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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

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So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it, assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

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kiribaku-queen · 4 years

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Secret Hero [1/10]

Pairing: Bakugou x reader

Angst, Drama, AU, characters are aged up

Word Count: 2.9K

A/N: Welcome to my third series! I hope you enjoy it just as much as you did the other two. This time, a surprise Haikyuu character will be making an appearance. Also, I have planned 8 parts but that can change depending on how well i develop the story. As always, enjoy reading and let me know if you want to be added to the tag list to be notified when future chapters are updated! :)

Summary: After becoming the number 2 hero, Bakugou accomplished everything he ever wanted. He beat Deku in a few matches, even if he wasn’t the number 1 hero. He got all the fame, beat countless villains, was acknowledged by all his friends and family. But he wasn’t satisfied. He wasn’t happy. Bakugou realized that this wasn’t the life he wanted. So he left the life of a hero and decided to hide to live the rest of his life as a normal person.

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Bakugou was living the dream. He had everything he wanted. Although he didn’t achieve in becoming the number 1 hero, he was still in a close second. And yes, being second was unacceptable for him but no matter how many times he tried to surpass his childhood friend, he was just too powerful. So he had to deal with being the number 2 hero whether he liked it or not. One thing he could brag about were the few times he was able to beat Deku in a few practice matches. Other than that, he was living the perfect life that he’s always dreamed of since he was a little boy. He had the perfect dream job that came with fame, good and bad. He was able to get his frustrations out by defeating countless villains over the years. And he was acknowledged by all his close friends and family. To everyone who said he couldn’t do it, he shoved it right back in their faces.

From the outside, it looked like there could be nothing wrong with his life. But there was something wrong. He wasn’t happy. Yeah, he achieved many accomplishments and overcame many feats but for some reason, he wasn’t satisfied enough. He thought it was because he wasn’t the number 1 hero. So he tried to patrolling more often and catching more villains than he usually would but that didn’t fill the void he was feeling inside. No, it was something else. The drive to become successful and to be better than Deku was no longer there. Bakugou’s never felt so empty before because beating Deku was the only thing he’s ever known since he was in middle school. Now that that desire is gone, he felt empty.

Fighting villains, saving citizens and becoming a heroic icon to the world was no longer something that kept him going. It didn’t give him a rush and it didn’t satisfy him. So, he made a decision to quit hero life. He didn’t tell anyone that he was quitting. He didn’t tell people where he was going or what he was doing. Pro-hero Ground Zero completely fell of the grid.

When Bakugou realized that the hero life wasn’t the life he wanted, he decided to hide and live the rest of his life as a normal person. Or as much as a normal person as he could. Maybe if he did that, then he would figure out what was missing in his life.

The former hero traveled far from the city. It was a lonely voyage. It gave him time to think about himself. What did he want? What did he want to become? What exactly was missing from his life? It was different. Not being able to use his quirk or see people needing saving. He didn’t really talk to anybody but when he did, he was able to collect wisdom from so many different people. The fire inside him no longer burned with rage. Instead, a small flame flickered that kept him level-headed and calm.

After traveling for quite some time after leaving the previous town, he entered the next town. A small town but looked like every other town he’s been in. Nothing stood out to him as anything special, at least not yet. The sun was setting so he needed to find a place to stay. While on the search for some type of motel, he was interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming. Bakugou’s hero instincts immediately kicked in and he ran towards the scream. On the way there, he pulls out his black mask to hide his identity. He didn’t have his hero outfit but the mask will have to do.

He approaches the alleyway where he heard a woman’s voice. He sees a man, obviously intoxicated, hovering over a woman who was twice as small as he was. Not a fair fight at all. Bakugou was hesitant at first. He abandoned the whole hero, what was he doing playing hero again? But as soon as he saw the woman trembling with fear, all previous thoughts were thrown out the window and his feet moved on his own.

“Oi, you bastard,” Bakugou ripped the man off the woman and shoved him against the cold brick wall. His hands tight around the collar of his shirt so that he couldn’t run away. “What do you think you’re doing?” he questioned, his voice going down an octave lower.

“Get your hands off me,” the man tried to pry his way out but Bakugou was clearly overpowering him.

“Wanna say that again?” Bakugou challenged the man, letting a few small explosions release from his hand. The drunk man acted all tough until he saw him use his quirk. It was only then did terror fill his eyes and let go immediately. Bakugou noticed his change in behavior so he let him go and the drunkard fled for his life.

“Tch,” Bakugou let out a snicker and what a coward he was. Then he turned his attention to the woman who fell to the floor in fear. “Are you okay?” he asked, crouching down to be at eye level with the lady. And when she looked up with tear-filled eyes, he saw you for the first time.

You were on your way home from a girls’ night out with your friends. It was really late out and your friends were practically begging you to stay the night. It wasn’t because they wanted you to stay longer, but rather that it was pretty dangerous at night. Especially at this time. But you reassured them that nothing ever happens to you and that you were going to be fine. Oh how you were wrong.

As soon as you stepped out onto the streets, a man started following you come, sending chills right down your spine. You tried running away to lose track of him and hide in a dark alleyway. But he spotted you and proceeded to get too close for comfort to you. He was twice your size. Even if you tried to defend yourself, he was much stronger than you. You were at a disadvantaged. So what do you do? You screamed. Yelled as loud as you could. Being that it was late out and no one ever walks around this late at night, chances of someone helping you were slim to none. But you gave it a shot anyway, hoping at least someone heard you.

In a flash, the man was teared off you and shoved next to you by a mysterious man in a mask. You were so shaken up that you completely fell to your knees and you sobbed quietly to yourself. Yeah, it was your fault for walking around town at this time of day knowing that it was dangerous. And maybe it was your fault for being so naïve to think that nothing was going to happen to you. But shit, you didn’t really think out of all people, you’d be someone’s target. The masked man asked if you were okay, kneeling down to get a better look at you. You looked up at him with glossed eyes. You were feeling so many things in the moment. Scared because some guy just clung on to you. Relieved that someone came to save you. But confused because the man who saved you was wearing a mask. What was he, some pro-hero or something?

“Do you need me to escort you back home?” he asked you, catching you off guard.

“I’m okay!” you waved your hands in front of you. In an attempt to prove that you were okay, you tried to stand up on your own but failed miserably. Your knees gave out on you and the moment you stood up, you fell right back down. But the masked man was quick to cushion your fall, catching you in his arms. You hands went straight to his biceps and you could feel your whole face heat up. Oh wow. Muscles. Yep. Those are definitely rock hard muscles.

“Are you sure? Offer still stands,” the man asked you again.

“I guess, if you don’t mind?”

“Lead the way.”

At first, the masked man assisted you in walking because of your shaky legs. You weren’t complaining because that gave you a chance to lean against him and his body was no joke. Shit, how did you get so lucky! But after a while, you could walk perfectly on your own and you two walked next to each other, side by side. And it was quiet. You glanced over at him and his attention was straight in front of him. He doesn’t look like the talkative type. And he still has his mask on. Maybe he’s shy? If that’s the case, then you should initiate.

“Sooo,” you started off, gaining his attention. “Are you going to continue to wear that mask?” you asked. He gives you a questioning look like he didn’t know what you were talking about. So you point to your eyes, showing him what was on his face. “You still have your mask on. Shouldn’t I know who saved me?”

“Aren’t heroes supposed to keep their identities a secret?” he questions you right back.

“H-Hero?” Odd. You thought it was a joke but he looks serious. Was he really thinking about becoming a hero? “I guess…” you shrugged off the interesting question, not knowing how to answer that.

Before you know it, you arrived at your apartment building safe and sound. You turn around to thank him.

“Thank you, hero for saving me. I appreciate it a lot,” you expressed your gratitude. He hands you a dashing smile. Back in the alleyway, you couldn’t get a good look at his face because it was so dark. But now that you were in front of your building, the lights coming from inside the building lit up his face and you just realized how handsome he was. And that smile was everything. Your heart started to pick up its pace.

“No problem,” he says and turns to leave.

“Wait!” you call out for him. Instantly, you slap your hand across your mouth. You didn’t mean to say it out loud, but now that it’s out in the open and he has your full attention, you might as well ask. “Can I know your name?” He pauses and looks up.

“Ground Zero.” He said and went off on his way. Your shoulders deflated at his response. You were hoping for an actual name but you guess that will do for now.

“I hope I can see you again…. Ground Zero,” you whispered to yourself as you watched him walk away, the beating of your heart now prominent.

A few days have gone by and Bakugou was still in town. He didn’t realize how traveling across the country would be this tiring. And since he didn’t have a set destination, it couldn’t hurt to stay here for a little while longer. After running into you that night, he had many more encounters with dealing with bad guys. Not necessarily villains but criminals. One day there’s a robbery, the next there’s men harassing women. He was catching all these bad guys yet he never saw another hero. It was like there were no heroes in this town.

There was no point in dwelling on it. They lived in a hero society. Heroes are everywhere. He’s probably just hasn’t run into one yet. Getting out of bed and putting on some comfortable clothing, Bakugou made his way to the town’s local farmer’s market. He saw a sign for it the other day and decided, why not? Maybe by doing things out of his comfort zone would help him figure out what’s missing in his life. And he was hungry so in search for food, here he comes.

The farmer’s market was bigger than he expected. A variety of fruits and vegetables were being sold. As well as local stores and businesses were selling their items. Bakugou took his time looking at each booth, curious about everything around him. Did they have this back in the city? This experience was nothing like he’s seen before. It felt… homey.

He made his way over to the food section of the market. His moth watered at the sight of how luscious and vibrant the vegetables were. He had to try them out. But how? He twisted and he turned but he couldn’t figure out how to buy them. He had a lot to learn.

Every week Saturday morning was the same for you. As soon as you woke up, you got ready and went straight to the farmer’s market. This was the time where you do your weekly shopping and maybe pick up a few flowers on the way to brighten your apartment. You had to go to the vegetables first because the good ones are always picked so fast! But you were determined to get some good ones.

You grabbed a bag from the lady who ran the stand and started your picking. But as you were doing that, you noticed a guy acting confused. The closer you looked at him, the longer you stared. He wasn’t someone you’ve seen before. Was he a visitor? But this town never get visitors.

“Excuse me,” you called out to offer your assistance. “Did you need help?” The blonde man looks up at you and an arrow shoots straight at your chest. He’s hot!

“Ah, I just wanted to buy this but I don’t see any bags,” he trailed off at the end, still looking for them but now a bit embarrassed. Understanding the problem, you walked up to the lady who ran the stand.

“Auntie, I’m taking another one,” you say and take an extra plastic bag.

“Go ahead, dearie,” the older lady said with a smile. She was so cute. You handed over the bag to the stranger.

“Here, now you can pick whatever you want. Just bring the bag up to that lady over there when you’re done,” you explain.

“Thanks,” he said, gladly taking the bag from you. You smile at him and continue on with your shopping. Coincidentally, the vegetables you want were the same ones that he was getting or around where he was. So you said your greeting but you never really left each other’s side. Occasionally, you would glance at him. Not because he was handsome, well, that was one reason. But you were still curious as to why there’s a stranger in town.

“Are you new around here?” you asked, nonchalantly.

“Yeah, been here a few days,” he says. A few days, huh? What’s happened in town that’s happened recently. You know!

“Ah, so then you probably heard of the hero news that’s been going around. Everyone’s talking about it,” your eyes gleam up at mentioning the masked hero. Suddenly, Bakugou was now interested. He might look like he was too focused on picking which veggie he liked but all ears were on you. “It’s so crazy. We have a hero in this town.”

“What, don’t you have other heroes?” Maybe he was being talked about because he was a new hero in town. Not because he was the only hero in town.

“Ah, it’s probably because you’re new here. This town doesn’t have heroes. Actually, no one in this town has a quirk. This town lives in a quirkless society. All normal people,” you explained, smiling at him. Bakugou was in shock. No heroes? Not a single person has a quirk? Is there a town even like that?

“So you don’t-”

“Mhm, I don’t have a quirk either. But you must have one right? You didn’t seem surprised about the hero news. You probably see heroes all the time,” the chatter box in you got the best of you. Bakugou could laugh at your statement. You definitely could say that again. He was going to tell you that he did have a quirk but then a thought stopped him. Maybe this was what was missing. A normal life. To live like a normal person. No fame. No fans. No villains. No more pressure.

“No, actually. I’m quirkless too,” he says, almost a little too confidently. You looked a little disappointed by the shrug of your shoulders.

“I see. Well I don’t really know anything about heroes anyway. The only hero I know is All Might!” you exclaim which causes Bakugou to snicker at you.

“All Might? Yeah, he was a great hero,” Bakugou gave you a soft smile and you swear you could melt. “But I hope you know that he retired over 10 years ago.” Your jaw dropped to the floor and now you felt embarrassed.

“Gah, I’m not up to date on heroes at all!” you complain. You wanted to shrivel up and die! You thought you were being relatable and a conversation was really flowing. But you brought up a topic that you were not knowledgeable at, at all and now embarrassment was the price to pay. Bakugou continues to laugh at you. When he took another look at you again, you were pouting and he thought it was cute. This town was really changing him now. He stuck his hand out and offered it to you.

“Katsuki,” he introduces himself. You felt the heat run to your face and you shook his hand rather shyly.

“(y/n).”

“(y/n),” he repeats your name. Now that was something you could get used to: the way your name rolled off his tongue. Pure butter. “I’ll see you around.” He picks up his bag and was headed out. But before he did that, he turned around to you and winked. You gasped and completely hid your face and your entire being behind the row of vegetables. Bakugou laughed at your reaction. Yeah, he could get used to this.

A/N: Let me know your thoughts and if you want to be added to the tag list!

#bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugou #bakugou #bnha bakugou #bakugou imagine #bnha imagines #boku no hero academia #my hero academia

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fallowdoe · 4 years

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All roads lead to hell

MC gets kidnapped and has to make their way through Hell to reunite with everyone.

GN!reader x everyone (can be treated as platonic/romantic)

Trigger warnings for this chapter: touchy religious themes, death

I apologise for the quality of writing however this is a translated version of my fic.

If anyone is interested in that I was listening to Dr. Fletcher and the World, the whole Split soundtrack is my big inspiration for this story. I’d advise onto playing it in the background while reading.

Tags: @kashasenpai @lamemexicant @lana0937

⇐ Chapter 3 - The Door ⇒

”Limbo?” They stuttered.

The man in front of them had a soothing look on his face. Something about being in his presence felt incredibly calming. A warm, gentle light was radiating from behind him.

”Limbo is the first circle of Hell. We’re in the castle which houses the seven gates.” His silvery voice echoed through the building.

”Circle… You mean Dante?” Something about the stranger felt almost familiar.

MC couldn’t exactly tell why but their gut was telling them that he was trustworthy. It was almost like he radiated all of that calmness.

”Something like this.” He smiled.

”But I don’t understand. Why am I here? What happened?” They rambled. ”And… and who are you?”

Only now they noticed that the way he was dressed resembled how Luke and Simeon did. The stranger had light-brown braided hair and was quite tall. His silhouette seemed to be entailed with light. White and golden robes were sprawled around his feet.

”My name is Micheal. I hope I did not startle you.” He gave them a kind smile.

”I don’t think I could be anymore scared.”

”I am terribly sorry that we meet in these circumstances.” He spoke softly while gazing at them. ”And even more – I am sorry that you are here.” He gestured around the hall.

They took a quick glance across the room but it was empty. On the other hand, the conversations didn’t stop filling their ears. All the words flowing through the room were a little distracting but now the knowledge of their origin lifted their spirit up a bit. Every single information about this place seemed to ease their mind and slowly all the puzzles were coming together.

”I… I keep hearing voices. Who are they?” The fright filling their voice made the man scrunch his eyebrows. This shouldn’t be happening and he couldn’t fix it which filled him up with frustration.

”You can hear souls who reside here. They for a change only can see you. I imagine it must be confusing for you, however, I need you to focus now. This is the castle of seven gates, each one of them represents one of the seven heavenly virtues.” He explained. ”I have no idea who or why brought you here but I will do everything I can to help you get out.”

”How do I return to Devildom? To them?” They spoke quietly. Their throat was sore from all the previous sobbing.

MC was to occupied to think about it previously but now they realized that everyone must’ve already noticed that they’re gone. Mammon and Beel probably searched for them after they didn’t come back. They weren’t sure how much time had passed but it must’ve been at least a few hours. Were they looking for them? Would they save them? Mammon was probably blaming himself…

”You will have to go through all nine circles of Hell to reach Devildom.” He said after a second.

”Me? Alone? But that’s impossible! Isn’t there another way? Maybe Lord Diavolo can help me? Or Lucifer? Or anyone?” They pleaded with a shaky voice.

”If it was an option I would’ve notified them immediately. Despite our… personal conflicts, your safety remains an important matter to me as an angel.”

Having a random human sent to limbo was… unusual and definitely not in his favour. Wherever they would go after their death, their presence here was concerning. No human had a key to the first circle, therefore the perpetrator must’ve been a powerful demon. But why send a living human here? Unless it wasn’t a random pick…

”But… How am I even supposed to do that?!” MC’s question brought him back from his thoughts.

”Follow me. I’ll show you.” He stepped further into the chamber with MC following, the orbs peacefully floated behind them. ”You see if there existed a possibility of having anyone help you I promise you’d be back to Devildom already. But there isn’t. I can only go as far as the first circle since this is the heavenly castle. But next levels… Nobody but souls are capable of going there. I can’t take you to purgatory or any other realm, so you are trapped in Hell. The only way seems to be going down, through all nine circles. Then you’d be able to reach Devildom.” Fear filled them again as he spoke. ”I don’t want to be dishonest with you MC…” Micheal hesitated. ”Crossing the nine circles is no easy task. It’s almost impossible.” He watched their face darken. ”I will provide some aid, but I can’t do much.” He trailed off. In all of his angelic glory and power, now, in front of a terrified human, he had to admit that he couldn’t help them. It wasn’t fair for them to be here.

”What am I supposed to do?” They took a deep breath trying to steady themselves.

In front of them rose a giant glass door.

”Nothing. Like it has never happened.” Solomon concluded. He and Satan just arrived at Diavolo’s castle after checking RAD multiple times. They cast countless spells to help them find at least a single trace, but all for nothing.

”That’s impossible. Surely, no one is capable of magic this powerful that it leaves no trace.” Lucifer was quick to argue. He sighed and scrunched his face, a headache was troubling him for a few hours now.

”If you want to you can go see yourself. I’d rather not waste any more time on what we already know. RAD was empty. There are no traces or trails of anything. We better start searching for a solution rather than the cause.” Satan’s temper was getting better of him. He couldn’t believe how easily Lucifer was taking the whole situation. His worry seemed to only go as far as the exchange programme did, when everyone else, including Diavolo, was genuinely concerned for heir friends wellbeing.

”How are you expecting to find a one if we have no idea what is going on?” Lucifer was beginning to gro irritated as well as if Satan’s attitude towards him was any help.

”Have you found that spellbook?” Solomon interrupted them.

”Not yet, we already checked most of the library.”

”I could cast a searching spell.” He offered. ”That could speed up the search.”

”In here? Absolutely not.”

”Then you do it, Lucifer. Stop wasting time.” Satan hissed.

”What is your problem?”

”The problem is that you don’t give a shit about this whole situation! You don’t care about anything besides your work! You don’t care about MC or anyone else!”

”And what exactly is giving you such an impression?!”

”You have done absolutely nothing to help! Even Mammon’s worrying is more helpful than your prideful ass telling everyone to calm down! Now excuse me, I’m going to actually do something which will hopefully bring them back! It appears so that no one else will!” With that Satan stormed out of the room and left the castle.

”Shall we help with the search?” Solomon didn’t comment on their argument.

”Come.” Lucifer turned around and lead the way.

The library was settled underneath the castle. An enormous, round chamber was filled with many levels of bookshelves serving as its walls. Ladders and stairs were connecting the floors. Thousands of colourful volumes were lit up by candlelight generated by a spell. A crystal chandelier shone high up from the ceiling. Underneath there was a big, round table filled with tons of volumes and papers.

Solomon whistled at the sight. ”Impressive.”

”Indeed.” Diavolo agreed. He was standing next to the table and browsing through books laid on it. Every each one of them seemed to be a higher grimoire. Some must’ve been older than the demon himself. ”Spellbooks, grimoires, magic volumes from all across the three realms.”

”Alexandria?”

”A few. Why do you think we’re underground?” He answered not lifting his eyes from the book he was currently holding.

”Have you found anything?” Lucifer sighed.

”We have our suspicions.” Barbatos approached them carrying more books. Some floated behind him. ”Were any traces found at RAD?”

”No. It’s completely empty. If not for Mammon and Beel witnessing the charge we wouldn’t even know anything happened.” The sorcerer spoke while studying the items on the table. He noticed a few familiar covers. Single sheets of paper with magic circles on them took most of his attention.

Lucifer listened to them but the growing pain was too much of a distraction. He took a glance at Diavolo who put down the book he was holding. His gaze fell empty on the table as the Demon Lord must’ve been lost in his thoughts. He wondered who was this even possible that of all people, he, the future ruler of this realm didn’t know what went down at his own academy. Hell, it wasn’t that MC wasn’t already endangered just by being in the Devildom, but someone actually daring to do something like this and not being afraid of facing wraith of all of them… That, someone, was confident enough to do this…

”Lucifer?” The sound of Solomon’s voice brought him back. Everyone was looking at him, he must’ve got lost in his thoughts.

”Yes?”

”We were just discussing the possibility of reaching MC through the pacts they have with you and your brothers.”

”That would require a lot of preparations.” Barbatos mentioned. ”MC isn’t familiar enough with magic, they might not pick up the contact at all.”

”Either way I don’t think we have much choice here. Unless we find out more about the spellcaster or MC’s location we can’t do anything more. All we know is that they never left our realm and that they are alive.” Diavolo exclaimed. It wasn’t as obvious but his hands were tied there. He genuinely had no clue what could have happened to his exchange student. It was almost as if he was reminding himself that they have at least some information about them and their wellbeing.

”I’ll begin the preparations immediately.” Solomon confirmed.

”We have most of the ingredients and items needed for it here.” Barbatos mentioned. ”Should we go and get them?”

”Yes, once we’re ready we’ll fetch everyone and try our shot on it.” Diavolo decided.

Mammon was laying on his bed and gazing at the ceiling for an hour now. His empty eyes were trying to memorise every single curve, colour or shadow on it. He couldn’t stop thinking about them anyway, about how he failed everyone and how it was his fault. He was the one to protect them, and he was the one to lose them. What was he even thinking? It was so obvious that they weren’t safe by themselves! That’s the reason why he was meant to be there! To prevent such things from happening! His fists balled and his breathing was getting quicker as all these thoughts were spilling from him, the sadness and sorrow were marking the white sheets.

After Lucifer, Solomon and Satan left he couldn’t figure out what to do. The guilt overflowing him with every second was making him choke. He wanted to help. He wanted to help but he had no idea what to do. He wanted to help so badly. So he took their textbook and said he’ll put it in their room. He wanted to do something.

He didn’t even notice that he went to his room instead. So now the textbook was somewhere on his bed. He just tossed it onto it, angry that he couldn’t focus enough to do something so small.

The bed creaked softly when he moved to get it. He turned around and there they were. Laying next to him and scrolling through their D.D.D. Smiling at something they saw. He stopped and just looked at them with his eyes wide open. His hand slowly reached towards them.

”Mammon, check this out.” Their voice sounded so soothing. They handed him the device.

But when he looked down it was the textbook that they were holding. When he looked up they were gone. A plain sheet of paper slipped from between the pages and feel onto the sheets.

”This is the gate to the next circle. Lust – the second one out of nine.”

”What is it like?” They breathed out.

”Souls of those who reside there are… not peaceful at all. They’re serving a sentence I’m not sure what will you have to do to cross it but I know it’s possible.” His words echoed. ”I have no knowledge of what they actually look like, you’ll have to be prepared for the worst. Staying alert is crucial here, don’t let anything distract you.” His expression was pained.

”I want you to be honest with me. How hard is it actually? What chances do I have?” They were too numb to cry more.

”I don’t have enough knowledge to tell you this MC. It’s behind this door where the real hell is. I can only wish you luck.”

”Okay.” They whispered and tried to steady their breathing. ”I’ll go in.”

Mammon put down the textbook and instead lifted up the paper.

”It’ll be hard, no doubt. But it’s not impossible.” He reminded them as the door opened. Behind them was pitch black void. ”I’m sorry MC. I’m sorry that it happened to you.”

His words faded behind them as they stepped into the abyss.

”Lucifer! Where’s Lucifer!” Mammon screamed barging into the living room.

”Why are you screaming? He’s still at Lord Diavolo’s castle.” Asmo glared at him.

Him, Beel and Belphie were doing their own research while waiting for others to return. Leviathan left earlier mumbling something about marine. Sprawled across the floor were random books that they found in Satan’s room and the library.

”Solomon was wrong!” He almost cried out. ”That paper ain’t empty! Look at it!”

He carefully passed the sheet to his brother. It was now covered in different glowing patterns.

”Fuck…” Belphegor mumbled. ”Those are pretty complicated spells and summoning phrases.”

”We should go to meet others immediately.” Beel spoke.

Asmo scrunched his eyebrows. Something was oddly familiar about the patterns, but he couldn’t decipher them. ”Let’s go then.” He said and marched out of the room.

#obey me #obey me!#obey me lucifer #obey me shall we date #obey me leviathan #obey me luke #obey me simeon #obey me solomon #obey me belphegor #obey me beelzebub #obey me barbatos #obey me asmodeus #obey me mammon #obey me mc #obey me satan #obey me diavolo

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chayacat · 4 years

Text

Devil’s Sweet Star (10)

Fandom : Dead by Daylight

Ghostface x Female Reader

Rated M for Violence, Language and Smut

***

The sky is clear on this evening, the wind is not too cool, almost an ideal time to go kill or stalk someone. Unfortunately for Danny, this ideal evening is a bit taken by Mr Hoggins' reception. Melina invited you with him and Mattew to come to her house to get ready, so you will quickly be at the reception. As the women prepared in Melina’s bedroom, the boys changed in the guest room.

“Damn I don't like costumes! I feel way too different! How can you...” he starts, turning to Danny before freezing on the spot. “wow...”

Danny was in front of him, putting the sleeves of his jacket back on. His hair was not tied this time, cascading over his shoulders. He had left his glasses in their boxes, revealing his piercing blue eyes. Did I ever tell you that this boy was beautiful? Tell you that, in a suit, he's divine to look at.

“Damn Jed! You've got fucking class like that! You're going to get everyone's attention like that.” said Mattew impressed.

“You... You think so? Well, thank you. You're not bad either.” answer Jed with a little smile while Danny smiles bigger. Of course, he’s handsome. he knows it since a long time.

“Frankly, you should have more confidence in yourself and your physique.”

“Is everyone ready?” said Melina by putting on her earrings. “woah what a class... If I didn't know you, I would have invited you for a drink.”

Danny sighed, shaking his head before he saw you. His heart missed a beat when he saw you in this purple dress, your hair well-coiffed, a very discreet makeup on your face. You looked like an angel. If you had been alone, believe me that Danny would not have hesitated for a moment to explore every part of your body. As Ghostface of course.

“You’re...you’re beautiful.” He said by placing a kiss on your hand.

“So are you.” you respond blushing at this gesture.

“If these gentlemen, ladies, are ready... we have a scandal to find.” replied Melina with a wink.

Danny slit his throat, in order to regain a countenance and then headed with the others to the car. As a good gentleman, he opened the door for you and let you ride the first one before settling down. Melina got behind the wheel and once everyone was tied up, she set out for Mr Hoggins' villa for the reception.

“Well remember everyone, the purpose of our presence is not only to cover the event, but also to find evidence about the plots of Hoggins and McKellan. Jed has to go to Hoggins' office without getting noticed, find the evidence, and then we're off. Got it?” said Melina looking at you and Danny in the rear-view mirror.

“We'll stay in contact with the little earbuds that our boss gave us! If we ever see any movement, we will notify you immediately!” said Mattew.

“if you're not too distracted by the butlers or some of the guests.” said Danny sneering.

Mattew slapped him on the knee, making him laugh even more. Then he put his attention to you, a big smile on his face thinking back to last night. Seeing you as confident but frightened as a little doe amused him a little.

The road seemed endless, almost falling asleep, but after an hour and a half drive, the villa of Hoggins was visible. Danny looked at you and saw that you were slightly stressed when you saw the building.

“Just relax. It's going to be all right. stays natural no matter what, okay?” He said, laying his hand on your shoulder.

“Okay...I’ll try my best, but It's going to be difficult.” You answer with a little smile.

Melina parked a little further and everyone got out of the car looking closer at the building. The group advanced to the front door, Danny warning the security that you were accompanying them. There were a lot of wealthy people tonight, discussing everything and nothing with such arrogance that, if Danny had a knife on his hand, he'd slit them all to the last, before gutting them and cutting them into thin slices.

They had a drink handed to them by a butler and took the opportunity to listen to the discussions between the guests. While some were delighted and surprised about this partnership, others were not really surprised.

Among them was Richard Hoggins, the master of the place. He must have been in his fifties, bald but straight and proud as a prince. Everything about this man was sweating lust, and that's what disgusted Danny to the point.

“You must be the journalists of the Roseville Gazette, I suppose? It's strange, your boss told me you'd only be 3...who is this lovely lady?” said Hoggins, placing a kiss on your hand.

“She came with us.” Said Danny, taking you by the waist to get closer to him. If there's one thing Danny doesn't like, it's to share what’s HIS. And if he doesn't want to end up as a headless rider, Hoggins better leave you alone.

“Well, I count on you to immortalize this evening so that all the newspapers of the state see the magnificence of my success. For the fifth time.”

“Sure Sir! Mattew and I would like to ask you about this, our readers want to know more about this new partnership you signed and its long-term future. it should last... 1 or 2 hours maximum?” Said Melina staying calm looking at Danny who nodded, understanding the message.

Hoggins nodded and took Melina and Mattew to a room away from the noise to chat quietly. Danny took his camera out of his purse and started taking pictures of the reception. If he didn't want to be spotted, he had to play his role. He took the opportunity to take a picture of you, which surprised you.

“A little souvenir of the evening, and the best photo I would have taken.” he said with a smile.

“So... what’s the plan?” you ask innocently.

“We'll take some pictures for the newspaper as planned. We have to go into hoggins’ office and find out what we are looking for. Don't lose sight of me and stay close enough to me. Okay?” he whispered at your ear.

“Okay.”

Danny took a few more pictures before putting his camera in his bag. Noticing that in the next room there was music and people dancing, a mischievous smile came to his lips. And why not enjoy it a little?

“Wanna dance? since we're here... we might as well enjoy it, right?” he asks, reaching out his hand towards you.

“I... I don't know how to dance... I never had the opportunity. And then we don't really have time for that... Don't you think so Jed?” you answer shyly and embarrassed.

“It's true. But it's not every day that you can go to a reception. And don't worry... I never had the opportunity to dance either.” replied Danny with a little smile.

You hesitate a few seconds before taking his hand. You both find yourself in the middle of the dancers and, if you didn’t know how to dance, Danny is an expert. He couldn't help but smile when he saw your desolate look every time you missed his foot or missed a step.

But little by little you pick up the pace. Everyone was looking at you two, Unintentionally, you became the center of attention. Danny doesn’t care, it flattered his ego, his narcissism fed on this attention.

And among all these worms, these rotten bourgeois to the marrow, there is you. An angel among the demons, a sheep among the wolves. You are HIS toy, and only to him. If you must be afraid, if you must feel in danger, it will be only because of him. And his mask. Until he kills you, tired of you.

After about thirty minutes, you finally stop dancing, but you don't let go of each other. Danny ends up being the first, clearing his throat to regain a countenance.

“See? You’re pretty good for someone who has never danced. Come on, we still got something to do.” he said before leaving the room, you at his heels.

He walked to hoggins’ office, but the corridor leading to it was closed and guarded. We're going to have to find another way in. One advantage for Danny is that there is no security camera. How does he know? When Danny does research, he studies everything. Absolutely EVERYTHING.

What? Did you forget who he was or what? It shouldn't surprise you though. Danny went outside, pretending to take some air before beckoning you to follow him discreetly. He was impressed to see how involved you were. You could be a good accomplice... if you were less naïve.

Escaping from all eyes, he saw the window of Hoggins' office slightly open. What an idiot... he is so pretentious that he leaves the windows open. It's an invitation to go home for our dear assassin. he is almost flattered.

“I could pass through the window... But I need to know if Hoggins is still interviewed. Mattew? Do you hear me? Hoggins left the room or not?” ask Danny

“Hey! No Melina continues to interview him. But she'll be soon run out of questions. How about you?” respond Mattew through the earbud.

“I found a way in. Stay careful and watch the door in the main room. It's the hallway that leads to the office.”

“No problem! Be careful! I'll warn you at the slightest movement!” replied Mattew.

“If you see anyone coming this way, stay natural, okay? Just pretend you're getting some fresh air outside.” said Danny to you before getting inside the office from the window.

One thing is for sure, this office is more luxurious than the rest of the villa: statues, paintings, a library going around the room, and an office so large that you could put 5/6 computers on it. This is what serves as an office for one of the most influential men on the market.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see this when you are one of the biggest crooks in the country... Tsk he deserves more than prison.” said Danny before examining the desk.

He opened the drawers one by one, looking for a folder, a letter, something that could be used for the newspaper. He eventually found a printed e-mail sent by McKellan. He said he was just waiting for the green light from hoggins before taking action to sink his competitor with whom he had just signed a partnership. That's exactly what he needed.

“Well, Hoggins...seems like YOU’LL be the one who sink soon. And maybe your head will fall too...just like McKellan. I think I found a new victim.”

“Jed! Hoggins goes to his office. Get the f**k out of here quick! Said suddenly Melina through the earbud.

Danny took a picture of the mail before closing everything and coming out the window, closing it as it was. Taking you gently by the arm, you return to the interior to find Melina and Mattew. But it's hard to spot them with all this crowd. He beckoned Melina when he saw her with Mattew and they both joined you.

“I found something. I'll show you this in the car.” said Danny discreetly.

“Too bad I would have liked to have taken advantage of it a little more …" said Mattew.

“Are you leaving already? I hope you were able to take some pictures...” Said Hoggins, looking at Danny with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I'm the best photographer you’ve never met.” responds Danny before taking a photo of Hoggins. “You will soon be able to admire your face on the Roseville gazette as well as on all the newspapers of the state.” he replied with an Insolent smile.

“Looking forward to seeing you again... Miss.”

You fake a smile and then leave the reception with the trio. You sigh in relief when you finally reach Melina’s car.

“I don't want to see this guy again... Never again.” you said worried.

“I promise you won't see him again. Look what I found.” said Danny before showing the picture to the others.

“Tsk motherf***er. He will pay soon. Let’s get out of here. This place made me sick. Said Melina before starting the car and go home.

The way home appeared shorter, and once you arrived, you and Danny picked up your bags where your clothes were. Then he drove, greeting Melina and Mattew before taking the road with you in the passenger seat. Arrived at your destination and once on the doorstep of your apartment you take off your shoes.

“I'm glad I'm not a woman. I don't think I would have had the faith to wear these things.” said Danny laughing.

“it's real torture. I'd like to be in your shoes. At least the only shoes you're wearing are sneakers.” you respond with a sigh. “but I don't regret this night. I had a great time. Let's hope we don't do this for nothing.”

“With this e-mail, we're sure to make things happen. Even the bribes won't save him this time.”

“Thanks Jed... Good night.” you said, placing a kiss on his lips unintentionally.

Danny was speechless. And it took him a few seconds to regain his spirits. You realized what had just happened and not knowing what to say, you back up to your door and go back to your apartment without saying a word more. Danny quickly returned home and quickly slammed the door, knocking on her.

“Shit! This is not the time! I have to stay focused... I can't destroy everything now. I can't... not right away.”

He goes to his office and get his bag before looking at his hunting board, especially Mike's photo.

He still has some work to do.

He has a gift to prepare.

***

(Done! I'll hope you liked it like the others! By the way, do you have a tumblr page to recommend me about slashers? See ya!)

#dbd fanfic #dbd #dead by daylight #ghostface #danny johnson #jed olsen

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maknaesdancersrappers · 4 years

Text

Devoted 2

part 9

Overall warning/s: kinkier smut (eg. voyeurism, exhibition, etc.) character death, dark themes

Just how devoted is Jaehyun to you?

prev: part 8

wc: 8.2k

You could hear voices outside. You peek out of one eye, blinded by the light after being shut for so long and automatically forced them open when you realized it was the sunlight coming from the window that blinded you. You whipped your head towards the little alarm clock on your nightstand, blinking at the red numbers that read 10:54 AM.

Shit.

You sat up, cussing at yourself when your head began to spin. Pausing for a moment, you realized you didn’t have anything planned today aside from getting groceries for tonight’s get together. Still, you scold yourself, you shouldn’t be oversleeping; not after last night’s events.

Then you heard voices outside your room again. It sounded like Jaehyun, but why was he still home? The other voice took you a moment to register, but eventually recognized it as Yuta’s. Why were they here at this hour? You swung your legs over the bed and trudged to the bathroom to freshen up. When you were done, you threw on some decent clothing and peeked out of the door.

You froze when you met eyes with a complete stranger, heart dropping to the floor as you assumed the worse. He doesn’t seem to notice your distress at his presence, respectfully bowing his head and quietly greeting you a good morning. It throws you off for a moment until Jaehyun appears behind him and smiles at you.

“Good morning, baby. Did you sleep well?”

“I,” You looked down the hall and spotted a couple more men, dressed in the same shirt as the first one, talking to Yuta, “Yeah… aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“Not today. I’m having the security cameras installed. Get your phone, by the way, so you can download their app.”

You got your phone and followed him out into the living room, where Yuta smiles at you.

“Good morning! I hope we didn’t wake you up.” He gestures to his employees.

“Not at all! If anything, I should be thanking you for doing so since I overslept.”

He motions for you to come closer, pointing to a dark gray box by the television, “Here, the QR code for the app is on the camera’s router. It saves every footage from each camera and only you two have access to it; or a third party of your choice in case of emergencies, which I recommend you doing. Jaehyun is already designated as the admin, unless you have any qualms on that.”

You playfully hum, jutting your bottom lip out and crossing your arms, “I do, actually.”

Jaehyun chuckles, “You can be the admin to it, dear.”

“I’m kidding, does it really matter which one of us is the admin?” You opened up your phone’s camera and placed it over the QR code. It sends you to a website, titled Nakamoto Technologies, that has a small text greeting Jaehyun, and a unique download button for the app. You tapped on the button and waited for it to download.

“Sir,” One of Yuta’s employees came forward, “We’re done with installing the cameras.”

“Ah, good. Please set it up as well.” He nods, turning to you and Jaehyun, “Come watch so you’ll know what to do in case there’s a system error or reboot.”

You gather at the kitchen table where the man opens up their company laptop and begins to go through the steps one by one.

As his employee demonstrates, your phone vibrates to notify you that the download has finished and you launch the app. You’re taken to a feed of the hallway outside your apartment, where one of the employees is checking the camera and gives a thumbs up.

“Door cam is live.” The man in front of you announced.

You swiped right and the feed changed; you saw yourself along with the others and you looked over to where the camera was at. It was a small dark dome in the corner of the ceiling, barely noticeable at first glance and could even pass off as a light fixture.

“Living room cam is live. So is the hallway camera and kitchen camera. Waiting for the balcony and bedroom camera feeds.”

A part of you still didn’t feel safe as you watched the other camera feeds connect. If the person does get in, the only thing these cameras can do is alert Jaehyun and be a witness to the possible crime done onto you. The thought sends a shiver down your spine. You’re still praying to every higher being that this is all some prank and whoever Kun was trying to tell you about is just a thing of the past.

You feel a hand come over your shoulders and Jaehyun squeezes you lightly, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” You dismissed, “Just need some coffee. Would any of you like anything?”

After they assured you they were fine, you ambled over to the kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee. You glanced at the kitchen camera; it didn’t look noticeable either. Choosing the hazelino muffin flavor and popping the bronzy pod into the Nespresso machine, you leaned against the counter and waited for it to brew. Did Jaehyun take a day off today just to have the cameras installed? Or is he coming into work when they’re finished?

Today, Ten was coming in from Thailand to visit and everyone was adamant to get together. Fortunately, you and Jaehyun already volunteered to host the gathering. You had to go to the grocery to pick up some ingredients for the food you had planned on serving. Would Jaehyun accompany you? You glanced over your shoulder just as your coffee was ready and saw Jaehyun and Yuta talking seriously.

Her personal camera.

That’s what you could read from your fiance’s lips. Personal camera? For what?

Images from that time in his office and the lewd video saved on his computer flashed in your head, bringing a wave of heat over your cheeks.

Oh.

You picked up your coffee mug and softly blew at it, wondering if Jaehyun had ever watched that video back.

A cell phone rang behind you and Jaehyun’s voice took over the abrupt halt of the ringtone.

“What? She hasn’t been home for 3 days?”

The concern in his voice makes you spin around. Who was he talking about?

“How about our cameras? Nothing?” He puts a hand over his forehead and uses his thumb and ring finger to rub circles on his temples, “Okay. Yeah, no, she—she’s fine. They’re done installing here. I’ll let her know. You take care, too, hyung.”

That must have been Yunho, then. You let out a little gasp; were they talking about Mina? Dread and worry began to bubble in your stomach. Could the person who sent the note be the reason why Mina is missing? Was she kidnapped? You put your mug down and paced towards Jaehyun, “Was that about Mina?”

He frowns, “Y-yeah, it was. Yunho said her family requested for a welfare check after she didn’t contact them like she usually does when she gets home. The police have been contacted already.”

“I hope she’s okay.” You bit down on your lip, “Nothing seemed strange when she left for work the day she was last seen?”

“No, she went home with one of the secretaries, Sera. But Sera says they separated at the train station because Mina said she was going to meet someone and that was the last of their interaction. Mina never mentioned who she was meeting or where exactly she was going.”

“Then police should search up any surveillance cameras around the area to determine where she went off to.” Yuta interjected, “There’s bound to be establishments that have their own CCTVs that caught her.”

You put a hand on Jaehyun’s arm, “Please update me about her situation, okay?”

“Okay.” He pulled you forward and kissed your forehead, “I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s not think the worst has befallen her.”

“Even so, she looks like someone who would put up a good fight before going down.” Yuta curtly chuckles before he clears his throat. “Looks like the setup is done and everything is working fine. If they’re are any problems, I’m a call away.”

“Thank you, Yuta. Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for this?”

“Let’s call it an engagement gift.” He grins brightly, “And if you want the same setup for your house, we’ll call that a housewarming gift.”

Yuta and his workers left shortly afterwards, leaving you to return to your coffee and Jaehyun insisting he’ll cook lunch for the two of you.

“What time does Ten arrive?” He asks, washing his hands at the sink.

“Two, I think. He’ll have a few hours to rest up a bit at his hotel.” You take a lengthy gulp of your coffee, softly moaning at the warmth coating your throat. “Oh, I have to go to the grocery!”

Jaehyun hums, “Okay, let’s go around three?”

You smile to yourself; of course he wouldn’t let you go alone. You definitely did not mind. It’s been a while since the two of you went grocery shopping together. “Sounds good. I’m sure they’ll be here at 9 so there’s plenty of time to cook and dilly dally.”

“Dilly dally?” He repeats, clearly amused as he spares you a glance before fetching ingredients in the refrigerator. “What exactly do you mean by dilly dally?”

“Whatever you want it to mean as, baby.” You shot back with a wink, “But it feels so tense lately, a bubble bath sounds good right now.”

“You deserve one, baby.”

You pout, “I think you deserve one, too. Even a massage.”

Jaehyun shakes his head, unable to contain his smile. “Should I call for a masseuse later?”

“Like I’d let any other woman touch you for too long.” You huffed, jutting your bottom lip out at the thought.

“I’d still like a massage though. If I do the dishes, can I get a happy ending?”

“Of cou— have you ever received a happy ending massage?!”

He bursts out laughing, “No, I haven’t. Don’t worry. Are those even still a thing? Like there are still salons that offer that?”

“I don’t know and we never will because we can handle it ourselves, okay?”

“Baby, calm down, do you honestly think I’d avail that from anyone else aside from you? Besides, I only found out about those when I was in high school.”

Your ears perked up at this, “High school?”

“Yeah, I told you how my friends back then were basically scum, right? Every week, especially after training, they’d get massages. I went once and the girl offered the happy ending service — which I didn’t really understand until she tried reaching for my dick and I declined it.” He practically shuddered at the memory, pausing from chopping onions. “I never went with them again.”

This was the first time he openly talked about something from when he was in high school. It’s not a happy memory, but he’s still opening up.

“Do you really hate them? Your friends from high school, I mean.”

Jaehyun doesn’t respond at first and you patiently wait for him to set aside the vegetables he’s cut before he looks at you. “I still had fun with them, I guess. If it weren’t for the vices, I would have liked to stay friends with most of them.”

You’re finished with your coffee, bringing it over to the sink to wash and put it away on the rack. Afterwards, you walked over to Jaehyun and kissed his cheek as a silent thank you for opening up.

He glances at you with an unsure smile, knowing you kissed him for something but wasn’t sure on the cause, so you took the chance to kiss his lips.

“I’ll set the table.” You quietly murmured after he pulled away.

Instead of the actual dining table, you only laid out the kitchenware on the breakfast counter. Jaehyun finished cooking just as you got two bowls full of rice and sat yourself down on the barstool. He brings over the food after plating and plays a song on his phone after quickly hooking up the bluetooth speakers from the living room.

You both start eating, appreciatively moaning at the burst of flavor dancing on your tongue. What you’d do to have Jaehyun cook for the two of you permanently if he wasn’t so busy with work.

“Oh, right. My mom called this morning. She found two possible wedding venues for us already.” Jaehyun informs you after swallowing. “One is a high end resort and the other is a private property; a friend of hers. I think it’s Yebin’s aunt.”

“Doesn’t the resort sound better? We can reserve rooms for the guests.”

“If we choose the resort, we’ll be reserving the whole place.”

You almost choked on your food, “We barely have 50 guests, Jaehyun. I don’t think we have to reserve the entire place. There are people who could have been waiting to book that place for a vacation.”

He purses his lips, “Then let’s go with my mom’s friend. It’s a villa they own for their family’s vacation homes and they have cherry blossom trees that fit the color scheme you want. We could have the entire place for ourselves. We wouldn’t need that much security either.”

Pushing the rice around your bowl with your chopsticks, you silently reminded yourself how prominent of a family Jaehyun belonged to. It would make headlines, of course, and there’s bound to be press trying to sneak a few shots of the wedding. Privacy is top priority among the Jungs.

“Okay. But can we do an ocular?”

“Oh, uhm…” Jaehyun trails off, “I might have an overseas trip this weekend. Is it okay if only you and mom go? Her friend is only available this week, too, before she heads back to Europe.”

You’re a little disappointed, but you’re not going to tell him you want him there because you’re certain he’ll do everything in his power to cancel the trip for a petty request. You nod your head, “I don’t mind! In fact, maybe I’ll ask my mom to tag along and we can have a nice girl’s weekend.”

“That sounds great.” He grins, “Ask Minkyung and Yebin as well, maybe they’re free.”

“If we want cherry blossoms to bloom on our wedding day, that would give us six months from today.” It’s the middle of September and Spring starts in April. “Isn’t that too quick? Doesn’t wedding planning take at least a year?”

He reaches over the table and puts his hands over yours, “Would you rather have me preserve cherry blossom trees for our wedding?”

You feel your eyes almost bugging out at the suggestion, “That… sounds expensive… preserve a tree?”

“No, love, a couple of trees. We can’t just have one, maybe six? And you know I wouldn’t mind spending millions for our wedding.”

“Well I mind!” You groaned, “But honestly, a spring wedding is the most ideal for me, if not a winter one.”

Jaehyun chuckles, “I don’t mind having a wedding for each season, baby. If you’re worried about the cost and the possible annoyance of our friends and families at having four weddings, then we could always just dress up for the occasion and do it ourselves.”

This makes you laugh while shaking your head in disbelief, “Just say our vows, kiss, and dance for a night?”

“Who knows, maybe for the winter ‘wedding’, we’ll be three.”

It didn’t click in your head at first what he had meant at first because as cheesy as it sounds, the way he looked at you with soft, gleaming eyes had you distracted for a moment, but his thumb moves across your knuckles and you have visions of his hand running over your swollen belly.

“That soon?” You lightheartedly teased, moving your hand so your fingers intertwined.

“I said ‘maybe.’” He squeezes your hand, “We’ll have a baby whenever you’re ready.”

“Well then,” You retract your hand away from his when you see both your plates are empty, “I can promise you that you don’t have to wait a year.”

You stand up and start to reach for his plates but he lightly swats your hands away.

“Nuh uh, not today. I’ll do the dishes.”

“But you already cooked for us.”

“And I’ll clean up for us, too.” He drags your plate away from you and stands up as well. “For a price, of course.”

The coy smile on his face makes you narrow your gaze at him. Putting a hand on your hip, you cocked a brow, “And that price is?”

He winks at you, “It involves your mouth.”

“That’s it?” You scoffed, sashaying over to his side of the table, “Easy.”

The smug look on his face is instantly wiped away when you grab his crotch and he winces in shock.

“I—I meant later—”

“Oh, I know. Just warming it up.”

Jaehyun tries to move away, but ends up bucking his hips into your touch when you flex your hands. The pained expression on his face makes you giggle, seeing the conflict of trying to be sane enough to do his chores or just giving into your temptation.

You pull away and cross your arms, “I’ll go run us a bath now.”

“God damn it.” He grumbles, but sucks in a breath and forces out a smile, “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Take your time.”

“No the fuck I won’t.”

You burst out laughing, spying the annoyance in his features as he walks past you after gathering the plates in his hands. You make your way down the hall, glancing at the newly installed camera without much thought, and head inside the bathroom. As you run the bath, you peruse through your small collection of bath bombs and pick out a pink and grayish-purple one with a rose design. Giving it a quick whiff, you sigh at the scent of jasmine and ylang-ylang invading your senses. Any other day, Jaehyun would have probably preferred the green tea and peppermint one (although you’re convinced he’s only amused that it’s shaped like a dinosaur) but you’re certain he’s going to love this one just as much.

You gently lower it into the warm water, the instant fizzing of the bath bomb as it disintegrates in your hand tickles you. You let it float on its own to turn the tap off and decide to get it before Jaehyun comes. However, as you were halfway through tugging off your shirt above your head, a pair of hands slithered over your bare waist from behind to your chest. You toss your shirt to the side and strained your neck to look at Jaehyun, who merely smiles.

“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just warming it up.”

“Enough warming up, the water will get cold.” You pushed against him using your butt as you peeled down your shorts and underwear.

He steps back and you think it’s so he could take off his clothes, but then you feel his hands on your ass, spreading your cheeks apart so he could access your pussy with his tongue. You fall forward, grabbing onto the edge of the tub with a loud gasp.

“Jae—”

He moans and the vibrations affect you as well. You weren’t very keen on this position, not when his nose is just poking at your anus, but he obviously doesn’t mind.

“Jaehyun,” You whimpered when his tongue reached your clit, “The water.”

He relents, standing up after delivering a soft smack on your pussy, but doesn’t let go of your body. “I know, I know.”

You straighten yourself up, only to flinch when he snakes his hand between your legs. “If you keep doing that, I’ll feel bad about wasting this bath I ran.”

He chuckles, kissing your shoulder, “Which one is this one?”

“It’s jasmine-scented.” You push his hand away and spin around, grabbing hold onto the edge of his shirt. “It’s called Sex Bomb.”

His eyebrows shoot up ever so slightly, “Is that so? Well, let’s get my clothes off and hop in.”

“If you could have just kept your hands to yourself for just a second, we could have breezed through that step ages ago.” You pulled his shirt up and he shrugs it off completely, tossing it to where you discarded your shirt. You then push his sweats down and he kicks it off to the side.

Getting into the tub first, you wait for him to make himself comfortable before sitting between his legs and leaning back on his chest. The water’s temperature was just right, not too hot for the two of you to be bothered or too cold for either of you to get sick.

“Can we please make joined bath times a weekly thing?” You sighed, hugging onto one of his arms that slung around you.

“Baby, you read my mind.” Jaehyun kisses the back of your head. “Now, about that payment for earlier.”

You rolled your shoulders back, exaggerating your movements, “Ooh, my body still feels a bit stiff though.”

Jaehyun scoffs behind you, bringing his hands over your chest, “That��s it?” Mocking your tone from earlier, “Easy.”

“A new house!” Ten exclaims, pounding his fist on the table, shaking the cocktails in their glasses. “Tell me when and where so I can clear my schedule for the housewarming!”

“Knowing Jung, it’s not just a house.” Yebin makes a remark as she narrows her eyes at you for confirmation, to which you move your head around in a nonchalant manner, and she scoffs, “Of course.”

“Heard the Kangs bought new land down south.” Jaehyun snides, laid back on his chair with his arm draped on the back of yours. “Is it another private property or are you commercializing it?”

She snorts, rolling her eyes, “Of course we’re commercializing it. A resort we’ll have the honor of staying at before it even opens.”

Doyoung makes a face at her, “So, we’re the guinea pigs?”

Everyone laughs when Yebin unabashedly shrugs her shoulders and crinkles her nose.

“Oh!” You exclaimed, perking up in your seat. “Speaking of private property, Yebin, Minkyung, are you guys free this weekend? I’ll be doing an ocular for the wedding venue and it would be a great girl’s weekend—”

Minkyung gasps with visible excitement in her eyes, “Bachelorette party?!”

“Do you want strippers—ow!” Yebin yelps, jerking up and hitting her knee on the table. She glares at Jaehyun, “What are you, 12?”

“Our mothers are coming along.” He grits through his teeth before taking a sip of his whiskey. “I suggested having the two of you tag along since I’ll be out of the country this weekend.”

“Well then, I’m in! We can plan the actual bachelorette party there.” Minkyung gleefully chirps, smiling at you.

“No—ow!” It was Jaehyun’s turn to cry, hitting the underside of the table so hard that the forks clattered.

“Johnny, plan this man a bachelor’s party!” Yebin elbows the man beside her, who’s brows shoot up as he glances at Jaehyun.

“Okay. Leave it to me.”

Jaehyun grimaces and you laugh at his expression, knowing he can’t stop Johnny now if he says those four words.

“Enough about us!” You wave your hand around, feeling warm from your fourth glass of wine. “How about you guys? Dons? Are you still hooking up with that divorce attorney?”

Doyoung almost spat out his whiskey, quickly grabbing a napkin to dab his lips. Everyone begins to jeer as he coughs loudly, “Uhm, yeah, every other week. Just to destress, you know?”

“Nice.” Yebin raises her wine glass at him, but he just makes a face at her. “Oh my god, imagine if you accidentally knock that chick up. You’d have a kid before these two.”

“Not a chance. She’s both on pills and film.” Doyoung vehemently shuts the idea down, shaking his head in denial. “I’m not fit to be a dad either.”

“Aw, Dons,” You coo, “You don’t know that. Didn’t you have a name planned for a son back in high school?”

He sucks his teeth, looking up as he tries to remember, eyes growing wide along with a smile, “Oh, right! I think I said Jeno or something. I don’t know; that was for that project on genetics.”

“Oh my god,” Minkyung props her elbow up on the table and rests her chin on her palm, “Could you guys imagine all our kids being friends? That would be so cute. Please! We need to make them best friends, too!”

“Honey, that’s only happening if we all manage to get pregnant or impregnate someone in a specific timeline.” Yebin points out, taking another swig of her drink.

Minkyung pouts for a brief moment, using her free hand to meticulously tap her manicured nails rhythmically on the table before slapping the surface and leaning towards you. “When are you two having kids?”

You almost regurgitate your drink back into the glass, surprised that she was really contemplating the idea.

“[Y/N] promised we don’t have to wait a year after the wedding.” Jaehyun casually answers, swirling his whiskey around, “So maybe by the end of the next year?”

“Okay, I can do that.” Minkyung tells herself.

Yebin stares at her, “Min, you’re not actually thinking about having a baby just to make sure they’ll be besties with theirs. Think about your job.”

Minkyung worked as a model that was highly sought after by high end fashion brands and this barely gave her time to socialize since she flew to Europe and America for fashion weeks and photoshoots, let alone date someone.

“So I’ll be on hiatus for a few years, so what?” She waves her hand, “If these two are having kids, I am going to give them the best present: a best friend.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend.” Ten points out, “Gosh, do you even get laid?”

“You don’t know two shits, Ten.” Minkyung retorts in a sweet voice and an innocent smile. “Anyways, there’s something I am very curious about and I’m tipsy enough to ask it without regrets: what happened between you and Johnny?”

The table went silent for a moment before the two men in question burst out laughing.

“John, didn’t you tell them?”

“I was hoping I didn’t have to... with what’s going on and all but…” Johnny scratches his nape, letting out a heavy sigh, “Our relationship was just for shits and giggles. We established that from the get go especially since my parents arranged a marriage for me between a business partner.”

“I thought you got out of that?” Jaehyun asks, moving the hand behind to your shoulder and giving you a lazy massage. “The Bae conglomerate, right?”

Johnny nods his head, releasing another drawn out sigh before taking a sip, “Yeah, the one that hates men.”

“Irene?” Yebin’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head, “Her parents are arranging her marriage… with you?!”

“I’m sorry, is there something wrong with marrying me?” He says in faux offense, putting a hand over his chest and jutting his bottom lip out at her. “But, yeah, Irene. You know her?”

Jaehyun mumbles something into his glass about not being surprised about that, although those across the table — including Yebin — hears him, prompting Yebin to give him a pointed glare.

“Yeah, we were classmates. Kyeonggi Girls’.”

You licked your lips; “Kyeonggi…?”

“The elite all girls’ academy.” She flips her hair and bats her eyelashes at you, “Everyone was fake.”

“Why does that school sound familiar?”

“Because I went to Kyeonggi Boys’? Their brother school? Did you forget?” Jaehyun pinched your waist and you jerked towards him, backhanding his stomach for doing so. “But I agree, our school is a breeding ground for fakes.”

“I bet your schools had mandatory boy-girl interactions.” Johnny chuckled, “Did you two meet back then?”

“No. Thank god.” They said in unison, making everyone burst out into laughter while they share annoyed looks at one another.

“But, [Y/N],” Jaehyun clears his throat to cut the noise, “You mentioned before that we could have met back then.”

You frowned, not recalling what he was saying, “I did?”

“That interschool sports festival? You told me you won first place in swimming and my team won in basketball.”

“Oh!” You remembered now; during one of your first dates while you talked about competitive swimming, you mentioned winning an interschool competition and that was the time Jaehyun told you where he studied in high school after recognizing the said festival. You cupped his face, “I watched all the basketball games, though, I can’t believe I missed your face.”

“That’s because his visuals are just so-so back in high school. Kyeonggi Boys’ are assholes, but they’re hot. Jung must have blended right in, especially if he’s on varsity basketball.”

“I don’t know if I should be offended you clustered me with them as being assholes or flattered you called us hot.”

“Don’t let it get to your ego, Jung, your fiancee is right there. Besides,” Yebin leaned back, “Almost every girl in Kyeonggi’s wanted your dick. They loved the ice prince vibes; they didn’t even care that someone spread rumors that you were gay… I suppose it’s better that you two didn’t get together in high school because I’m sure my bitch ass classmates would tear your reputation apart.”

Jaehyun makes an indignant sound in retort, “I would have protected her if that had happened.”

Yebin makes a snide comment and sparks another little bicker between her and Jaehyun with Minkyung trying to calm both (mostly Yebin) down. You glance around the table, eyes a little heavy already; Ten and Johnny are talking to themselves about business, while Doyoung was on his phone. Sneaking a peek, you let out a scandalized gasp when you caught sight of the text he had just received.

“You? Sexting?” You put a hand over your mouth to further prove your shock at what you had witnessed. “Dons, just date the woman!”

His face goes bright red, eyes avoiding every gaze turned to him as everyone starts to tease him. “It’s nothing serious! I’m still not attracted to her, I just like the sex!”

“It always starts out that way.” Ten nudged him with his shoulder, “Just let yourself fall when it happens.”

“Anyways!” He exclaims, ready to change the topic, “Jaehyun’s bachelor party, yeah?”

“I don’t want one.” Jaehyun shakes his head, but the three other men have launched themselves into planning it.

“Invite Sicheng!” You butt into their conversation, “Oh, and Yuta, too!”

“Yuta?” Johnny repeats, “Nakamoto? Sure, why not. He’s a cool guy.”

“Ah, of Nakamoto Technologies?”

You knew Johnny knew Yuta, but you didn’t expect Doyoung to know him as well. “You know him, Dons?”

He shrugs, “Not really, but remember that emergency regarding a hack in our system? It was resolved, but the CEO wants to change suppliers. Nakamoto Tech was suggested to us and they seem efficient and trustworthy.”

“They handle our security systems, too. Both at work and here.” Jaehyun mentions, putting his hand back over your shoulder.

“He was here this morning.”

“But you’re moving, why do you need to install a security system here?” Doyoung asks, turning his gaze to where you gestured: the barely noticeable CCTV camera dome in the kitchen ceiling corner.

You open your mouth, ready to answer, but you hesitate, turning to Jaehyun instead, who seemed reluctant to give a reason as well. “Well,”

“Oh my god! Is it your stalker from college? He found you again, didn’t he?” Minkyung lets out a concerned gasp, putting her wine glass down.

You were ready to deny her allegations, but Jaehyun’s voice overpowers yours as he responds, “I’m afraid so. We’re tightening security up to catch him and put him in his place. That’s why I’m a little reluctant to go away for that business trip.”

You stayed quiet, confused as to why Jaehyun would say it was your college stalker, but then again it would be harder to explain why the two of you know that it’s not the guy from college. His hand finds yours under the table and he squeezes tightly with you returning the motion.

“Then hire a damn bodyguard for her!” Yebin yells, “You know you can’t be with her every waking hour and you can’t just lock her up, too!”

“I know that.” Jaehyun grits, “I’m already on top of it. I just haven’t run the idea by [Y/N] yet but I’ve already chosen two bodyguards for her.”

“Isn’t that too much?” You chewed on your bottom lip, glancing between Yebin and Jaehyun. “Do I really need two?”

“Yes.” They, along with Johnny, said. Jaehyun quickly follows up with, “It’s so that they can take turns. Think of it like morning and night shifts. If it were up to me, I would recommend two at a time.”

You shake your head, “I don’t need four bodyguards. But okay, if you think I really need them, then I’d like to meet the two you’ve chosen.”

“There’s a whole company worth of them if you don’t like the two I’ve picked out for you.”

“Oh, are these from Moon Security Services?” Johnny inquires, “Then you’ll be in good hands. Taeil has the best bodyguards and security personnel in the business. Don’t let his looks represent his employees, they’re all army trained.”

As you listened to their conversation, you picked a muscat grape from the platter in front of you and popped it into your mouth. Jaehyun, Johnny, Yebin, and Ten all come from rich families; it would be no surprise that they know who and what the best of best are. Minkyung, despite sharing the same last name as Yebin, isn’t from the Kang Conglomerate, and she proclaims herself as the pauper of the group, yet she studied all her school life under a scholarship and now earns at least 5-digits in dollars as a model. You and Doyoung come from well-off families and work well-paying jobs as well, although yours depended on your clients which made you the one in the group that earned the least. It wasn’t something that bothered you, but moments like these reminded you of it. Without Jaehyun, you wouldn’t be sipping on Schiava or munching on expensive grapes every week. Without him, you wouldn’t be living comfortably in a penthouse and soon, in a mansion that could house four families. You’d like to think you would still do well even if you weren’t with Jaehyun, but the thought of not being with him isn’t something you let your mind dwell on.

You feel a kiss on your temple; you closed your eyes and let yourself smile. When Jaehyun pulls away, you peer up at him and he asks, “Are you okay?”

“Just drowning in my thoughts. Thanks for pulling me out.”

“Is it the stalker?” Minkyung asks, “Karma will bite his ass eventually, [Y/N].”

“I just… What would he want from me anyways? Why me?”

Jaehyun kisses your hair, “If it’s you he wants, then honestly, I don’t blame him.”

“And if it’s not that guy from college,” Yebin crosses her arms over the table, “Let’s say this guy is actually after you, Jung, and they’re going to use [Y/N] against you.”

“If that’s the case,” He grabs a grape and twiddles it between his fingers. “then I’ll deal with it accordingly.”

You silently watch in shock as Jaehyun slowly digs his thumbnail into the little fruit’s flesh, drawing out the sweet juice.

“If someone has a problem with me, then take it out on me. I’m not going to forgive anyone who lays a hand on [Y/N].” He cuts the grape all the way through, popping one half into his mouth. “It’s petty to drag people who aren’t involved into situations they’re not a part of or don’t even belong to.”

It was five in the morning when you woke up with a horrible headache. Last night — well, a couple hours ago — you made the horrible decision to drink 3 bottles of wine with the girls and switch to whiskey when neither of you could stand up to grab a new bottle of Schiava in the fridge. You begrudgingly rolled off the bed, noting Jaehyun wasn’t beside you. You’re not even sure if he got into bed… you don’t even know how you got to bed.

Your mouth was dry like sandpaper, just begging for some water so you trudged your way out to the kitchen. You peered into the guest room, spying Minkyung and Yebin on each of the twin beds, recalling how they claimed each one and banished the boys on the couch. Walking out of the hallway, you silently laugh at Johnny draped across one of the armchairs while Ten and Doyoung comfortably laid themselves on the L-shaped couch, all of them snoring in disharmony. The kitchen cub lights were on and you vaguely heard the sound of running water. Reaching your destination, you find Jaehyun putting away the last whiskey glass into the dishwasher before shutting it and wiping his hands on a towel. On the kitchen island, there were two glasses filled with water and two painkillers.

“Oh, you’re up.” Jaehyun turns around and looks surprised to see you.

“You did the dishes?”

“Well, I only meant to grab us some water and painkillers, but I thought I’d do them anyway.” He gestures to the glasses you’ve already spotted. He cheekily grins at you, a little lopsided that told you he was still drunk, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask for compensation.”

You giggled, almost like a schoolgirl, when his dimples appeared. You drink one of the glasses, gulping down half of it before letting out a satisfied sigh when your thirst is finally quenched. “Are we getting too old to get drunk like this?”

“Absolutely not.” Jaehyun tears one of the painkillers and tosses it into his mouth, “We’re in our mid-20’s, what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m still drunk.” You swallowed down the other pill and chased it with water, “If that thing Minkyung wants — if we all had children and they become best friends — we gotta let them drink when they want, alright? Not like, at 14 when they’re curious, but at like, barely legal age. That’s fine, right? As long as they’re at someone’s house — no clubs and whatnots. We’re gonna be cool parents.”

“Okay, [Y/N].” He pulled you into a hug and kissed your cheek, “Let them drink at a barely legal age; got it.”

“It’s better they learn from us than some strangers. Give them enough freedom so they wouldn’t become rebellious or estranged. Promise me you’ll take our children out on daddy dates.”

“I promise to take our children out to daddy dates.” He repeats, “So mommy can have a spa day to herself.”

“We’re going to spoil them just enough so they wouldn’t turn into entitled brats.” You mumbled into his chest, “Promise me you’re not going to force them into inheriting the family business, especially if they want to become something else.”

“I promise, baby.” He kisses your cheek again, “Little [Y/N] can be anything she wants to be.”

“Hey,” You tilt your head back to see his face, “What if we have a son first?”

“Then what would you name him?”

You moved your hands to cup his cheeks, “Well, I don’t want him to be Jaehyun Jr. or Jaehyun the second… but I still want to name him after you. So maybe something with Jae?”

“Jaebeom? Jaeho? Jaegyu?” He pauses, “Uh… Jaemin?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll decide on it when I’m actually pregnant.”

Jaehyun ducks his head down and presses his lips against yours, “Okay.”

He leans forward again for another kiss, but you lightly push him away.

“Don’t be offended,” You swallowed, “But I want to throw up.”

“What? Then go to the bathroom!” He scolds in a playful manner before quickly escorting you to the toilet and holding your hair up for you.

“I should hire you once I save enough to move.” Minkyung states, moving her sunglasses up as a makeshift headband to inspect the little succulents on display, “You would know how I’d like my home. Something along the lines of light gray, green accents, and—”

“—a splash of pink.” You finished for her, throwing her a smirk over your shoulder as you checked the price of the snake plant.

“See! You know me so well.” Her face drops, “Unless I’m that readable.”

“No, it’s because I lived with you for 4 years.” You laughed, moving over to compare the plants side by side, “Also, you didn’t have to come with me.”

You and Minkyung met up for brunch earlier that day. It was Friday, a week after everyone met up, the day Jaehyun leaves for Hong Kong, and the day before you were scheduled to go check out the possible wedding venues with her, Yebin, and your moms. When you mentioned you had to run an errand for work, she invited herself with you.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Not after what you and Jaehyun told us last week, as if I’d let you be alone in public places. I’ll be with you as long as I can.”

“I have bodyguards, Min.” You peer out the large window to see two men outside, dressed in casual clothes, but had ear pieces and shades on. You met the pair first thing on Monday morning and learned they were cousins. Hyunwoo was older than you by five years while Jooheon was older by two years. They were big and intimidating upon first impression, but they spoke softly and humbly towards you whenever you talked to them. They initially wore suits as their uniform, but after they accompanied you to visit Kyungwon at your old office and accumulated pointed stares, you asked for them to wear casual clothes instead and wait outside or in the car. They drove you around, opened doors for you, and either one would always survey the area before you even arrived. It felt a little too excessive, but in the end all of this was for your safety and Jaehyun’s peace of mind.

Minkyung follows your gaze and pouts, “Well, they’re outside as per your request, but who knows what could happen in here with you.”

“Hyunwoo already checked the place out before we arrived, otherwise Jooheon wouldn’t have let us step foot in here.” You returned your attention to the task at hand; choosing some indoor plants for Yuta’s apartment. Personally, you wanted the peace lilies, but the yellow streaks of the snake plant complemented Yuta’s apartment as a whole. You also had to choose the perfect pot to go with it. “I think it’s too tacky to go with a yellow pot, even if it’s muted. Which is better, black or white?”

“See? You would be standing here all day if I didn’t come with you.” Minkyung rolls her eyes, “I like the white one!”

“If I were to design your new apartment, I’d fill it with plants and call it a day.” You joked, calling for one of the sales attendants.

“And you know what? I wouldn’t be mad about it.” She picked up a small succulent in a lightbulb shaped glass container, “You should try gardening in your new house, [Y/N]! It could be your pregnancy hobby.”

“My what?”

“Like, the hobby you pick up because you’re pregnant. Some people try knitting, some paint, you can try gardening!”

You don’t get to answer back as the sales attendant you flagged down finally came to you and you pointed out which plants you wanted to buy. After it’s settled you and Minkyung follow her to the counter where you fill up some forms to have it delivered to Yuta’s apartment when it’s ready. When you finish, you look back at Minkyung who still had the succulent in her hands, “Are you going to buy that?”

“Yes!” She grins, “I’ve already named it as well!”

“You… name your plants?”

“This is Cadbury.”

“...after chocolates?”

She sighs, “If it dies, then I’ll never eat that brand ever again.”

You stare at her for a good minute, trying to figure out if she was joking or not as she steps forward to the cashier and asks for the succulent to be wrapped. “Have you lost one yet?”

While she fishes out her card from her purse, she offers you a sad pout, “Nutella.”

“Miss [L/N] [Y/N]?” You turn your head to a polite voice over the counter and return the smile, “Hello ma’am! We received an order for flowers to be picked up by you today.”

“Aw!” Minkyung coos, “Jaehyun got you flowers?”

“I…” You paused, releasing a sigh instead and looked back at the sales attendant, “Okay, then, thank you.”

The lady excuses herself to retrieve the flowers at the back of the store and Minkyung leans her head on yours.

“Oh, [Y/N], I wish I’d find someone as sweet as Jaehyun. Did he know you were going here today?”

“Yeah, I texted him before we went here. It’s just weird though, he’ll usually pick it up himself and surprise me back home.”

“Maybe he’s too busy? His flight is tonight, right?” Just then, her eyes practically sparkled as an idea popped in her head, “Let me and Yebs sleepover! I’ll come once he’s gone and it’ll be more efficient for us the next day since we’re leaving before lunch.”

“Sure, I’ll ask Yebin right now.” You take out your phone just as the lady returns with a small, brown clay pot with reddish flowers. It wasn’t what you were expecting; he usually gave you roses or peonies, occasionally sunflowers, in bouquets, but never potted plants. Nonetheless, it’s still from Jaehyun and you readily accept it from the lady. “Oh, thank you. What are these?”

“Begonias, ma’am. If I may, it’s quite peculiar your partner would give you these flowers.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, ma’am, they symbolize caution.”

“Caution?” You and Minkyung said in unison.

The lady waves her hands, “But don’t take it too literally, ma’am. Since they are from your partner, it could mean gratitude and giving thanks.”

Jaehyun is romantic, but you don’t think he’s sensible enough to search up flowers and their symbolisms before giving them to you. With the current situation of him leaving, it could mean he just wants you to be careful and be alert while he’s gone.

After checking out the plants for Yuta’s apartment and Minkyung’s little succulent, you tucked the flower pot in your arms and made your way outside where Jooheon opened the door for the two of you. You dropped Minkyung off at her apartment and Hyunwoo drove you back to yours, where you set the flowers on the living room table and proceeded to pack your weekend bag and Jaehyun’s weekend luggage.

Jaehyun came home earlier than usual as he had a flight at 9PM and you greeted him at the hallway opening with a kiss.

“Minkyung and Yebin are coming over after you leave. They’ll sleepover as well so we don’t have to wait for each other tomorrow morning when we have to leave.” You informed him, watching him loosen his tie. “Are you hungry? I was about to make dinner.”

“I’m starving.” He sheepishly admits, prompting you to glare at him since it meant he had skipped lunch once more. “Work is piling up, baby.”

“That’s not an excuse.” You reprimanded, tiptoeing to kiss him once more, “But I understand. I’ll go get dinner ready. Go freshen up for your flight.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He chases after your lips for a longer kiss before pulling away.

As you moved around him to get to the kitchen, you quickly spun on your heels to face him again, “Oh, and thank you for the flowers. The lady said it was an odd choice.”

You gesture to the begonias on the coffee table and Jaehyun stops untying his tie.

“Oh.” He says after a pregnant pause, “Are they?”

“Yeah and I get it, you want me to be careful. Don’t worry, I will be.”

“Is that what they meant?” He stares at the flowers and moves his attention back to you as you nodded, “They must have mixed up my order then… I’ll replace them.”

“No, you don’t have to. They’re pretty, don’t you think? You don’t have to replace them, besides, the lady said they could also mean gratitude.”

He licks his lips in contemplation, “Alright then.”

You smile at him, giving him another kiss, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Jaehyun whispers back, watching you disappear into the kitchen.

He moves towards the coffee table, scrutinizing the potted red flowers under an intense glare. He wants to cancel his flight and stay with you; but this meeting had the whole Jung’s reputation on the line. There’s a horrible sick feeling in his gut and he could practically feel the familiar rush of anger in his veins. He would never give you flowers with such meanings — no, that’s not the problem — he never even ordered flowers for you today to begin with.

a/n: yay new update 🎉 i’m aiming to update with part 10 in a week or two, meaning the old schedule of uploading on Fridays will be back (hopefully) 🤞🏻 please let me know what you think of this chapter here 🥰

next: part 10

~ buy me a peach? but why?

#nct smut #jaehyun smut #nct scenarios #jaehyun scenarios #devoted au

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artificialqueens · 3 years

Text

Pretty in Pearls, Chapter 1 (Jankie) - Plastiquedoll

read on ao3 💄

Summary: For as long as she can remember, Jan has been in love with her baseball teammate. The only problem is that he always likes an Angela, a Pamela, a Sandra or a Rita better… As years have gone by, she couldn’t get those feelings behind and as a college freshman, she starts noticing more and more things that set her apart from “the other girls”, the ones her crush seems to prefer. She can’t help but think that “maybe if she was prettier, maybe if she was more like them…” things would be different. However, the more she gets to know those girls she also realizes how wonderful they can be; especially a certain girl named Jackie who works in the copy room and who keeps helping Jan unconditionally.

A/N: hi! this is my second chaptered fic -I wrote a little note on ao3 in case the concept of the story sounds off for anyone- but still, I hope you like it and thanks for reading it <3

-Prologue-

When Jan turned ten –to her chagrin- she received a Barbie doll with a lovely dress full of ribbons as her birthday gift. Her older brother -whose birthday had been just two months ago- got a brand new baseball bat and even when she had begged for over a year she could get one, all she got was a plastic lady with blonde hair and pink lips that didn’t look like her at all. It wasn’t fair, she had to play with his worn-out chipping bat with sticky duct tape on the grip when she was way better than her brother. Why couldn’t she get a bat too?

Luckily, Jan being the stubborn she was, had a plan. If her parents weren’t going to gift her a new bat to play baseball, she was going to get it by herself. She spent all summer selling lemonade on her front yard to raise money –hey, if life gives you lemons…- delivering newspapers and doing some other little tasks in exchange for some coins. Even when she worked hard and put her heart into everything she did it wasn’t enough to pay the full. She was about to give up when her grandfather showed up with a late birthday present –a book with a couple of bills hidden inside- not only she could get that new bat, she also got a couple of new balls that had the other kids in the neighborhood green with envy.

Jan had always been the kind of kid that was restless in class, she was a chatterbox and often her teacher had to remind her to be sat during a lesson but in the sports field it was different, she could run, play and win games like no other and she was celebrated for that. She was better than most kids her age and her team had always emerged victorious when she batted, so yeah, baseball was a big deal for her.

It was also around the time she met Nathan.

He was the new kid in school who didn’t talk much with other kids but one afternoon her classmates had asked him to join their team. Jan, who was always picked first with her messy ponytail and bruised knees, didn’t consider that scrawny kid to be a threat. Yet, he proved her wrong as he was the first person to strike her out of a game in ages. Everyone was in disbelief. Jan was competitive and after that humiliating defeat, her new goal was to beat her classmate. The only problem was that he was better than she expected and it took her a while to match his skills.

And with the years, what had started as a rivalry became a friendship. Jan was the only girl in her class that didn’t mind playing in the dirt or hanging out with the boys all day. In high school, the difference was even more noticeable since she never felt she belonged with the other girls, and with her sports passion, she could get a college scholarship if she kept pushing and winning games. During the senior year, she couldn’t care less about proms and fancy dresses when she was just one step ahead of making her dream a reality, playing in varsity.

Nathan was already signed by a few schools as well and whenever he was going, she was going as well. Not only he was her best friend, she had developed a crush on him when they grew older, she knew many things could change in her life but he was a constant and she’d do what it would take to keep it like that. The only problem was that Nathan was a handsome guy and he always liked an Angela, a Pamela, a Sandra or a Rita better.

He couldn’t see that Jan was in love with him, not yet at least.

But if she could still be a part of his life in the years to come, that would be enough for her. She’d stay in the shadows until she got her shot and she knew the day would come. She only needed to be patient. He was going to notice her and he was going to realize she was the one for him, she had always been.

It was a joyful day when she got accepted into the same university with a partial scholarship –her parents could afford the other half- she was ecstatic, the little girl from New Jersey with a bat was now going to play in the girls’ team and even when she wasn’t going to be in the same team than Nathan, she was going to be close enough.

Yes, everything would work out.

-1-

College is hell.

That was the first thing she thought the first day of school, even after going through orientation, she didn’t seem to find any of her classes, the classrooms were in different buildings, her schedules were all wrong and on top of all, she hadn’t seen Nathan in all morning.

To make things even worse, around noon she got called by one of the secretaries of the administration center, apparently, there was a problem with her papers, one of her forms got lost in the mail and she needed to present it before the end of the day.

If only she could find the copy room to get that form…

She kept going up and down stairs without complaining until she found the room at the end of a deserted aisle. She got a soda from the vending machine outside and then got inside. It was almost lunchtime so most students were at the cafeteria, only one girl was getting some book pages copied and she was paying by the time Jan walked in.

“Have a nice day.” The person behind the counter greeted her.

It was Jan’s turn now.

“Hi!” She approached the counter. “I- uh, I need this form…” Where was the paper the secretary had given her? “Wait for just a second, I had it here.”

Jan knew she looked like a train wreck, she had her books and notebooks in one hand, the soda can in the other, she had to empty her pockets with a barely free hand and held her phone under her neck.

“Do you need a copy of the form H-23?” The girl from the copier asked.

“Uh… I think so… Yes!” She found the paper. “H-23… that’s the one.” She smiled brightly.

The girl from the copier seemed calm and collected enough to make Jan feel a little better. She had silky brown hair tied in a half-updo, chocolate eyes framed by a pair of glasses, a knitted mustard sweater with a shirt underneath, a platted brick skirt, and high brown boots. She looked like what a college student wants to look like, in full control.

She was also really pretty.

“You’re like the fifth person who came today asking for that form…” She said while pressing some computer keys to set the printer. “Many students had a problem with the mail system for what it seems.”

“Yeah… I got notified just now and I’ve been running around all day.” She put all her things in one hand and stretched the now free hand. “I’m Jan, by the way.”

“Jackie.” The other girl shook her hand. “You can put your stuff here on the counter if you want. It’ll only take a minute.”

“Ah, thank you.” She did as she said.

“Freshman?” Jackie asked raising an eyebrow.

“Is it too obvious?” Jan could feel her cheeks getting colored.

“Just a little… you look like you still have a soul.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Oh, no, not at all.” She smiled at Jan.

Jackie’s kindness made her feel warm inside. It had been a rough morning and for the first time that day, someone was being genuinely nice to her.

“Do you study here too?” Jan asked while the brunette stapled her papers.

“Yes, I’m an Art History major. Junior.”

“Oh wow, that sounds sophisticated.”

“Girl… it’s not… there’re a lot of white men and my mother surely would’ve loved me picking something more… profitable. What about you? Have you declared your major yet?”

Jan nodded. “Economics, kind of boring, I know…” She rested her elbows on the counter. “I’m actually here with a sports scholarship.”

“That explains the baseball shirt.” She pointed at Jan’s outfit.

“Right!” Jan instinctively touched the fabric of the shirt. “Go, team!”

Being completely honest, Jan had forgotten she was wearing that. Early in the morning, she was more worried about showing up on time to orientation –clearly in vain since she kept getting lost- and because of that she hadn’t put a lot of thought into her fashion choices, instead, she picked a black tank top, a pair of jeans, sneakers and the baseball jacket with her lucky number –eleven- on it.

“Are you this excited all the time?” Jackie handed her the form.

Jan’s face lost light suddenly. “Is that bad? Because I’ve been said that I can be too much sometimes and-”

“No! I didn’t mean… no.” The brunette moved her hands in the air frantically. “It’s refreshing. I don’t think I’ve met someone like you before.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” She rummaged through her things until she found a couple of coins. “Here, for the form. Thank you so much for your help.”

She beamed and it was dashing enough to compete with the sun.

“T-Thank you.” Jackie stuttered while picking the money.

“I hope you have a nice day.” Jan slid all her things into her backpack.

“You too… see you around.” The brunette waved.

Jan copied the gesture and on her way out of the copy room she almost bumped into someone. It was Nathan.

“Hey!” She felt her pulse racing. “There you are! I haven’t seen you all day.”

“Janie! How are you doing?” He held the door open. “I’ve been around, you know? Getting used to all of this.”

“I know, right? I still can’t believe we’re here!” She couldn’t hide her enthusiasm.

Jackie, in the background, lowered her glasses and observed them in silence.

“I’m sorry I can’t chat right now, I need to get this form for the administration office and it’s a pain in the ass…”

“No way, they lost mine too… it must be New Jersey’s post service.”

“It really sucks. I better hurry up then or the place is going to get crowded.”

“Here.” She extended the paper without hesitation. “You can have mine, I haven’t filled it yet.”

“You don’t mind?”

The girl shook her head. “I can get another one.”

“Whoa, thank you, Janie. Wait, let me pay you.”

“No problem. You can give it back to me later.” She nervously touched her hair.

“Ah, I owe you one. Thank you. I was worried I wouldn’t get in time to have lunch. I just met the most gorgeous girl on campus, she’s stunning, I’m telling you and I was afraid I was going to miss my chance to speak with her because of this. You’re a great friend.” He patted her shoulder. “See you later.”

“Sure…” She mumbled.

He got out and closed the door without looking back.

With her slumped shoulders and drooping head, she looked back to where Jackie was.

“Do you think you could make another copy?”

The brunette who had witnessed the entire scene had her jaw clenched but she nodded and pressed print once again.

Jan shuffled back to the counter, she was grateful that the other girl didn’t say a word.

“Here you have, don’t lose this one.” Jackie smiled at Jan hoping that she could lift her mood a little bit.

“Thank you.” Her tone was barely audible. “I appreciate it.” She gave her some more coins and turned back.

Jackie knew she was going to regret it but she couldn’t let that girl go in that state of sadness. It wasn’t correct, it didn’t feel right.

“You know, I’m about to take my lunch break… would you like to join me?”

Jan looked at her for a moment that felt like an eternity.

“You don’t have to do it just because…”

“No, I don’t have to, I want to.” She assured.

“Okay…” She raised her voice a little. “That’d be nice.”

“Yeah. Nice.” Jackie grabbed her bag and held the keys of the room in her hand. “Let’s go.”

At that moment, a faint smile appeared on Jan’s face and Jackie knew for sure, she was going to regret this.

Freshmen were like little ducklings waddling around, imprinting on the first person who showed them a little affection –that was how they always ended up joining clubs and sororities on day one-, they were naïve, full of fears, expectations, and questions… they surely had a lot of questions. Jackie did her best to avoid them at least for the first couple of weeks. She was over the nervousness, the stutters, and sweaty palms –she had had enough during her first year.

However, this girl…

This one girl.

With her giant puppy eyes, her light brown hair falling all over her face whenever she tried to pick something that fell to the floor, the way she talked fast like she was going to forget what she was going to say if she didn’t say it quickly; she didn’t do it on purpose but a part of her body was continuously moving whether it was her fingers drumming on surfaces or her feet and she had this somehow chirpy personality even when odds weren’t on her favor.

Of course, Jan was straight. Jackie had seen it before, girls like that falling for douchebags and getting their hearts broken in multiple pieces. She saw it in her face on her body language when that guy showed up in the copy room, the way it was painfully obvious she was in love with him, and yet he treated her like a little sister taking advantage of her generosity.

She couldn’t just let her go back into the world like that, devastated.

The words escaped her mouth before she could give it a second thought.

And now she was having lunch with this girl, she kept explaining sports stuff to Jackie as if she had a clue what she was talking about and yet she listened to her because it was mesmerizing to watch.

“…that season was tight but we won within the last minutes even when the other team had their bases loaded.” She took a bite of her macaroni.

Her energies had been renewed the moment she started talking about baseball; she had listened to Jackie attentively when she explained the system of the cafeteria, how to activate and use her student card but the moment she gave her rise to talk about what she did before getting into college, she went directly to that point.

“Am I boring you? I’m sorry I didn’t realize I was talking too much I-”

“No! Please stop apologizing, it’s cool. I think it’s really cool that you’re… so passionate about something.”

“Really? I didn’t mean this to become a monologue, sometimes I get carried away.” She scratched the back of her head. “Anyway…”

Her gaze followed a figure in the cafeteria, it was the guy from before and he was having lunch with a large group of people but his attention was clearly focused on one girl next to him. Jackie noticed Jan taking a deep breath and then faking a smile trying to resume the conversation.

“What’s with that guy? Is he your boyfriend?” She asked, unscrupulous. Her salad was long forgotten in front of her.

“Nathan?!” She was like a deer caught in headlights. “Uh… He’s… he’s a friend from New Jersey. We used to play in the same baseball team until we got separated by boys and girls in high school.” She started blushing gradually until her face turned entirely red. “We’re friends, we have always been friends…”

Jackie arched an eyebrow. Interesting.

“So you like him.”

Now her face turned from red to burgundy.

“What?! No! I don’t… He’s… We’re… That’s ridiculous. I don’t like him he’s… a friend.”

The other girl didn’t say a word.

Jan sighed. “It’s never gonna happen… He just doesn’t think of me that way.” She looked at Jackie, there was something melancholic in her eyes. “I’m happy with being part of his life regardless.”

Something inside Jackie was shattered. She couldn’t help but feel deeply sorry for that girl who was hopelessly devoted.

“Jan, it’s not-”

But she was abruptly interrupted by the voice of another girl.

“Well, Miss Cox you didn’t tell me you were going to be here today.”

She didn’t even have to turn around to recognize who it was.

“Hello, Heidi.” She massaged her temples. “How are you?”

The girl didn’t wait and sat with them in a heartbeat.

“Betrayed, clearly. I just passed by the copy room and you weren’t there.” Her eyes moved to the girl in front of them. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friend?”

“Jan, this is Heidi… Heidi, Jan.”

“Heidi, nice to meet you. Jackie’s friends are my friends.” She extended her hand.

“Hi! I’m Jan.” The girl shook Heidi’s hand vigorously.

“Easy honey, I need that arm.”

Jan shrugged. “Sorry.”

“Jan is a freshman from New Jersey and she plays baseball.”

“Oh, that explains the inhuman super strength.” She moved her arm in circles to readjust it.

Jan giggled. “I don’t know my own strength.”

Heidi gave Jackie a look that the brunette ignored.

“Anyway, Jan, don’t forget to submit your form, the secretary can get really cranky if you find her on a bad day.”

“Oh, right! I still have to fulfill it.” She found a pen somewhere inside her backpack.

“Well, I’m going to leave you, ladies.” Heidi waved goodbye. “Jackie, I’ll drop by later I need some copies for Professor Brown.”

“Sure, my break is over in like ten minutes.”

“Alright. See you around.” She looked at Jan who was still going through the form. “Have a nice first day you…”

“Thank you!” She smiled and with that Heidi was gone. “I think I’m done.” Jan showed her form proudly.

“C’mon then, I’ll walk with you back to the office.”

“Oh my God. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I got lost so many times today.”

“Wait, didn’t you get a map and everything during orientation?”

“Yeah, but still… it’s very confusing.”

“Do you have it with you?”

Jan dug through her backpack once again until she got the binder with the things freshmen were given as their welcome package.

“Okay,” Jackie unfolded the piece of paper until it became five times its size. “give me a pen.”

The younger offered the same pen she was just using.

“You gotta have the important extra information they don’t give you. For example, these stairs…” She drew an x over them. “Are always full of people and if you’re in a hurry, I don’t recommend it… so instead, you get to use these.” She circled the point on the map.

Jan listened to every word she said.

“Now… this is where we’re heading, the administration office. You wanna know where it is because, if there’s any problem with your papers, you have to go there fast… best way to get to this building is passing by next to the library and using the elevator that will take you there directly. Do you get it now?”

“Jackie…” She reached for the brunette’s hands. “You’re the best… I could cry right now.”

“Please don’t…” Jackie said, flushed. She cleared her throat. “Do you think you could lead the way? The copy room is nearby.”

“I’ll definitely try.” Jan was excited.

She put all her things back in her bag and followed Jackie after leaving their trays and throwing the trash. As soon as they reached the hallway, it was Jan’s time to guide them. She took the map and used the cafeteria as their reference point, after that, she traced a route. Jackie had to bite her tongue to refrain from helping her because she knew that was the only way she could learn. In the end, she did a really good job.

“We’re here. This is the administration office and right upstairs is…”

“The copy room.”

“Correct.”

“Yay!” She celebrated clapping. “Thank you so much, really… I don’t know what I’d have done without your help today.”

“Don’t even mention it.” Jackie smiled at her.

“Can I go visit you later? After my class…? Maybe I could bring you some snacks for being so nice to me.”

“There’s no need… really.”

“But I want to.”

There was no way Jackie was going to say no to her, that was already established.

“Okay, sure. I like Snickers.”

“Noted… see you later, Jackie.”

“Good luck.”

She started walking away but had a last glimpse of Jan before taking the stairs.

Her heart started beating faster.

Oh for goodness sake… what have you done Jackie Cox?

#rpdr fanfiction #jan sport #jackie cox #jankie #college au #lesbian au #slow burn #pretty in pearls #plastiquedoll #concrit welcome

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2seokfan · 4 years

Text

Scarlet & Hazel | Ch. 3

pairings: hoseok x reader x yoongi

genre: fluff, very light angst, smut (future)

word count: 6k

chapters: ch.1, ch.2, ch.3. ch.4

summary:

Just cause you’re living paycheck to paycheck in a tiny apartment even after graduating college doesn’t mean you’re not happy. So what if your best friend is working her dream job making close to six figures every year? So what if she’s in a loving, committed relationship with her perfect boyfriend that you’re 99% sure is going to propose to her sometime next year? It doesn’t matter that your idea of a perfect relationship is a $9.99 bottle of wine on Friday nights while you binge watch Netflix specials.

Ok so maybe you’re a teensy bit miserable. Maybe you have no idea what you’re doing with your life. Maybe all you need to do is accidentally cross paths with two hybrids who will drastically change that.

Meet “Scarlet” and “Hazel”, two of the most gorgeous hybrid men you have ever laid eyes on. With their help, you learn that life is an adventure, a roller-coaster with ups and downs, and you were too preoccupied with yourself to climb out of your own predicament. And hey, you’re not much of a romantic, but with these two, you just might change your mind.

a/n: Hello, Jun here! Whew this took a while to write but thank you for your patience!! (poor Y/N still doesn’t know their real names but maybe she’ll find out soon?) Any feedback is appreciated <3

tag list: @wilhelminalucinda @ghostkat23 @ayoo-bangtan @sadgurllayha

2 months later.

August is relentless. You’re sweaty all the time and you have no choice but the crank up the a/c every single day. This heat wave is incredibly brutal because all you want to do is stay at home eating ice cream in your underwear but instead you’re stuck working overtime to pay for what you assume will be a record-high electricity bill. Fuck you global warming.

It’s currently Tuesday. You’re on lunch break at work, chowing down on a falafel wrap and scrolling through your phone, when a text pops up from Karli.

Karli: Don’t forget!

You: ???

Karli: This friday?

You scratch your head. Wtf?

You: What’s on friday?

Karli: Umm the date? Remember?

No you didn’t. Your dumbass actually forgot about a whole date. You can’t believe yourself. Karli finally set you up with that accountant guy from her job. What’s his name again? Brad? Brandon?

You: oh yeah! my bad haha

Karli: You forgot his name didn’t you?

You: …maybe

Karli: Lol it’s Bryce sweetie

Karli: He’s really sweet! Just give it a shot

You: of course i will

You: i’ll turn up my maximum charm

Karli: Dats my girlllll

Karli: Ugh gtg it’s my boss

Karli: Bye!

You: bye babe

You set your phone down, trying to envision this upcoming Friday. Karli mentioned she gave Bryce your phone number, and he’ll text you sometime this week about your date, so at least you don’t have to make any moves first. She did show you his picture though, being the wingman that she is by stalking all his social media just for you. You’ve gotta admit he is cute, the profile picture showed him sporting a casual smile, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The classic boy-next-door look.

“And he’s most likely not a serial killer!” You remember her declaring a few weeks ago, after scrolling through all his tweets. And when you say all his tweets you mean EVERY Single tweet from when he created his account in high school till now. Your best friend does not fuck around.

“Thanks I appreciate that. Glad he’ll ‘most likely’ not kill me.” You rolled your eyes and grinned at her.

While you munch away the rest of your lunch, you think about how you just aren’t acting like yourself lately. In any other circumstance, you would’ve found yourself more excited for the date. Hell, in any other circumstance you would’ve at LEAst remembered his name, or thought about what to wear by now, or even stalked his social media along with Karli. There’s just a teensy problem though. See, in the past few months you happen to have met two boys who completely changed your standards in men. And you may have maybe developed the tiniest crush on both of them, at the same time. Like how?? You didn’t think you were physically capable of doing that?

You sigh, staring at the rest of your falafel wrap, and force yourself to accept reality. As much as you adore them, you know that your little crush will be completely unreciprocated. This you found out through your group chat, now named ‘Hazel’s Nuts’ (courtesy of Scarlet). It’s not that you confessed to them or anything, they just happened to let slip to you one day that they’re a mated pair. And hybrids mate for life, so they take that shit very seriously. Although this news stung a little, it didn’t cause you to be envious in any way. At the end of the day, crush or not, you’re just glad you have two more people in your life you can confidently call your close friends.

For the past two months you’ve actively kept up with them. Sometimes you’ll send memes back and forth all night, sometimes you’ll group call each other after work. Every once in a while, when they’re not busy doing whatever it is they’re doing, they facetime you. These are your favorite moments because you get to see them in all their attractive glory. Just because they don’t like you that way doesn’t mean a girl can’t deny herself some eye candy.

You guys never run out of things to talk about. Each day you check the group chat and it’ll be popping. Your topics range from the movie that just came out, restaurants they discovered, to even discussing new criminal cases (you got Hazel into watching true crime Youtube videos and now he’s entirely hooked). Sometimes you just sit back and watch the two boys bicker back and forth. It’s hysterical how they decide to argue through text since you’re sure both of them are probably in the same room together, but you appreciate them keeping you in the loop.

At this point they’ve already virtually met Karli. She’s been in the background of one or two of your facetimes. You’re glad she approves of them instantly and you wonder if it has a little something to do with their, especially Scarlet’s, boyish charms. She does keep you grounded though, never failing to mention how it’s suspicious that you don’t know their real names yet.

“I don’t think they mean any harm and they seem genuinely nice,” she had reassured, “But you gotta admit not telling you their names is a little sketch.”

You just shrugged. “They have their reasons.”

Internally you do believe she has a point. Even though you don’t want to force information out of the boys, you’re a naturally curious person. Your mind has already compiled a list of all the unusual facts you’ve discovered about them.

A couple of things have become clear to you over the span of the last few months. The most important fact is that although they share tons of content with you, you still have no idea what they do for a living. You’re also 90% sure they don’t have an owner since there’s never anyone else around them. Another, more interesting fact is that you suspect they’re actually pretty wealthy. Every time you facetime, they’re in some sort of lavish looking hotel penthouse, with fancy furniture and artwork hanging in the background. They also dress designer, occasionally flashing their Balenciaga hats, or little Gucci necklaces, or other fancy logos your peasant-ass is unfamiliar with. You actually googled one of Hazel’s t-shirts from your most recent facetime, having no idea what the FG logo stood for. You remember your eyes bulging out of your head after discovering his plain white shirt with two black letters cost more than $200. TWO HUNDred dollars?!!! Do you know how much food and gas you could buy with $200? Why in the fuck would he spend that much on a shirt??

If only you knew how much their watches cost.

Friday rolls around faster than you can blink and before you know it, you’re rushing home from work to get ready. Bryce texted you for the first time on Wednesday to see if you wanted sushi (hell yeah you did) and you were fortunate enough to notify your boss so you could be let out early. You’ve been such a work horse the last few months that they had no choice but to let you leave in advance.

So far Bryce seems nice enough but you can’t get a proper gauge of his character through text. Oh well, guess you’ll find out tonight.

The sushi place you’re meeting at is on the fancier side, and includes a bar. Knowing yourself, if there’s a bar, there’s no car, which means you won’t be driving. The last thing you want is to leave your car parked somewhere sketchy overnight cause you accidentally got too tipsy to drive. You like to think you have some semblance of control but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

You were let out at 4, which means you have only 2 hours to get ready. As soon as you get home you sprint to your closet at lightning speed. You rummage through your drawers, hoping to find something, ANYthing, that’s appropriate for this occasion. For one quick second, your eyes dart to your forbidden drawer, aka the ho drawer. It contains the remains of your slutty party dresses and tops from college. Being the hoarder that you are, you never like throwing away things, even if you have no need for them anymore. Wait, what the hell am I thinking? You snap your eyes back to the rest of your closet. You’re going for sushi, not to dance at some club. Besides, you have no intention of sleeping with anyone tonight.

After an hour of deciding on a suitable outfit you finally start on your makeup. Your work makeup has dried up, and now feels gross and cakey on your face, so you remove it all and start anew. At least you had the decency to shower this morning so your hair isn’t too gross.

The place is around a 10 minute Uber ride away but you took your sweet ass time getting ready so now you’re in a frenzy. When your phone buzzes, signaling your driver is here, you swipe on some lipstick last minute, grab some chunky heels, and practically fly out the door.

You stare out the window of your ride, wondering why you’re lowkey wishing you could spend Friday night at home watching tv instead, or even just spending the evening facetiming two hot hybrids. This all feels a little too rushed. But no, you shake your head and attempt to hype yourself up. C’mon Y/N this is the first real date you’ve been on in ages. At least TRy and be a little more motivated.

The car pulls up and you thank the driver, stepping out into the warm night air. August is still hot, even in the evenings, and you’re glad you didn’t bring a cardigan. Bryce has already texted you, letting you know he was inside, sitting at your reserved spot. You take a deep breath. Ok, time to put on your game face. You strut in, trying your very best to push the faces of two very good-looking friends out of your mind.

You spot Bryce in a corner, head buried in his phone, his wavy blonde hair not easy to miss. You slide in the seat across from him, prompting him to quickly look up and flash you an easygoing smile.

“Hello there!”

“Hi!” You chuckle nervously. “I hope I’m not too late.”

“Not all all!” He slides his phone back in his pocket, smile still on his face. “You’re just in time.”

A waiter comes by and you both take your orders. You make sure to order a drink because you have a feeling you’ll need the liquid courage to strike up more conversation. Maybe some sake will help ease you.

The first couple minutes are kinda awkward, not gonna lie. Bryce tries to get you to talk about work and you do answer him, but honestly work is the last thing you want to discuss right now. You try to shift the conversation to his job, but that only ends up being worse as he quickly launches into the ins and outs of life as an accountant. Maybe your two hybrids friends have spoiled you because you barely remember the last time you had to fill empty space with small talk.

When the food comes you quietly sigh a breath of relief, hoping the sushi in front of you will help you both get settled and give you time to think of more interesting topics to talk about.

“So,” you wrack your brain, “let’s get to know each other more! Like, what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” That’s got to be a safe enough question.

“Hm, I’m actually more of a yogurt kinda guy, ice cream’s not really my thing.”

You freeze, California roll halfway to your mouth. Ok, ok, cool, cool. So he doesn’t like ice cream, that’s fine. You sweat a little. Hurry Y/N think of something else to ask.

“Yeah, I guess that’s not everybody’s thing.” You grimace. “Then what about, i don’t know, cookies? What’s your favorite kinda cookie?”

“Actually I prefer crackers, you know, like the saltine ones? Cookies can be too sweet sometimes.” He’s devouring his dragon roll, not noticing the panic in your eyes. He’s caught you off guard twice today.

This isn’t going well and you’re genuinely surprised because you know Karli has done her research, certain that you two would get along. Guess life really likes to throw you some curveballs.

Who the fuck prefers crackers over cookies anyway?? Ok. Code red! Change the fucking subject before the silence becomes unbearable. Your dessert-related ice breakers had never failed you before but there’s always a first for everything, you guess.

You take a generous swig of sake. “Right, crackers are... good.” You’re mumbling at this point. “Ok, um, what about hobbies? Got any?” Please throw me a fucking bone here! Your mind is reeling but externally you try to act calm and composed, dabbing at the corner or you mouth delicately with a napkin.

“Oh yeah!” His face lights up. Oh thank god. “Do you like football? Me and my buddies at the office sorta formed this team, and we play against other departments. It’s really fun! You should come by and watch sometime!”

“Uh, sure!” Football. Huh. The last time you were anywhere near a football was when you met someone from your college team at a bar. Well he wasn’t holding a football per se, but that counts right? You only remember how much of a douche he was, trying to hit on one of the girls from your group after getting entirely too wasted.

“Awesome! I’ll hit you up when the next game is set!” It’s almost impressive how he doesn’t notice all the tension emitting from your body. In fact, you have a feeling he’s actually enjoying himself and your company.

The rest of the dinner goes by in the same manner. With him happily answering all your questions and you slowly discovering just how little you both have in common.

He is a gentleman though, that you can’t deny. When all the food has been cleared away he immediately swoops in to pay the bill, ignoring your insistence at paying for your half at least. He really isn’t a bad person, just the opposite. Besides your difference in interests, he is a sweet guy overall, and you do find him to be physically attractive. There’s just no spark, no silver lining that keeps you wanting more. When you both get out of your seats he offers to drive you back to your place but you politely decline. You say it’s because you don’t want to trouble him but in reality you need space for yourself to think.

As soon as you arrive home you take off your shoes and plop yourself down on the couch, running your hands through your hair. You check your phone, a few notifications from ‘Hazel’s Nuts’ popping up.

Scarlet: Do you think she’s done with her date yet??

Hazel: Hey Y/N how was it?

You had told them about this date beforehand and they were excited to root for you, which did bruise your ego a bit since it reaffirmed your unreturned attraction to them, but also prompted you to go through with it. This last notification was from 45 minutes ago but you couldn’t reply since you were still at dinner.

You: hi I just got back!

You don’t expect them to respond right away but to your surprise:

Scarlet: And???

You: it was meh

Hazel: That bad huh?

You: no nothing like that!

You: he’s really cute and all, it’s just we basically have nothing in common

Scarlet: Aww poor Y/N (sad emojis)

Hazel: Hey happens to the best of us

Hazel: Actually I wouldn’t know cause I’ve only been with fox boy

You: thanks anyway, i appreciate it Hazel

Maybe it’s cause you’re a little tipsy, or maybe you just feel so open and vulnerable around them tonight, but the next text you send is especially honest.

You: ughhh idk guys i’m just so lonely!!! why can’t things just work out for me for once! Like the first real date I go on in years and this happens :(

They don’t respond for a long time. So long in fact you start to get worried that you exposed too much about yourself.

15 minutes pass by but to you it feels like hours. You’ve already removed all your makeup and changed into your pajama shirt. You relocate to your bed, checking your phone again, thinking of a way to play off your last text as a joke when:

Hazel: If you’re so lonely maybe you could adopt?

You grin to yourself, glad that they’re not being judgmental. Their concern for you resets your mood.

You: ha ha you know my apartment doesn’t allow pets

You: but honestly if i could i would, cause i’d definitely get a little kitty

Hazel: I’m flattered

You: thanks but i meant a real cat

Hazel: Either way i’m flattered

Scarlet: HEY what about foxes??

You: pretty sure owning a pet fox is illegal here Scar

Scarlet: (angry emojis)

Hazel: You heard what the lady said

You: anyways i’m going to bed

You: thanks for making me feel better guys <3

Hazel: Anytime

Scarlet: But hypothetically if foxes weren’t illegal you’d get a pet fox right??

You: of course i would sweetie

Scarlet: (happy emojis)

Scarlet: Yay!!! Goodnight Y/N!

Hazel: Night Y/N

You: night boys

You wake up next morning on your own time, checking your phone to see that you slept in till 11am. Wow, you haven’t slept that well in a while. Maybe it’s the stress from the previous weeks of non stop working, or the pressure to maintain your composure last night, but either way you knocked out like a rock. You sit up, lean back, and stretch your arms as far as they can go.

Today you’re meeting Karli at her place up north. She couldn’t ask you about last night since she was occupied, her seven year anniversary with her boyfriend Sunny coinciding with your date. But she assured you a couple days ago over facetime that today was going to be a girl’s day, no boyfriend included.

“Hey!” Sunny had popped out of nowhere in the video when he heard the news, a look of mock shock on his face. “I live here too! So what, you're just gonna kick me out of the house and leave me on the streets to starve?”

“My god stop being dramatic!” Karli had shoved him playfully off the screen. “I need girl time with Y/N and it’s not girl time if you’re in the house.”

“I can be one of the girls! Right Y/N?” He sounded betrayed.

“I know you can but I’m not the one who makes the rules.” You pointed out.

He sighed. “You got me there.”

Since you’re just spending time at Karli’s and getting takeout, you felt zero need to dress up. You washed your face, threw on an oversized t-shirt some old hookup left at your place (hey it was cute) and some tights, and tied your hair out of your face. This entire process took less than 30 minutes and next thing you know you’re ready to head out.

You sent Karli a quick text, letting her know you’re on the way. You grab a bottle of prosecco, your purse, and keys, saying a quick goodbye to your roommate Ayah on your way out. She gives you a small wave, reminding you that she, yet again, has to leave today for a whole week. You backtrack to give her a quick goodbye hug, telling her to drive safe, before you take off.

Karli’s place isn’t as far as the beach coffeehouse you frequent, but it’s still located in the wealthier side of town. The drive lasts a good 20 minutes but it feels a lot faster since you spend the whole time singing along to your favorite songs.

You pull up to Karli’s apartment complex, driving yourself to the guest parking space. Her apartment building is pretty tall, with a distant, but gorgeous view of the beach.

Karli squeals when she opens the door, immediately giving you a big hug. When you break apart you hold up the bottle of prosecco in your hand, waving it in front of her face.

“I know you have the ingredients here so let’s make some spritz!”

“Yay!”

Aperol spritz is your favorite at-home drink to make with Karli. She had gone on a short trip to Italy in the summer between her two years at grad school and tried the drink there, completely falling in love. She googled the recipe, made it for you one day, you had said “Oh FUck that’s good!”, and the rest is history.

She grabs the bottle and quickly relocates it to her kitchen. Her energy levels are sky high today and you wonder what’s got her so elated. She’s skipping everywhere she goes, there’s a permanent smile etched on her face, and she’s humming non stop as she pulls you away from the front entrance.

Sunny emerges from the hallway, two hands in the air in surrender.

“I’m heading out, I swear!”

Sunny is a big teddy bear of a man, with tattoos splayed across his arms and a well-kept beard. There’s a term you learned online called ‘lumbersexual’ and that’s exactly the word to describe Sunny. He almost reminds you of Jason Momoa, the actor who played Aquaman. Those who just meet him think he looks intimidating at first but once you get past his height and size, you see just how much of a softie he is. He’s also extremely intelligent, working somewhere in the computer industry developing software.

Karli bounds over to him and gives him a big snuggly hug and tiptoes all the way up to give a quick kiss to his lips.

“Have fun babe! Love you!”

“Love you too! Also bye Y/N!”

“Bye Sunny have fun!” You smile as he treads out the door.

You both head to the kitchen and start making your drinks.

“Aren’t you extra chipper today!” You mention as you pour a splash of club soda into your glass.

“Am I?” She doesn’t look at you, wearing a mysterious grin, stirring her mixture with a straw.

After you both finish making your drinks, you head to her living room and settle onto her plush sofa.

Karli yawns, almost too dramatically, covering her left hand over her mouth. You quirk your eyebrow at her, wondering why she’s acting so weird until you spot it. There’s something large, something shiny, on her left ring finger.

“Oh my god….” Your entire mouth hangs open. “Oh my GOD!!! Is THAT…?”

“Yep!”

“Did HE -?”

“Yep!!”

“AND YOU - ?

“YEP I DID!!”

“YOU’RE ENGAGED?!?!?!”

“I KNOW!!!!”

What happens after is a shriek rivaling that of a pterodactyl taking flight after spotting prey, except the sound is just the two of you screaming and jumping up and down in Karli’s living room.

You bring her into a tight hug, so emotional that you’re about to tear up. And you’re not one to cry that easily.

“I’m so happy for you!” You pull apart and wipe a stray tear from your cheek.

“Thank you! I’m so happy too!” Her smile is also a little watery. “Like I knew he was gonna do it soon since we’ve been together so long but I’m still shocked you know?”

“I know!”

“And I’m sorry. Today was supposed to be me asking about your date last night.” She dabs at her eyes. “Bryce really likes you too. He even texted me thanking me for introducing you!!”

“Oh shit...” You take this chance to drink your Aperol spritz. “I’m gonna be completely honest with you. It’s true he’s cute but there was no spark.” You give her an apologetic grin, knowing she really wanted this to work out for you. “Like don’t get me wrong he’s super nice and stuff but I just couldn’t find anything we have in common. I can’t believe he’s still into me?!”

“Aw I’m sorry babe.” She pouts. “I really did think you would be a good match.”

“It’s ok. Anyways,” you wave her off, bringing up the more important subject at hand. “I’d much rather talk about your engagement! Like, hello?? You’re getting married, girl!!

Another squeal. You really hope her neighbors don’t complain.

“I know!! I literally don’t know what to think!” She smiles wistfully, like she’s on cloud nine, then brings her attention back to you. “Also you’re the maid of honor and you can’t back out of that.”

“I would never!” You gasp dramatically, one hand clutching your chest.

“But don’t worry!” She sets her drink down. “The wedding’s not happening till next year at least. We don’t have to start planning till way later.”

The rest of the day you spend chatting to Karli, prompting her to spill every single detail about the proposal. Even though you have no need to help her plan a wedding just yet, you can’t hold back from offering some ideas that spring to mind.

“I got it!!” You shout.

“You got what?”

“Hear me out,” you may or may not be a little tipsy at this point. “Goth wedding!” You say with jazz hands. Then you reach down to take another sip of your drink.

“Hmm…” She pretends to think about the idea, then giggles. “And that’s enough prosecco for you.” Plucking the glass out of your hand, she transfers it to her kitchen sink.

A couple more hours roll by. You both decide to watch a cheesy Netflix horror movie to sober up, paired with the Mexican takeout you ordered. By the time the credits roll, the sun has long since set, along with your alcohol buzz. You check the time on your phone, deciding it’s best to head home since poor Sunny has been respectfully out and about all day, giving you your girl time.

You give Karli one last big hug, murmuring into her hair how happy you are for her situation. She walks you to the apartment elevator, where you proceed to blow her a swift kiss right before the doors close in your face.

Reality sets in the moment you’re alone. Your head swims with thoughts as you drive back. Most of them are happy about your best friend’s engagement but you can’t discount the little ugly bubble of jealousy that wells down deep in your gut, reminding you of your own current situation. It’s not until you reach home that you realize you didn’t even play music in the car.

Ayah has long since gone on her business trip by the time you arrive at your apartment. The whole place looks dark and unwelcome, only highlighting the emptiness you feel inside. You trudge to your room and slump onto your bed. You try to scroll through social media as a way to distract yourself but you’re met, instead, by all the pictures and posts of happy people, showing off their achievements or bragging about their seemingly perfect lives.

You immediately lock your phone and throw it onto the blanket, the stress and anxiety from the last few months building to a boiling point in your mind. Your biggest concern is you still haven’t figured out your lease situation, and you only have two more months to move out or find someone new. Ayah has tried her best to help you but she’s bombarded by business trips so no luck so far. You let out a small groan and bury your head in the pillow, deciding to sleep it off and worry about your problems tomorrow, even though it’s not even that late.

Right as you’re about to drift off into dreamland, your phone rings. You fumble around the covers until it’s in your hands and check that you have a facetime call from your two favorite boys.

Immediately your body jerks awake and you sit up, swiping the answer button.

“Hey guys!”

“Hi Y/N!!” Scarlet’s heart-shaped smile is taking up most of the screen but you can see a sliver of white and grey hair behind him.

Hazel elbows him out of the way. “Sorry were you sleeping?” He tilts his head, ears twitching. “Wait, it’s only 10 pm where you’re at. You never sleep this early.”

“No I wasn’t... I mean, yeah I was trying to sleep but…”

You sigh. It’s their faces. Just seeing them through a screen, their wide, innocent eyes blinking up at you, makes you want to spill everything.

You nibble on your bottom lip for a moment. “I was just kinda having an existential crisis so I decided to sleep it off. No biggie.”

Scarlet’s eyebrows furrow in concern. After only two months, he can already tell when something is off with your tone of voice.

“Y/N what’s wrong?” He looks up for a bit, pausing to think. “Was it the date last night?”

“The date?” Oh yeah the date. Yet another thing that didn’t go well. You totally forgot about that can of worms. “Not really… or actually kinda?”

You try to reorganize your jumbled mess of a brain and put your thoughts into words.

“So you know how I said I was going to Karli’s today?”

“Mhm,” they nod at you to continue.

“Well turns out she got engaged last night.”

“That’s awesome! I’m so happy for her!” Scarlet bounces a little, then quickly returns to a more serious tone. “But that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“Yeah I’m happy for her too.” And you genuinely are.

You pause for another moment, teetering on the edge of playing your emotions off like it’s no big deal or exposing all of your concerns yet again. Your need for an outlet to vent to wins in the end. For the first time you find yourself unable to confide in Karli because you want her to be happy and focus on the engagement rather than to be preoccupied with you. Before you know it, the words flow from your mouth like running water.

“It’s just that her announcement really brought me back to earth, and I started thinking a little too much about my own life.” You purse your lips. “I don’t know… I feel pretty selfish right now because she’s doing so well and I just can’t help comparing my life to hers. I’m so proud of her but it’s like everything in her life is coming together and I just want that for me also.” You throw your hands up in frustration, almost knocking the phone off from where it leans on your pillow. “I mean we’re the same age for god's sake! Why can’t I get my shit together??”

“Well you should be proud of yourself though,” Hazel cuts in. “Cause we are.” He gestures to Scarlet and himself.

“Yeah!” Scarlet chimes. “I mean you’ve got a full time job and a place to stay. I know you don’t feel like it’s the most ideal situation right now but please don’t discredit yourself.”

“Thanks guys.” You calm down a bit, but then you remember the whole issue with your apartment. Scratching the back of your neck, a habit you’ve picked up whenever you’re nervous, you say in a much smaller voice, “although my ‘place to stay’ might not last much longer.”

“What do you mean?” Both boys’ eyebrows are raised in confusion.

You realize you never mentioned your living situation to them, the topic always pushed to the back of your mind whenever they initiated conversation.

“Yeah.” A dry chuckle leaves your lips. “My lease ends soon and Ayah wants to move to a place of her own. And I have two months to figure out where to live or find another roommate.” You let out a frustrated huff. “She’s been so helpful but still no luck I guess.” You shrug in defeat.

You feel like a balloon that’s lost all its air, brain exhausted from running through all the problems in your life.

“Actually that’s pretty convenient for- ” Scarlet starts, but is elbowed again in the ribs by Hazel. “Ow!”

“Not yet!” The cat hisses quietly to him.

“Huh?” Now you’re confused. What in the world are they talking about?

Hazel turns back to you. “I’m really sorry about everything Y/N. If there’s anything we can do to help please let us know.”

“Thanks buddy.” You offer him a small smile, choosing to ignore what just happened since they clearly don’t want to reveal anything just yet.

Hazel then shifts to a more nervous stance, ears slightly flattening and both hands grabbing his floofy grey tail for comfort. It’s the cutest goddamn thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

“So Y/N, um, there’s a reason we called you tonight.”

You’re glad for a change in subject, a much needed distraction away from your downward spiraling thoughts.

“Oh right! Yeah. What’s up guys?”

Scarlet steps in front of him again, blocking most of the screen.

“We have a surprise for you!” He’s so close to the camera that you can only see half of his unblemished face but from the way his eyes crinkle, you can tell he’s giddy with anticipation.

“A surprise- ?”

“Yeah!!”

Hazel nudges himself into view again. “Quit hogging the whole screen fox! I swear to god next time we’re using the tv. I can’t see anything! Anyways,” he turns to you and smooths his shirt, expression back to stoic, “are you free next weekend?”

“I should be. Why?” You’re still a little lost on what the surprise is.

“Cause we’re coming back to town!” Scarlet blurts out.

“You are?!” Suddenly all your negativity melts away, replaced by excitement. Hard to believe just five simple words can shift your mood a complete 180°.

“But wait, there’s more!” You snort at how much Scarlet sounded like an infomercial just now.

“We’d like to invite you to dinner next Saturday night. If that’s ok with you?” Hazel isn’t as physically expressive as Scarlet but the hopeful shine in his eyes gives himself away.

You melt at his expression, heart rate speeding up. “Of course that’s ok! I’d love to!”

“Great!” He flashes one of his rare gummy smiles. “Saturday night. 7 pm. We’ll text you the details.”

“Yep!” Scarlet pipes in. “There’s something important we gotta ask- !” He lets out a small gasp, tail bristling, and clamps a hand over his mouth as if he just said something he shouldn’t have.

“What’s important?” You’ve gotta admit, your curiosity is at its peak right now, and it doesn’t help that they’re acting a little weird today.

Hazel rubs his temples in exasperation, groaning at Scarlet. “What part of ‘not yet’ did you not understand?” He then addresses you. “Sorry Y/N I promise we’ll tell you when we see you in person.”

“Ok.” Cool. That’s fine. You’re a little nervous about what they have to say and it’ll be torture to wait but you’re a big girl and you can handle not knowing for a week. “I can’t wait to see you guys!!” you added.

“Me too!” Scarlet’s personality is so bubbly and contagious that you can’t help but smile back at him.

“Same.” Hazel lets out a small yawn. “Well we’re in a different time zone than you and it’s really late here so I gotta hit the hay.”

“Mk, go get your beauty sleep.” You give them a little wave. “And thanks for everything. I mean it.”

“No problem Y/N.” Scarlet also gives off a yawn, stretching his tired limbs. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

After ending the facetime call, you lie on your back, staring at the ceiling. Your mind is active once again, but this time it’s not clouded with self-deprecating thoughts. Instead, you spend the remainder of the evening theorizing about the ‘important’ things the boys have to tell you. Maybe you’ll finally find out their real names. Or maybe they’ll reveal something else about themselves, like why they’re constantly travelling, or what they actually do for a living. Either way you can’t wait for next Saturday to come around.

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#bts fic #bts hybrid au #hoseok fanfic #yoongi fanfic #bts smut #bts fluff #bts fanfction #hybrid hoseok #hybrid yoongi #bts hybrid fic

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star-duck · 5 years

Text

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard - Book 6 chapter 4 summary

I know other people are doing summaries but there are scenes I want to write down so that I can remember them fondly, so here goes! Please notify me if I get things wrong and such, since I mostly write this from memory (I read this yesterday) while glancing at the book sometimes. Also I sure hope this sounds coherent, the original text is very graceful...

The events in this chapter actually starts at the end of the same day chapter 3 took place. Seigi's biological dad finds him as Seigi is walking home from Etranger. (Unfortunately I don't remember his name, Seigi doesn't refer to him by name, and I also refuse to check his name, so we'll stick with "dad" here) He starts trying to talk sweetly to Seigi, telling him how he managed to know Seigi's whereabouts.

During the conversation, Seigi has flashbacks on dad being abusive in the past and how he barely paid for damages to Hiromi after they divorced. Dad later explained that his mom (Seigi's grandma) died, and thus he lost his financial support and eventually lost his home. He implies strongly that he wants Seigi's help for food and shelter, while also badmouthing Hiromi. The exchange is honestly so raw and frustrating and I hope someone translates this in all it's.... glory. Seigi is extremely upset and is contemplating to just hit him, but anyway dad decides to leave after the conversation goes nowhere.

Also scattered in the chapter is that Hiromi divorced dad during Seigi's elementary school time, then she married Tanaka-san (the current husband) during the same period of time. Thanks to this and the ex being abusive, Seigi had to move schools multiple times.

Seigi gets stressed about the ordeal, thinking that he probably needs to skip work tomorrow since he thinks dad will come back. After he informs Richard through email, Richard asks if everything is alright and Seigi lies, saying that he just has events related to job-seeking and school works.

The next day, after spending his time outside, Seigi goes home only to be welcomed by dad in front of his apartment. Seigi walks away while dad still keeps following him and talking to him, then Seigi decides to walk in a hardware store. He buys something, walks out, and comes this scene (rough translation):

(Seigi) "Have you ever thought of dying?"

(Dad) "Dying? Why are you saying such a scary thing?"

"I have"

"Uh, let's stop talking about this. It's weird. Unpleasant."

"When I was in elementary school, I thought of killing you and then dying myself."

And now, just a little, I wish I really did just that.

In this peaceful Japan, even though there are a lot of violence happening every year, people can still buy a knife in hardware stores. Once this guy realizes that what I just bought was a sharp object, he takes a step back.

"Seigi, joking like that isn't good. You'll get involved with the cops."

"Do you want to see if this is a joke or not?"

"Why do you say things like that? I love you so much. That's why I went all the way to look for you, why don't you get it? I worked so hard to find you. Are you heartless now? Have you become a bad kid?"

"Let's decide here whether you'd leave or not. I'll give you 30 seconds."

Dad turns completely pale, and Seigi starts counting. Dad keeps trying to reach out to him but Seigi doesn't budge, so he eventually leaves.

The next day, Seigi is completely distraught. Tanimoto greets him, notices that Seigi isn't well and looks upset, then asks if it's better if she just leaves him alone, and does just that.

Seigi starts thinking of quitting Etranger, since he's afraid Richard will also get bothered by stalker dad, especially knowing that Richard is a british nobleman who treats Seigi to 3000yen+ dinners weekly. He makes up his mind and decides that the coming saturday will be the last time he works at Etranger, and starts making lots of pudding.

Shaul sends an email to Seigi, saying that Richard is worried of him so he's asking if everything is fine. Seigi's reply is a lie, once again. Seigi learned that dad apparently tried to ask for Seigi's key to the apartment's landlord, but since he couldn't prove himself he wasn't given anything.

Trivial stuff but Seigi starts thinking about how both Tanimoto and Richard are like angels to him. While Tanimoto is an angel that softly flies on the sky, Richard is an angel who despite having wings, he still walks firmly on the earth.

The next day Seigi is woken up by dad waiting in front of his apartment. He brings a piece of "gem" that looks like it's bought from a 100 yen shop. They talk for a bit, Seigi can't handle it anymore and throws a 1000 yen bill through the gap of his still-locked door. The dad grabs the money, complains that it's not enough, but eventually leaves. Seigi starts planning to move to weekly rental apartments, and throughout the week the dad has resorted to calling Seigi instead of physically visiting him. Then, Saturday comes.

The day in Etranger goes normally and smoothly, which is a nice surprise to Seigi. He's obviously emotionally very tired and worried, but he tries to appear cheerful because it's his last day. At the end of the day, he finally tells Richard that he wants to quit his job, effective tomorrow. Richard just says yes, and then invites him for a "goodbye dinner", though he hates saying that, so he just says that he wants to make good memories during the dinner.

Richard invites him to the high end hotel they went that other time in the case with Hase-senpai. They go to a restaurant high up (i think it's a rooftop restaurant but i'm not super sure) and apparently Richard has ordered set menu, so all they have to do is sit and wait for orders to come. After finishing, Richard brings him to the hotel's bar, both ends up ordering non-alcohol coctails, and Richard offers Seigi some high-end chocolate with liquor filling. Then comes this scene:

(Seigi) "This is so good, it feels like a waste to eat it..."

(Richard) "I think so too"

"Hn?"

"I don't want to.."

"Did you say something?"

"I don't want to send you home"

Seigi double takes and reconfirms that Richard did just say that to him, and no one else around. Richard confirms and pulls out a hotel card key, inviting him, light as if he's just asking Seigi to get into the car as usual. Seigi is determined to make today a good last part-time job day, so he will never say no regardless of what Richard says. All Seigi replies is "what floor?" but Richard doesn't answer.

Once they reach the right floor, Richard hands Seigi the card and Seigi proceeds to open the door. Inside, Jeffrey is waiting, yelling surprise, and Seigi is so surprised he's about to run away. Richard leads him back into the room and makes him sit on a chair. By the way the hotel room is the super high end one with multiple rooms and stuff, not the standard single room.

Jeffrey starts telling Seigi about how since he's been "legally" stalking Seigi for... a long time.... , he finds out about the stalker dad problem and informs Richard. Richard then asks Seigi why Seigi won't tell him anything. Seigi retaliates and says that it's not Richard's business, it's not like Richard wants to hear anything bad like that, etc. Then Richard says that he likes Seigi so, so much, that it makes him angry. At this point Jeffrey leaves the room for a bit so there's just the two of them.

At first Seigi denies Richard's concerns, saying that he might have been influenced by his dad more than Richard would ever know. As a kid Seigi looked in libraries about domestic abuse, and found a book that mentions that statistically, boys who witness domestic violence in their homes have a higher chance of growing up to be an abusive partner themselves. Seigi then recalls how sometimes as a kid he ended up punching and destroying things, how Hiromi enrolled him to learn karate to release the steam and learn how punches and kicks actually hurt. However he still thinks that he has the potential to be violent, and he doesn't want Richard to see that.

Richard gently tells Seigi that all Seigi does is being prejudiced towards himself, and that his prejudice means he's also prejudiced towards every other kid who are also victims of domestic violence. He adds that someone who isn't kind to themselves won't be able to be kind to others as well. Richard also thinks the reason Seigi never gets tired of Richard's looks is because he always sees Richard from afar, refusing to get closer. He encourages Seigi to seek help when he has problems, not just to Richard, but to anyone else.

At one point Richard kneels in front of Seigi who's sitting on a chair, Seigi thinks of how it's like if an adult is trying to comfort a child. Then he starts crying (again). Then Richard tells Seigi to answer the phone. He does, and the dad says he's waiting near Seigi's apartment. Seigi's supposed to go there alone, but apparently the game plan between the two brothers is that Richard is going to accompany Seigi. Jeffrey jokes that Richard might look slender when clothed, but if you see him naked he has pretty well built muscles, so everything should be fine if ever a brawl or anything happens. Richard shushes him.

Richard and Seigi ride on the usual Jaguar to the dad's location. Inside the car, Richard asks why Seigi was so gullible in accepting his invitation to a hotel room, he was sure that Seigi would say no to that. Seigi just says that it's because he trusts him. If Tanimoto ever tells Seigi she wants to punch him, Seigi will let that happen too.

They arrive, Richard stops the car, and encourages Seigi who has made up his determination, calling him a "good boy". Seigi notices that's usually a line used for dogs, but he shrugs it off. However, Richard ends up being the only one who walks out of the car and meets dad. Dad acts confrontational in front of Richard, until Nakata-san (Seigi's now-dad and Hiromi's current husband) appears and grabs shitty dad's shoulder.

Nakata-san confronts shitty dad, asking him why he's bothering his son, if he actually knows anything about Seigi, what he likes, what he's good at, etc. Shitty dad panics and runs away, leaving Nakata-san, Richard, and Seigi there. Seigi walks out of the car stunned, trying not to cry (for the nth time tonight), thinking about how happy it is that Nakata-san comes to help him. The dad and son hugs tightly.

Nakata-san explains that he comes because Hiromi and Richard contacted him about the incident. As it turns out, after the events in England, Richard contacted the couple to apologize about involving their son to all his mess. Nakata-san also apologizes that he couldn't come to Seigi's coming-of-age ceremony, and wants to make sure that he can be here today.... which is Seigi's birthday. He forgot about that because he was panicking.

The couple prepared a birthday present they ordered from Etranger. It's a pair of cufflinks made of tanzanite. Tanzanite is a pretty fragile stone, and by putting them as cufflinks, they want to make Seigi remember to take time to think before leaping into action and to stop him if ever he's about to get violent (though that isn't gonna happen, we all know he's a good boy!) so that the stone doesn't break. The designer of the cufflinks is Maya, the lady from Book 5 chapter 1 who told Seigi he had pretty hands (lol). If Seigi breaks the cufflinks, Maya will absolutely raise hell over it, or so Richard says.

Nakata-san says bye to our two boys because he has to go back to Hiromi's side as she's also pretty stressed from the whole ordeal, telling Richard to take care of Seigi. They both drive back to the hotel, Richard tells Seigi that Jeffrey will help sort things out as Seigi will need to temporarily move around to avoid stalker dad. Seigi asks why they're willing to go this far for him. Richard answers that the family owes Seigi a lot. Jeffrey also previously told Richard that if anything happens to Seigi, Henry will never forgive him, so Richard wants Seigi to just think of Jeffrey as a talking wallet.

Seigi asks Richard to let him go back working in Etranger, and of course Richard says yes. They then turn to go eat sweets somewhere.

#jeweler richard #the case files of jeweler richard #nakata seigi #richard ranashinha dvorpian #spoilers #translation

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k-writer1998 · 4 years

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Black, White, Grey (???)

Having Bang Chan as your best friend is great cause he’s literally the best but not so much when you’ve had a crush on him for a majority of the friendship.

Angst/fluff???

w.c: 2.1k

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

A/N: I tried to make it happier, I really did 😭 but with how I set this up this is the best I could do 😅 Hope you like this last part guys 😊

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After landing in Incheon airport, my manager notified me that I would be getting a few weeks off to relax after enduring the intense schedules while in LA. The boys and I kept missing each other during my stay in the States so it’s been ages since we last caught up. Luckily my manager informed me that Stray Kids would be at the company building practicing and working in the studio for most of tomorrow as he gave me a knowing smile. Returning the smile, I couldn’t contain the excitement of meeting up with them and getting reacquainted with their rowdiness. The next day I made my way into the JYP building, being careful to not run into any of the boys in case anyone wanted to make an impromptu drink run or something. Once I reached their dance studio I peeked into the room through the small window on the door and caught sight of everyone minus my best friend. Slowly turning the handle, I popped in and my ears were bombarded with excited yells that echo throughout the room. With a laugh I went up to the boys, hugging and greeting all the members in turn.

“What the hell! When did you get back?” Felix exclaimed.

“I landed yesterday and wanted to surprise you guys. I missed you all,” I cooed.

“Disgusting,” Minho joked before adding, “Did you see Chan-hyung yet?”

“Not yet, I stopped by here first. I’m guessing he’s in the studio?”

“You should know better than us,” Hyunjin teased.

“But you’re the ones who are with him all the time so in this instance you guys know better.”

I laughed and joked with the boys a bit more before heading out to catch my workaholic best friend. When I finally stood in front of the studio door, I lightly knocked, sticking in my head with a bright smile on my face, before entering the studio.

“Surprise! Guess who’s back?”

“What the heck?” He laughed as he got up and pulled me into a hug.

“I got in yesterday and my manager told me I could find Stray Kids at the company today if you were wondering how I knew where to find you.”

“What? You didn’t use your best friend telepathy?”

“Shut up,” I laugh.

We pulled apart as I took a seat in one of the grey leather arm chairs and he reclaimed his desk chair. Giving him a proper once over, like always nothing had really changed with him except for the fact that the dark brown hair I left him with was now blonde. I shook my head as I reached to touch his hair, rolling his fringe between my fingers before I gave him a look.

“Really? Blonde again Christopher? This is why your fans say you’re going to go bald,” I teased.

“Whatever, I like it okay?” He laughed before adding, “It was so hard to catch you over there! How was LA?”

I dove into my life in LA over the past six months, I didn’t do much else except for work so they were mostly just on-set stories. He updated me on how life has been on his side, telling weird anecdotes about the other members and what not until I heard something that shocked my ears.

“Oh yeah and about four months after you left Eunhye and I decided to end things…”

“What?! And you didn’t think to TELL ME?! How’d it happen? I thought… does it still hurt?”

“It was just that she thought she could take on the idol life but down the road she couldn’t handle the burdens of it anymore. I mean in the beginning it did hurt but I don’t blame her. This career is my choice so I couldn’t ask her to make that sacrifice for me,” he gave me a reassuring smile.

A pout formed on my lips, Chan was going through something and I wasn’t able to be there for him… some best friend I was. I stood up and brought Chan into a hug as a small sorry fell from my lips, my hand mindlessly playing with his hair. A chuckle escaped his lips as his arms wrapped around my waist. He moved his legs apart and pulled me closer, resting his head on me. Damn my stupid reflexes. Here it is again, the lines blurring together once more and making the grey area that was our friendship. I shouldn’t let the lines blur again, I needed them not to but I can’t stop the sweet kiss of the devil. Not after I’ve come to crave its taste every time it’s taken from me. I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard his voice drift up to my ears.

“What are you sorry for?”

“I wasn’t there when you were hurting…”

“Neither was I, all the times you were.”

My hand froze in his hair before I let out a soft breath. I have to remember he knows now… He pulled his head away and slid back a bit to look at my face clearly. I gave him a soft smile which he returned as his eyes softened at me as he held one of my hands in his own, lightly swinging it.

“It’s in the past so it’s fine. I’m better now and you seem happier too… are you happier?”

“I am happier than when I first left that’s for sure,” I chuckle.

“That’s good. I missed you.”

“Well I missed you too best friend.”

A sad attempt at drawing a line between the black and white that was slowly bleeding together again, but a desperate one at that. My eyes scanned over Chan’s face more closely, drinking in every aspect of his face even though they were already engraved in my memory. Our eyes connected and it caused my eyebrows to furrow together, he was hiding something.

“There’s no more secrets anymore… right?”

“Well there’s one, but I’m not sure about it. I don’t know how you’ll feel when you hear it…”

“Okay you’re kind of freaking me out. Did something bad happen?”

“No nothing like that. I just… came to a realization.”

“Which is…”

“I- I like you… more than friends…”

I immediately pulled my hand away as my eyes widened at the boy sitting in front of me. My eyes scanned his face as I tried to control my breathing, control the panic… My eyes couldn’t focus as they darted about the room until they caught Chan’s subtle movement. He slowly got up and tried to take a step closer so as to not spook me but I took a frantic step back.

“No Chan. you aren’t serious. I think you’re just confused because I’ve been away for so long,” I gave a shaky laugh as I shook my head in disbelief.

“I’m serious. My head’s been clearer then it's been in a long time actually and you know I don’t say these words lightly.”

“Five years… five years of getting my heart broken over and over again. Three years of wishing to have you, and two years of learning to accept the fact that it just won’t happen... I’ve spent a large part of our friendship seeing the love in your eyes for various girls that aren’t me. I would recognize that look in a heartbeat but I don’t see it in your eyes.”

“You said that if there was a chance for an “us” you would have caught it… but maybe neither of us caught it because we were comfortable in our grey area. Once we started separating things into black and white things got clearer and maybe neither of us liked it.”

“But there have been other girls and you never had this thought before! What’s different about this time?”

“You weren’t here anymore is what was different. For six years if we weren’t seeing each other we were face-timing, calling, or texting. We never had a chance to really be alone for that long. And when it finally happened I realized that I don’t like not having you here.”

“But that isn’t love Chan!” I screamed, running a frustrated hand through my hair, “I love you. You are the first person I think about when I wake up and the last I think about before I go to bed. Even if I’m not thinking about you, you somehow slip into my mind. If anything happens: good, bad, scary, interesting, funny; you are the first person I want to tell!”

“But that is how I feel-”

“No. It’s different,” I cut as tears started to stream down my face. My voice came out broken and weak just like how I felt, “Why are you doing this to me…”

This is the most my heart has hurt in the past six years of our friendship. I should be ecstatic hearing this but years of doubts and fears and just telling myself that this would never happen… I can’t trust this. It’s too good to be true and if I did accept this and things didn’t work I wouldn’t know how to live anymore so I’m not letting myself get to that point. Chan reached out to try and pull me into him but I stepped out of his reach as I wiped the tears from my face. Although it didn’t do much when new ones streaked down my cheeks in their place.

“I would never do that to you, I mean it when I say that I like you.”

“I don’t trust what you are feeling right now, I can’t. I’m sorry.”

I needed to get out of there, the room suddenly felt too small for the two people currently standing in it. As I tried to pull the door open, Chan’s hand came from behind me to close it once again. He held his hand there and I felt his gaze burning down on me as I shakily pulled at the door a few times to no avail. I turned to lean my back against the door in defeat, I was trapped between it and Chan anyways. There was nowhere to run anymore.

“You don’t have to accept my feeling but what’s going on in that head of yours? I don’t want things to get weird again, I think I did enough of that for the both of us,” he tried to joke.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the door, taking a breath to center myself before I started to speak. I wanted to give him the same light-hearted tone back but my heart was too heavy under this turmoil that I couldn’t muster anything more than a tired sigh. As I looked him in the eye he realized I wouldn’t run anymore so he dropped his arm and gave me a bit of space which I was thankful for.

“Chan you know that I like you and that’s the problem. I don’t trust that your head isn’t messing with your heart right now telling you you like me because you don’t want to hurt me. I’m not having it blow up in my face after you figure out that you had it wrong. I just can’t handle the repercussions if that happens.”

“How can I convince you that this is real? Everything about this, about us, just feels right and I feel like I haven’t been more sure of anything else in my life.”

“I don’t know Chan… but right now I just can’t trust this… I need to protect my own heart.”

“I was a fool for not realizing it sooner and putting you through all that heartache but it's too late to regret it now. I’ll prove to you that I’m serious, even if I have to take the first step and every other step until you realize that my feelings are real.”

He smiled down at me and I never knew a smile could hold so much unspoken emotion. There was something cocky behind the usual warmth and I had a feeling that whatever Chan had planned to “prove” himself, it’s going to be a whole new storm more unpredictable than the grey areas in our friendship. There was fire burning in his gaze as it held mine captive, and for a split second I thought I saw the look in his eye that I so desperately wanted to be directed towards me one day. Even though I didn’t trust this, the fact that he could possibly like me back sent the butterflies into a frenzy as a single thought popped into my mind. Can I actually have hope in this dream I thought was dead?

#stray kids #skz #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #skz imagines #skz scenarios #bang chan #bang chan imagines #bang chan scenarios #my writing

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occasionally-writing · 4 years

Text

Don’t Sleep In The Library

A/N: Okay, I think this will be the last one I will release for right now. It’s early in the morning and I haven’t slept, so I think I need to try and sleep. And omg, you guys are thirsty for some RamKing, it seems like that’s all that’s in my askbox XD Not that I care, I love writing for these two. Enough from me though! I hope you like the fic anon <3

Summary: When Ram wants to get away from all the noise, he goes to library but has a chance encounter with a sleeping King.

Word Count: 1534

Ram needed some time away. Don’t get him wrong, he loved his friends, but sometimes they could be a little too much for him. Too loud and just, Ram swore if he saw one more lovestruck expression on Duen’s face if he got a text from Bohn, he was going to either rip his hair out or go crazy. Whatever one happens first. Throwing his backpack over his shoulder as he walked out of the canteen, Ram made sure neither of his friends saw him leave as he darted away, heading towards the only place he knew that was quiet and a place that would help him get some solace in his head again. The library. Not taking too much time to get there, Ram felt his shoulders relax when he noticed the old building, quickening his steps as he walked up the stone stairs, opening the door and taking a deep breath as the scent of old brokes filled his senses. Giving a respectful wai to the librarian, Ram continued further into the building, heading towards the tables in the back. All he needed was some peace in quiet to focus on his own things...wait...is that..?

“...?” Furrowing his brow as he noticed an Engineering senior passed out on one of the tables, his face buried in one of the open books while more stacks of textbooks littered the table around him. Glancing around to see if anyone else seemed to notice the boy, Ram frowned before he tiptoed towards the senior, cocking his head to the side once he reached him as he came to the conclusion that yes, he knew this sleeping boy. It was King. Peering around once more, Ram let out a soft sigh and pulled the chair across from King back, taking a seat in it as he placed his backpack in the open chair beside him. Opening it up, Ram took out his folder with the packet he had to work on while he kept his eyes on King, trying to be as silent as possible. Moving some of the textbooks to the side so he could lay his own down, Ram pulled out a pen and got to work, the scratches of pen on paper being the only sound around the quiet library. “...P’ looks tired...I shouldn’t wake him.”

Moving his gaze from the sound asleep other, Ram finally glanced down at his work, taking in the problems as he began to solve them to the best of his ability. He wasn’t as smart as King but that doesn’t mean all the tutoring and notes he was given wouldn’t account to anything. Solving the first few questions easily, Ram paused as he reached the fifth one, his brows scrunching as confusion hit him. How did he solve this one again? What the formula King told him about? Biting his lip, Ram moved his eyes from his packet and stared at King, who was still unaware of his presence. Should he? Clicking his pen rapidly, Ram took in a deep breath as he decided what to do. Pushing his pen towards King, Ram gently poked his head with it, blinking when it got no reaction from his senior. Letting out a huff, Ram rapidly poked King’s head, finally waking him up as he yelped at the pen abuse, shooting up from the table as he glanced around in shock, his gaze landing on Ram who was trying but failing to hide an amused smirk.

“Cool Boy...what...where…? Oh, the library...I must’ve fell asleep,” King muttered to himself, pushing his fingers through his messed up hair, not seeing the way Ram was looking at how cute his slight bedhead was. Moving his eyes back down so he could stare at King as he tried to fix his hair, Ram waited until King was done until he reached out and wrapped his hand around his wrist, tugging lightly to gain his attention. Letting out a hum of confusion, King blinked before he took in the packet that Ram was working on. Seeing the expectant look in his junior’s eyes, King grinned as he figured out that Ram needed help as he closed the textbook he was sleeping on, pushing it aside as he got out of his seat, moving the chair to the other side of the table so he could see the problem Ram was stumped on. “Oh this one! Yeah, this formula is hard to remember, so I don’t blame you for struggling with it. Here, it goes like this!”

Handing King his pen, Ram watched as the senior wrote down the formula that was needed to solve the problem. Once in a while glancing at Ram to make sure he was listening, King explained everything he needed to, leaning back to let Ram solve the rest of the problem, keeping his eyes on everything he wrote to make sure that he didn’t make a simple mistake. Coming up with the answer, Ram wrote it down before he stared at it for a moment, moving his gaze up to King to see his reaction. Letting a grin light up on his face, King patted Ram’s shoulder and praised him for getting it right. Helping him with the rest of the page, King didn’t realize how much time had passed until the library was just beginning to close and they were informed that they had to clean up and get ready to leave. Finishing off the last question quickly, King approved all his work and moved to take care of his things, putting all the textbooks back in their place on the shelves as Ram cleaned up his work, putting everything that he owned back in his backpack. Meeting up with him, King cleaned up his textbook and notes and placed them back in his bag as well, swinging it over his shoulder as they walked out of the library, giving wais to the kind librarian as they left.

“Sorry I can’t hang out with you tonight, Cool Boy. I promised my family that I would visit them at the house as soon as I was done...and I’m already late as it is,” King chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought about the lecture he was going to get from his older sister for being late. The last thing she needs to know is that he fell asleep while studying. Nodding slightly at what King said, Ram grabbed his wrist once again and began to drag him towards the parking lot. Knowing that Ram was walking him towards his car, King didn’t say a word about being led like a dog as the parking lot came into view. Coming up to his car, Ram stopped walking which caught Ram’s attention and he stopped, staring at the car that was obviously King’s. “Thanks for walking me to my car. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“...Yeah…” Ram muttered softly as he let go of King’s wrist, taking a step back as he gave a slight wai. Returning it, King waved Ram off and leaned against his car, watching as the junior lazily walked away, most likely heading towards his dormitory. Letting out a soft breath as Ram disappeared from his sight, King opened the door to his car and slipped in, throwing his backpack into the passenger side seat as he closed the door behind him. Digging his keys out of the pocket of his Engineering vest, King put the key in but paused as his phone pinged, notifying him that someone sent him a facebook message. Struggling to pull his phone out of his jeans pocket, King let out a huff as he finally got it free and typed in his passcode, opening his messages to see something from Ram. Arching a brow, King glanced out the window but the junior was nowhere in sight. Looking at the text again, King opened it and felt his eyes widen as he read the message. “I think your hair is cute when you wake up, if only you could see it the way I did.”

Staring at the message for a good minute, King swallowed the lump in his throat as his face began to grow warm and turn a shade of red. Throwing his phone into the passenger seat, King gripped the steering wheel and buried his face in his arms, tapping his feet against the bottom of the car as he fought the scream that wanted to escape his throat. Who taught Cool Boy to say these kinds of things?! What the absolute hell?! Letting out a groan as he leaned back against his seat, King stared at the direction where Ram had disappeared and rubbed his face, trying to will the blush to fade. Squeezing the steering wheel once more, King took a deep breath in as he started the car, putting it in the right gear before he left the parking lot, just knowing that he would have to hide the message from his sister. The last thing he and Ram both need is her delusional fantasies like poor Cool Boy had to deal with last time.

#my engineer the series #ramking #kingram #ram x king #king x ram #my writing #thanks for requesting!

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cyberdva · 5 years

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Chemistry- Richie Tozier X Reader (Imagine ☆)

Imagine- Chemistry

Summary- Y/N and Richie are assigned Chemistry partners from the upcoming school year. While the two never really talked they grew closer. Richie tried his best with all of the experiences, but always seemed to mess up somehow. He came up with a list of the class rules and made a pact to break every single one of them before the end of the year. As much as Y/N thinks it’s funny she needs to get some work done. Follow their weird experiences and watch their relationship grow throughout their school year.

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Main Masterlist

IT Masterlist

Word Count: 3.1k

Date Uploaded: 11/6/19

Warnings: Cursing

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September 1st 1990

“Alright class, settle down.”

Tables sat in single two by two rows, not one single seat was empty. Richie Tozier sat in the far right corner, he liked sitting in the back, no one paid much attention to him if he did. Another boy sat beside him clearly not interested in this class either. Every kid had dreaded the first day of school, they were placed in the same building with the same people for another 180 days of hell. The boy’s eyes dilated to his surroundings, bottles and huge file cabinets boxxed him in. The bright LED lights buzzed overhead him.

“I know all of you guys are very excited for this class and I hope you are all prepared. We have a long list of activities we have to get done before the end of this quarter. Hopefully some of you will enjoy them.” the class groaned. The teacher, who had yet to introduce himself, nodded. Just as he suspected everyone didn’t want to be here, it added to the enthusiasm of teaching.

He waved the chatter away, “Ok, I’m Mr.Leachermen or just call me Mr.L.” Few kids laughed at the long name and Mr.L gave out a soft sigh, another fabulous year is bright ahead and it’s only the first period.

“Our lessons are split into four quarters, you will have an assessment on all the topics covered at the end of every one. Be prepared because I know handfuls of students who don’t bother studying, yet it’s a fifth of your grade.” Students stared at him with beady eyes, none of them had names to him, just kids. In the back of his mind a seating chart was beginning to form.

He wiped his nearly bald head as the sun was beating down from the half covered windows, ”Our first two quarters will be extremely math heavy and if anyone has trouble with that kind of stuff I suggest coming in early for help.” One or two kids wrote down a mental note and Mr. L grab a few note cards and a pile of papers to hand out. He began to hand one out to each student.

Lab Safety Rules

If a fire erupts notify the teacher immediately.

Eye protection MUST be worn any time chemicals, heat, or glassware is used.

Ask the teacher if you don’t understand a direction, or any part of the laboratory procedures.

After completing an experiment, all chemical waste should be disposed of according to your teacher’s directions.

If you are injured during a lab (cut, burn, etc.) you should tell a teacher immediately.

Long hair in the laboratory must be tied back or kept entirely out of the way with a hair band, etc.

Loose clothing, dangling jewelry, and sandals are not to be worn during lab activity.

Horseplay, practical jokes, or pranks in the classroom are always against the rules.

If a piece of equipment is not working tell the teacher.

You should always wash your hands with soap and water.

Eating and chewing gum are not permitted in the lab.

When cutting using a razor blade or scalpel always cut material away from you.

Always raise your hand when wanting to speak in class.

No drinking in class.

No water or drinking in class.

If you are late more than three times disciplinarian action will be enforced.

The tired teens glanced over the paper as their teacher went over the basic rules, he wanted to make an emphasis on how they should not be broken under any circumstances.

“If anyone does continuously break these laws I will be executing detentions for each problem, if it manages to get any worse parental contact will be a factor.”

This part perked Richie’s ears, he loved to be a class clown and this might be his chance.

“You will be given a 22 point quiz on this topic, but it’s extremely easy so I wouldn’t worry about it. Other topics we’ll be covering this unit is Bohr Models, balancing equations, and the periodic table of elements.” Blank stares were the only exchange between the pupils. Mr. L has no idea what to do, the first day was always a pain in the ass.

He sighed, “Since we’re not getting anything done today I’ll be assigning lab partners.” This seemed to get the majority of the class interested. Some kids looked around for someone they knew, but for most, they were screwed.

The teacher grabbed the attendance list, ”I’ll just spitball some random names. Everyone please grab your things and stand in the front of the class.” The kids shuffled up and piled in the front.

“Ok at this first table Marcus K. and Tida M.” Two kids pushed through the abundance of others and sat uncomfortably next to each other. Mr. L kept assigning pairs, Richie awkwardly stood in the middle of all of it, oblivious to what was going on around him, until he heard his name.

“Richie Tozier and Y/N L/N over hear in the left corner.” A girl emerged from beside him, Richie had never seen her before, he followed behind. Near the back was their table. A small bucket of water sat by a table leg. Both of them exchanged a stare and sat down. Sooner or later Mr. L had sat the entire class out.

He took a swig of coffee and sleepily looked around, “There isn’t anything else planned for today, talk amongst your partners.” It was quiet for awhile before the chatter began.

“Hi, I’m Richie.” He turned to his partner for a better look.

She glanced back at him, “I know,” she laughed breathlessly, “I’m Y/N.”

They just looked at each other, not knowing what to talk about.

“So, you liking the weather today?” Richie scratched the back of his neck. He couldn’t crack out any jokes just yet.

“That’s really the first thing you thought to ask?”

“I dunno, what do you want to talk about?”

“You got me there, any insights on this idiotic class?”

“Not liking it so far, but I have an idea to make it a bit more enjoyable…”

She tilted her head, “You better have a really good idea to make this ‘enjoyable.’

“I think it’s good, I’m going to break every rule this year.”

“I’d like to see you try, Tozier.”

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September 27th 1990

“Does everyone have their goggles on?”

The class let out a few murmurs of the word ‘yes.’ The multi-colored goggles were slapped onto their faces and would leave a harsh imprint by the time they were done.

Richie leaned over to his partner, “I’m going to break the first rule.”

Her eyes went wider, “How are you going to set something on fire without anyone noticing?”

“No idea.”

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“Everyone turn on the burner in front of them and grab the cotton swab labeled magnesium. If this is done correctly the flame should be turned into a different, bright color.”

Richie grabbed a sheet of Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning notes and through his copy of the Science Safety Rules at Y/N. She held onto it underneath the table. His hand shakily turned on the micro burner and slid the paper underneath. The flame caught on and smoke began to rise. Y/N quickly drew a line through rule Number One. Unbenounced to the entire room this small flame triggered the fire alarms. The loud ringing caught everyone’s ears and Richie threw the paper onto the ground and hit it as much as he could with his foot. It went out as the class began filing out.

They weren't caught.

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Lab Safety Rules

̶1̶.̶If a fire erupts notify the teacher immediately.

2. Eye protection MUST be worn any time chemicals, heat, or glassware is used.

3. Ask the teacher if you don’t understand a direction, or any part of the laboratory procedures.

4. After completing an experiment, all chemical waste should be disposed of according to your teacher’s directions.

5. If you are injured during a lab (cut, burn, etc.) you should tell a teacher immediately.

6. Long hair in the laboratory must be tied back or kept entirely out of the way with a hair band, etc.

7. Loose clothing, dangling jewelry, and sandals are not to be worn during lab activity.

8. Horseplay, practical jokes, or pranks in the classroom are always against the rules.

9. If a piece of equipment is not working tell the teacher.

10. You should always wash your hands with soap and water.

11. Eating and chewing gum are not permitted in the lab.

12. When cutting using a razor blade or scalpel always cut material away from you.

13. Always raise your hand when wanting to speak in class.

14. No drinking in class.

15.No water or drinking in class.

16. If you are late more than three times disciplinarian action will be enforced.

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December 13th 1990

“Which rule are we breaking today my good sir?” Y/N curtsied at her close friend. As the year went on the two grew closer and closer. He introduced her to the rest of the Losers Club and Y/N and Stanley began to bond.

Richie pondered and pulled the rule sheet out of the pocket of his oversized pants, “How about Number 11?”

She nodded, “Do you have any gum?”

“You know it!” He grabbed some spearmint gum and plopped it in his mouth. Richie made sure to make it completely obvious that he had gum. The two walked to class and the boy blew loud bubbles right in front of everyone. He got sent some weird glares, the student body knew about the strict gum rule and knew what was coming at Richie. He hid it as they walked into the classroom and the two giggled as they made their way to their desks.

Mr.L began to teach and Richie started chewing and blowing bubbles. Two or three people turned around, so, of course, he began to do it worse. Over and over again until it disrupted the entire class.

“Mr. Tozier, go spit out the gum and fill out a slip for detention, you know the rules. Watch it.” The class gave out melodic sets of ‘ooohs.’ Rich nodded and got up to do as he was told. When he walked by Y/N his whispered in her ear.

“Hey Y/N, want to see a movie after my detention?”

She stopped jotting down notes and looked up, “A date?”

“A date.”

“Meet you here at 5.”

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Lab Safety Rules

̶ ̶̶̶

1̶.̶If a fire erupts notify the teacher immediately.

2. Eye protection MUST be worn any time chemicals, heat, or glassware is used.

3. Ask the teacher if you don’t understand a direction, or any part of the laboratory procedures.

4. After completing an experiment, all chemical waste should be disposed of according to your teacher’s directions.

5. If you are injured during a lab (cut, burn, etc.) you should tell a teacher immediately.

6. Long hair in the laboratory must be tied back or kept entirely out of the way with a hair band, etc.

7. Loose clothing, dangling jewelry, and sandals are not to be worn during lab activity.

8. Horseplay, practical jokes, or pranks in the classroom are always against the rules.

9. If a piece of equipment is not working tell the teacher.

10. You should always wash your hands with soap and water.

11. Eating and chewing gum are not permitted in the lab.

12. When cutting using a razor blade or scalpel always cut material away from you.

13. Always raise your hand when wanting to speak in class.

14. No drinking in class.

15.No water or drinking in class.

16. If you are late more than three times disciplinarian action will be enforced.

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June 6th, 1991

“I think we’re gonna do Number 16 today, you’ve been late two times this week. Why not push it to one more?”

Richie grinned, “That sounds perfect N/N.”

“Don’t call me that. I hate it when you call me that. Just go hide in the bathroom, this is going to be good.” Richie skipped away and the girl walked alone to her first period class. Everything went swimmingly, final exams were approaching and a study period was beginning. Around 20 minutes later Richie comes in whistling throwing a rubber ball on the ground. Everyone turned to look at him as he signed the late book, as he broke the final rule. He did it.

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“Richie, may I speak to you after class?”

He looked at Y/N.

“We did it.”

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Lab Safety Rules

1̶.̶If a fire erupts notify the teacher immediately.

2. Eye protection MUST be worn any time chemicals, heat, or glassware is used.

3. Ask the teacher if you don’t understand a direction, or any part of the laboratory procedures.

4. After completing an experiment, all chemical waste should be disposed of according to your teacher’s directions.

5. If you are injured during a lab (cut, burn, etc.) you should tell a teacher immediately.

6. Long hair in the laboratory must be tied back or kept entirely out of the way with a hair band, etc.

7. Loose clothing, dangling jewelry, and sandals are not to be worn during lab activity.

8. Horseplay, practical jokes, or pranks in the classroom are always against the rules.

9. If a piece of equipment is not working tell the teacher.

10. You should always wash your hands with soap and water.

11. Eating and chewing gum are not permitted in the lab.

12. When cutting using a razor blade or scalpel always cut material away from you.

13. Always raise your hand when wanting to speak in class.

14. No drinking in class.

15.No water or drinking in class.

16. If you are late more than three times disciplinarian action will be enforced.

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

#richie tozier x you #richie tozier #richie tozier x reader #richie tozier imagines #it ch 1 #it chapter 2 #fandom #fanfic #fanfiction

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smarmaladey · 4 years

Text

The Bad Touch - (2/3)

Chapter 2 - “nothin’ but mammals”

Rating: 🇪

Fandom: Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure

Relationships: 🐞♡🚺

Words: 4260

Ao3 Link Prev.

(For content warnings and additional notes, click read more)

Things get worse for our “lovely” heroine.

cw: rape/non-con elements, AU (probably), ooc (probably), break-ins(?)

Enjoy!!

♡🐞♡

Monday.

7:00 AM.

The second incident.

♡🐞♡

If there was one word you'd never use to describe yourself, it'd be "independent".

In other words, you weren't a leader, you were always a follower. You simply took jobs from people, didn't question anything, and always did them the best you could. And you liked it that way.

This always seemed like the best option, as you were, admittedly, not a thinker, so your mentality was always this: do what the higher-ups say and nothing shall go wrong.

Of course, that little philosophy of yours was tested once you woke up to a certain phone call.

A phone call from a voice you couldn't recognize at all, notifying you that you left a couple of your belongings at Giovanna's estate. The man had told you to wait, wait at your home until they could arrive and, as he put it, “smooth things out”.

Like hell I’m going to do that.

While you didn’t think Giovanna was screwed up enough to, say, stick the assassination squad on you for rejecting his advances, perhaps rejecting his advances, destroying his property, referring to him by his first name, and walking out before you were dismissed, all in the span of around 50 seconds could, at the very least, spell a bit of trouble.

So, you devised a simple little plan, all on your own.

Sneak into the estate. (Easy)

Grab your jacket and folder, and check for stains. (Also easy. Probably)

Leave without being seen by anyone. (Less easy)

Sleep, and/or change your name and move away, depending on the aftermath. (Preferably to the west of America, or anywhere outside of Europe. Not so easy)

You never imagined going back to that place the day after the whole fiasco, but it really was your only choice.

Sneaking into the building would be a piece of cake, being that your entire profession, as well as your ability, Black Hole Sun, was centered around avoiding all kinds of surveillance.

Black Hole Sun, put in the simplest way, allowed you to turn “light” into “weight”. It manifested as a cluster of pitch-black flowers and mushrooms that could sprout anywhere in a 15-20 meter radius, absorbing any light that reached them. This was ideal for creating shadows, blending into said shadows, or turning any light source into a means of vacuum-based destruction. Hell, if given the chance, you could collapse any building from the roof down, given it was daytime.

Of course, collapsing Giovanna’s home would probably be like destroying 1000 expensive lamps at once, but that’s neither here nor there, you know?

By the time you had reached the wide expanse of his property, there were only a scarce amount of people standing around. A few figures were leaving the building, but none seemed to be entering at all.

While threading between the trees around the building, you racked your brain trying to figure out where your belongings could have been. There was a decent chance they were still in his office, but you didn’t want to risk A, walking in on a possible meeting/debriefing, or B, accidentally getting caught by him, so you passed on visiting that room.

Problem was, that was the only room you knew the exact location of.

In the end, you didn’t come up with an exact idea of where your stuff could be, so instead, you decided that you’d simply check every square foot of the building. You ended up at the very back of the building, and while the expansive garden in the back was gorgeous, it didn’t exactly have good hiding spots.

You ended up prying open the largest window you saw, and carefully stepping in onto the floor as carefully as you could. As you looked around, you allowed B • H • S to dissipate, letting color fade back into your silhouette.

The room you ended up in seemed to be some kind of sunroom, the window you climbed in from giving a perfect view of the garden, as well as casting gorgeous light onto the decorated interior.

The walls to your sides were, not unlike Giovanna’s office, lined with bookshelves, this time not hyper-organized. Houseplants of different colors bloomed in multiple different places, and right next to the door was a cushioned red armchair and ottoman.

And here I was thinking he had no sense of interior decor.

Unfortunately, you couldn’t help but get distracted by the overall pleasantness of the room. Unlike the office, the temperature was nice and cool, not absolutely Siberian, and the sunlight felt nice on your flesh. Using that “every square foot” line from earlier as an excuse, you started examining the books on the shelves.

You shuffled down the row on your tiptoes, slowly, still trying to be as quiet as you could. A good chunk of the choices of literature displayed were rather surprising, you taking special note of a few books in English, and some in Japanese, both languages you didn’t realize he was familiar with. The titles you could understand were also interesting-- a lot of stuff about the supernatural, especially as you got near the end of the shelves.

Stowing away your folder in these shelves would probably be a smart move…

“Has something caught your eye?”

You bumped into something warm, stopping you right in your tracks.

Holy fuck.

The sight made your heart freeze, taking near all energy from your legs and causing you to plummet onto the floor.

“If you want to borrow any of them, feel free to ask. Do you know much English?” Giovanna, looking as prime as ever, asked. He was clearly feigning innocence, leaning over you with a glint in his eye.

To you, he looked 10 meters tall.

With your brain short-circuiting, you would've spat out incoherent babbling if you chose to speak at that moment. Fortunately, you took a second to come up with a rebuttal, putting on the fakest expression you could muster.

"Oh, here and there, y'know? Not anything very...advanced...but…"

You forced a laugh and he smiled at you, lips even glossier and more vibrant than yesterday.

He offered to help you up with a simple gesture, but with the grace of a crippled swan, you rose to your feet and backed away.

To your dismay, it only prodded him to get closer.

"So, what brought you here this morning? I don’t exactly remember inviting you." He was still staring down at you, enraging the deepest, most insecure part of your brain because he's fucking younger than me why is he so much taller-

"Uhm," you swallowed a thick clot of saliva in your throat. "I...just wanted to admire your...interior decorating…"

Shittiest excuse I've ever come up with in my life.

Giovanna stepped closer with his left, you stepped back with your right. "Is that so…? Are you sure it wasn't for...this?"

From behind his back, as if it came out of thin air, he pulled out your peacoat and held it out to you. You stifled a gasp, and reflexively reached out to take it, but at the last second he pulled it back again.

“Ah, what do we say now?” He teased, as if you were a child, smiling.

You couldn’t help but smile back at him, rolling your eyes. “Grazie, Giorn--” midway through saying his first name, you stopped and slapped your hand over your mouth. “Shi- Er, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

His expression dropped for a split-second before he started laughing, putting you off a tad. “That’s so adorable...!”

That last word made your cheeks flush, replaying memories from the previous afternoon that drove you to step away from him. “...Right. Ahem, could I please have my coat back now?”

“Oh, certainly.” Relief.

“But…” Oh.

The tension in the room felt like it got darker, as he raised the black garment closer to his face. “...I have a couple suspicions of my own…”

He stepped closer with his right, you stepped back with your left. “This morning, I went out of my way to get in contact with my most trusted men, so I could return your things to you safely...then, they tell me you’ve hung up on them!”

It felt cold.

“And when they get to your home, you’re nowhere to be found!”

What?

You weren’t given any time to unpack that, as he continued to go off. “Now you’re here! Without even letting me know, too...” He frowned a bit, but perked up soon enough. “But that’s alright! Because I knew you’d come back to me.”

“Huh…” All thoughts came out as a single hiccup. “What...I don’t…”

He appeared to grow a little angry, but more distraught than anything. “Bella!” he cried, knuckles white and arms trembling. “Didn’t I tell you not to act like that with me? Don’t pretend that you can’t remember what happened yesterday…”

The worst thing was, he was 100 percent right. You were pretending that you forgot what went down, when it was, unsurprisingly, on your mind since it happened. You were feigning (well, attempting to feign) innocence, hoping that it wouldn’t lead to another nightmare.

“But…” Giovanna sighed, switching moods too quickly for your liking. “That doesn’t matter anyways!” His smile was disgustingly, unbearably cute. “Because you came back to me! I knew you would!”

A chill went down your spine, prompting you to step back twice. “I, uh, think you’ve got the wrong idea--” You were cut off by him approaching again, holding his hand right in front of your face.

“See?”

What the hell is he talking about?

“I cut my nails for you last night…” He looked over his own, now shortened and even rounder, snow-white nails, “it must’ve been a bit painful when I touched you, I’m sorry about that…”

You didn’t appreciate his “apology” one bit, instead deciding to take another step back, frantically searching for the window so you could pull off an escape before it was too late. You felt the lukewarm glass on the tips of your fingers, but Giovanna stepped a bit too close for your liking, causing you to shift to the other side, eventually turning around entirely as he refused to back off.

Now the two of you had rotated, with him backing you back into the room, towards the door. The light shining from the back window bounced off the satin material of his clothing and golden accents, glaring into your eyes.

The reflexive need to close your eyes outweighed rational thought, and as soon as you blinked them shut your calves bumped against something, causing you to trip backwards and fall onto the (remarkably comfortable) red chair.

Once more, you were flattened before him, staring up with no idea of what was going to go down.

Well, you had a vague idea.

The golden boy had already made sure you couldn’t get away by just getting up, as he was standing over you in between the ottoman and the chair, one foot on the floor and the other resting right next to yours. You had caught him glancing at the light switch right by the door, making sure it was off.

Without a light source in the room, you had no good method of getting away, and collapsing the window at the other side would be useless if you couldn't even get to it.

Cornered, you dug your nails into the arms of the chair, glaring at him while pushing your head back into the cushion.

The look in his green eyes was strange, a disturbing mix of innocence and lust that made the lower half of your body feel restless. A few seconds of silent eye contact passed, before he reached down and grabbed your wrist.

You attempted to tug it away as he held it up, only to be met with a cold glare. His grip tightened before he transferred it to G • E, reaching down and doing the same to your other hand.

Straightening himself, he flipped his long braid over his shoulder. You watched as he worked off the lowest hair tie, letting the loop at the end fall loose. He stretched out the transparent band and wrapped it around both of your wrists, before tapping it again with his middle three fingers.

You felt your thin binding shift between tight and loose as it swelled and turned green. The hair tie had changed into a tight coil of stems and vines, covered in thin bristles.

When you tried to struggle, to break the botanical bindings, the bristles irritated your skin. He noticed, and pushed your hands above your head.

"Please, it's useless to try and get away from me now. I don't want you to be in pain, you know?" He punctuated his sentence with a gentle caress of your face with the back of his hand, and a peck to the tip of your nose.

He rose up and moved behind the ottoman, all while sliding his warm hand across the skin of your legs. After subtlety clearing his throat, he tried, (keyword, tried) to dip his hand between your thighs, only for you to squeeze them shut in a futile attempt to preserve your dignity.

You heard him quietly cough again, while he squeezed and then gently patted the plush flesh, as if telling you to open up. Still, you didn't give in.

His skin felt so hot against yours, like there was near boiling water flowing through his veins. Giovanna gave up trying to pry open your legs, instead pushing the ottoman right up to the chair, moving in front of it, and pulling you a smidge closer so that you were laying flat on your back.

He started by grabbing the bottom of your thighs, lifting them up then pushing back the bottom of your knees, so both legs were relatively straight, pointing up to the ceiling. G • E took hold of both ankles, keeping your limbs still.

“Wait…” You croaked out as you felt him hook his fingers into the waistbands of your bottoms. “Wha--what are you doing, Gior--” fuck.

He stopped what he was doing to look at you, and scoffed. "You're kidding, right?" Lowering your legs a bit, his lips curled into a cute little smile. "Oh, cara, you know I have much bigger things to worry about than what you call me." He leant down to hold your face in both of his hands. "Besides, we should be on a first name basis now, no?"

One part of your brain was absolutely enraged at the fact that you were still concerned about something as dumb as that, yet it still felt like a lingering weight had been lifted from your chest.

Giorno clearly didn’t like the fact that you were avoiding his eyes, and his solution was to squeeze your face a little tighter and kiss you with no warning, not hesitating to shove his tongue in your mouth.

He pulled away after you whined, drinking in the intoxicating sight of you with your lips ajar, face obviously heated, and your eyes glossy. It confused him a little, everything about your appearance, your body was telling him that you craved this just as much as (or even more than!) he did, yet everything that came out of your mouth was a contradiction!

But he didn’t let that frustrate him too much, as he knew you’d eventually give in completely. All he had to do was get the mood right. Because that’s just how it worked. Right? Right.

Lifting himself off of you, he let out a small sigh while raising your legs again, continuing whatever he had planned in that unholy little brain of his. His fingers returned to the waistband of your pants, digging between both layers of fabric and painstakingly beginning to hoist them off.

The feeling of your underwear peeling off of your crotch was already humiliating, but you knew it was just the beginning.

He let go of your clothes when they were around your ankles, before lowering himself down to “your” level.

"N-no...don't~ ♡ ! " your throat was so clammed up that your voice sounded like a broken squeaker toy, but even if you tried to shout, you knew he wouldn't listen. It was too late, anyway, since now he’s already seen everything you’d previously tried to hide. (Physically, at least.)

After a few seconds of him (presumably) leering at your privates, you felt his touch on the plump, slippy flesh, before he slid two fingers into the cleft and parted it.

"Oh, look~♡" each limb began to quiver at his honeyed, sickly voice. "It's so cute and pink here…"

Out of pure mortification, you brought your hands down and shoved two of your fingers in your maw, biting down. "No! N...not there...don't look at it…♡" Your voice and words sounded callow, but your brain was too fried to mask your true thoughts.

His hands moved to your thighs, right before he placed a pert kiss to the very center of your vulva.

Oh, lord. You could feel the mark his lipgloss left.

Despite yourself, there was a growing pressure in your gut that had you, deep, deep down, craving more. Something wet and hot swept against your inner labia, instantly making your fingers curl into fists. You pressed your knuckles against your teeth, trying to suppress a inadvertent whine.

“You can let your voice out,” you heard him say after pulling away for a second, “I doubt anybody is going to come around here.” Wow, how reassuring! Thanks for telling me, asshole! Ignoring the pain from the bristles, you moved your hands to your eyes, desperately trying to cover them. To an outsider, it’d probably look like you were attempting to gouge them out.

The wet noises that came from him lapping at you bouncing off the walls, almost amplified, taunted you. Additionally, he’d sometimes let out soft little groans of his own, which vibrated the very surface of your flesh. It was needless to say that his tongue felt a lot more invasive than his fingers, (and unfortunately, it also felt better) feeling it probe inside the most intimate part of your body drew ever-loudening wails and whimpers from your stuffy throat.

You could tell his mouth was somehow even warmer than his external skin, even inside of your already warm internals it felt nearly sweltering. Occasionally, he’d pull back for a very quick second to sigh out your name or other 1-word comments, his voice getting more brittle each time.

Something you also picked up on was very, very, subtle swallowing, as if he was drinking the mix of his saliva and your fluids.

That pressure in your gut kept pulsing, falsely building up in a way that could only be described as the physical-pleasure equivalent of a Shepard tone. In desperation, or maybe protest, you wiggled your hips, which only seemed to tempt him to grow more intense.

Your cynical side kept trying to tell you to give up, to accept this and whatever was coming next, to submit to the inevitable. It seemed that you unwittingly listened to it, relaxing your limbs and giving up on trying to muffle your voice.

In the midst of the ever-growing haze, you felt him pull away and move his hand up your thigh. He pushed his thumb between your legs, again silently asking you to open up. This time though, you obliged and spread your thighs, all while trying to press the side of your head onto the cushion, in a vain attempt to “hide”.

He gave no warning, no words before moving up and swathing your engorged clit in his idyllic lips, and that was really where things on your end began to topple.

Near instantaneously, you curled upward, letting out a strained squeal, feeling tears prick in your eyes. You covered your face with your hands, regretting every decision leading up to this point.

Too bad your body wasn’t regretting anything.

"Suh..top...♡ I’ll...I’m gonna…”

You peeked down through your hands and caught him glancing up at you, which just made your body retort in embarrassment again. In a thoughtless moment, you tried putting your hands against his silky, loosening hair, the bindings preventing you from grabbing it comfortably.

As he put more pressure on your tender pearl, your steady stream of tears reached the bottom of your head, dripping down and soaking into the seat. You couldn’t help but tighten your legs around him, at this point, all you craved was sweet, glorious release.

One more stroke of your nub, and it all crash-landed. That ever-growing pressure in your belly burst and spread, making you let out a long, high-pitched wail as your body went limp underneath him. Tears veiled your sight, directed at the ceiling.

Giorno pulled away, panting, before wiping his mouth with his sleeve and moving up the chair, so he could hover above you once more. His long, loose plait hung down and rested on your shoulder, giving you a very faint tickle.

“...was that...good?” You didn’t respond to him, as your mind was flooded with a swarm of fatigue and dopamine, “I...I apologize, I’m still very...new to this…” yet that part was enough to snap you out of your post-orgasm muddle.

“New”?

Fuck’s that supposed to mean?

Don’t tell me he’s…

No, that can’t be right…

“It can’t…” Those two words accidentally slipped out, but they were barely intelligible. Your blondie boss (bloss?) didn’t seem to notice, as he was too busy smiling at how cute you looked, all spent, drooling, and tearing up underneath him.

He straightened up a bit, your legs still wrapped around his hips, tittering. “You’re adorable, you know that?” He got no response. “Ah...I love you. You know that, right?” No response.

That didn’t seem to bother him, as his smile stayed. After a few tense seconds, you turned your head and looked up at him, and his grin seemed to widen.

“Cute...hm, I still don’t understand why you insisted on stopping your voice, I, personally, love the way it sounds.” He still wasn’t eliciting a vocal response, instead you dropped your head to the other side. Your continued silence finally looked like it was beginning to phase him, so he reached down and lifted your face a bit.

He tried to kiss you, but missed and got the very side of your mouth. You were once more reminded about how hot (literally...but also figuratively) he was, his face burning with pink and his breath near visible in the cool room.

Losing some of his control, he kept his mouth on you, his actions devolving into repeatedly pecking at your cheek while groaning “compliments”. Eventually, he straightened up again, eyes filled with something that could possibly be described as “love”.

“Well, I don’t see the point of going upstairs, why don’t we move on?” He asked, fruitlessly, before sitting up to work at his pants button. Unbeknownst to him, you watched him do this, part scared, part intrigued, but mostly weary.

He was about to tug down his suit pants the moment before a sudden, firm knock at the door echoed through the room.

“Shit.” You heard him growl, before you made eye contact with each other, for a very quick moment. In a slight panic, Giorno tried to compose himself, glancing at you again before carefully separating from you.

“Hello?” Came an unfamiliar male voice, from the other side of the door. “Don Giovanna, are you there?” You perked up when you heard him say your name, “...that woman, we’ve looked around her neighborhood and have had no luck finding her, Sir.”

“Oh, is that so…” He was cautious, trying his best to make sure you wouldn’t leave, but to his dismay, you saw an opportunity and took it.

When he had moved out of your direct line of vision, he had let the ever-growing noon sunlight reach you, specifically, your hands. With that in mind, you manifested B • H • S on the vines, causing them to become etiolated, therefore loose, and allowing you to slip them off without fuss.

During a clearly awkward, through-a-door conversation between your boss and a random lackey, you rolled off the chair and sorted out your jumbled clothing. To get it out of the way, you shattered the window across the room. You heard Giorno’s voice go higher when he heard this, but unlike the day before, you said nothing to him, no apologies or anything before rushing to freedom.

Adrenaline was gushing through your veins, so with 0 restraint, after swiping your coat from the floor, you dashed forward, broke what remained of the window and leapt outside.

But, to one’s surprise, you didn’t go home that day. Instead, you remained at that estate, because you had to get to the bottom of something.

You had questions. Specifically: Why? What? Who? How? Me? You? And those questions needed answers. So, instead of retreating, or, say, escaping, you scoured the building for a very specific room.

Because I’m gonna get those answers, no matter what.

Was this a likely horrible decision that you would probably end up regretting and cursing yourself for making? Yes.

Was this likely going to end badly? Yes.

Would this, almost definitely, give you the explanation you longed for? Also yes.

It’s going to be a long, long evening.

♡🐞♡

n: god, whenever i copy stuff over, i have to go through it and re-italicize everything. maybe there’s an easier way of doing this? btw, i finished a couple of my blog’s pages, so i’d say its no longer wip :D

PS: the last chapter is already 8638 words, and i’m not even done. god have mewcy on my souw.

#my works #n/s/f/w #yumee works #cw noncon #jjba #jojo #giorno giovanna #vento aureo #golden wind #tender pearl is still gonna be my band name and nobodys gonna stop me

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temilyrights · 5 years

Text

the case of us (chapter one)

Summary: Someone from Readers past turns up at NCIS unannounced.

Word Count: 3805

A/N: Hello! I'm unsure how many chapters this is going to be exactly at the moment but I'm aiming for around 10. There was a lot of dialogue this chapter, I don't know what your guys' opinion on that is but I'm hoping it won't be as heavy the rest of the story. It was just required this chapter to set the story up. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, as always feedback is always appreciated and I hope you'll follow the story :)

Read on AO3

Chapter Two, Chapter Three

You paced the length of the conference room, biting the hangnail on your thumb as you waited for the women you hadn’t seen in 4 years to arrive.

You spun around to face the door when it began to open and in walked Felicity Walden. She hadn’t changed much since the last time you’d seen her. Your eyes zero in on the golden wedding band now on her finger and the pain you’d thought you’d long ago overcame comes roaring back. Felicity must notice your fixation as she fiddles with the ring before moving her hand behind her back causing you to snap your gaze to hers.

The agent who’d brought her up leaves the room while both you and Felicity stare at each other from either side of the room.

“What do you want?” You finally spit. It’s hostile and you enjoy the flash of shame that crosses her face.

“I know you never want to see me again, but I need your help-”

You can’t help the bitter laugh that escapes. “You think you have the right to ask for my help after what you and Sam-”

“We don’t!” Felicity cuts you off and you ground your teeth in anger “But Sam’s the reason I'm here...” Her voice wobbles.

Your eyes narrow and you huff. “And what? she couldn’t come here herself-”

“She’s missing.” Sound rushes to your ears and you finally lower yourself into a chair, your breathe completely knocked away. Oh no. No. This couldn’t be happening. You take a deep breath in the efforts to calm yourself and focus back on Felicity who’s still talking.

“It’s been 3 days. She just never came home on Sunday and the police don’t know anything, her father’s been using every contact he’s got but there’s hardly been anything and I just…” Emotion is thick in her voice as her voice cracks. “I can’t lose her Y/N.”

Felicity wipes away a few tears. You sigh deeply, rubbing your eyes as you grab the pad of paper and pen on the table “When was the last time you saw her?”

“We had lunch together on Sunday. We were meant to go shopping together afterwards but I got called into work. I dropped her off at the supermarket and she was going to uber home.”

“Have the police got any leads?”

“They won’t tell me. They’re being very tight-lipped about it all.”

“Do you have anyone you suspect?”

“I know she was having issues with a colleague at work. Patrick Vack? She’d said he could be a bit handsy and had made some homophobic comments, but she wouldn’t report him. If he’d been a serious threat, she would have.”

“Any ransom calls?”

“No.” shit.

“Ok. I’m going to go speak to my boss. You stay here and I’ll be back” You stand from your chair, avoiding Felicity’s eyes.

“Thank you, Y/N., I know this must be hard-”

“Let’s not talk about it okay. What happened, it’s not important right now. All that’s important is getting Sam home.”

You leave the room, sending the agent who’d brought her up back to the conference room to wait with her. You walk to the first unused office you can find and shut the door. Taking deep calming breaths to try and stop the wave of tears you can feel brewing. It doesn’t help.

—

You return to the bullpen 10 minutes later, no evidence left on your face to show you were ever crying.

You walk straight to Gibbs’ desk. He slowly turns his head from the computer and raises his eyebrow at you in question.

“I’ve just been informed an old friend of mine, Samantha Walden, is missing and I’ve promised someone I’ll help look into the case. She’s not in the navy but-”

“What do you need Y/N?” Gibbs cuts you off and you’re grateful he’s immediately ready to help.

“I need to contact the Police Department that is handling the case-”

“Doing it” Bishop cuts in from her desk, already picking up her phone and you flash her a grateful smile.

“Uh, she was last seen by her uh wife,” you stumble over the words, but the others don’t seem to notice or don’t comment either way you’re grateful. “Felicity, Sunday afternoon at Whole Foods. Her father, Robert Moore was a lawyer.”

“Robert Moore? He’s put away a lot of bad people. He’s basically a legend.” McGee pipes up in wonder and you nod.

“I suspect that may be a possible reason for her abduction although it’s been 3 days and no one has been contacted for a ransom.”

“Washington PD is sending over the case file. They haven’t got many leads. They found her mobile phone in the parking lot of Whole Foods, but it’s smashed to pieces. There’s also a security video. I’ve told them to send it to Kasie hopefully she’ll be able to find something.”

“Felicity is upstairs still in the conference room. We’ll need to get Robert to come in. and she also mentioned that there was a colleague, Patrick Vack, who had been causing problems at her work.”

“Ok. Torres and McGee go get Vack. Bishop, cell phone records, credit card statements, everything. Y/N introduce me to the wife. We’ll get an official statement and also invite her father in.”

The team jumps into action immediately. Torres and McGee out of the room before Gibbs had finished speaking. You lead Gibbs to the conference room where Felicity is still sitting, now with a cup of coffee.

“Gibbs, This is Felicity. Felicity, my boss Special Agent Gibbs.” You signal between the two, standing still as they shake hands. Gibbs sits down. “I’m going to invite Robert in, Gibbs is going to ask you a few more questions.”

“Oh! He’s on his way, I told him to come after you said you’d help.”

“Right.” You swallow thickly, Gibbs shooting you a curious gaze at your odd response. “I’ll get Sloane and we’ll interview Robert. I’ll leave you with Felicity?” Gibbs just nods and you gratefully exit the room.

On the way to Sloane’s office, you call down to reception to tell them to place Robert in conference room 2 once he’d arrived.

Her office door is open like always, and you enter without knocking. Sloane’s sitting at her desk reading from her computer screen but looks up as you enter, a kind smile lighting up her face which is instantly dulled by concern. “You look like you’ve had a hell of a morning.”

You laugh lightly “Yeah you could say that. Did Bishop send you the case file?”

She sits slightly higher in her chair as she taps the computer screen “Samantha Walden. Bishop said she’s a friend?”

“Was a friend.” Sloane’s eyes widened in surprise at your blunt answer. “Her father is on the way in, would you help with the interview?”

“Robert Moore correct?” you nod “Famous ex-prosecutor. I’d be happy to, but why? It’s not like you to ask for assistance with something like this?” You shuffle awkwardly under the pressure of her eyes.

“I haven’t seen him in just over 4 years now and he was like a father to me. I just...It’d be nice to have someone there to keep the conversation focused and to make sure the right questions are asked.” You swallow, eyes avoiding Sloane’s.

“Ok.” Sloane smiles and you breathe a sigh of relief. “Is there something we should know about what happened between you and Samantha?”

Your phone pings with an email notifying you of Robert's arrival. Sloane sighs already predicted she’s now not going to get an answer. “Robert’s here. Let’s go.” You offer a quick smile, before turning and exiting her office. She quickly grabs the printed Walden case file and a pen before following you.

Robert looks tired and worn out, pacing the office like you had been earlier this morning. You enter behind Sloane and Robert stops the second he sees you. “Y/N?”

His shock means Felicity hadn’t actually told him she’d come to visit you. Great. You can’t find the words to say anything and just offer a small smile. Sloane steps over, shaking the man's hand.

“Special Agent Jack Sloane. Sorry to meet under these circumstances, Mr Moore.” Robert is staring at you as Sloane speaks.

“We aren’t Military. We have nothing to do with it at all, why are you helping?” Robert looks between you and Sloane. Sloane looks to you and you clear your throat.

“Felicity came to me asking if I could help.” You shrug slightly scowling “I’m not a monster. Sam was my best friend.”

“Of course, not but after everything that happened...” Robert trails off and you swallow thickly unable to meet his eyes.

Sloane jumps in, cutting the tension in the room before it’s too bad. “Mr Moore-”

“Robert, please”

“Robert. Is there anyone that you think could be responsible for your daughter's disappearance? Anyone you’ve put away that has made threats?”

“Of course, there were threats over my career, but I’ve been retired for two years, Special Agent Sloane.”

“We know Da-” You cut yourself off, your eyes widening as you quickly clear your throat in the hopes no one will notice. You feel sick. “It’s possible someone you put away got released.”

“There’s only been 3 or 4 over the last few months, but I can make a list. I haven’t received any threats to my home but it’s possible they sent something to my old office.”

“That would be great.” Sloane hands him the paper and pen she brought with her.

“Right great. The agent here will wait while you do that. Here’s my card and if you think of anything else or something happens please contact us.” You move from your chair, itching to get out of the room, but Robert immediately stands as well.

“Wait! Y/N-”

“I’ve really got to be going, I’ve got another meeting-”

“Please kid, one minute.” Your body tenses at the use of ‘kid’. Sloane stands from her chair, tapping your arm reassuringly before quietly excusing herself. The second the door closes Robert continues “I haven’t heard anything from you for the last four years. You were here one day and completely gone the next. I’ve missed you.”

“You know what happened. I couldn’t stay.” Your eyes are now watering, and you can’t look at the man you used to consider your father.

“I don’t agree with what they did, but I do understand.” Anger burns in your stomach and you bite your lip to stop yourself from saying anything. “I tried reaching out once I’d found out, but you never responded.”

“I couldn’t be around Sam anymore, which meant I couldn’t be around you either. She’s your daughter-”

“You’re my daughter too.” Tears start to fall down your cheeks and Robert moves around the table to stand in front of you. “You may not be blood Y/N, but you were always just as much as a daughter to me as Sammy is.”

There’s a light knock on the door and Sloane sticks her head in, her face freezing in concern when she notices the tears rolling down your face, you quickly wipe them away. “Everything Ok?” You ask, voice raspy with emotion.

“Sorry. Torres and McGee are back with Vack. I can tell them you’ll join later?”

You shake your head “No. I’m coming.” You don’t look at Robert again, ignoring his protests as you follow Sloane out of the room.

Gibbs is already in the observation room when you arrive, watching Torres and McGee conduct the interview.

“Patrick if you just told me where Samantha is this could all be over,” McGee says.

“I don’t know where she is! I haven’t even seen her since Friday!”

“We spoke to one of your colleagues and they said they said they saw you and Samantha arguing that day. Did you finally snap? Decided to teach her a listen?” Torres prods and Vack’s face scrunches up in anger.

“We had an argument, but it was just about a student.”

“A student?” The scepticism is clear in McGee’s voice.

“Yeah, she failed my star football player which means he can’t play. I was trying to get her to reconsider but she wouldn’t! I was pissed! Sam and I are friends.”

“That’s not what her wife says.”

Vack rolls his eyes and smirks “That daft bitch is just threatened that I’m gonna steal away her girl, show her a real good time.” The leer on his face is vile and you want to slap him.

Sloane’s obviously thinking the same thing as she scrunches her face up in disgust from next to you. “What a charming man.”

You snort. “He’s an asshole but I don’t think it’s him. He doesn’t look smart enough to pull this sort of thing off.” Gibbs grunts his agreement from beside you.

“Got anything Kase?” Kasie swings round to face you. Gibbs by your side.

“Sadly, not much. They took their time sending everything over, so I’ve only just started. There was only one security camera working in the parking lot and the quality is terrible. I’ve cleaned it up as much as I could, but this is all it shows…” The video quality is still pretty shocking, but you can make out Sam. She’s passing a car when a man steps out, baseball cap on to mask his face from the camera and starts talking to her. She goes to move past him but he tasers her, pushing her into the boot of her car. The man quickly moves to the wheel and drives away. Another car drives past after blocking the number plate. Gibbs grunts from beside you.

“Yeah, I know” Kasie sighs “There are no other angles, this was the only camera working.”

“So, we’ve got nothing.” You have to stop yourself from whacking the table in anger, instead, shoving a hand through your hair.

“There’s still the phone.” Kasie holds up the evidence bag containing the phone, the screen is smashed to pieces. “Give me an hour or so and I’ll have this baby running again.”

Gibbs sends you to get coffee, you want to fight it, but he just throws you one of his steely gazes and you know it’s not worth it. You're pretty sure it’s to calm you down but it has the exact opposite effect because all you can do is think. About Sam. About Robert. About Felicity. About how you thought you were over all this.

When you get back to the bullpen you’re shaking. “Why haven’t we got anything?” You snap, gaining the team's attention. You drop the cups of coffee on Bishop’s desk instead of handing them out.

“We’re working as fast as we-”

“Well, it’s not fast enough! She could be…” you trail off, voice cracking.

“We’re going to find her Y/N. We just need a bit more time. We’ve only been on the case for half a day.” Bishop tries to soothe you, getting up and placing a hand on your shoulder. You shrug her off, sighing frustratedly as you move to your desk.

“Sloane’s just sent down the profiles of a few people, she believes could have done this from Robert Moore’s cases.” McGee adds “There’s three. You take Florek Y/N.”

Daniel Florek. Sentenced for early release on good behaviour 2 months ago. He only did 11 of his 15-year sentence for armed robbery. Florek’s wife had divorced him and wouldn’t allow their children to see him which definitely gave him the motive to want revenge and resulted in him making threats towards Robert after he’d been found guilty, including to go as far to threaten Sam. He’d shouted some pretty vile things about destroying his family as Robert had destroyed him. You were honestly surprised he’d been released.

Although according to his prison record he was pretty clean. There had been a few fights at the beginning of his sentence and a couple of stunts leading to solitary. But since he’d basically been a model inmate

Robert had found some threatening letters and sent them over. In Sloane’s report, she highlighted the similarities between one letter and what Florek said in his trial, like how he wanted to ‘shoot Robert’s daughter in the head’ and ‘Beat him black and blue’.

Looking through records you find out Florek lived in DC and actually only worked 20 minutes away from the High School Sam taught at. “Florek would definitely be worth looking further into” you announce to the team, relaying the information you’d just learnt.

“Peters isn’t. He’s living in Maine and his credit cards have been used there in the last few days.” Bishop supplies.

“Couldn’t be Davis either” McGee sighs.

“Ok, so let’s go get Florek. Torres, we’re going to the garage he works at.” You’re already up from your desk, clipping your gun and badge to you and Torres jumps up as well doing the same.

“And Bishop and I will head to his home.” McGee and Bishop grab their stuff, following you to the elevator.

It’s a 40-minute drive to the garage and you shake the whole time in anticipation.

“We’ll find her Y/N.” Torres speaks, side-eyeing you as he drives. You sigh. You had to. You don’t know how you were going to cope if you didn’t.

“NCIS Special Agents Y/N and Torres” You both flash your badges at the kid sitting at the desk when you enter. “Is Daniel Florek here?”

“I’ll go get my manager.” The kid, who couldn’t be older than 18, voice shook as he basically ran from the room. Torres chuckled quietly from beside you and a small smile brushed your features.

A stocky man appears a few minutes later, minus the kid. “You’re looking for Danny? What’s he done?”

“We need to speak to him. He might have information on a current case. Is he here?”

“He hasn’t been here for the last few days.” The man shrugs and a satisfied smirk crosses your face.

“Do you know why?” Torres asks.

“His Ma is sick. He spends a lot of time at the hospital with her.” Torres finished up with the manager, while you go outside and phone Bishop.

“He’s not here. Any luck?” You ask when the call connects.

“We’ve just got here but it doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” Bishop sighs. You informed her about the hospital and as it was closer to her and McGee, Bishop agreed they’ll go check it out.

You hang up the phone just as Torres exits the building and both head back to base.

Bishop texts you 30 minutes later telling you they have Florek and will be back at NCIS in the next hour. You breathe a sigh of relief, finally feeling like the case was going somewhere. You’ve just gotten off the elevator and dropped your bag by your desk when your phone pings again.

You free? Need your help. In my office.

It’s Sloane. You shoot back a quick yes before ascending the stairs to her office.

The Blonde is sitting on her couch when you arrive. She looks up instantly “Ah Y/N! You’re here!” She stands up and ushers you into her office, closing the door behind you.

You stand awkwardly in the middle of the room and can’t help feeling like you’ve just entered a trap. “You texted. Is this going to be quick? Bishop and McGee are nearly here with Florek, and I want to lead the interrogation.”

“Come. Sit.” You hesitate, looking towards the door before turning back to watch Sloane as she sits down. The blonde just raises her eyebrows at you, causing you to huff and take the seat.

“Well?”

“I’ve been working on a profile on Samantha.” You tense instantly. “And well, you were her friend…”

“Yeah ‘was’ being the keyword there. I haven't spoken to her in 4 years.”

“But you were close. I saw how her father reacted when he saw you.” Sloane prods and you take a shaky breath as your eyes begin to water.

“Sam and I met at college. She was stubborn, headstrong and oozed money. I didn’t like her.” You laugh as you remember the beginnings of your friendship. Sloane smiles, urging you to continue. “My roommate had ditched me at this party, and I was about to leave when she came stumbling over. She was absolutely wasted and started rambling about how ‘I didn’t like her’ and how ‘I should give her a chance cause she’s an awesome person’ and ‘I think we could be great friends’. I was mortified at the time, but she’d been right. We quickly became inseparable. I’d never had someone who just got me completely.” You wipe at your eyes.

“Sounds like you two were close.” You can hear the underlying question in her words, and you scrunch up your face.

“Oh no! She was basically my sister. It was never like that.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Sloane laughs sheepishly.

“We got it all the time, especially both being out. Everyone saw two gay girls who were close and assumed.” You shrug “Anyway, years went by. We were still as close as ever, lived together for a bit until we could both afford our own places...Everything was good until it wasn’t.”

“What happened between the two of you?”

“Well,” you laugh, fiddling with your hands as you pump yourself up to tell the story. “Felicity and I were together for just under a year when they told me they’d been sleeping together.” Sloane doesn’t look surprised but places a comforting hand on your arm “They’d told me they’d been really drunk the first time it had happened but then it happened again. And again. And then they realised that there were feelings involved too.” You huff as your eyes begin to water. “These were two of the people I trusted most in the world! I’d been completely lost, so angry, sad and embarrassed. I felt so betrayed y'know?”

“That’s terrible.”

“Yeah...I thought I was over it all but seeing her again so unannounced? It just brought everything back up again.” You shrug, hoping to look unbothered. You pick up your phone quickly checking the time. “Anyway, McGee’s just texted saying they’re nearly here and I want to be in interrogation.” You begin to get up from the couch, but Sloane reaches out and grabs your hand, squeezing lightly.

“I’m here if you want to talk about this further. I know this isn’t easy.” You offer the blonde a small smile, squeezing her hand back before letting go.

“Thanks, Jack.” Your phone buzzes for real this time and you see Bishop’s texted you notifying you they’d just arrived. You wish Sloane goodbye before quickly exiting the room.

Now it was time to find Sam.

#jack sloane x reader #jack sloane #jacqueline sloane #the case of us #slow burn #multi chapter #chapter one #ncis #maria bello #reader insert #fem!read

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