at the change in subject, Magnus’s shoulders had come down instinctively at the safe topic. “I know that he’s kind and intelligent and has a work ethic that most would envy.” Smiling, he adds, “His ass isn’t half bad either.”

Barking out a laugh, Luke nodded to himself like his answer was what he’d been wanting. “So you’re good friends, then?”

Magnus couldn’t stop his wistful look. “I think we’re getting to be great friends, actually.”

More perceptive than Magnus would like, Luke had asked, “But you want to be more?”

Considering, Magnus had stared at him for a minute. He couldn’t forget that Luke was extremely close to Alexander, like family. Was Luke about to warn him off?

“Why,” he’d asked warily.

Shaking his head, Luke muttered under his breath what sounded like, “Dumbasses, the both of you.”

Looking up from the espresso machine, he’d taken one hand, pointing a finger in Magnus’s direction. “All I’m going to say is that if you want something, you should go for it. It’s what you do best and at the rate things are going, you’ll both be dead before one of you gets your shit together.”

Nonplussed, Magnus asked, “What are you talking about?”

Sighing like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, Luke said, “So you’re friends with Alec, right? And you’re getting to know him. But it’s still early yet, Magnus. There’s a lot you don’t know, things that can only come from time and continued familiarity. But I’ll tell you one thing.”

He leans closer and Magnus echoes the action, feels ridiculous as he does so.

“Alec is a good man but he’s an expert at denying himself. The media likes to paint him as a playboy with more fluff than sense in his head. They’re dead wrong.” Before Magnus can agree, Luke continues. “He’s hyper-aware of his reputation and knows better than anyone that it’s as much curse as blessing. He’d never do anything to push that onto someone else.”

“Okay,” Magnus drawls out, trying to piece the obvious hidden meaning behind Luke’s words together.

Looking impatient, Luke says, “All I’ll say is that if you like Alec-- in any way-- you should tell him because he’ll never tell you first. He wouldn’t want to put you in an awkward position. That boy has the tragic and extremely annoying habit of backing away just when things mean the most.”

Unable to ignore Luke’s pointed emphasis, Magnus finally starts getting the picture. Hope blooms in his chest as his mind reels.

Luke knows Alec. Is he saying that Magnus’s feelings aren’t unrequited?

Thoughts preoccupied, he’d absently offered his thanks as Luke had handed him his drink. He’d walked over to his table, sitting down heavily and taking a sip.

The rest of the afternoon had passed in a blur. He hadn’t gotten any more work done, too busy thinking over the past few weeks. He could see where things may have meant more than either of them had said, could feel hope cling stubbornly.

He’d left Uptown Java resolved. Luke was right. He was Magnus Bane and he’d never hesitated a day in his life, not when he wanted something. He’d let Alec into his head and forgotten just who he was. After a quick stop home to drop his bag and freshen up, he'd left again shortly. Following his phone’s GPS he’d gone over to Alec’s, making a note to catalog anything that seemed more than just friends.

Magnus couldn’t deny that it felt good to know that he was the only one Alec had ever invited over, the only person he’d trusted enough to give his address to, to let in to his private sanctuary. It was a heady feeling.

He could listen to Alec talk for hours, about the piano or obscure German philosophers or how to make spaghetti. The man was endlessly interesting and his celebrity was the least of it.

He couldn’t help himself from asking a leading question, affecting a casual tone even as his heart had thudded almost painfully in anticipation.

And that’s what I am? A friend?

Alec’s startled look had been adorable and Magnus’s heart had turned over, that damned hope igniting further when he’d heard his answer.

As long as that’s what you want.

He couldn’t help but read more into that careful response.

Later in the evening, when he’d finally just said an internal fuck it, he’d been sure. He was no longer afraid that Alec would see him as just another fan, a leech onto his fame. They were friends and that foundation grounded Magnus.

Alec’s reaction to his not-so-innocent question had been enthralling. The rush of heat to his cheeks, his stunned expression, the way those beautiful eyes had darkened when he’d registered the connotations.

Magnus had felt a wave of overwhelming heat lick up his spine as Alec had strolled over to him, bringing arms up to surround Magnus with his strength and scent and feel.

He’d been breathless before they’d even kissed and what a kiss it had been.

No doubt about it, yesterday had been eventful. Magnus’s smile widens as he realizes that it’s already seared onto his memory. Whatever happens with Alec, its beginning was perfect.

Turning away from his balcony, Magnus pulls out his phone, notes absently that it’s almost dead. As he unlocks it, he sees dozens of notifications.

Shaking his head a little, he’s surprised at himself all over again that he’d suggested they try to fuck with the press. In the back of his head, he knows that they don’t stand a chance but he thinks that he’s finally accepting that it’s okay. He’ll shoulder whatever happens as long as he has Alec to guide him.

His follower count on Twitter has increased by another hundred and he taps on create tweet without pause.

I think my new favorite food is spaghetti.

He hits send, wry twist to his mouth.

He’s almost thirty but he’s had this account for years. It’s an eclectic mix of mini history lectures, obscure observations, and whatever else catches his eye. A random declaration of food isn’t out of the normal for him, though he wonders if Alec will see it-- and what he’ll have to say about it.

Moving over to Instagram, he sees that his follow count has almost doubled in the past week.

He goes to Alec’s profile and sees that there are several hundred comments on the wine glass picture from last night. Tapping on the post, he scrolls through a few, brows raising higher at each comment.

Omg who do you think he’s with??!!

I bet he’s with his new “friend”.........

Dude he has to be so into this guy. Alec Lightwood doesn’t stay in for just anyone

This looks so domestic. Do yall think he has a secret bf??

There are a few spare mentions of him, but mostly people seems to be speculating in general. He has a handful of notifications from Twitter after just a couple of minutes. When he reopens the app, he sees that there are already a dozen likes on his spaghetti tweet with a few comments. He can’t help but notice that all of the usernames-- he rolls his eyes, except one-- has a reference to Alec.

Fkjfhgksjdf I bet he drank WINE with that spaghetti.

Tbh any food would be my favorite if I was with Alec.

No one cares.

That last comment is from Raphael and Magnus knows that his friend isn’t stupid. They hadn’t met since Raphael had seen them together at Columbia’s diner-- between work and Magnus going to London, there’d been no time.

Tomorrow was going to be interesting, to say the least. Undoubtedly, Raphael had already told Cat and Ragnor what he’d seen on campus. With a sigh, Magnus knows that he’ll be walking into an inquisition at family dinner tomorrow.

He locks his phone and goes into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water. Drinking half of it right then and there, he heads to his bedroom, plugging his phone into his charger.

That done, he strips, throwing his clothes into the hamper before padding into his bathroom.

He takes a quick shower, throwing on a clean pair of sweats and crashing onto the couch half an hour later. He spends the rest of the day working. He grades discussion posts and enters grades online, catching up on his emails, too.

It’s hours later, early in the afternoon, when he stands up, stretching his back with arms overhead.

He retrieves his phone and sees a text from Alec.

My driver will pick you up at seven. You don’t have any allergies, right?

With a smile he knows is too fond, Magnus replies, Seven sounds perfect. Will you be in the car, too, darling?

And no, I’m not allergic to anything.

He doesn’t even have time to put his phone down when it lights up with another text.

I’ll meet you there. There was an issue with my schedule and I’m working with my team to smooth things out.

I can’t wait to see you tonight.

Biting his lip, trying to keep the smile from becoming a grin, Magnus just texts, I hope everything works out. I’m excited, too.

Looking at the nearest clock, he sees that he has a few hours before it’s time for dinner. He throws on a pair of tennis shoes, deciding to go for a run.

The next hour flies by. He has a route he follows in the city that’s a mix of sidewalks and park paths and as his shoes slap against pavement, Magnus’s mind is distracted. He wonders about tonight-- where is Alec taking him. He puts together and promptly discards a dozen outfits as the city blurs together.

When he finishes his run, he comes to a stop in front of his apartment building, breathing harshly with hands at his hips.

After a few minutes, he heads inside, taking the elevator to his loft. He goes directly to his balcony, grabbing the yoga mat he keeps by the door. He spends the next little while emptying his mind, going through poses on autopilot as he relaxes and cools down.

Finishing his workout for the day, Magnus feels clear, free in a way he hadn’t managed since before the UK-- traveling was hell on his workouts.

He hops into the shower, taking his time and using all of his favorite products. He brushes his teeth, padding into his closet wrapped in just a towel. Going through his clothes, he gives each article a considering look. He finally decides on an outfit that could work anywhere except Burger King and moves to his vanity where he applies makeup and styles his hair.

When he finishes, he moves to his floor length mirror, gives himself a thorough onceover. He looks good. Sharp, elegant.

He’s ready for this date, can feel the thrum of anticipation wind its way through him. As far as first dates go, this one is almost guaranteed to go well and that takes a lot of the pressure off. He’s not worried about making small talk or gauging interest. Really, it feels like any other time he’s seen Alec except for the knowledge that they’re both ready for this next stage, for more.

He puts his watch on, seeing that he has just a few minutes until he’s due to be picked up. He’s wondering how he’s supposed to know that the car is here when his cell rings.

“Hello,” he asks, picking it up.

“Good evening. Is this Mr. Bane?”

“It is,” Magnus says, curious.

“Hello, Mr. Bane. This is Dave, Alec’s driver. I hope you don’t mind, but he gave me your number. I wanted to let you know that I’m downstairs.”

“I’ll be right down,” Magnus says. They say goodbye, hanging up and Magnus raises a brow, thinks to himself, We’re not in Kansas anymore.

With a last minute to make sure he has his wallet, keys, and phone, Magnus leaves his apartment. He sees a car pulled in front and as he walks outside, sees who is presumably Dave standing near the back door.

“Mr. Bane?”

Smiling warmly, he says, “Magnus is just fine. Dave right?”

Dave smiles as he opens the door, gesturing Magnus inside. ‘That’s right. Are you ready for your date tonight?”

Chuckling, Magnus replies, “More than ready.”

He climbs into the backseat of the late model Lincoln town car and can’t help but marvel at the ride. Rationally, he knew that Alec had money-- he’d be a fucking fool not to-- but it’s quite another thing to experience a uniformed driver picking him up in a hundred thousand dollar car.

It’s a smooth ride and only takes twenty or so minutes before they’re pulling up to a restaurant that Magnus has never been to. Dave shifts into park, comes around and opens the door for Magnus.

Magnus gets out, shooting an appreciative look to the driver. “Thank you, Dave.”

Dave tilts his head, grinning. “Sure thing, Magnus. Alec is probably already inside but just in case he isn’t here yet, I’m to tell you that the reservation is under Lightwood.”

With a murmured thanks, Magnus nods and turns toward the front doors where a doorman is standing at attention. As he starts walking, the doorman smoothly opens the door, carefully expressionless.

Going through the doors, Magnus takes in the interior. The light is muted and the decor is dusted in dark wood and gold accents. It’s timeless, sophisticated, and while Magnus is well-traveled, he can’t help but feel the slightest bit out of place, a touch gauche. He heads to the maitre d, who looks up with a warm smile at his approach.

“Good evening, sir. Do you have a reservation with us?”

Returning that smile, Magnus answers, “Yes, I believe it’s under Lightwood?”

Like a magic word, the man straightens, eyes widening. His smile-- already friendly-- turns up a notch as he looks at Magnus, a little stunned.

“Of course, sir. Follow me, please.”

Magnus follows the host to a table in the corner. There’s already a bottle of wine breathing on the table as he’s guided to his chair. He takes a seat and a second later, a waiter is heading over to his table.

He’s given a menu and as he scans it over, he sees that it’s contemporary American fare.

The waiter pours a glass of the wine and with a smile, leaves him to his own devices. He has barely enough time to finish reading the appetizers when from his periphery he sees a figure walking towards him.

“Sorry I’m late,” Alec says, hurried. “Traffic from Manhattan was obnoxiously busy.”

“It is New York City on a Saturday night, Alexander,” Magnus teases.

Alec just rolls his eyes before giving Magnus a warm, slightly stunned look. He clears his throat. “You look great.”

Smiling, Magnus replies, “No need to sound so surprised. You sound like I regularly look like a vagabond roaming the countryside.”

Magnus works to muffle his laugh as he watches Alec’s face grow slightly panicked. That laughter turns to liquid affection when Alec reaches out, seemingly on autopilot, covering Magnus’s hand in a supposed gesture of reassurance. “Of course not. I didn’t mean anything like that. You-- you always looks amazing, but tonight-- wow,” Alec breathes, coming to an abrupt end.

Magnus flips his hand, interlacing their fingers. “Wow yourself, darling.”

Alec’s wearing a crisp, snowy white button down with an open throat, paired simply with black slacks. His hair is going every which way and he looks good enough to eat.

The two of them are gazing at each other, surroundings disappearing into the background, when their attention is snagged by a clearing throat.

Both of them snap their heads up and see the waiter standing at their table, menu in hand. Alec takes the proffered menu with his free hand, not letting go of Magnus.

“Gentlemen,” the waiter starts.

“Hey, Jeff, how’s it going man?”

Breaking his perfect posture, the waiter grins. To Magnus’s amused surprise, Alec and Jeff share a fist bump.

“Hey, Mr. Lightwood. I’m good. Graduated from high school a few few months ago and I’m taking classes at Tri-C while I work here.”

Settling back, Alec asks, “Major?”

“English Lit,” Jeff says, looking excited.

“Well, I’m happy for you, man, you’ve always loved obscure seventeenth century novels.” With a look at Magnus, Alec introduces them. “Jeff, I’d like you to meet Magnus. My boyfriend,” he adds, smile softening at the designation.

Jeff looks happy and holds out a hand for, presumably, Magnus to fist bump. Which he does with alacrity. “Nice to meet you, Jeff.”

Alec looks between the two of them, grinning and looking more at ease than Magnus thinks he’s ever seen him. “I’ve known Jeff since he was a snot-nosed middle schooler. His brother and I went to high school together and when Joey-- the brother-- told me that he was opening a restaurant, I invested in it. I come in here every few months, whenever I’m in town and it just keeps getting better. The food is to die for.”

Shaking his head, Jeff looks pleased at Alec’s effusive praise. “We do the best we can,” he says modestly.

“Well, I can’t wait to eat, then,” Magnus says.

Jeff goes over the specials before leaving them to look at the menu. Magnus tries to concentrate on the entrees but he’s too aware of eyes on him.

“Alexander, I’m not on the menu,” Magnus says cheekily, not looking up.

“Too bad,” Alec says, unrepentant at getting caught staring. “You look good enough to eat.”

Lips quirking, Magnus shoots him a look. “Funny, I thought the same thing about you earlier.”

Their looks are more heated this time around and Magnus is hopelessly caught in Alec’s gaze. He can’t help but wonder at how easy things are between them. He’s never been such good friends with a date before. He doesn’t know if that’s the reason why they’re so comfortable with each other, but whatever it is, he’s glad for it.

He can admit privately that he’s never felt like this before. It’s an enthralling mix of interest and desire, all of it overlaid with warmth-- it’s almost too sweet but Magnus can’t get enough.

He doesn’t know how, but the two of them manage to cobble together an order, without seeming to look at the menu for more than a few seconds at a time-- their eyes keep returning to each other-- and once that’s done and the menus are taken away, Alec’s hand returns to Magnus’s.

Distantly, Magnus realizes that they fit together. Alec’s hand is warm in his, a familiar weight already, and the two of them talk about everything and nothing. They pass a couple of hours at the table in the corner. It’s a leisurely meal and by the time dessert rolls around, Magnus is full, feeling light and sated with a combination of good food, excellent wine, and perfect company.

After ordering dessert-- a perfectly American banana split-- Magnus settles back in his seat. His eyes take in Alec sitting across from him. He’s beautiful, Magnus thinks, taking in the way the candlelight dances across sharp cheekbones, a full mouth, the way it casts shadows over a face that looks like it could be carved from marble.

Without thinking, he slides a foot forward until it nudges gently into Alec’s. Alec’s mouth tilts, though he moves, hooking a foot behind Magnus’s ankle.

There have been a handful of silent stretches during this dinner but none of them have felt foreign, strained, like one of them was trying desperately to latch onto a topic. It feels more like an established relationship than a first date.

Magnus has had a question on the tip of his tongue all evening, but it’s only now that he thinks to voice it. “Alec?”

“Yeah?”

Taking another look around, Magnus sees that every table is full. The place is doing great business-- but no one is giving them a second look.

“Not that I’m complaining, but isn’t this a little bold for a couple who’s trying to stay under the radar?”

Alec chuckles before leaning forward. In the meantime, his thumb is sweeping over Magnus’s knuckles. “Jeff and his brother have a strict no-camera policy. Plus, most of these people are wealthy or famous. They don’t want anyone to bother them and they pay the same courtesy to everyone else.”

Nodding, Magnus looks at the dining room with new eyes. Now that he’s looking for it, he can see the signs of wealth-- the flash of a Rolex, suits that probably cost more than Magnus’s rent, a handbag that is definitely from next year’s spring line.

“Interesting,” Magnus says slowly.

Smiling, Alec agrees. “Yeah, interesting. When Joey first had the idea for this place, I was venting about how I was stopped wherever I went. I couldn’t get a burger without the paps tailing me. So, he had the idea to turn this place into a celebrity-friendly establishment.”

Magnus narrows his eyes. “How did he get the clientele for that? I can’t imagine that people in the one percent would flock to a newcomer’s place when he had no reputation or even experience.”

With his free hand, Alec rubs the back of his neck. “Since I was a silent partner, I had a vested interest in the success of the business. I might have put the word out. Joey used to make dinner for the team after games and I knew he could cook. With a little bit of financial help, I knew he’d make it. I just spread the word.”

“Yeah,” Magnus says softly. “You were just looking out after your investment.”

Before Alec can respond, Jeff is placing dessert in the middle of the table, laying down spoons. “Enjoy gentlemen,” he says formally.

Alec and Magnus wait a minute before laughing at the snooty accent. “I hope you don’t mind Jeff. I’ve known him and his family so long that he’s a little more relaxed when he waits on my table.”

Magnus shakes his head. “I don’t mind at all. I like that people don’t cower before you. It speaks well of your character that people-- especially those that know you-- aren’t intimidated or hesitant.”

The two grab their spoons before diving in. It’s good, though that’s mostly because it’s hard to mess up such a simple, traditional dessert. The two of them eat in silence for a minute, enjoying the ice cream and hum of the restaurant before Magnus looks up, gaze zeroing in on the bit of hot fudge smeared on Alec’s mouth.

He debates for a minute, but ultimately Magnus reaches out, thumb sweeping over Alec’s full bottom lip, wiping away the chocolate. Meeting Alec’s eyes, he pops his thumb into his mouth, licking it clean.

Though his expression doesn’t change, he’s smirking internally when Alec looks to stop breathing for a minute, eyes glued to where Magnus’s thumb is still in his mouth.

“Christ,” Alec mutters.

“Something wrong, Alexander?”

Alec glares at him. “You’re a menace.”

“I’m sorry,” Magnus says innocently. “Did you want to walk around with chocolate all over your face?”

Alec tries to maintain his glare but his lips tilt and he’s smothering a laugh behind his hand. “You could have just let me know,” he says dryly.

Grinning, Magnus replies, “And what’s the fun in that?”

The two of them finish dessert and Alec’s signing the check when Magnus realizes he still has something to tell him.

“Alexander?”

Alec doesn’t look up from where he’s presumably calculating the tip. “Yes?”

“How’d that song with Catarina turn out?”

Absently, Alec starts, “Pretty well, actually, I’m recording next week--”

His head snaps up as he looks at Magnus incredulously. “How did you know that? That’s confidential information.”

Arching a brow, Magnus answers, “A little birdie told me.” When Alec’s expression doesn’t change, Magnus adds, “Didn’t I tell you? I’m Madzie’s godfather.”

Alec splutters, getting out, “What?”

“Small world, huh?” Magnus grins. “I’ve known Cat and her husband Ragnor since college-- Ragnor is actually a professor with me at Columbia.”

Falling silent, Magnus gives Alec a moment to process.

“Small world, indeed,” he murmurs a few minutes later. Shaking his head, Alec continues, “What are the chances that the one artist I’ve collaborated with so far is your best friend?” It’s then that Alec covers his face with his hand. From behind his palm, Magnus hears, “Oh God, I ranted to you about how much I loved her and how much she intimidated me.”

Magnus laughs, endeared at Alec’s embarrassment. “Don’t worry, darling, I won’t tell her just how nervous you were about meeting for the first time. Plus, your session went well, right? Nothing to worry about.”

Dropping his hand, Alec looks at him for a moment. “What are the chances,” he repeats.

Magnus doesn’t have an answer, any possible response he could think of vanishing when Alec brings their joined hands up and kisses the back of Magnus’s fingers.

Goddamnit, he thinks absently. I’m falling for you.

The topics move on to discussing other friends as they stand and make their way to the exit.

As they walk through the front door, Alec says, “I was thinking we could walk for a little bit? The park is just a few blocks away and it’s a nice evening. If you’d rather not, though, Dave can be here in a few minutes--”

Magnus gives Alec’s hand one last squeeze before releasing him as they get to the sidewalk. “A walk sounds perfect, Alexander.”

The two of them start walking at a meandering pace. Close, but not too close. Magnus immediately misses Alec’s hand, feels the phantom sensation of where they’d been joined just seconds before.

They talk about inanities as they stroll down the block. Magnus is looking ahead, giving an impassioned diatribe on Dippin’ Dots of all things, when his voice cuts off as he’s whisked into an opening between storefronts.

“Alec, what on earth-- oomph.”

His voice cuts out for the second time as he lands solidly against the brick wall of the alley, immediately surrounded by Alec and being kissed to within an inch of his life.

Everything disappears except for the feeling of Alec’s hands on his waist, the feel of having him so close more intoxicating than the wine they’d drank with dinner.

Magnus loses track, has no idea how many times they break apart for a desperate breath before diving back in. He doesn’t care that the brick is no doubt ruining his silk blend shirt, not when the contrast between the wall behind him and the long line of Alec at his front is so delicious.

His head tilts back, noise escaping him as Alec bites down on the column of his throat. Fuck, right over the mark he’d left last night and Magnus’s hips buck up when he freezes.

Even with his eyes closed, he sees a flash, hears the distinct sound that can only be the shutter of a camera.

He wrenches away. He barely registers Alec’s dazed and confused look before his head is turning to the side where he sees a teenager lowering her phone. Alec follows his stare and freezes, too.

There’s no denying what they’ve been doing. Their breathing is labored, Alec still has one hand wrapped around Magnus, and the back of Alec’s shirt is untucked.

Magnus has no idea what to do. His brain is blank. He can almost hear the chirping of crickets as he tries desperately to grasp onto a thought. Between being so close to Alec just a moment ago and the sudden jarring of the camera, he literally can’t think.

Alec doesn’t look better, though after a moment he shakes his head, frowning. The girl, for her part, looks startled herself.

“Hey,” Alec says easily.

Magnus looks at him, a touch incredulous. Hey?

“Hi,” the girl replies, sounding unsure.

Alec clears his throat, taking a step back and running a hand through his hair. “What’s your name?”

“Carla.”

“Hi, Carla,” Alec says, warm smile on his face. “As you undoubtedly know, I’m Alec. This--” he tilts his head towards Magnus, “Is Magnus. I know the answer is probably pretty obvious, but did you just take a picture of us?”

Carla swallows. “Yeah?”

“What are the chances that I could get you to not post that picture and not to tell anyone about what you saw?”

Narrowing her eyes, Carla replies, “Pretty good, actually.”

Magnus’s brows raise and a quick looks at Alec finds that he looks just as surprised at the easy agreement.

“Really,” Alec asks.

She shrugs. “Really. I was walking when I saw you duck in here and I couldn’t stop from getting a pic. But, like, you’re a person? If you ask me not to do something, I won’t do it. After thinking about it,” she continues sheepishly, “I probably shouldn’t have even come over here in the first place. You’re a celebrity but you deserve your privacy.”

Alec’s shoulders slump in relief. “Thanks, Carla. We really appreciate that. What do you want in return?”

Carla bites her lip before shaking her head. “You don’t have to bribe me not to say anything. I know that you have no reason to trust me but I’m not, like, a crazy fan. I’m not going to blab to the first person I see. Promise.”

This time Alec’s eyes warm with his smile, turning it genuine. “Thank you. It means a lot. That doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to make it worth your while though,” he laughs. “So what can I do for you?”

She hums, narrowing her eyes. “Can I get a photo with you? And an answer to any three questions?”

Alec narrows his eyes right back, giving her a considering look before muttering, “Done.”

“Is Magnus your boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Alec says easily, shooting him a smile. Magnus can’t help but return it, foolishly.

“Was he who you were talking about at you GMA concert?”

Alec nods. “He was,” he confirms.

Taking a minute to consider, Carla asks her last question. “Will you ever perform Carousel acoustically again?”

Alec barks out a laugh. “You know what,” he says. “I think I just might do that at my next New York show.”

Looking satisfied, Carla hands Magnus her phone. Alec walks over to her, throwing an arm over her shoulders as Magnus takes the picture, getting a few takes so that she has options. When that’s done, Alec turns, leaning down to give her a hug. From where Magnus is standing, it looks like he whispers something to her, though at this distance, he can’t hear it.

A minute later, they’re breaking apart and Magnus hands Carla her phone back. “I took a few,” he says, smiling at the girl.

Carla grins. “Thanks, Magnus. Sorry, again, for interrupting. I promise I won’t say anything." With a last look at both of them, she turns around and walks away without a backwards glance.

Alec and Magnus gravitate to each other, stepping until they’re leaning against each other. Alec wraps an arm around his shoulders as Magnus's goes around his middle.

“What are the chances she was telling the truth?”

Alec hums. “I’d say fifty-fifty. I think she has good intentions, but it might be too juicy for her to keep to herself.” He looks over at Magnus, gives him a considering look. “Are you going to be okay if she does spill the beans?”

Magnus barely thinks about it. He’s tired of the weight of expectation dragging at his heels. Que sera, sera.

He knows what he signed up for and, after all, if he wanted to go out with Alec then he wanted to enjoy it. He didn’t want to be constantly looking over his shoulder for a wayward camera.

“Yeah,” he says. “I think we’ll be okay.”

“Good,” Alec says, voice unimaginably warm.

He takes Magnus’s hands, pulling him out of the alley. It’s dusk now, sun setting, and after just a minute, they enter the park, strolling along meandering paths. In the dark, it’s hard to see anyone and the two of them enjoy the relative anonymity.

Magnus debates but ultimately reaches out and grabs Alec’s hand. Alec shoots him a look, soft smile on his face as he intertwines their fingers.

Biting his lip, Magnus looks away, grinning. So, they’re not subtle. He doesn’t care, can’t, not when it feels so good to hold his boyfriend’s hand.

They continue on the path, taking a pretty damn romantic walk. Magnus can’t help but think that this is the best first date that he’s ever been on. He hopes, quietly yet fervently, that it’s just the first of many.

[dabblinginmarvel]

Second Chance - Part 2

Plot: Steve thought he had lost out on his soulmate when he came out of the ice. He was wrong.

Blog Tag: @blackirisposts, @tea-with-loki

A/N: Enjoy! A little Steve fluff was just what I needed after a long week.

Warnings: None

Word Count Total: 1362

Short Imagine #185

Title: Second Chance - Part 2

It had been two weeks since Steve had met you and he hadn’t seen you since. He had passed you in the hallways, but he was spending so much time not ruminating over having a new soulmate on purpose that he seemed to go out of his way especially to not face you more than once a day. It wasn’t something he had noticed until he stopped seeing you pass him – he was starting to miss that daily morning greeting.

“Steve, what’s on your mind?” Natasha asked.

Steve shook his head.

“You’re avoiding your new friend, aren’t you?” She smirked.

“Am not.”

“Oh, sure. You only see them once a day and never for very long.”

“We’re both busy.”

“Huh. Denial.”

“Am not!” he protested.

“Then why do you avoid the second name?”

Steve sighed, knowing full well that he should have not told her because she wasn’t going to stop until he caved.

“Because the mark usually shows up for someone right before they are born and grows with them. The science behind the soulmate mark is fantastic and I never knew there was so much. But there is nothing on a brand-new mark. Just rumors.”

“What if you take the chance?”

“They probably have a name already.”

“And what did you find on late bloomers?”

“That it can happen at any age. But c’mon Natasha, that’s not possible. There are so few.”

“And a second mark has never been seen before. Yes, I know. But Steve, you should give this a shot.”

“No.” He stood up from the table. “I’m not going to bother them with this. I don’t want to ruin their happiness with whatever or whomever they have now.”

Natasha sighed, her chin resting on her palm. Steve walked away.

He resigned himself to the fact as he left that Natasha could have been right. But he was too stubborn to want to do something about it.

As he turned the corner, he ran right into you.

“Oh, Captain Rogers!” you exclaimed as the file you were carrying nearly slipped out of your fingers. He caught it, the papers sticking out at different angles.

“Sorry about that,” he said quietly.

“It’s okay.”

Once you were organized again, something struck him.  He wasn’t sure what it was, but it made his stomach flutter.

“Thank you for your help. I’m so clumsy that if I had tried to do that myself, I would have dropped them all, most likely.” You smiled.

“Glad I could help, then.” He smiled back and was surprised with how happy it made him that he was the reason for that smile.

After a moment of smiling at each other, you held the file tighter to your chest. “Well, I guess I will be going.”

“Do you have a moment to spare?” he blurted out.

You shrugged, still smiling. “Yeah.”

A few minutes later, Steve was handing you a cup of coffee from the machine that Tony had ordered. He had said there would be no “office coffee” in the building and soon thereafter, a really nice machine showed up in the agent breakroom.

You took the cup and sat down at a table, him across from you.

He wanted to ask you about your mark, but chickened out at the last second. “I don’t think I thanked you properly for the ride.”

“It’s okay. You did.” You tugged your left sleeve up a little, the small movement not escaping his notice.

“Where were you before you came here?”

“Uh, Seattle. The weather is about as cold this time of year, but we hardly see the snow.” You shrugged.

He smiled.

You tugged your sleeve over your wrist again.

“Is something wrong?”

You shook your head. “Just this damn sleeve is too short.”

“Whatever is on your wrist, I can keep a secret.”

You looked down, your right hand covering your left wrist now. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“Y/N.”

His use of your first name visibly startled you. You had expected him to use ‘Agent’ in there somewhere, obviously. “It’s just my soulmate mark.”

“Is something wrong with it?”

“Nah.”

He wanted to get nosey without being rude, but he had no choice to let it slide. “Well, you’re welcome to talk to me if you need to.”

“Thank you, but I can handle it.”

“Okay.”

You finished your coffee and stood up. “It was nice talking to you. Again, some time? I have to deliver this file.”

“I’ll let the owner of that file know it was my fault you were late.” Steve stood as well, reaching for your mug. You let him take it.

“It’s okay. Agent Hill won’t behead me. She’s more lenient than my last boss.” You smiled.

He chuckled. “I’ll still let her know.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

He looked away with a smile. “Please, just Steve.”

“Okay, Steve.” You glanced back at him one last time, then left.

Natasha was right. He knew couldn’t ignore the soulmate feelings now.

A few days later, Steve didn’t see you pass by once all day in the hallway and disappointment settled over his heart.

Maybe a trip to the gym would help.

He grabbed his gym necessities, a towel, his water bottle, and made his way down to the gym.

There was a faint clapping noise coming from inside, something he couldn’t place until he entered. You were there skipping rope, earbuds in your ears.

His mouth opened, trying to formulate a sentence, but he couldn’t. Not when, even from here across the large room, he could see your soulmate mark was not covered.

Slowly, he approached you and the closer he got, the more he could ear coming from your earbuds. The music was fairly loud and he couldn’t discern the instrument playing – it was nothing he recognized. He walked in front of you to get your attention and you looked up, stopping immediately.

“Captain,” you greeted, pulling the earbuds out. He could hear it better – something about bad feeling so good, it made no sense to him – as you reached to shut it off.

“What can I do for you?”

“I saw you and I thought I would say hi. That’s it.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh. Hi Steve.”

“Hi Y/N.” He wanted to say so much more. I miss you. I think you’re my soulmate but I don’t know if I’m yours.

“So, uh,” you interrupted his train of thought, “you didn’t get caught up in Tony’s attempt at a practical joke, did you?”

He furrowed his brow. “I don’t think I even heard about it.”

“I’m surprised. He was going to slime someone.”

“Like Ghostbusters slime?”

You cracked a smile. “More or less, yeah.”

“I didn’t. I’ll have to keep an eye out.”

“Yeah. That stuff’s hard to remove.” You reached up to get your hair out of your face.

He spotted your wrist. You moved to hide it, but it was too late.

“Why didn’t you tell me the other day?” The feeling of hurt mixed with relief washed over him.

“Well, I figured you had already gotten your tattoo a long time ago. There wasn’t a reason to bother you about mine. Besides, what am I supposed to say, ‘Hi, I’m Y/N, you’re my soulmate’? No. I was just fine the way I was so again, no reason to bother you.”

His voice got low. “You can bother me about it now.” He reached for your hand. You let his fingers tangle with yours.

“Okay -” you cleared your throat “- hi, I’m Y/N. You’re my soulmate.”

“Hi Y/N, I’m Steve. You’re my soulmate.” His face got closer to yours. “Could I kiss you?”

“I’m all sweaty.”

“I don’t care.”

You shrugged. “Okay.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to your lips and you kissed him back, only pulling away when he did. “Thank you for giving me another chance at this.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You didn’t push me away.”

You reached your face up to his cheek. “And thank you for accepting me.”

He pressed a kiss to your forehead and pulled you close, feeling more complete than he had in years.

 - - -

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[onlyprettylittlethings]

Supercorp Fanfic #2

So!

This is a short and fluffy one-shot of Supercorp requested by the wonderful @skylar-luthor-blog​.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy and please let me know what you guys think!

Prompt: Where Kara and Lena are trying to keep their relationship private, but Alex posts a photo of the two of them on Instagram referring to Lena as her sister-in-law. It breaks Instagram.

If you like it, please favorite it on Fanfiction.net at this link. 

 Enough

 “Hey, babe?”

Kara was lounging around her living room, scrolling through her feed on Instagram in her pajamas--grey sweatpants and a red, worn-out tank top. She was in complete bliss just lying down on her couch, especially after such a long night.

“Yeah?”

Lena was in the kitchen finishing up some hot chocolate for her and Kara, moving fluidly in the kitchen, almost as if she spent all day there--granted, she did spend most of her free time  in the kitchen, and Kara did her hungry part of encouraging it as a pastime. She was wearing her purple satin nightgown with her silky, black night robe wrapped around her lithe body.

“Is it okay if I post this picture of us on Instagram?” Since Lena was in the kitchen, Kara lifted up her phone with the screen facing Lena so she can let her see the picture without having to get up from her very comfortable position that took forever to find. “I don’t know if it looks too couple-y, and I don’t want to give my followers--our followers--any ideas, not yet at least.”

Lena, who was just finishing filling their mugs with whip cream as a final touch, craned her neck over her shoulder towards Kara’s direction, but her eyes were still focused on swirling the cream just right, “‘kay, hon, gimme a sec, will ya’?”

Kara let out a playful sigh, “well, I guess my arm is just going to have to fall off by the time you get here.” Lena let out a soft chuckle, “well, I guess I can always just drink these hot chocolates all by myself since you won’t be able to drink it without your arm.”

Even though Kara knew her arm won’t fall off because of her super strength (and even if it did, she could always just count on her other arm to do the job), she played along anyway for the sake of bantering with her wife. “First off, you can barely even finish your own mug let alone both of ours,” Kara scoffed and Lena snickered as she gracefully made her way towards the couch with both mugs. “And second off, we both know that you’re more of a tea person anyhow, so you wouldn’t have even made hot chocolate in the first place, if that were the case.” Kara smirked and gently grabbed her mug from Lena’s porcelain hand purposefully brushing her fingers against her soft, white knuckles.

“Hmm, that’s where you’re wrong,” Lena sat down as Kara sat up, settling next to Lena, waiting for her to raise her arm so that she can nestle herself under it.

“Oh yeah, how so?” Kara raised her right brow and looked at Lena expectantly under her smooth arm all while tucking her cold feet under her warm body.

“Well, even though I do prefer a hot cup of tea over a warm mug of hot chocolate, I will still drink the hot chocolate so I can spite you because I’d know you wouldn’t be able to drink it despite the fact that you would do anything to just get a sip.” Lena looked absolutely smug as she bit her full, supple lips to try and hide her smile.

Kara didn’t look that much different. She leaned towards Lena’s irresistible lips and whispered, “you win.”

Lena resisted the temptation of completely leaning in, her pride preventing her from surrendering to Kara’s charms that easily. Instead, she looked at Kara’s blown out, blue eyes and said, “hmm, don’t I always?”

Unlike Lena, Kara wasn’t proud enough to stop her soft lips from sliding against Lena’s, and Lena wasn’t cruel enough to stop her. So, they kept kissing, and kissing, and kissing. Softly, slowly, sweetly.

Eventually, they pulled back, breathed and smiled.

Content.

  Soon after, Lena nodded towards Kara’s phone, which laid all but forgotten on the other side of the couch, “so, what was the picture you were thinking about posting on Instagram?”

Kara pulled herself out of her reverie, looked towards her phone, and reached for it all while endeavoring to take a sip from her green mug without spilling any of it on her favorite pyjama bottoms. In the meantime, Lena appreciated the view of Kara’s smooth skin as her tank top slightly rode up in the clumsy process while she took a proper sip from her own red mug.

When Kara finally settled back into her previous position, in Lena’s arms, she unlocked her phone and pulled up the picture. It was Lena under a shiny, yellow umbrella that Kara was holding with her arm wrapped around Kara’s shoulder; they were smiling and looking into the camera. To a stranger, they would’ve looked like two friends having a good time under a little bit of rain. To anyone who really knew what was going on between the two of them--which was few and far between--they would have looked as a cute couple who were still ridiculously in love in spite of the weather. In short, it was a really good picture of them together no matter which way you looked at it.

“Aww, I think it’s perfect and you should totally post it on Instagram!” Lena was absolutely beaming at their picture, and she got all warm on the inside from looking at how happy they were in it. She was so giddy from it that she nuzzled her nose and pressed a sweet kiss in Kara’s hair. This action encouraged Kara to nestle even closer into Lena to the point in which she can feel Lena’s breath hovering ever so slightly where her neck and shoulder met.

As soon as she was all cozied up, Kara continued her task, but just as she was about to tap open Instagram, she saw that she received a notification from galup_Alex, her sister’s less than subtle username on Instagram. “Ooh, Alex tagged me in something!”

Not long after saying that, the newlyweds heard Lena’s phone vibrate against the wooden coffee table a few feet away from them, and a few inches away from falling off the edge of the furniture. Not feeling too inclined on getting up, Lena craned her head up enough to get a peek of the notification. “Huh, I guess she tagged me too?”

Not wasting anymore time, Kara tapped on the notification and waited until her screen loaded up the picture. When it finally did, Kara and Lena briefly smiled before they slowly realized what the picture entailed--more specifically, the caption that Alex wrote.

“Oh. My. God.” Kara dropped her phone on her lap and decided that using her hand to cup her mouth in shock was much more useful in this situation. Lena, still not believing what she saw, picked up the phone as soon as Kara dropped it.

She looked at the picture: it was an old, candid picture of Kara and Lena sitting together at JJ’s Diner. Lena was pressing a kiss to Kara’s cheek as Kara--who was in the middle of eating her Mumbo-Jumbo-Cheeseburger--was caught by surprised, if her wide eyes, raised eyebrows, and rosy cheeks were of any indication. It was adorable; they were adorable.

That is, until, Lena read the caption… again:

 #tbt To when Me and @Maggiesawherfirst had our first double date with these newlyweds! Congrats to my baby sister, @Imsuppergirl, and my new sister-in-law, @iaintnoluthor! I’m so happy for you guys <333

 Dear lord.

What were they going to do?

  Lena looked over at Kara who was still in a pseudo state of shock since it didn’t appear as if she moved much. “What do you think are the likelihoods of people finding out about this--about us--after this?”

Kara didn’t answer her question. Instead, the uncontrollable buzzing coming from the wooden table did. Lena didn’t even think about getting up. Nope, she just stared as the phone’s vibration gradually led it closer towards the edge of the coffee table until it finally fell down and onto the plush, white carpet that helped muffled the world. At least, for tonight.

Was her hand trembling?

No.

Lena looked down and saw that Kara’s phone was in a similar state to her own. Not wanting to deal with it this late at night, Lena gently placed Kara’s phone on the carpet near her own, then placed her and Kara’s mug on the table.

After claiming her place again, Lena cupped Kara’s cheeks and kissed her a little bit rougher than Kara kissed her earlier. However, that was enough to pull Kara out of her thoughts, and it was enough for them to settle down on the couch, and it was enough for them to bask in the protection the night had to offer before the light of day exposed them to the mess that was made.

Tonight, was enough.

[titansandothersrp]

Movie Night

(This is a compiled roleplay between my Beast Boy muse and the Raven muse of @azarathian . This is a very old roleplay we wrote under different usernames, but I labeled our writing with our current usernames.)

titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): Beast Boy strolled triumphantly into the main room of the Tower, holding up two full bags. “Dudes! I have the best night pla-…” He paused as he had expected the other titans to be gathered here, as he hadn’t seen them elsewhere in the tower. It was silent though. And nearly empty, if not for Raven and her book. “Um… Where is everyone?”   azarathian (Raven): The dreaded clank of the main doors sliding open cut through her solitude, and before the intruder even spoke, she knew who it was - for she also knew that her other teammates weren’t due back for another few hours. Raven didn’t turn from her position on the sofa and didn’t let her eyes so much as wander from her book. “Cyborg’s at ‘bowling night’ with Titans East. Robin finally took Star to that midnight light show she’s been wanting to see in the city,” she told him   titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “Oh…” His ears drooped and he slumped over, dropping the two bags. The contents of the bags seemed to be candy and junk food. “But I had an awesome night planned… I found this bad horror movie to make fun of and I got candy and everything!” azarathian (Raven): “Maybe ask everyone if they’re actually free next time?” she suggested - quite an obvious bit of advice, really. Not that she expected her green friend to consider the obvious. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): He pouted for a moment. “Well, guess we’ll just have to watch it ourselves.” He dug into the bags and pulled out a DVD case, tossing it on the table. “And help me eat all this food.” He proceeded to dump a pile of candy and junk food onto her lap. azarathian (Raven): Over the top of her book, her eyes followed the DVD that fell on the table before she was suddenly swamped in a pile of snacks. She let out a small yelp as the food fell around her, until only the irritated glare she wore peeked out from the peak, a vein throbbing upon her forehead. The girl shook what she could of the pile from her frame. “Lucky me,” she frowned, prying her arms out from the mess. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “Aw, c’mon. It’ll be fun! And I got the best stuff too!” He sorted through the junk food he’d dumped on her. “Airheads, Zotz, popcorn, Swedish Fish, potato chips, Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids, Dum-Dums, Reese’s Cups…”   azarathian (Raven): Just the smell of pure sugar invading her senses alone was overwhelming, sending a shot of nausea through her. Was he really expecting just the two of them to get through all of this? If so, she could guarantee he’d be taking on most of the task himself. “Sounds healthy,” she remarked, brushing the last of the the heap that had swallowed her to the floor. “Think I’ll be fine with just tea, though,” she gestured to the steaming mug that had already been sitting on the coffee table.     titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “Aw, c’mon! I can’t eat all this myself! I’m trying to eat a little better now. I can’t just binge all this! I’ve gotta maintain my looks!”   azarathian (Raven): “Well, you’re doing a great job of that,” she muttered sarcastically beneath her breath, almost inaudible. With a sigh, she put her feet up on the coffee table - one over the other - and crossed her arms as she leaned back into the couch.·“ What movie did you buy?” Hopefully it was one worth actually watching, since she figured there was no way out of this ordeal. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “What Lurks in the Moonlight. It’s bound to be one of those cheesy B horror movies, maybe with a werewolf! We can point out how bad the acting and effects are!” He took the movie and put it in the player before jumping onto the couch. azarathian (Raven): If she were to go by the title, it definitely sounded like a werewolf would be involved. And from what she’d seen of your typical werewolf horror film, there would be plenty of awful cliches to poke fun and roll her eyes at. Both were kind of Raven’s thing. “Sounds terrible. Let’s do it.” For some reason, the usually introverted girl didn’t think to question why she was so willing to put down her novel and instead watch a bad horror movie with Beast Boy whilst their friends were out. And strangely, she would be lying to herself if she’d said she didn’t actually want to. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “Really?” He blinked at her. “Sweet!” He raised his arms triumphantly and grabbed the remote to play the movie. A woman walked down a dimly lit street as a dark figure loomed behind her. “Yes! Cutting right to it!” The changeling exclaimed. azarathian (Raven): Leaning over to pick up her tea, Raven’s eyes clung to the TV screen, just waiting for the first cliché to occur. She cupped her pale hands around the mug and brought the rim to her lips to take a sip as the movie played its opening scene. The street the woman paced through was vacant, shrouded by the night and silent. Her footsteps echoed against the pavement with each step she took, and unbeknownst to the lurking presence in the background, she wrapped her coat tighter around her. The shadowy form drew closer and closer as a crescendo of music played over the scene. Cliché #1, right there. Slowly, the figure approached until it was upon her, and lunged forward at the unsuspecting woman with great velocity. A shriek echoed through the main ops room, though elicited very little reaction from the cloaked girl, who could’ve seen the attack from a mile off. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): Beast Boy opened a bag of candy and munched away as he watched the movie. He scoffed. “Yeah, lady. That coat’s really gonna protect you.” He leaned forward as the figure on the screen lunged. Once illuminated, it was apparent that the figure was but an ordinary man. Granted, said man was attacking her, but still. “Man, what a rip.” As the two struggled, another man appeared, socking the thug in the face. Once the criminal was incapable of getting back up, the man checked on the woman. “A man and woman had two seconds on screen! They’re gonna be a couple!… I bet the guy’s gonna get back up!” azarathian (Raven): Over the years living with him, Raven had somehow learnt to drown out any background noise her green friend made, like the crunching of snacks in her right ear, and instead focus her attentions on the foreground - in this case, the so far predictable horror movie. Though she wasn’t yet returning his commentary with her own, she did agree with what he was saying.     “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Raven said flatly. “This hero guy’s made him angry now - he’s gonna transform any second.” It was all happening very quickly in a short space of time, but sure enough, Beast Boy’s predictions proved true as the assailant pushed himself from the ground with a grimace - his sights set on the opposing man, this time. Raven waited for the criminal to grow fangs and sprout claws, but none came. She watched on as the man lunged for the other and tackled him to the ground. “You think you can just swoop in and save the girl?!” he sneered in a very bad New York accent. “Wow,” was the only comment the magus made; it was obvious the bad acting had already begun. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “ ‘ey, I’m walkin’ he’a!” Beast Boy mimicked the bad accent. “Yes, I do.” The man said confidently, throwing the man off him with ease. The man was sent flying and a crash mat was slightly visible where he landed. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave the woman alone.” “I was expecting fur and fangs,” he commented, disappointed. azarathian (Raven): Raven groaned at the impersonation - they were as bad as each other. “They’re probably just drawing it out,” she suggested. After all, if they forced everything into the first ten minutes then the writing would be as bad as the acting. Despite the numerous sealed snack bags scattered around her, she reached over to her right and stole a handful from the bag Beast Boy already had opened in his grasp. Nonchalantly, she tossed the sweets in her mouth as the scene played on. The action seemed over before it had even begun, as the criminal fell dramatically unconscious the moment after the hero’s closing line. Not even an ‘I’ll get you next time’ or a shake of his fist to the sky - he just fainted. Pathetic. The man still standing turned to face the lady he’d saved moments before, staring deep into her eyes. “You saved me,” she uttered, breathless with awe. “I’d do it a thousand times over for such a beautiful woman,” he returned, raising his hand to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Raven eyed the screen with a slight confusion across her features, brow quirked. “Well that was short-lived,” she said, in reference to the collapsed ‘villain’ in the background. What the hell kind of horror movie was this? She suspected - she hoped - this scene was merely misleading the audience and the action would pick up again within the next ten minutes… surely. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “Probably.” He raised a brow as Raven ‘stole’ some of his candy. He let it go, however, as he had asked her to help him eat everything. The man closed the distance between the two of them with a kiss. “So, what should I call you?” “You can call me tomorrow~” She replied. “I knew this would be a bad horror movie, but… even I wouldn’t use that line.” He totally would, but he felt like being snarky. azarathian (Raven): The kiss was everything a kiss shouldn’t be; melodramatic, sloppy, forced upon the woman, and, oh yeah, between two complete strangers.     “Gag,” was all she said in response.   Knowing Beast Boy, it wouldn’t surprise Raven at all if he would use such a line in a real-life situation, but she chose to grant him the satisfaction of her silence as she stifled a snort of disbelief. As the two flirted under the light of a street lamp, Raven couldn’t help but note how unromantic their setting was; the pair were making out in a dark, empty street at night with an unconscious body behind them. Nice. Though no werewolves had appeared as of yet, it was blatantly clear that the movie had enough clichés to mock already. They were only into the opening scene and it was already a laughable disaster. The TV screen faded to black momentarily, before the following scene transpired; the couple from earlier were walking down a street together (this time in daylight and with other people around, thankfully), and staring dreamily into each other’s eyes as they did. Raven pursed her lips at the sight. How were they gonna turn this situation around? “Um, Beast Boy?” titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): Usually, Beast Boy was fine with kissing in movies. What horror or comedy didn’t have romance or sexual relations forced in? However, this was just nauseating. Two strangers snogging as cheesy music played was not his cup of tea. He proceeded to playfully retch with his tongue lulling out of his mouth.   Finally, the kissing ended and he let out a sigh of relief. “Well, there weren’t any werewolves, but there did seem to be two people trying to eat each other’s faces.” The changeling wondered how the two could look into each other’s eyes while walking. The thought occurred to him that one of them could walk into a pole, causing him to chuckle a bit. Then Raven addressed him. “Yeah?” The two on the screen began talking, talking about the night before. They pretty much recapped what they’d just seen without even bothering to add any relevant new information. They didn’t bother to explain why the woman was walking by herself so late or why the man seemed to be doing the same. They just gushed over how brave and strong he was and how it was meant to be. “Oh, please be the lovey-dovey couple that die early on.” He crossed his fingers.   azarathian (Raven): Truth be told, it was a very unusual way to begin a horror movie, and Raven could only put it down to the possibility that they were trying to set up a misleading storyline to better catch the audience off guard when the real stuff happened. Still, she was suspicious as to what they were actually watching. The girl had just assumed before, but chose to ask outright now. “Are you sure you got this from the horror section?” “Oh, Derrick. How can it be that we only met yesterday, yet I feel like I’ve known you my whole life?” the woman on the TV drawled, eyes lidded in a lovesick haze. “I know exactly how you feel, my dear Olivia,” returned the male lead, gushing his heart out with a dazzling smolder. “I suppose sometimes, in life, you come across people who are just meant to be a part of your future. People… who you should never let go.” The empath’s cringe was unmissable as she brought her legs up onto the sofa and crossed them in front of her. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): A look of realization hit the shapeshifter and he slapped a hand to his face. I’m an idiot! He scolded himself mentally. He had assumed from the title that it was a movie about a werewolf, or at least, something scary. The cover seemed to indicate something scary, given it was basically a shot from the beginning of the movie with the woman walking down a dimly lit street. However, the pieces were being put together in his mind and he concluded that this was likely not a horror movie. He dragged his hand down his face and forced a nervous smile. “I, uh, didn’t get it from any section. I got it from the discount bin.” His shoulders raised and his head lowered as he braced himself for a berating. “Any chance I’m one of those people you should never let go?” He asked, hoping to lessen his scolding. The couple on the screen wrapped their arms around each other in a loving embrace. “Oh, I’ll never let go!” Olivia exclaimed before the two engaged in another long, drawn out kiss. The scene transitioned from the two kissing outside to the two kissing in what seemed to be someone’s house. It wasn’t even a set. It literally appeared to be someone’s house as there was a photo on the wall that had neither of the two in it. azarathian (Raven): The instant she saw that gloved hand smack his forehead she knew he’d messed up. “Eughhh,” she groaned, collapsing back further into the couch cushions and bringing her own palm to her head. It was still possible that it was some sort of weird, unconventional horror that didn’t really take off till half way through the movie itself - but they were half an hour in now, and the only action had been apparent in the first five minutes of the film. “I don’t suppose you read the summary on the back either?” she shot him a look before her eyes darted to the DVD case upon the table. She knew the answer regardless - of course he hadn’t. Her judgmental stare was interrupted by the obvious smacking of mouths stirring from the television as the couple stood in the living room, arms coiled around each other and crawling all over. “I know a more comfortable spot,” the man winked down at the other suggestively, before leading her by the hand up the stairs. Raven’s eyes were gigantic by this point. “What are we watching?!” titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): His head seemed to sink further between his shoulders as his ears drooped at the stare. He shook his head no. Seeing as Raven was clearly irritated and that never went well for him, he tried to scoot further down the couch nonchalantly, resulting in him falling on his butt when he reached the end of the couch. “Ow!” He rubbed his backside before looking back to the screen. The couple were now on a king size bed. The man started to kiss the woman’s neck as he slid a hand up her shirt. The woman tilted her head back and gasped lightly. It took a moment to register what was going on, but once he did… “Oh God; it’s porn! Turn it off! Turn it off!” The green teen scrambled around the floor in a panic. “Where’s the remote?!” If ever there was something not to watch with Raven, he was pretty sure it was porn. Granted, it was a cheesy romance, not porn, but he was too panicked to realize that. azarathian (Raven): “I don’t know, you’re always the one who loses it!” she yelled back at him whilst rising to her feet; more flustered than angry, if anything. The inevitable moans and whimpers began to seep from the sound system, beginning low and soft but becoming increasingly more heated as the seconds sped by. Raven’s face flushed a deep crimson, her mouth agape and contorted into an entirely appalled grimace. “Oh Derrick,” came the woman’s sultry voice above the titans’ bickering. “You really know how to treat a woman.” Raven’s eyes snapped to the screen the moment the lady’s blouse came off and skirt was lowered down her exposed thighs. Her brows were knitted in a frustrated impatience and as the moments went by and Beast Boy still hadn’t found the remote, she was marching over to the TV as fast as her feet could carry her. Finally, once she got there, she turned the monstrosity off before it could go any further. There was a silence. A long silence. “… Next time,” she shuddered, “I’m picking the movie.” titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “I do not!” Beast Boy flung couch cushions and bags of food in a frantic attempt to find the remote. He screeched nearly the whole time, mostly out of panic but somewhat to drown out the noises coming from the speakers. Once the television was turned off, he ceased his panic and tried to catch his breath. The green teen had gone red, save for his hair. He looked like Christmas and the elf ears weren’t helping. Well, you gotta give me some credit. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen!” He wheezed a laugh before looking at Raven. He paused, then pointed at her and laughed loudly. “You are so red right now!” azarathian (Raven): Was that his attempt at rectifying the situation? If he’d just picked a proper horror movie from the proper horror movie section instead of blindly forcing this melodramatic erotica on her, there would be no ‘situation’ to rectify! She halted when he pointed out the blatant blush in her face; she had felt the warmth rise to her cheeks in the pandemonium, but hadn’t thought that it’d be so visible by the time it was over. “Speak for yourself,” she shot back, the color merely deepening. “Maybe next time, don’t bring smut back to our house for ‘movie night’!” titansandothersrp (Beast Boy):   There was rarely a time when Beast Boy didn’t try to fix things with a joke. “I didn’t know it was smut!” He said, face flushing deeper. Though he was embarrassed, he couldn’t help but resume cackling at Raven. It was so rare to see Raven flustered or blushing or showing much emotion at all. He should probably fear for his life right now, but he couldn’t let the sight go to waste. “Aww, aren’t you cuuute~” He cackled. “Like a little bell pepper~”   azarathian (Raven): Well, she definitely believed him; why else would he put both her and himself through such an ordeal? Her forefinger and thumb gripped at the bridge of her nose in annoyance, and that familiar vein on her temple was throbbing once more. She sighed, collecting herself and allowing her blush to subside. “Aww, aren’t you cuuute~ Like a little bell pepper.” And all at once it her face was ablaze in a wild heat again. With wide eyes, the girl let a moment pass before a scowl found its way back onto her visage. “Pushing it,” she warned through gritted teeth, shooting daggers at him with her glare. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): “With the spice of a ghost pepper…” He flinched. “Alright. Stopping.” He sighed and began tidying up, keeping quiet so Raven could regain her composure. He’d had his fun. Now it was time to give her a break. After a few minutes passed, he thought it safe to speak again. “So… Did you like the Swedish Fish? I like ‘em because they’re one of the few gummy candies I can eat.” He spoke as he put away the unopened packages of food. azarathian (Raven): It was a good thing he did stop right there, for she was at the brink of rage. The prior frantic panic from their awkward moment really hadn’t helped. Still, she bit her tongue and took a moment to breathe so that her anger didn’t seep out any further. Easier said than done, but the last thing she wanted was for something nearby to explode in a black bomb. Drawing her lips together, her brows remained furrowed in the aftermath, but she was able to collect herself in seconds. “They were vegan?” she asked, tone still holding a slight tension that she couldn’t help. Looked like they were gonna pretend all that just happened hadn’t happened at all. Worked for her. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): The changeling chuckled. “I wouldn’t be eating them if they weren’t.” Technically, he did eat a few non vegan foods on occasion, but never non vegetarian. While he seemed to be dropping it for now, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he would mention her ability to fluster in the future. With someone as seemingly stoic as her, how could he be quiet about it? Granted, he’d try to avoid riling her up too much. “Aren’t they good though? Cyborg says vegan food is no good, even if he eats my cooking. The guy’ll eat anything from octopus to those weird Tamaranean glops, but, whatever you do, don’t give him soy!” azarathian (Raven): “They were all right,” she shrugged, “for vegan food.” She honestly hadn’t even noticed they were vegan; they tasted the same as anything else, to her. Someone like Cyborg, however, could probably smell that they were vegan from a mile away, and no doubt make a fuss of it. By now Raven’s face had (thankfully) returned to its natural hue, and Beast Boy was in fact doing a good job at calming her by bringing about the swift subject change. In a way, she was grateful. She knelt down to assist in clearing the floor of the several sweet bags scattered across it, placing each one into the shopping bag the boy had brought them into the room with. “I’d take soy over Star’s cooking any day.” She paused. “… Not that mine is much better.” titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): Beast Boy rolled his eyes. He was sure she was just saying that to irk him. He knew she liked them, regardless of whether or not they were vegan. Was there a reason she liked to shoot him down so much? Maybe the same reason he teased her, he reasoned. He could tease her about her cooking, but after what just happened, he thought it safer not to push it. “I can always give you more lessons, if you want. Maybe actually plan ahead so you’ll know what we’re doing. Or go with something simple, like waffles. You just gotta mix some stuff and pour it in the waffle iron.” azarathian (Raven): For a moment, she considered the offer. It was somewhat unexpected; though the cooking lesson he’d given her recently hadn’t resulted in complete disaster, she imagined she must’ve tried his patience at least a little with her lack of culinary skills and habit of getting half the ingredients all over the floor instead of in the bowl. Still, he was proposing that maybe they could try again and hopefully give her the chance to improve? It was… thoughtful of him. And definitely something she wasn’t going to turn down. “That sounds a lot easier than that coconut cake… thing,” she smiled softly at him, then passed him the bag. titansandothersrp (Beast Boy): Given all the stuff Raven put up with from him on a regular basis; pranks, loud music, sneaking into her room, bad jokes… A bit of a mess from simple mistakes wasn’t that bad at all. He chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. “Heh. Yeah. I probably should have picked an easier first lesson. I kind of picked the recipe before I decided I should give you lessons.” He took the bag with a smile. “Thanks.” He blinked in realization. “Wait… This is my mess. Why are you helping?” azarathian (Raven): She’d assumed as much; it wasn’t like her green teammate to think ahead. She’d come to learn that much over the years of living with him. He was as spontaneous as they come. An idea comes to his head, he does it. Not that she minded, for the cooking lesson - though not perfect - had turned out to be a good experience both in the end anyway. Raven met his eyes and blinked right back. “Well, I’m not just gonna sit and watch,” she reasoned. Would be pretty insensitive of her. They’d almost finished as it was now, the girl placing the last rogue bags into the larger one between them. Her fingers roamed the floor when she suddenly felt something beneath them, about an inch beneath the sofa. “And look what I found.” In her hand she dangled the missing remote and swayed it back and forth before him. [ FIN ]