#(to the point you will scour out anything you deem not good

[king0fcrows]

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[theladyofbloodshed]

Part One ¦ Part Two ¦ Part Three ¦ Part Four ¦ Part Five ¦ Part Six ¦ Part Seven ¦ Part Eight ¦ Part Nine ¦ Part Ten ¦ Part Eleven ¦ Part Twelve ¦ Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen - Long final chapter but you will get a smutty epilogue soon!

They scoured the Spring Court as well as they could while the darkness still veiled them, but there were no signs of Nesta or the Vanserra prick. They had edged as close as they could to Tamlin’s manor, scoping the forests for any traces of either of them to no avail. If Lucien was like his slimy brothers, he could winnow – then he could have taken Nesta anywhere in the world. They knew little of him, only that his father had him exiled and mauled his face in one of his rages. They’d never deemed the youngest Vanserra worthy of spying on. Cassian prayed to the Mother that they wouldn’t regret that decision. If Lucien was anything like his brothers, then they had precious time to get to Nesta before she was seriously hurt. If he decided to return to his father, risk his exile, to present Cassian’s mate to the high lord of the Autumn Court then Nesta was as good as dead. There was only a sliver of a chance she wouldn’t be hurt in the Spring Court either.

‘We can’t just go barging into Tamlin’s manor demanding if she’s there.’

‘I know,’ Rhys snapped, eyes not wavering from Cassian’s tense body. Both of them were simmering away with only Azriel’s cool head holding them steady. Likely he was weighing up their options, wondering whether Nesta’s head was about to be presented to Beron Vanserra on a platter.

Cassian was half tempted to hammer on the doors of the Spring Court and demand Lucien be brought forwards. They were wise to be hesitant though. Tamlin was a force to be reckoned with. Beyond his raw strength, the male had legions of loyal soldiers at his command – ones who he’d bled beside in the war, that he’d grown up with in war bands. They would die for him without hesitation. It wouldn’t be easy to make it to the front doors. There was bad blood between them all and Rhys would love nothing better than to settle the score – or to ease his guilt over not coming for Nesta sooner. They didn’t need a war with Spring, even Cassian could agree to that.

‘We return to Velaris,’ Rhys said, voice nowhere near as calm as he tried to make it. ‘Check on the sisters and reconvene.’

‘I’m not leaving without Nesta.’

Azriel sighed with impatience. ‘The sun is almost up. There’s no sign of her. We can’t scent her. I can send my shadows in, but in all likelihood, she isn’t here, Cass.’

It was Rhys’ turn to block Cassian’s path before he parted Azriel’s head from his body. His chest heaved with every breath aching in his lungs. He couldn’t bear to think of Nesta coming to any harm due to their mistakes.  

Azriel went on, ‘We’ve dumped her two sisters with Mor and they need support too. I’m happy to keep searching with you, brother, but Nesta is not here.’

‘Send your spies into Spring. We’ll go to Velaris. Then return.’

What choice did Cassian have? His body was on fire, a rash had erupted all up his arms and he’d scratched the skin until it bled. He needed Nesta as much as she needed him. The bond was demanding their reunion. It burned fiery hot, angry that they had come so close to her then not met.   

‘Fine.’

Without a warning, he was free falling above the House of Wind. The cold wind rippled against his leathers. His wings splayed out on instinct, slowing the fall, but his knees still popped from the impact. Dawn was bleeding into the skies of Velaris; he’d have liked Nesta to have seen the night sky as her first impression of his home. But now he’d take her safety over anything. She could see Velaris pouring with rain for all he cared – he just wanted her in his arms.

Mor strode onto the roof, eyes wide. Her red dress billowed out behind her. ‘We have a big fucking problem.’

‘Don’t tell me a mortal has escaped,’ Rhys groaned.

‘Much fucking worse.’ She pointed a finger at Cassian. ‘You are so lucky that Amren needed something from the vaults in the middle of the night for whatever it is she is up to. Your mortal mate is knocking on the doors of the Hewn City with a fucking Vanserra in tow.’

‘Peace,’ Azriel said, clutching his hands into prayer, ‘Just one week of peace is all I ask.’

***

This was a city unlike any Nesta could have ever imagined. Carved into the black rock mountain were avenues, separate buildings with twisting spires, illuminated homes and bridges criss-crossing the glowing, green streams that ran through it. It was a metropolis carved into the mountain itself. All of it was inlaid with artwork of great, ancient beasts, faeries fornicating, of mortals dancing while fae whipped their bare backs. The pillars were carved to look like curling vines of night-blooming flowers. Silvery light glowed and bobbed in the air.

‘What is this place?’ Nesta asked, keeping her hand in Lucien’s and squeezing his warm fingers tighter. ‘You’ve table-clothed me to the wrong place.’

He had winnowed them to a central path that led to the massive iron gates then promptly tugged them from it behind a boulder out of view from the armoured sentries.

‘This is your beloved’s home.’

‘I never said he was my beloved,’ she replied hotly.

Her cheeks burned at the insinuation – but it was not the only part of her body that did. She needed the snow again to cover her skin; her muscles ached. She could not stop thinking of Cassian – of his body, of seeing him in the bath of her home, the muscles glistening in the fire light, of him guiding her hand to bring him to climax, seeing the hard length of him laying flat against his body, of how she regretted not seizing that chance of lying with him then.

‘Can you not think of sex with your beloved right now?’ Lucien scolded.

‘I never said he was my beloved,’ Nesta repeated.

‘That might be the only thing that could save you in this place. The Night Court is not good. I did warn you.’

Nesta scrunched up her nose as she peered from around the boulder at the still sentries on duty. Their black armour made them look bulkier than they likely were, but they were far taller than her. Their swords crossed over their bodies ready for any assault.

‘This isn’t Velaris.’

There was no beautiful night sky or rows of boutiques and bakers or clothes shops that stocked her gorgeous, fur-lined clothes that Cassian had bought for her. The buildings were supposed to be grey stone with green, slate roofs and a long, winding river was meant to run through the middle of the city where restaurants lined it.

Lucien’s eyes twinkled in the silvery light – both of them – and he murmured, ‘It certainly isn’t.’

This place felt wrong. Nesta couldn’t explain the feeling in her gut that had her wishing she could return to her cabin. There was a darkness to the Hewn City that made her afraid. She nestled closer to Lucien even if he tried to push her away. There was a voice telling her that she should not be here, a hand on her shoulder trying to guide her in the other direction.

‘Go and knock on the gates.’

‘I certainly will not. You said Cassian owes you something. Go and collect it, witch.’

Nesta shivered. Now that she was her, she wanted to go home. ‘They have mortals being hunted for sport on those pillars.’

‘How fast can you run?’

She clutched his arm, terror stilling the blood in her veins. ‘Someone’s coming.’

‘They can probably smell you and want to eat you.’

A small woman strode past the guards and was heading their way. Black, silky hair was cut about her chin, bobbing as she walked. Her clothes matched her eyes; swirling smoke that never settled. Beside her, Lucien tensed. He even pulled Nesta further behind him. Whoever this woman was, she didn’t seem to be good news if she made Lucien nervous.

‘Not Eris,’ she said. ‘Not Beron either. From that ugly disfigurement, the youngest Vanserra.’

‘How dare you!’ Nesta couldn’t help it. Every part of her was crying out not to speak to this woman, to stay hiding behind Lucien, but she wouldn’t hear such awful words said about his scar. ‘What a horrid thing to say.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘A mortal mate for one of the most powerful Illyrians. Fate has a strange sense of humour.’

Lucien’s face leeched of colour. ‘The general is your mate?’

‘He’s a friend, I suppose.’

‘This is not the place for such conversations. Follow me and keep your hoods up. Especially you, girl, keep your hood up and face pointed at the ground.’

Nesta did not want to follow this strange woman into the city that made her skin prickle, but Lucien was already following with his hand reaching out behind him for Nesta to hold. He was afraid, she realised, by whoever this female was. She could not remember Cassian mentioning a high lady. And if she scared Lucien enough to comply then maybe Nesta had made a mistake coming here.

They were led to an obsidian stone room with a long table running through the middle. Some of the chairs, Nesta recognised as ones that could accommodate wings since Cassian had to spin hers around to sit comfortably. Did they all have wings, she wondered or was it only the men?

‘Remain here,’ the woman said before locking them into the room – as if they had any other choice.

‘Table-cloth us back to my cabin, Lucien.’

‘I cannot. There are wards on this city.’

‘I don’t know what that means,’ Nesta whispered.

‘Do you know who she is?’

‘The high lady?’

Lucien shook his head, his hand was still in her own, gripping it tightly. ‘Amren. Legend says she is a true immortal. A warrior serving a vengeful God. After millennia in the Prison, she yielded her perfect grace though her powers are no less bright.’

Nesta stared at Lucien. ‘I don’t know what any of that means.’

‘I am going to die with an ignorant mortal.’

They remained with their chairs huddled together. Nesta kept hold of Lucien’s hand in case he tried to table-cloth away without her despite his insistence that the wards – whatever they were – were impenetrable. His skin had not returned to its golden-brown and still his pulse was a racing song beside her.

‘Thank you for helping me,’ she whispered. ‘I won’t let anybody touch you.’

The corner of Lucien’s mouth tipped up. ‘Thank you, my lady, but I fear without your broom there’s little a witch in the woods can do.’

Maybe faeries were not so bad. Nesta had been a sacrifice, an exile, a witch, and now a friend of the fae.

As the key turned in the door, Lucien rose. ‘Stand with me,’ he murmured.

Nesta remained at his side, hand in his to weather the storm, but once the door opened, her heart shuddered. It felt like a piece was sliding into place, a piece that had always been missing. Cassian burst through, eyes wide with terror.

‘Nesta, has he hurt you?’

In one moment, Nesta was beside Lucien ready to break away from him to greet Cassian, and in the next, he’d hauled her in front of him like a shield, backed up to the wall, and pressed a knife to her throat.

‘Haven’t you ever been taught to never trust a Vanserra?’

‘Funnily enough, Lucien, your family isn’t thought of by mortals at all.’

Azriel had pinned Cassian to a wall over his yelling that he would rip Lucien into pieces and feed them to his father. They were a blur of magic and wings, both thrashing against each other. A blonde woman had entered, trying to instil calm too, then the small, silver eyed one who eyed the situation with disdain. Rhysand, the high lord, had black dust swirling around his hands when he finally entered the room.

‘Lets all take a moment to calm down.’

‘If you harm my mate, Vanserra, your mother will be sent your other eye amongst other organs.’

‘It’s nothing personal, Nesta. I had fun with you,’ Lucien replied smoothly, keeping the knife pressed to her neck. ‘I wanted to ensure Nesta made it here safely – but I want to ensure I can also leave this place in one piece.’

‘Then let her go and you can winnow back to Tamlin’s skirts.’

Lucien’s face was tight as he shook his head. ‘I can see the wards. I can only winnow past the gates and I know you will not let me walk freely. You’ll let me leave or else.’

The blonde one shook her head incredulously. ‘You aren’t in the position to make threats, snake.’

A long pause followed. Nesta tried not to move as Lucien kept his dagger against her skin. Oddly enough, fear didn’t greet her. It was more irritation with herself that she had been foolish enough to trust this annoyingly charming faerie. And, more unexpected, was how desperately she wanted to kiss Cassian. She was preparing herself to let the knife cut through her skin if it gave her the chance to touch him. Her body was alight with desire. There was nothing she wanted more than to get to him.

‘What is Velaris?’

***

‘You told your mortal mate too much – and yet not enough. Not enough for her to guard her words around me.’

Nesta’s face had gone white suddenly. The Vanserra had her chin tipped up to the air as he continued pressing the blade into the creamy skin. Each breath had her skin pushing closer to the blade’s edge. If Cassian saw a bead of blood, the last fraying instinct that he was clinging onto would snap entirely. And only the Mother knew what he would do then.

Rhys seemed to realise the same thing as Cassian struggled against Azriel and Mor’s hold on him. ‘Lucien,’ he said, voice low and urgent, ‘Nesta is Cassian’s mate. She has accepted the bond but they haven’t had the frenzy. You have a knife to the neck of the general of the Night Court’s mate. I have a male in this room who is about to go berserk and kill all of us except Nesta if you draw a single drop of her blood.’

Lucien’s hand tightened on the blade on instinct and Nesta screwed her eyes shut.

‘The other high lords will be interested to know exactly why you feel entitled to break a five-hundred-year-old treaty, Rhysand, and bring mortals to your court.’

‘I wish I hit you harder with my broom,’ Nesta hissed.

How many males had she hit with that thing? Oh, he already loved her.

Rhys’ grin was feline. He’d shared something with Amren, Cassian could tell by the smirk on her own face.

‘Alright, Little Lucien, you can see Velaris. And you have my word that you won’t ever be harmed be me or my council. I swear it on the Mother herself.’

‘I keep hold of Nesta until then,’ he said.

‘Not a problem. Mor and Cass first. Amren and Azriel. Then the three of us will go together.’ Rhys voice was placating like one a father might use to soothe a crying child.

He felt Rhys’ voice in his own head imploring him to trust his judgement in this.

Cassian wanted to fight against it. It was the same judgement that had left Nesta festering in a mortal cabin while he wasted away in Illyria without her. The judgement that had meant they went for Nesta last when she was the most important mortal in the world. But he had trusted Rhys for all of his life. He had to trust a little more.

Mor kept hold of him as they winnowed directly to the house. A sour-faced Feyre and a still-wailing Elain came scurrying out to the roof in their thin, scruffy gowns. Velaris would be a good home for both of them.

‘Did you find her?’

Cassian could not speak. It would not only be his heart breaking if Nesta was hurt.

‘She’ll be here soon,’ Mor replied. ‘Go back into the house.’

‘No.’ Feyre had planted her feet with the same stubbornness as her elder sister. Cassian wished the other one would stop her mourning cry or it would wake everybody in Velaris.

Azriel appeared above them, wings billowing out to land, with Amren in his arms. Neither of them looked particularly happy about the situation.

Finally, Rhys winnowed to the roof with his arms gripping both Lucien and Nesta.

‘Velaris,’ he said.

The sun was crawling ever higher into the sky, scattering light across the serpentine Sidra. It hit the frost lacing the roofs, making them shine. This city was beautiful. A city of starlight and wonder.

It was enough for Lucien’s grip to loosen on the knife.

Before any of them could react, Nesta had thrust her heel up to his groin.

‘That’s my mate!’

Nesta was in his arms in moments. That roaring voice in his head had grown louder. She was here. This was real. His mate.

‘I love you,’ he said in between kisses. ‘You stink of smoke and Day Court wine and Vanserras but I still love you.’

Nesta peeled her mouth from Cassian’s. ‘Did you see my cabin?’

‘You became the witch in the woods.’

Nesta’s smile was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, so full of pride and satisfaction. ‘I wanted to make you laugh.’

And she did. She had. She was brilliant and a little bit unhinged, but in the most perfect of ways.

For a while, he just held onto her. Because he could. Because she was here. Because she was safe. And she always would be; even if the Mother only granted them thirty or forty years, Cassian would savour every minute of them. Time would always be their enemy, but time was never promised.

‘Don’t hurt him,’ one of the sisters cried suddenly.

Nesta thrashed out of Cassian’s arms to land on the roof. ‘Elain, what are you doing?’

The crying had ceased. The middle sister, in her tired, lavender gown was shielding Lucien Vanserra’s body with her own, protecting him. He looked as if he was sizing up the sheer drop from the ledge, debating whether he’d survive it. ‘Please, don’t hurt him.’

‘Elain, he just had a knife to Nesta’s neck,’ Feyre said, face wracked with disgust.

‘He won’t be hurt,’ Rhys said calmly, spreading out his hands. ‘I made that vow. But you won’t ever leave Velaris, Lucien. You know its secret now. You will remain here until you wither and die. That is the price you pay for daring to touch a female who is part of my court.’

Elain wrapped her arms around the male, her tears had been exchanged for an unexpected, fierce streak.

‘I dream of you,’ she whispered. ‘So many times, I’ve dreamed of your face.’

‘They’re called nightmares,’ muttered Azriel.

Cassian knew if he did not claim his mate in the next few minutes, he was going to combust on the spot. His siphons were ready to erupt with power. But Nesta remained throwing her arms in the air at a loss for words, then she snapped, ‘Elain, do not be so silly. This man has bedded witches and dryads, you can do far better.’

‘That was told in confidence.’

Nesta rolled her eyes. ‘It was a brag, Lucien. And a poor one. I might have kept your secret if you didn’t try to kill me.’

‘It was nothing personal as I said.’

Had these two been locking horns like this since they’d met?

The middle sister, kept her arms firmly around Lucien as if he hadn’t just threatened her sister. Then again, Cassian supposed she had also seen her mortal fiancée as part of the hunt to kill the same sister, so maybe Elain wasn’t quite right. Certainly, she was staring at Lucien as if he was the most magnificent male in the world.

They’re not mates too, are they?

Rhys, I don’t know or care. The frenzy is about to become a public spectacle.

‘Put Lucien into the room at the farthest end. Amren will be your companion today, little fox. Elain, you may keep your arms around him like a limpet if you so wish. He won’t hurt you in Amren’s presence.’ Vanserra didn’t seem overly thrilled by the prospect of a mortal woman staring up at him with her moon-wide eyes, which was likely why Rhys allowed it. ‘Feyre darling, has my lovely cousin shown you to your room yet?’

‘We’re just supposed to go to our rooms and pretend everything is normal?’ Feyre had her hands on her hips. ‘We are in a faerie city. One of my sisters is staring at that thing like its love at first site… Nesta, you’ve singed off your eyebrows!’

‘Have I?’

‘Just a little,’ Cassian admitted. ‘You look even more beautiful for it.’

At the compliment, Nesta rolled her eyes. She stepped away from him, and Cassian fought the urge to tug her back. He’d struggle to let her go again, he knew, but her sister needed her more. He'd have to suppress his instincts, just a little longer.

Nesta reached out an arm for Feyre and pulled her into an embrace. The younger one burst into tears the moment they touched.

Rhys’ voice came into their heads again, asking them to give the sisters a moment together.

***

‘I thought they’d kill you and you didn’t want to go then he came and said he could take us and I didn’t know if they’d find you and the cabin was on fire and the men were coming and Graysen would have killed you.’

‘You’re safe,’ Nesta hushed, stroking Feyre’s hair as she cried. Her sister had never wanted to share her battles, just like Nesta. Elain never minded who she cried to, but her and Feyre were the same. Private. Content to be alone. But it wasn’t always good to lock yourself away – she’d learnt as much in the cabin, learnt as much when she decided it was better to die than to accept Cassian and Azriel’s help. Something had snapped in Nesta, a desire to damn the consequences and seek out the lumbering male who’d nearly made a hole in her roof. It was not shameful to accept help. It would not be offered if it was a burden.

Through her tears, Feyre explained how they came to be in Velaris – and Nesta felt a sick sense of satisfaction that their father was not extended the courtesy. Nesta did not tell her sister about the Hewn City. For now, Velaris was a safe place. They would deal with whatever came next together. Even if that involved prising Elain away from Lucien Vanserra.

‘You did all that to your cabin to make a faerie laugh? I thought you were going mad.’

‘It must have been madness from the start when I hid Cassian from the villagers.’

It had been a long, long time since they had embraced each other. Feyre had been tiny the last time it happened. Nesta had blinked and Feyre had become a woman; her reflection in appearance and spirit. They had battled enough. They could try to be sisters now. With no poverty pressing down on their mood, without a father who was useless, with hope for the future, they could be sisters again.

‘This is a beautiful city,’ Feyre said, sniffing back her tears.

‘It is, isn’t it? We could try to love it. But if you want to return to the village then that’s where we will go.’

Feyre nodded, eyes still rimmed with tears. ‘I can’t tell if it’s the tiredness or hunger making me so emotional.’

‘Rest, eat, bathe then we could explore the city.’

‘I’d like that.’

Nesta watched her littlest sister be escorted to her room by the blonde woman, Mor, who chirped away happily despite the lack of sleep they were all experiencing. Before she had a chance to check to see if Elain had forced her engagement ring on Lucien’s finger, Cassian was dragging her down the hall by the hand.

‘Amren will kill Lucien if he tries anything. We have unfinished business.’

‘Unfinished? I recall you finishing.’

‘But you did not hence why it is unfinished.’ Cassian pinned her to the wall of his room, so Nesta had mere seconds to take in the racks of weapons on the wall before his lips were on hers again. He was surprisingly tender for such a large man. His kisses came with a dizzying intensity where Nesta felt as if the current might sweep her away.

‘You need a bath,’ he said, kissing her brow. ‘You stink of smoke, faerie wine, and dead animals.’

‘You have blood on your clothes.’

‘Then we are evenly matched. And,’ he led her by the hand through his tidy room, ‘the baths here can fit a handsome winged faerie and his beautiful mortal mate in comfortably.’

The bath had already been drawn for them. It was frothy with mountains of bubbles and scents of citrus rose from the steam rising from it. Candles encompassed the room and the curtains had been drawn.

‘Slow,’ Nesta whispered as Cassian tore off her clothes like a man starved.

He screwed his eyes shut for a moment then took more care to unlace her boots then remove her stockings. Her heart thumped louder with every layer he discarded. Despite following him to Prythian, this was still new territory. Letting a man touch her. Kiss her. It was still new.

Yet her body thrummed with energy. Nesta fought against her own urges to wrap her legs around his hips and kiss him until she starved of air.

‘Slow,’ she repeated to both of them.

‘Slow,’ Cassian agreed. ‘We have time now.’

@mis-lil-red

[monster-fricker]

Part 1: The Offer

Male Orc (He/Him pronouns) x Female Human Reader (She/Her pronouns) - SFW Chapter, but will eventually be NSFW

- A cliché sugar baby story that I will not apologize for. We meet the cutest of orcs in the next chapter. As always, thank you for reading and let me know what you think -

It was an idea you had been mulling over for awhile. Once your job announced the budget cuts and you were one of those cuts, that idea became much more alluring. Still, you did not know how lucrative this endeavor would actually be.

When you made your account on the sugar baby website, you kept your expectations realistic. You were vague about certain details- your name, for example, was changed to a simple, cliché "Kitten" and your location only listed a general area. However, you did think it was best to be honest about your body type. Round and soft, curves and rolls snd stretch marks in various places, it was not something you were ashamed of, and you wanted to weed out any prospective "employers" who would not appreciate them properly. You posted a few photos, none with your face in them, some on the suggestive side, then waited.

It took a couple days to receive interest, but after discussions on boundaries, none of them panned out. You figured the dream of being a sugar baby was probably a lost cause.

You woke up on Friday, later than would be deemed acceptable for a responsible adult, prepared for another long day of job hunting. You considered staying at home to do it, but the thought of spending one more day trapped in the house, wearing dubiously washed sweatpants and mindlessly filling out applications made you grimace. Maybe the local coffee shop would be a nice change of pace. You had not been there in some time, trying to be frugal with what little money you had left. Neverthrless, the isolation was weighing heavily on you. You scoured your apartment for loose change, found just enough for two cups of coffee, and put on the cleanest outfit you could manage, before heading out, laptop in tow.

The coffee shop was pleasant as it always was. Busy, of course, but only one table was occupied. Everyone in line was clearly hurried, getting their fix of caffeine before returning to work. You did not miss the rush of it all, the stress. What you did miss was the paycheck that came with it. You chose a table in the far right corner, away from the chattering crowd, and immediately began the search for anything, anywhere hiring. It all blurred together at this point.

Looking for a secretary with 3 years of experience.

Customer service position. Minimum wage. Bachelor's degree required.

Unpaid internship with the possibility of more.

You would have rolled your eyes if you weren't so desensitized to it by now. You looked out the window and sipped your coffee, watching businesswomen hail taxis, construction workers steal a bite of lunch, parents holding their toddlers hands as they crossed the street. The city was a constant flurry of life. And you were on the sidelines, standing still.

An e-mail notification interrupted your rumination. Yet another rejection letter? A "Hot Singles in YOUR Area" headline that somehow slid past spam filters? Another warning from your credit card company for that unpaid statement balance? This did make you roll your eyes. You could barely contain your excitement.

To your surprise, it was none of the above. A potential sugar daddy had sent you a message on the website. You contemplated whether it was even worth looking into, but determined there was no real harm in checking. You could use a good laugh, you thought. You logged in.

You checked the profile before the message- a quick way to find out what you were getting into. A man, he/him pronouns, late 30's, no photos of himself, nothing offensive or creepy in his bio. Vague enough to be worrisome and vague enough to be intriguing. You opened the message:

Hello Kitten, I have read your profile and I am very interested. I would like to get to know you a little more first. Eager for your response.

Sincerely, O.

After writing and re-writing your reply several times, you sent it. You asked him a few basic questions, such as occupation and what he was looking for out of this possible arrangement, followed by a few facts about yourself and your strict boundaries: first few meetings must be in a public place and no sex on any of those first meetings. You sighed. You didn't think those boundaries were unreasonable, but from the reactions you had gotten so far, they were always a deal-breaker. His message back was near immediate:

I am a novelist. Live just outside of the city. Not sure what I'm hoping to gain from this. Companionship and fun, though we can discuss those details further if you would like.

As for your rules, those are fine with me. If you are interested, there is an Italian restaurant I'm particularly fond of. Say 7pm?

Let me know and we will hammer out the specifics.

O.

You chewed on your lip as you read the message. You were not prepared for this and it was giving you anxiety. Of course, you could back out of it. You could delete your account. You could throw your laptop into the nearest river.

Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic. Maybe. The part that gave you the most anxiety was that you wanted to go. This was a good opportunity and, at worst, you would get free food, hit him with some pepper spray, and go home with a full belly and fun story to tell. You typed your response and hit send, refusing to think on it any further:

That sounds like a plan. Let me know the restaurant and dress code and I'll be there.

- Kitten

Once again, your notification lit up immediately. This was happening. You did not know whether to rejoice or faint.

Next Chapter

[ragingbookdragon]

The Hero We Want To Be

Barry Allen x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 1.1K Warnings: Explicit Language

Author's Note: I love it when superheroes don't like each other--it makes for wonderful speeches. Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

She idly toyed with the straps of her vambrace while Batman’s voice filtered through her ears, designations of missions, locations of anomalies, the usual agenda. The only solace she found was when Hal would occasionally slip over a constructed chess board, and she’d move a piece; she wanted to be back in Deepwater Hideaway—that or be in Central City with Barry.

Drawing her gaze to the clock, she internally sighed at the hour; there were so many things she could be doing right now if Bruce hadn’t called this meeting. Making deals with otherworldly beings, casting magic spells, crafting potions, creating sigils, doing—

“Where’s Flash?”

She looked over to Batman who was staring at Barry’s seat between hers and Hal’s. “There’s a forensic science symposium in London.” She answered coolly. “He was giving a speech over pathology and body identification.”

Before Bruce could even acknowledge her answer, a scoff sounded from the end of the table. “Of course, the Speedster gets to skip League meetings.”

Her eyes turned to Green Arrow, and she scowled. “Well sorry, Oliver. Most of us aren’t billionaires who have complete control over their schedules and can just skip out on things we’ve promised to attend.” Her expression darkened. “Maybe get off Barry’s case and worry about your own.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, (Y/N)?” he shot back, and Superman cleared his throat.

“Alright, let’s all settle down.”

(Y/N) waved him off. “No. He wants to do this now, we’ll do this now.” She glowered at Oliver. “You just hate the fact that everyone likes Barry, don’t you? It just drives you up the wall that other than Superman, the Flash is the one superhero that everyone deems the greatest alive.”

Oliver growled at her. “He’s a fucking hypocrite.”

“So are you, or have you forgotten that most people don’t like billionaires.” (Y/N)’s eyes narrowed. “It’s because Barry doesn’t need to prove anything to be a hero.”

“What?”

She stood up, pointing a finger at Barry’s empty chair. “That’s the thing about Barry Allen. He’s the same man under the cowl as the one sitting in his lab. He doesn’t need the speed force to be a hero—he merely is.”

Oliver scoffed. “Without the speed, he’s—”

“The greatest man alive,” (Y/N) interrupted. “All of us? We need our skills and magics and equipment to be heroes. But Barry?” she shook her head. “Take away the speed and what would you leave Barry with?”

Her head tipped up and she declared, “You leave a man who scours crime scenes for hours on end to find one shred of evidence to bring justice to victims. You leave a man who befriends everyone he meets because he believes in the power of friendship. You leave behind a man who strives for justice in everything.”

(Y/N)’s voice never lost it’s strength as she finished, “You leave behind a man who never gives up on redeeming people because he sees the good in them.” She pointed at Oliver once more. “And that’s what you’ve never understood about Barry Allen—and it’s something you never will.”

For the first time since she’d met the headstrong archer, he’d been stunned silent, and the weight of her words finally hit her—she’d practically just admitted her love for the Speedster.

Swallowing thickly, she looked over at Bruce and said, “I’ll take the anomaly in Saint Augustine.”

And with that, she turned on her heel and stalked to the Zeta-Tubes.

***

Waving her hand around the orb, she watched carefully as it swirled with mystical patterns. Probably of fae origins, if her guess was correct, and sure enough the emblem of the fae wings appeared in her vision. Her face pinched. Fae magic was always a pain to dispel and typically used up a good chunk of her mana reserve.

Resigning herself, she placed her hands on either side of the orb and shut her eyes, starting to dispel the enchantments. Her limbs shook and her breathing labored, but she kept her grasp until the orb cracked beneath her fingers.

With a shuddering exhale, she stepped back and let her knees give way, ready to collapse onto the floor when arms caught her, gently lowering her down; (Y/N) blearily looked over, confusedly asking, “Barry, what are you doing here?”

He smiled at her. “Well, I figured my knight in shining armor deserved a warm welcome from her fair prince.”

“You’re a goof,” she huffed with humor, letting her head rest on his shoulder. “Just give me a moment to catch my breath and I’ll get up.”

Barry shook his head, curling an arm under her legs. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll take you back to Deepwater.”

Nodding her head, she shut her eyes and let him run them across the world, and when she opened her eyes again, she was greeted by her dimly lit, but warmed hideaway. Barry set her down on one of her padded chairs and hurried into her kitchen, returning with a warm mug.

(Y/N) took it with a smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he murmured, sitting down beside her, watching as she sipped the tea, a look of relief settling across her face; it made his heart flutter and he remembered why he came to find her. “Hal showed me the footage of this evening’s meeting.”

Her eyes met his over the cup and she admitted, “I got ahead of myself.” A sigh escaped her. “I know Oliver’s full of hot air, but I just got irritated. Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Barry replied. “I appreciate you standing up for me in my absence.” He reached up and stuck his thumbs under his cowl, pulling it off and he gazed at her with those beautiful blue eyes. “And I appreciate what you said about me, (Y/N). About being a hero even if I didn’t have the speed force.”

Heat flooded her cheeks and her heart thumped against her rib cage as she confessed, “It’s the truth, Barry. You’re the greatest of us all. The one we all strive to be inside and outside of the suit.” (Y/N) gazed at him. “You’re who I try to be when I’m not being Auroras. Who I try to be when I’m just (Y/N).”

Barry’s smile was so soft and kind that it made her want to cry and he stood from his seat to kneel in front of her; he gently took her hands in his, brushing his thumbs over her knuckles as he murmured, “While I’m honored that you try to emulate me (Y/N)…there’s no one I’d rather you be, than you.” He leant forward and kissed her hands. “Because that’s what I love about you.”

(Y/N)’s eyes watered, and she let out a bubbly laugh. “Damn I owe Hal twenty dollars now.”

“What?” Barry chuckled and she shook her head, cupping his cheeks.

“Nothing,” she said, pressing a kiss to his lips.

[lilxberry]

Dare - Maddy Perez

Synopsis;

Maddy, during a party, was dared to pull quite the mean trick on you, who everyone seems to know had liked Maddy. What comes to follow certainly isn’t that of happy endings.

Warnings: Language. Hella angst. Mentions of alcohol. Underage drinking. Maddy a mega bitch in this

Words: 1,112

Pairing: Maddy Perez x Reader

(A/N: Part 2 maybe? I’m debating it. I think I’m gonna leave it and see the response to this first before I make a decision.)

Part 2: Truth 

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The music was blaring through the house as you entered. You agreed to meet the girls at the party since they wouldn’t take no to coming for an answer.

So here you were, scouring the house for your friends in, of course, the McKay residence.

As you ventured further into the house, you felt a burning gaze follow you around as you searched for your group. You shook of the uneasy feeling of being watched and soon found Rue and Jules by the kitchen island decorated with a wide variety of alcoholic drinks.

“There she is!” Jules exclaimed loudly, clearly already effected by the alcohol she’s consumed. “We thought you got murdered on the way over or some shit, bitch.”

“Hello to you, too.” You chuckle, shaking your head in amusement at the girls already tipsy state. “Hey Rue.” You greeted the other girl, focusing your attention on to the girl.

“Hey. You drinking tonight?”

“I might have a few, kinda don’t wanna get blackout drunk, y’know?”

Rue snorts and nods her head in acknowledgement. Although, it appears as something over you shoulder has drawn her attention away from you for a few seconds.

She turns her gaze back towards you with a knowing, all too cocky smirk plastered across her face. “It appears someone’s a fan of your costume.”

You brow knits together in confusion as you twist your head, straining your neck to peer over your shoulder to find the person Rue spoke of. As your gaze fell upon the crowd of rowdy, drunken teens, you noticed a certain brunette quickly look away once your eyes met.

Yet again, you decided to shrug it off, think nothing more of the strange occurrence. As you recompose yourself, you eyes linger on the counter littered with drinks and decide to help yourself.

Soon, Kat and Lexi decided to join back with Rue and Jules, greeting you as they realised you finally had arrived. You and the rest of the group decided to take a few shots before moving out back.

As you advance to outside, you risked one last glance towards the girl you connected eyes with minutes earlier and sure enough, Maddy Perez was staring directly at you, glued to Nate’s side.

_______________

The night advance and the drinks continued to slip down the back of your throat. You were on cloud 9, feeling the best you’ve ever felt. Your earlier declaration of “a few drinks” forgot after your fourth red solo cup filled with some mixed concoction.

As you sat outside in the brisk, fresh air on a sun lounger beside the pool, you took in the appearance of an equally drunk Maddy, stumbling her way towards you as her drink sloshed in her hand and giggles escaped her upturned, parted, full lips.

Once she reached the sun lounger you were currently occupied, she quickly placed herself upon your lap. “Whoops!” 

“Hey Maddy.” You drunkenly slurred, goofily grinning up at her, eyes hooded, feeling heavy from your alcohol intake.

“You,” She pointed towards your chest, long, polished nail pressed into the dip of your skin where your neck met your chest. “I want you.” She spoke in a low, sultry tone.

You surveyed your surroundings, spotting Nate too far away with the others from the schools football team. “What about Nate?”

“What about him?” Maddy giggled in response. “We can worry about him another time.” She leant in close to your ear, pulling your earlobe in between her teeth, her hot breath fanning against the side of your neck.

“This isn’t a good idea, Mads.” The low tone in your voice produced a growl from the back of your throat. Your hands came to settle on her waist, fingers digging into her flesh, your half filled cup long forgotten.

She brought her face towards yours again, lips lightly dragging across your skin as she moved to face you again. Your noses touch as her painted lips ghosted over your own. “That makes it more fun.”

With a sudden surge forward, she smashed her lips to yours, not caring about the people surrounding her, including Nate.

You swiped your tongue across Maddy’s bottom lip, asking for permission which she granted hastily. You soon took control of the kiss, tongue dominating hers as they danced around each other, saliva swirling together.

Your right hand wanders further down towards her ass and your left tightens its grip on her waist as hers latch themselves around your neck, lightly pulling at the easy accessible hair towards your neck.

A small amount of time passes before the two of you part, slightly panting, desperate to intake air. Your eyes wander to your surrounding once the loud cheering and whistles register with you. Most party goers seemed to watched the miniature make out happening near by.

Your gaze falls back on to Maddy, studying her face, trying to decipher what she’s currently feeling.

Maddy smirks before quickly standing and smoothing out her outfit before strutting back over towards the group she had originally came from. “Dare complete, fuckers!” She exclaimed loudly and another round of cheering and applause came from the group.

You looked towards with a confused yet hurt expression etched on to your face. Maddy falters for a moment as she notices your expression. You quickly switched your expression from hurt to stoic as quick as a whippet and proceeded to stand yourself, heading towards the house.

Maddy’s eyes flicker between you and the group, having a miniscule debate with herself about whether she should go after you or not. She shook her head, mind made up. You’ll surely forget what happened and realise it was all for a dare.

She turned on her heel as she strode over to Nate with a smirk that re applied itself on to her face, matching the football players’.

Meanwhile, you barged your way through the crowd, making your way towards the front door, hoping for a quick exit without further embarrassment. 

‘Of course it was a fucking dare. How could I be so fucking stupid to think otherwise?’

You felt the familiar tears sting your eyes as you finally reached the entrance of the house. You quickly rush pass the threshold and out of the party, beginning your trek back home.

Once you deemed that you’ve put enough distance between you and that stupid party, you allowed the tears to fall, cascading down your cheeks, silently sobbing with the occasional sniffle as you head back to your own house post-haste. If there’s anything you’ve learnt from tonight, it’s people are snakes and fuck the lot of them.

Fuck parties. Fuck people. Fuck Maddy Perez.

_______________

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My first official Euphoria story AND it just so happened to be focused from an LGBTQ+ standpoint

I love Maddy and we know she isn’t this shit of a person, I just felt like angst would work great with this fic rn

Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading just as much as I had writing this

As always, constructive criticism and requests are welcomed and greatly appreciated 

If you’d like to see a Part 2 to this, let me know :D

[seyferta]

“The woke world is a world of snitches, informants, rats. Go to any space concerned with social justice and what will you find? Endless surveillance. Everybody is to be judged. Everyone is under suspicion. Everything you say is to be scoured, picked over, analyzed for any possible offense. Everyone’s a detective in the Division of Problematics, and they walk the beat 24/7. You search and search for someone Bad doing Bad Things, finding ways to indict writers and artists and ordinary people for something, anything. That movie that got popular? Give me a few hours and 800 words. I’ll get you your indictments. That’s what liberalism is, now — the search for baddies doing bad things, like little offense archaeologists, digging deeper and deeper to find out who’s Good and who’s Bad. I wonder why people run away from establishment progressivism in droves.“

-Freddie deBoer, “Planet of Cops”

"The woke world is full of snitches, informants, rats..." and indeed it is. After I reblogged this quote earlier this year [I had to make a new post bc Tumblr wouldn’t let me reblog the original], the user I reblogged this from immediately blocked me and sent me an unsavory message—they told me how dare I follow them and then called me a "TERF dipshit" and a "fascist r*tard," presumably because they saw my bio, where I openly state that I advocate for LGB rights. First and foremost this is an art and æsthétique blog, but go off I guess.

How beautifully and fantastically ironic that on a post about how the woke world constantly scourges and analyzes everything everyone says and does... that this user visited my blog to scourge and analyze my beliefs and henceforth deemed them NOT acceptable. I was dealt with swiftly: I was called slurs, blocked, and forbidden from interacting with this user ever again. I was cancelled, because it's wrong to support same-sex attracted gay men and lesbians... but that's besides the point.

Looking back, I feel like so many people complain about how "woke" and "progressive" the world has become, but yet they blindly participate in the same practices. Not everyone we interact with online will be "ideologically pure" and keep the same beliefs and values as us, and that's okay. Social justice really is a mirror; some of you need look deeply at yourselves before you stare judgmentally at others.

[buryyourfavouritestrope]

Feel Things - Claude Faustus

Author Note: I haven't reread through this, so expect errors, I've just had the same several paragraphs in my drafts for months and really needed to finish this, because damn the concept was too good for me. Also I'm so glad someone made this gif because it fits super good for a specific moment in the fic below. Fruniscor

It was silly. It really was but she’d let a voice crow in their ear, and it had planted a charming seed of doubt. They’d passed each other by chance in a city of hundreds; a gentle yet firm grip had pulled her from the street matched with provocative eyes. The world stopped breathing in time with the Trancy Maid; all noise fell silent until the butler chuckled. As soon as Sebastian whispered his questions a shadow latched onto her young heart. He’d released the maid shortly after with a promise to see her again. A promise she had no intention of allowing him to keep.

This came as no surprise to either party, that along with the stagnant smell of the city street came the lingering stench of the Phantomhive butler. A foul smell that had been commented on a dozen times and would continue to be at the top of conversation. Claude had remained silent since she had returned home. His face contorted in displeasure – or could she see a hint of disgust hidden behind his liquid gold eyes.

“He should never have touched you, and for that I must apologise” Claude sighed. The demon was not the one to say sorry, but then he wasn’t one to let this happen in the first place. He could feel his irritation itching beneath his skin as he continued to inhale the fetor of the other demon. “However, before we go about any other business, you need to wash. I can’t stand that malodour.”

Claude’s fingers wrapped around her wrist felt drastically different to how Sebastian’s had felt earlier. His fingers held tight, almost painfully, as though he was worried, she would slip from his grasp and disappear. The Trancy Butler was all too aware of her pain threshold, and he always balanced on the precipitous edge. He wanted to let them know that he was still a demon. That he could still break them into unmendable pieces. Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t mean any harm by it; but she had this way of looking at him like he was almost human.

It hadn’t taken him long to draw a bath; nor had it taken long for her to disrobe and allow the steaming water to consume every inch of her body. Claude remained there, crouching beside the metal tub, his fingers idly skimming the surface of the water. Every so often he let his finger dive beneath the surface for a few beats before removing it. Both of them sat inhaling the soft scent of lavender.

In these moments, with just the two of them, the maid saw the serenity he was capable of. She found herself unable to remember the very simple fact that he was supernatural. She watched him turn slowly from a stone wall incapable of even faking an emotion, to this. A demon with a content smile drawn on his features and his eyes gliding over the ripples in the water as though he’d never seen it happen before.

Sebastian’s inquiry fought to the forefront of her mind. His sultry words squeezing at her heart. A jolt shot through her body; it caused the Demon to draw his focus to the maid. His eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Sebastian asked me a question earlier. A series of them, most pointless but one in particular.” The maid began, any confidence within her dissipated the instant Claude shifted closer to the bath. His fingers retreating from the water and resting on the metal. She hoped she would get the answer she imagined on her way back to the Manor. “He asked me why you kept me around, he said the other servants were demons and that with those four and yourself, there was really no need for-“

A guttural growl fell from Claude’s lips, his eyes darkening in rage as he gripped the metal tighter. The Trancy butler would’ve, in this second, liked nothing more than to destroy Sebastian. A task that he deemed easy considering the demon hadn’t fed in a few years. Yet, when Claude looked towards the shivering maid, who had so cleverly and without knowing stolen his thoughts, the tension within him dissipated.

“Claude?” She whispered, a damp hand settling above his own. Faustus winced; his eyes falling onto where they had joined. She’d touched him before. The maid had caressed his cheek one evening whilst he pretended to be asleep, in a poor attempt to keep the fact that he was a demon from her. He’d felt the soft callouses of her fingers on his skin for several days, and in the dead of night he imagined what it would feel like should she caress other parts of him. “I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

It took a while for Claude to register her words; he was too busy discerning the loss of her warmth. Once it had settled in his brain the butler had all but fell backwards, his legs crouched by the side of the tub buckled as he lost his composure. Her touch hadn’t caused him pain, it had startled him, the feel of her flesh on his own had drawn him into the fantasies that lurked in the darkest parts of his mind, reserved for painfully long evenings.

“You didn’t harm me,” He uttered. Claude’s voice almost sounded foreign to himself. He hadn’t spoken for a while and the sudden crack as he returned to his position by the tub. His knees firmly planted on the concrete floor. Quietly she watched him, his eyes doing their best to avoid hers, should she see the hunger prowling. Claude dipped his finger into lukewarm water. “You should get out soon, I’d hate to have you sick, think of the additional work.” He commented. He was trying to hide behind his cruelty, like the coward he hated to be.

“Yes sir, sorry” She apologised, her voice cracking slightly. She was still picturing Michaelis’ words, she was reminding herself she held no real value to the Trancy Household and in that reminder, she had begun to thread the words into her subconscious. She was a mere plaything. An example for the servants on how a human servant act, and once they were bored of this charade, they’d dispose of her.

Claude watched her; he could practically see the thoughts weighing down on her. The heart, which should never have existed, within his chest tore a little. He missed her smile. The one that he’d receive at the crack of dawn as she wiped away the sleep from her eyes, and the same one that he had been allowed to see as the same sleep from the morning fought for control of her body. Every night she’d go out of her way to say goodnight to him; she’d even stood outside their master’s room and waited for Claude to leave before she gave her sleepy grin and whispered goodnight. A few times he’d carried her to her room; her head against his chest. On those occasions he’d find his demonic nature softening as he tucked her into her rickety old bed, his gloved fingers placing stray hair behind her ear before – in an uncharacteristic moment – he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Unable to help himself and as he moved back, he would find that smile on her features.

“You shouldn’t listen to demons” He announced; at this point Claude had fully submerged his hand. The limb sat limp for a moment in the water. “We’re notorious liars, thieves, scoundrels and we say whatever we can to plant those seeds of doubt in unsuspecting innocent humans. I’ve done in a thousand times before, in order to tempt someone else’s meal to move towards me.” He continued.

“Someone else’s meal…” she breathed. Claude frowned at his own reckless explanation. The woman before him was nothing like food to him. Her soul held no nutritional value to him; it would never hold that meaning to him.

“My apologies, that was not what I meant” Claude admitted. “That uncouth demon chose you to tempt because it would cause trouble for me.”

“Trouble…how?” She questioned. Claude growled in frustration. This was the first time in a long time that he had ever struggled with his words. Inhaling deeply the demon reached for her hand beneath the water, his fingers brushed against hers briefly as he settled his mind and focused on what he was going to say next.

“This isn’t working” Claude huffed, his fingers – that had settled beside her – wrapped around her wrist like they had done earlier. A small tug as her body fell towards his, his eyes searching her features as he placed his other hand beneath her chin. “What I’m trying to get across to you is this”

She felt his breath across her lips as he hesitated briefly. It was just the shortest of moments as he questioned his resolve once again before his lips found hers. The hand around her wrist releasing her. He gave her the option to move away from him as their lips moved with each other. He let her have the time to regain control of her logical thoughts; and yet it had been her to place her hands on his first. Her hand rested behind his neck whilst the other found his shirt as their breaths mingled.

The room felt a few degrees warmer to her once they had separated. Her hands still firmly rooted against him.

“In short, I keep you here because beside me is where I need you, you hold more value to me than the others, if anything the other four could be replaced in an instant but you, I could scour the world for centuries and never find a replacement for.” Claude uttered. “You make me feel things that should be impossible and that both scares me and excites me”

[delacyrose224]

Gold Rush

-Pairing: drummer!Jungkook x reader, with a side of guitarist!Jin x OC

-Premise: You were never one for rushing into relationships, but what happens when you meet a certain blue-haired drummer?

-Genre: rock band!AU, some fluff but also some angst

-Word Count: 8.1k

-Author's Note: This is based on the song 'gold rush' by the one and only Taylor Swift! It will still make sense if you don't know the song, but you'll find some fun Easter egg references if you do know it. Also, fun fact: this is the first fic I've written since high school...do with that what you will.

“Come...on!” Margot grunts as she tugs on your arm. You literally have no idea why you’ve agreed to this night out-it’s Tuesday, you have work in the morning, you’re already tired and the night hasn’t even started.

“I’m coming,” you mutter begrudgingly, as you step carefully in your heeled boots down very narrow steps into what looks like a very seedy bar. The Dynasty. You walk in the door, and instantly try to retreat-it’s tiny, the floor is sticky with who knows what, and it’s packed. More like The Die Nasty...this could not be further from your comfort zone.

Margot, meanwhile, could not look more excited. She’s been talking about this concert for weeks now. You can’t even remember the name of the band, that’s how not your scene this is. Margot steers you towards the bar. “What do you want? My treat, since I made you come out on a work night just to be my wing woman.”

You scrunch up your nose in disbelief. Her wing woman? Has she seen you? You’re the most awkward person alive around men, especially cute men. Plus, it doesn’t help that you barely had time to throw on an Eagles t-shirt with a pair of jeans, and your hair has frizzed out from the light drizzle of rain that started on the walk over. “A Malibu with coke works,” you say, adding, “And make it a double!” at her retreating back.

You turn and scour the packed room for an empty booth, table, anything. Your eyes finally land on a tiny two person booth in an awkward corner of the room. Margot may not be able to see the band perfectly from here, but at least you’ll have seats. “A drink for my best friend in the whole entire world!!” Margot smiles brightly as she brings your beverages over to the table. “Do you think Jin will notice me? I tried to look cute, but not try too hard, y’know?” She smoothes down the front of her blouse nervously. You immediately have a witty retort ready to go, but you don’t have the heart to say it when you look up and see how fidgety she is. “Mar-if he doesn’t notice you, he’s an idiot,” you smile kindly.

The show isn’t due to start for another 30-45 minutes, so you spend that time chatting with Margot about work, life, and everything in between. She’s convinced that if she can just get Jin to notice her, that she’ll be able to introduce you to one of his bandmates, and then you can go on double dates (or something like that). “Mar, do you really think tortured artists go on double dates? I really can’t see it,” you snort into your drink. Let alone a guy in a band being interested in you, you’re about as boring and straitlaced as they come. You lose track of time as you continue the conversation, and the alcohol is certainly making you less annoyed that you’re here.

“They’re starting, they’re starting!” Margot squeals, gripping your arm. “Really?” You try to twist around in your seat to see, but before you get very far, you’re being dragged out into the space right in front of the stage. You’re not quite front row, but you’re awfully close-too close for your own liking, if you’re being honest.

“Margot…” you hiss, trying to get her attention, but all hope is lost. Her eyes are glued to the small stage, waiting for the man she’s deemed to be the love of her life to walk out and pick up his guitar. You give up after a while, huffing and crossing your arms to show your displeasure. A few girls around you give you a sidelong glance, seemingly judging you for being upset at a concert. How dare you? After staring at you for what they deem to be an appropriate amount of time, they go back to their own conversations, which you’re able to overhear due to your close proximity.

“Were you at the last show? They’ve improved SO much since they started, I love them!!” one yells a little too loudly, while her friend nods enthusiastically.

“Have you heard that Jungkook dyed his hair blue?! He was hot before, but now…” the girl can’t even seem to finish her sentence, she’s so overcome by the ‘hotness’ of this Jungkook guy, whoever he is.

As soon as his name is mentioned, you suddenly seem to overhear it multiple times in the conversations surrounding you while the band’s crew finishes setting up for them. You lean over to ask Margot what the heck the deal is with Jungkook, but just as you open your mouth to begin talking, a loud strumming blasts from the speakers on the edge of the stage, and you mouth ‘nevermind’ and step back to where you were.

A tall, broad shouldered man steps out of the shadows at the back of the stage to deafening screams, his guitar already strapped across his chest. He lifts up a hand in greeting, and steps up to one of the mics set up. “Thank you all for coming out! We hope you have a great time tonight!” He blows a kiss to the crowd (to more deafening screams). Margot looks like she might faint-this must be Jin.

Next to walk out is a sullen looking guy, shorter and smaller than the first. He walks to the side of the stage opposite of you, and picks up a bass. Forget Jin, forget Jungkook (whichever one he turns out to be), you like this guy. Sure, he’s cute or whatever, but he literally looks like he wants to be anywhere but where he’s currently at. “Same, dude, same,” you mutter to yourself under your breath. One of the girls from earlier must have overheard you again, because she turns and gives you a weird look. The multiple Malibu and cokes you had earlier give you the courage to tell her to mind her own business and leave you alone, but just as you begin to lean forward, the loudest screams yet erupt from the crowd. You immediately clench your hands over your ears (which you realize looks ridiculous at a concert) and turn to look at what’s caused the reaction.

Over the heads of the people in front of you, you see a mop of almost neon blue hair making its way to the drum set, but the rest of him is obscured as he swiftly walks across the stage. This must be that Jungkook guy those girls were talking about earlier. His hair looks like a blueberry as far as you’re concerned, and you still don’t understand what the fuss is about.

He settles behind his kit, and as the people in front of you move slightly, you catch a glimpse of Jungkook. His blueberry hair falls around his face in waves, and his nose is scrunched up because of the giant grin on his face, clearly ecstatic to start the show. Okay, he was cute. Cuter than bass guy and Jin (though you’d never utter that sentence out loud to Margot for fear of losing your life). Still, he’s just another guy in a band, right?

Jin starts the opening chords to the first song to deafening cheers, bass guy starting to play shortly after, and Jungkook having the time of his life on the drums. After a long intro, you hear a smooth voice with a tinge of rasp come through the mic. It instantly feels like your bones have turned to jelly, and you want to melt into a puddle (in the best way). However, you are confused. You’re staring at Jin, who is immersed in his playing, sweat already starting to drip from his brow from being under bright lights. His mouth isn’t moving. Why? He’s the lead singer. Are you imagining the lyrics you’re hearing right now?

You lean over to Margot, who’s conveniently also looking at Jin, albeit for a completely different reason. “Why isn’t the lead singer doing anything?” you shout over the music. “Huh?” she screams back, unable to clearly make out what you’re saying. “I said, why isn’t Jin singing?!” you yell.

Margot looks over to you, mirroring the confusion on your own face. “Look!” she points towards the back of the stage. There you see Jungkook, not only playing the drums, but also singing lead vocals in one of most attractive voices you’ve ever heard. Not only that, but he’s somehow managed to keep that scrunched nose smile from earlier on his face while doing it. So THAT’S what all the fuss about Jungkook was over. Just as your brain makes the connection between it being his singing coming through the speakers, he makes eye contact with you and his smile seems to grow even bigger, his eyes sparkling with delight.

Oh, you’re in big trouble.

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

The rest of the concert seems to go by in a blur. You have no idea how many songs the group does, you are so caught up in watching Jungkook perform...he clearly has talent, but you can tell he’s in love with what he’s doing. Even when sweat makes his hair start to stick to his forehead, he merely gives his head a shake (sort of like a dog), and keeps going with that wide smile on his face. It certainly doesn’t help that it feels like at least every other song, he’s making eye contact with you somehow-even though you’re not front row, even though his drum kit is at the back of the stage. Surely you’re making that up. He’s just a good performer, right? He makes all the girls feel like this, like he’s performing just for them.

As Jin strums out the final notes of the last song, you shake your head to clear your thoughts. This is dumb, you had too much to drink, and you were distracted by a cute guy who has a pretty voice. That’s all.

As the song dies out, you turn to your best friend. “Margot, you ready to go? I’m tired.” What you’ve failed to notice is that your best friend has disappeared while you’ve been wrapped up in your own thoughts. Did she go to the bathroom? Had she gotten more drunk while you were busy swooning (no, NOT swooning) over a certain blue-haired drummer? Just as you’re about to start panicking, you see her as the group of fans in front of you starts to disperse...and she’s talking TO JIN.

He’s sitting on the edge of the stage, long legs dangling off the front, head tilted back laughing at something Margot has said. His laugh doesn’t quite seem to fit him-it’s loud and squeaky, kind of like a windshield wiper dragging itself across the front of a car. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out his guitar pick, and goes to hand it to your friend. Simultaneously, he leans in and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Other girls that are around you, hanging back in hopes of meeting the boys, are clearly fuming at the action and some even stomp off.

On one hand, you are excited for Margot-she’s gotten the attention of the man she’s been talking about nonstop for days. On the other hand, you also want to leave-love is gross and you have no time for it. Since you can’t abandon your friend in a seedy bar with a man she hardly knows, you settle for the next best thing-your fifth (you think?) drink of the night.

“A Malibu and coke please,” you ask the bartender while sliding cash across the counter. You know you’ll regret the alcohol running through your system in the morning, but you can’t seem to bring yourself to care enough to stop. You pick up the drink, filled to the brim, and turn quickly to go hide in your booth from the beginning of the night. Surely Margot will come find you when she’s done talking, right? Just as you turn, someone walking the opposite way bumps elbows with you with enough force to cause half your drink to slosh down the front of your shirt and onto the floor.

“Oh wow, I am so sorry! I should have been paying more attention-let me get some napkins for you!” says some unknown male voice. You’re too busy mourning over your half spilled drink that you’d just paid too much for to reply. Suddenly, there’s napkins thrust into your hand, and you look up.

It’s Jungkook.

He’s even more attractive up close, if that’s even possible. He’s sweaty, but somehow makes it look good-his longer hair is swept back into a little blue half bun, his eyeliner is smudged, and he’s down to his white undershirt with ripped jeans. The dim lights of the bar are reflecting off both his earrings and what looks like the stars in his eyes.

“Um...are you okay? I can go get you a new shirt to change into-wait here!” Before you have the chance to form any words, he jogs off towards the stage where he has a conversation with the bassist. The bassist doesn’t look happy about what Jungkook says, but Jungkook still goes to the back of the stage, and comes back with a black piece of fabric in his hands.

“Yoongi’s pissed because these aren’t even ready to be sold, but whatever. Just think of it as an exclusive sneak peek or something,” Jungkook says as he hands the shirt to you. You accidentally brush your hand across his as you take what he’s handing you, and you feel like you might burst into flames with the way your insides feel like they’ve become molten lava.

You unfold the shirt to see that it’s got song lyrics written across it in dripping graffiti font, along with their signatures. The realization suddenly hits you that you still have not said a single word to the man standing in front of you.

“Y-Yoongi?” you stammer out. You hate how much you sound like a high schooler asking their crush to prom. “Oh yeah, that’s our bassist. The one who looks like he’d literally rather be anywhere else than playing with Jin and me,” Jungkook chuckles. “He’s really a softy underneath it all, but don’t tell him I said that.”

You laugh, though you feel like it sounds a little too forced and a little too loud. Your assumption seems to be right, as you see Jungkook raise one eyebrow.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I really am sorry I made you spill your drink.��� He genuinely looks worried. About you. What universe are you even living in right now?

“I’m fine, really. Thanks for the t-shirt, you didn’t have to do that,” you mumble softly.

“It’s the least I could do for a pretty girl whose Eagles tee I ruined, don’t worry about it. Yoongi will get over it.”

Jungkook smiles that same smile he seemed to throw your way throughout the concert, nose scrunching up, eyes sparkling. It feels like you’ve been thrown overboard into the ocean in the middle of a storm. You can’t get your bearings, the waves keep throwing you under, and you’re disoriented. The only light is coming from the stars in his eyes. Surely this man who could date anyone he wanted to did not just call you pretty, as casually as he might have mentioned the weather outside?

You’re shaken out of your reverie as Margot and Jin approach the two of you. “JK, my man, sorry I took so long-I was too busy being enchanted by this lovely lady,” Jin smiles, and you can see that Margot is beaming with happiness. You’re glad someone’s night has gone well.

“No problem, I was just talking to...” Jungkook suddenly looks lost, realizing he doesn’t know your name.

“Y/N.” you blurt out. Margot looks at you strangely, but is distracted once Jungkook begins talking again.

“Yeah, I bumped into her and made her spill her drink, so I gave her one of our shirts and we were just chatting.” He smiles gently at you and your heart does a somersault.

“Nice to meet you. You must be cool if you’re friends with this one,” Jin nudges Margot with his shoulder. How long have the two of them been able to talk for, for him to know you’re friends? You’ll definitely need a debrief on the walk home.

You speak to Jin with much more ease and control than you can manage with Jungkook. “I like to think I’m cool,” you grin. At this, Jungkook smirks.

“She’s the best!” Margot chirps, clearly still a little drunk. Jin chuckles and puts an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, pretty girl, JK and I need to go help Yoongi with getting everything put up in our van. It was lovely to meet you,” he drops his arm from around her shoulders, only to pick up her hand in his and kisses her knuckles promptly. Margot giggles. “I’d love to take you out sometime.” She nods enthusiastically.

“It was nice to meet you too,” Jungkook leans in to half-whisper in your ear. When did he get that close?! You nod with a small smile in his direction-that’s all you can seem to manage when that drowning in the ocean feeling suddenly returns.

He and Jin turn to leave, and you go to your booth, making sure you didn’t leave anything behind before the whole drink-spilling fiasco happened. Seeing that you have everything, you turn to find Margot, only to see Jungkook whispering in her ear across the room and laughing.

Your heart drops. You were right all along-he does treat all the girls like this, like they’re special to him.

Margot comes up to you shortly after. “You ready to go?” you ask quietly.

“Yep!” she smiles, and drags you out of The Dynasty by the hand. The entire walk home, all she can talk about is Jin-how cute he is, how funny he is, how talented he is, and oh, did she mention how cute he is? You nod and smile in all the right places in her story. You are happy for Margot, but you can’t help comparing what she’s telling you with your interactions with Jungkook. You had acted like an idiot, and there was no way he was interested in you on any level. Plus, he clearly thought that your best friend was worth flirting with after Jin helped him escape your awkward conversation.

You shake your head to clear it as you reach your apartment building. Margot bids you farewell at the second floor, while you continue your trudge up the stairs to the fourth floor. You key into your apartment, throwing your keys into a bowl and heading for your bedroom.

Makeup off, pjs on, you’ve just finished washing your face when you look at yourself in the mirror. “Boys are dumb, and love is stupid,” you say to yourself, not sure if you actually believe what you’re saying. As you dry your face, you hear the sound of your phone receiving a text. Margot, no doubt, still waxing poetic about how she can’t believe that Jin wants to take her out on a date.

You slide into bed and turn off your lamp, grabbing your phone to set an alarm for the morning and to tell Margot that you’ll talk some more tomorrow during lunch.

Unknown Number

2:37 AM: Hey, it’s Jungkook!...I hope you don’t mind, I got your number from Margot. thanks for coming out to the show tonight, I hope you had a good time!! if you didn’t, you don’t have to wear the shirt I gave you, that would be weird for you to wear it if you hated our music…

2:41 AM: anyway, I just wanted to apologize again for making you spill your drink. Usually I’m not that clumsy, I guess I was distracted. You should come hang out with the band before our next show on Friday! only if you want. let me know...or don’t. Whatever you want.

2:45 AM: Can you tell I’m nervous? haha

2:46 AM: usually i’m not like this, but you’re really pretty and you seem cool. ANYWAY. I hope you hang out with us-bring Margot too, Jin would like that. I hope you got home safe and i hope i see you soon :)

You stare in disbelief at your phone. Jungkook just texted you. Jungkook just texted you FOUR TIMES IN A ROW. Good thing you are much less awkward via text, mostly because you have time to think out what to say. You can’t help the giant grin that forms on your face as you type out a reply.

2:50 AM: I made it home, thanks for checking in...I can’t turn down a good band shirt, so I’ll definitely be wearing it. Maybe I’ll wear it if we hang out, you’ll have to wait and see!

You place your phone on the nightstand and turn over to get comfortable. Maybe Margot wasn’t the only one who had a good night after all.

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

Three days later, you’re staring at your phone sitting on your desk. “Can you not?” Margot huffs from beside you, rolling over in her desk chair. “Just freaking text JK and tell him we’re coming to hang out with the band,” she rolls her eyes and lets out a huge sigh.

“Margot, can you not? Stop being so loud, we’re at work,” you hiss. Margot looks slightly taken aback at your comment, and then swiftly rolls back to her own desk.

You’ll deal with her hurt feelings later. For now, you go back to staring at Jungkook’s text that is boring a hole in your brain...he sent it about six hours ago, and you still haven’t replied.

Jungkook

8:53 AM: Morning! I know it’s kinda early, but i figured you might be at work already. You and Margot coming by later? Jin will cook for us! i think i can manage some cookies too, just don’t judge if they don’t taste as good as jin’s cooking...i swear he was a chef in a past life. You like chocolate chip?

You’d had brief text conversations each day since you met, nothing too crazy. Even so, you still can’t help but feel like your brain is freezing over, ceasing all functioning momentarily every time a text comes in from him. Margot is right, you just need to text him back already.

3:30 PM: Make it snickerdoodle and I’m there.

Jungkook immediately sends back a reply, overeagerly filled with emojis, their apartment address, and instructions to come over at 6. For a drummer in a rock band, he is surprisingly silly, kind, and warm. You’re not sure what you expected from him, but it wasn’t this.

The rest of the work day goes quickly, your mind preoccupied with what’s in store for you at the boys’ apartment. As soon as you and Margot step outside your office, her eyes are glued to her phone. “Hey, Margot...I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. I just don’t know what this...thing...is with Jungkook, and I’m stressed. Not an excuse, but you didn’t deserve me being rude,” you say in a small voice.

“Girl, I forgave you like ten minutes after you said it, it’s whatever. Look at this!” She shoves her phone under your nose, and you examine what she’s trying to get you to look at. Pictures of food? You’re confused.

“What is it?” you ask. “Our dinner, silly! Jinnie’s making us pasta carbonara with homemade breadsticks!” Your mouth involuntarily starts watering at even the mention of food. Homemade bread? Jungkook must not have been kidding about Jin’s cooking.

“Look look look, your boyfriend is making us snickerdoodle cookies too-how sweet!” Margot gives you a sly smile, and you can immediately feel heat radiating off your cheeks.

“He’s not my boyfriend! He’s just-whatever! He’s not even interested in me like that, he hasn’t asked me out or anything. Not like someone I know,” you attempt to distract her by bringing up her date with Jin (it had literally happened the day after meeting him, and he’d set up a second one for the weekend-you couldn’t help but be impressed). Even though you’re flustered, you still can’t stop the warmth spreading through you. Yes, embarrassment. But also Jungkook was making snickerdoodle cookies like you asked.

“Boyfriend or not, we’re here!” Margot singsongs as you walk through the front doors of an apartment building, and step into an elevator, pressing the button for floor seven.

There’s a loud pinging sound as you step out, and Margot knocks on the door directly across from the elevator. You hear clanging sounds, alongside shuffling and male voices indistinctly talking. The door swings open to reveal Jin in a pink apron.

“Hey pretty girl,” his eyes light up when he sees Margot standing in the doorway, and he immediately bends down to kiss the top of her head. Margot is positively beaming, and looks up at him like he’s her entire world.

You clear your throat awkwardly. “Oh hey, y/n,” Jin smiles warmly at you. “Jungkook’s excited to see you, he hasn’t stopped talking about you coming over since he started making those cookies.” Jin winks as your eyes grow wide.

“HYUNG!!” you hear Jungkook bellow from you assume the kitchen. As you all walk into the apartment, you can see him glaring at Jin.

“What? I’m just telling the truth, nothing wrong with that-right, Margot?”

“Right,” your best friend grins.

“Not you too, M. Why do I put up with this torture?” Jungkook pouts in your direction, blue strands of hair falling messily in his face. You can see he’s also wearing an apron, black-but with lots of flour stains.

You walk closer to the kitchen and lean on the counter that separates it from the living room. You may be nervous as ever, but maybe if you fake confidence, things will feel better.

“Oh, I dunno, maybe because he’s one of your best friends and bandmates? Because maybe it is the truth?” you grin cheekily.

Jungkook’s doe eyes go even wider than you thought possible, and it looks like he may drop the mixing bowl he has in his hands.

“Weren’t you excited I was coming over, Kook? I can leave if you want…” you step into the kitchen with him, reaching forward and gently pushing a loose strand of hair out of his face. You swear he leans into your touch, and it feels like electricity is coursing through your veins.

“I-I mean, of course I was! I invited you over, didn’t I? Of course I want you here.” Jungkook has a fierce blush creeping up his neck towards his face, and he looks like he wants to sink through the floor.

A deep chuckle resounds from the corner of the living room, and you turn around to see Yoongi smirking at the two of you from an armchair. “Can we eat now, please? As much as I love seeing the two of you absolutely not know how to function like normal human beings...I’m hungry.”

Jin uses this opportunity to sweep into the kitchen, grabbing his pasta off the stovetop and bringing it to the center of the dining room table. Margot brings the breadsticks over and places them down as well. You each take a seat, Yoongi sitting at one end of the table, Jin and Margot on one side, you and Jungkook on the other. Dinner unfolds in a relatively normal fashion, mostly silent because everyone is so hungry. Jungkook may have actually been underselling Jin’s cooking ability, because you’re not sure when the last time you had pasta this good was.

Just as you’re finishing up, the timer on the oven beeps, signaling that Jungkook’s cookies are done. He hops up out of his seat to grab the pan out of the oven. A few seconds later, you hear a loud expletive and a metallic clang. “Kook?” you call, already walking towards the kitchen. As you round the corner, you see him holding his hand under the faucet, water streaming over what looks like a nasty burn.

“Kook!” you exclaim, swiftly moving towards him, peeking around him to see the injury. “What happened?”

Jungkook turns around, seemingly just noticing your presence. He gives you a smile that doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing. The pan started slipping out of my hand, so I went to grab it with my other hand to steady it. I just happened to forget I was only wearing one oven mitt.” He forlornly looks behind the two of you. You follow his gaze to see that most of the cookies have fallen on the floor, save for three. “I just wanted the cookies to be perfect.” His lower lip juts out as he begins to pout, staring at the cookies littering the floor.

“Jungkook, look at me.” His eyes raise from the floor to your own. “The fact that you even made any cookies at all is very sweet-pun intended. It’s the effort that counts. That, and making sure you don’t have permanent burn damage.” You reach out for his wrist and delicately turn his hand to look at it. It’s angry looking, but you can tell it will heal pretty easily (you may have suffered several cookie-related burns yourself in your day). “Just make sure you put ointment on this a couple times a day for about a week, and you should be fine.” You shoot him a soft smile, which he returns.

“What are you, a doctor?” he asks.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” you reply, grinning widely.

“Yah, why do you have to be so difficult? Here I am, trying to be nice, trying to get to know you more, and this is what I get in return,” he gripes, but there’s a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Hmm...I dunno, Kook. I think you like it when I’m contrarian,” you giggle, turning to leave the kitchen. Before you can move through the door frame, Jungkook moves in front of you. You look up at him confused. He leans in close, lips brushing against your ear as he whispers.

“...maybe I do. But next time I see you, you should actually wear the shirt I gave you.”

He winks, leaves the kitchen, and leaves you to wonder what the heck just happened.

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Your sporadic texts with Jungkook have turned into one long, continuous conversation over the past few weeks. It feels like you talk about everything, but also nothing. He remains somewhat a mystery, though you know this is because you’re still keeping him at arm’s length.

Jungkook is too good for you, you’ve decided. He’s cute, funny, charming, and talented. Everyone is in love with him for good reason. Every time he makes eye contact with you, his smile lights up his entire face. That smile has you falling faster than you’d like, and it isn’t a pleasant feeling. A cloudlike floating down to Earth? Try hurtling through the atmosphere like an asteroid determined to destroy the planet. You haven’t hit the ground yet, but you’re not sure if you’ll be able to properly recover once you do.

Kook

4:23 PM: Come with me to the beach this weekend! You need a break from work, and i need a break from the morons i live with...don’t tell them i said that. I need to work on song stuff too, but i’d like some company :)

Your chest constricts at his latest message. Is this a date? He hasn’t asked you on one before, but this feels suspiciously date-esque. But he’s working on band stuff, so maybe he really just wants company. You shoot off a quick text in the affirmative before you can think much harder about it. Jungkook immediately sends back a slew of emojis, as well as telling you he’ll pick you up at 8AM on Saturday to drive the two of you down to the coast.

The next two days go by in a blur. Before you know it, you’re standing in front of your closet Saturday morning, wondering what to wear on your not-date. It’s not quite summer yet, so you know the two of you aren’t wearing bathing suits (not to mention that would have been a whole other crisis to work through-being half naked in front of a very attractive man on a maybe-date? Absolutely not). You quickly put on a pair of jean shorts, and smile as you grab their band tee and slide it over your head. You still hadn’t worn it in front of Jungkook. You finish off with french tucking the shirt, sliding on sandals and wearing a simple gold necklace with your first initial on it-you didn’t want to be too fancy.

You make yourself a cup of tea to pass time waiting for Jungkook to arrive. Halfway through drinking it, there’s a knock on the door. You hastily place your mug on the coffee table, grab your bag, and open the door to find Jungkook leaning against the doorframe.

He lights up upon seeing you, his doe eyes widening when he notices your outfit. “You’re finally wearing it! I thought I was gonna have to bribe you or something,” he smiles.

“Let’s go, dork,” you reply, shutting your door behind you and making sure it’s locked.

Jungkook leads you outside to his car, opening the door for you. “After you, m’lady.” You roll your eyes, but not without laughing at his antics. He slides into the driver’s side and starts the car. “Off we go!”

The car ride is comfortably silent-probably because it’s still early in the morning, neither of you are completely coherent yet. The hum of the road beneath the car combined with the radio playing in the background puts you at ease. You can swear you keep seeing Jungkook look at you from your peripheral vision, but maybe you’re imagining things. You settle for looking out the window at the passing scenery, which honestly is beautiful-you should get out of the city more.

After about 10 minutes, you glance over to the driver’s side, only to make complete eye contact with Jungkook. “Kook, why do you keep looking at me?” His eyes widen, and now you know you weren’t imagining things earlier.

“Oh, uh...I-I’m just glad you decided to come. Yeah. And um, you look really good in my shirt.” You can see his ears reddening as he says this, and all of a sudden, you’re looking at anywhere but him.

There’s an awkward pause for a few moments, and then suddenly that molten lava feeling from a few weeks ago at the concert is back. You whip your head back towards Jungkook so fast, you think you might injure your neck. He has reached his hand across the console to where yours sits on your thigh, and as you watch, he intertwines your fingers with his. It feels like an out-of-body experience, where you’re watching yourself from above. Is this really happening? You glance up at Jungkook’s face with wild eyes, and he meets you with a steady smile. Not only is the molten lava feeling back, but it’s brought along the storm in the ocean feeling as well. Only this time, Jungkook is there to be the lighthouse that leads you back home.

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

The rest of the drive is peaceful. Jungkook continues to hold your hand the rest of the way to the beach, shooting you smiles every time you look over at him. You’re so mesmerized, you don’t even realize that you’ve parked until he lets go.

He immediately rushes over to open your door after getting out of the car, and then proceeds to pop the trunk open and grabs a cooler and a picnic basket.

“Kook, what is all this?” your eyes widen in surprise.

“Please, like I was going to take you to the beach and not pack a picnic. We have to eat, don’t we? I got those weird sparkling waters you like too.”

Your response is to grab the picnic basket out of his hand and immediately intertwine your fingers again with his free hand. Jungkook looks like his face might split in half with how big his smile is.

“You like it?” he asks with a hint of uncertainty.

“I love it.”

The two of you walk hand in hand down the beach quite a ways before you find what Jungkook deems the ‘perfect spot’. “And what exactly makes it perfect?” you peer up at him.

“Easy-one, we’re snagging the last free shaded spot,” he points at the umbrella stuck in the sand, “and two-it’s far enough away from other people that I can work on songs without a ton of noise distracting me.”

“Are you sure I won’t distract you?” you frown slightly, worried that he won’t get any work done.

“You’re never a distraction, you’re an inspiration.” He winks conspiratorially at you, and chuckles at the flustered look on your face. He sets the cooler down under the umbrella and looks over at you. “There’s a blanket in the picnic basket, can you get it out? As much as I love the beach, I don’t really want to find sand in my shorts for the next month.”

You set the basket down next to the cooler, open the lid, and pull out a bright blue blanket. Jungkook takes one side, you take the other, and you unfold it and place it lightly on the sand. He immediately plops down on one side of the blanket and reaches his hand up toward you, motioning for you to take hold. As soon as you do, he yanks a little too hard, and you careen sideways onto the blanket and into his side. “Well, that’s one way to sit down I guess,” you laugh at his appalled face.

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to pull that hard…” his brow furrows in worry.

“I’m good, weirdo. Great, even.” You reach into the cooler, pull out a sparkling water (key lime, your favorite), and pull the book you always keep in your bag out. You lay out on the blanket, propped up on your elbows, and begin to read. Jungkook lays down beside you in a similar position, pulling a small notebook out of his back pocket and starts scribbling.

You sit in this position for a couple of hours, silently working, occasionally catching each others’ eyes and smiling when you do. Suddenly there’s a loud rumbling beside you. You laugh. “Hungry, Kook?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” he laughs, sits up and reaches over to pull the picnic basket closer to the two of you.

“What’s on the menu?” you peer over as he starts to pull plastic containers out.

“Gimbap. Simple, easy, and delicious.” He hands you one of the containers as he pulls out a second for himself.

“Did you make this yourself?” you ask, mouth half-full. He nods. “Delicious,” you concede through your mouthful. He grins.

“Maybe I could actually cook for you sometime. Without burning my hand on cookies, that is.”

“I’d like that,” you shyly respond, eyes firmly locked on the plastic container of gimbap in your lap.

“It’s a date, then.” Your eyes shoot up to meet his, and you can see dimples forming alongside his smile. You can’t help but smile back.

After eating, the two of you go back to your previous positions-you reading, him working on song lyrics in his notebook. This time, though, after about 30 minutes you start to get restless. Looking over at Jungkook, you notice he keeps shoving his hair behind his ears as it falls in his face while he’s writing. You rummage through your bag for a hair tie, and scoot over closer to him. He raises an eyebrow in curiosity at you, and you just lean over and gently start pulling his hair back for him into a half bun that matches the way his hair looked the night you first met.

“Better?” you ask quietly, running your fingers absentmindedly through the hair at the nape of his neck that’s too short for the bun. He looks up at you, awestruck.

“Everything is better with you,” he whispers. You’re not sure if he knows he’s said this out loud. He suddenly sits up on the blanket, flipping through the pages of his notebook he’s been working in. He stops about halfway through. “Can you look over these lyrics? I’m not sure they’re quite right, I need a second opinion.”

You look down at the page and see lyrics scribbled in Jungkook’s messy handwriting.

“I wish you were right here, right now”

“This mad, mad love makes you come running”

“See your face, hear my voice in the dark”

Different versions of these lyrics are scattered across the page, certain words changed, scribbled out, and moved around within phrases. As your eyes scan the page, they land on one final line etched out on the bottom of the page. No scribbles, no changes-it simply reads:

“I wish you knew that I’ll never forget you as long as I live.”

“This is really good, Kook! It’s so much different than the music the band’s done before, how’d you come up with this?” You’re genuinely curious, this almost seems more like a ballad compared to the band’s usual upbeat tunes.

Jungkook looks at you warmly. “I’ve had new inspiration lately, that’s all.” You suddenly notice that he’s way closer to you than he was when you started looking over his notes...he’s sitting directly in front of you now.

You feel frozen as you see him stealing glances at your lips while his face inches closer. Is he going to kiss you? He’s going to kiss you. Oh my gosh, JUNGKOOK IS GOING TO KISS YOU.

As his lips meet your own, the molten lava turns into an erupting volcano. You feel hot and tingly all over, and Jungkook is assaulting your senses in every way possible. You can smell his cologne, feel the softness of his lips, taste his mint chapstick, hear the satisfied hum that gets caught in his throat as your lips collide. Even though your eyes are closed, the vision of Jungkook leaning in to kiss you is seared into the backs of your eyelids.

The kiss is over far sooner than you’d like. As Jungkook retreats, he doesn’t go far, instead leaning his forehead against yours, gazing at you longingly. The stars in his eyes have become a full blown galaxy, and you can’t look away. Still recovering from the kiss, Jungkook breathily laughs.

“You make me want to write all the love songs in the world.”

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

Margot is tugging insistently on your arm. “Hello? HELLO? Is there anyone in there?” she taps the side of your head. When you don’t respond, she grabs you by both shoulders and gives you a shake.

The room comes back into focus and you look over at your best friend with eyes still lightly glazed over. “Huh?”

“I said, it’s intermission...are you enjoying the show? You certainly seemed distracted by Jungkook-I saw him smile at you,” she grins. “Jin made eye contact with me a couple of times, he even winked!” she gushes, continuing to talk about how hot she thinks he is.

Your stomach feels like it’s dropped completely out of your body, and your throat has gone dry.

“Hey...you okay?” Margot notices that you still seem slightly out of it.

“Yeah, yeah...I just...need another drink, that’s all,” you manage to choke out, turning on your heel and heading straight to the bar. While the bartender works on your drink, you run through everything in your head. The texts...the dinner at the boys’ apartment...the beach. The kiss. None of it was real, was it? What was wrong with you?

You take the drink that’s slid across to you and head outside to a side alley beside the bar. No one’s there, everyone has gone to the bathroom or to refill their drinks while waiting on the band to return. You let out a deep sigh, leaning against the brick wall and running your hands through your hair, making it even frizzier than when the night started. At least it isn’t raining anymore, you think to yourself.

You return to the question Margot had asked you-are you okay? You’re not sure. You’d apparently made eye contact with Jungkook, a man you had never spoken to, and imagined a whole entire relationship with him in the span of half the band’s setlist. Are you that desperate for a man? Apparently. You let out a deep sigh, replaying the scenarios you had created in your head. Once your brain reaches the kiss again, you find yourself getting teary-eyed at how sweet Jungkook had been...in your head. You feel a tear escape, and you quickly swipe it away.

Taking a steadying breath, you push yourself off the wall and move towards the door to head back into the bar. As you reach for the handle, the door swings open and hits you in the shoulder, turning you slightly to the side and spilling your drink on your shirt and the cobblestones of the alley.

“...again?!” you mutter, looking down at your ruined shirt.

“Um...are you okay? I can go get you a new shirt to change into-wait here!” you hear a male’s voice, but as you look up, the bar door is already closing again as he’s gone inside.

A minute later, the door is swinging open again to reveal none other than Jungkook-hair in a half bun, eyeliner smudged, and in a white undershirt and ripped jeans. Just like in your imagination.

He reaches out to you with a black t-shirt in his hand. “Yoongi’s pissed because these aren’t even ready to be sold, but whatever. Just think of it as an exclusive sneak peek or something,” he parrots your imagined scenario you had played in your head moments ago.

“Thanks,” you say as you take the shirt, unfolding it to see the familiar graffiti design.

“It’s the least I could do for a pretty girl whose Eagles tee I ruined, don’t worry about it. Yoongi will get over it.” Jungkook smiles at you the same way he did during the first half of the show. One thing your brain got right are the stars in his eyes sparkling at you, which makes you smile back at him.

“Hey, I need to get back to make sure we’re ready for the second half of the show, but it was nice to meet you. You should hang back after the show-Jin thinks your friend is cute, and he was talking about inviting her to come grab food with us when we’re done. Yoongi can’t come and I don’t want to be a third wheel. Come hang out with us and save me from dying of awkwardness?” he looks at you shyly, his rock star persona melting away completely.

“I’ll think about it,” you tease, turning away and heading back into The Dynasty. Jungkook is left wide eyed in your wake, smiling as he turns to head towards the backstage door.

You meet up with Margot again after changing into your new shirt. The crowd has started to gather in anticipation of the second half of the show. “Hey Mar, let’s move all the way up,” you motion at the space in front of the stage.

“Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” Margot gapes at you in disbelief, but follows your lead as you weave through the crowd to get to front stage center. You shrug goodnaturedly and just smile as an answer.

A moment later, Jin, Yoongi and Jungkook come from backstage to get in place for the second half of their set. You can see Jungkook scanning the crowd, brows slightly furrowed. You give a small wave, which catches his attention, and his nose scrunches in a smile as he sends an enthusiastic wave back. ‘I like your shirt’ he mouths at you as he settles behind his drum kit, winking as he does so. You can feel the heat creeping onto your cheeks as a bar employee strides across the stage to the mic and the crowd starts cheering.

“Give it up again for Gold Rush!”

[legends-live-in-memories]

“How Did All This Happen?”- A Memoire by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng 1

Soooooo I decided to write this. much longer than the other things i posted, also very tonally different. I will definitely continue that other fic tho. I was just brainstorming and now this exists. Yeah.

 without further ado

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

People Fucked Up and Now It’s All Marinette’s Mess to Clean Up I

This was not how Marinette planned for her night to go. Granted, she also could not envision it going literally any other way. The woes of making a deal with the hell-raiser himself, John Constantine, she supposes. She truly hoped Adrien was having a much better time than her with his cousin in London. After the circus that was the past three years, he deserved some reprieve, even if it was with his bratty doppelganger. Regardless, Marinette. Was. Not. Pleased. No matter how many times she thinks over her plan, recalculates every step and decision, she could not fathom this night ending well for her, or anyone really, but mostly her. And no amount of old Ladybug or Guardian luck could help her. Now, if one were to wonder what kind of tragedy had befallen Marinette on this disgraceful night, a brief history of the last three months could enlighten such a person. Or better yet, let’s start at the beginning. The Real Beginning.

So, things existed. Obviously. First there was nothing, and then, something. And as more things began to exist, as new schools of knowledge and concepts and ideas began to, well, exist, Kwamis formed as well. Each Kwami was the physical manifestation of these ideas or abstracts. Creation was the first, coupled with Destruction. And as more things began to exist, more things began needing to be protected. Thus, the Kwami of Protection. This went on. For a while. Soon thereafter there were Kwamis of all types. Jubilation, Time, Strength, etc, etc, and etc. Now these Kwamis did not linger in one spot. They roamed across the far stretches of existence and interacted with the life they found.

Some Kwamis decided to form a magical pact which intergalactic historians would later dub the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. Sounds familiar? The Kwamis themselves were completely blissfully unaware of this title, lest they would have explained to these beings, Maltusians they were called, that they were not in fact, electromagnetic but more so a part of the Powers that Be. Kind of. But this side-story involves the formation of a few universally known Lantern Corps, and that is a barrel of monkeys our exasperated narrator does not want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Or ever.

Other Kwamis, who stuck close to what would become known as the Milky Way, were discovered by a mage who granted them the ability to interact with humans. This mage— and Marinette was silently cursing his descendants, herself included, for if it weren’t for this absolute mad lad, none of the subsequent events of this night would have transcribed—had bound the Kwamis to magical jewelry called Miraculouses. An interesting side effect of these Kwamis being bound to the miraculouses was that the wearer could call upon the powers of the Kwamis for their own usage. The mage feared what could become of the world if this kind of power became so easily accessible, so he created the Order of the Guardians. The Order was dedicated to training young mages to protect, wield and harvest the powers of the miraculouses. The Order swore to true neutrality; wishing not to impose their will on one side or the other, to maintain balance and to not upset the natural order of the world. 

This went surprisingly well for a few millennia, that is, of course, if you ignore the sinking of Atlantis, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Black Plague, the creation of the Lazarus Pits, Pompeii, to name a few completely egregious instances—not necessarily in order of course—and well, the point stands that it could have been astronomically worse. Until it was.  

One young mage and Guardian in training had caused the downfall of almost the entire Order of the Guardians. All the centuries of history, teachings, artifacts and even the people at the head temple, were lost to the calamity. Dozens of Miraculous Boxes were lost, destroyed in the fray. The Kwamis themselves were relatively unaffected, being immortal and all, but the magical jewelry binding them to the earth were broken, thus those Kwamis were lost to mankind once again. Only one singular box, and the young mage himself, survived. The new Guardian of one miraculous box was left to scour the earth in solitude. Well, about as much solitude one could have with 17 pocket gods as company. The fact that the only box that survived was missing two more miraculouses caused the already stressed guardian to grey further. But that tidbit of information would be a problem for later. And for someone else entirely too. Oh joy.

But before that sequence of events, aptly named “Marinette’s Trial by Fire,” however, the young guardian had a couple more life mistakes to make before he reached his internal quota apparently. Rather than travel to another sector of the Order on the other side of the earth, this young mage stumbled upon another organization, one similar in architecture and hierarchy but a pendulum swing in the total moral opposite. Yes, that’s right, the guardian found himself upon the League of Shadows, led by Ra’s Al Ghul in his endeavor of global cleansing; by acts of ecoterrorism, but who sweats the small stuff, right? There, the young guardian, who adopted the name of Wang Fu, met his first love Ming Hong and they had a son. The son had a daughter he named Mei. Now Mei was only a few weeks younger than Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandson, Damian. Now with an appropriate heir, and someone to procreate with said heir, Ra’s Al Ghul gained a special interest in the small Fu family that originally flew under the radar of the League. 

Now this is where things continue to go downhill, but not until much, much later in this story. Ra’s Al Ghul, despite his radical ambitions, was particularly good at playing the long game and understood when he couldn’t accomplish a task directly. This being said, he recognized that, due to prolonged exposure to the Lazarus Pits, his soul could not bear the strain of being a wielder of a miraculous and so he waited. Waited until a suitable heir was sired and could copulate with an heir to the guardian of the miraculous box, desiring to create a bloodline of genetically suitable successors and wielders who were loyal to him and his cause. 

Ra’s ordered for the Fu family to have a place on his court and ordered for Mei Fu to be trained in mastering the secrets of the miraculous. And master she did. By age 6 she was fluent in the coded language of the magical text, or as fluent a 6 year old can be in any language, and she had mastered 7 out the 17 miraculouses. By age 10 she was as skilled as the grandson of the Demon Head in combat and could handle simultaneous wear of 3 miraculouses. Her training, however, had to be put on hold as somebody thought usurping the Demon Head was of the utmost importance that glorious Tuesday and staged a coup. She wished Deathstroke had lost more than an eye that day, but a girl can dream she supposes. Mei and her grandfather were separated from the rest of the League and journeyed west. Somehow they ended up in Paris, France. After one too many run ins with the authorities, Mei was removed from her grandfather, who was deemed too unfit to support her. It was a miracle he wasn’t deported. 

Mei was put into protective custody where she resided until she was 13. Recently adopted, and thoroughly done with the plebeians of her daily encounters, Mei Fu became Marinette Dupain-Cheng, daughter of the best bakers in Paris. All was well and good for the new Dupain-Cheng until the start of the new school year. 

She met her grandfather again. And apparently he had a job for her and her soon to be new partner.

Hawkmoth, that bitch, had somehow acquired the two last surviving miraculouses and the only surviving grimoire and thought domestic terrorism was on the agenda for the next few years. Why? Because investing in a family therapist was too much of an inconvenience for local recluse, Gabriel McFucking Agreste, Marinette would shortly learn. 

After dealing with all of that and juggling between her reignited guardian training, and ‘normal’ girl life—because her parents don’t know that she’s a magical girl in the making—, Marinette was ready to sleep for a thousand years. Or commit murder. Whichever gave her enough serotonin to complete her current passion project. But, alas, no rest for the totally-over-it or however that saying goes. Because after declaring Paris safe once again, sending off her brother-in-arms, Adrien Agreste, to family in London (marginally decent but anything beats the abusive prick of a sperm donor), in waltz one drunken John Constantine.

Ah yes. Him. That absolute bastard who doesn’t deserve nice things in life. That guy.

This unpleasantry approached Master Fu and Marinette, who has been regulated to errand-girl in lieu of training, with a job that he proclaimed that only one blessed with magic, and specifically NOT connected to the Justice League could accomplish. Apparently, a group called the Cult of the Kobra resided on Santa Prisca and was in possession of a dangerous magical artifact that had been the backbone of their organization for years. Constantine came to them asking them for assistance in retrieving it as the Justice League could not interfere in the Caribbean due to new UN legislation. It was a mission of utmost urgency for he feared the cult leader, Kobra himself, was planning on enacting a ritual that could bring calamity to Earth. Which is just what the doctor ordered. Not. In exchange, he agreed to add to her magical training as while master Fu was good, he was still young when he ran away from his problems the first time and thus was limited in his magical knowledge.

That was three months ago. Three months of planning, training, and convincing her parents that letting her go on an extended retreat for an undetermined amount of time with her mostly absent biological grandfather was totally reasonable for the seventeen year old to do. Like, come on. She’s almost old enough to drink, almost ready for university and has been praised for her independence and self-sufficiency for years. She’ll be fine is what she told her parents and she was almost able to convince herself of that too. She would be perfectly fine. Right?

Wrong.

Marinette was anything but fine. She was stressed, she was tired and she was abso-fucking-lutely pissed at anything that even breathed in her direction. Why? Well that brings us back to the beginning of the story when everything on this mission did not go according to plan. So here she was along what was once upon a time the eastern coastline of Santa Prisca. Oh and look. The Junior Justice League has arrived.

Purrrrfect. 

Some one asked for a taglist. Ask and ye shall receive

@deathwishy @neakco  @ virtualreading  @f-rget-lt @your-resident-chicken-nugget

[fenristheorem]

Hi!! I love how you write Lance🥰! I'd like to request how he would react to the first hug Gardienne gives him. I feel he hasn't been touched in a while, so a cuddle could make his heart go pitter-patter🥺

It doesn't have to be when they're dating, just after a while she woke up, he saves her and she's thankful and hugs him out of the blue

Thank you so much! 😄

I agree, I don’t think Lance has had any kind of affectionate physical touch in a long while. I actually wrote another headcanon about Lance with a really touchy Guardienne where I talked a bit about how I thought Lance would react to the first time she touched him (in that case it wasn’t a hug - so while it’s a good description of how he’ll feel, it’s still a bit different). That one is written with them as a couple, but it doesn’t really effect too much in the beginning, so I would highly recommend checking that out as well!

Due to how specific this ask was (and because the other ask was in headcanon format) I decided to write this as a short-story/scenario.

~Under the cut~

Lance’s reaction to Guardienne suddenly hugging him after he saves her:

Huang Hua realized in time that, no matter who she sent with her on missions, Guardienne would still get hurt. Guardienne believes this is a curse - she’s forever deemed to go on a mission with hopes and ambitions, only to be sent back being carried on the shoulder of a friend and find herself re-awakening in the Infirmary. However, she still needs to go on missions. She was one of the two saviors of Eldarya, and a functioning member of the guard again - she can’t just sit around and do nothing every day.

So Huang Hua decided to send Lance with her. If anyone from the guard could keep her safe, it was Lance.

This, of course, was met with a bit of backlash by Guardienne, but it’s been a while since her reawakening and accepting that Lance is now working with the guard again, so she puts up minimal fight. That and the fact that she’s tired of being a human test dummy for the nurses to find new ways to heal her wounds (they don’t actually do this, but they might as well at this point).

And that’s how they find themselves in the middle of the woods together. Alone.

Lance knows that she’s still a bit uncomfortable with him around, and he doesn’t blame her, but he hopes that she’ll trust him to protect her if it comes down to that. He’s determined to not let anything threaten them in the first place; he’s keeping a sharp eye and ear out for their surroundings, but he’s aware that her track record shows that something always goes wrong eventually. Certainly all the members of the Obsidian guard couldn’t be that incompetent, not with Lance biting their heels when they slack off, so it’s just a matter of time...

“Take a left... by the curved tree... a trail in the mud...”

Lance’s ice blue eyes flick over to watch Guardienne as she mutters and treads her way along the forest path. She’s picking around carefully, searching for something on the ground, but Lance recognized immediately that the dirt here is far too hard to show any prints that she’s looking for. The proper landscape for that would still be another half hour’s walk if he remembers this part of the forest correctly.

“I should have asked Huang Hua for more specific directions...” Guardienne softly hisses her discontent as she stops walking and looks around for a moment.

Lance takes this moment to walk past her, setting a steady pace instead of her meandering as he follows the trail through the forest.

“Lance?” She asks as he passes by.

“You won’t find any tracks in the mud here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The ground here is too hard. If there are tracks in the mud then they’ll be in a muddy area, not here where the land is hard.”

Guardienne pauses for a moment.

“I don’t know, everything is sort of muddy after the rain.” She sighs, then screeches; “So wait, you knew the whole time that we weren’t in the right area!? What the hell, Lance!?”

Not again with this, Lance thinks. The last time she was angry at him he was punched in the face and gained a new scar on his hand.

“You told me you were sent to find tracks in the forest that may be from an animal from your world, you never told me that they were in the mud.” He did his best to keep his voice steady, but he doesn’t know how she expected him to help her in any way when she doesn’t explain the details.

“You could have asked for more detail...” She quickly simmered down to a prickly mutter. 

“True, however, Huang Hua only sent me to protect you considering your record-” “Don’t remind me of my record!” “-so I’m here to escort you, not help you. I’ve been too busy watching our surroundings to scour the ground looking for prints. Now please be quiet so I can listen for anything.”

Guardienne quiets and Lance wonders for a moment if he was too harsh; she was well aware of why he was sent with her, and it wouldn’t really hurt to help her a little bit... But I shouldn’t go asking to distract myself, my orders are to protect her, Lance thinks. Regardless, he was still a bit nippy at her. This was an uncomfortable situation for him, and although him and Guardienne can get along, they do have days where they can do nothing but feud, and in those days, feuding with each other can make up the whole day.

He stops in his tracks and sighs, turning around to face her. She nearly runs into him as she focuses on the ground, possibly lost in thought, but quickly comes back to and stops a foot away from Lance. Her eyes meet Lance’s cool gaze as he studies her.

“The tracks should be somewhere around here, the terrain here is soft enough so they could be easily seen by a passerby.” Lance says in a gentler tone, turning his gaze off of her to begin his watch of their surroundings.

She starts to walk past him and then stops for a moment, half turned back to him.

“Ehm... thanks.”

His gaze flicks to her for a moment and he nods his head before scanning the forest again.

Many minutes pass - a twig cracks somewhere deep in the forest. Lance snaps his head in the direction and focuses on the area it came from. Just a small creature scuttling around.

“Ah!” 

Lance nearly draws his sword as he turns and lunges in the direction Guardienne is in, only to nearly trip over her as she crouches to look at something.

“Would you mind making another noise of surprise next time!? I thought something was attacking you!” Lance hisses as he regains his balance.

Guardienne looks up at him, eyes wide in surprise as she wasn’t expecting him to be so jumpy.

“I’m sorry... you don’t need to be so tense though...”

“With your record? Yes, I do.”

“Stop talking about my record or I’ll give you a pretty scar on your other hand to match the first!”

“It’s more likely for a Boltue to sprout wings and fly.” Guardienne continues to curse at him as he carries on, crouching down next to her. “Are these the prints you’re looking for?”

She glares at him and huffs before turning her gaze back to the tracks.

“Yes, they look like prints from a dog, maybe a wolf.”

“Anything of concern?”

“If it’s a domesticated dog then probably no, they’re like the companions we have here. Wolves might be more of a concern. They’re predatory animals about the size of a Fenrisulfr but generally stay away from humans. Being in a different world could change their temperament though...” Guardienne traced the prints with her fingers, worry lacing the expression on her face.

“Let’s head back then, if it’s a possible concern we need to notify to guard as soon as possible.”

“You want to lead the way? If you’re so jumpy then maybe you can jump into a thorn bush on the way back-” But as Guardienne continues her rant, Lance tunes her out and raises his head, briskly scanning the forest around them with a cold, focused gaze. He could have sworn...

A thump of paws and a roar is all he has in warning as a Warrifang leaps from the bushes.

Guardienne’s rave is cut off by a short scream as it lunges for her, but just as it’s about to reach her Lance throws his weight against the feral creature and slams it to the ground with a grunt. It retaliates with a screech and snapping jaws at his throat, pushing against him with all it’s might and managing to loosen his hold enough to shove him off.

The Warrifang lunges for Lance this time, and he only has seconds to bring his forearm up so the Warrifang’s teeth can meet the metal guard on his arm instead of soft flesh. Lance reaches for his dagger and grips the hilt, slashing outward and catching the Warrifang’s shoulder. It yelps, flailing backwards before lunging for him again. However, Lance is already crouched, sword in hand, and charges the beast. He gets one more hit - a light wound across the top of it’s neck as it ducks it’s head - before it yelps again and flees back into the forest. 

Lance spares only a second’s glance at Guardienne to assure she’s alright before his gaze follows the Warrifang as it flees into the forest, straining to hear if there are any more signs of a possible threat that may try an ambush after the scuffle. After a good few moments with no other sounds, Lance turns to look at Guardienne’s condition, who’s staring at him from a few feet away with an astonished expression.

“You alright?” He needs to know if he managed to do his job properly. Surely she must be alright - he completely intercepted the Warrifang.

“Yea, I’m alright...” She murmurs. Lance begins to strap his sword and dagger back into their leather holds at his waist. “I’m sorry...”

He looks back up at her, minor confusion written on his face.

“I’m not being very pleasant... but you didn’t do anything to provoke me. And I ridiculed you for not helping me on my mission when you were told to watch my back. So thank you, and I’m sorry...” Guardienne spoke quietly as she averted her gaze.

Lance looks away from her as well, studying the arm guard that the Warrifang bit down on. Perhaps Ewelein could run a few tests on the saliva...

His thoughts scattered when he felt two arms wrap around his torso, pulling a soft, smaller figure into him. He jerked his head back a bit, looking at Guardienne in surprise as she rested her head lightly on his chest and leaned into him.

“Thank you...” It was spoken so soft he thought he’d imagined it.

Lance froze for a moment, awkwardly standing with his arms half-way raised as she settled in before he found her warmth to be... comforting. Slowly, hesitantly, he brought his arms down and around her shoulders and waist, pressing her just a bit closer.

He nearly cried at how welcoming it felt.

When was the last time he hugged someone? When was the last time someone actually touched him with non-violent intentions?

Lance bit his lip and held his breath for a moment, fighting every urge that told him to nuzzle into her shoulder and lean against her, and resigned to locking his muscles as to not move any further. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset her in this moment; not when she was gracing him with such a wonderful gesture that he hadn’t felt in years. In her arms, just for this moment, he felt truly calm and content. It felt like laying down for the night after a long day of labor that left him with aching muscles. 

Of course, this moment was also gone too soon. Within the same minute, Guardienne pulled away from him - he could swear that she was hesitant while doing so - and refused to meet his gaze and she turned and drifted down the trail back towards the guard.

“We should probably head back, Ewelein and Huang Hua will be thrilled to hear that everything went well.” Her voice was steady but the downturn in her tone told of dismay.

Lance wondered in minor panic, for a moment, if she could feel how strong his reaction to that hug was, but he couldn’t focus much on that with the loneliness that was creeping back into his heart again. Hollow... so, so hollow now that he’s alone again...

He started down the path after her, reminding himself to stay alert - the Warrifang could always come back - but he knew he wouldn’t stop thinking about that hug for weeks, months even. And as much as he enjoyed it, he almost wished it never happened. How can he return to the routine of his isolated life after being so wonderfully embraced?

~I hope you enjoyed! I’ll admit, I’m quite pleased with this one! I feel this is a good showcase of my writing. Perhaps I’ll work on writing a few un-asked short stories after the rest of the asks are done.

Have a request? Ask them here!

But first, please read the rules list for asks!

[dramionediscussion]

I have a concern about Dramione fandom, which has been slightly troubling me lately. I am not saying that this is something that is going to happen, or is happening already. Naturally, I don’t think this is entirely unfounded either (hence why I am writing this), but I am just one Dramione shipper. If this doesn’t resonate at all, that’s totally fine! We are all aware of extremely boorish and fatuous anti-Dramione people, who troll, defame and accuse Dramione of being all sort of things. We are also probably all quite familiar with their claims about the ship and its shippers. You know, Dramione promotes racism, sexism, classism, unhealthy and abusive relationships, it’s all about bashing Ron, it’s just cuz actors are hot, we should all pay homage and tribute to canon relationships (and their shippers naturally), and offer respect and fawn over everything “canonical” for gracing us with all this HP bounty, and so on. This time I am not going to try to offer rebuttals, or deconstruct their arguments, or even psychoanalyze them more than absolutely necessarily. I am not even particularly upset about them (anymore). They are categorically wrong, their arguments are never insightful or thoughtful. Most importantly, they are disingenuous in their argumentation and especially about their own motives. I believe, the best course is ignore them totally. What I am afraid, that these endless arguments, relentless belittling, and even harassment of which they never seem to grow tired off actually might change Dramione shippers and community as well. Not in a conscious way, but constantly being on a defense can make people internalize some of these arguments. Or rather their premises and assumptions on which they are based upon. I don’t mean it, that Dramione shippers will suddenly wake up, and shout out that Dramione was actually all about abusing women all along, or anything like that. What I mean is, that people rather internalize certain assumptions, framing and logic chains, which are build into those arguments. In a defense, they start define what Dramione really means, what is ideal Dramione, what is acceptable or desirable in Dramione fics, in accordance of these attacks, by unconsciously defending their ship from slander. As an example, Romione people constantly accuse that Dramione is either all about mindless “Ron bashing”, and Dramione shippers rightly say that it’s not what Dramione is about at all. What I am afraid, that people might internalize the point, that “Ronbashing” is something truly heinous, and what should be avoided at all cost. And as a corollary to that, ideal Dramione fics are those in which there’s no conflicts between Ron, Draco and Hermione. Or the very least they are resolved in a conciliatory and harmonious manner. Or it is lazy Dramione writing, when Ron is “villainized”. Or another thing they say is, that Dramione just about glorifying and eroticizing abusive relationships. This might lead that some of us accept the framing, that describing or narrating something is totally same as promoting and celebrating it. If they accept it, then it’s quite easy to logically infer, that if Dramione is not defined by Draco abusing Hermione (it’s not), then it must be defined negatively as its opposite. Meaning that something cannot be genuine or accepted Dramione, if it contains an abusive Draco. Or as an induction from that, if a fic has an abusive Draco, it also must contain a redemption arc, and Draco has to change and make amends, and redeem himself as a person. That we start to define Dramione being really about redemption or redeeming, forgiveness, changing oneself for the better, etc (as contrary to their claim that its about abuse). Don’t get me wrong, I’d say the majority of Dramione fics contain a redemption story arc, and Draco either has changed or actively changes his views and behavior. It’s a common and wonderful theme, and almost all my favorite Dramione fics have those, and I like just for its own skae. Yet it’s not something what either makes or unmakes Dramione. There’s a minority of fics, in which Draco is never truly redeemed (usually a lust-filled obsession, with many many cognitive dissonances, which he never solves), and they are as Dramione as anything else, and some people enjoy writing them and some people reading them (or at least some of them). Also, a lot of gray areas, which can be quite delightful, thought inspiring and invigorating (and hot!).  Speaking for myself, I’d say maybe 1/20 of my favorite fics have this dynamic or something close to it. Maybe 33% are more in that gray area. It doesn’t do any harm, there’s nothing ethnically wrong about it, I never idolize that behavior. If Romione stans have problem with that, they can go away, cry and tell that Rupert Grint body pillow all their troubles, because I don’t give a damn. People don’t emulate or model their behavior or preferences from YA fanfics or smut in that sense in any significant numbers. If someone does, I am sorry to say, but you probably weren’t going to make it anyway. It’s the irl version of getting a comedy death in a video game, like if a smarter-than-average mushroom hypnotizes you and makes you walk into a bottomless pit, or something like that. Your problems are deep seated and numerous, which unless dealt with, will be triggered by just about anything. Its pure happenstance whether it will be Harlequin novels, Dramione fanfiction, urban legend your cousin told you, or whatever. This could go on, but seriously, Dramione shippers have nothing to prove or even argue with those antis. It’s just bottomless pit of resentment, what they twist into moral arguments, which they think will signify us as the worst kind of people, and they themselves as the most virtuous. Their antipathies are petty and personal concerns, in which they feel like the universe and the abominable cabal of Dramione shippers have cheated them out of all that attention, writers, fans, fics, and deference they feel entitled to. It’s natural for humans to cloak often even most pettiest and nonsensical slights and resentments into whatever moral or ethical language and arguments the society they live holds sacred. If we would be living in the 1600s, they’d be scouring the Bible for anti-Dramione arguments, and denouncing Dramione as unchristian and sinful. By their stated “moral standards”, there are a lot more “vile” and “harmful” ships out there, but they aren’t functionally bothered by them at all. So, unless really prompted, they don’t even bother to denounce them, little alone wage this never-ending crusade against them. That’s because they aren’t popular enough to trigger that envy and resentment (Hermione with basically any of the worst Death Eaters). Or they feel that they don’t compete in the same niche as their ship does (Drarry as an example). I wouldn’t be writing this, if this discourse with Antis hadn’t affected me as well. There was a time, I wanted to understand what they were about, and I read a lot of their grievances and internal discussions. While reading I couldn’t help but to be on a defense all the time. Sort of refuting and counter-arguing against their points in my mind, while reading their diatribes (I tried to start a dialog couple of times, but I was always totally ignored, which I am thankful for them in retrospect). Conditioning myself with that for long enough, I did notice that I started to feel a bit hesitant about certain tropes and Dramione fics I hadn’t before. I was thinking about Dramione like a defense attorney, excepting to be attacked from all directions. It actually took me quite long to figure this out, and how the bile of HP fandom had in subtle ways affected my sense and tastes without my really noticing.

Anonymous submitted: P.S. I wrote that previous submission, and I have to add, that I am not trying to say this is happening or pointing any fingers at anybody. There’s perfectly good reasons to not like any Dramione fic, as a Dramione shipper, in which Draco is irredeemable or evil. There’s perfectly legitimate reasons to prefer fics, which Ron is portrayed as a positive influence for Dramione. People can arrive to same conclusions or tastes from countless different routes and reasons. The negativity that the HP fandom and Romione shippers especially grace us just got to me in a way, that I wasn’t even cognizant about. It might be the case for others as well, if their own self-reflection so deems (or not).

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

I agree with every point you’ve made. While it’s obviously okay to discuss why you like Dramione (or any other pairing), people also need to remember that they don’t have to justify why they ship Draco and Hermione together or prove (especially to haters as they’re not worth anyone’s time) that their OTP makes sense because even if it makes no sense whatsoever, it’s still fine to ship it as long as you can differentiate between fantasy and reality. I don’t know about you, but when I started shipping Dramione, it was like love at first sight. I didn’t think if they made sense, didn’t spend hours trying to make a list of arguments for Dramione, I just suddenly loved the idea of them together, believed they belonged together, and that was and still is enough. I don’t need to justify why I ship them, and neither does anyone.

It’s true that in most Dramione fics, Draco gets redeemed. It’s also true that most shippers prefer fics in which Draco gets a redemption arc, but we have to remember that there’s nothing wrong with enjoying fics in which Draco’s irredeemable or his relationship with Hermione is toxic. I myself read such stories from time to time. I like a good Ron bashing fic every now and then as well, and there’s nothing wrong with that either because it’s all fantasy, it’s all fiction, which, I believe, most Dramione shippers are aware of and accept. Hopefully, it won’t change, and no one will ever try to tell others what should and shouldn’t be written or what is and what’s not allowed in a Dramione fic.

- AgnMag

[witchygirl99]

Hi @fantasizingmyfantasies, I’m your Secret Santa for the @inusecretsanta​! Hope you enjoy :)

Pairing: InuKag

Rated: G

Summary: Professor Naraku, in a fit of rage over Inuyasha’s insolence, has given every House an assignment on a nearly impossible undetectable poison. Two Gryffindors and two Hufflepuffs solve it anyways, with interesting results.

Note Regarding Witchy Banner Below: Shoutout to @neutronstarchild​ for making this for me :) She’s the absolute best. Inspiration for the banner comes from @dangerouspompadour​ and her wonderful creative to let you all know to keep reading ;)

“Are you sure?” Jinenji asked, tugging his long, swirling robes tighter around him as they bustled through the arched hallways of the castle. Students were everywhere, both fleeing into and out of the library. With O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s so close, wizards and witches at Hogwarts had settled into an almost zombie-like state of mania, complete with the muttering of enchantments and funny hand twitches as they fake-casted spells. As a third year, Jinenji was thankful he still didn’t have to worry about those. At least, not yet.

“Have some faith in me,” his best friend, Kagome, argued. Her dark brown eyes looked up at him, somehow glimmering off the yellow inner lining of her robe, peeking out while they hurried to their destination. Jinenji had met Kagome back when they were both first years, both assigned by the Sorting Hat to Hufflepuff. They had become fast friends and for the most part, the two of them managed to partner on most important projects. “Miroku already finished the assignment. Apparently, his guardian was always going on about different poisons, especially those that could be hidden in a drink.”

Jinenji hummed, believing her. He had never talked to Miroku before but Kagome was a good judge of character. If she trusted the Ravenclaw, then he did, too. “I’m surprised we were given this assignment at all. Aren’t we supposed to discuss undetectable poisons, not create them for homework?”

“Well, we have Gryffindor to thank for that.” His best friend pushed through the grand wooden door of Hogwarts’s library, a hush befalling them, like the outside noise of the castle was cast away. Immediately, they could feel eyes on them, though no one visible stood behind a desk. That was likely because the library was ruled with an iron fist by Mister Myoga, the head librarian and also a flea demon. He used his virtually non-existent height to sneak around and ensure students were treating the books with care or remaining quiet. “I heard,” Kagome whispered now, “that Professor Naraku was so angry that he kicked some Gryffindor out of the classroom and then proceeded to make three Slytherins who cheered cry.”

“You’d think he’d have enjoyed that,” Jinenji mumbled back, trying his best to keep quiet. “Professor Naraku is kind to the Slytherins.” His friend hummed at him, leading them further and further back into the library. Jinenji trusted her to know where they were going, and exactly what they were looking for. “Seems unnecessary that this is our assignment, too. Gryffindor and Slytherin had class yesterday. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw today. Why give it to us, too?”

“It’s Professor Naraku, who knows?”

That, at least, was a fair point that Jinenji couldn’t argue with. Not that he was one to argue much at all.

“Come on,” Kagome whispered, hand tugging on his robe. “There’s a potions book – almost like an encyclopedia – by the greatest potioneer ever, Mukotsu Inada. Terrible wizard. I’m pretty sure he’s been in Azkaban for the last ten years. But!” She waved a hand at Jinenji’s look of horror. “The greatest potioneer ever. If there’s no details on this undetectable itching poison in there, then it’s nowhere.”

Jinenji hid his expression, knowing Kagome was right. At this point in the library, he was completely lost, but his friend had no such issues. They turned a corner at one stack of books before zagging in the other direction, muffled voices coming from not too far away. He watched as Kagome frowned, dragging him still, and when they came to what was clearly supposed to be the right spot, he spotted two other students scouring the shelves: Gryffindors.

“You!” Kagome exclaimed, surprised.

Jinenji blinked, surprised by the outburst, and then finally took a good look at the wizard and witch before them.

It was Inuyasha and Shiori. The Troublesome Twosome of Gryffindor.

Oh no.

X+X+X

Inuyasha Taisho was already in a sulking mood, not that he would ever admit as such to Shiori. “Are you sure it’s here?”

“Where else would it be?” Shiori snapped at him, violet eyes a little crazy. She’d been looking that way ever since Inuyasha and Professor Naraku had it out in yesterday’s Potions class, and Shiori had been saddled with taking down the notes for their joint assignment on undetectable poisons without him. Potions was already the bane of Shiori’s existence; she was far more about actions and spell work, leading the Defense Against the Dark Arts grades. Inuyasha’s snarling outburst at Professor Naraku’s stupidity, followed by his dismissal only twenty minutes into class made Shiori have to do double the work. He owed her.

Still. “And you swear you heard the name correctly? You’re not just making shit up?”

“For the love of Merlin, Inuyasha, shush,” Shiori hissed. He was lucky her wand wasn’t out, or he was sure she’d have cast something on him by now. A silencing spell, if nothing else. “I overheard your Hufflepuff girl in the hall. I’m sure it’s correct.”

Inuyasha couldn’t help himself. He turned unimpressed golden eyes at her. “She’s not my Hufflepuff girl!” Ever since their first year, the two of them had been having this argument. Inuyasha didn’t understand why Shiori couldn’t let this go. So what if he thought the Hufflepuff girl was cute? That was normal. She was quick to smile and friendly and basically the opposite of Inuyasha’s entire existence. But it wasn’t like they had spoken or anything, which meant that there was no way Kagome Higurashi, Hufflepuff darling, could be considered in any way ‘his.’

“Whatever,” Shiori replied, kicking him lightly in the leg. “I guess your forlorn staring at her in the Great Hall every evening at dinner means nothing. Fine. Help me find this book!”

Inuyasha sighed. Best friend or not, Shiori was quick to call him out on anything deemed bullshit.

“You!”

Immediately, Inuyasha glared at the intruders to their little library stack, hating being surprised. It was only then that he realized, like some kind of nightmare, that the exact person they were talking about was standing before them. Kagome stared at them in shock, Hufflepuff robes fluttering around her, with another hulking Hufflepuff wizard right behind her looking rather uncomfortable. “What?” he asked, the question coming out far ruder than he meant to.

“Oh, just—” Kagome frowned a little, brow furrowing as she looked between both him and Shiori. Her dark gaze landed on his friend, curiosity taking over her features. “You were listening in earlier!”

“No,” Shiori argued immediately, shaking her head. It didn’t help that the book she was shielding herself with was, in fact, the Great Book of Potions by Mukotsu Inada.

“Just because we’re not in Ravenclaw doesn’t mean we’re stupid,” Inuyasha barked, crossing his arms defensively. “We go to the library for research, too.” He knew that he had a reputation at Hogwarts, and that by association, Shiori did too. Very few witches and wizards ever dared to challenge them at anything. This was almost refreshing.

The Hufflepuff wizard stepped forward then, looking between them and his friend before trying for a smile. He was so tall, his head was the same height as the top of the stacks. If he wasn’t in Hufflepuff and known around Hogwarts as a gentle giant, Inuyasha probably would have been worried about a fight. “We don’t think that at all,” the wizard said quietly, voice shockingly small. “It’s good that you found it. I’m Jinenji and this is Kagome. You’re looking for the itching poison too, right?”

Inuyasha couldn’t help but look at Kagome, swallowing down the words that he already knew her name a long time ago. She smiled back at him despite his unwavering scowl. Inuyasha was begrudgingly endeared even more than before. Shiori could never find out.

“We have Potions class tomorrow and if we don’t complete the assignment tonight, Professor Naraku will have our heads,” Shiori said then. “Specifically Inuyasha’s.”

“Hey!”

“Where’s the lie?”

Inuyasha scowled and looked away. “Whatever. We need the book more. We can give you back the book when we’re done.”

“No way,” Kagome argued, smile slipping. “We have far too many other assignments and this is hard enough that doing it last minute would be terrible.”

“Well then you can copy the book right now.”

Kagome plastered on a smile. “Since I was the one that led you here, you should copy the book.”

Inuyasha eyed Jinenji, the giant Hufflepuff, watching him deflate. “No,” he retorted, just to see what Kagome could do. How far could a Hufflepuff go in friendliness? “We got here first.”

“I have an idea,” Kagome interjected, still friendly but oddly firm. “Since we all want to do the same assignment tonight, why don’t we do it together? That way, we get all the information we need, we all complete the assignment on time and everyone is happy.” Inuyasha opened his mouth but she shot him a sharp look, smile gaining an edge and quelling his argument. “This is the best plan.”

“That’s fine for me,” Jinenji replied quietly. Inuyasha noticed that despite his size, he almost shifted behind Kagome, as if hiding from the confrontation. “Where will we do it? We can’t practice in one of the classrooms at this hour or we’ll be caught for sure.”

“The girls’ Gryffindor bathroom,” Shiori said suddenly, finally speaking up. “No one goes in there, not even the prefects.”

“That’s perfect,” Kagome encouraged, nodding. “Great idea.”

Too nice. She was far too fucking nice. At least she wasn’t smiling anymore, menacingly or sweetly.

Jinenji hummed. “Should we go now, then? Meet up in ten minutes so we can get our scrolls?”

“Works for me,” Shiori answered, her elbow digging into Inuyasha’s side.

He huffed. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Wonderful,” Kagome concluded.

Inuyasha watched her and the giant Hufflepuff walk away, mouthing the word wonderful incredulously. Who even said things like that?

X+X+X

The Gryffindor bathroom was haunted. This was very likely why no one came in it, Kagome thought, staring up at the ghost floating in front of her.

“You must be the Hufflepuffs,” the ghost whispered, eyeing her and Jinenji in turn. He was a squat little thing, a toad demon with massive eyes and a permanent frown. While non-corporeal and clearly transparent, the ghost still took off the hat on his head and scratched, assessing them. “You shouldn’t be here,” the ghost warned.

“Leave them be, Jaken! You’re never supposed to be in here anyways, and yet.” It sounded like the Gryffindor girl Kagome had caught hanging around her in the hall earlier that day, right after the disastrous Potions class with Professor Naraku. Kagome wasn’t the suspicious kind, but she had noticed the way the girl had stopped and fiddled with her bag for an overly long time, those violet eyes looking up every once and a while like Kagome wouldn’t notice.

Well, she had. Kagome didn’t mind that she was being listened to, but wouldn’t it have been so much easier if the Gryffindor had just…come to her outright and asked?

Suddenly, Shiori poked her head around the corner and flashed them a smile. “This way! There’s enough room by the stalls for us all to sit.” She eyed Jinenji as she said it, only a brief glance, but Kagome was grateful that the two of them had at least considered her friend’s bulk. Jinenji was too kind-hearted to ever complain and it drove Kagome nuts every once and a while.

A cauldron sat in the middle with numerous jars and bags surrounding it. Seated on the far side was Inuyasha, glowering at it. Kagome tried for a smile, sitting down beside him. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out so Professor Naraku can’t pick on you.”

Inuyasha blinked at her, looking confused for all of a moment before his nose scrunched up. “Pretty sure we could get perfect on this and he would still pick on me.”

“He is, after all, the reason we were even assigned this horrible homework,” Shiori grumbled, sitting across from Kagome. She elbowed Inuyasha and shot him a sympathetic glance. “In fairness, Naraku was being a huge jerk.”

“Whatever,” Inuyasha grumbled, and Kagome watched as he peeked at her quickly before returning his glower to the cauldron. “Let’s just get this over with. If we miss curfew and I get caught again, I’m fucked.”

“We wouldn’t want that,” Kagome agreed.

“I can read out the ingredients,” Shiori offered then, holding the book. “Inuyasha can do the cutting—”

“Actually,” Kagome interjected, smiling to soften the blow of her interruption. “Jinenji is the best with preparing the ingredients. He’s saved so many of our potions I can’t even keep count.”

Inuyasha shrugged, looking like he didn’t particularly care. Jinenji, as expected, turned red at the praise, big hands fidgeting with each other. Kagome knew this would make him the most comfortable though, and pushed over the various ingredients already collected. “That’s fine with me.”

“We can work on the potion itself,” she said, reaching out to get Inuyasha’s attention back. He startled again and Kagome felt helpless but to do anything other than smile reassuringly. “What’s first?”

Shiori gave Jinenji the proper instructions for the ingredients. Some things were quite simple, like pouring in a certain amount of the powdered porcupine quills, but other ingredients required some finessing. Kagome was pleased when Inuyasha and Shiori watched, entranced, as Jinenji deftly prepared the aconite flowers, big hands somehow managing to cut up the petals while only touching the safe stems. He gave Kagome the tiny board he had brought filled with the sliced petals, prepared as always, and Kagome carefully held it over the cauldron while Inuyasha transferred them into the mixture.

They let it heat for a minute, the four of them quietly watching the ingredients mix together. Jinenji, smart as always, started to crush a few of the remaining herbs using a pestle.

Inuyasha tapped on the floor of the bathroom, golden eyes seeking Kagome’s the moment time was up. “Now what?”

Shiori, leading them all, was the one to answer. “The effectiveness of the poison is determined by the length of brew. Great Potions tells us what the consistency is supposed to be, so I think as long as we record it on our scrolls, we’ll just have to hope that by tomorrow morning we’ll have the right result. I can bottle it up first thing, one for each of us to deliver in class.”

“Here’s the last of it,” Jinenji interrupted softly, offering what was in the pestle.

Kagome took it and just like their usual routine, Inuyasha made sure it carefully was put in. She nudged gently at his knee, gesturing towards her own wand. “You do the honours and then I’ll stir?”

The Gryffindor blinked at her for a moment before shrugging, grabbing his wand. Inuyasha waved it above the cauldron, and the deep purple mixture bubbled into a dark blue.

“That’s it,” Shiori exclaimed, excited. “Matches the book exactly.”

“Thank god,” Inuyasha groaned, making Kagome laugh. She double-checked with Shiori before putting in the long spoon and stirring seven times exactly, watching the blue liquid swirl around. It was bubbling quite rapidly, despite the low heat, and when she removed the spoon there was a tiny burst of it, popping out of the cauldron and landing right on the chest of Inuyasha’s clothes.

For a long moment, the four of them were silent, staring in disbelief.

“The itching poison—” Jinenji started, but was cut off immediately by Inuyasha’s heavy sigh.

“Why does this always happen to me?” he grumbled, undoing the tie of his outer robe. The problem was that the blue liquid could clearly be seen on the shirt underneath, closest to his skin. The itching poison was supposed to be quite horrible and she really didn’t want to have to take them down to St. Mungo’s.

“Hurry,” Kagome insisted, getting worried. If Jinenji had started to bring up the itching poison, it could only mean that things would go bad quickly.

The Gryffindor scowled at her. “I am hurrying!”

“No, not—” And then Kagome was forcing her way in front of him, pushing at his robe before grabbing onto the buttons of his shirt underneath. “If this touches your skin, you’ll be itching for a month, at least, and you’ll never be able to make it through class tomorrow—”

“I have it!” Inuyasha argued, even as Shiori tugged the robe from behind him. “It’s fine, it won’t—” But then he got somehow impossibly tangled. Shiori wasn’t letting go, pulling even harder, and Inuyasha flailed backwards.

“Oof!” Kagome, her hands on his shirt still, was dragged down with him. It was an ungainly sprawl with Kagome embarrassingly ending up straddled above his prone form, lying on the ground.

She stared at him for a second, horrified, while Inuyasha looked at her with something akin to fear.

And then she saw the blue liquid on the collar, having moved from the fall, and it was so close to his skin. “Off!” she yelled, tugging furiously.

“You’re not undressing me!” Inuyasha shouted back, even though he, too, was trying to avoid the poison.

“You have to!”

“No!”

“Inuyasha!”

“Kagome!”

“Inuyasha!”

X+X+X

Behind them, Shiori crawled over until she was side-by-side with Jinenji. She stared up at him with big violet eyes, trying and failing to suppress her smile. “Should we tell them?”

Jinenji sighed but he looked just as amused as she was. “That the effectiveness of the itching poison doesn’t begin until at least an hour of brewing?”

“Yeah.” Shiori nodded and then stared at Inuyasha and Kagome, yelling at each other and somehow both trying to accomplish the same task. “That.”

“I already tried.” Jinenji shrugged. “It’s not like they can actually get hurt.”

But just as he had spoken, Kagome had finally managed to successfully tug at Inuyasha’s shirt, hauling him up into a sitting position and whipping off the material from the side. They both twisted, and Shiori could only watch, like a train about to crash, as Inuyasha’s and Kagome’s faces collided.

To call it a kiss would have been excessive. Both turned extremely red anyways.

“What are you doing?” Inuyasha yelled.

“Me? What about you? Why would you lean so far forward?!”

“It was that or you were going to dislocate my shoulder!”

“No, I wouldn’t have,” Kagome argued.

Shiori nudged Jinenji, even though her elbow barely made it past his huge legs. “If you and I are going to have to watch this play out for the next four years, we better get an Outstanding on this stupid assignment.”

The giant Hufflepuff smiled down at her. “I’m sure we will.”

[trashcankitty12]

omg thank you so much for answering! 😅 i have another ask about the origins of the ancestral witches, how did they come about? was darkar involved in their birth or even growing up? how did they end up working with/for darkar? and how did their childhood affect their mothering for valtor?

Okay, so in my head, and in my verses, the whole Darkar being the BIG, BIG BAD isn’t the case. It’s the Ancestral Witches themselves. Darkar is just someone who used to be a good person, but turned into... a servant of sorts. Which I’ll get to that soon enough. After my big spiel on the Ancestral Witches. XD (This is gonna get long, so there’s a read-more.)

Belladonna, Lysslis, and Tharma were three sisters born to a noble family on the realm (which is now dead) known as Ulmoira. Their family had been servants of the King and Queen there for eons, and their realm was in service to the Great Dark Dragon which birthed all dark realms (and dark magic), just as the Great Light Dragon birthed all light realms (and light magic).

Belladonna had ice magic, though not to the intensity we now know her to have. In fact, her magic was considered nothing more than a party trick at the time, meant for cooling drinks or crafting neat ice sculptures.

Tharma’s magic was always considered dangerous due to her outbursts. (Such an angry child...) But she could only conjure small scale storms. Nothing that spread over entire realms, not like she’s known for.

Lysslis’ magic was mostly just extreme empathy and telepathy and being able to create and manipulate emotions in others and forcing them to tell the truth. Nothing like the illusions and hallucinations she’s known for creating today.

Belladonna was the eldest sister, and the craftiest. She made her way quickly up the ranks in the Palace and became advisor to the King. The main advisor. His right hand. His partner. (And, yes, on occasion in exchange for getting her own items on the agenda, his lover.)

See, Belladonna could see just how powerful Ulmoira could be and wanted to expand it’s power and have one of the Great Dragons claim Ulmoira as a holy land, giving more reach for their kingdom than even the newly formed Council could handle.

And of course, endearing herself to the King and making herself so integral in his life and in his court gave her all the power that not even being a Queen could give her.

(She’s ambitious, so sue her.)

(And she’s great at playing the long game.)

Lysslis, the middle sister, was also quite a crafty woman, partially in thanks to her “unique gifts”. She understood people; their fears, hopes, what made them tick inside. An empath with a near excessive reach. 

Using her talents, and her way with words, Lysslis enjoyed playing spy for her sister. Always getting her intel on what others in the court were up to and what potential threats lied with other kingdoms.

(Lysslis is also the more curious sister. She’s the reason they end up going in the direction they go.)

Tharma is the youngest sister, and far more malicious and sadistic than her older sisters. She was labeled the “problem child” and the “family disgrace”. Always fighting, always starting trouble. Always where she shouldn’t be: in the way.

Belladonna and Lysslis couldn’t outcast their sister though, and found her a place to thrive: prison guard. 

Tharma loved her job and loved giving prisoners exactly what they deserved. 

It was an idyllic life. 

Until Lysslis, during one of her missions in which she got interesting information from one of the Great Dragon Priests... Information about the Dragon Fire, Primordial Magic created from the Dragon Fire (such as the Phoenix Flames and the Water Stars), and the predictions about people one day being able to harness such magic. He even had a Grimoire detailing the prophesy of the Dragons’ deaths and Them imparting Their magic to those deemed worthy, and how the other Primordial Magics would follow Their example. 

Lysslis, of course, confiscated the Grimoire and brought it to her sisters’ attention. 

This could be the big break they were all waiting for. Forget the original plan of their homeland becoming a holy ground, THEY COULD BECOME GODDESSES.

But how to prove themselves worthy to the Great Dragons and other Primordials? Simple: they make themselves stronger by any means necessary.

Their family had a Family Book of Shadows tucked away and hidden from the kingdom’s authorities, a tome mostly forgotten about due to the nature of the spells within. (Black Magic. A cursed and volatile version of Dark Magic, and, of course, forbidden to use.)

But Belladonna knew about it, had listened as a wide-eyed girl while her grandmother told stories of what their family used to be able to do. And now she had a reason to unlock her full potential. (And her sisters’ of course...)

In secret the three would practice and strengthen their magic using the spells from their forbidden tome, not realizing just how the magic was changing them. Oh yes, their magic was stronger and capable of things others could only dream of doing, but their physical and mental states? Their sanity? Their grip on reality?

Fleeting. And fleeting fast. To the point where they considered themselves gods without any Primordial magic, to the point where they didn’t need to be worthy of the Primordials, it was just a matter of taking what was already “theirs” to start with.

The King, disturbed by the increasingly erratic and terrifying behavior of his advisor and her sisters, confronted them.

Belladonna told him what they were planning, hoping he could see ‘reason’ and that they were the ones who ‘deserved to be in charge’. He called them out for their crazy behavior and with his army, he did his best to stop them.

Unfortunately, with their rage and combined magic, it wasn’t enough to stop them. 

Belladonna was now able to call forth blizzards with never before recorded temperatures. She could sense the blood within others and freeze them from the inside out. And she could create snow creatures to do her bidding.

Tharma’s storms could cover vast quantities of land and rage with the full force of the anger she’d kept inside all those years. Lightning strong enough to electrocute even the hardiest of people, tornadoes able to suck the air right out of another’s lungs. Hail storms that could destroy everything in their path. And the storm harpies she could summon to fight for her where just as terrifying as anything else she could do.

And Lysslis... She had soldiers killing themselves and their comrades, their minds completely overtaken by her own will. The hallucinations she made them see, the agony and fear she had overtake them... Nothing could save those in her grasp.

Ulmoira was ultimately destroyed.

But that was fine. They had no use for their homeland anymore. Not when they had an entire magical dimension to claim. Starting with the Dragon Fire.

Before they could take the Dragon Fire, they knew they’d need assistance. So they went to a realm known as Whisperia and stole three crystals from it. (These crystals were said to contain traces of the Water Stars within them, meaning they could damage or control the Great Dragons.)

Then they headed to Domino, wanting to face the Great Light Dragon. Unfortunately for them, she had already left her physical body, her magic and soul bonding with the future king of Domino that had just been born. (And they knew even with all their power, they couldn’t fight the realm of Domino. Not while still recovering from the destruction of Ulmoira.)

So they traveled to Obsidian, finding the aging and dying Great Dark Dragon. They thought him an easy target, using their magic and crystals to weaken him further, but he wasn’t worried. Angry, sure, but not worried.

Because the moment he died, the future queen of Obsidian took her first breath, and became his bond.

Deterred, but not defeated, the Ancestral Witches decided to seek out the other Primordials first. 

For ages they searched and scoured for Primordials, even stealing sacred items from realms in the hopes it would give them the power they sought. (And in their quest, they gained followers. Devout followers who worshipped the grounds they walked upon.)

And, curiously (and in great timing, considering their ages), they found a way to remain... Immortal. More or less. 

One part blood bond between their new “Coven” and “covenmates”, a bond where they would syphon their members’ life forces, a slow process they’d never notice happening. And one part a potion they discovered which needed unicorn blood, dragon scales, and the hearts of lumen. (Poor little things...)

Over the years, the Ancestral Witches tried to “steal back” the Dragon Fire from both Domino and Obsidian, only to have their forces blown back each time. (Though each time, without fail, new followers would fall to their knees for the Witches.)

And then, an idea struck.  Why take the Dragon Fire when they could raise it? King Gasper and Queen Gnala of Obsidian were due to have their child in a few months time. (Queen Natalia of Domino was still having issues becoming pregnant, poor dear.)

Carefully they monitored the situation in Obsidian, taking notice of the exhaustion among one of the most loyal servants to the Obsidian Throne since the Dragon bonded to the Ruler. Sir Argulus and his wife.

Interesting.

Lysslis saw the opening and she took it. It was slow, convincing Argulus and his wife to betray their King and Queen, but they did in exchange for the power they wished they had.

And two weeks after the young prince was born, a week before his christening, the Ancestral Witches struck with their forces, and the newly awoken Lord Darkar and Lady Mandragora. (And, a former prisoner of Obsidian’s dungeon who now had the power to absorb and redirect magic, Ogron.)

Obsidian fell. The kingdom tattered, but remade in the Ancestrals image. All correspondence and travel to the outside realms were destroyed. And the Ancestral Witches had their newest prized possession, and their future weapon, the former prince now known as Valtor.

(After Obsidian’s fall, the Council became concerned about dark magic and dark magic users. They felt that dark magic was so close to black magic, that it was only a matter of time before others turned treasonous too. Which started the crackdown on dark magic and the ostracization of dark realmers.)

(The Ancestral Witches viewed this as an opportunity and used it to manipulate dark magic users, and even some light magic ones, into joining their forces so as to “fight these injustices” and “retake their place” in the Magical Dimension.)

And that’s the story. Or well, a sort of glossed over, short version of the story.

Hope you enjoyed it. 

[strangerobin]

Rue: Chapter 5 (Jasper Hale x OC Imagine)

Just some familial bonding and a new discovery.

**Note: Introducing Adeline's little makeshift family :D The problem with thinking too much is that the more you think, the longer the story gets, and you try to give more backstory to each side character until you get totally distracted by them lol So expect more appearances from Adeline's little family ;) wink And expect this to be a slow slow burn Also I hope I've done justice to Alice's and Jasper's relationship (which obviously deviates heavily from the book but whatever); it's as said before, it's always sad to see a relationship dissolve, especially when it's not because of the lack of love for each other But not every relationship works till the very end, and it's alright It's still a precious part of life**

When she was warm and fed, Adeline retreated with Loreen into the latter’s room. The raging storm in her chest was finally calming by the child’s careless humming as she laid in Loreen’s double bed, guarded by plushies and dolls of all sort. While Loreen was parked next to her enormous hand crafted dollhouse, deftly placing each doll into their designated place. There was something she had noticed that was nagging at her.

“Why are you wearing gloves indoors?”

Loreen started and whipped her head towards Adeline, clearly made uncomfortable by the question. “Um… well you see…” The child spluttered, momentarily staring at her hands before finally shrugging nonchalantly and tugging the pair of gloves off. “You’re right, I suppose they are ridiculous, aren’t they?”

She threw the pair of gloves over her dresser before stooping to stuff the rest of her miniature dolls into the dollhouse and diving into bed. Her attention already distracted by something else like any child would do.

“Ohhh! What’s this Addie? I never saw this on you before.” She pointed to the little silver locket around her neck. Clearly fascinated by the intricate carvings on the locket. “It’s absolutely gorgeous!”

“Oh this old thing?” Adeline fingered the trinket, felt the grooves and the carving underneath her thumb. It was funny how she could look at it now with a sterilised sense of calm but god forbid lose control so easily faced with the man in the woods.“It was from a friend.”

“Pretty.” Loreen murmured. Leaning closer to check out the trinket, she touched it gingerly with a finger and was immediately absorbed by it. “Must be very important if you’re still holding onto it after all these years.”

That struck a nerve and Adeline quickly tucked the locket beneath her bathrobe and shot Loreen a smile, abruptly changing the subject. “Well aren’t you chatty tonight, Lorie.”

“Well you know what I’m down to chat about?” Loreen shifted her little body so that she was on her stomach, cheeks in her hands, sizing Adeline up with her brown eyes. “Your absence.”

“You sure you want to talk about this, young lady?” Adeline laughed, amused by the child’s antics.

“I do.” Was the child’s serious reply.

“Well you have Anakin. And Teddy. I think you hardly need me around.”

“Anakin’s a tyrant, he never takes no for an answer. And he’s surprisingly very persuasive when he wants. And Teddy… Teddy’s fine, he’s a good a soul. But he’s a bit of a bore.”

Adeline snorts. “Good soul? Good lord Loreen where did you learn to talk like this?”

Loreen pouted cutely. “See this is all Anakin’s work. He’s just no fun really. I miss having you around, I need another girl to talk to!”

“Oh sweetheart I’m sure some of the neighbour’s kids would play with you.”

“They’re such children! I couldn’t possibly play with them! I’m surrounded by goldfish everywhere!”

“You’re a child yourself. And you’re not in an aquarium, Loreen.”

“Yes I am, so I really need you here with me. Besides Father never comes. I mean you’d actually be pretty undisturbed here. He calls us disappointments anyways. He only ever has time for the elites!”

Adeline smiled ruefully and reached a hand pat the little one’s head. Here she was, worrying even her little sister. “He will be around more, if he knew I was here.”

“Ahhh to be a favourite child.” Loreen sighed dramatically.

“Seriously, where did you learn to speak like this?”

“What? Because it is unbecoming of a child?”

“Exactly.”

The pair stared the other down until finally Loreen cracked.

“I might have been rifling through Netflix a bit…”

“And?"

“And I do so adore those British period pieces.”

“There we have it! I think I might need to talk to Anakin about you-“

“Oh you are odious!” Loreen pouted again, before latching onto Adeline’s arm. “Please, please, pretty please! Don’t rob me of my only joys in life! Anakin’s barely even bothers with me half the time and have you seen Teddy? No! Because he’s always out to do some boring stuff and I’m always alone! I’m bored out of my mind! I'll read anything in this house, I even read the dictionary to pass time!”

Adeline laughed again. “Alright, little lady. I’ll let you be, so long as you go to sleep right now.”

Still grumbling, Loreen got under the quilt but nonetheless snuggled close to Adeline.

“Sweet dreams dear.”

She watched the child close her eyes. Lucky child, she wished she was back in that little cottage, snuggling up to her sister, a fire roaring in the hearth. When sleep was easy and her dreams were not tainted by her demons and shadows of regret.

But just as she felt the tendrils of an oncoming nightmare, she felt a small hand reaching up to her forehead. Adeline soon felt a warmth enveloping her body, her head was on a pillow of cloud. And just before she fell into a dreamless slumber, she thought she heard a whisper.

“Sleep well, Adeline.”

*

“Jasper are you sure?” Alice asked worried, hurrying after the man as he strode with purpose.

“I’m sure.” They were at a car dealership in Minnesota. Alice had been stumped trying to scour for possible leads for Adeline, but something had changed for Jasper. Instead of the usual moroseness that clung to him, he seemed to have been rejuvenated by some unknown spark, there was a new found confidence in him of sorts. It mystified her, he was acting like a child who had been let on a secret that he only knew.

“I’ll drive you to the closest airport and you can take the next flight home.” Jasper said as he led her to the car he had bought. “Then I’ll continue on from there.”

“And how exactly are you going to find her, Jasper?” She quizzed. “If a seer can’t even find her. And she leaves practically no scent for anyone to follow if she wants.”

Jasper turned to look at her then, really looked at her; she scrutinised him equally hard on her part. Searching for an answer.

And it hit her like a bullet to the chest.

She understood then.

“She’s your mate, isn’t she?”

Jasper looked away guiltily before giving her an affirmative nod. “I think so… yes.” His eyes clouded over then, reminiscing. “It took seeing her again to confirm it. But I… I feel her in my heart, this small tugging… incessantly. Even now I can feel it, pulling at me, urging me to move, to be closer.”

“Oh Jasper. That’s wonderful news.” She had to congratulate him, despite still reeling from the shock and the ever-growing pain inside her heart. She really shouldn’t be selfish now.

“Alice.” Her hand was clasped into his large ones, and she eyed their intertwined hands before gently letting them fall. One look at him and she saw the heartbreak and sorrow in him. How torn he must be feeling right now, the dilemma he was in. “I’ve hurt you, Alice.” He finally murmured. “And it wasn’t even my intention.”

But how could she forget that for every little emotion she had, Jasper felt it tenfold more. So intense was his sense that if her heartbreak was already eating at him, it must have been excruciating when he had seen Adeline the night before.

“Perhaps I really shouldn’t..." Deliberating internally with his own doubts and concerns, Jasper struggled to find the right words to express himself. "She doesn’t want to see me... not anymore anyways. Why throw away everything we’ve built...”

Alice watched on as she was reminded of her times with Jasper then. The Quileute tribe may deem him dangerous for his skill and experience in the army, he might have had a hand in the Southern Vampire wars; but the Jasper she knew, the man she had loved was always a sweet and gentle man. Sentimental yes, empathetic even more so. All the years he had spent shielding her, simply being there for her. Alice knew that if she took away this chance from him, it would always be a regret on his part. And this wound would continue to fester like cancer, eat at him, until it ultimately killed him from the inside. Until there was nothing left but a shell of a man.

He deserved more than anyone, to love and be loved.

And if all he needed was a push, she would gladly give it to him.

“Go.” She beamed at him through her unshed tears. “Go find her and make it up to her.”

“I’m not even sure if there’s anything that needs my making up to her.” Jasper whispered in exasperation, but his caress betrayed a gentleness that was almost innate in him. She leaned into his palm one last time.

“Bring her back will you, I have a hunch we’ll be the best of friends.” She breathed. Watched as a new resolve hardened in his eyes.

“Yes ma’am” The same reply he had given when she first greeted him in that little diner in Philadelphia.

Her heart might break just a little bit more.

*

Jasper was driving his new car, not quite sure where his destination was yet. Simply letting the pull at his heart guide him.

Though to be honest, his mind wasn’t particularly on the scenery or the drive. He needed the time to think, to sort out the mess that was in his mind.

A soulmate bond.

When Carlisle had mentioned to him all those years ago; he had struggled not to be cynical about it. Because yes, it was rude; but also because he didn’t quite believe in all that bullshit after his time with Adeline and then his affair with Maria. Maria had simply manipulated and ensnared him into a web of lies and then proceeded to use him and mould and knead him into whatever she needed him to be then. There was no deeper emotion other than the feeling of being exploited by the woman.

But Adeline. Adeline, she had straight up ripped out a wide gapping hole in his heart. Do people ever get over a heartbreak like that? He had wondered.

It was really Alice who had calmed him down over the years, shed new light on his existence as a vampire, provided the companionship he so desperately needed. Helped him control the bloodlust.

If Adeline had never reappeared in his life, if she had never passed through Washington for whatever reasons, if she had not stopped to find Renesmee. Why, he thought, they might never chance to meet. He would continue his peaceful and contented life with the Cullens and Alice; and she would have continue on her merry way.

But nothing in life ever goes as planned.

The moment his eyes finally beheld her form again after centuries, he knew then. He knew then that she was the one he had been waiting for all along. Perhaps it was the way how the world seemed to have changed; how it brightened like never before. Or how alive he felt in that moment, how his dead heart almost, almost started beating again. Or how when she had left, the pain in his heart, how excruciating it had been, as if it were ready to tear itself apart. Maybe it was just the way that when she was around, every feeling that he had was intensified.

And when he felt that unknown tugging at his heart, it had all but cemented his belief.

But now that his sentiments were all but confirmed, there were other concerns that warranted his attention.

He thought back to the night they had met, rewinding and examining every little detail that he may have missed. Sure it was excruciating, but he needed more facts to pursue. He needed a plan of action to lure Adeline out of her shell, to make her at least talk to him. He didn’t think that a reconciliation was possible after her rejection, but surely some answers were long overdue.

He recalled how she had trembled at the mention of her father, how desperate she had wanted to escape from him.

Her grandmother Henriette had once told him that: there are things that are out of their control, things that are better left in the dark. Her father had needed her and what could a single unwed woman do but to comply to her parent’s wish. He had been young and rash then, had dismissed it all in a fit of fury and anguish, had chalked it up to his lack of wealth and class. But now that he thought of it, perhaps they were half truths mingled with white lies, told to protect him from a greater evil for his own sake. A tyrannical patriarch figure who was also probably a very ancient vampire.

He briefly considered just what he was getting himself into.

As he cut the line to leave the highway at the next exit, he felt another strong tug at his heart as if it were a signal that he was on the right track.

He had just passed a giant billboard that said.

Welcome to Colorado.

*

When Theodore, or simply Teddy, returned from his ‘dull and tedious tryst with his insipid chess-loving company’ as Loreen quoted, or as the man himself reiterated impatiently ‘a simple chess meeting in Denver’, he was met with a chaotic household gone rogue.

“Well aren’t you dapper, young man?” Adeline drawled from her couch she had claimed for herself, parked right in front of the TV. Sizing up the man, she took note of his wind swept black curls, the tweed blazer and the crisp silk shirt and the shiny black dress shoes. In turn, Teddy was also eyeing his sister intently.

“Is that my bathrobe?” The finely-dressed man asked incredulous, one hand on his hips, the other pointing accusingly at the former.

“What?!” Adeline defended, refusing to budge from her position. “You have grand taste. And it’s comfy.”

“And is that my Rockies t-shirt?”

“So it seems to be.” Adeline shrugged nonchalantly.

“Anakin! She’s even drinking my wine now! And she’s gone through my entire chocolate stash!”

“Oh go bother someone else won’t you!” Was Anakin’s annoyed reply.

But as Loreen had put it, Teddy was a good soul and all was forgiven soon enough with peace restored within the makeshift family.

Yet underneath the calm lurked a quiet unease.

The family was quick to notice, the listlessness and jitteriness Adeline was emanating. The more they tried to press her, the more withdrawn she grew, refusing to divulge in whatever she had hidden.

For Adeline, she had thought she was seeking safety and shelter among her half-siblings, but in confinement she was growing evermore restless. She stubbornly ignored the void in her heart, a strong reminder that an essential part of her was missing from her life. One she had all but forgotten until the fateful run in. Instead she paced the halls all through the nights, had taken to drinking coffee at night and wine in the morning. And when she rested, sleep was always fitful, plagued by strange dreams and nightmares and long-forgotten memories.

Her intuition was never wrong, it was the only gift she could fall back on in times of crises. And right now, she could taste it in the air, hear it in the wind. Something was about to happen, a reckoning of sorts she was sure, and here she was waiting for a sign.

Adeline downed another flask of coffee as she sat in the chill with a simple blanket to keep herself warm. The stars were out and she was studying them as they moved across the late evening sky.

She desperately needed a sign. This state of limbo was slowing driving her insane. She needed a way out, an escape.

“Hey.”

“Hey you.” She didn’t need to turn, she knew only one person who would be brave enough to disturb her in her reverie.

Teddy gently sat down beside her. “You’re not sleeping.”

“I can’t.” Adeline frowned and rubbed her face, exhaustion evident in her system.

“Well all that caffeine isn’t helping.” Her half brother smile and pointed at the flask in her lap.

“Well, I don’t want to sleep.” Adeline retorted with more bite than was needed.

“Adeline.” Theo admonished softly.

She shot him a warning look, though the corners of lips were slightly upturned good-naturedly. “Teddy.”

Teddy bless his soul, always the same kindhearted and gentle soul that he was. Loreen might call his person boring, but Adeline liked how he was always constant and steadfast… like an evergreen. There was a reason why he had always been her favourite out of all her siblings, not even her history with Anakin could beat this. For him, she would shield him from every hurt, every danger; and sometimes she wondered if she had done all that was good for him. If she had done right by him while raising him to be the man he was today.

“Well? What is it that you want to ask then?” Adeline rested her head on her knees and gestured for Teddy to voice his concerns.

He studied her intently for a second, as if finding the right word to begin with. “Something’s happened. Anakin tells me you were in a pretty bad state when you came but he wouldn’t divulge further said you didn’t tell him as well.”

“So I didn’t.”

“Well you can tell me. You know I’m your most trusted confidant.”

Adeline had to laugh at that. “Yes you are, my beloved brother.”

An easy silence enveloped the two as they sat shoulders touching, head tilted towards the open galaxy. This was the only thing she ever missed, in between running around the country, and hiding away from her father. This heartfelt connection with the only few people with whom she could be herself; a permanent residence, a pillow under her head at night. She had given up something similar, years ago when she was still young and naive, and very much in love, desperately so.

Now, she didn’t let herself dream on.

“Do you... do you remember New York?” Adeline dug her fingers into the wet earth, the dampness of the earth filling her nostrils immediately. “Do you remember Harlem, 1921?”

“That night when you drunk the entire club under the table?” Teddy turned to eye her carefully, even after all these years, he was still sensitive about that little fiasco she had pulled to spite their father, and probably to spite herself too. “Yeah I remember that night.”

Adeline kept her head down, her hand playing absentmindedly with the loose soil. “Do you remember when you asked me don’t you have any regrets in life?”

“And you had said yes, more than you will ever know.”

“Well…” There was a catch in her throat now and she swallowed hard to speak. “Do you have any regrets yourself Ted? Just something… anything.”

Teddy frowned as he contemplated the question Adeline had raised. But then she didn't think he had any; moralistic Teddy, gentle Teddy, worry-wart Teddy, he had too much foresight to let himself make grave mistakes like she did. “Nothing major really. Although… there is a place my mind always goes back to…”

“Which is?”

“The little diner in Philly, 1948.” The brunette hesitated, stealing a sidelong glance at his sister before continuing. “The one you were adamant we left immediately. I always thought that there was something… someone waiting for me there… and I always wonder what I would’ve find there if we had gone in.”

“Our ultimate demise probably.” Adeline shrugged.

“And why are we talking about regrets now?”

She hummed in response, turning to give her brother a tired smile. “Because, it seems my biggest regret has decided to return now to haunt me, out of vengeance.”

*

Jasper pulled into the local inn parking lot, killing the ignition as he did.

Georgetown Mountain Inn.

The modest sign glowed in the dark night.

He had circled round the interstate for a day and a half, and then into Denver city, letting his newfound instinct guide him on his search. And it had ultimately lead him to this quaint historical mining town just west of Denver.

He breathed in the fresh alpine air.

This felt just about right.

Or so he thought.

“Ruelle? Never heard the name young man if I might say so myself. You looking for someone?”

The innkeeper shook his head at his inquiries the next day. Georgetown was only a small town after all. If it’s residents had never heard of the name, then the chances of finding a Ruelle in the town was close to slim. Distracted, the man had then turned back to the phone call he was on, entirely unaware of the subtle shift in emotion of his customer.

“Marie. You got the van out? I phoned up the Emersons last night. Anakin says he’ll be round before 11 to take a look at it. Afterwards he’s got business with Ted down in Denver that’ll keep him there for a week. Ask Jim to hurry over will ya?”

The innkeeper was still on the phone when Jasper turned to leave.

“Who’s looking after Loreen? Heard they got family staying over for a while to look after the kiddo. Beats me Marie... I’m sure they’ve still got good folks in the family.”

Without a plan or even a clue, Jasper decided to cruise round town and then up the lake to take his mind off Adeline. Even if the disappointment was slowly eating at him; he had been so sure of himself, but now doubt was settling in. Perhaps he had been mistaken indeed, everything was only a figment of his imagination, wishful thinking on his part. But then again, no sane person on the run would think to use their real name, no? He reasoned with himself. He knew he wouldn’t, and he didn’t think Adeline was stupid enough to do the same. So not all hope was lost yet.

Up ahead, his line of sight fell on a quaint little house nestled within the mountainous terrain overlooking the lake.

Casually pulling into the drive; he was just able to catch a pair of brothers heading out. One was much tanner than the other and though neither looked quite related to the other, but there was a little something that made him believed that they were related. The elder was fixing up the jeep parked on the driveway while the younger one was lingering at the door, taking to someone inside the house.

He recalled the phone call his innkeeper had made that morning.

Jasper strained his ears to listen to their conversation while pretending to make a u-turn at the end of the drive.

“You sure you don’t want one of us to stay with you Ad?”

“I’ll be fine Teddy, just go. Don’t let your students down. They’ll be waiting for you.”

“Grandmaster.” A little girl, one he had missed before, chimed cheekily.

But the man, Teddy, was still unconvinced. “You still haven’t told me what’s troubling you Ad.”

“I’ll think about it.” The woman in the house replied.

“You’re still jittery.”

“It’s the caffeine.”

“Ad-”

“Bruh you coming or what?” The elder by the car shouted back towards the house.

“This isn’t over.” The younger man muttered before scrambling down the terrace towards the jeep.

There was a ringing in Jasper’s ears as he leaned forward in his seat to catch a glimpse of the woman who turned to usher the child back into the house before closing the front door.

And just as the door closed, he thought he glimpsed a pale face framed by brown curls and a pair of blue eyes.

[zackcollins]

i fell into a burning ring of fire || t. konecny/n. patrick

masterlist

Author’s Note: It's been a hot minute since I've written an RPF story. I've mainly been focusing on my reader-inserts/imagines because those have been what I've had the motivation to write lately. Well. I got some inspiration to write this from browsing this hellsite yesterday. A random prompt thing came across my dash that said something to the effect of: "Imagine Person A Teaching Person B..." and then it listed off some examples. A few of the examples were pitching a tent, skipping stones, and steering a canoe. So, uh... naturally my brain decided I needed to write a fic where Teeks showed Patty how to do all of them. The only problem is that it kinda got away from me and it ended up way longer than I anticipated. This is literally the longest one-shot I've ever written. And it only took me 11 hours to write all of it, which is some sort of feat all on its own. I only beta'd it with the basic Grammarly so any mistakes that remain are my own fault and I apologize for them. I did the best I could to not have them be there. GIF credit to manybumblebees!!

Warnings: There’s a little bit of smut. I did my best to describe what was happening but as someone who has never been in any kind of sexual situation, I’m not sure if it came out sounding right. Let me know if it sounds right and if there’s anything I can do to improve it. There’s also an undertone of pyromania, in the sense that the campfire gets them both horny. There is also an exhibitionism thing going on because they’re preforming the smuttiness in the middle of their campsite, where they could be seen by anyone that walks by said campsite.

Word Count: 7.2k+

Title: Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

Additional: If you found this by Googling yourself, are in this yourself, or know someone in this, please click back. No harm was meant in the creation of this fic. It's a complete fabrication that my mind decided needed to be written based on a stupid prompt list. I hope you enjoy!!

“Patty,” Travis said, exasperated. “The tent pole goes through the hole with the same colour lining as the colour of the pole!”

Nolan scoffed as he threw the tent pole and the tent onto the ground. He glared daggers at Travis as he stalked over to the picnic table and sat down.

“Whatever,” Nolan grumbled.

He motioned to the tent and then to Travis.

“If you know how to do it, you do it.”

Travis blinked before he grabbed the tent pole that Nolan had thrown down. He turned his back to Nolan as he grabbed the tent and threaded the pole through the correct hole.

He turned to look at Nolan. Nolan had a sour expression on his face. Travis rolled his eyes and dropped the tent. 

“Get over here,” Travis said. “The whole point of this was to teach you to pitch the tent.”

Nolan huffed before he stood from his seat and walked over to Travis. He grabbed one of the tent poles and the tent. He motioned with his head to the coloured lining that matched the colour of the pole. Travis nodded and smiled. Nolan rolled his eyes as he threaded the pole through the hole.

Travis allowed Nolan to thread the rest of the poles through their correct holes. Nolan grumbled a few times, annoyed that he was the one that had to do all of the work. Travis reminded Nolan that he was the one that had asked to learn how to set up the tent in the first place. Nolan seemed none too pleased with that answer but didn’t argue with Travis to try to change his mind.

Once the tent had all the poles threaded through it, Nolan smiled sarcastically.

“There’s your fucking tent,” he said as he glared at Travis.

Travis covered his mouth with one of his hands and snorted. Nolan glared harder at Travis as he walked to the picnic table. As soon as he sat down, Travis walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We’re not done yet, bud,” Travis said. “We need to lay the tarp out and stake the tent down.”

Nolan scoffed and flipped Travis off. Travis snorted again as he walked to the back of his truck and pulled out the tarp and the bag of tent stakes. He tossed the bag of stakes to Nolan. Nolan reacted just in time to catch the bag before it beaned him in the side of the head. He gave Travis a side-eyed glare as he walked over to the tent.

“Fuck you, asshole,” Nolan grumbled. “That almost hit me in the head.”

Travis rolled his eyes as he walked over with the tarp. He laid it down where he wanted the tent to go and looked up at Nolan.

“I thought you had your eyes on me,” Travis said, apologetically. “Sorry.”

Nolan scoffed as he handed Travis four stakes. 

Travis went around and placed one stake in each of the corner rings of the tarp. He shifted the tarp a little before he nodded his head in approval. 

“Can you go grab the hammer,” Travis asked. “It should be on the back seat of the truck.”

Nolan handed Travis the bag of stakes before he walked over to the truck. Nolan grumbled the whole way to and from the truck but he did return with the aforementioned hammer. Travis gave Nolan a thumbs up and switched Nolan the bag for the hammer.

The ground was harder than Travis expected so it took longer to hammer the stakes in than he would’ve liked. Once they were finally in the ground, Travis threw the hammer down and muttered a few choice words. He heard Nolan try to suppress a laugh but it ultimately failed and Nolan erupted into a fit of laughter. Travis cracked a small smile when he turned to look at Nolan.

Nolan had braced himself on a nearby tree, the bag of stakes dropped at his feet. He was doubled over in laughter and his face was slightly red. He had started to wheeze from the force of the laughter. Travis felt butterflies flutter around in his stomach. It had been ages since he had seen Nolan act this carefree. It was nice to witness again, even if it would only last a short time. 

When Nolan came down from his laughter high, he wiped his eyes of some tears that had accumulated there. Travis felt his stomach flutter with butterflies again as he looked at the blissful expression on Nolan’s face. Travis swallowed every emotion that had risen in his throat and cleared his throat.

“Can…” Travis paused. 

Travis’ emotions ramped up again when he saw the look on Nolan’s face. Nolan looked peaceful and happy. Travis’ fucked up brain took that to mean that Nolan was peaceful and happy because of Travis’ presence. Not for the fact that Nolan had just spent a good five minutes in a laughter fit over some stupid shit that Travis had done. It was a problem that Travis had thought that he had under control. Evidently, he was wrong.

“Can I do what,” Nolan asked.

Travis snapped out of his daze and looked at Nolan. Nolan had a neutral look on his face once again, which was more normal from him. 

Travis sighed, took his hat off, and raked a hand through his hair before he situated his hat back on his head.

“Can you pass me the tent,” Travis asked. “I need to put it on the tarp.”

Nolan nodded before he walked a few steps to the tent. He handed it to Travis and Travis smiled weakly as thanks. Nolan smiled and nodded his head slightly in return.

Once the tent was situated on the tarp and staked into the ground, Travis and Nolan made their way to the picnic table. Travis opened the cooler and grabbed a couple of turkey sandwiches. Nolan smiled as he opened the Ziploc bag before he took a bite.

“Jesus,” he muttered, though it sounded odd because he still had some of the sandwich in his mouth. “This is cold.”

Travis rolled his eyes as he took a bite of his sandwich and swallowed.

“It was in a cooler full of ice,” Travis said. He took another bite and swallowed that before he looked over at Nolan again. “Did you really expect it to be warm, Patty?”

Nolan flipped Travis off and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Fuck off, Teeks.” It sounded garbled again because Nolan had another mouthful of sandwich.

Travis shook his head and chuckled around the bite of sandwich in his mouth. That caused him to swallow some of his sandwich the wrong way. He coughed and sputtered a couple of times as he looked helplessly at Nolan. All Nolan did was smirk around the last piece of his sandwich.

“That’s what you get for being a smartass,” Nolan said as he licked a dollop of mustard off of one of his fingers.

Travis took that opportunity to flip Nolan off. Nolan chuckled as he opened the cooler and grabbed a couple of water bottles. He handed one to Travis and placed the other one in front of himself on the picnic table. Travis gave Nolan a thumbs-up as he finished the last of his sandwich.

Travis took a quick drink from the water bottle. His throat was sore and needed the refreshment of the water to calm it down. He sighed happily when the water did what he intended it to do.

“How about we go to the lake,” Nolan said, his voice a little strained. Travis found that odd but he decided not to comment on it. “I want you to teach me how to skip stones.”

“Of course,” Travis replied. “We can rent a canoe after and I’ll teach you how to properly steer one while we’re at it.”

Nolan nodded as he slid out of his seat at the picnic table and started to walk down the path to the lake. Travis finished his water bottle before he slid out of his seat and hurried after Nolan.

Once they were at the lake, Nolan pulled Travis into a section that was away from most of the people that were already there. Only a handful of other people were around them as they made their way to the edge of the lake.

“First off,” Travis said as he bent down to look at the stones, “you’ll want to find the flattest stone you can. Flat stones tend to skip better.”

Nolan nodded as he bent down beside Travis.

The two scoured the shore for fifteen minutes before they both found what they deemed their ideal rocks. When they met back at the original spot, Nolan looked rather excited as he rocked back and forth on his feet.

Travis chuckled as he squeezed Nolan’s elbow. Nolan immediately stopped his motions and looked at Travis with a soft expression. Travis raised an eyebrow but kept quiet about that. Instead, he focused on the reason they were at the lake in the first place.

“Alright,” Travis started as he turned to face the lake, “you want to hold your hand sideways.”

Nolan held his hand sideways as he was instructed to do. Travis gave Nolan a thumbs up with the hand that wasn’t in possession of his stone.

“Flick your wrist a couple of times to get a handle on the motion.” 

He flicked his wrist but held onto the stone.

Nolan did as instructed once again. Travis smiled and gave Nolan another thumbs up.

“The last step is to repeat that motion until you feel comfortable enough to release the stone.” 

Travis repeated the motion five more times before he released the stone. It skipped along the water three times before it stopped and sank into the water. Nolan smiled and repeated his own motion three times before he released his own stone. It skipped across the water four times before it stopped and sank into the water. Nolan made a satisfying sound and looked at Travis.

“Ha,” he said. “I skipped more times than you.”

Travis rolled his eyes, smiled, and playfully punched Nolan’s shoulder.

“Good job, Patty,” he said. “That means I’m a good coach.”

Nolan scoffed and knocked Travis’ hat off of his head. Travis mumbled as he picked the hat up from the very edge of the water and squeezed it to try to get the water out of it.

“Asshole! That was a new hat!”

“Why the fuck would you wear a new hat on a camping trip?”

Travis paused and looked at Nolan owlishly. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before his facial expression turned sour.

“Oh, fuck you,” Travis mumbled.

Nolan smirked and chuckled.

“Let’s go rent that canoe now,” Nolan said as he motioned in the direction of the campground’s boat rental building. “They better have life jackets because I’m not about to get into a canoe with you if they don’t.”

“Oh, fuck you times two,” Travis said.

Nolan knocked Travis’ hat off again before he booked it up the beach in the direction of the boat rental building. Travis cursed to himself as he picked his hat up out of the edge of the water and tried to squeeze dry it. When he was satisfied that it was as dry as it would be, for now, he put it back on his head and hurried after Nolan.

When he caught up with Nolan, Nolan had already paid for the canoe and the life jacket rentals. Travis felt somewhat guilty for that.

“You didn’t have to pay, Patty,” Travis said as they slipped their life jackets on. “It was my idea. I should’ve paid.”

Nolan chuckled as he tightened the straps on his life jacket.

“Consider it a treat for all the things you do for me,” Nolan said. 

Travis could’ve sworn he saw Nolan wink at him but he was just as certain it was an illusion caused by the rush of endorphins that had gone to his head at Nolan’s words.

Once their life jackets were fastened properly, they hoisted the canoe over their head. They stopped briefly at the campground map to find directions to the canoe launch before they continued.

It was a lot harder to see with a canoe over their heads than they had originally thought. So, it took a little longer than anticipated to arrive at the canoe launch. But it was worth it when they finally arrived because the scenery was gorgeous.

Travis snapped a few pictures of the willow trees that hung over the water and some of the lily pads that floated along the shoreline. Nolan instructed Travis to stand in front of the willow trees so he could get pictures to post on his private Instagram. Travis pulled a couple of stupid faces and Nolan chuckled at the absurdity of them. 

“You’re a dork, Teeks,” Nolan said.

Travis felt his entire body burn red-hot at that. His stomach swooped and his heartbeat picked up slightly. He swallowed but his throat remained bone-dry. He hated that Nolan had this effect on him.

“Don’t you know it,” Travis said, though it sounded more like a frog croak. 

Nolan raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word on the matter. Travis sighed and ran a hand across his forehead in relief. When his hand came off covered in sweat, he cursed internally. There was no way he could hold his composure while they were in the canoe together.

“Ready to go,” Nolan asked as he walked up to stand by Travis at the front of the canoe.

Travis nodded as he stepped out of his shoes and tossed them into the canoe. Nolan stepped out of his own shoes and tossed them alongside Travis’ in the canoe.

Nolan motioned for Travis to get into the canoe. Travis tilted his head in confusion but he did do as instructed. After Travis was properly situated in one of the seats, Nolan slowly dragged the canoe into the water.

“Fucking hell. That’s cold,” Nolan said as soon as his feet touched the water.

Travis chuckled as he used one of the oars to push the canoe the rest of the way into the water. Nolan thanked Travis as he carefully maneuvered himself into the canoe. The canoe rocked a couple of times but Nolan was able to get himself into a seat without any issues.

Nolan grabbed the other before he sat the same way Travis sat. Travis hummed his approval as they started to row the canoe out into the lake.

“I didn’t even have to tell you,” Travis said. “I’m impressed.”

“I know a few things,” Nolan replied, voice a little sheepish.

Travis smirked as he continued to row the canoe.

The first turn on the lake came up and Travis lifted his oar out of the water. Nolan wasn’t fast enough and got his oar caught in between two rocks. The canoe jerked as Nolan jostled the oar back and forth to try to free it.

“Nolan don--”

Before Travis could finish, Nolan jerked the oar with one particular hard motion and freed it. That motion jostled the canoe violently. Travis and Nolan tried to steady the canoe but they overcorrected too much and ended up in the lake.

Travis glared at Nolan as they floated beside the canoe.

“And you said I was the one we had to worry about,” Travis said, a little annoyed.

“Oh, fuck off,” Nolan said as he grabbed onto the canoe.

Travis grabbed the oars and their shoes out of the water and flung them back in the canoe. Nolan gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up. Travis rolled his eyes as he grabbed the other end of the canoe and helped Nolan swim the canoe back to the canoe launch. 

When they carried the canoe out of the water, Travis and Nolan sat on the shore for a moment. Travis huffed one breath. Two breaths. Three breaths as he sat there. He heard Nolan huff a couple of heavy breaths from beside him.

“Let’s agree to never do that again,” Nolan said as he stood. He unclasped his life jacket and threw it into the canoe. “I don’t have a swimmer’s body.”

“Mood,” Travis said as he stood and shucked his life jacket into the canoe.

Nolan rolled his eyes as he handed Travis his shoes. 

“Dork,” Nolan muttered.

Travis felt another wave of red-hot heat wash over him as he slipped into his shoes. His stomach clenched and his heartbeat sped up ever so slightly. He was so far gone on Nolan that it was ridiculous.

They brought the canoe back to the boat rental building without any problems with the canoe. The only problem Travis had was that he had stared at Nolan’s ass the entire time because it looked great with the way his wet pants clung to it. If Nolan noticed, he didn’t mention it. That made Travis feel both relieved and guilty. He was relieved that he hadn’t been caught. But he felt guilty that he had looked in the first place. He knew better than to let his eyes wander on someone that so clearly didn’t return his affections. 

“I wanna go to the playground.” Nolan’s voice cut through Travis’ thoughts. “The picture on the map shows that there are a tire swing and one of those spinning circle things.”

Travis choked on a laugh. Nolan raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

“Patty,” Travis said, voice hoarse. “They’re called merry-go-rounds. Not,” Travis made air quotes as he spoke, “‘spinning circle things,’”

Nolan huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Does it make a difference,” he asked. “You still knew what I meant, shithead.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’m sorry.”

A ray of sunlight beamed in Travis’ eyes right then. He cursed and blinked a couple of times. He thought he saw a look of concern on Nolan’s face. He also thought it was an illusion caused by the sunlight in his eyes. After he rubbed his eyes, Nolan’s facial expression was as blank as ever. Travis sighed because he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Nolan didn’t seem to clue into what was wrong because he directed Travis down the path to the playground without another word.

When they got to the playground, there were a few younger kids there. They were all on or around the pirate ship playset and sounded like they were in the middle of a re-enactment of a sea monster battle. That made Travis smile because his favourite playground activity as a child was to pretend that he was a pirate and that Lawson was the sea monster because Lawson was always the larger of the two of them.

“The tire swing is free,” Nolan said, elated. “Let’s go!”

Travis was jerked forward just then as Nolan dragged him over to the tire swing. Nolan quickly maneuvered himself into position on the tire swing and sat with his back to Travis.

“C’mon Teeks. Push me,” Nolan said, voice full of a joy that Travis rarely heard.

Travis swallowed the dryness that had manifested in his throat before he walked around to the front of the swing. Nolan nodded eagerly as he held onto the chains on either side of him. Travis smiled weakly in response and hoped that would suffice. He wasn’t entirely sure he could trust himself to talk and not say something stupid right now.

Travis grabbed the tire swing and started to rock it back and forth. Nolan’s face lit up. He started to giggle as Travis started to rock the swing faster. Travis swallowed another patch of dryness in his throat as he grabbed the inside of the tire swing. He ran counterclockwise as fast as he could before he quickly reversed and ran clockwise as fast as he could. It was at that point that he let go of the swing and allowed the momentum he had created to move Nolan.

Nolan was all smiles and giggles as he spun around on the tire swing. The longer he swung, the louder he giggled. Everything about this made Travis’ stomach do somersaults. When Nolan was happy and in a good mood, it made Travis feel happy. If Travis could live in this moment forever, he would. It was perfect for him.

“Teeks,” Nolan said. “That was awesome. Thank you so much.”

Nolan wobbled over to Travis and wrapped him in a hug. Travis hadn’t been aware that the tire swing had stopped but he wasn’t about to complain if it meant that Nolan would continue to hug him.

When Nolan pulled back, he grabbed Travis’ wrists and placed his thumbs on the pulse points. Travis’ brain seized its functions momentarily as it tried to process that action. Travis hoped Nolan wouldn’t notice the deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. Luckily for Travis, Nolan didn’t mention anything. All he did was jerk Travis backwards and drag him to the merry-go-round.

Travis was unceremoniously shoved onto the merry-go-round. He glared at Nolan but the glare quickly fell from his face as Nolan grabbed the railing and started to run in a circle. Travis stumbled for a moment before he gripped the railing with the tightest grip he could muster.

The faster Nolan ran, the faster Travis felt his heartbeat race. He felt his stomach lurch into his throat and his head started to swim from the inertia that was being placed on his body. 

“Have fun, Teeks,” Nolan said.

Travis barely processed the words because his brain was too overstimulated from going repeatedly in circles. He managed to give Nolan a weak thumbs up before he dropped to his knees on the merry-go-round.

As the merry-go-round started to slow down, Travis took breaths to steady himself. It helped somewhat with the inertia problem on his head but it still felt it was in a pressure cooker.

When the merry-go-round finally stopped, Travis took a deep breath before he braced himself to stand. He stood still for a moment to try to gain his balance. When Travis felt ready, he took a few steps and nearly fell over. Nolan rushed forward and helped steady Travis.

“Shit,” Nolan said as he held Travis by the waist. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fuck you up that badly.”

Travis waved a hand dismissively before he placed it on Nolan’s chest.

“All,” Travis hiccupped, “good.” He hiccupped again as he placed his other hand and head on Nolan's chest.

Travis hiccupped a few more times as Nolan held him steady against his chest. The soft rhythm of Nolan’s heartbeat helped relax Travis enough to get him to stop with the hiccups. When Travis looked up at Nolan, he noticed that Nolan’s cheeks were dusted with a soft pink colour. Travis swallowed thickly as he stepped far enough back from Nolan to get his hands to fall from Travis’ hips. Travis cleared his throat and ran a hand along the back of his neck. Nolan shifted from foot to foot as he looked at Travis.

“Let’s--”

“How about--”

They spoke at the same time, though they stopped when they realized the other had started to speak.

Nolan had an apologetic look on his face as he motioned to Travis.

“Sorry,” he said. “You go ahead.”

Travis smiled weakly as he removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair. After his hat was placed back on his head, he looked up at Nolan.

“How about we go back to the campsite,” Travis said. “We can start a fire to roast hot dogs and make s’mores.”

Nolan smiled with the corner of his mouth and nodded.

“I was gonna suggest we get dinner anyways.”

Travis smiled and patted Nolan’s chest. Travis didn’t miss the way Nolan blushed a deeper pink at the action. Travis swallowed thickly as he and Nolan walked towards the campsite. 

Once they arrived, Nolan gathered the firewood while Travis went to the cooler to grab the food. When Travis arrived at the fire pit, Nolan had already arranged the firewood to be burned. Nolan disappeared for a moment and returned with their camping chairs and the campfire skewers. Travis smiled as he placed the food in his chair.

“Thanks,” Travis said with a smile. 

Nolan nodded as he slid into his own chair. 

“The lighter is in the cup holder on your chair,” Nolan said as he motioned to Travis’ chair. 

Travis reached into the cup holder and pulled out the aforementioned lighter. He gave Nolan a thumbs up before he walked over to the firewood. He took a moment to gather some leaves and twigs to place in the fire pit. Nolan titles his head in confusion but he nodded a moment later when Travis lit the pile of leaves and twigs on fire.

Travis stepped back and watched the fire smoulder underneath one of the logs. It would be a while before it grew large enough to cook on but the sight of it always got him excited for what was to come. 

“You’re a pyro,” Nolan asked, though it came out as more of a statement.

Travis startled a little, surprised that he had said that out loud. He swallowed the dryness in his throat as he walked back to his chair.

“I… uh…” Travis decidedly didn’t look at Nolan as he grabbed the food and placed it on his lap as he sat down. 

“Maybe,” Travis whispered, his face red-hot with embarrassment.

“That’s hot,” Nolan said as he tried to suppress a giggle.

Travis glared at Nolan as he opened the marshmallows and flung one at Nolan’s head.

“Bitch,” Travis said, though there was no anger behind his words. 

Nolan giggled as he grabbed the marshmallow and shoved it in his mouth. Travis short-circuited when Nolan started to chew the marshmallow in the most obscene way imaginable. He felt his nerve endings flare when Nolan made direct eye contact with him. Nolan smirked and started to move his tongue in the most obscene way possible. Travis swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to focus his attention on the fire pit.

The fire had started to ignite the bottom of the firewood and Travis shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Normally, he would say it was from the fire but he had entered this on unfair grounds because of what Nolan had done. He couldn’t be sure of the fire or Nolan’s obscenity had caused this reaction. Travis glanced at Nolan and saw that he was on Instagram on his phone.

A loud crackle drew Travis’ attention back to the fire pit. Travis shifted in his seat again, though he tried to do it discreetly. Another loud crackle made Travis swallow and clear his throat involuntarily. Nolan looked over at him, though he didn’t say anything before he looked back down at his phone. 

Travis noticed that the fire had started to grow. He swallowed again and shifted in his seat another time. Travis glanced at Nolan and jumped slightly when he noticed that Nolan had his eyes trained on him.

“Jesus,” Travis said. “You scared the shit outta me.”

“You really are a pyro.” Nolan motioned to Travis crotch and completely ignored what Travis had said. “I didn’t think you were serious.”

Travis looked down and felt himself blanch. His pants had a noticeable bulge in the front of them, even with the food in his lap.

“Look… Patty,” Travis said, though his voice sounded foreign to him.

Nolan lifted his hands from his lap and Travis blinked once. Twice. Three times. Nolan had an equally noticeable bulge in the front of his pants.

“Me too,” Nolan whispered and bit his bottom lip as he looked at Travis.

Travis’ brain whirred and functioned so slowly that he was surprised that the sound of dial-up internet didn’t come out of his ears. Nolan waved his hand in front of Travis’ face; that broke Travis out of his trance. He shook his head a couple of times to regain his composure before he focused his full attention on Nolan.

“Sorry… I…” Travis stammered, still unsure of what to say. “I just…”

Nolan placed his hand on Travis’ shoulder and squeezed gently. Travis relaxed a little, both with that and the soft expression he saw on Nolan's face. Nolan smiled at Travis and ran a thumb along Travis’ cheek before he dropped his hand back into his own lap.

“I haven’t found someone like me in a long time,” Nolan said, voice surprisingly steady.

A loud crackle from the fire caused Travis and Nolan both to shift in their seats. Travis looked up at Nolan and Nolan sheepishly looked over at Nolan. Travis saw the way Nolan looked at his crotch and swallowed thickly.

“We can, if you want,” Travis paused when he saw Nolan perk up in his seat. “But I don’t want it to be a one-time thing.”

“Like… a fuckbuddies type thing,” Nolan asked. Travis didn’t miss the fact that Nolan sounded disappointed as he said that.

Travis shook his head.

“Like… a boyfriends type thing.”

Nolan released a breath and looked at Travis.

“Thank god,” he mumbled. “I thought I was the only one.”

Travis felt himself blush as he looked at Nolan. He took his hat off and placed it in his lap before he ran a hand through his hair. Nolan chuckled before he leaned forward and grabbed Travis’ cheeks with his hands.

“We’re oblivious morons,” Nolan murmured as he soothed his thumbs along Travis’s cheeks. “Aren’t we?”

All Travis could do was nod; he couldn’t find the capacity to form any words. His brain was too busy having a spaz attack over the fact that Nolan Patrick was finally about to kiss him after he had pined after him from basically the moment they had met.

Nolan stared into Travis’ eyes and Travis stared back. Travis saw a mix of anxiousness and love in Nolan’s expression. He reached over and ran a hand soothingly along Nolan’s upper arm. Nolan relaxed into the touch and leaned forward to rest his forehead against Travis’ forehead.

Nolan huffed a breath again Travis’ lips, which caused Travis to shiver. Travis glared at Nolan and all Nolan could do was give him a smirk.

“Just kiss me already, you asshole,” Travis said before he connected his lips with Nolan’s.

Nolan rolled his eyes and chuckled before he returned the kiss. Travis mentally high-fived himself as he deepened the kiss with Nolan. This kiss was better than anything he could’ve ever imagined. Nolan was by far a better kisser than Travis had envisioned him to be. He kissed Travis gracefully, delicately, yet there was a desperate hunger behind the kisses that made Travis’ stomach clench and his pants pull tighter in the crotch.

When the two pulled back for air, they stared at each other. Travis swallowed thickly when he saw how dishevelled Nolan was. His hair was askew, his lips were red and swollen and his cheeks were rosy. Travis reached over and brushed some of Nolan’s askew hair out of his face. Nolan smiled and leaned into the touch.

Travis opened his mouth to say something but the fire crackled just then so all that came out was a half-hearted moan. Nolan shifted in his chair as he looked at Travis. Travis swallowed thickly and moaned again when the smell of the fire reached his nostrils.

Travis placed all of the food onto the ground, grateful that it was all packaged in some sort of plastic.

“Fuck…” He moaned, closed his eyes and ground his hand against his crotch. “That smells so good.”

When Travis opened his eyes, Nolan was on his knees between Travis’ legs. Travis nearly choked on the air as he looked at the expectant look on Nolan’s face.

“I…” Travis coughed to regain his composure. “I didn't mean right this second, Patty. We’re at a fucking campground. Anyone could walk by and see us.”

Travis didn’t miss the way Nolan swallowed and the way his eyes briefly darkened.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” Nolan said, mockingly.

Travis sighed as he looked at Nolan. Against his better judgement, he unzipped his pants and shimmied them and his boxers down just enough to allow Nolan access to his cock. Nolan licked his lips as he cast a glance up at Travis.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

“Yo…” Travis started to respond but his reply was cut off when Nolan licked the head of his cock. “Fuck.”

Nolan smirked as he swirled his tongue around the head of Travis’ cock. Travis shifted in his chair. The sensation from Nolan’s tongue mixed with the sight, sounds, and smell of the fire was enough to drive him crazy. 

When Nolan finally took him into his mouth, Travis had to bite his hand to keep quiet. Nolan quickly pulled off and looked up at Travis.

“Make noise, please,” Nolan said, an unreadable expression on his face. “It turns me on more when there’s a higher probability that I could get caught.”

Travis nodded. Travis moaned loudly a moment later when Nolan sucked the head of his cock into his mouth. 

The fire crackled again which caused Nolan to thrust against Travis’ leg and moan around his cock. Travis squeezed his eyes shut and resisted the urge to thrust his hips into Nolan’s mouth. Nolan pulled back and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Travis swallowed when he saw the strands of saliva that hung from Nolan’s hand when he moved it away from his mouth.

“You can fuck my face, Teeks,” Nolan said. “You won’t break me; I’m not delicate.”

Before Travis got the chance to respond, Nolan put Travis’ cock back in his mouth and swallowed it all of it down. Travis moaned and thrust his hips into Nolan’s mouth. It felt so good to have the pressure of Nolan's mouth around his cock. That mixed with the sight, scents, and sounds of the fire were almost too much for Travis to handle.

Travis tried to time his thrusts with the crackles of the campfire. He mostly succeeded but the pressure and suction from Nolan’s mouth made the rhythm hard to follow. The longer Nolan kept up his pace, the harder it was for Travis to match the rhythm of the campfire crackles. 

After one particularly loud crackle from the campfire, Travis felt vibrations around his cock as Nolan moaned. Travis thrust erratically and tried to tap Nolan on the shoulder.

“Patty,” Travis said, frantically. When Nolan kept up his pace, Travis tapped him on the shoulder again. “Nolan… Stop. I’m gonna…”

Nolan looked up at Travis and blinked right as the campfire crackled. Travis cursed, thrust his hips one more time, and orgasmed into Nolan’s mouth. Nolan swallowed all of Travis’ ejaculate and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand when he pulled back from Travis’ cock.

“C’mere,” Travis said as he pulled his pants and boxers up. “It’s your turn.”

Nolan blushed as he quickly sat down in his chair. Travis raised an eyebrow and tilted his head as he looked at Nolan. He cast a glance down to Nolan’s crotch and swallowed the sudden dryness that had formed there.

“You…” Travis started but stopped to swallow another patch of dryness. “You came in your pants from giving me a blow job.”

Nolan nodded, his face and the tips of his ears bright pink. 

Travis swallowed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Fuck, Patty,” he mumbled. “That’s incredibly hot.”

Nolan smiled weakly as he looked at Travis.

“I would’ve liked it if you got me off with your mouth or your hands,” Nolan said. “But the mixture of my exhibitionism kink and the campfire was just too much, apparently.”

Travis chuckled as he looked over at the campfire. 

“It should be good enough to cook with now.” 

He reached down and handed Nolan the Ziploc bag with the marshmallows. Nolan raised an eyebrow but smiled as he opened it and handed Travis two before he took two for himself. After taking a moment to throw the bag away, Nolan returned to hand Travis the campfire skewer. Travis nodded his thanks as he skewered the marshmallows onto it.

When Nolan got his marshmallows on the skewer, they both smiled at each other before they placed their skewers over the campfire.

Travis sat silently and listened to the sounds around him. The main sound he heard was the campfire. It made his body buzz with electricity, even after he had already orgasmed.

Another sound he heard was the distant call of a loon. He guessed it had come from the lake. When he had booked the campsite, the website had mentioned something about the lake being a hotspot for loons.

Another thing Travis heard was distant screams and loud music. He scoffed as he twirled the marshmallow skewer around the fire. Maybe there were two kinds of loons the lake was known for.

Travis sat and watched the marshmallows for another couple of minutes before he was satisfied that they were done. He grabbed the bag of graham crackers and chocolate from the ground. Travis carefully propped his skewer against his chair as he opened the bag. He took four graham crackers and two pieces of chocolate before he handed the bag to Nolan. Nolan smiled as he grabbed exactly what Travis had grabbed.

Travis quickly placed his marshmallows onto the graham crackers and placed the chocolate on top. He squished them together and hummed with satisfaction when the marshmallow and melted chocolate oozed out the side. Nolan chuckled as he did the same.

When they bit into them, Travis swallowed thickly as a smudge of chocolate stuck to Nolan’s nose.

“There’s some chocolate on your nose,” Travis mumbled around a piece of s’mores.

Nolan tilted his head. Travis ran his finger over his nose and that seemed to click with Nolan because he ran his own finger over his nose. When the chocolate came off on his finger, he smiled and licked his finger clean. Travis short-circuited and coughed at the way Nolan sucked on his finger. Nolan smirked at Travis as soon as he popped his finger out of his mouth.

“Asshole,” Travis said. “You knew exactly what you were doing!”

Nolan put the last of his s’mores into his mouth and sucked his fingers clean of any excess chocolate or melted marshmallow. Travis short-circuited and coughed again.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Nolan said coyly.

Travis grabbed his campfire skewer and poked Nolan with the end that hadn’t been in the fire. Nolan chuckled and tapped Travis on the tip of his nose. Travis rolled his eyes and stuck the last of his s’mores into his mouth.

“Teeks, look,” Nolan said as he pointed at the sky.

Travis looked up and noticed that the sky was dotted with stars. He blinked to himself because he hadn’t realized that it had gotten dark.

“Wanna stargaze with me,” Nolan asked.

“Yeah,” Travis mumbled.

Nolan smiled as he went to the truck and spread their sleeping bags out beside the truck. Before Travis walked over, he doused the fire. He stuck around for a couple of minutes just to make sure it was actually out. The last thing he needed to do was start a forest fire. He could never live with himself.

When he got over to Nolan, Nolan was already laid out in his sleeping bag. Travis crawled into his and laid next to Nolan. Nolan reached his arm around Travis and pulled him up against his body. Travis sighed happily as he wiggled around to get comfortable. Once he was comfortable, he laid his head atop Nolan’s chest. Nolan sighed and pressed a kiss to the top of Travis’ head.

“The stars are pretty,” Travis mumbled, suddenly overtaken with exhaustion. “But you’re prettier.”

Travis smiled weakly as he felt Nolan’s heartbeat increase ever so slightly. Travis squeezed Nolan and mumbled a couple of sweet nothings into his neck. Nolan hummed and pressed another soft kiss to the top of Travis’ head.

“You’re pretty too, Teeks,” Nolan said.

“Thanks, Patty,” Travis mumbled.

Travis yawned and wiggled a little bit more to get comfortable again. Once he was satisfied, he closed his eyes and steadied out his breaths.

Travis felt himself suddenly jerk back into a stream of consciousness. He went to complain but he noticed that Nolan had directed his attention towards the sky. Travis grumbled as he lifted his head to look upwards. Travis blinked when he noticed some shooting stars streak across the sky.

“Make a wish, Patty,” Travis said as he dropped his head back against Nolan’s chest.

Travis wished that he and Nolan would be together forever and have a happy family with three adopted kids and three dogs. He didn’t care what genders his and Nolan’s children were as long as they were happy. He just knew that he had names picked out for them already. He would name them Morgan, Carter, and Elliott because he respected Frost, Hartsy, and Moose a lot and those three names were gender-neutral from what he understood. He also knew what he wanted to name the dogs. He would name one of the dogs Gritty because how could he not? He would name the other two dogs Beezer and Ghost because he also respected Joel and Shayne a lot. He just hoped Nolan wanted what he wanted.

“Yes, of course,” Nolan said into Travis' hair.

“Hmm,” Travis mumbled somewhat half-heartedly because he was almost asleep. “Of course what?”

“We can name our kids Morgan, Carter, and Elliott. I think Frost, Hartsy, and Moose would be honoured. And we can name the dogs Gritty, Beezer, and Ghost. I think they would be honoured too.”

Instead of shame for the fact that he said all of that out loud, Travis felt warmth travel through his body. He felt a gooeyness settle in the pit of his stomach as he felt Nolan’s steady heartbeat against his cheek.

“I love you, Patty,” Travis mumbled. “Always have, always will.”

Travis smiled softly when he felt Nolan wrap his other arm around him. Travis smiled again when he noticed that Nolan’s heartbeat hadn’t changed its pace. It had continued to beat at the same pace it was at before Travis had said what he had said. That proved to Travis that Nolan wasn’t scared or surprised by the prospect of what he had said. 

Nolan placed a soft kiss to the top of Travis’ head. Travis yawned and closed his eyes. He felt himself start to drift closer to sleep. He wanted to fight it for as long as he could because he wanted to be awake to hear Nolan’s reply, whatever it may be.

Travis didn’t have to wait much longer because Nolan sighed softly and kissed Travis’ forehead before he nestled Travis’ head into the crook of his neck.

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll love you for always,” Nolan paused to kiss Travis on the top of the head. “As long as I’m living, my Teeks you’ll be.”

Travis sighed as he felt himself drift closer and closer to sleep.

After a few moments of silence, Travis heard soft snores from Nolan. Travis smiled to himself and fell asleep to the sound of Nolan’s snores.

The last conscious thought that Travis had was something he would cherish until the day he died.

He felt safe and secure in Nolan’s arms.

[mostlycompetentwriter]

Neverending Story

F/M Pairing: Y/N x Seo Changbin (Stray Kids)

Word Count: 11K

Genre: Married Life AU

Warnings: Smut and Language 

Summary: Y/N met her husband unexpectedly, and their subsequent relationship has been anything but predictable. But Changbin has always agreed to give Y/N whatever she wanted, but that is suddenly put to the test when Y/N takes things a step too far.

Note: The Holy Trinity of 3racha Married AUs is complete. @lordseochangbin​ I hope you don’t mind that I tagged you, but this is the fic inspired by that gifset from earlier this week.

Han Jisung had promised me a substantial raise, but after looking out over the podium to appraise the crowd of rich businessmen, I suddenly regretted ever agreeing to work for him in the first place. Because my boss was currently lying in his fancy upstate apartment dying of the flu while I was standing in his place with cue cards in hand to deliver an eloquent speech to a bunch of men who would probably laugh at my expense. But let’s also not forget to mention the fact that I’ve always been extremely introverted which meant that public speaking equated to sweat-drenched palms and the nervous sway to my gait as I rocked back and forth on my feet with hands behind my back.

 “Hello,” I spoke into the microphone, wincing when my voice echoed over the speakers. Apparently, the audio feedback in this ballroom was something out of the early 20th century before people had figured out how to work a sound system. “On behalf of Mr. Han,” I said, resisting the urge to lick away the last remnants of my cheap lipstick. “He would like to thank everyone for their support with his new summer project.”

A light smattering of applause, probably from those arrogant benefactors who liked to come into the office to kiss Jisung’s ass and compliment him on all of his successes. They didn’t mean a single word of the bullshit spewing from their mouths, especially the women who openly gaped at him right in front of my desk. “In regards to the company’s s-stocks,” I said, stuttering over the word while fumbling with my notecards. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been this nervous, mind working a mile a minute as I tried to desperately compose myself.

And because everything was already progressing this poorly, I started to lose my grip on the stack of notecards aiding my speech, watching as they fell to the ground and spread completely out of order. I immediately dropped to my knees, hurriedly gathering the notecards back into my grasp before inwardly cursing Han Jisung for what had to be the hundredth time that evening. I managed to collect the notecards together on top of the podium before gazing out into the unamused collection of wealthy aristocrats. “I’m sure it had something to do with fourth-quarter profits,” I said while clearing my throat. “Thank you for coming.”

I rushed off the stage without another word, drenched in sweat and failure, determined to make it out of the building before someone else could comment on the unfortunate incident. It reminded me of a similar calamity involving my asshole of an ex-boyfriend who had left me high and dry at one of his seminars to apologize to the people who paid to see his lecture. Why were the men in my life always determined to embarrass me?

With rapid steps, I was nearly out the door before an unfamiliar hand wrapped itself around my wrist. I paused with a wince, turning around to look at the rather handsome gentleman who was waiting patiently behind me. “I’m sorry,” I apologized quickly, assuming he must have something to do with the event. I’m sure he was not pleased with my humiliating display, especially when tonight's proceedings had been touted as a professional gathering. “Mr. Han couldn’t make it tonight and I was trying to fill in for him. Please don’t let this reflect badly on the company.”

A smirk graced his sharp features. “Don’t apologize. I thought it was great.”

“Excuse me?”

“The speech was great,” the man continued, dark hair falling into his eyes like a curtain. He let go of my wrist before offering me a more professional greeting. “Seo Changbin.”

“Seo?” I repeated, searching my mind for any mention of that name. I dealt with a lot of rich men when it came to scouring the city for potential leads, sorting through dozens of profiles every day I walked into the office. Usually with a cup of coffee in hand because Jisung wouldn’t be able to function otherwise.

“I own a line of hotel chains,” Changbin nodded. “Does that sound more familiar?”

His tone was teasing. “I do remember now, Mr. Seo.”

“Ah, don’t call me that,” he insisted. “You don’t have to put on an act like the others.”

I smiled at his easy-going nature. “Well, I’m glad you were at least entertained by my speech.”

Changbin glanced up at the door behind me. “Were you leaving already?”

I followed his gaze, albeit more hesitantly now. “I was planning to.”

“Good,” Changbin said, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he leaned in closer. “Mind if I join you?”

I was flushed for an entirely new reason now. “I would be honored.”

Han Jisung was the greatest employer in the world, and I would do everything in my power to serve as his PA in the future. Because I would owe Jisung a million heartfelt expressions of gratitude for asking me to deliver a speech in his absence. Leading me to one of the most gorgeous men I had ever met since the insanely attractive graduate student who served as a TA for my college writing seminar.

But it was hard to think about Jisung, or anything rational for that matter when my legs were practically bent at my chest, lungs devoid of oxygen while Seo Changbin proceeded to fuck me into the mattress. It was a really nice mattress too, compliments of the fancy hotel suite he had reserved for the weekend. I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Changbin was a very wealthy man who had way too many muscles and a cock that stretched the sensitive walls of my pussy with every subsequent thrust deep inside to the point where it felt like he was spearing me against the bed. 

Not that I minded in the slightest as I ran my hands down the smooth contours of his back, moaning loudly against his shoulder. It was completely unfair for someone to look this good, and I had nearly lost my mind when he had crawled between my legs, fingers deftly undoing the buttons of his shirt to reveal an upper-body straight out of the Men’s Health magazine. Because fate had deemed me fortunate enough to have the opportunity to fuck someone who belonged in my erotic fantasies, dick heavy on my tongue as I blew him under the desk in his office. 

“Changbin,” I groaned, thighs trembling from their current position. 

“You’re cumming, aren’t you, Y/N?” he asked in a raspy voice thick with lust and an irresistible baritone.

“Yes,” I managed around a gasp because Changbin had started to thumb across my clit with practiced movements, intentions perfectly clear as he leaned back to watch the way my back arched towards the ceiling. It had been a long time since someone had made me cum like that and I was still high from the effects of my orgasm while Changbin chased his release with several more slow grinds in exaggerated succession before filling the condom with a grunt.

I was fighting for air, sweat dripping from my bangs as Changbin fell onto the bed next to me. “How long have you been working out?”

Changbin chuckled. “Since high school.”

“It really shows,” I said, twisting my head to the side because I couldn't get enough of his firm biceps.

Changbin reached across the bed, fingers sliding through his cum dripping from the folds of my labia. “I haven’t asked for your number yet, Y/N.”

My entire body lit with excitement at his words because there was a very obvious intention in such an innocent comment. It meant that Changbin wanted to see me again, and I would give absolutely anything to feel his cock sliding in and out at his own luxury. Of course, there would be a lot of things he would come to ask me for in the future and very rarely would I ever tell him no, especially once he slipped a gorgeous diamond ring onto my finger.

I would also come to learn that there are few things my husband cannot resist in this world and the opportunity to fuck me over the kitchen counter was definitely one of them. I rarely woke up early enough to cook breakfast, so on the rare chance that I managed to obey my alarm clock, I would trudge into the kitchen wearing nothing but one of Changbin’s college t-shirts to pull out a carton of eggs from the fridge. It was the least I could do for my husband since he was always the more romantic one in our relationship.

Lured by the smell of coffee and bacon, Changbin found me in the kitchen, twisting my shirt around my waist to push his cock deep inside. Bracing my elbows against the rough marble of the countertop, I did my best to spread my legs wide for him because nothing felt better in the morning than Changbin fucking me from behind, fingers digging bruises into the skin of my hip bones. “Where did this come from?” I gasped because Changbin had figured out how to roll his hips just right to grind my clit against the side of the worn surface. 

“When you walk around the apartment wearing nothing but a shirt,” Changbin said, growling at my ear. “I have to fuck you like the little slut you want to be.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?” I smirked, receiving a firm smack on my ass for my sarcastic question.

“Is that what you want?” Changbin asked, encouraged by my loud moans. 

“What if I showed up to your office dressed like this?”

“You better not,” he grumbled, hands sliding up my shirt to squeeze my breasts. “These are for my eyes only.”

“Greedy,” I moaned, pushing back against him because I was desperately chasing a good orgasm.

“It’s your fault,” Changbin said, picking up the pace once he started detecting the familiar signs of my impending release. But at this point in time, we knew everything about one another’s bodies. And Changbin always managed to hit even deeper, reaching further and further inside with every aggressive meeting of our hips, the lewd sounds mingling with our moans.

“I was feeling particularly horny this morning,” I replied, finally letting go after a strategic thrust that snapped the chord anchoring me to reality. Changbin followed soon after, grinding his cock as he rode out his own orgasm. And despite my oversensitivity, Changbin ignored my whines and shoved his cum back where it belonged. 

“Alright, Mrs. Seo,” he said, chuckling at the sluggish way I pulled myself back onto my feet, shirt falling back into place. “Will you shower with me before I go to work?”

“What about breakfast?”

“I guess I’ll just have you instead,” he said and I grimaced at the cheesy comment.

Jisung was always late in the mornings, but he could get away with it because nobody would criticize the CEO. But his status didn’t mean that Minho, Jisung’s closest advisor, was any less of a nuisance when he complained to anyone who would listen. Which was often me because my desk was located right next to Jisung’s office. “It’s like he doesn’t care,” Minho whined.

I nodded my head slowly, focused on responding to the emails flooding my inbox. “He’s got a lot on his mind.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Minho immediately opposed. “He’s just lazy! I get up every morning at the crack of dawn to come into the office. Why can’t he do the same?”

I glanced up wearily to reply because Minho was probably expecting me to agree with everything he was saying. Graciously, I was relieved of that unnecessary burden when I saw Seungmin walking in our direction. “Minnie!”

I waved him down desperately and he offered me a smile with his cell phone in hand. “Y/N,” he said, handing me the device from over the counter, blatantly ignoring a sour Minho. “My dog had her puppies.”

I immediately cooed at the sight of the tiny little Dalmations, squealing at the sight of their tiny ears. “Seungmin, they’re adorable!”

The younger boy grinned. “You know you’d be the first person on my list since I’m looking for new homes.”

“I don’t know, Seungmin,” I said, reluctantly returning his phone. “Changbin would be really mad if I brought home a dog.”

“Changbin? Mad at you?” Seungmin scoffed. “That’s impossible, Y/N.”

“Changbin gives you whatever you want,” Minho added as if unable to resist jumping into our conversation.

“But not this,” I said. “One time, I thought it might be nice to bring home a fish for the apartment, but when Changbin saw it on the coffee table, he complained for hours about how gross they were. If I even mention a dog, Changbin immediately changes the subject.”

“Well, I guess it never hurts to ask,” Seungmin said with a shrug. “But they really do need new homes. They’ll be old enough in a few weeks to leave their mother.”

“Don’t try to talk me into this,” I said, shooting him a glare. “You know I have a weak resolve.”

“What if you at least come over this afternoon to see them?” Seungmin asked as if blatantly ignoring my last demand.

“Can I come too?” Minho asked. “You know how boring it gets around here.”

“As long as you can at least pretend you might take one,” Seungmin said. “I’m sure your cats would be thrilled.”

“My cats are angels,” Minho said. “They would love a new friend.”

“To torment,” I said. “Won’t they get jealous when you give the puppy all of your attention?”

“My babies know how to share,” Minho replied. “They were taught well.”

“I’d hate to see you as a teacher,” Seungmin said, receiving a glare in response.

The conversation ended there, but the subject remained a heavy point of focus for the remainder of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking about the puppies, finding myself distracted during the most menial of tasks. I even managed to completely ignore Jisung’s greeting because I was so lost in my thoughts. Subsequently, my boss had stood at the front of my desk to snap his fingers in my line of vision. “Y/N?”

“Sorry, sir,” I apologized immediately, blushing because I knew I should be focused on my work.

And I knew that agreeing to visit Seungmin’s puppies would definitely be a horrible idea. The minute they looked at me with adorable button noses and innocent eyes, I would be breaking down and demanding to have one for myself. I knew this would happen, but I still tortured myself and drove with Seungmin back to his apartment, falling in love a dozen times over with each and every single puppy who subsequently chewed on my frayed sandals or plopped themselves right in the middle of my lap. “You’ve ruined me,” I told Seungmin because there was no way I wasn’t bringing home a puppy and that only meant trouble. 

Changbin absolutely hated the idea of pets and had repeatedly denied me every time we walked past a pet shelter or saw a dog during our walks through the park. I could never understand why he was so adamantly opposed, but I figured it had something to do with the fact that he was an obsessive clean freak who liked everything in his life to be controlled. Puppies were a factor one simply couldn’t plan for and they tended to possess destructive tendencies, especially when it came to the things they really believed were toys instead of expensive shoes.

“I’ll call you when you can pick one up,” Seungmin said, following me to the door of his apartment. 

“What am I doing?” I groaned loudly, pointing an accusing finger in Seungmin’s direction. “I’m holding you personally accountable.”

Seungmin offered me a grin. “Tell Changbin to call me.”

Eight weeks later, I chose a strategic day when I knew Changbin would be coming home late from work because of a board meeting. Subsequently, I snuck the small Dalmatian puppy upstairs into our apartment, holding tight to its wriggling body before she immediately made her presence known the moment I put her down on the floor. “Don’t pee there,” I said, ushering her away from the pricey carpet Changbin had bought for the foyer.

My plan was to hide her in the guest bathroom, praying that she would keep from barking too loudly when Changbin came home. “Changbin’s going to kill me,” I thought to myself while opening the door for the excited puppy who ran inside to smell the low hanging duvet with curiosity. 

Changbin rarely raised his voice around me, and I could only think of a few incidents where Changbin and I had truly fought. Most of the time, it was because of his mother who quite simply hated the idea of her son being with someone who didn’t come from money. There was also the issue of me working for Jisung because Changbin would prefer it if I stayed at home, but that definitely wasn’t happening. I stood my ground against him, making my case until he had reluctantly relented, muttering something about how he had enough money to take care of both of us.

However, in neither of those cases had I ever went behind Changbin’s back to do something that I knew he would hate. Of course, I had also never wanted something as bad as the adorable puppy who had stolen my heart the minute she first wagged her tail while I carefully stroked the soft fur of her ears. “Changbin will understand,” I said to the puppy who cocked her head to the side as she watched me. “For now you can stay in here until I think of a better way to introduce you.”

Bang Chan was one of those people who never acted like he had enough money to buy the entire city of New York. He was funny and laid back, laughing with everyone despite whether or not they were a big donor or just an employee. He was one of Changbin’s best friends and he always invited the two of us to his parties at his extravagant condo. As an invitation-only affair, Chan’s parties had become the envy of anyone who was denied the opportunity to attend. More often than not, the parties became a friendly get-together which meant that some of Changbin’s other friends would also be attending. But Hyunjin and Felix always drank way too much beer to be considered appropriate for what was deemed a “suit and tie only” event.

“You look gorgeous,” Changbin said as we waited outside the door. 

“Well, it’s hard not to look good in this dress,” I said because, despite my refusal, Changbin had insisted on buying it for me. Then again, I still wasn’t quite used to watching Changbin pull out his credit card for something that cost nearly half a million dollars. 

“Aren’t you glad I bought it?” Changbin asked, reaching over to finger the delicate lace outlining the dress’ neckline.

“I’ll be even more satisfied when you take it off later,” I said casually, smirking at his sharp inhale as the door suddenly opened to reveal Chan standing on the other side.

“You’re late!” he lightly chastised us, pulling Changbin inside by the hand with more force than necessary. I grinned at the affectionate display, removing my jacket for the server who waited next to the entryway adorned in an elegant suit. “How was the meeting?” Chan asked, making easy conversation as he led us to a nearby waiter holding a tray of flutes filled with champagne. 

“They liked the presentation,” Changbin replied, handing me a glass. “I think some of the new trustees favored the last approach.”

“Of course they do,” Chan nodded. “But you know that you can do whatever you want. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone.”

“I know,” Changbin said, curling an arm around my waist to keep me close to his side. Not that I minded considering the sea of unfamiliar faces who all swarmed to Changbin like he was a celebrity. I guess in their world he was, but it might be funny to tell them about how soft he got after I jerked him off under the sheets. 

You see, Chan was the general manager of Changbin’s largest hotel and he always did his best to ease the burden that Changbin took responsibility for as he oversaw dozens of hotels and thousands of employees. Felix and Hyunjin also helped where they could, not just as friends but as personal assistants to Changbin at the main office. And I happen to know from experience that nobody made a better cup of coffee than Hwang Hyunjin. 

Felix was also dating one of my best friends who I had introduced him to while Changbin and I were still dating, inviting a plus one for the grand opening of his very first hotel expansion. I was surprised when Felix demonstrated just how loving he could be because Changbin often told me horror stories of Felix’s more play boyish tendencies back when they went to college together. However, Felix had been nothing but polite and loving towards my friend since the moment the two first met over a few too many glasses of wine.

“Rina,” I smiled warmly, graciously accepting her invitation to talk outside on Chan’s balcony because the party was suffocating inside. 

“Let me see the pictures!” my friend squealed, practically jerking the cell phone from my grasp. “Cute!” Rina declared, scrolling through my camera roll. “And Changbin doesn’t know? I really do admire you.”

“Well, if you were any louder, he might find out,” I said, checking over my shoulder to ensure that Changbin was still in deep conversation with Felix. “I heard you visited Felix’s parents the other day.”

Rina groaned, handing me back my phone. “I’m pretty sure they hate me. I made the worst impression possible.”

“What did you do?” I asked, rolling my eyes because Rina had a tendency to go overboard.

“Well, for one thing, when his mother asked for help with the food, I may have accidentally started a small kitchen fire.”

“You know, it really doesn’t matter if the fire is small or not.”

“Yeah,” Rina agreed sheepishly.

“Does that mean things are okay with between you and Felix?” I took a sip of my wine, thinking my question innocent enough until I heard Rina let out a shaky breath. “What is it?”

Rina shook her head, leaning out over the balcony. “Felix is acting weird these days. He comes home late now and he doesn’t bother paying me much attention.”

“Felix?” I immediately questioned because I wanted to make sure we were talking about the same boy who bought every single bouquet of roses in the flower shop on Main Street for their anniversary.

Rina suddenly moved in closer, eyes carefully ensuring that no voices were potentially listening. “I think Felix is cheating on me.”

“Rina,” I gasped because the accusation was incredibly serious. “Why would you think that? After he just took you home to his parents?”

“I think he just did that because I kept insisting,” Rina huffed. “I’m serious here, Y/N. There’s something going on with him.”

I wracked my brain for any indication that Felix might have said something to offer justification for Rina’s claim. “But how can you be sure?”

“I can’t,” Rina said. “That’s why I’m going into the office tomorrow night.”

“The office?”

“He’s probably meeting her there.”

“Who?”

“Haven’t you been listening?” Rina hissed. “Felix comes home really late all of a sudden and he doesn’t talk to me about why?”

“That’s just how Felix is.”

“You don’t know him like I do,” Rina said, dismissing my comment. “I’m planning to follow him. See what he’s really doing.”

“Rina, this sounds like a horrible idea.”

“As bad as sneaking a dog into Changbin’s apartment?”

“They can’t even be compared,” I exclaimed. “And I plan to tell Changbin about the dog.”

“Good luck with that,” Rina sneered, fingers tapping the side of her wine glass. “Can you at least come with me tomorrow?”

“To spy on Felix?”

“As a precaution,” Rina said as if that improved the situation.

“Rina, you need to trust Felix. I don’t think he would do anything like this to hurt you.”

“Please, Y/N,” Rina said, reaching out for my hand. “Best friends are supposed to come before boys.”

“Don’t use that against me,” I said. “Besides, how do you expect us to just sneak into the office?”

“Leave that to me,” Rina said, patting my shoulder as if to show her appreciation. “Just tell your man that we’re going out for the night.”

“Fine, but you owe me big time.”

Nevertheless, why did it have to be so cold for our impromptu spy mission?

“Don’t say I never did anything nice for you,” I commented dryly, gazing out at Changbin’s office building from across the street. “We’re definitely going to get caught.”

“Not with that attitude,” Rina said. “Are you ready?”

“I suppose I have no choice,” I grumbled.

“Felix didn’t respond to my last message,” Rina said, already making her way out of the car. “But I saw that he was parked in the garage.”

“Changbin’s still here too,” I said with a shiver because I had been desperately hoping that my husband would leave on time for once. However, the moment he found out that I was going out with Rina, he called up Hyunjin and told him that tonight would make a great time to work on their new project. “At least he won’t accidentally wander into the guest bedroom and find Jane in the bathroom.”

“Wouldn’t that be hilarious though?” Rina giggled. “Changbin is going to throw a fit when he finds that dog.”

“He hasn’t noticed anything so far,” I said, although he came very close to suspicion in bed the other night when he realized that something that sounded a lot like barking was emanating through the walls.

“Y/N, you can’t hide that dog forever, but I need your full attention tonight,” Rina said, snapping her fingers while she pointed at the office near the top where Felix worked. “I have someone on the inside who’s gonna help us.”

I had a bad feeling about this mysterious insider that was only confirmed the moment Jeongin stepped outside to greet us at the front. “That figures,” I muttered because Jeongin practically idolized Rina who always showered him in affection. If Rina and Felix weren’t so obviously in love, Jeongin would be the first person to show up on Rina’s doorstep with a bouquet of flowers in hand.

“Changbin and Hyunjin are in a meeting,” Jeongin explained as he led us to the elevators. “Felix should still be in his office, but he mentioned something about leaving before I came downstairs.”

Jeongin was also Felix’s intern and I highly doubted that he would appreciate the younger’s blatant participation in Rina’s witch hunt. “Perfect,” Rina nodded. “Now tell Y/N about that woman that Felix keeps meeting with.”

Jeongin turned to me with a gasp. “I have no idea who she is, Y/N, but she’s showed up every day this week!”

“See!” Rina exclaimed, waving her hands around like she had suddenly solved the world’s greatest crisis.

“I don’t see anything,” I told her, stoically unmoved when we arrived at our designated floor. “Felix meets with a lot of people. I don’t know if you’re aware, but he kinda works for a pretty big business.”

“We’ll see about that,” Rina declared, heels loudly clicking against the floor as we followed our newly appointed Jeongin tour guide. He led us to one of the desks outside of Felix’s office, searching through some reports until he found what he was looking for, handing it to Rina. “This is the last spreadsheet for all the transactions from Felix’s company credit card.”

“They’re from the same restaurant,” Rina said, reading over the list with narrowed eyes. 

“Business meetings,” I said.

“Or, he’s treating this homewrecker to sushi and bad soju,” Rina said. “What else do you have, Jeongin?”

The younger boy obediently knelt down to open another drawer, but let out a little gasp when he jerked on Rina’s arm and forced the two of them on the floor. “Get down!” he hissed, but I reacted late to his sudden warning, realizing my mistake a moment too late when Changbin was already calling my name from somewhere to my right. 

“Distract him,” Rina whispered urgently, tugging on my jeans.

I rolled my eyes but tried to put on my best smile when Changbin stopped on the other side of Jeongin’s desk. “Y/N,” he said, clearly surprised to see me. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d visit you on my way home,” I lied smoothly, resisting the urge to kick out at Rina in her vulnerable position.

“Where’s Rina?” he asked, arms flexing enticingly in his tight-fit shirt.

“Probably at home,” I said, before trying on my best pout. “Are you not happy to see me?”

Changbin’s expression immediately softened. “Of course I am, Y/N,” he said. “I’m glad you came by. I’m leaving soon so we can ride home together.”

“Perfect,” I said, stepping away from the desk to eagerly lead Changbin further away from where my best friend was hiding. I also didn’t stop him when his strong arms encouraged me into the firm expanse of his chest, cologne heavy against his neck. 

“Do you need anything?” Changbin asked while calling for the elevator. 

I glanced over his shoulder at Jeongin who was trying to tell me something, but I quickly determined that he would be really bad at the whisper challenge. “I’m okay,” I said, clutching tightly to his arm as led me downstairs.

Seungmin and Minho were acceptable lunch buddies and despite their near-constant arguing, I still sat with them in the company’s cafeteria, enjoying whatever organic food they planned to serve that day. “How is the puppy, Y/N?” Seungmin asked over a mouthful of potatoes.

“She’s great,” I said, unable to resist a smile at the thought of my charming new friend.

“Does Changbin know?”

“Not yet,” I said, hesitantly poking at my salad. “But I have a plan to fix that tonight.”

“Is that so?” Minho butted in, studying me from across the table. “Maybe he could buy you a new apartment across the city.”

“That’s not necessary,” I said. “Because I plan to thoroughly convince him.”

“Sounds like an innuendo to me,” Minho said, reaching out for my hand. “Congratulations, Y/N, you’ve finally figured out the real purpose of marriage.”

“Manipulation,” Seungmin concluded.

“Stop it you two,” I groaned. “I’m not manipulating Changbin.”

“Seduction sounds like manipulation to me.”

“I’m merely encouraging him to change his mind,” I said, ignoring their unnecessary commentary.

“By dicking him down, I get it,” Minho nodded. “I’ve done the same things to my girlfriends.”

“No wonder you’re still single,” Seungmin said earning him a flick across his forehead. “Ow!”

“I’m sure Changbin has affection for animals somewhere deep down inside,” I continued. “He’ll be so much happier with a dog around the apartment.”

“Or he’ll be really furious,” Seungmin said. “I guess if you really need to return the puppy, I can always take her back.”  

“No,” I whined at the thought. “We’ve already bonded.”

“Well, if it comes down between your bond with man’s best friend and the man, which would you rather choose?” Minho asked.

I really hated them both sometimes.

There were three things that Seo Changbin truly loved: 1. His family 2. His wife and 3. His wife in lingerie. Which is exactly what he was going to get the moment he stepped inside that door. Because tonight, I needed to do everything in my power to appeal to him.

I nodded in satisfaction as I studied my appearance in the floor-length mirror in our bedroom, adjusting the thin fabric of my stockings as they ran up the expanse of my thighs, attached to the garter belt Changbin had bought me for my birthday. Once I was satisfied, I tugged on a silky black robe, loosely tying the belt around the middle. “Perfect,” I declared.

Next, I made sure that Changbin’s favorite food was ready, table set with our finest cutlery. I also pulled out his favorite wine, filling two glasses while keeping the bottle cool in a bucket of ice. Finally, I lit a few candles around the table and the perimeter of the dining room, trying for a romantic mood since Changbin was secretly a huge fun of those extravagances.

“Do it for Jane, Y/N,” I whispered to myself, flinching when I heard the sound of Changbin’s key in the lock.

My husband called out my name and I directed him to the dining room, pleased when his eyes immediately froze on my attire. “Y/N?”

“Binnie,” I grinned, taking a seat on the edge of the table, kicking out one of the chairs as an invitation. “I made your favorite.”

Changbin tugged at the tie messily wrapped around his collar, taking my hint and planting himself down next to me. One hand caressed my exposed leg through the fabric of my robe while he looked up at me with dark eyes. “What’s all this for?”

“For you, of course,” I smiled, reaching back to grab a strawberry, holding it up to his lips.

Changbin took the offered fruit, eyes never leaving mine. “Is there something you want, Y/N?”

Changbin knew me too well, but I kept up the act, sliding down the table and into his lap. My thighs were planted on either side of his body and Changbin delicately traced the lace lining of my stockings to the place where they disappeared beneath fabric. “Does there have to be a reason?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“No,” Changbin agreed, eager hands working the belt of my robe. “But there usually is.” He was silent for a moment as he drew the sleeves down my shoulders, leaving me completely on display for his eyes to leisurely explore. “You can tell me, honey.”

“I can?” I asked breathlessly, planting kisses across his forehead while his fingers dug into my ass to pull me even closer.

“Whatever you want,” Changbin agreed, hands smoothing across the skin of my stomach while he started to slowly grind his hips against mine. He was impossibly hard beneath the tight material of his fitted slacks, cock moving perfectly in time with the little moans he forced out of me. I was practically drooling at the thought of Changbin’s cock, stretching my lips across the head and tasting his precum. 

“Binnie,” I gasped, jittery fingers working apart the buttons on his shirt to reveal the smooth skin of his chest, groping my hands against his defined pectoral muscles.

“Yeah, baby?” he said, reaching up to taste my lips. “You want me to fuck you on the table?”

“Please,” I whimpered, holding onto his biceps to feel his impossible strength while he practically manhandled me into place, looming over my trembling body while his eyes made a luxury trip of exploring my exposed skin. I wrapped my legs around his waist to encourage him closer, wanting nothing more than to feel his cock...

“Did you hear that?”

I froze under him, detecting resistance from Changbin whose eyes were now devoid of lust as he lifted his head in concentration. It was then that I heard it, an alarmingly loud whine from Jane in the guest bedroom which was suddenly way too close to ignore. 

Changbin immediately stopped everything he was doing. “Please tell me you can hear it too?”

“Hear what?” I asked nervously, attempting to draw his attention back to me and it might have worked had Jane not decided to let out a series of playful barks and I suddenly regretted leaving her alone with a new toy.

“It’s something,” Changbin said, tone much darker as he ordered me to unwrap my legs from their vicelike grip around his waist. I obeyed hesitantly because my plan was falling apart at the seams and I had a bad feeling about what might happen next. 

Slowly, I followed him as he marched to the guest bedroom, opening the door like a man on a mission. And I doubt I’ll ever forget the way Jane immediately darted from the bathroom, sniffing Changbin’s shoes before waddling in my direction, plastic bone hanging from her mouth. “Y/N,” Changbin said, watching me as I picked up Jane off the floor. “Do you mind explaining to me why there’s a dog in the guest room?”

“It’s nothing bad,” I said, holding even tighter to Jane. “I may have adopted her-”

“What!” Changbin cut me off with a sharp interrogative. “How long has it been living here?”

“She,” I corrected him, “has been living here for a week or so...”

“A week!” Changbin exclaimed. “You’ve kept a dog hidden in here for a week?”

“Well, I didn’t plan on hiding her forever,” I said, fingers moving nervously through Jane’s soft fur.

“Get rid of it,” Changbin barked, looking every bit the intimidating CEO whose annual salary easily eclipsed my entire family net worth.

“Changbin,” I said softly. “Please don’t say that.”

“This is my house,” Changbin growled. “And I will not have it trashed by that thing.”

“I thought it was my house too?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

Changbin seemed taken aback, but he was not deterred for long. “Of course it is, but you know I don’t want any animals living here.”

“But she’s really clean,” I said. “And I’m training her every day!”

“I don’t care,” Changbin snapped. “I want to see it gone tomorrow morning, do you understand?”

“Changbin,” I whimpered, eyes clouding with the promise of tears. “You said you’d give me whatever I want.”

I know it sounds selfish, but I was growing increasingly desperate as it became more and more apparent that Changbin had already made up his mind. “I meant something like clothes, Y/N,” Changbin said. “Not a living pest.”

“She’s not a pest,” I insisted. “Jane is really sweet.”

“Oh great, you’ve named it,” Changbin grumbled, reaching for his cellphone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Animal control,” Changbin muttered and I immediately reacted.

“Don’t call them!” I exclaimed. “At least give her a better home than that horrible place.”

“Then find her one,” Changbin said. “You get one week before I handle it myself.”

“What an asshole,” I snarled. 

“I agree,” Rina nodded, offering Jane a few treats when my puppy clambered onto the sofa next to us. In spite of Changbin’s dismissal, I found a refugee for both myself and Jane in Rina’s shared apartment with Felix. “I don’t see what the big deal is anyway. Changbin can’t possibly be that averse to something so cute.”

“It’s not like I brought home a child,” I said, frowning at my phone screen when Changbin sent yet another text message. “I hope he knows I’m not coming home tonight. If he kicks Jane out, then I’m leaving too.”

“You can keep me company instead,” Rina said. “Felix never comes around anymore so it’s just like college again.”

“Except we have more than just ramen in the kitchen.”

“Not to mention this sweetie,” Rina added, lifting Jane into her arms. “Who needs a man around anyway?”

“At least your man is okay with Jane living here for a few days,” I said. “I guess I’ll have to ask Seungmin to take her back.”

“You shouldn’t have to, Y/N,” Rina sighed. “It’s unfortunate that Changbin hates the puppies. I’d even keep Jane for myself but I think she’d be much happier with someone who isn’t prone to forgetting to even feed herself.”

I snorted. “That would be better than the pound. Can you believe he tried to call animal control?”

“Seo Changbin?” Rina snickered. “Nothing he does surprises me. This is the same person who rented out an entire restaurant just to propose to you.”

“Don’t bring up our happy memories,” I complained. “I’m supposed to be mad at him right now.”

“Then be mad at him,” Rina shrugged. “Honestly speaking, if he can’t see how important this is to you, then he doesn’t deserve to call you his wife in the first place.”

“This isn’t a deal-breaker,” I said. “I just wish he would understand how I feel.”

“Analytical types like Changbin are incapable of empathy,” Rina said. “It’s a proven fact, Y/N. He’ll still think he’s right when the two of you are retired somewhere in a tropical paradise.”

“Ugh, he’s so stubborn.”

“Takes after his mother in that regard,” Rina said. “Remember at your wedding? She bawled her eyes out after giving that horrible speech where she basically implied that you were stealing away her only son.”

“She’s the mistress of Evil,” I nodded. “They share that characteristic. Both of them can be downright mean when they want to be.”

“I guess that’s why Changbin has been so successful,” Rina said. “Still doesn’t take away from the fact that he sometimes seems to forget you're his wife and not a stockholder.”

I let out a deep breath. “What about you and Felix?”

“Oh, he’s still distant and I’m half-way convinced that I’m being replaced by a supermodel with bigger tits.”

“I don’t think Felix would be that shallow.”

“I know,” Rina said, palming her breasts through her shirt. “They’re pretty big, right?”

“He doesn’t care about that,” I said. “And if I wasn’t so pissed at Changbin, I might ask him about this mystery girl.”

“We’ll have to go through the middle man,” she said, offering me a knowing look.

“Hwang Hyunjin,” we both agreed in perfect synchronization.

Luring Hyunjin out of the office building was as easy as promising a free lunch at his favorite restaurant. And when Hyunjin discovered that he would be meeting with both myself and Rina, he immediately jumped at the opportunity. Because Hwang Hyunjin was one of the most overdramatic people I knew and he never missed an opportunity to ensconce himself in everyone else's problems. “You know, Y/N,” he said through a sip of wine. “It would be nice if you at least pretended to like Changbin. He’s always intolerable at the office whenever the two of you fight.”

“I can’t even pretend to like him right now,” I said. “And, if you feel so inclined, you can pass on the message to him that I won’t be coming home tonight.”

“Oh, I can’t do that,” Hyunjin said, but it was impossible to miss the spark of mischief in his eyes. “Should I?”

“You can kick Changbin’s ass for all we care,” Rina said, already working through her third glass of chardonnay. 

“But, of course, that’s not the reason we invited you here,” I said, earning me a curious look in return.

“It’s about Felix,” Rina said through gritted teeth. “And don’t bother trying to cover for him, Hyunjin, because you’re a terrible liar.”

“What did he do wrong this time?” Hyunjin scoffed, seemingly indifferent as he took a bite of his organic salad.

“That blonde he keeps meeting in the office,” Rina said, always ready to get straight to the matter at hand. “Who the hell is she?”

Hyunjin visibly blanched, choking on his current mouthful while desperately trying to wash down the rest of his glass. “What?”

“The. Blonde,” Rina repeated. “I know everything, so don’t try to hide the truth from me.”

“If you knew everything, you wouldn’t be asking me,” Hyunjin pointed out.

“Just tell me who she is!” Rina exclaimed, loud enough to attract the attention of several tables.

Hyunjin wilted under their accusatory stares. “I can’t tell you.”

“Hwang Hyunjin,” Rina started, hands clasping the edge of the table. “Don’t you dare try to cover up your friend’s extracurricular affairs.”

“Felix isn’t cheating on you,” Hyunjin snapped. “I can’t believe you would even think that.”

“It’s not hard to,” Rina defended herself, “when everyone is walking on eggshells around me. I feel like I’m in the middle of something but I’m not even allowed to know what it is!”

“Rina,” Hyunjin tried again, tone visibly calmer. “Trust me on this. Felix isn’t cheating on you and everything will start to make a lot of sense.”

I studied my friend, but she seemed completely unmoved, expression fierce as she glared down at her untouched plate of food.

My mother’s house was located almost an hour away from where Changbin and I lived in the city. My visits were less frequent because of the combination of distance and my inability to leave work early because Jisung couldn’t handle the office without me. But, since I needed someone to take care of Jane, I knew my mother might be the best solution. She also didn’t hesitate when I asked to spend the night away from Changbin. However, my mother was prone to exceeding selfishness when it came to spending time with me.

In any case, it was the last time I would be able to get away with my nightly escapades because Rina had brought me an invitation that morning to join herself, Felix, and several of their friends for a getaway at the beach. I reluctantly agreed to come since Felix insisted that it was important and Rina demanded she has her “partner in crime” next to her side all weekend. But I would be expected to share a room with Changbin which meant we would either argue even more or ignore each other awkwardly at every available opportunity.

The last time Changbin and I went anywhere with Felix and Rina was back when Changbin first started the company. We ended up stuck inside our hotel because it rained endlessly for the entire week we visited the Florida Keys. On the plus side, I did manage to watch a lot of good movies at the theatre, including a horror classic that was made even better when Changbin decided to stick his hand up my skirt. I’m pretty sure the couple next to us knew exactly what we were doing, and it was worth it to watch their expressions when I accidentally moaned during an intense scene involving a ghost and a clueless teenager.

Nevertheless, I usually loved going on trips with Changbin because he always planned the best surprises. Too bad he had already ruined this one because of his, for lack of a better term, “assholish” tendencies. And poor Jane shouldn’t have to suffer along with everyone else just because my husband hated cute animals.

“Y/N,” my mother grinned brightly, encouraging me inside while I carried Jane in my arms. “Isn’t she adorable!”

“At least some people think so,” I grumbled, putting Jane on the floor so that she could make herself comfortable.

“I can’t believe Changbin told you to get rid of her.”

“Really?” I huffed, leaning against the wall. “You were the one that warned me he would be, and I quote, a pompous ass.”

“Well,” my mother grimaced, “I thought he might prove me wrong.”

“And I’ll be stuck in the same room with him all weekend,” I groaned. “Felix and Rina owe me big time.”

“Or,” my mother allowed, “maybe you should thank them. The trip is a good opportunity to put this argument to rest.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Honestly, Y/N, I know he was harsh, but you’re the one who went and got a dog behind his back. Plus, Jane can just stay here with me. It gives you a good excuse to visit more often.”

“You’re only saying that because you got a cute new puppy,” I muttered.

“Sweetheart,” my mother cooed, carefully guiding me to the counter. “I’ll always have your back, and I’d like to believe that I’m still the only person who can take care of you, but I think Changbin stole that title a long time ago.”

“He’s just infuriating sometimes,” I said.

My mother laughed. “All men are, Y/N, and you know you’ll have fights with Changbin. That’s what married couples do. The important thing is that the two of you can always come back together and forgive, even if the matter at hand is this cute.”

I grinned when my mother reached down to collect Jane into her arms. “I still don’t get how someone can hate a puppy.”

“Perhaps not hate,” my mother said. “But you should respect his opinion, even if you don’t agree with it.”

“He never asks me for anything,” I sighed. “I guess I made this into a bigger deal than it needed to be.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, you definitely get that from me,” my mother said. “Now, about you spending the night...”

“Yeah, I get it,” I grumbled. “I should go back home.”

“It’s not exactly mature of you to run away from him,” my mother pointed out as if I didn’t already feel guilty enough. “And it only makes it that much harder to fix things when you keep avoiding them.”

“Fine, I’ll go home,” I said, pulling out my phone to send Changbin a brief message. “You’re all wise and old now.”

My mother frowned. “Sweetheart, I don’t consider myself old.”

“Mom, the last time we went shopping, you had me come pick you up at the mall entrance because you didn’t feel like walking to the car.”

“Well, everyone has those days,” my mother said. “In any case, I should find somewhere for Jane to stay. Her mom is certainly welcome to come over any time.”

“Pretty sure her mom is Seungmin, but I appreciate the thought,” I said, lifting Jane from the ground to bring her closer. “You won’t forget about me, right?”

Jane considered with wide eyes before cautiously offering me a small lick on the cheek. “Yeah, I think we can make this work.”

Changbin’s car was already parked in his usual spot when I pulled into the complex. I was hoping he would stay at the office longer, but he probably left the moment he received my message. Straightening the hem of my skirt, I carefully entered the apartment, inwardly groaning when I could hear the sounds of the TV from the living room. I was still quiet when I shuffled across the carpet, but apparently, Changbin had been waiting on me. “Babe,” he murmured quietly as I passed by the couch.

Whispering a curse, I turned around to look at Changbin whose eyes were struggling to open as if he had been asleep when I came home. “Sorry,” I said in return, forcing my eyes to look away from his exposed chest, firm edges made softer under the light from the LED screen.

I made my way to our bedroom, deciding to pack as efficiently as possible because I was starting to get a headache which meant I wanted nothing more than to pass out on the bed. “Y/N,” Changbin spoke up softly, lingering by the door as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. “How was your mother?”

“Fine,” I answered shortly, moving around our bedroom as quickly as possible because I was determined to avoid any sort of conversation with Changbin, cramming my t-shirts into the stupid designer suitcase he had bought for me. 

“Are you tired?” he asked, looking irresistible with his messy hair and puffy cheeks.

“Yeah,” I said, carefully zipping my suitcase closed. I brought it next to his at the side of our dresser.

Changbin took a few more steps into the room, pausing next to the bed while I changed clothes quickly. “Is it alright if I sleep with you tonight?”

I really wanted to tell him, no, but it was rather difficult to refuse him when he was being sweet. At least he obviously understood that he was wrong for screaming at me like I was one of his assistants instead of his wife. “You can,” I told him, already pulling back the sheets of the comforter.

And I didn’t even resist when he climbed in behind me, wrapping an arm around my waist because he liked to keep me close in bed. “Y/N,” he whispered in my ear, fingers curling with mine. “You can keep the dog when we get back.”

“Binnie,” I murmured, attempting to protest because I wasn’t expecting Changbin to give in so easily. He really does give me whatever I want.

“It’s alright,” Changbin said, tenderly squeezing my waist, breath warm against the back of my neck. “We can talk about it later.” The combination of his familiar presence and the lovely feel of his fingers pulling through my hair was enough to lure me into a much-needed sleep.

Early morning flights were a pain in the ass and I was no exception to the demonizing effects of insomnia, especially when I felt guilty because Changbin had agreed to let me keep Jane only after I avoided him for several days. We didn’t talk about it on the drive to the airport. In fact, we didn’t talk much at all as Changbin turned up the volume on the radio while he drove with tired eyes. It had probably been difficult for him to take the whole weekend off for Felix’s getaway trip, and I hadn’t bothered to ask him how he was feeling.

Felix and Rina were waiting for us at the security line when we arrived with a few minutes to spare. Apparently, Hyunjin and Chan were already at the loading gate since they had arrived much earlier than everyone else. “It’s been a while since we’ve gone out of town together,” Rina remarked as she pulled me away from Changbin, leaving him to talk quietly with Felix.

“Excluding the first beach disaster?”

“Definitely,” Rina agreed, tossing an arm around my shoulders. “I convinced Felix to switch tickets with you. Now, my best friend can sit next to me instead.”

I nodded in reply since I had actually been looking forward to an opportunity to talk with Changbin on the airplane. It was probably best for both of us if we talked about what happened. Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was a rather stupid argument that definitely could have been avoided if I had been less inconsiderate of Changbin’s feelings. They might seem irrational, but they mattered and that’s all I could think about for the entirety of our flight to the island.

And if I thought I’d get a chance to talk to him when we landed, I was proven wrong. Because Felix enforced a tight schedule, barely allowing any of us to get settled in at the resort before he was already ordering us to change into something comfortable for the beach. The hotel itself was situated right on the shoreline, busy with fellow travelers looking to enjoy what was already becoming a gorgeous afternoon. And since Changbin happened to own the place, we were treated to the best care with a constant presence of wait staff who brought us drinks and food. “You get five stars, Changbin,” Rina remarked as she sat between Felix’s legs on his beach chair. “I see why everybody makes a big deal out of your expensive hotels now.”

“You’re welcome,” Changbin grumbled from where the two of us were situated on a comfortable beach towel. Changbin had long since dismissed his t-shirt, tentatively requesting that I apply a generous amount of sunscreen to his skin. And no matter how I felt towards Changbin, I would never turn down the opportunity to run my hands against the gorgeous muscles that supplied his well-built torso.

In the meantime, Hyunjin and Chan were arguing about whether or not the hotel in New York needed the same kind of luxury swimming pool that the six of us had spotted on our way outside. “If I knew they would be this loud, I would have left them behind,” Felix said, sunglasses resting on the brim of his nose.

“It’s Hyunjin, what did you expect?” Rina said, watching the two older boys bicker. 

I nodded vacantly, growing tried from the influence of the sun. “What’s this surprise all about, Felix?” Rina asked her boyfriend, eyebrow raised in question.

Changbin jumped from his spot in front of me and I was startled when I realized I had massaged over his nipples. “You’ll see,” Felix said, a proud smirk making him look just as mischievous as he had been when we first met.

I couldn’t see Rina’s reaction since her glasses obscured most of her face. “Are you really going to keep me waiting?”

“Just until tonight, love,” Felix said, reassuring her with a gentle kiss that had my heart aching in my chest for Changbin despite him being in such close proximity. 

I spent most of the early evening with Rina, wasting time shopping as we waited for our dinner reservations. “What do you think?” Rina asked, holding up a sundress that barely fell below her thighs.

“No,” I said, returning my attention to the magazine in front of me.

“Changbin has made you way too conservative,” she griped before disappearing back into the changing room. “But you seemed more relaxed around him today.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think I owe him an apology.”

“What for?” Rina asked. “He’s the one who almost sent for animal control to handle an innocent puppy.”

“I never should have tried to hide Jane in the first place,” I said. “Changbin doesn’t ask for much and I should have respected his preference.”

“Wow, since when have you grown up?” Rina asked, re-emerging from the dressing room. “That’s awfully mature of you.”

“I love him,” I nodded. “And that means more to me than anything else in the world.”

“Including me?” Rina feigned hurt while dramatically falling against a nearby display of sneakers.

I rolled my eyes, checking the time on my phone. “We should probably meet the others.”

“Alright,” Rina grumbled. “But I’m afraid of what Felix might say at dinner.”

“What makes you think it’s a bad thing?” I asked.

“Where have you been, Y/N? Don’t you remember all the drama? Felix avoiding me? Coming home late? Does any of this ring a bell?”

“I thought you moved on from that.”

“Never,” Rina insisted while curling her arm through mine. “I’m still on high alert.”

“You know how Felix can get sometimes,” I said.

“Of course I do! But he’s never acted like this before,” Rina insisted. 

“Well, maybe you’ll get your answers tonight,” I said, leading her into the crowded seafood restaurant on the lower level of the hotel. 

It must have bee massively popular because guests were patiently waiting in large parties scrambled throughout the main lobby. Rina and I fought our way to the hostess, allowing her to check our reservation before graciously leading us further away from the rampant group of hungry customers who were all attempting to talk over one another. Instead, the hostess brought us to a private room, clearly the work of Seo Changbin, where the others were already seated.

“Finally!” Hyunjin exclaimed. “Felix wouldn’t let us order until you got here.”

Felix ignored his friend, pulling out a chair for Rina. I could tell he was visibly nervous which was certainly concerning because Felix was one of the most confident people I knew. He was the friend in Changbin’s board meetings who was never shy about speaking up. The one person you could always rely on to sweet talk an additional 5% off our coffee bill in the main lobby because he only had to smile at the poor cashier working the register.

I glanced over at Changbin who was busy scanning the menu in front of him. Changbin didn’t seem worried at all which was reassuring, although it definitely didn’t mean that Felix necessarily told Changbin what he was planning for tonight. And the longer I studied the younger boy fidgeting in his seat, the more curious I became. 

“You know, Chan,” Hyunjin said. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring that girl with you. Aren’t the two of you moving in together?”

I perked up at this new information. “Chan has a serious girlfriend?”

Chan and I had known each other for several years, but I was starting to conclude that the older man was planning to stay single for the rest of his life. Not that Chan didn’t make an elegant bachelor because the combination of his appealing good-looks, charming accent, and accumulating wealth was enough to cement his status. But then again, it might be nice to see Chan in a committed relationship because he would make the best father.

“It’s not that serious,” Chan said bashfully, ears tipped in red as he glanced around for the waitress.

“Whatever,” Hyunjin huffed, glancing between Felix and Rina with a barely concealed smirk. “You guys look great together.”

Felix glared at his friend. “You’re determined to spoil everything, aren’t you?”

“What does that mean?” Rina inquired, studying Felix curiously.

“Nothing,” Hyunjin said, immediately turning to me and Changbin. “Are the two of you still fighting?”

“Hyunjin,” I growled his name, determined once and for all that Hyunjin was intentionally trying to stir up more drama for his viewing pleasure.

“We’re alright,” Changbin said in a surprisingly gentle voice, one arm coming to rest across the back of my chair. “Here,” Changbin said, pulling my plate closer so that he could cut a few pieces of steak for me. “Your favorite.”

I blushed at his kindness, stuffing my mouth full of tender meant to avoid having to say anything in return. Thankfully, Felix was more than ready to interrupt our moment, abruptly standing up from his chair with a glass of wine in hand. “Everyone,” he said, immediately silencing our small party. “I have something to announce.”

I glanced over at Rina from the corner of my eyes, watching as she drew her bottom lip between her teeth. A nervous habit she picked up from countless nights of writing 10,000-word essays for our history seminar. “Rina,” Felix said, addressing my friend. “We’ve been together for a while.”

Rina nodded, seemingly frozen in place. At least until Felix dropped down onto one knee next to her, pulling out a beautiful gold-encrusted wedding band with diamonds circling the outside. “Marry me.” 

My expression of shock likely mirrored Rina’s while Hyunjin clapped like a maniac from across the table. “Thank god! The secret is finally out!”

“Felix,” Rina finally managed, eyes growing cloudy with the promise of tears while she held out a shaky hand. Felix gently accepted her outstretched limb, sliding the ring into place on her finger. 

“I’ll consider that a yes.”

I immediately turned to Changbin who was watching the two of them with fond eyes. It was quite obvious that he also knew about the proposal and I admired my husband’s ability to help his friend make this weekend so special. Changbin met my gaze with a beautiful smile, reaching underneath the table to take my hand without hesitation.

It was late when the six of us finally left the restaurant, listening to Rina gush over her new ring while clinging to Felix’s side persistently. Changbin and I lingered at the back, shoulders brushing with every step while keeping our pinky fingers interlocked between us. “That woman!” Rina suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a familiar blonde standing behind the concierge counter.

“She’s the hotel’s general manager,” Felix explained, sending a wave in her direction.

“Oh,” Rina said dumbly and my friend was very rarely caught off-guard. I definitely couldn’t wait to offer her a well-deserved “I told you so” when we met for breakfast in the morning. However, for the time being, I wanted nothing more than to go back to the room with Changbin.

“I can’t thank her enough,” Felix continued. “She’s been very helpful when it came to planning all of this.”

“Really?”

“She deserves a raise, Changbin,” Felix said, nudging his friend as the six of us broke off into smaller groups as we returned to our assigned rooms.

“Congratulations, Rina,” I said to my friend, watching her join Felix in the suite across from ours.

I waited until we were truly alone before I closed the door quietly, turning around to find Changbin fiddling with the lock on his Rolex. “Let me,” I said quietly, gliding across the floor to handle the delicate switch with nimble fingers.

“Thanks,” Changbin said, dropping the watch on top of the nightstand.

“Changbin,” I spoke up hesitantly. “I’m sorry for ignoring you.”

My husband shrugged, broad shoulders tense against the fit of his shirt. “It’s alright, Y/N.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, reaching out for his wrist to turn him around. “You didn’t deserve that, especially over something that was my fault to begin with.”

Changbin sighed, tugging me closer against him. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

I pressed my forehead against the center of his chest. “You never ask me for much. In fact, you’re always the one who gives the most in our relationship. I should have respected your opinion. Instead, I went behind your back and I’ve felt guilty about it for the entire trip.”

“There’s no need for that,” Changbin insisted, fingers curling through my hair. “We’ve both made mistakes, but I can never stay mad at you for long.”

“I’ll let my mom have the dog,” I said, pressing my fingers against his plush lips before he could interrupt. “I’m serious. She’s much happier with Jane. Maybe, later on, we could try something smaller? Like a hamster!”

Changbin grimaced at the thought and I laughed at his expression. “Unless you just want me all to yourself.”

“That’s not it,” Changbin sighed. “I just don’t want that responsibility. Plus, I really don’t like the idea of a dog or cat in the apartment.”

“Well, I can always visit my mom when I want to see Jane,” I said, reaching up to fix the messy strands of his hair. “See? A compromise.”

Changbin smirked, leaning down for a kiss. “You make a better negotiator than I do. Maybe you should be in charge of the board.”

“I’ll let you handle things,” I said, running my hands along his stomach to the waistband of his jeans.

“I meant it when I said I would do anything to make you happy,” Changbin whispered against my hair. “Even if that means I have to fill the apartment with dogs.”

I grinned. “I like what we have now, Changbin.”

“That’s so cheesy,” he accused me, laughing when I whined in response. “I love you, Y/N,” he said.

“I love you too,” I said. “You’re basically just a giant puppy anyway.”

Changbin grunted as his hands gripped the back of my thighs. “Please don’t say that when I’ve already started making plans to fuck you until you’re screaming my name.”

I shivered at his seductive promise. “Oh yeah? I guess you’ll just have to prove it to me.”