#I am slightly nervous about the fix we made there to make it work cuz to do it more... reliable

[interstellarvacuumcleaner]

the electric wiring in houses usually consists of phase and the neutral wire, my guys, don't forget about neutral wire

[rebeccccccaaa]

TEᑎᔕIOᑎ

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ᗩGEᗪ ᑌᑭ!ᑭETEᖇ ᑭᗩᖇKEᖇ ᙭ ᖇEᗩᗪEᖇ

ᔕᑌᗰᗰᗩᖇY: You and Peter have always been very flirty and touchy with each other. You chalked it up to just how he is, not that you minded. But what happens when Peter gets hit with Hydra’s infamous sex pollen and all he seems to be doing is moaning your name. 

ᗯᗩᖇᑎIᑎGᔕ: smut of course lol 18+ (virgin kink?, first time!reader, experienced!Peter, etc, unprotected sex cuz i forgot to write that lol be safe though, and a digusting amount of fluff) 

ᗩ/ᑎ: (non/dub con as per usual with sex pollen fics) although i tried to make as consensual as possible 

ᗯOᖇᗪ ᑕOᑌᑎT: 4.0k (i’m so sorry this is so long lmao)

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“We’re back!” Tony shouted, his voice echoing in the building. They had gone on a mission to infiltrate yet another Hydra base.

Peter was currently sitting and watching television and you were watching from the kitchen making two drinks for you and Peter. You both looked to the team walking in before scurrying beside Bruce and Tony who walked straight into the lab. 

“What did you get this time?” you asked excitedly. Sometimes the team brings back really cool things back from missions and in particular the Hydra missions have the coolest things. Unusually, Thor too walked in the lab before you all circled around the table and Tony placed a plant. 

He backs away as did Bruce and Thor so after looking at Peter with wide eyes you both also stepped back. 

“What is it?” Peter whispered.

“A plant,” Thor said.

“Not shit, Goldilocks. What does it do? You told us to take home, now what?” Tony said.

“Well, Man of Iron, it’s a sex pollen plant.”

“A what?” you gasped.

“Most planets use this as a sort of breeding plant; some species don’t really have the… stamina that Midgardians and Asgardians have.”

As Thor explained this, Tony and Bruce huddle away from the plant moving towards the computer to write down notes and data about what Thor was telling them. You followed pursuit also being intrigued by it. 

Unfortunately Peter did not follow and instead moved closer to the plant to take a closer look. The flower was beautiful. The petals were a soft shade of periwinkle and the pollen was yellow almost like gold. The same shade of golden yellow dust swirled around the flower itself. It was hypnotizing. He really wanted to smell it.

Suddenly as Peter got closer just to give it a quick sniff, he could smell an almost overbearing amount of your scent. That delicious scent of vanilla and lavender that you smelled so nicely of. That scent that made Peter want to run his hands through your hair and his nose along your neck. 

“One thing you should never do is inhale its pollen, if one does it could heighten their desires into madness.”

Peter looked up with wide eyes knowing he just did something he probably shouldn't have done. 

“What desires exactly?” Bruce asked.

“Well, sex.”

Peter started coughing.

“Pete are you ok?” you asked walking up to him.

He looked you in your eyes and his own dilated insanely. You backed away slightly concerned for your friend only for him to take a step closer to you. The lab coated with silence analyzing his behavior since it was so unlike him. Tony got up from sitting on a stool and Thor puffed his chest anticipating his next move; he was certain the boy breathed in the plant’s pollen. 

“It smelled just like you,” he whispered close to your face; his hands reaching under your shirt slightly.

The minute he put his hands on you, all three men ran you and Peter. Bruce pulled you behind him while Tony and Thor grabbed Peter dragging him away from you. You felt hot after what Peter had just done; in front of people too. He thrashed in Thor’s and Tony’s grasp, groaning and shouting from them to let him go. 

You felt tears brimming your eyes. You did not like Peter like this. He was crying and begging to be with you, which you’ll admit surprised you. 

“What’s happening to him?” you asked from behind Banner.

“The boy seems to have inhaled the pollen as I said not to do.”

“Yeah I get that! Why is he crying? Is he hurt?” you asked.

“Not exactly, the pollen will affect his mind and simulate pain as if he were to die, but his body will be perfectly fine.”

“What?” you all said at the same time.

“How do we fix it?” Tony asked.

“Y/n, baby. Please,” Peter practically moaned making everyone kind of uncomfortable.

“Well, the only way I’m aware of is, well, sex. And it seems like Peter desires the young lady,” you eyes widened and you shifted under everyone’s stares. 

“No, no way,” Tony said; you were like a daughter to Tony and therefore boys were something he wasn’t too keen on the idea of you having. He still thinks you’re too young even though you’re already a consenting adult. 

“Tony, the boy-”

“No, I’m not letting Y/n do that. We’ll find a different cure. Take him to his room and don’t let him out.”

“Tony, are you sure about this?” Bruce asked Tony.

“Yes I’m sure, Banner. There’s no way in hell I’m putting her in that situation. It’s not fair. Now come on, more time talking, less time finding a cure.”

“Technically there’s already a cure,” Thor muttered. 

“Go!” Tony pushed him out. 

“Is he gonna be ok?” you softly asked, hearing his cries and screams for you as Thor took him to is room.

“He’s gonna be alright, bug,” Tony said, hugging you. 

Steve and Nat both walked in the lab after changing out  of their clothes concerned with all the screaming they had been hearing.

“What happened?” Nat asked.

“Thor had us bring this plant home for analysis and turns out this shit makes anyone who smells the pollen horny as hell.”

“Really? Come on Tony, we heard the kid crying and screaming. What’s really going on?” Steve didn’t believe him at first.

“He wants to… have sex,” Bruce said shyly.

“Wait really?” Nat asked.

“With who?” Steve hesitantly asked curiously.

Tony and Bruce simply look at you, which you curled into yourself feeling embarrassed. 

“Oh no, honey are you ok? Did he do anything?” Nat asked, holding your hand.

“I’m fine, I’m just worried about him.”

“Don’t. We’ll fix this I promise,” Tony said getting to work.

Well now it’s been 8 hours and Peter is still crying and moaning your name. You had been in Nat's room with her, Steve, and Bucky. Sam and Thor had been outside ‘patrolling’ Peter’s room making sure he was as ok as he can be, though it’s been proven that he seems to be in excruciating pain. 

Tony and Bruce had been in the lab the entire day, you’d think they made wonderful progress and found a cure by now but no. All they’ve found was normal samples of Peter’s… everything. He was physically perfectly fine. 

You were very quiet as they played video games and watched movies. You couldn’t help but feel burdened because you knew you could fix all of this. All you needed to do was go to Peter’s room and let him have his way with you. It’s not like you wouldn’t mind. You and Peter have always had this sort of tension and extra friendly behavior between you guys ever since you met. 

To say you hadn’t developed feelings for him would be a huge lie. 

“Are you ok?” Nat asked you.

“No, not really.”

“I know you want to help him but it’s for the better. Let Tony and Bruce find a cure.”

“Actually that won’t be happening anytime soon,” Thor said, walking with Sam. 

“What happened?” Steve asked.

“They haven’t found anything and although Peter will be physically fine, mentally he could be extremely traumatized by the time they find something, if anything. The pollen mimics physical pain until sexual ‘needs’ are fulfilled by the person they desire most,” Thor looked to you at the end. 

“I want to help him,” you said.

“Y/n, that’s not fair to you,” Steve said.

“And it’s not fair to Peter if I don’t help! He didn’t mean to smell the flower. I can't just sit here waiting for nothing to happen when I can go in there and help him!” you argued, “If I don’t, he’ll not only hate you for keeping me away from him but me too for not trying.”

“Don’t be silly, he’d never hate you,” Nat said.

“He will if I’m the reason he’s going to be traumatized for the rest of his life.”

“Come with me,” Nat said, holding your hand.

“Nat,” Steve warned.

“Steve, you and I both know this has to happen. They’re adults,” Nat shot back. 

You followed Nat out of the room. 

“Are you absolutely sure about this? Your first time should be special-”

“First time?” your eyes widen.

“Y/n, I know you're a virgin.”

“I’m not a virgin,” you mumbled.

“Really? When was your first?” she poked.

“It was- was in, it was high school,” you stuttered.

“With who?”

“... Tommy?” you said after a long moment of silence, trying to come up with a name.

“Tommy?” Nat smirked.

“Yeah, he was in my history class,” you lied.

“Ok we’ll work on that,” she said.

“On what?”

“Lying.”

“Hey, virginity is merely a social construct made by men who think their tiny dicks have the ability to change a woman’s life. It’s gonna be like a five second pump; I’ll be in and out,” Nat laughed at that.

“Ok, fine. Follow me.”

You followed her to Peter’s room where his moans and groans got louder with each step you got closer. Truthfully you were a bit nervous about the situation. Sure you did imagine your first to be extra special in a dim lit room with flowers and with someone you love. Well, now it looks like it’s going to be a dark room with your best friend who’s in the room driven by magic sex pollen, but at least you love him. 

You got to the door and Peter instantly knew you were on the other side. His senses overwhelmed him with your scent, your racing heart beat. You exchanged a few words with Nat before she hugged you and left you to go into his room alone. 

You slipped inside and immediately met with Peter crawling on the floor to you in nothing but a pair of boxers; a large prominent tent formed where his dick was. 

“Y/n, you’re here,” he rubbed your legs and kissed your thighs softly still on the floor at your feet. 

“Yeah, I am. I’m here to help you,” you said shakily.

“Oh god, you smell so good,” his hand reached up behind your thighs towards your ass and you panicked. 

“Peter wait,” you pulled his hand away. 

“What, baby? What’s wrong?” he too panicked.

“Nothing, I just… I’m kinda scared.”

“Of what? Of me?” he stood up and backed away from you.

“No! Not of you. I’ve never… done this, you know?”

“Y/n, why are doing this then- ugh!” he groaned, a wave of need and sexual frustration rushed over him making his body cramp. 

“I want to help you,” you grabbed his hand; he pulled his hand back very quickly and retracted his body over to the bed. 

“Peter, please let me help you,” you walked over to him.

“No, Y/n. I can’t do that to you.”

You were getting tired of his arguing. You wanted to do this. You rushed to him and took your shirt off hoping that’ll prove a point or something. 

“Look, look. I want to help you, Pete. Let me do that,” you cupped his face making him look at you. 

His eyes were so dilated nearly black as he looked into your eyes. His hands caressed your bare stomach and lower back making goosebumps rise across your body. He leaned forward running his nose along your neck breathing you in. He used every ounce of control he had in his body to not flip you on the bed rail you into the mattress. He had to be gentle. The idea of you never have been touched shouldn't have turned him on as much as it does. 

Your stomach fluttered and you let out a shaky breath. Arousal pooled in your underwear with each move that Peter made. Your hands rested on his shoulders unsure of what to do but thankfully Peter moved your hands in his hair and you gently ran your fingers through his curly brown locks as he kissed and nibbled at your neck. 

He moved your bra strap down your shoulder tracing his lips along your collarbone to your shoulder.

“I'm so sorry, baby,” he whispered against your skin.

“It’s ok Pete, I want to help you. Teach me. Teach me how to make you feel good.” 

He practically growled picking you up and laying you on his bed. He kissed your stomach and left small bites and purple marks littered across your belly. He looked at you to make sure you were ok before pulling your shorts down your legs and off to the side. He continued to kiss up and down your legs growing harder at the small pants and gasps you made above him. 

“I'm gonna give you a little taste, ok darling?” he whispered against your inner thighs.

You nodded and lifted your hips off the bed for Peter to easily take your underwear off. You grew embarrassed at how wet you were. Peter only chuckled before going in a licking along your entrance. You gasped and clenched your thighs together, only to wrap around Peter’s head pulling him closer to you.

This isn’t Peter’s first time eating a girl out so he was obviously quite skilled in bringing you a lot of pleasure from his tongue alone. Now in his twenties, after high school and after his identity was revealed, Peter somewhat tumbled his way into playboy town just like his mentor. 

Girls left and right shot their chance to spend a night in the spider boy’s bed. But when Peter met you, oh boy, the kid fell in love. You were this innocent little thing that Peter just wanted to hold and take care of all the time. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He stopped seeing other women in hopes that one day you’d be out of your mind enough to give him a shot. 

Now here you were, laying in his bed like an angel, letting him have his way with you because he was shithead and smelled the flower when he wasn’t supposed to. 

Your hips squirmed around, pressure building up in the pit of your stomach. You moaned loudly as you got closer to your oragsm. Your hands went to Peter’s hair making him hum when you tugged on his hair. His vibrations pushed over the edge and you came for the first time that night on Peter’s face.

“God that was hot, baby. Are you ok?” he asked, crawling up your body after discarding his boxers.

“Yeah, that was amazing,” you cupped his face, smiling.

He leaned down and kissed you for the first time ever. His hands roamed your almost naked body except for your bra of which you still had on. Not for long of course. Peter leaned back to sit up pulling you with him so you were now sitting straddling his lap. 

You could feel his dick against you and your body shuddered in arousal. His hands wrapped around you to skillfully remove your bra, the last piece of clothing left on you. When he did so you covered yourself in instinct never having been naked in front of anyone before in your life. 

“Don’t cover up princess. You’re so beautiful. I wanna see you,” he whispered, cupping his hand under your chin so you could look at him.

“Sorry, it’s- It’s a lot,” you whispered back. 

“I know and I’ll try to go slow but if I’m not inside you right now I think I’m gonna pass out,” he moaned. 

You looked down in between your bodies to find Peter’s dick big, swollen, and red. You felt bad because you don’t know if it’ll fit inside you and it looks painful. 

“Please, Yn,” Peter had tears in eyes begging for you to take the pain away.

“Ok, I’m ready.”

Peter grabbed his cock and lined up to your entrance. You got up and slowly sank down feeling him stretching you out. With how aroused and wet you were after Peter’s mouth you were able to slide all the way down without feeling too much pain.

Peter moaned when he bottomed out and grabbed your face you kiss passionately. You moved slowly up and down and soon all the pain you felt subsided into pleasure and you too started moaning above him. 

“You look so fucking good riding me, princess.”

His words made you moan even more embarrassed that everyone can probably hear you and Peter having sex. You bit your lip in hopes to silence the moans as much as possible, but Peter didn’t like that.

“Don’t. I want everyone in this building to know who fucking you this good,” he flipped you over onto you back and started thrusting wildly. 

“Let them know what a good little girl you are for daddy. Let them know who’s name you’re gonna be screaming all night.”

“Peter oh god,” you moaned.

“Huh? You like it when I call you a good girl?”

“Yes!”

“My good girl. My little slut,” Peter groaned in your ear.

You were getting insanely close to your climax and Peter’s words only sped up the approach. 

“Daddy, I think I’m close,” you whispered, pleasure becoming overwhelming.

“Let go baby. Cum all over my cock,” he said.

Your oragsm ripped through you and you practically screamed into his ear. Pleasure came over you in a huge wave. Your eyes screwed shut and your legs wrapped around Peter’s torso pulling him impossibly close. Your body felt limp under Peter’s and when you opened your eyes Peter's face held worrisome and frustration. 

“What’s wrong?” you asked.

“I haven’t came,” his voice trembled.

“It’s ok. We can keep going,” you said tiredly.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he buried his face in your neck.

“You won’t hurt me, Peter. I promise.”

He kissed softly before gently flipping you over and thrusted into furiously.

Six hours later Peter finally came after you did so nine times; and that was before you stopped counting. Your body shook and Peter cleaned you up. He had a small fridge where he kept drinks from time to time and grabbed a water bottle for you to drink. 

You breathed heavily after drinking a copious amount of water before laying back down. You turned to check the clock on his bedside and saw that it was around three thirty in the morning. Peter crawled into bed with you, both still naked not caring enough to change. He held you impossibly close, burying his face in your shoulder. 

“I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” he mumbled in your skin. 

“I mean it was a lot,” you chuckled.

“I swear if it weren’t for that stupid fucking pollen our first time would have been softer and special,” he said, making you look at him with surprise. 

“What do you mean?”

“Uh, well, look. Y/n, I really like you and I know that timing is horrible but it’s true. I promise.”

“Well, I like you too,” you smiled at him.

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“Wow. God, you’re amazing. Thank you for today,” he whispered, cuddling you close.

“Of course. I’d do anything for you.” 

You both fell  asleep soundly in each other's arms until you both woke up the next day from loud yet muffled voices downstairs. The sun was shining very bright, lighting the whole room up brightly. You stirred around and peeked over Peter’s sleeping body to find that it was around noon already and you two were still in bed. 

Peter moved a bit slowly waking up. You turned around to face and watched his beautiful face slowly come to life. His eyes met your eyes and you both smiled before bursting into giggles; hiding your face in his chest. 

“We’ll have to get up soon, you know,” he said, making you sigh dramatically.

“Let’s run away, before they make fun of us. They had to have heard, right?” you said, slightly panicked.

Peter just laughed and shook his head. He reached to kiss you, moving your hair off your neck eyes widening. 

“Oh man,” he said, thumb rubbing the dark spots he left on you.

“What?” You pushed the sheets off your body feeling intensely sore. You heard Peter gasped as you trotted to a mirror.

Your body was covered in bruises and hickeys that Peter left for literally everyone to see. When you looked in the mirror you yelled Peter’s name completely shocked at the state of your body. 

“I can’t believe you!”

“Well, in my opinion I think you looking fucking sexy,” he said coming up behind you.

“I like them,” you said shyly, “But everyone’s gonna see them, no?”

“I’m sorry, it won’t happen next time.”

“Next time?”

“Hell yeah. Only if you want of course,” he chuckled, “Let’s take a shower before we grab some food.”

That was filled with giggles and little touches. Kisses were exchanged practically every minute. You both came out of the shower and Peter so generously lent you a pair of clean boxers and one of his shirts fitting way too big on you. He wore these delicious looking grey sweatpants and a tight fitted black shirt. You practically drooled over him.

“No, later,” he winked.

He grabbed your hand, intertwining your fingers before heading down stairs preparing for what could be an upcoming disaster. You came down stairs meeting everyone appearing to be arguing probably over what you did. Everyone noticed you two and immediately stopped conversing. 

Tony sat on a stool, arms crossed and an unamused look staring at you both while everyone else looked down or at each other, anywhere at but you guys.

“Before you say anything, everything that happened is my fault,” Peter pulled you behind him. 

Tony simply looked at you and made you feel shy and ashamed somewhat under his gaze. He told you to stay away and you didn’t listen.

“Don’t even look at her. She has nothing to do with this,” he said when Tony shifted his gaze.

“Relax, kid. Look we all talked. Thor told me about the effects the pollen can have mentally and the trauma it can impact when ‘untreated’ for too long. We weren’t going to find a cure anytime soon and I don’t even want to think about the consequences you’d have to pay because I'm a stubborn old man who didn’t like seeing the kids not be kids anymore. You both are adults and I had no right to interfere with that. Besides everyone knows you two are in love.”

“We’re not in love,” Peter mumbled.

“Love is such a strong word,” you mumbled simultaneously. 

“Don’t argue with me,” Tony said. 

“Sorry,” you both whispered.

“I’m sorry,” he admitted.

“We also agreed that starting today we will be installing soundproofing in both of your rooms and Y/n, maybe put some ice on…” he pointed to your neck but then waved around your whole body because you were pretty beaten up. 

“Thanks, guys,” Peter said holding your hand again.

“Congrats on getting the girl finally,” Steve said.

Before you two left you saw Nat wink at you and you smiled running away with Peter most likely to go cuddle and maybe fuck another round if your body feels better. As much as you hate to admit, thank god Peter smelled that fucking plant. 

[catzula]

Hello hello! I saw that you're opening requests so here i am! May i have a fic of Katsuki where he found the reader who's usually is a tough nut to crack, is 99% of the time never really cry and acts like a crackhead suddenly starts crying after one of Katsuki's empty insults he usually threw at her? And it turns out that she was very overwhelmed about the amount of work, deadlines, pressure and pretty much problems twirling around her to the point where one insult that she KNOWS he didn't even mean it can throw her over the edge? And Katsuki just went '?!?!?!' and didn't know what to do? Kinda feeling pretty much like this rn lmao, and kinda want comfort especially if it's from the boom boom man.

Anyways- i absolutely adore your work!

•words and promises•

A/N: this request was really cute and so relatable cuz ever since the schools started again, they've been going so hard on us I don't even have the time to sleep sometimes (but I have the time to write- ironic huh) I hope you're feeling better now, tho! Thank you so much for the request, I hope this was comforting rather than triggering cuz bakugou is mean here lmao

bnha taglist!: @astroninaaa

W.C: 3.2k

Warnings: cursing, insecurities (I think?), stress and anxiety

Genre: angst with a good ending, comfort

"And please hand the summary in by Friday. Todoroki-kun, could you make sure to collect them from everyone and hand them to me?" Midnight asked with a bright smile, leaving the room when Todoroki nodded, everyone else groaning in frustration.

"She wants us to read a whole goddamn book and summarize it in a week?" Kaminari cried out, voicing all of your inner thoughts.

"You, know, Kaminari-kun, it's not entirely impossible to do that." Iida interrupted, fixing his glasses. It would've been a bit more convincing if he didn't have purple bags under his eyes and looked like he was about to pass out.

"Maybe It wouldn't have been impossible if we didn't have 20 other summaries and essays to write!" Mina shot back, and Iida had no answers to that.

You stood silent, but that was because you felt like you couldn't breathe. Everything they were saying was true, this was all too much, and you had no idea how to overcome it. Not even aware you zoned out, you were awoken by your state by a hard snap of a finger in front of your eyes.

"Watcha looking at?" The owner of the fingers asked, and despite his hard voice, his ruby red eyes had a playful glint to them.

"I was just worried if you're smart enough to actually finish an assignment." You told mockingly, and he scoffed.

"Look at the one talking, you were the one who came to my door last night, begging me to help you with the science homework."

"I didn't beg!" You protested. "I just asked you if you did it and you offered to help me!"

"I offered to help just because I pitied you." He muttered, his harsh words causing the rest of the class to gasp and look at you, half expecting you to get mad and scream at him, even though this scene was happening more often than they would like to admit.

These little fights you had with Bakugou was now almost a part of their day. It was an odd relationship you had, always attacking each other, sometimes maybe taking it a bit far, but both of you always knew it wasn't coming from the heart.

When you stood silent, sending a mocking laugh his way, and kept scrolling through Instagram, he was a little surprised.

You were never silent, you always, always had something to say back. In fact, that was one of the things he loved- hated about you. Whatever he told you, you had something clever or dumb to say, and you were so brutally blunt when he fought with you, sometimes he found himself laughing at the insults you threw at him.

Still, his pride stopped him from asking if something was wrong, on the contrary, he was happy to finally have some quiet time, he told himself. You could feel his eyes on you as you thoughtlessly scrolled through your Instagram feed, but you didn't have it in you to argue, you were too tired for that.

Bakugou scoffed after looking at you for a while, still expecting you to poke fun at him, but when you sat still, he gritted his teeth and sat back at his place.

■■■

Bakugou never thought he would miss arguing with you.

He noticed you were acting a bit odd, not once trying to get in a fight with him, not even a snarky comment coming from your way. It was weird to see you so quiet, and it was getting on his nerves.

You weren't entirely silent, but whenever he tried to lul you into fighting with him, you just looked at him with a blank smile and went on doing whatever it was you were doing. And Bakugou was not someone you could just ignore.

Your friends had started to catch up with Bakugou's growing frustration, his now harder comments, and how you simply ignored them. They thought you were tired of him (really, who could judge you? Everyone knew how extra Bakugou sometimes could be), and didn't think of it as much, except one particular red-head.

Kirishima noticed how you clenched your teeth, how your hands turned into fists, your knuckles turning white whenever you heard a comment about you. He was probably the only one that actually understood the odd relationship between you and Bakugou, so Kirishima was more than aware that something was troubling you. He also knew better than just simply asking you, well aware you would never accept that there was, in fact, something bothering you.

You had never been the type to talk about your feelings easily, always trying to fix things by yourself, and taking pride by doing things alone. Your stubborn nature sometimes reminded him too much of a certain ashy blonde.

"Hey, Y/N." He approached you at a break, noticing the dark circles under your eyes. "Oh, hey, Kiri-kun, what's up?" You asked with a slightly forced smile when you felt his eyes examining you.

"Nothing much, we're gonna meet up in Mina's dorm tonight, you know, to partly study and talk. You've been kinda distant lately, you wanna come?" You bit your lip thoughtfully. You wanted to go, but there was so much to do and so little time that you felt like you didn't even have time to sleep, let alone spend time with your friends.

"I- I don't know." You muttered with an apologetic smile. "I don't think I can, I really should work on the homework."

"Oh come on," He insisted. "You don't have to stay long, and it's nice to take a break sometime, you know."

Taking a break. Something you've been putting off doing for a long time.

"You've been pushing yourself quite a lot, you know. Don't think we missed how tired and stressed you've been lately."

"I'm not-" You tried to deny, but sighed when he looked like he wouldn't believe whatever you told him. "Okay, I'll be there." You told him, and he sent you a cheeky smile.

"Just make sure we have enough coffee."

"I personally will take care of that." He winked, and you giggled, shaking your head side to side. You didn't even notice the ruby eyes watching you two as you laughed, a dreadful feeling forming in the pit of Bakugou's stomach since it was someone else who made you laugh. Not him. All he could do was to mess with you.

The frustration he felt reflected on his words, too. Sure, Bakugou was never nice, but over the past years you had spent with him, he had learned to be, well, not so aggressive. But as the day went by, he just kept attacking you in a way that made you feel trapped.

And even though you never noticed, the way you seemed to ignore him whenever he tried to get a reaction from you just made everything worse, causing Bakugou to get even braver with his attempts to fight.

And he was aware of it, too. Bakugou could feel his heart beating faster in his chest whenever he told you something, a fear in him that told him he just went too far this time, but nonetheless, he still didn't even get one look his way.

"Miss Y/N? Can you answer this?" You heard Aizawa calling your name, making you jump in your seat. You weren't even aware that you had zoned out. Again. "I- I'm sorry." You muttered after a few seconds, looking down at your hands and hiding your face.

A mocking laugh came from Bakugou's way, and you clenched your teeth, hoping he would just let it go with a scoff, but your hopes died when Aizawa quirked a brow.

"Bakugou? Have something to say?" He asked, and Bakugou scoffed. "How can you be so-" He started to say but stopped mid-sentence when you didn't even turn his way, playing with the pen that was in front of you, instead, as if you were telling him just your pen was more interesting then whatever he had to say.

"Whatever." He muttered, not bothering to finish the remark he was previously saying.

■■■

"I have to pull like a week of full nighters to get half of these done!" Mina groaned eyeing the books and papers that were towering on her desk, denying to fit into her bag.

"And Aizawa-sensei even talked to them to go easy on us." Ochako exclaimed nervously. Even Yaoyorozu, probably the only one that would actually be able to finish all the assignments, had bags under her eyes, either from stress or the lack of sleep.

You entered the room, only to find a bag full of canned coffee and Kirishima's wide smile, greeting you. "I kept my promise, you see." He told you as you settled on the floor across him. "And I kept mine." You answered with a tired smile. It was an unnecessary attempt to hide how tired you were at this point.

"Hey, Y/N, we were wondering if you were okay? You seem to be a little down lately and-" Ochako asked with a nervous smile, which you didn't even let her finish. Maybe it was rude what you did, but you didn't want to hear the end of that sentence.

"Oh I'm perfectly fine." You lied through your teeth. "Maybe just a little stressed, but really nothing important."

"Are you sure?" Mina quirked a brow at you, but before you could answer, everyone looked at the door when they heard a knock, and you took a deep breath of relief. Looking around you, everyone was here, and you weren't sure who it could be at the door-

"Bakugou, you showed up!" Mina cheered when she saw the grumpy blond leaning to the door.

"Tch," he scoffed, his eyes meeting yours for a second, the look in them sending shivers down your spine. "Only because you wouldn't get out of my hair if I didn't."

"It always works, though." She told him with a sly smile, causing his eyes to narrow in a threatening way. His gaze wandered around the room, eyes meeting yours for a second time that night, you noticed his hands turning into tight fists when you looked away.

It wasn't your intention to ignore him the way you did, you just didn't have the strength to fight back. You liked fighting with Bakugou, but lately, you felt like you would break if anyone so much as touched you, and Bakugou's words were -even though it was unintentional- often harder than a slap across your face.

He didn't think of it as something important, no one did, since you were the only one that could handle Bakugou and fight back. You never held your tongue, never quivered before him, never looked sad when he said something that would make anyone else break down crying.

No one ever knew, it did sadden you. Especially lately, with all the stress and pressure on you, it did make you feel like crying, but of course, you weren't going to admit to that.

So, you hid it. From everyone, from your friends, form Aizawa sensei and family. No one needed to know how everything was pressuring you in a way that the only thing you could feel was being trapped until you just... sorted things out.

"Hey, you okay?" Kirishima nudged you with his leg, waking you up from your dark thoughts. Not even aware you zoned out, your breath stuck in your chest, you gaped at him blankly for a second.

"Y-yeah." You answered with a smile, and you heard him sigh.

"Yeah, okay." He finally told you. "Just- just know you can talk to me when you don't feel good, 'kay? You know I'm always here to listen."

You did, you really did, but you just wanted to sort things out yourself, without anyone else, to prove to yourself that you were strong enough.

You nodded and reached for a can of coffee, hiding your watering eyes from him.

"Oh, since you're here!" You heard Mina shuffle some paper on her desk. "Could you help me with this math question? I've been working on it for a while now, but I just couldn't do it." She leaned your way, handing you the paper.

"Oh-" You bit your lip, feeling oddly guilty. "I'm sorry Mina, I couldn't do it either."

"Oh, that's okay, we'll just ask Bakugou, then." She shrugged thoughtlessly and turned to the blond that was watching your every move, looking awfully similar to a wolf watching his prey. His eyes narrowed when you followed your friend and got closer to him, not saying a word. The meek look in your eyes oddly disturbed him, even he wasn't sure why seeing you like this angered him, but it did. He could feel how your nervousness grew as you walked towards him, too.

"What? Too dumb to do it yourself?" He raised one brow, praying to get an annoying answer like you always did, but you just looked away, instead.

"Hey, what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you that dumb that you can't even-"

"Bakugou, that's enough." Kirishima interrupted, noticing your watering eyes, how you nervously chewed on your lip, but Bakugou wasn't listening to him. He was too focused on trying to get a reaction out of you, not even aware of anything else.

"What- did I offend the princess? Is that all you can do? Just stand there all pretty, not able to even defend yourself that people around you has to?" Bakugou blurted out, words coming out of his mouth in an angry fit. The second he said them, his eyes widened, realizing he went too far this time.

Too far.

He saw how you flinched at his words, and that's when you chose to look him in the eyes. Your lashes wet with tears you were desperately trying to hold back, one or two already sliding down your cheek. Only then did he notice how tense you were, and not only then, but almost all the time these last few days.

"I-" You tried to speak, but you choked on your words, your heart beating so loudly in your chest, and in your ears, you knew you had to get away from him.

Not even bothering to excuse yourself, you left the room in a rush, leaving ten gaping people after you.

"Wh-what the fuck?" Bakugou muttered, his eyes still fixed on where you were standing seconds ago.

"Are you fucking dumb?" Kirishima exclaimed suddenly. His eyes wide with disbelief, yeah, Bakugou was mean and he did go overboard sometimes, but this was something else.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" He kept pestering his dumbfounded friend. "What were you thinking as you said all those things to her? Hah?"

"I wasn't-"

"You weren't thinking, that's the problem! What's going on with you lately? How can you lash out at her so?!" Bakugou stood quiet, the rest of the room not even daring to make a sound.

"Shut up, shitty hair." Bakugou muttered as he walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Ochako asked meekly, gulping loudly when Bakugou sent a glare her way and exited without even answering her question.

■■■

It wasn't hard to find you.

Maybe it was because he knew you too well, even more than he was even aware, or maybe it was because you weren't as complicated as you thought you were.

The night was chilly, the stars so bright, he was certain you were out in the garden. He spotted you on the bench, feeling his heart clenching with the sight of your face hidden in your hands, shoulders shaking with sobs.

"Y/N." He called out, his voice making you jump in your seat. You sprinted to your legs immediately, wiping the tears with the back of your hand, though, not doing a good job since your face was still damp with tears.

"Bakugou- wh-what are you doing here?" You asked, taking a step back when he got closer to you. He noticed this, a dreadful feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.

"I'm here to..." Why was he here? Certainly not to apologize. No, Bakugou never apologized.

Or so you thought.

"I'm here cause I'm- sorry." He finally managed to say, almost inaudibly. "For the things I said back in there- and other times, too."

He watched as you bit your lip, a confused and hurt look in your eyes, and he wanted to kick himself for causing you to be like this. "Why-" You finally managed to say after a few seconds, "why did you say all that? Why did you-"

"I'm sorry." He repeated, and this time you didn't step back when he walked towards you. So close that you could feel his caramel scent enveloping you. "I'm really sorry."

"I was- I was being dumb, I didn't mean any of that, and I'm really, really sorry." He whispered, and before he even knew what happened, you had your arms wrapped around him. It caught him by surprise, but he instantly closed his arms around you, too, holding you so tightly, his body so warm and so safe, you found yourself crying once again.

"Shh," he whispered to your hair, his hand caressing your hair in a soothing way. "It's okay." He didn't really know what was okay, but he felt like you needed to hear those words.

And you did.

Your sobbed in his arms, your face pressed to that place in between his shoulder and neck as his hand stroking your hair. And you didn't know what it was, but after a while that felt like you were never going to stop crying, you felt your sobs dying slowly, until all that was left was your occasional sighs.

Bakugou had never seen you like this, never so vulnerable, never so open. But the soft smile on his face told you that he didnt hate it. And you didn't exactly hate it either, to finally be able to at least show a fraction of what you were feeling to anyone.

"I'm sorry." You muttered. "I got your shirt wet."

"Dumbass, why are you apologizing-" his eyes widened when he realized he insulted you again. "I didn't mean-"

"No it's okay." You giggled. "I still want to have those- whatever it is we have. Let's not change anything, I don't want you to act as if I'm fragile glass."

"Y-yeah." He answered, his chest finally feeling lighter since he saw you laugh. "Yeah, okay."

His eyes looked at your laughing face one more time. "Promise."

Even though you weren't sure why exactly he promised, you had a feeling it was to never make you cry again.

[2dmenenthusiast]

Let’s be sad together (Peter Parker x Depressed Reader)

A/N PLEASE READ!!: heeey so before we get into this, this story is told in the first person, which I know some people don’t like but I felt it was best for this particular fic because there is some self-hate in here and I didn’t want the reader to feel targetted and make them feel like shit? I hope that made sense. keep in mind this fic deals with themes of DEPRESSION, something I myself struggle with. So if you’re not comfortable with this, please don’t read. I’ve read plenty of x depressed! reader fics, and most of what I read doesn’t do the feelings justice or it romanticises depression. It’s usually like “oh youre depressed? Well i love you and boom youre fixed!” Yeah I hate shit like that lol. But I am certainly not trying to romanticise depression or mental illness by writing this. I wanted to make a fic people like me can relate to, the thoughts and feelings, etc. It was honestly super difficult, I wrote the first draft and completely scrapped it cuz I hated it. I really tried my best here, guys, and I hope you like it. And always remember that you’re not alone and things do eventually get better. It just takes time and a little help. Once again I tried to keep the reader as nuetral as possible so everyone can read! (I fucking suck at titles btw)

Plot: Peter notices something’s been wrong with you lately, and you prepare yourself for the inevitable break-up once he confronts you about it.

Words: 2,562

Warnings: Themes of depression and anxiety, self hate, angst

Loving Peter Parker was absolutely suffocating.

Sometimes I couldn’t decide if dating him was the worst or best decision I ever made, but I knew one thing for sure. He had me wrapped around his finger, and there was no leaving him even if I tried. Not that I wanted to. Peter is… well, he’s perfect. Sure, he’s dorky and can ramble about technical stuff that I can’t even begin to understand for hours on end, but if anything, those things only added to the list of reasons why he’s perfect. Oh, and he’s Spiderman. My boyfriend is Spiderman. In other words, nights were spent worrying about whether he’d make it home safely or not, and some were spent patching him up when he came knocking on my window after a particularly bad fight. He made me happy. Happier than I had ever been probably. So… why did I still feel this way?

At first, a part of me thought that being with Peter would… fix things, I guess. That maybe if I was in a relationship, it would cause all the rushing thoughts inside my head to go away. And at first, it did help. There were more nights that I could sleep peacefully, and there wasn’t a constant feeling of anxiousness sitting in my stomach. But of course, that relief never lasted long. I knew it wouldn’t, but a part of me hoped it would.

Overthinking had always been an issue. Every situation had a “what if,” and this was no different. Thoughts of Peter leaving me began to occupy my mind almost every second of every day, and now, rather than feeling relaxed in his presence, I felt a constant feeling of anxiety. Like my heart was stuck in my throat and I couldn’t breathe, an invisible weight crushing my chest. Sometimes I’d get so overwhelmed with my feelings that I’d have to leave the room and calm myself down so that I wouldn’t cry. And other days I’d completely close myself off from everyone, laying in my bed all day and feeling so upset and worthless.

This wasn’t Peter’s fault. No, he treated me like fucking royalty. This was due to my own dumb self and my own dumb emotions and my dumb fucking ways of overthinking shit I shouldn’t even be thinking about. But it’s always been like this, and no amount of listening to sad songs and telling myself everything was going to be okay was going to change that. I wasn’t immune to feeling insecure either. Especially when Peter hung out with his other friends, but I immediately told myself not to think about that stuff. I didn’t want to be that partner that gets jealous of their partner’s friends when I’m not getting every second of their attention. No, thinking that way felt toxic, and that was the last thing I wanted to be.

But sometimes, I couldn’t help those thoughts from sinking in. There were so many people out there. So many people that were funnier and better looking than me… So why did Peter settle for me? Why would he want to date someone with so much fucking baggage? Someone who could barely get out of bed in the morning while already wishing for the day to be over? Someone who thought so fucking little of themselves as a human being? There were times where I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror, because those were the days I really hated myself. Sometimes I feel like he fell out of love with me a long time ago and now he won’t leave me because he feels bad, which only made me feel worse for keeping him in a relationship he probably didn’t even want to be in. 

I couldn’t say anything to Peter about this. How could I? He would just try to fix everything and I didn’t need fixing. I just wanted him there to reassure me that he loved me as much as I loved him. That he wouldn’t leave me because of how mentally fucked I was. Even if he did tell me those things, I don’t know if I’d even believe him. My mind probably wouldn’t even let me. I imagined if I did try to tell him everything I was feeling, I probably wouldn’t be able to explain it in a way that he could understand. I was just so tired. Tired of waiting for the inevitable moment when Peter would break up with me, and I’d be left with an expected broken heart. I’ve even been preparing for the day it happens so that it doesn’t kill me when it hurts, just like I do with every situation. Rather than give my hopes up and be disappointed, I just assume the worst from the get-go. 

I don’t know how it hasn’t happened yet. How he hasn’t noticed the way I just shut down when the day gets hard. How I constantly look like I’m just in my own head, either when all of us are hanging out or when it’s just me and him. I want him to know. I want to tell him all the shit that’s running through my mind, but a part of me is terrified that I’ll just scare him away. So I just pretend it’s fine. Like I’m not ready to bust and rip open at the seams.

Today was another one of those days where I just felt like locking myself in my room and never coming out. However, the usual excuse of “I just don’t feel good,” didn’t work on Peter this time. He knew that there was something wrong. I could see it in the way he looked at me. I thought I had gotten away with it at first, laying in my bed and mindlessly scrolling on my phone, not even present in my head, just kind of there. But I knew I was screwed when I heard a knock on my window and opened my curtains just to see Peter sitting on the fire escape. I didn’t say anything as I opened the window, just watching as he stumbled into my room while pulling on the sleeves of my hoodie, something I often did when I felt that familiar anxiousness creeping in.

He made sure to shut the window after he was inside, and I immediately shrunk under his gaze when he turned to me, feeling too ashamed to meet his eyes.

“Hey, um…” 

He hesitated, and I watched the way he rubbed his palms against his jeans, almost as if he was feeling nervous. I could imagine how he was feeling, though. I was nervous too.

“I know this is kinda abrupt, um… but I just wanted to stop by and you know, make sure you’re feeling okay and all that. I was worried, so…”

Worried? He was worried about me? I blinked a few times, trying to rack my brain for a quick lie I could tell him, but that wasn’t what came out when I spoke.

“Uh… yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, I just… I guess I’ve just been feeling kinda low today.”

I immediately wanted to swallow the words that left my mouth, not believing that I actually willingly let him know that I wasn’t really feeling okay.

“Oh?” He took a step forward, which immediately made me want to take a step back. “How come? Was today just not a good day?”

Peter was so unbelievably sweet and considerate, I almost wanted to cry right then and there. He always treated me so well… but he deserved someone better. Someone that wasn’t me.

“I-I guess? I don’t know, it’s just kinda hard to explain,” I muttered, reaching a hand up to rub the back of my neck that felt strangely warm.

“Do you wanna talk about it? I have plenty of time. I actually left the group to come see you, so I don’t mind listening.”

My eyes slightly widened as my gaze quickly met his, looking at him as if he was crazy. Hell, he just might’ve been if he stopped hanging out with his friends just to see me.

“You… Why would you do that?” I asked softly, my voice almost a whisper as I tried to keep it from trembling.

His brows furrowed and he tilted his head slightly, looking at me almost incredulously as he stepped closer.

“Do I need a reason? I wanted to see you.”

He said it so confidently, as if he was so positive that he rather be spending his time with me than his buddies. It kind of made me feel a bit guilty. He could be spending his time with his friends and having fun, but instead, he was here, and I was trying not to break down in front of him.

“But your friends… wouldn’t you rather hang out with them?” I asked, arms crossing over my chest as if I was protecting myself from something.

Peter just smiled. “I could chill with them any time I want. Why would I skip out on an opportunity to see my baby, hm?”

My hand quickly shot up to cover my mouth, and I could feel tears starting to push through.

“He wouldn’t say that if he knew,” I thought, and it immediately became harder to contain the tears when he closed the short distance between us and placed his hands on my shoulders, his expression clearly one of concern.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

I shook my head, sniffling as I reached up and wiped at my teary eyes.

“I’m fine, I just-”

You’re not. You’re really not fine, y/n. This is not fine.

My walls were quickly crumbling down as a tear slipped down my cheek, which caused more to follow, and I let out a choked sob as Peter placed a hand on the back of my head and gently pulled me into his chest, his other hand running over my back. He didn’t say anything, just let me cry to my heart’s content as I gripped onto the front of his shirt for dear life.

“I… I’m not okay, Peter. Nothing’s okay,” I mumbled into his chest, and he gently pushed me back as he carefully held my face in his hands, thumbs wiping at my tear stained cheeks.

“What’s not okay, y/n? C’mon, talk to me.”

“Everything!” I yelled, and I could tell he was surprised by my sudden outburst as I pulled myself away from his embrace.

“Everything is not okay, Peter. Fuck, I just…” I brought my arm up over my eyes as my bottom lip quivered, my eyes burning as more tears fell. “Everything’s just so hard and I’m so tired. And I’m making everything so complicated for myself, it’s not even anyone’s fault that I’m feeling like this. It’s mine.” I sniffled and wiped at my eyes again, but it did nothing to stop the endless tears that had spent too much time being held in. “A-And I don’t know what to do, Peter. I really don’t. I’m so fucking tired of hurting and I just want the thoughts and feelings to stop. Fuck sometimes I just wish I felt nothing!”

I looked up at Peter when he didn’t say anything, and found that he was just looking at me. There wasn’t any judgement or disgust in his eyes. At least, not from what I could tell. He looked… worried. Maybe even a little sad. Was he upset over what I said? Is he bummed out that he found out what I’m actually like? I let out a sigh and wiped my nose against my sleeve, suddenly finding my feet very interesting as I looked down. The silence was fucking deafening, and in that moment, I wanted to throw myself off the fire escape and into traffic below.

“How long have you felt like this?” Peter suddenly asked, his voice quiet as if he was trying to not startle me.

I hesitantly looked up at him, pulling at my sleeves again as I shrugged my shoulders.

“If you’re talking about all the depressing shit, ever since my early teens, I guess. But um… I’ve been having other thoughts recently. Ever since we got together, actually.”

I winced as soon as the words left my mouth. Would I regret this? Most definitely. Did Peter need to know? No, but he deserved to.

Peter frowned. “Really? Like… what kind of thoughts?”

I sighed and ran a hand down my face.

“Fuck, Peter, I just… You’re Peter Parker. You’re Spiderman! And I’m just-”

“Amazing, beautiful, the best partner I could ever ask for. Should I go on?” he asked with a small smirk, and I let out an amused huff as I placed a hand against his chest and lightly pushed him.

“I’m serious, Peter. I’m just… I’m fucked up, okay? Nothing about me is normal, hell the thoughts I have certainly aren’t. And I doubt you wanna be with someone who has so much shit going on with them-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Peter interrupted, waving his hands in front of my face. “Who said anything about me not wanting to be with you?”

I scoffed. “I mean, it’s a no brainer, Peter. You saw me just now. I mean, sometimes I break down over the dumbest shit-”

“It’s not dumb if it makes you upset,” he said, his tone a bit harsh.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. No one had ever really validated my feelings like that before.

“I-”

“No, y/n. Why would you think any of this would be a problem for me? I mean… No, nevermind, I understand why you would think that. You can’t help it right? But listen to me.” He placed his hands on my arms, making sure I was focusing on him. “No matter how messed up you think you are… you’ll always be my favorite person, y/n. You don’t have to hide how you feel, you don’t need to be scared. If you’re having a bad day, tell me, and we can have a bad day together. We can lay in bed all day and munch on food that will probably take years off of our life, we can do anything you want. Just tell me, okay? If something ever happened to you… shit, y/n.”

He then pulled me into a bone crushing hug, holding onto me as if I’d disappear if he let me go.

“That’s my worst nightmare. I could handle being kicked out of the avengers or any other terrible stuff. But losing you? Just thinking about it breaks my heart, baby.”

I felt the tears rising once again as I took in what he said, not used to hearing someone say these things to me. Leave it to Peter Parker to make me feel completely vulnerable and open, something I usually hated. I immediately relaxed in his embrace, letting out a soft cry as my arms wrapped around his waist and I buried my face in his neck.

“I love you, Peter,” I muttered softly, my heart skipping when I felt Peter’s lips against my temple, smiling against my skin.

“I love you too, y/n. Please don’t ever forget that.”

Maybe opening up a bit wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.

[aleksadnezz]

Sweet Night 2

Jae x Reader

 It is Saturday and I don't have errands today but I don't want to waste this day by just laying on my bed and watch sum tv shows because that's what I always do (after my shift or when I don't have work). I decided to take a shower and wear a white shirt, jeans and one out of my three pair of shoes cuz I’m broke af. I put sum random stuff into my tote bag just in case cuz I still have no idea where I wanted to go. I head out my room and locked it. I glance over to the room across mine, I wonder when he will return my charger.. I’m just kidding. I wonder if he’s alright, I mean if he seems okay living alone and streaming all day? or all night not leaving his apartment. I’m just a concern co-tenant that’s all.

 I walked and walked and walked until I reached to the bus station. I didn’t wait that long for the bus to arrive, I hopped in thankfully there’s not much people at this hour. It’s only 10AM and I still have lots of time to waste. Since this bus is heading to the center of the city, where most people go cuz there are a lot of shopping malls and attractions I’ll stay there and let where it will lead me.

 When we reached the bus station, I immediately got off the bus and casually walked on the street. There are lots of stores in the area that I’m in, there are sum bookstores, clothing stores and cafés. I don’t usually go outside like this but when I do, I only go to market to buy groceries so it feels new to me to go out alone in a different place. What I like about living here is that people don’t actually care about others, it doesn’t matter to them whatever you do in public as long as it’s not harmful.

 I entered to sum clothing stores just to checked their prices and left right away. Damn. Why does clothes have to be that expensive, I can already buy five thrift items for that price. I went to a bookstore and bought one book. It’s a self-help book, though I don’t actually read but I want to give it a shot, this might be a new hobby for me so. I also went to Daiso which I think is now my favorite place, they sell random stuff and cute stuff which I ended up buying more than 5 items.

 Going to stores surprisingly took me 3 hours it’s already lunch time so I went to a café that also sells meals. The ambiance of the place is so calm and expensive, and there’s not much people inside which what I like. I ordered iced matcha and sum carbonara. After I eat, I headed back home cuz I might end up spending all my recent salary in just one day cuz that’s possible to happen. Knowing myself I’m a big spender but try to manage that since I’m now earning and paying my own bills.

 On the way home I didn’t saw the strange old man, thankfully. I’m tired and can’t deal with him right now. I put down all my bags on the floor, got change and lay on my bed. I was busy scrolling through my phone when I heard a knocked on my door so I stood up and walked over my door. My eyes grew bigger when I saw who knocked. It was my neighbor, Jae. He’s wearing sum navy long sleeve button down polo and jeans, way different from what he always wears except only his slides.

 ���Hi Jae.” I greeted.

 “Hello y/n. Do you have time?”

 “Yeah why?”

 “Um I know we don’t know each other that much but can you help me?”

 “Well, I guess what is it?” I honestly don’t have an idea what help he is asking. I don’t know he might ask me to help him move furnitures or carry huge boxes or even buy him food outside the building or sumthin.

 “I’m sorry if it’s so sudden, you’re the only person that can help me about this, can you do makeup on me?” Eh? that’s all? I really though he’ll make me carry boxes. When I looked at him, he’s scratching his forehead. I think he’s embarrassed. So cut-I don’t to make things complicated for him so I I’ll put my curiosity behind.

 “Yeah, of course.”

 “I already bought makeup earlier so you don’t have to worry.” I nodded and bite my lip. So, I have to go to his place? Omg

 “Uhh so where do you want us to do it?” Woah that sounds so wrong. I immediately covered my mouth that made him laugh. “I-I mean am I going to your place or?” I nervously laughed. Damn. What the fuck.

 “Anywhere you’re comfortable.”

 “Okay so.. my place?” I asked him and he nodded.

 “I’ll just get the stuff” he said and entered his apartment.

 I scanned my room making sure that my place is clean. All my dirty clothes are on my basket. I have no dishes in the kitchen. My bed is a mess so I quickly smoothen the crease I made on my bed earlier. I sat on my chair and suddenly felt my heart beats fast. I just realized that it is my first time inviting a guy that I barely know, in my apartment. Not that I trust easily, it just my gut feeling telling me that he’s a nice person.

 I heard a knocked so I stood up and opened the door.

 “Hello again” He smiled and extend his hand carrying a paper bag. I took it and oh boy it’s heavy.

“Have a seat.” I offered him to seat on my small dining table cuz I don’t have a couch in my apartment. I sat on the other chair across to him. I took out all the makeup inside the bag and lay it on the table. I think he bought every item that’s in the store, there are more than 10 products inside the bag.

 “Okay..” I looked at him and he fixed his posture and looked straight at my face. Woah. I never felt more shy in my life.

 “I already have moisturizer on.” He spoke. How come he can read my mind? Besides from being a streamer is he a mind reader too?

 “Do you think that’s enough cuz I don’t know what I bought.” He pointed the bag.

 “it’s.. a lot.”

 “I asked for assistance and the lady there suggested those.” I laughed. Poor boy.

 “I think she tricked you from buying everything.”  

 “Happy to help.” He said.

“Great. Okay I’ll put foundation on your face first.” I opened the bottle and put sum at the back of my hand. When I said that he bought every single item in the store, I mean it. He even has the complete set of brushes.

 I can see that he’s still staring at my face while I put foundation on his face. He’s prolly counting my acne and dark spots. I’m too shy to tell him not to look directly at me so I just asked him to unbox the products.

 “Can I ask?” I spoke.

 “Sure.” He answered while he’s busy unboxing each item.

 “Why am I the person you reached out for this?” I raised the foundation and brush, referring to the makeup.

 “Most of my friends are men I bet they don’t know anything about this and I think you’re the only woman that can help me plus you lived across  so..” I laughed when he said the last part.

 “What is this for? If you don’t mind me asking” There, I said it. I’m just curious why he wants me to his makeup at 3pm. Not sus at all.

 “A-ahh I have an event.. yeah an event I need to attend to”

 “Hmm. Is it like the streamercon thing?”

 “Y-yeah something like that.”

 “By the way what time is the event?”

 “Probably at 6 but I have to leave at 5.”

 “Alright I’ll just make it natural.” He nodded and stared at me again.

 “Do you play games?” He suddenly asked.

 “No and I will never.” He laughed.

 “Why?”

 “I don’t know, I just don’t like playing and It looks complicated”

 “Maybe at first but once you started playing, you’ll get used to it.”

 “Still not convince.”

 “How about hobbies? What do you do?” I stop what I’m doing and looked up as if that I’m thinking. He looked at me intently, waiting for me to answer.

 “Nothing.” I said and continue doing his face.

 “What? Really?” He said surprisingly.

 “Yeah, I don’t really have a hobby.”

 “How about that painting?” He pointed something on my back so I looked back to see. It was my painting on top of my drawer, I hid it behind my picture frame cuz I have a nowhere to hide it.

 “That was years ago. I don’t paint anymore.” No story behind it. I just stop doing it. Besides I got busy from working.

 “Why though? That honestly looks really cool.”

 “Really?”  He nodded. “Thank you.”

 “Alright.. down to the last part.” I finished doing his face and I didn’t put a lot of makeup since he already has great skin. I just put concealer under his eyes and brought colors back to his face. I grabbed the peach lipstick and twisted it open. Still laughing in my mind cuz the sale’s lady prolly made him buy 4 lipsticks.

 Now it’s my turn to look at him. I’ve been avoiding his gaze while we’re talking, trying to focus on what I’m doing. I don’t want to make it awkward for the both of us so I’ll just make it fast.

 “Just stay still okay.” He nodded while looking anywhere but me.

 I don’t know where to put my other hand so I let it rest on my lap while the other one is holding the lipstick. I raised my hand and before the tip of the lipstick even touch his lips, he grabs my wrist.

 “Why?”

 “Nervous.” He said, still not looking at me. I’ve seen guys afraid of having lipstick on them which I don’t understand why but I don’t question it either.

 “Is that necessary?” He added.

 “Not really but for you, yes. You’re quite pale, I don’t want you to look dead.” He slightly laughed and softly released my wrist from his hand.

 “Am I that pale?” I nodded.

 “Alright then.”

 “Do you want to?” Asking him is he wanted to put it on himself.

 “No, it’s my first time I might mess it up. I’ll just let you do it.” Woah.  I feel honored.

 “Okay hold still.” I leaned my hand on his face but I can see him leaning backwards.

 “Don’t lean!” He laughed.

 “Alright.. sorry.”

 I hold his shoulder using my other hand and raised the other to glide the tip of the lipstick on his soft lookin lips. I saw him shut his eyes and I find myself smiling cuz I think he looks like a cute little kid. I didn’t realize that the application was taking too long until he slowly opened his eyes. My smile slowly fades while my hands still attached to him, creating connection between us. Our eyes locked into each other for a solid 4 seconds until his eyes slowly landed on my lips-sxsnpRYrccxSWwhhelp

 “W-woah.. m-my makeup is a masterpiece.” I said and quickly moves away. I grab a palette with a compact mirror and hand it to him. He took it and scanned his face. I can feel my cheeks heating up.

 “Masterpiece…” He said and turned to me smiling.

 “Thank you so much y/n for helping me. I owe you.” Thankfully I’m not that dumb enough so I heard it right.

 “No worries Jae. Happy to help.” I said mocking him about the sale’s lady situation. He laughed.

 “No really. I can’t thank you enough.” His phone rings, he looked on it and put it in his pocket. “Also.. can you please keep the bag for me?” I nodded.  We stood up and walked over the door.

 “Sure.”

 “Thank you again y/n I’ll see you… sometime. I’ll definitely make it up to you.”

“Don’t bother. It’s alright.”

 “I insist.” He looked at me intently. It’s like there’s sum energy from his eyes or maybe it just him that made me agree to everything that he says. I think I need to go to hospital. There’s something wrong about here or there’s something wrong about me…

 “Alright. Alright.” I slightly raised both my hands, showing him that I surrender.

 “Good. See you then. Bye y/n” He smiled. What the fuck

 “Bye Jae.” I smiled back. I waited him to leave before I hardly shut my door. I leaned on the back of my door, thinking about what just happened today. There’s nothing wrong about me. It’s him. He’s the problem. The way he looked at me. The way he smiles. The way he laughs. Gosh.

 I’ve seen this in films before and I’m now living on it.

1   2   3    4   5 

[hi-dread]

Chapter 7: Rumi Usagiyama

A few months have passed since I went to the ~Just Kendo It~ gym and got a good beating by Mirko. It didn’t bother me that she won, I didn’t expect to win from the beginning. I was just surprised she wanted to fight me. A bonus I got from fighting her and watch her fight afterwards, is that I got to see her pose in so many ways. Her strong build with big, but not too big muscles, her white and silk-looking hair, even her mechanical arm just looked so great. I had a hard time not staring, and yes, I also got some good peeks at her big and thick butt with the cute and iconic bunny tail.

Anyway, a few months has passed and since I had so much free time, I didn’t do much but go to the gym and help out in the neighborhood with whatever I could and was allowed to do. Nothing special really happened, but I feel like my days have been better than they usually were back in my old world. I don’t know if it’s because I got a fresh start, or that I actually met Mirko and she took me in.

I’m glad that I met her. She changed my life in a way, gave me a place to work out at. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like she’s flirting with me when we’re sparring at the gym. Like she teases me when the sparring begins, and she even follows me back to my place.

For example, when we’re resting from the sparring, she hits me with some charming words, and of course I feel flattered and respond with the same kind of charming words. At times she shyly blushed and tried to hide it by turning her head, swinging her hair over her shoulder, and I could not help smiling at her.

Today is exactly 3 and a half months since I met Mirko and got to this world. We just finished some training at the gym as we were walking through the park. It’s a sunny day with close to no clouds on the sky and I looked out over the lake.

“Say, Mirko, when will you begin on your hero duties again?” I slightly looked at her, some of her white hair fell from her shoulder down over her chest. Mirko stopped walking, I only noticed it when I was a few steps ahead of her. I stopped and turned to the side, facing the lake, and looked at her, her head was down, some of her hair had fallen from her shoulders, her hand is squeezing the strap of her gym bag, and the cap she’s wearing is covering her face making it hard for me to see her facial expression.

“Mirko, are you okay?” I asked, not too worried, but wondering what’s up. We usually walk through the park or next to it and she never acted like this. She has always been very energetic and talked all the time, giving me a great time since she could hold the conversation, which I am very bad at. But we have never really talked about her hero work that much, and I’ve always wondered, and I finally mustered up the courage to ask her about it.

“I…” she muttered, her voice shaking a bit, she bit her lip “I-I don’t think I will continue it..” she said as she slowly looked up at me “I’ve talked to my manager and the doctors. They already gave me green light to begin the hero work a month and a half ago, and I wanted to get out there fighting the villains…” She paused, looking at me, and quickly turning her head, facing the lake. “I have been going back and forth in my own head pondering about it. But after I met you that night here in the park, and that you actually came to the gym and have been coming every day, it actually made me happy.”

Her head turns slightly to look at me as she gives me a slight smile “I was aware back then you saw me as the bunny hero: Mirko and I could tell you were a fan. But something was different about you compared to other fans.”

“Well…” I replied but didn’t say want to interrupt her. She kicks the grass at the edge of the lake “So it would be very unfair of me to get you in danger just because we hang out so much and the villains might get the wrong idea, y’know… so I don’t know if I actually want to continue, ‘cuz I like you”

I chuckle a bit, quite embarrassed, taking a step forward “Y’know, I may not be from around here, but I’ve known about you - Mirko - for longer than the amount of time we’ve spent together. I am a big fan of yours, and believe me, it was a dream coming true when I met you in person and I would never have imagined ever hanging out with you like this…”

I stood there, very embarrassed, standing behind Mirko and just adoring her entire being “But I think.. if you really want to kick some villain butt, I will do my best to support you.”

I could tell Mirko crossed her arms, slightly trembling as she let out a quiet voice “Even if you may be targeted?”

“Even if I may be targeted” I replied and placed my hand on her crossed arm “But don’t worry, I’ve gotten good at combat thanks to your teachings~” I said joyfully as I slowly stepped right up next to her “and I have to confess to you as well, Mirko”

Mirko loosened her arms and put the down and faced me. I stood face to face with Mirko, more nervous than I expected to be “I like you too…” I said quietly and slow, but I know she heard me and I continued “so will you go out with me?”.

I stood there very silent, so silent as I could hear my own heartbeat and it felt as if it was in my throat, beating faster and faster. Mirko stood there as well, but she broke the silence that felt like a million years with laughter.

“Shit” I thought to myself “I totally screwed up. Now she thinks I am a wierdo.”

I didn’t even dare to look up as Mirko’s laughter slowly stopped. She put her hand on my shoulder and said with a smug smile “Go on a date with me, tomorrow, before noon, and then I will give you my answer~”

I looked up, freaking out mentally, not knowing what to do and without a second thought, my mouth just replied on its own “I’ll be there!”.

As I was looking at Mirko, she fixed her hair and readjusted the cap with her hair as she gave me a smile took me off guard. I have never seen it before. It looked and felt so kind and warm, not showing any worries or sadness. Just a kind and warm smile. It really suits her.

 She pulled me in, wrapping her arm around me as we continued walking. We left the park and headed to my apartment. Before we parted ways she looked me in the eyes and said “By the way, when I’m not working, stop calling me Mirko. My real name is Rumi Usagiyama, and you can call me by my given name, Rumi”. She gave me a wink and turned around and walked off into the crowded city. I nodded to myself and turned to the complex.

@mirukobecomingbothered

[luvvkloey]

Justin Briner ff

𝐼𝑐𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚~

Note: italics mean your inner thoughts, and bold italics are his inner thoughts 🙂👍🏼

And spelling errors cuz I wrote A LOT 🤩

Okay enjoy the ff! 💖

Today you both didn’t have any plans!

But little did you know that Justin had the whole day planned out! ☺️

“Hey y/n, are you awake?” He said as he nudged your arm

“Huh... yea, what is it?” you said sleepily It’s like 10 am, why is he up so early

“Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you!- well I did just- never mind”

Ah! Why am I so nervous? Okay just give them the food and tell them the plan

He then gave you a breakfast-in-bed table (idk what they’re called but you know what I mean 😫) then gave you the plate of food he had on the nightstand

“I made this for you, it’s your favorite right?”

“Oh yea! Thank you so much” you smiled, seeing the food drove your sleepiness away in a flash

Wow it tastes amazing, I wonder how long this took!

“Hey...” you spoke while eating in between words “how long have you been awake for?”

“Oh just a couple hours, I’ve actually been planning something for us to do today!” He said with a smile

You could tell he was excited about this from the look in his shimmering green eyes

“It’s not a lot, but I was thinking maybe we could go to the park and do stuff, since there’s not a lot to do here right now”

“Sure! What did you have in mind?”

“Whatever you want to do, we could go feed the ducks or get ice cream-“

“YES PLEASE!!” You LOVED ice cream and you haven’t had it in awhile so this was great!

Justin laughed at your sudden outburst causing you to laugh too!

After you both finished eating, you changed clothes and drove to the park

~𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑝~

Luckily the park didn’t have that many people so you could do whatever you wanted without having the feeling of random eyes watching

Justin grabbed a picnic blanket out the car and sat it on the grass near the clear pond

“Awww look at the ducks! They’re so cute!” There was a line of ducks swimming in the water following their mom

“Awww they are really cute!” He said as his eyes glimmered in the sun

As you both sat down and started eating you couldn’t help but stare at his eyes

They way they were green like emeralds in the sun, and the way the light hit them, and the way-

“Umm are you ok? Is something wrong?” Justin asked as he giggled looking at your star struck expression

“Huh! Oh yea sorry for staring!” You felt a little embarrassed but he comforted you with a kiss on the cheek that made your face burn up

“It’s ok, really! I couldn’t take my eyes off of you either this morning” he said as he looked slightly embarrassed

“You just looked so cute this morning and I don’t know if you noticed, but I got really nervous trying to talk to you!” you laughed at his confession

“You have no idea how much that happens to with YOU” “The first time we met I couldn’t even get the words out of my mouth without stuttering!”

You both feel down laughed on the blanket

After collecting yourselves and sitting back up, Justin told you the second part of his plan

“Ok, so how about we go to the strip mall?”

“The what now-“ “Huh, no not THAT kind of mall!”

“It’s a street with stores on the sides, have you never been to one?” He laughed

“Oh no I have, it’s just that I didn’t know they were called that” you giggled at your dumbness in that moment

~𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑆𝑘𝑖𝑝~

The strip mall was so much fun!

You saw a bunch of new stores and even found a Hot Topic!

You both decided to buy a My Hero Academia mini backpack just for fun, Justin got a Deku one and you got one of your favorite character!

After that, you both got ice cream

It’s was from a fancy store so it came in a cold box that lasted the way home and you two decided to eat it there

“Justin, do you want to eat the ice cream now, ya know... before it melts!” you called to him from your shared bedroom

“Yea I’ll be there in just a minute!”

Dammit, how am I gonna get this fixed? If I got into the bathroom she’ll probably hear me

What you didn’t know is that at the mall, when you both were taking a break you had accidentally rested your hand on Justin’s 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 and he had gotten a boner 😪

He didn’t want to tell you or make you feel embarrassed so he just let your hand rest there until you both started waking again

“Justin hurry up or I’ll eat it without you!”

“Ok, I’m coming!” Dammit

As he went into the room you couldn’t tell anything was wrong with him, so you gave him his bowl

“Here’s yours and turns out there was only enough for one so we’ll have to share!” Should’ve known the fancy stuff would be tiny

As you both finished eating the tasty (insert favorite ice cream flavor😋) you noticed that Justin had a little ice cream left on his lips

“Hey wait, hold still ok” you had an idea in your head to tease Justin if this worked

You placed the empty bowl on the night stand and climbed onto Justin’s lap, you could see his face becoming more red as you got closer

You gently grabbed his face with one hand and put the other on the side of him as you roughly kissed him

It lasted for what felt like a minute until you backed up for air

“Umm Justin are you ok?” He was looking down as you asked him the question so you guessed that something was wrong

“It’s just that umm... I have a little problem that I need to fix”

You looked down and saw the bulge in his pants and suddenly you remember what happened in the mall

“Oh my goodness why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gladly fixed it for you”

You kissed him again and asked for his permission to take his clothes off

“Ya know, you’re really cute whenever you’re like this, all needy for me” You knew the effect that you had on him and used it to your advantage

As you took off his shirt you started kissing down his neck

Whimpers started leaving his mouth as you got rougher, and he grabbed your waist just to hold on to something

Justin was VERY sensitive and you loved to hear him, so it was normal for him to be very vocal

As you finally got all of your clothes and his clothes off, you asked him again if it was ok to continue

“Yes please... I can’t wait... any longer” he said almost breathless

You slowly placed yourself on top of his dick to see his reaction, his face basically begging for you to hurry up

When you started riding him he couldn’t control his moans and whimpers at all!

“Ahh oh please... more... faster... please”

“Do you really want me to go faster baby?” You said pouting “You’ll have to beg for that if you want it so bad”

“Please please go faster... I’m begging you please... go faster” he whined as he couldn’t take it anymore

You kissed him as you started to ride him faster, his moans being trapped in your kiss until you set them free

You could tell he was getting close and decided to speed up

“I’m close- Ahh- oh please don’t stop-”

Right before he could finish what he was saying he let out a loud moan and came inside of you

But you weren’t done yet

You started to ride him again going faster this time

“Ahh- wait what are you doing? Ahhh-“

He held on to your back as the pleasure was almost too much for him

“I love you- Ahhh- I love- you so much”

You could tell this orgasm would be even harder than the last one so you kissed down his neck again while running your hands down his stomach

The little tingles of your kisses and fingers on his body driving him to the edge

“Y/n pleaseee- I’m gonna- Ahhhhh”

He let out a loud, long moan as he came again, digging his fingers into your back for what felt like he was holding on for dear life

“That... was amazing... thank you-“

Before he could finish his sentence he fell asleep

“Aww haha, I love you too Justin, thank you for today” you yawned and decided to fall asleep with him

You both held each other as you fell asleep after a long day of fun and excitement

💖

End notes: So this was my first fanfic kinda smut thing, I’m kinda embarrassed about it but if you want me to write any other kind of fanfic, just leave a request in the inbox thing

Thank you! 💖

[fightmewiatch]

Something Nice

Pairing: Alfie Solomons x Reader

Prompts: “I’m your husband. It’s my job.”   & “Am I scaring you?”

          With a shake of your head, you wiped your hands on your apron, quickly plucking the knot and slipping it off to toss it onto the table. You had plans today, plans to prepare dinner and something nice for dessert, but upon looking through the kitchen, you realized you had very little to do just that. Your eyes caught the clock on the wall, rosy lip pulled between your teeth, as you turned, dragging your coat around your frame as you slipped into your shoes, and made your way out of the house, carrying yourself quickly down the sidewalk.

         You could smell the bakery as you reached the corner, a small smile ticking up your lips as you wrapped your arms around yourself. Some of the men passed you, most nodding politely, an action you returned as you stepped around them, your focus on reaching the bakery while the men were otherwise busy. But you didn’t miss the way some of them, the ones you didn’t recognize, let their eyes linger on you as you passed. It made you shift slightly uneasily, but you resisted looking back as you slipped into the door, blinking a few times to adjust your eyes.

“Miss!” You turned your head, catching sight of Ollie not far from the door, and smiled, waving. 

“Ollie! Is he in his office?”

“He is...bad morning, kind of grumpy.” You laughed, nodding as you started towards the steps. 

“When is he not, Ollie? But thank you!” you replied, moving quickly up the steps on your toes. 

         Alfie Solomons was a man feared by almost everyone in Camden Town, not always immediately, but most of them caved to the fear within days, if not hours. Even Ollie, despite being his right hand and with him constantly, to the point he was familiar with him outside of the bakery, had his days where he was afraid. But you didn’t see a man to be feared, you saw Alfie as he was with you, behind closed doors and curtains. 

         With a quick thump of your knuckles on the office door, you pushed it open, not waiting for an answer before you did. Alfie was hunched over his desk, half-glasses resting against his nose, held delicately between his fingers, as he studied the papers before him.

“Ollie, you know I’m readin’, yeah, so why fuckin’ knock, hm?”

“Because I’m not Ollie.” His eyes flicked up, before he straightened up at the sight of you, softening in your single presence. 

“Luv.” With a soft giggle, you turned, closing his office door, and crossed, heels clicking along the hardwood as you rounded the desk, your hand resting on his shoulder as you pressed a kiss to his hair. “Luv, I’m fuckin’ workin’, right?”

“And I’m your wife.” He cocked his head to meet your gaze, brow drawn down, as you shrugged, stepping back. “Sorry, I thought we were stating obvious things.” Alfie didn’t laugh outside of the home, at least not that you’d ever seen, but he released a sharp exhale through his nose in exchange before nodding, and grunting. 

“Sorry, luv. What brings you round, hm?” 

“Well...I figured you were going to be working hard today, and I wanted to surprise you with somethin’ nice once you made it home, but I don’t have what I need in the kitchen. An’ I was hoping…” Alfie grunted, this time in understanding, letting you trail off, as he climbed from his chair with a groan, one hand clutching his cane, the other gripping hard to his desk. 

“You know, right, that you can just ask, don’t haf’ t’sweet talk, hm?” he mumbled, moving to where he had his coat hanging in the corner, closer to him than his door, and fumbled into the inner pocket. “Know how much?”

“...I don’t, Alfie, I’m sorry.” He grunted, thumbing through, before turning, stopping at the sight of you much closer than before. Lips ticking up in a small smile, Alfie pressed the money into your hand, waiting for you to slip it into your own inner pocket, before he cupped your jaw with one large hand, drawing you close. 

“Somethin’s got you on edge, luv, right? What happened?” You scoffed, eyes slipping shut as you leaned into his palm with a small smile. You never knew how Alfie knew things, regardless of whether or not you said anything or acted any differently, but you liked that about him. Made it easier for you to tell him anything. 

“I saw your men on my way in. New faces.” As well as you knew Alfie, he knew you, too, and you didn’t need to say more for him to rumble in his throat as he drew you in to kiss your forehead. 

“I’ll remind them I’m the fuckin’ boss, yeah, make sure they keep their eyes to themselves.”

“I don’t mind a look and a smile, the polite greeting is nice. The lingering eyes are not. But I don’t want you doin’ somethin’ stupid.”

“I’m your husband, right. That’s my job.” You couldn’t help the soft laugh as you curled your fingers in his shirt, pushing up onto your toes to press a kiss to his lips, smiling as his beard tickled your skin.

“I love you, Alfie Solomons.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

         Taking care of putting his men in their place was something Alfie usually did after you left, but you lingered longer than normal, fingers trailing along his throat and around his shoulders, lips sliding against his as he gripped your hips warm and firm in his hands, until Ollie knocked on the door and interrupted to let him know the men had returned. This time, Alfie led the way back down the steps, his glance at Ollie telling the boy to stay by you until he was done. 

         You had seen Alfie be loud and firm with his men once, long before you two wed, and at the time, it made you nervous. But this time, you had to fight a smirk, glancing at Ollie and sharing a small smile as Alfie shouted at his men, putting them in line about the way they looked at you, about what the consequences of breaking the rules would be as far as you were concerned. It made you feel warm and fuzzy, which you knew would make your mother, bless her soul, lose her mind if she knew. 

         Dismissing the men back to work, Alfie shot a look back at you before he led you to the door, his hand enveloping yours as you stepped outside with him. 

“Thank you, Alfie.” Your voice was quiet, eyes down on the ground as you fixed your shoes, and smoothed your free hand over your jacket. He grunted, peeking behind him, as you squeezed his hand. 

“Am I scarin’ you, luv?” he asked, curious, but at the sound of your laugh, he frowned, tugging your hand to make you look at him. 

“No, Alfie, I’m not scared of you. Just thinking that I can’t wait for you to come home.” 

         The playful, low tone of your voice made his lips curl into a smile beneath his scraggly beard, a smile you treasured, as you giggled. 

“Don’t fuckin’ tease, luv, right, ‘cuz I’ve got shit t’do, yeah, an’ I can’t not do it just ‘cuz m’wife wants a little more time wif me.” 

“I ain’t teasin’, Alfie. Think of it as a promise,” you replied, patting his cheek. “Thank you for this,” you added, fingers grazing the outside of your jacket, nudging the pocket where you’d tucked the money. “I’ll see you at home?”

“Course. Ey...get somefin’ f’r Cyril, hm? Dog deserves somefin’ special, too.” That made you giggle, but nod your head. “Love you, sweetheart,” he murmured, just loud enough for you to hear.

“I love you, too, Alfie. Work hard. Come home.”

“Like there’s anywhere else I fuckin’ want t’be, right.” With one last squeeze of your hand, Alfie let you go, lingering just outside the bakery to watch as you scurried off down the road, looking back one last time before you disappeared around the corner, just enough to wink and draw another smile from his lips as he stepped back inside.

[youngmistressofchopchop]

I did it. Now I dont write, I draw so this is not gonna be so good. Its been through many revisions and I realized I spelt "Yuseke" as "Yueske the entire time so forgive me ill fix that next chapter. My Kuwabara x oc story:

It was finally cold again. Miyoko was overjoyed, she had never liked summer. Sure there was no school and she had more time with friends, but she couldn't stand the heat. She detested those sweaty nights, or how the bugs always bothered her, actually she didnt care for any part of summer.

Miyoko had dropped so many hints over the years and yet somehow, Kuwabara still had no clue. His air-headed-ness was cute, but it made things difficult for the shy girl Miyoko was. She just couldn't work up the nerve to say something, and when she did, something would always interrupt her. However, today she planned to change that! Miyoko got dressed up as cozy as she could, ready for what her and her friends had planned and with a gleam of excitement in her eyes, she headed out the door. 

 That was apart from going to see her crush, Kazuma Kuwabara's baseball games, he would play every summer. When they were younger, he played in an official team wearing his "Mötor Head" jersey and smoking every opposing team he played against. Miyoko never missed a single game! Every home run, every strike, and every fight that broke out because of a bad call, she was there. When they got older, she would be there to watch him play against his friends, still wearing that jersey. She was always supportive of him, she was madly in love with him, and had been for awhile.

"Urameshi!! Where do you think you're going?? I was talking to you!" Kuwabara's feet hit the sidewalk with force as he sprinted after Yueske, who had walked only a few feet, forcing Kuwabara to stop abruptly frantically trying to steady himself without falling. After regaining balance, Kuwabara grabed a fists full of his friend's jacket to pull him close aggressively. 

"D-Dont tell anyone! Or I'll break your mouth, so you cant tell anyone nothin' ever again!!" Kuwabara's face was as red as the setting sun. Unfazed, Yuseke stared at Kuwabara blankly for a short second before sighing and shrugging the big flustered fool off of him. 

"Listen man, I wont say anything. But this is getting really annoying. Ive told you before that you should just go through with it. Whats your problem with admitting to her anyways?" Yuseke looked to the helpless man and immediately regretted asking. Kuwabara looked off dramatically twords the orange and red sky. His shoulders slouched, slumping over, and fiddling with his hands. 

"I....Shes really pretty, ya know? And...Im well...ya know?" His voice trailed off, as if wanting reassurance he was being foolish. When there was no reply, Kuwabara peeked up with a quivering bottom lip. 

Yueske stood with his hands in his pocket saying nothing, only wearing a furrowed brow and tight lips. Suddenly, he burst into laughter. Causing Kuwabara to stand up straight and look at him even more embarrassed, and ready to punch him.

"I never thought I'd hear the great Kuwabara, warrior of love, admit to being ugly!!" Mocked Yueske. He bent over shaking his head and slapping his leg, resting his other elbow on his knee and laughing loudly. He straightened and wiped a fake tear from his eye. Kuwabara gasped in shock. 

"What?? Ugly??" Again Kuwabara grabbed at his friend, this time missing and falling. He quickly got up and held up a threatening fists. 

"Im not ugly!! Im just not a romantic type!!" He rubbed his fists on his chest. 

"I am a warrior of love, so I know how to treat a lady and how to talks to girls, I just....." He paused, his mouth moving like hes trying to remember how talking works. "She's different!!" He finaly blurted out. "She reads them girly romance books that Kurama likes!!" With a frustrated grunt, Kuwabara rubbed his neck nervously and spoke in a much more serious tone.

"Ive known her a real long time, and I cant tell her yet cuz I'm kinda worried she only thinks of me like how Shizuru thinks of me." Yueske picked up on the seriousness of the situation and scoffed trying to lighten things up again. 

"Well you are ugly, but I think she likes you anyway. Besides man, why asks me? You think I read them werid books?" Yueske pat Kuwabara awkwardly on the shoulder. 

"No way. I asked cuz you have a girlfriend!!" Kuwabara turned to look at Yueske who was moving his arm away. 

"So? Doesnt mean I know what im doing, just asks Keiko." The boys laugh, seeming to have calmed down a great deal. Before much more could be said, four familiar and approaching voices could be heard chatting playfully. 

"Oh dear, you didnt actually take me seriously did you, Miyoko?" Botan said in a teasing tone. 

"I did!! I'm gullible, you cant just tell me anything about spirit world.I will believe it!! Everytime!" The two girls laughed. 

"I've noticed," Interjected Kurama. "You have managed to retained alot of attributes from your childhood haven't you? I find that interesting." Kurama continud, wrapping an arm around Botan. 

"Alot of people say that...is that a bad thing? I'm not immature am I?" Miyoko felt nervous now. Maybe that was the why Kuwabara never seemed to return her feelings, perhaps she wasn't mature enough for a relationship.

Keiko quickly spouted, "No no! I don't think he meant it like that, I think it's cute!" Keiko put a reassuring arm around Miyoko and smiled a friendly smile. 

"Ofcourse! Its an admirable trait." Kurama said as Botan giggled. 

Botan wagged her finger and pointed it at Miyoko with a knowing smile "Im on to you! You shouldn't feel so insecure!" Botan pulled her arm back and used it to hug Kurama's arm. "Don't be so hard on yourself, I know you're simply nervous, so you're being extra critical of yourself, but you'll do fine!" Botan hummed encouragingly. "And, we all look fantastic!" Botan added as they all rounded the corner.

Keiko stopped dead in her tracks, and started tapping her foot. "Well, most of us are...Yueske! I thought I told you to dress up!!" Keiko pouted, walking over to her boyfriend's side. 

Yueske was the most casually dressed out of all of them. Just wearing his usual faded blue jeans, black converse shoes, plain yellow shirt and favorite green and yellow windbreaker jacket. He looked even more underdressed standing next to Keiko. She was wearing a lovely pale pink turtleneck, a plum purple suspender skirt reaching to her knees, long white socks, and loafers to match her skirt. Despite their contrasting attire, they somehow matched perfectly. 

Yueske wrapped his arm around Keiko's shoulder and smirked."Kuwabara isnt dressed up." He looked over to Kuwabara and nodded his way while jutting his thumb twords his friend. 

"What!! I am too!! This is the nicest thing I got!! Other than like...a tux or something!!" Kuwabara wore a blue Letterman jacket, a red sweater with dark blue jeans, and brown dress boots laced in black, he was indeed dressed up quite nicely. Miyoko blushed at the sight of his clothing, he cleaned up nicely as always. She couldn't help but smile at him, it was always a slight surprise to see him out of his school uniform. Kuwabara had a simular reaction to Miyoko's choice of clothing. She dawned a wine red A-line dress, knitted black leggins, and shin high beige lace up boots. She wasn't one to dress up like this, but she wanted to tonight, it was a special night after all. 

Trying to redirect the situation and prevent Yueske and Kuwabara from fighting, Botan chimed in. "Well, I never have to worry about Kurama when it comesto presentation! Unless ofcourse, he's overdressed and making me look a fool!" Kurama and Botan giggled to eachother looking the most put together, like they were the parents of the group. Tonight, everyone was going their part to help Miyoko's odds, evident by Botan, who was wearing something much different from her usual choice of clothing.

She modelled a white turtle neck dress, form fitting reaching just above her knees with a small slit on the right side, with sleeves that reached slightly past her palms, she wore her wedding ring, hoop earings, beige velvet tights, and blue slip on flats to top off the look. To match her, Kurama dressed just as nice. Wearing a white button up tucked neatly into his dark brown pants, red suspenders with red suede shoes laced in black, and a matching wool trench coat to top complete it all. Now everyone felt underdressed. 

"So what are we doing anyway?" Yueske asked scratching his cheek. Keiko shook her head "Are you serious? You've been waiting around this long, and you dont even know why??" Yueske simpled shrugged "I guess?" 

Botan sighed looking tired, Yueske was a handful for everyone. "Dont you remember, Yueske? I told you this morning! We're all having dinner!" 

Botan motioned to the brick building everyone was standing next to. "You've been standing right next to the restaurant! Where I told you we would be meeting up, seriously! You didn't connect the dots?" Botan tilted her head with a hopeless look. Yueske gritted his teeth and roughly pulled Keiko by her hip to his, talking through his teeth. "Whatever!!" He sighed and let go of Keiko fixed his hair flustered, he brought his fists down onto his palm talking loudly. "So now that we're all here, can we go?? Im starving and you guys took all damn evening to get here!"

Keiko lightly kicked his shoe pouting up at him. "Hush!! Its not our fault you dont listen, besides you didnt even try to dress nice! So I dont feel sorry for you." Yuseke quickly stepped aside and raised his voice a bit "Hey! Didnt ya hear me?? I didn't know what was going on!!" Keiko roughly poked her boyfriend's chest, "Again, not our problem! Listen and you wouldn't have to worry!!" 

Kurama was the first to put a stop to the bickering. He took a wide step twords the brick building and grabbed the glass doors handle, he opened the door and motioned for everyone fallow him inside.

So theres that. I'll write more soon. I hope its as fun to read as it was fun to write.

[artificialqueens]

Not Nineteen Forever (4) (Branjie/Scyvie)- Ortega

a/n: i am absolutely hanging out my arse so editing and re-reading this chapter made me feel vaguely ill. i’ll pass it off as method acting xo thank you so much for the continued love and support for this fic, the fact that each chapter so far has broken 100 notes makes me piss my pants with excitement (watch now i’ve jinkxed it and this one’ll get like 8). in this installment Scarlet finds it hard to believe that she isn’t Victoria Beckham.

Trigger Warnings: explicit drug use, alcohol. unaaay.

Summary: Brooke, Yvie and Nina are three flatmates who forged a friendship in their first year of university and picked up some other waifs and strays along the way. Now in their final year, there are feelings that need to be unravelled and confessions to be made whilst navigating drunk nights, hungover mornings, takeaways, group chats, library meetups, cafe gossiping, and the small matter of getting a degree

***

Scarlet had to admit, she was enjoying the high life. As she sat up the back of the lecture theatre in the new fur coat she wasn’t planning on taking off anytime soon, blinking heavily with her £75 lash extensions, drumming her £50 acrylics against her notepad, she smiled to herself. This was definitely the kind of life she was suited to. Okay, she got a bit of a shock when the rent left her bank account, as well as her gas and electricity bills, but she still had a good amount there. Clenching her stomach, Scarlet thought about the number on her banking app. £3713.65. Slightly giddy, she pressed her lips together as she thought about it. How could she have spent over a thousand pounds in the space of two weeks? She thought through it in her mind. Rent, £550. Electricity, £30 split with Ra’Jah. Gas, £25, also split with Ra’Jah. But that only came to what…just under six hundred pounds? There was still so much unaccounted for. Scarlet thought about how much she’d paid for on nights out, the two shopping trips she’d been on since her scratchcard win, and the many, many Ubers she’d taken pretty much everywhere. It was time to reign the spending in.

It was crazy how much confidence it was giving her, though. Even on the group chat Scarlet felt self-assured enough to throw out barbs every so often, the girls all responding with keyboard smashes and capitalised laughter and giving her a boost of serotonin. It had even made her feel more confident around Yvie. Scarlet felt weird about the whole Yvie thing. Now that she’d realised she liked her, she didn’t really know what to do about it. She knew she would do something, she promised herself, as if she ended up in a situation like Vanjie’s she would scream. Scarlet cast a glance to the girl beside her, frantically typing notes into her laptop and listening intently. Bored, Scarlet took her fluffy-topped pen and wrote on her notepad, pushing it Vanjie’s way.

Lunch after this?

She watched as Vanjie looked down at her writing, looked back up, then nodded once. Scarlet smiled, glad that she had something to look forward to. It had been a while since she’d had a catchup with Vanjie, and part of her was excited to see if there had been any progress made between her and Brooke. Scarlet then realised it was a little selfish of her to think that way and, realising she hadn’t confided in anyone about her crush on Yvie yet, she decided she’d let Vanjie in on her secret.

When the lecture finished up they decided they would go for lunch at the Mexican place in town. It was a slightly longer walk than anywhere on campus but Vanjie was good company, chatting away happily about something funny her Mum had done back home and distracting Scarlet from the cold weather. They eventually reached the restaurant and got sat at a table, despite the fact Scarlet could have stood under the heaters that were blasting by the entrance forever. She watched as Vanjie shrugged her huge coat off then leant forward.

“So, how’s your lovely flatmate?” Vanjie asked, Scarlet letting out a snort and rolling her eyes.

“Our oven’s broken. She’s saying I broke it,” she explained, Vanessa tilting her head with intrigue.

“Why? What did you do?”

“I don’t know. Used it to cook food,” Scarlet said, her laugh giving away her monotone voice and causing Vanjie to giggle too. “It’s exhausting living with her! She just hates me for no reason! I swear she’s going to turn up by my bed in the middle of the night with a knife and her pillow to smother me with.”

“But then she’d have no-one to blame for the shit that goes wrong in the flat.”

“True. If I’m ever found murdered, though, you know who it was,” Scarlet raised her eyebrows knowingly, Vanessa having to stop herself from laughing as a waitress arrived at their table and took their drinks orders. Vanessa ordered a Corona and Scarlet almost joined her, then realised that beer on a lunch break when she still had a lecture in the afternoon was risky. She got a blood orange San Pellegrino instead. As the waitress walked away, Scarlet continued. “How’s Silky and Akeria? I’ve not seen them since last Saturday.”

“They’re good. Akeria’s stressing about Masters applications, even though I keep telling her every uni is gonna be fallin’ over themselves to accept her. Silk is fine. She’s always fine. I think she’s made peace with the fact she’s probably going to get a 2:2.”

“Nothing wrong with a 2:2,” Scarlet shrugged, even though she knew that if she was on course for a 2:2 she’d be crying as if her life was over.

“That’s true. Degree’s a degree. Still gon’ cry like a baby if I don’t get a 2:1 though,” Vanessa frowned, brightening up as the waitress returned and put their drinks in front of them.

“You will,” Scarlet said. It hadn’t been a lie- even though she only saw Vanessa working towards part of her PPE degree, she always seemed on the ball with lecture notes, got good grades in her essays, and you could never shut her up in tutorials. The other girl still narrowed her eyes at her as she took a drink.

“You have to say that, though. You’re my friend,” Vanessa said, Scarlet brightening up at the validation of her friendship. She’d never known if Vanessa had liked her at first, but over the years they’d eventually settled into being comfortable with each other. Vanessa sighed. “I worked out that if I want a 2:1 I need to get above 65% in everything until the end of the year.”

“That’s doable!” Scarlet insisted, pouring her can into the glass in front of her. She frowned and shook her head. “Anyway, let’s not worry any more about uni. How’s Brooke Lynn?”

Vanessa slid down in her seat and covered her face with the menu. “I don’t know, bitch, ask her.”

“You know what I mean! How are things going? Any progress?”

Vanessa screwed up her face. “I mean, I don’t know. Kind of? Maybe? It’s so hard to tell with that bitch.”

“What’s the maybe?”

“So last Monday we went for a drink after we went to the library. We were just talkin’ and somehow…I don’t even know how we got onto this topic…we started talkin’ about how we were…y'know, like in bed.”

Scarlet let out a screech. “OH my God. Amazing. How is that a maybe in any way?!”

“Nah, well, you know,” Vanessa smiled bashfully, fanning herself with the menu which neither of them had so much as glanced at. “It started to get deep and then I did my classic ha ha ha what a big joke this is I’m definitely not takin’ this serious in any way thing I always do with her. I think I made it awkward, ‘cuz I’ve not seen her since then. I mean we’ve talked on the chat but…yeah.”

Scarlet pouted, feeling sorry for her friend. “Oh, Vanj, no. It won’t be that at all. You know her and Plastique have got their portfolios due next week, she’ll just be busy!”

Vanessa bit her lip, then smiled slowly. “How about if I organise a lil somethin’ to take her mind off her work, then?”

Scarlet took a sip of her drink. “You’re going to turn up to her flat wearing nothing but a massive bow playing The Stripper through your phone speaker.”

As Vanessa howled, Scarlet realised a little too late that someone had come to take their order. She asked for five more minutes, neither of them having looked at the menu yet and having only used it as a prop for embarrassment.

“No, bitch,” Vanessa wheezed, finally getting her breath back. “Let’s see if we can get her to come out tonight.”

Scarlet felt her brows pulling together involuntarily. “On a Wednesday? She’ll be too responsible.”

Vanessa sighed and gave the menu a cursory glance. “Couldn’t we at least try? I just need to know if I’ve made things awkward so I can go about trying to fix them. Although how the fuck I’d do that, I don’t know.”

“I guess you could put it on the chat?” Scarlet shrugged.

Gleefully, Vanessa bounced about in her chair and grabbed her phone decisively, immediately typing. She put it back face-down on the table almost as quickly as she’d picked it up. “It’s sent. Although now we’re running the risk of everyone being free apart from Brooke Lynn, and if I’m honest I really don’t have the energy to go out otherwise.”

“We’re getting old,” Scarlet shrugged, her eyes scanning over tostadas, taquitos and empanadas without really being able to focus on any of them. “Do you remember the days when you could manage two nights out back to back?”

“I remember the days I could manage two nights out in one night,” Vanessa laughed, running a hand through her hair and exhaling. “Scarlet, why am I nervous? Tell me why I’m nervous.”

“Because you’ve just orchestrated a night out with our whole friendship group just so you can see one member of it. Instead of, you know. Asking her on a date,” Scarlet smiled teasingly, Vanessa laughing in self-depreciation. It occured to Scarlet that she still hadn’t told Vanessa about Yvie. “That reminds me-”

Just then she was cut off as the waitress appeared again at their table. Scarlet couldn’t bear to send her away again so she quickly ordered some fish tacos and some sort of cheesy beany quesadilla she had no idea the other ingredients of. Vanessa rapidly fired off an order for a pulled chicken burrito and pork taquitos which, Scarlet could glean from a quick glance at the menu, seemed to be served with radioactive levels of spice. As the waitress walked away, Scarlet frowned.

“Are those taquitos not really spicy?”

“Meh. I don’t mind spice. Worst case scenario I’ll have to install scaffolding round my ass for the next three days after I eat ‘em,” Vanessa shrugged and then leaned forward, hardly giving time for Scarlet to laugh at what she’d just said. “You said ‘that reminds me’ after we were talkin’ about dates, what’s up with that?”

“Oh uh, nothing,” Scarlet smiled shyly as she picked at a bit of dripped candle wax on the tabletop. “Just that I’m joining you in the crushing-on-my-best-friend club for the foreseeable future.”

Vanessa’s face lit up. “What is this?!”

Scarlet felt cheeks flush red as she said it. “I…think I have a crush on Yvie.”

Vanessa let out a quick screech of delight, drawing the gaze of a dining couple sitting at the opposite side of the room. Hushing herself, she leant close to Scarlet and continued. “Oh my God! Bitch! I love this. This is amazing. Aw, you’d be so cute together! I knew you were touchy with each other but I always thought that was just how your friendship was.”

“It is how our friendship is!” Scarlet protested, then put her head in her hands to cover her cheeks as she smiled. “I just…realised I like being touchy with her a little too much to be friendly.”

“Oh, I got it. You wanna be touchy with her in a different way,” Vanessa winked suggestively, Scarlet squealing in mortification and both the girls ending up howling with laughter. As the laughter died down, Vanessa smiled. “Well, welcome to the world of crushing on a friend, boo. It’s amazing, electric, and largely horrific. And painful. I’m not selling this well.”

“It sounds slightly sadomasochistic.”

“That’s actually what you get if you Google it,” Vanessa nodded faux-seriously, then put on a funny, posh-sounding voice. “If you liked getting shocked by a disused electrical socket twenty-five times in a row, perhaps you’d like: crushing on your best friend!”

Scarlet laughed, then shot a glance down at her phone as it sat face-down on the table. “I’m kinda hoping Yvie comes out tonight too now.”

“Ooh! We should check the chat,” Vanessa said, pouncing on her phone and her face dropping as she looked. Scarlet opened her own to see what had been said.

FORD TRANSIT VANJIE: me n Scarlet wanna go out tonight who’s down

large incongruous silkworm spiced praline: BITCH ARE U CRAZY WE AINT FRESHERS ANY MORE

large incongruous silkworm spiced praline: I GOTTA DATE WITH BRADLEY WALSH AND WHOEVER THE CHASER IS TODAY

Akeria Sainsburys Bag for Life: Girl we all know The Chase starts at 5pm you gotta think of a better excuse

Akeria Sainsburys Bag for Life: Sorry boo I’m out

large incongruous silkworm spiced praline: BITCH BACK TO BACK EPS ON CHALLENGE TV FROM 7 THANK U NEXT

Akeria Sainsburys Bag for Life: Need to be at the library early if I wanna get that 1st

Kim Kardashian-West: Placement :((((((( sorry babyyy

Akeria Sainsburys Bag for Life: I’ll see yall at pres though

Akeria Sainsburys Bag for Life: I’m guessing they’re gonna be at ours

Okay Then: Sorry girls our portfolios are due in like 9 days

Okay Then: big celebrations after though!!

Dave the Laugh: i’d actually be down

Scarlet felt guilty as her heart gave a jump, Vanessa sitting dejectedly across from her. “Hey, chin up! She’s not replied yet.”

“If Plastique is sayin’ no, she’ll be a no too,” she jerked her mouth to the side in a pained attempt at a smile. “Your girl’s down though, that’s good!”

“Stop. She’s not my girl.”

“Yet,” Vanessa smiled, a glint of disappointment still present in her eyes. Just then, Scarlet’s phone lit up in her hand.

mose: I’m going to follow the tradition of my entire university career making poor life choices and say yeah I’d be up for a night out

Scarlet looked with anticipation across to Vanessa, whose eyes were wide with excitement. She didn’t seem to know that she had a beaming smile on her face, and Scarlet couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, happy for the girl opposite her. “See? Good news!”

“Oh my God. It’s gonna be me, you, Yvie and Brooke Lynn. Fuckin’ double date night out,” Vanessa’s eyes scrunched up as she laughed happily. Scarlet felt her pulse start racing, nerves taking hold of her already. She was excited, though, for some time with Yvie in a slightly smaller setting. She hadn’t grabbed a coffee or done anything with just her in a while, and even though this wasn’t the ideal setting, it was still an opportunity. Vanessa was back typing quickly into her phone, and Scarlet watched the group chat progress.

FORD TRANSIT VANJIE: yall suck apart from Yvie and BrookeLynn

FORD TRANSIT VANJIE: come to mine for 9 then bitches! Xoxoxoxo

Mose: See ya then boo

Scarlet turned over her phone and raised an eyebrow at Vanessa. “You’re her boo.”

“Yeah fuck y’all bitches, I’m Brooke Lynn’s lil’ ghost,” she smiled and gave her hands a quick clap together in excitement, Scarlet spluttering a laugh at her friend’s adorable reaction. Just then, their food arrived and got placed down in front of them.

“Oh hey, can I grab another Corona?” Vanessa asked, holding up her empty one. The waitress took it and nodded, and Vanessa gave Scarlet a guilty look. “I should really head to the library after this but I’mma go back home and nap, then spend the next four hours gettin’ ready. Fuck, I don’t even know how I’m gonna afford goin’ out tonight.”

Scarlet took a bite of a taco, then thought. Lunch was only going to come to about forty-ish pounds altogether, and really, what was that out of her winnings? She swallowed, looked to Vanessa, and smiled.  

“Hey. I’ll get us lunch,” she shrugged, shifting a little in her seat as Vanessa blinked at her.

“Serious? No, Scarlet, I can’t let you do that.”

“Honestly! My loan came in early,” she said, looking down at her plate as she lied. “Think of it as a celebratory, double-date-crush-night-out-whatever-the-fuck-this-is treat. And you can buy me a drink or something when we go out, call it even.”

As a waiter came by and placed another bottle in front of Vanessa, she gave a smile and raised it. “To coming out on the other side of tonight with girlfriends?”

Scarlet smiled as she clinked her glass against Vanessa’s beer. “Let’s not push it.”

The rest of her lunch with Vanessa passed by comfortably, Scarlet paying the bill when they were finished without a second thought and the girls saying goodbye with a hug and an excited squeal in anticipation of later on. Part of Scarlet wanted to head straight to the shops to look for something new to wear but she stopped herself, instead getting in an Uber and going back to the flat, the prospect of her returning to campus for her 3pm lecture growing thin. Turning the keys in her front door, she sighed when she heard loud music coming from Ra’Jah’s room. Scarlet had hoped she’d be out by now. Walking through to the living room to dump her shoes, coat and bag, she paused when she saw something on the messy, cluttered coffee table that she was sure hadn’t been there before.

It was a tiny, clear, plastic ziploc bag filled full of a white powder. Scarlet frowned as she picked it up, transferring the bag between her fingers and watching as the powder inside crumbled and broke up, the same sort of consistency as flour although slightly looser and whiter. The realisation of what she was holding suddenly hit her like a bus, nearly making her drop the bag. She stood silent for a couple of minutes, completely unsure of what to do. Then she heard the music in Ra’Jah’s room get turned up and that seemed to make her decision for her.

Storming back through into the hallway, Scarlet banged on her flatmate’s door. “Ra’Jah!”

The music got cut off and there was an eerie buzz of silence in the flat. The door in front of Scarlet swung open to reveal her flatmate, her face unimpressed. “Yes?”

Scarlet held up the bag, hoping it would elicit some emotion out of the other girl. It did not. “Can you not leave that shit lying around our flat?”

Ra’Jah smiled in amusement, showing a set of slightly uneven teeth. Scarlet felt her top lip curl up in a sneer. Ra'Jah wasn’t able to pull them off, not like Yvie with the cute gap she had between her front teeth. Fuck, was she really thinking of Yvie right now? Ra’Jah leant on the doorframe cockily. “What, a girl ain’t never seen cocaine before?”

“Of course I’ve seen it,” Scarlet lied, gripping the bag tight between her fingers. “I just don’t want the flat looking like a fucking crack den. I mean it’s not a potted plant, Ra’Jah, it’s a fucking class A drug. It’s not decorative.”

“Class A, ooh,” Ra’Jah mimicked mockingly, irritation washing over Scarlet. “Don’t shit yourself, bitch, it’s fine. I only put it down for, like, two seconds anyway. Just give it and I’ll put it somewhere safe.”

Scarlet went to pass it back to her, but something held her back. She looked at the powder again and a flash of thoughts flew through her head, of skinny, glamorous models and nightclub toilets and champagne. It was an illegal drug, and everything Scarlet had been brought up to believe told her it was fucking disgusting, and dangerous, and led to a spiral of addiction and debt. But still part of her was so insatiably curious, like she was addicted without even having tried it yet. She watched Ra’Jah’s expression change as Scarlet curled her fingers back. “Where’d you get it?”

“What is this, twenty fuckin’ questions?” her flatmate snapped back, rolling her eyes. “Just give me my narcotics, bitch.”

“Can I, um. I’ll buy it off you?” Scarlet stumbled out, causing Ra’Jah to look at her in disbelief.

“You want to buy cocaine?” she raised an eyebrow at her, speaking through a slight laugh. Scarlet’s hackles were up.

“Or give me the number of your dealer.”

Ra’Jah let out a small snort, shrugging her shoulders. “Ain’t any need to involve anyone else. Alright, that’s a gram. Give me sixty and it’s a deal.”

Scarlet felt her eyes widen involuntarily, Ra’Jah chuckling in response. “Girl, what did you think it was gonna be? Naomi Campbell snorts this shit for a reason, people use rolled up hundred dollar bills to snort this shit for a reason. It ain’t fuckin’ Cabbage Patch kids weed we talkin’ ‘bout here.”

Scarlet frowned and took out her phone, opening up her banking app. Just before she transferred the money, she looked at her flatmate suspiciously. Ra’Jah rolled her eyes.

“Look, I’m not taking you for a ride. I got it for fifty, a bitch wants to make a profit. Sixty is standard in some places. Others you’d be talkin’ seventy. Google it if you don’t believe me.”

“No, I believe you,” Scarlet simply said, hitting a button and just like that, sixty pounds flew out of her account. A nervous heartbeat felt entirely too fast and too loud in her body. Another hundred pounds gone.

“Thanks, bitch. This was great fun, maybe I’ll drop out and become a dealer,” Ra’Jah laughed, Scarlet saying nothing in reply as the door swung shut in her face. The bag seemed to make her right hand tingle, and a surge of nervous excitement shot through Scarlet like propane.

She got ready for the night ahead in a sort of daze, as the panic and the gravity of what she’d actually done began to sink in. She’d just bought a gram of cocaine for a night out. What the hell was she planning on doing with it? There was no way she’d be able to actually do any. Or was there? That was what Scarlet had always said about weed and now her and Yvie got high together all the time. Her pulse thrummed at her wrists when she thought about the other girl. Scarlet imagined bringing the small bag out in a toilet cubicle with her, watching her eyes grow wide, imagined her thinking holy shit, I never knew Scarlet was this type of girl at all. Imagined them both cutting it up with Scarlet’s bank card and snorting it, then hitting their high on the dancefloor, turning to her and letting Yvie lean in and kiss her in a haze of euphoria and lust.

Scarlet felt a throb of heat pulse between her legs, her doubts gone. This was a good decision.

Scarlet showed up to Vanessa’s flat only running a tiny bit late, ready with a bottle of vodka the size of her head and a couple of mixers in case any of the girls wanted to share. She got buzzed in quickly and was welcomed into the flat by Akeria who was looking a far cry from her usually-glamorous self, her hair piled on top of her head in a towel and a pair of pink flannel pyjamas on. Scarlet was shown through to their kitchen where she found Vanessa, Brooke and Yvie all sitting on the sofa or on chairs beside Silky who was also in her pyjamas and, just as she’d promised on the chat, was watching The Chase. The girls gave a small cry of delight as Scarlet walked in, Scarlet not missing the way Vanessa was sat on Brooke Lynn’s lap. Part of her prickled with jealousy, wishing that her and Yvie were in their place, but she didn’t mind too much. She was happy for Vanessa. Scarlet grabbed a glass, took a chair to sit in, and began pouring a drink as the girls continued to watch the TV.

“Low offer of minus four thousand pounds, high offer, please?”

“Fifty-one thousand pounds.”

“We’re watching The Chase,” Vanessa explained to Scarlet.

“I gathered.”

“If he takes the minus offer, I’m gonna reach through the TV and stab him,” Brooke said seriously, her face displeased.

“Nah, he’s gonna stick in the middle. I trust Nigel, 52, from Stockport,” Yvie drawled, taking a sip of her drink then smiling at Scarlet from her position on the chair beside her, reaching across and squeezing her hand. “Hey, girl, how are you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” she smiled shyly, giving Yvie’s hand a small squeeze back and admiring her crushed-velvet red dress. “You look good.”

Yvie momentarily looked as if she was about to say something cute in response when her eyes were suddenly ripped from Scarlet’s and back to the screen as the girls groaned loudly.

“He’s a fucking TRAITOR,” Silky yelled, launching a cushion at the TV. “Sheila brought back forty-five thousand for this asshole to take from it? NO MA’AM!”

“Well this is the most lit pres I’ve ever been to,” Scarlet deadpanned.

“I hate this motherfuckin’ game show. Silk, turn this shit off,” Vanessa rolled her eyes, her flatmate loudly complaining.

“It’s my fuckin’ flat too, hoe!”

“Yeah, some of us actually have to do work tomorrow,” Akeria piped up from her position at the oven, checking on whatever she’d put inside. “How come you’re out tonight anyway?”

Scarlet caught Vanessa’s eye and she just stopped herself from smiling. “Oh, you know. Sometimes you just fancy going out.”

“It’s called being spontaneous, Kiki. You should try it,” Brooke joined in as she brought both hands up around Vanessa’s waist, the other girl giving a happy sigh and Scarlet staring at them, jealousy burning under her skin. As the other girls bickered, Yvie turned to face her again.

“Hey. You alright?” she asked, concern etched on her face and making Scarlet’s heart swell up.

“No, yeah, I’m good!” she smiled, blinking and trying not to come out with the truth of I’m insanely jealous of how close and cuddly Brooke and Vanessa are being right now and I wish Silky would get up off the sofa so we can join them. Satisfied with her answer, Yvie smiled.

“That’s good. No sad allowed at pres,” she joked, then tapped her gently on the nose. “Also you’re not allowed to be upset, you’re, like, my favourite person. Don’t tell the others.”

Scarlet felt something akin to a tidal wave flood over her whole body. Boosted, she gave Yvie a small wink. “I won’t. I promise.”

Something behind Yvie’s eyes seemed taken-aback, but not in a negative way. Almost as if she hadn’t expected Scarlet to come back with something so flirty so quickly, and Scarlet had to hide her smile behind her hand when she saw Yvie’s cheeks turn slightly pink.

Two hours later, all of Scarlet’s vodka had been drank and the four girls had managed to navigate a drunk Uber ride and entry into one of the fanciest clubs in the city. Usually none of them would have been able to afford the entry fee, but Scarlet had paid the ten pounds for each of them without batting an eyelid. She probably should have cared, but Scarlet had hit that stage where the alcohol had her convinced that life was wonderful, she was invincible, and she would be young and rich forever. She laughed as she cast her eye around the small circle the girls had formed on the dancefloor. Vanessa was dancing, frankly, like a stripper, and Brooke seemed to be living for it, her hands on the other girl’s waist protectively. Yvie was bouncing and flailing about, completely intoxicated, and yelling along to whatever song was playing- Scarlet didn’t know it, but she didn’t really need to. Turning to Yvie, she grabbed her hands and laughed. Yvie looked at her curiously.

“You look like those things…those car lot things…they go like this in the wind,” Scarlet explained, suddenly demonstrating to Yvie and throwing her hands in the air. Yvie buckled over with laughter, her hands on her knees, and Scarlet was so pleased she’d made her laugh.

“Bitch you started doing the floss to Miami 2 Ibiza, shut the fuck up,” Yvie snorted, Scarlet howling beside her. Casting her eye again to Brooke and Vanjie, an idea planted itself in Scarlet’s head.

“Yvie, watch me dance like Vanessa,” she commanded, suddenly feeling emboldened enough to throw her arms around Yvie’s neck and push her body up against hers. She ran her hands through the other girl’s hair messily, Yvie’s eyes half-lidded as she laughed gently at her.

“Girl…messing up my hair,” she muttered, Scarlet smiling back brazenly.

“It was messed up when you did it,” she smiled cheekily, tapping Yvie on the nose like she’d done to her earlier. Without giving her a chance to respond, Scarlet dropped down onto the floor in a move she hoped would make her look irresistible. Instead, she toppled over and ended up flat on her back against the sticky floor, the crowd parting around her like the Red Sea. She looked up to see Yvie laughing hysterically, holding both her hands out to her. Scarlet took them gratefully and she was pulled up, beside Yvie again only this time with just a fraction of the confidence. Yvie must have seen her pouting as Scarlet felt her strong arms being wrapped around her in a hug.

“Aw baby, I like your dancing the way it is,” she slurred into her ear, a tingle shooting down Scarlet’s spine at the proximity of Yvie’s lips to her skin. Scarlet was about to do something, say something, when she suddenly felt herself being wrenched away from Yvie and dancing beside Vanessa, who was gripping her arm. Scarlet was confused until Vanessa leaned in close to her and yelled above the music.

“I got an idea,” she said, her voice thick with alcohol. “Gonna make them both jealous.”

Scarlet’s eyes widened, an electric shock running through her veins as Vanessa pulled her close, then tilted her head up and kissed her. There was little to no hesitation and Scarlet felt herself kissing back, feeling the eyes of the other girls on them both. Vanessa kissed as if she’d known Scarlet’s lips her whole life, hot and passionate, and it briefly ran through Scarlet’s mind that Vanessa probably had a certain Canadian blonde on her mind as she was doing it. She desperately wanted to open her eyes, to look over to Yvie to see if she even cared. Show over, Vanessa pulled away, beaming and laughing, and Scarlet felt herself laugh back. In her drunk state, the situation was funny- the pair of them getting with each other to try to make their two other friends jealous. It appeared to have worked, certainly in Scarlet’s case, as Yvie took her hand and pulled her back, an odd sort of smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She shouted over the music at Scarlet, something that she couldn’t quite hear.

“What?”

Yvie raised her voice a little more. “I didn’t know you liked Vanessa like that!”

Scarlet laughed. “I don’t!”

Yvie gave her a funny look, a multitude of questions no doubt running around her head. Scarlet felt her confidence peak and she leaned in close to Yvie’s ear, Yvie’s arms snaking round her waist instinctively. “You jealous, girl?”

She felt Yvie’s body shake in a laugh Scarlet could tell was affected. “No…bitch.”

Scarlet leant her head on her shoulder and spoke against her neck. “Hey, 'f you’re lucky it might be you next time.”

She pressed a tiny kiss against Yvie’s skin and pulled away laughing, Yvie looking momentarily shaken then joining in with Scarlet’s laughter. Scarlet ran her tongue over her teeth. Fucking yes. Suddenly, she remembered the tiny bag she had in her bra. She caught the attention of the other girls and shouted over the music again. “Guys. Come pee with me.”

She began to make her way through the crowd to the toilets, hearing Vanessa and Yvie laugh at Brooke singing a parody of Come Fly With Me but replacing the word “fly” with “pee”. They eventually all managed to cram into a cubicle together, Scarlet counting her blessings that there was no toilet attendant on duty who would almost definitely have bundled them all out. The girls looked shocked as Scarlet turned around from locking the door and produced the bag from her bra.

“Is anyone down?” she asked lightly, Brooke letting out a nervous laugh beside her. Vanessa flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“What the fuck is that,” Yvie asked, her face set in a hesitant, concerned smile. Scarlet shrugged.

“It’s exactly what it looks like.”

Vanessa spoke first with a blase shrug. “Yeah, bitch, let’s do it.”

Scarlet smiled happily, part of her quite surprised at how readily Vanessa agreed to the whole thing. Her eyes darted to Yvie, who was still looking at the bag cautiously. Obviously noticing her eyes on her, Yvie gave her a look that Scarlet couldn’t quite decipher, then screwed her face up. “So this is a thing we all do now?”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes at her. “Aw Jesus, Yvie, it’s one key in a club on a night out, we’re not all about to turn into fuckin’ junkies.”

Scarlet’s confidence had been given a knock. She hesitantly caught Yvie’s eye. “I mean, you don’t have to, I just thought-”

“No, girl, I’ll do some. ’M not a fucking pussy,” she frowned, taking a breath that seemed to be shaky and turning to Brooke, who was still looking with wide eyes at Scarlet. “Brooke, you doing this?”

It occurred to Scarlet that this was the first time she’d ever seen Brooke look anything other than completely sure of herself. She was laughing awkwardly, almost nervously. Scarlet watched as Vanessa put a gentle hand on her arm. “You don’t have to, baby.”

“No, well, y'know me. Try anything once,” she slurred, leaning into Vanessa’s touch. “Okay, fuck, let’s do this shit.”

Scarlet moved to empty the bag out onto the toilet cistern, but Vanessa put out a hand to stop her. “Woah, girl, the fuck you doin’? Just take a key, ain’t no need for all that fuckin’ credit card shit.”

Scarlet frowned at her, confused in her drunken state. “Keys?”

Vanessa seemed to shrink back into herself as she saw all three girls looking at her intently, wondering how she knew so much about the process. Wordlessly, she gestured for the baggie and produced her keys from her gold clutch bag. She calmly opened the small plastic bag and fished into it with a single key, balancing some of the powder on the length of it. With a short glance up at the girls, she pressed a finger to one nostril and gave a quick, harsh sniff with the other. As quickly as it had appeared, the cocaine was gone. Vanessa rubbed quickly at her nose, sniffing awkwardly.

“Alright, who’s next?” she questioned. Scarlet could feel Yvie’s eyes on her.

“Well since Scarlet brought it, she should go next,” she said, something off to her tone and her stare that Scarlet couldn’t quite pinpoint. Scarlet shrugged stiffly, Vanessa reaching back into the bag with the key and holding some out for her. The butterflies in her stomach almost overwhelming, Scarlet leaned forward and mimicked what Vanessa had done. The first thing that she felt was the all-encompassing smell of petrol, followed by a horrific stinging at the back of her nose and mouth, Scarlet briefly being reminded of jumping into swimming pools when she was little and water shooting up her nose. She gave a cough and a big, follow-up sniff, Vanessa chuckling lightly.

Well, that just happened.

Nervously thrilled, Scarlet felt the butterflies in her stomach dissipate as she watched Vanessa hold a key out to Yvie. Yvie frowned and shook her head.

“Nah. Changed my mind. I’m out,” she said darkly, shooting Scarlet a glare that made her feel like a reprimanded child.

“Come on, Yvie, it’s fine,” Scarlet offered, the other girl scrunching up her face.

“No. It’s not happening. You guys have fun.”

Scarlet felt dejected. She wished she knew what she’d done wrong. Trying to push her feelings aside, Scarlet watched as Vanessa turned the key to Brooke. Brooke was looking from the key to the lock of the toilet stall, nervous. Vanessa reached up and touched a lock of her hair.

“You don’t have to, Brooky.”

“No, I will, I will. I’m just nervous. And excited,” she stammered out, Scarlet thinking she couldn’t have judged the girls’ reaction to this entire situation less accurately if she’d tried.

“You can rub it on your gums if you don’t wanna snort it,” Vanessa explained, part of Scarlet wishing she’d told her that before her turn. Brooke tilted her head, considering, then wet her finger, reached into the bag and took some. Then she put her finger back in her mouth and maneuvered it around, her eyes on Vanessa.

“You tryna flirt, boo?” the other girl questioned, her eyes half-lidded as she locked eyes with her.

Brooke let out a laugh. “Bitch I’m trying to take fucking drugs!”

Vanessa, Brooke and Scarlet burst out laughing, Yvie shushing them.

“Right, let’s go, junkies,” she said irritably. Scarlet frowned, sad that she seemed to have upset Yvie in some way. An idea came to her as they left the cubicle and wandered past the judgemental line of waiting girls.

“I’m gonna get us a bottle of champagne,” Scarlet decided, sure for a second that she saw Yvie roll her eyes, but she wasn’t too sure.

“Vanjie, does it look obvious we’ve been doing drugs?” Scarlet heard Brooke yell over the music, Vanessa laughing gently.

“Everyone here is on drugs, baby. Just chill. It’ll kick in in a minute,” she winked, taking both of Brooke’s hands and jumping a little on the dancefloor.

Scarlet watched as Brooke’s eyes darted to a security camera on the ceiling. “Guys. They can see us. They know.”

“Brooke, relax, nobody gives a shit,” Yvie rolled her eyes. Brooke turned to Scarlet, panic filling her eyes.

“Scarlet, what was in that? Is it all okay, yeah? It’s not got anything through it?”

“Oh, good. Well done, bitch, are you seeing this?” Yvie glared at Scarlet before she had a chance to reply to Brooke. “Brooke! It’s fine! You’re okay!”

The music seemed as if it had been turned up louder. Scarlet scrunched her eyes closed. “Brooke, it’s fine, okay? I’m going to the bar, who wants something?”

“Ugh, of course you are,” she thought she heard Yvie mutter. Suddenly irritated, Scarlet whipped around to face her.

“And what is that meant to mean, huh?” she snapped, Yvie’s eyes widening a little at being challenged.

“You, bitch! What the fuck is up with you these days?”

“Nothing’s up with me? What is this?!” Scarlet cried, a couple of heads turning their way then slowly turning back. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest as if she’d just drank fifty Red Bulls back to back, although she was unable to tell if this was the effect of the drugs or just how annoyed she was.

“Something’s off with you. Fucking…cocaine, champagne, this constant…buying everything for everyone like we’re all charity cases, behaving like you’re a fucking extra off Gossip Girl? This isn’t you, Scarlet!” Yvie yelled back, suddenly grasping her by the wrists and giving her a shake. “The normal Scarlet would have shit herself at the thought of doing a key, the normal Scarlet would want to go to Levels and pay a pound for entry instead of going here to dance around with a bunch of fucking Love Island rejects!”

Yvie’s words stung harshly at Scarlet’s heart. She knew the other girl could sometimes grow argumentative when she was drunk, but Scarlet had never had it directed at her. It wasn’t nice. Scarlet felt her tone switch a little as she spoke. “Yvie, you’re being kind of a dick.”

Yvie gave a laugh of disbelief. “Well breaking fucking news, Scarlet! So are you! I mean do you have any idea how shitty it is to see your best friend grow into a total asshole over the space of two weeks?”

“Guys,” Vanessa suddenly interrupted out of nowhere, and Scarlet had no idea how long they’d been fighting or at what volume. “Me and Brooke are gonna go. She’s not doing well.”

Yvie looked at Vanessa, panicked. She cast Scarlet one last withering look before dashing through the crowd, presumably to pick up their jackets. Scarlet felt a bubble of upset prick at her throat. She turned to Vanessa instead. “What’s happened?”

“She thinks she’s having a heart attack. I mean, she’s not, it’s just the drugs, but I’m still worried about her,” she frowned, biting her lip. Vanessa jerked a thumb back to where Yvie had slinked off. “The fuck was that all about?”

Scarlet shook her head silently, not trusting herself to speak unless she began to cry. She didn’t understand how she’d managed to fuck everything up so badly. Vanessa saw her upset and pulled her in for a quick hug.

“Baby. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

The four of them got their coats and joined the taxi queue in a blur. Yvie wouldn’t even look her way, and Scarlet didn’t trust herself to try to speak to her in case she managed to make things even worse. She seemed more concerned about Brooke anyway, who was chattering away, her teeth clicking together in the cold night air.

“Is the taxi driver going to know? Will he just drive us to the police station and hand us in? Do you think he’ll phone the police? What if the police were to just come here right now and say they’re giving random drug tests to everyone in the line? What if-”

“Oh my God, what if you shut the fuck up?” Yvie snapped, Brooke looking taken-aback. Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke’s waist protectively.

“Brooky. It’s alright. The police aren’t coming, the taxi driver isn’t gonna turn us in. We’re going back to your flat and we’ll get you into bed safe. You’ve got us, nothing’s gonna happen to you.”

Brooke let out a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a sob. She buried her face in Vanessa’s hair. “I love you, V’nessa.”

Scarlet saw something shut down behind Vanessa’s eyes as she squeezed Brooke tightly. “I love you too, baby.”

Scarlet couldn’t stop herself from casting her eyes across to Yvie, selfishly longing. If she hadn’t fucked everything up, maybe something could have happened. Now, though, it looked as if she’d have to piece their friendship back together, never mind anything more.

The line moved up, and they found themselves at the front. Brooke and Vanessa spilled in, then Yvie. Scarlet went to join them when she found the door getting pulled across in her face. Yvie scowled at her. “No. You’re not getting in with us. I don’t even want to speak to you right now.”

Scarlet could hear Vanessa protesting. “Yvie, for fuck’s sake-”

“You’re not coming with us, bitch. Make your own damn way home,” she reiterated, slamming the door shut.

As the taxi sped away, Scarlet couldn’t fix the slack-jawed look of complete hurt she could feel on her face. As the reality of what had just happened sank in, she felt her face crumple like a paper bag as she began to cry, stood on her own at the taxi rank in the small hours of the morning, and all she could do was wait.

[dyde21]

Marching On 2: The Auditions

I’m happy with how well received this story has been! The engagement definitely makes me want to keep pumping out chapters for this AU, even if they take a while. These chapters are pretty long. Fair warning, this one is kinda heavy on drum line, but I also used it to explain some stuff for later on. I hope it’s all understandable! More after the story!

ALSO ON AO3 HERE

XxXxXxXxX

Pausing outside the door, Percy was starting to feel a little nervous. Today was the day of tryouts and he was going in with barely any practice in snare drumming. A week ago he couldn’t have cared less about it, but now he was actually feeling nervous. 

He was pretty sure that it wasn’t because he was invested in band. His opinion of it had moved from lame to “pretty okay”. The first week had been fine overall. They went over the basics of how the year long class worked, how much money they needed to provide and what fundraisers were available throughout the year to help out. They had even had their first lesson on music theory, which confused him quite a bit but Piper was helping him out so he could at least read music now. Plus he found it a little easier to study than the normal junk he had to for school. Music was rewarding when you learned it at least, you could make a cool sound or melody.

No, he was mostly nervous that he was going to make a fool of himself. He had seen the options for drumline, and he was pretty sure the snare was the coolest to him. But also usually the most popular according to Piper so that meant he was going to have to pull off something. 

“Nervous?”

Piper said suddenly, making him jump. He hadn’t noticed her approaching. She just laughed, throwing an arm over his shoulder. “You’ll be fine. If you have two talents, it’s getting in to trouble, and pulling through sketchy situations by some miracle.” She teased. Percy glared slightly, but couldn’t exactly argue with her. It was pretty accurate. 

Removing her arm, she just shifted and leaned against the wall next to him. “I’m honestly surprised you’re willingly here. I figured you would have ran away after class ended. You staying after school for band? Who would have thought.” She said, a hint of teasing in her tone, but she looked sideways at him showing a genuine interest.

Percy shrugged. “I told you guys, I’m going to try it out at least. Besides, my mom has been really happy that I’ve been going and I kinda owe her for not signing me up for military school or something. It’s nice seeing her smile.” He confessed, looking off to the side away from his friend, already knowing her reaction.

Piper just let out a soft coo at him. “There’s hope for you yet.” She teased, pulling off his beanie to mess with his hair, before pulling it over her own head and heading into the band room.

Percy followed her, trying to fix his horrible case of beanie-hair from wearing it all day.

“What are you doing here anyway, are you trying out for drumline?”

Piper laughed at him. “Please. I’m actually trying out for color guard this year. Tryouts are today as well.”

She turned to see his dumbfounded expression and rolled her eyes. “Flags.” 

“Oh!” Percy announced, finally understanding. “Why is called color guard? Are you like supposed to protect the band with those poles?” He asked, earning a sign from Piper who just ignored his stupid question. 

All the chairs that normally filled the band room had been stacked neatly along the walls, freeing up most of the room. There were large drums on harnesses lined up in a semi-circle and a smattering of students gathered around. Annabeth caught their eye and made her way over. “You showed up, I’m impressed. Piper said you might bail.”

Percy shot a glare at his friend who just stuck her tongue out. “You have to admit there was like a fifty percent chance.”

“Maybe.”

Annabeth let out a laugh and smiled at him. “Well you’re here, and that’s all that matters. Based off your playing, I’m sure you can get a spot.”

Percy rubbed the back of his neck. “I hope so.”

The blonde turned to Piper. “So you’re trying for color guard this year?” 

Setting her bag next to where Percy had stowed his, Piper turned around. “Yeah, I think I am. Marching is fun, but seeing Hazel and Silena having so much fun last year made me want to try it out.”

Annabeth grinned. “That’s awesome. I know you’ll do amazingly. Just listen to Hylla and I’m sure you won’t have much issue getting on the line.”

Piper nodded. “Hylla is teaching it again? Awesome. She seemed cool.” Looking over at Percy who was clearly out of place in the conversation but didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go. “Sorry. Reyna’s older sister. She graduated a while ago. She runs colorguard here now. Strict, but a beautiful dancer and she’s the reason our colorguard always gets great scores.

Percy nodded. “I see. Stricter than Reyna?” He said, pausing at the thought. Reyna already put on a tough act, he couldn’t imagine what her older sister would be like if she was even more serious. He had a feeling she wouldn’t like him much. 

Both girls laughed at his expression, so he clearly wasn’t hiding it well.

“Don’t worry. Drumline has its own instructor. Honestly you’ll probably get along with her well. Or hate her. Either or.” Annabeth offered with a shrug while Percy didn’t exactly feel much more reassured.

“What’s he like?” Percy asked, suddenly worried he was going to have to deal with a hardass for drumline. Which probably wouldn’t end well, and end up with him quitting if he was honest with himself. He really did have a problem with authority.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “She’s… probably not what you’re imagining.”

Just then the doors on the other side of the band room flew open and a woman with a short pixie cut walked in, a bag and drumsticks in one hand while the other was filled with a starbucks cup. Her foot was raised from where she pulled open the door with her foot. 

“‘Sup Nerds.”

She said, smirking from behind her sunglasses.

Every preconceived notion had just shattered to pieces, meanwhile Annabeth just ran over and over and once the woman set down her bag and sticks, she pulled Annabeth into a tight hug.

“Thalia!” Annabeth said, grinning ear to ear.

Piper dragged Percy by the hand over to her. 

“Hey Thalia.”

Piper said, giving her a quick hug too. Thalia just grinned at her and return the hug. “Long time no see.”

Meanwhile Percy was staring at her. “Thalia? Grace?”

“‘Sup?” She said, shifting her eyes towards him. 

Annabeth was still all giddy while she motioned to Percy. “This is Percy. New this year, trying out for drumline.” She explained, but this was still the happiest Percy had seen Annabeth. Ever Piper seemed thrilled to see her.

Thalia removed her sunglasses, hanging them on the front of her shirt. “Wait. Jackson?” A grin crept across her face as messed his hair up. “Hey cuz, it’s been years.”

Both of the other girls stared between them surprised. 

“You know each other?”

Percy just smiled and shared a brief hug with her. “Kinda. When I was really little I used to go to some family reunions on my dad’s side. Our dads are brothers but I haven’t seen her in years.”

Thalia nodded. “You were like 5 the last time I saw you. You got big.”

Percy shifted his gaze towards Annabeth. “How do you know her? You seem like you two have a history.”

Annabeth nodded. “Thalia was a senior when I was a freshman. She was center snare here, then went off and was center snare at Olympus University for four years. She’s the reason I joined band in the first place. I owe her a lot.”

The older woman just grinned and threw her arm around Annabeth’s shoulders. “I missed you a lot too. We don’t see each other nearly enough anymore. College was busy. But when Hedge quit, Chiron called me. Asked if I would be willing to coach you guys. Figured my music degree could be useful for something after all.” She said with a laugh.

“Ms. Grace! It’s good to see you again.” Chiron’s voice cut in. “Do you have a minute?”

Thalia nodded, rubbing Annabeth’s shoulder once before she walked past them to go talk to Chiron.

Jason wandered over not to long after looking after Thalia.

“It’s gonna be weird having my sister coach me.” He offered, but his grin showed he didn’t mind much.

“We’re cousins?” Percy asked Jason, surprised.

“We are?” Jason countered. 

“You are.” Annabeth offered.

Percy frowned, rubbing his neck. “I don’t remember seeing you at the reunions.”

The blonde thought for a moment. “Probably because I was with my mom. My parent’s divorced shortly after I was born. Dad got Thalia, Mom got me.” He offered, a hint of sadness in his tone that Percy felt bad inducing. “Still, we’re family now I guess. Can I borrow money?” He teased, earning a laugh from Jason. 

“Maybe if I had any.” He countered.

Another tall woman entered the room, a bag over her shoulder with various long objects sticking out of it.

“Hylla!” Piper said, moving over to talk to her. 

The woman offered her a patient smile, staring to chat with her. Percy realized that must be the color guard instructor.

Jason nudged Percy’s arm. “Come on, I’ll show you the snares a little before we start. Just so you can see what they’re like. It’s not like a set.”

As they moved towards the drums, they saw that guy from the other day, Tyler enter the room too. Ashe was already at his side and they both had cups of coffee. Percy had a sneaking suspicion that Ashe had dragged him in here today a lot like Piper did. 

Jason was standing next to the line of five snare drums. They were much longer than normal snare drums, and had metal harnesses attached to them. “Here.” He offered, lifting one up. Stepping forward, Percy ducked his head slightly as the harness slipped over it, resting on his shoulders. He shifted, trying to get used to the sudden increase of weight in front of him, and the metal harness that wasn’t quite cushioned enough to be comfortable. Apparently he looked as uncomfortable as he felt because Jason let out a slight laugh before he effortless slipped one on himself. “You’ll get used to it. It’s really awkward at first, especially once we start marching. The weight hanging out front isn’t really comfortable ever though.”

Percy nodded, fidgeting with the harness again. He could already tell his shoulders would be sore after a while in this.  

“Here.” Jason said, grabbing a sweater and draping it over the top of the snare, pulling it pretty flat. He hit the top of snare and it was a much more muffled sound. 

“I’m pretty sure Thalia would kill us if we started playing normally before it was time. It’s loud.” To prove a point, he hit a single accented note on his snare and the entire room turned to look at him. Even Percy flinched slightly at the sudden noise that he knew was coming. 

Thalia shot him a glare and he raised his hands. 

“Just proving a point. Promise.”

She did the two fingers “I’m watching you” gesture, though she was smiling as she turned back to Chiron.

Jason just laughed and moved a sweater over his own drum, before tapping it and show how much more muted it was.

“You can see why we usually practice outdoors.”

Percy nodded, noticing the bag hanging from the side of the snare. 

“Sticks.” Jason answered following his gaze. “We tend to include stick tricks into the show, and flips don’t always go right. Sometimes you drop a stick and the last thing you want to do is be stuck without one and having to play with one stick. They will give you points for playing it off well, but it’s still not the best option so always have some spares on you.”

“Makes sense.” Was Percy’s reply.

“First things first. Snare drum sticks.” He held out a set to Percy. 

Percy’s eyes widened slightly. “The hell?” Earning a laugh from Jason, and Piper who had made her way over. 

The drumstick was about twice the size of a normal drumstick and way heavier. 

“These are what we use for marching snares. It definitely takes a while to get used to, but use need the weight to get the sound right.” Jason explained mechanically, and Percy had a feeling he had said it a few times before.

Tentatively Percy played a few muted notes, everything about it feeling wrong. It strained his wrists in a way he wasn’t used to and the snare was super bouncy, even through the sweater. 

“One last thing, do you know how to hold sticks traditional?” He asked, flipping his left stick around and holding it underhanded.

Percy stared at the stick, then at him. “Like… jazz right?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, Jazz players tend to use it too. But that’s how snare drummers drum in drumline. 

Awkwardly, Percy flipped the stick around and tried hitting the snare a few times. Jason had a tightlipped smile, as he was clearly trying not to laugh at Percy. 

“This is stupid.” Percy mumbled, unable to get his left hand to behave as well as he needed it to. 

Jason laughed. “You get used to it.” He said, patting him on the shoulder. He looked off to the side, and saw another student standing around a snare, looking awkward. Jason nodded at him before moving off to help the other guy. Percy continued to flail a bit, feeling his left elbow bouncing up and down as he tried to drum right. “Shit.” He muttered again, as the stick slipped out of his hands and clattered.

He tried to bend down to get it, but the harness was awkward and restricting his movement. 

“Here, I got it.” Piper said, handing him back his stick. “How’s it feel?”

Percy shifted slightly. “Heavy. And awkward. Drumming like this is so unnatural.” He complained.

Piper laughed. “It does look pretty bad. But when you see good snare drummers do it? In sync? It’s actually super badass.” She offered. Piper rolled her eyes when she saw his doubtful look. “You’ll see in a bit, I’m sure. Trust me.”

Nodding, Percy went back to trying to find a motion that seemed even relatively natural to him.

“All right boy scouts, let’s do this.” Thalia’s voice boomed, cutting through the murmurs and muted drumming. Everyone looked over, seeing Thalia standing with a hand on her hip grinning at the group of hopefuls.

“Color guard with me. We’re going to hold our auditions in the gym. Let’s move.” Hylla called out, giving a nod to Thalia before they ushered the group of girls out of the room. Piper had given Percy a pat on the back on her way out, wishing him luck.

“So who here is new to drumline? I heard from Chiron we have a bunch of new people and a tight schedule.”

Percy raised his hand, and glanced around. Maybe a third of the people were also raising their hands. Tyler was standing next to a weird set of four drums next to two other guys Percy didn’t recognize. 

“That’s a lot of you. But that means I have a bunch of raw talent to beat into shape.” Thalia offered. “We’re going to break up auditions into each set. Feel free to try out for different drums if you want. I may call on people if we need more filled.”

She paused, looking around. “Let’s just get the snares over with.”

Everyone looked nervous who was new and Percy felt his pulse race a bit. It seemed Thalia didn’t like wasting time.

“So snare drums are the flashiest of the group. They have the most stick tricks, they drum in unison often, and if we actually get good there’s a lot of fun you can do with drumming on other people’s drums as well. But for now you just need to worry about hitting it in time. Percy, come here.” She ordered, surprising him.

He walked over, anxiety starting to spike. Thalia ripped off the hoodie that was still draped over it and tossed it across the room. “These are loud. Get used to it.” She held out her hand for his sticks and he offered them to her, before holding onto the harness awkwardly.

With a sharp hit, she did a loud note hitting the drum. Percy flinched again, much to his annoyance. 

“It’s much worse indoors, but if you’re marching with it you need to get used to not hearing much aside from the drums while you’re playing.”

She grabbed Percy’s drum, shifting him so he was parallel to the group and stood in front of him, taking up a proper stance on the other side of his drum. “Stay still.” She ordered him, smirking.

“Playing isn’t just about hitting the right note at the right time. I’ll go over the details later, but it’s all about putting on a show. When the attention is supposed to be on you, make sure they never look away.” 

Percy glanced over at the students watching with intensity. Annabeth was in the back of the room, giving him a patient encouraging smile. 

Another sharp hit had Percy’s head snap back to Thalia who was grinning. 

“Now watch.” Another sharp hit, before she hit her stick three times, and she started counting down.

“Jason, pay attention. I need you up here next.” She said, right before she started playing. Percy’s jaw dropped at it as he watched it close up. Her playing was mesmerizing. Switching seemlessly between fast and slow notes, some notes were sharp while others buzzed a little on the drum. Then she started adding in stick tricks, spinning them and tossing them effortlessly as she played. The entire time her sharp blue eyes were staring directly at him, a very intentional smirk never faltering.

She finished with one last little flair of notes, before she thrust her hands down at her sides. Percy noted she was breathing slightly heavier but her eyes were still piercing into him. Intimidated hardly covered how he felt.

“Holy shit.” He muttered.

The room broke into applause as he looked over to Annabeth was just beaming at him with a smug look. He could hear her thoughts practically.

Told you it was cool.

“Jason, come on. Let’s show them what it’s like when it’s synced up.”

Jason walked over with his drum, pulling out a set of sticks. “You’re kidding me right? That was like an entire solo. People can’t memorize that instantly.”

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Some center snare you are.” She teased. “You still remember last year’s show right? Start of the closer. I think I remember it enough from helping you. Here, Percy give me that snare real quick.”

He quickly pulled it over his head, handing it to her. “Why didn’t you ask for it first.”

Thalia laughed and winked at him. “Cause I heard you don’t know how cool drumline is yet, and stubborn asses like you need to be shown first hand.”

Percy was just quiet and as he went back to the group. As much as her cocky attitude pissed him off, she was completely right. Her show had completely enthralled him. He couldn’t even fairly call that lame if he wanted to.

Thalia put on her drum and Jason came back with a sheet of music. “I still have it, thankfully.” He grabbed a music stand and put it on it, tapping out a few notes.

Thalia leaned in, muttering to herself as she watched it and tapped out some parts as well.

“Okay, we’ll go to the quad fill here. You got it?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, I messed around with it to stay practiced over the summer. You good?”

Thalia scoffed at him. “You do know I played center snare for 4 years in college right? That stuff is harder than what you do here. I’ll be fine.” She said. “Here.”

She counted off, and soon they were playing in harmony. 

Percy had to admit he was impressed. He had never seen two people move in sync so well before. Their sticks were flying up and down, clacking on the rim of the drum, before buzzing perfectly in sync. It was still hard to wrap his head around the precision.

Eventually they stopped and another small round of applause happened. 

“You were dragging.” Thalia said to Jason. 

Jason rolled his eyes. “You were rushing. You hit the paradiddles and sped through them. I had to speed up to catch up.”

Thalia narrowed her eyes. “Don’t talk back to your teacher. I have way more experience than you, kid.” She said, making him squirm for a moment. “Besides, those are separate things. Me rushing the paradiddles had nothing to do with you dragging the low buzzes. Don’t blame your screw ups on mine.” She said, sticking out her tongue and smirking at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.” 

Thalia laughed before turning back to the group. “My idiot brother aside, we have five snare drums so let’s have… Percy, Leo, Jason can stay, Clarrise and Bianca.” They all made their way up and Thalia handed Percy back the snare. It took a minute for some harnesses to be adjusted. From what Percy could tell, Jason and Clarisse both played snares last year so they were probably guaranteed a spot on the line. The rest of them were up for the same spots, along with a few others sitting down. 

Once they were lined up, Thalia moved to the front of them holding out her sticks in the awkward traditional grip.

“Okay everyone, hold your sticks like this.” She said, looking at each of their hands before she moved over to Percy first. “Here, shift the stick up and keep your middle finger loose and bounce it here…” She moved his fingers around a bit, until they were in something that looked more like what she did but felt even more uncomfortable. 

All the new people had their grips corrected as Thalia stepped back.

“Okay, we’re going to start simple. Jason will count off a tempo, then were going to do 8 4 2 1, then back up. So Eight hits with the right hand, then left, then 4 right, then left hand etc. We’ll do one of each hand twice then go back up. It’s really important to pay attention to your sticking patterns. It makes a very big difference for both practical and showy reasons.” She turned to her brother. “Okay, Jason. Take it slow to start. Like 80 bpm at eighth notes. Here, watch.” 

She said, grabbing Jason’s sticks and doing the pattern on her drum after counting it off.

They all watched closely, except for clarisse who seemed exceedingly bored. Then again, if she had already marched snare he doubted this was even noteworthy. 

“The most important thing is don’t stop if you screw up. I don’t care if you have to stop, take a deep breath, and join back in. Do that, it’s fine. Collect yourself then get back right back on track. This is a test of how well you handle pressure as much as it is how well you can keep a rhythm. “I can fix bad playing, I can’t fix a weak will.” She said. 

“Enough rambling now though. Jason, count it.” 

Jason stood up straight, before counting off a leisurely pace. Percy took a deep breath and prepared. 

It was slow enough, especially after his drumming experience so the first eight hits weren’t bad. They switched the left hand and what was a relatively uniform sound ended up being a disaster. Ever Thalia winced at the sound, but a smile was creeping on her face. “Keep going!” She called out over the drums. “4 now!” The sound was anything but smooth, but Percy pushed on. His left hand was starting to hurt a bit and he couldn’t get a comfortable grip but the pattern wasn’t screwing him up. At least until they got the single notes. He forgot they were supposed to repeat the single notes and fumbled. Pausing, he felt things starting to crash and burn.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught Annabeth’s. She made a dramatic motion with her hands of breathing in and out. Percy paused a beat or two, glancing at Jason’s sticks to see him switch. Hopping back in, he hadn’t missed too many notes and Thalia was looking at him with an approving grin. 

Eventually they ended and Thalia was laughing. 

The new people shared some nervous looks, and Thalia raised her hand in apology as he tried to regain her composure. “You guys did fine. But watching you all try to drum with your left hand, your elbows were waving everywhere like chickens. I never get tired of seeing that.”

She said, wiping a tear from her eye. 

Clarisse was snickering too while Jason rolled with his eyes with a slight smile.

“Everyone I teach has to do that their first time. It’s initiation. For now though, everyone can go back to the regular grip. If you march snare you WILL have to learn traditional grip. But I’m more worried about rhythm and pattern right now. “We’ll try it again, and you can stick normally. Except Jason and Clarisse. Don’t get lazy. Accent the switches properly and softer on the off beats.” She said, with a pointed look at the two veterans.

Jason counted it off again, and the sound was much better this time. Even Thalia seemed impressed. 

Percy had been hyper aware of the single note switches so he managed to avoid screwing them up, and being able to stick how he was used to took a lot of the pressure off as well. 

“Good.” Thalia said when they finished. “Looks like you all have rhythm at least.” 

For the next little while, Thalia ran them through another few basic exercises. On one of them, she even had them stand on one foot then switch to test their balance for marching, which Percy was not graceful at in the least. Then she had them sit down and let a few other students come up to try out the snare.

Once everyone who wanted to try the snare went she smiled. “Good job. Now the quads. Frank, if you will?”

A large man walked over wearing that weird set of drums Percy noticed before. It had four large drums in a half circle with two tiny drums on the inside near the harness.

“These are quads. The most melodic of the drums in a sense. The most like a set, but they’re heavy and kind of awkward. A little less flashy, but they have their own kind of presence on the field. Frank, do you remember any of the show last year?”

Frank nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

A wry smile crept across Thalia’s face. “Ma’am? You’re polite. I like that. You got the spot. Sit down.” She said, before laughing. “I’m kidding. Just play what you remember for a bit.”

Frank nodded and counted off a tempo. Percy had to admit, quads were impressive. His hands moved around a lot more than they did with snare. While snare looked super technical, this was different. He was balancing moving to different drums with a smooth tempo. It looked intimidating in its own way.” He finished and looked to Thalia who seemed impressed. “Damn, nice job. You probably won’t have any issue in college if you continue playing. That was solid drumming.”

“Now who wants to give it a try?”

The room looked at each other, everyone nervous after that performance.

Percy considered raising his hand for it, it reminded him of set a bit. 

“You, come up.” Thalia said pointing somewhere behind Percy.

Looking around, he saw Tyler had his hand up. He seemed a little pale, but he had his hand raised. 

Thalia grinned at him. “Don’t worry. Quads are a beast in their own right. Messing up is fine, like I said. Just don’t give up.”

Thalia helped him get settled in the harness, adjusting it to a good height before he stood a little awkwardly next to Frank. Frank gave him a friendly smile, showing him a good place to hold out his arms. 

“We’ll start with the same exercise. Except every time you change numbers, move to the next drum. Frank, show him.”

Frank nodded before playing the same one Percy had started with, but each time he reduced the number of hits he jumped to the next on in the circle before going back up.

Tyler was watching Frank with a deadly focus, his own hands mirroring Frank’s as Frank played. Percy could see Thalia staring at Tyler’s hands too.

“Ready?” She said as Frank counted it off.

Tyler started off pretty smooth, but when he was switching to the double hits, his stick hit in between the drums and you could see the panic set in. He tried to get back on track, but didn’t manage to until they were almost back on the eights. 

The room clapped for him, but Percy was close enough to see how tight Tyler was gripping his sticks out of frustration. “Okay, not bad. Next let-”

“Can we try again?” Tyler blurted out, before his eyes widened. “Sorry.”

Thalia just looked at him for a moment, a grin creeping on her face. “Of course. I like that. One more time, Frank.”

Frank was also grinning. “Yeah.” He counted it off and Percy saw Tyler silently counting with him. He was focusing sharply again and this time he made it through without much issue. Thalia was smirking as they finished. “Much better. Nice focus, kid. Next is..”

Thalia ran him through some more exercises before letting a few other people try. Percy had even hopped up there, but he found he didn’t like quads nearly as much as he thought he might. The drums were low, and the weight was super annoying as it kept pulling him forward. The multiple drums were fun, but it didn’t really have the same vibe as doing a fill on a set.

Eventually everyone who wanted a chance went and she moved over to the last line of drums. 

“These are the bass drums. We have five, some lines have more, some less. This drum is both the most simple, and the hardest. Each drum makes up a part of a group.” She hit the smallest drum, which had a relatively light tom-sounding hit. Then she moved towards the biggest one which had a loud resounding dull hit to it, hitting each one in between. 

“Bass drums have cool fills, but their parts are split between each drum. So excellent rhythm is a must and dedication. You can do cool drum fills on basses, and when a full bass line is in sync, it’s wicked. Seeing five people play the same part split between them is incredible, if not a little under appreciated. But if you screw up it sounds muddy.” She explained. 

“Beckendorf, you were fifth right?”

A large man stood up and made his way over to the biggest bass drum. Percy was genuinely impressed as the man hoisted it over his shoulders and put on the harness. There was no way he could see around it, the top of it went a good foot past his head.

“For this one, we’ll get some people to try it out because it’s a team effort.”

She gathered some students, including a set of twins who all tried it out. Their exercises were similar, switching between hitting the large sides of the drums, then having them try and go up and down the line one at a time on rhythm. Percy didn’t try out for that one, because he didn’t feel confident enough about his teamwork to try and tackle that challenge. A flashy snare fit him much better.

A little while later they all wrapped up and everyone was looking nervous.

“Great job everyone, honestly. I know how scary auditions can be, and the fact you got up here and flailed around is half the battle. The school has a limited number of spots, and I’m going to chat with Chiron a little more before announcing tomorrow. If you don’t get a post, there are plenty of positions open in pit that will need to be filled, and I’m talking to Chiron to see if we can get a Cymbal line going as well. For now though, thank you all for coming and I look forward to working with those of you who make it.” She finished, offering a salute.

Everyone stood up and started murmuring. Around the middle of the bass drum auditions color guard had made their way back in to watch them and Piper made her way to Percy after it was over. 

“How’d it go?” She asked, studying his face for any signs.

Percy shrugged. “I think pretty well. The fact I’ve drummed before definitely helped. Marching seems like it’s going to suck though, those things are heavy and moving around a lot doesn’t sound fun.”

Piper nodded. “It definitely takes some getting used to, but I can help you practice with that. Think you’ll get a spot?”

Percy pulled his beanie back on. “I dunno. That’s up to Thalia. I’m sure Jason will though.” He said, earning a punch in the arm from Piper.

Annabeth made her way over to Percy. “Good job today. You recovered nicely.” She offered

Percy blushed slightly. “Uh… yeah. I meant to say thank you. You helped for sure.”

Meanwhile Piper was looking between the two of them with a growing grin.

Annabeth smiled down at the floor before pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Well I hope you make it. I wanna talk to Thalia before she leaves so I’m gonna go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Percy nodded as Annabeth patted Piper on the shoulder and made her way over to Thalia.

Piper gave him the biggest grin. 

“She helped you, eh?”

“Shut up McLean. She just reminded me to breathe.”

“Weird, I thought she took your breath away.” She countered, laughing at Percy’s groan as she started walking out of the room. 

“How’d your auditions go?”

Piper grinned. “I nailed them. It helped I had practiced with Silena over the summer. I think I made it.”

Percy pulled her into a side hug. “That’s awesome! I’m proud of you.”

“When we both make it, we’ll go get pizza to celebrate. My treat. Deal?”

Grinning, Percy nodded. “I don’t think I’ll ever say no to that.”

As they piled into the car, Percy sighed looking out at the darkening sky.

“That was… honestly a lot of fun. More fun than I’ve had in awhile. Thank you Piper, for real. I really hope I can make it.”

Piper just gave him the warmest smile. “I’m proud of you. I know you’ll make it. Otherwise, I can take out whoever else made it and get you a spot.”

Percy laughed as they drove away. It felt like things were finally starting to click in place a little more.

XxXxXxXxX

Thank you for sticking through the chapter! I know it was a long one and kinda dense. I hope it was enjoyable though. And if it wasn’t obvious, I freaking love Thalia. She’s so badass. I hope you enjoyed her too! Thank you for all the engagement with this story, it really does motivate me, even if my time is starting to get limited due to being broke. xD Hopefully I wont have too long of a delay before the next chapter! Just need to plan a little more for it out.

If you want to help me write and paint more please consider checking out either my art commissions HERE or even just buying me a coffee on my Ko-Fi HERE

[lizzylunawizardessfanfics]

You’re The One I Love

Pairing: Zeus X Hanahaki!Lizzy

Summary: What it was to be in love, well all the good things that is; Lizzy has falling victim to the love bug but contracts the hanahaki disease in which as it progressively gets worse becomes harder to hide her sickness from her friends.

I’m all for flowers this is a known fact, but this was now becoming kinda excessive; coughing and heaving until out came a tiger lily along with a few loose petals as they rested into the palm of my hand. For the longest time tales of falling in love was told to be so beautiful and romantic but what they failed to mention is that falling in love with someone could be lethal as of course I’m talking about none other than the hanahaki disease. I coughed a little more as one more petal fell as I put them deep in the trash bin and hid them so no others would see before going over and washing my hands clean. All of this had started just two weeks ago when I realized my feelings towards the pain in the butt of the group Zeus.

While drying my hands and lost in my thoughts I jumped when I suddenly heard a knocking on the door and heard a familiar voice say, “Hey you alright in there?” I quickly tossed the paper town in the trash as I replied, “Y-Yeah I’m okay!” I unlocked the door and left the prefect’s bathroom to be greeted with Zeus as I took a step back not realizing he was standing right in front of the door. “What took you so long, just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you have to hog the bathroom,” he said as I let out a small huff in annoyance my heart couldn’t help but race. “I needed to use the bathroom! If you needed a bathroom you could of used a different one,” I said as I still questioned how I even developed this crush in the first place; he was fairly handsome, talented when it came to magic, as when he wasn’t being loud and being a pain in the rear he was a genuine and sweet guy. “I didn’t need it, I was just checking on you cuz we all have work to do,” Zeus said as it was moments like this that made me fall more in love him with as I could only pray that I wouldn’t have to cough up more flowers as it is.

The day seemed to be against me as it seemed to drag on as since it was Zeus, Hiro, myself, and Alfonse working on lessons for classes to be coming up. There were two or so times I had to excuse myself as the urge to cough and throw up flowers were slowly becoming more frequent. “Finally we’re all done,” Zeus said slumping into his chair as the rest of us started to clean up our area as I could only roll my eyes a little. “Too bad you weren’t like this all the time,” I said teasingly as for once he did a good amount of work seriously with no disasters. Earning myself a harsh glare from him as I noticed the little bit of pink on his cheeks appear as I heard him shout at me, “What’s that supposed to mean?! I take everything serious!” I heard both Hiro and Alfonse chuckling as they knew what Zeus said wasn’t true.

It was time to head back to the office since other things needed to be done and graded as Hiro and Zeus had to go teach a class soon. While walking I suddenly felt that urge to cough in my chest as came to a stop which seem to catch the three’s attention as they turned to look at me. “Hey is there something wrong Lizzy,” Hiro asked as I just nodded my head in a no manner as I was scared that if I coughed a flower would just come out in front of them. “I-I just have to g-go to the bathroom again,” I said as I quickly covered my mouth as I coughed a few times while backpedaling a bit. “Are you sure you’re alright you’ve been-” Zeus started to ask but before he could say another word I cut him off by saying, “I’m fine!”

I turned and made a run for it as I continued to cough as it hurt, hurt a lot more than before but I couldn’t let that stop me as I didn’t want them to see me in such a condition. Let me tell you that running does not make this better as it made it harder to breath and caused the coughing to become more violent. Taking a sharp right I tried to keep running but my body just couldn’t stay up any longer as I fell to my knees and hunched over having a coughing fit as it felt like something was constricting my chest. Feeling the familiar unpleasant yet tickle feeling of petals and flowers coming up I had my eyes closed from the pain. For the brief moment the coughing had finally subsided I opened my eyes as they widened at the sight that amongst the intact flowers and the loose petals there was blood. “Lizzy w- oh my goodness Lizzy what happened,” I panicked at the sound of Alfonse’s voice as I quickly tried to grab all the flowers to hide behind me as I turned around but it was too late as he had knelt by my side.

“Lizzy why didn’t you tell us you were sick,” he asked with a worried expression as I felt bad but at the same time I had a small bit of irritation but that was more on the sickness’ fault than his. “Because of these Al,” I said as I just showed him the blood covered tiger lily flowers as I started to cough again which I coughed into my arm. His expression softened as it was clear he wanted to ask me a few more things but held off on it as I felt him give my back a gentle pat before he started to help me get back up. “Let’s get you to the infirmary so we can at least get you cleaned up and talk in private,” Alfonse said as I simply nodded in agreement as I didn’t want to trigger another coughing fit.

Finally in the safety of the infirmary I was able to dispose of the flowers as I had to take off my prefect jacket since there was some blood on it before I sat on one of the beds while Alfonse did a little check up on me to see what kind of condition I was in. “So how long did you say this has been happening,” he asked as he took a step back a bit. “Two weeks,” I answered as he nodded before I heard him ask, “Is it one of your other friends?” I quickly shook my head in a no manner as I felt a small tickle in which I coughed some more as I started to feel a bit more nervous when he said, “It’s someone in our group, isn’t it?” I didn’t answer right away as he wasn’t wrong but then I nodded my head in a yes manner slowly.

Before anything else could be said the door was suddenly kicked in as looking over to see who it was, which of course it was none other than Zeus who kicked open the door as he came in with our friends following in behind him. “We came as soon as we got news,” Caesar said as he closed the door before coming over as I stayed silent. “What were you thinking?! If you were sick, why wouldn’t you just say something,” Zeus asked as he had a stern yet concerned look on his face. I didn’t reply right away as how would I even begin to explain myself as I looked downward. “Hey you wanna say something instead of ignoring me,” he said a bit on the yelling side as I felt my chest getting tighter while my heart beat faster. “Because I didn’t want to-“ I started shouting back as I looked at him until I hunched over starting to cough again as I put my hand over my mouth.

Sitting up once finished I had a hand full flowers, petals, and blood which I heard a few gasps. “Why are you coughing up flowers, what did you do eat them,” Zeus asked as he looked so confused while the others seemed to have already gotten the idea as I shook my head no. “Lizzy has a very… Rare disease that is called the hanahaki disease as it has to deal with a person falling in love in which the person would proceed to cough up flowers but, it isn’t that easy to cure,” Alfonse started to speak as Zeus seem to be listening as his brow furrowed. “Wait people get sick when falling in love? What is even the cure anyway,” Zeus asked as I just sat and listened as I knew I’d probably have to tell him soon but it still made me uneasy. “No not always, it’s still a mystery as to why only a rare few will contract the disease as there are only two cures: one is that the person that is the crush returns the same feeling or they can get the flowers and vines surgically removed,” Alfonse continued to inform the confused night class prefect. “Well then it’s an easy fix! Just go and tell the person how you feel; I mean the worst that could happen is the guy says no which they’d be stupid to say no to you Lizzy, aside from being a prankster you’re awesome,” Zeus said as there was that skipped beat of my heart along with the tightening feeling in my chest as his words made me happy for the most part.

The guys looked at me as it was a bit unsettling as of course Caesar was the one coming up to my side to start lightly nudging me with a grin. “Sooo who’s the lucky guy? It’s me isn’t it,” Caesar asked as I rolled my eyes as I gently pushed his arm away as I instantly said, “Nope.” Now playfully pouting he was not starting to point to the others as he started naming them off:

“Is it Alfonse?”

“No.”

“Is it Hiro?”

“Nope.”

“How about Elias?”

“Wrong.”

“What about Lucious?”

“No it isn’t him either.”

“Well what about Zeus,” Caesar brought up Zeus as I felt the air get stuck in my throat as I didn’t reply right away as I started to cough a little again. “As amazing and handsome as I am I bet she probably crushing on one of her other guy friends,” Zeus said as of course he boasts about himself as I don’t know if it was just me but for a split second I thought there was a look of sadness in his eyes. Though hearing him say that slightly ticked me off which out of impulse I threw the flowers that were in my hand still at him as without thinking shouted out “You’re the one I love you idiot!” The room was silent as I slapped my hand over my mouth as my eyes widened though Zeus looked pretty shocked too as no one said a single word until Zeus seemed to snap out of it. “How about we leave them to talk about this,” Alfonse said breaking the silence as he smiled which the rest of our friends headed out to leave the infirmary as the door was shut after the last person left leaving Zeus and myself alone in the room.  “If you liked me so much why didn’t you tell me,” Zeus said walking closer as I looked at the floor as I shrugged my shoulders. “Just because I’m open with just about everything else doesn’t mean I’m so opened about my love life. Besides I was scared you’d… Turn me down as it would have killed me on the inside,” I said looking up at him as the last part though it was a very poor joke since the disease could very much kill me if that was the case I laughed a bit. “If that was your concern then why didn’t you just get the surgery,” he asked as I let out a small angry huff. “BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO STOP LOVING YOU,” I shouted at him in which he suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders as he instantly shouted back “WELL I LOVE YOU TOO!”

Taken by surprise I blinked a few times as I felt my face heating up as I noticed his face was turning bright pink as well as hearing those words made me feel happy. “Next time something is up, tell me because you don’t have to handle things on your own; especially now that you’re my girlfriend,” he said as I couldn’t help but giggle as it was refreshing seeing this side of him which made me smile and nod my head agreeing with him. “Alright, but you gotta do the same, or I’ll kick your butt,” I replied as he seemed to grin himself as he rested his forehead against mine. “Yeah yeah fine just because I know you’ll actually do it,” he said as he suddenly surprised me when he kissed me softly on the lips. That constricting feeling in my chest had gone away as I didn't have the urge to cough or feel like I was going to throw up flowers. Once finished with our small kiss we decided to go to the night cafe as that would be where all our friends would be at this hour while we held hands.

[doodlelolly0910]

Love Don’t Cost a Thing

Summary: Emma thought she was living her happily ever after until she wasn’t. Now Neal is living his with someone else and Emma has a plus one option to the wedding from hell but no one to fill the space. Enter Killian Jones, devastatingly handsome male escort and the answer to Emma’s problems. She hires him for the wedding because he’s the safe choice. The temporary choice. Falling in love wasn’t on the invoice.

You can also find this on AO3 and FFN!

A/N: So this is a day late, I’m sure you’ve noticed, and I am so super sorry for that. These last couple of days have gotten away from me and my attention was on a billion other things. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it cuz it’s (fake) date night part one! Woo! Super huge thanks to @superchocovian for being an awesome beta for this story (her help was seriously invaluable) and also to @artistic-writer who makes the AMAZING art specific to each chapter for this fic. And she took time out to be my third set of eyes on this fic as well! Basically, she’s the best. And thanks to y'all for reading this! Your comments really make my day and I’m so glad you’re liking it so far. Thanks so much!

Chapter 4

Emma had taken the rest of the week off from the office, working from her laptop at home when necessary and forwarding her calls to her cell, but things were thankfully quiet. Perks of being your own boss. She’d barely been able to get her kid at the table with a bowl of cereal and a cup of reheated coffee into herself, looking forward to a relaxing morning before she dropped Henry off with Elsa that afternoon so she could go meet Killian, when there was a knock at her door. Groggily, she dragged herself to the door to answer it, regretting it immediately once the door swung open.

“Good morning, sunshine!” Ruby singsonged, grinning from ear to ear. Emma shook her head, not sure if she was actually seeing Ruby, or if she was hallucinating.

“Ruby, it is nine in the morning. How are you even functional?” Emma asked and Ruby scoffed, pushing her way into the apartment.

“I was supposed to work the breakfast shift this morning. Granny scheduled Ashley too and we were a little slow so she told me to go. So I thought I’d do brunch with my favorite Swans,” she said, making her way into the kitchen and ruffling Henry’s hair.

“We’re your only Swans, Aunt Ruby,” Henry said rather than a greeting, mouth full of Cocoa Puffs. Emma gave her son a warning look for talking with his mouth full and he ducked his head with a small smile.

“That doesn’t make you any less my favorite,” she replied, fixing herself a cup of coffee.

“I can’t, I’m supposed to meet-” she stopped short and glanced at her son, realizing she almost mentioned Killian in front of the curious boy before changing course and continuing, “uh, someone for coffee at two.” Ruby’s answering smile could have powered Times Square.

“Oh my god! What are you going to wear?” she squealed.

“I don’t know, just whatever, I guess. It’s just coffee,” Emma said dismissively, definitely not wanting to discuss her potential fake date clothes with the Queen of Fashion Ruby Lucas. She really didn’t want to discuss this at all in front of Henry.

“Just coffee?” She wrinkled her nose in disapproval. “Is it too late to turn this into a dinner date? Ooh, we could go shopping!”

“You’re going on a date, Mom?” Henry asked as he placed his bowl into the kitchen sink. If Emma’s eyes got any wider, they would have fallen out of her head. She looked, terrified, between Ruby, whose face was coloring rapidly, and her son, whose eyes were looking back up at his mother expectantly.

“I mean, it’s not really a date, per se,” she said evasively. Her son quirked an eyebrow, a behavior she knew he got from her, that said he did not believe her in the slightest.

“Just tell him, Emma,” Ruby said softly. Emma glared at her friend who looked apologetic but encouraging all at once.

“Tell me what…?” Henry asked slowly. Emma let out a large sigh, gripping her son lightly by the shoulders.

“Yes, I’m going on a date, Henry,” she said softly. Henry's face fell slightly.

“Oh.”

This wasn’t the reaction she imagined. She thought there would be a reaction, at least.

“Are you okay with that, Henry?” Ruby asked. Henry nodded, eyes cast to the floor.

“Hey, what’s the matter, kid? You know you can talk to me,” Emma prompted, kneeling to the floor in front of him. He brought his hazel eyes up to meet her jade and Emma was surprised to see there were tears gathering at his lash line.

“Dad is dating Tamara and he doesn’t want to spend time with me anymore. And now you won’t either,” he said, lower lip starting to wobble. Emma felt like someone punched her in the gut. Fucking Neal. She shuffled closer to Henry, and put her hands firmly on his shoulders.

“Henry, listen to me very carefully. No matter how many dates I go on, no matter what happens in my life, even if I'm dating, you will always be the most important person in it. I will always have time for you,” she said, meeting her son’s watery gaze.

“You promise?” Henry whispered. Emma nodded immediately, earnestly.

“Swear,” she whispered back, then seized her son in a fierce hug, which he returned just as tightly. Emma heard sniffling behind her and found Ruby with her back turned, wiping furiously at her eyes. When the brunette turned back around, her heavy makeup was smeared, making her look slightly raccoon-ish. Emma stood and faced her.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think,” Ruby said, and Emma knew she meant it. She softened and hugged her friend. They pulled apart and Ruby looked at Henry, smiling gently. “What do you say I treat you and your mom to lunch in the park and your mom can reschedule her date for tonight, and while she’s doing that, you can spend the night at Aunt Ruby’s?” Emma made a noise of protest at the sudden change before her son cut in.

“Really? Can we stay up late and watch a movie? With popcorn?” Henry asked excitedly.

“Whatever you want, buddy. As long as it’s okay with your mom,” she added and Henry looked up to his mother, eyes shining brightly.

“Please, Mom? Please?” he begged and Emma couldn’t say no to the look on his face. If Killian was busy, she would just occupy herself another way.

“Alright, kid, turn off the puppy dog eyes. Go get dressed and then we can go in a little bit. I’ve got a couple calls to make and then we can go in a little bit,” she said and Henry whooped before running to his room.

“I’m gonna go clean all this up,” Ruby said, waving a splayed-finger hand in the direction of her face and the ruined makeup on it. “Be back in a sec.” Emma nodded and retrieved her phone as soon as she left the room to call Killian. He answered on the second ring.

“Swan,” he said in greeting. “I was just about to call you. Are we still on for coffee, love?”

“Hey, yeah, uh, so something came up and I don’t think I can make coffee this afternoon but I wanted to see if you were free tonight? For dinner…” she added unnecessarily. There was silence on the other end of the line. “What am I saying, of course you’re busy, uh, forget I asked. We can do something another time,” she babbled.

“Swan!” he interrupted. “I was just surprised, is all. I have no plans. I would love to take you out for dinner, on one condition,” he said and Emma held her breath. “You let me plan the evening.”

“I can plan a date,” she grumbled.

“Oh, of that I have no doubt, Swan, but I know how to plan an evening as well, and I have something in mind. Trust me?”

“Okay,” she relented after only a moment. “My son will be at my friend’s house tonight so you can just meet me here. I’ll text you the address.”

“Sounds perfect, love. I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said. Emma confirmed and hung up as quickly as she could, her heart pounding in her chest harder than she expected it to.

This felt a lot like a real date, and that prospect terrified her. If she was going to do this, she might as well do it right though. She didn’t know if she had anything remotely date worthy in her closet besides the red dress he had already seen her in.

This was getting too close to real.

Before she could expand on that thought, Henry, fully dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and Ruby, makeup now immaculately back in place, reentered the room.

“Looks like it’s just you now, Emma. Get dressed and we can go get some grub,” she instructed.

“Yeah, about that,” Emma said, pausing to chew her lip nervously. “What if we made this a shopping-slash-lunch date after all?” Ruby’s face lit up like Christmas.

“Of course! I am so excited!” She rushed Emma back to her room to get ready to go.

Eight hours, two pizzas, seven stores, and an anxious mess of an Emma Swan later, it was six thirty. Emma paced the floor as Ruby followed her around, holding up various pieces of jewelry against the black lace dress she was wearing. The gold slip layer underneath just barely peeked through the sheer black fabric, the skirt swishing around her thighs. The sleeveless design gave her the option to wear her red leather jacket with it, but she probably wouldn’t. It was warm outside and the jacket was a little bulky. She should be fine.

“I think just the earrings, don’t you think?” Ruby held up a pair of dainty dangling silver earrings and Emma nodded absently. Ruby frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just nervous, I guess,” she said. Although, why she was nervous, she had no idea. This wasn’t a real date, as she had reminded herself several times throughout the day. Ruby smiled gently and fluffed the golden curls cascading over Emma’s shoulder.

“Don’t be nervous. You’re going to knock his socks off,” she replied with a grin.

“You should be gone already,” Emma said, diverting the conversation away from herself. “He’s going to be here in half an hour and Henry is supposed to be gone.”

“I know, I know, I just-”

A sharp knock sounded from the front door. Emma looked at the clock (6:49 it read), then back to Ruby. Where had the last nineteen minutes gone?! Emma looked at Ruby, panicked.

“It’s fine. It’s okay, just breathe, I’ll keep Henry in the bedroom until you leave and I’ll lock up after I go,” Ruby soothed and then darted off towards the bedrooms. Emma put her earrings in as she walked and opened the door to a sinful looking Killian Jones.

Clad in black head to toe, he looked every inch as gorgeous as the day at the diner almost a week ago. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, the button down front open a few buttons below the collar but above the ‘v’ of where the black leather waistcoat wrapped around his middle. His jeans were just on the right side of tight and Emma could see why he had chosen the profession he had. The man was walking sex if she ever saw it.

“You look stunning, Swan,” he murmured genuinely and Emma smiled softly back.

“You look…” she trailed off, lost for words.

“I know,” he replied, a cheeky grin creeping over his features and Emma rolled her eyes.

“I just need to grab my purse and we can go,” Emma said, turning away.

“Mom?” A small voice came from the direction of the kitchen and Emma felt her heart drop into her stomach.

“Henry!” Ruby’s voice came from the direction of the bedrooms on the other end of the apartment, but it was too late. Henry walked towards his mother, a green plastic cup of water in his hand.

“Is this him?” Henry asked archly, appraising Killian from head to toe. Emma flushed bright red and she sputtered a few vowel sounds out, not knowing how to respond. Before she could fully answer, Killian was sinking down on one knee in front of the boy.

“Hello, Henry, I’m Killian,” he said, holding out his hand for Henry to shake. Henry looked at his outstretched appendage for a moment before grasping it in his tiny hand that wasn't occupied with his cup and shaking. “That’s quite a grip you’ve got lad,” Killian said with a smile.

“Are you taking my mom on a date?” he asked, still wary of this strange man in the doorway, setting his drink on the table next to him. Emma and Ruby both stood frozen, unsure of what to do.

“Aye, lad. If it’s alright with you that I borrow her for a few hours, of course?” It came out as a question, putting all the power in Henry’s hands. Henry contemplated it for a moment.

“What are you guys gonna do?” he asked. Killian smiled warmly at him.

“Well first,” he pulled his hand from behind his back, revealing the single red rose in it that Emma hadn’t noticed before, “I’d like to give this to your mum.” He looked up at Emma but didn’t rise, only extending his hand to offer her the flower. She accepted it with shaking fingers. “A beautiful flower for a magnificent woman,” he said to Emma, adding a wink. Emma flushed the color of the rose at the display. “Then, I’d planned on taking her for a nice meal and I thought we would do some stargazing,” he continued. Alarm bells were going off in Emma’s head.

Did he do this with all of his clients?!

A soft “Aww!” came from Ruby in her corner and Emma shot her a death glare.

“Are you gonna kiss her?” Henry asked, face twisted in disgust at the thought of kissing, making Emma’s head snap back to the scene before her.

“Perhaps, if she wants to be kissed. But I promise to return her home to you no later than eleven,” he said, holding up his hand in a vow.

“That’s late,” Henry said. “But I’m spending the night at Aunt Ruby’s tonight. So I won’t be here. We were supposed to leave already but Aunt Ruby goes crazy when she gets to dress my mom up.” Killian laughed at that.

“Well she has dressed your mother very nicely tonight, don’t you think?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye as his gaze swept appreciatively over Emma’s form.

“Mom always looks pretty. But she is really pretty tonight,” he said and Emma smiled at her son’s words. Killian slowly rose from the floor and brushed the wrinkles from himself.

“Aye, that she is. I think it’s about time we go, lad. By your leave, of course,” Killian said.

“I guess so. But if you make her cry like my dad, my uncle David will beat you up,” Henry said seriously and Emma wanted to dissolve into the floor. Killian looked back at Henry just as seriously.

“I have no intention of ever hurting your mother, Henry, you have my word,” he promised. Henry seemed satisfied with his answer and nodded before wrapping himself around his mother’s waist. Emma hugged him back tightly, cradling his head close to her stomach. Ruby met them in the entryway and took the rose from Emma's hand to go put into water.

“Be good for Aunt Ruby,” she said, leaning down to kiss the top of his head. He unwrapped himself and gave her a small smile before walking over to where Ruby was setting the flower on the kitchen counter.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Ruby called out to them and Killian chuckled next to Emma.

“Nice to see you again, Ruby,” he called back to her, placing his hand on the small of Emma’s back. Her skin tingled at the contact, even through her clothes.

“Call me if you need anything, I’ll have my phone on,” Emma said and Ruby rolled her eyes.

“I’ve watched Henry a thousand times before Emma. Get outta here. Have fun!” she practically commanded, steering Henry out of the room by his shoulders, leaving Emma and Killian alone.

Emma looked up at him, frazzled to her core, before snatching her clutch purse from the table next to Henry’s forgotten water cup and darting out the door. She was thankful that went as well as it did, but she was still apprehensive about Killian’s reaction to the whole thing. She supposed she should have been more wary of how easily he slipped into the role of doting boyfriend, especially in front of her son and best friend, but on the other hand, that’s exactly what she was paying him for. At least she was getting her money’s worth.

“I meant it, Swan, you truly look stunning tonight,” Killian said softly to her as he walked closely beside her down the hall.

“Thank you,” she said, feeling his gaze weigh heavily on her skin as they got into the elevator and she pressed the button for the ground floor. “And thank you for being so nice to Henry. I really appreciate that. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“So I gathered, love,” he replied with a chuckle. “It was no problem. Henry is a wonderful lad.”

“He is,” she agreed with a fond smile. “But still, you shouldn’t have had to put on an act so soon. I wasn’t planning on having people over when you arrived.” He looked at her her, a puzzled expression sweeping over his face as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

“An act?” he asked. “Did I say something wrong?” His genuinely confused tone gave Emma pause as they left the building. She stopped and looked up at him in the moonlight.

“No, no, you said all the right things, it’s just, you know, this isn’t real,” she said, the words feeling a lot more blunt in her mouth than intended. Killian’s face softened and a flash of something close to longing flickered through his gaze.

“I’m aware, Swan, but I didn’t need to put on an act. Everything I said to the lad was true, love,” he told her, and Emma’s eye widened as his words sunk in. Before she could protest (or run back upstairs and away from this), he replaced his hand at the small of her back and guided her to a car that was parked on the street. Emma stopped dead in her tracks at the vehicle.

This is a seriously nice car, she thought to herself, looking over the gunmetal gray and black striped ‘68 Chevelle parked on the curb. She shouldn’t have been surprised. A guy that looks like Killian Jones and does what he does can afford a car like this. He didn’t seem to notice how enamored she was with his vehicle as he swept around her and opened the passenger door with a bow.

“Your carriage, milady,” he said, smiling. Emma suppressed a smile of her own, thanked him softly, and sat down in the passenger seat. The inside of the car was just as nice, well maintained, and it all looked original. Emma was a big fan of the vintage vehicle already.

Killian came around and got in the driver’s seat, smiling widely at her, and started up the car. Emma clenched her thighs together at the low rumble of the engine. Holy shit this was a sexy car. About as sexy as the man driving it. Wait, what?

She chanced a glance at Killian, his blue eyes intently focused on the road, the sunset illuminating his features perfectly. The orange light highlighted the ginger whiskers in his beard and his hands were locked loosely around the steering wheel, his forearms flexing whenever they made a turn. He was painfully attractive.

In another life, maybe, she thought wistfully.

“Admiring the view, love?” He smirked and Emma blushed at having been caught staring.

“I was just wondering how a guy gets a car like this,” she deflected easily. His expression sobered slightly with the question and he took a deep breath.

“She was my father’s car. He left when I was eight. My mother gave her to me for my sixteenth birthday and I restored her myself,” he said, pride swelling in his tone.

“‘Her’?” Emma teased and Killian looked at her slyly from the corner of his eye.

“Aye. Sleek, beautiful, powerful, The Jolly was bound to be a woman.” He winked.

“‘The Jolly’? You named your car?” she asked and Killian’s cheeks developed twin red spots on the apples of them that sent a thrill through Emma. Now it was her turn to make him blush.

“Aye,” he admitted. “I’ve always had a fondness for pirates, and what better name for the finest vessel in all the lands than The Jolly Roger?” A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips and Emma couldn’t help but smile back as they pulled into the parking lot of a very chic looking restaurant Emma had never been to before.

Wonderland was a building made of glass and wood that was set against the backdrop of the nearby harbor. Emma was immediately taken aback by the upper class atmosphere. She didn’t think at any point in her life she had been to a restaurant this nice. Growing up in foster care didn’t afford her those kinds of luxuries, and struggling with Neal, there was never another opportunity. She did well for herself now, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to drop $100 a plate on cuisine. Killian seemed to sense her apprehension and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her close.

“Trust me,” he murmured in her ear before pulling away to open the door for her.

When they entered the room, Emma had to stifle a gasp. There was a huge chandelier hung in the center of the room, bathing the space in a soft glow. There were several people dining already, all of them dressed to the nines, leaving Emma feeling slightly inadequate. The black and white decor was very modern chic and there was a large white piano in the center of the room where soft music was being played by a man in a tuxedo, complete with top hat. Killian led her past the several people waiting straight to the hostess podium. There was a slightly bored looking blonde who couldn’t have even been 21 yet making notes in the reservation book, but her eyes lit up in recognition as Killian and Emma moved closer.

“Mr. Jones! It’s been forever!” she gushed and Killian gave her a fond smile.

“Grace? Look at you! I can’t believe how grown up you are!” Killian grinned and the girl stepped around the podium to accept a hug from him. “Home from university, then?” he asked and Grace nodded.

“Only for the summer. Freshman year was amazing, but I missed home. And you know Dad, he gets a little crazy when I’m not close.” Grace rolled her eyes and Killian chuckled.

“He loves you very much. And I’m sure he’s thrilled you’re home.”

“He’s around here somewhere, let me go grab him and we can get a table set up for you and your… date?”

Killian reached for Emma automatically.

“Where are my manners? Grace Hightopp, this is the lovely Emma Swan,” he introduced the two and Grace beamed at Emma, reaching out to shake her hand. Emma had remained in awkward silence to this point, but returned the handshake warmly.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

“It’s so good to meet you, too! You are really pretty, Killian is a lucky guy!” she replied and Emma felt a deep flush settle under her skin. It seemed ‘tomato’ was the shade she would remain at for the evening at least. “I’m going to go get my dad. I’ll be right back!” Before they could reply, Grace scurried off in the direction of the piano.

“This is a lot, Killian,” Emma murmured after she left, shifting on her feet. Killian looked down at her, studying her expression.

“I know it seems that way, Swan, and I'm asking you to put your trust in me often tonight, but there's nowhere else I could take you that would be what you deserve,” he said so sincerely that Emma's breath caught in her throat.

“I've never been somewhere this nice,” she admitted softly.

“You deserve it, love,” he insisted, sparkling blue eyes boring into her anxious green. “And it's my treat.”

“Well, technically, it's mine,” she muttered, thinking of the envelope tucked into her purse. His expression wavered slightly at that, almost ashamed, and Emma felt slightly guilty at the unintentional barb.

“Killian Jones!” A bright voice rang out over the din of conversation and clinking utensils around them, breaking the awkward tension that had settled between the two. The man with the top hat who was playing the piano previously made their way towards him, Grace by his side, grinning broadly.

“Jefferson,” Killian greeted, a smile of his own in place, and the two men seized each other in a hug that only two good friends would share.

“It’s been way too long, my friend. How's Liam?” he asked, his tone serious, as they broke apart. Killian's expression turned slightly forlorn.

“He's doing better. Much better,” he said, something darker and pained flitting over his features.

Emma studied him, concerned. She had yet to see him anything but bright, happy, and flirtatious. Tonight, though, he had been an array of emotion, and she felt almost as if she was seeing Killian Jones for the first time. She briefly wondered who Liam was, and what happened to him, but now was not the time or place to ask.

“That’s very good,” Jefferson replied, clapping Killian on the shoulder. “Bring him in sometime, yeah? And who is this?” he said, not unkindly, turning his attention to Emma with a wide smile.

“This is Emma Swan,” Killian said, looking down at her affectionately, leaving Emma feeling unsettled and warm.

“Mr. Jones’ date,” Grace piped in helpfully. Jefferson gave his daughter an adoring smile before his grin turned sly as his eyes, then his head, turned towards Killian.

“Enchante, mademoiselle.” Jefferson scooped up Emma’s hand and bowed his head to it, leaving a firm kiss on the back of it. “Such a pleasure to meet you.”

“You as well,” Emma returned politely. “This place is… amazing,” she complimented, gesturing to the restaurant.

“It’s my greatest accomplishment in life. Next to my Grace, of course.” He released Emma’s hand and pulled his now blushing daughter close by her shoulders. “She’s going to be a lawyer, you know,” he said, his chest puffing out with pride.

“If I survive regular college first,” his daughter said, embarrassed.

“Nonsense. You’re a Hightopp. You can do anything,” he scolded playfully. “Let’s get you two set up for your meal then, eh?” He turned his attention to a nearby waiter and gave instructions to lead them to a table. “On the house, Jones! Your money's no good here!” Jefferson commanded with a wave and a wink over his shoulder as he walked back to the piano in the middle of the room. Emma looked up at Killian who looked just as surprised as she felt. The waiter gestured for the two of them to follow him.

“I honestly didn’t expect that, Swan, I swear to you. I’m not trying to seem cheap,” he insisted as they walked, his hand once again finding its place on her lower back as if it belonged there.

“Killian, trust me, the last thing you seem in a place like this is cheap,” she said with a chuckle, trying to ease his tension. She felt him relax slightly and he stepped around her to pull out her chair for her as they reached the table. She gave him a thankful glance that quickly turned exasperated when he waggled his eyebrows at her. The Casanova mask was back in place. Instead of seating himself across the table from her, as expected, he chose the seat next to her, scooting the chair closer. The waiter waited patiently to the side, placing menus in front of them.

“What can I start you with?” he asked, pad and pen at the ready.

“Whatever dry white you recommend, and a glass of water please,” Emma asked, looking at Killian for his turn.

“Just a water for me, with a slice of lemon,” he said, tongue playing at the corner of his mouth, eyes never leaving Emma’s. She glanced down at her menu to avoid the intensity of his gaze, thankful for the cover it provided over the flush creeping up her collarbones. The waiter smiled and made his way to fill their drink order, leaving the two of them alone again.

The sounds of the other diners in the restaurant surrounded them, breaking through the silence that had descended between them. Emma hemmed and reached for her purse on the table next to her, Killian’s eyes following the movement.

“So,” she pulled the plain white envelope from the clutch and slid it across the table to him, “here is half of what we agreed on. Like a down payment, I guess? And I will give you the rest when this is done. Is that agreeable?” Killian arched a dark eyebrow and pulled the envelope to him, slipping it into the inner pocket of his vest. His face gave away nothing of what he was thinking and he barely gave the envelope a second glance.

“That’s fine, love, as I said. No rush.” He smiled at her warmly and reached over the table space to cover her hand with his, the metal of his rings smooth against her skin. Her brow furrowed as she surveyed his lack of expression.

“You’re not going to count it?” she asked curiously. He hummed an almost laugh and his blue eyes crinkled in levity as he shook his head.

“I trust you, Swan,” he said dismissively. “It’s not of any consequence. I’m enjoying your company and I don’t want to sully the mood by focusing on the business angle of this arrangement.”

“There is no other angle, Jones,” she reminded him. “This effectively is a business meeting.” Killian’s smile faded a bit at her words, but he recovered quickly with a nod.

“So you keep reminding me, darling,” he said, a sour note coloring his words that he was obviously trying to hide. Emma found herself equal parts intrigued and surprised that this continued happening when they spoke. As if he wanted more…

“Okay! Here are your waters,” a voice said, and Emma looked up to find the waiter had reappeared and was now setting two glasses on the table, one garnished with a lemon slice, then turned to wheel a bucket of ice closer, an expensive looking bottle of wine nestled among the cubes. “The bottle is at the insistence of Mr. Hightopp,” he said with a grin as he pulled it free, uncorking it with a flourish. “Would you like to sample it before I pour?”

“No, no, this is fine, I’m sure,” Emma protested, and the waiter didn’t seem fazed at all as he turned over the wine glass in front of her and poured. “That’s plenty, thank you.” She stopped him about midway. He smiled with a nod.

“Tonight’s specials are oysters on the half shell with a ceviche topping, and a smoked salmon and citrus salad with poppy seed dressing. Are we ready to order?” he asked, removing the pad and pen from the black apron at his waist and looked at them intently. Killian placed his folded menu near the waiter and Emma did the same.

“The salad is fine, please,” Emma said and the waiter hurriedly scribbled it down, looking to Killian next.

“Aye, the oysters sound perfect,” Killian replied.

“Very good, I’ll have those out for you in just a bit.” And then he was gone before they could even thank him.

“Are you sure you don’t want any wine? I can’t possibly drink that all by myself,” she said, lifting her glass to her lips. Flavor exploded on her tongue with just the small sip and her eyebrows shot up on her forehead. “Plus, that is really good.” She put her glass down and licked her lips, savoring the taste. She looked back to Killian, his eyes now a shade darker and fixed to her mouth. It was almost as if he had to force his gaze back to meet hers.

“Ah, no, love. I’m fine. Driving,” he reasoned with a shrug. “You can have as much as you like.”

“Trying to get me drunk, Jones?” Emma teased and Killian brightened at her tone.

“Afraid you'll find me even more irresistible after a few libations, love?” Killian's grin was downright lascivious. Emma rolled her eyes and took a long pointed drink from her glass.

“I think you're safe from my wanton advances,” she snarked. Killian chuckled.

“Of course, Swan. All business, I've forgotten myself,” he teased back and sat straighter, knitting his nimble fingers together. “Have at it, then. Tell me everything I need to know.” Emma was slightly taken aback by the change in course from flirty to business, but she cleared her throat and sat a little straighter herself before speaking.

“Alright, then. I think we should keep things as close to the truth as possible. That should make this whole thing easier. We met in a bar, you offered to buy me a drink, I hated your horrible pick up lines, but thought you were cute enough that I called you the next day and we've been seeing each other in secret ever since.” She nodded briskly, satisfied with this story.

“You think I'm cute?” Killian's eyes were glittering with mirth, making Emma groan.

“That would be the part you picked out. This is serious.”

“Of course, love, apologies. And what of this ex boyfriend? Neal, was it? What do I know of him?”

Emma shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his name, the jab at Neal's maturity not going unnoticed.

“Ah, well… obviously you know he's Henry's father.”

“And he is clearly a sodding imbecile for tossing you aside after ten years and a child together,” he nearly growled, and Emma's head popped up at his change in voice. He seemed to remember himself fairly quickly and smiled at her again. “Go on,” he encouraged.

“Uh, yeah. Well, nine years. I'd been with him since I was seventeen. Ran away from foster care and met him while I was trying to steal a car. One he'd already stolen and was sleeping in the backseat of.” She couldn't help the embarrassed chuckle that spilled from her lips and avoided Killian's gaze as she took another sip of liquid courage.

“No family, then, love?” he asked softly and Emma felt unbidden anger rise up in her chest.

“Hey, I have family,” she snapped, stabbing her finger into the tablecloth to mark her words. “I have a brother and friends and Henry and they're all the family I need. Blood doesn't mean shit.”

“I meant no offense, Swan, truly,” he said soothingly, taking her hand in his again and unfurling her tightly grasped fingers. He smoothed his fingertips over her palm. “I've little family myself. My own brother is the last bit of blood I have left. I understand. Please, continue.” His eyes were large and sincere and Emma felt herself relax slightly.

“Yeah,” she cleared away the tightness in her throat with a cough, “well, David's not my blood either. We were in foster care together. He looked out for me, I looked out for him. We reconnected after Henry was born while Neal was gone but I was stupid and almost lost him again a couple of years ago.”

“When Neal was gone? I thought you've only been separated for a year?” he asked, confused. Emma blushed again.

The waiter picked that moment to return to their table. He deposited their plates in front of them and quietly excused himself, seemingly noticing he was intruding on a sensitive moment.

“Uh, ha. I keep revealing these things to you out of order. Let's just start from the beginning,” she said, pushing the food around on her plate. “Just… let me get it all out, though, okay? It’s not a fun story to tell, and I don’t think I’ve told it to anyone all at once.” Killian nodded, his expression serious, and when Emma was sure he wouldn’t interrupt, she began.

She told him everything, from the fact that she was found on the side of the road as a newborn, and never met her parents, to bouncing around in foster homes, to allying with David, meeting Ruby and Elsa, to meeting and falling in what she thought was love with Neal. She told him about almost giving Henry up, Neal leaving and returning, cutting out her friends for him, and working her ass off for a better life because she wanted to give him what he wanted. She told him about Tamara. She told him about the affair and how soon he proposed and sent out wedding invitations. She told him everything.

By the end of it all, Killian had pushed their untouched plates aside and took one of her hands in both of his. She was trembling, having just relived some of her worst moments in life. Killian had listened in rapt attention to all of it, his eyes lighting up in fury in some moments, darkening in sorrow the next, even twinkling with affection and fondness when she spoke of her brother and friends. But never pity. And, true to his word, he never interrupted. It felt very… freeing to tell someone without judgement or fear of repercussions.

“So that's it. Now you know it all,” she said with a forced lightness in her words. She smiled tightly at him. He regarded her for a long moment and she tried not to squirm under his gaze.

“Tell me a good memory you had. One memory that doesn't involve someone else. Just you,” he said suddenly, taking her by surprise once again. Out of all the things he could have said, she wasn't expecting that. She thought for a moment.

“I remember the first time I went to the beach,” she said, eyes glazing slightly at the memory. “I was fourteen and I remember we travelled three hours to the Maine coast in a minivan that smelled like wet dog and throw up with six too loud kids piled on top of each other. The sky was getting overcast by the time we got there, and we almost turned around and went back to the group home. One of the counselors convinced the other that we came all this way so we might as well enjoy it while we could. I remember the second my feet hit the sand, I was running. I ran until my toes hit the water. I'd never felt so free and happy. It gave me something to hang on to, and I escaped to the beach whenever I could. It still makes me feel free.”

“That's what makes you amazing, Swan. You can always find the light in the darkness,” Killian replied, smiling warmly at her. She blushed, and picked up her fork and they ate in companionable silence, Killian's hand still wrapped firmly around hers.