#But sometimes I just feel the need to defend Aaron

[artimeanatheart]

Aaron Character Analysis-Quests Book Three Part One

Aaron actually gets to do stuff in this book! There's a whole plotline with him in Artime going on, which we haven't gotten yet in this series. Which is exciting for me and traumatizing for him.

Head Mage Aaron Stowe

Alex is dead.

"'I felt it,' said Aaron quietly. 'Alex's life fading away. The moment it happened, I imagine. It was a searing cut to the heart,' he said, tapping the spot. 'I though I might be dying myself, and then just as quickly the pain eased and left a. . .a dull aching emptiness, I suppose.'"

And Aaron feels it. He's about as far away from his twin as he can possible be, literally worlds apart, but he still knows that Alex is dead the moment it happens. He's probably the first to know, because it takes the rescue team a while to realize what has happened. He feels the exact same thing that Alex did at the end of Island of Shipwrecks when Aaron himself was dead/dying. Unlike Alex, he doesn't collapse on the ground sobbing, even though he probably wants to. He's able to keep functioning through the pain. Because at least he and Alex ended in a good place with each other. He knows that Alex knew that Aaron loves and supports him. And he knows that Alex loved him for who he is. There's a sense of closure, even amidst all the pain, that Alex didn't have way back then. So Aaron starts trying to figure out what to do. He needs a way to get to Artime quickly, now that the tube is gone. He calls for Pan and she answers and he rushes off to Artime. Much like Alex almost rushed off to find him.

"Speeding across the waves toward them, on the back of a shimmering black water dragon named Pan, sat Aaron Stowe. Alex's identical twin. Aaron held a package in his hand. As they drew up to the shore, everyone could see his face was stoic, his eyes etched with grief."

Aaron arrives in Artime, or, more accurately, the Death Farm, on the back of a dragon carrying a magical robe that once belonged to the man he killed. Aaron didn't go to Artime intending to take on the role of head mage. He went there to offer his help and support to it, much like he has ever since halfway through Island of Graves. Aaron knows now that he doesn't enjoy leading. He's happy to be part of a team and be one of the advisors to the leader of the team, but he doesn't want to be in charge of it himself.

"'Do you have the spell memorized?' 'I. . .yes.' 'Thank goodness.' 'Shall I tell it to you so you can proceed?' Claire rested her hand on Aaron's arm and gave a sad half smile. Sweat shone on her face and neck, and her hair was tangled and filled with bits of splinters and dirt. 'You know I don't want this job,' she said quietly. 'My life is helping to govern in Quill now. I'm only doing this because we didn't expect you to come so quickly.'"

But that's exactly what happens. Aaron arrives in Artime and Claire practically shoves the responsibility at him. She's the only other person there who knows/can do the spell. She's never wanted to be head mage and has been perfectly clear about that since Island of Silence. Once there was an option to recreate Artime without Claire being head mage, she was perfectly happy to take it. Even though that option is the person who killed her father and imprisoned her. But she's moved past all of that, and expects everyone else to have, too.

"But Aaron hesitated again, feeling waves of guilt over what was about to happen. And he knew not everyone in Artime would be pleased about it. He'd been acutely aware of dissenters over the years. And he'd noticed the angry woman and the small group forming around her who were beginning to mutter at the proceedings. Aaron glanced at them uneasily, then looked back at Claire. 'Are you absolutely certain you want me to do this?' he asked. 'Even. . .after everything I've done? Have you thought this through?' This wasn't going to be a seamless transition. Claire nodded, tight lipped. She knew what he was asking. 'Ignore them. The past is forgotten. You and I will work well together, I think. Perhaps. . .perhaps like Gunnar and my father did.' 'I'd like that.' Aaron gave her a grim smile. She'd come far in forgiving him."

They have not, least of all Aaron. He asks Claire twice if she's sure that she wants him of all people to be head mage. She is, so he takes the robe. Claire is pretty much the only person in the series who expresses that they don't want to be head mage and their wishes are respected. To be fair, Artime was literally created for her, so she does have some right to the privilege (?) of getting to choose not to lead it. But no one even stopped to ask if Aaron wanted the job. He very clearly doesn't. All he wants to do is go back to the Island of Shipwrecks and grieve his twin in peace with the support of Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato.   He doesn't feel like he's the one who should be leading Artime, especially since the last time it vanished was because he killed Mr. Today. He takes the robe anyways, thoughts of his shame and guilt weighing heavily on his mind.

"Aaron cringed but tried to focus. His mind was on the one who should be wearing the robe-his brother. How was this possible? How was Aaron standing here, doing this? A wave of grief broke his concentration, but he pushed it back and gripped the robe's packet tightly until the moment passed. He closed his eyes and took a few breaths to clear his mind."

Aaron takes the robe out of a sense of obligation to Artime and his brother's memory.  He feels like he can't say no to helping Artime because of how he hurt it.  He always has to help save it not just because it's the right thing to do, but because he feels like he owes it to the people he hurt. He will never say no to an Artime in need. Aaron does love Artime, but that's mostly because his family loves Artime and he loves his family. He owes it to Alex to recreate the thing his brother gave his life for.

"The dissenters lingered for a moment, but Aaron was surrounded by supporters. From the corner of his eye, he saw the angry group reluctantly disperse and hoped he'd heard the last of their complaints, but he doubted it. There would always be some who couldn't forgive him, no matter what he did or said now."

But, like I've talked about before, Artime isn't Aaron's home. Artime as a whole has never accepted him, even though he does have friends and family there. Part of that's in his head, with him distancing himself from the Artimeans because he was never officially declared an Unwanted at any point. He feels like he doesn't belong there. Part of it's not in his head. There are people in Artime who don't accept him, won't forgive him, and can't understand that he's changed. Aaron knows this; they don't make their dislike of him subtle, even before he shows up on Artime's shore. He knows that making him head mage is a bad idea. He thinks that he's doomed to an eternity of struggle from the start. It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and kind of not, because I think the dissenters would have disliked him no matter what he did or how much effort he put in.

"She [Thisbe] knew immediately the spell had come from Aaron, for she'd given him the pebble when she was five years old for this exact purpose. It was the first seek spell she'd received since the Revinir had taken her captive. She wasn't quite sure why, but it made her cry. Maybe because she wasn't able to send one in return. More likely it was because it finally seemed like someone was looking for her after all this time."

Anyways, Aaron restores Artime and becomes head mage both practically and functionally for the first time. One of the first things he does is send seek spells to his family. We know he sends one to Thisbe, and probably Fifer and Kaylee, too. But was he one of the people who sent one to Alex, adding to the glowing memorial above his grave? Or did he not, knowing from the pain inside him that it would be pointless? Either way, he is the only person from Artime who sends a seek spell to Thisbe. He knows there's a chance it could put her in danger and he knows she doesn't have anything to respond with, but he has to do it. He was to let her know that he's thinking of her, that he cares about her, that he misses her. Thisbe gets that message and clings to it tightly.

"How long would he be wondering if Kaylee had died along with Alex? Would their son, Daniel, grow up not remembering his mother? It was unthinkable. Yet all too familiar. Even his sisters didn't remember their parents. Why had he let himself grow so complacent? Around him, Sean, and Henry's fears were assuaged. Cheers erupted at proof that Carina, Seth, Lani, Samheed, and Thatcher were indeed alive. Aaron, grateful but growing more distressed, withdrew inside himself, remembering the muttering dissenters."

The only person Aaron likely sent a seek spell to expecting a response was Fifer. He thought that Kaylee wouldn't have anything with her, echoing the same thoughts about her lack of sentimentality that Kaylee herself had expressed. He resigns himself to an unknown period of time unaware if she, or Thisbe for that matter, are even still alive. Because if something could kill Alex, what are the odds that none of the others died? He's quiet about his pain, though, not wanting to bring down the mood as the others rejoice from hearing from their loved ones. They deserve that happiness.

"The ball came to a stop in front of Aaron, and Florence gave him a hopeful glance. Others nearby watched to see who it could be from. When it exploded into an image of a wedding ring-the ring Aaron had designed and given to Kaylee five years ago-Aaron clutched Florence's arm, then sank to his knees. He covered his face with his hands. A sob let loose from his chest. At least he hadn't lost her, too."

Except. There's a final dot on the horizon. One last seek spell, carrying the confirmation Aaron barely dared to hope for. Kaylee is alive. And he breaks down sobbing, for the first time we've seen since his appearance in this book. He's been holding in so much and trying to function through it, but this is what makes the grief and relief too much for him to keep inside. This is a huge public display of emotion for Aaron, and speaks to just how much he's hurting.

As if Aaron doesn't have enough going on, cue Frieda Stubbs.

[voxmortuus]

#6 ☆ { licking } their neck to make them gasp with James Frey?

⇘ PAIRING:⇙ James Frey x F!Reader ⇘ UNIVERSE:⇙ A Million Little Pieces ⇘ WORD COUNT:⇙ 652 ⇘ TRIGGER WARNINGS:⇙ Angst (Arguing couple) | Foul Language | Heavy Petting | Makeup Smut Implied | PLEASE TELL ME IF I FORGOT ANYTHING!!! I want to make sure readers are fully aware of what they are getting themselves into when they read this… ⇘ NOTES:⇙ Sorry if this is total ass... but I hope this brings you some joy. Prompt from this list. ⇘ DIVIDER CREDIT:⇙ @nyxvuxoa ⇘ IMAGE CREDIT:⇙ @konront ⇘ My Master Masterlist ⇙ ⇘ My Aaron Taylor-Johnson Masterlist ⇙

It had been a crazy night, between the arguing, and the slamming of doors. It wasn't a night you'd want to remember. But what relationship doesn't have issues? Fuck all knows yours does, it always does. No matter how hard you try you always feel like your relationships are falling apart, but there's always one thing you can count on with James, it's that he's loyal to you, he's devoted to you, and he truly loves you. Sometimes misunderstandings happen, and sometimes you're the cause for them just as much as he is.

Sitting on the couch you look up to see him coming your way. You're still a little perturbed, crossing your arms you look over the length of him. He takes a seat on the couch and you scoot over a bit scoffing. His jaw clenches and he looks at you.

"This is ridiculous. Do you really need to carry this on any longer?"

"Well if you weren't such an asshole it wouldn't be a problem." you snap back.

"I'm the asshole? You're the one that couldn't understand basic haha funny bullshit. You took it personally." he stated.

"Yeah, I did! You know how I feel about that! And you kept going." you stated

"I did not keep going. And besides, I apologized." he defended.

"You apologized?! You think an apology is going to fix my feelings?! Fuck you!" you snap back. You're angry, you feel it bubbling,

"Fuck me?! Fine! FUCK ME!" He stood up pacing shaking his head. "You're acting like I intentionally came out and decided today was the day I was going to make fun of you! Instead pull the stick out of your ass and realize the damn joke in all of this!"

Standing up you walk to him, looking over his face. Your eyes well with tears and you shake your head. Shoving past him you walk toward the kitchen, getting a glass of water, you place your hands flat on the counter, drop your head and sigh softly. Maybe he was right. Maybe you did take that joke a little too personally. You didn't mean to, and he knew that.

"Shit..." you mutter to yourself.

Walking up behind you, he places his arms at either side of yours, leaning in he kisses the top of your head, and moves his way to your neck. His hands snake around, pulling you close as he presses himself against you. His hands slide down your tummy as one slips into your pants, the other slips under your shirt, your jaw clenches as he grips at you. You close your eyes, letting out a heavy breath.

He doesn't speak, nor do you. Maybe it was one of those moments where you didn't need to speak. His hands move over your flesh, feeling this hot feeling pulse through you. Biting your lip you rest the back of your head against his shoulder as he grips at you, feeling his hand slip a little further south as the other hand grips your breast tighter.

A soft whimper escapes you as he presses himself against you. His fingers find that swollen sensitive nub between your legs and he begins working you. Feeling this moment between you two, absolutely no words uttered. His lips graze your neck, and suddenly you feel his tongue slide along your neck, from the crook of your shoulder to right behind your ear. You gasp, and you moan softly.

His fingers and hands work you as you reach behind you and begin to rub over his pants. He groans. He turns you to look at him and plops you on the countertop, you go to speak, go to apologize, but instead he looks at you and kisses you deeply, he knows your sorry.

"I want to taste you..." He smirks as he lowers himself kneeling in front of the counter as he strips off your pants.

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 45

PREV

Renee Walker stands next to two of her best friends in the entire world holding up a hand drawn sign. There's an, admittedly crudely drawn, Fox on the sign that Allison had made up.

Renee had seen it and smiled from across the airport as she made her way over to where Dan and Allison were standing waiting for everyone to come. The team had managed to coordinate their flights to land all within about two hours of one another and Allison had exactly zero desire to go back and forth from the airport so her driver was waiting out at a nearby cellphone lot to come and get them once everyone was there.

"Is it nice having a driver again?" Dan asks Allison.

"I sometimes miss driving around in my car but it's a lot easier to do my makeup with him driving." she says with a shrug as they continue to catch up. Renee is holding up the sign since Allison had complained that she had lost so much of the muscle she had previously had.

"Yeah, New York City seems like a major pain in the ass to drive in too." Dan agrees as her phone buzzes. She pulls out her phone and looks at it before a huge smile fills her face, one that means she's talking to Matt, "Oh! They just landed!" Dan says confirming Renee's suspicions.

Allison looks at her watch, "Wow, 20 minutes early. They must have gotten through boarding quickly." she comments.

"Or some good tailwind." Renee offers.

"When are Neil and Andrew due up?" Dan asks looking at Renee who smiles back at her friend.

"Andrew said they're going to take a break halfway here so they'll be here tomorrow morning." Renee says.

"Get it Neil." Allison nods and it had been a wonderful thing last year to watch Andrew and Allison make peace with one another. Their mutual desire to dress Neil up a bridge towards....maybe not friendship but camaraderie.

It warms Renee's heart to see her friends get along.

"The plane got tailwind, Neil's getting tail." Dan jokes.

"I'm looking forward to meeting the new kid that I've heard about." Renee says gently moving the topic on from their friends getting together. It didn't bother her at all, but she knew that Andrew would prefer no one talk about what he and Neil got up to.

"Oh! Yeah, uh..." Dan visibly buffers.

"Dan, you're the only one of us that's met the kid. His name's Smith." Allison says with eyebrows raised in judgement.

"Look, when Coach and I went to recruit the kid my brain was like 90% on the fact that I needed to go to my interview." Dan defends herself.

"So he wasn't that memorable for you?" Allison asks.

"Yeah, I'm surprised that he's getting along so well with the guys." Dan says. "Getting stabbed over Thanksgiving feels more like a Neil move than the quiet kid Coach and I met." she adds.

That had been an interesting phone call from Andrew. Renee hadn't even realized that she had become Natalie describing the best way to get rid of the body until Andrew had clarified that it'd been an accident and Smith was alive. Renee had been a little ashamed.

She was excited to meet the kid who Andrew had spoken to her about. Glad that their strange found family was growing just a little bit bigger.

They wait around continuing to talk about plans for the break together. Allison wants to go shopping and she wants to do it once Neil and Andrew are back. Dan wants to skate at the Rockefeller center. Renee would love it if they could do Christmas Eve Mass.

They're sure that Kevin is going to want to check out an Exy game. They're mostly sure that Matt will want to check out the LEGO store in downtown manhattan and that Aaron will be as excited for that as Matt is but pretending not to be. Nicky wants to catch a drag show and has made it clear that he will be going regardless of what anyone else wants to do. Andrew and Neil will probably just want to be alone when they have the chance though Neil had expressed some prior interest in the EXITES superstore and Andrew will more than likely enjoy the day Allison has planned to go shopping since she wants to update Neil's wardrobe.

The new kid, Smith, will be a mystery, but they're more than willing to be flexible.

Eventually they hear the tell-tale sign of most of the boy's arrival. "Babe!" comes from across the airport and Dan's head shoots up and spots the sight of Matt Boyd approaching his arms out wide almost clotheslining four different families on his way to Dan.

Dan is not much better as she rushes to him arms as wide.

They embrace like they always do whenever they have to spend time apart from one another and Renee knows that part of the reason that Dan took her job as assistant coach where she did is that the Washington State Congress Team had been looking at Matt the year prior to scout him.

She looks beyond the passionate reunion and sees Kevin, Aaron, and Nicky. She frowns brows furrowing...

Weren't they going to bring-

Nicky throws his arm out and it wraps around a kid she hadn't even realized was there. She blinks startled by his sudden appearance and blank expression as Nicky was pointing them out. He points to her and he can see her name on his lips she gives a wave and a smile.

Smith nods back in greeting.

He seems quite nice.

***

Renee is at the end of her proverbial rope.

This kid is a threat and she doesn't understand how she's the only person who can see it.

Being a threat isn't really an issue when you're a Fox. It's almost a given that there's some part of you that can be dangerous when backed into a corner but no one seems to be treating him like a threat.

She watches as Nicky and Matt throw their arms around him. As Kevin pushes smoothie after smoothie into his hands as he blankly sips. As Andrew and Neil sit with him quietly. As Dan pinches his cheeks. As Aaron ribs him for being bad at MarioKart.

She can't feel anything from him, no joy, no anger, nothing.

She can't even track him.

Renee has always prided herself on her ability to keep track of those around her. Spacial awareness was incredibly important when you're in a fight and it had always been one of her strongest points. She always knew where she was in relation to everyone else.

Except Smith.

The kid had given her no shortage of heart attacks as he appeared and disappeared seemingly at random.

She had finally gotten Andrew alone to ask, "Smith's quiet, non-intrusive." Andrew says with a shrug.

There's just something about him that makes the hair on the back of Renee's neck stand on edge and she hates feeling like she's the only one. She hates it even more that there's no real evidence that there's something amiss with this newest Fox.

So she settles in to watch.

They're out shopping and Allison is doing her best to get Neil a proper wardrobe with Andrew's considerable help, AKA nodding in approval when Neil comes out. She's not skimping on any of them but Neil is her main focus.

"Smith, what's a color you like?" Allison asks as she's looking at hoodies.

"I like purple." Smith answers and Renee barely manges to stop herself from flinching as his voice comes from right next to her.

"Pass." Andrew says as Neil comes out in a charmingly orange sweatshirt.

"I like it!" Neil argues.

"You have 10 sweatshirts that are that exact shade of orange." Andrew dismisses. "Try the blue one." he says pushing Neil back into the dressing room.

"Which one?" Neil asks.

Andrew sighs dramatically in a way that lets Renee know that he's doing exactly what he wants to be doing, "I'll show you." he says going into the dressing room with Neil.

"I still don't know how it took Baltimore for me to realize they were together." Nicky says as he's holding up two different purple sweatshirts to Smith's body. "You look good in a more purpley purple." Nicky says putting the more indigo colored sweatshirt back on the rack.

"Pants are coming up next, I'll get a lay of the land. I know everyone else's but Smith what's your height?" Allison asks.

"Five feet, nine inches." Smith answers as Nicky pushes him towards the dressing room. "Nicky it's a sweatshirt, I can put it on out here." Smith says.

"I know but I need an excuse to go back there and make sure Neil and Andrew aren't defiling a dressing room." Nicky says with a grin that implies he'd be more happy if they were.

"Gross." Aaron says as he takes a picture of himself to send to Katelyn to approve of the new outfit that Allison was pushing for him to get. "Wait," he pauses turning to where Allison was looking through various men's pants, "you know our heights? Like you've memorized them?" he asks.

"Yeah." Allison says looking at a pair of black slacks. "Everyone's measurements." she says nodding to herself.

"Even bust sizes?" he asks, voice not as quiet as he likely thinks it is.

"You're such a boy." Allison laughs not even looking up from the very different rack.

"How much longer are we going to be here?" Kevin asks with a sigh.

"Well, at least the time that it took you to ask that longer. We'll be done when we're done Kevin." Dan says long having given up on stopping Allison when the woman is on a spree.

"She knows that EXITES closes at 5 PM right?" Kevin asks.

"More importantly," Matt leans in, "that the LEGO store closes at 8 PM right?" Matt asks.

"How is that more important? The LEGO store is open later?" Kevin asks.

"Because we're not going to EXITES today, but we are going to the LEGO store." Matt says.

"If we don't spend the whole day here we can do both-"

"We're not going to EXITES today Kevin." Dan says with a sigh.

"But-"

"We're not going to EXITES today Kevin." Renee says with an apologetic smile.

"But-"

"Kevin, we're not going to EXITES today. Just sit down and let me find pants that'll make your pin-up days look tame in comparison." Allison says.

"That's not what those posters were!" Kevin argues with a blush on his face.

"Sure." Allison dismisses

***

Renee is quite happy with the sundresses she found even if they won't do her any good here in New York City during the Christmas break. Their next stop on their shopping day is over to the LEGO store where Matt makes no attempt to hide his enthusiasm as Aaron very valiantly does try to pretend like he's not utterly entranced by the sets and builds.

Renee thinks it's all very charming.

"We could have gone to EXITES." Kevin says with a frown as he looks at a build of an Exy racquet. "Can you take my picture with this?" he asks but he's not quite looking at Renee.

"Sure." Smith says from beside her, where he had apparently been.

"Thanks Smiths." Kevin says and stands next to the Exy racquet of LEGOs and crosses his arms and leans back.

"Kevin, stop posing like this will be for the cover of a Forbes Magazine." Andrew says with a sigh as he comes to stand on Renee's other side.

"Shut up, it's a picture for me!" Kevin says and continues to stand with his arms crossed.

"Oh, can you get a picture of me next Smith?" Neil asks coming up eyes shining in excitement as he looks at the racquet.

"Sure. As an apology for letting Nicky-"

"Don't talk about it." Neil and Andrew say at the same time.

Kevin gets his picture and then Andrew hands his phone to Smith for Neil's since Neil had broken the lens on his camera ages ago.

They wander around and Kevin finds a set to build the National Court that he grabs without a second thought. Neil and Andrew find a little LEGO man of Kevin that they buy as their 'preferred Kevin'. Kevin of course threatens to buy their LEGO figures once they have them and refer to them as his 'preferred Andrew and Neil'. A threat that neither of them comment on but Renee does buy the little Jean Moreau she finds. She'll paint it Trojan colors and send it over to him as a little gift.

As she continues to browse with her purchase in hand she hears Nicky, "Smithy, if you like it you should get it!" Nicky insists.

"Is it the price?" Allison asks.

"Yeah, I don't want to spend that much." Smith says with a nod expression still worryingly blank.

"When's your birthday? It can just be an early or a late present from me." Allison asks.

"March 1st, but really I'm fine not getting it." Smith shakes his head. "It's not that I'd like it just my little brother liked trains." he says and Renee watches Nicky's face turn from joyful teasing to intense determination.

"We're getting this set." Nicky says grabbing it and marching over to the counter even as Smith followed after him.

Interesting.

***

They finish off their day with some ice skating.

Matt, Aaron, Andrew, and Kevin all fall into the 'challenged' category.

They get on the ice and all four immediately fall. Renee stifles her laughter as Andrew and Aaron scowl. "Are you okay?" Smith asks and Renee almost loses her balance as he skates by her.

"Why the fuck are you good at skating?" Aaron asks scowling even as he takes Smith hand. Renee skates over and offers a hand to Kevin as Matt and Andrew are being helped up by their respective partners.

"Oh," Allison says skating by, "have you been up to Canada or something often?" she asks.

"I've been to Canada a few times. It's more that there was a rink I would go to every once in a while." Smith answers before turning back to Aaron, "I can help you keep balanced." he says offering his other hand.

"Smith, I don't want to hold your hand. That's kind of gay." Aaron huffs letting go of Smith's hand only to immediately beef it again when he tried to move forward.

***

Skating was fun even if Aaron kept blushing as Smith helped him skate since he never really got his 'ice legs'. The rest of them all more or less skated on their own by the end or, in the case of Andrew and Matt, seemed fine to keep skating while holding on.

Renee was warming herself by the fireplace in Allison's home enjoying some hot chocolate as Allison took a seat next to her. There was a lot of commotion in the kitchen as the team was working to make dinner together. Renee had excused herself after Smith had startled her while she had a knife in hand and she'd almost stabbed him on instinct.

She's just relieved that no one seemed to notice the near murder.

"You okay? You seemed tense in there." Allison asks.

Well, almost no one.

"Yes, I'm fine." she smiles and hopes that Allison will believe it.

Allison looks at her and Renee does have the benefit that Allison is slightly drunk since she was told firmly not to help with the cooking since she'd paid for the majority of the day.

"I'm glad I got you alone, there's something I want to hear your opinion on." Allison says deciding, apparently, to let it go for now.

Renee relaxes smiling at her friend, "What's that?" she asks wondering what purchase or thing unpurchased Allison was regretting.

Allison looks at Renee, expression utterly serious. "Don't you think there's something...weird about this kid?" she asks.

Renee straightens up glad that Allison had also felt like something was off with the kid that her friends had brought along. "What do you mean?" she asks wanting to hear what Allison thought.

"Look, he seems really nice. I mean a little too nice to be a Fox to be honest but I mean I guess you're a Fox as well so..." Allison rambles slightly taking another sip of her wine.

"Yes, go on." Renee nods.

"Yeah, he seems nice and Matt said he's got his own stuff even if he didn't wanna go into what that stuff was." Allison continues and it's a good thing Allison is drinking white wine considering the white carpet and her gesticulations. "But...it's just.. okay you can't make fun of me. Even though this is about to sound crazy." Allison says.

"I would never do something like that." Renee swears.

"Promise me." Allison says expression grave as she lifts up a pinky.

Renee smiles despite herself and hooks her pinky with Allison's, "I promise to not make fun of you." she swears other hand over her cross.

"I think he's Justin Bieber."

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

[supernatural-bias]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞'𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

↳ includes: luther, klaus, and number five

↳ warnings: canon type threats from five

↳ notes: written so both ftm, mtf, or gn folks can read it. basically was just be being really self indulgent. enjoy

↳ song: dancin - krono remix—aaron smith

masterlist | commissions | carrd

𝐋𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

• We all saw how he reacted to Viktor’s coming out in season three. The human equivalent of ‘he’s a little confused, but he’s got the spirit.’

• This time, he’s got a bit more experience understanding these things than the first time around. Might still ask Viktor a few things if he’s too embarrassed to question you directly, to which he is reminded that Viktor doesn’t speak for every trans person

• He eventually just ends up asking you what he wanted to know with a considerably more nervous tone

• Coming out party when?? Convinced that this guy just wants to have a party before the world ends at this point. Won’t have one if you’re not comfortable with it just like his brother, but he’d be so pumped if you did

• You’d think that walking around hand in hand with a big guy like Luther would stop people from yelling stuff at you, but you’d be surprised. In any case, he always makes sure to defend your honor, even if you don’t need it. He’s chivalrous like that

• Luther would be able to relate with any body dysmorphia you have on some sort of level—and in turn knows ways to combat it. It wasn’t easy to nearly die and wake up to the upper body of a monkey, so he had to adapt somehow, both mentally and physically

𝐊𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐬

• Oh, he’s so happy that you feel comfortable around him

• Klaus has always experimented with his gender and sexuality, never sweating the small stuff, so finding someone that he can share his experiences with on more than just a friendly level really excites him

• No matter what time period the two of you end up in, Klaus is always supportive of you, even if it gets him in some hot water with the locals and their opinions (i.e, your time spent in the sixties.)

• Probably steals your hormone boosters if you ever run out of them. Or buys them off a dealer or two. You don’t take drugs for so long without knowing a few people

• Please let him do your hair. Whether you’re looking to lengthen it or shorten it, or even just dye the thing, Klaus will clamor at the opportunity to play hairdresser. Only if you promise to do his own in return, of course

• “Fabulous! You look amazing!” He croons one day, pretending to swoon at the sight of you. Or maybe it was authentic. You could never tell with him. Either way it made you fight the urge to crack a smile

• “Klaus you literally just brushed my hair.” You snort

• “My point still stands. Fabulous I say!”

• In a similar note to that, Klaus would let you rummage through his closet for any sort of spare clothes or fashion inspiration if you run out of outfits/ideas for how to dress. He’s got a wide array of strange garments anyways; from multicolored skirts and dresses, to suits with sequins and eye catching patterns

• Be warned. He will want to matching couples outfits. And they will be atrocious

• On any of your bad days, Klaus makes sure to remind you of how brilliant you are. Most times he just describes you how he sees you through his eyes in an attempt to cheer you up, but sometimes he’ll simply slot himself next to you and hold you until you’re ready to talk about it

• For someone that’s infamous for not being able to stand silence, Klaus sure knows how to utilize it

𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞

• Contrary to popular belief, Five does actually give two shits about you—and then some. You are his partner after all (How you managed that no one’s quite sure. The running theory between Diego and Allison is that he’s holding you hostage or blackmailing you somehow)

• His love for you means that he’s more than willing to try and understand your point of view on both the world and yourself. When he’s not trying to stop the apocalypse from ending the world and everyone in it, of course

• Often times brings Delores into the serious conversations you’ll have, claiming that out of the two of them she’s better at understanding these things

• Would burn down a building for you, and probably has already, so when you get misgendered or scrutinized Five won’t hesitate to threaten the person bothering you

• “Unless you have an aversion to keeping both of your eyes in their sockets, I suggest you back away from them.” He had hissed at a passerby on the street one day, clenching his fist with a deadly smile. And while he might not look threatening enough with his smaller frame in school boy shorts, the look in Five’s eyes had the other person scrambling away without a retort

• “Thanks.” You chuckle breathily at him after, shaking your head. “You don’t always have to do that, you know. Scare those guys off.”

• “Yeah, well, Lila would kill me if I didn’t. You’re one of the only people she actually likes.” Five rolls his eyes, doing a poor job at concealing the red tips of his ears. But you got the message

• “Sure thing Fivey.” You knocked his shoulder against your own, and held your hands up with a laugh when he sent a scathing glare your way

• He’s not the best at saying that he loves you, and that means everything about you, but he sure does try in his own little fucked up way

[neilisok]

I was always a reader/listener and didn't really want to write something my own on tumblr, but after I read the extra chapters of aftg I had too much feelings, that I just need to share. (Sorry for my English in advance lol)

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE EXTRA CHAPTERS

The first chapter, Wymack's pov: OMG I LOVE HIM SO SO SO MUCH. The way he nows that Neil is always using the stairs and is kinda jealous of him (same bro lol, even tho I'm not that old), the way that Kevin's alcoholism he considers a problem and tries to do something about it, the way that Abby and him fought the first few days about Wymacks "not his problem". IMHO I think Kevin wanted to confess that Wymack was his father after he said that Kevin represented his mother a lot. I loved the way that Kevin chose to improve himself and go to Betsy, even tho he doesn't like her very much (lol, poor Betsy the raven trio doesn't like her) and even tho he could just take the alcohol from Andrew he chose not to do so. I almost cried, when Wymack remembered blood on his and at the last sentence when he went "to find a drink of his own" omg

The Second chapter, Betsy's pov: This made me remember what happened to Andrew, and omg, have you seen how Betsy and Andrew behaved??? The "Now everybody knows" from Andrew just killed me. But does he actually mean his family, or the Spears mother (so sorry I forgot her name), or both??? Like if he also meant the Spears, then I'm gonna kms, bc if I remember correctly, in Nora's posts (or I just read too much fanfiction idk), the mother tried to defend Drake till the end. But I think, it's more likely that he meant Aaron and Nicky. I just loved how Wymack just respected Andrew and left when he was asked to, or when he came back, he made sure that they would hear him. AND I also really need to know when Andrew said to Betsy that Neil is " Kevin's problem now, the end!". I also had a little chuckle when I read about how Wymack found that Betsy likes musicals the hard way. Did she drag him to watch a musical, and he didn't like it lol? I also almost cried when she said that she was proud of Andrew, it just shows how much he healed. I ALSO CAN'T SMILE AT ANDREW'S HUMOR

Wymack: "Now that you're doomed to bounce off the walls all night, any plans?"

Andrew: "Chaos and mayhem."

AAH I CAN'T WITH HIM

The third chapter, Aaron's pov: I didn't think that I needed this. I read a lot of fanfiction about how they came to this conclusion that Andrew chooses Neil, but this one is so much better than anything that I read, better than any other Aaron's reaction. I liked the way that even tho Andrew trusted Bee, he still didn't come out to her, and it's so much like coming out in real life. It doesn't matter how much you trust the person, doesn't matter that person you trust you know will accept you, you are still scared how would they react when you will come out to them. I also liked what Aaron said about Nicky: he is grateful that Nicky was there for him when he needed that, but sometimes he is too much about being gay which Aaron doesnt like, but he knows that Nicky does it, so he instantly will know who to trust, because he doesn't want to experience the same hatred from people he loved again. So Aaron doesn't mind gay people, he just doesn't like how Nicky shows his "gayness" (idk is it the right word?). The way Aaron instantly understood that Betsy knew that he wanted to become a neurosurgeon, and remembers the only time he said he wanted to become one, and just understood everything. I loved the way Aaron just uses Betsy and Neil in his favour, and makes Andrew chose Neil, and also saying that he won't leave Andrew's life, when he chooses Neil. And also the last part, when Andrew and Aaron were leaving after Andrew made his choice, and Aaron says that Andrew is dating a mafioso (lol i can't) and Andrew as always says that he doesn't, and Aaron just calls him "Liar". And can we talk about how this man talks about Kaitlyn?? It just really shows how he loves her, you should have seen my face when he said that he wants to spend his life with her.

OMG Can we also talk about the way Andrew tried to change the topic to his scars??? And Aaron will think about that later?? I just know the night that he will think about that he just won't sleep

[lifenconcepts]

Here's that List of Names I talked about.

Please tell me If you can't read something, also Ignore the shitty Sebastian ((Yes, me and the Roblox Fish Guy share a Name)) Sketch In the Corner.

I LOVE YOUR HANDWRITING AND I LOVE THE FISH GUY AND I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE THIS ACTIVITY! Hope this helps :3 I tried to define it as best I could but I just translate the names into “yeah that totally fits the character” and not actually expressing it in words 😿 (also this litterally is just my assumptions from the names and it would be scewed if you said what sort of character you were going for so I guess this is as genuine as it gets, feel free to go off this if you need to).

Austin - reminds me of some teen who keeps to themselves and yet has a never ending hand in some very obscure topic, like, you’d never come across an Austin but randomly in some odd town you’ll come across one and they have an official job in something like UFO engineering or frog marriage or science of fire or something.

Aaron - Reminds me of Orion :3 (in the nicest way possible, it’s my favourite constellation), but also seems to belong to a very specific sort of character, possibly to a competitive guy who peaked in high school. At first thought it said Auron lol!

Andrew - I expect this to belong to someone who is either soft spoken or loves debates, doesn’t seem to anger easily but can stand up for themselves, possibly even having a niche interest without an audience (like what I wrote for Austin) but in a more creative sphere, like making mosaics or origami or maybe art from trash. (Also funny how a single word can change something, like trash art vs art trash vs art of trash vs art from trash)

Arie (I think I read it right) - Seems very sweet, almost like a cosmic child, and has a very calm atmosphere to it :) would be fitting for someone who has a connection to something mystical or fantastical!

Cade - gives me cyberpunk/steampunk vibes for some reason and I’m not entirely sure why.

Caiden - bwuhhh.. reminds me of big guy. Gentle giant. Would bite the ankles of.

Casey - Mixed feelings about this and i can’t exactly tell you why. Seems like it’d belong to one of those “popular girls” at school who’d act all nice and then talk rudely about you behind your back.

Clyde - Cloud. Muahahhaha! No but a very nice name, I’d even assume them to be well-mannered and formal sometimes while also having something usually not thought about as a hobby but somewhat respectable, like training birds of preys like hawks and facons or fixing up motorcycles or hosting a game show. Very nice in my opinion.

Prince - oh hey that’s me! XD but has plenty of different connotations depending on who you ask. For me, seems to be very similar to the stuff i put for Andrew. A somewhat soft person yet one who isn’t afraid to defend what is right or weaker. Would expect them to have a certain theme driving them forward but what it is varies from individual to individual. Possibly a bearer of some unfathomable trauma but I guess that’s up to how merciful you are to them.

Quin - Nonbinary real estate 🔥. But reminds me of a very young yet mature person who probably expressed themselves through unappealing to the public eye but is actually a sweetheart at heart.

Quincey - Makes me think of a ferret for some reason. A ferret personified. Just like a fucked up cat running on human somewhere. Charming yet orange cat coded. Bro runs around the room like a trapped horse.

Reed - Gives me such big detective-like feelings, I would trust them with my court case and yet hold almost no hope in them making my name innocent. Rather, they’re so damn hilarious in how desperately they try to announce someone not guilty that they accidentally do the opposite, and that’s entertaining enough to go to jail for. “Your honour!!! My client is INNOCENT because Even though they did some bad things and own a gun tHEY WOULD NEVER harm anyone! They own a very cute German Shepherd and spend lots of time with it bevause they love it and- th.. the suspect died from a dog bite? … ah- well I meant to say- ..”

Rhett - Bro sounds like an airplane company. No but very interesting although it bares the kind of vibe as some sort of folklore creature youd only hear about in stories then come across in a swamp like “what the fuck.. - it’s real?!”. Quite nice.

Fran - isn’t there an old lady snack that’s named something of the sort? Similar to flapjack? But basically is awesome and gives me that badass grandma vibe of seeing an elder in a sports car and thinking “you go, gram-gram!”

felix - the god tier of all names. Litterally fits everyone and anyone without even trying yeahg!!

Francis - was my grandma’s cat name :,) .. he was an absolutely sweetheart and a very nice gentleman.

innocent - quite ironic if the character is fucked up. But has a good ring to it, although seems a bit too “out there”, you know?

Lance - God tier name. Makes me think of a protagonist of some bad ass action movie, would follow the story of, probably disappears from home for weeks or months before looking at a picture of his family sadly like “ah.. I’ve never seen my child grow, I’m practically a stranger to her..”

Lawrence - Probably a hard worker and yet at the same time slacks off, somehow managed to get a promotion but every time you see them they’re doing jack-shit, probably has a good understanding of marketing just because he spends so much on his phone. But seems like the guy to carry around a cute little dog in a handbag.

Layne - aaarrggghhhhh amazing it reminds me of a road in the middle of the night and as if they’re that shadow that moves beside the car/bus that I can’t seem to lay my eyes upon and yet know they’re there. Probably into space exploration or Atleast the museums.

Lewis - the name’s tainted by a loser from my school in the past. But it’s a nice name. Reminds me of a toad stuck in a pool to be fair.

Lowis - petah, the horse is here. Lovely name.

May - Very sweet, probably super kind and constantly makes others gifts or cakes, likes has a garden they tend to often, probably owns a cat, likes to sit in the garden and look at the sun’s warmth.

Maxie - A dragon lover, has a dog, likes mist and fog, probably dances in the rain, probably wants a cat, loves king car rides, had cool headphones, would wag their tail if they had one.

Mc Kinley - Is bro from a child’s story? This is a compliment. Makes it seem like he’s about to lead someone into a barn before revealing some horrible secret and is like a father figure to some guests.

Jody - Probably likes some sort of sport like basketball or volleyball, sweetly competitive, unassuming but probably quite smart.

Sage - Gives a very flowery/herb loving feeling and that they’d live in a Cottage, like a vintage nature loving presence, maybe even a ghost.

Serton - Very much giving Butler vibes, like he’s about to greet me at a mansion and welcome me warmly before offering me homemade bakeries despite having a rough looking exterior.

Silas - this fits you! Has a very few sea underwater creature feeling to it, makes me think the character has some underlying secret to them that could make or break the entire world or something.

Sincere - Would fit a personal in the business field, I’d say. Soren - Eye of Sauron frfr (the sun except it’s burning harshly)

Starling - BIRD AND SPIES YAYAYAYYYY ahem I mean it’s a very professional sounding name which also has soft connotations which I adore.

Sylvian - like a silver goddess beckoning the swans to bask in the moonlight beside a bridge in France, purring sweet lullabies of tea and peace into the air.

Taylor - I really like this name, it’s quite calm but also reminds me of America specifically those massive stores which sell cotton.

Terrance - has a good ring to it, but reminds me of a reclusive individual, one that may find comfort within themselves and take on something akin to a security job before they get dragged into something they could have never expected.

Trace - Bro likes tattoos and disapear ring without a trace (not meant as a play on words but just so happened to be). Probably have beat up shoes and hand-dyed jacket with patches they made.

Tristan - Bro probably goes to rooftops to get a break from life but then finds a friend there who’s doing the same and slowly but surely get a connection and create a platonic bond for life.

Tuna (?) - fish go 🍣 :))

Vincent - Very professional version of this and my personal favoruite. Not a neccesity but could assume for a fictional character that they have some deformity or maybe a golden tooth here or there and maybe some implant in their spine or something, maybe a missing finger. Probably tall and holds alot of experience in life but is haunted by certain decisions they made.

Vin - Short, to the point. Probably has a short complex and tries to make up for that with big,loud cars and being loud & obnoxious, like those untrained shitheads of chihuahuas. Has at some point broken a bone. Probably has a lot of metalic decorations in their home.

Vince - probably is a butcher or atleast own a carnivore. Have tried yoga at some point wether it be teaching or learning. Likes colouring but looks like an individual whose main source of excersize is chasing people off their property with a gun.

walter - has a verrryyy specific style to them that you only find in the duty free zone of airports, like you look at them just chilling - probably on their laptop or watching their gate and think “yeah, that’s a Walter”. They also probably have live television at home and happily watch the ads and just whatever show is currently on, while trying to defend “7 princess vs a million toads” is a great show to watch and deserves the 80 episodes each 1 hour long it has.

winston - Similar to the below :3

Winto - likely lives in some Scandinavian or Canadian city and has a knack for knowing random bits and pieces of street smarts/life. Probably has no clue how to deal with a glitching TV but definetely has gotten out a possum from their car engine or put anti-skid tires on their bicycle. Probably has lots of small lights around their home (like little ones outside, some lamps on pedestals inside, maybe a lava lamp here and there, maybe a soft-lit chandelier in their living room or bedroom, probably also barely opens their curtains but is very welcoming of people).

zac - Probably had a “I’m a gangster” phase before they realised that it was just a cover to not look soft when they infact like some characteristically “feminine/weak” activity such as knitting. Prolly likes to go for joyrides every other day and goes for walks without informing others.

Zachary - Bro probably wears specially tailored clothes for themselves. Also likely owns or owned a bird. Probably secretly keeps flowers on their table or in their garden as it makes them feel loved. Mommy issues? Likes snacking.

Zehe - probably traumatised, that’s all I got to say.

my suggestion is to try come up with a “Mr. -so and so-“ name, it has so many potential!! Like “Mr. Basil” for example, or “Mr. Trison.” Or “Mr, Wrapper” or or or “Mr. Sheep” or “Mr, Ear.”

[tm-trx]

Only Friends.06

All hell breaks loose at the halfway point. Let the bullet points commence!

Fan edit montage opening - nice

Mew has two moms!

I like that Mew could be interpretated as either demisexual or a late bloomer, based on what we’ve seen and heard from him so far; I’m leaning late bloomer myself.

oh Top you are in for a fall buddy

“we keep our personal lives away from work” hah

Really Boston? Someone films you without your consent and you’re rightly upset about it, but you have no problem doing the same thing to your friends.

I've said it before, but this tension between Sand and Top is a lot, even for stealing an ex. There are six episodes left and I really hope we get more background for them because it still feels like there is more going on. I need to know! (Also, put First and Force in another show together please and thank you GMMTV. They play off of each other so well.)

I know that Top and Mew are likely not going to make it (for a variety of reasons) but I sure wish they would. I like their relationship progression.

ugh Boston you suck (can't wait to go back through my notes when the show is over and count up how many times I wrote that LOL)

The awkward truth-bomb speech yikes. Why is no one stopping Ray instead of standing around waiting for whatever else he’s going to say? Plot reasons make things so stupid sometimes.

Ray :(

First and Khao man - they’re just so good - that last scene was brutal but I couldn’t take my eyes off of them

hah I knew it - Mew knows, but also yikes

That was really well done. Mew seducing Top with the express purpose of revealing he knows Top slept with Ton was so gross but such soapy goodness. It's right up there with Aaron telling Chrissie about the affair*. Top tier entertainment.

But then the writers did the 'suffer in silence' thing that I absolutely hate where the person who did wrong is not allowed to speak or explain what actually happened (because facts and talking things out like adults resolves arguments faster). In this case, yes Top slept with Ton and he's letting Mew speak his piece about it, but Mew’s assumptions about the reasons why are way off base and Top isn’t even defending himself which only confirms everything Mew is thinking. And like I said, I know why they do it - it’s the last scene in the episode so they want viewers to come back and find out what happens next. But as a viewer, I hate watching it when the scene is unlikely to be continued in the next episode. At best, we'll get flashbacks to more of their conversation.

next week’s preview??!?!?!! - Mew lost his serial killer glasses but that obviously didn’t mean anything, based on the last shot. Or else the editing team has seen the "unhinged Mew" posts and are having fun with us.

I know I complain a lot about plot stuff but in reality I'm eating this show up. The only thing that would make it better would be a murder plot, but I have a feeling this is not that show.

*waves to the robron fandom

[little-miss-dilf-lover]

Sorry sorry but I can't help myself, the power this man holds I swear. I feel like aaron and brian just fit them so right??

Sorry for the angst, I actually wanted to save it for when you're requests are open but I thought it's too sad and you might not want to write it. Is it ok if I extend it a little and send it a few days later? (Apologies if it's too much but you've just awoken something in me that I didn't know I had)

But I'm so in love wirh the idea that you'd be that one unfathomably cool trio that is just so reckless and chaotic. We'd be the brain of the group (if that makes sense) and the only one who thinks before we act. Feel like we would be able to handle ourself in small fights, so he sometimes just stands there, awe struck, watching you like, yep, that's my girl. But god forbid someone manages to lay a finger on you, he'll see red. He WILL choke the man to death, no questions asked.

In the novel it is mentioned that he likes to read while on missions (when he has the time that is) so I can just imagine him grabbing two books for both of you as you sit and read like the classy couple that you two are. ("Killed 12 people and y'all are over here reading." lem, probably)

This is so self indulgent so I apologize but if you're first language isn't english, he WILL learn a few things just for you. He adores the surprised look on your face, followed by that pretty smile and laugh of yours.

In an interview with aaron and brian, aaron looked confused at the word "simp" and I can just picture that with tan and lem. He doesn't spend that much time on the internet so when lem hits him with the "You're whipped." or "Man's got it down bad." he'd look so confused.

Ok but imagine you trim his moustache, omg, he'll have you sit on his lap, his hands gently placed on your waist, you'd be too focused to notice the soft look in his eyes. "Darlin' stop smiling, I'll mess up." he mutter a sorry but the smile still remains present on his face.

Rewatched the movie, love the way this man looks in his full suit. Gotta ask, what's your fav scene of him? Or maybe your fav line of his? I'm in love with the way he explains the white death's backstory, he looks so good in that scene too. Also like the way he says tickety-boo, it's just so silly. Again, I'm so sorry, I said I'll wait a few days but I just couldn't. Just when I send in the ideas I get new ones, no thoughts, head empty, only tan. If you want I'll write them in my notes and save them for few days later.

💺 anon

hii!

1. not to worry, he still has me in one too. and right?!?

2. don’t worry about it!! was a beautifully sad idea. yes yes!! you’re more than welcome to expand it

3. YES!!! like the brainy/ maybe techy one. I feel like he’d let you have your moment/ revenge/ fighting time etc until it gets too close, like he knows you can handle yourself and don’t need a guy to defend/ protect, but tan wouldn’t risk it. like after a few minutes if you’re still fighting, he’ll come and help (he knows you could’ve done it, but again he didn’t wanna risk you getting killed/ really badly injured) you’re like “I nearly had him” and he’s like “yeah, I know” but he’s grinning and checking you over for cuts/ wounds etc

4. UGHH I LOVE THAT!! very classy, sitting in first class, legs crossed reading the same book😩 that lem moment😭😭perfect

5. omg yes!!! even more cute and perfect if it’s broken and the verbs and tenses are wrong and he says something in different language and you’re like “you said, ‘I am very beautiful’” 😭😭😭 and you’re trying not to laugh or embarrass him

6. AHAHAHA yes!! I feel like lem knows lots of the lingo, and tan is at a loss, “peng? what the fuck is peng” “what the fuck does that mean?” so lem is always educating him on the words. I feel like he sounds old when he asks about it, like “when did people stop saying …” “what’s wrong with saying …”

7. 🫠🫠🫠🫠 that’s all I gotta say about that one, omg!!?! melting and crying at that thought. WANT THAT

8. well… I haven’t watched it in a while, but I have many memorable moments. so I love when he walks off the train and lighting his cig (for obvious reasons) when he’s punching the back train window (again, for obvious reasons) when he and lem are debating the 16/17 kill count. and quotes … “you following me? stop… arsehole” and something along the lines of “story about when gordon met percy and how percy’s bleeding from his fucking eye sockets” “not particularly, no” “some 80s dance off, innit” AAAAHH NEED TO REWATCH IT AGAIN SO BAD

don’t worry about it bby, if and evenever you get ideas, keep them in your notes and then like this time and last send them over. don’t worry about sending in a few days, if you wanna, send them when you want. I said send too many times😭😭 hope you catch my drift

[mydarllinglover]

Alone || Nothing New

Previous

The group had set up camp for the night, though Natalia was restless, she wanted to go home, she needed to go home, and she was pissed at her friend for being the one to convince her to go.

She needed to be with her kids, it was killing her to not know what was going on, and how she acted out, she was terrified that anything could happen to them, where would Alpha draw the line? She'd proven plenty of times before that she didn't care for the lives of children.

Natalia was nervously scratching at her arm, staring into the firey flames as she thought of every bad scenario that could happen, she couldn't help it, that was until the distraction of Carol walking away, brought her back.

"She ain't been the same since she got off that boat." Daryl told Michonne. "Maybe she's better off on it. Found some peace, you know."

"Hey. She belongs with us." Michonne told him. "She ain't sleeping either. She's out all night looking for them."

"We gotta take care of them." Natalia stood up from the log. "This isn't like Negan, no ones holding the weight of peace over our heads. You shouldn't of stopped her." She looked at Michonne.

"Nat, this is different."

"Don't talk to me like that, Mich. I know what the stakes are and what they're-"

"Are you, do you really, cause that punch you threw earlier, doesn't have me so convinced that you do." Michonne snapped.

"You're lucky it was just a punch. After what she did, what she's done, and to do this! Sometimes it feels like Rick never really left, cause you filled his spot, just rolling over and taking whatever shit is handed to us."

"Don't you dare-" Michonne pointed at her, her jaw clenched.

"Do you even know why we left, Michonne? Why we ran away to live in the woods? Because I couldn't stand to be in that place any longer, to hear the things people said about that man, having my daughter go behind my back and converse with him, keeping him around as a constant reminder to them, to us about what he did, what he did to us, to me! Whilst you all defended him! And now, he's out walking about, with freedom, getting to do what the hell he feels like doing, gaining sympathy from the people who forgot, being around my children!"

"And he's the one who saved the twins!" Michonne shouted.

"He what?" Daryl tuned into the conversation, the one he had been desperately trying to block out.

"Oh, yeah! Your wife never bothered to mention this to you." Michonne turned to him.

"Mich, stop, just shut up." Natalia shook her head.

"During the snow storm, which was, hm let me think, five months ago! As they were evacuating everyone to Aaron's house, the twins ended up wandering off and getting lost, Negan was the one to go out and find them, bring them back, not Nat, but he did, when no one else bothered."

"You know full well it wasn't li-"

"Nat." Daryl growled.

"Daryl, honey, it wasn't like that, we had no choice-"

"You didn't tell me?" He asked. "Why the hell didn't you tell me!"

"Because I knew you would react like this!"

"Bullshit! I had a right to know that ma girls almost died when I weren't even there, then to find out he saved them-"

"Exactly, you are never here!"

She couldn't elaborate further as gun shots ran out, alerting everyone.

"Carol." The three muttered as they ran towards the sound.

"What happened?" Daryl asked her as she got up from the ground.

"Whisperers. Three of them." She explained.

"Walkies on. Split up, north, west. We'll take east. Capture! Do not kill!"

"Yeah, because why the hell would we wanna do that?" Natalia snarked.

"Let's go." Michonne gritted through her teeth.

"Way ahead of you."

The four walked staggeredly apart, all with things on their mind but no time to delve into it, instead, they focused on the task at hand, but there was nothing to find.

"No sign of them anywhere" Michonne shared, after speaking to Laura on the walkie. "No traces, no tracks, nothing. You're sure you saw three?" She asked Carol.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Carol... how long you been taking those pills for?" She looked down at the bottle in Carol's hand.

"Since I got back. It's fine. They're like coffee. We can't stay out here."

"Alright. Find a place with walls, hole up for a little while." Daryl suggested. "Get some sleep."

Natalia scoffed, turning away.

"Something you'd like to say, Nat?" Michonne called her out.

"What's the point in wasting my breath, clearly whatever I think wouldn't matter to you, cause oh right, I'm out here, aren't I." She stomped forward.

They had reached an academy High school, meeting up with the others there.

Michonne was the first to enter, waiting a moment before going further, letting the others spread out to look around.

"Its clear." Daryl whispered, stepping away from a broken door.

Carol had walked towards it, accidently kicking a book on the floor, Natalia jumped at the sound but ultimately ignored it, moving on, whilst Daryl waited back for his friend.

"You two, get down here." She told Griffin and Laura.

"Gotcha." He nodded.

"Keep watch on the east end."

They stepped away, Carol and Daryl had wandered somewhere else, hopefully to talk about Carols new pill fascination.

"I'm sorry." Michonne muttered so lowly, that Natalia almost missed it.

"Mhm." She hummed, as she looked around, seeing no signs of walkers.

"Nat, I mean it, okay."

"What for?"

Michonne let out a sigh, thinking about her words carefully.

"For dragging you out here, for... for grassing on you, I don't know."

She was quiet for a moment.

"Then I'm sorry, too, for everything, I'm.. I, I'm just so scared." Natalia's voice wobbled, as she admitted this.

Michonne was thrown off, Natalia Dixon wasn't scared, she was never scared, that wasn't her, it just wasn't.

"Y'know, Carol left Henry's care in my hands, and... whilst he and Enid were fighting for their lives, with Tara and the others, I was watching a fucking movie, with my kids, I didn't keep him safe-"

"Nat, that wasn't your fault." Michonne tried to soothe her.

"But- but it was, it was my job to keep him safe, and I failed, and Carol- Evie, what they had to see... what it did to them. What if I can't keep my own kids safe, Mich, what- what if she goes after them, because of what I did."

"Natalia, stop it." Michonne placed her hands on her friends shoulders. "They are fine, okay, they're safe in Alexandria, we have patrols, protocols and lots of people who would risk their own lives to keep them safe, besides, you turned the twins and Evie into fine little fighters, they can protect their own if it ever came down to it. And when we get back, you can continue hovering over them, watching their every move, because you're a damn good mother."

Natalia bowed her head, as she hugged her friend, holding her tightly as she allowed a few tears to slip, she'd blame it on the exhaustion.

Michonne hugged her, resting her chin on her shoulder as she rubbed her back.

"You're an fucking amazing mom, too." Natalia pulled away, wiping at her eyes.

"Thank you." She chuckled.

The two woman moved to sit on the floor, leaning against each other as they rested, sharing anecdotes about the weird or funny things their kids have done, whilst sharing their milestones and achievements, Michonne didn't bother calling Natalia out when she had stared talking about Lydia, as if the girl was her own.

Screaming and what sounded like struggle, alerted them.

They ran towards the Gymnasium, meeting the others there, as they found Carol, badly injured, glass was stuck in her arm, they had to get back to Alexandria.

Michonne, Daryl and Natalia waited outside the infirmary whilst Siddiq and Dante worked to fix Carol up, and eventually they had come outside.

"She alright?" Daryl eagerly asked.

"I-..." Siddiq looked for words, but was soon cut off.

"He got it out." Dante grinned widely, walking out behind him. "She's all patched up and out like a light."

"Great." Daryl responded, as the three walked into the place.

Once they were positive she was okay, Natalia had convinced Daryl to go home and get some sleep.

What they weren't expecting to see, when they got home was Evie and Lydia layed down on the couches, knocked out, dozing away, Lydia's stick was leaned beside her, whilst Evie held a knife in her fist, a gun was tucked under the cushion she was resting her head on.

"We should wake them." Natalia sighed, carefully slipping the weapons away from her daughter.

"You think this was their idea of keeping watch?" Daryl asked, looking at them unimpressed.

"Daryl, they're kids, they obviously tried, I think." She moved back, tiptoeing towards the big bookshelf beside the mantle, picking up one of the heavy books. "One... two..." She mouthed to Daryl, before dropping it hard, alerting the girls a good distance out of reach.

Just as she predicted, they both shot out of their seats, reaching for their desired weapons sporadically.

"That was mean." Daryl hummed.

"Hey, its us, 'kay, it's just us." As the two girls eyes settled on the pair, realising there was no real danger. "What were you two doing?"

"Mom?" Evie asked, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palm, as Lydia stifled a yawn.

"Dad's here, too." She replied.

"Why ain't you both in bed?" Daryl asked them.

"Wanted to make sure nothing happened whilst you were gone, protect the kids, and Lydia refused to go to the room."

"Seems like you were both doing a great job." He sassed.

"What, Lydia, you said you would be on watch." Evie pointed at her.

"No, it was your turn, you were supposed to."

"Liar, you were."

"Hey, hey. doesn't matter, alright, we're home now, and nothing happened." Natalia assured them, brushing Evie's blonde hair out of her face, kissing her head.

"What happened to your hand?" Lydia asked, inspecting her bruised knuckles.

Evie grabbed her mothers hand, looking at her fist with her own eyes.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"Nothing, I didn't do anything." She rolled her eyes.

"Dad, who did she hit?" Evie looked at the man.

"Evie!" Natalia looked at her, feeling betrayed.

"Yer mom just lost her cool, alright, don' matter." He couldn't help as his eyes wandered to the dark haired girl.

But Evie hadn't missed this.

"Her mother?" She asked, as if she were about to give an lecture. "You totally punched her Mom, didn't you?"

"You what?" Lydia stood up. "What happened?" She demanded to know.

"Hey, the kids are asleep, keep your voices down." Natalia tried to shush them.

"Mom, what happened out there?"

She shared a look with her husband, a look of question or a look of help, neither of them were sure.

"She's demanding more land, for them crossing into her land, she's cutting off our hunting grounds, made a comment about Henry, so Carol tried to shoot her, Michonne stopped her..."

"So you punched her." Evie finished.

Lydia stormed out of the room, towards the basement, not bothering to say a word to anyone.

Evie shook her head.

"I'm disappointed." Evie looked down. 

"Excuse me?" Natalia laughed.

"Look, I get she's an evil, evil person, believe me, I know." The girl shivered. "But that's still her mom, she still misses her, sometimes, late at night, I have to convince her not to leave, to not run back to her. Would have thought that you of all people would understand."

She then followed the girl to their room.

"Fuck sake." Natalia groaned, sitting down on the couch, her head in her hands.

Daryl came and sat down with her, his hand holding her thigh, as his thumb rubbed circles over her skin.

"They'll get over it, you done worse things." He said, his idea of making her feel better.

"Yeah, like what?" She asked rhetorically.

"Like keeping the secret that my kids almost died, when I weren't here, from me."

"And what would you have done with the information if I had told you?" She challenged.

He thought about it for a second, clearly frustrated by the question, as his jaw clenched, his nostril flared slightly, before his ears perked, and he looked towards the stairs.

"You hear that?" He asked.

And then she did, a slight thudding, then tiny whispers of assurance.

"There you go, nearly there." A voice came from the stairs before more thuds.

"Almost there, buddy, you're such a big boy, now."

"Girls? What are you doing with your brother?" Natalia called, as she got up from the couch, to go look what was going on, Daryl followed.

They found their three youngest all sat on the stairs, Archie was squished between the twins, as they seemed to be "bumping" down the stairs.

"He's too little to walk down them, and we're too little to carry him down, so we're pretending it's a slide." Bambi explained.

The corners of Natalia's mouth twitched up as she looked at her babies, how pure they were.

"Momma. Dada." Archie called, his hands waving in the air, Daisy was quick to grab a hold of his middle, making sure he didn't topple down the four stairs.

"I got ya, lil man." Daryl picked up his son, running his hand over the blond curls, that were starting to fade into a strawberry blond colour.

"What are the three of you even doing up?" Natalia asked them.

"We were asleep, but all your big mouths woke us up." Daisy rolled her eyes, as she wrapped her arms around Natalia's neck, leaning her head on her Mothers shoulder.

"Sorry, sweetheart, was yer mom arguing with the girls." Daryl told her, taking Bambi's hand and walking up the stairs.

"We were not arguing, we were just having a conversation about grown up stuff." Natalia corrected, scooping Daisy up in her arms, squeezing her tight as she followed her husband.

"Daddy, did Lydia's Mommy hurt anyone, again?" Bambi asked.

"Uncle Aaron said that she was an evil lady." Daisy chimed in. "I don't want her to hurt you guys."

"Well, yer Mom got her own back, she got her good." Daryl smirked.

"What did you do?" Bambi looked over her shoulder.

"Did you kill her?"

"No, No I didn't kill her, I just... hit her, hard." She admitted. "Y'know, like how Aunt Ro taught you."

"Mommy! That's so cool!" Daisy grinned. "I want to punch her, too!"

"Nah, It ain't cool, you don' needa be punching up anyone" Daryl told her, which was hypocritical.

"Daddy, have you ever punched anyone?" Bambi asked.

Natalia snorted at this.

"He's done a lot worse than that, darling."

"Cool." Daisy smiled. "They all deserved it, right?"

"Always." He answered.

It had turned out, that the kids had been sleeping in their beds, whilst they were away, Dog was still in there, layed out on his back, in his own little bed of blankets, hadn't even bothered to come greet them, that's how tired he was.

"Daddy, can you tell us a story about your brothers, Uncle Merle and Uncle Rick?" Daisy asked.

"Ooh, tell them about how I first met your brother, that's a good one." Natalia chimed in, as they all climbed into bed.

"Yeah, that's uh... that was an exhausting day for all of us, mainly cause yer uncle Merle's an huge dumbass who don' know when ta keep his trap shut." He chuckled.

"That's like you." Bambi told Daisy.

"It is not!" She resented, holding her bunny tightly, twirling her hair around her finger as she snuggled into Natalia.

"'Kay, so, yer mom had just broke into this place we were held up... where the main prick, a pirate, yer mom liked ta call him, if you wanna know why, yer gonna have to ask yer aunt Michonne that." Daryl started. "Anyway, she come's in, guns blazing with yer uncle Rick..." The kids listened eagerly whilst Daryl told the story, not wanting to miss an single detail, as they fought sleep to hear what happened next, and that's how the rest of the night went, until everyone was soundly asleep, cosied together.

They were given one peaceful day, one day where they were able to just live inside the walls, it even gave Natalia, Michonne and Daryl to organise a family dinner with all the kids, Evie had turned the offer down, instead to stay at the infirmary and help out, and Lydia wanted to practise, instead, Carol stayed in her room, Daryl took her food up to her on a tray.

It was fun, and happy, and well deserved, full of laughter, jokes and catch ups on the good things that were going on.

But that was until news of an incident in Hilltop came over the radio.

A tree had fallen down in the middle of the night, knocking over a wall and leaving nine injured, Michonne had taken Evie and Judith over, leaving the rest at home.

Evie was eager to get away from not only her parents, but her roommate, and she was happy to put her healing skills to good use, considering with having two doctors now, she felt mostly useless around them.

RJ was in the temporary care of the Dixons, which was good, because the twins seemed to have taken a keen liking to the boy, and they had started schooling together, though, Amelia, the teacher, had already reported back about the mischief the three were causing in the class, which they discovered to mostly be Daisy's mastermind plans.

Lydia had been creative on the bullying she'd received by Gage and two of his friends, Daryl had been running around all day getting her out of trouble, and away from Negan, who he was blaming her behaviour on.

Her latest stunt was catching a squirrel and dissecting it on their lunch table, Gabriel had been the one to report to them, but he had also sat and watched by as it happened.

Natalia had been busy repainting their front door, that someone had wrote the words "Silence the Whisperers" All over.

They had no idea who it was, but it was obvious who the message was intended for, she had raised her voice with obvious threats to passingbyers not only about the vandalism, but the harassment of Lydia, she wouldn't have it, the girl had suffered enough, and it was about damn time everyone backed off.

At dinner time, Lydia had refused to come out of the basement for food.

"What the hell is she doing down there?" Natalia grumbled, putting down her fork.

"Just leave it, I'll take her food down later, her problem if its cold." Daryl told her, cutting up RJ's deer steak. "Dais, don' throw pea's at yer brother."

"He was giving me funny looks." She defended herself.

"He's a baby." RJ replied.

"You're a baby." She told him.

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes you are." Bambi joined in. "You're only five, that's such a baby age."

"You were five last month!"

"Yeah, but we're not now, we're six, and you're not a big kid until you're six." Daisy made up.

"So, by that logic, the two of you are cutting up yer own food, an' doing yer chores after dinner." Daryl told them.

"No, no we're just babies, babies can't do chores, Daddy, duh" Daisy switched up.

"Yeah! We're so little, we can't possibly do that." Bambi shook her head, her pigtails flying around.

"I'm gonna go see what she's up to." Natalia decided, getting up from her chair, after ignoring everyone at the table, too focused on the girl.

"Nat... why do I bother." Daryl sighed to himself, dropping his opinion.

Natalia went down the stairs, hesitating at the girls door, before pushing herself to knock.

"Lydia?" She called. "We're all having dinner upstairs, and we would really like you to join in, don' want the food going to waste.... And you don' wanna eat it later, when it's all cold and mushy... Lydia?" When she received no answer, she finally opened the door, letting it swing open. "Lydia."

But low and behold, the room was completely empty.

"Lydia!" She called, but the girl still had not appeared. "Oh my god! Daryl!" Natalia ran back up the stairs. "Daryl!"

"What?" He caught her before she could run him over.

"She's gone, Lydia's not in her room."

"Okay, so maybe she just went on a walk." He shrugged.

"Yeah, right, sure, in a town full of people who hate her, this is your fault, after giving her such a hard time about fitting in!"

"Hey, don' spin this on me, she likes walking, burning off steam, sure she's fine."

"I'm gonna go look for her, stay with the kids." Natalia told him, grabbing her belt of knifes and placing them around her waist.

"Yeah, no, you don' need that."

"You don't know what could've happened, cause you're the one who scared her off."

"I was trying to help her." The man was getting visibly frustrated. "Least take Dog."

"Fine, Dog! Come on." She called.

"Mommy, where are you going?" Daisy called from the kitchen.

"Mommy's just gonna take a lil walk, okay? Daddy's gonna stay with you."

"I wanna come!" Bambi piped up.

"Aunt Nat, can I come?" RJ asked.

"No, you're all gonna stay here, whilst Daddy/Uncle Daryl do pudding."

"Awe." The kids groaned.

"Go on, at least keep an eye on them, make sure they don't sneak out." Natalia tested, opening up the door, and leaving.

"How the hell is this my fault, we've been together the whole night." Daryl growled to himself, shaking his head as he shuffled back to the kitchen.

"Lydia?" Natalia called, wrapping her arms around herself, in the cool spring evening.

"You lost the girl?" Marigold, an elder lady, asked, sat comfortably in a rocking chair, on her front porch.

"No, Mari, she just went on a walk, but it's dinner time now." She smiled politely.

"Should keep that girl on a leash, you seen what she's been doing to this place, causing chaos, we've suffered enough." She added. "Whilst your at it, put those twins of yours on one, too, don' need them meddling in anyone's business anymore, do better to mind their own and concentrate in school."

"Okay, Marigold, have a good evening." She turned away, dropping the kind expression instantly. "And choke to death." Natalia muttered lowly.

"What was that, dear?" The old bat called.

"Nothing." She replied, walking at a faster pace to get away.

Her calls for Lydia, soon turned into a hiss.

That was until someone grabbed her tightly, covering her mouth before she could scream.

She panted heavily as she stared wide eyed at the one person she never thought would over power her like this, again. Negan Smith.

He held a finger to his lips as he waited for her to attack.

"Follow, they got her." He murmured lowly, before letting go, moving towards the hanging clothes, Natalia followed right behind, and that's when she let her ears listen.

Lydia was crying, as  people were attacking her?

Negan pushed through an bedsheet, that was hung like a curtain, throwing a woman as he pulled a man off the girl, pointing at another boy, Gage.

Natalia didn't give them much attention, as she ran towards the girl in her care, collapsing to the ground beside her, placing her head in her lap as she hyperventilated.

"Hye, it's okay, you're okay, you're gonna be okay, kid." She repeated over and over, running her fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"We were just trying to scare her." Gage stammered, as Lydia wrapped her arms around Natalia's waist, holding her for dear life, as she tried to slow down her breathing.

"Yo, Negan!" Brandon shouted, emerging through the bedsheet. "What the hell's going on back here?"

"Hey, hey, focus on me, ignore them, okay, just take deep breathes." Natalia coached, wiping at the blood spewing from her upper lip and nose.

"Holy shit. Margo." The other man, gasped, running towards the woman. "Margo!"

They all looked round, to find the woman very clearly dead, her head was bleeding profusely, as her limp body layed against the wall Negan threw her at.

"Shit." Negan sighed, as he stood up away from Natalia and Lydia, realising his actions, and what he had done.

More people had appeared, and people were angry.

Siddiq dealt with the body as Daryl had joined Natalia's side, in trying to keep Lydia calm and stable.

"Freak, this is your fault!" Gage spat at the girl.

"It was Negan! Negan killed her!" Matthew spoke up, talking to the growing crowd.

"No, he didn't do anything wrong!" Lydia denied. "No, it wasn't... He didn't do anything."

"I know, hey, I know, it's okay." Natalia spoke in a soft quiet voice, only to her, continuing to brush her hair with her fingers.

"Now get him out of here!" Daryl ordered Brandon.

"Please!" Lydia started kicking as she cried, again.

"Move!"

"No, he didn't do anything wrong!" She screamed.

"I know. I know. I know." Daryl repeated.

"He didn't do anything wrong." She continued.

"I was there, I saw it, I know he didn't." Natalia defended the man, only for the girls sake. "Hey, everyone, shows over, those waves still ain't over, scram!" She demanded.

"No, please! No." Lydia's voice broke as the couple tried to soothe her, as the others took Negan back to his cell. "Please. Please."

"Lydia, just breathe, okay, before you throw up, just... look at me, breathe." Natalia took a deep breath in, holding it before letting go, encouraging the girl to copy. "You deal with this. I'll take her to Dante." Natalia told her husband, helping the girl up. "They attacked her, Daryl, they were going to beat her to death if he didn't stop them."

"I'll handle it." He nodded.

"It's alright, I got you, sweet girl." Natalia let Lydia hold onto her tightly, as they walked together to the infirmary.

"My arm, my arm hurts." She whimpered.

"Okay, that's okay, we can let Dante know, and he'll make it better, alright?"

Natalia didn't flinch from her side the whole time Dante fixed her up, placing an ice pack under her injured arm, also to help with her ribs.

Eventually Daryl joined them, too.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you." He spoke to her, carefully.

She gave no response, staying curled up, as if he was never there.

"Lydia." He touched her arm.

"He was so sweaty." She said, after a second. "Never liked deodorant. Said it... it made his armpits itchy. So I got used to it. Sometimes he smelled like garlic and onions. I miss him."

"Who's that?" Daryl asked.

"My dad." She started to cry, again. "My dad would've protected me."

Daryl sat down on the other side of the girl.

"Tell me what happened." He said.

"I'll give you guys some space." Natalia breathed, going to stand up, so that they could talk in private.

"No, don't go." Lydia latched onto her arm, "Please, stay with me."

"Okay, okay, yeah, if you want me to." She settled back down, placing her own hand over the girls, rubbing lazy circles over the back of it, something Daryl did with her, to calm her down, or just to calm himself.

She looked towards him, but he only nodded.

Then, Lydia sniffled, looking up between the pair, her eyes were still wild as she tried to focus.

"Negan saved my life. Just like he saved the twins."

Daryl wrapped an arm around her, as she burst into sobs at the reality of the situation, Natalia kept her hold on the girls hand, planning what she was going to say to the council, to defend the person she hated the most in the world.

Next

[typing-catastrophe]

📝Everything you need to know

characters I write for: Stanford Pines, tasm!Peter Parker, Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Peter Maximoff, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Frank Castle/The Punisher, Poe Dameron, Pietro Maximoff, Bucky Barnes, Loki, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Avengers (platonic), Neo (Matrix), John Constantine (movie w Keanu Reeves)), Newt (Maze Runner), Spencer Reid, Aaron Hotchner

fandoms*: marvel (mcu, xmen movies, defenders), gravity falls, tadc, star wars, stranger things, the magnus archives, marauders, maze runner, criminal minds * some fandoms I am currently in, I won't guarantee that I'll write for all of them tho

pairings: Cherik (Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr), Steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson), Wolfstar (Sirius Black/Remus Lupin), Stucky (Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes), Obikin (Anakin Skywalker/Obiwan Kenobi), Newtmas (Newt/Thomas), Napollya (Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin), all the previous listed characters x reader & cherik x reader (atm the only poly ship I write for)

no-gos: underage reader and characters (platonic okay), cnc/nc, incest, pregnancy, real people (actors e.g.) and anything else that makes me uncomfortable

Even if something/someone is not on the list, feel free to ask me about it ^^

💕 = fluff ⚡ = angst 🔥 = smut 💛 = no specified rls -> can be read as non-romantic/platonic ❗ = NSFW

There is gonna be no use of y/n. (unless someone requests that for some reason I guess?) Everything will be written in 2nd or 3rd person. The reader will be gender neutral unless otherwise specified. You will find warnings/content tags, word count and a summary at the beginning of each fic/longer piece.

Explanation Tags:

'typing...' is my tag for basically just yapping about smth

'my writing' is every imagine, headcanon, fanfic, drabble etc. I wrote

'requests' is the ask and 'requested' are the written pieces (sometimes I answered directly tho)

And that's it, I think. Let me know if I should include anything else in here ^^ my masterlist

Updated: 02 december 2024

[aphm3ow]

but honestly, I'm the #1 kai defender because the whole "What do you even know about me?" arc was so forced...

sorry i’m a loser sorry for adding onto this two year old post BUT EVEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR DATE THEY HAD A VERY GOOD SET-UP!!

my favourite bit is the scene where kai and aph are at the ice rink [S2E24, 9:40] and she says “you look cute like that!” when he falls and he awkwardly says “oh, um. thanks!” followed by an ominous tone and a camera change to show kai looking at aphmau.

my interpretation, and why i wished it would’ve gone a different direction than the bullshit ‘what a dick!! aaron come save her broken heart!!’: the ominous pang gave me the impression that hearing aphmau call him cute, now knowing she had romantic feelings, made him uncomfortable. previously he likely would’ve been fine with that comment, believing she meant it as a friend.

i think this could’ve actually led to a really interesting point! kai does try to go out on a date with aphmau after learning of her feelings from katelyn. it’s well-intentioned albeit misguided, he figures since they get along as friends it’s not outlandish to imagine they could date, and he feels guilty he dragged her along on his date and confessed his feelings for katelyn to her when she was probably crushing on him. this seems like it’d be perfectly in character honestly. he’s still wrong, essentially it’s a pity date, but he’s not an outright dick to someone he cares about.

i think he’s honestly fine at the beginning of the date, just like a regular hangout except outside of school. it’s when aphmau calls him cute that it makes his stomach churn and that tone signals the start of his realisation that he can’t like her, he can’t just make himself like her like that. he likes aphmau as a friend, but she’s just not his type, and her words (that would be fine for a girlfriend or love interest, great actually) just make him uncomfortable because he can’t view her that way.

i wish they had more of that instead of turning him into a careless jerk— i mean he ignores her a lot during dinner? for what?? he’s just on his phone??

i mentioned in the tags on my last reblog how aphmau makes a weird joke-question about meif’was and litter boxes. i don’t think his reaction is weird at all in canon. and i know they’ve had these conversations before, but AGAIN, this is different for him, they’re not just hanging out during lunch as friends, kai is recognising this as a date. he’s trying to see her as his romantic partner. but i wish instead of it being a ‘he’s so cold to her…’ moment where aphmau sadly goes “o-oh…um, i’m so sorry”, it’s said kinder (literally ALL that needs to change is kai’s tone, which in all fairness i’m sure the VA delivered exactly as jess asked him to for the plot) but that same tone plays again before he says it’s immature. i think it’s fair if he also says ‘immature’ in bit of an awkward and quieter voice, he’s not really sure if he should say it, but it’s how it feels. the audience can still feel bad for aphmau, but kai isn’t as much of a dick. you can get both sides.

i just wish instead of the whole ‘what do you even know about me’ blowup with the four guys, at the very least kai and aphmau’s point could resolve with him later admitting (perhaps in the episode he apologises in), that he just doesn’t like her that way. with the way even then her content was geared towards younger people, anywhere from middle school to university, i think it would’ve actually been a really great way to showcase healthy rejection and that it is possible and even possible to remain friends. and even that sometimes it’s better to admit the truth than string someone along.

i feel like it would’ve also been really good for aphmau herself. she’s around 15 at this point and considering she’s always been homeschooled, she’s never experienced that kind of world of crushes and rejection— (garroth, laurance, and aaron in S1, while having romantic relations with her, are not on the same level as what she experiences during S2)— and i think instead of just getting brutally destroyed and heartbroken, it could’ve been a nice way to balance her if we’re still including ein and even garroth and laurance’s douchey behaviour. it could’ve been a nicer learning moment for her than whatever ‘i’m a beautiful potato, hehe!’ moment she had afterwards.

AND FUCK WHATEVER BULLSHIT WAS HIM COMING BACK IN STARLIGHT JUST TO BE AN ASSHOLE. i hate that. my poor cat. let him free i beg, free him of the ‘propping aaron up’ curse.

this might be controversial but...

season 2 of pdh is such a hard watch these days. even though I don't like aphmau's character, she's just constantly getting just betrayed by everyone. which was obviously done so we would hate any ship besides aarmau. I literally love kai, his whole personality was based around him being more mature and easy-going and just a cool dude!! then suddenly he turns into a total jackass. why?

I just feel jess wanted to make other ships (larmau, garmau, kaimau, e-e-e-eimmau) look super toxic in order for us all to be rooting for aarmau.

but honestly, I'm the #1 kai defender because the whole "What do you even know about me?" arc was so forced...

but he was literally right, she's childish and immature. but maybe because she's still a literal child.. idk just a hunch

[taleasnewastime]

What if I love you too much?

Summary: Jungkook. It’s only a name you learn after your son kicks his ball over the fence. Before that you only knew him as the hot new neighbour who mows his lawn topless. And though you have no intention of getting to know him anymore than that, inevitably you do. You don’t necessarily fall, it’s too slow for that, but you definitely develop feelings you don’t intend to feel. Because you know men like him, and you know that whatever you’re feeling, he’s probably not feeling the same. All the same, however hard you try, you can’t help yourself.

Pairing: Jungkook x reader

Genre: fluff; angst; smut; single mum reader

Word count: 20.6k

Warnings: Single mum, small fights, explicit sexual content, oral (f receiving), safe penetrative sex, reader thinks Jungkook is cheating/playing the field, angst, but also fluff, child gets injured (though not seriously), talks of cuts and a small amount of blood.

Additional Drabbles!

Authors Note: Happy Saturday! Hope you’re having a nice weekend so far :) 

“Ask him to mow your lawn.”

“What? Rosie, why would I –”

“Because look at your lawn, Y/N,” she twists to look at you with a flat face before looking back out your front window with dreamy eyes. “And then look at him.”

You look at the man in question, every glistening, no-tee-shirt-on, tattooed sleeved, square inch of him. Ok, so maybe you get her point a little. Still, you’re not about agree with her.

“I can mow,” you defend yourself instead. “And my lawns not that bad.”

“But can you mow like him?”

“Anyone can mow like him. He’s literally just going up and down the grass.”

“Y/N. Please. Just look at that body.”

“I thought you wanted me to look at his mowing.”

You catch her rolling her eyes as you twist to sit properly on your sofa, no longer wanting to objectify your new neighbour. You don’t even know his name and yet you’re already ogling at the beads of sweat that roll down the many abs he’s sporting. The feminist in you is ashamed.

“Then ask for some sugar,” Rosie continues, still looking out the window. “Or bake him some cakes to properly welcome him to the street, or I don’t know ask him to look after Zac.”

“Oh yeah, because that’s the way to any man’s heart. Please can you look after my four-year-old child?”

“Alright,” Rosie huffs, finally giving in and twisting to sit by you. “I was just brainstorming.”

“Well, thanks but no thanks.”

You stand, try to focus on the reason you came into the room in the first place. Before you spotted your new neighbour mowing topless you were cleaning the mess Zac, your four-year-old son, had left before he bulldozed his way into the garden. You love your son: he’s cute, caring, behaves and will happily entertain himself when you’re busy, but he has so much energy that sometimes he’s like a little tornado. You’re always cleaning up in his leave.

“You need to introduce yourself at some point,” Rosie continues, her voice taking on a more innocent tone, but you still know her game.

“He’s my neighbour –”

“Exactly.”

“– I don’t talk to all my neighbours. We’ll probably just smile if we happen to get out our cars at the same time.”

Rosie heaves a sigh as if you’re being utterly unreasonable. “You’re impossible.”

“You make it sound like I haven’t been with a man since Henry,” you’re still cramming toys into the plastic box you keep hidden behind the sofa when you say the name of Zac’s dad so miss the annoyed look that crossed Rosie’s face.

“Remind me who again?”

You stand up straight, twist to frown at her. Really?

“And don’t say Cam. We all know that was just a glorified blow job.”

You heat, shake your head as your frown deepens. You tell her everything but sometimes wonder if you should leave certain details out.

“There was Paul,” you begin but are put off by the look Rosie gives you. Ok, maybe she’s right, Paul was the IT guy at work that took you on two dates, the furthest you got was a kiss on your doorstep. “Urm, ok, fine. Though, dating a man is still being with him. But fine, what about Aaron?”

“Arrogant Aaron. That’s one.”

You don’t comment on the nickname, though she may have a point, you have bigger things to think about, your brain churning through the last four years to find any semblance of a relationship that will get Rosie off your back.

“James. One night, but it was good.”

“We’re up to two,” she says in a tone that implies you’re not doing well and need to improve.

“Ryan,” you almost shout the name at her when it pops into your head.

“Was Ryan really after Zac?”

“Yep, I remember Zac waking up screaming right when he was about to –”

“Auntie Roo,” you’re cut off by said screaming child.

Your lips seal shut, you both go stiff, if Zac wasn’t four, you’d both look incredibly guilty. Luckily he isn’t old enough to question it. Instead he does a light jump up and down in front of Rosie, eyes wide and smile broad.

“Please can you play?” The words are a little slurred together in his rush to get them out, some of the letters still not properly forming so when you’re with strangers you have to interpret for him. Rosie is fluent in four-year-old speak and the sentence was clear enough for you both to understand.

“Shall we play out front?”

You shoot daggers at the top of her head. She only smiles.

“But, I wanna play with Baby Boe.”

“Fine,” Rosie says still chipper, she stands to her full height rolling her eyes at you. “There’s at least no mistaking he’s yours.”

You give her a sarcastic smile as she twists and follows your son into the garden, Zac babbling on about something unintelligible, Rosie humming along as if fully engaged. You watch them disappear before going back to the task at hand, shoving the last toys into the box you collapse onto the sofa, happy to have even a minute of quiet to yourself.

Closing your eyes you can hear Rosie and Zac playing house in the back garden with his toy dog, Baby Boe. But there’s also that mechanical sound from earlier. You try to ignore it, but now alone you find it hard. Sitting up straight you make sure you truly are alone before twisting and looking over the back of the sofa.

Your neighbour is still there, on the last strip of grass now. You watch as he finishes, stops the lawn mower and then sweeps a hand through his hair. It makes his abs stretch and his arms flex. It only entrances you more. Rosie is right, he’s hot as hell, but what she doesn’t realise is that you don’t need that in your life. Sex is great, and though you’ve only had a few ‘relationships’ since Zac, there have been enough for you to know that however big the payoff may be, it’s never big enough.

You guess you’ll just have to appreciate the view with this one.

You feel sweaty and tired but unfortunately your son is a bundle of never-ending energy, so here you are kicking a ball around your garden in the baking sun with Zac.

He’s giggling as you half force a smile on your face. It’s not that you’re not having a good time, you love time with your son, it’s more that you’ve been kicking this same ball around for nearing half an hour now. Anytime you’ve suggested doing something else Zac has had a near meltdown. It’s better to play along with it sometimes.

Zac hits the ball towards you, trying to get it between the section of fence you pretend to defend. You leap the wrong way letting the ball hit the fence with a bang.

“And he scores!” You cheer.

Zac screams, hands in the air he does a little running celebration, one he’s done after scoring every goal so far. It still makes you smile.

“What does that make it now, Zac?”

“One million!”

You laugh, fetching the ball and lightly kicking it in his direction.

“Come on then, let’s make it one million and one.”

Zac continues to giggle and run around the garden a little before running at the ball. You can see it’s a bad idea before he even kicks it but are too late to say anything. Zac’s foot hits the ball and it goes shooting towards you. You duck, cover your face with your hands on instinct. But the ball goes over you and the fence.

There’s a beat of silence before Zac realises what he’s done.

“Oh dear,” you say gently, already trying to do damage control.

Zac looks from the top of the fence to your face, his eyes wide with shock.

“It’s ok, we have another ball,” you say.

“But I want my ball,” his eyes are welling up, his bottom lip pouting out.

You try not to sigh and make the situation worse. Instead you go over to the house and pick up one of the other balls. It looks exactly the same, yet Zac doesn’t look impressed.

“This is your ball, Zac,” you try to fill your voice with excitement rather than annoyance. “This one is just as fun. Look.”

You bounce it on the floor before softly kicking towards him. Even you’d admit you don’t do a very convincing job at showing how great the ball is and judging by Zac’s tearful frown, he hasn’t been sold on your pitch either.

“Ok,” you sigh, Zac still looking tearful. “We can go knock next door and ask for it back, but he may not be in and then we’re not allowed to just go around and get it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s not our house, is it?”

“But it’s my ball.”

“Yes, but we still have to ask nicely for it back, don’t we?” You don’t wait for a response to that rhetorical question, just continue to plough on. “Come on then.”

You hold your hand out and are rewarded with a smaller one placed in it. You head to your side gate, trying and failing to think about what you’re about to do and who you’re about to meet. He’s just a man. Really nothing to stress about. But having Rosie’s words in your head makes it feel like meeting him is something it’s not.

“You have to ask him Zac. So, what do you say?”

There’s a second’s pause filled with the grinding of your gate on the pavement. You look down at Zac when you’re out front and can see his brain working a mile a minute trying to work out the answer to your question.

“You say: I accidentally kicked my ball into your garden. Please can I have it back?”

“I accidentally kick my ball. Please can I have it?” He messes up the pronunciation of accidentally, it’s cute.

“Kicked it into your garden,” you correct as you approach your neighbour’s door.

“I kicked my ball in your garden. Can I have it?”

“Please,” you remind him gently before looking down at him.

He whispers the word back at you, now stood in front of the man’s door he looks a little less sure about the situation. Still, however much you’re also dreading this you’re going to do. it You need to have the confidence for both of you.

You take a breath before looking up and pressing the doorbell. There’s silence as you wait, neither you nor Zac saying anything.

Then the door’s clicking and being pulled open and then there he is. On a slight step above you, you have to look up a little to take in the wide smile he’s showing you. He’s got on a large white t-shirt, baggy black trousers and yet, even though he’s completely covered compared to when you saw him mowing his lawn and the top is not giving you even a hint of what lies beneath, you still feel flustered by his presence.

“Hello,” he says, eyes flicking between you and Zac, smile on his lips but a question in his eyes.

“Hi,” you squeak back, voice too high. “I’m Y/N and this is Zac. We’re your neighbours and uh, Zac here wants to ask you something.”

Both your eyes go down to your little boy who’s now clinging to your leg. He looks up at you unsure, his eyes quickly going to the man and then back to you. Your heart melts.

“Come on Zac,” you say in a far softer tone, your hand going to brush the back of his head. “Can you remember what we said?”

He mutters something that you can’t make out, his lips hardly moving, his eyes on the ground. Still, you look at the man to see his reaction. You’re surprised when you find him leaning in and down towards your son as if to better pick up on what he’s saying. Your heart does something funny and you have to mentally slap yourself to refocus.

“You’ve got to speak a little louder baby.”

Zac addresses you when he says, “Please can I have my ball?”

Well, at least it was louder and he used the word please. But it’s no surprise when you look at the man and he’s looking at you nonplus.

“Zac accidentally kicked his ball into your garden. We were wondering if we could go get it back?”

“Please,” Zac pipes in and while you flush the man seems to light up from within, a mixture of amusement and utter joy at your son embarrassing you.

“Yes, that’s right Zac,” you manage to keep your voice steady. “Please can we have our ball back?”

“Of course,” the man replies, looking between you both. “Why don’t I open up the side gate and you can go find it Zac?”

You look at Zac and he looks back at you unsure what to reply. You give a little nod of your head for encouragement and are rewarded with him looking back at the man and repeating your gesture.

“Give me a sec then,” the man says, standing back straight. “I need to do the bolt from the other side. Why don’t you go wait for me over there?”

You both look to where he points, the gate in question. Zac, now less nervous around the man starts without you. Glancing back at the man to be met with another smile, you swallow before following Zac.

It only takes a second for the gate to grind open. The ally is much like yours, concrete slabs leading down the side of his house to the green of his garden. The man stood in your way bends to look at Zac.

“Why don’t you go run in and have a look? See if you can find your ball in all my long grass?”

This time he needs no encouragement from you. It seems the man has gained his trust in the few minutes you’ve been in his presence. You feel him slip away from you and then watch as he runs down the ally into the garden, leaving you and the man alone. You scramble for words to fill the silence to make it less awkward, hope it doesn’t take Zac long to come back to you.

“Sorry about this,” your eyes flick to the mans which are already on you. “I promise there’s not normally balls flying over the fence.”

“Doesn’t matter if they do,” he replies with a small smile.

Ok. That’s that topic exhausted then with no sign of Zac coming back.

“You enjoying the new house?”

He flicks his head to the side to look at the house in question as if to remember before looking back at you. “Yeah, it’s a great neighbourhood. House needs a lot of work, but I’ll get there.”

“Ah, yeah. I can’t imagine Lindsey and Ron having the same interior style as you.”

“You could say it’s a bit dated for me.”

You giggle, actually laugh at the words as if they’re some amazing joke. It’s more trying to picture this man, this big, buff, man with such a pretty smile living in a house that was previously occupied by two seventy years olds that you don’t think decorated since they moved in forty years ago.

You cut the laugh off short when you realise how odd you must look. The man’s smiling back at you, a different smile to any you’ve seen so far, one you’re sure is him questioning your sanity and who he’s living next to. You cough, shift your weight from foot to foot as you peak over his shoulder praying for Zac to hurry up.

“Well, you’ve certainly managed to tame the front garden.”

“Just the floral carpets to go then,” he smiles at you, his eyes glinting with what looks like a thousand lights.

“Well, if you need a hand with anything, I’m happy to help,” you regret the words as soon as they leave your lips. You really don’t need to get tied up with your neighbour. “Though I have no DIY knowledge, so would probably be no help.”

He doesn’t look put off by your obvious U-turn. “I’ll keep you in mind.”

And you’re screwed. Honestly, is that all it takes? A good-looking guy, some smiles at you and your son and a bit of kindness? Rosie is right, it’s been way too long if a simple smile turns you on.

“Mummy.”

And just like that it’s broken. You bite back the warning of being careful running down the cement paved ally with the ball in his hands. Instead, just smile at your beaming son.

“You found it. Good job. Now come on, I’m sure,” your words slope off, only just realising you have no idea what your neighbours name is.

You look up at him and he fills in your silence with his name, “Jungkook.”

“Right. I’m sure Jungkook has things to do,” you say to Zac. “What do we say now?”

Zac goes a little timid again, squeezing the ball to his chest. “Thank you,” he mumbles before twisting and running back to your house.

“Sorry,” you wince, turning back to Jungkook. “And thank you.”

“It was nothing.”

“Well, thanks anyway,” you grow awkward and decide now is the time to follow your sons lead. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“I’m sure you will,” he smiles back at you.

Twisting you start walking back to your house, already trying to forget everything that just happened. When you’re safe in the walls of your house you pull your phone out and type out a message to Rosie.

This is why I didn’t want to meet my neighbour.

As usual, it only takes a few seconds for her response to come – you swear she’s attached to her phone.

Tell. Me. Everything.

There’s a knock on your door. You leave Zac colouring on the kitchen table so you can go answer it. You feel relaxed until you see who’s there. Your whole body going taunt at the sight of Jungkook at your door. Mind flicking through the possible reasons for him to be here.

“Hey, I was wondering if you wanted me to mow your lawns?”

It takes you aback, you’re pretty sure you might even recoil a little from the seemingly simple question. It might take a second but you end up smiling, have to bite your lip to hide how amused you are. It’s half due to how nervous he looks on your doorstep, but more because of Rosie and your conversation from when you first saw him. He must take your beat of silence the wrong way if his increased twitchiness is anything to go by.

“I was just doing mine and thought yours needed doing,” he almost cuts himself off in his haste to clarify. “Not that it looks bad or anything. Just that it could do with a cut. Or more that it saves you the job. And as I was already out doing mine, I thought it would –”

You properly laugh now. Loud enough to cut Jungkook’s ramblings off. He looks like he’s about to throw the towel in and head home but you stop him with a wave of your hand.

“Sorry,” you continue to laugh. “It’s just … of course you can mow my lawn.”

There’s a beat and then Jungkook’s face is turning more serious, a hint of amusement in his eyes as his head cocks to the side. Oh, god. Maybe that sounded like too much of an innuendo. You stand up straight, the laughter dying on your lips.

“I just mean I won’t be offended.”

“Ok,” he says, positions swapped, him amused and you awkward. “Need anything else doing while I’m here?”

“Uh,” you look behind you into the house as if to check before looking back at him. His smile seems to have grown in those few seconds. “Nope. I think we’re all good.”

“Just the lawns then,” he grins, seeming to relax into his position in your door.

“Just the lawns,” you squeak. “Please.”

He nods but still lingers. How does someone go from a rambling nervous mess to this? Though you’ve passed each other coming and going, this is the first time the two of you have properly spoken since Zac kicked his ball over the fence. You wouldn’t have predicted it would go like this.

“Want me to do the back too?”

You almost choke. “If it’s no trouble?”

He shrugs. “As I’m here.”

“Ok,” you look behind you again, for an escape, for a reason to look away from those shining eyes and cocky smile. You’re pretty sure he’s one of these guys that realises the effect he has on people and enjoys it. “Want me to bring you out a coffee or something?”

“I’m good. I’ll just get on with it.”

“Ok, well, thank you.”

“No problem, Y/N.”

You close the door and resist the urge to collapse on the floor.

“If you kick it too hard, you’re going to have to get it,” you warn as you do another light kick of the ball in Zac’s direction.

As if in spite of your words or maybe because it’s no fun not kicking the ball hard, Zac launches the ball in your direction. Still, you laugh as you manage to leap to the side and stop the ball before it goes off down the hill behind you.

“Maybe we should go and play in the back garden?”

“No,” Zac half screams the word. “There’s horrible fences there.”

He’s referencing the time he kicked the ball over the fence and then had to go collect it. Apparently it was such a jarring experience that he doesn’t like playing there anymore, though you would have thought being able to go in the neighbours garden would be exciting for him.

“Ok, then we have to kick a little softer.”

He follows your request a few times before once again deciding playing by your rules is boring. You let it go for a bit, giggling along with Zac as you leap and try and save each of his kicks. You do a few of your own rouge kicks just so he has to run a little and it gives you a minutes piece. Award for mum of the year over here.

You’re shouting something about how great one of Zac’s kicks is when you hear a door slam. You don’t think too much of it until you hear a voice shouting out.

“Already training for the Premier League?”

You look over to the voice and are met with a beaming Jungkook slowly walking towards you, baggy trousers and just as baggy a top blowing in the breeze. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him not smiling.

“I think we still have a way to go if that’s the aim,” you joke back, looking back at Zac just in time to see him kick a ball that goes miles to your right. Luckily, it’s not a missile like some of his others, but it still feels embarrassing having to jog after the ball with Jungkook now as an audience.

By the time you have the ball back in possession and are back to where you were once stood Jungkook is only meters away. Still smiling and you catch the end of him telling Zac what a great kick he just did. He goes shy, something you always find funny as he’s always a screaming ball of energy around you and other’s he knows, you love seeing this other side of him. Still, it means you need to hold the confidence for both of you.

“Is there room for one more?”

The question takes you off guard, even though he’s made the effort to walk the short distance to be stood here.

“Uh, sure,” you say then look at Zac. “That’s ok, isn’t it Zac?”

Zac doesn’t look sure but luckily he’s currently too shy to dispute you. You also don’t give him much time to disagree with you, lightly kick the ball in Zac’s direction before he can think.

He’s gentler when he kicks it back to you, his aim surprisingly good for once. You feel a small amount of pressure when you kick the ball to Jungkook, trying to include him. It feels like when you were once in school and were laughed at for throwing the rounders ball miles off the mark. It doesn’t go badly, though Jungkook has to step a little to his left to pick it up under his feet, he expertly flicks it between his feet and then knocks it on to Zac.

Zac looks mesmerised by the simple move that you’d never be able to replicate. You can see his nerves slowly cracking with a small smile going to his lips. He still kicks the ball to you, but as the game goes on and as you and Jungkook try to change the direction a few times, Zac finally completely lets loose.

He’s giggling and doing big kicks again. He’s laughing at Jungkook doing more little tricks with the ball before he kicks it on. And he even starts to shout little bits, imitating the words the Jungkook cries out, what a save, that was close, such a good touch.

Soon enough you’re out, you’ve lost your son to your neighbour and a football. Neither of them are kicking the ball anymore, their running at each other trying to do tackles. At least Jungkook seems to realise he’s playing a four-year-old and not someone his age, his tackles are light and he always kicks the ball a little too far and is a little too slow to pick it back up letting Zac get it.

“I’ll go get us some drinks,” you say to seemingly no one. But you don’t really care because your son looks so happy.

His laughs fill up the street as you make your way back to the house and when you look back you watch as Jungkook tackles him and lifts him up into the air, easily tossing him around in the sky making Zac laugh even harder.

You may take a little longer than necessary to make the drinks.

You’re out-front playing with Zac again. Well, less playing and more sat on the curb watching Zac play. You’ve had a day at work, still need to cook yours and Zac’s dinner but you promised you’d come out and do something first. Given Zac is a ball of energy it’s better to let him get all of that out now, so he’ll go to sleep earlier. That’s always the aim anyway, sometimes it’s just not the reality.

The back garden apparently isn’t good enough for him now. After playing out front and Jungkook joining him on more than one occasion you think he secretly hopes that’s going to happen every time. He doesn’t outright ask for it, but you know your son and you can see the utter joy whenever he gets to play with your neighbour.

You watch Zac run around with one of his teddy’s, rambling on about how the dinosaur is going to get them so they have to go to the volcano.

Even if you’re not necessarily playing with Zac, you love this time spent with him. It’s always just been the two of you and though that’s been hard at times, there’s never been a moment you’ve truly regretted it. You thought you loved his dad, but that was nothing compared to what you feel for Zac.

The sound of a car pulls your attention from Zac. It’s rounding the corner onto your road, still far enough and going slow enough to not panic you, but you know Zac will be oblivious.

“Zac,” you shout, standing up. “Zac. There’s a car coming, you have to wait on that side of the road for it to pass.”

Zac looks over at you, wide-eyed as he takes in the information. You can’t deny that your heart swells a little at the fact he so obediently runs to the side of the road, even picks the side that’s closest which is opposite you.

You smile at him as the car gets closer but it stops before reaching you. You can see the confusion on Zac’s face about what he should do. The car’s stopped but it’s still so close, is he allowed to continue to play?

“It’s ok Zac,” you say just as the door to the car opens.

Zac runs along the pavement for a second, obviously still not entirely sure, but when the car door opens, he must deem that good enough to know the car’s not going to move again and runs out into the road.

You watch him for a second before glancing at who got out the car. You smile at the woman you’ve never seen before. Dressed in a nice skirt and top, you shouldn’t be surprised when she makes her way to your neighbour’s house. You look away as she goes up his drive and rings the bell; it’s none of your business who Jungkook chooses to spend his time with.

Zac obviously doesn’t feel the same.

“Jungkook,” your son shouts out the name, the k sound more like a g and the last one isn’t pronounced so it sounds more like Jun-goo then anything.

Still your neighbour looks over at the shout. His guest too. Now stood on the doorway, in the middle of greeting each other. Jungkook instantly smiles while it takes the woman a second longer. You just feel mortified.

“Zac, darling, I think he has a guest.”

“But I want to play.”

You glance over at your neighbour’s front door; both are still looking at you and though you’re sure they can hear your conversation they seem to be having their own more silent conversation. You feel hot when you look back at Zac. Though you shouldn’t feel embarrassed, you somehow do.

“He can’t play right now because –”

You’re cut off by a scream that sounds like the name Jungkook as Zac goes running in his direction. Truly mortified now you turn to jog after him, calling his name as you go. You manage to catch up to him as he reaches Jungkook’s lawn, place a hand on his shoulder to try and settle him.

“Zac,” you say firmly but as quietly as you can. Jungkook and the woman can definitely here you, you’re only a few meters away, but you’d rather they didn’t. “You don’t run away from me like that and you don’t cut me off when I’m telling you something.”

He looks wide-eyed up at you, lip pouted as if there are about to be water works soon. He’s at the age where everything he asks, he assumes he can get. No isn’t a word unless he’s saying it. And when you tell him anything other than yes, he gets stroppy. It’s a cute age, but it’s tough.

“I just want to play,” Zac mumbles.

You hold your hands out in a silent question that he accepts. Leaning down you pick him up under the arms. It’s more like lifting some weights at the gym then the baby you once had but settled onto your hip and arms cuddling your side make it all worth it. You’re about to speak words of comfort to him before apologising to Jungkook and his guest but a different voice changes that.

“It’s ok,” you look up to see Jungkook stepping towards you, the girl in his entry way looking at you over his shoulder. “I’d love to play with you too, Zac, but I can’t right now. Can I maybe play with you a different night?”

You feel Zac’s head nod against your chest where it’s lay. You run a soothing hand down his arm while you shoot Jungkook an apologetic look.

“You really don’t have to do –”

“No, I mean it. I love playing with Zac.”

You doubt the twenty something year old really enjoys playing with your four-year-old son. Especially as it has just become apparent he has a girlfriend. But the way he says it and the way he smiles; you can almost believe it.

“Well, we need to get in and cook dinner anyway don’t we, Zac.”

There’s another small nod against you and you look between Jungkook and the girl again. You feel so incredibly awkward, though Jungkook looks a little worried if anything.

“Sorry, for ruining the start of your evening,” you say to them both, twisting and carrying Zac back to your house before you can gain a reply. You’ll distract Zac with food. Your own embarrassment might be harder to hide.

“Hey, let me help you with that.”

The weights that were your shopping bags are lifted out of your hands before you can protest. Soft, warm fingers run along yours to grasp the handles and then they’re gone. You turn to look at the man responsible.

“Jungkook, you really don’t have to,” but it’s like you’re talking to a wall, or more a back, as Jungkook has already turned and is heading to your front door.

“You get the others and it’ll be done in half the time,” he says over his shoulder.

You huff, still not exactly happy with the assumption you needed help, but you don’t audibly protest as you pick up the last remaining bag and follow Jungkook.

“You really don’t have to –”

“Just unlock the door,” Jungkook cuts you off, giving you a small smile and adding. “These bags are starting to get heavy.”

You roll your eyes as you do as asked, placing your bag on the floor before unlocking your front door and letting Jungkook in. He waits for you to come in before he follows you to the kitchen.

“You can just place them here,” you say before turning to look at him.

He’s all smiles again and you’re not sure why you’re so irked by the whole thing. You should be thanking him, but it’s more about what he’s slowly started to make you realise. Zac doesn’t have a man in his life and Jungkook creeping in even in these small ways has made you see how much that might be affecting him. Jungkook hasn’t done much, he’s played football out front with your son, he’s smiled and told him jokes in passing, he’s asked him a few simple questions about his life. And yet your son has lit up with every interaction.

It's ever since the incident the other day when Zac went running to him that got you thinking. You thought you were embarrassed because it looked like you couldn’t control your child, but since you’ve realised that it’s more because you’d started to get used to Jungkook in the same small ways as Zac and seeing him with a woman, presumably his girlfriend, made you realise that Jungkook probably doesn’t feel the same way. You’re just his neighbour and Zac’s just a cute kid. It’s not like you’re dating, or he owes you anything, but having had no help outside your family and Rosie since Zac was born has made even the small gestures massive.

You thought you were enough for Zac. You knew that you were possibly stopping him from experiencing something by staying single or not letting any of the men you’d dated briefly into Zac’s life, but you didn’t think it would matter. And yet so little from Jungkook has shown you how much it can mean.

You don’t mean to be rude or short with him, but these simple acts of kindness are starting to feel like an agenda. Like he’s out to prove that you’re not everything Zac needs.

You can make your son happy on your own. You can play ball with him and have fun and ask him questions about what he likes. You can carry bags into your house on your own; you’ve cooked and cleaned and worked and kept yours and Zac’s lives together longer than Jungkook’s been around. And yet Zac has never run to you the way he ran to Jungkook the other day.

“Zac not here today?”

“His Nan is looking after him.”

You can sense him looking down at you as you start to unpack your shopping. “That must be nice for them both.”

“Yep,” you say popping the p. “Certainly is.”

The silence elongates, tension rising in the gap. You can sense Jungkook watching you even though you don’t look at him as you start to unpack your food. You hear his feet shuffle on the lino floor and can see him leaning against the door frame out of the corner of your eye.

You should break it, should say something and stop being so childish, but you find you can’t, the longer it goes on the more it builds in your head. It’s as if every male that’s been in your life who hasn’t been interested in meeting Zac, everyone that you didn’t feel comfortable meeting Zac, every insecurity you had about stopping Zac from having the chance of a male figure in his life, has built up into Jungkook.

Still, you don’t ask him to leave, don’t say anything, just silently unpack as Jungkook watches you.

“Is everything alright?” It’s Jungkook that finally speaks.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“You just seem a little upset is all.”

“I’m fine.”

“Ok. Let me clarify, you seem a little upset with me,” he pauses, when you don’t reply he carries on. “Have I done something to annoy you?”

“Nothing,” you say finally looking at him.

“Just tell me Y/N,” he looks a little pissed himself now and you realise how unfair you’re being. You can think all these things and build it up in your head and realise how stupid you’re being, but to take it out on Jungkook and then not explain why; that’s not fair.

“I just don’t appreciate you coming in and treating me like I can’t lift some shopping bags on my own is all.”

“I never said you couldn’t do it alone. I offered you help.”

“Yeah, ok, it’s fine. I’m overreacting,” you say in a tone to imply the opposite.

“No, come on. That’s not everything, what is it?”

You pause, wondering how much to tell him. “I’ve been looking after myself and Zac far longer than I’ve known you.”

“I know that.”

“So you can stop coming into our lives and being Mr Perfect,” you wave your hands at his whole person at the words.

He laughs, shaking his head. “Mr Perfect?”

“Carrying my shopping in and playing with Zac and acting like you have your whole life together and we don’t.”

“I really don’t know how you got that impression. My life isn’t together. And I enjoy playing with Zac and being around you, but if you’re uncomfortable with that then I can stop.”

You sigh, mentally slap yourself as you twist and pull a chair out. Plonking yourself down you run a hand down your face. When you make eye contact with Jungkook again his face still holds annoyance, but he looks a little softer now.

“Sorry,” you start, body slumping with the all the fight leaving you. “I’m being ridiculous. You don’t make me uncomfortable playing with Zac, I guess I just realised how much he’s grown to like you and yet I hardly know you.” You pause then add with a small smile. “Though you really do look like you have your whole life together.”

Your comment seems to be enough to break the tension. Jungkook chuckles again, this time looking more genuine. He takes the couple of steps to close the distance between you and pulls a chair out so he can sit.

“Well, the first thing I can tell you is I really do not have my life together,” he doesn’t speak as loudly now you’re sat with no background clattering and the wide smile he shoots you has you looking down at your lap to hide your smile. “And you know, maybe we should get to know each other better. We’re neighbours for one, but I honestly do love Zac and if it would make you feel more comfortable then I can do a whole DBS check.”

You look at him, smile wider on your face. He seems to relax at the look, less tense now you’re no longer being annoyed with him.

“You don’t have to do a DBS check,” you assure him. “I guess it’s just been a really long day and my insecurities got the better of me. Sorry.”

“Really?”

“What? Been a long day or are you struggling to believe I have insecurities?”

His eyebrow lifts and you swear his cheeks tint pink. “Well, both I guess.”

“I arrived at work to a snotty email from someone telling me how to do my job and then I didn’t have time to buy lunch so had to have one of the crappy cafeteria sandwiches. To top it all off I had to go food shopping, arguably one of the worst chores.”

Jungkook smiles, nods and waits. You’d kind of hoped you’d be able to sweep the whole insecurities bit under the rug. Guess Jungkook is taking the whole getting to know each other seriously.

“As for insecurities,” you begin, words elongated as you grow more awkward. “I mean doesn’t everyone have them? But, uh, yeah. I mean Zac’s dad has never been in his life and I’ve never properly dated anyone since having him, or at least never thought anyone was good enough to introduce him to. And I’ve always wondered if I’m somehow stopping him from having a second parent.”

Jungkook cocks his head to the side. A small movement as if he’s deep in thought at your comment. Before he can say anything though you let out a small laugh and try to move on.

“Anyway, at least I have lots of food in the house now.”

“Zac’s not missing out on anything.”

The smile dies on your lips. The words are so deadly seriously. Like he means every word. You feel yourself heating even though he’s probably just saying it because he thinks it’s what you want to hear.

“You’re an amazing mum, Y/N. Zac isn’t missing out on anything by just having one parent.”

“Thanks,” you continue to flush. “You really don’t have to say that, but thanks anyway.”

“I don’t have to say it. But I mean it.”

“Well, ok, thanks. Moving on,” you say. “Can I get you something to drink to fully apologise?”

“I wouldn’t say no to a tea.”

You nod, getting up to turn the kettle on. You’ve got an hour of your mum looking after Zac before you’ve got to pick him up. Time you were hoping to spend on tasks you actually need to get done around the house. You can’t retract your offer though and as you settle into easy conversation you find you don’t want to.

An hour passes easily with your neighbour. Laughing and drinking your teas you find you have more in common than you’d have guessed. He’s a similar age to you, took the house on next door because it was within budget, big and something he could easily do up. You normally find that people around your age feel so different in age, are at different stage in their lives as you have so much responsibility in looking after Zac and they’ve just got themselves. But Jungkook feels different. It’s still just him and you can tell by some of the things he says that he’s considering things in his life you couldn’t, but he’s bought a house, has committed to doing it up, has a steady job he wants to progress in. He’s settled. It’s small things but you find your respect towards him grows as well as the amount you like him.

An hour later, you leave him with a wave as you head to your car and he takes the short walk back to his house.

“Oh, who’s that?”

You fight the urge to look as soon as the words leave Rosie’s mouth. You still don’t want to appear too keen around her. Though you and Jungkook have grown closer, there’s still nothing between you and you still don’t want her getting the wrong impression.

“Who’s who?” You ask, playing oblivious.

She waves you over, doesn’t even turn to look at you. She’s in much the same position as when you first spied Jungkook. Body leaning over the back of the sofa, face almost pressed against the glass of your front window. If anyone were to look at your house, her face would be front and centre and while you imagine you’d die at being caught watching your neighbours so plainly, you imagine Rosie wouldn’t care, she’d probably wave at them.

“Just come look. Some girl is going to Jungkook’s.”

“Oh right, that’s probably his girlfriend,” you say flatly, unbothered, though you still make your way over to where she’s sat to take a look yourself.

“He has a girlfriend?”

The question goes straight through you as you watch the girl in question walking up his drive. Ok, maybe it’s not his girlfriend because this girl has different coloured hair, her skin is slightly darker, she’s shorter, just as beautiful as the other girl you saw, but she is not the same person.

“Of course he has the hottest girlfriend.”

The words pang even though you shouldn’t care, you shouldn’t even be looking out the window at her, yet you find yourself leaning forward to get a better angle to try and see Jungkook’s front door. Is he there? How’s he going to greet her?

“That’s not his girlfriend,” you reply.

“What? He’s cheating on her?” Rosie’s interest peaks, if possible.

“No. I mean, I don’t know,” you try to explain, Rosie looking at you with a frown. “I don’t know if he has a girlfriend. Someone came to his house the other week and I just assumed, but that’s not her.”

Rosie hums, focus going back outside. “Well, that makes sense.”

“It does?”

“A man that hot does not just settle down. He’s a player.”

“Right,” you say flatly, trying to keep the disappointment out of your voice.

“And I mean, with a body like that, why wouldn’t he?”

“Careful not to get your drool on my window,” you say as you push yourself to stand, no longer interested in watching whatever’s happening out front.

You go back to whatever you were doing before, trying to get the image of the girl out of your mind. You shouldn’t care. But it only seems to add to everything in your mind, becomes another reason in your mind to not get too close to the man.

“Who the hell talked me into this?” You mutter to yourself as you apply the last bit of lip gloss.

Stepping back, looking at yourself in the mirror, you have to admit you scrub up nice. When you make a bit of an effort you don’t look half bad.

You’ve not been on a proper date in a couple of months. Life has been busy and it’s not been top of your list of things to do, but when someone at work said they knew someone they thought you’d get on with you reluctantly said you’d meet them. Maybe not reluctant, you’re excited to date, to have a night out with someone that isn’t Rosie, to enjoy yourself. There’s just still niggles in your mind about the whole thing.

You’ve still got half an hour before you need to leave. Your taxi booked, completely dressed and ready to go, Zac in bed, all you need now is Rosie to turn up to baby sit for a few hours.

You’ve only managed to take a single breath to try and calm yourself and have a couple of sips of the glass of wine you decided to pour yourself when your phone rings. Rosie’s name pops up on your screen and you smile as you answer it.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to be late.”

“Uh, worse, possibly.”

You sit up straight, move your glass of wine so you don’t accidentally knock it. “What do you mean possibly?”

“Ok, definitely,” Rosie sounds nervous, and you’re not surprised given the desire to kill her right about now. “But, honestly, it’s unavoidable. My car’s died and I thought I could get a taxi but the quote I got was for £50 one way and I’m not saying you’re not worth it, but, on top of it all my mum called and she’s not feeling great and I just thought I’d see if you really need me or if someone else could possibly step in, just for tonight?”

You resist the urge to wipe a hand down your face or pull at your hair; you’d just spent ages so you could look like this. But it sounds like it doesn’t even matter, the date obviously wasn’t supposed to happen. You check the clock, it’s still twenty minutes until your taxi should arrive, still forty minutes until your date.

“I’ll cancel, it’s fine, go be with your mum.”

“What? No, don’t cancel.”

“What am I supposed to do instead?”

“Can’t your mum look after Zac instead?”

“She has book club tonight.”

“Your brother?” She says, her tone already implying she doesn’t hold much hope there.

“Away on business.”

“What about someone from work?”

“Rosie. Honestly, it’s fine.”

“Jungkook,” the name throws you so off you don’t respond immediately. “What about Jungkook?”

“I can’t ask my neighbour to look after my son.”

“Why? They seem to get on great and Zac will be asleep the whole time anyway.”

“He’s probably busy.”

“But you don’t know. You should go ask before you rule him out.”

You chew at the inside of your cheek, torn. You really don’t want to ask Jungkook, but Rosie makes a good point. She seems to cotton onto the weakness and pushes.

“Please, Y/N. I feel so guilty that you might have to cancel this date because of me. I’d ask Jungkook myself, but I don’t have his number. I could find him on Facebook though, just have to hope he sees the message in time but I’m –”

“Ok,” you blurt to stop her.

“Ok? You want me to message him?”

“No,” you sigh, not believing what you’re about to say. “I’ll go round and see if he’s free.”

You can almost see the beaming smile that Rosie is surely sporting. She doesn’t let you hang around on the phone for much longer now you’ve made the decision she wanted. A quick comment to let her know how it goes and a goodbye and she’s gone.

Your eyes flick to the clock as if it’s going to hold some sort of information that’ll help you out. It doesn’t. Just tells you what you already know; you have less than fifteen minutes till your taxi arrives.

Nerves at an all time high you decide the whole thing will only take five minutes either way so Zac is ok in bed. Leaving the door open, you make the short trip from your house to Jungkook’s.

Are you really doing this?

You can hear the noise of the doorbell going around the house. It seems you are doing it.

Sweat builds on your palms. Heat seems to leave your body while gathering in your face. Your throat feels so tight that you wonder if you’ll be able to get any words out if Jungkook answers. Seconds feel like minutes and then when you hear his footsteps approaching they seem to thunder.

The door swings open. You watch in silence as his face goes from curious, to eyes wide in recognition, to a steady sweep of your body. His eyes are still wide when they meet yours but there’s something else in them now as well as a slight flush to his cheeks.

You’re too nervous to take much notice.

“Hey,” you start, but begin talking too fast for Jungkook to say anything. “So, I know this is asking a lot and I want to say straight away that if you’re busy, or if you just don’t want to then please don’t feel like you have to say yes. But I have a date tonight, hence the outfit, and my childcare has cancelled on me and I was wondering, if you’re free, if you could maybe look after Zac? All you’d have to do it is just sit downstairs and listen out for if he wakes up. Again, it’s fine if you don’t want to.”

His cheeks are still pink but there’s a smile on his face now. You honestly have no idea what he’s going to say.

“Y/N, I honestly don’t mind looking after Zac while you go on your date.”

The shock, the relief, the surprise; whatever he see’s pass your face makes a low chuckle leave his lips.

“Do I need to bring anything with me?”

“Uh, no. Not unless there’s something you need?”

His smile is gentle and kind as he looks at you. “Let me just grab my keys so I can lock up.”

You wait the few seconds it takes for him to grab his keys and then watch as he locks his door. You still feel weird as you wait for him, still nervous just in a different way now.

It’s silent as you walk side by side back to your house. You feel unable to look at Jungkook, though you can feel him glancing at you.

“You look nice by the way.”

“Oh, thanks,” your nerves seem to give Jungkook confidence.

“Where’s your date?”

“Just at The Botanist.”

“That’ll be nice. Is it a first date or ..?”

“Yep, first date,” you say as you enter your house. “So, there’s drinks in the fridge and help yourself to any food you find.”

“You might regret saying that,” Jungkook jokes but you’re struggling to find much funny with your emotions all over the place at the moment.

“And I’ll give you my number if anything goes wrong. Like I said he shouldn’t wake up but if he does you can give him some hot milk or read him a book.”

“We’ll be fine, Y/N,” Jungkook’s voice is calm as he leans against the wall and watches you shuffle around the room. “If Zac wakes up, I’m sure I’ll cope. I’m sure I’ll be able to find anything I need and work the TV. My house is literally meters away and like you said I can just call you if I need.”

You still feel almost shaky. You trust Jungkook but it’s one thing to leave him playing with your son for ten minutes out front and wholly different to leave him home alone for a few hours. Still, you trust him and know he’ll be fine.

“Just go and enjoy your date,” Jungkook continues. “Are you nervous?”

“I – yeah,” you admit. “It’s my first date in a while.”

“Well, you really do look great. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks, Jungkook,” you say softly, meaning it for so many different reasons.

“It’s fine. Now, go on, get out of here.”

You do one last sweep of the room, slip your shoes on at the door and the linger for a second. Jungkook’s already made himself at home on the sofa, smile still on his face as he watches you. Your hand pauses on the door. It still feels weird to be leaving. But you give Jungkook a nod and head out the door.

Your key slips on the lock. You sway gently side to side. Closing your eyes, you take a long, slow breath. When you open your eyes, the world is still spinning.

You try the key again. Fingers fumble, it takes a second, but you manage to get the key where you need it. You turn the key, but it doesn’t go as far as you expect. Your hand goes to the handle, you pull down and tumble forward into your house.

Giggling you pull your key out of the door. Why did you think the door was locked? Of course it wasn’t locked.

You bite your lip as you right yourself and try not to slam the door closed. You need to be quiet, Zac’s asleep upstairs and you’d hate to be the reason for waking him up.

You make the mistake of trying to balance on one foot as you take your shoe off. It doesn’t last much longer than a second, you sway so hard that you have to throw your arm out to grab the wall so you don’t wipe out on the floor. You keep hold of the wall as you safely remove your shoes this time.

Shoving your bag on the table by your door you close your eyes for a second, take another breath and then will yourself to go get a glass of water before bed.

It takes you far longer than it should to realise you’re being watched. Are stumbling through your living room to your kitchen when you spot him and you jump in the air.

“Fuck,” you curse, clutching a hand to your heart. “Jungkook. What the hell?”

“Have you had a nice night?”

You huff, a noise that sounds half like a no and half like a yes. “It was ok.”

Jungkook laughs and moves on the sofa so he’s sat up straighter. “That sounds like a rave review.”

You close your eyes and throw your head back. Water forgotten you move towards Jungkook instead, plopping down on the sofa next to him. Your eyes feel heavy but you feel awake enough to talk to Jungkook for a while.

“It was good.”

“But?” Jungkook turns towards you as you lean your head back on the cushions.

“Just that it was just good.”

Jungkook hums and you turn your head on your neck to look at him. He’s closer than you thought but it doesn’t make you pull away from him, however much that wide smile makes your heart stutter.

“You must know what I mean.”

His head cocks to the side. “And why would that be?”

“Because you’re always going off on dates,” the alcohol is loosening your lips, you’d never say anything of this if you hadn’t drunk.

“How much have you had to drink?” He laughs.

“I don’t know,” you shrug. “It was two for one.”

“So that’s what made it a good night?”

You giggle, the noise escaping you with little to no warning. “No, the guy was nice too.”

“Was that opinion formed before or after the alcohol was consumed?”

This time you reach round and slap his arm as you laugh. It pushes you closer to him, the knee you have folded on the sofa pushing into his leg. Your hand lingers on his arm and he doesn’t push you away. You feel the heat coming off him and realise what you’re doing. You pull away and the heat transfers from your hand to your face.

“God, sorry, maybe I’m more drunk than I thought.”

You pull away, twist so you’re facing forward again. Now you think about it your head is really spinning. Looking after Zac tomorrow is going to be fun.

“Want me to get you some water?” Jungkook’s asking the question even as he stands to do just that.

You watch him walk away from you and disappear into the kitchen. He looks so at home.

You close your eyes again and rest your head against the back of the sofa. Water sounds good, maybe it’ll clear your head a little, because now you think about it, being drunk and loose lipped around Jungkook probably isn’t the best decision.

“Here you go.”

A pint of water is in front of you when you open your eyes. You sit up straighter, hold your hand out to take the glass and then down nearly half of it before taking sips from it instead. Jungkook is still stood in front of you, a small smile on his lips as he looks down at you.

“Better?” You nod at the question and Jungkook’s lip curls at the edge. “You ok to look after Zac like this?”

“I’m not that drunk.”

“Ok,” he says with a small laugh, as if he doesn’t quite believe you. “I’ll leave you and Zac alone then.”

He only moves a little, is only standing up straighter, but the movement coupled with the words is enough for you to panic and reach out and grab his hand. Or more grab his wrist. And because he doesn’t move you can slip your fingers lower and land on their intended target.

“Wait. Don’t go.”

His smile has slipped now, his face flat as he stares down at you. He’s not gripping your hand back. You suddenly feel a lot more sober, feel like you’ve made a mistake.

“You’ve not told me how your night was yet,” you say in a much softer tone, your hand slipping out of his.

“I haven’t heard anything from Zac. I even went to look in his room to make sure he was actually there. He’s been fast asleep while I’ve watched trash TV all night.”

You nod, feel like you’re turning into a nodding dog at this point. But you don’t know what else to say. You’ve just asked him to stay and that short, closed sentence is clearly him telling you he’s heading home.

“Well, thanks so much for looking after him.”

“It was no trouble.”

You look up at him, wait for him to move, to leave you sat here alone. But he still doesn’t. It gives you enough confidence to keep talking, or maybe the silence is just eating too much into you that you feel a need to fill it.

“Do you want me to pay you?”

His eyebrows shoot up his head and you giggle, realising what he must be thinking and go on to clarify.

“I mean for babysitting.”

“Oh, no. I was only going to be sat next door doing the same thing anyway.”

“Right,” you swallow, mind whirling. “Well, I still feel a need to pay you back some way.”

“You really don’t need to do anything.”

“But you’ve done so much for me and Zac since moving in.”

“I’ve told you before I like playing with Zac.”

“And the mowing our grass?”

“It only makes sense when I’m already doing mine.”

“What if I want to pay you back?”

“I don’t want anything from you.”

“Nothing?”

He pauses, his eyes dark as he looks down at you. The air seems to thicken and though you don’t know how, you know you’ve got him.

His eyes follow as you push yourself to stand up. He doesn’t move to give you space as you come toe to toe with him. His eyes flick around your face as yours remain steady on his. You don’t touch him straight away, but you get close enough that all you’d need to do is lean forward and you’d be against him.

The silence feels loud now, both of you holding your ground, the anticipation rising.

“Are you sure you want this?” He swallows his eyes flicking to your lips.

Subconsciously you sweep your tongue along your bottom lip and are rewarded with Jungkook unable to take his eyes off the movement.

If you were completely sober maybe you wouldn’t be so brash. If you hadn’t just been on a rubbish date, thinking about how much better it could be if only the person sat opposite you was the man currently stood in front of you, maybe you wouldn’t be this bold. If Jungkook hadn’t been so kind, so thoughtful, so good looking, maybe you wouldn’t be doing what you’re about to do, maybe you’d be thinking twice about what a mistake it could turn out to be.

You close the gap, move slowly to let Jungkook back away if he wants. But he doesn’t. When you’re close enough, he places his hands on your hips and pulls you into him.

He tastes salty, like crisps. His lips mould to yours the way your body moulds against his. Your back arches up into him, his hand goes to the small of your back and his tongue slips into your mouth.

“Are you sure about this?” Jungkook whispers again.

You don’t have time to answer, now you’ve kissed him, you want all of him. You twist both of you so that when you push yourself into him and he has to take a step back, his knees hit the sofa. His eyes are wide, full of surprise as he lowers himself backwards. You don’t let yourself be shocked, this is so unlike you, but honestly you don’t care or overthink it.

Placing a knee either side of Jungkook you straddle him, place your lips back on his as you grind down into him. His hands fall to your hips again, squeeze the flesh there every time you drag yourself over his length. You can feel him, all of him, hard and long, pushing up against his joggers and right into you.

You need him. Now.

All rational goes out the window as you push yourself up enough to try and push his trousers down. Before you can get very far, Jungkook’s hands are encompassing your wrists, stopping you. He doesn’t seem angry when you look at him, there’s only an amused smile on his lips.

“What’s the rush?”

“I –” you pause, it’s enough time for you to come back to reality and realise how desperate you must look right now. You plop yourself backwards, sit on Jungkook’s knees as his hands slip from your wrists to encompass your hands. “I don’t know. Sorry.”

He pulls your forward enough to kiss your lips. You can feel the smile is still there.

“Let me at least go get a condom,” he mumbles.

You let out an embarrassed huff of air, your face scrunching in mortification while Jungkook just chuckles. He moves his hands to your hips, pushes you up and then gently gets you to lay on the sofa while he stands. You look up at him, embarrassed, but still don’t want him to leave.

“I’ll only be a minute,” he says before disappearing from view.

You’re left in the silence of your own embarrassment. Lay on the sofa you keep replaying the last ten minutes over in your head. Sure, it was great, kissing Jungkook has definitely exceeded expectations so far. But what must he think of you? Pouncing on him after a failed date.

You place your hands over your face and let out a small groan, missing the noise of the front door quietly closing.

“Don’t tell me you carried on without me?”

You peel your hands off your face, look up surprised to see Jungkook back. Part of you honestly thought that was an excuse to up and run. But there he is, beaming down at you, small foil packet in hand.

“You still wanna?” His voice drifts off, unsure.

You’re still in shock. But a quick glance down shows that he isn’t lying. His trousers are still straining at the groin.

You look back at his face, suddenly feeling very hot. You nod. Jungkook smiles.

“Good,” he mutters before taking his top off. “Because you still owe me.”

You watch as he takes his trousers off, leaving him only in his boxers. And then he kneels before you. Hand on either knee, he twists you so that your feet hit the floor and you’re sat in front of him. As he toys with the hem of your dress, you dutifully lift your arms to let him know he can take it off.

His eyes are near black, focused purely on your chest and the light lace that is covering you, when your dress is on the floor.

“Were you hoping to go home with him?” His voice is as dark as his voice, a husky quality to it that has you clenching around nothing.

“No,” you say honestly, the word enough to have Jungkook drag his eyes up to yours. “I wore it to feel good.”

He nods. His eyes flicking back down to admire your body. You feel good, slightly self-conscious but you must admit that it feels nice to have Jungkook look at you with that much lust on his face.

His hands reach out, lightly run down your sides at the same rate as his eyes. He toys with your lacy pants for a second, eyes flicking up to yours before he starts to pull them down. You lift yourself up a little to help him and then they’re joining your dress on the floor.

Your breaths come out faster. Your head leaning back into your sofa as Jungkook places his hands on your knees and pushes them apart.

How is this happening?

You can’t believe this is happening.

You can’t pull your eyes away from the sight of Jungkook’s head moving towards you. You swear you’ve had a wet dream about it. And now it’s happening.

His tongue is just as delicate as his fingers as he swipes it through your folds. His hands hold firm on your knees as you try to clamp them together around his head. You can feel his smile as his lips go to your clit, his tongue drawing patterns of the bundles of nerves.

When he deems it safe to, one of his hands moves from your knee and with his lips still on your clit, he begins to push into your entrance.

Your hand flies to his head, pushing him further into you while fisting the strands of hair on his head. You moan at the ceiling and push your hips further into Jungkook.

It feels amazing. He feels amazing.

When he pushes another finger into you the coil in your stomach only grows tighter. You moan out again and then realise that the two of you aren’t alone in this house.

“We’ve got to be quiet. Zac’s upstairs,” your voice is breathy, almost husky.

There’s a mumbled noise against your skin, hopefully in recognition of what you’ve said. And despite your words it’s you that’s the noisiest. You can’t help it, however hard you try Jungkook’s lips around your clit and his fingers inside you make it impossible.

You can feel his lips turn into a smile when you let out a particularly loud noise. You wouldn’t care if it wasn’t for the fact that Jungkook pulls away from you. His fingers still in you, his face looking up at you with a certain smugness.

“How we going to get you to be quiet then?”

As if to prove his point you moan out when his fingers push deeply into you. He chuckles, you frown at him. Hands reaching up, you have to push yourself off the sofa a little to wrap them around his neck to pull him up off the floor and into you.

“Like this,” you say before attaching your lips to his.

This time when you moan out it’s swallowed by Jungkook’s mouth.

He expertly works you both sideways, fingers still in you as he manoeuvres you to lay down on the sofa with him hovering over you.

His hand doesn’t become enough. There’s pleasure there still, but you want more, you want all of him. He didn’t go all the way back to his for a condom for nothing.

Placing a hand on his shoulder you get him to pull away from you. “Where’s the condom?”

It takes a second for him to understand, but then he’s doing a scramble to find it. He finds it between the layers of your dress. As you tear it open, he pushes his boxers down. You try not to be intimidated by his size, because as he rolls down himself that’s all you can think.

He is fucking massive.

Jungkook looks smug when you look back at him, as if he’s seen where you were looking and read what you were thinking. You roll your eyes as you pull him back down to kiss you.

“Just shove it in already,” you mumble against his lips, earning a chuckle from him.

He reaches between your bodies, runs his tip through your folds and pushes just the tip inside you. You moan and arch up into him. It already feels like a lot.

“Sure you can handle it?” He jokes, confirming he knew what you were thinking earlier.

You think he probably has a point. But the desire to prove him wrong, or at least wipe the smug smile off his face, is larger. Wrapping your legs around him, you push him down deeper into you as you push your hips up. He must only move a couple of inches, but it’s enough. This time it’s him, not you, that lets a moan out and you don’t have to encourage him to sink the rest of the way in.

There’s a small pause in movement. Your breaths the only noise in the room. You realise you still have your bra on when you feel Jungkook’s chest move along yours. But then he’s placing his lips against yours and delicately kissing you. Softly and slowly, he begins to move.

It’s not the rough, heavy sex you’d imagined. He doesn’t toss you around, or man handle you. He’s slow as he pulls out and though there’s power behind each thrust in, it’s still not rough. A thought flicks through your mind, it’s more like making love than having sex. The thought there one second and then gone when Jungkook thrusts back into you.

It feels good. His lips still on yours, his thrusts building up that feeling inside you, the small moans he keeps letting out only driving you closer to oblivion.

It doesn’t take long. It’s no surprise. Even if his body didn’t look the way it did, his cock is big enough that he wouldn’t need to have much skill to make anyone feel good. But, as if to make it completely unfair, he knows what he’s doing, knows exactly how fast to go, exactly how deep to push into you, knows where to touch and where to kiss to drive you completely insane.

When you come, you come hard. You become a mess in his arms. He swallows every one of your moans as he thrusts a couple more times and then you feel him twitching in you, his own moans rumbling through his chest.

Still inside you, he rolls you so you can lay side by side. You should go to the loo, should put some clothes on or something. But when Jungkook reaches up to pull a blanket off the back of the sofa over the top of you, you find it hard to even keep your eyes open.

You were hoping Jungkook would be gone before Zac woke up, but when you hear the small feet thundering down the stairs all you can think is how happy you are you both have clothes on.

Zac jumps off the last three steps, a habit you tried to stop early but probably only encouraged him. He runs nearly as far as the kitchen before he realises there’s someone other than you sat on the sofa. He’s too surprised to say anything straight away, his eyes wide as they stare straight at Jungkook.

“Have you brushed your teeth?” You draw his eyes to you. He pauses then with a guilty look nods. “Have you?” You get another less delayed nod. “Come here then.”

He doesn’t move, he knows he’s been caught out. You raise an eyebrow at him and he tries his hardest to hide his smile but fails.

“Go and clean your teeth and I’ll make you breakfast. What do you want?”

His eyes flick to Jungkook before settling back on you. “Why’s Jungkook here?”

Your heart stops before starting at a more rapid pace. “He just slept here last night.”

“You had a sleepover?” He looks hurt as if you purposefully left him out.

“No, well, yes, but it was nothing Zac.” You can feel the way Jungkook tenses next to you, and you know if you were to look at him, he’d be stifling a laugh. “Just go brush your teeth.”

He pauses a second longer, eyes continue to flicking between you but one look at your stern face has him moving back to the stairs.

“And what do you want for breakfast?” You shout after him.

“A ham sandwich, crisps and sausage roll.”

“That’s lunch,” you shout but don’t get a response.

Zac fully out of view now, Jungkook lets out his laugh. When you turn to point your frown at him, you’re met with his face a lot closer than you’d thought. Without much thought he leans in and places his lips against yours. When you stiffen and try to look over your shoulder to double check you really are alone, Jungkook’s hand goes to your head to stop you.

“It’s fine,” he whispers before pressing one last kiss on your lips and drawing away.

You remain stiff even as Jungkook removes himself to a safe distance. It’s just that you’re not used to this. Sure, the morning after stuff is awkward but it’s more that Jungkook looks so relaxed in what should be an incredibly awkward situation.

“You going to go make that ham sandwich?” He smiles at you.

“You going to head off?” You counter.

He raises an eyebrow. “Do I not also get breakfast?”

“Do you want breakfast.”

“Uh, yeah?” He chuckles as if it’s obvious.

You could ask him to leave you guess, but after a moments pause you figure there’s really no reason. Your main worry was Zac seeing him here, but that’s happened now anyway. There really isn’t any reason to force him to leave.

Standing up, you head to the kitchen, Jungkook following in your wake.

“Scrambled eggs on toast?” You ask, already getting the ingredients out, heading to the counter with them.

Jungkook comes up behind you when you’re cracking one of the eggs. His body presses into your back and he leans round to place his head on your shoulder so he can watch what you’re doing. When you twist to ask what he’s doing he only sees it as an opportunity to kiss you.

“Jungkook?” You ask, pulling away.

“What?” He chuckles, staying where he is.

“Zac could walk in any second.”

“I’ll hear him coming down the stairs, it’s fine.”

You’re not as sure and while it’s one thing for Zac to see Jungkook here early, it’s wholly different for him to see him all over you like this. Jungkook seems to get the idea and with a smile and another quick kiss he peels himself off you.

You would never have thought Jungkook the clingy type. But then you wouldn’t have guessed he’d have been so soft with you last night too, so maybe you just have to realise all your assumptions about the man are probably wrong.

Feeling flustered you focus back on your eggs. And when you hear Zac’s feet running down the stairs you realise how unprepared you are for this breakfast.

“Have you washed your hands?” You say over your shoulder.

“What’s Jungkook doing here?”

“I’ve already told you that. Have you washed your hands?”

One glance over your shoulder tells you enough. They’re the words you say before every meal and every time you get the same guilty look. Before you can tell him to go and wash them though, Jungkook’s speaking.

“I haven’t done mine either. Maybe you could show me where the sink is?”

You catch the small nod Zac does before he’s zooming off. Eyes still on the door you miss the fact that Jungkook walks over to you before following Zac and can only freeze when he presses a light kiss to your cheek.

“See, I’ve got this,” he says cockily before disappearing after Zac.

You remain frozen for a few more seconds before realising the eggs are catching and you still need to butter the toast.

Though you’ve managed the whole, looking after a toddler while also doing one hundred other things, it’s not wasted on you how much of a help Jungkook is. He occupies the time it takes for you to get breakfast ready and then helps Zac lay the table for you. He keeps up an easy conversation over the food. And then, when you start to clear up he easily takes Zac out of the way and entertains him for a bit before coming back to help you.

They’re small things, stuff you wouldn’t have even picked up on before Zac was around. But you can’t deny that his easy smiles, coupled with watching him wipe down the table really gets you going. You really are a mum.

“Oh shit,” you moan, body creeping up the bed.

Jungkook only grunts in return, his hands tightening on your hips to stop you from moving away from him. With the way he’s slamming himself into you, it doesn’t help and you continue to move up the bed.

He slows to a stop, leaning down into you so his chest is against you, face above yours and cock fully in you. His hair is slightly damp from all the effort he’s put in. You’d feel slightly bad if it weren’t for the fact he’s been making you feel extremely good and that he looks incredibly hot with damp hair. He also doesn’t seem to be complaining about the fact you’ve just been laying on your back the entire time.

“Mum’s going to be round soon with Zac,” you manage to get the words out just before he presses his lips to yours.

Slipping his tongue into your mouth, he moves his hips in the same slow but deep rhythm. You try to grind your hips up into his, deepening how far he goes into you with every thrust.

“We’ve got time,” Jungkook mutters back, his lips moving from your mouth to press around your face. “I just need you a different way if I’m going to come any time soon.”

“Mhumm?” You moan, eyes closed, head tilted back to let Jungkook have access to your neck. “How’d you want me?”

He hums, teeth nibbling a little bit of skin as his hips push a final time into you. “On your hands and knees.”

He looks up at you, trying to gage your reaction but when you clench around him, he gets the idea. You hum a little when he pulls out and when he’s given you enough space you turn onto your front. Wait patiently, exactly how Jungkook wants you.

His hand runs down the arch of your back, stopping only to feel the globe of your ass. He lets out a satisfied hum before you feel his cock tapping you.

You arch back and up into him and you hear a little satisfied chuckle as his hand moves to your hip. He keeps you where you are as he runs his tip through your folds.

“I’m not going to last long when I get in you,” he warns.

“Neither.”

“Ok,” he breaths, stopping when he’s at your entrance.

His hands tighten on your hips and he lets out a low whine as he pushes into you. He feels so different from this angle, somehow bigger than he felt before. The first few thrusts are slow, you both are getting used to the feel of it. But when you fall onto your elbows, half exhaustion, half because your hands were starting to ache, he hits a particular spot in you that has you moaning into the sheets.

“Oh yeah?” Jungkook asks and you can only let out a gurgled noise in response.

It’s enough. His thrusts grow faster and every time they hit that spot. His balls slap against you, only adding more pleasure. The whole thing is enough to do as you both warned. You come first, hard and out of nowhere. And the feeling of you clamping down is enough to get Jungkook to follow close behind.

Collapsing on your front, Jungkook pulls out of you and gets rid of the condom before lying next to you.

“I should really sort myself out before mum gets here,” you say, though don’t move.

“We’ve got time.”

“Yeah, no offense, but you also need to be gone before she gets here.”

He chuckles, the noise causing a smile to appear on your lips. “I’ll jump the fence if I need to. Stop worrying.”

You roll onto your side and Jungkook flops his head so he can look at you.

“She’ll be able to smell that you’ve been here,” you say and Jungkook grimaces as if weirded out by the comment. “I know. But nothing gets past her.”

Jungkook rolls onto his side. “Well, I can stay and meet her if you want?”

You don’t know why the thought terrifies you so much, but it does. You don’t even know why Jungkook’s offering, but he seems so sincere about it, as if it’s a perfectly normal thing to offer. Surely, it’s too early to be thinking about meeting each other’s parents?

“I can just say you need help putting some shelves up.”

“She’ll make some comment about that being an innuendo,” you roll onto your back.

“Well come on then,” you feel the bed dip and move and when you look back over at Jungkook he’s already standing. “Let me at least help you clean up the evidence.”

There’s a wide smile on his face as he starts to pull on the clothes you all but threw on the floor earlier. He doesn’t look bothered by any of this and while you worried this was only about the sex for him, with all the little things he’s doing, he’s slowly convincing you that maybe it’s not.

“But you better hurry,” he teases when you continue to lay staring at him. “She’s going to be here any minute.”

He does a poor imitation of your voice and when you throw a pillow at him he only chuckles as he catches it. It hits you square in the face when he tosses it back. By the time you’re sat up and moving Jungkook is already out of the room and beginning to tackle the mess you’ve been putting off.

You continue to sleep together whenever you can find the time without Zac being around. But when there isn’t any, Jungkook is still there.

He plays with Zac outside so you can have some peace while you prepare dinner. He washes the dishes up when he occasionally stays for food so you can go and get Zac ready for bed. He buys you bunches of flowers and little boxes of chocolates. He does things around the house, mows the lawn, stops the cupboard squeaking and makes it so the shower doesn’t leak water out of one side.

He seeps into your life in every way and though you’re cautious, you completely let him in.

You convince yourself it’s nothing serious, mainly because you never discuss what the two of you are. But it’s fun and you live in the moment, enjoy the sex as well as the help you’re getting around the house.

However, you look at it though, you know you’re doing what you said you wouldn’t. You’re letting Jungkook in. Not just into your life, but into Zac’s too. Somehow you can’t seem to feel bad about it.

You don’t notice him until you round your car to check that Zac is strapped in. It’s barely 7am, not a time you’re used to seeing Jungkook but the movement at his door has you glancing up. You do a double take as you come to a stop by Zac’s door.

There’s a girl looking like she’s just stepped out of his house, she’s close enough to Jungkook to look like they’re about to embrace or make out or maybe both. He’s stood just in his pants looking down at her, you’re too far away and the girl is blocking your view to work out the expression on his face. Or maybe it’s the cool feel of embarrassment that stops you looking too hard.

Still, you can’t pull your eyes away from the scene. As the girl is talking and Jungkook is listening, neither notice you staring.

It’s not the same girl you’ve noticed at his before, no, this is someone you’ve never seen. You’re not sure if that makes it better or worse. What you do know, is how big an idiot you are. Because of course while you were growing to like him, while you were letting him further into your life, he only saw what you had as something else, a bit of fun, a convenience.

It’s your own fault for not talking to him about it. Your own fault for reading into it more than you should have. You’d known who Jungkook was, what he was like, the sort of man he was and yet you’d still been blinded by his words and smiles. You stupidly thought that you were different. One of those stupid girls that thought you’d be the one to change him.

And there he is, after a night with someone else and he doesn’t even care that he’s flaunting it on his front doorstep.

“Mummy, why aren’t you trapping me?”

Zac speaks loudly enough to not just draw your attention but your neighbours too. You catch Jungkook’s eyes dart towards you just before you twist to your son. You don’t correct his wording, you just want to be out of this situation, don’t want your embarrassment to be witnessed by anyone else.

You duck down to Zac’s level and pull the belt over him and his car chair. Satisfied he’s strapped in you stand. Your traitorous eyes can’t help but flick to your neighbour’s door, however hard your brain is screaming not to look.

The girl is a step further away from the door now, her head looking between you and Jungkook. Jungkook’s gaze is firmly on you. It looks like he’s about to open his mouth and shout something at you. That or take off in a run in your direction.

Springing into action, blood coursing through you, you leap into the drivers seat, buckle yourself in and take off in reverse.

You can hear your heartbeat in your ears as you start down the road. Though you know nothing is going to happen there’s thoughts of Jungkook opening your door or banging on your window. None of that happens. When you flick your eyes in the rear-view mirror, he’s not even left his doorstep.

Your heart falls into the bottom of your stomach.

“I know what I saw Rosie.”

“Well talk me through it one more time.”

You sigh, look down at the tea in your hands before flicking your eyes to your son. Zac is still playing with the little girl who approached him fifteen minutes ago and is happily getting bossed around in a game with her. It’s sweet to see the bundle of energy that is your son be so placid sometimes. It’s also great to be at one of your favourite coffee shops, kids play area and all with your best friend moments after the most embarrassing time of your life. Though you don’t want to relive every detail of what happened in the car before coming here, it’s kind of nice to hash it out with Rosie.

“There was a girl, all dressed up as if she’d had to put on the clothes she was out in last night, stood on Jungkook’s doorstep while he stood basically naked saying goodbye.”

Rosie hums, her head bobbing up and down in thought. “Yep. I’ve got to admit I’m struggling to see any good angles.”

“That’s because there are no good angles,” you whine.

“Well, I’m guessing the nearly naked bit was good.”

The glare you shoot at her has her sitting straighter in her chair, her hands almost raising in defence.

“Yep. Agreed. Definitely one of the worst bits. Ok.”

You sigh, eyes flicking once again to Zac.

“And what the hell am I supposed to tell Zac?” It’s the first time you’ve thought about it, because although this is your issues, it’s also going to affect Zac. “I can just ignore Jungkook, but Zac will still ask questions and while I’d dive away from him in public Zac won’t do the same.”

“Right,” Rosie says with the air of a woman with no children, therefore lacking all understanding of your predicament. “Well, my first thoughts in all of this, and please don’t kill me when I say this. But, why don’t you talk to Jungkook first?”

“Why would I do that?” You ask flatly.

“Because you clearly have no idea what you were looking at this morning.”

“What gave you that impression? I’ve very obviously stated just how much I saw.”

“Yes, and while I admit it didn’t look great, neither of us can fully explain it. The only person who can happens to live only a short trip from your house.”

“Not going to happen,” you say, taking a sip of your tea and looking away from her. It does nothing to convince her to change the topic.

“You’re both adults. Maybe what you thought you saw wasn’t exactly what it was,” when you continue to not look convinced, she sighs. “Fine, give him a piece of your mind, walk away from him and avoid him like the plague. But what if you’re building this up to be something it really isn’t?”

“I know Jungkook, and I know what that was.”

“From what you’ve told me about him, I really don’t believe it for a second.”

Your ice-cold glare does nothing, she just levels her gaze right back at you. In the end it’s you who give in first.

“I’m not going around to his only to have what I already know laid out so plainly for me. You don’t understand how mortifying it was this morning.”

Rosie’s eyes turn softer, a glint of pity seeping into them. When she speaks her tone is softer and her body starts to lean in towards you.

“I get it. But I also get the impression that Jungkook would never do that to you or Zac.”

The mention of your son’s name makes your heart pound. You look over at him, he looks so happy sat on the floor piling blocks high with the little girl. It makes your heart hurt to imagine him asking after Jungkook and you having to tell him that he can’t see him anymore. The laughs and giggles that always came out of him when Jungkook is around. The manly figure in his life gone like that. This is why you didn’t want to get close to him. This is why you didn’t want anything to happen. Because although you’re hurting right now, you know it’ll feel nothing in comparison to breaking it to your son.

“Will you just think about it at least?” Rosie asks, dragging your eyes back to her.

You sigh and then nod. “I’ll think about it.”

You think about it all of two seconds and know you will never be knocking on Jungkook’s door, nor will you be hanging around outside long enough for him to catch you. No, you will be doing exactly as Rosie suggested and avoiding him like the plague.

This is why you never wanted to get involved with him. Because you knew what would happen in the end, you knew what type of man he was. And why you may have accepted that in the past, gone with the man for a bit of fun. Now, things have changed, it’s not just you that you have to think about.

You spend the time alone thinking it through. The more time you have, the more certain you are. Jungkook was a mistake. But now you know that you can move on as best you can. He doesn’t want you, that’s fine, you can accept that and do your best to pick up whatever pieces of Zac that break.

Surprisingly, for nearly a week, it works.

Unsurprisingly, when there’s an unexpected knock at your door Saturday evening when Zac is in bed, it’s Jungkook.

You know it’s going to be him before you open the door, or at least have a strong feeling it is. Your face is already set in a grimace, so luckily it’s not a delivery man or an unsuspecting stranger. You open the door enough for Jungkook to see you, but only enough that your body is blocking any view inside.

“Hey.”

You raise an eyebrow at the word. Has he really come here after a week and the first word he says is hey? You can almost see the cold sweat breaking out across his forehead, but to his credit Jungkook remains calm.

“So, I was thinking it’s been a while since we last saw each other and I was wondering how you are?”

“Are you shitting me right now?”

You have half a mind to slam the door in his face and as if reading that thought Jungkook sticks a hand out and props it on the door. He doesn’t push it open, he doesn’t apply any pressure, he just rests it there so he can stop you closing him out.

“Can I come in so we can talk about this?”

“What’s there to talk about?”

It’s Jungkook’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Given this reaction, there is clearly lots to talk about Y/N.”

“And if I don’t want to talk?”

He closes his eyes. You’re not sure if he’s praying or taking a second to calm himself down. Either way, when he opens them and looks at you, they seem darker, more intense, like he has more purpose now.

“Right, if you want to do it here, let’s do it here,” he says and doesn’t give you time to interrupt. “I know you saw me last week with Clare. I know what it looked like and I know what you thought. Maybe I’ve been utterly shit in not coming sooner but I wanted to give you space to figure things out on your own; I realise now that was a mistake.”

You’re so thrown by the last comment you don’t speak in the small pause. Should you be offended? Jungkook carries on, as if satisfied you’re listening to him.

“Clare is an ex of sorts, and she came over early, before I had chance to get dressed, and that’s what you saw. Nothing else. Nothing more.”

You don’t know how to feel. You don’t know whether to believe him. Because although he sounds like he’s telling the truth, he also sounds like he really wants you to believe him and for whatever reason you’re not sure why he’d cared so much about what you think.

“You always answer the door in your pants?”

It’s clearly not the words he was hoping for, but he still gives you an answer. “When I’ve just woken up, yes.”

“And she didn’t stay the night?”

The question, although spoken with a little less bite, a little less certainty, seems to be more what Jungkook was expecting. Though you’ve given him little reason to relax, his shoulders look less tense, his weight leans forwards so the door creaks open a touch. You try to hold your ground as your traitorous heart pounds in your chest.

“No one has stayed the night since I’ve been with you.”

Your eyes flick around his face trying to read the truth there. You can’t spot the lie, though you still don’t fully believe it.

“She didn’t even come inside,” he carries on. “In fact, she was at my door all of ten minutes before she left. If you hadn’t driven off, you would have seen that.”

“Ok.”

“Ok?” He frowns. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes. You’ve explained, so, ok.”

Jungkook remains, frown between his eyes, hand still on your door. And you stare right back at him, feet planted, door not swinging open.

“I don’t understand,” he admits, voice soft.

“Right, because you expected me to jump back into your arms?” The silence tells you the answer you already knew. This man’s ego is way too big. “I guess I just realised who you are and why we don’t work together. What happened between us was a mistake and I’m sorry if you’ve been pushing girls aside for whatever reason, but you don’t have to anymore.”

Jungkook continues to look confused. It only makes you drive the message home a little stronger.

“We were never going to work. You’re you and I’m me and while we had fun, that’s all it was ever going to be. I guess I just remembered who you are and why I can’t afford to have you around me and Zac.”

Jungkook’s hand slips from the door and the look of hurt on his face almost makes you regret the words. But it’s true, isn’t it? You’re not sure what he was coming here to say, that he wanted to carry on sleeping with you for a bit longer? That you were convenient living next door and he didn’t want to give that up just yet? Aren’t the words you just said what he would have been telling you weeks down the line when you and your son were no doubt in too deep?

No. It was better you told him how it was now. It was better you ripped off the plaster. It was better you ended this now before Jungkook broke your heart. Because although you’re hurting now, although you want to drag him inside and let his explanation be enough, you know that it’ll only be worse later.

Jungkook’s hand now free from your door you see your chance.

“I’ll still see you around though,” the words feel bitter as they leave your lips and your tone lacks any conviction. “I’m still happy to lend you sugar like any other neighbour.”

Jungkook doesn’t speak, his eyes focused on something in the near distance, he looks like he’s trying to solve a puzzle or an over complex maths equation.

You swallow as his eyes finally move to yours. The frown is still there but they look dark and not in the same way they did earlier. No, the look in them now makes your stomach coil. He looks like he’s figured something out. You can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing.

You don’t give yourself long enough to figure it out. You need to be out of this situation. You need Jungkook off your doorstep. You need to make sure he doesn’t say anything to change you’re easily swayed mind.

“I’ll see you around,” you squeak and then you slam the door closed in his face.

You lean into the door as your chest rises and falls. You did it, though you doubted yourself, you told him what you’d been thinking the last week, that although you didn’t really want him out of your life, it was better he was out of it.

You don’t hear his footsteps. You don’t see his shadow move away from your door. You remain leaning on your door for a minute after closing it but you’re unaware of Jungkook leaving either. Heart in your throat, you twist and walk away, hoping that’s the last you hear from the man but knowing it won’t be.

It starts with flowers. A big bloom that gets delivered first thing in the morning. They get shoved in your hands and the woman is walking away before you can tell them they must have got the wrong address. Your names on the card though, and when you prize it open you know who they’re from even though it’s got no signature.

You never let me finish. Let me take you out for dinner?

You bite the inside of your cheek, send a glare at your neighbour’s brick wall.

You still put them in water. You still cut their stems and arrange them and then place the large vase on your countertop. It would be a waste to throw them away. But you don’t attempt to reply to the question on the card. That, you throw away.

It takes Jungkook a few hours to text you, chasing for an answer.

Jungkook: Did you get my flowers?

Y/N: They’re yours? I thought they must have come to the wrong house.

Jungkook: Is that why you put them in that pretty vase and up on display? What did you think about the note that came with it?

Y/N: It’s in the bin where it belongs.

Jungkook: Let me take you out for dinner.

Y/N: I’m busy.

Jungkook: I never even gave you a date or time.

Y/N: I struggle getting a babysitter for Zac as it is.

Jungkook: Then let me cook for you. He can sleep while we talk.

Y/N: I really am busy Jungkook.

Jungkook: Think about it. I just want to talk.

Sure, you think, I’ll think about it. The same length of time you thought about whether you’d go and talk to him before. All of two seconds.

No, you’re not going to have dinner with him. You don’t particularly want to talk to him ever again.

Maybe it’s childish given he’s your neighbour. What he did wasn’t awful, it’s more that you know if you give him even an inch then he’ll take a mile and you’ll just let him back in. You liked having him around, you liked the help, you liked being able to talk to someone your age, you liked someone looking after you. But it’s not just about you.

You’re bound to see him around and that doesn’t mean you won’t give him a neighbourly hello and nod. That will be it. No opening up about your life. No asking to babysit. No late night drinks. No kissing on the sofa. No anything more.

You can’t even think about it. You may be pretending to be hard and over it, but Jungkook had successfully wormed his way into your life and if it wasn’t for Zac, you’d more than happily curl up in your bed and mope for a few days.

You’ve successfully been played. And it feels shit.

“Mummy,” you look over at Zac. “You’ve been sat of that sofa forever.”

He never fails to put a smile on your face. And just like you were thinking before, he successfully gets you out of your slump. You could sulk all you want in private, but with Zac around you have to set an example.

You don’t go to Jungkook’s for dinner, instead make some half-arsed excuse as to why you can’t go. He must know you’re still pushing him away and at least this time he lets you. You get a simple reply to your text rejecting his invitation. No offers to rearranged. No accusations or callouts for your excuse. No attempt to carry on the conversation. Just an understanding message.

You’re not sure why but you feel a little disappointed. Even though it’s what you were hoping for.

It doesn’t take long for the next attack to come. This time it’s not flowers or offers of dinners but is instead small acts of kindness. Your lawn mowed without having to ask. Your bins emptied and cleaned. Your car cleaned. All things Jungkook’s done in the past and if you didn’t know him you’d find slightly creepy, but instead find endearing.

You hate that you feel that way.

His texts don’t start immediately. But when they start, they come in steady streams. There’s no pressure in any of them and while you hardly reply to any of them, they’re still said in the same tone, sweet and light. They all say pretty much the same thing, that he wants to meet to talk. But you’re not ready and you don’t want to. No matter what he says it won’t change who he is and it won’t change the fact that you’ll like slip again and you can’t afford to be with someone like that.

You see him in passing, him leaving while you’re arriving home. Again, he never pressures you into talking but always smile and waves at you.

You start to feel a little awkward. You know what he’s doing, guilt tripping you into giving in; you just don’t understand why he’s doing it. Surely he should have given up by now, surely if you’re just someone to sleep with this isn’t worth it.

You’re sat on your front garden watching Zac cycle around when you hear his front door open. You don’t look his way, but you tense with expectation. Zac hasn’t noticed Jungkook yet, he’s still happily going in the circle you’d allowed him to, from pavement pausing to checking the silent road for a car, crossing to the other side and going around. He’s babbling about something, shouting about being chased by a dinosaur as he whizzes around.

There are three footsteps before they go silent. And you prepare for whatever he’s about to say.

It’s been close to two weeks now and while he’s been doing small but thoughtful gestures, you have successfully put off talking to him. You’ve passed him in the street a couple of time, but every time have managed with a nod and a hello, the greeting you’d wished was normal for the two of you.

He doesn’t say anything this time though, just stands wherever it is he’s stopped. You fight the urge to look at him, foot tapping on the floor as you fight to keep your eyes on Zac.

Your restrain is only so strong. When you look over your shoulder he’s already staring right at you.

Your heart stutters. Your foot stops it’s tapping. He doesn’t look angry or sad, in fact there’s a small smile on his lips. His attire is much the same as you always see, an oversize shirt with sleeves that go to his elbow, letting you see his arm full of tattoos and skinny black jeans. He’s stood on his side of the drive; you can’t even accuse him of trespassing. The only thing you could possibly tell him is that he’s being creepy. But even that would be a lie.

“Hey,” his smile widens now you’re looking at him.

You don’t reply, can barely manage a smile. Every time before now you’ve been on your way in or out. You had an excuse for a quick escape. Now, sat on your front garden, you feel trapped.

“You alright?”

And yet, Jungkook still isn’t pushing you. However big a dick he’s been or might be, he’s never forced you to speak to him. Maybe you’re the one being a bigger dick. Maybe speaking to him won’t be as bad as you think. Maybe you’ll actually like whatever it is he wants to tell you.

Just as you open your mouth to reply, Zac beats you to it.

“Jungkook!”

You wince at the name screamed across the street. It’s not the volume that causes your reaction but the pure joy in which the name is said.

You’re still focused on Jungkook’s face, trying to conceal your reaction as he looks over at Zac with a wider smile when you hear it.

A crash. Metal scraping along tarmac. Silence for a second and then a scream, the noise so much louder than the name he shouted mere seconds ago.

Eyes wide, heart pounding, your head whips away from Jungkook in the direction of the noise. Zac must have turned too soon, distracted by the sight of Jungkook he’d lost control of his bike and left the pavement too soon, only to crash and fall off the curb.

You shoot to your feet, your focus solely on your crying son who has a bike now on top of him and is calling out for you. Time seems to slow. Your feet don’t move fast enough. Zac is too far away. And even though you run faster than you ever have, you still don’t make it before Jungkook. He’s pulling the bike off your son, trying to sooth him when you get there.

You swallow the tightness in your throat, the fear creeping up your chest, as you look at your scraped up son.

“Mummy,” he wails, eyes landing on you, tears streaming down his face as blood oozes in the cuts on his palms and knees.

You reach out for him, but again, Jungkook is too fast. He lifts Zac into his arms as if he weighs nothing and then he's ever so carefully handing him over.

“It’s ok, baby,” you hold him to your chest, hand soothing his head. “You’re ok. It’s just a little cut.”

But it’s more than that. It’s the shock of the accident, it’s more than a little cut and for you, it’s the fear that it could have been a lot worse. What if a car was coming down the road when it happened? What if he’d landed differently? What if he’d hit his head? You shouldn’t have been so focused on Jungkook. You shouldn’t have let Zac cycle around all on his own, he’s still so young. You should have –

“Come on,” a warm, steady hand squeezes your shoulder. “Let’s get you two inside and cleaned up.”

You look at Jungkook, your own tears welling in your eyes. As if sensing your rising panic, Jungkook’s expression changes and the hand on your shoulder moves to your lower back. He adds a small amount of pressure and is steering you in the direction of your house.

You let him guide you. Your feet, your body, everything but Zac in your arms and Jungkook’s hand on your back cease to exist. Mind racing about what you need to do you don’t realise Jungkook’s led you into your living room until his hand leaves your back. Eyes snapping to his already retreating body, he says nothing.

Panic still rooted in you; it takes you a second to react.

You need to calm Zac down. You need to clean his wounds. You need wipes, plasters and a blanket and hot bottle of milk. You need to –

“You need to calm down,” Jungkook says lightly as he comes back. “You can’t help anyone in this state.”

Hand back on your shoulder he guides you once again, this time until the back of your knees hit the sofa and then you’re sat. You look over Zac’s shoulder to see Jungkook kneeling before you, supplies in his arms. He has a hard look on his face, one that tells you to pull yourself together. You give him a small nod as you twist Zac around to face Jungkook, his arms tighten around your neck and your heart breaks a little.

“We’re ok, aren’t we Zac?” Jungkook says lightly. “Let’s have a look at that cut.”

You swallow as you watch Jungkook’s hand and eyes go to Zac’s cut knee. He waits a second and then lets out a loud, exaggerated gasp. Zac’s head pulls out of the crook in your neck to look at Jungkook and his wide eyes. Tears are still falling down his face, but the reaction has stopped the sobs.

“Oh Zac,” Jungkook says in another dramatic tone. You know he’s joking, you just worry that Zac doesn’t know that and Jungkook’s going to do the opposite of what he’s hoping. “I think you might survive. You know why?”

Zac’s little head shakes and you can only watch as Jungkook completely takes control of the situation.

“Because you’re being so brave. I mean look at you, I don’t know anyone braver,” Jungkook’s eyes dart up to you, a small smile now playing on his face at whatever look he’s seen on your face. “Don’t you agree, mummy?”

It takes you a second, mind scrambled, but you squeeze your hands on Zac’s shoulders. “So brave.”

“See,” Jungkook says. “Now, shall we have a look at cleaning you up? You have to be extra brave for me though, and if you promise me you will, then maybe after we can have some chocolate ice cream.”

Zac head nods and Jungkook smiles widely at him. You watch as Jungkook mutters how amazing your son is being while he cleans him up, he even makes him giggle at one point.

You stroke your hand over his head and try not to let your mind spiral. Jungkook is being so good and while you have no doubt that he would never let anything that may be happening between you get between him and Zac, it’s something wholly different to see. You’re not sure what you would have done had he not been there. And while you could pin some of the blame on him, not a single part of you wants to.

You’ve treated him like crap. Ignored him when all he wanted to do was talk. And yet he’s still here, acting as if everything is ok. That doesn’t seem like something the guy you’ve been imagining in your head would do. You’ve been way too harsh.

When Zac’s all cleaned up, you do as promised. While you help him change into cleaner, less cut, clothes, Jungkook finds him some ice cream. By the time he’s all tucked up watching Moana, there’s a bit more life in his face.

You don’t say anything as you leave him to it and head to the kitchen, and you don’t say anything when Jungkook follows you. Silently you flick the kettle and pull two mugs towards you.

“Can we talk?”

It’s what he’s been asking for days, in that same unexpecting tone. You’re in no doubt that if you said you didn’t want to talk, however hard Jungkook may find that, he’d still respect your wishes.

You make him wait a little longer now. Put a tea bag in each mug before pouring the just boiled water over them. When you twist Jungkook’s leaning against your counter, the portrait of indifference, though his eyes tell a different story as they bore into you.

“What do you want to say Jungkook?” You still have to force the words out.

He seems to relax while tense all at the same time. He takes a step towards you and looks as if he’d take another before thinking better and stopping. It’s as if now, finally given the chance, he’s not quite sure what to say. Or maybe he just doesn’t know where to start.

“I’ve already been through the whole what you saw wasn’t what it looked like thing. But you never let me carry on,” he pauses, as if expecting you to stop him again now. When you don’t, he carries on. “The reason I wanted to clear things up is because I don’t want you thinking of me that way or thinking that I was for some reason using you or Zac. I really like you Y/N. It wasn’t just a fling for me, I thought you got that?”

Clearly you didn’t. You’d hoped, sure, but the minute there was even the smallest of hints to say any different, you’d jumped on it. Jungkook seems to read that even though you don’t say anything.

“Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

You shrug feeling awkward, but Jungkook waits for you to say it verbally. “Well, because I’m me and I have a son and a really messy life.”

Jungkook’s lips twitches at the edges. “You know I love Zac too, right?”

“Playing in the street is something wholly different to going out with his mum.”

“You make it sound like I’m a kid too,” he laughs. “But of course I get that.”

“He’s not always happy and playful.”

“I think we just established that.”

“Yeah, but he’s hard work and needy and rowdy.”

“Where’s the downside here?”

“Jungkook,” you warn but he just laughs and takes another step towards you, now close enough to grasp your hands and lift them between your bodies.

“I honestly get it. You two are a package deal. That doesn’t put me off.”

You struggle, look at your hands laced together. You don’t pull away from him, but you also don’t fall into his arms. Something is still hold you back.

“What is it?” Jungkook encourages.

You take a breath and then look up into his eyes. “What if you don’t always feel that way? What if one day you decide it is too hard and isn’t worth it and just leave?”

He detangles one of his hands with yours so he can reach up to cup your cheek. His eyes look so soft now, though his features look hard and set with whatever thoughts he’s thinking.

“I would never just leave you two,” he says, thumb moving over your jaw. “Listen, I can’t promise anything about the future, maybe we won’t work and if we don’t I wouldn’t just up and leave you and Zac – I live next door, I wouldn’t be able to get very far,” he tries to lighten the mood and when you let out a small laugh, he looks happy that he succeeded. “But what if we did work? What if this is it? What if we’re meant to be together? Won’t you at least give it a try?”

You can see the hope swimming in his eyes, can see the desire and the truth behind every word he’s spoken. He really means it. He wants to be with you and he doesn’t care that you’re a single mum with an over enthusiastic child, that hasn’t put him off.

And you know he’s right. You’re pushing him away on what if’s and though you may not work out, should that be enough to stop you from having happiness in the here and now?

Jungkook patiently waits the few seconds for you to mull it over, but really you’ve been a sucker all along. You wouldn’t have been able to deny him for much longer, no matter what happened.

“Ok,” you finally say and watch as Jungkook’s whole face lights up.

“Ok?” He repeats, unbelieving.

You giggle and before you can confirm it a second time his lips are on you. Hard and heavy and a whole lot of teeth, it’s not the sexiest kiss you’ve ever had but it’s definitely in your top five, even given the fact it only lasts a second.

Jungkook stays close, his hand still on your jaw, his nose nearly brushing yours, a wide toothy grin on his lips.

“Can I take you out for that meal now then?”

You can’t supress your smile even as you roll your eyes. “I’ll look for a babysitter.”

“No,” he stops you. “I want Zac to come too.”

Your heart stutters, breath caught in your chest. It’s the three of you now and Jungkook already knows how important that is to you.

You lean in to kiss him again before mumbling against his lips. “Ok.”

[helpforihavefallen]

HI i love ur 4town works sm and i was wondering if i can get a aaron T romantic hcs in the arron z format? TY

Aaron my love, my darling, my life <3

Crushing:

- Aaron crushes faster than anyone. It takes one smile from you and he’s floored completely and utterly. Not only did your smile light up the whole room for him but he just couldn’t keep his eyes off of you.

- Now this man is like an excited puppy who drank too much energy drinks while doing a hand stand. He’s just so happy to be with you all the time, he feels like he can be himself around you without being judged and his heart feels so light.

- He tries so hard to make you laugh and relaxed around him. Sometimes he can go too far as he tries so much beacuse he doesn’t realize that he doesn’t actually have to try to make you smile.

- Very obvious about his crush. He has no shame whatsoever, but he has hard time to actually confess because he stumbles over his words and it sounds like gibberish.

- He tries to impress you all the time. Non stop. It’s an endless cycle really. He’ll do something and yell at you to look at him. Your attention is something he wants constantly even before dating.

- When it comes to confessing T asks for help from his friends. It’s not like he doesn’t know what to say but he does need a lot of encouraging. When he tells the others about his feelings he was greeted by a lot of deadpanning and raised eyebrows instead of shock he was expecting. Apparently it was obvious for everyone expect for you.

- He’ll invite you into the dance studio when he’s trying some new dance moves Z previously taught him and wants you to dance with him, just to relax before he would tell you his feelings. He enjoys the time with you and truly gets flustered as you laugh at his joke, which finally made him confess to you.

Dating:

- After you start dating he gets so clingy. He has never been happier and T is not afraid to show it. He just wants to hold you all the time and shower you with affection.

- This man is the blueprint for ride or die.

- So it goes without saying that Aaron is not shy with PDA whatsoever. He’ll always ask first if you’re okay doing anything though obviously. If you are comfortable with it he usually holds your hand and plants little kisses on your cheek or then have his arm around your waist whenever he can.

- Likes to try new and exciting things with you, like rollerskating even if you both would absolutely suck at it. All that matters to him is that you two will be laughing and just enjoying life.

- That being said when he lets down his walls it shocks you a bit because it’s so rare to see him down. All he needs is your support whenever he’s feeling down. Run your fingers through his hair and kiss his forehead, it makes him feel better immediately.

- You know this man loves you when he gives you his full undivided attention because he rarely gives it to people. He puts everything aside and gives you his all. No matter what that means, cuddling or talking and fun activities. For him finding time to be with you no matter what matters the most in the world and it reminds you how much he loves you.

- He truly feels like you get him like nobody else does. He can be as hyper as he wants and you’ll not mind or comment mean things about it. You make him feel good about himself.

- Aaron doesn’t mind if your relationship is public. He’s so proud of you and isn’t afraid of showing you off. It all depends if you’re comfortable with it though of course. If you don’t want the relationship to be public he’ll physically fight them if he has to. He will do anything to make you happy that includes defending you if it’s necessary even from their fans.

- Dates with Aaron are always fun, he preferred to be doing something active which could open up some competition between you two, like playing games or trying something reckless which may or may not be safe. It’s basically either 2 minutes planning and running to home when it’s raining cats and dogs or a cute picnic or even something fancy. Whenever you two are feeling lazy you will just sit back and relax, cuddling and drinking hot chocolate from champagne glasses and call it a date.

- He loves to kiss you EVERYWHERE. He doesn’t have a favorite place because he just loves all of you so deeply. Every reaction you make from his kisses makes his heart flutter.

- He brags about you a lot to the point that the guys are practically shoving food down his throat just to shut him up. He’s just so proud to have a partner like you that he can’t help himself. He’s really supportive as well, always pushing you forward and supporting you with whatever you need. He makes it clear that he’s here and he’s present.

- Sometimes he worries that you’ll get sick of his energy, you’ll get tired of him. He has abandonment issues and sometimes it gets too much for him to handle. It falls into your hands to reassure him that you still love him and you’re not going anywhere.

- Everyone knew T has a habit of making jokes and teasing remarks no matter the situation which meant when things gets serious and he failed to do so, you get irritated. It’s hard to sit down and talk with him when he has the habit of turning everything into a joke. It might lead into arguments and T is horrible at fighting. He can’t stand it and he shuts down completely. He isn’t that good at controlling his emotions, so if things get absolutely heated he might raise his voice, but immediately realizes afterwards and apologizes. He hates fighting with you and it scares him. 

- Whenever he’s jealous the jokes stop immediately which is a dead giveaway for you that something is wrong. Not only will he get more serious but he’ll get louder as well desperately making his presence known to everyone. He’ll make comments which makes it clear that you two are together even if it’s one of the other members. It’s not that he doesn’t trust you, he truly does but he can’t help for getting jealous

- When he started dating you he knew met someone who can match his energy. He loved to think he’s the funny one and nobody could best him but you give him a good run for his money honestly.

- Whenever they’re touring the miss eats him apart. He gets serious which is very obvious to you when you two call. Being away from you is by far the hardest thing for Aaron whenever they’re touring, he misses physical touch, hates sleeping alone and waking up to a cold bed. When you meet again he won’t let you go. He just feels so safe with you it’s hard to be apart.

- T is incredibly cuddly around you, there are no moment when he isn’t holding you tightly and kissing you from neck to shoulder until you ask him to stop- if you ask him that is. He flops around a lot in his sleep, but he’ll always have his arm or leg on you.

- You are the love of his life. You are Aaron’s safe haven and every day he falls deeper in love with you.

[rainyraisin]

OMIGOSHHHHH YESSSSS GO OFF AARON‼️‼️‼️‼️💪💪💪💪💪💖💖💖💖🫶🫶🫶🫶

I LOVE THIS SM AHHHHH THANK U FOR THIS HEHE :DDDD I love how u picked up on the stuff about Mikey's outfit heeheehoohoo >:)))

PLEASE GO FOLLOW AARON‼️‼️‼️ As he stated he is the beta reader and basically co-creator of Reticent at this point (he is NOT semi he is underselling himself, you help with way more than just character summaries you goober!!!/aff) and he is literally just the coolest person ever, both his writing and his art are INCREDIBLE‼️‼️💪💪💪💪

LEO'S IS SO RIGHT- He prefers stuff that's a lot more comfortable and whilst he kinda managed that with the slightly oversized sweater, overall he's just not having a good time wearing that outfit. But like, what else can he wear? A *t-shirt*? Are you crazy? That's something you wear whilst in the lair, not in front of a bunch of people!

When it comes to Raph, yeah he wears the absolute BARE minium when it comes to clothes, just an oversized tank top and shorts, because he doesn't really enjoy wearing them that much, but for some reason his other brothers find NOT wearing them weird so he just deals with it, even though they are LITERALLY mutant turtles who live in the sewers so it's not like it matters. He does like making clothes though so sometimes he'll wear the ones he's made out of a sense of pride (the designs usually come from Mikey though as the designs themselves aren't Raph's strong suit).

It's so funny to me how spoilerly Mikey's design technically is GDCJXGVJ but without the context it just doesn't make any sense- just wait for like Season 3 or 4 guys I promise it'll be worth the wait... (I say this as if I'm not gonna maybe reveal this stuff a little bit early just because it's gonna take so long to get to that xgvjgxvj-)

Mikey definetly consulted on Donnie's outfit because Donnie doesn't have the strongest fashion sense but the majority of the choice was still his and he LOVES it so much gxjcgjbch- MIKEY 100% COMPLIMENTED HIM AND GUY IS ESTATIC FR HE IS SO HAPPY :DDD This is kinda me feeling bad for all the stuff I'm gonna put Donnie through in the first 2 seasons (and basically the rest of Reticent but a lot of that hasn't been planned) and just letting him be a happy little guy :D Leo isn't the...happiest with Donnie's outfit choice, but Mikey threatened him with a "You don't want everyone here seeing you get in an argument, right? That's not gonna help us win." so Leo decides to begrudgingly save his comments for later.

Although Casey is probably the one hiding knives in his outfit (his and Raph's duo name is literally knife nerds), honestly that is so true for April YESSSS SHE WOULD‼️‼️‼️ I am going to design outfits for April and Casey soon but I needed to get some propaganda out for the poll and I didn't have time for them :( I WILL SOON THOUGH HOPEFULLY‼️‼️💪💪💪. Also her not wearing heels because they're a pain to run in is entirely canon cause after the events of chapter 2, she decides to forgo them entirely in the future, cause APPARENTLY there's the chance of the foot clan crashing her and Irma's dates now! Isn't that just great.

NO BECAUSE THAT IS SO REAL FOR CASEY FHKVBCNV- Mikey and Casey are besties eventually in Reticent so honestly that is so real yeah Mikey would 100% defend his choices 💪💪‼️‼️‼️‼️ Also like I said earlier Casey is 100% hiding knives in his outfit. He already does this in canon so he literally just would've transferred the knives over from his old outfit to his new outfit HXVXGKBC- the guy just loves his knife collection‼️‼️‼️

I look forward to more of this kind of stuff in the future if you choose to do it because OMIGOSH I ADORE DISSECTIONS OF MY DESIGNS LIKE THIS YES YES YESSSSSS!!! THANK YOU MR.AARONYMOUS I APPRECIATE IT SILLY GUY :DDD

Just a reminder to go follow Aaron like right now ‼️‼️‼️‼️👊👊👊

Mikey dressed them all up and they’re ready for the fashion show‼️💪💪💪

I’ve recently really liked the pastel pink and blue aesthetic for Mikey following creating a certain set of designs that I may or may not post if u vote for Reticent (this is totally not propaganda wdym) like idk it just looks so cute gvbgvbhhv

ALSO I accidently drew Raph really gremlin on the ref sheet for those designs and I love it but because earlier on in Reticent, Mikey is shorter than Raph, that means I have to make Mikey REALLY tiny in season 1 which is so freaking funny to me ctbhvghjnj LOOK AT HIM HE’S SO SMALL‼️‼️‼️

One of my friends told me they all look like candy and that brings me joy 😌😌✨✨💅💅💅 (May or may not have added a waffle cone pattern to Mikey’s shorts cause of it…)

She also asked if Raph had fallen into a fountain at a fancy restaurant TFHHVGHJVG (he didn’t, Mikey just dressed him up nice to be a git cause “well since you’re the older twin u gotta set an example right :))” and then Raph just loosened it all up CRGHVGBH-)

ANYWAY YEAH PLEASE VOTE RETICENT IN THE @tmntausummit ‼️‼️‼️💖💖🫶🫶

[imaginesfordifferentfandoms]

I Have Found You

Click here for my masterlist.

Add yourself to my taglist.

Aaron Hotchner Taglist - @braelyniskool, @canadailluminate, @filmsbyblair, @ready-4-spencie, @mrs-scottmccall, @j-cat, @cinderellacauseshebroke, @black-rose-29

Prompt - I have for the first time found what I can truly love. I have found you.

—————————————————–

You and Aaron had had a long week at work, each on separate cases but both equally as drained as the other. Your job saw you travelling to and from New York each day, working for one of the states best law firms, it was hard working your way up but you did it and now you were dealing with high profile cases day in and day out.

This case was particularly gruelling but it was finally finished and you had won. It was a small victory for the family but it was a victory nonetheless.

Aaron was working on his own case, he had been in Las Vegas for the past four days dealing with a serial killer who was targeting families. The unsub was organised, too organised, and more families were killed before they finally caught a break. From there it had been a matter of hours before they caught the man and the team was back on the jet.

Aaron finished up on the phone before dropping down into his seat beside Rossi who raised an eyebrow at him.

“Short of an emergency we all have Friday and Monday off, I don’t want to see any of you for four days.” Aaron announced to the jet, smiling as it was filled with cheers and laughter.

“So, big plans?” Rossi asked, smirking at Aaron who just rolled his eyes.

“I plan on doing absolutely nothing.” Aaron replied with a smile, already thinking of how great it would be to spend a long weekend with you and Jack, it had been far too long. He had already spoken to you and upon hearing the good news of your case asked if you could get two days off and thanked god that you could.

“I hear you, man.” Derek spoke up from opposite Rossi. “Four whole days of nothing but me and my girl.”

“What about you, kid?” Rossi asked, looking at Spencer who sat opposite Aaron.

“There’s a film festival I really wanted to go to actually, it's showing a bunch of different films in their original language.” Spencer told him and the grin on his face was enough to stop any teasing.

“Have a good time, pretty boy.” Derek smiled back, ruffling the younger man's hair causing him to pout.

Aaron couldn’t help but smile at the scene but as much as he loved this family, he couldn’t wait to get back home to you and Jack.

-

“How hard can cupcakes be, right?” You asked Jack, who stood on a chair in front of the counter. The two of you were staring at the ingredients that were spread out, not knowing where to start. When you suggested Jack make something for Aaron you were thinking more along the lines of a picture but when the kid suggested cupcakes well…you really wanted cupcakes.

“Right.” Jack agreed, grinning up at you.

Turns out it was harder to make cupcakes than either of you thought.

Aaron walked into the house, smiling immediately as he heard Jack giggling madly. He was quick to follow the noise but stopped abruptly as he stared into the kitchen.

“Daddy!” Jack yelled, quickly scrambling off the chair and throwing himself at Aaron who caught him and lifted him with ease despite the cupcake mixture that stuck to his clothes, face and hair.

“Hey buddy,” He grinned, turning his attention to you. There you stood, cupcake mix splatter on your face, in your hair and on your shirt. You looked dejected as you held an electric mixer, clearly the culprit of the cupcake explosion. “It looks like you and Y/N are having fun.” He said with a laugh, watching how you pouted up at him.

“We were gonna make cupcakes for you, daddy, but Y/N put it on too high.” Jack informed Aaron, giggling madly as he did.

“I didn’t know!” You defended, there was a reason you weren’t trusted in the kitchen.

Aaron’s smile grew and he couldn’t wait any longer to move closer to you, the hand that didn’t hold Jack caressed your cheek and he brought you in for a soft kiss. It didn’t last long, how could it with Jack laughing and making kissing noises, but the two of you pulled away with matching, love struck smiles before you and Jack began laughing together at the cupcake batter that was now perched on Aaron’s nose.

He rolled his eyes but couldn’t fight back the smile.

“Alright, alright,” he said, gaining both of your attention, “how about you two get cleaned up and we can all go out for dinner and then get some cupcakes, hm? That sound good?” He asked Jack who nodded with a grin and squirmed for Aaron to put him down. Once he did, Jack shot off to his bedroom and Aaron turned his attention to you.

“You can’t of thought that was a good idea.” He said as he wrapped his arms around your waist, leaning in to steal another kiss.

“The kid said cupcakes, who was I to say no?” You responded when he pulled away, giggling as he trailed kisses to your jaw and then peppered them down your neck.

Your eyes closed as you tilted your head back, giving the man more access and you couldn’t help but whine as he pulled away. The whine quickly turned into a laugh as he leaned closer and licked a blob of batter that had stuck to your neck.

“Go clean up, baby.” He said before kissing your head and untangling himself from you.

You and Jack were quick to clean yourselves up and soon you were all out the door and heading to a restaurant that you often frequented when you had Jack.

-

It felt like forever since you had been out with the Hotchner boys and you enjoyed every minute of it, no annoying work calls pulling one of you away, no looming threat of Aaron being called to a different state. No, just you, Aaron and Jack going out together, eating good food, catching up with each other properly.

It was wonderful.

“Cupcakes now daddy?” Jack asked as the waitress cleared the plates.

“Yeah, cupcakes now daddy?” You echoed with a smirk watching as Aaron playfully glared at you.

“Sure thing buddy,” He said to Jack, causing you to let out a quiet laugh. “Pick which one you want.”

Aaron couldn’t tell you who smiled wider when dessert was brought out, you or Jack. Both of you tucked in with the same hunger and he just smiled at the scene.

When you and Aaron had first met, it was to do with a case he was working on. He never expected it to blossom into this. The friendship was unexpected but not unwelcome and then before either of you had realised it you had developed feelings for one another.

You were quite a bit younger than him and he was hesitant to bring the feelings up, not understanding what you could possibly see in an older, divorced, single father.

That was the other issue, sure you knew about Jack but there was a difference between knowing about him and wanting to be a part of his life and as much as Aaron had liked you he knew he couldn’t bring somebody into his life who couldn’t accept Jack.

So the pining went on for months as Aaron made the decision for you that you didn’t want to be burdened with a child that wasn’t yours. And when you finally pulled Aaron’s head out of his arse and made him talk about the feelings between you, you could have slapped him silly.

Sure kids weren’t exactly your forte but you’d at least have liked the chance to decide that. From there Aaron had introduced you to Jack after the two of you went on a few dates. The two of you decided the best place would be out in public, a little less daunting and that’s how you ended up at the zoo.

Jack had warmed up to you rather quickly and you surprised yourself with how good you were with him. Eventually it was Jack asking if you could have a sleepover at their house rather than Aaron trying to explain that you might be there in the morning sometimes.

Aaron was so glad you had talked him out of his own head way back when, and as he watched you with Jack, he knew, not that there was any doubt, that he’d made the right choice.

-

“Can we watch a movie?” Jack asked as the three of you entered the house.

“Buddy, it’s nearly bedtime.” Aaron reminded him as he took your coat from you before taking his own off.

“Please daddy,” Jack pleaded, turning on the puppy dog eyes, “I’ll brush my teeth and put my pyjamas on.”

He looked at you but you were looking down at Jack with a soft smile and he couldn’t say no if he wanted to.

“Deal, teeth and pyjamas, we’ll meet back here in five.” Aaron said and grinned as Jack took off running.

“C’mere baby,” He mumbled as he pulled you closer to him, wrapping you up in his arms. “I missed you so much.”

“Missed you too.” You confessed into his chest before titling your head up. Aaron was quick to turn his head, leaning down and capturing your lips in a soft, slow kiss. When he pulled away he didn’t go far, resting his head on your forehead.

“Can’t wait to have you all to myself these next few days.” He told you quietly, fingers brushing against your waist.

“Me neither, it’s going to be heaven.” You replied, matching both his tone and the smile on his face.

“Daddy,” Jack’s voice pulled you away from each other and you turned to see the kid grinning up at Aaron showing his freshly brushed teeth and proudly wearing his Captain America pyjamas. “You and Y/N/N need your pyjamas too.”

“Of course we do!” You exclaimed, taking Aaron’s hand in yours and pulling him towards the bedroom with instructions for Jack to put a movie on.

“Really can’t wait to have you all to myself.” Aaron said again as he watched you pull your shirt over your head.

“Down boy.” You laughed, throwing the shirt at him.

Watching you undress made Aaron long to touch you but seeing you dressed in his clothes, sweatpants that were way too big for you and a college shirt that drooped off your shoulders was somehow infinitely sweeter.

“I love you.” He told you, pulling you close to place a kiss on your exposed shoulder.

“I love you too.” You smiled before turning around and kissing him. “Get changed.” You ordered.

“Yes ma’am.” Aaron laughed but did as you said.

Aaron couldn’t help but smile as he held his family in his arms. Jack was half in your lap and half in Aarons and you were sat flushed against him, head resting on his shoulder and your hand holding Jack’s leg.

The movie was still playing but Jack was fast asleep against his chest and you were pretty close to following. Despite that though, Aaron couldn’t bring himself to move and send you both to bed. Instead he tightened his grip on both of you, smiling as you cuddled further into him.

This, this was all he needed, you and Jack by his side. His little family, both of whom had been through so much. All he wanted to do was protect both of you and he would, god would he do anything to protect the pair of you.

You were one of the best things that had happened to him, he had known it since the day he had met you and he had known it two weeks ago when the team finished a case in California and he walked into the jewellers to buy the ring and he knew it now, looking down at you holding onto him and Jack.

He knew you were the best thing to happen to him in a really long time and he would forever be thankful that he had found you.

[random4townheadcanons]

Hey I love your work and was wondering if you could do 4 Town being protective of each other!

4town members being protective of each other headcanons

(This is going to revolve mostly around interviews).

Robaire - Robaire is usually very polite and composed in interviews, but he will not hesitate to defend his bandmates and shut down interviewers who ask them too-personal questions. He gets particularly angry when interviewers treat him as though he is above the other members and will get confrontational if need be. If anyone says anything bad about the other members, he will not have it, and will leave.

Jesse - as the oldest, and being the “dad of the group”, Jesse naturally feels very protective over the other members, particularly Tae. He sometimes begins to answer questions in interviews for the other members, but will then stop himself and let them answer their own questions, but if he feels like the question crosses a line, he won’t let any of them answer it. Jesse also worries a bit about the other members getting themselves into bad situations, even though he knows they are mature and smart enough. It’s just in his nature to worry.

Tae Young - as the youngest, Tae is sheltered and protected pretty heavily by the other members, to whom he is grateful. Tae feels like it is his responsibility to do the same for them. Tae reciprocates Jesse’s feelings of needing to protect him, and reassures Jesse that even though he is the oldest, it does not mean he has to answer every tough question or take the most responsibility out of the group.

Aaron T - T is the goofy, affectionate, sweet member of the group so it may be surprising to many that he is highly defensive and easily upset by intrusive interviewers. Of course he is particularly very protective of Z. T knows how sensitive Z really is, so when someone asks Z an overly personal question, T will find a subtle way to change the subject without losing his cool. Afterwards, he will talk to Z and make sure he is ok, and will comfort him if he is upset.

Aaron Z - just as T is protective of Z, Z is also protective of T. As a very sensitive, sometimes emotional member, Z can sometimes shake with rage when an interviewer asks T (and the other members) inappropriate questions. Z does not want someone as sweet and important to him as T to have to deal with this kind of stuff. Z is definitely an angry crier, so if something really gets to him, he will either cry afterwards or have to stop the interview.

I like to imagine that 4town doesn’t have to deal with terrible interviewers, but this is just in the hypothetical situation if they did.

KEEP SENDING REQUESTS!!