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loveisanimaginarydagger3000 · 1 year ago

Text

Secrets (2)

Pairings: Wanda X Reader, Natasha X Reader

This fic is inspired by the song Secret by the Pierces and the HBO Max show Love and Death. I recommend listening to the song before reading but it's not necessary

Warnings/Tags: 18+ Smut, Fingering, Oral sex, Face sitting, Multiple Orgasms, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Rough sex, Dirty talk, Dark Themes Possessive behaviour, Stalking, masturbation, cheating.

Please consider these warnings before reading.

Chapter 2- Oh Detka, My Beautiful Girl (5.5k words)

Other Chapters- 1, 3, 4, 5

Oh Detka, My Beautiful Girl

Why do you smile like you've been told a secret?

Now you're telling lies 'cause you have sworn to keep it

But no one keeps a secret

No one keeps a secret

With a nervous feeling consuming your entire body, you took a deep breath as you stood awkwardly outside the motel room, trying to build up the courage to knock on the door.

It had been three whole days since you agreed to meet Wanda, her arranging everything and giving you the address and room number that she had booked. To say you hadn't stressed or dreamed about this moment would have been a complete lie- you hadn't been able to stop. You practically counted down the minutes until you would be in the room with her, doing whatever she wanted you to do.

Taking one last anxious breath, as you had been standing there a while, you knocked on the door, anticipation building with every second you were left waiting outside. The sound of your heart beating wildly in your chest, pounding against your rib cage, filled your ears until the door swiftly opened, revealing her.

Wanda's face softened at your tense and shy form, her striking eyes contrasting the comforting smile on her face as they darkened, lust and desire swirling dangerously in the green pools of her eyes. A predatory smirk also appeared on her face, only for a split second, before fading back into the soft and gentle smile, encouraging you to come in.

"Take a seat Detka," her tone low, accent slipping into her words as she waits for you to do as she says. It filled her with excitement at how obedient you were, even at the simplest of things such as sitting in the seat she stood behind.

A shaky breath fell from your lips as her hands slid across your shoulders, dropping slightly lower to graze your collarbones before coming back up, one hand resting on the underside of your jaw and tilting your head back against her stomach. Her eyes were fixated on you, the way you shifted in your seat under her gaze causing her to smile down, attempting to ease your nerves.

She was going to show you how much you needed her, how you would only ever need her. Her smile twitched a little, trying to contain her thoughts as she knew she couldn't get carried away. Not just yet. You would have to adjust to her plans of stealing you away so she would have to be patient as to not scare you off.

Oh Detka, you'll soon be mine.

"Don't be nervous Dorogaya," she murmurs, the tone condescending as she lets her fingers brush your jawline. "You know I'd never let anything happen to you," her words easing the worry and doubt as you peered up at her, submission evident on your face as you succumbed to her wishes.

See? You need me Detka. I can get rid of all the negative thoughts.

"That's it," she whispers when you keep your gaze on her, not letting it flicker away to the wall behind her. "Now Detka, how this goes is up to you," she explains, letting your head go and spinning the chair around so you were facing her, your brows furrowing at her words.

"What?" you ask, voice wavering as arousal starts to build between your legs, that sultry look in her eyes driving you insane.

"Well, I can do two things Detka," a sinister smirk pulling at her lips as she lowers her body, letting her hands rest on each armrest while letting her lips slowly inch closer to yours, revelling in how your eyes are drawn to her lips. "I can fuck you slowly, intimately and worship this beautiful body of yours," her hand cups your cheek, her thumb moving to your lips, gently swiping across before dragging it down and releasing it, watching how the blush on your cheeks darken, the way your legs try and squeeze together a little to ease the unbearable heat.

"Or, I can fuck you how we both know you want to be fucked," her tone was teasing, intimidating. A chuckle followed, low and mocking, "Like my little whore."

"Please," you practically whimper, eyes pleading with her. You think it's pathetic that you're this desperate at just her words but Wanda on the other hand, she loves it.

"Shh Detka," she coos mockingly, letting her index finger slide against your lips before pushing in, making you suck on her finger. You feel humiliated letting her push her finger in further as well as another but fuck, it felt so good to please her like this.

So obedient... So good for me...Fuck, you're mine to ruin.

"I'm going to give you everything you want," she slides her fingers out, letting her lips ghost yours while her hands make their way to the collar of your shirt, pulling you a little closer. "And I'm not going to be gentle," her lips crash to yours, a moan spilling from your lips at how hungry and passionate it is.

She drags you out of the chair, pushing you onto the bed and wasting no time in climbing onto your lap, her strong thighs straddling your waist. Your hands desperately try to roam her body, the pure desire to feel her body taking over, the need to fulfil your latest fantasies making you groan at how soft her body is.

"No touching, not yet," she pants out against your lips, a whine escaping you at her, in your opinion, cruel words. When your hands don't leave fast enough for her liking, she takes a hold on your hands and pins them above your head, forcing you to lay underneath her body. "Keep them there Detka, don't make me tell you again," she warns before her rough lips meet yours again, dragging out another pitiful noise while your hands clenched into fists, trying to listen to her command.

Her tongue slides into your mouth, swallowing the needy moan that escapes you while you put up no fight to dominate the kiss. She toys with you, pulling back from the kiss with a smirk plastered on her face, watching how you try to chase her lips, addicted to them.

"I'm going to take such good care of you," she purrs at the shell of your ear, her hands moving down to the hem of your shirt, sliding under and letting her nails dig in a little on your stomach, the pain mixing with pleasure. "My good girl," she whispers, hearing the faint whine that spills from you.

"Please," your tone is laced with desperation, your face flushed and eyes blown with lust, lips swollen from how ruthless her kisses were, "I need you."

You only need me.

"You need me?" she asks teasingly, her hair tickling your cheeks as her face hovers mere millimetres away from yours. Her fingers slide up higher, ghosting the underside of your bra before pulling out, moving her body to sit up. She practically tears your shirt off your body, letting out a pleased sigh at the sight of your exposed torso. "You can beg better than that Detka," she murmurs before rolling her hips softly against yours, your head lolling back at the feeling while her nails scratch down your stomach, making you sensitive to her touch.

"Please, I just need you!" you beg once more, "Please Wanda, it hurts, please," you're silenced by her lips, her chuckling into the kiss while her hands quickly unclip your bra, discarding it somewhere in the room.

Just me. Only me.

"I know, I know," she whispers in response, her fingers pinching and pulling your nipples, the sensation causing more arousal to pool between your thighs, a chorus of sinful noises to escape you. "I need you too Detka," she lets her mouth nibble on your earlobe, continuing to grind her hips against you, working you up as much as she could to torment you before continuing with her words, "Fuck, do you know how long I've wanted this? How many ways I've imagined fucking you?"

How many times I've watched that whore fuck you? Watched you from the window with your hand between your thighs?

A guttural moan is all you can respond with, your back arching into her touch, her mouth moving to kiss down your neck, careful not to leave marks despite how much she wants to claim you as hers. Her hips push down harder against you, a moan escaping her at the way her clit brushes against her jeans, your eyes widening at the sound. You stare up at her in awe; the noise intoxicating as you would do anything to hear that noise again.

"Detka," she groans out, the vibrations tickling the juncture of your neck as she continues to kiss her way down your body, her teeth scraping your skin earning a gasp. You can feel the smug smile on her face against your collar bone as she peppers light kisses, finally moving down to your chest.

Her hips move off yours, sliding her body in between your spread legs while her hands move down to unfasten your jeans. Her fingers were deft, easily sliding the material down your legs before settling back into her position, letting her mouth take a breast into her mouth.

"Fuck Wanda," you moan out when her tongue skilfully swipes over your hardened nipple, sucking on it gently to have you arch your back once more, her fingers sliding under the waist band of your panties. "Oh shit," your hands grasp the sheets next to you when she lets her teeth scrape ever so gently over your sensitive nipple, peering up at you with a predatory look before switching to the other breast, lavishing it with the same amount of attention.

Oh Detka, what a mess between your legs. I'll always help you with this mess.

"You're so wet," she mutters against you, moving back up your body so she could crash her lips back to yours, needing to feel you moaning into her mouth again. It messy but fuck is it hot, her finger moving to slide your panties to the side, not having the patience to try and slide the fabric down your legs. She needed to be inside you. Now.

"You're so tight," she groans into your mouth, the way you were clamping down against her finger, hips rocking against her hand as you pathetically tried to ease the arousal that had built between your thighs. "Fuck, you've wanted this for a long time too, haven't you?" You're lost in the pleasure of her finger thrusting in and out of you, her pace relentless as she has one goal on her mind- she wants to fuck you so hard you forget everything about that whore.

"Yes," you pant out, lost for breath as she's fucking you like it's the last time, "Since I first met you."

"Fuck," she sighs in response, kissing you hard. "You're mine now," she rasps out, biting down on your lip and dragging it back before releasing it, staring into your eyes with nothing but hunger. "All mine," she sighs out before sliding another long, slender digit inside you, curling it beautifully against your g-spot.

Mine.

"Fuck!" you practically scream, your hips frantically moving against her hand. "Please, Wanda," you chant as your orgasm nears, tears starting to prick in the corner of your eyes at the overwhelming pleasurable feeling as she keeps you right on the edge.

"Oh, what's wrong Detka?" she whispers in a condescending tone, looking into your eyes that desperately plead with her to let you come. You whimper in response, a borderline evil laugh leaving her lips, "Do you need more?" Your head nods swiftly, your knuckles turning white due to your death grip on the sheets. "So greedy," she mumbles against your lips, kissing them as it if were necessary to live, continuing to fuck you mercilessly with her fingers before placing one final kiss on your lips, travelling down your body.

"Oh," Your mouth parts, a broken moan ripped from the back of your throat when her mouth sucks on your clit, her tongue swiping over the sensitive bundle of nerves, almost throwing you straight over the edge. Fuck, she was everything you dreamed of and more.

When she moans into your core at the taste of you, the coil snaps within you. Your legs clamp around her head, your hands reaching down to her hair as you come against her, hips desperately bucking against her face as a string of low moans are torn out of you. Your body practically slumps against the mattress, your body never orgasming so hard before. Wanda spreads your legs open and stares up at you with a deadly look in her eyes. Oh fuck.

You're going to regret that Detka.

She crawls up your body like a predator hunting its prey, her gaze unwavering as you nervously stare up at her.

"Did I say you could come?" Her tone is nothing but dominant, hand moving to your throat, applying a firm amount of pressure, eyes gauging your reaction before squeezing a little harder, feeling the groan that leaves you at her actions.

Fuck you look so pretty with my hand wrapped around your throat.

"No," your voice is small as you realise your mistake, the placement of her hand instantly turning you on again, despite how tired your body was.

"Then why did you think you could come just then?" she asks, treating you as if you were just some dumb little whore incapable of listening to her. You wanted to show her you could listen. You'd be a good girl for her.

"I'm sorry," your voice laced with regret for disobeying her, "Please let me make it up to you. Please, I'll do anything." you beg her, the smile on her face turning wicked.

Anything?

"You want to make it up to me?" she husks out, her teeth biting down on her lower lip as she stares down into your sorrowful eyes.

"Yes," the word leaves your lips without any hesitation. "Anything."

"Stay there," she commands and you don't dare challenge her, remaining on the bed as she stands next to it, her hands toying with the hem of her shirt. "Anything I want?" Her tone contains a teasing hint to it, her hands pulling her shirt over her head to reveal her bra-covered chest. The black lace falls from her body quickly, her patience running thin as she's just as turned on as you are, revealing her breasts.

Perfection is the only word that comes to mind when she reveals her body to you once more, the image of her through the window haunting all your thoughts prior to this meeting.

She seems to give up on her plan of strip teasing you, shrugging her remaining clothes off in record time before climbing back on top of your body. You could see the wetness between her thighs, glistening in the light as she moved her fingers to swipe through her dripping folds, moaning at the small touch.

"I'm going to use this pretty face of yours however I want," she simply smirks down at you, turning around so her hands could move down your body, ready to punish you for not listening. "And you're going to be a good girl and not come until I say so, isn't that right?" she asks while hovering her core over your mouth, your eyes glued to the slick dripping down her inner thighs, covered in her arousal.

Don't test my patience Detka.

"Isn't that right?" Her hand reaches behind to give a tug on your hair, a small whimper escaping you.

"Yes."

"Yes what?" She lets her hands move to near your core, nails scratching your inner thighs.

"Yes, I won't come until you let me," you sigh out, a satisfied look engraved onto her face.

"Good girl," she praises before lowering her hips, sitting on your face. Your tongue moves as best as it can to lick at her clit, your hands hesitantly going to hold her hips softly. When she doesn't say anything, you deem it's ok and continue trying to make it up to her, hands resting on her soft skin.

Your tongue slides through her arousal, a deep groan escaping you at the taste of her, your brain fogged with the thought of her. You would argue this, this animalistic desperation consuming her as she ruts against your face, is better than any release you could imagine. The moans that spill from her lips, the sound muffled by her thighs tightly wrapped around your head, as she grinds and grinds and grinds against your face unabashedly, it's the only thing you'll ever need.

"Fuck, that's it Detka, just like that," she moans out wantonly, her fingers finally making contact with your core, her other hand bracing herself on your thigh, nails leaving small crescent marks.

You moan into her core, hips twitching as you slide your tongue inside her, groaning at the way her walls clench hard around you.

When her fingers meet your soaked core, she isn't soft or gentle with you, thrusting two fingers straight inside you and encouraging you to fuck her harder.

You slide your tongue out, flattening it for her to ride on to which she does so beautifully. Back and forth, back and forth she pushes her hips, practically coating your face in her slick as she pounds her fingers into you, curling them to send pleasure crashing through your body.

You're close already and she knows it, still unrelenting with her brutal pace as she fucks you like she you're nothing but a toy, something for her to use whenever she wants.

"Don't you fucking dare come," she grits out when feeling your body tremble under her. You whimper and whine into her core, ignoring your pleas as she continues to move against you.

"I'm so close," she pants out and you refuse to move as her hips come to stop on your tongue, body shuddering against you. It's messy as she rolls against your face, her come dripping onto your tongue as she lets out a guttural moan, legs shaking against the side of your head.

"Fuck," she says in a heavy breath, lifting her hips off your face and looking down to see you covered in her arousal, an astonished look on your face at what just happened. "You did so good," she sighs out breathlessly, a glint of pride flickering in your eyes as you just did that. You just made her come that hard. "Come whenever you want Detka," she murmurs, moving her body so that her mouth was now at your core.

Her tongue licks a broad stripe up against your core, eyes rolling back when she sucks on your clit roughly, hands holding your legs open. You pant, moan, whimper and whine her name, body trembling under her touch as she drives you towards what you so desperately need and want. Wanda flicks her tongue against your clit, eyes peering up at you and watching how your muscles twitch at her actions, deciding she wanted to hear you scream.

Her pace is brutal, fingers sliding in with ease once more before pulling out and slamming back in, her mouth sucking on your clit while your back arches off the bed. You scream just like she wanted, the lewd noise ripped from the back of your throat as your hands rushed down to grab her hair. She lets it slide, just this once, as she can feel you spasming around her fingers, your come flooding around them and coating them as another guttural noise is torn out of you, body shaking with pleasure.

"Wanda," you whimper when it becomes too much, her reluctantly leaving you, giving you one last lick to make you twitch before crawling up your body and kissing you softly. She notices the tears that have spilt down your cheeks, another whimper leaving you at her tenderness.

"Oh Detka, my beautiful girl," she whispers, soothing you as you move into her embrace, body overstimulated and overwhelmed by everything. "I've got you, I'm all you need," she coos, letting you calm down in her arms, pressing a featherlight kiss to your forehead before tilting her head down to look at your closed eyes, a dangerous smirk pulling at her lips.

I'm all you'll ever need.

***

The sound of the front door opening and closing is unknown to you, too consumed in your thoughts as you stare at the ink on the pages of your book. You have read this paragraph at least four times, not once has it comprehended in your mind as it refuses to focus on anything but Wanda.

You're taken back to your morning with her, remembering the way she comforted you after your....activities, most likely leaving you to sleep as your body craved it. A subconscious smile sneaks onto your face when recalling her words 'Oh Detka, my beautiful girl, I've got you.'

"What are you smiling at?" Natasha chuckles while walking into the living room, an ethereal look to her as she brushes her red hair back with her hand, a few strands falling and framing her face. You're surprised by her voice, eyes widening and a blush forming on your cheeks at what you were actually thinking about, shrugging your shoulders to dismiss her.

"Oh nothing," you lie, surprised by how you didn't seem to feel as guilty as you thought you would. Of course there was a pang of guilt that flooded through your body but you just thought about how amazing your time with the older woman was, repeating her words of 'You know I'd never let anything happen to you' to keep you grounded.

She assumes it was something in your book as you flip the page, teeth nibbling on your lower lip to stop the smile from stretching as your girlfriend moves within your home, most likely getting relaxed and comfortable after a long day of work.

When she returned, she noticed you had closed your book and switched the tv on, flicking between the different channels until you found something you liked.

"How was your day my love?" she asks while moving to sit on the sofa next to you, letting her head rest on your shoulder while her body presses into yours.

"Nothing special," you say lightly, leaving a random channel on and turning your attention to the woman next to you. "The bookstore was quiet today," technically, you weren't lying about your shop not being busy, having opened the shop in the afternoon for a couple of hours to see if anyone wanted to come in.

She hums in response, letting out a deep sigh as she cuddles further into your side, looking into your eyes with nothing but love.

"Fury wants me to go on another business trip," she whispers, knowing how much you hate it when she leaves. Natasha hates it too, not being too keen on being away from you for so long. "I have to leave tomorrow," your eyes widen at how soon, sadness filling you at the thought of being alone before someone else pops into your mind, the idea of Natasha leaving not being as annoying or disappointing as before.

"Tomorrow?" you say, shocked at how soon she would have to leave.

"I know it's not ideal love but it's a really big deal for us," she tries to explain to you the importance, pausing when you interrupt her.

"It's ok Nat," your tone genuine as you whisper to her, moving your body so you could cup her cheeks and look into her emerald eyes. "I know how much you love your job so, if it's important, then it's ok if you need to go."

"I don't want to go sometimes though," she grumbles, hiding her face in your neck as she moves forwards, swinging her legs over yours as she sits in your lap. "I'd rather be with you."

A soft chuckle spills from your lips when she starts to grumble about her co-worker Sam Wilson, she loved that man but oh does he annoy her sometimes. Spending the next few days with him compared to you was nothing but annoying to the redhead.

You just let her stay in your lap, your hands gliding up and down her back comfortingly as the stress flows from her body. Her hands wrap around your body as she relaxes in your embrace, a soft sigh spilling from her lips as she closes her eyes, savouring the peaceful atmosphere that had taken over the room.

It's moments like this where you appreciate each other. It's rare for Natasha to be on the receiving end like this of all the attention, but that's what makes it special to you. To her, she's just glad she has found someone to feel safe with, someone who loves her as much as she loves you.

If only she knew.

***

Zoning out, your eyes were transfixed on a random book sitting on the shelf, the spine of the book sticking out a little further than the others, needing to be pushed in a little. You would have gone to fix it but it seemed pointless as some other customer would most likely fix it for you or mess up the neat row of books again. Instead, you let your thoughts drift while a small old man slowly made his way around a shelf containing non-fiction books about trains, not too scared of him running off with a book without paying.

Natasha's departure this morning invaded your thoughts, the way she woke you up with soft kisses around your face to wake you up, making sure you wouldn't be late to open the book shop. When you opened your eyes, you chuckled at the stark contrast between you, her prestige and formal suit perfectly accentuating her toned body while you were sprawled out in bed, only wearing her shirt. She reluctantly said goodbye to you, having to catch a plane within the next few hours while you watched her leave from the window, waving to her car as she reversed out before catching Wanda's stare through the window.

Her hands were wrapped around a cup of coffee as she stood in her dressing gown, her head tilting curiously at you before leaving, presumably at the sound of her children.

You snapped back to reality when the sweet old man came up to the counter, presenting to you the book he had chosen. You offered him a kind smile, listening intently to what he was saying to you, sharing his interest in steam trains with you. You entertained him, smiling at how happy he was at talking to someone about his passion before bagging up his purchase and wishing him a good day. The bell at the door jingled when he left, leaving you all alone in the store once again to your thoughts.

They swiftly travelled towards your neighbour, planning on how you would ask to see her again as Natasha was out of town until Thursday. That gave you two days to see the other woman.

Coincidentally, the bell chimed once more, the woman you were just thinking of entering your store with a curious expression written on her face. You glanced at her every minute or so, watching as she casually strolled down each of the aisles, taking her time looking around your shop.

Wanda had watched you many times through the windows, sitting in the small little Eternals café across the road as she witnessed the events of your days, but she had never actually been inside. She let out a small laugh at the little decorations around the small shop, noticing how this place was just so you.

You're so cute, Dorogaya, so adorable.

Picking up the courage, you walked up to the older woman, clearing your throat nervously, planning on how to ask her to meet you in the motel again.

"Hi," was all you managed to say, her striking eyes staring right through you, a blush quickly forming on your cheeks. Images of your shared time together filtered through your mind, eyes darkening a little as she waited for you to continue. "I was, um, thinking that..."

That's it Dekta, come on, you can ask. Tell me you want to see me again.

"Well, Natasha has gone out of town for the next two days so I was wondering if maybe- if you're not busy- you wanted to meet at the motel again?" there was a clear timidness to your tone. Wanda simply smiled in response, moving closer to you with a teasing smirk toying at her lips.

You want me. Me, not her. Me.

"That sounds perfect Detka," she whispers lowly, her eyes flickering down to your lips. "I can't do tonight though," she notices the disappointment on your face, letting her hand cup your cheek softly.

Already so dependent on me...

"I'll make it up to you tomorrow Dorogaya, don't worry," she purrs, your breath hitching at her tone.

"Tomorrow," you sigh out in confirmation, biting your lip to hide your smile.

"Tomorrow." she repeats and you can already imagine the possible ways the night could go.

She soon starts to make her way around the shop again, not interested in buying anything as she only came in to see you. Before she leaves though, she walks up behind you as you restock a shelf, her body pressed into the back of yours. Her hand moves to your stomach, travelling lower while her mouth moves to your ear. "Don't even think about touching yourself tonight Detka," she rasps out, a breathy moan escaping you as she slides her hand under your dress, hand brushing against your panties. "This," she emphasises what she means by cupping your core, your heart beating wildly in your chest. "This is mine now, only I get to play with it," she kisses your neck sensually, smirking against the skin at the needy whine that escapes you, "Do you understand?"

"Yes," you sigh out, letting your head lean back against her body.

"Good girl," she praises and you love it when she calls you that. "I'll see you tomorrow Detka."

After that, her body slips away from yours, leaving you a mess against the wooden shelf. Alone and desperate for her touch.

***

After tucking in the twins, Wanda closed the door quietly, leaning against it and sighing. Her eyes fluttered closed, her body relaxing against the door as she could finally have some quiet time. Tommy decided that tonight was the perfect time to tease and annoy Billy, resulting in many arguments and a very fed up Wanda. She just wanted something to cheer her up.

The thought of you crossed her mind, her body naturally making its way to her room, standing in front of the window and looking for you. Your body tossed in the bed, a frustrated look on your face as you throw your head back in annoyance. Wanda's head tilted inquisitively, observing your form laying down. She enjoyed watching you alone as it was soothing to her, knowing your routine of what you would do when Natasha would leave. Wanda knew how you tended to care for yourself when she left, normally reaching into the nightstand to retrieve the red vibrator and letting yourself go but tonight you were conflicted.

Be a good girl Detka, don't make me punish you tomorrow.

Your head turned to the nightstand, staring at it longingly as Wanda assumed you wanted to ease the burning sensation between your legs. Her body walked closer to the window, wanting to get a better view of you as your mind desperately tried to make a choice of what to do.

Anger but also excitement flooded through her body when you reached into the draw, pulling out the familiar toy before shrugging your pyjama pants and panties off, letting your fingers run through your dripping folds.

Oh Dorogaya, all you had to do was listen.

Attentively, Wanda watched your head loll back against the soft sheets, your mouth parting into a moan when the toy met your core. You wasted no time in turning the settings up high, a feral and desperate desire to come seemingly taking over your body. Your back arched off the bed, free hand groping your chest through your thin t-shirt, Wanda's jaw clenching at the sight of you.

Her eyes widened when she read your lips, her name falling off them repeatedly as your hips bucked, legs shaking. Your eyes squeezed shut, mouth parting for a guttural moan as your body twitched, your orgasm quickly approaching causing arousal to pool between the older woman's thighs, her body craving to feel you against her again.

When your orgasm crashed through your body, a different name for Wanda was moaned out, your body shaking at the intensity of it while she just cursed under her breath.

Oh fuck.

A wave of arousal rushed through her at what you moaned, a sinister plan forming in her head of how she was going to punish you for your bad behaviour.

Mommy will teach you how to behave Detka.

---

I hope you enjoyed :)

Please leave any thoughts/comments/votes <3 I love reading all your comments!

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odnson · 2 years ago

Note

Please, tell me more about literally all of the wips! What's cooking!

lmao oh gosh, what i have rn are like, very vague ideas and the docs are just full of lines that lead nowhere but….👀

1. jwds mafia

Before this, Joowon had only seen pictures. Dozens of them, featuring different angles and expressions, showcasing his subject in various types of clothing. Often alone, sometimes with his trusted confidante, but never with family.

Now, in the flesh, the first thing that Joowon notices is the slouch. Too relaxed and borderline lazy, and something he unconsciously frowns at.

literally what the filename says 😂😂😂 funny thing is tho, i have an ending for this and a beginning, but i completely have no idea how to stitch them together because all i have are vibes. just sth sth about jw infiltrating a rival clan to help hkh’s rise to power (pretty much the same with his motives in the show originally), going undercover but being busted from day one because lbr, he’s up against ds. but ds is weak to pretty men (canon) and lets jw do what he wants for a while, etc etc. this def revolves around the “love for jw but revenge for ds” premise, only that because i’m me, it doesn’t stay that way for ds ofc. it does, however, get messier and messier, and i cannot go into too many details without spoiling it but!!!! someday i wish to finish this, like, fr.

2. jwds5+1????

Manyang offering him a seat at a table full of people he’d antagonized more than once remains a strange phenomenon to his eyes, but sitting beside Lee Dongsik and letting his warm smile soothe him isn’t.

i got the idea for this while otw to work so hopefully i can finish this in a few days?? pretty excited about this tbh, but it’s essentially about jwds gatekeeping the other from ppl because they’re actually a little too insane for one another, as we all know!!! (the show canon is just too good, really) i think this will be my attempt to be funnier but who knows, maybe this will turn into something else entirely? again, all i have are vibes as of the moment. 🙃

3. jwdsjj

A question now sits in Jeongje’s eyes the longer Dongsik looks at him. Dongsik wonders if he’ll ask.

Then, slowly: “How’s Han Joowon?”

Dongsik blinks, caught off-guard. He thought of a number of questions Jeongje would have for him, the millions of ways he could’ve phrased what he truly wanted to know: what is Dongsik doing here?

But this—Dongsik has to admit that he didn’t foresee this.

The name sparks warmth in him, as it often does. Underneath that blanket of fondness and security is something that burns savagely, and Dongsik feels unmoored, like Jeongje is prying into things he shouldn’t.

“He’s fine,” is what Dongsik settles with. A crumb of a truth is a truth all the same, which is all he can offer for now.

Jeongje’s gaze flits to Dongsik’s side, at the obvious absence of the man in question.

Dongsik sighs. “He’s at home.”

Something seems to hit Jeongje then, like an unseen force: he shifts in his seat, a small smile sitting on his lips. He looks simultaneously victorious and resigned, as if he won a personal wager at the cost of himself.

There was a time, Dongsik remembers, that he’d ache when Jeongje looks that way. When they were young and Jeongje needed him, when he couldn’t fend for himself and Dongsik was still the taller of the two.

this is actually finished but idk, i’m not satisfied with it so i never posted it??? it sits at 5.5k words and while it does start in a way i like, it degenerates to sth that makes me go “hmmmm wait a sec” whenever i reread so yeah. 🙃🙃🙃 anyway, it’s about ds reminiscing and revisiting the love he has for jj (while jj is imprisoned) and realizing that it just couldn’t work for them that way. sounds very sad, i know, but i’m operating on what the show has given all of us lmao. i have to reread it again because i havent touched it in a while but i seem to remember that it’s also about ds seeing just how much jj loved him; it’s just that the love they had for each other didn’t happen at the same time and it was already too late when they both realized it. YEAH. now u might be wondering, how does jw fit into the picture??? that snippet is one of the many ways he does. 😂😂 (and just in case someone’s curious: no, it doesn’t end in a threesome. had i been capable of pwp, it def would’ve but alas.)

anyway this got way too long lmao but thank you, as always, for indulging me!!!! u’re amazing. 💕

#b1uetrees #ask #how do ppl tag asks nowadays lmao all i have are vivid flashbacks of tumblr circa 2010 #and ppl just straight up tagged as such #my god i feel ancient each time i browse this app; so much has changed 😂

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lvrboy-inc · 3 months ago

Text

I Lost My Mind in the Sakura Flowers ꫂ ၴႅ

“Lying from You” - Linkin Park

꒰: Précis | A first person POV, dipping into the mind of a melancholic young man who is just a bit..off. Is he really above all of the chaos that is his life? Or is it all just another façade in which he’s also fooled himself this time..

꒰: Disclaimer(s) | This act contains strong language, triggering topics [Home life issues, homophobia + manipulation] Tread carefully~!!

꒰: Word Count ; 5.5k

꒰: Sakura Flowers—All Acts ; Here

Act 1

The day that I realized I wasn’t like everyone else, wasn’t the kind you’d expect.

It wasn’t gloomy. It wasn’t overcast, raining, or windy beyond comparison. It was the exact opposite.

Birds were chirping. The sun beamed on every face that it found. Even the unpleasant-smelling garbage that gathered and swirled in the gutters smiled when people stepped on it.

But I was there. So things wouldn’t stay that way.

Hello. My name’s Azura Makoto. And well, I’m insane.

When most people do bad things, they feel remorse. Guilt. Sympathy. Sadness even. But when I set fire to a pile of leaves, gathered in my backyard, at the young age of 6, I felt no remorse for the birds that were resting atop of it.

They fluttered and flapped their wings that soon became engulfed in flames. Their chirps got weaker and weaker until they finally ceased altogether.

It made me smile.

As a child, I should have run. I should have cried, and ran to my parents. But I didn’t.

I sat, and smiled, not caring about who or what I might’ve disturbed.

My parents were awakened by the smell of smoke. And that’s the moment that they realized that there was something wrong with me. Because as soon as they got there, I uttered the words, “Isn’t it pretty?”.

Yes, exactly like that cliche sociopathic child you’d see in a horror movie.

3 years after that incident, I was sent to a therapist for terrorizing one of my classmates with what children at my age would call, ‘adult scissors’.

And of course, the therapist was useless. If anything, he fueled my flames with gasoline.

“You’re just lost,” Over and over.

”You’re young and misguided,” He’d tell me these things all had a reason.

”It’s all a phase, you’ll get better.” But I knew…

There was no cure for what illness I had.

But, for a time, I entertained him. I told him what he wanted to hear. I showed signs that I was getting better. I showed signs of sanity for the time that I was there.

Oh, how easy it was to fool him.

Keeping up this act, this persona of the perfect little boy, I was able to escape that hellscape.

And just for good measures, I spent a year doing good things. Excelling in my studies, helping others, actually making friends. All things I had absolutely no interest in. And all so that my parents might’ve regained hope in me. Turns out it worked. Perfectly.

By the time that my parents started to look away from my issues, by the time they thought that I was on the right path for myself, I was 12.

I had a small circle of friends, who let me lie to them. It felt amazing. To be in control of my own life. To be in control of the people in my life. They listened to me. Did what I asked. Like Pavlov dogs, they were at my beck and call.

But then he came along.

Marko.

A conniving little bastard he was.

Junior year of high school I think it might’ve been. He appeared out of nowhere.

My track record was keeping me safe from prying eyes. No one was interested in tarnishing my reputation or dragging me down (none that I knew of at the time). At least, that was until he came along.

Thinking back, I should’ve known that he was out to get me. The first words he ever spoke to me were, “Your smile is so fake.” Granted, I wasn’t paying attention to him at the time. But I should have.

As student body president, it was my duty to greet new students and make them feel ‘at home’ in our establishment. He just happened to be there at the time. At the end of the entrance ceremony, I had to pass out flyers along with two other members of the student council. And lucky me, I had the pleasure of handing Marko his.

Before I could get the chance to say my line, “Welcome, please come to me if you have any problems finding your way around. I’m here to help,” Marko said his first.

“Your smile is so fake, you know that?” back then I brushed it off as if he was talking to someone else. Or if he was just joking around.

But in our second semester, he approached me and once again said something along the lines of, “Why do you fake it? Do you ever get tired of pretending you are what you’re not?”

That’s when the rumors started.

Up until then, I believed I was above teenage drama. Because I was. Or at least, I thought I was.

It was a classic, “What’re you guys talking about?” resulting in glares and disgusted looks.

The only person who came to tell me the truth was Allison. She was an angel, truly. A disposable one of course, but she was useful for the time that she was.

I can remember the exact moment she asked me, “Have you heard the rumors?”

Of course, I hadn’t. No one tells someone a rumor that they’re the center of.

“No, I haven’t. Mind telling me?”

She sang like a canary. I almost couldn’t believe what she told me.

“Well, people are talking about how you’re insane. Like...how you went to therapy for cutting a kid’s finger off in primary!” Okay, now that was an exaggeration. “And…” she then looked around like a suspicious party and leaned in saying, “how you like guys.”

That was the part that got to me.

Now, insanity I was fine with. Everyone has a little insanity hidden in them. Of course not so far that they’d go to do something physical to someone but enough that they’d say something really sick and shallow.

But being gay? That was going to be the end of me.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against gay people. Not at all. But, from what I’ve seen, the people with whom I shared a learning space, were not a big fan of them. And if the rumors had already spread as much as I thought they had, I was majorly screwed.

I kept my composure and walked the halls with the same proud stride that I always had.

There were whispers when I walked by, and some back turns. The worst that happened was some assholes cat-calling me. That pissed me off.

Now, I’m not one to get on my knees and beg someone to stop something, but this prick was raking my name through the dirt. And so, I did what any hormonal, impulsive teenager would do; I took the petty route.

Unlike Marko, I worked behind the scenes with my scheming. The way he ,exposed’ me was so crude and had no aesthetic to it. No planning, nothing. Intricacy was certainly not in his vocabulary.

Firstly, I had to tie up all of my loose ends. The finger-cutting and being attracted to guys wasn’t that flattering to have in my hand of cards.

It was easy to get rid of the finger-cutting rumor. Mainly because it didn’t happen, so it was easy to deny. If someone brought it up, I would simply brush it off and say, “It’s a lie. If I were to cut any body part off of someone, then it wouldn’t be a measly finger.” That definitely raised some eyebrows with the way I phrased it, but it died down later on.

Then there was the rumor about being gay.

It was worse than I thought it was. I solved my finger-cutting problem, all the while oblivious to the fact that the gay rumors had begun to spiral out of control.

Before I knew it, underclassmen and upperclassmen alike were calling me slurs, making disgusting jokes and comments, and don’t forget the physical torment.

Sure, I could deal with my peers looking down on me but when the rumors finally got to the school board and my parents, that’s when I realized this had gotten much farther than I originally planned for it to go.

My parents sat me down after getting home from school one evening. That day wasn’t my proudest. I had gotten into some trouble you could say with some upperclassmen. Long story short, I don’t have much physical prowess and my face wasn’t in the best condition on the way home.

It wasn’t anything serious. A bloody nose, swollen lip, and a few scrapes and scratches here and there. I wasn’t phased by it but my mother sure was.

“My poor, Azura! Oh my, what did they do to you? Are you okay?” she was all over me. Touching my face, looking for any more wounds.

“Yes, mom. I’m fine. I just got into trouble with some friends,” I said, swatting her hands away.

After I managed to get away from my mother, my father called me into the living room, where he was sitting in his velvet blue chair that was positioned in front of the coffee table. It was where we would have our ‘family meetings’ you could call them.

He told me to take a seat, which I did. My mother sat in the chair next to his.

My mother initiated the conversation which was rare. “Hun...we got a call from the school today.”

I could see the hesitation in her eyes. It was annoying. “Sweetie, you know we want the best for you. And you’ve been doing really well. In school and outside of it but…”

“Rose, just give him the letter.”

His voice was gruff and I hated the sound of it. I simply turned my head and sighed. This is what happens when you let things get out of hand. I hate things that are out of my control.

My mother slid a piece of paper across the table. It was only a few words. Most of the paper was blank. The bottom was mainly white. Halfway through, the writing stopped. Honestly, it didn’t look like an official school paper. Then again, this is the first time I’d gotten a letter home.

Written in bold lettering at the top of it was: School Board Notice for: Makoto Azura. Reading those words over in my head made my stomach turn. I took a gulp and picked it up in my hands.

I was shaking.

I couldn’t have been nervous. I’m not one to get nervous. Maybe I was fearing for my reputation. Although...it was a natural human reaction to this type of situation so maybe I really was feeling nervous. Just a bit though.

Addressed to the parents/guardians of Makoto Azura,

Due to recent events, your child has caused a great disturbance in the normal functions of school affairs. Drama has no place in an environment of education. Your son has disregarded this in many instances. We must urge you to talk to him and show him how to get back on the right path.

If there is no change and/or response to this letter in the next three weeks, it will result in suspension. We hope to solve this issue with the utmost efficiency. Please see to it that it is handled in a timely fashion.

Sincerely, School Board of XXXX County

I had to forcibly bite back a groan. This was so annoying. And overall, a nuisance. There were a plethora of thoughts racing through my head at the time. But the emotion in front of them all was anger.

Firstly, these were supposed to be professional adults concerned with teaching students and getting them ready for their future. Why the hell were they getting involved in student drama? Just because it disturbed their sacred order of things? It was bullshit.

And secondly, did it really warrant a letter home? This all could’ve been said in a text or an email. Or even a call to the principal’s office. But a letter home? Wasn’t that a bit overkill?

And lastly, I was so ready to murder Marko. That loose-lipped fool was getting on my last damn nerve.

Honestly, why the hell would he do this to me? Once I figured it out I was going to make his life miserable. But I had to explain to my parents why they got this letter in the first place.

“Well, you gonna explain y’self or just keep starin’ at it like it’s foreign?” My father asked. His lack of regard to the way he spoke was another reason why I hated it when he would speak to me. Or when he spoke in general.

All I did was sit there. There was nothing to explain if you think about it. “If I had to guess it’s most likely about my distance from school work lately,” That lie would’ve gotten me kicked out of the drama club if I were to ever use it again. I’d been excelling in my studies. I was top of all my classes and not to mention I had just been offered 3 master’s courses.

But they didn’t know that.

“I haven’t been doing my best and I’ve been paying more attention to personal matters than learning matters. I guess the school picked up on it and well, you know the rest.”

“What personal matters?” My mother asked.

“Y’know, just normal teenage stuff. It’s nothing to worry about.”

My father stood up and slammed his hand on the table. Overreacting as usual. “If it was just normal shit then we wouldn’t be gettin’ phone call after phone call and letter after letter ‘bout you and your goddamn personal matters! So why don’t you quit the bullshit and tell us what you’ve really been doin’ up in that school!”

Ugh.

I stood up and placed both of my hands on the table as well, leaning my head in just a bit so that I could stare at him dead in the eyes when I spoke.

“Firstly, I don’t appreciate you talking so vulgarly towards your own son. Please treat me with respect. I’m a human just the same as you. So treat me as such,” I began, stroking up a second finger.

“Secondly, if you’ve been getting phone calls then that may be because I’ve been enlisting in club after club and helping with student council duties along with that. Maybe if you were to get off your ass and pick up the phone once in a while you’d understand that. But you never picked up the phone, did you? Exactly what I thought. And thirdly-”

My sentence was cut off by the crisp sound of skin against skin. A strike to my already sore face.

“And thirdly, you need to shut your mouth and remember who you’re speaking to! I’m your father, not one of your little friends! I’ll treat you with respect when you see me in the same eyes, got that?” He shook off his hand that had previously gone across my face.

Mouthing off definitely didn’t make this situation any better. Now, I was relatively aggravated.

“I know exactly who I’m talking to. And if you were one of my friends then this would be going a different way. I’m not one for teenage angst, but you need to piss off and stay out of my life before I do something I’ll regret.” I grabbed my backpack and made my way up the steps, making sure to slam the door to sell it all.

I locked it behind me and slumped down, heaving a heavy sigh.

“How annoying,” I mumbled.

“He’s out of control again, Rose! What the hell am I s’posed to do with a child who speaks to me like that? He needs to go to some sort of reform school or military camp or something! Because I refuse to let that bitch sleep under my roof rent-free!”

I could hear everything from under my room. My father was being unreasonable with my mother once again. He would ramble on about how terrible of a child I was, not allowing her to make her own argument in the matter. Although I doubt she would say anything even if he gave her the opportunity to.

See, my father wasn’t what you’d call a stable person. He was a pain to deal with in all honesty. Now, he didn’t go around hitting my mother and drinking himself into despair but he definitely wasn’t okay in the head. He had a short temper, and anger issues to chase them.

Although he’s never hurt me physically (not severely anyway), nor my mom, I can hear them fight all the time. More like a repeated one-sided argument than a fight I suppose.

After collecting my thoughts, I got up and took a shower. I needed to think this over and stop my body from aching. I told my mom I was alright but my whole body hurt like hell. A warm shower washed the pain away though.

Once I got out, I was patting my hair dry as I was headed downstairs. And in the process, I overheard a conversation I probably wasn’t supposed to. Then again, you couldn’t really get much privacy in any open space inside this house. Unless you were in your room or the bathroom, forget even thinking about privacy.

My father was pacing downstairs, clearly agitated about something. It was sort of entertaining to see. He was running his hands through his greasy hair and overall looked like a wreck. There was someone speaking to him and stupidly enough he had the whole thing on speaker. I sat on top of the steps, just far enough so that I was in earshot and still able to see him without him seeing me.

“No. No. I said, no! Look, I already have enough going on with this psychopathic child of mine, not to mention his mother. She’s a complete tool. She doesn’t combat me in any way. I don’t want a submissive little doll. I want a woman who can take control of a situation. And that’s you, Mary. So please don’t leave me, alright?”

Well so much for loyalty. I heard the yelling of a young woman over the line, she was clearly under immense pressure as well.

“I didn’t think I was going to stay with her this long, I swear! Jesus Christ, listen to me!” The phone went silent for a few moments and my father took that chance to get his words in. “I’ll divorce her, alright? And the child will go away with her. Or maybe into foster care or something, I don’t know at this point—” What came next was spoken quite clearly.

“If you send that poor boy into foster care I will tell your wife all the shitty things you’ve done behind her back! He doesn’t deserve that, no matter how psychotic you think he is! Do you know who you’re talking to? Do you know that I’ve been in foster care before? Bouncing homes and shit? Do you know how fucking hard it is to grow up in that environment? And you’re just willing to put your own son into that god-forsaken system to save your own ass? Are you fucking kidding me, Mason?”

Now, I hadn’t ever been in foster care, but the stories I’ve heard from comrades made it seem like a living hell. And I knew my dad hated me, but he was willing to put me up for adoption? And on top of that leave my mother? Just like that? What a shallow bastard.

“Mary, please, listen to me, I didn’t know okay? Just...just gimme some time and I’ll sort out something and we can be together. You know, in a nice ol’ house. By the beach maybe. We can start a family. You, me and,” He murmured a name that I couldn’t really pick up, going on. “And I’ll leave these two. All for you. Nobody else matters but you, Marianne.”

From there on, the conversation started to get friendlier but I could hear the annoyance in her voice from the other line.

And I’m assuming you’re wondering, ‘Where was your mother in all this?’. Well, she went out to withdraw some money for my father. And now that I’ve listened to this conversation, I’m almost certain he was spending all of my mother’s money on his side game. Seriously, it was like limbo with him. When you think he can’t get any lower, he gets lower. As low as he can go.

It wasn’t like he was broke. Quite the opposite. He was the CEO of one of the most successful companies in this shitty city. But maybe he didn’t care enough about this woman to let it show in his and my mother’s linked bank account.

I figured I’d heard everything I needed to. Standing up, I headed back to my room, feeling like I had just been dealt a brand new hand of cards to play against my father.

I’d heard the name Marianne plenty of times in our household. She was my father’s secretary. Yes, this was going to be one of those scandalous boss-secretary type deals. But I had a feeling it was going to be quite the ride.

But aside from that, I had to get the rumor situation underway.

Once I got into my bed, I plugged in my headphones. The sounds of classical composers like Debussy, Beethoven, Mozart, and the Nuvo Orchestra flooded my ears as I thought about how to solve this issue. I began to overthink the whole thing.

I always overthought things. And most things need to be overthought about. Mainly things such as these. I needed to think about every possible outcome to solve this problem. I was desperate. I needed to keep the validation. I wasn’t going to let one measly rumor tear me down from my pedestal.

When worse came to worse, I just put it simply. And the answer I got was:

Allison.

The conclusion I came to was Allison. She was the only one who was true to me and told me about the rumors in the first place. And for that, I knew she would fit perfectly in the grand scheme of things.

With her social standing and mine, if we were to get in a relationship it’d be perfect and the news would spread like wildfire and before I knew it, the rumor would be nothing but a memory.

So, what I did was pay off Allison to be my girlfriend for a month or so. And it worked surprisingly well. Yes, I know that it was quite sickening to pay someone to fake feelings for you, but it was basically an acting job if you think about it.

But it ended up getting more complicated.

She caught genuine feelings for me. And you can see how that can become troublesome. As student body president, rejecting girls came like breathing to me. Though, I suppose it would be harder to reject her since I was the one who gave her the wrong idea. I was ready to take the blame and play friends with her for the long run but I had to make a choice.

On one hand, there was the acceptance of Allison’s feelings. There weren’t many cons to that. I could date her for a while and then break up with her. It would be like we naturally drifted. Or at least, I could play it off as such.

On the other hand, I could reject her. There were quite a few cons to that. Given her status in the high school hierarchy, she could talk about how I paid her to be my girlfriend. Then even more whispers would spiral. Not to mention the fact that I had told her many times that it was just supposed to be an act. A ploy to clear my reputation. But in the wrong context, she could read that as, “I’m gay, pretend to date me to cover that up.”. And I wasn’t about to take that chance.

So, I did the logical thing and said, ‘Yes’ when she asked me to be her boyfriend.

I wasn’t completely against it. She was fairly attractive and stable in the mental sense. And she was also more intelligent than I had previously given her credit for. But at that time, I had things to do. I was planning on smoothing things out and leaving it there, but being the sick person I am, I wanted revenge. I needed revenge on the bastard who started it all.

Yes, Marko, it’s your turn to take the torturous spotlight in this story.

ᡣ𐭩

About a week or two into Ali and I’s ‘real’ relationship, I had already gotten to work on destroying Marko.

I wanted to make the last few years of his high school experience a living hell. He came after me for no apparent reason. Not one that I knew of at the time at least.

The first thing I did was confront him. And I won’t lie, I was beyond ticked off.

We met up after school, near a local corner store and that’s where I genuinely lost my shit on him. It was a shady place that we met up at. A back alley to be exact. It looked—and smelled—like a place where drug deals happen. Which they probably did.

As soon as I saw him, I pushed him up against the brick wall and just let loose.

“You! You fucking bastard! You started those rumors, didn’t you? Didn’t you? What? Did you think it would work? Huh? What the hell did I ever do to you? I haven’t done shit to you and yet you still went and tried to wreck my life! Honestly, tell me what the hell’s your problem with me!” I was ready to go on but I soon realized that he wasn’t worth my energy.

To my surprise, he was smiling the whole damn time.

“What’re you? Some sort of masochist? Are you enjoying this, you sick bastard?”

Marko simply started laughing.

He lightly pushed me off of him and dusted himself off. Like I was nothing. “Are you done yet? If so then take a walk with me, okay?”

“Yeah, like hell I will.”

“Your choice, but you’ll never get your answers if you don’t.”

At that moment all I could think of was how wildly seething with anger I was.

And did this bastard really just give me an ultimatum for information?

I sighed and pushed him forward. This was shaping up to be a really annoying situation. He led the way and pulled out a cigarette.

“Want one?” he asked, as he gestured the box towards me.

“I’m not here to be all buddy-buddy with you. I honestly hate your guts. I’m just here for answers. Nothing more, nothing less. And if you’re going to waste my time, then I have other ways to get what I want.”

He pulled out a blue lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette, blowing smoke in my face. It stunk so bad. “Suit yourself, man. See, this is what I mean, you’re so fake.”

There goes that sentence again.

“What the hell are you trying to say about me then, huh?”

He took another puff and once again, blew it in my face.

“When you’re at school, or around other people, your ‘friends’ you wear this mask, dude. It’s a literal mask. You always wear that fake smile, and you act all nice and it pisses me off. I can tell that you’re not the person that people think you are. But yet they still believe you,” He stopped in his tracks and took another drag of his dwindling cigarette. This time, blowing it to the side, directly away from my face. “Why is that?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” I dismissed with a light shrug of my shoulders.

Laughing, he smiled this toothy grin and took another puff, coughing as he did so. “And the biggest liar of the year award goes to: Makoto Azura!” He steadied himself and said, “Do you really think I’m gonna believe that BS?”

“It’s not BS! You’re delusional!”

But it was BS. He wasn’t delusional. He was spot-on in everything he was saying. Which was exactly why I had to shoot him down.

“You have this fake vision of me. That I’m someone who fakes everything and is really hurting inside or some sob story bullshit like that. You’re trying to make me a victim so that you can be a hero. Isn’t that it?” I accused, jabbing my index into his chest.

“You have a hero complex and because I was at the top, not struggling at all, you wanted to take that away and try to ‘expose’ me so that you could be the hero of my story, isn’t that right? Well, it’s not going to work.”

“Oh please. Why the hell would I want any part in your life? It’s sad and dreary.” He scoffed.

“How?”

Taking one last puff of his cigarette, he dropped it to the ground, grinding it with the heel of his foot. He stepped closer, and said, “Because you’re in it.”

Now, need me remind you, Marko is about a good foot taller than me, so I was a bit intimidated by him. But at this time I was purely driven by anger, and anger alone and insanely ready to fucking deck him.

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, my voice low and dangerous as my fingers curled into a fist.

“For fuck’s sake, stop playing coy with me, Makoto,” He said as he flashed that smug-ass smile. God, it’s in these moments I realize how punchable his face is. “You don’t know who I am? Your father hasn’t talked about me?”

“Why would he?”

Once again he started to laugh and finally said, “My name is Marko Austin. Son of Marianne Austin.”

I was honestly going to laugh. I wanted to laugh. And at the same time, I wanted to murder my father. Because of him, my life has been a complete and utter train wreck. Of course he would fuck me over like that.

Somewhere inside, I honestly felt like hugging Marko. But the majority of me wanted to beat the living crap out of him.

“Do you get it now? Your father is a homewrecker.” He finally spat.

Sitting down, I leaned my head against the wall. How could I be so rash? I should’ve just come out and asked him in a calm manner. Instead, I acted just like the bastard who started it all.

Marko stood next to me and handed me a cigarette. “Want one now?”

Unfortunately, I did. And so I took it out of his hand and stood up. This obviously wasn’t my first time but I didn’t do it often. So, he pulled me a bit closer, giving me a light and I coughed as I breathed in the disgusting thing.

He pulled another out for himself too.

I sighed, taking a puff. Honestly, one moment ago I was ready to rip this guy’s throat out, now I was sharing a smoke with him? How cliché.

“So, what now?” He asked, calmly.

“What the hell do you mean ‘what now’? My question is still left unanswered. Why did you do it?”

Turning towards me, he sighed, “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one here. Azura, I did it because your dad ruined my life. But, talking with you now, I’m assuming you didn’t know. Did you?”

“No, I didn’t. I only found out recently and even so, that doesn’t give you a right or an excuse to do what you did to me,” I said, blowing smoke in his face, conveying my own frustration at the whole ordeal through the plumes.

I watched Marko’s face turn to one of somber understanding. Doubting he felt remorse but rather just slightly guilty for bringing in an unsuspecting third party to someone else's funeral.

As much as I wanted to walk right in and beat the brakes off of my deadbeat father, there was a small ‘eureka’ moment that enveloped me as I smirked. “You want to ruin his life? So do I.” I said calmly, my face one of newfound determination and conniving intent.

“Hear this, if you get all those stupid fucking rumors to subside, entirely then I'll get you what you want,” I began. “But after that, I want to never see your face again. Rather it be a passing glance, in the halls, or even in public, I want nothing to do with you. Understood?” The offer was a bit rash. I was surprised that I even put it out there whilst my blood still boiled from his immature leap to action that had caused me so much damn trouble.

Studying his expression for a moment, I saw the hesitation. He knew me–or rather, he thought he did–and so he should've known there was a catch. Maybe he did, but nonetheless, he shook my hand, agreeing to the offer without batting an eye. With that, I slipped him a business card of sorts with my contact info on it.

I pushed off of the wall, dropping my cigarette and letting it fizzle out as I stepped on it without mercy. Walking away, I raised a dismissive hand to wave.

“Call me, if I don't pick up, I'm ignoring you.” I purred before beginning on the path down the streets and back to my oh-so humble abode. Now to be a crash site for everything ready to unfold.

Orange and pink tinted skies, hues illuminating and casting harsh shadows over the neighborhoods gave me a sense of calm before a fucking tsunami. If I was going to make this all play out in my favor; bringing my father to his knees, freeing myself and my mother from his constrictive grasp, as well as getting my swift and merciless revenge on Marko, I'd have to play all sides. This was sure to be fun.

A/N: First chapter is published!! Thanks to an amazing delay from my dearest friend but after the long wait the series has kicked off! Please enjoy and leave lots of love so I can know if you want to see how this story unfolds! 🥡🥢

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cegantheayugipi · 3 years ago

Text

a glitch in the matrix - or crack(heads) in the abyss

A Genshin Crackfic, Part 3

Lost? here's the masterlist.

Note: I'm back and once again I have nothing to say, except for a sincere apology those who actually read this.

Summary: This is a product of my insanity... Part THREE NOW?!?! I'm so sorry. Two female gamers get isekai'd into genshin, except nothing is as you'd expect. Also, to get around having TWO readers in one story, I've just labeled their names as A and B, so you'll be reading A/N and B/N instead of Y/N.

About the characters: A/N has a fatal Zhongli simp disorder, and B/N probably did too much crack in a previous life.

Word Count: 5.5k

Crack rating: 6/10

~~~

The next day, A/N and B/N went to see Yanfei together. A/N had explained roughly what she wanted from the half-adeptus lawyer, and B/N was absolutely ecstatic about it and demanded to join.

“Oh, you brought a friend today?” Yanfei asked, looking over at B/N as the two girls approached the table.

“Yeah, I hope it’s okay… She’s really excited to sit with us and talk about this contract.” A/N explained.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Yanfei stood up and shook B/N’s hand.

“You too!” B/N responded. The three sat down at the table together.

“So, from our meeting yesterday, you said you wanted me to write a contract of marriage. And the person you’d like to marry is Zhongli.” Yanfei spoke.

“U-uhm, yes…” A/N began to blush. “It’s a little embarrassing when you put it that way.”

“Well, a contract of marriage is generally a common commission, and usually people use generic ones. What made you want to write a personalized one?” Yanfei spoke professionally.

“I-it’s really important to me.” A/N explained bashfully, looking down. Her face at this point was bright red.

“Well, I will do my best to write a satisfactory contract.” Yanfei responded, handing papers to A/N. “So, let’s begin with this regular marriage contract as a basis for your personalized one. Is there anything you’d like to change or remove, before we begin to add things? Take your time to read through.”

A/N looked down and began to scan the page. B/N peered over A/N’s shoulder, reading along with her. A/N spoke up when she saw something on the page

“Actually, I’d like to change this clause here to be more detailed…”

~~~

“Okay, it seems we’re mostly done writing up this contract. Is there anything else that comes to mind you would like to add?” Yanfei asked.

“I’m not sure…” A/N trailed off. “I think we covered everything…”

“Oh wait!” B/N spoke up. “You need to add a clause about sex.”

“I-” A/N seemed to break inside as her face went as red as a tomato. “I’m-”

“Okay, I can add a clause about sexual intercourse.” Yanfei scribbled something down on her notepad. “But, I’d need more details from you A/N.”

A/N was getting dizzy. Just the mere concept of having sex with Zhongli was driving her insane. Did she have to think about it here? She thought she might faint. Zhongli was the man of her dreams, quite literally. She didn’t think she could handle describing the details here.

“Hello? Earth to A/N?” B/N waved a hand in front of her friend’s face. She sighed, realizing that A/N was beyond help. “How about I tell Yanfei what to add?”

A/N just nodded her head.

“Okay, I’m all ears.” Yanfei responded with a straight face.

“So, intercourse must be regular, reciprocal, and passionate. I would set the minimum at twice a week.” B/N explained, her face completely stone cold meanwhile A/N felt like she was melting. She quite literally slumped onto the surface of the table, steam coming out of her ears from her brain overheating. She had seen Zhongli shirtless every day, but somehow every single time he revealed his skin it seemed like A/N had never seen a man before in her life.

Now, imagining getting sexual with him, her brain was going haywire. Before she knew it, B/N had finished explaining everything to the poor half-Adeptus lawyer.

“Okay, that should just about sum up everything.” B/N finished, nodding her head satisfactorily.

“Thank you for the… incredible detail, B/N.” Yanfei responded with her usual professional demeanor, scribbling down more notes on her notepad.

“It’s no problem!” B/N smiled in response.

“I’ll get the contract written up today.” Yanfei responded. “Have you brought the payment?”

“Oh,” A/N snapped out of her daze at the request for payment. “I actually forgo-”

A/N was cut off by a large bag of mora being dropped onto the table. The coins clunked heavily in the bag, evidence of its weight. A/N looked up to see that B/N was the one who threw the bag on the table.

“Where on earth did you get that money from?” A/N asked.

“I can explain later.” B/N responded. The two thanked Yanfei and said their goodbyes before walking back down the stairs towards the beautiful pagoda at the bottom of Bubu pharmacy.

“So,” B/N spoke in a soft voice. “I might have invented leggings in Teyvat.”

“WHAT?!” A/N exclaimed. B/N shushed her, and A/N continued in a much quieter tone. “Is that even legal?”

“Well, it’s legal, for sure. I have my patents and commercial licenses set up already. As a matter of fact, I’ve already set up a business structure for selling and distributing leggings.”

“What the hell?” A/N asked. “I literally thought you were just doing crazy stuff.”

“Well, most people would call us crazy.” B/N responded. “Remember how I got you to ask Zhongli for a million mora?”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Zhongli just turned around and got it from Childe, as per usual.” A/N added.

“So, I bought the raw materials, had a seamstress make a prototype, and now they can be mass produced. I even have a sales structure set up where people buy into the company first, then sell the goods they’ve bought for a commission. They get bonuses and a smaller commission from getting more people to buy in and become a sales representative.”

“Wait… is this…” A/N trailed off.

“Multi level marketing?” B/N finished A/N’s question for her. “Yes. But the product is life changing.”

“I seriously can’t with you.” A/N sighed.

“Do you want some leggings?” B/N pulled a pair out of her pocket.

“Hell yeah.” A/N responded, grabbing the pair of leggings. “These pants I appeared in last week are so uncomfortable!”

“I know, right?” B/N laughed. “I ditched my pants for a pair of these last week.”

“And you didn’t tell me? I wish I had these sooner! I need to find somewhere to put these on.”

“Do you think Bubu pharmacy has a bathroom or changing room?” B/N asked.

“They should.” A/N replied. The two immediately took off up the stairs to the pharmacy. They finally reached the top, both girls completely out of breath.

“Welcome to Bubu Pharmacy. And who might you two beautiful ladies be?” The voice that came from inside the pharmacy was instantly recognized by A/N and B/N. It was Baizhu, the handsome Dendro vision-holder who wore an iconic tank top and an even more iconic snake around his neck. A/N and B/N laughed at Baizhu’s flirtatious comment.

“Are you a zombie, like Qiqi?” Another voice came from behind the counter. B/N looked over, to see an adorable Qiqi staring up at her.

“Um, no, we’re definitely alive.” B/N spoke.

“Why do you think we’re zombies?” A/N asked.

“You smell like you’re from another place. Like Qiqi.” The young purple-haired girl explained slowly. B/N and A/N exchanged an alarmed glance.

“So, you’re not surprised by the fact that Qiqi is a zombie?” Baizhu questioned.

“N-no, we just came here to look around.” A/N stuttered. “Or, maybe, use the bathroom.”

Baizhu let out a smooth chuckle. “Of course. It’s in the back.” Baizhu led A/N away, leaving B/N standing there awkwardly with Qiqi.

“So… what do zombies smell like?” B/N asked.

“They smell like zombies.” Qiqi responded joylessly. “Do you have a prescription?”

“Um, no.” B/N furrowed her eyebrows as she responded.

“You need a prescription to buy the medicine.”

B/N sighed as Qiqi reverted to her usual lines, evidently something that happened when humans were reanimated as zombies.

“Apologies for Qiqi’s behavior,” Baizhu spoke as he returned. “Sometimes she gets stuck with the same task, and can’t switch to a different conversation easily.”

“Oh,” A/N spoke as she entered the room once again. “Qiqi, would you like some coconut milk?” A/N summoned the bottle of milk out of gold glitter – which was apparently normal in Teyvat, but still disconcerted both girls whenever they did this.

“Coconut milk…” Qiqi grew excited, considering her usual zombie-like attitude was completely emotionless. She reached up over the counter with her tiny hands, wanting to grab the glass bottle. A/N set it into Qiqi’s hands with a sweet smile.

“How did you know Qiqi loves coconut milk?” Baizhu asked, lifting a hand to his chin in thought.

“Oh, uh…” A/N struggled to find an excuse. “Kids love coconut milk…”

“Oh, I had no idea.” Baizhu raised his eyebrows at A/N’s responde.

“Well, it was nice to meet you Baizhu.” B/N spoke. “And sorry for only coming to use the bathroom.”

“Oh, it was a pleasure having you come by.” Baizhu responded sweetly. “And thank you for giving Qiqi coconut milk.”

“Mmmm…” Qiqi hummed, coconut milk staining her upper lip white as she voraciously drank the milk.

“Uhh, It’s no problem, have a nice day!” A/N responded, giving a smile and a wave as the two girls left the pharmacy and descended the stairs down to the pagoda.

“Hmm…” Baizhu turned to face Qiqi. “How did that young girl know my name?”

“Qiqi thought you knew them already.”

~~~

“Okay, it’s game day.” B/N spoke lowly, hunching over her breakfast to whisper to A/N. The two girls sat side-by-side at Wanmin Restaurant. “I booked the restaurant. Have you invited Zhongli to tea yet?”

“Ahhh, ahhh!” A/N groaned, slapping her palms onto her cheeks as they flared bright red. She was nervous out of her mind. Today was the day she was going to ask Zhongli to marry her. He was the literal man of her dreams, and she was sure she’d pretty much curl up and die if he said no.

“You need to calm down. Focus, girlie!” B/N shook A/N’s shoulders to snap her out of her thoughts.

“Oh man, do you think he’ll kiss me after he signs it?” A/N mumbled, hearts beaming in her eyes.

“He’d better.” B/N spoke. “I think he will. After all, he looks at you like you’re the most precious thing in the world. I’d be jealous, but I think if another human being looked at me that way I would get freaked out.”

“Awww, do you really think he does?” A/N asked.

“Um, do you have eyes?” B/N responded sarcastically. “Hey, Xiangling, can you get A/N something cold to drink? She’s overheating thinking about her future husband.”

“Sure, coming right up!” XIangling disappeared underneath the counter once again, before quickly reappearing with a glass in her hand.

“T-thanks,” A/N mumbled, taking a sip of the cool liquid.

B/N did her best to calm down her nervous friend. The hours passed slowly as the meeting grew nearer and nearer, and A/N felt like she was dreaming and dying from nervousness at the same time.

Finally, the time came for B/N and A/N to go to the tea lounge. A/N was more nervous than she had ever felt in her entire life; she felt weak in the knees as she walked up the front steps and faltered for a second.

“Woah there, do you need me to carry you?” B/N asked, putting a hand on A/N’s shoulder.

“N-no.” A/N responded. “I’m gonna do this.” She spoke determinedly, nodding her head vigorously.

“Yes you are!” B/N exclaimed excitedly. “You’ve got this!”

After hyping A/N up enough, the two walked into the building. B/N had to do all the talking to the waiter, and then once the girls were sitting at the table B/N did her best to keep A/N’s mind occupied while the two waited for Zhongli to appear.

“He’s late.” A/N murmured, staring at the clock on the wall. “What if he knows why I invited him here and he doesn’t show up?”

“I’m sure he’s coming.” B/N reassured her, waving the waiter over to the table.

“Is there anything you need, miss?” The waiter asked.

“Yes, we’d like to order some tea to start out with. A pot of Fukamushicha and Tieguanyin please.” B/N spoke, but then lowered her voice. “Can you also please take that clock off of the wall? It is making my friend anxious.”

The waiter looked at B/N as if she were crazy, but quickly corrected his demeanor and responded with an “of course” before briskly walking away.

B/N was not about to mention that she had done research on teas in Teyvat just for this occasion. Regardless, the two girls ended up sipping tea while waiting for the ever-tardy Zhongli. By the time the retired Archon had arrived, B/N was ready to order the next round of tea.

“Apologies for the delay.” Zhongli spoke, offering no further excuse for his lateness. He sat down next to A/N at the round table.

“I’m happy you came to join us…” A/N spoke, her nerves coming back at the sight of Zhongli.

“Of course I would join you.” Zhongli gave her a soft smile. “I enjoy our time together.”

“U-uh, speaking of time together…” A/N began. “I’d like to give you a proposal.”

“A proposal?” Zhongli asked.

“Yes… It’s a contract, actually.” A/N explained. B/N slid the stack of papers across the table, keeping silent to let A/N talk. Zhongli read the words across the top and his eyes widened.

‘Marital Agreement’.

“I see…” Zhongli spoke as he stared down at the paper. “Perhaps we should order some more tea and discuss this contract?”

“That sounds like a great idea.” B/N spoke up, as A/N became a fuzzled ball of nerves again. She waved over the waiter, who rolled his eyes at the ridiculous girl before coming to the table.

Zhongli ordered tea this time, and A/N was thankful that he didn’t seem to realize just how nervous she was. B/N tried her best to distract Zhongli while A/N composed herself, and finally once the three of them had some more tea A/N spoke up again.

“I’d like you to read through the contract and uh… tell me what you think.” She spoke.

“Yes, I can do that…” Zhongli responded.

“Um, sorry to interrupt.” B/N spoke up. “I need to excuse myself for a minute.”

After so much tea, B/N really needed to go to the bathroom. Like, REALLY needed to go. She jumped up from her seat and briskly stalked towards the bathroom at the back of the restaurant.

Swinging the door to the ladies’ room open, she made a beeline for the toilet.

“Woah there, angel.” A man’s voice came from behind B/N. She instantly recognized it as Childe’s and swiveled around to see him leaning against the wall behind the door, arms crossed over his chest. She threw the mischievous ginger a disgusted look for being in the women’s bathroom.

“What are you doing here, perv?” She asked, frowning.

“I think it’s my turn to ask questions.” Childe stepped forward. “What are you planning in Liyue Harbor?”

“Ugh.” B/N rolled her eyes, completely unthreatened by Childe’s method of questioning. “Pee first, talk later. I REALLY gotta go.”

B/N turned around and walked to the toilet. She reached up her dress to pull down her leggings, bunching up the skirt in her hands as she muttered “I hate this fucking dress.”

Childe stared in horror as B/N sat down on the toilet in front of him and began to urinate. She stared right back at him, with dead eyes and a stone cold expression. This girl was a mystery. She was terrifying. No intimidation tactic Childe tried ever worked on her. Even here, he was the one being intimidated.

“What are you blushing at, pervert?” B/N asked mockingly. “This kind of shit turn you on?”

Childe didn’t even realize how much blood had rushed to his face. He scoffed, turning around and hurriedly leaving the bathroom, slamming the door angrily behind him.

~~~

When B/N was finished in the bathroom, she walked back out to the restaurant. However, from across the room, she spotted A/N alone at the table. She wondered if Zhongli needed to use the bathroom as well, but her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw the tears streaming down her friend’s face.

“What happened?” B/N rushed over to A/N.

“He- hic” A/N hiccuped. “He said no.” A/N began to wail loudly.

“He… what?” B/N spoke darkly, her brows furrowing with anger.

“He just said no and left!” A/N began to ugly cry, and fury descended upon B/N at those words.

“Come on. Let’s get you home.” B/N took A/N by the shoulders, helping her stand up. She quickly tossed a bag of mora on the table. It was much more than the bill would have come out to, but she didn’t care.

Childe watched the two from the back of the restaurant, intrigued by what was unfolding.

B/N walked a sobbing A/N back to Wangsheng Funeral parlor.

“I knew it, I knew I’ll never have love.” A/N sniffled, more tears running down her face.

“No, no you will!” B/N responded, trying to console her friend.

“After everything that happened in my life, I should have known better.” A/N sighed. Teardrops spattered onto the ornate pavement of Liyue’s streets.

“No, don’t you dare say that.” B/N responded.

“But it’s true! I’m just not meant to have love.” A/N sobbed.

“No, you will have love.” B/N looked down, adding her thoughts at the end.

‘I’ll make sure of it.’

The two girls finally walked up the stairs and into the funeral parlor.

“Welcome to-” Hu Tao cut herself off as she saw the sobbing A/N. “What happened to the Zhongli simp?”

A/N only wailed louder at the sound of Zhongli’s name.

“Hu Tao. Please look after A/N.” B/N asked, her face dead serious. Hu Tao’s eyes widened. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she knew this situation must be grave.

“Okay…” Hu Tao trailed off, watching as B/N swiftly spun around and ran out of the front doors.

“I don’t wanna be here.” A/N wailed, more tears spilling down her face. “It reminds me of Zhongli.”

“Did something happen to old man?” Hu Tao spoke, her tone concerned.

“He rejected me!” A/N sighed, hiccupping as she sobbed.

“WHAT?!” Hu Tao exclaimed, completely taken aback. “That’s really unusual…” She murmured.

~~~

B/N felt the fury of a thousand suns rushing through her veins as she tracked down the former Geo Archon. She had a good idea where he would be; after all, A/N had previously told her where Zhongli usually went to collect his thoughts.

And almost exactly as she suspected, Zhongli was standing in the middle of the field that A/N had mentioned. As if Zhongli had sensed her presence, he turned around to face her.

“B/N.” He spoke. “I assume you must be here becau-”

“Shut the fuck up and listen to what I have to say.” B/N spat out her words with venom more potent than a rattlesnake. “You’re going to sign this contract, even if I have to force you. A/N has been through too much to face a rejection from you.”

“I am sorry.” Zhongli responded, seemingly unaffected by B/N’s aggressive behavior. “I will have to decline your request.”

“Do you have any idea how much you’re hurting A/N?” B/N shouted.

“I do not-” Zhongli’s eyes were wide, but B/N continued to speak.

“I challenge you to a duel.” B/N spoke. “If you lose, you have to sign the contract.”

“Although I no longer have my gnosis,” Zhongli spoke. “I would be wary of challenging an Archon.”

“Like I care!” B/N responded sarcastically, leaping forward. She didn’t know how to fight in this world. She only knew how to fight in the video game, but even there she was practically a newbie.

Even so, the vicious weeb sprinted towards the Geo Archon. Zhongli was taken aback by how fast she was, but he quickly adjusted to her speed and summoned his shield before she could reach him. What surprised him even more, however, was how she summoned a transparent-looking claymore and suddenly imbued it with pyro.

‘So she does have a vision, after all.’ Zhongli thought to himself, summoning another pillar to fight back. B/N began to attack with the same exact moves that he had seen Diluc do before. With a spinning flip, she swiped at Zhongli’s shield.

“B/N, I do not want to fight you.” Zhongli spoke.

“Then sign the fucking contract!” B/N panted, jumping backwards. Much to Zhongli’s awe, the claymore in B/N’s hands began to change shape. It was now a polearm, and it was imbued with cryo as she dashed towards him once again. Zhongli’s shield had disappeared, forcing him to jump out of the way of her attacks. B/N didn’t realize what she was doing. All she felt was anger and hatred towards the man who stole then crushed her dearest friend’s heart.

“You have no clue how much A/N has been hurt before!” B/N exclaimed, her weapon transforming into a catalyst as she let go of it and it began to hurtle rocks at Zhongli. He didn’t have time to slow down and cast his shield anymore; he had to fight back. “She deserves to finally have someone treat her right, how dare you take that away from her!”

B/N’s catalyst transformed into a bow, and she drew it back until the crackle of electro ripped through the air. Before she could do anything, however, Zhongli swiped at her with his polearm. B/N tumbled backwards across the field, flipping over and over. Still, somehow, she managed to release a spell and send a menacing looking bird out that shot electro attacks at Zhongli. He quickly cast his shield, protecting himself from getting hit.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Zhongli spoke, his tone serious.

“We’re way past that point now.” B/N stood up, wiping blood off of her chin. She saw the red stain when she took her hand away from her face, but she couldn’t feel it. The rage and adrenaline coursing through her was simply too much at this point. Her weapon transformed back into a polearm, but this time it was imbued with Anemo as she rushed towards Zhongli. His polearm met hers with a clash, and they ended up at a stalemate.

“You have no idea how much A/N loves you.” B/N spoke, her words fuelled by fury as she strained under the force of Zhongli’s power.

“I love her too.” Zhongli responded.

His statement caught B/N off guard, making her falter. That millisecond was more than enough for Zhongli to overpower her, throwing her to the ground and injuring her even more in the process.

“Wh-” B/N wheezed after having the wind knocked out of her. “Why won’t you marry her?”

“I will neither age nor die.” Zhongli explained. “I would never want to put A/N through partnership with an Archon when she would be so much happier with a human.”

B/N continued to lay there on the ground and winded as Zhongli stood above her.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” B/N groaned, partly from frustration and partly from pain. “A/N would never choose anyone over you.”

“What?”

“She’s so in love with you,” B/N coughed, “That she wouldn’t want to live without you. Now go apologize to her and marry her before you get another stupid thought in that head of yours.”

B/N lifted one arm up, straining since her body felt so abused at that point. She summoned the contract scroll out of golden glitter, holding it up for Zhongli to take. “And do it fast. I don’t want her hurting for another minute.”

“But you’re very injured-“

“Shut up.” B/N cut Zhongli off quickly. “Go to A/N now. She’s with Hu Tao at the funeral parlor.”

“O-okay.” Zhongli grabbed the scroll and turned to walk back towards Liyue Harbor.

What neither of them noticed, however, was a spying Childe who had seen everything from afar. He had watched in awe as B/N used multiple elements, but that awe quickly transformed into something much more sinister as he knew he needed to inform the Tsaritsa of this.

Childe heard the young girl cough, the air in her lungs struggling to escape. Zhongli had done a number to her, despite only acting defensively in their fight.

“Oh man.” B/N wheezed, blinking her eyes hard. Childe began to approach her as he started to feel concerned about her health.

“Hey, girlie. You okay?” He asked, bending down to look at B/N.

“Evidently not.” B/N coughed.

“Why did you even try to fight Zhongli, knowing he was an Archon?” Childe narrowed his eyes at her.

“I’d fight God for A/N.” B/N spoke sarcastically. Childe grew confused at her mention of a single god.

“What do you me-”

“Uhh, I don’t feel so good.” B/N cut Childe off, her eyes going blank.

Childe’s mouth dropped open as he watched B/N’s body begin to disintegrate into nothing. Of course, he had seen this happen many times before, but this was so unexpected. This girl was something special, given her miraculous abilities. Childe in no way expected her to die so suddenly.

“H-hey!” Childe shouted, reaching out to her body but making contact with nothing. As the last traces of her faded away, Childe kneeled there, staring at the ground where B/N once was blankly.

Childe struggled to come to terms with the way B/N had died. She had died for the sake of her friend. Readily, in fact. Childe realized that now she was gone, he truly would never understand the enigma that was her mind. He was pretty sure that B/N was one of a kind. What was he going to do now? How would A/N feel about this?

Childe dreaded the thought of having to tell A/N about what happened to B/N. He shivered, wondering if he should tell A/N why B/N ended up dying. Would she blame Zhongli?

All of his thoughts came to a halt, however, as he heard B/N’s voice from far away.

“Is this what you do whenever you disappear?” B/N scoffed. Childe’s head snapped up, and he spotted the girl from across the field. Her clothes were pristine, and there wasn’t a single scratch on her body.

“Are you a ghost?” Childe murmured in utter disbelief.

“No? I just respawned.” B/N shrugged nonchalantly. “Are you a fucking idiot or something?”

“Oh, thank Archons.” Childe sighed in relief, realizing that he now didn’t need to tell A/N that you were dead.

“You like that nickname?” B/N smirked, “I’ll call you that more often. Fucking idiot.” She walked across the field towards Liyue Harbor, passing Childe who hadn’t moved from where he was kneeling on the ground.

~~~

Back at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, A/N was trying to escape while Hu Tao blocked the front doors.

“Let me out of here!” A/N wailed, tears spilling down her face. “It’s making me miss Zhongli even more.”

“No way!” Hu Tao responded. “B/N said you’d run away if I let you!”

“Ahhhhh!” A/N cried even harder. She spun around, legging it towards a window that was cracked open. Somehow, she managed to open the window and smoothly jump through, rolling onto the ground before running down the street away from the funeral parlor.

“Oh hell no!” Hu Tao exclaimed, picking up a casket from the parlor floor and running out the door while holding it over her head.

The image of the small Hu Tao chasing A/N with a coffin was comical to any passerby, but to A/N it was something straight from her nightmares. She was screaming as she ran down the street, her tears flying from her face in the wind.

No human was any match for Hu Tao when it came to putting things into coffins. After all, Hu Tao was the esteemed director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. After only a couple of traumatizing minutes, A/N was now locked inside a dark casket. At the very least, the plush lining was comfortable. As Hu Tao walked back up the road carrying the coffin with A/N inside it (again, proving that she had an inhuman amount of strength), the steady rocking of the coffin finally lulled A/N into sleep.

~~~

When Zhongli returned to the funeral parlor, marriage contract in hand, Hu Tao was sitting placidly at her desk looking over some papers. The room was incredibly quiet, and Zhongli looked around for any sign of the woman he loved.

“Hu Tao, have you seen A/N?” Zhongli asked.

“Ssssh!” Hu Tao raised a finger to her lips. “She’s sleeping.”

“Where?” Zhongli asked more quietly this time. Hu Tao simply pointed towards the casket in the corner of the parlor.

Zhongli’s eyes widened, and he rushed over to open the casket. Hu Tao could have suffocated A/N in there! He let out a sigh of relief as he realized Hu Tao had left the casket cracked open so at least A/N could get some air. He opened the lid gently, revealing a peacefully sleeping A/N. Zhongli felt his heart twist as he spotted the trails of tears down her cheeks, and he realized he had made a terrible mistake by saying no to her.

“A/N…” Zhongli murmured, reaching down to brush a stray hair away from her face. Her eyes fluttered open as she stirred from her sleep.

“Zhongli?” A/N murmured, blinking the sleep from her eyes. All of her crying and sadness didn’t matter to her anymore; Zhongli was here. Even if he didn’t love her, at least he was nearby now.

Zhongli reached down, gently picking A/N up and carefully setting her back on her feet. A/N relished his touch, her hands lingering on his arms after he had set her upright. She looked up at him, her body remaining close to his. Her heart was in so much pain, but with Zhongli here, she felt like she could still be happy.

Zhongli, on the other hand, could see the sorrow in A/N’s eyes. He felt terrible; he was solely responsible for this.

“I am sorry.” Zhongli murmured, gazing down at A/N.

“Huh?” A/N asked, confused.

“I only said no because I thought you deserved better.” He spoke gently.

“You… what?” A/N asked, getting confused. This was too much for her brain to handle.

“I am in love with you.” Zhongli spoke, raising a hand up to cup her cheek. “I believed marrying you would be a selfish act.”

“What on ear- Teyvat are you talking about?” A/N responded. “Marrying you would be a dream come true for me!”

“I know.” Zhongli spoke. “B/N made sure I knew that.”

“She did?” A/N asked.

“Yes.” Zhongli responded. “Now, I would like to formally agree to your contract of marriage.” He brought his free hand up revealing the scroll.

“Y-you would?” A/N asked, hope suddenly filling her eyes. None of the sadness and anguish she felt over the past hours mattered anymore. Zhongli said yes, and she was now the happiest person in the universe.

“Yes, I would like nothing more than to wed you.” Zhongli murmured, looking into A/N’s glimmering eyes. She was the most beautiful person Zhongli had ever seen; even before Zhongli had met her in this world, when they were connected through different universes, he fell in love with the spirit who guided him. He didn’t realize how much she loved him back until B/N forced him to. Only then did he realize that A/N’s yearning for touch, for comfort, for companionship from him, was much deeper than a simple friendship.

A/N gazed up at Zhongli, the epitome of perfection. No man could ever compare to him. As Zhongli continued to stare down at the enchanted girl, he began to move his face closer to hers.

A/N’s hands instinctively traveled up his arms, hooking around the back of his neck. She moved onto her tip-toes, leaning up to meet Zhongli’s lips in a tender kiss. The kiss was sweet like honey, and it was full of the catharsis that A/N and Zhongli both needed. Their love for each other was so intense and so passionate that as A/N melted into Zhongli’s arms, he held her tighter around him.

“Get a room, you two!” Hu Tao exclaimed, making a gagging expression as she stuck her tongue out.

“Aah, I’m sorry!” A/N squeaked, jumping back. Heat rushed to her face as she realized she had just kissed Zhongli in front of Hu Tao.

As if on cue, B/N swung the front doors of the parlor open and marched inside, with Childe following close behind. Zhongli noticed immediately that B/N’s clothes were completely pristine, as if she had never gotten into the fight in the first place.

A/N turned to see her friend walk in, and gave her a beaming smile. “Thank you so much B/N! I heard you talked to Zhongli for me.”

“Oh, it was nothing!” B/N laughed. “I’m glad he finally realized he was being stupid.”

Zhongli narrowed his eyes at B/N, but not because the strange girl had called him stupid. He wondered how on earth she could call fighting him half to death ‘nothing’. But what Zhongli didn’t know, and what Childe did, was that B/N actually did die. The ginger simply stood there with an intelligible look on his face as he had no clue how B/N could be so nonchalant. Didn’t she suffer from the blows Zhongli gave her?

“Alright, let’s go celebrate!” B/N exclaimed. “How about third round knockout?”

“That sounds wonderful.” Zhongli smiled at her suggestion.

“Count me in!” Hu Tao piped up.

~~~

#genshin fanfiction #genshin impact #zhongli #childe #hu tao #genshin x reader #genshin impact fanfic #genshin fanfic #childe x reader #zhongli is a simp #zhongli x reader #reader insert #isekai #SAGAU #crackfic #comedy #genshin crack #yes I am including a crack rating system now

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wicked-mind · 4 years ago

Text

Betrayed: Chapter Four

Summary: Everybody thought Steve’s sister had passed away decades ago. But when you show up at the facility and try to attack Bucky, there are questions to be answered.

Word count: 5.5k

Warning: A bit of violence, talk of kidnapping and torture, talk of surgery, a hint of PTSD

Series Masterlist

All Writings Masterlist

NOTE: I would like to thank everybody for your support. As I previously said, this is the first time posting creative writing on any platform. As a thank you, I’ll be releasing two chapters today (3/19/21). Again, any feedback is appreciated. Enjoy (:

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Chapter Four- I Guess We Can Be Friends

The rest of the team returned finally. A smile returned to Y/N’s face after seeing her brother and Wanda after the week. Steve made sure to get a run down of everything that happened in his absence from Clint and Bucky. Hearing of her nightmares, the voice she heard, and the progress her and Bucky had made. Steve and Bucky both exchanged the word ‘progress’ again with a smile. The chip they had recovered was protected, they couldn’t access the information on it right away, having to do some deep digging.

Steve found his sister chatting with Wanda, filling her in on everything that had happened. Y/N talked to Wanda about her nightmares and how Bucky was the one who woke her from them. She told her friend about how she heard the voice in her head, to which Wanda looked concerned. With Y/N’s permission, she could look to see if there was something else in her head, but she would wait for that until Y/N was ready for that. Steve entered the room with a light knock, smiling at Y/N.

“I’m all caught up on things that happened while we were away.” Steve told his sister, with a small comforting smile, “We recovered your chip still in tact. We are trying to get into it the information on it.”

Y/N nods, then looks at Wanda, “I need you to do it. Look in my mind and see if there is someone else.” She said, to which Steve and Wanda both looked shocked, “Please Wanda, I can’t sit here and wait to see if he starts whispering again. I have to know if it is real or if it’s me slowly going insane.” She whispered the last part.

“Don’t you think we should wait for a little bit? At least until we see the information on the chip?” Steve asked, concern in his voice. He didn’t want to push his sister into anything that could more damage her fragile state.

Y/N looked from her brother to Wanda, nodding, “Do it.” She demanded.

They gathered in the medical bay, allowing Y/N to lay on one of the beds. Wanda positioned herself behind her friend’s head, looking to her for permission. Y/N nodded and closed her eyes. The whole team watched closely, besides Natasha who had already left to go to the prison. Bucky and Steve had concerned looks on their face about this. Wanda positioned her hands on either side of Y/N’s head, red glowing from her fingers. For a moment, it was silent as Wanda searched, before she drops her hand, looking up to Steve with wide eyes, “There’s someone in there.. I can’t tell who but he is definitely the cause of the whispers. It’s has the same energy as Y/N, but it’s darker, stronger.” Wanda said gently, then looking at Y/N’s face. For a moment, Y/N looked relieved that she wasn’t going insane or being haunted by ghosts. But then worry came across her face as she realized something else was pulling strings in her head.

Bucky shifted uncomfortably on his feet, feeling useless. He couldn’t protect Y/N from the voice in her mind. He had the instincts to protect Y/N from anything and everything. He was determined to find this owner of this voice in her head, make it stop.

“We will wait to see what Natasha figures out.” Steve broke the silence, walking over and helping his sister up from the table. He looked down at her and offered a smile, to which one was returned up to him.

When Natasha was able to get into the information on the chip, she gathered the team to share her findings. She waited for them all to be seated around the circular table before beginning, “The chip showed what Y/N told us. It was used to send direct orders to her no matter where she was in the world. We are still working on downloading the information of where she went and what she did.” Natasha paused, “It also had a second function. It was blocking out some other transmission to her brain. I would guess it was keeping away the whispers that Y/N is now hearing. We aren’t sure what is causing the whispers or why it was important for Hydra to keep them out.” She paused, before looking at the rest of the team, “We don’t know how dangerous these whispers are. There was a reason Hydra wanted them blocked out. They could pose an immediate threat. The safest option would be to keep Y/N in the detention center until we know more.”

Y/N had snuck to listen outside the room. She was very quiet, and could get away very quickly if necessary. She, after all, was trained for things like sneaking around and gathering information without being seen, among other things.

The room fell silent as the team processed what Natasha was proposing to them, “We can’t do that to her.” Steve told the team, “She hasn’t been a threat to any of us since the first night. If we put her in one of the detention cells, it’ll show we don’t trust her and think she’s dangerous. Y/N is just trying to get back on her feet. She doesn’t want to hurt any of us.”

“I don’t trust her. That’s the issue.” Natasha countered, “If those whispers are dangerous, she can snap at anytime and turn on any of us. If she bites one of us and flees, that’s the end of it. Someone will die. We have to take necessary precautions.”

Bucky glared at Natasha for this idea, his jaw clenched, “You can’t do that to Y/N.” He repeated Steve’s words, “She dug herself out of a grave she was meant to stay in, took the chip out, and found us for help. She just wanted to see her brother again.” He said, “She attacked me for a reason. I have forgiven her. She’s not a threat unless we treat her like one or give her a reason to feel threatened.” He paused, taking in a deep breath, eyeing everybody else in the meeting, “If we force her into a cell, we are no better than how Hydra forced her into that coffin. She will break down as it reminds her of the things she went through. You break that trust, we won’t get it back. Any of us.” He said, looking to Steve, then Clint, and to Wanda who was nodding her head in agreement.

Wanda cleared her throat before speaking, drawing the attention to herself, “Y/N is not a current threat to anybody. I’ve seen in her mind, but more importantly I’ve spent almost every day with her. She just wants to live and be happy. Her mind is full of good. She’s a good person of which horrific things have happened to. Y/N doesn’t deserve to be punished for something she hasn’t done yet. I can keep an eye on her mental state, let us have an early warning if the whispers come back stronger.” Wanda watched the others as they slowly nodded in agreement to what she was saying.

“I have part of a solution.” Clint finally spoke, his arms crossed as he sat in his chair leaning back, “She doesn’t pose a threat now. I’ve trained with her more than anybody, she knows how to hold back. She has self control. But, just in case, why don’t we keep some of her blood in stock in case she does snap and bites one of us?”

Steve nodded, “I think that’s the best idea. We will get her to donate some blood to us for emergencies. She will understand and want to help. She doesn’t want to hurt any of us, she will want us to have the cure.” He looked at Bucky for a moment, before looking to Natasha who shook her head, knowing she was out numbered, “For now, we keep an eye on her. Help her. If something happens, we will discuss it.” He said in a tone that everybody knew meant the conversation about locking Y/N away was over. He sighs, slowly standing, “On another note, the annual fundraising gala is tomorrow. Everybody pick a charity of your choice before the party.” Natasha folded her arms, looking at Steve, “You really think the gala is the best idea right now?”

“Of course. We have been walking on eggshells for six months, putting all our focus on unraveling this mystery. We need a break. Thor is already coming in, and the guests have already sent in their RSVP. They’re expecting it. ” He said, knowing he was just irritating and pushing the limits with Nat, who had now exited the room in a hurry, “I guess that concludes our meeting.”

Y/N listened, she took a deep breath, then started chewing on her bottom lip. When they started speaking of the gala, she left. She knew when her brother used that tone it was end of discussion with her situation. She swiftly made it back to her room, sitting on her bed, pulling a magazine onto her lap. She just flicked the pages, not reading it at all. She was thinking about what was said in the team’s discussion. What Natasha said, about locking her away. Maybe that was for the best, she didn’t want to be a threat. She didn’t want to hurt anyone else. But listening to what Steve and Bucky said, they were right. The way Bucky talked about how she would break, he was right. She couldn’t keep herself under control if she was locked away, isolated. It would just be more proof that she was who she thought she was, a hopeless killer.

Y/N heard Wanda approaching and focused back on reading the magazine. Wanda came in beaming with a smile, “Up, up, up, get up!” She said, pulling Y/N by her hands to her feet.

Y/N smiled and laughed, letting her pull her to her feet, “What are we doing now?” She asked, happy to have a best friend like Wanda. She brought joy into Y/N’s life, someone she can be herself around.

“We are going shopping, where’s your shoes?” Wanda said as she searched around the room before throwing the black combat boots at Y/N, how caught them with ease, “The gala is tomorrow and we need to find some dresses.”

Y/N put her shoes on quickly, excited to go out and spend the day with Wanda shopping. She hadn’t got to leave the facility that much, she was excited to see what the world offered her today. Plus it would be nice to get her mind off of what she learned listening to the meeting.The two walked out the front of the facility, Wanda spinning the car keys in her hand. Y/N looked back at the facility, seeing Natasha watching her through the window, before getting in the black BMW with Wanda, “What’s Nat’s issue today?” She asked, curious of what the reply would be.

Wanda waved her hand as if to say forget about it, “Oh don’t worry, that’s just her face. She has RBF. Some days it flares up more than others.” She joked, putting the key in the ignition and speeding down the driveway towards town. On their dress mission, they talked about things. Wanda asked Y/N to tell her if she started hearing whispers again, that it was very important to let her know to which Y/N nodded, promising her best friend. Then they talked about something Wanda always wanted to talk about. Bucky. Wanda knew Y/N’s feelings about him, the good and the bad ones. Lately the better ones have been taking over and replacing those bad memories. Wanda was determined to help replace those memories, for Y/N’s sake and Bucky’s. She knew Bucky still had strong feelings for Y/N, it was hard not to keep out his thoughts when they screamed so loudly for Y/N. And she also knew that Y/N still had those lovey-dovey feelings for Bucky, just maybe a litter deeper down.

THE NEXT NIGHT

Wanda was helping Y/N get ready for the gala, already done getting herself ready. This was Wanda’s favorite event the team held. They got to dress up all fancy and let loose in their own home. There was no shop talk, just fun. Wanda slowly ran the curling iron through Y/N’s blonde hair, curling the ends perfectly so they would bounce as she walked. Wanda was already dressed and ready. As she finished up Y/N’s hair, she smiled, placing the curling iron down, “Don’t touch that.” She warns, not wanting her friend to get burned. Y/N nodded, looking at herself in the mirror. She was all dolled up for this event.

Wanda smiled, putting on her heels, “I’ll meet you out there.” She said, heading for the door, before looking back at Y/N who was still looking at herself in the mirror, “C’mon Y/N, get dressed. Chop chop!” She said and then disappeared out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Y/N tore her eyes away from herself. Her eyelashes were darkened with mascara and her lips were red from a lipstick she borrowed from Wanda. She looked very similar to how she did when she was taken by Bucky. She had curled her hair, put on red lipstick, excited to meet him for their date that never happened. The memory was painful, but she thought about the things Bucky had done for her. He was patient, kind. He helped her through break-downs. He said all the right things. He was being the Bucky she remembered and wanted. She decided she would be open to giving him another chance, being more accepting of him. The only way she would know for sure is if she let him in a little bit. She slowly stood, walking over to the closet and pulling her dress out. Wanda had helped pick it out. Y/N was a little reluctant, the style of dresses had changed since the last time she had worn one. When did they become so revealing? Y/N slipped off the robe she was wearing to get ready, placing it on her bed. She slipped the black dress on. It fit her curves perfectly, although maybe a little tight, “God how do people breathe in these.” She said, flattening out the scrunched lines as she walked in front of the mirror. The dress was jet black, flowing to the floor. There was a slit up the side to show off her pale leg, a little too high if you asked Y/N but Wanda assured her it was the style. It had sleeves that draped over her arms, a small dip in the front but not too revealing. She lifted her hand to her shoulders, her fingers brushing against the silver scars from a past life. She didn’t remember how she got the ones that looked like bites, but there were many of them that were hidden by the view of this dress. She slipped on her black heels, wishing she could just wear her boots. But Y/N knew Wanda would just drag her back to the room to put the shoes on. Y/N gave herself one final glance in the mirror. The dress was beautiful, she was beautiful. Even with the red eyes that seemed to glow. She turned and made her way out of her room and to where the party was being held.

As she entered, Wanda immediately was at her side, handing her a glass of dark wine which Y/N accepted immediately, taking a small sip. The lounge was decorated beautifully and filled with people who were all dressed up also. Steve was sitting at the bar with Bucky and Sam, laughing. He noticed his sister’s arrival and quickly walked over to greet her.

“You look beautiful, Y/N.” Steve said, giving her a quick hug, “I’m glad you decided to come. It’ll be fun.” He promised.

“Yeah I didn’t get to really decide.” Y/N laughed, looking at Wanda, “I’m pretty sure she would’ve dragged me down here, I figured it was easier to come willingly.”

Steve chuckled, giving Wanda a thankful smile, “It’ll be great, don’t worry about anything. Tonight is all about fun.” He said, placing an encouraging hand on his sister’s shoulder, before getting pulled away by some men who seemed excited to have a conversation with the Captain America. Steve figured a Y/N needed some fun. It had been all serious since she came back that she hasn’t really gotten to live.

Y/N and Wanda walked around, introducing themselves to guests and sharing stories. Well, Wanda was doing the sharing. Y/N didn’t have any stories to share, just listened and laughed as she met all the new people. All of them were very nice, and not too intrusive.

Bucky had noticed Y/N as soon as she walked in. He about spit up his drink by how beautiful she looked. He wondered if this is what she would’ve looked like for their date that never happened. It made his heart jump thinking about it. He watched Steve go up to her, a little jealous that he was just able to approach her so easily. He watched her throughout the night, staying at the bar. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. Y/N was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. He watched her laugh, envying the wine glass she kept bringing to her lips. It reminded him of the one kiss they shared. He cherished that memory of them. Her lips were so soft against his. He wanted that feeling again but knew it was out of his grasp.

At some point, Bucky lost track of Y/N in the crowd. His eyes scanned all the faces in the room, looking for her. He stood up when he saw she wasn’t with Wanda. They had been together the whole night, but now they weren’t. He pushed through people, apologizing and saying excuse me as he searched for Y/N, before turning to look out a window. She was standing out on the lawn alone, her head tilted up to the sky. He immediately made his way out there, wanting to make sure she was alright. He shut the door quietly and approached Y/N, smiling.

“Y/N?” He said, wanting to give her a heads up he was approaching, “Everything alright?” He asked as he stood beside her.

“Oh, hi. Yeah, sorry, I’m fine.” She said, looking over to him with her red eyes. She noted how handsome he looked. He was wearing an all black suit, his hands in his pockets. She returned her gaze up to the stars, a soft smile on her red lips, “Just needed some air. I got distracted by the stars. They’re beautiful.”

Bucky kept his eyes on her face, “Yeah.. Beautiful.” He said, not talking about the stars. He examined her face. She was smiling, and her expression was nothing but happiness. He loved seeing her like this- happy. It’s what she deserved.

Y/N looked back to Bucky, noticing he was still staring at her, knowing he wasn’t calling the stars beautiful. She turned towards him, her red eyes meeting his crystal blue ones. She smiled softly, her red lips curving, before she looked down at her almost empty glass of wine, “Buck…” She said softly, as if ashamed, “I’m sorry for how I’ve treated you. And… you know.. biting you,” She gestured towards the scar on his neck, biting her lip before continuing, “I know that wasn’t you. They were in your head like they were in mine.” She was just now realizing it had been god knows how long since she drank and she may be a little tipsy.

Bucky shook his head at her apology, his hand leaving his pocket as he touched her arm, “Hey, don’t. It’s fine. Your last memory of me was taking you to them. I understand. I probably would’ve had the same reaction. It hasn’t changed the way I see or feel about you, darling. I know who you are. You don’t have to apologize for your trauma.” He said softly, smiling at her.

Y/N lifted her head again to meet his gaze. His skin on hers felt almost electric. It made her skin crawl, her hairs standing up. She nodded, her eyes looking around Bucky, anywhere but his face. Hearing him call her ‘darling’ made her body feel warm. She felt like her heart was racing. She finally looked at his face. She could tell he had just cut his hair recently, probably to look nice for the gala. He looked just like the Bucky she knew. When she arrived his hair was longer, but now his hair was shorter, those blue eyes watching her, a small grin on his face. She took a small step towards him, “Since all is forgiven…” Y/N said, her eyes keeping contact with his, “I suppose that means we can be friends.”

Bucky’s grin only widened as she took a step towards him, his eyes never leaving her face. He was observing every move she made. Everything about her was extraordinary. As she spoke the words he had long waited for her to say, he felt as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders, “I would love that.” He replied, “That means we can do friend stuff, right?” He said, talking a small step closer to her, his hand still on her arm, “Like go for coffee, watch movies, have dinner sometime?” He said softly, hoping he wasn’t overstepping with her.

“Hot chocolate,” She corrected, “Not coffee.” She smiles, her eyes watching his as he stepped closer, she bit her lip slightly, her focus moving from his eyes to his lips.

Bucky chuckled at her response, “Hot chocolate with caramel.” He responded, remembering it was her favorite. He knew she didn’t like coffee, but she loved hot chocolate. He was locked onto her eyes that looked at him from underneath her long, dark lashes. He looked at her lips for a moment, wondering if he should move in closer. He felt as if she was giving him all the signals, even flirting back with him. She hadn’t denied him. He leans his face in closer to hers slowly, watching for any reaction, which to his surprise didn’t come.

Instead, a different surprise happened. A flash of light separated the two quickly. When the light faded, Y/N noticed a circle emblem on the ground, but then noticed the man standing in the middle of it. He had short blonde hair, was tall and muscular. He held a large axe in his hand.

“Great timing, Thor. Good to see ya. You’re late.” Bucky said, obviously a little annoyed that the moment between Y/N and himself was ruined.

“Barnes! Good to see you.” Thor replied, placing a pat on Bucky’s back. He was smiling ear to ear, obviously excited about the event, “Who’s your friend?” He said turning to Y/N.

Y/N smiled, “Y/N Rogers.” She said, her red eyes studying him. She had read about him and heard all the stories.

Thor looked at Y/N confused for a moment, “Steve got married? I wasn’t invited?” He said, almost hurt looking.

“No..” Both Y/N and Bucky said at the same time, both laughing a little bit, “I’m his sister.”

Thor looked relieved, before smiling, “Oh yeah, I see the resemblance now. Besides the red eyes, that’s extremely interesting.” He said, point at his own eyes as he talked about hers. Noticing he made her slightly uncomfortable with the comment, he continued, “Well, I better go in and say hello.” He said, walking passed the two and into the party.

Y/N looked back at Bucky, laughing a little at what just happened. It was a little awkward and embarrassing, but the timing was funny to her.

Bucky smiled as she laughed, “So uhm…” He chuckled out, watching her closely, “More wine?” He said, motioning towards the almost empty wine glass still in her hands.

Y/N shook her head, smiling, “Oh no, I’m good. It’s been forever since I’ve had a drink. Tonight I’m a one and done type of girl.” She said, nodding as she told herself this. She was already a little tipsy, she didn’t want to press her luck, “We should head back in though. My feet hurt and there’s some left over pasta in the fridge that’s calling my name.” She said, turning and starting to head back inside. Bucky followed her close behind, smiling to himself. She was treating him like a friend, maybe even more than a friend. She was talking to him like she had growing up. It was exciting to him. It reminded him of a simpler time. He followed her up the stairs to the kitchen in the living quarters, watching as she heated up her food in the microwave. Y/N grabbed a fork, turning to see him still there, “I’m gonna eat this in my room then go to bed.” She said, smiling a little.

Bucky nodded, “I’ll walk you.” He said, even though it was right down the hallway. He wanted to spend as much time as he could with her, just in case this was a dream he was going to wake up from soon. He joined her as they walked down the hall, stopping at her door and opening it for her.

Y/N slipped into the room and placed her food on the desk before turning back to Bucky who was still standing there like a dream, waiting for her. She approached him, smiling, “Thank you.” She said softly, She reached her hand out and touched his arm, still smiling up into his eyes, “Good night, Bucky.”

Bucky grinned at her touch, “Anytime, doll. Good night.” He said happily, accepting the fact this would be the end of their night together, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Tonight was perfect to him. He turned to return back to the party down the stairs. Nothing could bring him down tonight.

Y/N smiled at the pet name, giving his face once last glance, before shutting the door. She smiled to herself. She hadn’t felt like this in a long time. She felt undeniably happy. There was no negativity creeping in at all. She quickly kicked off the heels and changed out of her dress into some sweats and a tank top, hanging the dress back up in her closet. She grabbed her pasta and sat on her bed, turning on the tv. It didn’t take long for her to finish her food, placing the now empty food box in the trash before curling up in bed, falling asleep.

Thor had made his way around saying hello to everybody, before returning back to Steve who was now with Bucky at the bar, “You didn’t tell me you have a sister,” He said to Steve, holding a mug of beer in his hand.

“It never came up.” Steve said, smiling at his friend.

Thor shrugged, “Would’ve been nice to know. The red eyes are very interesting.” He mentioned, taking a large drink of her beer, “Is she otherworldly?”

Steve shook his head, “No, she was a Hydra experiment.” He informed, looking uncomfortable by this conversation.

Thor nodded, taking note of the buttons he seemed to be poking on Steve, “That’s unfortunate, I’m sorry.” He said, placing a comforting hand on Steve’s shoulder, “Oh, and sorry for ruining your moment.” He said to Bucky.

“Moment?” Steve asked, looking from Thor to Bucky, “There was a moment?”

Bucky said silent for a moment, before speaking, “It’s alright, Thor. Y/N and I were just talking.” He said.

Thor looked from Bucky to Steve, “Right… Talking. That’s definitely what I saw.” He said with a smile, “I think I need another.” He said as he looked at his now empty mug, before walking away.

Steve watched Thor leave, before looking around the gala, “Where is Y/N?” he said, realizing he hadn’t seen his sister in a while, and after hearing about the potential ‘moment’ he wanted to make sure she was alright.

“She went to bed, I walked her up.” Bucky said, to which Steve looked at him, eyebrows raised, “She said we could be friends again.” He informed, smiling slightly, though he didn’t get the reaction he was hoping for from his friend.

Steve nodded slightly, “Just friends.” He said. He was never thrilled about the idea of his best friend and sister growing closer. He was Y/N’s brother after all. He knew Bucky was a good man, but he still couldn’t think of them being anything more than friends, “I’ll head up there, be close just in case anything happens.”

“No, I’ll go. Don’t worry, I won’t disturb her.” Bucky said, standing from his seat at the bar, “Besides, you’re in charge of this party. Can’t be leaving. I’ll just sit down the hall until Wanda comes up.” He promised, to which Steve nodded almost reluctantly, still wondering what moment Thor had intruded on. Bucky turned and made his way back up the stairs. Keeping his promise to Steve, he sat outside Y/N’s door in the hallway. He could hear the tv on inside the room, listening as he tried to determine what she had been watching before she fell asleep. He concluded it must be a tv medical show of some sort. After about another hour, Wanda came through the hall, giving a smile towards Bucky with a nod as if to say she had it from here, before disappearing into the room. Bucky stood, watching the door close he caught a glimpse of Y/N sleeping soundly. He smiled, tucking his hands back in his pockets as he made his way back to his own room.

____________________________________________________________

TAGLIST: @vicmc624 @the-ayo-lit @daddysfavoritesexkitten @springsoulofengland @tcc-gizmachine @taina-eny @dontputyourfckingdrinkonmytable

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barns x reader #captain america x reader #steve rogers x reader #marvel #marvel imagine #marvelfanfiction #the avengers x reader #avengers x reader #bucky barnes imagine #becky x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x y/n #marvelfanfic

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chocmarss · 3 years ago

Text

12 Days of Rexsoka Masterpost

Insane how I managed to do post everyday for this event, even if the last prompt was a few days late, oops. But here they are!

Day 1: Clueless/It’s Just a Crush (Link)

Title: my heart’s in my throat

star wars. rebellion era. pining rex. rexsoka. 5.6k words. rated T.

Part 1 of the can someone please help them series

Summary:

Ahsoka squeezes his elbow in consolation, and the look Rex gives her softens the worried lines between his brows just a bit, allowing utter fondness to shine through the small smile he reserves for her.

Fives watches them tiredly from his perch on the counter; one of these days, they’re going to see how they’re absolutely whipped for each other and they’re going to be horrified at how they’ve been broadcasting it to everyone around them. Fives is going to make sure they apologise to him for making him go through the constipated woes of denying one’s affections of another, despite the fact he’s not the one who’s crushing after his commander.

Day 2: Just Like Old Times/Memories (Link)

Title: Force of Nature

star wars. star wars rebels. rexsoka. rescue mission. rated T. 7.3k words.

WARNING: Mentions of slavery

Summary:

“What’s the plan?”

“Throw those grenades at the doors to confuse them,” Ahsoka flexed her hold onto her sabers. “And then, we’re going to jump off the balcony.”

Day 3: Force Bond/AU (Link)

Title: Humble Offering

star wars. the clone wars. supernatural au. werewolf rex. vampire ahsoka. rexsoka. rated T. 7.8k words.

Part 1 of the Written in Blood series

WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE

Summary:

“The other clans,” Rex began, almost tentative. “They’re going to call us cowards for running off to these vampires for help.”

“Let them,” Jango growled. “I don’t have time for politics right now, not when our lives are already at stake. If they don’t want to work with us in trying to find out who’s killing their clan, then it’s their choice to bring that ego to their graves.” He sat down on one of the chairs beside Hardcase’s bed. “I have my family to look after.”

Day 4: You Seem Different/Awkward (Link)

Title: Announced as an Affliction

star wars. star wars rebels. animal transformation. sith holocron shenanigans. rexsoka. rated G. 3.1k+ words.

Summary:

“Okay, one, a holocron is not a cursed object so much as it’s a learning tool that has a Jedi safety lock,” Kanan huffs out. “It only attacked us because Ezra and I were there, and the rest of you were just not lucky to be in the same room as we were. Two. How are we supposed to bring it back if we didn’t touch it?”

“By not bringing it back?” Rex hints mildly.

Day 5: Survival/Injury (Link)

Title: more alive than they should be

star wars. the clone wars. supernatural au. werewolf rex. vampire ahsoka. rated T. 4.5k words.

Part 2 of the Written in Blood series (sequel to Day 3)

Summary:

“Fifty bucks and I say that he’ll fold in ten.”

“I’m pretty sure Rex is more than capable of lasting more than ten minutes.”

“Against Ahsoka? Fat chance.”

Day 6: On the Run/Disguise (Link)

Title: canned that hunger

star wars. the clone wars. post order 66. rebellion era. pining rex au. rexsoka. rated T. 5.5k+ words.

Part 2 of the can someone please help them series (Sequel to Day 1)

Summary:

Fives opens a private channel with Cody. “So, what are the chances of me getting my ten credits tonight?”

“None,” Cody snorts. “You’re putting too much faith in them without them kriffing it all up themselves. You know they won’t be swearing their undying love to each other by the end of this mission.”

Day 7: Nightmares/Daydreams (Link)

Title: i wake after enduring

star wars. post-empire era. marriage proposal. rexsoka. rated G. 3.2k words

Summary:

“So,” Ahsoka wraps the blanket tighter around her form, burying her face deeper into his neck. “A large backyard.”

“Do we really need a large backyard?” Rex wonders out loud, hands rubbing down her back, two warm touches that seep deep into her bones.

She can feel him trembling, too.

Day 8: Alone/Regret (Link)

Title: Burn This Book

star wars. the clone wars. rebellion era. pining rex. rexsoka. rated T. 4.8k+ words.

Part 3 of the can someone please help them series (sequel to Day 1 & Day 6)

Summary:

“Rex,” Cody narrows his eyes. “What the hell did you do?”

“It was stupid, alright? I didn’t mean it, I swear it.”

“Fine,” Cody nods at him. “What did you say?”

Day 9: Fix It/Second Chance (Link)

Title: Like a Bruise

star wars. the clone wars. rebellion era. pining rex. rexsoka. rated T. 7.9k+

Part 4 of the can someone please help them series (sequel to Day 1, Day 6 & Day 8)

Summary:

Kriff, this isn’t going well. Rex struggles against the disappointment that threatens to overtake him, but keeps his expression neutral throughout the whole time Ahsoka gives out some pointers in their training. They all seem satisfied enough with her review, thanking her for her help with wide smiles before they make their way towards the storage equipment. And—

Dammit, she’s about to leave.

Day 10: Domestic/Family (Link)

Title: Dearest of All

star wars. the clone wars. no order 66 au. everyone lives. established relationship. rexsoka. 5.4k+ words. rated T.

Summary:

“Rex?” She demanded, causing Rex to whip his head up from where he dropped his knapsack on the floor. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to arrive an hour ago.”

“I thought you were supposed to arrive an hour ago,” Rex straightened himself up, and yeesh, the least he could have done was change out of his armour, from how the blue-striped vambraces and pauldrons stood out between them. At least, his helmet was off and nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t comment much though, not when she was from work herself.

Day 11: Together/After the War (Link)

Title: all about old friends

star wars. star wars rebels. original trilogy era. post-empire era. reunion. rexsoka. rated T. 6.5k+ words.

Summary:

He eyes her properly, subconsciously straightening his back. “What’s going on here, Hera?”

When she meets his eyes, she’s steeled herself for the news as much as he is. “She’s alive.”

Day 12: Lifeday (Link)

Title: this life and next

star wars. post-empire era. original trilogy era. established relationship. rexsoka. rated G. 2.3k+ words.

Summary:

The kid’s pouting. The little jut of his bottom lip shouldn’t make him so adorable, but he is, and this six-year-old knows how to utilise it.

Good thing Ahsoka’s immune to such things; if it’s Zeb, or Sabine, or say, Rex, they’d fold the moment the big guns are out. K.O., no chance of turning back, and they’d give exactly what it is that Jacen wants because he’s got them all wrapped around his little pinky.

And in this case, it’s a Bespin cloud drop.

#12daysofrexsoka #12 days of rexsoka 2021 #ahsoka tano #captain rex #rexsoka #star wars #the clone wars #star wars rebels #star wars the clone wars #marswrites #marsrb

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royallyprincesslilly · 4 years ago

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Title: In The Act {3}

Chris Evans x Famous OFC Cassia Drake

Warning: Plot, Cursing, Plenty of Words

Word Count: 5.5k

Summary: After the release of your hit movie “Roman Holiday,” you’ve become Hollywood’s new “It Girl.” Everyone wants a piece of you. While at a Hollywood event, you get pulled into an epic selfie similar to the one from the MET Gala with the megastars of Hollywood. The next day all anyone can talk about is this epic picture but not because of the star power in it, but what was happening in it.

Note: Yep, another one.

**Loosely Edited/Proofread**

**Heavily Interactive**

Thank you guys for reading!!!! If you enjoyed this please LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. 😊 ❤️❤️

Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 |

Thank god for slow mornings. You couldn’t think of the last time you were able to wake up without Pieter either standing over you or walking into your bedroom. He was the only one your mother trusted with you, and he just so happened to be a big shot entertainment manager. When you told your mother that you intended to pursue a career in acting, she was livid. She went on a tirade of the number of black actresses who either had to do questionable things to even have a minor break and those who just were used and turned away. She stressed the vast inequalities in the entertainment industry and worried for your mental and emotional health in the cruel industry. She didn't want you anywhere near the entertainment industry. She wanted you to fall into her second career field and be a lawyer.

It took months of you doing it on your own before you got your first role, it was small, but you played the shit out of the third black friend to the white lead actress then did it again and again and again. After your fourth role, your mother came around and brought Pieter into the mix. You knew of him from the industry. He’d been in a few tabloid magazines standing next to a few actresses. Your mother introduced him as her school friend from back in the day. You wanted to question her, but you knew better than that and just accepted the story she fed you. You always suspected there was more to it. The two of them sat you down for three hours to have a meeting on your goals with the industry.

After you went on and on for an hour, they went on and on for the next two outlining what needed to happen, how you needed to take things seriously, and put thought into the roles you auditioned for and so on. By the end of the meeting, you were on information overload, and that was when your mother told you the only way she’d be okay with you in this cutthroat town was if Pieter managed you. There was nothing in you that wanted to say no, so you said yes. That was two years now, and it had been a rollercoaster from the beginning.

Once in your kitchen still in your bra and panties, you perused the shelves in your fridge and took out the huge fruit salad you found there. After smelling it, you settled that it was still good and hopping onto the kitchen island and turned on the TV. As you ate, you flipped through the channels determined not to go to anything that required a brain cell. After a few moments of searching, you decided to finish the episode of Castlevania you’d started weeks ago.

You got lost in the lore of the Dracula themed animated series and the deliciousness of the fruit you were eating. You’d tuned everything out so well that you didn’t even hear anyone approach.

“Cassia!”

“What!”

You looked back to see Tiffany with her head poked around a corner looking at you.

“I think you’re gonna want to come out here,” she said with a look on her face you didn’t recognize.

“Uhh—why?”

“Just come look.” With that, her head was gone. Sighing, you pressed pause on the show, hopped off the counter, stabbed a piece of honeydew, and walked to where she’d disappeared. When you walked out of the kitchen and down the hall to your foyer, there sat a rather large floral arrangement.

“What the fuck is this?”

“What does it look like?”

“Flowers,” you answered before you shoved the fruit in your mouth to stand beside Tiffany.

“Duh.”

“Who are they from?”

You both stood there, just staring at it. They were gorgeous.

“I don’t know. I have been trying not to grab the card,” tiffany added. You looked at her; there was a wide ass grin on her face.

“It’s probably from Vouge thanking me for the photoshoot yesterday,” you surmised as you approached the arrangement. The scent of roses was powerful but not overwhelming.

Grabbing the card, you glanced at the front to see your name written across it. You didn’t recognize the handwriting. When you opened it, you scanned the words written, expecting to see “thank you.” Instead, you saw the words, “I’m sorry.” Bringing the card closer to your face, you read the words. Each word you read, your eyes bugged out even more and more until your jaw had dropped.

“What? Who’re they from?”

“Not Vouge.” Tiffany walked to you and took the card from your hands and read it aloud.

“Cassia, allow me to begin by extending my most sincerest apology to you for first my behavior the night of the fashion event and second the position I have put you in with the press. I am embarrassed and ashamed of my actions and behavior,” Tiffany began before she looked at you with eyes wide.

“Is this who I think it is? Oh my god, Cass!”

She dropped her eyes back to the card and continued. “I am embarrassed and ashamed of my actions and behavior, and I deeply regret them. I am very sorry, and I want you to know that in no way did I mean to objectify you or your body. I have two sisters and a strong Italian mother, and I was not raised that way at all. I hope that you can forgive me and my actions and not hold it against my family. Please accept these flowers as a token of my most heartfelt apology. Sincerely Chris Evans,” Tiffany finished with the squeal of his name.

“Oh my god! Cass!”

You’d been frozen in place for the last two minutes as she read the card. There were a plethora of things running through your head. One of which was the number of formal words he’d used.

“Oh my fucking god! Cass, is this his handwriting? It looks like it could be, it’s legible. Oh my god.”

You heard Tiffany reread the card, and as she did, you turned back to the flowers and observed them. You took notice that the flowers were all in your favorite colors. That made you wonder if he knew your favorite colors, or this was just a florist’s decision.

“Why are you so quiet? Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“Do you think he knows my these are my favorite colors?”

Tiffany looked back to the arrangement then let out a “hmm.”

“Do you think he specially researched you in order to send these? It is possible. this card sounds like he put a lot of thought into it.”

You took the card from her and reread it for yourself. She was right; the handwriting wasn’t horrible, by no means was it gorgeous, but it was nice. You began to wonder if he had, in fact, written it himself.

“Are you going to reply?”

That was the million-dollar question. You didn’t see a need to. Even if you did, what what you say? Thank you, Mr. Evans, for apologizing for looking down my dress. Though I enjoyed the attention, and I am flattered, It was highly inappropriate? Somehow that didn’t seem right.

“No need,” you answered before you walked away toward the kitchen and your fruit salad.

“What!”

Tiffany’s footsteps were loud as she trudged behind you.

“Why wouldn’t you reply? This could be one of the cutest meet-cute stories for your grandkids.”

“Oh my god, Tiff, grandkids? Are you insane right now?”

“Girl, don’t even try and lie and say you don’t think the man is fine.”

“I never said he wasn’t attractive.”

“Attractive? Cassia Anjelique Drake, you know you a damn liar. The man is more than attractive. He is gorgeous,” Tiff corrected.

“And he knows it, Tiffany. You can tell. I bet part of him thought he could have gotten away with x-ray visioning me, and no one would have called him out for it.”

“Cass,” Tiff began before you cut her off.

“—We’re not responding,” you finished turning back on Castelvania.

You knew Tiffany did not approve and also knew you hadn’t heard the end of it. You tried to focus on the show, but it was useless. Your mind only wanted to think of one thing—or person. Chris Evans.

Your day was just for meetings. Pieter had set you up with six meetings for the day. The first three were about movie roles he thought would suit your brand. They were all varying roles, one the lead in an action flick, another the love interest in a rom-com, and the third in a sci-fi type dramady. He said the worst thing in the world was being typecast. With Roman Holiday being a romcom, you knew he’d want your next role to be on the far opposite side of the spectrum.

The roles sounded exciting, and the scripts intrigued you. When they began talking about the expected salary for the films, you were impressed. They were practically throwing their money at you. You couldn’t believe the money actors actually received for a few months of work. Yeah, the schedule could be daunting and preparation never ending, but millions of dollars for maybe five to six months of work was just fine by you.

After the three movie meetings where you agreed to take the scripts and reread them before you got back to them, you moved on to a meeting with your team to discuss the next three months for you while going over the last three months. This happened quarterly, and you found the meetings insightful. They kept you on track with your goals and kept things in perspective. Your mother always said you are only as good as a capable team around you.

Your team comprised of your agent, Eduardo, whose job was to hunt down all the roles he could for you and field calls and interest from anyone and everyone in the business. Second, your publicist Julez, her domain was everything concerning your PR. Her job was to make sure that everything about you in the public remained favorable. She was good at what she did, and took her job seriously. Then was your lawyer, Martin, who was the second-best entertainment lawyer in the business. The best as far as you were concerned was your mother. His job was to keep everything legal and make sure no one tried to take advantage of you business-wise. Fourth, was your accountant, Greg. He was your money man. He made sure every cent you agreed upon with your contracts, was sent to your bank account and that every dime in your account was accounted for at all times. He even helped you invest that money, so it always grew. Then came your part-time stylist, Frenchie. Her job was to keep you looking incredible when she was needed. Finally, there was Pieter who oversaw them all. Tiffany nicknamed them Star Team, in honor of your name.

Though you’d learned to listen and follow along when they talked, you had to admit most of the information was boring to you, so you often drifted off. You never felt guilty about it because Tiffany was always recording the meetings and inventorying them for you if you needed to reference them later.

“Okay, is that all?” Pieter looked around at their faces around the conference table.

“One more thing, Julez began. “Have you decided how you’d like to move forward with eh-em, Boobgate?”

The murmurs around the desk picked up before Julez went on. “The media seemed to love your snarky, comedic comeback, Cassia. They are now doing most of the work for us by calling you good-spirited and easy-going for shrugging it off. A lot of the comments since are in good fun. I don’t see anything negative to come through, so I’m going to say we’re staying in good parameters. I have noticed though a great increase in searches about you and your overall name being mentioned. People love talking about you and Chris,” Juelz finished.

“Why wouldn’t they? They look gorgeous together,” Frenchie added.

“That seems to be the overall consensus. It is fascinating even those in his fandom do not seem to be spinning this negatively, which is always a concern with him and his team,” Juelz informed.

That was not news to you. When you had yet to make your big break, you followed celebrity discourse, and the Chris Evans fandom was insane. It seemed any little thing set them off, and once a fire was sparked, it would burn for weeks. With your rising fame, you worried about things like that on your end and being swept up in someone else’s insanity.

“So let’s leave it there. Let the media run with it where they will. We’ll do and say nothing on it. We’ll let this work for us,” Pieter finalized.

Everyone nodded before he called an end to the meeting, and everyone began to leave the room. Before you left, Pieter took the time to remind you about your last meeting of the day and share the news about a few other side projects he’d been working on for you. He shared that within a week or two, he hoped to be able to share the full news but that he was excited at the turn talks had taken today. You were curious but knew if you asked him to elaborate, he would only shoo you away, promising it would be a good surprise. He had your mother’s trust and had earned yours, so you allowed him to keep his secrets—for now.

After your last meeting, you found yourself home alone before midnight. This was the first time you'd been able to get any alone time. As you made it in your bedroom, you realized the flowers were now perched on your bedside table. They were even more beautiful in the glow of the moonlight that was shining through your balcony windows. Tiffany must have sent a message to the housekeeper to move them there.

You took up the card and reread it, all the while smiling. It was a sweet apology note and a kind gesture. You were surprised Julez didn’t bring them up in the meeting until it dawned on you that either she didn’t know which meant they came directly from him and not his assistant or team or she didn’t want to put you on the spot. While she technically answered to Pieter, she knew your money was what paid her salary. That meant you and her had an understanding about your PR needs. You liked discretion on things that no one else needed to know. This—you didn’t want Pieter knowing about. There was no need for him to know. It meant nothing.

The next day before you left your house, there was yet another bouquet and the card that accompanied it read; “Just in case you didn’t believe the first card I sent with the first arrangement I wanted to double down to make sure you knew that I am very much sorry.”

Tiffany didn’t say one word, all she did was give you a look, and that one look said plenty of things in one. “Heifer, you better reply to that man and live your life while swinging from his chandelier butt ass naked.” You had no intention of doing anything that look said.

The next day, another bouquet was waiting for you. this card was a little more amusing. “The first bouquet I could say you possibly didn’t receive. I know your life is busy, and anything can happen, but the second one, eh, less believable that you didn’t get no matter how much my pride is screaming at me that you didn’t just to save face. This one, I am sure you got, I had my assistant take care of it and attach a delivered and received receipt. So you responding is a purpose thing, and that makes me think I fucked up really bad, so bad that flowers won’t fix it, and you don’t forgive me. So I propose an alternative option. Allow me to apologize in person and explain myself. You pick the time and the place, and I’ll show up.”

When Tiffany saw this one, she lost her shit. She went on a full twenty-minute speech on why you should respond and accept his proposal. She went through exhibits A to Z as to why this was a good idea. She conveniently skipped the letter P knowing damn well the only thing you both could think of was Pieter. You knew that if he knew about any of this, he would flip his lid. When she included in her argument that you could make all of his dreams come true that he’s had all his life but was too afraid to inquire about.

You allowed her to go on her rant but still decided against responding or meeting him.

~~~~~~~~

-2 Days Later-

“So Cassia, everyone wants to know about this picture that is still the talk of the town. You haven’t made a statement, Chris hasn’t made a statement. What gives?” Ryan Seacrest’s question had you giggling.

“Nothing gives, Ryan. Not everything needs an explanation. Sometimes as humans, we have to learn to be okay with what is,” you philosophized.

Silence stretched for a full ten seconds before everyone around you busted out laughing, including yourself.

“Wow, I almost fell for that,” Ryan added, making you laugh louder.

“Darn, I almost got away with it.”

“You would have if I really didn’t want an answer,” Ryan slid in.

“Ah, everyone wants an answer, Ryan. I don’t have an answer to give.”

“You weren’t there?”

“No. It was my twin sister, Alicia.”

Another long stretch of silence filled the room. You could tell they were trying to figure out if you were telling the truth. “See, you guys are easy,” you teased, making them laugh again.

“So, you’re really not going to make a statement?”

“I went to an event and met a lot of cool people and had a great time.”

“Did you and Chris Evans leave together?”

“Not at all.”

“Did you exchange numbers?”

“Nope.”

Another silence befell the room, and you knew they didn’t believe you. For the next five minutes or so, you finished the interview while keeping tightlipped about the hottest topic. When you left, you were met with the paparazzi yet again, who were shouting new questions.

“Cassia, are the rumors true?”

“What rumors, guys?”

“That you’re in a relationship with Captain America himself.”

You tried to hide your shock before you quickly spoke.

“Who said that?”

Tiffany snorted beside you, no doubt thinking of her favorite gif.

“It is all over social media,” one of the paparazzo informed.

“That’s news to me,” you finished as your security got you to your truck. Before you got in one more question was screamed at you.

“How’d it feel to have Captain America checking you out?”

You couldn’t hide your smirk this time, and it was a smirk that only got bigger and bigger. Before you cheesed like a full-on idiot, you ducked in the truck.

“Your smirk said it all,” Tiffany said as you facepalmed.

After a quick trip to the market for some essentials, you made it home to finish reading the scripts you needed to have done in two days. When you walked inside, you ignored the second bouquet of flowers, Chris sent you the day after the first and went upstairs. Once in your bedroom, the third bouquet he sent yesterday caught your eye. The first one was a shock, the second a surprise, the third confusing.

After your shower, you walked back into your bedroom to find another bouquet that wasn't there thirty minutes ago. You knew they were from him. This was now amusing. What was his angle, you thought to yourself as you crossed the room to the flowers. Taking a deep whiff of them, you moaned. You loved the scent of Gardenia. They always put you in the frame of mind of romance and sensual rolls in bed. With that thought, you paused. Was he trying to tell you something?

Grabbing the envelope, you noted it was a lot bigger than the cards that accompanied the other bouquets. Once opening it, you saw a sheet of paper that felt heavier than standard paper, and with it came what you now knew was his handwriting. “Okay, after thinking about this for the last week trying to figure out what it is about me that you don’t like or won’t even entertain. Let’s start with the massive elephant in the room; I’m white.”

You had to laugh out loud for that. After almost a full minute of laughter that made you have to sit on your bed, you continued. “I know a major turn off, and unfortunately, it’s not something I can change. However, I can assure you that though I am white aesthetically, I am not fully white in any other department, and yes, that includes dancing.”

Again you laughed, dropping onto your back while flailing your legs in the air. He was on a roll; you thought before you continued. “Second, it must be you’re not into white guys. For that, the only thing I can offer is I’m not against wearing a paper bag to hide the fact that I am, in fact, white. It would be a case of none are the wiser. If, however, your gripe with me is my behavior from nights before, I promise I’m not a sleaze twenty-four hours of the day. I am capable of looking directly into your eyes for an entire conversation, I promise. Let me prove it to you. 424-947-5639.”

Your jaw dropped. Chris freaking Evans just gave you his phone number. You couldn’t move for the next ten minutes. You just sat there in a stunned stupor. You couldn’t believe this was real. Half of you was fangirling because hello not too long ago; you were a fan. You still were. The other half was freaking out because Chris Evans just gave you his phone number. Was he just being friendly, or was he shooting his shot?

MSG: Question.

MSG Tiff: Answer for two hundred Alex.

MSG: How does one shoot their shot?

MSG Tiff: What? Cass, has it really been that long since you’ve made the first move?

MSG: Do you know who you’re talking to? I’ve never made the first move. That is beside the point. I’m not talking about me shooting my shot. I mean when someone shoots their shot at you. What exactly does it look like?

You saw the bubbles knowing she was probably writing a long ass message. Almost a minute later, the message came in.

MSG Tiff: Uh, were you not present at the Laker’s game when the Sixers were in town, and Jonah Bolden stopped the game to come over and shoot his shot?

You laughed. You hadn’t forgotten that, mainly because it was everywhere the next day. The two of you talked for a few weeks, but your schedule and his had things fizzling real quick.

MSG: Yeah, but he was black, Tiff.

That was when the facetime call came in. you rolled your eyes but answered it. “So are we asking what it looks like when a white guy shoots his shot? Is that to lead me to think you mean a particular America’s ass?”

“Oh my god, Tiff. Just answer please,” you pleaded with exasperation.

“I need to know who first. White guys shooting their shot do not come in one size fits all. So who?”

Rolling your eyes again, you told her and prepared for the scream. It was as loud as expected.

“Okay, I knew he was feeling you. A man doesn’t look at any ol breasts like that,” Tiffany joked before she continued. “He looks like he could have game, but it could be cheesy game. Did he send you more flowers?”

You turned the camera to the new bouquet, and she melted. “Oh my god, those are to die for. They just get more and more beautiful. He definitely put research into this one. you love gardenias.”

It was true, and the thought had crossed your mind. When she asked what the note said this time, you read it to her. It had her laughing just as hard and long. When you mentioned that he ended it with his number, she screamed again.

“Call him!”

“No!”

“Cassiopeia Anjelique Drake! The man has shot his ultimate shot,” Tiffany shouted, using your entire full name.

You rolled your eyes and dropped back onto your bed.

“I can’t call. Pieter will freak,” you excused.

“Fuck, Pieter!” It came from the depths of her soul, you could tell. “This is your life, your pussy!”

You face palmed yourself again. She had to go there.

“I’m serious. I know you’ve heard the rumors from that comedian he dated, and he swears his fingering is accurate, and you have seen his beard. A man with a beard like that is good for one thing.”

You screamed and died again. She was in prime form right now.

“Cassia.”

Groaning, you sat up and sighed out. “I gotta go Tiff, I’m supposed to have a video conference in ten minutes, and I’m sitting here in a towel. I’ll call you later.”

“When you call me, you better be telling me that you talked to that man,” Tiffany shouted out as you were ending the facetime call.

You quickly got yourself together, and presentable then made it to your office to prep for the conference with the scripts. Seeing how far behind you were with the scripts, you show the participants a quick email to push it back by a few hours. Then you buckled down to actually get some work done instead of thinking about the real reason Chris Evans had a beard.

Two hours later, you were on the conference and going through the script line for line, film direction after direction. If one script would have taken an hour to go through, then three took you triple the time. By the time you’d finished for the day, you were all talked out, exhausted, and starving. Glancing at your phone, you saw missed calls from Tiffany and your mother and groaned at the fact that it was after one in the morning. If you’d have known following your dreams meant bye-bye to normal sleep hours, then you may have thought twice.

With the craving for the most unhealthy crap raging within you, you got into your car and went for a drive. While the time meant not many were out, you knew anywhere in the heart of LA would be a mistake. You drove half an hour out of the way to Pasadena to the burger spot you found by accident. It was no Shake Shake, but it offered two of your favorite things in one place, Burgers and Pies.

As you walked inside the small shop, you smiled, grateful it was practically empty. You walked to the back of the retro style burger joint and sat in the last booth. Deciding it was safe to drop your disguise, you took off your hat and sunglasses and took a deep breath of the glorious smell of burger and pies. You weren’t waiting long before a waitress came over with a note pad.

“Welcome. Can I take your order?”

“Yes, the Big Ben burger with the works, please.” She looked at you like you were insane.

“Are you sure? That’s a big plate,” she warned. You smiled and nodded.

“Oh yeah. I haven’t eaten all day,” you assured.

“Okay. How would you like it?”

“Very well done, please.”

She nodded as she jotted your order down. “Anything to drink?”

“Ginger Ale with a lemon slice, please,” you finished before she nodded and walked away.

You really liked this place. It was one of the few places that still had a jukebox. Digging into your purse, you pulled out a quarter then walked to the device that wasn’t too far from the booth you’d chosen. As you perused the selections of old and new music, you tried to gauge the mood you were in. It had been a while since you were able to sneak away on your own. You were in the mood for some relaxation but a bit of fun. You tapped in the key combination and turned the knob, and waited for the tune to play. When the oldie by Rihanna “Pon de Replay” came on, you began flicking your hips from side to side until you began winding it. You heard the distant ring of a bell that signified someone else had entered the restaurant, but it didn’t register, you were too into the song.

When you really got into it, you dipped it low as instructed and began singing along. That was when your entire body got into it, and you tapped into your own inner bad gyal. When you turned around, you yelped loudly, drawing the attention of the waitstaff to you. Before you stood the person, you least expected to see. The crooked quirk of his lip gave him the most roguish look you’d ever seen, a look that shouldn’t have turned you on the way it had—but it did.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Chris teased with an impossibly deep voice. It never sounded that deep in interviews, you thought to yourself before your teeth sunk into your bottom lip. His cerulean eyes fell from yours to your mouth, and you watched as his tongue slowly slid across his lips. Your nipples beaded painfully, and you didn’t need to look down to know that if anyone looked, it would be more than noticeable.

Why are you turned on right now, you questioned in your head. There was no logical reason for it. Yes, he smelled—incredible. There was no way anyone should smell that good; it was impossible. He smelled like fruits, sea salt, sunshine, vanilla, and a very appealing musk. He smelled like he took four showers a day and took pride in being groomed to perfection. The more you thought about it, the harder your nipples got.

“Cat got your tongue?”

Clearing your throat, it came out most exaggeratedly with a long high pitch. Chris’s brows wrinkled as he looked at you as if there might have been something wrong with you.

“Uh—are you okay?”

Instead of words, it was terrifying giggles that came out, making you sound like a deranged, cackling Hyena. The look on Chris’s face only became more concerned. You cleared your throat again this time more naturally and straightened your back.

“What’re—what’re you doing—here?”

“In a public restaurant?”

“Yeah, this public space,” you clarified before you crossed your arms over your breasts. “It’s mine.”

“Yours? You own it?”

“No, but it’s my secret place.”

“Ah, I see. If it was so much of a secret, then how did I find it?”

He was contesting you, challenging you. It was at this moment you got the vibe from him that he was the type of man who liked to debate, compete, and win. A man like that should have had your red flags blaring, but no red flags were waving. The only thing that was waving in front of you was a deep curiosity to know this man in a way that you hadn’t wanted to know anyone before.

Shrugging, you walked back to your table and sat. He approached you all the while, never taking his eyes off of you. You bit your bottom and tried to keep your thoughts boring. Before either of you could speak again, the waitress came back with your order.

“Big Ben burger with the works and fries and a ginger ale with lemon slices.”

When she put it down, she looked to Chris, who dipped his head low and pulled down his hat. The woman looked as if she might have recognized him, but she didn’t speak; she just peered closer. You cleared your throat and slid your plate closer. It was enough to distract the woman.

“Will there be anything else, honey?”

“No, thank you.”

“And you? Will you be staying or going?”

Chris looked to you with one eyebrow raised. Your eyes met, and you saw the question in them. It was a mix of a question and a challenge. He expected you to answer. It would give you the control of the situation, and it would also make it so you’d have to blatantly turn him down in front of his face rather than ignoring him as you’d been doing the last few days. You bit your bottom lip and took a deep breath. You had enough balls to turn him down right here. You’d done worse to other guys—a lot worse. The question was, did you want to do it to him.

When you locked eyes with him again, an amused smile spread across his lips. You bit your bottom lip again and sighed.

“He will be staying,” you answered.

The waiter looked to you then to him and nodded. Chris slid into the booth before you still keeping eye contact. The longer he looked at you; the more unnerved you became.

“All right, what can I get you sugar?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***If you want to be tagged please SEND AN ASK SO IT WILL BE EASIER FOR ME TO KEEP TRACK OF. Thank you for reading!!!***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag List:

@chaneajoyyy @caramara3 @sonjashuterbugjohnson @dangerouslovefanfic @maxcullen @momobaby227 @night-of-the-living-shred @naturalthrone22@redhairedfeistynerd @thotti3evans @jovanaprime @queenoftheworldisdead @queenshikongo3 @euh-say-what @mrsbarnes-rogers @jd-now-jq now @ashanti-notthesinger @90sinspiredgirl @evemej @minton131 @jamesbarnesappreciationclub@toniilaney @titty-teetee @areubeingserved @kikimiyazaki@nervousninjatheorist @cyntgefel01 @vintageembrace @smediumsmeatbae @naturalthrone22 @livinglifeformemyselfandi @onetwo3000 @ajspencer1892 @theskullgoddess@champagnesugamama @minton131 @pananegra @scoop93535 @try-n-pronounce-it @dumbchick @behindthesehazeleyes27 @blackmissfrizzle @nervousninjatheorist@dangerouslovefanfic @give-me-a-million-dollars-pls@thinkxlovexloud @chris-butt @starlite-starbrite @alyxkbrl@angrybirdcr @d1ff3r3nt-b34uty-official @twinx007 @a-dizzle777@ab-baybay @patzammit @kreolemami @aysha1447 @cutewylie @disaster-rose @wondersofdreaming @lo-cheu @livinglifeformemyselfandi @magdelen69 @snowpiercer21 @renfrewscorner @thevelvetseries @mery-be @hakunalive4eva @anandalambert @youurkryptonite @mizcaptainphoenix @bobbdylann @emilykjhgsj @littlepreciousangel @ssaarroonn @thummbelina @sweetlittlegingy @art-estrange @torntaltos @rynabarnesrogers @rororo06 @anotherblackfangirl @bernie-k @theonewithherheadintheclouds @hista-girl @coldmuffinbanditshoe @jennmurawski13 @deathstroke-terminated-deez-guts @shadyskit @someone-really-bored @thejemersoninferno @itsallyscorner @cristinagronk16 @shakemeupthanks-blog @acciolove724@straightforwardly @zsuzstyina @acevansss @evansgirl7 @rdjparker @deadlymistress24 @sunkissedebony97 @turn-thy-paige @amelatonin @nerdybitchpudding @amennariee @shar74nett @likesfairytales @vintageembrace @maverickabull @est1887 @periodtcevans @thotti3par7on @productofchina @winchwm @jesseswartzwelder @pivictorious @anat2507 @euh-say-what-now @raveviolet @actorinfluence @sadishdelray @ljstraightnochaser @041802 @evermcfearless @tashawar @dwights-new-plague @miss-jackson500@renfrewscorner @baby-iyania @brwnsugababe @evansshine @spideydobrik @laketaj24 @munteanhore @almosttherebutnot @priya212 @richonne4life @cyntgefel01@brownskinafro @chrissbabybunny @simply-heaven @queenoftheworldisdead @chrisevansfanfic @bforbbgirl @wowthatsbrazy @thejeneralvicinity @doublesidedscoobysnacks @richonne4life @cyntgefel01 @supernaturalvikingwhore @blackgurlkillinit @fanfictionaffair @sia2raw @nervousninjatheorist @wonderlandfandomkingdom @partypoison00 @rynabarnesrogers-reading @lady-x-red @ibe-erynn @nakusaych9 @madixii @chrisevansdaddycap @zsuzstyina @kittykatlow @queenshikongo3 @beccacupcakesxo @nakusaych9 @xoxloaveasre @naturalthrone22 @blackgurlkillinit @littlepreciousange @queenshikongo3 @blackmissfrizzle @supernaturalvikingwhore @littlepreciousangel @purplehairgawdess @readsreblogsfics @vlvtkyss @misz-adrii @wowthatsbrazy @deadpixie22 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @marvelatthis30 @chaos-crusader @coffeebooksandfandom @vintageembrace @perplexed3001 @iceebabies @smediumsmeatbae @naturalthrone22 @mrsbarnes-rogers @brownskinafro @winchwm @onetwo3000 @sarswilltakeyouout @crist1216 @itsjustyazz @deadpixie22 @cessamjrmr @simply-heaven @offrostandstarlight @shar74nett @cltex84 @minton131 @actorinfluence @nina-sj @mery-be @tenaciousperfectionunknown @chezdricks @fanfictionaffair @unknownmystery22 @marvelfansworld @pananegra

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#In The Act fic #Chris Evans #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x black reader #chris evans x ofc #black fanfiction #slow burn fanfic

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blanchimont · 4 years ago

Text

sober up

characters: jeon wonwoo x female reader

genre: college au, slight angst

warnings: alcohol consumption, cursing

word count: 5.5k

summary: as much as you want to deny that what you feel for wonwoo is just a stupid little crush, your heart breaks and you have the strong urge to cry nonetheless whenever you think of him.

note: i wrote this the entire day while paying barely any attention to my online classes lmao pls enjoy <3

“So what are your thoughts about Wonwoo?” Mingyu offhandedly asks you as the both of you ate breakfast before heading for your 9AM class. He doesn’t miss the way you whirl the spoon inside your coffee mug a bit stronger than you’d like, causing some of the liquid to drip out onto the tabletop. He doesn’t say anything about it and just waits for you to answer.

“Thoughts as in...what do you mean?” You ask in response, briefly glancing at the man in front of you before looking away to drink your coffee that was still a little bit too hot. You frown behind the mug and you aren’t so sure if it’s because you almost burned your mouth or it’s because of the intention behind your best friend’s question.

“You know what I mean,” Mingyu sighs.

No, I don’t know what you mean. You think to yourself, but you don’t want to say that out loud especially with how intimidating Mingyu looks like right now. You feel like you’re being interrogated for a crime you don’t know you committed—okay, but maybe you did do something for him to stare at you like that.

The thing is, you pride in yourself for always being a responsible drinker. Whenever your friends would invite you to join them have dinner and drink to end the stressful week in college, you often end up being one of the most sober-looking people among your peers by the end of the night. One bottle of alcohol is enough for you to feel buzzed, and sometimes you don’t even get to finish the entire bottle. Because of that, you sort of feel proud that you’ve never done anything foolish yet while intoxicated, unlike your friends who had you doubling over in laughter, tears threatening to spill out of your eyes because of how stupid and scandalous they can get when they’ve had too much alcohol in their system.

It just so happens—and you swear you have no idea why—that you decided to drink more than you could last weekend while out with Mingyu and the rest of his friend group who adopted you, and suddenly you had more friends than you ever anticipated.

It’s not that you did something so scandalous, but you do feel embarrassed because it was so...out of character for you to do it. You really wanted to blame Soonyoung for asking you that question, but you also blame yourself for losing the filter in your mouth that you ended up answering him way too honestly for your liking.

“—Okay, okay that’s enough Seokmin. How about you,” Soonyoung calls your attention and you wince at how you immediately felt your world spinning when you turned to your left to look at him. The boy laughs at your dazed state before continuing, “What do you think of our Wonwoo over here?”

You stare at the said boy who half-absentmindedly drank the entire can of beer in one go. You think he’s acting like he didn’t hear Soonyoung ask the question but you’re aware that he’s also waiting for you to say something.

And even before you could stop yourself to organize the thoughts inside your head because holy shit—he looks a hundred times more attractive tonight and you aren’t sure anymore if your head is spinning because of the alcohol or because of the way Wonwoo just looks so insanely beautiful—the answer you give Soonyoung leaves everyone on the table looking at you like you’ve grown a second head.

“He’s insanely attractive. I think I have a crush on him, actually.” You’re drunk as fuck but you’re also hyperaware that Wonwoo’s staring at you. So you chug down the remaining alcohol left in your bottle. You wanted to dig your own grave right then and there.

You grimace when you see Mingyu leaning closer to get your attention back. He raises his eyebrows at you and you wish you just really ended up blacking out that night so you could use the I-don’t-remember-what-happened card on him.

“I think Wonwoo’s a really nice and thoughtful friend, even if there’s this weird...mysterious aura to him. He listens well to the people around him,” you finally answer your friend. Suddenly you want the time to go faster so Mingyu could no longer interrogate you and you can finally head to your creative nonfiction class.

Mingyu stops acting like you committed a crime and continues eating the pasta in front of him. “I’m sure you know you said a different answer last Saturday.”

“Look,” you drop the fork on your plate and sigh. “I was drunk, okay? Had way too much alcohol than I anticipated. I didn’t—”

“You didn’t mean it?” Mingyu squints his eyes at you.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this? Is it wrong to say I have a crush on one of your close friends? Am I breaking a best friend code between us that I didn’t know about?”

You sound defensive and you hate how high your voice got the more you bombarded Mingyu with questions. He was really good at riling you up so early in the morning.

“It’s not that,” your friend shakes his head and finishes up his food. You still haven’t consumed even half of yours. “I actually approve of the two of you, just so you know.”

“What the fuck, Mingyu. It’s just a stupid crush.”

“Yeah it sure is.” You really hate how he’s narrowing his eyes at you right now. “Then why are you avoiding each other? It’s been four days and it’s fucking annoying already.”

“I’m not avoiding him. Midterms just ended and finals are around the corner sooner than you’d like. We’re all busy. And I don’t want to bring up to him what I said. That was so out of character for me to do.”

“Okay, but it’s driving me insane that the both of you have been acting strangely since then.” Mingyu rubs his hands over his face.

You pause. “What do you mean Wonwoo’s been acting strange?”

“Since that Saturday night I’ve been trying to bring you up in our conversations just to get a reaction out of him.” You roll your eyes, what an idiot. “I know you guys didn’t talk about what happened afterwards. Either he flinches or makes this weird face or flees the moment I mention you.”

“Mingyu you’re a fucking idiot.”

“You are too. I am aware that you hate talking about your feelings and I would be proud of you for saying that last Saturday because that was such a huge step in getting out of your comfort zone but you were stupidly drunk and the both of you acted like nothing happened.”

Mingyu’s right and this very fact pisses you off. You were never good at verbally expressing your true, honest, and raw feelings towards anyone. It physically and mentally pains you to do so. Sometimes you want to blame your upbringing, how showing any signs of emotions ranging from affection to sadness to anger seemed very taboo within your family. It left you unable to sort your own feelings out as you grew up, so now you ended up being too quiet, dishonest, and afraid of being vulnerable in front of anyone. But you don’t really want to blame anything or anyone else because for fuck’s sake, you’re already in your twenties and it’s about time that you should be more responsible. Yet you’re aware that you’re acting childish around Mingyu because he’s confronting you about something you didn’t want to deal with ever.

“But Gyu,” you take a deep breath, suddenly feeling anger bubbling inside of you. You don’t even know why. “It’s just a stupid crush. It’s not a big deal.”

There you are again, downplaying and being in denial of your own feelings. You know it’s not just a stupid crush. You’ve been head over heels for Wonwoo since Mingyu introduced you to his friend group. You’ve been head over heels for him ever since he sat beside you in silence to keep you company while the rest of the boys went crazy in front of the karaoke, unintentionally leaving you out because they were having so much fun and it’s not their fault and it’s okay because Wonwoo’s beside you. He’s been occupying your thoughts ever since he showed you the brightest smile you’ve seen from him when he spotted you sitting alone at the second row of the lecture hall, taking the seat next to you so you wouldn’t feel too lonely when no one else wanted to sit near the front. You felt so embarrassed after noticing that Wonwoo had to make himself feel smaller in his chair so he wouldn’t block anyone behind him while the professor droned on and on about art history. He really didn’t have to keep you company at the expense of sitting comfortably in class. You couldn’t stop thinking of him ever since he let you borrow some of his books, and you didn’t even ask him to do it but you figured he did it anyway because you said you needed inspiration for your creative writing class. And you wanted to cry because you think you’re in love with the way his mind works after realizing that the books he lent you were really good. You like him so much and you feel insane for feeling this way because it’s only been a few months since you’ve known him and the two of you don’t really talk as often as you wished you would so you can get to know him better, but that doesn’t stop you from catching these unnecessary feelings for him—

“But would you date him if you had the opportunity?” Mingyu interrupts your train of thought.

Alright, that’s enough. You stand up and fix the things inside your bag, preparing to leave and head for your class. “I would but I don’t really want to date right now, not ever. You know I told you that already.”

“You wouldn’t even give him a chance?” Mingyu pouts and mirrors your actions as he realizes that the conversation really isn’t heading where he wanted it to.

“I just casually confessed that I have a crush on him. Stop making a big deal out of it. That’s all I did that night, alright?”

You don’t miss the way Mingyu stares at you for a moment before he nods and leads the two of you out of the cafe. You swallow the lump in your throat because you have this ugly, terrifying feeling that Mingyu knows something you don’t, that there’s more to just you drunkenly saying you liked Wonwoo.

And now you’re starting to doubt if you really remembered how things played out that night.

You bump into Wonwoo sooner than you wanted to. And you feel stupid because your first instinct upon seeing him walking down the hallway towards your direction was to turn the other way around and take the other flight of stairs, even if it meant consuming more travel time to head to your next class that was starting in ten minutes.

You almost let out a sigh of relief because you successfully avoided confronting Wonwoo—or so you think. You jump when you feel warm fingers wrap around your wrist and you nearly bump into the chest of the man you wanted to run away from when you turn around.

“Hi, sorry about that,” you mumble as you take a step backwards to give him more space. He was wearing a plain oversized gray shirt, black jeans, and a worn out beanie. If this was any other guy on campus, you would’ve rolled your eyes at how he lacks good fashion sense and how he dresses so similarly like all the other college boys (except Minghao, god bless that man). But this is Wonwoo and you have this urge to cry because he looks ridiculously good in whatever type of clothing he wears, and it’s not fair—

“It’s fine. Are you heading towards your next class?”

You are about to answer him but the classroom next to where the two of you are standing just got dismissed, so there is a surge of students leaving and occupying the already cramped hallway. You almost lose your mind when you feel Wonwoo’s hand on your arm, pulling you close to him after a huge guy bumped into you and left without an apology.

Wonwoo stares at you like he wants to say something else, but before he could, you stop him because you aren’t sure if you’re ready for that. “Yeah, it starts real soon, actually. I should leave.”

You don’t even realize that his hand is still resting on your arm until he dropped it and put some distance between the two of you. “Right. I shouldn’t keep you waiting.”

But Wonwoo does nothing but just stands in front of you. You have half the mind to apologize for what you said last Saturday night, then you realize that what will probably come out next from your mouth is to tell him to forget about it. But you honestly, honestly do not want him to forget about what you said. Yet you aren’t also prepared to face the repercussion of your actions. So you nod your head and think that it’s best to act like nothing happened.

“I’ll...see you around then.”

You think you see Wonwoo’s smile falter slightly, but when you blink he’s already grinning at you. “Okay, bye.”

You turn around and your legs feel like jelly as you walk down the stairs. You have the urge to stop halfway just to cry and you don’t even know why you want to. But you’re running late for your class, so you pick up your pace so no one would steal your seat in the front row.

Maybe you aren’t sure whether it was worse pretending like nothing happened than just explicitly telling Wonwoo to forget that you ever confessed that you have a huge crush on him.

You refused to see Wonwoo around after that encounter.

Mingyu invited you to hang out with the boys at Vernon’s place, yet even before he could spill all the details about who’s coming and who’s not, you reject his offer, making an excuse that you still have a case report to finish even though you’ve already submitted that two days ago.

“You’re not avoiding Wonwoo hyung, are you?” He stares at you as he leans against the door frame of your bedroom. He is dressed so nicely and you want to compliment him but he’s beginning to piss you off again.

“Mingyu.” You whirl around in your desk chair and stare at him.

Despite your threatening tone, he pushes himself off the doorframe and sits on your bed. “You’re really annoying whenever you start crushing on someone, you know?”

You don’t say anything and turn around to put your attention back on your laptop. But the next words that escape Mingyu’s lips leave you frozen in your seat.

“I’m actually starting to think what you feel for hyung is more than just a crush. Like, you seriously like him.”

Since when the fuck was Mingyu this perceptive of your feelings? You feel nervous at your discovery, because perceptive Mingyu means he is going to probe into things you usually keep stashed away from your consciousness. He’s known you for so long that he knows that you have troubles when it comes to dating. It’s not because you’ve had extremely bad experiences before—it’s actually the opposite of it. You’ve never been into any romantic relationship because you believe no one’s ever shown interest in you. You let people’s comments about how cold, intimidating, and unapproachable you are get into your head that you are convinced that no one will like you for who you are. You used to be afraid and insecure that you’ll end up alone, but you’re older and busier now and you’ve come to accept that maybe dating and finding someone who loves you in that way won’t ever be meant for you.

You ignore Mingyu and try your best to focus on reading your lecture notes. You can hear rustling on your bed and you figure that your friend lied down. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think the two of you look good together.”

Your hands itch and you want to throw your pen at Mingyu, but it’s childish to lash out at him. You roll your eyes instead. “I am starting to think you’re the one who likes Wonwoo, especially with the way you keep bringing him up in our conversation.”

“Why can’t you just be brave for once and acknowledge your feelings? Stop pushing them away. You’ll only end up hurting yourself.” You’re shocked at how fast Mingyu moved from your bed to your desk. He’s so much taller than you and he looks intimidating again with how he towers over you while you timidly sit on your chair.

“Can we please not talk about this? I don’t want you or me to be in a bad mood. You’re hanging out with the boys soon.”

“Alright, just answer this one last question before I go.”

You gulp and nod your head because you don’t have any choice left but to concede.

“Why did you and Wonwoo hyung kiss that night and then act like nothing happened when it’s obviously bothering the both of you? I know you’re not the type to act so recklessly and kiss any random people because romantic relationships are uncharted territory for you but Wonwoo hyung is no stranger so why—”

“Wait, what?” You feel your head spinning and there’s this heavy weight pressing on your chest that goes all the way down to your stomach. You want to throw up.

“What?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” You think you give Mingyu the shock of his life with how high the pitch of your voice got. But you belatedly realize that it is probably because of how angry and confused you look like right now.

It is Mingyu’s turn to roll his eyes at you. “Don’t use the ‘I-don’t-remember-what-happened’ card on me—”

“No what the fuck seriously, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” There are tears in your eyes and Mingyu gets startled but stays frozen in his spot. You feel so ashamed that whenever you think of Wonwoo you have this urgent need to just break down and cry. Maybe it’s your hormones—you tend to get extremely emotional when you’re nearing your period—or maybe everything about Wonwoo simply makes you sob.

And then it dawns on you how stupid you were when you got drunk that night. Not only did you casually drop the “I have a crush on you bomb” on Wonwoo but you also kissed him? Kissing someone while drunk is totally out of character for you and you want to slam your head against the wall because you seem to never make any good decision when it involves Wonwoo.

Your mind is reeling. You begin thinking that Wonwoo hated the confession and the kiss that’s why he never touched on the topic afterwards. Or maybe he wanted to ask you about it when you bumped into each other a few days ago but he sensed that you wanted to run away. Either way, none of you are handling the situation properly (how the fuck are you supposed to handle it anyway?) and you’re afraid that if you don’t do anything about it soon, things are going to get awkward between you two and if not, you’re going to have to live the rest of your life regretting not saying anything and watch Wonwoo move on with his life as if that incident never happened at all. After all, it’s easy to brush it off and say it was a drunken mistake.

The heavy weight on your chest is pressing on you again. Mingyu’s right, you’re always afraid of confronting your own feelings. The moment you realize that you’re catching feelings for someone, you run away even before you can figure out if the person feels the same way or not. So you end up alone, always standing at the side as you watch your friends get into relationships and look so happy. You always walk silently behind one of your friends and their significant other, not wanting to disturb them. You learn to look away without feeling bitter when couples around you share a quick hug or kiss. You get used to sharing a car ride with your friends and their partners, sitting alone in the backseat in the dark as you laugh along with their ridiculous jokes.

You’re used to being alone while your friends find people who love them unconditionally. You’re happy for them each time it happens—you really are—but sometimes there’s this ugly lump in your throat that forms once your mind starts imagining what it feels like to be in their shoes. And then the dread settles when reality catches on to you and tells you that you won’t ever experience that.

The first time you bare your heart out even just slightly happens with Wonwoo. You’re upset that you’re drunk when it happened, but you’re also relieved because you aren’t sure if you want to know what else went down that night, if you said more to him, and if he said anything at all.

It takes you a while before you realize that Mingyu’s wiping away the tears that spilled from your eyes. He’s wrapping his arms at you so tightly and it’s so warm and you want to cry even more when he starts apologizing profusely for being so pushy about the topic.

The next time you’re invited to hang out with the boys, you don’t have the heart in you to reject the offer again because it’s Soonyoung’s birthday. And although you want to blame the boy for asking that question which started all of this emotional mess inside of you, you have a soft spot for him and you’d hate to see him get sulky around you when you turn him down.

Since the night Mingyu revealed that you and Wonwoo apparently kissed, you’ve only seen the latter twice. The first time was in a coffee shop. You had a thirty-minute break before your next class starts and you were really hungry and sleep-deprived, so you stand in line as you stare at the menu with hazy eyes. As you tap your foot while you glare at the back of the head of the person in front of you, your eyes accidentally look at the source of noise on your right. There, you see Wonwoo sitting on a table with five other people you don’t know, except for Junhui. You feel your eyes twitch when you realize that a girl was sitting so comfortably close next to Wonwoo and you want to look away but the boy is already looking up at locking eyes with you. You almost pretend you don’t see him—that’s what you always do when you walk past people you know because you don’t have an idea whether you should greet them or not—yet Wonwoo flashes you a small smile before paying attention again to what their group was discussing.

This heavy feeling in your chest comes back and you’re afraid that the distance between the two of you grows wider sooner than you want to.

And your fear is further reinforced the second time you see him that same week.

It’s not like Wonwoo always sits beside you in your art history class to keep you company inside the large lecture hall. It probably happened only five times because on most meetings, either Wonwoo comes later than you and there is already someone else sitting next to you, or you spot him sitting at the back of the room and you refuse to go all the way to his row because you prefer being closer to the front. Yet what hurts this time around is you arrive earlier than Wonwoo and you’re sitting alone in your row again but when he arrives, his eyes don't even search the lecture hall for you like he used to, and instead he walks up straight to the back of the room. No one sits next to you for the whole period and even though it usually didn’t bother you, you left the class feeling like shit because someone always used to make you feel less lonely.

So far, Soonyoung’s birthday celebration is going well. You and Wonwoo shared polite smiles but for most of the night, you mingled with completely separate people. Mingyu no longer gives you knowing glances because he still feels guilty about making you cry, but you brush off his very cautious attitude around you and just choose to stick by his side the whole night.

You don’t know where things went wrong but as the night deepened, you suddenly found yourself sitting on one of the benches in the backyard alone with Wonwoo. And you’re drunk, again.

You’re stupidly laughing at Soonyoung who looks like he is on the verge of crying as he defended himself in a game of mafia. You are the first one to get killed because the first round is boring and they randomly decided to gang up on you, so you leave the circle and head back to the kitchen to get more soju to drink. When you come back, Wonwoo is already eliminated and he’s sitting on the bench you mentally reserved for you to occupy alone.

You’re too exhausted to avoid him so you sit on the bench either way. “I called dibs on this bench first.”

Wonwoo pushes up his eyeglasses. “Your name isn’t written here.”

You snort and drink from the bottle. You don’t say anything else and just watch the rest of your friends accuse and betray one another. You think that Wonwoo does the same and you turn to him to check his reaction when Mingyu sets himself up to get killed by the rest but your heart drops when you realize that the boy is already staring at you. “What?”

“Did you mean it last time?”

And there it was again—the urge to run away. The beating of your heart against your chest drowns the loud yelling of the boys and you can only focus on Wonwoo’s unreadable face. He’s really beautiful and it’s upsetting.

You tear your eyes from him to look up at the clear night sky. You wonder if you should just bite the bullet and be honest with your feelings this time. You’re shitscared you’re going to fuck this up so you down some more soju before replying. Your voice suddenly sounds so small. “It’s just a crush. Sorry if I’m making you feel uncomfortable about it.”

It was silent for a while and you brace yourself for the worst, for the part where Wonwoo admits he did feel uncomfortable and says that it’s better that they just forget about it. You prepare to take a deep breath to prevent tears from forming as you absentmindedly listen to Wonwoo turn you down. But it doesn’t happen.

“Do you tend to kiss people you crush on?” Wonwoo’s eyes are still on you and you really want to hide now.

“I’m sorry about that,” you mutter quickly. Your grip on the bottle tightens because you can feel that you’re trembling. “I don’t have a clear memory of that happening but nonetheless I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

Wonwoo scoots closer to you and you want to put some distance but the armrest stops you from doing so. He is sitting too close to you and you hate how it feels like your senses have been dialed up to eleven. Even without looking, you can feel his intense gaze on you, his warmth lightly touching you, his breath fanning your face, everything. “But did you mean it?”

You let out a shaky breath. Mingyu’s voice saying you’ll get hurt if you keep pushing your feelings away rings loudly in your ears. You’re already in your twenties and you should be more mature in talking your feelings out but you’re just so so afraid of everything. Wonwoo’s just asking you a question but it feels like you’re going to be executed if you say the wrong answer. Never in your life have you ever been honest with your feelings towards anyone. You have yet to face rejection because you would never say anything, but you know you won’t like the taste of it.

You stare at Wonwoo and you realize once again that you never make good decisions whenever it involves him. To hell with it.

“Yes.”

For a fleeting moment you’re afraid Wonwoo didn’t hear you because your voice was barely above a whisper, but what happens next makes you drop your soju bottle on the grass.

Wonwoo’s lips are on yours and the way you’re holding on to his jacket for dear life brings you back to a distant yet familiar memory, one where you’re clinging on to Wonwoo’s shoulders as he cups your face in his hands and kisses you breathless. You can faintly remember that Saturday night, how you and Wonwoo separated from the group after your drunken confession. If you try harder maybe you’d remember what words were exchanged between the two of you before you tiptoed and placed your lips on his, but the way Wonwoo’s gently biting on your lower lip right now while caressing your sides makes your brain swim inside your skull. You decide not to think anymore and relax yourself against him, kissing him back with the same fervor. You decide to ignore the howling noises your friends are making while Wonwoo kisses you harder as if he hasn’t already been doing that. You decide to focus on his lips on yours and his arms wrapped tightly around you, because that’s all that matters.

You still think you’re dreaming because after that kiss, you and Wonwoo don’t exchange that much words except you finally having the courage to tell him how much he makes you feel happy and less lonely, how much you want to know him better, and how much you don’t want him to be so far from you. You remember Wonwoo reciprocating, saying that he’s been interested in you ever since Mingyu introduced you to the boys. You look shocked when he says that, and he pouts when he realizes that aside from the kiss that Saturday night, you also don’t remember him confessing to you. And then you feel like shit for handling this mess improperly, so you kiss him again as a form of apology. Wonwoo kisses you back to tell you that it’s fine.

A large pillow hitting the side of your head snaps you out of your thoughts and you turn to glare at Mingyu who is leaning against your doorframe. “Was that necessary?”

Your friend rolls his eyes at you and enters your room to pick the pillow up from the floor. “Yes, because you look stupid smiling alone.”

You snatch the pillow from his hands and smack him upside the head. “You’re annoying.”

“Thanks, you’re such a lovely friend. After everything I’ve done for you,” Mingyu pouts. You pay no attention to his annoying face so he turns to leave but stops when the doorbell rings. You freeze and look up at your friend.

“Oh yeah, I invited your boyfriend over.”

“Without telling me?!” You hastily stand up from your chair to put on a hoodie and fix your hair, cursing Mingyu in the process for acting like he also lives in your apartment, inviting people over whenever he wants to.

“I said I was going back home over the weekend and I thought you would be lonely in your apartment without me bothering you, so I invited Wonwoo to keep you entertained.” There’s a smirk on his face and you push him out of your room until you reach the main door of your place.

“You’re fucking annoying,” you pinch Mingyu’s side and he yelps as you open the door to kick him out. You don’t feel sorry when he bumps into Wonwoo in the process.

“You’re so ungrateful!” Mingyu fixes his shirt and pats Wonwoo on the back. “Take care of her hyung. I’ll see you both around!”

When your best friend finally disappears down the hall, you let Wonwoo into your place. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he echoes.

You smile up at him as you grab his hand. You’re convinced you’re still dreaming, but when Wonwoo brings your hand to his lips to place featherlight kisses on your knuckles, you wake up and then the heavy weight on your chest disappears. Reality catches on to you and tells you that everything will be alright, because Wonwoo’s here.

#my work #seventeen #wonwoo #seventeen scenarios #wonwoo scenarios #seventeen imagines #wonwoo imagines #100+ NOTES WTFFFF THANK YOU?!??!?#100+

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singingunderthecurtain · 5 years ago

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DIAMOND (CEO AU Baekhyun Series) Part 20

Author: @julietsoddeye AU: CEO!Baekhyun Genre: Angst | Smut | Romance Pairing: (in this chapter) Baekhyun x Lee Soojin (OC) | Junmyeon x Yanmei (OC) | Chanyeol x Hisako (OC) Word Count: 5.5K Trigger Warning: Strong Language, Gun Use, Blood, and Physical Violence

Plot: After 10 years of exile to another country, Soojin is finally back home and was surprised to find out that she was already engaged to the son of her father’s long-time friend and business partner.

Diamond Mini Mansterlist

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20

“Don’t fucking panic, guys!”

Hisako yelled suddenly as she was pacing around the small space provided for her in front of everyone. Friends are all gathered in Baekhyun’s office, figuring out where Soojin might be. Yanmei then grabs Hisako’s wrist to pull and squeezes her in between her and Jongdae. The man has no other option but to scoot farther away from Yanmei so that Hisako can properly sit down.

“Nobody’s panicking, only you.”

Yanmei said matter-of-factly rolling her eyes at her friend, Hisako pouted like a child as a response. She can tolerate this crazy attitude of hers just as long as she provided a barricade between her and Jongdae.

It has already been two and a half days since Soojin has gone AWOL. President Lee Seungho almost had another heart attack when they found out that his daughter was missing. Both Soojin and Baekhyun’s mothers were inconsolable with the news, they kept crying when Soojin’s name is ever mentioned.

After the Twenty Four hour mark of her absence, private security and investigation companies were called, but not the Police. They knew the media would soon find out that the Heiress of the Lee clan and soon-to-be Daughter-in-law of the Byuns, and sure news about her disappearance would blow up if they decided to ask for the Police’s help. They didn’t want unwanted attention from anyone or anything at this point, reporters and journalists will swarm their buildings and homes and that will definitely affect their stocks.

“Shouldn’t you be at work today?”

Jongdae snarked, suddenly annoyed at Hisako even though it wasn’t her fault that he was blocked from being next to Yanmei.

“How can I go to work when one of my two best friends is missing?” Hisako snarled her lips at Jongdae. “Also, President Seungho told me to take a break.”

“You think she’s been kidnapped?”

“Yes, probably. Soojin-ssi wouldn’t just suddenly run away like that.”

Mia answers Baekhyun’s question immediately.

Everyone fell silent for a while. They all have sullen-look in their faces, the wedding is just right around the corner, why is this happening now?

Baekhyun felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, he must have accidentally put it on silent. Looking at the screen, he was jolted to see that Soojin is calling him.

“What is it, bro?”

Yixing saw the bewilderment in his friend’s eyes and everyone’s attention snapped to Baekhyun as he sat on his office table with his jaws hanging down.

“I–It’s S–Soojin.”

“Answer it!!!”

Soojung pushed through people to get near Baekhyun. Her eyes were blown big as she waits for her future brother-in-law’s next move.

With quivering hands, Baekhyun slides accept the call and put his phone on his left ear.

“H–Hello?”

“Listen Byun Baekhyun, I know you’re probably surrounded by people right now. Pretend like this is Soojin…”

“Okay…”

Baekhyun answers with a shake in his voice, everyone looks at him expecting a piece of good news. He recognized the person on the other line and already know who the person was behind all this and his blood is already boiling with anger.

“We have your fiancé and if you still want to see her alive, you will do as I tell you. Understood?”

“Okay,”

Baekhyun repeats his one-line answer, lips quivered and nose flared when he hears Soojin screaming for help in the background.

“You will meet me at the address that I will be texting you... alone. And then you will come with me. Don’t let anyone follow you or I will make sure my men will put a bullet through Lee Soojin’s skull. You don’t want a dead bride at your wedding, am I being clear?”

“BAEKHYUN, BAEKHYUN NO! DON’T LISTEN TO TH—”

“SHUT UP, BITCH! Shut her up before I punch her unconscious once again!”

Baekhyun hears loud banging noises until he can’t hear Soojin’s screams and cries anymore. He hits his fist on his table, grinding his teeth together to suppress his anger.

“What? What’s happening?!”

Seungmin was about to snatch the phone away, but Baekhyun motions for him to stop.

“Do you hear that, Byun? Now be a good boy and don’t fuck shit up for me!”

The call ended abruptly and it took a few moments before Baekhyun’s inside battles clammed enough to answer everyone’s loud questions.

“Baekhyun-ah,”

Seungmin sounded straight-up begging now, the desperation in his tone made it a little harder for Baekhyun to lie. He is deliberating what sort of bullshit he will tell Soojin’s brother. He needs to be careful or they will kill his Fiancé for sure.

“I…”

Baekhyun trails off, suddenly zoning out again.

“Oppa, please.”

It was Soojung, this time, to beg Baekhyun. Begging to know what was going on. She can see the feat in Baekhyun’s eyes and she’s worried what sort of danger her sister is in.

“Sooj– She wants me to meet her… Soojinnie.”

Baekhyun stutters.

“It was Soojin eonni on the phone?”

“Y–Yes.”

Baekhyun’s phone dinged with another notification and sure enough, it was Soojin’s number they used again and he starts scrambling on to his feet, grabbing his motorbike keys out of the many vehicular keys inside his office table drawer.

“Please, guys… I need to go.”

Baekhyun was stopped mid-run by Junmyeon, he looks back at everyone to see them all confused and puzzled by his sudden odd behavior.

“What is happening, Baekhyun-ah?”

Junmyeon tightens his grip on Baekhyun’s arm when he tries shaking him off. Sehun and Jongdae then grasp his other arm when he suddenly bolted and tries to escape.

Every single person in his office probably thinks he’s about to or has already gone insane, but right now is not the time to care about that. He needs to go because the text message only gave him an hour to get there or they will get rid of her - immediately. He has no other options but to just go there even if he wasn't sure they were tricking him or not.

He has so save Soojin!

“Baekhyun, relax! Use your words, please.”

Yanmei pushed pass bodies to touch Baekhyun’s cheek, using her ‘teacher approach’ she practices with her students daily. Baekhyun slumps when he felt his fiancé’s best friend’s warm hands on his face. It reminded him of the warmth Soojin shows him every single day even though he probably doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t deserve her and now she’s at the hands of bad people and it’s his fault.

“Mei-Mei, please…”

“Tell me, Baeks it’s okay.”

Baekhyun’s tears are pouring like rain, he just wanted them to let him go but he can’t verbalize what he wanted them to do.

“Baekhyun-ah.”

Jongdae pushes on, shaking Baekhyun’s arm that he was holding.

“Jongdae, no—”

Yanmei warns her ex and Jongdae immediately silenced with the mention of his name straight from her lips.

“Baekhyun? Talk to me.”

She returns her attention to the aggravated man once again, gently coaxing him to speak. It took a while before Baekhyun calms down from his sobbing and he finally found his voice, determined to save the woman he only ever loved in his life.

“Guys, please… Please trust me. Don’t follow me or they will kill her.”

“Hyung, what are you saying?”

Sehun interjects.

“I need to go… NOW! Or they will kill Soojin and if that happens, I will never, ever forgive myself for it. Do you understand me? I have no time?!”

Baekhyun starts screaming now to no one in particular.

“Oh my God! What are we gonna... What are we gonna fucking do?”

Hisako then paces back and forth again, Chanyeol pulling her arms to embrace her, pushing her face to his chest. She starts bawling her eyes out when she felt his warm chest on her cheeks, his tight embrace around her body.

“Let go of him.”

Mia all of a sudden speaks, still seated in one of the chairs in the office. Her face was calm, but her feet are quavering into place in agitation.

“What?”

Sehun yells, mouth ajar as he looks back and forth between Mia and Seungmin. Seungmin just stares back at his younger cousin with no answer to the silent question in his eyes.

“I said let go of Baekhyun!”

“Are you a fucking lunatic?”

Yanmei protests, suddenly angry at Mia’s rash decision.

“And why are you even still here, Mia? Hasn’t Soojin already fired you? Why are you still lingering around us, you fucking psycho?!”

Yanmei added, her ears obviously beaming red with anger.

“Yanmei-ssi!!!”

Seungmin infiltrates, pulling Yanmei’s arm harder than he intended to and she yelps in pain.

“Hyung!”

Junmyeon and Jongdae bellow simultaneously. Jongdae lets go of Baekhyun as Seungmin releases Yanmei wrist.

“I–I’m so… I’m sorry, I– Didn’t mean to.”

Seungmin apologizes profusely as Yanmei clutches her wrist.

“Baby, are you okay?”

Jongdae ran to Yanmei's side, grabbing her arms with gentle care to examine it. Yanmei was too lost for words or reactions and so she lets him comfort her.

“What is happening?”

Sunmi starts sobbing silently with no idea what was going on, only hearing the commotion around her. Yixing instantly pulls the poor weeping girl in the farthest corner of the room to calm her down.

“Sunmi, everything will be just fine, okay? Do you trust oppa?”

Yixing starts whispering comforting words to her ears.

“Yes,”

Sunmi replies, although still crying. But Yixing’s soft and gentle words are very effective at making her nerves quiet down a bit to stop her lament.

“I’m so sorry you have to hear this, love. We can go if you want to.”

“No, oppa. I want to know what’s happening, we need to find Soojin eonni.”

She juts her lower lip out, tears ready to be shed just thinking about her oldest sister being gone without a trace.

“Just… Trust me and let go of Baekhyun.”

Mia insisted on with both boldness and assurance. Her eyes were burning with determination, but her heart is somewhat scared of the ten percent chance that all the plans might turn into shit. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen or she will not only fail Soojin, who has already become a big part of her life, but also Seungmin. He trusted everything on her, she can’t let him down... ever. It would totally break her heart.

Seungmin nods towards Sehun and Junmyeon, both looked at each other before hesitantly letting Baekhyun go.

Baekhyun bolted out of the door right away with his newfound freedom.

“I hope you’re not digging yourself a grave with that decision, Mia.”

Yanmei yaks at Mia, pushing Jongdae’s embrace away from her and went for the door also. Both Junmyeon and Jongdae followed immediately after her.

The rest were quiet and it was quite a deafening silence for Mia. But before her mind spiraled into insanity, Seungmin reaches his arms towards her and envelopes her shoulders with comfort. Him cradling her like a lost child, she couldn’t help her tears but spill like a dam letting water out.

— – — – —

It was wise of Baekhyun to have grabbed his bike keys instead of any of his many cars, it’s a Friday night and the traffic jam is insane in the rush hour.

He can’t let anything happen to Soojin, not now that their wedding is just right around the corner.

Not now that they can really, finally call each other theirs, that they belong with each other only.

He parks his bike on a random alleyway where the location was pinged.

Immediately after he killed the motor off of his bike, get down from it and removed his helmet, a man in all black clothes and dark hat grabbed his arm forcefully and drag him where a black van is waiting.

“Come with me and don’t make a sound.”

Immediately, Baekhyun knows who it was by the tone of the voice.

Kim Namjoon.

Taeyeon’s younger brother.

“Aah, Namjoonie… It’s been a long time—”

“Don’t fucking call me that as if you’re still Noona’s boyfriend!”

Namjoon cut Baekhyun’s affinity quickly with a harsh dismissive tone. Baekhyun, as a reply, laughed tauntingly at his captor.

“You’ve seen how your sister treated me when we were still together, Namjoon. I can’t stay with a woman like that.”

“You’re just the same, Hyung.”

Namjoon puts a sarcastic emphasis on the word Hyung as if to mock Baekhyun with fake politeness. There was never any camaraderie between Baekhyun’s and Namjoon’s set of friends. There was always a silent rivalry between them ever since they were young.

“I only repaid her for what she did to me. To be honest with you, your sister’s sins are much heavier than mine. I just dated around, meanwhile, Taeyeon sleeps with any man she encounters when we’re fighting.”

Baekhyun sneers and Namjoon pushes him inside the van that has two other people inside who he recognizes as Namjoon’s friends, Yoongi and Jimin.

“Don’t you dare talk about my sister like that, you asshole!”

Namjoon grabs Baekhyun by the collar and slams him on the vehicle wall.

Baekhyun groans slightly when the back of his head hits hard on the other side of the heavily tinted van window.

His head was then wacked using a loaded gun by Yoongi and the last thing he remembers before he lost his consciousness was that a sack-like material was being put on his head and then everything went black…

“What took you so fucking long?!”

Taeyeon stood up from Seokjin’s lap when she finally sees the door of the room opens.

Namjoon is walking in front while Yoongi and Jimin are just close behind, dragging a tied up and very unconscious Baekhyun along like a piece of dead meat. Jungkook, the youngest and the newest member of their friend circle took a chair and settles it in front of a deeply wounded and very weak Soojin who was also tied up to an uncomfortably cold and metallic chair.

“Noona, it’s the rush hour traffic… I’m sorry.”

Taeyeon’s hard look softened a bit when she sees her brother almost shaking in fear of what she will do to him for being late.

The two sat Baekhyun up on the chair and tied him to it in a similar way they tied Soojin.

“It’s okay, baby brother… Noona understands. Did you get the gun I specifically asked for?”

“Yes, Noona. It’s here.”

Namjoon handed a small velvety gun case to Taeyeon, her smile widens when she grabs it and felt the soft case on her fingertips.

“Good boy. You’re not as useless as what our parents make you seem to be, hmm.”

Taeyeon briefly pats her brother’s head and walked towards a nearby table and carefully places the case down. Her boyfriend, Seokjin, offered to open up the case for her and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before she let him open up the case for her.

Both of their faces lit up when the light hits the rose gold revolver gun in all the right places. The dark mahogany hand grip compliments the glimmer of the handheld gun really well.

“Beautiful.”

Seokjin sighs looking between the gun and Taeyeon.

“I hope you’re talking about me, Jin...”

One of Taeyeon’s brows raised as she asked. She took her younger boyfriend’s face, her long red nails scratching slightly on to his smooth face.

“Of course, baby. Nothing shines brighter than you.”

“Correct answer.”

She lets his face go and returns her attention back to the handheld gun she especially purchased just for this very occasion.

If she can’t have Baekhyun, no one will.

Especially not Soojin. Hell no.

— – — – —

“Report?!”

Mia roars as the heavily-armed door guards slams open the production floor of their headquarters as she arrived with her entourage. All the staff's heads turned towards her and straighten their positions upon the arrival of their biggest boss.

“Bugs 2012, 2014 and 2015, eyes and ears are inside of the property since 20190304. Targets one, two and three were seen leaving the property at oh-two-twenty-three. Three fawners are left inside to man and be on the lookout, about five fawners are scattered outside. Pawns one and two are alive, but unconscious.”

Mia sighs in relief when she hears the report from one of her skilled men.

“Do you know what their condition is right now aside from being unconscious?”

Mia asks and Seungmin bit the inside of his lower lip, waiting for the answer as the man types in on his computer.

“Latest update, oh-three-oh-seven, Pawn-one is heavily bruised all around the body, bleeding from the side of the head and has been unconscious for fifteen hours. Last meal offered twenty hours ago, rejected and then received a few slaps from Target-one…”

He paused for a bit to breathe in deeply before reading on the second report.

“Latest update, oh-three-oh-seven, pawn-two bleeding from the nose, a few bruisings on the face and body and has been unconscious since or even before arrival at twenty-two-oh-five.”

“Fuck! Is pawn-one my sister...?”

With Seungmin’s silent question, Mia hesitantly nodded her head. His knees caved and couldn’t control how he knelt on the pavement, with Mia catching him as he falls. She sat him down on one of the couches on the production floor.

Seungmin couldn’t help but cry.

How could such a thing happen to her sister and his childhood friend? How could he let it happen to them?

“It’s my fault! It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have brought my sister or Baekhyunnie into this mess.”

Seungmin howls, punching and hitting his own thighs as if it’s going to make things better for everyone. Mia immediately wraps the man inside her embrace to stop him from hurting himself.

“Stop that!”

She warns.

“We always knew there was a threat—”

“But I never knew the threat is as near as it is!!! Who knew a woman like Kim Taeyeon can do such an evil thing! Even to Baekhyun, her ex-boyfriend”

Seungmin laments some more.

“She’s the daughter of the devil himself, of course, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.”

Seungmin laughs as he realizes that Taeyeon’s father, who is one of the biggest share-holders of the Byun Group of Companies, is a vile man in silence. There were rumors about him being linked to the mafia and that he has been paying his way to be on the top.

“Yeah, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree…”

Mia whispers as she plots ways to capture the whole family of their crookedness

— – — – —

Diamonds.

Diamond eyes.

Millions of diamonds surround her. Like stars in the sky, they shine so brightly even without a source of light.

“Please come home…”

She begs.

“Come back home, eonni…”

The diamond-eyed little girl sheds holographic tears.

“Soojin eonni, please…”

AMMONIA.

The smell of ammonia.

The ammonium inhalant shoots signals to her brain to wake up. The vile and putrid smell of it almost made her want to vomit, only if there’s something inside her stomach. But there is none.

Soojin hasn’t eaten a bite of anything they give her since she was abducted, what, maybe five days now. She is not really sure, she doesn’t have a sense of time anymore because she was just there.

No mornings, no nights. Soojin was just there, constrained not only by the ropes tied around her weak body but also by the evils of Taeyeon and her sycophants. It feels like months now and she misses Baekhyun so bad. She’s not even sure if she will see him ever again. If he’ll ever see her alive again.

“Good morning, Princess.”

A familiar voice greets her.

It’s a very familiar voice, and not in a good way, that has been haunting her for days already. That’s why she would just rather be unconscious and unaware of everything around her. The nightmares she had before may be back, but at least those nightmares won’t cause her physical pain.

She says the wrong thing, Taeyeon will slap her in the face or hit her with whatever she has on hand.

Breathes the wrong way, Namjoon will punch her stomach or kick her sides.

Doesn’t take the food they give? They will swing her head with a gun.

Whatever she does, they beat her up.

“I was so worried you won’t wake up. Oh! Thank God you’re not dead yet.”

Even though she is in her current state, beat up, weak and hurting in all places, she still did not miss the sarcasm in her voice.

“Fuck you, Taeyeon.”

She coughs the moment she spoke and spits up a combination of blood and phlegm. Taeyeon jumps up, face sours when Soojin’s bloody phlegm spatters on her shoe.

“MY FUCKING DIAMOND JIMMY CHOO!!! CLEAN IT OFF, RIGHT NOW!!! FUCK!!!”

Taeyeon panics, hitting her boyfriend, Seokjin on the arms as she screams as if she’s being swallowed whole by the ground. Seokjin then starts panicking as well, as he cringes by both the vision of Soojin’s bloody cough on his girlfriend’s expensive shoes that he bought for her last birthday.

“Get me a fucking rug or some shit!”

Seokjin snarls at Jungkook, their youngest and the group’s gofer.

“Don’t fucking use a rug, you stupid piece of shit! I have some wet wipes in my purse!!!”

Jungkook then starts panicking also, a rug already on his other hand and Taeyeon’s small bag on his other. Namjoon rolls his eyes at the commotion, snatches his sister’s handbag from the younger man and grabbed a handful of wet towelette and wiped the bloody discharge from the shoes himself.

Soojin is painfully laughing at the dumb assery in front of her, but the moment she saw a glimpse of Baekhyun from behind all of them, she starts choking on her spit and tears already starts welling on the side of her eyes.

“Baek… Is that… BAEKHYUN!!!”

Her scream was piercing and it made everyone stop fussing and Baekhyun to stir awake.

“That’s right bitch, your Prince Charming is dumb enough to save you.”

Taeyeon unintentionally kicks her brother off as she starts walking in the direction of Soojin again. She grabs her by the hair and made her look into her eyes.

“Hurt me all you want, Taeyeon, I am begging you. Don’t touch Baekhyun.”

“Too late. My men already tainted his pretty face.”

Taeyeon pushes Soojin’s head forward as she lets go of her hair.

“Stop! Stop it right now, Taeyeon. Let us go and we will all forget about this.”

It’s Beakhyun’s turn to negotiate with his ex. His lips quivered when he finally saw the complete condition of Soojin. His heart breaks seeing how bloody and beat up the woman he loves. She’s probably just as damaged, if not more, on the inside.

“Oh sure.”

Taeyeon suddenly pipes.

“Go ahead, Yoongi, Jungkook, let them go. Go on!”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up as he turns his eyes from Taeyeon to Soojin whose head is bowed down in exhaustion. Blood, sweat, and tears dripping from her face simultaneously. His ex’s laughter then woke him up from the few seconds of false hope he felt.

His face painted disappointment all over when he looks back at Taeyeon who is now smirking slyly at him.

“You’re stupid to think I’d let you go just like that, darling.”

Slowly, like a ghost in the night, Taeyeon plods her feet one by one on the direction of the table where her gun is settled. Neatly tucked in a velvet and silk case. Tracing her fingers delicately on the metal object before grabbing it, making sure it’s a complete seven shots of bullets.

Seeing the complete seven shots, Taeyeon then makes her way back in front of Soojin, who seems to be unconscious once again.

“Wake up, bitch!”

Taeyeon slaps Soojin’s bloody face to wake her up, causing Soojin to moan in pain.

“Baekhyunnie, say goodbye to your precious bride…”

Taeyeon aims the small gun at Soojin’s head. Soojin just stared at the gun directly, probably too weak and too tired to even recognize a gun that’s being pointed directly at the middle of her forehead.

“TAEYEON! STOP!”

Baekhyun cries.

“Okay, okay.”

Taeyeon drops the aim. And Baekhyun chokes with his own emotions.

“I’m gonna count from ten to one... So you at least still have a little more time seeing her before I blow her brains out.”

Taeyeon’s manic laughter can be heard from miles away and it sent shivers down Baekhyun’s spine knowing that in ten seconds, he will be losing the woman he is supposed to love until his dying day.

Hopefully, Taeyeon kills him too because he’s sure he couldn’t live without Soojin.

It would be painful to imagine what their wedding might have looked like, what her wedding dress would look like on her, how they will be spending their honeymoon, to what their children might look like. Will they have his eyes, Soojin’s cute nose? Will they also get their mother’s intellect or will they get his quirky personality?

“TEN!”

Baekhyun snaps from his day-nightmare when he hears Taeyeon’s scream. She had her gun pointed at Soojin’s head again.

“Taeyeon…”

Baekhyun begs.

“NINE!”

She screams, voice shaking with nervous excitement and adrenaline.

“TAEYEON-AH!!! PLEASE!”

He begs once more.

“EIGHT!”

“Taeyeon, please… Don’t do this.”

Baekhyun’s tears are starting to wet the dried blood on his face and he’s ignoring the taste of salt and iron on his lips.

“YOU MADE ME DO THIS BAEKHYUN! SEVEN!”

Everyone around them is just silent, just clammed up with the commotion happening in front of them. Some are obviously disturbed by the fact that Taeyeon is committing a crime and they are being accessory to it. Some are just neutral, maybe even impassive and detached.

“SIX!”

“Taeyeon…”

“FIVE!”

“Please… Please…”

You can hear the defeat in Baekhyun’s voice.

“FOUR!”

Baekhyun stopped fussing, but his tears continue.

“THREE!”

Taeyeon cocks the gun and places her pointer finger on the trigger.

“TWO!”

Baekhyun’s life with Soojin flashes before his eyes and it just made him sob really hard.

“ON—”

And before Taeyeon can scream the last number completely, a silent sniper bullet hits her shoulder and caused her to outbalance and pull the trigger accidentally hitting Namjoon on his thigh.

The Sister-Brother duo both scream in agony as multiple men in black clothing and bullet-proof vests enter the scene.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends and family, we are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the union of Byun Baekhyun and Lee Soojin in marriage. Through their time together, they have seen their love and understanding of each other grow and blossom and now they have come to recognize that their personal hopes, dreams, and goals are more possible and more purposeful through the combined effort and mutual foundation provided in love, commitment, and family; and so they have decided to live out the rest of their lives as one.”

The marriage officiant starts.

It was a beautiful day at a peach orchard in Yongin. This 100 acres land is owned by Yixing’s family and Soojin and Baekhyun have the best memory in this place.

Yixing brought them here on a previous time to pick Peach and other fruits that are on the property and this is where Baekhyun first fell in love with Soojin so they decided to do their wedding here.

Soojin and Baekhyun are currently hand in hand, shaking with excitement, sporting their own bruises from the previous incident they experienced at the hands of Kim Taeyeon. Who is now in jail for kidnapping and attempted murder alongside her five lackeys.

But none of it matters now, because they are finally in front of everyone, affirming their love for each other. It may have started as an arranged marriage, but they are glad they actually fell hard head over heels for each other. It’s not always you get to choose the one you spend your life with, especially in their circle. They are lucky they were the perfect match from the beginning.

“I, Baekhyun, take you, my Soojinnie, to be my wife, my best friend, my faithful partner and the love of my life from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful husband and partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you forever, unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”

Baekhyun gingerly places her wedding band next to her the engagement ring that’s still on her finger. Even through all the beatings the ring and the Diamond are still intact, shining beautifully in the beautiful daylight.

“I, Soojin, take you, my bubu… Baekhyun,”

Soojin paused to giggle along with the crowd.

“to be my husband, my best friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful husband and partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”

Soojin also places his wedding band on his ring finger and they both gave each other tight hand squeezes after.

“Before we proceed, should anyone here present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

The officiant jumps in before officially ending the ceremony.

“Hell no, no one’s stopping the wedding!”

Chanyeol hollers from the groomsmen side, Baekhyun, and Soojin with playfulness in their eyes!

“Well then… By the power vested in me by the Republic of South Korea, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now seal the ceremony with a kiss!”

Baekhyun gently reached for Soojin’s jaw and she slightly tiptoed to reach Baekhyun halfway for their first kiss as husband and wife.

“I now give you, the newlyweds, Byun Baekhyun-ssi and Lee Soojin-ssi!

Every single soul in the property that is part of the wedding rejoiced. Finally, the much-awaited wedding happened and they couldn’t be happier.

~~~

Sunmi and Yixing came to the wedding as an official new couple as well.

Sunmi finally found the courage to tell Yixing how she feels and surprisingly for her, the man actually feels the same as she did.

Yixing was glad Sunmi was the one to confess first because if not for it, he will probably never tell her that he is in love with her.

~~~

Turns out, Mia is the “maid” Soojin’s brother, Seungmin, ran away with.

Mia is definitely not a maid, she is actually a leader of a private security agency who has been serving The Byuns and The Lees for years.

Mia and Seungmin met in College and have been together since.

Seungmin connived with Mia, Baekhyun, and Minseok a plan to seek revenge for what their father did to her sister, Soojin.

They explained everything to Soojin and she finally understood now why everything happened. Although the incident with Taeyeon was not according to plan. They have always known her family is shady, but they never post any threat to anyone so they have let their guards down in regards to that.

But good thing, they planted small tracking devices on both Soojin and Baekhyun’s phones and clothing just for security purposes. And that’s why they were able to see their location and save them from the hands of evil.

~~~

Taeyeon and her crew are now in jail and they will be for a long time, Chairman Byun made sure of that.

Taeyeon’s father has been terminated and shamed for what his daughter and all his shady activity with the Byun Conglomerate.

~~~

Hisako and Chanyeol and keep their hands to themselves all throughout the wedding.

They don’t hide the fact that they are displaying skinship on public and when people ask, they just shrug their shoulders and say they’re really good friends.

~~~

Yanmei went to the wedding as Junmyeon’s date, wearing the necklace he gave her.

Jongdae went alone.

But he saw her still wearing the bracelet he gave her.

~~~

"It– it wasn't your fault."

"What?"

"It wasn't your fault, I'm sorry."

"Ten years... I suffered ten years away from you. And you're saying that now?

"I'm sorry… We only found out a few years after I sent you away. I was too ashamed to let you know that I made a mistake. My pride ate me, I’m sorry."

Soojin just smiled and gave her Dad a warm hug.

“It’s okay dad. I forgive you and I understand. I’m still thankful for what happened. If not for that, I might actually turn out to be like Taeyeon, who knows?”

Both of them laugh.

“And thank you, dad, because if not for you, I wouldn’t have met Baekhyun.”

…

And so…

They lived the rest of their lives…

Happy…

Or not?

Aikie Masterlist | Michiko Masterlist | FIC RECS | FIC REC SIDEBLOG

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heyyyharry · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 3: Ruby

(from the My Girl Trilogy: Be My Only)

…in which Harry wants to be good enough, and Y/N is confused.

AU: actor!Harry, older!Harry, younger!Y/N, (4-year age gap).

Word count: 5.5k

Wattpad link

Chapter 2: Castles In The Air - Y/N can’t stop worrying about Harry, but she isn’t the only one.

The next morning, Y/N showed up at work like nothing was wrong. With a smile plastered on her face, she busied herself by doing all the tasks in the bookstore, including the ones assigned to Alice. She thought if she didn't have time to sit down and rest, she wouldn't think about yesterday, but once in a while, she still got tempted and ended up checking her messages. All she'd received were those annoying phone ads, nothing from her boyfriend, not even a breakup text. She had to prepare herself for the worst.

While lost in thoughts, Y/N heard her boss calling out her name and hopped off the stool to go see what he needed. The man was sitting behind the reception counter, hunching down so his face was nearly in contact with the page as if his thick glasses couldn't do their job. He was writing something and immediately looked up when Y/N said his name.

"Here you are," said Eddie as he pushed his glasses upward as it kept sliding down the bridge of his nose. "Last week you asked me for five days off from the 24th to the 28th, right?"

Y/N furrowed her brows, looking quite confused as the man squinted his gray eyes at her. "You said your best friends were getting married?"

"Right! Yeah, they are...they are getting married!" She chuckled nervously, making that truthful answer sound like one of those excuses she'd used to get away with being lazy. Her two high school best friends, Celine and Amala, were getting married in three weeks in Holmes Chapel. They'd always talked about how they had wanted to say "I do" right by the lake where they'd had their first date. And Y/N had even volunteered to be their maid of honor. She wanted to blame the recent drama for distracting her, but there was no justifiable excuse for being a shit friend.

Eddie closed the notebook as he put down the pen, his lips formed a hard line. "Unfortunately, I won't be here that week and Alice cannot be alone in the store."

"No!" Y/N gripped the edge of the counter, shaking her head so fast it might fall off. "That's my best friends' wedding, Ed! I'm their maid of honor!"

"I'm sorry, Y/N. There's nothing I can do."

"Come on, sweet Eddie! You know I cannot miss the wedding!" The girl pleaded, her hands clasped together as she rested her elbows on the counter, blinking her eyes at him.

Eddie gulped and out of habit adjusted his glasses again. He appeared more like a teenage boy than a thirty-year-old man. It wasn't just his ageless face; it was also the fact that he still lived with his parents and had never kissed a girl. Y/N found out from his mother, who often brought him lunch and embarrassed him as any mother would, as if it wasn't already obvious. No matter how hard Eddie tried to act cool, he still got nervous around Y/N and Alice, which was why they constantly took advantage of his naivety to get what they wanted. This time, however, he stuck to his decision.

"No means no, Y/N." Eddie shook his head, unfazed by how fast her smile dropped. "You've been here for 225 days, and today is the first day you've actually worked. You're lucky I'm still paying you."

"I...worked when you weren't here."

"Nice try, but the answer's still no."

Just like that, he got to his feet and walked back inside. Y/N intended to follow, not wanting to give up so easily, but as soon as she took a step forward, the little bell above the entrance got her full attention. She turned quickly, opening her mouth to say hello only to freeze when she saw who it was.

"I'm here for the pretty girl named Y/N," Harry said with a warm smile that made her stomach go fuzzy. She was speechless for a moment before finally snapping out of it as he came closer.

"The pretty girl named Y/N isn't here. This one is all you've got." She pressed her lips into a grin as color heightened on her sweet oval face.

"This one is enough," Harry replied calmly, leaving Y/N once again tongue-tied, and confused. Since they met again in Holmes Chapel, he'd been acting weird and she'd been wondering a lot. Was it because he still had feelings for her, or was there something else she did not know? It would not make any difference to know the truth now she was with Isaac. Still, she couldn't help but think about it over and over again. And if Isaac was right, that Harry was still in love with Ruby, what was the point of him looking at her this way?

"Uhm...I'm here to return your jacket." Handing it back to her, he pressed his lips into a small grin to ease the awkward tension between them.

"How do you know I work here?" She asked with caution, watching him put the jeans jacket on the countertop.

"I asked Niall." Of course, Y/N thought to herself, taking a deep breath. For a second she had hoped he'd talked to Isaac, but that idea seemed so far-fetched for now Isaac didn't even talk to her.

Biting her lip, she pointed to his injured knee. "Thought you weren't allowed to leave your house."

"I'm not." He chuckled slightly, giving her a shrug. "But I got bored."

Thea rolled her eyes at the playful answer she had expected. With a smile, she thanked him for returning her jacket, but then said, "I really like to chat, but as you can see, I'm on my shift."

"Oh." He gave her half a smile, shaking his head. "Can you give me five minutes? I wanna show you something."

Yes, she could give him five minutes. She had given him many years of her life, so five more minutes wouldn't make a big difference. But what if they did? What if those five minutes drove them down the same dead-end road again? The hug they had shared in the hospital lasted no longer than five minutes, and it had brought them so much trouble with their significant others. So even though that sounded like a simple yes-no question, but to Y/N, it certainly wasn't simple.

Her thought process was cut short by Alice's deafening scream which nearly broke all windows in this place. Eddie had to drop whatever he was doing at the back to see for himself what was happening here. And his reaction when seeing Harry, though not as dramatic as Alice's, was somewhat similar.

"H-Harry Styles!" The man laughed loudly, admiration lit up his face as he threw his hands in the air. "Harry Styles is in my bookstore, everyone!"

Needless to say, Y/N was shocked. It was only then that she remembered Harry wasn't just Harry. He was also that award-winning actor whose face was everywhere on billboards and magazines. She had known him her whole life thus she sometimes forgot how big and famous he'd become. She might have to get used to this at some point.

"Hi! How can we help you, sir?" Alice said as she pushed Y/N aside with her hip to catch Harry's attention. Eddie was even more competitive. He grabbed Alice's elbow, pulling her back to take her place and speak loudly. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Styles! I'm the store owner and whatever you're looking for we—"

"I'm here for Y/N actually," Harry interrupted the man, pointing to his Bambi, and the smiles on Alice's and Eddie's face had never fallen so fast. They looked at each other, then at Y/N, then at each other again. It didn't take too long for them to figure it out.

"Wait, Harry Styles is...your friend?" Y/N could only nod, watching Alice's massive blue eyes grow even bigger as she turned back to Harry. "Y/N is like a sister to me so can I please take a photo with you?!"

"Me too!" Eddie jumped right in, raising his hand. "I...I want a photo too...please?"

It was no surprise that Alice was crazy for Harry, most of the girls her age were. What Y/N could never have guessed was Eddie being obsessed with Harry too. He seemed like one of those hardcore sci-fi nerds, not someone who would go insane for an actor in romantic movies. But she could judge him later, now was a good opportunity to ask for that one-week off.

"Ed." She tapped the man on the shoulder but he brushed her hand right off. So she tried again by raising her voice. "Ed, hey, about my request—"

"Take as many days off as you want," said Eddie as he pushed her out of the way to pose for a selfie with his favorite actor. He seemed so excited, making her wish she could film this and make fun of him later.

As soon as he finished, Alice jumped right in and didn't hesitate to ask for a kiss on the cheek. She said she wanted to make her Instagram followers jealous, and so Harry laughed and asked which cheek she wanted him to kiss.

"Okay, that's enough. Harry must go now," Y/N spoke once they had taken the photo. She managed to free Harry from Alice and pushed him towards the entrance, but he refused to leave and insisted on showing her something first. She couldn't have guessed what it was, yet she knew they could never talk when the other two were here. So while Alice and Eddie were busy sending those photos to everyone, Y/N took Harry to the furthest aisle from the entrance. Now they could have their conversation in peace.

It was so quiet here that even the sound of them breathing became loud, and she was afraid he might hear how hard her heart was thumping. But Harry was just as nervous, his ragged breathing gave himself away. It wasn't their fault that the aisle was so dark and narrow, they both stood with their backs against the shelves, but if either took a step forward, her forehead would touch his chest. That would be very awkward, she imagined.

"Five minutes," she whispered, crossing her arms while holding his stare. And when his dimples appeared, her heart melted fast like ice-cream on a hot summer day.

Y/N remembered this feeling, vividly. In fact, she hadn't felt it with anyone else besides him, and it scared her because she didn't want to fall down that rabbit hole again. Tucking a loose strand behind her ear, she cleared her throat and gathered all the confidence she had left to smile back at him. "So, you were gonna show me something?"

"Oh, yeah...right." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head like a nervous teenage boy as he turned on his phone. Y/N always thought the gesture was endearing, and every time he did that, her heart swelled again. She took a small step closer to look at the screen, muttering a faint "sorry" when her arm slightly bumped against his. Though they had hugged twice, she hadn't noticed until now that he was wearing a different fragrance. She must stop herself from thinking about his new scent, and why she still remembered what he smelt like a year ago to compare.

"Gemma sent me these this morning," Harry said as he showed her the photos of his home in Holmes Chapel. They had finished repairing it, and now the place looked as good as new, perhaps even better. "Robin's youngest daughter is moving abroad, so he and my mum are selling his house and moving back into ours."

"That's great, Harry!"

"Yeah." He chuckled at her excited reaction. "Mum is so obsessed with the garden, I don't think she'll ever want to be away from it for too long."

"She and I both," Y/N said with a soft grin. "When I was little, your mother's garden was like Wonderland to me. I used to envy you for it."

The memories made Harry smile. "But you have Marcy now. I think she did a great job taking care of your house. The flower garden was beautiful before the storm."

"How do you know how it looked before the storm?" Y/N asked in a doubtful little voice and the man in front of her froze to the spot. He wasn't supposed to know about Marcy's flower garden since he had never seen it before. When he came back to Holmes Chapel, that garden had been destroyed, and it was impossible to tell how beautiful it used to be.

Now Harry's good-looking face was taut with angst. He shouldn't have been so careless. If she found out he'd seen the garden when he came back last year, for her, would she start acting distant towards him? He'd lost her as a lover already, he couldn't bear the thought of losing her as a friend too, not again.

While his mind was racing with thoughts, he blurted out the first thing he came up with, "your dad sent me some photos."

"When?"

"After the wedding."

Y/N said nothing else, but judging by that quizzical look, he knew his made-up reason didn't fool her. Harry hoped she would let this go, because if she asked Bradford and found out he was lying, he wouldn't know what to do.

Their private moment was, once again, intruded by Eddie and Alice, who seemed thrilled to know Harry was still here. Eddie immediately showed Harry the online article on his tablet. "You're doing another movie with Ruby Ellis?!" He asked, to the actor's surprise.

"Are you two back together?" Alice jumped right in, both hands clasped in front of her chest. Harry stole a quick glance at Y/N as he prayed she would believe him instead of them.

"We were never together," he said.

"But you should be! You two are the reason I'm bisexual."

"Alice!" Y/N cried out. As harmless as Alice's inappropriate joke sounded, it surely made Y/N and Harry uncomfortable. If only Harry could reassure her she was the only woman he loved. But how would he say those words and make them sincere, when in reality he was still sleeping with Ruby?

"There's more chemistry between you and Ruby than a science lab," Eddie added, seemingly proud of his own joke because Alice was laughing as well. Y/N, on the other hand, could only twitch her lips to show amusement which wasn't even there. Harry's eyes were fixed on her, yet she didn't spare him a single glance. It now began to dawn on him that all effort he exerted to prove that he'd changed, would all go to waste if he kept sneaking around with another woman. It was easy to believe in the obvious, and right now, to Y/N, the obvious was him loving Ruby, and not her.

"Isaac!" Alice shouted, causing Harry to turn his head to the end of the aisle. His brain stuttered for a moment and every part of him paused for his thoughts to catch up. Isaac looked him in the eyes, it wasn't the type of look someone would give their best friend. And Harry felt his limbs go numb for a second there.

"We just found out Y/N knows Harry Styles," Alice said happily, hugging Y/N's arm but the older girl didn't react. Her mind was racing a mile a minute and the big lump in her throat kept her from breaking this awkward silence. Harry already knew it was time for him to go.

"It's nice catching up with you, Y/N," he said and left so fast he forgot about goodbye.

Y/N didn't know which was worse, Isaac and Harry acting like two strangers, or Harry calling her Y/N instead of Bambi. Her limpid eyes stayed on the man she once loved until he was gone, and soon shifted back to the man she was supposed to love. Now that Eddie and Alice had followed Harry to the door, she was left alone with Isaac, surrounded by an overwhelming silence.

She had been expecting a call or a text from him since last night, but now he was here, she felt more afraid than relieved. All the things she had planned to say to him had vanished at once. Her face went pale, and she was picking at her arm as he approached.

"Can we talk?" He asked her.

There were two questions Y/N hated the most: this one, and "do you love me?" She hated to say them but she hated to hear them even more, yet now she was about to face one of them or both. Taking a deep breath, she gave Isaac a small nod, and they stood in the same positions she and Harry had earlier. But instead of ease and contentment, all she could feel now was anxiety and fear.

Looking down to avoid eye-contact, she noticed Isaac tapping his right foot rapidly. She could guess confronting her had really frayed his nerves. He stood with his hands on his hips, thinking for a moment. The tense atmosphere surrounding them didn't help them feel less trapped.

"I'm sorry about last night," he spoke at last. "I could've handled the situation better, but I...uhm...It wasn't right to raise my voice at you and say what I said..."

"You don't have to apologize," she cut him off but he raised both hands to stop her there.

"I do," he asserted, shaking his head fast. "But...I'm not only here to apologize. I think we really need to talk...about us, and Harry."

"Nothing happened between Harry and I. I swear," Y/N blurted. "You have to trust me. I would never do that to you."

"I know. But I wish you had," Isaac muttered, his voice was weak and hoarse. He could tell from the way her face scrunched up that she didn't get it, so he had to explain. "I wish you'd done something wrong, so it wouldn't be so hard to let you go."

"What...what do you mean?" Y/N gulped, her hands were shaking so much she had to hide them behind her back. She didn't want to believe this. She couldn't. "Are you...breaking up with me?"

Isaac's silence was already the answer. Y/N knew that look on his face, and she'd seen it once before when her first love came to tell her they would not work. She had never thought she would see it again, at least not on Isaac, the one person she was sure that would never leave her.

"You know I love you," he lowered his voice to a whisper. Sadness soon transformed her face as she reached out to hold his hand. "And I love you," she breathed. "You know I do."

"Not the same way that you love him, not as much. Never as much." That statement sent Y/N straight to silence. Her heart was pounding out of her chest as he looked into her eyes to make sure she heard every single word he said. "I know you want to believe we're good together and you should be with me. I've been telling myself the same thing, but a part of me always knew we'd been a lost cause from the start. And it's on me because I should've given up when you pushed me away. I should never have taken advantage of when you were most vulnerable to step in."

"No, please don't say that. You did nothing wrong..."

"Hey, hey, it's alright." Isaac held her pouting face as his lips curved into a small smile, but she knew he was far from happy to say these words. "It doesn't matter who's at fault. Maybe we both are..." He exhaled while stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. "But it's time for me to let you go. Not because I don't love you or that I'm angry at you. I love you, I do, and I know you love me too. But there's always gonna be him. And a relationship won't work if we're not each other's one and only."

"We were happy," Y/N blurted as she looked at him with lifeless eyes.

"Yes, we were." Isaac gave her a small nod, not breaking their eye contact. "But we won't be happy forever if we continue lying to ourselves. You believe you should be with me because it's easier than being with him. But let me tell you this, when something's easy, it doesn't always mean that it's also right."

With one last kiss on her forehead, Isaac walked away without saying goodbye. Maybe he was so quick to leave because he couldn't show her how hurt he truly was. But watching him go was definitely heartbreaking. And soon after he had left, Y/N collapsed onto the floor, hugging both knees as the color drained out of her face. There were so many inquiries spinning in circles around her head. What was happening? Was this reality? Was that an official break up? Had she lost Isaac forever? But most importantly, was everything he'd said correct?

In the pit of her despair, Y/N finally came to acceptance. The thing that scared her more than Isaac being right, was the fact that she would always love Harry most of all, even when she wasn't his one and only. And then came the biggest question for herself, what was she going to do about it?

Bitch. Slut. Whore. Cheater. Liar.

Nothing that Ruby hadn't seen.

She logged out of Instagram, secretly cursing herself for even checking the comment section. She had worked in this industry for too long to believe she would get used to the hate. Still, she was glad nobody was blaming Harry for what had happened. Everyone assumed he and her ex-fiancé James were both victims of her 'evil scheme'. They could believe whatever they wanted, she couldn't care less, as long as it didn't affect Harry's reputation.

"Ms. Ellis?"

The soft voice at Ruby's bedroom door caught her full attention. She rose from the bed and secured the strings of her pink silk robe before turning to her assistant. "So?" Her expression hardened fast. "What did they say, Liv?"

"Mr. Fischer was on the phone with him, and he refused to delete that tweet."

"He said so himself?"

"Yes, Mr. Fischer told me to tell you that—"

"Son of a bitch!" The actress cursed aloud as she quickly grabbed her phone to search for her ex's contact name. She held the device with one hand, shoving the other into her golden locks and asking her assistant to leave her alone.

"You shouldn't call him," Liv spoke, her voice trembled with concern. "Mr. Fischer said—"

"Mike is my manager, not my boss. I don't have to do everything he tells me to do," Ruby grumbled, her glare frightened the young girl, giving her no other choice but to hurry out of the room. Soon after the door had fallen shut, James picked up the phone. He barely finished half of the word "hello" when Ruby raised her voice with anger. "Delete that fucking tweet, asshole!"

"That's not the way you speak to your ex-fiancé, love." His scornful laugh drove her up the walls, but she let it go and head straight to the point.

"You can go on the Internet and say whatever you want about me, play your victim card, I don't fucking care. But leave Harry out of this."

"You worry about that kid or your new movie with him? But judging from how your so-called fans react to the cast announcement, I think the movie will flop anyway."

"He's more a man than you are. Because only a kid would go on social media to spread lies and beg for people's sympathy," she spoke through gritted teeth. "I told you the truth, and you asked me to marry you anyway. But now you're telling the world you didn't know about me and Harry, that he convinced me to break off our engagement? I knew you were an asshole, but this is just pathetic...Maybe leaving you was the right thing after all."

James seemed unbothered by everything she had said. If anything, he sounded amused. "Don't be so mean, sweetheart. Without me, you would still be a nameless waitress and have men grope you for some extra cash." He chuckled lowly. "I built you up and I can cast you down easily. You should be thankful I don't intend to ruin your life for good."

Ruby shook her head as she released a wry laugh. "You insecure asshole, you've always been intimidated by me. All you've ever done from the start was putting me down and making sure I wouldn't outshine you. I can't believe I used to love you."

"Neither can I." His answer froze her to the spot. "Because, darling, I never loved you."

She tried to hold it in as she exhaled, yet her lips trembled and her eyes teared up. She thought she might lose it any minute now. That wasn't enough for James though, the asshole made sure he wrecked her completely as he went on. "You're just another talentless dumb blonde. Why would I be intimidated by you? Without that pretty face, you are nothing. You can't even act, the only movie scenes that people will remember you from, are the ones of you spreading your legs."

"You fucking cunt..." Her voice was full of breath as her eyes squeezed shut. "If you think I'm afraid of you, you're fucking wrong."

"Because you're afraid of everything, is that right? I don't blame you, sweetheart. It's not your fault that no man takes you seriously. No one will love you for real, Ruby. Not even that boy."

When James hung up, Ruby stood in that same position like a statue. She tried to steady her breath until her assistant burst into the room and told her James had deleted his tweet.

"Ms. Ellis?" Asked Liv as she saw the vacant look on her boss' face. The actress laid down her phone without saying a word and put on a smile as if nothing was wrong.

"Told ya I could deal with that son of a bitch," she said, laughing slightly.

She knew James was wrong, at least about one thing, she might not be the best actress, but she knew she was a good one. Her fake beam had fooled Liv into believing her happiness was genuine. But as the girl left, so did the smile on Ruby's pretty face. Sometimes she forgot not everywhere she went was a movie set, and now it felt terrifying to even be true to herself.

Thinking for a moment, she took her phone and searched for 'Love' in her contact list. Harry had set that name for himself and she'd never changed it, even when they had ended a long time ago.

⌲ Have you gone on Twitter?

She waited patiently, and her heart sighed in relief when the reply came.

⌲ Love: No, why?

⌲ Nothing :)

⌲ Just wanna ask if you saw the article.

⌲ Love: The cast announcement right? They used a TERRIBLE photo of me.

⌲ Love: But yours looks great.

Ruby was beaming now. That sentence was enough to erase the previous phone call from her mind. Just as she thought she couldn't be any happier, his next message arrived.

⌲ Love: I'm right outside your door. Are you home?

⌲ Yes, give me a sec.

She tossed her phone aside, wasting no time to run downstairs and greeted Harry at the door with the tightest hug. Her happiness probably confused him, but she wouldn’t tell him anything, not James’ tweet, not even the horrible things the bastard had said to her. Now he was here, and she was no longer afraid.

Maybe her elation had prevented her from seeing his reluctance. She shut the door and grabbed his hand. “Sit, I’m gonna make you a cup of tea!”

“Actually, I’m only here to talk,” he mumbled as his fingers slipped right through hers, leaving her confused for a second. Laughing nervously, she said, “we can talk while having tea.”

“It’s gonna be quick.”

Ruby ignored that statement and turned to walk back inside. Something seemed wrong, but as usual, she hoped if she kept on pretending, everything would turn out fine. This, however, wasn’t the case.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

Those five words stopped her dead in her tracks. Simple as they were, their weight could crush her numb body to dust in an instant. Her arms fell slack to her sides as she looked back, her deep-set eyes widened at him. “You can’t do what anymore?”

“Us...” He confessed, nodding slightly to confirm whatever she thought was right. “I’m so sorry, but...I can’t.”

She took a deep breath, hoping, with a crooked smile, she could cover up the fact that her heart was speed-racing. “Do I deserve to know the reason?” She wished he had hesitated but it seemed like he already had an answer.

“I’m in love with someone else,” he said without pause. Ruby’s golden brown eyes fell shut as she took a deep breath then let it all out. She was even surprised by how she remained this calm, or she was so hurt that her brain couldn’t function anymore.

“Y/N.” The name made Harry flinch as he met her eyes once again. “That’s the girl, right?”

He didn’t have to answer, she already knew it was a yes.

“You know,” she began again, glancing at the ceiling as she chuckled softly. “When she first said her name, I could‘ve sworn I’d heard it somewhere else. Then I got home and kept replaying it in my head. Y/N...Y/N...Y/N...” She paused, pressing her lips into a lopsided grin as her eyes fell back on him. “And then it hit me, I’d spoken to her on the phone before.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it was two or three years ago I think,” she recalled, looking so indifferent to the way he furrowed his eyebrows. “It was when we called it quit the first time. We didn’t talk for a week and you went to Holmes Chapel for a funeral. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah.” His voice was barely audible.

She exhaled and continued. “The first night you were back in London, someone called you on the phone when you were in the shower. The girl said that her name was Y/N, and asked me to tell you to call her back. But you’d never mentioned a Y/N to me, so I assumed she was just a fan that somehow got your number, and I didn’t say a word to you about that. Never had I expected that...Y/N would be the one you chose over me today.”

She stopped to study his face, letting silence take over for a moment before she asked, “do you hate me for not telling you that she’d called?” Slowly, he shook his head. “Why?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Because she’s dating Isaac?” She emphasized the name as if to make a statement. With tears in her eyes and her jaw tightened, she knew he expected her to yell at him, but instead, her voice trembled. “She’s dating your best friend...Why are you still in love with her?”

His answer was nothing she could have foreseen. “You don’t have to be with someone to be in love with them.”

Ruby had prepared herself for the worst, but she hadn’t thought it would hurt this bad. Her mouth set in a hard line, she couldn’t even face him now that her eyes had flooded with tears. Her elbows pressed into her sides as she hugged herself, making her body look so small. Then she pointed her shaky finger to the door and told him, “please leave.”

Harry only nodded as she turned away so he wouldn’t see her cry. In that instant, she wished he had said he was wrong, and he never wanted to hurt her feelings. But all that she received was “see you at the table read.” And just like that, he walked out.

Alone, and again, afraid, Ruby dragged her heavy feet to the sofa and sat there with her face in her hands. Her eyes shut tight as she tried to drown out James’ voice. But it kept growing louder and echoing through her ears as if he was living inside her head.

“No one will love you for real, Ruby. Not even that boy.”

#my girl series #harry styles #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfics #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfictions #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles fluff #harry styles s #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles writing #harry styles series #older!harry #actor!harry

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evak-fic-rec-turtleanon · 5 years ago

Text

Evak Fics - Enemies to Lovers

Enemies to lovers, Enemies to friends to lovers. Hate/angry. Smut and no smut. And WIPs. Under a read more:

********** SMUT **********

The lie I didn't have to tell. by verlore_poplap (orphan_account) (925 words) - Isak has an adultery kink that Even is happy to oblige.

Chapter 2 of Smutty Tumblr Prompts and Drabbles by isaksforelsket (2k words - It’s not that Even hated Isak Valtersen; he just strongly disliked him and his face, his attitude, his personality, and… okay so maybe he does hate him. Whatever.

I'm all yours by Skamtrash (2.7k words) - hate/jealous. - bad boy even+ rough sex.

Blood Rushed by folerdetdufoler (3.6k words) - Linn moved out of their flat a couple of months ago, and Isak and Eskild have been looking for someone to replace her. They were running out of money and options, so Eskild made a decision for the both of them. Isak was not happy when Even showed up in his hallway with five suitcases and his own key.

a little something (to make me sweeter) by verlore_poplap (orphan_account) (4.5k words) - I wouldn't call it a feud exactly," Isak says and tries not to shift uncomfortably in his seat. It's one of his obvious tells and one that Sana has been trying to train him out of for quite some time.

lucky strike by Skamtrash (5.5k words) - Isak has hated Even the first day he met him on campus. And apparently Even is the new kid his friends are obsessed with.

New Perceptions by Skamtrash (9k words) - Isak hates frat boys. Even is in a frat and wants Isak.

A Thin Line Between Hate and… Other Stuff by TheFilthWithin (Flatfootmonster) (14k words) - Isak is studying while working at a coffee shop. His life is Ok... ish. Filled with lies, mocchiato's, and hook ups, fate storms in and lends a hand in the shape of Mr Spielberg, AKA film director Even.

I call'em as I see'em...But Sometimes I Don't See So Well by HazyCosmicJive (16k words) - Isak just wants to study, he doesn't want a new roommate who walks around naked all the time and constantly tests his patience

take my hand, take my whole life too by shadesofcool (16k words) - "Isak Valtersen?" Even snorts, shaking his head. "He's the most arrogant asshole I've ever met."

Hail Mary Pass by thekardemomme (20k words) - the term hail mary pass has become generalized to refer to any last-ditch effort with little chance of success. sleeping with isak valtersen until time starts running out is what causes even to realize just how vital these passes can be.

I Can't Fall In Love With Him, Stop Me From Falling by bashfulisak (25k words) - Prince Isak of Norway is set to be married to Princess Eva in three weeks time, with the proposal happening only days after the announcement. When Princess Eva and her family arrive with their gardener, Even, Isak can barely stand him strutting around his palace, getting in the way of the gardening work his friend Jonas has already done.

Not in the stars to hold our destiny by Stria (Asia117) (30k words) - “What the fuck,” Even murmurs, and Isak almost wants to mock him, but he refrains. He’s not 16 anymore. “Everything okay, Isak?” “Peachy.” Isak doesn’t look at him. “Go find someone else to talk to.”

An Officer And A Gentleman by Jamz24 (34k words) - Isak Valtersen and Even Bech Naesheim are the two best cadets at Oslo Military Academy - but they hate each other's guts. When they're stranded together in a snowy wilderness they have to work together to survive - but CAN they?

what i like about you by cammm (44k words) - might be mild smut. Insane infatuations turns into a short lived mutual distaste. Until that mutual distaste quickly shifts into something more.

For His Love to Flee by wyoheartsmusic (48k words) - in a world where vampires hide, two lost souls find each other.

Masquerade by Sabeley (53k words) - Isak and Even were best friends before one botched mission tore them apart. When they are assigned to go undercover as newlyweds at an oceanside resort where couples are going missing, can they put their differences aside for long enough to solve the case?

Red roses & cotton candy by dantetrieswriting (56k words) - A rose. He gave Isak a fucking red rose. Doesn't matter, Isak was still not interested. Or at least that's what he kept telling himself.

Legitimate Expectations by champagneleftie (57k words) - might be mild smut. It's a good time to be Isak Valtersen. The up-and-coming Norwegian authority on matters of freedom of press, several Supreme Court wins already on his resume - and still barely thirty. He's carved out a place in the world that he never thought he'd reach, but sometimes that place just feels a little too small and rigid. Enter Even.

mørketid by panshambles (61k words) - DELETED

717 Miles by MermaidsandMermen (SophiaSoames) (114k words) - Isak Valtersen has 3 weeks left of school. He has to survive 3 more weeks. Make it through 21 more days of hell. Then he is going to hide out in his room for the rest of the summer until he can figure out how to get his life back on track. Find a school far far away where he can start over. Not make mistakes. He doesn't need a fucking babysitter. He just doesn't. His life is fucked up enough as it is.

The trip to you by charlyflowers (148k words) - Isak hates Even. He hates him with all his heart. What a pity the art class is also coming to the trip to Germany.

Checking From Behind by DickAnderton (156k words) - Isak is to captain his hockey team this season which means he has to somehow learn to cooperate with the newest addition to their team: Even Bech Næsheim. This proofs to be impossible, especially when nothing about Even's mysterious transfer adds up and his moods are just too frustrating.

(WIP - Smut)

Magic Eight Ball by folerdetdufoler (22k words) - first update in Aug 2019. His cubicle is in the bullpen, but at the edge, across from the offices along one wall. When the Chief makes his announcements Isak stands near the middle, leaning against someone else's cube, reading emails on his phone instead of paying attention. This time, though, the Chief is introducing some new hires to the office: a sports editor, a city editor, and a marketing head. When Isak looks up to finally acknowledge the new team members, he gets a good look at the guy who is going to make his life a living hell.

.. to the next universe. by xoxoxo333 (27k words) - last update Sept 2019. Isak thinks Even is just a stupid bad boy until they meet more often and each of them tells the other more about his life, his secrets and fears.

The Naked Cleaner by MermaidsandMermen (SophiaSoames) (38k words) - last update July 2019. It’s always been a thing, the gag joke gift Isak’s so called friends present him with on his birthday. Not that people care much about birthdays these days, all of them being all grown up and sensible and mature and…. Adult. Isak hates that word. The not so Adult story of when Isak get's a cleaner.

I Want To Love You But I Don't Know How by Skamzombie (41k words) - 11/12 chapters posted. Isak and Even do not get along. In fact they hate each other. But when Even finds dirt on Isak, well it is almost too good to not use it to his advantage. And then somehow Isak finds himself in the drama club...with Even where drama is definitely promised.

put me in a movie by Evenbechbaesheim (42k words) - last update Jan 2018. Isak wants to be an actor, Even wants to be a director and they don’t quite get it right the first few times, but , like any good NRK drama- they can’t keep away from each other for very long. A story told through the months of the year.

If You Don't Love Me, Don't Tell Me by orphan_account (44k words) - 4/5 chapters posted. Even's two sided personality is what drives Isak's hatred towards him. An asshole frat boy at night while he parties, then a top student by day who charms everyone with his bright smile. Except, Isak doesn't believe that Even has any good intentions.

If You Love Me, If You Hate Me by MacksDramaticShenanigans (44k words) - last update March 2018. Isak could be chill. He was the chillest. He was a mature, reasonable adult that was perfectly capable of controlling his emotions. Not even Even could ruin that.

take me to the stars by iriswests (230k words) - last update Aug 2017. Isak thinks Even is pretentious and impractical. Even thinks Isak is arrogant and uptight. They’re not each other’s biggest fans, even if they do happen to have spectacular sex on a very, very drunken night. And Isak doesn’t mean to do it again, but he does, anyway, so now they’re establishing ground rules and deciding that maybe they can keep doing this, no strings attached, no commitments, no feelings, and, most importantly, no need to stop disliking each other. And then it’s not quite that simple anymore.

********** MILD or NO SMUT **********

Waking Up with Your Enemy by evak1isak (1.6k words) - Isak can't remember what he did last night, but he's woken up with a hangover, in his underwear and in the bed of the boy he loathes the most: Even Bech Næsheim.

black hearted angels sunk me (with kisses on my mouth) by traumatic (1.8k words) - A costume contest goes horribly, horribly right.

When I Kiss Your Soul by jinglebin (2.5k words) - Even's soulmate wasn't who he had expected or hoped it would be.

I like my sugar with coffee and cream by imminentinertia (4k words) - 5 times Even buys a coffee +1 time Isak buys a shirt.

Handcuff Your Way To My Heart by sugarbeat24 (4.3k words) - Isak and Even work at Buzzfeed and are roped into doing a video together. Lots of "oh my gods" and eyerolls ensue.

How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World by panshambles (6k words) - DELETED

I'm Stuck on You by Twinklylightseverywhere (6k words) - Jonas lets out another nervous laugh. Isak wishes his best friend would shut up. “You two will take the spare room. Uh… with one bed.” “ONE BED?” Isak and Even both shout at the exact same time. “Merry Christmas!”

Hjerterum by littlemovie (Lejla) (6.3k words) - Isak cleared his throat. “Hi,” he tried again looking at who, he gathered, was the ever-elusive third roommate. Even walked to the fridge, keeping his eyes glued to his feet. He took two cans of coke from his shelve and a bag of chips from the counter before making his way down to the basement again, shutting the door behind him. Isak huffed out a breath. “Well, that’s rude,” he mumbled to himself.

thought i had you in the palm of my hand that night by hippopotamus (6.6k words) - They're roommates, and they don't get on at all. Until they do, at which point Even decides to develop a useless crush.

you call me lavender, you call me sunshine by aestheticzjm (8.4k words) - the one in which isak is forced to look over a friend's tattoo parlor and even works at the flower shop across the street.

Good Roast by lovelycarcass (9k words) - Even is a rising filmmaker and Isak is a cynical, sharp-tongued film critic.

Is This What You Wanted? by cuteandtwisted (10k words) - Isak is filthy rich and Even is a hardworking male model who just got signed to his father's agency. Even gets an awful offer from Isak: one night with him in exchange for money, and begins to despise him.

in the morning you'll dance with all the headache by bluesterek (19k words) - “Why do you hate me? Is it still about that kiss in first grade?” “You kissed my crush in front of me, Even.” “Yeah well, sorry about that, but that was like a century ago. Besides, you don’t even like girls.” “Excuse me, what?”

en passant by peachbombs (21k words) - The first time Isak and Even had gone up against each other at a competition, the judges had declared a tie. Newspapers covered the occurrence as an unusual feat—it was a debate competition; one side had to win over another. That was the whole point. But it kept happening. Candy jar au.

i didn't mean to kiss you (you didn't mean to fall in love) by shadesofcool (24k words) - football/cheerleader au with not much football and cheerleading because i only know the basics

Dear Friend by bri_ness (26k words) - Isak and Even work together in a failing video store, and they cannot stand each other. Isak and Even both signed up for the Love Letters dating service, and they’re both falling for their anonymous pen pal. She Loves Me AU

through these dark days by hippopotamus (29k words) - This is the world Isak lives in, half dead, half empty, half wild. A makeshift camp in a dying forest with twe- eleven other people, salvaging anything they can to make it easier, hunting any animal they can find to make it survivable.

hearts a mess by slvtherxn (31k words) - Jonas takes the new kid at school under his wing, and everyone instantly loves him... everyone but Isak. He’s cool, and older, and funny, but whenever he talks, Isak gets the weirdest nauseating feeling in his stomach. He thinks he might hate him.

Come On, Set the Tone by boxesofflowers, Eeyoreneedsahug (57k words) - Isak is a recently out popstar who wants to prove that he is not just another pretty face in pop music. Even is a self contained, indie singer songwriter who takes shit from nobody. Shortly after a public feud between the two begins, they’re forced together for a nationwide tour.

Blood vs. Water by bri_ness (100k words) - Survivor au. Isak and Even become become rivals very early on and they constantly mess with each other.

You Don't Even Know Me! by cuteandtwisted (101k words) - "Let's keep our daddy issues out of work," said Even. "Excuse me?!" The one in which Isak and Even are interns who got off the wrong foot and don't like each other at all (except that they do).

(WIP - No smut)

I hate that I want you by daisysmalia (17k words) - last update Jan 2017. Isak hates Even. He hates him so much that he even wrote a list. A list of everything to hate about the idiot. From his stupid smile to his windswept hair. From his random flirting with everyone to the fact he knows his name. To that feeling Isak gets when Even is around.

i hate your face, it makes my heart skip a beat by Bellakitse (20k words) - last update Sept 2017. Isak is failing History and his friends have the great idea that their new friend Even should tutor him. It's perfect except Isak doesn't like Even or the way his stupid face makes his stomach flip.

helium hearts (we're on fire) by itjustkindahappened (27k words) - last update May 2019. 10 Things I Hate About You!AU. Eva enrolls at Hartvig Nissens VGS in Oslo and falls headfirst for the popular and pretty Vilde Lien. Vilde, however, is not allowed to date until Isak—her sarcastic, misantropic introvert of a step brother—does. Together with her new group of friends, Eva comes up with a plan to set Isak up with the school's rumor-ridden bad boy Even Bech Næsheim so she can take her crush out.

we are made up of love and hate by everythingislove (straykid), puddingandpie (42k words) - last update July 2018. the one where Isak joins his best friends on their first North American tour and definitely does not fall for Even Bech Næsheim, their infuriating(ly handsome) opening act.

a careful hypothesis of the heart by StMisery (87k words) - 12/13 chapters posted. "The boss' fucking son got the job. Out of a pool of dedicated applicants. You can't just deny nepotism like that," he said. "I'm Isak, by the way. I didn't catch your name?" Leaning against the metal banister in the elevator, the other man was the picture of calm. "I'm the boss' fucking son," he said.

#evak fic rec #skam fic rec #enemies to lovers #hate/angry #alright i'm tired you guys

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7fics · 8 years ago

Note

Can I request a markjae wherein can I request a markjae wherein markjae: youngjae is a tourist who just arrived in los angeles and mark is the random skateboard guy he met and they would eventually develop feelings despite of language barriers. fluff :) thank you!

Warnings: swearing, mentions of suicide, probably rated pg-13

Author: Mia

Word Count: 5.5k+

A/N: So sorry for this completely veering away from the prompt because Youngjae speaks very fluent English and he’s also a catboy??? for reasons unknown. And also Angst alert. But there’s some fluff as well so I hope that makes up for it. :3

august nights in los angeles are the reason why mark hasn’t moved down to chicago like tyler is always pressuring him to. sure, he misses his best friend of over six years and would like nothing more than to kick it with him on the daily. but it’s the warm breeze blowing across his front porch, tickling the leaves and making them rustle, the taps and crunch of his penny board rutting over smooth sidewalk, and the umami smell that always hits him in the face when he rolls past tj’s skinny dump, the best place for chinese-korean fusion this side of seventh street, that anchors him here. he wouldn’t trade this feeling, the feeling of waking up to home and going asleep to home and being home, for anything in the world.

he usually takes a quick ride after a heavy night of studying to drain the caffeine from his system and wind down enough to get some type of quality of sleep. good or bad, that’s up to the tides and the moon and black magic because it’s finals week and rest comes around in short, clumsy spurts when the exhaustion finally does his ass in.

mark hits up his neighborhood convenience store for some ramen and monster, truly staples of his diet. he microwaves the ramen in some water and stirs in the soup packet, stuffing noodles in his mouth with some chopsticks as he gurgles out a goodbye to the store’s owner mr. den, a wrinkled vietnamese man of sixty-two with a drinking problem and swearing addiction. nevertheless, mr. den fixes his green polo shirt with a rough hand and waves with the other, always a nice dude as long as no one’s asking for any trouble.

the block mark lives on has a reputation of being that ‘rowdy frat block’; true to the rumors, parties happen on a bi-weekly basis, more often during festive seasons, but regular enough as it is. on a good day, they end in some sick-covered laundry to do and booting of wasted stragglers. fortunately, kappa alpha theta is the preferred spot to throw the craziest rangers, as they are sponsored by one of the members’ insanely rich parents and have a huge swimming pool and alcohol bar. parties occasionally break out at delta tau delta and run into the deep night, but they never make campus news for being the best or greatest. which is okay with mark because he gets to sleep in his own bed most nights and rarely faces sick cleanup duty.

even so, parties or any social gathering of any kind are almost unheard of during finals week. the same week responsible, capable students are reviewing for their exams, party-addicted knuckleheads are blowing their brains out to get something done, and in-betweeners like mark are working moderately hard, not sweat inducing, life contemplatively hard, but hard. with the brain and instincts mark has, pursuing a journalism major and korean minor, he finds a nice ratio of him working it and it working him.

this all said, the streets are usually a ghost town by this hour. which is why he finds a hunched body trembling in the orange glow of the streetlight more than an oddity. some part of his brain is urging him to ignore it. superhero mark is nice and all in the daylight, but a creepy dude under a streetlight past midnight is psychopath serial killer territory. he has some exams in the next few days that he probably needs to be alive to take. but another part is telling him, as he gets closer and hears the quiet sniffling coming from the figure, that he doesn’t look like a serial killer at all. if he is, either he’s a real good one, or mark is a damn sucker, or both.

even if mark wants to pass him up, just feet from his house, almost at the finish line, the guy’s shoulders shaking and his endless crying has mark slowing his steps and eventually stopping right where he is.

against all his better judgement, mark says, “hey, you alright man?”

the guy, boy really, once he lifts his head and mark gets a good luck at his soft features and young face, looks up. his glassy eyes find mark in the dusty glimmer of the light and mark sucks in a heavy, important breath as he discerns a current of fear so thick it nearly shocks him. he hopes this isn’t some trick serial killers use to get their victims to soften up, because mark is falling for it, hard.

but what really hits mark like a frigid ocean wave is the velvet, auburn ears twitching softly in his equally dark hair and the matching tail flicking languidly behind him. he’s a catboy. mark’s never met one before. it’s kinda cool. but the situation itself overshadows the revelation.

the young catboy has a bulging backpack weighing on his shoulders, his entire life probably inside, along with a black suitcase on wheels that he’s using as an impromptu seat. if jaebum hadn’t schooled jackson on the finite differences in physiology of the east asian races, after the ladder let his ignorance slip (something not to be done in jaebum’s company) and mark hadn’t been suffering through every waking minute of it with a dead phone battery and no fake appointment to excuse himself to, he wouldn’t be able to tell that this guy looks korean as hell. and by the ‘america rocks’ button pinned to his thin jacket and the sadness in his pretty eyes, mark can tell he’s a tourist that’s having a strike of very bad luck. to mark, los angeles is his home. but to this poor guy it’s a jungle of unfamiliarity and he must be scared shitless.

that’s gotta suck.

“i’m lost,” he admits finally in a heavy accent. mark shouldn’t be thinking that it’s cute and melting a little because he’s still not out of the danger zone. he could be carrying murder tools in his backpack, it’s definitely big enough.

“and they stole my money,” he adds miserably in elaboration. “i have no money, and i’m lost. i’m stupid.”

“you’re not stupid,” mark can’t help but say, rubbing the back of his neck with the hand holding his black plastic bag, fingers looped through the handles. “uh, what’s your name?”

the guy clears his throat, sucking up his sniffles. “youngjae. choi youngjae.”

“nice to meet you, youngjae. i’m mark.” don’t tell him your last name, idiot. i swear for the love of all that’s good and pure, don’t- “mark tuan.” he points behind him, kind of guessing the direction so he has his eyes on youngjae, gauging his comprehension of the situation. “that’s my frat over there. since you don’t have money, you can crash there tonight and we can figure things out in the morning. what do you say, youngjae?”

youngjae looks troubled, uncomfortable. “how do i know you’re not going to harvest my organs and sell them on the black market?”

mark is equal parts amused and deeply mortified. “american television is crap. it’s all crap, okay? read books, youngjae. i promise not to harvest your organs and sell them on the black market. so come, yeah? i’d hate to have you sitting out here because i can guarantee i’m the nicest person you’ll encounter in downtown la in the middle of the night.”

youngjae’s eyebrows furrow in thought. he casts one long glance at the street before turning back to the hand mark has out stretched to him, a very transparent question: risk it for a cool bed or play it safe and end up roaming downtown la in the dead of night, susceptible to god knows what? for some reason, when youngjae takes mark’s hand and allows him to pull him up, he gets a weird sense of accomplishment, as if youngjae hadn’t just chose short-time survival over very possible long-term suffering.

“let me get that.” mark pulls up the handle of youngjae’s suitcase and rolls it alongside them as they walk, closing the distance between the street and the house with each anticipated step. mark has clocked out his good deed meter and is ready for some blissful, air-conditioned sleep. again, up to the moon and the tides and good ole’ black magic. but nobody can tell him not to dream.

“why are you out here, youngjae?” mark asks curiously as they step through the front gate, barb wire swinging closed with a clink and clack, whining like the antique it is.

“america is very beautiful,” youngjae says wistfully, slight smile visible underneath the porch light as it hums to life. “i’ve read about america in books as a child. the land of opportunity. i never thought i’d get to go. then my mother committed suicide just a month ago. i dropped out of university and worked full time at a cafe, saving money to come here. looks like i’m back at square one.” his coy smile doesn’t hide the tsunami of pain roaring in his eyes, suddenly too much for mark as he looks away.

“i’m sorry...uh, about your mom,” he mutters uselessly. “i’m sure she’s in heaven.”

“or hell,” youngjae blurts out unceremoniously. “suppose you go to hell for that sort of thing. or purgatory. maybe she’s there.”

all other generic, commercialized words of condolence burn at the back of mark’s throat, dying right where they are, cold, metallic niceties that slide down as heavy as iron and drop resolutely into his gut. he coughs out a meaningless “yeah”, like he gets it. he doesn’t.

this is weird.

they walk inside. as jackson is the only one with a car, there’s no way to tell if the others are home. mark’s quiet anyway. always is.

“this is the living room,” he says, and flips a table lamp on. light blooms in the crowded space. the black, suede pull-out couch is swimming in clothes, a mixture of clean and not. empty cans of monster and beer litter the squat coffee table, rings of moisture already leaving their presence on this little piece of the earth where jackson lives to irk mark’s patience. he always tells that slob to get tidy or get out. of course since mark holds no ownership over the house he’s a little out of his jurisdiction to call those types of shots, so jackson mostly ignores him. but he still says it and occasionally jackson likes to play human, doing human things like having some dignity and not crapping where he eats.

mark points to the darkened room right off the living room, left of the staircase, “kitchen”, and then to the room left of that one, “first floor bathroom. help yourself to anything in the kitchen as long as you clean up. i hate messes because no one cares enough to fret but me. need anything and i’ll be upstairs, preferably sleeping but probably not.”

for the first time since he’s seen him, youngjae actually smiles. not a tight grin or nervous twitch of his lips, but a real smile. the kind of smile that is raw and panic inducing and something mark wants to lock in a box forever.

“thanks, mark.” youngjae drops his backpack on the floor and goes over to the couch. mark regains his senses in time to run over and knock all of the clothes on the floor, pulling out the couch into a bed and dragging some pillows and a comforter from the surrounding furniture to make it look somewhat like a decent place to sleep and not just a filthy couch stained with caffeine and virginity.

“no problem.” he waits awkwardly as youngjae toes out of his shoes and lies his jacket aside in quiet task, content.

“do you need some sleep clothes?” mark asks, surveying youngjae’s remaining cotton graphic tee and blue jeans.

youngjae smiles meekly. “would it be trouble?”

“not at all. wait here, okay?” mark goes up the stairs, all nervous and jittery for some reason. he bangs around oafishly in his black room for a few minutes, not having the sense to turn on some light as he focuses on finding youngjae something comfortable to sleep in. he finally decides on some green basketball shorts and a plain white sleeveless shirt.

this is weird, mega weird. he’s letting a stranger sleep in his house, wear his clothes. jaebum’s gonna chew him out for this. it’s almost not worth the headache. he goes back downstairs and hands youngjae the stuff.

“thanks.” youngjae does that thing again where he smiles and mark doesn’t know what to do with the raw and genuine sensation.

“yeah, sure.” oh, jaebum’s definitely gonna chew him out.

he goes back up to his room and collapses in his bed. whatever happens in the morning is for the morning. the caffeine cleanse apparently worked, as he passes out much sooner than expected.

* * * *

“yo, tuan!”

mark rolls over in his bed, groaning at the bomb of luminescence bathing his room in unrepentant shine, unamused. if jaebum didn’t haunt his dreams on a regular enough basis he wouldn’t be doubting his actual presence. but after a door--his door--slams open, mark groans again, but no longer doubts that the real jaebum is in his room, and angry for some reason lost to his drowsy conscious.

“tuan, i swear to god-”

“jaebum,” mark says in a mock conversational tone, sitting up and kicking his thin sheet off his legs, blinking his eyes open slowly. “to what do i owe this unexpected visit?”

“i could say the same,” jaebum grits out, livid. “what’s a stranger doing on my couch?”

that’s when the gears get spinning and mark looks over at his seething friend, who has what he remembers to be youngjae’s bag gripped roughly in one hand, the other screwed on his hip in impatience. mark understands why he’s mad, knows there’s a dude sleeping on their couch who could still be a serial killer despite his completely disarming smile and shy tendencies. but he’s not one to lose to jaebum.

so he says, “you mean our couch?” even if just to save face.

as expected, jaebum is less than amused at the quip. “i’ll give you two seconds to talk, dumpling face. who is that guy?”

mark stands up finally, and shivers off the rest of his sleep. he refuses to flinch at jaebum’s unrelenting glare. “his name is youngjae. he’s a kid from korea, and he got mugged last night, so i let him sleep here. i couldn’t just leave him outside so something worse could happen to him, jaebum. that’s just cruel.”

jaebum visibly softens, the grip on youngjae’s bag handle loosening and his stare melting a bit, not as hot and unforgiving as before. “he understood you?”

“yeah.” mark shrugs. “he speaks perfect english.”

“dammit, mark.” jaebum’s frustrated more than mad now, which really is an approvement. “you couldn’t be your normal nonchalant i-don’t-a-flying-fajita self?”

“flying fajita?” mark stage whispers.

“whatever.” jaebum waves him off, tossing him the bag which mark catches easily. “take care of it. if he’s going to be staying indefinitely, i want some background info.”

“got it.” mark nods firmly.

“you’re just a regular ole’ clark kent,” jaebum grumbles to himself all the way to his room, closing the door and leaving mark standing in his open doorway with youngjae’s bag and at a loss for what to do next. he loops the bag over one shoulder and pads down to the living room. his fear of youngjae possibly being awake to suffer jaebum’s wrath and feel all unwanted is dissipated when he sees that youngjae is still in deep sleep, half of his face buried in the pillow, softly twitching ears and rising back the only sign of movement. he then sneaks a peek over at the den adjacent to the living room. jackson is knocked out, pacified in slumber by some beer that reeks its way all the way over here.

mark crinkles his nose and moves closer to youngjae, dropping the bag softly as he takes a tentative seat at the sleeping boy’s feet, gazing curiously at his peaceful face. youngjae looks so young that mark is immediately guilty for some reason. he has these soft looking, peach-hued lips and a cute nose. being able to stare so intently, mark also notices a beauty mark under his left eye--well, mark’s left, but youngjae’s right. he’s very pretty; so pretty that mark is lost in him, only aware that he’s being just a bit creepy when those sweet eyes blink open and fix him a perplexed stare.

“uh, sorry.” mark backs up, actually blushing like some chastised schoolgirl. youngjae barely responds, still mostly sleep, only blinking curiously at mark so blankly that mark is forced to ask his next question. “how old are you, youngjae?”

“18,” youngjae says sleepily, rubbing his eyes and fixing to sit up. he’s a baby, mark thinks solemnly to himself.

“you graduated early?” mark asks after remembering some stuff jaebum told him about the age of university in korea being 20 instead of 18 like in the states. he smiles. “you must be smart.”

“dumb enough to get robbed,” youngjae answers cynically. mark’s smile vanishes. he doesn’t know what to say to follow that up. move on.

“do you know anyone out here?” mark asks. “anyone you can call, or ask for a favor?”

“it was really a whim decision,” youngjae admits sheepishly. “i hated being in that apartment by myself. everything reminds me of her. her clothes, her bills, her favorite spot on the couch. everything smells like her.”

mark is really at a true loss when youngjae becomes visibly shaken, choking up on his words and eyes watering. if mark is good at anything, it’s giving people space and letting the dust settle. but he can’t exactly leave youngjae while he’s on the brink of crying, doesn’t want to leave him. he wants to hug him and whisper hushed comforts until he stops crying and making mark feel like an unfeeling ogre as he continues to sit by and do nothing.

who has he let into his house?

“youngjae,” mark says gently, biting his lip in awkward anticipation. “come here.”

youngjae looks up at him then, glassy eyes the same ones that had warped him the night before when mark first saw him, sitting like a sad puppy on the curb and waiting for a sucker like mark to stroll by. his bottom lip is trembling a little, and mark cracks at that. youngjae inspects mark’s open arms for a moment, not too sure what to do with him, and then, to mark’s bittersweet triumph, actually crawls into them.

youngjae sits cross-legged next to him, head cushioned on mark’s shoulder as the man rubs his back, hating the hiccups and shivers that rattle through him. mark’s never been the most clever or timely with words, so he keeps his mouth shut until youngjae calms some time after, shoulders stilling and crying fading into the early morning birds’ orchestra.

“i’m sorry,” youngjae whispers in a quiet rasp. “you don’t even know me. i don’t know you. but look what i’m doing in your house. i really am stupid for coming here. you know, the really sad thing is i realize that after i’ve had my money stolen and have no way to get back. i’m an idiot. i’m so stupid. i’m the biggest dummy-”

he’s knocking his knuckles against his temple so hard that mark worries he’ll crack something, and he swoops in to grab his wrist impulsively. the boy looks up at him quizzically.

“you’ll hurt yourself,” mark answers his unasked question. “and you’re not stupid. you’re grieving. you can stay here as long as you need, or want. as long as you want.”

youngjae smiles finally. “you’re really nice, hyung.”

mark stiffens unintentionally. “hyung?”

“is that not okay?” youngjae sits up in a flash, face suddenly contorted in panicked apology. “i’m sorry. i didn’t mean to. it’s just, i’m pretty sure you’re older than me. is it weird? should i just call you mark?”

“no, no, no.” mark laughs. “hyung is okay.”

youngjae’s smile returns, and mark knows it’s gonna be the end of him one day.

that’s when jackson’s loud grunt breaks through the peaceful silence, taking youngjae’s attention, something mark didn’t think he would mind until now (because he does).

“jesus fu-”

“idiot.” jaebum comes skipping skipping down the stairs with a joyful smirk, books ladening his arms and backpack slung on his shoulder. he looks much happier than about ten minutes ago. he must have a stash of chocolate in his room. mark wouldn’t put it past him.

“who’s this?” jackson’s irritated frown turns into a curious smile at the sight of youngjae. he’s looking at him the way the man looks at anyone he’s preparing to swoon, and for some reason mark is ready to spring between them because of it. he doesn’t, though. they just met. mark has no claim over this beautiful catboy named youngjae.

that would be weird.

“youngjae,” mark says a bit sullenly, already resigned to this quiet fate. “he flew from korea.”

“i didn’t fly,” youngjae interjects, looking over at mark.

“bus then…?”

“some very nice men and women drove me here,” youngjae says vaguely. mark’s eyebrows pinch.

“you hitchhiked?” mark’s voice raises before he has any control over it, almost hysterical in that instant. “youngjae, that’s so dangerous. you can’t just trust anyone. strangers are off limits, okay?”

“you’re a stranger,” youngjae says cheekily, a very clear smile on his face. mark is disarmed for a very long second, again at a loss for what to do with youngjae. this strange catboy who is lying on his pullout couch, apparently an orphan (though he’s not sure about his dad, maybe that’s too personal though). he doesn’t know what to do with any of it.

“i don’t count,” mark says after a long time.

“okay.” youngjae shrugs indifferently, faint smile still etched on his lips.

* * * *

somehow, mark is able to convince jaebum that youngjae is not a serial killer, despite his own doubts, and he has agreed to let him stay indefinitely. youngjae has his own special magic. maybe it was between the behind-ear-scratches and the content purring; regardless, jaebum and jackson are both infatuated. jackson is more vocal, but when is jackson not more vocal in general?

mark is happy. he really is. but he has no idea what he’s doing at all. youngjae seems fine, most of the times. he’s smiling and munching on jaebum��s secret stash of chocolate (which jaebum doesn’t mind at all, the discrimination!) and being all obliviously cute as he floats around in mark’s slightly too big clothes like everything’s hunky dory.

(it’s not.)

then he’s crying quietly in a corner of the bathroom before startling as mark purposely clears his throat, feigning ignorance as he stomps inside to throw a thin greeting his way.

he thinks they have built up a system that isn’t perfect, but functions somewhat smoothly. youngjae vents to himself, and mark intrudes after some time to keep him from drowning in his own anguish. it’s good. it’s a good system.

then the systems breaks about a week after that.

one day mark actually does walk in on him as he’s crying far too quietly to even be picked up. mark doesn’t even notice him until he’s halfway in his room, shirt already off and hand digging around in his drawer for something less sweaty.

their ac’s old and uncooperative sometimes.

youngjae is wrapped up in mark’s blankets despite the increasing wave of heat blowing through the house, lasting as long as the ac decides to spazz. his ears are flattened against his fluffy hair and he looks so small and sad that a piece of mark dies. the older’s puny desire to hurriedly pull on another shirt to cover his bare torso is disintegrated under the need to move closer to youngjae. which he does.

his shirt is dropped somewhere on the floor on his way to the bed.

“hyung,” youngjae sniffles quietly, big, pretty eyes full of tears.

“do you want me to leave?” mark asks stagnantly. he doesn’t want to at all. but if youngjae says so then he will.

“no.” youngjae shakes his head while looking all vulnerable and hurt. mark slides in next to him, pulling him instinctively into his lap without fretting if this is too intimate. youngjae wraps around him. the top of his head slots perfectly against mark’s warm throat and the little breaths he’s blowing from his nose tickle the skin there. the boy’s tail floats down across mark’s thigh and coils loosely.

“your mom?”

“my mom.”

“what was she like?”

“sometimes she was mean to me,” youngjae breathes unsteadily, wet cheeks signalling to mark that he’s crying again, or more, since he never really stopped before. “she called me mean names and hit me. dissociative identity disorder, the doctors called it. it’s like she had more people than just her living in her head. sometimes she was really nice. she baked my favorite cookies and rocked me to sleep. then she was being mean again, pulling my tail and tugging my ears until i was so dizzy that i passed out. when i woke up she would often be crying with a new batch of cookies in the oven. she was my best friend and my worst enemy.”

“youngjae, i’m--uh, youngjae--”

“you don’t have to say anything, hyung,” youngjae whispers. “can you please just hold me?”

so marks shuts his mouth, which is the best decision he’s ever made in his life, and holds youngjae in his arms, pressing a soft kiss to his temple. he’s not sure if that’s okay at all. but youngjae purrs like he does when he really likes something, and so mark doesn’t apologize about it.

* * * *

taking him sightseeing had been made a thing with jaebum’s offhanded suggestion and youngjae’s enthusiastic approval of the idea. he sees how youngjae slugs around the house in boredom, pressed thin between the thoughts of his mother, which are so obvious mark can almost drown in them along with him, and youngjae’s own restlessness.

mark is more than apprehensive about it all because as much as the right side of la can be a plethora of all good things; the bad side can be the complete opposite.

even though mark doesn’t mind seeing youngjae walk around in his clothes, small frame swallowed by the fabric, loves it actually, he would rather other people never have the pleasure. he takes the boy shopping at a high-quality and wallet friendly shop in the mall as a segue to the afternoon leg of their downtown adventure.

the morning had been a rush of breakfast, window shopping, and youngjae touching everything they passed, never letting a single thing go without mulling over it first, endlessly excited and curious and so new to everything. mark thinks he’ll fall asleep to youngjae’s voice going ‘what’s this?’ and ‘what’s that?’ and ‘is that what this thing does?’ because he’s heard it enough to absorb the sweetly pitched tones into his bloodstream. as if he needs anymore of youngjae running through his system than there already is.

“hyung!” youngjae tugs his arm and drags him over to a shop after they’re done picking out a few bags of nice, cheap clothes that should get youngjae by for at least a few weeks, paired with items from mark’s wardrobe since he won’t ever get over seeing youngjae wear his clothes.

mark isn’t partial to shops with ‘pink’ or ‘stuffed’ in the name just because those things creep him out. also, his sisters used to force him into dresses and makeup when he wasn’t old enough to toddle away by himself, so the trauma’s still there. he’ll brave if for youngjae, though.

he’d brave so many things for youngjae.

“isn’t this one cute?” youngjae holds up this bear thing with freakishly huge eyes and the cheesiest smile mark has ever seen. it’s this pastel purple color that makes the older’s skin crawl. it’s not only cute, but creepily so. killer china doll cute.

“yeah…” mark lies uncomfortably, trying to appease youngjae’s smile with a tight grin. “really cute.”

“you hate it.” youngjae drops the thing with a sigh. his eyes search around quickly after that, widening in delight when he sees something else he likes. he rushes over and mark trudges along behind him.

“what about this one?” he holds up a baby blue pikachu with white blushing cheeks. it’s actually cute and doesn’t look like something he’d open his eyes to at 2am trying to harvest his insides. because mark tends to be as easy to read as black and white print, his approval spills out onto his face and youngjae beams.

mark actually gets the thing because his tight wallet becomes a little looser with youngjae giving him these pretty pouty eyes and pushing his bottom lip out like the sun will stop shining or water will stop being wet if he doesn’t get this blue fuzz thing with the white cheeks, ears twitching something furious.

they have a pair of burgers and fries at the food court before leaving for their next stop. mark won’t forget how youngjae looks at everything like it’s earth’s saving grace, can’t forget how the sweet kitty touches everything with an innocent wonder and amusement not easily replicated by hands that have touched and eyes that have seen and chests that have burned for reasons beside the scorching love for one’s love lost.

the original plan had been to catch the fireworks at six, grab some snack to take home, and be done with their adventure. however, mark’s perfectly scheduled conclusion to their day is derailed when youngjae stops him as they’re walking over to the park, pointing excitedly at a crowd of people huddled around something. upon wandering closer, mark recognizes this man as the one that usually sets up his street magic a few blocks from his house and amuses groups with tricks difficult enough to entertain the average person, but simple enough that mark was able to memorize them in just a month after a dumb bet with jackson that cost him time better spent. he’s not at all impressed, but youngjae is engrossed, gasping generously enough for the man to come closer and let him get a better look at some tricks.

“is it that fun, youngjae?” mark asks with an easy grin, never not fascinated by how the kitty manages to find boundless excitement in the near mundane.

“look at that!” is youngjae’s enthused reply, eyes sparkling and hands mimicking the man’s motions sloppily, completely focused. that’s when mark thinks to himself, infatuated beyond belief, that if spring were a person, it’d be youngjae. he has such a fresh attitude; that paired with his teeming exuberance and virginal glee towards most of anything has mark swooning, falling so hard he’ll need someone to scrape him off of where’s melted in a puddle for this sweet, pretty catboy with bright eyes and a childishly pure trust in others.

dammit, dammit, dammit.

as they’re walking home mark is internally pleased at how they can still still see the fireworks from across the lake and youngjae is ‘oohing’ and ‘ahing’ again as if he has the sole power to see everything in existence through rose-colored glasses. he wants to ask youngjae how he’s feeling about his mom and just talk to him to see if he’s still hurting because mark gets sappy at the curling at dusk when the warm wind is whistling past his ears and making everything loose and quietly blissful. he also wants to press him into his chest and kiss his cute, squishy face until everything else loses all meaning. the only concrete necessity being youngjae cradled in mark’s arms.

none of these things come to pass because youngjae slips his hand in mark’s and the older forgets how to breathe momentarily, exhaling when he needs to inhale and almost passing out before he gets the hang of it again. he spares a sideways glance in the kitty’s direction to see his tail swaying happily in the breeze and a soft smile on his clear, bright face.

not to be dramatic or anything, but it’s a smile that could cure the world of all of its impurities.

“can i stay with you?”

mark startles at youngjae’s honey-slick voice, staring down at him more focused. he must look like a puppy on a leash, but he’s okay with it being youngjae who’s seeing him like this, will always be.

“can i stay with you, hyung? for a long time?” he asks again, tightening his grasp on mark’s hand just the slightest and blinking up at him like this is all he needs. mark doesn’t even need to think, doesn’t care about the implications or strings attached because it’s youngjae.

“for a long time.”

and he really fucking means it.

#markjae #got7 #character:mark #character:youngjae #author:mia #genre:angst #genre:fluff #genre:romance

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andyfrills · 8 years ago

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Andy’s Fanfic Log 21/02/2017

So how that I've got this blog up and running I thought it might be a fun idea to regularly share the fanfics that I've recently read/am currently reading (since I tend to go through a lot of fics). The inspiration to do this actually came from @victuurificrec who, as the name suggests, runs a fic recommendation blog for yuri on ice. She is honestly a Godsend, the blog is so helpful and she gives amazing recommendations! So go check her out! Fair warning, I've been reading a heap of her recs so a fair amount of the yoi stuff you'll be able find on her blog.

I'm planning to do this once or twice a week, give or take~ I think I'll be organising the fics via fandom, with crossovers going under the fandom it displays most (e.g. a yoi Hogwarts au would go under yoi for its large interaction with yoi characters). If you have any tips or ideas surrounding this, then please don't hesitate to tell me!

Other posts in this little series will be able to be found under the read fanfiction tag on my page~

Fic Count: 23 Fandoms in this Log: Yuri!!! on Ice, Voltron, Harry Potter, One Piece, NCIS

On a cautionary note, I end up reading a lot of random shit. Until I’m a bit more comfortable I might censor a few things out, but there will be explicit fics, darker themes, crazy plots, and insane ships amongst all the sugar and fluff I find around the place. So the really important thing is to carefully read the warnings that I occasionally give & that are on the fic itself, and back away if it’s not for you.

Now, without further ado, let's get into this loong first log!

Yuri!!! on Ice

Enchanted by FlishFlash121 Words: 5.8k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri (Viktor Nikiforov/Yuuri Katsuki) Viktor Nikiforov is the eleven king of an enchanted forest. Mortal Katsuki Yuuri finds himself on a mission in said forest. - Cool concept for a fantasy au. Quite good so far and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it~!

of dusk and dawn and a love beyond by exile_wrath Words: 5.5k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri The King of Day, Victor, drops flowers to the Ruler of Night, Yuuri, to express his love for him; yet, they are always returned, as Yuuri thinks that they’re dropped by mistake. Victor cries and plucks wishes off the petals every time, remembering the time when once, they had been together. - Rather sweet imho <3

Stamina by Watermelonsmellinfellon Words: 1.1k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri “Can’t you go another round with me, Victor?” Yuuri purred, voicing teasing and deepening erotically. Victor’s eyes dilated once more and his breath hitched again. - Innuendos but no doing the do~ <3 Beautiful fic, go read it if you're into this sort of stuff!

After Banquet Special by Watermelonsmellinfellon Words: 1.1k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri What would happen if Victor had escorted Yuuri back to his hotel room after the banquet? - ;)

we're like two halves of one heart by grandeur Words: 2.9k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri The man smiles at this, looking both unfairly beautiful and amused. “Very cute.” “She is,” Yuuri agrees. “I wasn’t talking about the dog.” - Dogs and fluff. All things seem right in the world with this fic~~

shape of you by grandeur Words: 8.5k, Rating: Teen, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri From: Viktor [06:59:20 A.M.] I checked over my schedule and I’m free on Friday night if you’re still up for a date~ ))) Yuuri almost throws his phone across the room. - Sequel to the previous fic in this list <3 The perfect addition if you ask me!

in need of melted marshmallow cuddles by Hitsugi_Zirkus Words: 1.7k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri “Viktor. You’re Russian.” “I’m so glad you noticed, lyubov moya,” Viktor said, overly sweet as he kissed into Yuuri’s hair. “You’re a figure skater who spends most of his life on the ice.” “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.” “I mean how is it that you’re always so easily cold and-- Wait,” Yuuri’s eyes fell onto Viktor’s bundled up form under the comforter, “are you wearing my jackets? How many layers have you got on?” - Fluff and cuddles galore!

Maelstrom by feelslikefire Words: 43k, Rating: Explicit, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri Victor Nikiforov is poised to win gold in his fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final. He has the world at his feet, is unparalleled in the sport--right up until a snowstorm blows into Sochi, and he finds himself repeating the same day over and over and over. He stumbles over Yuuri Katsuki, and everything changes. - This is a time loop au and I think it's amazing! I really enjoyed reading it~!

I Want to Skate like Him by IdunAurora Words: 27k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri At age 27, five time consecutive world figure skating champion Yuuri Katsuki decides to retire. He has barely made it home to Hasetsu before he finds an eager and all too enthusiastic silver-haired Russian on the doorstep of Yu-Topia Akatsuki, demanding Yuuri to coach him. Well, it's not as if the Japanese legend has been able to get 23-year-old Viktor Nikiforov out of his mind since the young man enchanted him at the GPF banquet in Sochi months earlier, anyway. Also, Yuuri's smirks should be illegal. Viktor is certain he has spent more time imitating a tomato than he has been skating. - A really good role swap au!

our doubts are traitors by astoryaboutwar Words: 11k, Rating: Explicit, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri “Back then,” Yuuri asks. “Did you love me?” The cigarette hangs low, tucked between Victor’s lips. The end glows steadily orange, devil eyes on a coal-black night. (Some ghosts of your past you leave well alone.) (Or: the powered assassins AU in which betrayal comes first, forgiveness second, and love was always somewhere in the equation.) - A really interesting au! Waiting eagerly for more~

That's the trouble with us by heygorgeous Words: 6.3k, Rating: G, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri [AU - Elemental Magic] Viktor Nikiforov is a legend. That, anyone within a five mile radius of the porcelain demigod can tell; the fact that there’s a statue of the man smack in the middle of the institution’s courtyard goes to show exactly how deeply regarded he is. It’s just a little awkward, seeing as Viktor’s still, well, alive; his many achievements and breakthroughs in ice dancing, secondary Elements, and magical therapy may seem superfluous to the common man, but it’s what’s inspired the fusion of scientific, practical magic with the traditional aesthetical appreciation of wizardry. The man is a living legend, an urban myth, a collector of headlines and trophies and tokens of appreciation. This statue is nothing less. Enter Katsuki Yuuri, back as straight as a broom, fingers tightly anchored to the strap of his messenger bag. He’s sure there’s been some sort of mistake that his application got through, but the paper of acceptance is strangely durable and far too ancient to be some sort of joke. - Arrrrgh, this fic is so good! I feel like I need to read more T^T

Re: Yuri Katsuki by Ishxallxgood Words: 33k, Rating: G, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri, ChulaCometti (Phichit/Christophe - is that what we're calling this ship? If so I’m jumping aboard! Just hints in recent chaps btw) Phichit Chulanont is fiercely loyal to his best friend Yuri Katsuki. So when he randomly gets a direct message on Instagram from one v_nikiforov, it's only natural for Phichit to assume it's a prank. That is until he comes to realize it's not a prank. A story about how Phichit and Viktor bonded over their most favorite topic; Yuri Katsuki. Phichit knows all the things. - Phichit is a devious gift to the fandom, just like this fic. <33 It's beautiful, I love it, go read it.

Amateur Night by Ishxallxgood Words: 3.3k, Rating: Not Rated (I’d say around Teen), Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri, ChulaCometti (Hints) It all started with a Groupon for a pole dancing class... Phichit convinces Yuuri to actually dance for Amateur night and is pleasantly surprised when he recognizes two faces in the crowd. - Fic about a night mentioned in chap 27 of the previous fic in this list. Phichit strikes again! <3

Warmth by SuggestiveScribe Words: 1.4k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri "I love nights like tonight," Viktor commented as he allowed a momentary pause in his gait. He lifted his chin to the sky, gloved fingers still securely fastened over Yuuri's hand. "It feels dream-like, doesn't it? It's so..." He didn't pull his eyes away from the sky as he thought, and in the light his lashes were pale threads of golden silk. "Euphoric," he decided. - So cute~ So pure~ <3

Voltron

Marital Mayhem by genello Words: 21k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Klance (Keith/Lance) Cornered by the Galra, Lance and Keith find shelter in a local temple. There's just one problem—the natives seem to think the two of them are engaged. - I live for this type of fluff <3 Can't wait for more!

Quiznak Actually by fairy_laughing Words: 10k (expected to be around 30k), Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Klance, Shallura (Shiro/Allura) Hunk ships Klance so hard. Too bad those two idiots are blind as to how crazy in love they are with each other. Hunk decides he’s going to get them together by any means possible. There will be misunderstandings, awful dad-jokes, 60s cable, and space flu for all. This was written for the Primary Paladin Big Bang 2017 and there is artwork inside! - What it says on the box~ Very cute so far!

Harry Potter

Victory Day by WhiteWave14 Words: 301k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Harry Potter/Voldemort (I know, I was a bit surprised at first too) Harry grew up in a Rebel camp with Sirius after Voldemort's triumph over Wizarding Britain. Burdened by the Prophecy, he begins to doubt the Rebels' morals and slowly gets caught in his fascination for a certain Dark Lord. - I actually quite enjoyed this one. I found the plot interesting and well thought out, and the character development quite good. It has been a little while since I read this, and I don't remember if it gets explicit anywhere or not, so please tread carefully on this one.

Lonely Moon by eleventy7 Words: 65k, Rating: Teen, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Draco/Harry More than a decade after the Battle, Harry returns to Hogwarts as a professor and discovers a student with a familiar face and an unexpected past. - Sweet with a bit of angst ft. Papa Draco and his Cutie Son

Between Ruin and Salvation by ms. commas and ampersands Words: 44k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Draco/Luna - Actually a hetro pairing for once ww It was only one second. One second when Remus stared at the rigid body of his last best friend falling through the veil. One second when he heard James's son too late, when he wasn't fast enough to catch him. Then Harry ran through the veil. - I somehow found this old fic a while ago, it's an interesting read. The pairings listed on the summary aren't right btw.

Full Circle by tetsurashian Words: 14k, Rating: Mature, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Harry P./Tom R. Jr. Harry and Tom's souls are tied together. Which is why they're in this endless loop of rebirth. At some point, they stopped caring and just started f**king with people. - The humor is on point in this fic. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it.

Recreated Fire A Harry Potter/One Piece X-over by Mai Kusakabe Words: 117k, Rating: Mature, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Ace!Harry/Marco Harry Potter has always dreamed about a dark haired boy, his thrilling life and adventures. When his Hogwarts letter arrives, he discovers a new, magical world, and that not everything is what it seems to be, all in the form of a mythical bird that insists on befriending him. - This is seriously one of my favourite fics around, I absolutely love it. I'm constantly rereading it, I've lost count of the number of times, and I still enjoy it just as much the tenth time round as I did the first. I'd say that this is one of the best reincarnation fics in the HP/OP x-over verse.

One Piece

Azure and Ash by Mithril Lace Words: 86k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Marco/Ace For years Ace has dedicated himself to supporting his brothers. When the kingdom falls on hard times, Ace is forced to take drastic measures to care for his ailing little brother. Against Sabo and Luffy's wishes, he volunteers for a dangerous mission from the king: to kill the creature responsible for the kingdom's distress and bring back proof - a single feather from the phoenix. - I love this fic~ I've re-read it a number of times now and it's one of my favourite Marco/Ace fics <33

NCIS

Burning Rubber an NCIS/One Piece X-over by Kitsune Foxfire Words: 217k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): None - That I can remember... It's never just another case, particularly not when conspiracies are involved. The corpse of a modern pirate shows up on a naval base, a continent away from where he was last seen. Signs show he had unusual abilities; so did the UNSUB. What role do two black haired brothers play in all this? Can the team figure out just what is going on here before it's too late? - A brilliant, brilliant fic. Well thought out and executed. I've only read it twice since finding it, but it's definitely a fic I'd be more than happy to read over and over.

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Ronell Firouz of Pilly Labs, a brand that sells all-natural wellness supplements.Some stats:Product: All-natural wellness supplements.Revenue/mo: $5,500Started: January 2019Location: Los AngelesFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hey everyone! My name is Ronell and I’m the founder of Pilly. We’re a health and wellness company focused on making all natural, herbal based supplements for a modern demographic. That means products with kick ass packaging, top quality all-natural ingredients, and formulations geared towards conditions you actually care about.As of now, we currently have two products in the market; Stress Savior and Over Hang. Stress Savior (as you can probably guess) helps moderate the effects of stress and anxiety on people’s bodies - not just mask them like other products on the market today. Which, let’s be honest... is something that nearly everyone could use today, me included :). Overhang, our second product, helps relieve symptoms of hangovers (you know, the nausea, headaches, sick to your stomach feeling the morning after partying)? And call me crazy, but I have a pipeline of close to 8 other supplements I’m hoping to launch within the next year.In terms of startups, we’re probably as new as they come. Although it took nearly 9 months to get to this point, we finally launched about a month and a half ago and are generating right around $5K in revenue per month. But I think the craziest part of this story is that I did all of this while holding down an 80 hour a week job…imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I’ve heard it a million times… “you’re starting a business that sells WHAT?! There’s literally no way you’ll follow through with that.” Well, in order to understand why I got that reaction so often, I’ll have to give you all some context.For the past three years, I worked as an investment banker at my company’s Consumer division. That means I had the privilege of advising on everything from IPO’s, mergers, acquisitions, and growth equity raises for some of the coolest consumer companies around in a lot of unique verticals - cosmetics, nutraceuticals, apparel, footwear, you name it.A HUGE drawback though are the hours, which can be anywhere from 70-100 hours a week on a bad week. As you can tell, it doesn’t leave too much room for anything else, let alone starting a business! In any case, for the last year or so I couldn't help but feel like something was missing. After all, I was helping all these founders realize their entrepreneurial dream, why couldn’t I focus on realizing mine?About a year into my time at the investment bank, we signed a client that sold liquid herbal tinctures. For those of you who don’t know what that is, here’s a quick link. As any good banker would do, I decided to try their product to get a better sense of how they worked, and ended up picking a Kava based extract. It was supposed to help relieve stress, and hey, I had plenty of that so I figured I had nothing to lose. So I popped a few drops on my tongue, waited two minutes and...HOLY CRAP. My entire mouth and face went completely numb. Not only that, but I could FEEL a calmness comes over my entire body - I was hooked.Still, there was something I couldn’t shake about the product itself. It obviously worked great, but there were so many issues with the experience of using it that I couldn’t bring myself to use it regularly. The labels and logo looked dated, the delivery system (via a dropper) wasn’t convenient at all, and the marketing was all off - I couldn’t find a single person in their ads that was my age. It felt like the product just wasn’t made for someone like me.We ended up selling the company and everyone was happy, but I still couldn’t shake what I had felt before. How could a company with such an amazing product still makes me not want to use it? It was then that the little lightbulb in my head went off. Was it just this company that made me feel this way, or was there truly no company out there that had it all - modern appealing packaging, all-natural herbal ingredients, and marketing geared towards a more modern demographic? Turning to my good pal Google, I went to work. While a few companies popped up that satisfied some of my criteria, I still felt like none really hit the nail on the head.After that, I was sold. I figured I had nothing to lose, and more importantly, I realized I had a real chance to make a difference and allow people to unleash their highest performing selves. Who in their right mind would say no to that? So with little more than enthusiasm and an idea, I got to work making a brand that would really stand out from the crowd. Before I did though, I wrote down the things I want my brand to have and do so that I wouldn’t lose sight of my goal:The company had to look and feel professional, with marketing, a website, and branding that were all top notchThe product label had to be unique yet appeal to everyone, and eliminate that “medicinal” and “prescription pill” look of current supplementsThe ingredients had to be 100% natural, healthy, and effective without hiding behind “proprietary blends”, weak dosages, or fillers. In two words - ZERO COMPROMISEMy products had to solve REAL issues people cared aboutI had to have fun, and love the entire processimageTake us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product....aaaand then I was stuck. I literally had no idea where to start. To make matters worse, I was getting absolutely crushed with work at my job and was really considering shelving the idea permanently. But then I got real with myself. I realized that if I never pursued this opportunity, I would regret it for the rest of my life. I would continue to see other people living out their dreams while I worked insane hours making their dreams a reality. Hell. No.The next few months were an absolute blur. I would come home late at night, hit the gym, and immediately start working on Pilly right afterwards. I filed my LLC paperwork through Legal Zoom, skipped lunches to open a bank account for my business and get on calls with graphic designers, found label printing companies, and would spend my nights researching ingredients to use in my first few products.After maybe 15 label iterations (you can see one of my earliest iterations and my current one below), multiple formulation changes, and tons of sleepless nights, I finally had some real momentum.imageProbably my biggest break was finding a fantastic manufacturer two hours away from my house who had a low MOQ (minimum order quantity), great feedback on my ingredients and dosages, and fair pricing. Having had multiple manufacturers ghost me or not even take me seriously, I felt pretty lucky that I was able to find them. And so, about 3-4 months into my venture, I was no longer stuck, I was back in business.After placing my order and waiting for two months, I was able to get my first batch of inventory. Given all the research and back and forth I had with my manufacturer, I was ecstatic that things went off without a hitch. The bottles and labels were exactly how I wanted them, and best of all, the products WORKED. After doing a quick victory lap, I called up a few friends and family that I had told about my business and asked them to try the products too. Luckily, their results were just as good as mine. At that point, I felt comfortable enough to bring my products to market. It was time to sell.Describe the process of launching the business.As my manufacturer told me, “Great, you made the product. Now you’re only 10% of the way there.” The other 90%? Marketing. In truth, he was right. It’s one thing to actually create a product, it’s something entirely different to try and reach people that would use it in a creative and cost efficient way. And now that I had my inventory, I had to set out to create a presence that was uniquely mine on the internet.Making an online presence for Pilly was probably the area where I made the most mistakes. I tried to go the cheap route with a less than stellar website designer, hired someone to manage my social media accounts that really didn’t understand my brand, and didn’t really take the time to learn how to market my product. Sure, I could blame the long hours at work or my lack of understanding of marketing, but at the end of the day I knew I’d have to own my mistakes. After all, that’s really what entrepreneurship is - learning as you go, iterating a million times over, and finding ways to master practices you’ve never even done before.After my initial setbacks, I was able to find an absolutely incredible website coder on 99 Designs to build my site, do some quick photoshoots with the help of my friends and family, get a pretty solid social media following, and ultimately launch. And let me tell you, flipping the website live was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.imageI think everyone can see what I’m saying… Left hand side is the original website with its cartoon font and typos. Right hand side is our current website. The difference is unreal, and customers notice!After 9 months of hard work bootstrapping and financing the entire business myself, I finally had a real business up and running. In retrospect, I think one of the biggest lessons learned on that day is not to doubt myself. Nearly every day since I decided to start the business, I heard a little voice in my head telling me how crazy I was for pursuing this. But after I finally flipped my website live, that voice completely disappeared.As for the launch itself, I used everything at my disposal to try and drive traffic to my site. I posted on social media, told all my friends and family about it, and reached out to tons of influencers, writers, and pretty much anybody that I thought would enjoy my products. The result was pretty great, with sales starting at a slow trickle and then picking up consistently. To be honest, it gets tough at times to balance my current job and invest in Pilly’s growth, but the satisfaction of knowing that my products are helping real people is all the motivation I need to keep going.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Since launch, we’ve seen a majority of our traffic (~70%) come from Google PPC ads. I think the beauty of google is that every search is intent driven, meaning that people are actively looking for a service or product when they google certain keywords.So when people search for anxiety supplements, you know they WANT to buy our product. When people search for ways to relieve hangover symptoms, they’re actively looking for products that can help with that problem. It’s also helped to link my Google Ads account to Google Analytics, which is a super powerful tool that allows you to see all kinds of metrics about your web traffic.I can’t give away all my secrets, but I will say that the two most impactful component of ads are your keywords and your ad copy. For keywords, Google allows you to bid on each click (thus ‘CPC’ or Cost per Click) that you drive towards your website. If you have super high quality keywords, you get more clicks. If you have low relevance keywords, which would be like me serving my adswhen someone searches for “chocolate cake”, you’re basically throwing your money away. For ad copy, we’ve seen HUGE swings in the profitability of our ads by changing a few words or phrases. For example, using the phrase “Hate your Hangover?” instead of “Hangover Pill” is way more engaging. For anyone working with Google Ads, learn to iterate and think like your customer. What can you write to immediately engage someone with your brand?imageSample dashboard from Google Ads. This literally just scratches the surface in terms of the analytics you can get...Approximately 20% of our customer traffic has come from Instagram, which is truly an amazing platform to interact with fans of our brand.https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxm0wmmB8ioDuring lunches of breaks at work, I’m constantly on Instagram answering DM’s from people interested in Pilly. I’ve also been toying with facebook and Instagram ads as well, which I’ve heard have roughly a 40% lower CPA than Google Ads, so that’ll be something that I’ll look into more over the coming months.I’ve also heard that email marketing is the holy grail of customer retention because it’s free, easy, and targeted towards people that clearly want your product. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to really invest into some stellar email campaigns, but I’m hoping to do that very soon.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Today, things are going exactly as I’d hoped. Sales are ticking upwards, the feedback I get from people using my product is awesome, and I absolutely love watching the business grow.Although the business is profitable, I think there’s always room for improvement. Our gross margins are right around 80% for each bottle we sell but we’re not netting as much as we can be because we haven’t optimized some of our ads (our CPA is higher than I’d like). Since marketing is our biggest expense now, lowering CPC and CPA is one of my highest priorities in the coming months.imageIn the medium to long term I have 3 main goals. The first is to find a top notch 3PL that I can use for product fulfillment. Given that I’m fulfilling every order myself now, taking that off my plate would give me an insane amount of time back. My second goal is to launch a few more products by the end of the year, including supplements for memory/focus, restful sleep, and energy. My third and probably most ambitious goal is to scale up my business to the point where I can work on it full time. Running this business has truly been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, and if I can get it to the point where I change it from side hustle to full time job, I’d be the happiest guy on earth.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpfulor advantageous?As I’ve built this business, there’s been a lot of times when I’ve made mistakes, made the wrong choice, or just flat out messed up. But the important thing was that I learned from those times and made myself better because of them. If I had to distill down those lessons into a few points, it would probably be these 6:Create ValueMake. Good. Products. At the end of the day, business is insanely simple. People have problems, and they’re willing to pay to have those problems solved. Does your product or service fix those problems? Does your product or service create enough value where someone would pay for it? If the answer is yes, then you’ve got a good business. It’s as simple as that.Wow Your CustomersThere are trillions of products out there just like yours, so what makes yours so special? In order to stand out from the crowd, you have to go above and beyond to make them feel special, and make them feel like your product truly is the best.With Pilly for example, every package we ship is custom branded, comes with a custom thank you card, and is wrapped in some super cool branded wrapping paper. It elevates the experience from normal to outstanding, and customers notice. So when you’re making your product ask yourself how you can wow and excite your customers.Don’t be cheapThis one hits close to home, but sometimes it pays to not cut corners. I thought I was doing the right thing by getting a cheaper web designer for example, but all it ended up doing was costing me time and tons of money. When it comes to the core expenses of your business (ingredients, packaging, websites, etc.) go for quality. Always.PerseveranceYou will hear “No” a million times. People will laugh. People will reject you. People will say your business idea is bad. But instead of proving them right, use that negativity as fuel to prove them wrong. Find it in yourself to persevere even when it seems like nobody is in your corner. I guarantee it’ll make success that much sweeter.Google is your friendThis is a no brainer, but literally anything you could ever want to know or do can be found on the internet. If you’re unsure how to do something, look it up and figure it out. Become a student of the game. Entrepreneurship isn’t easy, but there’s also no reason to say you didn’t know how to do something when you can easily look it up and learn how to do it in a day.Embrace the Fing hustle*Nothing worthwhile in this life is easy. If you want something, you go get it, and you don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way. Period. When I first didn’t have a place to store all my inventory, I made my apartment my storage space. When I didn’t know how to run ads, I taught myself. When I didn’t know how to apply for a tax license, I researched it. Hustle, grind, be resourceful, and persevere, and things will come.What platform/tools do you use for your business?Shopify for e-commerce. It’s truly a game changer for entrepreneursGoAffPro for affiliate marketing. It integrates right into shopifyKlayvio for email marketing99 Designs for most freelance design workInstagram and Facebook for MarketingGoogle Ads and Facebook Ads for PPC advertisementsPhotographer - Nicole Albrecht(she’s amazing)What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?My favorite book by far has been The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ Demarco. Anyone who hasn’t read it absolutely should. His perspective and analogies are top notch and really make you see things from a different perspective.As for podcasts, I think everyone should listen to The MFCEO Project by Andy Frisella. He’s a no bullshit, incredibly successful entrepreneur who tells it like it is. He’s probably one of the most motivational people I know with some of the most practical, actionable advice out there. On my commutes to and from work, it’s my go-to podcast for sure.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?If I had to leave anyone with one piece of advice, it’s to fail fast, fail often, and fail forward. Starting a business is tough, especially if you’re going at it alone in a field you have no expertise in. Understand that you will make mistakes (and you’ll probably make a lot of them) but don’t allow them to defeat you. Learn from them, see them as opportunities for growth, and use it as fuel to propel your brand to the next level.Another piece of advice is to go out there and just do. At some point in history, there’s going to be someone that does that thing you really, really want to do. So why can’t it be you? Life isn’t meant to be lived on the sidelines, it’s meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest extent. So if you have an idea or a business you want to start, just start. The rest of it will fall into place and your life will be so much richer because of it.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?As of now we’re not looking to hire for any full time positions, but we’re always looking for more help in the following areas. If any readers have expertise in these areas we’d love to chat!Graphic DesignLabel Design & 3D mockupsCopywritingInstagram Influencer Outreach / Contact - We have an awesome affiliate program with 15% commissions. If anyone knows people in the field that would love to rep our products, let’s get in touch!Where can we go to learn more?Website: GetPilly.comInstagram: @PillyLabsEmail: [email protected] you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

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