#I feel like starting a bit shorter might get me back into it? I'm hoping so anyway ^^;))

[astral-athame]

((I need to start writing more again.

That said:

IF ANYONE* WANTS TO START SOMETHING NEW, TAP THE HEART AND I'LL TRY TO GET A SHORT STARTER WRITTEN UP FOR YOU THIS WEEKEND.

*This goes for new and old mutuals, people I've never written with, people I've written with a TON, anyone who thinks they might want to explore a specific dynamic with Cassia (ships, friendships, even enemies or something, etc). I just want to get back into writing please;;))

[sv5hive]

womaniser | jb22

pairing: jenson button x fempopstar!reader, brief mark webber appearance

content warning(s): swearing, mentions of drinking, use of y/n, inaccurate information about the monaco paddock/circuit, suggestive champagne drinking(?)

word count: 1,771

note: first of all, thank you for all the notes on my lewis fic i'm absolutely blown away 😭🫶🏻 secondly, first fic featuring mr. playboy himself! i hope you enjoy this one bcos i had so much fun writing it 🩷

(masterlist!)

you gawked at the herds of people waiting for your arrival at the entrance of the paddock from behind your sunglasses. even after years of being in the limelight, you still weren't used to all the attention.

somehow, news had leaked that you would be attending the monaco grand prix this year, which meant that you had to cover yourself in team gear (that your manager had fortunately brought to your hotel room the night before) from head to toe and walk in with the other team members rather than make a glamorous entrance in a far too revealing outfit like you usually did.

not that you were complaining. your manager would have your head if you caused any more chaos especially after your recent stunt during some after party which involved a bit too much drinking and dancing for the public's liking. apparently people didn't think three awards was something to celebrate with several rounds of shots.

"over there!"

shit.

despite your best efforts to remain incognito, it seemed you were identifiable even while wearing the slightly grim team uniform you wouldn't be caught dead in if it were under normal circumstances.

in a split second decision you made a run for it, hoping to evade any and all slightly deranged fans who might cause mayhem if they managed to reach you. stifling a giggle, you sprinted down the road without sparing a single thought about how odd it looked to everyone else around. you were suddenly grateful for the fact that you were wearing attire suitable for an unexpected, albeit thrilling, getaway.

yep. your manager is definitely going to give you an earful when you get back.

after what felt like an eternity of running, you ducked in between two motor homes to try and catch your breath while also staying hidden. you were so preoccupied with your own endeavours that you hadn't noticed the two men who were once engaged in their own conversation, now ogling at you.

just your luck. were they fans too? god, when were you going to catch a break?

"sorry, i can't sign anything or take any pictures right now. thanks for your support though." you muttered, finally managing to get out your pr approved message while leaning against the wall.

you promptly figured out that you had obviously said something wrong by the sight of a growing smile on the slightly shorter, blond man. looking closer at his chest, you recognised the same brawn gp logo that you were currently wearing stitched onto his racesuit.

fuck.

you looked to the dark haired man on his right who still looked confused at your random appearance. as you moved your gaze down from his face, you then noticed the red bull racing logo on his racesuit.

double fuck. but of course it was your luck to run into the drivers and embarrass yourself!

"shit. ok, wait, hang on. sorry about that. i'm not actually like that, i swear. i'm just trying not to make my manager any angrier at me than she already is." you managed to huff out.

"no worries, take your time."

thankfully, the blond man could see that you were still desperately trying to get air in your lungs and graciously gave you time to recover.

"erm, sorry, can we start over? i'm y/n l/n, nice to meet you."

you moved forward to shake both of their hands.

"jenson button, it's a pleasure. although i feel like i've already met you the amount of times you've been in the headlines."

you almost lost all your breath again as he maintained perfect eye contact while shaking your hand. you grimaced at the reminder of the mischief that you had been known for since the beginning of your career.

is this the regret that your manager was talking about during one of her lectures?

"mark webber, nice to meet you too. so, what was that all about?"

the brunet man, mark as you had just learnt, finally snapped out of his daze as he lightly shook your hand.

"oh, that? it's not a big deal, just some fans who wanted to meet me. i mean i appreciate them and i'm sure they have good intentions but it's a little scary to have a horde of people chasing you. you understand, right?"

jenson's shit-eating grin grew impossibly bigger and it was starting to get on your nerves. and this intense staring contest he had initiated didn't help.

what was his problem?

"yeah, i guess? something tells me you get recognised a lot more often than we do."

you nodded at mark's response without even giving him as much as a glance. if it weren't for the fact that you refused to lose the unofficial staring contest, you might have felt bad for practically ignoring him.

mark looked between you two and made the sensible decision to not get involved in whatever the hell was going on.

"uh, i'm gonna go get ready. see you out there, mate."

"yeah sure, see you later."

and just like that, you were alone with jenson.

"so, what's the world's biggest pop star doing at a formula 1 race?"

your face warmed at the compliment from the man who was becoming more and more attractive as time went on.

"thanks. my friend was meant to be here but something came up and she gave me her pass. i don't know anything about racing but i've heard the after parties are good. is that right?"

"good? they're better than good. they're the best parties in the world."

you raised an eyebrow at his declaration. you had been to more after parties than you could care to remember and you heavily doubted that they could be topped. sensing your uncertainty, jenson made an offer.

"tell you what. if i win the race today, you have to let me take you out to celebrate. i'll even let you watch the race from my garage."

he was on pole position and it was almost impossible to overtake at monaco. but you didn't have to know that.

you did need somewhere safe to watch from. and who knows? maybe celebrating with him could be fun.

"and what if you don't win?"

"don't worry about that, sweetheart. i'll win it just for you." he replied shooting you a wink.

jesus, was he trying to make you pass out?

"well if you're so confident then sure."

"great. let me take you to our garage. don't worry, your fans won't be able to get in there. although i can't promise that some of the team won't ask you for pictures."

"as long as they don't try and trample me i think i'll be fine!"

laughing along with him to the garage, both of you failed to notice the cameras pointed at you, broadcasting your interaction to live television.

almost two hours had passed by now and you were anxiously waiting for jenson to cross the line in first place. you didn't think watching race cars go round in circles could ever be so exciting but your mind had been undoubtedly changed after today. jenson had just begun his final lap around the prestigious circuit when the mechanics started leaving the garage. through all the emotion no one had bothered to tell you what was happening so you just rushed outside with them.

eventually you managed to push your way to the front of the crowd and rested against the wall facing the number boards waiting for the top 3 drivers arrival.

"where's jenson?" you turned to the mechanic on your right after the second and third drivers, who you found out were rubens barrichello and kimi räikkönen, parked their cars behind their respective number boards while jenson was nowhere to be found.

you soon got your answer once you saw him round the corner on foot.

"looks like he got lost!" joked the same mechanic on your right.

you shook your head and chuckled at the absurdity of a professional racing driver getting lost at a track he's driven at several times before. in the end he managed to get to the podium to raise his trophy and celebrate with his teammate.

a serene smile fell on his face as the british national anthem played for him for the fifth time that season. slowly but surely his claim to the 2009 title was becoming stronger and stronger.

as his eyes fell on his team he picked out your face in the sea of people. acting solely on impulse, he blew a kiss towards you ultimately causing an echo of wolf whistles. you made a motion as if to catch the kiss and slip it into the pocket of your jeans, saving it for later.

it would just be rude to leave the man hanging after he had let you stay in his garage. it definitely was not because he was charming your socks off.

shortly after the podium ceremony, he made his way towards the wall you were stood against. joining in with everyone else, you applauded him as he walked up. you let him celebrate with the people who had made the win possible before he finally reached you.

"congratulations, jense! you were incredible!"

"thank you, darling! would you like to try some of this champagne? might not be as good as some of the stuff you've had but i like to think victory makes it taste sweeter."

you smirked at the thought.

"if you insist." came your reply before you tilted your head back and opened your mouth to let him pour the champagne in.

for the first time since you had met him, he was speechless. snapping out of it, he poured the champagne into your mouth and the cheers seemed to become deafening. you tapped his chest to signal him to stop and wiped your mouth with your sleeve.

"you were right. victory does make it sweeter."

you mirrored the grin on his face as the celebrations almost faded away into the background. you two must have had the same thought in that moment because before you knew it, you were kissing each other as if there weren't dozens of cameras being shoved in your faces.

once again, you were breathless as you pulled away.

"i know i owe you a proper celebration, but how about dinner? just us two?"

your cheeks were starting to hurt from the permanent grin on your face now.

"sounds like a proper celebration to me."

your manager was definitely going to kill you now. but you couldn't care less; you had a dinner date with jenson button.

[waynewifey]

dear mr. wayne — b.w

part one: dear mr. wayne

part two: aftermath

part three: aporia

epilogue

summary: it’s not easy being a politician’s wife. it’s even harder to love a vigilante. months of negligence make you an easy target to his enemies.

pairing: bruce wayne/battinson x reader

genre: angst romance & dark action

warnings: swearing; smoking; kidnapping; violence; a bit of gore; “you” is she/her; bruce is the worst husband ever btw

word count: 2.8k

A/N: i wrote this back in january 2022 when the batman movie had just premiered, so kinda off the hype here. i hope you enjoy it anyway. already working on part 2, let me know if you guys would like it! also, this has taken a path way darker than i had in mind so i’m sorry if it’s too much. comments are appreciated!

gotham city, USA.

it's late.

you have no clock nearby, but you feel it in your bones. in your muscles too. it's too late and bruce should be home already. laying in the sofa, only half conscious, you regret telling alfred to go to bed. at least you wouldn't be alone. of course, being married to the batman you knew he would patrol at night often. you were okay with it. but lately bruce had been too focused on his other, and recent, goal: running for mayor. at first it seemed out of character, he was never good with the public or the press. but he stared at thomas wayne's painting in the hall in such painful façade, it made sense all off sudden. you were supportive of it. you showed up to every event just to stay by his side, to show the people the lovable man he was. the man you loved. the man who couldn't even be home for dinner.

the penthouse's elevator dings, opening its doors at the end of the hallway you see perfectly from your seat. your head doesn't lift instantly, like in the first week. instead, a long sigh escapes from your lips as bruce reaches the living room.

"hello, darling." he says, still in motion as he walks the stairway up to the room you shared. not a single kiss, or a hug. you follow him, because what else is there to do? you need to go to bed anyway. by the time you get there, slowly, his suit is already on the floor and he's taking a shower.

"how was the meeting?" you ask, knowing he usually did his Wayne Enterprising meetings — which consisted of hanging out long hours in bars with business men — at night. recently, he started a complicated relationship with a real estate company he wanted to invest in.

"the usual." he stopped fully answering these questions three weeks ago, making the only time you ever talked even shorter. the city has gotten more violent than ever since his batman duties were put on standby.

"any closer to sealing the deal?" you sit on the bed, watching the open bathroom door.

"probably." it's not like he's being rude. well, maybe a little bit. he just doesn't want to talk any more, it's clear on his tone. but it's 2am and you brain isn't working too well.

"when is this gonna end, bruce?" you finally say, as he puts his boxers on. "when are we ever having dinner again? or going on a date? when are you gonna stop treating me like i'm some sort of home decor?" you almost vomit out the words that have been stuck on your throat for days. surprisingly, the heartache doesn't softens. instead, it gets worse. it's like admitting your abandonment.

six months ago, you started trying to get pregnant. it hadn't always been a dream of yours, but the idea of having an heir to all you've spent your life building is charming. you realised you were in the right time to do so, you had just turned 28, bruce was 32, and both had stable careers. a month later, bruce announced his candidacy. and so soon you gave up. you told yourself once he won the election everything would be fine. you would try again. but, realistically, being a mayor was already a lot of work on itself. he wouldn't want a pregnant wife or a child to take care of. after the four years, who knows? he might as well have a new life project. and your family would always stand on the side.

"i don't know what you're talking about..." he doesn't look into your eyes. hell, he barely looks at you. that feeling, the negligence, is enough to trigger the tears. you take a deep breath, making an effort to look composed.

"don't you, though?" your voice is shaken. look at me. look at me. look at me. look at me. he doesn't. "bruce." you call, finally getting his attention. however, the boredom on his face knocks you off your feet, legs trembling in pain and anger. "i just want you to make an effort on us..."

"really? cause that's all i ever done." he's leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed in a way you would find attractive in other circumstances. but now he's yelling and you fight back the urge to shrink into the mattress. "do you think i wanna have a kid on this fucked up town? i'm tryna fix this. fix everything!" his faces turns red-ish. something inside of you makes you want to leave the room. you've always been an avoider, that is one of the reasons you hadn't really had couple fights. so, basically, this is very new. "i've got the weight of the fucking world on my back."

"let's leave then" you manage to say, replacing the you chose this. it was true, however, that he was the one to put himself in this position. bruce wayne could've gotten his entire life without working if he wanted to. but he always needed to save everyone, to suffer for other's happiness. he was a giver. sometimes you wondered if he needed to be saved instead.

"you know i can't do that." he mumbles, in a defeated tone. a sigh escapes from his lips, suddenly the tiredness takes over his face. it's almost enough to make you let it go, to internalise your distress again. he really can't, you know that. he feels that the city is his liability, because it was the only thing he had since he became an orphan. but he had you, too. he just didn't acknowledge that.

"and i can't stay like this." it sounds like an whisper, but it's a plead. choose me. please. he seems to read it in your eyes, face contorting in agony when he realises what you're asking for. me or gotham? it's stupid to think he would ever choose you. but you hoped, so desperately, because you would choose him. always.

"let's not do this tonight, okay? i have to be in the office by the morning." tears instantly fall as he turns off the lights and lays on the bed, turning his back to where you slept. for a moment, you're static. his words were final. were you ever in control of something in your life? why were all of these decisions being made for you? mechanically, you stand on both feet and walk to the door. you don't even notice your movement until you're on the elevator. your husband didn't intervene either. this neighbourhood is one of the safest in town, which honestly isn't much but you had to get out. anyway, nowhere is totally safe at 3am.

you walk two blocks, clinging to the fluffy sweater you wore. the depressing air of gotham slows your pace, to a point you start wondering if it was really necessary to be aware. you could feel the city devouring you, starting with your hope. the blue 24h sign lights up the street, in a way that isn't welcoming, but you know the place well enough to not be scared to get in. a bell sounds over the door and wakes up the male behind the counter. he's got long black hair and seems to haven't seen a good night of sleep in weeks. same,you think.

"hi. can i get the blue one?" you point at the camel's behind the man. he nods, quickly putting a pack on the wooden board. the prices pops up on the cashier's display. you pay and go outside. smoking was an bad habit from your college days, when pressure got too excruciating. every now and then you would treat yourself to some cigarettes, for the confidence it gave you. the sense of control to be the one, for once, ruining yourself. the smoke burns your throat on the first inhale and you hold back a cough. you're too entertained by the cigar to notice the black van approaching. it stops right in front of you, and everything happens too quickly for your brain to process. it's all dark.

he's in a meeting, the boring kind.

the kind that has him seated in silence while a representative talks to his employees, who never get to listen to their actual boss. there's a chart being shown on a large tv on the other side of the room. he's not listening, though. he's writing down ideas for a thanksgiving speech. a head pops into the conference room.

"mr. wayne." it's one of the new assistants, hired especially for the election season. he didn't care to memorise her name, because temps usually don't last long. if she hadn't called him, he might've not even looked up. but the room is silent, expecting eyes on him. the girl at the door looks terrified. "you're urgently required outside, please."

he sighs as he gets up from his leather chair. the second the door closed behind him, chatter is heard again. in the corridor, the woman conducts him to his office and they get in. there's a bit of a commotion, four men lounge around his table, all their faces tense.

"mr. wayne, i'm afraid we don't have good news." the head of the marketing team speaks, a man called robert vance. he's probably said the same phrase to bruce about seven times this month, so that doesn't do much. the assistant approaches with an ipad, unpausing a video. "we received this from an anonymous email about forty minutes ago. we weren't able to get the ip address just yet."

the video starts with a black screen, zooming out to show a woman with a bag over her head. she has her hands on her back and is kneeling on the ground. bruce's heart skips a beat noticing the hair falling down her shoulders.

"bruce wayne..." an eerie voice whispers from behind the camera, breathing heavily. "i've robbed an egg from your basket, and you haven't even noticed!" there's a disturbing chuckle and the video shakes a bit. bruce doesn't move, eyes stuck on the screen. no one in the room has done anything other than breathing. someone gulps. "it's been long hours, but we're having fun, aren't we, darling?" a gloved hand reaches for the bag, pulling it out. her face - your face - is dripping blood. you're biting on a fabric, still in your home clothes. bruce's jaw clenches. you're crying, face beaten, in this degrading situation. your eyes pierce the screen right into his. suddenly, a gun is tapped on your forehead and you close your eyes into a sob. your lips mouth please. "i'm running out of patience here, you're running out of time. let's do business, shall we?" he laughs, knocking the pistol on the side of your head, making you fall laying on the floor, unconscious. the spot bleeds. "here's my proposal: you come clean about your father's deal with carmine falcone and maybe i don't shoot little mrs. wayne... or i do both. it's your choice, really. the clock is ticking. tick tock, wayne."

the video stops, the sight of a gun pointed at your unresponsive body burns into his mind. bruce is panting, the adrenaline rushes into his brain. there's a million of plans being built, but none of them seem viable.

"don't let media get this." he managed to say. one of the men in suits says it's too late. the tv flicks on showing a news report on the video. he kicks the side of his table, the contents being thrown across the room. "FUCK! you bastards wait forty fucking minutes to show me this?" he screams, no one can look him in the eyes. a hand runs through his black hair. "meanwhile my wife is out there with a gun on her head! and what have you done? i swear to god, if i don't find her alive and well i'm killing everyone in this goddamned room with my bare hands."

he storms out of there, reaching to his phone to call alfred and noticing the multiple missed calls. fucking silent mode. the sun is setting.

"i got the address." the butler says, instead of hello. a 'ding' sounds in his ear.

there has been pain for so long. you try to remember before the pain. but all is pain. he has to make it stop.

the floor is cold cement and you feel so small in this huge warehouse. the man in the mask knows you can't run. not only you're tied up, but the will had left you long before getting dragged into that van. he sees it in your eyes. so he strolls around, always in that ridiculous dark green overall. then he beats you up for fun. no cameras. just you and the devil himself. you find yourself praying, after all these years. you don't pray to get out, no. you pray so that it ends soon. you pray that the stab wound in your abdomen will get you an infection. you pray that when you close your eyes, you never have to open them again. but the divine has left you in the cold cement.

there's an explosion. your eyes open. there's smoke and dust taking over one of the walls. you're seeing everything horizontally, cheek on the floor. the man in green is just as scared as you were.

bruce wayne busted that fucking wall down. he expected a full team of psychopaths and maybe some more security. there was just one coward in the warehouse. the thing stares at him coming out of the smoke, fingers fidgeting. the batman steps forward. the freak steps back. then turns around, runs to a half broken wardrobe and grabs a gun from it. bruce walks slowly. there's a struggle loading the gun. he takes the opportunity to run and throw the thing on the floor. he bangs his head on it. the vermin screams. he takes one punch. two. tries to reach for the fallen gun. bruce steps on his hand and the loud crack echoes in the room. he screams again. three punches. the mask is taken off. his nose is bleeding. more punches. he holds the neck. the head is turning purple. oh how he wants to kill this little shit. bruce wayne will kill him. it will just take a few more seconds...

"baby, no" at first he thinks he's imagining it. it's so soft, so weak. but he looks up and there she is. his hands loose. right on the corner, chains on her legs. her face is ruined from blood and dirt. her wrists bleed too. the motherfucker chained her. hell is too good for this thing.

bang. on his shoulder. he looks down and the blood is dripping on the freak's face. he’s pushed to the side, holding the wound. tiny white dots obstruct his vision. he grunts through the pain. the man gets up and runs towards you. bruce can’t move. he arches his back, trying to roll and lay on his chest. it feels like he can’t move his arm anymore, like his bones had detached. when he finally does so, the man is escaping through a window. his hand searches for the adrenaline-boost in his belt, grabs it and quickly injects on his leg. it takes a second to get his blood rushing again. he crawls up and jumps through the window, which leads him to a metal balcony.

you’re almost standing, but he holds your chains and a gun to your face. the shooting sound had scared you awake. you can’t believe how close to bruce you finally are, but the conditions couldn’t be worse. you can hear water running below your feet, you don’t need daylight to show you the violent river you’re standing above. this is not good.

bruce has his hands up in the air and is holding himself back to not do anything stupid. the man’s face is contorting into the creepiest smile. no.

everything happens so slowly, yet he’s not quick enough to grab you in time. you’re falling in the air and he jumped after you. for a moment, the world is air. you can’t hold out your hand. your hair is flying in your face, he does not want to die without seeing you one last time. his cape holds him back and the distance between you only increases. you’re gone. the impact comes.

part two

[yukidragon]

Sunshine in Hell Height Headcanons

It's June 15, which as many of you know from this official profile, that it's Sunny Day Jack's birthday today!

You might also know that it's [Redacted]'s birthday thanks to this ominous picture Sauce shared last year on this day. Funny how these two totally distinct characters share a birthday isn't it? 🤔

Anyway, I was hoping to have written something for this year to celebrate, but like last year my spoons are way too few and far between. I was also hoping to do something self-indulgent for my own birthday, but same lack of spoons halted me there too.

So, until I can stock up on more metaphorical utensils to help me do the stuff I feel like doing, I'm going to celebrate by rambling a little bit about some headcanon details.

Sunshine in Hell differs from the game demos in a number of ways, and one of them is Jack's height. As you might've seen from the profile link, Jack is canonically 6'2", but in my personal headcanon continuity, I decided to make the gentle giant quite a bit taller than that. Because it amuses me, and I struggle with imagining Jack as shorter than Cove Holden.

When deciding how tall to make Jack in my stories, I also decided to do a height chart for him and a few other characters as well. It helps to better imagine characters interacting when you can see how tall they are compared to others.

Yes, I threw in a few extra love interests to the mix, as well as a couple other MCs. I was curious to see how tall Alice would be compared to her sisters, and I had to throw in their love interests as well.

As an aside, it tickles me that even after I made Jack significantly taller, he's shorter than Bo's horny "Feed Me" form.

For those of you that need the conversion from centimeters to feet and inches, or have trouble reading the image, I'll write them down for easy reference.

Alice: 162 cm / 5'4"

Jack: 198 cm / 6'6"

Shaun: 178 cm / 5'10"

Nick: 173 cm / 5'8"

Ian: 170 cm / 5'7"

Bo: 180 cm / 5'11"

Barbie: 184 cm / 6'0"

Bo "Feed Me" form: 216 cm / 7'1"

Elias: 185 cm / 6'1"

Coraline: 172 cm / 5'8"

As you can see, Shaun, Nick, and Ian stuck with the canon heights in their profiles. It's just Jack who got a height increase because it's what I imagined his height to be from the start, and Sunshine in Hell is basically my headcanons that diverge from the game's canon, so I do what I want. It's also fun to imagine scary yandere Jack towering over every single one of the love interests. It adds to the intimidation factor too despite his gentle giant persona.

Bo and Elias don't have canon heights like the SDJ love interests, so I mostly just did whatever felt right to me for them. Bo's regular height was influenced by the mafia AU picture Sauce drew. It served as a very good height comparison chart all on its own. As you can see, Bo is just tall enough to reach Jack's smile if you don't count the ears and poofy hair.

All credit to the awesome Sauce for their lovely art of course and for feeding my headcanons. As always, I want to link to the SnaccPop Patreon as gratitude for being cool with me using their art in my posts. If you're a a free or paying member, consider checking out an important survey that went up to help guide the team in their future endeavors.

Bo looks so short compared to Jack, doesn't he? In my headcanon land, it's just a matter of perspective, and next to other people Bo is pretty darn tall. Though he's just one teeny tiny inch shorter than his puppy.

You bet your sweet bippy Barbie takes smug satisfaction in that one inch height superiority. Bo talks so big as a big bad alpha dog, but the puppy he's trying to dominate is just a bit bigger and badder than he ever expected.

Of course, Bo gets to turn it right back around on Barbie with his monster sized "Feed Me" form. Like werewolves that become huge compared to their human selves, when Bo's inner beast comes out to play, he adds on quite a lot of height and muscle. He towers over even Jack! Still, even when super sized, he's no match for Barbie.

As you can see, despite being the eldest child, Alice is shorter than her two younger sisters, especially Barbie! They got more of their dad's height genes, while Alice took more after their mom in that department. Barbie and Coraline are quite a bit taller than average, a fact that Barbie revels in, and Coraline can find a little awkward sometimes, especially during moments of weakness. It can be hard to help someone stand back up and walk when they're much taller than you are after all. It leads to some embarrassing moments for poor Coraline.

On that same note of surprisingly tall people with chronic illnesses, I thought it would be interesting if Elias would have been a very tall man if not for his illness. There's no canon height for him and he's floating with Jack and Bo in the Christmas picture, so it's hard to go with a comparative height. So, I went with what felt narratively interesting to me. With his legs being twisted, and him being hunched over with a cane, he probably appeared shorter than he actually was. It's hard to see his exact height with his lower half ghostly and indistinct as well. It's only when he actually bothers to give himself legs and stand with both feet planted firmly on the ground that he can show off just how tall he really is.

While I'm on the topic of height, I wonder if one of Ian's insecurities was his height. Some men have issues if they're shorter than their peers, and Ian is the shortest of the love interests. I can imagine it certainly didn't help if he was bullied for being short along with his general "nerdy" appearance back in school.

Still, Ian has nothing to complain about at the height he's at as a fully grown adult. Even if the other love interests are taller than he is, Ian is still above average for men in the US. He's just got the misfortune of being the shortest guy in a group of very tall people. At least he doesn't have to worry about taking the bottom spot in the height chart like Alice.

Yes, Alice is a bit self-conscious about being so short compared to her peers, even if technically she's also above average height for a woman in the US. She feels especially tiny when standing next to Jack.

Though, admittedly, Alice does find it very nice to feel tiny and delicate when Jack sweeps her up into his arms. It makes her feel less self-conscious about how chubby she is when her big strong giant of a boyfriend can carry her around so easily. Once she gets over the initial fear that he might drop her, she'll soon look forward to being whisked away by her silly clown.

Oh, and if you're wondering about Mary's height... I'm still debating if I want her to be around Alice's height or a little taller. She had the same eye color in both lives due to the eyes being windows to the soul, but there were other physical differences due to different parents introducing different genetics. I need to ruminate on that fine of detail more and see what feels more interesting to me narratively.

Though even if Mary was as tall as Barbie, she'll still be short enough for Joseph to sweep into her arms since he's just as much of a giant now as he was then. Not that it would stop him from trying even if his sunshine was bigger than him. Nothing will stop Joseph/Jack from showing his love for his sunshine!

I think I'll wrap things up on that fluffy note. I hope y'all enjoyed me going off on a headcanon ramble after such a long time. With any luck, I'll be able to get to answering some asks soon. Thanks for reading!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

[jeonqkooks]

our beloved summer | jjk (06)

You made a vow to hate Jeon Jungkook ever since he packed up and left you without a single explanation, but when he shows up at your door after years of radio silence, it turns out that maybe your resolve isn’t as strong as you thought.

pairing: producer!jungkook x songwriter!reader

genre/warnings: exes au, fluff, angst, eventual smut, swearing, kissing (omg k1ss1ng omg WHO IS IT ??? 😦), tbh this is the only warning i wanted u guys to read cuz 6 chapters in and we finally get sum action i feel like that's a win lmaooooo, jimin being Real as fook, unbeta'd cuz uhm i'm a godless menace who should be conked on the head, once again we are severely lacking jk in his own fic lol i'm owning up to this 🤗 BUT! this is probably the last chapter where jk feels like a side character lol apologies my dudes

rating: PG-13

word count: 8.1k (honestly i wrote obs6 just so i could get to obs7 lmao that's why it's a lil bit shorter)

note: my apologies if this sucks. you are legally allowed to stone me if you hate it. but i hope you don't hate it. but if you do hate it don't tell me just stone me lol 🤐 why am i so unhinged with this update

series masterpost / playlist ; moodboards ; taglist

— as always, i’d appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have, and please drop a like and/or reblog if you enjoy reading ♡

I can see you starin', honey Like he's just your understudy Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me

Exile - Taylor Swift (ft. Bon Iver)

The picture is fucking terrible.

“Jimin, what the fuck,” you grumble, staring at the huge framed photo on the wall, taken on the day of the opening party. You, Taehyung and Jimin are gathered on the floor of the dance studio, with boxes of takeout neatly sitting between the three of you. “I look like ass.”

Jimin barely glances at the wall, just continues to stuff his face with the dumplings that you ordered. “You look fine,” he says absentmindedly, mouth full, continuing to munch on the food despite your little dilemma.

“Bitch, I have my eyes closed.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“I look like I’m in the middle of a sneeze.” You cross your arms in front of your chest, squinting at your photographed self again. The more you look at it, the more irritated you become.

Realistically, you know nobody would pay enough attention to notice the immortalized visual of your fluttering eyes, and you yourself wouldn’t care about it that much. Maybe you would even laugh in good spirits and poke fun at yourself as you often do. Make a meme of it for the group chat.

“What’s the big deal?” Jimin asks.

You shrug petulantly. “I told you. I look like ass.”

Yeah, true, but it’s also more than that.

It’s the fact that the person standing next to you looks so good that you must voice your grievances. It’s the fact that he looks so much more than just good. 

The guys stop eating to look at you. You wonder just how much of what you’re feeling is written all over your face. Regardless, they don’t comment on it. 

One of them clears his throat, shaking the whole thing off.

“Did you tell Yoongi anything yet?” Jimin asks.

You poke at a lone dumpling with your chopsticks, popping the ‘p’ when you say, “Nope.”

“Damn, Y/N,” Jimin scolds you. “It’s been three weeks. He doesn’t want to push you for an answer but the man has got to be suffering.”

You flick a piece of spring onion garnish at him. It lands on his hair, a single bit of green sitting among golden locks. “I don’t know what to tell him!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jimin shakes the onion piece from his head and chucks it back at you. “Obviously you say yes!”

You exhale through your nose, then take a bite of your dumpling. You nibble on the fried dough, stretching out the silence, delaying your response.

It hasn’t even started, and it might not even start. But you’re already thinking about all the things that could go wrong. Yoong is your friend, first and foremost. He’s a good friend, and you would be crushed if you lose that relationship. 

What if he hurts you, or you hurt him?

Sometimes, people are meant to hurt each other even if they don’t mean to.

Yoongi hasn’t seen your pieces in all of their jagged glory, how they’re only meant to reflect the light but never be healed by it. He’s still blissfully unaware of the ugly thoughts that have a home inside your head, and you’re afraid if you let him in, he’d realize it’s a place he doesn’t want to be. It’s hard to love a broken thing. You wouldn’t want to love you either.

Maybe this is the real reason that’s been holding you back all this time. Maybe it isn’t Jungkook - though he certainly isn’t absolved - but it’s you, and how you just don’t know if you’re someone who deserves to love and be loved. You’ve felt inadequate more times than you can count. You’ve been left before. Who’s to say it isn’t going to happen again?

You’re well aware that this is a bad way to look at things, but can anyone really blame you? You still have a heart, and despite how fragmented it is, you still want to protect it.

“I know that look,” Taehyung says, parting your fog and pulling you back to him. “You’re overthinking again.”

You roll your eyes. He knows you so well, but does he have to call you out every time?

“I’m not overthinking. I’m regular thinking.”

“Right. And to normal people, that’s overthinking.”

“It’s just…” you wonder out loud, gaze on the floor. “What if I go all in, and Yoongi sees me for who I am and thinks that I’m just an utterly sad person who can’t be loved? That I’m too much work when he’s got literally thousands of people throwing themselves at him left and right?”

Taehyung stares at the side of your face as he bites the inside of his cheek. His tongue soothes the spot, his jaw clenching once. “He’s not going to think that.”

“You don’t know that,” you say, the corners of your mouth tugging down.

“You’re not unlovable just because one person didn’t love you right. So stop it with that bullshit, because I love you,” he says, voice serious. Even Jimin stays silent as he listens to his friend, his eyes flickering between you and Taehyung. “And Jimin loves you. Hobi loves you.”

You merely blink, because you hate it when he’s right. In all fairness, you understand. This is the same thing you would tell him if the situation were reversed.

You deflect anyway. That’s what you do best.

“You don’t count,” you tell him with an unserious scoff, your tone starkly contrasting his. “You’re my family.”

You taste something bitter as soon as the words leave your mouth. You should know better than anyone, that just because someone’s your family, doesn’t mean they have to love you.

Taehyung reenacts the blinking guy meme before chuckling, holding a hand over his chest like you’ve just wounded him. “Ouch.”

“You two are getting nowhere,” Jimin interjects. “Just call Yoongi.”

“And say what?” you ask.

“I told you. Say yes. God, you’re so dense sometimes.”

You reach over to jab a finger into his side, making him hiss and shuffle away from you.

“That wasn’t nice,” you grumble.

“Well, somebody’s gotta say it.” He gives you a look, eyebrows raised for a few seconds before he lowers them and grows more stern. “Come on, Y/N. You know you don’t want to say no, or else you would’ve turned him down already. You said you wanted to start dating again. Yoongi is practically on his knees offering himself to you. What are you waiting for?”

There’s a voice in the back of your head - tiny, barely audible - that whispers, Who are you waiting for?

“Fuck it, I’ll say it,” Jimin continues. “It sucks balls that Jungkook hurt you, but you can’t let that affect you for the rest of your life. Not everyone is going to hurt you. You’re not even giving Yoongi a chance just because someone else did you dirty. If you keep always thinking about the worst possible outcome and banking on it to happen, then you’re never going to get anywhere. I love you, dude, but y’know.”

You stare at Jimin with your mouth slightly open, stunned into silence. When you glance at Taehyung, he’s surprised too, though probably not as much as you.

After a couple of minutes, you say, “Wow.”

“Tough love. I have my moments.” Jimin shrugs casually, like he didn’t just drop a truth bomb on your head. “But also…” He picks his phone up and types something in. Your phone instantly buzzes with a notification.

“Open the link I just sent you,” he says.

“You are literally sitting across from me.”

“Just open it! I made you a playlist.”

“Aw, Jimin, that’s so cute,” you coo softly, reaching over to pinch his cheek before he swats your hand away. You unlock your phone to see what Jimin made you, because that is some friendship hall of fame stuff right there. However, when the link redirects you to your music app, your smile immediately drops.

Aaand he’s back.

You stare at the screen for a good ten seconds to try and find your bearings, flabbergasted at something that is quite honestly very on-brand for Jimin if you think about it. “You made me a playlist called Dick Appointment with an eggplant emoji and the tongue out emoji and it’s mostly just Yoongi’s songs. Even the playlist cover is from his Valentino shoot.”

“So you can get it on while Agust D plays in the background!” Jimin grins, and you could just smack it right off his face.

“Park Jimin, who raised you? You are vile.”

“Validate me,” he demands. Oh, you would smack him. You really would. “I spent hours making that playlist.”

“It’s literally just Yoongi’s songs.”

“Yeah, but I had to curate an experience. I can’t just dump every song into a playlist and call it a day. I gotta make sure they fit the vibe.”

“I literally just heard the most profound shit from you not even two minutes ago.” Then, you turn to Taehyung with an exasperated look on your face. “Why would you let him do this?”

He just waves a dismissive hand in the air, like Jimin isn’t even there. “I’m not responsible for the stupid shit he does.”

Jimin crosses his arms in front of his chest, both eyebrows raised dramatically as he gapes at you. “You both suck. From now on, you can make your own sexytime playlists.”

“Nobody even asked you to do that!” you cry.

“Yeah! Which makes me an even more considerate friend,” he says. “Ugh. Whatever. Go call Yoongi.”

“You want me to do it now?”

“Yes. Because I know you’ll wuss out when you’re alone. You can stay and put him on speakers for us to hear or you can go out into the hallway. Come on, chop chop.”

“No, I have to text him first,” you protest. “What if he’s busy?”

Jimin narrows his eyes at you suspiciously, but allows you this after a moment. “Fine.”

You take out your phone from your bag that’s lying carelessly on the floor to draft a quick message to Yoongi. 

[12:59] You: got a minute?

The three of you go back to the food, abandoning the previous topic of conversation in favor of something lighter and meaningless or else you would go crazy waiting for Yoongi’s reply. After you’re finished, you and Taehyung are in the middle of putting away all the empty containers and soda cans when your phone buzzes again. 

You go to grab it to look at the notification, hands already starting to sweat.

[13:17] Yoongi: for you? always :)

You turn back to the guys to find them already looking at you. Jimin wiggles his eyebrows suggestively while Taehyung just stares at you.

“Time to get your whore on,” Jimin says in an exaggeratedly sultry voice.

You turn to Taehyung for help. “He’s bullying me.”

“Ignore him,” your best friend tells you gently. “Go call Yoongi.”

When you take your phone out into the hallway, you make sure to go to the far end of it, near the main entrance so the two dorks can’t eavesdrop. You’ll tell them everything once you come back anyway, but you don’t want them within earshot while you’re in the middle of it.

Yoongi picks up your call on the third ring. In the background, your ear picks up on some chatter.

“Hey, princess,” he greets you. Then he holds the phone away from his ear to tell someone that he’d be back in a bit.

“Hey,” you say. “Where are you?”

“Just at a fitting. I have an ad campaign to film next week,” he answers. “Did you call just to get my whereabouts?”

“No, I… If you’re busy, we can talk later.”

“We’re still in the middle of lunch break anyway. What did you want to talk about?”

You briefly regret not taking a minute to psych yourself up before. You suck in a deep breath, which eases your nerves for just a second, long enough for you to say, “Yes.”

You’re met with brief silence from the other end of the line, which only makes your palms more clammy than they already are.

“Yes?” he echoes confusedly. “Yes what?”

“Yes,” you say again. “To…”

The silence commences once more, and lasts longer than you think you can handle. Then, you hear him stop in the middle of a breath.

“Oh.” A subsequent chuckle in response to the lightbulb that must’ve been switched on. “To that?”

“...Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

It feels like you two have invented a secret language that nobody else could understand. A single syllable, bouncing off the metaphorical walls of your conversation. Two idiots sharing the same brain cell.

“Yes?” he continues to prod, but at this point, you know he’s just teasing you.

“Yes! God, stop making me say it again. We sound so stupid.”

He graces you with a hearty laugh that makes you fight back a sheepish smile, even though there isn’t a single soul in sight to witness it. Yoongi makes you so fucking shy for some reason. Your nerves dissolve momentarily as you lean against the wall, your index finger running along a crack in the paint.

“Hmm, I wish you would’ve told me this in person,” he says, his voice soft.

“I can’t handle you in person. You’d tease me so much.”

“Because you’re adorable when you’re flustered, that’s why.” He waits a second before adding, “You’re blushing right now, aren’t you?”

“You’re being overly confident, Min.”

“Maybe,” he responds easily. “But am I right, though?”

“Shut up.”

When Yoongi said he would cook for you, you almost gasped.

“You can cook?” you had asked. It wasn’t an earth-shattering revelation or anything, but you suppose you’d never given much thought to the hidden sides of him. 

“Y/N,” he laughed then. “I’m a great cook. I could probably make a pretty decent career out of being a chef.”

“I didn’t know that,” you told him sheepishly.

“There’s a lot of things you still need to know about me.” It sounded like a promise. Like I’m willing to show you me. Like I’m willing to take the first step if you’d be in this with me too. “Does that sound like a good idea? You, me, dinner at your place?”

“My place?”

“Yeah, so you’ll be more comfortable. I’ll come over.”

This one simple gesture shouldn’t affect you that much, but it does. You appreciate that he’s considerate even when it comes to the littlest things. You swell with gratitude for the thought he puts into this, into putting your comfort first. It made you feel a bit better about yourself, calmed your stormy sea of thoughts enough to rationally accept the fact that he genuinely cares.

Regardless, it doesn’t stop you from spending most of the day obsessively cleaning your apartment. Even - and especially - your bedroom, although you’re sure that is not where the night will end. Every surface is spotless, not a single speck of dust to be found. It’s like the goddamn Pope is coming over for a house inspection. 

You haven’t had a first date in… fuck, how long has it been now? Nine years? It’s almost been a fucking decade already? You honestly can’t tell if that’s embarrassing or not.

But you remember the last time.

College, freshman year, with Jungkook. His yellow piece of sticky note that he slipped inside your favorite book. His adorably flustered expression when he timidly stood in front of you in the campus library. The way he was trying so hard to be confident and charming throughout your first dinner together. How he ran back to you after saying goodnight.

No.

You shut your eyes and shake your head, warding off any Jungkook-related thoughts before they could send you spiraling. You can’t reminisce about your ex while waiting for someone else to show. Yoongi deserves better, and that’s what you’re trying to be.

You’re not exactly sure how nice you should dress tonight. Yoongi told you that you could be clad in sweats for all he cares. If the dinner didn’t hold any connotation other than platonic, maybe you would’ve really donned your loungewear like you were merely having Taehyung and Jimin over for pizza.

You’d completely forgotten all the things people worry about in the early stages of dating, when you want to impress the other person but don’t want them to think that you’re trying too hard. 

Calm down. It’s just Yoongi. He’s seen you ugly crying with mascara running down your face, for fuck’s sake.

In the end, you opt for a sweater and a comfortable skirt. Casual. 

Yoongi rings your doorbell about ten minutes later than when he said he’d be there, holding a bag full of groceries. The visual alone makes you bite back a giggle and subsequently fail. You believe this is what people would call husband material.

You take his coat and guide him into your home. “Welcome to my humble abode,” you say shyly, gesturing around as you lead him into the kitchen to show him where everything is. Why are you acting like this? This isn’t you. If Taehyung or Jimin could see you right now, they would probably laugh. Hoseok would straight up be rolling on the floor.

You barely breathe as you watch Yoongi take in his surroundings. It’s intimidating, even though you know it’s just Yoongi. 

“I actually don’t know what I expected, but I like it. It’s very you,” he comments, smiling.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that it’s cute,” he says, throwing you a wink as he leans against your kitchen counter.

You avert your gaze immediately. “Oh… Thanks,” you reply, fiddling with the hem of your sweater. “So, uhm, what are you making? How can I help?”

“Just sit down. I got this.”

“Yoongi,” you say his name in protest. “I want to h-”

“I’m trying to romance you here. Let me do that,” Yoongi says, his smile turning lopsided as he starts emptying the contents of his grocery bags. Even though his tone is light, the gentle reminder of tonight being a date shuts you right up.

You take a seat at your dining table, though you can’t really sit still. As Yoongi starts working, you absentmindedly talk to each other about your day, about his campaign, about Seokjin’s album. At one point, you get up to creep over to his side when the smell of whatever he’s making becomes more prominent. You try to peek at the pot, curious, but he just shoos you away by bumping his hip against yours.

When you give him a small pout, you pretend not to notice the way his eyes dart to your mouth. You retract yourself from his personal space, choosing a spot on the other side of your kitchen island, staring at his back as he works.

You watch him expertly navigate your kitchen like he’s been here before. When he’s finished, he makes you sit down, not even letting you help bring the food to the table.

“What is it?” you ask once he’s settled in his seat, everything plated in front of you.

“Kimchi jjigae,” he says, a proud look on his face. “My mom’s recipe.”

It’s endearing, and it makes you smile.

For the most part, Yoongi lets you eat in peace, though there’s still a couple of flirtatious comments here and there. Every time it comes, you bite down on your bottom lip to try and snap out of that daze before you cough, as if that would help tone down the colors adorning your face. There’s no verbal response from you, and it seems like Yoongi doesn’t expect one either, because he just chuckles. You think he must notice the palpable nervousness that radiates off of you, but it’s not like you’re doing a very good job at hiding it.

You’re taking baby steps and he knows it. The fact that you even agreed to this at all is already major progress.

When you’re done eating, he clears the table while he asks you to open the expensive bottle of wine that he brought over. It does wonders for your nerves.

Three glasses in and you’re visibly more relaxed as you both sit on the couch in the living room, facing each other. There’s a small smile on your face that you can’t help, maybe it’s some of your inhibitions wearing off as a side effect of the alcohol. 

You glance around the room, and you take in the sight of Yoongi sitting here, this close to you. He feels bigger than your small world can handle.

“You know,” you start. If the wine didn’t make you more mellow, you probably wouldn’t be saying this. “There are thousands of people thirsting over you every day.”

Yoongi tilts his head, swirling the wine in his glass. “Really?”

“Don’t you look at the internet? I personally know two girls from college who are on the Yoongi Marry Me train,” you say matter-of-factly, like you aren’t borderline tipsy in front of him.

You aren’t an avid Twitter user, but every time you check the damn bird app, Yoongi is almost always trending. In every single one of his posts on social media, there is always an influx of comments asking him to marry them. Not only that, when word first got out about you collaborating with Agust D back then, people you knew - both old friends and acquaintances - practically bombarded your messages to see if it was true, and to ask if you could get them an autograph.

Yoongi stretches out his legs until they brush against yours. Your stomach flips even though it’s only your legs that are barely touching.

“The what train?”

“You seriously don’t know about the Yoongi Marry Me movement? Look it up. It’s a whole thing. People would do anything to, I don’t know, hold your hand or something.”

With an amused look on his face, he holds your gaze. “Would you?”

“What?”

“Would you do all of that just to hold my hand? Because you don’t have to, y’know.” He brings the wine glass to his lips, partially hiding his face from you, and you don’t know whether he’s doing it for your sake or his in preparation for the words he speaks next. “But I would do it to hold yours.”

You’re sure that your cheeks are burning bright, your stomach twisted in knots. It’s the wine, but it’s definitely the effect of his words too. You stare at Yoongi in surprise; no matter how many times he openly flirts with you, he’d still elicit the same reaction from you. It’ll be hard to get used to it. He just always seems to know what to say to make you blush like a schoolgirl, which you resent but you can’t deny the sparks of excitement that make your fingertips tingle.

Yoongi is smooth, and it’s even worse - or is it better? You haven’t decided yet - that you know he means every word he says. It makes you feel… wanted. It’s good to know that he’s being genuine, and to know that Yoongi isn’t the type of person who would ever pull the rug out from under you.

Yoongi is… stable.

You suppose, after everything you’ve been through, that stability is what you need. It’s good for you.

You try to swerve around the thoughts, to avoid them at all costs, but deep down you know now that they’re glaringly true.

That love is stored in two bags of groceries, so filled to the brim that some onions almost fall out. Love is stored in every flick of his wrist holding a knife, slicing the sharp blade across your cutboard. Clean cuts, yet he’s never this way when it comes to you.

Love is stored in a fond smile and adoring eyes when he sees how you cradle your expensive dishware like it’s a newborn baby before you set it carefully on the table.

Love is stored in a Yoongi-shaped silhouette, dancing over your countertops with practiced precision in every movement, filling in the cracks of your home. The love in him is reserved because you, like the moon when it crescents, still have a ways to go.

When he stands at your door an hour later with his coat in hand, you wait for him to speak first.

“Performance review?” he asks. “How did I do?”

“I… liked it. It was nice,” you say honestly. But you still feel the wine in your system, and it makes you bold enough to tease him for a change. “But it was my first date in a while, so it’s hard to tell if that opinion is objective.”

He rolls his eyes fondly. “Do I qualify for a second date then?”

You hum in thought, making him wait on purpose. “Yeah, I guess,” you say, feigning nonchalance, which earns you a hearty laugh.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asks, hopeful.

“Don’t know yet,” you answer, though you’ll probably end up going home and catching up on a kdrama. “Are you coming in tomorrow?”

“Just in the morning. I have a shoot in the afternoon.” He shifts to lean his weight on his other leg, tipping his body closer to you. “But I can pick you up after.”

“Yeah? And where would we go?”

Yoongi shrugs in earnest. “Just drive around? Grab a bite?” he thinks out loud, tilting his head slightly to one side for emphasis. “I could take you to that popup store you mentioned.”

You quirk an eyebrow. “You would stand in line with me to buy a novelty mug?”

“Pretty sure we wouldn’t have to stand in line if I gave them a call,” he says, grinning. “One of the perks of the job, y’know.”

“Must be nice,” you laugh, then shift to lean just a tad closer to him. You look at him for a brief moment before you agree, “Yeah, okay.”

You and Yoongi stand there at the door, each of you on either side of the threshold. This would be an appropriate moment for a kiss, you think. That explosive first kiss, if this were a movie. Exhilaration courses through your veins. You feel it from your head to the tips of your fingers to your toes. The feeling is rendering you a mere teenager again. 

It’s exciting because it’s new. You have the entire book ahead of you, waiting to be written. At this point, anything could happen. You’re a blank canvas waiting to be drawn, a blank page hoping to be written. 

Wait.

Back up.

A kiss?

A kiss?!

With Yoongi?

You’re thinking about kissing Yoongi?!

Fuck.

Fuck?!

It’s the wine.

Your thoughts knock against each other like bumper cars, echoing loudly in your brain that it almost gives you a headache.

You stay still as Yoongi leans down, your heart racing while your brain just keyboard-smashes. You can’t tell if you want him to kiss you or not, but when he only presses his lips against your cheek, you feel two emotions at once.

The first is disappointment, the second is relief. They press down on you with almost equal force, and you’re not really sure which one weighs heavier.

Baby steps.

You blink when he pulls away, and he just smiles fondly at you as if he can read your mind.

“Goodnight, princess.”

You watch him until he’s in the elevator, until the doors close and the lift descends. Even when you know that he must be on his way to his car and that someone else is making their way up, you stand there, with your hand loosely wrapped around the door handle, your breathing slightly erratic as you process what just happened. 

Déjà vu? 

It’s oddly reminiscent.

You’ve been here before.

Part of you thinks he’ll burst through the elevator doors, or rush up the stairs if the lift is occupied, and come back to grab your face and kiss you senseless.

He doesn’t.

Jungkook knows you’re probably waiting for Yoongi.

He’s seen Yoongi pick you up after work almost daily over the past couple of weeks, and it’s driving him insane. Even on the days that Yoongi comes to the studio during the day, the guy is all over you, so much so that he doesn’t even bother being a nuisance to Jungkook anymore, which just makes him a thousand times more insufferable.

Something is happening.

He can’t weasel shit out of Jimin anymore because Jimin has been especially tight-lipped after accidentally spilling Yoongi’s confession to you.

Because that should be him in Yoongi’s place. Or should he say his place, and Yoongi is just a placeholder. An imposter.

Because it used to be him that you smiled shyly at.

Jimin’s words have been plaguing his every waking hour since he was forced to hear them. If she wants to choose Yoongi, let her do that too. It feels like he’s rewinding all of your memories, retracing them with cautious fingers only to find that his every footstep is being erased to make room for someone else.

An abandoned dirt road, while you walk down a flower-filled path holding someone else’s hand.

Like you’re stamping him out.

Like he was never there at all.

Not only are you denying him a chance, you’re giving it to someone else. When he tries to move at someone else’s pace, all he gets is left behind.

It’s not about Yoongi; or at least, it’s not just about him. Yoongi doesn’t even really matter to Jungkook in this equation. It’s about what Yoongi represents. An idea of a person that Jungkook can never be.

A bigger life. A stable present and an even brighter future. Yoongi is everything better than him.

And that’s his own problem to deal with, not anyone else’s. At the end of the day, no one has to live with his insecurities but himself.

But still, he can’t help it. Whenever he sees you with Yoongi, his eyes burn. Please don’t let him take my place, he wishes every time, you’re the only good thing about me.

It’s jealousy, sure, of course it’s there. 

But what if you realize what everyone else already knows? That Yoongi is better in every single way. That Yoongi is the person who really deserves you.

What if you start to see Jungkook the way he sees himself?

You hating him - despising him with every cell in your body - is a thousand times better than you deeming him unworthy.

“I talked to Jihyo,” he speaks up suddenly, when it’s only the two of you.

“Okay,” you answer, never taking your eyes off the page in front of you. You must have circled the words daisy a thousand times already, wracking your brain for anything that rhymes. “I don’t know why you’re telling me this, but good for you.”

At this point, you wonder if you should just avoid the studio for the time being. It’s empty here again. You resent Seokjin for drowning in concept photos. You resent Namjoon for leaving Jungkook here to fend for himself, but it’s only fair, because Namjoon was only supposed to give him a helping hand, not take over the whole thing. You even resent Yoongi a bit, for not being here right this second.

“I talked to her,” Jungkook says again, ignoring your sass. “She won’t give you a hard time anymore.”

This makes you look at him. You never asked him to do this. You never asked him to do anything. In fact, you have only ever implored him to sit still and leave things alone.

“She never gave me a hard time,” you say. Sure, you don’t appreciate being given the death glare first thing in the morning, but it’s not something that you can’t ignore. It doesn’t actively affect you, and the only reason Jihyo does it is because of Jungkook.

Because he broke things off with her?

Because he gives you more attention?

Ugh. Attention?

This is the stupidest and most childish thing you have had to think about in ages.

“You said she acts differently toward you.”

“And aren’t you the reason why?” you counter. “Because you two were fucking?”

Jungkook visibly winces at your words, like he did when you mentioned it the first time in the break room. You don’t mean to be snarky; you’re just stating the facts. They were hooking up. 

You don’t harbor any ill will toward any of his past lovers, and that includes Jihyo. You know she doesn’t have anything against you either, at least not on a personal level because you don’t know each other well enough to do so. She’s just someone you pass by every day on your way to the elevator.

“So why did things end?” you ask just for the sake of it, since he was the one who brought it up. But you’d be lying if you said you weren’t curious.

He hesitates for a moment. “She wanted something more and it wasn’t the same for me.”

It’s stupid that the tiny voice in the back of your head resurfaces, hoping that you were the reason why he couldn’t pursue things with another woman.

Jihyo isn’t you, that much is clear. You never asked for anything more from him, not once from start to finish. He was always the first one to pour love into you. It’s arguable which one of you loved the other more - maybe you loved each other equally, just in different ways - but it was a fact that Jungkook always took the initiative. He made the first move so you wouldn’t have to. He gave you the option to match his affection, and never have to worry about being left out to dry.

He took initiative, right until the very end.

You bite your bottom lip, then give him a curt response, “Okay.”

Your phone vibrates with a text from Yoongi but you don’t open it just yet. You look at Jungkook, who only looks back at you. His lips part slightly as he searches for the right words, or any word at all. It’s like you’re asking him to navigate a minefield when all he has to do is be honest. Even if he told you that he fell out of love with you, it wouldn’t be that bad. You would be hurt, yes, but you wouldn’t blame him. You would understand. It would be a reason.

Silence fills the room, save for the continuous tapping of your pen on paper.

He says your name, pleading. “I’m trying here.”

At Jimin’s party, Jungkook said you were someone important to him. You don’t doubt that he meant it, and that’s what infuriates you the most. You’re important, but he keeps running circles around you and making your head spin. You’re important, but everything he’s done makes you think that you’re the opposite. You’re important, just not important enough to get an explanation.

You know he’s genuine about everything he says, but that’s not enough. You can’t sustain yourself on just his words alone.

It’s another cycle of the same conversation, running over and over and over again. He’s reaching out but he’s holding back. You’re still getting nowhere. You don’t know how many times he has to make you ask this, only to not give you any clarity at all.

If there is a trait of Jungkook’s that you both love and hate at the same time, it is that he doesn’t know when to quit.

He texts you every day even when you don’t reply - one for good morning, and one for goodnight. He gets you a chai latte every day, which doesn’t do shit for your concentration because there’s not enough caffeine in it. He gets the door for you whenever you go into the same room together. He hounds your every waking moment. He makes sure that he’s the first thing you see when you wake up, and the last thought that crosses your mind before you go to sleep.

I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.

You suppose this is him, showing up again. In a lot of ways, it’s selfish. But it’s an effort too. Now your phone is full of meaningless messages that remain unread.

You barely glance at him. It’s routine at this point. He tries in ways that you don’t bother acknowledging anymore, because you figured that the best course of action is to let him wear himself out.  When he has had enough of it, when he deems his efforts to be enough to absolve his guilt, he’ll stop. He has to.

But at what point does it stop?

At what point will you stop wanting to give in to him? Your mind rages wars with itself every time you feel his eyes on you, and you have to kill the urge to not turn your head and look at him too. At what point will you stop wanting to go to him and let him in again? At what point will you stop unconsciously making him a priority?

All of this, you supposed, is to say: Do you still love him?

You know that if you sit down and get to the root of it, you’ll find an answer you don’t like. Even in this moment, you want him to tell you just a fraction of the truth, because that would probably be enough to reel you back in.

Your own heart claws at your chest but this is how it has to be for a while. All you can do is take it one day at a time, gently nudge your heart in one direction like a child that needs to be goaded, until he doesn’t live on the forefront of your mind anymore.

Until someone else does.

“No, you’re not.” You stand up then, closing your notebook with more force than necessary. “If you’re really trying, then I wouldn’t still be wondering why I wasn’t enough to make you stay.”

Even then, you’re still hoping that he’d say something else. But when you’re only met with silence, the anticipated disappointment in you bubbles, boiling. His reluctance to clue you in makes it easier for you to decide.

There's someone else who's willing to give you things that you don't even need to ask for.

In your mind, it's clear who you should choose.

Jungkook clenches his teeth, holding his breath as he watches you shove your things into your bag. “Are you going home?” he asks after a minute.

You could say yes and let the conversation die a swift and simple death. But for some reason, you choose to kill it violently. You bite the inside of your cheek before you tell him, “I don’t know. Yoongi’s picking me up.”

The chagrinned look that takes over his features for a split second is one that you immediately catch. Maybe it’s because he wants to make sure you know how he feels about this, or maybe you still have a way of reading him somehow. Regardless of what his face tells you, he doesn’t prod any further.

Your phone vibrates on the table, the sound ten times more thunderous amidst the silence that’s befallen the both of you. You don’t need to check the screen to know who’s calling, and neither does he. When you leave, the sound of your fading footsteps ricochets off the walls. It shoots right through him.

He hears every word of that conversation ringing in his ears then. He recalls that afternoon’s sunset; it was the most beautiful sunset he saw that year, despite the sun overhead mocking him with every magnificent glint of light. He sees the look on your face when his words finally register in your mind, the Oh moment when you understood what he was saying, when the smile you wore sunk helplessly to the floor because even though you knew that love had an expiration date, you hoped your love would be the exception. 

That memory fades, only to be replaced by something much worse. He sits there with Jimin’s words, echoing in his mind, reverberating around the room.

Technically, you and Yoongi haven’t been on a second date. You think.

You’ve seen him almost every night since the dinner, when he picks you up at the studio. Sometimes, you two just drive around. Sometimes, you sit by the river in the cold, eating hot ramen cups and giggling over nothing. Sometimes, he just takes you straight to your home if he has a packed schedule the next day.

These days, you see Yoongi even more than you see Taehyung. Even though he hasn’t explicitly implied that any of these outings is a date, you know you aren’t hanging out as just friends anymore.

It feels good to be wanted. The feeling is reinforced tenfold because it’s been so long that it’s like you’re experiencing it for the first time in a new body, as a different person.

But even after all of that, you two can still go back to being friends like nothing ever happened. Because in a way, maybe nothing did happen. Maybe things have always been like this between you, the only difference is now you’re noticing the meaning behind his words and glances.

You two can still go back, because technically, no line has been crossed.

But tonight, something feels different. It’s colder, but Yoongi keeps you warm with all the looks he’s been giving you all night.

It feels like you’re both toeing that line right now. 

You know that once you cross it, things can’t revert back to the way they were anymore.

You know that it will happen eventually, because Yoongi isn’t doing this just to half-ass it. He won’t back out, and he has made it crystal clear from the start. 

Usually, this is the part where he tells you goodnight and you have to pretend not to freak out when he kisses you on the cheek in goodbye.

He takes a step closer, you take no step back. 

“You know what I’m about to do, right?”

You do. You could say you’re even hopeful.

“I might have an idea…”

“Okay,” he says easily. He takes your waist in his hands and brings you closer. The way the corner of his mouth tugs upward tells you that he’s pleased, that you know what’s about to come and you’re letting it happen. Still, he asks, “Can I?”

You nod. That glowing sensation washes over you in waves.

“Words, princess,” he reminds you. 

Your hands land on the lapel of his coat. “Yes, you can.”

He chuckles, and squeezes you a little tighter. 

Then it happens.

The line you clumsily drew in the sand has been erased.

Yoongi is kissing you.

You’re kissing him back. 

He’s soft and warm and he holds you like you’re delicate. His sincerity, you can feel it in his kiss, and it’s only a fraction of it. Regardless, there is still life that blooms this winter. Inside of you, small and fragile, but it’s there.

You sigh into his mouth, feeling completely limbless if not for him holding your body upright. One of his arms wounds itself tighter around your middle while his other hand tucks your hair behind your ear so he could cup your cheek more easily. Yoongi tilts his head further to one side to deepen the kiss. You feel something in his kiss that you have never heard in his words, something soft and pleading. Wanting but still contained. Out of fear that you might run away, perhaps? You can’t blame him though. You are a bit of a flight risk.

The wind dances past like a nosy bystander, pressing you further into him like it wants you to be more sure in the way you move, in how much of yourself you’re willing to give to him. Instead, the cold just makes you shiver.

When you break away, his hand on your face moves to hold the back of your head. Yoongi doesn’t look half as flushed as you think you do, though his cheeks are slightly rosy.

Through a thin veil of clouds, the moon still shines down on his profile. 

The chill in the air, the mesmerizing view of moonlight dancing across his features, and most of all, the way you’re still lost in the kiss, in the feeling of being wanted.

“C’mon, I’ll walk you up,” he says, after you stay silent for a beat too long, hooded eyes basking in the warmth of a heart chasing your own. You want to want him. You do want him, but there’s still something missing. It doesn’t feel entirely right, but for now, you try not to dwell on it too much. Just let it be. Maybe in time, that void will inevitably fill.

Yoongi holds your hand through the lobby and on the whole way up even if neither of you says anything, just shy glances in the elevator and bashful half-hidden smiles. You don’t invite him in once you get to your door - because an invite now insinuates something that you just aren’t ready for - but he does kiss you again. If the kiss you shared downstairs is a proper goodnight kiss, then this one means see you later and doesn’t last half as long, but it makes you tingle just the same.

He pulls back, only to dive in again, and again, and again, until one chaste kiss turns into five and you have to push him away with a giggle so you can breathe.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, eyes still set on your mouth. “Couldn’t help myself.”

“Yoongi,” you say, a little breathily, like oxygen hasn’t sufficiently made its way into your lungs since downstairs.

He rests his forehead against yours. “You’ve never said my name like that before,” he sighs.

“Like what?”

“Like you want me to kiss you again.”

You tug your bottom lip between your teeth and pretend to consider this even though you know you would like to be kissed again. “Maybe I do,” you say after a beat, bravely. “Just one more.”

He gives you your final kiss of the night then, one that lasts a second longer than the others, like he’s trying to memorize how you taste.

You head in once Yoongi is out of sight. You lean your body against the door the second you snap the lock shut. You touch your lips lightly, reliving those moments again even though they happened mere seconds ago. You’re buzzing with excitement like a schoolgirl, every feeling coursing through your body all at once. 

You’re familiar with this. It’s the stage right before every love song you listen to suddenly reminds you of that one person.

You go through your regular evening routine with a pep in your step, thanks to a certain person tonight. You take off your carefully applied makeup and take a nice, hot shower. You think the heat would help melt away the high that you’re riding - like you’ve had too much coffee to drink and now your senses are beyond heightened - but it doesn’t. Once you’re fresh and comfortable in your PJs, you still feel that jittery feeling seeping through your pores, keeping you awake. There’s a message from Yoongi that tells you he has made it home safely.

It’s still early, and you’re far too restless to go to bed. You decided to brew yourself a mug of chamomile tea, even though you don’t even like chamomile and you can’t remember why you even have it, but they say that apparently chamomile is good for sleep. You decide to take the mug into the living room to sort through your mini mountain of mail that should’ve been dealt with days ago.

Sitting underneath that pile of junk mail and letters addressed to the previous tenant even though you’ve lived here for nearly two years, is a cream-colored card addressed to you. The material feels smooth under your fingertips, like velvet if that’s even possible. Inside, there are two names - one you recognize and another you don’t - typed out in a fancy calligraphy font and encircled by pretty flowers, all pinks and whites and romantic.

The saccharine sensation associated with the thought of Yoongi dissipates instantly. Instead, your mind blanks, only to buzz to life again momentarily with a newfound sinking feeling dragging you down.

You suddenly realize that Jungkook hasn’t crossed your mind once tonight. Not until now. That crestfallen look in his eyes from the other night appears in your mind again, clear as day.

You are, quite literally, holding someone’s declaration of love and yet, it’s not joy that you feel, having been asked to join them on their special day. 

You never thought you would see Jungkook’s family again - even though you always adored his parents and you felt that they loved you too - let alone receive an invitation to his brother’s wedding.

remember when y'all said u wanted a wedding?? well u didn't say whose wedding 😌

— all rights reserved © jeonqkooks. reposting, translating and/or modifying is not permitted by any means. [posted march 27, 2023]

[arcadia-of-pluto]

Twist of Fate; Chapter Sixteen

Parings; LADS OT4 x reader

Word count; 4.1k

Themes; isekai, eventual smut (slowburn), Canon divergence (wanted to add this)

Warnings; 18+ for swearing and some mature content, a teeny tiny bit of angst

Notes; I decided to post sixteen since I'm really excited for it and I'm currently working on chapter twenty-two! I think I'm going to convert back to shorter chapters in my later entries (like 3k-4k) instead of trying to fit 6-9k in one chapter. But this is a long one! I did re-look it over, but if there are any spelling errors and what not– Just know that I tried my best! 🩷

Also, believe me, I want to put smut as soon as possible, but I should probably mark this as a slow burn tbh. Especially since there's still no smut at chapter 22–

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Masterlist

Sylus, amidst the raging storm, remains nonchalant as he sits next to you. The racing vehicle leaves your enemies behind in the dust while intermittent light seeps through the window to obscure his silhouette and his goals. You never held onto the naive notion that Sylus assisted you in acquiring the aether core just so he could clean house. This kind of deal would result in him suffering a major loss, and it’s clear he’s anything but an ignorant businessman. Though that leads you to speculate…what exactly is his true motive?

For a moment, his expression as he gazed at the Deepspace Tunnel resurfaced in your mind. Then, you feel a growing pain in your palm. You’re still clutching the fragmented protocore, its jagged edge digging into your skin. It’s as if you’re subconsciously grasping onto an answer that has yet to be revealed. The linkage between your wrist and Sylus’ suddenly flickers, seemingly sensing the swirling thoughts in your head.

Then, your phone rings. You notice it’s Luke, one of the twins, calling so you answer with your cuffed hand and put it on speaker phone for Sylus to listen in, since he’s cleaning one of his guns.

“We heard you and boss took care of the traitors and thieves,” You hear Luke say and then, like clockwork, Kieran chimes in, “You even destroyed the aether core together! Good job!” You hear Sylus scoff across from you and you look in his direction, surprised to see a faint smile on his lips. “Just calling to let you know that we cleaned up at the Nest. No one will be causing trouble for you anymore,” Luke chirps. 

“Huh? When did..?” You murmur. “Our boss told us to do it. While he looks mean, he’s actually–” Kieran is cut off by Sylus, “See you later.”

“Oh, boss! I didn’t mean to–”

You hang up on Kieran before he can dig himself an even deeper grave. “So..What’s your plan?” You ask, keeping your linked arm close to him. “Chop it off.” He answers rather quickly and your eyes widen. “But it seems to be some kind of energy linkage. Can I even physically attack it?” You ask, confused. Sylus sighs and shakes his head, “I was talking about your hand.”

“Huh–” “Or you can also settle down in the N109 Zone. I have more than enough time to solve this problem with you,” He looks over at you as he leans back against the wall. “No thanks. Let’s use a more efficient approach.” You press your lips together in a forced smile and Sylus lazily drawls, “Let’s destroy the aether core in your body.”

He holds the gun up and you raise a brow, “You’re saying our aether cores created this link? Okay, why don’t we destroy yours then?” Sylus almost seems like he’s pouting before he looks down, “Nevermind. With your current level of resonance, it won’t last long.” “But before I started resonating with you, I saw a strange vision,” You say with a sigh, finally deciding to bring up something that’s been bothering you.

“It’s not a big deal. From now on, you’ll be seeing more things like that.” He says casually and your brows furrow. You sure hope not. You almost confused the vision for reality so if you get anymore, you might actually have a panic attack.

“So that...was real?” You clear your throat, trying to get more information. This must have something to do with past lives, especially since you know you share a past life with the other three love interests– well, not you but the original protagonist. “If I say yes, will you give me a sincere apology?” Sylus seems to be casually skirting past any questions you throw out, just like the other love interests would.

“Y/n, this world is different from what you see. But I’m not in the mood to tell stories at the moment.” 

As he says this, he uses his evol to take your brooch from you, holding it in between his fingers. “You should think about your next move after leaving the N109 Zone.” He holds the brooch back out to you, “And don’t forget our deal.” You take the brooch back, feeling a bit cold in your dress and Sylus sets his coat over your lap.

“Then, you should make sure I can leave safely. How about escorting me tomorrow?” Your hands subconsciously grip his coat on your lap, worried he’ll say no.

“The outside world is more dangerous now.” Well, he didn’t say no, so he’ll probably leave with you. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll be careful,” You sigh, looking down at the coat in your lap before your gaze leads your eyes back up to his face.

“In any case, until the resonance issue is fixed, we’ll be meeting more often in the future.” Is all he says, and then the car ride back to his place is as silent as ever. Your eyes slowly close and you find yourself unable to stay awake…You fall asleep with more questions and no answers.

The next time you open your eyes, you find yourself in an unfamiliar, yet oddly familiar, place. A classroom? Though, you soon realize that you have no control over your actions. Your body follows through with whatever, as if this were a stage play. The only form of autonomy you have is your thoughts.

Your gaze drifts across the classroom before landing on a familiar silvery-blond haired man. Though before this, you pretend to look at the clock on the classroom wall so you’re not blatantly staring at him. Then, your gaze can slowly drift to his face. You have to calm down your beating heart and do your best to avoid his eyes, if and when he looks back in your direction. Otherwise, you’ll be caught red-handed.

Pretending to be nonchalant, you shift your gaze away from those tranquil eyes and turn around. According to the First Law of Cosmic Attraction, when a person unwittingly looks at someone, there’s a 98.8% chance it’s because he’s looking at you too. Perhaps you caught him red-handed as he stared at you.

What is going on? Why is Xavier here? What is this memory? Or…is it all a weird dream?

It’s not a dream. Definitely not, as unfamiliar memories fill your head and overwhelm you. Three years ago, when Xavier first arrived at the academy, it was a rare sunny day. It was the Year 214. Two hundred and fourteen years have passed since Philos’– Philos?– birth. It also means 214 years have passed since Earth’s demise. 

What? 

Your teachers, born during the Age  of Earth, said the people of Philos had substituted Earth’s extinguished core with a powerful, artificial one. This core holds fragmented land masses together, preventing them from scattering into the starry sea. So aside from more dust, more cloudy days, and cumbersome travel between tectonic plates, your planet isn’t much different from the Earth of years past. Your feet have never touched the soil of other places on Philos. Since your evol manifested early on in life, the academy is all you’ve ever known.

Also, unlike everyone else who were brought here after their evol awakened, Xavier was a transfer student.

The memory of meeting Xavier for the first time suddenly flashes before your eyes. It was a sunny day. He was tall, skinny, and wearing the white school uniform. His eyes were a shade of light blue, as pretty as the sky that day. He enters the classroom with a wooden sword strapped to his back and glances at the seating chart, then walks to the last row by the window and sits down without a word. Serene and precise like light itself.

Other than “thank you” and “excuse me”, the two of you barely talked. You only got to know him through your classmates’ words. He didn’t live on campus because his family background was complicated and he was always surrounded by bodyguards. The rumors got even more outrageous and mysterious the more they were passed around. Yet the more enigmatic he is, the more curious you were about Xavier.

You knew this was just a memory, but you felt so immersed in it. It felt like you were actually living through it. As the dream went on, you were slowly losing touch on which reality was originally your own.

In this memory, you also realized that the you of the past (or perhaps the future?) had a crush on Xavier.

You always thought you and Xavier would continue like this, coexisting yet separated by a wall of mist but then…during your astronomy lecture, your teacher mentioned a once-in-a-century meteor shower happening next month. Seeing a meteor shower on a planet, where clear skies are a rarity…It’s even a once-in-a-century event. If you could see it with someone you like then…You could die without regrets. Die?...You were dying?

As you sat under the scorching sun with your wooden sword, you watched Xavier train and wondered how you were going to ask him. You write down what you’d say in the dirt with your sword-tip, knowing you’d forget immediately upon actually speaking with him.

People like Xavier…They’ll experience many centuries, so a once-in-a-century event probably won’t be that exciting for him…As long as Philos’ core still has energy, their lives shall last forevermore like the planet, but if he learns you’re a person who can’t even live to see 100 years, then maybe he’ll do anything you say out of pity. But that would ruin everything, you don’t want his pity.

Once class ends, you look for Xavier, noticing he’s gone before spotting him in the crowd by the academy gates. You hurry over and notice many bodyguards surrounding Xavier at a distance. They weren’t wearing black like a bodyguard were, but they exude an air of oppression. Xavier, who seems like he’s used to being stared at, actually appears slightly upset for once.

It’s completely different from how he was earlier– looking so tranquil with the sunset behind him. You knew absolutely nothing about him, but all you knew was he was not happy at the moment and you didn’t like that.

“Xavier!” You hear your voice shouting as loudly as you can. You were still terrified at the realization that you really couldn’t control yourself. You weren’t even sure how long you’d been asleep. Whether it’s been a few minutes, a few hours, days even. You hope it hasn’t been long. You didn't want to worry Sylus.

Xavier turns around with a slightly puzzled expression that softens when your eyes meet. You quickly walk up to him, saying a teacher requested his presence. Then, you grab his hand and start running in the opposite direction. As for where you were heading, you hadn’t thought that far yet. Even though you don’t see Xavier’s expression, you feel his grip on your hand gradually tighten.

“They’re catching up.” His voice scatters in the wind and while you’re dazed, he pulls you into a round tower and enters an empty auditorium. The lights are off and you both are like animals who escaped their enclosure, breathing heavily in the dark. Some time passes and Xavier pulls out a nearby chair and sits on another desk. You stare at him for a moment before realizing that he’s asking you to sit. “Why did you help me?” Sitting on the table, he’s taller than you by a considerable amount. His eyes, swirling light in their depths, look down at you in the dark.

“You…appeared to be upset, so I thought you wanted to be free.”

“How did you know I was upset?”

“Well…We’re classmates, aren’t we? It’s normal for me to be able to read your expression!” You try to find a way to explain yourself and Xavier speaks, “You learned by sneaking glances at me during class?”

“...There’s a reason for that!” Xavier looks at you as though he’s expecting an explanation. “I wanted to ask..Oh no, I mean, I wanted to invite you to watch the meteor shower at Skymirror Salt Flat with me. I heard the lake is really shallow so when light reflects on its surface, it’s exactly like a mirror. It’s going to look stunning with the meteor shower! Besides, a once-in-a-century thing…There won’t be another next time!” You find yourself rambling in nervousness.

“It’s just another hundred years.” 

“For you, maybe! But for me..”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing…You’ll…Do you want to go or not? It’s truly pretty!” You took your chance to ask, but you’re met with silence. You could feel your heart plummeting to the ground with a heavy thud as Xavier’s gaze became distant. He only responds after some time has passed. “I can’t.”

“Is it…because of those people?”

Xavier appears to be shocked, then he nods without saying a word.

Xavier…You can be so cruel. You sigh internally and even though you know this isn’t you, you can’t help but also feel hurt. Your chest feels tight and, if you had control, you might’ve even teared up.

You watch as your hand reaches out and pokes the corner of his mouth. “Don’t be sad. I’ll just go by myself! I’ll...bring your wish with me to the stars when I do. What’s your wish?”

“I don’t have one.” His response is as quick as ever. “How could someone not wish for anything? Oh! Do you want me to make a wish for you?” You quickly rise up from the chair and face him.

Then, you close your eyes with your hands clasped in front of your chest and wish with all your heart. “I wish Xavier is forever free to do what he wants.” He’s stunned for a moment before asking, “What about you? What’s your wish?”

“I wish I could be healthy, but I don’t even know if wishing on a star actually works.” You sheepishly laugh, rubbing the back of your neck before the room goes silent. Though, you don’t open your eyes yet, waiting for the shooting star in your heart to pass before you open them.

Suddenly, a flash of light appears and you look around in confusion, only to see it’s actually coming  from Xavier’s hand. It gives an almost romantic feel in the dark.

“This shooting star has made a promise to you.”

After that day, you and Xavier had gotten much closer. Borderline friends even. You don’t have much interaction because of his bodyguards, but you do pass notes between each other during class and wave goodbye to him when he leaves. He’d sometimes poke you in the back to give you one of his earbuds, sharing his music taste with you. He even helped you clean up the classroom whenever you were caught passing notes with him and gave you an umbrella when you had forgotten yours.

You start to think maybe Xavier had a crush on you as well in this memory…

You also learn he’s been trained with his sword since he was little, he doesn’t exactly enjoy it, so it’s implied that he’s being forced to wield a sword just because he’s good at it. And as he’s about to bring up the meteor shower, his bodyguards stand in the way...

With a heavy heart, you think that if a wishing star does make your wish come true, then you wish you could be healthy. Then, you could wait another hundred years to watch the meteor shower with Xavier.

Then, the memory jumps to you laying in the nurse’s office with Xavier sitting next to the bed. It seems that whatever was wrong with your heart was getting worse.

You could hear the rattling of pills in a plastic bottle as Xavier shakes it in his hands, before setting it down on the table.

“How long were you going to hide this from me if you didn’t faint in class today?”

You don’t reply, trying your best to play dead. “Don’t pretend to be asleep. I know you’re awake.” His tone is soft, but it makes it all the more difficult to avoid him.

You decide to tell him everything that was wrong with you and then wait for him to say something.

 “What’s protocore syndrome?”

“It’s probably…a terminal illness that makes my heart weaker and weaker?”

“Is there no cure?”

“There is but…we need a special protocore.” You let out a heavy sigh, not wanting to say too much and burden Xavier. You have already given up in extending your life at this point.

“What kind?”

“They say there’s a protocore that can cure any illness…” You can tell Xavier is thinking too hard about it so you sigh, “Philos is huge. It will take ages to find it. Don’t worry. I’ll be alright for now because of this medicine…Besides, maybe a miracle might happen and I’ll be cured.”

Quietly, Xavier turns toward the window and then looks back at you, “Let’s watch the meteor shower together.”

You’re not sure how long the dream goes on. Months pass, seasons change and it’s late autumn now. You’re completely lost in this dream. Your heart restless and unsteady as you found it hard to sleep in this dream, going 24 hours without sleep at this point. It was driving you crazy. All of these feelings and you weren’t even sure which was truly your own anymore.

You board the train to Skymirror Salt Flat, getting off at your stop, and then you walk and go from a leisurely stroll to a sprint. Running across the moonlit slope and through the winding path, you finally see the mirror-like lake that’s akin to a shard of a dream. And standing in the center of the flat, underneath the still starry sky, is a familiar figure.

This is the first time you’ve seen Xavier without his uniform and his figure is perfectly illuminated by the moonlight. You hurry to him, stepping into the water that doesn’t even reach your ankles. Xavier turns toward you and grabs your hand unexpectedly, taking you to the trestle bridge to sit. You sit with one leg over the other, swinging them over the edge. Then, you quickly look around for his bodyguards, worried.

“You don’t have to check. They’re not here.”

“Truly? You got rid of them?”

“Yes.” But you notice his gaze is being a bit evasive after he says this. His eyes seem even brighter from the light reflected on the ground. “Why are you thinking about others when you requested I watch the meteor shower with you?”

Before you can answer, a star flies across the lake’s reflection. “It’s starting!” You both gaze up as the dark, inky sky was illuminated with clusters of stars and various colours. You clasp your hands together and make a wish and when you open your eyes, you see Xavier is doing the same thing. You ask what he wished for, but he shakes his head and says he can’t tell you.

Silence falls over you both before you stand up, excited. “Wait, I want to give this to you.”

Internally, you’re shocked as you see the familiar sword tassel with a star-shaped charm in your hand. He…still has that on his sword in the present day…

“Can I hug you?”

“What?”

Thinking you misheard him, you look into his eyes for confirmation. “Can I hug you?” He repeats himself. His tone is soft, fluttering to your ears like the wind.

Before you can react, he takes a few steps closer and leans down to hug you, all in one motion executed with calm precision. You’re stunned, but then your hands slowly climb up his back.

“Thank you. My wish came true.” He whispers into your ear, “Next time there’s a meteor shower, let’s visit this place again.”

Oh…Xavier, you poor thing. You knew deep down, there’s no way that the you of this time period would live to see another meteor shower. Your heart aches at this thought.

Ever since the meteor shower, your health has been on the decline. Your trips to the hospital became more and more frequent until you practically lived there, unable to leave. You expected this, but you didn’t expect it to be so soon.

It was as if you were being punished for even a moment of happiness.

And as you got more and more ill, you didn’t see Xavier for a while. It was like he disappeared without a trace. You had tried to contract him, but to no avail.

One, two, three days passed in this hell...You began to get more and more anxious about how this memory was going to end. Would you feel the pain of dying? Would it even hurt? Would you die alone?

Did he lose his freedom when he went to see the meteor shower with you?

Exactly one month after the meteor shower, you force yourself to sneak out of the hospital and back to the salt flat. You had a sinking feeling he’d be there.

Not too long ago, you could run and jump as much as you pleased but now, it feels like such a pain. It’s even hard to make your way to the trestle bridge you sat with Xavier on not too long ago. You knew your days were numbered. Who knows? You might even pass away today.

You’re not even sure how long you stayed at the bridge, but you waited there. Hoping, praying that Xavier would show up but after a few hours, you go to stand up and leave. But then, you notice a star reflected in the distance. It hangs on the pommel of a wooden sword, swinging back and forth.

It’s Xavier.

He’s running. To you.

He stops in front of you and that’s when you notice the wounds on his hands and face. Catching his breath, he holds out his hand to show you a small, glowing protocore.

This is the first time he’s looked at you with desperation in his eyes. When he moves closer, you notice a ring of light around his neck. It’s a striking, suffocating red.

“Did you…exchange your freedom for this?”

He doesn’t answer and instead says that this protocore can save you. He found it, but this withering heart inside of you was like a flickering candle about to go out at any moment, holding on only by your desire to see Xavier again.

“It’s too late. Return the protocore where you found it, alright?” You shoot him a small, pained smile and Xavier doesn’t say anything, clutching the protocore until his knuckles turn white.

“You promised we’d watch the meteor shower again.” He chokes out and his eyes are glossy with tears.

 “We have our own destinies…some things can’t be forced..” You reach out to poke the corner of his mouth, “Don’t be sad. I’ve been very happy this past month..” But you can’t help the tears that stream down your cheeks. You didn’t want to cry in front of him...you wanted to stay strong in front of him, but you just couldn’t.

You both sit down on the bridge and you manage to say, “If I wasn’t sick, would you watch the stars with me?”

“Yes...” Xavier puts his arm around you, letting you lean on his shoulder, ���Not just the stars. I’d show you the mountains and rivers, the sun and the moon. We’ll see them together. I promise.”

“Okay, but…not the mountains. Hiking is a lot of work and I don’t want to–” Xavier cuts you off mid-sentence and squeezes your hand in his as he promises, “No matter what happens, I’ll be by your side. And no matter how long you rest I’ll wait for you.” “Alright, since you insist, I’ll just…have to..agree..”

Leaning on Xavier’s shoulder and dreaming of a disease-free future makes you happy. You feel your strength gradually disappear. You use whatever you have left to look up at the sky.

“It’s a shame…there’s no stars tonight.” You say, weakly. Your hand reaches up toward the inky black abyss.

“There is one.” He holds out his hands in front of you, his palm glowing. His shooting star is shining for you again. You pull your hand back to shakily touch the light in his hand with a finger. A smile tugged at your lips as your eyes felt heavier by the second.

You close your eyes and whisper your final wish. “I wish to meet you in my next life…I wonder if that will come true..”

“It will.” He holds your hand, giving you one last shooting star with his evol. It’s nice and warm and…it feels like someone is calling your name from above.

Your eyelids felt so heavy… And then, you suddenly can’t open them anymore. Before you fully lose consciousness, you hear a warm, gentle voice reach your ears like a shooting star.

“No matter how many times it takes, no matter where you are...I will find you.”

To be honest, it's really difficult for me to write about the reader actively looking into the past and being cognizant of it, but also having no control over their actions. Like the most I can do is have you comment on what is going on in your head, and even that doesn't feel like enough– but I tried and that's all the matters! I'm sure it comes off well enough. And I'm sure you know what this means...More past life dreams are coming very soon!

This is the big thing that inspired this story to begin with. I saw a TikTok where someone was talking about "what would happen if mc remembered her past lives? Would she blame herself?" Because everyone in the comments agreed that she had the saddest past lives because she's in all of them and is usually the 'reason' for bad things happening. So I wanted to do my own take on that, but with isekai, since that seemed that it would be fun! But now, it's turned into so much more than that. I can't wait to share more chapters with yall and Rafayel's myth is next!

Taglist; @orphicmeliora , @yoongi-tunes , @mitzkooni , @hiqhkey, @tanspostsblog

[lizzychanstuffss]

i’ve had this fic prompt floating around in my head for while now and can’t stop thinking about it hnnngg

okay so i’ve seen a couple fics of Astarion being protective of the reader, but what about the reverse? i wanna see Star’s durge/former durge partner—if he lets them—go full guard dog mode on whoever is stupid enough to pick a fight or be rude to him. both of them know that the other is fully capable of handling things on their own but that doesn’t stop them from wanting to protect each other.

gender neutral tav/durge/reader please? if you decide to write it that is ^-^

have a nice day/night!

So the very large fic I am still working on has both of these in it but because I am also a sucker for fics where Astarion gets scary dog privilege from durge I will also do a shorter one for that! :3

Atarion x Durge!Tav GN

Spoilers for act 3 (also be warned this is super self-indulgent in regards to a certain drow scene)

CW: canon typical violence

BOOM

The explosion was jarring to say the least and startled everyone in the party. Although that was quickly shaken off by seeing who exited the house causing your eye to twitch with anger.

"HOT! HOT! HOT!" The drow spoke as she casted a healing spell along with brushing off some of the ash staining her clothes, you had hoped to never see the bitch again but here you are staring at her face to face...and wanting to rip it off.

"Oh my silks-" 

"No no noooooo! We are leaving. I am done with your bullshite woman" You say and begin to walk away, your party stared at you slightly confused. As it wasn't like you to just walk away like this even with people you hated. Although Astarion caught on to what was happening rather quickly.

He grabs your hand before you can walk off whispering in your ear. "If you are doing this for me...well thank you but just talking to her won't kill us." You looked at him, your brow darkened.

"And if it does?" Voice no more than a whisper as you two had the private conversation.

"Well death never stopped me before. I don't know why it should now." He says slightly teasing you, as it seemed like this wasn't as serious to him as it was to you. 

"Astarion....I just think this might not be wise for me to be around her." You gave him a knowing look.

"If you do anything stupid I will simply pull you away before you hurt anyone....besides maybe she'll actually have something useful to tell us who knows." His words gave you pause, but the man knew you better than you wanted to admit. You could tell in the back of your mind that if you didn't at least ask about it then it would continue to gnaw at the back of your mind, so without further ado you turn around and step up to Araj.

"Alright sorry about that...are you okay?" Sighing as you speak, there is a noticeable amount of disgust behind your words. 

Brushing off your reaction to her, "I'm fine, but I think you'll like what I discovered...your blood has proved to be the breakthrough that I have needed in my research" She smiled, a shiver ran up your spine, and it wasn't pleasant.

"Oh and I see you brought the heartstop-" 

"If you say anything about Astarion or ask him to bite you again I will gut you." Your gaze is intense and shocks her a bit but all she can do is laugh.

"Why do you care so much? He's just your charge." At this point you had heard enough. "Besides I was just going to offer, not ask, what's the harm in that?" You could tell she was taunting him as well as yourself.

"Listen if you want to keep talking about him like he's not here then we’re leaving" You crossed your arms and she just pouted like a child who was told that couldn't have any more candy.

"Fine- Let's discuss your blood then, it's quite powerful and is exactly what I need to continue my research, but there is one more step I need you for actually...if you would come inside we can discuss it more." Turning away before you can give her an answer, just rolling your eyes before starting to walk to her door and feeling a particular vampire's hand squeezing yours. 

You give him a smile and step inside her destroyed home, looking around at all the wreckage. Carefully stepping around the destroyed surrounding as you were now all inside she then turned to you. 

"Alright so what was so important you needed me to come inside, and make it snappy my patience is wearing very thin Araj." 

Giving a fake smile she continued "I have a potion that will be able to unlock the latent potential of your blood. I admittedly have no clue what it will do to you but it should be very powerful." 

You think about it, but Astarion pipes up a disgust in his voice, "If that is her potion I am smelling, say no, all she's offering is pain and I don't want to see you hurt" Taking his words into consideration you answer her.

"I'm going to have to say no, I trust him more than I do you." You give her your own fake smile and then start to walk away from the obviously annoyed woman.

"You're listening to a vampire spawn really!?" She scoffs "First you defend him and tell him he's his own person...then you refuse to convince him to bite me" You could hear her rolling her eyes and you stop walking to the door. At this point it's just you and Astarion inside the building and you can feel an anger rising in Astarion, and yet he’s just trying to walk out of the building, but you can't take it anymore.

Turning to Araj you look her over, "If you say what I think you're about to say I highly suggest you rethink it...." Your threats are not thinly veiled in the slightest, not that you really intended them to be.

"What, he's just a sl-"

You grab her by the throat silencing her, causing Astarion to turn back, staring at you. He doesn't say anything, but you manage to catch his eyes with your own and then in a few moments there are words exchanged but nothing is spoken and it's simply ended by a nod on his end. That simple yes was enough to know what you were asking but also giving permission to do this on his behalf. He didn’t need you to do this for him, but he wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t like when you got like this so without further ado he stepped back to enjoy the show.

You produce a knife from your pack and without a thought you shove it into her stomach, twisting it causing the drow to cry out in pain. You're enjoying this more than you want to admit. Yet it doesn't make you feel disgusting like the other times you've enjoyed violence. Your hand stays steady on her throat squeezing it until her cries were nothing more than gasps for air as she slowly faded away in your terrifying grasp.

Soon enough though she was nothing more than another corpse. Astarion placed his hand on your shoulder, it was a gentle touch as you slowly came to your senses turning to him after dropping the corpse of the drow.

"I'm sorry...I just couldn't stand how she was talking to you, I tried my best to hold back but" 

He kissed your forehead gently with a smile on his lips, "It's alright, my dear…besides I enjoy a bit of occasional bloodshed in defense of me." His lips are a soft comfort to you, you almost looked away back to the body but his hand directed your chin back to him. He keeps his hand there for a bit and you fall into his touch kissing his palm a little smile making its way to your lips. 

"We should probably clean this up shouldn't we?" You ask him, and he gives you one of his classic smirks.

"Well, we don't have to do anything~" He gets a little cheeky with his words and you can't help but roll your eyes playfully. Taking a note from him though the two of you walk out of the house closing the doors behind you and looking at your other companions you give them a smile.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel just look at you deadpan saying nothing figuring it was better just to not ask at this point. You shoot Astarion a smile as your group heads back out into a city.

[jamiedc-they-them]

A Knight in not so Shining Armour

Requested Prompt: I'm BEGGING you for some sort of sweet, fluffy Maximus (fallout) fic because istg he's so forgotten and it makes me so sad because he's such a cutie patootie and arq3hrjdiwkejdnfnfieoej!!!! Just something sweet, like maybe him finding reader in the wasteland, or reader getting caught trying to scavenge his suit?? Tysm 🙏🙏🙏

Note: This one is a bit shorter, and is more of a light-hearted one to fit the prompt. I hope you enjoy anon!

Summary: At deaths door due to poor luck, you find someone who might just help turn it around.

So, because you're you, you've managed to not only have stairs you were on collapse, you've also got your foot caught in it as raiders run after you.

You fire you gun, hitting some but not everyone, before the inevitable gun click occurs. Out of ammo.

In a last ditch effort, you throw it as hard as you can. It actually hits a Raider in the face. You let out a childish 'ha!' at him, only for him to quickly regain his balance and run at you again.

"Oh, for fuck -"

You can never finish your words, as something crashes through a wall and slams into the Raider, tossing him into the air, before grabbing him and slamming him down onto the floor.

Your hear all of this, as you're too busy flaling limbs about trying to get any splinters or dust in your wounds.

"Woo!" you hear in a low, obviously pitched voice, and more movements. You open your eyes, seeing the...well, a brotherhood of steel member dancing????

"HEY!" you cry out. He stops, and stares at you. You clear your throat, calming yourself down, "help, please?"

"Oh..." he says, "sorry."

You lift up your arms, gesturing for him to pick you up. He does so, and its surprisingly gently given the big fuck-off suit he's in. He puts you back down on the floor.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, citizen."

You roll your eyes, before doing some stretches. He just watches you.

"What?"

"Are you from the Brotherhood?"

Another eye roll, "no. Not everyone who does stretches are apart of it."

"Oh..." he seems like genuinley sort of surprised. He even looks around, "was this your house?"

You finish your streches, and start looting the corpses - you can feel the judgmental stare from him - "nope. Though, I don't really think any house is anyone's anymore. Besides," you say, finding some caps on a raider, "this," you say, holding up the single cap, "is not mine. Finders keepers and all that."

He just stares at you again, "oh, don't get all judgy," you say, waving off your 'crime', "you bashed through a wall. If we ever do rebuild the world, I'll make sure you rebuild that wall, personally."

He looks to the broken wall. He looks at the stairs that collapsed, and then back to you, "only if you fix the stairs."

You look to them, then back to him. Funny fucker. You snort.

"Alrighty, then, Mr Knight," you say, holding your hand out, "it's a deal."

He shakes it. You then nod, "I'm guessing this is just like a patrol thing?"

He stands up straighter, as if you sparked something, "oh, no. No," he says to you, "I'm on a mission. I need to get to find someone, to save the world."

You raise an eyebrow, "you're gonna save the world?"

"Yes we - hey!" he says, actually offended.

"Can you lift your foot up for a sec?" he does so, and moves it back, "that, is what used to be, my weapon."

"Oh..." he looks at it, before back to you, "sorry."

You just put your head in your hands, you cannot believe this day so far, "whatever, I'll just find a new one --"

"I can be a weapon," he continues when you don't response, "travelling alone is dangerous. I mean, you got defeated by some stairs -"

"That's not nice," you pout.

You hear what you assume is a laugh, "you handled yourself pretty well," he admits, "but, especially without a weapon, you're not gonna last long."

"Thanks," you say, arms folded with eyebrows raised again.

He gestures for you to follow him. You do, and he goes outside the house.

"I can fly us there."

"Don't know if you noticed pal, but I can't exactly fly."

"Yes you can," he assures, "I'll hold you."

You're at a standstill. Don't get yourself wrong, you're thankful for this help. But this? This is a step too far.

He seems to understand, and his helmet opens. He smiles at you, "look," he says, voice sounding natural, not as deep as before, "I can understand the hesitancy. You've just met me, I've accidentally broken your gun, and that is understandable. But, I promise you I won't hurt you."

You don't really have many options, but he is at least giving one to you. That, and he has literally opened up to you. So, he may have a point.

"Fine," you relent, and move to him as he secures you, "but I swear if I'm sick, I ain't apologising."

His helmet shuts, "understandable," he says, before taking off."

The scream you let out may alert anyone around to you, but maybe he's right. Maybe it is better to travel with someone else.

[lemonnsss]

Moral of the Story Chapter 5

Gif credit: @gi-fu

A/N: This is a little shorter than what I had hoped, but I hope y'all like it

Warnings: Trypanophobia; What is probably the worst thing I have written from a medical viewpoint, read with your own caution.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Taglist: @vicmc624 , @mostlymarvelgirl , @yvonneeeee, @beetlejuicesupremacy , @moonlightreader649 , @whattheduckisupkyle , @chrisevans-realwife, @nekoannie-chan , @mrsbarnes32557038 , @imyourbratzdoll , @weallhaveadestiny

Word Count: 1.1k

 “TONY?!” I yelled in confusion. I ran to him, some of his bodyguards running past me to go after the shooter. Once I reached him, I knelt at his side. I nodded to the guard at his other side, signaling to join the sweep.

I loosened his tie and pulled it off, opened his button-down only to reveal another layer but moved the mostly removed layers out of the way to see the wound. The bullet hit the outer-left of his chest, probably between the fifth and sixth ribs, it would be difficult to pull out. 

“What are you doing?”

“Great, you’re conscious. That’s a good sign. I will roll you on your side, and then I will pull the slug out, okay?”

“What, no!? You said you were a teacher, not a doctor!” He glared up at me, his expression tinted with fear, most likely from his previous accident.

“Well, you’re losing a bit of blood, not a whole ton, but more than what is good for a person. If I don’t take care of this now you might not make it to the hospital.”

A mumbled “shit” fell from his mouth. Perhaps he was beginning to grasp the situation. I moved to roll him and he didn’t push against me. There was no exit wound meaning that the bullet had either lodged against one of his ribs, or it was in his lung or another muscle. I shifted him back onto his back again.

“I know this is going to sound weird-”

“No.”

 “Seriously? You won’t let me finish my sentences now? You could be drowning in your own blood right now.”

  “What?! Why didn’t you lead with that?”

 “You didn’t give me time to. Now, I’m going to grab the bullet and pull it out.”

 “Okay, I may not know much about medicine, but that doesn’t sound right.”

 “Well, let's just say I have a bit of a trick up my sleeve.” I said as I stuck my fingers into the wound. Tony began to groan out in pain again. I felt my finger go past his ribs, through his lung, and hit the bullet, eliciting another groan from the man beneath me. I pushed my finger past the top of the bullet and began pulling it out. 

After a minute or two of re-positioning, I pulled out the bullet and turned Tony onto his front. Most of the blood that had been pooling in his lung flowed out of the bullet wound. I then turned him back on his back. I laid my hand over his chest and began to use my mutation. Within a few minutes, his wound had closed and healed in its entirety. Or so it seemed. The truth is that it had just moved from his body to mine, the downside to my mutation. 

I began to feel the familiar feeling of blood soaking my clothes, followed by a warm, hazy feeling. It was starting to become hard to keep my eyes open. I saw Tony get up, entirely recovered, aside from the minor blood loss. I felt my vision start to blur. I think he looked at me in shock and confusion, probably wondering how I did what I did. 

“What the heck? Kid! Oh shit. The fuck did you do?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll heal faster than you.”

“Look, now is not the time to be joking about how much younger you are than me!”

I let out a soft laugh, “Wasn’t trying to, boss.”

“Okay, how do you treat bullet wounds again?”

I was starting to feel lightheaded and said, “I typically just pull them out and move the injury to my body. It works like a charm. Although, that probably won't work for you."

By this time, my vision was foggy in what I could see, which was fading faster than I thought. At this point, my peripherals were entirely gone.

 "Please, stay conscious. I don't want to deal with that paperwork."

"Sorry, I'm clocking out here."

I could feel myself fall unconscious, slipping further and further from a somewhat familiar voice.

I woke up in a hospital bed about 13 hours later. I sat up, feeling a slight pang in my chest; my heart’s reaction was sent over to the electrocardiogram, alerting the nurses over to my room. When prompted, they gave me a general gist of what had happened since I'd passed out; apparently, Tony had been forced to keep schedule and left in a separate vehicle, much to his displeasure. The nurse continued, “You have healed very quickly. Far faster than almost everyone I’ve treated all my years as a nurse. It seems almost supernatural.”

She looked at me with an expression I couldn’t place, “Sorry, I must have made that awkward. It is quite interesting though.”

She walked over to the medicine cabinet and unlocked the first few drawers. She pulled out a large vial and a syringe, and my stomach dropped.

I let out an anxious laugh and asked, “What’s that?”

 “I apologize, usually I don’t do this kind of thing to my patients, but someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So now, here we are.” 

She picked up the bottle, inserted the syringe's needle into the bottle and turned it upside down, and pulled the plunger down until the syringe was full, then turned it upside down again and switched out the needle while walking towards me, “Please, don’t scream.” she placed her gloved hand over my mouth, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, my throat felt as if it were closing up and like a weight was on my chest, crushing my ribs under the pressure, I knew this feeling. It was a panic attack. I’d had them almost all my life but the feeling that accompanied it was one of such extreme dread, a feeling that hadn’t plagued me since the death of Trask. Someone was testing on mutants again. “It’s not like it will matter anyway but, I would greatly appreciate it if we could wrap this up quickly. But, since you’ve been good thus far, I’ll answer your question. It’s morphine. I’ve made sure that this will be a lethal dose, regardless of your… differences. I can’t say if it will be painful though, but there’s enough here to make it very quick.”

As she finished her sentence and moved to stick the needle into my arm a bright blue light accompanied by a whirring noise filled the room. Standing in the entranceway was Tony in his Ironman suit with his arm outstretched in our direction, “Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily do that if I were you.”

[katz-rambles]

Hellooo again lovely writer ! I hope you are well, this is a new day, so it means I have a new idea for you if you're up for it ;)

I'll be honest: I have a huge praise kink that I'm a bit embarrassed about. And this got me thinking, what do you think would happen if one of the ghouls (your choice) accidentally found out that reader has a praise kink? Like, what if one of the ghoul casually praises reader's work on something one day, and her reaction kinda gives away just how much the praise affected her. (Especially with the ghouls heightened senses). Intrigued, the ghoul kinda teases her even more, praising her every chance they got after that day until finally she can't take it anymore.

(Idk, this might be a shitty idea.)

I get you, Anon. Praise kink club 🤭. You know me, I had to do Rain, hehe. I'm sorry this took me longer than usually to put out.

1k words, a bit shorter than usual 🫣

(nsfw, fem!reader, praise kink, dub-con if you squint, oral (fem receiving) PiV, cumming inside, I think this is it?)

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰

‘Good job,’ or ‘you did so well,’ the little praise Rain gives you sends shivers down your spine. It can be forever the simplest things ever and he'll praise you for it. Somedays you swear he's doing it on purpose. You don't want him to stop though. It feels good, knowing you made him proud, it also sparks a heat in your core you know wasn't there before.

Today's a little different. You're doing your chores, as normal, and one of them just so happens to be cleaning parts of the ghoul den. Sometimes this includes their rooms, the Ghouls take good care of their rooms and the dens but sometimes they just need a little bit more cleaning. That was one of your chores today. It's not a big job, thankfully. You had gotten assigned to the dens kitchen, it was quite quick. The ghouls take an amazing job of cleaning ready, so most of your job was already done.

Now that you've finished the job, you get ready and pack up the cleaning supplies. “I think this is the cleanest it's ever been, don't tell anyone I said that though. Good job, droplet,” Rain praises and rubs your shoulder, he chuckles when he sees your face get a pink flush. You can feel the butterflies in your stomach and the heat pool in your core and your thighs automatically rub together. His hand on your shoulder is warm and it has your mind drifting. When you look back up he has a smirk on your face and he presses a kiss to your forehead. “Good girl,” He mumbles against your forehead and pulls away leaving you with a heat in your core and a bright red face.

When you reach your room and open the door, you get into more pajamas and you hear your phone go off. When you check it, it's a message from Rain. ‘Can you come to my room? Need you for something.’ His words send shivers down your spine and you don't feel like getting dressed again. You've just put your bra back on and a proper pair of pants, leaving your thin shirt on, just covered with a plain hoodie. Comfortable enough and you can move in it just in case.

The door to his room is unlocked and you walk in, he's sitting on the bed and he pats the place on the bed beside him. He's in a pair of loose pants and a too tight shirt that scruples his figure perfectly, it's mouth watering. “Come here, pretty girl,” He watches you like a hawk as you sit beside him. His hand rests on your thigh and he trails his hand up higher until he's at your inner thigh. He moves his face closer to yours and breathes out, “I hope you're okay with this, because when I start I won't be able to stop.”

And with that his lips are on yours, and your hands are pulling him closer to you, trying to get impossibly close to him. He pulls away and you start to take off your hoodie, your shirt coming with it. “Look at you, so pretty. What a good girl you are for me, so pretty,” He groans and kisses your neck down to your breasts. He unclasps your bra and grabs your breast, toying with the nipple and sucking on the other one. He grabs your waist and pulls his mouth off your nipple with a pop and a small bruise forming. At this point you can feel the gush of wetness pool in your panties, it's almost embarrassing, and it would be if there wasn't an evident bulge in Rain's pants to show he's just as turned on as you are.

He helps you get out of your pants, leaving you in your panties, he sits down on the ground in front of you. He's still fully clothed and you're almost fully naked, but you can't complain when he kisses your clit through your panties. “Oh shit, Rain.. please,” You whine and he complies, pulling your panties, almost ripping them off you in desperation. His breath is hot and it counters the cool air against your wet folds. You thread your fingers in his hair and pull him closer and he eagerly laps at your folds and sucks on your sensitive clit before moving his tongue down to fuck you with it. His tongue is long and forked so it hits all the right spots while also being able to lap back up at your clit. When he feels you clench he goes back to sucking on your clit and he slides two of his fingers inside you, curling them up with each thrust of his fingers. He lets you cum on them and he pulls them out, painfully slow. “Such a good girl for me,” He groans when he looks at them, he takes his fingers into his mouth and moans at the taste, you feel a new wave of arousal leak from you at the sight.

“Rain. Please, fuck me already,” You whine and he stands up to pull down his pants and tugs off his shirt, positioning himself at your slick hole and he quickly bottoms out inside you. His thrusts are quick and deep, the sounds of your slick and cum mixed with his saliva lets him easily move.

“Unholy fuck.. you're soaked for me. You like it when I praise you, hmm? Good girl,” He groans and lets his head fall back when you clench around him. He starts to move faster and impossibly deeper. You arch your back and lift your hips up for him, he grabs your thighs and wraps them around his waist. You can feel the coil in your core start to tighten and you know he can feel you clenching around him. He starts to rub your clit, he needs to feel you cum around him, and he needs it now.

The room is filled with slick noises of skin on skin and both your moans. At this point, you're not sure who's louder, you or him. With one last motion on your clit you're cumming around his cock, desperately milking him for all he has and he cums deep inside you, groaning as he does so. “There you go, such a good girl for me,” He pants and kisses you. You both move to lie on his bed, cuddling until you both fall asleep, you'll clean up in the morning, but right now you just need eachother.

[mskenway97]

Could I request some mouthplay/vore stuff with Animated Bumblebee maybe? If it’s okay 👉👈

Well anon, you made me think about this one but something came to me that might help. I'll increase Bumblebee's size a bit this fic. I choose a human reader

Tfa Bumblebee x gn!human!reader

Side Effects

Summary: One of the meltdown tests affected one of the autobots, and he faced the side effect.

Words: 1,131

Warning: soft vore, safe vore, mouthplay, predatory/prey, unwilling prey.

It seemed to be an easy mission, catching Detroit's bad guys was something routine that the Prime team was used to.

Meltdown was waiting as if he had something on his mind. They had him at the ready until Bumblebee once again heeded his instinct instead of Prime's orders, he launched himself straight at the enemy only to be pinned down and feel a jab in his neck from Meltdown himself.

Bumblebee felt funny, until the enemy threw him away.

- What have you done to me? Bumblebee asked in annoyance but only Meltdown's laughter was heard.

-You'll find out soon enough.... - Meltdown said as the rest of the team approached making Meltdown leave.

Bumblebee still felt strange about the jab, he wasn't listening to Optimus' scolding, Bulkhead's words. Ratchet and Prowl noticed right away that the little autobot wasn't acting weird.

They went back to the base and examined Bumblebee, Ratchet had to examine him some more, he discovered there was something different....

Another emergency alarm went off, Bumblebee wanted to go but Optimus told him to stay at the base until further notice, leaving little Bumblebee a little upset. He was an action bot, a little prick wasn't going to bother him.

He watched the others leave and he sat playing the video game console getting dizzier and dizzier, it felt weird as if his limbs were enlarging a little. He fainted soon after, he felt something different... something deep.

Y/N had been able to leave work earlier. He hoped the autobots were.Y/N hadn't seen them in a while, plus had brought a new set for Bumblebee. I knew them from Sari as she was their babysitter, the chics were eager to show Bumblebee. Lively, childish but cute. He was surprised by their knowledge of video games, they were like rivals with joysticks. Y/N always ends up beating him making the situation more fun.

Y/N arrived at the base, which was quiet and there were no lights either. It was strange, Y/N prepared a flashlight... Despite being the base of the autobots, it was in an area quite far from the city as if it were a scary movie.

When he got to the main room, he saw that the TV was on with a video game, that gave him relief. Seeing that Bumblebee was lying on the floor causing Y/N to approach in concern.

- Bee! Bee! What happened? Bee," she said shaking him a little.

Bumblebee reacted to the touch and stood up in front of Y/N with a different expression. Y/N thought to himself, "How big are you? I remembered him shorter."

-Bee, are you okay? I saw you were on the floor and I feared the worst.... Look, I brought a new game. Bee? - asked Y/N. He was starting to feel the chills, something was wrong he was sure. She saw him approach her, as he licked his lips.

- I'm hungry

'Oh was that' thought Y/N

- I'm sure there's something in store....

- No, something different...

Y/N felt something weird going on. Something wrong... It felt like he was looking at her, following her with his eyes.

- Bee?

-I'm sure there's a more appetizing morsel...

All of Y/N's instincts kicked in and he started to run away from it, he tried to catch call someone but saw that Bumblebee was following him. So he ran faster that he dropped his cell phone on the way breaking it. Y/N felt his heart in his chest and hid behind the machinery, having a bit of an advantage being so small.

-Come on Y/N, I'll see you.... I'm sure we both like this game...

Y/N on the other hand was terrified, she hoped the autobots would arrive soon, she was trembling. She hoped it was a nightmare, she heard Bumblebee's footsteps approaching the hiding place. She tried to hold her breath, she could only hear her heart beating. He saw that he was walking away until seconds later silence returned, he thought Y/N would be safe. She relied to feel Bumblebee's servo capture her, Y/N tried to resist as best she could but she could barely move but had fallen into his servos.

-Bee, please... Listen to me," Y/N said nervously.

Bumblebee on the other hand licked her cheek and then her neck.

- I love the taste of you... I prefer to enjoy it more inside my mouth.

Y/N was horrified begging and crying but Bumblebee didn't care, despite the resistance he managed to put it in his mouth.

A big glossa starts to lick every part of your body... Giving you some warmth in spite of the fear you were feeling.

- You taste better when you twist it's very sweet of you...

Y/N was feeling small bites on her shoulder from Bumblebee's teeth, she felt her glossa turn this one over, licking more, you could hear it purring as it crushed you a little against the teeth, leaving you a little smothered.

You didn't know if you were living a nightmare or if you were being pleasured.

- You're delicious, sweetie - says Bumblebee moving from one side of his faceplate to the other crushing you a little giving you a gasp at the feel of it.

-Bee, please get me out of here... please," Y/N tried to move but her glossa had her completely immobilized.

-Relax, I'm sure it's a ride you're going to love.

Y/N felt a shiver as she shivered a little making part of the glossa lick the little one more.

-Nervous, candy... relax, we don't consume humans.... So you'll be comfortable in my tanks

Y/N tried to struggle to get out of there but was simply trapped as the glossa pushed it into her esophagus, Bumblebee gulped as Y/N was screaming Bumblebee's name was slowly going down trapped, surrounded and choking a little.

Bumblebee was feeling happy, he was rubbing his chassis as he felt Y/N in his tanks.

Then he passed out again seeing what had happened.

The autobots came back later, to see where Bumblebee was and what had happened to him they also noticed he was more.

Bumblebee had no recollection of what had happened. Then Prowl found Y/N's broken cell phone and everyone was worried about what had happened until Bumblebee remembered certain flashes of what had happened.

Y/N were scared, feeling every part of you in his glossa and finally felt something in his tanks.

Y/N were still there.

Bumblebee was terrified, that was Meltdown's surprise... And/N had paid the price.

He felt a little movement as remorse, it was all over him.

Bumblebee would have to give a long explanation of that night.

A strange one and one that Y/N was not going to forget in his nightmares.

[heeseung-min]

Hii can I request for the backstory of the riki fic 12:14 😦😦

🤠🤠your wish is my command, before that if you want to understand better you guys can read this first [12:14]

[22:06]

9th December 2013, it was the first time Riki fell in love at the first sight. He was still 13 years old yet he was very sure that you, the one he saw on that day are his true love.

He told about it to his family but everyone keep laughing and said it was just a mere crush and teenagers around his age act like that. But, Riki didn't care about that. His mind only full of you.

"You must be Jungwon's friend. Come inside. He will be back in few minutes."

Riki didn't know what to do. He was astonished looking at you standing in front of him.

"You....don't want to come in?"

You awkwardly asked the short boy since he's been standing for few minutes and still not saying anything.

"Ah- yes yes I'm sorry." Riki blinked his eyes aggresively trying to focus back before entering the house. He sat on the couch and then looked at the show you were watching. He smiled at the sight of familiar cartoon. Crayon Shin Chan.

"Do you want anything?"

"No- it's okay."

"Well, I'll be in my room if you need me."

That's the first time Riki knew what love means.

14th February 2017, Riki planned something. He was smiling widely at the bouquet he bought. It has your favourite flowers. How did he know? He might "accidentally" came to your room while you were out.

He looked at his surrounding and it full of couples having fun with each other. He hoped he can feel like them too.

"You are so sweet buying these flowers. I'm sure your girlfriend must really love it."

His cheeks flushing red at the words. Will you accept him as a boyfriend?

"Um, we are not dating yet. But, I'm planning to confess today."

"Awhh, I'm sure you will get her young man."

"You think so?"

"Of course!!!"

The owner words somehow boosted Riki's confidence. With giddy feelings, he walked to your house and asked you to come out.

"Oh, Riki! What are you doing here? It's night already."

You asked him. Riki became taller as years go by. He was shorter than you but now you were the one that was shorter than him.

"Noona, I've been liking and loving you since the first time we met. I was thinking about confessing to you these years but now I finally have courage to do it. Noona, will you be my girlfriend?"

He expected you will be shocked by the sudden confession but he didn't expected you will reject him.

"Riki...umm you are really good boy. But, to me you are just like my brother. I'm sorry if my acts towards you lead you to something else. Plus, you are still young. I'm sure your feeling just like a mere crush. It will go away later. Again, I'm really sorry."

Instead of saying anything, Riki walked away leaving you outside the house. The bouquet he bought already thrown into a garbage bin. Riki only saw red at that time. He went to the flower shop and looking for the owner. It was close already but he eventually got inside and saw the owner was cleaning the store.

"Uh, young man? You should not be in here."

The woman was a bit worried. Riki rolled his eyes and attacked her by choking her neck.

"You said she will accept me. But, WHY INSTEAD SHE APOLOGIZED AND REJECTED ME?!!! YOU SAID SHE WILL LIKE THE FLOWERS!!!"

"Let- let me...I'm sorry."

"Huh, sorry? Yeah, you should be sorry. You ruined my life so you should face the consequence."

Riki took a scissor near him and stabbed the woman on her eyes and her body many times until she died.

Somehow, he didn't feel guilty doing that at all. Instead, he felt good that he is able to let out his anger.

Since that day, Riki is not smiley like he used to be anymore. He even cut his friendship with everyone include Jungwon. Most important thing, he started to stalk you every single day.

He even installed a camera inside your room just to watch every movement you do. Sometimes, when there is no one at the home, he will break in and stole some of your items. He loves to see you getting frustrated looking for it.

One day, when Riki was enjoying his time alone on the school rooftop? Jungwon came and stood beside him. He glared at Jungwon who looked scared to say anything.

"What do you want?"

"I've heard about your confession towards noona and I'm sorry that you got rejected. But, Riki you don't need to unfriend me too. We can still be friends."

"Shut up. You don't know anything."

"I know you are still hoping for my sister. But, she has a boyfriend and is planning to move in with him. You need to let it go."

Riki clenched his fists tightly. Is your boyfriend became the cause you rejected him? And you even planned to run away from him?

He turned to face Jungwon who was waiting for a response. He looked on Jungwon's back that near with the end of the roof.

"You are right. I should move on."

"Yes! We are still young anyway. Let's focus on something else than these things."

Jungwon said with big smile on his face. He was happy to finally get to talk with Riki. He missed his friend so much.

Sadly, Jungwon didn't realized he was already at the end of the building. He became shocked when Riki suddenly pushed him off the rooftop. The boy landed on the hard ground with pooling out from his head.

"You should just stay away and don't disturb me. You cause this to yourself."

22nd June 2020, Riki started to follow you when you were finally finished your work. Since Jungwon's death three years ago, you moved from the house and sold it to other people. He came to your brother's funeral and felt so happy when you hugged him. He didn't care about the funeral to be honest. He came just to see you.

You moved to a city to find a job and you stayed with your boyfriend, Sangwon. Both of you were working hard to pay the bills. Sangwon is a good guy. A very good guy. He takes care of you and always make sure you will be okay.

And that's what make Riki mad.

He is the one that supposed to do that.

He is the one that need to take care of you.

Not that bastard.

Riki watched as you entered your house. He calmed himself when he saw you were hugging and kissing your boyfriend. He knew you actually love him. He knew that. He will take you back. He will make sure he will get you back in his arms.

"Y/n, go take shower. I'll be cooking and we eat together okay?"

"Thank you, honey."

Sangwon kissed your forehead before let you to shower. He didn't realized at that time the back door was opened when he got into the kitchen. Without thinking too much, he just closed the door and started to cook.

When he wanted to cut vegetables, he noticed the knife is gone. He went to search for it until he heard a voice.

"Looking for this?"

Sangwon turned to that unfamiliar voice. He felt the panic building up inside him looking at the stranger inside the house.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, me? I am Y/n's boyfriend."

"No, I am her boyfriend. Leave our house right now before I called the police."

Riki scoffed while twisting the knife on his hand. Your boyfriend really had an audacity to do that. He moved fastly and stabbed Sangwon's neck before pulled it out and stabbed on his stomach.

"Can you call the police now? I bet nah."

He giggled when blood coming out from Sangwon's mouth when he wanted to say something.

"Awh poor you can't even shout for help. That's what you got when you took away Y/n from me."

Creak!

He turned back and found you standing feets away from him. You were holding your phone and stepped back when Riki started to walk closer.

"Stay away from me!"

"Noona...do you know how much I miss you?"

He wanted to hug you but you started throwing things towards him.

"Get away from me, you freak!"

"Freak??!! FREAK?!! I DID THIS FOR YOU NOONA. FOR US."

"NO! I TOLD YOU THAT I DON'T LIKE YOU RIKI YOU SHOULD MOVE ON ALREADY."

"Why can't you understand? Noona, we are perfect for each other. I knew you love me."

"I will not love a murderer. You killed my boyfriend, Riki. You will get caught by police."

"You sure? Cause I did the same thing three years ago."

You became confused at what he said and Riki smirking showing his creepiness.

"To your brother."

You lost your balance and fell down on the floor. Riki started to laugh loudly like he just told you the funniest thing ever.

"I had to remove him, noona. Your brother is disturbance to us."

"POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!!"

Riki became confuse at the sudden noise. He turned to you who still in daze and grabbed your phone. The boy cursed when it shows a call between you and the emergency hotline. You must have been did that before he noticed you at the kitchen.

One of the polices shot him when he tried to run away. They quickly ran to hold him down and cuffed him.

"Miss, are you okay?"

You looked at your surrounding and felt better when you heard a siren. You turned to Riki who started to walk from you.

"I will fucking find you, noona. You can't escape from me."

That's the last sentence he said before the polices pushed him into the car.

"You are safe now, Miss."

-----

Man, it was hard to do with my headache🤕🤕 but thankfully i can finish it. Anyways this is flashback to [12:14] so what you read here is the past while the [12:14] is the future when Riki finally escape from jail and looked for y/n. Hope you guys understand.

Taglist: @stacey-stonem @duolingofanaccount @cyberpinkx

[bbymunsonx]

The Last Time (Ted's Version)

Chapter One

chapter warnings: language

word count: 962

authors note: even though these two beginning chapters are on the shorter side, I hope you enjoy so far! I cannot wait to get into the main chunk of the story there's gonna be soooo much drama hehe

Ted Lasso: Lacy where did you go?

Coach Beard: I think your singing scared her.

Lacy Watson: I literally told the both of you I was going to the bathroom. I'll be right back. 

***

After Ted had sent me his address last night, I packed a bag filled with some under garments and makeup and most of my important belongings and left. At this point, I didn't even care anymore. I'm starting fresh and whatever I can't bring with me, I'll buy when I get there. 

I followed my GPS and pulled up in front of a house that had the name LASSO on the mailbox. Of course Ted would be the kind of guy to have his last name on his mailbox, I thought to myself. 

After taking my bag out of the car, I walked up to the front door and knocked on it. Ted answered after the third knock. 

"Hey, there! Welcome!" Ted obnoxiously yelled out as he answered the door. 

"Hi, Mr. Lasso," I answered back. 

"Please, Mr. Lasso was my father. Call me Ted." He reached out his hand. I grabbed it and shook it. God, his hand is huge. 

I walked into his house and looked around, being a little bit nosy. The house was decorated beautifully, most likely by a Mrs. Lasso. There were also some toys scattered around the house. Why would Ted take a job overseas when he obviously has a wife and child? Is he running from something too?

"Beard, come say hi to Lacy," Ted called out into the living room, where Coach Beard was passed out on the couch with his mouth wide open. 

"Aw shit, party's already over," I said with a snarky tone in my voice. 

"Sorry 'bout that. He's been a little stressed about the whole move." Ted responded.

"Aren't you?" I asked. 

"A little. But I'm more excited about the opportunity, ya know? It'll be a fun adventure." Ted smiled. 

"Yeah, it'll be a great opportunity for a fresh start." 

"Well, yeah, that too," Ted tried to smile, but I could tell it was fake. "Alrighty, well we have to leave for the airport in about five hours so try to get some sleep. If you want, my wife and son are staying with my in laws so you can sleep in my bed if you don't wanna sleep in the same room as Beard. He don't bite though, I promise." 

"I make no promises," Beard said sternly in his sleep making you and Ted jump. 

"Christ, I thought you were asleep," Ted exhaled. 

"I am. But I am always listening." Beard continued, his eyes still closed. Ted looked over at me and shrugged. 

"Uh, yeah. I think I'd rather sleep in your dirty bed than sleep in the same room as him." I laughed a bit. 

"Okay, yeah. I can't say I blame you there. Well, make yourself at home. Bedroom is upstairs, last door on the left."

"Thanks, Ted." I smiled and headed upstairs with my bag. Still feeling weary about sleeping in a man's bed who I literally just met, I just laid on top of the comforter and stared up at the ceiling. 

What the fuck am I doing?

***

If someone asked me twenty-four hours ago where I would be, I would have died laughing if they said 35,000 feet in the air sandwiched between Ted Lasso and Coach Beard. 

I'm starting to think there might be something wrong with Beard, all the man does is sleep. Ted was talking to him for a good five minutes before he realized that he was asleep the whole time. 

"Should we play a game to get to know each other better?" Ted proposed. 

"Okay. What do you want to play?" I responded. I haven't played these sorts of games since I was in high school. 

"I'm just gonna throw a bunch of questions at you and you just say the first thing that pops into your mind, okay? Don't even think about it." 

"Wait, wait, so you aren't even gonna answer them? You're just gonna get to know me?" 

"No, I'll answer them at the end. You're gonna go first. Alright. Favorite singer?"

"Taylor Swift."

"Favorite food?"

"Anything Italian."

"Favorite color?"

"Purple."

"Favorite show?"

"South Park."

"Okay. Kenny Rogers, peanut butter, orange, and Cheers." Ted said all at once. I just stared at him with a blank look on my face. 

"I don't really see the logic in us playing the game like that." I laughed. 

"Yeah, I suppose you're right 'bout that. I'll keep that in mind for next time." Ted smiled. 

After a few minutes of silence, the cabin lights started to dim as most of the people on the flight started to drift to sleep, even though it was midday. We still had eight hours left on the flight, so I might as well get some rest. 

"Goodnight, Ted." I looked up at him to see his eyes already shut and mouth wide open. I smiled quietly to myself as my eyes started to flutter shut, as well. 

***

It's almost impossible for someone to sleep through an entire flight, but I really lucked out. Eight hours later, my eyes began to slowly open as my body could feel the decent into London. My stomach dropped a bit as I realized my head had been resting on Ted's arm. As I lifted my head off of Ted's arm, I had accidentally knocked Beard's head off of my arm. 

"Christ, sorry, Ted. You could've moved me." I apologized. Ted had been awake reading a book. 

"Nah, that's alright. You two looked so peaceful I didn't wanna disturb ya." Ted smiled, not looking away from his book. 

"Ladies and Gentleman, British Airways welcomes you to London. The local time is 8pm. 

Again, what the FUCK am I doing?

[sw-33-ts-stuff]

Killer in NYC (Tara Carpenter X Reader)

Part 7-Secrets Secrets Part 3

Y/N POV

"I already told you Tara, nothing."

Sam chimed in glaring at me. "That picture doesn't look like nothing."

I sighed. "Tara got drunk I bought her home we got into it stopped and I left that's it."

The shorter girl grabbed you by your shirt pulling you to her so you had no choice but to make direct eye contact.

"Something else happened." She spoke softly after a few minutes. You try brushing her off but her hold stayed tight. "You wouldn't just leave, what happened?"

Your jaw clenched. "Chad called your phone to make sure you were good said he hoped when he kissed you that it didn't scare you off,"

Sam's eyes widened at the new information as Tara's face became guilty.

You continue. "He also went on to say that if you were open to it he'd love to try seeing where you two could go. I wrote you a post it note and put it on your fridge. You passed out so I went down the fire scape. I really didn't feel like being someone's drunken third choice."

Tara stayed quiet as Sam stared on in silence.

"I may like you but I still have some dignity. Now if you don't mind I'd appreciate it if you both left my apartment." Tara nodding going to leave taking Sam with her.

The older Carpenter took her arm away gently as she turned to Y/N.

"Like it or not, you're in this now too. You should be careful maybe come with us."

You shook your head laughing lightly. "I was born and raised in Brooklyn, it's gonna take a lot more than a mask and a knife to take me down."

"Don't be stupid." You look to Tara offended.

"Then I guess I'm stupid because I rather be stabbed then have you keep playing with me." You started gesturing to your door.

"Don't be afraid to let it hit your ass on the way out."

Both girls shuffled out getting ready to face Ghostface once and for all.

3rd Person POV

The Carpenter girls sat in the car in silence. Sam taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Tara side eyed her sister shaking her head.

"Tara you've been hiding a lot and it's really not helping us."

"Sam drop it." She warned.

"No, someone is out there trying to kill us and I can't even get my little sister to tell me when she likes someone-"

"Because it's not important-"

"Tara!" She slammed the picture on her dashboard making the younger girl flinch, "it obviously is who ever is watching you has been doing it for a while." She scoffed shaking her head.

"A fucking psychopath knows my own sister better than I do." She started the car the two riding on in uncomfortable silence.

Chad and Mindy were in the apartment with Mindy's girlfriend, Anika. The trio waiting for their friends to pick them up.

Mindy glanced at her watch again. "They're late aren't they?"

Chad put a calming hand to his sisters shoulder. "It's ok they'll be here soon."

The door slammed opened revealing the two, both looking upset.

"Is everything ok?" Sam just waved a hand to Chad who then turned to Tara, "are you ok?"

The girl glanced at him briefly nodding before grabbing her things ready to end this.

Mindy spoke up, her head shooting up from her girlfriend.

"Maybe it's just me but I'm sensing some sibling tension going on." Sam glared at the twin who held her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm just saying we might die and I really want to make sure it's not because you guys fought over who took the last piece of pizza."

Anika shook her head chuckling lightly as she smacked the girls shoulder. "Seriously?" She shrugged.

Chad clapped his hands. "Alright roommate meeting everyone around the table."

Sam and Tara sat at the table still not meeting the others eyes.

"What's going on?" Sam chuckled darkly before turning to the athlete.

"I don't know Chad, why don't you and Tara tell us?" He was taken back by the older girls tone but looked to Tara who glared.

"Chad and I kissed at the Halloween Party! That's it, it's not a big deal." The usually jovial boy frowned a bit hurt but said nothing as Mindy looked over to her brother almost impressed.

"Didn't know you had it in you." Anika once again smacked her girlfriends shoulder. The group was quiet before Tara spoke up again.

"Look that's not important what is important is that we stick together find this asshole and finish this once and for all." Sam nodded.

"It is but we can't help if people keep having secrets." Mindy sucked her teeth.

"She's got a point munchkin." Said girls eyes shifted to the film fanatic. "This opens up to more suspects, as much as I love my twin now he's just as suspicious as Evan and Y/N. If he can't have you no one can."

Chad scoffed. "Thanks sis." She smiled cheekily at him.

"And if not him someone close to him. Someone jealous maybe even someone from Woodsboro." A sharp bang interrupted her monologue. Everyone ran to the living room watching the front door.

"HELP!" Sam's eyebrows furrowed. Kirby? "SAM PLEASE HELP HES GONNA-" a knife went through the door and after a brief moment blood began to pool underneath and through the cracks. The group ran once the door was busted open going to the nearest room and blocking it off. Sam opened a window waving to the people across.

"HELP!" A party went on as no one seemed to pay them any mind. She looked closer to find the window opened and pulled Chad.

"Help me get the ladder across." He nodded the both of them lifting and sliding to make sure the bridge could hold some weight in their escape attempt. One by one they slowly crawled over the ladder trying not to look down as they did so. Mindy, Chad and Anika being the last two to cross.

"Mindy I-I can't I'm scared of heights." She put a hand to the girls cheek.

"It's ok just follow me I'll be right with you," she smirked slightly. "And it gives you an excuse to check out my ass."

Ghostface began banging on the door slowly prying it open as the girl took a shaky breath nodding. Mindy climbing on first as Anika went to follow. Ghostface had grabbed Chad who turned around to punch them. They fell as Chad turned to get on the ladder.

"HURRY UP!" The two girls were trembling Mindy trying to put on a brave face as she'd smile and wriggle her ass at her girlfriend to keep her distracted. She'd laugh making sure to not even spare a glance down when the ladder shook. She'd look back to see Chad getting stabbed Tara screaming as they'd grabbed Mindy. She glanced to her girlfriend smiling sadly as the killer tilted their head to the side. Ghostface slowly dragged the ladder back towards him. Chad no where in sight. She smiled sadly to the olive skinned girl as she let herself be pulled back kicking the killer to shut the window and lock it behind her.

"ANIKA!" Mindy was pulled into Tara and Sam as she cried kicking her twin and lover both taken right before her eyes. The sisters continued to pull her with them. "LET ME GO!"

"Mindy! Mindy!" A tearful Sam put her hands on the girls cheeks. "We have to keep going."

Mindy glanced back towards the only two people besides her parents who mattered to her. They had loved her unconditionally, accepted her and her poorly timed jokes, her obsession with film. She thought on how she wouldn't be able to tease them anymore-

Tara broke her out of her thoughts next. "Mindy..." her voice shook. "You know he'd want us to keep moving or else it would all be for nothing."

She wiped her face nodding the girls running to abandoned theater where Gale had originally found the Ghostface shrine.

It was a maze as they tried to guide themselves back to the hideout.

Meanwhile, Gale had went to the station to grab Detective Brooks.

"Look Mrs.Weathers I have no times to play games we just got a call from a bunch of teenagers that they saw Ghostface killing someone in their window."

"EXACTLY! The girls are on their way to corner him and I'm trying to get you there before he dies." The detective stared at the author.

"And why should I trust you? How do I know this isn't some poor excuse to get more money for your next book?"  She smirked.

"I told my cameraman to go home."

The girls continued running through the maze, when suddenly Mindy was grabbed and flung to the side a sharp knife sinking into her. Tara going to turn back but her sister grabbed her.

"NO MINDY-"  the duo kept running until they hit the center.

"You ready?" Tara glanced to her sister sweat on her forehead making her hair stick to her. Mascara running as she nodded. She looked to see Ghostface standing near by.

"COME ON MOTHERFUCKER!"

Ghostface lunged as Tara ducked, Sam following before they ran. The design of the building much like a theater. They had run from the entrance and began to run their way through seats the protective railing giving a sense of foreboding as it would make a steep fall. Sam saw Mindy’s still body on a table, a brief wave of remorse going through her before she grew determined.

Tara's going to live.

The second Ghostface cut them off.

"Ahh Samantha and Tara." The voice changer sang throughout the empty space. "So nice of you to finally join us."

Sam gritted her teeth.

They tapped the knife along the railing once, twice before nodding their head to the side. A stage curtain lifting, as three seats occupied the space.

In the chairs were Y/N, Chad and David. A banner hanging above them,

Secrets Secrets hurt everyone

Taglist: @alexkolax @maowlxslay

@annalestern @natasha25052 @wol-fica @tashakink @pdione11 @dksjskx @the-camilucha

[wonuwrites]

Ok my friend I thought of some options for another song reaction:

Smut - Levii's Jeans by Beyonce

Romance - Love Me Anyway by Chappell Roan

Angst (big BIG angst) - A House in Nebraska by Ethel Cain

I hope you like one of these!

Oooo~ I will check these out but def write them for you! I decided to breakup "Love Me Anyway" into units so this will be order so you know <3 According to randomizer I will be doing them in these order

Love Me Anyway (Vocal Unit) *You are here*

Love Me Anyway (Performance Unit)

A House In Nebraska (ps this song devastated me and I'm SO fucking excited for this one)

Love Me Anyway (Hip Hop Unit)

Levii's Jeans

I'll tag them in this when they are ready but hey let's get into the Vocal Unit's Love Me Anyway <3

ღ vocal unit || performance unit || hip hop unit

Just like my other song reactions, the order of the people in the drabbles will be in order of the song lyrics of the song <3. (btw this is my new favorite song so thank you anon i love you.)

Warnings: nothing really, might have some cursing but it's just gonna be pretty fluffy :) Some body confidence issues in Jeonghan's btw

ღ Joshua: "I love you because you have those Polaroids of me inside your nightstand."

You had decided it was time to do some spring cleaning. You had put your hair up and was straightening some things up in your room. You found some of Jisoo's jewelry and decided to put them in his nightstand. That's when you discovered a polaroid book you never saw before. Impulsively, you grabbed the book and saw that there were a bunch of random Polaroids showing you and moments in your relationship. Your heart started to swell as each memory came flooding back as you touched each picture. It made you love him even more. Little did you know, Jisoo had gotten home a bit earlier and was leaning against your bedroom door frame watching you relive the memories. He couldn't help but feel a bit anxious because that was supposed to be your anniversary gift that was a month away but he also loved how happy you looked looking at them. He felt very similar actually. It was at that moment when you looked up at him and couldn't stop smiling, "baby, how long have you had these?!" "Awhile," was all he could say while he looked at you which made you blush. You looked back at the photobook and just felt so touched to be able to go through memories like this.

ღ Jeonghan: "And I love you because you're understanding when I'm too shy to show my skin."

Jeonghan's love language toward you was teasing for most part. However, there were times when he knew that you needed a little TLC aka tender love and care. Those times came when you were struggling with the way you looked and a bit self conscious about showing skin. He would know you were struggling with negative thoughts pretty quickly. If you were in a sundress that was a bit shorter and you kept trying to pull it down in the back, he would casually stand behind you so nobody could look. When you were sitting, he would hand you his jacket with a soft smile so you could put it over your thighs. He hated that you had these thoughts but he knew you were working on them. He learned pretty quickly compliments would do nothing but these actions he did always made you snuggle up to his side and he'd feel like the luckiest son of a bitch ever. <3

ღ Woozi: "And I love you because you lead me back to bed when I wander in my sleep."

Jihoon found out about your sleepwalking ways literally the first night you both had a sleepover. He thought you got up to go to the bathroom and when you took awhile to come back, he went to go investigate because well... he missed you. When he saw you 'staring' at your house plant and telling it that 'you didn't need ketchup' he put two and two together. He found it precious and didn't want you to be embarrassed about it so he never made it a big deal. Whenever you would sleepwalk, he would simply just lead you back to the bedroom. He would fall into whatever you were talking about. If you were ever embarrassed by it in the morning, he would quickly shut it down and say "it happens babe, don't worry about it." When you would say "no it's not normal," he would just wrap you in his arms and kiss you. He literally had no issue with helping you when you slept walked and helping you was normal for him. It was the least he could do.

ღ Dokyeom: "Autumn came and December went. Turned you down at your high school dance. You la-love me anyway."

You were sitting next to your newly wed husband, Lee Seokmin, as members of Seventeen and both of your family members came up to share stories about y'all and your relationship. You've known each other for ten years but had been dating/engaged for the last three. That's why when Mingyu who went to high school with you both came up he couldn't help but laugh before starting his story. "When Seokmin first told me he had a crush on (Y/N), we were getting ready for a school dance." This made Seokmin blush and hide his face while you started to laugh. This bit of lore from your relationship was embarrassing for you both however it was funny to see where you both ended up being. You see, Seokmin used to be even more shier then he was now and you were just super self conscious. It was the second to last slow dance and he came up to ask you to dance. You just shook your head and ran away leaving him in the dust confused. You just didn't think someone that was as attractive as him would ever be genuine. Even though it mortified him at the time, he still ended up marrying you and neither of you could ask for a more perfect ending. <3

ღ Seungkwan: "When I met you at summer camp, I would never give you a chance. You still la-love me anyway."

When you were younger, the more red flags a man had, the better. That's why Seungkwan was not on your radar when you both were camp counselors. He was kind to the attendees and everyone. He always flashed you a smile because well he was down bad first glance but to you he could be nothing but a friend. It wasn't until years after you both met and had been friends until you realized it had always been him. You both had been sitting on a blanket watching the stars when his hand just grabbed yours. You looked over at him confused but the look on his face was nervous. He always had a confident aura around him but tonight he was nervous. This was a new side of Seungkwan and it made you nervous as well. "(Y/N), I love you. I've loved you since day one. Can you please give me a chance now?" The question made you blush like crazy before you nodded. "I should've given you a chance years ago, Seungkwan. I love you too."

Hopefully this was good <3 Stream Love Me Anyway bc it's so cute :) (Performance Unit's should be up later today or tomorrow <3)

[ssuperficialspacecadett]

Friday Fight Night

Chapter Four of the Through the Scope series | Chapter Five

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3.4K

Chapter Overview: You help Benny and the guys get ready for FFN.

Notes: this chapter is just a bit shorter than what i usually like to post, but i didn't have a lot of time to write this week & i'm actually content with where i ended it ! sometimes u just have to stop a little short so u don't just start typing random shit to meet a bullshit word count u give urself u know? i updated the tag list so if i missed u PLZ LET ME KNOW & i will add u asap !! well as usual...my asks are always open & happy reading <3

*no use of y/n & female presenting reader*

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Why is this so difficult? It's just like every other day at work, except for the fact that it's not. You have been standing in front of your closet for a good 10 minutes now just looking at your clothes. Suddenly nothing seems good enough to wear. Maybe something would be good enough if you knew how to dress for a fight. Should you wear workout gear? No, you weren’t the one fighting. Should you wear a tank top and a tennis skirt? Probably not if it gets as rowdy as Benny says it will. 

“Just pick a fucking outfit, you idiot.” You chastise. 

After yet another once over of your closet you pick out a worn, white t-shirt with an image of Speed Racer on it. It had definitely seen its glory days years ago when you were still in college. If it worked then, it should work now. You take it off its hanger, along with some jeans, and put it all on. You’re tying your shoes when your phone chimes next to you. 

???: Hey, we will be getting to the gym around closing time. Are you staying to help Benny set up? 

???: Oh, this is Frankie BTW

Seeing his name on your screen makes your chest tighten with excitement. You obviously gave him your number so he could text you, but now it feels so real. Something about Frankie texting ‘BTW’ makes you giggle to yourself as you sit on the floor.

You: Yes, I figured I would make myself useful. No point in going home since the fights start at 10:00 P.M. and I might lose my parking spot.

You have to set your phone down before you overthink the most basic text you have ever sent in your life. Just for good measure, you leave it on your bed while you go into the bathroom. Despite your best efforts to remain nonchalant about the whole situation, you find yourself putting on a little more makeup than usual. By the time you have wrapped up and returned to your room an unread text is waiting for you. 

Frankie: Good thinking. See you tonight then.

The rest of your morning has a bit more pep in it than before.

***

Your day at the gym passes by as usual. The only two exceptions were a truck load of last minute Friday Fight Night tickets sales and then compliments on how the gym was smelling. You made a mental note to smack Benny upside the head for throwing such a temper tantrum about it. In between customers you found yourself checking your phone more than you regularly do. You told yourself that it was just because you were excited about the fights and were counting down the minutes and not because you were hoping to receive another text from Frankie. Unfortunately, lying to yourself never really works out. 

In an effort to keep yourself occupied, you answer emails from people that are applying for a gym membership, make laps around the gym to see if you need to replace any of the wipes used to clean the machines, and collect all of the dirty towels for a load of laundry. Much to your dismay, these tasks don’t take very long to complete. By 3:30 P.M. you reluctantly slink back to the front desk where the single most unwanted guest is waiting. 

“There she is! My favorite receptionist! I’m still interested in knowing your name, darlin’.” 

“Good afternoon, Brunson.” You plop yourself down in your chair and pull up the schedule on the computer. “Just working out today? I don’t see that you’re with Benny.”

“You caught me. I want to make sure that I’m in good shape when I fight in a few weeks time.” 

For a few blissful seconds you allow yourself to indulge in the idea of Brunson getting clocked, hard, right in the jaw. 

“Well, enjoy yourself.” You scan his card quickly in an attempt to move him on his way.

“I always do so when you’re here.” He clicks his tongue at you while he walks past your desk. 

“God, he’s insufferable.” You mumble to yourself.

It’s 4:00 P.M. when Benny finally ventures up to the front lobby with you.

“Where have you been? I feel like I haven’t seen you all day, man.”

“Because you haven’t,” He covers his face with his hands and whines into them before coming back up for air. “At first I couldn’t find where the white board I used to write out the fightin’ pairs was. Then there was somethin’ wrong with the beer delivery and they kept me out back for fuckin’ ever. That isn’t even coverin’ all the one on one sessions I've had today or the ones I’m still goin’ to have.”

It’s breaking your heart to see how stressed out he’s getting with all of the things he has to juggle today. You get out of your chair, walk over to him, and rub on his shoulder comfortingly. 

“It’s going to be alright, Benny. I’m staying after work to help you set up and Frankie told me that the guys are coming to help around closing too. You won't be in this alone for much longer.”

He places both of his hands on his hips and exhales deeply.

“Thank you,” You can see the earnestness in his eyes. “I really appreciate it.”

“Of course. That’s what friends are for, right?”

He smiles down at you from his 6’2 frame and before you can move he pulls you in for a deadly tight hug.

“Benny!” You can’t stop laughing. “Let me go this fucking instant!”

“Friends like hugs from other friends, right?” He yells over your incessant protesting. 

“I’m going to kill you, you know that?!” Your tone of voice doesn’t even sound remotely serious. 

Eventually you get him to unlatch himself from you so the two of you can finish up the work day in order to prepare for this evening.

***

You stand back proudly and admire all of your handiwork. Benny put you in charge of setting up the beer table, so set up the beer table you did. You designed a poster to hang on the wall above the table so people would be able to clearly see their options and their respective prices. You set a long, metal tub in the center of the table and filled it halfway with ice. Then you made a little arrangement out of the beer and poured the last half of the ice on it to keep it cold. The cash box was fully stocked and set to the side. All in all, you did a pretty good job. Thankfully, one of Benny’s regulars volunteered to work it this evening.

“All done over here!” You call over to Benny. “How’s the sign coming?”

You watch in horror as he stands up to reveal a barely legible fighting roster. He must have seen your face flounder when you looked at it because he just tosses the dry erase marker over to you and crosses his arms. 

“Oh, Benny I-”

“I know it looks bad. I’ve never had a knack for all this creative shit.”

You squeeze his hand as you pass him while heading to the white board. He slides over the roster that has been printed on paper for you to use as your guide. You’re so engrossed with your new task that you don’t notice when the guys come in around 8:30 P.M..

“You sure are givin’ Benny a run for his money this evenin’. The place hasn’t looked this put together in…well ever.” That sugary, sweet southern drawl could only belong to one man. 

“Thank you, Will!” You toss over your shoulder.

“Aw screw you, dude. Maybe it would have been if y’all had gotten here when y’all said you would.” Benny notes.

“Blame Fish.” Pope snickers. “He couldn’t find the perfect outfit.” 

That got your interest peaked. You turn around to look at what Frankie is wearing. Regular work boots, soft looking denim jeans, a black undershirt, a worn blue button up with the top few buttons left undone, and finally his cap- oh god he’s looking at you. If you had been a smarter woman, you would have noticed that two thirds of the group standing behind you were looking at your sign. That damned one third of the group was watching you trail your way up his whole body. He’s like an oak; completely unwavering as you take him in. 

“Well, I like it. ” You squeak out as you turn your attention back to the roster. “Now why don’t you guys go make yourselves useful and help Benny?”

You hear a unified ‘yes ma’am’ come from behind you followed by the scattering of three pairs of feet. There truly isn't anything more sexy than men who can follow orders.

All five of y’all work tirelessly for the next hour to get everything finished before the doors open to the public. When you cross off the last item on your to-do list, you decide that you have earned a drink. You sneak over to the beer table and open one of the coolers that you set up behind it that contains the excess bottles. Much to your dismay, the bottle caps don't twist off like you originally thought. You’re on your knees looking around in the extra bags and praying that Benny had the foresight to get a bottle opener when Frankie walks up next to you. 

“Lose something?”

“Just my dignity trying to locate the stupid fucking bottle opener.”

He laughs jovially as he extends his hand to help you up. You take it and sheepishly hand him your bottle when he motions for it. The two of you walk around to the front of the table and you watch as he easily takes out his keys and pops the cap open with a bottle opener he had attached to them. You notice that instead of tossing the cap in the trash he places it back in his pocket along with his keys. Right when he starts to hand the drink back to you he pulls it back towards him. 

“Hey! What gives?”

“I have to test it to make sure it isn’t poisonous or something.”

“Oh my god, you dick.” You lean back on the table behind you.

“You won’t be saying that when I save your life.” He takes a small sip and passes it over to you. “Nope. It’s not poison. You’re in the clear.”

Now it’s your turn. You turn to look out at the gym while you take a drink of your well deserved reward. 

“Wait,” You look over at Frankie. “What if it's a slow acting poison and now we are both infected? I guess you have to stay here and finish this with me so we can go out together.”

He leisurely reclines next to you on the table and takes the bottle in his hand when you offer it to him. “That's some pretty sound logic. I can’t argue with that.”

You try to stop yourself, but you watch as he brings the frosty glass to his pouty lips. They look more pink than usual against the dark color of the bottle. His hands make the beer bottle look so much smaller than it really is. Your eyes wander to that nose you’re so fond of. God, what would it feel like on your clit as he ate his fill of you? Now that you’re closer to him you’re able to see the gray that's intricately woven into his beard and hair. Would it tickle the inside of your thighs when he buried his face in your pussy? Feelings you haven’t had for a man in a long time rock through your body the further you sink into your fantasy. Drifting even further, his adam’s apple bobs as he swallows the chilled liquid. You want to decorate the sensitive skin with blossoming purple marks. 

“What?” He’s looking at you now. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No,” You say almost breathlessly. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t hog it all.”

“I would never.” The low baritone of his voice reverberates through you. 

Benny, thankfully, yells from across the gym at the both of y’all before you do something questionable. 

“Hey, lazy asses! It’s showtime!”

You and Frankie both let out a breath neither of y’all realized you were holding. He looks down at his watch and then faces his friend with a mild look of annoyance.

“It’s 9:30, man. It’s just the boxers and the ring girls coming in right now.”

You notice that Frankie’s body immediately tenses up after he says this. Confused, you look over at Benny who has eyes as bright as the sun and is making a beeline towards you. 

“I’m sorry.” Frankie whispers down to you. “I’m so sorry.”

“Benny? What are you-?”

“I have a proposition for you.” He says while gripping both sides of your arms. “Do you wanna hear it?”

“I don’t think I have a choice by the look of things.”

“Please be my ring girl.” He gasps.

“Oh my god.” You let your head roll back. “Benny, are you serious right now?”

“Don’t say no yet. Just think about it before you decide.” 

You roll your head over to face Frankie and raise your eyebrows. You’re met with a shrug that is just as innocent as his grin.

“Does this offer have an expiration date?” You inquire shifting your focus back to the man that currently has you in a vice grip. 

“Just think about it.” He pleads.

“Fine, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna say n-”

“La-la-la! I can’t hear you! La-la-la!”

“Don’t you have fighters to go hype up in the locker room?” Frankie cuts in.

“Nothin’ I hate more than when you’re right, Fish. Catch y’all in between the matches!”

With one final ‘think about it’, he bounds off into the locker rooms. All you can do is laugh hysterically at what just transpired. Frankie probably thinks you have lost your mind with the way you are doubled over right now. 

“Hey let us in on the joke, why don’t you?” Pope sits next to you on the table. 

“I could use a good laugh as well.” Will adds blithely.

“What you two could use is a reality check.” you walk around the table and grab a beer for each of them. “God, I can’t believe him.”

You hand Will and Pope their drinks completely forgetting about taking the tops off. Fortunately, that didn’t stop them. Will snatches Pope’s beer out of his hand and positions the bottles where one has its cap resting just barely on the edge of the other's cap. Then he slams them down on his knee and Pope’s opens with ease. After he hands the open one off, he pops his own with a thick ring he’s wearing. 

“I’m thoroughly impressed, Will. What the hell was that?”

“You just gotta learn to make due sometimes.” 

Frankie and Pope both mutter ‘show-off’ under their breaths as Will explains to you the physics behind his little trick. 

“Okay, now back to what Benny was talking about.” You adjust your stance so you can better face the group. “Are y’all in on this? This ‘ring girl’ shit?”

“Can’t say it wouldn’t be fun though.” Pope prods his finger at you. 

“Oh, yes I can.” You say swatting at him.

“You know, Benny. Once he sets his mind to somethin’ he’s pretty determined to see it through.”

“That doesn’t even begin to answer my question, Will.” You groan as you take the beer from Frankie’s hand. 

The movements between y’all are so natural, so fluid that it feels like something you have been doing for years. You see Pope, almost in shock, watch you as you take a drink.

“Can I get some of that?”

“No way, man.” You shelter the bottle against your body. “Three is a crowd and you literally have an open one in your hand.”

“Will’s right,” Frankie reasons with you. “Benny is as one track minded as they come.”

“Tell him to get on another track then.”

“How about this?” Pope counters. “You go into the locker room with Benny and see what it takes to be a ring girl. Then and only then will he accept your answer of ‘no’ if that’s still what you want.”

“If that will get him off my case then that's fine with me.” 

You start to turn towards the locker room doors when a blue sleeved arm reaches over your shoulder and plucks the beer from you. 

“Hey, give that back!”

“I just want to make sure you don’t hog it all.” Frankie’s tone is thick with sarcasm.

“I would never.” You grin.

Pope waits until you have cleared the locker room doors before he whacks Frankie in the shoulder. Unfortunately, Frankie doesn’t see it coming because he is too busy hoping to catch one more glimpse of you.

“If that's how you act around women you think are ‘just cool’ then I’m terrified to see how you act around women you actually like.”

“The fuck was that for? And the fuck are you talking about, man?” He massages the spot where Pope smacked him. 

“Will, please tell me you aren’t as blind as he is?”

“Sorry, Fish. I see it too.”

“See what?”

“That you look like a goddamn catfish whenever you look at her! Eyes all big and mouth agape.”

“I do not.” Frankie mutters. 

“Come on.” Pope folds his arms across his chest. “You think she’s cute.”

“What are we in middle school? You’re being ridiculous. Will?” 

“I’ll be honest, I wanna know too.” He flashes that signature boyish Miller smile.

All Frankie can do is laugh nervously while he removes his cap and runs his fingers through his hair. He knows that he’s in the middle of a losing battle and that he’ll have to concede. They are going to be ecstatic that a woman other than Rochelle has caught his eye. Especially when it's a woman that meshes so naturally with their group. No, what’s stopping him is that a part of himself wants to keep it a secret. To have something that is just his. No prying eyes, no unwanted advice, no consequences, and no one else has to get hurt but him. As soon as the acknowledgement of his affection for you falls from his lips, it's real. As selfish as it sounds, he wants to keep you at arms length. He feels like everything he touches breaks and he doesn’t want you to become the next casualty. You wouldn’t want him if you knew the truth about the things he has done. But then you smile or laugh and he can feel himself falling deeper and deeper into his delusions of grandeur. 

“Well, if you don’t like her then maybe I’ll ask her out.”

“No, you won't because,” Frankie puts his cap back on. “I think she’s cute. Are y’all happy? I like her.”

“Atta boy, Fish!” Will cheers. 

“I knew it!” Pope says as he pulls Frankie in for a hug. “She’s a good one, man.”

“I know she is. I just don’t know if I’m going to do anything about it right now.”

Will’s hand comes to rest on his shoulder. “Why’s that?” 

“I don’t want to fuck it up. To drag her into the shit show that is my life. I don’t even know if she feels the same way either!”

The two other men nod in understanding. Frankie takes a sip of the drink he stole from you and sighs as he looks up at the ceiling. 

“All I know is…is that I like her.”

“Shh!” 

“Pope, you were the one that wanted to talk about this!”

“Shut the fuck up! She's coming!”

“Y’all ready? I’m going to open the doors for everyone!”

The three of them use the time it takes you to unlock the doors and arrive back in order to regroup from their previous conversation.

“Did you,” Will clears his throat. “Did you like the view back there? See a future in being Benny’s ring girl?”

“I like the view from right here, thank you very much.” 

“So,” Pope rubs his hands together. “Who ready to see some dudes get the shit beat out of them?”

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