#I finally finished my luggage anyway

[diari0deglierrori]

If I don’t take a break now I’ll either die or kill someone so let’s waste some time here

[sweetshuga]

Roommates ✧ CS [Origin]

𓆩 Sweetshuga Original - Roommates 𓆪

Contains⚠︎ Suggestive remarks!, strong language!, pet names, mentions of taking pictures without permission + taking intimate belongings, low-key obsessed!reader, mentions of masturbation, etc. ⚠︎

Word count. 3.3k (3367)

Notes. English is not my first language! Au! (Matt and Nick go to different colleges so they won’t be apart of the storyline!)

[The fanfic of the same named blurb series -> Roommates]

Starting college was exciting, you got to live alone— well, not quite alone, you had a roommate. The dormitory rooms were fairly big so the dorm manager and college employees, along with the majority of the students, decided to arrange everyone into pairs. Though, most of the pairs were same sex—to avoid any sexual activities, or so they said.

It was a surprise when you arrived at the dormitory and went to your assigned room – a key and your luggage in hand – and was met with a guy with shaggy brown hair and blue eyes when you opened the door. He looked equally surprised to see you, probably thought his new roommate would be a guy.

Sitting up straighter on his bed as he awkwardly shifted on it, "uh... so, roommate?" You nodded, slowly closing the door behind you and walking over to the other side of the room to sit down on the bed there. "Should we, uh, call the dorm manager or sum’?" he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost nervous.

"Yeah... we probably should," he nodded and took his phone from the bed beside him and called whoever was in charge of the dormitory. A few rings later, an elderly woman’s voice answered the call and the guy started to talk, occasionally glancing at you.

You took in the room while he made the phone call. One single bed on each side of the room, a small sofa and a study desk with a chair were the furnitures the dormitory provided. His suitcase and bags were perched beside his bed, along with a small box.

You suddenly felt curious, staring at the box and wondering what was inside before shaking your head slightly to clear your thoughts. After all, you didn’t want to come off as a creep by staring at his things so intently like that.

"What?" your attention averted to him when you heard the surprised tone. He glanced at you again and motioned you to come over to him. You looked at him in confusion, but stood up and walked over to him anyway, sensing it was something important. "Yeah? What’s up?" he just handed you the phone and you took it and put it up to your ear, confused.

"Umm, ma’am?" the woman sighed before speaking in an apologetic tone. "I apologize for the confusion and awkwardness, but unfortunately, we had so many students in the dormitory this year that it had become full. We couldn’t skip over someone on the list only because of their gender you see."

The woman paused before continuing in a more calmer tone, "but if you feel uncomfortable and insist on changing roommates, we can arrange you into the new dormitory. The downside of it, however, is that the new dormitory’s construction won’t be finished until February." You frowned, it’s August now so six months until the new dormitory is available? You couldn’t wait that long.

Sighing as you looked at the guy—only to have him staring back at you. "Sorry, is it okay if we call back after talking?" you asked, "of course, I’ll be available until evening so you two could come by my office to talk more if you want so." You muttered a "thank you" before ending the call.

Taking the phone away from your ear before you approached the guy to give him his phone back, accidentally grazing his fingers with yours and feeling a shiver down your spine. "So uh, you heard that too I suppose?" he spoke, idly fidgeting with his phone. "Yeah... Uh, you okay with this arrangement? ’cause I can’t really wait until February."

He seemed a bit taken aback by your suggestion, but finally spoke a few moments later. "Yeah, neither can I, it’s fine with me I guess..." his voice trailed off as he looked away, continuing in a quieter tone, "as long as you don’t feel uncomfortable sharing a room with a guy."

You couldn’t help the tugging at the corners of your lips at his consideration. "I’m alright with it," his eyes widened slightly, looking mildly surprised at your agreement, but nodded nonetheless. "Well, I’ll call her back, to y’know tell her about the agreement."

He called the person in charge again and explained our conversation to her, "yeah, thanks, that would be great, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, have a good afternoon ma’am." You looked at him expectantly, "well, what did she say?" He looked at you for a few seconds, and you could’ve sworn his eyes raked your body up and down, but you chalked it up to your imagination.

"She said this’ll be an expectation and we should probably make ground rules, just in case or sum’," you nodded, seeing it was most likely necessary. "Oh and since we had such a ”disadvantage”, she offered us both discounts on campus lunch."

Your eyebrows shot up, a smirk creeping on your face in amusement, "yeah? Did you take it?" The guy chuckled, "of course, discount for a month, basically free food for a month, who wouldn’t take such an offer?"

You laughed softly, "Yeah, that I can’t argue with." Your laughter slowly ceased as you plopped on your own bed, feeling more relaxed and open after that little laughing fit. "So, Mr. Roommate, what’s your name?" The guy smiled, "the name’s Chris, yours?"

You told him your name, "pretty name," he commented, making your heart thump, but it probably didn’t mean anything, just a small compliment. He hummed, "mm, so, about the ground rules," you leaned forward slightly and nodded. "Yeah, probably should make ’em now."

He took out a notebook and a pen from his bag. Starting to scribble something on the notebook before looking up from it and at you. "Let’s start with something simple like... Don’t touch each other’s belongings without their approval or sum’," you nodded, "yeah, fair enough."

"Oh, and don’t disturb— no, don’t invade each other’s privacy, it goes hand in hand with the first one." He nodded and wrote it down, "alright, think it’s looking pretty neat, wanna take a look?" You stood up and walked over to his bed, leaning down to look at the list.

" 1. Do not fall for each other.

2. Do not invade each other's privacy.

3. Do not touch each other's belongings.

4. Don't invite guests over after dark.

5. Respect each other's boundaries.

6. Do not lie to each other.

7. Clean up after yourself. "

Your gaze skimped over the rules, and an amused chuckle escaped your lips as you looked at the first rule again, "Was the first one really necessary?" Chris grinned, "of course it was necessary, can’t have romance in the dorm, can we?" He said in faux seriousness until a wide grin formed on his face.

You couldn’t help but copy his grin, it was Infectious and awfully cute— no, no, let’s not think like that. You cleared your throat and spoke, trying to distract yourself from the bubbling thoughts, "so, what uh, you got a girlfriend?" You immediately pressed your lips in a thin line, eyes widening as you realized what you just asked.

Chris blinked and stared at you for a bit before opening his mouth to say, "uh, no, I don’t... why? You interested?" He teased, a chuckle escaping his lips as he saw your stunned expression. Your face flushed, not expecting him to tease you like that, stammering as you tried to backpedal. "No? That, I don’t know why I asked that, just ignore it."

As you two talked, you felt a shift in the mood. The awkwardness from before was replaced by a more familiar and relaxed atmosphere, and it made you feel all fuzzy inside. The way he laughed and smiled just seemed to make your heart beat a tad bit faster. You couldn’t possibly be falling for him already, could you?

Life with Chris as your roommate was nothing short of shits and giggles. He was a fun guy, and really good looking to boot. You couldn’t help yourself at times, staring at his profile while he was focused on assignments or when he was sleeping.

Even you knew it could come off as creepy, but what could you do otherwise? You had the privilege to see him every day, it wasn’t a surprise you took it to your advantage. He seemed oblivious to the attention you were giving him and it made you all the more encouraged to keep looking at him when he wasn’t looking.

Your intentions were pure—you just liked looking at him.

𓆩♡𓆪

Chris was the type to go out a lot. He had many friends, after all. "A social butterfly" some would say, and he would often be seen in parties. He wasn’t really a fratboy, but close enough for some to refer to him, jokingly, as one. He would laugh and joke about it as well, but you could tell he would get uncomfortable sometimes.

One day, you just couldn’t stop yourself from asking about it and he blasély replied with "Yeah, ’s just, most fratboys here are assholes, ’nd sometimes it just feels more like an insult than whatever they meant it as y’know?"

That made you like him more. It was bare minimum, but you kinda thought he was just another one of those fraternity guys with hollow words and dick brains. You felt a bit stupid for judging him based on his demeanor and looks, but it wasn’t an impossible scenario since he had many girls at his feet.

You were laying on your bed, phone in hand and earphones plugged in, when Chris called out to you. Your attention shifted to him and your eyes immediately widened. He had a towel around his waist and nothing else, his hair damp and small water droplets dripping down his collarbone and chest.

"W-what?" You dumbly asked, sitting up on your bed. "Have you seen my navy briefs?" He repeated himself, walking closer to your bed for some reason. "No, I haven’t? Also, wear some clothes will you?" You barely kept yourself from stammering and freaking out at the realization that he literally had nothing under his towel.

You looked away, a creep of pink dusting your cheeks as you cleared your throat, "it’s probably in your drawer," he sighed, "yeah, Sherlock, already checked it and it wasn’t there, that’s why I’m asking you," you rolled your eyes, "as if I’ve seen it."

"Whatever, kid, guess I’ll just wear something else." He mumbled as he walked back out to the semi-private bathroom, shared between you and two others. You breathed a sigh of relief as you slumped back onto your bed, "crazy, he’s crazy, absolutely nuts."

You mentally scolded yourself for getting horny over your roommate, biting your lips as you waited for him to come out of the bathroom so you could relieve yourself. A shaky exhale came out of your mouth when you saw him enter the room again, now clad in a black tank top and blue flannel pj pants.

You quickly stood up from your bed and stormed out, making a lame excuse about having a stomach ache. Once inside the bathroom, you made sure to lock the door and closed the toilet seat and sat on it. With uneven breaths, you started to touch yourself; your thoughts plagued by Chris.

𓆩♡𓆪

The dynamic between you two didn’t change, but you had started to develop feelings for him—romantic feelings. You tried to reason with yourself, telling yourself that he was good-looking and you felt a slight attraction towards him because of that but nothing deeper than that. You knew it was just a lie.

It had been quite a bit since you two started to share a room. Your 6th month sharing a room, to be specific, so it wasn’t unexpected when he suggested a small celebration. Anniversary of some kind, and you would be lying if you said you weren’t excited. You were thrilled.

You had already broken most of the rules – if not all – unbeknownst to Chris. There was only one that you hadn’t broken, yet. The last rule: Clean up after yourself. The reason you hadn’t broken it yet was because you were a bit of a clean freak, always making sure everything was in place and tidy.

Chris seemed to respect your will to keep things tidy and cleaned after himself as well. His side of the room was messier, yes, but he made sure to always keep it as clean as he could. You appreciated his efforts, but you couldn’t help getting drawn to his stuff. That mysterious box that he seemed adamant about hiding from you.

Your curiosity got the best of you and you approached his bed one day while he was gone getting snacks for a movie night for your anniversary. "It’s supposed to be somewhere under his bed," you mumbled to yourself as you crouched down, looking down at his bed before your gaze landed on the medium sized black box.

"Bingo," you chuckled as you pulled it out from under the bed, "I shouldn’t be doing this... but a small peek won’t hurt, right? I mean it’s not like I’m taking anything, just a look." You reasoned with yourself, slowly opening the box, your heart pounding against your ribcage in anticipation.

You almost dropped the box when you saw what was inside—various panties and lingerie along with polaroids were inside it. Polaroids of you, and your lingerie and panties. You put the box on his bed, looking at it in disbelief for a moment before finally regaining your ability to think.

Tentatively reaching out to take one of the polaroids for further inspection, you noticed most of them were of you sleeping and some when you weren’t looking. A chill ran down your spine, "what the fuck?" Your eyebrows furrowed as you looked at the box, an uneasy feeling creeped up your body, but there was a strange excitement mingling with it.

You felt a strange sense of satisfaction knowing that he was obsessed with you, so much so that he had a box full of your pictures and belongings, but you tried to push away the odd feelings. "This is supposed to be creepy, hell, scary even... but why do I feel this way?" You thought out loud, looking at the box.

𓆩♡𓆪

Chris arrived back at the dormitory with two bags of snacks and drinks. A small smile on his face as he made his way to your shared dorm room. As he opened the door, he was met with a mess. Your lingerie and panties adorned his neatly made bed. The polaroids of you scattered all over the floor.

His eyes slowly widened as his brain acknowledged the scene before him. The bags threatened to escape his grasp as panic rose within him, and a series of panicked no’s rushed out like a waterfall as he entered the dorm room. Chris quickly put the bags on the study desk before he closed the door.

His breathing ragged as he gathered up the pictures and he suddenly froze, a hitch in his breath when he saw the note attached to one of the polaroids. "I know." What did you mean by that? His brain fogged as it tried to make sense of it. "Fuck, what does she... Where is she?" He mumbled to himself, fumbling with his phone before dialing your number with shaky hands.

Your phone rang on your bed, his head snapping towards the direction and only now he noticed your abandoned phone—perched on top of a small box. His curiosity grew as he hesitantly stood up and reached your bed. His hands shook as he took the box and opened it.

A gasp left his lips when he saw a small black vibrator along with a small note beside it. "Open me" written on it in neat handwriting. He gulped thickly before opening the note, and it reads as follows: "What a surprise huh? Well, here’s a little surprise for you:)" Just as he finished reading it, the dorm room door opened.

"Oh, you’re back already?" Chris blinked as he looked at you, taken aback by your casual demeanor. "Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?" He barely kept himself from stammering as he spoke, "why...? I mean, why aren’t you creeped out? I thought you would’ve already gone to the dorm manager, or worse, reported this to the police."

You shrugged, a small smirk playing on your lips as you closed the door behind yourself. Sauntering further into the room before plopping on your bed, looking up at him and chuckling as he stared at you like you were absolutely nuts. "What? You really thought I would give my precious roomie to the police?"

He hesitated, not knowing what to say – making you chuckle more. "Oh c’mon Chris, I can’t believe you thought that little of me," you teased, making him shift awkwardly on his feet, "yeah—no, I don’t think lowly of you, it’s just... I don’t know, I mean, you would— hold on." He paused, unable to make a coherent sentence.

He gasped, his body stiffening when you suddenly pulled him on top of yourself. Propping himself on his forearms as he looked at you with wide eyes, searching your face and his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He could hear the pounding even in his ears, almost deafening.

"What—what are you doing?" He said shakily, his voice barely above a whisper as he tried his best to compose himself–only to fail miserably. His breathing was uneven – heavy – and his gaze darted down to your lips subconsciously every few seconds, snapping back up to your eyes to search them.

You were an absolute vision in his eyes, the girl of his dreams. It wasn’t a surprise for him when his body reacted to your proximity, his dick hardening and straining against his pants. He cursed at himself internally, wanting to kick himself in the nuts for his body’s betrayal in such a compromising position.

With the angle you were in under him, you could clearly feel his stiff bulge and a grin plastered on your lips. Chris groaned when he saw that damned teasing grin, biting his lips slightly and briefly closing his eyes as he tried to control himself. Only for his eyes to snap open and jaw drop a few moments later due to your hands fumbling with his belt.

"Wait, you don’t, I mean, are you sure?" He stammered, uncharacteristically nervous as he gently held your wrist—stopping any further movement. "I am, I wouldn’t be here otherwise," you chuckled, "if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have you on top of me and my hand trying to unbuckle your belt."

With your reassurance, his grip loosened just enough for you to resume what you were doing. You unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans, eliciting a hiss from Chris when your fingers grazed his aching length through his boxers. Smirking as you slowly teased him with your fingertips, not quite giving him what he wanted, but enough for him to buck his hips.

"Please," he whispered, his voice strained as he pleaded, "please, ma, don’t tease me." You saw no need for further teasing at his plea and decided to give him what he craved for—your touch. Gently pulling his boxers down seemed to make him shiver in anticipation, and your hand tentatively wrapping around his hefty length made him gasp softly.

His hips bucked shallowly, fucking your fist as he whimpered and moaned into the crook of your neck. Every noise from him and the squelching of his cock sliding through your hand made you grow wetter by the second. "Mm... Such pretty noises," you cooed, making him whimper.

Satisfaction and desire surged through your body as you relished in the control you have over him; the way he was wrapped around your little finger already. You smiled to yourself as you continued to help him jerk off, occasionally whispering praises and sweet nothings to him, and earning low moans and whimpers from Chris.

To be continued... 𓆩♡𓆪

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© sweetshuga

[purplecoffee13]

Nemesis with Benefits - Part 6

Summary: “Three weeks have passed, and the inevitable truth leads to some harsh conversations…”

Wc: 3.3k

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers

Warnings: ANGST big time, fighting, crying (my heart hurts)

A/N: hello… I finally finished the newest chapter and I immediately wanted to get it out so you can all read it. I am incredibly sorry that it took so long, and I am also sorry for the amount of sadness in this chapter… but it had to happen🥲

General Masterlist

Series Masterlist

It's been three weeks since you last saw Harry, and you feel terrible.

About what exactly? You're not sure. Dylan's sudden appearance. Harry just— walking out. What Harry and Dylan did to you. What you have been doing with Harry...

It seems that, just as the dust had started to settle, this tornado entirely threw you for a loop again. Finally getting to terms with your feelings and accepting the idea of a friendship with Harry, it all came crashing down the moment you spotted Dylan at that pool table.

You'd spent hours furiously scribbling in your notebook to understand the depths of this tricky situation you'd managed to work yourself into, but you haven't found a logical solution or explanation for any of it.

Only that Dylan is a total dick, that is.

You had to admit that you needed some time to come down from the shock and bottled up feelings that had exploded right in front of your face. But by the end of the week, you were ready to find Harry and talk about this. What that conversation would lead to, you had no idea, but speaking to him was vital.

And apparently impossible.

He wouldn’t respond to your texts, nor your calls when you eventually decided to give calling him a try. When you'd finally mustered up the courage to sneakily ask Benjamin about Harry's whereabouts, you were smacked in the face with the news that Harry had left.

He'd gone home to England to visit his family, Benjamin said. When you'd asked whether it had to do anything with the Dylan fiasco, Benjamin had shrugged and said that Harry did visit his family every single year. But he also mentioned he went a bit earlier than planned, so he thought the other night might have had a little bit to do with it.

Planned or not planned, it left you with a lot of confusion and doubt for the next two weeks, one of which you spent in your own hometown, trying to enjoy spring break as much as you could with a broken heart and an occupied mind.

You hadn't returned to your college town yet when Harry finally did, and you were bummed about not being able to talk to him. Rebecca and Benjamin were going to a party Harry was throwing so you guessed you'd hear about his state when you got back.

It would've be a bit embarrassing to admit, but it's one of the reasons you caught an earlier train this morning. You texted Rebecca, telling her you’d back sooner than planned. but you hadn't heard from her so far. While you'd thought it was a little weird, you figured you'd see her this evening anyway.

You didn't expect her to be at your front door.

A smile creeps onto your face as you neared her, leaving your luggage to the side as you open your arms for a hug, but Rebecca just stands there, arms crossed. Quirking up a brow, you ask:

"Hey, are you okay?"

A few seconds pass before she responds.

"We need to talk."

Absolute, utter dread fills your entire body as you nod, grabbing your suitcase. "What is it about? Do you want to go upstairs?"

Rebecca doesn't answer your question, she only nods in response to your second. You are quick to unlock my door and walk towards my apartment with her. The elevator ride is silent and excruciating, and when you've finally entered your living room, you're quick to ask away.

"Okay, what's going on?" Your question sounds almost irritated, which in hindsight doesn't seem very smart because it only seems to tick Rebecca off. What is going on with her?

"Harry threw a little get together yesterday," Your friend sighs, crossing her arms. "and I couldn't help but notice the familiarity of his home address when he sent it to us."

Your face pales. Oh my god, you are going to throw up. This cannot possibly be happening right now. Rebecca notices your instant change in the demeanor, her own growing angry. You take a few steps back and sit down on the couch.

"You slept with him, after what he did to you?! How could you do that?!"

You are at a loss of words, despite having thought about how you were going to break this news to her one day. "I— I don't know, I don't know..."

"What do you mean you don't know? You slept with the guy your boyfriend cheated on you with! God, have you no self-respect?!"

Her words hit you like a slap in the face, and as the tears roll down your cheeks, you begin to shake your head.

"Rebecca— I..."

"No, listen, Y/N. For months, Benjamin and I have been walking on eggshells, trying so hard to make sure you're comfortable. Benjamin even punched Harry, for Christ's sake. Do you even know that?"

You nod slowly, the guilt that has been tightening around your throat settling in your stomach as well.

"I'm sorry..." You peep, looking down at the floor. Meeting Rebecca's eyes is too terrifying at the moment. You can't handle that right now.

"God... why him? You don't even like him." Rebecca goes on, and the tears prickling in your eyes turn into full blown sobs as soon as the words have left her mouth. With your hands buried in your face, you don't see your friend sitting next to you, but you feel her rubbing your back.

"Shit... you like him, don't you?" She concludes, and your crying only increases at hearing that confession fall from another person's lips. This is the most complicated thing you have ever experienced. It takes a minute or so to finally manage to control your tears, and have calmed down enough to respond.

"I don't know how this happened." You confess between your sobs. "I didn't— I wasn't supposed to!"

"Hey, calm down." Rebecca pulls you closer to her, and you continue crying in her lap. "Everyone has at least one person they weren't— supposed to sleep with."

You pull yourself up, wiping away your tears as you shake your head. "I meant, I wasn't supposed to care about him. Sleeping with him was a choice I made, and I don't regret it because it was a distraction, and it worked. But it only worked because I hated him. I wasn't supposed to start... caring."

"Sweets, being that intimate with someone will leave you with no other option than to care for them, at least at some point." Rebecca reminds you. Your gaze is fixated on the ground, all these truths flying through your scrambled mind. You let out a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry." You finally say, and another tear slips down your cheek as Rebecca strokes your hair.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made that comment about self worth, that was uncalled for, and mean. I was just angry, but that's no excuse."

You look at your friend, whose eyes also seem to be blurry, and conjure a faint smile. "You're forgiven."

Rebecca pulls you into a tight hug, and it takes her a full minute before you finally get her to agree to let go. When she does, she immediately stands up and grabs a glass of water for the both of you while you wipe your smudged mascara away with a tissue.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" She asks when she sits down, handing you the glass. You shrug before taking a large gulp of the water before setting it back on the table.

"I have no idea."

Rebecca leans back into the couch, eyeing you for a couple of seconds before speaking up. "Can I be really honest here?"

You're careful to look your friend in the eyes, her bluntness scaring you sometimes, but you nod anyway.

"I think you two are a pretty good match— you know, if you wouldn't count all the shit that happened of course. I was actually surprised when you went out with Dylan instead of Harry in the beginning. I thought Harry was a much better fit for you.” She tells you, and your brow quirks up at her words. You didn't expect her to go down this route. “You're just... compatible, you know? Plus, I was convinced he liked you."

"Rebecca, he hated me from the start." You scoff, but she shakes her head intently.

"No I know, but I swear, he asked about you before that party where you met him and Dylan. I thought he was interested in you."

By now, you have your hands buried in your hair as you listen to all this new information that you are being fed by your friend. This is way too confusing and it's making your headache even worse.

"But then you told me he was being rude, so I just brushed it off as a lapse of judgment from my side. Of course now we know he was acting like an asshole to you because of Dylan—which I still think is a dick move, by the way." Rebecca rants on. The weight on your chest that had seemed to have subsided for a minute has grown in size again.

"My point is, your relationship with Harry has been a wreck from the start, and the main cause for that is Dylan. So if you can't get over the Dylan situation, it's probably going to be impossible to ever build a lasting relationship with Harry."

Rebecca's words ring in your ears. It's a revelation that has been looming in your mind for a bit now. There was a part of you that knew this was an extremely complicated situation and therefore didn't want to tackle it, as a possible solution seemed to be non-existent. You've hit a wall in your relationship—if it even can be called that—with Harry, and if you really want to move forward, you'll have to climb over that wall and hope Harry will take your hand and come along.

You sigh, your tired eyes meeting Rebecca's. "You're right."

************************************************

It's been about an hour since Rebecca left and you've been pacing your living room ever since, devising a plan on how to talk to Harry. What to say to him, how to say it, and with what outcome in mind.

A knock on the door relieves your from your taunting thoughts for a moment, but opening your door throws you for an entirely different loop as you find Harry standing across from you.

He looks worn out. The dark circles under his eyes aren't extremely prominent but the sole fact that they're there tells you enough. He also appears to be in gym clothes, which makes you wonder whether this trip to your apartment was planned or not.

"Hey." He croaks out, his eyes flicking up and down your face and body, calculating any reaction that might come from you.

"Hi." You respond breathlessly. Neither of you say another word—you spend most of the silent minute staring at him—until Harry finally clears his throat.

"Can I— uh..." his finger points towards your living room, and before you know it, you step aside. He enters your apartment, following you as you head for your couch.

Another dreadful silence follows as the both of you sit next to each other, waiting for the other one to break first. It's excruciating and it feels like it goes on forever. You don't realize you're picking at your nail beds until Harry's voice takes you out of your dissociative trance.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" You scan his face, squinting your eyes a bit. There is something unsettling about his demeanor. It's so passive, at least it seems.

"For just leaving like that." He meets your eyes, and you notice the guilt displayed in them. Not knowing what to say, you refrain from answering as you think of everything that has happened. When you finally do open your mouth, Harry's focus on you is so intense that it makes you a bit nervous, the weight of your words becoming much heavier now that you know Harry will be hanging onto your every single one.

"You really hated me, you know. And it wasn't just because of Dylan. You despised me, always did, and I never understood why."

You watch as his eyes turn glassy and he shakes his head, softly whispering 'no' over and over again. Your brows crease at his attempt at—what seems to you—denial. He can't oppose that he hated you. He has literally said it multiple times.

"Don't pretend that you didn't Harry, I know you did."

"No, that's not—" he protests.

"Then what is it?” The questions falls off your tongue in a hurry, the frustration that has been bottled up inside of you slowly beginning to unleash. "The other night, right before spring break, I really thought we were on our way to becoming friends. I felt like it was actually possible. And then you just— left. One glimpse of him and you were gone.”

You take a deep breath before continuing. “It's been eating at me for the past three weeks that you just walked out and began ignoring me. So please, Harry, clarify it for me because I don’t understand any of this.”

Harry hangs his head and sighs. “It's complicated. And stupid... and probably doesn't make any sense."

"Then make sense of it." You command, leaning forward so he is forced to meet your eyes. He holds your gaze for a few seconds, then nods, a small frown on his face as he figures out what he wants to say. You try not to hold your breath as you wait for him to start, but you find yourself doing it anyway as soon as he starts speaking.

"I, uh— I'd liked Dylan for quite some time, and he knew that. He led me on for a long time, and I was trying to get over him, but it just felt like it was impossible, you know?" He explains, picking at the skin on his fingers out of nervous habit. You hum, telling him you understand without actually interrupting him. He continues.

"So, one day I was walking out of class and I ran into Rebecca. She was with you and some other girls, and you were all waiting for her while she was talking to me. I remember seeing you, and I thought you were very pretty, which was special to me because I hadn't felt so intrigued by someone in a long time."

Your heartbeat becomes more prominent, and suddenly you can feel it beating loudly as he speaks. You fiddle with your sweaty hands. He was intrigued by you? The nerves swerve through your stomach, not being able to make sense of what Harry is saying just yet. It’s contradicting everything you’ve known about Harry’s feelings towards you since you met him. But Rebecca’s words hang in the back of your head, and there is a wave of anticipation that almost overwhelms you: the anticipation that Rebecca might be right. Harry clears his throat.

“So anyways, I asked Rebecca about you and she told me you'd come to the party. Later, I was kind of— stalking you on Instagram, and Dylan saw. He teased me about it. Suddenly he started to give me loads of attention again. And I thought maybe he was jealous, and he had realized that he liked me, and this was finally the moment that it would all work out.” He says with a certain bitterness, not necessarily aimed at anyone but himself. As if he is mad at himself for those past rose-tinted thoughts he had regarding Dylan. “But then he got together with you at the party a couple days late, and I was just... so angry."

Harry’s eyes become glassy, and you feel your heart crack. After your break-up with Dylan it became clear how much effect he had on Harry. Now knowing the history, the constant push and pull, you don’t find it weird. Harry had allowed him inside his heart time and time again, all the while Dylan would just figure out how to play at his heartstrings. Just enough to keep him coming back everything single time, hoping something had changed.

“It felt like he wasn't allowing me to get over him. I had finally met someone who made me realize that maybe the first stages of like— love and dating shouldn't feel like your heart is constantly being ripped from your chest. That it could be innocent and fun. And it felt as if he was mocking me for it, by going after that hope and taking it away.”

He looks at you, and you give him a weak, sympathetic smile, swallowing away the physical pain you get from hearing about Harry’s emotional pain. Caring so deeply can be the most euphoric thing, but it’ll come back to bite you in the ass when the person you care about is hurting. You realize then, in that moment, how thin the line between a blessing and a curse is.

But when your hand finds his and you intertwine your fingers, you figure it’s more of a blessing anyway.

“And I just— I don't want to spin it as if you were a piece of meat, because Dylan cared about you. I saw that, and I hated it because I used to wish it was me. It made me be a dick to you, and I’m really fucking sorry about that, because you didn’t deserve that at all. If I could take all of that back then I would.”

He sighs as soon as all the ramblings of words have left his mouth, and you feel the weight of that sigh. His body tells you it as well: he’s relieved. Initially, you find yourself at a loss of words, and the only thing that your mind can generate as a response escapes before you can stop yourself.

“Well, if you take it all back then we bever would’ve have had such mind-blowing sex, right?” You blurt out, and Harry chuckles at your stupid joke. You laugh along as you try to scramble together a real answer, stroking his hand with your thumb.

“I’m sorry Dylan used you like that, I can only imagine how frustrating that is. And while I agree you should’ve never been so grumpy to me, I can’t say that I haven’t acted rude out of jealousy before.” You say earnestly, the thought of that night at the bar popping inside your head. You weren’t exactly nice to that girl Harry was talking to either. In fact, you didn’t acknowledge her at all.

“Rebecca said we need to get over the Dylan situation if we ever want to build any sort of relationship whatsoever. We need to forgive each other and move past it, otherwise we can never be— friends.” Your cheeks heat up at your quick save. It’s quiet between the two of you, but his grip on your hand doesn’t loosen the slightest bit. Harry is staring at his lap, making it difficult for you to read what he’s thinking. He raises his head to meet your eyes, and when you are met with the sight of a tear rolling down his cheek, your own vision blurs instantly.

"How can I forgive you for something you never did?"

The hopelessness of his question smashes your heart into a thousand pieces. You are quite sure you physically hear it crack. The broken pieces pierce into every part of your body, including your throat, that feels too heavy as you gather strength to answer him. Your breath hitches the first time you try to get some words out and fail, so your voice wavers when you manage to speak.

“I don’t know...”

Taglist: @hisparentsgaleryy @love-letters-to-uranus @moonwitttch19 @notmeherelol173 @fairytale07 @valuunit

[catmiemy]

Things Will Never Be the Same (Lia Wälti x Reader)

Summary: You figure out that your girlfriend hasn’t been paranoid and your best friend is actually in love with you.

A/N: Finally managed to finish something! I have so many ideas, but I'm constantly too busy to actually write them. But I'm hopeful to have more time the next few weeks.

Also I'm definitely going to write a part two for this because I need a happy ending. So if there's anything you want to see, please tell me. :)

“Where the hell is my coffee?”

Your girlfriend’s voice reached you through the bathroom door. Both the actual words and her tone made you frown at yourself in the mirror. Apparently someone had woken up on the wrong side of the bed again. Like most mornings these days.

With a sigh you went back to applying your make up. There was no point in arguing with Jessica when she was like this. Furthermore you had a long day ahead of you and didn’t feel like wasting your energy unnecessarily. It probably, no definitely, wasn’t a good sign that you reached a point where you thought of most interactions with your girlfriend as draining, but you weren’t ready to face that fact.

Unfortunately Jessica was determined to bring the argument to you. Only a few moments after her initial shout, the door crashed open and your girlfriend marched into the room. “Where the hell is my coffee?”

Annoyance flared up inside of you. You did your best to keep a grip on your anger though, this would turn ugly if you also lost your temper, well uglier than it was going to be anyway. You hated what had become of your relationship, but no matter how hard you tried, you continuously failed at turning things around. You used to be so happy, so in love.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were awake, otherwise I would have brought you your cup.” You tried your hardest to keep a neutral tone and an impartial expression, all the anger and pain you felt hidden behind this façade.

Bringing Jessica a cup of coffee in bed had been one of your favorite things early on in your relationship. Her eyes always lit up with sheer joy and an endless amount of love for you at this small gesture. Back then she never got tired of telling you how much it meant to her, how much she enjoyed these few minutes in bed with her favorite beverage and cuddles with you, because of course in the early days of your relationship you would always snuggle back into bed with her. Now it had become chore, which apparently you got yelled at for if you missed it once.

“I sent you a text to let you know!” Jessica pointed out sharply.

You grabbed your phone and sure enough, there was a message from her. You also noticed that you had forgotten to turn off the “Do not disturb”, but you doubted that Jessica would be receptive to this explanation. Another thing that you noticed was a message from your best friend, your teammate at both Arsenal and the national team, Lia.

I’m grabbing us some coffee.

See you at the airport!

These few words were enough to bring a smile to your face, another thing that didn’t sit right with Jessica. She snagged the phone out of your hand.

“Hey!” You protested, grabbing the phone back from her. It wasn’t hard, Jessica relented it easily once she had seen what had made you smile.

“When will you finally realize that she has a crush on you?” She basically spat at you.

 This was an old argument and one that always made your blood boil. Lia was off limits! However you didn’t have the time, or energy, for a full blown fight right now. So you restricted yourself to hissing at your girlfriend that she should really leave Lia out of this and that you would talk later. Then you pushed past her, grabbed your luggage that you had put next to the door, and left the apartment.

Unsurprisingly your uber wasn’t here yet. A quick glance at your watch revealed to you that you were a good ten minutes early. The thought of going back into your apartment and facing your girlfriend again was entirely unappealing, so you decided to stay out here. At least the weather was pleasant enough.

To avoid being seen by Jessica, which might have prompted her to come out and continue your argument, you moved a little further down the street until you were hidden behind some bushes. Standing there you were hit by the realization that this might be a new all time low for your relationship. And if you were being honest the idea that this was what the rest of your life was going to look like made you sick to your stomach. Better not to dwell on it.

The instance you entered the airport and spotted your best friend, you rushed over to her and flung your arms around her. Lia matched your motion, although a little awkwardly since she was holding two coffees.

“Hey Schätzi, is everything okay?” She asked you, worry dripping from her voice.

You nodded your head and allowed yourself to enjoy the closeness a little while longer, before extracting yourself.

“Fight with Jessica,” you mumbled.

Anger set Lia’s eyes ablaze. She bit her lips to avoid saying anything too harsh. It was no secret that the dislike between your best friend and your girlfriend was mutual. However Lia was much better at keeping civil than Jessica.

“I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”

This time you shook your head, “Nah, I don’t want to think about it right now.”

As was normally the case it didn’t take long before you told Lia everything nonetheless. When it came to her you never could keep silent, no matter how closed off you were with everyone else. Lia’s soothing and caring personality made you feel like it was okay to get it all out. And even if you would never admit it, you usually felt better afterwards.

Lia was a very attentive listener. Her gaze rested on you the entire time and she nodded along, keeping a mostly neutral complexion. If you would have focused on it, you could have easily picked up on the disdain for your girlfriend in your friend’s eyes, but you didn’t want to see it.

And anyway, the more you talked about it, the more explanations you found for Jessica’s behavior. She wasn’t a morning person, she always felt a bit lonely when you had to travel because of work, anger was her go to emotion when she was overwhelmed.

“You know I think I’m going to text her that I’m sorry and that we should talk in the evening,” you announced.

Lia looked at you skeptically, asking carefully, “Why are you apologizing?”

You shrugged your shoulders, finding it more difficult than expected to answer her question. Somehow you always felt like you had to apologize around Jessica. Again, this was something you didn’t want to dwell on.

“For yelling,” you said finally, before quickly changing the subject.

The arrival at camp and especially the reunion with all your teammates that you hadn’t seen in a long time was chaotic and easy to get lost in. Still you noticed that Lia was quieter and more reserve than usual and you promised yourself to question her about it before bed. With a pang of guilt you realized that you hadn’t even asked her how she was this morning at the airport, just instantly unloading all of your stuff onto her.

Dinner dredged on for quite some time and when it was finally finished you realized that both Lia and Ana were nowhere to be seen. First you checked the room Lia and you shared, when they weren’t there you headed to Ana’s room.

You stopped in your tracks when you heard sobbing coming from the room. It didn’t sound like someone having a little cry either, no this was desperate wailing and even before you knew who was in so much turmoil, your heart broke for the unknown person. That being said, the moment you realized who was sobbing their eyes out your heart shattered into a million pieces.

“I can’t do it anymore,” a voice that you recognized instantly as the one of your best friend in the whole world, managed to get out between sobs.

As if these words were pulling you into the room, your body began moving on its own accord. You burst into the room, frantically looking around for Lia, rushing to her side the moment you spotted her on the bed. She was wrapped in Ana’s arms, but this didn’t deter you. You simply threw your arms around both of them.

“What’s happening, Schätzi? Please tell me, what’s going on. If someone hurt you, I swear to god I will kill them!” You would! No one was allowed to hurt your best friend, not when she was the sweetest person on the planet.

To your immense surprise Lia went rigid the moment she heard your voice and felt your arms around her. This didn’t make any sense; you had always been each other’s place of comfort. You looked up at Ana questioningly, startling once again when you saw the anguish in her eyes. What had you missed? Had someone died? One of Lia’s parents?

While you were still trying to make sense of this all, Lia freed herself from both yours and Ana’s arms and with a mumbled apology ran out of the room. You jumped up as well, ready to go after her and get to the bottom of this, but Ana held you back.

“Don’t,” she told you earnestly.

“I…Ana, what the hell was that? Please, you need to tell me, so I can be there for Lia. I’m her best friend, I need…” You didn’t know exactly what you needed; just whatever would help you take away Lia’s pain. You had never seen her like this, not even after any of her breakups.

Ana chewed on her lip, the internal struggle happening in her mind clear as day. In the end she sighed and said, “I can’t, Y/N. I want to because I think it’s important that you know, but it’s not my story to tell. Give Lia a little time to calm down and then try talking with her again, yeah?”

You nodded, even if in reality you had already decided not to heed Ana’s advice. How could you not try finding Lia right this second when she was this devastated? More than anything you wanted to make it better for her and you had a lot of faith that you could. You had always been there for Lia, through everything, just like she had been for you.

Therefore you began searching for Lia everywhere. First you checked your hotel room, but unsurprisingly she wasn’t there. Then you went outside because Lia loved being outdoors when she felt emotional. Again, no luck. The next hour you spent looking through every nook, but Lia was nowhere to be found.

Defeated you went back to your hotel room, hoping she had returned there by now. You held your breath when you entered, disappointment hitting you when you were greeted by a dark and empty room.

You plopped down onto the bed, not even bothering to turn on the light despite it slowly getting dark. Where was Lia? And more importantly what had happened to her? You picked up your phone, debating if you should call someone from Lia’s family. Maybe they had some information.

That’s when your phone lit up with a call from Jessica, an unwelcome remainder that you were supposed to talk everything out with her tonight. However, you didn’t have the energy for that right now; especially not when it would mean you would have to grovel until Jessica finally deemed it enough to forgive you. Lia’s words popped up in your mind, why were you even apologizing?

So you ended up ignoring the call, and you also ignored that this would inevitably lead to an even more difficult conversation with even more groveling on your part. Right now you couldn’t worry about that, all of your concerns were taken up by the whole situation with Lia.

You had lost all sense of time, so you couldn’t say how much later it was when the door was finally opened and Lia tiptoed into the room. Instantly you sat up, startling your friend who had expected, hoped really, that you were already asleep.

By now it had become pitch black in the room, and you reached towards the light switch to turn on the lights. When Lia saw your movement, she asked you not to, her voice sounding horribly hoarse. You respected her wishes, instead getting up and walking over to her in an attempt to give her a hug.

“Don’t,” Lia pleaded, cracking your heart in the process

What was going on? What had you done to make her push you away? It physically pained you not to offer Lia any comfort when she was clearly struggling, but again you listened to her boundaries.

“Lia, please talk to me,” you begged, “Ana told me…”

Later you would try to rationalize what you did next, or didn’t do to be more precise, to yourself by saying you were too stunned to stop Lia once it became apparent that she thought you were going to say that Ana had told you what was bothering her, when really you wanted to say, ‘Ana told me to leave you alone for a while, but I can’t do that.’

However a small voice would always point out that you could have stopped her at any time if you had really wanted to. The thing was though, you wanted to know what was going on with Lia, so you didn’t stop her.

“I…look…I’m so sorry! And I promise I can keep my feelings in check. I’ve been doing it for the longest time, so please…I can’t lose you! I know you’ll never love me like I love you, but I still need you in my life. Please….I’m…”

Lia’s voice broke, sobs bubbling up instead. She suppressed them successfully, but there was nothing the midfielder could do against the quiet tears streaming down her cheeks.

By now you really were shocked into silence, your mind reeling. Was it possible that Jessica had been right all this time and Lia did in fact have a crush on you? No, that was crazy! Your best friend had never given any indication that she liked you like this. Or had she?

You looked up at Lia whose whole posture screamed defeat. Her head was bent, her gaze firmly trained on the floor. The brunette had crossed her arms in front of her as if to protect herself from whatever you were going to say.

“Wait what? You have a crush on me?” This was the rather dumb response you came up with.

Lia shrugged her shoulders helplessly, her voice tear-stricken when she spoke again, “I’m not sure if that word is strong enough for what I feel, but like I said, it doesn’t matter. I can deal with it.”

She looked up at you for a moment, but was unable to even meet your eyes. Panic hit you, no matter how much Lia stressed that this wouldn’t change anything, you weren’t too sure if this was true now that it was all out in the open. You couldn’t lose her!

“But wait? Didn’t Ana already tell you this?”

Lia’s question ripped you from your downward spiral and at least for a moment the fear was drowned out by intense shame.

“No, she didn’t. I was going to say she told me to leave you alone, but then you began explaining and I just didn’t stop you because I wanted to know what’s going on so I could help,” you admitted.

Now it all made sense why Lia hadn’t wanted to talk to you about what was bothering her. You wished that you could turn back time and make different choices, so you never found out about this. But you didn’t deserve that, not after basically tricking Lia into disclosing her secret.

“What?” Lia asked in anguish, “So I could’ve...You never had to…I’m so stupid!”

And with that your best friend turned around and fled from the room. The sobs she could no longer hold back shaking her shoulders, and breaking your heart. You deserved all the fear and shame and other complicated feelings that came with this being laid open, but Lia didn’t.

You sank back down onto your bed, staring numbly at the wall, while your mind was beating yourself up mercilessly. If only you hadn’t been so selfish! How did you never notice that the most important person in your entire life was in love with you? What did that say about you?!

There were no tears, just silence and an ever growing pit in your stomach.

When the room to the hotel room was opened again sometime later, a tiny flutter of hope went through you. Maybe you could find the right words and things could go back to how they had been straight away?

This small and probably completely unrealistic hope was crushed instantly when you saw that it wasn’t Lia but Ana entering the room. She rushed over to you, engulfing you in a hug.

“Hey, how are you?”

You didn’t answer Ana’s question, but allowed yourself a moment of burying yourself in your friend’s arms. And anyway it was impossible to reply when you didn’t even know how you were, if you were really still in that hotel room, if this was in fact your life.

After a short while you pulled back, sitting up straight and focusing on the truly important topic.

“How’s Lia?” You asked, fear tinting your words.

Ana took a few seconds to answer, pondering her words. The truth wasn’t pretty, so she wanted to do her best to soften the blow.

“Not too good,” she admitted finally. “There’s just too many emotions hitting her at once. I think up until now she still had some hope that you’d return her feelings. But now that it’s all out in the open these hopes have been crushed and she just needs some time.”

While talking Ana studied you carefully. She had always wondered if maybe you returned Lia’s feelings. Not that she had ever told her friend that, the poor girl didn’t need any more confusing thoughts and emotions to deal with. Part of her wanted to ask you straightforward, but in the end Ana decided against it. Now was not the time for it, not when it was clear that you too were completely overwhelmed with everything that had happened.  

For you the thought of Lia needing time, time apart from you, made you nauseous. There was barely a day where you didn’t see or at least talk to your best friend. A reality where that wasn’t true, even if it was only for a little while, felt unbearable. However you were well aware that you weren’t in a position to make any demands. If Lia needed time, you had to accept that.

“Nadine has agreed to switch rooms with Lia so that she can stay with me. Are you okay with that?”

Ana’s soft words pulled you from your thoughts. The idea of Lia not sleeping in the bed next to you felt like another punch to the stomach. Still you pushed down your emotions and the tears burning in your eyes, and nodded.

“Okay then,” Ana said, a little unsure on how to proceed. If only she could cut herself in half and offer both Lia and you some comfort!

You decided to make it easier for her by standing up and heading to the bathroom. There you gathered Lia’s vanity bag, handing it to Ana when you returned. After that you quickly assembled all the things your best friend would need for the night. Pain shooting through you with every familiar item you picked up.

“Goodnight, Ana,” you said once you had given her everything, before disappearing into the bathroom once again to get ready for bed yourself.

You did so in record time, wanting to be in bed and be able to pretend you were already sleeping when Nadine came to the room.

At least this worked out in your favor and when you heard the door being opened again, you pressed your eyes shut and didn’t react to your teammate’s soft calls. You probably weren’t very convincing, but thankfully Nadine decided to leave you alone.

Sleep evaded you for a long time. You lay there with closed eyes, silent tears rolling down your cheeks as you tried and failed to keep your mind occupied. But no matter what you did, it kept circling back to the horrible image of Lia’s devastation once she understood that she had just revealed her biggest secret to you, the gut-wrenching realization that everything would be different now, and the fear of losing Lia once and for all.

What if she would never be able to move past this? She had so many great friends in her life, Ana, Leah, Viv and so many more, what if she realized that they were much better than you anyway? You couldn’t imagine a life without Lia. The prospect of a few weeks without her was already enough to make you want to curl up in bed and never get up again. But if you never got her back? You couldn’t do that. You couldn’t.

[peachhcs]

samy coming out to san jose again and getting to see a game of wills and meet all of his team, and maybe they are lcuky and the house is empty as the family is on a trip so they are home alone…

i love #2!!

hughes!sister x will smith au (samy + will)

samy, gabe, and ryan take on sj together to visit will for a weekend!

wc: 7.8k words (omg)

WOW i got so carried away with this i think this is my longest fic ever on here? i’ve been trying to write this for literally 3 weeks and i finally finished it :) sometimes i just write and then i end up with 7.8k words oops lol. there's also no smut in this (sorry anon) bc this was already crazy long, but if u guys want a separate post of it, lmk and i will provide lol. anyways, hope y'all enjoy!

au masterlist

the san jose mineta international airport was bustling with people as samy, gabe, and ryan stepped off their gate. the two boys immediately shedded their coats once the humid temperatures hit their skin, especially with how many people shoved their way through—it made it feel hot really fast. samy glanced down at her phone where she texted will that they just landed.

"holy shit it's fucking hot," ryan mumbled, already fanning himself out.

"i told you it would be hot. i think will's outside waiting," the girl informed and began leading the way to the exit. this was only her second time navigating the airport, the first time will managed to get them out so she just hoped she wouldn't get herself lost.

the three were excited for the weekend ahead. after weeks of planning around three hockey players' schedules, the four managed to find a weekend before the craziness of the holidays picked up and world juniors began to visit their old friend in his new stomping grounds. gabe and ryan hadn't been yet, so the two were looking forward to a good game of hockey on saturday and spending the rest of it with their best friend.

luckily, samy was able to easily follow the overhead signs straight towards the exit. it was helpful that they didn't have any bags to pickup and just flew with carry-ons. when the three made it to the already long pickup line, their eyes scanned for will's bronco.

"i see him!" gabe pointed towards a tall blonde and brunette leaning against the car waving their hands. a grin spread across each of their faces as they made their way towards will. he met them in the middle, hugging samy first.

"hi, it's so good to see you here again," the blonde squeezed her torso, a large grin on his features.

"i missed you. it's good to see you too," the brunette hummed and quickly pecked his lips before gabe and ryan started arguing for their turn to hug will.

she stepped aside to let them have their turns, hugging macklin in the meantime. "hey hughesy, long time no see," the younger brunette chuckled.

"back at ya, mack," she ruffled up his hair and caught a glimpse of the other three boys group hugging one another. the sight brought another smile to her lips seeing them reunite and the genuine happiness on their expressions.

"jeez, i can't believe you live here now, smitty. you got it good," ryan patted his shoulder.

"i could get used to the warmth. it's like 40° in boston or something," gabe shared the sentiments and the wide smile on will's lips made samy's heart explode with joy.

"welcome to luxury for the weekend. let's get in before some car honks at me," will pulled everyone back to the car where he helped get everyone's luggage into the back.

"shit, this is fucking nice. you wanna share some of this with us?" ryan patted the side of will's car, admiring how sleek and pristine it looked compared to his mom's suv they all used to drive around in michigan.

"we can split 50/50," the blonde teased.

"you're gonna be living in luxury future mrs. smith," gabe commented as they climbed into the car, samy obviously getting the front while the other three squeezed themselves into the back.

both samy and will's cheeks flushed hearing gabe call her "mrs. smith." she glanced over at her boyfriend who smiled sweetly at her, reaching over to squeeze her hand. hearing mrs. smith sent crazy butterflies through his chest because he could not wait until the day it was finally true.

"ew get a room," macklin called when he watched their exchange and his friend's large blush.

"fuck off," will mumbled earning a joint laughter from everyone. samy just squeezed his hand back telling him she didn't mind the teasing while also shooting a glance back to macklin who just shrugged.

they pulled out of the pickup line, escaping anyone beeping at them to get moving. will got onto the main road and the two boys in the back suddenly became amazed at how summery everything looked still despite it being in the middle of december. the palm trees stood tall and the warmer breeze felt so refreshing on their skin compared to the harsh boston wind on the other side of the country. samy drew her window down so even more breeze could come through and her hair quickly flew back against the seat. will's gaze swept over her figure, a glowing wave of happiness on his features having his girlfriend and best friends in the city he called home for the weekend.

"so what are the plans for this weekend?" ryan wondered.

"well the game's on saturday, but tomorrow we have all day to do whatever you guys want. some of my teammates wanna meet you all. you especially," will nudged his girlfriend's hand.

"me?" she raised her eyebrow.

"you're the talk of the locker room. eklund and bordeleau especially wanna meet you," macklin explained from the back and the youngest hughes' cheeks flushed.

"wow, i'm flattered they wanna meet me," the girl chuckled.

"they gotta make sure the wifey is up to their standards," gabe snickered and nudged her shoulder. she rolled her eyes a bit, wondering where this whole "wife" thing was coming from.

"also the fact that you were a hockey pro in your past life and with your brothers being in town tomorrow they wanna meet all of you guys," macklin added.

it was shaping up to be a very special weekend in the silicon valley. the devils were coming to san jose for the redemption match from a few weeks ago and the sharks were eager to prove themselves to their fans in the sap center on saturday night. having the devils in town meant 3/4 of the hughes siblings were gonna all be together and will couldn't be more excited to have some of his closest people at an arm's length for the first time in awhile. samy, too, was excited to see jack and luke who she hasn't seen since summer ended. it was really gonna feel like a michigan summer for three days.

"hey, wait, can we make a detour to the beach?" ryan quickly spoke up when he caught glimpses of the billboards that had the beaches plastered all over them that made him instantly think of sinking his feet into the warm sand and splashing around in the ocean.

"you wanna go to the beach?" will caught his friend's gaze through the rearview.

"i know it's out of the way but i haven't been to the beach in so long. come on," the brunette encouraged.

"i mean, okay. i don't have my swimsuit or anything, but sure," the blonde chuckled and quickly shifted lanes to take the exit towards santa cruz.

"who cares? we've made you jump into water with your clothes on," ryan laughed and will remembered fondly the time he jumped into someone's pool fully clothed on a dare.

"mind you that was my pool," samy cut in and the boys grinned.

"all the more reason then," will took the exit towards santa cruz.

it added another 45 minutes to the drive, but it was worth when as soon as will parked the car on one of the side roads ryan and gabe were rushing towards the water. will let out a laugh as he let them go ahead. "come on," samy urged, tugging her boyfriend's hand as they followed after them.

with it being december, the sand was the perfect temperate on their feet. it wasn't too hot like it usually would be during the summer where they couldn't even stand on the sand without having shoes on. gabe and ryan's shoes and clothes were lost the closer they got the the water and by the time samy, will, and macklin made it down, the two were splashing each other in nothing but their shorts. a laughed escaped the three's lips watching their friends tackle one another.

"i'll race you guys," samy said as she began stripping herself of her own clothes, not caring about being in her bra and underwear in the middle of the beach. will's eyes went wide when her top came off and her pants quickly followed. he swallowed thickly seeing her in nothing but her underwear. macklin didn't hesitate joining her though.

"last one in is a rotten egg!" macklin exclaimed and ran off ahead.

will quickly snapped out of his slight daze to rid himself of his shirt and pants, racing down behind his girlfriend and macklin. he tried reaching out for samy, but she was faster and made it into the water before will could get his hands on her. he admitted his defeat of being the last one in.

"loser gets splashed!" gabe exclaimed and immediately kicked water in will's direction. the others followed suit and the poor blonde was drenched in seconds.

"okay, okay," he called for them to stop, wiping his face off.

"god, i could live here forever," ryan fell onto his back like a starfish as he floated atop the light waves.

the blonde's gaze fell to samy again and this time he was able to reach her and bring her into his arms. she giggled at his quick affection and the longing look in his eyes he directed at her. "what?" she hummed, flushing as she watched his gaze dip below her face towards the rest of her bare skin and then back up.

"nothing. i'm glad you're here. i love you," will leaned down to kiss the top of her head and squeeze her hip.

"i love you too. can't wait to see you play in your home arena," she brushed some of his now loose, wet curls away from his forehead.

"mhm, i can't wait to see you up in the stands. i've missed seeing you there," it was still a hard adjustment for will to go from having samy at every single one of his games for two years to her not being there at all unless she visited. he always thought she brought him good luck whenever she was there.

"i've missed being there," she lifted herself onto her tiptoes to give a wet kiss to his cheek. the blonde blushed and tugged her even closer into his side like if he let go she'd disappear.

"guys, what did we talk about. no pda around us," macklin teased again and the couple flushed. samy stepped out of her boyfriend's grasp much to his dismay and reluctance to let her go, a small frustrated sigh leaving his lips.

"you get used to it," gabe chuckled, winking towards his friends. "i spent every night listening to them on the phone together last year."

"hey, you got to talk to me everyday," samy argued a bit.

"you're right, i did and i enjoyed getting to say hi to you every night," the dark-haired boy agreed.

the five spent another fifteen minutes splashing around before deciding they should head back or else mrs. marleau would start thinking they got lost on their way back to the house. will managed to find some old towels in the back that everyone dried themselves off with.

"thanks for this, smitty. that was fun," ryan said once they were back in the car.

"of course. glad i could fill your beach desires," the blonde smiled and got them back on the highway towards san jose.

for the rest of the ride back up to the silicon valley, the five filled the car ride with everything that's happened so far. gabe and ryan told stories of all the parties, the girls, the games, and the classes which definitely made will and macklin miss being in boston as college students. the rookies went back and forth talking about san jose so far, but all of it were things already talked about through facetime or over the phone. they started talking about world juniors coming up and ryan's possible captaincy.

"dude, you're totally gonna get it. no doubt about it," macklin added and the others agreed. they knew how hard ryan's worked all year in addition to being alternate for boston this season, there was a really good chance he would make it and gabe would be an alternate.

"don't jinx it guys. they won't announce it for another few weeks," the brunette shook his head a bit while also brushing off the praise because on the inside he was really excited and confident he'd get captain.

"jinx it? it's basically in the bag, lean. you're gonna get it," will laughed and the topic of world juniors got all of them talking about who they thought would win the tournament this year.

the marleau home was about to be completely full this weekend with ten people in the house, but christina and patrick didn't mind. they loved having friendly faces in their space and any friend of will's was a friend of theirs. the boys were excited to talk to patrick about his experience in the nhl knowing he'd have great advice for them whenever they made their transition.

after dropping macklin back off, the four of them were greeted similarly to how samy was greeted when she came three weeks ago. patrick was off the couch and christina came out from the hallway with her boys behind her.

"ryan leonard and gabe petreault, it's great to finally meet you both. i've heard so many good things," patrick hugged each of them.

"we were worried you guys got lost on your way back to the house," christina chuckled.

"no, we just had to make a stop at the beach per ryan's request," will explained and the brunette grinned making the family laugh.

"ah, that makes more sense. i can tell you guys are a bit wet," christina observed the four's damp hair.

"thank you so much for having us this weekend. it's an honor to stay in your home," gabe cut in with a grin, waving a hi to the younger sons.

"of course. our home is your home this weekend. we figured it would work out perfectly since the six of us will be at grandparents tomorrow night into sunday, so we won't be in your way or anything," christina greeted each of them with a hug as well once patrick finished his hellos.

"well, thank you again. we appreciate it a lot," ryan echoed gabe's sentiments.

"you guys play for boston college, right?" brody wondered and the older boys nodded.

"we do. you thinking about going there?" ryan asked and he chuckled when the younger marleau flushed and glanced at his dad like he knew.

"it's whatever you decide, bud," patrick chuckled too and reached over to squeeze his son's shoulder.

"well, if you ever have questions, we're the guys to ask, but you probably already asked smitty all that already," gabe pointed to the blonde behind him who rolled his eyes a bit.

"i'll show you guys where you'll sleep," will motioned towards the stairs to lead everyone to their rooms. the marleau house was huge, so everyone had their own rooms plus two guest rooms. the second one was where gabe and ryan would be sleeping.

"shit, this is nice. you're living the good life here," ryan jumped onto the bed and the mattress sunk in around him.

"i better not hear you guys going at it," gabe teased the couple still lingering in the doorway. ryan snickered but the other two flushed in embarrassment.

"i'll rake that as my cue to leave. i'll let you guys catch up some more," samy quickly laughed off their teasing before disappearing to will's room to put her things down.

will eyed his friends once she was gone while ryan and gabe just shrugged, "what? i guess some things never change," gabe smiled.

"you guys are so immature," the blonde shook his head.

"how've you been though? good? sharks good?" ryan became somewhat serious for a second which always seemed to happen after a good laugh.

"yeah, it's been really good. i mean..it's my dream—our dream?—come true. i love it," will admitted becoming a bit sappy, but the boys smiled wider nonetheless.

"i mean it looks like the dream, man. you're a fucking california star with your new bronco and cool ass mentor to stay with for the season," the brunette got up to rough up his friend's shoulders like any best friend would. gabe shared the sentiments.

"we're proud of you, you know. this is all really great," their words warmed will's heart. he worried a lot that he left boston too soon, but he was glad his old line mates didn't think he made the wrong choice.

"you and hughesy still doing good?" ryan lowered his voice a little.

"yeah, we're good. we've been adjusting well and i'm glad i've gotten to see her so many times already," will nodded.

"good, glad to hear that. we think she's been doing better at managing everything, so don't worry about that. we got her back," the hockey player appreciated hearing his friends say that. he still hated being so far away in times that samy picked herself apart for things that didn't even matter, but he felt better knowing his friends were looking after her and the other guys in michigan when he couldn't.

"thanks, i'm glad you do," the three exchanged heartfelt smiles.

"now, enough of being all sappy and cheesy, i want a grand tour of this city," ryan exclaimed making will laugh.

"you got it, lean. i'll show you guys all my favorite places tomorrow," the blonde let the guys unpack and settle themselves in. he stuck his head back into his room where samy had changed into drier clothes. she smiled seeing her boyfriend.

"hi," she grinned.

"hi, sorry about the teasing. i guess they haven't given it up yet," will laughed, but the girl shook her head.

"please, you should know i don't care anymore. they're funny," samy assured and that made the boy smile. he was glad things like teasing from the guys didn't ever bother her.

now that they were alone, will took that as his opportunity to take her back into his arms. he shuffled closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, a bright smile on his features.

"i feel like a really lucky guy with how many times i've been able to see you," will hummed.

"i'm really lucky i get to see you too. i'm glad we made this happen with them. i know you really wanted it to," she pushed some of will's stray curls away again and he flushed under her touch.

"thank you for being so persistent with it and working it out for us. it probably never would've happened if it was just us planning," they shared a heartfelt laugh. it was true. will, ryan, and gabe sucked at planning anything when it came to trying to hang out.

"you're funny, will, but you're welcome. i know i already said this but i'm really looking forward to watching you play tomorrow," her words erupted more butterflies through the boy's chest along with a hot blush from his neck to the tips of his ears.

"wouldn't want it any other way having you guys here," the blonde leaned down to place a better kiss to samy's lips. she reached up to meet him in the middle.

a soft hum escaped will's lips at the feeling of his girlfriend's lips against his. even though they just saw one another three weeks ago, he'd never get tired of kissing her pretty lips and the feeling it created in his body after being apart. samy shifted so her hand was on the back of will's neck pushing him closer. the hockey player tightened his grip on her hip in response, wanting her as close as physically possible.

will began losing himself in the kiss. his other hand tangled in samy's hair not really caring that it was still wet or the fact that he hadn't changed out of his semi damp clothes still. anytime he could get his lips on samy's it was hard to pull him away.

however, a knock pulled them apart. they whipped around and saw ryan and gabe lingering in the doorway that will forgot to close the door to. a large blush spread across both of their faces.

"shit, sorry. maybe we should count how many times we catch you guys in the act," gabe teased.

"what do you want?" will wondered.

"just coming to bother you guys," ryan came further into the room, jumping onto the bed like he did in the other room.

"typical," samy giggled.

"if only all the other guys were here then it'd really feel like a reunion," gabe hummed and a slight frown appeared on will's face. he felt bad that the other guys couldn't make it out, but he knew the marleau's would not have room to house all eight of them.

"maybe when i'm moved back into my own apartment i'll have everyone over," will said.

the guys liked that idea. as much as will was annoyed at them for interrupting his moment with samy again, he liked seeing the happiness on each of their faces as they settled into will's room to spend more time together. it felt like one of those summer days where after a long day on the boat, everyone would crowd into one room to just talk, and considering will probably wouldn't see gabe and ryan until next summer, he decided to enjoy the moment. he joined them on the bed, opening his arms up for samy to climb in next to him. ryan sat on the other side while gabe hung off the end. the two boys were like little kids going their parents' rooms at night to bother them before bed.

—

everyone was up fairly early the next morning, or early in will's eyes and late in everyone else's because they were still on central and eastern time so it technically wasn't late to samy, ryan, and gabe. the four got an early start knowing they had a lot to do with seeing the city and then catching dinner with jack and luke later when they landed.

of course, will picked up macklin on the way. the younger brunette climbed into the car with a smile. "morning everyone," he cheered.

they rode into the city where samy was already familiar with the strip of shops and tall buildings. will parked on one of the side streets, digging out his credit card to pay for parking before they all took off. samy slipped in faster, her card going through before will could pay. he snapped his gaze towards her.

"baby, you didn't have to pay," he immediately protested as samy grabbed the receipt.

"you paid way too much for me last time so i'm returning the favor," she argued with a little smile.

"you don't have to do that. you know i don't care," will countered but the girl shook her head.

"i love you," she pecked his lips and hurried to catch up with the others.

the five walked up and down the main street where gabe and ryan poked their heads into almost every store. samy had her camera out to catch all the candids that would most definitely make their random contract/photo dump posting.

"do you think i should buy this?" ryan wondered while trying on a pair of sunglasses. they were big and square which took up almost half of his face.

"for sure, lean. you look great," macklin chuckled and the others agreed.

"i'm sure julianne would love them on you," samy teased and the brunette rolled his eyes as he put them back on the rack.

"oh, i think samy should get this," gabe grabbed ahold of a shirt that said "i love #2." will's cheeks flushed but samy quickly grinned.

"wait i should. i can wear it tomorrow night," the girl looked at her boyfriend who was a blushing mess.

"you'll definitely catch the attention with that," ryan teased as well. samy was serious about buying the shirt. she grabbed her size off the rack and went straight to the register while will just tried hiding his face of the deep blush that crept onto it.

he still got hot with blush anytime samy showed up wearing something that told people she was his because if anything, he thought it should be the other way around and people should know he was hers.

"i think we should all buy them. we can twin," gabe went to grab one for himself with ryan quickly following. will just shook his head, but smiled nonetheless.

they continued on once the three of them had their shirts. will showed them all of his favorite spots in the city so far, the places him and macklin went to get lunch, the places their other teammates took them after a good game.

ryan and gabe marveled in the warmth and the beauties of the silicon valley. they looked like dads whenever they pulled their phones out to take pictures of the scenery. will hung back letting his friends take the lead and explore whatever they wanted to. samy eventually dropped back to check in with him where he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"you doing good?" she wondered.

"perfect. you?" he asked and the girl nodded.

"same. perfect," they shared a smile and a quick kiss on the cheek. samy's never seen her boyfriend look so weightless like he didn't have any stress on his shoulders or anything. it was probably because hanging out with ryan and gabe was easing any of the anxieties he was feeling about the game tomorrow.

will took a hold of her camera to flip it around. he wanted a selfie of them, using his longer arms to get both of them in frame. the girl smiled widely while will turned to kiss her cheek as he took the picture. when the preview came up on the screen they both grinned.

by the time they finished exploring, it was time to meet luke and jack at the restaurant they discussed beforehand. the brothers were already inside, waving when they caught sight of the group coming in. samy rushed forward to greet her brothers, both of them standing to scoop her into their arms.

"hi squirt. good to see you," jack cheered.

"it's so good to see you guys too," samy smiled.

"wow you already look tan," luke laughed as he noticed his sister's already darker complexion.

"lean, gp, celly, smitty, good to see all of you," jack dapped up each of the boys followed by luke.

"thanks for catching dinner with us," will said, pulling out samy's seat for her as they finally sat down.

"wouldn't ever pass up an opportunity to see our sister. it's crazy we're all here at the same time. i feel like it's summer right now," luke pinched samy's arm where she swatted his hand away.

"i was just saying that. i could get used to this warm weather," ryan laughed.

the boys quickly filled the conversation with hockey which samy expected. it was a good thing she liked it as much as them to talk about it the entire dinner. will's hand stayed on her thigh most of the time as his small reminder to him and herself that he was beside her. neither of them were huge on pda, but the little things liked that were enjoyable because they could still be close without making someone comment on it. the blonde occasionally watched his girlfriend interact with everyone, loving the relationship she had with her brothers and everyone else. she never missed a beat when they poked about hockey or talked about soccer. god, he was so lucky.

when the waiter came back around to ask if checks were going to be separate or all one, will immediately began to speak, but jack beat him to it.

"all one, thanks," the older hughes brother grinned.

"wait, you don't have to pay for us," ryan cut in before anyone could mention it.

"i don't mind. call it our treat," jack nudged luke's arm who nodded.

"jack," samy began but the boy shook his head. he wasn't gonna take any more protests about paying. the two brothers were feeling joyful with it being the holidays soon and paying for everyone's dinner was the least they could do.

"thank you, man. i appreciate it," will said and everyone else echoed his words.

"no problem. maybe this will act as a peace treaty when we beat you again tomorrow," jack always liked starting a little friendly fire. gabe and ryan oohed while will and macklin just shook their heads.

the waiter came back around with the check. jack quickly took out his card and handed it right back to her to ring it up, not even thinking twice. the others smiled.

when everything was fully paid for, everyone said their goodbyes until tomorrow. "see ya tomorrow, squirt. mom said she wanted a picture of all of us at some point, so we'll find you," luke said and the girl nodded.

when everyone got back to the house they were pretty tired from the day so a movie night in was quickly decided. with the marleau family gone for the weekend, they had the entire living room to themselves. samy put on her new shirt and when she came back out of the bathroom, will was blushing from head to toe again. he drank in her entire appearance that was only her new shirt and her little sleep shorts, subconsciously licking his lips.

"you like it?" the brunette giggled when she saw her boyfriend's lustful expression.

"you drive me up the wall," will mumbled, bringing her flush against his chest again.

"do i now?" she taunted a bit making the rookie curse to himself. he latched his lips back onto hers, not being able to control his urge to kiss her.

she reciprocated his actions, opening her mouth further for his tongue to fight its way in. like always, will's hands wandered across her hips—a feeling of possessiveness washing over him knowing she would be wearing this shirt tomorrow in front of all the fans in the arena. will was never one to be jealous or possessive all the time, but sometimes he got these little moments like right now where all he could think about was how proud he was gonna feel when everyone knew jack and luke's little sister was his girlfriend.

"we should get back downstairs," samy mumbled when they pulled apart for a second. both of their chests rose and fell against one another, panting for air.

"they'll be fine without us for twenty minutes," the blonde mumbled, pulling the girl back to his lips in another feverish kiss.

when they did eventually make it downstairs, ryan and gabe gave both of them a look that definitely told the couple they knew. gabe held up five fingers towards ryan and mouthed "you owe me $5 now," because they 100% betted on what was taking will and samy so long to join them.

—

the sap center was crowded and electric when the three made it inside after will dropped them off around the front. a few fans recognized the trio, immediately wanting autographs or a picture. samy loved taking photos with fans, so she was all for it, especially in their matching "i love #2" shirts.

"let's find our seats," ryan insisted once they were done talking with fans. he led them into the rink where the sharks were warming up. will, who had been looking for them to come in, caught samy's eye and waved her down.

"will wants to see us," she tugged on ryan's arm.

the brunette glanced down at the blonde who was waving them over. they turned around to get themselves down to the floor. will skated up to the open door, lifting his helmet up as he grinned. a few other guys skated after will that wasn't macklin.

"hey, my teammates wanted to say hi. you've been the talk since i mentioned you were coming," the blonde explained and his other teammates lifted up their helmets as well.

"will eklund. that's tom bordeleau. we've heard a lot about you," the older blonde stuck his hand out to shake samy's hand and then gabe and ryan.

"i've heard. nice to meet you guys," samy grinned.

"i like the shirts. didn't know pup had so many fans," tom teased a bit and nudged will's arm who blushed.

"we're his #1 fans if you couldn't tell," the girl giggled.

"oh we can tell. super cool meeting you hughes and gabe and ryan. we'll catch up some more after the game," eklund and bordeleau grinned as they skated back onto the ice.

"i'll see you guys after," will leaned forward to press a quick kiss to samy's lips. he bumped fists with gabe and ryan before skating back on to finish warmups.

ryan led them back to their seats a few rows up behind the glass. the brunette searched for her brothers and found them over by the bench. luke was also looking for his sister in the stands. he found all of them and quickly waved towards the three. they waved back.

"damn, i forgot how crazier this is than college hockey," gabe muttered as he took in the arena's excessive amount of seats and fans lining each one of them.

"it feels the same to me but bigger," ryan said with a chuckle.

"are you gonna end up getting one of those wag jackets?" gabe teased a bit, nudging the girl's arm beside him. she flushed.

"very funny."

"hey, you're gonna be a wifey, so you might as well embrace it," ryan added.

"not anytime soon though. i wanna at least finish college," the girl said.

"you guys are gonna have a huge wedding party. six of us plus your brothers plus whoever else will wants?" all samy did was shake her head not wanting to think that far ahead yet. she wasn't even twenty.

the three made mindless conversation until the lights dimmed and the announcers got ready to introduce the players as they came out of the shark tunnel which was samy's personal favorite of the home games. will skated out first and the three were on their feet screaming his name like crazy. the blonde waved up at them before he slid into line. macklin came out after and they screamed again for the second rookie.

"that's our rookie!!" gabe screamed down to them.

"we love #2!" ryan joined in.

will blushed like crazy hearing them yell for him while getting eyes from the other players. eklund reached over to nudge his shoulder, a knowing smirk on his lips. the devils came out a few minutes later, some devils fans cheering for them but it was mostly boos in the stands.

the game got underway fast once they played the national anthem. will was on the ice with his line first, the lower bowl on their feet screaming and cheering for the white and teal players.

it felt like old times back when they were in the dev program arena or the conte forum and samy was cheering will on as he flew across the ice with the puck. she followed his number 2 with her eyes, cheering when he made a successful pass or received one from his linemate.

"come on smitty!" ryan called, his rowdiness already starting to show.

the youngest hughes bounced between watching her boyfriend and watching her brothers who definitely knew how to push will out of his comfort zone. it helped that they've played together before, but luke and jack were a powerhouse when it came to being on the ice together. they weaved between the sharks like bullets, adding a few pushes and shoves as they went.

"damn, they're fast," gabe mumbled.

"will knows how they play, or at least he knows how luke plays. they're gonna wanna push him out of his comfort zone," samy explained exactly what the two brothers started doing. luke got himself up close and personal to will, trying to get the puck from him without shoving the younger blonde too hard.

the older brunette had the upper hand and took the puck back. he passed back down the ice towards the other goal leaving will to chase after him.

a wash of nostalgia hit samy as she watched her brothers and boyfriend battle it out together. memories from when they were little flashed in her mind of the same image of luke and jack playing against will on the ice. they always used to be a little meaner to the two of them because they wanted them to grow their skill and become meaner as well. samy knew that was what her brothers were trying to do now.

"come on, come on, come on," ryan muttered under his breath wanting will to score a goal. he was getting closer, but the devils were obviously tough players.

both teams went the whole period without scoring. the sharks had definitely stepped it up since their last game and were trying to make the devils work for a point.

"you guys need anything?" ryan wondered during the first intermission. samy and gabe shook their heads.

"okay, well i'm gonna grab a drink. text me if you do end up wanting something," the brunette said and disappeared towards the food court.

"how've you been?" gabe wondered when it was just them. samy snapped her gaze to him, "i'm good. better."

the dark-haired boy smiled, "i'm glad to hear that. talking with your coaches went okay? you started talking to someone?"

"yeah, yeah. coach klein was actually really glad i came and said something to her and she was sorry i felt that way. i talked to my parents more too and we found someone that i can start talking with every other week. it's been good," the girl elaborated. relief flooded gabe hearing that. he'd been really worried about her, so he was glad to hear she was doing a lot better.

"that makes me happy to hear. don't forget we're always a call away too," the boy said and she nodded.

"i know, thanks, g."

ryan returned a few minutes later just before the second period began. he came back with some soda, offering some of it to them even though they said they didn't want any. gabe took a sip and then so did samy, appreciating his offer.

the players were back on the ice minutes later and the heightened energy quickly returned. the three were on their feet again as will zoomed by their section hoping for a goal this period.

luke was the only one on at the moment. he guarded the goal area fiercely, ready to push back against will's advances. samy's gaze constantly flicked between him and her boyfriend, wondering if will would be able to get past him.

macklin was back on the ice so now both rookies were working to score the first goal of the night. samy's eyes darted between all three boys down there rooting for will and mack while also rooting for her brothers. it was always hard when people saw her cheering for one team and then the other seconds later.

the blonde flew around the bend of the rink, avoiding a hit from one of the devils as he passed down to macklin. the brunette took ahold of the puck, deciding to take his chances with shooting. the little puck flew past luke's stick and the goalies right into the back of the net. the air horns blew and samy jumped up in excitement. everyone else on the arena screamed out while the boys quickly celebrated the first goal.

"let's go mack!" gabe cheered. the brunette pumped his fists into the air and then skated towards around the glass to get everyone to cheer for him again.

for the rest of the 2nd period and the 3rd, the sharks stayed at 1 point and the devils didn't score which meant the sharks had their redemption. samy cheered for will and his team while also sympathizing with her brothers' team. ryan led them back towards the front lobby knowing all of the boys probably had a bunch of press to do before they reunited.

samy got caught up with some fans again as they were leaving the arena. ryan and gabe gladly helped take pictures and even get some of their own with the few that recognized them. things started clearing out a bit more after twenty minutes now that it was just wives and other friends waiting for the players to come back out.

will appeared about twenty more minutes later. he was showered and back in his christmas sweater that he walked in wearing over his dress shirt. samy grinned, opening her arms to hug him. the blonde wrapped his arms around her torso, spinning her around slightly.

"congrats on the win, #2. super proud of you," the girl cheered.

"i told you, you were my good luck charm," the blonde kissed the bridge of her nose. he set her down to greet gabe and ryan again.

"awesome game, smitty. you killed it out there," gabe exclaimed. while the boys caught up, jack and luke came into the main lobby, spotting samy.

"hey! we gotta run, but we wanted to grab a photo with you guys before we left," jack hugged his sister first.

"okay, it was good seeing you two. i'll see you again in like a week," the brunette grinned as she hugged luke next.

"yeah, we'll be home," luke smiled.

"we can take your photo if you want," gabe offered to the siblings who appreciated the gesture.

"we want one with all of you too," jack said as they squeezed themselves together. gabe took a few, handing it back so they could examine them.

"awww cute. mom will love that," samy smiled. they found someone to take a photo of all of them and then jack and luke hurried out of the arena to catch their bus back to the hotel.

macklin finally came out from the back with eklund and bordeleau behind him. "hey, we wanted to properly say hi to you guys," the other will explained.

"you guys killed it out there tonight. i was thoroughly impressed," gabe began with a smile.

"thanks man. it was definitely a tough game, but i'm glad we pulled away with a win," tom grinned as well.

"all thanks to this kid," will patted mack's back who flushed.

"hey, it was nothing guys," the younger brunette laughed.

"so we hear you're a national title holder now," eklund nudged samy's arm, turning the conversation to her.

"first national title. it was super cool," the soccer player chuckled, still reeling from all of the excitement that last weekend was.

"damn, w-2 really has it all then doesn't he? the skill, the friends, the girl. i'm kind of jealous," tom brushed up will's hair. the blonde blushed for probably the hundredth time that weekend, watching the way samy's lips lifted into another grin.

he was so in love with her.

"we should probably head out soon, but i'll catch you guys later," the hockey player broke out of his daze knowing it was getting late and everyone was exhausted from the game.

"of course. we'll catch you guys later. it was a pleasure meeting you three," tom nodded towards samy, gabe, and ryan before heading out the side door. will led the way to his car.

it was a fairly silent ride home just because of how tired everyone was and eager to finally lay in bed. they wished macklin a goodnight and then got back on the road towards the marleau house.

"great game again, smitty. see ya in the morning," ryan patted his friend's back before heading upstairs.

"see you guys in the morning," will chuckled. his gaze slid to samy's who raised her eyebrow when they met eyes.

"so what'd you think?" the blonde wondered as the couple lingered downstairs for a few more minutes.

"of what?" the girl wondered.

"everything, i guess?" as samy knew, will always had to make sure he had her approval because he valued her opinion so much. she giggled. "i really liked them. they were nice," she referred to his teammates.

"that's probably the tamest they've ever been," will admitted with a low laugh.

"i could tell. did you tell them to behave or something?" samy leaned back into the couch for a moment. the hockey player quickly joined her.

"i may have said something a few days ago when i said you were coming to visit again."

"i liked them, don't worry. you played really well tonight. i was impressed," the girl told him honestly which burned a smile into the boy's lips.

"luke and jack kind of tore into me, but i expected it. i knew they were trying to push me."

"yeah, i could tell too, but you handled them well," they shared a sweet smile.

"i'm really, really glad you came this weekend. i had a lot of fun. i mean i always have fun whenever we're together," will said again even though he's said this a hundred times already. the girl flushed.

"well you don't have to miss me too hard this time because i'll see you in cape cod for christmas," samy rested her head on will's shoulder even though they probably should've headed upstairs to change and lay in his actual bed. the couch was also just so comfortable.

"i can't wait to be back in massachusetts for a few days," will hummed, leaning his head against hers.

as suspected, they fell asleep like that—will in his suit and samy in her jeans. it wasn't until will woke up three hours later and realized they were still downstairs that he nudged samy awake and helped her upstairs so they could be more comfortable in his bed.

they hardly changed into their pajamas before crashing back onto the bed. samy quickly snuggled into her boyfriend's side where will pulled her so close there wasn't any space left between them. he pecked the top of her head.

"love you," he mumbled sleepily.

"love you, too," samy sighed, sleeping until they needed to be up and back at the airport the next day.

[hannie-dul-set]

YOU’RE MY BUCKET LIST.

p — SHEN QUANRUI x fem! reader. g — humor, fluff, lovestruck! ricky trying his darnest to be cool. w — swearing, secondhand embarrassment what did you expect from me. 2.8k words.

note — rewriting the backstory of his leopard print shirt. my loser idolverse is expanding. no one is safe. who should i throw into the depths of patheticness next.

ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists.

what need is there for a list of things he wants and wants to do before he dies when he can get and do everything he wants in an instant? if he wants to go bungee jumping, he can go to gangwon-do this afternoon. if he wants to date, he’s got a couple dozen numbers he can pick and choose to call. if he’s craving for authentic italian wine right out of the cellar, he can book a flight and visit all of europe with his phone as his only luggage. 

he lacks nothing, and therefore he wants nothing. ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists— he didn’t believe in bucket lists. at least not until that damned day of reckoning, when the nonexistence of his list suddenly came to existence, harboring one thing and one thing only. 

there’s only one thing he’d like to tick off before he dies. one thing he wants as soon as possible. something that isn’t instantaneously achievable. something that unfamiliarly feels out of his grasp.

ricky, more than anything in the world, wants you to take him fucking seriously.

“you’re so pretty today.” 

is what he says, the moment you enter the office. well, two moments after you enter the office because he had to take the first moment to admire how pretty you are before verbalizing it. he’s down horrendous, he knows— totally outside of the image he’s perfectly curated for the past six months since entering university. you’re the chair of his department’s council, a third year, and by some mystical force or another (read: being stupidly whipped) he volunteered to help prepare for a department event and managed to drag the rest of his friends into it.

said friends being gyuvin and gunwook, who are looking at him in judgment and disgust after completing his daily routine of complimenting your face.

“aw, how cute,” is your reply. ricky wracks his brain for another word for pretty, but you’re quick to move one and leave him in the dust. “thank you, ricky! you’re so sweet. anyway, matthew, how’s the—”

gyuvin snorts. “hey, at least she thinks you’re cute.” ricky throws him a punch but it falls weak from the mental damage. 

cute. he hates it. he’s grown to hate it after it became the symbol of you thinking of him as nothing but your cute junior. are his daily compliments not enough of a giveaway that’s he’s lowkey fucking in love with you? what else do you want? a truckload of roses? a barbershop quartet illustrating through song how stupidly down bad ricky shen is for his unbothered senior?

knowing you, even if he gets on stage in front of the whole university and perform a three-act play of how he fell, head first with scraped knees, into the tunnel of torture that is you and your pretty smile, you’d probably just ruffle his hair and coo, “good job! you’re so talented, angel!” because he’s so cute, so lovely, so never going to be boyfriend-able in your eyes and it eats his despairing soul.

maybe if he rips his heart out of his chest and you see the gaping, you-shaped hole it’ll leave behind, you might finally get the idea.

“quit being a drama queen,” gunwook says, throwing a ball at ricky’s bedroom door that’s been locked shut for a good hour now. it bounces right back into his palm and gyuvin is laying flat on the floor next to him. “it could be that she knows you’re into her, but she’s just trying to reject your advances gently because she doesn’t want to hurt you.”

gunwook and gyuvin hear a crash from inside ricky’s room. 

“that’s— that’s, no. i don’t even want to think about that!”

they’re waiting for him to finish changing (if he is just changing. the crashes in his room are becoming sources of concern). you invited them for a nice buffet dinner to celebrate the success of the event. however, the three of them are already thirty minutes late for the restaurant appointment, and hanbin had to come over and pick them up with taerae in tow after hearing the news that ricky shen— cool guy extraordinaire— is having a breakdown over a girl. 

there are now four men waiting in front of ricky’s locked bedroom. gyuvin gets sick and tired and starts banging on the door. “hurry up! do you want to keep the love of your life waiting?”

“damn, you guys were serious,” taerae posits. “is he actually in love with her?”

“i’m afraid so,” gunwook solemnly shakes his head. 

hanbin hits another concerned knock on his door, and lo and behold, ricky finally cracks open his bedroom door and walks out—

walks out in an ensemble that they can only unanimously describe as jarring. 

leopard print. leather pants. gold chain necklace. a pair of shades are hanging on the way too low cut shirt and they wonder if he’s gonna wear them indoors. he’s got a leather jacket folded over his arm and it’s twenty four fucking degrees.

“what do you think?” ricky asks, eyes proud, expectant, and sparkly. hanbin doesn’t have the heart to break it to him. “i read somewhere that the pattern symbolizes, uh, confidence and sexiness, i think. this will make her stop thinking that i’m cute, right?”

“yeah,” gyuvin replies. “she’ll think you’re hideous instead.”

“google tells me that the leopard print is a symbol of, and i quote, absolute femininity.” gunwook has his eyes trained on his phone. he looks up and gives ricky a once-over. “if you’re trying to go for the femme fatale look, then you’re doing a good job.”

it takes a moment for ricky to react.

when he does, his reaction consists of grabbing onto the hem of his allegedly ugly shirt and starts pulling it over his head.

“whoa, whoa, whoa— what are you doing?!”

gunwook quickly tries to stop him from stripping. gyuvin is laughing his ass off. taerae has a hand covering his mouth. hanbin is stressed. “quit picking on him! ricky, you look fine!” ricky is not fine. his styled hair is not disheveled and he’s visibly upset and sulking. gyuvin is losing his mind. he’s on the floor and hitting the ground.

“are you trying to be cute right now?” taerae asks. this just scrunches up ricky’s brows even more and makes his bottom lip jut forward.

“n...no…?”

“well, shit,” taerae laments. “it’s a genetic disease. she’s never gonna take you seriously.”

the only emotion ricky knows is despair.

he’s supposed to be hot and sexy and handsome, why can’t you see that? do you have a pink filter when you look at him, or something? is that it? that’s gotta be it, right? because why else would you be so unaffected when he feigns nonchalance, brushing through his hair at a precise timing when he notices you starting to turn to his direction. it’s your heart that should be beating like crazy when he greets you with a half-smile and a nod— not his, not his, not his when you return it with a full-smile, so bright and beaming, of your own.

“oh, you’re finally here!”

ricky doesn’t believe in bucket lists. he lives in the moment. he doesn’t want things so desperately to the point where he writes them down on a checklist taped to his desk. the list definitely doesn’t have the words “get miss department chair to fall in love with me” written on it with scrawled letters. and he doesn’t didn’t give himself a deadline to date you by the end of the year.

he’s given himself until the day he dies because the moment he met you was the first time he imagined watching someone walking down the aisle. 

yes, he’s down bad. yes, he sings hopelessly devoted to you in the shower five times a week and replaced the word you with your name. yes, gyuvin has a recording. 

“ah, we’ve been waiting for you, kids,“ you say once they’ve all settled on their seats. kids. he scoffs. insult to injury. he’s pouting and picking on a plate of galbi. he feels like shit even though you’re sitting right across him all pretty and sweet like the strawberry shortcake you ordered— which he’s trying his damn best to not steal a slice from because he’s pretty sure you’re just gonna go, “oh! you really like strawberries, don’t you? so cute,” and he’d much rather choose physical over emotional torment, thank you very much.

“they were caught up in something,” taerae responds to your initial statement. your eyes gloss over them with curiosity.

“why? what took you guys so long?”

four sets of eyes are on ricky and his patterned shirt. the bossam wrap in his mouth won’t swallow down his throat. it was too late for him to change out of the symbol of femininity. mid-strip, hanbin got a text from you so he got dragged out, guilty in leopard prints and gold, out of his apartment.

don’t you fucking dare, ricky glares at the suspicious look gyuvin is wearing as he brings a glass of water to his lips. gyuvin clears his throat, “we had to wait for ricky who was dressing to impress y—” and is subsequently elbowed and chokes on his water.

hot. ricky feels hot. not the sexy kind, but the icky embarrassing kind because he wants to cover his burning face and stab gyuvin with a fork in the process.

“oh?” you voice out from across the table. you’re plucking out wads of tissue paper for a dying gyubin but your eyes are trained on him. oh my god. he wants to rip this shirt off and die, but he can’t do that. he can’t. he hasn’t been working out enough lately due to stress. “not everyone can pull off animal prints. it looks really good on you.”

huh.

“and you’re not wearing your usual silver! you look cool today, ricky.”

oh.

what.

“you really think so?” gyuvin, who has now recovered, eggs you on further in behalf of his malfunctioning friend. there’s steam rising to the ceiling and it’s not from the open grill. he exchanges glances with gunwook and taerae. they catch the signal and press on. “doesn’t he look—”

“—would you dare say—”

“—handsome?”

“hot?”

“sexy?”

you let out something in between a cough and a laugh. 

they don’t miss the flustered jitter filtering the sound coming out of your throat.

mission success.

“ahaha, what are you kids saying?” ricky doesn’t miss it either. the initial shock of you not calling him cute has worn off and now it’s up to him to finish what his friends have started. he doesn’t miss the way you try to brush them off while fanning your face with your free hand, the way you reach out for a glass of water with the other and there’s a nervous bob in your throat when you swallow. “a—anyway, let’s make a toast for the success of our event!”

when he clinks his glass with yours, ricky  maintains eye contact amidst the noise of the cheers. his gaze is deep and you’re caught off guard— escaping with a laugh and turning away as you down half of your beer glass in one go. holy crap. holy shit, it’s working.

ricky can see it. there’s hope for his bucket list. he’s gonna swear by leopard shirts and gold chain necklaces if he continues to get this kind of reaction from you.

“it’s not because of the ugly shirt.”

gyuvin snaps him back to sanity once dinner concluded and they start leaving the restaurant. “it’s because we manipulated her brain waves into finally noticing that you’re hot,” gunwook inserts. they’re all outside now. you’re bidding the other members goodbye and gunwook nudges him forward. “you’re welcome. you owe us a meal.”

now, even with the newfound confidence and hope, ricky’s knees still buckle when he approaches you from behind. why is the back of your head still pretty? why?

at the moment, it’s taerae’s turn to receive your goodbyes, wedged between two cars, one of them his. he notices ricky’s looming nervous wreck of a presence from over your shoulder. “ah, and this is my cue to leave,” he says. “thanks for the meal, miss chair. get home safe.”

“you too, taerae! thanks!”

when you turn around, you bump into him. maybe he intended it, maybe not, but god damn the uncharacteristic flutter of your surprised eyes is destroying his plans to act cool, act nonchalant, act totally unaffected with how prettily you’re looking at him under the dim parking lot lights and the night sky. “oh!” you exclaim after reformatting, after putting on your doting senior voice again and it kills him because that’s a night of progress down the drain. “are you kids heading out now? oh, sorry, this is your car, right? i’ll get out of the way.”

he frowns. totally uncool, perfectly non-nonchalant, and completely affected but he doesn’t care anymore. 

“what do you think of me?”

the words jump out before he knows it. screw his bucket list. he’s gonna proclaim his undying love for you even if it kills him.

you blink. “what?” a laugh bubbles from your throat— a mix of trying-to-brush-him-off but nervous at the same time. “ricky, what do you mean?”

his face is knotting up. he’s totally pouting right now which he’d rather be caught dead than doing, but he’s now twice the dead man. ricky takes a step forward. you take a step back until no more steps can be taken because your back hits against his car, and he’s grasping at the straws desperate to get even an ounce of a hint of a sign that you’re finally taking him seriously. “what do you think of me?” he repeats, voice a little lower this time. your expression is completely taken over by peaches of fluster, this time. no sign of the composure you’ve usually perfectly maintained.

“oh, uhm.” your hands are unsure and held hostage in the air because his arms serve as a barricade around you, palms pressed tightly against the cold glass of the front seat window. you’re nipping at your bottom lip. ricky just died thrice. “what—what i think of you? well, uh, you’re a very good, very cute, very hardworking junior that i adore, and i—i appreciate all the help you’ve offered to the counci— oh!”

ricky lets out a noise and buries his nose into the crook of your neck, arms that were once caging you are now completely wrapped around your waist. he’s putting all of his weight onto you. he is a corpse. he mumbles something unintelligible into you skin and you ask him to repeat it. “i don’t like it,” he says more clearly, still muffled, whiney all the same. “i’m not cute. i’m cool and handsome and totally in love with you but you just don’t get it.”

it’s quiet. ricky is anticipating the worst, which would be you calling him lame and a loser, but you don’t do that. you don’t push him off either.

“how can i not think you’re cute when you act like this?”

instead you pull him in closer. his eyes widen, and he feels your fingers digging into his hair, a tender touch on his nape, and he feels himself melting and turning into stone at the same time. 

“i never thought you were being serious every time you greeted me by calling me pretty. i thought you were just being playful and trying to earn extra points from me,” you hum. he sinks further. the only thing propping him up is you. “but calling someone pretty every day is barely a confession, ricky. how was i supposed to get anything from that? gosh, you’re so cute.”

“it usually works,” he mumbles. he doesn’t want to show you his face. he probably looks stupid right now. “i thought my new shirt worked too. gyuvin and gunwook don’t agree.”

“i think it’s cool.”

you finally pry him off, hands on his shoulders and he feels himself buckling. he’s pretty sure he looks stupid right now— pink and flushed and dizzy, but your face harbors no judgment. “i think i prefer the shirt owner over the shirt though.” only a familiar gaze of fondness and god, he’s so in love and you finally understand that. “now, why the hell are gyuvin and gunwook still loitering out here?”

ricky didn’t believe in bucket lists. at least not until that damned day of reckoning, when the nonexistence of his list suddenly came to existence, harboring one thing and one thing only. 

now, he’s got that one thing crossed out. he’s thinking of adding more.

YOU’RE MY BUCKET LIST. © hannie-dul-set, 2023.

[coco-loco-nut]

Daddy’s Girl - Part 2

pairing: Daniel Ricciardo x Stroll Reader

summary: you bring Daniel on the family vacation

a/n: thanks for the request!

masterlist part one

——————

You invited Daniel to the annual winter family vacation, this year to a beautiful beach in Fiji. Lance has finally just come around to the idea of you and Daniel. It’s also Daniel’s first time meeting your mom, Chloe, and her husband Scotty.

“I’m actually a little nervous,” Daniel says as you board one of your families private jets from Australia, opting for a take off time that will have you landing in the morning.

“I promise there won’t be a repeat of the dinner, just be a little more careful than usual since they haven’t met you yet and you’ll be fine,” you sit in the chair across from your boyfriend.

“I can handle it, for a week of relaxation with my girl,” he smiles at you, “and getting to see you in a bikini,” Daniel winks, never missing an opportunity to turn something dirty.

“If you want to see that all you have to do is ask, honey badger. I hope you brushed up your golf skills too, because Dad will probably want you to go golfing with them, and before you ask, no I won’t be there for you to stare at in a skirt,” you tell Daniel, one step ahead of him.

“How do you feel about joining the mile high club?” Daniel asks, his lips close to your ear once you’ve taken off and the pilot turns off the seatbelt light.

“I think it’s a good thing this is an overnight flight,” you reply, heart beating faster.

“Be a good girl for me and go back to that bed made up just for us,” Daniel instructs, the air thickening between you, so you say the one thing that will mess with him.

“Yes, daddy,” you smirk, moving towards the back of the plane where a bed is made up from the couch.

The pilot wakes you up before descent with an announcement, you scramble to get back into your seat and buckled.

“It’s beautiful,” you gasp as you look out at the island.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Daniel compliments, your cheeks flame.

“Danny, shut up,” your laughter fills the plane. It’s not too much longer before you deplane and a short ride gets you to the rented villa.

“Y/n! And you must be Daniel, welcome to the villa, I’m very happy you made it,” your mom greets you with a hug. Daniel goes for the handshake but your mom hugs him anyway. She still comes on the family vacation despite your dad remarrying. His new wife, Raquel, did not join this time, busy back home.

“Thank you for having me, I hope I’m not intruding,” Daniel says, he’s not always the rakish Australian that you love.

“Of course you aren’t, come in, breakfast is almost ready,” your mom shows you your room first, so you can drop your luggage and change before breakfast.

You opt for a bikini covered by a tee and linen shorts, Daniel goes off of your vibe, wearing something he would back home. The best part about the villa is that all the bedrooms are separated from the main living space and yours happens to overlook the beach with its own private patio.

“We’re on vacation, no need to dress fancy unless it’s a special dinner,” you grab his hand and drag him down to the kitchen table. “Sit, I’ll grab us coffee and food,” you smile, he just follows your lead.

“Daniel seems like a nice guy, Dad spoke kindly of him,” your older sister, Chloe says, sliding up beside you.

“The only thing Daddy doesn’t like is his age. Lancie was mad at me for a while, I guess Danny is his rival,” you tell her everything that you’ve said over the phone before.

“Well you look happy, that’s enough for me,” she hugs you.

“How was the flight here?” you ask, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.

“Good, poor Lance is the only one who doesn’t have a partner here, but it was a long flight. We only got here an hour before you. How was yours?” Chloe wiggles her eyebrows.

“Very nice, shorter than yours because we left from Australia, but I can say that I am a part of the exclusive club. Don’t tell Daddy, he will actually kill Danny,” you look at her and she just smirks.

“Scotty and I did the same thing on that plane, who am I to judge?”

“Girls, once the coffee is done help me carry in the food,” your mom tells you both.

“You take the coffee in, I’ll help Mom,” you tell Chloe, who doesn’t argue. You follow behind her with plates of food, setting them on the table and taking your seat between Danny and Lance.

“Morning, Y/n,” Lance greets you with a tired smile.

“Morning, Lancie,” you take a sip of the coffee Chloe poured you. Breakfast isn’t too eventful, just quiet chatter as everyone is still a bit tired from the flight.

“I’m going to go sleep a little bit, you are welcome to join me,” you tell Daniel, who happily follows you back to the bedroom. You make sure to set an alarm so that you don’t sleep longer than a couple hours, and it doesn’t take you long to fall asleep, the warm ocean breeze combined with Daniel’s superior cuddles knocks you out quickly.

You spend the rest of your day lounging on the beach, catching up with your sister and mom. Daniel is also on the beach, but he’s talking racing with Lawrence, Lance, and Scotty, even though they all promised that they wouldn’t.

As the sun sets, you all sit down for dinner, prepared by the private chef service that is a part of the villa rental.

“Will you pass me the water, Daddy?” you ask your dad, slightly kicking Daniel as he seemed to start reaching.

“Here you are, sweetheart,” it’s a relief that no one noticed Daniel’s reaction. Once you pout your water, you give Daniel an unimpressed look to which he just grins. You would do anything for that smile.

The next couple days are extremely relaxing, spent swimming in the pool, playing on the beach, and a lot of sex. Daniel couldn’t help the last part, have you seen yourself? You are an absolute goddess, plus your sun kissed skin from all the time spent outside, completely irresistible. You felt the same way, the tropical air making his curls bounce, his tan skin and toned abs, you could jump him anytime.

On the fourth day, Lawrence takes the guys golfing and your mom takes you and your sister to a spa to gossip and relax.

“So, when are you joining the married couple club?” Chloe asks as the three of you are in your massage.

“I’m not sure, Daniel is really focused on getting his career back on track, plus it’s nice to just follow him around the world and not be planning a wedding. If it’s meant to be, it will happen, but it’s still pretty early in the relationship and I am a lot younger than him,” you say, not concerned about holding your thoughts back.

“Honey, that doesn’t matter. If it’s right, it’s right. I haven’t seen you happier with anyone else and the two of you look at each other like you are the only ones in the world. Plus from what I’ve heard you tell your sister, you have a very healthy sex life,” your mom adds to the conversation and you lift your head a little to look at her.

“Mom!” you let out a scandalized gasp.

“It’s natural, it’s a good thing. Just wrap it before you tap it,” she brushes it off, savoring the spa experience.

“Scotty and I have been talking to Lance and Daniel. Lance has said nothing but good things about Daniel and Daniel cannot stop telling us about how much he adores you,”

“I would marry him if he asked, all I’m saying is that there’s no need to rush into it,” you defend yourself, putting an end to the conversation.

“Sir, I would like permission to marry your daughter. I’m not going to ask yet, I think it’s better to wait until we’ve been together for a little longer, but your daughter is the one for me. Y/n is perfect in every way and I want to make her happy for the rest of her life,” Daniel says to Lawrence as they stand off to the side, watching Scotty and Lance tee off.

“No,” Lawrence says, wanting to see the drivers reaction.

“I respect that sir, but I do think that Y/n wants to marry me eventually and if that will make her happy then I will marry her despite your wishes,” Daniel sets his jaw, trying to think where he went wrong. Lawrence didn’t see him make a move to grab the water the other night, did he?

“I’m kidding, son. You have my permission, but if you mess it up, I will end your racing career,” Lawrence smiles, happy that his baby girl is happy and found a life partner.

“Thank you, sir. I wouldn’t expect less,” Daniel breathes a sigh of relief.

When the guys get back to the villa, they spot the girls on the couch, wrapped in light blankets, watching old Disney movies.

“You guys took relaxing to heart. I should’ve joined you instead,” Lance quickly makes his way to couch, squeezing in between his siblings.

“Do you girls want wine?” Lawrence asks, an amused smile on his face.

“Yes, Daddy,” you and Chloe purposefully say in unison, watching Daniel and Scotty restrain themselves at the last second.

“Boys, come help me out,” Lawrence tells Scotty and Daniel, not noticing their reactions.

The next day, you, Daniel, and Lance join Chloe and Scotty on a guided hike. Lance, being the only single one, is relegated to photographer unless it a a group photo that the tour guide offers to take.

On the last day, there is a rain storm, so you spend the day inside playing card games and reading. Like always, you never want to leave, even if you are going back to Monaco.

instagram

tagged: danielricciardo, chloestroll, lancestroll, scottyjames

y/nstroll the kids go hiking in Fiji, what pretty views☀️🌊

user1 I think the Stroll girls have a thing for Australians

danielricciardo the best view was sitting beside me

y/nstroll shut up 😭🫶

user2 oh to be an F1 driver or heiress going on winter break

chloestroll this is my petition for a kids only family vacation soon

lancestroll i second that

scottyjames i third that

danielricciardo i fourth that

y/nstroll guys this is why we have a group chat (let’s book one right now)

claireannstroll my babies ❤️

[cassieopeauh]

The Crashsite

Pairing: Lottie Matthews x Reader

2k words

Summary: 1996 Timeline. Lottie and Y/n are girlfriends and get on the plane together and then it crashes and Y/n gets hurt. Typical hurt comfort for injury + a little angst about Lottie very briefly leaving Y/n in the plane wreckage (she comes back to get her girl dw)

Warnings: Little bit of angst, abdominal injuries, mentions of fractured ribs. I think that’s it.

A/N this is the first fanfiction I’ve written in like 2 years, so it might not be that good.

“You thief!” Lottie exclaimed as you cheekily stuffed the stolen Reese’s pieces in your mouth. A gleeful expression on your face at your successful thievery.

“You dont even like those! Besides, you probably wouldn’t have finished eating them before we landed anyways!” You justified your candy crime with a crooked smile.

“Whatever, you’re lucky you’re cute.” Lottie huffed with barely lingering annoyance. She couldn’t stay mad at you.

There were a few beats of silence where you just smiled at each other.

“How much longer until we land again?” You asked.

“Probably about seven hours now I think”. She replied with a look of contemplation, as she mentally did the calculations of how much time of your flight was left.

“Not that I don’t trust your calculations, but aren’t you failing math?”. You jokingly poked at her.

“Ughhh! Don’t remind me about school! Going to nationals is supposed to be like a vacation, and you’re not supposed to have to think about responsibilities on vacation!!!” She groaned.

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”. You laughed at your girlfriend's dramatics.

You both giggled at each others antics, which then died down into a comfortable silence as you picked up your book again and leaned your head onto Lottie’s shoulder.

Lottie smiled down at you as she put her Walkman headset on and pressed play. Absentmindedly playing with your fingers on her lap.

A soft smile graced her face as she looked from you to the plane window. Taking in the endless sea of clouds, then looking back at you and seeing that your eyes had begun to droop.

She let out a light laugh, as she adjusted herself so your head was better situated on her.

With the now added comfortability, you began to slowly drift off while leaning on Lottie. Book long forgotten, as you bobbed in and out of consciousness, eventually letting sleep take you.

——————————————————————————————————

*THUMP*

You startled awake to the noise of someone’s luggage falling from the baggage compartment. Looking up, you saw Lottie looking like she too had just woken up. Looking around and quickly sitting up, your previously asleep mind was now racing to make sense of what was happening around you, as you finally registered the irregular jolting of the plane.

“Lottie! What the hell’s going on?!” You half yelled, just now taking in the yells of concern and questions echoing your own from your teammates.

“I don’t know! I think maybe it’s just turbulence? Fuck, I don’t know!” She loudly said, trying to keep some rationality in the situation. The plane wouldn’t crash right?

The entropy in the plane cabin grew tenfold as the oxygen masks suddenly dropped from the aircraft’s ceiling. It was a mess of limbs, of girls scrambling to secure the face covering to themselves and their seat mates.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god this is really happening. Oh my god we’re gonna crash!” You said as your shaky hands slipped the mask on and turned to Lottie to make sure she had done the same.

“Don’t say that! You don’t know that! We can’t crash! The fucking pilots will figure out or some shit!” Lottie’s false hope and failed attempt to stay calm did nothing to ease the intense primal fear of possibly dying you felt in that moment.

“Holy fuck holy fuck! LOTTIE COVER YOUR HEAD!” You screamed at her to do the only thing you could think of, as you turned and saw the tops of trees rapidly approaching the bottom of the plane.

This was it. This was gonna be your death. You didn’t even get to have time to have some life flashing before your eyes moment, before the plane hit the ground.

——————————————————————————————————

Everything felt like static all around you. Coursing through your blood. The static settled in your bones and roared in your head. All of your senses were being overloaded with everything and nothing at the same time.

And then the pain made its way through the static.

Horrible awful pain, like nothing you had ever felt before. All consuming white hot pain that made you take a long drawn out gasp of air in.

You felt incredibly nauseous, but also felt like if you threw up the pain that would erupt from the motion and muscle tensing that came with vomiting would kill you.

It was difficult to clear your head through the pain, but the deep primal part of your brain, the part that had been hardwired into your ancestors to place the objective of survival first, kicked in.

Your vision was blurry, eyelids heavy, and desperately wanting to snap them shut again due to the blinding light that poured in and made your head pound a thousand times worse than it already did.

Slowly taking in your surroundings, you realized you had been thrown forward in the initial impact (stupid shitty airplane belts) and were now draped over the row of seats that had been infront of you. Stomach pressing into the fuzzy seat material. That’s why your abdomen hurt so bad.

“o…OH…. Fuuu..ck”

Your pain was joined with the return of your hearing as the sounds of chaos and screaming filled your head. Sounds of burning. Cries for help. Shouts of different names. Oh god oh god oh god.

Slow painful movements of your limbs in preparation to escape the plane that was quickly filling with smoke and fire. You carefully pushed yourself off of the seats. Organs feeling like they had been put into a blender and then stuck back inside you.

The god awful pain that came with moving, especially from you stomach area, was to much to bear as you crumpled to the floor. Vision going blurry again, as a few girls ran through the center aisle to escape the plane. Not even acknowledging your existence much less helping you.

This was it. You were gonna die in one of the most statistically low ways. A fucking plane crash. One in a million huh?

Just then slightly muffled screams of your name came from near the plane hatch. Noises of someone scrambling through the debris to search the seats for something. Someone.

“Y/N!!! Y/N we gotta go! Come on get up!” Lottie had found you. She was slightly crouched and clearly in a panicked frenzy trying to get you both to safety. Not noticing your injured state.

Lottie tried yanking you up but that made you loudly cry out in pain. The fire was creeping closer.

“Oh shit fuck oh fuck your hurt WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO!” Lottie as she started crying from fear.

Van suddenly ran down the center aisle. Her hair looking slightly singed by the fire. Though panicky,?she took in the situation of her two friends blocking her path.

“Oh shit! Can you not get up? Oh fuck, Lottie help me move her!” She quickly sprinted into action and got into position to help tow you out of the wreckage with Lottie’s help.

Van and Lottie lifted you, as you sobbed at the pain you felt from your body being moved, and heaved you out of the plane. Unceremoniously stumbling to the ground 60 feet outside. The three of you couldn’t even catch your breath before the plane exploded into even higher flames. If you hadn’t gotten out…

Van now knowing you both weren’t going to be burnt to a crisp, ran off to find Taissa, shouting her name. Lottie looked away from the burning remains of the aircraft and turned her attention to you, clasping her hands to the side of your head.

“Oh my god oh my god are you okay? Why couldn’t you stand up back there!? Oh my god where are you hurt? FUCK!” The stress was influencing her hasty words.

“Fuck.. I landed.. on the seats infront of us.. I think I broke a rib or two… oh fuckkk..” you panted and grimaced inbtween words.

“Oh shit okay uhh.. let’s just.. fuck I don’t know!” Lottie, still in shock of what was happening, couldn't come up with a solution.

“Urghh… hey hey hey, we’re not gonna like die… they gotta be able to track a whole fucking plane right? They’ll send like… a fuckin med evac… shit I don’t know” Your words, though oddly optimistic for what had just happened, had started to grow quieter towards the end.

Lottie’s eyes snapped to attention as she slightly patted your cheeks with her fingertips.

“Y/n! NO! You CANNOT pass out right now, oh fuck! No no no no!” Her words were of no use, as the stress and injuries combined caused you to begin to pass out. Your body trying to save itself by conserving energy.

“”Y/N!! HELP!! SOMEONE HELP HER!!” Lottie’s muffled voice calling out for assistance and a single set of footsteps rushing towards the two of you, followed by the squeaky voice of misty. That was the last thing you heard before you fully passed out.

———————————————————————————————————

The first of your five senses that came back to was your hearing. The sounds of fire, but not the roaring flames of before. This was the gentle crackle of a campfire combined with low whispers filled with uncertainty of the unknown.

As you slowly, ever so slowly, tried to raise your eyelids, you could tell your head was in someone’s lap.

“Shhh shh shhh, she’s coming to” a familiar voice inches above your head called for the surrounding girls to quiet down.

“L-Lottie..?” Your eye now fully open, as you attempted to sit up to observe your surroundings. An intense ache all over the front of your body kept you down. Laying back onto Lottie as the material of what you recognized as a sleeping bag you were half wrapped in rustled.

“No no no don’t move don’t move” Misty said, she was now hovering over you to observe your condition.

“No, Y/n, sweetie don’t move. You’ve bruised the whole front of your body, and you might have fractured a rib.” Lottie tried to soothe you as you came back to reality.

“Ughhhhh..What…” the dull ache of your body paused for a second as you remembered all that had happened. The crash. The pain. Lottie. The fire. Lottie.

“Are you okay..?” You spoke,shifting your gaze and locking onto Lottie’s. Concern in your tight knitted eyebrows.

“Yeah.. I’m fine..we’re all… okay.” She didn’t want to yet alert you to the condition and permanent absence of certain people that were on the plane. Choosing to let you have a little time before dropping the bomb of what had happened since you passed out.

Misty then swooped in after letting you and Lottie have your moment to bombard you with questions of “how do your ribs feel?” “How is your stomach?”

After Misty was done playing doctor you settled into Lottie’s lap once again. Even after being passed out for hours you were still exhausted.

“I’m sorry” Lottie said in a whisper after a little while.

“For what?” You were genuinely confused. What could she possibly have to be sorry for?

“When we first crashed I didn’t even register that you got flung forwards, I was like… in a state shock or something.. I don’t know… I didn’t even stop to look for you.. it’s like the survival part of my brain just took over and forced me to run out before I realized and came back for you… so I’m so sorry I left you in there.” She guiltily admitted her fleeting moment of cowardice.

“Hey no it’s okay, you were scared. Hell, I was scared too Lottie. I don’t blame you.” You attempted to reach for her face, but fell short. Lottie cupped your hand and brought it to her face for you.

“I’m so scared right now… and I don’t know what’s gonna happen and just… I love you.” Your girlfriend shakily spoke.

“I love you too Lots.” The words coming out soft and sweet.

“We’ll figure this out, we’ll have to be rescued eventually right?”

Dun dun dun the end

A/N again, this is the first fic I’ve written in years and I think I might have written Lottie a bit ooc but idk.

[adrienneleclerc]

So American

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Hispanic/Latina Singer! Reader

Summary: Y/N and Henry have been dating for a year and they’re invited back on the Graham Norton show when Y/N writes a song about Henry.

A/N: I know my writing has been shit lately and I’m sorry about that. I’m currently getting into Formula One, I’m a Charles Leclerc, Ferrari girl and a Lando Norris, McLaren girl. I Don’t think I can write about them but I LOVE reading about them, can’t wait to watch the Shanghai Grand Prix, I’ll be taking naps during the day so I can stay up watching everything.

Henry and Y/N were backstage together.

“Can’t believe we’re back here. It’s been a year and I still feel nervous about being on live TV.” Y/N said, applying the finishing touches on her makeup.

“You’ll do great, my love. Your first tour is in a few weeks, this would be great publicity. The questions will be mostly about our relationship anyway.” Henry said, kissing Y/N’s palm. They stepped outside the dressing room and waited until Graham announced them.

“Let’s welcome everyone’s favorite couple, Henry Cavill and Y/N L/N!” Grahams announced and they came walking in hand-in-hand, the crowd was cheering. They sat down on the couch. “Welcome back guys, I like to think I am responsible for you two dating.”

“Well you introduced us to each other so we wouldn’t have gotten together otherwise.” Henry said.

“So true, there was no way I would have shot my shot by sliding into his DMs, soy atrevida pero no tan atrevida, you know?” Y/N said.

“Well I wanted to talk to you about your new song, ‘so American’, now it is obviously written about Henry here, but how did you come up with the song.” Graham asked.

“I think it started when decided to do a road trip on our sixth week of dating. I know, it sounds horrible, 6 weeks of dating and you’re gonna be stuck with a guy in a car for hours, but it was actually really good.”

“Okay so I went to Shop Rite and got your snacks, I loaded the cooler with some drinks, I even got those pumpkin seeds that you are somehow obsessed with. Can you tell me why we are driving to Las Vegas?” Henry said.

“Well i already spent so much money on these Paddock Club Rooftop experience passes, I finally have enough money to watch a fucking Grand Prix in person. There’s also no way I was letting pay for plane tickets, and this way I can go shopping in the Vegas strip and not worry about having too much luggage.” Y/N explained, loading the snacks and cooler in the backseat

“I can’t believe we’re driving to Las Vegas just for a race, you are insane.” Henry said.

“I prefer dedicated. I really want to see the Ferrari garage. Now let’s go, we’re burning daylight.” Y/N said. Henry rolled his eyes and was going to the driver seat but Y/N stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going? You are my passenger princess today.

“I thought we agreed that once we’re dating, you are my designated passenger princess wherever we go. So go to your spot.” Henry said.

“But this is my car.” Y/N said.

“And that’s my shirt you’re wearing but I’m not asking for it back, now am I?” Henry teased. Y/N pouted but Henry kissed her until she smiled, “You look beautiful wearing my clothes, they look better on you anyway.” Henry kissed her one more time before getting into the driver seat. “Damn you’re short.” Henry said before adjusting the driver seat.

“And this is exactly why I wanted to drive my car,” Y/N said before getting into the passenger seat.

When Henry was driving, he placed his hand on Y/N’s thigh.

“Why the hell are your hands so hot?” Y/N asked, moving his hand so it was intertwined with hers.

“Why the hell are your hands so cold?” Henry asked laughing.

“Don’t know. Do you think we can stop somewhere so I can go to the bathroom? And can you add more gas to the car?” Y/N asked.

“You mean petrol?” Henry asked,

“No, you crumpet, I mean gas.” Y/N said.

“You are so American.” Henry said chuckling.

“You bet your ass I am. Oh I’m sorry, I mean arse.” Y/N said,

“Hilarious, love.” Henry said.

They stopped at a gas station, filled up the car, went to the bathroom, and switched seats. Y/N and henry readjusted their seats and Y/N started driving. There was a moment in the drive where Henry had his feet on the dashboard, sunlight shining on him, his curly hair in the wind.

“Having fun over there, fortachón?” Y/N said.

“A Little.” Henry said.

“You’re a formula 1 fan as well?” Graham asked Henry.

“She’s got me rooting for Ferrari actually, but I got her rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs so I think it’s a fair trade.” Henry said.

“I still can’t stand American football though.” Y/N said.

“Well then I guess you aren’t as American as I though.” Henry said.

“Bro, im Latina too but I still can’t stand watching soccer. Sorry, y’all call ‘football’, I forget.” Y/N said, Graham and Henry laughed. “Anyway, that Las Vegas trip gave me the first verse of the song. The second verse really isn’t inspired by anything in particular. I think it was a combination of moments Henry and I had. Basically, our relationship is in that song.”

“That’s really great you guys, honesty. Now the real question is who said ‘I love you’ first?” Graham asked.

“That would be me.” Henry admitted.

“Yeah, by accident.” Y/N said.

“It was not by accident.” Henry said.

“Oh so you meant to say you loved me when you were drunk?” Y/N asked.

“Whats the story behind that?” Graham asked.

Y/N was in her apartment eating ramen when she gets a phone call from Henry. She wiped her mouth and pushed the bowl aside.

“Hey, fortachón, how’s the bar?” Y/N asked.

“Hey Y/N, this is Sam, I’m a friend of Henry, you need to come pick him up.” Sam (Claflin) said. Y/N stood up from the table.

“What happened?” Y/N asked.

“He finished the bottle of tequila.” Sam said. “He’s been asking for you too.”

“Is that Y/N? Baby, I want you here!” Y/N heard Henry shout.

“You see? Come get him, the bouncer is this close to throwing him out for being rowdy.” Sam said and Y/N rolled her eyes, grabbed a jacket, and got her keys.

“The man can’t even handle 8 shots. Why did he drink the bottle?” Y/N asked, leaving her apartment and walked to her car,

“I Don’t know, because of a bet, he lost at Pool.” Sam said.

“Men never truly mature, do they?” Y/N asked, unlocking her car and getting in, her phone connecting to the speaker.

“Not really, I’ll send you the address,” Sam said and hung up.

Y/N drove to the bar, showing the bouncer her ID and when she got in, she saw Sam holding Henry upright while Henry sings one of her songs, very poorly.

“My love! You came for me.” Henry said, walking to Y/N nearly tripping over his own feet until Y/N got closer to him.

“Alright Fortachón, let’s go back to your place, I’m sure Kal is worried about you.” Y/N said. Sam helped Y/N walk out with Henry and got him into her car.

Y/N was helping him into his house while he tries singing another song of hers. When she got the door open, Kal started barking.

“Hola Osito, i need you to move so I can get your dad inside.” Y/N told Kal and surprisingly Kal listened to her. Y/N closed the door and walked Henry to his bedroom. “Okay fortachón, I need you to get undressed.”

“Mm, you wanna see me naked, darling?” Henry asked.

“I need to get your pajamas on. Unless you wanna wear khakis to bed?” Y/N asked,

“No thank you.” Henry slurred and Y/N got him undressed and in his pajamas. “You take such great care of me darling.”

“It’s nothing, querido.” Y/N said,

“Mm, i love you so much.” Henry said, Y/N stopped what she was doing.

“You don’t mean that.” Y/N said.

“But I do, I love you so much, you are the best girlfriend I ever had.” Henry said.

“Go to sleep, Fortachón.” Y/N said.

“But he did say it again the next morning so he redeemed himself.” Y/N said.

“I made her breakfast as a thank you as well, told her I loved her over breakfast.” Henry admitted.

“Like the true British gentleman he is, haha. Our relationship is actually pretty strong, I even met his parents.” Y/N said,

“They love her, honestly. I’m pretty sure they love her more than they love me, whenever I go home and Y/N can’t come with me, they always ask for her.” Henry said.

“I just think they like my food.” Y/N said.

“She is an amazing cook. I never had flan before I tried hers, it is amazing.” Henry said.

The rest of their interview , they talked about their relationship and it was time for her to perform “So American”. The crowd LOVED IT, the showed ended, and Henry and Y/N were in Henry’s car.

“Did you mean what you put in your song? You really think about marrying me?” Henry asked.

“One day, if we’re still together after a few more years.” Y/N admitted.

“I think we will. Who knows, we might have a few kids in our future.” Henry said.

“Can’t wait.” Y/N said, Henry kissed Y/N and he started the car, driving home.

The End

Taglist: @warriormirkwood @alwayzmsbehavn @just-callmeanna @kingliam2019

HOPE Y’ALL LIKE IT!!

[guppybibi]

It's Showbiz, Baby.

𖦹 pairing: Kita Shinsuke x fem!reader

𖦹 word count: 1572

𖦹 content: reader is an actress, just an intro- not much happens. kita’s older sister is a big fan of Y/N, and i mean a HUGE fan.

𖦹 notes: i'm not sure how long this will be, i will (hopefully) be posting this on AO3 soon:3. Kita has an unnamed older sister and younger brother, which i do not know the ages/names of so i will be making it myself!

✧. ┊    Part 1

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Everyone needs some time for themselves; we're all just humans after all. However, that felt impossible for you, a well-known and appreciated actress. The paparazzi was always at your tail whenever you went out; flashing lights are all that you see behind those heavily tinted sunglasses of yours. You couldn't even enjoy a simple meal at a fast food place without a bunch of different fans surrounding you, which led you to become a shut-in in the comfort of your own home. Not that you didn't value your fans; you wouldn't be where you are without them. You just wish that you had some alone time.

It was one of those slow and steady days, since you’ve recently just finished acting a pretty major role in an upcoming movie. You're resting up so you can be well prepared for the premiere of the movie which will be in about two weeks or so.

As you continuously scroll through your feed, you see an author promoting a rental cabin in the province. Immediately catching your attention, it wasn't even pricey to begin with and most importantly—it seemed peaceful. Which was exactly what you needed right now. You start to check out the website for more details about it, deciding to book a stay for a week. Squeals of excitement fill the room once you click through the payment process, placing down your phone on the nightstand.

~

It was finally time for your long awaited vacation, sighing in bliss as she sees the sights surrounding her right now. You lift up your sunglasses and place it on top of your head, your floral sundress flowing as the wind breezes through it. Looking at your phone for directions, you felt like you were in the middle of nowhere. A city girl was out of place, oh what ever could she do? You decide to just stroll around, it wouldn't be dark in a while anyways so you should take this opportunity to take a walk without a bunch of people swarming you. Pulling your luggage along, scratching against the sidewalk.

The province wasn't anything like the city, that was clear to you right now. (Or she was just sheltered..) The air felt so fresh, the rows of fields that made your heart fill with tranquility just by looking at it. You spot a cottage from afar, by now you were desperate to find the cabin as you stupidly decided to wear heels. Seriously, what were you thinking? Dragging your sore legs to this stone cottage, you knock on the wooden front door.

The door creaks once it opens, revealing a man holding a broom with his dull brown eyes piercing through you. He hasn't even said anything yet, how could he be this intimidating?! One of his thin brows raise as he stares at you, before he speaks. “Ms. L/N?” You nod in response, it wasn't a surprise that she was easily recognized by this ‘stranger’; it happened all the time! Really, no need to sweat it.

“Yes yes, that's me! Um, I’m looking for this cabin here? I believe it's around this area..” You say, showing him your phone and pointing to a photo promotion of the cabin. “Ah yes, I know. The cabin is under my grandmother's name, so I can lead the way.” He answers, nodding as he places the broom aside and starts walking towards the said cabin. While you followed him, you felt a bit embarrassed that you assumed he knew you from your acting gigs. “Here we are,” The white haired man said as he stopped in front of the cabin, it looked as great as the pictures showed! It was definitely worth the money..”These are the keys, if you need anything–I’ll be at the house nearby. I’m sure you've seen it, it's right across the street.” He continues while you nod in response, recalling the house you saw earlier and mentally noting it down.

“Thank you so much!” You thank, bowing your head slightly as he waves his hand. “My pleasure, I hope you enjoy your stay here.” He pauses, swatting a mosquito that was trying to bite him. You look around and see that there were a lot of insects here, not just mosquitoes which gave you the heebie jeebies.. “Oh and no need to worry about the insects, as long as you don't open the windows they usually don't manage to get in. There are also some mosquito nets you can use.” He goes on, looking at you expectantly; ready to answer any query you had right now.

“I think I’ll be fine sir, thank you.” You reply, receiving a nod from him. “No need to address me so formally, I believe we're both around the same age–so you can just call me Kita.” “Same goes for you, you can just call me Y/N.” He nodded yet again, it felt like it was the hundredth time he nodded today.

He soon dismisses himself, heading back to his home across the street. Which left you to tour the cabin all by yourself. Everything seemed really traditional, not like anything you've seen in the city. You feel like you’ll really enjoy it here..Due to the exhausting travel here, the moment your body hits the fluffy bed; you instantly drift off to sleep. Good thing you managed to get the energy to even take off your makeup, it’d be really..messy–if you didn't.

Kita’s POV

He slips out of his sandals, placing them aside in a shoe cubby. Seeing his older sister, Kimiko, sat down at the dinner table with their grandmother. Sipping on some oolong tea alongside grandma Yumie who had her own cup as well, Kimiko was scrolling through the different details of people booking the cabin to double check. She almost spits out the tea in her mouth, some of it dribbling down her lips as she stops herself. With widened eyes and a gulp, she looked over at Shinsuke. “Y/N is here!? THE Y/N?! And you didn't even bother to tell me!?” She exclaims with a shocked tone, standing up just to grab his shoulders and shake him.

A door slams open when Y/N’s name is mentioned, displaying an equally shocked younger brother; Riku. Not even giving Shin enough time to respond, Kimiko speaks up. “Yes! THE Y/N IS HERE- and Shin didn't even bother to mention it to us!” She says with a snarky tone, turning over to the defenseless Shin and staring at him for a sec before facing Riku. “Kimi-chan, speak to Shin-chan in a nicer tone–you're his older sister. You should know better.” Yumie butts in, her gentle smile still on her face as she sips on the tea. Leaving Kimiko with no room to argue, she isn't one to disrespect her grandmother like that.

“It's alright, I should've informed them about it anyways. It's a family business after all, but I don't think we should bother Y/N–right now at least. She's here for vacation and to relax, not to entertain any of her fans.” Shinsuke adds, believing that Y/N was deserving of rest and respect; she was human just like them. Shin was never really fond about how things worked in the entertainment industry, aware of how the actors' and actresses’ privacy is basically torn off once they’re considered a ‘celebrity’. He didn't believe this was right, and this was only the tip of the iceberg with the amount of issues in the industry.

Maybe some of these people actually do enjoy the idea of them lacking privacy, who knows? Shin wasn't one to judge, he simply just preferred a quiet life. “Right..don't bother her. Got that, I just hope she comes over here and asks for something—anything! I’ll gladly give it to her!” Kimiko adds, daydreaming of Y/N strutting over to their own home to borrow something like her hairbrush.

“Yeah, in your dreams sis. She's a grown woman, I’m sure she can handle herself.” Riku teases, sticking his tongue out as he taunts his older sister. “Oh c'mon! No need to shatter my dreams like that, and plus–she's from the city. I doubt she’d know her way around here, she’ll need help eventually.” Kimiko was right, if she wanted to tour around the village, it would be best if she had some kind of guide. They couldn't risk having a bigshot getting lost and causing a commotion in their simple little village.

“Well whatever, she's staying for a week so I’m sure I can wait! I'll be extra patient.” She adds, earning a skeptical look from her whole family. “Sure, you who have multiple posters with Y/N’s face plastered all over your room, also you who have watched basically every single movie and show Y/N has been in–even side characters!”

“Hey! Commitment and loyalty is a good quality to have!” “Not if it's coming from an obsessed stranger, that's creepy!” That made Shinsuke wince a little, thinking about how his little brother was right–he can't imagine having his face on inanimate objects, free for people to do whatever they want with it. They could do all sorts of profane actions to it.. Shinsuke shook his head, sighing as he muttered. “I'll head off to bed, I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.” He shouldn't stress out about things he couldn't control, I mean–a rice farmer versus a whole industry? Yeah–no.

Today was only the beginning of his uncontrollable worries..

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[kooksbunnnn]

Lost cause? 1 : everythings gone?

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook × female!Reader

Genre: Established relationship/ marriage, angst, panic attack (TRIGGER WARNING) heartbreak, INFIDELITY (do not read if this content triggers you) also, 18+, Please read the author's note.

Words: 5.3k words

Summary: You always wondered, how would your life turn out to be if you and Jungkook had a baby? So, when you finally conceive and decide to tell your husband, that you are pregnant, you didn't expect him to drop this bomb on you. You never would've thought that the surprise you planned would end up in agonized tears because of the shock your husband brings you. 

Authors note: hi everyone! Welcome, to the people who are reading this for the first time and I apologize to the people who have already read this and were disappointed that it got deleted. This was my first ever drabble on this app, but because of people giving so much love to this story, I decided to write another part of it. And since not every story or the ending or the writer is perfect, some people didn't like the part two. 

Since this story is slightly related to a trauma that I personally experienced, I tried to convince people that people have different approaches towards these situations and people might also want to try again if their partner cheats. Not giving a chance again was my approach, since my situation was different. 

Anyways, I updated the second chapter and some people called my OC dumb. So I tried making slight changes in the story and saved it in the drafts. But then I updated this app and my story got deleted from the drafts, which I apologize for with my whole heart. I am sorry if I disappointed any of the lovely readers by deleting the story, for the new readers, I hope you enjoy this drabble! Love you, hehe.

So here it is once again! The Lost cause. 

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Today's a very special day, Jeon Jungkook, your husband, would be back from his 10-day trip to Busan, courtesy of the company he worked his ass off for. Also, you had an announcement to make, speaking of which, you place the single candle on the dinner table finishing your preparations for the date night you planned.

You were pregnant, finally pregnant. After so many tries. You got so happy when the results came but since Jungkook was on a trip, you decided to keep it a secret until he comes back.

Anxiety, excitement, happiness, and maybe fear. What if he does not get happy listening to the news? These emotions are giving you a feeling that you are not able to place in your head quite clearly, but as soon as the sound of keys rattling reaches your ears, a smile appears on your face and the joy wins the race with every other feeling.

You run towards the gate and hide against the wall that was attached to the door giving you a spot big enough to put up your wedding picture frame. As soon as the door opens you jump and whisper-yell a 'boo', which was meant to be adorable but made him gasp and drop his luggage on the floor.

You pick up the phone that he dropped and you chuckle, hugging him you whisper in his ears, "I missed you baby."

When he doesn't hug you back your body tenses a little bit but before you can pull back he pulls you towards him and buries his head in your neck inhaling your scent. "I missed you too." You listen to him repeat the statement like a mantra, leaning back a little you look into his eyes...

Was he crying?

"Hey baby, I love you, okay?" You kiss him, trying to assure him of your presence. Inhaling his natural scent which was also mixed with a few cigarettes. You frown in the kiss when you realize something is off because of the way he just kept his lips frozen.

Also, the cigarettes were a symptom of stress, but you don't pay attention to the smoky scent and kiss him trying to make him relax. All the excitement drained out of you and now you were worried that you did something wrong.

The way he was holding you tightly but also with hesitation, 3 years of a relationship along with 2 years experience in marriage has taught you both, the body language you both can show and it made you a bit worried.

You step back to look at him properly and see that he had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was disheveled. It looked as if he had run through by his hand many times. He does it again, proving your theory.

It's a nervous trait of his.

The single drop of tear dropping on his chin tells you something is wrong, his chest heaving as if trying to contain and also let out something. You realize he hasn't even looked at you once.

"Kook?" Hearing the nickname he opens his eyes to look at your face for a second and then looks away.

"Are you okay? Is everything okay? Did something happen baby?" The soft questions in a whisper-like voice made him tear up and say a distant 'yeah just missed you so much.'

You look at his face that was focusing on the picture you hung on the wall from your honeymoon trip, the hills in the background of the picture making you smile at the memory of your husband whining like a baby because of the cold.

The picture even has his nose red and all scrunched up while you were posing with a big smile on your face, your chin resting on his shoulder with your hands in his jacket pocket while you hugged him from the back, fitting into each other like puzzle pieces.

You both look at the picture and after some seconds of zoning out, you chuckle and say sorry for not even letting him in and jumping on him, he shakes his gaze off the painting and rushes to close the door before he takes his shoes off and just tumbles across the hall when you notice.

His shoes...

He never has his shoelaces untied. Cursing your overthinking brain you tell it that maybe he is tired and just wanna rest.

"You know I ordered a big pizza meal but then canceled it cause I suddenly changed my mind. It amazes me that I can change my mind in 35 seconds.." you chuckle at how fast you felt nausea set in your stomach when you ordered the pizza and just keep on talking, still nervous about how you're gonna tell him everything. "But then I decided to cook some steak which I couldn't cause I suddenly had a headache, so I decided that you can suggest something and we can order while you showe- where are you going, kook?"

You say in a confused tone when you see him opening the balcony door letting the cool air inside.

"Just need some air, Y/N"

You flinch at how he takes your full name, and you realize it must've been your rambling that you sent him to the balcony for air. You feel sorry and walk towards the balcony where he just stares at the city from above, the sun still setting into the horizon painting the sky a pretty shade of purple mixed with a crimson red.

"I'm sorry if I annoyed you baby, just excited you are back. You wanna shower first or eat something? You seem tired." He shakes his head at your question rocking your body a bit with his since you have yours attached to his back like a koala.

"Can I get some time alone, Y/N...please?" You pull back with your eyebrows knitted together at his sudden request which makes you feel something in your stomach. Something bad.

"Um, okay. Take your time.." you step back into the lobby when suddenly you feel nauseous and you run towards the bathroom with a hand clutched over your mouth.

Oh no. Not yet

Rushing into the bathroom you fall onto your knees in front of the pot, pouring out almost everything you had this morning. Jungkook comes running after you kneeling down immediately beside you, holding your hair back which you were not doing a good job at.

He rubs your back as you cough and try to breathe at the same time not being able to pay attention to his 'are you okays' or 'hey what happened' or 'it's okay, it's okay I am here'.

When you feel like you have nothing left in you, you sit up a little to flush the remnants of your indigested food into the sewer, falling back against the wall connected to the shower cabinet.

You breathe heavily and try to calm down when you notice a big pair of doe eyes looking at you in concern, he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear as you try getting up.

"I am sorry, you didn't have to help, seriously. You're tired, go take a shower then we can eat something okay?" You try to leave the tensed guy's embrace but he stops you, looking at you from top to bottom examining you as a doctor while you turn to use some mouthwash.

"I didn't have to help? You were literally wrenching your gut out, are you even okay?!" He asks you in a terrified voice turning you towards him after you spit out the mouthwash.

You, not wanting to worry him more because of his earlier wanting to be alone statement, just hold his face in both of your hands telling him that it was stale rice that you had in lunch. Whispering an 'oh', he immediately takes his hands away from your face and asks you to be careful, adding a little please at the end making your heart swell with love.

You both stand there silent while the tap water runs in the background. You turn back to turn it off after some seconds and break the silence by telling him that he can shower as long as he wants and you can order something in the meanwhile.

Walking towards the door, you ask, "Chicken?" he looks at you for a second and breathes a 'yeah'. You smile and lean in to kiss his cheeks telling him not to take too long cause you have to talk about something.

"Me too," he says in an almost inaudible voice, giving him a little nod, you walk back into the kitchen.

After a long 42-minute shower, according to your phone clock, he comes out in a killing t-shirt and sweatpants combination. Smelling his body wash from 2 feet away you feel the comfort seeping into you. You hug him, inhaling his natural and soapy scent, running your hand in his damp hair and scratching his scalp, you chuckle.

"There's my perfect and not-so-travel-worn husband." You were about to start the conversation that lead to the announcement, when suddenly he buried his nose in your neck, sniffling and you feel his arms tightening around you, him mumbling an 'I am sorry' into your shoulder accompanied with little drops that dampen your t-shirt's collar.

You try to pull back to talk to him but he doesn't let you, his body starts shaking as he starts to fully sob. Your heart picks up its pace as you've never seen him like this. Doubting himself or the relationship, you feel a pang in your heart as if something bad is about to happen.

"Jungkook, hey, what's the matter? Are you okay?" You pull back putting in a lot of strength and see how his face is red and his tears are just flowing out.

"Hey look at me.." you try to make him face you but he just shuts his eyes trying to face away from your concerned orbs. He suddenly sits down on the chair with a thud slipping from your hold, he clutches his head and keeps on sobbing and coughing and crying. You try to calm him down with big wide eyes filling with tears as well, at seeing the pain he is in but its as if he can't hear you or your words.

You can swear you heard him say 'I fucked up, I fucked up. I am so fucking sorry.' Your heart sinks and you kneel in front of him, taking his hand in yours. Pressing short kisses on his tattooed fist, after a lot of struggling you finally make him look at you and the expression makes you doubt the curiosity in you because you have this feeling...

Sitting up on your knees coming face to face with him, he stares at you, sniffling, his eyes and his nose all red, lips quivering. "I love you Jungkook okay? trust me, tell me what happened please?" You say softly but firmly, confirming to him that he had to tell everything about the guilt and disgust he felt towards himself. How he wanted to just go back in time, to revert the fuck up he did, which is gonna ruin everything, everything he built, everything he had in this relationship. The love, the trust, he could see everything breaking including you and your heart.

Not being able to keep his eyes on you, he looks down at his lap and you have a feeling you're not gonna like his next words. Tightening his hold on your hands he said...

"I cheated on you."

The silence between you two, after hearing the words come out of his mouth, was deafening. You can't even hear your heartbeats, did it stop? Is this a dream? A nightmare if precisely termed. You feel the air in your lungs escaping and a panic setting inside you.

"It happened just once, I am sorry. I don't know why I did it. I am really sorry. I don't know what to do.." he keeps going on and on, you are looking at him but nothing reaches you.

There is this ringing in your ear that doesn't seem to stop and after a good 1 or 2 minutes of looking blankly at the body shaking and sobbing in front of you, you realize that you went blank. All the apologies and curses that were pointed at him were not even entering your ears.

When the realization hit, you felt all alone in the room, with silence, slow breaths, panic, and the 'feeling of a life growing inside you.' Questions. A lot of questions, came running at you with knives and swords piercing through your heart.

Why? Were you not enough?

Did he fall out of love?

Did you do something wrong?

Did you gain weight?

Did you not give him satisfaction anymore?

Were you ever insensitive?

Did you bore him?

Were you not exciting anymore?

Did you cross some boundaries of his privacy?

Should you've worn more makeup?

Should you have gotten that surgery your aunt suggested?

Did you annoy him?

Will he leave you?

Would you have to beg?

Will you beg?

What about the pregnancy?

Should you tell him?

What if he leaves?

What if you are left alone?

Do you even want to live a life alone, without him?

And many more...

The unfocused look in your eyes and the loosening grip of your hands made him jolt up in the chair and hold your hands tighter, pulling you towards his body, he left your hands and held you by your shoulders, trying to shake you out of the panic. He can almost read the questions in your eyes. He can explain, and he wants to, but he needs you to get back to him. Back to the lobby where you were looking into his eyes but still were not able to hear or see or feel him.

"Y/N. Look at me. Hey, Y/N, focus baby. Talk to me, please. Yell at me. Scream. Hit me. Just talk please." He shakes you and your body responds with a limp movement which makes him leave the chair and get down on the floor.

The anxiety, the panic, the betrayal, all making your breathing ragged. You want to scream but your body doesn't respond. You've been cheated a lot of times in your life, many times. Including the one time a guy used you for a bet to prove to his friends that he can fuck you. From grade 5th, the bullies of your school had bets on who can slap your ass or grope you in the hallways or in the classroom. Which forced you to shift to another school.

Making new friends was never easy for you and since everyone behaved well to you first and then betrayed you in the past, you had trust issues. So any guy who said he liked you, the issues that made the relationship difficult, ended up with him dumping you or the famous cheating situation. After 5 and a half years of isolation from friends and love since nothing made you feel secure. You finally found Jungkook who proved in every single way that he can be your friend and lover at the same time. You didn't need anyone else. And as of now, if not him, you have no one. This leaves you with another question. Are you gonna end up lonely in that depressing, dark pit where you cried and even if you were surrounded by four groups of people, no one gave a fuck.

The thoughts hit you like a punch in the gut and the amount of shaking Jungkook had you get out of the daze and finally focus on him. Looking at his face you remember everything you guys have done. The kisses, the movies, the cuddles, the teasing, the late-night walks, the crying sessions, the fights, the sex...

Before you can even think about the following genres of your memories, you push him back and clutch your head. Falling forward with your knees still tucked under your thighs, you pull your hair to stop the pain in your head and let out a screech that makes Jungkook sob harder.

He doesn't wanna see you like this, your body shivering, and the way your hands are shaking and your loud cries and wails that he never wanted to be the reason for. He knew your past. He knew every fucking thing. How could he do this to you? He vowed that he will never make you cry, he literally would kill anyone who made you upset.

Now, what should he do with himself?

You gasp as you take in the air, your body falling back as you reach for something on the ground to get support from. Jungkook tries to reach out to you but you yell at him to stay away as you start imagining pictures in your head of him kissing someone, moaning someone else's name, coming for someone else. You look at his face that was still crying and had his fists clenched on the marble floor.

"Why?" You ask between sobs not wanting to hear an answer, mostly talking to yourself. Listening to which he cries harder, crawling towards you he tries to hold your hand. But you struggle against him, trying to push him again but he pleads in front of you to listen to him explain.

"No!" You scream and push him off. Making him fall back against the floor, and you even stop for a second to check on him if he is hurt, but you continue, sobbing, when you see that he is okay.

"Was I not enough for you?! Why did you, out of all the people, You! have to prove that I am not worth putting people's time into?! What am I supposed to do huh?" you kneel in front of his body that was hesitant to reach out but wanted to comfort your panicked state. "You tell me Kook...Do you expect me to forgive you? Or do you expect me to trust you again and just forget that this.." you move your pointer finger towards both of you pointing towards your chests, "..ever happened?"

Getting up you get a dizzy feeling in your head and you can feel the room spinning. You lean against the kitchen counter. Tears never stopping. You look at him who was getting up to sit on the chair and constantly looking down at the floor.

Suddenly you can't breathe without asking him the questions in your mind and you wanted to know, Why? Who? Where?

"Who was she?" You ask not able to hide the little crack in your voice as you looked at your husband, who promised to love you. Forever.

"She was the manager in the club I went to celebrate with Hyungs." He speaks up without hesitation knowing that he owes an explanation. That easy? Was it that easy to forget about you and fuck another girl?

"What was her nam- actually no I don't wanna know..." you felt bile rise in your throat at the thought of knowing her name, so after a pause, you got the courage to ask him, "Did you fuck her?" He looked at you flinching at the choice of your words.

"No." He said looking away tears still flowing. Before you could ask further, he explained himself. "I-no, I didn't fuck her, does it matter what we did? I am sorry Y/N, just please look at me?" He begged as he stood up to walk up to you.

You chuckled sarcastically, no humor present in your voice. You looked up and saw guilt in his eyes as he stopped in his way when he heard you let out a half-hearted laugh. It hurts to see him cry but you can't help but feel the pain in your chest overlapping your love. You doubt if you should even tell him about his baby. It was supposed to be a surprise but clearly, your husband had better surprises planned.

You really want to, but you can't really see a future ahead of you now.

"We. It is such an easy word right, kook?" You look at the ground thinking about how he used the word so easily which was supposed to be only yours and his.

"We. Us..." You look up at him and say through clenched teeth, "..It matters Jungkook tell me. What exactly happened. I want to know where exactly I went wrong for you to go seek help somewhere else."

He wanted to protest but you shush him with an adamant,

'Tell me Jungkook'.

He looks at his feet and you prepare yourself for the heartbreaking details. "We met-.." he looks at you and changes his words "I met her when she came to ask if our group needed something. Namjoon Hyung introduced all of us since she was his old friend. They wanted to celebrate the deal and since she was Hyung's friend, we invited her, and I..I don't know what happened but I got really drunk and I just went to wash my face but she j-just grabbed me and pushed me against the wall and.." he started snuffling and you felt your body shaking and long, heavy breathes leaving your lungs, eyes squeezed shut, with clenched fists, trying to hear the whole story without breaking down. "She started kissing me a-and w-we just kissed and.."

He pauses pleading for you to not let him continue.

"Continue please.." he can hear your heart, your voice, and your demeanor breaking at the same time. "Y/N please.." hearing this, you look at him with eyes that were emotionless, telling him that he fucking owes this much to you.

All the while he was speaking, you think about the baby, the little person who did nothing wrong. Will his or her father leave? You feel your breath slipping away at the thought but you control the urge to scream until he finishes.

"..and then we just gave each other a handjob.." you flinched at the term making your knuckles go white. He sounds so distant, so small, the guilt eating him up.

"Did you cum?" you ask him, eyes shut as if trying to avoid the answers. He sighs and mutters a 'yes'. You inhale sharply trying to gasp for air looking up at the ceiling, "did you make her cum?"

He feels the knot in his throat fighting the food he ate earlier which was trying to come out, guilt and disgust seeping into his veins. This sounds so disgusting and you sound so broken. Your breathing making him feel pathetic. But after gathering some courage he admits cause he had to answer you.

"..yes."

It was supposed to happen if they did that kind of stuff but it made you feel sick to the stomach. You feel the world spin and you wonder if there is a chance that a nightmare could feel so true.

You don't know what comes over you when you call his name softly.

"Jungkook?"

He looks up at you with blurry eyes and you reach up to his hand to hold it against your belly. The moment you see him realize, you start crying breathlessly, hiccups making it harder to breathe. His eyes sparkle for a second when he understands that finally, he fulfilled his dream which was to be a father but loses it as soon as he realizes that he fucked up bad and what he did was irreversible, and also that he has ruined three lives altogether.

Him.

You.

And the baby.

His eyes lose color as soon as you drop his hand so that you can cover your crying face with both your hands, not knowing what you're gonna do now.

He steps back as he realizes what he has done. You and he have been trying for half a year and when he got the chance to be a father, to be a perfect husband, a chance to help you sit up, feed you, to do stuff for you cause you won't be able to do, since you would be having a big belly, with his baby inside. Who will one day hold his hand and call him 'dad', he wanted to help you get through the labor so that he could hold the baby in his arms taking in his or her features while you sleep because you'd be exhausted, then have a family picture taken in the hospital, and get it framed to put on the bedside wall.

You just keep sniffing after crying for a time you or he couldn't measure. Your body is not able to move. Your thoughts whirl inside your mind and you don't realize when you black out.

Jungkook heard how your hiccups stopped gradually, making him look upward to see how you passed out and now had your head resting on the wall behind you. Your body was cold and your face was wet with tears. He carries you to your bedroom and tucks you in, feeling sick when he sees your face and nose red. Black trails on the cheekbones. He tries to rub the smudges off but pulls his hand back when he realizes that he lost his right to do all this.

He places a glass of water on the nightstand which was his daily habit, cause he knows you wake up at the midnight, searching for water with grabby hands and whining until he gets you some.

You were his princess whom he liked to spoil even after your complaints of being a spoiled brat because of him, always smiling when he called you his baby. He made sure you didn't have to leave the comfort of your bed. He remembers how you smiled looking at him with your big doe eyes filled with love which were now red because of him.

He turns off the lights in the room to make sure your eyes don't strain while you sleep. Because he would not sleep next to you, to help you get your relief by burying your head in his chest to avoid the lights. He lost this privilege.

All these emotions made him feel nauseous but nothing comes up. The feeling sitting inside him as he watches your pale face being lit under the moonlight coming through the gap in the window curtains. He didn't realize how the clock turned from 07:35 in the evening to 01:05, midnight.

He sat on the floor next to your hand, not even daring to touch you trying to think of ways to solve this. When he doesn't he cries muffling his voice in his arms so that you don't wake up, he doesn't want to leave you alone, afraid of you getting up due to a nightmare or the morning sickness.

He didn't realize when he fell asleep, but when he woke up, he didn't find you anywhere in the room, not even in the bathroom. Calling out your name in panic, he runs out to the lobby where he doesn't find you either. He calls for you in a scared voice when the cool air from the balcony caressing his face tells him that you were on the balcony.

He rushed towards you and saw how you were crouched down on the floor sipping coffee or tea. It might be tea coz you don't like coffee in the morning. 'It makes me talk bitter' you told him once at the beginning of your relationship. The memories made him smile.

Walking inside the balcony area decorated by you as soon as you both moved into the apartment 8 months ago, with plants, wall hangings, colorful pots, and a set of chairs with a little round table for your balcony date nights you had on Saturdays.

Sitting down he sees that your eyes are still swollen and he understands you were crying before he woke up. He wants to caress your swollen skin but he doesn't have the right to anymore. So he just sits across you on the balcony floor looking at the floor underneath him.

After finishing the tea you keep the empty mug on the floor with a clink and without looking at him and focusing still on the empty utensil, you softly speak, "Kook, I don't know, I-I just... I love you and I don't think that would change ever but..." he squeezes his eyes, dreading your next sentence.

I just don't know if I can see you, or feel the same way for you as I did before, b-but... I think our child should be born with both parents being able to be around each other." he looks up at you with hopeful eyes.

"That does not mean that I would be able to forgive you, Kook. You broke my heart, Jungkook. I am strong. But I am not that strong to let you back in my life. After what happened to me in the past, this was my last straw and I hope you know that I loved you with everything I had... I still do. But I just can't." You breathe out.

You feel your heart clench at the way he opens his mouth to say something but closes it the moment you start tearing up. He looks at his lap again, soft sniffles coming from his direction.

You don't want to leave, but you get up to leave the balcony with Jungkook still looking at the floor not able to make eye contact with you.

With your back towards him, you say, "I am going to live at my mom's house for some time until I find an apartment or maybe until our baby is born, I do not want to stay here.." looking around you feel your heart sinking as every spot that screams about the time you've spent here.

"...the memories will fucking kill me. Also, you can...um, visit if you want, as I w-want you to be an equal part of the child's life as I am, just.." he looks up at you with teary eyes at your pause, ".. don't expect to be a part of my life, Kookie. It won't be easy for me but I can't risk it. I have to take care of us"

And he looks away with watery eyes when he realizes that you were not talking about the three of you but just the baby and you.

Seeing him try to control his breathing, you couldn't help but walk back into the balcony to kneel in front of him. Muscle memory, you guess. Leaning forward, you put your hand on the other side of his face and give a peck to his cheek, he holds your wrist softly in place not wanting to let you go, and you both sob simultaneously while inhaling the air as if breathing is the most difficult thing in the world.

You feel your heartbreak at the Irony. He used to be your safe space. He helped you breathe.

You put your forehead against his and let his scent get absorbed and engraved in your mind. One last time. But you know you have to be strong. Your past has ruined your trusting instincts and now Jungkook just put the cherry on top.

You mumble a little 'I love you' before nudging his nose with yours as he tries to not let you go, but eventually does cause he didn't dare to stop you after doing you wrong. You get up to leave when you hear a silent 'I love you too' followed by a wave of muffled sobs leaving his mouth.

You let the tears fall openly and vulnerably as you leave the apartment, breaking down as soon as you reach your car. You glance at the plushie sitting on your dashboard he gave you after winning at an arcade.

The little squishy duck looking at you with pity in its plastic eyes, as it now has witnessed your most happy moments and the most dreadful ones in approximately 8 months.

Was everything over? You and Jungkook? Your perfect fairytale? Your perfect family? The dream you've been dreaming of forever, the child and the kid's room, the house in the countryside, everything?

was it all gone, forever?

---------------------------------------------------

Next chapter. Series masterlist Main Masterlist

✨️Comment, message, or send me an ask if you wanna get added to the tag list of this series. ✨️

[octuscle]

Visiting relatives down south for the Christmas season. I always dread it. All my cousins are so much younger than me, just fresh out of high school, and they’re all such dumb country meatheads. I feel completely out of touch around them. I wish I could fit in better, just to make the holidays easier.

Dude, your cousins are kids. They are six to ten years younger than you. Why do you want to spend time with them? Do you want to smoke secretly behind the shed and push cows around at night? Then you'd better stay in Boston, you'll never have any real fun that way….

You're a sophomore in college. Economics and business math. Your dorm is emptying more and more just before Christmas. But you just don't feel like flying to South Carolina. But it doesn't help. Your mother is a family woman. And even though she has always lived in New England since she went to university and met your late father there, she always made a point of celebrating Christmas on the farm. Well, for your mother's sake…

There are a few other of your colleagues on the bus who are studying business administration and are about to do their MBA. You chat about your plans for the holidays. You're looking forward to playing football with your cousins. You're the big boy, they adore you.

Thank goodness you're only flying with hand luggage. A bit of dirty laundry, that's all you have with you. You buy presents in old Pete's general store. And you can certainly borrow clothes from one of your uncles. Most of the time you'll be hanging out with them and talking about the farm anyway. You're about to finish your master's degree in agricultural sciences. Yes, most people here think you're a nerd, but as long as you win at arm wrestling, your word carries weight.

Uncle Mikey picks you up at the airport. You can finally take off that damn thick down jacket. It's wonderfully warm. You don't talk much on the drive to the farm. You don't talk much at all. You're more men of action than men of words. And Mikey quickly gets down to action. By the time you're on the highway, he's already jerked you off. You love the holidays in the south.

Technically, you're their nephew. But your mother's younger brothers are barely older than you. And you are, after all, a trained agricultural machinery technician. Most of your family struggled to finish high school. In any case, you and your uncles are inseparable. Christmas Eve is your traditional tractor pull. Mikey has prepared his protein eggnog. Another tradition is that you have to empty the punch in one go. And you invented the tradition.

Burp! That was a good one. Hehehe! And let's see who can pull the six-ton monster the fastest the 100 yards. You may be a kid from the big city by now, but winning is a matter of honor!

Pic found @eurobeef 

[unmotivatedwrit3r]

One in Eleven Million (ch.7)

damian wayne x reader x jon kent

(A/N): this is where the real-life experience I took to write this story runs out so please take any and all airplane/airline logistics with a grain of salt. And with that said, enjoy! I want to get the rest of this series out by the end of fall to hopefully have room to post the holiday fics I want to write so look forwards to the coming final chapters. And apologies, this is a short one.

edit: forgot to link the masterlist so here it is!

warnings: airplane travel, turbulence, emergency (not crash) landings, panic

wc: ~750

~~

The next forty five minutes passed in some part conversation and some part Jon showing you dozens of pictures on his phone. He had a few really good ones of Superman (the older one) and some stunning ones overlooking Metropolis. 

“My parents are reporters so they–they know people who take photos like this,” Jon explained to you, crunching on the airplane pretzels he’d reclaimed from Damian.  

You pulled out a few photos of the Gotham skyline to show the boys in turn. Your photos didn’t live up to theirs, but with your not-high-tech phone camera, those were about the best you had. 

A stronger bout of turbulence rocked even you, hands instinctively gripping the hard plastic of the armrests. A quick glance at Damian gave away that he didn’t find it regular either. 

Jon’s “This is weird right?” overlapped with the concerned cries of other passengers. You turned to Damian. 

“It feels more like a train right now than a plane.” 

“I agree. This is irregular at best.” 

You nearly missed the crackle of the loudspeaker from underneath the raised voices of those around you. 

“Ladies and gentleman, there has been a slight issue with one of our regulators. As of now, all passengers and attendants are to remain seated for their safety. Our next step is to make an emergency landing at the Philadelphia airport where there will then be connecting flights to Gotham. If you would rather find an alternate method of transport, let the front desk know as soon as we arrive so any luggage is forwarded to baggage claim.” 

You could barely process the new information over the sudden uproar. 

“This has never happened to you, I assume?” Damian spoke loudly. 

“No, nothing like this. I’d never even had a delay this bad before but this? No it-it’s crazy.” The answer to your question was chiseled into the shaken expression on Damian’s face but you asked anyway. “Either of you?”

Twin shakes of the head confirmed your assumption. 

“It’s not an emergency right? Like I know it’s an emergency landing but not a fall out of the sky kind of emergency right?” Jon’s blue eyes were wide. You shrugged helplessly.

“I want to say they’d tell us if it was but-”

“But they’ve been less than forthcoming so far so why begin now?” Damian finished. 

“Yeah,” you agreed. “Exactly.” 

Beside your seat, the emergency exit lights lit up. 

“That doesn’t bode well.” Damian pulled the words out of your brain. “But panicking,” he hissed at the woman lamenting in the row behind you, “will not solve anything.” 

You didn’t think Damian realized Jon was clinging to his hand. You didn’t think he knew he was holding yours.  

“Jon, you’re shaking the floor.” The words came out harsher than you intended. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be-I just-it’s-”

“Sorry I just-” Jon switched from tapping his foot to holding Damian’s left hand in his, focus tuned on his fingers. Damian’s gaze was locked on where his right hand was linked with yours. You pulled away as if his gaze burned you. “I’m never flying commercial again,” Jon finished. 

The laughter that bubbled out of your mouth was more hysterical than you intended. 

Another bout of rough turbulence wracked the plane. You kept your hands to yourself his time, arms crossed against your chest to squeeze at your biceps. 

You barely heard Jon’s whispered cursing underneath the panic rising throughout the rest of the plane.

Damian stayed quiet, but the hand that wasn’t held in Jon’s was tightly clenched. If he wasn’t human, you might have expected there to be holes bored into the head of an older man across the aisle. You wanted to quiet the guy yourself; his catastrophic ranting was only adding into your own anxiety. Instead, you spent a couple minutes making sure all of the stuff in your backpack was tucked away. 

“He does know everyone else can hear him, right?” You asked as you sat up. Both boys chuckled. Jon’s fingers tapped rapidly on his thigh. 

“Alright folks,” the pilot’s voice interrupted the catastrophizing. “We’ve begun the landing process. Please be aware that further turbulence is normal. We should be on the ground soon.”

“How much longer can they call turbulence normal?” Damian ground out. You didn’t have an answer for him. 

[catnipaddictt]

Abstract

wc: 2.1k

series masterlist ⭑ co-creator @memoiich

You had finally moved away from your hometown. A final answer to your undying search for independence. A trait your mothers whipped tongue had tried to rein back for years. Something that had very clearly failed. The thought alone made you smirk a bit as you stood before your new home. The Alderaan apartments were a choice at best. Very cheap for the location being so close to the centre of the city but a little decrepit. Still it felt like a palace to you right now.

You made your way up to the 4th floor, the highest of the crumbling building. Leaving you to look out to the curtains of the slightly nicer hotel on the other side of the street. Grabbing your suitcase, you unpacked your luggage before coming to the realisation that you had no food in your new home. And of course it just had to be dark outside, evening having set. After overthinking your options you decided to ask your neighbour for some eggs. Dragging yourself to your neighbour’s door with your metaphorical tail between your legs, you knocked on the door.

A strange being poked its face through the slightest gap possible, it looked around worried. You didn’t know if it was to look for trouble or to find it. After the anxiety-writing look, the creature opened the creaking door. Now that you could see it, It was clearly a Gungan.

“Hello. Missa Jar Jar Binks. Why are you at misssas door?“ he questions “Hey, I'm your new neighbour. I was wondering if I could borrow some eggs?“ You say, a bit unsure of the Gungan in front of you. “Missa loves eggs. Sun sun or scrambled, lovely for my tumtum” jar jar snickers at the end. ”So… Can I use the eggs? You question once again. “Missa doesn’t have any eggs for sunsun but missa could go to the store for stuff and stuff.” Not only did you think of going to the store before you were now massively disappointed and also extremely tired. The less effort option was clearly the wrong one.

“No it's fine I will go myself thank you anyways.” Before finishing Jar Jar was already speaking, “It's not a big dealio, you newbie don't know the way like missa does.” Before you could protest against this clearly exhausting task, he was already out of the door and started walking towards the staircase. Not wanting to be rude, you followed. It took 17 minutes longer than normal to get to the store because Jar Jar wanted to ‘cut a cornerio’. Once at the store Jar Jar started to argue after eating a RAW egg “As a tasty jum jum” Only after 36 min of arguing and you finally offering to just buy the dozen did you start to make your way back home which also took a small hour.

You could finally bid Jar Jar goodnight. You got home just to cook the damn eggs ‘sun-sun’ style and went to bed in the early morning, you already knew this new life was going to be hard at first.

Waking up had never been so hard before, but the alarm was ringing and today was an important one. It was your first day at your new job at the paper company, ‘Paper Force’. Paper Force was located pretty far away, you would have to drive past the mustafar part of the city, making it a long trip for a very tired driver. Prepping for work wasn't the worst as you had laid out your work outfit the night before.

You got in your beat-up 2002 beetle and started the 50 minute commute. At the 20 minute point your car started to rumble, not just a soft snore, no, a rumble. 10 minutes later and you were stuck by the side of the road. You search an auto shop on your hologram immediately. The only car mechanic that wasn't 2 hours away was a place called ‘MustaCar’. Having no time to waste, you called the number.

45 long minutes later an old pickup truck pulls up behind your still-not-starting beetle. By this point you were frankly very annoyed. You were already half an hour late to your new job, and it didn't seem like you were going to get there soon. And to make things worse, you slept bad last night, meaning you were now rather sleep deprived.

The door to the pickup truck swings open with a clunk, clearly well used. A man in his early to mid 20’s steps out of the vehicle, he reaches up and moves his dark-blond curls out of his field of vision. He wears an oil-stained long sleeved button up, of which you cannot tell the original colour, as well as a pair of dirtied jeans. He spots you, puts his hands in his pockets and stalks over, clearly in no hurry.

“I was just thinking you weren't going to bother showing up” you snapped at him harshly. “Well, sorry Miss, the rest of the world doesn’t revolve around you” You let out a sharp breath at his words. “Excuse me, just look at my car and do your job”. You were fed up with this day already and now you had to deal with a know-it-all, stuck-up, man-child of a mechanic. “Parents didn’t teach you manners I see, now what seems to be the matter here? So I can do my job” He walks towards your car, popping the lid. You roll your eyes at him before speaking. “Well she won't go” He rolls up his sleeves, “Figured that much” he states. Your brows furrow in annoyance, you don’t have time for his attitude, “something started making noise and now she doesn't want to run.” He leans forward to observe your car’s engine. “She, huh, does the lovely lady have a name as well?” You can hear his smirk through his words. Your ears turn red “Shelby, the car is called Shelby”. The mechanic lets out a harsh laugh as he turns to something unknown “An old lady I suppose then, with a name like that”. You let out a huff and turn away.

“Dead Battery and the terminals are corroding”. You jump slightly, having zoned out. “Sorry?” you question. “You have a dead battery and its terminals are also corroding. Oh and you have a break problem, that's what the noise was”. You stand there a bit perplexed, “Uh what does that mean?”. “It means you aren’t gonna be able to drive Shelby until you get her fixed”. He says the name of your car amusingly. “So can you do it then?” You ask, checking your hologram for the time, you were almost an hour late already. “Well that's my job isn’t it?” He raises an eyebrow. You sigh, clearly this guy thought highly of himself. “How much and how long?” you demand, patient wearing thin at this point. “Well the battery change is gonna be about 150, plus the corrosion, about 20, and the grinding breaks, another 150 credits” he pauses before speaking again, “it’ll take a bit, have to order in the parts, could take a while, a few weeks”. “A few weeks!” you all but shout.

You pace away, trying to think. You were very very late, had little to no sleep, and now your beloved car wasn’t going, plus you might have to wait weeks to get her back running. “Fine, do what you must” you bark out. Hopefully this man could fix Shelby quickly, and you would never have to deal with him or another car problem ever again. “Need anything out of her? Or are you good?” He asks. You walk over to Shelby, grab your bag, morning caffeine fix, and sweater. You shut the door gently. The guy speaks, walking back over to the pickup truck “Okay then, I’ll take her into the shop and she’ll be good as new soon. Oh and I will probably need some contact details, unless you never want to see your car again” He walks back carrying a piece of blue-ish paper and a pen with the ‘MustaCar’ logo on the side, passing both to you. You write down your information and hand it back to his expecting hand. “You should come by the shop, I’m sure the guys would love that” And with a smirk and a wink, he turns, secures Shelby, and gets back into the pickup. You watch as he drives off with your prized possession, your Shelby, If he ruins her, he will have hell to pay. You had now been walking for 30 minutes, with your workplace still another 20 minutes away. Your hair sticks to your forehead with sweat and your feet are starting to ache. The music playing in your ears is a nice distraction from your situation as you stroll at pace. Finally after what feels like a millennium, you reach the building. The large blue letters spell ‘Paper Force’, meaning you haven’t gotten lost along the way. Making your way to the building, you check your reflection in a window, fix your hair, and give yourself a mental pep talk. Just go in, explain what happened, it will all be fine. At least you hope. With a deep breath and step inside.

Pulling up the shop with a rumble, the pickup-truck deposits his newest client's female car around the back. The fading MustaCar sign blinks slowly at him as he gets out the parked truck and steps foot on solid ground. The beetle named Shelby looks out of place among the beat up vehicles, and forgotten projects of the shop. “Anakin” A female voice yells from inside the garage before a young togruta steps out. She wears overalls and a pair of safety goggles on her head. “New project Snips” He says. “What's wrong with it? It looks pretty good to me” the togruta states as she walks over and runs a hand over the bonnet. “Battery is dead, corrosion, and breaks need new pads” Anakin explains, counting off each problem on his fingers. “We are gonna need to order stuff in for her”. The togruta laughs “Her?” she questions. Anakin sighs “Yes, Ahsoka, Her. Owner calls it Shelby". “Cute” Ahsoka shrugs “lets see what we can do”.

“Well the brake pads are definitely going to have to be replaced, there is basically nothing there” Ahsoka looks up as she speaks. “Thought as much, '' replies Anakin, as he wanders over with two cups of coffee, he passes one to Ahsoka. “Thanks”. “I placed an order for the new battery and brake pads, should take a week to arrive, but knowing the shipping times, it will probably take longer than that” Anakin says as he surveys Shelby. “At least she isn’t a complete wreck”. Ahsoka nods behind Anakin “speaking of wrecks, how is that project coming along ''. Anakin turns to look at the car sitting under a large tree. He had picked up the third generation Pontiac firebird from a man on his deathbed; it had been living in a barn for 20 years, rusted, and in desperate need of restoration. If it even could be saved. “It's a work in progress Snips”, “I don’t know, it is rusted pretty bad in some of it, it will take a genius to make it run again”, “Good thing i’m here then” He replies with a smile. Ahsoka rolls her eyes and drains the last of her drink before returning to their newest project.

A voice pulls Anakin out of his work “Anakin, I need to speak to you”. The voice comes from an elderly man, Palpatine, the creator and owner of MustaCar. “Of course” Anakin wipes the oil off his hands on a nearby cloth, before throwing it back on the table and following Palpatine. They enter the main office of the shop and Palpatine closes the door behind them. “Sith Auto Dominion is growing. At this rate we will be losing profit by the same time next month” Palpatine states. Sith Auto Dominion was the biggest competition for MustaCar, located on the other side of town on Geonosis Blvd. Over time the opposing shop had been taking their customers, meaning Palpatine and the people he employ have been having to cut costs however they can. “What can we do?” Anakin questions. “Not much my boy, we just have to be careful. I have owned this shop for 45 years and I will not see it go bankrupt” he takes a breath “You are my best mechanic Anakin, I cannot afford to lose you”. Palpatine walks around to his desk and sits down, gesturing at the seat opposite him. “I have a favour to ask you, Anakin”. “Anything” He replies. “Take your apprentice, go to Sith Auto, find out what they have that we don’t”

“Alright Snips, we have a job”

[razorblade180-heated]

Early Christmas Gift

[Warning, smut. Like the whole thing]

It had been a looooog day for Jaune Arc. The end of a crazy mission that had far too many explosions, the loss of his wallet for half the day which forced him to miss his boat, and finally, bad turbulence on a flight all the way back to Vale. Now it was the dead of night and he was wheeling his luggage down the sidewalks. At least he didn’t vomit on the ride, this time.

“Note to self, Vacou kids are amazing pickpockets.” He mumbled aloud. Thank goodness Ren was quick on his feet and that Nora could be as scary as she could be sweet. If not, things could’ve been worse. Now that he was back in the city, his Scroll was practically blowing up with messages. Notably, his girlfriend, Yang, called a little more than Ruby. Before he could finally return a call, his scroll rang with Yang’s name.

He laughed nervously and smiled, preparing himself as he answered. “H-”

“SO YOU ARE ALIVE!? WHAT THE HECK MAN!?” The blonde yelled, relieved and annoyed.

Honestly, less aggressive than he expected. “Hi baby. I’m sorry.” Jaune deflated as he spoke. “Today has been a day.”

“That’s putting it mildly. Weren’t you supposed to be home seven hours ago? Did the mission go south? You didn’t get hurt did you?”

“No, the mission was pretty Nora core. All and all we made good time but then someone stole my stuff, missed my boat; lots of other very, very exhausting stuff. I’m walking home as we speak.”

“Wow. That’s…definitely a lot. Wait, you’re walking? It’s nearly midnight. You could’ve called me or someone to pick you up from the port.”

“I figured everyone was asleep.”

“Get real. Do you really think I’d be sound asleep before I knew you were okay?”

Those words warmed his heart greatly. “Thanks Yang. I’m fine though. Vale isn’t some ghost town at night. I am sorry though. We had plans to meet today. You must’ve been waiting a while.”

“You…could say that.” Yang laughed sheepishly. “Here I was, ready to see my boyfriend after we finished our missions and his annoying personal challenge was achieved.”

“A month without sex is a test of will and power.” He defended.

“November is the time for good food and being thankful. Anything else is wild. Besides, we’ve both gone years without fun stuff. Why add a month?”

“Heh, I don’t think being a single or a virgin counts. You’re just opted in at that point. How did your mission go by the way?”

“Got home on time.”

“Ouch… where’d the warmth go?” He teases.

“I know you’re fine now. If you want warmth then…maybe I should see you?”

“You’re an island away. Even if you caught the final flight I’d feel guilty. Though if it makes you feel better…I’ve been missing you all day.”

“…Always the charmer. I’ve definitely been missing you too.” She said, a little more bashful than usual.

“There’s always tomorrow. I’m definitely not going anywhere. Aside from grocery shopping.”

“Have you eaten?”

“My apartment should still have something edible. I’ll probably grab a snack, bathe, and crash.” He finally reached his building’s street. “Anyways, I’ve officially made it home safely. Just several feet away. Now you can have pretty dreams knowing I’m safe.”

“Nope. Not until you go through your front door. I’m not hanging up until you do.”

“Okay, okay. Heh, honestly with my luck something crazy would happen if I hung up early.” He laughed.

“Please don’t jinx yourself.”

Jaune made his way down the hall, up some annoying stairs, and to the front of his door.

“Kay, now you are free to sleep.”

“Have a wonderful night, handsome.” Yang made a kiss noise over the phone and hung up.

Just like that, Jaune felt the warmth again. She was so good to him. He’d definitely have to treat her to a dinner or some kind of club date. The man found his keys and went inside his home at last. Instantly his nose was greeted with wonder and bliss. That was…odd. He put down his belongings and walked over to the kitchen; a flick of the light revealed a hot box of pizza. Jaune had to do a double take to make sure this was his place. He then noticed Yang’s emblem drawn in orange on the box.

“Ah, that’s why she asked if I ate.” He smiled before quickly going back to being confused. How was the pizza hot? Yang had a key to his place but when was she over here? Did she leave briefly before he called? Unless…

Jaune looked towards the absolute darkness that was his living room and squinted. Not that it helped with the balcony blinds shut. “Yang?”

His call was answered with snickering. “Hehehe, I do love watching your brain at work. Although…” She pulled the metal lamp string next to her to light up the room. “You’re also cute when it’s derailed.

And derailed it was. There his cute girlfriend was, sitting on his black leather recliner his family had bought him. Her smile was cheeky as well as ear to ear. She sure caught him by surprise, but the real shock was her outfit. A silly little Santa hat on top of her head jingled while the only thing on her body was a red tube top with white frills that was fighting for his life, a matching miniskirt that barely went halfway down her thighs, and very, very long red stockings that compensated for the skirt’s lack of…well, skirt.

Jaune’s mouth went dry and his eyes embarrassingly wide. It was as if Yang had knocked the exhaustion out of them. He wasn’t quite sure where he should’ve been looking at first, but then noticed despite how confidently the lady sat there with her legs crossed, her cheeks were branded pink and her gaze, while excited, was also avoiding complete eye contact.

“For the record, I’ve been in this for quite awhile.” She said, breaking the silence. “It took guts to commit to this surprise.”

“Now I’m curious what you would’ve done if I had called you to pick me up!”

“Then Remnant would’ve gotten a hot Mrs. Claus on a motorcycle.” She smirked. “Although I’m actually very relieved that was not the case. It’s cold out there!”

Not the issue Jaune thought she was going to say but he rolled with it. Not that he had much choice. Yang finally stood up and slowly walked towards him, draping her arms over his shoulders and giving a more endearing grin despite her obvious flustered face. “Welcome home. As you can see, I missed you.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I can feel the yearning. Hehe, you look…wow. Talk about an early present.” His hands automatically went to hold her waist.”

Yang got on her toes and gained a very sweet and joyful kiss. She’s glad her efforts paid off, but she could tell Jaune really had a long day. “Go grab a slice and unwind yourself. I’m not going anywhere so- mmph!?”

Her offer was outright denied, thrown to the side as Jaune pulled her body closer and back into a more passionate kiss that fluttered her heart and stole her breath. The longer kept her in his arms, the more she found herself melting into the embrace to the point her knees buckled before he allowed her to breathe again.

Frazzled, Yang found herself stammering and chewing on her bottom lip. “I um- I uhh can wait a while longer for you to rest.”

“I’ve made you wait long enough.” He said with yearning and restrained lust as he pulled her back into a kiss that took custody of her tongue.

Yang felt herself rise up onto her toes as Jaune’s hands found residence on her shapely rear. He didn’t think twice about squeezing it as he picked her up and allowed her legs to wrap around his waist. It didn’t take long before her man went a step further in sliding his hands under the provocative skirt. Jaune quickly ended their kiss to gaze at her as her face grew red from his curious expression.

“No underwear huh?” He said, sinking his digits into warm flesh. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Funny. I was wondering the same thing.” Her hands rubbed his broad chest. “Come sit on the couch for you me will ya?”

He followed her quest and sat right in the middle of the couch. Yang was about to get off him for the next step, but was clearly taken by surprise when his teeth tugged her tube top down, freeing her massive chest before ravishing them. A jolt ram through her spine as his warm tongue lapped around her nipples. His hands kept her waist pressed down on her lap to the point she had no choice but to feel his pulsing cock through tight jeans. Nevertheless, Yang couldn’t stop her hips from grinning along it, dampening the fabric severely.

“H-Hey…wait! I-mmm” Her voice shook, feeling him sink his teeth into her. Jaune leaned forward, putting Yang on her back as he continued devouring her body. “Jaune! Hold on~ I…had a whole routine~” Yangs mewls only served to make him more daring. His tongue trailed up her neck, causing her entire body to arch as he met her lips again for another kiss. Yang was overwhelmed with the scent of the boy and his rough day, which she increasingly found more and more dulling to her senses. She didn’t even notice Jaune had unzipped his pants until she felt his buring hot tip rubbing along her folds. “Mmmph”

Jaune could already feel her lips quivering as they coated his cock. To get this excited so quickly; he wasn’t one to talk though. He began pushing his hips continuously into the molten warmth.

“Aaaaah!” Yang felt the wind leave her body as Jaune’s thick cock spread her body apart and filled her inch by inch until she felt the weight of his balls against her ass. He slowly began dragging himself out halfway before plummeting back in as he grunted. “Ah fuck!” Yang gripped his forearms as her body tripped to adjust.

“Gods, I missed you. You’re so wet.”

“Who’s fault is that!?” Yang’s breathing became sharper as Jaune started moving. “Nng, too big. Rock solid too~”

“It has been a long month. I’m dying for a release.”

“How do you think I feel!? It hasn’t been easy for me either.” She pouted. Suddenly she felt his movements slow. “Jaune?” He raised himself up and looked down at her with a shocked look from between her legs. “What?”

“Are you telling me you didn’t touch yourself the entire time?”

Yang felt heat rush to her face. Looking at him became a lot harder so she turned her head to the side. “What would be the point? Even if I used a toy, I just wouldn’t feel as good as you.”

A brief silence fell on them. Yang awaited his response when she suddenly felt him twitch inside her. Jaune’s hands held her waist tightly and raised her lower body off the couch with ease, causing her to look his way. “What are you-” was all she could manage before seeing Jaune thrust his hips forward, causing another series of jolts as he began to go all out.

Yang’s mouth fell open and stayed that way as voiceless, broken cries left her throat until a scream finally broke out. “AAAAGHN~” her brain became a mess, her eyes fluttering at the sight of jaune mercilessly fucking her pussy until their sex became loud and wet. Her stomach felt like fire as her hips became numb with the pleasure of being turned inside out. Each deep rub made her gasp for air she couldn’t gain while her chest bounced to the rough rhythm. “B-baby. Baby! Aaah!” Yang reached for him and he gladly returned to her embrace. She knew despite her pleas, his pace would not falter; nor did she want it to. Their pleasure had built too quickly to turn back now. With a final raise of his hips, Yang felt the man bury himself deep inside and release a rush of heat that made her body squeeze him for more as her vision blurred momentarily. When she recovered, Jaune was already pulling out slowly and giving both of their bodies a break. Still, if you were to go by appearances, Jaune’s body hadn’t calmed down in the slightest.

“Looks like all of you missed me.” Yang huffed, sitting up as her legs gained some feeling. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were trying to have a kid.”

Jaune watched the woman run her middle finger along her slit to pick up some of the lust he left dripping in her. Yang looked him dead in the eyes as she lapped up the naughty taste, making him blush.

“I had an entire routine planned out and you threw it to the side. Not that I mind.”

“You can’t say the things you said a

and wear this without expecting me to get riled up.”

“Heh, touché.” Her gaze fell on his erection, the near seven inches of solid flesh was still ready. Might as well start her plans now, Yang thought. She leaned forward, crawling on hands and knees until she was in the perfect spot to lower her head.

Jaune shuddered as he felt her hot lips wrap around his length to lick him lavishly. Now he knew Yang was horny for sure. Giving head was never her favorite activity in this fun process, but now her face was happily burying itself in his lap repeatedly. His left hand brushed the blonde bombshell’s hair aside for an unobstructed view of her work.

Yang ran her tongue up and down the girth base, polishing it while making faint moans and wet smacks to turn him on more. She must’ve been losing her mind because the way his taste and smell overwhelmed her senses in the best way possible. Her grip on reality only came back when Jaune's hand struck her rear suddenly, his middle and ring finger slipping inside her body to stir her desires harder.

“Mmmm~”

Jaune couldn’t stop his smirk. “Oh you like that?”

“Mmhmm~” Yang readied herself and pressed down in one motion to feel this man in her throat before coming up for air. Yang could feel his digits grow relentless as they sped up. Unable to focus, she freed Jaune from her mouth in a fit of panting and mewls. Her hips couldn’t stop shaking, pushing against his hand to feel each knuckle rub deeper. “Gods, why is this so good?”

“Cum if you need to. Let me see that pretty face.”

“No~ I…I wanted to use my tits on you. But now I…I’m…” Yang let out a long, heartfelt sigh. How did things get this messy so fast? “Put it back in me. I want it.”

Jaune retracted his fingers and did his best to regain his own composure; a difficult task when the love of his life not only pleaded, but brazenly kissed along his shaft in a stupor of want and desire. “Ngh, Yang, get on my lap if you want it.”

Yang got on her knees then swung her right leg to the other side of Jaune’s waist. The boy wasted no time massaging and kneading her chest, riddling it with bits as Yang cooed. Her body dropped slowly, piercing herself onto Jaune’s flesh.

“Aaaaghn~” her hands ran up his chest and gripped his shoulders as Yang started bouncing on his lap, putting all her weight down each time to feel her womb get knocked on. Jaune’s mouth stayed busy where it was but his hands returned to her rear, molding it like clay as he helped push her down to the base. Her hips buckled. “Fuck!”

Heavy, wet smacks echoed every time her ass slammed onto Jaune’s lap. The man couldn’t believe the tightness that surrounded him; the way it clung it his length and coated it with ecstasy that reached his thighs. Engulfed by Yang’s heat, Jaune finally took a second to separate his lips from his body and removed his shirt. Yang’s arms all but sprang out towards him right after, pulling him into a feverish kiss while her hips moved on their own before his hands returned.

“You’re so in love with my ass tonight.” Yang hummed.

“I’m in love with it every night.” He continued kneading it, his fingers rubbing all of it. “Hey, so how much did you prepare for today?”

Yang didn’t get the question at first, until she felt a single finger tracing her asshole. Yang couldn’t hide the state of blushing red he put her into with his pesky intention. To make it worse, her body already gave him the answer to the question. Yang buried her face into the crook of Jaune’s neck and quivered as the naughty middle finger pressed into her slowly. A moan came from her throat and her hips worked over time on his cock as Jaune began to play his little game.

He could already feel her walls frantically twitching but he knew he could make Yang go crazy. He wanted to make the month of emptiness mean everything. He nipped at her ear as he continued fingering her. “You’re such a good girl, you that? Doing all this for me; allowing me to cut loose~” he thrusted up suddenly.

“AAAHH!” His nipping turned into feverish licks as well. Yang tried staying strong but now he was meeting her thrusts and pumped his finger into her more quickly. Her body became repeated jolts of pleasure to the point Yang could only bite her lover’s shoulder as a way to soften her growls.

Jaune’s only panting became like a drunken breath as he approached his end. “Good girl~” he cooed, leaning right into her ear and whispering it one more time. “Gooood girl.” He pressed her hips down against his waist, going as deep as possible. “Here’s your reward!” He grunted, cumming for the second time.

Every muscle in Yang’s body tensed all at once. She was certain she’d scream, yet the immense rush of pleasure stole voice, leaving nothing but a silent yell as she clung to him like a girl on a wild roller coaster. Pulse after pulse, she felt her insides get marked by Jaune. The dork was brazen enough to call it a “reward” and she had half a mind to thank him for it. They were going crazy. Not that she hated it for a second.

Yang felt Jaune relax under her body while she found the strength to set up after his hands finished toying with her. “Wow, that was- hmm” Yang stopped short as she witnessed Jaune struggling to keep his eyes open. Poor guy was spent! It was almost hard not to laugh. “Pfft, gee, looks like someone should’ve eaten.”

“I was hungry for other things.” He groaned, wrapping his arms around her torso and resting his face in her chest. “But now that pizza sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“Oh what to do with you?” Yang giggled, her hands combing through his hands. Truthfully, she wanted him to stay inside like this a little longer, but the last thing she wanted was her boyfriend withering away. Yang kissed the top of his head. “I’ll go fix you a plate.”

“You’re wonderful.”

“And you’re outstanding. My hips are still floating.” She said, embarrassed by her own honesty.

“Let’s wash up together after we eat.”

“Only washing?” She teased, only to feel him twitch inside of her. Yang gasped a little. Jaune raised his head to look into her eyes with a gaze that made her chew on her bottom lip again. Tonight was going to be a long night. “Welcome home.”

[rosedere]

The Liyue Lotus and the Merchant from Snezhnaya

(Pantalone x Fem Reader)

MDNI +18

Cw: kidnapping, stalking, non con elements, graphic violence (later chapters), yandere content, pregnancy mentioned, forced marriage, female/ fem aligned Reader, *will update as the series goes on

Cross posted on AO3

Previous Chapter: Communications lost in the mountains

Current Chapter: Blizzard/Found (you are here)

Next Chapter: The last dinner

Synopsis: Unfortunately, The Regerator develops a fixation with you while you are working undercover for Yelan. And there’s no one who can get in his way of his prized Lotus.

This is our divide

Need to go our separate ways, I'm too scared if you stay

We'll hold another grudge, who am I to judge?

If I will wake up one day and miss you too much

Yeah, we play with high stakes, it's a risk I need to take

- 

Pantalone 

A blizzard was due anytime in Snezhnaya.

But that was the least of his concerns; he had already finished pretending to care enough about the slaying to the harbinger known as “La Signora” or Rosalynne-Kruzchka Lohefalter. 

Pantalone was taking his leave from the snowscape anyway now that the day of mourning was over. He just wanted to get back to his Lotus patiently waiting in his abode for his return.

You were always on his mind nowadays. More than before.

Adding to the collection of items he could obtain to win your love as he walked the streets and shops of the cold capital. He could only imagine your eyes lighting up as you read his letter and saw the items he so lovingly picked out for his Lotus

He knew he was incredibly close to finally unlocking your icy heart; he just had to keep being more persistent.

As he touched the custom-made silver and indigo veil in the boutique he could only imagine you under it while you walked side by side with him down the falling snow in the bustling city.

The thought crossed his mind when you had both retired for the night together he wanted badly to broach the topic with you. He had after all finally convinced you to Stay with him for the night.

But you only lay curled on the left side of the bed beside him.

Your face smushed into his chest as you peacefully breathed in rhythm beside him.

Finally relaxed, revealing your true beauty to him.

But every time he tried to wake you from your slumber you only nestled yourself further against him, pressing your naked self harder against him.

After the fifth time of trying to wake you he only signed frustrated at the dilemma.

He knew It'd be unfair to bring you without your say in the matter.

But the loneliness of being without his new bloom beside him was disheartening especially since he finally had what he had desired since he set eyes on you all those weeks ago.

Having to make the difficult decision once the mist began to rise and your head still tucked underneath his trimmed chest he slid you onto the silky pillows surrounding you. Dressing himself to be decent he went on with dressing himself for the long voyage ahead of him.

Once again hoping you'd surprise him by joining him as he cleaned himself in the spacious bathroom he was disappointed when he was ready only to be greeted by you now clinging to the dark satin pillow.

Pantalone only sat beside you watching you stir occasionally in your sleep. 

A few messy strains of hair fell across your face acting as a curtain over your face; he raised his glove only pushing the few hairs away from your face.

His gloved hand now stroking your cheek hoping to rouse you from your sleep.

Soft was what he remembered as he touched your now exposed cheek.

“Sir we must get going; the departure time was set several minutes ago” 

Pantalone only sighed.

Turning his attention back to you still nestled on the pillow he lowered himself, grazing his lips to your forehead before letting his smooth lips connect to your warm flesh.

“I'll see you as soon as I finish business my lotus” 

“Very soon”

- 

“My lord? I thought you weren't—”

The two fatuu's walked forward carrying his luggage onto the tall cruiseliner in front of them leaving Pantalone behind now stopped a few footsteps away from the fatui officer standing in front of the dock; shivering from the whipping wind and snow surrounding everyone present.

“I have finished my business here for now” Pantalone dismissed; his hand reaching for his jacket to pull tighter to his body being afflicted to the harsh below-zero winds.

“Ah but my lord the storm is over the waters a voyage would be difficult to Liyue harbor,” the officer said through chattering teeth.

“Normally I would heed a warning but I have something important to tend to back in Liyue” he clasped his gloved hands together; his eyes in a closed smile as he chuckled to himself, “Thankfully this should be my last trip back there” 

“Oh? To Snezhnaya?”

“Dear archons no” he waved his hand expressively, “I mean to Liyue; I'm officially moving back to the main northland bank” 

He was about to continue walking up towards the boarding plank eager to get out of the way of the now aggressive winds blowing his white coat up and down.

“Ah! Um lord Pantalone!”

Pausing he turned back towards the fatui officer standing against the harbor posts that lined the docks.

“Is it true my lord that you got engaged?”  

Pantalone's heart fluttered at the mention.

“If you are referring to my request to meet with the Tsaritsa and the rooster then you are correct”

“So then you do have someone?” 

Pantalone only nodded; the only sound surrounding them was the billowing winds blowing against his turned back.

“Is it Nyla?” the soldier asked, Pantalone stiffened. 

“She has been mentioning you a lot recently”

“There is nothing between me and her anymore”  

The timbre of his voice felt colder than the snow flying past the two.

“Now if you're done gossiping I have to leave”

Pantalone with an annoyed scoff adjusted the warm coat once more over his torso before flipping the hood underneath his heavy jacket the dark fur surrounding his face.

Walking along the slippery dock into the heavy white flurries surrounding the baffled officer.

“My lord there you are”

Pantalone only passed a glance before entering the open cabin doors and boarding the luxury liner.

walking amongst the low-hanging lights to the back of the ship; his quarters.

It was made to be a replica of his office and home in Snezhnaya just as his Liyue estate had been made; the same purple and blue motif; gems fixed to either side of his smaller queen-sized bed directly in front of him across from the room under the wide window. His smaller Sneznhayan oak wood desk and chair sat against the dark jewel-toned lights all spaced evenly from each wall plane. Shedding his coats on the coat racks beside the entrance he was only left in his plain underclothes consisting of a long dark navy blue turtleneck and wool slacks.

Immediately approaching his desk he reached for his journal leather bound and still lingering with a cold feeling as he opened the cover to the last page he had written in. He had written a few words in the blank space of the journal. Initially telling himself he'd have some inkling of what to write when he arrived in Snezhnaya, but then it just became even more difficult when he was settled in the palace.

But now he was alone.

“Lián, I promise to be the best husband and—”

He only scrunched his face at the sentence written several weeks ago.

Crossing the sentence out he began on the next page.

“I promise to be able to fulfill my vow to you as your husband”

“And to stand by your side during the roughest of times”

Huffing he dropped the pen letting it roll towards the edge of the desk.

Pantalone supposed he could sleep on it, it seemed from the now rocking boat that they were going to be docked for the rest of the night.

Delaying him further to see the warm environment that was Liyue a few more days longer.

-

…

You had sworn the ledge to the secret entrance was in the bathroom.

But after your bath, you tried to slide the stone in the exact sequence you did the previous evening.

All that happened was the rugged edge of the tub to break off into your hands. Assuming you misremembered you pulled the outermost border of rock lining the tub.

All that happened was the rock staying firm in place.

“Lián? What are you doing”

Stopping your action of feeling the rocky surface you only stayed in place; your naked back facing Galina.

“here; let's get you a towel” she sighed going towards the bamboo rack in the upmost corner of the cavernous wall.

“I'm going to have to inform Fedor about the bathtub—” she sighed “If our lord comes home and sees the chip in his tub he'll be so upset” She scurried towards you wrapping you with the towel before she stood you up in front of the mirror leaning against a golden basinet across from the large tub.

She began to pull out a small bag; inside were different combs and accessories including what looked to be expensive hair care products.

“Why the fancy hair today?” You asked glancing back at the bag set on top of a rock near the tub's edge.

Galina only began to dry your hair between her hands with the towels beside her.

“I can't reveal much” She leaned down combing and adding something with a sweet milky honey aroma onto your hair.

“But you definitely can not go to sleep today” Galina brushed through the back of your hair.

“I'm going to take you to the sitting room today so you can keep yourself busy instead of rotting in our lord's bed” 

“The sitting room?” You asked

Galina nodded before she began digging in the bag separating your hair with a steel comb before she slid different clips into your still damp hair.

“It's… been under renovations since our lord wants to expand the estate even more than it already is” She paused grabbing a gold-speckled hairpin with purple amethyst hanging off the tip of the pin.

“But today it should be appropriate for you to roam, feed some koi fish, and have some pastries”.

Continuing to pull your hair up into an intricate bun winding the hair up in what you felt was a twist or braid into your thickened hair. It certainly felt new since you'd only worn your hair down or tied it back with ribbons if you felt it was necessary, or even just cut it during the warm season.

Especially now. 

You were thinking once you returned to your accommodations you could maybe see about shortening your hair. 

“Galina”

A hum of acknowledgment was heard from your left side where she was grabbing more hair ribbons it seemed.

“When will I be able to return home?” 

You didn't hear another sound from her, assuming she was just still busying herself with the task from before.

Only she didn't answer you; only beginning to tie the back of your hair up before sticking the hairpin in the back of your hair, with her sharper nail she cut the few ties holding the pieces of hair causing your hair to fall as it normally did.

Glancing in the mirror you saw what the final product looked like; your hair was now in loose waves while the back of your hair was tied into two intricate buns being skewered by the hairpins securing them to the top of your head.

“Do you like them, Lián?” Galina asked, grabbing the small mirror from beside her.

“Of course, I look so different”

“In a good way of course,” you corrected yourself as you turned to the side slightly.

Seemingly satisfied Galina rose from her spot going out to the wardrobe outside of the room.

You only kept staring at your reflection. 

It looked off.

Your reflection.

Leaning closer you were focusing on your face.

A small red blemish formed on your cheek.

Narrowing your eyes you picked at the small little bump forming. 

Red and enormous on your left cheek.

However when you looked down at your chin.

A small patch of those hideous bumps was there.

You gasped. Only realize when you heard Galina abruptly come back into the room.

“Lián?” 

Now you were joined in the reflected mirror with Galina looking curiously at your reflection.

“You see them too right?” You pointed to your cheek first.

“I don't know where it came from, '' you shakily exclaimed.

“Hmm, it seems like it's a pimple my lady” Galina then grabbed your hand placing it away from your face.

“It can't be? At my age It's probably a mole or something bad” your eyes still staring at the offensive bump on your face.

Galina only laughed before she patted your robed shoulder.

“My lady you know pimples can occur at any age; I remember when I had a breakout when I had my twins” she shrugged “I wouldn't think too much about it; If you are worried though I can begin a skincare routine for you to keep them away permanently” 

You only stayed eyeing yourself in the mirror.

“It's most likely from all that sleeping you're doing” Galina scolded, 

you groaned loudly, still concentrating on your chin with silent perplexment.

“I'll maybe add some makeup if that's okay with you my lady if the pimples are bothering you” once again patting you on the shoulder before she got up from her spot beside you.

“But I'll have to do that after we decide what to dress you in,” She said as she returned to resume digging through the long wardrobe once more.

Her words beyond that practically fell on deaf ears as you glanced back at the tub.

The entrance to roam the large estate that was Pantalone's home was now gone.

Another dead end and more hope lost.

-

The sitting area was just as unique in its own right.

It wasn't really inside the cave as the majority of the house was built into but instead, just an outside walkway practically hanging off the ledge of the Mt Aocang range below.

A misting waterfall flowed underneath where you were sitting; next to the small parquet woven table was the private doorway next to the small koi pond built into the one part of the wide room that wasn't on the ledge. 

Bamboo and ornate wooden gates divided the area you sat at from the entrance where Fedor was standing idly in front.

Galina somewhere off inside bringing the treats from earlier she promised.

Now this is when you'd slink off and find another way to roam freely around without either guard.

But a feeling told you not to.

It was strange as you'd never let a simple bad feeling stop you before.

It just felt completely unsafe to roam.

You decided to instead look down the side of the tall railing beside you.

The gentle current flowed down the edge in a freefall to wherever it was going.

It calmed your mind watching the few small fish and some leaves fall in a vertical drop.

The sound was also relaxing as you heard the water rushing.

Thankfully you were in a short layered summer dress that allowed you to be able to squat and look down to your heart's desire.

The silky lilac and white material stretched while you looked down towards the water.

Looking at a lone mossy rock you saw something shimmery hit said rock.

Dismissing it as just a lone reflection from the sun hitting the water you only kept looking down at the stream.

But every time you would focus on the horizon or another spot of the water the glint would shine.

Like it was a piece of metal…

Looking back behind you only Fedor was visible still standing along the wall looking towards the entrance of the sitting room most likely keeping a lookout for Galina to return.

You sat on top of the railing; thankfully it seemed the water wasn't deeper than your ankles. Shifting your weight you made a small splash into the rushing stream.

Treading the water to the rock you thought the object was settled against the rock would be visible as you stood over it but instead, the small currents distorted the water.

The small teardrop item was caught underneath the rock.

you dunked your hand to grab a hold of the metal item.

The shock of recognition when you realized what you were looking at.

Something that was supposed to be hidden under your accommodation's bedroom floor.

Grabbing the small stone the flowing cryo energy shooting straight up into your palm was the answer you needed.

The Liyue crest on the back of the vision plate was something you didn't realize you missed.

Channeling your cryo powers into your hands you let a small sheet of ice form over the fast-running stream halting it temporarily.

It was yours.

But the mystery of how it got here was pushed to the back of your mind now.

You needed to hide your vision.

The shawl you wore to hide your back was probably burnt in an incinerator somewhere leaving attaching it to the back of your dress out of the question.

Looking back into the water you only saw your befuddled expression looking back at you in the water's reflection.

your face looked more youthful with the help of the rigorous regime Galina did to your face before she applied small amounts of powder to the pimples you had suddenly accumulated.

At least you could say that your hair made up for the blemishes on your skin.

Swaying in the gentle breeze coming from inside the cavern back and forth.

your hair…

You touched your buns on the top of your head.

Of course…

The pins keeping your hair up could conceal your vision if you redid your hair right.

Quickly undoing the work Galina had done to the two puffy buns on your hair you grabbed your vision in one hand before tying the small gem to the back of your hair wrapping your hair around the sticks to create a Rolled bun behind the top of your hair.

After you secure your hair checking to feel if it has been completely concealed by your hair you look back into the reflection.

Now instead of the buns were replaced by a few stray hairs framing your face as the rolled-up bun now sat on top of your head the hairpins sticking out the small amethyst gems swaying back and forth in the wind along with your hair.

feeling a sense of reassurance you decided to observe the stream more closely.

The stream seemed to go further deeper underneath the home, seeming like there was a bigger source of water somewhere.

Glancing back up towards the balcony above you thankfully seemed no one had noticed your abrupt departure.

looking back towards the opening where the water was rushing.

Your vision must be a sign there was more to be explored here.

So what's the worst that could happen?

Stepping closer to the opening you sized up the entrance.

It seemed big enough to slip in for your size.

But the real mystery was if you'd get lost forever inside the mountains of Aocang or you'd end up deeper into the home. 

Sighing you knew your answer; looking down at your dress and hair you only hoped they wouldn't ruin your spontaneous swim.

Taking a deep breath you treaded the water breaking under the surface.

Surprised as you swam further down the modest current at the different rock formations below and around you as you twirled and occasionally spun to maneuver around the few rocks blocking the wide mouth.

Your lungs were burning as you began to feel the water pull you forward. The water's depth rose giving you a sign you were soon to hit either an air pocket or an underwater lake.

You passed a lone stalactite when suddenly the current picked up. 

Unable to paddle against it you were swiftly carried upwards. Closing your eyes you brace for the rough treatment of colliding and scrapping against the rough rocky texture of the walls around you as you ride the current.

Being spat out by the current finally, you opened your eyes and inhaled the air you missed hungrily.

you were underground. 

in a large lit-up cavern.

Lamps that seemed to also line the hallways of Pantalone's home were hung by the walls near the shore.

Those bars from the other secret room were there. Rusted from erosion it seemed they were no longer being used.

Swimming through the crystal blue water towards the rocky shoal you picked yourself up flopping out of the water practically.

It seemed wherever you were it was completely vacant.

Only one barred area next to the most eye-catching feature is a giant red door; most likely from the erosion just like the jail bars beside it.

Other than that it was exactly like a regular cavern in the liyue mountains you'd seen numerous times.

Not even bothering to dry yourself you approached the first broken barred area. 

Nothing but rocks and chains remained.

Walking to the door you reach to pull the dark metal rings to open said door.

your eyes only widen, the illuminated staircase was just like the familiar stairs you'd taken downstairs during your stay.

But to see one of your fellow shadows in front of you was nothing you ever thought you'd find down here.

His blue and white layered shirt was now tattered, and the mask around his lower face was still intact covering him.

The exposed flesh on his body was cut into ribbons of Open wounds, a few wounds were bleeding while the others were only barely healing on his legs and arms.

He mirrored your expression; the look of panic but familiarity his eyes expressed to you.

For a moment you both stared at each other.

“Lua?” You whispered.

“(Name)” he responded in his daze.

Shaking his head he quickly rushed down the rest of the stairs grabbing you by your wet arm.

Wordlessly you let him pull you down the stairs before closing the door; you both began to rush towards what you first assumed was nothing but a pile of large stones, the closer he ran you saw a small dilapidated passage identical to the one you saw under the bathroom.

"Im glad to have ran into you; those fatui bastards are insane" He panted

"I lost the others and one other operative; it's just you and me now" Lua grunted

Your feet soon grew tired as you ran further and further into the now ever-dark passage. Signaling to stop you both gradually came to a halt in the passage as you caught your breath.

“Did you get captured during your Act?” Lua huffed from beside you.

“It's not important; but we gotta get you to Yelan”

You couldn't see Lua's face but from the silence, you could tell he was pensive.

After another minute passed you only grasped his hand as you both continued your steady sprint out of the darkness of the passage.

Occasionally dodging a long few pebbles or so the relief as you saw the passage brightening up by natural light. 

Lua reached the threshold of the mouth of the cave first.

Seeing his face bleed into relief realizing he was saved.

a  sharp sound cut through the air from above you both

And

Lua only turned back to you about to utter something, but the words fell into mush as he spat a clot of blood from under his mask.

The red bloom forming on his neck..

his body only rolled almost taking you with him down the side of the mountain ledge.

A trail of scarlet blood was now staining the umber soil below the exposed rock and soil.

Feeling his once warm hands slip from your grasp as he fell.

You would have screamed as you landed roughly on your backside. Sitting straight up while you absorbed what had just happened.

mouth agaped as you felt yourself collapse in the kicked up dust.

“Liàn?” 

The crunch of rocks was heard coming from your left.

You didn't turn your head only staring shellshocked at the distant cliff ledge in front of you.

“Darling your all wet” 

You felt his frigid hands on your waist feeling him pull you towards him. You didn’t bother to look up knowing the guilty look on your face had all Pantalone needed to know

“I guess I can call off the search for you” his hands began to run through your still-damp strands of hair.

Being guided by your waist towards the rocky stairs leading up.

His other hand began to lace around your trembling ones as you walked beside him up the ledge.

Pantalone's grip was firm around your hand as he walked beside you up the rocky terrain his eyes never leaving your form as you both made it to the top of the cliff.

You didn't realize you'd never seen the true entrance of his estate.

Like a pillar bursting through the calm forest surrounding the small grassy forest that sat tall on top was the heavily guarded entrance inside two tall oriental gated doors.

The sense of awe was immediately replaced with panic when you saw the frustrated Galina yelling at Fedor next to the now wide-open gate.

“I have returned with my lotus unharmed ” Pantalone called out from behind you to Galina and Fedor, their attention now shifting to you both standing together.

“Lián!” Galina huffed as she marched up to you.

“You are in a lot of trouble! I only saw your shoes next to the table and thought the worst had happened” She then grabbed your half-damp smooth lilac dress in her hands.

“And you soiled the dress I picked for your reunion with our lord” Galina only began to try to dry the ends of your dress in a hurry.

“No need to worry Galina; we'll both be setting off once I’ve settled down and slept off the rough ride” he chuckled pulling you closer to him before he kissed the top of your head.

You only nodded as you let him practically snatch you away towards the door.

Trying your best not to look down the cliffside beside you both, you didn't want to confirm your last subordinate's untimely demise.

It was a horrible reminder of what is going to happen to you once Pantalone grows weary of you.

you were the last Subordinate left if what Lua said was true.

Silently you and Pantalone walked beside you leading you through the foyer of the home heavy with the previous thought in your head.

Your vision washed up in the same stream underground that seemed to be an extension of Pantalone's mansion.

And it was where you found Lua, the last confirmed shadow to have gone missing.

You glanced back at Pantalone's amethyst eyes; his smile would be infectious to you but it was clear now what he was thinking.

He was scheming something dark.

After a moment you both reached the familiar hallway to the staircase from the maze that was the bottom floor.

both of you stepping up onto the steps was all that was echoing, your foot being the first one to reach the threshold as you entered the familiar room; the intricate door shutting behind you reminded you that Pantalone was still here in the room.

Alone.

you nervously gulped before you turned to see him; passion in his eyes like the last night you spent together.

“My beautiful bloom are you in the mood to… indulge me?” He crept closer to you as he let his heavy wool fatui coat fall to the ground.

"you dont have to of course-" his hungry hands immediately finding your body; one now caressing the side of your face. You paused for a moment; he only reached for the back strip of fabric holding your damp dress onto your body.

Looking up to his expectant gaze you sighed through pouted lips.

“If you promise not to leave me sleeping by myself again” you reached for the back of your dress untying the ribbon of cloth in the back letting the lilac dress fall to the ground. 

"I want you to show me you mean what you say"

It was all Pantalone needed to hear and see in the moment; his Lotus

Note: oh man our trip to crazytown is coming soon— pantalone was NOT kidding about taking her back.