#6 person hot tubs | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

captain-bubble-wrap · 14 days ago

Text

Warnings | none

Word count | 5.1k

Summary | 6 years is a long time to go without talking to someone after they hung up on you. What do you do when that person messages you out of the blue?

Tagged cuties | @quinnsbabygirl @quinnhughesandqenthusiast @ruinix

- - -

"You just don't understand it, Quinn!"

"I don't? Really? Maybe you don't understand how it works! You don't own me, you know."

"I'm not trying to, but you keep playing with me!"

You were pacing around your dorm room, phone against your ear, deep in an argument with Quinn. He was less than four months into his rookie NHL season and you were starting another year at Michigan. Things had been rough between the two of you since he had left, but now it was so much worse. Talking to him was impossible, or rather, getting him to talk to you was impossible. He rarely texted your first, and if he did, it was to tell you that he was going on the road and just wouldn't want to be on his phone.

Trying to be in his life as much as he'd let you, you tried to watch as many games as you could while balancing class and work. Tonight, Vancouver had lost to the Lightning 9-2 in Tampa and you had just called to be there for him, and it had been a fight since he answered.

"Playing with you?" He scoffed. "You don't let me breathe, Y|N! You don't trust me! I can't do this anymore. I'm over it!"

You rolled your eyes, mouth open to interject just as soon as he was done. "Why would I trust you? You keep me shut out all the time! You have no idea how shitty you are in a relationship, Quinn. Go run around with the rest of your little fan club. Find one of them to screw around with! Don't call me--"

"Hadn't planned on it," Quinn said, interrupting you before ending the call.

That had been almost six years ago.

Quinn was enjoying some time off, down in Florida, around the holidays, trying to get over a hand injury that had been plaguing him for some time. It was late in the evening when he found himself alone in the hot tub, making sure he didn't drop his phone in the steaming water while he scrolled through his Instagram. He had connected with a girl based in Vancouver a few weeks ago and was about to DM her when something else caught his eye. Someone he hadn't thought about in years; someone he hadn't realized he was even still following.

The two of you had met in college; Quinn having enrolled the year prior. You were on the university's Equestrian Team, but it had been your shared Literature class that had brought you two together. You knew nothing about hockey, but Quinn had been more than willing to explain it to you, when you learned he was a star on the team. Everything had been so fun when you were together. However, that fun soon ran out when he left the States for Vancouver. Twenty-five hundred miles apart had been the biggest strain on your relationship, but the time difference, the unknowing, and the mistrust on your part had been the final nails in the coffin.

You had been nineteen, and he was twenty. Neither of you had any business in a long-distance relationship, let alone any kind of relationship built on a fast-paced attraction and no emotional foundation. However, you had taken everything he had done personally, as he had been only the second guy you had ever dated. You just didn't know what you were doing. That was something that you had realized much later in life, and you'd be lying if you hadn't wanted to reconnect with him, if just to apologize, but too much had happened, and you felt it was too late. His posts on Instagram still dinged in on your phone and you would view them when you were curious enough, but often times you'd just clear the notifications. Those days, between the two of you, had been so long ago, and you feared he didn't remember you anyways except for maybe a black spot in his memory.

Your hockey-watching days had come to and end when your relationship had bit the bullet, but you had heard from mutual friends, who remembered Quinn and who were avid sports watchers, that he had made some significant strides in his career with the Canucks. You were happy for him, sure, but the constant reminder of you having been with him had hurt too much and you wondered if it would just be easier to unfollow him. However, you never did. It wasn't like he posted that often, anyways.

It was nearing eleven in the evening outside St. Augustine, Florida. You were getting buckets ready for the morning's feedings when you phone pinged. Anytime your phone went off that late you always made sure to check it. Your parents always told you that calls after hours were never good news. Though, when you turned on the screen, you weren't expecting to see that notification.

Who had sent you a message? Did that say Quinn Hughes had sent you a message? The message read almost like spam, but the account was verified. So, if it was really him, then why? You hadn't spoken since the breakup. In fact, the last message had been from 2019...

Quinn Hughes: Hey, Y|N. I don't know if you even want to hear from me. I thought I might see how you were doing. I hope you're well. It would be nice to hear from you. (11:11pm)

You were in shock. Quinn, after all of these years, had actually reached out? Again, you wondered, why? He had all of these years and now, of all times? You thought on it for a minute, and the only conclusion you could come to was that he was looking for someone else and noticed you were still on his list. There was no other reason for him to notice you. Sure, your Insta account was active, you had a decent following, but you weren't being sought after by any professional athletes, by any means.

Quinn, on the other hand, while he waited for you to reply, if even at all, decided to return to your photos, and pick up where he had left off. He saw your two new horses, your sponsorship with Nikovian, the purchase of the barn in St. Augustine, but what stopped him from scrolling was the gold medal you had won at the Paris Olympics last summer. He remembered going to a couple of your shows back in college, but had no idea what was going on other than you were jumping things against a stopwatch. He found himself smiling at your picture without meaning to. He was taken aback by how much had changed since the two of you had been together. He couldn't get over the massive advancements to both of your lives: he was the captain of the Canucks, and you were a gold medal Olympian.

Twenty minutes you'd leave Quinn on read before you managed to figure out what you wanted to say to him. There had been so much you had wanted to say in the past that no longer carried the same weight as it did now.

Y|N: Well, yours was definitely the last name I expected to see flash up in my notifications. (11:35pm)

Quinn Hughes: I wasn't expecting to see yours either. I figured you had blocked me. (11:36pm)

Y|N: No, I never thought about blocking you. Deleting you, sure, but even then, I didn't do it. (11:40pm)

Quinn Hughes: Well, that's good. :) (11:42pm)

What was he doing? How were you supposed to respond to what he was saying -- how he was coming off? You wanted to be bubbly and excited to talk to Quinn, but considering that the last time that you talked to him had been when he had hung up on you, it was still hard to completely let that bit go. He seemed different, however, and how would he not be? It had been years; both of you surely had changed in big ways since that argument. The thing was, was that he had hurt you -- hurt you deeper than anyone else ever had. Not to mention he had never apologized. You knew you weren't blameless either. You hadn't reached out to him at any point in time to make amends, but you never disagreed that you weren't stubborn.

Y|N: Sorry-- I really don't know what to say. (11:45pm)

Quinn Hughes: It's alright. Honestly, the fact that you replied at all means a lot. :) (11:46pm)

You weren't oblivious, you could tell how quickly he responded to you -- the eagerness. You wondered if he was laying in bed, just watching his phone for your reply, wondering if you were doing the same. There were still horse chores to be done but every time that Instagram notification went off, you checked your phone. You felt like that little nineteen-year-old again which scared you slightly.

Quinn Hughes: Hey, I just noticed the time, I'm sorry if I'm keeping you up. (11:48pm)

Y|N: Just getting feed buckets ready for the morning, you're fine. (11:55pm)

Quinn Hughes: You're still working? It's midnight! :0 (11:58pm)

Y|N: I have almost 20 horses boarded here, so it keeps me busy. I don't always work this late but my lessons ran long this afternoon. (12:01am)

You found yourself in the tack room, laying on your back on the leather sofa. There was no denying that you were tired, but Quinn had you curious -- too curious to just end the conversation and go to bed.

Quinn Hughes: Wow, 20!? That's incredible! Knowing you, I'm sure the place looks like a magazine. ;) (12:02am)

Y|N, Ha, you're not wrong. I'd say you're welcome to come visit, but Vancouver is a bit of a trip. (12:03am)

Deciding to take a risk with the open door invitation, you noticed how fast your heart had started to beat. The instant regret ramped up when the notification that Quinn was typing -- making you quickly turn off your phone's screen to avoid him getting the "read" alert as soon as it delivered.

Quinn Hughes: I'm actually not too far away. Spending a little more time down home while I deal with something. (12:03am)

Y|N: Are you alright? (12:04am)

You couldn't help yourself feeling some sort of way about him, or about asking if he was okay given how he had worded his last statement. Self-control was becoming a slippery slope.

Quinn Hughes: Yeah, for the most part. Just a tendon issue. (12:05am)

Y|N: "Just" a tendon issue? (12:05am)

Quinn Hughes: Haha, fair point. I'm listed week-to-week at the moment. It's been bothering me for some time, but lately it's gotten worse. Just trying to give me some down time to get right before the 4 Nations in February. (12:07am)

Y|N: Hockey players with hand issues doesn't sound ideal! (12:08am)

Quinn Hughes: I would assume like a horse with a foot problem, lol. ;) What's the phrase you always said? (12:10am)

Y|N: No hoof, no horse? (12:10am)

Quinn Hughes: Yeah, lol. (12:10am)

You couldn't contain your smiles. How had him remembering the stupidest little thing bring a wave of emotion over you? Falling into a spiral of what-ifs, Quinn would double-text you which would snap you out of your delusional headspace.

Quinn Hughes: Would you really want to meet up? It's been a long time. Not sure if you were being serious or just said that to be nice. (12:18am)

It had now been over an hour since Quinn had messaged you for the first time in years, but it had felt like just ten minutes had passed -- somehow those six years felt like it had only been a week ago. The Quinn Hughes whirlwind was insane.

Y|N: Yeah, I meant what I said. If you want to come by, I'd love to show you around. (12:19am)

How long had it been since you used the word "love" and "you" in the same message sent to Quinn? It felt both foreign and familiar -- the warning lights were flashing behind your eyes, but the alarms were muted.

Quinn Hughes: Are you busy tomorrow? (12:21am)

Y|N: Tomorrow as in this morning, or actually tomorrow-tomorrow? (12:21am)

Quinn Hughes: Oh, lmao, right! ;) Tomorrow as in this morning. (12:22am)

Y|N: I'm always "busy" but I can make time for you. (12:23am)

Your throat tightened after hitting send on that message. You wanted to kick yourself in the ass for coming off like there wasn't any bad blood between you. Not that it was anything terrible, and you had grown since that moment, but that didn't mean you were still hopeful to talk to him about it -- clear the air.

Quinn Hughes: What time works for you? (12:23am)

Y|N: Whenever, really. I'll be here all day. (12:24am)

Quinn Hughes: Alright, well, I'll let you get your stuff done and I'll get with you in the morning for directions? :) (12:26am)

Y|N: Work for me~ (12:26am)

Quinn Hughes: Have a good night. :) It was nice to talk to you. (12:28am)

Y|N: You too, Quinn~ <3 (12:28)

By the end of the conversation, you felt like you were floating above the cushions of the sofa. Had you really made plans to see Quinn in the morning? For a fleeting second you wondered what the hell was wrong with you. You wondered what morning-you was going to think about your decision...

- - -

Sunrise had come too early. Your late-night chat with Quinn, and feed-prep had cut into your sleep, and you could feel the repercussions that morning. Regardless of how you felt, you had a job to do and a guest due in in a few hours. Hopefully that wouldn't turn into a mistake.

Just like he had said, Quinn texted you for the directions, at a much more reasonable time than he had yesterday.

Quinn Hughes: Morning. :) (8:04am)

Y|N: It's definitely morning, yep. (8:15am)

Quinn Hughes: Did I wake you up? (8:17am)

Y|N: No, I've been up since 5:30... (8:21am)

Quinn Hughes: I shouldn't have keep messaging you last night. I'm sorry. (8:23am)

"You'll apologize about that...really?" You thought to yourself.

Y|N: You're good. I could have just stopped messaging~ (8:24am)

Quinn Hughes: Fair point! (8:29am)

Y|N: Before I get too busy, here's the directions and the passcode for the gate. (8:31am)

Quinn Hughes: Gated, huh? LOL Thanks, I'll see you in a couple hours then. (8:36am)

Y|N: Be careful (8:39am)

Quinn Hughes: :) (8:40am)

- - -

Those two hours had come a lot quicker than you thought they would have. No sooner had you DM'd Quinn for the last time, your first lesson of the day arrived, and they were late. They were supposed to have been there at nine, but hadn't show up till closer to ten. Thankfully, it wouldn't affect your afternoon timeslots, but it was going to put you still teaching when Quinn arrived. Just one of those things that couldn't be avoided.

After imputing the code into the terminal, Quinn drove up the long, shaded lane until the property opened up to him. It was expansive, with numerous green pastures, white rolling fences, and several outlying buildings. Everything was perfectly manicured and matched from one side of the property to the other. Every building was the same shade of paint, the same style of doors, and even the landscaping. It was like a real-life drag-and-drop tool had been used. He had been right: it was straight out of a magazine.

Unsure of where to park --as he hadn't thought to ask about it-- Quinn pulled up to the house and got out. He was met with something that took him back several years: the sweet smell of fresh alfalfa, and the indescribable smell of horses. It was your place, for sure.

With hands in the pockets of his joggers, Quinn decided to wander towards the larger of the barns he could see on the property. Horses in the outside turnouts knickered and trotted up to meet him along the fences as he went past. They made him smile as he petted the noses of the ones who had been curious enough to see if he had any treats or not.

"Do you have a lesson?" Asked a little voice, pulling him from the moment with the animal. She couldn't have been much older than ten and looked at him with narrowed eyes, her hands on her hips.

"I, uh...no, I don't," Quinn replied, not sure how to approach the situation, resigning his hands back to his pockets as the horse nudged his shoulder.

"Well, you shouldn't pet horses that aren't yours! You don't know how to do it right! You'll get bit!"

"Emily, that's rude. You need to apologize," said the girl's father, deeply embarrassed by his daughter's outburst. "I'm so sorry about that."

Quinn laughed softly, "It's alright. Hey, actually could you tell me where Y|N might be?"

The little girl continued to side-eye Quinn harshly. "Are you her boyfriend or something?"

"Emily," the father said, unable to refrain from rolling his eyes at his daughter's possessive attitude. "Drop it, please."

Smirking, Quinn looked down at the grass for a moment before returning them to her disapproving features, "I used to be."

"You better not have been mean to her. I'll beat you up! Miss Y|N is the best!" She balled her right hand into a tiny fist before her father took her by the arm.

"That's enough! You do not threaten anyone for any reason. Do you understand me?"

"But--"

"Do you-- understand me?"

She gave a silent nod, still eyeing Quinn suspiciously while her father confessed his deepest apologies to him, expressing that he wasn't sure what had gotten into his daughter.

"This is a first. Please, forgive us. Um, I'm sure Y|N is still in the upper arena. Just follow that path there, and you can't miss it. Again, I'm very sorry about all of this."

Quinn had to contain his want to laugh, as the father and daughter returned to their SUV, the child looking over her shoulder at Quinn one more time. If looks could have killed... With the vague directions, he followed the paved, concrete path to the east and towards a very large building. He had to decide which door to take, and hope it would be the right one and not one that would put him face to face with a twelve-hundred-pound animal that wasn't expecting him to be there. Thankfully, he had guessed the correct one, and it would open up into a posh viewing area behind glass with numerous matching leather armchairs. Quinn thought to himself about how grand this whole property was and that he wondered if he should have dressed a little nicer.

The other people in the seating area gave him similar looks like the little girl from earlier. He, however, found himself locked onto you as you rode around the arena with the girl involved in the lesson. You looked like you had in your Instagram photos, but nothing had prepared him for how you looked in person. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been next to you, but there you were. His smile deepened when you came closer to the glass, but you didn't notice him. Quinn assumed it had two-way effect which allowed parents to see their kids, but the rider or the horse would be none the wiser to the distractions on the other side.

"Do you need help with anything?" Questioned one of the women in the room once Quinn sat down. "You don't look like anyone we've seen here before. How did you get in?" Her tone was of fake interest and niceness as was her smile.

"Just waiting on Y|N," he said softly, returning his attention to you. "I have the code for the front gate." He would miss the woman looking down her nose at his two-day scruff, wild curls protruding from his hat, and the relaxed look of his clothes. He didn't fit the aesthetic of the holier-than-thou equestrian elite and he didn't care. He was there for you and that was it.

The woman and her friend would leave before the lesson had come to an end, finally letting Quinn breath a sigh of deep relief. It was like the whole room had warmed ten degrees and the air didn't feel as heavy.

Eventually both horses exited the arena, leaving Quinn unsure of what to do now. He grabbed his phone and shot you a DM, hoping you would be around your phone before too long.

Quinn Hughes: Hey, I'm here. I'm in some kind of sitting room in the arena. In case a certain blonde tells you I'm here, I'm not looking to rob the place. :( (11:04am)

It would be fifteen minutes before you saw his message.

"Oh shit!" You muttered to yourself, checking your phone after getting the lesson horse returned to its stall. Without replying, you'd rush off towards the large building, stopping to collect yourself before you opened the doors.

"Hey--," you said, seeing him turn to face you. "I'm sorry you had to wait on me."

He stood up, already with a smile on his full lips. You didn't really expect him to look a certain way; you hadn't stalked his account like he had yours. You just hadn't had the time that morning to prepare yourself, but you weren't disappointed. His style was a stark contrast against your polished riding clothes, but you didn't care. He looked so comfortable and you were jealous. There was nothing comfortable about English riding gear. Everything was tight against the skin, restrictive, and painfully hot in the Florida heat.

"It's alright, I knew you were busy. You look--," he stumbled over his words. "It's great to see you."

Unable to keep yourself from smiling, you returned the warm greeting, "It's been a minute."

- - -

"Do you still have Tater?" Quinn asked as the two of you walked slowly through the stable.

You hadn't expected him to remember, "Oh! Tater Tot? Yeah, I still have him! I think he's turned out right now. C'mon, let's see if he's out here."

Leading Quinn through one of the side doors, he'd linger behind you for a moment before returning to your side. He couldn't help admiring the view, but didn't want to come off like a creep. It was hard for him to come to terms that all of this was actually happening.

"I'm shocked you remember Tater," you added, leaning against the white fence rails after whistling for the horse's attention. It wouldn't take long for the bay horse to come trotting from the back corner of the turnout.

Quinn laughed softly to himself, "Hard to forget being bitten."

"Oh, pfft, he got more of your hoodie than actually of you! I told you not to put those treats in your pocket."

"I didn't want to hold them, though," he smirked, reliving the full memory in vivid detail. "Think he'll remember me?"

"They don't forget, just hold out your hand."

Quinn gave you a look of disapproval before it melted to a shit-eating grin, "I'm dealing with enough hand issues at the moment."

"He's not going to bite you!"

Tater stopped just short of you, obviously looking for a reward for having been pulled away from his grazing. He towered over the both of you, and Quinn seemed reluctant to approach given his past with the animal.

"You said that the first time, too!"

Looking over, you'd laugh, because Quinn looked like a little kid scared to get any closer for fear of being eaten. You'd back off the rails and take him by the arm. The eye contact between the both of you, following the physical contact, left you both blushing. Quinn would extend his arm out on his own, but your hand wouldn't drop away from his body till the horse moved forward. You should have been enjoying the sweet moment, but all you were doing was internally chiding yourself for having been so upfront and touchy. He didn't seem bothered by anything, but you were for the both of you.

Once the horse was dissatisfied that he wasn't getting anything extra, he turned away and left Quinn and yourself alone in the awkwardness.

"See, I told you that you'd fine," you forced yourself to say, watching Tater walk away instead of making eye contact with Quinn for the time being.

He chuckled, putting his hands back in his pockets, "How long do you have until your next lesson?"

You'd have to look at your phone for the time. How had nearly two hours gone by already? "Oh shoot, um-- looks like I have a half-an-hour."

"That flew, huh?"

"Yeah..."

Quinn paused for a moment, trying to find the right thing to say, "Well, thanks for letting me come by. It was great to see you, Y|N."

"Are you leaving?" You were shocked to hear him saying his goodbyes so soon. "Did I say something wrong?"

"What? No, no! I just thought you'd want me out of your hair so you could get to work."

You looked away, feeling torn between two options, "You're welcome to hang around, Quinn, unless you have other places to be."

"Are you sure? I don't want to be in your way."

Shaking your head, you'd reassure him that you didn't mind if he hung around. He was welcome to stay out in the barn, the house, or just wander the grounds. He seemed happy to be told that he didn't need to turn around and head back to the lake house so quickly. Honestly, you didn't want to him leave so soon either -- not since this was the first time you had seen him in nearly six years. However, you couldn't let yourself be too excited. You still needed to talk to him.

- - -

The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Your afternoon lessons had been on time and went off without a hitch, and after the way the morning had gone, you were thankful. Quinn, funny enough, had spent the majority of your teaching time in your living room, asleep on the couch. You were so envious of the fact that he got a nap, considering it had been his late-night messages that had kept you from getting much sleep at all. Again, five a.m. had come quickly for you. Regardless, you knew you'd feel better with him driving home if he was rested.

Your two stable hands were helping you with feedings, when your phone buzzed in your pocket.

Quinn Hughes: Do you need help with anything? I feel weird just...hanging out in your house. (4:43pm)

Y|N: We're just finishing up, you're good, but thanks. Help yourself to whatever. I shouldn't be too long. (4:45pm)

Quinn Hughes: Are you sure? (4:46pm)

Y|N: Just don't drink all of my cherry wine in the fridge! LOL (4:50pm)

Quinn Hughes: Dammit! I'll just sit here then (4:51pm)

Y|N: If you're that desperate, you can come feed your buddy Tater. (4:55pm)

Quinn Hughes: I'm good! Like I said, I've already got one bad hand! (4:55pm)

Y|N: Suit yourself! ;) (5:01pm)

Another half hour would pass before you finally dragged yourself back to the house. Quinn was still where you had left him: on the sofa, but now the television was on, and tuned to the NHLN channel. (Go figure.) You thought to yourself.

"All done?" He asked as you planted yourself on the bench by the front door. It felt so good to sit down on something other than a saddle, because your back was killing you. The sigh that escaped your lips non-verbally expressed how tired you were; even a blind man could sense it, despite your head falling back against the wall.

"Finally," you breathed out.

Quinn frowned though you wouldn't see it. It pained him to see you so exhausted just sitting there. "Are all of your days like this?"

You'd pull yourself off the wall to finally look at him as you struggled to remove your riding boots. "Pretty much. Normally, I have a little more sleep."

It wasn't your intention to punch him in the gut like you did, but he remembered the early morning conversation that had kept you from your bed. "That's my fault, sorry."

"Oh, you're fine! It happens! I told you I could have just stopped replying."

"Yeah, but--"

Your second boot would hit the floor with a thud, almost interrupting him. You could tell your feet were going to swell... "Maybe I'll sleep in in the morning, ha!"

Quinn didn't know how to respond to your sarcasm and opted to just remain quiet.

"Don't feel bad about it, honest. It happens."

"I feel like I should get out of here so you can get an early night. Maybe we could get lunch tomorrow or something?"

You glazed over his wishes of leaving early to focus on his want to come back tomorrow. "You want to drive back down tomorrow?"

He looked like a deer-in-the-headlights, "I invited myself over again, didn't I?"

"No, it wasn't that! I'm just-- shocked, that you'd want...to make the drive again."

"It's just a couple hours."

"One way," you stressed.

"It's no big deal."

His smile took your breath away, prompting your heart to run away with your words, "Why don't you just stay if you're planning to come out tomorrow, too? If-- you want that is." You prayed he didn't see your blushing cheeks through the Golden Hour sun streaming through the living room's large windows.

"Oh, I couldn't--"

"There are plenty of rooms. It's not like you'd be putting me out. But, you do what you want." You dragged yourself to your feet and shuffled past him through the living room. The words you had picked made you feel like you were trying to gaslight him into saying. Best to physically leave that conversation for a glass of wine in the kitchen. However, you wouldn't be alone for long.

Leaning against the doorframe, Quinn had followed behind you. "You're sure?"

"I'd feel bad if you fell asleep driving..."

Thankfully his nervous laughter broke whatever tension was starting to form, "Yeah, I don't want that. Thanks."

"No problem," you replied, your back to him as you grabbed a glass. "Are you as hungry as I am?"

"Starving!"

#quinn hughes #quinn hughes x y/n #quinn hughes x reader #quinn hughes fanfiction

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hometoursandotherstuff · 3 months ago

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Brand new construction, 2024 small ranch style, open concept contemporary in Grand Junction, CO. 2bds, 2ba, 2,040 sq ft, $1.6m. I don't know who designed this, but according to the listing, it is an entertainer's dream. It even comes with a stripper pole in the living room.

Walk thru a narrow hall (not even a closet?). The floors are marble with the heating underneath. The sliding glass doors on the right are to the garage. Who wants to see into the garage?

The first thing you see is one huge room with a tiny kitchen (they're calling it "cozy"). I don't even see a fridge, unless it's the small door next to the stove. (The listing said it's ideal for preparing quick meals.)

The upper cabinets are ridiculously high. There's the stripper pole on the right.

There's no fireplace, but there is a half stone wall. Keep bearing in mind that they want $1.6m for this. Is that ceiling neon? What a pain if it starts burning out.

Sunken into the floor is a 10 person hot tub. Can you imagine swinging around, losing the grip on that pole and flying into the hot tub?

There's a regular flat screen TV and what appears to be a multi-screen TV, as well.

The primary bedroom has 2 closets, but no walk-in dressing room. ($1.6m!) It's a plain room, no fireplace, nothing.

I hope there's a shower across from the sinks, b/c there isn't one in the tub. More than likely, it's the toilet.

Bedroom #2. Plain, lackluster room with nothing architecturally interesting. ($1.6m!)

The garage has that neon ceiling and although it has 2 doors out front, it will fit 6 cars or, as the listing says, provide storage.

And, it also features a basketball hoop, so you can't really fill it up with stuff if you want to play.

Behind the house there's another garage door. I don't know if they're going to put them in, but right now, there's no driveway, patio, or plantings. ($1.6m!)

The lot is 1.65 acres. The buyer will also have the option to subdivide the property.

The development plans include 11 duplexes, so the buyer will have the only single family home. I hate this so much and I can't believe the price.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2908-Kennedy-Ave-Grand-Junction-CO-81504/13953108_zpid/

#new construction #modern construction #stone homes #modern architecture #entertainer house #houses #house tours #home tour

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izvmimi · 2 years ago

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our time - izuku x reader

cw: minors dni, fem!reader, reader implied to be a hero & high school sweetheart, oral sex (fem receiving), penetrative sex, public sex, hot tub sex, shower sex, sex toy use, safe word use, rapid shifts between humor, smut, and hurt/comfort, lots of cheesy jokes tbh, deku is a little bit sassy, bakugou and shinsou have unnamed female partners, baby mention. summary: you and izuku share a yearly tradition. a/n: i'm reposting this hella self-indulgent selfship fic because i can!

“This is a lot of packing for a two day trip,” Izuku teases, as you hand him your overstuffed suitcase, the same dark green typical of his merchandise. He places it next to his noticeably lighter one, which coincidentally is a deep purple and has your Hero name plastered all over it.

“Yeah, but I’m guessing you want to see me in as many outfits as possible in a 48 hour period, right?” you tease back, tapping him gently on the nose. He leans in as he presses the rear door close button to the SUV, then grins.

In a low voice, he whispers, “that’s quite a bit of clothing for me to tear off. Are you sure?”

Your face warms and you hate that you never win at this game, but try to come up with something quick to say.

“I’ll be swiping your card indiscriminately to replace anything you ruin this year,” you add, eyes lowering to where your finger is prodding his chest. His eyes seem to twinkle.

“Sounds like I need to make more money then.”

He’s won this round. The warmth spreads to your ears and reflexively you hit his shoulder. His grin widens and you slip from his gaze to run to the passenger side of the car. No more time for banter.

“We’re gonna be late, Izuku!"

Bakugou has given you clear instructions to pick up the keys to your shared vacation home between 6 to 7 pm and will give you absolutely no room for tardiness. You anticipate that he’ll make all manners of disgusted facial expressions when you show up to his place, given that he knows exactly what you’ll be doing for the next 48 hours, and you are still trying to decide whether or not you should play along and double down or admit that you’re a little embarrassed ever since you started this tradition.

Or at least that you’re embarrassed your closest friends are aware of what exactly this tradition entails.

Izuku, on the other hand, never has any shame it seems. If anything, he’s a little overeager for this “retreat” this year, and it’s almost certainly because the past few weeks at work were nothing short of a nightmare for him. Catastrophes that seemed to only prop up as far as humanly possible from you seemed to be the order of the day recently, and you hadn’t had time for dedicated physical intimacy in a while, let alone even see him between missions. The only thing that made it easier to tolerate his absence was that you fell asleep so fast these days due to exhaustion that you barely noticed his side of the bed stayed empty the entire night.

As he drives, possibly a little too fast and somewhat recklessly (frankly unexpected for a person like him), he holds your hand with varying levels of tightness as though he’s playing with the feel of your hands in his - remembering it, reacquainting himself. He doesn’t say much yet but you can tell by the look in his eye and the twitch in his lips (controlling his urge to talk under his breath), that he’s daydreaming. You have an idea what of.

Pervert.

“What are you thinking of, Izuku?” you inquire after a moment. The goal of the statement is to disarm him which only works half the time.

“Sex,” he replies, bluntly. He doesn’t turn to look at you, focusing on the road carefully, but his fingers tighten again around yours as you pull away indignantly.

“Stop!” you hiss and he laughs loudly. Every time he sneaks a glance at your flustered expression for the next few moments, he breaks out into another bout of laughter and you can’t help but smile too.

“People need to know how ridiculous you are sometimes,” you murmur. “I should expose you, honestly. Let them know who their hero really is.”

“I thought you hated sharing me with everyone,” he says. You meet his sideways glance as he turns, hand over hand, into Bakugou’s driveway. You consider his words for a moment, then sigh.

“I guess you’re right. I do.”

The car slows to a stop and he parks then faces you in the car for a moment. Sometimes you wonder how he manages to do this - look at you every so often like it’s truly the first time he’s ever seeing you, even if you’ve known each other since you were high-schoolers. He places a hand on your knee as you turn towards him.

“I’m yours, okay? Not just during our birthday vacation but all the time,” he reminds you. You twist your mouth to the side. There’s something about Izuku that indulges the more immature parts of you, and he handles them all the same.

“Understood?” he insists.

You nod, pretend-reluctantly, and he whispers, “Good girl,” before pressing a kiss to your forehead.

Things have been hard recently, you think, but when he’s close to you like this, everything you go through feels worth it. There’s another kiss that makes it to your lips, and perhaps your arms make their way around his neck and-

“I swear to God if you guys start to fuck on my property, I will tear both of you a new one.”

With Bakugou’s irritated voice calling out to you, there’s a flash of the driveway lights that nearly blinds you, as though you are teenagers being caught getting too close in the driveway of your parents’ home.

Izuku steps out of the car first and Bakugou throws a set of keys at him before flashing you an annoyed look. You give him a cheeky raise of the eyebrows to acknowledge him similarly, pretending not to notice the fact that he’s not wearing a shirt, and look around him to see one of your favorite people make her way out of the house from behind him.

She’s wrapped haphazardly in a shawl and you laugh as she hugs you, able to tell she clearly just threw those clothes on ten seconds ago, if the breathiness in her voice and the flush in her cheeks is not enough to make it obvious.

“Please do not poke my eye out with your titties, I’m begging you love.” She grins widely as she squeezes you tighter.

“You don’t need your eyes to suck cock, do you?” she whispers into your ear. You roll your eyes.

“Can you ever be civilized?”

“Good question,” Bakugou asks, but not before slapping his wife’s ass on the way back into his house. “Don’t crash on your way there, Midoriya, I don’t want to pick up your shifts.”

“That’s his way to say ‘drive safely’!” your friend translates as she gives Izuku a quick, slightly more chaste hug, then jogs backwards back into the house where Bakugou is waiting. “Happy birthday! Let me know when you guys get there!”

“We will! Thanks!” you wave.

When you turn, Izuku is already getting back into the car. It doesn’t take long for both of you immediately to burst into laughter.

“Kacchan is such a hypocrite. As if we don’t see the bite marks all over his chest.”

“And __’s neck. Embarrassing.”

You tease but it’s cute to see them so happy. Of all your friends, you think they’ve been stable the longest, and their relationship simply fell into place. It helps you believe that perhaps things will be good for you long-term as well.

As if Midoriya can read your wistful thoughts, he picks up your hand and kisses the knuckles idly for a moment as he continues to drive, the highway tapering off into a smaller paved road as night settles in. Both of you are tired from the week, and opt for peaceful silence and music played at a low volume. After all, you will have plenty of uninterrupted time shortly.

---

You’re not sure when you dozed off exactly.

Izuku nudges you gently to wake you then carries you out of the car with one arm and produces a couple dark tendrils from Blackwhip with the other to pull the luggage behind you.

“I can walk,” you murmur, although you like the idea of being carried, and hope he insists, which he does, and you nuzzle closer into his chest, taking in the scent of his cologne.

There’s a small gate outside of the cabin that is truly underestimated by the word; rather, it is a large and lavish three-winged property, U-shaped, and fairly secluded in the forest and trees. A section, the rightmost one, belongs to you and features the name ‘Midoriya’ on a welcome mat in front of the entryway.

Izuku takes in an exaggerated deep breath as he opens the door, and excitedly exclaims,

“Finally. Peace and quiet.”

You try to stifle a laugh as he sets you down, and stretch out a hand for him to toss you his phone and drop in a special safe hanging from the side of the wall along with your own. There’s a preset timer set for 48 hours (except for emergencies) on its display that you contemplate before confirming.

“It’s silly that we do this!” you call out, feeling the disconnection to the outside world immediately the second the safe beeps to signal that it’s locked. Yet it’s necessary, because both of you are bad at blocking out the outside world and simply relaxing when needed.

Izuku steps out of the master bedroom, completely undressed aside from a pair of boxer briefs which he is also actively in the process of shedding. You take in his body, impressive in its shape and decorated with scars and freckles, and almost miss what he says.

“What’s silly is that you’re fully clothed when it’s hot tub time.”

Your eyes widen and you blink a few times in succession as you watch him strip to nothing, and suddenly you forget that you’re exhausted. Swallowing hard, you make your way towards him, but really past him, towards the room where your packed clothing lies, and he intercepts you on the way there, grinning widely as he towers over you.

“I need to get my bathing suit,” you pout, knowing very well you’re not getting past him.

Wrapping his arms around your waist, he lays kisses on your neck that immediately disarm you. You can feel your body sink into him, as you make soft sounds of protest but soon you’re in his arms again and he’s carrying you to the hot tub, lips connected with every step.

…

The night continues and you sink deep onto Izuku’s cock, heat rising around and inside you. Your fingers cling to his broad shoulders as you slide onto him repeatedly, half-lidded eyes gazing down at him. He aids your descent, gliding you onto him as he worships your bosom with his tongue, laving a different wetness along your nipples and the curve of your breast, sucking at the sensitive skin.

“God, I needed this,” he whimpers as he buries his face into your neck. He cums, holding you tightly, filling you for the first time that night. The splash of water as he moves you so that your back presses against him and he can kiss the nape of your neck is somewhat soothing to your ears, as is the sound of his breathing as he holds you close.

You need him more - always, really. You revel in the way he plays with your hair and runs his calloused hands along your skin.

You also revel further in the way he dives deep between your legs, after you’ve sat together in the tub and let stress melt away, and after you’ve fucked a second time in the shower, your back pressed against the warm tile, and his hands supporting the weight of your thighs, steady despite the slippery water running over your bodies. He sucks your clit and blows softly against your folds, excited by the tensing of your thighs against his head and the relentless moans.

“‘Zuku, it’s too much…”

It’s never too much, because you can always handle more of him, and he eats you out till you cry and cum all over again, messy on his face, wrists in the palm of his broad hand. He kisses your belly as you practically convulse and come down from your high.

“Wanna rest, baby?” he asks. It’s hard for you to speak as your head spins, so instead you curl up against him. He takes it as a yes.

You fall asleep in his arms, beating hearts pressed close together. There will be more in the AM.

---

The smell of breakfast wakes you before a gentle ache in your thighs. As you shift and reorient yourself from the unfamiliar surroundings, you can hear Izuku make his way in the room with an impossibly loaded tray of breakfast foods he sets precariously on a coffee table across from the California King bed.

“Rise and shine, love.”

Before you can shift, Izuku makes his way on top of you, laughing as you wriggle under him.

“You’re so freaking heavy,” you hiss, but your arms make their way around his bare chest and you inhale his scent. His natural smell is comforting in its familiarity and despite the fact that you’ve been skin to skin nearly all of last night, you crave more closeness. His voice rumbles against your skin as he holds you tightly.

“Did you sleep well?” he asks.

“Like a baby,” you reply.

“Perfect. We should have breakfast,’ he insists. “We could go on a short hike and watch some of the birds in this area.”

“Mm, definitely.”

You kiss his forehead and satisfied, he rolls off of you too quickly for you to reach and slap his ass. He gives you a cheeky look and you crinkle your nose at him first before you decide to get out of bed.

You slip your feet into warm fuzzy sandals and head to the bathroom to brush your teeth first. A blanket is wrapped around your naked body, because you don’t like how the floor-to-ceiling glass windows make it easy for anyone (anyone who dares to anyway) to peep at you. Izuku is at the second sink at the far end, rubbing day-old stubble on his chin to decide if he wants to shave.

“Keep it,” you ask him as you press toothpaste onto your toothbrush. In response, he scratches his chin against yours as you bat him away.

“Maybe I will.”

Breakfast is filled with chatter and laughter, realizing you haven’t had enough time to really speak to each other in the past few months, despite living in the same house. You hold his hand as you walk up higher and higher up the mountain, clad in shirts and cargo shorts and too much sunscreen, bellies full but not heavy.

Izuku has a guide in his hand that you cannot fathom when he had the time to read that identifies more than a couple of creatures that soar above in the early morning, and you get surprisingly good pictures, particularly when Izuku uses his Quirk to get you high into the treetops for a better vantage point.

You do some foraging as well, of different fruits and flowers to add to your scrapbook, petals to press later -

Much like you find Izuku pressing into you shortly after, shrouded in the denser part of the brush, away from the shy fauna. All you can feel is him, all you can see is him raised above you, and the caws of birds that are probably embarrassed to witness how easily you drip like sap around him.

“..h-harder, Izuku,” you demand, scratching at his neck, his chest, his back, anything to communicate your feral desire. He bites your shoulder as he grunts in response, driving as much cock into you as he can muster, and you get what you asked for.

---

“I can’t believe you convinced me to roll around in the dirt with you.”

You gently admonish him with a kick of your leg, sending bathwater splashing at his face. He grips your leg and straightens it, laughing as you give him a slightly surprised look.

“As opposed to everything else you’d be willing to do for me?” he asks, pressing a kiss to your ankle. You can feel heat spread to your neck as he kisses further but stops just short of your knee, and then wades from his end of the bathtub to yours, pulling you to his side.

“When did you get so cocky?” you flick more water at him with your fingers as he grins. Your bodies shift in position, until your back rests against his chest and he’s holding your breasts in your hands, grazing your nipples with his thumbs.

“Way back when I finally got your attention.”

You turn suddenly to kiss him then pause. His lips are parted and soft and he looks somewhat surprised by your sudden movement. There’s something that’s said between you two without words, something that whispers I’ve missed you despite the fact that you and he have always been here.

“Do I still have it?” he whispers suddenly, as his lips ghost yours.

“Always.”

The scent of rose and jasmine fills your nostrils and love fills your heart.

---

“I’m surprised even though this is the third time we’ve been here, I never get tired of this place,” you say as Izuku lays his head in your lap. Izuku might as well be something like a cat or a bunny at this rate - you can practically feel him purr with the gentle scratches of your nails against his scalp, and his hand squeezes your thigh gently whenever you stop. “I still don’t think we’ve seen everything,” you continue.

“Probably not,” he agrees. His wavy hair is slightly damp still, and the rise and fall of his chest is slow and steady. He’s staring up at the ceiling and you can tell his mind, for once in a long while, is almost completely clear.

Almost.

You can’t lie that you haven’t been a little worried about your phone messages and other updates you’ve been missing while you’ve been engrossed with Izuku, and you can tell he feels similarly, a little bit of guilt settling in. It’s the same for you. Work, work, work. That’s what life has been like between you two as you’ve climbed your respective career ladders, trying to save the world as best you can. Times like this are rare and need to be protected as something as precious as people’s lives.

“Oh my God, do you remember the last time we were here and your nosy self thought it was a smart idea to start exploring the other wings?”

Izuku’s eyes widen as he recalls.

“Fuck.”

You start to laugh and kick your legs and he gets up, shaking his head.

“Shinsou told me the next time I trespassed he would have me shit myself in public. I hear him in my nightmares sometimes, honestly.”

You laugh even louder, doubled over as the image of Izuku, suddenly dangling from the ceiling by his ankle the second he passed through one door too many.

“The way you called my nameeeeeee!” you cackle as he pouts. “You were swinging there like a trapped animal!”

He purses his lips at you but you’re too busy laughing your ass off to notice, and eventually he ends up laughing too, falling back into your lap. His hands reach up to press your cheeks together.

“You know, it’s weird how many ropes and traps and harnesses are just littered around… Your friends are into some kinky shit,” he points out. Remembering many a midnight conversation about Shinsou and your friend’s ventures into shibari, you simply have to agree.

“I don’t know, I guess she likes being tied up.”

Izuku shoots you another glance, and you can see the glint of mischief in his eye.

“Do you want me to tie you up more?”

You tap his forehead with two fingers. “If I were into that, you’d know by now.”

He pretend-bites your fingers the next time you poke him. “Things can change.”

“Fair,” you reply. You pause, and then you look at him suspiciously. “You have ropes in your bag, don’t you?”

Izuku laughs frankly at the accusation. “I actually don’t, but I’ll keep that in the back of my mind… Plus Blackwhip is always handy.”

You can feel your face grow hot and he pats your face teasingly.

“I have other things packed, though.” Izuku grins.

That’s how you end up, spine curled into a C and legs raised with ankles by your head, panting and trembling as Izuku intermittently presses a vibrator against your clit.

“Come on, one more for me, baby,” he pleads, kissing the sweat on your brow as he holds your wrists above your head with one hand and torments your pussy with the other. Your voice comes out in soft cries as you try to recover from muscles clenching around nothing every time he makes you cum, swallowing the noises that slip out of your throat in orgasm with a kiss.

“I d-don’t have any more!” you cry, tears at the corner of your eyes. He gives you a long look and switches off the vibrator, and the last few pulses threaten to send you over the edge again. You’re too tired to wriggle out of the position and he doesn’t move you, keeping you in place.

“Temperature?” he asks.

You consider for a moment despite your lust-filled haze.

“Hot,” you finally decide. He smiles then bites your lip before switching the vibrator back on.

---

“I don’t want to leave,” you say first.

The two of you watch the stars around a small bonfire and share bites of cake that is slightly too sweet for his liking and slightly too heavy for your liking but somehow neither of you can get enough of. He says nothing but nuzzles into your neck more as you cuddle.

It’s surprisingly quiet and melancholy now, as if just a couple hours ago you weren’t screaming his name, as if his thumbs weren’t just dug in the spaces where you back and your glutes meet as he gave you relentless backshots.

“I wish we could stay forever like this,” you continue, then you laugh. “But you’d get sick of me, wouldn’t you, Izuku?”

“Never.”

You turn to look at him. He sounds a little bit too serious. He’s not looking at you but at the fire ahead and you worry that he’s worrying about facing tomorrow yet again. Izuku has once told you that it’s not that he’s no longer nervous, but that the anxiety is less and less able to prevent him from acting the way his heart tells him to as time goes on.

His legs move first. Always. And yet, it doesn’t mean the fear is no longer not there. It creeps when the rush of adventure is no longer able to drown it out.

It creeps when he holds you like this.

“You’d get tired of me first,” he adds as he fixes his gaze onto you.

“You know that that’s ridiculous,” you giggle. But he isn’t laughing and the crackle of the fire is suddenly too loud.

“It isn’t. There’s a lot you can have that I can’t give you all the time.” He says. Your heart starting to race, you pull away from him just slightly and his hold on you releases just enough for you to turn and really face him.

“I don’t want anything else,” you insist.

“You should,” he says. The tone of his voice is a little quieter now, and then he repeats himself louder. “You should want someone who is present.”

“I want you.”

He doesn’t say anything else because he knows you will argue away anything he tells you. So instead he sighs, not wanting to ruin the last few hours of vacation.

“Someday, it’ll just be this,” he says, “and it’ll be more than enough.” He kisses the top of your head. “I promise.”

You believe him. You know what he means by this intrinsically, as though you were in his head. A space for just the two of you and nothing to worry about. Where you can grow old together, where you are no longer weighed down by what you have yet to achieve and what you have already accomplished.

---

“I love you,” he whispers into your ear.

You know he does. You know, and if for even a second you forget, he will tell you over and over and over again.

Your fingers intertwine with his and you sigh, back arching as you open up for him. You fit together perfectly, again and again and again. Forever.

There’s a deep flush in his cheeks as he whispers words of praise into your skin. Another year passes and your love only continues to grow, tended to or not.

“I love you too, Izuku. Happy birthday.”

---

“The second my phone turns on, she’s gonna call me, watch,” you joke, as you open up the phone safe. 48 hours are up, and yes your legs are wobbly, but the red string of Fate that ties you two no longer frays. As expected, there is a flurry of texts that blow up your phone, and as Izuku prepares the car, you try to see which one you can respond to first.

I set the timer by the way 👶🍼. May the odds ever be in your favor.

gtfoooooo 💀, you text back to Shinsou’s favorite rope bunny. But as you watch your husband disappear into the distance, you think that it might not be so bad to have a little one.

“So how many?”

The expected phone call arrives while the two of you are back on the road.

“How many what?” you ask suspiciously. Izuku glances at you with curiosity.

“Orgasms? What else?” she clarifies, and you’re immediately flustered, practically able to see the mischievous smile on her face. Izuku hears it through the end of the receiver and laughs, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

“Izuku, do not answer-”

“Whatever Bakugou’s capable of plus one,” he says loudly, leading in.

“Bullshit!” your friend shouts back, and you can hear her already shuffling to tell Bakugou and you sigh.

“I’m hanging up,” you announce before an argument begins.

“Why babe?” Izuku whines, but the phone clicks off and he laughs even louder. “He’s gonna be thinking about that all night.”

“Don’t pick up the phone,” you say, but a smile forms on your face. You look forward and the sun is setting on the horizon as you drive next to Izuku.

It was a nice weekend. You’ll have many more to come.

Together.

#izuku x reader #izuku midoriya x reader #izuku smut #izuku midoriya smut #deku smut #pro hero deku smut #daydreams: bnha #mimi's notes

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naughtyneganjdm · 1 month ago

Text

Christmas in Jackson - Chapter 6

Summary: Tommy visits with Y/N and asks her not to give up on Joel just yet. Attempting to get Joel's attention, Y/N does something to make a fool of herself, but it does indeed get Joel's attention.

Characters: Joel Miller, the reader (OC), Tommy Miller, etc.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61159651/chapters/159622975

Warnings: Swearing, Angst, Making Out, Severely Touch Starved Joel, Naked Cuddling (kinda), some light breast play, etc.

Notes: I promise to update this faster now. Thank you to everyone that actually took the time to comment on the last chapter. It made me feel much better about things. I can't tell you how much even a small comment helps! If you'd like to read previous chapters, check them out here.

Last night? It was nothing like the night before. Falling asleep was hard. All Y/N could think about was Joel. What was sad was that this was a man that she had only known for a few days. Yet? The things he said to her and the way he acted? It affected her more than she expected it to. There was a reason Joel hid behind this mean and cold exterior and she realized that. But it also didn’t stop her from being upset by the things that he said to her.

Her day spent with Joel was incredible. It was different than what she was used to and it was something she very much enjoyed. When she was cuddled up in bed with Joel, he felt like someone she had known for a lifetime. No one had ever made her relax and feel as safe with them as Joel had that night. Unfortunately that feeling was short lived because of the things he had said to her before he left her last night.

Most of the night was sleepless for her with her lying awake thinking about everything Joel said about her. In a way, he wasn’t wrong. She was looking for something to prove that life was still worth living. For so long she had been missing that one thing to keep fighting for. Maybe she was clinging onto Joel too quickly and it would be hard for someone like him to handle.

A lot of her sleep was broken and by the time she officially woke up early in the morning, she decided to pack her things. It wasn’t like she had much to begin with, so that didn’t make it hard for her to do. Tommy had requested her to give him twenty-four hours’ notice when she was leaving so she went downstairs to registration. When she got there it was someone she had yet to meet, so she just left Tommy a note about how she would be leaving tomorrow. She hadn’t gotten a plane ticket yet, but she was sure that she could get something out of town. Even if it took a few flights to get back home.

There was a lot of pent-up energy that she had lingering inside of her, so she threw something relaxed on and went downstairs to the gym area of the inn. Thankfully, no one was down there. It wasn’t the biggest gym she had ever seen in a hotel. In fact, it was very small, but it also had a room connected to it that was around the same size with two mini inground hot tubs in it. It was cozy and quaint for her. For someone else it may have not been enough. Deep down she wondered if many of the guests really ever came down here. It was way too clean in her opinion and the whole time she was down there, no one ever joined her.

With how unbusy this place was, she was getting the hint that there weren’t a lot of guests that were staying there right now. And if they were? It was only to have a place to sleep so they could spend the rest of the day with their family. She was probably the one person that spent this much time in the inn. Then again, that’s what most people did on trips. Took an adventure around the places they were vacationing. Most of them weren’t like her, spending most of their time trapped up inside.

Although, this place still seemed to get its money from the restaurant and bar that it had. It was smart adding those to the inn. It made sure that they always had a steady income, even on the days where it wasn’t busy at the inn.

God, that’s how boring she was. With the extra time she had while working out, she was thinking about how Tommy and Joel could afford to keep this place running. And truthfully, the rest of her day wasn’t going to be any more interesting. The plans for today were to finish her workout, take a shower, sit down hopefully to find a plane ticket home, get something to eat and then go to bed early. So that way she would be prepared for the full day of traveling she had ahead of her.

Right now she was finishing up her run on one of the two treadmills that they had in the small gym at the inn. To stay focused, she put in her noise cancelling earphones and worked to get out all of that negative energy that she had building up inside of her throughout the night. This was better than letting her intrusive thoughts eat away at her all day with the things that Joel had said to her lingering inside of her mind.

A small amount of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It wasn’t anything too big, but she could see it in the mirror paneled wall that was beside her. Taking a quick look over her shoulder she realized that someone was sitting on the lifting bench that was at the center of the room and it startled her, “Fucking hell!”

Immediately, the person that was sitting there jumped and toppled backwards onto the floor hitting it hard. Their legs were still hanging over the side of the lifting bench and it had her reaching out to quickly hit the stop button on the treadmill. Hopping down from it, she pulled her earphones out hearing the pained sound flooding the air. Shoving her earphones into her pocket, she moved over toward the center of the room to see that it was Tommy staring up at her from the ground. Helping him to unhook his legs from the bench, she did her best to allow him time to unhurriedly pull himself up from the floor.

“Tommy? What the hell were you doing?” she wrapped her arm around him, helping him to get to his feet. A grunt escaped him as she motioned him to take a seat on the bench again. There was a vibrant red color that flooded into his face expressing how embarrassed he was over the whole situation. “Were you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“No, it was quite the opposite actually. I actually came down here and started talking to you. Didn’t understand why you weren’t responding. Then I saw them earphones you were wearing and realized you couldn’t hear a word of it,” Tommy informed her, throwing his hand up in the direction that she had been running on the treadmill. “Since I didn’t want to scare you, I sat down here and waited until you were done. Clearly that was a mistake because not only did I scare you, but you also startled the hell out of me because I was looking at my phone when you yelled.”

An amused chuckle escaped her drawing out even more color from Tommy. Covering her mouth with her hand, her intentions were not to embarrass him, but she couldn’t help but laugh with the situation. Something in Tommy’s eyes changed when he realized he no longer had his phone. Spotting it on the floor, Tommy grunted and stretched out his body in attempts to grab a hold of it. Really he should have just gotten up from the bench since it was just a little too far out of his reach, but he was being stubborn dragging it toward him with just his fingertips. Once he got a hold of it, he pulled himself back up into the seated position he was in before.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Tommy explained, shoving his phone into the pocket of the jacket that he was wearing. Searching for something else in another one of his pockets, Tommy pulled something out to reveal the note that she had left for him earlier. Waving it about had her looking away from him. “What’s this Y/N?”

“The twenty-four-hour notice that you asked for,” she thought it was fairly obvious what the note was and the look that Tommy gave her showed her that he realized that. “When I came here you asked me to tell you when I was leaving and I’m telling you. I’m going to hopefully get a plane home tomorrow.”

“You can’t do that,” Tommy exclaimed, shaking his head repeatedly. Even though she didn’t mean to, a scoff fell from her throat. Folding her arms out in front of her chest, she waited for Tommy’s explanation. “I’m not trying to tell you what you can and cannot do. There is just a storm that is starting tonight and it’s supposed to last for three days. If you don’t believe me, you can look on your phone with your weather app. I promise you no plane is gonna wanna be flying out of Jackson with how the weather is gonna be.”

Hearing that had the color draining from her face. Doing as he suggested, she pulled her phone out from her pocket and confirmed exactly what he was telling her. Frustration flooded her veins. Well, now she was stuck here and her original plans would not work. By how upset she was about the information, Tommy could sense that she was completely determined to leave tomorrow which worried him.

“While we’re also on the topic of reasons why you shouldn’t leave,” Tommy sounded nervous in the way he started to speak up again. Standing slowly from the bench, he winced when there was a tug in his back. Something ached from the fall he took earlier. Because she was a doctor, he could see the look on her face immediately changing when he started to rub at his lower back. “I’m fine.”

“Do you need me to look at you?” she offered since it was technically her fault that he fell and that kind of thing was also her job.

“I’m already ashamed enough as it is,” Tommy half smiled, shaking his head at the offer. Falling was enough to make him feel like an idiot, but if he hurt himself from falling? That would only make it worse. “I’ll be fine. I just need to stretch it out.”

Brushing his fingers through his long hair, Tommy focused on looking normal not wanting to feel foolish about hurting himself like he did, “Tomorrow, with the snow, Joel and I are going with Maria’s family to one of the local resorts. Some friends are coming too. We were looking to spend the day there. People typically have fun going there and I wanted to ask you if you’d come with us. You’d get to see one of the biggest draws of Jackson.”

“That’s not going to work,” she rejected his offer, her hands dropping down at her sides. While it was nice that he was trying to include her in something again, there was no way that it would actually happen. “Because I’m afraid of heights and I don’t like skiing.”

“I remember you saying that,” Tommy seemed persistent with whatever he was about to continue on with. “But this resort? It’s huge. And it’s not just skiing. Maria is still coming with us because there are other things to do. With her being pregnant, you know I wouldn’t let her ski. That would just be stupid. Skiing and snowboarding are only some of the things that you can do. They have this winter coaster that is there which is really cool. Gondola rides. Tubing. Places to eat and just hang out. Maria and I have talked it out. We want you there with us.”

“Tommy, you know how much I like the both of you,” she started, guilt eating away at her with the idea that she was sticking to her decision with it being no, “but Joel? He wants nothing to do with me. So, while I appreciate the offer, I’m going to have to turn you down. Because that makes this whole thing kind of impossible.”

“I see,” Tommy frowned, folding his arms out in front of his chest. Instead of just accepting her answer, he took a moment to think things out and sighed loudly. “I was kinda hoping that he spent the night with you here.”

“You haven’t talked to him?” she was bewildered to hear that, her chest aching when she thought about the night before. With a single shake of his head Tommy answered the question for her. Tommy’s Adam’s apple bounced in his throat and he lowered his head. Emotions were still flooding over from last night into this morning. And she didn’t blame Tommy for being upset. “I take it he’s not here?”

“He had today off,” Tommy replied back, his body language suddenly becoming very uncomfortable. “He always takes this day off every week. But I assumed that the two of you were still together after everything last night.”

“No, your brother and I didn’t spend much longer together after you last had seen us,” she enlightened Tommy to the fact that they split ways not long after leaving the bar. “He walked me to the inn and let me know that I was just a stranger that meant nothing to him. A stranger he really didn’t like much to begin with.”

“So that’s why you left me this,” Tommy suddenly understood why she had decided to go home and leave the note for him. Pushing the note back into his pocket he could see that she was uncomfortable talking about Joel. “You can’t take that to heart. He didn’t mean it. I’ve seen you with my brother and you bring out something I haven’t seen in him in a very long time.”

“Severe anger?” she let out a hesitant laugh, her body tensing up when she considered all the times Joel had slung personal attacks at her since she had gotten here. Tommy lowered back down onto the bench and stared up at her with his big brown eyes. “Tommy, your brother doesn’t like me. I was just the first person to show interest in him and he confused being sex deprived with something more.”

“Now if Joel said that, that’s just him being an asshole to try to push you away,” Tommy insisted with a loud sigh, burying his head into his hand disappointed that his brother would even say something like that. “My brother does everything he can to push people away. He doesn’t think he deserves to be happy and when someone starts to make him feel good, he always sabotages himself. It’s just…it’s who he is.”

“He said a lot of awful things last night before leaving me here,” she claimed, letting Tommy in on what happened. “I realize you think something positive was going on between us, but it was a fluke. Just like Joel said. Your brother said he wasn’t emotionally capable of being with me. Or doing…whatever we were doing.”

“Y’know what? How about the two of us go upstairs? We can grab some cider and donuts for us. Maybe we can go up to your room and talk for a while?” Tommy offered, his jaw flexing realizing that it was a lot to ask from someone who didn’t even know him for that long.

“If you and your family keep giving me free things you are going to go out of business,” she considered after all the gifts that his family had been giving her over the last few days. “While I appreciate it, I’m the last person that needs free things.”

“I doubt that, but…” Tommy stood up, brushing his hands off on his pants when he did it. “We actually give people free cider and donuts every morning during the winter. So, it’s not really me giving you anything that we wouldn’t normally give our guests.”

“Oh,” her face flushed over with color, embarrassment flooding into her features. “Then yeah. We can do that.”

Waving him forward, she followed Tommy up the stairs where they grabbed themselves something and headed up toward her room. When they got in, she motioned him to take a seat on the couch and she sat down at the opposite end. Both of them were quiet and it seemed like they were both waiting for the other one to talk.

“Something happened after you told Joel that you and Maria were having a baby,” she blurt out feeling embarrassed with the way that Tommy gazed over at her. “Joel told me that it was none of my business, but I know that the way he reacted was not normal. I wanted to apologize for him, but Joel was right. I have only been here for a few days and I can’t step into a family situation that I know nothing about.”

“I know why my brother reacted the way he did,” Tommy paused to consider and think what he was going to tell her. “I just was hoping that he would have a different reaction to it than he actually did. Sadly, the way he responded was the way that I thought he would. That’s why I didn’t want to tell anyone about the baby until after the holidays. I knew that he wouldn’t respond in a positive way.”

“That’s not normal Tommy,” she decided after taking some time to think about what Tommy said. Even though she liked Joel, that was an asshole way to respond to the fact that your brother was going to have a baby with the woman that he loved. “People don’t usually act like that.”

“My family isn’t…normal,” Tommy frowned, setting the cup of cider that he had down on one of the coasters that was set up on the coffee table. Shoving the rest of the donut that he had into his mouth, it was then that he realized the bite was probably too big. With big eyes, Y/N smirked as he chewed very uncomfortably showing that he was stressed. With a loud swallow, Tommy grunted and she took a tiny sip of her cider. “Trust me, if you knew things…you would understand.”

“Are these things I’m not allowed to know?” she was curious what these things were. It wasn’t the first time she heard about negative things toward Joel.

“I can’t tell you because they aren’t my life experiences to share. I was part of them, but if I told you and Joel found out,” Tommy paused, sucking in a sharp breath of air, shaking his head at the idea of Joel being angry with him. “He wouldn’t want me to tell anyone. When we moved here, Joel wanted to leave his past behind. But the problem is? Joel’s past defines who he is completely. Joel never truly left his past behind.”

What could she say to that? There were no hints as to what was part of Joel’s past or why Joel was acting the way he was. It was just something that Tommy expected from him.

“My brother is a good man. I know that it may not seem like that, but Joel is and has always been a very good man. He was always putting others before himself. Especially when it came to me. Joel has been taking care of me my whole life,” Tommy expressed to her, placing his hand in over the center of his chest to show sincerity in what he was saying. “Joel had to take care of me, even when we were kids. Joel had to grow up fast and I took a very long time to grow up. And that was hard on Joel. Our parents passed away when we were young and Joel had to raise me. I made a lot of mistakes growing up and he was there to deal with what came afterwards.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” she had a hard time believing that because Tommy seemed like such a straight laced overall good guy.

“I had a hard time finding my place when I was young,” Tommy admitted, thinking back on his younger years. “I wanted to save the world. I just didn’t realize the toll that it would take on me and the ones I loved. I am the way that I am now because I found love again. But Joel? Joel has suffered through so much pain. More pain than a man should have to endure. And I’m surprised he survived because I don’t know if I would have.”

Hearing that broke her heart, but she didn’t know how she could possibly help Joel or even begin to understand if Tommy wouldn’t tell her, “Joel was happy for a while. Even though he went through a lot there was one thing in his life that balanced him. Made him realize life was special and worth living. And then something terrible happened. And since then? My brother has been a broken man. It wasn’t until you came around that I saw any sense of happiness in my brother.”

A silence followed with the lump in her throat growing bigger. Guilt was growing inside of her and her throat felt dry the further she thought about what Tommy was saying.

“That’s why I’m here begging you to give Joel a chance,” Tommy pled with her, holding his hands together in a way that made him feel pathetic with his face growing hot. “I know it’s been only a few days, but I think you feel it too. I see the way the two of you look at one another. Something happened between the two of you that just clicked. And while my brother is putting up a wall to protect himself and everyone else, he’s hurting himself in return. You? You I think are the only person capable of letting my brother be happy again.”

“Tommy, I’m just a stranger,” she recalled what Joel had said, her body tense when she took in all the information that Tommy was giving her.

“Are you though?” Tommy retorted, his head tipping from side to side with his dark eyes narrowing. “I know that it’s only been a few days, but the things we’ve talked about? I think you’re more comfortable with my family than you are pretty much anyone else. Don’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” she waved her hand about knowing that statement to be true. A big part of her life she kept secret for a reason, but she was very open with the Miller family about her past. “But I can’t help Joel if he doesn’t want to be around me. Yes, I like your brother…”

“Obviously,” Tommy added with a bounce of his eyebrows that brought some color into her face. There were some positions that Tommy had caught her in that she wasn’t very proud of. “Honey, anyone with eyes can see that when the two of you are together, there are sparks.”

“I just don’t know how to be around your brother if he keeps pushing me away and wants to be mean,” she defended her thoughts with Tommy exhaling loudly. “Yesterday was amazing. I don’t remember the last time I was that comfortable with someone Tommy. And then he just turned hateful all over again. With the snap of his fingers, the sweet guy that was eager to take care of me was shitting all over me. Metaphorically speaking.”

“I know that and I’m sorry he’s like that,” Tommy apologized, but she didn’t think that was fair for him to have to do for Joel so she lifted her hands to stop him from going any further.

“Tommy, you’re his brother and when you told him that you were going to be a father—his reaction? It was very poor,” she recognized that the negative behavior went way beyond the things that were going on with her. “If that’s the way he responds to being an uncle…?”

“Listen, I wish I could tell you, but I promise you it makes sense even if you don’t think it would,” Tommy reasoned with her, wincing at the idea of what Joel had done the night before. “My brother will come around eventually. It’s just going to take time. I was unfortunately very drunk last night so I was emotional and didn’t understand his response. I was also hopeful with you around that maybe he wouldn’t be like that.”

“How would you respond to someone who was saying what you are to me?” she pushed Tommy for answers since she didn’t know what Tommy wanted her to say.

“I would think they were nuts,” Tommy knew that this was a lot, but he shrugged his shoulders and sighed loudly. “But I think you’re the one thing that can save my brother from himself. And I know he likes you. I see it in the way that he looks at you. I haven’t seen my brother look that way in a very long time. It was nice to see that part of him again.”

“How can I save someone when I’m barely holding on myself?” she lowered her head, her throat tensing up with her admitting to Tommy that she may have not had the strength to do what he wanted of her. “Joel told me he wasn’t emotionally capable of being the person to help me get to be where I needed to be. You know I’m not right Tommy.”

“You and my brother are so much alike,” Tommy reached out to place his hands in over hers in a friendly manner to show her support. “I’m just asking you to try for just a while longer with him. I think there is something there between the two of you. And I think he can help you just as much as you could help him.”

Biting back on her lip, she felt emotional but she didn’t know why. Just giving Tommy a small nod, she pat her hand in over his and shrugged, “So do you agree to staying here for a little while longer? You’ll join us tomorrow?”

“Tommy, I don’t think I would have a choice either way with leaving,” she pointed to her phone reminding him that there was a snowstorm coming that was dangerous as it was. “I hate flying to begin with and the last thing I want to do is fly in a snowstorm like the one that is coming to this town. So I’m here whether I want to be or not.”

“While that’s true…” Tommy started, sucking in a sharp breath of air, “Something tells me that my brother is one of the things that is making you want to stay.”

Yes and no. Because his brother was the main reason she wanted to leave this morning too.

“I’ll go work on something downstairs for a few. How about you get dressed in something warm and meet me in about thirty minutes at the front. I want to show you something,” Tommy instructed her with a curious expression flooding out over her features. “Trust me.”

She didn’t know why, but she listened to Tommy. Allowing him to leave her room, she cleaned up enough and wore something warm. When he asked her to meet him, she was there and he was already waiting for her.

“So,” she noticed that they were quiet while walking wherever Tommy was taking her. “Were you hoping you would have a daughter or a son?”

“I reckon I’d be happy with either,” Tommy confessed with a weak smile, his head tipping to the side slightly so he could stare out at her when they walked. “I never thought I’d be a dad so it’s all very exciting for me. But also horrifying at the same time.”

“I think you two are going to make great parents,” she decided in an assuring tone hoping to stress to Tommy that everything would be okay. “I have only known you a few days and I can tell with how you treat me you’re going to be great parents.”

“You’re a bit different than a screaming baby,” Tommy teased her with a wrinkle of his nose getting her to smile.

“Well, that depends on the day,” she joked back, nudging him playfully with her arm liking that the banter between them was still innocent and sincere.

“If things don’t work out,” Tommy was quiet in the way he began speaking to her again, his face twisting with contemplation if he should say what he was about to. “If you and my brother have issues, Maria and I really like you. We’d like to keep in contact with you if you don’t mind.”

“Wouldn’t I be biased then when I left my review of the place? Being friends with the owners and all,” she smirked, amused that really the only people she managed to speak to and get close to were the owners of the inn she was staying at. The laugh Tommy let out seemed uncomfortable and amused at the same time. “I’m just screwing with you. Of course. Truthfully? I like the two of you more than most people I know.”

“That’s good,” Tommy noted with a half-smile, “because with my brother I almost assumed you would leave a shitty review of the place.”

“You level things out,” she promised, reaching out to pat at the center of his shoulders provoking Tommy to let out a deep rumble of laughter. “Although, I do have to wonder where you are taking me because I’m fucking freezing with this wind.”

“Just a few more steps,” Tommy motioned ahead of them, grabbing her to stop her when they stepped in front of a storefront. “Look into that window right there.”

“’Where are we?” she went to look up at what the store was, but Tommy instead just pushed her carefully forward toward the window. Doing as she was instructed, she leaned in trying to gaze through the window that was reflecting too much light from the outside with how bright it was. When her eyes adjusted she could see that Joel was sitting with a group of kids. They all had acoustic guitars and it was evident that Joel was attempting to teach them how to play. “You wanted me to see this?”

“My brother is a good man,” Tommy insisted, moving in beside her to watch Joel set his guitar down to head over toward one of the children that were in his class to help adjust their fingers to play. “Little rough around the edges, but his heart is good. It’s just hard for him to believe that he deserves any sort of happiness in his life. The man would give you the shirt off his back even if it was the last thing that he had. He’s just severely protective of those he loves but also good at self-sabotaging himself because he’s not used to having something good in his life.”

“You’re really trying to hook me and your brother up,” she noticed how hard Tommy was pushing her to see the good in Joel. “You realize that, right?”

“Actually, I was furious with my brother yesterday morning when he walked out of your room because I thought he made a mistake that was fueled by alcohol,” Tommy thought back to when he found Joel leaving Y/N’s suite. “Now I know there is something more. You bring out something in him and as his little brother? I just want to see him happy.”

Not wanting to embarrass or upset Joel, they didn’t stay too long. Both her and Tommy had lunch together where instead of focusing on Joel, they just got to know each other better as friends. And after they did? She went back to the inn and got cleaned up. A lot of what they talked about weighed heavy on her. The fact that all she could do was think about Joel Miller told her that there was something inside of her that longed for him. She hadn’t felt this way about someone in a very long time.

There was something that struck realization into her while she lounged around her room all day. The conversation she had with Joel the night before when they were alone together in that hallway. They made plans for something that was very unlikely to happen tonight. Something dirty. But considering this town was small and Joel had been at The Tipsy Bison every day she had been there so far? She might have been lucky and he’d be there again.

Getting ready, she knew that this was ridiculous, but she pulled out the only dress she brought with her which was a tight-fitting black dress that was something in the past she would have worn to a club to get attention. It was freezing outside, so this was definitely a decision that might have been a bad one. But she didn’t care. Putting on her heavy coat that she had bought in town here over the dress felt strange. It wasn’t a long walk, but damn did she regret wearing this as soon as she stepped outside. Admittedly? Usually she wouldn’t rush, but since it was already snowing, the walk to The Tipsy Bison was rather quick, kickstarting her heart to race. By the time she reached the bar, once she entered she almost regretted it. This was a stupid idea.

People were staring at her when she entered. And she didn’t blame them. She had dressed up nice, done her make up and was out to impress if she had spotted Joel Miller. There was a sense of disappointment that flooded her veins when she looked to the table that Joel had mentioned to her the night before. It was empty. Maybe she should have just left.

That was when she took another look at the bar and felt a rush flood through her veins realizing that Joel was slouched over at the end of the bar holding onto a glass that she assumed had whiskey in it. Clearing her throat, she confidently pulled the material from her jacket down her body. Doing so immediately drew the attention of the bartender that was at the time pouring Joel’s drink. Folding her coat over her arm, she stood there for a moment longer. Noticing that the bartender must have been gawking, Joel turned on his seat with his brown eyes growing big when he saw her standing there in the dress. Making sure to lock eyes with Joel, she gave him an emotionless expression before heading over toward the booth that he had mentioned.

Taking a seat, she waited. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Joel’s face was scrunching up in confusion with what she was doing. But pretty quickly the bartender that had ignored her the previous days was stumbling through the bar eager to come over to get a drink order from her. Not wanting to make an ass of herself, she ordered a juice because the last thing she wanted to do was get drunk and end up home with the wrong person.

Pulling out her phone, she acted like she was checking something, but out of her peripherals was watching Joel’s reaction toward her. What was disappointing is that he didn’t get up. He just turned around back toward the bar, but every so often he would look over his shoulder at her to see what she was doing.

Mostly she was getting the stares from men that she didn’t want to get the attention of. Especially the one that Joel had terrified the night before. Considering no one was coming up to her, Joel was likely right. That guy was a big mouth and let everyone know what Joel said so people were too afraid to go over to her.

When she got her drink, she noticed that Joel was staring at her again over his shoulder and she teasingly stroked her fingers at the glass that was before her. Eventually Joel smirked, shook his head and turned away from her again.

“Wow,” she muttered under her breath starting to feel embarrassed at just how much she was failing in this situation. With how desperately Joel spoke to her yesterday about the scenario they set up, she thought doing what he had told her last night would have drawn him to her. The dress she was wearing was tight, clinging to her every curve. She was wearing something with a skirt just like he had asked her to. Seeing him blow her off like that just made her know how stupid this really was. Huffing out, she slid out from the booth and started to put her jacket on again.

Grabbing her juice, she headed over toward the bar hearing a crashing sound with how quickly the bartender came over toward her as she stepped in beside Joel who tensed up with her near. It was interesting how quickly this bartender went from ignoring her the first day to falling over himself to get to her.

“Something wrong with your drink?” the bartender wondered with her slamming the glass down in front of Joel who stiffened beside her, his back straightening when he tipped his head just enough to look back at her. His eyebrows bounced up and they locked eyes. “Can I get you something else?”

“No, I’m leaving, but he can have this,” she declared, sliding the drink in closer to Joel whose dark eyes narrowed when she leaned in closer to him. More than anything she wanted to lash out at him, but she knew that she couldn’t and shouldn’t in front of these people. “Enjoy the drink.”

“Yes ma’am,” Joel spoke quietly, his expression barely changing only infuriating her more. She felt the eyes of the people around them watching and she had to have looked ridiculous. Frowning, she shook her head and turned on her heel heading to leave.

“This was so dumb,” she confessed once she reached the outside, cussing out when she almost slid because of the snow that had started to fall. Noticing that town square was close to empty, instead of heading directly back to the inn she went across the street to see the tree. Whenever things were hard for her in New York City she would go to the Rockefeller tree and she would find some kind of inspiration there. So she was hoping the tree here would have the same kind of effect for her too. Tommy begged her to stay for Joel, but with the way Joel responded to her, she felt like that was a stupid decision. Once she reached the tree, the heavy amounts of snow caught her foot causing her to slip and fall back into the snow. Thankfully there was enough snow to catch her fall causing her to let out a frustrated laugh. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”

Staring up toward the sky, she didn’t have the will power to get up right now. So she just stayed there with her heart pounding inside of her chest. It was freezing and she’d likely make herself sick, but she was fed up with everything right now. There was a burning at her cheeks from the wind and a prickling sensation in her legs from being bare and laying in the snow. Yeah, she certainly succeeded in making herself out to be an idiot tonight.

The sound of the snow crunching under someone’s footsteps was heard, but she didn’t bother to look. A moment later, Joel’s curious brown eyes were staring down at her. His right eyebrow arched, the crease at the bridge of his nose growing deeper.

“What in God’s name are you doing?” Joel asked, his southern drawl raspier than normal when he tipped his head slightly. Having Joel standing over her like that did feel ridiculous, but she couldn’t find herself thinking of an answer fast enough.

“I’m making snow angels. Isn’t that obvious?” she waved her arms about causing Joel to smirk at her antics. With a slow nod, Joel looked around the area before carefully lowering down in beside her in the snow. Astonishment flooded her body with her turning her head to the side to see that Joel was looking up into the sky like she had been. “What are you doing?”

“Well if people see you like that, they are going to think you’re crazy,” Joel alerted her, turning his head slightly to lock eyes with her. “So this way? They’ll think we’re crazy together.”

Hearing that had her heart skipping a beat. Returning her stare back to the sky above them, she could tell that Joel was getting more comfortable beside her in the snow. Resting his hands in over her abdomen while he laid there, Joel kept quiet.

“You fell, didn’t you?” Joel asked simply causing her to let out a tremoring exhale.

“Yes. Yes I did,” she was honest, hearing the tiny chuckle from Joel. If she wasn’t freezing her ass off right now, she might have found this funny too.

Silence returned and it started to feel uncomfortable so she decided to break it, “I saw you earlier.”

“And I saw you earlier,” Joel countered, confusing her in that moment because she was fairly certain that he hadn’t seen her and Tommy watching him teach those children. “The performance was a bit dramatic if you ask me.”

“Thank you, but I wasn’t talking about that,” she scoffed when she understood that he was talking about what just happened in the bar with them together moments earlier. “I was actually talking about earlier today. You teaching those children how to play the guitar. It was cute.”

“Hmmm…” Joel hummed, his jaw flexing with her confession to him. His eyelashes fluttered when he turned his head to look out at her again. Originally, she thought he might have been embarrassed, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I told you sometimes I could be really cute.”

“And sometimes you can be a huge asshole,” she was short with him having him nod his head as if he agreed with her. Instead of fighting back with her, he just took her comment with a grain of salt. “You should teach me how to play before I leave.”

“This world?” Joel spouted off eliciting her to push up onto her hands to stare out at him. Mirroring her, Joel sat up in the snow and held his hand out to direct her attention to what she was wearing. “Because if you lay in the snow much longer like that I can’t do much of anything.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. By now, she couldn’t feel much of anything with her legs and she knew that was a bad thing. Tommy told her that there was going to be a storm tonight. She should have realized wearing this dress would be a bad idea. Even if it wasn’t much of a walk from the inn to the bar that the Miller family often attended.

“My legs are numb,” she admitted with a frown eliciting a low rumble of a groan from Joel. Watching him digging into the inside of his jacket, she knew that he was right. She needed to get out of this snow. Digging something out of his jacket, Joel motioned her forward and she gave him an odd expression. “What?”

“Don’t be stubborn,” Joel instructed, reaching out to pull his winter hat down in over her head. After that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick pair of work gloves. A rush of embarrassment flooded through her with Joel gesturing her to hold her hands up. Doing as she was told, Joel pulled the gloves down over her hands making sure that they would stay. Right now she felt like a child that was being taken care of. Tugging her jacket together better, Joel grunted and repositioned himself. “Hold tight.”

“To what?” she gasped out with Joel hooking his arms under her firmly lifting her up from the snow. Not wanting to fall, she was quick to wrap her arms around the back of Joel’s neck with him readjusting her in his arms when he got to his feet. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Your legs are numb,” Joel reminded her nodding over toward her legs that sincerely did ache. Resting her head in against Joel’s shoulder, she was amazed with how strong he genuinely was. By the time that he was carrying her out of town square, Joel was right. People were looking at them like they were insane.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked noticing that they were headed in the opposite direction of the inn. Grunting, Joel adjusted her in his arms in a way that seemed to be more comfortable for him. “Joel?!”

“You need to warm up properly. And considering you pulled this stunt in an attempt to impress me, I’m taking you to my home. It’s not that far away,” Joel responded, his southern accent growing stronger while he continued down the street in the direction of the homes that were in Jackson. “We’ll get you into proper clothes, sit you down in front of the fireplace to warm up and I’ll get something warm into you.”

Pausing to consider what he just had said had her snickering against the side of his neck and he huffed, “Be mature for ten seconds. You know I mean a drink.”

“Suddenly you care?” she tried to gather herself from continuing to tease Joel. Yeah, it was immature, but the things that Joel had said to her yesterday had eaten away at her all night and into today. Honestly? She knew she shouldn’t have been complaining because her legs ached and she wondered if she would have even been able to walk back to the inn with how sore she was. Tipping her head back enough, there was an amused expression over Joel’s features and it made her frown. “I’m just saying. Yesterday you weren’t very nice to me.”

“What did you say I was occasionally? An asshole?” Joel confirmed with her, his breathing creating a visible mist in the air with how cold it actually was. Giving him a tiny nod, she curled her arms tighter around him with him turning another corner. “It’s more than occasionally. But I’m also on occasion a gentleman.”

Even though she wanted to fight him, she truthfully liked being in his arms and just lowered her head again. They were quiet when he made it to a home that she assumed was his with his last name painted on the mailbox. Moving up the steps to the walkway that led to his home, Joel’s face scrunched up and he laughed, “Although, I do have to ask you. You’re a smart person. What led you to think it was smart wearing this in this kind of temperature?”

“I uh…” she clung tighter to Joel with him moving up the steps to his home. When he reached the door, Joel carefully lowered her down for a moment with one of his arms still wrapped around her to brace her weight against him. Digging into his pockets, he managed to pull out his keys. Struggling to get the door open, he gave her a nervous smile fumbling with it until it opened. Grunting out, he picked her up in his arms again after he put the keys back into his pocket. “Joel!”

“Calm down, I’ve got you,” he hushed her, kicking the door shut with his heel acting as if her worrying about the idea of him dropping her was ridiculous. Walking throughout his house in the dark seemed to be easy for him. Before she knew what was happening, she was being set down on his couch carefully before he walked through the room to turn the light on. “Let’s get the fire started for you…”

Watching him from the couch she knew that she was a tremoring mess. Probably looking ridiculous with his hat and gloves on. Joel was right. It was too fucking cold to pull a stunt like that. And she knew better. She was a doctor after all. For a few minutes Joel worked with the fireplace until he got it working. Swiftly, he moved one of his seats closer to the fire and headed over toward the couch again.

“I can stand up,” she went to stop him, but he didn’t allow her when he picked her up with ease. Being cautious with the way he sat her down, she was amazed at how gentle he was being with her. Especially after last night. The warmth of the fire felt nice with Joel reaching to pull the gloves from her hands. Tossing the gloves aside, he grabbed a hold of her hands and rubbed at them to gather some warmth. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” he shook his head, dropping his hands down to rub at her legs that were undoubtedly the coldest part of her. It wasn’t something that was sexual, he really was doing his best just to warm her up. The gesture was very sweet and she felt a lump growing in her throat watching him. “Let me go get you something to wear. I did the laundry today, so it should be fresh. I promise.”

“You don’t have to…” before she could finish Joel had already walked out of the living room leaving her alone to herself sitting in front of the fire.

The time alone allowed her to gaze upon Joel’s home for the first time. Except for the tree that was in the corner of the room left unplugged, everything was extraordinarily average. Joel’s living room was clean, everything had a place and the only thing that she noticed was the paintings on the wall reminded her a lot of the inn. It was too bad she didn’t have the strength to walk around and explore but her body was exactly where it wanted to be. Enjoying the warmth of the fireplace that Joel had sat her near. The sound of footsteps returning was heard and she looked toward the area Joel walked away to see him rounding the corner.

“I grabbed you some sweatpants, a t-shirt and a hoodie that I had in there,” Joel moved before her, holding out the clothes that he had grabbed for her. Accepting them, she lowered them down into her lap with Joel nervously looking around his living room. Messing his fingers through his hair, Joel stumbled through the living room and plugged the tree in to give her more light. Unlike the inn where the Christmas tree was extravagant, this was very plain. It just had lights on it with no decorations whatsoever. “I’ll turn the television on so you have some background noise while I make you something warm. Would you prefer some coffee or hot chocolate? I’m a coffee guy. Big fan of coffee. But if it’s too late for that…”

“Coffee is fine,” she cut him off, not wanting to be much of a bother with things.

“You can change in here. I’ll stay in the kitchen for a few just to make sure I don’t see anything,” Joel promised snapping his fingers. Clicking his tongue against the top of his mouth, a rush of color flooded into Joel’s face and he seemed to be embarrassed. Turning on his heel, he headed back toward what she assumed was the kitchen leaving her there. Waiting for a moment, she shakily stood up from the chair and worked her dress off. Putting the clothes on that he gave her to the best of her ability, she folded up the dress and then lowered down into the chair again. “Permission to come in?”

Looking to the entrance of the room, she couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Joel holding his hand dramatically over his eyes while taking big steps into the room. Holding out a pair of socks drew her eyes to them with Joel huffing, “I thought you might need these. Cold feet is never a good feeling.”

“You can uncover your eyes,” she assured him with Joel dropping his hand down at his side. Even though he was in fact being a gentleman, she really wouldn’t have cared if he had seen her naked. Strangely, she was that comfortable with Joel. “Thank you for these.”

“Yes ma’am,” Joel watched her closely, holding his hand out for her dress. “I’ll hang that up to dry if you would like.”

Handing off the dress, she was impressed with how good Joel was taking care of her. Whatever Joel had turned on the television before he left appeared to be some kind of Christmas romance film. And it brought a smile to her wondering if Joel often watched these type of movies since this was the channel that was left on.

“Y’know what I still can’t wrap my mind around?” Joel’s voice made her jump when he returned to the living room with two mugs in his hands. Unhurriedly handing hers off to her, Joel made sure she had a good hold of it before releasing it. Cupping the mug in her hands, she was using it mainly just to warm herself up. “That you somehow thought it was a smart idea to wear all that just to get my attention.”

“It worked,” she reminded him with Joel taking a moment to think that over. Tipping his head from side to side, his bottom lip curled before he nodded. “Didn’t it?”

“Oh, it worked. I just thought it was ridiculous,” Joel informed her, leaning his arm against the wall that was beside the fireplace. Bringing his mug up to his lips, Joel took what sounded like an annoyingly loud slurp of his coffee and she wondered if he did it on purpose. “The whole idea was to wear something inconspicuous so we could get away with it. Wearing that dress? You had the bartender exploding in his pants. All eyes were on you. We could have never done what we talked about. With your breasts being all perky and nice.”

“Perky and nice?” she chuckled at his description. “Thank you?”

“You’re welcome,” Joel bobbed his head about with a tiny smirk tugging at his features. “You really thought coming into that bar today would get me to come over there and do the things we talked about last night?”

“It was worth a shot,” she thought aloud, turning her attention back toward the fire. Taking her first sip of the coffee, she knew that this was more so for the warmth.

“Why?” Joel muttered with a huff, his face scrunching up in disbelief. “I treated you like shit yesterday and you still wanted to do that with me?”

“I guess I’m kind of a moron,” she theorized, her eyebrows bouncing up provoking him to chuckle under his breath. Shifting uneasily in the seat that he had moved for her, her eyes finally looked up at him. “I unfortunately couldn’t get my mind off you all night. When you can’t stop thinking about someone you become pretty desperate to get their attention. Even if that means hurting yourself in the process. Falling in the snow was not part of the plan though, I promise you that.”

Stepping forward, Joel extended his hand to collect her jaw loosely between his rough fingertips, “Don’t ever hurt yourself for me again. I may be a dick, but I don’t wanna see you dead. You understand me? It doesn’t take much for you to catch my attention. You don’t have to risk your health in order to do it.”

“Would you have been as nice to me otherwise?” she interrogated him, getting his eyes to narrow almost immediately after. While it was a nice thing to hear, she doubted that Joel would have been so welcoming like this if she wouldn’t have been stupid. “See. You wouldn’t have.”

“Touché,” Joel grumbled, motioning her to wait. Setting his coffee down on the coffee table near the couch, Joel made his way over toward one of the closets to pull out a blanket for her. Heading back over, he was careful in the way he wrapped it around her and over her shoulders. “Good?”

Turning his head, the warmth of his breath lingered over hers and it made a shuddering exhale escape her lips. Not being able to form words, she just nodded with Joel tipping his head forward just enough to nuzzle his nose in against hers.

“Why did you do what you did last night? I don’t need to know that stuff with Tommy. I mean with me,” she wanted to know his reasoning with her heart skipping a beat at the closeness of him. “What did I do?”

“It wasn’t you,” Joel slurred, his cheek rubbing in against hers and with her free hand she instinctively started to stroke her fingers at the back of his neck. “What I said is true Y/N. I’m nothing good. I’m poison. The quicker you see that, the better.”

“This doesn’t feel like poison,” she noted placing a delicate kiss over the side of his face having him tense up before her. His body’s reactions to her drove her wild for this man. Every touch she gave him had him reacting, even if he didn’t want it to. It was involuntary, but he yearned for every delicate sweep of her fingers over his skin along with her kisses. “This actually feels really nice.”

“I’m no good for anyone,” Joel’s words vibrated against her cheek with him starting to pepper faint kisses there. This was an odd way to have such a serious conversation, but she liked it. “Especially someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” she repeated, her eyelids heavy when she pulled back just enough to meet his chocolate brown eyes. Tracing her fingertips through the facial hair that covered his jawline made him suck in a sharp breath of air.

Lowering down onto his knees, the heat from Joel’s palm had her leaning into his touch with him caressing over her face, “Someone perfect. Someone delicate. Someone who deserves better than someone like me. I never know the right thing to say. I’m angry all the time. You don’t need that in your life.”

Dragging his thumb across her bottom lip, Joel’s breathing grew uneven with his eyes following the movement, “I don’t understand this. Whatever it is going on between us. We only just met, but I’m addicted to you.”

Kissing faintly at the pad of his thumb drew him in closer to her. There was a longing in his eyes that had a fire burning deep within her.

“Not just because you want to fuck me?” she recalled what he had said the night before evoking him to let out a raspy laugh.

“I won’t lie, I do desperately want to sleep with you,” Joel confessed with a grunt, his nose nuzzling in against hers again. Hearing that excited her. Especially since she had a yearning for him as well. “But that’s not the only reason I like you. I don’t know what it is, but when you touch me…even if it’s you touching my face…”

“You’re touch starved,” she heard the pant that he released with her dragging her hand across the side of his neck and up over his face. Cuddling his head into her touch, Joel’s lips parted and his long eyelashes fluttered to a close. “You are so beautiful.”

Hearing her call him beautiful made a tiny smile tug at his lips and she was certain he was thinking that was an odd way to describe a man like him, “Would you hold me?”

“Are you sure?” Joel confirmed with her, but it didn’t take long for her to nod. Setting aside the coffee he got for her, she stood up from the chair to have Joel lower down into it. Helping to lead her back into his lap, Joel managed to wrap them both up in the blanket with his arms wrapping around her to hold onto her. Nuzzling his nose in against the side of her neck, Joel hummed as he placed tiny kisses there as well. “I’m a mess.”

“I know,” she agreed with him, an involuntary smile pressing in over her lips with her stroking her fingers through his dark messy hair. “But I am too.”

For a while she just sat in his arms, enjoying the way the fire worked to warm her up as well as the warmth of his body surrounding hers. At some point the television had drawn her attention and she saw that a love scene was on the screen.

“You know, no one has ever made love to me like that,” she commented seeing that the two characters were laying in front of a fireplace wrapped up in blankets. “In the movies, love scenes seem so perfect…”

“Movies are completely unrealistic,” Joel reminded her with a scoff, grunting with a laugh when she swatted at his chest. “I’m just saying. Love scenes are a fabricated lie that people use to make women swoon. To believe in something more. But no one has sex like that.”

“Well that’s a shame,” she suggested liking the way that Joel rubbed his cheek in against hers again with his facial hair scratching at her skin. “Women wait a lifetime for moments like that and it never happens.”

“That’s what the film industry does. Sets people up to be let down,” Joel hinted, pulling her in closer to him with a long sigh.

“You know,” she pulled her attention away from Joel for just a moment to look at Joel’s tree. “I’m surprised how bare your tree is. You barely have any decorations in here. Whereas at the inn? Everything is covered.”

“I told you that was more Tommy and Maria,” Joel stole a quick look back at his tree, grunting out at the sight of it. “Tommy put that up. He wanted me to have something for Christmas. It’s not really my thing. It brings back feelings for me that I don’t like having. I’m sure…I’m sure you understand.”

“I don’t know what happened to you, but I do understand why you feel the way you do,” she swept her thumb in over his jawline, getting his dark eyes to lock with hers. “Whatever happened Joel, I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Joel frowned, turning in toward her hand to place a kiss over the center of her palm. Curling his finger in underneath her chin, Joel led her to him, capturing her lips in a lingering kiss. It was sweet, almost romantic. And by the time they separated her heart felt like it was going to pound right out of her chest. “I shouldn’t feel this way this fast.”

“It’s okay,” she hushed him, outstretching her fingers to trace in over the lines of his face. A loud exhaled escaped him and the way he looked at her took her breath away. “Joel? Do you think you could teach me how to play the guitar?”

“Right now? Is that what you want to do?” Joel’s head tipped back, lifting to grab a loose hold of her hand. Confirming with a nod, she felt Joel shifting her weight and she shakily stood to her feet. Taking care of the fireplace, Joel held his hand out to hers and tipped his head in the direction of his stairs. “You want me to carry you?”

“I think I can handle it,” she responded feeling silly that he had to carry her as much as he did already. Wiggling her legs, she could tell that they still were numb but she thought she would be good enough to move.

“Follow me,” he ordered, smirking when he held his hand out to hers. Without question, she hooked her fingers with his and he led her unhurriedly up the stairs. One thing she noticed about Joel’s house was a lot of it was covered in paintings and not so many photos. This could have been anyone’s home really. Reaching the second floor, she knew that this would be a place she’d love to explore just to get to have a better understanding of Joel. Leading her to one of the rooms, Joel kept a hold of her hand when he flicked the switch on for his office. “This is where I uh…make things.”

“Make things?” she looked around his work room not knowing where to look first. Several acoustic guitars were hanging on the wall. There were shelves with multiple carvings resting on them. Letting go of Joel’s hand she moved over toward them to inspect each one of them. Reaching for one of them, she took it off the shelf to observe it. The carving was a very detailed one of a grizzly bear standing on a large rock after catching a fish in its mouth. A few of the carvings were left unfinished, but this one? Everything was done along with the painting of it. And it was amazing. “You did this?”

“Yeah,” Joel stood at the center of the room, his hands in his pockets with his shoulders slouching forward. When she looked to him it seemed like he might have been embarrassed when she returned it and then reached for another one that he did. “I like to keep my mind busy. I look at pictures and then I uh, well I carve them.”

“These are amazing,” she applauded him on his work, setting them down and then moving over toward where the acoustic guitars were hanging. “And you make these as well?”

“I do,” Joel was quiet while she gazed upon his work. “Those are probably my favorite thing to make. When people ask me for one, I like to try to fit their personality to it. I told you I loved music growing up, so I’m drawn to that kind of stuff.”

“These are impressive Joel,” she continued to make her way around the room stopping at one of his work benches to look at the carving he was working on. It was partially done, but it was easy to tell that it was rodeo themed with a cowboy riding a horse that was on its back legs. “I could never do something like this.”

“Well, like I said…” Joel headed over toward the acoustic guitar that was at the corner of the room. Picking it up, Joel held it in his hands and headed over toward one of the seats to sit down. “You’re good with your hands. And I’m good with mine. Just in other ways.”

“No kidding,” she agreed with him hearing him starting to strum a few chords behind her while she took her time looking upon his next work bench where he obviously made his acoustic guitars. “This is impressive.”

“Mhmm…” Joel didn’t want to act like it was a big deal because it was something he just did in his spare time. It wasn’t like it was much of a big deal for him. After she felt like she had invaded his privacy enough, she reached for one of the chairs and pulled it before him. “Did you have any kind of music training when you were younger?”

“Nothing extensive,” she found herself in awe that Joel could just continue to play a tune like it was nothing while sharing a conversation with her. “How many songs do you know by heart?”

“Don’t know,” Joel slurred, his southern drawl growing deeper as she slid in closer to him. “Lots I reckon.”

“How do you remember them all?” she heard Joel easily change to a different recognizable song without even stumbling or having any problems at all.

“Do you have to look at an instruction manual every time you do a surgery?” Joel inquired, his right eyebrow arching drawing out a smirk from her. Shaking her head, Joel snickered to himself and sighed loudly. “Then I guess in the same way you don’t have to do that.”

“Will you sing for me?” she pushed remembering that Joel had told her that he wanted to be a singer when he was younger. “Please?”

“Nope,” he stuck to his guns, changing the tune again impressing her with how easily he seemed to do it. “I don’t sing in front of people.”

“You’re going to sing for me at some point,” she claimed, her head bobbing about causing Joel to snort and dramatically shake his head. “I’m going to hear that voice and you are going to want to play for me when you do.”

“Sorry, not gonna happen,” Joel refused once more eliciting a frustrated sound from her. “Even if you use that cute little frown on me, I won’t do it. I’ve already let you know too much as it is. You coming into my house? This? It’s a big deal.”

“Do you have to kill me now?” she mocked, her eyebrows bouncing up pulling out a raspy laugh from inside of him. Hearing him laugh like that had a warmth flooding throughout her body.

“I might,” Joel grumbled, his one dimple very prominent with the smile still over his lips. “Gotta keep my secrets, y’know?”

Resting her elbows on her knees, she lowered down to get comfortable while he played the guitar, “Tell you what? How about I make you one of my acoustic guitars to make up for my lack of singing around you. Would you like that?”

“You’d do that?” she seemed excited at the idea and he gave her a single nod appreciating that she seemed to want that. “That’d be awesome.”

“Okay then,” Joel stopped playing and stood up from the chair to move over to place the guitar in her hands. Watching her adjust it made him smirk and he immediately shook his head. “No, don’t hold it like that.”

Kneeling down in front of her, Joel took her hands to show her the proper way to hold onto the guitar. Really, she did her best to listen to Joel explaining things to her, but she was having issues. Distracted would be an understatement. Joel was going over the parts of the guitar with her, explaining things and she listened, but at the same time she was just enjoying being close to him.

By the time Joel was teaching her simple chords after grabbing her a guitar pick, she felt a chill running down her spine. Joel was standing behind her, his hands helping to move hers and she just liked having him near. For a while she did her best to focus and while she learned some things, having Joel’s head so close to hers drew her to look upon him.

“Everything okay?” Joel noticed that she was staring at him and he gave her a weak smile.

Not knowing exactly what to say, she lowered down the guitar and turned in her seat toward him, “Can I be honest with you?”

“You have been thus far. So I’d expect nothing else from you,” Joel reminded her noticing the uneasiness in her body when she looked down. “Hey?”

“You’re my favorite thing about this town,” she declared, her eyes lifting once more having Joel swallow down hard with his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat. “I thought of leaving tomorrow, but nothing inside of me wants to truly do that because I like spending time with you. Call me pathetic, call me what you want, but being around you? It just feels good.”

Dropping his stare to her lips, Joel’s breathing grew louder. Curling his fingers around the back of her neck, Joel led her to him to steal another kiss from her. At first his kisses were gentle and delicate. Soft sweeps of his lips over hers led her to lean in closer to him. Kissing him felt incredible and it was addictive.

Pulling away from the kiss for a moment, Joel grabbed a hold of the guitar to set it aside carefully. Standing up had her following him moving from the chair eager to meet him in another passionate kiss that had him wrapping her up in his arms.

Picking her up had her gasping against his mouth as he stumbled over toward one of his free desks. Lowering her down on top of it, Joel growled with the way that she cupped his face. Tender strokes of her thumbs against the side of his face had his lips parting. Having her touching him had chills flooding down his spine. No one had this kind of effect on him. Especially not this fast.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Joel confessed, pressing his forehead to hers. A tremoring breath escaped his lips. And in that moment? She saw desperation in his eyes. The idea of her leaving actually upset him. Leaning into her touch, Joel knew that he craved to have her near him. How he felt for her? It was indescribable. “Please don’t run away because of me. I know I’m hard to care for…”

Brushing her fingers through his messy hair, she gazed up seeing just how emotionally broken Joel really was. Conflicting emotions flooded throughout Joel, but she could see that she meant something to him. What he needed was what Tommy said earlier. Someone who wouldn’t give up on him because he was too trapped in what he was used to. Which was torturing himself.

Hushing him, she leaned in to press faint kisses over his lips. Having him panic about her leaving was not her intentions. Sliding her hands down in over the sides of his neck, she lowered them even further and dragged the backs of her hands over the front of his chest. Starting to work open the buttons of his shirt had Joel’s breathing broken, his forehead pressing in against hers. Helping her, Joel managed to get his shirt down his body allowing it to fall at his feet on the floor. Almost immediately her hands were reaching for the bottom of his t-shirt working it from his body.

Grunting out, Joel lifted his arms aiding to get it off him. Dropping the t-shirt down on the ground, she lowered her stare to gaze upon his naked torso. It was the first time that she actually got to see him completely shirtless. And she wanted to take all of him in. Placing her hands gently in over the center of Joel’s chest had his lips parting with his eyelids growing heavy. Right now she wanted to learn all of him. Tracing her fingers along the lengths of his abdomen had him sucking in a sharp breath of air.

“I haven’t had someone touch me like this in a long time,” Joel reminded her of something he had said previously when they were fooling around. Watching her touch him, Joel licked his lips when she drew shapes down over the lengths of his body toward the softer part of his stomach under his bellybutton. “I’m sorry for the way I’m acting.”

“I like it,” she quieted him, shaking her head with Joel’s long eyelashes fluttering. While he was panicked, she was in awe of him. There was a vulnerability in him that was easy to pick up on with her tracing lines over his torso. Reaching his lower abdomen, it was then she finally noticed the significant scarring that was there. How she had missed this before blew her mind. Dragging her fingertips over the puckered flesh drew out a nervous sound from Joel. Shakily, he reached for her hands to stop her.

“Joel,” she shook her head, using her free hand to get him to relax. Sliding in closer to the edge of the table, she hovered her lips in over his. Even though he was uneasy with his body, she appreciated every part of him. “Your scars, mental or physical, they make you who you are. And who you are is beautiful.”

Releasing a tremoring breath, Joel’s fingers were fast to grab for the hoodie that he had given her. Quickly he helped her get it from her body much like she had done with him. Tossing it onto the floor with his shirts, Joel panted realizing that he was eager. Not hesitating in his movements, he grabbed a hold of her t-shirt next. Locking eyes with her, Joel could sense that she became nervous in that moment. Tugging the material up her body, Joel stopped at her arms. With a nod, she lifted her arms for him allowing him to pull it from her body. A long exhale escaped his throat when her breasts were revealed to him for the first time with a slight bounce from the movement. Dropping the t-shirt at his feet, Joel’s hands pressed faintly in over her sides while she sank her fingers into his hair.

“You are breathtaking,” Joel whispered, his thumbs sweeping at the area just below her ribcage. It had her arching in closer to him with his hands sliding further up to cup tenderly at the underside of her breasts. Whimpering at the sensation, she pulled Joel in closer to her having his forehead pressing against hers. Bringing their bodies closer together, Joel wrapped her up in his arms. Her breasts pressed against his chest with his nose nuzzling in against the side of her neck. The skin-to-skin contact felt amazing with both of them tracing the lengths of the others body with lazy, lingering strokes of their fingertips.

Joel wasn’t a very verbal lover, but the reaction of his body to hers was more than enough making her realize what he was feeling. Wet kisses were being pressed against her shoulder, the sensation of his facial hair scratching against her skin evoking shivers throughout her body.

“You are so beautiful,” Joel mirrored her sentiment with his mouth finding its way to her neck. Nipping at her flesh, Joel’s mouth started to trail a line in over her collarbone. Resting his head against her chest, Joel’s right hand caressed up over the front of her abdomen until his thumb came in direct contact with her nipple. Circling it faintly with the rough pad of his thumb, Joel groaned out with the sound she made when he did it. Dropping his head down, Joel’s mouth surrounded her breast dragging the length of his tongue across the flesh. Teasing his tongue around the small bud in circular motions, Joel heard her moaning out and the ache inside of his body grew larger. A firm tug of her fingers at his hair had him lifting his head back to meet her in a hungry kiss. Brushing his tongue against hers, Joel’s body started to tremble as her hands dropped down to start working open the belt in his jeans. Cupping her face firmly, Joel wanted to keep his eyes locked with hers as she worked open his pants.

Tugging at his jeans, she got his pants open and parted them causing Joel to step forward. Teasing her fingertips at his hips, she caressed at his sides and up over his body again. Leaning back, Joel looked down between the two of them. Sweeping his thumb in over her jawline had her leaning into his caress. In that moment she noticed something and reached for Joel’s wrist.

“Joel?” she seemed worried with her eyes centering in over his watch that was on his wrist. What had worried her was that the watch appeared to be broken with a crack over it. “Did we do this?”

“Don’t,” Joel warned, pulling back and away from her lowering his hand down at his side to keep her from looking at it.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how that happened,” she apologized assuming that they had done it with him carrying her over toward the table. “I can pay for that to get fixed and…”

“It’s been like that for a while,” Joel explained forcing himself to look away from her. Huffing out, Joel reached down to grab the t-shirt he had taken from her body and the hoodie. Holding them out toward her, Joel’s jaw flexed and he appeared angry almost immediately. Why was this happening again? “This was a bad idea. Get dressed. I’ll get you a ride back to the inn.”

“Joel?” she breathed out shocked at how quickly he turned on her with him grabbing his t-shirt to pull it back on. Hastily pulling the t-shirt she had in over her body, she was quick to follow Joel out of the room reaching to grab his wrist before he could leave. “What did I do?”

“Nothing. You did nothing,” Joel snapped at her getting a chill to run down her spine at how fast his attitude seemed to change when she noticed his broken watch. Some kind of switch had been flicked inside of him and that man that was desperate to be near her suddenly seemed to want to push her away again. “I just think it’s best for you to leave.”

“Stop,” her voice raised, hooking her fingers tighter around Joel’s wrist to force him from leaving. Pulling him back to her, she closed the distance between the two of them with her palm caressing in over the side of his face getting him to look at her. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and I won’t pretend that I understand but stop pushing me away from you.”

“I can’t do this,” Joel confessed with his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat, a sense of sadness flooding throughout his features. Lifting her other hand, she caressed at the sides of his face having him whimpering.

“Can’t do what?” she tried to understand, being empathetic to whatever his situation was. “You don’t have to hide yourself from me Joel. Whatever is going on, I’ll understand it. We can work through it. I know what it feels like to be broken.”

“I don’t want you hurt,” Joel stressed to her, lifting his hands to curl his fingers around her wrists to stroke his thumbs at her pulse points. Within time his expression softened, the lines in his face becoming less prominent. A broken breath escaped him and she realized that was his way of putting a wall up between them, but she was doing her best to break it down in whatever ways she could. “I told you…”

“You’re poison,” she repeated what he had said before, his body tremoring as she closed the distance between them. “But you see? As stupid as it sounds, I’m a doctor. And whatever you think is going to happen to me, it won’t.”

“It’s not just that,” Joel grunted, his body incredibly tense as he stood before her. “I don’t deserve to have anything good in my life. What I had before this…”

“Joel,” she hushed him noticing that he was starting to get worked up again. Stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. Resting her head against the center of his chest, she listened to the sound of his heartbeat. Having her near caused his heartbeat to go faster. “You don’t have to tell me what happened or what you are going through but stop pushing me away. Because I’m just going to keep coming back.”

After hearing her say that, Joel lowered his head and nestled his chin in over the top of her head. Wrapping her up in his arms, Joel let out a tremoring breath and she knew that he was loosening up to things, “There is something in you that heals a part of me. Things that I didn’t think I was capable of…”

Tipping her head back, she stared up into Joel’s dark eyes and shook her head, “let me do that for you.”

“I’m so broken,” Joel confessed with her hand sliding up to caress in over the center of his chest. “I’m no good.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” she countered, reaching for his hand to place it in over the center of her chest. Joel’s dark eyes gazed between them with his body faintly shaking. “Because I see parts of you that I don’t even think you realize exist. Just let me help you.”

Emotions flooded through his face and without saying anything, Joel grabbed a hold of her hand leading her toward his bedroom. Laying down at the center of the bed had her carefully crawling in beside him with them facing each other.

Reaching for his hand, she hooked her fingers with his and Joel pressed his forehead up to hers. Silence surrounded them, but it was obvious things were weighing heavy on Joel’s mind, “There so much good to you Joel Miller. You just have to give yourself a chance to see.”

----

Tags: @jdmorganz @carolineesnell @ayumi-wolf @dilfsandmartinis @christinamadsen

@brittmb115 @thegirlwiththemostcake3

#Joel Miller #Joel Miller fanfiction #Joel Miller x reader #Joel Miller x you #Pedro Pascal #The Last of Us #The Last of Us fanfiction #tlou fanfiction #Joel Miller Imagine #Joel Miller Smut #Pedro Pascal Character fanfiction #Christmas in Jackson #Tommy Miller

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vladbellylover · 14 days ago

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(Part 2) “Owww, I’m sorry guys I guess I thought they weren’t ever going to come out.” Grant cringed as he reentered the hot tub, now aware that the cramps he’d been feeling were his bodies excruciatingly slow way of having kids.

“We’ve all seen it before man, you sure you want us to stay?” Kyle looked from Leo, to Grant, to Chuck, to Bruce. Silence.

“I-I can’t think… it hurts too bad. Oh god, and there’s three of them.” Grant looked at Bruce, teary-eyed and unsure. Kyle and Leo shared his worried gaze. Bruce took a breath, staying focused on the task at hand. He inserted a finger into his partner, resulting in a pained gasp.

“Ok… 6 centimeters, or 7? Between 6 and 7, I think.” Bruce took his fingers out and sat next to Grant, massaging his thighs. Chuck stood up, and knelt down on the other side of Grant.

“Listen you two, between me, Kyle, and Leo, we’ve been present for 9 births. I’m sure you’ve done your research Bruce, but it would be good to have us on retainer. Personally, I could more accurately tell you how dilated he is.” Grant closed his eyes and leaned back, muttering something about a ‘longest contraction ever’, Bruce glared at him.

“Chuck, if this is some ploy to feel him up, I will knock you up, make you give birth on a livestream, and play with you the whole time.” Bruce was wary, but knew Chuck was right.

“Do you see how tight my g-string is? You’ll be able to see if my dick moves a millimeter, and if it does I’ll go right to your bed, face down ass up.” Bruce nodded, still unable to imagine him pregnant at all. Chuck swims in between Grants legs, “I’m going to check your dilation now, after I’m done I won’t check it again until you feel the urge to push, so you have to tell someone, got it?” Grant nods, and does his best to watch while Chuck inserts a finger. His experience is evident in his gentleness. “About 7 centimeters, maybe a little less, you’ve got some time. Are we staying in the hot tub?” The contraction subsides, Grant tries to steady his breathing.

“Yes, I just think walking would be a bit too much work. Can someone grab me a glass of water?” Chuck, Kyle, and Leo all stood, not eager to be the one that didn’t get the pregnant guy a glass of water. Chuck told all of them to go with him, and that there was enough they needed for everyone to grab something.

Bruce turned to Grant, “How are you feeling?”

“Huge, thirsty, and like our friends are about to watch me get split in half.” Grant tried fruitlessly to gather his stomach into his hands.

“Well you weren’t complaining when I split in half 9 months ago.” Bruce chuckled, wrapping his arm around Grant. “You’re going to do great.”

“Well I can’t exactly fuck this up.” Grant responded sardonically, resting on his partners bicep.

Bruce kissed him on the cheek. “You know what I mean. The nursery is all set, your pecs have been leaking for days, we have formula, clothes, baby wipes, the whole shabang. All that you have to think about is what’s happening right now. I when you feel the urge to push Chuck is gonna be right there to let you know if it’s time. Then, you’re going to spread your legs, and I’ll be right in between them to catch our babies, Leo will probably hold your hand, Kyle-“

“Babe stop, I know what’s going to happen, I’m going to have contractions worse than these until it’s time, then I’m going to be in even more pain while I push, and then the relief of having the first one will be eschewed by the other two I have to push out.” Grant whined at the contraction, wishing it could stretch him the last three centimeters, and then ten extra so the babies could fall out.

Leo returned with a bottle of water, which Grant chugged immediately. Kyle carried a huge stack of towels and rags. Chuck held even more towels and a pair of scissors for the cords.

After an hour and a half of being doted on, Grant still felt no desire to push. Bruce had left for a moment, and Kyle took the opportunity to check on his friend.

“How’s it going big guy?” Kyle took the other vacant spot next to Grant, not daring to go near Bruce’s cock water.

“Same as usual, I’m large and the three barely-sentient parasites that I grew are in charge.” Grant grimaced, waiting for a new contraction.

Kyle smiled. “I told Stan, he said with Bruce and the rest of us, you’ll be fine.” The two paused. “He also said that he wishes he could’ve been as strong as you when he had our kid. The hospital was boring as all hell for him.” Grant chuckled lightly, his readiness for the next contraction had done nothing to help with the pain, and he hoped the laughter would fight back the tears. “I think you’re pretty brave too… and if in 9 months I end up in a hot tub, I hope it’s yours.”

Grant did his best to stifle his gasp, he didn’t want Bruce to think it was from more pain than it was. “You? No way! This is such awful timing, because I will not censor myself if you ask how bad this hurts. If you do end up in my hot tub, I hope it’s quadruplets, we gotta keep it interesting.” The two laughed, Grant didn’t think it was possible for Kyle to mature anymore, and he certainly didn’t think it would be like this!

“Don’t tell anyone, I’m still a little shocked I decided to do this.” Kyle smiled and rubbed his belly, aware of Grant’s silence.

“I think I might be a bit busy, get chucked over here, I don’t know how much longer I can go without listening to my body.” The contraction refused to secede as Kyle went over to Chuck and Bruce, as Chuck and Bruce ran over and asked a million questions, and as Chuck put his finger inside Grant for the last time.

Chuck took his finger out, “Do you like this position?”

Grant answered tentatively, “Yeah, is it…”

“Yes Grant, spread your legs, it’s time. For the second time today.”

(Part 3 soon!)

#mpreg #mpreg birth #mpreg story #mpreg belly #mpregnancy #mpreg art #pregnant man #male pregnancy #original story

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dewdropdinosaur · 3 months ago

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Smutmas Day 6 - For Goodness (Snow) Flake

Lucifer x Reader

(Third Person POV) Summary: The annual molt has hit again, leaving Lucifer absolutely miserable. Luckily for him, his girlfriend has a solution. Warnings: Handjob, preening, use of names(ducky), sub/dom dynamics if you squint, cum, water play, etc. MDNI, 18+. You're responsible for your own media consumption. Requested by the pretty and perfect @primsgirl89

The grand halls of the palace Lucifer called home were always shrouded in a sense of elegance. Lavish, meticulously designed, and exuding an air of untouchable regality—it was the perfect home for the King of Hell. Yet today, Lucifer Morningstar found himself in a state far from his usual composed glory. Well, at least in more disarray than what might have been considered normal.

The annual molting had started a week ago, and his prideful wings, normally a source of his striking authority, were now a source of endless irritation. Feathers littered his otherwise pristine floor, and the itchiness was maddening. He groaned as he tried to reach over his shoulder to scratch the base of his wing joint but to no avail.

Y/N stood in the doorway, hesitant but determined. Her shy disposition usually made it challenging for her to speak up, especially around Lucifer, whose presence alone could send shivers down anyone’s spine. But seeing him like this—frustrated and uncomfortable—she felt a tug of sympathy and a little courage bubble to the surface.

"Luci," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

His crimson gaze flicked to her, his brow arching as he struggled to maintain his usual calm demeanor. “Yes, ducky?”

“You seem... uncomfortable. Would you let me help?”

His lips curled into a smirk, one that held both curiosity and amusement. “Help? And how do you plan to help me with this?” He gestured to his wings, shedding yet another feather as if to punctuate his point.

“Well,” she fidgeted with the hem of her sweater, looking anywhere but at him, “a hot bath might help soothe the itchiness. And I could... I mean, if you'd like, I could help preen your wings. It might make things more manageable.”

Lucifer blinked, momentarily stunned by the offer. It was rare for anyone to approach him with such sincerity, let alone someone so gentle. After a moment, he smiled—less teasing, more genuine.

“Alright, that…that actually sounds nice.”

——————————————————————

The bathroom was a vision of opulence, with a marble tub large enough to swim in and golden fixtures of birds that shimmered under the soft glow of the chandelier.

Y/N busied herself adjusting the water temperature, her cheeks flushed as the steam began to rise. This would be interesting, only about seven months into their relationship, she had never been quite this up and personal with the King of Hell himself.

Lucifer watched her with amusement from a nearby chair, his long legs crossed as his eyes traced her every move. She was a curious creature, timid yet caring in a way that stirred something deep within him.

“Are you certain you wanna do this?” he asked, his voice teasing but soft.

She glanced at him, her cheeks pinker than before. “I-I think so. It’s just... wings, right? Nothing too difficult.”

He chuckled, standing gracefully to shed his jacket and shirt, revealing the broad expanse of his back and the full glory of his wings, even in their molting state. His chest and stomach were equally as strong looking, shapely even. But what caught her attention the most was the carved V-line down to his very large—nope. Keep it together. Y/N’s breath hitched as she took in the sight, but she quickly turned back to the bath, willing herself to focus.

Once the water was ready, Lucifer sank into the tub with a sigh, the heat immediately easing some of his discomfort. He leaned back, his wings draped over the edges of the tub, and closed his eyes.

“This was such a good idea,” he murmured.

Y/N smiled softly, glad to see him relax. After a few minutes, he tilted his head toward her, one eye opening lazily.

“Oh yeah, right. Umm, you’ll wanna step closer and pluck one-by-one.”

She nodded, sitting on a stool behind him, her heart pounding. She reached out hesitantly, her fingers grazing the base of his wings. They were warm and surprisingly soft, even in their current state. She began to carefully remove the loose feathers, her movements gentle and precise.

Lucifer’s eyes drifted shut again, a low hum of approval rumbling from his chest. “You have quite the touch,” he said, his voice velvety but clearly enjoying the individualized attention

Y/N’s cheeks burned at his praise, but she didn’t stop. She worked methodically, smoothing the remaining feathers and untangling the ones that had become ruffled.

As her fingers brushed along the sensitive inner edges, Lucifer’s breath hitched. He bit back a groan, unwilling to let her know just how much her touch was affecting him. But she noticed the way his muscles tensed slightly under her hands.

“Am I hurting you?” she asked, worried.

His eyes roled by into his head, choking out a small sentence. “Far from it, ducky.”

She did, her shyness giving way to focus as she tended to him. The once-pristine bathroom now bore traces of discarded feathers, but neither of them paid it any mind. All that Lucifer could pay attention to was the warmth of her touch, how soft her hands felt on his wings. How good they might feel somewhere else.

His body tenses, his breath getting caught in his throat, as she works out another knot in his wings; unaware of his thoughts. Or at least he thinks she is unaware. As Lucifer closes his eyes and lays his head back against the marble, he feels the water stir.

His eyes slowly open to see the movement, only to see her hand drifting lower into the water. A low, guttural moan creeps past his lips as Y/N starts to pump his throbbing member, his hips instinctively bucking toward her touch. Her touch is so delicate, almost feather-light, but hits all the right places. Pumping up and down, as her other hand still continues to preen, his senses become overloaded the moment her lips come to kiss his neck.

He's almost lost for words, his mind clouded by a primal desire. He can barely think straight anymore, all his focus is centered on Y/n and what she is doing.

“Fuck ducky, just like that—“

Y/N’s ministrations are slow and deliberate, working for her reward. Every movement is just barely on the edge of what Lucifer is moaning and begging for, practically humping into her hand. The way his cheeks turn a beautiful shade of red; his hands coming to grip the edge of the tub till his knuckles are white, it’s not too long before he is close.

“Just relax…Luci…please?”

It’s all too much and soon he’s painting the tub with hot thick ropes of cum with a loud moan, floating to the surface to stain the water. Slowly working him through his high, Y/N removes her hand after a moment. Lips still hovering over his neck at the pulse point, voice low and soft.

“Do you feel better now, Luci?”

God’s did he ever.

#hazbin hotel fandom #romance #answered #vizziepop #request #lucifer imagine #lucifer smut #hazbin hotel smut #lucifer x reader smut #smutmas #dino's smutmas #the things i would do to him #the things i would do to this man #help me this fandom has a hold on my soul

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sinnabarmoth · 3 months ago

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Worthy of Devotion (3/9)

Pairing: Sea God|Rafayel x Worshipper|Reader (fem)

Summary: Reader learns more about Rafayel and can't help asking some more personal questions. Meanwhile Rafayel is learning new things about human peculiarities both funny and concerning.

Content Warnings: Self worth issues caused by religious trauma.

Length: 3k

Chapters: (1) (2) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

Read on AO3

~~~

The next day was more of the same. You woke up, made yourself from breakfast and started cleaning a new part of the temple. You had decided to work on the bedroom this time. The main issue was all the dust and you ended up tying a handkerchief around your face to help keep yourself from sneezing.

You had also finally entered the attached bathing room. Yesterday you had just availed yourself to the communal toilets on the main level since that was where you had spent most your day. The bathing room was in much the same state as the bedroom, covered in a fine layer of dust. The main problem was the large tub in the center of the room. In any other circumstance it would have been lovely, the large basin cut into solid marble, you could fit at least four people inside easily. But over the years a layer of moss and fungus had sprouted inside, coating the marble like a carpet. That took a lot of scraping and shoveling and scrubbing to get clean.

You were knelt in the center of the tub, trying to get the green ring stain out of the marble when Rafayel wandered in. “There you are,” he sat at the edge of the tub. “Keeping busy?”

“Someone has to repair this temple and I’m the only one here, so yes.” you wiped the sweat from your brow but only managed to smear more dirt and grime against it. “I assume you’re here to continue working on the journal?”

“Yes. But you are going to need to clean yourself up first. You’ll end up dirtying the pages with hands like that.” he picked up one of your hands and inspected the grime caked under your nails. “In fact, have you bathed at all since coming here?”

“I have rinsed…” you muttered, “But I haven’t really had the time to--”

“Up. Now.” he pulled you up and out of the tub. “You are not doing any more work until you’ve bathed. To be perfectly honest, you smell rather bad too. I let it slide yesterday because we were working but there is no excuse for this now.”

“Alright. I’ll go down to the baths--”

“What are you talking about? You just cleaned this one, use it.”

“If I use this one then I have to carry buckets of water up here to fill it. It’s just easier to go to the baths downstairs.”

Rafayel rolled his eyes and reached towards the head of the tub. There was a pipe over the basin but you saw no pump with which to call up water from. Behind the pipe was a large smooth gem that he put his hand over. He muttered something foreign to your ears and suddenly water began to fill the tub. Even more than that, steam was rising from it.

“But how--”

“A water gem.” he pointed to the gem behind the pipe. “Very rare. They provide unlimited water with the activation of certain phrases. “Calidum, for hot water. Frigus, for cold water. To get it to stop, say finis. Try it.”

You put your hand on the stone. “Frigus?”

There was a pause in the spray of water and when it returned you felt it was ice cold. You touched the stone again. “Calidum.” Another pause and hot water came out again. “Finis.” The water stopped. “Wow. Do you know how useful that would have been to know an hour ago when I was carrying buckets of water up here to scrub the floors?”

He smiled. “Well now you know. There should still be some soaps around here somewhere. Clean yourself up, I will be back.”

“Thank you.” You started the water again, going back and forth with the cold and hot to get it to a nice temperature and then sank in. When was the last time you had an honest to goodness hot bath? It was always such a hassle back home to get a hot bath all to yourself.

You let yourself relax, the feel of the hot water easing the pain in your joints and relaxing your muscles. Yes, you needed this. After a while of just soaking and enjoying the bath you picked up a rag and the soap and started cleaning yourself in earnest. You shouldn’t have been surprised by how nice the soap was but it still caught you off guard to smell something so pretty and floral. It smelled like plumerias and a whiff of coconut.

You were rinsing the suds away when the door banged open and Rafayel strode in again. You ducked under the water up to your neck, covering your body with your arms. “I’m still in here!”

“I figured you would be.” he didn’t seem perturbed by your nakedness or the clear panic you were exhibiting. “I brought fresh clothes. Those rags you’ve been wearing need a wash, if you still want to keep them that is.”

“Yes, thank you. You can leave now.” you curled into yourself, trying to hide your body more the closer he got.

“You’re awfully jumpy. What’s got into you?” he cocked an eyebrow up at you.

“I’m naked!”

“So?”

You swallowed back the urge to scream. “So I don’t want you seeing me naked. Please.”

“I assume this is one of those human peculiarities.” he shrugged. “The nude form is very natural, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You especially have a rather delectable form, from what I glanced when I came in at least.”

You were going to drown yourself in this tub. “Thanks. But I’d rather not wander around naked so freely. So can you please leave now so I can dry and dress?”

“Yes yes, I’m going.” he left the room. “We’re going to add these views on nudity to the book I hope you know. It’s ridiculous that you humans are so preoccupied with it.” He shouted from the bedroom.

“Got it.” you sighed, pressing the heels of your palms to your eyes. “Gods give me strength.” you muttered.

“Strength for what?” Rafayel shouted again.

“That prayer wasn’t for you!” you snapped. So he really could here your prayers…great. You needed to be careful about what you said now.

After you had drained the tub and dried yourself off you picked up the bundle of clothes that Rafayel had left for you. It was a pair of loose pants and shirt made out of the same linens that he wore. There were little shells embroidered along the sleeves and a wave design along the thigh of the pants. They were simple working clothes, easy to move around in and lightweight.

When you left the bathing room you saw Rafayel packing more garments into the standing wardrobe. He turned back to you and smiled. “There, that looks much better.” he walked up to you and pulled you close. You froze as his face was buried in your hair. “Smell much better too. Now we can work without you smelling like dirt and sweat.”

“It wasn’t that bad!” you protested. Your resentment covered the sheer panic of his sudden embrace.

“It was. Come along, mudskipper. Time to get writing.” he pulled you to the sitting area of the bedroom.

“First I’m a grouper and now I’m a mudskipper. If you’re going to keep comparing me to fish can’t they at least be cute? Like an angelfish or even a starfish would sound nicer.”

“How about a clownfish?” he deposited you in one of the chairs.

“Do you enjoy mocking me?”

“What? Do you not think clownfish are cute?” he tossed you the book and sat down in the chair opposite you. “Now, where were we?”

You flipped open the book with a roll of your eyes. “Let me see, we had just finished discussing how the title of Sea God is passed down through generations and I have a note here about partners to the Sea God. I think we left off talking about unions and the powers that romantic partners had if any.”

“Right,” Rafayel cleared his throat, “It varies from person to person, some gods chose to have a partner with which they could entrust helping to rule over the Lemurians, in that way it was very strategic. Others were more driven by their desires and chose partners with their hearts. Sometimes partners are equal rulers with similar ruling authority, sometimes they are figure heads, but there is no set in stone responsibilities for the partner of the Sea God.”

“Interesting.” you started writing everything down. “And what about children? Is there any chance that progeny of the current Sea God may be chosen as the new god or is it entirely up to chance?”

“It is entirely up to chance. Children of current gods do not automatically inherit their parent’s title. I only know of one recorded instance in which one of the children of a past god was selected as the inheritor.”

Your pen paused. “Rafayel, do you have a partner?”

His eyes widened a fraction before he shook his head. “No. I do not.”

You didn’t know why but your heart did a pitter patter in your chest hearing that. “Then, do you plan on marrying for strategy or for love?”

“I don’t really have any plans right now.”

“Alright, let me just write that down. Current god, Rafayel, is not one to plan for the future.”

“Hey! You can’t write that down!” his face turned pink.

“I’m the one with the pen so--ah!” you held the pen back as Rafayel tried to grab it. “You’re the one who tasked me with writing this book so I get to write my findings!”

“No, you write what I tell you to write. Now give me the pen.” he made another swipe for it but you leapt out of your seat. “Are you disobeying me, clownfish?”

“Of course not. I would never dare disobey my god.” you handed the pen to him. “Here you are.”

“Thank you.”

“But I will be taking this.” you grabbed the book and took off out the door.

“Oh! I see how it is! My sweet clownfish is actually a slippery little eel!” he took off after you.

There was a part of you that screamed that you shouldn’t be doing this. Everything you had learned, everything you had been raised as told you that you shouldn’t have been disobeying and teasing your god like this. If any of the priests or priestesses could see your behavior you’d be put on floor scrubbing for a year, maybe ten. But they weren’t here. None of them had actually completed their pilgrimages. None of them had spoken to Rafayel. According to what they taught you, and according to your god, you were more worthy than any of them. No one was here to say otherwise. You could do whatever you wanted. And you felt like having a little fun, and the fact that it was at the expense of a god made it all the funnier.

You were flying down the stairs, a wide smile on your face as you ran. You could hear Rafayel gaining behind you. You weren’t sure if you wanted to be caught or not.

You glanced over your shoulder to see how close he was and your foot hit a chunk of fallen ceiling. Your body pitched forward, gravity helping send you down the last couple of steps.

“Watch it!” you were caught by the waist and tugged backwards with force. You were tipping back instead and you landed with a thud on the stairs, Rafayel cushioning your fall. “Ow.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” you rolled off him. “Are you okay?”

“No. I think this is it for me. I’m weak, this is the end.” he threw an arm over his eyes. “The light shall need to choose a new Sea God now. I am to descend into the abyss. Tell my people I died heroically, saving one of my acolytes.”

You could tell he was being dramatic but you saw the way he winced as he sat up and the rock that he had landed on was painted a deep crimson at the point.

Rafayel looked at you, the humor on his face disappearing. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he waved a hand in front of your face, “Say something, you’re starting to worry me.”

“You…you’re bleeding.” you murmured, horrified that he had gotten injured saving you.

“Ah that,” he picked up the rock and tossed it away to a corner. “Don’t worry about that. I was only joking, I feel fine. A little sore between the shoulder blades but nothing to get worked up about.”

“I’m sorry.” you drew into yourself, pulling your knees close to your body. “I’m so sorry. You got hurt because of me. I’m sorry.”

“You would have gotten hurt worse if I let you fall. We really need to work on that balance of yours. You have about as much grace as a fish on a dock.” he smiled at you. When you did not return it he inched closer. He reached out as if to touch you and you flinched back. He eased away.

“You’re shaken from the fall. I get it.” he said slowly, as if trying to coax a skittish animal, “But I promise I’m fine. You don’t need to feel bad about it. Accidents happen.”

“I…I…” you glanced around and saw the book splayed out at the bottom of the stairs. You stood up, ignoring the pain in your foot as you hobbled down and recollected it. “I need to go.” You set the book on the bottom step and limped out of the temple.

“Where are you going?” Rafayel raced after you. “Your foot is scraped, if you get sand in it it will only make it worse.”

You ignored him, your body taking you down the steps and onto the beach. You kept going until you got the shore where the ocean lapped at the sand. You waded into the water up to your knees. The salt burned against your wound but you didn’t retreat, the pain helped to ground you. Staring straight ahead your vision tunneled as it tried in vain to see past the horizon line.

You hurt your god. Actually hurt him. And for what? Because you wanted to tease him a little? What right did you have? Was this a divine punishment? Fate reminding you of your place? A mortal poking fun at a deity like he was an old friend. No. There were lines for a reason. You couldn’t cross them. No one was ever meant to cross them.

“Come back inside,” you heard Rafayel’s voice behind you. “Your foot needs tending.”

“I shouldn’t be in there. I don’t belong in that temple or on this island. I’m not worthy. I need to leave. I need to--”

“By the tides, not this again.” Rafayel groaned and with an ease that surprised you he hefted you out of the water and started carrying you back to the temple. “Here I thought you were finally done with all that aggrandizing. One little tumble down some stairs and suddenly you think you need to throw yourself into the ocean. Those charlatans on the mainland really messed with your self worth in the name of worshiping me, didn’t they?”

“What--what are you--” you stammered as he marched you back into the temple. “Please! Put me down. I don’t--I can’t--”

“Shush.” he brought you into the kitchen and set you down on the table. “Stay there.”

“But--”

“Stay.” he pointed and left out the back door. He came back with a bucket of water and grabbed a clean rag out of one of the drawers. Dunking it into the water he grabbed your injured foot and started dabbing away at the blood and sand. “And here the day was going so well. I finally got you to take a bath, we were having a nice chat, then we took that little tumble and it was like it reset you. You had better not start calling me Your Radiance again, I swear.”

“I shouldn’t have ran though. It’s not my place. I shouldn’t have done it and then you wouldn’t have had to help me and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt and--” you went silent as he glanced up at you, that spark of blue flame alighting his eyes once more.

“Did I not say yesterday that you are allowed to feel whatever you please in regards to me? You can feel guilty if you wish but your guilt doesn’t get to erase the fact that you also feel comfortable with me. I like that you play. I don’t want you to stop on account of this one accident.” He patted your wound dry and tore a strip of fabric off of his sarong, wrapping it around your foot. “Understood? Don’t make me have to make it an order because that will go against everything I am trying to accomplish here.”

“What is it you want to accomplish?” you asked.

“I want to create followers that want to follow me out of devotion, not fear. If I can’t get you to not fear me, then what hope is there for the others?” he handed you the wet rag. “I know I can’t undo everything you learned, especially not in a day. But we are not going to spend this time with you too scared to say anything out of turn or show any displeasure. I may be your god but I do not control you. Do you understand?”

You nodded.

“No. Say it.”

“I understand.”

“Understand what?”

You took a deep breath. “I understand what you want from me.”

“Which is?”

“To be devoted to you out of desire, not obligation or fear.”

“Good.” he turned around and you could see the wound in his back where the rock stabbed him. “Now, could you be so kind as to help clean this for me?”

“Yes. Of course.” You wiped at the blood trickling down his spin and pressed the rag over the cut to staunch the bleeding.

“Rafayel?” your voice felt as if it was a thousand miles away from your body.

“Yes?”

“You talk of being a god worthy of devotion, but do you not have any requisites of your followers? Is there nothing to make us worthy of your blessings outside of wanting to worship you? It seems unfair that you hold yourself to such a high degree but not us.”

“You wish to know what I think makes my followers worthy of my blessings and spared of my wrath?” he thought for a moment. “They have to be kind and honest. They cannot spread fear in hopes that it will gain me more followers or larger offerings. To be worthy, their actions and words must come from their souls. A sand dollar offered by a child that believes in me out of trust is worth more than all the gold shoveled onto a dais by fearful priests. Chasing you through the halls as you try to play keep away with me is more precious to me than this self loathing you carry about inadvertently causing me injury.”

“I understand.” A smile started to creep its way back onto your face. “I like this version of you far better than the one I learned about on the mainland.”

“Nice to hear it.” he glanced over his shoulder. “Almost done back there?”

“Oh right.” you had forgotten what you were doing for a moment. You removed the rag from his back. You were shocked to see that the wound had completely disappeared, gone as if it never existed, save for a small pink spot between his shoulder blades. “What…how did that happen?”

“I’m God of the Seas, water is a natural healer to me, be it fresh or salt.” he rolled his shoulders, the muscles in his back flexing as he did. “Now, how about we do something relaxing for the rest of the day? No cleaning, no writing, something simple.”

“Like what?”

“Want to learn how to play a Lemurian board game?”

“Sure.”

“Alright,” he glanced around the room. “Right, I need to go get one. Stay here, don’t go tripping over anything else, I will be right back.”

He left to dive back into the sea while you stayed sat on the kitchen table. You picked your foot up, inspecting the makeshift bandage over your foot. He could have gone and found actual bandages but he tore off part of his clothes just to dress your wound. Either he thought very highly of your foot or very little of his clothes. You ran a finger over the gold embroidery, contemplating.

It would take him some time to return so you carefully stood up and limped back out to the staircase. The book was still resting on the top step along with the pen that Rafayel had dropped. You picked up both and cracked open the book, penning a new note near the back.

“The god Rafayel wants more than anything for his followers to follow him out of love rather than fear. I think this shows more than anything that he cares for us more than the priests of old would have had us believe. He is a kind god,” you bit back a mischievous smile, “and he likes it when you tease him, so if you are reading this you should do it a lot. He really does like it. Just be ready for him to tease you right back.”

#love and deepspace #lads rafayel #lads mc #rafayel x mc #rafayel x reader #sea god rafayel #lads sea god au

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poppitron360 · 8 months ago

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More quotes from this RANDOM INCORRECT QUOTES GENERATOR that I found- THIS TIME VALGRACE:

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: What do you want to be for Halloween?

Jason: Yours.

Leo:

Leo: …yeah, that would be pretty scary.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: Stop doing that.

Leo: Stop doing what?

Jason: Saying things that make me wanna kiss the hell out of you.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: I can't take this anymore, someone needs to take me out!

Jason: In a dating type of way, or an assassination type of way?

Leo: I don't know, surprise me!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Pros and cons of dating me.

Leo: Pros. You'll be the cute one.

Leo: Cons. Holy shit, where do I begin-

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason, trying to flirt: So, you come around here often?

Leo, confused: I mean, this is my house, so yeah.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: How do I tell Jason that I want him to yell at me like he’s Gordon Ramsay and I'm a poor little chef who just ruined a crème brûlée?

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Let’s watch Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

Jason: Okay.

Leo: And make out during the scary parts.

Jason: Th-

Jason: The scary parts.

Jason: Of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason (about Leo): I would never say that my husband is a bitch and I don’t like him. That’s not true… My husband is a bitch and I like him so much!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Okay, but what if we went to dinner not as friends this time?

Jason: AS ENEMIES?!

Leo:

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Are you an F5 key? Because that ass is refreshing.

Jason: Are you a software update? because not right now.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason *Holding up a pack of pens*: Look at how cute these pens are!

Leo: Jason that’s gay.

Jason:

Jason: Leo, we’ve been dating for-

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: This date is boring!

Leo: This isn't a date. I said I was going to the store.

Jason: Then why did you invite me?

Leo: I didnt, I specifically said "don't come with me," then you said, "fuck you Leo I'll do whatever I want!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: I don't know how to tell you this, but... I love you.

Leo: That's great, Jason. Especially considering the fact we've been married for 6 fucking years.

(Basically the plot of my Married Valgrace AU that I’ve been writing)

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: If I'm extra sarcastic with you it probably means I'm flirting with you or you really annoy me and I can't handle your crap... have fun figuring out which one.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Can I have 2 straws with that milkshake?

Jason: Aww-

Leo: With 2 straws, I can drink it double as fast!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Leo: Fight me!

Jason: *gets on one knee and pulls out a ring*

Jason: Fight me for the rest of our lives.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: Two bros!

Leo: Chillin' in a hot tub!

Jason and Leo, in unison: Zero feet apart 'cause we're GAY AS FUCK!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: When I was young, I left a trail of broken hearts like a rockstar. I'm not proud of it.

Leo: You're kind of proud of it. You work it into a lot of conversations.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: Did you know you remind me of all 26 letters of the alphabet?

Leo: What? Like J F K W S Q X-

Jason: No, like, U R A Q T.

Leo: Awwww!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: Ugh, crushes are so dumb.

Leo: I know. Whenever I’m near the person I like I just start acting stupid.

Jason: But you’re always acting stupid?

Leo: ...

Leo: Yeah, don’t think about that too hard.

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: Okay, but if your not gay then why are you always holding my hand and kissing me and telling me I’m your boyfriend?

Leo: Dude- Its satire!

Jason: THAT'S NOT WHAT SATIRE MEANS!

0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_ [0]-_🔥-_[0]-_⚡️-_[0

Jason: I want to kiss you.

Leo, not paying attention: What?

Jason: I said if you die, I wont miss you.

@euryvices I was literally in the middle of writing this when you posted your hcs and I had to tag you.

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bingwriterxo · 2 years ago

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masterlist :)

welcome to my blog!

rules + guidelines

for even more: wattpad

last updated: december 13, 2023

------

☆ = personal favorites

Marvel

More Than Capable (Kate Bishop x reader)

Mahd Wy'ry (Thena x reader)

Tara Carpenter

drunk ☆

arachnophobia

notes

sisters, sisters

the shakespeare exhibit ☆ ⤷ part 2 ⤷ drabble 1 ⤷ part 3 ⤷ part 4 ⤷ part 5 ⤷ part 6 (smut, 18+) ⤷ drabble 2 ⤷ part 7 ⤷ drabble 3 ⤷ part 8 ⤷ drabble 4 ⤷ part 9 ⤷ drabble 5

distrust

Wednesday Addams

a love more than love

a child?!

Vada Cavell

sore loser

childhood friends

wisdom teeth ☆

party ⤷part 2 (smut, 18+)

first time (smut, 18+)

miscommunication

meddling mia

distant

backseat (smut, 18+)

my tears are becoming a sea

truck

the chase ☆

emergency

Jenna Ortega

more than friends?

stressed

hot tub (smut, 18+)

this is how it feels ☆

amnesia

midnight guest ☆

call your mom (heavy topics, 18+) ☆

paparazzi

what is grief if not love persevering?

Amber Freeman

a drunken kiss

no strings attached...right?

a clingy drunk ☆

moth to a flame

Sam Carpenter

five more minutes

sisters, sisters

#masterlist

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kitthepurplepotato · 1 year ago

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Chapter 6 - The man in Inko’s house.

Summary: Izuku want to see his mom but he finds another man in her house instead. Also, Izuku forgets to wear a shirt to sleep.

Warnings: Izuku in his underwear, no actual suggestive content this time but there are some suggestive thoughts in there (obviously😂), swear words

First Chapter Master List

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“Tadaima.” Izuku mutters into your ear while he gives you a tight hug. He just came home from his last shift for the week. He’s yours for two whole days from now on, and it feels like a dream.

“I missed you.” You mutter back, your face flushed from the excitement. “I can’t wait to wake up next to you and cuddle. Then I wanna use the hot tub together…”

“Uhm, about that…” Izuku scratches the back of his head sheepishly. Oh no.

“If you tell me you are working tomorrow I swear to god I’ll cry.” You retort angrily, your arms snaking around Izuku’s middle possessively. By the look of it, Izuku really likes your new possessive side; his eyes darken as he buries his fingers in your hair, scratching your scalp to soothe your sudden anger.

“Definitely not, but… can we go to see Mom? I really miss her. Then the day after that we can… uhm… have the full day for ourselves. Just you and me. And All Meowt. And the hot tub.” Izuku’s face is slightly flushed as he says the last sentence but you can feel his excitement when his eyes shine in that adorable way it usually does when he talks about his favorite things and current obsessions, like that new new anime about the most popular girl falling in love with a random nerd. He’s absolutely obsessed with that shit, bless his little romantic ass. “I also want to formally introduce you to her. As my… my… girlfriend…” Izuku smiles shyly, his voice full of giddiness.

“Hmm…” You try to tease him, but his puppy eyes are too powerful. You have no idea how can he make such an adorable face and how can he still have baby fat on his face at his age. You can’t help yourself; you touch the soft skin, slowly stroking up and down then back up until you reach his freckles, connecting the dots with your finger, taking in the sight of them as counting them would be impossible. “Have I told you how much I adore your cheeks?” You mutter as you leave a tiny kiss on the most freckled part of his skin. “And your eyes… you are so handsome, I can’t say no to this face.”

“Says the most beautiful girl with the sweetest smile.” Izuku mumbles with his eyes downcast which makes him look like a shy school boy confessing to his first love and it’s the cutest fucking thing the world has ever seen.

Okay, this needs to stop. It’s literally past midnight and Izuku haven’t showered yet.

FOCUS.

“I’ll wait for you in bed.” You leave one tiny kiss on the greenette’s cheek and sneak out of the embrace, your steps quick as you walk towards the bedroom; you can hear Katsuki yelling “just fuck already”, loud and clear in your head but while you would absolutely love to finally have him to yourself, it’s kinda fun to tiptoe around each other; there is something about Izuku’s shyness, about the way all his touches scream innocence that makes your heart flutter and you are honestly not ready to say goodbye to that.

It doesn’t take Izuku too long to snuggle up to your back as he always does but the first thing you realize is that… he’s still kind of wet. Not too much, just the way the person skin’s feels like when they get out of the shower… wait.

Skin. Your naked shoulders are touching skin. Izuku senses how your shoulders tense and moves away from you; you murmur a silent “fuck” under your nose for being so weird about the situation, but hell, give the girl a warning, will ya?!

“Sorry, I forgot to bring a shirt with me and I’m too tired to get one but if it makes you uncomfortable…”

You hate the hesitation in Izuku’s voice.

“No, I was just surprised, it’s fine. Come back, I’m cold.” You turn to your other side, snuggling into the man’s pecks, silently thanking all the gods that it’s dark as your face is probably more red than a lobster’s. Your heart skips a beat as Izuku pulls your closer, his body flush against yours; your pajama top rode up in the motion so there is so much skin-to-skin right now your brain is about to combust. You can feel his abs through your belly; they are hard and sturdy but the skin is really soft, much softer than you’ve expected it to be; he doesn’t get many scars around that area thanks to the reinforced bullet and shockproof vest he wears under his hero costume. You have a really strong urge to feel it with your fingers, find every dip, every crevice until you remember them all even with your eyes closed but Izuku had a hard week and he’s probably tired to the bone so you decide to hide your face in his neck instead, snuggling into his warmth until you become a putty in each other’s arms.

“We should do this more often.” You murmur into his neck; you can feel him shivering as your hot breath licks his skin.

“Sweet Pea, I won’t be able to sleep if you keep doing that.” Izuku mutters shyly, his words followed by a pleased sigh.

“You haven’t slept for a week Izu, I’m quite sure you’ll manage.” You giggle but you roll back to your original position to let him have his peace tonight. Izuku doesn’t wait long before he pulls you back to him; after a few seconds his breathing evens out and he’s out like a light.

He must’ve been even more exhausted than I thought - you think to yourself as you slowly follow him to dreamland, his warmth seeping into your bones through your light pajama top.

~•🥦•~

Things you are not ready for at 9 in the morning:

- Izuku’s absolutely beautiful sleeping face.

- Izuku’s washboard abs glistering in the sunlight as he somehow manages to kick the covers off himself.

- Izuku still in bed, at 9AM. End of sentence.

Oh, and how can you forget the most important thing….

- The top of Izuku’s broccoli tattoo sticking out of his tight boxers as his gorgeous abs glisten in the sunlight at 9AM on a Saturday morning.

Izuku’s nose scrunches adorably as though somehow, he’s able to feel your eyes on him; he shifts to a new position and sighs contentedly, his hand reaching out to find you in his sleep; you sat down during your inner monologue so the only thing he could find was your upper thigh. He grabs the warm limb anyway, his face scrunched up in concentration as he’s trying to figure out what is he touching. You are half embarrassed and half amused, a tiny giggle leaves your mouth as Izuku tickles you by accident. His hand wonders around again, this time to your inner thigh and that’s when you whimper; Izuku opens his eyes to see what’s wrong and he pulls back his hand right away like your skin just burned him.

“Uhm… good… morning.” Izuku mutters, his face hidden in the pillow. Somehow, it sounded like an apology but you are glad he didn’t actually apologize; he has no reason to do so and you really want him to get to a point one day when he doesn’t feel the urge to say sorry for doing things he enjoys to do. For instance, every time his kisses get a bit rough, he apologizes, like it’s not the most normal thing in the world to get a bit unhinged while you kiss your loved one. He also says sorry when he accidentally touches the side of your… well… bosom. Or your bottom.

Okay, you can kinda understand the last two as you two haven’t really done anything too cheeky yet and Izuku wants to make sure he has your consent before doing any of that, but you would be happier if he would just ask you if he can instead of running away like a 30 year old virgin every time his finger touches a bouncy area.

Okay, how did you end up thinking about that?

Ahh, probably from the sight of his own, juicy ass in those tight black boxers.

… focus, woman.

“Really good morning indeed.” You look at Izuku’s god-like, half naked body; damn, those back muscles are (also) something else. You can’t wait to be able to ask about every single scar covering his body; there is a lot, some of them massive and brownish red - probably old burn marks while some of them are long, white and thin, almost elegant compared to the violent claw marks on his side. Some people might be put off by all the damaged skin, but honestly, they just make Izuku even more handsome in your eyes; they are the proof that Deku is a hero, a proof that he would do anything to save the innocent, to protect his city and it’s people. His back is like an abstract painting sitting in a museum; some people look at it and think “this makes no sense” but those who understand get teary eyed from all the emotions, of all the stories hidden behind the random lines of the canvas.

“Let’s… uhm… get ready. Yeah.” Izuku shuffles off the bed with a red face and you can’t help but giggle at Izuku’s awkwardness.

~•🥦•~

“So… this is it.” Izuku parks in front of a small, adorable house, right next to a small forest. You lived in Tokyo for god knows how long yet you didn’t know there was a place like this in the area; well, it’s quite far from the center to be fair and you never really felt the urge to sit on the train and go around the main city, so it makes a lot of sense. “It’s a small house, but mom didn’t want a bigger one. She said it would be too empty without me.” Izuku sighs, still affected by his mother’s bittersweet words. He’s such a mama’s boy!

“That’s so sweet.” You mutter, a little bit anxious about being here; you know there is no need for you to be stressed about today but it’s still a big step in your relationship, so of course it will affect you.

“Come on, mom will be so happy to see us!” He grabs your hand and pulls you towards the entrance, fingers intertwined as he opens the door and barges in without a single knock.

Well… Izuku clearly forgot to tell his mother that he’s coming over.

How do you know that? Because there is another man in her house. The man’s hair is blonde and messy, body skinny and fragile, a little bit unhealthy from the distance but there is a slight, healthy blush on his face which tells you he’s probably fine. His face is really kind and he was cleaning the leaves of a massive money plant when you two barged in so he’s clearly not a weirdo which makes you extremely happy because you would definitely have a few words with him otherwise. No one plays around with the innocent, naive Inko. No one.

The man looks extremely surprised first but then his face changes into a happy grin as he looks Izuku up and down with a proud smile.

“Midoriya-shounen!” The older man hops over to you two and hugs Izuku tightly. That nickname rings a bell.

“All Might!”

Wait.

Okay, wait.

No fucking way.

“All Might?!” You mutter incredulously. The blond man just smiles at you awkwardly like he’s a little bit ashamed of being outed this way but wants to make a good first impression anyway. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be rude or anything…”

“It’s all fine, my darling. Everyone reacts like that. You must be the famous Sweet Pea, I’m so happy to finally meet you in person.”

All Might has the kindest smile. It literally brings sunshine into the already bright house.

“Izuku, All Might is in your mom’s house!” You mutter under your nose while you ignore the world around you for a few minutes; it’s extremely hard not to freak out over the fact that you’ve just met Japan’s biggest hero - you are a nerd after all.

“Oh, yeah, why are you in mom’s house?” It seems like Izuku didn’t even realize he’s not supposed be here in the first place, he was so excited to meet his father figure again. He’s so fucking precious.

“Oh, well… my mansion was a bit too empty for the little old me, so I… moved here?”

Izuku almost chokes on her saliva while you can’t stop gawking at the blond man in front of you.

Well… that’s… an interesting plot twist.

“You are my mom’s roommate?!” Izuku yelps and you can’t help but sigh at that.

Two middle aged people sharing a house as “roommates”? You’ve never heard such a bullshit. Is Inko dating All Might?! Is that why she kept this a secret from his son even though they talk on the phone every week for literal hours?

“Inko wanted it to be a surprise, so… surprise?” All Might still talks to Izuku like he’s 15, making over-exaggerated facial expressions and you can see on Izuku’s face that he’s back to being a young boy, shy and nerdy, craving the love of a father he never had.

The whole situation might be considered weird from an outsider perspective but somehow… it just works. This family is special; they love with their whole heart, platonic or not and Inko letting his son’s role model to live in her house so he doesn’t get too lonely is such a Midoriya-thing to do that you are not even that surprised.

“I’m really happy.” Izuku mutters, tears welling up in his eyes as he hugs the thin man again. “I’m really happy, dad.”

“My boy…”

Aaaand… everyone is crying.

If this would be a fanfiction, this would be the perfect time to end this chapter as the emotions are so strong, the reader probably needs to take a breather.

“To be continued.” You giggle to yourself as you look around the house to find the missing piece; Inko, who’s hiding behind the bathroom door, crying a river as she takes the beautiful sight in front of her.

… Next Chapter!

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Potato ramble:

- Bro I have a confession to make: I ship All Might and Inko more than I ship anyone else in this anime. I have no idea why.

- I went to a garden center and bought a plant plushie. It reminded me of the first few chapters of this story when Deku was proud of not killing a plant, but the plant was fake so I named him Deku. 😂

- Some bad news for next week: I’m taking a break for 1 week. Life has been a bit hectic around me; I went back to full-time after being a part timer for a year due to mental health issues (it’s really not as bad as it sounds I swear.), Christmas in retail sucks and it sucks even more when you work in the busiest store in the area and I also got some worrisome news from my doctor which triggered my old anxiety and I kinda need some time to sort my shit out. I already know I won’t have time to write both of my series this week and I don’t want to ruin my upcoming birthday by forcing myself to edit and write that day, but that’s the only day I’m at home this week. So yeah, I’ll be back in two weeks! Maybe even sooner, we will see how it goes.

- Have a lovely week, guys! 💜 Tell me your thoughts! 🥦

TL: @sixxze @mily-moo @aei-sedai-moiraine @aymasakusa @kastuari @kenzie-deadly @shiviwrites07 @lukerycyja-reblogs @cloroxisadelectabletreat @coffeent @kisskissshutmydoor @bobcar1 @yazminetrahan @cringefan @ronimacaroni77 @thekookiecorner @dangerousluv1 @emperatris-rinaka @shotos-angelic-whore @angelsdemonsmonsters @norvacaine @rei165 @unofficialmuilover @yao-ai @garfieldthomas @porusuniverse @stickygumchewer

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #midoriya izuku x y/n #midoriya fluff #midoriya x y/n #midoriya x you #midoriya x reader #pro hero deku x reader #midoriya izuku x you #midoriya izuku x reader

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noona-clock · 2 months ago

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Heart of the Ranch - Part 3

Genre: Cowboy!AU, Slice of Life, Fluff

Pairing: Namjoon x You (Female!Reader)

Warnings: None

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 | Words: 3,111

Yesterday evening, after Namjoon had accepted your involvement in helping get his ranch back on its feet, you'd been about to voice some of the many thoughts that had been circling around in your brain.

But then Namjoon had yawned, though he'd quickly tried to cover it up behind his arm.

It had hit you then just how much work this man did. Someone else did all the cooking, but he did literally everything else -- including the finances (which he obviously had no business doing). You hadn't been sure exactly when he woke up in the morning, but it had to be incredibly early. And considering how much of his work was manual labor? No wonder he was yawning not even two hours after dinner!

"How about we call it a night and pick this back up tomorrow morning," you'd suggested, standing up from the desk chair and raising your eyebrows expectantly at him.

Noticing how sleepy he was had made you want to reach out and squeeze his arm comfortingly -- but, of course, you hadn't. That would've been awkward. (But really, really nice.)

"Sounds good," Namjoon had agreed, reaching around you to shut off the computer.

His pine-scented soap had, once again, invaded your senses, even though it hadn't been quite as strong as earlier in the day. You'd known right then and there that you wouldn't be able to smell pine again for the rest of your life without thinking of Namjoon.

"I'll be working outside with the animals all morning if you want to meet me," he'd murmured, interrupting your thoughts (thankfully).

You'd nodded quickly and stepped away from the desk -- and him. "Sure."

"Make sure you wear jeans," he'd told you with a half-smirk. "And shoes you don't mind getting dirty."

Your cheeks had warmed at the thought of stepping in cow poop, but you hadn't been able to keep from laughing gently. "Of course. Don't worry, I will definitely step more carefully from now on."

A quiet chuckle had rumbled in Namjoon's chest, and then the two of you had bid each other good night.

And now here you were. The next morning. Standing in front of the mirror in your bathroom in jeans and a t-shirt, clothes you were certainly not used to wearing these days.

Unfortunately, the only shoes you'd brought besides the sneakers you'd worn yesterday were sandals and slippers, so you'd had no choice but to don them yet again.

You would just buy new ones when you got home if you had to.

"Should be good enough, I guess," you muttered to your own reflection, lifting your shoulders in a shrug before heading to the door.

It was early -- you woke up early for work every day, so you were used to it at this point. As you tiptoed down the stairs, you realized the rest of the house was quiet. Your friends were definitely still sleeping... what if Namjoon was, too?

But as soon as you set foot on the very bottom step, the aroma of coffee hit you.

Okay, first -- perfect. A steaming mug of coffee was always what you needed first thing in the morning. Preferably with vanilla creamer, but you weren't that picky. Second -- this was a pretty sure sign that Namjoon was awake, right? You'd seen on the website that breakfast wasn't served for another hour from now, so surely the person who did the cooking wasn't already here.

But there was still no sign of Namjoon, so you had to assume he was already working outside. And, honestly, you admired his work ethic. He worked even longer hours than you, and the work he did was a lot more physically demanding.

That was super attractive.

Not that it mattered how attractive he was... Obviously.

Once you found the coffee station set up in the dining room, you rushed over and grabbed the first mug within reach. Focusing on pouring yourself a cup of hot, liquid perfection was exactly what you needed right now. And, to your surprise, you spotted a glass jar filled with little individual tubs of vanilla creamer.

Hallelujah!

After gulping down your coffee (and taking the mug into the kitchen to quickly wash it, wanting to leave the least amount of work possible for you-know-who), you snuck out the side door, assuming you would have to wander around a bit to find Namjoon. But to your surprise, the side door in the kitchen led almost straight to the stables, and lo and behold -- there he was.

"Good morning!" you called out, hugging your arms against the slight chill in the air.

Namjoon's gaze snapped to yours, his brow furrowing. "Hey," he greeted. "You're up early."

"I told you I'm a workaholic," you replied, approaching the horse he was brushing. "I'm used to getting up early for my commute to the office."

A barely-there smirk tugged at his lips, and he shook his head. "I guess I can't say anything. I do nothing but work, too."

You were about to point out that, in his case, there was no clear difference between his work and his personal life, but he spoke again before you got the chance,

"There's a jacket hanging up in the stable if you're cold," he said, nodding toward the stable entrance about fifty feet away. And then his gaze shifted to your feet. "And some boots. You're definitely going to want to change those shoes."

"The only other shoes I brought are even less practical than these," you told him with a guilty smile. Before you started toward the stables, though, you eyed Namjoon's cowboy hat and added, "What about a hat? Can I wear one too and feel like a true cowgirl?"

Truthfully, the main reason you'd said this was to try and coax the dimples into making an appearance. And, thankfully -- luckily -- mercifully! They did!

Namjoon's lips curved into a smile, and he breathed out a laugh, his cheeks dimpling and making you want to squeal with delight.

"Yep, there's a hat in there, too," he told you. "Knock yourself out."

"Thank you!" you sang as you hurried over to the stables, ducking in and quickly spotting a jacket hanging on a hook with a few hats on neighboring hooks and several pairs of boots lined up. The jacket and hat were a bit too large for you, but you were able to find a pair of boots in your size, and once you were properly outfitted (and feeling pretty good about yourself, you weren't going to lie), you headed back out.

"Why are there so many pairs of boots in there?" you asked, tilting your head up slightly to peer underneath the brim of your hat.

Namjoon paused, turning his head to look at you... and you could've sworn you saw his cheeks turn ever so slightly pink.

"I, uh --" he began, stopping to clear his throat. When he spoke again, his voice was as smooth as it always was. "I knew you were coming, but I wasn't sure your size, so I just bought a bunch."

Now it was your turn to pause. "...What?"

A grin curved his lips, and he said, "Joking. I do group trail riding when the weather's nice, so I keep some in case someone shows up wearing sandals or heels or bright and shiny white sneakers."

You exhaled, relieved -- but really, why had you believed him? It was clearly a joke!

Not only were you learning that you needed to step away from work just a little bit more, but you were also learning that you needed to lighten up!

You also knew you needed to change the subject -- if you tried explaining that you hadn't realized it was a joke even though it clearly had been, you would only make a fool of yourself. So, once you got close enough to the horse Namjoon was still brushing, you said, "Got it, totally makes sense. So, what are we doing?"

"Well, since today is Tuesday, it's grooming day," he answered. "For the horses. I'm just brushing them down and checking their hooves for anything out of the ordinary."

"Do you have a spare brush?" You'd never done this before, but it couldn't be that hard.

Namjoon temporarily disappeared behind the horse, and when he reappeared a few seconds later, he reached one arm out to hand a brush to you.

You murmured your thanks, turning to the horse nearby and timidly swiping the brush across its back.

After a few more sweeps, you heard Namjoon take in a breath.

"No, you've gotta be a little more forceful. Broader strokes, too."

Your brow furrowed, and you turned around to face him. "Really? It won't hurt --"

You quickly bent down to look underneath the horse.

"---Her?"

"No," Namjoon chuckled. "Here, let me show you."

And before you knew it, he had come around to stand behind you, placing one hand over yours on the brush, his fingers grasping you firmly but still gently.

Oh, no.

No, no, no, no, this was a bad idea. The smell of his soap -- a smell that was now all too familiar even though you'd met him literally yesterday -- was so strong, it was nearly overwhelming.

But in a really, really good way.

His hand was rough but warm. His chest was broad and rock solid. You could even feel his breath on your cheek, and the fact that you could tell he'd also had a cup of coffee before coming out here made you feel far too giddy.

"Like this," he murmured, pushing the brush more firmly against the horse's back and sweeping it in a much wider range.

You nodded. That was all you could get yourself to do right now.

After guiding you through a few more brushes (though it seemed like almost an eternity had passed), Namjoon stepped away and went back to brushing his own horse again.

"You've never done this?" he asked, though his tone was one of pure curiosity -- not judgment.

You couldn't stop a laugh from bursting past your lips, and you glanced over your shoulder at him. "I spend five, sometimes six, out of seven days a week wearing a power suit and heels, sitting in a cushy office in front of a computer calculating numbers. Do you think I've ever groomed a horse before?"

"Well, when you put it that way," Namjoon chuckled. "There's a first time for everything, huh?"

This, of course, made you curious about how long he'd been doing this. It was your first time, sure, but it could be his thousandth time grooming a horse for all you knew.

"So, what's the story of BTS Ranch?" you asked, trying your best to keep your tone casual so he wouldn't learn just yet how nosy you were.

You thought you heard Namjoon let out a sigh, but it was so soft that it could've just been your imagination. Or simply a slight breeze! But then he answered you with, "It's a long one," so you figured maybe he had sighed.

"I've got all day," you replied.

You could feel his hesitation in the air -- it sounds weird, but just trust me.

"Okay, how about this?" he began after a few silent moments. "Ride around with me to check the fences, and I can give you a tour along the way."

Obviously, your instinct was to immediately accept his offer.

But then you backtracked.

Because you realized he'd said 'ride.' And since the two of you were currently standing in front of horses...

"Ride as in... ride them?" you asked, turning around to face Namjoon and nodding toward the horses.

Namjoon replied, "Yeah," like it was no big deal.

Your stomach jumped up into your throat. "Uh... this shouldn't come as a surprise to you that I've never ridden a horse before."

"Do you know how to ride a bike?" he asked as he took the brush he was using and tossed it into a nearby bucket.

"Yes..."

"Do you know how to drive a car?"

"Yes..."

"Then you can ride a horse," he assured you.

"I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but neither a bike nor a car is a living, breathing creature," you pointed out, watching as he came around to join you. He delicately took the brush from your hand and threw it gently into the same bucket.

"I promise you can do it," Namjoon assured you, reaching out one hand to rest it on your horse's back and patting her. "Frida here is about as docile as a horse can be, and I'll be riding right beside you the whole way."

You would be lying if you said that didn't make you feel better. There was just one small problem you deeply didn't want to admit out loud.

Obviously, your expression was still rife with anxiety because Namjoon lifted an eyebrow and asked, "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"

Well, he'd just given you the perfect opportunity to admit out loud what you deeply didn't want to admit out loud. You had no choice!

"No, not heights," you answered, shaking your head. "I'm... I'm afraid of doing things I'm not good at."

And now doesn't it make sense why you'd been so reluctant to come on this vacation? You were really good at working -- incredibly good at working! But you were not good at not working. Basically every vacation you'd ever taken had turned into a working vacation because you just weren't good at relaxing and taking time for yourself, and you were too anxious to practice.

"I'm not asking you to compete in the Olympics," Namjoon chuckled as he smirked over at you. "We'll just be walking at a very leisurely pace. It'll take less than two minutes to learn."

Out of all the different ways Namjoon could've handled your admission, what he just said was probably the perfect response. He was challenging you without questioning your ability.

And you were just proud enough to take the bait.

"All right, fine," you agreed, squaring your jaw and lifting your chin.

The grin that curved Namjoon's lips (and the dimples that appeared, of course) made it completely worth it.

"Come help me get the saddles, and I'll show you how it's done," he requested.

As you followed him to the stables, you let out a slow, deep exhale, your eyes widening. This was definitely going to be interesting.

Okay, you had to hand it to Namjoon: he had been right. Once you got past the first obstacle of actually getting on the horse (something you didn't quite want to think about since Namjoon had stood incredibly close to you and held your waist as you swung yourself up), it had taken hardly any time at all to get the hang of riding it.

The reins were really just the steering wheel, and your heels were the pedals. Plus, Frida did seem as sweet-tempered as Namjoon said she was.

...It also helped that Namjoon was riding Diego not even three feet away and basically guiding Frida where to go without you having to do anything.

But you were still having fun!

Namjoon had given you a few minutes to get used to riding before delving into the story of BTS Ranch and how he'd ended up where he was now.

He'd started working here during school as a part-time job, but had eventually made himself invaluable to the previous owner (he blamed his insane work ethic for this, but he assured you he really did love this job). When the previous owner decided to retire, she'd handed the reins (pun intended) over to Namjoon -- and she'd made no Plan B. Either he took over or the ranch shut down.

"Turns out," he said as he was wrapping up. "I'm much better at the manual labor side than the business side -- as you so politely pointed out yesterday after looking through the books."

You shouldn't feel guilty because what you said was the truth, but you still felt your cheeks warm slightly. "I want you to know that I've never once claimed to sugarcoat things."

"I don't doubt it," Namjoon chuckled. "So, what do you think? Can I save this sinking ship or not?"

It was clear he wanted an honest answer because he'd asked you. You'd literally just told him you weren't one to sugarcoat. If he was asking you, that meant he wanted the truth, even if it was brutal.

"I think you can," you answered after a few moments of careful consideration. "I don't think it will be easy, but something tells me you don't care about that."

"Yeah, I don't think 'easy' is in my vocabulary," he replied with a soft laugh. "Or yours, for that matter."

"No, for me, I think the word you're looking for is 'relax.' That’s definitely not in my vocabulary."

"Which is why you're here, yeah?"

"Mhm," you nodded. "And because my friends are far too good to me. I mean, I'm on this vacation they so lovingly planned, and here I am, offering to help you with your business and not spending time with them."

Did you feel guilty? Of course! But you still had five days left. That was plenty of time!

"Maybe that's just what you need right now," Namjoon pointed out.

You wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but for some reason, you felt that would be a little too dangerous. What if he said something about listening to your heart? Your heart was pretty busy thinking about Namjoon's dimples, and that's not something you should really be listening to!

So, instead, you did what you did best: you changed the subject to work.

"Speaking of what you need right now," you said, forcing a grin onto your lips. "I was thinking about marketing."

Namjoon frowned, his forehead wrinkling in confusion. "Marketing?"

"Yeah, this place is sorely lacking in that department. I did a quick search last night, and the only thing that came up was your website.

"Hey, I worked really long and hard on that website, I'll have you know," Namjoon defended teasingly, smirking at you.

"I don't doubt it! It's a nice website," you assured him. "But where are the customer reviews? Where's your social media presence? You could make so much really great short-form content and draw in a huge audience."

He nodded slowly, taking in your words and mulling them over.

"The only thing is," he began. "I don't know how to do any of that stuff."

To be honest, you didn't either.

...But you were now planning a way to both help the ranch and spend time with your friends.

Part 4